Chapter 1: Framed

"Thanks again, Marinette, for making the costumes once again!" chirped Rose with her hands clasped together.

"Oh, it was no biggie! Like…at all! You guys are my friends, obviously, I'd help you." Marinette bubbled with a bright smile. After all, she was delighted that she had managed to finish Kitty Section's t-shirts on time even after all the work she had, and oh! she couldn't forget those akumas.

"Our concert's starting exactly in about 20 minutes and I'm so excited and nervous! I can't believe Mr. Damocles actually allowed us to perform!"

"I'm happy for you guys and I'm sure you do great! If you can perform on national television, I'm sure you'll be able to perform for the school too!"

"Thanks, Marinette. Now, I better go and help the others with the instruments." Rose said sweetly as she got up from her chair.

"See ya and good luck!"

Rose nodded and rushed off behind the curtains where the others were. Marinette turned away to leave backstage to join Alya and her classmates in the seating area only then she heard a voice.

"Psst, Marinette!"

"Wayzz, What are you doing here? Is Master Fu okay? Is he sick? Did something happen to the miraculous? Did someone steal the miracle bo- "

"Just come with me and you'll find out!" Wayzz said as he flew forward and beckoned Marinette to follow him. She exchanged glances with Tikki who merely shrugged and set off on Wayzz's heels.

"I can't believe Master Fu locked himself outside the hotel room again! It's been the third time this week and I missed 10 minutes of Kitty Section's concert again!" Marinette blabbered to Tikki irritably.

"This time I really mean it! Master Fu really needs a phone!" Tikki muttered peeking out of Marinette's purse.

Abruptly, Marinette paused to a halt when she reached the school grounds. Instead of a lively concert with loud music and the audience chanting in sync with the music. She saw a scene with everyone out of their seats all in their own discussion with absolutely nobody on the stage.

"What could be going on?" Marinette questioned.

"Could it be a supervillain?" Tikki said exasperatedly.

"I don't know…I'll find out." Marinette rushed into the crowd of people surfing the area for a familiar face…she paused when she found Alya with Nino and Adrien and rushed over to them.

"What's going on? What happened to the concert?"

"Someone cut the wires for the power source to all the instruments, without the instruments working, the concert can't go on!"

"But who would…do that?"

"Not sure, but the school's going to find out." Adrien said with his eyes on speaking with the other teachers in a corner.

"And it looks like we're coming to a long and large assembly with Mr. Damocles expecting a confession!" Nino groaned as he too eyed the teachers.

Boy, and Nino was right; they had stayed an hour in the school ground waiting for someone to confess but obviously…nobody did so everyone was doomed to clean the school-except Chloe who had gone to New York for a week and Lila, of course- during the last period of the day leaving them all tired and dirty with no confession.

"So, who do you think did it?" Tikki asked Marinette after they went back home.

"I don't know, Tikki, but whoever did do it seriously wanted to get the entire school on their knees cleaning and mopping every nook and cranny of College Francoise Dupont." Marinette sighed and yawned as she collapsed on her couch, "but all I want to do now is sink into this couch and shove my face right into the land o- "before she even knew it, she fell fast asleep.

Tikki sighed; kissed Marinette on the nose and went to get some rest herself.

It was the next morning and surprisingly enough, Marinette was early for once, it might've been her falling asleep early yesterday and the result of no akuma attacks.

"Do my eyes deceive me or is Marinette Dupain-Cheng early for once?" Alya asked sassily as Marinette took a seat beside her.

"Nope, it's me, right in the flesh!" Marinette beamed and giggled, "so, what happened to Kitty Section's concert? is it cancelled?"

"No, it'll be back on once the culprit is on."

"Phew."

"Excuse me, everyone!" Lila boomed as she stood in front of the class standing in an awfully innocent, shy and guilty posture which made Marinette's eyes narrowed in suspicion, "I really have something to confess."

The attention of the entire class leered upon her as everything had soon gone very still and silent.

"I just like to apologise to everyone for not telling you about this sooner, but I was just afraid and unsure of what to do and it's my fault that you all got stuck in such an unfortunate situation." Lila announced, her voice as guilty and apologetic as possible.

WAIT! Was Lila the one who sabotaged the concert yesterday? Was she trying to confess now? But why? All she ever did was lie and manipulate so why be honest now? Lila even threatened her to stop her from spilling the beans on her lies. What was with the sudden change of heart?

