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Chapter Text

Marinette should have known that Lila's misshapen muffin was part of a plan. She just didn't know what the full plan was. At least she hadn't tampered with her sketchbook. "Marinette, just the person I was looking for!" Lila cheered. "I made muffins and I want you, as the resident baker, to taste-test one of them!"

Lila produced a muffin from out of her bag and put it on the table. It looked stuffed full of what looked like pills. "What did you even put into this?" Marinette said. "I'd like an ingredients list."

Lila burst into tears. "I don't remember the ingredients list!" she wailed. "I just tried to follow one my grandmother taught me before she died, but I couldn't remember all the steps!"

"Nice move, Marinette!" Alya hissed. "You might have recipes memorised because of your parents, but Lila doesn't. Since you don't have any food allergies, you won't be harmed by one little muffin."

Like Doctor Doofenschmirtz before her, Marinette Dupain-Cheng was trapped by societal convention. She couldn't refuse, or she would break Lila's heart and disappoint her classmates. She could feel them looking at her expectantly, waiting for their 'everyday Ladybug' to deliver.

"I'll take that off your hands, Marinette," Kim said, 'gallantly' taking the muffin and preparing to unhinge his jaw. He had his hand smacked by Lila for his trouble. "OW!"

"This is just for Marinette, Kim. I want her expert opinion. And besides, you'd inhale the thing," Lila scolded.

"I would not!" Kim protested. "I can totally do all of that ladylike stuff!"

Alix scoffed. "Kim, being ladylike is for ladies. And besides, you spell ladylike with a c."

As the class argued, Marinette took a big bite. It tasted plain and chalky, the fillings turning into powder in her mouth. Almost as if they were pills. It certainly couldn't have been chocolate; chocolate melts in the mouth.

"Marinette ate it!" Lila gasped. The attention turned to her again. "How did I do? I hope it wasn't too awful."

"I've had worse," Marinette said. "I think you got the proportions wrong in the recipe. It felt very dry and chalky. And something is seriously off about whatever you used to make it taste better. It split open in my mouth and turned into powder."

"OK. Figured it wouldn't go well, Marinette. Thanks for taking one for the team!" Lila's face split into one of her famous smiles, and the class fawned over her.

"She's so understanding."

"I wish there could be ten of Lila. No, wait, scratch that, a hundred of Lila!"

Marinette rolled her eyes. "All this gushing is going to make me sick," she muttered to Tikki.

Something certainly would.

Signs of trouble appeared during history class. A mild twinge of pain gnawed at Marinette's stomach while taking notes, but she ignored it. But then it happened again, and again, stronger waves of pain rippling outward. No, not outward, upward, rushing upward towards . . . her mouth.

Marinette got out of her seat and rushed to the trash bin before Mme. Bustier could say anything about leaving the class unsupervised and hurled her guts out in front of the class.

"Eww!" Chloé groaned.

"Bestie!" Alya gasped. "What's up with you?"

"I don't know . . . I felt fine this morning," Marinette moaned, spitting out the last chunks of puke.

Max approached her cautiously. "Here, Marinette, you can have my water." He offered the bluenette a plastic water bottle. "Your throat must be sore after vomiting due to the acids found in vomit."

"Thank you, Max," Marinette said, reaching for the water bottle. Her hand was reaching for it, so close-

An unearthly wail came from the resident Italian.

"I'm so sorry, Marinette! My badly made muffin must have poisoned you!" Lila sobbed.

Most of the class drifted over to Lila and her invisible tears. "You didn't mean to, Lila!" Rose insisted.

"And besides, Marinette always did look kind of gross," Chloé said, snickering. Markov made an entrance from Max's bag.

"Chloé, that's not how you treat people," Markov said, glaring at the blonde heiress with pixelated eyes. "Even I know that, and I spent most of my one year of life living in Max's bag next to his pencil case and books."

"Marinette, I'll call your parents," Mme. Bustier said, growing as pale as her student. "Alya, I might need some help moving Marinette."

"Take the water with you," Max said, pressing it into Marinette's hand.

"Get better soon, Marinette," Rose squeaked from the back of the room. Juleka held her tightly, leaning her head away from the mess as Marinette was taken to the nurse's office.

"You are going to bed, my girl," Sabine ordered. "You got sick from overwork, no doubt."

"Actually, it was food poisoning," Marinette corrected.

"Either way, you are staying home from school. I will make you warm soup and I'm going to call your dad. He'll want to stay with you."

"OK," Marinette groaned, clutching her stomach. "Could I have a bucket for . . . the vomiting?"

"Of course."

Marinette alternated between holding her stomach in pain and retching air into a bowl. Her throat hurt from the retching and residue of vomit. Her stomach hurt from constantly trying to wring more and more vomit out of her. Her head hurt from the ringing of notifications from her phone.

Lila's won this round, Marinette thought to herself, as she tried to swig water before her stomach would betray her again.

Chapter Text

When Marinette didn't show up for school the next day, the class was worrying. Lila was worrying the loudest out of everyone. "It's all my fault!" she bawled, wiping her dry face even dryer. "It was my awful cooking that put her out of work! I've ruined everything!"

"You didn't mean to! Don't blame yourself!" Alya consoled. "Marinette wouldn't blame you, would she?"

"I would if I was her!" Lila wailed.

"Relax, dudette, Marinette's a saint," Nino said. "She's going to forgive you. She totally will once we all tell her that you're super sorry about it."

"She's not answering her phone, though," Rose said. "I've been texting her every available moment in the girls' group chat. It must be really serious!"

"WAAAAAAAAAAAA!" The shriek from Lila was so intense that the windows rattled in their frames. The class groaned. Max, ever the logician, decided to step in.

"Well, we should make a care package for Marinette!" he decided. "Of stuff that can make her feel better. Dark chocolate can help relieve cramps, so I'll get that for her."

"Now we're talking!" Nino said. "Alya, you're her best friend. What are you getting her?"

"Um . . . macaroons!" she offered.

Max nixed her suggestion almost immediately. "No, no baked goods. Her parents can get her that, because she lives in a bakery! No getting her stuff that she can get herself or already has!"

"That's why we can't get her dumb hair?" Chloé snarked.

"Chloé, you're exempt. Your gift to Marinette can be the gift of absence," Max snarked.

"Normally, I'd be insulted, but since it's baker girl, I don't care," Chloé scoffed.

"I can get her a watercolour kit," Mylène suggested.

"I'll throw in some hair ties," Rose suggested.

"Some joss sticks could help relieve the nausea," Juleka offered.

"Great." Max noted down everything everyone pledged to give Marinette. "We'll all store it in the back of the classroom for her so it's ready when she comes back. It'll be like a surprise, so nobody tell her. Looking at you, Alya."

"Understood," Alya grumbled, as Nino tried not to laugh.

While everyone else speculated about the wellbeing of Marinete Dupain-Cheng, Markov beeped to get Max's attention. "I'll remind you to get dark chocolate after school," he said, voice volume lowered so only his creator and best friend could hear.

"Thank you, Markov," Max said.

After school, Max bought a bar of dark chocolate and journeyed to the Dupain-Cheng Boulangerie Patisserie. He checked before he crossed the road and was about to let himself into the shop front before a blur of pink bumped into him.

"What are you doing here?" Max spluttered.

"I could ask you the same question, Max," Rose said. "I came with ibuprofen to settle the stomach."

"Then I guess concerned minds think alike," Max said, guiltily holding up dark chocolate and a box of chamomile tea.

That served to break the ice. The two walked in together, no longer freaked out about the other's presence. "Ah, Marinette's friends!" Tom said, smiling at the pair. "Are you here about Marinette?"

"Yes, sir," Max said. "If it's not too much trouble, could we visit her?"

"Of course! I'll tell Marinette she has visitors! Sabine, take care of the customers!" Tom bounded upstairs with the agility of a much smaller man as Max and Rose struggled to follow him at a suitable pace. "Sweetie, you have visitors!"

"Huh?" A cocoon of blankets shuffled out of Marinette's room. Rose wondered if she'd been hit by a laziness or sleepiness akuma at first. "HUH?!"

"Hi, Marinette!" Rose said, before Max could say anything. "We wanted to check on you!"

"I brought dark chocolate and chamomile tea for the cramping," Max said.

"And I brought ibuprofen!" Rose shoved a box of ibuprofen under Marinette's nose. "You know, because you need actual medication."

Marinette's face felt warm. It was nice to know that people cared, and not in a 'when will you go back to doing stuff for us' way. "Thank you so much. Come in," she said.

As the two teenagers walked into Marinette's room, her father breathed a sigh of relief. "It's nice to know these kids take care of each other," Tom said to Sabine.

"So, how have you been feeling?" Rose asked. "I've spent a lot of time being sick myself, so I could totally help you with this!"

"It's food poisoning, Rose. It won't last long," Marinette said. "But I'm still glad you're here. I'm glad you're both here."

Markov headbutted his way out of his creator's bag. "Both implies only two people visited you," Markov said.

Marinette's eyes lit up. "Markov! Hello, you little cutie!"

"Hi, Marinette!" Markov said, as the pigtailed girl petted him like a domesticated pet.

"We really should have opened with Markov," Rose whispered to Max.

"Yes, you should have opened with me," Markov said, as Marinette toyed with his propeller.

"Everyone's very worried about you, Marinette. Lila especially," Rose said. Marinette's hand froze next to Markov's screen face.

"What?" she hissed. Max and Markov caught the quiet rage, but Rose prattled on.

"Oh, yeah, she's really upset about the whole thing! Kept crying about how she'd poisoned you, but don't worry, we all told her that you wouldn't want to hold this against her and she should forgive herself."

Why do they feel like they can make that call for me? Marinette thought to herself, keeping her face as curious as possible so as not to alarm Rose.

"Well, Lila is really sorry about poisoning you, so she's offering to take over some of your workload of stuff you do for the class. She wants to help people like Ladybug, in some not-so-big ways. She is so sweet and kind, Marinette!"

Marinette wanted to scream, but she couldn't. Her throat hurt, she couldn't risk being akumatised, and she didn't want to scare away her visitors. She took some deep breaths in and out, and then drank some more water.

Marinette wasn't one for shoulder angels or demons, but she was willing to let an internal argument play out. She imagined a courtroom scenario, where she was the judge, with a defense attorney and prosecutor pleading their respective cases. Both the defense attorney and prosecutor were also her.

"No, you can't let Lila usurp you! She doesn't care about the responsibilities, she just wants to be popular and leech off the rest of the class!" Public Defender Marinette argued.

Prosecutor Marinette, contrary to Public Defender Marinette, looked gleeful. "This could actually be perfect! Let her take on these responsibilities!" she countered. "We know she's lying, because Lila always lies. Once she actually has to have her connections do some work, the falsehoods will collapse like a house of cards, and people will see the truth about her!"

"People could get defrauded! How could you?"

"They're honestly not too bright. Take Kim as a shining example. He sits next to Max and asked Ivan for answers."

"Order in the court!" Judge Marinette ordered, banging a gavel. "It has been decided that we, as facets of Marinette's personality, will allow Lila to take on certain roles temporarily, while gathering evidence of her lies. In the event of Lila actively committing fraud, we will pull the plug and tell people. Is that clear?"

"Yes, Judge Marinette," Prosecutor Marinette and Defender Marinette said.

"Good. Court is adjourned." Judge Marinette banged her gavel once to certify it. "Now get back to reality!"

"Marinette, are you OK?" Max asked. "You did not respond to anything we said for two minutes and fourteen seconds."

Oh, they'd been trying to talk to her? She'd been out of it for longer than she'd thought. "Yeah, sorry. Just thinking about having Lila involved in class responsibilities."

Rose looked scared. "And . . . what do you think, Marinette?"

"I think it's a good idea. Lila will feel less like an outsider, and I can take some loads off," Marinette said. "She has so many celebrity friends who owe her favours, so it'll be much better than what I could provide on my own."

"Oh, that is such a relief! For a moment, I thought you'd get jealous or something," Max admitted. Marinette bristled at the remark, but brushed it off.

She'd get the last laugh soon enough.

Chapter Text

Max and Rose escorted Marinette to class the next day. "You don't have to do this," Marinette said.

"Nonsense, what are friends for?" Max rebuffed. "Come on, Marinette. We'll just make it."

They arrived in class barely on time, accompanied by the cheers of their classmates. "My bestie's back!" Alya cheered, flying out of her seat to hug her. "I'm so glad to see you again! You had us all worried sick when you didn't respond to the group chat."

"Well, I was recovering," Marinette snarked.

"We got you a care package!" Alix said. "Of things you'd like!"

"Aww!" Marinette opened up the box and gasped at the contents. "You guys know me so well!"

She didn't even get a chance to look at what her classmates had brought for her before a too-sweet voice carried itself over to her. "Marinette, I can't apologise enough for putting you through so much trouble," Lila said. Her false remorse, apparently noticed only by her, made Marinette's hackles rise to attention. "In order to apologise, I would like to help you with your many . . . classroom responsibilities. It's the least I can do."

The class held their breath. What would Marinette do? "Of course!" Marinette agreed, beaming at her rival. "It's about time I had some help! Just give me a day or two and I'll divide the workload evenly."

"Really?" Lila sniffled pathetically. "After all the trouble I have caused you?"

"Of course!" Marinette waved her concerns off. "Everyone deserves to have a second chance, and you've already worked with charities. I'm known as the class's everyday Ladybug, which now makes you our newer Ladybug."

"Heck yeah! New Ladybug!" Kim cheered, and the rest of the class celebrated. Max and Rose felt something off when they looked at Lila. She'd seemed so happy to suggest the partnership with Marinette. Now, she seemed almost agitated.

Weird.

Marinette drew up a list of responsibilities for Lila to carry out before the day was up. "I've made a list of things you can do as our class backup Ladybug," Marinette said. "You're going to help Ivan and Mylène fundraise for tropical wildlife conservation, design Nino's YouTube account and edit videos, and make props for the school play."

"What? But that's so much work!" Lila stammered. "A-and I just got done with all my charity work so I could do school work uninterrupted!"

"Exactly! You're done, which means you have more time to help us!" Alya said. "Oh, and by the way, keep the Ladybug interviews coming, honey. It's gold for my blog."

Lila didn't get a chance to comprehend the casual horror of her new workload before Marinette spoke up again. "While you're doing that, I'm going to be helping Max run the study club for academically-challenged kids, raising money to repair Alix's roller blades, and do set design for Kitty Section," Marinette said. "We get three tasks each, so it's OK. Make sure to pace yourself on the prop-making, it'll take a while."

"OK," Lila said, voice shaky.

"Wanna shake on it?" Marinette asked. "All verbal deals are sealed with a handshake."

Lila looked at Marinette's hand. It was right there, waiting to be held. Her classmates were all watching and waiting for her to accept. Tentatively, she shook her hand. "Deal," the Italian whispered.

"Oh, Lila, that's not a handshake! This is how you do a handshake!" Marinette grabbed Lila's hand in both of hers and shook it vigorously, shaking Lila along with her hand. "There you go, the deal is sealed. Have fun being an everyday Ladybug. And remember, everybody, treat Lila the way you would treat me!"

"We will!" everyone chorused. Lila looked around at her classmates, the whites of her eyes matched the whites of theirs. The only difference was that they were happy to see her, overjoyed to know that someone else would be there to take care of what they needed.

And she was starting to be a little bit scared of them.

Just a little bit, though. She could totally handle a bunch of gullible lemmings like them.

Chapter Text

Lila woke up in her bedroom and sighed. She'd have to pull off something incredible to keep up the act of being this legend in their eyes. She jotted down what she needed to do that day.

• Make stuff up for Alya and her Ladyblog

• Put up posters for activism girl and drummer boy's wildlife crap

• Steal Adrien's heart

The other stuff, she could get onto later. If her idiot classmates wanted her to do some minor chores, she could totally do that. It would just take a little bit of finesse.

"Hi, Ivan and Mylène!" she greeted, as she slipped into the classroom. "Today sounds like a good day to fundraise for polar bears, right?"

"Totally!" Ivan said. Mylène gave both of them a weird look.

"We're raising money for tropical wildlife, not arctic," she said. "Lila, I think you've gotten confused."

