When the Cat Met the Wolf

48. Of Books & Foxes

Arianne had been staring at her screen that showed Ethan Carter's email for solid ten minutes without writing anything.

"Are you gonna write to him or not?" questioned Thiago as he placed his cup of coffee in the sink to wash it later.

"I want to" replied the girl "But...I don't know if I'm ready to...you know, be an 'official' celebrity"

"I think you are, Arianne!" Jazmin spoke up "You've been working very hard. You deserve it!"

"Yeah, what's stopping you?" questioned Ayu, as Arianne sighed and closed her laptop.

"Honestly, I don't know" she replied and put in inside her bag "C'mon, we're gonna be late for school" Thiago and the two kwamis exchanged glances, wondering what really was preventing the girl from writing to Ethan, before catching up with her.

At school, the two of them caught up to Alya and Marinette, and everyone was talking about some Lila girl.

"Who's Lila?" questioned Arianne, staring at Alya curiously.

"She just started school!" replied their friend, and she pointed out to Lila in the second floor while flirting with Adrien, who seemed a bit uncomfortable. Arianne opened her eyes wide when she saw that, and her fists clenched. Thiago noticed this, and decided to do something about it before it got worse.

"Hey, guys, we'll catch up with you later, yeah?" he spoke up, grabbing Arianne from the shoulder and dragging her away before she could do anything stupid, as the other two girls watched after them with confused glances.

Once they were out of sight, he let her go.

"I had to take you away from there" he explained upon seeing Arianne's confused glance "You looked ready to punch that girl"

"I would have if you hadn't dragged me here" replied Arianne "But thanks, I guess. You saved me from the embarrassment of making a scene in front of Alya and Mari"

"No problem" he replied, shrugging her comment off "But...this was due to happen sooner or later" Arianne gave him a confused glance upon hearing that.

"What do you mean?" she questioned calmly.

"Well....someday another girl other than Chloe or Marinette would show interest in Adrien. I don't mean to push you or anything, but don't you think maybe it's time to talk to Marinette? You might lose Adrien if you don't do anything about your feelings" Arianne stayed silent, analysing his words, which did make some sense, but she didn't know what to say to him "It's alright. It was just a suggestion. Wanna hit the library before the bell rings?"

"Sure" Arianne nodded and they both went off.

The library turned out to be a terrible idea, 'cause Adrien and Lila were there. Arianne hadn't noticed, though, and Thiago made it his goal to make sure that she didn't.

"Hey, remember that history test we got next week?" he asked, looking at the girl.

"Oui. The one on WWII" replied the girl, and Thiago nodded.

"Exactly. Do you think that maybe you could help me find a book about it? Ours is missing some things"

"Sure" Arianne nodded and started to walk off in the direction where Lila and Adrien were sitting.

"I'll go this way!" said Thiago, grabbing her from the shoulders and turning her to the other direction. Arianne looked at him with a frown, but didn't say anything, she just did as told.

Jazmin's gaze then stood on the book that Adrien took out of his bag, and her eyes opened wide.

"Thiago, I need to take a closer look at the book Adrien's holding!" exclaimed the kwami, and Thiago opened his eyes wide when he saw the tiger standing on the shelf closer to Adrien and Lila to take a closer look at the book.