Her first class was fine, she supposed. The teacher was dull, and people kept staring at her. But it could always be worse.
Finally, lunch came. Emily would be lying to herself if she didn't admit she was a little anxious to meet the other girls, and hopefully make friends. Back in Los Angeles she had many. Now that she thought about it, they were more like acquaintances. She had only kept in contact with Alex and Jessie.
She quickly grabbed a salad, and a soda when she got to the lunch line. Her eyes roamed the tables looking for blonde heads.
They were surprisingly not as many as she had thought.
The back of a blonde head appeared behind some jock with his letterman jacket, and Emily made her way to her. Once she reached her, Emily promptly sat in front of the girl.
The brunette could have sworn it was Hanna. They looked the same, from the back, she supposed. But instead Emily was met with another pair of blue eyes. A stranger's pair of blue eyes. And said stranger's was not very friendly.
"Who are you? And why are you sitting on my table?" Her voice was demanding.
"Oh sorry." Emily chuckled. "I thought you were someone else."
"How could you think I'm someone else?"
A small brunette with plump lips, sitting next to the blonde, joined in, "This is Alison DiLaurentis, newbie."
So she must be the Queen Bee, Emily thought.
"Are you new or something?" The girl asked. Growing more irritated by the second.
"Actually, I am." Emily continued to smile. Though now her smile wasn't one of good intentions.
The thing about Emily was she did not give one fuck. And girls like these, oh man, she LOVED them. The airhead bimbos that rule the school. The mean girls. She LOVED them. She loved to mess with them, and hear their bickering. Emily knew how these types of girls ended up. See, the fun part is having them think they're in control, and are aware of everything around them. But they're not. You are. The person in the background seeing everything unfold, knows how and when to manipulate the story.
"Well, where did you come from?" Her condescending tone lowered, to the point where Emily could almost hear her growl.
Emily also knew that telling this girl where she moved from would score her some points. "California. Los Angeles."
The blonde's head tilted in curiosity. For a second, her eyes seemed surprised. And for half of a millisecond, the brunette could have sworn she saw the beginnings of a smile.
"I wasn't expecting that." Alison chuckled, but her bitchy tone still remained. "Although I knew your accent was a bit off."
She rested her elbows on the table and leaned towards Emily. Then in a whisper she said, "Well then California, if you keep pissing me off I'm really going to make your sunshine state attitude turn into a gloomy dark cloud."
Emily paused, raised her finger in correction and said, "That's actually Florida. California is really sunny too, but the nickname for California is the 'Golden State'." Alison and her friend looked at her incredulous. Their breathing was quickly becoming harder. "Florida… is the 'Sunshine State'." She scratched her neck and smiled innocently.
"What?!" The DiLaurentis girl practically gritted her teeth.
This is when the brunette knew to back off. Leave the battle for another day. She didn't know who came up with the phrase 'Pick you battles', but she definitely knew it to be true.
Emily grabbed her tray, but before walking away she just had to have one last irritation, "My apologies, Alison DiLaurentis," the brunette slightly bowed.
A shorter brunette girl with brown hair, and hazelnut colored eyes spoke up, "What the hell is wrong with her?" Her full lips snarled in disgust.
Emily shot a, what was supposed to be charming, smile at her too.
Looking straight ahead she saw the correct blonde head. "Hey." Emily greeted this blonde nonchalantly. She took the seat next to her, and across two other girls.
"What did Alison say to you?" Hanna asked leaning forward, and ready for the gossip.
"Hello to you too, Emily," she greeted herself. The dark haired short girl next to the tall, fair-skinned brunette laughed.
Said brunette looked at Hanna with a raised eyebrow. "Aren't going to introduce us first, Hanna? Your juicy gossip isn't going to go anywhere."
Hanna rolled her eyes. With boredom dripping from her voice, she did as told. "Emily, this is Aria," waving a hand towards the petite dark clothed girl, "and Spencer," she waved a lazy hand toward the taller brunette.
"Nice to meet you, before Hanna falls asleep I'll tell you myself, I'm Emily." She reached out, and shook their hands.
"You're much more polite than you look." Spencer joked.
"How is it that I look?" Now Emily's curiosity was peaked, although she was pretty sure she already knew the answer. She looked at herself. Black leather biker jacket, black pants, Docs, and all.
Spencer waited a bit to find the correct word. "Anarchistic."
"Maybe it's the L.A. in you." The shorter one, Aria, contributed.
"Maybe." Emily shrugged. "But I think the point is that you shouldn't judge a book by its cover. Just this morning I thought Hanna was the Queen Bee, until I had the fortune of accidentally meeting her about," she checked her brown leather wristwatch, "six minutes ago."
"Which brings us back to…what did she say to you?!" Hanna was getting real angsty now.
"Well where to start?" Emily rubbed her hands together in preparation.
Hanna let out an exasperated sigh, "Oh MY God! You're going to kill me." She shook Emily by her arm.
"Alright, alright." The Angelena laughed. "She bitched at me, asking why I had sat at her table. I told her I thought she was someone else. Then she asked 'how could you think I'm someone else, are you new or something?'" Emily mocked Alison's voice in a typical valley girl accent. She didn't even know if there were those accents here, but she knew they were known to be associated with pretentious, rich barbies.
The girls laughed loudly, and some people turned to see what was going on. Emily gave them a look, and they went back to their business. "I told her I was. She asked me where I was from. I said L.A. She proceeded to give me the nickname 'California' and said that if I kept pissing her off she would turn my sunshine state attitude into a 'gloomy dark cloud'" The dark brunette quoted.
"Florida is the Sunshine State." Spencer mumbled, confused.
"Yea I know, and I corrected her on that. I said 'California is the Golden State."
The smaller girl Aria whispered, "Oh. No."
"Damn." Was all Hanna said.
"What did you tell her when she said that." Aria asked.
"I just smiled at her throughout. When I got up to leave I said 'my apologies,' bowed to her highness, and left." She shrugged.
"Damn!" Hanna added.
"What?" Emily finally started eating her food. She eyed Hanna.
Hanna's eyes widened. "What do you mean what?! Did you make eye contact with her?"
"Of course!" Emily replied with just as much enthusiasm as Hanna was putting.
"She will destroy you." Emily looked at Spencer and Aria, seeing if they agreed or not. By Aria's sudden furious concentration towards her food, and Spencer half shrug, Emily was guessing they agreed with Hanna's prediction. "When Alison DiLaurentis talks to you, you nod and NEVER make eye contact, and you DO NOT correct her. You made a fool out of her. Even if you don't respect her, you pretend. Did you at least sound a bit nervous, or scared?"
"Nah. What is she gonna do? Call me names? I'll call her names back. Throw stuff at me? I'll throw stuff back. Write on my things? Depending on what it is, I'll sue her. You know in case it's my car or something. If it's my papers, note passing, locker tagging…honestly I don't give a fuck. I eat girls like her for breakfast." She winked at Spencer, who looked like what speechless sounds.
"You're crazy." Hanna waved her off, completely giving up on trying to talk some sense into Emily.
Aria nodded, assured. "It's the L.A. in her."