Noir Spots

Ocean's Two and a Half

Elm trees left little room to hide behind.

Marinette learned that little tidbit through personal  experience, and while that experience came with knowledge, she would have rather stayed ignorant.

Her perch on a branch was very uncomfortable—leaves poked her eyes and itched at her head, several small branches scratched at her arms.
It was worse for Chloé, who had apparently never climbed a tree before.

She sat on the same branch as Marinette, hugging the trunk of the tree like her life depended on it.

Getting out there hasn't even been the hard part. The park was barely a street away, and know one seemed to care, or even notice, two teenagers ditching school. Mrs. Bustier didn't see them as they walked behind her and climbed a tree. She wasn't all that aware of her surroundings.

The walk to the park was nice and peaceful, orange and red autumn leaves fell around them, and Chloé and Marinette would try to catch them as they fell.

Marinette smiled at her friend, who knew Chloé Bourgeois would be afraid of heights? She had been fine as Queen Bee.

"Chloé?" Marinette whispered, careful to not let anyone but Chloé hear her. "Are you okay? I thought you liked heights."

Chloé sucked in a breath and turned a little to peer at Marinette. "I'm not afraid! I just don't like being in such an icky place!" She whisper-yelled.

That's a load of bullshit, kid. Plagg cackled in her head.

Marinette smiled again, she was about to respond when she heard a noise of annoyance from below.

"It's just so stupid that she said that! I can't believe I used to be friends with someone like that! I need a dress and she just won't make me one? What the hell!" Alya's angry grumble came from below.

Marinette rolled her eyes, an attempt to cover the hurt from someone she once considered her best friend.

To get the twitch out of her eye, Marinette enacted her plan. She nodded to Chloé, who grinned like a shark. Marinette began to crawl down the tree, making sure she wasn't seen.

Marinette knew everything about all her classmates, including that Alya always, always, sat down when she was on a call. She had spent weeks learning everything she possibly could about her classmates so that she would never do anything one of them would dislike. She had stopped after the Lila fiasco, and after a while that knowledge sat in her head to rot.

She didn't think it would ever be useful, but now it finally was. Being obsessive over all her friends had finally paid off.

Chloé whipped out Alya's phone and dialed quickly, she was smiling so much Marinette thought her smile might start to hurt.

One ring. Two rings. Three.

"Who the fuck is this?" Alya growled and sat down on the bench, crossing her legs and glaring at nothing.

"Did you never learn to answer the phone politely?" Chloé scoffed.
Marinette felt a smile tug at her lips.
She dropped to the ground without a sound and peaked behind the tree to watch Alya.

"Chloé? Why do you have my phone!" Alya asked—or rather, yelled.

She quickly quieted and hid her phone when Mrs. Bustier looked over.

Marinette crawled out from behind the tree. The bench Alya sat on was by the next tree over. She only had to crawl a few feet without anyone noticing her.
The only problem: that few feet was open space, and right next to where Kim and Alix were playing soccer.
She would need a distraction. if only she had her Lucky Charm. But she was still Ladybug, even if she wasn't wearing the mask.