The Ladybug and the Raccoon (a Miraculous Ladybug fanfiction)

Chapter 1:

It was a windy spring day on the streets of Paris, France. The sun casting bright light over the blue sky above. The window of an old antique store blew open and the hinges creaked, the flaps of a box that wasn't taped shut flew open and a comic book got caught in the up draft. It flew out the window and fluttered along the breeze.

"Come on Marinette we're gonna be late." called Alya, Marinette's best friend. "Coming! " responded Marinette. She looked in her backpack and took out her sketch book. She flipped through her sketches, most of them were pictures of Adrien. She had drawn many pictures of him from previous magazines and sketched her own designs of scarves and hats onto him. To Marinette, it felt like she had her own personal model with the flare of her crush on him as fuel for inspiration. She sighed with love when she stares into his eyes and then she caught up with Alya. "So, when are you gonna show Adrien your sketches?" smiled Alya. "What? Uh I don't know. Later, maybe tomorrow? Maybe never." said Marinette, feeling nervous. "I'm sure he'll love them." said Alya. "Plus the big fashion contest featuring new lines of hats and scarves for the spring season is coming up, and he's modeling them.". " But what if my line doesn't get chosen?" asked Marinette. "He'll be modeling someone else's clothing and he'll fall for them and pretty soon he'll be a New York icon and I'll never see him again.". " You worry too much." said Alya. "You're one of his friends. Besides it's not like he could model anything bad.". " Oh Adrien. Check out my latest designs courtesy of the upcoming Chloe Bourgeois collection." said Chloe as she threw her arms over Adrien. "Uh thanks Chloe." said Adrien, feeling unsure. He looked at her designs, some of them were good and others looked like she just tossed a bunch of fabrics on top of each other. "Do you like them? Of course you do. Anyone with genius like mine could see that these designs will make all the others look like dish rags sewn together." stated Chloe. " They're interesting Chloe." said Adrien. "Hey Alya." greeted Nino, Adrien's best friend. Driving his attention away from Chloe, he went with Nino to greet Alya and Marinette. "Hey Alya, hey Marinette." greeted Adrien. Chloe growled and then went towards her friend Sabrina. "Hey guys." said Marinette. "Hey you two." said Alya. "You planning on entering the contest?" asked Nino. "I'm not but Marinette is, right Marinette?" said Alya, nudging her with her elbow. "Uh yeah I'm entering. " smiled Marinette, trying not to get lost in Adrien's eyes. "I'm sure you'll do great." said Adrien. "What are your designs like?". " Oh uh you see my designs." said Marinette. Before she could say anything, they noticed the time."Hang on we better get to class." said Nino. "Do mind if we check out your designs after class?" asked Adrien. "Oh no, not at all. I mean why not. I mean, sure." said Marinette giving a shy smile. Adrien returned that smile and they walked to class. "Nice going." said Alya. "What am I going to do?" said Marinette. "Don't worry, it's nothing you can't handle." said Alya. "Yeah, you might be right." smiled Marinette. They headed for Miss Bustier's class and began their school day. After she gave the morning lecture she had an announcement to make. "Don't forget, all entries for the fashion contest featuring hats and scarves will be due by the end of this week." said Miss Bustier. "Be sure to have your submissions on top of my desk before then." All while Miss Bustier gave her lecture, Marinette was making improvements to one of her sketches while she showed Alya.
Chloe was snickering in her seat. "Ugh, Sabrina get me some water, I'd live in a shack before I drink the common tap water." scoffed Chloe. "No problem Chloe I brought an extra water right here." said Sabrina handing her a plastic water bottle. "Why does Marinette seem to get all the attention from Adrien? Everyone here knows that I'm the best designer." said Chloe. "You're the greatest designer in the whole room" said Sabrina "And your designs will be adored by everyone.". "Yes there's no doubt that I'll win." boasted Chloe. "And I know just how to get rid of the competition.". She gazed over in Marinette's direction and whispered something to Sabrina.
"Almost done." said Marinette, putting the finishing touches on her sketches. She had already completed her homework and had time to herself. "There." She said. "Finished.". Alya looked at Marinette's masterwork. "Wow Adrien's gonna love it." She said. "Maybe I should wait to show him." said Marinette. She looked over to see Chloe turning in her designs to Miss Bustier's desk. "I should turn in my designs early too. I'll probably forget after class." said Marinette. "I think that's a good idea." said Alya. Marinette pushed back her seat and clutched her sketchbook. As she walked down the stairs, Chloe walked up the one step, smirked, stuck her foot out and tripped Marinette. "Woah!" said Marinette falling on her face. She dropped her sketchbook. "You should watch where you're going you klutz." scoffed Chloe. "Coming through." said Sabrina climbing over Chloe's seat. "Whoops." She said. She knocked over Chloe's water bottle, causing a spill. The water spilled all over Marinette's sketchbook, leaving the cover and the pages completely soaked. "No." said Marinette. She picked up her drenched sketchbook. "Marinette I'm so sorry." said Chloe "You should really be more careful where you put your things. There's this thing called a backpack." She laughed and Marinette was angry. After the accident, class was dismissed, Marinette handed in her sketchbook. Miss Bustier couldn't make sense of Marinette's drawings because of the water damage. "I'm sorry Marinette I'm having a hard time interpreting your work." said Miss Bustier. "I'm sure it'll look good it just needs to be dried off." said Marinette. "I'm sorry, most of the colors are disorderly and the darker shades have overlapped the lighter tints." said Miss Bustier. "Please give me another chance." begged Marinette. "I'll have it in by the end of the week I promise.". Miss Bustier flipped through the water damaged pages. She can clearly see that Marinette has worked very hard on her drawings and by witnessing the accident she felt sorry. But the deadline was already set and she couldn't do anything about it. She gave a small smile and handed Marinette her sketchbook. "Alright Marinette, I'll give you until end of the week at the end of the school day." said Miss Bustier. "I would start as soon as possible. I recommend starting today.". " Thank you Miss Bustier." said Marinette feeling relieved. "Wait,that means I only have four days.". "I'm sure you'll get it done before then. I've seen your previous work." said Miss Bustier. "You're a talented student. I know you could do it.". " Thank you." said Marinette. She left the classroom and felt like someone had just punched her in the stomach.

