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For a very brief moment, Chloé wondered if she finally had a classmate with the same fascination she had with injuries.
She knew she couldn't very well ask for what she wanted—not until everyone was old enough to consent to it. So she did the next best thing. She had to admit there was a thrill in being a spoiled princess at them until they gave her what she wanted. She flushed a little recalling the Insta-worthy bruise Juleka had given her last week. The ring she had been wearing imprinted just right to be seen in the picture she'd taken.
There was no mistaking what had happened to Rossi, though. Chloé flinched as she saw more fully what had transpired. It was obvious Rossi had finally pushed someone over the edge. There was no beauty, elegance, or thoughtfulness that Chloé could discern in the tableau of violence written on Rossi's body. It felt like when Bri had opened the locker door into her face: all malice and no playfulness. That Rossi was here, instead of tearfully apologizing to whomever had hurt her like this, didn't bode well for anyone.
There hadn't been an akuma alarm, so, assuming Rossi hadn't done it to herself, (and if she had, Chloé was going to discreetly slip her the name of the therapist that had helped her learn how to understand and be safe with her desires) whomever had worked her over had been a stone-cold bitch while she was doing it. Chloé had a suspicion who could commit this kind of violence without attracting Hawkmoth's attention and shivered. She'd concluded long before this that Dupain-Cheng was off-limits for anything that wasn't very small stakes and completely ridiculous, because the cheerful klutzy bakery girl façade disappeared in an instant when things got serious. Chloé still sometimes wondered how many times she had unintentionally danced on the knife's edge before she figured it out.
"You should be with the nurse, Mlle. Rossi," Mme. Bustier said immediately.
Like she had any sort of control over what was going to happen next, Chloé thought. If Rossi was here, looking like this, it meant she was trying to press an advantage or gather sympathy.
"I thought you should see who the real Marinette Dupain-Cheng is," Lila said, and Chloé had to stop herself from facepalming. "She did this to me."
"What did you do to her?" Adrien asked immediately.
That was new to Chloé. Adrikins was usually very quiet and scared when people around him were ready to fight. She'd offered him a bed at the hotel for as long as he needed it, but he'd always smiled the model smile at her when she offered. If she ever got her hands on good evidence about what happened at the Agreste mansion, Bri had promised to deliver it immediately to her father.
Adrien was taking a side. That gave a lot of weight to the idea that Rossi hurt herself.
"I was practicing my compliments, like Mme. Bustier asked, and she went berserk! She said I was a liar and nobody should trust me," Lila pleaded.
Dupain-Cheng hadn't said anything yet, and Chloé's suspicions were rising fast. Dupain-Cheng had bitten Ross's head off for much less than that, and yet she was taking this without comment? That definitely wasn't like her.
"And got away without a scratch?" Alya said suspiciously, poking at her seatmate. Dupain-Cheng disappeared with a pop.
Chloé could see that each of her classmates had the same thought: akuma. Everyone in the class had been targeted by Hawkmoth at least once. Chloé hated him for taking her teases and making them far more serious than they should have been. And for making it so she couldn't have Pollen anymore.
If Rossi had been akumatized and set this up, then she'd just fucked up royally. Now that everyone knew there was an akuma at play, nothing anyone said or did could be fully trusted.
"Where's Marinette?" Alya demanded.
"She must have been akumatized," Lila replied.
The real Dupain-Cheng chose that particular moment to enter the classroom, looking a lot more like she'd just been in a cage match with someone. Chloé had to try hard not to facepalm right then.
"Are you okay?" Bri asked her quietly.
"Fine," she replied equally as quietly, as Rossi leveled an accusatory finger at Dupain-Cheng.
"Get her away from me!" Rossi shrieked, scrambling away from Dupain-Cheng, bumping several classmates on the way up. "Don't let her hurt me!"
"Not until you admit you've been lying!" Dupain-Cheng shouted at her, but didn't try to close the distance.
"Marinette?" Mme. Bustier inquired. "What is Lila lying about?"
"Today, she's lying about who's been akumatized."
Rossi shot Dupain-Cheng a panicked look. "You can see what she did to me," Rossi snapped.
"There's effects makeup in her purse," Dupain-Cheng continued. "I saw her putting it on and tearing her clothes before she came in."
That had to be bullshit, Chloé thought. Rossi claimed to be a lot of things, but "special effects artist" was not one of them, and it would have taken a special-effects team to get those bruises right.
