When the Cat Met the Wolf

16. Of Artists & Physics

Arianne was sitting next to the 'new student', Thiago, in the chemistry classroom. She acted as his escort and partner in all the classes, Principal Damocles' request, since he was new and both teenagers were friends before his arrival. She could help him to adjust to education in France, since it was quite different from Spain's.

"Nathanael!" called the teacher, a moody, purple-haired lady, to the redhead, who had been drawing something on his sketchbook "What are you drawing?" the poor boy stuttered, not really knowing what to say "And these artistic endeavors are clearly why you are failing science!" she added, shaking the papers in front of him. Arianne looked at the boy sympathetically.

"I'm...sorry" he finally managed to say.

"You go march yourself down to the principal's office!" ordered the teacher, pointing out to the door. Nathanael picked up his things quickly and walked down the aisle of desks. On his way, he tripped on Marinette's bag, and his sketchbook fell down, opening up to reveal a drawing of Marinette and him. Chloe, of course, took advantage of that to mock him.

"Ooh, look, Sabrina!" said the blonde to the girl sitting next to her "It's him as a superhero! And look who he's saving!" she pointed out to the drawing "Its Marinette!" whispers of surprises were heard all across the room as she said that "He's so totally crushing on you, Marinette!" Nathanael hurriedly snatched his things and went off, embarrassed. Arianne gave Chloe a glare.

"Chloe, I think it's time for you to get a life and stop ruining others!" she said angrily, and stayed quiet, because the teacher asked for silence, and she didn't want to make her mad.

"Is she always like this?" questioned Thiago in a low voice, talking about Chloe. It was his first day at school, so he didn't know much about the students.

"This is what I have to deal with every day" replied the girl, nodding "You'll have to learn to do it, too. My way? Sass her every time I get the chance" Thiago chuckled silently, so the teacher, who was already mad enough, wouldn't hear him.

"The next particle physics presentation group is Thiago, Arianne and Adrien, and Marinette, Alya and Nino!" announced the teacher, making Arianne and Thiago high-five.

"Hope you're not tired of me!" said Arianne to Adrien sitting in front of her.

"How could I be?" he said back, with a smile that made her heart flutter.

"You're so lucky!" said Marinette behind her, making Arianne look at her "You are with Adrien!"

"Your group is not bad, either, Mari!" said the girl back "Hey, you guys think Nathanael is okay?" she asked with concern, looking at her three friends.

"Always worried about others" replied Thiago, shaking his head with a smile "I can't tell for sure 'cause I don't know him"

"I hope so" replied Marinette "What Chloe did was very mean"

"What Chloe does is always mean" said Alya.

"Tell me about it" replied Arianne, rolling her eyes "She is so annoying!"

"Do you, by any chance, know something about particle physics?" asked Adrien, looking at Thiago later that day at the library. Since they had a free period, the three of them decided to start working on the project.

"I wish" replied the boy "The only exact science I know is programming" Adrien looked at him surprised upon hearing that.

"Programming? Like, the language?" he was talking about the language used to program web pages or systems.