-7- A Baking Disaster

Yawning, Marinette's head falls in class and hits the desk. Alya starts laughing and wraps an arm around her shoulder. "Girl, are you doing okay? You've been yawning non-stop since we got to class."

"I was up all night writing that essay." Yawn. It wasn't a complete lie, but she just didn't mention Cat Noir was there to keep her company. He didn't end up leaving until almost four a.m.

"Why did you wait until the last minute to write it?"

Excuse. "Umm, I've been so busy with other things."

"Like what?" Alya asks.

Being Ladybug. "You know, helping my parents in the bakery and working on my fashion designs. I'm starting to build my portfolio." Adrien walks into class. Marinette's eyes widen. He waves and a grin grows on her face. She waves back, leaning over to Alya. "Adrien just waved at me..."

Alya rolls her eyes. "It's not like he hasn't done it before."

"Hey, Marinette." Adrien sets his bag down and turns to look at her. "You look tired." He tries not to smile. "Up all night?"

"Yeah. I was doing homework."

Adrien leans in. "Is that all?"

"Umm..." Why is Adrien being so weird? I'm usually the weird one. "I was working on my dress. You know, the only I'm supposed to marry you in. I mean model with you in. I just have to finish the top."

"Awesome." He can't stop himself from smirking.

"Dude, are you okay?" Nino asks him. "You're being weird. Like weirder than Marinette when—"

Alya leans forward and smacks the back of his head. "Nino!"

"I'm fine." Adrien turns around when Miss Bustier walks into class. He glances back at Marinette, who smiles to herself.

Miss Bustier claps her hands. "Alright, class! Please come to my desk and drop off your essays! Today will be a easy day. I'm behind on grading, so I'll be reading over your essays. You can use this class as a free period. Finish homework for another class, take a nap, draw, sketch, paint, film a movie, do whatever you want. Just keep the talking to a minimum."

Marinette stands up, essay in hand, and walks to Miss Bustier's desk. She trips on a step and falls forward, and Adrien wraps his arm around her waist, catching her. Her cheeks burn red. "T-Thanks, Adrien." She notices all the essays she knocked over. "Ugh." He bends down with her to help.

With a smirk, Chloe steps on Marinette's essay and slides it over, quickly picking it up. She erases Marinette's name and fills in her own. She walks proudly to the front to drop it on the desk. "Hope you did your homework, Marinette."

"Like you ever do homework, Chloe," She snaps, glaring up at her. She drops the essays on the desk and goes back to her seat. "Chloe gets on my nerves," She mutters to her best friend.

"Don't let her get to you, Marinette. She probably likes getting you mad." Alya opens her laptop. "That short movie we made? It's has over 100,000 views on the Ladyblog!"

"What?!" Marinette's eyes widen. "You posted it?"

Alya nods. "Yeah. Since Miss Bustier didn't show it in class, I figured I'd show all of Pairs." She clicks on the comments. "And before you freak out, go ahead and read some of the comments. People think you're amazing."

She leans over and reads the comments. All nice. Complimenting her acting and costume designs. Thankfully, no one is saying how much Marinette and Adrien look similar to Ladybug and Cat Noir. A certain comment makes her eyes widen.

'Marinette and Adrien have to be dating! There's no way they could fake that chemistry on screen. And that kiss? Amazing! I'm a little jealous, even.'

"Someone actually said that?" Alya nods. "Me and Adrien, dating..." She smiles at the thought.

"Marinette?" Miss Bustier calls. "Where's your essay?"

Marinette and Adrien both raise their eyebrows.

"What do you mean, Miss Bustier? I just turned it in." She walks up to the desk and searches for her essay. "I swear I wrote it. It must have gotten lost when I tripped."

"It's due today, Marinette, and it's worth fifty percent of your grade." Miss Bustier taps her nails on her desk. "I can give you til the end of today to rewrite it."

"NO!" Marinette shakes her head. "I turned it in! Let me look." She looks through all the essays, but she can't find her name. Then, she recognizes her handwriting, except Chloe's name is on the paper. "This is my essay!"

