"Welcome to the finals of our KIDZ+ competition! When today, one lucky winner will be announced as our brand new KIDZ+ weather girl!"

The crowd begins chanting Mireille and Aurore's names as they step out of their limo, Aurore waving and blowing kisses as she walks with her iconic parasol while Mireille just politely waves. Both are giving forced smiles, Nathaniel notices. Having learned how to draw different facial expressions over the years, Nathaniel can tell when a smile is natural or forced.

That, and he's waited on enough Bible-thumping Karens at his mother's diner to know what a fake smile is and how to pull one off as best as he could. This one lady nearly caused his lips to split in half.

"Screw you for pitting our friends against each other!"

"Boo! Cataldi sucks! Booo!"

The camera pans over to the crowd members cursing Alec's name, and Nathaniel instantly recognizes them as Mme. Mendeleieve's students. Unlike the other crowd members holding up signs and wearing shirts with just one girl's face, they have signs and shirts (No doubt made by Marinette) with both of their images surrounded by hearts.

A muscular student with curly hair points an accusing finger at Alec. "You just want drama, Cataldi!"

"What do they mean?" Asked Nooroo as he watched the scene play out on Nathaniel's laptop.

"Well, Alec Cataldi is sort of notorious for stirring up drama on his tv show and humiliating people just for ratings," Nathaniel explained. "People want to hate him, but they just love drama a little more." The Kwami nodded but didn't really understand his words. "Mme. Mendeleieve's class hates him the most out of every class in our school, but I never really knew why."

"Kiss my ass, Cataldi!" Ismael, a boy on the short side wearing a blue cardigan yelled, eliciting some cheers from his friends. The loudest one had to be...

"Marc?" Nathaniel was not at all expecting that. From their technically second meeting, he saw Marc as this shy student who probably hid his face behind a book whenever he was called on in class to answer a question... Kind of like him.

Alec nervously chuckled when the cameraman panned back to him. "We started off with five-thousand contestants-"

"All of whom you humiliated live on television so bad, that they ran off crying!" Marc yelled.

"But with the help of our audience at home, we whittled our talent down to just these two amazing young ladies!"

"Because they're best friends and you just wanna stir drama!"

"... So let's welcome our fantastic finalists! To my right, Aurore Beauréal, and to my left, Mireille Caquet! Who will be the lucky winner?"

"And who will have the honor of being humiliated by the one and only Alec Cataldi?!"

Alec pointed to the class. "Get those kids out of here!"

"HEY!" Screamed Lacey, a blonde girl with her hair cut short like Rose's as she and her friends are dragged away from the crowd by security. "We'll be back! We have nothing else to do today!"

As their screams of protest faded into the distance, Alec continued with a practiced smile. "Vote now! Text 1 for Aurore and 2 for Mireille! And remember, standard text messaging rates apply."

Nooroo giggled. "I like them. Are they always like that?"

"I heard they've been friends since we were ten. They've always been sort of... Chaotic." That's an understatement; they were the school's demons. Even when they weren't in the same classes when it was a new school year, they were always causing some sort of trouble. Though, there was one boy missing. Nathaniel doesn't really remember his name, but he wore all black, had black glasses, your standard emo one wouldn't expect to stir up trouble like say, Aurore, Simon, Mireille, Marc, and Reshma.

"But why do they hate Alec so much?" Nooroo wondered, rousing Nathaniel from his thoughts. "What has he done to them?"

Nathaniel bit his lip in thought for a moment. "I'm not really sure. That's sort of an in-class thing and no one outside their class or friend group knows. All I know is that it involves one of them."

Not wanting to think about that even more, Nathaniel closes his laptop and grabs his messenger bag. "Now come on. Remember, Marinette somehow roped me into helping her babysit." Nooroo flies into the side pocket as Nathaniel makes his way out of his room.

☔🦋

"Come on, Manon! Give me my phone back!" It's times like these, Marinette wishes she weren't such a people pleaser. She chases the little pigtailed girl down the stairs and into the living room, suppressing a few giggles to try and be serious, but it's hard to when you're chasing after someone half your height.