And Dupain-Cheng very loudly hated lies and liars, Chloé continued. Why was she abandoning her principles now? Akuma, from what she had seen, usually magnified personality traits, rather than reversing them.
"That's a strong accusation, Mlle. Dupain-Cheng," Mme. Bustier said frostily. Chloé had never thought of Mme. Bustier as an ice queen, but a delightful shiver ran through her at the prospect of what Mme. Bustier might do next. "Mlle. Rossi, would you be okay with opening your purse for me?"
Rossi nodded, and kept as much distance as possible between herself and Dupain-Cheng as she scuttled down. Chloé tried not to stare too much as Mme. Bustier pulled out several pieces of effects makeup, in colors perfectly tinted to Rossi's claimed injuries.
"This has gone on long enough," Mme. Bustier said, somehow managing to make the room colder than before. "Mlle. Rossi, Mlle. Dupain-Cheng, both of you go to M. Damocles' office and wait until I get there."
Dupain-Cheng and Rossi both looked ready to protest, but their objections died at one glare each and the two left.
"The rest of you, to M. Guiraud in the art room," she said, leaving no room for disagreement.
As the class shuffled out, Chloé hung back, still processing what she had just seen. There was something fundamentally wrong with what she had just witnessed.
When it came to her, she made sure to stay behind so she could talk to Mme. Bustier.
"Ethical dilemma, Mme. Bustier?" Chloé said, still close to her seat.
"For you, Mlle. Bourgeois?" Caline replied. Much as she would like to marvel that Chloé Bourgeois had said something insightful, relevant, and snark-free to a conversation for once, there were more pressing matters to attend to.
"For both of us, I think," Chloé said, extending her streak to two sentences. "Unless I'm wrong when I say we both have suspicions about what just happened."
"Suspicions" was certainly a way of putting it, Caline thought wryly. Marinette and Lila had dropped a gift-wrapped solution to their ongoing problem into her lap. So long as she was willing to believe what her eyes had seen, Lila would be punished and the problem would go away.
But she was certain she had seen Adrien drop something in Lila's purse. He hadn't been near her enough to put the whole amount of makeup in, but it still made the entire scene suspect. She could ignore it, of course, and solve her problems, but no student deserved to be suspended because of a lie. She'd felt terrible when it happened to Marinette, and Lila should be held to the same standards.
"Why are you still here?" Caline said, choosing to deal with the problem in front of her.
"I…I think I know what happened, Mme. Bustier, but…" Chloé looked like she was actually afraid of something. "Can I trust you?"
"Are you okay? Is your family okay?" Mme. Bustier said, readying a checklist in her head to go through.
Chloé nodded. "I'm fine, Mme. Bustier. Daddy and Momma take good care of me. I'm not in danger from them."
"What is it, then?"
Chloé took a deep breath and let it out. "Rossi's bruises and wounds are real. She couldn't have faked them," she said.
"Because?"
"Because…I've seen bruises like that before."
Caline tried to keep her eyebrows from launching through the roof. "When?"
"It's not hard to get injuries like that by accident," Chloé said matter-of-factly. "If you're playing as the superheroes of Paris, for example, there's occasionally the errant baton or yo-yo that can leave a pretty good mark."
Caline silently let out the breath she'd been holding in.
"My point is," Chloé continued, "there's no way that those wounds aren't real. Either Rossi is self-harming and trying to blame Dupain-Cheng, or Rossi provoked Dupain-Cheng and got the shit beat out of her for it. The makeup is a red herring. But, if you wanted to, you could choose to ignore the real problems in favor of what's in front of you."
Caline frowned at Chloé's choice of words, as accurate as they were. "I think that's enough insight," she said, opening the door. "M. Guiraud's awaits."
Chloé walked out. Caline would have loved to sit back and process all of this, but there was still the matter of the two girls sitting outside M. Damocles' office. Was there a way to thread this needle so that justice was served and she didn't have to look the other way over what she had seen?
As she was making sure none of the class had left anything important behind, Caline spotted a bag on the floor by Lila's seat. From the door, she could see it easily, but if she'd been sitting at her desk, she would never have noticed it, and Lila's body would have blocked it any other time Caline came in the room. Curious, Caline went over to open it.
