Lila walked into the school keeping her eyes glued to the floor maybe if she didn't see them she could pretend everyone wasn't looking at her, hating her, judging her.
It was no use she could still feel their stares burning into her. She could still hear the whispers as they got louder and louder in her head.
"She's such a liar" "can you believe what she did to poor Adrien" "I bet you her name isn't even Lila!"
Lila was just about to consider turning back around and running straight out of the school when a voice chirped, "Hi there, you must be Lila right?"
Lila looked up from the ground and was met with sky blue eyes and a friendly smile.
She felt a flicker of hope 'maybe I can finally make a friend'
While Lila did not feel confident in the slightest she put on her best confident smile, she was nothing if not a good actress.
"Yes, I'm Lila Rossi and you are?"
"I'm Marinette Dupain-Cheng, it's nice to finally meet you"
Lila took a closer look at the petite girl, Marinette had Midnight blue hair which was tied back in pigtails. Her eyes were a bluebell blue and she continued to smile at Lila.
'Is this girl an angel?'
Then realisation dawned on Lila 'She said it's nice to finally meet you that means she knows about what I did' Lila looked at Marinette with sad eyes her smile disappearing.
"I'm guessing you heard about what happened"
Marinette gave a sad smile "Yes, but it's a new day"
Lila smiled this girl was so nice she hadn't expected anyone to forgive her at least not this quickly.
"Now come on we don't want to keep Miss Bustier waiting...She hates it when I'm late which is what I am most of the time" Marinette laughed.
Lila felt a small laugh escape her. 'Maybe today won't be so bad' Lila thought as that flicker of hope grew stronger inside her.
Lila walked into the classroom behind Marinette. Fear built inside of her again. Then she heard Marinette whisper "That seat down the back beside Nathanael is free" She looked at Marinette who gave her a small encouraging smile.
"Thank you," Lila said, she didn't just mean for telling her where to sit she also meant for being the first person who was kind to her.
Marinette seemed to catch onto that as her eyes shined happily "There's no need to thank me"
Marinette walked to her seat beside her auburn haired friend, Alya. Lila remembered her name she had been one of the people she had lied to. If she had known that lie would have cost her the most maybe she would have stopped herself from saying it but sadly she couldn't turn back time.
She saw Alya giving her a glare before whispering to Marinette. Lila decided to ignore that and walked on down to the back seat. She saw the boy Marinette had mentioned, Nathanael that was what she called him.
Nathanael was currently drawing in a sketchbook so Lila couldn't really see his face but that red-hair looked familiar which Lila found strange as she didn't remember talking or well lying to anyone with red-hair yesterday.
She reached the desk and bite her lip nervously as she considered what to say "Um...I hope you don't mind if I sit here?"
Nathanael looked up and then Lila realised where she knew him from he was the boy from the street.
Nathanael's eyes widened as he also recognised Lila from yesterday. He said nothing about it. He just nodded and quietly said "sure"
Lila gave a relieved smile as she sat down.
Alya turned to Marinette with a glare "What are you doing talking to the Liar?" she hissed.
"Alya don't be mean" Marinette scolded.
Alya continued to glare.
"Alya, everyone deserves a second chance," Marinette said.
Alya's face softened as she finally nodded in agreement. "Mari, Your too good for this world you know that"
Marinette laughed "Shut up, you dork" she gave her friend a gentle shove.
Alya laughed.
Though she had helped Lila out a bit Marinette still felt guilty. She still found it wrong of Lila to have lied to everyone but it had been mean of her to lose her cool like she had. Now everyone hated Lila. Marinette was set on succeeding her new mission of helping Lila make some friends and hopefully not get akumatised again.
Marinette smiled to herself 'Nothing could go wrong right?'
Lila walked out of the classroom and was walking down the hall when she heard her name being called out. She froze sure that it was someone coming to shout at her for lying. 'May as well get it over with...it was hardly like everyone was going to forgive me'
Lila turned around and was met with a hug. She looked down at the blonde haired girl that was hugging her.
"W-what are you doing?" she asked in surprise.
Rose broke away from the hug looking up at Lila with wide periwinkle eyes "It's called a hug, Lila...I hugged you"
"I know that...it's just...do you not hate me?" Lila asked.
"No of course not, I'm more upset that you felt the need to lie to me...did you think I wouldn't like you?" Rose asked.
"Um...well, yeah kind of," Lila said, shifting on her feet nervously.
Then a tall girl with long raven black hair with violet tips came up behind her. Lila remembers seeing her yesterday but she had forgotten her name.
"See, Juleka we're right she isn't mean," Rose said, turning to the Tall girl.
Lila was taken aback how did anyone think she was mean? But she decided to ignore that and stay quiet.
"Well, Lila maybe we should start over" Juleka smiled.
