Chapter Text
"Why me?" Lila bawled. "Out of all the people in the world to be afflicted with a literal lying disorder, why did it have to be me? How am I supposed to be trusted? How am I supposed to be loved?"
Oy vey. Marinette rolled her eyes as she listened to the ersatz despair. Lila had them wrapped around her little finger as she practically admitted to being a liar in front of them all. "Lila, is there anything you can do?" Alya asked.
Lila sniffled, a sound that was watery and pathetic on the surface, but was, simultaneously, as strategically placed as a landmine. "Yes. You can help Marinette understand that I mean no harm!"
Oh, crap. She'd been name-dropped. The class (minus Chloé and Sabrina, who decided to hang back and watch the chaos) descended on her like pigeons that had just spotted a crust of bread on the floor.
"Marinette, Lila honestly just wants to be friends! It's not her fault that she has a lying disorder!" Rose squeaked. Rose defending Lila made sense; she probably felt some sort of kinship with her for both having serious medical conditions.
"She totally doesn't mean it, dudette!" Nino said. Now that stung; Marinette had known Nino since they were in diapers, and he was siding with Lie-la.
"Can't you forgive her?" Mylene asked. "Humans are social creatures, and this could have a serious negative effect on Lila. If she isn't forgiven, it's inhumane!"
"Guys, thank you for the concern, but after everything, I really need to think. I've just been expelled and un-expelled, after all. It's just been a really, really long day. I should get to think about this in an unbiased environment."
Marinette ignored everyone until the final bell rang. She shrugged off Alya and put her phone on silent. She didn't talk until she got into her room, locked the door behind him, and could vent to Tikki in peace. "I can't believe she just . . . wriggled out of the deserved consequences again!" she vented. "Is this a power play? This has to be a power play. Why else would she pull something like this?"
"She wants to create," Tikki said. "But the only thing she wants to create is despair in your heart. She's trying to break you, Marinette."
"I can't let her do that, Tikki, I know that. Hawkmoth will akumatise me and get the earrings and ring. I need to think. Lila's obviously toying with me, so how can I stop her?"
Tikki swallowed her mouthful of macaroon before she answered. "She lies all the time, Marinette! Whether she has a lying disorder or not, how are we supposed to stop her from lying? It's impossible!"
Those last few words rotated around Marinette's head like an earworm from a song on the radio. Stop her from lying? It's impossible! Stop her from lying? It's impossible! Stop her from lying? It's impossible!
A smile bloomed across the aspiring designer's face. "You know what, Tikki? I'm not going to stop Lila from lying," Marinette said.
Tikki was so shocked, she spat out her macaroon. "What? What do you mean?"
"What I mean is that if she really wants to run with the story of having a lying disorder, then she's going to run with it until her shoes wear out." Marinette drafted sections of a speech to read in front of the class. "Lila wants to lie? Fine. I'll get everyone on her case about it."