Learning assistant

Lila was livid while she watched the interview her two classmates gave on Tvi. Nobody ever bothered to ask Marinette about her collaboration with Hawk Moth. Nobody asked her about bullying a classmate. Nobody asked her about stealing Adrien. Nobody suspected Adrien knew his father was Hawk Moth. There was only one moment when the two seemed grilled by the questions they got. It was when they were asked if the two of them were in fact Ladybug and Chat Noir.

As if.

Those two could only dream about being superheroes. Lila despised both Ladybug and Marinette. But Ladybug at least had superpowers, Marinette was plain cheerfully boring girl. (or should it be boringly cheerful?)

If Marinette was indeed Ladybug, then Ladybug would never save her, never let her be. Ladybug would have threatened her to leave Marinette alone, Ladybug would have stormed the office of principal Damocles and demanded Marinette returned to the school when she got expelled. Nah, there was no way Marinette was Ladybug, she just wished to be, that was why she wore her hair in those pigtails the whole time.

And the thought of Adrien being Chat Noir made her laugh. Who could ever have such a ridiculous theory? Adrien was famous but withdrawn snail whom she manipulated any way she wanted. Even when he made her invent a lie to bring Marinette back to school, he offered his friendship in return. If he was Chat Noir, he would have appeared on her window, waved his clawed hand and threatened to use his power the next time he stopped around.

Not to mention his father was Hawk Moth. As if Gabriel Agreste and Nathalie would not notice that Adrien was Chat Noir. They would have taken the ring off from the boy long time ago.

And then there was that scene where Chat Noir was practically all over Marinette. It was obvious the girl had a thing for boys with fame. Adrien was jealous. It served him right.

"Go to bed, darling, you have school tomorrow." Benigna Rossi told her daughter.

"But maman, I told you, I can't go back to that school, that girl is bullying me." Lila whined the same story she did the whole weekend.

"That is okay, I will talk to principal Damocles first thing tomorrow morning." Benigna told her daughter.

"No, no, no maman, he is still akumatized, remember all those people Ladybug would not save?" Lila whined the same old lie that prevented her mother to contact the school.

"Well, thanks to your little scheme with the phone and the computer I now know that Hawk Moth and Mayura were defeated and there are no more of those akumas around." Benigna Rossi shrugged. "I know you have not been to school yet because of the holidays, but you might be pleasantly surprised to see that everyone is okay tomorrow." Her mother told her gently with a smile.

"But, but, but, you do not have to go to the school tomorrow. I can talk to principal Damocles then, if he is indeed okay." Lila argued.

"Just go to bed darling." Benigna urged her daughter to get some rest. Her daughter reminded her the way zombies were portrayed in films, bloody red eyes with dark circles around. Wide sneer and sometimes even foam going our from her mouth.

Lila finally relented as she thought she persuaded her mother not to go to school and went to bed. She waited for her mother to go to bed. Then she dug out her old tablet and spent the night trolling various news sites and wrote plenty of nasty comments about Marinette and a few about Adrien too. She never forgot to add a link that lead to her own interview. (She forgot to check the link, a threatening lawsuit made the provider remove the video.)

It was too bad her phone was taken so she had no way of checking the messages from her classmates.

The next morning Benigna woke her daughter up. They had a short breakfast of an espresso shot and something sweet for the mother, while Lila spent the time staring at her piece of croissant. She hated the pastry, it reminded her of Marinette.

To her utter horror, Lila was joined by her mother.

"I already got the morning off in the embassy." Benigna explained to her daughter. It was easy to get a morning off. After the stunt Lila pulled, everyone was understanding that the girl needed to be contained and someone had to do it. "They practically offered me more free time to go to school and arrange proper care for you."

That was worse than a slap in the face. Lila glared at the pavement with her stiff back and clenched fists as she stomped her way to school before she quickly schooled herself into a more appropriate picuture. Beninga observed her daughter carefully. Her poor child was indeed suffering, she needed to do something about that.

