Class ended after what felt like an hour. I had been thinking about what Nathaniel could possibly want to talk to me about, which got me looking at the clock because I wanted class to end early. Big mistake! Who knew checking the time made time pass slower. Hearing the bell ring got me to get up from my seat faster than you can say 'boo'. Beside me, Nathaniel was slowly and carefully packing up his sketchbook and drawing materials inside of his bag, which got me to finish earlier than him and wait by the door for him to finish.

After a while, most of the students had left the classroom. Nathaniel was now walking towards me. He didn't look exactly happy, but at least he didn't look mad either. "Follow me," He muttered and walked past me, out of the classroom. I followed him out with no words, still confused. Nathaniel then let out a sigh, like he was preparing himself for what he was about to say. He then turned to me and I could see just how serious he was by looking at his face.

"You're right. I did lie about Chloe, but it's not just because of the way she had insulted me when she was talking to that girl. When I had walked up behind her, not only had she insulted me, but she was also talking about how she was going to try and succeed in making you her boyfriend. I didn't just feel mad that she insulted me, but I felt this huge pang of jealousy just by hearing her talking about her crush." He paused and looked at me, but I didn't say anything, wanting for him to continue. He then looked away and took a seat on the floor. "When you came to this school, I thought you were her boyfriend, seeing how close you two were and how she made everyone believe you two were dating. I thought you were just like her, especially after what she had said about you in the cafeteria. When I found out you were sitting beside me, I felt mad, but also scared. I felt mad that I'd somehow lost to you, but scared that you were just going to be the bully I saw you as.

"When I found out the whole you-and-Chloe dating thing was just a lie, I felt relieved, but I still didn't ease up, knowing the fact that Chloe still liked you. I thought. . .that if I created one lie about her to you, you would start to hate her, and distance yourself from her. I thought maybe if she saw how much you hated her, she would stop her crush on you." Nathaniel was now hiding his face, but his voice cracked at his next words, "I never meant to sound or look like a bad person-"

I stood there, staring, wondering if he was going to break into tears. What was I supposed to do if he did? Sure, I knew how to comfort Chloe whenever she started crying, but this was Nathaniel I was dealing with here. I stared at the floor, wondering what would be my next move, wondering what I could do to make him feel better. "You know. . . I. . . well. . ." This was harder than I thought it would be. "You should talk to her!"

"What?!"

What?! Adrien, of all the things you could have said, it had to be that?! I didn't make eye contact with Nathaniel as I tried to explain what I'd just said. "Chloe is a totally different person now. She may still like me, but if you talk to her, you two could become friends." No, Adrien, you're doing it again! You're sticking up for Chloe. I remembered Chloe telling me she was doing Nathaniel for her biography project. She really looked like she regretted everything she had said about him, so I thought if Nathaniel talked it out with her, they would really hit it off. Nathaniel on the other hand didn't really seem to like the idea.

"Gee, thanks!" He stood up from the floor, picking up his bag. "You want me to get told off by her again. It's Chloe we're talking about here. I'm sorry, but she's a witch! I liked her because even though people said bad things about her, I believed differently! I thought she was just being misunderstood! But when I heard her saying all those stuff about me. . . imagine how I felt! And now. . . now you're telling me to go talk to her?" He turned around in such an angry way. "Like that's easy." He stomped off away from me, and I stood there, feeling like I'd just lost a friend.

It was after a while of thinking and feeling bad that I realized I was still standing on the same spot. I need to get to my next class. I could talk to Nathaniel later. . . Or maybe I could convince Chloe to talk to him. With that plan in mind, I started walking to where I thought my class was. I realized. . . I always followed my other classmates to class, never bothering to look at the room number. Come on, Adrien! This is the fifth day of school and you still don't remember your room number for your History class?! Well, at least History class was the only class I didn't quite remember.

