My Lady

Chapter 2: Ups and Downs

Marinette and Adrien were walking down the hall to their next class from the infirmary. Marinette was trying to squeeze through the crowd behind Adrien while still keeping hold of the strap of her bag and the ice pack on her head, but she wasn't doing a very good job at it. She wasn't used to getting to Geometry from that hallway, which just happened to be much more crowded than her normal route.
Adrien soon realized the difference in population of this hallway and saw Marinette falling behind. He turned around to Marinette and put his arm around her so that her shoulder was against his body.
"A-A-Adrien?" Stuttered Marinette. "W-w-w-wha-"
"Come with me. If we go out and around the building, we can get to class easier. If you get shoved and pushed around, you might be late or get hurt again."
"M-m-makes sense. By the way, what b-brought you to the infirmary for me?"
"In the middle of class, Mrs. Lane asked if someone would go and check on you. Alya and I both raised or hands, but she saw my hand and put hers down. Also, like I said before, I made a second set of notes for you because I write fast enough. In saying that, my handwriting is a little messy. I'll just apologize for that now."
"Um, you went through the trouble, so you don't have to apologize."
"It's fine. You got hurt. You're a friend. I know you'd do the same for me."
"You have no idea," said Marinette under her breath.
"What was that?"
"N-n-nothing. Let's get to class."
The two made it to class in good time. When Marinette walked in the door after Adrien, Chloé, Sabrina, and a few others started giggling. Marinette, with the ice pack in her hand and off her head now, began to hang her head low, and quietly sat in her seat. Adrien looked back at her as if to say something, but decided against it and instead just put the language notes on her desk and said 'Here you go.'
Marinette took the notes and went to go out them in her bag when she noticed something was missing.
"Argh! I knew my bag felt light. I left my tablet at home and I don't have a pen. Alya, can you lend me one?" Asked Marinette with frustration.
"I have a pencil, but you'll have to sharpen it," Alya answered.
"Perfect, just give it."
Marinette went to go sharpen her pencil, but the bell rang and her teacher waddled in.
"Ms. Cheng," bellowed Mr. De Leon. "Get to your seat."
"Uh, I needed to sharpen my-"
"You should have your tablet, or at least had a working pencil before the bell rang. Take your seat."
Alya immediately leaned into Nino's seat and whisper-shouted 'pencil'. Nino didn't have one, but Adrien had already taken one out of his bag for Marinette. When she got to her seat, Adrien placed it on her desk. Marinette stared at Adrien and blushed.
"Helping too much?" Asked Adrien with a smile on his face. He turned back to his work before Marinette could answer.
Alya nudged Marinette with her signature smirk on her face.
"Ey, Marinette. What's going on? You know you need to tell me."
"He's been all over me making sure I'm alright since what happened this morning. It's the greatest thing ever!"
"Maybe you should fall on your face more often." Alya's smirk was back.
"Oh, shut up." Marinette playfully pushed her away.
The rest of the period was as mundane as it usually was. Eventually, Marinette got finished with the ice pack and put it in her bag and left the bump alone. The bell had finally rung and it was time for Marinette to go to P.E.
When Marinette had gotten to the gym, the coach told her to sit out for the day. The whole hour, she would have to sit alone at the bench and keep herself busy with school work. Chloé didn't take to kindly to this and decided call her out about it.
"What do we have here? Glad they decided to bench little Miss Dupain-Klutz. I feel much safer now that your happy feet are off the court."
Marinette just scoffed at her. She knew she had better things to do than humor Chloé.
"Aww, what's the matter? You afraid you're gonna stutter if you try to run your mouth too?" Marinette was fed up.
"Who are you calling happy feet? The second you touch the gym floor, you act like your walking on logs," Marinette barked back.
Adrien had noticed Chloé harassing Marinette and began walking to the bench. Marinette had seen him, looked over, and smiled.
"You think he wants to talk to a loser like you? That's a laugh. You don't need me to embarrass you. You do it yourself so effortlessly," hissed Chloé.
"Can it bitch. I didn't see you get an escort to your classes."
"Because I'm not a charity case."
"Hey Marinette," chimed Adrien.
"That's so brave of you Adrien, helping out the poor and needy," said Chloé. Adrien went to speak.
"What are you-" he was cut off.
"I don't have time for this. Why don't you go be an asshole on your own damn time!" Marinette stormed off to the bench across from Chloé.
"Was it something I said?" Adrien was confused.
"Marinette is just being an unapperciative wench who thinks she's too good for your help. She's clearly wrong. Anyone would be lucky to be graced by you."
"I highly doubt that, Chloé. Whatever you said to her, I don't appreciate."
"S-suit yourself then." Chloé marched the other direction, unable to believe her ears.
Adrien was about to talk to Marinette, but the coach told everyone to line up. Marinette just looked over the notes Adrien had wrote for her until her thoughts wandered.
'Wow, this really is hard to read. I can't tell if that says watermelon or wary men. Maybe if I read the next line, I'll figure it out. Nevermind. Maybe Alya will help me decipher this at lunch. Lunch! I just remembered I forgot my lunch. And my lunch money. Just great. All I have is the cookies in my purse that Tikki probably ate. Alya's mom is a chef. She might have something good for me from home. How long until this class is over? I'm hungry. I skipped breakfast. My arms smell like shampoo. Adrien looks good in gym shorts. Ha. Chloé fell. I wonder what Alya is doing in digital media. How many teachers have played a musical instrument but we just don't know? If Tikki only goes in one earring, why do I need two? What if I transformed while wearing a Ladybug costume like Chloé had? I wouldn't have to worry about Tikki getting tired. Would that put me at a greater risk of being discovered? Should I try it out? Nah.'
This kept going on in Marinette's head until the next bell rang. Adrien, Marinette, and Alya were headed for lunch. Adrien went up to Marinette to talk to her before she sat down with Alya.
"Hey, did I say something wrong?"
"Huh? Oh. No, no. I was yelling at Chloé and I was too mad to, I-"
"Don't worry about it. Did those notes do you any good?"
"Um, they were kinda hard to read like you said. I'll just copy Alya's."
"No need. The ones I took for myself are a little neater. I should've given you those. Trade me."
"You sure have helped me a lot today. I can't tell you how much that means to me."
"Don't sweat it. What are friends for?"
Marinette started blushing and the one side of her mouth began to twitch and curl up into half of a smile.
"You're getting red. You feeling alright?"
"Y-Yeah."
"Okay. Take care."
"Will do."
Marinette sat with Alya and told her about her whole morning. She couldn't decide if she was more excited or annoyed.