Heart of Coal
Part 1, 2/6/11 (Post Ep. 15)
by The Last Moccasin
T / PG-13 || Teen Drama, Angst, A/U, Femslash
Swimming star Paige McCullers stops at nothing to take her place in the sun from 'Princess' Emily Fields. But is life better when she beats her rival or when she joins her?
Pretty Little Liars is copyright Alloy Entertainment. I am but a lowly, meddling fan.
I'm writing pretty fast and loose on this one. Wanted to play with an antihero for a while. Canon characters and setting. No canon events—I can't maneuver that fast from week to week.
(Added 2/27/2011) The two reasons I started this story were to get Emily and Paige together :) and to give context to The Dunking. Since I'm building up to, including, and dealing with a version of that incident, it'll be a long time until the girls share a first kiss near the story's midpoint. Maybe that's a mistake and no reader will want to wait forever and a day for the good stuff, but peaking under the emotional hood of The Dunking is one of my goals. I don't see any way to include that and also get them together right away. :/ The second half deals with all the family drama while their relationship grows and survives—lots of Paige/Emily in the second half.
Paige sifted her hands through her dresser drawers. How it might have hidden from her first ten searches she didn't know, but strange things happen when clothes hibernate. Her fingers slid through silk and cotton underwear, lace bras, sports bras... "Mom!" she hollered.
Bishop was still whining to Mom about getting up early in his room next door. Paige slid her stubborn drawer shut and yanked open the next. Cute socks, running socks, tank top. Stuffed bunny? "Mom!" Where the hell is it?
The teen turned back and knelt by her duffle bag. Maybe she'd missed it in there the first five times. A familiar bitter taste crept up her throat as she swallowed another instinctive but futile call for her mother. Mom was lost in 'baby Bishop' mode.
Auburn hair fanned past her pale cheeks as Paige hung her head. Still not there. Perfect. At least her hair was shorter this year. With a sigh, she zipped her swim bag shut and hiked the strap onto her shoulder as she stood.
She stepped into the hall and spun quickly into the wall to keep her bag from hitting Mom. "Careful, Paige! Your brother isn't awake enough to dodge you lumbering through the hall yet."
"I'm not awake," growled a voice behind Bishop's door. "I'm sleep walking. And sleep talking."
"How about sleep 'shutting up and getting in the car'?" the redhead barked.
"Don't raise your voice, Paige." Mom frowned.
"Have you seen my swim cap?" Paige stared at the mottled hallway carpet.
"Isn't it in your duffle?"
Paige closed her eyes, forcing herself to stay calm. "No."
"Well, that's where it should be." Mom turned away. "Bishop, hon—"
His door burst open and the scowling teen emerged. With dull brown eyes and a rumpled shirt, he was groggy and sullen all at once. "Why can't you take me at a normal time?"
"I have to make sure the idiots on night shift haven't backed up the paint line again, sweetie, or you know I would."
He sighed, rolling his head dramatically. "Swimmer freak," he muttered as he bumped past Paige and stomped down the stairs.
She ignored him. "Can you get me a new one?"
"A new what?" Mom asked from halfway down the stairs, too busy to look back.
Paige shifted her duffle and moved to stand atop the stairs. "A new brother." That earned a look—a raised-eyebrow glare. The teen bit a smirk between her lips. Occasional sass could slip through the flames. Sass and a smirk was the formula for grounding. "A new swim cap."
"Don't you think you should try a little harder to find the one you already own first?" Mom's frown deepened as her eyes scanned her daughter's outfit. Matching ladies pullover and windbreakers with sweats and her swimsuit underneath. The girl's shoulders tensed. Obviously she'd messed some part of that up.
"Don't stand with your legs apart, Paige." Mom shook her head sadly. "You look like a damned lesbian."
Her locker shut with a clatter, and Paige passed her books to her left hand. She turned to make her way through the crowd of students. A tall, pimpled boy eyed her, and she shot him her 'in your dreams' sneer. He dropped his gaze and shuffled quickly out of sight.
She bumped past the frumpy girl who always hid her eyes behind her hair, and Lisa fell into step beside her. Tall, dark, and acne-ed might have a shot with her bookish friend. Maybe next time she wouldn't sneer quite so hard.
