Prance en France

by Sunny_and_Auri_23

Chapter 4: Alone in the World with a Friend

Stomach full and with the lingering taste of croissants in his mouth, Felix and Marinette walked back to school. Lunch had been amazing, the Dupain-Cheng's baking skills were certainly impressive. Felix made a mental note to come back and pick something for his mother when she got back from her trip as a surprise. The spring sun peeked through the clouds yet the air cool on his bare arms, the blossoming greenery around them more than made up for it. Marinette walked beside him in seemingly good spirits, and as they walked up to the school, Felix deemed it as good a time as any to discuss what their plan of action would be.

“Marinette?” Felix said as they walked up the steps to the school.

“Yeah?” she responded.

“We’ve collectively determined that the best course of action would be to not listen to my idiot cousin and leave Lila alone, but what should we do?. I was considering how best to tackle Mlle. Rossi after my first meeting with her, and with some unconventional forms of help,” Felix rolled his eyes at the memory of the six brightly coloured ponies still in his attic. “I came to the conclusion that perhaps it would be best to lay low and observe her. See how she operates, her methods, and any holes to her web of lies.”

“Absolutely,” Marinette said, as they walked back through the corridors of the school towards their afternoon class. “If Lila knows we’re taking a stand against her, she’ll try and stop us before we can even get started. It would be best if we lay low for a while and did some reconnaissance. Besides, I don’t think she likes you very much, and she definitely doesn’t like me, so it’s best we don’t give her a motive to try and make our lives difficult.”

Felix nodded in response to that sound reasoning. “Very true, Marinette. Then are we agreed?”

“We are,” she replied. They both nodded and walked into the classroom.

***

Expecting the usual chaos, Felix was about to follow Marinette around the sides of the classroom up to their spot at the back, hoping to remain unnoticed in the customary tumult of the classroom. What he did not expect, however, was the entire class to be standing in silence in a circle around the liar, who was seated and bawling. Surprised, Felix and Marinette stopped at the door to the classroom, just in time to hear the tail end of Lila’s new lie.

“...and then at lunchtime, after being so rude to me, when I tripped because of severe arthritis that I got while canoeing in Peru, she just left me there! I can’t understand how anyone could be so, so heartless!” Lila sobbed into her hands, obviously favouring her right wrist. The redheaded girl Marinette had called Alya kneeled next to her, and whispered soothingly to the faker, rubbing her back comfortingly. She looked up and caught sight of the duo who had just entered the classroom and an expression of rage crossed her face. Felix could just about see the smoke coming out of her ears.

“Marinette how could you?” she yelled, bringing the entire classes attention to the girl. They all shot daggers at her, murmuring their dissent, except Adrien, who just stood to the side, shrugging helplessly, while Chole and Sabrina ignored everyone and sat at their desks.

“No, don’t blame Marinette.” Lila said helplessly, “I know she never liked me from the start. We should just try to forget and forgive-"

“Absolutely not!” Alya said furiously. “I can’t believe I was ever friends with you, Marinette! I get you dont like Lila but this is taking it too far! What kind of person would you have to be to just leave someone with arthritis there! You’re just a bully, Marinette and no one in this class wants to associate themselves with you!” The class loudly agreed with Alya, many of them shaking their heads.

“Felix,” Lila sniffed, playing the martyr angle for all its worth, “I know you and Marinette have gotten along well since you came here, but you have to understand that she isn’t who you think she is. We had a bumpy start, but as a friend, I have to tell you that we are in the right and you should be too.” Lila beckoned.

“Mlle. Rossi, I believe you.”

The room went quiet.

Lila faltered for a brief moment, “....really? I mean, of course, you do! It is the truth, after all.”

“Marinette, I cannot believe you would have the daring, the audacity, the sheer nerve to do this,”

Lila smirked behind the class, no doubt thinking about how she would soon have Felix wrapped around her finger as well.
Marinette closed her eyes, sadness sweeping over her face, and for a second, Felix felt guilty. She tried to plead with him.

“Felix, you know I-”

“Teleported while I wasn't looking back to the school, brutally harassed Mlle. Rossi, and then teleported back, all within the space of a second, leaving me none the wiser? Yes, I do know. How could you, Marinette?” Felix shook his head solemnly fighting the smirk that was trying to break its way through his act. “You aren’t the person I thought you were.”

