(Summary: Ironically, Marinette didn't even have to lift a finger to bring about Lila's downfall.
I feel like pointing out that I don't edit my stories. Nobody said anything, I was just re-reading chapter three, and I noticed how many times Marinette said 'you know' in one paragraph. I'm pretty sure that was on purpose, but it's still somewhat amusing.
And yes, this is set post-reveal, as I am prone to setting. We also have the group-chat trope in this one!
Disclaimer, I do not own Miraculous, Tales of Ladybug and Chat Noir.)
It was refreshing to walk into class one day and not feel your classmates giving you the stink eye. No, really. Marinette didn't remember a time before this when she could confidently say that she wasn't the most hated person of the week. 'This' refers to the rumours that Lila was spreading about her. Seriously, there was no line she didn't cross. According to Lila, Marinette was a racist, religiophobic homophobic, xenophobic bully who didn't know when to stop. Marinette was half expecting to be proclaimed a Nazi today.
But, what surprised Marinette was that Lila was the one sitting alone. Lila was the one hunching in on herself. Lila was the one on the receiving end of the class's glares.
Only one sentence came to Marinette's mind.
'What… the… actual... fuck?'
Just yesterday, Alya was bragging about how Lila was doing another interview for the Ladyblog. She was meant to be helping Juleka get a job at Gabriel and was talking about how she'd be bringing Jagged Stone to their school dance that Friday.
Only two people looked as confused as she felt. Adrien, and the devil herself, Lila.
Marinette decided to approach Adrien, the safer option. "What's going on?" she whispered, warily examining Alya's scowl. "Shouldn't they be worshiping her, or something?"
"No idea," Adrien said. "Nino won't tell me what happened. He told me to check the glass group chat, but there's nothing there." Marinette frowned, pulling out her phone. Adrien was right. The last conversation was two days ago, in which Rose was asking if they had any literature homework. "We could ask somebody else…" Adrien trailed off, catching the hesitant look on Marinette's face. "...Or not." Despite their classmates' realisations about Lila, Marinette didn't trust them not to treat her any differently. "Sit with me today," Adrien said, taking her bag from her. Nino seemed pretty content to hover beside Alya.
"I still can't believe they're not treating her like the fucking Messiah…" Marinette muttered, fiddling with the hem of her skirt.
Adrien looked across the row, an idea occurring to him. "Hey, Chlo, can I borrow your phone?" he asked. Chloé didn't look away from her nails as she nodded. Sabrina hopped up, taking the phone from Chloé's pocket and handing it to him. Adrien unlocked the phone immediately. Marinette wondered how he knew Chloé's password. He went into Chloé's messaging app, where there were two glass group chats. One was titled 'Collège François Dupont', but the other was titled 'Akuma Class Investigations'. Adrien quickly screenshotted the latter's messages, sending them to his and Marinette's phones before returning Chloé's.
"They had a second group chat," Marinette frowned, looking at the roaster she'd just been sent. Everyone except for herself, Adrien and Lila was in the group.
She frowned, going to the next screenshot.
Alya Césaire has added you, Nino Lahiffe, Ivan Bruel, Juleka Couffaine, Mylène Haprèle, Max Kanté, Alix Kubdel, Nathaniel Kurtzberg, Rose Lavillant, Lê Chiến Kim and Sabrina Raincomprix to 'New Group'.
Alya Césaire has renamed the group to 'Akuma Class Investigations'.
Alya Césaire has changed name to Ladyblogger
Nino Lahiffe has changed name to DJ Turtle
Chloé Bourgeois: Turtle, really?
Chloé Bourgeois has changed name to Queen Bee
Alix Kubdel: 'queen bee' really?
Alix Kubdel has changed name to SkaterGal
SkaterGal: whats this about?
Max Kanté: I'm assuming that its purpose is to 'investigate' something to do with our class.
Ladyblogger: yip.
