Words: 1960
Chapter Summary: Today is the day of the first song of the Jagged Stone album cover collab! Marinette and the gang are excited, and Jagged has a surprise for them! She finally feels comfortable reading comments again (mostly) and how this collab will work when the album is fully released is explained.
Author's Note: This was a lot of fun. I love Uncle Jagged so much. More action next chapter, I promise! Also, I think the story could come to a close pretty soon. I love writing this story, but the main plot could finish up in like the next ten parts or so. I haven't decided yet if that's when I'm finishing it, because I love writing youtube marinette. What do you guys think? I'd love to hear feedback :)
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Friday
"Marinette," The soft, high-pitched voice said. "You need to get up and get ready for school."
"My alarm hasn't gone off yet, Tikki, I've got more time," Marinette mumbled back.
Tikki looked to Plagg, getting no empathy from him. "Marinette," She said. "You've slept through your alarm three times."
Marinette's eyes shot open. "What?" She almost yelled. "How did that happen? I've never slept through them! Turned them off, sure, but never slept through them!" She said.
Tikki shrugged. "I don't know. You and Adrien fell asleep really fast last night, must have been tired from the contest," Tikki said.
Marinette was confused by her statement; then her eyes drifted to the other side of the couch. "Oh yeah," She remembered. "I forgot he was here."
"Clearly," Plagg said. "Kid, get up!" Plagg said as he dropped onto Adrien's head. It was a much different awakening than how Tikki handled it. Adrien wasn't moving, so Marinette stood up and walked over to him.
She put her hand on his shoulder and shook lightly. "Adrien, get up. We have school soon."
Adrien's eyes slowly opened and smiled when he saw Marinette. "W...what? School?" He asked.
"Yeah. We fell asleep watching our movie. My parents probably turned the TV off and just left us alone," She shrugged. "But we have to get ready, or we'll be later, well, later than usual."
Adrien hopped up from the couch once he fully realized what happened. "Oh no," He searched for his phone. "I'm so dead."
"What?" Marinette asked.
Adrien found his phone and swore at himself. "I have eight missed calls from my father, and ten from Nathalie. And a text from Gorilla," Adrien said. "I didn't tell them what was going on; I didn't intend to fall asleep here. God, they probably filed a missing person's report and everything. How did I sleep through all of these? I normally wake up if Plagg breathes too loud," Adrien worried. His mind was moving so fast that he could barely keep up with his thoughts. He put the phone up to his ear to call Nathalie.
Marinette went to her room to grab a change of clothes, giving Adrien some privacy to explain to Nathalie what happened.
"Adrien?" Nathalie answered, sounding worried.
"Hey, I'm okay. I'm so sorry. I was watching a movie with Marinette last night, and we fell asleep. I didn't mean to, I'm sorry for not letting you guys know," Adrien said before she could ask questions.
Nathalie sighed of relief. "You had us so worried, Adrien. We thought something had happened."
"No, I was just with Marinette. I'm sorry, I was just worried about the school thing and being a superhero, and we were talking and lost track of time."
"The school thing?" Nathalie asked. "Didn't your father tell you? He's not pulling you out; he thinks it's better if you stay with your friends and have some freedom. Not that you shouldn't tell us where you are, but enough freedom to have school."
Adrien blinked once to process what she said. "Wait, really?"
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Marinette and Adrien were...a little late to class. They walked in twenty minutes late and didn't say a word, trying not to cause a distraction.
"Where were you, girl?" Alya whispered.
"I slept through my alarm three times. Tikki had to wake me up," Marinette said.
Alya looked shocked. "You actually slept?"
"The best sleep I've had since the video," Marinette sighed. "Adrien and I fell asleep watching a movie. We must have been exhausted."
"Do you think it was from what the Guardian gave you?" Alya asked.
With a shrug, Marinette pretended to be looking at her book. "Not sure. He said it was supposed to make us more aware, but I slept through my alarm. I was probably just so exhausted from all the not sleeping that my body finally gave up," She said. "Adrien slept through like twenty phone calls."
"That's strange. He never does that," Alya said, and Marinette only replied with another shrug. "Don't tell me you forgot what today is."
Marinette turned her head to look at Alya, confused again. "Come on, girl! Jagged Stone!"
"Oh my god, you're right! His single comes out in a few hours," Marinette said. "And everyone's going to see my artwork. Oh, I'm so nervous," Marinette was going through different stages of emotions. Excitement and nervousness were the two most prominent.
"I'm sure you have nothing to worry about," Alya comforted, and they both went back to looking like they were paying attention.
In the front row, Adrien was still trying to figure out how he slept through all those phone calls. It was one of the best nights of sleep he has ever had, but he couldn't help being confused. He couldn't focus on what the teacher was saying; what changed his father's and Nathalie's minds?
The whole day, while Adrien and Marinette felt much more well-rested, they were distracted. Maybe if they figured out why this was the effect of the cure, it would ease them.
The day zoomed by because of the distractions, and as they were walking out of the school, Adrien and Marinette were telling Alya and Nino about their intense video game battle. Marinette was laughing, but stopped once she saw her name on a sign in front of a car. "Uh, guys?" She pointed at the car.
