The problem with Paris is that there aren't enough hours in the day. There's never enough time to do everything you need to, and certainly not enough time to do everything you want to. I yawned and tried to refocus on Ms. Mendeleiev's teaching, but last night's fight had been very long. And very hard. And very, very unsettling.
Ms. Mendeliev was waving her meter stick in a circle, trying to explain how an Arctic summer has almost 24 hours of light each day. 24 hours of light would make my job much easier, I thought, but it wouldn't change the unhealthily small amount of sleep I had gotten.
"Marinette!"
I jerked upright to find the classroom completely empty, except for Ms. Mendeleiev glaring at me over her glasses. "Class is over, and you have homework. Sorry to disrupt your nap in the name of education." She crossed her arms and leaned back disapprovingly.
"S-sorry Ms., I was just up so late last night uh, uh...doing the project!" I sputtered.
She sighed. "We don't have a project right now, Marinette."
"Umm, I meant the other project, for the other class, you know-" I frantically gathered my books and headed for the door, tripping at least five times and dropping twice as many papers on the way out. "Doing work...things...working hard...doing...school...byeseeyouthanks!" I gathered the thick stack of notes Alya had passed me up from the floor, and with one last graceful flailing maneuver I rushed out the door and fled to the washroom.
Alone in a stall, putting my books back in my bag, I finally let the exhaustion and worry truly settle onto my face. I didn't want to face the outside world yet, so I took a long time methodically organising my stuff, trying to ignore the other contents of my book bag until the last possible moment.
Unfortunately the "other contents" weren't really a fan of being ignored. Tikki zipped out and hovered in front of my face as I adjusted the final binder.
"Marinette," she squeaked.
"I know."
"I think you may have gone too far this time."
"It was the only way, Tikki. We couldn't let him fall into the wrong hands."
A third voice joined the gathering. "I'm very grateful for what you did for me, master."
A pair of subdued, purple-hued eyes peered up from my pencil case.
YOU ARE READING
The Butterfly Void
FanfictionLadybug and Chat Noir have always been trying to beat Hawkmoth, but what will they do once he's actually defeated? Realizing that Hawkmoth's defeat leaves behind a void of power that a new, worse villain might try to fill, Marinette takes up a burde...
