17. Day 2 Part 2

"First of all Chloe, how well exactly do you know any of your peers in this circle?" Mrs Bustier asked the blonde with genuine interest.

"Huh?" The heiress was expecting to hear about this mysterious 'punishment' that her teacher had been alluding to, not a question about profiling her lessers. "Whatever do you mean, Miss?"

"I'm talking about your classmates, Chloe. The ones you see every day? Attend lessons with? Pick on, when the mood suits you?" That last sentence was accompanied by an icy glare. "You've been coming here for a while now, I was just wondering what your thoughts were on them?"

"Well..." Chloe was understandably confused, but decided to answer as well as she could... without getting in trouble, of course. "First off, Sabrina here is my best friend. She follows me everywhere. Does everything I say. Agrees with all of my opinions. Never complains, and always is ready to compliment me. Now that's true friendship..."

"Alright, I think we've heard enough about Sabrina, Chloe..." For some reason unknown to the heiress, Miss Bustier was rolling her eyes. How unprofessional. Look at the bad influence she's having on all of the other students too, who seem to be copying her. Why am I bothering to participate in this farce, I'm obviously the only one here with any manners.

"Check out those losers!" Chloe whispered to Sabrina quickly. "You can practically see the jealousy in their eyes! It's pathetic. They'll never have what we have, isn't that right, Sab?"

"Err... R-right..." The redhead replied, somewhat hesitantly. Chloe gave her friend a sidelong glance. What? Usually she'd respond to me with a lot more vigour and enthusiasm than that. She must still be upset about the death of her Nana, so I'll cut her some slack. I better ask how she got on later, I suppose. Just to be polite.

"Anyone else you care to regale us with your opinions on?" Mrs Bustier looked exhausted already.

"Well, how could I possibly forget my Adrikins?!" Chloe gushed, with an infatuated look across at her friend. "We're madly in love, even if he doesn't quite know it yet. I've known him since we were little kids, and we've helped each other through some very hard times. I won't go into details, since I'd prefer to keep some things private, but if it weren't for him, I'm not sure I'd be here at all. Which would be a tragedy for everyone, of course..."

Upon hearing this latest revelation, the two most notable reactions were from Marinette, who raised an eyebrow slightly out of interest, and Adrien himself, who blushed a deep scarlet and hunched down in his chair, almost as if he hoped the ground could swallow him up.

"... I see." Miss Bustier continued. "I knew the two of you had a history, but I didn't think he was that important to you. So, who do you want to talk about next?"

Having more or less mentioned everyone in the group she gave a hoot about, Chloe shrugged her shoulders. "I don't know. Nino's into deafening music and getting in my way, surely my Adrikins deserves a better bestie than the likes of him. His girlfriend Alya's a total snoop who tried to take pictures of my locker without permission, why she wasn't expelled for that atrocious crime I have no idea. Mylene is a pudgy cry baby who can't even handle a bit of fake horror without running off in tears. Kim is a lanky dweeb who once had a creepy obsession with me, but I think we all know by now who I truly belong with. Nathanael is like, this really weird artist who draws pictures of himself with his crushes, and his taste in girls is terrible. Speaking of which..."

Chloe ceased her tirade for a moment to glance at her hated blue-haired rival with pure venom, but the other girl seemed oblivious to the heiress's ire, being completely absorbed in the blonde's extended sermon, the same as everyone else present.

Unable to quite muster the vitriol necessary to describe much she despised the baker's daughter, Chloe went back to commentating on the rest of her 'inferiors'. "What else can I say? Rose is this annoying goody two-shoes that everyone thinks the sun shines out of her... well, you know... but she totally gets on my nerves. Alix is the most unladylike girl I've ever met, and she needs to watch where she's skating, she almost splashed mud onto my capris the other day! Max is the world's biggest dork who should stop playing those dumb video games, and get a life. Ivan is a stupid goth who needs to control his temper, the idiot nearly killed me once. Juleka has literally the worst hair I've ever seen, and is so not photogenic it's almost tragic. Lila may look like a nice girl, but she's nothing but a liar who hates Ladybug, almost as much as I hate..."

