A few weeks after Marinette's encounters with Volpina and The Collector, things over on Jim's end of the globe were finally getting interesting. After the incident in Toby's dentist's office, the boy and their Troll friends had kept trying to find evidence to prove their claims to Vendel, only to come up empty. But that was all going to change on one fateful night...

Well after the day had turned into night, a pair of glowing yellow eyes were aimed at the Nuñez house before a goblin quickly scuttled towards the home. When the small panting creature had reached the front porch, it jumped to the thick pole of the awning and rapidly climbed up to the second story. The goblin then scampered onto the roof and peered inside the first open window it came across, finding a young girl lying under the covers of her bed. Disappointed in not finding its target right away, the green pest continued running along the roof and reached another open window, seeming to have been waiting for the creature's entry.

Upon seeing the sleeping inhabitant within the room, the intruding goblin let out a pleased laugh before crawling up the window and into the room. After entering the room, the goblin's eyes scanned the walls covered in stars coming from a rotating mobile above a baby's crib, before jumping on top of it. Now perched on the mobile, the goblin jumped down to the crib and peered down to find a blonde-haired child peacefully sleeping within, a small bunny with the child as he lovingly embraced it. Hearing the movement, Baby Enrique; the baby the goblin had come to take, sadly awoke and cooed at the invading creature, his pacifier popping from his mouth.

"Aw..." the goblin cooed at the baby reaching for him, his long limbs easily balancing him on the ledges of the crib while he smiled widely at Enrique. "Ooh! Chaka, Chaka, Chaka, Chaka." the little green pest purred, Enrique having no idea that he was in such a dangerous situation as he kept trying to reach for the leader of the goblins.

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The next morning came very quickly after the goblins' leader had invited himself into the Nuñes home, but no one had been made aware of what had happened. This also included Jim and Toby, who were spending their afternoon after class watching the new and improved Vespa slowly circle in the window of their town's dealership.

"Check that baby out." Toby said as they watched the Vespa through the window in front of them, their reflections bouncing off the glass surface while Jim exhaled.

"Vespa 300 GTS Super. Single-cylinder catalyzed four-stroke Quasar engine. Hmm..." Jim gushed, his nerdy side showing as he listed off the winning qualities of the vehicle he and Toby were staring at, both boys smiling at it. "Can you imagine me going down the road on that? Wind whipping through my hair, Claire holding tight to my back..." the Trollhunter said, already thinking about the scenario he was describing and imagining it happening in real life.

"And me, cruising in the sidecar next to ya." Toby cut in, trying to dream as Jim did but ended up earning an adorable glare from his best friend instead. "Oh. You imagined you and Claire alone, didn't you?" the geology nerd realized, followed by Jim moving away from the window as he let out a large sigh.

"What are the chances of your mom getting you one for your birthday?" Toby wondered as he stepped between Jim and the window, pointing at the display behind him.

"Only slightly worse than me winning the lottery and buying it myself." Jim admitted, not hopeful of his chances.

"What about your grandma? You know she wouldn't be against you following in her footsteps in the motor vehicle department." Toby pointed out, knowing full well of Jim's paternal grandmother's hobbies. "Heck, she'd probably give you a motorcycle instead!" the rounded boy exclaimed, throwing his hands into the air in his excitement.

Fun little fact, part of Jim's love of Vespas had come from his Grandma Gina when he first saw her rolling up to his house on her motorcycle when he was 8. Ever since then, he had fallen in love with the class of vehicle and wanted one of his own, which had left Gina very pleased to hear. But there was only one problem with Toby's idea...

"Yeah... over Mom's dead body. As much as she loves Grandma Gina, I don't think she likes her enough for her to get away with that." Jim replied, already envisioning the clash between his family members on that matter.

"Good point." Toby muttered, now seeing that his best friend had a point. "Well, how much have you saved?" the geology nerd asked, bringing the conversation back to the possibility of Jim buying the Vespa himself.

"Only 328 bucks and 32 cents." Jim reported in a less-than-hopeful tone, knowing the odds were against him. "By the time I have enough, these things will drive themselves." the blue-eyed boy sighed, only for his attention to be caught by an unusual sight he saw in the window of the displayed Vespa. The sight that had caught the Trollhunter's eyes was a goblin carrying what sounded like a swaddled baby as it ran across a roof that was in Jim's view of the reflective window.

