< Wednesday >

Walking inside the school, Alya tried to keep her smile upon her face, but she was beginning to find that impossible. The thought of her secret admirer not showing up not only disappointed her but also angered her.

Buzz. 

She took out her phone expecting a message from Marinette but was instead from an unknown number. Maybe it's my secret admirer! 

The weird thing was, the message was from a different number. 

                                                                                           ☆☆

                        ☆☆8:30am| N - hey, I was wondering if you wanted to meet up after school. I'm your secret                                                                        admirer and I'm ready to reveal myself to you.☆☆

                                                                                           ☆☆

 Alya gritted her teeth at the message. She walked inside the locker room and took a seat on the floor beside her locker, typing out an angry reply. 

                                                                                           ☆☆

                                 ☆☆ 8:30am| A - and what do you plan to do next?! Set me up?!☆☆

                                                                                        ☆☆

                                 ☆☆ 8:30am| N - what are you talking about? Why would I set you up? ☆☆ 

                                                                                                 ☆☆

                    ☆☆ 8:30am| A - don't act as if you don't know. You told me to meet you up yesterday, but you                                                                     ended up not showing at all! That's really sick! ☆☆

                                                                                        ☆☆

          ☆☆ 8:31am| N - I honestly don't know what you're talking about. I never asked you to meet me                                                                       up yesterday. Maybe it was a different person? ☆☆

                                                                                        ☆☆

           ☆☆8:31am| A - it was you! You told me to meet you up and you would show me who you really                                 were. Thanks for crushing my hopes, jerk! If I find out who you are, I swear, this situation ain't gonna                                                                             end pretty for you and your sick lies!☆☆

                                                                                         ☆☆

      ☆☆ 8:32am| N - I swear I don't understand what you're saying. I never asked you to meet me up, okay?!                                And if you're going to kill me for something I didn't do, then forget about meeting me                                                                                                                 up after school!!!!☆☆

Alya looked up once she heard footsteps walking towards her. Thinking it was Marinette, she was about to say hi, but then she groaned when it turned out to be Chloe Bourgeois. 

"Hey Alya," Chloe used her annoying fake smiley voice again. "So, tell me. How was your date yesterday?! Finally found out who your secret admirer is?!"

Alya widened her eyes at the words. "You. . . How do you know about that?!"

Chloe rolled her eyes. "You're really so naive, aren't you? I take it that you never met your secret admirer?"

Alya stood up. "It was you! You set me up, Chloe. What good do you get from it anyway?!"

"At least you were so disappointed," Chloe laughed. "All I had to do was make a fake account to text you. And besides, I know who your secret admirer is. Prepare to be disappointed, Alya!" 

Alya watched as Chloe walked out of the locker room. I have been blaming my secret admirer this whole time. Okay, Chloe, you win this round but the next round, I'm not going to promise that you aren't going to get hurt. I'd like to see you try another thing like this! 

She looked back at her phone, sending a quick message before she walked out of the locker room. 

                                                                                       ☆☆

             ☆☆8:35am| A - omg, I'm so sorry I blamed you. I just found out the truth that I was being set up by                            one of my enemies. If you're still up for it, we can still meet up after school. I hope you understand the                                                                mistake I made and I hope it didn't make you hate me.☆☆

                                                                                         ☆☆

                                                                                      ❣❣❣

Its been bothering me ever since that happened! I don't know if Adrien believed me or not, but I have a feeling he didn't. Maybe we really weren't close enough to trust each other as I had hoped. Maybe we weren't close enough for anything! 

It's time I finally find out the truth! 

Marinette clenched her fists, and with a mean-looking face, she walked over to the four girls that were talking very loudly, as if they wanted the whole school to hear them. 

Celia noticed Marinette coming over to their table first, and stopped talking. She tapped on Alison's shoulder and pointed at Marinette. 

Alison smirked and stood up. "Marinette, what brings you here? Shouldn't you be eating together with your friends. . . Or did they abandon you as Adrien did?" The whole group started laughing, but Marinette found none of it funny. 

