Summary: To prized swimmer at Drexler University in Philadelphia, Emily Fields, everything is like clockwork. That is, until she bumps into Alison DiLaurentis, the "It" girl she went to high school with. Back then, Alison was the most malicious girl in Rosewood, tormented everyone and anyone. However, due to events in her past, she has made a complete 180. Time after time, the two cannot seem to stop running into each other. How long does it take before they realize that maybe its fate…?

Hiii! So, I have been reading fanfictions for quite a while now but never decided to write my own. I have so much joy in reading other people's stories that I feel like even if I was to create something, it wouldn't be nearly as good. But here I am. Hell has frozen over. This is my first fanfic and I'm definitely having mixed emotions about it.

About this particular story! It is a slight AU. You still have some things about the past that are very relevant to this story but there are some things I've altered. In the show, you had the five girls all in one group, however, in this story, the four girls were all friends, whereas, Queen-Bee Alison had her own group of friends so the five of them never "bonded" like on the show. There has been no A-threat to any of the four girls (Ali might get something her way, she may not). Although, the known deaths and some events still occurred just by different incidences. Other than the minor changes here and there, I'm going to try to be as realistic as I can to make this fic come to life. Well….PLL-realistic wise because we all know how unrealistic PLL is lmao. I hope you enjoy!

CHAPTER 1: Clockwork

Italics means thoughts, emphasized word or action. Bolded is a flashback. (….) is an indication that time has passed.

A whistle is blown before a couple claps is made from Coach Braun, signaling the swim team members in the pool to hurdle towards the front.

"Alright ladies, bring it in! As you guys should already know, we have a week before we get ready for our meet against Howard here at home. Now, I already have a clear cut idea of who is doing what in what race. But! There is still some positions to be filled...and some to be taken," Coach Braun says as he scans the waters, looking at his team. "

"What that means is there is noooo such thing as comfort. Just because you've been doing certain races in the past doesn't guarantee you a spot for this upcoming meet. You have to train just as hard and impress me just as well. What you do from this point on tells me where you want to be and tell you if you are CAA Championship worthy." He paces a few steps forward and back as he ponders for a second.

"The Main races I'm looking at is the 100 butterfly, 200 yard freestyle, 100 yard backstroke and of course, the main event, the 200 yard freestyle relay. Like I mentioned earlier, some spots are reserved and some spot can be stolen." The coach pauses for a moment. "And what does idea of stolen spots mean, Emily?" Coach Braun asks, causing the entire team to face her.

"That there is no such thing as comfort. We have to train just as hard and impress you just as well," Emily answers back to him.

"Good!" He response with a clap. "Everyone hit the showers and relax for the night. Except you, Amber. The only thing relaxing thing you need to do is hear the relaxing sound of keys being typed away on that keyboard so you can pass your English class."

The team lightly chuckles while Amber makes a mocking face at Coach Braun. Emily quickly gets out of the pool and head to towards the locker room to snag one of the assumed better operating showers. For the past week, the showers have been acting faulty, going from hot to cold at any given moment. It's been reported that certain showers have that switch and she's not trying to be one of its victims today.

Upon entering the locker room, Emily avoid any mindless chit-chat and walk towards her locker to retrieve her towel, soap and shampoo. She mentally makes the decision that she's going to take the second to last shower on the right as she approaches the row of showers. I don't remember any complaints about this one so it's worth the shot. Plumbing don't fail me now.

As the brunette scrubs the shampoo into her hair, thoughts on the speech Coach Braun made creeps into her head. Out of everyone on the entire team, why did he decide to out me? Does he think I'm getting comfortable? If anything, I think I'm putting in the most work. If anyone is getting comfortable, it's Martha. She knows that she's most likely going to be put to do the 100 butterfly, so she puts in minimum work during conditioning. Why couldn't he call her out? Or is he hinting that I could be replaced? It's guaranteed that I'm in the main event but my position is the uncertain part. I'm anchor; the fastest always gets put as anchor. I know I'm the fastest. Who could even take my spot?

"AHHHHHHHHH! SHIT!"

The sound of a high pitched scream interrupts Emily's thoughts as someone has chosen the shower of death. The locker room bursts into laughter as some members yell out remarks about how unlucky that swimmer is. Emily slightly chuckles to herself. Thank you water pipes.

…..

Just finished getting out the shower, the swimmer puts on her DU blue and gold track suit, locks her locker and heads out to the front of the building, saying bye to the people she passes by.

"Hey, Emily! Wait up!" a voice trailing behind Emily yells out. She turns around to see one of her teammates, Jessica, jogging towards her.

"Hey. What's up?"

"Hey. I wanted to say that you did awesome at practice today." She says as she finally reaches.

"Thank you," Emily replies back with a tight smile. "I'm trying to maintain some type of consistency."

"Yeah, I can tell. No idea why Coach would put you on the spot like that," Jessica says tentatively while slowly walking besides the brunette. "You're one of the hardest working swimmers here."

