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mariharem-trash-heap · 2 years

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The Sketchbook

Trouble is brewing in Caline Bustier’s classroom at Collège Françoise Dupont. In the center of it? Marinette, a ruined sketchbook, and Chloé as the prime suspect.

Notes:

Another take on the infamous ‘sketchbook’ trope. I wanted a self-indulgent "class has more than two braincells” fic to tide me over.

Also, oof this screwed me over - I’ve spent literally months trying to write this. To the requesters, I’m working on them as much as I can - there will probably be one going up sometime this week.

It was supposed to be another normal morning. Marinette had hardly enough time to drag herself out of bed and get dressed before she was hurrying off to school, a croissant in her mouth.

She checked her phone as soon as she got to the front steps of the middle school with a frown. The group chat for the art club had been strangely silent as of late, and it wasn’t just because of the deal with Lila.

One part of her was gripped with guilt - what if they just made a new chat without her? It certainly would be quieter than kicking her out of the usual one.

She knew things had been stressful and a bit strained, what with Lila’s lies driving a wedge between them the harder she tried to get them to listen to her. She knew some of them may feel a tad uncomfortable picking sides, and she knew for certain that some of them didn’t think as highly of her as others did.

When she thought of Nathanael, she had to wince - and quickly grabbed her croissant with her free hand, as she’d accidentally bitten too far into it and it had begun to fall from her mouth. After the Evillustrator incident and the Reverser debacle, she was sure he’d never want to speak to her again.

She heaved a sigh as she made her way to the locker room. She grabbed her stuff and shut it harder than she thought, the loud noise making her flinch. As she made her way to her classroom, she stopped short at Nino and Nathanael standing outside of it, looking around as if trying to find something.

“Miimo?” She muttered around her croissant, taking it out and swallowing the bite. “What’s going...?”

“Marinette!” Nino’s head shot up and he looked even more panicked as he held out his arms. “Mari, dudette, I didn’t know-- I swear I didn’t know.”

“Didn’t know what?” Anxiety prickled at her chest as she looked from him to Nathanael. “What’s going on?”

“I’m sorry,” the redhead breathed, soft eyes full of guilt. “I didn’t know she would do this.”

“You’re scaring me.” She shook her head, trying to peek past Nino’s body. “What...?”

He moved to block her view, but it was too late.

Marinette’s mouth dropped open, the croissant falling from her hand at the same time as her bag. Butter from the pastry seeped down the side and onto the floor.

Ten shocked faces looked up at her from inside, and she could swear she saw a hint of a smirk on Lila’s face for a split-second before it faded to one of nervousness.

“Hey, hey,” Nino grabbed her into a hug and in the next second she could feel hot tears trickling down her cheeks. “Breathe, ‘Nette.”

“It wasn’t... I swear it was nobody from the art club,” Nathanael spoke up. “None of us were even near your locker when it got stolen.”

“Marinette,” Alya started as she made her way towards the door. “Mari, girl, I’m so sorry--”

“M- my plans,” the artist whispered. “My sketches... my designs...” she hiccupped, and her voice cracked. “They’re ruined.”

“Breathe,” Nino repeated, and his arm tightened around her shoulders. “Babe, could you...?”

“Yeah,” Alya nodded and made her way back to her desk. Her seat in the very back, the top of the stairs, and the sketchbook.

Crumpled and ripped pieces of paper littered the tabletop, the book in question looking worse for wear. Silence settled atop the students as she began to carefully uncrumple them as best she could, Marinette’s sniffles filling the gaps of quiet.

“Why?” She whimpered, gripping Nino’s shirt tight. “Who would do this? What have I done?”

“Watch out for butterflies, guys,” Alix warned as she made her way through the classroom to the door. Nino and Nathanael simultaneously stiffened and began looking around for the cursed dark-purple menaces. “Marinette, I know it looks bad, but--”

“Guys?” Adrien’s voice rang out from the other end of the hall, and oh no, why did he have to show up while she was such a mess--?! “What’s going on?”

“Bro, now isn’t the best time,” Nino began.

“Why? What’s wrong with...?” Adrien’s voice trailed off as he saw the room. A soft gasp escaped him, one that made Marinette heave another low, moaning sob.

“When we got here this morning, it was just sitting there,” Nathanael quietly filled him in with a frown. “Nobody knows who did it. The art club is sure it wasn’t one of us.”

The blond paused, feeling the weight behind the artist’s words. “You don’t think it was... Chloe, do you?”

“I can’t think of anyone else, we’re all accounted for.” The redhead raised a brow at him, folding his arms. “You wouldn’t defend her if she tore apart Marinette’s book, would you?”

One look at the weeping girl on his best friend’s chest and he was vigorously shaking his head. “No, of course I wouldn’t! An artist’s portfolios are sacred! I’m just... confused. Chloe wouldn’t do this.”

