"Hey, uh, Adrien?"
She hated the way her voice wavered, but she couldn't stop it.
Adrien looked up from his textbook, and smiled beatifically. "Hi, Sabraina!" he said happily, like they were friends. Next to him, Nino leaned forward and gave her a little wave.
"Hey, dude!"
"Hi, Nino. Um-" She hesitated. "Sorry, can I talk to Adrien alone for a second? I'm sorry, I just-"
He waved a hand to dismiss her excuse, "Sure, sure, no problem! I wanted to talk to Marinette anyways, so you can have my spot. Here you go." He grabbed his backpack and slid off the bench on the far side, then headed up the stairs towards the back of the classroom to where Marinette sat these days.
Sabrina wasn't even sure she wanted to sit down. She didn't really want to be that close to Adrien for that long. They weren't friends, he didn't like her, she didn't like him, and they both knew it, and they both knew why.
So she stayed standing in the aisle, while he continued to watch her, still smiling, still acting, since there were other people around to witness.
"So, what'd you want to talk to me about?" He asked innocently, cheerfully, closing his textbook and turning to face her so that it would look like he was giving her his undivided and enthusiastic attention.
They both knew how false it was.
"I just-" She tried to keep her voice steady. Tried to keep her composure. She knew at least some of her classmates were listening in, knew they would be judging. "Chloe cares about you. She cares about your opinion. She doesn't care about mine, she never has. I don't-I don't care what happens. My dad found another job, so he doesn't have to worry about getting fired by the Mayor any more. We're moving out of Paris in two months-"
She heard a quiet gasp from Rose, somewhere off in the peripheral, but didn't stop. If she didn't say it now, she would never be able to. This was the best opportunity she was going to get. Chloe was out for the day, and there were plenty of witnesses who would stand up for her if things went wrong. They'd always tried to help her, even long after she wouldn't have blamed them for stopping. She'd hurt them just as much as Chloe had, and she didn't deserve their compassion. But they still offered it, so she would take it. There was no use forgoing a safety net when it was freely offered to you. She continued, even though she could hear as well as anyone else the silence that had fallen over the classroom, that meant that everyone who hadn't been listening in before was now.
Adrien's eyes had widened, and his mouth was partially open, looking just as shocked by the news as everyone else.
"I just want to be able to relax until then." She said into the absolute silence, "I don't want to deal with Chloe harassing me and blackmailing me and trying to force me to stay. I just want some peace and quiet before I have to give up everything I've ever known just so my dad and I can be treated like human beings, for the first time since I can remember.
"Please, Adrien. Chloe likes you. She values your opinion. Will you please just ask her to back off? Will you please just convince her to leave me alone? That's all I ask. You're her friend. She actually cares what you think of her. You're the only one who can get her to do something she doesn't want to do. Please just get her to leave me alone. I don't want to get into a fight over this, I'm under enough stress as it is."
She turned away from him, crossing her arms behind her back so he wouldn't be able to grab her and stop her from leaving. He liked to do that, when they were at his or Chloe's house, when he wasn't surrounded by people with actual morals, when the only people there were the ones who already didn't care what happened to her.
She took a step further away, just to be safe, before she addressed the class, raising her voice and lifting her gaze to meet their many eyes, all watching her in shocked silence. It wasn't the entire class, but it was most of them. "I want to apologize," she said, "To everyone here, now that it's official. I'm moving away in two months, and you'll never see me again. I'm sorry for the ways I hurt you, I'm sorry for helping Chloe to hurt you, and..."
She felt Adrien's gaze burning into the side of her head like a physical weight against her skin.
She owed it to them. She lifted her chin higher, resolutely ignoring the silent threat Adrien was sending.
"I know you guys probably aren't going to believe me, and I know you have every right to distrust anything I tell you. I know I've lied to you before, I know you have no reason to trust me. But I'm sorry for everything I've done to you over the years, and I want to make it up to you. I don't want to lie to you any more, and I don't want to be the reason you get hurt ever again."
Her heart was pounding in her chest, but she had to say it. She wouldn't be able to live with herself if she didn't warn them.
