Robin's Angel

Chapter Four- Plans

 "Hey Chloe, we could go to my family's bakery for lunch if you want, have you ever actually been in our bakery?" Marinette turned and asked Chloe when they got in the car. They had to sell their limo to pay off some of their debts.

"No, but I used to have some of the cossants that Sabrina would get from there... Are you sure you want to go there? Won't your parents be upset to see me?" Her worries showed on her face. Marinette still wasn't used to seeing anything other than an evil grin or an impassive mask on her face, but non the less, took it in stride.

"Don't worry about that. My parents are very forgiving and they won't care about any of the things you've done if you regret doing them, which you do. If I forgave you, then so will they." Her words caused Chloe's shoulders to relax from their previously stiff position.

"Alright then. Driver, to the Dupain-Cheng bakery please." And with that the car took off, a popular radio station playing in the background. It didn't take long to reach the bakery since it was just down the road from the school. The driver opened the door for them when they got out.

"Thank you." Marinette said automatically.

Chloe paused, realizing she had never actually thanked her driver before, and turned to the man, saying "thank you," with an almost uncomfortable yet sincere smile on her face.

Marinette saw and smiled at Chloe, "You'll get the hang of it Chloe, don't worry too much about it."

Chloe smiled genuinely, then locked her arm with Marinette's before they went into the bakery. Chloe's smile faltered when her eyes landed on Marinette's parents. Marinette's parents looked up when they heard the bell signaling someone had entered the bakery, but when their eyes landed on Chloe, everything came to a stop. They stared in shock before shifting their gaze to their daughter, questioning her silently. Marinette only had to nod towards them in order for their demeanor to change instantaneously. They both immediately smiled warmly towards Chloe, happy that their daughter had found a friend through all of Lila's schemes, no matter how unlikely that friend may be.

Chloe, however, was stunned: her own parents had never smiled at her like that so when Marinette's parents smiled like that at her, she didn't know what to do. Was it really this easy to get forgiveness from them? "Come on Chloe, we can go upstairs and have lunch there." Marinette snapped her out of her confused daze and she looked towards Marinette for guidance. Chloe was definitely in uncharted territory, but she didn't feel unwelcome by any means. Chloe followed her upstairs where Marinette started moving around the kitchen expertly pulling out ingredients for lunch and a couple macaroons for a side desert.

Chloe sat down at the table and watched her work in the small but comfortable kitchen, something she doesn't feel in her own house. She felt oddly comforted despite this being the first time she was invited over. "Did you really mean it?" Chloe couldn't help but ask Marinette as she set food down in front of them.

"Mean what?"

"That you forgave me. It's just, you forgave me so easily, but you wouldn't even forgive Nathaniel right away, so I guess I'm just wondering why," Chloe voiced what had been on her mind since they left the school.

"Because you never betrayed me. That was the one thing that everybody else had done that you never did. That was the difference." Marinette looked down at her food as she was saying this. Chloe looked at her and realized this must have taken a bigger toll on her than she could ever realize.

"What else did Lila do other than the lying?" Chloe couldn't help but ask.

"It wasn't exactly something that Lila did. You know how I used to have a website that our classmates and other people could order commissions on?" Chloe nodded, not sure where this was going. "Well, Alya started posting fake reviews on it and eventually the whole class got in on it. People posted horrible things about me on there and Alya even made a video that she put on her Ladyblog about how nobody should buy from me because all the clothes I made were horrible. Eventually I just had to take the whole website down, it wasn't like anybody was buying from me anymore anyway. I haven't made any of my designs in a full month."

Chloe couldn't help but gasp. She knew how good the clothes Marinette made were, she even sometimes had Sabrina commission something on her website so Marinette wouldn't see that she had bought anything from her. She couldn't believe Alya could be so nasty and awful as to go after Marinette's career. Even Chloe had never gone after Marinette's career besides the hat contest, but that was more to try and impress Adrien's father than anything else.

"I'm so sorry Mari, I know how important your designs are to you. Are you sure there's no way to restore your website in a way that the class can't damage?"

"I don't think so, they'd end up finding it eventually and it would happen all over again." Marinette sighed dejectedly.

Chloe thought for a minute, trying to find a way around their problem before a full blown grin stretched across her face. "... Not if you don't actually put your name on it."

Marinette looked up in confusion at what Chloe just said, "What do you mean Chlo?" Chloe jumped off her seat and grabbed Marinette's arm, hauling her up to Marinette's room and towards her desk. Chloe jumped into Marinette's desk chair and pulled to the computer.

'What are you doing?" Marinette asked as Chloe's fingers started moving across her keyboard and pulled up a browser.

"I am making you a new and improved website that those idiots at our school will never be able to get to. I'm making a private website that only people with either the link or your private email will be able to access."

Marinette looked at her, astounded at what she was doing for her. "You can do that?"

"Yeah, I have a lot of tricks up my sleeve from all those years of trying to figure out how to destroy peoples' reputation, so figuring out a way to make a private website to sell something that you don't want anyone else to know about is no big deal for me. I had to make one to sell my own stuff online because if people knew that I was the one who owned it, they wouldn't want the stuff anymore."

Marinette gazed at Chloe sympathetically. "It won't be like that forever Chloe. You're already becoming a better person just by trying. I can see that, and other people will too," Marinette reassured her, putting her hand on Chloe's shoulder.

Chloe looked up at her and smiled genuinely before taking a deep breath and focusing back onto the computer. "Actually, we don't even have to use your real name on the site if you don't want to."

Marinette looked at her quizzically, "what do you mean?"

"Well, you could actually keep the site anonymous so that people don't know it's you that's making the clothes. You could make up a brand name for yourself..." Chloe suddenly gasped like she just came up with the best idea ever. "What if you became secretly famous! Like, your brand name would be famous, but nobody actually know it was you. Wait... What if Lila started lying about knowing who your brand name was and said she was best friends with you like she does with all the other celebrities she talks about! Ha! Then we could actually sue her because we'll have proof she's lying! Oh that would be amazing." Chloe went off on a tangent and Marinette followed along with her, imagining what it would be like to sue Lila for everything she'd done to her.

"That's not a bad idea Chloe..." Marinette trailed off.

"What's not a bad idea? I mean I know I'm brilliant, but what specifically?"

Marinette rolled her eyes sarcastically before addressing her, "about sueing Lila. What if we were able to record the lies she tells about people and actually take her to court for it. We could also get the famous people she's talked about involved too to disprove everything she's said and the class won't be able to justify her anymore."

Chloe's eyes widened and suddenly turned and typed something into a search bar. After a few moments Chloe responded while looking at the website on laws in France in front of her, "Mari, you're a genius! If we get enough evidence against her we could actually get her put in jail and she would have to pay a ton of fines. This could solve everything, we just need to make sure we get enough evidence. It might take awhile, but I'm sure it would be worth it. One of my Daddy's friends is a lawyer and he could totally represent this case for us."

The two newly made friends talked excitedly about their new plan and website arrangement for the next ten minutes before a loud shriek broke through the air like a shockwave.