Chapter One:
"Excuse me," I mumbled quietly, trying to maneuver my way through the thick mass of students all headed to their first class of the day. I felt myself grow more and more frustrated when no one listened; I was trying to be polite.
Throwing all manners to the wind, I began pushing my way through the crowd. A few people turned around to scold me and I simply stuck my tongue out at them. Mature, I know. What can I say? I am Spencer DiLaurentis. More students began looking at me as I made my way farther through the student body. I know getting a new student in such a small town has to be exciting, but do they have to stare?
Out of nowhere, a redhead snatched me up by my forearm. "Excuse me…" I turned to face her fully, not necessarily happy with the fact that she was touching me. She took a glance at the look on my face and dropped my arm. Smart girl. "I was just wondering where you got those boots? They're fabulous."
Her entire face lit up when I told her. "You have great taste." She gushed, walking alongside me. I accepted her compliment even though I hadn't picked out the boots, my fashion savvy mother Riley had. I actually despised the contraptions these people called shoes.
I had never worn shoes more uncomfortable in my entire life. The boots were closed toed with a wooly inside, and a slightly high heel at the base of them. My feet felt cramped and sweaty, I hated it. I'm more of a sandal & flip-flop type of girl. Something about leaving my toes free to wiggle appeases me.
I've always liked feeling free; whether it's letting my toes breathe in open toed shoes or going on a late night run through the woods naked.
"You're new here, right?" The redhead asked and I resisted the urge to say something smart in response. No one had ever seen me around here before so I had to be new, right? Common sense was something that I hated to see go to waste.
"Yeah," I covered up my growing annoyance with a fake smile. I'm not really good with people, especially superficial girls that are only interested in the boots I have on.
"Do you think you could help me find my locker?" I asked her. If she was going to continue to talk to me about stuff I didn't care about, she could at least make herself useful. "Sure." She complied and asked my locker number. I read the number from my school papers and she led the way.
"Here we are," She told me dramatically, doing a courtesy and gesture with her arms.
"Thank you," I smiled and turned around to work on getting my locker open. "39..25..15…" I muttered as I spun the lock around. I pulled down hard on the lock and it opened smoothly.
"Wow," Lydia commented from behind me. She was still here? "I've never seen anyone get their locker open that fast and on the first try. I still have trouble with mine from time to time," I smiled at her and unlatched the lock before swinging my locker door open.
I slung my backpack carelessly into the locker and unzipped it, rifling through the items to find the things I would need for my first class. My head cocked to the side and I made a face. What would I need in first period? I tried to remember the things I needed at my old school for homeroom. As I began pulling some of my supplies out of the bag Lydia interrupted me again.
"You only need a pen and a notebook." I smiled at her, grateful. Pulling the items from my backpack, I locked the locker, and shoved the supplies into my oversized purse. She waited for me to gather my things so I assumed she wanted to walk together. Fixing the strap on my shoulder, I noticed for the first time that people were staring at us.
I ignored the stares nevertheless, walking alongside Lydia and speaking casually with her about Beacon Hills. She told me about recent animal attacks and a few of her friends. The person she mentioned the most frequently was her boyfriend, Jackson, who she had been sure to inform me about numerous times.
"He's like…the best player on the team." She paused for a second and her face lit up like she had gotten an idea. "You have to come to the game Wednesday!" I tried to politely refuse but she insisted.
"Umm…sure. I'll go. Whatever." She grabbed a hold of my hands in hers and gave me the biggest smile I had seen in a while. I smiled back at her, genuinely for the first time. Despite her superficial exterior, she seemed to be nice enough. Making new friends couldn't hurt me. I retracted that thought quickly. Making new friends had proved disastrous before to me and the people I had befriended.
"Are you okay?" Lydia asked her fingers wrapping gently around my wrist. I looked up at her and smiled through the pain I felt. Being reminded of all of the people I had hurt made me sick to my stomach. She seemed hesitant to believe me but let it go anyway. For that I was grateful.
"This is Allison Argent," It was then that I first noticed the pretty brunette. She was at least four inches taller than Lydia but only an inch or two taller than me. Her long dark locks fanned out at her shoulders in loose curls. The dark hair contrasted well with her fair skin. I took a moment to notice how similar we looked. Our hair was about the same length, the same color, and I was only a shade or two tanner than her. The only major differences in our features were her deeper dimples and fuller eyebrows.
