Alya

She had read everything in the file: medical reports for bruises and fractured bones, teacher's reports claiming they were not aware of anything, the principal stating they wouldn't be taking action without more witnesses, her father's notes from so many sessions Alya never knew about.

Now staring out into the rain, Alya still felt like crying all over again. No wonder Marinette had been so gun shy on the first day of school. According to her dad's notes, it was a sign of improvement that Marinette didn't have a full-on panic attack when Adrien snapped at her. Her father's advice to befriend any new students made a lot more sense now, he knew Marinette would be in Alya's class. Did he leave the file out on purpose?

As Alya watched the rain pour, she wondered what her next move was to be.

Marinette

Normally, she would cozy up at home on a rainy day, but today she was at Le Grand Paris to meet with the rock superstar Jagged Stone for his new album cover. The desk clerk offered to hang onto her umbrella for her, which she gratefully thanked her for. Jagged Stone's assistant, Penny, had told her to go to room 403 on the fourth floor.

As Marinette crossed the lobby to the elevators, Chloe observed her from the balcony above, unnoticed by the designer. Chloe had heard the designer would be visiting the hotel but never heard why she was there. She considered sending Sabrina after Marinette to spy but remembered the girl was being kept at home after the theft incident. She would have to follow Marinette herself if she wanted to get answers.

Chloe observed the elevator's floor indicator, noting it stopped on the fourth floor. Jagged Stone, XY, Clara Nightingale, and Alec Cataldi all had rooms on that floor, with most of the others unoccupied. She gave the lobby a final glance, then moved to follow her enemy. When she arrived on the fourth floor, the brat was nowhere to be seen, but a hotel worker was lugging bags down the hall. Chloe headed towards them with a sly smile.

Marinette had knocked on the door to Chloe's left only minutes before, Penny letting her in with a welcoming smile. She led the young designer around over to Jagged, who threw his arms up in an excited greeting. "Marinette love! How's my favorite Rockin roller?"

She grinned at him, his enthusiasm was contagious as always. "I am doing a lot better these days and am excited to hear your new album."

Jagged grinned at her, "Of course you are, love. Everyone is!" Marinette giggled as Penny rolled her eyes at him. Penny handed Marinette a cd labeled Rock Giant as Jagged continued, "I'm looking for something that is raw to the bone and the soul like my music. And you can smell the sweat and leather of the music just off of it!"

Marinette looked at the rocker as he spoke, nodding in understanding. Penny, noticing Jagged starting to get off track, spoke up, "That's a copy of the album that will be released. To quote Jagged, music should help inspire you."

The designer flashed her a smile, "Thanks, um, is there a restroom I could use?" Penny nodded, giving her directions to the one just down the hallway. Marinette nodded her thanks, slipping the cd into her purse securely. As she left, Bob Roth barged past her with an angry look on his face. Meanwhile, Chloe watched Marinette with narrowed eyes as the other girl walked away from her, not noticing Chloe.

Adrien

"Your behavior was unacceptable, Adrien. Ms. Rossi won the chance to model with you fairly in a contest at her school." Gabriel stood at the window with his back turned to his son, staring out into the rain.

Adrien rolled his eyes, earning a stern look from Natalie. "Keyword is chance, and she blew it harder than Chloe at the fashion ball last year. She acted inappropriate and unprofessional on set, not to mention she groped me. That last one is worth a lawsuit."

Gabriel turned around, his stern gaze on Adrien, "You will do a reshoot with her and apologize for your rudeness."

Adrien glared at him, "Were you not listening to me? She freaking groped me! I am not going anywhere near her."

"You don't have a choice, this is a matter of what is good for the company. You are the face of the brand and it is time for you to start acting like it." Gabriel narrowed his eyes at his son, "Unless you think I should revoke Ms. Rossi's prize, which in that case I will have to revoke Ms. Dupain-Cheng's prize as well." To be honest, it was a bluff on Gabriel's part. He recognized the talent in the Dupain-Cheng girl's piece and wished to get her working for him. But he also wanted to keep the Rossi girl's shoot in place, something Emilie would hate, but if Adrien agreed, then Gabriel could say their son has taken his side. Win-win if his stupid son would just fall in line.

