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Alya’s not sure how well she’s doing in the whole ‘making friends’ department, after all this is her first time moving to an entirely different school. Well, unless you count college as something different, but back at her old college at least she’d known some of the other people there.
The good news: she’s got Marinette, and she’s pretty confident by now in saying that she’s got Nino, too. Adrien’s more of a 50/50 (which is the fault of Marinette’s painful crush, but Alya doesn’t blame her for that) but she’s pretty sure that they’re getting there, at least.
But she really wants to get further than that, is the thing. It’s not engaging to be around tons of people who she doesn’t know, and doesn’t even have the motivation to get to know, since they’re all likely going to different lycee’s next year.
Admittedly, the want for connection may motivate her to resort to people-watching. But who says that’s a bad thing!? If she didn’t, the only person outside of her friend group that she’d ever learn about is Chloé, and that sounds boring as all hell.
She feels like she’s definitely learning a lot. Ivan likes music. Juleka has a brother, Rose loves anything pink (except, adamantly, pink eye), Mylène’s got a fear of everything, and so on. The only two unknowns she really has left is Sabrina, since she doesn’t really talk much if not directly in response to Chloé, and Nathaniel, who’s so quiet it’d taken a week for her to even catch his name, and a few days more to remember it consistently.
Sabrina works for Chloé a lot, so there’s probably some sort of unhealthy relationship there.
Nathaniel is scribbling in his notebook a lot, so maybe he’s some sort of doodler? Artist?
She’s just about to ask him a few questions, just to get some proper answers, when he decides to approach her before class and make the decision for her.
He’s clearly nervous, tapping his nails against the cover of his notebook and bouncing slightly on the balls of his feet.
Alya waves at him kindly, and tries to raise her eyebrows in a silent prompt.
“You’re a superhero fan, right?” He blurts.
Oh?
“For sure,” Alya says brightly. “I’ve been a total Majestia fangirl since I was, like, five, but since I’m from Paris, I gotta say that now I’m team Ladybug & Chat Noir for life.”
Nathaniel nods along, still tapping against his notebook. “So– uh. I kinda like the heroes too. And I was wondering if there are any pages on your blog just for clear photos of Ladybug & Chat Noir? I might need… reference photos.”
Interesting. Very interesting, indeed. A full-on artist, then? “I don’t have any pages just for photos, but if you give me a day or two I could probably hook you up with some decent shots.”
He smiles softly, his tapping finally slowing to a stop. “Thank you, Alya. That’s very, uh. Helpful.”
Not just quiet, but socially awkward, she notes.
“Of course,” she responds easily. “But I’d love to see what you drew once you’re done with it. After all, I’m not the number one Ladyblogger for nothing.”
For some reason, something in that comment makes him draw back a bit. Still, he says hesitantly, “Okay.”