Marinette dragged herself to school, literally. With each step she took she would have to drag her feet, which she could have sworn weighed a thousand pounds, across the sidewalk. She could have cared less if her shoes were getting scuffed and scraped, all that mattered in that moment was if she could make it to school before passing out.

On a normal day, especially one after a nighttime akuma attack, Marinette would usually be late for school due sleeping in, but not that day, Emma made sure of it. In fact, Emma made sure that Marinette was up all night long. It had gotten to the point where Marinette could constantly hear the baby's crying, no longer able to distinguish her hallucinations from reality.

She stared down at the doll who now sat quietly in the car seat carrier and Marinette struggled with the overwhelming urge to toss it onto the busy street and run away without looking back. She sighed and let the thought drain from her head. Had it not been for Adrien being her partner and her actions having an influence on his mark, then she probably would have gone through with it.

Although Marinette lived really close to her school, it felt as though she had been walking for miles before she was finally able to collapse in her seat next to Alya, resting her head in her arms on the desk. It wasn't long before she felt a finger poking her shoulder. Marinette turned her head slightly to see her friend staring down at her.

"Hey Marinette, how was your first nig-" Alya stopped mid-sentence and her eyes grew wide when she caught sight of Marinette's face. "Girl, you look like something straight out of a horror film!"

"Is it really that bad?" Marinette mumbled. "I didn't bother checking this morning,"

Alya went digging through her bag and pulled out a small mirror, handing it to her friend. Marinette stared back at her reflection with an expressionless face, she was too tired to make any exaggerated expressions, but on inside she could have screamed.

Alya was right when she said that she looked like something out of a horror movie, a zombie one to be exact. The whites of her eyeballs were pink and had red veins running through them. The bags under and around her eyes were so bad that it looked like she had been punched as both of her eyes were surrounded by a deep purplish brown that showed off how tired she was. Her eyes in general looked glazed over and made it seem as if she was off in her own little world, as though her brain wasn't focused on anything. She wasn't even about to start on the state that her hair was in.

Marinette groaned and plopped her head back down into her arms.

Alya offered her a smile of sympathy. "Rough night I take it." Marinette groaned again in response and Alya patted her back. "Babies are weird like that, some nights they're great while other nights can be horrendous."

"That's not it," Marinette mumbled.

"Hm?"

The dark haired girl flung herself up from the desk and stared Alya in the eyes with a serious expression on her face. "It was timed, all of it, I know it was!"

"Timed?" Alya could only blink back in confusion. "What in the world are you talking about?"

Suddenly Marinette's eyes grew wide and crazy. She whipped her head around to stare at her baby before bringing her attention back to Alya, lowering her voice to a frantic whisper as if to hide her words from the doll.

"Her timing was too perfect," she said whilst bringing her hands up to grip Alya's arms. "The second I began to doze off she would immediately start crying. There's no way she could have known when I was about to fall asleep, but she did! That's not a doll, it's a demon. It's possessed, I know it is!"

Alya gently pried Marinette's hands from her arms and gave her friend a comforting look. "Mari, don't you think you're being a little unreas-"

"I KNOW IT IS, IT HAS TO BE!" Marinette shouted, earning the duo strange looks from the rest of the class at her sudden outburst.

Alya shushed her friend and gave her a couple of comforting pats on the shoulder. "Calm down girl, you're just a little sleep deprived and it's messing with your head. Although," Alya cupped her chin in her fingers, "literally crying all night does sound a little odd. These dolls shouldn't be crying that much, heck, not even a real baby cries that much, at least not from my experience they don't. Maybe your doll is broken, you should probably tell Ms. Mendeleiev about it, she might give you a new one."

Marinette could feel the large grin forming on her face and she clasped her hands together in front of her. "Do you really think so!"

"Well yeah, if it's broken then she'll have to give you a new one. You can't do a project with a malfunctioned doll," Alya pointed out.

Marinette instantly felt her spirits rise, her mood quickly changing into one of happiness.

Now that she was in a better mood, Marinette's tiredness moved to the back of her brain and for the first time that morning she finally took in her friend's appearance. Alya looked exactly the same as she usually did, not an ounce of tiredness showed in her eyes.

"I take it your night wasn't anything like mine?" Marinette asked in awe.

"Not even close," Alya laughed, patting her baby's head, "clearly he doesn't take after his other mother."

Marinette giggled at the comment. "He's so much better than Emma, why couldn't Adrien and I have gotten little Barth..." She scrunched up her face. "Sorry, I can't remember his name."

"And I wouldn't expect you to, it's a ridiculous name to begin with." Alya stated. "I just call him Scamp, mostly because it annoys Chloe."

Marinette could feel a death glare being shot in their direction at the mention of the name and turned to find Chloe scowling at them. It was obvious that there had been an argument over the nickname, and judging from the blonde's reaction, Alya must have won.

Marinette turned back to her friend with a grin on her face. "Oh my, look at how adorable Scamp is," she cooed with humour in her voice, loud enough for Chloe to hear. The girls could only laugh as Chloe's glare intensified.