She took another step to the side, just to get further out of his reach. Everyone watching saw. Marinette, in particular, back in the corner with Nino, seemed to be watching with the intensity of a hawk.
Sabrina took a breath, held it, then let it out. "I don't know if you guys are really, actually aware, but Chloe was abusing me. It wasn't just that she was bad at being a friend, she was abusing me. And no, we weren't dating, but you don't have to be dating someone for them to abuse you. She treated me like a slave, and if I messed up, or did anything to upset her, she would tell her father, and my father would be punished. Sometimes it was just his pay getting docked. Sometimes he had our water shut off, or he'd increase the cost of our rent. Chloe was abusing me, the same way her father was abusing my father. And she wasn't the only one abusing me. And I know you probably won't believe me, but you deserve to know the truth.
Chloe isn't the only abuser in your class. She isn't the only one who treated me like dirt, like an object. She isn't the only rich spoiled brat who gets everything they want, including human playthings!" Her voice rose involuntarily on the last sentence, her composure starting to crumble. Her breathing was starting to get ragged, her heart galloping away inside her chest like it wanted to break free. All the anger and rage and fear she'd had to hold back for so long, finally she could let it go.
She took another step back, knowing that every eye in the room tracked the movement. Knowing that no one in the room could have any question about who she was talking about. Besides Chloe, there was only one other kid in their class who could even begin to be described as "rich".
She turned defiantly to face him, where he was leaning out of his chair, his hands gripping the edge of the bench, his jaw set and his eyes burning with carefully controlled anger that you could only recognize if you knew what to look for. If you already knew what lay beneath the carefully crafted mask. Everyone was watching, so he couldn't do anything.
"It's not just that you never stood up for me." She said, knowing he would try to spin it so he could play the victim, too afraid to rock the boat and lose all his friends, "You treated me just as badly as she did. Made fun of me just like she did. Treated me like an object just like she did. You helped 'train' me and laughed when Chloe yelled at me so much I cried. You were the one that suggested her father punish mine when I fought back. You were the one that gave her almost all her ideas. You're smart, Adrien, you're creative. Chloe might be horrible, but she doesn't-she doesn't think things through the way you do. She doesn't plan ahead. She doesn't plan a way out.
When Chloe wants you in the river, she shoves you. And it gets the job done. You're in the water, you're drowning, and she's the only one there to pull you back out. But you, Adrien? You push, and you shove when no one's looking, but you're smart. When people are watching, you change tactics. You don't get in trouble the way Chloe does. You don't get a bad reputation the way Chloe does. You lie, you manipulate, you give me no choice but to fall, but you make it seem like it's my fault, like it's something I deserve, like it's something that I'm choosing to do to myself. Like it's something that hurts you, so that when I fall, everyone runs over to fuss over you because you got splashed. And I get blamed for it."
She looked up at her classmates. They were staring, all of them, all of them shocked, some of them angry, some of them skeptical, but all of them paying rapt attention. They could hear the emotion in her voice, because she was no longer trying to hide it.
"He pretends when he's around you, when he's around anyone else. He's not like Chloe, his father won't let him get away with anything he wants. So he puts on an act, he plays the nice guy, he lies and he manipulates, and he gets what he wants. He makes you feel like you're in the wrong for being upset, he makes himself out to be the victim, he makes it so that anything you ask for seems too much to ask.
"I don't know why I'm even bothering to ask him to help me with Chloe, except maybe the vain hope that your judgement will be enough pressure for him to keep his mask on this time. I know, and you all know, already, that he cares more for Chloe than he does any of you. That's why he's still her friend, even though she torments you day in and day out. She made Mylene cry in front of all of you, and he laughed. And told you that it's no use trying to get Chloe to change her ways.
"And maybe you thought, 'okay, he has bad taste in friends, but we can't blame him for what Chloe does.' Maybe he's convinced you that you have to be the better person, that you have to just stand there and take it, or else you're worse than she is. Maybe he's just made it out that Chloe herself is a victim, because her mom isn't in the picture. Maybe he made you think that her happiness is more important than your own, I don't know.
