Chapter Text

Marinette was sleeping peacefully in her bed after one of the last nights of partying before starting the new school year with a bang. The window's blinds were shut down, no light from the outside sipping into the room. The light brown floor was covered in a bunch of clothes due to Marinette throwing them out of her closet while trying to decide on something to wear for the party. The closet's doors were still open wide. All of Marinette's make-up products were scattered all over her desk along with some books and notebooks that she had to take to school. The room looked like a total mess and the last thing Marinette needed when arriving back home from the party at 2 AM was to clean it up. The bed seemed to be the only furniture in that room that was some kind of neat. Under the covers, Marinette was snuggled tight dreaming herself at a rock concert in Central Park, New York. Just when the band was about to start playing in her dream, a loud BEEP-BEEP BEEP-BEEP woke Marinette up. Groggily, she reached out her arm and searched for the alarm clock on the night desk. Finally finding it and picking it up, she slowly opened her eyes to look at the time. Precisely 6 AM, time to get up and get ready for the first day of Junior year in high school. With only 4 hours of sleep, Marinette was seriously considering just ignoring it and going straight back to sleep. Suddenly, a loud bang came from outside disturbing the overall silence. Marinette shot up in her bed, sputtering the most colourful words her brain could make up at that point.

Curious to see what caused the commotion, Marinette jumped out of bed, lifted the blinds and peaked outside. In the driveway next to her house, there was a trashcan knocked over and a figure cladded in black was climbing through a window. Marinette's first thought was that someone was trying to break into the neighbour's house, but then she remembered that it has happened once before that week. It turned out that the guy was not actually a thief, but the nephew of the family living next to Marinette's. Marinette's mum announced the stranger to the family and this is how Marinette got the information. This nephew was new in town and did not like being confided in a room for the last week of summer, so he decided to find something interesting to do all by himself in the middle of the night.

Marinette just scoffed at the foolish looking guy trying to climb over the windowsill. She continued watching until he finally made it into his room and turned on the light. Now illuminated, Marinette could see that the guy was wearing a hoodie with the hood drawn up over his head. Just as she was about to close the blinds, the guy took off the hood revealing his blond hair tied up in a messy bun. Marinette could see his profile and somehow she was dying to see his actual face. She stood frozen in front of the window waiting for the guy to turn around. She could see him grow stiff and sharply turn out looking out his window. For a second, it appeared that he made eye-contact with her, but it was stupid to think that since she was surrounded by darkness and she knew for sure that there was no possible way that he could see her. Marinette took the moment to truly look at him. He seemed be a lot taller than she thought at first, he had a strong jaw-line, a straight nose and dark nicely shaped brows. From that distance, Marinette couldn't tell the colour of his eyes or the details of his face, but she was certain that there was no other word to describe him but beautiful. Like, truly beautiful. Suddenly feeling herself blush, Marinette stepped back from the window and closed the blinds, trying to calm herself down.

"Okay, Marinette, he's just a guy! Do not get ahead of yourself. You just saw him from a distance. Only because he has long hair, it doesn't mean that you have to fall for him!"

Talking herself down was not something that happened often. Usually she was super calm and composed, without any kind of things troubling her at all. And when it came to guys, Marinette was definitely not the type to go pining over one. That was mostly because her type of guy never showed up in her life before.

You see, the thing with Marinette is that she is some kind of a rebel. Being raised only by her mother, gave her the freedom to do a lot of what she pleased. It's true that she used to get in trouble a lot in her first year of high school, but then she learnt that her mom needed help. So Marinette became more responsible around the house and yet, that streak of rebelliousness remained especially when hanging with people or just plainly creating stir ups at school. Of course, nothing that escaladed past detention. Because of this attitude, it was really hard for Marinette to make close friends, so she decided it's better to just cruise through high school and let people seek her out. What she did not expect, though, was to encounter this girl, Alya, who happened to be the opposite of Marinette in behavior. While Marinette was prone to get into sticky situations, Alya always happened to be somewhere around to help her escape. Since these occurrences were quite often at some point, Alya and Marinette became pretty close and have been inseparable from then on. What Alya happened to do a lot, was fall for every cute guy that she exchanged a few words with. Marinette was the one to keep her level headed and not let her get too much into something before being sure of what she wanted. Luckily, a couple of months ago, Alya got herself a boyfriend, Nino, a classmate of theirs.

