Alya stayed with me for the rest of lunch, chatting with me and making me laugh. She's great. And I think I can finally say I'm friends with Alya. I've finally made a real friend! Yes!

Last period flies by quickly, then I'm out the door and waiting for Adrien to show up. We're all gonna go to his place to start working on the project. I notice Marinette coming and hold onto my bag just in case. I would've assumed I've given her enough freebies over the school year for her to not need to take more stuff.

"Hey, Esme? I just wanted to say I'm sorry," Marinette tells me like I was sure she would. "Why did you do it?" I question, getting straight to the point. "I... I can't tell you..." Marinette murmurs sheepishly, looking down. "What do you mean, you can't tell me?" I scoff. "You tried to go through my bag, Marinette! You brought me over just so you could take my stuff!"

"No, I wasn't taking anything, I promise!" She insisted quickly. "Then what were you doing?!" I demand. "Because at the moment it just seems like you're stalling to find time to come up with an excuse!"

"I-I-..." Marinette can't find anything to say now, but lucky for her Adrien arrives. "Hey, guys! Everything okay?" He asks, oblivious to the tension you could cut with a sword between us right now.

"Yeah, we're fine!" I smile, not wanting to get into all that with Adrien. He doesn't need to be dragged into this. I feel bad enough for Alya getting involved.

"Great! And how are you, Marinette?" He asks her, the midnight-haired girl squeaking in his presence. "I-I'm Good! Great! Mhm!" She said quickly, then sighed, knowing how pathetically that went. Heh.

Adrien chuckles, seeming to find her excessive awkwardness cute. Ugh, can these two just start dating already? How dense can Adrien possibly be?!

"You two gonna kiss or what?" I blurt before I can stop myself, making Adrien blush and Marinette practically screech.

"Good one, Esme!" I hear laughter behind me as Nino and Alya approach, arms wrapped around each other. I try to ignore this. Especially since I know now how to get back at Marinette. "No seriously, when? I mean, Marinette clearly has a thing for Adrien. Are we just gonna pretend nobody's noticed, or...?"

"... I know..." Adrien pipes up quietly. We all look at him in surprise. "... I just knew it made her super nervous to talk about it so I wanted to let her say it in her own time..." he admitted.

Okay, that's pretty damn cute.

Before anything else could be said, a limo pulled up outside the school. "Oh, uh, right on time!" Adrien says quickly, using this as his excuse to get out of the conversation. "Come on in, guys!"

"We get to ride in a limo?!" Alya grins. "Cool, dude!" Nino cheers. Adrien chuckles at their enthusiasm. A woman steps out of the limo and holds the door open. "Say goodbye to your friends, Adrien."

"Actually Natalie, they're coming with us!" Adrien smiles. "We're working on a school project together!" "Really? And you're not just using this as an excuse to hang out with your friends?" Natalie questions. "No, of course not!" Adrien shakes his head. "I can't just not do the project!"

"Mm. Come along, then." She holds the door open for us all. Adrien grins and climbs in, gesturing for us all to follow. I gently nudge Marinette, forcing her to get in next and, therefore, right beside Adrien. I'm next, then Alya, then Nino. Finally, the woman - Natalie - gets in and shuts the door. The driver takes us to Adrien's place.

"This is so cool! I've never been in a limo before!" Alya smiles. "Neither have I!" Nino nods. "Have you, Marinette?" I ask with a smirk. "Uh, no..." she replies, unsure where to have me as far as an enemy or a friend right now.

"What about you, Esme?" Adrien asks me curiously. "I have, actually," I reply. "Just once, though." "Really? When?" Alya asks, seeming rather impressed. "Well, Uh... when my mother first adopted me, she brought me home in her limo..." I admit sheepishly, rubbing the back of my neck. "She never travels anywhere unless it's in style..."

"Oh, I didn't realise you were adopted," Adrien murmurs quietly. "There's a lot you don't know about me," I shrug. "Try me."

Everyone begins asking me questions, all of which I try to answer as best I can. I can't tell if they just wanna pass the time or if they genuinely want to get to know me. I've decided that it's just something fun-ish to do and left it at that.

Eventually, we pull up outside a freaking mansion. Damn, Adrien's loaded! Natalie holds the door open for us again. I thank her, but she doesn't exactly respond. Okaaaay...

The four of us follow Adrien inside and head up to his room. I gape at the place. "How do you sleep in here?! I'd be up at three in the morning on the friggin' climbing wall or whatever!" I comment. "It's not a bedroom, it's every kid's dream playroom plus a bed!"

Adrien laughs. "Yeah, it's quite a lot, isn't it?" He has to agree. "Father wants me to stay in my room as much as possible so I'm somewhere Natalie can keep an eye on me. Every time I give him a reason I wanted to go outside, he just put it in my room to keep me here."

"That's... both cool and concerning..." I mumble. Luckily, he doesn't hear. "Come on, let's talk about this project. What stuff do we need to do and how do we do it?"

"We can always start by going through Alya's blog," I suggest. "We might be able to find something in there that tells us where we can find the heroes in their downtime," Marinette adds.

Adrien nods and brings up Alya's blog on his computer. "Let's hope there isn't a Lady-BUG on this computer," he jokes, making Marinette giggle and the rest of us roll our eyes. It's terrible and he clearly knows it, but he uses it all the same.

Adrien, your Chat Noir is showing.