Post-Reveal: Volpina

Chapter Nine

"So... you really know Ladybug?"

Students clamored around Lila in awe. She gave a sly, fox-like grin.

"And you defeated the Akuma with her and everything?" Juleka asked.

"Don't listen to me, listen to the video," Lila said smugly, and played the video Alya had recorded for the Ladyblog. There was Volpina, playing her flute, fingers flying seamlessly over the holes. Arrows formed out of thin air and darted towards the Archer. The students oohed and ahhed.

"Is that really you?" Aurora gasped.

"The one and only," Lila boasted.

A flash of gray and pink caught her eye. Marinette was, for some reason, not interested at all in her tale.

"Hey, Marinette! Don't you want to hear about Volpina?" Alya called.

"No, that's okay," Marinette answered hastily, "don't want to be late like always." She ran into the building.

Lila watched her go inside. The only student who had not even slightly cared that her classmate was now a Parisian superhero. It aroused suspicion in her. Marinette hadn't even been remotely surprised to learn that Paris' newest savior was now in her school.

Lila narrowed her eyes.

When all the students were ordered inside by their teachers at last, Marinette was waiting for Lila. She seemed guilty about something.

"Listen, I... um, I know that maybe... well, I heard that Ladybug was kind of mean to you a few days ago and... and I know you haven't made a whole lot of new friends..."

Lila raised an eyebrow.

"So I wanted to ask... if you ever need someone to talk to, I mean... I'm, um, always willing to listen." Marinette left without another word for homeroom.

Lila scoffed and turned around on her heel, walking to class. "As if I need help making friends!"

The thing was... she did.

Constantly moving from one place to the next gave her little time to meet people she genuinely liked and form strong bonds with them. And here was Marinette, not interested in being her friend because she knew Lila was a superhero, but out of kindness because she thought Lila might be lonely, or sad because of Ladybug's actions.

She was mad at Ladybug still. She was planning her revenge at the back of her mind for how Ladybug had spoken to her when they had met. And that didn't give her any brownie points with the class; everyone loved Ladybug, and she had lied about knowing her. Somehow, though, Marinette didn't care at all about Ladybug's opinion of Lila, whereas everyone else did.

Maybe Marinette would be a valuable friend, if her opinions weren't affected by superheroes' opinions.

Lila was the center of attention that day, the entire day. Imagine, a superheroine in their own class! At first, it was great. Then it got a little tiring. No one cared anymore about Lila herself, only that she was Volpina and she saved all of Paris. No one cared that Lila was an actual person. People just liked her because she was famous now.

Marinette's friendship seemed more appealing than ever.

When Papillon acted up again later that day, Lila quickly raised her hand. "May I be excused?"

"Pourquoi?" the teacher asked, oblivious.

The students giggled amongst themselves. She doesn't know that Lila is going to save Paris!