Chapter 1

-Marinette

Marinette stumbled out the front door of the bakery as she headed out for school. If she hurried, she would make it on time. As she turned the corner, the school in sight. She ran up the steps, walking through the courtyard, but she had no one to wave to anymore. She ran up the steps and took a breath as she walked slowly into her classroom that was slowly filling with her classmates. She saw Lila giggling in Adrien's ear, and she noted that Lila made sure to send her a dirty look. Alya and Nino were ignoring her, the rest of the class following suite as Marinette walked up the aisle to the back of the room. She sat by herself as the bell rang, the only one to acknowledge her was Chloe, who sent her a somewhat friendly smile, but Marinette suspected it was only because Chloe pitied her. Miss Bustier began class, introducing a new novel they would be reading. Marinette picked up the book as it was handed out and read the back cover. It didn't sound too bad. Maybe she'd read it.

The bell rang as Miss Bustier was finishing up reading aloud the first chapter of the book. Marinette picked up her bag and opened the front cover of the book, reading through the names of people that had read the copy of the book. As she went down the short list she read a lot of names she didn't recognized but at the end of the list she saw 'Luka'. Hmm. Maybe she did have one friend left. She sat in the back again in Chemistry, silently listening as Ms Mendeleev talked about covalent bonds before demonstrating how the covalent bonds of water were broken through hydrolysis. Marinette couldn't help but think of hydrolysis as her being separated from her friends because of Lila. When the bell rang for lunch, Marinette stood up quietly and as her friends headed for the cafeteria, she walked down into the courtyard and sat under one of the staircases.

She'd taken to sitting under the staircases once her friends had turned on her just like Lila had promised. She still had Tiki, who burst out of her purse as Marinette dismantled her wrappings around her lunch. Her father packed her two cookies that day, and she handed one to Tiki. She took a bite of her sandwich and tried not to start crying. She saw Marc and Nathaniel walk past her up the stairs, heading for the cafeteria. Some of the older students were walking out and about, but none of them seemed to notice her beneath the stairs. She pulled out her sketchbook and started doodling to try to distract herself.

"Can I eat here with you?" A deep voice asked. Marinette turned and saw Luka peering down at her from the side of the staircase.

"If you want," Marinette said quietly. She'd gone relatively numb the last few weeks as Lila had seized control of her life. Luka sat down next to her, dropping his bag by hers. Marinette didn't see Tiki, but she guessed that she'd zoomed back into Marinette's clutch at the sight of other students about.

-Luka

Luka sat next to Marinette, ignoring the spike in his pulse. She seemed sad and distant, and Luka had no idea why. He'd noticed Marinette's regression the last couple weeks, but his discreet hinting to Juleka as he'd tried to figure out what was going on had been fruitless. He decided there was no better way to go about it except to ask.

"What's going on, Marinette?" Luka asked as Marinette swallowed another bite of her food. She turned to look at him with her big innocent eyes that were blinking fast holding back tears. She looked at him silently for a moment before she finally answered him, "My friends have kinda just. . .hung up on me." She said softly.

"Hung up?" Luka tried not to get angrily immediately. He couldn't believe that her friends would just give up on her so easily.

"Why?!" he asked, feeling an undertone growing in his voice. "Why would anyone hang up on you?" Marinette set her food down before giving a one word answer, "Lila."

"Who the hell is that?" Luka asked angrily, "Sorry I kinda swore," he put in sheepishly before resuming his being angry, "What makes her special?" Marinette watched him for a second before responding. "Apparently lying makes her special enough that she's convinced all my friends everything bad is my fault and they should shun me. She's even talking Adrien into-" she stopped short and her hand jumped to her mouth as she stifled a sob. Luka felt his blood run cold, "What did she make Adrien do?" he asked gently, putting his arms around her. "She=she told Adr-rien not t-to bother with m-me." Marinette cried, fighting a losing battle to hold back the full force of her tears. Luka tried not to cry too as Marinette's words hit him. This Lila witch had talked that stupid boy Adrien into shunning Marinette too.

"I'm so so sorry." Luka said softly, hugging Marinette close to him as she cried, and he felt a few of his own tears slip out. "I don't want you to be alone," he cried to her and she hiccuped before burying her face into his chest. He held her for the longest time before she cried all her tears out and managed to pull away and wipe her eyes. "Marinette," Luka asked slowly, "Do you want to come to my house today after school? I don't want you to deal with this on your own."

"Okay," Marinette sniffed, "I'll go over. It'll be nice to talk to a real friend." She managed to smile for the first time in a while without faking it.

-Adrien

Lila was dragging him into the cafeteria, plopping him down beside her. She definitely had a lot to say but Adrien knew she didn't have the same allure as Ladybug. She went on about some story from her family's travels and Adrien didn't really listen as he ate his food. Alya and Nino came over. Adrien still didn't understand why Marinette didn't hang out with them anymore. When Adrien thought about it, he presumed that she felt somewhat intimidated by Lila's overbearing personality. He knew Lila often lied, but she still had some good intentions.

"So can you do it?" Lila's voice interrupted his thoughts. "I dunno," Adrien answered carefully, "Father might say no." Lila pouted and she turned her attentions to Alya and Nino. "You have to help me get this silly boy to get out of the house and be social," she complained clutching Adrien's hand. Adrien tried not to groan. "I'm gonna go use the bathroom," he excused himself, standing up to get away from Lila. Maybe when Lila wasn't attached to his arm, he could say hi to Marinette. The first step was finding her.