Gasp! Another update? I am trying to make my updates more regular again, and I have been writing, but I'm not going to promise anything specific at the moment except that the next chapter is in progress. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year everyone and thanks for reading!

Marinette just stared at her best friend, Alya's question repeating through her mind: Was your challenge for me about Lila? She blinked. She had been expecting Alya to question her spaz around Adrien today (though maybe that really wasn't that unusual), or to question her about Lila's picture of her with Chat Noir. Or maybe ask if she was still interested in Luka. When she finally wrapped her head around Alya's actual question, she couldn't contain the burst of laughter that escaped.

Alya looked startled by her laughter, but the relief was too strong, and so it only made her laugh harder. "S– sor– sorry!" she finally managed to choke out, but all other communication remained beyond her.

"I'd really like to know what so funny about this..." muttered Alya.

"It – it isn't," laughed Marinette, "It's – it's not – funny!"

Alya scowled, "Then why exactly are you laughing?"

Sucking in a deep breath and holding it for a count of ten, Marinette finally managed to get herself under control. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" She held her breath again for a few more seconds to be sure she wasn't going to start laughing again, then blinked rapidly and wiped at her eyes, "I was laughing because I thought you were going to ask me about Adrien or Luka or Ch–" she quickly cut herself off before causing the interrogation she wanted to avoid most of all. Fortunately, Alya didn't seem to notice.

"I said it wasn't about a boy!"

Marinette put a hand of Alya's arm placatingly, "I know, but you said it was connected to a boy and I couldn't think of anything connected to a boy that wasn't also about a boy!" She frowned, "Wait a second, what does Lila have to with a boy?"

Alya's eyebrow rose, "Uh, how about the fact that you're jealous of her because she talks to Adrien?"

Marinette let out an undignified snort. "I told you, I'm not jealous of her!" She paused, then her shoulders slump, "Alright, I was at first, but I'm not anymore." She straightened back up at directed her own glare at Alya, "She's a liar and I don't like liars. And I don't recall giving you a challenge to write about Lila's lies."

"Yeah but..." Alya hesitated. Marinette shifted so they were facing each other more directly. "Lila has told us about meeting and interacting with all the people that you did challenge me to write about."

Nonplussed, Marinette pursed her lips and folded her arms across her chest, "Okay... Name a famous person who Lila's hasn't claimed to have met."

Alya opened her mouth to reply and immediately froze. Marinette had to suppress a renewed urge to laugh. She discretely glanced past her to check the time on the alarm clock. Marinette continued to wait, lips twitching as Alya stared past her, unable to come up with an answer. She decided two minutes of silence was long enough, "Well?"

"Uh... well..." Alya's eyes darted around her room, landing on the Ladybug Movie Poster, "Thomas Astruc!"

Marinette pursed her lips and nodded slightly, "Okay, now tell me about a well-known quirk of Thomas Astruc."

Silence filled the room again as Alya fumbled for something unusual about him. "Well, he's allergic to almonds."

Marinette frowned, "Really? That's not a quirk. A quirk is something unusual that someone chooses to do. Allergies are neither unusual nor a choice. Got anything else?"

Alya's eyes roamed her room again, "What about Alec Cataldi?"

"Lila said she introduced him to KIDZ+."

"XY?"

"Saved him from choking."

"Majestia?"

"Was saved by her from the Trash Krakken."

"André Glacier?"

"Fixed his order for some famous couple or another so that they didn't get the wrong ice cream."

Alya threw her hands up in the air, "Okay, okay, I get it!" She shook her head, "Lila really has met a lot of famous people hasn't she?"

Marinette rolled her eyes, "Says she's met."

Alya scowled back at her, "Where's your proof that she's lying? What reason does she have to lie?"

"Uh, to try to make people like her?"

"She doesn't need to lie for that! Lila's always been really sweet. We'd like even without knowing any famous people!"

"Or having a thousand and one medical ailments?"

The scowl deepened into a glare, "It's not pity. I like Lila just fine for who she is!"

"Fine!" Marinette took the notebook off Alya's lap and replaced it with the laptop. She pushed a bit further backwards and gestured to the screen, "You want proof? How about your own proof? Did you find anything to support any of Lila's claims about Clara, Jagged or Prince Ali?"

"Aha!" Alya pointed a finger at her accusingly, "So your challenge was about Lila!"

The notebook went flying as Marinette let out a growl of frustration and leapt off the bed to pace across the room. "You write about famous people! It's what you do! Just like I design. So I challenged you to write about famous people! Didn't we just establish that Lila claims to have met almost every single famous person who's still breathing? How was I supposed to avoid her and still stick to what you like to do?"

Alya carefully placed her computer beside her on the bed before standing as well, "Then what was with the source hunting? Why did I need three sources for every fact?"

"Because that's what good reporters do! They back up their information with proof! And you still haven't answered my question!"