Ladyblogger: it's about the whole Lila v. Marinette thing, and their love triangle with Adrien, too
Lê Chiến Kim: whys it called akuma class then
Lê Chiến Kim has changed name to MonkeyMan
Ladyblogger: cause were the akuma class?
Ladyblogger: obviously
The rest of the messages were simply banter, nothing that'd ruin Lila's life. Marinette frowned, skimming over about five of the screenshots. For the most of it, the class gossiped about how Marinette 'changed' and how Adrien was choosing her side over Lila. Eventually, however, Marinette found herself looking at messages from last night.
Ladyblogger: omg guys! code red! code red!
DJ Turtle: what did mari do?
TeddyBear: prolly through lila down stairs again
SmolTeddyBear: threw*, Ivan
Genius: Code Red is reserved for Lila, Code Pink is for Marinette and Adrien is Code Yellow. What happened?
Ladyblogger: so i was talking with my sisters and they talked about how lila made this rhyming game, but they didnt, its an app and i was confused so i texted her and lila said she made it
GayGoth: maybe another game?
Ladyblogger: nope
Ladyblogger: so i talked to nora and she thinks lilas lying
Ladyblogger: but why?
Queen Bee: Because Lila's a liar.
Ladyblogger: no.
Rose: she's not
GayGoth: now you sound like marinette
SmolTeddyBear: Lila isn't a liar
Queen Bee has sent three (3) new images
Marinette examined the images. One was a screenshot of what popped up when Lila's name was researched on google. The only result was from the Ladyblog. The second was from an interview Jagged Stone did. He talked about hating cats (except Chat Noir, who was totally rock n' roll) and being allergic to fur. The final image was from a file, the kind that people their age didn't have access to. It was a restricted file, but as the Mayor's daughter, Chloé just had to pull a few strings to get it. It detailed how Lila was expelled twice because of bullying other students and forcing another to commit suicide. Literally forcing.
Marinette felt disgusted as she read over the file. That was… something.
Ladyblogger: omg
Ladyblogger: OMG
Ladyblogger: lilas a liar
Ladyblogger: and she did that
Ladyblogger: to another person
Ladyblogger: FUCK
MonkeyMan: nice summary
MonkeyMan: wait shit.
MonkeyMan: what the FUCK
Rose: think im gonna be sick
GayGoth: even HM wouldnt do that
Artist: does this mean maris been telling the truth?
DJ Turtle: and adrien
TeddyBear: we should probably do some of our own research…
LadyBlogger: howd you get that file?
LadyBlogger: I cant find anything on it online
Genius: The information was probably restricted from public access because Lila is a diplomat's child
LadyBlogger: or is she?
Genius: Yes. It's in her file.
Rose: we need to apologise to marinette
LadyBlogger: i cant believe this
LadyBlogger: my best friend…
TeenageWitch: can we call? might be easier.
LadyBlogger: yeah
Genius: Alright
LadyBlogger is ringing the group
Video call ended at 03:08 am
Marinette couldn't believe it. Lila… they knew. They knew! This was… she was probably in shock. How… well, she knew how. Chloé had stepped up and revealed her dirt on Lila. Still… Marinette glanced back at her classmates. Was it rude of her to want them to apologise? Should she wait for them? Or go to them? Neither option sounded particularly appealing.
Adrien nudged Marinette. "Let them apologise," Adrien said. "They owe it to you."
Marinette nodded shakily. Yeah. She'd just wait, then…
Apologies did come eventually. At their school dance, Max had sent out a mass text message and Alya hopped onto the stage, explaining just who Lila really was, with the aid of a powerpoint presentation. The last slide consisted of a bright pink 'We're Sorry Marinette' and suddenly Marinette was being bombarded by apologies. She never felt so awkward in her life.
Honestly, this was more satisfying than exposing Lila herself. Knowing that they did it… that they realised that Lila was a liar without her aid.
That was more satisfying than any exposition she led could ever be. Because it meant they had a modicum of faith in her. And that's all she'd ever wanted.