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When Marinette turned six, she’d been terrified of going to school.
She’d gone to preschool, of course, and had enjoyed it immensely. She’d loved making new friends and eating lunch together and taking naps and playing games. She’d learned her numbers and letters and a little bit of English and it was like a giant playdate where everyone got to learn together.
But big kid school? Big kid school was different. It was longer, and farther away from Maman and Papa. If she had an emergency, they would have to drive an extra ten minutes to come get her! And what if the other kids weren’t nice? When she was three, kids had to be nice. Being mean to little babies wasn’t allowed. But she was six now, and she was going to go to school in the same building as big, grown-up eleven year olds. What if they picked on her for being short? What if she couldn’t keep up in class? What if her teacher’s weren’t nice either, and they got mad at her for wiggling in her chair? She tried hard not to wiggle, but her old teachers were always telling her to sit still. It was hard! What if she got in trouble?
What if she didn’t make any new friends?
At thirteen, Marinette was still nervous about school. She was in college now, right smack in the middle of the student group. Not young enough to be a younger student, not old enough to be an older student. Every school year started with nerves. Her maman had promised her that someday they’d go away, but Marinette was pretty sure she’d be nervous about starting new school years for the rest of her life.
At least she was in the same class. Mme. Bustier was her teacher again, and although they’d most likely pick up a couple new students, the majority of her class would be the same as last year, and the year before that. Nino would be in her class again, she’d already checked, and so would Rose, and Juleka, and Kim, Max, and Alix. And Chloe, of course.
The very first day of primary school, Maman dropped her off at the door to her classroom. She clung to her maman’s leg, looking up with tears in her eyes as she asked if she really had to go. “Yes, sweetheart,” her maman had said, bending down to give her a kiss. “It’ll be okay, I promise. Your teacher is very nice and I’m sure you’ll make lots of friends.”
Marinette shook her head, lower lip trembling. “I just want to go home with you.”
Maman handed her her backpack with a smile. “If you really want me to pick you up later, just ask your teacher to call me. I’ll be here as soon as I can.”
“Promise?”
“Promise.”
Marinette had taken a deep breath, shouldered her bag, and made her way to her seat as her maman waved goodbye. It had a card with her name on it, written with sparkly blue ink, and someone had drawn a butterfly. That was good. She liked butterflies. To her left was a boy with a green shirt. He was talking to the boy sitting behind him, so she didn’t say hi. The seat to her right was still empty, but the name card read ‘Chloe’ in sparkly yellow ink. There was a little bumblebee sitting on top of the ‘e’. Did Chloe like bumblebees? Marinette liked bumblebees. Maybe Chloe would want to be friends.
Marinette scanned the classroom, taking in all the familiar faces. Max and Kim were already arguing over something and Alix was watching them both from her seat, grinning a little too eagerly as Max said something that most likely crushed Kim’s side of the argument, if the looks on their faces were to be believed. Nino waved from his seat in the back and she smiled back, the anxiety slowly fading as she recognised most of the students. There were a few people she didn’t know; a small girl with colorful dreadlocks curled in on herself as she scribbled something in her notebook, a girl with orange hair and glasses typing away on her phone, and a large kid squished into a seat in the back wearing a black t-shirt all caught her eye immediately. But they all looked friendly, even the sulking kid in the back, and she was sure she’d get to know them all as the school year continued.
She slipped into her usual seat, placing her bag on the seat next to her. Chloe always sat here, on the right side of the bench, and even though she wasn’t quite as prickly as she’d been as a kid, Marinette still wanted to avoid the bad impression that she would mostly likely give to the new students if she found someone sitting in her seat. Chloe’s tongue had always been sharp and it could scare people off sometimes. It’d never scared Marinette, though.
