Chapter Text
‘Oh,’ Marinette Dupain-Cheng notes, her eyes surveying her classmates, noting that she was in the center of attention.
It was early morning, with only ten minutes until Mme Bustier arrived for class to begin. For the most part, it seemed that everyone else was in attendance — including Chloé, and everyone knew that Chloé has no reason to show up to class early. She couldn’t help but blink at that, a bit of wide-eyed confusion as she made eye contact with the group that seemed to be confronting her.
A typical confrontation, optimized for humiliation by showcasing her ‘faults’ in a wide setting.
“I can’t believe you would do something like this, Marinette!”
Alya was at the forefront, a look of near betrayal and hurt showing on her face as she held a notebook that was torn asunder. There was torn bits of paper that seemed to work in tandem with the mess around the trash bin. It was Alya’s new journalism notebook with a black and red cover — she could see the ripped sticker of a ladybug on the bent and torn notebook. The notebook was barely used from what Marinette could tell, and only now does she realize the reason why Lila made sure to smugly look at her the previous day when she openly gave it to Alya at the start of class with a declaration of being besties.
Lying Rossi wanted to frame her again, and this time, swiftly delivering the final nail of Alya’s judgement regarding Marinette. She was expecting this to happen eventually, and Marinette was foolish enough to think that there was still the tiniest chance of maintaining an amicable friendship with Alya.
Unfortunately, someone spoke up amidst the group who all seemed to display horrified disbelief or heartbroken watery eyes.
“I can’t believe you would rip my gift for Alya because of jealousy,” Lila cried, covering her eyes as she turned to Mylène who immediately closed her eyes and hugged Lila, rubbing her back as she tried to comfort what appeared to be a distraught friend to her. Ivan was next to his girlfriend, seeming somewhat uncomfortable with the confrontation, but standing near to support Mylène and Lila nevertheless. Rose as also next to Lila, and wherever Rose went, so did Juleka.
A glance to everyone else in the classroom showed that they were all filled with varying levels of discomfort or disbelief. Adrien stared at the scene with pinched brows and a frown on his face, as if wanting to doubt the liar’s words, but at the same time being uncertain of it all. His opinion wasn’t important, of course, considering that Lila planted the seed of doubt regarding Marinette, her claims that she was Adrien’s stalker was enough to get Gabriel Agreste to issue a warning against the girl to maintain her distance from Adrien.
And in the end, it didn’t really matter. It was likely that Lila believed that everyone in the class stood at her side. In a way, it was almost true — it was Marinette against a mob mentality. A group of self-righteous people rallying together for the confrontation, believing that they’re protecting a victim against a self-proclaimed bully. As long as there was even a minor bit of evidence, they would readily work together.
Because in their eyes, Marinette is just a Baker’s Daughter. She’s an ordinary girl in their eyes, not famous like Adrien nor as flauntingly rich as Chloé is.
(And that’s what Lila failed to recognize.)
“We can’t stay as friends anymore,” Alya sharply declared as Marinette politely stares back. “You’ve changed, you became a bully just like Chloé!”
It wasn’t the first time Lila had set her up — it was just like Chloé’s work from before. Sloppy, without any regard for consequences, overconfident. Unlike Chloé who had no need for being seen in a positive light, everything about Lila was cliché and relied solely on poorly done acting to sell it. And fortunately for Lila, their class was primarily comprised of socially gullible teenagers.
Only — it’s different this time. Unlike the previous, minor class-based humiliation type of confrontations, it was different.
Because Lila pulls out a pink-covered sketchbook that Marinette had lost about a week ago. It was her practice sketches, where she simply drew still life and the clothes that her peers wear. Everything in that sketchbook was an accumulation of her surroundings, the beauty of the world and the ugliness in society.
And Marinette is silent, staring at Lila and knowing what the girl’s about to do, with a smug smirk on her face with fake tears on her face. And she feels… numb, knowing that nobody will save her sketchbook.
“Exactly!” Lila had sniffed, opening the pink notebook. “How would you feel if I did the exact same to you, Marinette?”
And all she hears is the sound of pages ripping. Again. And again.
It falls to the ground in broken, ripped pieces.
The class is silent.
Whether it’s because they found it cruel for Lila to tear her sketches to pieces, or that they regret allowing this confrontation to progress the way it did, Marinette will never know. It was a strange feeling, watching her sketchbook be ripped apart because of a liar’s whims, and even then, Marinette can’t find it in herself to care about it asides for the fact that the liar had torn up her sketchbook. Even though it wasn’t her commissions, or her personal works, it was still hers.
