Everyone gathered around outside at what seemed to be a party going on. There were a lot of decorations, foods, drinks, and fun activities to do.
Mr. Krause, Miss. Bustier, and Mrs. Dorris, the teacher of the third class that had come to the trip, all walked over to the front.
"Today, we come together to celebrate the birthdays of 5 students," Mrs. Dorris explained to all of the students that had gathered together. "If I call your name, come up to the front."
Marinette walked up to Alya, a little bit of shame covering her face. "Hey," She gave a little wave at Alya and Alya waved back with the widest smile ever.
I wonder if that huge smile is going to stay up once she finds out that I still don't have a gift for her.
"Ellen Goering," Mrs. Dorris called the first name up. A girl with short black hair started walking up to the front.
"Alya, I have to tell you though... I haven't really found the perfect gift for you..." Marinette started explaining. "I promise when we get back home, I'll give it to..."
"Whoa, whoa whoa, calm down Marinette," Alya chuckled. "What do you mean you haven't given me my gift yet? You gave it to me a few days early."
"What... What's that supposed to mean?"
"Marinette... Throughout these days you've helped me out so much just when I needed someone. You helped us find my little sisters. If you and Adrien had never taken a move, who knew what would have happened," Alya gave her a smaller, meaningful smile. "The gift you've given me is just being my friend and being there for me."
"Awe, Alya," Marinette pulled her into a hug. "You don't have to mention it. You've always been there for me too."
"I know I've been kinda busy with all these things happening to me, so I'm sorry I haven't been giving you the attention you've wanted," Alya hid her face in Marinette's shoulder. "I'm sorry if I've been such a terrible friend."
"Don't say that. Hey, don't lose that smile!" Marinette broke the hug and faced her again. "Today is your birthday, be happy!"
"Stephanie Clement," Mrs. Dorris called the next name, which surprised both Alya and Marinette.
"I never knew today was her birthday as well," Marinette caressed her jaw.
"Yes, of course it is," Bette suddenly showed up out nowhere. "She's been talking non-stop about how she's so excited for today. She's the one who suggested to the adults that they hold a party, and because today is basically going to be our last night here, the adults agreed."
Marinette didn't speak, because she still had the idea to talk to Bette about what she released on Lady-Blog. Sure, some part of her thought it had something to do with Amelie as well, but she had a feeling Bette was in it.
Bette was practically the best at getting and spreading someone's secrets, and then next was Alison. Alison was only the leader of Rumor Girls because she created it. Bette would go so far just to ruin someone's life with a secret.
Bette might have came back after she ran away in the woods. She might have came back, saw them kissing and took a picture of it. Still... Marinette wasn't sure on why the pictures and video was recorded in Amelie's phone.
"Alya Cèsaire!"
Marinette cheered for her friend as Alya walked up to the front with the brightest smile. She intended to forget what she was thinking about, but seeing Amelie together with Clara and Celia made the thought come back.
Amelie always seemed to know what Marinette wanted. Her stomach churned with a bad feeling. Marinette had told Amelie that she may like Adrien, and Amelie had given her the idea to hang out with him to see.
What if Amelie had figured out she and Adrien were going to the woods. Maybe Bette had been a distraction, so then they would think Bette was gone and they were okay, when really she too was hiding.
What if Amelie and Bette were working together?! After all they did used to work together in Rumor Girls. They were friends until they broke apart for some reason.
All these thoughts made Marinette go crazy, until she finally decided it was time to focus on her best friend, and why she really came here.
"Oh Marinette," A girl from Mr. Dorris' class walked up to her. Marinette remembered her name being Tania or something. "You must be so upset because your boyfriend had to go home early."
Marinette frowned. "What do you mean, Tania? Who's my boyfriend?"
"It's Tamika," The girl let out a small laugh. "And I mean Adrien. He had to go home early for some reason. His father even came here to pick him up."
"First of all, Adrien is not my boyfriend-!"
"Then why were you guys making out in the woods. Surely you two can't be friends-with-benefit, can you?" Tamika looked like she was thinking about it.
"No, we're not anything," Marinette just wanted to walk away. This was exactly how her day went yesterday, people coming up to her, saying that Adrien was her boyfriend just because they shared a little kiss, saying how upset they were that the secret had been kept from them.
"How can you not be anything?" Tamika smirked. "If you don't like Adrien, then stop throwing yourself at him! If you don't like him, then stop hanging out with him and making everyone believe that you two are dating!"
"I..."
"That's just what I have to say. Lately you've been complaining that too many people come up to you, ask you too many questions about what had happened, but don't you know you're bringing all these problems upon yourself?! You hang around Adrien where every eyes can see; don't blame us when we just think we find your relationship with him interesting."
Marinette had had enough of it, so she started walking away from the girl. That girl just came out of nowhere and gave her a pep talk, though she had to admit, Tamika was sort of right. She had brought this unto herself.
And now even Adrien went home because of her.
"Happy birthday, Steph," Stephanie walked towards the girl.
"Please, don't call me Steph," Stephanie Clement rolled her eyes. "Only my closest friends call me that."
"Ah, sorry," Stephanie did feel weird calling another girl Steph, so she didn't mind at all. The only thing she and the other Stephanie had in common was their blonde hair. Stephanie's was slightly a little bit shorter than Stephanie Clement's.
Chloe, Alison and Bette walked towards the two blonde girls, Chloe pulling Stephanie C. into a hug and Alison turning to talk to Stephanie.
"You'll never believe what we found out," Alison had the most disgusted look on her face. "Wanna know why Savannah isn't with us?"
