Bridgette sighed in slight annoyance as Marinette continued to look at her expectantly.
They were in Marinette's room working on their own creative pursuits.
"Once again, Mari, staring at me won't do anything to answer your questions." Bridgette said flatly.
Marinette sighed.
"Why did you act like that with Gabriel Agreste? That was completely over the top. Even if he did deserve it..." Marinette questioned.
Bridgette looked at her flatly.
"Look, Marinette. He insinuated that I wanted to date his nephew for his money as the only remaining Graham De Vanily. It was also subtly implied in his tone that he was questioning if your interest in Adrien Agreste is only in the Agreste money. I could care less what anybody insinuates or thinks about me, but implying anything about you or Auntie Sabine and Uncle Tom? That's crossing a line. I don't let ANYONE talk like that about you. I certainly won't get involved in any way with a member of a person like that's family because they are likely to be just as twisted if not more so." Bridgette clarified.
Marinette kind of understood that sentiment, so she relented and both pointedly ignored Bridgette's phone sounding off notification after notification. Most of which likely from Felix. That is until her phone rang for the first time with a call from Felix himself. Bridgette obviously ignored the call and pointedly ignored all the following Felix Calls for the rest of the day. Eventually speaking on the phone once with Penny and Jagged Stone about Lila's lies.
Soon they were off to sleep and Bridgette turned her phone off.
Well, she had to.
Felix was persistently calling her and by the time it was 2am and Bridgette's phone rang with a call from Felix, Bridgette deemed it necessary to turn the device off until morning. Soon slinking into Marinette's room with a pillow in hand and a blanket and curling up on the girl's chaise to sleep. She did need to wake up to an alarm in the morning for school and her cousin had plenty of those set up on her phone.
Marinette startled a bit when she was shaken awake by an irritated Bridgette.
"Wake the fuck up, Mari! We need to get ready for school!" Bridgette declared.
Marinette groaned tiredly but sat up.
"What time is it?" Marinette asked groggily.
Bridgette's phone rang and she promptly rejected the call as a message came into her phone.
"We have 30 minutes before we have to be in school, and I need about four cups of coffee before we go to function." Bridgette grumbled as she sluggishly walked out to go to her room and get ready for school.
"Is she okay?" Marinette asked Tikki.
Tikki sighed softly and sadly, "I'm not sure, she just came up here around two in the morning with a blanket and a pillow and curled up on your chaise. I'm guessing Felix must have kept calling up until then at the least." Tikki revealed.
Marinette was surprised but simply got up and got ready for school. Her cousin definitely needed a lot of coffee before heading out and she hated being late.
At school, Marinette quickly cut Felix off as he went to go find Bridgette who had gone straight inside to speak with Principal Damocles who had quickly asked to speak with her and Lila in private.
"Leave her alone right now, Felix." Marinette said flatly and firmly.
Both Adrien and Felix were surprised.
"I need to talk to her and she keeps ignoring my calls and messages. When else am I supposed to speak to her?" Felix asked flatly.
Marinette scowled and growled at Felix.
"Your calls kept her awake until two in the morning, Felix. She is not happy with you and she needs space. She had to down two cups of coffee to somewhat wake up this morning for school. She's still fighting off jet lag too. If you want to keep your arms and legs on your person, I wouldn't go near her right now. Give her today to cool off and relax. You can always talk to her tomorrow. Plus, right now she's with Principal Damocles and Lila. It seems Lila took action against Bridgette after all." Marinette said rationally.
Adrien and Felix were startled at the news.
"Principal Damocles and Lila? That can't be good." Felix and Adrien said in unison.
Marinette nodded.
Bridgette sat calmly and peacefully enough down on the chair beside the one Lila had taken in front of Principal Damocles. Calmly the bluenette took a graceful sip of her coffee and waited patiently, simply sparing a glance at her phone when a message came to it. She ignored it even if it was from Gabriel Agreste himself.
"Mademoiselle Dubost-Cheng, it has been brought to my attention that you have been seen not only treating Lila poorly after class but outside of school by forcefully removing her harshly from the side of Monsieur Graham De Vanily. Is this true?"
Bridgette kept a calm expression on her face and wasn't even surprised.
"There seems to have been a misunderstanding in your information, Monsieur Damocles. While I did speak coldly to Lila after class, it was because she stated and I quote..." Bridgette began clearing her throat.
With an exact replica of Lila's voice and tone she relayed word for word what Lila had said.
"Your name is Bridgette, right? It's so nice to meet you! You must be really smart! Like my good friend, Starlight! She is so smart with her photographic memory but she still contacts me-" Bridgette cut herself off and cleared her throat to return to her own voice as understanding dawned on Damocles.
