The project

Ms Bustier just finished taking attendance when Marinette entered. The girl was not red in the face from running nor out of breath this time.

"Thank you for joining us, Marinette." Ms Bustier greeted.

Lila had her sly smile, she expected Marinette will be marked for being late. Chloe scoffed. Adrien smiled for the greeting. Alya mouthed 'girl'. Nino nodded his head in greeting. The rest of the class mostly ignored her as they were used to the fact she would enter the classroom at the last moment.

"Are you finished with the meeting already?" Ms Bustier continued to speak to Marinette with her usual smile.

"Yes Ms Bustier." Marinette smiled back to the teacher.

"Can we go through it now?" The teacher asked kindly.

"Oh yes, in fact I would prefer to do it while it is still fresh." Marinette smiled to the class. She noticed Lila glared in her direction. Well, Marinette had a piece of news and she wanted to share.

"Okay, please go to your seat." The teacher motioned and continued to speak. "There were several issues in the social behaviour of the students in this school that had been considered problematic over the past few years. So the students are required to learn what these problematic behaviours are and how to treat them. This should lead us to better understand each other and have a class that is a group of students full of love and understanding for each other." The teacher spoke in her usual loving tone.

Chloe examined her nails. Sabrina was there to pay attention for her. Max was busy with Markov. Kim and Alix were making bets. Nathaniel was drawing. Rose beamed at the teacher full of love and understanding. Juleka was … she did not produce any reaction visible to the naked eye, nor audible to a human ear. Ivan and Mylenne held hands below their desk. Alya was on her phone checking her blog. Nino nodded. Marinette beamed at the teacher and Adrien was puzzled.

"I will ask Marinette to present what are the subjects and how are they going to be covered this year." My Bustier finished her speech.

"So we had the meeting this morning." Marinette opened her notebook. "We are expected to chose two students who will make a presentation about the inappropriate behaviour and then we should discuss what to do about it."

"We do not get visiting teachers like we did in former years?" Ms Bustier asked while she did not hide her surprise.

"No, they are busy with all the akuma victims and the information is passed more efficiently if the students get involved themselves." Marinette replied quickly. "The students who will prepare the presentation will consult the experts at a meeting and also explain what is wrong and how to deal with that with advice from the experts. The experts can't be available during school hours nor for each class separately."

"Okay, this is clearly understandable and beneficial so now we get to chose who will make the presentation." The teacher continued in her usual cheerful tone. Marinette raised her hand.

"Ms Bustier, perhaps I should first clarify the obligations." The girl did not want any attention seekers involved. "There should be at least two students selected per class, they are expected to attend two meetings after the usual school hours and extracurricular activities. The meeting will take place with other presenters from other classes. The students should prepare at least two short sketches per subject that should be approved by the experts and the presentation that should be up to half an hour long and present it."

"Great, so who do we chose?" Ms Bustier said in a cheerful tone. But the faces she could see were not so eager.

It was additional work outside of the normal school hours. And who ever gets chosen was to prepare a long presentation and present it. That did not look tempting for anyone to volunteer.

Lila raised a hand.

Marinette felt her stomach sunk down while what ever she swallowed for breakfast wanted to go up.

"I think we should chose Marinette. She is our class representative and she is already familiar with the subject. I would volunteer myself but I am so busy with the charity work already as it is. You know Prince Ali just ..." Lila continued talking but Ms Bustier decided to interrupt her.

Marinette sighed, yeah, she could not wait to get more obligations on herself, she was Ladybug and now a guardian and a class representative and this was an additional burden that she needed just like a fish needed a bicycle.

"Okay, we have one candidate and that is Marinette." Ms Bustier exclaimed. "Anybody else?"

"Actually, I think Marinette is an excellent proposal." Chloe spoke absent mindedly while she glanced towards the teacher from her nails. Sabrina nodded on her side.

"Thank you Chloe. Anybody else?" Ms Bustier acknowledged the statement. But she was met with heavy silence that spoke volumes.

Adrien was thinking. This was additional work. But it was additional school work. By definition it was work done in school. That meant if he volunteered, he was to spend more time outside the mansion and out from the photo shoots. And he would work with Marinette. That looked like a much better prospect than spending time alone in his room or even worse a photo shoot with Lila. He was about to raise his hand and volunteer.

"Um, perhaps you should first hear what are the two proposed subjects." Marinette added quietly. She hoped beyond hope that someone might want to remove her as a candidate once they heard what the proposed subjects were.

"Yes, we should. But I would say we have already chosen one presenter and that is you Marinette." Ms Bustier continued.

"So the two subjects are bullying and sexual harassment." Marinette blushed severely as she pretended she had to read those from her notebook. Adrien turned around towards her, but she stared at her notebook intently and did not notice. "We are supposed to cover each one with a presentation and we are allowed to chose two examples of our own that we would like to show but it has to be approved by the experts."

She finished speaking but never once looked up, not even when she was finished.

"So who wants to cover these two subjects with Marinette?" The teacher asked full of positive energy. But she was realistic and hoped to get one volunteer instead telling someone to do it.

She was met with one blushing girl, the rest of the class full of 'I have no time for this' negative energy and one blonde boy who was bouncing in his seat and raised his hand. Other students looked anywhere but forward.

"Yes Adrien?" Ms Bustier asked full of hope.

Lila glared towards the boy. Chloe huffed. The rest of the class raised their eyes towards the boy, many of them raised their eyebrows too.

"I want to do it." The boy exclaimed eager to be approved.

Marinette stared at the back of the boy fully mortified as she tried to comprehend what was going on.

"He would be great choice to do that Ms Bustier." Alya grinned while her mind was scheming.

"Whatever you want to do I support you dude." Nino smiled towards his best bro.

"Yeah!" Alix exclaimed and raised her fist into the air.

"Considering Adrien was a voice actor, he is the best choice with 98 percent confidence." Max exclaimed.

Kim cheered just to be louder than Alix. He was not entirely sure what was going on as he was exchanging messages with Ondine throughout the whole process.

Rose cooed. Juleka muttered whatever approval she had.

Mylenne nodded and Ivan copied her action.

"Excellent, Adrien and Marinette are our choice to cover the social behaviour issues for our class. I trust the two of you will agree on your schedule. Now we can continue with the normal school day." The teacher announced cheerfully.

"Great, when do we start?" Adrien asked with a huge grin on his face as he turned towards Marinette.

"Um" She stared at his face, his beautiful face with warm green eyes and wide sincere smile that she saw so rarely in the last few weeks and she smiled back. She was supposed to say something. Brain give me words. No, not that gibberish. Oh yes, I have notes in my notebook. She looked to her notebook.

"We have the first meeting tomorrow afternoon, we should chose what to act before that." The girl spoke quietly.

"Okay, I will ask Nathalie to send me my lunch and to keep my afternoon free after the fencing." Adrien smiled. "That is, if you are available?" He added.

"Um yes." She smiled back.

"Great, see you then." Adrien turned back to the teacher.

Ms Bustier tolerated them because of the assignment they just got, but she had already started teaching and both teens were expected to have their history books opened at the right page.

"I have no idea why would you volunteer for that crap Adriekins." Chloe huffed not so silently nor subtly that the teacher heard her and gave her a warning look while she explained what the students were supposed to do.