Jerk in Sheep's Clothing

Words Hurt

The school day began just like any other. The students arrived, went through lessons, and studied, studied, studied. Marinette sat in the back row with Henri, while Adrien had to sit with Lila in the front. Every so often, he'd steal sad glances over his shoulder at Mari, but she didn't look at him.

For weeks, Adrien was agonizing over how to expose Henri, how to get Marinette to see his true colors. He couldn't confront him in front of her, though. Marinette would just think she was attacking him. Until he found a way to reveal him on the sly, he needed to take the high road.

His thoughts wandered to the brunette sitting next to him with goo-goo eyes. Plagg's first theory repeated in his head. If he was right, and Lila was somehow responsible for Marinette's blind faith in Henri, he would need to do something about the liar first before he did anything else. But how could he do that when he wasn't even sure what Lila had done to set things in motion?

For the final class of the day, Madame Bustier decided to let the class have a free period. Or, as most knew it as, goof-off-with-friends-and-do-whatever-you-wanted period. There were sounds of approval from her class. They were free to spend it in any part of the school they wanted.

As the students gathered their things, Lila hurried out swiftly with her things. She had to be fast. She whipped out her phone and opened her text messages. Poised and ready to fire, she waited until everyone passed her by, greeting them with friendly smiles.

"Hi, Lila! Whatcha doin'?"

"Just checkin' my messages." And she actually wasn't lying this time.

"Where is it? I know I had it here somewhere?", wondered Marinette, digging through her purse.

Henri kept her pen hidden in his fist under their shared desk, brown eyes darting back and forth between his girlfriend and their retreating classmates. Once the last of them was out of sight, he swiftly texted Lila through the phone in his other hand, also hidden under his desk.

Lila's phone pinged. Now., the message read. Not wasting a second, Lila's fingers swiped at the screen at lightning speed.

While she was distracted, Henri tossed her pen to her feet, drawing her eye to it, without seeing his slight of hand. "Oh! There it is!"

She picked it up and went to put it in her purse. Just then—ping!—she got a text. Taking out her phone, she stared at the ten-digit sequence on her screen. "Huh...I don't recognize this number...it's a video message."

She opened her messages and tapped on the "Play" button.

Lila walked with the girls when she stopped suddenly. "Oh! I left a pencil in th3 classroom! Be right back!" She took off, entering the classroom. When she walked in, what she heard was music to her ears.

"Yeah, right! If anyone's a hypocrite, it's Marinette! She attacks you without reason or evidence, even though you've never done anything to her, then whines that we don't automatically take her side, and then she goes and blindly believes every lies that comes out of Henri's mouth and snaps at us for getting on his case about it, using us not believing her about you to defend him!"

Marinette was standing in th3 back of the room, staring at her phone screen with wide eyes. Lila's spiteful little heart was filled with wicked glee upon seeing the shellshocked look on her face, her mouth hanging open as she watched the video of Alya.

Henri stood next to her, looking over her shoulder, pretending to be just as shocked and hurt as she was. He glanced up, and his eyes met Lila's, sharing a glint of sinister delight in their joined gaze.

Smiling cruelly, Lila ascended the stairs towards Marinette, who could only focus on the video in her hands.

"Well, guess what, Marinette! This is exactly why we didn't believe you about Lila! Any guy she gets a crush on, she puts up on a pedestal and blatantly overlook any flaw he has! She goes nuts trying to get closer to him, and gets jealous when another girl even looks in his direction! She lets her crush consume her life, and becomes absolutely stupid and psycho when it comes to being with him!"