A/N: Hey, did you know that there's a lovely ginger next to me? BECAUSE THERE IS! In all seriousness, we're sorry this took so long. However, we are two teenagers that suffer from chronic procrastination. PROCRASTINATION STATION IS THE PLACE TO BE.

Twerking.

Chapter Two: What Becomes of the Broken-Hearted?

"Do you know something?" Buffy asked, flopping down on Spencer's bed.

"I know lots of things," the taller of the two smirked, settling herself next to her friend. "For instance, though Toby may tell you otherwise, I know how to make flan. I can tell you how to-"

"Shut up!" Buffy laughed, groaning a little as well, throwing her hands up. "I was going to say that I hate living in a stupid vacation destination town."

"Well, the cruise ships land here. Most of the actual passengers go elsewhere."

"This ship is different. I can feel it!" Buffy retorted, propping herself up on her side.

"Just like Hanna could feel that Aria should go out with Noel Kahn?"

"Wait, what?"

"Long story. Just Hanna being… Hanna." Spencer said, smiling a bittersweet smile.

"We have all had our moments, okay? But the ship docked yesterday. And the town feels… Different. Haunted, almost."

"So what's so different?"

"First of all, this ship was PACKED. And I don't mean like "Wow, that's a lot of people". I'm used to that. I don't see how all those people fit into one planet! How the hell are they on a ship?"

"Well, it's June. Kids are starting to get out of school. This is a popular time for tourists to be here- we've seen packed ships before."

"We've seen packed ships. This one was PACKED." Buffy's persistence intrigued her friend. Sighing, Spencer carried on with their conversation, a little more intently.

"Well, what does everyone else think?"

"I haven't told anyone else."

"Well aren't I special?" Spencer smirked.

"Spence, I'm not getting. I get a bad vibe from this ship, okay? And I need to trust my instincts on this."

"Well, let's call Emily and get her opinion, okay? When we were close she always knew how to talk like Ben Franklin. We'll go from there," Spencer said, reaching for her phone and dialing Emily's number.

"Emily? I know it's weird that I'm calling you this late, or calling at all, but we have a- Emily?" Suddenly, Spencer shot up, pacing around the room frantically. Though she hadn't spoken much to Hanna, Emily, Willow, Fred, or Aria since Alison's disappearance, the girls still had a very special place in her heart. "Emily, breathe. Calm down. I can't understand you when you're this upset." Though she had been avoiding the bed, Spencer hadn't been careful enough. Her forearm was suddenly encased by a hand, Buffy's eyes begging her for information.

I don't know, Spencer mouthed to her equally distraught friend.

"Emily?" Daphne called, looking for her friend. Maya's bike wasn't in the driveway, which was new. "Emily, I'm in the kitchen! Can I have one of your mom's cookies? I'm just going to take one!" Searching the living room, Daphne still didn't see her friend. Venturing towards Emily's room, Daphne continued to shout. "Emily? Your mom let me in before she left, where are you?" Opening the door to her friend's room, she quickly dropped down next to the sobbing girl before her.

"Emily, what happened?"

Fred hugged her books close to herself as she walked down the street in the direction of library. She was off to return these and find a couple new ones, to keep her occupied for more nights of seclusion. She had her notebook with her to see if she could get some studying done, and then tell her parents she had met up with someone so they wouldn't worry about her hermit-ness so much. It was getting to be that these little trips and school were the only times she even left the house anymore. And with summer coming up, she wouldn't even have school to count on for much longer.

She couldn't have been more than a couple blocks away from the library when Miss Queen C herself came walking up beside her with a few members of her posse. Sighing, Fred avoided eye-contact, hoping maybe then Cordelia would leave her alone. Act like you know you're beneath her, and she won't feel the need to remind you.

"Oh, look who it is," Cordelia said smugly. Well, no such luck, then.

"Hi, Cordelia," Fred said meekly. Cordelia had never really cared for the small brunette, mostly because of her peculiarity. And partially the fact that there weren't many people on this planet that Cordelia did like. A dozen, at most.

"Where are you off to?" Cordelia asked boredly, more focused on the condition of her cuticles.

There was no use lying. She was almost there. Cordelia wasn't worth lying to, anyway. Everybody already thought Fred was a loser, there wasn't much else the other girl could do. So, Fred said quietly, without hesitation, "The library."

Cordelia chuckled. "The goody little two shoes off to the library."

Her cronies, Hayden and Harmony, snickered.

"God, what a loser," Cordelia continued, snatching a book from her grasp. Staring at it with a quirked eyebrow, she rolled her eyes. "Concepts of Genetics. No life either."

"Give it back, Cordelia," Fred sighed. Cordelia ignored her.

"What else you got?" Cordelia questioned. "How to be Even More of a Nerd?"

While Hayden and Harmony giggled, Fred chose not to dignify that with an answer. Instead, she repeated, "Give it back, Cordelia."