"Oh, right! Sorry!" Lila said. "So, what plans do you have for getting this up and running?"

"Marinette came up with all the ideas, as the class 'everyday Ladybug'," Ivan pointed out. "One time, she made these really cute keychains that looked like sloths."

"Ah. I guess that means I'm doing most of the work," Lila said, as Ivan and Mylène nodded and smiled expectantly. Maybe this idea of helping the class isn't one of my best. Nobody said this was going to be easy.

While Lila was feeling the pressure, Marinette was moving like someone who'd just relieved themselves of a ton of dead weight. Max was overjoyed.

"It's so nice to see you helping, Marinette," Max said. "Although, I could do this alone if you're not up for it."

"Nonsense! Now that Lila's helping me, I feel so much more relaxed!" Marinette said. "Two minds are better than one for something like this. So many people need help."

"I know. Our teachers seem to be a big fan of the laissez-faire approach," Max said. "Notably, nobody from Mendeleiev's class is here. She must have her own study session specifically for her class."

"Sounds like something Mendeleiev would do," Marinette said. "But that's enough of that. Let's get to studying."

Markov peeked out of Max's bag, staring at the room full of studying material. "Great. You do that, I had some software updates to make," Markov said. "I shall be in sleep mode in Max's bag if you need me. Hopefully, you won't." He retreated back into Max's bag, much to the amusement of Marinette.

"Well, I guess Markov's opting out of this study session," Marinette giggled. Markov's face displayed rolling text of ZZZZZZZZ, rubbing it in that he could sleep in class and nobody else could.

"Room for one more?" Adrien asked, looking sheepish as he sidestepped in. Marinette's face flushed and she shoved her head into a box of worksheets before Adrien could see how red she looked.

Max rolled his eyes. How Adrien never knew that Marinette had a crush on him, he would never know. "Adrien, I didn't know that you were in need of tutoring."

"My father wants my grades to improve so I'll be able to run the company when he takes over," Adrien said. "He wants to know that the Agreste brand is in safe hands."

"That makes sense. Grab a notebook and I'll be with you shortly. Marinette is tutoring Kim," Max said.

"Don't you need to tutor Kim?" Adrien asked.

Max shrugged. "We can be flexible."

"If you say so," Adrien said. "I need help with my English. It's so hard sometimes. I keep expecting gendered verbs and they're almost never there!"

"Yes, that is difficult," Max said. Breathing a sigh of relief that Max had taken a bullet for her, Marinette made her way over to Kim.

"So, Kim, what exactly would you like help with?" Marinette asked.

"Basically everything that gives homework," Kim admitted, pulling out a stack of books from his bag. "If I don't get my grades up, I'm banned from sports."

Marinette's eyes widened at the tower of makeup work. Nobody said this was going to be easy, she thought to herself.

When the two girls walked home, it was with two very different moods. Marinette bounded home like her feet had wings, just eagerly looking forward to everything she could do for herself now.

Lila, however, walked like her feet had lead weights attached to them. The weights of her classmates' expectations were upon her, and for once, she actually had to deliver, because she had given her word. Granted, her word was worth the same as a -10 franc note, but they didn't know that. Maybe she could schedule herself a sick day or something and blame it on 'a sudden increase in stress.

After all, it worked for Marinette.

Chapter Text

Lila came to school looking the very picture of illness. She looked pale and her eyes were bloodshot. She walked with her arms limp at her sides, like a zombie that hadn't quite figured out that they were no longer fully alive.

They're going to feel so guilty that they got me involved in so many activities, Lila thought to herself. They'll be all 'I'm sorry, Lila' and 'We should have known better than to put you in harm's way for our sake!' She would have taken the time to outright cackle with villainous glee, if it wasn't for that sweet voice of doom.

"Lila!" Adrien called.

Shoot. Adrien was coming over. He couldn't see her like this. Hurriedly, she grabbed a makeup cleanser and wiped frantically at her face. The makeup came off just as her wannabe beau tapped on her shoulder.

"Hey, Lila!" he said. "How's being the backup Ladybug going for you?"

"Great! It's just . . . a lot. To be honest, I'm worried that I might go through another flare-up again. You know, of my arthritis," Lila said. She rubbed at her wrists for emphasis.

Adrien's mouth took on the most adorable circle shape as it hit him. "Oh, of course! I don't want you to be in any pain, Lila! I'll find a solution for you."

Lila smiled and batted her eyes at him. "That would be great. Thank you, Adrien."

The moment she turned her back on him, Adrien whipped his phone out and started tapping away. Plagg peeked out at the phone with interest. "Ooh, what are you doing?" Plagg asked, sounding and acting like a little kid despite being at least centuries old.

"Just making sure Lila has less on her plate," Adrien said.

"That's so vague! Booo!" Plagg blew stinky raspberries at his holder's face. "Tell me! I hate being the last to know!"

"Fine. Go through my phone while I'm in class. Just keep it on silent," Adrien said. Plagg giggled and swiped the device, sequestering himself away in his holder's shirt pocket while vibrating with glee.

The fallout of Adrien's connections hit Lila like a sack of bricks when lunch rolled around. Alya noticed the buzzing of Lila's phone before Lila herself did. "Lila, pick up the phone! It could be Ladybug calling you!" she squealed.

Lila scrambled to pick up the call while the rest of the class listened in. "Hello? Oh, M. Agreste, how good to hear from you!" she greeted. "You want to talk to me about my future modelling contracts? OK, what time? Tomorrow at 5? Understood."

Lila hung up the phone, and Alya hugged her. "Gabriel Agreste wants a meeting with you about future work? Lila, your work gets better and better!"

"Oh, I don't like to brag," Lila coolly lied, as her classmates showered her with praise and adoration. But I do like announcing good news.

Lila arrived at Gabriel looking radiant. Shades on, hair (wig) and makeup done, confidence dialled to 100. Well, she did have to show people why she modelled for Gabriel.

"Good afternoon, M. Agreste," Lila said, slipping into Gabriel's office like she wasn't supposed to be there. Gabriel, Nathalie by her side, had the same stonefaced expression while looking at her.

"Good afternoon, Mlle. Rossi," Gabriel said out of courtesy. "As I'm sure you know, this meeting is about your future work contracts."

"I am aware, sir," she said, barely containing her enthusiasm. "What would you like to ask me, exactly?"

"Why didn't you tell us about your medical problems?" Nathalie asked.

Lila's body turned cold, then hot. "Pardon?"

"Adrien was just telling me about your struggles with arthritis and migraines, conditions that you never disclosed to us at any point." Gabriel's eyes swept up and down Lila's body in a manner one could only call suspicious. "He expressed concern about how you'd be able to handle modelling and your school activities."

"Oh, he did?" Lila was sweating bullets. "That's . . . so sweet."

"Although I don't often agree with my son's judgement, I believe Adrien had a good reason to tell me about this issue," Gabriel said. "For your own good, I will be placing you on leave until you graduate from Dupont for the sake of your health. Despite you being . . . less than honest with us when giving over necessary information, this is not a disciplinary issue. And you should be very, very thankful that it isn't."

"Yes, M. Agreste. I understand. Thank you both for your time," Lila said. Inwardly, she wanted to curse until the air turned blue. Damn you, Adrien Agreste! she wanted to scream. What were you thinking, going straight to your dad about this? You were supposed to worry about me to someone else! Anyone else other than your dad!

Eventually, she calmed down. It wasn't really Adrien's fault, she rationalised. She had laid it on rather thick when telling him about her medical problems. She should have picked a guy to date with connections to a brain cell. At least it freed up more of her time to date him. She grabbed her phone and texted her future boyfriend.

Gabriel suspended me from modelling for my health.

It's sweet that you look out for me. :-)

"That sweet-faced cretin," she growled, aiming a dart at a picture of Marinette to vent her frustration.

In his room, Adrien smiled to himself as he read the texts Lila sent him. Adrien Agreste was sheltered, naive, and a bit of a ditz, but he wasn't dumb.

"You're smarter than you look," Plagg noted, a gleam in his eye. "I'm proud of you, Adrien."

"Thank you, Plagg," Adrien said.

Chapter Text

"So, Lila," Ivan said, as he and Mylène approached her in class, "what do you plan on doing for our wildlife fundraiser?"

"Fundraiser?" The memories rushed back to her, and she scrambled for ideas. "Um . . . how about a bake sale?"

"Unoriginal." Mylène dismissed the idea outright. "Anyone could do a bake sale, and we need this to stand out. Bake sales are a dime a dozen, and they get ignored so easily."

"Marinette always pulls off something amazing," Ivan said sadly. That lit a fire in Lila. Nobody compared her to that goody-two-shoes Marinette! (Unless the comparison was favourable, to her, of course.)

"OK, that's it! For your fundraiser, I'm going to . . ." Her brain ran through hordes of ideas, trying to conjure up something useful. "Organise an animal fashion show of Parisian pets."

"Great! That's exactly what we need!" Mylène said. The two looked happy, which just scared Lila more and more. They were only polite to her when they got what they wanted. Is this what Marinette dealt with every single time?

Maybe claiming the crown of classroom popularity wasn't worth as much as she thought it would be.

Ivan and Mylène were overjoyed at Lila's suggestion, and Lila got to work making posters advertising it. There was a 2,29 € sign-up fee and a 0,69 € ticket fee, which (the poster stressed) was all for charity. People just loved it.

"An animal fashion show? Are you kidding me? Marinette, you have to be involved in this, especially if Lila's running it!" Alya squealed. "She's the other class Ladybug, just like you!"

"Alya, are you sure?" Marinette questioned, eyes narrowed in suspicion. "Lila took on this responsibility of her own volition. She might get embarrassed if I help her, because she's 'inconvenienced me enough'. All this combined with her own charity work with the likes of Prince Ali, what if she takes my assistance as an insult?"

Alya relaxed her previously defiant stance. "Oh, right. We shouldn't insult Lila's capabilities. Good thinking."

"Just thinking of my other Ladybug, bestie," Marinette said. "Let her handle this."

"You're right." Alya took some deep breaths, calming herself down. "Besides, it's just puppies in costumes being voted on. What could possibly go wrong?"

The day of the animal fashion show came, and Lila watched the money pour in gleefully. I'm sure these suckers wouldn't notice if I took a little off the top, she thought, as she counted cash with Ivan. Dogs, cats, bunnies, budgies and even lizards were paraded into the assembly hall.

"OMG, everything looks great!" Alya shoved her way in, holding her phone and pressing 10 euros into Ivan's hand. "Do you mind if I film this? It'll look great for the Ladyblog and bring more attention to your cause."

"Go ahead," Ivan said.

Alya squealed and let her phone sweep around the hall crowded with animals. "Hey, guys! I decided to give you guys a break from Ladybug updates to shine a light on a charitable cause ran by my friends, Ivan Bruel and Mylène Haprèle! Ivan, where's Mylène?"

"She's writing down the names of the animals and their owners so people can vote for the winner," Ivan said, jerking a thumb towards her.

"Great! I can get interviews!" Alya ran like a wild animal, and Lila sighed.

"How long until we can actually enjoy things and not be stuck counting tickets?" she whined to Ivan.

"We can go in by 1 PM," Ivan said.

Max and Markov were also in attendance, so Markov could see and pet the cats. "I'm not sure whether to be thankful or insulted that we got in with one ticket because I don't count as a person," Markov said.

"I guess we can just be thankful that you get to look at kitties for free," Max said.

"If you say so," Markov said, making a beeline towards a beautiful Siamese cat that had a pink dress draped over it. "Excuse me, but may I pet your cat?"

"OK," their owner, a sweet girl in overalls called April said. "Would you also like to use a toy on her? Her name is Primrose."

"Yes!" Markov took a feather wand that was lying on the table and waved it in front of Primrose, who mewled and batted at it. Max filmed it all for his personal collection.

My little man is so cute, thought the little nerd with a camera trained on Markov.

Lila noticed the two and headed towards them. "Hi, Marcus," she said, a false smile on her face.

"It's Max," he corrected, stiffening a little as he ended his video. His good mood was dampened, but not ruined. It couldn't be ruined when Markov looked so happy. "And honestly, I'm just happy that Markov's happy. He's never seen so many cats in one room."

"Neither have I," Lila said. "Will either of you be voting for your favourite pet model?"

"I will vote for Primrose!" Markov said.

Max stifled laughter. "Markov, you at least have to look at the other pets before you vote!"

"I will still vote for Primrose! She's adorable!" Markov said. He hovered down to Primrose's level, and she gently headbutted him. "She likes me! Max, Primrose likes me!"

"Primrose doesn't much like people normally. If she's cosying up to you, then you must be special," her owner gushed.

The show portion came around, and Alya was right there to film every single animal. Bella the bunny, Rocco the bearded dragon in an adorable little tux, and a Labrador dressed as Chat Noir. "Oh, we've got some tight competition!" Mylène said, for the fifteenth time, as Lila hovered next to her posing next to pimped-out puppies and a tricked-out turtle.

When Lila met Primrose again, she took over the announcing from Mylène. This cat only liked 'special' people, and if that flying robot was special, then she was extraordinary. "And this is Primrose," Lila said, picking up the Siamese cat and cradling her in her arms.

"Um, maybe you should put her down," April said. "Primrose is very selective about who she allows to hold her."

"But this is great content!" Alya whined. "Honestly, she seems to be fine like this." Primrose hissed just as Alya finished talking.

"Not to worry, I have a certain way with animals," Lila bragged. "Honestly, they just love me."

That was the straw that broke the dolled-up kitty's back. An almighty yowl burst from her mouth as she attacked Lila. Lila dropped her, but Primrose stuck around long enough to scratch her face and make a nasty mess of her hair.

"My kitty! Primrose, come back!" April wailed, chasing after Primrose with a bag of her favourite treats. Alya and Mylène rushed after the cat, too, and that was how all the trouble started.

In order for the harried cat to make a hasty escape away from the liar and her heavy hands, she took every available high ground she could find. Those high grounds had other people's pets on them, and like a disease, they got riled up, too. Animals rioted through the room, and everyone did their best to get their pets under control.

"Rocco, calm down!"

"Sweetie-belle, it's OK!"

Mylène confronted Lila in tears. "This is all your fault!" she shouted, a short finger in Lila's face. "If you'd just left that cat alone, this wouldn't be happening."

"I hope Primrose is OK," Markov said. "It's not her fault that Lila handled her terribly and didn't listen to warnings."

"This really shouldn't have imploded as badly as it did. Lila did all the planning, and she said she'd done charity work before," Max mused. "Unless . . ."

"Unless she . . . lied?" Markov completed the sentence for him.

Max's blood ran cold. Marinette always accused Lila of lying, but he never thought that she could be right about Lila. He'd have to look into this, but he'd need more help than just Markov. Someone smart, and with connections of their own . . .

"Max! Isn't it horrible what's just happened to the animal fashion show?" Rose said, bursting in out of nowhere.

Well, maybe just connections.

Chapter Text

The aftermath of the animal fashion show was horrendous. The assembly hall stank to high heaven after so many animals had defecated out of fear, meaning much of the student body was complaining about the smell. Mylène was hysterical about the whole affair, sobbing into Ivan's arms. "Horrible! Completely horrible!" she bawled. "We couldn't make a penny from the fashion show! I had to use most of my savings for a puppy's vet bills! It was a disaster!"

"That's what you get for relying on Dupain-Cheng! Didn't you learn anything from watching her puke her guts out?" Chloé snarked.

"Chloé, that's a horrible thing to say!" Rose said. "Marinette had food poisoning when she vomited in front of us! And nobody wants to puke in class!"

"Also, the animal fashion show was being run by Lila, not Marinette," Max corrected.

Lila and Marinette came in just as Max mentioned them, but in wildly different ways. Marinette swept in, smelling of flowers and strawberries and looking refreshed.

Lila, however, looked like something a cat would drag in. Her hair wouldn't sit on her head properly, and she generally looked worn out. "There's the girl that ruined the animal fashion show my girlfriend wanted to set up!" Ivan yelled.

"Oh, come on, this again?" Lila groaned.

"Yes! She had to use her own savings to pay for a puppy's broken leg! None of the animals got any money at all!" Ivan glared daggers at Lila. "You are a terrible Ladybug. Marinette would never have made a mistake this huge."

