[ Alter ] NOT A LIAR : Can’t Lie, Won’t Lie!

Lila wakes up groggy and goes to school like usual. Lila is strutting into class with her usual fake-innocent smile. Marinette is watching from her desk, arms crossed, already suspicious. She tries to impress her classmates with a new lie:

Lila: “You guys won’t believe it, I was just on a Zoom call with Prince Ali—”

Alya: (wide-eyed) “Wait, seriously? You never mentioned that before!”

Marinette: (under her breath) “Because it didn’t happen…”

Lila: (about to double down) “Well, it’s not like I like to brag, I just—”

Suddenly, Lila freezes mid-sentence. Her face twitches. She makes weird noises and clears throat. Then:

Her mouth interrupts: “—I made that up because I’m desperate for attention and jealous of Marinette!”

Cue shock, gasps, and utter confusion from the class.

Dead silence.

Alya: “...What?”

Lila: (horrified, slapping her hand over her mouth) “W-what? I didn’t mean to say that!”

Adrien: (perking up) “Wait... you lied about that?”

Lila: (panicking, trying again) “No! I mean—yes! I lie all the time! I lied about Ladybug, about my hearing problem, about saving Jagged Stone’s cat—I don’t even like cats!”

Cut to Plagg eating cheese.

Plagg: I feel like someone was just talking about me?

Cuts back to class.

Marinette: (slowly standing up) “...Is this a prank?”

Lila: (desperately trying to stop herself) “No! I swear I don’t know what’s happening—I literally can’t lie!”

Cue students murmuring, jaws dropping, and Nino spitting out his water.

Nino: (coughing) “Dude, what?!”

Rose: (eyes wide) “Wait—she doesn’t like cats?!”

Juleka: (deadpan) “That explains everything.”

Lila: (wild-eyed, stumbling backward toward her desk) “This can’t be happening! I—I must be sick or cursed or—”

Max: (adjusting glasses, intrigued) “Fascinating. A compulsion to tell the truth, even when the intent is to deceive. Almost like a neurological phenomenon.”

Chloe scoffs from the back row, flipping her hair dramatically.

Chloe: (smirking) “Ugh, please. Like we didn’t all know she was a lying little wannabe. Honestly, Rossi, the only thing more fake than your stories is your knockoff designer bag.”

Lila: (snaps toward Chloe, unable to hold it back)

“Oh, shut up, Chloe! You pay Sabrina to be your friend, you fake your test scores by sneaking the answers off Adrien’s sheet, and the only reason anyone tolerates you is because they’re scared of your dad!”

The class:

Everyone: “OOOOOH!”

Sabrina: (slowly looking down at her notebook) “...You said I was your best friend.”

Chloe: (offended and flustered) “I—I am her best friend! Right, Sabrina?!”

Sabrina: (betrayed) “What?!”

Chloe: (glaring) “You little—”

Lila: (throws up her hands) “Don’t start with me, Bourgeois! I have a lot of material I’ve been sitting on!”

Marinette: She blinks, like her brain is buffering. Then slowly—so slowly—a tiny smile creeps onto her face.

Marinette: (to herself, softly)

“This is… actually happening.”

She glances around—at Alya, who looks stunned, at Adrien, who’s gone pale, and finally back to Lila, who’s practically sweating truth.

Marinette: (louder, cautiously)

“So all this time, all those things you said… the lies about me, Ladybug, Adrien… all of it was fake?”

Lila: (groaning, barely getting the words out)

“Yes! Every single one! I lied about you bullying me, about being Ladybug’s best friend, about being sick… about everything. And you never did anything wrong to me. You were just... in my way.”

A beat of heavy silence. Marinette’s breath catches. Her jaw tightens—but not out of anger. Something else. Something almost like closure.

Marinette: (quietly, not gloating, just... honest)

“Wow. You could’ve just told the truth from the start. You might’ve actually had real friends.”

Lila: (miserably)

“Yeah, well... now I can’t stop telling the truth. So that’s fun.”

The bell rings. No one moves. No one speaks. They just stare at Lila—no longer in awe, no longer tricked. Just... processing.