Marinette's POV
I wake up to my alarm and stretch my arms wide. I look over at my desk, covered in papers from the night prior. I had stayed up until one in the morning trying to devise a way to tell Chat Noir who Monarch was, to no avail. I reach over to my nightstand and grab my phone. My eyes widen, realizing what time it was, "IT'S 7:45???" I shouted, jumping out of my bed in disbelief. I even woke up to my alarm in the first place. It must have been going off for at least fifteen minutes at this point. I started a call with Adrien, hoping he would pick up. To my enjoyment, he does. "Hey Marinette, did you oversleep again?" He teases as I rush to the bathroom to brush my teeth. I roll my eyes and nod quickly, applying the toothpaste to my pink brush. He laughs, "You're going to be late if you continue at this pace." He continues as he exits his car, thanking Gorilla on his way out. I spit the minty paste and run back to my bedroom, quickly changing...off camera, of course. I grab my bag and purse, Tikki not far behind.
Adrien hangs up after the first bell goes off, "Well, hopefully, you make it here on time. I need to go to Physics, don't forget the block change!" He laughs as I begin booking it on foot, hoping to get there within the next 5 minutes. I completely forgot about the shifting schedule; I have Human Anatomy, which is on the completely other side of the school from the entrance. I open my bag and look down at Tikki, who is laughing at my misery. I close it immediately and focus on running, hoping my legs won't give out by the time I get there.
I finally arrived at the school entrance, only three minutes late. Due to being late, I had to scan my ID at the gate for them to allow me in. I scanned my ID, and then I began booking it again; I could feel all the books shift in my bag as I ran up the stairs. By the time I got into the school, I speed-walked to prevent myself from getting into any more trouble than I already was. I push open the door to my human anatomy lab, feeling all eyes on me; god, they already started instruction, and here I am, tardy. The teacher scolds me before pointing towards my seat next to Alya. I walk over and lay my head on the desk. "Girl, it's the second day." She whispers jokingly. I sigh, picking my head up and looking at our teacher to continue introducing us to the skeletal system. "I know; I'll have to tell you about last night later," I mutter, taking my notebook out of my bag. Alya sighs, "On the bright side... We're having an assembly during the second block." She whispers, trying to cheer me up in any way possible at this point. I sighed in relief; I was really not looking forward to Advanced Composition.
Alya and I make our way to the Auditorium and meet up with everyone else. Adrien walks down the hall with Nino and Max beside him, talking about whatever class they just came from, I assume. He waves at me, smiling; he looks much happier than he did a few months ago despite losing a parent. "Hey, Marinette, glad to see you made it here without problems." He beamed, grabbing my hands as students walked by, flooding into the auditorium. "Y-yeah, I was only five minutes late this morning." I giggled as our friends watched, "W-we should head inside before the seats are all gone." I stutter, motioning to the open door. He nods and leads me inside. Our friends follow close behind. We find an empty row, which we all fill. "Did you get any repercussions for being late for your class?" He asks, sitting down in one of the theater-like chairs. I sit next to him, our hands still intertwined, "A visual warning let me off; she did not look too impressed by me. Even though I did just run like two miles." I shrug, half laughing at myself. He smiles back at me as the rest of the room is filled with students of all ages.
The auditorium filled quickly, and the heat filled the room just as fast. I could feel the sweat on my forehead; hopefully, this doesn't last long. Mr. Damocles takes the stage and tests the microphone before speaking. "Good morning, students; I hope you're second day has been going well. I feel it necessary to directly discuss our new regulations face-to-face before implementing them on you. So, after this, all rules must be followed, and it will be up to your instructors to enforce whatever rules they wish in their classroom." He begins looking at all of us; he meant pure business. I wonder if this was Chat's idea after yesterday's event; it definitely was he's such a people pleaser. "First and foremost, using cellular devices is strictly prohibited unless during lunch hour or in between instruction courses unless said otherwise by your respective instructors." Yeah, we expected that move on. I look over at Adrien; he's slowly dozing off. I nudged him with my elbow, hoping he would wake up. He jumps and continues to try to focus on the trash we're being fed.
