For some completely unknown reason, Lila felt giddy about Marinette having her number. Granted, she didn't have Marinette's but she prayed that Marinette would text her soon and then she would have it. Furthermore, it seemed as if she would be making friends with Alya, too, who appreciated her not only for her false association with Ladybug, but also because of her actions from earlier. And those actions reflected the Lila without her "vie incroyable" (incredible life). Lila hoped that she could also form a strong friendship with her, despite being a bit of jealous of her closeness with Marinette. If Alya was Marinette's friend, she must be a good one.

Lila wished she was in the same class as them. In her dreams she could sit next to Marinette and they could whisper to each other. In her dreams she could rest her hand on the bench between them and pray Marinette's pinky brushed hers.

I need to stop. Lila shook her head and tried to focus on the class. There was only so much she could think about Marinette. What if she actually turned out to be Ladybug? Then she would be in some real trouble. Lila needed to tamp down on her desire to spend more time with Marinette until she found out the truth about her. Because she had promised herself she would never be friends with Ladybug.

When morning classes ended and her phone vibrated, Lila's hand moved at an inhuman speed to read the text: come over to the courtyard for lunch! this is marinette btw c:

Lila nearly yelled in joy, but she managed to hold back that urge and she shuffled out of her seat with elegance. Marinette's use of the emoticon was extremely cute, and it tugged at her heartstrings. She typed out a reply as she walked: on my way c u soon ;).

Lila had sent it before she realized she had put a winking face at the end and she suddenly reeled with horror. Too much! This is too far! What if Marinette thought she was being creepy? What's done is done. Lila decided, and walked with purpose in her stride. The past is in the past. Her phone buzzed again and she seized it. Marinette's reply was a single :D emoticon. It seemed so innocent. Lila wanted to send a response but it probably would be redundant since she had just walked into the courtyard.

But when she saw Marinette, she sat not only with Alya, but with Adrien and Nino too.

"Lila!" Alya called out, waving. The other three turned to look at her, Adrien included. Adrien's gaze made Lila suddenly feel very, very uncomfortable. He knew. Adrien was a witness to her wrongdoing and she felt extremely on edge. She had planned to avoid him indefinitely, and having this plan foiled disturbed her. But his smile seemed genuine.

Calm down. You don't even want to go out with him anymore. You never did. Lila told herself. And he probably won't even say anything; he's a nice guy. Probably. Lila forced a grin on her mouth. As her eyes passed over Marinette, her smile became natural.

Clearly I am in too deep. Lila realized, and she was suddenly extremely happy that there was an empty seat to the right of Marinette. She may have to deal with sitting across Adrien, but that was something she could suffer if she could be next to Marinette.

"Hey!" She said, both happy to see Marinette but feeling like she needed to tiptoe around her words because of Adrien. She could endure it. She could do it. She just had to believe in herself. And think of Marinette.

Marinette had surprised herself by asking Nino and Adrien if they wanted to eat with her and Alya. There had been a little stuttering, but not as much as before. Alya had nearly fainted in shock (rightfully so). She wondered if perhaps she was getting more confident around Adrien, or perhaps she was no longer crushing as hard as she thought she was.

As Lila made her way to the empty seat beside Marinette, Marinette wondered why she felt elated at that. She wasn't quite sure why. She could guess, but the conclusion wasn't exactly one she was ready to accept. She had spent so long gushing over Adrien that it felt wrong not to still be madly in love with him. She didn't have feelings for Lila… did she?

"Hey Lila!" Nino said all friendly. "I gotta say thanks so much for talking to Spielberg for me. I know you must be busy! It really meant alot to me." His eyes were full of appreciation.

"Of course!" Lila smiled in response. "Anything for a friend."

Marinette knew that Spielberg had indeed sent a short reply to Nino's fanmail; he hadn't been able to talk about anything else all of yesterday night. He had essentially texted all of his friends the news, and then posted pictures of the email on various forms of social media.

But this is where Marinette's mind began to ponder Lila's deception. Clearly she wanted to be liked, and she clearly had associations with famous people that her peers liked. She hadn't lied about Spielberg or anything else she'd told her classmates about except for Ladybug. So it wasn't that Lila was a rampant liar with nothing but attention in mind. She'd just wanted to be liked a little bit more. And she'd just wanted Adrien to like her.

Marinette thought that Adrien could have at least wanted to befriend Lila even without the Ladybug lie. The lying hadn't been necessary. She blinked, out of her thoughts and back into the conversation.

"And I wanted to tell you that you were super cool this morning when you destroyed Chloe. Oh man, that was awesome." Nino looked at Lila in admiration. Marinette felt a rush of joy. If the others liked Lila as much as she was beginning to think she did, then Lila would have more friends and perhaps she wouldn't feel the need to lie. Then her eyes passed over Adrien, and she realized the error in her ways. How could she have been so oblivious? There was no way Lila would want to be around Adrien after the whole Volpina fiasco. Another wave of guilt drowned out the joy in Marinette. She had screwed up.

He'll probably be nice about it, she consoled herself. Adrien's a good guy, that's why I like him so much.

"Yea, that was really impressive." The boy in question said, and Marinette discreetly looked over at Lila to see if she was about to keel over and succumb to the sweet relief of death. But to her surprise, Lila only looked slightly surprised, and there was a slight blush on her face. Suddenly Marinette realized that Lila still might have feelings for Adrien.

