A/N: Posting another story right now is probably the most stupid idea I've ever had, but I just love this story so much already that I had to start posting it. I have a feeling that you guys are really, really going to like it. I had a really hard time thinking of a title, and Can't You See Me? is the only thing that I manged to think of that actually could fit the story. Plus, it's a four word title, something that some of you know I love. Plus CYSM isn't the worst acronym ever.
Oh, I suck, sorry. Hi, if you don't already know me, I'm Tana! I've been on Fanfiction for almost two years now. I started writing Brittana stories, then Quinntana, then Dantana (Glee, Glee, Glee), then I did a not-very-brilliant Karmy fic (Faking It), and then I started working on Emison. I have two Emison one shots up, as well as two completed, full, Emison stories, and one (now two) WIPs :) I'm kind of crazy. If you're doubting that, just wait a few chapters. You'll see that actually I am sort of crazy. Though, no one has diagnosed me with anything legitimate yet ;P
Ew why are we talking about me? We need to be talking about this fic!
Italics are flashbacks and dreams... though, I don't think I will include any dreams in this story, or many different flashbacks. As you will come to discover, a specific flashback will be the intro to every chapter of this story. Each chapter will reveal a few more things about the scene in the flashback. I don't usually do stuff like that, but the idea for this story needed it :)
Bold words will indicate texts or emails or signs... yadayadayada... I shall clearly identify when such things are happening.
This story will be entirely in third person. As you'll see, it's sort of a limited third person, but unlike sometimes in the past, when I switch between people, it will not be made clear with an courtesy "AAA" or "EEE"... you'll know when it switches of course :) And sometimes it may just seem omniscient.
Mmm every 50th reviewer gets a shoutout, because yay for shoutouts :) I don't update based on the number of reviews I get. I update specifically based on my own free time. If I don't update for a few days, or even a few weeks, it's probably because I'm busy. I have lots of stuff to do every week, a lot more than I did last year or during the summer. School is a bitch sometimes.
Oh speaking of the word bitch, do not worry WYRA readers, I do not intend to do anything to get this story removed ;)
Well... I can't think of a thing that I've missed...
Soooo... I see not a reason to delay this story any further. I know a certain few of my Twitter followers are beside themselves waiting for this story...
Disclaimer: I do NOT own PLL!
PLEASE enjoy, favorite, follow and REVIEW! Seriously, I really want to know what you guys think of this :)
"What the hell are they doing? Emily!"
"Stop! Ali, I—"
"Alison, dear, calm down please…"
"Calm down? Are you serious? Emily!"
"Alison!"
"Alison, please, come inside. I'll make you tea."
"No! They can't do this!"
"You can't stop them, I can't stop them. Come inside."
"Emily!"
"Alison!"
Emily Fields pulled her backpack strap down, hoisting the actual bag up a little bit on her back to make it more comfortable. Not that it did anything to make her mental comfort increase. She hadn't been in this place for three years, and though she remembered it well, it all felt so different. People she remembered had transformed into different people, and at least three fourths of the people there she hadn't ever seen before.
That was obvious, though. She was a senior, why should she know any of these underclassmen?
Taking a mental deep breath, she climbed up the steps to Rosewood High and started into the school. She'd always hated starting a new school year, but what was even worse than that was starting a new school year a month after everyone else had started it. She also hated moving. She never thought she'd have to go through it until college, that was until she moved out of Rosewood, and now it was her second time, moving back into Rosewood.
Emily made her way to the counselor's office, where a dusty old lady handed her a neat, white, newly printed piece of paper with her schedule printed perfectly onto it. She gave the woman a curt nod, and then left the office with her eyes scanning the paper. None of the teachers' names were familiar. Obviously not. Because these were senior teachers, not freshmen teachers.
She wondered briefly who would be in her classes, and whether or not… she would be in any of them. One part of her hoped she would. The other part was significantly smaller, but its voice was loud. Stay away, it warned. Stay away from her.
