Work Text
The Graduation trip. A vacation that teenagers dream about through their lycée careers. In Miss Bustier's class, they were discussing their plans for their graduation trip when a fake sugary-sweet voice spoke up."Miss Bustier, I'm not really sure if Chloe and Marinette coming would be the best idea." Lila spoke up making the teacher pause and furrow her eyebrows at the the girl."Why is that Lila?""Well, I mean, they don't really get along with the rest of the class and I'm afraid that they'll try to sabotage our trip!" Lila whimpered, a worried expression plastered on her face."Girl you're so right, they're bullies and with the way they've been acting, they deserve to be punished." Alya said, shooting a glare towards the back of the classroom where Chloe and Marinette sat together."I suppose you're right... Marinette? Chloe? You don't mind missing out, do you?" Miss Bustier asked the girls sternly, in a way that made it clear that their feelings didn't particularly matter."Whatever, if you don't want us joining your graduation trip we'll just go on our own." Chloe declared, rolling her eyes with a huff.What the class were clearly forgetting is that as class president, Marinette handled all the fundraising and planning for their previous trips. Chloe's father always donated a generous amount in order to make the trips up to his daughters standards but with her being excluded, he won't make his usual donation."That's fine Miss Bustier, as long as it's made very clear that we won't be helping you raise the money for your trip." Marinette said."Whatever, we don't need you!" Alya replied.In September, Marinette and Chloe began organizing their grad trip for them and their friends. It was going to be the two girls plus Luka, Aurore, Mirelle, Marc and Kagami and they were going to America. They'd first go to New York where they'd meet Audrey and get a tour of Style Queen HQ, then Marinette's godfather Tony Stark offered a tour of Stark Industries. They'd be doing normal tourist things as well, but making connections within these big industries would be useful later on. After New York, they'd go to Metropolis to visit The Daily Profit. The Kent's are old friends of Marinette's grandmas from her travels so when Clark heard that his honorary niece was going to come to his city, he was thrilled. After Metropolis, they were going to Gothom City. Jagged offered to show them around his hometown and show them all the best rock n roll spots. Their Final destination would be Los Angeles, ironically the timing of when they were supposed to be in LA lined up with the rest of the class's trip. All in all the trip would cost around $50,000 and they had until April to raise the money.Meanwhile, The rest of the so-called Akuma Class made big plans for a trip to LA because "Oh all my Hollywood friends would be so excited to hang out with us while they're there!"Marinette made a PowerPoint presentation, details the plans and checklist for the lead up to the trip and the trips itinerary. Hotels, plane rides, travel accommodations, sightseeing schedules, she accounted for everything that they'd need. The group set up a Go-Fund-Me and posted the link on their respective social medias. Marinette's clients from her anonymous fashion brand MDC donated a bit as a thanks for all the work that she does. Jagged donated 3k for his favorite niece, Clara matched him with another 3k. Chloe's parents donated 2k and Kagami's mother pitched in 3k.At the end of September, Mari's group set up a car wash, just barely squeezing it in while the sun was still shining bright. Luka brought speakers from the Liberty to play music and Chloe, Mari and Aurore did the car wash while Mirelle and Marc sold ice lollies. They earned $749In October, the fundraising really started. Miss Bustier's class begun with a bake sale, but didn't account for the fact that Marinette usually provided all the treats. Lila offered to bring an amazing gourmet cake from a famous chef that 'just adored her', and the class divided the rest of the work between them.When it came time for the bake sale, only Alya, Rose, Mylene, Nino and Kim provided what they said they'd bring which lead to a pitiful selection. Lila's baker unfortunately got into a horrible accident which lead to him being unable to make the cake. In the end, barely anyone even walked past their bake sale seeing as they set it up at the park right across from the bakery, where the food was undoubtably better. They only raised $103The second fundraiser that Marinette's group planned was a water-balloon tournament. They sold water-balloons and set up refreshing drinks and food to cool people down in the hot weather. Marc and Marinette did face painting. They got $2123 from that event.The Akuma Class tried to do a carwash but seeing as it wasn't summer anymore, they only earnt around $241Marinette and Chloe's group did a bake sale which brought in $4580. Marinette started selling accessories that