Her seatmate was one of the last kids to show up, escorted by a tall man in a suit and a mustache that looked just like the ones the butlers in her favorite cartoons had. She figured it was Chloe because her backpack was yellow, and Marinette’s blue card matched her blue backpack. She straightened in her seat, apprehensively watching her new classmate trudge through the door. The suit man turned around and walked away before Chloe was at her seat. Marinette frowned. That wasn’t very nice. If her maman had left her before she’d got to wave goodbye she would be sad. Was that why Chloe was sad?
Well, she didn’t know if Chloe was sad. The girl wasn’t looking at anyone. She shoved her backpack under her chair before sitting down, wiping her nose with her hand as she sniffed. She looked sad to Marinette.
“Hi,” Marinette said brightly, turning all the way around so she was facing Chloe. “My name is Marinette!”
Chloe gave her a mean look. Marinette withered slightly, suddenly much more nervous. “Um- I like your jacket.”
The girl sniffed again. “It’s designer,” she said. Her voice sounded shaky, like Marinette’s did when she was trying not to cry. “And it would look horrible on you.”
“Uh… ok.” Marinette wasn’t sure what designer meant, but her jacket was very nice, so she assumed it meant expensive. “Are you okay?”
Chloe’s eyes narrowed. “Why do you care?” she asked grumpily.
Marinette shifted uncomfortably. This wasn’t going like she’d wanted it to. She was just trying to be nice! Maybe she’d have better luck with the boy on her other side.
… But if she was sad, she’d want someone to care. She was sad, earlier, and Maman had made her feel better, and even if she was nervous she wanted Chloe to feel better. “Um,” she said, trying to think of the right thing to say. “Because… I want to be your friend?”
Chloe didn’t look any nicer, but she also didn’t look any meaner, so Marinette took that as a good sign. “Why didn’t you say goodbye to your papa?”
Chloe scoffed. “That wasn’t my daddy. That’s my butler. My daddy is too busy to drop me off at school.”
“Oh.” So he was a butler! “Are you rich?”
“Obviously.” Chloe rolled her eyes, like Marinette should’ve known. “My daddy is a famous politician.”
“That’s cool! My papa is a baker.” Marinette smiled. “Do you want to come over to my house for some croissants after school?”
Chloe’s eyes narrowed again, but after a moment she said, “Do you have chocolate ones?”
At Marinette’s enthusiastic nod, she sighed. “Fine, I guess. But only if they’re yummy.”
Before Marinette could promise with all the vigor in her six-year-old soul that her papa made the yummiest croissants in the whole world, Chloe turned back to the front, folding her arms. She still looked kinda mean, but she wasn’t sniffing anymore and her voice wasn’t wobbly. Marinette turned around in her seat with a smile, all thoughts of calling her Maman to come pick her up already gone. She couldn’t wait to bring Chloe home for croissants and meet her butler. And she was glad she’d already made a new friend.
“Move your bag, Marinette, I need to sit.”
She looked up with a smile, pulling her bag off the seat and setting it on the ground next to her. “Hey, Chloe.”
Her friend dropped into the seat next to her with a haughty sniff. “Jean-Luc or whatever- Armand,” she corrected at Marinette’s look (Chloe never really had gotten over the habit of calling her butler by the wrong name), “lost my purse. I was almost late to my first day of class.” She sighed dramatically. “I need macarons to recover my dignity.”
Marinette was already pulling out her box. “Don’t worry, I’ve got you.” She handed Chloe a napkin, letting her choose a few - she took the lemon, strawberry, and chocolate ones, just like she always did - before handing the box to Max behind behind. “Go ahead and pass them around!” she said brightly.
Chloe handed her the strawberry macaron. “Why do you still make these? It’s not like you need to win anyone over anymore. They all already know you’re the nicest person in the whole school.”
Marinette nibbled on the corner of her pink macaron as her friend popped the lemon one in her mouth. “Because there’s always new students, and it’s always nice to start the school year off with a treat. Besides, if I didn’t bring them, how else would you recover your dignity?”
