As Alya walked up to her school through the falling drizzle, rubbing her eyes and trying to stay awake, she was met by a concerned-looking girl with short blonde hair. "I heard you got akumatized again," the girl began. "Are you all right?"
Alya nodded. "Yeah, I'm fine. Just tired. It just had to happen in the middle of the night, didn't it?"
"Anything you need me to get you? A croissant? An apple? Cup of juice?"
Alya put her hand on the girl's shoulder. "Thanks, Rose, but I think I'm all set for now."
Rose nodded. "Don't hesitate to let me know if there's anything you need. We're here for you."
With a nod and a smile, Alya entered the school and walked up the stairs to her classroom. Class had already started. Alya carefully opened the door, trying to make as little sound as possible, and sat down next to a very tired-looking girl with bluish-black hair.
"Morning, Marinette," she whispered.
The girl blinked a couple times. "Morning, Alya," she whispered back. "You look exhausted."
"Not nearly as much as you do," Alya replied. "What were you doing last night?"
"I was, uh..." Marinette stuttered for a moment. "There was a problem with the plumbing. It started hissing and clanking in the middle of the night, and woke my parents up. They were worried, so they had to call in a plumber, who ended up actually being—"
"Marinette!" the class's teacher interjected. "If you want to talk to Alya, the place for that is outside the classroom."
Marinette nodded. "Sorry, Ms. Bustier."
After waiting a few minutes to ensure Ms. Bustier wasn't looking, Alya leaned over to Marinette and pointed at the blond-haired boy sitting in front of them. "Adrien looks pretty tired too, did you notice? I'd thought at first that maybe he'd been doing something in the middle of the night and you'd been spying on him."
"Me? Spying?" Marinette drew back, seemingly affronted. "I don't spy on people."
Alya stifled a laugh. "I'm pretty sure that at some point you've spied on every person in this room. And on Adrien more than everybody else combined."
Marinette put her head in her hands. "Is it really that obvious?"
"Excuse me, Ms. Bustier?" a shrill voice called out. "I can't concentrate with those two chattering away over there."
Both Marinette and Alya turned their heads to look at Chloé Bourgeois, who flashed them a smug look from the front seat.
Ms. Bustier turned to look at Marinette and Alya again. "That's enough, you two! Go to the principal's office."
Rose stood up in the back of the classroom. "Excuse me, but Alya was akumatized last night, so perhaps you could go easy on her?"
Ms. Bustier sighed. "Thank you, Rose, but the school's policy only states that as a victim of akumatization, Alya was not required to attend classes today. The policy does not excuse disrupting class, and I fail to see how even an akuma would justify her doing so. So, Alya and Marinette, go see Mr. Damocles."
Alya sighed and picked up her backpack, walking toward the door. Marinette followed behind her.
"You too, Chloé," Ms. Bustier added.
Chloé stood up, looking shocked. "Me?! But I was helping you enforce the school rules. You should be grateful!"
Ms. Bustier shook her head. "Chloé, you do this all the time. You need to learn that it's unacceptable to constantly cause other students to be disciplined."
"My father will hear about this!" Chloé yelled.
"Of course, I'll be telling him myself," Ms. Bustier coolly replied. "Now go, Chloé."
Chloé huffed, and joined Marinette and Alya at the door. All three walked along the balcony toward the principal's office.
"It's ridiculous!" Chloé pouted. "Absolutely ridiculous!"
"Well, you didn't have to say anything," Alya pointed out.
Chloé turned to Alya, angrily. "This is all your fault, you know. You're the one that kept me up all night, locking me to a chair in the Grand Palais. Don't think I've forgotten! I'm sure my father will have a few choice words about that."
"Is that what you're going to say to Mr. Damocles, too?" Alya asked. "That your father will hear about this?"
"Oh, he most certainly will!"
"Come on, Chloé!" Alya persisted. "That's your solution for everything! Think of some new excuses for once!"
Chloé shrugged. "Why? The current one works well enough. I can get away with anything. Speaking of which..." Chloé drew back her hand and smacked Alya across the face.
Marinette gasped. "Alya! Are you all right?"
Alya wiped her face. "Yeah, I'm fine." She cracked her knuckles. "But this nightmare blonde is so gonna get it now." Without hesitating even for a moment, Alya lunged forward and tackled Chloé, knocking her to the ground and pummeling her chest.
"Alya, stop!" Marinette yelled. "You're only going to make things worse for yourself!"
"As long as I make things worse for her too, I'm okay with that," Alya growled.
There wasn't any contest. Once Alya had Chloé pinned down, she'd already won. But she still made a point of getting several licks in before letting Chloé stand up.
