Alya had been class deputy for a while now. She had originally taken the position to help Marinette defeat Chloe. At the time Alya had thought that Marinette was the best person for the job. She had seemed so kind and down to earth. But ever since Lila had come to the class, Marinette had changed. Alya was shocked that Marinette could be so cruel. Especially to someone as sweet as Lila. The more Lila told Alya about what Marinette had been doing, the less Alya wanted to work with the girl. But the class kept electing Marinette every time the class had an election. Alya couldn’t understand how the class could support her, after what Marinette had been doing to poor Lila. The class had even started treating Alya and Lila rather coldly. They weren’t outright rude, but they weren’t as friendly as they used to be. Now when Lila told everyone about her adventures, the class seems less interested and some even roll their eyes when Lila isn’t looking. While Alya didn’t like Marinette much anymore, she was fine with Marinette staying as the class representative because she did a pretty good job. Their fundraisers always met the goals and they had really cool trips for the class. But when Alya heard what Marinette had done to Lila, she knew it was time to end Marinette’s time as class rep.
Lila had come to class early that morning and Alya saw that she looked really glum. She looked like she was about to cry. Alya rushed over to the girl and asked her what was wrong and Lila told her, “Oh Alya. I’m not sure I should say. Marinette would be mad…” Alya was already growing angry, about whatever Marinette had done. “Girl, tell me. Whatever she did, you know I’m on your side.” Lila still seemed hesitant, but she eventually told Alya that Marinette had only been able to do all these amazing things as class rep because Lila had been making all the plans and Marinette had been taking all the credit. She had threatened Lila to make her keep quiet about the whole thing. Alya was furious. The only reason she had been ok with Marinette as class rep was because she thought that Marinette was at least doing a good job. But apparently, she was just cheating her way through the job! Alya knew now that she had to get Marinette out of the class representative position. But the class clearly wasn’t going to vote her out, so Alya had to get Marinette to resign from the position. Then suddenly Alya had an idea. “Hey Lila, I have an idea to get Marinette out of the class representative position. What if you take over my class deputy position? We could still have good fundraisers and trips, and you would get credit since you would be the deputy. And since Marinette apparently doesn’t like you, we can use that against you. She won’t want to work with you, so she will be forced to resign. What do you think?” Lila had to hide her smirk. Her plan was working well. She had already taken Marinette’s best friend, now she would be taking away her spot as class rep. And it would be easy, Alya didn’t seem to do anything as class rep except handle details. Lila knew that if she took the position, she could leave all the work to Marinette. It would make her stressed and miserable. Then she would resign and that would be one more thing Lila had taken from Marinette. Lila agreed to Alya’s plan and said, “Let’s do it. But let’s not tell the class what is going on. I don’t want to take away Marinette’s friends in the class and make her hate me anymore.” Alya smiles at Lila and replies, “You seriously are too kind. That girl doesn’t deserve your kindness, but I won’t say anything if that is what you want.” And with that their plan began.
Their plan had been going on for a few weeks. As far as the class knew, Alya was still the deputy and everything was going smooth. And Alya thought that Lila had been doing the deputy responsibilities. But Lila hadn’t been doing any work and Marinette had been left with all the work. Marinette was becoming more and more stressed out. She wasn’t sure why Alya had stopped helping her all of a sudden. But Marinette was determined not to let the class down. She had noticed that Alya had been a lot more distant lately, but she never thought that Alya would leave her with all the work. Between her Ladybug duties, work in the bakery, her commission work, and now all of this extra class representative work, Marinette had hardly slept in weeks. She barely even had time to eat anymore. But her class had trusted her to be there representative, and she would make sure that she lived up to their expectations.