Marinette looked at what was left of her drawings. All of her hard work, ruined because of Chloe. "Chloe is such a jerk, we need to get some payback." said Alya. "I worked for months on my designs, how am I gonna make up for months of work in just four days." worried Marinette "Maybe I should just give it up."."That's just what Chloe wants you to do." said Alya. "And you can't let her win.". Marinette looked at her drawings, when she tried to turn a page, it ripped. "Look, I've been your best friend for years. I know that everything will be ok. You'll think of something."." Yeah but what?" asked Marinette. "Hey guys." greeted someone. Marinette saw Adrien standing there. "Hang on I gotta take this call." said Alya. She leaned over to Marinette's ear. "It'll be ok." She whispered. When Alya left Adrien sat down next to Marinette. Marinette felt nervous and yet better because of her crush sitting right next to her. "I wish I could've seen your drawings before they were soaked." He said. "You must've worked forever on those.". "Oh yeah," said Marinette. "But I'm not sure what you'd think if I started all over from scratch.". "You make everything from scratch, that's what makes your designs look great." said Adrien. "If it were me, I would've chosen yours anyway, even if I didn't see them.". Marinette gave him a small shy smile. "I've got fencing practice to get too, mind catching up later?" asked Adrien. "Oh uh sure." said Marinette. "I'll just be here with my thoughts.". "You'll think of something awesome." said Adrien. When he left for fencing practice Marinette sat by herself. Tiki came out of her bag and sat on her shoulder. "It must be nice to know that Adrien and Alya are so supportive." She said. "I'm more worried for myself than I am with letting down the others." said Marinette. "Chloe ruined my sketches on purpose." "The fact that she ruined your drawings means that she's scared." said Tiki. "Scared? Chloe? Ha, if anything Chloe was trying to get rid of her competition, me." said Marinette. "And she'll probably do it again." "Think about it, maybe Chloe ruining your drawings could be a sign." said Tiki. "A sign of what?" asked Marinette. "A sign of a fresh start and a fresh mindset. You might think of new and exciting ideas that would be better than the old ones." answered Tiki. "There's always room for improvement.". "Yeah I guess so." said Marinette. "But what am I gonna do.". Suddenly she heard a slight noise. It was the sound of crinkling paper. She listened for the noise and she saw a paper book of some kind floating in a cool gust of wind.