She had noticed the odd point out too? "I guess it's just to keep me on my feet, that's all. No sweat." She responds while opening the door to the parking lot, trying to mask the curiosity of that calling as well.

A cold breeze and grey sky greets the freshly showered swimmers as they walk towards the parking lot.

"I know you and I are listed to be in the 200 relay and I just wanted to tell you that no matter who gets the anchor position, that'll be no hard feelings among us." Jessica says as she recites her words carefully.

Emily stops walking and faces Jessica, surprised at her words of possibly replacing her as anchor. "What do you mean?"

"Well, we all know that you're fast and I'm just as fast. With this extra strength training we've been doing. It could be possible that Coach B could assign me to anchor."

Emily furs her brows and slowly nods, her eyes fixated on the other swimmer. "Well he did say there is no comfort in positions," she says trying to be polite. "Good luck with that." She throws on her fakest, genuine tight lipped smile.

"Yeah." Jessica nods while looking down. "See you tomorrow" she touches Emily's arm before walking off towards her car.

…..

Emily unlocks her backseat car door to throw her in swimming bag then she heads to the driver side. Starting the car, Emily sits and muses for a second before driving off. Replacing me as anchor? Now I know I'm no big shot but if the team wants any chance of getting to the finals, Jessica would definitely crush that. Emily shakes her head. This "I'm going to replace you" game reminds me of junior year all over again with Paige.

….Paige

I wonder how she's doing… Emily bites the left corner of her bottom lip as she thinks about her former since Paige left Emily to go to California, their plans of going to the same school together or doing anything together, for that matter, was shot. Paige got a full ride to Stanford while Emily got her ride to Drexler. Communication went from sporadic to rare ever since the move. Sometimes Emily thinks if Paige had forgotten about her and created a new life for herself to live.

"Emily, I have to go," Paige spits out, cutting off Emily as she began to go on about how things are better now.

Emily's eyes widen as she leans in closer to her girlfriend. "Listen to me! You don't!"

"Yes, I do!" Paige strongly reiterates. "I thought about it for months now and I do…" she says lightly as she sweeps the floor with her eyes.

"Why?" Emily demands, eyes still wide, glued onto Paige. Why leave now when there is nothing to worry about?

"First, because my parents want me to-"

"Ok, well we can fight that," Emily cuts off Paige mid excuse.

"I don't want to fight anymore," Paige tiredly responds back, shaking her head.

Paige's comeback breaks Emily down as her face shows complete devastation. She desperately searches her girlfriend's eyes for an explanation.

"I'm tired of fighting…" Paige's voice cracks as she sadly looks at Emily. "I've used so much energy fighting and being afraid…I'm worried I'm not going to have anything left to just live."

"THIS IS THE FINAL BOARDING ANNOUNCEMENT FOR THE FLIGHT 214 TO SAN FRANSICO. ALL TICKET INVESTORS, PLEASE, MAKE YOUR WAY TO THE GATE."

Emily's feels the overwhelming sensation of tears beginning to escape her eyes. She looks down while she takes slow breaths. "Please don't go…" She gently pleads as her chin starts to tremble.

Absolutely shattered by hearing the amount of sadness coming from Emily's voice, Paige painfully answers back with a sad smile, "I have to".

After a few moments of the agonizing realization that Paige will not stay, Emily gloomily nods her head as she takes a step towards Paige. Paige following her lead as she, too, takes a step towards her girlfriend, not breaking eye contact. Emily leans in to kiss Paige for the last time, making sure she can feel Paige's lips on hers for as long as she can before she pulls her into a tight embrace. Paige firmly latches onto Emily, not ever wanting to let her go. She never wanted to hurt her or leave her stranded but, for the time right now, she has to pretend that this isn't such a bad idea. Right now, this is what's supposed to happen to us.

Emily pulls herself off of Paige, filled with a mixture of anger, regret and despair ruminating throughout her body. Paige bends down to pick up her bag to head towards the exit. She slowly walks backwards, keeping full eye contact with Emily before she turns around to walk down the hallway leading to her gate. Before she turns the corner, Paige looks back one last time at what she's leaving behind. Her beautiful, tall girlfriend who's not saying a word but every other part of her is screaming loudly; her eyes, her mouth, her hands, her legs, begging Paige not to leave her alone in this dark lighted waiting room. Trying her hardest not to break down, Paige faces forward and disappears from sight.

Buzz, Buzz.

Snapping out of a recollection, Emily checks her phone to see what notification she had just gotten.

"Hey, Em! HMU when you have time! " – Hanna

Seeing a text from Hanna brought a light grin to Emily's face. She hasn't spoken to her best friend in weeks but they both know that schedules are tight so they'll talk to each other when they have the chance. Emily puts her car into drive and makes an exit out of the parking lot to head towards her apartment.

…..

"Hello, Emily. Coming in from swimming practice?" Jacob, the front desk attendant, asks Emily as she walked through the spacious, business styled lobby of her apartment building.

"Yep. I'm very tired and sore. Do you wanna switch legs with me for the night?" Emily jokingly asks as she approaches the front desk.

