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“Good morning everyone,” Lila’s cheery voice greeted Ms. Bustier’s class Monday morning. Everyone turned to the Italian, stopping their own conversations in order to hear about her wonderful weekend. Well, most did, anyway. Chloe and Sabrina were talking among themselves, while Adrien, Nino, and Marinette had yet to show. No matter, after today, Marinette and Adrien wouldn’t be a problem.
Lila smiled sweetly as she pulled on something outside in the hall. “You will never believe who was able to transfer here to us!” she moved out of the way and another person stumbled into the room. The class looked on in confusion, as a girl who looked just like Marinette was now standing next to Lila. “This is Bridgette. She decided it would be better for everyone if she was closer to this school, since we have so many akumas…”
Alya, dear gullible Alya, gasped as she connected the dots dropped in front of her. The girl had blue-black hair pulled into twin tails, though they were much longer than Ladybugs, falling almost to her knees. Her big blue eyes scanned the class while she stood in a red shirt and black skirt. “Lila, is this..” Alya started, only to be shushed by her BFF.
“Alya,” Lila stage-whispered loud enough for the class to hear. She saw Adrien and Nino enter from the corner of her eye and internally smirked. “You can’t go yelling to the world we have LB in our class.”
As predicted, the class gasped collectively before rushing to Bridgette, asking questions and thanking her for her help with their akumatizations. The girl in question looked overwhelmed with the sudden influx, but calmed a second later. Adrien and Nino were whispering in the corner near Adrien’s seat, looking over at the crowd.
“I can’t wait for Marinette to get here,” Alya’s voice broke out over the other’s and they all nodded their agreement. “Now we have proof that Lila is telling the truth and Marinette won’t be able to argue with it!”
“Argue with what?” The bluenette in question stood in the doorway, wearing a pink skater dress, her hair loose and being held back by a white hairband with her signature flowers on it.
“Lila,” Alya said, nodding her head curtly and crossing her arms in front of her. “She just introduced us to her BFF…” The students moved out of the way as she spoke, giving Marinette a view of the person in the center.
“Bri?” Marinette gasped, interrupting Alya. Blue met blue and Bridgette’s face broke into a smile.
“Mari!!!” The girl squealed as she launched herself at the other bluenette.
“Uh, Marinette,” Adrien asked tentatively. “What’s going on?”
“Oh, uh,” Marinette wheezed, still being crushed by the hug. “This is my twin sister, Bridgette.”
“What?!” Alya yelled. “That can’t be! You said you're an only child! Did you lie to us?”
“Not really,” Marinette said timidly, scrubbing the toe of her black Keds on the floor. “It’s just…”
“I can’t believe this, Marinette,” Lila simpered. “You are always trying to accuse me of lying. How could you when it’s been you all along!” She turned into her hands, hiccuping tears. The class gathered around, shooting glares at the bluenette.
“It’s not really a lie though,” Bridgette said, pulling Marinette closer to her.
“Of course it is,” Alya snapped back. “She said she was an only child for years, but now it comes out that not only does she have a sister, it’s a twin?! How is that not boldly lying to our faces?”
“I have to admit,” Nino spoke up. “I’ve known Nette since preschool and she never had a sister.” He saw the hurt look on Marinette’s face and waved his hands. “Not that I’m accusing you or anything, Nette.”
“Alright, that’s enough!” Adrien called, his raised voice quieting everyone. “If we keep interrupting, no one will be able to figure anything out.” The class nodded their agreement and he turned to the two bluenettes in the front of the classroom. “Why don’t you guys explain what’s going on and we can go from there, and NO ONE,” he looked fiercely at Alya and Lila, “Better interrupt them.”
The two girls looked gratefully at the blonde before turning to each other. After a moment, they nodded and Marinette stepped forward. “When we were born, our parents were just starting the bakery and barely had time to raise one child, let alone two, so they asked our aunt and uncle in London to take one of us right after we were born.”
“We didn’t really think anything about how alike we looked,” Bridgette continued. “We thought we were cousins and nothing more. It wasn’t until two years ago we learned the truth when my mother passed and my father decided to move to Paris to run a new storefront for Tom and Sabine. Even living in the same city, we still don’t see each other as much as we want, as I live in the 20th arrondissement.”
“Why would you keep telling everyone you’re an only child then?” Alya snipped. “I met you last year and you never said anything about having a sister.”
“It was a habit at that point,” Marinette said quietly. “We were still feeling things out and it felt weird to say, so we decided to not announce anything until we were more comfortable with each other, if that makes sense.” She looked up at her classmates. “I was going to tell you soon, at our birthday party actually.”
Most of the class nodded. It made sense as this was a huge change in their family dynamic. They all thought about how they would feel if a sibling just appeared out of nowhere.
“That’s completely understandable, Nette,” Nino assured, wrapping his arms around the pink clad bluenette. “No harm done.”
“The bigger question is,” Adrien interjected. “What is Bridgette doing here?”
