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Lila walked up to the school, peeking in to see that the class was there. Perfect. She promptly began to limp to her desk, gaining the attention of the others.
"What happened Lila?"
"Are you injured?"
"Are you okay?"
"You aren't hurt, are you?"
Lila fake whimpered, glad to see her manipulation tactics were working just as great as ever. "I-I'm fine, really," she said bashfully, only increasing their concern.
She didn't even notice the brief suspicion flashing through Alix and Alya's eyes, the raised eyebrows of Nino and Kim, the way that Rose, Juleka, Mylène, and Ivan avoided eye contact, and the quiet scoff from Chloé.
"You can tell us," Alya said slowly, pressing the record button on her phone.
"N-no! I can't tell, s-she- oh!"
"She?" Alix prompted.
"Y-you won't believe me," Lila sobbed. No one moved to comfort her.
She found it suspicious, but continued with her act. After today, no one would want to be near the 'bully', Marinette Dupain-Cheng.
"I'm sure we will," Alya drawled, but it lacked the usual sympathy.
"I-it was M-marinette," Lila whispered (read, said loudly with dramatic effects), and then turned her head around and sobbed into her arms. The room was in shocked silence. Yes, it worked. Definitely. Marinette would be in trouble now.
"H-how was it Marinette?" Rose spoke up, her voice quivering in fear; she was already suspicious of Marinette!
"She p-pushed me yesterday a-and th-threatened to take all of y-you away from me! She s-said to stay away from A-adrien! B-but he's my friend!"
More silence.
And, at the perfect moment, Marinette ended the room, chatting with Adrien (and actually managing to put a few sentences together as she rambled about a future project; Chat Noir inspired) who was looking at her with a fond smile.
Lila waited... any moment now the class would attack Marinette in her honor, accuse her of being a bully, isolate her...
"We're sorry, Marinette!"
What.
"We didn't think you were right!"
The.
"We should've believed you!"
Fuck.
Marinette looked at the class and Lila looked back up, seeing that the people who weren't crowding around Marinette (not in a 'I'm angry at you for hurting my friend' way but more like a 'We're your friends and we're sorry, please forgive us' way) were glaring harshly at Lila.
How did this happen?
Let's go back to the weekend before.
It was one of the few times where everyone in the 'Akuma Class' were together.
Well, almost everyone. Marinette said that she had to work on a commission that weekend and Lila, immediately after Marinette confirmed to not coming, said that she would be busy with charity work.
Of course, the class was disappointed, but understood that they were both busy people and promised to send photos.
Nonetheless, they had set up the picnic in the middle of the park and everyone else had arrived. Even Chloé, who said that she was trying to improve relations with the rest of the class, and Adrien, who had been able to free his schedule thanks to Chloé's persuasion.
They had all split into different discussions, content with their time together, until a topic that Alya brought up made them all listen.
"Don't you think it's weird that Lila and Marinette don't get along?"
Adrien stiffened, but the rest of the class added to the question.
"I would totally think that they'd be friends!"
"They both do amazing things..."
"Marinette is always accusing Lila of lying -"
"But Lila is always accusing Marinette of being mean -"
"Marinette never joins something when Lila's there..."
The group moved closer together as they wondered about Lila's excursions and Marinette's possible jealousy, even though Adrien pointed out several times that Marinette had nothing to be jealous of (he was met with sympathetic glances for a reason he didn't understand).
"It makes me doubt her a bit -" Alya was starting to say when familiar laughter was heard nearby.
They looked up to see two girls walking nearby, two that Adrien knew very well.
"Marinette! Kagami!" He waved them over, and the class immediately got up to great their friend, as well as the newcomer. Alya looked suspiciously at Kagami... wasn't she also in love with Adrien?
"Oh, hey guys!" said Marinette cheerfully, grabbing Kagami's arm and leading her to the group, "I didn't know you were going to be in the park today!"