"But I do know this. He and Chloe are the same. They'll both hurt you, just the same. The only difference between them is that when Adrien hurts you, he'll do it in ways he can get away with. He'll manipulate the situation so that he comes out on top, looking squeaky clean and innocent. It doesn't matter how you get in the water, whether you're pushed, or left with no alternative but to jump. The end result is the same. You get hurt, and they get to laugh at you, without ever facing the consequences. And he's smart. He knows how to adapt. If there's no chance of getting caught, he'll show his true nature, he'll treat you like-like you aren't even human. Like you only exist to entertain him. Because he knows that if you tell anyone, they won't believe you, because when there are witnesses, like right now, then he puts on an innocent, friendly act. It's all part of his plan. You can't get help if no one believes you, and no one will believe you if the person you're accusing acts nice enough around other people.
"It's why I know you probably won't believe me, now that I'm telling you this, but I have to say something, now that I can, now that I know I'll be able to get away from him and Chloe. There really isn't much more they could do to me they haven't already done except. Well, if my father and I turn up dead in a car accident a few days from now, or you hear on the news that I killed myself, or our house mysteriously burnt to the ground with no survivors, you'll know who to blame. Because if I die, it won't be by my own hand. I'll go kicking and screaming. If I turn up dead in a few days, it will be because someone killed me.
"But even I don't think they'd really go that far, but then again, I've been proven wrong about how far they'll go to hurt me before. I just thought I would bring that up, because if this were a movie, if I didn't say anything, then I would turn up dead, and everyone would think it was just some tragic accident. So now that I've said it aloud, well, you guys are witnesses, and you can testify if something does happen. And I'm sorry if that puts you in danger, too, but I figured they can't kill us all, at least, not easily. There's safety in numbers, which is why I'm telling you all this, and why I want you to tell everyone else in the class who isn't here right now when they get back.
"I want you guys to watch out for each other. Watch out for yourselves, and people in the other classes, and make sure that Adrien isn't targeting anyone. Make sure he doesn't corner anyone where they can't get away, make sure he doesn't pull people aside to talk to them in private, make sure that they don't hate themselves and blame themselves after he's spoken to them.
"I'm leaving, so I can finally say all of this. They can hurt me, but now I don't have to put up with it. Now I don't have to pretend like I'm fine being Chloe's slave because if I don't, she'll tell her father, andt hen my dad and I won't have anything to eat for a week, or we won't have hot water or even any water, or Chloe'll put stink bombs in our washing machine so that all our clothes are ruined.
"I'm leaving. I'm finally escaping. Which means Chloe's going to throw a fit, and I'm sorry, but it means she's probably going to treat you guys worse for a while. At least until her father gets her another slave. And I know you have no reason to believe me, but if you won't do it for me, do it for yourselves, just do me one favor. Watch Adrien.
"Watch the way he acts when Chloe destroys your artwork, or insults your clothes, or says racist stuff about your family members. Watch how he reacts when she makes fun of disabled people, or sits in the middle of the ramp so the students and teachers in wheelchairs can't get past her. Just watch how he reacts when you get upset with her and call her out. Watch how he reacts when you ask him to stop defending her. Watch how he reacts when he pulls you aside to talk to you privately, so you can feel special, so he can make you feel guilty about standing up for yourself, so he can make you feel like you're a worse person than Chloe is for daring to be upset by the way she abuses you.
"I know-" Finally, she hesitated, almost ran out of steam. She glanced towards the door to make sure it was still closed. "I know Ms. Bustier seems nice, but-"
Apparently that was as far as she was allowed to go.
"Hey," Adrien said, his voice raised just enough so everyone could hear the exquisite level of sadness and hurt he was pouring into his voice, while still conveying a soft, quiet sorrow.
She refocused her gaze on him, and saw he was doing his signature sad boy routine. Downcast eyes, slumped shoulders, hunching in on himself to make him look smaller and more vulnerable, more like a victim.
He looked up at her, even putting in the effort to make his lower lip tremble, like he was on the verge of tears. Lifting his head high enough so that everyone could see the mask past the back of the bench.