Adrien hissed in frustration, he couldn't cause Marinette to lose her hard-earned prize because of him. His father seemed to pick up on his crush on her and was most likely hoping to use that as leverage against him to force him to do the shoot. Adrien couldn't bring himself to do a photoshoot with her mortal enemy either but knew his current options weren't exactly flexible. Gritting his teeth, Adrien bit out, "Fine, I will do the shoot with her."

Gabriel nodded his approval, "Good, Natalie will inform you when Ms. Rossi is available again."

"Actually sir," Natalie interrupted, "Ms. Rossi has informed me already she is available this afternoon." Adrien groaned quietly as Gabriel nodded his approval. "I can schedule the shoot then and have the photographers ready to go."

"Make it happen, Natalie." Gabriel turned to his son, "You will wait until then here. I expect you to be professional this time around."

"Yes, father." Before either of the two adults could say anything more to him, Adrien turned around and walked away. Good thing there wasn't a villain who used people's negative emotions to turn them into monsters like Alya's research talked about, because he was reeking of anger and frustration. He was the 'face of the brand', yet he couldn't do anything. Adrien stopped, glancing back at his father and Natalie. The face of the brand…

Adrien dashed off, a plan starting to form in his mind. He was the face of the brand and his father was going to learn what that meant the hard way.

Chloe

When the rich girl entered the bathroom, Chloe found Marinette washing her hands in the sink. "Dupain-Cheng, what do you think you are doing here?" The other girl didn't reply, looking around as if for help. To Marinette's dismay, it was just her and Chloe in the bathroom, alone together. Chloe moved closer, "Why is a peasant like you in a place meant for the rich? You are nothing but a baker's daughter!"

Marinette whimpered, backing up to the wall as her wide eyes stared at Chloe in terror. The blonde continued to stalk towards her, flashes of Lila's followers doing the same thing speeding through her mind. Her breathing increased as she trembled, unable to speak.

Chloe glared at her, "Well?! What is it baker's daughter?" Marinette fell to the floor, curling into a ball to protect herself. This is when Chloe noticed that Marinette was shaking violently as she gasped for air. "What's going on? What happened?" Chloe heard the fear in her own voice as a chill swept through her. She had never seen anyone act like this.

Behind her, the door opened as someone entered. "What happened?" Clara Nightingale gasped as she rushed over, checking Marinette. "She's having a panic attack, we need to calm her down." She held Marinette gently, "Sweetheart, it's okay. You are safe here, we are all here for you. Just try and count with me. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven." Slowly, Marinette's breathing started to calm down to a proper pace as Clara continued to count out loud with her.

Chloe backed out of the restroom as Clara asked Marinette if she needed any medication, in shock from what just happened. She had never seen anyone have a panic attack before, nor have she ever had someone react to her that way. Most of her threats or attacks didn't have that much of an effect on her other classmates. What was different about Marinette?

Penny exited Jagged Stone's room, sick of Bob Roth's attitude, and saw the shocked Chloe exiting the bathroom. A few moments later, Clara Nightingale walked a now calm Marinette out. Giving Marinette a kind smile, Penny decided to investigate what was bothering Chloe so much. "Are you okay?"

Chloe shook her head, "I yelled at her to tell me why she was here, and she just froze up. Next thing I know she is having a panic attack."

Penny's eyes widen, "Just now?" She glanced over at the elevator doors, catching a glimpse of Marinette smiling at something Clara said to her. "She seems to be calm now, Clara is good at calming people down if needed. Her brother used to have panic attacks, so she already knew what to do."

Chloe started to tear up, but this time they were real tears. "What could cause something like that?"

The assistant hesitated, knowing she was trusted with the information as part of Marinette working with Jagged. But if Chloe heard this, maybe it could cause the blonde to change her ways for the better. "Before Marinette transferred to your school, she was bullied for some time at her old school. From what I was told, it escalated pretty hard over the years to the point where she was attacked in the bathroom."

Chloe broke down. She had been bullying people for years, not caring about the results. But Marinette had been hurt much deeper than anyone Chloe had ever taunted or tricked, going into a full-on panic attack. Chloe could never actually bring herself to hit someone just because she didn't like them. She perked up again as Penny spoke again, "Not many people know about it, I know because she is working for Jagged, but he doesn't know because he can get a little overprotective. So please don't spread this to anyone else." Chloe nodded her understanding, unable to speak yet. "Thank you, I need to talk to Clara about this. It's always okay to feel regret over something Chloe, it's what you do to make up for it that counts." She left Chloe alone in the hall, heading to elevators.

