Now for some drama!


Chapter 6: The Sleepover Scandal, Part 1

"- so we'll be doing a pop quiz on chemistry," Mendeleev continued, finally making Lacy's mind snap back to present.

She cursed under her breath. Alix swore a little more loudly, Sabrina let out an "eek" and Marinette looked like her eyes would fall out from her head.

Mendeleev turned around and sighed. "If you've been keeping up with my lessons, this should be easy for you. Ms Hatzi, Ms Bourgeois, I have some catch up work for you to do instead."

"Catch up work!" Chloe snapped. "My grade is perfect in this class."

"Because you're not doing it," Ms Mendeleev said. "Mr Agreste, if you'd pass out the tests for me."

Chloe crossed her arms and fumed.

Lacy forced down her nausea - she could use a little help catching up, after all, and Mendeleev may be tough but she did want her students to be successful. It wouldn't be like the last couple times she was called out by a teacher.

Right?

Chloe and Miss Mendeleev walked out together, staying in the hallway where Miss Mendeleev could still keep track of the class, but no one could hear her conversation.

"So are we doing a make-up sleepover some time?" Alix asked. "Since last night got ruined?"

"We should!" Rose said. "And maybe Lila and Alya can come!"

"If we do it tonight I should be free," Alya offered.

Juleka shook her head. "Not tonight. Luka's having friends over."

"Well, we can do it some place else," Marinette suggested. "Maybe we could hang out in the park this afternoon, and then the girls can come stay at my place and the boys somewhere else?"

"I'm close to Marinette's," Kim offered. "You can totally come to my place! I have an awesome gaming station - partially provided by Max, of course."

Nino sighed. "Why must I be stuck babysitting?"

"What about you, Lila?" Rose asked. "Sleepover at Marinette's?"

"Sounds great!" Lila agreed. "I would love to come over!"

Lacy mentally groaned. A sleepover with Lila did not sound like fun. Still, it was a chance to hang out with Alix and Nathaniel. And Lila didn't notice Lacy most of the time anyways.

"Marinette, are you okay?" Adrien asked.

Right. Lacy wasn't the only one who dreaded Lila's presence.

"Oh no," Lila said. "She probably doesn't want me there. It's okay - I don't have to come if you don't want me, Marinette."

"Don't be ridiculous," Alya said. "Everyone's invited."

"That's not your place to say, Alya," Adrien said.

"You're right, Lila," Marinette said coldly. "I don't want you in my house."

"Marinette!" Alya scolded. "This is a class event! You can't leave Lila out."

"If you want Lila to come, we need to have it someplace else," Marinette said. "I'm not letting her in my house."

"But there's no where else we can go!" Alya argued.

Lacy felt herself scowl. "You shouldn't force her to let someone in her space she doesn't want!"

"Yeah!" Alix agreed. "I mean, I have a room I don't let anyone into - even my old man! If Marinette doesn't feel comfortable letting Lila in her room yet, that's her decision."

"But we can't leave Lila out!" Rose argued. "Marinette, aren't you the one always talking about including everyone!"

"It's her own personal space," Lacy argued. "That's different. It's not like she's telling Lila she can't hang out with us at the park."

"Lacy's right, Marinette," Adrien added.

Marinette sighed and slumped her shoulders. "No, Rose is right. I can't preach inclusion and then leave Lila out."

"How about this? Lila can come over, but we all stay in the living room," Alix suggested. "That way, we're all included but no one is invading your space."

"That's a good idea," Marinette agreed.

Lacy frowned, not happy with the idea, but Marinette seemed defeated. Lacy sighed and decided to let it go.

Chloe came back into the classroom, frustrated, followed by Ms Mendeleev.

"Ms Hatzi?"

Lacy followed her teacher out of the classroom.

Ms Mendeleev handed her a tablet with headphones. "Our school has agreed to participate in an experimental program aiming to help students with reading difficulties like dyslexia. This tablet has audio recordings of some of the readings I gave."

"Oh thank the gods," Lacy blurted. Sure, she had some focus problems when it came to audiobooks and similar recordings, but anything beat reading.

"Don't thank them, thank me," Ms. Mendeleev grunted.

"Thank you, Ms Mendeleev," Lacy said. "This will help me a ton!"

"I do believe you to be a good student, Lacy," Ms Mendeleev said. "But you can't learn the same way as the other students. Learning is a process a lot like science, and sometimes it takes some trial and error. Don't be afraid to experiment a little more. Now get back in there, I still have a test to give."


Alix and Lacy were the last ones in from the park, so they were forced to sit on the ground for the movie.