First period, physics. Wonderful. She'd taken an intro to physics at her old school, but her mother had insisted that now, in senior year, she be focused on actually taking a good, informative class. She couldn't live in a rich, prestigious little town if she didn't have a prestigious daughter, obviously. Which is also why she had to go talk to the swim coach after school about joining the team a month in. Though, that was something that Emily would've done whether it was for her mother or not.
She found her way to her classroom, and approached the teacher as soon as she was in the class. "Hi, I'm Emily Fields. I just transferred here."
"Ah yes, I had notice that you would be here today," the studious looking physics teacher said with a nod, stroking his beard for a half second as he scanned the classroom. "If you'll take a seat in between Hanna Marin and Aria Montgomery, please. Maybe it'll finally keep them from talking all through class."
Emily didn't question the teacher and went immediately to the spot he'd pointed out, between a blonde and a brunette who were talking animatedly about something. She felt slightly awkward as she pulled the chair out between them at the lab table and slid into it.
But the other girls didn't seem to feel awkward at all. "Hi! Are you new?" the blonde chimed, a dimple appearing on her cheek as she smiled a closed-lip smile.
"I used to go here," Emily admitted, "but that was a while ago. So yeah, I'm new."
"Oh, that's cool. What's your name?" the blonde wondered.
"Emily," Emily answered, forcing a smile.
"Hanna," the blonde said, smiling. Emily nodded, and looked at the brunette.
"Aria," the shorter girl stated. "Welcome back to Rosewood High. Where did you transfer from?"
"A school in Texas," Emily answered. "And thanks."
"Why'd you move to Texas?" Aria wondered.
Emily hesitated for a half of a second, but then she answered, "My dad was stationed there to do training for the army for a few years. He just got sent back over seas, so me and my mom are back here."
"Oh," Aria said, looking past Emily and at Hanna, who took up the next part of the conversation.
"Well, have you seen any of your old friends yet?" Hanna asked, smiling sweetly at her.
Emily's heart rate sped up as she thought about her again, and she did her best to ignore it as she shook her head. "No. I only had a few. Haven't spotted any of them yet. I don't even know if they still go here."
"You have any names?" Aria asked, but before Emily could say anything, the bell rang out loudly, and the teacher at the front of the room immediately began to talk. Emily settled into her seat and did her best to listen to the teacher drone on and on about physics. But really, all she was thinking about was her.
Alison DiLaurentis tightened her belt by one more hole as she started into the empty school. Fashionably late, like always. Her first period teacher was accustomed to it. Once he had realized that it wasn't going to stop, he had even stopped giving her tardy slips. In return, she didn't tell the school how little he knew about government—the subject he was teaching.
So Alison slipped into the classroom ten minutes late, receiving barely a nod from the teacher, and sat in her usual seat in the exact center of the classroom. There weren't assigned seats in this class, but everybody knew not to sit in Alison's seat.
The class passed quickly and then Alison pulled herself up and out of her seat, clicking her way in her heels out of the classroom and down the hall. People parted like the Red Sea as she strutted, not even questioning her. She stared straight ahead at her destination, something she had learned long ago. Whether you were powerful or not, everybody cleared out from in front of you if you weren't even looking at them as you walked. It gave one power.
Meanwhile, Emily padded through a different hallway with Aria, who had declared that she would help Emily get to her second class of the day. Aria seemed friendly enough, but Emily wasn't really sure about her. Emily hoped that maybe she could get used to her, because Aria really was nice.
As Emily tried to keep up with what Aria was saying, she couldn't help but notice a hallway as it filled in after clearly being parted by something. "What's that about?" Emily asked, nodding to the hallway. She didn't remember that ever happening at Rosewood High, not when she was here. No one had ever had the power to do that.
"Oh, you'll get used to that. If everyone starts to part for her, just do it too. Best to stay out of the way. That way, you won't draw her attention," Aria said, shrugging. Emily furrowed her eyebrows. Who the hell had come into this school to do that since she'd left?
"Draw whose attention?" she demanded. She wasn't usually outspoken or confrontational, but she at least wanted to know who it was that seemed to rule this school that had once felt much more like one whole status as opposed to a hierarchy.
"Alison's," Aria answered, rolling her eyes.
