A/N: Thank you all so much for reading and for the fantastic feedback people have left. I'm still pretty new to the fandom so it's great to get encouraging reviews! I have the first few chapters already written up, they just need edited and proofread, so I'm trying to edit a chapter every time I finish the next one I'm up to writing, which should keep updates pretty regular until I can finish some of the other fics I'm working on. Oh, also I'm English, so I'm trying my best to get stuff right like cell phone instead of mobile etc. but if I slip up feel free to let me know!
When Monday morning finally rolled around Paige was in a blind panic as she ran around her house looking for her car keys. She had a slice of toast pressed between her lips and her long auburn locks were falling in her face as she checked under the couch. "Here." Pru dangled her keys in front of her smugly and Paige snatched them from her.
"If you stay here any longer I'm charging you rent!" She frowned as she pulled her hair back. She'd lightly curled it but had changed her mind about keeping it down. She extended her frown to her reflection as she stared at herself in the living room mirror.
"You don't even pay rent. And hair down for your first day, it makes you look older, and a little sexy."
"Sexy isn't really the look I'm going for." Paige rolled her eyes, though she let her hair back down.
"Well you're rocking it anyway babe." Pru gave her an appreciative once over, though she had a reason to. She'd chosen her outfit for her, leaving the clothes out on Paige's bed for her whilst she was in the shower.
"You're practically living in my house and you're picking my clothes for me, I feel like we should be married." Paige quipped as she fussed with the collar of her shirt. It was a blood red colour and a good contrast to her creamy skin.
"Sorry I'm holding out for a rich dude. You're my back up plan though. We'll get some cats, it'll be awesome."
"I hate cats." Paige pulled a face. "Do I really look ok? I want to look professional, but not frumpy."
"Here." Pru stepped forward and undid the second button on her shirt before readjusting her collar. "Perfect." She beamed, happy with the end result.
Paige had to admit she was pretty happy with her appearance herself as she pulled her jacket over and buttoned it up. She was wearing a smart black pant suit with a light pinstripe detail and some flat black shoes. Her stomach was still doing flips at the thought of her first day in the classroom though and she had to force down the rest of her toast before picking up her briefcase. "Ok, I'm ready. Wish me luck!"
"Good luck! You'll need it, high school kids are little bast-"
"Bye Pru!" She made her escape out of her own front door before her best friend could make her nerves any worse. She tossed her briefcase on to the front passenger seat of her Prius, a present from her father for graduating college, and headed towards the high school. She'd thought about stopping for coffee, but the only place on the way was The Brew and she wasn't excited about the prospect of Zack hitting on her. She also wasn't too keen on another run in with Emily either. The girl had a way of making her feel two inches tall without really meaning to.
It was still pretty early and the parking lot was empty. Paige wasn't sure whether she had a spot in the lot reserved for teachers yet, so rather than ruffle anyone's feathers on her first day she just parked in the student's lot beside a Toyota Corolla. Taking a steadying breath she forced herself to get out of the car and head off to find the administration office. She'd already had a meeting with Principal Tamborelli the week before, so she didn't have to worry about going to his office. She had her ID and her class schedules, and her lesson plans were already in her briefcase, she just had to swing by the office to pick up the keys to her classroom. She introduced herself to the administration assistants in the office, making sure to get on their good sides from the very start. If she had inherited one thing from her father it was his charm. Paige could be very smooth when she needed to be, and when not faced with attractive young women who left her fumbling over her words. Luckily no one in the office was under forty and she was able to introduce herself and learn all of their names by the time a grey haired old lady handed over her classroom keys. She recognised the woman from her own time at Rosewood and she ended up being stuck talking to her for a good ten minutes.
After that came the arduous task of tracking down her classroom. She was teaching Political Science and Sociology, having gained her bachelors' degree at the University of Pennsylvania. Her father hadn't been happy about her wanting to become a teacher. He'd wanted her to get in to politics like he had; but they'd come to a compromise of sorts. She'd teach for a while and get a few years of life experience under her belt, and then she'd think about following in his footsteps. The next senator of the state of Texas had pretty big shoes to fill though and Paige wasn't in any rush to move on from teaching. She'd loved her qualifying year spent in Philadelphia as a substitute, but she was looking forward to having her own classroom and getting to know her students.
