Chapter 37

Marinette's P.O.V:

"Good morning, Miss Dupain-Cheng." Madame Mendeleiev greeted me as the class got off of the bus. "If you would please stand with the rest of the class while I take a quick roll call." She gestured to the rest of my classmates.

"Yes ma'am." I went to go stand with my friends and Damian followed.

"Hey, Mari." All of my friends greeted me as I hugged every one of them.

"Hey, guys." I said, a little to excited.

"Did something happen that I don't know about?" Chloe looked skeptically at me.

"Something exciting is happening today." I gave my friends a mischievous smile.

"Really? What is it?" Adrien asked.

"It's a surprise. You'll find out soon enough." I winked at the blonde.

"Okay, students." The teacher spoke up after a quick roll call. "Today will be a little different from the rest of our week here. Before we go and sit in on the class we have to observe for the week, we have been asked by Mr. Wayne himself to attend a little introduction for us he and his family have put together." I watched Lila's expression closely while the teacher talked. "Now please remember that Mr. Wayne is our host for this trip and you all need to be on your best behavior." She said sternly.

"Oh, wow! Lila, why didn't you tell us that Mr. Wayne was coming today?" Alya said excitement evident in her voice .

"Oh, well..." Lila looked around at all of our classmates. "He wanted it to be a surprise is all." She kept a neutral face.

"The liar is right this time." Damian spoke up and everyone snapped his head towards him.

"What are you even still doing here?" Alya gave him a dirty look.

"I go to school here. I thought the uniform would make that obvious." He gestured to his outfit. "By the way" Damian looked directly at Lila. "You said your boyfriend was Damian Wayne, correct?"

"That's right." Alya spoke for her. "Are you jealous or something?" Alya smirked.

"Oh, definitely not. I just thought the liar would be more excited to be going to the same school as Damian Wayne." Damian said and I watched as the girl went stiff.

"No way! Lila, we will all get to see your boyfriend today. Why didn't you tell us?" Alya smiled at her friend.

"W-well this is such a large school that we might not even get to see him. I didn't want to get all of your hopes up." Lila tried to stay calm.

"By the way Lila, what did you say Damian looked like again? I want to keep my eye out for him." Rose spoke up from behind her.

"Oh, well he uh..." Lila looked back to Damian who had his eyebrow raised in expectance. "He looks a lot like Bruce."

"So, like dark hair and blue eyes?" Rose seemed to have a dreamy look in her eyes. "I bet he's super handsome."

"Yes." Lila nods while trying to gauge Damian's expression. "His eyes might even be bluer than his fathers."

"Oh, I wish I could meet him." Rose said excitedly. "You know how much I love the romantic things."

"Who knows?" Damian finally looked at the tiny blonde. "You might just get the chance. Your teacher did say that the whole Wayne family prepared this welcoming for your class."

"That's right!" Rose bounced with even more excitement. "Lila, isn't this great?"

"Yeah." Lila barely nodded.

"Okay, Angel." Damian turned to me and kissed the top of my head. "I have to go meet up with some people. I'll see you in a bit."

"Okay." I waved at him. "See you soon." He walked away.

"Why is your boyfriend being weird, Marinette?" Alya said a bit annoyed.

"How was he being weird?" I cocked my head to the side. "He was actually trying to make conversation."

"Hello, you must be our new class for the week." A teacher with long black hair pulled into a ponytail spoke in perfect French and shook hands with our own teacher. "I'm Mrs. Dubois. You must be madame Mendeleiev. Would you and your class like to follow me to the auditorium?"

"Yes." Madame Mendeleiev turned her attention to the class. "Students, this is the teacher who will be working with us all week, Mrs. Dubois. She is here to guide us to meet up with her own class for Mr. Wayne's speech. Please everyone, stay together."

Mrs. Dubois leads the class through the halls and we all look at how different the school is to our own. I couldn't help but hate the idea of everyone wearing the same thing every day. Eventually, we all made our way inside the school's giant auditorium and sat down behind a class that was already there.

"Hello, everyone" Mrs. Dubois spoke up. "I know you all would like to introduce yourselves to one another but we will save that for later. Mr. Wayne needs to talk to us all first." She smiled at both of the classes.

"Mrs. Dubois." A student from the other class spoke up. "I took roll like you asked but Damian still isn't here."

"Oh, that's right." The dark-haired teacher nodded. "He will be up there with the rest of his family and join us afterwards."

"Did you hear that, Lila?" Alya whispered loudly. "We are going to be in the same class. How incredibly lucky!"

"Girls, please calm down." Madame Mendeleiev looked at the girls. "Mr. Wayne will be talking to us in just a moment."

"Can I go to the restroom first?" Lila looked incredibly nervous.

"After this is over, you can. Mr. Wayne promised this wouldn't take long."