Chloé coughed and brushed off her clothes. "This was a new jacket, you brat. And now my hair's messed up, too! You'll pay for this!"
Ms. Bustier chose that moment to run out of the classroom, followed by Adrien as well as several other students. "Chloé, Alya—what do you think you're doing?!"
"She attacked me!" Chloé yelled.
"She hit me first!" Alya retorted.
Ms. Bustier grabbed both of them by their arms. "All right, I've had enough. You're suspended for a week, both of you."
"What?!" Chloé exclaimed. "I'll call my father this instant. He can get you fired, you know!"
"Don't even think about it, Chloé," Ms. Bustier said sternly. "I'll be writing him a letter myself, explaining how you clearly violated established school rules."
Chloé opened her mouth for a moment and then closed it, clearly not knowing what to say.
"Ladybug isn't here to save you this time, Chloé," Alya said smugly.
"Your mother works for my father. I can get her fired too, you know," Chloé shot back.
"That's enough, Chloé!" Ms. Bustier insisted. "Gather your things and go."
Chloé turned away and left in a huff.
"I guess I'll be seeing you next week, then, Marinette?" Alya asked as she picked up her bag.
"Don't be ridiculous! We can still see each other at lunch and in the afternoon," Marinette replied. "I can help keep you up to date on what you'll be missing from class."
"If my mom doesn't ground me, yeah, that would be good. You're free this afternoon, right?"
"Um...something's come up in the afternoon, actually. But lunch is fine."
"All right, everybody," Ms. Bustier said, "come back into the classroom. You too, Marinette."
"I thought I was supposed to go to the principal's office?" Marinette asked.
Ms. Bustier sighed. "Forget it. Just please try not to disrupt class."
When classes let out for lunch a few hours later, Marinette heard a voice behind her.
"Hey, do you know what happened this morning when Alya got akumatized?"
Marinette whipped around. "Oh! Adrien! Um, hi." She waved tentatively.
Adrien returned her wave with a smile, and then rested his hand behind his head. "I just thought that since you two were so close, she might have told you some of the details on what went down. If she's comfortable with it being shared, of course."
"Oh, um," Marinette stammered, "there wasn't—I mean, she didn't say anything about it. She didn't remember anything."
"Right, of course, nobody remembers. How silly of me."
"You're not silly, you're gorgeous," Marinette blurted out.
"Sorry?"
"Oh, I mean, yeah, you're right," Marinette recovered.
"Well, what have you heard other people saying? I'm curious about what happened."
"It's on the news, isn't it? The news is probably more reliable than I am."
"Well, yeah, but I'm curious what people are saying about it."
"Why are you so curious about this?"
Now Adrien began to stammer. "Well, I...I always like to stay up to date on akuma attacks."
"Well, all I know is that Lady Wifi captured Chloé and tried to get some sort of information from her. The cops showed up but weren't a match for her. And then Ladybug came in and beat her."
"Just Ladybug? What about Chat Noir?"
Marinette paused a moment. "Yeah, I think I heard he was there too."
Adrien looked a little crestfallen. "Great. Thanks, Marinette." He turned to walk away.
Now Marinette was confused. He'd seemed disappointed by her answers. What had she said wrong?
"You know," a voice said from behind Marinette, "I'm amazed you haven't figured out what he's playing at."
Marinette turned around, facing a girl with long brown hair, who had been silent throughout the entirety of the morning classes. "And what exactly is that, might I ask?"
"I'll let you figure that out for yourself," the girl replied coolly. "It also explains why he looks so tired. You do too, I might add...I wonder why."
"What do you want, Lila?" Marinette coldly asked.
Lila leaned forward, lowering her eyebrows. "There's something going on. I want to uncover the truth."
Marinette let out a sharp laugh. "That's ironic, coming from you."
Lila shrugged. "I use truth and lack thereof to my own advantage. If I'm going to lie about something, I need to know the truth first. I guess that's why you're such a bad liar, since you know nothing in the first place."
The two maintained cold stares at each other for several seconds.
Lila was the first to crack a smile. "Seriously, though, you look exhausted. Come on, let's get some lunch."
Marinette smiled in return, and put her arm around Lila. "So what's actually going on with Adrien?"
"It's a secret," Lila replied.
"Oh, come on! Tell me!"
"Where's the fun in that?"
Lila and Marinette walked down the stairs and out the door, crossing the street and entering the small corner bakery on the bank of the Seine.
"Hello, Marinette!" the woman behind the counter called out. "Oh, and hi Lila! Nice to see you! Where's Alya today?"