Her room was up on the second floor, though her excitement to get inside it was hampered by a stiff lock. As hard as she tried to turn the key she just couldn't get it to budge. She slammed her hand against the doorframe, starting to think the dotty old woman in the office had given her the wrong key. The noise drew the attention of the inhabitant of the classroom across the hall and a young man with short curly brown hair appeared at his door, checking she wasn't a student trying to vandalise school property. "Uh, hi. Need a little help?" He stepped towards her and she took a step away from the door, gesturing for him to have a try. He pulled on the door handle, tugging it towards him as he turned the key in the lock. The door popped straight open for him. "I had this room last year, the door sticks a bit. I'm Ezra. Ezra Fitz, I teach English." He held his hand out for her and Paige shook it with a genuine smile. Her neighbour from across the hall looked to be only a year or two older than her and it would be nice to make a friend on her first day.
"Paige McCullers, Political science and Sociology."
"Nice to meet you Paige." He started but was interrupted by his phone. His girlfriend's name was flashing up on the screen as she called him to ask to meet up before class. "I've got to take this, but I'm right across the hall if you need anything."
"Thanks." She left him to his call and made her way in to her own classroom. Shutting the door behind her she took in the moderately sized room and smiled to herself. It was all hers. She took a seat in the plush chair and popped her feet up on her desk as she took a moment to enjoy the peace and quiet.
She didn't have a homeroom class so she had the whole first period to plan for her morning lessons. She had her senior Sociology class for second and third period and then a free hour before lunch. The last two periods after lunch would be with the freshmen. It would be a pretty easy first day for her, with most of it spent laying out the structure and grading of the courses she was teaching.
The hallway outside started to fill up pretty quickly, with kids milling around their lockers and waiting for the first bell to go. Paige looked up as she heard a knock on her door and a smile split her face as Ella Montgomery walked in. She had been her favourite teacher back when she was at Rosewood as a student. "Mrs Montgomery! It's great to see you!" She stood up from behind her desk to greet her and Ella laughed her formality off.
"Please Paige, we're colleagues now, you can call me Ella." She smiled warmly at her as she perched on the side of her desk. "So how's your first day going? Are you settling in ok?"
"Yeah, no problems so far; well except for unlocking the door, but Ezra from across the hall helped. Seems like a nice guy."
"Yeah…yeah he does." Ella's smile grew a little tight. "I'll let you get on, but if you need anything I'm just down the hall, and if you don't already have plans for lunch I'd love to catch up?"
"Sounds great."
Ella left to go and see to her homeroom class, leaving Paige to her own devices again. From the noise coming out of the classroom across the hall it seemed she wasn't the only one. She tried to ignore the shouting and screaming coming from the other class, but as she popped her head out of the door she found it was coming from Ezra's classroom. His door was wide open and she could see some slack jawed teen sitting on his desk, which definitely gave her the impression that he wasn't with his class; either that or he was one of those fuddy-duddy teachers that tried to be everybody's best friend. As a football went flying out of the classroom door she decided to go in and find out what was going on for herself. Scooping the ball up she tucked it under her arm and marched in to the classroom, almost knocking in to the kid who was running out the door after the ball.
"Whoa! Sorry!" He was taller than her by a head, but he shrunk under her steely glare. Despite his obvious unease he still managed to rake his eyes over her body, only serving to piss her off more. "Hi, I'm Noel." She recognised the strong dark looks and his cocky grin as he extended his hand out towards her. There was no denying the kid was a Kahn. She shoved the ball in to his hand with a lot more force than was necessary. It only made his smile widen.
"Nice to meet you Noel, now go sit down. You, off the desk and in your seat!" She snapped at the kid sitting on Ezra's desk and he jumped to attention. The atmosphere in the room instantly changed and a hushed silence started to descend over the teens as they realised they were no longer unsupervised. Paige had no intentions of being one of those teachers who were assholes to their students and ruled with fear and an iron fist, but she also didn't want to come across as soft either. She was stamping her foot down and making her mark on her first day. She stood at the front of the class, with her hands on her hips as she looked at each of the students in turn. "Settle down. You guys are seniors, you're supposed to be able to behave when you're left alone for five-" She faltered, her voice choking inside of her throat as her eyes landed on a dark haired girl in the back row. She looked just as surprised to see Paige standing in the classroom as Paige was to see her sitting in it.
