Centre of Affection

A/N; Hello there! This is my new mini-series that I have talked about in BOTBS. (Bringing Out The Bad Side) I would like to thank my friend and beta Loplover for helping me until I can find a proper beta. This story features my OC Dean, who is sort-of inspired by Onigumo from Inu Yasha. Enough of my yapping, welcome to the first chapter!

WARNING: Dean is a player, the tomato child gets a bit OOC, and later on, there will be a jealous kitty cat. This also does not focus on the 'miraculous' side of things, just the characters in school.

The students took to their seats as Madame Bustier cleared her throat. "Today, students, we are going to have a new student, and a change of seats." Many groans came from the class, they were all happy about where they were, and really didn't want to change. "Quiet. Now, let me introduce you to Dean, our new student." A boy with short black hair, with his bangs swept to the left came forward. He wore a black jacket, with a blue shirt with a red skull on underneath. He had denim trousers and blue converse. The boy opened his eyes, revealing bright red pupils to the class. "Why don't you tell us a little bit about yourself, dear?" The teacher asked, trying to make the experience less awkward for the boy. "I uh- moved here from New York, I speak English, Spanish and Japanese, and I'm allergic to pineapples?" He offered, with a shrug of his shoulders. "Okay, now for our new seats." Madame Bustier exclaimed, hands on her hips. She proceeded to read out the new seating plan.

"Alya and Adrien, over there." Marinette let out a sigh, and Alya patted her on the back. "Don't worry girl, I'll talk about you all the time." She said with a wink, and moved to sit by Adrien.

"Alix and Sabrina, right there." Alix grumbled and sat by Sabrina.

"Chloe and Ivan, Kim and Juleka, Rose and Nino, Nathaneal and Dean, and lastly, Marinette and Lila."

To say Marinette felt bad about treating Lila like that was an understatement. She really wanted to make things up to her as Marinette, to try to erase the pain she caused her as Ladybug. Since she had exposed Lila as a liar, the olive-eyed girl had been left with no one. And, no matter if she lied about knowing Ladybug to get close to Adrien, she did not deserve to be all alone. She took her seat at the back of the class, just behind Dean and Nathaneal. "You may not know the person next to you, so you have five minutes on the clock to get to know them." Madame Bustier announced, waving her hands around in a flowing manor. Marinette turned to Lila, who was facing away from her, in a desperate attempt to block out the world. "Hey, I'm Marinette." She said softly, and poked Lila when she did not respond. "What?" Lila snapped icily, arms folded over her chest. "What's the matter?" The brunette let out a long sigh. It couldn't hurt to tell one measly person about her feelings could it? Besides, they were going to have to sit next to each other for a while anyway. "I- I lied about a few things to make myself look good for a guy, and someone told the guy the truth, and I lost all my friends, because I'm just a liar. That's it, that's all I am." Lila let out a small gasp when Marinette put her hand on her arm. "Look, even if you lied, I'm sure it didn't mean any harm anyway. I'll be your friend, Lila." The girl in question's mind was spinning, someone actually wanted to be friends with her, even after all the grief she had caused everyone. A small smile adorned the brunette's face, and she brought Marinette into a bone-crushing hug. "Thank you." She whispered, so just Marinette could hear. That was the start of a beautiful friendship. The one with the guys in front of them, however, wasn't going too well.

"So, Nath. Do you think the girl behind us is cute?" Dean asked, a smirk firmly planted on his face. "L-Lila or M-M-Marinette?" Nathaneal stuttered, his face going as red as Dean's eyes. "Marinette is really cute, and seems quite popular. That Lila girl though, I'm not a fan. To me, it seems like she's done something, and no one wants to be friends with her." Nathaneal nodded. "You're right Mari is c-cute, and yes. Lila lied to everyone, and no one trusts her anymore." Dean smiled knowingly. "I think if she ditched the pigtails, Marinette would be one of the hottest girls here. The pigtails, they just don't really work for her." The new student stated, clicking his wrists. "I- I think she's perfect just the way she is, b-but she would look nice w-without the pigtails." The tomato haired boy admitted, and started to continue drawing his comic. "You totally have a crush on her bro." Dean told him, running his hands through his hair. The artist's face went as red yet agiain, and Dean patted him on the back. "Well, good luck, because by the end of the week she will be my girlfriend." He whispered competitively. "Want to bet?" Nathaneal asked him, with a newfound anger and confidence.

"Time's up. Cease talking! Now, open your textbook and turn to page 178. Then, go through each of the exercises with the person next to you. Begin." Madame Bustier told them, examining her short stubby nails.

Alya threw her hands up in the air in exasperation, rolling her eyes. "Adrien, you are impossible. The answer to question one is clearly Promethium." The model shook his head, arms folded over his chest, like a three-year-old having a tantrum, but without the crying, screaming or foot-stomping. "No way. It's Plutonium." He argued.

Lila and Marinette leaned over the textbook. "This is so easy!" The pigtailed girl exclaimed, pointing to question one on page 178. "I know right. It's kind of a lame trick question, but only an idiot would think the answer was either Plutonium or Prometheium." Marinette nodded, and started to work out the answer to question two with her desk mate, who she had just found to be exceptionally good at science, and a great listener.