It was at this juncture Chloe finally decided to bite her tongue, having decided she'd said enough already. But just because the heiress had stopped short of reciting the name, it didn't mean that all those in attendance didn't know exactly who she was referring to. All one had to do was observe the murderous look the blonde was giving this particular individual to figure it out.

"Well, that was certainly... illuminating." Miss Bustier remarked, above the numerous murmurings around her. "I can't say I didn't ask for it either, so no repercussions will be coming your way, despite the unfortunate lack of social tact you just demonstrated. But there appears to be one person here, sitting right next to me, who you seem to have forgotten about in your torrent of criticism. I dare say I know why, too. Tell me, Miss Bourgeois... what are your thoughts on Marinette?"

Chloe looked stunned at the teacher's unexpected encouragement of her poisonous critiques. "W-what do you mean, Miss? C-can I... say whatever I want here, and not see any consequences for it? "

"That's exactly what I'm telling you." Miss Bustier reassured the girl.

"Can I have that in writing, please?" Chloe was less certain. What if this turns out to be yet another trick? Like with my phony confession?

"Chloe..." The teacher replied with a half-smile. "There are plenty of students in this room here to witness what I've just said, and I absolutely guarantee I have no intention of going back on my word. Now, do you want to start?"

"O-okay..." Chloe was still highly skeptical of Miss Bustier keeping her word, but the heiress had a lot of thoughts buzzing around in her head about her worst enemy for quite a while, and this seemed as good a platform as any to get them off her chest. So, after taking a deep breath and steadying her nerves, she went for it.

"I HATE Marinette Dupain-Cheng! She stole all my friends, apart from Sabrina, the first day I was here! Her parents are freaky! She smells like bread all the time ! She took my favourite desk this term! She's always flirting with Adrien, making both of us uncomfortable with her unwanted advances! She nabbed my job as the class president, just to humiliate me! She's selfish, not even letting me borrow her hat design for a competition! She's a thief, trying to steal my precious bracelet from under my nose! She insulted my taste in clothes at a food contest, when she's a walking fashion disaster of the highest order! I mean, just look at her! The ugly pig-tails! That bargain-basement outfit! The stupid, goofy grin she constantly wears on her face! She's always tripping over too, what a klutz! She's just a complete waste of perfectly usable space. Even my Daddy agrees. In fact, he told me just yesterday, that her kind, who put others before themselves, are kind to even the lowliest of beings and are commited to always telling the truth, will end up failing at life. I mean, If you don't agree with the mayor, who rose up through the system to run this city almost single-handedly, I would suggest there's something wrong with you. That, everyone, is why I HATE Marinette Dupain-Cheng, and always will. Any Questions?"

After her extended, bitter denuniciation of almost everyone in the room, a drained Chloe fell back in her chair, but with one eye open to judge the general atmosphere. As she expected and planned for, all eyes were now firmly locked on her, with nary a whisper or sound to be heard anywhere.

At long last, I'm taking attention away from that blue-haired loser. I hope this'll set everyone straight on how worthless they are compared to me, Adrien and to some extent Sabrina, and they'll bestow upon my personage the deference to which I'm entitled to. Zzubo was right, this really was nothing to worry about. Can you say... best 'punishment' ever?

Feeling thoroughly proud of the account she'd just given of herself, Chloe stood up to return to her desk, positive that the worst was now over. That is, until a lone voice piped up from the teacher's seat.

"Going somewhere, Miss Bourgeois?"

"Just back to my desk. I've done what you asked of me, so I thought..."

"Well, you thought wrong. We're not nearly finished here. Don't you think, after hearing your somewhat... incendiary views of your fellow students, the least they deserve is a right of reply?"

"Ummm... No?"

"Sorry Chloe, but that's the way democracy works. You can't say what you just did, and expect your remarks to go unchallenged, whatever your father might think. Oh, and I didn't vote for him, by the way. So, shall we move this debate a bit further on? Now, I want to hear what everyone's perspective is on Miss Bourgeois here... wow, so many eager hands up! Let's see... we'll start with..."

Uh oh...

Author's note: I was bored this weekend, and I love ALL my readers so much, I decide you give you the next instalment somewhat earlier than I predicted. See you again soon. :)