After a long regulation speech, most being common sense, Mr. Damocles inhales sharply. "Now, what most of you actually care about is student representative and student council. We will be holding elections in the next few weeks, so keep your eyes peeled for whoever may be wanting to represent you." He finishes and walks towards the edge of the stage. I felt an elbow in my rib coming from next to me; Alya was nudging me. I looked over at her and everyone else who had been staring at me since he said the words, "Student representative." I sigh, "I'll run." I say with a grin before I feel an extra ten pounds land on my shoulder. I whip my head to find Adrien passed out. We all laugh, waking him up. "Huh? Is it over?" He groans, sitting up.
We all walked together to our next class, most of us shared together, the one class I despise, European History. There's nothing wrong with the teacher; of course, it's rarely the teacher's problem. It's the course; the class drags, and it will drag even more now that it's before lunch. I walk in hand-in-hand with Adrien. We sat at the same desk we sat in yesterday and watched everyone else fill in the empty desks. I gather my notebook and pencils because I can sense we'll actually have some sort of instruction today. "I think I slept through 90% of that assembly," Adrien mumbles, taking his notebook out of his bag as well. I giggle, "I tried to keep you awake," I shrug, straightening my posture as Ms. Allard arrives. "Students, I have an announcement!" She chimes, clasping her hands together in joy, "We have a student joying our class for the remainder of the semester; her name is Iris Verdi." She announces as the short-haired girl turns and stands from her seat in the front row without anyone in the adjacent seat next to her. She waves at all of us, smiling, "I'm so happy to meet you all; sorry I couldn't be here yesterday; there was an issue with my schedule that I had to request to fix before the end of the week so I wouldn't be behind!" She smiles towards me before turning around to face the front of the room. "Now, because she doesn't have a desk partner for our projects, we must make a group of three. Are there any volunteers?" Ms. Allard asks, glancing around the room in hopes someone would be nice enough to let the girl join. I look at Adrien, knowing the thoughts going through his head: please don't. "We could use the extra opinions for our projects, Iris!" Sabrina says from the opposite table beside her; Ivan, her deskmate, nods in agreement. Adrien exhales, seeing he wouldn't be the nice guy in this situation. "Oh good! Iris, for group days, you can join them at their desk to discuss future projects."
Ms. Allard smiles as Iris nods back in approval. "Now, we begin with the beginning of the Renaissance!" She adds, beaming, turning away to pull up the projector. I groan quietly in protest, looking away from the board. "Don't you think Iris sounds familiar," Adrien murmured under his breath, flipping his notebook open. My eyes widen, "No, what makes you think that?" I respond with another question, genuinely puzzled why he would ask. Was it rhetorical? Was he genuine? He glances at me as Ms. Allard displays her PowerPoint. "Yeah, maybe it's from the lack of sleep," he chuckles quietly as he labels his notes "The Renaissance Period."
After about thirty minutes of reviewing the 1500s, I began to lose focus. I started thinking about what Adrien mentioned about Iris. I wonder if he's met her before at one of his modeling shows, or maybe she could've been a fan of him that he's met before. I'm not sure. I begin to doze off like he did in the auditorium, the lack of sleep finally taking a toll on me in the middle of my most boring class, of course. Every time my eyes would shut, I would jerk myself awake gently and try to pay attention to Michelangelo's creative awakening. Too bad I'm weak and lost to the sweet relief of slumber and dreams.
I wake up in my bedroom, at my desk, staring at my notes from the night before. I groan, looking over at Tikki. "I just don't know if it's worth telling him at this point, Tikki," I whined, grasping my pencil firmly. "You need to tell him; it'll make you stronger as a team. Don't forget you're supposed to trust each other." Tikki lectures, frowning at my crumpled notes in front of me. I crumple up the scenario written on the current piece of notebook paper, "that wouldn't work," I mumble to myself, facepalming. "I know I have to tell him; I'm just worried he'll tell someone in his life, and word would spread." I continue lifting my head away from my hand. "I can see it now, headliners, "Miraculous Liarbug." I shouldn't have obeyed Gabriel." I trembled, my hands beginning to shake as I continued to think of the consequences of my actions. "Maybe a good night's sleep would help you get your thoughts together. We can try this again tomorrow, Marinette." Tikki suggests turning off my lamp for me. "It is getting late, after all, and you have school tomorrow!" I sigh, she's right.
