Y I caent draw Adrien's hair.

*table flips*

This is more of a AdrieNette chapter. MariChat will appear on the next chapter.

——
III
Worry

—×—
Adrien

Last night, Chat Noir had delivered Marinette safely from the rain. He had cheered her up by telling her fun moments with his lady and cat puns every once in a while.

Marinette smiled and laughed at them all. Maybe except the cat puns. She would roll her eyes at him and tell him to keep walking since he was the one holding the umbrella for the both of them.

She was okay.

At least, Adrien thought so.

His green eyes glanced back at his classmate worriedly.

She stares into space with tired eyes, probably muting the teacher from her lecture. Her lips were curled into a frown as she rested her chin on her fist.

It seems his cat puns weren't purr-fect enough to forget about the person who broke her heart.

Adrien felt his blood boil for a second.

Whoever the guy is, he wanted to teach him a lesson.

Marinette was one of his first friends in school. She had treated him as an equal, not as prince. Unlike Chloe, who throws herself all over him like a crazed fan girl.

"Adrien, Marinette isn't the teacher so please face in front." their teacher calls to him.

Adrien's spine jolted into a straight line before laughing nervously when he realized that everyone, including Marinette, who had snapped out of her daze, was staring at him. He was used to stares since he was a model after all, but there was an embarrassing aura around him at the moment.

"S-Sorry, Ms. Lament." he stammered.

Ms. Lament was their new Arts teacher after their old one resigned due to relocation. She was a fresh graduate from London and is a little slow in French, but most of the time spoke in English. She had started to teach their class the last two weeks ago.

She waved at his inattentiveness dismissively. "Anyway as I was saying," she continued. "Would anyone like to summarize the lessons we have discussed the  last two weeks?"

Several hands shot up the air. 

"Yes, Nathanael."

"Typography and photography." a bright red haired boy stood up from the farthest seat at the back.

Ms. Lament nodded for him to continue.

"T-typography is the art of arranging type and printing from it and as for photography, um, it is the s-science and art of making images by recording light." Nathanael said fidgeting a bit when he saw that everyone was staring at him.

"Ten points for Ravenclaw." their teacher chuckled as Nathanael sunk back to his seat, tapping the end of his pen on the surface of his table softly.

Did someone mention that their teacher loves the Harry Potter series and that she sorted them all into the book's Houses?

For example, Adrien was in Gryffindor.

"So since Nathanael had refreshed our memories about the lessons in the current days, I hope you are ready for the project I am going to give to you." Ms. Lament went over to her desk and took out a thick white-covered journal.

"This journal is blank as you can see." she flipped through the pages for her students to show that the pages were truly blank. "And so are these. One journal contains one hundred pages."

She took out several more identical journals stacked up in a tower and placed them on her desk.

Ms. Lament eyes each one of them carefully. "I will be randomly pair each and every one of you. Each pair will decide a topic like, nature, sports or music and collect or capture pictures and quotes relating to their chosen topic. The picture should be related to the quote and the quotes will be in typographic form. The format is based on you and your partner's creativity. I am giving you until the end of your winter break."

A perfectly manicured hand raised up in the air. "Miss?" Chloe said in her usual snobby voice. "Are we going to pick our partners? Can I be partners with Adrikins?"

Adrien cringed. Please no.

Someone had heard his prayer when Ms. Lament shook her head no. "I said, I am going to pair all of you randomly, Ms. Bourgeois."

As per usual, Chloe began her tantrum, whining and sobbing, showing off her title of the mayor's daughter.

That's when the teacher snapped.

"If you really are the mayor's daughter, stop acting so immaturely. You are supposed to set an example for your fellow students, but here you are, embarrassing yourself. Honestly, you are seventeen, not seven."

Almost immediately Chloe shut her lipstick covered mouth. Adrien can't tell if she was blushing with embarrassment since her face was practically caked with make up.

But like a prideful cow she is, Chloe lift her chin up in the air and crossed her arms with a slight "hmph" escaping her mouth.

Adrien internally laughed. Chloe must've thought that showing off her title to Ms. Lament would scare her into doing what she wants since she was new.

Good thing that the whole situation backfired her.

"Now, get a journal from me if you and your partner's name is called." she said, grabbing one of the white books. "You can design the cover by the way. That would add creativity to your project."

She began listing off partners in random.

"See ya later, dude." Nino said as he and his partner, Alya, got a journal from the teacher.

"Adrien and Marinette." Ms. Lament said before saying another set of names.

Adrien stood up and walked towards their Arts teacher. He could feel Marinette's presence walking behind him.

Reaching for the journal, his hands accidentally collided with another.

He lifted his eyes to see Marinette  reaching for the journal too.

"Sorry." they mumbled to each other.

"What about you keep the journal?" Adrien offered. He wouldn't have much time to arrange pictures and quotes in it anyway since he has a busy schedule.

Like, photoshoots, piano lessons, fencing lessons, photoshoots, karate lessons,  foreign language lessons, photoshoots, photoshoots, photoshoots and being Chat Noir.

Now that Adrien had thought about it. Photoshoots literally took up his whole life.

Again, their eyes met. Green crashing with blue.

"Sure." she said, looking away, destroying the connection they had.

Marinette grabbed the book, absently. She wasn't even sparing another glance back at him when she walked back to her seat. Adrien frowned when he saw that her expression was even worse the last time.

Her eyebrows were furrowed as if she was confused or frustrated. Her blue eyes were dull in thought. She was distracted.