"You can say anything you want about me," He said, making his voice quiet even though he was speaking loudly enough for everyone to hear without difficulty, "I don't care what you say about me, I already know I'm worthless, I already know no one cares. Not my father, not anyone. No one's ever cared about me. So I don't care what you say about me to make people hate me, because I know they already do, but-"
He pretended to have his voice waver, and bowed his head. "But it's not fair for you to lie about anyone else. It's not fair for you to lie about Ms. Bustier. I don't know what I ever did to make you hate me and Chloe, so much, Sabrina, but don't take your issues out on Ms. Bustier, that's not fair. Ms. Bustier is the nicest teacher I've ever had, and everyone here loves her. She's never done anything wrong, and I don't care what you say about me," He raised his head again, as though in selfless defiance, "But I won't let you lie about her!"
Sabrina just gazed back in the silence that still hung over the room.
Then she said, simply, "Ms. Bustier was hired by Chloe's dad so that Chloe wouldn't get in trouble for her bullying and lying and cheating. Her dad has also been blackmailing Principal Damocles with taking funding away from the school, among other things, so that Chloe can personally choose who is in her class each year. It's been going on since Chloe got here, and it's why you've all shared this class with her all these years, even though I know many of your parents have requested that you be transferred several times. She and her father have been controlling this situation from the start, just so that she can keep her favorite victims within easy reach.
"That's why Ms. Bustier is constantly telling you to set a good example for Chloe, instead of her punishing Chloe. She can't, and she doesn't want to. She's getting paid lots of money to do this job, way more than she could working any other teaching job. It's why, in all the years she's taught you, she's never done anything to curb Chloe's viciousness, why she's never done anything to protect you, and why she's always telling you that being upset makes you the worse person. It's all in place to protect Chloe from the consequences of her actions, and to keep her entertained with her human playthings.
"It's also why Adrien joined this class, out of all the other classes he could have joined. He could have gone-he should have gone-to Mrs. Rein's, class, which is specifically designed to help transition home-schooled kids to a public school setting. But he didn't go to Mrs. Rein's class. He came here, to Ms. Bustier's, to the class his best friend just so happens to be in.
"It's not a coincidence. It's not happenstance. It happened for a reason, for the same reason none of you have ever been able to transfer out, for the same reason no other school in the city will take you."
There was another round of quiet gasps from her assembled audience at this revelation, but she didn't take her eyes off Adrien, who was still playing his sad boy routine. "Yeah. You heard that right. I know you guys have tried to transfer to different schools, just like you tried to transfer to a different class. I know because every time you try, Chloe brags about it for the rest of the week when she's at home. And do you know who's responsible for making sure all of this has been kept from you this whole time? It wasn't Chloe.
"You all know Chloe. You know what she's like. She's many things, but subtle, she is not. Humble? She probably doesn't even know what it means. If this was Chloe's idea, she wouldn't have been able to stop herself from rubbing it in your faces all these years. She would make sure you knew that your every waking moment was being manipulated and controlled for her benefit. No. You want to know why this is the first time you're hearing about this?
"Because Adrien is the one who came up with the idea. Adrien is the one that persuaded her to keep quiet about it, make it all look like a happy little accident, for all these years. Chloe might be the obvious one, but that's only because she's never had to restrain her worse impulses. Mr. Agreste is a terrible person, but he at least cares what people think of him, and he cares what people think about Adrien. Adrien isn't allowed to get away with all the stuff Chloe is, because unlike Chloe, Adrien's father cares about public image, so he trained Adrien to lie. He trained him to put on a mask when people are watching, and to only take that mask off when he won't get in trouble for it.
"I don't know if he's taken the mask off with any of you, and I hope for your sakes, he hasn't, and that he never does. I hope for your sakes he never does to any you even half of what he did to me. He's smart about his abuse, smarter than Chloe. He only does things that won't leave a mark that other people can see, because then there's no evidence to use against him. There's no proof you can show anyone so that they'll believe you. And the whole time, he blames it on you, tries to twist it in your head so that you blame yourself, so that its your fault, and you deserve it, and you should feel ashamed about telling anyone else.
