Okay, so I have decided that I would much rather this be set when they are older as being between middle school and high school makes them 13-14 and I feel like that is a little young to have their romance budding, even though romance and relationships happen during that time. So please if there are any mistakes regarding middle school ages and stuff in the first 5 chapters please just PM me or leave me a review stating in what chapter it is and I will get around to editing it. Much love SPDL

Chapter One

Alison DiLaurentis was always the girl that would pull the lest suspicious into her clutches, holding the secrets that they held to themselves against them in order to truly own them. It just so happened to be that through middle school she found a liking to 4 gullible girls, Spencer Hastings, the brains as Alison called her, Hanna Marin, the dits, Aria Montgomery, the creative one, and myself, Emily Fields, the jock.

Alison always seemed to try and prove that she was better than anyone else, including us, she didn't care at all about who we were or what we planned to do, she just wanted to lower our self-esteem and bring us down. One girl though, Paige McCullers, never seemed to let her bring her down and I admired that about her, she also stood up to Ali and didn't let her push her to her limits, it was refreshing to see someone so strong, approach someone who was trying to make their life miserable?

Middle school was a horrible time for me, as slowly everything I'd known changed, all my friends by grade 8 were talking non-stop about boys and yet I wasn't, at first I held it as me being a late bloomer but then again it seemed to be nonexistent when at a sleepover, ruled by Ali of course, they'd flip out magazines with shirtless or naked guys and I could feel myself needing to look away because to me they weren't appealing. And it was because of that Ali seemed to pick up on my biggest weakness. Girls.

As the girls in the group started noticing guys more, their asses and bulges mainly, I found myself looking at the development of girls who I had known since pre k, my eyes trailing over their newly formed bust on occasions, but mostly I found my eyes drawn to Alison, and to Paige. It was weird being different, seeing things in different ways to the girls, I'd even tried at one point dating a guy named Ben, but that hadn't worked, I couldn't force myself into liking someone who I just wasn't attracted to.

Then there was the flip to high school, where everything became truly apparent. I had always been a swimmer, on the swim team in middle school and gone to many summer camps exclusive for people who thought of going to a strong leading swim school or college. I hadn't gone that summer, because I was too focused on trying to figure out what was going on inside my head to focus on anything else. But that didn't stop me from finding a way to still swim. It was the summer between junior year and senior year that I found myself falling for Paige McCullers, though I don't think she was falling for me.

My admiration for Paige from middle school and into high school seemed to make my opinion on her biased when we first ran into each other, or well, when I ran into her. Sure I'd spoken to her on occasion around the school, as well as on the middle school swim team, but never had I realised just how she was as a person.

The meeting between us had happened in an aisle of the supermarket, my mum had asked me to stop by there after I had lunch with my friends and without thinking about what I was doing as I walked from aisle to aisle searching for the few things my mum wanted, I collided with Paige, and the expression on her face showed irritation, the small furrow of her brow, and the line drawn across her lips.

"Sorry," I murmured, and the furrow of her brow had deepened, I thought maybe she would have said the simple it's fine but nope, she just shrugged her shoulders and started to walk away. "Well then I'm not sorry," I grumbled, now slightly irritated myself, the Paige I'd been acquaintance with in middle school was most definitely not like this.

"Yeah, but it seems you never are sorry, are you?" she replied and it was at that moment I felt my irritation really set in. What gave her the right to say that to me and what did she mean by it? But before I could ask her, she'd rounded the corner and walked to the checkout, I didn't feel like following her in case something happened, but I did keep looking at her from a fair, watching the way the slight wave of her light auburn hair swung as she lent down to pick something up, and to the way, her smile would light up as she conversed with the check out assistant because finally walking away and out sliding doors.

The way she reacted to me was weird, it made me feel as though something all together had happened, I guess I was thankful that I couldn't see her until we started high school so that was a plus, but I still found myself curious as to why she was like that.

I'd ended up walking around the supermarket after she'd left, in confusion, only stopping where I knew a product was, to pull it off the self and into my basket. I'd stood in the queue of the checkout, staring at the cashier that had served Paige and found myself wondering what she thought of the smile Paige had given her, and what it would be like on the receiving end of that smile.

The first week of the holidays had gone by quickly and suddenly I found myself standing in front of the church, ready to help out my mum and a few other people that volunteered there. The church always held a sort of vacation care to children whose parents worked a lot in the city, and they always needed a few people to help look after the kids and to plan activities that would be enjoyable. This was also a good way for me to get practice before I'd hopefully head off to volunteer in Haiti in a few summers.

