Marinette was walking to the locker room, after her 2nd period, which was Art class, was done. She and Adrien had represented the art they had made of Gabriel, and their Friday art teacher, Madame Mary-Ann had congratulated them.
Now she was getting ready for her 3rd class. She walked inside the locker room to find Tiki there. The red-head was sitting down on the dirty floor and leaning against her locker.
"Tiki, you okay?" Marinette wasn't exactly sure when the last time she ever stopped talking to Tiki was, but it had just happened. She felt that it was all her fault, but Tiki refused to talk about it so she stopped trying.
Tiki's eyes, which had been closed, slowly opened and looked over at Marinette. She didn't say a word.
Marinette walked up to her, a little worried. "What's wrong?"
"I just. . .have a little stomachache, that's all," Tiki spoke slowly. "At least, I thought I did. Before it wasn't that bad, but now it's just gotten worse."
Marinette sighed. "Come on, I'll help you go to the nurse's office."
"Why?"
"Because you're sick, that's why."
"No, I mean," Tiki straightened up a bit. "We haven't talked in a while, and I just thought you were mad at me, so why help me?"
"Tiki, no matter what, you're still my best friend, okay? We just had an argument, that's all. I'm sure we'll make up soon," Marinette spoke, helping her up. "At least, that is if you decide to finally tell me what's going on," She added.
Tiki stood up on her feet, feeling bad. "It wasn't your fault, it was all mine. I let jealously take the best of me, and it should never had happened."
Marinette started walking her to the nurse's office, listening to Tiki talk.
"I just felt sort of angry when Plagg told me he liked you. I know I shouldn't have been mad at anyone at all, but that's what jealousy does to you," Tiki chuckled halfheartedly. "I'm sorry. I really am."
"It's fine, don't worry about it. At least you're not like those crazy girls who would stop at nothing to get her crush to like her, even though it means hurting the girl her crush really likes. That's what I like about you. You're not mean."
"Yes, I am!" Tiki sniffed. "At least to Nathaniel."
"Nathan-" Marinette stopped. "What happened?"
"He asked me out and I only agreed because I wanted to show Plagg that I can stop my crush on him any day. I didn't realize how bad it was until we were on the date," Tiki looked down. "I feel so bad. He said we should pretend like the date never happened at all. He must really hate me, Marinette."
"Alright, alright, I'm sorry to hear that." Marinette knocked on the office door. "Later on I'll help you and we can both figure it out together."
"You're so nice. Thank you. I'm so glad that you're still my friend, Marinette," Tiki smiled at her as the door opened, revealing the nurse behind it.
"Yes, can I help you girls?"
"My friend is having some trouble with her stomach, she needs help," Marinette explained after giving Tiki a smile back.
"Alright then, come in. Let's look into this," The nurse, Miss Jane, opened the door more wider and Marinette walked inside with Tiki. "Is it a stomachache?"
"She says it is," Marinette shrugged. "Anyway, I have to head to class, but I'll come by later to check how she's doing." She waved before leaving the room. She sighed before heading towards the stairs that led to her next class.
I'm surprised Plagg likes me instead of Tiki. I really am. She rolled her eyes as she thought quickly to herself. I'm getting sick of these boys!
She started walking down the stairs, until suddenly she felt someone push her down. The next thing she knew, she was rolling and bumping down the stairs of 27 steps.
While she was falling down the stairs, her head hit the railing, which made the whole situation even way worse.
Her back hit the ground at the end of it, her neck snapping, and she instantly felt the pain rush in. She couldn't move her legs as she stayed down there. She tried to look up, to see who had the guts to push her down the stairs, but she couldn't. She groaned in pain, laying down there, helpless.
She shut her eyes and tried to move again. Soon she heard someone walking towards her.
"Marinette? Marinette, are you okay?" The person tried helping her up, but Marinette felt weak all around her body. Suddenly she felt herself being lifted, but she didn't care as the person started carrying her back upstairs, back to the nurse's office.
"Marinette?!" She headed Tiki's voice and tried to look up, but her neck hurt bad. She then felt herself being placed down on what looked like a bed.
"What happened to Marinette?!" Tiki spoke up again. "Plagg, where did you find her?"
