The Salt Files (MLB)

The World Was Wide Enough

Lila regrets what she did when the situation gets out of hand and Marinette gets hurt because of it.

One two three four
Five six seven eight nine—
There are ten things you need to know
Number one!

Lila Rossi is a known bully throughout her schools and various victims. But she never gets punished for it because by the time news breaks out, she already moved and the situation is out of their hands. 

Which leaves the girl open for more victims.

We rowed across the Hudson at dawn
My friend, William P. Van Ness signed on as my—
Number two!

When Lila met Marinette, she could already tell she was going to be the latest victim. But Lila was smart, and she knew what to do.

The first thing you need to do when in a new environment is to find friends or create a friend group. So that's what she did.

With some witty lies and crocodile tears, Lila gained some members into her posse that would back her up if anything happened. The group was Lila, Alya, Alix, Rose, and Mrs. Bustier. Of course, Lila used all of her fake disabilities to her advantage to get anything she wanted from the teacher.

Call her a manipulator all you want, she won't care. Phase one was done.

Hamilton arrived with his crew:
Nathaniel Pendleton and a doctor that he knew
Number three!

Lila soon started her charade of turning people against Marinette. At first, the goody two-shoes was in everyone's good graces so no one really believed her. So Lila got creative.

One all-nighter later, Lila arrived the next morning with bruises, tears, messy hair, and a claim that Marinette beat her up. More classmates were skeptical, but Lila could tell she was winning them over based on their faces.

Just her luck, Marinette came in a few seconds later and was immediately hounded on by Lila's posse. Marinette tried to prove her innocence by providing a detailed description, but Alya wasn't having it. So Marinette tried another way to prove Lila was lying:

By proving the bruises for makeup.

Unlucky for Marinette, Lila suspected something like this would happen, so she used marker. When it didn't come off as easily, Lila made a scrunched face and Alya pushed her old friend away, saying she was hurting Lila. Alya then berated Marinette so badly she ran out crying and didn't return for the rest of the day. Some of her friends followed her, but came back empty handed. Lila smiled.

She knew she chose the right people to do her dirty work for her.

I watched Hamilton examine the terrain
I wish I could tell you what was happ'ning in his brain
This man has poisoned my political pursuits!
Most disputes die and no one shoots!
Number four!

This cycle continued on for a while. Lila would cry out Marinette attacked her, and her friend group would jump her. On top of that, Mrs. Bustier wouldn't even help the girl, she just told her she was disappointed that she wasn't being a good example. Adrien was also slightly disappointed, but could sense something was wrong.

Honestly, Lila doesn't know how she got him to be on her side. You would think a private fashion icon would teach their kid that the first thing going into a public school was not to trust everything you hear. Some things you just have to learn up close and personal.

Things got so bad for Marinette that she transferred out of the class and left the class representative work on Alya.  Which was a lot of paperwork she never knew was part of the job. Turns out, being the rep meant doing more work than the teacher did, and said teacher didn't even help fill it out. Why should a teenager need to fill out applications for trips by themselves over a legal adult?