Chapter Text
As things turned out, she was very wrong. Although she had finished a commission from a special client, her sleep had suffered as a result. She had fallen asleep for thirty minutes, before being awoken by a very loud yell from Tikki. She had five minutes to get ready, and get out of the door. Marinette was lucky that she had packed the night before. She sprinted out of the apartment, leaving it unlocked.
Damian had an unusually peaceful morning. Todd was keeping his distance, he had scored a 105 on his most recent math paper. Life was good. Or rather, life was simple. He couldn’t help but theorize that it would get a lot more complicated, on sight of a very tired ravenette entering the classroom door, or for lack of a
“Good morning.” She said, sliding into the seat next to him and yawning.
Her eyes immediately shut, and then snapped open again.
He nodded in recognition and turned towards the instructor. Class had begun.
Class, as it turns out, was just doing a few sample problems. Damian shifted in his seat, accidentally on purpose, waking the short girl from her slumber.
“What?Oh-” Her eyes snapped open at the sight of her instructor approaching their table.
“Work on these problems in your group, then explain how to solve them to each other. We will check back in our class in a few minutes.” She explained, passing out papers to each table.
“And no calculators.” The teacher added, upon seeing a few hopeful students rummaging through their backpacks.
Damian steadily worked through all of the problems, only to see that she hadn't answered any.
She finally scrawled down an answer
“That’s wrong.” He said, not even bothering to look at her.
“Yeah, it probably is.” She yawned and then went back to writing on her paper.
There was a heavy pause. Then-
“I checked it and got the same thing.” She responded.
“Let me see.”
She slid her paper over, watching his eyes dart back and forth on her paper.
“It cancels out.”
“What?”
“On both sides. It cancels out.” He explained, sliding the paper back to her.
“So the answer’s 2?”
“No. Watch.”
Marinette watched as he solved the problem and showed his steps.
“Do you understand?”
“If I say yes, are you going to make me explain why?”
He stared at her and didn’t say anything.
“Alright, since I hear conversation over here. Mister Wayne and Miss Dupain-Cheng will be solving our problems on the board.”
“Huh?” She said dazedly.
“Problems. On the board.” He pointed at the workbook.
“...You’re kidding.”
“As you can clearly see, I am not.” He gestured to the teacher impatiently waiting for them to make their way to the front.
Whispers danced around the room as they walked to the front.
“Did he actually talk to her?” A voice said.
“I think he did, and he wasn’t even rude.” Another chimed in.
“Maybe they know each other?” A third voice added.
“I feel bad for the girl. He might be in a good mood today, but imagine what’s going to happen when he starts acting like a prick again.” The first voice responded.
Damian grabbed a marker from one of the slots on the board, and immediately started solving. He heard his seatmate swear in French, before switching to Mandarin. She stared at him with uncertainty before her shaky hands picked up a marker from the whiteboard.
He scanned her work from the other side of the board. She hadn’t written down anything. When she noticed him looking, she flushed and uncapped the marker, then looked away. It was apparent to both of them that the latter had no idea what she was doing.
It would’ve been very easy for him to spite her. He could’ve pointed out her lack of knowledge on the subjhect, left her there at the board, all with no clue what she was doing, solely out of what had happened earlier. But, contrary to popular belief, Damian was not a malicious person. He was not particularly known for his kindness either, (and his frequent statements that were deemed as “rude” didn’t exactly help his reputation.) He wouldn't say anything.
He glanced behind him to see that the instructor was lecturing a group of students in the back. It seemed that they were talking too loudly and was threatening an assigned seating chart.
She jotted down an incorrect answer, then put the marker back in the board tray.
Shortly after, she walked down the aisle to get her seat, feeling many pairs of eyes staring at her, whispering. This was the exact opposite of what she had wanted as a new student. She swiftly sat down in her seat, and waited for the instructor to return to the front of the room.
“Time for us to check these as a class.” She announced, finally at the front.
Not even a second later, the bell rang and teens started pouring out of her classroom like a waterfall.
“We’ll check these tomorrow, don’t forget to do these for homework.” She called.
