The last bell finally rang and I quickly started packing up, wanting to be the first out. As soon as I was done stuffing all my books inside my bag, I got ready to leave, but then someone called me back. I turned around, knowing it had been Marinette, and I waited for her to come over. Marinette lifted up her bag and started walking towards me, a look of apology on her face.

"I'm really sorry for what happened at Lunchtime. You didn't deserve that, and I feel like it's my fault."

"Chloe didn't deserve that either. She's not pathetic." I completely ignored her apology and started walking away again. I could tell she was following so I walked faster, just to see how much of her time she was willing to waste just so she could make sure I wasn't mad. When I stopped walking after a few seconds, I looked back to see that she was still behind me.

"I don't know you guys that well, but I can tell you too are good guys. Lila's just been through so much, and she just finds it unfair that Chloe is after her," Marinette said again, and I widened my eyes. "What?"

"Lila? That's her name?" Marinette nodded, and I could feel my anger starting to actually rise.

"Chloe, what did you do? You promised me you wouldn't get into another fight!" I folded my arms and looked away with a huff, feeling upset that my own best friend had broken her promise. "Why did you do it? You were doing so well too."

"I'm sorry. It was just this girl from my class. She-" Chloe sniffed, covering her face. I turned back to her, feeling a bit guilty that I'd gotten mad, despite everything she was going through. "She called me a motherless daughter. Can you believe her?!"

I unfolded my arms, a small gasp escaping from my mouth, and then I got mad. "What's her name?" Who would dare to hurt Chloe like this?!

Chloe uncovered her face and turned to me with a face of all seriousness. "Lila. That's her name! It's Lila!"

I let out a bitter laugh. "So Lila was here talking about how Chloe was such a bully, when she herself was a bully too? I can't believe this!" Marinette looked confused though, and I pondered over whether to explain to her what I was talking about or just leave. After a few seconds of staring at each other, I sighed, giving up. "Lila used to be this bully from Chloe's school when we were kids. I didn't go to her school, nor did I know what Lila looked like, but whenever Chloe came back home, she would always complain about her. One day they got into a huge physical fight, and both girls got expelled from the school, though because Chloe's father was the Mayor, he let his daughter stay in that school and only Lila had to leave."

"That must be why Lila hates Chloe so much. She did always tell me that a blonde girl got her expelled once and how she was going to get back at her." Marinette shrugged, walking beside me as we headed out of the school. "I never cared enough to put more thought on who this blonde girl could be, but after seeing how Lila acted around Chloe, I figured it was her."

"Why are you even friends with her in the first place?" I blurted out, not meaning to sound rude.

"Lila is having problems of her own, and one day she came to my bakery, her clothes all torn up, bruising everywhere. This was like six years ago. I didn't really know her well back then. My family helped her get cleaned up and gave her food, and she stayed over at my bakery for a week, the both of us sharing a room." Marinette looked down while talking.

"Then after a week, this man was furiously knocking on our door and said he wanted his daughter back," She continued. "We didn't want to give him Lila, but Lila assured us she was okay and went away with the man. I was really worried. For a few days, I didn't hear from her. And then I started going to her school and we really hit it off well, and we became friends from then on. She would sometimes come over to have lunch with us, and would even sometimes have a sleepover with Alya and I. Like I said again, Lila is having problems and I'm sure she didn't mean what she said back there. And. . . please, don't tell her I told you this. She likes to keep her situation private from others."

"I don't mind keeping it a secret." I had to admit, I was shocked to hear all that, but at the same time, I was also confused. If Lila was having problems with her family, then why had she chosen to bully another girl who had the same problem? I didn't question it for much further though, because I heard someone call my name. I turned around to see Chloe running over.

"Ah, got to go," Marinette waved and started rushing over to where her friends were, leaving me alone with Chloe.

I could see Chloe staring at Marinette as she ran off. "What?" I asked her, folding my arms.

Chloe adverted her eyes away from Marinette and turned to me. "It looks like you and Marinette are really starting to hit it off. I'm actually. . .starting to worry that you might like her as more than that."

