"Plagg, stop it!" Adrien hissed, trying to grab the floating kwami out of the air. "Hide before someone sees you!" Plagg kept darting from his hand, staying just out of his holder's reach.

"Relax, everyone is already in class by now." Adrien frowned at his carelessness. "Exactly, you've been bothering me all morning and almost made me late for my ride! I just made an entire month without being tardy," he moaned.

"But it's very important! It's about your miraculous!" Now he had the blonde's attention. "Plagg, why didn't you say anything sooner??!" The kwami grumbled something under his breath.

But at that moment, Adrien wasn't the only one who was running behind in his daily routine. A certain dark haired girl raced past the lockers as she heard two voices arguing. "What is it? Is it malfunctioning?? What's wrong with it?!" Her heels suddenly dug into the floor as she froze. Did she just see what she thought she'd seen?

She backtracked her steps until Adrien was back into view, who was nervously clutching his school bag. There was something black floating by his shoulder, I could've sworn I saw it.... "I-you...what was...who were you talking to?" The model gulped and quickly waved.

"Oh, um-uh, h-hey, Léa!" He stammered while plastering on an anxious smile. After whipping his head around, he spotted his phone in his locker and snatched it. "Speaker phone!" He blurted. "Um, speaker friend with my phone, er-uh, I mean speaker phone with my friend!"

Adrien shoved his device into his back pocket and awkwardly chuckled. Léa slowly nodded. "Right, right, of course..." her voice trailed off. Why is he acting so weird? Something didn't seem right. I'm just going to play along, I don't have time to investigate.

He let out a sigh of relief. She seemed to buy it. "We should get to class," Adrien said. "The bell is about to go off." Léa twisted the ring on her finger and nodded. All eyes were on the breathless two when they stepped into class just as the bell rang. "You barely made it," Mrs. Bustier spoke from her desk. "Sorry," they apologized in unison. Léa hurried up the middle aisle and slipped into her seat next to Marinette, who gave her a funny look.

"I was cutting through the lockers and saw Adrien-uh, talking on his phone," she whispered, not quite trusting her own words. "He realized the time when he saw me running to class so he caught up." Léa didn't have time to explain the entire weird encounter with the blonde, due to class starting up.

The teacher took her time handing the English tests back out to her students. Marinette frowned at the mark on her paper. It was a B-. She had hoped she done better since she studied pretty hard, but foreign languages weren't exactly her cup of tea. Nino, however, had done far worse. "Aw, man! I totally bombed this thing," he complained. Adrien put a hand on his buddy's shoulder for reassurance. "I'm sure it's not that bad, Nino."

The DJ held up his test with several slashes of red ink on it with a final grade of a D+. "I don't get it! I had the last quiz in the bag. How does someone go from an A to a D?"

"Happened to me in eighth grade," Alya remarked.

Léa and Marinette immediately busted out laughing, but the boys were left hanging.

"Alright, class. I graded your essays you turned in yesterday and I must say, though some were quite lovely, many of you have disappointed me," Mrs. Bustier announced. That's when Chloe decided to hiss some not nice words to Sabrina, who cowered behind her binder. Mrs. Bustier sighed and walked about the room until she reached Alix's desk. "Alix, I never received yours. You did start it, didn't you?" Alix sheepishly pulled her cap lower. "Yeah...but I'm kind of stuck," she admitted. "I'll have it to you by tomorrow." Her teacher nodded then came to Marinette.

"I loved your essay on the heroes of Paris, Marinette," she complimented. "Your writing was absolutely amazing! If I didn't know better, I'd think you fought right beside them." Marinette thanked her with a flustered smile before she moved on to Kim.

"Kim, you were supposed to hand in an essay on current events." Kim nodded. "Yeah, which I did." Mrs. Bustier shook her head and held up an article. "No, this is today's newspaper with your name written on top. In crayon."

Kim shrugged while Max facepalmed. "I take it Max finally had you try to do something on your own?" She sighed.

"Madam! Madam Bustier?" An annoying voice called. The teacher turned to see Chloe standing behind her, who seemed upset. She puckered her lower lip out like a sad child and batted her lashes. Marinette rolled her eyes. Here we go again...