"I would like that very much" Lila smiled shyly back.
"Yay! We can be friends then" Rose said, pulling Lila into another hug.
Lila giggled. 'Where are all these angels coming from?" she thought to herself shocked that people actually wanted to be friends with her after what she had done.
"But Lila please never lie to us again," Juleka said.
Rose let Lila go and nodded "She's right, you don't need to lie to make friends"
Lila looked down at the ground "Of course, I'm really sorry for lying...I promise never to do it again"
Lila looked back up and was met with Rose and Juleka's kind gazes and smiled back in relief that they weren't angry.
"That's good enough for me! Now come on let's get to next class" Rose said, she walked down the hall a skip in her step. Juleka followed behind her smiling down at the petite girl.
Lila started walking behind them a bit slower she was happy for their friendship but she was still unsure. How did she know they really meant it maybe this was a huge trick to get back at her? First Marinette and now Rose and Juleka this was too good to be true right?
"You okay, Lila?"
Lila broke away from her thoughts and was met with Rose's warm smile and her doubt vanished as she smiled back, a genuine smile.
"Yes, everything's Okay"
Marinette watched Lila walk off with Rose and Juleka a happy smile on her face. Her plan had worked, she knew that Rose and Juleka would be good friends for Lila so she had asked them if they could go and talk to Lila and then they would see how sorry she was.
'Obviously, I'll still be Lila's friend but it's better if she has other friends...if it accidentally comes out I'm ladybug who knows how she'll react? She probably still hates me' Marinette mused with a sigh.
Still, she had done the best she could it wasn't like she could do anything more.
"Marinette!" Alya said, waving a hand in front of Marinette's face shocking her out of her thoughts.
"Wahh!" Marinette exclaimed.
Alya laughed "what's up with you? Usually, you only daze out when Adrien's around" Alya quickly looked around the courtyard to see if Adrien was around.
"I was thinking," Marinette said with an embarrassed blush.
"Yeah well, you can think in next class which we are going to be late for," Alya said walking on.
Marinette walked quickly to catch up with her just as the bell rang.
Lila walked into Ms. Mendeleiev's class behind Rose and Juleka.
"Lila do you want to sit beside me?" Rose asked then she turned to Juleka "that's if you don't mind Juleka?"
Juleka smiled "of course not"
Lila smiled "thank you, Rose I would like to sit beside you"
"Great! Come on" Rose grabbed Lila's Hand and dragged her the table. Lila sat down beside Rose and noticed Juleka had gone to sit beside Nathanael.
Then there was a loud thud. Lila quickly looked at the door and saw Marinette getting up off the floor with the help of her friend, Alya.
"It looks like you can't do anything right, Marinerd!" Chloe cackled from her seat.
The class all turned glares on her.
'Who does she think she is talking to angel, Marinette like that' Lila thought as she looked at Chloe with a venomous glare.
"Isn't it a little early for your nastiness, Chloe?" Alya said a scowl gracing her features.
"Alya, leave her she's not worth it" Marinette muttered.
Alya looked at Marinette and nodded they started walking to their seats.
"Hah! See, Sabrina, Marinerd is nothing without her idiot friend" Chloe said loud enough so the class could hear.
Alya turned around to say something when a voice cut in "stop being so mean, Chloe!"
Everyone's attention turned to the door where Adrien stood glaring at Chloe. He walked further in still looking at Chloe with a disappointed glare.
Before anyone could say anything else Ms. Mendeleiev walked in "What's everyone standing about for? Get in your seats this instant" she scolded. "This isn't a playground" she muttered.
Everyone who wasn't already sitting quickly got into their seats as Ms. Mendeleiev walked up to the board and started the day's lesson.
Lila went home for lunch. Today had been good so far she had expected everyone to hate her and possibly ignore or bully her and she knew they would be in their right to. What she had done hadn't been the smartest of mistakes and she was going to be very sorry about lying for a long time.
She had friends now in Rose and Juleka and Marinette too. Marinette had even come up to her during one of the classes and asked if everything was ok so far. Lila had told her everything was fine which Marinette had been happy to hear then she had to go as Alya had shouted for her to come.
Yes, everything was fine she just had to try and get rid of all these doubts and negative thoughts that were floating about in her mind.
Lila had learned that Rose and Juleka were probably the sweetest girls in the whole school. They had helped so much throughout the day. People had given disappointed looks or glared at Lila as she had walked through the halls but when Rose saw that it was bothering her she always smiled and grabbed her hand telling her to hurry up to class, Juleka though she was sweet also knew how to do the scariest death glares which she had done to all the people who had whispered hateful things about Lila as they passed, though it was a bit too loud to be actually considered a whisper. She had also found out that Juleka and she liked the same book series and they had talked a lot about it.
