Cords

Chapter 10 (Marinette POV)

The nervousness creeped through my veins as I prepared for school. Usually I was slightly nervous everyday if I knew I was going to see Adrien, but today was different. The chemistry project presentation was due today, and even though we had practised for hours, the thought of being judged put me on edge. I knew I should have nothing to worry about, I had three other people for moral support with me, and we had rehearsed to perfection. Unfortunately I was still incredibly shy, unlike my heroine persona. It disappointed me that I could never live up to the impressive standards my alter ego had created for myself.

Tikki had sensed my edginess and gave me a few words of encouragement.

"Marinette, I'm 1000% sure that your group will do amazing. If you get too nervous, remember that you are Ladybug, even though you may think you are two different people. Ladybug and Marinette are one person, and you as a whole have the power to have the best traits from each persona. So cough up those butterflies and put them back into the wild. Good luck Marinette, although, I'm sure you already have too much of it." She chuckled.

"Thanks Tikki, that means a lot to me." I blushed.

I looked at the time, and it was approaching 8:00, so I ate my breakfast and left at 8:15. My house is near my school, so I am able to make it on time usually for the start of classes at 8:40.

I walked to my locker to see Alya opening her locker beside mine.

"Hey Alya! Are you nervous for the chemistry, I sure am!" I started to say.

I continued babbling on for a little while, speaking just about any thought that came to my mind without thinking. Alya sighed, looked over to me and put her hand over my mouth.

"Marinette, when you're nervous you really run your mouth out. And frankly, nothing you just said made sense, so just calm down, we're going to do fine." She chuckled.

I exhaled and nodded, trying not to continue talking nonsense. I collected my textbooks and school-issued work tablet. Then Alya and I headed off to chemistry class. Surprisingly, there were very few people in the classroom, Adrien and Nino hadn't arrived yet (and luckily, neither had Chloe) so we sat down and waited for our group mates to get to school.

Nino came a few minutes before the final bell was supposed to ring, but Adrien was still nowhere to be found. Nino said that Adrien was running a little bit late, so he would be here just as the bell was ringing, or a few minutes after that. Nino was correct, because Adrien dashed into the classroom and sat in his seat, just as the final bell was ringing. I noticed Chloe hadn't shown up for all of class and figured she just wasn't prepared for the project yet, of course she had forced all the work on her group mates as usual.

The teacher finally called up our group to present. Every second of walking up to the front of the class felt impossibly difficult. My feet felt like concrete and the USB stick holding our presentation was like holding a two-ton piece of iron.

We fortunately made our way through the presentation flawlessly, and the teacher congratulated us. Then Alya said the worst pun ever made.

"It's because our group has such great chemistry together!" She exclaimed.

Adrien burst out laughing for a second but then just smiled when we made eye-contact. We both blushed and I got really nervous all over again. My group and I sat back in our seats and relaxed until the end of the lesson.

I was feeling brave today, so I tried to make a slight date thing. Just as I had advised Chat to do with his crush, I was going to do with Adrien. I walked over to Adrien and Nino, leaving Alya behind and spoke.

"Hey, do you guys want to join Alya and I for lunch? Kind of like a celebration thing for our successful presentation." I said timidly.

"Sure." They said.

We walked over to an empty table and Nino and Alya sat together quickly, they were dating so it was normal. Leaving me and Adrien to sit together, I had planned this perfectly, I would be able to get to know him more, personally instead of formally.

"I guess we'll have to sit together, so... Hey, let's continue our conversation from the other day about..." I asked to continue the conversation from when we last met up for the group project.

Adrien and I quickly clicked into conversation and had loads of fun debating our favourite topics, especially Paris' superheroes. Adrien seemed to really like Ladybug, blushing everytime he said her name. But his true favourite was Chat Noir, Adrien elaborated on how cool Chat was, and how he was jealous of his confident, flirtatious nature. I asked Adrien what his favourite pick-up line was, and he responded with at least ten of Chat's personal favourites. Overall, lunch was an amazing bonding experience with Adrien, and I felt a lot more comfortable around him afterwards.

School ended and I headed home, after talking with Adrien for those few lunch hours, I felt like I could take on the world.

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Ooooh, Adrien has taken a liking to Marinette ooooooh. Also, the story is coming to a close sad to say. But I really enjoyed writing it. The next few updates might come in a bit slow, because I've been getting a lot of homework lately, even though no one really cares. So, sorry if all of a sudden 5 people start reading this looking at their screens going "NO NO NO PLS" I promise I will let this story end before you die.

I'm getting really sassy towards imaginary people. -May