It's well known that a moth will fly toward a bright light. So, the way to trap a moth is to use a light to entice it and draw it in. By the time it notices that the light's surrounded by a box, the lid will have already been closed, and there's no way to escape. In this case, the light is frustration and anger, and the moth is…well, still a moth, actually.

During the night following my akumatization, I'd written an anonymous blog post on the website of Collège François-Dupont. This post didn't just reveal the secret identity of Volpina—it also disproved, with evidence, every single lie I had told to the other students. It was the greatest attack piece that anybody could have ever written about me, exposing me as scheming, untrustworthy, and malicious. And the key to the situation was that every single thing there was true.

So, the next morning, I headed to the school, ready for the alienation and the harassment to come from all sides. Even though I'd forced it on myself, I expected it to still be an experience traumatic enough to catch Hawkmoth's attention. And there was no way he would know that blog post had been written by me.

I arrived a few minutes late to my homeroom. Mme. Bustier shot me a dirty look in response to my tardiness, but didn't say anything as I slid into my seat next to a small boy with tomato-red hair.

"You must be Lila, then?" he whispered as Mme. Bustier began addressing the class.

I nodded. "You're Nathanaël, right? Adrien mentioned you yesterday."

I watched him instinctively shift in his seat to be a little farther from me as I confirmed my identity. "Is that so?" he asked. "What did Adrien say about me?"

"He just pointed you out," I explained. "He tried to get me up to speed on everybody's names."

Nathanaël nodded hesitantly. "Is it true you were Volpina?"

"Yes, I was. But that's not a big deal, right? I thought pretty much everyone here had become villains at some point, right? I mean, weren't you Evillustrator?"

Nathanaël's eyes widened abruptly. "How did you know that?"

Uh-oh. That was a lucky guess. Alya had said yesterday that every student in the class was a former villain, and this boy had hair that reminded me of the news footage I'd seen of Evillustrator. But I didn't have a chance to explain before he cut me off.

"You lied to me, didn't you?" he whispered angrily. "Adrien didn't just tell you my name, he told you that as well! Well, that's none of your business!" He turned to face forward.

I tried to reason with him, but he refused to interact with me. When class ended and we had a five minute break, he moved one row up to sit next to a large boy wearing a shirt with crossbones on it. I guess he didn't want anything to do with me. Which was fair, considering what he'd have read about me on the blog. But it still hurt.

That was when the thought first crossed my mind that Hawkmoth might not be willing to akumatize me again at all. Perhaps I had failed him once, and so he wouldn't trust me to do the job on the second try, and I was ruining my life for nothing.

Throughout all my morning classes, I noticed students around the room shooting hesitant glances at me, refusing to make eye contact. I squirmed in my seat for hours on end, worrying more and more about the potential consequences of what I had done.

It was such a relief when it was time for lunch. I fled that classroom like an eagle on the wind, rushing out the door, down the stairs, and straight into that dark-haired girl who was coming back from the bathroom. We tumbled down the few remaining steps and landed in an awkward heap as that girl Chloé looked on and chuckled.

We fumbled to right ourselves. I was the first to stand up—I brushed off my jacket and offered her my hand.

"Sorry if I caught you off balance," she quipped with a smile as I helped her up.

I blinked, not sure what to say. The chances of her not knowing the secrets I had released was very slim—almost zero. And yet, here she was, smiling. I noticed I'd left my mouth open—I closed it sharply.

"Hi there," the girl tried. "I'm Marinette."

"I'm Lila," I responded. I almost offered her my hand to shake, and then I realized I hadn't let go of her hand after helping her up. I released it awkwardly.

"You're new here, right?" Marinette asked. "I saw you talking to Adrien yesterday."

I nodded, still not sure what to say.

"Here," Marinette decided. "Follow me—I know a good place to get lunch."

I'd brought my own lunch, but I followed her anyway. She led me across the street to what looked like a small bakery. The bell on the door jingled as we entered.

"Hi Mom!" Marinette called out at the woman behind the cash register. "This is Lila, she's a new student at school."

"Hello there, Lila!" the woman responded happily. "It's nice to see Marinette's making new friends."

