Marinette had released the song on a Friday. This meant she had two days of worrying, of not checking the news or her Youtube notifications. But she survived Saturday and Sunday, and finally, finally, Monday came.
As Marinette walked into school that day, she didn’t know what to expect. Had anyone seen the video? Did anyone recognize her? She hadn’t checked social media since uploading it and had turned off notifications because she was scared of the reaction her song would get, so she had no idea if anyone knew it was her.
Whatever she had been expecting subconsciously, it wasn’t this.
Students lined the halls as usual, talking and putting away or taking out school stuff, but there was a nervous energy among them. They were all buzzing with some nervous excitement and Marinette wasn’t quite sure what to make of it.
Then she heard it. Around the corner from her locker, two students were huddled around a third student’s phone. The headphones plugged into the phone came unplugged and, throughout the locker room, a very familiar song started blasting.
“Forget you! Forget you! / Forget you! Forget me not~ / Forget you! Forget you! / Forget you! Forget me not~” her own voice sang from the phone.
The student hurried to plug the headphones back in, but not before others in the locker room began to sing along. Marinette heard the voices of more than half her classmates, humming and singing along. She even saw some begin to dance along. How quickly had they learned the choreography?
She shook her head and hurried to class.
That was that, then. They liked the song, they didn’t know it was her, she could rest easy.
Marinette walked into class just in time to hear Lila’s newest claim: “Oh, yeah, I totally know her! She wrote the song about her exes, I was by her side through all of it, it was totally tragic!”
Marinette rolled her eyes and walked up the stairs, taking her seat at the back. Lila continued to talk about how she was totally absolutely besties with the singer of Forget Me Not. She buried her head in her notebook, resolving to write her next song until class started.
As she wrote, she heard someone coming up the stairs. She pretended not to notice them, whoever they were, in case they were going to try and start shit. Instead, they paused and set a note on the corner of her desk before walking back down. She noticed the familiar nail polish and wondered what Juleka could want with her.
When she opened it, the note read: Meet me under the stairs at lunch. We need to talk.
Instantly, Marinette began to worry. What did that mean? Did Juleka know it was her? Did Juleka know Lila was lying? Or, worse, was Juleka in trouble? Did she need help, was it something about Rose or Anarka or Luka?
Class started, but Marinette was quietly worrying in her seat, unable to listen. She kept sending concerned glances over Juleka’s way, but the shy girl didn’t look back up at her.
Marinette was able to shake the worry to the midground of her mind, at least. Background was a foolish hope, but now she had room enough to halfheartedly listen and take notes during the lesson. School couldn’t go fast enough as the seconds trickled by, lunch fast approaching.
Finally, finally, the bell rang. Marinette gathered up her things calmly, but her hands were shaking violently. All of her nervous energy was staying there, allowing her to keep her face neutral as she walked down the stairs, then ducked under them.
There stood both Rose and Juleka, increasing Marinette’s worry tenfold. If it was both of them, something had to be wrong! What could have happened?
“Are- Are you guys okay? I mean, the, the note wasn’t very, um, specific? But if it’s both of you... Is something wrong? Are you in trouble or something?” Marinette asked quickly. Juleka blinked in response, eyes wide and a little confused. Rose looked between the two of them and chimed in for her.
“No, Marinette! We’re not in trouble! We just wanted to say that-“
“We know you wrote ‘Forget Me Not’,” Juleka interrupted her. Marinette gasped. Her first guess had been correct, then.
“I, um, I don’t know what you’re aalking tabout! Wait, talting abouk! Talking about,” she managed. Her nervous stuttering gave away the truth, obviously, as Rose and Juleka looked at her with a mixture of disbelief and pity.
“Marinette, you don’t have to lie to us!” Rose chirped. Marinette froze at the word lie. That was what she had done. That was what she was doing by staying anonymous, wasn’t it? Lying to the world! She would get caught and everyone would think she was no better than Lila and then she would go to jail and she would never get to release another song or get a pet hamster named-
“Marinette,” Juleka said, a hand hovering over her arm but not touching her. “It’s okay. It’s fine, alright? Lying to protect your identity isn’t the same as regular lying.” She looked over Marinette, whose eyes were wide and wet and who was shaking a bit. “Are you... okay with physical contact right now?”
Just the question nearly made her break down crying. When was the last time someone had asked if it was okay for them to touch her? That was how people usually tried to ground her when she was spiralling, but did it even help, or did it just make her more nervous?
That didn’t matter right now. Because, right at this moment, a hug sounded perfect. She nodded wordlessly and Juleka and Rose hugged her, Juleka soothingly and Rose like she was afraid to let go. Marinette sniffled and smiled. This was the first friendly physical contact she’d had from someone who wasn’t family or a temporary hero since... ages ago. She couldn’t remember the last hug she’d gotten from someone who wasn’t her parents.
She slowly calmed down, and when she was finally ready to talk, she did. Juleka and Rose knew that Lila was lying, because it was clearly Marinette’s voice in the recording- they knew it from every time she sang along at Kitty Section practice, from every time she hummed a section to herself and suggested small changes (all of which improved the song).
They weren’t surprised Ivan didn’t recognize her, given both that it was a pop song, which wasn’t his genre, and that playing drums and listening to loud heavy metal had dulled his hearing. They weren’t surprised at the rest of the class, either. Most of them had never heard Marinette sing, so it wasn’t likely they would recognize her singing voice first try, and by the second pass, Lila had gotten to them.
They were a little surprised Mylene hadn’t recognized her voice, but maybe the girl just hadn’t heard the song yet or had gone too long without hearing Marinette sing.
But Juleka and Rose knew Lila was lying, which meant Marinette didn’t have to be alone anymore! She told them everything and they, mercy of all mercies, believed her!
And then... they comforted her. They asked, again, and she said yes, again, and they hugged her close and told her it was okay. Told her everything would be alright.
Later, in class, they didn’t speak up when Lila lied. But they sent her sympathetic glances, which was more than Adrien had ever done, and after class they comforted her some more.
Marinette hadn’t known what to expect. But it certainly, certainly wasn’t this.
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