Probably too distracted, seeing that she didn't noticed Chloe's leg out in her way to trip her.

Of course Marinette tripped, but she regained her balance by grabbing Chloe by the shoulders, hence pushing the blond cow on the ground.

"Argh, you klutz." she growled at the raven haired girl. Chloe rubbed her back. "I think I broke my spine. I hope you have money for my hospitalization."

"Maybe if your leg wasn't sticking out of the way, you wouldn't be in the ground." Marinette snapped back. "Also don't be overdramatic about it."

She sat back in her seat, blankly staring at the journal that she placed on her table.

Worry bubbled into the back of Adrien's head. It bugged him to see his friend like this. She was like a zombie or a robot or a robotic zombie.

"Now," Ms. Lament glanced at her watch. "please use the remaining time to discuss your topic with your seat mate. You may also take pictures now if you want."

People began exchanging seats, chatting and bugging other people.

Alya, Marinette's best friend, tapped Adrien on the shoulder. "May I please exchange seats with you, Adrien?" she asked. "Nino and I are gonna discuss about project."

Her brown eyes shot Marinette a look, that had a glint of mischievousness in them.

Adrien saw Marinette gave back to her a blank dull look as if to say, "what?".

"Okay." the blonde haired teen model stood up as he gathered his things to walk to the vacant seat next to Marinette.

He plopped down into the chair, facing the raven haired girl who was again distracted by her thoughts.

"You seem to be in your own little world." Adrien smiled.

Her orbs glanced at him before saying, "I was just thinking about someone."

"Who exactly?"

Suddenly a faint hue of pink reached the paleness of her cheeks. She lowered her head, covering her eyes with her bangs.

"N-no o-o-one sp-speci-cial." Marinette stammered.

Her lips started to twist into a shy smile. Adrien literally hold his breath in joy of seeing her happy instead of moping about her heartbreaker.

"Some guy who . . ." she trailed off. Instantly, her smile faded, the color in her cheeks vanished and her voice turned cold. "Nevermind. Let's focus on the project now."

Adrien frowned.

They began to discuss and debate over the topics that they were going to use on the project.

When both of them were about to decide Ladybug as their topic but Alya suddenly butted in, "Nino and I are going to do our project Ladybug and Chat Noir style with cat and ladybug quotes! What's yours?"

Both of them groaned. Marinette and Adrien agreed with each other that their topic should be different from the rest of the class to add originality to it, but Alya and Nino beat them to it.

Back to the drawing board.

Adrien told her some of his ideas which she disagreed with all of them.

Marinette stared outside the window, completely ignoring him.

Sighing, our male hero in disguise burnt his green gaze into the back of her head.

Welp, I'm out of ideas.

He looked into those familiar blue orbs that were filled with different kinds of emotions. She all bottles them up, never letting anyone know.

Well, at least, she shares them with Chat, most of the time.

It kinda frustrates Adrien that why does Marinette seems so at ease when he's Chat Noir but was so nervous and fidgety when he was in his civilian form.

Maybe she doesn't like me. Adrien thought to himself. She doesn't trust me enough as a friend. That's why she was so cold earlier. Maybe she thinks I was being nosy when I was just trying to start a conversation. Does she thinks I am a rich spoiled brat like Chloe? Well, we never got to know each other better as real friends. But I went to her house a couple of times and met her parents. That's progress, right? Ugh, why can't she trust Adrien but would trust Chat?

"It's raining."

Her voice interrupted his train of thought.

It was true though. Raindrops tapped on the windows of their classroom as grey clouds loomed in the sky.

Suddenly, Adrien had an idea.

He took out his phone and searched for the perfect angle. When he found it, a small click was heard as his phone flash went off.

Catching her attention, Marinette whipped her head to him in surprise.

"Our topic will be about the rain!" Adrien declared, grinning. "It reminds me of how we first met as friends."

—*—
Marinette

Friends.

There was a ball in her throat as she felt her tongue turned dry. Her eyes felt the familiar burn of tears waiting to fall.

She can't cry here.

Not now. Not in front of him.

"S-sure." she heard herself say. "L-l-let's go for it."

Adrien suddenly frowned. Worry stitched across his face. "Hey, are you okay? We can change it if you don't like it."

He was about to reach out to her, but she flinched away from him.

"No, it's okay." her voice was cracking now. "Excuse me for a sec."

Marinette stood up from her chair and walked up to her teacher. "May I go to the restroom?"

With the teacher's consent, she left the room and locked herself in the restroom.

There she cried her heart out.

——
Author's Note
(swear words up ahead)

Have you seen the Volpina episode?

Ugh, she was a b*tch. She clearly reminded me of all the annoying b*tchy girls in my classroom (like Chloe). I thought she was gonna be sweet and be besties with Marinette and Alya.

But she turned out to be a sly fox.

If I could say something to her, I would spit on her face and say stay the f**k away from my OTP. One step for her and she's going down.

She'll get DUNKED ON.

(If anyone is offended by this, I'm sorry. Volpina and Chloe were like all the b*tchy selfish girls in my class formed into two beings. They equally piss me off.)

Anyway, sorry for the late update. I just graduated from the purgatory into hell aka grade school to high school. The lack of wi-fi and laggy keyboard were problems too.
.-.

I also I rewrote this chapter several times. First was when I partnered Adrien with Nathanael, bc I wasn't up for cliches atm. But everything turned awkward and short. ;-;

So I came up with this chapter with 200+ words.

I appreciate all your votes, reads and comments. Even so they were few, it was good for me.

Thank you. :)
[UNEDITED]