Marinette.
Marinette.
Wake up.
BANG
My dream sequence is interrupted by a pile of books dropping beside my head. I'm greeted by a very red Ms. Allard, "Marinette Dupain-Cheng, you will be joining me in detention this afternoon after classes are dismissed." She hissed, handing me a slip of paper. She picks up the books and turns away, walking back to the board. I sigh, looking down at the slip that read: Detention. Just like the akumatized girl from yesterday. Adrien stands from his desk, "Ms. Allard, you can't give her detention already!" He insisted on the hero he tried so hard to be. Embarrassed, I wince, "Adrien, you didn't pay attention to the assembly; you don't-" "Excuse me? Sir, sit down; we don't need to start a revolution for a girl who fell asleep during an instructional period." She fumed, marching her way back over to our desk and handing him the same slip. "Detention for you, too, for interrupting our class and arguing with an authority figure." She sneered, walking away back over to her podium. "Anyways, Leonardo-" she continues again as if the 1500s would be relevant to our upcoming assignments. I looked over at Adrien; I swear I could see the fire in his eyes; he was so frustrated. "Adrien, you didn't have to do that," I whispered, placing my hand on the desk and reaching for my pencil. He glances over at me, "It just gave me an excuse to spend more time with you," he smiles, continuing to write his notes. I was asleep for so long that he was on the third page of notes. Wait, did he say it was an excuse to be with me? Was this all planned so he could stay with me? He knew he would get reprimanded. Before I could continue thinking about why he chose to do what he did, the bell rang, dismissing us to lunch.
I sit at our claimed table along with Adrien; everyone staring at us that came from our previous class. We all sit in awkward silence for a moment, staring at our food. "Dude, why did you argue with Ms. Allard?" Nino asks, breaking the silence between all of us. Adrien tenses, "I don't know, I just felt like she was a little harsh. Don't you think?" He answers, glancing over at me. "AWWWWW, just like Romeo and Juliet!" Rose exclaims, grabbing Juleka's arm in amusement. I blush, grabbing my sandwich slowly. "Girl, and why were you up all night?" Alya asks before I can even put the sandwich in my mouth.
I wince, "You know... designs," I lie, knowing if I said anything truthful, I would expose my identity and every other lie I told as Ladybug. Adrien tilts his head, "You don't need to lie, Marinette. Why were you awake so late?" I look over at him before responding, "No, why were you awake so late? I didn't forget you falling asleep during that assembly." I tease, crossing my arms, successfully deflecting and answering his question. He rolls his eyes, smiling, "Oh, you know... Designs," he mocks me in a high-pitched voice. "Alright, guys, that still doesn't answer why you, Adrien, stood up for her. Weren't you paying attention at all during the assembly?" Max questions before taking a bite of his apple. Adrien shakes his head, "Nope, I was out." He responds, chuckling and taking a sip of his glass of water.
"Alright, alright, the meeting has commenced; Ladybug and Chat Noir had another battle yesterday on our turf." Nino changes the topic, and finally, something other than Adrien and I's embarrassing encounter from the last block. That'll be something I think about late at night before falling asleep, for sure. "Yeah, and they didn't call for any reinforcements for the first time since... before Ladybug lost the Miraculouses!" Kim adds, pounding his fists together in excitement. Alya looks over at me, giving me a look; I shake my head gently, almost unnoticeable, unless you are looking for it. "Yeah, quite odd, considering they would've been 95.67% more successful if they called in Carapace. Not to mention the risks of getting hit would've created their downfalls," Max adds in between bites.
We all go about our day normally; I have an assignment for my art class that shouldn't take me too long, fortunately. I could probably tackle it during detention. Detention, I almost forgot. Great. Instead of leaving after the final bell, I'm stuck here for an extra two hours. It couldn't be that bad, right? Two extra hours with Adrien and peace. I shoot a quick text to my mom; she's going to be so upset with me later.
"Hey, I'll be home late. Detention."