Rose was listening to everything with great confusion. "Lila, how could this go so wrong? I thought you'd done charity work before."

Wow, even Rose was figuring things out . . . kind of. "I have! It's just that I'm not used to such hands-on work," Lila stammered.

"Then she'll be just fine for me!" Nino said. "Designing a YouTube channel isn't very physical, and that is what Lila means by hands-on."

"That's not what hands-on means," Markov said to Max. Max shushed him.

"Lila, if you need help, then you can ask me," Max said.

Lila shot him the dirtiest look for a whole half-second before masking it with a sweet, yet apologetic smile. "No thank you, Max. I've got this."

At lunch that day, Max and Markov paced near the science labs. "No matter what she tells people, Lila Rossi has not got this!" Max was grinding his teeth when he wasn't talking, a habit his mother constantly warned him against.

"I am also quite convinced that Lila's hair is a wig," Markov added.

Max stopped in his tracks. "What?"

"When Primrose was done attacking Lila's face, her hair was noticeably askew. Not just messy, but literally at an angle, like it was going to fall off of her head. You can review my memory drive later."

"OK, that is interesting," Max said. "But it makes no sense. Why would she do that?"

"Like most human thoughts and actions, it is profoundly illogical," Markov said. "Let's ask Marinette and talk to her."

"Good idea."

Boy and robot went to find Marinette, only to get bumped into by Rose, again. "Max, Markov, I know you won't believe me, but Lila is seriously hiding something!" Rose babbled. "Nobody's who's experienced at charity work would mess up this badly!"

Max looked Rose up and down and smiled. "This might be a shock, Rose, but Markov and I were thinking a very similar thing. Care to discuss it while we study?"

"Shouldn't we include Marinette in these discussions?" Rose asked.

Max contemplated it, weighing the options in his head. "It seems like a good idea. She had these ideas since before we did."

Rose suppressed a squeal. "Exactly! Let's hang around the Dupain-Cheng bakery and get her on board! She'll be so happy to find out that we believe her!"

"Hold your horses," Max said. "Hanging around the bakery is loitering at best, and stalking at worst. And we know that even with Marinette's lighter workload, she is still a very busy person. Until then, it's just us three."

"OK," Rose said. "Shake on it?" She extended both of her hands. "I have a hand for each of you."

Max and Markov smiled. Well, Max smiled; Markov's eyes turned into >< symbols. "Deal!" the pair chorused, shaking Rose's hands.

And a new alliance was born from the strange situation.

Chapter Text

Despite Lila's huge and public previous failure, Nino was pretty confident that having her help him edit his YouTube channel would go great for him. She had told him that she knew James Gunn! The James Gunn! And M. Night Shyamalan! Imagine what she could do with a mere YouTube channel!

"So, I already have some videos, but I shot them in just one take and there are mistakes because I figured you could edit them out," Nino said. "I also need a banner, a profile picture and an introduction. Think you can manage it?"

"No problem," Lila lied.

She started off pretty well, considering she genuinely knew how to edit videos. All of Nino's flubs were removed, but not deleted. She would keep them for her own personal use, titled 'Camera Angles in Film - Extended Cuts', as opposed to the actual video that she was due to upload, 'Camera Angles in Film'.

The real problems started when Lila had to make the heading banner for Nino's account. It had to be 2560 pixels wide by 1440 pixels high, but all the information had to be in a safe area of 1546 × 423 pixels like it wasn't already small enough. There has to be something to do this for me, Lila thought to herself. She typed in YouTube banner makers, and hit the jackpot. An AI generator that took details and made a YouTube banner. She'd barely have to lift a finger.

"How's my YouTube account coming along, Lila?" Nino asked, as Lila was plugging details into the generator.

"Pretty well. What colours and themes would you like?" Lila asked.

"Um, grey and green. I want my profile pic to be a turtle. A cute little cartoon turtle."

"Got it." Lila typed everything into the generator, and smirked at the results she got. Everything was turning up roses. She'd totally redeem herself after the mishap with the pet fashion show, and those idiots would sing her praises like they did when she first got here. "Want me to upload a video for you?"

"Sure." Nino barely looked up to say that, and Lila went through his videos list. Select a video, upload it to the channel, check the necessary boxes, all done.

Nino would be running around like a headless chicken to talk about how great she was.

Rose was scrolling through YouTube shorts during a break from practicing. when they came across the video. "Nino's getting into slapstick comedy, Jules," she said, showing the video to Juleka. The rest of Kitty Section came to take a look at Rose's phone.

"Oh, Nino's YouTube channel took off," Juleka noted. "People are even clipping it now." She looked at the comments and winced. "Rose, maybe we shouldn't watch this."

"Why not?"

"These comments aren't being nice to Nino. We shouldn't watch people cyberbullying our friend."

Rose's eyes widened. "Oh. Oh, dear. I hope Nino knows that these people are making fun of him. I'd like to know if someone was making fun of me."

"I'll tell Marinette," Juleka said. "Nino's going to be so crushed, but I don't have his number and I know that Marinette is going to be able to break the news to him gently."

"That sounds like a plan," Rose said. Inside, her stomach was using her intestines for jump rope. Lila had failed at something she was supposed to be good at again. She saved the video to a playlist and pretended to be OK.

She needed to talk to Max and Markov about this.

Nino was quiet at school the next day. As one would say in a cliche-filled movie, maybe too quiet. He normally talked to at least Adrien, but he just seemed to be a shell of his former positive and enthusiastic self. He gave off a vibe of despair and hopelessness that radiated off him like a bad smell. Adrien hopelessly patted his shoulder, doing his best to comfort his friend in the only way his emotionally-constipated brain knew how to.

"What happened to him?" Kim asked Alix.

"Lila ruined things again. She uploaded a video with the mistakes in and the mistakes are being memed on," Alix explained. "Lila's incompetence turned his channel into a joke."

Kim's face dropped. "Oh, damn."

Lila walked into class with her head high. "Hello, class," she said, smiling at her adoring subjects. She was expecting friendly greetings from gullible morons.

She was not expecting an empty plastic bottle to be thrown at her head.

"You jerk! Look what you did to my boyfriend!" Alya yelled. The empty bottle had been thrown by her. "I thought you were supposed to be good at video editing!"

"I am!" Lila seemed insulted that someone was doubting her at all.

"Well, why is Nino getting mocked for the version full of mistakes that you uploaded onto his channel for the world to see?" The word you was spat at Lila with such emphasis that you'd think it was a poison bullet. The realisation certainly hit Lila like a bullet.

She uploaded the wrong video.

Oh, crap.

After that realisation hit, so many other classmates began blasting her with insults. "Idiot!"

"How could you be so careless? Nino trusted you!"

"You're the worst Ladybug ever!"

Lila winced as her classmates gave her their scathing reviews, each one forcing her to crouch as if they literally crushed her with the weight of their low opinion. Mme. Bustier walked in just as Alya was getting ready to throw a shoe. "Class, what are you doing?"

"Teaching a liar a lesson," Alya growled. "Nobody torments my boyfriend."

"Who's tormenting Nino? What's going on?" Caline Bustier was at a loss for words. All her students were fighting for some reason.

"Mme. Bustier, I can explain," Marinette said. "After I got food poisoning from Lila's muffin, Lila offered to take on some of my duties of helping people as the class's other everyday Ladybug."

Caline was still confused. "Well, what's the problem with that?"

"The problem is that she's terrible at it! Lila's supposed to be helping us, and she's made everything worse!" Alya yelled. "Everything she's touched has gone wrong!"

"Lila's the reason why a puppy's leg got broken at the animal fashion show!" Mylène accused. "She handled a cat incorrectly and she went on a rampage through the other pets!"

"And she uploaded a video containing all the editing mistakes Nino made to the internet! He's being bullied online by strangers!" Alix yelled. "Marinette would never have let this happen!"

Marinette couldn't help but preen at the sound of that. Lila looked like she wanted to strangle someone, everyone. "I uploaded the wrong video by accident! Can't I make a mistake without being crucified for it?" Lila insisted.

"Lila, uploading a video is a multi-step process, meaning you had multiple opportunities to realise your mistake before it became a permanent part of the digital world," Max said. "And Nino's the one losing from this. He's horribly upset and barely talking."

"Thank you, Max," Alya said. "Finally, someone with common sense."

"Max and I have been reporting as many videos as we've seen for cyberbullying, but I ran out of battery and Max needed to sleep," Markov added. "I'm sorry that we couldn't do more to help you, Nino."

Nino looked up at the little robot with red, watery eyes. "Thank you," he croaked.

People crowded around Nino to comfort him, shooting death glares Lila's way. While attention and sympathy was directed towards the dejected DJ, Max and Rose exchanged meaningful looks and a nod.

They had to get to the bottom of this.

Chapter Text

After Ivan and Mylène's fundraising disaster and Nino's viral humiliation, Max, Markov, and Rose decided to share what they had in Max's bedroom. "OK, so Lila's got two different screw-ups under her belt that she shouldn't have, suggesting that she lied about having the experience needed to do the tasks set to her. But if that's the case, why take on the tasks at all?" Max asked.

"We'll have to figure that out later with a psychologist. Let's focus on what we've seen and what we know," Rose said. "First off, the animal fashion show. I can ask Mylène and Ivan for the details later, but it seems to be exactly what it says on the tin: a chance for people to show off their pets. Alya was there, filming, and she said that she didn't see Lila do too much physical work. Just talking to owners and petting animals."

"Rose, we also saw things at the pet fashion show, too. Markov and I were petting Primrose when it happened," Max reminded her. "Markov was recording the whole day, which I saved onto my laptop so I could view it back later."

"Good thinking." Rose looked at Max with sad eyes. "Sometimes, I wish I was as smart as you."

"I wish I had your confidence, Rose," Max admitted. "You always seem so sure of myself, and I'm always second-guessing."

"Thank you," Rose said, face flushing slightly pink. Markov rolled his eyes and opened the laptop for the two teenagers.

"Am I the only one that's on task here?" he snarked. Max and Rose giggled, embarrassed.

"Sorry, Markov," they chorused.

The laptop powered on, and Max found the video footage. "First, we'll have to fast-forward to when Lila shows up." He pulled the scrub bar forward, and the trio watched as Lila approached and was attacked by Primrose. "There!"

"Where? What?" Rose got so close to the screen, a small smudge of concealer was left behind. Max wiped it off with a tissue before he pointed it out.

"Primrose's hand - paw - whatever - it got underneath Lila's hair. Not through her hair like our fingers or a comb would. Like it would if you were wearing a wig."

"Oh my god, you're right," Rose gasped. "Lila Rossi's wearing a wig!"

"Why would Lila need a wig?" Markov asked.

"I don't know, but it might be a part of a bigger, more important thing," Max theorised. "But back to the task at hand. Why is Lila doing so badly at all these tasks when she knows a bunch of famous people and could call in a whole bunch of favours to get things done?"

"That's where I come in handy," Rose said. "I have Prince Ali's contact information, and I've just sent him an email saying that someone called Lila Rossi is claiming to have met and worked with him on animal charities and asking him if he really knows anybody by that name. Since the royal family's reputation is on the line, somebody should get into contact with me pretty fast."

Markov's eyes doubled in size. Max's human eyes widened, too. "I didn't know you could do that," Max admitted. "How long until you get a reply?"

"A few days, but not to worry. We can use the waiting time to get more proof." Rose was on a roll now. "Juleka and Marinette both have connections to Jagged Stone, and Lila claims to have had a song written by him about her. Let's get one of them to ask him for us. Oh, and he probably knows Clara Nightingale. She'd totally remember if Lila choreographed her music video or whatever she said."

"Whoa. Now I feel like a chump for only bringing in a video that may or may not prove that Lila wears a wig," Max said.

"Don't beat yourself up about it. You and Markov are smart. You can totally get more proof if that's what you're worried about," Rose said.

"You're right. We could. For example, Max could find out if a paper napkin can actually gouge out a human eyeball," Markov snarked.

"Markov, do you have to bring that up?" Max groaned.

"No, Max. Only when it's funny."

"Markov!" Max yelled, while Rose tried to stop herself from laughing.

Markov's facial expression changed. Instead of just having small dots for eyes, the eyes were framed by glasses. Large, thick, square ones. "Lila, you saved my eye!" Markov mimicked.

"Yeah, I'm done. Markov, get back here!" Max yelled, as Markov flew around the room in circles. Rose was in fits of laughter.

At least solving the mystery of Lila's lies wouldn't be boring with Max and Markov around.

Chapter Text

The shine had really faded from Lila's persona by now. After her high-profile failures at helping her classmates, she'd gone from 'oh-so-interesting and brave superstar' to 'unreliable screw-up with a reverse Midas touch'. Marinette, however, tried to get people on her side. "You know, you guys really should go easier on Lila," she said. "Being the class's everyday Ladybug is a big responsibility."

"Girl, I know you're trying to be optimistic, but she is no good!" Alya responded. "Also, she got this job by volunteering for it. She chose this lifestyle and now she's complaining, all while the people she's supposed to be helping pick up the pieces of her mistakes!"

"Also, we're supposed to be treating her the way we treat you. You can handle this stuff; so should she!" Kim added.

Marinette groaned and put her head in her hands. "You know what, maybe I should have just given her the easy ones. Like . . . raising money to repair Alix's skates."

Alix gasped in horror. "Don't let my babies near her! Everything she touches turns to ruins! I don't need to be a time-traveller to predict that putting Lila near my skates would have ended in disaster!"

Kim snorted. "Aww, you call your skates your babies? That is so cute! You know, Alix, sometimes I forget that you're a girl and then you pull something like this."

"You shut up, or I'll cut your lucky socks to ribbons," Alix hissed.

"Both of you, hush," Marinette ordered. "Lila, how are you feeling?"

Lila, who had been in the room the whole time, was caught off guard. Everyone was looking at her now, with a lot less goodwill than before. "I'm . . . doing well, all things considered," she said, uneasily.

"More than what can be said for that puppy," Mylène snarked, Ivan holding her back.

Marinette ignored her. "Lila, do you need help with anything regarding the school play? I have a lot more spare time on my hands and I've done this before, so I could help you. Us Ladybugs should stick together and set a good example, don't you think?"

Lila watched in horror as everyone smiled at Marinette as if they'd just seen her give a house to a homeless person. Those idiots were supposed to look at her like that and look at Marinette like dirt, but here they were, doing the opposite of what they were supposed to be doing! She'd have to decline, and do so in a way that was sweet, inspiring, and still respectful.

"That's awfully kind of you, Marinette, but I really want to handle this on my own," she said. "I've already been the source of so much disappointment already, so I look at this like it's my last chance at redemption. I want to be as dependable as my best friend, Ladybug."

Alya was not as supportive as she had been when they first met. "If you insist," she said, leaving it at that and going through her most recent Ladyblog entry. "Also, you need to talk to your best friend Ladybug more. These quotes just aren't doing it."

And unbeknownst to the crowd, Max and Markov listened in and took notes.

"OK, now she's lied in public," Max said, typing like a man possessed while sipping on chilled water. "Here Ladybug is with Nadja Chamack, saying she'd never befriend a civilian because it was too dangerous."

"Also, I just got work back from Prince Ali and Jagged Stone, and they're also calling Lila a liar," Rose said. "She never worked with Prince Ali on any charity work, Jagged Stone never wrote a song for her, and Clara Nightingale never met her. The royal family might even sue Lila for slander and defamation!"

Max nearly choked on his water. "Seriously?"

"Yes, Max." Rose rolled her eyes. "Prince Ali is literally royalty, with an entire dynasty both behind him and on his shoulders. They take their royal reputation very seriously."

"I haven't exactly been on sleep mode while you two were talking to celebrities and watching news clips," Markov chimed in. "I've been making a timeline of all Lila's lies and cross-referencing all the charities she's been working with. None of the charities have records of her at all. Which really makes you wonder where all the money went."

"Oh, no." Max groaned at the thought of the various coins and pennies he'd deposited into various buckets Lila had held or put around school. It's all going towards a good cause, he rationalised. But knowing that none of the charities she'd donated to knew her or got any money, and Lila always got 'little gifts' from working as a model for Gabriel, it was painfully clear exactly what his money, and so many other people's money, had gone towards. "So many people have been scammed, and Lila's going to continue to scam them. Nobody's safe."