"What? That's crazy, Chloe. She's just a. . ." I paused, then I cracked a smile. "A friend. Oh my goodness, Chloe, I did it. I made a friend." I started walking towards my limo that had just pulled up, Chloe following. "You want a ride?" Chloe nodded, so I let her inside the limo.

"Remember I'm coming over at your place at 6pm sharp! I can't wait till then," Chloe then suddenly grabbed my cheeks and pinched them. "It just feels like old times."

"Yeah," I chuckled and took my seat after closing the door. I turned over to Nathalie. "We're taking Chloe home first." Nathalie nodded and the ride started.

~

I entered the mansion, not surprised when I saw Aunt and Dad sitting on the couch in the living room. They were staying here until after the wedding was over. I greeted them, before walking towards my room. That is, until someone stood in my way of doing that.

Father spoke with his bold voice, "well, you're 10 minutes late. You were supposed to start practicing your piano at 3:45. Did Chloe hold you up again?"

I tried not to sound annoyed as I answered his question. "We sent Chloe home." I would have walked away then, but I had more things to say and questions to ask. "Chloe told me you invited her family over for dinner. Is that true? Why, is something going on? Why are you suddenly allowing them to enter this place after so many years?"

"I'm working on a new project with Chloe's father, and in the future, Adrien, never question me about the past," Father looked at me again with cold eyes and I just looked away, wanting to head to my room now. I didn't bother saying anything else as I quickly walked away from the adults and started walking upstairs. I wasn't surprised with the way Father was acting, after all that was how he was every single day, but I was a little surprised that Chloe was actually right about coming over for dinner. Father loved quiet dinners, and Chloe was loud, one of the reasons why he didn't really like her. Sure, inviting Mr. Bourgeois over because they were working together, I believed that, but having to invite the whole family? Yeah, that definitely didn't sound like the father I knew and grew up with.

I opened the door and walked inside my room, surprised to see Felix lying on my bed with legs wide opened and mouth snoring like a pig. One thing that definitely surprised me about Felix was how much he was such a clean person when awake, yet so dirty while asleep, lacking fear of judgement from people around him.

I walked over and tugged on his arm, trying to wake him. He snorted and rolled over, his face now facing the wall and not me. I sighed, before grabbing unto one of his legs and pulling it until he was off the bed. His eyes flipped opened once his butt hit the floor and he looked around as if afraid he had been kidnapped.

"How long have you been sleeping for?" I demanded, putting my backpack inside of my closet.

"I don't go to school around here, and I see a room with a huge, comfortable bed in it. What do you think I would do, just stare at the bed?" Felix grumbled as he stood up from the floor. "No, I would lay down on it, and sleep comfortably. Besides, that's way better than hanging around with the adults, and you are right. Though this room is filled with a lot of stuff to play with, it does get lonely here."

I sighed with a shrug. I then looked back at him with a suspicious look on my face as I headed back to my bed and checked the pillow. "You don't drool when sleeping, right?"

"No, of course not! Come on, Adrien, I'm not that dirty!" Felix grabbed the pillow and threw it at my face. I groaned and took the pillow, before throwing it back. For two seconds, we stared at each other, before we bursted out laughing at our childishness. I placed the pillow back on the bed while Felix stretched.

"So tell me. . . Are you going along with the plan?" Felix asked, getting my attention once again. "And if you are, which idea are you going to use? The gold-digger prank one, or the acting poor one?"

"Both," I smiled. "I'll do both and you are helping me. We have a few hours before the Bourgeois family come over. We can start now-"

"Wait, slow down, slow down. . ." Felix stopped me, grabbing unto my shoulders. "The Bourgeois family are coming over?! In other words, Chloe?!" He let go of my shoulders. "But doesn't that girl have an insane crush on you? How are we sure she's not going to try to pull a move?"

