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It’s been months. Months since Lila Rossi initially came to Collège Françoise Dupont and threatened to take away all her friends. Marinette couldn’t believe how different her life was before Lila came compared to now. At the beginning of the school year, she considered her whole class (aside from Chloe) to be her friends. Now, her only friends in her class are Nino, Nathaniel, Juleka, Rose, Alix, and Chloe.
Initially, Lila made good on her promise. Aside from Nathaniel and Juleka, her other friends didn’t believe her at first. Rose didn’t want to distrust Lila, but after a week of her lies, along with Juleka pointing out holes in her tales, Rose realized that she couldn’t continue to listen to her stories. After Rose, Alix quickly realized the same, and apologized to Marinette for not believing what she said at first.
It took a bit longer for Nino to come around and realize Lila was lying. He didn’t want to believe what Lila was saying about his childhood friend, but her stories about knowing celebrities didn’t seem too far-fetched to him considering who his other classmates knew. However, when Lila continued to blame Marinette for increasingly worse things, such as physical injuries, he knew that the girl he knew from childhood wasn’t capable of that. From there, he tried Googling other things Lila claimed, and found them to be false immediately. He was ashamed he hadn’t done that sooner, but he wanted to believe in Lila. Nino apologized to Marinette, and promised to work on making it up to her. Nino tried to convince Alya that Lila was lying, but she refused to listen to him, which resulted in an explosive breakup that led to them not speaking to each other since it happened.
What surprised Marinette the most was Chloe apologizing to her. At the beginning of the school year, she never imagined that Chloe would be anything other than an annoyance, but ever since Lila started to antagonize them, they bonded over a mutual enemy. Since then, Chloe’s behaviour started to improve and she even apologized to Marinette for her actions over the years. Because Chloe showed actual remorse and a willingness to change, Marinette accepted the apology and began to consider Chloe a friend.
Another thing Marinette hadn’t anticipated happening at the beginning of the school year was getting a girlfriend. When Adrien first joined their class, she had a little hope that they’d eventually end up dating, but all her feelings for him disappeared when he continued to side with Lila and not provoke her by taking the high road, despite Lila’s lies hurting her. A couple weeks after becoming friends with Chloe, with the support of her other friends, Marinette decided to try poking holes in Lila’s stories again, to which Lila’s followers weren’t impressed. After class one day, Adrien decided to remind Marinette about their decision to take the high road. Adrien insisted that Marinette could handle everything as their ‘Everyday Ladybug’. Kagami overheard one of their conversations, and immediately berated Adrien and called him a coward, to which he insisted that he was doing the right thing and left the locker room. Kagami provided a comfort for Marinette after this incident, and Marinette integrated Kagami into her friend group where they grew closer, and eventually started dating.
Marinette was grateful for Kagami, along with the rest of her friends, as they stuck by her despite Lila and her followers continuing to antagonize her. They decided that it wasn’t worth trying to insist Lila was lying anymore and largely tried to leave Lila and her group alone unless they spoke to Marinette first. Unfortunately for Marinette, despite her not considering Lila’s followers her friends anymore, they still feel entitled to things she can provide for them.
“Marinette, a new dance is coming up and we need outfits!”
“Marinette, make sure you bring in pastries next Monday!”
“Marinette, our play is coming up and I need you to design costumes!”
Marinette would agree to all demands her former friends made because she has a lot of trouble saying no to people. More often than not, her former friends would make these demands last minute, and wouldn’t even thank her for all the effort she put into it, saying that she owed them for being so mean to poor Lila. Marinette’s friends tried to encourage her to say no to these requests, especially when they all went unappreciated, but she insisted that she could do them all and would feel bad saying no.
One weekend, Marinette didn’t show up to her and Kagami’s weekly juice date. Kagami got worried and tried calling Marinette, who didn’t pick up her phone. Kagami quickly went over to the bakery, worrying that something bad happened to her. When she got there, Sabine and Tom immediately welcomed her. “Hi Kagami, it’s so nice to see you!” Sabine exclaimed. “Are you looking for Marinette?”