"Scammers go after vulnerable, gullible people, don't they?" Rose asked. "Who's the most naive and sheltered person in Dupont? We have to know before Lila gets her claws into them."

Rose thought about it. Max thought about it. Markov thought about it. Then, one name flashed through their minds like a lightning strike to their brains.

"ADRIEN!"

Chapter Text

The sun was shining, birds were chirping, today had been a crime-free day, and Adrien Agreste had just successfully escaped Le Gorille and gotten out of the house for a walk on his own. Adrien was having a pretty good day.

Or at least, he was until two of his classmates and a robot abducted him and dragged him into an alley. "We need to talk to you about Lila," Max, Rose, and Markov said in unison.

Adrien blinked, like a confused baby deer that had just stumbled across humans for the first time. "What?" he whimpered.

"This might be a shock to you, Adrien, but Lila is not who she says she is," Max said. "Everything she's ever told us about herself is a complete lie!"

Adrien's eyes went from wide with horror and fear to half-lidded with prior knowledge. "Uh, guys? I already know that."

"WHAT?!"

Adrien began to explain. "Well, yeah. Lila was the scared new kid with no friends, and I know all about that. She lied to get people to like her. What's so wrong with that?" He let out a squeak as Rose grabbed him by his shirt and shook him much harder than someone of her size should be able to shake anybody.

"SO YOU KNEW?!" Rose roared. The roar that cam out of her was nothing short of primal, and many octaves deeper than her typical speaking voice. "YOU KNEW THAT LILA WAS LYING AND SCAMMING PEOPLE AND YOU DID NOTHING ABOUT IT?! HOW DO YOU SLEEP AT NIGHT, YOU MONSTER?"

"Rose, I-" Adrien was cut off by Rose shaking him again.

"DOES SHE GIVE YOU A CUT OF THE MONEY? IS SHE PLOTTING IT WITH YOU? TELL ME!" Rose was shaking Adrien harder than most bartenders shake a margarita.

"Rose, let him go. He can answer properly that way," Max said. Growling, Rose let the boy model go. "Adrien, how much did you know about Lila's lies? Tell us the truth."

Markov hovered over to the left of Adrien. "We can easily find out if you're lying to us, too."

"And if you're lying, the consequences will be painful." Rose cracked her knuckles for emphasis.

Words spilled out of his mouth like verbal vomit. "I knew that Lila was lying about the celebrities and the medical conditions, but I genuinely had no idea about her stealing from charities."

"Technically, it's fraud under false pretenses with the charity as the pretence," Max added. Markov and Rose glared at him. "But potayto potahto. And why didn't you say anything?"

"I wanted people to like me, and Lila had already become so popular," Adrien confessed. "I was the second-newest kid in school, and if Lila wanted to, she'd just turn everyone against me. Or worse, she could get my dad to send me back to home-schooling and I would never get to see my friends again. Before I came to Francoise Dupont, the only kid my age I'd get to talk to was be Chloé. I can't go back to that!"

Adrien's assaulters shivered with horror. Imagine your only link to the outside world being Chloé Bourgeois. The horror.

"So, you genuinely had no idea about the scamming?" Max reiterated.

"Not a clue. And I thought the charity work, at least some of it, was real. Obviously none of the stuff that involved a celebrity."

"How is Lila a model if she lies about so much stuff?" Markov asked.

Adrien's eyes misted with tears. "I don't know. I really don't. I mentioned being a model and just a few days later, she's got a contract with Gabriel, working with me. I know my dad does a lot of strict background checks and lays down a lot of rules for his models, so the fact that she just breezed in is . . . creepy. If it wasn't for her being a second everyday Ladybug, I would never have gotten some breathing room."

That last sentence left Rose, Markov, and Max feeling a little lost. "And . . . what does that have to do with anything?"

"I mentioned her helping the class with stuff and the day after I said that, he suspended her from modelling because she would need to focus on her school responsibilities. It meant I got to model without her grabbing onto me like some sort of handsy leech."

Everything seemed to slot into place when Adrien said that. He didn't know the full extent of Lila's lies, and she had him trapped. He was just as much a victim as anyone else.

"Adrien . . . would you help us take Lila down?" Rose asked.

Adrien smiled. Genuinely smiled, and not the practiced model smile he'd spent years giving to cameras. "Yes. Just tell me what to do."

Chapter Text

Lila was working her butt off to get everything in order for the play. Despite the fact that everyone seemed to dislike her, it was all on her shoulders. Everyone here was such a leech; how did Marinette ever put up with these people? But she'd promised to help, no matter how much she regretted that promise now. "So, who decided on the play?"

"I did," Mylène said. "I always saw Carrie as a feminist coming-of-age horror movie."

Lila did a double-take. "Carrie? The movie with all the blood?"

"Yeah, I'm surprised, too," Sabrina said, coming out of nowhere. "It turns out that Mylène, resident scaredycat-"

"Hey!" Mylène interjected.

"Sorry." Sabrina chuckled nervously. "But Mylène can actually handle blood so long as she knows that it's fake in advance."

"Interesting. So, who's playing Carrie?" Lila asked.

"Say hello to a soon-to-be-loser!" Chloé trilled, jumping out wearing the frumpiest clothes possible. "Oh, this must be what it's like to be Dupain-Cheng in a world full of me! I get to see what life is like for those that are deprived of popularity and money! This will be so interesting!"

Lila stared at Chloé, open-mouthed. Sabrina helpfully closed her mouth. "It shocked all of us, but Chloé really loves drama and theatrics."

I'm sure she does, Lila thought. "So," she said, trying to get actual details, "what do I need to do?"

"Well, we need fake blood. Around twelve pints of the stuff," Mylène said. "Chloé's handling all the costuming, so there's less work there."

"And a bucket! Can't do Carrie without the bucket!" Sabrina added. "We'll also need a bible for Margaret White, a stunt knife that retracts, cross necklaces . . . oh, I wrote it down for you here."

Lila's mouth went slack-jawed once again. "This is . . . so organised. Thank you, Sabrina!"

"She's not my best friend for nothing," Chloé bragged. "Honestly, Sabrina should be the backup Ladybug instead of you! None of your mistakes would have happened on her watch."

Lila was about to say something rude to her, but then Mylène accosted her. "This is your last chance, Rossi," Mylène hissed. "The play is in two weeks, and you already ruined one thing I was looking forward to. Don't. Mess. This. Up."

There it was again, that bloodthirsty look she saw in their eyes. Before, it was a hungry look of opportunity, but now the look was saying that if she made a single wrong move, she'd get eaten alive. Footsteps padded towards the theatre. Someone was coming. Maybe they'd save her from these bloodthirsty teenage thespians!

It was Marinette, holding a box of paints and paintbrushes. "Hi, Mylène!" she greeted cheerfully. "How's everything going?"

"Pretty well. Making sure Lila gets with the program," Mylène said, beaming a big, false smile at the pigtailed twerp. "Sabrina gave her a list of props to get."

Marinette took a second to look at Lila. Really look at her. She looked like someone who was pretending to be happy while inwardly wanting to scream, cry, wet her pants with fear, or both. "Oh, so this should be easy for her! After all, Lila saved Jagged Stone's kitten from an airport runway and helped the Clara Nightingale choreograph an entire dance. How hard can it possibly be for her to get a couple of props?"

"I know!" Mylène said. The greedy, bloodthirsty look was back, like Lila was a juicy steak and everyone was a wolf. Marinette, knowing exactly what she had done, left for Kitty Section's practice.

She left Lila to the wolves.

Lila looked at the list and, for once, relaxed. "This is doable," she said. "I can totally order this stuff online. Piece of cake."

She plugged in her bank details and got to work. This was going to be so easy for once. They'd have to be nice to her again after this. As she added to cart and requested same-day shipping, she called up her favourite idiot, Alya Césaire.

"Hi, sweetie! I'm back with more on our favourite superhero!" she trilled. She could hear Alya's face light up over the phone.

"About time! And do not omit a single detail!" Alya demanded.

The lies spilled out of Lila's mouth, all about her favourite kinds of nail polish and what sort of clothes she wore when not a superhero. "She's honestly just like us, I swear!" Lila gushed.

"She really is!" Alya giggled. "It's so nice to see that Ladybug gets time to be a normal person, like you or me. It's really heartwarming."

"It's so great to get to talk to my best friend. Bye, Alya. Theatre work awaits." Lila hung up, and sighed. At least she had an easy job to do now.

She couldn't mess this up.

Max, Markov, Rose, and now Adrien were pored over a computer. "Lila has a legit trail of destruction behind her," Adrien noted. "How the heck did my dad not notice?"

"Lila seems to have a lot of victims in a lot of places," Markov said. "It tracks with her story of having an ambassador mother. If she's even telling the truth about that."

"We won't know who her mother is until she comes to collect Lila and get her away from us," Rose said. "The sooner the better."

"You guys are all tired. May I stay home from school for a day or two to compile a list of Lila's victims and what happened to them?" Markov asked.

"That sounds great, Markov!" Adrien said. Max's eyes narrowed.

"Wait a minute. Are you doing this because you don't want to be there for the big test Mme. Mendeleiev has planned for us?"

"Um . . . no. I'm doing it because it's the right thing to do. Because your human brains will be bored stiff. And lastly, I can't be used in the test anyway because I am a living potential cheating device."

Max's glasses flushed with steam. "Oh, right. Sorry, Markov."

Markov shrugged. "I'm fine. Just make sure I get to charge before I get to work. I got fitted with a claw arm and I can only type one letter at a time."

"You got it, Markov."

Markov's tone got more mischievous. "If you plan on exposing Lila in public, could you tell me beforehand? I plan on snatching the wig off her head."

"Markov, that does not solve anything!" Adrien spluttered. Max and Rose, however, were all in.

"Snatch the wig! Snatch the wig!" they chanted, much to the young model's horror.

"Do not snatch the wig, Markov!" Adrien vainly insisted.

"Kids, keep it down! I have work to do!" Claudie Kanté yelled from upstairs.

All of them shut up. "Sorry, Mom," Max sheepishly called.

"Sorry, Grandma," Markov said.

"Good." Claudie returned to her work, while Max glared at Markov.

"If you disturb Mom while you're at home alone, then you're in big trouble," Max hissed.

"Joke's on you, Max. I'm Grandma's favourite," Markov hissed back.

Max nearly rebooted. "You are not her favourite! I'm her kid!"

"You're also a pre-teen parent who smuggles their child to school in a bag. Be serious."

"Markov Kanté!"

"Maximilian Kanté!"

"Do they even remember we're here?" Adrien asked, as creator and creation bickered.

"Absolutely not," Rose said, pulling out popcorn and munching on it.

Chapter Text

Kim cheered as he looked at the grade on yet another practice test. "Look, Marinette, a 67 out of 100! I didn't think I could get ever a score this high!"

"That's great, Kim!" Marinette cheered. "I knew all those tricks would work on you!"

"Thank you so much, Marinette! Where did you learn all these strategies from?"

"Some revision channels on YouTube that specialise in helping kids with ADHD," Marinette said.

Kim paused the celebration. "ADHD?"

"Yes, Kim, ADHD. Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder," Marinette said. "Characterised by having difficulty in focusing and organisation, and some forgetfulness."

"I do all that stuff!" Kim gasped. "How come nobody knew?"

"I don't know, but you should have gotten help for this years before it became a problem," Marinette said. "I'll have to see what can be done about getting you accommodations."

"You're the best, Marinette," Kim said. "I'm so glad I got you and not Lila as my Ladybug."

"I can't take all the credit. Max helped, too,"

"But Max would never have considered ADHD. Only you would have. Thank you!" Kim hugged Marinette tight enough for her to feel a rib crack. "Wait . . . how do you get accommodations?"

"I'll talk to Principal Damocles," Marinette promised. "He's sure to get you what you need."

"I'm sorry, Marinette, but I can't get you what you need," Principal Damocles said, as Marinette stood before him. "We simply don't have the cash."

"What?" Marinette blurted out. "What happened to the budget for accommodating disabled students and seeing to it that kids got tested for learning disabilities?"

Principal Damocles steepled his hands as he addressed Marinette. "Each class gets a certain amount to spend on disability accommodations for its students. It seems all of your class's disability accommodations have been used up."

It doesn't take a genius to figure out where all the money went, Marinette thought. But she kept that thought to herself. "Thank you for your time, Mr Damocles," she said, shoulders slumping with disappointment as she left his office.

As she made her way back to Kim to tell him the bad news, she stumbled across Lila carrying an obscene amount of props. Mylène was working her to the bone to make up for the previous failures. "Need any help?" Marinette asked. She was expecting Lila to immediately take her up on her offer, citing arthritis or something along those lines.

Instead, she got an earful.

"Oh, I bed you'd like that, Marinette! I bet you'd LOVE TO HELP!" Lila screamed.

"What?" Marinette spluttered.

"This is exactly what you want, isn't it, you little brat?" Lila looked positively unhinged; flared nostrils, hair askew, eyes dark pinpricks swimming in pools of whiteness. "You want everyone to see how nice and helpful you are while you ruin my life at the same time! You're going to sabotage me or make me look bad or something evil and I WON'T LET IT HAPPEN! SO GET AWAY FROM ME, YOU SHE-DEVIL!"

Marinette backed away while Lila abandoned her stuff and advanced towards her. "Lila, I would never sabotage you," Marinette said, as her back bumped against the wall.

"Liar!" Lila said, raising her hand to slap Marinette. Marinette braced for impact.

It never came.

"Leave Marinette alone, you jerk!" Kim yelled. He was there, holding Lila's arm back from hitting Marinette, having an actual hero moment. Adrien was at her side, taking Marinette away from the deranged Italian.

"Kim, Adrien, hi!" Lila had the nerve to smile at Kim's enraged face. "Marinette and I were just-"

"Save it, and stay away from her!" Kim yelled. "She was so nice to you, you know that? Making you into a backup Ladybug after you poisoned her and giving you stuff to do. And you're trying to beat her up?"

"I-I, um . . ." Lila mentally scrambled for an excuse. "I was a little overwhelmed-"

"That's not an excuse!" Adrien yelled. "Get away from her and never go near her again!"

People were staring at them now. "Fine. I have stuff to do," Lila said, gathering her stuff and walking away with her nose in the air. She even shoved Juleka and her guitar out of her way, causing scratches on one side.

Left in Lila's dust, Marinette put her hand on her chest. Her heart rate was out of control.

"Do you need anything, Marinette?" Adrien asked. That brought Marinette back into reality. Adrien Agreste, the Adrien Agreste, was holding her.

"I . . . don't know," she said, body slumping downwards. Kim took her in his arms.

"This is what it is when someone's in shock, right?" Kim asked. "I'll take her to the nurse. You go and tell the principal what Lila was about to do."

A rush of protectiveness went through the blond boy. "No, I'll take her," Adrien said. "You go and tell the principal."

"Right." Kim went to the principal's office, where Principal Damocles was still there. "Sir? There's been an altercation with Lila Rossi and Marinette Dupain-Cheng. Lila was about to assault her."

Meanwhile, Adrien brought Marinette up to her feet and slowly walked to the nurse's office. "You'll be OK, Marinette. I'm going to look after you," he promised.

"Thank you," Marinette muttered weakly. "Thank you, Adrien."

Chapter Text

Lila cursed all the way to the theatre as she carried props over to the set. Really, a practice run? At least there wasn't going to be any of the fake blood; apparently, they were saving it for the real performance. So instead, she was going to be hauling red confetti over to the set like an idiot.

"About time!" Mylène huffed. "Got the stuff we asked you for?"

"Everything is here," Lila said, as she thrust out the props like she was offering them to a temperamental god. Mylène took them off her hands with glee, taking them one at a time and turning them over in her hands.

"We're rehearsing the scene where Carrie gets dumped with blood," Mylène said. "So we'll need the bucket and the confetti."

"Why confetti?" Lila asked. "It's much lighter than the blood and won't feel the same when the bully pulls on the rope. Maybe something will be needed to weight the bucket down so there's not a surprise on the big day."

"That . . . is actually a pretty good idea," Mylène admitted. "But what are we going to use as the weight?"