From outside the door of the church, the rumble of cheerful voices echoed one after the over, off walls and windows. It was a nice feeling knowing that the children and adults inside were at least as excited about the events and most likely activities that would welcome them here on their first day.

You'd think that most of the kids here would actually be from Rosewood, but it didn't appear to be the case, I'd heard stories from mum over the years saying how the children all came from towns minutes and sometimes hours from here, so that the children would get a new experience and hopefully make friends from other parts of the state, while their parents worked.

The door to the church swung open, as I'd reached my hand up to pull the handle, and in front of me stood a small girl that looked like a porcelain doll, her blonde hair filled with springs of perfect curls and sky blue eyes against a flawless pale face. The girl looked to be about ten and for some reason reminded me a lot of Ali, though that was most likely just because of her appearance.

"Get out of my way," came her high pitched voice, as she tried to push her way past me. "I'm not staying in a dumb town, with dumb people." Boy was I wrong, this girl definitely seemed to be a mini Alison.

I slipped out of her way, and let my gaze follow her to where she had now plonked herself down onto a chipped wooden bench, arms folded and feet tapping. Normally my instincts would have kicked in and I'd have gone to try and reason with the girl, but right now I just wanted to get into the church and get to work.

I'd just slipped through the door when a woman came hurriedly my way, "oh, you didn't happen to see my daughter, did you? She's not really in the mood for this type of thing, but she'll see that once she makes a few friends it'll be fun."

I smiled towards the woman, "yeah I did, she's sitting on one of the benches outside, and I'm sure that will happen eventually." She didn't say another word, and just smiled her thanks before heading out into the morning light. I turned around and began heading down between the mass of children and into the noise.

Everyone had begun to settle as the parents left and the children became more accustomed to everyone around them. The young girl from earlier sat at a table with four others, seemingly controlling them as they did simple crafts. Looking at them they reminded me of my friends and I, and how we must have appeared to the people around us. The cheerful chatter from earlier had lost its earlier buzz and now just seemed like a hum that filled in the silence of the room.

Drifting my eyes away from the tablet the young blonde sat I let my eyes travel around the room crossing from table to table, trying to familiarise myself with faces since I'd be working with this group of kids for most of the summer holidays. The children all varied in ages, ranging from 6-12 and seemed to have found areas they fitted into rather quickly, as many young kids seemed to do quickly.

As my eyes hit the last table, near the centre of the chapel I found my eyes trailing to a figure that loomed in the back, but not just any figure, one that seemed to turn my mood upside down in the matter of a second.

Paige. I still hadn't gotten what she'd said at the supermarket out of my mind. I couldn't figure out what I'd done to her during middle school that caused that much harshness to fall from her lips. A sound came from the front of the church, where Pastor Ted held a microphone to welcome everyone and drew my eyes away from her, and releasing a breath I hadn't realised I'd been holding.

"Welcome to the balls of energy I can see sitting around the tables, the volunteers standing off to the sides, and to the people who look as though they would rather be anywhere but here, sorry to you guys though, you're stuck with us," he gave a wink at the end of his words. This is what I loved about Pastor Ted, he always seemed to put a little joke in every now and then with what he was saying, even if it wasn't entirely funny.

Pastor Ted then began to ramble on about activities that have been planned, and my eyes once again drifted towards Paige, her eyes fixed squarely on Pastor Ted, nodding as if to make a mental note of what would be happening within the next six weeks. As if feeling my eyes lingering on her, she let her gaze fall from him and darted her head around the room until hers locked with mine, and her eyebrows furrowed into a frown, casting a glare towards me.

Darting my eyes away I started to listen to what Pastor Ted was saying, "... and for our final activity which will run from Monday - Friday will be swimming," a smile grew on my face as I thought of about that, teaching the kids, while some only a few years younger than myself, how to smile. "Now I think I have a few people in mind to help out with that," casting his eyes into the crowd they landed on a few people, until his gaze fell on me, and he looked down towards his notes.

"We actually have four people who have some experience in swimming, they would be, Mikayla Lim, Emily Fields," Pastor Ted once again cast his eyes in each of our directions and smiled, "Lily Jewel, and Paige McCullers."

The last name struck me hard, Paige. I had to put up with Paige for six weeks, in a closed environment, and I still had no idea what her problem with me was. She'd seemed so lively in middle school but now, looking at her standing on the other side of the room her face seemed more withdrawn and emotionless, as though something had truly ruined her smiley self.