"What is it, Chloe?" Mrs. Bustier asked, eyebrows wrinkling with concern. "Would you ever punish me for something I didn't do???" She whimpered. The woman gaped at the blonde girl. "Of course not!"

"Great, because I didn't do my paper."

..........................

When the bell rang for lunch, every student made a beeline for the door, but Adrien was far ahead of them all. Léa couldn't help but think to herself. Why was he acting so erratic? He seemed pretty skittish earlier....

She was almost tempted to follow him, but she decided against it. Whatever it was, it wasn't any of her business. Léa was pulled from her thoughts by Marinette and Alya. "I left my homework at home for Madam Mendeleiev's class!" The designer panicked. Before she could start fully flipping out, Alya cut in. "Hey, you don't live far!" She reminded. "Just take the opportunity to run home during lunch. Grab it, then you'll be back before her class starts."

"But I don't want to leave you all alo-"

"Oh, hush. I'll be with Nino and Léa. Not sure about Adrien, though. He ran off before Nino could ask him anything. It was a little weird," the brunette noted. "K see you later bye!" Alya and Léa chuckled as they watched their friend run out of the school. "I swear she'd lose her head if it wasn't screwed on," Alya joked.

Concurrently, Adrien had locked himself in the janitor's closet. He didn't want to risk using the bathroom where other people could be. As soon as he clicked the lock, Plagg shot out from behind his white jacket. "Okay, for the record, what I am about to tell you rarely ever happens to any of the Chat Noirs," he explained. Adrien nodded quickly, eyed growing wider with anxiousness. Plagg cleared his throat.

"Congratulations, Adrien. You have unlocked a special ability," the kwami declared. His holder's jaw dropped. That wasn't at all what he was expecting. During class, all he could think about was if his miraculous was broken, or if he wouldn't be able to transform, or worse...if he had to turn it back in to the original possessor. But...this?

"W-what?" Adrien stammered, entirely sure that he heard him wrong. Plagg huffed in exasperation. "Listen kid. New powers. More fun. You now have the ability to shapeshift."

"Y-you mean I can, like....morph into different forms? That kind of shapeshift??" He gasped. Plagg smacked his head. "Correction: form. You are now able to transform into an actual cat. And yes, that kind of shapeshift, what other kind of shapeshift is there?" Plagg asked with a hint of annoyance. Adrien ran a hand through his hair as he tried to grasp onto what was happening. This sounded absolutely amazing. "Omigosh, this is pawsome!" He squealed.

"Show me how!" The blonde blurted, suddenly filled with excitement. Plagg cleared his throat. "Okay, first of all, here are the key words to make you morph: instead of saying claws out, you would say paws out-"

"PAWS OUT!" Adrien dramatically shot out his fist, waiting for Plagg to be sucked into his miraculous. Nothing happened. "I should've known you'd try to do that!" Plagg scolded. "Stop getting so happy! It always makes you do something stupid!" His holder sheepishly smiled and rubbed his forearm. "Sorry...but why didn't it work?"

"You didn't let me finish! It won't work unless you're already transformed-"

"Plagg, claws out!"

"WAIT no I didn't-!!"

The kwami was absorbed into the silver ring, turning it black. Where Adrien once was, Chat Noir now stood. His surroundings appeared to be much more visible in the dark closet thanks to his night vision. Here was his chance. "Paws out!" Another bright, green flash overtook him and within a second everything became much bigger. Whoa...this is incredible... Chat Noir tilted his head down to his arms-no, legs. There were four of them.

Instead of hands, he had paws now. His new body structure was long and on the thinner side, still somewhat resembling his normal figure. The fur on his skin wasn't long nor was it short, but a bit in between. The texture was slightly shaggy with a nice fluff to it that mimicked his hair as Chat in a weird way, and a collar was around his neck still holding his signature golden bell.

This was just too cool. Chat looked around with wonder. He couldn't help but want to explore more and went to push the door open with a paw. When it didn't budge, he remembered he had shut it minutes before. He tried to balance on his hind legs with a paw leaning on the door for support and reached for the knob.

