I walked out of school, looking around to see if my ride home had come. After lunch had been terrible, I had been distracted the rest of my classes. Marinette nor Lila came back to school after lunch, and every time I wanted to talk to Juleka, she would run away, looking frightened. I felt like there was something else going around, especially with the way she was acting around me, and I wanted to find out as soon as possible. Chloe didn't utter a word to me either, like she was still mad over what had happened during lunchtime. Was she made because Lila and I had been caught being together? The fact that Lila had been hugging me? Maybe the blonde had misunderstood and possibly thought that I had a thing for Lila, though no matter how much I tried to talk to her, she wasn't willing to let me.
I finally saw the limo pulling over, so I walked over to it. The door opened and behind it was Felix shining a bright smile, but once he saw the look I had on my face, his smile disappeared. I entered the limo without a word, and seeing that he wanted to know what was wrong, I turned over to him and said, "please, don't ask." He kept his mouth shut after that.
Nathalie was also in the limo, and hearing me say not to ask why I looked so glum, she didn't. Instead she talked about my schedule. "Your father wants us to head over to the photo-shoot area as soon as possible, so we won't be heading back home. All your clothes and other things you need for the photo-shoot are going to be at the place we're going." I just nodded while she spoke, and after she was done, I took out my phone.
I sure wish I could text Marinette and ask her how she's doing. . .but I keep forgetting to ask for her number. I groaned, putting my phone down. "I'm so beat up, I don't even want to go. I just want to rest on my bed right now and sleep for hours." I said that out loud, so when I looked over at Nathalie, she was staring back at me with a frown.
"Adrien, this will be your last photo-shoot for the week. The next two days are Saturday and Sunday, and your father is letting you off," Nathalie spoke with her index finger pointing at the ceiling of the limo. She then pushed back her glasses and continued to speak. "In fact, I talked with your father yesterday and convinced him to let you go a full week without any photo-shoot."
"W-what? Really?" She nodded at my questions. I quickly bolted up and hugged her, relief washing over me. "Nathalie, you're amazing. Thank you, thank you, thank you!" I relaxed back on my seat, feeling better than I had been before. Father was practically giving me a full week all by myself to do whatever I wanted. I could hang out with friends after school without having to worry about coming back early for photo-shoot. I could eat anything I wanted without having to worry about my diet or weight. Hmm, I'm gonna have all the chocolates I can! I let out a small giggle, which got Felix and Nathalie to stare at me with frowny faces.
"Adrien, you may be happy that you get to go whatever you want, but there are still some rules." I froze when Nathalie said those words. "First of all, you have to be at home by 10:30 P.M, if you're going to be hanging out with friends after school. You may be on your break, but you still need your beauty sleep. Second of all, you can only eat unhealthy food on every second day! So, on Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday, you're not allowed to have any sweets or any other type of unhealthy food inside of your mouth. On the rest of the other days, you can. Your week break ends on Monday."
I sighed at the rules, seeing that there was a limit to what I wanted to do, but I shrugged anyway. I wasn't going to complain, after all, this was better than nothing. I took out my phone, wanting to make plans. My week break ends on next Monday. That's a lot of time to get to hang out with multiple people and get to know those that I don't know about. Thinking about that, my mind suddenly went over to Juleka. Or I could just chill with my new friends.
Finally the limo came to a stop. I opened the door and walked out, Felix and Nathalie right behind me. Gorilla came out of the driver's seat, closing and locking the limo. I looked around at where we were; Nathalie was sure right about one thing — I didn't know what this place was, but it was sure huge. Nathalie led the way, me following her, Felix behind me and Gorilla behind him. We walked inside the large building, and as we walked, Nathalie explained a few things to us.
"This is another company your father works in, Adrien. Just like he told you before, he's working together with Mayor Bourgeois, so the both of them own this building. They decided to have you do your photo-shoot here as it is quite spacious and perfect." Nathalie led us through a door, and we walked inside a large room. "After your week break, you'll be doing most of your photo-shoots here. Your father wants to expand your modelling career-"
"So what, his father has already planned his future for him?" Felix caught Nathalie off with a frown on his face. "But what if Adrien doesn't want it? If his 'modelling career' expands. . . he would barely have time to do the things he'd love to do. He's still 17 years old, yet he barely knows what it feels like to live as a normal teenager. Don't you think he should get to decide what he wants?" Felix patted my back with a smile, showing me that he's got my back. I smiled back at him, and turned to Nathalie, but Nathalie didn't look quite pleased with the words being spoken to her.