"But"

"No 'but's' Miss Rossi. You can hold it." The teacher was having none of it.

Everyone's attention went to the stage when they all saw Bruce make his way to the podium, followed by one of his sons. "Good morning everyone and good morning Marinette." He waved to me.

Everyone looked over to me who was the person he just singled out. "Good morning, Bruce." I waved back.

"First of all, Marinette here is the reason her class is with us today. She won the scholarship that is in memory of my late parents, Thomas and Martha. Out of the thousands of essays that were submitted, she was lucky enough and worked hard enough to win. Everyone, please say their congratulations to her when you get the chance." He smiled at the group of students. "And for those of you that don't know, this is my son Tim." Tim waved at everyone as his father introduced him. "He, too, once went to Gotham Academy when he was younger just as the rest of my sons have. Now Tim is co-CEO of our company and he came up with this brilliant idea to welcome this new class to Gotham and his old school. Now I know this isn't the first time you have all met me, but we all thought that a real welcome would be better than our last encounter. So, welcome to Gotham." Bruce looked over at his son. "Now Tim would like to say a few words before the rest of my family comes out to welcome you as well."

"Hello, everyone. It's good to be back here after all these years." He caught sight of me. "Hey, Mari." Tim smiled brightly at me.

"Hi, Timmy!" I gave him an even brighter smile.

"I just wanted to remind you all that this class is a guest in Gotham. I encourage you all to be kind to one another and to help each other out. The reason we chose this class for them is because all of you are a part of GA's advanced French program and everyone of you can benefit off of each other. Even though Marinette won this trip it doesn't mean it can't be a learning experience for everyone here. I hope you all have a wonderful week here in Gotham Academy." He smiled for a moment before finding me in the crowd again. "Mari, why don't you introduce the rest of my family to your class since you are the guest of honor here?" Tim asked.

"What?" Alya said a little too loudly. "Why wouldn't you ask Lila to do that? Marinette doesn't even know the Wayne's."

"Alya!" Madame Mendeleiev said sternly. "Please be quiet."

"Marinette, please come up." Tim ignored the outburst.

"Okay." I smiled brightly as I made my way to the stage. I looked to my left behind the curtain and saw the rest of the Wayne family smiling back at me. I kept going and hugged both Bruce and Tim before making my way to the podium. "So, how do you want me to introduce them?" I asked.

"Just call them out here." Tim encouraged.

"Okay." I looked over to the rest of them behind the curtain and saw Dick wave at me. "I would like you all to welcome back Dick Grayson, the eldest of Mr. Wayne's sons." I waved him on. "My class might remember him as the tour guide from Wayne Tower."

Dick walked towards the podium and waved to them all. Half of my class had a look of confusion and a majority of them looked over to Lila. "Hello again, everyone. It's so good to be back at GA." He hugged me. "Hey there, Cupcake." He patted my head briefly. "You are looking happy this morning."

"I am." I giggled. "Next I would like to introduce Jason Todd." I smiled over at him. "The second eldest of Mr. Wayne."

"Hey, Sunshine." He walked up to me and bear hugged me, spinning me around before gently setting me down again. "Long time no see." He winked.

"Don't listen to him." I rolled my eyes. "I had breakfast with them this morning."

Alya quickly stood up from her seat. "Marinette! What are you doing?" Alya yelled.

"Alya!" Madame Mendeleiev scolded.

"No." Bruce spoke up. "What seems to be the problem, Miss Cesaire?"

"Alya don't." Lila whispers. Her plea seemed to not work.

"No, Lila. This is completely rude and unfair. Why is Marinette getting special treatment when you have known their family for so much longer?"

"I already told you Miss Cesaire, the first time I ever met Miss Rossi was at Wayne Tower." Bruce spoke with a stern voice.

"Lila, say something." Alya pulled Lila up to stand.

"O-oh uh..." Lila started to panic and was at a loss for words.

"At least let her say 'Hi' to her boyfriend Mr. Wayne." Alya crossed her arms. "It's wrong of you to force them to keep their relationship a secret. They love each other."

"Who exactly do you think is her boyfriend and why would I keep it a secret?" Bruce raised an eyebrow at her.

"Come on!" Alya crossed her arms and looked at me. "Okay Marinette, go ahead and use your temporary limelight you somehow wiggled your way into to call out Damian Wayne. They will all see when he comes out." She looked smugly at me.

The whole time this interaction is happening, all of Damian's class watches with extreme confusion. It was like they were thrown into a random reality tv show and they were about to witness the biggest fight between the main cast members or something.

"If you insist." I give my class a big smile. "Everyone, I would like all of you to meet the youngest member of the Wayne family, Damian Wayne."

When the young billionaire walked out, half of my class looked over at Lila with smirks on their face and the other half looked utterly confused, while Lila herself seemed to be completely mortified. This definitely isn't what Lila had planned at all.