Wait. . . I do remember Marinette saying the room number for History class. It was two thirty something, that's for sure. I can across a room. 236. This must be it. I took ahold of the knob and twisted it. Imagine if this is the wrong room, and a bunch of other students stare at me. But that wasn't what I walked into. No, a different teacher didn't look at me like I had expected. A bunch of students I didn't even know didn't stare at me and giggle because I had entered the wrong room. Instead, the whole room was bare. . . except for Lila herself, who stood in the middle.

I had walked in on Lila checking this huge wound on her stomach. She looked up at me in horror, quickly hiding the wound, but it was too late. . . I had already seen it.

"It got too far when I caught Lila putting on a fake scar on her body, so I walked over to Marinette and told her. But of course, Marinette didn't believe me. She said she knew Lila was having problems at home with her father, and that there was no way she'd be putting on a fake scar. She got angry at me, saying I shouldn't joke about things as serious at this, so I didn't bother talking to her about Lila anymore." Seeing Lila at that moment got me to remember the words Alya had told me before.

Suddenly Lila broke into tears. She fell down to her knees and covered her face as she wept. "You weren't. . ." She sniffed as tears tumbled to the floor. "You weren't supposed to see that. You weren't supposed to see that ugly wound on my body. You. . . you're probably going to think less of me now!"

I wasn't so sure if she was faking it then. She may have put on a fake scar and Alya saw it, but this wound could have been absolutely real, and if I just walked out, telling her I knew she was faking it, imagine how I'd feel if it turns out I was completely wrong. Imagine how I'd feel if Marinette knew about it and started hating on me. Biting my lip, I walked over to Lila and knelt down in front of her.

"It's. . .okay. I'm not going to think less of you, Lila." What do I do next? What do I say next? "That must hurt. Have you seen the school's nurse or something? You could be seriously injured and if you don't get it taken care of, it could turn into something more major." I tried comforting her like I would with Chloe. Lila looked at me with wet eyes, and suddenly wrapped her arms around me, hugging me tightly.

My heart started beating faster when I heard a loud 'snap!' behind me. I whirled around, but the girl who had taken the picture of Lila hugging me had already took off. I only see her outfit and her hair, which had been purple, but I never got to see her face.

"Who. . . was that?" Lila asked from where she was still kneeling. The tears were still in her eyes, but she quickly wiped them with her arm and stood up. "Why did that girl take a picture of us and run away? Oh no, did she. . .?" Suddenly she got terrified. "Did she take a snap of my wound? She's probably going to share the picture with everyone else. . . and they're all going to see just the kind of life I'm living." She broke into a louder cry and took off, out of the room, almost tripping on the way out.

I stood there, wondering what had just happened. Curiosity and confusion bottled up inside of me, and I just wish I knew who had taken that picture. . . and why!

•

I waited for Marinette after class. I just seriously needed to talk to her. Throughout the entire 3 hours of 3 different classes, she hadn't said anything to me, and even though I was feeling extremely worried and already knew what this was about, I still wanted to talk to her about it, and convince her that she didn't have to ignore me.

Remember, Adrien. . . You weren't there. Adrien Agreste wasn't there. It was only a poor man on the streets that had listened to the conversation, so if you accidentally blurt out something from the conversation she had with Lila, just know that there's no way you're getting yourself out of it. I had to keep reminding myself about that, just to make sure that I would never slip up and make a mistake.

Marinette finished packing up her stuff and got up to leave. At the same time, I stood up from my seat as well and followed her out of class. "Marinette, you can't keep avoiding me for long," I spoke behind her, hoping that would make her stop. "Did I do something wrong? Why are you so mad at me?" Yeah! Nice acting, Adrien! "Marinette, hold on. Stop!" I reached over and grabbed her arm, pulling her closer to me. Her body crashed against my chest, but I didn't let go.

Then, that's when I heard it — the loud whispers coming from students around us. Are they talking about Marinette and I? I let go of Marinette's arm, and looked around me. People stared and talked, but what bothered me the most was that I had no idea what they were talking about. I looked back towards Marinette, only to see that she was already walking away from me. What's going on?!