"But I wanna vote for Mireille! She's the best!" Manon cheered as she tried to look for the KIDZ+ website.

Marinette groaned at that. It's not that she didn't like Mireille, she's one of her friends. What she doesn't like is having to choose between her and Aurore, another one of her friends. "Alright, you can vote, but then I need my phone back, okay- Where'd you go?" She looks around and sees that Manon is nowhere to be found. "Ugh!"

Before she can go to look for the little terror, the doorbell is heard. "I'll find you later Manon," she sang, then went to open the door. Relief washed over when she saw that it was Nathaniel. "Nath! Thank God!"

He shakes his head. "Remind me why I agreed to take time out of my busy schedule to help you babysit?"

"Because Alix is out of town today with her family, Rose and Juleka are on a date, and they're the only people you ever hang out with."

"... Touche. So," He makes his way into the room. "Where is this sweet little angel you were talking-"

"BOO!"

"AAH! He instantly clings to Marinette while the 'sweet little angel' laughs and rolls on the floor, clutching her sides. "Well, I see you exaggerated."

Rolling her eyes, Marinette pulls the redhead off of her and goes to take her phone away from Manon. Once Manon's little giggle fit ended, she turned to Marinette and asked, "Is he your boyfriend?" causing both teens to turn as red as Nathaniel's hair.

Nathaniel poked the side pocket where Nooroo was hiding, knowing he was snickering, and kneeled down to the young girl's height. "No, Manon, we're not boyfriend and girlfriend," he explained, getting over his shock. "Yes, I would be lucky to date Marinette-"

"Nath!" She groaned.

"But, we're strictly friends."

Manon tilted her head in an innocent fashion that contradicts her personality just a bit. "Who are you, anyway?"

Nathaniel smiled. "A prince named Wildfire from a faraway planet called Tamaran, disguised as a typical human boy who is, by the way, an amazing artist. I draw wonderful pictures, but only for little bumgorfs who behave." He taps Manon's nose with one of his pencils, making her scrunch her face and giggle before pouting.

"No your not!... Are you?"

"You'll find out at the park!" He picks Manon up and swings her around a bit before holding her on his hip. Marinette looks on with absolute shock, wondering how Nathaniel who is- not to be rude- a pushover, got Manon to behave so quickly.

"I handle kids like her all the time at mom's diner, same with my younger cousins at family reunions," he said, answering her unasked question. "Now, let's go to the park!"

"Yay!" Manon cheered.

☔🦋

Aurore was sweating bullets the entire time. She really hoped she would win this, not just to make her dream come true, but to rub it in Alec's smug face when his perfect little world comes crashing down. Just a few more minutes until all the votes are counted...

"Good luck," Mireille whispered to her, giving the blonde a faint smile.

Aurore returns the look. "You too, 'Elle."

"This is the moment we've been waiting for!" Alec said to the audience members. "The viewers at home have made their decision, and the new KIDZ+ weather girl is..."

The two girls held their breaths and looked to the screen, awaiting the results. When the signal was given that every vote had been counted, the screen switched to show the tallies, and...

"... Fuck," Aurore hissed.

"Mireille!" The audience members burst into cheers, holding up signs they made in support of the winner. Alec gestured for Mireille to step forward, and she reluctantly did so, giving her best smile and a shy wave. When Alec wasn't looking, she turned back to Aurore to mouth, 'Sorry,' but she was already storming off.

"Hey, what's the big deal?" Alec called after her. "You only lost by half a million votes!"

Mireille paled. 'WHY WOULD YOU SAY THAT?!'

☔🦋

"So, what's Tamaran like?" Manon asked, still believing Nathaniel is an intergalactic prince like he told her earlier.

"It's absolutely breathtaking when it's not being invaded by the Gordanian armada," he explained. "When they invaded my home and turned it into basically this barren desert, my parents sent me away to preserve the royal bloodline once the Gordanians were defeated."

Skeptically, Marinette furrowed her brow. "Isn't this from Teen Titans?"

