ENVY (Pure Adrienette)

chapter 14

"What!?"

"There will be no more practices after school, and no more routines during games. You will all go straight home after school, under the supervision of at least one adult," Principal Damocles stated sternly.

"I can't believe it!" Alix sobbed as we stood in the hallway after our short visit to the Principal’s office. "No more practices! No more performance this Friday!" She cried loudly.

She hadn't even cried this hard when we learnt about Sabrina and Chloe's deaths. "It’s okay, Alix. It's only temporary." You know what's permanent though? Death.

Alix wiped her tears with the back of her hand, sniffling, "My mom is going to be so disappointed."

Oh, right. Alix's mom was even worse than Alix when it came to cheerleading. An ex-cheerleader in high school. Anaya also wanted to be a professional cheerleader in the NFL, but never made it. Whenever Alya and I visit Alix, Anaya always boasts, showing off the trophies that she won in cheerleading competitions. To be honest, it's like a shrine.

She even came to our practices sometimes to watch Alix practice her routines. She drove Coach Bukky nuts. She always screamed others at us, “Make your motions tighter! Do it like I showed you! Come on, Alix! You can jump higher than that!”

"Come on, two of our friends are dead, for heaven's sake. Your mom will understand, right?" Alya tried reasoning with her.

"Right," Alix nodded sheepishly, seemingly embarrassed. "Sorry for being silly, guys. I'm just not looking forward to her reaction and she'll be here to pick me up any minute.”

Alix quickly turned to look at me, "How are you going to go down to the police station, Marinette? Do you need a lift?"

I definitely do NOT want a lift in Anaya's car just after she finds out about cheerleading being suspended.

"Oh," Alya suddenly sighed, grabbing my attention. "I think your ride is here, Marinette."

I turned to look at the direction she was pointing at to see Adrien getting out of his car - my heart skipped a beat.

"Enjoy your ride!" Alya giggled quietly beside me.

Once again, he kept quiet the entire way to the police station. I wondered what he was thinking. I couldn't stop thinking about the ...moment we shared this morning. The almost moment. Did I imagine it? 

It was only when we pulled up to the station that he finally spoke. "Marinette, I'm worried about you. Two of your friends have been murdered..."

I sighed, quickly completing his sentence, "...and I could be next."

"I promise you that I will not let that happen."

My heart lurched. "Adrien... How do you feel about me?"

He looked away. "Marinette, I'm not going to deny that I have...feelings for you." Adrien turned again, this time to look into my eyes. "To be honest, it's taken me by surprise. And I'm not going to try and analyze them at the moment because right now, the situation is much more urgent than you seem to understand."

"You, and your friends, are all in danger. I'm going to do my best to try to keep you safe. But in order to do that, I have to do my job. I have to focus. And any kind of relationship with you, outside of that of a police officer and a civilian is highly inappropriate. Do you get what I mean? Come on, it's time to go in." Adrien quickly removed his seat belt, getting out of the car and walking off towards the entrance of the police station.