"This should do it," Lila said, grabbing a wooden block from the ground. "It's small enough to fit in the bucket."

"Yes, yes, whatever," Chloé hand-waved the block, the bucket, and Lila away. "We need to rehearse. Go and set the bucket up. There's a ladder up there."

A manicured finger pointed at a rickety ladder. Lila gulped nervously. "Really? But you know I have-"

"Just do it!" Chloé ordered.

Lila climbed up the ladder with the bucket and the rope needed to secure it. "This will blow those morons away," she sniggered, as she let the block drop into the bucket of red confetti and positioned it perfectly for 'Chris' (played by Mylène) to pull it onto Carrie.

The scene began with Carrie White being announced as prom queen. The attendees cheered for her as Chloé waltzed over to receive her crown. "Thank you," she said, playing the part of the girl who didn't normally get nice things. Considering her character was the exact opposite of her real personality, she was doing a really good job.

Mylène snickered evilly as she pulled on the rope that controlled the bucket. "Happy prom, Carrie," she giggled, as she pulled the rope and let the bucket fly.

The contents were supposed to go all over Chloé and hit Tommy (played by Marc) over the head, knocking him out. Instead, it hit Chloé right in the nose, the 'blood' going on the floor at her feet. The block, however, landed right near the steps to the stage.

"Oof!" Chloé went down like a sack of potatoes, and Marc tried to put her in the recovery position. Sabrina shoved him away, taking over first aid administrations.

"Stop lying her down, she needs to sit up," Sabrina scolded. Unfortunately, putting her in a sitting position made things worse. Chloé groaned as she looked around, turning around.

"How bad is it?" she groaned, blood dripping down onto her Carrie prom dress. Mylène screamed.

"BLOOD!" Mylène screamed. "REAL BLOOD!" She fainted dead away at the sight of it. Marc went to her aid, but tripped down the stage stairs on the block and landed on his face.

"What are you doing that justifies so much screaming?" Mme. Mendeleiev asked with steel in her voice, flinging the door open to reveal chaos. Marc was face-down on the stairs, Mylène was unconscious near him, Chloé was being tended to by Sabrina, and Lila was standing around being useless. "What happened here?"

"Ask her!" Sabrina pointed a finger at Lila. "She's the one that put a brick in the blood bucket!"

Mme. Mendeleiev looked unimpressed. "I will talk to all of you in turn," she said. "Sabrina, take Chloé to the nurse's office. Ivan, take Mylène to the nurse's office. I will call Marc an ambulance. Lila, tell me what happened here."

While all the chaos was unfolding at school, Markov was at home, searching through the internet for every single trace of Lila Rossi. "Lila looks an awful lot like this girl named Cerise Bianca," Markov said to himself. "Their faces have a 99% match for facial structure according to my new facial recognition algorithm. The hair and eyes are different, but we already know that Lila wears wigs. Maybe she stole Cerise's identity."

Markov opened a new tab and did some more typing, only to find a bulletin.

MISSING: CERISE BIANCA

MISSING FOR TWO YEARS

POSSIBLE OTHER NAMES: LILA ROSSI

IF FOUND, CONTACT THE POLICE WITH A LAST KNOWN LOCATION.

Circuits fired within Markov's CPU. "Bingpot," he whispered.

Chapter Text

They were looking at her. Lila could feel the eyes on her. Everyone was mad at her for getting the school play cancelled, mostly because everyone had been anticipating the chance to see Chloé Bourgeois be drowned in faux blood. This wasn't just limited to Bustier's class any more, this was the whole school. The disdainful whispers singed her ears like flying embers out of a fireplace.

"Lots of us wanted to give Chloé a nosebleed, but this is ridiculous."

"Isn't this the second time Lila's ruined something that Mylène wanted to do? She must be livid."

Lila tried to stick to her typical school routine. Don't look at anybody, don't provoke anything, and act unbothered. "Hi, guys," Lila said instinctively, as she arrived into Mme. Bustier's class.

The dirty looks made her wish she hadn't said anything.

There wasn't a single friendly face looking at her from the student's seats. Marinette gave her the evil eye over everything she'd ever done at Dupont. Chloé and Sabrina glared at her, Chloé with a thick bandage over her nose. Max, Rose, and Markov's cold gazes swept over her, feeling like icy fingers tracing her spine. Ivan and Mylène glared at her for ruining something else that Mylène was emotionally attached to. Kim and Adrien gave her death glares for her attempting to lay a hand on Marinette. Nathaniel glared at her for what happened to Marc on set. Nino and Alya glared at her. Juleka glared at her over the damage done to her guitar.

"Don't give us all that 'hi, guys' shtick!" Chloé scoffed. "You broke my perfect nose with that bucket stunt! The blood in Carrie isn't supposed to be real, you idiot!"

"I can't believe you ruined another passion project of mine! How could you?" Mylène sobbed. Rose and Ivan comforted her.

"Exactly as I said. Everything Lila Rossi touches gets ruined," Alix said, in her usual matter-of-fact tone. "First the pet fashion show, then the YouTube channel, and now this. We were looking forward to this particular play."

As everyone chipped in their two cents, Lila felt her rage rise within her like the mercury in a thermometer. "Now, now, class, let's practice our empathy. Lila didn't mean to," Mme. Bustier said, failing to accomplish anything.

"Oh, shut up!" she yelled. "I took these jobs because I wanted to rise up the ranks of popularity, and all I got was whining and yelling! Is it really so hard for you guys to organise your own stuff, since you love it so much? No wonder Marinette's your 'everyday Ladybug', she's the only one with a brain!"

"We asked you for help, you jerk!" Nino whined. "And look what we got! The play's a bust, a pet's bone is broken, and I'm an internet meme against my will! You're a terrible Ladybug!"

Lila completely ignored the resident DJ, opting to rant instead. "And the no pay! Don't get me started on the not being paid. I am used to labour being paid. Is this really how you treat Marinette? I would have gone crazy ages ago."

"Lila, calm down," Mme. Bustier said, to no avail.

"And don't you see that this is all Marinette's fault?" A accusing finger with a sloppier manicure than what Lila preferred to have on her nails pointed at the aspiring fashion designer. "She gave me all the difficult jobs because she hates me! This is sabotage!"

"I never tried to sabotage you," Marinette said. "I took you up on your offer to help out the class because you wanted to, and I gave you three tasks to do. Honestly, the fundraising for Mylène and Ivan was supposed to be easy. The last time, I sold key chains of little sloths and made a killing. And I offered to help you with the props for the play. Carrie could have been awesome if executed properly, and the actors had that covered."

"Thank you," Chloé said. She stiffened and gagged with horror at the newly dawning realisation. "Oh my god, Lila, see what you've done! You've made me thank Dupain-Cheng for something! I could kill you, and not just for what you did to my nose!"

"Well . . . you . . ." Lila tried to think of yet another rebuttal. "She's still mad at me for the whole stairs thing!"

"Oh, you did NOT bring up that stairs thing," Max said. "You pretended Marinette pushed you down a flight of stairs, got her expelled, and then confessed to having a 'lying disorder' so she'd come back. If you'd done that to me, I'd be mad at you forever."

Rose gasped. "I know, right? Marinette's better than all of us."

She most certainly isn't, Lila thought to herself, but she knew better that to vocalise such a thought in a vehemently pro-Marinette environment.

"After the pet fashion show, we had our suspicions about you, Lila," Markov said. "How do you fail at all of these charity works when you have so much experience and so much connections? The answer: you don't have those connections."

"How can you say that about me? Where's your proof?" Lila hissed.

"First, we went to Prince Ali and asked him," Rose said. Chloé burst out laughing.

"You slid into a prince's DMs?" she cackled.

Rose smiled sweetly at the blonde bully. "We knew each other prior to this, it was his emails, and WON'T YOU SHUT UP, YOU GIANT JERK?"

Everyone gasped. Max winced as the bass-deep, rocker voice ripped its way out of Rose again. "How did you do that?" Kim asked.

"I'm the lead vocalist of a rock band. Of course I have incredible vocal control," Rose said, back to sounding as sweet as honey. "It's very useful at getting people to just shut up." She looked around the class, daring them to say something. "Anyway, we talked to Prince Ali, since you said you'd met him and gone to Achu, and nobody has any record of you. Since Prince Ali's royalty, if you'd met him, it would have been recorded. Ergo, you are lying."

Max cut in before Lila could open her mouth. "You are also lying about everything you said about meeting Jagged Stone and Clara Nightingale. You never rescued Jagged's cat, because Jagged never owned a cat. It would mess with his allergies. And Clara Nightingale has never met you in her life. You claimed to have learned your editing skills from her, so no wonder Nino's channel went belly-up."

Nino gasped. "Seriously, Lila? You said you knew James Gunn!"

"Considering we just showed you that she lied about that, it's safe to say that she told you a bunch of lies, too," Markov said. "You're not Ladybug's best friend, either. She doesn't make friends with civilians because it's too dangerous."

"What? You lied to me?" Alya got up, eyes blazing. "Your lies tainted my blog!" Her phone's notification chime interrupted her. "The Real Lila Rossi?"

Phones chimed all around the room like wolves howling for their brethren. Mme. Bustier's phone rang, too. People started reading with horror, checking their friend's phones to see if they were reading the same thing.

"What's happening?" Rose asked Max.

"I don't know, but it looks like all the evidence we-" Max looked at Markov, who looked at him with his patented anime eyes. "Markov! Did you seriously release that? You were supposed to release that later!"

"Yes, but if you can go off-script, so can I," Markov said. "It's a little of that creativity that I was supposed to learn about."

"Lila Rossi, you and I need to talk," Mme. Bustier said. "Come to the principal's office with me, please."

Lila ignored her, rushing towards Adrien with her arms outstretched. "Adrien! Whatever you hear about me, just know that I love you so, so much. It's so sad that I have to leave before our six-month anniversary."

"Six-month anniversary? We were never dating," Adrien said. Marinette felt her heart skip a beat. Adrien was denouncing Lila.

"What?" Tears beaded at the corners of Lila's eyes. "B-but we were holding hands-"

"You were holding my hand," Adrien corrected. "And I kept telling you to stop, and you wouldn't. You creeped me out, and I never want to see you again."

Lila was frog-marched out of the classroom cloaked by whispers. Marinette whimpered and put her head in her hands.

"I can't believe that she lied to us," Marinette said. "I just kind of hoped it was out of jealousy, but then I . . . actually trusted her!"

"Marinette, don't. You put aside your jealousy to welcome her into the class. She lied to you of her own volition," Alix said. "You were just trying to make us all happy by enlisting help."

The class gathered around to offer her help, and Marinette smiled through her 'pain'.

"Let's hope that Lila is punished appropriately," Marinette said.

And everyone agreed.

Everyone knew the drill for someone getting sent to the principal's office: you were sat before Principal Damocles as he read your list of crimes, and then whoever was responsible for you was called to school at the end of the school day. Rose ended up unwittingly becoming another part of the story when a woman with reddish-brown hair called Rose over while she was supposed to be going home.

"I'm so sorry to bother you, young lady," she said, toying with the bun of hair resting on her head, "but could you show me to the principal's office?"

"Yes, madame," Rose said. "If you have an appointment with Principal Damocles, it'll take a while. He's calling a girl's mother into the office."

"That must be my daughter Lila," she said. "She must have got into trouble and I had to come here from the embassy. Strange, really. I thought the school was closed from all the akumas."

Well, that changed a lot of things. This was Lila's mother, and she did work at the embassy. "The school was never closed. Ladybug and Chat Noir are very competent heroes," Rose told her.

"Oh. Well, Lila told me differently," Mrs Rossi said. "I guess I can get answers with the principal."

"I'm sorry, did you just say Lila Rossi?" A man and a woman came up to Mrs Rossi. The man, black and in a tweed jacket, did the talking, while a woman, with pale white skin and jet black hair, glared at who was presumably Mrs Rossi. "Lila is the daughter of Mme. Irene Giroux here, and is in the process of adopting her after she ran away from an abusive mother. I'm M. Charles Allard, her on-call interpreter." Mme. Irene Giroux tapped him on the shoulder and signed something for him to say on her behalf. "It is sick that you waited for her to get into trouble at school so you could drag her back to your horror house," he said, when she was finished.

"My house isn't abusive and she never ran away! My daughter is a talented actress!" Mrs Rossi said.

"She certainly is an actress," Rose said.

"Pardon?" Mrs Rossi said, attention turning to Rose. Rose chuckled nervously.

"Wouldn't you want to know where the principal's office is? I'm sure Lila will want to see both of you," Rose said. "And things can get sorted out there."

"Thank goodness, a voice of reason. We'll need to talk to the teachers about Lila and what's happening to her in school," M. Allard said.

"Everyone stop!" A third woman rushed over to the crowd. "Her name isn't Lila, it's Cerise Bianca! And I know that because I'm Mrs Angelina Bianca, her real mother!"

Oh, this is perfect. Well, chaotic and full of drama. "OK, everyone, come with me to the principal's office," Rose said, feeling incredibly awkward. "With me, please."

She directed the crowd of mothers to Principal Damocles' office, sweating like a sinner in church. Lila had three moms. One of them was her real mom. Or maybe none of them were. Who knew with a liar like Lila?

"Thank you," Mrs Rossi said.

"I hope things get cleared up for you all," Rose said, slipping away from the madness. The moment she was out of earshot, she called Max for clarification. "Max?"

"Yes, Rose?"

"Did Lila ever mention having more than one mom? Like how Kim has two dads?"

"No. As far as I remember, Lila only mentioned having a mom, as in singular. Why do you ask?"

"Because three ladies are here at the school. And they all claim to be Lila's mom."

Chapter Text

The mothers bickered amongst themselves while in the office. "I can't believe that you're planning on sending your daughter to the police! What sort of mother are you?" Mrs Rossi yelled at Mrs Bianca.

"I love my daughter, but she has committed actual crimes," Mrs Bianca said. "I may have taught her better, but she clearly does not act better."

"She will stay with me and be protected from you and your evil!" Mrs Rossi yelled.

Mrs Bianca laughed humourlessly, adjusting the bracelets on her wrists. "You know she lied to both of you, right? She said you were a child abuser, and you are supposed to be dead."

"I sense we have all been lied to," M. Allard said.

"You can say that again," Mrs Bianca snarked.

M. Allard gave her a withering look. "I will say it as many times as I have to. I'm a translator."

"If you're really her biological mother, why doesn't she look like you?" Mrs Rossi accused. "Her hair, skin, and eyes are nothing like yours!"

Mrs Bianca rolled her eyes. "Lila is clearly biracial, you moron. And when she went missing, she cut all her hair off because it was so distinguishing. One day, I arrived to an empty home, a handwritten note on her bed, and clumps of hair in the bathtub. The hair you've been looking at is a wig! A wig, I tell you!"

Principal Damocles picked this unfortunate moment to open the door. "Excuse me, but which of you lovely ladies is Lila's mother?" he asked. "I need to talk to her."

"I am!" all three said/signed.

Principal Damocles' eyes widened with horror. "Right. I didn't know that Lila was raised by . . . such a new-age arrangement," he stammered.

"We're not in a relationship, sir," Mrs Rossi said. "We all took on the task of raising Lila separately."

"Sir, we believe that my daughter has taken on the false identity of Lila Rossi when her real name is Cerise Bianca, and she is technically a fugitive."

It was now Principal Damocles' turn to sweat bullets. "How about I talk to Mlle. Rossi?" he suggested, ducking back into his office.

Just in time to see the dark purple butterfly fly into Lila's hair.

"Hello, Lila. Or should I call you Cerise? You seem so comfortable with both names. All your names, all your lies, they have finally come back to you. I can give you the anonymity and escape that you want, provided that you do something for me. Bring me Ladybug's earrings and Chat Noir's ring, and you can live a wonderful new life doing whatever you want."

Lila smirked. "It's about time you contacted me again, Monarch."

Chapter Text

Principal Damocles' door was punched off its hinges by a furry tentacle. Cackling howls rang out from his office. "You'll pay for putting me in a corner!" Lila's new akumatized form laughed. The furry tentacles came from her hair, and she was attached to it, looking like she was wearing a full-body suit. "I am Annie Alias, and I take on Any. Alias. I. Want! All your identities shall be mine, and so will Ladybug's earrings and Chat Noir's ring!"