Rewind to a few days earlier while Benigna was looking for a new school for her daughter.

Principal Damocles stood in his office ready to change into his Owl suit. He called the magical words, but nothing was happening. Finally he removed the picture that hid his owl hero costume and changed. The man really enjoyed the school holidays, he could be the Owl for whole days, not just a few hours here and there. He was just about to zip up his pants (which was becoming harder and harder to achieve). But then the phone in his office rang.

"Hello, Owl, um, principal Damocles speaking." The man answered the phone.

"Hello, I am a school principal too, one of your students applied to join our school. Ms Lila Rossi. What can you tell us about her? And could you please fay us her school records too?" The woman on the other side of the line asked politely.

Principal Damocles held the trousers of his hero suit with one hand while he reached to a drawer and got the requested school records. He quickly stack them into a scanner and typed in the email address.

"Hello, I am back. The school records are being scanned." The man spoke while he was holding his trousers.

"What can you tell us about the girl, what are your personal impressions?" The woman insisted.

"Ms Lila Rossi, a darling girl, very busy with charities, she knows a lot of famous people, she is struggling with school due her conditions, though." The man cooed over the student.

"What conditions?" The woman on the other end of the line jumped to ask.

"Um, you see, she has this condition that makes her invent things and tell little lies. I almost expelled another student for that." And then principal Damocles told everything about the stolen test results, necklace and her fall down the stairs.

"Thank you, principal Damocles, you have been very helpful." The woman replied.

Principal Damocles inhaled deeply so his chest looked bigger, he felt more like a hero after such praise. The two school principals said their goodbyes and hung up their phones. But the moment the phone was down, it rang again. Principal Damocles dropped his trousers and answered the phone. It was another school, another principal (or someone who called on behalf of the principal anyway). He spent his day sending the school records about Lila Rossi and singing praises about the girl who accomplished so much in spite of her disabilities. (School principals meet regularly, imagine his colleagues at the next meeting).

Ms Bustier enjoyed her holidays. She went to personal building classes. She trained yoga. She spoke about love, happiness and mutual understanding. She felt wholesome. She found her internal peace.

Just a week before the holidays, Marinette had written a proposal to provide Lila a learning assistant. The girl that was the beneficiary of that proposal cried her eyes out how she did not want to be labelled as a burden and how it was really expensive so Principal Damocles dismissed it. The fact was that Lila was the worst student in her class, by far. Marinette was right when she suggested that the girl needed help. Caline thought about that learning assistance, Lila was so good with charities, perhaps she could get an assistant like that? It bothered her, she loved all her students and she wanted to help Lila. The girl obviously desperately needed help, in any shape and form, with all the disabilities, frequent absences and poor grades.

It was great that those awful akuma attacks subsided. She was always concerned about the safety of her students. Poor children succumbed to their negative emotions so often. If she only had more time to teach them all kinds of relaxation techniques.

Then, there were akuma attacks but they were far away, in China, far from any of her students, she believed. She felt sorry for the poor Chinese students who were in that temple.

Then there was that day. They were in the middle of a yoga class. A man burst into their tranquillity.

"They are fighting Hawk Moth and Mayura, civilians are fighting them, it seems superheroes are not there, they might have fallen." The young man shouted as he waved his tablet where the live stream of the battle was unfolding.

Of course everyone stopped the exercise. Of curse they all watched. Ms Bustier felt her eyes wanted to pop out from her head once she recognized the faces of her two students. They suffered immense violence. She could not force herself to watch. She collapsed onto the floor, her fellow yoga trainers were consoling her.

"My students. They are my students." She cried. She was disappointed in herself, how could she not know where her students were? How did she not know they were in such danger? Hawk Moth was Adrien's father? A father of one of her students. She could not remember she ever met him in person. It was always that woman, Nathalie Sancoeur, and she was Mayura. Ms Bustier was devastated, so much pain and suffering. She decided to think about Adrien each day and send him her love to make him feel better. Well, she also sent several supportive messages.

