Of Glitter and Gold

Chapter 6

Marinette yawns as she walks into her classroom, getting used to going on patrol again is going to take a while. The Parisian is grateful she decided to study and complete all her homework before she went on patrol; it was exhausting.

As the bluenette walked into the room, greeting everyone as she walked to her usual seat. As Marinette walked she noticed Damian looked tired, without thinking Marinette turned to him.

"What do you want? Have another present?" The boy snapped, Marinette chalked it up to him being cranky.

"Are you alright?" Damian seemed surprised at her question, as if the words that slipped past her lips were alien, she was being genuine.

"Fine, I had a late night."

"Ha, yeah, me to- studying for the chemistry test took forever." Marinette said she was going to turn away but she noticed Damian was tense at her mention of chemistry- he forgot. Had he not been so tired, she doubted he would have given off any sign of distress.

"Did you forget?" Marinette asks, Damian whispers something under his breath, rustling through his bag. "Do you want to use my notes? I made a study guide. I sent it to the class group chat but I don't think you're in it." Without waiting for Damian to respond, Marinette shrugged her backpack off her shoulders and opened it. Everyone watched as Marinette handed the one person she seemed to hate more than anything else in the world her chemistry notebook.

"Don't give me that look, just because you're a pain doesn't mean you deserve to fail." Marinette defends as Damian scowls; he takes the book since they had science next period.

"I wouldn't have failed." It didn't matter how late his father had Damian searching for the silly Ladybird girl, Damian Wayne does not fail.

"I know, but it's not fun kicking your butt if you don't try." Damian glared at her as she walked back to her usual seat with a smirk, their rivalry wasn't over but he allowed himself to use her notes. Perhaps he could learn about her studying method and find a way to best it and gain an edge academically.

The bell that marked the end of homeroom rang, Damian got up and gave Marinette her notebook back.

"Don't expect for me to bow down just because you lent me your notes."

"I didn't." Marinette said, as if she'd known he was going to say something like that. Damian walked to Mrs. Bishop's classroom, mentally going over everything he was able to memorize from Marinette's shockingly detailed but still simple study guide.

When Damian walked into the room he saw many students with photographed versions of what he was just looking at.

The exam started when the bell rang, Damian was able to answer most questions with ease, some he had to reason out the correct answer. There was only one question that he had to straight-out guess. The question referred to an example explained in the textbook that Damian didn't read and the test didn't provide much context.

By the end of the test Damian was positive he'd gotten an A, and if he guessed correctly he might have even gotten a hundred. The boy almost wanted to thank Marinette but his reputation had been harmed enough by the girl, he decided against doing so verbally. Instead, the teen assassin would choose a tamer prank as retaliation for turning him into a model of modern art.

The rest of the day went normally enough, classes after chemistry went smoothly though students were eyeing him oddly- of course, word of his not studying for a test was deemed 'news'. The only good thing that came out of his day was an idea for a little place holder prank, a little something he could do tomorrow if he played his cards right at home.