I shut off my phone to prevent getting into trouble; I start walking towards the administration wing and find myself in the study hall, where detention occurs. Adrien is already sitting in there looking at the clock. I sit a few seats over from him in case whoever monitors the room doesn't say anything to us about sitting too close. I wouldn't want to "enjoy" myself when I'm supposed to be punished. I started taking out my notes from Art and working on the assignment. I have to draw a landscape of a building; oddly enough, this is a required course for my career path. I assume this is because it helps me perfect detailed plans from my head onto paper. I begin outlining what the building should look like a small corner store with clothing in the window display case. I have to make it somewhat relevant to my career path somehow. The door opens once more as the teacher on duty comes in. It's a thin man with dark black hair and a sunken face. He looks like he doesn't want to be here, almost more than Adrien and I. "Hello, I'm Mr. Dubois." He glared at both of us for preventing him from going home early. "I'll be over in my office across the hall; I trust that you both will remain civil." He continues and slams the door behind him. I jump, looking back at Adrien, who's motioning an, "man, I don't know what just happened" type of look. He scoots his chair out, walks over to my desk, and sits beside me. "That guy has just about the same personality as a saltine cracker," he mutters, taking out a sheet of paper with all the theorems listed. I assume it's for his advanced calculus class, but what do I know? I giggle at his comment and continue focusing on my assignment. "So, what's it for..." he attempts to spark a conversation. I straighten my posture and stop to look at him, "Art, now why were you playing dumb at lunch?" I interrogate him, wanting real answers, unlike what he fed us earlier. He shrugs, "Something in me told me to interfere, so I did, and now here we are." He responds numbly, taking out a calculator. I sigh, looking back at my sketch, "You didn't need to, you know?" I continue adding an outline of a mannequin in the window of my design. "I know, it's more that I wanted to." He responds by writing down calculations from his calculator.
We sit in complete utter silence for about half an hour, working on our assignments. He finishes his work and puts it into his bag before laying his head on his side of the desk, facing away from me and towards the large windows showing the outside world. I begin working on the shadows of my building, "It's an assignment for Art. I have to design a building that represents my career." I finally responded to him with more detail after I gathered my thoughts. He turns his head over to me and glances at the drawing. "Is that your future boutique?" He teases quietly, pointing towards the clothing display in the window. I blush, "Yeah, you could say that." I respond before my pencil breaks from shadowing too aggressively. I groan before putting it away into my bag, deciding it was a later problem now.
I lay my head on my side of the desk, looking into his eyes intently. "I think today has been the worst days of my life." I start laughing gently in between my words. He smiles, "I think today was eventful, seeing you for an extended amount of time today," he replies, sitting up in his chair and smiling at me. I roll my eyes, "Adrien Agreste, the ultimate bad boy now?" I tease, pointing towards his chest. He gasps overdramatically, "I would never! I'm the perfect son!" He replies in a theatrical voice with his hand over his heart. We both laugh and sit in silence, listening to the clock tick. I looked over at it; "only an hour left, big shot," I chirped; time was removing ridiculously slow. A second felt like 3 minutes, and a minute felt like it was an hour. He sighs, "We're never getting out of here. Imprisoned like royalty!" He moans theatrically, reaching his arm out like he was on stage. "I didn't know Shakespeare was present in our study hall," I giggled.
About half an hour later, Adrien and I were sitting on the floor playing some card game he had in his bag. The teacher meant to monitor us hasn't shown up since he left. We could go at any point, and no one would notice, but we rather stay here for the time being. "Do you have... a red 7," Adrien begged, leaning in my direction, almost smirking. I look down, "Nope!" I laughed, smiling at him. He groans and picks up another card from the deck.
BANG BANG BANG
Our cards are so flying from loud noise coming from outside. Adrien looks back at me before heading over to the window to investigate. I follow curiously. "Are you serious, another one," he groans quietly, watching the akumatized person throw stones at groups of civilians. I smile nervously, knowing if I tried to leave, he would be suspicious. "Hey, it's okay. Chat Noir will be there," I remarked, leaning on his shoulder and watching the mass destruction occur. "Yeah, and Ladybug, too," he whispers, leaning into me as well. My body jerked away from him. IM Ladybug, how is Chat Noir going to defeat a villain himself? Oh no, oh no, oh no!