Why in the world did I think she was over him so fast? Marinette groaned inwardly, suddenly feeling a little empty inside. Obviously this was because she, too, was still in love with Adrien. At least, she thought that was the cause of her sudden emptiness. After a solid several months of being unable to speak in Adrien's presence, it only made sense that he still made her heart throb. At least, she thought so. Marinette stole a glance at Adrien. He was still as beautiful as ever, with glowing golden hair and striking green eyes. His smile was full of kindness and joy and he looked at his friends with genuine affection.

He was still the same as always. So why wasn't he making Marinette feel the same as always?

Lila was feeling happy like she never felt before. Sure, she had felt on edge because of Adrien's mere existence, but he had ignored the whole disaster and had been kind the whole time. After everyone had placed their bags on the table, the five of them went to get lunch from the cafeteria (or, as the French called it, à la cantine). The French were notorious for having extremely good lunches that were nutritionally balanced and very filling. So it was with a tray full of not one, not two, not three, but four different plates that all of the students returned to the table they had snagged. First course was a sizeable amount of fresh cucumber and tomato salad, while the main dish consisted of roast beef with baked potato. As expected, one of the plates simply had a bit of bread. Today, it was slices from a baguette. The dessert was a small apple tart.

Lila was so fixed on the food (she hadn't had a filling, proper meal in ages) that she nearly didn't notice Marinette staring a lot at Adrien. Alya, Nino and Adrien were engaged in a conversation regarding one of their classes together. Marinette occasionally contributed some remarks of her own, but her attention was split between eating quietly and shooting glances at Adrien.

Did Marinette like Adrien?

Lila ate her salad and glanced around the table. Despite having been invited to eat with a group of people, she suddenly felt left out. Because these four have probably always known each other and Lila was just a newcomer. Why did she think she could fit in so easily? And the one girl who had extended a hand to Lila in the first place was too busy gazing at someone else. For some reason, Marinette was talking a lot less than usual.

It used to be so easy to be the center of the attention. She could namedrop a couple of famous people, tell a few stories, and then people would be clustered around her immediately. But here she felt like she wanted these people to like her for her and not for anything else. And she didn't know how to do that. All she had done was give some comeback to a snotty girl, and that was old news by now. They were done talking about that. The horrible feeling of solitude suddenly came back to her.

"Is your Physics class just as bad?" Alya's voice suddenly asked. A silence followed, and Lila looked up to realize that they were talking to her.

"Our teacher yells at us all the time. Half of the time it's for no good reason, anyway." Nino said, breaking the silence. He seemed to understand that she had zoned out a bit. Or perhaps he sensed that she was feeling left out.

"Actually no." Lila replied, "I have a really boring teacher who kind of just reads out of the book the whole class." She laughed a bit, "Everything he writes on the board comes directly out of the book. I don't think he knows how to teach without it."

"Sounds better than what we have, at least." Alya chuckled.

The four students continued on with lunch, and they engaged Lila in the conversation. They talked about school, about hobbies, and about other things. She felt more relaxed than she normally would have when talking to people. Because when she talked to others she was all ready to absorb attention and admiration with the personality of a strong, independent and fun girl. But here she was being herself, underneath it all, and she was given as much a share in the conversation without her lies. While Lila slowly started to feel at ease again, she was still bothered by the fact that Marinette wasn't paying much attention to anything but Adrien. Apparently no one else noticed, because no one else said anything.

It seemed to be a confirmation that Marinette was indeed in love with Adrien. And it hurt, because Marinette's attention had been all Lila wanted. Marinette had been her friend first, and now she was barely talking to her.

Lila was becoming dreadfully aware that she was having feelings.

Maybe it's just really hardcore gal pal feelings (They were most definitely not).

The whole thing was a horrible battle. Lila wanted Marinette's attention and she wanted to be closer with her. But all the while she dreaded that she would find out that she was Ladybug, who had humiliated her and embarrassed her and made her feel so terrible that she had been infected by a black butterfly. How could she ever look at Marinette again? How would she feel when she found out that the girl she liked the most had made her feel disgusting and shameful? She couldn't get too close.

But her heart said she should.

Marinette's mind was lost in a swirl of debate. Did she still like Adrien? Why was her heart not fluttering the way it used to be? She was so preoccupied with this dilemma that she barely paid attention to the conversation.

She was looking at Adrien like he was a puzzle (at least, when no one was looking at her she was). He used to make her cheeks go red and render her speechless. But that wasn't happening anymore. Maybe she was just getting more used to him? Or were her feelings towards him disappearing? Or… was she developing new feelings towards someone else?

She had been thinking too hard and too long about it. It was giving her a headache. Marinette turned her attention to the talk.

"So, Lila, what do you think we all go out this weekend?" Alya asked, gesturing over their empty trays. Marinette looked over to Lila, who suddenly got red in the face again. But she smiled. And it seemed so genuine that suddenly Marinette wanted to make Lila smile like that all the time.

Oh. Marinette thought. But then she pushed it out again; she wasn't thinking about that stuff anymore. At least for now. Even if what she suspected was true, it wasn't going to work out because Lila already liked someone else. And I ruined that…

"Where?" Lila inquired. Marinette blinked, almost taken aback by the sheer cuteness of that voice. And she wondered why Lila was so different with these people, with her, then when she was with the other students. With others she was outgoing and popular and full of interesting stories. She was confident and flirtatious and she was the leader of the conversation. Maybe that was a facade for popularity. Here she seemed freer and more relaxed, and she spoke comfortably. And maybe this was the real Lila.

Marinette felt lucky that she could see it.