chamomile | miraculous ladybug

17 | Simon Says

"Welcome back to everyone's favorite live game show, The Challenge!" Alec Cataldi announced. I was at the KIDZ+ TV Station, since Nino was competing on some of their game shows. "Let's give it up for our next contestant, Nino!"

I gave Nino a supportive smile as Adrien nudged him on the shoulder, the boy clearly nervous as he took a deep breath before walking onto the stage.

As they introduced Nino to the camera, I fiddled with my bracelet.

"I hope Nino can win. He's a really good DJ, but what if the challenge is hard?" I wondered quietly. Feeling a hand on my shoulder, I jumped when I looked and saw Adrien putting a hand on my left shoulder reassuringly while also still looking at Nino on the stage.

"I bet he'll ace his challenge. We just gotta have faith in him," Adrien assured me, still looking at the stage. Adrien's bodyguard was eyeing me warily, and i sent him a nervous smile.

"So, the challenge our viewers have chosen for you is... to get the Mayor of Paris, Andre Bourgeois, to dance!" Alec announced once we began paying attention to him again. "Thank you for agreeing to play with us sir. What are Nino's chances tonight?"

"Zero, I stopped dancing. The last time I danced, Madonna was in Kindergarten," Mayor Bourgeois said to the audience through his screen, shaking his head.

As Nino began djing, I got a text from Marinette. I had forgotten to put my phone on silent, so it dinged, but luckily it was drowned out by Nino's music.

"Marinette's grounded," I whispered to Adrien. He looked at me with a frown.

"Again?" I nodded.

"She said it's because she misses school so much," I sighed. Marinette missed class very often, almost as much as I did. Whether she was skipping or doing something else, she never said. She always just came up with weird excuses.

"I'm surprised you haven't been grounded yet. You miss class almost as much as Marinette," Adrien teased, making me embarrassed as he was right. I did miss class often, but that was because I was out saving rogue helicopters from crashing into the middle of the street.

Just then, the next contestant steps up beside Adrien. The two of us waved at the guy, who was wearing a pink jacket over his tuxedo. Stylish. When the guy waved back and stuck out his hand to shake Adrien's hand, Adrien's bodyguard panicked and pushed himself between the two, making Adrien panic and rush to reassure him all was okay. I held in a laugh at the interaction.

"Victory! Challenge accomplished by Nino," Alex interrupted the music, and Nino stopped doing his thing as he put a hand over his shoulders. "You moved to the beat, Mayor Bourgeois. That counts as dancing."

"What? That's not true!" Mayor Bourgeois protested, but we had all seen him nodding along to the music. "My neck was itching, that's all."

"Relieving an itch to the beat counts as dancing too!" A picture of Nino then popped up on the screen as Mayor Bourgeois disappeared from it. "Nino, congratulations. You'll return in one week for your next challenge. And now, for our next contestant, welcome Simon Grimault!"

The guy in the pink who was standing by us walked up onto stage as Nino came back over to us. The two of us smiled widely as Adrien and Nino fist bumped.

"Awesome dude!" Adrien said.

"Congrats, Nino," I congratulate him with a smile, the two of us high fiving. He then gave us a little bow.

"Mr. Grimault, you're a hypnotist, and you use cards to hypnotise people to get what you want from them," Alec introduced the next contestant to the show, surprising me a bit at how he described him.