Marinette's attention was soon drawn away from her friend when she noticed Ms. Mendeleiev walk into the classroom. She quickly gathered up Emma and made her way towards the teacher as Alya gave her a thumbs up for good luck.

"Goodbye and good riddance," she whispered to the baby before straightening up to face the teacher. "Good morning Ms. Mendeleiev!" Marinette said, trying to seem as cheerful and optimistic as possible.

Ms. Mendeleiev looked up from the papers she had been unpacking to stare at Marinette. She didn't seem surprised in the least from Marinette's zombie like appearance, but then again she was probably used to seeing her students in such a state during the course of this assignment. She simply replied in her usual stiff manner.

"How can I help you Ms. Dupain-Cheng, do you have any questions about the assignment?"

"Actually, yes," Marinette held up Emma for the teacher to see. "I think my doll might be broken, she won't stop crying."

Ms. Mendeleiev sighed in annoyance, as though this was the thousandth time somebody had mentioned that to her in the past hour. Marinette didn't take her teacher's sigh and the fact that she was now rubbing her temples as a good sign.

"Ms. Dupain-Cheng," she started, "these dolls are meant to simulate the experience of taking care of an actual baby by imitating their needs and actions. Babies cry, therefore the dolls will cry."

Marinette frowned, her teacher wasn't really getting her point. "Yes," she said, "but mine cries too much. She cried all night."

Ms. Mendeleiev stared down at Marinette with a firm look in her eyes. She clearly wasn't having any of it. "The point of this project is to open up the eyes of young students to the difficulties and challenges of parenthood. Now tell me, Ms. Dupian-Cheng," She began to raise her voice in annoyance, "if one day you have a child of your own, do you believe that you could just bring him or her back to the hospital simply because he or she cries too much for you to get a good night's sleep?"

The second she finished speaking Emma once again burst into a fit of wails as though the teacher's statement made her realize what her "mother" was trying to do. Ms. Mendeleiev turned away and brought her attention back to the papers on her desk, clearly done with the conversation.

"I suggest you spend less time trying to get rid of your baby and more time caring to her needs."

All eyes were on Marinette who stood at the front of the room in shock with the screaming baby in her arms. She had been so sure that Emma was broken and that she could get a new doll that her teacher's rejection was not what she expected. She couldn't possibly expect her to do this assignment with a broken doll, could she? Nobody made a sound, save for Chloe who let out a snicker which went unheard amongst Emma's cries.

"What's going on?"

The voice was barely audible over Emma, but Marinette could have recognized it anywhere and instantly turned to find a confused Adrien entering the classroom.

His gaze shifted from the Marinette standing at the front of the room with a crying Emma, to the class who stared at her, then back to Marinette and the baby.

Marinette grew flustered, unsure of what to say. "Uh...ah..." She couldn't possibly tell Adrien that she had been trying to exchange their daughter for a new baby. Not knowing what else to do, she flung out her arms, shoving the crying baby in his face.

"Crying...stop...won't!"

Adrien gave her a confused look, but it wasn't too hard to decipher what she was trying to say. He took Emma from her hands and after a couple of gentle rocks the doll went silent.

Marinette suddenly felt light headed and had to place her arms on Ms. Mendeleiev's desk to stop herself from falling over.

"Again...how...why does she stop crying for everyone but me..."

Adrien tried to comfort her, taking in her dishevelled and tired appearance. "Don't worry, you took care of her all night, I can take it from here."

He patter her shoulder and Marinette felt her heart flutter, but the moment was ruined as a commotion, which consisted mostly of screams, could be heard coming from outside. Everyone rushed to the windows to see what was going on.

"What is it, what's happening?" Marinette asked form the back of the crowd, standing on her toes to try and see overtop of all the heads in front of her.

"This doesn't make sense," Alya pondered, squeezing out from the crowd of people. Marinette looked at her curiously so she continued, holding her chin between her fingers with a confused look on her face. "It's an akuma attack, but there was just one last night. Either there's a lot of stressed out people right now or that Hawk Moth guy is upping his game."

"I've gotta go to the bathroom!" Marinette declared, deciding it best to wonder about why there was another akuma attack so soon after the last later. She turned, planning on telling Adrien to take care of Emma while she went to the bathroom, but him and their baby were already gone.

She could have sworn he had been beside her just a second ago, but now she couldn't see him at all in the classroom. Marinette snapped herself out of it, knowing she couldn't be bothered with that at the moment as she made her way out of the room.

~.~.~.~.~  

Omg I am so, so sorry! It's been around a month since my last update! I promise you that I have not dropped or lost interest in this story! After exams I had something that's kinda similar to a co-op placement and it left me very mentally exhausted and with little free time. If I had have known how exhausting it was gonna be then I would have given you a heads up last chapter that I wouldn't be updating in a while. Well, my school stuff for the year is now all over and I can finally get back into writing my fanfics! 

Anyways, I hope you enjoyed the update!