Miraculous ladybug: extremely nice.

Chapter 11

Charisse looked at herself in the mirror and frowned. Today was Claudia's party, and she was still not happy that she was going. Her mom fixed her dress for her, and started styling Charisse's hair. Charisse's frown only deepened when her mother's arms were folded in a sassy way.

"What's that frown on your face for?" Amelie asked with an eyebrow raised.

"I don't wanna go to Claudia's party." Charisse grumpily stated, folding her arms as well.

"If you don't want to go, then why did you ask to go?"

"Because Avery and all my friends want me to go, so I have to go." Charisse sighed.

Amelie dropped her arms sympathetically and sighed. "Charisse, just because your friends want you to go, it doesn't mean you have to go. You can just say no and that's that."

"But Mommy, if I say no, they won't be my friends anymore," Charisse pouted.

"That's not true at all, honey. I'm sure they would understand if you didn't want to go. Now, do you still want to go to the party? I'll be happy to keep you home all to myself, and we can watch any movie you want, and eat all the ice cream in the world."

Charisse giggled at her mother's suggestion, but she quickly felt guilty about not wanting to go to the party with her friends. If she didn't go, would they be mad at her? Would they say she wasn't their friend anymore? This is way too much pressure for an almost six-year-old girl.

"I'll go to the party. I don't want to let my friends down."

Amelie nodded, "Okay. The Gorilla will take you there. Behave yourself, and remember: if Claudia is mean to you, put your brave face on and walk away. Now, show me your brave face."

Claudia puffs her chest, fists on her hips, and an odd-looking face as though she's holding her breath. Amelie snickers, but quickly covers it up and clears her throat. "We'll work on that later."

Marinette and Adrien snuggled on the couch, sleeping with the TV still on in Adrien's room. The kwamis slept on Donut the dog, who was also sound asleep. All was peaceful until Gabriel walked into the room with an unamused look on his face.

"Adrien." The boy didn't stir. "Adrien, get up." Adrien mumbled something, and snuggled closer to Marinette. "Adrien, wake up this instant!"

Adrien shot up, waking up his girlfriend and the kwamis went to hide, the dog following after them. Adrien ran a hand through his hair, as he glared at his father for waking him up. Marinette, on the other hand, was wiping the drool off her face.

"Care to explain why you've missed your fencing lesson today?" Gabriel asked.

Adrien looked at the time. He was three hours late for his lesson. But it didn't matter now, the instructor probably went home, which would explain why his father was in his room right now.

"Oh, we must've fallen asleep," the teen heartthrob yawned. "We were pretty tired."

"And what, pray tell, were you so tired about, exactly?" Gabriel's eyebrows furrowed.

Adrien and Marinette's faces grew a bright red. Fill in the blanks yourself.

"Oh, uh, we were s-studying last night! Yeah, we got so crammed with books and tests recently!" Adrien chuckles nervously, poking Marinette with his elbow to confirm.

"Oh, uh, yeah! Studying! That's what we were doing!"

"If by studying you mean doing the dirty, that is," a hiding Plagg muttered. Tikki hit the back of his head with a frown, and Plagg rubbed his sore spot.