So far, the tour had gone great. Marinette has been shown the sports hall, gymnasium, canteen, science block, courtyard and the senior library where only the older students were allowed to go in to study. Other students would have to use the other library which was on the second floor of the main building.

The four teenagers were currently on their way to the tech/design department block since that's where Marinette's fashion design class would be. They had about ten more minutes before tutor period and Marinette wanted to know where her fashion classes would be

It turns out news spreads petty fast at this school. As Marinette walked through the halls with Allegra, Claude and Allan, she could feel the stares and hear a few whispers of the students who were nearby.

"That must be the new girl"

"Goodness, she's short."

"She's cute"

"She's hanging out with some of the Quantic Kids? That's unheard of"

Maybe she's dating Claude or Allan. Doubt it would be Felix,"

"Or she's replacing Felix!"

"She's super pretty though,"

"I wonder if she's single. I hope so,"

"She ain't gonna wanna date, you bro. I'm probably more type,"

"pft! Yeah right!"

Marinette blushed at some of the comments. Some she wanted to roll her eyes at. But as silly or nice as some of the comments were, no one had said anything mean. Yet.

Throughout the quick tour, Marinette had learnt a few things about the other three tens she was walking with.

Allegra loves music and has been doing ballet since she was four years old. Her whole family is from France and her family is rather wealthy because her father is part of the government, her mother is a lawyer and her older brother is a professional football player. She hopes to be a musician one day as it's her passion. But she's also wanting to study law as a backup career in case music doesn't work out.

Claude was your typical attractive, quite flirty and outgoing guy. He's originally from Spain and moved to Paris when he was seven years old. He's quite a fan of maths which is something that Marinette wouldn't have expected. He didn't go into much detail about his family or their wealth. He just said that the line of his family has always been pretty wealthy due to the inheritance that is passed down the family and it just increases since his family is good when it comes to investing. He plans on studying real estate as his backup in case becoming a professional athlete doesn't work out.

Allan was one of five siblings and he's the oldest and heir to the company M.T.I, which is short for Mensah Tech Inc. He talked a little about the backstory of how his father, Tobias Mensah's company started off as a small one in Ghana and became global in 5 other countries outside of Africa after a year of operating. Marinette knows the backstory already. But that was only because of how much Max would rave about the company and how he wanted to get an internship there. Marinette could imagine the look on Max's face if she were to have told him that she met the son of the CEO of M.T.I. It's a shame that he wouldn't believe her if she told him now. Not that she would anyway. Apparently, Lila knows Allan's father and promised to put in a good word for Max. This happened last week when the class was discussing careers.

"So what do your parents do shortcake?" Claude asked.

"Well, they own a bakery. Not a massive one in size but it's very popular. We get people from outside of the city just to come. Have you heard of The Tom & Sabine Boulangerie Patisserie?"

"Oh my goodness, yes I have. My mother bought from there once and practically bragged about how good the eclairs are. I've been wanting to try ever since. The car smelt so sweet that day" Allegra said.

Marinette giggled, "well I'm sure you'll love them"

"Oh I know I will," Allegra chuckled, "anyway, we're here!"

They finally arrived at the tech department block and Marinette was shown around.

"so, this is where food tech, wood tech, graphic design, product design and fashion design classes are held," Allegra explained, "your classes will be held in one of these two classrooms" Allegra pointed towards two oak wood doors with signs that read FD1 and FD2.

"Do that many people take fashion design classes?" Marinette asked

"No. one class is for theory and the other for practicals."

Marinette nodded in understanding. She felt excited and couldn't wait to start her new classes. She just hoped the students were nice.

"We've got a few minutes until tutor period. Where's your tutor Marinette?" Allan asked.

"G06 with Mr Dubois" Marinette replied

"Oh cool! You're with me then!" Claude cheered happily and slung an arm around her shoulder

Allegra pouted. She hoped that Marinette would be in her tutor classroom. Allan just chuckled at Claude's usual behaviour.

Marinette couldn't help but silently giggle at Claude's enthusiasm. She didn't think she would potentially make friends this quickly. She didn't think she would since everyone here is rich due to family business, inheritance or they're related to celebrities.

Maybe she had too little expectation of the students here. These three so far genuinely seem to like her. Something she hasn't had in a while. However, she will still keep her guard up. She doesn't want to not trust them, but still...she wants to be careful. She's had enough of people turning away from her so suddenly and making her feel awful about it.

