Chapter 1
Cameras flashed as she walked down the street.
Fashion icon Marinette Dupain-Cheng strutted along the sidewalk, sipping her cup of black coffee.
“Marinette, look this way!” “Over here Marinette!” “Marinette, give us a smile!”
The woman turned towards the paparazzi and lowered her sunglasses, sending them a wink, before walking into Tom and Sabine’s Boulangerie.
The cameramen and women ceased and dispersed, all checking the pictures they’d taken of Marinette.
There was a rule established in the media, that forbade any paparazzi to step inside Tom and Sabine’s bakery, Marinette had posted a video online asking for privacy and of course, with all of Paris and more behind her back, the paparazzi had no choice but to abide by said rule.
A sigh escaped her as she sat down on her bed.
“Being a fashion icon is hard work Tikki” Marinette said as Tikki flew over to her cookie jar on the desk.
“It’s gonna be a lot harder having to start public school next week, you’ll probably be bombarded with fans asking for pictures and autographs!” the kwami said excitedly.
Marinette fell back onto her bed, stretching her arms.
“I hope there won’t be any bullies though, god knows I’ve had enough of those” she mumbled.
Tikki flew up to where her holder was, and sat on the pillow next to her head.
“Marinette Dupain-Cheng, you are a talented designer, a world-wide fashion icon, a grade A student, and on top of that you risk your life everyday to save Paris as Ladybug, I think you can handle bullies” Tikki patted her head reassuringly.
Marinette smiled at her kwami and silently agreed.
“I think I’ll go down and plan my outfits for the week, gotta make a good impression on those public schoolers” and with that said, Marinette went off to plan the jaw dropping outfits that she would be wearing to Francois Dupont.
Meanwhile, in the Agreste mansion.
“Adrien Agreste, you come back here this instant!” Gabriel Agreste shouted from his office, as his son Adrien stormed out the door, making his way up the stairs in the foyer.
Adrien turned around and looked at Gabriel who was now standing in the doorway of his office.
“I will not date some fashion icon, just for publicity! I don’t even know who she is, father!” Adrien shouted back at him.
“She’s a far better choice than those public school girls, clambering to catch your eye, especially that liar, Lila Rossi” he designer argued.
“You already know I would never date Lila, but that’s because she’s a terrible person who lies for fun, what if this fashion icon has the same personality as Lila?”
“Well then that’s something we’ll talk about after you meet her, just please introduce yourself to her on Monday Adrien, she could prove a worthy ally to the Gabriel brand, she works for MDC for christ’s sake!” Gabriel was pleading, practically on his knees begging his son to agree.
Adrien sighed and looked away.
“Fine father, I’ll try to be friends but I can’t promise anything more. I just lost mom, so please, just leave this be and I’ll do my best to get her to work with you” the model told his father.
That seemed enough for Gabriel as he walked back into his office, letting Adrien go off to do his own thing.
Once Adrien arrived in his room, Plagg flew out from inside his shirt.
“Come on kid, I’m sure the girl will be cool, you haven't even met her yet and you’re already judging her” the kwami scolded.
Adrien grumbled and walked over to his computer.
He typed in ‘Marinette Dupain-Cheng’ but he hesitated before he hit enter.
“What’s the matter? Scared she’ll be too pretty for you?” the cat Kwami taunted.
“I don’t want to judge her by other people’s opinions, Plagg, it just feels wrong. I think I’ll just wait until Monday to meet her” Adrien sighed, turning off his computer and walking over to his window.
He rested an arm against one of the beams and looked out at the city surrounding him.
“I hope you’re a person worth getting to know, Marinette Dupain-Cheng”
A couple days had past and now it was Sunday, the last day of their holiday.
Lila Rossi paced her room, thinking of ways to look fabulous during the week, when her phone rang.
She picked it up and answered the call.
“Hey Alya! What’s up?” She loved talking to her best friend Alya, they ruled the school with their frenemy, Chloe Bourgeois.
“Not much girl, just calling to see what you’re wearing this week, should we match or not?” Alya asked.
Lila had Alya wrapped around her finger, as she did with the rest of the school.
So what if she lied her way to the top, no-one dared oppose her, because they either worshipped her or feared her.
She didn’t have to do much to end someone’s whole social life, all it took was a little rumour to Alya about someone, and her word spread like wildfire in a dry forest.
“I was thinking Red and Black for Monday, in honour of my bestie Ladybug” she said holding up her Ladybug themed outfit for Alya to see.
“Yes girl! That sounds awesome! You always come up with the coolest ideas”
Lila smiled as she lay her outfit down on her bed, moving onto the next.
“And on Tuesday I was thinking we would go with a white sweater under a black mini-dress” the italian girl held up her second outfit.
Alya walked out of the screen and came back with a similar outfit to Lila’s.
“Lila, I don’t know how you’re not a fashion icon” Alya admitted.
“Oh stop it girl, you know I don’t have the time, my charities are way more important than being famous, although it would have been fun to be MDC’s personal model, I just had to refuse”
By the look of Alya’s face, she must’ve been eating the story up, but her look suddenly changed as she remembered something.
“Hey, do you know Marinette Dupain-Cheng? MDC’s current model?” the reporter asked.
Lila raised an eyebrow before spinning another story.
“Of course I know Marinette, she had to take my place after I refused the position, MDC didn’t want her but she was the only other option, poor thing didn’t even know the difference between Cashmere and Silk” Lila looked down, feigning pity.
“Really? MDC must be a really great teacher then, because now she’s a world-wide fashion icon” Alya said in awe.
Lila didn’t like the attention being focused on someone other than herself so she decided to end the topic of Marinette quickly.
“Why do you ask about her? Surely there must’ve been a reason”
“Oh, well I heard that she’s gonna attend a public school in Paris, I don’t know which one though, it would be super cool if she came to our school though, we could be friends with a fashion icon!” Alya was brimming with excitement.
“Y-yeah that would be awesome” Lila managed to get out before coming up with an excuse to hang up.
“Alya I gotta go now, Clara Nightingale is trying to call me, see you tomorrow!”
She waved at Alya through the phone, finally being able to end the call.
“Ugh! Moron!” she threw her phone on her bed.
“As if a fashion icon would come to MY school” Lila went back to her closet to plan out the rest of her outfits for the week.
Most of her clothes had fake tags with MDC written on them to make them seem legit.
It’s not like anyone could tell the difference between real and fake at her school, none of them owned a single piece of MDC’s clothing.
“If this Marinette girl does come to Francois Dupont, then I’m gonna have to have good talk with her”