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Alya couldn't wipe the smile off her face as she walked home. She couldn't believe her luck. Not only had Ladybug swung right in front of her, but she'd dropped this! A textbook, one exactly like the one Alya had tucked into her bag. So Ladybug was in the same year as her, maybe even in the same school...
She trudged up the stairs to her family's apartment, dodging her brothers' sticky hands as she made her way to her room and flopped down onto her bed. She stared at the cover of the book in her hands and sighed, tipping back so that she toppled over with her head on her pillow. She'd promised her viewers she'd show them the name inside tomorrow (suspense, she knew, was the way to keep them coming back), but she didn't know if she could wait until then. To finally know the identity of her hero... it was almost too much.
Then again, she mused, fingering the little ledge where the inside cover of the book met its pages, just because she promised to show them tomorrow didn't mean she couldn't look at the name herself. And besides, what if it turned out that the current owner hadn't written their name in the book?
Yes, of course. It only made sense for her to look at the name now. That way she could come up with explanations, could research the girl's identity and tell her viewers all about her. Decided, she braced herself for the big moment, curled her fingers, and pulled the cover back.
She nearly dropped the book.
Inside the cover, clearly written in a flowing, loopy script, was the name Marinette Dupain-Cheng.
Alya lay the book down on her bed and turned to stare at the ceiling. Marinette? Marinette was Ladybug?
There was no way. There was absolutely no way that her clumsy, shy best friend was the smooth, charismatic, acrobatic Ladybug. Silly, sweet Marinette, who was late to everything and too shy to talk to her crush.
The outraged, confident Marinette who stood up against Chloe and became their class representative, who went up against the class champion video game player and kicked his ass.
The Marinette who always seemed to suddenly go missing every time there was a crisis.
No, no, it couldn't be. Marinette was her best friend. She knew how much Ladybug meant to Alya. Surely, surely if Marinette was Ladybug she would have told her.
Tears of rage and hurt sprung into Alya's eyes. She couldn't believe Marinette would keep this from her. They were best friends. They told each other everything. That Marinette would keep this from her made her feel cold.
Or maybe...
Alya bit her lip. Maybe this wasn't about her at all.
She thought back to her comic books. The heroes always kept their identities a secret, even from their families. They were always going on and on about "protecting" the people they loved, afraid that if people knew about their secret lives, their loved ones would be used as bait, or tortured for information.
Maybe Marinette was trying to protect her.
Alya's phone beeped with a text message from Marinette, who wanted to meet her at the new Egyptian exhibit at the Louvre. The text sounded almost frantic.
She knows I have her book. She probably wants to take it from me before I get the chance to look and see it belongs to her.
And Alya would let her. She swung her legs over the side of the bed and stood up, stretching her back. If Marinette was keeping this a secret, then Alya would too.
What her viewers didn't know wouldn't hurt them.