Miraculous Ladybug: Get me out of here

Turns out, I'm the biggest noob ever

"How does that sound?"

I flinched, putting a hand over my hearing aid. "Way too loud."

My audiologist nodded. "I see."

My audiologist was a pretty cool lady, I won't lie. Her name was Dr. Mirza. She had olive skin, and dark hair tied back into a neat ponytail. She always wore neat and pristine clothes, making me feel messy in comparison. Not like I was a fashion guru by any standards, but you get what I mean. She also wore a lot of jewellery, so I felt kind of poor as well.

She grabbed my hearing aid, readjusting it. She placed it back on my ear.

"How about now?" she asked.

It sounded better than before, but it still wasn't perfect. Something told me it wasn't going to get any better, though. Plus, we'd been there for way too long already. I had something I had to go to, and I couldn't stay in that doctor's office for much longer.

"It's fine," I told her.

Dr. Mirza made a face. "You're not lying to me, are you, John?"

I shook my head, innocently. "I wouldn't lie to you, Dr. Mirza."

Dr. Mirza sighed. "Well, if you insist... then you're done for today."

I stood up, stretching in relief. Ah, the fun of being half-deaf. You gotta love it. But of course, the fun was just beginning. Because I was leaving to go to none other than Collège Françoise Dupont.

...

I think I've mentioned this before, but I didn't really have a lot of friends. Of course, there was Alix, but we weren't super BFFs. So, shockingly enough, today I'm going to introduce you to one of my very few other friends: Max Kanté.

That name might be familiar to you, since Max and I met through playing Ultimate Mecha Strike III. He always bet me, but whenever we played on the same team, we always won. I'm not sure how we kept running into each other, but we became friendly fairly quickly. I learned a lot about Max. He was a smart guy, always inventing stuff. So alongside being an expert gamer, he was also a great inventor. Seriously, he invented this little sentient robot and everything. He was a cool guy.

I guess he also kind of looked like a nerd, what with his glasses, checkered suspenders, and high pants. He had dark skin, curly hair, and usually wore a green shirt. He was pretty short, too. I honestly don't know why my friends were all so short.

Since Max and I were pals, we'd met up in real life. Remember kids, don't meet up with strangers from the internet as quickly as we did. Luckily for me, Max wasn't an axe murderer, and we got on well in real life, maybe even better than we did while playing Ultimate Mecha Strike III. We pretty much talked about games for an hour. And then he told me he was trying out for some Ultimate Mecha Strike III tournament. He seemed really excited about it; screw it, I was happy for the guy. I wished him good luck too. He then asked if I wanted to come and see him try out. And you know what? I try to be a good friend sometimes, so I said sure thing.

So that's how I ended up at the library at Collège Françoise Dupont, watching Max playing Ultimate Mecha Strike III against Adrien. I was standing alongside Marinette (of course), Kim, Alya, and some other familiar faces.

And you'll never guess who won.

"Adrien wins!"

I raised my brow. The others watching me were also surprised. I have to admit, I didn't take Adrien for a gamer.

"Hmm," Max nodded. "Awesome job. We're gonna make a killer combo."

He and Adrien high-fived. Everyone cheered.