"Do you see that?" Jim exclaimed to Toby, pointing at the window's reflection as the Goblin ran off and startling Toby enough to turn in the direction Jim's finger pointed.

As he did and missed the evidence, Jim turned away from the reflection to try and spot the goblin again, his eyes quickly catching the leader of such revolting creatures once again. Once Jim had the goblin in his sights again, he could only watch as the creature ran across a power line after making sure no human had seen him, the baby still in his arms.

"Goblin!" Jim cried out when he confirmed what the figure he had seen was before taking off in the same direction that the goblin had been going.

"What?" Toby said, quickly turning away from searching the window as his friend ran after the evil creature.

"It's a goblin, with a baby!" Jim exclaimed as he chased after the retreating pest, Toby following after his friend.

"Come on, Jim! It's just a bird!" Toby yelled to his friend as he lagged behind, thinking that Jim had become delusional since the rounded boy didn't see the goblin.

But that didn't stop Jim from continuing his chase, soon turning to head down an alleyway in his following of the triumphantly laughing creature. Despite the height disadvantage, Jim kept on following after the goblin but had to stop when he reached the edge of the alley, finding no goblin for it was too quick for him. Having no other option left, Jim searched the area of the alley and soon found a small stuffed animal lying helplessly on the concrete a few feet away from him. The boy then gently retrieved the stuffed bunny, staring at it just as Toby had finally caught up to his best friend.

"Chill out, man! I think you're starting to hallucinate!" Toby exclaimed after he approached Jim, thinking his best friend was too stressed recently to be thinking straight. "What would a goblin want with a baby?" the geology nerd ranted, all while Jim took his time inspecting the small child's toy and Toby had caught sight of the stuffed animal in his hands.

"I don't know, but I'm gonna find out." Jim declared as he looked up where the goblin had been, right as Toby peered over his shoulder to see the object in his hands.

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A while after Jim saw the goblin and the baby, the two boys made their way down to Heartstone Trollmarket for Jim's daily training session. This one proved to be a doozie when Jim found himself reaching for a crevice on a stone climbing wall in the Hero's Forge, a canyon underneath him to encourage him to not fall. Thankfully for the Trollhunter, while he had to scale up the wall in his armor, the wall proved to not be as smooth as it looked from far away, and he had a safety line wrapped around him just in case. The only downside was that the armor had made it more difficult to pull himself to the top.

"Let me get this straight..." Jim grunted as he pulled himself to the ledge his hand was holding onto, just starting his climb while telling Blinky what he had seen.

But before he could continue, his senses had caught the sound of gears turning within the walls and tipped him off to the stream of fire that followed the noise. The boy only had a nanosecond to release his left hand on the wall and swing away from the fire, resulting in him being barely grazed by the obstacle. After a few fear-filled seconds of watching the flames, the stream finally died out and allowed Jim to swing himself back into place and carry on up the wall.

"They steal babies... so they can replace them... with changelings?" the armored boy questioned as he kept climbing, going over what Blinky had explained to him while his mentor, Aaarrrgghh!!!, and Toby watched from above.

"Precisely, Master Jim." Blinky confirmed from the top of the climbing wall, well above Jim as he reached the ⅛ mark.

"Uh, allegedly steal. I just saw a bird." Toby countered, sitting next to Aaarrrgghh!!! while the large Troll kept a hold of the safety line around Jim's waist. "Plus I think you're still on edge because Adrien is still going to school with Marifairy and you're trying to find something to distract yourself." the rounded boy added with a sly smirk, causing Jim to look up at him and lose focus on his climbing.

"TOBY, THIS IS NOT THE TIME!!!" Jim shouted at his best friend, an annoyed glare sent Toby's way while the two Trolls in attendance looked at the second boy with curious expressions.

"Who is this 'Adrien' fellow, Tobias?" Blinky asked, intrigued by the new name Toby had mentioned and what the connection between them and Jim's sister was.

"Oh, he's the guy Marinette's crushing on." Toby explained as he pulled out his phone and opened up his gallery app, showing Blinky and Aaarrrgghh!!! a picture of Adrien he had found in his spare time.

"Lady Marinette has a suitor?" Blinky nearly cheered, excited to hear that Marinette seemed to already be turning heads with her natural charm.

