________________________________________________

"Okay, and then what did he say?" Alya asked. I put the phone on speaker so I could check.

"He's typing," I said, nearly falling off my seat.

"Play it cool, Marinette. But for the past couple of days, I think your awkwardness hasn't appeared in the conversations you have with Adrien," Alya observed.

I gasped. She was right. "I'm cured, Alya! I am cured!" I jumped up and down. I then realised that my parents were probably downstairs thinking that there was an earthquake going on up here, so I stopped.

"By the power invested in me, I dub thee 'not socially awkward'. Tell me the details, okay? I have to go," Alya said. I heard something creak open in the background.

"Okay," I said. "Bye Alya,"

"Later, girl," She disconnected the call. My phone vibrated seconds after. My breath hitched.

"Tikki, this is it!" I told my kwami, who was seated on the computer monitor. She was laughing.

"Answer the message, Marinette," She said. "And don't start fantasizing about your future together,"

"Too late," I told her, with a dreamy sigh. I could see it now. Adrien and I could continue texting and then he would ask me out. Since Alya declared me 'not socially awkward' anymore, this could actually work.

When Adrien asks me out, I would accept. Our date will be memorable. It would be at night at a café or at the Eiffel Tower. Then we stroll the streets of Paris, under the streetlights.

A few days after that, he would ask me to be his girlfriend. I would say yes. We go out until after college, when we both have stable jobs, he would propose to me.

I could see it now.

He would take me out to the places we used to go to when we started hanging out and then he would try to distract me, by saying "Look! A squirrel!"

I would turn to look for the squirrel. Since I couldn't find it, I turn back to Adrien with a frown, saying that I couldn't find the squirrel. But then, I am too lost for words to scold him because he is down on one knee, holding a small box with a beautiful ring in it.

I would have tears of joy and then -

"Marinette! Reply to the message!" Tikki screamed into my ear.

"Aaah!" I screamed. I took a few breaths to regain my conposure. "Okay,"

"Oh my God, Tikki. He wants to hang out! Okay, play it cool," I took a few more breaths.

I looked at the time. It was 5:30 pm. An hour wouldn't hurt.

I gasped. "Tikki, do you see that?!" I shoved my phone to her face. "He's basically asking me out! My fantasies are coming true!"

"Calm down, Marinette. Get a grip on your emotions. You're just hanging out. If you be yourself and not scare him off, he could want to hang out again," Tikki flew away from my phone.

"You're right," I nodded. "Okay. I won't make a big deal out of a small thing,"

the

I rolled my eyes. I could see sweet Adrien morphing into cocky Adrien. Somehow, I like cocky Adrien better. He was more open and free.

I didn't reply back. It wasn't a question - it was more of a demand. Not too demanding, though.

But now, I was bored out of my mind and I needed something to do. I could always watch TV. Nah, I do that all the time.

I could talk to someone...but who?

An idea formed in my head. "Tikki, spots on!"

______________________________________________________

I walked up and down the pavement tapping my yo-yo furiously. A few people stopped me for me to sign autographs and to take pictures with them.

Then there was Alya who heard that I was here in the park, getting some ice cream. Of course she made her way down here to interview me from an exclusive on her blog.

I found the whole thing amusing. I mean, what if you found out that your best friend was a superhero? And not just any superhero - a superhero that you love and adore.

Would she find out that I, Marinette Dupain-Cheng, was Miraculous Ladybug? Would I tell her?

Both answers to those questions are no. The only person that I would tell is Chat Noir, and the stupid cat himself isn't picking up my calls or replying to my messages.

I sighed with defeat. I guess I'll just have to make companionship with the TV. Swinging my yo-yo, I threw it as far as I could until it attached itself to a chimney.

Pulling hard, I got ready to leave when a smooth voice stopped me.

"Bummer. You're leaving when I just got here," The smooth voice from behind me said. I looked behind for my eyes to meet a set of familiar green eyes.

"Well look at what we have here. The cat is finally out of the bag," I rolled my eyes. "You think that you can just waltz in here without replying to at least one my messages or picking up just one of my calls?"

Chat Noir paused to think. "Yes,"

I sighed and collapsed onto a bench. I was just glad that he was here. A few more minutes and I would have started talking to the lamppost.

"Just come and sit with me. I'm not in the mood to be frustrated," I massaged my temples. I should have probably gone to sleep instead of calling Chat Noir. I can be an idiot at times.

"Yes, ma'am," He mock saluted at me before coming to sit to my right. "Any special reason on why you called me?"

"Just wanted company," I replied.

"Then you picked the right cat," Chat Noir said, extending his arm on the bench. "What's the most embarrassing thing that you've done?" He asked. He then added. "In front of your crush?"

My cheeks began to heat up at the thought of my embarrassing moments with Adrien. "Trust me, you wouldn't want to know,"

"C'mon, you can tell me," He poked my cheek. That made me blush even more.

"I'll tell you if you tell me first," I hugged my knees to my chest, feeling shy for some reason.

"Okay," He said. "Let me think," He stroked his chin for some reason and his tail curled up towards me.