"What are you talking about Lila?" Rose squeaked, her brows raising.

Lila sighed and guiltily looked to her feet as she shyly rubbed one on top of the other.

"I know who sabotaged Kitty Section's concert yesterday." Lila said raising her head, "I'm sorry, Marinette, but I just couldn't stand not exposing you."

Suddenly, all eyes sped towards Marinette's direction and she felt her own widening in shock, her face was glowing a mixture of sheer fury and embarrassment…and she thought that Lila had changed her ways.

"W-what are you talking about!" Marinette said sharply.

"I saw you caught in the action, I forgot my purse backstage, so I went in there to retrieve it, then far off, towards the cables, I spotted you snipping them you didn't notice me though." accused Lila.

"But I didn't do it guys, trust me!" Marinette said loudly as she stood up and banged her hands on the table.

"Are you sure that it was Marinette, Lila? Cuz' knowing my bestie, she'd never do such a thing!" Alya questioned as she raised from her seat.

Everyone nodded and turned to face Lila.

"Alya, I don't want to disappoint you, but I don't want to lie either and I have proof to show that I have not been mistaken."

Lila shuffled through her phone and then showed the class a picture which made everyone gasp in shock. It showed the back of a girl who clearly had iconic raven pigtails and a grey blazer. She was holding scissors in her hand and was evidently cutting wires in what looked like to be the backstage.

Once again, all eyes turned to Marinette but this time they were all bubbling with anger. Marinette's mouth was agape, unsure of what to say but she believed that she only needed one person to trust her at this moment.

"You don't believe any of this, do you?" Marinette asked Alya who's eyes were still frozen on the picture.

"Marinette, I don't know what to say…but…how could you?" Alya said turning towards Marinette, her eyes burning with anger.

"What!"

"I said, how could you! After all the trust we've put in you, how could you do this to us-you can't deny that's not you in the picture!" Alya said with her voice rising.

"I didn't do it, Alya, I-did-not-do-it! That picture isn't even distinct, it doesn't even show the girl's face!"

"Oh yeah, Miss. Dupain-Cheng! Those pigtails are a difficult hairstyle to master and I don't think I've seen any girl in school style their pigtails in the way you do; they way you wear the pigtails is just unique. And oh, the picture isn't the only proof we have! Lila also said she saw you and if I recall correctly, you weren't there in the audience during the whole incident! The last place anyone's ever saw you was talking to Rose backstage!"

"The picture could be photoshopped and I wasn't there because-er-I was in the girls bathroom on the second floor." Marinette said defensively; she purposefully was indirect about accusing Lila of lying but everyone caught onto that anyway.

"Why would Lila lie?"

"Why would I lie?"

Oh please! She had enough of everyone not putting trust in her and taking a stranger's word so easily!

"You'd lie to protect yourself but Lila, on the other hand, has no reason to lie." Kim said with narrowed eyes as he stepped into the conversation.

"Think about what you're saying, guys! Have you ever even thought why I would sabotage Kitty Section's concert? I've been supporting them from the start and I even design costumes for them. So, why would I do it?" Marinette said her hands gesturing all over the place, she was trying, trying her best to convince them.

"Oh, it's not that hard to believe, not at all." Alix jeered as everyone nodded, "Nobody in this cla-oh! Who am I kidding? Nobody in this school has made as many achievements as you have. Not even Chloe or Adrien and they're famous! Firstly, you designed Jagged Stone's album then you have a soup named after you! You had Jagged Stone in your house, and you were on national television! You got praised by Gabriel Agreste and Audrey Bourgeois, you were invited to New York by Audrey Bourgeois! You were praised by Clara Nightingale and almost played Ladybug in her music video and you probably have the entire fashion industry kissing your shoes by that amazing hat you made that was showcased in a Gabriel fashion show. After all those achievements! How would it even be possible that you don't have some…Pride? Arrogance? Jealousy? Nobody's that nice or perfect…it could be possible that you were jealous of someone else getting the attention for once and thus you sabotaged Kitty Section's concert as you wanted all the attention for yourself."

Alix's speech had left everyone in agreement, and it left Marinette in utter shock and betrayal.

"How could you say that? Is that what you think of me? As some attention-loving, jealous and self-absorbed brat!"

