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"Marinette! I can't believe that you really did that to Lila!" Alya's voice blares loudly through the classroom, and Adrien winces at the volume and the sheer heat of the reporter's righteous fury, and he looks at Marinette worriedly, to see an innocently curious face.
She speaks up. "What did I do to Lila?" Her vibrant voice rings through.
"You threatened Lila in the bathroom during lunch!" She accuses, pointing a finger at Marinette, and Adrien spares her a concerned glance, but she doesn't seem to be that fazed by the fury of her best friend's anger.
To Adrien's confusion, she pulls out a ticket that has a stamp on it. "Me and Lila went to the circus during lunch!" She announces, and Adrien turns to look at Lila's very confused face, and Alya's practically blue screened face. The rest of the class seems to be very bemused.
"The.. the circus?" Alya says through her bewilderment, and innocently, Marinette enthusiastically nods.
She does a little twirl. "She and I got to see the acrobats today! Afterwards, we ran into Adrien, isn't that right?" She says, and Adrien's eyes flit around wildly, surprised at suddenly being put on the spot, but he instantly gets himself back together as if he were at a photoshoot.
Lila's gaping shows that she's too shocked to refute Marinette. "Yeah! Lila kept talking about how she really wanted to see the ventriloquist, but he wasn't there today."
"But.. But you were threatening me!" Lila picks herself back up. "You're just doing this to lie!"
Marinette blinks. "Why would I use the circus as a cover story?"
Lila's face seems to become a little red from frustration. "I don't know!" She starts tugging a bit on her hair. "But I can prove that you were threatening me! Nobody knew where the two of us were except us!"
Again, the bluenette blinks owlishly. "Lila, no one knew where we were because we were at the circus together. If you were that embarrassed about going to the circus, you could have told me not to tell anyone."
Alya speaks up. "Yeah, I didn't know you two were close."
"She punched me!" Lila wails dramatically, and Marinette appears seemingly out of nowhere at the accusation. Everyone's eyes flit over to her, and back to the purple and blue markings on Lila's face.
She blinks. "Lila, weren't we just practicing doing fake makeup injuries together for fun?" She supplies, pointing at a blue 'bruise' on her hand, and everyone in the class seems to 'Oh' at the context. Lila flushes a bit at the unexpected arrival.
"N..No?" She says, admittedly a bit bemused.
She tilts her head. "But that's makeup." She pulls out a makeup wipe she had on hand, and wipes at the makeup obliviously. Lila gawks at the inadvertent exposing.
"It's.. It's not makeup!" She whines.
Marinette blinks unamusedly. "And my last name isn't Dupain-Cheng."
Lila just gawks.
"You know.." Marinette starts, approaching Lila as the room fills up with her classmates. Lila raises an eyebrow. "If you're embarrassed about everyone knowing we're friends, you can just tell me. You don't need to keep lying about it." She blinks.
"We're not friends. You're my bully." She tries, realizing that people are surrounding them and 'happen to be' listening in.
"See, that's what I'm saying. You literally let me see you try on a clown nose yesterday, and I know you only do that with people you're close to."
Lila blinks. "I did not!"
Marinette rolls her eyes. "Yes, you did. It was at the bakery—" She was threatening Marinette, asking her to just quit already, but the bluenette just wouldn't listen. Because of her frustrations, Lila's face had eventually become very red, and thus, Marinette had decided to keep going with the circus act charade for the hilarity of it all. "—even my parents remember how red the rest of your face was from the embarrassment."
Not too far away, Alix's snort could be heard, and Alya could be seen giggling a bit behind her hand.
Lila sends Marinette a death glare. The latter only subtly pokes her tongue out.
"Sei una puttana." Lila snarls. (You are a whore.)
Marinette smiles sweetly. "Altrettanto." (Likewise.)
She blinks. "Parli Italiano?" (You speak Italian?)
An eye roll. "No, faccio solo suoni casuali." (No, I just make random sounds.)
A glare. "Sei una sfigata. Vai a quel paese." (You're a loser. Go to hell.)
"What are you two saying?" Rose's voice suddenly pipes in. Lila's quick to think of a response, but Marinette's quicker.
"We're just talking about Lila's first circus act!" She says, beaming brightly, and Rose's eyes light up.
She grins. "I'm so happy for you Lila!"