Ignoring her, Nathaniel pointed and said, "Hey, isn't that Adrien?"

Marinette was about to tell him not to change the subject until she spotted the blonde in the middle of what appeared to be a photo shoot. "Oh yeah. Why don't we stay around and wait until he's done?"

"Is he your boyfriend?" Manon asked, getting a wide-eyed look from Marinette and a laugh out of Nathaniel.

"Yes, Manon," he smirked. "He is in fact, her- Ow!" Before he could finish that sentence, Marinette punched him in the arm. "Careful! I'm frailer than the skeleton in the science lab."

"Manon, Adrien's just a..." She trailed off, not really sure what to call him. They haven't really interacted much unless Adrien was defending her from Chloe or Marinette was telling him that she could handle her on her own, not in a snappy way, though. Sometimes they had lunch because Nino invited him to sit at a table with her, Kim, Max, and Alya and when he didn't have to eat at home."... We're sort-of friends? I don't know, it's complicated."

Nathaniel shot her a look and smirked. "Sure, Mari. Sure." While Manon kept asking questions about Adrien and Marinette begrudgingly answered as vaguely as possible, Nathaniel suddenly picked up a triad of negative emotions coming not too far from here.

Humiliation... Hatred... Envy...

Looking around for a quick excuse to transform and send out an Akuma, Nathaniel eventually comes up with one. Discretely pulling out his phone, he looks through his photos until he finds a screenshot he's saved for moments where he needs to walk away from a conversation. "Hey, it's my cousin," he said with a groan, showing Marinette the screenshot.

"What does he want?" Marinette asked with so much acid in her voice that it could melt through metal.

The class wasn't particularly fond of Nathaniel's cousin, probably because back when he was one of their classmates, he was a total snitch and liked to blackmail the other students in exchange for keeping their secrets safe from teachers and parents. When his family had to move to the Netherlands, the class couldn't be more thrilled. Even Chloe was in a good mood that day and laid off the insults.

"I don't know, just let me get him off my back." He turns to Manon. "See, on my planet, we call people like him a Clorbag Vorblernelk." Manon giggled when she heard what she believed to be a curse word while Nathaniel walked off to take his imaginary call.

He made his way towards a shaded area of The Place des Vosges and look around to make sure no one could see him. Fortunately, there weren't many people in the park today, practically just him, Marinette, Manon, Adrien, and his photoshoot staff.

Nooroo flies out of Nathaniel's bag. "Will Marinette and Manon be safe?"

"If something happens to them, I'll call it off, okay?" Like he'd let one of his Akumas hurt one of his friends. Thank God Stoneheart didn't find Kim. "Nooroo, Wings Rise." Transformed into Monarch, he took a premade origami butterfly out of his transformed messenger bag- now a purple bucket bag with a white strap embroidered with black butterflies- and infused it with magic, turning it into an Akuma before sending it off.

"Find them quickly," he told it. Fortunately, his cousin is notorious for being a bit of a motormouth, so it won't be too suspicious that he's gone for a while. But, not even a minute later, he connects with his next Akuma, Aurore. She must've lost the contest... "Hello, Stormy Weather. I heard the news, and let me just give my condolences and say you should have won."

"Yes! I should have won!"

"Exactly. Now you'll be the only weather girl Paris needs. And in exchange, you just need to bring me Scarlet Beetle and Ikati Black's Miraculous. How about it?"

"Yes! Alec won't know what hit him!"

Monarch blinked, not expecting that. He thought she'd be mad at Mireille, but knowing Alec, he probably humiliated Aurore live on the air, so Mireille is most likely second on her revenge list.

"Well, don't let me keep you waiting." Once she transformed, Monarch dropped his transformation and handed Nooroo a grape to eat. "Alright, we should go indoors because with the powers I gave her, the weather's going to be a little crazy." As Nooroo flew back into his bag, Nathaniel walked out of the clearing, looking annoyed as if he had actually talked to his cousin when suddenly, he collided with someone- "Oh! Sorry, I... Marc?"