"I've been standing on my feet for about six hours. I'm not sure if either of us would benefit from that trade," Jacob winks at the brunette.

"Hmmm…" Emily scrunches up her face and cocks her to the side, looking up at the ceiling. "I think you're right about that one. See you tomorrow, Jacob." Emily taps the desk as she turns to walk in the direction of the elevator.

"Don't forget to snag me a ticket to come see your race!" Jacob calls out to Emily, who is waiting for the elevator doors to open.

"Will do!" Emily calls back, raising her thumb towards the attendant before entering the elevator.

…..

"Where have you been?! I haven't spoken to you in like ages!" Hanna excitedly yells into the phone.

"I've been getting my ass kicked at practice. It hardly allows me to do anything. I wake up, go to class, go to practice, and study whatever I can before I fall asleep on my notes. And that's if I don't have to go to work. Then, I repeat that cycle allll over again." Emily informs Hanna with her phone balanced between her right ear and shoulder as she is unzipping her jacket and removing her track pants.

"That's it? What about social hour? Or parties? You can't work yourself to death, Em."

Emily puts her phone on speaker as she sets it down on her dresser, looking through her drawers. "Only socializing I have is within the classroom, in the pool, at work or the dogs that jump on me when I'm on my way home. That's well enough for me. The parties I do right now are victory parties after my meets which are always enjoyable. That's why I work so hard. To celebrate my success," Emily teases her friend.

"You are so right. I bet they are wild. Like parties that include you soaking in Epson salt for about an hour? Thee craaaziest!" The blonde sarcastically remarks. "Besides, I have yet to see you in action this year and that's all your fault."

Emily finds an old, tattered grey Avengers shirt and grey cotton sweat shorts. "I will get you tickets to my meet. We have a couple more weeks' worth until the championship. I'll make sure that you get seats to either the finals or the championship." Now comfortably dressed, the brunette grabs her phone, walks across the room into the bathroom and rummages for her night cream.

"Forget finals, I want the championship. I want to see you win the gold and kick the sorry asses who had the mere thought they could go toe to toe with you." Hanna playfully comments. Moments later she is heard thanking someone softly in the background.

Emily stops mid facial cream application and looks at her phone. "Where are you? Are you outside?"

"Yep! In the wonderful streets of New York. That's why I love it here. Doesn't matter if its 3pm or 3am, people are always up and about."

"How is everything going over there? You found any good places to explore your love for fashion? I hear that New York is pretty cut throat with competition." Emily asks, returning to apply her cream.

"It's actually soooo good! I've been kinda bouncing around from company to company, trying to show my potential somewhere and I actually found a home as a design intern that'll last me from now, all through the summer!" Hanna squeals in joy.

"What is it in?" Emily curiously asks as she puts away her container and leaves the bathroom, throwing herself on the bed, laying on her back.

"Luxury. And it's not just any luxury. It's fucking luxury lingerie by Fleur du Mal," the blonde says in her best French accent impersonation.

Emily turns to lay on her stomach. "Flowers of evil?"

"I don't know what the hell it means but they're paying me and giving me exposure so there is no such thing as evil to me. This designer line has been featured in many outlets including Vogue, Elle, Harper's Bazaar, V Magazine, Interview, and L'Officiel! Like shit! This is huge!"

"I'm so proud of you, Han! I mean, not only can you work there, you can slip on a little something something for Caleb during afterhours." Emily smiles into the phone as taunts her best friend.

"Haha!" Hanna chuckles. "Not only that, I can send some to you! You know, so you can wear them under your clothes so when that faithful one night stand comes, you'll have something that'll knock the socks off them and get their nipples hard."

"Hanna!" Emily shouts out in embarrassment as she flips on her back again. "I don't do one night stands. The last thing I need is to wake up the next morning with the taste of regret in my mouth."

Hanna bursts into laughter with the thought of Emily trying to escape from her one night of horror. "Regrets make for excellent narratives! I would know because I have the best stories. But I'll text you later, I'm about to meet up with Mr. Hunk himself."

"Ok. Tell Caleb I said hi." Emily says getting ready to end the phone call.

"I will! Love you, Em. Talk to you later! Kisses!" Hanna says as makes smooching noises.

"Love you too, Han. Bye," Emily hangs up the phone and lays it on her night stand next to her bed.

"….. One night stand. Yeah right." Emily chuckles to herself before she shuts off the lamp beside her and turns in for the night.

Soooooo…how was it? Was it cringe-worthy or actually something decent? I'm sorry if this/the following chapters become too long. I don't want to rush anything; I want you guys to go on this trip with me. So it might be slow within the first few chapters. I want you to see, feel, and understand the emotions of the characters.

Kinda….like….if you were some mysterious stalker watching them…

Like I mentioned before, this is my first story so try not to throw huge stones at me. Comments/Reviews would be extremely extremely appreciated! Tell me how you felt, my child. I'm already working towards the next chapter, however, classes are winding down and I have research papers due so I'll try to update it by next week. I won't leave you guys hanging, I promise!

Thank you for reading!