Miss Bustier takes it and looks at the name. "No, Marinette, this is Chloe's."

Gasping, Chloe stands up and holds a hand over her heart. "How dare you, Marinette Dupain-Cheng! You forget to do your homework so you're trying to take credit for mine? Ridiculous! Utterly ridiculous!"

"You stole my essay, Chloe!" Marinette storms up to her and points a finger in her face. "I know you did. You probably took it when I tripped and erased my name to write yours!"

"Marinette!" Miss Bustier frowns. "You can't just go accusing Chloe."

"But I know she did it!"

"Go to the principal's office, Marinette." Miss Bustier writes her a pass. "You may come back when you've learned to stop accusing people and trying to take credit for someone else's work."

Adrien, Alya, and Nino stand up.

"She did write it, Miss Bustier!" Adrien says, coming to Marinette's defense.

"Were you with her when she wrote it, Adrien?"

"Not exactly," He whispers, scratching his neck.

"Chloe never does her homework." Alya glares at Chloe. "It's nothing new."

Miss Bustier shakes her hands. "We'll discuss this later. I have papers to grade. Marinette, principal's office. Now."

Marinette snatches her backpack off the floor and storms out of the room. Tears pour down her face as she heads for the girl's bathroom instead. She locks herself in a stall.

Adrien storms up to Chloe. "If you wrote that essay, Chloe, then what is it about?" Everyone was allowed to pick their own topic and Marinette did hers on the history of flour. Although, it was her dad who gave her the idea. Adrien only knew what Marinette's topic was because he watched her write it as Cat Noir.

"I..." Chloe looks around the room nervous. "Shopping?"

Miss Bustier quickly reads through 'Chloe's' essay. "This isn't about shopping at all, Chloe! You did steal Marinette's essay!"

Chloe shakes her head. "It's not what it looks like."

"Principal's office. NOW!" Miss Bustier points out the door. "There's a lot of things I tolerate, but stealing isn't one of them. Go now, Chloe. And will someone find Marinette? I need to apologize."

"I'll go, Miss Bustier." Adrien is quick to leave the classroom.

He walks to the principal office as Plagg sticks his head out. "Marinette's in the bathroom."

Adrien stops walking. "How do you know that?"

"I can feel Tikki's presence in the bathroom." Plagg points down the stairs. "She's in the girl's bathroom."

"I'm sorry, Marinette," Tikki speaks, flying out of her purse. "I'm sure we can prove Chloe didn't write it."

"What does it matter, Tikki?" She rests her chin in her hand, sighing. "No one believes me."

"Alya, Nino, and Adrien do." Tikki tilts Marinette's chin up. "Cat Noir does, too."

She rolls her eyes. "Yeah, because Cat Noir's going to come to my school to protect my honor."

"You know he would." Tikki smiles. "And he kind of already did..."

"What?"

There's a knock on the bathroom door. "Marinette?" It's Adrien. "Are you in there?"

Wiping away her tears, she unlocks the stall and walks out of the girl's bathroom. She faces Adrien. "Hey."

Adrien notices she's been crying. "I'm really sorry, Marinette. Chloe's a real jerk sometimes."

"What are you doing here?" Marinette asks, taking in a deep breath. "Don't you want to spend your free period with Nino?"

"Miss Bustier knows Chloe didn't write it." Her eyes widen as Adrien continues. "Chloe couldn't say what topic you wrote about, so Miss Bustier sent her to the principal's office." Adrien grabs Marinette's hand and leads her over to the staircase. They sit down. "I wanted to come see how you were doing."

"How did you know I was in the bathroom?"

"Uh..." He scratches the back of his neck. "I checked the principal's office and you weren't there. Second guess."

He must really know me. "I'm fine. It just hurts that when I defend myself, no one believes me. Reminds me of Lila." She rolls her eyes at the thought of Lila. "I'm so glad Lila's in Italy or Japan or wherever she's lying about now."

"Me too." Adrien laughs. "I can't stand Lila."

Something we have in common, Marinette thinks, smiling. She notices their knees are touching and Adrien isn't moving away. If anything, he moves closer to her. Her eyes widen. What could that mean? "So, what did you write your essay on?"