Caline scowled as she saw what was inside. Makeup. An entire sack's worth of effects makeup, hidden from sight. Adrien hadn't been trying to frame Lila, he'd been trying to help Caline understand the truth. She could go forward with a clear conscience about the whole matter.
"Mlle. Rossi," M. Damocles began, when Mme. Bustier, Lila, Marinette, Signora Rossi, and M. and Mme. Dupain-Cheng had arrived at his office, "it is clear from this incident that you need assistance. Exaggerating and fabricating the severity of any injuries you have received as a bid for attention is a serious matter, as is attempting to pin the blame for them on a classmate. Mme. Bustier and I have talked with Signora Rossi and come to the conclusion that until you are no longer a danger to yourself or others, you will not be able to attend school on the grounds. Signora Rossi will keep us appraised of your condiiton, as well as accept your assignments and homework so you may keep up with your studies while you are recovering. We are hopeful that you will be able to return to us soon."
Lila blanched. "That's not true! Or fair! Marinette attacked me!" she protested.
Signora Rossi gave Lila a thin smile before turning her attention to the room. "Thank you for your help, M. Damocles, Mme. Bustier. Please accept my apologies, M., Mme., Mlle. Dupain-Cheng. I have not been keeping as close an eye on Lila as I should have been." She rose to leave. "I trust that Lila will be able to return to you soon. Lila, let's go."
After Lila and Signora Rossi left, M. Damocles turned his attention to the Dupain-Chengs.
"Mlle. Dupain-Cheng," he began, "we are sorry that this incident has progressed as far as it has. We were unprepared for the severity of the sickness that Mlle. Rossi was suffering from. Because of this new information, we are expunging your recent suspension from your record. Your teachers will give you the opportunity to make up any work or tests that you missed during the period of your absence."
"Thank you, M. Damocles," Marinette said. Tom and Sabine nodded their thanks as well.
"I sincerely hope that the next time we meet, it will be because of the wonderful achievements of your daughter," M. Damocles said, standing to escort them out.
"Marinette, a word," Caline said as they were heading back to her classroom. Marinette stopped so Caline could catch up with her.
"I expect you understand how close you came to significant consequences for assaulting your classmate," Caline said, mustering as severe a tone as she could.
"Yes, Mme. Bustier," Marinette replied softly.
"I suspect there is enough evidence present to make the case that you should suffer those consequences, Marinette, and the only thing stopping us is that we can't prove how much of what happened to Lila is exaggeration."
Marinette's silence spoke volumes to Caline.
"I expect my students to resolve their conflicts without resorting to violence, Marinette," Caline added.
"It doesn't seem to work all that well with Chloé, Mme. Bustier," Marinette replied, showing the steel spine that Caline had learned she kept hidden until needed. "Sometimes, you can't stop a bully with compliments. You can't sabotage someone who's bent on your destruction by any means necessary. Sometimes you have to use your fists instead of your words. Excuse me, Mme. Bustier, but I have to get to class."
Caline let Marinette go, Chloé's words coming back to her. She'd started the compliments exercise as a way of trying to stop small problems from turning into purple ones, but she'd grossly misjudged its effectiveness. She couldn't stop the students from taking out their problems on each other outside her classroom, nor could she stop them from bringing their problems with them when they came in. Marinette and Lila had escalated to a far higher level than any of the others, but Chloé still bore the marks of—
Caline glanced down across the courtyard, where Chloé had rolled up her sleeve and was showing a bruise on her arm to Sabrina. Chloé had a very pleased smile on her face as she talked with Sabrina, gesturing at the injury several times.
Conclusions slid into place and provided a piece of the puzzle Caline hadn't even known she needed to look for.
"Tabarnak!" she hissed. Chloé had given her all the clues she needed, if only she had been smart enough to put them all together in the right order. She'd have to let M. Damocles know. And find some way of telling M. and Mme. Bourgeois so that they would believe her.
Caline diverted toward the nurse's office. She needed to go there anyway to make sure everything that had transpired between Marinette and Lila was properly documented, so it wouldn't be that difficult to express her concerns about Chloé as well.
She'd been made a fool again. Her mind began to make plans and adjustments, because she was not going to let her compliments exercise be used as a vehicle for someone to hurt themselves, by proxy or otherwise. She couldn't make all the necessary changes at once, or she'd spook Chloé. But she could hide a lot of them behind what had just happened with Marinette and Lila.
It would be a start.