“Oh really?” Alya’s voice rang out in disbelief. “What rock have you been living under, Adrien? Chloe has done way worse than this before.”

“Yeah, don’t you remember when she sabotaged Marinette’s gift to Ms. Bustier?” Kim chimed in.

“Or how she let my watch get broken?” Alix groused.

“Or when she mocked Nathanael’s drawings and got him akumatized?” Rose piped up, earning a nod from her girlfriend.

“Or when she threw a tantrum because she couldn’t be Queen Bee and got herself akumatized by choice?” Max emphasized, adjusting his glasses.

“Guys, please,” Adrien pleaded, raising his hands. “I know she’s done worse than this before, but... do you really think she’d stoop to this level? Her mom is a famous fashion mogul and she knows my dad is the biggest designer in Paris - she knows the importance of this stuff!”

“Oh, like she’d care about that when it happens to belong to Marinette!” Ivan scoffed. Beside him, Mylene frowned, clutching his hand and nodding in solidarity.

“But... but she wouldn’t want...” Adrien trailed off. She wouldn’t do this because she doesn’t want to make me upset. Belatedly he realized it might sound more self-centered had he said it out loud.

“Chloe is a bully, Adrien,” Lila spoke up, voice dripping with honeyed concern. Marinette’s grip tightened on Nino’s shirt, something that made the boy look down in confusion. “It’s obvious she did this to get back at her!”

“I did what to get back at whom?” Chloe questioned as she walked down the hall. Her nose was in the air like usual, and Sabrina simpered behind her.

“You stole Marinette’s sketchbook and ripped it up, didn’t you?!” Alya exclaimed, a rather thunderous expression shadowing her face as she pointed accusingly.

“I did what?!” The socialite balked. Turning to Sabrina, she ordered, “Remind me of where I was from the moment school ended yesterday to this morning.”

“U- um, let’s see,” the girl muttered, pulling out her phone and typing furiously.

“Drop the pretenses, we all know it was you,” Alix sighed. “This is such a Chloe thing to do. I’m surprised you’re trying to make us think for a minute that--”

“I got it!” Sabrina yelped, interrupting the pinkette with her waving her phone back and forth. “Chloe had a manicure directly after school, followed by an hour of sunbathing by the pool, and then back to her room, where I did her homework until dark and I went home. This morning...” she scrolled down, “...she picked me up in the limo and we drove to school, where we are now.”

“That proves it,” the blonde declared, tilting her chin upwards. “There’s no way I did it.”

“I’d believe you,” oh great, here came Lila again, “except for the fact that leaves a large window of time where you could’ve broken into school and stole the book!”

“What in the world makes you think I’d be caught dead trespassing on school property just to look for a stupid sketchbook?” Chloe snapped, folding her arms. “I’m Queen Bee! I value my beauty sleep way more than whatever Dupain-Cheng scribbles in class.”

“Was Queen Bee,” Nino muttered, but the blonde pointedly ignored him.

“Oh yeah?” Alya argued, Lila placing a hand on her shoulder as if to hold her back. “Remember when you stole Marinette’s design for Gabriel Agreste’s design competition?”

“Or when you had Sabrina try to steal her diary?” Alix agreed. Then with a snicker, “By the way, nice going on the box trap, ‘Nette.”

Sabrina winced, holding her wrist at the memory.

“Face it, Chloe, you’re nothing but a big bully.” Kim spoke up with a withering look. “You’ve had it out for Marinette since we were little. And yeah, I may have had a thing for you before, but that don’t mean I’m gonna stick up for you now! You went too far this time!”

Chloe looked utterly flabbergasted, eyes darting back and forth between the angry students before finally settling on a silent Adrien.

“Adrikins,” she implored, “you have to believe me. I didn’t do it this time.”

Adrien searched her face for a couple long seconds before he looked away with a sigh.

“Adrien,” Lila spoke up, her voice dripping with concern, “you don’t seriously take the word of a bully over your friends... right?”

“Well, I- I...” he floundered, gesturing back and forth between Chloe and Marinette, who had finally stopped crying and was hiding her face in Nino’s shoulder.

“Okay, let’s all calm down,” Max interrupted, catching everyone’s attention. “This is getting us nowhere, and we still have nobody to blame for the book. Let’s rewind and work through it line by line: where were each of us between yesterday afternoon and this morning?”

“I’ll go first.” He gestured to the door. “I was at the library to work on my half of the science project, then I went home and worked on Markov.”

“I can tell you for certain that I was with Marinette after school,” Alya began confidently. “We worked on our project together and after I went home for dinner I stayed there all night.” She nodded towards her boyfriend. “Nino can vouch - we were texting for a couple of hours, right?”