The door opened quickly. "Marinette!" The familiar voice shouted. "Only an hour until the song and your album art are released! We have to celebrate!" Jagged Stone shouted as he got out of the car. "With all your friends, of course."
Marinette was surprised. "Oh, Jagged, you don't have to-"
"Nonsense! This is a big day for both of us!" He insisted. "Plus, Fang loves ice cream."
Marinette looked at her friends to see if they would agree. "And you can make a video!" Alya suggested. "Get everyone even more excited about this collab by showing our two stars celebrating together. People will be so excited to see us all out together," Alya said.
"Perfect idea!" Jagged Stone pointed at her. "You all in? My treat."
Marinette's friend's all agreed and got into Jagged's limo. Fang sat across from them, next to Jagged, and Penny was making light conversation with the teens. Marinette pulled out her camera. "Do you want me to start now?"
"Go for it," Jagged said, giving her permission.
Marinette turned the camera, so she was in front of it. "Hi! I'm Marinette!" She smiled. "You may be wondering: Marinette, where are you? Well, I am in a limo," She said and started to turn her camera. "With Adrien, Nino, Alya, Penny Rolling, Jagged Stone, and Fang. Everyone say hi!"
All at once, everyone, save for Fang, waved to the camera with big smiles, and Marinette turned the camera back to her. "Today is a very important day. Jagged Stone's single, Lift Up, comes out! It's the first one of our album cover collab, and I'm so excited. I've heard the demos of the song to get inspiration for the cover, and I can't wait to hear the final version. He's even taking us out for ice cream!" Marinette said.
"We have forty-five minutes until it comes out. Why not play it now?" Jagged Stone said.
"Really?" Nino and Alya said at the same time, stoked to hear the song.
Jagged laughed. "She really didn't play the demo for you guys?" He asked. "I assumed she would have for her best friends."
"I would never! I can't make the hype for your music go down if I went around sharing the demo," Marinette defended. "Although, Adrien did hear some of it. He surprised me and walked in while I was working. But he doesn't count."
Jagged grabbed his phone that was already hooked up to his limo. He started the song, as loud as he could make it. It started out slow, but was leading up to the major rockstar that Jagged Stone is. Everyone loved it, a coming of age song about getting back up on your feet after life throws you down.
"That was...glorious," Nino said. "We really got to listen to Jagged Stone's new song...with Jagged Stone!" He said.
Jagged laughed loudly. They had been at the ice cream place for a few minutes now, but listening to the song was much more critical. As they walked into the parlor, Jagged turned to Marinette and her camera. "Do you want to know a secret about the song?"
"Even if she says no," Adrien intervened, "The answer is yes."
Marinette rolled her eyes at Adrien. "I would love to know the secret," She said and pointed the camera at his face.
"It's actually about you," Jagged Stone smiled, making Marinette do a double-take. "I wrote it a while ago, after I found out you were Ladybug and you were going through a rough time. No matter what happened, you always bounced back and were back on your feet. You never gave up," He said.
"Seriously?" She asked, still in shock. "There's no way."
"Way! I'll have to show you the original lyrics with my notes sometime," Jagged said. "Now, let's get some ice cream." Marinette panned the camera to the ice cream shop, showing her friends already getting ice cream and talking amongst themselves. After they all got ice cream, they brought it back to the limo so that Fang could enjoy a treat too, and they continued talking to Jagged and Penny about the album and Marinette's designs. Penny slipped her a bag with a few mockups of how they would look when released hardcopy, and Marinette would definitely be looking at them later.
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Later that night, in between editing, Marinette took a look at Twitter to see the response to Jagged's song and her design for him.
oh my gosh, Marinette's design for this song fits it so well. I can't wait to see ALL of the covers!!
man yall are really gonna make me buy every version of the album. im gonna go broke because of you.
Lift Up is my new anthem. It's so good. And to know it's based off Marinette is so cool. This new album is going to rock!!
So i'm still a little confused how the covers work- do we really have to buy every album to get all the covers? Like, I'm sure they're gonna be amazing based just of Lift Up alone but like, I don't have enough money to buy twelve albums. Either way, great song!!
im so excited for the album you guys don't even know. when will we have a release date?
I can't wait for the video Marinette and Alya teased on twitter like i am SO HERE for this jagged x marinette collab i love seeing them work together
JAGGED @JaggedStone
Awesome feedback on the song and Marinette's design! Thanks all for listening, we are so excited to release the rest of the album. The release date will be out soon!
JAGGED @JaggedStone
I noticed some are confused about how the covers will work. There will be a few options. You can buy the album, with just one cover, like normal. Or, you can opt for the deluxe album with two extra songs and all of the covers that you can display or switch out as you please.
JAGGED @JaggedStone
We will also be selling merch! Shirts, posters, and maybe some other goodies, with all the covers on it. I've seen some mockups, and it looks incredible. Marinette is still putting final touches on everything, but trust me, you guys are going to love it.
JAGGED @JaggedStone
And make sure to follow @MarinetteDC to keep up with her!