Alya had gone home for lunch, saying that she wasn't in the mood to eat at school. Tiki was still ignoring her for some reason, so she was definitely out of the list. 

"Don't talk nonsense," Marinette folded her arms. "I came over to ask you four why you did what you did! All along you've been setting me and Adrien up, so why? To get Adrien to hate me?"

"In case you didn't know, we're like news reporters," Bette explained. "Whatever we find interesting, we post it online for others to see. We especially do this with popular people. . ."

"At first, you and Adrien weren't close at all, so we thought nothing was going on between you two," Amelia took over. "But then suddenly you two are partnered in an art project? We thought something fishy was going on, so we decided to investigate!. . ."

"So, we decided why not spy on you guys?" Alison continued. "And that's what we started doing. From being partnered in an art project, going to Adrien's mansion, getting in his limo, to sleeping over at Adrien's mansion!"

Marinette widened her eyes. "How do you guys?. . ."

"As we said, we spied!" Celia rolled her eyes. "We waited for you to leave the mansion at night, but you never did and soon we fell asleep. Once we woke up, we saw you leaving the mansion, and we quickly knew you had slept over."

Marinette snapped her fingers at them. "But we're not dating! Nothing happened between us! Don't forget that you girls straight up lied to Adrien, saying that it was me that told you to take pictures!"

"We were just trying to make things even more interesting," Bette shrugged as she pulled her brunette hair behind her ear. "And we did. See, the whole school is talking about it. And what's better? Some people online are shipping it!"

Marinette wanted to attack these girls, but she took a deep breath and stayed clam. "Take those pictures down."

"No way!" 

"Take them down, or else!" Marinette yelled, catching some attention, but not caring. She whirled around and started walking away, hands still clenched. 

Ugh! I'm leaving this school. I'll go someplace else for lunch then come back for my next class. 

With that decision made, Marinette started walking over to the locker room to get her bag and money. She almost walked inside but noticed that Plagg and Nino were inside. The boys had their backs facing her, and their fronts facing their lockers. Marinette was about to go in and say hi, but stopped once she heard Tiki's name.

"But what if Marinette doesn't even get jealous? What if the fake date with Tiki is pointless?" Plagg groaned. 

"Don't say that, and besides you shouldn't be worrying about that," Nino explained. "You should be worrying about Tiki. How are you going to tell her that it's all been a fake date? What if Marinette really does get jealous, and you ask her out? Then what would Tiki think?"

"Ugh! You're right. I got myself into this mess, and now it's hard to get myself out."

Forget the bag and money. I have to go talk to Tiki! Marinette turned around and started heading to the Comic class. She peeked inside and saw Tiki standing next to Nathaniel and Marc.

Nathaniel breathed in and out before he faced Tiki again. "Hey, can I ask you a question?"

Tiki looked up from her work. "Yes?"

"Are you. . . Perhaps free this week?" Nathaniel asked, shocking Tiki with the question.

"Nathaniel, you're not going to ask me. . ." Tiki sighed once she saw that Nathaniel was really going to ask her out. "I'm sorry, I can't. Besides, I already have a date with someone else. Besides, I always heard from people that you liked Marinette, so why not ask her out?"

Nathaniel bit his lip, looking down at the art he was making. "I've tried, but Marinette just threw me off like the rest of the other boys. Once I started working with you, I started to. . ."

"Nathaniel, it's not going to work between us," Tiki took a step back. "I'm sorry. I don't mean to hurt you, but I already have someone else." She turned around, and that was when she noticed Marinette standing at the door.

"Wait, I'll be right back." Tiki started walking towards the door and stopped right in front of Marinette. "Yes, do you want something?"

"Finally, you're speaking to me," Marinette sighed. "I have something to tell you, and it's really shocking. You shouldn't go on that date with Plagg!"

"What, why?" Tiki frowned at her. "Miss a date with my crush, are you crazy?!"

"No, I'm not," Marinette shook her head. "Because Plagg is only planning on fake dating you. The date isn't going to be real!"

