Chapter 2

Emily's POV

Emily frowned as she did her homework at The Brew. She tried to concentrate on it, but Paige kept slipping into her mind. As Emily worried, she heard a snap. Surprised, she looked down at her pencil, which had broke. Sighing in annoyance, she started to pack up her stuff. Someone approached her and sat across from her. Glancing up, she scooted back in surprise to see Ezra Fitz staring at her.

"Oh, hi Mr. Fitz," she said, her voice a little hoarse.

She cleared her throat as he spoke. "Hey, are you okay?" Mr. Fitz looked concerned.

She forced a smile and nodded. "Yeah, I'm fine," she looked down, still trying to pack her stuff. She eventually got all of her papers in her binder.

"So, are you working on that essay I assigned the class?" Ezra asked out of the blue, motioning to the work.

Emily shrugged. "Yeah, and other stuff..."

Mr. Fitz sighed. "Look, Emily, I know it's your junior year and you've got your SAT and colleges to worry about," he told her gently.

She grimaced, not really wanting to think about that stuff. "I have a lot of homework so..."

He raised his eyebrows, realizing what she was silently asking. "Oh! Of course! I'm sure you do. Uh, I actually have some stuff to do as well," he stated. "So, I guess I'll see you in class tomorrow."

"Yep, totally." She turned to leave, but before she could, he grabbed her elbow gently. She turned around to face him again.

"Emily, I just wanted you to know that if there's anything that's bothering you, you can always come to me," he said, staring into her eyes to make sure she knew he meant it. She smiled and nodded, thanking him and heading to the door. Mr. Fitz kept his gaze on her as she left, wondering what could be bugging her.

Emily exited The Brew and looked around in astonishment. It was dark...how long had she been in there? She shrugged and headed towards her car, nearly pissing herself as someone popped up from behind her car. Emily squinted, trying to make out who it was. The person had long hair and was somewhat tall. The longer Emily studied the person, the more she could make out. All of a sudden, she recognized who it was.

"Paige?" Emily questioned loudly. Paige, who had been trying to figure out who Emily was, froze. As Emily got closer, Paige broke out into a full sprint until she was gone. Emily, confused as to why Paige was behind her car, got in and turned the key.

Putting the car in drive, Emily started forward, but the car was going unusually slow. She checked to see if the parking brake was on, but it wasn't. Maybe she had a flat. She got out to check, grabbing her small flashlight that she always carried in her car.

Squatting down, she saw that someone had slashed her tire. She quickly went to check the others and sure enough, they were all flat. Paige. Emily let out a loud groan of frustration as she pulled out her phone to call a tow truck.

Emily sat silently in the truck, as she was driven home. The driver kept glancing at her, looking like he wanted to ask her something. Eventually, tired of the awkward silence, he asked, "So, how'd you get the flat tire?"

She sighed, trying to figure out the best way to answer that. Of course, he picks the hardest question for me to answer. "Um, there might have been some glass or something on the road and I probably drove over them," Emily told him and he looked at her in disbelief.

"Really? All four tires?"

"Yeah..."She could tell that he knew she was lying, but he didn't say anything as he dropped her and her car off.

"I could drop this off at the mechanics for you. That's what I usually do," he said to her, but she shook her head.

"No, it's fine. Thank you." Emily smiled slightly before heading up the path and to her house.

Her mom approached her as she entered the house. "Hey Emily," her mom greeted.

"Hey," Emily said softly.

"How did you get a flat? And a flat in all four tires?" Mrs. Fields looked concerned. Emily told her the same thing that she had told the tow truck driver, but unlike the driver, her mom refused to accept the answer.

"No honey, you couldn't have got a flat in all four of your tires just by driving over some shards of glass."

"Mom, that's what it was," Emilly said exasperatedly.

"So are you sure that no one slashed your tires? Maybe there's someone at school who you don't get along with?"

Emily hesitated, thinking about Paige before answering. "No, not that I know of."

"No one on your swim team?" Mrs. Fields pressed.

Emily froze. "Mom, no one on my swim team would ever do that to one of their teammates!" Emily said defensively. Except for Paige McCullers.

Her mom put her hands up in surrender. "Okay, okay, I'm just wondering."

"Thanks for your concern, but I'm fine," Emily assured her before heading up to her room.

"WHAT?" Hanna shouted at the top of her lungs at lunch the next day. Emily tried in vain to keep Hanna's voice down. She looked at the rest of her friends for help, but they didn't notice. Aria was staring at nothing, probably in shock while Spencer was gripping the table and throwing Paige dirty looks. "She's gone too far," Hanna announced, getting up.

"Hanna, no!" Emily seized her arm and yanked her down.

Em, she can't get away with this!" Hanna growled.

"Hanna, please, it's fine."

"Why are you letting her do this?" Hanna demanded. Emily sighed, not answering. The truth was...she didn't know. She didn't know why she kept letting Paige get away with bullying. What was wrong with her?

"Hanna, Emily obviously doesn't want you trying to fix things by yourself," Spencer pointed out.

Hanna turned to her, betrayal clear on her face. "You don't want to help Emily when she's getting BULLIED? What kind of friend are you?" Hanna said in disgust.

Spencer gave her a look of annoyance. "It's not that I don't want to help Emily, but there's only so much you can do if that person doesn't want help," Spencer told her calmly. Hanna opened her mouth to retort, but realizing Spencer was right, she closed her mouth. Emily shot Spencer a thankful smile before reaching over to squeeze Hanna's shoulder comfortingly.

Aria, who had returned from her thoughts, looked around in confusion. "What just happened? Sorry, I got distracted after you told us that Paige slashed all four tires yesterday."

"Nothing that matters anymore," Spencer said, not wanting to make Hanna angry again. The rest of lunch was silent as all four of them tried to cast subtle glances, or glares in Hanna's case, towards Paige. Surprisingly, she either didn't notice or ignored them. Emily was glad that her friends were so protective, but she really didn't want to make things worse.

At swim practice, Emily was so distracted by Paige's presence that she wasn't performing her best. Coach Fulton noticed and asked her about it, wondering if she was okay. Emily said that she was just worried about the big test tomorrow in history. Her coach told her to concentrate and worry about the test later. Emily stayed a little later after practice, embarrassed that her coach saw her slacking.

She finished her last laps and put her hands on the edge of the pool to hoist herself out when she felt a strong hand on her head, pushing down. She looked up in surprise to see Paige McCullers, squatting down. Then her head went under water. She screamed, but only bubbles came out of her mouth. The hand holding her head down relented, letting her back up before dunking her back in. She tried grabbing at the hand, but she was starting to tire out. Her legs and arms flailing, her lungs started burning out. She looked around, panicked. Suddenly, the hand disappeared and Emily latched onto the side of the pool, panting like she had run a marathon with a tire strapped to her back.

She hung there for a while as she recovered physically and mentally. Slowly but surely, she climbed out of the pool and trudged to the locker room. Emily left the school even more frightened of what Paige McCullers was capable of. She decided not to tell her friends. Especially Hanna. She knew there was no way to stop Hanna from attacking Paige at school if she heard about what had just happened. Emily grimaced. Only a few more months before the school year ended and the new team captain was announced. Only a few more months before Paige's torture would stop.

A/N: Hey everybody! Hope you're enjoying the story so far! I do want to tell you that I'm on winter break right now, which is why I'm able to post almost every day. When school starts back up, I'm going to do my best to post as much as I can, but there's no guarantee that it's going to be every day or even every other day. I do have the weekends, which will help :) Thanks for reading my story, it means so much to me! Constructive criticism is always welcome!

-JustAWriter1103