Disclaimer: I do not own Pretty Little Liars. The only thing here that is mine is the idea for the plot, everything else... Well, is not.

Author Note: Hey, guys! Quick word here, this is a 're-do' of my story 'Her Name is Paige McCullers', I don't know if any of you ever read that when it was published (Well, the three chapters that were, anyways) it was so long ago! It was paused and deleted because the story wasn't taking the path I was hoping for, so I'm writing it again, on a new way.

Well, there's another note at the end, if you get there, check it out.

Enjoy!

Chapter One: California.

Paige McCullers was a competitive person; no one could deny that, she was a hotheaded, determined, goal orientated athlete with a temper just as bad as it was short. Those traits, as her mother liked to remind her, came from her father and neither her father nor herself could find any evidence against that statement. Now, Paige didn't despise them; said traits were the reason of her good results in school, sports, and even more, in the pool. Even though swimming was her main focus, field hockey was just as important for her.

Paige held her hockey stick with both hands as she waited to Jessica Molson to make her free hit on the left sideline, aiming to Paige's team goal, as soon as Jessica shot the small ball on Amy Green's way, Paige started running towards her, Amy received the ball and quickly managed to pass two of Paige's teammates and positioned in front of the goalkeeper, Paige was about to sprint in between when she felt herself being strongly pushed on the back, she fell on the grass harshly and saw a blonde in front of her running, receiving the ball in her stick, the goalkeeper desperately jumped, believing when the blonde faked a left to just shoot right and neatly score one more point. Paige groaned.

"Sorry, I thought you had her" Pru came in front of her, offering a hand "She's fast"

Paige accepted her friend's hand and Pru helped her stand up.

"They're two goals above us" Paige said, annoyed, watching how half of the people in the field were on a group hug with the blonde girl in the center.

"Take it easy, it's just a practice" Pru remind her as she gently patted her shoulder but Paige kept on watching the group dissolve slowly and all of the players taking their assigned positions.

Alison DiLaurentis walked from the celebrating circle to meet Paige in the middle of the field, the blonde, shorter girl found Paige's gaze with a mocking half smile that made Paige sick to her stomach and she felt her anger rise on a dangerous rate. She exhaled deeply as Alison put the small ball between them, both of the girls trying to get the closest with their stick without actually touching it. The whistle rang and Paige was faster to get the ball, she ran with Alison quick behind her, she passed the ball to Pru, that was intersected by Amy, then Alison wasn't behind her anymore, the girl was running behind Amy on the way to the goal and Paige ran after them, luckily, when Amy was about to pass the ball to Alison again, Jennifer Banes was swift to intervene, she passes the ball back to Paige and she passed the ball to the girl closest to the other team's goal with a strong swim, she smiled as the girl received it and rapidly make a pass to Pru who was the first one to get to her area, Pru dodged the goalkeeper and shoot a score on their favor. Paige cheered but the small relief was ended by another blow of the whistle; she groaned again as she walked with the team towards the coach, who was writing notes down on his clipboard. They lost by just one point. It was a tight match and she was about to decide that 9/10 wasn't so bad when Alison DiLaurentis cut in front her laughing loudly with Amy Green on her side, she frowned.

It was bad enough…

"Great practice, girls" The coach called out to the team with a big smile on his face, in comparison with other coaches Paige have known, Coach Olson was someone to always have a great mood and good-natured attitude almost all the time, always motivating them and giving them speeches to be better everyday "It was just great, girls" Coach Olson repeated.The problem with his always optimistic attitude was that it could get…

"I'm so happy for you, girls, you played just greatly"

So annoying.

Paige concluded that she was annoyed enough without adding her coach rambling about how great the game practice went, so she blocked out what he was saying as Pru stood next to her, handing over her bottle of water, she smiled as she took the bottle to her lips, the coach finally letting them go and almost all of them started walking towards the lockers. She heard Pru talking about something but she wasn't listening, Paige saw Alison waving towards the bleachers and four girls waved back at her almost in sync, Paige recognized them, Alison's friends, or how it seemed at times, Alison's minions.

It wasn't strange that they were waiting for Alison at the end of the practice, in fact, it was weird the times Alison left the field without her personal cheerleaders; it was weird to see her without them anywhere, in that matter. Since the little group of friends was assembled in the start of last summer, everyone knew who they were. The four girls were waiting patiently for the blonde to say goodbye to her teammates. Paige scoffed internally watching the girls as she walked with Pru besides her; there was Aria, small and smiling like a puppy, Hanna, the chubby of the group, biting her thumb in a somewhat nervous matter, Spencer, tall and slim, the only one who wasn't smiling and, of course, the one who couldn't be missing, Emily, she was smiling happily holding a pink bag against her chest. Paige stared at the last one just a second longer, she felt her cheeks getting warm so she got her eyes away from the girl as she took another sip off her water.

When she did she felt a gaze upon her and she move her head, just to find Alison's eyes on her and the other girl's expression made her stomach flip again, Alison was standing with her arms crossed over her chest with her body towards Amy, who was making a goodbye sign without noticing that the other girl wasn't paying attention to her, Alison had her eyes on Paige, her eyebrows lightly narrowed, she could've looked serious if it wasn't for the small smile appearing slowly on her face, like she just got two aces on a poker game, Paige didn't want to look scared, she wasn't, but Alison's expression made her feel uneasy, so she frowned, trying to give her a daring look, then, still uncomfortable, she closed her eyes and moved her head to Pru, who was still talking, unaware that Paige wasn't really engaged to the conversation.