"What?! Why would he do that?!" Tiki folded her arms, waiting for Marinette to continue. 

"Apparently, it's because he likes a girl and wants to make her jealous or something," She had decided not to mention her name so then Tiki wouldn't know that it was herself she was talking about. 

Tiki shook a fist and stomped her foot. Marinette thought it was about Plagg and being irritated with him, but her next sentence shocked her. 

"Marinette, how dare you lie to me?!"

"What?! What's that supposed to mean?! I'm not lying to you, Tiki. I would never lie to you, especially about these kinds of stuff!"

"Marinette, you know Plagg likes you, right?" Tiki glared at her. "I know that too, but he gave me a chance. He said he also liked me, and that we could go on a date tomorrow. Why are you trying to stop this date by filling me with lies?!"

Marinette glowered. "But I'm not. You already know Plagg likes me and you still decide to go on a date with him. How stupid could you possibly get?!"

It was out of anger that she had said those words. Out of anger because her own best friend didn't believe her at all. Was Tiki now her used-to-be best friend? 

"Whatever!" Tiki walked back inside the classroom, picking up her half remained lunch from the table. "Just leave!"

And that's exactly what Marinette did. She turned around and walked away from the class, at this point not even caring if Tiki got hurt or not. 

"What was that about?" Nathaniel frowned at her. He noticed Tiki looked angry. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," Tiki turned the other way. "Let's just continue what we were working on. Besides, they will announce the school president next week."

Nathaniel nodded, though he didn't believe that Tiki was okay at all. 

But the thought of Plagg only cheating her was still bothering her. The words Marinette had left her with was still stuck in her mind no matter how hard she tried to get them out. She had to find out, or else Marinette really could be right and she would end up going on a fake date with her crush. 

"Excuse me again, Nathaniel. I have to talk to someone," Tiki sighed and started leaving the class again. She walked over to the cafeteria first, somewhere she knew Plagg would be, but after searching around, she realized that Plagg wasn't in the cafeteria. 

Maybe Plagg got into trouble or something? 

She was walking past the locker room when she heard voices. She quickly recognized a voice as Nino's, so she went inside there. 

Going inside the locker room, she saw Plagg and Nino sitting down beside their lockers, eating and talking. 

"Why are you guys eating in the locker room?" Tiki almost laughed, but remembering the words Marinette had given her, she didn't. Instead, she looked at them seriously. 

Nino shrugged. "We didn't feel like going to the cafeteria, we didn't want to eat in any of the classrooms, and we didn't want to go outside either, so we settled in the locker room. What about you?"

"I'm having my lunch in the Comic room. Actually I came here to talk to Plagg about something," Tiki answered. She didn't realize her hands were shaking until she looked down at them. 

"Okay, what is it about?"

"It's about. . . Our date..."

"What? Are you... Are you canceling?" She couldn't tell if Plagg was pretending to be upset about that or if he was actually upset. 

"No, I'm not canceling. I just came to ask a question," Tiki said again. "Marinette came over to me and told me that you. . . You were only planning on taking me out on a fake date."

Plagg spat out the food he had in his mouth, in shock. 

"Is it true?"

"Uh, Tiki, why would. . . Why would Marinette tell you that?"

"She said she overheard you guys saying it," Tiki looked scared now, due to the looks Plagg was giving her. "She said that you're only planning to fake date me to make a girl jealous or something. Is it true, Plagg?! Please, just tell me the truth. I don't want to end up going on a fake date with you."

Plagg clenched a fist, tightening his spoon in another hand as if he was trying to choke it. He couldn't lie any longer, he knew that, but he didn't want to admit it right in front of her. He knew right away that he was going to lose a friend. 

"I take it from your silence that it's true!"

Plagg didn't say anything. 

"Fine!" Tiki exclaimed. "Have fun making your crush jealous now, you prick!" She ran out of the room with tears, trying hard not to spill them out. 

By the time she reached outside and took a seat on the ground, the tears had already spilled. 

Plagg, how could you?! 

                                                                                    ❣❣❣