Oh? It's Plagg that helped me?
"I found her at the bottom of the stairs while I was heading to my next class," Plagg explained. "I figured someone must have pushed her down.
"Marinette, do you know who pushed you down the stairs?" Miss Jane asked, and Marinette just slowly shook her head, being careful not to hurt her neck.
"Wait," Plagg stopped. "While I was going downstairs, I did see a girl walking back upstairs with a grin on her face?"
"Who?!" Both Tiki and Miss Jane snapped their heads towards him.
"Who?" Plagg looked up at them. "Savannah!"
"Savannah, you mean the new girl?"
"You know her?" Miss Jane turned from Plagg to Tiki. "A new girl in your class, huh? Does she have any dirt on Marinette?"
"I'm not exactly sure. I wasn't there when she got introduced as a new student," Plagg looked down again. "But I did bump into her and she introduced herself as Savannah Fleur."
Marinette could over-hear them talking. She remembered when she had been talking to Adrien about being partners, and Savannah had seemed interested, asking them questions. She had a feeling that Savannah was one of these girls that had a crush on Adrien. She pretended she wasn't, she had pretended that she didn't care about Marinette and Adrien being together, but she had only been hiding it. That was the worst thing about getting close to Adrien.
If you were a girl, and you were close to Adrien, well. . . Prepare to get attacked by a swarm of other girls.
Maybe that was why Adrien didn't like getting too close to any girl.
Savannah is just like every other girl!
The thought filled her mind. Savannah had probably planned on acting as if she didn't like Adrien, but then later on attack Marinette because she felt that Marinette was getting in her way.
Smart girl. . . But you don't hide your tracks that well.
"Alright, I'll take care of her," Miss Jane was already getting a few bandages, especially for the huge wound on her forehead. Tiki and Plagg nodded in appreciation, before heading out.
"Hey wait!"
Tiki was stopped before she could walk away. She turned back to Plagg, who had grabbed her arm to prevent her from going any farther. She then slapped his arms away and took a step back.
"Listen, I understand that what I did was absolutely terrible, and I'm really sorry," Plagg couldn't even look her in the eyes. "I feel so ashamed. I knew what I was doing, yet I didn't stop. I know that you're mad at me, and probably will be mad at me for a long time, but-"
"If you're going to ask for forgiveness, then don't bother," Tiki interrupted. "I don't want you to remind me of what you did. It makes me sick in the stomach and makes me feel way worse!"
"I'm sorry."
"I accept your apology, but there's no need now," Tiki didn't know what she was saying anymore, but the next sentence shocked both her and Plagg.
"After all, I'm already dating Nathaniel!"
She clenched her fists at the mistake she had made. It had just slipped out, she hadn't meant it at all. A few minutes ago, she was telling Marinette of how sorry she was for using Nathaniel, and now she was doing it again.
"Listen, I didn't mean that-" Before she could finish what she was going to say, Plagg interrupted her.
"You're dating him? Well, I mean, that's great. So you don't like me anymore, right?" All Tiki wanted to do was wipe off the huge grin on his face.
"Pah, whatever!" Tiki rolled her eyes, before stomping away in anger, leaving Plagg to wonder what he did wrong this time.
❣❣❣
Feeling better now, Marinette opened her locker. As soon as she did that, she quickly regretted it, as a bunch of love letters fell to the floor. She was so pissed off that some boys were able to know her locker combination.
Oh, she was so going to get a new locker combination. She couldn't deal with this any longer!
Sighing and pushing that thought to the back of her head, she grabbed her lunch bag and closed her locker shut. When she turned around, she saw Savannah heading to the cafeteria with Alison and Chloe, and her hands quickly clenched into fists.
When she got to the cafeteria, Amelie and Celia were quick to rush over to her, asking about why she had skipped class.
Marinette frowned. "What is wrong with you two? Why do you guys suddenly care about what I do and where I am now?"
Both Amelie and Celia took a look at each other, before they turned back to Marinette. "We never hated you, Marinette," Amelie spoke.
"Oh really?" Marinette rolled her eyes. "What a joke! What about the pictures you posted of me and Adrien?!"