"I don't know, M, if you want something! You'd do anything for it!" Alya acknowledged huffily.

"W-what are you talking about?" She hadn't recalled being so desperate for anything ever! What were they talking about?

"Adrien, of course. You'd do anything for his attention, we know you, Marinette." Mylene murmured, "you practically stalk the living out of that poor boy and you're so obsessed with him that you can't even consider any other girl possibly having a better chance than you, you get jealous so easily."

"Adrien and this is completely a different situation and all the girls I've known that had liked Adrien are either possessive, mean or manipulative. None of them deserve him. They're all petty." Marinette honestly had to thank god for Adrien being late otherwise the situation would've been way worse.

"What makes you think you're not petty?"

"Mylene, please, don't drift the conversation topic. Yesterday, all of you were praising how lucky you were to have me as a friend and now, you're accusing my every breath. Don't any of you believe me? Don't any of you trust me?"

Silence drifted through the class as nobody answered and as seconds ticked by, the more Marinette's heart felt bruised, betrayed and humiliated.

"Max?" Marinette turned to him with longing eyes, if they weren't going to speak, she'd make them speak.

"According to my calculations, the possibility of you being guilty is 90%. Sorry."

"Nate?"

"All has been said."

"Nino?"

"Sorry, I'm with my girl on this one."

Dread filled inside Marinette. Her breathing became lighter as moments passed.

"Sabrina?"

"Well…Lila is obviously right! She's way nicer than you!"

"Ivan? Rose? Juleka?"

"We're sorry, we thought you were our friend, Marinette. Didn't you say that? Was it all fake? And you were in the backstage when I last spoke to you too, so all evidence points to you." Rose snivelled her eyes full of disappointment, her expression mirrored by Ivan and Juleka.

Tears were threatening to fall from her eyes…it was just like the old days; she was facing her worst fear all over again. Loneliness.

"N-none of you believe me then…" Marinette whimpered, her eyes to the table as she collapsed in her seat.

"I'm sorry, Marinette, but I just had to expose you, I couldn't let you hurt my friends anymore. And Adrien will find out soon too." Lila said 'apologetically'. Marinette almost swore she sensed that sneer smirk in her voice.

"Er…guys? What's going on? Why are you all out of your seats and where's Ms. Bustier?" a voice came from the doorway.

"Ah…Speak of the devil!" Alix retorted as everyone turned towards Adrien.

"Adrien…finally! You'll never guess what we discovered?" Alya sneered,

"What?" Adrien asked innocently as he walked to his seat.

"That my BFF is a manipulative deceitful little bitch." (Marinette winced at the use of language).

"WHAT? Alya, how could you say that about Marinette? She's our friend." Adrien retorted alarmingly.

"Not anymore, after what she's done."

"What did she ever do? It must be a misunderstanding."

"Listen up, pretty boy, Lila came and confessed that she saw Marinette toying with the wires; we had our doubts at first, but Lila showed us a picture that honestly changed our minds. "Alix clarified as Lila practically shoved the picture into Adrien's face, he did flinch at what he saw but he remained calm after that.

"It would make sense too as Marinette wasn't even there during the incident, the last place anyone saw her was backstage." Alya muttered.

"Look, everyone, one indistinct picture doesn't prove Marinette guilty. None of what you said proves Marinette guilty. Knowing Marinette she would never do this, besides, isn't she our everyday Ladybug?" Adrien explained it as it was a piece of cake.

The fact that Adrien believed her made her grin to herself, delighted that someone trusted her.

"Oh, you oblivious trusting boy, you shouldn't count on it or her…you have no idea of what she could do, we do know her, better than you, in fact, besides, Lila wouldn't lie. Marinette, on the other hand, has lie- "

"What's going on here?" Ms. Mendeleiev snapped as she stood near the doorway. "Is this school or a drama fest? Where's your teacher?"

"Er…we don't know where Ms. Bustier is, but we think we may have found the culprit to yesterday's situation." Kim uttered

Ms. Mendeleiev arched her brows in interest.

"It seems to be Marinette. Lila has proof."

Marinette's head shot up. She couldn't let this happen. She couldn't let Lila get away with this. She had to-

"Marinette. Lila. Principal's Office. NOW!"

And that's when she Lila's sneer smirk truly materialised on her face.