Marinette takes in a deep, quiet breath, and she narrows her eyes at Lila who seemed more preoccupied with guilt-tripping their peers into agreeing that her actions were justified.
Her gaze doesn’t linger for long, instead making direct eye contact with Chloé Bourgeois.
Chloé Bourgeois had been waiting for the day when Marinette would finally admit defeat.
While she herself will readily admit this fact, she is well aware that outsiders will misunderstand the relationship between the two. It doesn’t matter what they think about her and Marinette’s relationship, and it honestly isn’t any of their business either. She indulges herself in adoration and attention, and that’s the simple difference between her and Marinette. It’s the cause of their divide when they moved on to Dupont, and Chloé will always remember that slight. She was given a taste of what she — at the time — deemed to be a betrayal of their promise to always stick together. Félix wasn’t a part of it, and how could he? It wasn’t his fault that his parents wanted to move to Britain.
So yes, she and Marinette were rivals and have been since the day they first met. Were they enemies? That depends on who you ask, and it’s likely that everyone will assume that they were. It’s a complicated matter, really, because to the students of Françoise Dupont, Chloé is a simple school yard bully. But to the students that have been with them since primary school, it was a different story.
For the people who followed them, it was a complicated situation where they laid in wait as years passed.
The premise of it all was simple: Chloé Bourgeois doesn’t the want goody two-shoes Dupain-Cheng who smiles and never says no and wants to be the better person. She doesn’t want to see Dupain-Cheng be the boy-obsessed fangirl when she was simply a critical fashion lover who knew how to speak with a silver tongue disguising her insults — it was the one matter where Félix would agree with her. They hated seeing Marinette Dupain-Cheng act like someone she’s not.
And Marinette was fully aware of how she and Félix felt about the person she is now, but she didn’t want to stay as the kind Heather McNamara of their primary school past. She didn’t want anything to do with fame and would much rather stop and smell the roses — she wants to enjoy life and experience the feeling of being fully seen as a commoner. And it’s fortunate in everyone’s eyes that she’s the Baker’s Daughter and was thus dismissed as a regular girl.
Otherwise, maybe then Chloé would’ve succeeded a long time ago.
In the past three years, almost four, of sharing the same classes at Dupont — something done intentionally by Bustier’s own design, Chloé had tried to push all of Dupain-Cheng’s buttons. She tried to get under her skin, tried to show her the worst of all their peers who would do nothing to come to her rescue, and if it hadn’t been for the new girl at the time, Alya, she probably would’ve won earlier. They all knew that those who were part of their court wouldn’t do anything, partly out of fear of Chloé’s wrath, partly out of respect for Marinette’s wishes, and mainly because they, deep down, had missed the good old days.
Last year Chloé was prepared to go all out until Alya showed up. Plan after plan — ruined because of Alya’s interference, enough to give Dupain-Cheng reason to fight back against Chloé and telling her to back off. As the days had gone by, she was beginning to think of finally moving on, of actually conceding defeat to Dupain-Cheng. And yet, Lying Lila Rossi came around. And Chloé began to see how the girl could cause Marinette to finally snap and return to her senses.
Chloé leaned back into her seat with a triumphant grin, knowing Dupain-Cheng will finally concede defeat as the fashion designer turned to look her in the eye.
After all, Dupain-Cheng is a naïve girl, while Marinette knows her own worth.
Alix Kubdel leaned back into her seat, biding her time and ignoring Mme Bustier’s lesson as Lila Rossi interrupted class yet again to spin yet another tall tale of her life.
It was sickening to see everyone so easily manipulated. It was sickening to her that she was one of those people that was actually interested in her fake stories. Then again, Lying Rossi could’ve been an author if she hadn’t been more focused on telling lies.
She was hyper aware of the silence coming from Marinette who sat in the back of the classroom. Alone, without sparing anyone a glance as she stared down at her notebook and occasionally typing on her phone. And Chloé, sitting in the row in front of her, Alix can see her typing away on her own phone with a delighted smirk on her face. She can see Sabrina diligently taking notes for herself and Chloé with one hand, the other hand typing away on a tablet.
Then, she heard familiar tapping from behind her. Slowly, Alix glanced back, and Max shoots her a confused look, wondering why she was looking back at him, when really, Alix wanted to confirm that she wasn’t hearing things. The tapping repeats, drawing her eyes to Kim who grinned smugly at her.
