Emily POV
"Look at this place, Spence, are you sure we're at the right address?" Hanna asks as the Pretty Little Liars get out of the car.
"Robinson High School. Yup, this is it" Aria reads the school's billboard.
Despite the literal darkness (being so early in the morning), I try to look on the bright side, "Well, there's a pool so there must be a swim team"
"Come on, I don't want to be late on our first day." Spencer hurries us along.
Our new school is a very dreary place. After moving out of Rosewood, we shipped ourselves to Tampa, Florida and now attend Robinson High School in the IB program.
We walk in to the office, Spencer first then Hanna with Aria and me close behind.
"Student affairs is next door. Ring the doorbell and they will let you in" some lady in the office rudely tells us and walks away. Tampa is not how I imagined it to be.
Spencer speaks up. "Excuse me, I don't think we are supposed to go to student affairs, we are new from Pennsylvania."
An African-American woman, wearing a suit with a skirt and heels clicking, comes in.
"Oh I love your heels!" Hanna compliments.
"Really? Is now the time?" Aria mutters.
"Thank you. Now who might you girls be?" She asks.
"We are new transfers from Rosewood High in Pennsylvania" Aria announces this time.
"Oh! Follow me. I'm Mrs. Lock, one of the AP's here. What are your names again?" she asks as she leads us to her office. We each go down the line and introduce ourselves and she types them into her computer. "And you will be in the IB program, yes?" Spencer confirms this and we are told to go to the IB office, which is "upstairs, right above this office".
We step outside the office. It's getting lighter now with more students are around.
"Florida isn't as cool and beautiful as I expected" Hanna comments.
"It's downright muggy" Spencer says disdainfully. Many people stare at them while they look for the stairs.
"these kids are kinda scary" Aria says as one towers over her.
I find a set of stairs in a dark corner of the school. There are two vending machines and a classroom in this area. I, along with my friends, think "this school looks suspicious". But luckily, I saw a "This is a safe place" sticker with a triangle and rainbow on it on the guidance counselor's door and a GSA club board on the wall so this school shouldn't be that homophobic. You would think that after moving to the richest part of Tampa, South Tampa, they would have a better school. Or at least one where there's proper lighting and the school administrators actually care about new students. After climbing up the deteriorating stairs and taking a left hand turn, we see a sign that says "IB guidance".
Inside, I am met with a blast of cool air and cute woman who is the guidance counselor for all the IB students at Robinson. We all receive first-day packets and some forms to fill out. Mrs. George, as her nameplate says, hands us each our schedules, telling us we have a lot of classes together. It's true. We all have English and Spanish together while Spencer and I have math together, Aria and Spencer have APUSH together, and Hanna and I have biology together. Aria decided to take a creative writing class as her elective and Spencer is taking Ap Statistics. Hanna and I have a free period or "JA" as they call it here. We go off to find our first class today, Spanish.
"Why do these schedules have to be so complicated?" Hanna asks, frustrated.
"Hanna, they're really simple. These classes you have on 'A' days and these on 'B' days. Not that complicated." Spencer says.
"I wish they didn't have to call them A days and B days. Hearing 'A Day' makes it sound like there's an entire day dedicated to A and it creeps me out" Aria shudders.
Once in the hallway, we see a sea of people surrounded in one area.
"Wonder what's going on" Aria voices.
"Dunno, I think our class is right there though" Hanna replies.
We get closer and realize their teacher hasn't arrived yet so everyone is standing around the room.
"Is this Mr. Ward's room?" I politely ask a cute girl leaning on some lockers talking to someone.
"Indeed it is" she replies, smiling and…blushing a little?
"Hi I'm Hanna" Hanna sticks out her hand, deciding she looks like a good person to befriend.
The cute girl looks a little confused but takes it and introduces herself as Vivian. Hmm, Vivian. Like Wil's girlfriend in "Saving Face".
"That's a pretty name. I'm Emily", "Aria", "Spencer".
"This is 'E', Lucy, and Jackson" Vivian presents.
"Is it always like this in the mornings?" Spencer asks.
"yeah on most days Mr. Ward won't let anyone in until the bell rings" Lucy replies. She seems very polite and intelligent.
"Who are you guys?" Jackson asks. E hits him and reprimands him with "you don't just ask someone that Jackson!"
"We are new" Aria simply states.
"Where are you from?" he asks.
"Pennsylvania" Spencer replies this time.
"Jackson shut uupp and stop asking questions" E admonishes again.
Ignoring his friend's annoyance he continues, "Where in Pennsylvania?" E rolls her eyes and Vivian pats her arm and tells her to calm down.
"A little town called Rosewood, you probably haven't heard of it."
"Rosewood? That rings a bell…" Lucy says eyebrows furrowed.
"I'm going to the bathroom" Vivian says and hands her friends her books.
"Oh, would you mind showing me where it is? I need to fix my makeup" Hanna requests.
"yeah sure" she answers Vivian leads Hanna down the hallway. I take this time to admire her form. Lucy, Jackson, and Spencer are talking in the background. Something about a math club I think.
Vivian POV
The pretty - well they're all pretty - blonde girl Hanna, I think her name is, is following me to the bathroom. As we get out of the language hall she asks me, "so what does a girl have to do to get noticed here?"
I don't quite know how to respond to this so I, in turn, as my own questions. "what do you mean? Noticed by teachers? Other kids? Administration?"
"Boys silly" she laughs. I get a little more nervous and say "I can honestly say I have no idea. Not sure if you want to go for the boys here though because most of the girls say there are no good looking guys here…" I taper off.
"There has to be at least one good looking guy here" she pushes.