Arms crossed, glaring at the floor, Alya said, "I didn't."

"I know you didn't. That's what I just said! Did you find any support for Lila's claims or not?!"

Brown eyes rose to meet blue, glare still piercing, "I didn't," Alya repeated. Her gaze softened and flickered away for a moment, "I didn't find anything."

Marinette waited expectantly, but Alya didn't add anything else. Frustrated, she waved her hand in an invitation to continue, "And...?"

"And nothing!" Alya threw her hands up in exasperation and dropped back onto her bed with a suddenness that made her laptop bounce. "Not a thing. No mentions of her for any of the three and multiple sources that directly contradict her! It doesn't make sense."

Moving a few steps closer again, Marinette leaned towards her, "Unless, of course, I'm telling the truth and she's lying..."

Alya's eyes were round and her eyebrows scrunched together in the middle, "But why?"

The fight drained out of Marinette with a sigh and she moved to sit down gently beside Alya on the bed. "I don't know," she said, "Why would she threaten to make me lose all my friends and ruin my life?"

Alya gasped and jerked around to stare at her, "She didn't!"

Marinette nodded, "She did. In the bathroom when she followed me out of the cafeteria after I threw the napkin at her. Which, by the way, did you ever stop to consider the plausibility of the corner of a paper napkin gouging out someone's eye while they were wearing glasses?" she asked with a raised eyebrow.

Alya's face flushed, "Well when you put it like that..."

A mirthless laugh escaped her as Marinette turned back to look at her hands, now clasped tightly in her lap, "She tried to ruin my life too." She glanced up to see Alya's confused look. "The test? The necklace? The stairs?"

A brown hand reached out to cover hers, "I never believed you did any of that girl."

Marinette smiled faintly, "Yeah I know. But you also didn't believe Lila did. Really, how else does Lila end up at the bottom of the stairs with no one else around if I didn't do it?"

Alya shifted and started to draw her hand away, but Marinette quickly grasped it instead. Alya sighed and gave Marinette's hand a squeeze, "I thought she fell accidentally and she had assumed it was you because you were obviously upset with her at the time."

"And the necklace? How did she know it was in my locker if she didn't put it there?"

"Maybe she saw it when you were changing your books."

"And she didn't ask me about it? Or bring it up to a teacher immediately? Instead, she waits until I'm accused of cheating and supposedly pushed her down the stairs? Seems a little convenient don't you think?" Marinette tried to dial back the sarcasm, but judging by Alya's flinch she didn't succeed very well.

"You're right!" Alya sighed and sagged backwards, falling onto her bed, "You're right. It's either really convoluted and unlikely explanations to justify what Lila's said, or none of it is true."

"Well, one thing might be true." Alya rolled her head towards her and raised and eyebrow. Marinette just smiled, "Lila did claim to be a compulsive and uncontrollable liar. I mean, being mentally ill and a therefore a pathological liar is a real thing, so it is possible she was telling the truth about that..."

Alya stared at her blankly for a moment before groaning and rolling onto her side, pulling her hand away in the process, "Oh man! She flat out said that she lies regularly and I still didn't think she might be lying with all that other stuff! I'm a terrible reporter!"

Marinette giggled, "No you're not. You just need to not let your excitement blind you to doing your job properly."

Alya just groaned again.

Reaching out to give Alya's shoulder a reassuring squeeze, Marinette was about to add something else when her phone alarm went off. She snapped her head to the clock and jumped off the bed, "Ack! I gotta go or I won't make it home on time!"

With another groan Alya rolled herself back up onto her feet and started collecting Marinette's things so she could put them back in her bag. Retrieving the notebook from the floor, she tore out the pages with her sketches and handed them to Marinette.

As she slipped the last page into her bag, Marinette looked up at Alya and bit her lip. "Yes," she blurted. Alya barely had time to blink before she continued, "Yes I was hoping that you writing those articles and looking for sources might make you at least think about what Lila was saying instead of taking it all at face value. You sure weren't listening to me." Alya flushed again, but Marinette didn't let her interrupt, "I also wanted to challenge you to be a bit more critical in all of your writing. You're good at doing the research, but sometimes you get so excited about what you're writing that you don't do it. And it was supposed to be a challenge, so I had to think of something–"

"Girl!" Alya's hand shot out to cover her mouth, "It's okay." She lowered her hand with a sigh. "You're right, I wasn't listening to you and I wasn't thinking critically because it did sound amazing." She snorted, "Too good to be true I guess." She sighed and stepped forward to wrap her in a tight hug, "I'm sorry Marinette. I should have listened to you sooner."

Startled, Marinette froze for a second before dropping her bag and wrapping her own arms around Alya to hug her back. "I forgive you." She pulled back and smiled, "Friends?"

"Best friends," Alya smiled, "See you tomorrow?"

Marinette gave her another hug, "Of course!"