The noirette smiled. "H-hey, Nathaniel. I didn't know y-you were here."

"I'm just helping Marinette babysit." He points to Marinette, who's being dragged by Manon over to a guy selling balloons with... Mireille's face on them. That was quick... A little too quick. "Hey, how'd they get Mireille's face on balloons so fast?"

"Her face on what?" Asked another voice. Nathaniel looked to see the rest of Mme. Mendeleieve's class making their way into the park, still sporting the shirts they wore while bashing Alec in front of dozens of cameras.

Ismael looks to where Marinette and Manon are and furrows his brow at the balloons. "How they'd make those so fast?"

"That's what I said," Nathaniel remarked. "It's like they were pre-made, or something..."

Then it hits them all at the same time.

"He didn't."

"He did."

"Did what?"

"Alec rigged the votes."

"Oohhh... Yeah, he did that."

Simon took a sharp inhale. "Okay. Now we have even more reason to hate that gobshite, Alec Cataldi! We need to go check on Aurore and get to her before Monarch does!"

"Simon, it's been two weeks," Denise tells him. "And what are the odds Monarch will pick out Aurore?"

"RUN!" A civilian yelled right before getting encased in a block of ice.

"Very high chances!" Cosette screamed.

Remembering Marinette and Manon, Nathaniel runs over to them before Stormy Weather sees them with one of Mireille's balloons. No doubt that'll set her off. 'What's she doing here?! She's supposed to be after Alec!' "Marinette! Look out!"

The Eurasian girl doesn't have enough time to react to a blast that hits her, putting her in a block of ice right before Manon's eyes. Seeing that Stormy Weather was about to fire a blast at her, too, Nathaniel picked up speed and pulled her away towards the carousel, hoping that maybe, the Akuma won't see them and go after some other civilians.

Thankfully, but also, unfortunately, Stormy Weather fires an icy wind that doesn't freeze them in place like Marinette, just captures them in a massive block of ice that encases the carousel.

"NO!" Marc cried.

"¡Joder!" Denise cursed as they gathered Simon and Jean in their arms, getting ready to run before the new Akuma freezes them, only to be stopped by Reshma putting a hand on their bicep.

"Wait! That's Aurore!" She recognized those pigtails anywhere.

Ismael groaned. "Fuck you, Alec! We still gotta get out of here, Resh!" Without waiting for a response, he takes her hand and drags her out of the park. Before the others make it out with them, Stormy Weather blasts their only exit, creating a massive block of ice.

"No one's going anywhere," the Akuma crooned.

Jean bravely stepped forward, only to take a step or two back when Stormy Weather pointed her parasol at him. "H-hey, Aurore, my sweet sunshine..." He trails off when she charges up a blast and tries to choose his words more carefully. "Um..." For the first time in his life, Jean doesn't know what to say. So, he blurts, "Why are you after us?! Alec is the one who fucked everything up!"

"Jean," Simon started, trying to get him to be quiet before they all end up frozen.

The brunette just continued. "Yeah! Yeah, Alec rigged the votes! That's why there's so much Mireille merch out so early! He planned this! Probably from the start!"

Stormy Weather just giggled, but it wasn't a lighthearted one. "Oh, I figured, and I took care of Alec before coming here. I merely dropped by to show all of Paris their new weather girl!" Hearing this, her friends paled and tried to back away. Before she could say anything, a familiar yoyo wrapped around her ankle and yanked her away from her classmates, pulling her towards Scarlet Beetle.

"Hey, Elsa! Nice outfit!" He teased.

Stormy Weather snarled and hit the hero with a strong gust of wind, making him lose his grip on his yoyo and allowing her to escape. "My name is Stormy Weather, you stupid bug!" Before he could get back up, she fires another gust at Scarlet Beetle which sends him flying a long way and making him land in a nearby street right near Ikati Black.

"Angered the Akuma?" Scarlet Beetle nods. "They have weather-based powers?" Another nod, followed by Ikati Black helping him up to his feet.

