She's Sunshine, She's Grace, She'll Punch You in the Face

Chapter 39: Resentment

Everyone in the room started to talk amongst themselves and some of Marinette's class even started to cry and look a little but ashamed of themselves.

Marinette watched as Lila whispered to her mother on her phone. Even though she never really liked Lila, she still hated to see her cry so she instead looked away and over to Alya. She found the girl staring at her with a blank expression on her face. "I'll be right back." Marinette spoke to Damian.

"Where are you going?" He looked a little concerned.

"I want to talk to Alya."

"I'm coming with you." He grabbed her hand.

"No." She looked up at him. "This should be between just us."

Damian looked like he wanted to argue but instead he begrudgingly let go of her hand. "Okay, Angel. Just let me know if you need some help."

"I will." She smiled at him. "Thank you for understanding."

"No problem." He smiled back before she walked away towards Alya.

"Hey, Alya." Marinette looked at her former best friend. "I'm sorry. I never wanted it to end this way."

"You're sorry?" Alya looked a little offended. "You just ruined Lila's life."

"No, I didn't." The bluenette shook her head. "She ruined her own life. I didn't force her to do any of the things she did to me or to the rest of the class, including you. And I certainly didn't force her to lie about Mr. Wayne and his family."

"Why are you doing this to us?"

"What exactly am I doing to all of you, Alya? She was slowly ruining everyone's lives with her false promises, and for what? For her crazy need for popularity? Or was it because she liked the attention all her lies brought her?" Marinette tried to calm herself down. "I don't want to argue with you Alya. I tried so many times to show you the truth but you refused to listen to reason."

"Okay, maybe she lied about Damian but Lila isn't a bad person. She was everyone's friend. She even wanted to be your friend at one point." Alya crossed her arms.

"Alya, if you think for one moment that she thought she was actually any of your friends then I feel sorry for you. A true friend never would have promised you all of these life changing opportunities only to knowingly never keep them. She's a manipulator, Alya. She manipulated all of you and nothing I said or did could ever stop it until today." The bluenette looked truly sad for her. "And for that, I'm so sorry that I could never help you. I wish I could have done more."

Alya finally started to break down and truly cry. "I hate you, Marinette. You have ruined everything. Everything I have ever worked hard for and wrote about with her was a lie and now you have showed everyone what she is. I'm a fraud now because of you and now I'll never be a true journalist. Nobody will trust a single thing I will ever write from here on out now because of you. I hate you!" She screamed the last part.

"That's okay." Marinette gave her a sad smile. "Just know that it is never to late to admit your mistakes and to try to make them right. I wish nothing but the best for you Alya." She hesitated for a moment before walking back to Bruce and his family.

"How did it go?" Damian asked as Lila was finally being hauled away with the child service people that just arrived.

"She resents me, just as I thought she would but at least she has admitted the truth." Mari looked back to Bruce who just parted ways with his lawyers. "Thank you, Bruce. I don't think I will ever be able to repay you for this."

"You have done more than enough by just entering my families lives. I'm glad I could help." The billionaire smiled fondly at the girl. "I think we have caused enough of a mess today. We should all probably be going so you can start your class." He walks over to the podium and taps the mic to get everyone's attention. "I am sorry for all the excitement we have caused today."

"That's okay!" Alix joked loudly.

Bruce smiled for a moment before continuing. "I hope the rest of you can get along and on behalf of my family, we welcome you all to Gotham and to Gotham Academy. Enjoy your stay and remember to learn as much as you can while you are here." He bowed his head before walking off with Tim, Dick and Jason in tow.

Marinette waved to them all as they left. "See you later!"

"Okay..." Mrs. Dubois still looked a little confused about what just happened. "And I thought I saw everything while living here in Gotham." She looked over to Marinette who was now holding Damian's hand. "I'm sorry you had to deal with that. You must be the luckiest person in the world to have the whole Wayne family backing you up."

"Oh uh, thank you?" Marinette smiled at the dark-haired teacher.

Mrs. Dubois looked around for the other teacher and when she caught sight of her, she waved her over. "Are you ready to go to the classroom?"

"Yes." She nodded. Madame Mendeleiev turned her attention to her class and rounded them up. Most of them still seemed very upset about what just happened but she couldn't find it in herself to feel bad for them. She was happy that the truth came to light for them all and she knew that they were young enough that they would soon get over it and learn from this experience.

Everyone followed Mrs. Dubois and her class down the hall and to the class room they would be at for the rest of the week. The class room had twelve tables in two rows of six and each one had two chairs pushed up to them.

"Now, class" Mrs. Dubois spoke up. "This week we will not be sitting in our normal seats. It seems that we got lucky enough to have the same number of classmates in each class. We were fully expecting to have more of you here but it seems that this has worked out for the better. I want each of my students to sit at a table by themselves and a student from Madame Mendeleiev's class will join you at that table. Please do not use the back two tables. Leave them empty because we will not need them."

As she spoke, students spread out to go sit in their new seats. Marinette dragged Damian to sit with her at a table in the back but not in the ones the teacher specifically said to leave empty.

"I can't believe Tim's plan actually worked." The bluenette whispered to her boyfriend. Everything that just happened seemed to hit her all at once. "They all understand now." She bounced excitedly in her seat.

"I told you it would work." Damian smiled at her happiness. "Now you no longer have to deal with that liar anymore."

"Okay everyone." The dark-haired teacher spoke in perfect French again. "Today we will be getting to know your seat partner. I want each of you to speak in the others native language. So, this means that I want our Parisian friends to try and speak English and our Gotham friends to try to speak French. At the end of the class you will each come up and tell all of us a little bit about your new seat partner in the language you are most comfortable with. This is a great way for you all to use real life experiences in a new language. If any of you need help with translation please don't hesitate to ask for help." The teacher then repeated the same thing in English.

"Wow." Marinette looked over at Damian. "Look's like today is going to be an easy day."

"Yes it is, Angel." Damian spoke in fluent French.