Ladybug's fake identity

Chapter 3: Conviction

The next day, Alya came to class, excited. She leaned over to the boys and to Marinette, her eyes sparkling. 

"Guys, we need to talk. This is important." she declared.

"What is is about?" Adrien wanted to know.

She grinned.

"I think I found out... who Ladybug is."

Marinette dropped the pencil she was holding, trembling. Impossible. How? Did Alya see her hero self enter her room through the balcony? She couldn't have seen her transform or detransform, right? She hadn't seemed to know anything yesterday, what had happened?

When her friend's eyes met hers, she flinched.

"L-Ladybug? How did you..." Marinette's voice trailed off, her words stuck in her throat.

"I'll explain it, girl, don't worry. After all, every good reporter needs proof for what they are claiming. It just makes so much sense, I'm surprised I didn't realise it sooner."

Marinette gulped, scared of showing any suspicious reaction. And, only to make things worst, a flasely sweet voice she despised rang behind her.

"Didn't realise what sooner?" Lila asked.

She had switched seats with Ivan so that she could sit next to Lyssa and was now smiling at the girl in front of her with her friend on her side, who was also paying attention to the conversation. 

"Don't say that to anyone for now, but-" Alya leaned over to whisper in the brunette's ear. "I discovered who Ladybug is."

"You did?" the liar grinned. "Sorry, but I beat you to it."

"Yeah, that makes sense."

The two shot knowing stares at Lyssa, who widened her eyes and put her two hands in front of her like two barriers. 

"Oh, no. I know what you're thinking, and it's wrong. It's wrong."

"Lyssa, you don't need to li-"

"No! I really am not!" she cuts Lila with false panic.

Marinette knew she should be relieved that her identity wasn't in danger. She knew she should be grateful for her classmate's blindness. But why did she only feel jealousy? Why was she angry at Alya for being wrong? Why was she angry at Lyssa for having been the one chosen to be a Ladybug suspect? 

Lyssa didn't even lie. She wasn't Ladybug and she said it. But the way she did... The way she denied it only reinforced Alya's conviction. Marinette didn't know why, that made her mad. 

"You believe that Lyssa is Ladybug?" she asked loudly, hoping that formulating it out loud would make her friend realise who absurd it was.

But it only attracted the attention of her other classmates. They stopped their respective conversations and came, repeating her question or nodded, agreeing with the theory. The more Lyssa denied it or shook her head when Lila whispered in her ear loud enough for everyone to hear that she sould just say the truth and admit it, the more their belief grew. 

"I-If Lyssa says she isn't Ladybug, then that means that she isn't. Stop insisting and let her be!" Marinette shouted in the middle of the chaos.

No one did as she said and they started giving her arguments instead. 

"Yesterday, for the first time, Lyssa wore a ponytail instead of pigtails. And look!" Alya showed a picture of the heroine she took yesterday. "Ladybug wore one, too! This can't be a coincidence."

It was. It was a coincidence. Right? Alya was the one who did Marinette's hair, and she ended with a simple ponytail. The reporter should have been the one knowing that the ponytail didn't mean anything. Why was she the one who came up with that argument? Marinette touched her hair, immediately regretting having agreed to let Alya play with it.