Chloe grumbled a response, grumpily breaking the chocolate macaron apart and handing half to Marinette. She didn’t miss the way her friend’s mouth curved up in a smile as she turned away. “Just make sure to save me my chocolate croissants.”
“How could I forget?” Every year, she brought Chloe home on the first day of school for chocolate croissants and their first homework session. It was tradition now, to wake up to the smell of chocolate baking in the morning. Her papa always joked that it was to remind her to get up for school. She didn’t need the reminder, as the frantic call from her friend as she put together her first day of school outfit was reminder enough, but she always laughed anyway.
“I see you went with the blazer.” Marinette changed the subject, eyeing Chloe’s clothes. “I like it.”
“And I see you changed your mind about the leggings.” Chloe smirked. “Didn’t you throw them back in the closet when I said they were perfect? You should know by now that I’m always right when it comes to matters of fashion.”
Marinette mirrored her friend, crossing her arms with a smirk. “So you were right that one year you decided that lime green eyeshadow should be your tradema-”
Chloe hissed, slapping a hand over her mouth. “We will never speak of that year again.”
Marinette giggled, pulling her hand down. “It wasn’t that bad.”
“It. Was. Awful.” Chloe grumbled. “Blue is much more my color.”
“I agree,” Marinette said with a laugh. “Blue is definitely your color.”
Marinette made it through her whole first day just fine, just like her Maman had thought. When school was over she grabbed Chloe’s arm, dragging her to the front of the building where the parents were waiting. Chloe sniffed haughtily, but let herself be dragged.
“Marinette!” Maman pulled her into a hug, pressing a kiss to the top of her head. “How did school go?”
She pulled on Chloe’s arm, bringing her forward. “This is my new friend, Chloe! Can she come to our house for croissants?”
“Chocolate,” Chloe grumbled. “You said chocolate.”
“For chocolate croissants?” Marinette quickly corrected.
Maman pursed her lips. “We’ll have to ask Chloe’s parents, but it’s alright with me. Where-”
“My butler is picking me up,” Chloe interrupted.
“... oh.” Maman paused. “Alright then. I’ll ask him.”
“He’ll say it’s fine. My parents don’t really care where I am as long as I’m not in the way.”
Huh. That sounded sad. Marinette looked at her maman, who was looking down at Chloe. It looked like Maman thought that was sad too.
“My papa makes the best croissants,” Marinette said. “Maybe we can invite your butler to come have some too. And you can see my dress up box! Do you want to play princesses and we can have a tea party?”
To her delight, Chloe seemed to perk up. “Can we have macarons too?”
“Of course, dear,” Maman said with a smile. “I think a tea party is a wonderful idea.”
“I want a yellow dress.”
Marinette frowned as she thought. “I don’t think I have a yellow dress. I have a pink one, though. And a blue one.”
Chloe sighed. “Fine. I’ll wear the blue one.”
Marinette grinned, tugging on her new friend’s hand to pull her towards the car. “Maman, we’ll wait for you while you talk to Chloe’s butler,” she called over her shoulder.
“Alright dear,” she barely heard as she was shoving Chloe in the car, ignoring the way the girl screeched indignantly. She was almost wiggling with excitement. She had a new friend AND she was going to have a tea party with her! This first day of school had gone better than she’d even imagined.
Class started and Marinette and Chloe both pulled out their books. Chloe had insisted on buying them both, something about how she couldn’t be seen with someone who had second hand school books. Marinette didn’t mind. That was just Chloe. Sure, she was a little abrasive at times, and maybe her comments could be a little mean. But she knew that they came from a good heart that wanted to share the money she’d received just from being born. She did that sometimes, making excuses to buy Marinette clothes and books and shoes (and one time a couch - she still wasn’t sure why).
Chloe was Chloe. Prickly, generally irritated at the world, but also kind and someone who wanted to be a good person. Marinette couldn’t imagine going through her school years without her.
She knew they’d be friends for years to come.