"I'm not the one making these decisions," She spoke with a stern look on her face. "You're against it? Go talk to your father, not me." After her harsh words, she turned around and started leading us to where we were going again. I didn't say anything, but Felix was muttering words under his breath with an angry look, though he didn't say anything either. "Oh, and also. . ." Nathalie suddenly stopped us, "we have a few guests today joining you for your photo-shoot." I didn't know what that exactly meant, but I didn't ask either, after all. . . why would I care?
•
I finished putting on the clothes I was supposed to wear, before stepping out of the changing room. Felix and Nathalie stood there, looking at me. "Yes, Adrien, that outfit seems to be the best option," Nathalie clapped her hands together, before taking out her phone and peeking at it. "Oh no, 4:24?! We're going to be late if we don't hurry now." She quickly rushed towards the door, motioning for us to follow her. Felix and I walked behind her as we let her lead the way.
Finally we arrived at where the photo-shoot was taking place, which was, as I had expected, extremely large. Inside the room, there was the photographer, Father, Mr. Bourgeois and. . . I let out a gasp. Marinette?!
"Adrien, hurry up, we haven't got all day!" Father called out to me, but I was still so shocked with Marinette being here that I couldn't move. Was I just imagining her? Did I miss her that much?!
"Adrien, Miss. Dupain-Cheng over here will be doing the photo-shoot with you. Weird, there were supposed to be more of them," Nathalie looked around, before shrugging. "The others will be here soon, I guess, but we're going to start this off with you and Marinette together, okay?"
"Wait, I. . .don't get it. What's going on?" I was still so confused. What did she mean by the others? What was Marinette doing here anyway, and why did she look so. . . I blushed as I looked away. Why does she look so good in that outfit?!
When Father got into a conversation with Mr. Bourgeois, Nathalie turned to me with a grin. "Your father decided for your first photo-shoot here, it had to be something you would like, so he decided to invite all of your friends along to do the photo-shoot with you. Everyone were so excited to hear that, and they wanted to surprise you, but I. . ." Nathalie folded her arms as she looked over at the two men still talking. "I had to tell you. You see, your father just wants to make you feel welcomed here, so as to make your choice easier. . .or at least. . .make it easier for you to like this place-"
"In other words, Adrien," Felix interrupted as he placed a hand on my shoulder. "Your father isn't giving your a choice to choose what you want to do, but he wants you to like what you do for him, so he's trying to make your feel comfortable and welcomed. Either way though. . .you still don't have a choice."
I was too focused on the fact that all of my friends were coming here to even listen to the rest of the others words being said to me. "Excuse me," I muttered, before I started making my way towards Marinette. She still hadn't looked at me, and was instead staring at the floor. Did she even want to be here? I reached up to her, lifting her head up and surprising her.
"Oh, uh. . .hey, Adrien."
"How much did he give you?!"
Her eyes widened at my question, before she bursted into laughter, clutching unto her stomach. She wiped fake, invisible tears out of her eyes before facing me again. "So that's what you think, huh? Well, you're wrong, your father didn't give me anything. He just showed up to my bakery, which was shocking because Gabriel isn't exactly fond of the bakery, but he didn't come to buy anything. . .instead he popped the question and asked me if I wanted to model with you and the others. Of course I said yes. . .I thought it'd be fun."
Hearing that Father had went to the bakery himself was the thing that shocked me the most, but I had another question besides that. "I thought you were mad. . . Why would you want to model?"
"I was mad, but not at you. It's just that. . ." She stopped talking for a moment, before she completed turned away. "I don't want to talk about it."
"Right. . . I get it." I tried not to look disappointed with her words. I guess I wasn't close enough to her for her to share what was on her mind, but whatever. Right now, that didn't matter. I took her by the hand, dragging her along with me. "Come on, we were supposed to start modelling a while ago. It's us two up first." She laughed behind me, but followed anyway.
Finally we were in position, and the camera's lighting was flashing everywhere as it took pictures of Marinette and I. The photographer made us do weird poses, which I had to admit I didn't mind at all. I got to hold Marinette's hand, her waist and lean in closer to her face. I was almost sure the photographer was trying to make us look like some kind of a couple, but with the way Father is, I doubt he'd ever accept it.