"We should be expecting freak lightning storms like right NOW!"

Ikati Black and Scarlet Beetle look up at the blackened sky, lightning striking in every direction and hitting roofs and cars. One bolt comes close to hiring Scarlet Beetle, making him scream and jump into Ikati Black's arms.

"It's okay," the leather-clad hero reassured. "Lightning doesn't strike in the same- OH, GOD!" He flinches as a lightning bolt strikes the exact same spot where Scarlet Beetle stood.

"Black ice!" Her parasol blasts the street with ice, making Ikati black slip and fall with Scarlet Beetle on top of him. "Your Miraculous are MINE!" Seeing her charge up another blast, Scarlet Beetle throws his yoyo at her parasol, knocking her blast off course so that she hits her classmates. "NO!"

"... Ôi, chết tiệt," Scarlet Beetle cursed as he retracted his yoyo.

Noticing lightning surrounding Stormy Weather as her frown deepened and the wind picking up and throwing cars in every direction, Ikati Black takes it as a sign to run. "Scarlet, I think we better go." He wraps his arm around his partner's waist and quickly vaults away as Stormy Weather gave chase.

☔🦋

"Okay, this should keep you warm for a while," Nathaniel said to Manon as he put his blazer around her.

She looked up at him with big, curious eyes and asked, "Is Marinette gonna be okay?"

"Uh..." He glances at Marinette, then Adrien, and then Mme. Mendeleieve's students, all frozen in blocks of ice. "... She'll be fine. But, in the meantime, why don't I tell you more about Tamaran?" Manon eagerly nodded. "Okay, so I had two sisters, a nice one named Starfire, and an evil one named Blackfire. She did all sort of horrible stuff to us when we were young, like cut our hair while we were asleep, and put stinermites in our beds."

"What are stin... Stinamites?"

"A bug on Tamaran that... Eats little kids!" Manon begins to laugh as he poked at her sides. This came to an end when he heard cracks coming from the ice and looks up to see stalactites growing on the ceiling. "Let's just move, okay?" He leads Manon under the carousel. "Hurry up, you two," he muttered under his breath, actually hoping for the heroes to win.

☔🦋

"Hello, viewers!" The heroes look to see her image on a cracked screen. Both furrowed their brows. Wasn't she just chasing them a moment ago? "Here's the latest forecast for the first day of summer! It seems as though Mother Nature had a change of plans! Summer vacation is officially over!"

Scarlet Beetle groaned. "What?! But I look amazing in swimsuits!"

Ikati Black chuckled in a desperate attempt to hide his slight arousal to the thought of his muscular partner in a swimsuit. "The hoodie is fine, thank you. And at least we know where to find the Elsa knock-off."

"Hey, check that out." Ikati Black looks to where Scarlet Beetle is pointing. A poster of Aurore Beauréal. "She looks just like Stormy Weather."

"She could be her," Ikati Black deduced. "Alec humiliated her live on the air, and I've seen her around while in civilian form. She usually carries around a parasol. That might be her akumatized object."

Scarlet Beetle nodded before looking back at the screen. "And look at where she is. That's the same weather backdrop they use at the TVi studio for KIDZ+."

"Then that's where we're going!" Ikati Black declared before vaulting towards the building with Scarlet Beetle swinging after him.

When they enter the studio, Stormy Weather is nowhere to be found, just patches of ice on the floor and small piles of snow that are somehow not melting. Realizing what had happened, Ikati Black groaned and facepalmed.

"It was a recording!"

A cackle is heard, followed by thunder and then the lights flickering on and off before staying off.

"... Well, this sucks," Scarlet Beetle muttered. "I don't suppose cats have night vision?"

"We do," Ikati Black said proudly as he took Scarlet Beetle's hand and leads him out of the studio. "Try to keep up!"

"Ow!"

"Sorry! Okay, we're in a stairwell now. Get out your yoyo just in case," he instructed.

"How am I gonna know where to throw it?"

"I'll let you know-"

"The itsy-bitsy spider went up the water spout... Down came the rain and washed the spider out..."