“Yeah, I have the text log to prove it.” He nodded firmly. “And I was at my house babysitting my brother.”

“I remember you telling me about that,” Adrien softly chimed in with a smile. “I can offer my phone if anyone needs to check me.”

“Okay, so that’s Alya and Nino that have solid alibis,” Max nodded. “Who else? Alix?”

“I was with my dad at the museum for most of the afternoon,” she answered, jerking her chin towards Kim. “Then he called and asked about the math homework, and so I helped him through it for a while.”

“I was at the pool hanging out with Ondine for a couple of hours before I went home to do homework,” he added with a nod. “Ondine will cover me!”

“Kitty Section was practicing!” Rose piped up. “Leka’s mom can confirm if you want!”

“So that’s Rose, Juleka, Ivan, and Mylene as well,” Max hummed. “And Adrien... we don’t need to ask.”

The boy blushed, ducking his head. “Fair.”

“I was hanging out with Marc all day yesterday,” Nathanael nodded, tossing his head to get the hair out of his eyes. “If you need me to ask him to verify...”

“I’ve already told you where Chloe and I were,” Sabrina added, nervously hugging her phone to her chest. “S- so that leaves Lila!”

All eyes fell on the girl, who stiffened under the scrutiny.

“Hey, guys,” Alya started disapprovingly. “You can’t possibly think...”

“She’s the only one who hasn’t said anything yet,” Max pointed out.

“Yeah! Kinda suspicious how the quietest person in the room hasn’t said anything in her own defense yet, huh?” Chloe jeered. “Give it up, little miss innocence - where were you last night?”

“What about Marinette?” Lila pointed out instead, eyes narrowing. “She hasn’t said anything either.”

“Marinette’s sketchbook got destroyed,” Nino answered incredulously. “Why the heck do you think she’d sneak over here to destroy it herself? Can’t you see how distraught she is?”

“Yeah, she’s not the type to do that,” Alya confirmed, folding her arms. “What’s with you, girl? Are you implying that Marinette wanted to stir up drama?”

“W- well, I just--”

“I know where she was,” Adrien spoke up.

Marinette stiffened, finally daring a peek up at him. Her eyes were red and puffy, and she quickly looked back down when she felt a string of snot trickling between her nose and her sleeve.

“I-- er, I have a friend,” he said awkwardly, rubbing the back of his neck. “They like to keep an eye on my friends for me, since I can’t always... y’know, be there to help. She was in her room the entire time.”

(It wasn’t like he was about to out himself as Cat Noir - but if they could believe Lila was Ladybug’s best friend, surely they’d believe him if he said he knew a certain mischievous cat hero, right?)

The students fell silent for several seconds. Alya narrowed her eyes at him suspiciously.

Then she grinned, nudging Marinette’s shoulder. “How sweet,” she cooed. “I guess our sunshine really does care a lot, huh?”

“W- well, you’re all my first friends,” he murmured bashfully. “If there’s something I can do to help, I want to be able to.”

Marinette’s face burned bright red to the tips of her ears, and she hid her face even more in her arm.

“That leaves you,” he continued, staring Lila almost defiantly in the face. “Where were you? You still haven’t defended yourself.”

“I- I was shopping,” she answered, tilting her chin and looking back through her lower lashes. “Then I went home and had dinner.”

“Anyone able to corroborate this?” Max questioned.

Everyone looked to the girls.

Alya slowly reached for her phone, a contemplative frown on her face as she scrolled through her messages.

“You told me you and your mom were going to take a day trip to Disneyland Paris with the Spanish ambassador,” she accused, showing the class her phone screen. “You never told me you were shopping.”

“I didn’t have enough money for what I wanted to do, plus the ambassador was busy and my mom got called back last minute, so I gave up and went to the mall,” Lila countered defensively. Almost too defensively. “I don’t have to report to anyone whenever I change my plans.”

“Oh, no, I’m not accusing you of...” Alya scrunched up her nose and shook her head. “That’s not the point. So Lila’s out too. Maybe it was someone else from another class? Who has a grudge against Marinette?”

“Didn’t Marc get akumatized that one time?” Adrien asked, turning to Nathanael.

“He forgave both of us,” he answered quickly with a shake of his head. “No way. Marc isn’t the type of person to hold grudges like that. He likes Marinette.”

“Is there anyone else? Jean? Mireille? Aurore?”

“No, not that I know of,” Nino slowly shook his head.

“Then who destroyed the book?” Max huffed in frustration. “None of this makes any sense. None of us hate her enough to do it, nobody else hates her enough to do it...”

“Wait,” Lila spoke up. “Wasn’t there an akuma last night?”

“Oh yeah, I forgot about that!” Adrien agreed almost a touch too loudly.