While in the midst of the photo-shoot, I saw the door open and more people started walking inside. Lila was first, which surprised me at first, but then I knew why. I had been hanging around Lila all these times anyway; of course Father was going to think she was my friend. When she walked in and saw me holding Marinette's waist, her eyes seemed to darken. Yeah, that's right, Lila. Get a load of this! I smirked and pulled Marinette closer, so close to my face that if I made one move, my lips would be touching hers. The photographer took pictures anyway without complaints.
After a few snaps, Father yelled to stop and said it was time to add the others in. Behind Lila were Alya, Nino, Nathaniel and of course, Chloe. They each walked up to us, putting themselves in whatever positions the photographer told them to be in. The girls were up front, while we boys were at the back. As the pictures were being taken, my eyes suddenly went down, and I was just in time to see Lila's fingers moving towards where Marinette had placed her hand. She pinched Marinette's hand a bit, although I doubted that hurt at all, but I could tell what this was all about. Why was Lila blaming Marinette for all of this when I was technically the one who liked her? Why did people like going for their rivals even though knowing that their crushes didn't like them at all? That made no sense!
"Shine your brightest smile," the photographer yelled out. "This is going on the magazine. I can already imagine what the title says; 'Bestest Friends from Francis DuPont High School!" He chuckled to himself as he told us to get into another position, and when we did that, he took more pictures.
After a while, we were told to take a break. I turned to the others with a huge smile on my face. "Thank you so much for being here. This is literally the best photo-shoot I've ever had!"
"The only shocking thing about this is that your father is actually letting us do a photo-shoot with you," Nathaniel spoke, looking down at his shoes. "I didn't really think I'd be okay enough, because I hardly smile. . .but the photographer didn't complain, so I guess I was okay."
"Awe, Nathaniel, I'm sure you were great," Marinette patted him on the back with a convincing smile. "You always look good in every pictures we take together!"
I noticed Felix walking up to us, so I prepared to introduce him to the others. "Hey, you guys. . ." I got their attention back again and pointed over at Felix. "This is Felix, my cousin who's just staying over to visit." Even though Father had chased Aunt and Dad away, saying that they weren't allowed to come inside the mansion, nor were we going to the wedding, Father still allowed Felix inside whenever he wanted without a problem, knowing he was a guy I was pretty close to. "And Felix. . . These are Marinette, Nino, Nathaniel, Alya, of course you already know Chloe. . .and Lila." I pointed at each of them as I said their names, then I turned back to Felix. I wondered if Felix was going to put a fake smile and welcome them. . .after all, he knew Lila from his old school, and they didn't exactly get along with each other. Felix had caught a scar on her body, but did he know about the possibility that Lila may have been faking her scars?
"Well, hey guys," he actually smiled, and it didn't look to be fake either. "It's really nice to finally meet the best friends of Adrien. Adrien have said so much about you guys." He got out his hand and shook each other hands. When he got to Lila, he hesitated, but still shook hers. I don't know if Lila was faking not knowing him, but her next words definitely surprised me;
"Well, it's nice to meet you too, Felix. Adrien has said so much about you."
No, I haven't! All these times we've been hanging out, I've never mentioned Felix's name!
"Actually," Alya spoke up. "I don't exactly remember Adrien telling us he ever had a cousin." I gave a guilty smile to Felix, while he looked back at me with a look that seemed to say, 'so, you never talk about me, huh.'
"Oh well. . ." Lila scratched her head, actually looking surprised. Did she really not remember Felix? "Where have I heard that name before? I thought I remembered it from Adrien telling us about him, but I guess not-"
Felix chuckled as he caught her off. "You don't have to pretend anymore, Lila. It's Felix from school. Felix Graham de Vanily." Lila acted surprised at first, hearing the name, but then she just laughed and looked away. Felix rolled his eyes a little, ignoring her and turning to the rest of us. "Well, anyway, I just wanted to say great job. The pictures came out great. Soon you guys are going to be on the first page of the next magazine. I'll. . .be on the other side of the room if any of you ever need me." He gave one last look towards Lila, who still refused to look at him, before he turned around and started walking away.