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"Alright, so we've already got most of the roles planned out. Now, all that's left is Rapunzel and Mother Gothel. Would anyone like to try out for Rapunzel?" Ms. Bustier announced in front of the class as soon as the bell rang.
Francoise Dupont was having an event where each class was going to perform a play or a musical in the new theater room. While Ms. Mendeleiev's class went for Cinderella, and Mr. Monlataing's went for Brave, Ms. Bustier had a meeting with her students just a day ago and they went to do Tangled.
Right now, they were assigning roles for each student. Nino as King, Lila as Queen, Kim as Sideburns, Alix as Patchy, and Adrien as Flynn Rider. Most of the others volunteered for behind the scenes work.
Max and Rose were in charge of sound editing, Nathaniel and Marinette for costume making, Ivan for soundtrack, Mylene for script writing, and Sabrina and Alya for choreography. The only ones left were Chloe and Juleka without assigned roles.
Upon Ms. Bustier's offer, Chloe was quick to raise her hand. "Me! So my Adrikins and I can be together."
"Noted, Chloe. Anyone else?" The teacher asked again, but to no answer. "If not, Chloe will get the lead role by default."
Almost everyone groaned, knowing now much of a pain it was to work with Chloe. They just prayed that someone else would audition.
Rose nudged the girl next to her. "You wanted to be Rapunzel, right?"
Juleka nodded shyly, but was too scared to raise her hand. What if she did it wrong? Or if she embarrassed herself on stage.
A hand on her shoulder took her out of her thoughts. "You can do this, Juleka. I believe in you." Rose gave her a quick peck on the cheek of encouragement.
She sent her smile, and reluctantly raised her hand for Ms. Bustier. "I-I'd like to try."
The entire class lightened up at that, and began cheering as Juleka's face turned bright red. As much as she appreciated it, it was a bit overwhelming.
However, most of her worries washed away when she felt Rose's hand on top of hers.
"Perfect! Any other volunteers?" When no one else responded, Ms. Bustier clapped her hands together. "Alright, then. Tomorrow, why don't you girls prepare your audition tapes?"
———
The following day, Juleka's palms sweated as Ms. Bustier prepared their audition tapes.
Classes just ended, and they were in homeroom at the time. There, Ms. Bustier was going to showcase both of their videos and have the class decide who was going to play the role of Rapunzel.
First off was Chloe's. It was quite half-assed, to say that least. She kept getting distracted and spent most of her time boasting about herself and her acting skills.
Sabrina was obviously behind the camera, whispering "Go!" each time a new clip appeared.
To be completely honest, watching Chloe's audition tale, Juleka felt like she actually had a chance to beat her.
When Ms. Bustier announced that Juleka's was next after the other girl's finished, all that nervousness came back again.
Thousands of thoughts went through the bassist's head. What if they didn't like it? What if she becomes the laughing stock of the class?
Juleka's admittedly audition tape was much cleaner. No whispers behind the camera, no boasting, and her voice was loud and clear, much unlike in real life.
After finishing the video, Ms. Bustier clapped her hands together to gain everyone's attention. "Those in favor of Chloe as Rapunzel, please raise your hand."
No one except for Sabrina and Chloe herself did.
"Noted." She wrote down on the chalkboard a single line under Chloe's name. "Those in favor of Juleka, please raise your hand."
That's when everyone raised their hands, Rose much more excited. Juleka felt herself melt at the positive attention.
"It's settled, then. Juleka will be taking the lead role of Rapunzel!"
Juleka smiled and smiled wider when her seatmate pulled her into a right hug. She did it. Oh my god, she did it. She got the lead role!
Finally! She's been wanting this ever since the day it was announced they were doing a class play. Her dream was finally about to come through.
"Wait, Ms. Bustier!" Alya called out suddenly, gaining the teacher's attention and making the classroom quiet down. "I think Marinette wants to audition for Rapunzel! Can we have another try out?"
Meanwhile, Marinette was next to her, frantically telling her to stop and trying to cover her mouth.
"Well, if Marinette wants to, then I'll give her a day to prepare her audition tape. Is that okay, Marinette?"
"Y-Yes! Yes! Yeah! Totally okay!" The baker stuttered out in panic, still side-eyeing Alya.
While the two bickered, a certain purple haired girl started feeling insecure again. If Marinette were to audition, she was guaranteed to win the favor of the class.