I followed Marinette outside. It was Lunchtime and I wanted to see if she wanted to hang out, but seeing the way she was acting around me, that hangout wasn't happening any time soon.

"Hey, you guys!"

I turned around and smiled to see Alya, Nino and Nathaniel walking towards us. Lila had just walked out of the school as well and started heading towards us with such a huge smile on her face. It was as if me catching her wound never happened, and she totally walked past me without saying a word. She walked up to Marinette, hugged her, like the argument they had yesterday had never happened at all.

"You guys wanna know what I planned for lunch?" Alya beamed at us as she took the lead, us following her away from the school. But before she could say any more words about what we were doing together for lunch, a new voice called out behind us. We turned around to see Chloe running towards us. I gulped. What was she doing now?

"You guys," Chloe stopped in front of us. I could see Lila glaring at her and Nathaniel looking away. "I just wanted to ask if I could join you guys for lunch. See, I let Sabrina go off with this other girl, but I didn't want to go alone, so I. . ." She looked up at me, and I turned away, suddenly feeling bad. Ever since I got to this school, I never bothered to hang out with her at Lunchtime, or when school was done. Instead I was so caught up with my new friends to even think about including her. Now I knew what she meant when she said I was forgetting about her.

"I really don't mind," Alya shrugged. "I mean. . . I've never had a problem with you, Chloe-"

"But I have!" Lila interrupted, walking up to Chloe in such an angry way. "I don't want you here with us, Chloe. Who knows what you're going to do? You're probably just going to keep clinging unto your best friend during the entire time. You're going to annoy us with your stupid stories, with your annoying voice, and you're going to ruin this lunchtime for us! Just leave! Nobody wants you here!"

I could see the way Chloe was trying not to look upset, but I felt upset. I felt even more than that; angry. I stepped forward and grabbed Lila by the arm, pulling her back angrily. "You don't get to talk to her like that!" I screamed at her face, not even caring if Marinette was watching or not. The others looked absolutely shocked as well to see me scream at Lila, but Lila looked the most horrified. "You may hate Chloe, but you don't get to speak to her like that, at least, not while I'm still here."

Lila turned her head over to Marinette, as if expecting her to say something to stand up for her, but Marinette just looked down without a word, shocking us all as well. Usually, she would have said something, be on Lila's side, by now she was acting as if she didn't know Lila at all. Then Lila turned back to me, this time her eyes getting teary. "Why are you being so mean to me?"

"Listen, you may act like you know Chloe just because you two got into fights in middle school, but you don't know her at all! Your words could seriously hurt the people you use them on. . . they could even make people change for the worse. I advice you to use your words nicely and wisely the next time! Chloe's my best friend, not you!"

Lila still looked shocked with my words, but she backed away from me without another word, looking down at the ground.

"Let's get moving," Nino spoke. "If we stand around like this, we won't even get a chance to have the fun we wanted to have. We have about 52 minutes now. So, Alya. . ." He turned over to Alya. "What was the plan you said you wanted to try out?"

"O-oh yeah. . ." Alya scratched her head with an awkward smile. "A picnic! I've seen other people doing it, so I decided why not. We could go to Marinette's bakery and pick up a few snacks from there. . .if you don't mind, Marinette. . . And we could head to park and have the best picnic ever!"

I wasn't really sure about this picnic being the best, especially with the fact that Lila was still glaring at Chloe, Nathaniel was ignoring Chloe and Marinette was ignoring both Lila and I. I decided not to say anything about it though, and Marinette nodded, agreeing with going to her bakery. I smiled a little though, knowing this picnic wasn't going to be a complete failure, especially with the fact that we were eating Marinette's pastries.

Marinette then took lead and started taking us to her bakery. Though some of us were still mad at the other, we tried not to get it in the way, and as I looked, I could actually see them being excited with the idea of a picnic.