A/N: Thank you to all who read and reviewed my first chapter. I am completely overwhelmed and grateful. I read every comment and I hope I can deliver an interesting fic! This chapter kind of spilled out, I am not sure how cohesive it is as I sometimes write as a stream of consiousness. I hope you enjoy it!
"MOMMY!"
Bam! Two tiny humans jumped onto Emily's still mostly asleep body. Emily's twins, Lily and Grace had just bounded onto her bed.
For a brief moment, she wished she was able to sleep in and not have two tiny humans who depended on her for everything. Having twins at 23 really was not really what she had envisioned when she thought about her life. She thought at 28 she would still be living the single life and possibly be coaching for Stanford or another big university. But here she was, 28, married with 2 sweet 5-year-olds.
Emily loved her life as a Mom, she really did. But it didn't stop her from playing the what if game. Like what if AD hadn't impregnated Ali. What if Paige had stayed. But Emily tried not to play that game too often, it was pretty pointless.
"Good morning my babies! How are we today?"
"I am NOT a baby" Lily responded with a pout.
"Oh, excuse me, young lady. How are my super grown young women this morning?"
Both twins dissolved into laughter. Emily loved the sound of their laughter, it always made her happy and reminded her how much she loved Lily and Grace.
"Hey Mommy, where is Mama?" questioned Grace.
"Um..well Mama, she had to go into work early today baby, she had a meeting with a parent."
Emily hated lying to her girls, she and Ali had fought again last night after the girls went to bed. The same fight they had been having for weeks. Apparently, Emily had mumbled something about Paige in her sleep and Ali was furious. Emily kept trying to explain that it was just a dream, one she couldn't even remember and that Ali didn't need to worry. Ali had believed her at first, and then she found the picture, the one Aria had given her for her birthday their senior year, the one of her and Paige after they won a big meet. Ali was so angry that she kept it, but Emily didn't know how to give it up, Paige had been such a big part of her life and it seemed wrong to just throw it away and pretend like it never happened. Ali had raged that Paige had always been in between them and was constantly out to destroy their friendship in high school and then again when she had come back to Rosewood for the coaching job. Emily had tried to calm her down, but once Ali was in a mood it was hard to get her out of it. Ali had ended up storming out of the house saying she was going to spend the night at Aria and Ezra's and that she needed time alone to think.
Emily hadn't known how to respond to this outburst, so she let Ali go. But, she knew their time apart wouldn't be for long. They both still worked at the high school together so Emily knew they would eventually run into each other in the hallways. The thought of seeing Ali in the hallways while she was still angry made Emily flashback to her high school years when Ali ruled the school, it really wasn't the best feeling.
But she pushed that all aside because she had two little monkey's to get ready for school, and right now that had to be her main focus.
"Alright you two, it is time to get ready for school. Go get dressed and I will get your breakfast ready."
Emily watched the twins bound down the hallway to their room. After she got dressed she hurried into the kitchen to get their breakfast ready. She checked the time, they were running late, so Pop Tarts would have to do. Emily pulled down the box and ran over to the toaster oven so she could put them in. Over by the toaster a bright blue S caught her eye, she had a bad habit of letting the mail pile up, Ali hated how messy she let things get sometimes. Emily wiggled it out managing to do so without dropping all the rest of the mail on the floor.
She read the postcard that said:
SAVE THE DATE!
Your 10-year high school reunion will be taking place on September 17th.
Please RSVP to Mona Vanderwall Price to secure your spot!
There was more to the postcard but Emily stopped there. Was it already time for their 10-year reunion? Hadn't they just graduated? How could this be possible? Emily allowed herself to wonder if Paige would come home Iowa. Emily had kept up with Paige through Facebook, maybe a little too much, but that was completely normal when it came to an ex, or that is what she told Ali when she caught Emily Facebook stalking. Paige's parents had moved to California when she went early to Stanford so there was nothing that would bring Paige back to Rosewood. Emily wondered if Paige would bring her girlfriend Laura. Emily had seen pictures of Paige and her long-term girlfriend looking so happy together, Paige had that smile that Emily thought used to be reserved specifically for her.