"Oh, that's right," Marinette realized. "I should call her, and see if she wants to join us for lunch. Is that okay with you, Lila?"
Lila nodded, as she and Marinette picked out their lunches. "All right. I don't think she likes me very much, though."
Marinette looked up, surprised. "Why do you say that?"
Lila sighed. "Oh, this and that. I think she's still holding a grudge from that interview on her blog when I duped her. And I don't think she likes what I've been saying about Ladybug."
"What have you been saying about Ladybug?" Marinette asked as they walked to find a place to sit down.
"Oh, just that I don't think she's as much of a hero as people say. You know, I haven't ever heard you say much about Ladybug. What do you think of her?"
Marinette seemed taken aback. "What do I think of Ladybug? Um, not that much, actually. I don't know that much about her."
Lila pressed on. "But do you like her?"
"Yeah, I mean, she's okay, I guess."
"You don't want to talk about her?"
"No! I mean, sure. I mean, I don't know?"
Lila sighed. "You know, the only other times I've seen you act like this is when you talk about Adrien."
"Act like what? I'm just acting the way I always do."
Lila leaned forward with a mischevous smile. "Marinette, do you maybe have a little crush on Ladybug?"
Marinette's eyes widened, almost threatening to pop out of her face, which had turned bright red. "Um, what? No! Not at all!"
"Really?" Lila asked, raising one eyebrow.
Marinette sputtered somewhat, unable to find any words.
"Because I do, at least a little," Lila continued. "Kinda ironic, considering I don't really trust her as a hero."
Somehow, Marinette's eyes managed to widen even more, and her face turned an even brighter shade of red. "Oh, hey, I forgot to call Alya," she squeaked.
Lila nodded. "Go ahead and call her." She paused as Marinette took out her phone. "You know, she's got feelings for Ladybug too."
Marinette let out a high-pitched noise that until that point she wasn't aware she was capable of producing.
"Are you all right, Marinette?'
"Yeah," Marinette said in a voice that sounded decidedly not all right. "I just realized I, um...forgot something. Let me call Alya now."
Alya arrived a few minutes later, when most of the red had faded out of Marinette's face. "Hey all," she said. "My mom decided not to ground me. But that's pretty much the only good news that's come out of this."
"Oh, no, what happened?" Lila asked, sounding concerned.
"Well, apparently the mayor's actually threatening to fire my mother. I guess Chloé really insisted."
Both Marinette's and Lila's jaws dropped. "That's low, even for her," Marinette breathed.
"It's not official yet, but apparently she heard secondhand that he was planning to notify her in the next couple days."
"That's completely unfair!" Lila exclaimed. "The mayor shouldn't get to fire her over something you did!"
"Well, it doesn't seem he can ever say no to Chloé," Alya sighed. "Now I'm worried for Ms. Bustier as well."
"He wouldn't," Marinette gasped.
"Does he even have the authority to fire her?" Lila asked.
"Well, not directly. I looked it up. He has authority over Mr. Damocles, and Mr. Damocles has authority over Ms. Bustier. So he can try to force Mr. Damocles to fire her. And Mr. Damocles never stands up to him."
"Is there anything we can do about it?" Lila asked.
Alya shook her head. "Not really. The mayor isn't known for listening to reason. And no, Lila, you shouldn't try to lie to him. That could actually get you arrested."
"If I got caught," Lila pointed out. "I hardly ever get caught. If I can deceive you the way I did, I'm sure I can deceive this imbecile of a mayor."
Alya narrowed her eyes. "Lila, could you please not bring that up right now?"
Lila nodded. "Sorry."
"Here's an idea," Marinette tried. "What if you make a post to your blog describing the situation, and you raise awareness and tell people exactly what's going on? Then, the mayor won't be able to fire her, because he'll risk having a scandal on his hands!"
Alya's eyes brightened. "That's a great idea, Marinette! I'll get right on that. Do you want to help me out with it?"
"While you two work on that, I think I'll come up with a plan to murder Chloé," Lila decided. "Don't worry, I'll let her live until after this whole deal has settled down. Wouldn't want to make the mayor even more angry."
Marinette put her arm around Lila's shoulder. "We don't have to murder anyone, Lila."
Lila clenched her fist. "You know what I mean. Chloé's just awful, and someone needs to put her in check. Even if that doesn't mean resorting to actual murder."
Marinette turned back to Alya. "Well, we can talk more about this in a few minutes. But you look hungry—you should go in and pick something out for lunch! My mom will certainly be happy to see you."
Alya nodded. "Good call, thanks. I'll be back out in a minute."
And it was then that Marinette had an idea.