“Yes,” Kagami replied. “She didn’t show up for our juice date, so I was wondering if she was here.”
“She probably overslept, I think she was up late last night sewing. You can go right on up to check on her, and take these as well,” Tom said, giving her a box of fresh pastries.
Smiling gratefully, Kagami headed up to Marinette’s room where she found her sleeping soundly bent over her sewing table. Placing the box on a nearby table, Kagami went to gently shake Marinette awake.
“Marinette, it’s time to wake up. You shouldn’t sleep like that for too long, you’re going to get a crick in your neck,” Kagami spoke softly.
“H-huh? What?” Marinette jerked up, startled. “Kagami? What are you doing here? Oh no! Did I oversleep? Did I miss our juice date? I’m so sorry-” Marinette rambled, jumping up.
“Yes, but don’t worry it’s okay,” Kagami went to placate Marinette, who immediately looked dejected. “I’m more worried about you though, why were you asleep at your sewing table? Do you have an important project?”
“Well,” Marinette started hesitantly, “You know the upcoming school dance? Alya and some of my other classmates asked me to make outfits for them.”
“Asked?” Kagami questioned, with a raised eyebrow. “And the dance is next week! That’s such short notice.”
“Okay, they demanded,” Marinette acquiesced with a nod, “But I couldn’t say no! I know that I didn’t have time to fit this into my schedule, but with all of them glaring at me, I felt like I had to accept.”
“Remember Marinette, you can always say no so if you want to. Don’t set yourself on fire to keep others warm.” Kagami stated. “Try your best to remember that. You don’t owe your classmates anything when they never acknowledge your hard work, and especially when they don’t even ask you.”
Marinette gave Kagami a small smile. “Thank you. I’ll definitely try to work on that.”
“Good.” Kagami smiled.
“Now, what can I help you with?”
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After that incident, Marinette tried to say no to more demands from her classmates. Every time she did so, her friends in the class looked on proudly, while Lila and her friends became increasingly irate. Part of this included stepping down as the class representative because it was a big source of stress for her. Ever since she stepped down, she noticed that she had a lot more free time to spend with her friends and girlfriend, as well as more time to spend on designing. When she stepped down, Alya immediately nominated Lila. However, Lila claimed she would be too busy to be class representative. Since no one else wanted to run for the role, Alya became appointed instead, while Lila agreed to be deputy. Meanwhile, tensions between Marinette and Lila’s group continued to grow.
This all came to a head one day when the class was planning their bi-annual bake sale fundraiser.
“Okay class, don’t forget that our bake sale is this weekend!” Alya announced. “Everyone has to help in some way so we can reach our goal for our class trip at the end of the year. Ms. Bustier gave me a list of who did what last time, so when I go through the list, let me know if you want to do the same thing or something else.”
Everyone started listing off what they would bring (sugar cookies from Rose, store bought muffins from Mylène) or do (DJing from Nino). Lila claimed that she would bring her famous brownies, as well as several dozen baked goods from a world-famous pastry chef.
Marinette knew that she typically brought a very generous amount of pastries from her bakery and she knew what Alya would be expecting. Chloe agreed to make a sizeable donation from her pastry chefs as she wanted to take some of the expectation off Marinette, but that wasn’t enough for Alya.
“Marinette, you’re bringing your usual,” Alya stated, knowing that this would practically ensure that their goal would be reached.
“No,” Marinette said immediately.
“No?” Alya questioned.
“Marinette…” Ms. Bustier began.
“No,” Marinette repeated, narrowing her eyes. “I can’t bring all those pastries this time. Last time, I spent several hours baking everything. I wanted everything to be fresh, so I made everything the night before, and I ended up baking until 4 in the morning. I’m not putting myself through that again, so I’ll bring in bakery leftovers from the day before and some batches of cookies made out of pre-made frozen dough.”
Alya and Ms. Bustier looked at her in shock while Marinette noticed Adrien staring at her disappointedly in her peripheral vision.
“Can’t you just bring in more pastries from the bakery?" Adrien asked in a tone that implied that Marinette better not rock the boat.