"NOT A SUITOR!!!" Jim yelled up to the others, slowly making his way up the wall while glaring at Blinky for suggesting such a thing.

"Eh, as much as I hate to agree with Jim on this, he's right." Toby unwillingly admitted, a frowny pout present on his face. "Marinette's got her eye on him, but Adrien doesn't seem to yet." the rounded boy explained, putting his phone back into his pocket.

"Is that why Master Jim seems to not like talking about him?" Blinky questioned Toby, genuinely curious as to why his pupil was so tense on this particular subject.

"More like I think he's unworthy of dating my sister." Jim elaborated as he reached for another ledge, only to hear the telltale sound of the flame spout activating and making him swing away to avoid the stream of fire once more.

"Unworthy?" Aaarrrgghh!!! asked, still keeping a hold of the safety line while Jim swung back into place after the flames died down again.

"Marinette's tried so many times to either get him to notice her or tell him how she feels. And every time, it fails spectacularly." Jim regaled, continuing to climb up the wall and reaching the first quarter mark of his climb. "To top it all off, Adrien is oblivious to all of this!" the Trollhunter ranted, gripping the rock a little tighter as he suppressed the growl he was about to let out.

"Oh, my!" Blinky yelped, shocked by the news.

"Okay, he's a fixer-upper. But who isn't?" Toby pointed out, trying to not only persuade his Troll friends but also Jim to give Adrien a chance for Marinette's sake.

"He's more like a demolition site, Toby." Jim argued, lifting himself further up the wall and all the closer to his friends at the top. "Granted, I like him as a person. But I don't like the idea of him dating her with all that's happened up till this point, and since he's also childhood friends with Marinette's bully." the blue-eyed boy added, all while trying to keep his focus on not falling from the wall.

"Yeah, but he's the total opposite of Chloé, and easy to get along with." Toby rebutted, now placing his head in his hands as his limbs rested on his thighs by the elbows in his exasperation of Jim's stubbornness.

"Perhaps you need to ease up on him, Master Jim." Blinky spoke up, feeling like Jim was being unreasonable the more he heard about this boy Marinette had her eye on.

"Marinette's already asked me to do that. Her love life is the one thing we can't agree on." Jim remarked as he reached for another ledge, soon stopping to catch his breath for a second before continuing forward. "Especially since I think Chat Noir is a better match for her." Jim added before he started climbing again, a tense frown appearing on his now concentrated expression.

"Her partner?" Aaarrrgghh!!! asked, remembering the previously mentioned name from an earlier conversation between the Trolls and two boys.

"He's done so much more for her than Adrien ever will, and has helped her to embrace the more confident side of herself when she's Ladybug." Jim explained, diving deeper into his somewhat dislike of Adrien. "That's why I'm so hard on Adrien... he's got a lot to improve on." the Trollhunter stated, still climbing up the wall.

"If I may ask, Master Jim... how old is this Adrien?" Blinky inquired, deciding to take a new approach to his information gathering.

"He turned 14 shortly after Marinette started school this year." Jim replied, taking a second to look up at his mentor above him.

"And if I recall correctly, you said that Marinette is 13?" Blinky recalled, lifting his top left hand to his chin as he looked up at the ceiling in thought.

"Yep, that's right. Turning 14 in a few weeks." Toby confirmed, turning his head towards Blinky while not taking it away from his perched hands.

"In any case, I feel you are being too hard on the poor boy, Master Jim." Blinky admitted, leaving Jim shocked.

"WHAT!" Jim exclaimed, so distracted that he grabbed the wrong ledge and nearly slipped off of the rock wall.

"THAT'S WHAT I'M SAYING!!" Toby cheered, finally taking his head out of his hands while Jim managed to catch himself from falling. Once he did, Jim frantically clung to the wall and once again stopped to catch his breath, waiting for his heart rate to slow to a more manageable pace.

"Blinky... why are you..." Jim stammered, still trying to get his racing heart under control.

"Master Jim, you are still young and are still making mistakes. Both Marinette and Adrien are no exception from what I'm hearing." Blinky explained, hoping that his perspective would help Jim be more open to this Adrien boy. "If anything, I have to go with Tobias on this one." the six-eyed Troll added, causing a wide smile to appear on Toby's face after he spoke.

"YES!!!" Toby hollered, jumping up from his sitting down to jump up and fist bump into the air.