Scowling, she elects to ignore him by adamantly glaring at the board, but couldn’t resist the temptation to retaliate as she mutters, “Nobody likes a smug asshole.”
“Yeah? Well Ondine likes me,” Kim smugly stated in return, like a smug asshole.
“Don’t you have anything better to do?” Alix huffed.
“Duh,” Kim stated, and it was that infuriating tone from back in their elementary school days where he would roll his eyes as if she said something dumb. “I’m interested in hearing what you guys plan on doing, though,” he stated, and at this, Alix finally deems him worthy enough for her to actually look back at him. “Ondine’s a part of your faction, if I remember correctly.”
“That doesn’t mean she was a part of the court, though,” Alix scoffed, her eyes darting to the back, where Marinette sat. “I don’t even know if she intends to keep her court the same, especially because we’ve been acting as bystanders.”
“True,” Kim easily acknowledges, and it was in that moment that Marinette looks up and makes eye contact with Alix. “But you’re forgetting one important thing.”
“And what’s that?” Alix finds herself asking, though she already knows the answer.
“You still dye your hair pink.”
There once was a school called École primaire d'élite de Notre Dame.
Notre Dame’s Elite Elementary School.
It was a fancy rich kid school ruled by three people, and the students had taken it upon themselves to be divided by three factions.
Cyan, Yellow, and Magenta.
Fondamentaux, Charmante, and Méticuleuse.
In the English translation: Fundamental, Charming, and Meticulous.
The colours were chosen because of their faction leader’s favourite colour, the faction names to match the letter of their ruler’s first name, and the meanings carefully picked for what their leaders stood for. Despite how official it all seemed, the leaders that people had chosen to follow did nothing to encourage or dissuade them — well, except for the Charmante Faction; their leader adored all the flaunting and had a rather elaborate princess phase.
Félix Graham de Vanily was known as the Fair Emperor of the Fondamentaux Faction, sometimes being called the Frigid King for his cold demeanor. Out of the trio, he toyed with the rules, twisting them to his advantage and vastly enjoyed making bullies into a show for his own amusement and for their humiliation if they, in particular, wronged him or a close companion. It was a give and take, a businessman sort of approach, the faction out of the three that cared more for facts and logic. He wore dark blue, and so the students who admired his use of logic and manipulation took it upon themselves to wear dark blue accessories — ties and bows, watches and hair ties. He didn’t care for justice, and oft preferred to only make deals that were either fair, or were profitable for him.
Chloé Bourgeois was the Charismatic Queen of the Charmante Faction, otherwise known as the Cruel Empress. It was obvious just by knowing the girl in question that she ruled with an iron fist, commanding everyone she deemed to be beneath her. She was like her own mother at times, using sharp words to bring someone to tears and mocking them all. Unlike Félix, she was self-interested, a fact that never seemed to change with time. She always wore a golden yellow, and her followers would follow behind wearing gold jewelry and accessories — showy, fashionable, and noticeable. Out of the three factions, she was the only one to make her vocal approval and encouraged it by acting as if she were an actual princess, and it didn’t help the fact that she was spoiled beyond comparison.
And then there was Marinette Dupain-Cheng, the Mirthful Majesty of the Méticuleuse Faction, often being seen as the Miraculous Princess for her creative problem-solving and uplifting smiles. Everyone seemed to be in the same mindset that Marinette was a Disney Princess, the sweet McNamara of the three Heathers, despite being the faction that donned on all the shades of magenta. While Félix was known to be the businessman, while Chloé acted as the queen bee, Marinette was the sweet princess — a bit of a joke, considering that she was the daughter of two incredibly successful bakers, but it was a genuine compliment. People didn’t seek her out like they would for Félix for his connections, nor did they wax poetry and adored Chloé, but her admirers outnumbered both factions because of Marinette’s vast popularity among the student body. Her fans all took to wearing reds and pinks, some would even dye their hair to show her their devotion — anything was fine, so long as they ensured that they would not be an eyesore to the budding fashion designer.
Unlike the others, she was often behind schemes that would get rid of corrupt teachers. Meanwhile, Félix was the sort to use and gather as much information as he possibly could. Chloé was the one who would throw tantrums on occasion while conspiring to get others in trouble. It was expected for the trio to get along like oil and water, meaning not at all. Instead, their friendship closely resembled the three primary colours. They worked together to purge the school of anything they found distasteful, strangely becoming friends throughout it all.
They were called Les Trois Primaires — The Three Primaries.