she made on a website separate from MDC which earnt another $125.Their go-fund-me brought in $629 seeing as a few of them were kind of popular on social media. Marinette's group also did an auction, where they sold fencing lessons with tournament winner fencer Kagami Tsuguri, drawing lessons with Ladybug and Chat Noir Comic's artist, an MDC commission and lunch dates with each of the group members. The auction earnt $6300 in total.Luka did a live concert, where they charged for entrance fees and sold food. They got $5610 from that. An anonyms donor donated an additional 10k to their go-fund-me. Chloe tried to find out who the anonyms donor was but she came up empty.Miss Bustier's class decided to do their own live concert featuring Kitty Section. Luka had left the band a couple months ago when he got into an argument with the other members due to Lila's. They earnt $2100 from the concert.Marinette's group did a couple of other fundraisers here and there, Marc and Mari set up a portrait painting stand, Chloe hosted a party at her hotel where they sold more food and drinks, Kagami won a fencing tournament and donated her winnings.A week before their trip, they had raised enough money, booked everything for their vacation, gotten their trip aproved by the school and organised for Miss Mendeleiev and Mr D'Argencourt to chaperone.Chloe and Marinette were sitting in class, chatting idly when the rest of their classmates came barreling in."Miss Bustier! The school said that we can't go on an overseas trip because we didn't ask for permission beforehand!" Rose cried."We didn't raise enough money for LA!" Alya announces, flopping onto her table."Well that's concerning, what are you going to do now." Miss Bustier asked.Adrien looked back at Chloe and Mari, his eyes lighting up "Hey guys, what about your trip?""What about our trip Agreste?" Chloe shot back, not bothering to make eye contact with him."Are you going on your trip?""Yeah we are, because we got approval from the school board and raised enough money to go to America." Marinette said."That's not fair! How come you get to go and we don't!" Alya shouted."Because we were prepared and we worked hard."The rest of the Akuma class eventually ended up going to Disneyland, Paris while Marinette's group set off for the states.In New York, they met up with Audrey Bourgeois where she offered Marinette another internship for the summer which Mari excepted in order to get more experience under her belt. The group took photos of the behind-the-scenes of Style Queen.At Stark Industries, Tony greeted Mari enthusiastically "Mars Bars!" He shouted, walking up to the group."Hey Uncle Tony!" Marinette said, hugging him.They went on an exclusive tour of Stark Industries, which Aurore filmed to put on her blog. Tony left them to explore in the internship floor of the building. While Marinette was walking around, she bumped into a brunette boy."Oh my god, I am so sorry, are you alright miss?" the boy said, rubbing his head sheepishly and holding out a hand to help Marinette up."It's ok, I'm Marinette.""Peter, Peter Parker, I'm an intern here."Throughout the rest of their stay in New York, you could find Marinette hanging around a nerdy American boy.Back in Paris, Miss Bustier's class were looking at photos from their classmates New York trip jealously. Max cried when he saw the photos of Marinette with Tony Stark, Alya screamed when she saw the exclusive interview that Aurore got with Style Queen and Adrien sulked about Marinette and Chloe ruining his final year of school.In Metropolis, Marinette's group went for their tour of the Daily Planet, lead by an over-excited Clark Kent and a fond Lois Lane."Oh my god! You're Lois Lane. Like the Lois Lane!" Aurore squealed"Yes I am." Lois laughed."I'm a huge fan, you were the person who inspired me to become a journalist!"By the end of the tour, Lois was enraptured by Aurore's energy and offered her an internship as her mentee. Aurore was bouncing up and down for the rest of their time in Metropolis.They ran into Superman and Superboy who spotted Mari while they were flying around and Aurore got an interview with each of them.Gothom City, although maybe not a popular destination for school trips, was surprisingly fun. The group filled their social medias with pictures of Jagged Stone showing them around the crime capital. They got caught up in a Riddler attack where a video of Mari smashing his questions with flying colours went viral. When the bats came to save the day, Marinette started telling Batman off."Who sends kids to fight crime without pants? You! You've got them dressing like traffic lights and the capes oh the capes do you know how easy it is to use capes against the wearer in battle?"Safe to say, the video of a tiny French girl lecturing Batman about fashion went viral.Their trip to LA included all of the tourist things. Sightseeing, carnivals, just winding down before they came home to Paris.When they came back to school, their entire class were looking annoyed. Alya was seething next to Lila, Adrien was complaining about how awful the past few weeks have been and the rest of the class were looking thoroughly disgruntled.Turns out, when you kick out the only two people in the class who know how to plan a class trip, your trip doesn't go so well.