"Oh, come on!!! Really?!" Jim whined, not believing Blinky was not taking his side of the argument.

"Call me a sucker for the underdog." Blinky said with a nonchalant shrug of his shoulders, referencing his constant support of Jim against the masses of Heartstone.

"What about you, Aaarrrgghh!!!? What do you think?" Jim asked the large Troll, surpassing the halfway point as he continued up the wall.

"Impartial." Aaarrrgghh!!! replied, still holding onto the rope around Jim's waist as he decided to not take sides in this battle.

"Really!? No one is with me on this?" Jim ranted as he kept going up, feeling a little ganged up at the moment while Toby laughed at his frustration.

"Sorry, Jimbo!" Toby apologized, even though his cheery-sounding voice seemed to not carry the same sentiment.

"Yeah, yeah. No need to rub it in." Jim groaned, still climbing up the wall. "Can we get back to talking about what I saw earlier?" the Trollhunter requested, hoping to redirect the focus on more important matters.

"Yes, of course." Blinky said, watching as Jim reached a new ledge on the wall and climbed up to stand on it. "As I was about to say before we went into our tangent, for a Changeling to maintain its appearance in our world, no harm must come to the human child in theirs." the six-eyed Troll yelled down to his charge

"I assure you, there is no safer place for a baby to be than the bowels of the Darklands nursery." Blinky added while Jim had begun creeping along the rock wall in search of his next handhold.

While he kept his back pressed against the wall, Jim slowly inched to the excess safety line dangling in front of him so he could use it to climb to the top. However, as he was about to reach the safety rope, another fire stream erupted from the wall behind him, frightening Jim as he pressed himself even closer to the wall out of reflex.

"Well, that's good to know!" Jim loudly stated before he went back to his attempt to grab a surefire way to the top.

"Whoa! Hold on, there." Toby spoke up, starting to feed Aaarrrgghh!! one of the old VHS tapes he brought in his backpack. "Okay, suppose they did take the baby to the Darklands. Isn't that where Gunmar is trying to escape from?" the rounded boy questioned as he continued to feed the large troll.

"The doorway to his realm is sealed for now, but it doesn't exonerate the cracks that inevitably form over time." Blinky solemnly replied, revealing the dark truth that has allowed evil forces to run rampant amongst Troll Kind and the world above all this time. "Cracks that allow small things to pass." the blue-skinned Troll added, bringing his fingers up to his face and nearly pressing them together for emphasis.

"Small, like babies and goblins." Aaarrrgghh!!! clarified, holding his hands in such a way as to demonstrate just how big the things the aforementioned cracks could let pass, leaving Toby in surprise.

"So, if we can find out whose baby was stolen, we'll find a changeling in its place, right?" Jim pitched in as he kept creeping around the rock pillar, only for the sound of more gears turning to echo around him followed by an array of fire blasts appearing.

However, Jim was quickly cornered when the fire appeared on both of the farthest sides and the ones closest to him, pinning him from going any further. But by now he had the pattern down and knew that the next one would appear right where he was standing, which was seconds away from frying the Trollhunter. So with no other choice, Jim jumped from the rock just as the last torch blew, grabbing onto the rock above him and clinging onto it.

"And once we have the changeling..." Jim grunted out as he kept clinging onto the rock, only to discover he had nothing to grip onto and started slipping off the rock. "...we'll have the proof to finally convince VenDEL-" the Trollhunter continued, his words cut short as he let out a piercing scream while tumbling off the rock and into the lonely, dark, trench below. But before Aaarrrgghh!!! could save him, the rope slipped from his hand.

"JIM!" Toby screamed, throwing his bag behind him and running to catch the end of the rope, even going as far as jumping over the edge of the bridge on top of the wall Jim had been climbing.

"NO!" Aaarrrgghh!!! yelled, quickly catching Toby before he fell as well. Luckily, Toby had managed to catch the rope, causing the Trollhunter to bounce to a stop and hang more than fifty feet from the ledge. "Got him!" the large Troll's deep voice reported, followed by him setting Toby back on the ground before pulling Jim up to safety.

"I told you I'd fall." Jim remarked to Blinky once he was with his friends, hanging in mid-air as he faced his mentor walking up to Aaarrrgghh!!!'s side.

