Chapter Text
“Marinette!” Sabine Cheng called out. “Your alarms been going off for 15 minutes. You’re going to be late on your first day back at school.
“Got it mom.” Marinette called back, still half asleep. She was surprise to see the only notification on her phone was for missed alarms. She was expecting a million texts by now.
Stretching, Marinette wiggled out from under her covers, scooting down to the end of her bed. She leaned down, grabbing her rose gold coloured bionic arm from it’s resting place and slipped it into position on her left arm. Happy with it’s position she flexed the robotic fingers out before bring them into a fist to make sure the arm was responding properly.
Marinette repositioned herself so she lined up with the slide that met her bed before pushing herself down, ascending from her loft to the main part of her room. She picked up her elbow crutches before making her way to the vanity. She went through her morning routine, cleaning her face, putting on the small amount of makeup she did, and putting her hair up into pigtails. From there she moved to closet, puling out the outfit she’d pick the day before, tossing it onto the chaise. She replaced her light grey sleeping shirt with the white top with a flora pattern along the top left of it. She slipped on the dark grey jacket she decided to wear with it, the sleeves already rolled up so they fell just above her elbows.
Marinette then sat down on her chaise, leaning her crutches against the wall. She grabbed her leg liner, slipping it over her left leg before grabbing the pink jeans that would bring her outfit together. She reached out, grabbing her prosthetic leg and slipping the left pant leg over it, the black socks and pink flats already on her prosthetic foot. Once everything was on right, she bent the prosthetic knee until it match positions with her flesh knee. She slipped her left leg into the prosthetic socket before placing her right leg in the right pant leg. Slipping the jeans up to her knees she stood up and pulled them the rest of the way up. She carefully stepped back and forth to make sure her leg was properly adjusted and working before grabbing her school bag and phone and heading over to her trap door.
Marinette made her way down the stairs, having learned over the years, and a few poorer quality prosthetics, that rushing would only result in her tripping and potentially falling down the stairs. She gave her mom, who was in the kitchen a kiss on the cheek before going over to the barstool, using her right hand to press against the seat to lift herself up onto the chair. She started pouring milk into the bowl her mom had set out for her before grabbing the cereal and adding it.
“Excited for your first day?” Sabine asked her daughter.
“You mean for another year of disappointment?” Marinette asked.
“Who knows Marinette, maybe this year will be your guys’ lucky year. It’s bound to happen eventually. That man can’t keep him locked up forever.” Sabine said.
“Me? Lucky?” Marinette asked. As if proving her point as she places the cereal box down, an orange fell from the fruit bowl, rolling down a baguette that had been leaning against said bowl, over the knife half in the butter, flipping the spoon out of the sugar cube bowl causing some to toss out, before someone to an end knocking over the carton of milk and yogurt cup. And then just to spite Marinette, another orange knocked over the cereal bowl.
“Uoh.” Marinette groaned. That was just like her luck.
Sabine came over to mop up the milk that had spilt on the floor while Marinette cleaned up the cereal. Sabine let out a little chuckle, rubbing a hand against her daughters cheek to try and cheer her up a bit. After all, if she got all her bad luck out of the way while she was home then she had a better chance of having good luck at school. Marinette smiled at her mom before tucking in to her breakfast, she had school after all.
Marinette made her way down to the bakery to hear her dad ‘la la-ing’ along to a song only in his head. Her turned around having heard her enter to show her the box of macaroons he had made for her to bring for her class.
“Dad, these are so awesome!” Marinette exclaimed. They looked so good she couldn’t wait until she could share them with her new classmates, if they had any this year. Collège Françoise Dupont seemed to like to keep students together since there hadn’t been a new classmate in almost three years.
“Glad you like them.” Tom Dupain said, closing the lid.
“Thank you dad,” Marinette said, carefully taking the box from her dad. “My class will love them. You’re the best.”
“We’re the best, thanks to your amazing designs.” Tom said picking up his daughters sketch book which was open to the bakeries new logo that Marinette had designed.
Marinette smiled happily at her dad before flinging her arms around him to pull him into a hug, forgetting that she had the dessert box in her hands. The box went sailing towards the floor.
Tom let out a little laugh as her caught them with him foot, tossing them back up in the air before catching them.
“Thanks,” Marinette said, before grabbing her backpack from her mom, who was checking to make sure she had everything, giving her mom a quick kiss on the cheek before doing the same with her dad as she took the dessert box back. “See you tonight.” She said as she headed out the door.
Marinette tried to rush to make the light but it turned just as she made it to the cross walk. She sighed, realizing she was probably going to be late now. She really needed to get an alarm that could actually get her up on time, since by now it was obvious that she wasn’t just going to be able to go to bed earlier, not when inspiration always hit her at night.