The girl, Dupain-Cheng, he mentally chastised, sped through packing all of her items then all but sprinted out the door. She left behind a pale pink lunchbox with black polka dots.
She was in his next class. He could give it to her, hassle-free. Why not?
He picked up the lunchbox.
His next class was by far the worst. This eccentric teacher was a fan of “icebreakers” that were painfully silent and tense. It was apparent to everyone that no one in the room was enjoying anything. It was one of the few things every student could agree on.
He walked up to her desk and placed the lunch bag atop of it. She hadn’t arrived yet. He walked back to his seat amid curious stares.
He opened his textbook and waited for class to start.
~
She had officially decided that 10th grade accelerated math was a demon sent from the underworld. Why on earth had she thought that American school would be easier than France?
Mentally cursing her own stupidity, raced out the door, not wanting the teacher to stop her about her wrong answer.
She was going so fast that she didn’t realize she was about to ram headfirst into two guys.
“Woah there.” He chuckled, “If I didn’t know any better I would say that you were trying to get my attention.
Marinette stared at him. Apparently, the stereotype surrounding American guys was very true. You could glance at one, and they’d automatically assume that you were in love with them.
“It’s a good thing you do, then.” She responded finally, rather unimpressed.
“Feisty. You and I would get along well.
“I guess we’ll have to leave that to the imagination.” She turned on her heel, and began in the opposite direction, when she felt him grab her arm. He was persistent. Not in a good way. In a very obnoxious way.
“Who?”
“I think they went that way.” She lied.
“You don’t want to go after them, you’ll be late for class. Since we have the same class, I’ll walk with you.”
He began walking in the same direction that she had originally intended, and she let out a tiny sigh. There was no escaping him now.
As they entered the classroom, she scanned the room for an empty seat.
The only one that was available was one next to the guy she recognized from the incident yesterday. He wasn’t exactly mean. Just slightly rude, and definitely not talkative. She could handle it. Especially since this was a year round class. She refused to get roped into anymore bad situations if she could avoid it.
Before she started to him, she saw her lunchbox that was sitting on her desk.
“I need to get more sleep.” She muttered, then went to grab her bag.
“I’m going to go get my bag, then go to my seat.” She explained, then gently slipped her hand out of his grip.
She approached him nervously.
“Can I sit here?”
He didn’t even acknowledge her presence, and her face flushed before-
He was wearing earbuds.
Oh.
The bell rang for the second time, and she decided to just sit down. She could always move later, right?
~
When the bell rang, he slipped his earbuds into his case, then refocused his attention towards the teacher. She mentioned an end-of-the-year trip, and he made a mental note to remember to tell Alfred so that Alfred could sign an excuse form saying Damian couldn’t go.
The teacher turned around and told the class to introduce themselves to the person next to them. Who also happened to be who was sitting next to him in the previous class.
“Hi. I think we’ve already met.” She smiled.
“I believe so.”
With that, he put his wireless earbuds back in their place and continued reading his book.
~
When the bell rang, Marinette bolted out of the classroom, fully intending to leave to her home before Brady returned. As surprising as it was, she managed to make it out of the classroom and begin her short walk back to the apartment.
A slight shiver of unease penetrated her calm character. It felt weird, like there was something watching her. She was delirious because she hadn’t slept. That was it. Looking over her shoulder this time, she continued walking.
~
When the bell rang, Damian’s eyes followed his seatmate as she sprinted out of the door. He saw Brady’s eyes narrow at her retreating figure. He raised an eyebrow. That was definitely a reaction he had not expected to happen. He immediately brushed it off, he didn’t care about any of these people anyway.
All they did was gossip and spread false rumors, then when they got tired, they created more. Some of the most absurd things that he had ever heard were here, in these halls. His phone vibrated, and he quickly unlocked it. Grayson was here.
He grabbed his bag and slung it over his shoulder, and students cleared the way for him to pass through. He rolled his eyes at their dramatic instincts. They acted like any moment he would start breathing fire.
“Demon Spawn!” He heard a dreaded voice call.
This was going to be a very long car ride.