16. Day 2 Part 1

It was a glorious day in the beautiful city of Paris. The birds were singing. The sun was shining. There wasn't a single cloud in the sky...

Aside from the giant dark one hanging over the head of one Chloe Bourgeois, as her limo pulled up by her school.

For once, she didn't seem too eager to skip out of the vehicle vivaciously to flaunt her supposed excellence over all and sundry on her way to another day fraught with intimidating bombast, being content instead to hide behind a selection of school books like a shrinking violet.

Jeeves, the chauffer, wouldn't have believed it if he hadn't seen the now timid heiress with his own eyes. Furthermore, there hadn't been one catty remark about the oversized wart on his nose, or his lacklustre attempt at a three point turn during the journey. Something must be up with the mayor's daughter, for such out-of-character behaviour.

"Are you going to be alright, Miss?" Despite the many hardships she'd put him through in the past, Jeeves couldn't help but be concerned for this trembling, nervous teenager in his back seat who seemed so hesitant in leaving the sanctuary of his car.

"Y-yes, I'll be fine Jeeves..." Chloe muttered, without looking up. "I-I'll just need a few moments..."

While the blonde continued to gaze at the spotlessly clean floor of the vehicle, her chauffer regarded her with thoughtful eyes. He'd heard rumours of the girl's supposed breakdown from the other night, and even though most of the hotel staff had seemingly found it quite amusing that the usually unflappable Bourgeois hellspawn had embarrassed herself so openly in public, Jeeves was not among those so quick to display such blatant schadenfreude.

Having three children himself, and not seeing nearly as much of them as he'd like, the effect that such deprivation could have on their future development weighed heavily on his mind a lot. Between his punishing work schedule and extra errands he ran to make ends meet, it was very difficult to be there for his children when they needed him the most. His devoted wife had willingly taken on early retirement to cope with the situation, but that was still no substitute for the lack of a proper male presence around the house. Not to mention, he was probably missing out on plenty of precious family moments along the way.

It was even more difficult for Chloe, as her prestigious dad was away from her for much longer hours, some days not even seeing his daughter at all. Worst still, from what Jeeves had observed, he only showed his child the bare minimum of affection when it suited his goals, like during an election campaign. He also, in Jeeves's humble opinion, had strange ways of showing parental devotion.

Andre Bourgeois's idea of 'love' towards his only child followed a familiar pattern: He bailed her out of her latest self-made almost-fatal predicament with his mayoral authority, and handed his 'princess' expensive gifts afterwards to make her feel better, almost as a reward. It was a vicious circle... the mayor's inattention caused Chole to act out, then his connections allowed her to get off scot-free afterwards, followed by a overpriced present to reinforce her unpleasant attitude. This assured the series of disturbing events would only be repeated. If only her mother Juliette was still around, to show her the proper way...

Jeeves remembered her well, having been a stalwart servant of the Bourgeois line for so long. Honey hair. Flawless face. Kind disposition. Remarkedly down-to-earth too, even after her husband had got into office. For instance, she'd refused to ever ride in the limo , preferring instead to 'walk the streets' and interact with the people, exactly what she used to do before her elevated role. Her attempts at bringing their concerns to the ear of her partner later though were always met with pompous disregard. "I'm here to run this city, not run a charity!" He'd tell her, bursting with annoyance.

Needless to say, this haughty attitude had been inherited by their daughter in spades, much to the mayor's delight and Juliette's chagrin. Chloe may have her mother's beautiful looks, but that's where the similarity most definitely ended.

Yet now, this sniveling, pathetic, hunched-up figure cowering in front of him seemed a world away from the intolerable snob he clashed with on a regular basis. Less of a walking, talking effigy of pure evil and more... human. If he didn't hold such a firm grudge against the girl for her past misdemeanors, he'd almost be tempted to reach over and give her a comforting hug (another reason he wouldn't was perhaps it would have looked a bit odd for a fifty-something year old man to embrace a teenager he was unrelated to, in the hyper-suspicious 21st century).

As it was, he simply nodded sagely and told her "... You just look after yourself today, okay?"

"I-I will. T-thank you, Jeeves." Chloe finally plucked up the courage to reach over and grasp the door handle, pulling it open to let herself out and begin what she was sure was set to be a day of unmitigated torture.

