Fifteen minutes of fame
Note: About the previous Lila chapter, Mata Hari was a spy in the second world war, often romanticized in films.
Lila wanted to know that she got something out of this. And there was nothing that she wanted more than attention. Adrien was going to give it to her one way or another. The attention of everyone. She was going to get it. One of the people who bought the photos asked where she got them.
"Oh, I am Adrien's classmate, he was sending me photos the whole time." Lila sing sang her reply.
Of course they wanted her interview. A classmate of Adrien Agreste and the girl who fought by his side in the video, Marinette Dupain Cheng. That had to be good material to show, even if they only discussed grades and homework, the public was thirsty for anything on the subject.
Lila was at home and watched Alec Cataldi on TV, he announced social networks ups and downs. Gabriel Agreste held the position of the down side. Adrien and Marinette shared the number one on the up side. It was a snapshot from the battle video. Lila frowned. She had to change that. She was going to push that bakery girl back where she belongs.
Lila was determined to get Adrien. The boy was a supermodel and a hero now. She counted on him as a gateway to the world of rich and famous. He was famous, even more after he fought his own father and it became common knowledge that his father was Hawk Moth.
His fifteen minutes of fame will pass. She needed to pull the attention to herself. Nobody will want the son of Hawk Moth to model their products. It will become the bad publicity. The media had already turned their attention towards the other people who fought by his side. But all six of them were in China, in the middle of nowhere, while Lila was in Paris and she will have the media eat from her hands. She arranged the meeting as soon as possible.
The journalist who met her was young, probably still a university student, he explained they were just showing the photos she sent him and now he wanted an interview with her.
"Dear viewers, we are streaming this interview live from the park at Place des Vosgues. I am talking here with Lila Rossi, the girl who was kind enough to provide those photos for you to see. Please tell us something about yourself." The journalist spoke quickly and professionally. He was just a beginner and he was given a task to interview a schoolgirl. He was determined to show his professionalism and dedication.
"Hi everyone. I am Lila Rossi. My parents work in diplomacy. I moved in Paris about a year ago and started school here. Adrien Agreste is my classmate and Ladybug is my best friend." She exclaimed while she pretended to be shy.
"And Marinette Dupain Cheng?" The journalist asked.
"Yes her too … is my classmate." Lila added through her teeth.
"About Ladybug," The man checked his notes. "You gave an interview to Alya Cesaire, that you were the best friend to Ladybug." The journalist actually took the effort and looked at his list of questions and tried to steer that interview somewhere, towards the end, hopefully.
"Oh." Lila takes a second. "Ladybug and me are like two peas in a pod. She always comes to me for advice on how to fight. She did it for this fight too." She chose to ignore the last question.
"There you mentioned several other celebrities you know." The man continued as he glanced to his notes.
"Oh you mean when Jagged stone wrote a song about me when I saved his kitten from a runway?" Lila fluttered her eyelashes.
"Yes that and there is a mention of .." the young man spoke and looked at the cheat sheet in his hand.
"Prince Ali, I was involved with many charity events with him. I had so many ideas, I am so glad I could meet someone like him who would recognize my ideas and let me make them come true. We helped so many children and we are basically saving the planet as we speak." Lila just could not stop.
"So, tell our viewers, please, how did you get those photos?" The journalist put his best interested face on.
"Adrien sent me those pictures himself. You see, I knew he was going to China with his father." Lila grinned.
The journalist stared at the girl.
Officer Raincomprix was watching the live stream as his official duty in the investigation of Gabriel Agreste and Hawk Moth. He did a quick background check because he had little time, but according to the data he had, Adrien did not travel together with his father, although both were in the same airplane. He frowned and dialled the number of Adrien's legal representative.
"There is no Gabriel Agreste in any of those photos." The journalist stated simply. He did examine the material he had, but he had no time for any background check. He knew of Adrien and Gabriel Agreste, but that was all he knew.
"You know how Gabriel Agreste is a secluded man and does not want to be reached by the media. Of course he is not in any photo." Lila stated it simply, it was a common knowledge.
"And you got these photos from Adrien Agreste because?" the journalist raised his eyebrows.