Bridgette looked up from her sister and Nino. “I was hired to come here,” she answered simply.
“Hired?” Adrien asked, an eyebrow raising.
Bridgette nodded. “I’m an aspiring actress.”
“Ah,” Adrien nodded, his eyes sliding over to Lila before going back to Bridgette. “Who hired you and why?”
“Well, I was hired by one, Lila Rossi, to come to this school for a TV show about Ladybug. She sent an email with a list of people and who they would be playing. She neglected to put Marinette on there, though come to think of it, there was a Mari Chang that was supposed to be working for Hawkmoth and I was to say she has been bullying Lila and myself.” Bridgette pulled out a folder with a print out of the email. “Honestly, it sounded horrible, but a job’s a job.”
Adrien reached out for the folder, but it was snatched out of air by Lila. “I can’t believe you, Marinette!” She cried as she ripped the folder and threw it in the trash. “Getting your twin to say all of these things about me.”
“She didn’t do anything,” Bridgette snapped. “I was contacted by you to play Ladybug’s civilian persona, and your best friend. I was supposed to allude to the fact that I’m Ladybug, talk about how great you and Adrien look together, and accuse one Mari Chang of working for Hawkmoth.”
While this had been going on, Alix had slid past everyone and retrieved the torn folder from the trash can. She pieced the pages back together and gasped, cutting off any retort Lila had been trying to come up with. “Bridgette’s right!” Alix jumped up on Bustier’s desk holding the repaired papers. “It’s all here, with Lila’s email address at the top in the send section.”
Bustier walked into absolute chaos a few moments later. The class was berating Lila for putting an innocent girl in Hawkmoth’s cross hairs, along with trying to accuse Marinette of working with the madman. Adrien and Nino were ignoring the roar of the class and quietly talking to Marinette and Bridgette, while Chloe filed her nails and Sabrina recorded Lila’s downfall.
“Class!” Ms. Bustier yelled, causing the class to once again quiet down. “What is going on here?” The class burst into chaos once again as everyone tried to answer her. She put two fingers in her mouth and whistled, calling for quiet once again. She looked around the room before landing on Adrien. “Adrien, could you calmly explain?”
Adrien, along with help from Bridgette, Marinette, Nino, and Alix, explained everything to their teacher. After they finished, she quickly moved to escort Lila to the principal’s office so they could finally call Lila’s mother. The class was left to quietly discuss things amongst themselves, as she knew they wouldn’t be able to concentrate on anything until they worked through what happened.
Once the door closed, the class surged toward their class president, apologies falling from them in a cacophony of noise. Marinette cowered at the onslaught on noise, burying herself in Bridgette’s arms. Nino, noticing her distress, stood in front of the class, Adrien next to him making a wall between the two parties.
“Enough!” The boys roared together. The class went silent once again and they both turned to apologize quietly to the girl’s behind them. “Bridgette, take Nette home,” Nino recommended. “We’ll deal with this.”
“Thanks.” Bridgette smiled at the boys before leading Marinette out of the room.
Once the girl’s were gone, the boys moved in front of the door and turned back on the class. “What were you all thinking?” Nino snapped at them. “You all know Marinette has noise sensitivity issues that cause her anxiety to spike.”
The class all had the decency to look sheepish as they remembered how loud they had been since they had discovered Lila was nothing but a lying snake.
“But we have to apologize, Nino?” Alya cried, thinking about all the times she told Marinette she was just jealous of how wonderful Lila was. The others nodded along, most thinking the same things.
“We get it,” Adrien sighed as he ran a hand through his hair. “However, it’s not a good time. Even when it is, you guys need to be in small groups and leave if you overwhelm her.”
The class nodded again, knowing it was the best course of action. They moved back to their seats and quietly discussed what they would do to try to make it up to their class president. Nino and Adrien sat down at their bench, agreeing to go see Marinette at lunch.
A few more minutes passed before Ms. Bustier reentered the room. She was informed of Marinette’s departure and just asked Nino to make sure she got the notes and homework assignments. Alya had asked where Lila was, but Bustier just commented that she was still in the office with the principal and her mother.
Right before class let out for lunch, a furious Ms. Rossi entered the classroom, along with a meek principal and scowling Lila. Every one of Lila’s lies was debunked for the class by her mother and they were informed the brunette was headed back to Italy to a remote reform school.
Marinette and Bridgette spent the day in Marinette’s room, catching up and playing games. Nino and Adrien joined them after school where the trio worked on their homework and Bridgette texted her boyfriend, Felix Cupla.
Over the next couple of weeks, the class slowly apologized to Marinette, who accepted their apologies, but warned them she wouldn’t be able to trust them fully for a while. Everyone was hurt that they had lost trust from their ‘Everyday Ladybug,’ but understood and worked to rebuild that trust. Marinette had explained to the class as a whole that she never wants them to blindly trust her, but that she wanted them to think critically and do research before believing everything they hear.
The years passed and eventually the class forgot about Lila, but not the lessons in trust and friendship she had helped them learn.