She glanced up and almost screamed in alarm. An elderly man was in the middle of crossing, back heavily arched as he leaned on his cane for support, moving slowly. Marinette glanced around to see if anyone else had noticed the man, panicking when she saw a car speed towards him. Not knowing what else to do and not want to see him hit, she rushed out into the road, grabbing his arm and pulling him towards the sidewalk. Her flesh foot caught against the sidewalks curb and she fell to the ground just as the car zoomed past.
“Thank you miss,” the elderly man said. “Oh, what a disaster.”
Marinette groaned, picking herself up off the ground, to see that the dessert box had landed on the ground next to her, half the macaroons were now either on the ground or broken. Oh well, at least they made it out of the house in one piece.
Marinette made a noise of disappointment as the people around them walk past as if nothing had happened, some even stepping the macaroons that had fallen out. “Oh don’t worry.” Marinette assured the stranger. “I’m no stranger to disasters, besides, there’s still a few left.” She held out the box for him to grab one.
“Mmm, delicious!” The man said after having taken a bite.
A bell rang out from the school.
“Oh no, I’m going to be late.” She bowed politely to the man. “Have a nice day sir.”
She started rushing to the school hoping that it was only to first bell to tell everyone to head to class and not the second one that would mean she was late. As she made her way to the front door, she breathed a sigh of relief when she saw kids still making their way into the building.
“There you are Dupain-Cheng.” A voice called out from behind her.
Oh, maybe she had breathed that sigh of relief too soon.
“Chloe!” She turned around to see her friend standing there, arms crossed.
“You’re so lucky you’re not late.” Chloe said taking the box from her friend and opening it to grab a cookie. “Had a little cookie accident?”
“Drop them when I pulled an old man out of the way from being hit by a car.” Marinette explained as her friend took a bite out of one of the cookies. “I’’m just glad I got there in time and that some of the cookies lived.”
Chloe shook her head. “Ridiculous. Utterly ridiculous. You’d think someone without prosthetics would help out instead of letting the disabled kid save the old man, not that you’re not perfectly capable.”
Marinette hummed. She and Chloe made their way into the school, towards Mrs. Bustier class since there wouldn’t be enough time for her to stop by her locker now.
“Any sign of him?” Marinette asked.
“No, but I’m sure he’ll be here any moment.” Chloe said, her nose high in the air.
“Chlo, I know you don’t want to hear it but you know how his dad is, there’s a good chance he’s not coming.” Marinette said gently, not wanting her friend to be devastated later on like in previous years.
“I know, but this was the first time we’ve been able to actually enrol him. His dad doesn’t need to know until it’s too late.” Chloe countered.
Sabrina ran up to them excitedly as they neared the classroom. “Chloe, Marinette.” She greeted. “Word has it, we have a new kid in class.”
Chloe looked over at Marinette smugly. Looks like he had made it after all.
The three walked in class as the second bell rang, not technically late. Mrs. Bustier was calling for Nino, a student they’d shared class with since the third grade, to move to the front row. Marinette handed Sabrina one of the macaroons as they headed to their tables. Marinette set her back on the table in the front row by the window only to find a girl already sitting there.
“You’re not Adrien.” Chloe said, as Sabrina placed both their stuff on the table behind Marinettes. “And you’re in Marinette’s spot.”
“It’s fine Chloe,” Marinette said quietly, feeling disappointed that the blond model wasn’t the so called new student Sabrina had heard about. “I can share.”
“And what about when Adrien gets here, are you just going to abandon him?” Chloe demanded.
“Chlo, you know I wouldn’t do that and I don’t mean that.” Marinette said. “But it’s fine for now. If Adrien shows up then we can figure it out from there, but she’s not doing any harm.”
Chloe huffed but she went and sat in her seat without any more complaints.
“Alright, has everyone found a seat?” Mrs. Bustier asked from the front.
Marinette turned to her new seat mate handing her a macaroon. “I’m Marinette. Sorry about Chloe, our friend was suppose to start school today but his father, like in past years, probably stopped him. She’s taking it a bit hard, usually she’s not that bad.”
“Alya, and I guess I can understand why she was upset.” The new kid said. She looked down at Marinette’s outreached hand to take the cook and noticed her prosthetic arm. “Oh wicked, just like Bionica, though she’s half robot.”
Marinette smiled, used to getting reactions like this from people her age. She didn’t allow it to bug her, at least it wasn’t coming from an adult, who in her experience were a lot more insensitive. At least this Alya girl thought her arm was cool.
“You a superhero fan?” she asked.
“More like a super fan.” Alya said. She reached in her bag and pulled out phone, her screen saver being the latest comic Majestia cover. “My favourite is by far Majestia. She says ‘all that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good people do nothing’. Words to live by, right?”
“Yeah,” Marinette said with a smile. “If you want help getting around school, I can show you around after class since I’m class deputy.”
Alya returned her smile. “That’d be great. Kind of new to Paris, not just this school so knowing my way around somewhere would be great.”
Marinette grinned before turning back to the front as Mrs. Busier called them to attention.