"Well if anyone from my students could be a good example to the world it is them, Marinette and Adrien." She whispered. She always knew the two of them could do more. That was why she pushed Marinette so much. Adrien was already pushed by his father.

It was merely hours later that Mme Leclerc called her for the first time. After that they had a few meetings and phone calls several times per day. She should not talk to the press. But she talked before her yoga class and that information found its way to the tabloids.

Poor Adrien lost his whole family, he was going to live with another family from now on. He wanted to stay in school. He wanted to stay in her class. That made her happy and proud. She felt responsible for his bravery and kindness (and Marinette's too).

Then someone drawn her attention to the interview. She could not remember if it was the gossip group on the tea after the yoga class or Mme Leclerc who called her and asked about Lila.

"I couldn't get principal Damocles on the phone, perhaps you could help me?" Mme Leclerc asked. Perhaps it was a phone call during the usual tea after the yoga class. Caline talked about Lila and mentioned all sorts of accomplishments and conditions, really anything she could remember from her head. Mme Leclerc was really grateful, especially when she mentioned that condition that made Lila invent stories (a teacher was not supposed to give such information to other parents nor legal representatives, but Caline did).

"Thank you so much, Ms Buster. Have you considered getting a learning assistant for Ms Lila Rossi?" The woman on the phone suggested.

"A learning assistant?" Caline repeated absent mindedly. She vaguely remembered Marinette proposed something similar. But it was discussed and dismissed. It seemed like a good idea at the time, Lila was the worst student and she needed help all the time. Yes, that was what she needed.

"Yes, Ms Rossi seems a kind of a student that would really benefit from that. With the disabilities you mentioned getting a learning assistant for the girl should be instantaneous. The school needs to pay nothing, it is provided by the Ministry of Education. I will send you the forms you need to fill out." Mme Leclerc had substantial experience in the subject, unfortunately, some of her clients needed it permanently.

Ms Bustier spend her evening filling out the forms. She was determined to do it and get an assistant for Lila from the first school day. It was not as tranquil and calming experience as she imagined her holidays to be, but her desire to help her student overcame any other emotion. She filled out the forms with all details and more. She downloaded her own records about Lila and logged in into the school database to make sure she listed all kinds of disabilities Lila ever mentioned.

It was Monday morning, Lila arrived to school with her mother three quarters of an hour before the classes began.

"It is too early maman, you will find nobody here. Why don't you use your free morning and do some shopping or have a walk?" Lila was already scheming how to remove principal Damocles from his office and Ms Bustier from the teacher's lounge. She could simply repeat all her accusations about Marinette.

"Shops are not open yet, dear. And I dread walking outside in this mist." Benigna visibly shuddered. Instead, she walked determinedly inside the school.

"Oh I will show you where the principals office is." Lila smiled widely and took off in the opposite direction.

Benigna followed her for a few steps and then stopped.

Lila stood in front of a clearly labelled girl's toilet, the toilet Lila knew she could lock her mother into.

"You can go to the toilet dear, I will wait for you here." Benigna smiled. Lila glared at her mother for a split second before she smiled back. Of course, she realized her error and thought of another room she could lock up her mother into.

"If you do not need to go to the toilet, dear, the sign says principals office is over there." Benigna pointed her finger to the sign.

"Oh no, maman, that sign is old. He just moved into his new office, it is here, on the ground floor, let me take you." The girl said with a sly smile and lead her mother to the door that lead to the janitor's closet. But to her avail, the door was locked, they could not enter.

"Principal Damocles, it is me Lila, I came with my mother." Lila called while she knocked onto the door of the janitor's closet. Her voice echoed around the empty school yard. Perhaps it was odd, but the rugs, buckets and the cleaning chemicals did not answer.

"He is not here." Lila shrugged. "We might as well find a cafe together. We can spend some time together, right maman?" The girl smiled, as long as she pulled her mother out from school she had a chance to mess this up.