"Is everything ok?" Ezra appeared at her side and Paige found herself able to form words again. He was frowning, though it was aimed at the kids rather than Paige. "I just had to pop to the office.
"Yeah, your class was just getting a little rowdy and Mr Kahn here was trying to get in some extra football practise."
"Noel, that ball leaves your bag again and you'll be spending your first week as a senior in detention, got it?" Ezra narrowed his eyes on the younger man. Paige wasn't sure whether he was just trying to show his authority or not, but Noel Kahn made sure to get the last word in.
"As long as it's with her, I'll spend the year in detention." He laughed and received a high five from one of his buddies sitting beside him. Paige was actually grateful to the little swine for giving her a distraction from the girl still staring at her from the back row.
"Great, maybe by the time the year is up you can grow some facial hair." She shot back with a smirk of her own and the entire room erupted in laughter at Noel's expense. His expression darkened and he was starting to look more like his big brother with each passing second. Paige had almost broken Eric Kahn's arm in their junior year, when he'd tried to feel her up at a school dance. She was used to putting the Kahn's in their place. "I'll leave you to it Mr Fitz." She smiled at Ezra, trying to stop her eyes from lingering on Emily as she made her retreat. Once she reached the safety of her own classroom she slammed the door behind her and sunk against it, fighting the panic attack that was threatening to take over her.
Emily was in the classroom across the hall. The gorgeous girl she had been thinking about all weekend was sitting in her homeroom for registration. She was a senior and maybe eighteen at best. Paige didn't want to consider the worst case scenario. If Emily was some sort of genius sixteen year old then there was a special part of hell reserved for one Paige McCullers. "Shit, shit, shit!" She cursed under her breath as she ran her hands through her hair and pushed herself back up to her feet. It wasn't like she had actually done anything with Emily, but she couldn't deny her attraction to the other girl; a girl who was a high school student at the very school that Paige was teaching at. "Oh no…" Paige scrambled over to her desk and pulled out her class lists from her briefcase. Her eyes scanned over the names, looking for any sign of Emily in her senior classes.
"Hey, wasn't that the girl from The Brew?" Hanna quizzed, as observant as ever yet unable to see that Emily was having a meltdown right in front of her. Paige was teaching at Rosewood. The stranger who had held her hair while she threw up Saturday night was teaching at her school. Emily had been ready to curl up and die of embarrassment when she'd spotted her at The Brew; having her walk in to the classroom was way worse. "Is she a teacher?"
"Fitz seemed to know her already. Ask him?" Spencer suggested, her eyes already landing on Aria; who had conveniently walked in to the room a few minutes before Ezra had returned from his trip to the 'office'.
"It's not like he mentioned her." Aria shrugged as she fixed her lip gloss in her compact.
"I wonder what she's teaching? Whatever it is I hope I'm in her class. The way she came back at Noel was epic!" Hanna laughed, craning her neck to catch sight of Noel at the front of the class. His cheeks were still red with humiliation.
"I don't." Emily huffed. She was still embarrassed from the way she had acted that night; not to mention how Maya had acted too. She groaned at the thought of Maya bumping in to Paige in the halls. She had wrongly thought that the older girl was hitting on Emily and from the way Zack had been talking about her it was pretty clear Paige was straight.
"Wait; is the room across the hall 203?" Spencer pulled out her timetable, which of course was colour-coded. "Because I've got AP Sociology in there next with a Ms. McCullers. Aren't you taking that course too, Em?"
"Crap." Emily grumbled as she slumped forward in her seat. "So is Maya."
"Is it too late for me to sign up to that class?" Hanna questioned with a smirk. Emily had told them all about how Maya had kicked off with Paige for trying to talk to her in the club; though she had left out the bit where they'd ended up in a bathroom stall together.
"You could always go talk to Miss McCullers? Or have Emily ask for you?" Aria teased, glad not to be the centre of attention for once when it came to talking about one of their teachers.
"Cut it out guys!" Emily rolled her eyes at them as they carried on trying to goad her. The last thing she needed was for Maya to overhear them. Paige was attractive and Maya already had a bee in her bonnet about her. They didn't need Maya kicking off with a teacher over mindless gossip and getting herself shipped out to True North again. She had been sent away after her parents had discovered she smoked pot; though it had been Emily's mother that had actually found the offending weed in Maya's bag. That had been the first of many hurdles in their relationship, but they'd held it together; even after Maya's infidelity.