“How would you--?” Alya began, then realized her mistake and shook her head. “Oh yeah, overprotective dad.”

“And I keep tabs on the Ladyblog,” he admitted. “I like seeing Ladybug and Cat Noir defeat akumas when I can’t see them myself. It makes me feel safer.”

“Yeah, there was an akuma last night,” Rose remembered. Then she cupped her hands over her mouth. “You don’t think...?”

“I don’t think they had a grudge at Marinette, but it’s possible,” Juleka spoke up with a shrug. “But I would think the Ladybug Cure would heal the damage.”

“Unless someone did it while we were all on lockdown,” Alya surmised with a hum. “Ugh, this sucks. Max, you’re the genius, what do you think?”

“It’s hard to say,” the boy answered, taking his chin in his hand with narrowed eyes. “It’s too bad I left Markov at home today - he would have proven instrumental in spotting the loose thread.”

“Guys,” Marinette said weakly, “it’s... it’s fine. I’ll just try to salvage what I can and... I’ll get over it.”

“What?” Adrien stared at her in concern. “But... but Marinette, that’s your work. You’ve spent so much time on it.”

Nino cast him a suspicious glance, and the blond backpedaled, “I- I mean, I’ve seen you working on it during break. You can’t just throw it away.”

“I’m gonna have to redo everything anyways,” she pointed out, finally straightening herself up and wiping her eyes. As Nino handed her a handkerchief, she quietly thanked him and blew her nose.

“But...” Adrien looked incredibly lost as she folded the soft cotton and stuffed it into her pocket, promising to wash it as soon as she could.

Nino just shrugged, halfheartedly smiling and murmuring, “You need it more than me, dudette.”

“I know I’m not much of a... fashion artist, but... I can help?” Nathanael offered. “I know a few of those designs were for our comic...”

“You’re so brave, Marinette,” Lila gushed, and the noirette looked up to see the student giving her a sickly-sweet smile. “You really are a class representative. After all, it is just a sketchbook - at least whoever did it didn’t target you instead!”

It’s not just a sketchbook, she wanted to spit back at her. Instead she tried to calm herself the best she could by taking a deep breath and looking instead to Nathanael.

“I appreciate the offer, Nath,” she murmured. “Thanks.”

“Students!” Miss Bustier called as she made her way up the stairs. ��What is everyone doing in the hall?”

“Miss Bustier,” Adrien spoke up firmly, “someone ruined Marinette’s sketchbook. We were trying to figure out which one of us did it.”

“Yeah,” Alya chimed in, folding her arms across her chest.

“Oh dear,” the teacher’s confused expression melted into one of concern as she turned to her star student. “Marinette? Are you alright?”

“I’m... I’ll be fine,” she reassured with a plastered-on smile. “It’s just a sketchbook, right? I can just start another one.”

“Make sure you watch out for akumas today,” Bustier warned, patting the girl’s shoulder before the students parted to let her into the classroom. “Now we need to begin class - the bell’s due to ring any minute now.”

As if on cue, the bell sounded, startling a few of them.

Alya chuckled, placing a hand on Marinette’s back. “C’mon, why don’t you sit with me today?”

“Am I chopped liver now?” Nino feigned hurt. “Babe. I got snotted on and you’re leaving me?”

“Oh hush, my bestie needs me more today.” She winked at the boy as she moved past. “If it makes you feel better, I’ll let you sit with me in the afternoon?”

“I guess I can take that,” the boy shrugged with a huff of a laugh. He turned to Adrien. “Girlfriends, I tell you.”

Adrien followed them with his eyes for a second before sighing. “I hope she’s gonna be okay,” he commented softly.

“Nette’s tough - if anyone’s gonna bounce back from it, it’d be her.” Nino nodded, nudging him with an elbow. “Besides, she has you to check up on her, right?”

“Of course! I’ll have to see how she’s doing at lunch.” A smile spread across the blond’s face, even as Chloe clung to him and all but dragged him into the room.

As he sat down in front of Alya and Marinette, he turned and gave her a meaningful look.

“Mari, I’m sorry,” he whispered. “I really am sorry. I had no idea this would happen.”

“It’s okay, not your fault,” she sighed. “I should’ve been more careful to take my book home last night.”

He stared into her face for several seconds before his lip quirked up into a half smile and he patted her hand, turning around before she could turn bright red.

Hopefully she’d heard what he was trying to say.

Sparing a glance at Lila, he gave her a disapproving frown before turning to face the board. He wouldn’t be so careless this time.

This was more than just lying - and Lila had no idea the war that she’d just started.

#slight lila salt #akuma class sugar #the ruined sketchbook trope #adrien sugar #bustier's class isn't stupid #they also aren't blindly accusatory either #well except for chloe #but tbh i can't blame them #realistic lila #realistic ml

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