"Adrien Agreste is my boyfriend." Lila fluttered her eyelashes. "Or at least he was before he left." She feigned she was crying and wiping tears from her eyes. The viewers were probably fooled, but the young man who interviewed her could see clearly the whole performance was fake. He was confused and did not know how to react.
"I was dating Adrien. But that girl stole my boyfriend." She kept wiping feigned tears from her eyes.
"What can you tell us about Marinette?" The man asked without thinking. He saw the video of the battle. He was certain as everyone else who saw the video that Adrien and Marinette were in love and devoted to each other. He could not tell if they were in a relationship, but the emotions were so obvious that there was no room left for doubt.
"I always wanted to be a friend with Marinette. But she kept bullying me." She was 'shedding' fake tears again.
The young man looked puzzled, but it was not her words, even not the fact that she was lying, it was that she pretended to be hurt. He did not know how to react to a teenage girl who pretended to be hurt in an interview. He knew what he would have done if she was his little sister at home, but the young man was not trained for that.
"She threatened me, multiple times." Lila continued after a sob.
"Why would she threaten you?" The man asked incredulously.
"Marinette worked for Hawk Moth. That is why she bullied me." Lila clarified with a sly smile.
"How?" At this point he was proud of himself that he was able to speak.
"She made me akumatized, several times. She always sought victims. Almost the whole of my class was akumatized, several students for multiple times. Even our teacher and the school principal. The only students who were not akumatized in my class are Adrien and Marinette. That should tell you something." Lila finished her point.
"For how long have you suspected her?" A meaningful question, he congratulated himself internally.
"Oh, I think I knew from the first day I stepped into that classroom. She never liked me. She was jealous of my popularity. She can be like that, you know. She is sweet with everyone on the outside, but when you are not looking, she would push you down the stairs if she does not like you." Lila could not resist trashing Marinette.
"Why was she jealous of you?" Let's keep the appearance he was actually leading this interview, it does not matter if that subject was already mentioned.
"Because Adrien loved me. Because all of her friends preferred to spend their time with me. They could see clearly she was just using them for her popularity." Lila loved to turn the facts around how they suited her.
"But we saw this girl fought Hawk Moth and Mayura with her bare hands." The journalist in him protested.
"Marinette knew Gabriel Agreste was Hawk Moth." Lila claimed. There it was, whenever he was picking up, she threw a bombshell.
"Beg your pardon?" Was the most coherent thing he could say.
"Oh I am certain they would never harm her. Marinette was on their side. She sided with the supervillains, she worked for Hawk Moth and Mayura. She probably manipulated them to take Adrien away from me." There it was, feigned tears again.
"But she was fighting them?" The man asked incredulously. He had eyes, he saw the video, was there something wrong with him?
"It must have been me who changed her mind in the end." Lila spoke sadly, and loudly, too loud to be actually sad. There it was, another bombshell in his courtyard.
"What?" The young man practically screamed and stared at Lila. There were so many twists and turns in her story. He started to doubt his own sanity, but he let the girl roll.
"I wrote to her, I called her, I begged her to stop." Lila was fake crying again. "It was such a huge effort, with the time difference and all."
"You have sacrificed yourself a lot." There it was, no question, just a statement pulled out from him. Lila knew she was winning, she grinned.
"Oh, I could not possibly bore you to death with my troubles. Unfortunately, I lost my boyfriend to that girl for my efforts in defeating the supervillains, but at least Hawk Moth is defeated." She rubbed her eyes as she pretended to cry again. "Poor boy, have you seen him? His smile and his eyes? I have never seen such an expression on his face. She must have drugged him. There is no way he would ever be caught near her if he was not under influence."
"Could you explain what you did?" The man asked.
"I suspected Gabriel Agreste was Hawk Moth." She said in feigned confidence as it was even louder than her speech so far.
"oh" There was another shock to his system. He was prepared for an interview with a normal schoolgirl, he expected a crush on the supermodel classmate, he expected the jealousy, but not an actress and definitely not this.
"You see, I did not want to believe that. Adrien Agreste was my boyfriend and I could not believe that his father would be … It sent shivers down my spine when I remember those moments." Lila continued undisturbed.