"But I'm not ashamed. Not anymore. I know it's not my fault, and I didn't deserve any of it. And you deserve to know, so that the same thing doesn't happen to you.
"I'm leaving. I'm going to finally be free. And I'm telling you this because you deserve to know. You deserve to know how corrupt the Mayor is, how much control he has over your lives, how you're all just pawns in Chloe' and Adrien's sadistic games, just like I was.
"And maybe they'll kill me, for telling you this. Maybe I'll disappear without a trace before my dad and I even get a chance to leave. Maybe they'll say I killed myself. Maybe they'll put me in the hospital. I don't know. I don't know if there are any lines they wouldn't cross to keep people under their control any more. Chloe crashed a train full of people so she could take the credit for saving them. That happened on live TV, and she's never been arrested or even gotten in trouble for it, because her dad is the Mayor, and he controls everything that goes on in this city. And as for Adrien...there aren't any public incidents to prove what kind of person he is, because that's his whole game. He only does what he can get away with.
"And I don't expect you to believe me. But I know you guys aren't stupid. I don't expect you to just believe me. But I expect you to believe yourselves. Believe your own memories, the things you've seen and heard for yourselves. Chloe made Mylene break down crying at her party, and Adrien just stood there and laughed. You all saw it.
"All I ask you to do is trust yourselves. Trust your senses, trust your memories, trust the evidence you can see for yourselves. The next time Chloe does something horrible, ask Adrien to correct her. Ask him to stop defending her. Ask him to stop being her friend when she calls someone a slur. Ask him to take your side when she breaks your things or humiliates you and streams it live to her blog for all her followers to laugh at.
"Don't let his pretend friendliness fool you. Look at what he actually does and says, and trust that, and the intentions behind that, rather than the way he says it. He's good at manipulating people, he's good at putting on a show of being the victim, of being innocent. Don't fall for it. When he tells you you're a bad person for standing up to Chloe, don't believe it just because he says it with a little smile and acts disappointed in you. Take everything he says with a grain of salt, and watch out for each other. I know you probably don't believe me, and after everything I've done to you guys, I don't blame you. Don't do it for me. Do it for yourselves. Because you deserve better, and so do I."
"I don't know where-" Adrien started, still putting on the sad, disappointed and wounded puppy act.
Sabrina cut him off with a snarl, "Shut up, Agreste. I don't want to hear it. You can try to convince them again, but you don't get to speak to me ever again. Tell Chloe to back off, or don't. I don't really care. I don't care what you do to me, I don't care what she does, I don't care what your fathers do. I'm done being your plaything, and I'm done sitting by and not doing anything while you guys abuse others. There's always another choice, and I'm making that choice today."
She turned to the class, glaring despite herself. "I don't care what you think of me." She said, trying to reign in her anger, because it wasn't fair to direct it at them, "I don't care if you think I'm a liar, I don't care if you decide to treat me like crap for making stuff up about poor, sweet, innocent widdle Adwien." She said, making the last few words mockingly baby-ish, just to spite him. He'd laughed with Chloe about that more than once-about how no one would ever suspect him, because he was so good at throwing people off the scent.
"I'm leaving soon, there's nothing you can do to me that hasn't already been done, and soon I won't have to deal with any of this any more. I don't care if you hate me. I don't care if you think I'm lying for attention or because I can get away with it. Hate me if you want, I deserve it for everything I've put you through. But watch out for each other, and when Chloe gets her new slave, look out for them too. And I don't mean make excuses for them, I don't mean forgive them when they hurt you, but-just-I don't even know. I don't know if your parents will be able to do anything about the Mayor's control over the school, unless they want to leave Paris like my dad and I are. But you guys deserve to know the truth, and I don't care what telling it costs me."
She straightened her spine, and looked at her gathered classmates, at their expressions of shock, anger, confusion, betrayal, and too many other emotions to track.
Rose looked like she was crying, and so, up in the far corner, was Marinette. Marinette, who she owed a personal apology to, because out of everyone in the class besides Sabrina herself, Marinette had been the target of Chloe's abuse more often than anyone else.