Meanwhile, Marinette never found a guy to connect with at this kind of level. She was looking for someone who would have a sense of adventure in them and who would be up to spontaneous trips and outings. Not only that, but she also always imagined herself ending up with a bad boy: all tough and rough on the outside, yet an amazing person hiding underneath that appearance. That's exactly why Marinette felt something inside her chest the moment she set eyes on the face of the neighbors' nephew.

Finally deciding to go back to reality, Marinette shook her head, went to the closet to pick up some undergarments and went to the bathroom to take a shower. After cleaning up and feeling refreshed, it was time for Marinette to decide what to wear on her first day back at school. Rummaging through the clothes scattered on the floor and through the ones left in the closet, she finally found a pair of ripped black skinny jeans, a black tank top and an off-shoulder red top with a black skull on it. Happy with her choice of clothes, Marinette put on her red Converse shoes with small safety pins all over them. Then she quickly put some light make-up on, adding a light red lip gloss on. Satisfied with her looks, Marinette gathered the books from her desk and dumped them into a black and white backpack, then making her way downstairs to grab breakfast.

The house was dead-silent, something that did not happen often, so Marinette enjoyed the silence while she ate a bowl of milk with cereals. Scrolling through her Instagram account she tumbled across a post of her favourite rock band, Iron Maiden, announcing their tour dates for the upcoming summer. They were coming to LA, California on the 22nd of July, a perfect date for Marinette to attend. Keeping her delighted scream at a minimum she made a note to remember to buy the ticket as soon as they were on sale. The only downside was that Marinette had no one to go with to the concert and she doubted that her mom would just let her get on a bus to LA "just to see some screaming long-haired dudes". Her mom never understood her love for rock music and Marinette gave up a long time trying to explain it.

Finishing her breakfast, Marinette picked up her bag and went out the door just as a car pulled in front of the house. Alya was driving a red convertible ready to kick off the start of junior year.

"Marinette, get in! We have 5 minutes to get to the opening speech!" Alya shouted from the car. Marinette chuckled quietly to herself, picked up the skateboard lying next to the door and jumped into the car.

"Chill, Alya! It's just a speech. Have a good year and keep up the good work… The same speech given by principal Normand every year. Aren't you sick of it?" Alya started driving and just laughed at Marinette's attitude.

"You forget the most important part. There is a new guy joining our year! We haven't had a new kid since forever. I think the last time we were in 4th grade and that was you transferring from another school." Marinette was once the new kid to a new school, it was not a fun experience for her.

"Yeah, don't remind me. I was the main attraction for half a year." Soon they arrived at the school's parking lot. There were a lot of people walking in and out of school, hurrying with the final preparations for the start of the year. Marinette just rolled her eyes, got out of the car and made her way to the stairs that lead to the main entrance. Alya was right behind her, struggling to keep her backpack on her shoulder.

"Marinette, slow down! This thing's heavy!" Alya was the kind of girl who took school seriously, which meant that her backpack was not only full of the books they needed for the entire year, but also with the ones for AP classes. Marinette slowed her pace and the girls made their way together to their lockers to drop off their bags. There were more people in the hallway having the same purpose. Everybody has been assigned a locker at the end of the previous year and their schedules have been e-mailed a week before school started. Everyone was sharing stories about what they did over the summer, about trips they took with their parents and friends, about parties they've attended. Marinette closed her locker's door and leaned against it, one foot on the skateboard pushing it back and forth. Alya was still trying to fit her backpack into the locker, finally kicking the door shut.