Jeeves watched the heiress gently shut the door rather than slam it as was her usual routine, then meekly climb the steps one at a time instead of purposefully shoving everyone aside to make her glorious entrance. Weirder and weirder he thought, before the strangest occurance of all hit him like a ton of bricks.

She said... "thank you..."

The gum he'd been chewing found itself on the ground, spoiling the formerly 'spotlessly clean floor'...

While a passing ladybug soon found a convenient landing place in his prodigiously gaping mouth.

...

En route to class that day, the silent whispers and intrigued glances Chloe was receiving in the corridor brought back memories of her first day at public school.

That wasn't a good thing.

At least then, she'd had a tough shell of superiority to crack, and an exoskeleton of entitlement to boot. Now, she felt so alone, so naked, so vulnerable, that if it wasn't for the oddly reassuring ubiety of Zzubo on her person, she would have been severely tempted to drop everything and beat a hasty retreat there and then.

The heiress was positive by now word had reached every single snot-nosed urchin in the building about her abrasive dressing-down yesterday, and it was the number one topic of conversation in the bathroom, behind the bike shed and even in the kitchen.

They've been waiting for me to slip-up for a lifetime, these peasants. Now I have, and in such a major way, they're reveling in every micro-second of my downfall. Well, they can enjoy it all they like. Take a picture too, if it suits them. Nothing they can say or do could possibly make me feel lower than I do right now..

To distract herself from her miserable existence, Chloe focused on what had happened since the previous evening. There wasn't much to tell... her and Zzubo had eaten their late dinners in comparative quiet, with the blonde somehow able to shovel down her salad with maximum effort, but minimum enthusiasm. In fact, so down-in-the-dumps was the teenager that even the unusual sight of her kwami throwing up pink(!) vomit after a freshly discovered allergy to chocolate failed to make her smile. Things really must be dire.

Then, after waking up to discover the insectoid curled up in her arms yet again (someone really needed to teach that creature all about personal boundaries) she'd left the hotel in a hurry, once again not bothering to put any make-up on and grabbing the bag which Zzubo had flown into without even asking, almost as if it was second nature that this was the way things would be from now on.

Not surprisingly, her father wasn't there to say goodbye when she'd arrived downstairs. I don't deserve his love right now, anyway. He's probably still giving interviews about how much faith he has in the education system and that I intend to learn from my mistakes. Poor Daddy, having to go on such a mortifying exercise in public relations. I've really let him down this time...

Then, it was a simple limo drive to school with an irritatingly intrusive chauffer, and now here she was... from being queen bee of everything she surveyed, to local laughing stock, forced to accept whatever pernicious sanctions the school could throw at her. Her tragic fall was almost of biblical proportions. She'd avoided retribution for her actions for so long, she was absolutely sure the board of education would be unbearably harsh to make up for it. Time to start panicking...

Zzubo had given her a quick pep talk before she'd left the hotel for her date with destiny, something about this being a 'necessary experience' and that 'it would soon all be over' but she really hadn't been listening. It was alright for the kwami, she could just stay hidden all day, eating nougats and dishing out easy homiles as she saw fit. Her kind apparently lived for hundreds of years, so she had plenty of time to waste, unlike the constantly in a hurry Chloe.

Just thinking of all the missed opportunities to try on new dresses for the upcoming party and deciding where to hang her new life-size picture of Adrien because of her pending multi-detentions or heaps of homework chilled her to the very core. But, to save her Daddy's reputation, and to prove the Bourgeois were no quitters, she'd survive the upcoming trials.

Somehow.

So, it was with an enormous amount of trepidation that she began opening the door to the classroom. In the midst of her utter humiliation yesterday, she'd ran outside with her tail between her legs, without bothering to gauge the mood of the room when her fellow students were exposed to the full extent of her cruelty. What'll they say to me? How will they react? My downfall from hero to zero was probably the trigger most of them need to extract pure, unadulterate revenge later. Oh, who'd be me?

Chloe thought she heard a tiny whisper emitting from her hold-all say good luck to her as she resigned herself to her fate, but it could just have been her imagination.

...

Her first peek inside wasn't quite what she'd expected.

With her slow, funeral march-like shuffle to class, it wasn't a massive shock to find out she'd been the last to arrive.

What was far more of a surprise though, was the location of everyone in the room.