When the bell finally rang, they had to head off to their tutor classrooms. Claude led Marinette to theirs which was on the first floor in one of the geography classrooms.

When they entered, a few kids were already seated chatting to one another and were greeted by a slim, average-height, young looking brunette male with bright green eyes and had a stubble beard. He seemed like a strict teacher at first glance but when he faced Marinette and Claude, he greeted them with a warm smile.

"Ah Claude, good morning!"

"Morning Mr Dubois!" Claude greeted back, just as cheerfully.

"And I believe you must be Marinette Dupain-Cheng?" Mr Dubois asked her.

Marinette nodded, "yes sir"

"Wonderful for you to be here with us Marinette. I am Mr Dubois, your Tutor. I'm a criminology teacher, so if you have that as a subject, we may be seeing more of each other."

"Um, no I didn't"

"Ah well, just in tutor then. How about I get the room settled and you can introduce yourself?"

"S-Sure thing" Marinette agreed.

"Come sit next to me afterwards yeah?" Claude said to her. Marinette nodded before the brunette went towards the back to sit next to a blonde guy who seemed to have his head down reading a book.

"Good morning everyone!" Mr Dubois said at the top of the students' voices. He received a bunch of kind greetings back and he smile at them, "thank you. now, settle down because we have a new tutee with us today. Why don't you introduce yourself?"

Marinette nodded. She walked to the front next to Mr Dubois and took a deep breath, pushing all her nerves away before she introduced herself.

"H-Hi. I'm Marinette Dupain-Cheng. I'm an aspiring fashion designer and I hope to get to know you guys better."

A student who sat on one of the tables in the middle of the room raised their hand. Marinette nodded for them to ask their question.

"What school did you attend before moving here?"

Marinette hesitated for a moment before answering the question but she did anyway, "C-Collège Françoise Dupont."

The blonde that was sitting next to Claude suddenly lifted his head as though he was finally paying attention and Marinette had to keep herself from stumbling back in shock when she saw his face. The guy looked just like Adrien. But his features were more mature than his. His hair was also styled neatly compared to Adrien's. His eyes also weren't green. From where she stood, they looked grey.

He was very handsome. And if Marinette had to compare the similar-looking boys, this one was more attractive. If the two were brothers, she'd assume that this guy was older. Perhaps it was the mature look.

She gulped and forced herself not to blush. She answered a few questions from the other students. They were simple. What other hobbies she had, how old she was (turns out they have a kid genius in their school), what her parents did etc. Eventually, Mr Dubois told the students that question time was over and gestured for Marinette to take a seat. She went to go and sit next to Claude.

"Nice intro shortcake. Oh, this is Felix by the way. The other guy in our block"

Marinette nodded and leaned forward so she could take a look at him with a kind smile, "hey, nice to meet you" she held her hand out for him to shake.

Felix just looked at her hand for a few seconds. Then he looked back down at his book, completely ignoring the girl's greeting.

Marinette brought her hand back with a frown. Was he seriously this rude? She knew that the others told her that encountering him may be rocky but she at least expected some sort of verbal response from him. was he shy around new people?

She decided to push away the hurt feeling and she began to converse with Claude for the remaining 15 minutes they had.

When the bell finally rang, indicating that it was time for period 1, Marinette checked her timetable to see what she had first.

Business studies. Shouldn't be too bad.

"What do you have?" Claude asked

"Business studies" Marinette replied

"With?"

"Mrs Thompson."

Claude chuckled, "you're in Felix's class then. I'm sure he'll be nice enough to take you. Right, Felix?"

Felix just rolled his eyes but told Marinette to follow him anyway. Marinette had no idea how she was going to handle being around this guy.

Adrien had been rather restless in class. he kept staring at the door, waiting for the petite ravenette to walk through the doors any moment from now. He was confused when he didn't see her in class early or walk in with Chloe.

She can't be late, can she? then again she used to always be late. But first period has just started so if she was, she'd be incredibly late. Maybe she's sick.

He looked back to where Chloe was sitting alone. She didn't look upset or anything. When the blonde female caught his eye, she glared at him and gave him a look that said 'what are you looking at?'

Adrien mouthed to her asking where Marinette was but she just rolled her eyes and looked at her phone. He shouldn't have expected less from her to be honest. His childhood friend had been giving him the cold shoulder ever since she came back from New York and then nasty glares when she became close with Marinette.

