Back in Marinette's world, Lila was strolling to the Principal's Office when she saw Hawk Moth's akuma. She grinned as she grabbed the akuma again and tossed it into her ear. "Hawk Moth, I think we need to try something different this time."

Back in Hawk Moth's Lair, the man conversed with Lila. "I agree. That is why you will be both Volpina AND Chameleon. The only hindrance will be that the akuma can only let you be one at a time. I'll need to release the akuma in order for you to change forms."

"I'll be able to work with that. Thank you, Hawk Moth." The black and purple smoky aura smothered Lila, transforming her into Chameleon. When the aura cleared, it was as if it never happened...

After school, Marinette went home, went upstairs, and started working on her sewing machine. Tikki emerged from her purse. "Are you okay, Marinette?" She asked.

Marinette's finger got pricked by the sewing machine and she yelped in pain and stuck the finger in her mouth to suck the blood and ease the pain. "I-" She answered. "I don't know, Tikki. I'm just..." Marinette turned to speak to Tikki face to face. "Was I wrong to let Chloé humiliate Lila like that?"

Tikki flew to Marinette and hugged her cheek. "No!" Tikki answered as she let go of her. "Lila was using your fame and the fame of others to gain popularity. And she faked a condition to get to sit next to Adrien."

"Thing is Tikki, it wasn't Lila who rearranged the seats, it was Alya. And she didn't even ask me." Marinette sighed. "Do BBFs just assume that they'll be ok with the other's decisions if it affects them."

"No. If Alya is your BFF, she wouldn't have sent you to the back. She should've sent Chloé. Who'd then send Sabrina to the back instead."

Marinette chuckled at the truth but still stropped. "I just... need some time to clear my head and think."

Tikki frowned and hugged her friend again. "I'm here for you, Marinette. No matter what."

Marinette smiled. "Thank you, Tikki."

Downstairs in the bakery, Tom was serving a customer and putting the money in the till when he heard knocking at the side door near the stairs. He approached the door and saw the blurry figures. He gave a disgruntled groan and opened it to see all of Marinette's classmates bar Adrien, Chloé, Sabrina, and Lila. Alya was front and center, to her left were Rose and Juleka, to her right were Alix and Mylene, and behind her were Nino, Ivan, Kim, and Max. All of them had a look of guilt and regret. Alya was the first to speak. "Is- Is Marinette home?"

Tom just looked down at Alya. "Yeah, she's upstairs."

"Can we see her?"

"I don't think that's a good idea."

"We just wanna say sorry, Mister Dupain," Alix responded.

"We all feel bad for hurting Marinette," Mylene added.

"Be that as it may, you still hurt her. After hearing about all the good Marinette has done you all, none of you are welcome here anymore!"

The students gasped. "Then how can we show Marinette that we're sorry?" Nino asked.

"You'll have to see her at school." Tom went to slam the door on them but Marinette walked downstairs and stopped midway down them.

"Dad. Let Alya in." Alya smiled in relief.

"It's my house, Marinette, and I don't want anyone hurting you again."

"It's gonna happen again regardless. Besides, I'm just asking for Alya. No one else." Tom looked at Alya.

"Let her in, Tom." Sabine came through the bakery and told her husband.

Tom sighed and opened the door for Alya. Alya slowly walked in. "Thank you, Mister Dupain." Tom looked at Alya as she walked in and closed the door, not even acknowledging the others.

"Well, that went swimmingly!" Alix remarked.

"What did you expect?" Nathaniel asked. "We ALL were harsh to Marinette. And what he said was right." The students began walking away. "Marinette has done so much for us, a picnic doesn't cover it. Now we owe her big time. Tomorrow, we should apologize to her at school. Until then, I'm gonna think about how I can make it up to her." Nathaniel walked off and rang his phone. "Hey, Marc! I've really messed up here. I can't work on the comic for now."

In Marinette's room, Marinette sat in her seat at her desk and turned it so she could face Alya. Alya was sat on Marinette's sofa. "I'm sorry." She whispered, her head hung low.

"For?" Marinette asked.

"For not believing you when you said that Lila was lying."

"I have a question, Alya. You told me a good reporter always verifies their sources and asked me to prove that Lila didn't know Ladybug. Did you ever prove that Lila did know Ladybug?"

Alya gasped when she realized her hypocrisy. "N-No."

"I didn't think so. So that day, after school, I verified your source for you. Ladybug told me that before Lila was akumatized into Volpina, she'd never even met her."

Alya was even more shocked. "Ladybug told you?

"Yeah, she did. Embarrassingly, she admitted that exposing Lila's lies is what caused Volpina in the first place. Probably why Adrien wanted me to keep quiet after Chameleon."

Alya's head perked up. "Wait a minute! Adrien knew about Lila's lies?! And he did nothing to stop her?"

"He said and I quote: If you humiliate her, she'll just be hurt more. Making a bad guy suffer has never turned them into a good guy. As long as you and I both know the truth, does it really matter?"

Alya's mouth hung open. "YES! It does matter! If Chloé didn't expose her, who knows how many lies Lila could have gotten away with? I'm sorry for doubting you, Marinette. I really am but Adrien... I honestly would've expected him to be the first one to speak up. The fact that it was Chloé who showed us the truth..." Alya took a deep breath. "If his father knew, his punishment..."

"DON'T!" Marinette screamed in a panic. "Gabriel sometimes takes things too far. Ladybug told me that the book Adrien lost was so valuable to Gabriel that he got akumatized into The Collector. And when Ladybug and Cat Noir showed up, the rooms had been completely trashed."

Alya looked straight ahead. "Whoa."

"I do believe Gabriel loves Adrien. He came to the fashion show, his first public appearance since his wife disappeared and the first thing he did was hug him. But it's like he has a dual personality."

"Okay, I won't say anything about Adrien's part in this. His punishment would probably be harsher than ours."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, where do I begin?" Alya started counting on her fingers. "I'm not allowed my phone for a week and I have to babysit my sisters for a month, no questions asked. Nora's gonna make sure I do it. Nino is not allowed to play any DJ gigs for a month. Rose and Juleka are both grounded and barred from seeing each other for a month, except at school. Nathaniel has had his sketchbook taken away. Alix has lost her roller skates for two weeks. Ivan's not allowed to play for Kitty Section or contact Mylene for three weeks. Max is banned from playing any video games for two weeks, and Kim has to miss two weeks of swimming sessions."

"Some of those seem harsh."

"We were harsh on you. And we're all sorry, Marinette." Alya stood up and held her hands out to Marinette. "If you give us the chance to make amends, we swear we'll never do that again. What do you say? Will you let us make it up to you?"

Marinette smiled, took Alya's hands and stood up. "Yeah. I'm not gonna hate you all my life. But... I can't forgive you yet."

"I swear I will do everything it takes." The BFFs hugged each other. "I'm not the only one who wants to make things right. If we hurry, we could still catch some of the others."

"Then come on!" Marinette ran down the stairs with Alya following. They headed out of the bakery but when they came out of the side door, Alya got hit in the throat by a hand. Marinette turned around only to see Chloé for a split second before she kicked Marinette in the face, sending her to the floor and knocking her out. Chloé picked up both girls and was ready to take them when...

"Hey!" A voice called out. Chloé turned to see Marinette's grandmother, Gina. Chloé lept up onto the surrounding buildings with the girls. Gina headed inside the bakery. "TOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMM!"