Chapter Text
Chapter 1
It was a sunny day at Collége Françoise-Dupont, when Alya Cesaire’s life changed forever.
Students were given the choice of extra-curricular activities, and on rare occasions, some of the classes gathered together to accomplish a common goal. This week’s goal combined the art students and PE students as they set up for the basketball game taking place in the courtyard later that week. Kim and Ivan worked together to move bleachers into place while Rose and Nathaniel worked diligently painting banners. The students were given a number of assignments to complete, and each of them were working hard on their tasks while chatting casually amongst each other.
Or rather, most students were working.
Chloe scrolled through her phone aimlessly while Sabrina painted their banner, not wanting to dirty her pants by kneeling on the floor or moving objects around. Of course, everyone was quite used to Chloe’s antics by now, but it still served to irritate some individuals.
“Ugh, can you believe her?” Alya groaned, glancing up from the banner she was helping Marinette paint.
“What? Chloe doing nothing while Sabrina does all her work for her? Yeah, I can believe that,” Marinette replied, rolling her eyes.
“Someone needs to knock that girl down a peg. She’s got an excuse to get out of everything.” Alya shook her head and focused back in on their assignment. “Must be nice being so rich that you get away with everything.”
“Tell me about it,” Marinette said with a snort. “I try my best to forget about Chloe most days. Makes life less stressful.”
“True. It’s just frustrating.”
Despite Marinette’s casual dismissal of Chloe’s behavior, Alya continued to cast sidelong glances at her, becoming more vexed each time she spotted Chloe standing around or ordering someone else to do something for her. After sometime, they finally finished their posters and stood around chatting as they awaited the start of their next class. Alya was prattling on about the latest on Ladybug while Marinette entertained her with a politely invested smile. Had she been paying attention, she might have been able to prevent it, but the one time she finally took her eyes off of Chloe, she finally lifted a hand to do something, and it wasn’t anything helpful at all. No, because Chloe didn’t do helpful, in fact, if it wasn’t demeaning someone in some way, Chloe wanted nothing to do with it, so it shouldn’t have been a surprise to anyone when Chloe “tripped” carrying a bucket of paint that sloshed onto Marinette, soaking her from head to toe in bright red paint.
“Oops,” Chloe cooed, pressing a hand to her mouth to hide her smirk.
“You did that on purpose!” Alya accused, taking a couple steps to loom over her, but Chloe folded her arms haughtily over her chest and cocked a hip.
“It was an accident, and I think any administrator will agree,” She sneered.
“You little-”
“Alya, it’s fine, really,” Marinette insisted, holding up defensive hands.
“Nah, get her back, Mari!” Kim chanted, followed by several more encouraging protests, but Marinette simply examined the damage and shook her head.
“No. Chloe isn’t worth my time,” She said with a finality that silenced the room. With a disappointed glare and a heavy sigh, she turned and waddled off to the locker rooms.
“You’re lucky Marinette’s a bigger person than you,” Alya growled.
“Puh-lease, like I care. She should be thanking me. The paint covers up how ugly her outfit is.” Chloe waved her away, and Alya’s fists clenched at her sides.
“Yeah, well, unfortunately for you, Marinette’s a bigger person than both of us,” She said coldly before decking Chloe square in her jaw with a satisfying pop. She toppled over to the ground and cupped a hand over her mouth before a series of shrieks erupted from her throat.
“Fight! Fight! Fight!” Several classmates cheered as Alya shook out her tingling fist just as several teachers broke through the crowd and grabbed onto them.
Chloe’s glare could cut steel as she wiped blood from her mouth while they both got toted up to the principal’s office, but Alya felt no remorse for her actions and smiled smugly as her lip began to swell while they awaited punishment. In retrospect, it probably wasn’t her smartest idea, but someone had to do it sooner or later. She was more than content to be that someone.
“You girls should know better than to fight on school grounds! What were you thinking?” Mr. Damocles hissed angrily.
“Sir, I am completely innocent in this situation! She attacked me,” Chloe said, pointing a well-manicured finger.
“After you purposefully spilled paint on Marinette,” Alya objected, crossing her arms over her chest.
“It was an accident,” Chloe huffed, sticking her nose up in the opposite direction.
“Yeah, just like my fist accidentally collided with your mouth.” Alya rolled her eyes.
“Enough!” Mr. Damocles shouted. “Both of you are suspended for the rest of the week!”
“But I didn’t do anything-”
“Both of you, Miss Bourgeois! Now get out of my office!” He pointed to the door, and Alya stood up with a sigh, followed closely thereafter by Chloe.
“Thanks a lot! Now my perfect record is ruined, and it’s all your fault!” She accused as Alya made her way down the stairs.
“Yeah, we’re finally even for how you ruined mine six months ago,” Alya snorted. “Looks like money can’t buy you out of everything.”