To prove a point, Annie Alias's hair tentacles grabbed at Mrs Bianca and absorbed her into its masses. Mrs Rossi, Mrs Giroud, M. Allard, and Principal Damocles ran for their lives. "What happened to my daughter?" Mrs Rossi screamed.

"That, ladies, is an akuma. Your daughter has been akumatized," Principal Damocles said. "Ladybug and Chat Noir will be able to handle this within a day. They're incredible."

"We have to warn the others," M. Allard said, hands shaking as he translated for Mrs Giroud.

"We have installed akuma alarms and established akuma shelters by now. We should all be fine," Principal Damocles said. An alarm rang, fighting terrified screams for dominance. "Oh, look, someone pulled one for us. Shelter in my office."

Marinette and Adrien gasped as the akuma alarm blared above them. "Who got akumatized this time?"

"It must be Lila," Rose said. "She just had all her lies exposed and her three mothers are at school for her."

"How does someone even have three mothers?" Kim asked, scratching his head. "I have two dads, and I'm a little confused."

"Ladybug and Chat Noir can figure it out once she's de-akumatized," Marinette said. "You guys need to get to the akuma shelters. NOW."

Everyone got the message and ran. Adrien went into the boys' bathroom and consulted with Plagg before transforming. "OK, so Lila's been found out, sent to the principal's office, and akumatized. She gets akumatized a lot, now that I think about it."

Plagg rolled his eyes. "No surprise there. That would be enough to get anybody akumatised. But she brought it upon herself. You need to help Ladybug take her down to her normal self before she talks."

"Got it." Adrien sighed before uttering the words. "Plagg, claws out!"

Chat Noir raced towards Annie Alias while Ladybug tried to shield herself and others from it. "Need any help, milady?" he asked, thwacking a hair tentacle just before it reached her.

Annie Alias answered before Ladybug could. "Ladybug doesn't need your help, you mangy kitty. She can handle things on her own! That's what all those idiotic kids say about her and that sugar-sweet loser, Marinette!"

"Well, they're wrong! I need help sometimes!" Ladybug said. "And he's the best!"

"Thank you, milady." Chat Noir threw an pile of skipping ropes at Annie Alias, and dragged Ladybug away while she was dealing with that. "We need a plan."

"You're telling me! I don't even know where the akuma is!" Ladybug said. "OK, it's a little early, but I'll call it. Lucky Charm!"

Ladybug threw up her Lucky Charm, and down came . . . a giant hair tie. "Great. We can wrangle her hair tentacles into a cute little bun," Chat Noir said. Just as he said that, grunts of frustration made them come out of hiding to see if the situation was getting worse.

"Get out of my hair!" Annie Alias grunted. The two heroes watched as the hair on her head was removed, leaving her bald, and Annie picked the skipping ropes out of her hair tentacles.

Annie Alias wore a wig.

Which meant Lila wore a wig.

Which was probably where the akuma had gone.

"I think I know where the akuma went, kitty," Ladybug whispered with a grin. "Willing to distract while I act?"

"Of course, polka-dot." Chat Noir waltzed over to the faceless entity and immediately began taunting it. "Oh, sweetie! Bet you'd love to have my face, huh?"

"Oh, certainly!" Hair tentacles rushed to meet him, and Chat Noir dodged while taunting her. "Stay still, kitty!" she growled. "You can be with all . . . the . . . others!" Every pause signified a flurry of faces, all of them people that Adrien recognised. Ondine. Marc. Mme. Mendeleiev.

"Sorry, must be my nine lives saving me!" the cat-themed hero mocked, as Ladybug crept up on her with the scissors. Just a few more steps . . . bingo!

"AAAAAGH!" Annie Alias screamed, as Ladybug held her hair tentacles and wrapped them up in her yo-yo. "What are you doing to my hair?"

"Styling it," Ladybug said, wrapping the hair tie around it and sliding down. The wig came with her, dropping to a heap on the floor. Annie Alias screamed.

"MY HAIR!" she wailed.

"Sorry, not sorry." Ladybug's black and red boot stamped on the wig, letting the dark-coloured butterfly flutter away for all of five seconds before it got caught in her yo-yo. "Time to de-evilise!" White light erupted from the yo-yo before the now-white butterfly flew away. "Miraculous Ladybug!"

The swarm of butterflies did its thing, as Lila returned to normal and all the people she'd absorbed landed back where they had been when they'd been absorbed into her. Annie Alias was gone forever, and Lila was left behind, both by the power and by Monarch. "Hello, Lila," Ladybug said. "I'm Ladybug, this is Chat Noir, and you were-"

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" she screamed. "EVERYTHING'S GONE!"

"Your, uh . . . wig is here," Chat Noir said, handing over the all-important hairpiece, but Lila just got louder.

"You ruined my wig, and you. Ruined. My. Life!" Lila lunged at Ladybug. "I was supposed to have a new name, a new life, and new idiots!"

"Lila, this isn't helping your case!" Ladybug grunted, shoving Lila away from her. "Who was going to be giving you a new life, anyway?"

"Monarch! He was going to help me! He always helps me, but you ruined everything! Just . . . give me those stupid earrings!" Lila grabbed at her ears, only to have Chat Noir sweep his feet out from under her.

"Nobody's hurting milady on my watch," Chat Noir said, glowering at the known liar. "You're taking a trip to the principal and his office."

"She wishes that she was going to the office," a voice said. "Cerise Bianca, you are coming with me back to Italy!"

"What?" Lila's jaw dropped as she took in a sight that wasn't supposed to be there. Her mama was here.

All three of them.

"Not before I get answers from her," Mrs Rossi said. "What else have you lied about, little girl? You said you were escaping from a woman who wanted to pimp you out."

"All of this can be solved over at the police station," Principal Damocles said, looking very out of sorts. "It . . . seems like the only reasonable place."

"Especially since you just confessed to having connections to Monarch," Ladybug said.

"What?" Lila's head spun. "No! Mama, she's lying! Ladybug's always hated me!"

Mme. Giroux signed something to M. Allard. "Which one of us are you talking to?" M. Allard asked.

"I . . ." Lila looked between each of her mothers, and then towards Ladybug and Chat Noir. "Take me to jail. I give up."

Everyone in school got to watch Lila/Cerise/whatever get frogmarched out by Ladybug, Chat Noir, and two police officers. Max gasped as he noted his lying classmate's shaved head and saw Chat Noir hold a strange furry object as he walked. "Was Lila wearing a wig the whole time?" he questioned aloud.

"Oh, now that is juicy," Alya said, snapping photos. "Nobody's going to believe this."

"You're right. They won't believe this, because Lila tanked the credibility of the Ladyblog!" Alix snapped.

"Oh, yeah."

"I'm reporting her to the police! I'm sure they can add charges for animal cruelty about that poor puppy!" Mylène added.

Nino perked up, inspired. "And I'm reporting her for all the cyberbullying I endured because of her!"

Max wanted to tell someone that this probably wouldn't hold up legally, but he knew nobody would listen. Instead, he and Markov watched her be placed into a police car and that police car drive away. "Will we need to collect more information about her now that she's been arrested?" Markov asked.

"No, Markov. Just give what we found to the police and her parents and we'll be fine," Max said. "The important thing is that we be there as friends for Adrien and Marinette."

Chapter Text

The class wasn't the same after Lila left. Most of the class was left in shock, admittedly some more than others. Alya would foam at the mouth with rage with the mere mention of her name. "I could kill her!" she growled to anybody that would listen.

"Not before I do, peasant," Chloé scoffed. "May I remind you that she broke my nose and took away my chance of being a star?"

"She took my future away too by burying my blog with lies!" Alya countered. "Your nose will heal; my journalistic integrity won't recover as easily. Somebody should have told me about this!"

"You were told, Alya," Marinette said. "I told you, repeatedly. But you wouldn't believe me because she was a landmine of information."

"And you're supposed to check your sources," Adrien added. "If you'd done so properly, you would have seen the news clip of Ladybug saying that she would never put a civilian in danger by befriending them. Max found that, and he's not a journalist."

Max toyed with a suspender nervously. "Thank you, Adrien. But Markov found that particular clip, not me."

"Oh. Then that means a robot that it roughly a year old and primarily lives in a satchel has more journalistic integrity than you do, Alya," Adrien added.

A hand thumped onto the desk. Nino's hand. "What is with you, dude?" Nino growled. "We've all suffered because of Lila's lies."

"Lila never blackmailed you, though. She blackmailed me." Adrien took deep breaths to steady herself. "She got close to me on set, too close, and she wouldn't back off when I asked or begged. I felt like I couldn't do anything about it, because she'd charmed everyone around us, including my dad."

"Why didn't you say anything?" Nino said. His voice was quieter now.

"If I told people Lila was lying, she would get my dad to pull me out of school and I'd never get to see you guys again," Adrien admitted.

"How is that so bad? You'd get to spend all day with me!" Chloé questioned, unintentionally driving the point home.

"Thanks for showing how horrible Adrien's life would have been," Juleka snarked. "It's a horror story and a tragedy all at once."

Chloé gasped. "How dare you, you creepy little-"

Rose was in Chloé's face in seconds. "Say something to her, I dare you," Rose said. "Anything at all, Bourgeois." The heiress didn't dare say a word. "That's what I thought."

"If Lila lied about celebrities and blackmailed Adrien in all but name, what else did she lie about?" Marinette wondered. "How much of the disability accommodations did she really need?"

"Why are you asking about disability accommodation, Marinette?" Mme. Bustier asked.

"I went to Principal Damocles to get help for . . . um . . . a classmate, and he said all the class's disability accommodation money was already used up," Marinette said. "And Lila said she had multiple disabilities. Was the class's disability funds used up by her and her alone?"

Mme. Bustier looked interested. "Which classmate were you getting help for?"

Marinette played it cool. "I'd rather not say, for their sake. The real question is if the class funding is all gone, and if it's because of Lila."

"Is anything real around that smug little cheat?" Alix asked. "You could tell me that she stole from charity boxes, and it wouldn't shock me."

"We should get on with our lives and let the news tell us pieces bit by bit," Max said.

"I've seen more than enough of Lila Rossi, if it's even her real name," Markov said. "I just want to focus on my actual life. Like designing a new robot body that can walk."

As everyone talked about things that they were going to focus on, Marinette watched Kim toy with a hoodie string and sighed.

That kid should have gotten help ages ago.

"Marinette, why did you call me here?" Kim asked. "Do I have more studying to do?"

"No, Kim. I want to talk to you about what we went through in one of our previous study sessions," Marinette said. "More specifically, the possibility of you having ADHD."

"Oh, right, that!" Kim brightened up. "So, will the school help me get diagnosed?"

Marinette felt something tugging at her heartstrings. "No, Kim. The school doesn't have the money to get you diagnosed with ADHD. The public healthcare system will take ages, long enough that you actually might graduate before that happens."

Kim's smile dropped. "Oh."

"I know. But, there is a solution. Private healthcare has a much shorter wait time, but it's more expensive, and, with your and your dads' permission, I am willing to help you fundraise for it."

"Seriously? Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU!" Kim hugged her like she was a boneless rag doll. "This is why you're the real Ladybug!"

Relax, he doesn't know you're the literal real Ladybug, Marinette thought to herself, as Kim squeezed her. "You're welcome," she croaked.

"I'll tell my dads about this! You're an angel, Marinette!" Kim raced off, giggling.

"That's life as an everyday Ladybug," Marinette said to herself.

"If you're Ladybug, can I be Chat Noir?" a voice asked. Adrien Agreste waltzed around the corner, looking even better than his photos. "Hi, Marinette."

"Hi, I mean hello, I mean hi!" Marinette babbled. Well, it was better than the incoherent gibberish that she normally came out with. "Is everything OK, Adrien?"

"Just came over to see if you were OK," Adrien said. "After all, Lila was so mean and she almost attacked you."

"Oh, I've had worse," Marinette said. "I can handle Lila. I've been doing it with Chloé for years and nobody's helped me once."

"Oh." Adrien's stomach span, and his eyes burned. "Sorry. I should have done better."

"With what?"

"Chloé. Lila. Everything. I'm such a loser."

"No, you're not!"

"Yes, I am, Marinette. If I'd had more of a backbone, this wouldn't be so bad. But here I am, standing in someone else's mess. No wonder Chloé likes me."

"Adrien, don't talk about yourself like that. Telling people about what Lila did to you was actually very brave, even if you don't think so. If you can stand up to Lila when you're that scared, I bet you can stand up to anybody."

"I'll keep that in mind. Thank you, Marinette." Adrien said. "It's nice to know that someone believes in me." He walked away from her, smiling.

"I always did," Marinette said.

"Finally! Now that's what I'm talking about!" Plagg cheered. "You said something about that bald-headed liar!"

"Plagg, it's not nice to call people names!" Adrien scolded.

"Well, Lila is a liar, and she was bald . . . almost," Plagg said. "Don't think too deeply about it, I'm not the kwami of kindness."

Adrien winced as Plagg stuffed his face with stinky cheese. "Nobody ever thought you were," he said to himself.

"I'm so proud of you, Marinette!" Tikki said, once the two had some much-needed privacy. "You defeated a liar and you talked to your crush without breaking down into nonsense!"

"I know! But there's still so much more work to do!" Marinette said. "As the class's everyday Ladybug, I have to organise the fundraisers for Kim to get tested for ADHD."

Tikki's smile was replaced with a confused face. "Why is that all your responsibility?"

Marinette massaged a crick out of her neck. "Because I'm their Ladybug and Ladybug can handle anything. Plus, Mme. Bustier thinks I'm a good example."

"Ladybug works with Chat Noir to take down akumas. Ladybug doesn't work alone," Tikki added. "And the point of the mask is that anybody can be Ladybug. They shouldn't rely solely on you, and you should tell them that!"

"You're right. I should," Marinette said. "And I know exactly how to do that."

Chapter Text

Marinette wasn't even officially in the classroom when it started. "Marinette, just the person I wanted to see," Mme Bustier said, just before she came in. "Everyone's so heartbroken over the Lila business, seeing as how she's made their lives so much more difficult."

"I know," Marinette said. Secretly, she agreed with a lot of Lila's points. How did Nino not know how to edit videos? And why couldn't Alya properly check and cite her sources? "How do you want me to help?"

"Oh, that's great," Mme. Bustier said. "I just heard about how the other classes have akuma strategies to stop themselves from being akumatised, and we've never had one. Everyone could really benefit from this, and as our everyday Ladybug-"

"I'm on it," Marinette said. "But I'll need to speak to some people first. Tie up some loose ends."

"Of course," Mme. Bustier said.

Marinette walked over to Kim. "Kim, do you mind if I tell the rest of the class about the fundraiser I want to make for you?"

Kim gasped. "Oh, hell yeah! Do it! It's going to be super cool if it's from you, Marinette!"

"Thank you for the confirmation." Marinette skipped down to the front of the class and cleared her throat.

"Going to puke again, baker girl?" Chloé snarked.

"Not funny, Chloé!" Max yelled. "That's a jerk move to make!"

"Thank you, Max, but you don't need to worry. I've dealt with much worse than Chloé," Marinette said. "I have a few points to get across to you. I know things have been difficult since we found out the truth about Lila."

Voices jumped over each other to be heard. "She exposed me to some of the worst people!" Nino yelled.

"My future is gone!" Alya yelled.

"I cannot tell you how sorry I am that this happened to you all. But if you can find it within yourselves, we can help someone that actually needs our help."

Nathaniel leaned forward. "Who is it?"

"Our very own Kim," Marinette answered.

"What?" Chloé squawked. "You expect me to help that idiot? Did you puke your brain out that day, Dupain-Cheng?"

"Shut up, Chloé!" Rose ordered.

Marinette's tone was ice-cold. "Kim is not stupid, and don't you ever call him that. The fundraiser is to raise the money needed to get Kim privately assessed for ADHD. He would be having the assessment in school, but our class specifically no longer has the funding to do so."

"What?" Mylène was outraged now, getting up from her chair. "I'm sorry, but that is the biggest pile of-"

"Mylène Haprèle!" Mme. Bustier was scandalised.

