After my parents re-enrolled me to Collège Françoise Dupont, I was happy to see all my classmates again.

"Welcome back, Marinette!" Rose squealed, running over to me to embrace me in one of her friendly hugs. Juleka followed behind her and welcomed me back as well.

"Thanks girls," I said with a smile.

"Marinette's back?! Cool! Now she could see more of my newest awesome dares!" I heard a male voice shout across the room.

"They're not that awesome, Kim! Also welcome back, Marinette!" Alix yelled to me, throwing a paper ball at Kim's head from where she sat.

I giggled in reply and thanked them.
Oh, those two were meant for each other.

"Hey girl," I heard a familiar voice say from beside me. Immediately, I was filled with excitement as I turned to see my best friend.

"Hey Alya!" I replied happily.

"H-Hello Marinette. I-I um, I know you probably already have lots of fanart, but I-I know how you're Ladybug and everything, so I drew you this. I wasn't sure if I could give it to you- or um if you'd want it..." Nathaniel held up one of his amazing drawings of me, being half Ladybug and half Marinette.

My eyes lit up at the drawing. "Thank you, Nathaniel! I love it!" I told him, taking the drawing he held out to me to put in the front of my school binder. He smiled, blushing and went back to his seat.

As I sat back down in my seat, I was immediately lifted in the air bridal style, and my gaze was met by none other than the actual amazing Chat Noir! Or Adrien Agreste. I mean, they're a package deal. Personally, I was glad.

"A-Adrien?" I choked from seeing his beautiful face without bracing myself. His face began to contort into a worried expression.

Quickly he placed my back down and started patting my back. "I'm so sorry, Marinette! Was I choking you? I know I'm Chat Noir, but I didn't I could kill you! Oh my goodness, my sweet princess. Someone get her some water!" Adrien began to panic.

My choking subsided into giggles and I pulled him into a hug, "I was choking because your beautiful model face was too much to handle! I'm fine, you cute dork!"

I immediately saw his worry change to relief, then flushed with redness. "C-cute? Princess, you think I'm cute?"

"I thought you knew that, Mister Leather Catsuit!" I pushed him softly with a playful smile. Suddenly his gentle eyes sharpened like his alter-ego's and he began to smile. I knew trouble was on the way.

"Well, you're ten times cuter!" Adrien smirked, shooting back at me with his remark.

"No, you're a hundred times cuter!" I shot back, lovesick giggles coming from me.

"A thousand times!"

"A million times!"

"You guys are so mushy," a small voice complained from Adrien's shirt.

"Shut it, Plagg. I bet you and your Camembert do the same thing everyday!" Adrien teased, causing his kwami to groan. I heard Tikki giggle at Adrien's statement, and I responded in the same manner.

"Hi Marinette! Hi Adrien!" Chloe jumped in excitedly.

"Hello Chloe!" I smiled and waved to one of my best friends. She smiled and sat in her usual seat. Sabrina waved happily to me and sat beside her.

I hoped we could stay best friends after everything would return to normal, but then again, nothing would be the same after I revealed my identity, and maybe it was for the best.

Miss Bustier walked in and welcomed me back to class, then began her lesson. Adrien quickly raced to the front where his seat was, but before he left, he planted a quick kiss on my forehead.

Alya was giving me a smirk, then wrote on her notebook paper, "I expect details on when and how Adrienette became a thing."

I rolled my eyes and chuckled quietly, writing back, "Of course you'll get the details! You're my BFF!"

"Good. I expect nothing less," she scribbled down.

"Marinette, Alya, I know you guys are excited to be hanging out together again, but please try to pay attention to my lesson. It'll be on the next test," Miss Bustier chuckled, shaking her head.

"Sorry Miss Bustier," we echoed one another, blushing in embarrassment.

"It's quite alright, girls. Now class, who can explain the importance of symbolism?" She redirected her attention to the lesson.

A few students raised their hands, but most looked at each other in wonder. The teacher held her pencil to her chin with a small hum, and chose a student.

"Yes Mylene?"

"Umm, it's a way in storytelling to hint the readers to uncover the true meaning behind something, the representation of what is happening in the story to help the readers become more involved in the story," Mylene explained, causing Miss Bustier to smile and nod approvingly.