A few doors down, Bob Roth angrily stormed out of Jagged Stone's room. "Fine, if you won't listen to me, then I will make this girl give my version of the cover to you."

Chloe got up and blocked him, "Go anywhere near Dupain-Cheng, and I will make sure you and your lame son XY are no longer welcomed in Paris."

Roth snorted, "And you actually think you can do that?"

Chloe shrugged, "Yep, just ask BTS. Oh, wait you can't, because they got deported." Roth glared at her, then huffed as he walked away. Chloe was surprised with herself, unsure why she just did that, but certainly didn't regret it.

Lila

"I am just so happy that Adrien came to his senses after yesterday. I can't believe Marinette kidnapped him to try to hurt your feelings." Lila smiled as one of her cronies, Ashley, swooned over how she was a victim in the situation. This time around, Lila had invited her three closest followers to watch the shoot. They had staged all the other contestants so Lila could have a chance to model with her idol and show him that she is the one for him.

"I am grateful that he agreed to it too," Lila said, her voice with a fake sweetness to make it seem like she was so overjoyed. But she knew Adrien really left because she made a few grabs at him, which only resulted in him treating her like a crazed fan. "This is a dream come true!"

But when they arrived at the studio, there was one person clearly missing. Natalie was frantically looking around while calling people. Adrien never showed up for his reshoot with Lila. As her friends started to help with the search, Lila noted the hulking bodyguard that was present last time wasn't here either. As she approached Natalie to question the fact, one of her friends, Abby, shrieked with surprise. She ran over to Lila holding out her phone, "It's Adrien! He's on KIDS+!"

Lila accepted the phone, Adrien sitting across from Nadja Chamack. "So Adrien, yesterday you bailed on a photoshoot with contest winner Lila Rossi. Do you mind explaining to our viewers what happened on set?"

Adrien flashed her his model smile, "Not at all Nadja, I was on board with the idea at first. But during the shoot, Ms. Rossi was unprofessional, attempting to grope the family jewels and other parts of my body that is inappropriate for a professional environment and without my consent. The contest rules clearly stated that she won a chance, not a guarantee. And when we went on set, she blew it so I am revoking her prize."

"This is quite shocking," Nadja confessed, "Will the Gabriel Brand be seeking a lawsuit against Lila Rossi for this?"

Adrien shook his head, "Not at this time, but if she attempts to make a move on me or continues to harass me, then legal action will be considered."

"What is the design contest winner, Marinette Dupain-Cheng? Will her award for winning the hat design be revoked as well?"

Adrien shook his head again, "No, Ms. Dupain-Cheng won her contest fair and square. Nor has she done anything to make such action necessary, I will be wearing her hat at the next show." He winked into the camera, getting a laugh out of Nadja.

Nadja looked back into the camera, "You heard it here folks, we can expect to see Adrien Agreste modeling in a fancy new hat at the next show. Now to the weather with Alec."

Lila bit back her rage as Ashley fumed behind her, "Marinette has some nerve to make Adrien lie about you like that. We will find a way to make her pay." Lila only nodded as she thought of ways to make Marinette suffer. Now that Adrien made her seem like someone who tried to harm him, his fanbase would call for her head and she didn't have control over more than a hundred of them.

Marinette

She was smiling on her way home, spirits up despite the panic attack and the still pouring rain. She was going to design the album cover for her favorite rock star and nothing could bring her down now. That's when she saw Alya huddled under the bakery's front entrance, soaking wet. As Marinette got closer, she realized the blogger was crying. Running over Marinette looked her friend over quickly, "Alya, what's wrong?!"

Alya didn't reply at first, throwing herself at Marinette, wrapping her arms around Marinette causing her to drop her umbrella. "Why didn't you tell me what happened?" she asked, her voice muffled by Marinette's coat.

Marinette was silent, not sure what Alya meant. Then it hit her, "You know?" The other girl nodded against Marinette's shoulder. "How long?" She asked, her voice quivering with fear.

"I saw the file two weeks ago but didn't read it until last night," Alya choked out. "I am so sorry for everything you had to go through. I just wish I knew sooner."

Marinette hugged her friend tightly, "You do now." They stayed there in the rain, not caring about the storm swirling around them.