Kim raised an eyebrow, "We said we were having the picnic today! You said that you couldn't come because you were busy with a commission -"
Marinette's face flashed with sadness for a moment before responding, "I was! But I actually finished it earlier since I couldn't sleep last night so I decided to go out to go fabric shopping, and I saw Kagami driving by so we went to get juice!"
Kagami smiled briefly, scanning the group for someone (which she didn't seem to find) before landing on Adrien. "Hello, Adrien. This is your class, right?" she turned to Marinette, who quickly introduced the others. "And this is Kagami, she's Adrien's g-girlfriend!" she stuttered a bit at the 'girlfriend' part, but Adrien and Kagami blushed.
"Actually," Kagami said firmly, "we agreed to be just friends last week." Adrien nodded in agreement. Marinette's mouth formed an 'o' shape, and apologized profusely, but the two assured that there weren't any hard feelings.
Either way, the rest of the class were confused.
They obviously knew of Marinette's crush on Adrien (the boy was really the only person who didn't know), so why was she acting so friendly with his ex-girlfriend? Who she apparently thought was Adrien's actual girlfriend until a few minutes ago? And where was the jealousy that they were so sure was causing a rift between Lila and Marinette?
The group unconsciously moved back to the picnic area, though it was only the three who were talking.
The others were still lost in thought. Did Kagami know about Marinette's crush? Did Marinette even have a crush anymore- oh who were they kidding, she obviously still blushed and stuttered around the model. How did Kagami and Marinette become friends? Was Marinette actually friends with Kagami? Why was she so hostile to Lila then, who had assured that she had no romantic feelings for Adrien, when Kagami obviously did, so much to actually date him?
It was all so confusing.
"So, what were you talking about? We wouldn't want to interrupt your conversation," Marinette said pleasantly, taking one of the sandwiches from the basket.
The class looked at each other awkwardly, but Adrien easily answered. "They were actually talking about you and Lila."
Another flash of sadness, this time mixed with slight anger. Kagami frowned.
"Lila? I she the one who sent the photo? The one who lies?"
Adrien nodded, surprising everyone.
"Wait what?"
"Lila doesn't lie!"
"Does she?"
"It would make sense..."
"What photo?"
Kagami stiffened, but responded all the same, "An unknown contact sent a photo to me of a girl kissing Adrien on the cheek, who looked incredibly uncomfortable. I was akumatized shortly after and caught up with the 'Lila' girl. I told Marinette about it and she explained about a liar who had threatened her -"
"THREATENED?!"
"How could Lila do that!"
"That can't be true!"
"Why would she lie?"
"I don't understand!"
"You never told me about that!" the last came from Adrien, making Marinette turn around bashfully. "Really," she asked quietly, "Would you have believed me? I've been pointing out Lila's lies for ages, the least you all could do is search it up on google."
A phone ringed and Kagami stood up. "I need to leave now. It was good seeing you, Marinette, Adrien. I hope that Lila gets what she deserves."
Marinette waved goodbye and checked her watch. "You know, I should get going now... I still need to get that fabric."
She was gone before anyone could say anything.
Thus, leaving a very confused and suspicious class alone.
In the end, they decided to wait until class to see if anything was going to happen with Lila, not wanting to immediately attack her.
Of course, Lila chose that day to make her biggest accusation, unknowingly leading to her downfall.
Alix, Alya, and Kim had to be held back from attacking the girl, Marinette remained wistfully oblivious of her accusations, Adrien gave a soft smile (he had planned on ditching the high road that day, but it seemed he didn't even have to do anything), and Max worked with Markov and Alya to get Lila expelled, using the evidence of her leaving school for months with no excuse.
Kagami soon joined the class's friend group and Marinette surprised her a Ryuko inspired outfit (saying that Ryuko had reminded her of Kagami), thanking her for helping expose the liar. Kagami didn't really know what she had done, but accepted the gift nonetheless.
She was supportive when Adrien finally realized his love for Marinette two months later, and they began dating.
The class began planning picnics every week, this time making sure that Marinette would never miss one.