People talking. Lights. The sound of the violin resonating through the auditorium.

Arianne always felt nervous before a presentation, but this time was worse, because she knew that Adrien would be in the audience. And, even though he had heard her play other times, he never heard her in a presentation, because his father didn't let him.

But now he had, and Arianne, for the first time, wished he hadn't. His presence there made her anxious. What if she forgot the notes? What if she got stage fright? What if her hands failed her?

All those questions filled her mind, and her teacher, Charlotte White, noticed.

"You alright, Aria?" she questioned, startling the girl a bit.

"I can't do this, Charlotte" she said, shaking her head "Anything could go wrong"

"It could" replied the woman "But it won't, because you know what you have to do. You practiced a thousand times, you got this. Let your hands do all the work, focus on feeling the notes you are playing"

The lights were turned off, and Arianne knew it was time.

"Take a deep breath" said Charlotte, and the violinist did as told "And go get 'em" Arianne took another breath, before nodding, and walking to the stage. The people clapped as she stood on the middle of the stage. She caught Adrien smiling at her, before beginning to play the first song, called "Hidden Falls".

Marinette and Alya, who were also sitting in the crowd, exchanged smiles. They loved to hear their friend play, and the song she was playing was beautiful. It brought some tears to Alya's eyes.

The audience could only clap once the whole presentation was over, so that's why they stayed quiet as Arianne took a sip of her bottle of water and stretched her arms, before playing the other song. This time, a pianist was accompanying her to play the "Fairytale Theme".

Her parents, Layla and Tony, were also in the crowd. Layla was crying, and Tony was smiling. They knew how talented their daughter was, but they wish she would stop demanding so much of herself. She was an amazing violinist.

Arianne played some more songs, before getting to the final one, and she was gonna do her best not to cry since it reminded her of Adrien.

'Feel the notes'

She heard the voice of Charlotte in her mind, and took a deep breath, before starting to play a rendition of "For the Dancing and the Dreaming".

Adrien stared at her in awe, but with a big smile. He knew he could never play the violin like his friend did, and that was what made him admire her. She was his best friend, one of the only people who truly knew him, and he cared a lot about her. 

When she was done, the auditorium erupted in applause. Arianne smiled, and bowed.

She had done well despite being so nervous, and had managed not to cry in the last song, which was a great accomplishment since the times she had practiced it, she always cried.

She wanted to have her original song done by that day, but she couldn't manage, so she played covers, but they were great nevertheless.

"See? I told you!" said Charlotte when her student approached her "You were great!" Arianne smiled gratefully at her "Now go, your friend are waiting to congratulate you" 

After changing her clothes, with her case hanging from her back, she stepped into the auditorium. Hers hadn't been the only presentation, some more violinists were about to come on stage, but there was a quick break before that. The first people she saw when she stepped out into the hall were her parents.

"Honey, that was beautiful!" said her mother, hugging her, and Arianne hugged back happily.

"Well done, daughter" congratulated her father, caressing her head.

"Aria!" she heard someone yelling from behind her, and was immediately wrapped in a bone-crushing hug by Alya. Arianne chuckled upon seeing her actions "You were great up there! The songs you played were beautiful!" 

"I agree" Marinette spoke up "You seemed quite immersed in the songs! I don't know much about violin, but just enough to know that it is a good thing!" Arianne chuckled.

"Hey, Aria" Arianne turned around to find Adrien smiling at her, with his bodyguard at his side. Arianne immediately hugged him, since she hadn't seen him before the presentation, and she always loved to hug him. 

"I'm so happy you could make it!" she said with honesty.

"Yeah, me too" replied the blonde as they broke apart "You were great!" Arianne smiled brightly, and Adrien turned to face her friends "Hey Alya, Marinette"

"Hey, Adrien!" greeted Alya back, while Marinette said something illegible again, but Arianne could make up the word 'morning', even though it was 5:00 PM. Adrien then turned to face Arianne's parents.

"Hi, Mr. and Mrs. Mercier"

"Adrien, how many times have we told you to call us by our names?" asked Layla. Mr. and Mrs. Mercier were like family to Adrien, and they saw him as their own son. 