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Marinette Dupain-Cheng was well known among Collège Françoise Dupont. She was the class president for Miss Bustier's class, she was apart of the school leadership team and she was well known for her smart ideas. She helped organize all of the fundraisers and events for the school, even when it wasn't required. She lent a hand in a variety of clubs, always popping by the baking club and helping the art club. Technically she was only in the textiles, art and gaming clubs but she was often seen talking to other club leaders and helping arrange trips and events for the clubs.She knew pretty much everybody, she always said hi to people in the hallways and she memorized names easily. She was known throughout the school for her kind yet determined nature, quick thinking and bright smile.She was also a mini-celebrity. It was common knowledge that Marinette worked with Jagged Stone a few times and she was in the Clara Nightingale music video. It was a little secret between the design club that Marinette was actually the illusive internationally-famous fashion designer 'MDC'.She had a lot of friends outside of the so-called 'Akuma Class' but her classmates never really took note of how popular their class president was.When Lila Rossi joined their class and all of her friends turned on her, she distanced herself from her classmates and spent time with her other friends. She was commonly seen sitting with Aurore, Mirelle, Marc and other students for Miss Mendeleiev's class.People noticed how pretty and bright Marinette was, even if Adrien Agreste didn't. There was practically a line of people who were drawn to the kind laughs and fiery intelligence of Marinette Dupain-Cheng.Eventually, Marinette got sick of her class. After months of name-calling and verbal harassment, Marinette snapped and went directly to the school board. She requested to transfer classes and eventually it was excepted and she was off to join her real friends.When the school got wind of the transfer they went nuts."Did you hear that Marinette Dupain-Cheng transferred out of the akuma class?""Oh good for her, they suck.""Hey isn't Marinette in your class now?""Yeah she brought macaroons in this morning!"Miss Bustier's class were oblivious to the whispers and celebrated the departure of their resident bully. In their minds, they got rid of a toxic, mean, worthless classmate who made Lila's life hell.It all came crashing down around them.The Akuma Class was known for being the best. Maybe not socially, but they got great opportunities. Class trips? They went to New York. Careers day? Free food from the best bakery in Paris. Clothes for school dances? They rocked up in designer-level clothes. Contests? They won first place.When Marinette moved to a different class, that all changed. Lila was elected class president with Alya as her deputy but it quickly became obvious that Lila was far too busy to do any work and Alya had no idea what she was doing despite being Marinette's deputy last year.When it came time for the classes to go on their trips, Miss Mendeleiev's classroom was a flurry of planning and researching. Marinette worked with Aurore (the current class president) to make a PowerPoint presentation about where they should go and how to raise the money. They settled on a trip to Greece. Bustier's classroom was pure chaos."Let's go to America again!""I want to go to Italy!""Greece?"Alya was writing down ideas on the whiteboard and grinning, thinking about how amazing their vacation would be without all of the Marinette-related drama.When it came time to leave for their class trips, Marinette's class were getting ready to depart for Greece where they would study the ancient history of the city. Bustier's class however were boarding a bus for a day trip Disneyland. While some people would be excited, they were used to big, lavish trips.When the Fall Dance came around, Marinette's commission slots were packed. She had given out business cards to a few people that she trusted with her identity and they had all immediately ordered dresses and suits for the dance. Marinette had set up a friends & family discount code and was busy making beautiful, quality, MDC originals.At the dance, Bustier's class came in wearing cheap, thin, flimsy outfits from the mall because they underestimated how much good clothes actually cost, meanwhile Marinette's friends were thanking her and sporting designer clothes.Marinette herself walked in looking like an angel in blue, making her eyes pop. Her dress made even Adrien pause and gawk. She designed a floor-length, flowy, navy