Dean threw the book of the table, towards the front row, hitting Alya in the head. She turned around and glared daggers at him, and boy did it make him scared. The new student started to looked everywhere but that desk, let alone the people working at it, and started to squirm in his seat. Nathaneal looked at him in confusion. "Why on earth did you just chuck the book to the other end of the room?" Dean smirked, and put his feet up on the desk in front of him. "We," he gestured to himself and then the redhead, "Are going to talk Marinette." Nathaneal shook his head, turned over a page in his sketchbook, and marked out some lines on it. "Okay then. Be all quiet." The new student said with a huff, he leant his face onto his palm, removing his feet from the desk, and putting them under it. "I always get what I want, okay? She is what I want now, so I will get her. Call me a player if you want, I don't care. I'm telling you now, I will have her, then I will leave her. Easy as that, all I'm doing is telling you ahead of time." Nathaneal's grip on his pencil tightened so much, it snapped in two. "You won't get her. I swear it. She is too good, too great, to be broken by dirt like you." The red-eyed boy straightened up, so his face was no longer being held up by his hand, and he let out a dark chuckle. "She doesn't know that, does she?" The artist visibly paled, and Dean laughed again.

"Nathaneal, Dean. Care to explain why your textbook is on the floor by Adrien and Alya's desk?" The teacher asked sternly, a sour expression etched on her face. "Ugh, that's not ours. I'd never let a textbook out of my sight, I am very big on my education. Did you know I have a very high IQ?" Dean offered, a pleading note in his voice. Madame Bustier sighed and shook her head. "Yes it is, I just watched you throw it at Alya. And Dean, you obviously don't, if you expected me to believe a lie like that." Chloe laughed obnoxiously, and Ivan covered his ears, he really couldn't stand that girl's laugh. "He's a bit of a liar, just like Lila. He fits right in!" She said loudly, with a flick of her hair. The teacher was about to scold Chloe for her rudeness, when she was beaten to it.

Lila felt hot tears build up in her eyes, and she lowered her head shamefully. 'Don't cry.' She told herself over and over in her head. Her head snapped upwards, when she heard a voice come rushing to defend her.

"So what, Chloe? Her lies are nothing compared to the way you treat everybody. As far as I can tell, her lies never hurt anyone, but your meanness has. Lila is a good person, and you will not try to tell me otherwise." Marinette declared loudly. Everyone just stared at her. Small, calm, shy Marinette just stood up to Chloe, one of the things no one had the guts to do before. Ivan clapped, and others joined in. He was clapping because she had put an end to Chloe's snobby laughter, he didn't think he could take it any longer, and he knew for a fact the others were clapping because they had found someone to stand up to the bully. Chloe huffed and folded her arms over her chest. "Daddy will hear about this." She whispered evilly.

Lila looked up at Marinette and whispered "Thank you." The bluenette just smiled, god knows Lila needed someone to stand up for her. "Any time."

Adrien just stared wide eyed at her. "Did she just..? She did, didn't she? What.." He muttered, a light frown on his face. The girl next to him chuckled and patted him on the back "You didn't think Mari had it in her, did you? Well, she does, she always has. I just don't know when she started being friends with Lila." Alya told him, smiling knowingly.

"That's enough Miss Dupain-Cheng. Continue with your work, class." Miss Bustier shouted, drawing the attention to herself. The science teacher picked up the book from by Alya and Adriens desk, strode over to Dean, and planted it right in front of him. "Work." She commanded, smiling when he started to nod vigorously. Madame Bustier walked back to the front of the room, and began to watch her students like a hawk would it's prey.

Lila wiped the tears threatening to spill from her eyes, and began quietly discussing the answers with Marinette. Dean looked over his shoulder and sent the bluenette a smile, Lila noticed this and started to glare at him. Marinette rolled her eyes and focused her attention onto the question, ignoring the scene happening before her.

"Plutonium!" Adrien whined. "Promethium." His desk partner told him, with a wave of her hand. Alya turned around, about to look to her best friend for support, when she saw Marinette roll her eyes, and Lila and Dean glaring maliciously at each other. She poked Adrien in the shoulder "Look at that." He looked confused, but spun around to look at the people Alya was staring at. "What?" The auburn-haired girl's eyes never once left the three. "Lila and Dean are having a glare-off?: Over Mari?" She questioned herself, unsure about what was happening.

Nathaneal put his hand on Dean's shoulder, and narrowed his eyes. "At least pretend you're working, Madame Bustier is looking at us." He hissed, and went back to sketching. Dean nodded, and started to pretend to be engrossed in his work. "We will settle this later, tomato head."

A/N; So, what do you think? I'm not sure about there being a real pairing yet, but we'll see how it goes. Its going to be a sort-of rivalry between Dean, Nathaneal, Lila and Adrien. There wasn't any jealous Adrien in this chappie, but there will be soon. What did you think about Dean? I just needed one more character, so I made my own. Thanks to Loplover for inspiring me to go ahead with this fic.

-LT xxx