Because He Loved Me First

7

"And for your project," The teacher cleared his throat to get the students' attentions. Once all attention was on him, he fixed his glasses and turned around to face the board once again, "you will be in a group of two to three. This is sort of like a. . .take your kids to work day, but this time you will decide on which students' parents your group will be visiting, and you will go to their workplace for three days straight. Once you've completed your three-days-helping, you will write about that workplace. I expect a 10-paged essay explaining what the work is all about, what you had to do there, and so on." The teacher walked over to the calendar he hanged up on the door. "This is Friday. I expect your work to be handed in next Friday, so you'll be given a week to complete this." The teacher then eyed Chloe sitting at the front. "I don't want just one person to do all the work. You must work together to complete this, and no lying about who did what." Chloe rolled her eyes at the words. "Understood?!"

The whole class nodded. "Alright," The teacher continued. "You may now start picking your partners and figuring out which workplace to go to. Remember! Two to three people in a group. No more than that. No less than that!"

Marinette groaned at the instructions. It'd been a long time since she ever did a group project. She hoped the next time the teacher ever decided to do that, she would be already gone, but nope. Here they were, doing a group project. She despised group projects. The last one, the partners were been decided by the teacher. She had ended up with Chloe and this other girl she couldn't care less about. The both of them made her do all the work, and then when it came to handing the project in, both girls complained to the teacher that she hadn't done anything to help the group. It was annoying and maddening to hear, but Marinette hadn't said anything to defend herself, for she knew she had no chance, especially with the fact that it was Chloe.

"Hey Adrien," Chloe whirled around to face the boy, that was still sitting next to Marinette because he refused to move. "It's a good thing the teacher is allowing us to pick our own partners. He barely ever does that, so he must be in a good mood today."

"I heard that," The teacher placed his cup of coffee on his desk and eyed Chloe with a small glare.

Chloe ignored him and turned back to Adrien. "So, your first ever group project in this school," She poked his shoulder with a smile. "Wanna be partners with Sabrina and I?"

Marinette didn't even want to be here anymore. With the way Chloe was sometimes giving her a look and having Adrien sitting next to her, it was just too much. She stood up to move away, go to the teacher and somehow convince him to let her work alone, when someone suddenly pulled her back. When she turned, she realized it was Adrien himself. "Marinette and I. . ." He gave Chloe a grin that seemed to say, shoo, go away! ". . .are already partners."

"Oh," Chloe turned to Marinette with a small smile. The blonde girl gave her an amusing smile. "Is that true, Marinette?" She grinned, showing all her teeth, and Marinette knew what she was doing. If she said no, she could hurt Adrien and his feelings, and then she would have to go look for another partner whom she hated with a passion, or the teacher would find a partner for her, which would be even worse. But Adrien — here was a guy who was willing to work with her, without having to be asked by the teacher, without looking all mad and disgusted. But then again, if she said yes, Chloe was sure to take down her bakery now.

"Marinette doesn't need to answer your question, Chloe," Adrien started packing up his books on his desk, not looking at Chloe or considering how she might have felt. "You could go work with Sabrina, or with any other friends you have. I did hear you had tons of friends in this school." Marinette didn't say anything, and once Chloe saw that she wasn't going to speak anytime soon, she started heading back to where Sabrina was waiting. "Honestly though," Adrien grumbled as he turned to Marinette, "how can you even deal with her?!"

"By staying out of her way," Marinette muttered honestly. "Most of the time, it goes terrible because she's always coming to me, but on some days, she actually leaves me alone and I wouldn't have to worry about her pathetic ass for the rest of the day." Adrien chortled at her answer.

"But are you going to be my partner? I mean, I'm sorry I did that just now. You said you didn't want me around yet I keep coming."

"It's fine." Had she seriously just said that? She slapped her cheeks before stuffing the rest of her books inside her bag. "I mean, don't ever do that again! But now that Chloe thinks we're working together, I guess I have no other choice. Later on, I'm going to have to deal with her and stop her from what she's about to do."

"What is she about to do?"

"That, Adrien, is none of your business!" And the bell finally rang. Marinette quickly stood up, wanting to be the first to leave the class, but Adrien grabbed her arm and pulled her back.

"It's better if they leave first," He said. "Whenever you leave, they seem to follow you around or something just so they could get an alone time to do whatever they want to do with you."

Marinette looked away with a flushed face. Maybe he was right. Chloe looked back at them, seeing the way Adrien held Marinette close, before she finally peeled her eyes away and left the classroom with Sabrina. The rest of the students started leaving as well, some of them still whispering. Marinette heard a girl say her name out to the other person she was talking to, but she pretended she hadn't heard and stood up then.

"You know," Adrien stood up along with her, "when you stick by a person, there's a better chance they'd leave you alone." Marinette rolled her eyes, heading for the door. "I mean, I'm serious!" Adrien continued as he ran after her. "They'd see that they're no match for us and they'd leave you alone. You wouldn't be getting any more of unwanted attention."

"They're talking about me behind my back, you know?" Marinette chuckled a little bit, thinking Adrien was being a little childish with his thoughts. "People don't just stop giving you attention. They try harder to make you break, they try to get you to give up. The only way they'd ever leave you alone is if you show them that they can't tear you apart, it's if you don't give in to them, don't cry, don't show any sign of pain, and so far I'm doing a great job at that. Soon they're going to lose interest in me and I'll finally have that freedom I deserve!"

"Marinette-"

"So please Adrien, stop trying! I don't need your help. And no matter how much harder you try to help me, it's never going to succeed. Instead people would think I'm an attention-seeker, they would think I'm only using you as a shield and they'd hate me more. Already Chloe hates me more. She thinks I'm stealing her crush away from her and she's spreading more and more rumours about me. Soon she's going to start telling everyone that I'm some kind of a fat slut that likes using men for money because apparently I'm poor."

Marinette took in a large breath after that. She hadn't expected to release that much information. If she had continued on talking, she would have let the info of Chloe threatening her slip from her mouth, and then she'd never hear the end of it. She hadn't meant to say all that, even Adrien looked a little shocked, being quiet all of a sudden and not saying anything like he usually did, and maybe it was sort of a good thing. Maybe now he was finally going to leave her alone.

"Let's do your father's."

"What?" Adrien shook his head and frowned.

"You know, the project?" Marinette reminded him. "Let's do your father's job. We'll meet in the park or somewhere, I don't know!" Marinette stuffed her hands inside her pockets in frustration. Why the heck had she even suggested the park? Then she remembered something. If they were going to do Gabriel's job, she'd have to come over to their mansion, and she was not looking forward to that.

"No," Adrien was quick to disagree though. "I think we should do your parents' work. I mean, their's is so much more fun than what my father does for a living. His work is so boring and I'd probably fall asleep if I ever had to go to his workplace."

Marinette giggled a bit at his words, and when she turned her head, she could see Adrien smiling a little. "I still think it'd be interesting to do your father's work instead. I've actually. . .always wanted to work for your father. I mean, he's an amazing fashion designer and I like that and idolize him, so. . ."

"Alright fine. You win."

"Great," Marinette let out a real smile for the first time today. "Thank you."