She spent the rest of first period stressing over what she was going to say to Paige; correction, to Miss McCullers. Should she even bring it up? They'd sort of addressed it the day before at the coffee shop, when Emily had tried to apologise with baked goods. Should she just leave it at that? She felt terrible for how she had acted that night, but it had been the anniversary of Ali's disappearance, or death as they now knew, and she had just wanted to make the pain go away. She had been slowly rebuilding her life since the night that Allison Dilaurentis had gone missing, but in true Ali style the other girl wouldn't let her move on. Her memory was haunting her and unfortunately Paige McCullers had borne witness to just how well Emily was handling it.
"You ready, Em?" Spencer pulled her out of her thoughts as the bell signalling the end of first period rang and the other girls started packing up to head to their next class. Emily dragged her feet, in no particular hurry to get to class. When she finally walked through the door of Paige's classroom the other girl barely even glanced up from the papers she was reading at her desk. After discovering an Emily Fields in her senior AP class she'd had long enough to compose herself and she'd decided to try and play it cool. She wouldn't bring Saturday night up with her. She'd be the epitome of cool, calm and professional; or in other words she'd be a coward and ignore her.
Emily took a seat at the desk beside Spencer's and frowned as she looked around the class. It was a small group, like most AP classes tended to be, and her girlfriend was noticeably absent from the class. She took out her phone and sent Maya a text, asking where she was. She still hadn't replied by the time Paige cleared her throat to start speaking, so she put her phone on to silent and tucked it away in her jeans pocket. "Good morning class. My name is Miss McCullers and I'll be teaching you AP Sociology this year. The course will be split in to the sections outlined on the board; though this quarter we'll only be focusing on social perspectives and research methods." She tried to keep her focus away from Emily as she addressed the class, running through what they'd be covering in the first quarter of the academic year. "There will be two exams at the end of the quarter which will count towards your final grade, along with coursework and group discussion. Now-" She faltered as her eyes finally landed on Emily and she found her looking at her phone.
She cleared her throat and the younger girl looked up, guilt written across her face as she tried to put her phone away again. Maya had finally replied, though the one line of text she had messaged her had hardly been worth risking getting caught on her phone in class. "I'll take that until the end of class." Paige walked over and held her hand out expectantly for the phone. Emily opened her mouth to object, but thought better of it as Paige stared her down. She wasn't about to publicly back down over a violation of the rules on her first day. She would be making a rod for her own back. Emily reluctantly handed the phone over, knowing full well that she would need to stay behind after class to get it back. She wasn't looking forward to that particular conversation.
"Kill me now." She muttered to Spencer under her breath as Paige took her phone and placed it on her desk. Spencer shot her a sympathetic smile in return. The lesson seemed to last a lifetime while Paige went on and on about the course modules and how they would be graded. Emily's eyes were glued to the clock as she watched the minute hand slowly drag itself around the clock, counting down to her fate. When the bell for lunch finally sounded Emily jumped in her seat. She felt like she was heading to her execution as she packed up her things.
"Want me to try and get your phone back for you?" Spencer offered as she hefted her book bag over her shoulder. Paige had been friends with Melissa back in high school. Though Spencer hadn't really spoken to her much, she could still try and play the 'friend's little sister' angle to help Emily out.
"Thanks, but I think I better handle it. I'll catch you up." Emily hung back by her desk, waiting for the room to empty before she approached Paige. Correction, Miss McCullers. She was perched against her desk, talking to Mona Vanderwaal. Mona had been a nerd through most of school, though in the last couple of years she had grown in to something of a socialite. She was close with Hanna, though Emily and the others didn't really know her all that well.
"Hi, Em. Save you a seat at lunch!" She beamed at her as she tossed her a little wave and flounced out of the classroom in her ridiculously large heels. Between her and Hanna it was like they were in a competition to see who could pull off wearing the most uncomfortable shoes.
Once Mona left they were alone in the room and Paige reached behind her for Emily's phone. "I don't want to see you playing on this in my class again." She handed it over with little more than a warning and a stern expression, leaving the younger girl confused.
"Is that it?"
"Well, I could give you detention but I doubt either of us wants to waste our afternoon." Paige crossed her arms over her chest defensively. She had been dreading the lesson ending almost as much as Emily had. The last thing she wanted was to be alone in her classroom with the student she'd flirted with in a bar over the weekend.
