Miraculous Tales

16) M̠e̠m̠e̠ L̠o̠r̠d̠

"Bonjour, class! As you know, today is the first day of spring. Instead of doing an assessment, your job will be spring cleaning with the rest of the school," Madam Bustier announced.

There were a few cheers from around the room due to getting out of schoolwork, as well as some groans, mainly from Chloe, Lila, and Max.

"But Mrs. Bustier, I can't possibly soil my hands. I just got a new French manicure yesterday!" Chloe whined.

"Everyone is expected to do their part, Chloe, and that includes you. As for now, I will be assigning everyone different tasks." Chloe crossed her arms and pouted.

"Group one: Rose, Ivan, Mylene, and Max. Group two: Marinette, Alya, Lila, and Sabrina," the teacher called. Before Chloe could protest for being separated from her bff, she continued. "Group three: Alix, Kim, Adrien, and Chloe. Group four: Léa, Nino, Nathanial, and Juleka."

Chloe squealed and scurried to Adrien's desk. "Adrikins! We're paired up again!" She sang while squeezing the poor boy. Marinette ground her teeth together before biting down on the binding of her literature book. "Girl, you need to relax," Alya advised as she patted her best friend's shoulder.

..............

Students were scattered about the school for the rest of the day cleaning their assigned chores. Marinette's group had to trim and groom all the bushes around the school, while Chloe's group was in charge of dusting the books in the library.

The principal strolled through the courtyard to observe everyone's progress, until he caught two students giggling in a corner. "Check this cat video out, Louis!" One of the boys laughed and swiped the screen of his phone. "That's hilarious!" Louis cracked up.

"Oh, you haven't seen anything yet, check out this meme of Chat Noir," he snickered. The Ladyblog was now pulled up on his device to show a clip of the cat superhero licking himself clean after the defeat of Princess Fragrance. The pair busted out laughing and wiped tears from their eyes.

"That...that's priceless," Louis gasped.

"Liam! What have I told you about using your phone during school? You know the rules!" Mr. Damocles scolded. "You haven't done a single thing yet! Hand it over."

"B-but-"

"Now."

Liam scowled and held out his phone with the meme of Chat Noir still playing. The principal raised his eyebrows at the video. "You waste all your time on just some silly foolishness? That's no way to spend your hours here!"

"It's not foolish, it's art!" Mr. Damocles frowned at his outburst. "Are you talking back to me?" "Well, yeah, that's how communication works," Liam retorted. "Then young man, you can see yourself in detention and you won't get this phone back until the end of day."

Liam balled his hands up into fists then strode off in the other direction. "Where do you think you're going?" He ignored the principal and kept walking towards an empty hall. "They don't appreciate true art," he muttered. "I can't go a minute without Tumblr, I need my phone or I'll die!" Little did he know, a little black butterfly was catching up to him. "Memes are life, why can't they see that?!" He growled.

The butterfly took residence in a silver keychain hanging out of his front pocket.

"Meme Lord, I am Hawkmoth. No one cares about the true art you crave to share with everyone. I can give you the ability to show the world the beauty of your generation as long as you retrieve me the miraculouses of Ladybug and Chat Noir. Do we have a deal?"