"Listen Marinette," Celia tried to explain. "We know what we did was wrong, but we never meant to hurt you. It was all Alison and Bette that had that thought. The only reason we ever posted those pictures was to bring you and Adrien together, but obviously Alison and Bette wanted something else."
"Wait, back up," Marinette folded her arms. "Get me and Adrien together? What's that all about?"
"We just think that you two make a cute couple and-" Amelie began, but Marinette, not wanting to hear the rest, quickly walked past them.
She wanted to say that it had been Savannah who stopped her from going to class, but she knew she wasn't sure yet, so she couldn't point fingers out to anyone.
Plagg had been staring at Marinette as she had walked in, but quickly something else distracted him, making him stare at someone else.
He had watched as Tiki walked in and sat down with Nathaniel, Marc, Max and Rose. Something made his inside burst with anger, but yet held it in.
"Oh, who you staring at?" Kim chuckled as he looked at Plagg. He followed where his eyes were looking and figured it out. "Tiki? Oh, you have a crush on her?"
"What, no!" Plagg rolled his eyes and turned the other way. Kim was the only one in the group that didn't know about Plagg having a crush on Marinette. Besides, Kim was bound to slip up and tell someone else.
"Then why are you staring at her?"
That was the thing. Why was he staring at her? Maybe it was because he was still trying to figure out why Tiki was still so mad at him. He did sometimes ask himself why he cared this much, and he still didn't know why, but he just did.
Adrien, who sat next to Nino, noticed Marinette, and called out to her without thinking. "Marinette, over here!"
It caught some attentions, and he quickly regretted doing what he did when someone yelled out, "Adrien loves Mari!"
Plagg shifted uncomfortably in his seat as Marinette started coming over.
"Plagg, I swear it means nothing," Adrien turned to him, noticing how his friend felt. "People are just making rumors because they have nothing better to do with their lives."
Although he felt better hearing this from Adrien himself, he still didn't feel convinced at all.
Marinette walked over with a smile and took the empty seat next to Adrien. "Hey guys."
"Don't you have someone else to sit with?" Kim suddenly burst out. It seemed like he didn't care whether Marinette was popular or not. "I mean, sorry, I wasn't trying to sound rude, but why aren't you sitting with Tiki? Aren't you two friends?"
Marinette turned back to Tiki, who seemed to be enjoying her time with Nathaniel and his friends. She sighed and looked back down at her food. "Seems like she's got better friends."
"Whatever happened, I'm sure it wasn't your fault," Adrien blurted.
"Thanks, and it wasn't. I'm just a little surprised that she didn't speak to me at all when I entered the cafeteria," Marinette didn't look up.
Plagg clenched his fists a little at the conversation. "It might have been my fault, but I still don't know what I did wrong. She says she forgives me, but she clearly doesn't."
"Oh let me guess," Kim sighed. "She confessed to you and you broke her heart."
"Well. . . I don't know. . . Yeah," Plagg frowned. "But she said she forgave me though."
"Why does she need to forgive you? It's not your fault you don't like her, so why even apologize?" Adrien spoke.
"I did. . . More than that actually," Plagg looked over at Marinette, before he quickly looked away. "But I refuse to talk about it."
"Well you're clearly jealous that she's sitting with some boys," Kim laughed. "I know that look of jealousy, Plagg. Don't even try to hide it."
"I am not!"
"I said not to try to hide it!"
Nino nudged Plagg by his shoulders and nodded over at Marinette. Plagg quickly understood what he meant, and he was about to speak up, when he shut his mouth again. His eyes weren't on Marinette anymore, but instead on Tiki.
Nathaniel had accidentally poured his water on her and she had quickly stood up. Plagg was about to stand up to go help her, but obviously Nathaniel beat him to it, making him sit back down.
He watched as Tiki left the cafeteria with Nathaniel, and he couldn't stop glaring.
"-agg? Plagg?!"
Plagg turned back to the others, and it seemed like they had been trying to catch his attention.
"Sorry guys, I just. . . Excuse me," He stood up, walking away from the table, before he left the cafeteria.
~~~
Word Count: 2467 (excluding this)
- Edited -