"Good job! Symbolism plays a role in storytelling, like Mylene said, from the author to the reader in helping uncover the hidden messages in the story. We will be reading a story, and every night, you guys will read a chapter as assigned homework. However, we will be discussing the symbolism in class to enrich your learning. Additionally besides the reading, take a notebook and record things you think may contain symbolism and take your best guess at what you think the author meant. In class, we will be taking the time to talk about what you guys write down and we will learn together," the teacher told us.

"Can we see some examples of symbolism? I'm still a little confused on how something could contain a hidden message," Lila requested shyly.

I had almost forgotten about Lila. She knew I was Ladybug. She knew Marinette was Ladybug now. Would she hate me? I needed to talk to her, and apologize again for being so out of line with her before she was akumatized.

"Of course, Lila! I was just going to get into that. Alright class, pick your group of six and sit with them on the floor," Miss Bustier replied, then told us.

Alya, Adrien, Nino, and I turned to look at one another.

"Okay dude and dudettes, we've got four people. We need two more," Nino said, looking around the classroom. I nodded and left my seat to get the other two members.

"Hey Marinette! Mind if Sabrina and I join you guys? I promise it'll be nothing like last time where you and Sabrina did all the work," Chloe promised.

"You mean me, since someone had a date with Chat Noir," Sabrina scowled jokingly, putting her hands on her hips.

"Whoops! Again, I'm sorry about that Sabrina. Of course you girls could join! I was just about to get you two," I apologized, explaining.

"Don't worry, Marinette. I was kidding! You were busy with superhero stuff. Of course I understand! Now let's get to work!" Sabrina told me.

"What is she doing?" I heard Nino whisper to Alya.

"Wait, when did she, Sabrina, and Chloe become close?" I heard Alya whisper back to Nino.

If I was hearing all this whispering, it meant they were pretty loud with being secretive.

"Guys, everything's good now," Adrien jumped in on their not-so-secretive whispering.

I turned back at him and he flashed a comforting smile towards me, and I smiled back. The three of us came to Adrien, Nino, and Alya's group and we chose the spot in front of Adrien and Nino's desk to sit.

The six of us sat in a circle. I sat beside Adrien who was sitting next to Nino. On my other side was Chloe, who sat beside a pretty annoyed Alya who had Sabrina on her other side. Next to Sabrina was also Nino.

Floor Seating:

"How about we switch places?" Alya suggested to Chloe.

"No, it's alright. Marinette and I would bounce ideas right off each other when we did homework together," Chloe kindly declined.

I could see Alya visibly bottling frustration, but she took a breath. Sabrina offered a place change so Alya would be able to sit beside Nino, so she accepted. She brightened a bit, sitting beside her boyfriend.
Chloe smiled at Sabrina who now sat at her side.

Miss Bustier took a glance over the class to see that we all were finally in groups, except there was one group of three. She sighed and cleared her throat to make another announcement, "I've messed up the calculations! Get in groups of three!"

"It's a good thing I don't teach math," she muttered to herself as the class began to reassemble themselves.

Our group began sharing concerned glances at one another.

"Uh... Let's just split ourselves in two. Are there any preferences of who ends up with who?" Nino asked, making the suggestion.

We all just glanced at each other and shrugged.
Adrien looked at me lovingly.

"Okay then. Let's just split the circle in half. Alya, Adrien and I as one group. Sabrina, Chloe and Marinette as the other," Nino decided. Alya glared at him, but he took no notice. Adrien pouted and I linked my hand into his.

"We'll hang out during lunch like we used to! I'll see you guys later," I promised my old friends. Alya nodded, and Adrien smiled. As we parted ways to sit by Chloe and Sabrina's desk, I released my grip on Adrien's hand. His grip was a bit hesitant to release, but he did.

I followed Chloe and Sabrina as we sat in front of their desk. I gazed over the room to see that most of the groups have already settled.

Miss Bustier took notice and began to instruct. The first thing she did was give us handouts of examples for symbolism, then she explained each one of them.
We all followed along and answered her questions, and then she gave us our final instructions, "The people you chose to group with will be your discussion group. I've decided that everyday after you complete the reading and take notes of what you believe to be symbolism, then you guys can share it in your groups. Instead of having a huge class discussion like I decided earlier, I'll just coke along and check on each group to ensure that everyone is clear with the discussions. As for now, you may disassemble your groups. We're going to the library to check out the book you will be assigned to. After the library trip, you will be dismissed for your next class."

