Chapter Text
In. Out. In. Out.
She’d been standing by the door for five minutes now, trying to find the courage to open it and walk in. She didn’t want to know how things would pan out when she entered the room, but she wasn’t looking forward to it.
Squaring her shoulders and steeling herself, she pushed the door open. All talk ceased, and she felt everyone’s stares fall upon her, but she only smiled.
“Good morning, everyone,” She greeted them, her tone clear and calm despite her inner turmoil. She was met with silence for just a few moments before the class exploded into noise, with some people apologizing and others simply greeting her. She expected a glare from Lila, but when she saw Alya frown in her direction, her heart sank.
Did Alya really not believe her?
She let out a soft sigh and shook her head. She had honestly hoped for better from the reporter, but she shouldn’t have been surprised. With another sigh, she started walking up to her seat beside Félix, only pausing when she heard a hissed, “Well?”
Marinette glanced over to the person who had hissed towards her, blinking as she saw it was Lila. “Well what?” she asked the brunette.
“Are you going to apologize?” Hold on, what? When Marinette gave her a blank stare, Lila's own stare darkened. "You owe me an apology, Marinette Dupain-Cheng. You lied about me and embarrassed me in front of everyone. I want an apology."
"No." Everyone stared at her, some in shock, some in awe. The ravenette was annoyed when she noticed Adrien looking disappointed in her. He had no right.
"Excuse me?" Lila asked, her tone sickly sweet, yet bordering on dangerous. How dare she?
"I said no. I'm not apologizing to you. Not now, not ever. You're the one in the wrong, Lila. You threatened me, lied about me, tried to take my friends away from me. I saw the footage of my akuma. Everything I said was the truth. If anyone did their research, they'd know that you've been lying since day one!" It was petty of her to have jabbed at Alya like that, but she was still upset with the self-proclaimed reporter.
"Hey! You're in the wrong here, Marinette, why won't you just admit that? Lila was telling the truth and you know it. You're just jealous she likes Adrien too," Alya snapped out, and Marinette's eyes narrowed at her, angry she had revealed such a thing in front of the entire classroom.
"This was never about Adrien, Alya. I used to like him, yes, but this was never about him.” A gasp from Adrien was heard, but she ignored him. “Lila has serious plot-holes in her stories, all of them easily debunked if you fact-check. But you didn’t, you believed someone you’ve known for a month over your best friend who you’ve known for a year.” Marinette turned away from Alya, heading for her seat.
“I thought you were better than this, Marinette.” Adrien’s disappointed voice rung out, and Marinette paused again, turning back to him.
“Excuse me? You have no right to be disappointed in me when you knew Lila was lying to everyone. You said her lies weren’t hurting anyone. Her lies would have eventually hurt someone if they kept going on, but you protected her at the cost of everyone else. People get akumatized over everything. You were more worried about the liar than the person who you said you’d stand by.” Adrien felt eyes turn on him, and he was saddened to see Nino’s eyes filled with hurt as they stared at him.
“Dude, is this true? You knew she was lying?" Nino whispered, and Adrien felt the hurt that was radiating from his friend. The model reached for the DJ who visibly recoiled from him, and Adrien couldn't help the hurt feelings he felt.
"Nino, I…" Adrien tried to formulate words, but he couldn't. How could he when his friend looked so upset, and at him?
Nino looked away, disappointed in the model. His response, or lack of it, was enough.
"Hold on. Adrikins, you mean to tell me you knew? And you said nothing?" Chloé asked coldly, her arms crossed and her eyes narrowing at her oldest friend. The heiress knew Lila had been lying. Anyone with a brain would know that. Marinette Dupain-Cheng, Chloé would admit begrudgingly, wasn’t a bad person, well, she couldn’t be, considering she was Ladybug of all people.
Oh yeah, Chloé knew. She’d known for a while that the girl was Ladybug after she got Pollen. The little 'doll' she was going to give Prince Ali that looked similar to Pollen, Marinette's disappearances, hell, she'd even heard Marinette talking to 'Tikki' in the bathrooms (after Lila had threatened the ravenette, no less), so she definitely knew. Still, she didn't say anything; it wasn't her secret to give out.