“Don’t think you’re getting out of this just yet! My daddy will make sure you cover the cost of any permanent damages to my face!”
“Oh, please. It’s a bruise lip, you’ll live,” Alya said, watching her stomp off to the front doors, frantically dialing what Alya could only guess was her father. She veered toward the locker rooms to check on Marinette but found them empty. Pursing her lips, she pulled out her phone as she opened her locker and sent her bff a quick text to make sure she was okay.
so what’s the damage?
While she waited for a reply, she packed her shoulder bag with all of her school essentials for the week then shut her locker with a sigh. Being suspended for a second time because of Chloe somehow didn’t vex her as much as it did the first time. Probably because Chloe at least got what she deserved this time, so she would face whatever punishment awaited her at home. As she headed out through the front doors, her phone buzzed in her pocket with a reply from Marinette.
Mari: Actually, other than the paint still behind my ears, I’m great! u’ll never guess what happened after I washed all the paint out of my hair
Wat?
Mari: Adrien was waiting outside the locker room to make sure i was ok!
Seriously? Girl, please tell me u spoke real words to him.
Mari: yes! as a matter of fact, i did. he’s so sweet, alya! he said he admires how i turned the other cheek with chloe and he offered to be my bodyguard because she would never hurt him! he even walked me back to class. i felt like i was floating
M, i’m so proud of u!
Mari: thanks! so what’s the deal with u? i heard u punched chloe in the face??
Yeahhh…
Mari: omg, alya! ur insane! did you get in trouble?
yeah, i got suspended for the rest of the week, but so did chloe ;)
Mari: that’s awesome! and sad. i’ll keep u in the loop about school and Adrien
ty i’m on my way home to get another lecture, so i’ll talk to u later if they don’t take my phone
Mari: good luck!
Alya sighed and tucked her phone away in her pocket as she boarded the subway, rolling her neck as she mentally prepared herself for the inevitable speech she was going to get from her parents. Before coming to Françoise-Dupont, Alya never got in trouble, but she couldn’t just stand back and let someone walk all over people like that, especially not one of her friends. Someone needed to step up and defend people, like Chat Noir and Ladybug did, and if suspension and lectures meant that Chloe thought twice before messing with someone again, then she would happily be the scapegoat for everyone else.
Still, it did kind of bum her out that she was being treated like the bad guy, but she supposed misunderstood heroes were still heroes in the end. She locked eyes with a small old man standing across the aisle from her, and they exchanged polite nods before she reached for her phone again. While scrolling through her blog, she happened to glance up again at some point to see a young boy reach into the old man’s pocket and pull out what appeared to be his wallet, and her jaw clenched in irritation.
“Hey! What do you think you’re doing?” She called loudly, alerting several other passengers and startling the boy into dropping the wallet. The train came to a stop just in time, and the boy dashed through the doors before anyone could catch him. Alya clicked her tongue and stooped down to retrieve the man’s wallet.
“Thank you very much, Miss,” He said gratefully. “Here, let me give you something.”
“Oh, no thank you, sir. I’m just glad I could help,” She insisted, waving him away. “Just be careful.”
“Same to you.” He nodded politely as she stepped off and headed up the stairs back to the street with a smile on her face. That felt good, and with the mood she was in that day, that boy was lucky he got away when he did.
When she arrived back at home, the flat was quiet, so she grabbed an apple from the kitchen and slumped off to her room. Setting her bag on the floor next to her desk, she bit off a chunk of the apple and fell onto her bed with a groan. At least some good had come from Chloe dumping paint on Marinette. It got Adrien interested in Marinette, and if Alya hadn’t punched Chloe, that old man would have lost his wallet. Fate had a funny way of working out like that sometimes, she guessed.
Of course, no amount of justice could save her from being grounded the second her parents walked in the door, and Alya took the fallout with her head held high. It was all the usual stuff, “we’re so disappointed,” and “we raised you better than this.” Typical good parenting stuff that every hero had to deal with. Fortunately, she managed to weasel her phone out of grounding so long as she kept the house clean while everyone was out during the day, so she supposed life wouldn’t be that miserable throughout the week.
Though, as she soon found out, her week was about to become a lot more interesting than she’d expected.
It all started when she got out of the shower later that evening and returned to her room, blotting water from her hair with a towel. With a long breath, she flopped into her desk chair and pulled out her homework, figuring she may as well finish what she had now. As she set her books down on the table, she noticed a small box resting in the center of it, and Alya picked it up curiously. Did it belong to one of her siblings? It certainly didn’t look like anything they owned, and something about the engravings made it seem much older than it looked. Cocking a brow, she lifted the lid only to find herself blinded by orange light as a small creature materialized right in front of her eyes and stretched. Alya stared at it slack jawed for a moment as it blinked open its eyes and examined her with equal intrigue for a moment before it finally spoke.