Undiscovered Melody |COMPLETED|

Chapter 27

"It still seems a little like overkill to pick me up and drive around to the other side of the block," said Marinette as she buckled her seatbelt.

Jagged turned his head so he could more comfortably to talk to her from where he sat in the front seat. "The word of the day today is: control," he said as he moved his hands as if he were spelling it out for her. "We're trying to control everything so you can be presented the way that you want, right?"

"Yes. Of course, you're right. I guess I just felt silly when some of those guys were shouting at me about it. But, I suppose they were just trying to get a reaction from me so they could make up some crazy headline to go along with what would have been a stuttered response if Penny hadn't coached me to not comment no matter what," said Marinette, smiling gratefully at Penny when their eyes met in the rearview mirror. Penny returned the smile.

Jagged turned toward Penny. "Hey Penny, remember that one time when I didn't listen to you and—"

Penny interrupted Jagged with a scoff, raised eyebrows, and  "One time?"

"Yes, right, well," said Jagged uncomfortably. "What I meant was, you remember that time at that hotel in Berlin and I didn't listen to you and Fang and I headed straight out into the crowd who we thought were fans but were really—"

"We don't need to talk about that now," interrupted Penny again, giving an awkward chuckle.

"You'd think I would have learned to listen to you after the photos were made public from that!" said Jagged.

"So, everyone's buckled in? We can go?" said Penny trying to change topic, since that particular story probably wasn't appropriate for the teenagers' ears.

Marinette and Luka both said "yes", despite being very curious about the untold story. Penny slowly pulled away from the bakery, trying to make sure she didn't hit any of the photographers as they were very close to the car.

Luka was watching all of the photographers right outside their windows and had to admit it was overwhelming. He reached over and took Marinette's hand. Despite telling her last night that having their picture taken was not a big deal, the aggressiveness of the group was a bit more than he expected.

"You okay?" Marinette asked. She noticed he seemed a bit paler than usual. Maybe she wasn't the only one feeling nervous about today.

"More or less, it's just—"

Marinette's phone dinged a notification from her purse. She took her phone out, quickly and silently read what it said, angled it so Luka could see it, and then shared a questioning look with him. Luka silently mouthed "I got it" to her and gave her hand a squeeze.

"Penny, I'm not feeling so well. Can I just run back into Marinette's for a minute?" said Luka.

Penny studied Luka in her mirror and could see that he did look a little unwell. She nodded and started to circle the block and then pulled over in front of the bakery.  Jagged turned toward his son, uncertain whether to do anything or not.

"I'll go with him," said Marinette, trying to reassure Jagged. "I'm sure we'll be back soon."

"Remember, don't talk to the photographers!" Penny said and then unlocked the doors.

Marinette nodded and then opened the door and got out. She pulled Luka out behind her and then they pushed their way back through the photographers and into the bakery. Her dad had seen them coming and opened the door for them.

"Everything okay?" asked her dad.

Marinette noticed the frown of concern on his face so she quickly said "Luka just needed another minute to prepare for the crowd. It is a bit overwhelming. We'll be back down in a bit." She then led Luka upstairs to her room.