"Dear Lila, Mme Rossi, how nice to finally meet you!" Principal Damocles greeted them from the stairs that lead to his office. He heard Lila called his name and went out from the office to find her. Lila glared at the man, her eyes were literally shooting daggers.

Benigna swiftly walked over.

"Be careful, he might be akumatized, maman, please do not come close." Lila begged quietly as she ran after her mother.

"Good morning Mme Rossi, Good morning Lila." Ms Bustier greeted from her back. There was a young woman with brown eyes and brown hair in an elegant dark blue suit on her side.

Lila begrudgingly followed her mother into the principals office. Well, she was going to do her act about Marinette bullying her in front of everyone.

"Principal Damocles, I am here with my mother. Because, you see, well, you know how Marinette has been bullying me and she worked with Hawk Moth and she is coming back to school and I want you to protect me." Lila was persistent in her word vomit so nobody else had a chance to speak. She continued her story and repeated all her claims from the interview and even added to them. The four adults looked at the girl in different states.

Benigna was exasperated, she heard the story so many times over the weekend.

Principal Damocles was smiling gently. He was well aware of Lila's condition and how she sometimes invented stories, he simply enjoyed her performance as one more of her stories.

Ms Buster was grateful she had the learning assistant for Lila already by her side. She remembered the condition Lila used as her excuse when Marinette returned to school. Apparently, her condition worsened, because her statements made no sense. Caline congratulated herself for providing an assistant to a needy student, and she was sure principal Damocles was going to accept her suggestion after this outburst.

"Hello dear, I am Rosa Beneli, I am Italian too, I am doing a PhD in psychology at a university here and I will be your learning assistant. Please stay calm, I can help you with all the other fears and anxieties you have." The woman was gentle and her voice was calming.

Lila protested.

"Do not worry, I will be with you every step of the way. I will sit with you in classroom, I will eat with you in the canteen, I will go to the bathroom with you" Then she laughed. "Don't worry, I will not follow you into the bathroom stall, I will just be in the same bathroom with you. We will learn a lot together. I am looking forward to spending so much time with you."

Lila stood there, silent and numb. What had just happened? She received full time adult surveillance the whole time she was in school.

"If your mother agrees, I can take you to school and get you home and I will definitely go through the homework with you, either in the library or at your home." The woman continued.

"This is excellent news." Principal Damocles exclaimed. He signed all the paperwork he was given and the whole agreement was settled.

Benigna Rossi signed the papers with a smile on her face, she left the meeting entirely satisfied with the school, they obviously cared about their students and they provided a teaching assistant to her daughter. The added bonus that her daughter was to be constantly supervised just made her life much easier. She was thinking about reconsidering that job application, if this worked out she might as well stay in Paris.

Principal Damocles was proud of himself, he provided help for his dear student, he was like a real hero, he did not even need a suit. He smiled a satisfied smile, this was a good first day of school for him. He could not wait to meet the other school principals at their regular meetings and brag about his accomplishments. First he got the mayor's daughter in his school which meant his school was the first in line to get subsidies from the city of Paris for whatever was needed and now this.

Caline chatted with Rosa, they went through Lila's school records and grades. They discussed Lila animatedly. Caline had many stories to tell. Rosa was listening attentively and asked plenty of questions, she frowned from time to time and made notes.

Lila walked around the office nervously, the two women discussed her issues, she cut in regularly and blamed everything on Marinette, then she blamed Adrien and then the others. The two women concluded it was useless to even try to communicate with the girl in that state and continued their conversation while they avoided including the girl who continued her ramble. Both women smiled at Lila gently but their eyes were full of growing concern. Lila was livid. That was not how she imagined her first day of school after the holidays would go. So she rambled on.

Caline and Rosa listened to her attentively, both women were seriously concerned for the girl's well being, they could not tell what was wrong with her, but they knew one thing for certain, and that was that the girl was getting worse.