Marinette, for some reason, was feeling nervous about returning the phone. She had also felt like unlocking it and perusing what was there, but she was a decent human being and after the whole fiasco with Adrien's phone, she wasn't going to risk it. So she slipped it into her purse alongside Tikki, and went on her way to school.
She was mostly feeling anxious about seeing Lila again. After what Tikki had said her, she had started thinking a lot about Lila. Marinette understood the problem with her way of thinking. She shouldn't be seeking friendship out of guilt, she should be seeking friendship out of a genuine desire to know her. But she wasn't sure how much of a desire she had to get to know Lila. All she knew was that Lila may or may not have set her heart racing at one point.
But that was normal if someone got close to you and touched your face, Marinette reasoned. And it also seemed as if Lila did want to get closer to Marinette. And if they spent more time together, Marinette would get to know her even more. And Marinette thought that she would appreciate seeing more of the honest Lila she had been blessed with. Because it was intriguing to see the side she had never shown before. She may have hated the lying side, but seeing the more honest Lila attracted Marinette.
Marinette wondered if Lila would keep lying about Ladybug, and if she would lie about anything else in order to get attention. Then she suddenly began wondering why she had wanted attention in the first place. She was so deep in thought she didn't even notice Alya had started walking beside her and had been talking for at least two minutes until she simply poked Marinette in the side.
Marinette literally yelled in surprise, and then fell backwards and promptly knocked over whatever poor soul had been behind her. Unfortunately for her, that poor soul turned out to be Adrien Agreste (as she could tell by his own shout of terror), and Marinette's face suddenly flushed bright red and she shot a death glare to Alya (who grinned) from where she lay on top of Adrien. She then scrambled to get up, spewing apologies all the while.
"Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry!" She huffed out in embarrassment as she stood, and then reached out a hand to Adrien, who merely laughed.
"It's fine." He replied, and then took her hand. Marinette realized what just occurred and she nearly keeled over and died. She was holding Adrien's hand. Before she could have a seizure, she pulled him up. However, she accidentally used the strength she reserved for when she pulled on her yoyo to fly across Paris, and he not only got to his feet, but he also lurched forward, crashed into Marinette, and the two were down once more. From Marinette's position she could see Alya discreetly give a thumbs up, and she sent yet another glare as it was this time Adrien who scrambled to his feet and pulled Marinette up.
When she was finally face to face with the poor boy, she realized with a start that even though she'd been momentarily stunned by the thought of having crashed into him, her heart was not beating as furiously as expected.
"Sorry about that." She said, still vaguely mortified by the whole event.
"Don't worry about it. You're pretty strong, though." Adrien laughed. "I wouldn't want to get on your bad side."
"Haha, yea, I'd be a menace to deal with." Marinette joked, and then she heard a sharp gasp of surprise from Alya behind her.
"Well, see you in class!" Adrien said as he waved, and then he ran a bit to catch up with Nino.
"Marinette, I think you're finally getting used to Adrien!" Alya exclaimed as quietly as she could. "You didn't even stutter!"
"Alya, I'm going to end you." Marinette hissed.
"Hey, not my fault you were ignoring me." Alya shrugged. "What were you thinking about so hard?"
"Uh… Lila?" She replied. "She forgot her phone at my house yesterday." Marinette added, and then she suddenly remembered that she had gone to her house yesterday to find Alya. She had completely forgotten.
"Lila was at your house?" Alya asked.
"Yea, during the akuma attack. I couldn't find you after it left the school. I went to my house to check, but you weren't there. So Lila and I just stayed at my house until it was over."
"I was following the Screamer, obviously." Alya laughed. That made sense. "I got some good videos on the blog."
"Cool! I'll check them out later." Marinette promised, when she saw Lila at the foot of the stairs. "Hold on, I need to give this back." She told Alya, who nodded, and then walked on over.
"Lila!" A familiar voice called out happily. Lila blinked and turned around to see Marinette with a smile on her face, waving at her as she approached. Lila suddenly blushed, because for a moment she thought Marinette was happy to see her. No, you idiot. Marinette's always cheerful. "You forgot your phone!" She added as she got closer.
Ah, yes, she had been waiting for this. She had planned to find Marinette on various social media sites before she went to sleep, but she realized she did not have her phone, and she was forced to get up and go to her computer and send friend requests that way. Lila hoped she didn't seem desperate. She really wanted to be friends (gal pals) with Marinette. She was a little embarrassed by how much she wanted that, but she reasoned that it would only make sense since Marinette had reached out to her with a desire for friendship as well. And most people never did that for her.
"Hi." She answered. Be cool. Lila watched as Marinette opened her purse and took out Lila's phone.
"Here you go." Marinette said, holding it out. Lila reached out for it, and glanced away when she felt her fingers brush against Marinette's.
"Thank you." Lila worked a smile on her face. Then she prepared herself. "Could I have your phone number?" She asked, moving to open a new contact page.
"Marinette Dupain-Cheng? Puh-leez, don't tell me you're getting all friendly with her, Lina." A familiar haughty voice said. Lila looked to the side to see Chloé halfway up the stairs, with Sabrina close behind.
"What?" Lila looked between to the two, not quite understanding what she meant. It hadn't been too bad, when she'd had lunch with Chloé and Sabrina. The two were both kind of annoying, but they expressed admiration for Lila, who reciprocated and pretended to be impressed by Chloé. It had been a symbiotic relationship.