Huffing, Cordelia tossed the book back at her, Fred barely catching it without dropping the rest. "Whatever."

Fred thought that perhaps the girls would leave her alone now, but she was wrong. The three stayed right at her side. Maybe someone would see them with her and then it'd be all over the school that Queen C and her group was hanging out with the freak. Fred smirked to herself.

"What's so funny?" Cordelia snapped. Dang, you don't get much past her.

"Nothing, Cordelia," Fred said.

"God, you're weird," Cordelia said.

"Why are you still following me, then?" Fred asked. Cordelia opened her mouth to answer, then shut it just as quickly when she realized she had no answer. So, in retaliation, Cordelia grabbed Fred's notebook.

"Let's see what's in here," Cordelia said, flipping it open. Silently praying there wasn't anything too incriminating in there for Cordelia to taunt her about, she made a grab for it, but Cordelia moved it out of her reach. "Must be something special in here."

"Cordelia, give it back," Fred said for the third time, trying to snatch it again.

"What, writing about your crush in here?" Cordelia asked. "Let me guess: Wesley Wyndham-Pryce?"

Fred tried not to blush at how hard Cordelia had hit the nail right on the head. That was not important right now. She tried to grab it once more, but Cordelia saw it coming.

"Give it back!" Fred said with more force. Cordelia passed it to Hayden.

"You write everything down, don't you?" Hayden said, showing the pages she had open to Harmony, who laughed. Hayden tossed it back to Cordelia.

"Hey, I thought she said to give it back," a voice came from behind them suddenly. Fred, Cordelia, Harmony, and Hayden all whipped around and faced the speaker. An African American male, about 20 or so, met their sights. A black bandana was tied around his head and he was dressed in loose fitting, plain clothes. He looked at Cordelia expectantly.

Cordelia hesitated a moment before grumbling, "Fine." She tossed Fred's notebook back to her. "C'mon guys."

Cordelia, Harmony, and Hayden walked off.

"Thank you," Fred said, albeit a bit uncertainly.

"No problem," he said with a smile, holding out his hand. "Charles Gunn. Most people call me Gunn."

"Winifred Burkle," Fred said. "Most people call me Fred."

"Fred," Gunn said. Fred shook his hand.

"Two girls born into every generation are called as the Chosen Ones. They alone will stand against the vampires, the demons, and the forces of darkness. They are the Slayers."

A low rumble that could only be assumed to be a chuckle sounded.

"Gotta hand it to you guys: your bedtime stories get better every night."

"I understand that you have heard this before."

A quirked eyebrow, a twist of the lips, a narrowing of the eyes met with this statement.

"Whatever gave you that impression?"

A slight pause.

"You know what you must do. How to make this right."

All pretense of a smile, gone, in an instant. A gruffer voice than before; angrier.

"Nothing can ever make this right."

"But this will help. Before something too tragic should hit Rosewood. We wouldn't want that, would we?"

Another hesitation.

"No, we would not."

"They do not yet grasp the gravity of what is coming their way. And no one better to bring their attention to it. Isn't that right, Liam?"

"Hey, Will."

Xander Harris smiled brightly at his friend as she approached him.

"Hey, Xander," Willow said. The two of them, along with Alexis, had been hanging out together increasingly given the recent situation, and it was nice. Xander and Willow had been friends since kindergarten, but had grown apart when Alison had showed up. It was good to be acting like best friends again.

"I'm surprised you agreed to come and meet me," Xander said. "Figured you and Alexis would be studying for the exams."

"Xander, Alexis and I got enough exemptions to get out of anything of real effort," Willow said with a smile.

"Oh, wow, exemptions," Xander said, sounding impressed. "I would've thought you'd still take the exams for fun."

"I'm not that much of a geek," Willow said. Xander gave her a pointed look. "Fine, I am. We all have our problems."

Xander laughed. "Well, that was not one of the problems I was lucky enough to have. I still have to fail every exam."

"You won't fail," Willow said. "I'll help you. It won't be that bad, I promise."

"Yeah," Xander said, but he was no longer looking at Willow. He was gazing above her head, brows furrowed in confusion.

"What?" Willow asked, turning and following his gaze. Not far from where they were standing, another young girl was pacing, her arms folded, muttering to herself angrily. Willow looked closer and recognized the girl as Maya St. Germain.

"Wonder what's the matter," Xander said.

"Do you think we should go ask?" Willow asked. She had a few classes with the girl and felt bad not seeing if she could help.

"I guess we could," Xander said doubtfully. Willow's mind was made up, though.

"C'mon."

The pair walked off in Maya's direction.

"Hi, Maya," Willow said as they came up to her. Maya looked at them in surprise, hurriedly wiping at her eyes. Willow frowned.

