Merry Christmas Marinette

Who cares?

Ever since Marinette hurt her ankle she been wearing different outfits to help protect herself from the cold. Today she definitely needed the warmest clothes she could put together with it being one of the coldest days in the past twenty years in Paris with a big step approaching. She walked into class in a pair of pastel pink trackies (I don't know if that's an Australian thing so the translation is sweatpants),black ugg boots, one of her Chat beanies that no one is supposed to see yet but oh well, and by the looks of it a jumper, sweater, a huge hoodie and a big parka. She sleepily settles in her seat behind me.

"Hey Marinette did..." I begin, turning to see her asleep. The cold must really be getting to her. I let her sleep through our first lesson but second lesson we have to present our projects.

As everyone gets up to go to recess I signal to Alya that I've got her and shake Marinette awake. She slowly pries her eyes open.

"Hmm what? When did I fall asleep? Did I miss anything?" She asks panicked.

"Nothing important. Don't worry." I assure her. That makes her relax a little bit, "We've got to present our project next lesson so we should probably get changed soon considering we have twenty minutes until the next bell."

At this she shivers, her teeth chattering, "O-o-o-o-o-k-k."

"Well do it with five minute to the bell so you don't get to cold ok?"

"Y-y-y-e-e-s-s-s."

Just before the bell goes Marinette and I walk to her locker grab our project and go to the change rooms to put them on. I don't take very long so I go and wait by the entrance to the girl's change room. The bell goes and Marinette still hasn't come out, "Mari?"

Nothing.

I start to panic and rush in not thinking about what people might think of me or what I might see if I just didn't hear her. I look around stressed and find her in a corner lying on the ground fast asleep. She had obviously fallen asleep while standing, collapsing in quite an awkward position. She was wearing leggings which she must have been wearing under her trackies, while holding her dress in her hand. Evidently half way through changing because she was just wearing a bra on her top half. I avert my eyes not wanting to be disrespectful but it wasn't easy. I walk up to her and see she's shaking. She must be freezing. I try to nudge her awake then, when that doesn't work I repeat her name but during none of it does she stir at all. Recently she's been falling asleep while she's cold. There is only one way I can think that will wake her up so she can quickly get dressed and run back to class which thankfully had fixed the heaters during recess thanks to Chloe's complaining this morning. I kneel down next to Marinette and hold her close to my body trying to warm her up after a few seconds her eyes flutter open and I heard her mumble something like, "Not again."

After she got her bearings she realised what position we were in and what she was wearing or more like what she wasn't wearing.

"Eeeek!" She yelps covering my eyes with her hands.

"Mari it's a bit late for that." I chuckle.

"Hey! It's not my fault you're a creep and came into the girl's change room." She protests.

"Well you weren't replying and you were really tired plus we were running late."

"Running late? What time is it?!"

"Doesn't matter just get your dress on and your parka over the top to keep you warm until we reach the classroom I'll think of an excuse when we get to class."

ooooOOOoooo

As we head back to the classroom I am worried. Worried about what Adrien must think of me, what he saw, what he thought about what he saw and most of all what they were going to tell everyone.

We reach the classroom and Adrien knocks on the door.

"Come in!" We hear and open the door. Alya and Ivan are up the front presenting but everyone's eyes are turned to Adrien and me.

"What were you two doing that caused you to be late?" The teacher demands.

I search my classmates face looking for any sign of an excuse they might have thought of but as my attention reaches Alya she just gives me a thumbs up and winks. What is she talking about? I reach up to my hair and notice it out and all over the place, Adrien looks a bit disoriented as well. Oh no. I see what they think we... Mrs Mollaer is quite shy.

"We we're doing some studying together and didn't hear the bell." Adrien says timidly. As if anyone will actually believe him.

"Really Mr Agreste? You expect me to believe that?"

Adrien looks unsure as to what to say next. Here goes nothing.

"We are so sorry Mrs. Mollaer we were just trying to help each other with our homework and I can promise this will never happen again we just got a bit... distracted." With that I kissed Adrien on the cheek and walked to my seat without look at anyone.

"Right ah of course. Ahh I'll let it go this one time and after all here in health we encourage self development and developing meaningful relationships." Mrs Mollaer manages to choke out. I finally look up and everybody is staring at me including Adrien who is holding his cheek looking stunned and slightly confused.The silence and shocked staring were interrupted by a high pitched squeal coming from Alya. "OH MY GOODNESS GIRL FINALLY!!"

This seems to wake everyone up, "Mr Agreste I suggest you take a seat until it's your turn to present."

So for the next twenty minutes Adrien and I sit there watching people present then it comes to out turn. I walk to the front, my parka wrapped around me, followed quickly by Adrien. I don't know what has come over me recently but I have more confidence, because who cares what others think, so I am the first to speak out of us, "As most of you know my name is Marinette Dupain-Cheng but how much do you really know about me? Well I'm not sure how much you think you do. Whether you think you know me inside and out or you have hardly ever talk to me and just know me by my crush on Adrien and how I made a complete fool of myself around him." At this there are lots of sharp intakes of breath including the person standing next to me in front of everyone, "At the start of this project I thought I knew everything about Adrien. I really thought I did just because I see him around the school and watch interviews that he was in. From these I gathered Adrien was patient, good hearted, smart and caring. But I now know there is much more to someone then how they act around people they don't know. It's all about how they act around someone they are comfortable with. And I hope I have become one of those people for Adrien because over the past few weeks I have gotten to know him more then I would have ever imagined and while my initial observations were true there is so much more to him than the model, straight A student standing in front of you. He is always worried about everybody else's well-being, competitive but most importantly he can easily make me smile. That isn't all though he's goofy, makes terrible jokes, is an awful singer and if you know him well enough that he is relaxed enough to show you this, you know you've become one of his good friends. So next time you presume you know someone, try spending more time with them and finding out whether your suspicions are true because I can guarantee you won't just find out more about them you will also make a new friend... like I have." I finally have the guts to look at Adrien and what I see surprises me he's looking at me with a big smile on his face crying.

"Thank you." He whispers giving me hug. Unfortunately this quickly ends as he turns back to the class and clears his throat.

"Now you've heard about me but we were saving the best for last. Marinette. We all know her. But unfortunately you don't all know who she really is. You may see her who is the clumsy girl who keeps hurting herself. While that is part of her it's only a tiny bit. She is confident, comforting, kind, humble, incredibly talented, beautiful and thoughtful. This is the shortened list as I could go on for days. Oh and don't forget sassy." Adrien finishes laughing.

ooooOOOoooo

"We made these clothes covered in our favourite things to display what we have learnt about each other. We chose this way of presentation to show Adrien's love for modeling and my love of designing." Marinette explains taking off her parka.

"Thank you for listening to our presentation." I say walking back to my desk eager to ignore the stares Marinette and I are getting. We have a couple things to talk about...