Jerk in Sheep's Clothing

Karma Hurts

"But I didn't do anything!", Ivan cried.  "Marinette, you've gotta believe me!"

Marinette fumed on the inside.  So, he didn't believe her when she said Lila was lying, but he still expected her to believe him instantly when he said Henri was lying?  Henri, who had been nothing but kind to her from the day he got there?

"I saw you touch him, Ivan.", she said in a tone of voice that was, while composed and dignified, was seething with heated undertones.  "I saw you with your hands on him, right before he fell.  What am I supposed to believe?"

Ivan opened his mouth to defend himself, but was silenced by a cold glare from Marinette, who then stated, "Look, until you apologize to Henri, I don't wanna talk to you."

She strutted to the register to pay for the lunches, leaving Ivan standing in his place, frozen with his mouth hanging open.  He turned to Kim and Max, who looked equally shocked.  "She said she doesn't want to talk to me.", Ivan said sadly.

He and the other two watched her go off, a lunch tray in each hand, back to her boyfriend, who was waiting for her.  She greeted him with a smile and a kiss.

Mylene was waiting for her boyfriend, sitting with the rest of the class, and was confused when he came back without his lunch tray.  "Ivan, where's your lunch?"

Ivan looked at her with a kicked puppy.  "I lost my appetite."  He looked back towards Marinette, sitting with Henri on the other side of the cafeteria.  "I tried to talk to her, but she wouldn't listen.  She says she doesn't want to talk to me until I apologize to him."

"But you didn't do anything!", Mylene cried.

"That's not what she thinks.", said Ivan.  "She saw me with my hands on him right before he fell."

Mylene deflated.  "Yeah...he staged that very well."

"He even got Marinette to bring him lunch.", said Juleka.

Alya scowled heavily.  "She didn't need to!  I ran into Henri in the hall!  He was standing on both feet!  He's only pretending to be hurt to make Ivan look worse than he already does!"

"I must admit...he is an remarkable actor.", Max remarked, drawing everyone's attention to the table with Mari and Henri.

They saw Henri pull his ankle up and rub it gently, pretending to wince every now and then, always when Marinette was looking.  It was indeed quite convincing.

"Dang it, he's good.", Alya growled.  "He could win an Oscar for his performance."

Kim narrowed his eyes.  "If only we could make him break character..."  A smirk spread across his face.  "I got it."

The class watched as Kim went into his backpack and dug out some pieces of paper, and immediately went to work on folding them into little paper footballs.  Once complete, he dashed over to where some of his fellow jocks were sitting—right next to Marinette and Henri.

"Hey, guys!", he said, catching their attention.  "Let's play some football, American style!"

The jocks whooped in response.

As he sat down, his eyes met briefly with Marinette's.  She quickly turned her back to him to face Henri, who's brown eyes darted back and forth between her and Kim every few moments.  One of the jocks made a goalpost with his thumbs and pointer fingers.  Kim waited until Henri leaned to the side to pick up a penny, leaving him in the open.  Kim took aim, paper football in his fingers—and shot it into the air.

The paper missed the goalpost entirely and whizzed towards Henri at rapid speed.  Swift as lightning, the brunette boy bot on his feet—both of his feet—and lunged forward, snatching the paper football before it hit him on the forehead.  Marinette watched this with wide eyes, taken aback by the sudden action.