"When I was younger, I had a crush on this girl once. I would try and spend much time with her. I could spend hours and hours with her, and I would never get bored. Then, I told myself that I would ask her to be my girlfriend," He smiled, at no one in particular.

"My nanny must have heard what I said because she sat me down and gave me a talk. She told me to think twice about it. I did. Then she followed me to see how it would go. So, I mustered up the courage and I went to ask her out," His smile grew broad and I couldn't help but feel a tinge of jealousy towards the girl.

"Who was she?" I had to ask because I was dying to know who the mysterious girl was.

"Calm down, Bug-a-boo," He chuckled, poking my nose. "She was a TV character. Her name, was Barbie,"

I snorted before I started to double over in laughter. Chat Noir hit me a couple of times to make me shut up but I kept laughing harder.

Now every time I would see him, I would remember how he had a crush on Barbie and planned to ask her out. But alas, she was but a television character, thus, ruining the what-could-have-been an interesting relationship.

It's not his fault that Barbie wasn't real.

"Okay," I choked out, in between laughter. "Wait," I held up a finger. I waited for my laughter to come to a stop. That took about a minute. "You're telling me that you used to watch Barbie TV episodes for hours?!"

"Out of everything I said, you only heard that?" Chat Noir frowned, answering my question with a question.

"You're not denying it!" I pointed out. "Aww," I cooed, poking his cheek. "I can imagine it now. A blonde toddler spending his hours in front of a TV screen. That's so adorable,"

"Shut up," He muttered, wrapping his hand around my finger, making it poke me. "And quite frankly, I would prefer attractive, gorgeous or sexy. But not adorable," He gagged.

"You were a kid. It was adorable," I gushed, before laughing again.

"Yeah, well, shut up, okay?" He mumbled. "It's your turn,"

I groaned. "Fine. Just give me a moment to think, okay?"

I decided not to entail him in the klutzy and awkward tales of Adrien and I. Perhaps I could tell him a childhood crush.

I took a deep breath. "Okay. When I was younger, I had a crush on this guy-"

"Is he still alive?" Chat Noir rudely interrupted me.

"I don't know. Now, shush! You had your chance to tell me your story. It's my turn now," I sent him a glare. "So anyways, before you rudely interrupted me, I was telling you of a crush that I had. He was the most attractive person I had ever seen,"

Chat Noir started to cough. As he coughed, he said. "Not as attractive as me,"

I gave him a look that made him shut up. "But I used to be shy. I never used to muster up the courage to even talk to him. Then there were these popular girls who were really mean to me,"

"Back then, nearly every girl knew that I liked him. But there was this popular girl in particular, who made fun of me, saying that he wouldn't love someone as ugly as me,"

"Something snapped when she said that. I started to get a backbone. After she said that to me, she ended up in the nurse's office with a black eye," A smile crept on my face.

"So I used to sit in class and just stare at him. There was one day when he actually caught me staring at him and I held up my math book, trying to cover up my blushing. That was embarrassing," I chuckled.

Before Chat Noir could protest, I continued. "But what was the most embarrassing part is when he came over to my house one day. You could imagine the panic attack that I had. Then my father told me that he was my cousin,"

Chat Noir started to choke, but once he got over it, he started to double over in laughter.

"And to think I told my mother that I would marry him," I shook my head sadly. "I was so embarrassed. Even at a young age, I knew that cousins do not marry their cousins,"

Chat Noir's head was on my shoulder. I could feel him tremble over laughter. He was stroking my head for some reason.

"That's so wrong," He shook his head. "How do you have an infatuation with your cousin? Did you think of dirty things to do to him?" He winked, before laughing again.

"It's not wrong. I once heard that Albert Einstein married his first cousin," I folded my arms, as I huffed.

"But have you ever heard of a girl marrying their cousin?" Chat Noir raised an eyebrow, but he burst into laughter once he saw the look on my face.

"Shut up," I mumbled. Now I know how he felt when he told me his embarrassing story.

"Aww," He poked my cheek, leaning his head on my shoulder. "And to think that I was going to hunt the whole of Paris just to find this punk,"

"Shut up," I mumbled once again. "I rarely see him anymore. But that's a good thing. It would be really awkward for me,"

"Okay. For the sake of your red cheeks, I shall change the subject," Chat Noir poked my cheek again, before going back to sitting on where he was seated before.

I started to shiver. I didn't know that Chat Noir's warmth kept me warm. He noticed this.

"You're cold," He said. Then he smirked. "Do you want to cuddle?"

"No!" I refused, very quickly. A part of me wanted to though, because I thought that I was going to be an human popsicle soon.

"I always knew that I was hot. Even hotter than you," He winked before opening his arms for me. "C'mon, Bug-a-boo. Come here,"

"If you're hotter than me, that makes me cooler than you," I replied with a wink. Then I sneezed. I gave up with trying to stay warm by myself.

I awkwardly moved over to his arms. My arms wrapped around his upper body and torso. His arm wrapped itself around my waist and his other one gently stroked on my head.

"Hey, that's my job," I mumbled. I liked the warmth, but I didn't like the position. But still, the warmth was good.

"What?" He asked.

"I'm supposed to stroke your head, silly cat," I replied.