Marinette was the kindest girl ever, and Juleka? She was nobody. The only reason she won was probably because she was going against Chloe…
———
Marinette won just as she expected.
The cheers were far louder, and the celebration was much bigger. What was Juleka kidding? She was going against Marinette Dupain-Cheng of all people. Of course she'd never win.
Rose and Juleka were having their own conversation in the corner of the room as the rest celebrated Marinette's new role.
"I-I just…"
"Shh, it's okay, Juleka. Don't worry, you'll be okay. You could always be Mother Gothel, you know?" The shorter girl pulled her into a tight hug. Juleka felt terrible for not being happy for her competitor, but she just couldn't bring herself to do it.
Marinette has always been more than she ever has. More popular, more confident, more brave. Maybe she deserved it.
"I know… let's go and congratulate her." Juleka suggested, getting a worried look from Rose. "Don't worry about me. She's still our friend."
Rose nodded hesitantly and the two walked over to the group, and pushed past to congratulate the main role.
"Marinette! Congratulations!" The blonde haired girl didn't pull her in for a tight hug, instead just grabbing a hold of her hand.
"Congrats."
"Thank you, Rose, Juleka! You know, I wasn't even planning on going for the main role. Alya kinda just made me do it." Marinette chuckled, and Juleka felt herself breaking.
"Yeah! We didn't want Chloe to win, with Adrien being Flynn Rider, and all. " Alya joined in, hooking an arm around her best friend's neck.
She couldn't believe it… Marinette didn't even want the role, and she still won!
But what hurt the most was that the other girl didn't even want this. The only goddamn reason Alya made her audition was because Adrien was playing as Flynn Rider.
Juleka really was invisible.
"You…" She started, trying to stop herself from yelling right then and there. Her hands formed into a fist at her sides as she stared at the ground. "You didn't even want this role…"
"W-Well, yeah, but-"
"But! Adrien and Mari are going to get married! Adrienette is finally becoming real!" What Alya said filled Juleka with anger even more. Adrienette this, Adrienette that. When will they care about the people around them?
"Do you not care about the people around you? Are we irrelevant?!" Juleka snapped, the whole room quieting down.
"Are we just some side characters in your sick show?! You both knew how much I wanted this, and yet you still auditioned just because you get to smooch Adrien!"
Everytime during art, she would go on and on about how she would love to play as Rapunzel for their play. Marinette would sometimes even make comments, so why was she doing this?
"Juleka-"
"Not now, Rose, please."
The mentioned girl didn't speak further, but still held out a worried hand for Juleka as she fumed in anger.
"Juleka, that's not what it's like. Sure, I didn't want the role, but-"
"But what? You didn't want the role, so why audition? Not everything has to be about you and Adrien!"
The girls gasped. They knew that Juleka was one of the bigger shippers of the two, so to see her mad about it was not something they expected.
"You don't get to have everything we want! You're not any better than us, Marinette!"
Marinette couldn't bring herself to respond. Both too shocked at Juleka's sudden outburst, and too much at a loss for words to say anything in retort.
"Calm down, Juleka." Alya said. "That's not true! Marinette gets what she deserves, and you know that this is the perfect opportunity for her and Adrien to-"
"Stop it, Alya. Just stop! Again, not everything is about Marinette and Adrien. We're still here too, so why can't you see us?!" Juleka knew that the others felt the same, always being thrown to the side as soon as Adrien and Marinette all but looked the same way.
"I'm done! You don't have the right to treat us as just an accessory in your life when we've known each other for years. You just threw us away as soon as a cute guy came into your sight!" She pointed an accusatory finger to the baker, tears threatening to fall out of both of her eyes.
"I'm done with all of you! It's over!" Juleka took the bracelet from her wrist. The very one that the girls made as a group three years ago. It had all of their representative colors on it, Alya and Zoe's being the most recent. She made sure to stomp on it before storming away.
There were no footsteps following her as she walked out of the classroom. Rose was probably off trying to explain to them what happened.
Tears flowed out of her eyes as she curled herself into a ball, locking herself in the janitor's closet where no one could find her.
What was she thinking? They probably hated her now. She should've just kept her mouth shut…
As she sobbed in her arms, she felt something nudge on the phone in her hand.
"Reflekta, nice to see you again. I am Hawkmoth. So you want your friends to notice that not everything is about them, that you're there too. With that, I will grant you your old powers so that they will notice you for as long as they live. In return, I want Ladybug and Chat Noir's miraculous!"
"..."
"Yes, Hawkmoth."