At the beach

The sun was shining bright, high in the sky, and the aroma of salt water hung in the air. “See, I told you it was a perfect day for the beach,” Alya gloated to her best friend as they approached the man-made beach planted on the Seine.

“Yep, you did,” Marinette said, reletting. Earlier they debated over it, when the news forecast predicted an 80% chance of rain but Alya still didn’t see a cloud in the sky. As soon as her shoe covered foot hit the sand, Marinette spotted some of their friends from school, saving them a spot near the front of the beach. Surprisingly, there didn't seem to be many people there today. Maybe that was because of the weather forecast?

“Glad you guys could make it,” Alya called to them once they got closer.

“Shouldn’t we be saying that to you?” Alix laughed. “You guys are like 20 minutes late.”

All eyes immediately turned to Marinette, knowingly. Without any prompting, Marinette, used to being tardy, immediately apologized. “I had to run some errands for my parents first. They took a little longer than I expected.” She scratched the back of her head sheepishly, a nervous smile gracing her face.

“Classic Marinette,” she heard someone say with a small chorus of laughter following it.

“Well, you guys still managed to beat Nino and Adrien here, somehow,” Alix said, shaking her head.

“Yeah, Nino gave me the heads up on the way over,” Alya nodded. “Something about Adrien’s photographer insisting on extending the shoot a little longer, but it’s over now, so they should be here anytime.”

The other girl nodded, saying something back, but it was all lost-on Marinette. At the mention of Adrien coming, Marinette’s mind couldn’t help jumping to a shirtless Adrien, clad in only swim trunks. Maybe he’ll need some help applying his sunblock, Marinette thought, practically drooling at the mouth at the prospect. In her head, she saw a beautiful, picturesque scene of Adrien holding a bottle of sunblock, asking her, specifically her, it had to be her, if she wanted to help him apply his sunblock. That scene quickly turned to one of her accepting the offer, rather suavely, before she’s running her hands down his toned back. And once she has taken her time and applied the perfect amount of sunblock on him, he’ll like the job she did so much that he never wants anyone else to apply it for him again, and he proposes to her on the spot, leaning in to give her a kiss, and right before their lips touch-snap!

Alya snapped her fingers in front of Marinette. “Earth to Marinette, anyone in there?”

Suddenly it dawned at Marinette just what happened. She felt a little drool in the corner of her mouth, swiftly wiping it off with a light blush on her cheeks. “Sorry, what’d you say?”

“I was just wondering why you weren’t wearing a swimsuit,” Rose said, looking her up and down. “You didn’t forget it, did you?”

Marinette looked at her friends around her. Alix wearing a bikini top and a pair of swim trunks, Alya wearing an orange and white bikini, Rose in her pink one piece, and Juleka in a black tankini and matching bottoms. “Oh, no I didn’t. It’s in here,” Marinette gestured to the pink-and-white duffel bag that operated as her beach bag. “I didn’t want to walk around town in my swimsuit, you know, so I figured I’d just bring it with me and change here.” Marinette used her head to point them in the direction of the single person changing tents way back toward the entrance to the beach.

“And, what she’s not telling you is that this is the debut of Marinette’s first homemade swimsuit,” Alya said, voice brimming with pride. That seemed to excite the other girls, each of whom immediately raved about wanting to see it.

“Alya… it’s not a big deal,” Marinette said, her cheeks pink.

“Not a big deal?” Alya protested, “Girl, you’re crazy, you did a good job and you made it yourself.”

“I guess,” Marinette said, not knowing what to say.

“Now go put it on, we all want to see it,” Alya eagerly turned her around and pushed her off toward the changing tent before she even knew what was happening.

As she walked toward the tent, part of Marinette wished that she just brought a store-bought swimsuit instead, just so that she could avoid all the attention Alya was getting her. When Marinette approached the changing tents, she noticed there wasn’t a line for them for once, and the front flap on each of the tents were pulled open, showing off the empty tents. It was the only real way to tell if someone was in them or not. When you enter the tent, you closed the front flap behind you and when you left you made sure the flap stayed open behind you so other people knew the tent was free, it’s common courtesy.

Marinette walked right into the first tent, pulling the tent flap’s Velcro door-seal together securely before setting her duffel bag down on the sand. Aside from her and her bag, the only thing in the tent was a small stool for her to sit on. Marinette took a seat on the stool and slowly and anxiously worked her shoes off.

Truthfully, while she had planned on getting changed at the beach, she didn’t really like to. The changing tents always felt risky to Marinette. The walls of the tent weren’t very thick, nor were they very secure. If a good wind picked up, the bottom of the tent walls would float up a little bit. Never enough to reveal anything important, of course. The highest Marinette ever saw it float up was enough to see someone’s ankles. Just the fact that the only thing stopping her from being seen by the rest of the beach at any given moment were three loose walls and a thin strip of Velcro holding a fourth wall together filled Marinette with anxiety, especially as she watched the bottom of the tent’s walls start to dance with the breeze.

“You know, if you take too long, the girls are probably going to get worried,” Marinette heard her kwami Tikki speak up as she flew out of the duffel bag.

“I know, I know,” Marinette said quietly, still watching the bottom of the tent dance around. If someone was outside, they could probably see the floor of her tent.

“Don’t be nervous, Marinette, people use these every day and there hasn’t been a problem yet, right?”

As far as Marinette knew, the answer was no. Marinette shook her head.

“Exactly, so you have nothing to worry about,” the kwami spoke happily. “And if seeing the bottom of the tent flap around makes you nervous, just try not to look at it.”

“Yeah, you’re right, Tikki,” Marinette said, finally finding her courage.