𝓐𝓶𝓫𝓲𝓿𝓪𝓵𝓮𝓷𝓽- 𝓐 𝓕𝓮𝓵𝓲𝓷𝓮𝓽𝓽𝓮 𝓢𝓽𝓸𝓻𝔂

𝒫𝒶𝓇𝒶𝓈𝒾𝓉𝒾𝓈𝓂

Marinette and Alya sat on a bench in the park, enjoying their lunch and the slightly cold winter breeze. Their lunch had been extended to an hour after Ms. Mendeleiev caused yet another chemical explosion inside her classroom. That woman truly had a knack for chaos.

"So, are you sure that he did that? Gossip blogs often tend to over exaggerate for views." Alya scribbled in her notebook, adding bullet points for the topic of her next post. She currently had the protest, school food, and an embezzlement of money from a fundraiser for the next class trip.

"All these topics are old news." She groaned. "I never thought I'd be saying this, but Marinette, I need you to get a story for me."

"What kind of story?"Marinette usually let Alya handle interviews since her best friend had explored journalism. She still remembered how she had stuttered through a video interview with Adrien.

"The kind that involves the new guy, Félix." Alya looked up from her notebook, noticing Marinette's change in expression.

"Why me? You're the reporter!" Marinette accusingly pointed a finger at her friend.

"Because you know him better than I do. If you didn't notice past your grumpy face, he wasn't all too happy to talk to us either. Whether it was your scowling or my questions, I don't know. But you'd probably be able to ask him better questions than me. Last time, he grumbled away—I didn't even get to finish asking my questions!"

"Just because I've coincided with him more doesn't mean he'll answer my questions," Marinette protested. "Anyway, I got better things to do. I still have to sew my dress, remember?" She pulled out her phone and showed her friend a photo of her mannequin, who wore such little clothes the outfit could be considered a bathing suit.

"Oh, right, the ball! I could ask people who they're going with! Thanks, Marinette, you always inspire me." Alya hugged her and started scribbling down ideas on a fresh page.

"So, who are you thinking about taking to the ball?" Marinette asked since the topic was discussed.

"Well, Nino asked me out, but I don't want to leave you by yourself, so I said no. He'll be okay, though. I told him the situation and he understands." She closed her notebook and slipped it into her bag.

"Why? I thought you two were in the talking stage."

"We are, but it's complicated. He's still hung up on his ex-girlfriend who moved to some random country." She rubbed her eyebrows, clearly frustrated at the fact she couldn't do anything about it.

"I'm sure he'll come around. How long were they together?"

"No clue. But I do know her name—Celia Lee."

"Sounds british. Are you sure she's from France?"

"I did some stalking on Instagram and found a girl with the same name, but she looks nothing like how Nino described her. I hate to say it, but I think he's a little crazy in the head." She mimicked the spinning finger gesture.

"And yet you're still talking with him." Marinette joked before excusing herself from the conversation.

⋆ ˚｡⋆୨♡୧⋆ ˚｡⋆🐞⋆ ˚｡⋆୨♡୧⋆ ˚｡⋆

Marinette and Alya left together as the bell rang, their laughter echoing through the hallway. As they walked, Marinette couldn't shake off the feeling that maybe Félix was misunderstood.

Marinette went into class with the notion of talking to Félix again hanging over her head. Why did it always have to be him? Why couldn't it be Adrien with his dreamy eyes and shining smile?

As she opened her biology textbook, she heard his voice muttering behind her. At first, she didn't mind, as she had moments where she spoke out certain words to memorize them. But after a few minutes, she looked to the side to see Félix suspiciously quiet.

She remembered the photo from yesterday, and as she looked at his face she realized that she had never seen him without a smile before. As he spoke, he kept a small smile, even to Marinette, who didn't give him a friendly first impression.

"You may as well say hello if you're going to stare for that long." He joked.

Marinette sprang forward, quickly darting her eyes away, making it seem more obvious that she was staring at him.

"So, what's wrong? Surprised that even someone as prominent as I could stay out of the limelight?"

Never mind, Marinette was right after all.

"No, I was just wondering who had gotten you to shut up. Usually, you'd be monologuing about your trip to Cancun last winter or something by now." When she talked back to Félix, Marinette felt a little prouder of herself. If she kept going, she could snap back at Chloé one day.

Speaking of the devil herself, Chloé Bourgeois stormed into the classroom with Sabrina in tow.

"Ridiculous, utterly ridiculous!" She screamed. Even though Marinette wanted to sew his mouth shut, she and Félix shared a look of understanding. If there was one thing that could bring people together, it was the act of watching Chloé perform one of her tantrums. Alya once joked that it was like watching a one-woman comedy show, seeing her whine and cry through fits of rage.

"Chloé, I'm sure he didn't mean it. He's your childhood best friend! You just have to give him some time, that's all." Sabrina looked concerned, but Chloé screamed a little louder than normal. Marinette didn't mean to pry, but listening to anything other than the spoiled brat's complaining was hard.

"I don't get it! I get him the best clothes in Paris and tickets to his favorite movies and this is what I get?! I'm the mayor's daughter, damn it!"

Félix had become interested in the conversation, casually sliding beside Marinette's empty seat to get closer to the drama. Marinette pretended to not notice, but the scent of fancy perfume.

Sabrina patted her friend's back and pushed down the golden, wayward curls behind her sunglasses.
"So what's the ginger's deal? Why is she helping out someone so spoiled?" Felix opened a book and pointed to a paragraph about symbiotic relationships.

"No one's sure why Sabrina cares so much, but there's nothing anyone can do to separate her from Chloé. It's kind of like this one, parasitism." She pointed to one of the relationships in bolded text.

The fact that Chloe and Sabrina were still considered friends was a funny yet saddening reminder that the latter had no idea how toxic the relationship truly was. Sabrina believed that her being a servant to someone as good as Chloe was what friends were for. Maybe if they weren't always together, Marinette could've been her friend.

"So, is she the only minion Chloe has? Or does she have others?" He squinted his eyes, glaring at the duo.

"Yes, though I'm not sure how she got Sabrina to be her minion."

"It must've been bribery or blackmail then. You know those are the tricks the mayor does, and he taught then to Miss Filthy Rich." He rolled his eyes. Marinette hadn't seen him annoyed before, but he was the one who did the annoying, mostly.

Ms. Mendeleiv stalked into the class with no further discussion past an aggravated grunt to an apology-filled Rose who had caused the explosion.

Her head was a complete mess; strands pointing away from her scalp, making a medusa-like hairstyle. Marinette noted how much she didn't care about her appearance, but the old crone urgently needed a trip to the salon.

"My apologies for the inconvenience earlier, but that event will not hinder your education. Instead of completing the dissection, we will be creating a model to expand your understanding of the internal systems of a frog."

A groan filled the classroom as she passed out packets of paper. Marinette then searched the room for Alya, who happily chatted with Nino. Marinette knew she couldn't split up the couple but didn't want to work with Felix.

Realization dawned when Alya looked back with a smile and a thumbs up. Of course, this whole idea was her plan.