"... Ikati? Is that you?" The red-clad hero asked, his voice quivering a bit. If there were two things he hated in this world, it's cheaters and creepy nursery rhyme music.

Ikati Black squeaked. "No."

"It never saw the sun and got swept with all the rain... And the itsy-bitsy spider never saw light AGAIN!"

At the last line, water came flooding down the stairs, prompting Ikati Black to hold onto the railing and Scarlet Beetle's wrist so they wouldn't get swept away like that poor spider in the horrific version of that beloved nursery rhyme. When the water finally stopped, the two heroes were soaking wet and cold.

That aside, they continued their way up the stairs and made it to the roof where Scarlet Beetle could finally see. And what he saw was a massive hurricane that could pull trees out from the ground. Lightning struck everywhere, hail rained down from the darkened clouds, and in the middle of it all was Stormy Weather.

"You airheads fell right into my trap!" With her parasol, she conjures up a whirlwind that blows the heroes back. And they would've fallen off the roof if Scarlet Beetle had not grabbed onto the ledge.

"HAIL!"

Just as Scarlet Beetle pulled Ikati Black and himself back up on the roof, more hail rained down, prompting Ikati Black to spin his staff as a shield to protect him and his partner. "Any ideas, Scarlet? I can't keep this up!"

"Only one. Lucky Charm!" His power gives him... "A towel?" Remembering how he found a solution with Stoneheart, he looks around the area for anything lighting up.

HVAC tube... Bath towel... Billboard... Ikati Black...

Plan in mind, Scarlet Beetle points to the billboard. "I need you to Cataclysm that billboard. I'll cover you."

Ikati Black nodded and surged towards the billboard as Stormy Weather fired lightning at him, only for her attacks to be blocked by Scarlet Beetle spinning his yoyo. Once he got close enough to the billboard, Ikati Black yelled, "Cataclysm!" and slides his hand across the support beams holding up the billboard.

Seeing this, Stormy Weather charges up another blast to create a hole for her to fly through so she won't get hit. However, she doesn't notice Scarlet Beetle wrapping his yoyo around her ankle. He takes off running under some pipes and against a crane before jumping over the HVAC. He whips out the towel and uses it to soar through the air, pulling down Stormy Weather.

The speed at which she falls and the angle of the crane cause her to lose hold of her parasol. Ikati Black catches it and snaps it in half over his knee, releasing the Akuma.

Still in mid-air, Scarlet Beetle throws his yoyo at it. "Gotcha!" He exclaimed before releasing a purified origami butterfly that gets swept up with the strong wind. "And don't come back!" He throws his Lucky Charm into the air, allowing him to descend back to the roof as he yelled, "MIRACULOUS SCARLET BEETLE!"

The thousands of ladybugs that were once the towel flew all around the city, turning the weather back to normal, freeing people from ice blocks, and restoring anything destroyed by hailstorms and lightning.

☔🦋

"And that's what 'troq' means. And you should never, ever say that word- Huh?" Nathaniel blinks a few times to readjust his eyesight as the sunlight suddenly returned. The ice block surrounding the carousel begins to melt and the firefighters who were working for hours trying to free him and Manon high-fived and cheered as if they had something to do with it.

"So... Yeah!" He picks up Manon and walks her over to Marinette who's looking a little disoriented. "That's everything you need to know about my home planet."

"Will you ever see Starfire again?" Manon asked.

Nathaniel smiled. "I hope so. I miss hi- Her all the time." Manon didn't seem to hear his little mistake and smiled sweetly. Though, Nooroo heard him and looked at his holder in confusion before hiding as he approached Marinette.

"What happened?" She murmured. "Wasn't it raining just a moment ago?"

"There was an Akuma," Nathaniel explained. Noticing her checking over Manon for any injuries, he quickly told her, "Manon's fine. I took care of her and told her stories about Tamaran." After a quick sigh of relief, Marinette took Manon into her arms. "Call me again if you need a babysitter for her."

She beamed. "You know I will, Nath."