Marinette offered to wait for them to change into pajamas, but Lacy felt perfectly comfortable in her day clothes. It was part of the Aphrodite magic - in the same way that Piper and Drew can charmspeak, and Mitchell naturally repels stains, Lacy's clothes always adjusted for a perfect, and comfortable, fit. It was a nice power, if a bit useless. Likewise, Alix never wore clothes that weren't comfortable for her, so she didn't feel the need to change.

Besides, Alya was starting to get impatient.

"What should we watch?" Marinette asked when they all settled in the living room. Juleka and Rose was sharing one seat, Alya and Lila in the other, and Marinette, Mylene, and her other friend Kagami had taken the couch. Lacy and Alix were squished at the base of the couch, sharing two fuzzy blankets.

"Disney!" Rose requested.

"Ooh, yes!" Lacy agreed.

Alix sighed. "Oh come on. Let's do something with a little more action in it."

"There's Disney movies with action," Alya said. "Mulan, Tangled, Frozen-"

"Not Frozen," Lacy interrupted.

"But Frozen's my favorite," Rose whined.

"What about Brave?" Alix suggested.

"What's the point of Disney with no romance?" Lacy found herself asking. The words sounded like something one of her sisters said - but wasn't there some truth, even if she liked the movie Brave?

Rose nodded. "I love Tangled! Let's watch that!"

"Lila, any requests?" Alya asked.

"Tangled's fine," Lila said. "I actually know someone who-"

Alix sighed, just loud enough for Lacy to hear.

"- so they all said he saved the movie," Lila continued.

"Can we start the movie already?" Marinette asked.

"Marinette!" Alya admonished.

"I agree with Marinette," Kagami said. "If we're going to watch a movie, we should watch the movie."

"Couldn't put it better myself," Alix agreed. "Movie it is!"


About halfway through the movie, Lila excused herself to go to the bathroom. Something sounded off in her voice, so even though Lacy didn't want to miss the movie, she followed her.

Lila bypassed the bathroom completely and started up the stairs to Marinette's room. Lacy felt a surge of panic - she knew something was off, but what to do about it? Call Lila out now and risk getting on her bad side? Go warn Marinette and risk being too late?

Or maybe I can just feign innocence, Lacy said. If she thinks I found her by accident she can't get mad at me, right?

"Lila?" Lacy called. "The bathroom's this way."

Lila froze, her shoulders tensing for a moment before she relaxed and turned to Lacy. "Oh, thank you. I have such a poor sense of direction." Lila walked down a few steps before pausing. "Were you looking for something?"

"I was grabbing a drink when I heard someone on the stairs," Lacy lied. "Since this was your first time here, I figured you must be lost."

"You're such a nice friend," Lila said, taking a step towards Lacy. "Especially for someone who didn't want me to attend this sleepover."

"What?" Lacy asked, scrambling to remember what she meant. "You mean what I said during science class? That wasn't about you! It's just, you see, my dad's a therapist and he always advocates for personal space, and I guess when Alya started p- encouraging Marinette to invite you, I kinda blurted that out. I'm sorry if I hurt your feelings!"

Please please don't be mad at me.

Lila smiled. "Of course. I knew you were too nice to exclude someone like that. I just- you know, I used to think the same about Marinette, but she's been so mean to me lately-"

"Lacy it's your song!" Alix called, interrupting Lila's monologue.

"Coming," Lacy called, jogging back to the living room.


"My shirt's ripped," Lacy said, pulling the pajama shirt out of her bag.

Alix looked over at the shirt. "That's a nasty rip. How'd you manage that?"

"I don't know," Lacy replied. "It was fine when I got out of the dryer the other day-" Lacy sighed. "I'll go ask Marinette if I can borrow one of hers."

"I'm sure you can," Alix said. "Hey, maybe she'll even fix it for you!"

Lacy smiled. "That would be nice. It's such a soft shirt I'd hate for it to be ripped." She stood up, leaving the corner where all the sleepover bags had been thrown and walking back to the main living room with the rest of the girls.

"Hey Marinette," Lacy said. "Can I borrow a shirt for tonight by any chance?"

"Sure." Marinette untangled herself from where she and Alya were watching a video. "Come up with me."

Lacy followed Marinette up to her room, and watched as she dug around for a shirt. Her shoulders were hunched, and her movements were sharp. Lacy couldn't help but feel worried.

"Are you okay?" Lacy asked.

"Mhm." Marinette straightened up. "Will this work?"

"That'll be just fine," Lacy said. "Thanks!"

"Lacy?"

