Appreciating Chat Noir

Chapter Twenty-Four

Marinette woke up that morning with a smile on her face and hope in her heart. The sun was shining, and for once everything went smoothly. She wasn't worried about one thing or another – all was right with the world for once. She quickly sent off a good morning text to Adrien.

Good morning😊. See you at school.

Her family definitely noticed after her hot and cold behavior. "Is everything alright? I noticed you looked upset the other day and now..." Marinette's mom started.

Marinette looked over at her concerned-looking parents and realized how this may have looked from their perspective. She hadn't meant to make them worry, she was just so busy going through the motions that she had entirely forgotten to fill them in. Oops. "Oh about that, Adrien and I are together now. There was an... issue... but it's all good now."

Her parents' faces lit up. "What??? You and Adrien are together now?" Her mother said, confusion colouring her face.

"Since when? I thought you were dating Chat Noir..." Her father said, pondering this bit of news.

"I'm so happy for you honey!" Her mother said, trying not to think about it too much.

She smiled and looked over at them. "After Chat Noir and I broke up, Adrien and I got to talking, and well..." She was sure they could fill the rest in themselves... The less she said the better.

"Oh! I see..." Her mother trailed off, holding back her true reaction.

"So anyways I got to go so I'm not late." Marinette said with a smile.

Her parents gave each other a look. That was certainly most odd. Marinette was almost always late. But as there wasn't much time to ask her, and it was a positive improvement, they decided to shrug it off and let her go about her day.

Her walk on the way too school was most pleasant as well. She noticed that the birds were chirping and it filled her heart with joy. A small positive in the midst of all of the chaos. It may have been a small light in surrounded by a lot of darkness, but it made a big difference.

It wasn't until she got to class that something began to taint her 'perfect' day. She made her way to her seat and sat down next to Alya as per usual noticing that Adrien wasn't there yet. He was probably running a little late today she thought to herself.

"Hey Marinette."

"Hi Alya."

"Someone's in a good mood."

"Well yeah, it's sunny outside. It's going to be a good day."

"Are you sure about that?"

"What do you mean?"

"Haven't you heard?

"Heard about what?"

Alya exchanged a glance with Nino who was sitting nearby. "Adrien is-

At that moment Ms. Bustier cleared her throat. "Good morning class, I hope you did the homework I assigned last day as you have a quiz this morning!"

The entire class groaned.

"It shouldn't be a problem as you've obviously all done the homework, no?" She pulled out a stack of papers and handed them to Nino to hand out.

Adrien is what? Marinette wondered. She hadn't heard from him since their conversation last night but she figured that she would see him at school anyways so that it wasn't anything to be concerned about. But now he was late for class. Where could he possibly be?

She took a quick glance at her phone to turn it off and noticed that Adrien still hadn't responded. Marinette hoped that all was okay on his end as she put her silenced phone away.