With Good Tidings

~ With Good Tidings - Chapter 13 ~

With Good Tidings - Chapter 13 - This Is The End, My Only Friend, The End....

Two Weeks After The Lady-Scream Attack.

The school was still talking about that vicious akuma attack, and how Lila had jumped to catch the butterfly. Some mislead fools thought and maintained the belief (cough, Alya, cough) that she'd jumped to save the rest of her class, but the other majority saw then and there The Real Lila Rossi in all her fame and glory.

The classes around Francois-Dupont all saw how broken Ladybug was, when the, Other Chat Noir (they never caught a name strangely enough, if anything, he outright refused to name himself. Strange. The Other Holders were quite quick to stake their claim to fame with their Hero Name) carried the red heroine and the lifeless, (well she might as well been), akuma out of the school buildings. The onlookers were instantly silenced in their anticipation when he looked around the crowds the first time, those eyes, although they were familiar, yet so different to the normal Chat Noir, they held something foreboding enough to silence them all, as they seemed to realise that it was not Chat Noir.

The school also kept talking about the supposed LadyNoir kiss. People weren't sure if it was actually LadyNoir, or something else, considering that it wasn't actually the Chat Noir they knew and admired.

As for Lila Liar...well, she managed to have the last laugh anyway, most of the class still held Marinette at arms length and accountable for all the sob stories Lila spun them over the last month or so. Every attempt at trying to socialise with them again left Marinette awkward and alone, as the others apparently had other plans. Until Alya came up to her.

"You're really something aren't you." she said, coldly.

Marinette looked up at her 'best friend', a frown touching her face. "What do you mean?"

"You asked Ladybug to come in and drag Lila's name through the dirt, didn't you!" she yelled at the blue haired girl. To hell with reason, she thought, this bitch wasn't reasonable towards Lila!

"No, I didn't actually," Marinette replied, evenly. Alya was still salty about being told the truth about her liar friend, and was still trying to sniff out something, anything, that could justify Lila's actions as Not What They Actually Were, and save the girl's angelic reputation amongst her friends.

"You said to me yourself!" Alya cried, "You said you know Ladybug, yes you got me my first exclusive interview with her, so it's obvious that you, in your Adrien-Fueled jealousy couldn't take it when Lila was here, clearly trying her hardest to be friendly with everyone, so you went and batted your petty little eyelashes at her and manipulated Ladybug into coming in and publicly humiliating Lila!" Alya was angry, and had her hands balled into indignant fists.

"Actually," a smooth voice interrupted Alya's attempt to rip into Marinette again. "I asked Ladybug to come in,"

The two girls turned to see Adrien Agreste standing there, naively and obliviously to what was unfolding between the two girls.

"And I was there as witness," Felix said, as he walked up to stand beside Marinette.

The four students were standing in the now empty locker room, having just finished their last class of the day.

"It's been two weeks, Alya," Marinette said, quietly. "What's happening to her is all her own fault, and I'm sorry you can't see that,"

Alya bit her lip, and stomped her foot on the ground. "No! What's happening here is you're just happy and content that she's no longer around, so you can get your crafty little hooks into Adrien!" she yelled, not having it.

Adrien subtly glanced to the side, meeting Felix's eyes. The latter merely sighed and rolled his eyes in return.

"You lied to us all Marinette!" Alya said, "You kept saying that you weren't jealous of her! She landed a modelling job with Gabriel Agreste, who if I'm not mistaken is your favourite designer you look up to! That puts her with Adrien, so that's one mark against you, because I know you get jealous when it's to do with other girls around the boy you like!" she rambled, listing off on her fingers, "Then, when you got jealous because she sat in the front row, beside Adrien, and Nino took your seat beside me, and you had to sit in the back row, no! Can't inconvenience Marinette's 'googly eyes towards Adrien' time every lesson now, hey!" she gabbled, clearly trying to embarrass Marinette in front of the guy she liked. How little the Ladyblogger noticed anything that wasn't detrimental to her own whims and fancy, Felix noted dryly. Or success... he added.