When Sabrina was five, she thought her dad was a superhero.

What else could he be? He wore a special suit when he went out to get the bad guys, he found bad people and put them in jail, he protected the good people... Sure, not everything he did was huge or dramatic – like when he was called to fill in for the crossing guard who helped kids get to school, or when all he had to do was make parking tickets, or help that lost boy in the park find his mom. But even Superman did small things too.

At night, after he'd pay the babysitter and start on dinner, he'd tell Sabrina about something or other he did that day. Whether it was dramatic and scary, or simple and safe, Sabrina would listen with a wide-eyed look of amazement.

So when she started a new school year, and everyone was required to say something about themselves in their introduction, Sabrina proudly stood up in her tiny little shoes and declared her father was a superhero.

"No, he's not."

A little blonde girl sitting next to Sabrina had spoken up, frowning at her. Before either the teacher or Sabrina could reply, she said simply "You're a liar."

Sabrina had protested, over the teacher's attempts to regain order, that her dad was a superhero, he had a special outfit and fought bad guys and everything, but the other girl repeated herself. "He's just a policeman, he's not a superhero. You're making it up."

And that was that.

Sabrina ate her cookies by herself that snack hour, her face still burning. She hadn't tried to talk to the other kids yet, but she knew well enough that nobody liked a liar. Even if she hadn't meant to lie.

But the blonde girl came over to her table anyway, with a smile and an "I forgive you." It wasn't her fault, the girl said, that she didn't know what her dad really did for a living. Sabrina asked what her dad did.

Blonde girl – Chloé's – dad was a politician. Sabrina had no idea what the grown-up word meant, but Chloé said it as if it were something really important, so Sabrina was appropriately amazed.

Chloé told her about her huge house, with the people who did everything for her, and the huge car that someone else drove for her dad, and the huge tv and pool, and everything Sabrina's house didn't have. Sabrina asked if she could see.

Chloé agreed, but only on the condition that Sabrina not touch anything without her permission. "Daddy says it's all real expensive," she explained. "So regular people can't touch anything."

Sabrina had gone to Chloé's big house the next day after school. It felt like being in a castle, and she wanted to run down the halls and jump in the pool and play with the big fancy toys, but she'd promised not to touch anything.

So she didn't.

But she'd had fun with Chloé! At least, she thought she'd had fun. There'd been snacks and a TV (Chloé chose the shows) and a fancy doll (that Chloé said was too expensive for Sabrina to touch, so she'd just have to watch Chloé play with it), and at the end of the day, she'd been invited to come again.

She'd hesitated at first – maybe she already knew it hadn't been really fun after all, but Chloé had just smiled and said "Don't worry, Sabrina! I'll be your friend, even if no one else is!"

And Sabrina remembered she was a liar and how no one liked liars.

When Sabrina was six, she thought Chloé was a princess.

She said as much once, and instead of disputing it, Chloé smiled and agreed.

Her dad wasn't a superhero, but Chloé was surely a princess. Who else could have such a huge house, and all these people waiting on her? Who else could afford a three TVs bigger than Sabrina herself was? Who else but a princess would get a real diamond necklace for her birthday?

Sabrina asked to touch the necklace too. Chloé had scowled darkly, slapped her hand away, and yelled no. Then as Sabrina's eyes threatened to water, Chloé added that Sabrina was way too poor to touch diamonds.

Sabrina wasn't poor. Her dad had enough money to keep her fed, and keep a house, and give her new clothes at the beginning of every school year. Even if her dad wasn't a superhero, he wasn't poor!

...but then again, Chloé had all sorts of things that Sabrina didn't. And she'd been right about her dad not being a superhero after all...So maybe she was right about this.

As she grew older, she began to think that Chloé was right about a lot of things, really.

She was eight when her vision started to get kind of fuzzy, and when she'd told her dad, he'd gotten her to a doctor and she received her first glasses. Sabrina was thrilled – they looked like Clark Kent's glasses, and he was a superhero! She was like Clark Kent now!

She'd shown Chloé at school first thing the next day. Chloé had laughed loudly, then apologized and said that the glasses looked too big for Sabrina's face and made her eyes look like they were popping out. But if it was the only way Sabrina could see, they'd both just have to live with it, she'd added.

Sabrina sat next to her best friend with her hand up to cover her face, hoping to hide her ugly glasses from view.

