Blinking her eyes open, she breathed out through her nose and stretched her body and relaxing once again on her bed. Turning her head, she picked up her phone and huffed. Of course she would wake up before her alarm on the first day of the new school year.

She was too stressed out with the thought of having messed up the timeline, but here they were.

Today was the day that would change everything.

Getting up,  putting her hair in a quick (read: lazy) bun as she went over to the bathroom to freshen up. Coming back out after she was done, she released her hair from the bun, letting it tumble down to her waist before throwing on black leggings, a navy t-shirt that read 'WHY ME' and throwing on an ash grey hoodie, pushing the sleeves up to her elbows. With a final touch, she put on socks and black low-top Vans and head downstairs to help with the macarons her father wanted to make for her new classroom.

"Morning, dad," she greeted, leaning up as he leaned down to let her kiss his cheek, before scooping some of the batter on her finger and popping it in her mouth with no hesitation.

"Mari, how many times have I told you not to do that? What if that had chocolate?" Tom scolded, but there was no bite to his words.

"No regerts," Marinette countered in English, chuckling as her father rolled his eyes at the purposeful mispronunciation of 'regrets' and used her hair tie to put her hair in a tight, low bun (where it would now stay for the rest of the day) and threw on her custom apron.

She set to fill the bags with the batter so that she could pipe them on the tray, so that her father just had to focus on his tasks as he was already finishing the fillings, which she could easily do. She wasn't the daughter of a baker for nothing, despite her severe allergy to a world-wide delicacy. 

"Marinette, are yuo ready for the new school year?" Sabine asked her as she came around the corner, kissing her daughter's cheek.

Marinette shrugged, "School is school, maman."

"Looking forward to your new classmates?" Tom  added, excited for Marinette, who frowned, pausing in her work to scowl.

"If Chloe is in my class again, I'm going to riot."

"Marinette," Sabine warned, exasperated, "do not start on your dislike of Chloe."

"I don't dislike her," Marinette affirmed her mother, "she just annoys me with her ploys and her 'ridiculous, this is utterly ridiculous!' that she picked up from Audrey." She mocked Chloe's voice whenever she says the phrase.

Tom snorted and fist bumped with Marinette with a mutter of 'accurate' which made Sabine cross her arms at and throw a warning look at her husband and daughter. 

She swears she has two children.

-

It was only an hour and a half later, she had finished and packed away her greeting macarons and decided to help her father get the pastries and bread ready for the day when she realized oh shit what time is it?

Checking the time, she swore in Mandarin as to not alert her father of her bad language, and darted back upstairs to grab her school bag and hurried back down to depart for school. 

"I'm leaving!" she called out to her parents, swiping the prepared box and a croissant wrapped in a napkin from her mother who was at the front counter to tend to their customers. Swinging her bag around as she exits the bakery, she carefully sets the box in her bag before zipping it closed and shouldering it and walking to towards her school.

Stopping at a crosswalk, her eyes fluttered up to the old man (who struggling to walk even with his cane) was crossing to her side while the sign was red and a red car coming far to quick to be able to stop without hitting the man. Without a moments hesitation, she stuck her croissant in her pocket and pushed herself forward, breathing through her nose as she basically picked the tiny man by his arm pits and carried him to the side walk just as the car sped by.

Setting him down, she breathed a sigh of relief, before glaring down at the man. Test or whatever, it definitely was not safe to do something like that.

"Thank you, miss," he said gently, and she checked him over for any possible injuries.

"Don't worry about it. I'm sorry for touching you suddenly and carrying you like that, but it was that or you would be dead," she told him blatantly, "I'd rather not have that on conscience." 

"I'm sure you wouldn't," he nodded, and she noticed that his voice was very gentle, despite the curious look he was giving her. "You're very straightforward."

She shrugged, reaching into her pocket and pulling out her croissant, which was safely wrapped in the cute napkin that she convinced her mother to get imported from China. She grabbed his hand and placed her used-to-be breakfast in his hand and bowed. 

"Please be careful crossing from now own."

With that, she took out her earbuds and connected them to her phone, setting each bud in her ear and shuffled her music. She checked the light, just as it turned white to walk, she left the man behind, not noticing his knowing smile. But she didn't have to see it to know.

"Thank you very much, indeed," Fu mumbled to himself, pocketing the case with the Ladybug Miraculous, watching her walk away before he turned and made his way, holding his cane behind his back as he went on his way.

-

Arriving at her school, she climbed the steps to the entrance and walked through the doors, ignoring the people who turned to look at her. Simply heading to her classroom since they didn't have assigned lockers yet, and walked in just as Miss Bustier (who she knew would be her teacher) called out to Nino to sit in the front.

Marinette went up, waving at Nathaniel after spotting him further up, to sit behind and diagonally to where Nino sat in the very front. He glanced behind to her with wide eyes, a small blush dusting his cheeks. She met his gaze, making him jump and was about to apologize for looking at her when a hand slammed on her desk.

Marinette turned to the hand with an unimpressed raise of an eyebrow and looked up to the owner of said hand with a bored face. She sighed, stopping her music and taking out her earbuds, wrapping them around her phone and placing it in her bag.

"What."

Chloe glared down at her, every since that parents day at their school and her mother seemingly coming to adore Marinette's banter with just about anyone, their somewhat mutual understanding crumbled and Chloe went back to hating Marinette and making her life more difficult, "I'm sitting here this year, so move."

Marinette has never and still doesn't give a shit.

Throwing a heated glare back, she she scowled at the blonde.

"Make me, Bourgeois."