dress with a slit going up her thigh which showed when she walked.Max entered a gaming tournament with Adrien and was absolutely obliterated by Marinette and Claude. Nino tried to film another movie to enter into a Junior's Director competition but he couldn't coordinate his classmates and the costumes were falling apart at the seams. Alya applied for a reporting internship and the Daily Mail and never heard back. Gabriel was quickly dropping in popularity and Adrien who was once Paris' sunshine boy fell into the background while an MDC male model called Allen Sinclaire was voted 'Europe's hottest teen'.When it came time to graduate, Marinette took up Audrey's offer of an internship and Style Queen while continuing her own brand. Aurore was a viral reporter, Mirelle went into acting due to her strong stage presence. Marc found a new comic book partner after Nathaniel dropped him and his comics hit the shelves and broke sales records.Adrien's modelling career was quickly diving, Lila's modelling career was nonexistent because Gabriel Agreste was the only person who wanted her and even he was getting tired of her demands. Nino was struggling to go big as a DJ and he had given up on directing. Alya's Ladyblog was publicly disowned by Ladybug who called it a tabloid. Kitty section broke up after Luka left to go solo. Juleka talked to Luka who convinced her to apologize to Marinette and she got signed to be an MDC model.Marinette and her friends were thriving while the people who used to be her classmates relied on the connections of a liar.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Marinette Dupain-Cheng struggled with mental health her entire life. At 9, she was diagnosed with OCD and generalized anxiety disorder. Her parents got her a therapist to help her understand the way her brain works. Tom and Sabine noticed that their daughter hyper fixated on things, when she found something that she liked, she made it her entire life.When Lila Rossi joined their class and gradually turned Marinette's friends against her, she had more time to stop and reflect. One day, she got up to her room and looked around. The walls were littered with posters of Adrien Agreste, her laptop was filled with his photos and she had his schedule printed out. Something needed to change.She redid her room, throwing out everything Adrien-related and removed all physical traces of her past crush. She sat her parents down and talked to them about how she was struggling in school and her obsessive crush on her classmate.Tom and Sabine were worried, their baby had been suffering for so long and they never noticed. They got in contact with Marinette's therapist and asked how they can help their daughter, after some brainstorming and back-and-forth, they decided that Marinette needed a friend.They researched dog breeds, talked to the school, filled out all of the necessary paperwork and got Marinette a therapy dog called Teddy. The school agreed that Marinette could bring Teddy into class after double checking that none of her classmates were allergic.Marinette was overjoyed, she made Teddy all sorts of doggy accessories and bought him so many toys. Teddy was a Labrador, he was excitable and bubbly but could also be calm and quiet.On the first day back at school after getting Teddy, Marinette was pretty much bouncing down the street. When she got to school, she was the first one there which was a shock in and of itself. The next person to arrive was Chloe, who was also exiled to the back. The girl had apologized for everything that she'd done to Marinette and was trying to make up for it but they weren't quite friends yet. More like friendly acquaintances. When Chloe walked through the door, Teddy perked up from his seat on the floor and ran over to the blonde. Chloe looked down at Teddy confused before meeting Marinette's gaze."This is Teddy, he's my support dog."Chloe nodded to me and hesitantly reached a hand out to pet an eager Teddy.When the rest of the class came in, they didn't notice the dog laying down next to Marinette's desk, too busy listening to whatever story Lila was telling them.Miss Bustier got the attention of the class and called Marinette to the front of the room to introduce Teddy. Lila looked irritated by the extra attention that Marinette was getting but the rest of the class cooed at the adorable pet joining their ranks."Marinette how could you? You know I'm allergic to dogs!" Lila shouted, drawing the attention of her peers who quickly glared at the bluenette."Actually Lila, the school made sure that no one in the classroom was allergic to dogs before they approved Teddy." Marinette said, swiftly walking back to her seat with Teddy trailing after her.Lila sputtered before making up some excuse about her bad memory and mixing up her many allergies.