I believe in you Ladybug!

Part 9

We're just not gonna talk about my update speeds, yeah? There's only going to be one more chapter after this one, so buckle up cause here we go!

For a while, at least, that was it. Marinette and Lila actually got along as far as anyone could tell, and the class went back to its normal routine. Chloe was once again, left on her own. Akuma attacks started up again at an incredible pace, but Marinette didn't seem to falter. Akumas were something that Ladybug and Chat Noir could deal with. On the off-chance they couldn't, Ladybug, Chat Noir, Rena Rouge, Carapace, Viperion, King Monkey, Pegasus, and/or Ryouko certainly could. With the exception of Lila not being as confrontational or attention-seeking, no one would be able to tell that anything had happened at all.

"Chloe! I got to meet the fashion designer who made your jacket last weekend!" Lila gushed one day in science during a lab. "He was telling me all about how great you were in supporting that line. Of course, he did say that one press conference actually brought down sales before he could fix some things, but it was helpful all the same!"

Chloe looked over the edge of her notebook in which she had tucked a gossip magazine that she was reading idly while Sabrina was doing the experiment next to her. "You're over stirring that solution, Lila."

Lila had lost the battle, and she knew it. Lost being a loose term of course, considering she practically gave it away, but regardless she was not in a position to get a one-up on Marinette considering that she had just apologized. So, what was Lila doing?

Lila looked down at the beaker to see it had turned several shades darker in color than it had supposed to. She stopped stirring, but ignored the beaker.

"Chloe, did you hear me? I was talking decently loud, even I could hear myself through my Tinitus!" Lila giggled.

"Lila!" Sabrina gasped. "Your Bunsen burner is too hot; you're going to turn that solution into Carbon Monoxide!" Sabrina leaned over and turned off the burner and removed the beaker.

Lila gasped in shock. "Thank you for catching that for me, Sabrina! Chloe and I were right here and both of us missed that, guess we're both pretty useless when it comes to science experiments, huh?"

That went right over Sabrina's head, but she was quick to defend Chloe anyway. "Chloe's not useless at experiments, she just wasn't paying attention. She's really good at these sorts of things!"

Chloe almost would've dismissed the conversation entirely, except that Lila was giving her such a wide smile and replied with, "She could be really good! I just haven't gotten to see her in action recently so I didn't know for sure. She's usually got her nose in a magazine."

It was only half a second later that Chloe realized what Lila was doing. There were two people in the class that power fluctuated between – Marinette as the nice one, and Chloe as the mean one. Lila wanted both of their spots, and with the whole class rallied around Marinette, Chloe was an incredibly easy target.

Chat Noir and Adrien must've offered something pretty nice if it meant getting rid of the opportunity to take both girls down at once.

Adrien's part of the deal did in fact turn out to be a fantastic opportunity. Adrien presented Lila a bouquet of flowers after school a couple days later, and she left in his car with him. Chloe was fuming, but Marinette was more sad than anything else. Sabrina didn't even need to be told to eavesdrop and find out why. Chat Noir had told Marinette, but Adrien hadn't sent so much as a text to Chloe.

Chloe had to admit that she was a little bit angry with herself, that ridiculous deal wouldn't have had to be made if she was brave enough to display the necklace in her bag. Of course, if Adrien had only told her what the deal was, she would have used the necklace. It wasn't completely her fault, no matter how much it felt like it. Or how ashamed she felt to hide behind that excuse.