"Sorry, not sorry." Mylène sat down. "Principal Damocles probably spent that money on figurines and vintage comic books," she muttered to Ivan.

"Mylène, I don't know why our class no longer has that sort of funding. All I know is that it doesn't, and that is why I'm up here again," Marinette said. "Also, I'd like to clarify some things concerning me being the class Ladybug. First of all, Ladybug gets help and doesn't work alone."

"What?" Mme. Bustier's eyes widened.

"Yes. From now on, I want help with stuff. If you're suggesting, then you're helping. Planning, resources, something! You are all far from incompetent, and sometimes, you can be your own Ladybug!"

The class stared at her like she'd just told them to consider selling their organs on the black market. "Marinette, is this really the message you want to give to the class?" Mme. Bustier asked.

"Yes, Mme. Bustier," Marinette said. "My back hurts from carrying the weight of other people's passion projects."

"Marinette, you've changed." Alya stated it like it was both an accusation and an insult.

"We all have, Alya. We're supposed to."

"But who's going to plan birthdays? And bring snacks on big test days?" Sabrina asked.

"We can take turns. I've finally realised how much pressure I was under and now I can breathe, I want to keep it like that."

Mme. Bustier looked utterly distraught. "Marinette, what's gotten into you? You used to be such a good example to us all."

"If being a good example means I do basically all the work, then being Ladybug's not worth it," Marinette said.

"I'll help." Adrien said immediately. "Ladybug shouldn't have to do everything. And honestly, I want to feel like Ladybug too."

Chloé burst into laughter. "Adrikins, why would you bother yourself with the tiny details of things? One day, we'll be rich business owners, and we can leave tiny details to tiny people like Dupain-Cheng."

"I can't take over my dad's business if I do nothing," Adrien said. "And don't call me Adrikins. I've always hated it."

"I'll help, too," Max said. "Taking initiative is an important skill."

"And me!" Rose said.

"I want to help, too!" Kim said. "I already have so many ideas. And after Marinette helped me, I don't want to leave her alone. I've already come up with ideas and an amount, and I read more about ADHD. It was gruelling and it sucked, but I did it."

"Really?" Marinette felt a load come off. "That's great, Kim!"

"The point I'm making is that if taking initiative and helping makes you Ladybug, then I'd like to be Ladybug!" Adrien said. Max, Rose, and Kim voiced their approval, followed by Nathaniel, and Juleka. The remainders were Alya, Nino, Ivan, Mylène, Chloé, and Sabrina, obviously still put out by the disappointments they'd faced.

"Thank you," Marinette said. "Having support like this makes it easier for me to keep my spots."

Adrien studied Marinette intensely. Could their everyday Ladybug, sweet but clumsy Marinette, be the real Ladybug? Either way, he was developing a real crush on her, maybe even more than Ladybug. "You are hiding something," he muttered under his breath. "And I'm going to find it."

Ladybug and Chat Noir sat on a roof and talked after a long night of patrols. "Milady, can I tell you something stupid?"

"Better than anybody that I know," Ladybug said, playing with her yo-yo.

His ears swivelled with anger, but he kept a smile on his face. "I have a crush."

"I know you do, Chat Noir. The crush is on me, and you keep telling me so."

"It used to be, but now I have a crush on a new girl. Someone hard-working and kind and is always there."

"That . . . still sounds like me."

"You wish you were her, Ladybug!" Chat Noir laughed. "Nothing could compare to her . . . Marinette Dupain-Cheng."

Ladybug stiffened. Half with shock, and half with suppressed laughter. "You are such a silly kitty," she said. "Tikki, spots off."

Her alter ego dissolved off her, and there sat Marinette Dupain-Cheng. Adrien bluescreened, blinking slowly with large eyes. "Milady? Marinette? Milady?"

Marinette burst out laughing. "Hi, silly kitty. Sorry if I disappointed you."

"You could never be a disappointment, bugaboo." Adrien moved over tentatively, getting closer and getting closer. "Plagg, claws in."

Arms wrapped around each other and a pair of teenaged hands locked fingers atop a terraced Paris roof. No longer teenaged heroes, but mere teenagers. "Adrien is much more charming than Chat Noir," Marinette sighed.

"And Marinette is much better than Ladybug," Adrien said.

Chapter Text

The lies that Lila Rossi told were the kind that got bigger as they were both fed and spread, like snowballs rolling down a hill. But with her downfall, capture, and reveal as escaped pre-teen fugitive Cerise Bianca, those snowballs were slamming into people left, right, and centre.

The first snowballs hit Mme. Bustier and Principal Damocles. Lila/Cerise had lied about having multiple disabilities, all of which were false. Nevertheless, she had gotten lots of money in accommodations that she did not need. One of those things was a special school computer, which had since gone missing. (No prizes for guessing what she had done with it.) Kim's dads had thrown a fit when they found out their son's ADHD diagnosis was being denied because a fraudster had drained the school dry.

There were lots of visits from the school board in the aftermath of Lila's arrest. Lots of officials wanted to know how Bustier's class was run, so students would be pulled out randomly to answer questions. That was scary enough, but nothing quite compared to when M. Courtois arrived to class for the first time.

He was thin, frightfully thin, and also tall. M. Courtois looked like he had never eaten in his life. If Principal Damocles looked like an owl, then he looked like a vulture, with a bald head and neck hunched over to stare down at future prey. Rumours that he was a vampire began the moment he stepped foot onto campus, not helped by his razor-thin features, long face, and the way he bared his teeth whenever he opened his mouth too wide. "Who are you?" Mme. Bustier stammered.

"Apologies to you and your class, Mme. Bustier," he said, his face like an undertaker asking you what clothes you want the deceased to wear. "But I'm here to moderate your class after all the . . . media excitement you've had. May I come in?"

The ordeal left Mme Bustier a frazzled mess, enough for her to mess up the names of her (incredibly distinctive) students. Principal Damocles lost even more of his hair and developed dark circles under his eyes.

The lies also hit the class pretty hard. Alya received so much hate on the Ladyblog that she had to shut it down. Mylène and Ivan gasped at the amount of money she had scammed, conning charities and people alike. Everyone found it horrible to look at the victim count and hear the stories they told. Stories of being cast out of communities, fearing for their lives, losing loved ones. Everything that had happened to Marinette.

"I'm so sorry," Adrien said. "I should have said something."

Marinette smiled up at him. "I don't blame you, Adrien. Lila had her own leverage over you, and she'd already fooled your dad. You were in no position to do anything to stop her."

Max, Markov, Rose, and Adrien's roles in exposing the criminal came to light, and they became the pride of Francoise Dupont. Markov, due to his work in exposing Lila for who and what she really was, ended up being unintentionally famous, along with his creator.

"Well, Lila did say I'd get famous for making Markov," Max said. "This is one of the few things she said that turned out to be true. What a shock!"

Andre Bourgeois came to school to personally commend the four of them for their courage and diligence. "Your parents ought to be proud," he said, as he shook their hands.

Max smiled. "They always were."

"So is my dad," Markov said.

"My mom is so proud of me," Rose said.

Adrien wasn't sure if he could not say the same.

Gabriel watched the news with a growing anger. "How could I not have known?" he growled. "How did that little sneak get past all our background checks? And how was it that my son's idiotic classmates knew before we did that she was not who she said she was?" He swept his stuff off his desk in a rage, alerting Nathalie.

"Sir!" She ran in, only to see a mess in Gabriel's office. Gabriel's eyes were pinpricks, darting around until they locked onto Nathalie.

"HOW DID WE NOT KNOW?!" he screamed. "I only found out about her having additional identities as Monarch! How did she dodge our background checks?"

Nathalie could not answer, frozen into place as Gabriel trashed his own office with rage. How could he have let her be a model? How could he have let her be an accomplice?

He'd have to check all the information she'd given him for accuracy, although he already knew that it was most likely false. He'd have to publicly disavow her as a modelling company, too. Couldn't be associated with someone like that , after all.

Nino and Mylène tried to get compensation for their suffering, but were turned away rather quickly.

"I'm sorry, Mlle. Haprele and M. Lahiffe, but we can't get that money back for you," Officer Raincomprix said. "It's a job for small claims courts."

"What? But her actions led to a puppy's leg being broken!" Mylène wailed.

"And I'm being doxxed by online bullies! I've had to change my number three times!" Nino added.

"We can add the charge of animal cruelty onto her lengthy list of charges, but that's all I can do." The officer looked at the two teenagers with sympathy. "If you want her to reimburse you for anything, then you can go to small claims court and sue her."

"We don't have money for lawyers!" Mylène wailed. "We're kids."

"I'm sorry," Officer Raincomprix said, leading them out of the police station.

"The police here are useless," Nino grumbled. "Lila's a known liar with a whole other identity and they still won't do anything for us. Anyway, I gotta go home. See you, Mylène."

In a strange twist, their paths would become similar as they separated. Mylène got a call from Ivan as she walked home.

"Mylène, I won't be seeing you for a while," he said. He sounded like he'd been crying.

"Ivan! What happened? Did I do something wrong?" Mylène asked. "How are you? Where are you? Should I come over?"

"It's fine, and nothing's wrong," Ivan said. "I just wanted to tell you that I signed up for a phone-free anger management retreat once the summer begins. I was blowing up at everything from all the stress that Lila brought us. I don't like the person I've become. This is better for everyone. I'll talk to you in a month when it's over. I love you, little mouse."

"I-I love you, too," Mylène choked out, on the brink of her own tears. Ivan hung up, and she was free to cry her eyes out. Lila had taken her money, broken her trust, and separated her from her teddy bear.

She'd kill her if she ever got the chance.

Nino got a call from Alya as he trudged home, albeit a lot less tearful and not from Alya. "Hello, Nino," Marlena Césaire said.

"Hello, Mme. Césaire," Nino said, feeling very uneasy. "Why are you calling me from Alya's phone?"

"After everything that's gone on, we've decided to ground Alya for the foreseeable future," Marlena said. "Clearly, our daughter can't be trusted with the internet and technology with the way she uses it. If you want to talk to her in person, then we'll have to come over to our home. Rest assured, Nino, whatever Alya has done, you are still welcome in our home."

"Whoa. OK. Thank you. I'll keep that in mind," Nino said. Marlena hung up, and Nino was about to take her up on the offer before he got a call from Chris.

"Nino, why are you on the internet?" he sobbed. "My class saw you and it was embarrassing. I think the whole world saw it!"

"I'll come home soon, little man," Nino promised. This was what Lila had done. He'd become a laughingstock so severe, he was being discovered and mocked by kids his little brother's age. How was he ever going to be taken seriously as a film director when this was the first thing anyone saw about him on the internet?

Lives were never the same after Lila came and went, but how they changed varied greatly. Your chances of getting what you wanted were slim, like a game of Rossi roulette. And the odds made it clear who was favoured and who wasn't.

Lila, now being forced to go by her real name, Cerise Bianca, was tried for her crimes in Paris and sentenced to fifteen years in prison, to be served in France. Some lenience was given to her due to her age, but not much. Once she was out, she was to be sent back to Italy to be tried for the crimes she committed there. She would be in juvenile detention until the age of twenty-one, after which time she would be transferred into an adult prison. At the age of thirty, she would be sent back to Italy and banned from France altogether. "Signora Bianca, if it wasn't for the fact that an entire other country wants you to pay for your crimes in their prison system, I would lock you up and throw away the key. You have lived a life that is short in length and long in the suffering of others, and you need to reflect on that," the judge said, as Cerise (she could never be Lila again) was taken away.

Cerise was sent to a military style juvenile detention centre, under the watchful eye of an old battle-axe named (aptly but coincidentially) Mme. Savage. One of her favourite things to do was make the delinquents under her eye chant army cadences of her own making. "I don't know, but I've been told!" she spat at the girls.

"I don't know, but I've been told!" the unwilling girls groaned.

"I'll be here until I'm old!" Mme. Savage supplied.

"I'll be here until I'm old!" the girls repeated.

Mme. Savage was fuelled by their misery, so much so that her voice swelled and boomed with its volume. "I DON'T KNOW BUT IT'S BEEN SAID!"

"I don't know but it's been said!"

"I'LL RUN LAPS UNTIL I'M DEAD!"

"I'll run laps until I'm dead!"

"I'LL RUN NORTH, EAST, WEST, AND SOUTH!"

"I'll run north, east, west, and south!"

"TILL I LEARN TO SHUT MY MOUTH!"

"Till I learn to shut my mouth!"

"I'LL RUN MILES EVERY MORN!"

"I'll run miles every morn!"

"TILL I WISH I WASN'T BORN!"

"Till I wish I wasn't born!"

Cerise couldn't take much more. Meager meals, terrible sleep, and the vigorous exercise was torture. She collapsed into the middle of running laps, and Mme. Savage jumped on the opportunity. "INMATE BIANCA, GET UP OFF THE FLOOR! YOU ARE NOT HERE TO TAKE NATURE NAPS!" she yelled.

"Mme. Savage, I'm so dizzy," she groaned.

"Not my problem. But it will be everyone else's problem if you don't get up off the floor."

Against all logic, Cerise tried to lie to the retired military lover. "Mme. Savage, I can't help it. I have a fainting dis-"

"NONSENSE, YOU LITTLE BRAT!" Mme. Savage yelled. "I know everything about you, including your medical records, Bianca. You're as healthy as a horse! Now get up, you idiotic malingerer, before you and everyone else here runs extra laps to make up for lost time!"

This was going nowhere fast. Lila got up and started slowly jogging. Rather run laps that get beaten up by the other girls. But as she jogged at the back of the group, she felt a burning hatred rise within her.

Ladybug was lucky that she was in here and not out there, because if she ever got half a chance, she'd end that polka-dotted superhero.

Chapter Text

Things would only get worse for the people whose lives were already going pretty badly. The first to feel its effects was Caline Bustier, by way of the school board.

"Mme. Bustier, after shadowing your classes, it is clear that your teaching style is wildly inadequate for a class of teenagers," M. Courtois said, dragging his words out in a way that made him sound even more like a vampire. "These students think nothing of talking out of turn, insulting their classmates, and derailing the lesson entirely. Particularly a certain Mme. Bourgeois, who has been blatantly forcing another student to do her schoolwork for her."

"Chloé just needs some extra help, sir, both academically and socially. And I encourage my students to help each other as much as possible," Mme. Bustier said.

"Is that your excuse for allowing your class representative to do most of your work?" M. Courtois said. "Planning class trips and fundraisers, counselling other students. Does she write your lesson plans, too?"

Sniggers stung her ears as Caline rushed to defend herself. "Marinette is incredibly good at helping her classmates!" she defended, to no avail. They had clearly made their mind up about her.

"Mme. Bustier, it is the decision of this council that you should no longer be a teacher at Francoise Dupont," M. Courtois said. "We have already found a new post for you to take."

That wasn't so bad. "I have a new job? Where?" Mme. Bustier asked, almost daring to believe it.

"You will now be a kindergarten teacher, as befitting your style of teaching," M. Courtois said. "You have a week to say goodbye to your old students and colleagues."

This felt like a death sentence. She'd never see her kids again, after all the time she'd spent with them? "Of course," Mme. Bustier said, tears welling up. "I'll make sure to do that."

She left the meeting in tears, passing Mme. Mendeleiev on her way out. "Caline." Her tone was just as businesslike as ever. "I sense that you did not get good news from the school board."

"I have to say my goodbyes in a week," Caline sniffled. "After all this time, I am to be sent away. How will Denis react to the news?"

"I think he has his own things to worry about," Mme. Mendeleiev said. "The funding problem has just been discovered." The purple-haired science teacher showed the redhead an article that made her heart drop.

PARIS PRINCIPAL CAUGHT EMBEZZLING DISABILITY FUNDS

"It wasn't just your class that was stolen from for the sake of his insipid collector items," Olga said. "Most classes had little to nothing for their disabled students. Oddly enough, he left your class alone, seeing as you already had the medically fragile students Rose Lavillant and Lila Rossi there. How interesting that you were the only class he didn't siphon money from, and yet you still got scammed."

"I suppose we did," Caline said. "But I'm worried about my students. How will they be without me? What example did I set?"