"As you can imagine, Monsieur Damocles. I was not at all pleased to hear such a statement from someone I have never met before coming to this school in my life. As for the incident outside of school, Marinette and I reached the entryway to our family's bakery to see Lila standing outside of the door with Felix. Felix looked mildly uncomfortable as she clung onto his arm flirtatiously and was even trying physically to pull away from Lila. I figured from his expression that he had been struggling likely more than five minutes at that point and was contemplating calling for help or being forceful in removing her from his side. When I saw that he wished for help, I quickly approached and removed Lila from Felix's arm so that the situation would be resolved. I also know my family does not want those sort of incidents happening around our bakery so I told Lila firmly to refrain from causing such a scene in front of the bakery again or I would be forced to bring the issue to the attention of my busy Uncle and Aunt."
Damocles was surprised and quickly turned to Lila questioningly who immediately denied that claiming that Bridgette was lying.
That was when the door opened loudly to reveal a clearly upset Jagged Stone, Penny, Marc and Clara Nightingale.
"What is the meaning of this?!" Exclaimed Mister Damocles.
Penny stepped forward with Marc and coolly spoke.
"It has been brought to our attention that a Lila Rossi has been claiming some disturbing things about Monsieur Stone and Madame Nightingale! Those of which are untrue and could cause serious legal problems for them." Penny said coldly.
Damocles tensed and by taking a sip of her coffee, Bridgette hid an amused smirk.
"Lila is this true?!" Damocles exclaimed at Lila who froze in horror at the happenings.
Damocles, seeing that Lila was too shaken to speak and the allegations being brought to his attention, quickly called up Madame and Monsieur Rossi to come to the school. After everyone cooled off and waited for the two parents to come in. Which they did together thirty minutes later looking scared to death for the well-being of their daughter.
Along with them came in Jessica, Cassidy and Wendy in pristine Angelwood Academy uniforms looking fairly upset.
"What's going on, Monsieur Damocles? Why are Jagged Stone, Clara Nightingale, and The Fallen Angels here?" Madame Rossi asked worriedly.
Damocles went to answer but Bridgette calmly got up and spoke.
"Let me explain everything properly, Madame, Monsieur. My name is Bridgette Dubost-Cheng. I am also Starlight of The Fallen Angels. I have arranged for Jagged, Clara, my friends and group-members to gather here because Lila has been getting into some serious mischief that can't be allowed to continue." Bridgette greeted calmly and politely making everyone except an angered Lila calm and listen to her.
"What has she been doing exactly?" Monsieur Rossi asked calmly and worriedly.
Bridgette frowned, "For this to make sense to everyone, I should first start from what partially led to me moving back home to Paris from America." Bridgette stated.
"About some months or so ago, my cousin, Marinette, and I spoke on the phone during one of our occasional phone calls and she was very distraught. She had clearly been crying. When I asked her about what happened that made her cry she told me that someone was spreading all these crazy lies at her school for attention and to make her be hated."
The adults were all shocked but listened attentively as Bridgette continued her recounting.
"I was immediately very concerned as you can imagine, my cousin is a very bubbly and sweet person. To make her cry takes quite a problem. She wouldn't tell me who it was and when I found that I was not finding as much passion and drive in my music as I had before not even a few days prior to the call, I knew that coming home to Paris and taking the time to myself to figure out my situation was the best thing to do. So I came home only to realize on my very first day here that my cousin is being bullied by means of alienation, framing, and lies."
The adults all gasped in horror.
"Throughout class, I listened to the people in the class as they interacted throughout the lesson. We were given independent studies and with my photographic memory I finished in minutes. As I listened I heard my classmates talking about how cool it was that Lila saved Jagged Stone's pet kitten. Or how cool it was that Lila has had sleepovers with Clara Nightingale. Or even how cool it was that Lila was close friends with The Fallen Angels and kept secrets for the angels. After class, Lila tried to befriend me by lying and saying she knew me and trying to say that despite my photographic memory I still contacted her for help with whatever she thought up." Bridgette explained.
The Rossi Adults were astounded at the absurdities regarding Lila and those celebrities.
"There is unfortunately more..." Bridgette began softly but coolly.
The adults listened, "Not too long after that incident, I ran into Lila just outside of my family's bakery. She was clutching tightly onto the arm of a boy in our class by the name of Felix Graham De Vanily. He looked extremely uncomfortable, so I quickly stepped in and pulled her off of the boy before the situation got out of hand. But after that incident, I learned from a reliable anonymous source that they overheard Lila threatening Marinette in the school bathroom because Marinette called Lila out on her lying. Especially since Lila has claimed to be best friends with the superheroine...Ladybug was it?" Bridgette explained.
"Going as far as pretending to fall down the stairs in order to have my cousin expelled, grabbing an akuma willingly, messaging a photo to another girl named Kagami which caused for Kagami to be akumatized, and even stealing and planting evidence to make Marinette look like a thief."
The adults were floored as Bridgette finished off calmly.
"While I personally cannot confirm the part regarding Kagami, I'm sure Kagami and Adrien could willingly confirm or deny that. I am informed that this school has CCTV cameras posted everywhere barring bathrooms and the source that heard the threat had voice recorded the threat and upon request sent the recording to my phone. As for celebrity based lies, well the celebrities are here, I'm sure they can confirm or deny the lies."
Silence remained for several moments as everyone processed what had happened when...
THUD! SPLASH!
TBC