"Okay?" He replied, almost as if he was asking a question. He let go of me and he put his head on my laps. His body was able to curl itself into a small ball and his tail was near his nose.

I began to stroke him, like how I used to stroke cats and somehow, we didn't talk again for the rest of the time that we had before it got dark.

Okay, we did, but it was if we were pointing out things. Like how a white fluffy dog was going to take a dump.

We both snickered at whoever either stepped on it, or their reaction when they tried to avoid it. Their reactions were funny.

We mostly stayed in silence, but it wasn't an awkward silence. It was sort of a pleasurable silence. Pleasurable indeed.

_______________________________________________________

I was practically gnawing off my nails as my teacher walked into class holding our history papers.

Dear Lord, please let me pass.

It doesn't have to be a perfect score, but as long as it is a decent grade, I'm all for it.

"Good morning class," Our teacher greeted us with a smile. I took that smile as a good sign. "I know that most of you are dying to know what you got on your paper. But I like to build up suspense so I will let you know at the end of the class,"

The whole class groaned. Including me. I hate suspense. It always kills me on the inside.

It's like those TV shows that you watch which end with suspense and you have to wait for the next episode to see what happened.

Nonetheless, our teacher still taught and we, the students, learnt. No one was concentrating at the lesson though. Our test papers were at everyone's mind right now.

Our teacher could see that. So she ended the lesson 5 minutes early, just so that she could give out the papers.

"Before I give you your papers back, I have a surprise for all of you. Those who got 80% and above of this history test get to go on a 3 day trip, out of the country, all expenses paid," She announced with a twinkle in her eye.

I turned to Alya in shock. Yes, I am seated with Alya. Alya really wanted to sit with me today so she told Nino to sit at his usual place today.

Of course Alya was going. She was practically a historian.

"The country we are going to, however, will remain a surprise. You will find out as soon as we land," Our teacher continued, making the side conversations coming to a halt. "The parents of the students, who are given the privilege to go, are already aware of the trip and I am pleased to say that they all allowed their child to go,"

I really hoped that my parents were informed. Hope is all I had at this point.

Then our teacher put her stationary down and began to give out the papers one by one. Chloé squealed when she got her paper.

She's going for the trip.

Nino punched the air, triumphantly. He's going, too.

Adrien was grinning from ear to ear, too. He must be going, too.

When Alya got her paper, our teacher winked at her. I took a look at her paper to see that she got a 97%. She was definitely going.

I prayed internally as my teacher gave me my paper. Adrien and Nino turned to look at me, to see what I had gotten. Alya was poking my arm to see what I had gotten.

I took one look at the paper and my heart dropped.

79% was scrawled onto the paper with red ink. 79 per cent. What's the difference between 79% and 80%? There was no difference.

My three friends must have noticed how glum I acted because they all looked at each other, uncomfortably.

"Oh, Marinette," Alya's voice cracked up. I just shook my head sadly.

History was just not my subject. I loved it, but it didn't love me back - and it takes two to make a relationship work.

I glanced at my paper once more when I frowned. This wasn't my paper. This was Chloé's paper.

"Excuse me, miss?" I raised my hand. My three friends turned to look at me with raised eyebrows, curious to what I was doing.

"Yes, Marinette?" She asked.

"This isn't my paper," I told her. "This is Chloé's paper,"

"What?!" Chloé, my teacher and my three friends asked.

"This is your paper, Chloé," I turned to show her the paper. I pointed to her name written at the top of the paper.

"Then, who's paper is this for-" Sabrina trailed off, before plucking the paper in Chloé's hand. "This is Marinette's paper, Chloé,"

"No it isn't," She grabbed the paper back. Our teacher walked up to Chloé and put out her arm. Angrily, Chloé put the paper on our teacher's hand.

The teacher looked through the paper and slowly nodded. "Yes. I am so sorry for the mix-up. I switch the marks. And call Marinette's parents," She went to her record book and corrected the marks.

"Alright!" Alya gave me a hug. A big grin made its way to my face. Now, I was really excited.

The four of us - Adrien, Nino, Alya and I - were going on a trip, together, without our parents, for three days.

The teacher gave me my paper and took Chloé's paper to give it to her. The rest of the class buzzed about the trip. About half of the class did fairly well in this test, and the rest who didn't were groaning on how they wished that they paid attention to the video clip.

"What did you get?" Nino asked me. I proudly showed him my 89%. It's not as good as Alya's score but I didn't care. It didn't matter to me.

"I'm so glad that you are coming, Mari," Adrien said.

"Yeah. It would be a total bummer without you," Nino gave me a grin which I returned.

"And who would I talk to on the plane?" Alya playfully punched my shoulder.

"I have spoken to your parents Marinette. They have allowed you to go," My teacher informed me.

I felt like screaming with joy. This was the happiest day of my life. I have never gone abroad before. Not even to China, and that's my home country. Well, sort of.

"Those who are going for the trip, we are leaving tomorrow. Be sure to be in school at 7 am. As for the rest who aren't going, there will be a substitute," The teacher informed us. "Class dismissed,"

Chloé followed her teacher out, trying to convince her to change her marks. Sabrina followed Chloé out.