The entire class began to chatter among themselves as they rose to their feet and we followed Miss Bustier out the door.

I took notice of Lila who was looking down into her notebook that she had taken along with her. When should I apologize? Of course I would need to. Even though she rejected my apology at first, it was worth trying again.

I bit my lip and slowly made my way over to her.

"Lila?" I shyly spoke.

"Huh?" Her eyes widened, and she turned to look at me as she gently shut her notebook, "Oh, you're Marinette, right?"

"Yeah... I just wanted to apologize to you," I confessed.

The sides of her lips lifted into a soft smile.

"I was way, way, way out of line that one time, that you- you know. I'm Ladybug and well, it was wrong of me to freak out on you. You made an innocent mistake and I was a huge jerk about it. I'm sorry, Lila," I lowered my head in shame.

"I wanted to fit in, but lying was wrong. Now, we do know each other, and I forgive you. Besides, I think I might possibly have my eye on someone other than Adrien right now," she told me, giggling a bit at the end as she glanced towards Nathaniel.

"I ship it! I think you two would be a cute couple," I laughed happily.

"He's in my group and my desk buddy. He loves to draw, and he's kinda shy. His blue eyes are just so... blue," she sighed dreamily as she cuddled her notebook to her chest.

"You know, you sounded like me when I first started to crush on Adrien," I giggled, causing her to laugh as well.

"Look Marinette, I know we didn't have a great start, but would you like to be friends now? I think we have more in common than we realized, and we can talk about boys and stuff," Lila giggled, biting down gently on her lower lip.

"Of course! We could even work together to bring you and Nath closer," I whispered the last part excitedly. She nodded happily in response.

Before we even realized it, we were in the library. My old friends and new ones glanced to Lila and I curiously. Already remembering what a temper I threw when I got jealous with her and Adrien hanging at the park together, it was probably a bit strange to see us getting along.

After we picked up our books, Lila went over to attempt talking to Nathaniel while I went back to Chloe and Sabrina.

"Didn't Lila make you mad before?" Sabrina asked quietly.

"It was my fault to begin with. I apologized and we found out we had things in common. She's really nice," I told her and Chloe.

"I could believe that. It's just... girl, I was jealous of her at the beginning. She seemed so popular, fun, and interesting. How do you not be jealous of someone like that?" Chloe admitted.

"She's really cool, but you are too, Chloe, and so are you, Sabrina. Chloe, you've changed so much. It's amazing how sweet, compassionate, and understanding you are! And Sabrina, it's unbelievable how hardworking and loyal you are! Both of you are beautiful girls and have awesome personalities. Believe me when I tell you that those are the things people strive to have," I told them as we headed back to the classroom.

"How did we become so lucky to be best friends with Marinette?" Chloe asked Sabrina, choking up as she smiled.

"I'm glad we became best friends," I laughed, hugging the both of them.

When we made it back to our class, we went back to our assigned seating until the bell would ring. Miss Bustier assigned the first chapter of our new book for homework and explained the assignment.

I looked towards Alya, and I noticed she seemed a bit down. Once the teacher finished talking and the bell rang, I quickly put my things away so I would have time to talk to Alya.

"Hey Alya! Ready for (PE) physical education?" I asked her.

"Why is athletics required?" She mumbled, shoving things in her backpack.

"Probably so we can all stay healthy and not be couch potatoes," I joked a bit, causing Alya to lift a corner of her mouth in response. She picked up her backpack and we left for our next class.

As we walked down the same hall we were in a few minutes previous to that moment, I noticed she was unusually quiet.

"Hey, are you upset that we got called out for not paying attention? I could tell Miss Bustier it was my fault," I told her, noticing her eyes were beginning to water.

She stayed quiet and bit her lip to keep from crying. I noticed she kept her eyes to the ground. She shook her head, showing me it wasn't the thing she was upset about.

"I-I'm fine, Marinette," she barely spoke above a whisper, trying not to show me that there was obviously something she was upset about.

She didn't call me girl. She was on the verge of tears. Her lip was quivering. I knew Alya was upset.

We continued to walk beside each other in silence as we made our way to PE.

"Alya, hey. Look, I'm here for you if you need to talk. Just give me the word and we can just talk about whatever it is you need or want to talk about, alright?" I told her, pulling my best friend into a hug.

I didn't know what was hurting my best friend, or who, but I knew I needed to fix whatever problem it was.