Maybe he'd just try and talk to Chloe during break time. He really did need to speak with Marinette like he'd planned to do

Marinette was kindly greeted by the class and Mrs Thompson. The teacher was a head taller than her, curvy and had her afro hair sleeked down into a bun. She had warm dark brown eyes that made Marinette welcome and she felt a nice presence from the woman. She also gave a no-nonsense vibe. Marinette made a quick introduction and Mrs Thompson told her where she would be sitting.

Unfortunately for Marinette, she had to sit in the back row next to Felix. There are four tables in each row and the table are for pairs. Felix was in the back corner, next to the window on his own.

She earned a few sympathetic looks after she was told she'd have to sit at the back. She chose to ignore the looks as she made her way to her seat.

Either, Felix wasn't bothered with her sitting next to him or he was just ignoring her presence altogether. Either way, she wasn't going to think too much about it right now. Marinette watched as Mrs Thompson began to write down a starter question on the board.

"Alright, so the first question of today's starter, who can tell me what Gross profit is?" she asked, twirling the board pen between her fingers as she scanned her eyes at the students before her. None of them raised their hands but she was going to pick at random anyway because she likes to catch her student off guard sometimes, "Bella?"

The brunette with her hair styled n a Dutch braid in front of Marinette cursed under her breath and muttered something about forgetting the definition, "Not sure Mrs"

"Alight, Felix. Gross profit"

Felix was quick to answer, "It is the money left over once the cost of sales has been taken away from revenue."

"Good. Quick as always. The next definition for someone to answer is Margin of safety." Mrs Thompson looked around the class and called for Marinette to answer the question.

"It is the difference between the target or actual sales and the breakeven point" Marinette quickly replied.

"Excellent. And I see you are also quick with your responses as well. You may have a challenger in this class Felix." Mrs Thompson commented with a small smirk

Felix frowned at that statement. There is no one in this class so far – in his eyes - who is yet to be of any challenge to him and to be told so by Mrs Thompson irked him. Worse because he was being compared to the new girl who has only been in the classroom for no more than 20 minutes!

So without even realising, he made answering the starter questions into a contest of some sort. Marinette seemed to catch on because one thing turned into another and they tried to beat each other at answering each question by just blurting it out, not even giving the other students who knew the answers a chance.

Mrs Thompson was amused and confused at the same time. Normally, she wouldn't like this, however, she noticed how nervous Marinette seemed when she first walked in and thought she would be quite withdrawn from the demeanour she displayed. But now that she seems to be taking on her best student in this class, she couldn't help but entertain it to see which one would fall first.

The questions got harder as they went on. neither got a single answer to the questions wrong. Marinette hesitated at one point when she answered a question.

The other students, now intrigued, watched the pair try and take each other out with the questions. It was amazing how fast they would answer. this was also the most that they are hearing Felix voluntarily speak.

Felix felt like he was going to beat this girl as they were nearing the end of the questions. Everything was going fine, he hadn't messed up or hesitated once so it felt like an easy win for him. Marinette had stuttered once or twice so he was confident.

Well, that was until he said did something horrible that the whole class witnessed. Something that they had yet to witness.

"He's wrong!" Marinette exclaimed both in shock and glee.

He made a mistake.

He made a mistake and not only that, the new girl called him out on it. The collection of gasps and whispers from the rest of the class didn't help.

"Would you like to answer then Marinette?" Mrs Thompson asked.

Marinette nodded and answered the final question perfectly.

Marinette gained praise from some of the other students for beating Felix in what was meant to be only a few starter definition questions for the class but turned into some sort of competition.

Both Marinette and Felix were red in the face, but not for the same reasons.

Marinette was blushing because the attention was on her and she hadn't really intended on engaging in this little contest. But she was a competitive person so it was only natural for her to do so. Now she was getting praise from people she just met for doing what she saw as something small. Even the teacher gave her an approving smile.

Felix on the other hand was red from anger and embarrassment. The fact that he made a mistake, got called out on it and is now having to hear his classmates' silly praises for Marinette ticked him off more than he expected it to. Not that he would have expected this outcome.

He took a deep breath to calm himself down and push away the anger. The last thing he needed was for some stupid butterfly from a grown man dressed in a butterfly costume to come after him and try to corrupt him. There isn't anything or anyone he would get akumatized for. He's seen the damage they can cause and he's vowed to himself to never end up like that. Especially not for something so trivial.

Besides... part of him was rather intrigued by the girl. No one in this class has ever challenged him in such a way let alone manage to make him mess up an answer like that.