“And have my parents lose hundreds of euros?” Marinette asked in disbelief. “I already bring in more than several people in the class combined, and I no longer have the time or money to do so. If you want more pastries, then you can bring them yourself.”
“Are you doing purposely trying to make us not reach our goal, Marinette?” Lila simpered. “I already signed up to bring in the most, why can’t you do your part too? Don’t you want to help your friends?”
“My friends are already doing more combined than everyone else,” Marinette replied firmly.
“Marinette,” Ms. Bustier started sweetly, “Can I speak to you outside for a moment?”
Despite it being phrased as a request, Marinette knew it wasn’t.
“Whatever you want to say to me can be said right here,” Marinette retorted with a determined expression. Ms. Bustier looked thrown off for a moment, not believing that her former model student was speaking to her this way.
“Remember how you used to help your class? I’m sure you can bring in more stuff if you try. Remember what we talked about with all the Marinette’s in the world,” Ms. Bustier said, trying to convince her star student to do what was expected of her.
“You’re our Everyday Ladybug,” Adrien jumped in, not wanting to upset the rest of the class. “We can’t do this as well without you! You’ve done this before; you can do it again. If you can’t bring in more pastries, maybe you can run the booth again?” Adrien gave Marinette what he thought was a winning smile, but Marinette was noticing how fake it looked.
“Like I said, I’m bringing in day old pastries and pre-made cookies. I didn’t volunteer to run the booth during the day. In fact, I have a date that day and won’t be around to help at all, the most I’m doing in is bringing in what I promised I would. I’ve cancelled dates in the past because I bent over backwards to do everything you’ve demanded of me, but I’ve been trying to not do that anymore. There are plenty of other people to help with the bake sale, most of which have already volunteered to help. I don’t need to do an unfair share of work.” Marinette grabbed her bag as the bell rang to signal the end of the day, exiting the class with her friends who were glaring at Adrien and their former friends.
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On the day of the bake sale, Marinette showed up with her promised pastries. Lila, as expected, didn’t bring anything, claiming that her world-famous pastry chef friend had to help bake for a homeless shelter instead, and that her arthritis was acting up so she couldn’t bake the brownies she promised. Lila’s friends immediately went to console and placate her, telling her that it was fine that she wasn’t able to bring in anything because of unavoidable circumstances. Choosing not to point out that Lila could have bought something from a bakery on the way to the sale, Marinette dropped off her contributions at her class’s stand. After greeting her friends and getting ready to meet Kagami for their date, Ms. Bustier stepped in front of Marinette, smiling.
“Marinette, there you are! I need someone to run the stand for an hour or two. Mylène is running late. I know you said you have a date, but you can postpone it, right? After all, you need to set a good example for the rest of the class!” Ms. Bustier said cheerfully, trying to direct Marinette back to the class’s booth.
“What?” Marinette questioned, refusing to move from her spot. “I already told you in advance that I have plans, you can’t just expect me to cancel them at the last minute. Besides, can’t Lila help? Since her plans to bring pastries fell through, she can contribute by running the booth.”
“Lila’s arthritis is acting up, you know she can’t help,” Ms. Bustier said disapprovingly.
Rolling her eyes slightly, Marinette tried stepping around Ms. Bustier. “Well, that’s not my fault or my problem,” she said. “Find someone else for the job.”
“Marinette,” Ms. Bustier tried again. “What’s gotten into you? You used to be such a good role model for the rest of the class.”
“Yeah, Marinette,” Adrien chimed in, coming up behind Ms. Bustier. It was one of the rare times he was allowed to attend a school event, and he wanted it to run as smoothly as possible. In other words, he didn’t want Lila to get upset.
“I realized that I can’t burn myself out for people who don’t care. I shouldn’t be the one to be responsible for everyone’s needs and wants. I’m not letting myself be pushed around to the point of exhaustion again, like I have time and time before. I’ve worked on being able to say no to things I can’t handle, and not letting myself feel forced into doing things I don’t want to. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have a date to go on. Good luck with the booth.”
Marinette spotted Kagami at the curb and went to take her hand and greet her with a kiss. Marinette opened the door and they both got in, not looking back, allowing the car to drive away from the class they left behind.