Chapter 3

Level 1: Check

The next day at school Marinette was in a good mood. Alya was back and she could finally hug her for what she had done.

"Girl you owe me!" Alya said, trying to tease her BFF.

"I know. But I'm impressed! How did you manage to get Adrien to pass notes at me all the time?"

"I didn't!" Alya said, looking surprised.

Marinette was shocked! If Alya hadn't told Adrien to talk to her did that mean that he actually wanted to know her?

"Well...I guess there's a lot going through your mind right now." Alya said, while trying to hold her laugh desperately (because of Marinette's expressions).

There was an awkward silence for a moment but Alya looked at Marinette with concern. She needed to put an end to this. For three years now, she was literally stalking on Adrien and the only reason keeping her from telling him how she felt about him, was that she was afraid that he wouldn't return her fellings. But Alya had an idea.

"But even after all this, you're still not able to talk to Adrien..." Alya said, trying not to look guilty while putting her plan in action.

"To be honest... hanging out with him made me more comfortable around him." Marinette answered for the first time truly meaning what she said.

"Really?" Alya asked raising an eyebrow at her.

"Yeah... s-sure." For some reason she started stuttering. Her friend was almost being rude at her.

"Okay then... wanna play a game?" Alya asked, crossing her hands and raising an eyebrow at her again.

"What game?" Marinette asked back while trying to copy her behaviour.

"Truth or dare..." Alya said, keeping the same atittude.

"Okay... I guess I trust you." Marinette ansewred rolling her eyes at her.

"Okay then... I know you'll try to show off so... dare. I dare you to invite Nino, Adrien and of course me at your house tonight for a sleepover." Alya said, giving Marinette a little smile while she was waiting for her answer.

"You're in."

Alya looked surprised as she was watching Marinette walking towards Nino and Adrien, inviting them over to her hous. Despite the fact that the distance between her and Marinette was very big Alya could notice a big smile coming from Adrien's mouth. After a minute Marinette was back looking proud for being able to talk to Adrien without collapsing as her friend was giving her an ironic applause.

"Wow! I'm impressed! So level 1: check!" Alya said, giggling at her.

"Wai-wai-wait! What do you mean level 1?" Marinette said, crossing her hands while trying to be relaxed.

"No-no-no my turn will come tonight..." She said, leaning to her shoulder.

"Wait... you mean that..." She was interrupted by her thoughts when she realized what her friend was up to.

"It's going be a looong night." She said and rolled her eyes while giving a scared smile on Alya.

~o~

Later that evening

"I'm going to faint Tikki!" Marinette alsmost shouted at her kwami.

"Marinette, it's going to be fine." Tikki said, smiling at her trying to calm her down.

"No Tikki it's not! I have an idea about what Alya is going to do but she is going to continue the game and they are going to be here. HE is going to be here! HE IS GOING TO PLAY!" Marinette said, now shouting at Tikki.

"So... where do I hide?" Tikki asked, while heading towards her shoulder.

"In the bathroom." She answered without taking a moment to think about it.

"WHAT? What if someone wants to go to the bathroom? Won't they see me?" Tikki stared at her with her eyes wide open, moving away from her.

"I didn't tell you to satnd right in front of the door..." She said, crossing her hands.

"I get your point... I'm gonna hide in the cupboard" Tikki smiled at her.

Marinette was going to smile back at her but the voice of her mother interrupted her.

"Sweetheart Alya is here!" Sabine told her while she was opening the door for Alya.

"Yeah... um, just a sec!" Marinette gave a look at Tikki technicaly telling her to go hide in the bathroom when she heard footsteps coming from her staircase. Tikki quieqly flew towards the bathroom when Marinette heard the last footstep coming from downstairs.

"What took you so long?" Alya asked, increasing the volume of her voice a little bit.

"Sorry... I thought it was Adrien...OMG ADRIEN!" She saw all the poster of him on the wall and the wallpaper on her computer screen screaming at her to take them down.

She ran towards them and started taking the posters off the wall putting them gently at her desk's drawer. After removing the posters she ran to her computer. She needed to change her wallpaper but she couldn't thing of anything that could replace that photo. The first thing taht came through her mind was her alter-ego. But she didn't want to risk the possibility of someone connecting the dots. So she prefered to put a picture of her partner. It was a picture from a website. Something like Ladyblog but for Chat. It was a picture from an akuma attack last week. Chat was leaving the area but she had to stay to check the victim. Without letting her know he was smiling at her like he was proud for her. Before setting the picture as wallpaper Marinette giggled by the idea of her kitty being proud of her but she was interrupted by Alya. Why did that always happened... Whenever she was thinking about Chat someone interrupted her.

"I didn't know you were such a big fan of Chat Noir..." Alya said, raising an eyebrow at her.

"Why not? He is saving Paris all the time!"

"Well...when I tried to compare Chat with Adrien your reaction wasn't the best. You said that Adrien was too good for being...Chat." Alya said, trying to sum up all the facts that she had.

"Well... I changed my mind. I don't thing he's that bad at all..." Marinette said, trying not to look into her friends eyes.

"You're full of surprises today, aren't you?" Alya said, smiling at her.

"Why do you say that?" She asked, returning her smile but still not being able to look at her straight to her eyes.

"Um...duh! First you can talk to Adrien properly and then you change your opinion about Chat Noir? I was absent for only three days, what happened to you?" She said, looking surprised while giggling at her friend.

"Over thinking... you know me." Marinette lied and winked at Alya trying not to look guilty.

"Alya didn't know what her friend was trying to tell her by winking at her but she let it go and smiled at her when a voice interrupted them.

'Marinette, the boys are here!" Sabine called at Marinette.

Thanks for reading my third chapter! Don't forget to review... I really appreciate it