She started up the stairs, not to beg forgiveness, but to apologize-
And felt a hand wrap around her wrist, holding her in place.
Dread wanted to strangle her, but more than that? Was the rage.
Too many times, he had grabbed her, and she hadn't been able to fight back without putting herself in more danger and making it worse.
Too many time he'd touched her and she'd been forced to bear it in silence because anything else would make it worse.
Because if she fought back, if she made him angry, he would tell Chloe, and Chloe would tell her father, and then Sabrina wouldn't have any running water for a week, or her dad would be suspended, or she would be forced to serve after school detention with Ms. Bustier for weeks, writing essays about the importance of setting a good example for your abusers, and killing them with kindness. Because standing up for yourself was the same thing as bullying someone. Because self-defence was the same thing as assault.
Because fighting back had always meant it would just hurt worse.
But she would be free in two months, and the only thing that would stop that from happening was if they literally killed her. Her dad had even told her that if she wanted to, they could leave early, no matter when she asked. If she wanted to come home from school early and only take what she could carry, they would leave the second she got in the car. They had people outside the city who were willing to help them, so even if they had to leave all their stuff behind, they would be able to make it.
She was going to be free, and there was nothing they could do to her to stop that. Not any more. She didn't have to stay quiet for fear of retaliation. She didn't have to worry about being punished. And if Adrien decided he'd had enough of playing nice, and retaliated in front of witnesses?
Well, some fatalistic part of her actually wished he would, so that everyone could see for themselves the kind of monster that had been hiding in their midst this whole time.
Adrien grabbed her, like he had so many times before. Like he'd always done, because he knew he could, because he knew she couldn't stop him.
She didn't have anything to lose anymore.
Adrien Agreste grabbed her wrist, and pulled her to a stop, tight enough that she couldn't break free unless she put real force into it, but light enough that no one would see the force behind his grip. He was behind her, so she couldn't see, but she would bet anything he still had that sad, betrayed, self-sacrificing look on his face.
Her lips curled back from her teeth, and she was about to spin around to claw at his hand to force him to let go-
But someone beat her to the punch.
Literally.
She'd been looking at Marinette, and maybe some of the fear and rage had shown on her face when Adrien grabbed her. She hadn't exactly been trying to hide it.
She'd seen Marinette stand up from her seat.
She hadn't seen her move.
Or rather, she had-
But it happened so quickly, it took her mind a few seconds to process what she'd seen. All in a flash, in what felt like a fraction of a second, Marinette had leapt down the stairs and slammed her fist into Adrien's face so hard he actually flew backwards and sprawled across the desk.
The force of the blow yanked on Sabrina's hand only a little-his hand went limp around her wrist almost immediately, and she pulled further away on nothing but instinct, before she'd even realized what had just happened.
And then Marinette was standing in front of her, shoulders heaving, her hands clenched into shaking fists at her sides as her entire body trembled, facing Adrien with her stance tense and hostile.
"Don't you ever touch her again." She snarled, and even though it wasn't directed at her, Sabrina felt a bit of fear thrill down her spine at the sheer level of hostility and rage in her voice.
She'd never seen Marinette this angry and upset before. She'd never seen her this hostile or aggressive before.
Adrien was sitting up, gasping in pain as he held one hand to his cheek, his eyes wide, and starting to fill with tears, still keeping up the mask, still playing the innocent, can do no wrong victim.
"M-Marinette..." He whispered, like a kicked puppy, "Marinette, I-You...you hit me..." His voice wavered and shook, and a few tears fell down his face, all in perfect sync. He even made sure to keep his voice loud enough for everyone to hear every pitiable syllable.
If Marinette hadn't been blocking the way, Sabrina would have launched herself at him and clawed his eyes out herself. But she didn't need to, because even as Marinette snarled like a wild animal and tensed like she was going to hit him again, Rose's high voice rose up, shouting, "And if you ever do something like that ever again, Adrien Agreste, I'll hit you myself!"
And then there was an unintelligible clamor as the entire class started shouting at once, leaping to their feet and charging down the stairs to surround Adrien, to get between Sabrina and him, partially blocking her view, but not entirely.
