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Marinette awoke to her incredibly aggressive alarm. The flashing red numbers and incessant beeping filled up her unusually tidy bedroom. It was only that pristine, because if it got messy, her mother would clean it herself. And, if she did that, she'd be sure to find the sketchbook, and we can't have that now, can we?

It was 5:30 am. Mari was late to school once, early last year, and her mother made her get up at such a dreadful hour ever since. Talk about zero chances, huh. She rubbed the sleep from her eyes, still not fully awake, and slid out from underneath her blankets. She straightened the sheets, making her way over to her wardrobe, and selecting today's fit.

[ for the sake of visualisation, I'm gonna use Lily Story to show outfits ]

"Perfect!" She exclaimed, 'There's no way mother will find something to pick on'.

She left her room, strolling around her house and enjoying the view from the windows. Because it was just her and Tomoe, Mari's house was a luxurious flat towards the top of one of Paris' most notorious hotels. She swept into the kitchen at the sound of her mother's alarm, making herself look busy. Her mother, of course, entered not a second later. She was fully dressed already, sporting her cane and sunglasses. Mari thought it was admirable how her mother never changed face, never struggled with her blindness.

"Let's go."

'Curt, as always...'

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Mari clambered out of the car, almost losing balance when she hit the ground. Although she does her best to hide it, Marinette Tsurugi was known to be exceptionally clumsy. She always kept a smile on her face, of course, and recovered with grace. That's something her friends love about her.

She continued further into school, dropping off her bag in her locker and selecting the books she would need for her morning classes. As she was locking her door, she noticed a student she'd never seen before – a girl, by the looks of it, but she'd make sure to ask. She tilted her head, trying to decide whether to introduce herself. Like magic, Miss Bustier waltzed in and greeted them both with a grin.

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Kagami had woken up early.

Again.

She could never stay awake past 6 am, it was almost like she had an alarm hardwired into her brain. Hell, she was lucky to have slept until 5:30 that morning. She'd tried everything from changing her sleep schedule to seeking out meds, and not a thing had helped.

She dragged herself out of bed quite begrudgingly, slumping down the ladder to her loft. She continued her descent, down into the kitchen, where she gathered all the ingredients for a fulfilling breakfast of...

Drumroll, please...

A glass of water and an apple.

Kagami was never very hungry when she woke up, but eating then saved her from her parents stuffing food into her right before school. She kobe'd the apple core into the bin when she was done with it, and it landed perfectly. It always does.

She made her way back to her room, flung open the doors to her wardrobe and pulled out the components of the outfit below.

She slid on her shoes, and wasted as much time as humanly possible before going back down and seeing her parents. When a sufficient amount of time had passed, she hopped downstairs for the second time that morning, hurriedly kissed Tom and Sabine goodbye, and ran out the door before they could ask prying questions about how her sleep was.

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It seemed Kagami was at school early, so she hung around in what she was told was the locker bay. She glanced down at her schedule, eyes scanning the list of 6 subjects. Maths first, then science, then a break. 'Sweet', she thought, 'I can ace my work in both of these and just ignore everyone.' She heard footsteps behind her, and assumed the bell for class was gonna go soon, so she turned to grab her books from her new locker. When she turned around, two other people were in the room.

"Hello there! You must be Kagami Dupain-Cheng. I'm miss Bustier, your teacher for homeroom, literature, and history." She turned to the other person, who stepped forward a bit upon being acknowledged.

"This here is Marinette Tsurugi, she's the class representative, and will be in charge of showing you around, presuming you haven't already explored a bit yourself. Come find either of us if you have any questions, ok?"

Kagami nodded slowly, and resumed the scintillating activity of staring into space. From the corner of her eye, she could see Marinette making a move towards her. She turned to greet her, despite her head's better judgement.

"Kagami, right? I'm Marinette! Everyone just calls me Mari, though. Wanna walk to homeroom together?"

When Mari spoke to her, she spoke differently than others. Most people were kind to her out of obligation, you could see it on their faces. But the girl before her was smiling genuinely, like she was truly happy to have met her. This really struck Kagami, but she contained her thoughts and let out a quiet "Sure."

"Great! C'mon, I'll lead the way" she said, beaming. She held out her hand, and Kagami's brain halted for a second. 'Holding hands? SHE wants to hold MY hand??? Oh god, what do I do? Do I accept? She seems to want me to accept...'

Marinette waited patiently for the couple of seconds it took Kagami to recover. 'So holding hands is a big deal now, huh? She's kinda cute when she's worked up like this, though...' To her delight, Kagami slowly accepted her outstretched hand. Mari gave her hand a little squeeze of reassurance, before striding out of the locker bay.

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Hey everyone! Hope you're enjoying the story so far :)

Stay safe y'all, ciao~