------A couple of months later, Marinette was sitting in first class with Chloe and Teddy, on a plane set for Gotham City. Miss Bustier entered the Martha Wayne Foundation competition and won the class a free trip to the crime capital.Chloe and Marinette had gotten closer in the past few months through their mutual social isolation and Teddy seemed to love Chloe. Marinette had been in contact with a representative from Wayne Enterprises to make sure that it was ok for her to bring Teddy on the trip and thankfully she got the green light.In the weeks leading up to the trip, Lila had been spewing lies about her connection to the Waynes and her relationship with Bruce Wayne's only biological son. According to her, she met Damian on one of her many travels and he was instantly enamored with her.Adrien was still doing nothing to stop her from lying, and instead took to lecturing Marinette every chance he got.The rest of the class were none the wiser to Lila's manipulation, minus Nino, Kim, Alix and Max who discovered that Lila was lying on their own.------After they landed in Gotham, the bus took them straight to Wayne Enterprises where they would start their tour before their internships. They would meet with their tour guide Richard Grayson who would show them the building before they went to their hotel to unpack and rest.When they walked in the building, there were two people waiting for them. One of them was a tall, dark-haired man with a bright, goofy smile. The other person was a boy around their age who had a blank expression on his face and striking green eyes."Hi! On behalf of Wayne Enterprises, welcome to Gotham." The first man greeted."I'm your tour guide, Dick Grayson!"Miss Bustier greeted Dick (what kind of name is that?) while the boy next to him accessed their class.------Damian was not happy. Father was making him play babysitter to a group of foreign teenagers and so far, they were extremely unremarkable. None of them looked particularly interested in the tour and they were all surrounding a brunette girl with horrendous hair who was stage-whispering the entire time.A bark caught his attention, and Damian turned back to look at the source of the noise. To his surprise, he was met with a blue-haired girl who was especially small. She looked like she wouldn't survive a second in Gotham, and in one hand, she held a leash. Walking beside her was a black Labrador.She seemed to have noticed Damian's staring because she looked up and met his eyes. Damian was taken aback by the sheer vibrancy of the blue, and the knowing glint in the girl's eyes. She met his stare with one of her own, not intimidating but not exactly polite. It was like she was studying his soul, peeling back every layer of his carefully constructed barriers.Damian didn't notice that he had stopped walking until he realized that the girl was approaching him."Are you alright?" She asked, a thick French accent coloring her voice."Tt, fine." He responded, noting that she didn't seem phased by his attitude and instead continued following the rest of her class with a small group that she was with. He didn't even notice that she was walking with people other than the dog.------A couple of days later found the youngest Wayne taking Titus for a walk. He'd been haunted by bright blue eyes for the past couple of days and decided that some fresh air would do him good. He was playing fetch with Titus when a force collided with him, knocking his breath out."Teddy! I'm so sorry monsieur he gets overexcited sometimes." An airy, feminine voice said.Damian looked at his attacker and saw the same dog from the WE tour. The dog, Teddy apparently, was looking at him with a tilted head and curious eyes. Damian looked up and saw the same bluenette who had been plaguing his mind."It's fine." Damian said, albeit a bit distractedly as he looked at sapphire eyes.The girls eyes lit up with recognition and she held out a hand for his to grab "Oh, you're the intern from Wayne Enterprises, hi I'm Marinette!"Damian was confused. He's not an intern. What?"Damian." He introduced himself shortly, looking over to Titus only to find him and Teddy circling each other."That's Teddy, I'm sorry for him barreling into you.""Titus." Damian responded, causing the girl to frown."Sorry?" She asked, confusion written across her face."My dog, Titus, his name is Titus." He elaborated. She smiled brightly at him.------The rest of Damian's day was filled with a walk through the park with Marinette, on which she told him a lot about herself. He found himself engaging in the conversation, sharing tidbits of his interests and enjoying the way she lit up when she talked about her own passions.He found out that Marinette was an aspiring fashion designer who was here on the class trip sponsored by father. She apparently had no idea who he was, seeing as she didn't seem to put the pieces together when told his first name. Apparently she was under the assumption that he was an intern.Eventually they parted ways but not before exchanging phone numbers.Maybe showing this class around wouldn't be so bad after all.