Miraculous Hunters Rewritten: Book 2

Chapter 4: Adventures in Troll Sitting, Despair Bear Part 2

Very soon, the students had finished cleaning the school and were released for the rest of the following day since the firman incident had interrupted the rest of their classes. In fact, they were released so early that Marinette had to wait two hours for lunchtime to arrive to have her usual catch-up with Jim while her parents were still working in the bakery. Thankfully, she had just finished eating her lunch when her phone started buzzing to alert her that her brother was finally calling her. Seeing the familiar sight, prompted Marinette to press the 'Receive Call' button, letting Jim appear on her phone screen as she sat on the dining room table.

"Hey, bro! How's it going?" Marinette greeted the boy, placing her phone against the potted plant so she could have her hands free.

"Pretty good Mari, pretty good. How was your..." Jim began, only to trail off when he saw the background behind his sister. "Wait... are you at home, right now?" the junior chef asked, an inquisitive eyebrow raised at Marinette.

"Yeah... it's a bit of a long story." Marinette bashfully replied, rubbing the back of her neck as she sat on one of the table's stools.

"What happened? Another akuma at school?" Jim questioned, hoping that it wasn't the case since it was starting to affect Marinette's attendance.

"More like Chloé deciding to make life miserable for everyone... again." Marinette revealed, a sigh escaping her lips afterwards.

"Oh boy... what did she do now?" Jim asked with a roll of his eyes, already tired of Chloé's latest stunt before he even heard what it was.

"Want the short version or the long version?" Marinette inquired, a soft smile appearing on her lips.

"Either one will do depending on how much time you have." Jim answered, willing to hear anything his sister could give him considering how entertaining her recounts had been recently.

"Well, I've got the girls coming over to do a photo shoot for my in-progress fashion blog in a half-hour, so... probably the short version." Marinette admitted, scratching her chin in thought as she determined the best option for their limited time.

"You're finally getting your fashion blog up?" Jim asked, his eyes lighting up at the new information on Marinette's fashion career.

"Yep! The girls are so excited to help out." Marinette said, joy bleeding into her voice. "Even Sabrina's coming over to help!" the designer squealed, pulling her fists to her chest in her excitement.

"How about Lila? Did you invite her?" Jim queried, a little curious if his sister had done so after she gave Lila the tour of the school since they seemed to get along that day.

"I did. But she said that she's already got something going on, so she won't be here later." Marinette responded, her smile faltering before turning into a pout as she placed her arm on the table by the elbow and leaned her head on it.

"That sucks. But maybe she'll make it the next time." Jim encouraged, hoping to cheer her up.

"Here's to hoping." Marinette said, her mood turning a bit brighter with her brother's encouragement.

"In any case... care to explain what Chloé did this time?" Jim asked, now wanting to know what happened more than ever.

"With pleasure if I get to vent." Marinette said, her smile returning with the open invitation.

So for the next half-hour, Marinette went into heavy detail about Chloé's stunt with the fire department. This was mostly due to Marinette being upset that her long-time bully had interrupted her dad's baking lesson, and how close she had been to Adrien afterwards. Jim wasn't interested in the Adrien parts and ignored them. But he was more invested in Chloé's behavior just because she didn't want to get her hands dirty. However, when the conversation had finally turned to what Jim had been up to, it had left Marinette a little more than unsettled. While it was nice to hear that Toby was finally getting a roommate in Aaarrrgghh!!!, when Marinette learned the information Blinky had told Jim earlier, their talk took a dark route.