"You fell because you knew you could. What if you're endangered and we aren't there?" Blinky argued while Aaarrrgghh!!! lowered the Trollhunter to his eye level, pointing out the flaw in Jim's retort. "Next time, we will climb sans the safety line." the six-eyed Troll declared as he walked past the pouting Jim, who was still hanging from the rope in Aaarrrgghh!!!'s hands.

"We will?" Jim repeated, shooting an incredulous look at Blinky before he folded his arms across his chest.

"The only lesson learned here today is that, with this many changelings, Arcadia is far more dangerous than previously thought, for the both of you." Blinky said, realizing the growing threats surrounding the two boys and the need to take action against them. "As Jim has Draal now to protect his home, Tobias, you will now have Aaarrrgghh!!! to protect yours." the four-armed mentor decided, causing Toby's face to light up with joy.

"Really? For real? We're gonna be roomies? Yeah!" Toby cheered, excited to have someone to hang out with him at home. "High-five, big guy!" the geology nerd exclaimed, holding out his hand for Aaarrrgghh!!! to return the gesture. But when the two of them high-five in celebration, Aaarrrgghh!!! made the fatal mistake of letting go of the rope, causing Jim to scream as he fell once again.

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While Jim was having a less-than-stellar time with his training, matters on Marinette's end were about to take another interesting turn. Things in Paris had grown pretty quiet after the duel akumatizations of Volpina and The Collector, but it still left both Adrien and Marinette on edge for what would happen next. But they decided to put those worries on the back burner when Marinette's dad came to their class to give the students pastry lessons, which quickly captured the student's attention.

"I'll let you in on a little secret. I always add cream to the chocolate to make the ganache extra velvety. Then I let it infuse for one minute." Tom told the class as he stood behind the teacher's desk, using it as his baking station as he whisked the ingredients in a bowl while the class surrounded him.

"I love it when your dad comes to class and gives us pastry lessons!" Alya whispered to Marinette, filming Tom as he worked so that she could try the recipe out at home.

"So does he!" Marinette replied with a giggle, followed by her turning her attention back to her dad like most of the other students. The key word being... most.

"Urgh! Do they seriously think I'm going to get my hands dirty, cooking like some maid?" Chloé questioned aloud, standing in the back of the group since she was the only one uninterested in the lesson. "If I want a croissant, I'd just make my butler get it for me." the heiress snootily remarked, turning her head away from the lesson to further demonstrate her dismissal of it.

"He's not making croissants, Chloé. Those are macarons!" Rose said in a chipper voice, taking a risk in correcting the blonde brat since she was, unfortunately, standing next to her. But after doing so, the girl in pink turned back to watch Tom as he began to pick up the pace of his baking.

"It's all done with a flick of the wrist. But you mustn't go too fast or you might splash yourself!" Tom explained to the students, rapidly whisking the contents within his bowl while he spoke.

"And soil my Chenal pants? Who's he kidding?" Chloé whined, crossing her arms over her chest as she turned her focus away from the lesson again. However, no one had paid her any mind this time, having had enough of Chloé's complaining and ignoring her.

"Look at this lovely emulsion." Tom said after he finished his whisking, showing the inside of the bowl to the students and leaving them surprised.

"It's beautiful!" Rose gushed, unaware of Chloé walking away from the group and standing near the windows. But while nearly all of the students had been oblivious to Chloé stepping away, Marinette had heard her footsteps and turned her attention away from her dad to watch Chloé as she dialed someone on her phone.

"Now we need to chill it for half an hour." Tom declared, having finished that part of the macarons. "Marinette?" the baker said, suddenly pulling Marinette's attention back to him.

"Yes, Dad?" Marinette replied, eager to help.

"Could you put this in the school cafeteria fridge for me, please?" Tom asked as he handed the bowl of combined ingredients to his daughter. "In the meantime, I'm going to show your friends how to whip up egg whites!" he added, capturing everyone's attention long enough to miss a smug smiling Chloé joining back up with the group once more.

"Of course!" Marinette said, now walking to the classroom door to carry out her task. However, once she was out of the classroom and in the hallway after closing the door behind her, Tikki flew out of her holder's purse just as Marinette reached the stairs leading to the cafeteria.

"Mmm, can I get a taste?" Tikki asked Marinette, entranced by the contents of the bowl after smelling it.