"I know Chloe. . . Better than you do, and I know she's not going to try to do anything rash. . . Especially when I've warned her before not to do so," I tried convincing Felix. "She may look like an annoying brat to you, but trust me, she's actually a really great person. This is my opinion after being friends with her for so long."

Felix seemed to give me some kind of a confusing look, which confused me, but then he scratched his head with a small smirk and asked, "Adrien, do you like her?"

"Like her?" I repeated.

"Yeah, do you like- like her, as in more than friends?"

I stepped closer to him. "If I did, why would I want to go through with this plan and find a girlfriend?"

"Hmm, you have a point," Felix didn't let it go though. "But what if you're not doing this to find a girlfriend? What if you're doing this to test Chloe, see if she's good enough go be with you? I know Chloe's been confessing to you and has even asked you out, and you may say it annoys you, but what if the only reason why you say no to her is because you don't know whether she's good enough, and now you're testing her to find out?"

I stared at Felix for a few seconds, before my laughter escaped faster than I could stop it. "Oh Felix, you're so funny." I tried not to choke as I spluttered out words while laughing.

"Okay, okay, stop!" Felix grabbed the pillow once again and threw it at me.

"I mean, I'm not saying Chloe isn't a nice girl. Whoever gets her for a girlfriend would be one lucky guy, but me having feelings for Chloe? Nah," I shook my head, throwing the pillow back at Felix. "Besides, why would I need to pull the gold-digger prank on Chloe? She's rich too. And. . . Why would I need to pretend to be poor in front of her. I already told you this information about Chloe, Felix. She may not seem like a nice girl, but once you get to know her, you'll see that she's absolutely the opposite of whatever insults people come up with these days. Trust me. You should try to get to know her when she's over for dinner, okay?"

Felix seemed hesitant, but nodded anyway. "I only said all those things because Chloe is the only girl you ever hang out with, and the amount of time you stand up for her. . . It's unbelievable."

I guess he was kinda right, but if Chloe was my friend, and someone was insulting her, as the great friend I am, I had to stand up for her, didn't I? It made sense, but perhaps I had kinda been showing off the wrong understanding. Maybe everyone thought we were together now. They would think it made sense.

Felix must have seen that I was really thinking a lot about his words, because he just patted my shoulder and shook his head, "nevermind. Let's just go do what we were going to do." He started walking towards the door and opened it. "We'll be back before 6, I promise. Race you downstairs." And he ran out of the room.

"Hey!" I laughed and took off as well, running down the stairs to catch up with Felix. I didn't, because then someone blocked my way. I stopped short and looked up, only to see Father. He was glaring down at me, showing me that he was obviously not too happy with probably something I did. I sighed, but didn't speak.

"I thought I told you to practice your piano!" He hollered, startling me. I had forgotten he had asked me to do that, and I could see Felix behind him, giving me a look of apology. But Aunt came to my rescue, quickly walked up to Father and placed a hand on his shoulder.

"Gabriel, calm down. Adrien has been working hard. He needs a little break, don't you think?"

I smiled up at her, but Father only looked at her with his deep glare. "Do you not want your wedding to be perfect? I'm trying to help you here. Adrien has to play that song perfectly or else he'll embarrass himself in front of everyone, and I do not want that. Do you want that?"

I was going to speak up, tell Father that I knew the song perfectly, from beginning to end, but Aunt looked at him like she had been insulted, and she folded her arms. "Of course I want my wedding to be perfect, and even if Adrien doesn't play the song, it's still going to be just as good. In other words, although it'd be lovely to have him play, Adrien doesn't have to play the song if he doesn't want to. You don't force him to do things, Gabriel. He's your son, not a servant!"

I really appreciated it that she was standing up for me, but I had a sick feeling that Father wasn't going to take this very well, and that feeling got bigger when he gave a fake smile. "So Adrien doesn't have to play?" Aunt nodded. "Very well, then," He folded his arms, "he won't play. In fact, none of the Agreste family members will be at your wedding, so after the dinner with the Bourgeois is over, you may all take your leave." And he turned around and started walking away, leaving the rest of us shocked.

~ Edited ~