Chapter Text
A groan came from a heap of bright pink blankets in Chloé's room, increasing in volume and annoyance as the sound of an alarm clock kept going on.
"ENOUGH!" Chloé's voice rang though her room, winning over the decibels of the alarm clock for a moment. Since it did not listen to her command, she threw a pillow at it. Still no succes, now it was just on the ground-still as loud as before.
"Jean! JEAN!! Make it STOP this INSTANCE!" she yelled as her ever so loyal butler came to turn of the clock.
"Finally..." she sighed, ready to return to her beauty sleep. "What even was the deal with that... that Thing!"
"With all due respect Miss, but it was you who suggested it yesterday" Jean said, putting the now silenced clock back where it came from.
"...I in no way could have asked for such an utterly ridiculous thing to wake me up!" Chloé shouted, sitting straight up on her bed now. She had been woken up and now she didn't seem to be able to catch her sleep again anyway.
"For your work Miss..." Jean started, carefully with his words.
"My what now?"
"Uhm, work. At the bakery of the Dupain-Cheng's ? You were talking about that yesterday and for that requested me to make sure you awoke in time"
Chloé squinted her eyes. Shit. She remembered now. For some reason she had gotten herself into this work thingy. Something with that awful Marinette girl talking about how her parents work so hard and that she had helped them and it was a lot or something? It was vague, she never felt much like listening to that girl anyway. But there was no way working in the small bakery of hers could be as hard as being such an amazing superhero as she was. So of course she would go and proof that she could do such work with ease. Ah yes, that was how she got into that mess. She groaned again and yelled at Jean to get her clothes ready. He nodded and did just that. In the mean time Chloé got up from her bed and had some light breakfast delivered to her room.
"So, when do I have to go to that work thing?" she asked while taking a sip of her morning smoothie.
"I believe they told you 8 AM, Miss" Jean answered.
"And now it's..."
" 8:10 Miss"
"... THAT'S TEN MINUTES AGO YOU SHOULD HAVE SAID SO!" she shouted, finished her smoothie then grabbed her purse and left. No way she was going to fail at this, she was a superhero now and she could damn well handle civilian work now.
Chloé had one of her drivers take her as fast as they could to the bakery of the Dupain-Cheng's. At first she barely recognized it- and not just because she would barely give it attention- but the place was crowded. People were waiting in a mass outside to get inside as well as people getting out with bags of well probably bakery stuff. Chloé took a deep breath and got out of the car, moving between the mass of people while shouting her way through.
"Don't worry, I am HERE!" she announced as she squeezed herself to the counter.
"Oh yes, good morning... Uhm, MARINETTE! Go help her get set up, we talked about this right!" it was Marinette's dad, she recognized him from the awful lot of times he had come to their class to show off his creations. He was moving quick, tending to the people with ease and with constant kindness. How ridiculous... Chloé thought to herself. She got broken from her thought when Marinette came to her and asked her to come to the back. Chloé rolled her eyes and with crossed arms she went with the girl to the back.
"Mornin' Chloé..." Marinette began as they were at a now more silent part of the place. It smelled good and seemed to be a kitchen. She didn't pay it much attention. So far she was more focused on how annoying Marinette was being again. Always talking to her with that weird attitude.
"Yea yea, mornin' whatever... Just show me where to be and I'll get to it, Ok?" she was so gonna proof Marinette and her family wrong and show how much of an amazing person she was of course.
"Uhm, ok then. I'll get you an apron. You'll be helping with dishes first. When it gets a bit calmer dad will show you how things in the shop work." Marinette spoke fast while throwing her an apron and turning on some big machine. Chloé in the mean time tried to process what was being expected of her. This already sucked. Dishes? That meant no one was going to see her work! And how long was she supposed to be here then? She groaned and with a lot of mental disapproval for the ugly apron, she did put it on and followed Marinette to the machine. By now she began to notice how hot the place was in comparison to the storefront. Ugh, now she had to be hoping she wouldn't start sweating before she would show herself back to the public. While in thoughts, Marinette was explaining how things worked.
"You think you can handle that?" Marinette said, breaking Chloé's inner monologue.
"Huh? Yeah of course I can handle!" she replied, moving forward towards the machine.
"Hm, but just to be sure... why not show me first?" yea, she hadn't been listening. But can you blame her? It was pretty boring you see.