"Not yet, Tikki. Control that sweet tooth of yours." Marinette chided her kwami, softly booping Tikki's head with her finger and causing the little god to giggle. However, the sweet moment between the kwami and the girl was interrupted by the shrill sound of the fire alarm going off.

"Hide, Tikki!" the designer ordered her kwami, which Tikki followed by flying right back into Marinette's purse just as students started coming out of the surrounding classrooms.

"Quietly, students. Single file line, please. Just keep moving." Miss Bustier instructed the students, they and Tom followed her orders and headed down to the courtyard below. As they did, Chloé, who was the first one out of the classroom, had managed to send a glare at Marinette before going down the stairs, followed by the rest of the students.

"I hope it's only a fire drill." Tom voiced as he approached Marinette's side, causing the girl to softly growl at Chloé with the dreading feeling that it most likely wasn't.

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Needless to say, it wasn't a fire drill.

"So, some smart aleck had the bright idea of calling the fire department." Mr Damocles angrily announced once everyone had gathered in the courtyard, explaining the false situation to the students and causing them to gasp in shock. "Somebody amongst us thought it would be funny to waste the fire captain's valuable time." the principal deduced, immediately triggering Marinette to turn her head around to glare at Chloé as the heiress filed away at her nails unbothered.

"Yes, in fact, if you wouldn't mind I..." The fireman began, hoping to get back to work now that he was not needed to stop any fires.

"Hold on! I want the guilty party to apologize to you." Mr Damocles exclaimed, halting the fireman in his tracks. But despite Mr Damocles's hopes, no one had spoken up to take the blame.

"I'm sure it was Chloé. I saw her on her phone right before the alarm went off!" Marinette whispered to Alya through the quiet, hoping that Alya would side with her on this.

"You seeing her make a phone call isn't solid proof." Alya pointed out while readjusting her glasses, causing Marinette to sigh in frustration when she realized that her best friend was right.

"Mr. Damocles, sir?" Chloé spoke up, loudly breaking through the rest of the student's silence and drawing everyone's attention to her.

"Yes, Miss Bourgeois?" Mr Damocles questioned in a tired-sounding voice, hoping that she had something of importance to say.

"I saw a student leaving the classroom right before the alarm went off. It must have been her." Chloé claimed, shocking the principal with how relevant her words had been.

"Really? Who was it?" Mr. Damocles immediately interrogated, hoping to resolve the matter quickly.

"Let's see if she'll come clean." Chloé coyly remarked, a sly smirk appearing on her lips. "What do you say, Marinette Dupain-Cheng?" the blond brat accused in a taunting tone, prompting all of the students; Marinette included, to gasp in shock.

"Marinette, do you have something to tell the firefighter captain?" Mr Damocles inquired, his voice taking on a disappointed air to it just as Marinette turned to gawk at her principal.

'He can't be serious, right!?!?!' Marinette thought to herself in disbelief, appealed that he was so quick to believe Chloé.

"Wait, excuse me, sir!" a voice to Marinette's right spoke up, causing everyone to turn and see that it had been Adrien. "It couldn't possibly be Marinette. Why would she disrupt her own father's cooking class?" Adrien argued, immediately coming to Marinette's defense.

"And I know for a fact that Marinette didn't even have her phone on her when she went out of the classroom."Alya added, following Adrien's example when seeing her bestie in a tight spot.

"Mr. Damocles, I must be heading out." The fireman spoke up, once again trying to leave so he could get back to work.

"Just one more second. We're very close to discovering the truth." Mr Damocles replied, once more denying the fireman his right to leave and causing him to sigh.

"Oh well, we all know it can't be me!" Chloé stated, even though everyone else knew that was the most bald-faced lie she ever said.

"I'm not gonna let her get away with this." Marinette whispered-growled to Alya. I've gotta tell..." the designer decided, only to be stopped by Adrien placing his hand on her shoulder.

"Hang on, Marinette. We don't know for sure if it was her." Adrien whispered in her ear, hoping to stop an unnecessary clash between the two girls from happening.

"He's right. Let's not stoop to her level." Alya agreed, turning to glare at a snickering Chloé. But that was the least of their problems when the fireman started to leave and Mr Damocles had enough of no one coming forward.

