“Bye Mama and papa!” I called as I ran out to the bakery into tow of Alya. Our book bags swinging hazardly, hanging off of only one of our shoulders. I held firmly onto the paper bag of croissants for the two of us for breakfast.

I turned back to Alya once outside. “I can’t believe I’m so happy to go to school!”

“Me neither girl!” I passed her a croissant. “Thanks.”

I took a bite and melted a bit. It was so warm and battled the cold around me.

We went through the day without akumas or ‘the man’ interfering. My friends welcomed me back warmly and offered to walk me home in case the man came back.

“It’s alright, me and Alya have a counsel meeting after school.” I waved and we made our way to the meeting room.

Inside was a long table with chairs seated at them. There were a few council members mulling around, I recognized Cat and Bella from when they gave me the notes from the last meeting.

Cat noticed me and Alya standing in the corner awkwardly and gave Bella a slight tap on her shoulder to get her attention. When Bella looked up at them from what she was doing, Cat muttered something to her and pointed our way. Bella’s eyes followed to where they were pointing and gave a smile and waved us over.

“Hi! How are you doing?” Bella greeted us as we took our seats next to them.

“We’re alright.” I answered for us. “And you two?”

“Good.” Bella shrugged.

“No more depressed than usual.” Cat replied, that was the most I’ve ever heard them speak and the loudest I’m ever going to hear their voice. Bella gave a small laugh at Cat’s words as she continued with what looked like AP chemistry homework. This felt less awkward than standing in the corner but yet it still felt weird.

“It’s good to see you around the school again.” Cat said, starting to get used to me.

“Thanks, it’s good to be around the school again.”

“Have you seen the man again recently?” they questioned, adding emphasis on ‘the man’ like how I do. Saying it as if they knew his name but yet still refused to say it.

“Umm, n-no. I think he’s gone now.” I reassured, they nodded thoughtfully to my words.

“People are never really gone though, are they. Whether we want them to be or not.” I opened my mouth to say something in reply but the meeting got started and I had to leave it at that.

I watch Cat and Bella carefully through the meeting, uneasy about the last thing Cat said. I’m not sure what it was but something about what they said set me off. Were they talking mentaly or physically? And before that, did they know something about the man?

Bella frowned a bit in concentration as everyone shared ideas and Cat looked dull. They rested their head on their fist as they sketched in the margins. Bella made neat, messy notes as she followed along.

“Marinette? Bella?” My headshot up, all eyes were directed at us.

“Yes?” I asked. I was worrying too much about everything that I forgot to pay attention.

“You both are top students in art and we were hoping to hear and Ideas you might have for decoration.”

“Please remind me of the theme again please.”

“Um, we were thinking of doing a superhero theme, it’s the first year having real superheroes and we thought we could pay tribute to them. Do you have a different suggestion for the theme?”

Someone’s hand was up in a second. “What if we invite them?” there were murmurs of agreement floating around the room. As much as I’d love to see Chat that night, I wouldn’t want to miss it as Marinette and don’t want to bother Kagami to be Ladybug for something as small as this.

“I think maybe we can have a, I don’t know, mythical creature theme?” Cat’s head popped up at my words.

“Or greek mythology themed maybe.” she added and Bella restated what she said but louder.

“Yeah.” I agreed. “I just don’t want to bother the hero’s, they have civilian lives too and it wouldn’t be fair to ask them to put their lives on hold to attend our school dance.” The head of the student council thought about the idea for a second before coming to a decision.

“Okay, I like that idea, let’s vote, you can only vote once. Raise your hand for heroes.” She counted them up and wrote the number of hands up next to the word ‘Heros’ on the white board. “Okay, now raise your hand for Mythology.” She counted up the hands and wrote the number on the board.

“Mythology wins.” she announced. I gave a small mental cheer. The boy that offered to invite the heroes flushed a bit in embarrassment as he clapped along with the others. “While we discuss snacks and beverages, do you and Bella want to decide on decorations?”

I glanced at Bella and there was a small understanding that was expressed when we met eyes.

Bella looked back at the head of the student council. “Sure, we’ll come back after sketching out some ideas.” we left into the hallway.

“So, any ideas for a colour scheme for starters? I know it’s mythology themed, but it would be good to have a base.”

I shrugged. “Maybe wintery colours? Any other colour could be sharper so they pop. So like maybe baby blue table cloths with a sharp floral arrangement.”

She nodded along. “Mhm, so maybe cooler colours for the decorations and then warmer for any centerpieces.” I pulled my sketch book from my bag and started drawing what we described. In the end, it didn’t look too bad. I handed my book over to Bella who was unrolling her coloured pencils to add colours so we can determine if we liked the look.

For this part, I just nodded along to her suggestions. I couldn’t tell them apart anyways so I pretended. It was hard when she asked for help choosing a colour, when that happened, I just pointed to a colour that looks vaguely like what we were aiming for.

After a few more minutes of planning, we went back inside to show our idea.

“-dy canes?” there was a wide agreement at the suggestion. I felt awkward walking in right then. All eyes shot to us, intrigued on what our design was going to look like. “Yes? Do you two have something prepared?” We nodded and made our way to the front.

We started setting up the sketch under the projection slides. We walked through the image and our idea. The others suggested changes and we drew them in, eyeing how it looked. We had a fairly decent end design. After that, we sat next to each other, planning out the poster as the rest resumed their earlier discussion.

At the end of the meeting, me and Alya walked Bella and Cat out the door to the corner.

“I can take the design home and tidy it up a bit.” Bella offered. I nodded in agreement as she forced the sketch into her bag. We waved goodbye and I spent the rest of the evening with Alya.

“So girl, are you going to ask Adrien?” She smirked, waiting to see me blush at his name.

I shrugged. “I’m not sure, I originally planned to go alone.”

“What?! No way! How come?”

“I don’t know, I just thought it would be nice not having a date. However, if I am asked, I won’t say no.”

“How are you so unfazed right now? Just yesterday I couldn’t even start to say his name without you becoming a mess.”

“I really don’t know.”

“Are you sick?!”

“No.” She sat back, her eyebrow raised.
She opened her mouth to say something but was cut off by her phone. “Oh, I need to head out, it’s time for dinner.” I escorted her out.

“Night!” I call after her. I had dinner with my family before disappearing into my room to work on my dress. I heard a knock on my window and saw Chat’s face in it. I had a bunch of pins in my mouth and was in the middle of something so I just motioned for him to let himself in.

“Hey purrincess.” he fell in through the window. I finally got to a point where I could step away from my project. I took the pins from my lips and helped him up.

“Hey Chaton.” I helped him up.

“So how's the formal going?” he asked standing. My eyes lit up and started telling him all about it. He grinned listening to my excited ramble.

“It sounds fun! I know it’s going to be amazing!” I blushed and looked down at my hands. He stayed and we talked a bit longer before we fell asleep.

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Hey, im so sorry im a day late, this week is super hectic and I'm really exhausted. I hope you enjoyed this chapter and have an amazing day!