"Because she was being too annoying and making up fake stories?" Stephanie guessed.
"No, even more disgusting than that," Alison looked around. At the other end, they could see Savannah alone by herself. Then Alison faced Stephanie again. "Chloe and I found this out yesterday. We kept the secret to ourselves until today, but now I can't hold it any longer and I want to tell you!"
"Well, let's find a spot to talk," Stephanie shrugged. She looked past Alison to see that Chloe, Bette and Stephanie C. were still talking, so she just took Alison's arm and started pulling her away.
"So how and you and Nino doing?" Alison decided it was the best time to bring up the topic.
"I don't know," Stephanie shrugged yet again, "but one thing for sure; he and Alya are not doing okay!"
"Oh, why?"
"Eh, all I did was give Alya a fake story that sounded so true. Nino has been keeping a secret from her and one time I found out the secret, but I lied to Alya, telling her the secret was that Nino cheated on her with me."
"Oh, devilish! I love it!" Alison laughed.
"You did what?!"
Stephanie froze at the voice. She hadn't realized she had been speaking too loud, and she hadn't bothered with who was behind her. She didn't think anyone would be listening. Slowly she turned around to face the person that had said the words.
"I can't believe you! You.. You've changed so much."
"N-Nino, I..."
"No, I don't want to hear it!" Nino growled. He looked like he was ready to kill someone. "Stephanie, now I've really lost all hope for you of ever changing into a good person!"
"Wait!"
Nino didn't listen as he took off, going to find Alya.
"Stephanie..." Alison couldn't believe all this had happened right in front of her. "... Honestly, don't waste your time on him. He doesn't deserve it."
"No! You're just trying to say that I'm not good enough for him, right?!"
"That's not it. I just think you're spending too much time on him when he doesn't even-" Alison stopped herself before she could finish the sentence. She didn't want to make Stephanie more upset than she already looked, but looking at Stephanie's face, she could tell that Stephanie already knew what she was going to say.
"Yeah, you're right!" Stephanie whirled around and started taking off back to the cabin.
"Alya.!"
Alya scooped another spoon of cake on her plate before she turned to the person that had called her name. "Oh, Nino, it's you."
Nino walked up to her. "When Stephanie told you about me cheating on you, did you really believe her?!"
"Oh, we're doing this again?"
"Yeah, we are."
Alya sighed, placing her plate of cake on the table before turning to Nino. "No," She admitted truthfully. "I didn't believe her... I was just tired of you keeping a secret from me."
"Good." Nino walked closer to her, before he looked at where her eyes would be and with his right hand he grasped her chin and brought it up so she could look up at him. He slowly leaned forward and placed his lips on her own and kept them there without moving an inch.
She allowed him to deepen the kiss before he pulled away and stared back at her. Alya looked into his eyes and could see they filled with love for her only and the sight of it alone made her so giddy that she couldn't resist to initiate another kiss, this one though got a little bit heated then the one before.
While she had been kissing him, she felt like all her problems had gone away. It had felt like Stephanie didn't even exist to try to break their relationship. It was as if they never got into a fight.
But when Alya saw Stephanie staring at them with such pain in her eyes, she pulled away from the kiss. Stephanie then took off, and Alya could have sworn that she saw a few tears drop from her eyes.
Alya averted her eyes from her and faced Nino again. "This time, can you tell me what the...the secret was?"
"Alya, everyone had been calling you my girlfriend. How do you feel about it?" Nino didn't answer her question, but instead asked another one.
Alya sighed. "I mean, aren't I?"
Nino seemed to widen his eyes, as if he was surprised at the response. "I thought you didn't like it. And besides, I don't remember me ever asking you to be my girlfriend, so I was going to..."
"Oh my goodness! Is that the secret?!"
"Y-yeah. I wanted to ask you on your birthday, and actually make sure that you were my girlfriend."
"I'm... I'm so sorry that I misunderstood. I mean, I thought..." Alya looked down. "Stephanie really got to me."
"It's fine." Nino pulled her into another kiss, this time shorter. "Just say yes or no."
"Duh, yes," Alya laughed, before she wrapped her arms around Nino. "This has been so far such a great birthday party. I couldn't ask for a better boyfriend."
And this time, she really did feel at ease.
~~~
"Why are you hiding under the table?" Stephanie C. rolled her eyes, while Chloe and Bette laughed at how pathetic Savannah looked, kneeling down under the table while sticking her butt up.
"Are you hiding from us, Savannah?" Chloe folded her arms with a snarl. "Or should I say, Lila Rossi!"
Savannah grimaced, but didn't move out from under the table.
Bette chuckled. "Chloe told Stephanie and I about your real identity. I can't believe you planned on fooling us like this, and I so can't believe that you actually did fool us."
Stephanie C. kneeled down and grabbed Savannah's glasses. "I bet you don't even need glasses. You came to school as a new girl just so you could have another go at Adrien, right? How pathetic. Well, I'll have you know that Adrien belongs to Marinette now. Don't you see how those two are all over each other?"
"Wait, do you think they make a great couple?" Bette asked, knowing that Chloe had the same question.
"Maybe," Stephanie winked.
"Savannah," Chloe faced the girl seriously. "It's time we talk!"
~~~
Stephanie Tilda: in Miss Bustier's class. Has a crush on Nino. Will be known as Stephanie.
Stephanie Clement: in Mr. Krause's class. Is so full of herself. Will be known as Stephanie C.
~~~
Word Count: 2255 (excluding this)
- Edited -