"Fine. Since no one is owning up, the whole school will be punished." Mr. Damocles declared, causing both the fireman and the student body to sigh in disappointment. However, one person was even more outraged than the others.

"What?! I'm not so sure my father will react kindly to me being punished without any proof!" Chloé threatened as she pulled out her phone from her pocket to call her dad, not at all happy to be included in the punishment.

"Oh, no! Please, don't disrupt the busy mayor!" Mr Damocles begged, immediately frightened by Chloé's threat before composing himself. "The whole school is punished except for Miss Bourgeois!" the principal corrected, once more making the students outraged with the unfair treatment.

"That's more like it." Chloé said, a smug smile on her face before she hung up her phone while Mr Damocles turned to face the fireman once again.

"Now you know how we deal with anyone who misuses the fire department's time." Mr Damocles told the fireman, happy to have solved the issue and ensured it wouldn't happen again.

"Okay, great! Bye!" The fireman yelled out as he ran to the exit, glad to finally be free to go back to work. Once head left, the students were now left to spread out to take part in the punishment Mr Damocles had in mind for them, all while Chloé and Sabrina stayed right where they were. Needless to say, the whole situation that just went down had left quite a few students unsettled; Adrien and Alya included.

"Do you see what just went down?" Alya questioned Marinette once everyone else was out of earshot, now convinced that her bestie was right and Chloé was at fault.

"I know." Marinette said, leading Alya to believe she was talking about the same thing before spying on the love-sick smile plastered onto the pigtailed girl's face. "Adrien just talked in my ear!" she squealed, holding the ear that Adrien had been close to as her face erupted into a cheery red.

"Seriously, Marinette?" Alya mumbled in annoyance, not believing that her best friend was choosing now to drift off into La La Land.

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A while after the earlier incident in the courtyard, the students of Collège Françoise Dupont were sentenced to work on cleaning the whole school from top to bottom. Well... everyone except Chloé, who was lounging on a bench and scrolling away on her phone when Rose came over to try and clean the surrounding area.

"Can't you see I'm trying to relax here? Go sweep somewhere else, Cinderella!" Chloé belittled Rose when she spotted her from the corner of her eye, making the poor girl whimper before she walked away with tears in her eyes. Unbeknownst to her, Adrien had been cleaning a line of windows nearby and saw the interaction between Chloé and Rose, leaving him angered by what he had seen enough to walk over to the heiress.

"Adrikins!" Chloé cheered, leaping up from the bench and latching onto the boy in an iron-like grip as she hugged him. "Have you come to join me?" the blonde brat questioned in a sweet-sounding voice, all while neither of them noticed Marinette staring at them from a distance, growling as her face turned red with fury.

"No, I'm not." Adrien managed to say, pulling Chloé off of him. "Were you the one that called the fire department?" the model asked while a stoney glare was painted across his face as he asked.

"Of course, it was me who did it. So what?" Chloé replied, unbothered by Adrien's blatant annoyance and anger towards her little 'joke'.

"And it doesn't bother you that everyone's being punished because of you?" Adrien scolded, appalled that Chloé was unbothered by the consequences of her actions on the rest of their classmates.

"No. Why would it? They all seem to enjoy getting dirty and making cookies. How's it any different than getting dirty and cleaning floors?" Chloé questioned, turning to gesture out at the working students. "They should be thanking me if anything." the heiress said with a self-satisfied smile, causing Adrien to sigh in disappointment while placing a hand on his shaking head. He didn't like what he was hearing and knew he needed to do something about it.

"Chloé, how long have you and I been friends?" Adrien asked, a tired look in his eyes thanks to Chloé's statement.

"Since we were adorable little tots, Adrikins." Chloé nearly squealed, turning her gaze back to him before 'adorably' pouting at him. But her show of sweetness did nothing to deter Adrien from finally saying...

"Well, I'm sorry Chloé, but I can't be friends with someone who treats other people like this. You've gotta be nice to people!" Adrien explained to his childhood friend, having enough of her behavior towards their classmates.

"N-Nice?" Chloé stammered, not used to hearing the word before turning back to see the hateful glares of their classmates being sent her way.

"Yes, nice. It's not that hard." Adrien stated before walking away to continue his share of the work. As he did, he missed Chloé sitting on the bench she had been previously lounging on, a blank depression on her face as she started thinking about the meaning behind Adrien's ultimatum.