My head cocked to the side and hers did the same. I stared at her for a moment before Lydia ruined the moment with her laughter. "You guys could totally pass for sisters!" I laughed nervously but neither girl seemed to notice my distress.
"I'm sorry, that was rude," Allison beamed at me and extended her hand. I looked at it for a moment before Lydia nudged me and I realized I was being rude. "Umm, crap. I'm sorry," I smacked my forehead with the palm of my hand before reaching out and shaking her hand. I kept a firm grip on her hand and she did the same. We shook our hands twice, looking into each other's eyes before letting go. Her eyes roved over my frame and I felt like a bug under a microscope.
"I didn't quite catch your name," She smiled, her dimples deeper than ever. "Oh, I'm Spencer DiLaurentis." She nodded as she took in the information.
"We have to go. Lydia was just showing me to my first class," Lydia nodded her head like she had just remembered and linked her arm with mine. As we turned Allison grabbed a hold of my shoulder and spun me around to face her.
"Who do you have?" Her hands reached out to take my papers away from me before I could answer. "Maybe we can all walk together…" Her eyes scanned over the paper and she smiled brightly at me.
"You & I both have Mr. Mayer for first period. If you want I could walk you so that Lydia's not late to class," Lydia looked relieved and I turned to her with wide eyes. I begged her with my eyes to disagree but she shot me a not-so-sorry look before turning to head in the direction of her class.
Lydia turned to look at me over her shoulder and blew a kiss to me. I squinted my eyes at her to let her know I wasn't happy. When Lydia was out of sight, I was faced with the task of looking at Allison.
"Well, let's get going," She gestured awkwardly with her hand as she began walking. Feeling uncomfortable I followed tentatively, making sure to stay a few steps behind her.
She paused at the top of the steps and turned around to face me. "I know it's weird to be the new student, I was new myself not too long ago," I nodded and gave her a small smile. We began walking and I felt a little bad for the cold shoulder I had been giving her. I tried to shake myself of those feelings, she was lucky I wasn't kicking her little skinny butt- granted I had the same 'little skinny butt'.
I wasn't entirely sure if kicking her 'little skinny butt' would be as easy as I was used to- after all she was an Argent. I wasn't entirely sure if Chris had started her training yet but she didn't seem to be the old bitter hag the Argent women turned into when they got into the 'family business'. Allison's mom & Chris' sister, Kate, are two of the craziest women to have ever walked this earth.
'We train our sons to be soldiers and our daughters to be leaders.' I fought to control the snort that wanted to escape from me. Leaders, huh? More like crazy evil bitches.
Noticing how innocent Allison seemed, it almost hurt for me to think of the bitter old woman she would surely become in the next ten years.
The bell rung, successfully pulling me from my thoughts and Allison grabbed onto my hand to pull me down the hallway. What is it with these girls at Beacon Hills and touching me? I personally hate any type of physical contact; I try to avoid it at all costs.
Allison opened the door to a classroom full of students and pulled me in behind her.
"Allison," The teacher's face crumpled up in confusion. "Why are you late?" She stepped out of the way so that the teacher could see me. I gave him a tight-lipped smiled and his face did the opposite of mine and turned up into a smile.
He was a short, stocky man with a thick mustache in the style of the Mr. Monopoly. He wore a pair of tailored slacks and a striped dress shirt that was tucked in. I allowed myself to loosen up a bit and smile. No one that looked the way he did could cause any harm. In fact, he looked more comical than anything.
"Take a seat," He ordered. Allison walked to her seat with me trailing behind her. A blonde boy with a slight tint of red to his hair already occupied the seat next to Allison. I turned to find another seat when Allison grabbed a hold of my wrist and pulled me back towards her.
"Jackson. This is Spencer, she's new. Would you mind moving so that she can sit next to me?" He looked from Allison to me before sighing and grabbing his things. I mumbled a quick thank you as he passed. "Whatever," I followed him with my eyes until he took a seat next to a muscular, dark haired boy at the back of the room. I picked up from them greeting each other that his name was Danny.
"You didn't have to do that," I mumbled quietly. I didn't like for people to do me favors. I didn't want anyone in Beacon Hills doing me any favors, especially not an Argent.
"It's fine," She smiled at me once again, blindingly bright and I resisted the urge to gag. She was just so happy and so- well, to put it quite frankly, picture perfect.
Why can't I be happy and perfect? Oh right, it's because trouble finds me attractive. It's not that I go looking for trouble, because I don't. Trouble just always finds me. For some reason, I get the feeling that Beacon Hills is full of trouble.