Pastor Ted had now finished his talk to everyone and was heading off the stage, a piece of paper in his hand with what I guessed was the the roster for the weeks to come. I slowly wandered over, as the soft voices of children and adults filled the room and glanced at the roster, which didn't have specific people categorised into courses it was easy to let your eyes wander the room and know who would be doing what.

Today was marked as the introduction, which I guess was both for the children as well as us, with the other activities starting tomorrow morning. Different activities fell on the same time slot, and were marked with different ages, tomorrow, being Monday, we would start with the 6 and 7-year-olds swimming as they were a small number of children in those age ranges, which would mainly consist of us playing games in the water, and teaching them to swim. Then progressing each day with 8-9-year-olds on Tuesday, and all the way up to 12-year-olds being on Friday. It seemed easy enough and enjoyable.

The day seemed to be progressing quickly, as we all got to know the kids and volunteers around us. I found out throughout the day that the young girl who looked so similar to Alison, was a nervous girl, who had never had the experience of being away from home. Her name was Amalie, and once she opened up had a beautifully unique personality, so unlike Ali and my earlier prediction about her. The girls she was sitting with were all from different parts of Pennsylvania, I learnt from sitting with them that they were all in the same boat as Amalie, and that's why they seemed to fit together as a group so easily. Each girl was nervous and worried about the transition from home to here but was excited about the possibilities of making new friends and having a new experience.

I spent a long time sitting with them, learning little things about each girl, I learnt that Sophia, a short, slightly plump girl with narrow glasses that drew attention to her pale ice blue eyes, was interested in the creative activities we had to offer, as she loved getting her hands messy with glue or having her head deep in the clouds of her imagination. Marlie, a tall, slender girl with dark hair, that seemed to fall flawlessly down her back, was extremely interested in burying her head in the books she had brought with her, which according to her, filled one suitcase alone. Melissa, mainly known as Lissa, had pale skin similar to Amalie, and was quiet and seemed to stick with herself, and her inner thoughts, or talked to her best friend Rose, a muscular built girl, who seemed so full of energy and ready to burst into a run, or something physical at any moment, they were like the Ying-yang of friendship.

The humming of the children started to quiet quickly, and I stood up from where I sat with the girls and excused myself to prepare for what was to happen next. Pastor Ted and my mum stood near the microphone waiting for the noise to die down to a reasonable level.

My mum helps the microphone and started speaking, shyly at first before her charisma and confidence finally hit her words. "We're about to go on a tour of where you will be staying for the next six weeks. There are eight different cabins all with four large bedrooms, each room holding eight bunks in them and two small rooms with bunks in it for your cabin leaders, one for our younger volunteers, and one for our adult volunteers."

"Each cabin has letters on the front, which you can use to create your own team name, which will have points added to it by how you participate and how well you go in some of the challenges we put you through, regarding age levels of course," the microphone was then passed to Pastor Ted and he began assigning leaders to each age group and cabin. It wasn't a shock to see that we had been grouped by the activities we had been assigned. Meaning not only was I stuck with Paige during swimming but also at night in a small confined cabin.

Looking around I let my gaze fall on Paige again and saw her eyes were already on me, she was sending my way sent shivers down my back, that scared me a little. I also didn't want to admit this both to myself and to Paige, but her face didn't deserve to be furrowed so tightly, it took away the beauty that was so unique to Paige. Flicking my eyes away from a little too quickly I listened to what was happening next and stared into space until the room started to move, with children standing and finding their cabin leaders.

I was surprised when Amalie and the other girls walked up to me grinning, "well seems we have you as one of our team leaders," Amalie grinned, seemingly contagious as I too felt my lips turn upward, before my eyes narrowed at the sound of a voice behind me.

"Let's head off towards the dorm then, so you guys can settle in," the familiar voice was calming and worrying at the same time. I turned around and glanced at Paige who just smiled, a surprisingly genuine smile, but who knew what was going on in Paige's mind.

I returned the smile casually, and gave a nod, turning to the girls, and told them to follow Paige and I to the cabin, my guess was that Mikayla and Lily were leading the other 12-year-olds to the cabin and would be starting to get them settled by the time we arrived.

Chatter between the girls, kept bringing me in, though it didn't seem Paige was overly interested in what they were saying, she was still smiling, but stuck in a world where her brows were furrowed and weight seemed to be bringing her shoulders down.

We made it to the cabin and watched the girls run inside to call 'dibs' on the beds they wanted, or what beds were available. Casting a sideways glance at Paige I noticed that her smile had vanished and was replaced by a look that simply read, leave me alone.

Walking away from her slowly, I couldn't help but glance back and see her expression changed, to something so glum, it made my heart ache.

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