Manchote

Chapter Three

When I got home that day, I couldn't help but look at my ring. It was a simple, dainty band wrapped around the middle finger of my left hand. In the center was a small oval shape, but it was unadorned. The entire ring was simple silver, and I couldn't imagine it would have any value other than the personal one my family assigned to it. So why was Adrien so intrigued by it?

I sighed. Why should I care? Adrien has been a big help to me in class, and had even been kind enough to offer me help with my French. So what if he might have a weird interest in an old piece of jewelry? It's not like he was asking if he could have it; he probably just admired it.

And then another thing... The events of yesterday were still fresh on my mind. The way Chat Noir had rescued me after the bookshop was attacked, the bookshop being attacked in the first place, and the miraculous repair of the shattered window. I remembered Chat Noir mentioning that the attacker was an akuma victim. He'd said it like it was a common phrase, so I wondered...

"Adrien?" I asked as soon as he answered my call.

"Corinne? What is it?"

"Do you... do you know anything about something called an akuma? And- and how someone could be a victim of one?"

He paused. "Um, well, I know a little bit, but just about is much as any Parisian. Why- why do you ask?" His voice was tight. I wondered if the words meant something more to him than he was letting on.

"I just, uh, heard it somewhere is all. So do you?" I sat myself in a chair at my desk, pulling out a notebook. I scribbled a title for any notes I might want to write.

"Uh, yeah. Akuma's are similar to evil butterflies. They transform people into supervillains under the control of Hawk Moth. No one knows who he is, but we know he's after Ladybug and Chat Noir's miraculous. They're supposed to bring him world domination. Or, uh, something like that. We don't know that either."

"So, Chat Noir... he's kind of like a superhero? And Ladybug... his partner?" I remembered there being someone else in the room with Chat Noir before he'd found me.

"Well, yeah. They're a team. Chat Noir needs Ladybug to capture the akuma and return things back to normal."

So, the broken window... Ladybug had fixed it? With some kind of magic?

"There was an akuma attack yesterday," I said.

"Yeah. A girl in our class... she was upset when she wasn't allowed to sing for the school talent show, and Hawk Moth took advantage of that sadness."

"Oh."

"But it wasn't her fault," Adrien added quickly. "Falling victim to Hawkmoth happens to the best of us."

"Has it happened to you?"

"I- no."

"You said- you said he took advantage of her sadness? So, does this happen everytime someone gets sad?"

"Pretty much. Sad, angry, heartbroken. Any negative emotion."

"So this happens regularly?"

Adrien sighed in exasperation. "Yeah. Almost daily."

"Oh. That's... traumatic."

Adrien chuckled. "It definitely can be. But we all just try to do our best to make sure we don't fall victim to an akuma, and trust that Ladybug and Chat Noir will stop any villain they face."

"Do you trust them? Ladybug and Chat Noir, I mean?"

"Well, yeah. I trust Ladybug with my life."

"And Chat Noir?"

Adrien paused. "Oh, yeah, him too," he said quickly. "I definitely trust Chat Noir."

I felt like I was missing some sort of inside joke Adrien had with himself.

"Sorry, Corinne. I have to go. I have a photoshoot in the park."

"Oh," I said. Photoshoot. "I'm sorry, you're probably busy and I keep bothering you-"

"No, you're fine. I like talking to you, Corinne. It's nice."

I was glad he couldn't see me blushing over the phone.

"Anyway, I'll see you tomorrow?"

"See you tomorrow, Adrien."

He hung up. I sighed, a million thoughts running through my brain. I left my notebook abandoned. I couldn't imagine finding away to write everything I'd learned in a way that was comprehensible. I wondered how I'd never heard of villains in Paris. My grandmother would often read the Paris newspaper online, but she'd never mentioned a single thing about akumas or Ladybug and Chat Noir. It felt wrong that I hadn't known about anything until I was in the middle of an attack.

Either way, I knew the more information I could get on daily life in Paris, the safer I would feel in a new place.

"Corinne!" It was Mémé, calling up the stairs to my room. When I got downstairs, she was waiting for me in the shop. "Corinne, I need you to pick an order up from the bakery for me."

She gave me a slip of paper with the address to the bakery.

"Is it under your name?" I asked. She nodded.

"It's a cake to celebrate your first day of school in Paris!"

"Oh, Mémé, you didn't have to-" I started, but she interrupted me, taking my hands in hers.

"But I wanted to, ma petite étoile. To celebrate our fresh start."

I smiled. "Thank you, Mémé. I'll be right back."

The bakery was only a short walk away. It was a simple building, with the French word for "bakery" scrawled atop it. When I pushed the door open, a small bell chimed and a girl with dark blue pigtails waved at me from behind the counter.

"Hello!" She said cheerfully. "You must be Corinne. We go to school together."

"Oh, right. Hi!"

"I'm Marinette. This is my parent's bakery. Are you here to pick up or place an order?"

"Pickup. It's under the name Alice Blanche?"

"I think we have it in the back. Do you mind waiting here while I go get it?"

I smiled. "Not at all." Marinette disappeared into the back of the bakery. When she reammerged, she was carrying a simple cake frosted with pale pink frosting and small green and white flowers.

Marinette was carrying the cake to the counter when she stumbled. She'd almost fallen to the floor before she caught herself and the cake. "Sorry," she says, face flushing. "I'm really clumsy. Here's the cake. It was already paid for."

"Thanks, Marinette," I said, taking the cake. "I'll see you at school tomorrow?"

"Yep! See you at school."

She waved goodbye as I left the bakery. Marinette seemed nice. A little awkward, definitely, but I could imagine us as friends.

Knowing people like Adrien and Marinette, I started to feel a lot more hopeful about life in Paris.