But Marinette was fighting a losing battle. It became physically apparent that she was beyond stressed. The class began to notice the change in Marinette. First, she just got quiet. Then, she withdrew and never had any free time anymore. Then they noticed the physical changes. Marinette had dark circles under her eyes and just looked exhausted. One day the class noticed that they hadn’t seen Marinette eating at lunch. She just stayed in the classroom and worked. The only people in the class that didn’t seem concerned were Alya and Lila. One day, enough was enough and the class stayed behind during lunch to talk to Marinette and see if she was ok. When they went into the classroom, they saw Marinette sitting at the back. She was pouring over a binder that was full to bursting with papers and forms. Nino took the lead and walked up to Marinette asking, “Hey dudette. You ok? You seem really stressed lately.” Marinette jumped when she heard him and looked up at Nino. She seemed to hesitate but said, “Oh, hey Nino. Yeah, I’m fine. Nothing is wrong.” Marinette kind of laughed but it sounded very forced. Marinette knew that she was very stressed and should say something, but she didn’t want to blame Alya and get her in any trouble. But Nino would not stop asking her. The rest of the class was also pushing Marinette to say something. Eventually, Marinette caved and admitted, “Well, it is just all the additional work as class rep. It is just making me very busy.” The class looked confused for a moment and Alix asked, “If it is to much, why don’t you ask Alya for some help. She is your deputy after all.” Marinette didn’t want to say anything, but eventually she admitted, “Well, I guess Alya has been really busy lately. She hasn’t been coming to help out lately. But it’s fine. I can handle it. I’m sure she is just busy and will help out again when she can. Now you guys go enjoy lunch, I need to finish these forms for the next fundraiser.” The class was shocked to hear all of this. They turned and left the classroom in silence. They had no idea why Alya hadn’t been helping Marinette lately, but they would find out.
The class walked into the lunchroom and saw Alya and Lila chatting at a near by table. They walked over and Nino asked, “Alya why haven’t you been helping Marinette and leaving her with all the class deputy work on top of her work as class representative?” Alya stared at the class, at a loss for words. She had promised Lila she wouldn’t say anything, but the class seemed pretty mad. They had to tell them now. Alya responded, “Well, I haven’t been helping. But Lila has been doing my portion of the work.” Alix seemed angrier and more said, “No. We just talked with Marinette and she said she hasn’t had any help for weeks. She has been doing it all by herself. Alya was furious. How could Marinette lie to her classmates like this. Lila realized she was in a very dangerous position. She didn’t think Ms. Goody-two-shoes Marinette would actually tell anyone about what had been happening. She had expected Marinette to shoulder all the responsibility and then epically fail or resign. And then Alya just had to mention that Lila was the one who was supposed to be helping Marinette. This was a problem. Alya had always been a bit of a loose cannon, but her blog was a good resource to Alya. However, Alya had just become a liability and it was time to cut ties with her. So, the liar did what she does best. She lied. She turned to Alya and said, “Alya! Why would you try to blame this on me? I’m not the deputy! Shame on you!” Alya stared at Lila in shock. The class began to yell at Alya for leaving Marinette with this work. The class knew Lila was probably lying, but even if Lila was supposed to help Marinette, Alya was the deputy. She shouldn’t have been passing off her job to Lila. But all Alya could think about was how could Lila say that? They had agreed on the plan. And if Marinette was telling the truth about having no help, had Lila lied to Alya when she told her that she would take over the deputy responsibilities?
The fallout from all of this was swift. The class asked Mrs. Bustier for a new election so they could replace Alya as deputy. Of course, this meant that class representative also had to be reelected since the two positions are elected as a pair. Lila tried to seize the opportunity and run to be class representative. But after she had thrown Alya under the bus, Alya wouldn’t be her deputy and no one else agreed either. So, Lila’s attempt was shut down before the election even happened. After the election, Marinette was made the class representative again and this time Nino was made Marinette’s deputy. Alya eventually realized what had happened and tried to smooth things over with Marinette. She gave Marinette a half-hearted apology and tried to pretend like nothing happened. Marinette did forgive Alya, but they were never as close as they once were. The class pretty much ignored Lila’s ramblings now, much to the liar’s irritation. Things eventually got back to normal in Mrs. Bustier’s class, and Marinette was not nearly as stressed as she had been. Thanks to her classmates noticing the problem and helping her fix it. Lila eventually switched schools, since she couldn’t manipulate Mrs. Bustier’s class, and there weren’t any open classrooms and she never bothered Marinette again.
