Marinette looked on as the class gathered around Lila who had just returned from her ‘charity trip to Achu’. She was telling the whole class all about her trip, lying through her teeth as usual. Noticeably though, Alya wasn’t with the rest of the group, clamoring for the stories. “Why aren’t you over there with the rest of them Alya? Don’t you want to get all her stories for your blog?” Alya looked at Marinette. “It’s alright, I would rather be here with you! And besides-” Alya smiled at Marinette, “It isn’t anything I haven’t heard before.”
“What do you mean Alya? Have you been calling with Lila while she was gone?” Alya was excited, to excited to keep the secret anymore. “Yeah! We talked every day and she kept me up to date on everything that she was doing! I already got all the details. She just made me promise to not post it until she got back and told everyone else. We probably spent at least an hour talking every day! It was great!” Marinette knew that Lila hadn’t been out of the country and had likely been here in the city. But she thought this might be a good opportunity to reveal the liar. She hated that she would have to manipulate Alya, but if it would reveal Lila, and keep Alya from posting more of her lies, than it would be ok.
“Wow, that must have cost a lot of money. Were your parents not mad?” Alya looked at her, confused. “What do you mean?” Marinette looked at Alya with a serious look on her face. “I mean, international calls cost a lot of money. Talking for at least an hour each day, for months must have cost a fortune. My parents would be furious if I racked up those kinds of charges.” Alya began to look scared. “They cost more money? Why? Its just a phone call?” Marinette was genuinely confused. Did Alya not know that these calls cost money? “The equipment and cables to connect those calls are more expensive to install and maintain so the calls cost more. Alya did you not tell your parents about these calls?” Alya looked green and stared down at her desk. “No.” Marinette shook her head. “Well, if I were you I would tell them before the bill comes. You don’t want them to get blindsided by the bill, that will make it worse.” Before the two could continue the conversation, Mrs. Bustier walked in and class began.
Alya spent all day stressing. She couldn’t stop thinking about what Marinette said. She must have cost her family so much money. She would be in so much trouble. She eventually decided that she would take Marinette’s advice and come clean to her parents. She figured that maybe that would make her parents less angry if she came clean. She went home right after school and cleaned the entire apartment, thinking maybe that would help make them less angry. If the apartment was clean, and maybe they could take all the chore money should would have made from doing these chores and put it to the phone bill. Then she heard the door open and her parents come in. With dread in her stomach, she went into the living room.
“Mom, Dad, there is something I need to tell you.” With that, Alya told them everything. About how she had been talking with Lila while she had been in Achu and how she didn’t know about the international charges. “I am so sorry! I didn’t know about the extra charges and I will do anything to make it up to you guys! I just had to tell you before the bill came, I didn’t want you to get caught off guard. I am so sorry!” Alya waited for her parents to start yelling. She was waiting to be grounded for a very long time. But the yelling never came. When she looked up, she just saw her parents looking at her confused.
“Alya, what are you talking about? We already got the bill and it was completely normal. There were no international charges. Maybe you made some extra calls and went a little over, but nothing to be this panicked over.” Alya was shocked. Could the calls be on the next bill? But that didn’t make any sense, they should have been on this bill. “No, but I talked with Lila all the time. They should be on the bill.” Alya’s parents looked at each other before picking up a letter from the pile on the kitchen table. “Here Alya, look for yourself.” She looked at the bill, and it wasn’t too high. There weren’t any international charges listed. But that didn’t make any sense. If Lila had been in Achu, this bill should be through the roof. Then Marinette’s claims of Lila being a liar floated through Alya’s head. Did Lila lie?
Alya was glad that the bill hadn’t been wrecked, but she was confused. She spent the rest of the night trying to figure it out. The only reasonable explanation she could come up with is that Lila had been lying and she wasn’t in Achu. With the seed of doubt planted, Alya took to researching every claim Lila had made. Her thought process was that if she could prove just one of Lila’s stories to be true, than maybe she could prove that she hadn’t been tricked by the liar. But no matter how much she searched, she couldn’t find any proof. The only source for any of Lila’s stories was the Ladyblog.
By midnight, Alya gave up. It was clear that Lila was a liar this whole time. She sent a quick message in the old class group chat, from before Lila joined the class, so that Lila wouldn’t see the message. She told the class everything she had found and how Lila had been lying this whole time. The class was outraged and decided that they couldn’t be friends with Lila after all the lies she told, especially because the lies could have hurt them and their futures. And when Marinette chimed in about Lila’s threats, the class was completely done with the liar.
The next day, Lila came in and instead of getting the warm welcome she was used to, she was treated to cold glares and silence. She tried to start a conversation, but Alya wasn’t having it. “Just stop Lila. We know you are a liar. If you had been in Achu all this time, all those phone calls we had while you were gone would have made my phone bill sky rocket, but it was normal. You were never in Achu, I bet you never left the city! And that isn’t your only lie, you have lied about everything. All the celebrities you know, all of your charities, and all of your injuries. Which I told the Mr. Damocles about, just so you know.” As though summoned, Mr. Damocles appeared and demanded Lila and Mrs. Bustier come to the office to have a meeting with Mrs. Rossi.
The class never did get the full story of what exactly happened in the office. But they could hear the angry italian yelling coming from the office. Mrs. Rossi soon stomped out of the school, dragging Lila behind her. That was the last any of Mrs. Bustier’s class saw of the liar. To think, the liar’s kingdom came to the end, all because of a simple phone bill.