Lila stared at him, “B-But, but Marinette, she-"

“It’s the only explanation, Mlle. Rossi. We were together for the whole of lunchtime, there's no way she could have snuck off without teleporting. I’m sorry you had to deal with her magical molestation.” Felix sighed out.
Understanding filling her eyes, Marinette gave him a small smile before turning to the class, jaw set.

“What Felix is trying to say is that there is no way I could have been so mean to Lila is because I was at home eating lunch with Felix the entire time. You all blindly took Lila’s word as if it were drawn in stone and were about to punish me for something I didn’t even do. So from now on, I’m not going to associate with any of you .” Fixing them all with one last icy glare, Marinette walked up the steps to the back of the classroom, Felix right behind her.

“Thank goodness somebody said something,” Chloe commented, rolling her eyes once before turning back to Sabrina as Lila burst into tears and the class into shouts.

***

“So much for laying low,” Marinette lamented, pressing her cheek against the desk as the lesson finally began.

“Yes, but you stood up to Mlle. Rossi, and effectively so. You also helped find out that we may even have a potential ally in Mlle. Bourgeois. I’d call that a win.”

“True, but...magical molestation, huh?”

Felix smirked widely. “A ridiculous answer to befit a ridiculous claim. As if your preposterously kind soul would ever walk away from someone in need, even if that someone were Mlle. Rossi.”

“Thanks,” Marinette said, cheeks slightly pink. “For helping me back there, that is. Y’know I actually believed Lila had you, for a second. I should have known better.”

“Yes, you should. Friends don’t abandon each other. Friend.” he added on at the end, the word still strange in his mouth.

“No, no they don’t. Friends also do that kind of I'm-betraying-you-but-not-really stunt after telling each other first, so tell me next time.”

Felix put his hand on her smaller one, Trying to engrave the way it felt into his memory and looked straight into her bluebell eyes.

“I promise you, Marinette.”

***

Lila hissed in annoyance at the duo at the back. She’d thought for sure her latest scheme would work on separating the two and enlisting Felix to her group of admirers. Instead, she was stuck doing damage control to a rock hard claim that could easily have led to questions being raised and backstories being questioned and then her whole web coming down around her. So she played up the injured kitten act and made sure Alya knew how hurt she was. Part of the reason why Lila had given the girl the honour of being her best friend, (apart from the adoration and loyalty Alya showered her in, and the added advantage of stealing Marinette’s emotional support away from her) was that once you appealed to Alya’s inherent sense of justice, the girl would do anything for you. And soon enough, after Lila had shed enough tears and said she ‘didn’t want to talk about Marinette’s utter cruelty’ Alya passed her a note.

I know you aren’t lying, girl, Marinette is!

Thank you for your faith in me, Alya .

It's clear as day what's actually happening! Felix is totally covering up for Marinette! Typical. It's been one day and those bullies have already banded up. I guess it’s true what they say. Birds of a feather, flock together.

Lila blinked. Alya had just presented her the perfect cover story on a silver platter. She smirked internally and decided to go with it.

We have to do something about them, Alya, or they’ll start going after other innocent people.

But what…

I don’t know Alya, bullies are so hard to deal with. I’m scared. Marinette was already doing all kinds of horrible stuff to me before Felix was there to help her, and I could never prove it. It might be too risky to do anything big...

Exactly! We don’t need to do anything big, we just need to give Marinette a taste of her own medicine!

What do you mean?

You’ll see. I’ll get the whole class together after school so I can explain my idea.

Lila laughed to herself. Alya had taken the bait on how to tackle Marinette, and the best part was that even if they got caught, which with the utter lack of authority in this school was unlikely at best, Lila herself couldn’t be blamed. The girl smiled in gratitude to Alya, her expression innocent.

***

Alya simmered with righteous fury as the entire class lazed in their seats after school, except for Marinette and Felix, obviously, and Chloe and Sabrina, because they, like Marinette, had never liked Lila. Sweet, innocent Lila, who wouldn’t harm a fly. Alya couldn’t believe Marinette, or anyone for the matter, could possibly believe Lila was a liar. Sure her life was glamorous, but that was no reason to get jealous and accuse someone of being a fake! They had to do something about it.
Alya cleared her throat from her place at the front of the empty classroom and began.

“So you all know why we’re here today.”

“Marinette.” Alix said, scowling.