Lacy and Marinette both froze, recognizing the voice easily.

Lila poked her head up.

"Yes?" Marinette asked with a scowl.

Lila feigned a worrier expression. "I just wanted to make sure Lacy found something. After all, I brought an extra shirt with me."

"Thanks," Lacy said. "But Marinette already found me something."

"Good," Lila said, finishing her walk up to Marinette's room.

"What are you doing up here?" Marinette demanded.

Lila frowned. "I just said-"

"Lila." Marinette's voice dropped down. "Get out of my room."

Lila's eyes widened. "But I was just-"

"Now!" The word came out as a shout, echoing around the room.

"Girls?" Alya called from downstairs. "Everything alright up there?"

"I don't know," Lila said, faking distress in her voice. "I was just checking on them when Marinette started yelling-"

Alya appeared next to Lila, concern written over her face. She putting her arm around Lila and gave Marinette a pointed look. "I'm sure Marinette didn't mean to yell, right girl?"

"Maybe I did," Marinette snapped.

"Marinette!" Alya replied, taken aback by the comment.

"I want her out of my room," Marinette demanded.

"I wasn't doing anything!" Lila replied, beginning to sniffle. "I would never-" she leaned against Alya's shoulder, acting like she was crying.

"What's going on?" Rose asked from down the stairs.

"Marinette's yelling at Lila for no reason," Alya said.

"What?" Marinette demanded, stomping her foot. "I told her I didn't - she's intruding on my space-"

"You can't just exclude her-"

Both girls were steaming from the argument, and Lacy took a deep breath and tried to intervene.

"Alya," Lacy interjected. "Maybe you should listen to-"

"Stay out of this," Alya snapped.

Lacy felt herself take a step back, completely caught off guard.

"Don't snap at her," Marinette said.

"Can we move closer into your room?" Rose asked. "We shouldn't be arguing like this near the stairs - what if someone gets hurt?"

"Lila's not taking another step into my room," Marinette snapped.

"Don't snap at her," Juleka said. "She's just trying to help."

"Help who?" Marinette demanded. "This is my room and-"

Lacy shrank into herself as the voices around her rose in volume. Rose broke into tears, and Marinette was getting closer to Alya with every word she said, but Lacy stopped being able to make out words among the shouting.

It felt like the room was closing in on her, and the air was getting heavier, and hotter, and she wasn't getting enough air, and

"Lacy?"

Lacy blinked, noticing that at some point she had moved up to the balcony. The cold air brushed against her skin, giving her something sharp to focus on.

"In... hold... out..."

Lacy took a deep breath, following the instructions. She could feel Alix next to her, her voice smooth as she brought her through the breathing exercises. Marinette sat across from them on a lounge chair, worry etched in her face.

Lacy exhaled. "What happened?"

Marinette made a face. "Lila happened."

"Everyone got in a big argument," Alix explained. "And you started disassociating."

"The other girls all left in a huff," Marinette added. "Something about me being unreasonable."

"I'm sorry," Lacy said.

Marinette shook her head. "I should have known better than thinking tonight would turn out any better."

The trapdoor to the balcony opened, and Marinette's mom walked in, followed by Elisabeth.

"Lacy? You feeling any better?" Elisabeth asked, sitting on the other of Lacy. She rubbed her shoulder empathetically.

"A little," Lacy replied, leaning into her stepmom's chest.

"Come on, let's go home."


Since she already had a sleepover bag packed, Alix decided to stay the night at Lacy's.

They arrived just as two of her dad's coworkers were leaving, so they helped clean up dinner and put on another movie - this time one of Alix's favorite movies - on Lacy's laptop and cuddled up on her bed. They were about half way through the movie when the doorbell rang.

"I got it," Elisabeth called from down stairs.

A few minutes later, someone knocked on the door and Nathaniel peaked his head in.

"Hey," Alix said. "What are you doing here?"

"Our sleepover ended early," Nathaniel said. "Mylene called Ivan in tears and he went to pick her up, and then Markov started having software problems-"

"Kim's fault?" Alix asked.

"Basically," Nathaniel said. "It was his dare that started it."

"It's always him and his dares," Alix said.

"Anyways, I thought I find you two." Nathaniel peaked at the screen. "Of course you're watching that movie again."

"Its a good movie?" Alix defended.

"Want to watch it with us?" Lacy offered, scooting a little closer to Alix and patting to the bed next to her.

"I think I could recite it for you at this point."

Nathaniel still hopped up onto the bed, leaning in just enough to see the screen.


This chapter is a sort of a 2-parter, so I'll try to post the next one soon!