MIRACULOUS ADRIENETTE - The Christmas Party

Chapter 7

Watching as Marinette practically jumped down the ladder, Adrian wanted to yell at her to be more careful – she had nearly fallen to her death last time – but, he thought, smiling wryly; it would be no use. She was fizzing with the kind of determination that he'd always found strangely attractive, the kind of determination he'd also had all too much experience in and knew to be unstoppable. Because he'd only seen it in one girl before Marinette...

He shook his head, not wanting to even try to sort out his emotions right now.

Breathing a sigh of relief as Marinette's feet touched the ground, he began to descend after her. The ladder creaked and groaned ominously, so when he'd reached the end he was more than a little shaken. But Marinette just grabbed his hand and dragged him towards the staffroom impatiently.

"Come on!"

He had to laugh; and he thought he was fit from running across the rooftops every night. Marinette grinned back, her eyes sparkling – and he squeezed her hand, not wanting the moment to end, because a tiny drop of snow had just fallen on her left eyelash, and its beauty paled in comparison.

She gripped the door – and to his relief, it flew right open. They both ran up the stairs, and by the time they'd reached the staffroom, they were both out of breathe, hands on their knees.

Marinette jumped up first, and immediately ran for where the cupboard lined the back wall. "There!" She pointed definitely towards an inconspicuous corner, grinning in triumph.

Adrian tried not to let on how winded he was as he walked over. "Huh." He stuck his hand through the foot-ball sized hole, almost completely concealed behind a tinsel-bedecked cheese plant. "So, how does the school's mouse problem prove anything?"

Marinette's eyes sparkled. "The decorations. What were we doing when we made them?"

Adrian thought. "Eating cookies."

"And don't you think it wouldn't be too far of a stretch to say they might of got covered in a bit of icing?"

"And then the ice sculpture, what was underneath it?"

"The box of croissants..."

"And that's not forgetting the cake that disappeared."

Adrian stood there, dumbstruck as Marinette's grin widened.

"So the smashed scultpture... The tears in the decorations..."

Marinette whipped around suddenly, and there, sitting plumply on the plate of staff cakes were a couple of blinking, perfect, grey –

"Mice."

-

Mr Democles had always thought his school perfectly normal and law abiding.

So when he was notified that a student - Adrian Agreste, his top performing, no less – had commited several acts of pure vandalism, well – to say he was disappointed would have been an understatement.

"And that is why the party simply cannot go ahead." As the crowd of students erupted into furious shouts, he paused to straighten his moustache, which had been playing up all morning since he'd heard of the crime. It wasn't that he was heartless; oh no. Watching his pupils' hard work go down for nothing played with his heartstrings like nothing else.

"Please, Mr Democles, we don't need decorations or sculptures to have a party..." It was Rose, looking up at him with those big, sad eyes.

"I'm sorry to bear such bad news. But this isn't just because we have no refreshments – a member of your party has destroyed school property and assaulted another pupil, and we as faculty cannot let that go unpunished."