Jerk in Sheep's Clothing

The Core of the Truth

"I'm in love with Marinette."

"You already said that, dude.  Several times."

"Twenty-seven, to be exact."

"Thanks for the calculations, Kagami."

"I'm in love with Marinette."

"And that's twenty-eight."

Adrien sat on the bench, sandwiched between Nino and Kagami.  He stared into space, still reeling from this new realization.

"Well, now that you know, what are you gonna do now?"

He deflated at Nino's question.  "Nothing."

"What?!"

"Like I said before, Nino.  It doesn't matter what I feel.  Marinette's with Henri now.  I missed my chance."

Now Nino slumped over.  "Oh.  Right."

Kagami frowned.  "So you're just going to sit back and let her be with that jerk?  Aren't you going to do something to expose him?"

"How can we do that?!", cried Nino.  "He's too smart.  He covers his tracks.  He's a master of manipulation!  And we can't try to warn Marinette how he really is.  That's what Alya did, and we know how that ended for her!"

They did know.  A video of her during a bad moment leaked to Marinette, which lead to the breaking of their friendship on the blunette's half.

"Every time someone tries to call him out to Marinette, he always twists things around to make himself look like the victim.  It's infuriating!  It's not like Marinette to believe a guy she barely knows over her best friends!  And with that video...how did he even know about it!"

Adrien grimaced.  "Nino...I don't think Henri did it.  I think Lila did."

Nino stared at him.  "What?!  Dude, how can you say that?!"

Kagami frowned.  "Who's Lila?"

"This girl in our class that transferred a while back.", explained Nino.  "She's done all this awesome stuff, traveled the world, hung out with Prince Ali, saved Jagged Stone's cat—she promised to hook me up with Steven Spielberg!"

Nino rolled his eyes.  "Problem is, Marinette's pretty jealous of her.  She keeps giving Lila a tough time, insisting that she's lying, that she's faking her injuries and stories.  Lila sometime tells us about some nasty words Mari throws at her on bad days."

"It's totally whack, dude!  All Lila wants to be friends, but Marinette's acting so immature, all out of petty jealousy!  And Lila's never done anything to her! Unbelievable!"

He then noticed suddenly how Adrien's face turned white as a sheet.  "Dude?"

"Marinette would never be nasty to someone for no reason.", said Adrien.  "And she would never, ever bully anyone, for any reason whatsoever.  If she's treating someone coldly, there has to be a reason."

"Yeah, and the reason is that she's jealous. You know, I hate to admit it, but Alya did make some valid points in her leaked rant.  Marinette is mad at us for not blindly believing her over Lila, and yet she's doing the same thing to us with Henri!  I mean, it was totally different!  It was your word against Lila's, dudette, but it's Henri's word against all of ours!"

Adrien could scarcely breathe. How Nino described the events...it couldn't be true. Marinette would never ice out someone who just wanted to be nice. She would never spread lies about people. And she would never, ever in a million years intentionally be cruel anyone. She wasn't even mean to Chloé, and Lord knows it would have been the least the mayor's daughter deserved for all the hell she put Marinette through.

And yet, here Nino was, implying that Marinette was acting like a lying, two-faced, jealous bully to poor, innocent Lila. But if Marinette was acting cold to Lila, Adrien knew there has to be a good reason. No matter what Nino or anyone else thought, there had to be a better explanation.

But how could he know everything? He couldn't ask Nino. From what he just said, his point of view could not help him get answers. And Marinette clearly didn't trust Adrien enough to tell him everything, else she would have done so already.

Adrien didn't even respond to Nino. He just got up, mumbled an excuse, and headed to the locker room. Once he was by himself, he opened his locker, seeing Plagg chowing down on the cheese he had left for him in his locker. The kwami looked up him with blazing green eyes. "Practice done already?"

Adrien kept his voice low. "Plagg, I think your theory about Lila was right. I think she does have a bigger hand in Henri's control over Marinette! I just found out that she's's been acting cold to Lila lately. Lila keeps telling them that Mari's bullying her!"

"Pigtails? A bully? In what universe?"

"Exactly! But everyone believes her! Nino says she's icing Lila out because she's jealous, but I know better! Marinette would never stoop so low! There has to be more to this than meets the eye!"

Adrien sighed. "But how do I find out the truth? Nino and the whole class has this warped view of the situation. I can't ask any of them and get real answers."

"Why don't you ask Pigtails herself?"

"I don't think she trusts me enough to tell me the whole story, Plagg. If she did, why didn't she tell me sooner?"

Suddenly, Plagg's eyes lit up with inspiration. "Hold on...maybe she doesn't trust Adrien enough...but she might trust someone else." A cheeky grin spread across his face. "A certain alley cat?"

Adrien lit up almost instantly. "Plagg! You're a genius! She doesn't trust me as Adrien that much, but she does trust me when I visit her as Chat Noir!"

It was true. Marinette was usually so awkward and closed off around Adrien, but when Chat Noir visited her for a weekly night chat, she opened up like a flower in spring. She would tell the hero what was going on.

It was settled. Chat Nour would visit Marinette that night. And he would get answers.