Hidden ~ Miraculous Ladybug AU

Chapter 16

Marinette's POV

I looked at a map of the huge school on the wall next to the elevator.

There were a total of 8 floors. The first floor had all the community things, like the cafeteria, library, stores and so on. The next 4 floors had all the studios, and classrooms, the upper 3 were for dorms. The 2nd was the boring stuff, the 3rd was the physical creative courses, the 4th was the sound and career courses, like marketing, and music, the 5th was for everything else.

The architecture was flawless and amazing. I walked into the glass elevator and pressed 1, deciding I'd start from the beginning.

When the elevator dinged, I stepped out and pressed play on my Spotify playlist. Just one with all my favorite songs, sad, and happy. I wandered down one of the hallways, peeking into some of the rooms.

One had bean bag chairs all around, another had a few hammocks. This place really was amazing. As I walked I sang softly along to my songs so as not to disturb the few people wandering the halls as well. I got so immersed in the songs and building I almost forgot about Nathaniel, almost.

It took about 30 minutes for me to clear the first floor and get back to the lobby to climb to the next floor. I decided to skip ahead to the 3 floor, the floor for physical creativity courses, skipping the core class floor with the math, history, science, literature, and so on classrooms.

As the glass elevator began it's ascent to the 3rd floor I realized how many boys looked at me as I passed by, strange. I once again looked around aimlessly at the numerous dance studios and miniature sport fields, nets and tables.

I'd signed up for dance myself, ballet to be exact. I used to be a ballerina when I was little, believe it or not.

For some reason unknown to me, they offered all kinds of dance here, Ballet, Contempory, Jazz, Couples dance, Modern, even Ballroom dancing but the one thing they didn't have that I was curious about was Breakdance. in fact, it was forbidden.

Suddenly, my phone buzzed so I plucked it out of my purse and looked at the screen.
Yippee.

It was Nathaniel. I wanted to text him back, so much that my fingers decided to open the text message app and almost start typing, but I stopped myself.

It'd be best if we just didn't talk. I sighed with a frown forming on my face and tears ready to spring out of my eyes, I turned to put my phone back in my purse when I crashed into someone and fell to the floor.

I groaned and rubbed my head, when I looked up though I saw a girl my age on the ground too, her things, fabrics and papers, scattered around on the ground around her.

"Oh god! I am so sorry." I apologized and started picking her things up with alarming speed, I was used to being shoved to the ground and crawling around on my knees to gather everything again.

She laughed and held out her bag as I put all her things in it.
"It's ok. It was my fault for not looking where I was going." She said.

I looked up at her and shook my head. The girl had fair skin like me, and fiery red long hair that fell nicely around her face, framing it well. Her eyes were a shade of dark blue that almost looked purple.

"It's really mine. I'm such a klutz." I stood and held out my hand to her, she took it happily and stood up next to me, revealing we were about the same height.

"Oh, your things are everywhere too!" She exclaimed. It was true, my pencils and small notebook were strewn on the floor. I laughed and picked them up, putting them back in my bag.

The girl examined me for a moment before her face lit up with recognition,
"You're Marinette Dupain-Cheng aren't you?" She asked me. My eyebrows furrowed together as I wondered why this girl knew who I was.

"Yes...how do you know me?" Her eyes widened for a second,
"Oh! I heard about how you saved that little girl, Manon Chamack wasn't it?"
"O-Oh, um yeah, I guess I did." I responded awkwardly. "W-What's your name?"

"Oh, sorry. I'm Tikki Fu." Tikki laughed, rubbing her elbow.
Tikki?
"C-Cool name! Did you get hurt? L-Let me treat you to lunch or something." I said, looking at her elbow.

"Oh? I'm ok. But I'd love to go out to lunch with you. I'm not from around here so I don't have many friends." She admitted.

"That'll be g-great! Wanna exchange numbers then we can meet up somewhere?" I asked, always happy for a new friend.
"Ok!" She replied, handing me her phone.

We exchanged contacts and settled for lunch at around 12:30 and were about to part ways when she suddenly stopped,

"Are you ok? You look like you've been crying." I blinked a few times after having forgotten about Nathaniel.
"O-Oh! No, I'm ok, just allergies." I lied. She raised her eyebrow but shrugged and waved goodbye.

I turned and was about to resume my music when I spotted a boy with dark hair and Caribbean blue tips. My eyes narrowed as he walked towards me with a big smile on his face. He held out my chapstick,

"I think you dropped this Marinette." He said smoothly. I took my chapstick from him, my eyes not leaving his face. I looked into his strangely familiar blue eyes, and noticed the guitar on his back.
Wait...it couldn't be.

"No way. Luka Couffaine is that you?" I exclaimed, perking up instantly and really forgetting about Nathaniel this time. He smiled and picked me up off the ground, spinning me around.

"It is Mari! It's me!" He said happily, putting me down. I hugged him tight,
"I missed you so much!" I said into his shirt. He was Juleka's older brother and we were pretty close friends when we were little.
"Aww, I missed you too."

I used to be closer with Juleka so I'd be on her boat a lot and hung out with him too. When Alya and Nino came and I regained some spark and recovered a bit from Felix and Bridgette's departure, we started hanging out again.

Luka and I weren't ever close enough for me to confide in him before when Felix and Bridgette left, but when I got slightly better, we got closer, and I even, may have, perhaps, had a teeny crush on him. He didn't know much about my Chloe situation. Then...he left during my junior year of high school to study music abroad.

I pushed away and hit him in the arm.
"How dare you leave me for an entire 2 years!" I pouted and crossed my arms playfully.
"Oh come on Mari! I know you love me." He laughed and ruffled my hair.
"Hmph." I looked away.

"If I treat you to dinner will you forgive me?" He asked me. I tapped my chin considering, even though I already knew my answer.
"I suppose dinner could do." I finally said.

"Oh, I knew it!" Luka smiled and gave me his number. "I've got to go get Juleka but I'll see you at... 6:30? Meet me in the lobby." He said, rushing to the stairs.

"Ok! Bye!" I waved and he waved back. I sighed dreamily before making my way to the elevator to go back to my room.