"Is everything okay?" Okay, probably a stupid question, but Willow could honestly say that she had never been known for her suave speaking skills. That was more of an Alexis thing.

"Oh, yeah, it's just…" Maya didn't finish.

"What is it, Maya?" Willow pressed on.

"I...you know the girl who lived in my house before me?"

Willow hesitated before saying, "Alison. Yeah."

"Yeah, her. Well….she's dead."

Willow recoiling backwards into Xander was highly involuntary.

"Emily, what's going on?" Daphne asked, concerned for her unconsolable friend. For the past five minutes, she had tried to get Emily to open up, but failed miserably. "Emily, please! Come on, I'm worried!" Sighing, she stood up from her position. "I'm going to go get another cookie. When I come back, I want answers."

"Daphne, wait," Emily said, her throat scratchy. "Alison… she's dead."

"What?"

"I was at Maya's house earlier and there were police everywhere… They found her body."

"Em, I'm so sorry! This must be awful."

"Honestly, I was expecting it. She's been missing for a year, and she had more enemies than friends," Emily sniffed, wiping at her eyes. "Maya got angry because I was so upset initially."

"Why? That's ridiculous!"

"She's always been very protective and jealous… She thinks that I still have feelings for Ali."

Daphne paused. "Is she wrong?"

"I… I don't know," Emily sighed. "I thought I was, but she was the first girl I ever loved. Feelings like that don't just go away because someone leaves."

"Emily, that's okay!" Daphne smiled softly. "You lost someone you loved! Maya needs to understand that Ali was special to you, but that you are interested in her now."

"I wish she would answer my calls and my texts so I could tell her that," Emily responded frustratedly. "I'm just going to give her space."

"Don't give her too much."

Buffy hated funerals. Everything about them made her almost physically nauseous. This one was no exception.

Everyone she passed cast her a sympathetic glance. 'Buffy and Alison were close before Alison disappeared'. 'I remember Buffy and Alison being very good friends'. 'That poor girl, it must be just eating her; they were close friends, I recall'. Willow, Spencer, Fred, Aria, Emily, and Hanna were probably receiving the same treatment. This was their life now. They were always going to be those girls who knew Alison.

And Buffy? Buffy didn't know how to feel. She'd be lying if she said that, in the back of her mind, she hadn't thought it would come to this. This was Rosewood. People don't just disappear and live to tell the tale. But she'd also be lying if she said a small part of her had been hoping it wasn't so. If anyone in this town could survive, it was Alison DiLaurentis.

"Buff?" Buffy turned around to see Spencer, arms open for a hug.

"Hey, Spence," Buffy replied, returning her friend's embrace.

"I know Ali could be awful, but I still don't want to believe she's gone," Spencer sighed.

"I know," Buffy responded.

Noticing Hanna and Willow across the room, Spencer quickly hugged Buffy goodbye before heading towards her other friends.

"Hey, Han."

"Spencer!" Hanna smiled, hugging her friend enthusiastically.

"Are you drunk? At our friend's funeral?" Spencer asked, somewhat appalled, but not too shocked.

"I might be a little tipsy," Hanna grinned. "Em has my flask now, though. She needed it more than I did."

"Seriously? Where is she? I need to take that away from her before she does something really dumb."

"She's sitting up front with Fred, Aria, and Buffy. Mrs. D wanted all of us to sit there. She thinks it's what Ali would've wanted." Willow said, jumping in.

"I think what Ali really would've wanted was a riot over who got to sit up front," Spencer remarked, chuckling to herself.

"True," Hanna laughed. "We should sit down, I think it's about to start."

As the services started, Spencer took her head from it's comfortable spot on Toby's shoulder and looked around. Alison's parents were a wreck. Hanna was tipsy and Emily was sneaking sips from the flask. Aria was crying into Emmett's shoulder. Fred was sitting as close to the pew as possible, trying to remain unnoticed. Buffy seemed highly uncomfortable, which was to be expected. Willow sat there, crying silently. Everyone else, however, seemed to be completely unphased, just sitting there somberly.

As the group was walking out of the church, a man in a suit approached them.

"Emily, Spencer, Buffy, Aria, Hanna, Willow, and Fred," the man said, eyeing each of them as he named them.

"Do we know you?" Spencer inquired.

"I'm Detective Wilden. I understand that you were all good friends with the victim?"

"Yeah, we were," Aria nodded.

"I'm gonna need to talk to each one of you," Wilden said, not noticing Fred and Willow's

horrified state.

"We talked to the police when Alison went missing," Buffy replied, sounding a bit

confused.

"And I intend to go over every one of your statements," he retorted. "Because this is no longer a missing person's investigation, it's a murder. And rest assured I will find out what happened that summer." And, with that, he walked away as all the girls' cell phones rang.

"I'm still here, bitches," Willow said, her hands shaking.

"And I know everything," Buffy added, before the group finished the text in unison:

"-A."