Emily felt her eyebrows shoot up, and her heart began to race. Alison? Surely that couldn't be… it couldn't be Alison DiLaurentis. No, it had to be a different Alison. Not her. "A-Alison…?"
"DiLaurentis," Aria answered, giving Emily a weird look. "Are you okay? Come on, don't tell me that your old school didn't have a queen bee?"
"No… just…" Emily shook her head slightly. "Um, have you… have you gone here since freshmen year? Was… was Alison always like that?"
No. "I have, and I don't really remember. I think she rose to power in sophomore year," Aria answered, shrugging. "That's probably why you wouldn't remember her.
Oh no, Emily remembered Alison DiLaurentis. But not as a the queen bee of Rosewood High who could part the hallways without a thought. No, she had known a completely different Alison. This Alison already made her insides churn.
"Come on, class is starting soon," Aria said, and Emily made sure to catch up to her quickly. "Okay, this is your class. Mine is down the hall, so I can walk you to your next if you want?"
"Thanks," Emily sputtered, before stepping into her second period and approaching the teacher. The unpleasant looking woman gave her once over and then pointed to an empty seat at the front of the classroom. Great.
Forty-seven minutes of agonizing learning later, Emily found herself rushing out of her classroom and in the opposite direction of where Aria had said she'd be. She liked Aria, really, but she didn't want to look like the new girl. She wanted to blend it, just like she used to. Just like she always had.
She didn't see Alison anywhere on her way to her third period—English. Emily wasn't even really sure if she wanted to see Alison… on one hand, she did, but on the other…
Alison had changed. Emily hadn't changed. And after all these years, there was no way that Alison could possibly feel anything that she had felt three years ago. Right?
Emily walked into the classroom, and her English teacher told her to sit anywhere. As she faced the rows of desks, she saw that only a few were still open. Three in the front, one in the very center. The last thing she needed was to sit right in front of the teacher again, so she headed for the desk in the center. Some kids gave her weird looks, but she ignored them and found herself sitting uncomfortably in a plastic chair in the middle of the classroom.
And that's when she saw Alison for the first time in three years. She looked the same, aside from the hairspray loaded hair, the excessive mascara, the skinny jeans, the five inch heals and the red lipstick. The same girl, only totally different.
But the expression that crossed Alison's face was all to familiar when she stopped short at the sight of Emily. Everyone in the room seemed tense, and it occurred to Emily that this was possibly Alison's chair. She swallowed thickly as she met Alison's eyes. Blue eyes burned into hers, full of different emotions. The bell rang, and the blonde still hadn't taken more than two steps in to the classroom.
"Alison, if you'll please take your seat," came the teacher's voice. Alison blinked, breaking our eye contact and looking at the teacher.
"Actually, I'm going to have to pass on English today," she said, and then she turned around, and she was gone.
And Emily was left sitting in the middle of the classroom, with every set of teenage eyes on her. As if they were wondering what the hell she had just done, and what was going to happen to her for it.
Emily was wondering the very same thing.
Yes, yes, I am aware that I am very evil with this first chapter. Giving you just enough for you to want more ;)
PLEASE LET ME KNOW YOUR THOUGHTS IN A QUICK REVIEW! Seriously, it helps me so much to know what you guys do and don't like :) Coming chapters will be longer than this one, by the way :) Oooh, and also, follow me on Twitter at BrittzandTana :) If you tweet me that you read this story, I shall follow you back c:
Ah I'm so happy to share this with you all :) It's possibly one of my favorite things I've ever written. Some of the wording and parts of speech that I managed to include have made me all grammar and technical writing happy! I'm in an actual good English class this year that has got me going nuts for amazing writing :) Ooh, which reminds me, should there be any mistakes (and there probably are, because I'm not perfect), they are all mine. The only person who gets to read this before you guys is my sister, and she doesn't beta for me so :P
I keep talking lol sorry to keep you all. I really hope you all liked this first chapter!
If you're new to my stories, please go check out Read Into My Soul and Let Me Love You, my two completed Emison fics, and also Who You Really Are, my other WIP Emison story. I also have a 5x05 Emison oneshot and a 5x10 oneshot :) Check them out as well!
Have a great day my loves! c: Please review!