"Sei uno stronzo." (You're an asshole.)
She resists the urge to stick her tongue out, instead choosing to smile sweetly. "Vaffanculo." (Fuck you.)
"I don't know why you have to discuss it in Italian though." Alya frowns. Marinette shrugs. "It's nice to feel like it's something special, you know? I think that's why Lila hasn't wanted to talk about her dreams of working at a circus with you guys yet." She says.
"I'm going to end you." Lila suddenly responds in French, and Alya looks at her wide-eyed at the threat.
Marinette giggles. "Oh, Lila!" She says faux-fondly, putting a hand to her heart.
"Guys!" Marinette yells upon walking in, holding something. "Lila got us Mcdonald's!" She shouts out in equal volume, and everyone crowds around her. Lila gazes at her from her spot in the classroom, looking with a 'What do you even gain from this?' scowl at Marinette. She plasters on a sweet smile at the last second though.
"I did!" She says saccharinely. "Thank you for bringing the food, Marinette." She says through gritted teeth, and it's painfully clear to the class representative how her jaw is clenched and how tightened her fists are, but she doesn't comment on it.
Adrien looks at Marinette with a question in his gaze. She shrugs subtly. "You're welcome!" She suddenly trips and stumbles, — totally an accident — dropping all the food onto the floor. She visibly grimaces and tenses up, and guilt is clear in her expression.
"Oh guys, I'm so sorry!" She suddenly falls to the floor, desperately grabbing at the remains of the food. Everyone drops with her sympathetically.
"It's okay Marinette, don't worry!"
"We all know you're really clumsy."
She sniffles. "Lila, I'm so sorry! I'll be sure to pay you back."
Lila scoffs. "Yeah, right. I can't believe you did that on purpose." She says under her breath, but everyone catches it anyway.
"Lila! We all know how clumsy Mari can be!"
"She didn't mean to do that!"
"She's clearly upset over this!"
She skips into the room merrily. "Lila! What did you think of the ventriloquist's act today?"
Lila looks on, unimpressed. "It was awful."
Marinette tilts her head, amusement too clear in her gaze, but the rest of her face shows indifference and total investment in their conversation. "Oh, I know, you could totally do better! Still think you should go for the clown act though."
"Vai a cacare." (Fuck off.)
The bluenette grins widely. "Pezzo di merda." (Piece of shit.)
"Through your connections, I think you could be anything, Lila." Juleka suddenly mutters, appearing out of nowhere right next to Lila.
Nathaniel nods from behind his sketchpad. "She's right, you know. I think you could totally work in the circus — since that's your dream and all."
Marinette grins more. "You were born to clown, Lila."
"I got you a clown nose, Lila!" Marinette says, beaming, and instantly, the entire class crowds around Lila, begging her to try it on for the hell of it. Lila scowls at Marinette, and she just smiles innocently, handing it over.
Lila sighs. She can't believe she's about to do this. "Marinette, you know I only feel safe putting it on around people I'm close to." She says through gritted teeth, and instantly Marinette chokes — it's the only way she could avoid laughing — before containing herself, and nodding.
"Right, I'm sorry. I just thought you were close enough with the class to be able to show everyone how cute you look with a clown nose!"
She glares at Marinette.
The latter smiles sweetly.
She's peacefully humming to herself when suddenly a frantic knocking at her trapdoor interrupts her. She raises an eyebrow, opening it, and looking over at none other than the infamous Lila Rossi.
"Please." She says, deadpan and exhausted. "Please just stop."
Marinette blinks.
She glares. "Please just stop lying." She pulls up an email on her phone, showing a genuine offer to a job at the circus. Marinette resists the strong urge to laugh, instead opting to go for the even more amusing route.
"I only tell people what they want to hear." She smiles innocently, and instantly Lila's glare grows stronger and more exasperated than anything. The next few words she says are in a higher pitch than the one she normally speaks in. "If you don't wanna be my friend—" She does a dramatic hand gesture, stepping closer to Lila, making the latter step back. "—fine. You seem a little less dumb than the others, so I'll give you one last chance." She does a hair flip for more effect.
Lila puts a hand up to get Marinette to stop. "Just stop. Please."
"But you could work at the circus! Get a life, you know?"
"I can't do this." She walks down the stairs, exiting the bakery for good.
Lila Rossi was never seen at Francois Dupont again.