"Just a Friend?" Book 1 of "Secrets Unraveled" Trilogy (MLB FanFic) |COMPLETED|

Chpt 24: Alya finally gets Marinette to tell all. Well, almost.

Marinette somehow missed her alarm the next morning and had to race out the door to try to make it to school on time. She was running up the steps when the bell rang.

"Drat!" she muttered as she made her way to the classroom. She opened the door to Ms. Bustier just beginning the roll call and tried to sneak to her seat.

"Good morning, Marinette," Ms. Bustier said.

Marinette blushed in embarrassment at being caught, said "Good morning", and headed to her seat. She passed by Adrien and became distracted by how cute he looked that morning.  This caused her to trip over the first step and start to fall. Adrien, whose attention has completely focused on Marinette passing by him, rushed out of his seat to catch her and he wrapped her safely in his arms. They looked at each other for an instant before both started to blush as they realized everyone was now staring at them. Marinette disentangled herself from his arms and managed to make her way to her seat, eyes downcast and heart racing, while Adrien returned to his seat, only just keeping a smile from crossing his face. 

Alya looked between Marinette and Adrien, having noticed there was something more than just Marinette's normal clumsiness going on there. Now that she thought about it, she hadn't heard anything about Marinette's project meetings with Adrien as she had been distracted by her own busy life the past few weeks. She was going to have to finally grill Marinette for some information later to get the real scoop!

Alya looked over at Chloe to gauge her reaction to the scene everyone had just witnessed. Chloe was giving Marinette a ferocious glare. Oh, yeah. They were going to have to look out for Chloe! Alya thought.

Ms. Bustier called for everyone's attention and then reminded them that their partner projects were due next week. "Please meet with me this week if you are having any troubles. Your projects need to be turned in on time!" She moved on to the day's lesson.

As soon as the class was over, Marinette gathered up her things and started to head to the lockers trying not to look at Adrien. Alya caught up with her at her locker.

"So, what's up with you and Adrien?" she asked Marinette.

"Uh, w . . . what do you mean?" Marinette stammered, accidentally dropping her bag on the ground.

"Uh huh. I knew it! Something is going on with you two! Why haven't you told me, girl? I can't believe you haven't said anything to me!"

Marinette bent over to retrieve her bag, frantically looking around to see if anyone had heard Alya. "Shhhh, Alya! I don't want Chloe hearing about it yet. You know she will just go after me, since she likes Adrien and feels he is hers, and she will try to make my life miserable! It's all so new, we just didn't want to make it any more complicated than it already is." She cast a worried glance at Alya. "Do you think anyone else noticed?"

Alya was pretty sure everyone in the class, including Chloe, had noticed. And while she was pretty sure most everyone else would support Marinette and Adrien being in a relationship, she was completely sure that Chloe would not. But, she and Nino were on it- they would handle Chloe for their friends. But, she since didn't want to worry Marinette she said "Nah, I don't think so. You were your normal clumsy self and Adrien catching you just seemed to be kind, like he usually is. I was probably the only one who could see your face- filled with adoration!" Alya teased.

"Alya!" said Marinette with a shocked expression.

"Okay, okay, I'll leave it alone here at school if you tell me more later! After school?" asked Alya.

"I can't," said Marinette, but upon noticing Alya's disappointment added, "or at least not for long. Adrien and I have to finish our project. We are meeting at his house this afternoon after one of his tutoring sessions." She thought for a minute. "Maybe you can walk me home and help me gather up my project stuff and I can tell you about it then?"