More than a Marichat tale

~Marinette is still an Awkward being~

Marinette arrived to school 10 minutes early on her crutches. Her parents were worried about her last night.
The story she has made was that she was she was on her way home from a casual walk around town when she was was knocked into a stranger they feel on top of her, crushing her leg in an weird angle. It was a quarter of the truth anyway. Marinette was already known to be an unbelievably clumsy person, so people should buy the story. She still felt guilty for lying to her friends.

'Hey guys' Marinette said glumly to her classmates as she limped in.
Alya gasped, 'Marinette, your leg! What happened? Did you know that LadyBug broke her leg yesterday too?!'
'I heard about that. I was accidentally shoved by a stranger into another stranger who ended up crushing my leg which was in a weird angle. It was so embarrassing.' Marinette faked shame.
Adrien approached them, 'hope your leg heals soon Marinette' he said and then went to sit with Nino.
Alya nudges Marinette.
'He actually cares about your leg gurl, this is great!'
'Adrien's nice like that, he's just being friendly'.
Later that day, the class had a gym lesson. Adrien saw Marinette sitting on the side. He looked at her leg. Suddenly he got a flashback and the memories of yesterday's experience with LadyBug came flooding back to him.

That's odd, he thought, ladyBug broke her leg yesterday and those crutches look like the exact same ones I gave to LadyBug...

No I must be mad..Marinette can't be LadyBug, they're just too..different.
but I'm so curious.

Adrien approached Marinette, who was sitting on her own.
'Hello,' he sat down next to her.
Marinette's shoulders went up and she slouched down a little, secretly hoping to sink into the bench.
'Uhh-hi..Adrien' she said, and felt her face warm up and her cheeks go a rosy pink.
'How did you brake your leg?' he asked innocently.
'What?' Marinette was confused for a second and then remembered, 'ohh, my leg,' she let out a nervous giggle.

'Well you see, I was uhm. W-well, I was just walking around town, not anywhere specifically, of course. Not that I have a boring life, I just- I wasn't doing anything that day really. Well of course I was doing something, it's not like I was doing absolutely nothing. It's just somebody knocked me into somebody else, who-who fell on top of me, crushing my leg- I mean, they didn't fall exactly on top of me, like they kinda just fell across me and well, yeh. I think i'm just going to stop talking now' Marinette looked at her feet, awkwardly.

So someone fell on her because someone knocked her into somebody else —adrien thought— just like how I knocked LadyBug and fell on her myself.

'It's not something to be ashamed of Marinette. It happens to the best of us.'
He put his hand encouraging on her shoulder.

Marinette's stomach was so full of butterflies she thought she might vomit them up.

Unexpected, Lila strutted up to them.
'Break's over now Adrien, we're getting into partners. Want to be mine?'
She held out her hand to him.

Adrien took it.
'Sure Lila. See you Marinette'.

'Bye Adrien' she sighed when he was just out of earshot.

At the end of the lesson, Lila and Adrien were talking, laughing and seemed to be getting along very well.

Marinette looked at them in jealously and looked at Lila in envy. She stomped herself over there and decided to be confident.
'Adrien how could you be talking to this infuriating liar and attention seeker!' But she just said that in her head. In reality Marinette was just standing there speechless.

'A-Adrien,' she stuttered, finding her words, 'come eat lunch with me, I mean, not just me of course, with Alya and Nino too'.
'P-P-Please,' she added and looked down at her feet.
'Of course, bye Lila' Adrien followed Marinette to sit with them.

Alya winked at her, as they walked over, Marinette getting used to her crutch.
Marinette pretended that she didn't notice Alya's cheeky act.

Lila was standing over at the far end, alone, without any friends.

Marinette, I hate you! —she thought—
You took my Adrien away from me and you will pay for this. He will be mine.

'I'm going to the toilet' Alya helped Marinette up. She limped off.

As soon as the classroom door closed behind her, Lila let out a cry.
'Ouch!' she sobbed and fell to her knees.

Rose and Julika rushed over to her aid, the rest of the class turned to look at her.

'What happened Lila?' Rose asked, concerned.
'It's- it's M-Marinette,' she pretended to sob, 'She's faked her b-broken leg' Lila stutted.

'What? How?' Rose asked.
'Marinette wouldn't do that,' Alya defended her.

'Well she did. As she passed me, Marinette lifted up her crutch and just poked me, very hard, in the stomach'. Lila sniffed.

'Something doesn't add up,' Adrien turned to Nino and Alya, 'Marinette would never, as much as she despises Lila, she'd never physically hurt anyone on purpose'.
'And anyone that knows her, knows that' Alya agreed.

Marinette returned and everyone was staring at her.
'W-What happened?' She asked, looking around at all the faces. Stopping at Adrien's.

'Lila told us what you did.' Alix stated.
'Uhh great, but what did I do...exactly?' Marinette said shyly.
'Ugh you know perfectly well what you did. We all know your secret, now Marinette.' Smirked Lila.

'M-M-My secret? Whattt? I really don't know what your talking about. What s-secret?' Marinette stumbled on her words.

'Don't listen to her Mari, your real friends know it's not true.'

'What are you all talking about!' Marinette shouted, uncharacteristically.
'You're faking your injury and you hurt Lila with your crutch!' Rose accused.

'Wait what?' Marinette sighed with relief. She thought it was something serious. No, just another one of Lila's
famous lies. Marinette mentally rolled her eyes.

'Unbelievable,' she mumbled and limped back to her friends.

Lila saw Marinette talking and laughing with Adrien and instantly became jealous.

'I'm going to the principal's office, I'm going home,' and she stomped out the room like a toddler.