They went shopping without an adult for the first time at age eleven. Sabrina looked in awe at a huge boutique that sold the cutest clothes she'd ever seen. She was about to go in when Chloé's voice rang out from behind her.

"Are you sure those would suit you?" she asked.

Sabrina halted.

"I mean, Sabrina...Look, you're my BFF so I'll be honest with you. Those clothes? Would look really weird on you. I mean, look at the colors!" They were nice colors, Sabrina thought. "They would fit me more than they'd fit you! And ruffles are totally not your thing, either. Not to mention your glasses would kinda ruin the look of any of the outfits you put together..."

Chloé was right, Sabrina told herself. The clothes looked cute on the hangers and on the mannequins, but they wouldn't look good on her at all.

The final nail in the coffin was when Chloé added "I don't think you can afford those anyway. You should check the bargain stores."

"Will you come with me?"

"Ew, no! I can't be caught dead in those places!"

Sabrina hadn't been able to buy anything, but that was okay. It meant her arms were free to hold the things Chloé had bought.

When they were twelve, Chloé called her house one night, saying that she had been too busy to do her math homework, and could Sabrina do it for her? Sabrina wasn't sure – that was cheating, wasn't it? But Chloé had sobbed and cried and said if she didn't get good grades her father would ground her forever and she thought Sabrina was her friend!

Sabrina felt so awful that she agreed to help her – just this once, okay? So she took her own homework, tore a fresh sheet from her notebook, and copied it down, being sure to change the notes and "show your work" parts a little to throw the teacher off-track.

She'd been a bit pleased with herself the next day, handing Chloé the paper. She wasn't a superhero, but she did something good, she helped her friend! Chloé didn't thank Sabrina for her efforts, but it was fine, she was probably just too relieved to.

Besides, Sabrina learned a long time ago that pleases and thank you's weren't part of Chloé's daily vocabulary.

Any pleased feelings vanished when they got their papers back and Chloé saw an 85 at the top of the page. She'd cornered Sabrina in the girls' bathroom, shoving the number in her face and demanding to know what Sabrina was "trying to pull."

Sabrina learned, that day, that Chloé expected perfect grades.

And she was often too busy to do her own schoolwork... So Sabrina would have to study harder for both of them.

Her dad was thrilled with the straight A's she brought home, but for Sabrina it was very bittersweet.

It was tiring being Chloé's best friend sometimes.

It meant Sabrina had to watch what she said and how she said it, and eventually not speak up much at all. It meant she did what Chloé wanted to do, and never what she herself wanted. It meant seeing a cute outfit in a storefront window, wistfully commenting on having something like that someday, and then being told "Ew, on you?"

It meant having to stay silent and just accept it when Chloé pushed her aside in favor of talking to the Agreste boy. And then it meant immediately going to console her (despite being slapped away and snapped at in the next second) when he couldn't stay.

It meant being grateful for the expensive brooch – not just because it was a gift from a best friend, but also because it was the one thing that could possibly make her pretty. "Well, not pretty," Chloé had said as Sabrina pinned it to her vest. "But it's a bit of an improvement." It was the closest thing to a compliment Sabrina had ever gotten.

Of course, it meant not being able to show just how upset she was when her father got fired. It meant having to swallow her pride and saying that yes, of course she was still Chloé's BFF and they still had a shopping date later!

But it was worth it, Sabrina told herself. It was worth it to keep her only friend around.

Over the years, Sabrina had learned that no one else would have even wanted to be her friend – only Chloé, out of the kindness of her heart, would ever interact with such a poor, homely girl like herself, especially one who had lied on her first day ever of school. It was only through Chloé that Sabrina would ever get a taste of a good life, it was only because of Chloé that Sabrina ever got to see the Adrien Agreste in the flesh at all.

She'd come home with two sets of homework to do, a lump in her throat from all the words and emotions she'd had to swallow, a few bruises on her arm from where she'd be shoved or gripped too tightly, but it was worth it. It was worth it, she repeated as she did both of their homework.

Because Chloé was her BFF, and the only friend she was ever going to have.

And Sabrina had to be grateful, because she was never going to be anything other than what she was now.

A/N: The cover was created by the wonderful mardimari, who made a fanart/gif for this story here: mardimari . tumblr post/153717889839