Adrien must've noticed me panicking, so he went over to the door and tried opening it. It wouldn't budge. He tried again with his whole body weight. "Great, it's jammed. Well, well, good thing it isn't happening in the school this time, or we'd be toast!" He giggles, trying to lighten the mood. I take out my phone and turn it back on in hopes someone could make a distraction for my absence. I begin texting Alya while Adrien is also on his phone, probably telling his aunt what's happening.
Hey, we need Rena ASAP.
On it, what do you want me to do?
Ladybug illusion, still stuck in detention.
With Adrieeeeen <3
It's not funny; the door is locked.
You can trust me.
Moments later, a Ladybug illusion appears outside down the street, fighting the newfound villain. Adrien puts his phone away and looks outside, "See, I told you she'd come!" He beams, motioning to the window. "Yeah, yeah, she did, but where's Chat Noir?" I mumble to myself, hoping I won't have to fight alone once I get out of here. "Uh, good question; it's not like him not to be far behind Ladybug!" Adrien assured me, walking back over to the desk we were sitting at before playing our game. I wish I could be calm; what if Chat's miraculous was stolen already because I was too negligent over my sleep schedule and duties of a student?
The door handle begins to jiggle; I run and sit nearby. There was absolutely no way I would get another day of detention. "Hey guys, you need to leave." The man stays sternly waving us out, "Luka?" I cry; Alya must've sent him, thankfully. Adrien and I run out; I purposely take a different direction from him to transform. I hide in a janitor's closet, "Hurry, Tikki, spots on!"
I jump out a nearby window, swinging over to the Main Street of Paris, where the villain is located. The illusion is called off once I'm in sight; thank you, Rena. The akumatized villain resembles some sort of monkey; it looks like a Mandrill, whose weapon of choice would be the pebbles left around them from the damage they have created. I land on a rooftop, observing the situation, whipping out my bug phone in the process. "Chat, where are you? I've been out here-" "Howdy, M'Lady, sorry for being so late again!" He giggles as the monkey spots us and throws a vast bolder towards us. We spread out to opposite sides, "I have no idea where the Akuma is!" I say over our headsets, trying to look for more obvious unmonkey-like things. "Have you looked around the tail- it looks like it's gripping something!" Chat responds, distracting the big monkey. The monkey roars and slams Chat on the hard road of Paris. "Hey, that wasn't very meoice!" He said, practically unharmed.
I turn my head and focus on the end of the tail, which is curled around whatever object is in there. I throw my yo-yo up and call my lucky charm; I needed some luck today anyway. A bundle of bananas falls down, "of course; I could've guessed that," I mentally facepalm at the apparent grouping of bananas that landed square into my hands. I began looking with my bug vision, highlighting Chat Noir, the monkey's feet, and the ground beside them. "Chat, you need to distract them from above," I ordered, looking down at him, hoping he got my message. He did; he jolted towards a building, "HEY, MONKEY MAN LOOK AT ME!" He shouts, waving his arms around and jumping up and down, "I'm a tasty kitty cat, I promise!" He teases as the monkey now has his full attention on the cat. I throw the bananas towards his feet, landing right under their left foot. They immediately land on their back; it's not just in cartoons; bananas are indeed slippery! I jumped down from the building I was on, facing the monkey. Their tail drops the akumatized object, another banana. I roll my eyes and break it in two before capturing the banana. The monkey turned back into a little girl who was now sobbing. Chat climbs down and bends down to her level. "What happened?" He asks gently, helping her stand. "I hate bananas... and t-this boy I like wanted me to eat one!" She bawled as I rolled my eyes at whoever akumatized her. "Seems like whoever has the brooch has no sense of compassion for kids," I mutter before calling out my miraculous ladybug. I walk back over to the girl, "You shouldn't like boys who force you to do things you don't like. I'm sorry about the banana," I said, smiling gently at her, hoping she would learn a life lesson from this. She smiled back and hugged me before Chat, and interviewers and journalists rushed me up. The little girl found her mom and snuck away from the news crowd as Chat, and I were trapped in a tight circle of questioning.
"WHO IS THE NEW MONARCH?"
"WHO WAS MONARCH?"
"HOW DID YOU LOSE THE BROOCH AGAIN?"
"WHERE WAS THE BATTLE TO SAVE PARIS?"
Most of these questions I have been asked before.