"MOMMY!"
The sound of Grace's voice pulled Emily from her thoughts. She looked to see that both Lily and Grace were dressed and ready to go.
"Sorry girls, I hope you are ok with pop tarts this morning. Grace honey, can you do Mommy a favor? I realized I left my phone in the drawer by my bed, can you grab it for me?"
As Grace ran down the hallway Emily grabbed the pop tarts out of the toaster oven and handed 2 to Lily.
"Here you go, Mommy!"
"Thank you, baby here is your pop tart. Alright, ladies to the car!"
Emily and the twins ran to the car and Emily completely pushed the reunion out of her mind.
Emily ran into the teacher's lounge just in time to see she had missed yet another faculty meeting. Now that she was the Athletic Director she really needed to try and get to those on time, but with the getting the girls to school it was a lot easier said than done.
"You're late." Ali snapped.
"Um, yeah, I know. I overslept and the line to drop the girls off was long since we were running behind. Speaking of the girls, they wanted to know where you were this morning. I don't like having to lie to them, Ali."
"Well I don't like you lying to me Emily, but you do it anyway."
Before Emily could come up with a clever response Ali had stormed out of the teacher's lounge and presumably off to her classroom. Emily didn't know what to do, the early years of their marriage had been so good, it seemed like what was meant to be had finally fallen into place. But now, it was like the old Ali was back, the one who liked to hold things over her head and make her feel bad for every little thing she did.
Emily walked down the hallway to her office, she had a few scouts to call and make sure they would be at the upcoming meets and games that were going to be held in the next few weeks. Fall was always busy for the Athletic Director because the focus was on making sure the seniors who wanted to be recruited had the opportunity to be seen by multiple scouts. This meant a lot of phone calls and a lot of sucking up to the coaches that she wanted to come. She flopped down in her chair and pulled out her phone. She needed to talk to Hanna. Hanna had been her sounding board for weeks, at this point she felt more like she was married to Hanna that she was to Ali.
"Hanna Marin's office!" a perky voice answered Hanna's phone.
Hanna was quickly becoming a popular designer in Philly she was getting everything she dreamed of and Caleb was, of course, running her computer and all security detail.
"Hi, this is Emily Fields, can I speak to Hanna please?"
"Sure thing Ms. Fields, I will transfer you!"
Goodness, this girl was way too perky for first thing in the morning Emily thought to herself.
"Hey Em! What's up?"
"Hanna, I need help. Ali spent the night at Aria's last night and the girls are starting to notice. I need Ali to come back so things can just go back to normal."
"Well Em, maybe normal isn't necessarily with Ali. Maybe you are so unhappy because you know what you have with her isn't exactly right."
"No, I am sure it is Hanna. I mean come on, it's Ali. You know how I have felt about her since we were 14."
"Well you're not 14 anymore and you have loved others after Ali. Maya, Paige, plus some other girls I can't remember their names, maybe Samara?"
"Wow, thanks, Hanna. You make it sound like I had a revolving door of women."
"Well, you kind of did. Although I think I always liked Paige best. She fought for you time and time again."
"Well, that ship has sailed Hanna. You know she told me she would never say goodbye to me again, which means when Ali found out she was carrying my twins she couldn't be with me ever again. I doubt if I will ever see Paige again."
"Well if you were together she wouldn't have to say goodbye. I am just saying. Plus don't you think she will be at the reunion next weekend?"
"Paige? At a reunion? I doubt it. High school events were never her idea of a good time unless you count swim meets. I don't think we'll be seeing her."
"Yeah, you are probably right. Anyway Em, do you want to have dinner tonight and we can talk more about you and Ali? I have a meeting in 5 so I need to get ready."
"Sure Hanna, I will see if Ali will watch the girls and pretend to live there some more. I will text you when I know."
"Talk soon. And Em, hang in there. I have a feeling everything will turn out like it is supposed to."
Emily hung up the phone and sat back in her chair. She wondered why her friend had thought Paige would be coming to the reunion. Would Hanna have called Paige? Surely she wouldn't. No way she would. Emily pushed the thought out of her mind and pulled her call list towards her.