Marinette sighed and now showed Chloé what she was supposed to do. And now Chloé tried to follow. It looked stupid, but if Marinette could do it than in no way would she fail in it. When Marinette was done, Chloé went and repeated what she had seen.
Time felt to be going awfully slow. Apparently she wasn't always doing what she was supposed to, so Marinette stayed behind in the kitchen to guide her. By what seemed to be forever, Marinette's mother came in and told them they could take a break. Marinette replied and than told Chloé they could go into the house for a bit to take their break. They both took off the aprons and went upstairs. The place felt so small compared to the hotel Chloé lived in. Well that's to be expected of simple civilians... Chloé thought to herself again. Marinette opened a door after they went up a flight of stairs. It was surprisingly neat and not as dark as Chloé had imagined her house to be. The place they had entered seemed to be another kitchen, one that more looked like house kitchen this time. On the table counter was a plate with pastries and two glasses.
"What do you want to drink? And don't be asking something weird or fancy ok?" Marinette seemed to be joking, but it felt like mockery to Chloé.
"Well I don't NEED anything fancy, just give me what you're having." she glared at the girl and sat down on a chair as she crossed her arms.
"Ice tea it is then..." Marinette spoke softly, taking a can of ice tea out of the fridge and filling the two glasses with it. She shoved one of the glasses closer to Chloé and took her own into her hands and immediately took a huge sip from it.
"So, what's the deal with this all? " Marinette asked, taking a bite from one of the pastries. Her attitude had gotten a little less bad. Less annoyed it seemed. Chloé decided to follow in that.
"Just you know, trying something new..." she replied before taking a sip of her glass, it wasn't bad she had to admit.
"That's, interesting..." Marinette had now almost finished one of the pastries and went to fill her glass on more time.
"Of course, you think I can't handle this hn?" Chloé remarked, grabbing one of the pastries of the plate and taking a huge bite out of it. The taste took her by surprise, it was really good. Sweet, but not too much. Not too dry and not too greasy. Just, good. She kept nibbling on the treat as Marinette began to talk again.
"Not necessarily. I'd more think you just don't want to. You barely want to do regular school work, so why want to do something like this you know..." she seemed to be honest. Marinette was such an awful person to read and therefore be around with. Everyone around Chloé just listened to her and found what she said alright, but this girl talked back to her, made remarks and doubted her constantly. It was annoying, so damn annoying. They both finished their treats and drinks and went back downstairs to get back to work.
Downstairs Chloé got told she would be getting a tour around the store and how things would work. Finally people would see all the effort she was doing. To her surprise, when entering the store, not many of the mass she had seen this morning was left. In fact it was only a few people who were still around. Chloé sighed and just followed Marinette's dad again. He went on and explained some of the stuff of the bakery. She was half listening. He was talking about the different breads, pastries, pies and what not more. He talked about what to do when people asked for certain things. Like certain pastries have to be in a box, others are fine in a bag. It was a drag, though seeing their was bread that was good for your figure? Quite a nice turnout, since bread would normally make you fat and so she barely wanted to eat any of it. She could ask at home to get some of that sometime... Hm, her thoughts had wondered off again as Marinette's dad kept on talking. Eventually he finished up.
"Well that'll will be all for today that alright? It's okay if you can't remember everything from the start. A great way to learn is to do. So next week you can start at 10 AM, alright?" he gave her a smile , Chloé just looked at him in confusion. Next week? There was more? Ugh this was terrible, but she had barely showed them anything! Fine she'd do it one more time, but only because now she would be working in the store.
"Yes yes, next week. Will be here." she simply replied, taking her purse and getting ready to leave.
"Thank you Chloé. We'll be looking forward seeing you again to help here" it was Marinette's mom talking. She handed Chloé a bag which seemed to be filled with some of the stuff in store. She took it and ran outside, seeing the car that already awaited her.
At home she looked at the different pastries that Marinette's mom had handed her in the end. Some of them had chocolate on them or cream. Other were plain on the outside but were filled with something like fruits or again chocolate. She got reminded on how she said "Thank you" to her. That had felt.. really nice in all honesty. In a way she looked forward to getting back to that place next week. Though she wouldn't show that of course. She gave some of the pastries to Jean and whoever passed by at the right time. Eating all that by herself would probably just make her fat. The one she mostly wanted was the simple pastry she had eaten during her break. It was sweet but not too much. Not too dry and not too greasy. Just nice and good.
----------------------------------- End part 1 | First draft 3/11/2018 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------