Removing the Mask (Book Two)

Chapter 22

~The Next Morning~
(Marinette's POV)
I rushed to school, realizing I overslept. Five minutes before the tardy bell. If I run fast, I should be able to get to class on time. Luckily, I don't live too far from school.

Suddenly, I bumped into someone--Adrien to be specific. He trapped me against his chest the second I ran into him.

"Thanks for the hug," he teases.

I blush and escape his grip, "Shut up, I was just trying to get to class before the-"

I was interrupted by the school bell.

"TARDY BELL!" Adrien and I scream at the same time.

We immediately run up the stairs, dashing through the door and along nearly empty hallways to get to class.

"Madame will be pissed!" I exclaim.

Adrien nods in agreement with panic in his eyes.

We turned into our classroom, the entire class staring at us as we ran to sit in our spots.

"No running in the lab!" Madame Mendeleiev shouts.

"Sorry!" Adrien and I yell, panting from our early morning sprint.

Madame shoots both of us one last glare before turning back to the chalkboard.

"Marinette, come solve this problem," Madame demands, pointing to a chemistry problem on the board.

I dig through my backpack, panicking and cursing under my breath as I realize I forgot to bring my calculator.

"Psst"

I look over at Alya, who handed me her graphing calculator.

"You're a lifesaver, thank you," I whisper and walk up to the board.

I plug in a couple numbers into a formula on the board and plug them into my calculator. I continue jotting down more numbers and typing into my calculator until I reach my final answer. I draw a circle around my answer and put the chalk down before going back to my seat.

Madame examines my work, nodding, "That's correct. Not bad for a student who's always late"

I sigh in relief.

Adrien turns around, "Smart just like Ladybug," he whispers.

I smile at his compliment.

"Monsieur Agreste! Turn around!" Madame yells.

Adrien obeys, "Sorry!"

"No acting lovey-dovey in the lab, got it?" Madame demands, eyeing Adrien and I.

Adrien and I both look down in embarrassment.

"Yes, Madame," we say in unison.

I heard Alya chuckle next to me.

~After School~
"Chloé!"

I sprint after the blonde girl and she turns around.

"What do you want, Dupain-Cheng?"

"Thank you," I say.

She lifts an eyebrow, "For?"

"For paying my medical bills and everything else you did that night," I explain.

She stayed silent for a bit before flipping her hair, "Oh, it was nothing. Don't you see? I do have a heart"

And with that, she walked off. Adrien approached me seconds later.

"Hey, do you wanna-"

We were cut off when we saw a crowd citizens screaming and running in one direction.

Adrien sighs, "You know what that means"

I nod, "Yep"

Adrien and I run to the back of the school to transform before lunging into yet another battle. We were expecting another akuma and sentimonster combo, but instead we got only a sentimonster. Less work on the bright side, but what happened to Hawkmoth?