Miraculous Ladybug: Season Six | Part One

Chapter Twenty-Seven: The Calm

  Marinette comes running up to Nino and Alya, out of breath. They look up at her from the bench as she tries to regain her breath. "Girl, you're not even running late?" Alya giggles, covering her mouth slightly. "Yeah, Marinette! You still had an extra 15 minutes before you were on time... well, early for you!" Nino adds, letting out a few chuckles in between. Marinette rolls her eyes, "N-not funny." She huffs, bending over, laying her hands on her knees, letting her head hang low. Nino and Alya shrug, "So, why did you rush to get here?" Alya finally asks, glancing back between Marinette and Nino. "I-" she grabs large posters from her bags, "I, I need to hang these still. I only have a few up," she exhales, finally regaining composure. Nino and Alya nods, "Got it!" She grabs a few posters of Nino following her lead. "I haven't touched the science or history wings and the cafeteria," Marinette explained, straightening her posture as she motioned toward the left side of the building. They both nod, "We can grab the subject wings if you go to the cafeteria!" Nino exclaims, standing from the bench. Marinette nods, "Thank you, guys. I don't know what I would do without either one of you," Marinette smiles, glancing towards the cafeteria.
Marinette walks over to the bulletin board in the cafeteria and hangs her first poster in the middle of two upper-level students. She sighs as she staples it to the board. "Need help?" She jumps and turns around just to drop her stapler at the sight of Adrien. She groans, looking down to see all the staples have fallen out, "You should know you shouldn't sneak up on me like that!" She laughs, bending down to clean up her mess. He smiles down at her before bending down to help her in the process. "You didn't answer my question," he teases, handing her the staples as he stands back up. She reloads the stapler and shrugs, "I mean, I have two more posters that need to be hung somewhere in here," she states, handing him one of the posters from her bag.
Adrien takes it from her hand gently before looking around the cafeteria. "Have you thought about hanging them at the entrance and exits?" He recommends motioning to the two doors on opposite sides of the room. She shakes her head, "No, not necessarily. I was just assuming I was going to have extra." She replies, walking over to the entrance that no one had claimed as their wall yet. She straightens out the poster to the best of her abilities before aiming it against the wall. Adrien walks over and takes the stapler from her hand. "I think this is a good place; everyone will see it when they walk in!" He smiles, looking back at her for approval. She nods, "Hopefully, it primes them into voting for me. Exposure is good after all, especially in an election." She straightens the bottom part of the poster before Adrien staples the top part.
By the time they finished stapling the last two posters, they had about five minutes before they needed to be in their first class. They walked out of the cafeteria to see Nino and Alya back at their designated bench, presumably finished with hanging the remaining posters in their respective designations. "Did you guys finish?" Marinette asks, smiling and walking over with a slight wave. They both nod in response, "The history wing never looked better!" Alya giggled, knowing how much Marinette dreaded European History. Their conversation was cut short when the bell told them they only had a few minutes before their first course began.