"Did you read the chapter?" Lisa breathed.
"And waste a Bishop-free night? Hell no. Why should I learn the Magna Carta? It has nothing to do with today."
"Oh, it does, though! People still fight about whether to have one great central leader or to spread decisions among a lot of minor leaders."
"Sounds like something a lot of minor people would like."
They wove through traffic by the office to turn towards their government classroom. Lisa went on with the eerie enthusiasm of someone who liked schoolwork. "Especially when the 'great leader' leaves most people unhappy. Remember the riots in Tunisia last week?"
"Where?"
"They filmed Star Wars there."
"If you go into nerd-mode, I'm sitting on the other side of the room."
Paige tensed as she spotted 'Magnificent' Mona And Posse lurking at the end of the hall. A smug grin shining from that round face was never good news. The redhead scoured her brain for something clever to say but fantasies of just slapping a ball into Mona's shin on the hockey pitch pushed her wits well off to the sidelines.
"Hey, Jay." Mona's eyes sparkled. "Loved your show last night." She passed in a cloud of tittering haute couture. Paige pinched her lips and stared daggers into the girls' backs. Jay Leno—the Great Italian Chin. So maybe her jaw was a bit strong. She was still ten-ways hotter than that chipmunk and her faceless attachés. Her ridiculously popular faceless attachés...
Paige glanced at Lisa. The little blonde couldn't hide her relief behind sympathetic eyes. It hadn't been her on the end of the skewer this time. "They're idiots," Lisa said.
Paige lifted her books to cradle against her chest and started towards class again. "No one else thinks so."
"Oh, they think it. They're just too scared to act on it."
The sway of silk black hair against a brown shoulder pinned Paige in her tracks as Mona's gaggle flew out of frame down a side hall. Was that her teammate from this morning reading the office bulletin board? "We're like the people of Tunisia," Lisa droned on, "toiling in a desert of wants, thirsting for an oasis, while the rich feast in their palace and—"
Paige's legs shot towards the office before she realized she'd told them to move. Must've been instinct saving her from all that 'life is like a box of fair-trade chocolates' drivel. The tall brunette looked like—what was her name? "Emily?"
The girl turned. Coffee-brown eyes landed on the redhead, and a gentle smile greeted her. "Hi."
"Hi." Paige smiled, suddenly feeling light on her feet, and swung her books down to hold casually at her side. She took a deep breath. "Thank you for this morning. I can give your cap back anytime."
"No, you can have it. I was double-capping to keep my hair dry—well, drier—but it wasn't really working." Emily's voice was as warm as her eyes.
Paige combed her fingers through her own short, red locks. Somehow 'double-capping' sounded dirty from Emily's lips. "Yeah, the chlorine can be hell. Especially on color. Your hair still looks perfect, though. What's your secret?"
The brunette tilted her head coyly. "Mmm, no secrets there." Emily shot a glance at the PA as the one-minute bell rang, then gave the shorter girl a final, tight-lipped smile. "See you at practice."
"Right." Paige nodded and watched her leave. "You'll see my wake in the lane beside you."
Emily laughed. "Only if you're a lap behind," she tossed over her shoulder.
.
The redhead plopped her books down as the final bell rang, and she took her seat. Lisa stared at her as the sound of a dozen clapping books and ruffling pages filled the silence after the bell. "What?" Paige murmured when the staring became borderline creepy.
"'What?' yourself."
"She loaned me a swim cap this morning."
Lisa smirked and leaned into the aisle. "Did it fit on your head?"
"Yes. My head is perfectly in size with my talent."
Mr. Choi stood at the front of class and picked up a blue whiteboard marker. Paige wondered idly if he left rainbow fingerprints in his books after his daily color-coded scribbles.
"She's gay, you know," Lisa whispered.
No. "Of course." Why would Emily be gay? She was gorgeous. She could have any hottie she wanted.
"I saw her kissing that new girl in jazz band." Literally any hottie she wanted, then.
Paige opened her notebook and leaned over the blank page. "Stop grossing me out, Lise. I'm trying to learn."