"YOU!"

All three flinched.

"GIRL WITH THE BLUE HAIR!" Slowly, they turned their heads to a man dressed in red and green plaid pants standing by the set for Adrien's photoshoot.

'And people mock my pants,' Nathaniel thought to himself.

Before he could shout again, Adrien made his way over to them with a sheepish expression. "Sorry about Vincent. He's a little eccentric."

"That's putting it lightly," Marinette said bluntly.

"Anyway, he said I looked tired or something, that I need a partner, and he took one look at you, Marinette. What do you say? Care to be on the cover of a magazine?"

At that last sentence, she choked on her own spit, prompting Nathaniel to pat her on the back. "M-me?! On a magazine? Wouldn't you rather have a professional? Or... Even Nath?"

"I'm flattered, but no thanks." He takes Manon back into his arms. "Now go. You've been trapped in ice for like an hour, go have fun!" Manon gives her a thumbs up and a toothy grin.

Not really seeing a way out of this, Marinette followed Adrien over to the set, leaving Nathaniel with Manon once again. Not that either one minded.

"Nath!" Cosette yelled as she and her classmates approached the two. "Thank fu... dge," she quickly corrected, remembering there was a child present. "You're okay!"

"Um, can we please acknowledge the cute little girl in his arms?" Jean pointed out. Manon beamed at the compliment. "What is this little angel's name?"

Nathaniel chuckled. "Trust me. Manon is no angel." Manon sticks her tongue out in response. "Anyway, I was helping Marinette watch her for today, but then she got frozen so I ended up taking care of Manon."

"You know," Simon starts, a mischievous smirk on his face. "Marc babysits kids, too. Heck, Lacey's brothers practically clung to his legs when it was time for him to leave." Marc's face goes red when he sees what the Irish student is trying to do. "If you ever need some help wrangling kids because they're little demons or an Akuma is going around freezing people, our classroom is right downstairs."

"Simon," the green-eyed boy hissed.

"I might just take him up on that offer," said Nathaniel, smiling brightly in Marc's direction before realizing, "Hey, shouldn't you guys check on Aurore? She was the Akuma, right?"

"Shoot!" Lacey screamed, still censoring curse words in front of Manon. "Thanks for reminding us, Nath! Oh, and Mireille! We gotta look for her, too!" She starts running towards the tv studio, her friends right behind her. "See you at school!" She yelled over her shoulder.

☔🦋

"Alec Cataldi! Did you rig the votes?"

"Was Aurore supposed to win, or one of the other girls?"

"What is your relationship with Mireille Caquet?"

Alec held his hands up in a 'settle down' motion and gave one of his award-winning smiles to try and get the media mob to quiet down so they don't attract even more attention. "Hey, hey, I can explain everything! Please! Settle down!"

Mireille and her friends smirked as they watched through the cracked-open door. "Serves you right, Alec."

Aurore quietly giggled before frowning. "So, I'm guessing neither of us was meant to win, huh?" Mireille pulls her in for a side hug.

"I'm pretty sure you were could have won without Alec, Aurore. You have an amazing speaking voice, you don't even need makeup," Mireille began to list. "Hell, I can't even give a presentation in front of the class without stammering, and I know you guys."

"Oh, I can relate," Marc sighed. "Just get it over with and you're done, but Mireille? Even without Cataldi's rigging, I'm sure you would've placed in at least the top five. People really do love you. Have you seen the comments people left when voting? It's nothing but positive stuff about you."

Mireille looked touched by those words. People actually do like her.

"So, what will happen to Alec?" Reshma wondered as they continued to watch Alec try to explain his actions. "Nothing good, I hope."

Denise waved her off. "Ah, he's rich and has a huge fanbase. Just wait. He'll be back on tv and starting up a new contest as if nothing happened. Power of fame, people."

"Yep," Mireille sighed. "Well, screw him. He's a lousy host, a cheater, and an asshole of a dad." Noticing her forlorn look, Aurore and the others take a break from watching Alec being bombarded by interviewers to comfort their friend.