Raucous shouting granted her an answer. "Sabrina, why haven't you finished this essay for me?" Chloé demanded. "Miss Bustier said we should be helping each other, now help me by writing this essay!"

Olga rolled her eyes while Caline nervously chuckled. "I hope you don't expect me to say you set a good example," she deadpanned.

Caline shook her head. "I think I'll get a head start on packing," she whispered.

Alya groaned with frustration as she tried to figure out the flip phone her parents had given her. It was both a punishment and an insult. She couldn't even play a game of snake on this phone.

As if to mock her even further, a poster ripped itself off a wall and slapped her in the face. Groaning, she peeled it off and took a look.

YOUNG JOURNALISTS OF PARIS MEETING

LOCATION: BIBLOITHÈQUE NATIONALE DE FRANCE - RICHELIU

HOST: NADJA CHAMACK

This meeting was tomorrow. What luck had she gotten into that the young journalist's meeting was literally tomorrow? She had nothing to do; she was totally going to be there, and she could finally talk to people about what the life was like! She crumpled the poster up and put it into trash, skipping home.

After everything that had happened with Lila, things were finally getting better for her.

Alya slipped into the library and took a seat near the front. She didn't want to miss a thing, especially not if Nadja Chamack was going to be here. More kids came in, talking nervously amongst each other. Most of them were in groups of three to five, further driving home the point that she had come alone.

"Welcome, welcome, what a good turnout we're having this meeting!" Nadja said. "So many new faces! As you know, I'm Nadja Chamack, and this meeting is going to be a little more . . . different than usual, in light of recent events. Instead of only talking to you about source safeguarding, I want to talk to you about source fact-checking, so you know you're putting out correct information."

Everyone muttered appreciatively as they got out notebooks, notes apps, and recording devices. Alya did the same (she'd snagged an old-timey voice recorder just in case), as Nadja began a Powerpoint presentation. "Source safeguarding is how you keep your sources safe when you are covering topics where they could get hurt. Whistleblowers are a prime example of this, so making sure that you keep their identities secret is a must." She switched slides, showing photos of people deliberately cast in shadow. "This is what it looks like to shield someone's identity properly. See how the person is completely covered by shadow, leaving their face unrecognizable. Also, if you're going to give someone an alias, make sure it's nothing like their real name just in case someone recognises a single letter and joins the dots. Best case scenario is to use a voice actor, although they are pricy."

She switched slides again, and everyone burst into laughter. "What's so funny?" Alya asked herself, and then she saw it.

The Ladyblog was on screen. Her blog, her life's work, was on the slide that was being shown to everyone.

"We now pivot towards fact-checking," Nadja said, over the laughter of the teenagers in the room. "Fact-checking is the difference between a trashy tabloid and a genuine reporting. The Ladyblog is here as a fresh example of what not to do."

This could not be happening. This could not be happening. Her work was being used as a bad example. And not only was nobody questioning it, people were genuinely laughing!

"Didn't the creator of the Ladyblog get canned for using a source who lied about being Ladybug's best friend?" one person called out.

"Yes, she did," Nadja said. "More accurately, she regularly conducted interviews with Cerise Bianca, the very same girl who was later discovered to be an accomplice to Monarch, formerly Hawkmoth." Alya shrank into her seat while everyone muttered disapprovingly. "At the time, she was going by the name of Lila Rossi, which you might recognise." More muttering rumbled through the room; Alya just hoped that nobody recognised her and put two and two together. "Having her interviews on the Ladyblog were truly what catapulted it from reputable hub of information to tabloid/fanpage."

"Nadja, that blog would have crumbled anyway. It was a giant shipping war of the creator trying to make Ladynoir happen."

Nadja froze for a second before composing herself. "I'm worried I might regret asking, but what's Ladynoir?"

"The prospective couple name of people who want Ladybug and Chat Noir to be a thing. Lots of her posts were rooting for it." More giggling accompanied the answer.

"I should never have asked," Nadja groaned. "Anyway, I want to make sure that you understand the importance of quality investigative journalism, so I brought in some special guests of my own. I'd like to introduce you to Max Kanté, Markov Kanté, and Rose Lavillant!"

Alya could only gape as her classmates were brought out like they were royalty. This was too much. Not only had her blog been derided in public, but her classmates (who weren't even real journalists) were being paraded around like celebrities. She had to say something. "They shouldn't be here!" she yelled out.

Eyes turned to her. "And why shouldn't they be?" Nadja asked. "Do you know them?"

"We know her," Markov said. "This is Alya Césaire. She's our classmate and the former owner of the Ladyblog."

Gasps and more muttering began, pockets of it popping up like popping popcorn. "She seriously came?" someone whispered.

"I can't believe she'd show her face!"

"Her entire blog is a how-to guide on what not to do."

"Enough!" Alya snapped. "I originally came here to bond with other teenage journalists, not to be insulted! I was misled by a trusted source, and now I'm being crucified for it!"

"You're supposed to vet your sources, Alya," Nadja said. "It's your duty as a journalist. Maintaining journalistic integrity is your responsibility, not your sources. Quite frankly, these fine young people are a better example of investigative journalism than you, and if you continue to heckle them, you will be asked to leave."

"What? Nadja, that is not fair!" Alya mentally scrambled for an excuse to stay. "I've been covering Ladybug since the moment she stepped onto the scene!"

"Not very well!" Markov blurted out. Laughter rang through the room, and Alya snapped.

"Fine. Had other things to do anyway." She stormed out to the sound of cheers, jeers, and applause, feeling her face heat up. "I don't need to stick around if I'm just going to be made fun of."

Alya did not get far before more bad luck hit her, in the form of a discarded newspaper. "Huh?"

KITTYBUG FINALLY BEGINS

Beneath it was a picture of Ladybug and Chat Noir kissing on a rooftop. "What?!" she spluttered. "Ladynoir finally becomes canon, and nobody will even credit me for it because my blog's been trashed? They're not even calling it Ladynoir, which is obviously a much cooler name. Great."

Her blog was trash, her name was mud, and the ship had set sail without her. It was safe to say Alya Césaire's life really, really sucked.

Chapter Text

Marinette brushed her hair in the shared bathroom mirror. "For the last time, you don't need to redo your hair," Adrien teased.

"Easy for you to say, kitty. Your hair does itself," Marinette pointed out. "It refuses to adhere to the laws of physics. Or logic."

"My hair still thinks it's modelling," Adrien laughed. "Years of having a strict dad who owned a fashion company will do that to you. It's been ten years since we left school, and it still styles itself like this. I need to start growing facial hair, or nobody will think I have changed."

"Is change really so bad?" Marinette asked. "I like how you stayed true to yourself. And real change happens within."

"This coming from someone who grew out of her pigtails since school," Adrien said.

"Hey, I had those pigtails for too long. Sue me, kitty," Marinette giggled. "Let's go. I want to know what happened to my friends."

Francoise Dupont looked exactly as they remembered it back when they were students. Mme. Mendeleiev also looked just as scary as they remembered her to be. "M. Agreste, Mlle. Dupain-Cheng." They trembled, waiting for some long-overdue detention before she smiled at them. "Welcome back."

"Thank you," Adrien said. "Do you know where our old classmates are?"

"They're right at the front, M. Agreste." Mme. Mendeleiev pointed towards the main hall. "Fair warning to the both of you; they've changed since then."

"So have we," Marinette said. "And it's Mlle. Agreste now. Come on, Adrien."

The two waltzed in, expecting things to be different. They were not expecting the true degree.

The first people they saw were Juleka and Rose, who looked pretty similar. Rose's hair was shoulder-length now, while Juleka's was even longer and sported a blue streak. Had to be a tribute to her brother somehow. Both came wearing denim jumpsuits, Rose's being a pink jumpsuit studded with rhinestones, and Juleka's being black denim with pink and purple stitches embroidered onto it. Marinette noted, with a nod, that the Kitty Section logo was stitched onto Juleka's knee.

"Adrien, Marinette, hi!" Mylène was first to reintroduce herself, along with Ivan. "You two look great!"

Mylène and Ivan looked great, too. Mylène's multi-coloured braids were now fewer in colour, thanks to the undercut she now sported. On her hand was Ivan's name, contained within a heart. On her upper arm was a little mime, just like her father.

Ivan's frame was now more muscular, and his left arm sported a tattoo sleeve of hearts. Within these hearts contained his sister's name, Mylène's, his mother's, and the Kitty Section logo. "Should have expected that you'd get tattoos," Marinette said.

"We were expecting that you'd get married," Mylène said. "Where's everyone else, by the way? I was hoping that Alya would be here."

"And I was hoping to see Nino," Adrien said. "Are we really going to miss out on seeing both of our best friends?"

"I think you will," Ivan said. "Alya basically dropped off the face of the earth after high school. No social media, nothing. That Lila business ruined her life."

"Oh, right. Can't believe I forgot about that," Marinette groaned. "She must have been roasted by the internet for associating with Lila."

"That doesn't explain Nino," Adrien said.

"Oh, he's fine, just in another country," Marinette said. "Luckily, his DJ career took off after everything."

"Coming in hot, people!" A blue blur whooshed around the room, landing perfectly in the middle of the room. Marinette gasped with glee.

"Markov, Max!" Ivan cheered. "Looking cool!"

"We all do, Ivan," Max said. He'd completely transformed himself in the ten years since they'd graduated, starting with his hair. He'd taken it out of the short flat-top/afro he'd had as a kid and started growing locs. He'd also gotten himself a motorbike, which was obvious by his biking leather. "That's what time does to you."

"I got some much-needed upgrades," Markov said. He'd gone from just having a propeller with a single claw arm to being humanoid, with fingers and hands and actual legs. Also, his face screen included a mouth and even eyebrows, as big as Max's. "I can walk and fly! About time!"

Kim and Alix walked in at the same time. Alix's hair was still the dyed pink colour it had always been, but no longer tied up. Kim's hair was buzzed. "Let me know when you can swim," Kim said, his hair buzzed short. "You really could do with some waterproofing."

"And you could do with less of a big, loud mouth, Kim," Alix said. "Markov, you look super cool. Good to know you've gained more capabilities."

"Thank you! The lab Max and I work in is rich in resources," Markov chirped. "Getting the parts I needed was incredibly easy. At the rate of production, I might even get more siblings!"

"Congratulations!" Kim said, hugging Markov tightly. "Oh, it is so nice to see you and hug you without worrying about breaking you!" He paused to look at Markov properly. "Whoa. You're taller than me."

"Yes, I am." Markov stated it like it was obvious. Kim immediately gasped and dragged over Alix.

"Look, Alix! Markov can make you see things that are high up!" Kim babbled, like a hyper little kid. "Markov, could you hold her up? Alix suffers from being tragically short."

"I should not hold someone without their express permission," Markov said.

"It's OK, Markov. You have my permission," Alix said. Markov wasted no time in picking up the diminutive skater and allowed her to look around the crowded room. "OK, I see Rose, Mylène, Juleka, Ivan, Marinette, Adrien, and Max. But we're definitely missing people."

"You are correct, Alix. We are missing Chloé Bourgeois, Sabrina Raincomprix, Alya Césaire, Nino Lahiffe, and Nathaniel Kurtzburg," Markov listed.

"Seriously?" Alix asked. "Honestly, Chloé was rude and Sabrina was her lackey, but I really hope everyone else on the list gets here OK."

"Don't expect Alya to show up," Kim said. "She doesn't go anywhere anymore, last I heard."

"The last time I saw Alya, she was being shown the door at a young journalist's meeting," Max said. "It was pretty sad."

"Should I search the internet for Alya, Nino, and Nathaniel?" Markov volunteered. "It might explain why they are missing."

"No need, Markov," Nathaniel said. He walked in with Marc, wearing matching navy blue tuxes. "We're late, but we're here."

"You guys all look great!" Marc said. "Markov, you've grown!"

"And not a moment too soon!" Markov said, flexing for good measure. "Hey, Kim, look! I'm you after you get out of the pool!"

"Yes! Make fun of him, Markov! That's my boy!" Alix cheered. "That's my nephew, people!"

"Hold that pose, Markov!" Nathaniel said, grabbing a sketchbook out of nowhere.

"Every time," Marc said, rolling his eyes. "Sweetie, for one night, give it a rest."

"But I might never see this again!" Nathaniel whined.

"Marc, you married him. Isn't there some way to snap him out of . . . this?" Marinette asked Marc.

Marc smiled. "I have a couple." He reached over and whispered something into Nathaniel's ear. Whatever it was was enough to make the redhead squeak and drop the sketchbook entirely.

"Marc, we're with people!" he squeaked, as his face matched his hair. Bustier's former class burst out laughing.

"Wow, you do know your way around Nath, Marc!" Max teased.

"Sweetie, please, not tonight," Marc pleaded. "Your friends are right in front of you."

"But this looks so cool!" Nathaniel whined.

"I'll send you a photo of Markov for you to use as a reference," Max offered.

"That would be nice," Nathaniel acquiesced. "Hey, what's that?"

Nathaniel was pointing to a neglected table of name tags, which looked like it had been picked through by other party-goers. "Nobody from our class took a name tag because we all look so recognisable," Marinette said. "All these changes, and we're the still the same distinctive bunch we've always been."

"Hear, hear!" Kim laughed. As Bustier's class compared their present selves to their past selves, a strange figure came in.

They were tall and muscular, their short red hair and lean-muscular build giving them an androgynous look. They looked dapped in light grey pants, teal long-sleeve shirt, and brown waistcoat. "Who is that?" Adrien asked.

"I think I'd remember going to school with someone like that," Alix said.

The newcomer made a beeline towards Marinette, making the fashion designer tremble in her brand new flats. "Hello. Do I know you?" Marinette whimpered.

"I went to class with you," said the newcomer. "It's me, Sabrina!"

You could have heard a pin drop. "Seriously?" Marinette squeaked.

"THAT'S SABRINA?!" Alix screamed.

"My facial recognition technology identified Sabrina as being an entirely different person!" Markov blurted out.

"Yeah, I've changed," Sabrina said. "I took up running after school was over, and really did some soul-searching. I'm a therapist now."

"Good for you," Marinette said, her heart rate slowing. "Honestly, some of us were wondering if you'd show up."

"Honestly, I thought you'd arrive attached to Chloé," Kim said. Alix elbowed him in the stomach.

"Dude, watch it!" the skater scolded. "But really, where is Chloé?"

"With her mother in London," Sabrina said casually. "She never quite got away from her after that whole Miracle Queen thing. It's sad for her, but I'm liking the freedom."

"No way! Sabrina glowed up! So cool!" Juleka congratulated. More congratulations were bestowed upon the former queen bee's former servant.

"So, all we're waiting on is Nino and Alya," Adrien said. "Weird that they're not here for this."

His phone's chirping notification snapped him out of it, but not entirely. He retrieved the phone and swiped to see what it was.

Nino.

"Hey, dude!" Nino said, over facetime. "Long time, no see, stranger!"

"Nino!" everyone chorused, crushing each other in an effort to be seen by him.

"Hi!" Nino hadn't changed much, save for having grown a mustache. The rest of him remained unchanged, right down to the clothes. "You guys all look great!"

"Nino, where are you?" Marinette asked. "I thought you knew there was going to be a class reunion."

"Seoul, Korea, DJing."

"If you're in Korea. what time is it? Because in Paris, it's 9PM," Max said.

"It's uhh . . . 7AM here," Nino said. Just like that, Max and Marinette shared a skeptical look.

"Uh, Seoul is 7 hours ahead of us. But Nino said it was 7AM, making it a 10-hour time difference," Max hissed. "Does Nino not know how to tell time?"

"No, Nino can handle time," Marinette whispered. "He just can't handle lying to his best friend and he messes up details."

As everyone huddled around Adrien's phone, Nino sidled into the room, holding his own phone in front of his face, still continuing the video call. He looked away from his phone and waved to Marinette.

In unison, everyone looked up to see a shocking sight. Nino was right there. Right in front of them. Holding his phone and waving at them.

Adrien shoved his phone over to Marinette and dashed over to his best friend. "NINO!" he roared, arms outstretched. He was followed by the rest of his old class, who engulfed him.

Marinette joined their group hug with a smile. Her old school friends were finally here, grown up and proud. Everyone was exactly what and where they were supposed to be in life.