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Throughout the week, Adrien and Marinette met up at the school library every day after school to study together. The results were, quite obviously, nowhere near how Alya and Nino had envisioned it.
During the first three days, the two were extremely brief with one another, avoiding eye-contact and muttering curses under their breath. The fourth session ended with Adrien begrudgingly thanking Marinette for her help, but only because Nino had told him to do so. To his surprise, he received a hesitant "Don't mention it" in reply. And so he didn't.
The fifth day was, by far, the most chaotic. Marinette had brought a small box with macaroons from her parents' bakery for Adrien as a peace offering. Not because she wanted to, of course. Only because everyone else suggested it and...well, she was not the type of person who didn't listen to other people's suggestions unless they made no sense whatsoever.
Adrien, however, completely misunderstood this gesture and thought that she was trying to mock him. This caused a heated row to break out between the two of them, which obviously attracted a lot of attention. Everyone in the library was staring, amused. The 'rivalry' between Adrien and Marinette was actually common knowledge, and something that never failed to entertain innocent bystanders.
Losing all her patience and feeling as though she was half-choked by a rising paroxysm of rage and indignation, Marinette had splattered Adrien's face with the macaroons, which caught the attention of the grumpy librarian. Their session that day ended with them getting kicked out of the place and banned from the library for two weeks.
Nino was completely dumbstruck and disheartened. If this idea didn't work, then what would? Alya, however, refused to give in. She had several backup plans, and she wasn't afraid to put them in motion.
First thing on Saturday morning, Marinette forced herself out of bed upon receiving a call from Alya, who told her to come to the park immediately. Apparently it was urgent.
Adrien, too, received a call. But it was from Nino who said he wanted to hang out with him at the park. Since everyone else in their house were still asleep, he seized his opportunity to sneak out as discreetly as he could.
Upon arriving, he looked around but his friend was nowhere to be seen.
"Where is he...?" Adrien muttered aloud, after halting his motorcycle and taking his helmet off. The windshield was still broken, since his father refused to fix it. As was one of his many punishments for sneaking out without permission.
He sighed and pulled out his phone, ready to give Nino a call to ask where to find him, but he stopped. Something else had caught his attention. And not in a good way. At all.
"What are you doing here?" Adrien glowered at the dark-haired "psycho"who was shuffling her feet impatiently, sitting on a bench less than six metres away from where he was standing.
Marinette rolled her eyes upon hearing his penetrating voice, which had become a habit for her. She slowly stood up and turned around to acknowledge his presence, something which she was extremely reluctant to do.
"Trying to have some peace. You probably don't even know what it is though. And honestly, how could you know when all you ever bring into other people's lives is the exact opposite of peace?" she said prissily.
"Look, if you want to show someone how absolutely fucking mental you are, I suggest going to an asylum. That's where you belong" Adrien said gratingly.
"Me? Mental? That's rich coming from an uncultured swine whose brain is as existent as his conscience" Marinette countered.
"At least I have the sense not to go around starting food fights in the middle of the school library!" came Adrien's angry reply.
"Well, at least I don't drive around my motorbike like a retarded maniac and 'accidentally' end up splattering mud on someone's clothes." Marinette argued.
"In my defense, your clothes were ugly as hell. Literally nobody can pull off the 'I'm-not-like-other-girls' crap as well as you do with your baggy sweatshirts and unjustified misanthropy!" Adrien sneered.
"And nobody can pull off the 'Oh-I'm-so-utterly-in-love-with-myself' act like you with your stupid leather jacket and your hair that looks like some woodland creature built a nest in it and died." scoffed Marinette coolly "And can you please stop being such an ass now? At least I've made some effort to just try to make peace with you"
"No you didn't" said Adrien, rolling his eyes.
"I did. You were just too egotistic to notice it! This may shock you but...I don't hate you." Marinette confessed.
"That's bullshit" said Adrien.
"Say what you will, but it's true. If I really did hate you, I would've walked away in the middle of our arguments. I would've been able to ignore you and get you out out my head. As much as I hate to admit it, you've kinda started growing on me..." she trailed off.
"Double bullshit"
"I'm being serious here. You're the person who I think about the most. I know it doesn't make sense but...its true. Although most of my thoughts do involve me strangling you at some point...I can tell you truthfully that I really, really don't hate you as much as I'd like to. And don't even try to deny that you feel the same way about me"
Outwardly Adrien crossed his arms and looked away irritably. But deep inside he knew...he knew she wasn't wrong. As much as he hated to admit it, she was actually kind of interesting. Annoying, yes. But never boring.
"You really are a weirdo, you know..." he sighed.
"I don't mind" she shrugged airily.
Adrien sighed again. This girl was completely and utterly crazy. To think Nino had once told him that she was a good match for him.
She was annoying, barely even tolerable. Extremely stubborn. And extremely stimulating to argue with, he had admitted reluctantly.
"Whatever" he scoffed at her and walked off, trying to find Nino again but to no avail. Marinette had the same crappy luck with trying to find Alya.
Little did they know that Alya and Nino had been watching--or rather, stalking--them from a distance, delighted by this slight bit of improvement on their part.