Well, that was abrupt. I'd met the girl literally two minutes before; I wouldn't say we were friends.

"Would you like something to eat?" Marinette's mother asked. "We're always happy to provide lunch for friends of Marinette."

Marinette nudged me with her elbow. "Ask her for a piece of that quiche," she muttered under her breath. "It's my father's own recipe."

And so, Marinette and I sat down outside in front of the school, as I ate quiche and she ate a sandwich.

"So what brings you to Paris?" Marinette asked casually.

I thought for a minute. "My parents are diplomats from Italy. They were asked to come here by the president himself, to work on a top secret project."

Marinette sighed. "Lila, you don't have to lie to me. I saw the post on the blog, and I'm well aware that story isn't true."

"You saw the blog post?" I asked. "Then why—"

Marinette cut me off. "I don't know who did this to you, but it's awful. I don't care how many lies you've told, nobody deserves to be attacked like that."

"So you're not mad at me for lying?"

Marinette shrugged. "Not really. I'm just sad that you didn't feel comfortable telling the truth, even to me right now."

"I don't mean to do it," I blurted out. "It's compulsive. I always try not to, but I always worry that my life isn't interesting enough to talk about."

Oh my god. What was I doing? I was just pouring my heart out to this girl I'd just met.

Marinette put her arm around me. "I understand. And we all know who the real villain is here; that's the person who thought it was okay to expose your personal secrets to everybody."

And then we talked, until lunch ended and it was time for class to start again. This was the first person in a long time that I'd ever been able to talk to honestly—I told her the actual story of how I came to Paris, and in return she told me stories of things that happened at the school in the past. When the bell rang to call everybody back to class, I didn't want to leave.

As we parted ways, I noticed that she seemed familiar. Then I put it together: she had exactly the same hair as Ladybug, right down to the two ponytails and the blue sheen it gave off in the sunlight. It was jarring to see this similarity between my enemy and this girl who seemed to care so much about me.

I realized then that Marinette had thrown a wrench in my plan. I was supposed to be frustrated and angry, but I was feeling happier than I'd felt in a long time.

"Well, well. It's just her second day here and Lila's already got a girlfriend. And here I thought Marinette was into guys."

I still couldn't quite place the voice, but given the malicious undertones and the casual erasure of bi people, I knew exactly who I was going to see when I turned around.

"Hey there, Chloé," I said through gritted teeth.

"What, that's all you have to say for yourself?" she sneered. "'Hey there, Chloé.' I wonder if even that is a lie. Because we can't trust anything you say, now, can we?"

"Look, I don't want any trouble, okay?" I did want trouble. I'd heard rumors of how Chloé was responsible for many, many akumatizations. She was exactly what I needed.

"Ha!" Chloé laughed. "As if you could make trouble in the first place. Even as Volpina your powers did exactly nothing. There was literally no danger there! It must have been Ladybug's easiest fight in, like, forever."

She'd played the Ladybug card. This was the point where I forgot all about my plan and simply snapped. "Well then, at least I came close to getting her to take off her Miraculous! So I think my powers were pretty effective, actually. Can you say the same about the powers you had?"

Chloé smirked. "So, you're proud of fighting Ladybug, then? I suppose you wanted Hawkmoth to win? I guess that's not surprising for a liar. Speaking of which, don't think I believed you for a second. But other people did. Rose thought you'd actually talk about her with Prince Ali, and Nino actually thought you'd help him get in touch with famous Hollywood directors. Isn't that right, Nino?"

Nino was standing a few feet away, and he turned to glare at me. "Yeah, that was a real letdown. Thanks for that, Lila."

I opened my mouth to speak, but couldn't find the words. I looked around for Marinette, but didn't see her anywhere.

"I…I need to be alone for a minute," I managed to say, rushing away as Chloé chuckled. I ran out the school gates, stopped, and took a few deep breaths.

And that was when I saw the butterfly, flapping gracefully on the wind, coming steadily closer. I'd made sure to put on my fox necklace when getting dressed that morning. I watched as the butterfly flew right inside. And as I looked up, a purple glow enshrouded everything I saw, and a deep voice spoke to me as if it were welling up from inside me.

"Hello again, Volpina."