"I meant what happened the other night. Me at the club, drinking…" She trailed off, trying to gauge the older woman's reaction, but Paige's poker face was impassive and she didn't give anything away as she shifted on her desk.
"I'm your teacher Miss Fields, not your mother…that being said, you're what? Eighteen? You shouldn't be in bars to start with, never mind getting in the state you were in." Paige hadn't meant to lecture her, but finding out Emily was only a minor had rattled her and she couldn't help but think what could have happened to her in that club, given how out of it she was by the end of the night.
"Seventeen." Emily answered, her tone taking on a defiant edge as she mirrored Paige's actions, crossing her arms over her chest. "I'm eighteen in a couple of weeks; and you're right, you're not my mother." She pocketed her phone and did her best not to storm out of the classroom like some stroppy teenager.
Paige held her breath, waiting for the teenager to leave so she could finally let her guard down; but Emily stopped at the door and turned back around to face her. "And for your information, I don't usually get like that. It's just this time of year…" She faltered, thinking of Ali's disappearance and the subsequent discovery of her body the year before. "Forget it." She didn't bother trying to explain herself as she felt her phone vibrating against her side. It was probably Spencer checking up on her, or Maya finally returning her messages.
"Emily…" She stopped just outside the door as Paige called after her. Her expression was torn, like she didn't want to get too involved, but she couldn't just stand back and watch her walk out. "I get it. I do. Being this age, when you're halfway between being a kid and being an adult, it's the hardest thing in the world; but it gets better. It gets easier…The secret is just not screwing up."
"You seemed to have done ok." Emily smiled; glad to see a glimpse of the Paige she had met over the weekend. Paige laughed at Emily's observation. She had always seemed to be screwing up a lot when she had been Emily's age and she was still living with the consequences. She wasn't about to discuss any of that with one of her teenage students though.
"We've got a lesson tomorrow. Fresh start, right?"
"Right." Emily agreed. She felt her phone going off for a second time and she knew the others would all be waiting for her at lunch. "Thanks. I'll see you tomorrow."
"Hey, where have you been?" Maya quizzed as Emily slipped in to the empty seat beside her at the lunch table. She leant in for a kiss which Emily happily returned.
"I could ask you the same thing. Where were you this morning?"
"I overslept." Maya shrugged.
"Overslept? It's the first day of senior year-"
"Exactly. So I didn't miss much! Oh, there's Noel. I'll be right back." She pressed a kiss to Emily's cheek before flouncing off to another table.
"Everything ok?" Spencer asked from across the table, where she was perched between Hanna and Mona. Caleb and Lucas were on the other side of Hanna, with Aria sitting beside Emily. They were a big group and Spencer didn't want to bring up Emily's run in with Paige in the classroom in front of everyone. The girls had always been quite close, but ever since the death of their friend Allison they had started to drift away from each other a bit and new people had entered their lives; and their lunch table.
"Fine." She flashed Spencer a smile and held up her phone to prove it. She'd have to try and get the other girl on her own at some point to talk about their new teacher, but that would have to wait until Maya was otherwise occupied. Luckily Spence was smart enough to figure that out and she let it drop until they were alone. Maya spent most of lunch over at Noel Kahn's table and Emily was lucky enough to get a quick kiss from her before they both left for their afternoon classes.
"So how did it really go with McCullers?" Spencer enquired as she caught up with Emily in the hallway before their last class of the day.
"It was fine. She gave me a lecture on underage drinking, but other than that we're good. We agreed on a fresh start tomorrow."
"Uh huh, and did Maya agree to this fresh start?" Spencer teased, earning a scowl from her friend.
"I still haven't told her about Paige…Ms McCullers." Emily quickly corrected herself again. "But then I haven't had a chance to speak to her all day."
"How are things between you two anyway?"
"It's still hard." Emily admitted with a sigh as she tucked her hair back behind her ear and shook her head. "We're working on it though. I just need to learn to trust her again-"
"When she's glued to Noel's side?"
"Spence, don't. Please. We're working things out, ok?" She slammed her locker door shut a little more forcefully than she had intended to.
"Ok, but you should know that Maya has used up all of her lives with me. I'm done pretending to like her just because she's your girlfriend."
"Noted." The other girl smiled warily, knowing just how fiercely loyal her friends could be.