Lila had found herself asking about Nathanael. The Italian had found herself glancing at Nathanael, she had sat beside him in many classes, He seemed to be a loner, always sitting on his own drawing away in his sketchbook and not talking to very much people unless he had to ask a question and even then his voice came out quiet and unsure as if he wasn't used to talking. He looked to Lila more fragile than the glass fox that sat on her bedroom dresser at home. It was hard to get his attention under his long bang of red hair that dominates half of his face, only revealing one ocean blue eye. Lila noticed how he held himself like he's trying to even less space than he already does and his clothes looked at least a size too big, only exaggerating his skinniness. He looked so lost, so alone. Lila wanted to know him better maybe it was because she also felt lost and alone no matter how many people she was surrounded by, she related to him in that sense.
So Lila finally decided to ask the girls did they know anything more about Nathanael. They had told her he was very shy and usually liked to draw more than taking part in conversations.
"So how was your first day back so far?" Mia, her father's assistant asked.
"It went fine," Lila said, she hadn't told Mia about the fact she had lied to everyone in school not that she would have been able to help if she had.
"That's good...any new friends," Mia asked, pushing a stray blonde lock of hair behind her ear.
Lila gave a genuine smile "Yes I made two new friends...a girl called Rose and another girl called Juleka...there very kind"
Mia smiled, happy to hear Lila was settling in okay she knew in the past Lila had always struggled to try and fit in at new schools.
"How are things with the Adrien boy? I remember your Father wanted you two to be friends for some reason" Mia asked.
Lila found herself tensing at the mention of Adrien, it was true that her father wanted her to be friends Adrien and she had been happy to try and be friends with Adrien because it was true she may have had a little crush on the boy but you couldn't blame her! He was a model half of Paris had crushes on the boy. Lila knew her father probably thought it would help him get closer to even richer people if she and Adrien had been close. Lila rolled her eyes in annoyance she sometimes felt like nothing but a pawn to her father.
He told her that she should always make a good impression and if that meant stretching the truth then it was okay everybody else was doing it so why shouldn't they. A little white lie wouldn't hurt anyone but her father had been wrong it did hurt someone and that someone was usually you.
"Um now if you'll excuse me, I really should be heading back to school. If you can please tell the driver."
Mia looked a bit taken back by Lila's sudden order.
"But, Lila you have twenty-minutes left of your break. You will get there very early."
She locked eyes with Mia and loosened her tense shoulders. She was preparing herself for putting on an act, as usual. A forced smile grew on her lips as she got up from her seat. She really didn't want to talk or even think about Adrien at the moment. Her feelings were a painful mess and she always found it hard dealing with her problems instead she would push it away and hope it would disappear on its own.
"I just remembered that I need to look for a book in the library, if I leave now it will give me enough time to look for it before class starts."
"Lila-"
"Please, Mia? I really should get going."
The woman was still seated, her eyes following the girl as she went to retrieve her bag from one of the chairs at the front of the table. Lila knew that Mia caught her lie, but the woman still didn't question things any further.
"Of course. Right away."
The car ride back was slow due to the traffic so Lila found herself putting in her earphones and Listening to music that reminded her of Italy. It made her feel nostalgic and sad.
Paris was so different from Genoa, where she had grown up in Italy. Lila was finding it hard to adjust.
Paris always seemed somewhat dark and grey nothing like Italy. She couldn't help but think of Genoa and all the things she loved and missed about it.
She missed the smell of the sand, sand that would stick to her feet and rub against her skin, the sand that would get caught in the stones outside her house. She missed the Sun, there wasn't much sun in Paris only the rare glimpses it was just dark grey clouds at this time of year, they rolled over the sky bringing the thick smell of a coming thunderstorm. She also missed the nights sitting outside, the wind carrying the scent of lemons from the tree in her Nonna's backyard but mostly she missed the feeling of belonging.
The car stopped and Lila realised they had reached the school. She took out her earphones putting her phone back in her bag before stepping out of the car and thanking the driver.
She walked back up the steps of the school building as the driver pulled away. Lila sighed she knew she would have to put her feelings of homesickness to the back of her mind they were in Paris for good and the faster she got used to that the better it would be for everyone.
She saw a few students milling about in the halls but the school was mainly empty. Lila breathed a sigh of relief it felt nice to walk to the class without the judging stares and the bit too loud to be called a whisper rude comments directed towards her.
Lila was glad she had managed to make friends with Marinette, Juleka and Rose but she had no idea if they would stick around for long. They were sure to get sick of her and then they would abandon her.
Lila shook her head. She couldn't think like that. She was already ruining her chances of real friendship.
She finally made it to the classroom and gently pushed the door open. When she saw that familiar red hair, it looks like she wasn't the only one who wanted to get there early.