Instead she did what she could to help her. Chloé would do this for the girl who saved her multiple times, even if her hero did hate her.
Chloé didn't blame her.
"The fact you all think Dupain-Cheng is a liar is ridiculous, utterly ridiculous! Everyone with even half of a brain would know she's not. And everyone should know Lila's lying. Like, come on, Jagged Stone could easily disprove her claims. Rose could disprove her claims, too, since she still talks to Prince Ali," Everyone looked to the girl in question, who sheepishly smiled.
"He never said anything about Lila, I just thought he knew her," Rose told her classmates.
"Ask him right now if he knows 'Lila Rossi', then. Disprove her claims. And in fact, Dupain-Cheng, you know Jagged Stone personally. You could call him and ask him, couldn't you?" Chloé turned her gaze back to the baker's daughter who looked so baffled that Chloé of all people was on her side. Marinette was about to reply when Lila scoffed.
"She could just be lying about that. After all, she lied about me." This time when Chloé scoffed, Lila's lips curled up in a predatory fashion. "Besides, why should you care about her? Your dislike for Marinette is well-known but now you're on her side? Pretty suspect if you ask me."
"The only thing suspect is your stupidity, Rossi."
Everyone looked to the corner of the room where Félix sat, finally looking up from his book.
“You claim you know all these people, but you never once provided evidence to back it up, yet we can easily provide evidence you haven’t. You claim to have been bullied by Marinette, but Alix and I, along with one other person, have been with Marinette at her own house when you claimed she bullied you. So your claims of her bullying you are easily disproved there.” Lila’s face went red with fury.
“That proves nothing! You were there when she bullied me!” the Italian girl snapped, and Chloé scoffed again.
“Please, I may have hated Dupain-Cheng for many things, but being a bully was never one of them. Because she wasn't a bully. She isn't. Try again Lie-la." The heiress looked at Lila disapprovingly, emphasizing the first syllable of her name pointedly.
"Enough! Marinette, just admit you're lying and apologize!" Alya looked to the French-Chinese girl as if begging her to admit it. But Marinette held her ground.
"I said no. I refuse to apologize to someone who tried to hurt me and ruin my friendships, she threatened me and lied to you all. I’m not going to apologize for feeling upset when you all ignored my feelings, and I’m not saying sorry to her because I know she would never apologize to me.” Marinette’s voice never wavered as she stared at Alya with disappointment and anger in her eyes. “I’m not apologizing to her when I’m not the one in the wrong.”
With that, she moved to sit next to Félix, ignoring how the class exploded into sound.
“Are you alright?” Félix murmured to the girl as she sunk into her seat, worried she might get akumatized again. Marinette gave him a smile and nodded minutely.
“I should be. Thank you for sticking up for me,” She whispered, and the blonde smiled back at her gently.
“Of course, Marinette,” He didn’t get to say anymore before Miss Bustier entered the room.
“Good morning class! I reviewed the seating arrangements and I have changed it around so the students who are struggling to see the board, or hear me are closer." A wave of groans went through the classroom, but a few were silent. Changed how?
They found out five minutes later when everyone had been rearranged in the seating plan Miss Bustier had planned. It had Max, Nino, Adrien and Lila in the front row, then Sabrina, Chloé, Rose and Alya on the second. In the third row sat Alix, Marinette, Juleka and Mylène, and in the last row sat Félix, Nathaniel, Ivan and Kim.
Marinette found herself relieved to be sitting next to someone she could trust, shooting Alix a small smile which was returned by the pinkette. She was lucky that she had her friends nearby.
The only downside was Chloé and Sabrina being in front of them… but Marinette had been surprised by her. The heiress had been less hostile and more… helpful to her? Which was odd. Not that she was complaining. She couldn’t complain when Chloé was being helpful. But it was suspicious. Why did she help her?
Shaking her head, she glanced over to where Alya sat, saddened to see a gleam of disappointment in her eyes as if Marinette was in the wrong. The French-Chinese girl had tried to prove it to her, but Alya just didn’t want to listen to her. So with a sigh, she turned her attention back to the front of the class.
“So today’s topic is…”