"Which moments?" The man asked automatically.
"When I was in the Agreste mansion. You know I was often invited. I helped Adrien with his school work. He had so many problems in school and with his grades. If it wasn't for me … I don't know what would become of him." Lila pretended to be concerned for Adrien, the man before her was not buying it but he wandered if any of the viewers have doubted her words.
"What do you mean?" He wanted her to clarify, he wanted her to bury herself into the pile of her own lies. Because according to the data he had, Adrien Agreste was a straight A role model student and there was no option for bad grades and need of help from a classmate. The boy was home schooled, his father would have taken professional tutors, not this girl.
"You see, I am not certain he did not know his father was Hawk Moth too." There it was, another twist in her tale that confused the man who interviewed her. They told him this was a simple schoolgirl, they told him this would be easy, he took this interview totally unprepared to what hit him.
"So why did you go there?" The journalist asked as it seemed the only logical thing to do.
"Adrien kept telling me how much he loved me. He adored me, you see. He could not live without me, I had to be there for him. He took me for the photo shoots. Finally his father relented and allowed me to be in the photos once he saw that Adrien was not able to function in front of cameras without me." Lila was getting lost in her own story.
"You are referring to those photos taken that one time?" The journalist asked incredulously. He vaguely remembered the social networks exploded with that piece of news in the absence of anything else that would draw people's attention to the gossip. The interest shifted to something completely different already the next day.
"Oh yes, there were many more, but they had to photo shop me out from those photos. I do not like to be exposed in the media like that." Lila feigned being shy and fluttered her eyelashes.
"So you worked for Gabriel Agreste and modelled with Adrien?" The journalist in him wanted facts. He also wanted to ask why she was talking to the media now, but gave up.
"I never worked for Gabriel Agreste, you see, I was never paid, although their sales skyrocketed after those photos with me were finally released to the public." Lila acted as if she was hurt.
The journalist raised his eyebrows.
"I feel so used." She whined to the camera.
"But you remained in the relationship with Adrien?" The young man tried and failed to keep a professional expression because there was confusion all over his face.
"I had to be brave I had to continue going there. Besides, he could not live without me." The girl continued her tall tale.
"So that was why you kept going?" Keep the dynamics of the conversation just keep the dynamics the man kept telling himself. The truth was probably already dead anyway.
"Oh it was not only that. You see I just knew Gabriel Agreste had to be Hawk Moth. I had this feeling inside. Ladybug is my best friend. I was collecting evidence so the superheroes could put him away." Lila was in her element.
"You were collecting the evidence, why not the police? Why not the superheroes themselves if Ladybug is your best friend?" The young man felt logic was also dead and buried just like the truth was.
"I told Ladybug about my suspicions, but she would not listen. If my best friend dismissed my claims so quickly and easily, why would anyone else believe my words,. I am just a simple teenage girl." Lila fluttered her eyelashes again. Any similarity to what happened to Marinette was purely circumstantial, right?
Nino watched the interview and rolled his eyes or sighed or both at each of Lila's statements. He knew Adrien never sent those photos to Lila. He was certain of that. He also knew Lila had Alya's phone for a while because his girlfriend told him. He knew each sentence was a lie. When the interview was finally over, he sent a message to all of his schoolmates and warned them that the whole interview with Lila was only a bunch of lies and briefly explained how she got the photos.
Alya saw the interview. She could not believe Adrien also told Lila he was going to China. Because the alternative explanation would mean Alya was naive and trashed her blog with information from Lila. She watched the interview and clenched her fists. She could not believe what she was hearing, she could not believe that Marinette would be so mean. But she knew how competitive Marinette could be when it was about Adrien, she did score better than Max (and Adrien) in that video game. She did win the whole competition in the end. Alya felt sorry for Lila, she was happy that Marinette went to China with Adrien, but now she was doubting herself. Either Marinette or Lila was really mean. And Alya was wrong in any case, but she could not decide which one to believe.
The rest of the class watched the interview with mixed feelings, but they all trusted Nino and chose to finally accept that Lila was a liar. Chloe missed it, she was getting home from New York.