"Because if we watch some horror movie, then I won't get any sleep tonight "Pru was saying, playing with her stick as they walked "And I know you won't either, so what do you say?" Paige nodded, not really sure what she was agreeing to.

Paige blinked and entered the locker room after Pru, with a lump on her throat. Why did Alison give her that smile after she looked at Emily Fields? Had she noticed that she was looking at Emily? And if she did why would she mock her about it? There's no way Alison figured something out by just one look she gave to Emily…

Right?

She disliked Alison DiLaurentis, just as she knew Alison DiLaurentis disliked her and she was sure that they would both agree it had started as soon as she joined the team. The first practice together ended up on a shouting contest because of a fault, which you could blame Paige for, and they were both sent to the bench for not being "team players", Alison groaned as she remarked it was Paige's 'stupid fault' and Paige rolled her eyes when they both had sit in the opposite end of the same bench until practice was over. After that it was a fact that they were naturally incompatible, it became a regular thing; a little mean joke here, a nickname there; it wasn't anything Paige couldn't handle, she didn't stay quiet either, she started to reply Alison's remarks, the "Watch out, ugly face" were replied with "You too, big foot" and every time she applied more force than necessary in the field, Alison did the same. Now, their intolerance to each other just kept on growing by the day. It wasn't something Paige was proud of, but she wouldn't let Alison win, she couldn't; not especially if Alison hasn't given a sign to stop either.

There were still rests of the 15 years old Paige McCullers that you could find in the young adult that she was now. At age of 24 she was still stubborn, competitive and impulsive but she had changed a lot, Paige had grown to be mature and a littlemore relaxed, she took things less intensely and she had learned to control certain things that she didn't when she was younger. The last one was key for who Paige was now. Accepting things that she couldn't change was a big part of her growth.

Now, when she left Rosewood she didn't expect to cut ties with the city, not entirely, anyways. She tried to kept in touch with the her family, friends and acquaintances in Pennsylvania, but as soon as her life in California started to demand her complete focus her times to gossip with Pru and her group of friends decrease to a few texts a week and quick phone calls to her parents to know they were both ok and to reassure them that she was doing fine by herself (that she was behaving; she knew that was what they were really asking). She never went back, it's been 5 years since the last time she breathed the cold air of Rosewood, her parents always came to visit her on the holidays so she really didn't have a reason to go there; the last time she thought of going back was over a person, and that same person was clear enough when they asked her to stay where she was. After that, going back was a idea that never went through her head, what she knew about what was happening in Rosewood came almost exclusively from her parents and Pru, they've maintained her fairly updated , they've told her about who stayed in the city and who left, the ones who got married and who didn't even managed to start a relationship.

Pru's bother had a baby, their friend Alex got married, the Smiths sold their house and according to her parents the new people were nice, Sean Ackard was caught smoking weed and it was hilarious, well, according to Pru, Pru also told her that Jenna Marshall left town overnight; and so did a few of her ex-classmates as well, the most talked departure was the one of the most popular group in Rosewood; Spencer, Hanna Aria and Emily left after graduation, apparently all of them had their own path to follow and went different directions, Paige was shocked to hear that Alison DiLaurentis was the one who stayed in town. Thinking about it, was really odd that Alison didn't leave but seemly she had to stay because she had a sister to take care of, or that what she had been told. She didn't know more of Rosewood than that.

California was her life now, she had graduated as an architect and she was currently working half time as an inter in a small firm; factor that was becoming a problem because she was also starting her career as a professional swimmer and the hours in the days were feeling shorter(Or were they longer) adding to that, she needed to make time for her and her girlfriend. All that of 'you can be all you want to be, have all you want to have and do all you want to do' was horse crap, not if you needed time to sleep. She was thankful her girlfriend was so considerate.

"Be careful, it's hot"- Lauren told her handing her a mug as she sat next to her; they were in Lauren's apartment watching a movie in a Saturday night, it wasn't what most people would expect of a young couple to do on the weekend, but she was tired and Lauren was ok with them just doing this; of course, her girlfriend knew how much Paige working lately so when she proposed Lauren the idea to have a quiet night on her couch she agreed with a smile and an offer of a chick flick, light snacks and cuddles. Could she be any luckier? She met Lauren on her sophomore year in Stanford, the blonde girl was in her last year of in law school; the mutual attraction was evident from the beginning so after a time of getting to know each other they started dating.

She placed he freer arm around the other girl, who sighed and moved herself closer, putting her head on Paige's shoulders and one arm around her stomach. Paige took a sip of her cup, the sweet smell of her tea blended with the smell of Lauren's hair and she couldn't help but feel happy.

She really was lucky.

Yes, this story IS Paily, remember this.

Ok! What you thought of it?

If you want a next chapter, please tell me, I'll be updating according to what the people want to read.

This is just the begining.

I know this is not the greatest start but tell me what you think! Even if you hated it I want to know!

Thank you for reading.

-Alex.