"Yea, yea, you're jealous, we get it Chloé. You can go cry about it now." Alya said, flapping her hands as if she was trying to blow Chloé away. Lila looked at Alya, still vaguely confused because she didn't want to believe she'd hung out with an enemy of Marinette's. Chloé looked affronted at the comment.
"Stay out of this, Césaire." Chloé remarked. "Lina, I'll have you know that hanging around Marinette Dupain-Cheng is a waste of your time."
Lila realized with horror that it appeared Chloé was not any annoying brat but Marinette's worst enemy. And she had avoided Marinette by going to lunch with her! Lila looked to Marinette, who was looking at the floor. Her hands were closed into fists, Lila saw, and they were trembling. Oh no.
"If I were you, I'd toss her out." Chloé continued. "That's really all she is, anyway. Trash. Her stupidity is infectious." She smirked, and then followed by Sabrina, continued her way up the stairs.
Lila watched as they took a couple of steps, and swallowed. She glanced again back at Marinette and Alya; both were seething. The right thing to do was to say something. Normally she was all about placating others; never about provoking. But Lila prized a relationship with Marinette over whatever fragile nonsense she'd formed with Chloé.
"That's really funny, coming from her. The only place she could have gotten that personality was from a garbage can." Lila said to Marinette and Alya, loud enough that Chloé could hear.
Alya's eyes widened, and then she snorted, and then she laughed. Marinette was shocked.
"What?!" Chloe's scandalized voice shouted from the top of the stairs. Lila shot her a steely glare and walked up to the top.
"You heard me." She said, adrenaline running through her veins. Then she swiped to her current contacts and opened Chloé's. "I guess it's time to take out the trash." Lila continued, heart racing, and pressed the delete button. She held the screen out to Chloé's face as the little trash can animation played. Then she pocketed it, and gestured down the stairs.
"Let's go, Alya, Marinette." Lila called out. The two girls made their way up, both holding back laughter and triumph.
"How dare you!" Chloé began, clearly angry. Lila glanced back at her.
"By the way, my name's Lila." She added, and then the three entered the school, where she suddenly exhaled a huge breath.
"Savage." Alya remarked upon entry. "That was absolutely savage."
"Oh my god." Lila said. "I've never done that before. I- I didn't know she was bad." She thought back to her lunch with Chloé.
"Girl, I think what just happened here proves you're not on her side." Alya smiled, patting Lila on the shoulder. Then Lila looked to Marinette, who had a big grin on her face.
"That was amazing!" Marinette gushed. "There aren't enough people in the world who stand up against that menace." Lila was suddenly overwhelmed with joy; hearing Marinette's approval made her heart soar high.
Marinette had been expecting anything but Lila defending her. When it had happened, her heart swelled with joy. Sure, Lila's comment had been downright deadly, but it was nothing worse than what Chloé dished out on a regular basis. Even Marinette had her fair share of jabs towards the girl.
"Thank you." She looked at Lila. "Really. I appreciated that." Marinette said honestly. If she had had any doubts about liking Lila before, she definitely didn't have any now.
"I couldn't stand her saying those things about you." Lila confessed, and then she looked embarrassed again, as if realizing she'd said too much. Marinette's heart suddenly thumped. For some reason, those words seemed to be having an effect on her.
"You did the world a favor." Alya said, and Marinette agreed, face beginning to tinge pink.
Lila smiled, and Marinette realized how much she liked seeing her smile without deceit in it. She looked purely and simply happy.
"Can I have your number?" Alya asked. "Then I can tell you where to come have lunch with us. If you want." She said, hinting at the first lunch nonsense.
"Sorry about that, by the way. I, uh, clearly made a mistake there." Lila hurried to say, embarrassed yet again.
"No worries!" Alya laughed. "I think you've learned your lesson about Chloé anyway." Lila gave both of the girls her number, still blushing.
"See you at lunch!" Marinette said, and went off with Alya to their class.
When the two sat down behind Adrien and Nino, Alya commenced her assault.
"What do you think of Lila?" She inquired casually, setting her bag on the bench. Clearly Alya had something in her mind. But before Marinette could reply, another voice cut in.
"Awesome!" Nino chimed. "Not only did she talk to Spielberg for me, but she just destroyed Chloé!" He was very clearly impressed.
"She was really cool back there." Adrien remarked. Marinette privately wondered what he thought about the Volpina thing. But of course he would be nice about her. It was Adrien. For some reason, Adrien seemed a little less like there was a heavenly light illuminating his golden hair.
Their talk was halted by the very subject of their conversation walking in. She was clearly pissed and she sat down wordlessly. Ok then.
"I think we should all hang out." Alya decided quietly. "And we should invite our new hero along." She winked at Nino, who immediately reciprocated with his signature finger guns.
"Definitely!" He said. "You in, Adrien?" He looked at his friend, who smiled.
"If I'm free." Adrien smiled.
"That sounds awesome." Marinette breathed. She was going to go out with her friends, and with Lila!
She realized a second later that she should be mostly happy because she was going to go out with Adrien. But it seemed she was more excited to see Lila outside of school again.
Alya grinned, obviously beginning to have a revelation.