"Ladybug," Adrien answers confidently before he can filter his thoughts.

"Ladybug?" Marinette questions.

"And Cat Noir!" He quickly adds. "You know, Paris' protectors."

Marinette laugh. "I didn't realize you liked Ladybug and Cat Noir that much."

"More than you think..."

She feels Tikki moving in her purse and holds it down. "I did mine on the history of flour."

"I know."

She questions with an eyebrow, "You do...?"

Adrien's eyes widen. "Uh, after you left class, I read your essay. Really good stuff." It wouldn't be long until Marinette found out he was Cat Noir if he didn't get it together.

"Oh. Thanks, Adrien." Marinette stares at her shoes. This is the first time she's had a conversation with him without being flustered or stuttering or falling over her words. Her heart flutters and she smiles. Maybe she was capable of it. "Are you doing anything after school?"

He's taken back by her question. "Not today. Why?"

"Do you wanna come over and bake with me?" She looks up at him. "I can personally teach you the history of flour while we make bread."

"You had me at baking," Adrien jokes, leaning in. "I will always say yes to free food."

"Good. Then I'll keep offering free food." Was Marinette flirting? Miss Stammer-Over-My-Words? No, couldn't be.

Adrien laughs. "We'll be best friends in no time."

"What...?" Marinette asks, frowning. Didn't Adrien already consider her a best friend?

He notices her sad smile. "No! That's not what I meant. You are one of my best friends. I was just making a bad joke. What I meant was that we'll be even closer than we are now."

Hopefully as more than best friends. "Oh. Okay."

"Marinette, your friendship means everything to me. You were the first friend I made when I came to this school." He holds her hand. "Just forget my dumb joke. Okay?"

She nods, smiling. "You need to work on your jokes."

***

"Mom! Papa!" I'm home. She walks into the bakery, Adrien in tow. Her parents walk in, jaws dropping. Before they can say anything, she speaks. "Adrien came over so we can bake together. We're making bread."

Tom smiles. "Do you want to be a baker, Adrien?!"

"Uh..." Adrien looks at Marinette. "She's going to teach me the history of flour."

Sabine smiles and grabs her husband's hand. "Let them bake, Tom. Come on. We need to do some grocery shopping, anyway." Her parents leave the bakery.

"They're not used to me having boys over." Marinette's eyes widen. "Not that I'm bringing boys home left and right. Honestly, you're the first guy I've had over. Well, besides Nino, but he's with Alya! I just babysit his little brother. Even Cat Noir a few times, but that's a whole different story."

She's so cute when she rambles. "So, I should be lucky then," He states with a smirk.

She smiles. "Yeah. You should. Okay. We need aprons." She grabs two and hands one to Adrien. "Then we wash our hands." She struggles to tie her apron.

"Here. Let me help." Adrien grabs the strings and tie them in the back. Marinette's back stiffens as his hand touches her lower back. "There."

"T-Thanks." After they wash their hands, Marinette starts gathering the ingredients. She couldn't believe Adrien was actually in her bakery, baking with her. Didn't he have better things to do? "This is flour." She drops the sack on the counter. "It's white and used for baking."

Adrien leans in, teasing, "Didn't you just write an essay on the history of flour? That's all you know about it?"

"Yes, but my brain hurts too much from writing it that I forgot." She starts spreading some on the counter. "That should be enough." She picks up the sack, turning to put it away when she trips. Flour explodes everywhere. She lays on the ground, staring up at a flour-covered Adrien. She giggles. "I'm sorry."

"That didn't sound very sincere." Adrien helps her up. "I think that's a little too much flour." He sneezes and she laughs again.

Marinette dusts the flour off on her. "I'm so clumsy. I don't know why my parents trust me in here. I'm a baking disaster." Reaching out, she plays with Adrien's hair, shaking off the flour. "You're definitely going to need a shower or two."

"So will you." He starts playing with her hair.

A minute passes before they realize they're playing with each other's hair.

Marinette pulls her hand back, blushing. "So, uh, should we keep baking?"