Rather than seated at their desks as normal, they were all cloistered around the front of the room near the teacher's area, sitting in chairs making up a perfect circle.

Every single student was present and correct, and going clockwise from Mrs Bustier then back to her, the seating arrangement was as follows: Marinette, Rose, Juleka, Kim, Mylene, Sabrina, Max, Alix, Nathaniael, Ivan, Lila and Adrien.

All spun around at the sound of the door closing as Chloe entered, and seeing who it was only deepened their stares. If Chloe hadn't been sweating buckets before, she certainly was now.

As the heiress took her first few tenative steps inside, she was greeted by the teacher. "Hello, Chloe. Please sit down. We have a lot to discuss..."

Having noticed the only chair available was the one adjacent to Sabrina which the redhead was also frantically patting how nice of them to think of me like that, having a close friend nearby on the day of my destruction Chloe braved the throng of curious classmates to make her way over there, before settling down to hear what exactly was the reason for this peculiar set-up, as well as discover what the first instalment of her 'debt to society' would be.

"... As I was saying, before Miss Bourgeious graced us with her late arrival..." Miss Bustier raised an eyebrow at the blonde. "Certain revelations came to light yesterday, which I'm sure a lot of you feel unhappy about. Believe me, I was too. In fact, I was ready to throw the book at the perpertrator. Keeping her after school. Mountains of homework the size of Everest. Maybe even a possible suspension..."

Chloe felt herself involuntarily shiver at that last word. What would my Daddy do to me if that came to pass? It didn't even bear thinking about..

.She couldn't help notice either, that the new exchange student Lila gave a little smirk upon seeing the heiress's obvious disquiet, the only spark of pleasure in a sea of blank faces. That little... The blonde already disliked the girl due to hearing her mouth off against Ladybug when she thought no-one was listening, but now that dislike was turning into full blown hate.

Thank heaven for Sabrina by Chloe's side, her reliable friend's hand hadn't left her own since she'd sat down. If not for the glasses wearer, then the heiress would have almost certainly broke a nail in lunging forward and leaving a rather brutal impression on Lila's snide features.

Miss Bustier continued. "...But then, your class president Marinette, in an astounding display of clemency considering how the guilty party framed her, and Mr Agreste here, came to me with their own idea how to deal with this... problem soon after school was out. I must say, it was a... unique proposition, to say the least. After giving it some thought overnight, I've decided to enact it. What it means is, they'll be no keeping her after school. No stacks of homework to complete. Suspension still remains a very real possibility though, depending on if she completes her task..."

Chloe's jaw nearly dropped to the floor. Adrien did all that, for me? Wow. He must really love me after all. To confront that monster of a teacher and insist that his number one girl be treated with such leniency shows the depth of our relationship. I must remember to thank him later on, by showering him with even more hugs and kisses than usual. My only worry is Marinette's involvement. I don't believe for one minute she's trying to help me out. I bet Adrikins talked her into using her new position, which should still be mine by the way, into aiding me with that silver tongue of his. Oh well, no matter, I'll take what I can get. I'm so happy! I feel I could jump for...

"Hang on, Chloe..." Miss Bustier stopped the heiress's premature celebrations even before they'd begun. "Try not to look so happy. You haven't heard what the punishment is yet. Indeed, knowing you as I do, by the time it's resolved, what I'd originally lined up may seem like child's play in comparison. So, let's get started, shall we...?"

Puzzled, Chloe glanced at the blue haired girl and blonde boy seated either side of the teacher. Marinette beamed at her, with an smile of encouragement that creeped her out. Adrien appeared a little more unsure, scratching the back of his neck and gazing at the wall sheepishly.

Chloe's initial burst of ecstasy began to fade.

Uh-oh.

SPOILER AHEAD

Author's note: Yes, before anyone asks I have seen the pics of the new bee kwami floating around tumblr. And yes, I love it.

Not so keen about some of the names being put forward for her wielder though, aside from the obvious one... I mean, Rose? Seriously? I mean, she's nice and all... But a little dull, don't you think? She might be named after a flower, but I think to expect her to be the new superhero is a bit of a stretch based on that evidence.

Remember: This is just my opinion, so I don't want any angry comments, based on my own thoughts. Cupcakes would be nice, though.

Next part will be slightly delayed, as I have jury duty to attend. No, really.