Marinette smiled amicably at passing staff as her makeup was done. The sun was bright and shinning. The park with its slopping hills and the beautiful green grass was picturesque. Half of it was cut off from the public. The shoot would last a majority of the morning and a bit into the after.
The head makeup artist cooed over her bluebell eyes and raved about her beautiful “exotic” features; which nearly made Marinette sneer. Oh the things she put up with.
But she had to. Time for childish naivety was over. She needed her name out there. She an “in”.
And while she never wanted to be model, never desired the spotlight, never wanted more than to be a fashion designer and for clothes to leave the world in awe, never wanted more than to be nice and good and to live her dreams just as she dreamed them… Marinette understood…
The world wasn’t kind. It was a tilted stage. Everyone played their own little games to get ahead. So Marinette was forced to play a role she never wanted.
Model.
Actress.
Trendsetter.
Ice princess.
Still once a day, since Marinette had begun her reign, did Mari have to tell that little voice in her pipe down? The voice that sounded like the old her. The old, nice, kind Marinette who loved everyone and the thought the best of everyone. And the New Marinette would doubt herself, wonder if she was fraud, a sellout. But then she remembered that the old Marinette never realized just how wrong she was until it was too late.
Until her friends turned their back on her. Until her life’s work, her prized sketchbook was ripped up and left for her to pick up the pieces like what remained of her heart. She was a fool. And the only good thing that ever came out of that experience was she gotten to learn who her real friends were. Learned out to really stand up for herself, damn the rest of the world.
In a way, she was almost wanted to thank Lila. Lila had been her initiation into the real world. Her manipulative little games were the perfect crimes. The way no one ever seen her laugh when she lied. The way she swore up and down that it was Marinette with the metaphorical smoking gun; it was Marinette’s fault. It was cruel. And Marinette didn’t like her for it. She disliked herself more for falling into the traps Lila set.
No! That Marinette would’ve never survived the real world. It’s why she had to go away. Marinette got smarter, hotter when she let Chloe show her how to use her beauty like a sword. And she did it fast, just in the knick of time because her parents had been considering transferring her.
The old Marinette had to die, and the new Marinette rose up from the dead with a thirst for blood and a list of names; Lila’s was underlined in red. Every day, she checked it to remind herself just why she was doing what she was.
When Lila’s mother came to school, with the principle storming up behind her, red-faced and steaming mad, all the students in the Cafeteria could only watch as the Italian lady roared at her daughter. Screamed about how all the lies had come back to bite her family in the ass; after all ambassadors had no business traveling to exotic places, with celebrities, on their country’s dime when they should be working.
Marinette could only smirk as another confirmation of Lila’s lies was made public. All she could think of while it was happening was: Look what you made me do.
Yes, Marinette had used her connections (Chloe. She asked Chloe to get her Dad to ask the right questions) to get the right info into Italy’s embassy’s ears about what their ambassador was up to.