"It's good to see you, son" replied Tony. He wasn't a man of many words "How's your father?"

"He's good" replied the boy, but he truly didn't know since he hadn't seen him since the previous day in the morning.

At that moment, Arianne's phone rang. She took it out of her bag, looked at the caller, smiled, and replied.

"Hey, stranger!" she greeted, walking some meters away "You almost never call me anymore"

"I know, I'm sorry" replied Thiago Reyes, Arianne's other childhood friend, in his Spanish accent. He lived in Barcelona "But the akuma attacks have increased a lot lately" Arianne opened her eyes wide upon hearing that.

"Do you need help? You know I can be there in a rush"

"No need, I can handle it" he replied confidently "I was just calling to check up on you. I couldn't make it to your presentation, as you may have noticed"

"That's alright" nodded the girl "You've been busy, I get it. I had a busy week, too" she then realized something "Oh my god, I haven't bought Adrien a present! I'm such a terrible friend!"

"You still have time, it's still early there, isn't it?"

"I think so" Arianne then heard some noise on the other side of the line.

"Gotta go, duty calls" said Thiago "I'll try to come and see you when I'm less busy"

"Alright" she nodded "Good luck"

The next morning, Arianne woke up early, at 7 AM more or less, since it was Adrien's birthday and she was going to surprise him with a deluxe breakfast. She was going to buy him a present later that day, since she didn't have time the previous day.

She got dressed, grabbed her bag and violin case, which she took everywhere, and off she went. She didn't worry about buying ingredients to make breakfast, because Adrien's house always had food, and she didn't worry about waking him up by ringing the bell either. She had let Nathalie know that she was coming, and the assistant told her to send her a text when she was at the door. 

The woman finally opened the door, and let the girl in. After greeting Nathalie, she made her way to the kitchen. Adrien wasn't awake yet. She made sure to close the door before letting Ayu out of her bag.

"Okay, what can we make for him today?" she asked, opening the fridge "We got to make at least four dishes"

"How about croissants? He loves them" suggested Ayu, and Arianne nodded.

"Yeah, alright!" she wrote that down on the notes on her cellphone "We got one. What else?" she opened the fridge to see what she had to work with "Pain au chocolat can be another one" she wrote that down, too.

In the end, they decided to make croissants, pain au chocolat, palmier and pain suisse, with coffee.

As she was setting the table with Ayu's help, she heard movement upstairs.

"It's time" she smiled at her kwami, who smiled back before hiding in her jacket pocket. She kept setting the table, as she waited for Adrien. After some minutes, he finally came down, and his face lit up when he saw everything the girl had done.

Next, his gaze stood on Arianne standing next to it, and she was smiling brightly at him.

"Aria, you did this for me?" he asked in awe.

"I told you I would be here" was her reply before approaching him "Happy birthday, Adrien"

Adrien looked at the table once more, before hugging her tightly.

"Thank you so much" he said in her shoulder, and Arianne felt butterflies in her stomach as she hugged back.

"It was my pleasure" she replied breaking apart "Now come on, sit down!"

Adrien sat at the head of the table, and Arianne on the chair besides him.

"You did good here, Ari" said Ayu from her pocket.

"I know. This was a good idea" replied Arianne with a smile, while staring at a very happy Adrien.

Even if Adrien had no one, he had Arianne. She was always going to be there for him.

"I never get tired of riding in your fancy limo" admitted Arianne as they got out of the car in front of the school. Adrien chuckled upon hearing that.

"You can have it" replied the blonde boy, jokingly of course, 'cause there was no way his father would let him come on his own to school "Honestly, I'm tired of it"

Arianne spotted Marinette and Alya hiding behind the wall, and she frowned. What were they up to now?

"Hey, I'll catch you later" she said with a small wave before approaching her friends.

"You can do it! You can do it!" she heard Alya encouraging Marinette, who had a gift on her hands, probably for Adrien.

"I can do it, I can do it!" repeated Marinette.