"uhhh…" I start "you should probably talk to Claire about that. Not me."
I'm relieved to have arrived at the bathroom. It's the nicest one in our school. I quickly explain where the other bathrooms are in the school and scurry into a stall. I come out to wash my hands and see Hanna making some friends over makeup.
"Do you want me to wait?" I ask.
"It's ok, I'll find my way back"
"you sure?" I don't want to be a bad acquaintance.
"yeah, don't worry about me" she reassures me. I let her know the bell rings in 4 minutes and walk back to my friends.
The new girls are all pretty but Emily is very intriguing to me. She reminds me of Esther in a way but they seem completely different at the same time. I open the door to the foreign language hallway again and see Spencer, Jackson, and Lucy in some sort of heated discussion. Aria is talking to a kid who rides my bus and Emily is on her phone. I return to my original spot, leaning against the lockers again. Emily looks up and smiles at me.
"so tell me about yourself" I say, wanting to sound smooth but failing. She mimics me but leans against the wall and not a locker.
"I am Emily Fields, from Pennsylvania as we said. I swim. I like reading. My dad is in the military, which is one of the reasons why we came here."
"So you guys live on base?" I ask.
"I do but Spence, Hanna, and Aria don't."
This seems a little odd but I don't question it. "what about yourself?" she interviews. Unfortunately, or maybe luckily, the bell rings and I don't have time to answer her. "I'll see you at lunch" I tell her with a smirk and leave to go to my first block class, French.
Emily POV
Vivian has left me hanging. That confident smirk, her charm, the unanswered question leaves me longing for it to already be lunch.
Class started only 3 minutes ago and Spencer is already eager to make a good impression on our new teacher. Aria is also very involved in this class but Hanna and I are completely laid back. Well I not as much as Hanna who is muttering something about "Yo tengo cinco pesos". Thoughts of Vivian distract me. I want to know more about her but I won't see her until lunch which isn't until another 2 hours. She has a strange sense of confidence and dominance. I try hard to pay attention but end up wondering about what she will tell me. She seems like the type of girl who will surprise you in many ways.
At 8:57, Mr. Ward dismisses us and I head to my next class, math with Spencer. When we step outside of Mr. Ward's slightly smelly class I see Vivian passing by.
"Vivian!" I call out. She turns around with a smile and says "new girls!" I see Spencer eyeing questioningly me from the corner of my eye but it doesn't bother me.
"Can you tell us where Mr…" I look at my schedule sheet "Sander's class is? We both have him next."
"I can do better than that. I can show you." She replies, smirking again. "Looks like we have a class together, newbie"
I'm excited. "I suppose I still have to wait until lunch to hear about you though?" I ask flirtatiously. In response, she raises her eyebrows in a "what do you think?" fashion that is rather sexy.
Spencer interrupts our flirting with "How is Mr. Sanders? Is he a good teacher? What are his tests like?" and a million more spencer-type questions. Vivian carefully tries to answer all of them but her replies aren't very helpful so she eventually resorts to "you should ask E or Lucy these questions". We reach the class which has 3 chalkboards on the walls and a whiteboard up front. The desks are in rows and Vivian sets her stuff down in one in the back middle. She tells Spencer and me to ask Sanders where to sit and she shoots off to the bathroom. After all the students have arrived (including Vivian), an average height man wearing a black "Robinson Flag Football" shirt comes in.
"Hi, Mr. Sanders? I am Spencer Hastings and this is Emily Fields. We are the transfer students in your class" Spencer states.
"ok" he says simply and sits down at his desk. Seeing us still standing there he gives us a inquisitive look and I explain "we don't know where to sit".
Nodding his head, Mr. Sanders stands up and asks the class which desks are empty. There is one in the front row which Spencer obviously takes and one two seats to the right of Vivian. I take this one. She gives me a small wave with a smile and looks back up front. We get right down to work. Spencer is again being her overachieving self. She has already asked about what we are going to be learning and future homework assignments. Her questions are met with "and I thought these guys were uptight. Calm down a little.", which gets a chuckle from the other students. Spencer looks disappointed and slightly hurt. No one has actually called her out for being a Hastings before. Then again, her family name and reputation has always preceded her in school.
The hour and a half passes by slowly with teasing looks between Vivian and me. I learn that the girl sitting in front of me is Claire, to my right is Lucy (from earlier) and my left is Rachel. Vivian looks thoroughly annoyed of Rachel. At the end of class, we begin working on our homework when Vivian comes over. She sits down on the floor by my desk and grins up at me. E is soon on the other side and at first looks as if she will talk to Vivian but turns around to talk to Lucy and Claire instead. I have gathered that they are very close friends.
"So how are you liking your first day?" Vivian asks.
"It's alright" I respond. "Mr. Ward seems like a challenge and so does Mr. Sanders. No one has ever called out Spencer like that before…" Just then Spencer comes along.
"oh my god…so embarrassing…" she mutters and sits down next to me. She puts her head in her hands and is still. Vivian looks a little worried but I give her a reassuring look and she just nods. We sit in comfortable silence together until we are released for lunch. I follow Vivian out but she turns right, the opposite way to the cafeteria while Spencer turns left.
"Vivian, where are you going?" I call out "isn't the cafeteria this way?"
She replies simply with "locker" and keeps going. I turn to Spencer saying I'll meet her there and run to catch up with Vivian.
"So it's lunch now. Are you going to tell me about yourself?" I ask with a twirl of my hair and a smile.
She grins and opens her locker. It's filled with binders and a few textbooks but no extra papers. She has some pictures taped to the side of her locker.
"what do you want to know?" Vivian asks.