Marinette finds her way through the cafeteria crowds to her designated lunch table with her friends. She lays her tray down, preparing for what has to be said about Ladybug without them knowing it's her. They really need to find more things to talk about. "Marinette, did you finish the guide for composition by any chance?" Sabrina asks politely; ever since Chloe has left, she has been even more soft-spoken than ever before. Marinette looks over at her and nods, "I'll send it to you when I can," she smiles, and Sabrina exchanges the smile back towards her.
"Comrade Béchamel, your posters look amazing. I have full faith in you pulling through this election." Nino states proudly, putting his fist over his chest. Marinette looks at him blankly, "Thanks?" She responds, confused by the sudden compliment when he helped her hang them this morning. "Now that that's out of the way..." Marinette groans, laying her head on the table. "Comrade, this is important; you may want to listen; it's important to all of Paris," Nino assured, pinching the bridge of his nose in annoyance. Marinette looks up to pretend to pay attention to the nonsense he decides to spit today. "Chat Noir has informed the press that Ladybug might be the one behind the recent akumazations; if this is true, we, as the resistance, have much bigger problems afoot." He continues making eye contact with everyone at the table.
Rose gasps, "She wouldn't? Would she?" She questions, covering her mouth in complete shock. Juleka shakes her head in response, "Ladybug wouldn't do that; she lost the miraculous. She said so after Monarch's defeat." She chimes in a low, almost inaudible tone. Alya nods in agreement, "If she were using it, she wouldn't have defeated her allies the first few weeks she was present in the battles." Nino sighed, pushing his glasses back up onto his nose, "Yes, very good observation unless she was using that as a distraction to get the press to look at a "new monarch" instead of her." He theorized, crossing his arms full of himself. Adrien lays his head on his propped-up arm, "Nino, why would Ladybug use easy-to-defeat enemies... she would know the weaknesses of all the miraculous holders by now if it were her." He mutters, just as annoyed as Marinette at this point. He tries to cover his annoyance with boredom, not to come off as he knows more than everyone else.
Nino straightens his posture, "Another one of her strategies! To distract everyone!" He exclaims, putting his hands together like some evil genius. Marinette and Adrien exchange looks of "Seriously?" With one another. "You may have a point, Nino." Max agrees slightly, "However, Ladybug has been present in only her Ladybug form instead of combining both miraculouses." He adds, raising his finger and looking directly over at Nino, "This would make it only 13% likely that she is using the miraculous of the butterfly for her own benefits."
  Nino rolls his eyes, "She could be working with someone... we don't know for sure, but I feel it in my bones she isn't right!" He exclaims, gripping the table in between his thumb and index fingers. Adrien closes his eyes before inhaling, "Nino-" "Nino, you're accusing someone of something without any proof; you need to gather proof before you go around telling us, the resistance, any of your silly theories." Sabrina cuts Adrien off while rolling her eyes. She stands up with her tray, "I'll see you all in our next block," She mutters, walking away from the table in a huff.
  Nino sighs, "The evidence is in front of us!" He exclaims as Alya grabs his hand. "You just need to trust her," she whispers, looking up at him. "Maybe you need to take a break from your detective work, Nino. It's only stressing you out."

Everyone floods into the empty classroom decorated in European flags, France, Germany, Finland, etc, and finds their respective seats. Marinette takes out her notebook in disbelief at what was said today during lunch while Adrien sits beside her. "Do you really believe all the conspiracies Nino was spitting back there?" He inquires quietly while leaning down to grab his own notebook. She shakes her head slowly, "No, I don't see a reason Ladybug would lie about losing a miraculous to the public when she had it. Even if she were using it for her own advantage, she wouldn't have given everyone else their miraculouses, right? She would've kept them for herself and used them to get Chat Noir's." She whispers, leaning on his shoulder gently as he flips his notebook open. He nods in agreement, "Yeah, Chat Noir is foolish for implying she was a villain on national television." He chuckles as Ms. Allard makes her way into the classroom to begin instruction. Marinette sighs, leaning away from his shoulder.

"Another project within a week. Are you KIDDING me?" Marinette groans, walking through the hallway. "Hey, it's just an excuse for you to come over to my place this time!" Adrien laughs, walking beside her to guide her to her next classroom. She glances at him while blushing, "Y-yeah, that's one way to put it." She whispers as they stop outside of the doorway of her next class. "I'll see you soon then, right?" He smiles softly, raising his eyebrow in the process. She nods as her smile grows with his before turning away to enter her class.

  Adrien is dismissed from his last class of the day, Chemistry II. He walks out of the class with Felix right behind him. "Adrien, we need to." "Adrien, right? You're in my Advanced Calculus class as well. Do you care to help me a little with one of the questions? You seem to know what you're doing and all." A tall girl with a dark bob questions with a huge smile on her face. "Well, I guess you could say that. Can I get your number so I can contact you... of course?" He asks, taking his phone out of his pocket to hand to her. "Oh yeah! Of course!" She laughs, adding her information to his contacts. He nods, "Just message me if you need any help! I'd be glad to help you......" He starts, unable to recall her name. "Iris, Iris Verdi." She smiles before walking off towards the exit. Adrien looks back at Felix, "What were you trying to say?" He asks, beginning to walk towards the exit as well. Felix follows him, "It's not important now," he mutters, thinking about that odd girl. I sit next to her in Calc, and she seems utterly competent in the area; why would she be asking for help... let alone Adrien, who sits in the back of the class, instead of someone who sits right next to her?
  "Adrien! Felix!" Marinette came running towards them, smiling and waving before they reached the exit. Felix waves back as Adrien meets her in the middle and embraces her tightly. Marinette's eyes widened in shock before slowly returning the gesture. He pulls away to look down at her, "You still coming over?" He asks, removing her but keeping his hands on her shoulders. She nods before abruptly stopping, "I actually need to do a few things at home before I can go over. Would a few hours from now be okay with you?" She smiles, watching Felix walk outside. He nods in response, "Of course, it'll give me time to work on my own homework." He laughs, pulling away and wholly guiding her to the doors.