Your Wish is my Command

Popularity and Pastries

Lila climbed the steps of the courtyard, smirking subtly. She already guessed that all the school would be talking about was Coccinelle and Cheshire Cat.

"Did you see the superheroes on the news yesterday?"
"I heard they defeated that shadow monster!"
"They were so cool!"

Now it was time to spin the tale that shot her to popularity. That she was Ladybug- no, Coccinelle's best friend.

She already had a good backstory: Coccinelle and Cheshire both had crushes on her, but they didn't want to fight over her and chose to stay friends with her and each other.

She couldn't say anything about being another superhero, not yet, as Coccinelle and Cheshire Cat had just shown up, but she'd announce it in a couple of months, hopefully on the LadyBlog.

"Marinette Dupain-Cheng, I present to you: CocciNews! The one-stop destination for all the news and scoops of Coccinelle and Cheshire Cat! I already have 500 followers!"

Or on CocciNews. She strutted over to the pair standing by a staircase.

"Good morning Alya, Marinette!"
"Oh hey Lila, Alya was just showing me this blog she created for news on Coccinelle and Cheshire, it's already a huge hit!" Marinette exclaimed.

Time to launch to popularity.

"Oh, wow, to think my bestie is famous already!"
"Bestie?"
"Oh no! I promised I wouldn't say anything! He's going to be so mad at me!" she squealed anxiously.

"Wait, is Coccinelle your best friend?" Alya gasped excitedly.

Hook, line and sinker.

She faked a worried look, glancing to the side.

"Oh my goodness, he is! I have to put this on my blog, it'll go viral!" she exclaimed, turning on her phone camera.

City-wide popularity: secured.

"What? There's no way you can post that Alya!" Marinette chastised.

What? Oh, of course. Looks like Marinette will be more of a problem than she thought.

"What? Why not? My followers will skyrocket!"
"Y-You don't think I'm lying, do you?" Lila whimpered.

"No no, it's nothing to do with lying, it's about your safety," Marinette explained. "If that moth villain Coccinelle was talking about sees you're his enemy's best friend, he could send another villain to attack you!"

"Oh, you're right. Sorry Lila, but I'd rather keep people safe than put them in danger," Alya said, switching off her phone.

"But don't you want your blog to be popular? It wouldn't be a problem at all, I'm sure Coccinelle would save me if I got in trouble!"

"Maybe in the future, but not at the expense of people's safety, regardless of any relationships with superheroes."

Shit! That Marinette bitch ruined her shot at popularity and fame yet again! Ugh, whatever, she'd get her back.

Maybe a couple of jealousy claims would do the trick ....

————

Lila studied Marinette carefully at the back of the class, not paying attention to a word Miss Bustier was saying.

If she wanted to make it seem like Marinette was jealous of her, she needed to get her riled up, make her so angry that everyone would turn their back on her. The only issue was she hadn't done a thing to make it seem like Marinette hated her!

Marinette was just doing what everyone else was doing, taking notes on the tablet and reading from the textbook. She'd been like this the whole day! There was no way she could exile her from her class today!