From the other end of the hallways gasps could be heard from girls and whispering noises were getting louder and louder. Marinette and Alya looked at each other, not understanding what the commotion was about. They turned their heads in the direction of the doors and saw a guy walking through the middle of the hallway, everyone stepping aside to let him pass. Heads were turning in his direction, both from girls and boys. Alya also let a small gasp leave her and Marinette could only stare in disbelief. The guy walking like he had no care in the world, with earbuds on and his hood pulled up was the same guy living in the house next to hers. He had a sheet of paper in his hand and with the corner of his eyes he was checking the locker numbers. He stopped right in front of Marinette and she gulped once. She was unnerved by his presence and that never happened to her. Alya simply took a few steps back afraid of what might happen.

The guy slowly lifted his eyes from the paper and looked past Marinette, at the locker next to hers. He didn't even spare her a look, he simply pushed past her and entered the combination to unlock the door. Marinette gathered her bearings and leaned against her locker once again. She was watching him from the corner of her eyes, patiently waiting for him to put aside his bag. Once he was finished and turned around to leave, Marinette blocked his path. For the first time, he slowly lifted his head to look at her and pulled the wire of the earbuds in order to take them off. He leaned against his locker, raising an eyebrow at Marinette's behavior. She tried to keep her eyes from widening at how bright the colour of this boy's eyes was, emerald green. Being the type of girl who never got tongue-tied, this was a strange occurrence for Marinette. The guy was growing impatient with her. He changed position, propping one foot against the locker, bent at the knee.

"I'm Marinette, from the looks of it, your locker neighbor. If you need help getting around here, you can ask me, if you want." He slowly nodded his head and waited for her to say something else. But she was busy studying him from head to toe.

He was wearing a black hoodie with the imprint of the upper half of a skeleton with the zipper half-way undone. Beneath the hoodie Marinette could see a grey T-shirt with what appeared to be a rock band's logo on it. His black jeans were tucked into a pair of black combat boots. He was dark and mysterious and intriguing to Marinette. What she did not notice was that the guy was also looking at her intensely, taking all of her in. When Marinette finally lifted her gaze to make eye contact with him she inhaled sharply struck by his looks. He really was handsome, beautiful even, there was something harsh and yet soft in his features, and this intrigued Marinette to no end. His hair was loose, reaching below his shoulders. This gave him a touch of innocence, but she could tell there was nothing innocent about this guy.

"Are you going to tell me your name?!" Marinette was blushing, something that has never happened to her in these circumstances before. The guy's mouth didn't move at all, but his eyes seemed to smile (A/N: Don't really know what I mean by that, go with the flow). He just nodded once, stood a bit straighter and in a low gentle voice, said "Adrien".

Marinette raised an eyebrow and didn't inquire any further. He pushed himself off the locker, straightening up. In his turn he raised an eyebrow and made a motion with his head as if to ask "Shall we?". Marinette nodded. "Come on, Alya, you were excited for the speech!"

"Uuuum, Marinette, I think I'll see you later, okay? I have… umm… I'll just… Nevermind. Bye!"

"Okaaay, that was weird! She's not usually like that". Marinette turned to face Adrien and he just nodded.

"Hmm, you're quite the talker, aren't you?" Marinette teased. He just shrugged and went down the hallway slowly so that Marinette could catch up. She told him some basic rules about the school and what the teachers expected of the students, she told him which places to stay away from (like the bathroom on the 2nd floor and the cafeteria tables next to the doors that lead to the outside zone of the cafeteria), where the library was for homework research and that all labs were on the 3rd floor. Adrien didn't say a word all the way to the high school's football field where the opening ceremony was taking place. When they reached the bleachers and found 2 places to sit, Marinette gave up trying to get a word out of him. They listened to the chatter going on around them, not even looking at each other. Then, out of nowhere, Adrien leaned down and put his mouth next to her ear: "Thanks. I think we'll get along just fine.". Marinette turned her head and smiled at him, ready to respond, but she was interrupted by the loud blare of a trumpet. The ceremony has begun.