"You can do what?" questioned Arianne, startling both girls.

"She's got a gift for Adrien" replied Alya "She has to give it to him"

"I thought so" said Arianne, crouching down. Marinette stood up, gave Adrien a glance, and immediately ducked down again.

"I can't do it, I can't do it"

"Mari, it's just a gift" replied Arianne "Just go over there and give it to him. He'll be glad, trust me, he doesn't get many gifts"

"But I can't do it!" she said again, and Arianne rolled her eyes as Alya facepalmed.

"No, you don't, girl!" she stated "You've been stalling all morning. Now's the time" she pushed her forward, and she ended up in front of Adrien and Nino, who looked extremely confused.

"Hi" she greeted. Adrien exchanged glances with Nino, before looking back at the girl.

"Hey" he said back.

"I...Uh..." started Marinette "I wanted to...gift you I made" then, she realized she said it wrong as Chloe approached them "I mean...gift you a gift I made..."

"Out of the way!" said Chloe, pushing her away "Happy birthday, Adrien!" said Chloe, giving him a kiss on the cheek. Arianne narrowed her eyes angrily upon seeing this. She hated Chloe with all her might. And not just because she did stuff like that, she was an awful person overall.

She wasn't sure anyone liked her, really.

"I hate her so much!" exclaimed Arianne as Marinette hid behind the wall again.

"Get back there!" urged Alya "Don't be a pushover. Literally" Marinette groaned sadly.

"C'mon, Mari" encouraged Arianne "You can do it" Marinette, determined to try again, stood up, but a limo for Adrien parked over, and he had to go. He had a photoshoot.

"Why can't I just mean what I say?" wondered Marinette with a sigh, making Arianne and Alya frown.

"It's say what you mean" corrected Arianne.

"Exactly" replied Marinette.

Later that day, Arianne was in the park trying to finish some songs. Marinette and Alya were at Adrien's house delivering the gifts. Arianne bought him a keychain and gave it to her friends so they could deliver it, too. She couldn't go because her teacher wanted her to take part in a competition, but they only accepted original songs, so she had to finish them. Once that was done, she was going to visit Adrien.

"Why is it so hard to come up with an ending?!" she questioned out loud, and Ayu looked at her sympathetically

"Why don't you take a break, walk around a bit? You've been doing this for two hours, it's normal you don't have as much inspiration anymore"

"I can't" she replied with a sigh "I have to sign up in the competition next week, and I have to finish these"

She had written four songs. 'Reflections', 'Lunar Eclipse', 'Sunflower' and 'Awakening', and she was missing the ending in all of them.

Her eyes then stood on some kids sitting down underneath a tree, and they looked sad. She closed her notepad and approached them. She didn't like to see people sad.

"Hey" she greeted, crouching down, and gaining their attention. There were two boys and two girls "What's going on?"

"We wanted to get on the carousel, but it's broken" replied one of the girls. Arianne cocked her head to the side, and saw indeed that the carousel had a sign that read 'in repair'.

"And there's nothing else we can do" added one of the boys. Arianne sighed, looking down, and wondering what she could do to fix that.

And then she realized.

"I have an idea" she stated, looking at the kids, who gave her curious glances "Follow me" she added with a smile.

The kids did as told.

Arianne walked some steps away 'till she found a bench. She took out her violin and stood on the bench, while the kids looked at her expectantly.

She took a deep breath before beginning to play 'A Million Dreams'. 

The wind blew as she played. The children were looking at her amazed, and Arianne was enjoying it. She loved playing the violin, it was her passion and she had no idea what she would do if she didn't have it.

As she kept playing, people started to approach her from all sides. Some of them wanted to leave her some money, but didn't find the place to put it since she wasn't doing it for money. She was doing it for fun, and for the kids, to brighten up their day. She knew she was probably being filmed, and the video would probably end up in the internet, but she didn't care. All she cared about was feeling the notes she was playing.

Once she was done, the people surrounding her clapped happily and Arianne smiled at them brightly.

But the happy moment didn't last long, because a green bubble trapped all the adults and took them to the air.

Something was wrong.