Adrien leapt to his feet faster than his pained and shocked act should have allowed, almost faster than looked possible. He stood up on the desk, and for a second, his mask wavered. For a second, his anger broke through. Then the mask was back, as he sniffled and held shaking hands up for peace, saying, "P-Please, I didn't-I didn't mean anything, I'm sorry, I don't-I don't understand what I did wrong! Why are you mad at me? What did I do wrong? I just wanted to help, she seemed so upset! M-Marinette, why did you hit me? It hurts and I-what did I do wrong?" He 'broke down', burying his face in his hands and shaking his shoulders like he was sobbing, "Will someone please explain what I did wrong? I don't-I don't understand."
This was his naive, sweet little angel act. Oh poor me, I've been homeschooled my whole life, I don't know how people work! Don't be upset with me when hurt people's feelings, I just don't know any better!
Even though he was on a fencing team and had been on a swimming team and did work as a model and was around people all the time, including other kids besides Chloe and Sabrina. He worked with other teenaged models all the time. He knew how to interact with other people, he knew what was okay and what wasn't.
For gods sake, the modeling agency made him take a 'safe workplace environment' class every year. She knew! Because she'd had to listen to him complain about it to Chloe every year!
And maybe, if he hadn't grabbed Sabrina's wrist to stop her from walking away after she'd just made it abundantly clear she wanted nothing to do with him, maybe her classmates would have fallen for it. Maybe they would have accepted his mask at face value. Maybe they would have just ignored everything Sabrina had told them, brushed it under the rug in the face of his perfect innocent prince charming act.
But he'd messed up. She didn't know what he'd been planning to do after he grabbed her hand, what he'd planned to say to make it all seem over dramatic and false, but it had backfired. He'd gone too far, he'd cracked the mask, and he'd done so in front of half a dozen witnesses whose faith had already been shaken.
"You don't grab someone when they're upset with you!" Nino shouted up at the still crying Adrien, "You especially don't grab a girl when she's trying to get away from you!"
"Yeah!" Juleka called, finding her voice in the face of such blatant injustice, "If you don't know that by now, it's because you don't want to learn!"
"I didn't-I thought-I thought it was okay-" Adrien started to stammer out, lifting his face from his hands so he could try to use his sad, pretty boy eyes, but Juleka interrupted him before he could finish.
"That's a confession, not a defense!"
Max called out, "Is what Sabrina said true?!"
"No! Of course not!" Adrien cried, "I would never-"
"But you have!" Rose shouted over him, "You've always taken Chloe's side, no matter how badly she hurts us! You took her side when she got the entire school put in detention for pulling the fire alarm and lying about it! When she stole my perfume, you told me not to And just now, you grabbed Sabrina even though you knew she didn't want you to! You knew she didn't want to! Even if she was lying, you knew how upset she was, you knew she didn't want to be around you, and you still grabbed her! There's literally no way that could never be okay!" She stomped her foot, and everyone else fell silent, so that her voice was the only thing to fill the room, "You keep saying you're new to having friends, so we should give you a break, but you're not new to having friends any more! You've been in our class for a year now, and you've had more than enough time to learn how to treat people properly! And you're not stupid, Adrien, so don't pretend like you are! It's not okay to grab someone like that, and you know it! You need to apologize!"
"What he needs" Kim snapped, punching one hand for emphasis, "Is to get his face beat in! If even half the stuff Sabrina said is true, he doesn't need to apologize, he needs to get punched in the face again! He needs to never show his face around here again!"
"Well, if what Sabrina said is tr-" Nino started to say, but he was cut off abruptly by the classroom door slamming open.
Chloe strolled in as everyone turned to look. She got a few steps before she apparently realized what she was looking at, and froze in clear bafflement.
She scoffed loudly, raising one eyebrow high. "Adrikins, what are you doing up there? Please don't tell me these morons have roped you into some stupid, childish game! You-"
She paused abruptly..
Then her eyes widened to the size of dinner plates. "Oh my gosh, Adrien, are you crying?!" She ran forward, trying and failing to shove Nathaniel and Mylene out of the way as they stood their ground. "Ugh! Move! Out of my way, you monsters! Let me through! What have to done to my poor Adrikins?!"