“The dudette has gone too far and the new kid is just encouraging her.” Nino said, shaking his head.

“But what should we do?” Lila asked, eyes wide. “Despite all the horrible things Marinette’s said and done to me, it wouldn’t be right to hurt her back.”
Alya’s heart sang for Lila and how kind the other girl was.

“That’s the thing. We won’t go too far. We’ll just do to Marinette what she did to you, so that she knows she can’t get away with this kind of thing.”

“Sounds good to me,” Kim agreed.

“Hold on, hold on,” Adrien cut in. “What are you talking about? What things has Marinette been doing?”

Lila sniffed and wiped away a tear. “Oh, Adrien, it’s awful. She’s been messing up my homework, taking my things, and being downright hostile to me when no ones looking! Not to mention, I’m sure she’s the one that took my half off the history project Alya and I were doing.”

“And you want to do the same to her? Doesn’t that seem kind of drastic?”

“It’s only right, Adrien. We can not let Marinette bully Lila any longer, capisce?”

Adrien shifted in his seat and looked down. ”Okay then.” he conceded.

“Good,” Alya responded. “If we are all in agreement, say aye.”

“Aye!” Everybody chorussed.

***

Adrien stared out through the tinted window of his car as his driver drove the vehicle on towards the Agreste Mansion. He felt mildly uncomfortable at the thought of the class actively deciding to do something about the ‘Marinette problem’, as Alya had dubbed it. But then again, he rationalised to himself, it was Marinette's own fault. If she hadn’t tried to out Lila that afternoon, Lila wouldn’t have felt the need to retaliate by initiating the whole class against her. In fact, none of this would even have happened if Marinette had just listened to him in the first place and just ignored Lila. But then again, his cousin had played a big role in swaying Marinette against taking the high road. He’d have to speak to Marinette about that. Yes, Adrien soothed himself. He would speak to Marinette about not hanging out with Felix because he was a bad influence, she would listen to him and stop trying to out Lila, and then peace in the class would resume.
Yes. Tomorrow, Adrien would speak with Marinette, and everything would go back to normal.

***

Glancing carefully at the mirror, Twilight scrunched her face up in concentration. Her friends had decided to explore and take a break from observing their new acquaintance, whereas Twilight had insisted to continue spyin-scrying on Felix.
She felt sort of guilty.
She occasionally wondered if this was the best way to handle this situation, but she supposed it was for the best, seeing as they barely knew anything about the world they were currently in. From what Twilight could put together from Felix’s lunch break with Marinette earlier that day, they were in the city of Paris. Twilight gazed in awe at the different structures, including the bakery owned by Marinette’s family.
The bakery seemed like the product of the mixed efforts of Rarity and Pinkie Pie, if she were honest. A colourful array of confectionaries were put on display, the bubbly aesthetic reminding her of her party-loving friend. But at the same time, it had a sort of elegance to its structure, making it look very professional.
Though Twilight wished she could eat some of the cakes and pastries displayed there. She remembered herself and her friends staring mouth-wateringly at the macarons Felix and Marinette shared.

But then came the strange bit, after their lunch break, the girl Felix was talking about before, Lila, had framed Marinette for tripping her. Which was impossible, since she was with Felix the whole time. Unless magic existed in this world, which was a very likely possibility since the portal had opened to Equestria in the first place, though that could be something that the tree could do regardless-

Twilight took a deep breath to focus herself. She knew that there was a possibility, though very unlikely, that Marinette could have teleported herself to Lila whilst also creating an illusion of herself with Felix. However, that still required a lot of magic. Considering how little magic Twilight could sense in her surroundings, a spell that powerful would stick out like a sore hoof, and she would have been able to sense it, despite being so far away. So, Lila was definitely lying. Why? She wasn’t exactly clear to what her motives were, other than she disliked Marinette and liked the popularity lying provided.
But, Twilight couldn’t shake the feeling that something was very off about Lila. What, she couldn’t figure out.

Another observation that she and her friends, though quite an obvious one, have made was the fact that Felix had irrefutably begun to spark a friendship between himself and Marinette, and the thought made her smile. She recalled back when she herself was a social recluse, and a part of her wished her old friends from Canterlot never stopped pestering her until she agreed to join them in their activities.

Having friends was truly a magical experience, and she was glad Felix got to experience it before it was too late.