That's when he remembered he was a cat. This meant he no longer had hands. Guess exploring will have to wait. Chat tried to utter the words, paws in, which was only natural with how his other key phrase worked. A series of meows escaped from his mouth instead. He attempted again, until he was horror stricken with the realization that he could no longer talk.

Well, he knew cats couldn't talk, but he wasn't really a real cat, so he figured... I should've let Plagg finish, now I'm stuck! Could things get any worse? Fate answered his thoughts by allowing the doorknob to jiggle and unlatch as the door swung open. Chat Noir leapt up in surprise as the janitor dropped his keys.

"Hey! How did you get in here?!" The janitor swiped the closest bottle off the shelf and squirted the black cat. "Get out of here!" The cat let out a cry and instinctively fled down the halls of the school as a few students pointed and laughed. This is almost as bad as being a girl. He sprinted towards the main entry of the school in hopes of getting out, but it was a little more challenging with petty things being thrown his way such as pencils, coins, or wads of paper.        

Mylene was opening the door to enter the main hall and sunlight came with her. The door was beginning to swing shut, but Chat was so close to his escape. Almost....there....

............................

Marinette flew up the ladder to her room and located a packet of worksheets on her chaise. She let out a breath she's been holding in and snatched the papers. Her eyes shifted to her clock. Ten more minutes until lunch break was over. On her way out of the bakery, she grabbed a random baked good and scrambled out onto the street.

Backpack slung over her shoulder, homework in hand, the designer was racing back to school with an entire croissant stuffed in her mouth. With her bangs blowing out of her face, she suddenly heard a loud shriek of meows before landing face first on the pavement. Her teeth lost their grip on her treat when she gasped and papers flew everywhere.

"Son of a snicker doodle!" She yelled. Marinette picked up the dirty croissant and tossed it aside, then froze when she saw a black cat lying on its side. Chat Noir mentally cursed himself for getting in her way and making her trip. He half expected her to yell at him for being a stupid cat and crossing her path, but Marinette's gaze softened at the injured animal before her. "You poor thing..." She cooed. "I'm so sorry, did I hurt you?" She wondered how hard her foot kicked him.

The tomcat sat up to show he was okay, but she caught him licking at his front paw which revealed a small scrape on it. "Where did you come from, kitty? Are you lost?" She asked, reaching out to scratch behind his ears. "Wow, you are so soft." He leaned in, relishing in the extra attention from her and let out a purr. Oh, that feels nice... If he could have, he would've frowned when she pulled away. Marinette wrinkled her eyebrows when she smelled something funny. She gently patten his fur to discover he was sort of wet. She leaned closer to get a bigger whiff. He smells like he's been doused with chemicals!

His bell rattled when she took it in between her fingers. The cat had a collar, so he couldn't have been a stray.

Marinette checked the time on her phone and gasped. She had two minutes. Think think think think! She didn't want him to wander away, and he'd probably be long gone by the end of school. She looked around to make sure no one was near them by the steps and cast her eyes back down on the feline, who was looking up at her expectantly.

"Okay, kitty. Do you trust me?"

Marinette could've sworn the cat just nodded. "I'll take that as a yes." Chat Noir didn't protest as her hands lifted him from the ground, but what did alarm him was when he was being lowered into her bag. He let out a small meow of uncertainty from the dark void with her books.

"Don't worry, it's only until the end of class," she assured. Chat was filled with mild panic as he heard the zipper seal him inside. He trusted her, of course, but that didn't change the fact that he was claustrophobic. Marinette quickly, but carefully, slung the backpack onto her shoulder and ran up the stairs to school. She wasn't sure about this at all, but it was the only idea she had.

To be continued in the next part....so stay tuned!

& OMG this is my 20th chapter!!! I actually can't believe I got this far! Plus I was originally going for 30 parts, but now I realize I have too much planned to cram it all in (unless you want 5,000 words every chapter, no? Me neither) so I'm aiming for at least 40.

So this chapter was 2,300 words not including author's note. Let me know if you would like the parts a little longer after this or if you want them this exact length or whatever because I'd really like to know.

Stay tuned for more & feel free to comment and vote :) Hope you liked!😁 ~Sapphire out