"No worse than he ever did to me!" Sabrina snapped, causing Chloe's head to turn abruptly to look at her, shock written all over her face.
"Sabrina?" It was clear from her tone and her expression that she didn't understand what was happening or why. It had been years since she'd ever had to deal with any kind of defiance from her favorite plaything. From her favorite slave. But now all her power was gone. The only way she would get Sabrina to go anywhere with her was to physically drag her kicking and screaming. It didn't matter if her father turned off their water or electricity. If it got bad enough, they would leave immediately, with just the clothes on their backs.
The only reason they were sticking around at all was so that that Sabrina could have the chance to finish the school year normally. So they could have the chance to get all their things together and shipped to the new city.
But they didn't need to. It would just be nice.
If Sabrina called her father right at that second, he would be at the school in minutes, and they would leave. The only thing that would be able to stop them is if the Mayor had them arrested. Which they wouldn't hold past him, but if he caused them any problems, they would be live-streaming the encounter to multiple social media sites, in the hopes that people would see what was happening and do something about it.
No matter what happened, the second they were outside the city, they were going public with everything that had been happening for the last decade. Everything about the Mayor, everything about Chloe, everything about Adrien, and everything about Gabriel Agreste.
It would probably have been safer for Sabrina if she'd just waited until they went public to tell her classmates about the cage they'd been locked in for years, but she felt she owed them more than just her face on a computer screen. They deserved to be angry with her, they deserved to hate her, and they deserved to voice that anger and hatred. Only telling them once they couldn't do anything about it would be cowardly and selfish, and they deserved better than that.
"Sabrina!" Chloe demanded, "What are you blabbering about? Get over here and help me get Adrikins away from these freaks!"
"Shut up, Chloe!" Marinette suddenly burst out. She threw her arms wide in a violent gesture. "I don't want to hear another word! I believe Sabrina! And I don't know about you guys, but I'm out of here!" This was directed at the rest of the class, as she stepped backwards to stand at Sabrina's side, "I'm not going to stay in this classroom or this school one second longer. Anyone who wants to leave? Can come over to my house. I'm telling my parents everything we just heard." She looked over at Sabrina, and her expression was resolute.
Sabrina had known Marinette for years. She'd seen her sad, she'd seen her angry, she'd seen her disappointed, she'd seen her scared.
She'd never seen her like this.
It was like there was a fire burning behind her eyes that had never been there before, an intensity and ferocity and rage she'd never even imagined Marinette was capable of.
"Will you come with me, Sabrina?" Marinette asked her, and like the fire in her eyes, there was confidence and authority in her voice that Sabrina had trouble resisting. She knew Marinette, she trusted her to do the right thing. She had no reason not to go with her.
"Of course," She found herself saying without a single shred of hesitation.
Chloe scoffed loudly, and started to exclaim something-
-And then there came a loud sound exactly like a textbook hitting someone in the face, as Mylene suddenly did exactly that. She picked up Adrien's English textbook from the desk, and without any warning at all, smashed it into the side of Chloe's head.
"Hey!" Adrien shouted, his hands flying to his mouth, while everyone else, Sabrina and Marinette included, gasped or exclaimed in shock and horror. He jumped down from the desk, started to reach out for Chloe where she had fallen to the ground, and-
WHAM!
Mylene slammed the book into his face, too.
"Mylene!" Max yelped, and ripped the textbook out of her hands, "Stop!"
But as Sabrina watched, Mylene just smiled, dusted her hands on her shirt, said cheerfully, "Don't worry, I'm done." And turned and headed toward the door. "Come on, guys, let's get out of here!"
She said it so casually, so cheerfully, it gave even this new, fiery Marientte pause. Then, out of the corner of Sabrina's eye, she saw her smile.
"Yeah, guys." She said, following Mylene towards the door. "Let's go."
Sabrina followed, and so did the rest of her classmates, leaving Chloe and Adrien groaning and in pain, to pick themselves up off the floor.
No one looked back.