Content Warning: Strong T. Dick jokes, F-bombs, and Fisticuffs, oh my!
Disclaimer: I don't own Pretty Little Liars or anything else mentioned that I could get sued for, y'know?
To answer a few things:
WhyAreYouLaughing: The Hastings will come into the story eventually, but it'll probably be later on. I'm still working out the major plot points, so we'll see what happens….
KING011: Alright, I feel a bit out of my league, but I'm gonna aim for a minimum of 25 chapters. I'm making no promises, but hopefully this goes well and I end up writing more than that anyway!
So this chapter will include the rest of the girls and we'll have the introduction of our antagonist. If you just absolutely hate seeing Ezra portrayed negatively, please remove yourself from the premises. If you're fine with it or maybe hold contempt and/or a burning hatred for our dear predatory teacher, please read on….
Also, here's a playlist on youtube that I got bored and made for our semi-functional protagonist: playlist?list=PLfEcPHeWR2SHoDGG46yCgZAeq9gDelswm
And now we continue our saga...
"So… about yesterday…" started Alex. She snuck a peek at Spencer, who gripped the steering wheel so tightly her knuckles were turning white. Otherwise, she watched the road with a flawless poker face, one Alex would be hard-pressed to imitate. "Do you wanna talk about it?"
Spencer didn't flinch, not even blinking as she said, "No. Besides, I'm fine now."
"Okay." Alex let it drop. Subtlety wasn't her specialty, but she knew her sister's impenetrable defenses would activate if she hammered away for information. Maybe she'd catch their friends alone later to ask if they'd noticed anything. Or even a teacher, though most teachers didn't particularly like Alex.
The rest of the ride was uncharacteristically quiet, the buzz of the newscaster's voice creating a background noise that Alex found slightly unsettling, the air thick with the scent of Spencer's excessively large cup of black coffee. There was something else that weirded her out, though she couldn't quite put her finger on it. Call it twin intuition or whatever, but she had a feeling something was definitely off with her sister, despite her insistence that she was fine.
The student parking lot was almost full by the time they pulled in, and realization hit Alex like a brick: they were running late.
They never ran late. Spencer was as anal as they come and loved getting to school early. She hadn't even mentioned that they were almost fifteen minutes off schedule.
Alex slid out of the car, boots clomping loudly onto the pavement, and went to grab her backpack before the doors locked. Then she waited, all the while noticing that her sister had parked perfectly straight. Spencer usually parked as crooked as Emily's sexuality, violently swung into spaces like Hanna entering a room with important gossip, too focused on doing algebra problems in her head to really care that the car looked like it was being driven by a drunk. Was it luck this time or… God, had her sister been replaced by a robot?
She let Spencer walk a few steps in front of her so she could figure this out. Same gait, same impeccable posture, same preppy outfit. Though it didn't take a genius to notice Spencer's socks were mismatched, and Alex felt the need to mention it. Socks were a harmless topic, right?
"Spence, you know you're wearing two different socks?"
Spencer paused mid-stride and looked down at her feet, like she hadn't even paid attention when dressing this morning. Then she continued on like it was nothing, shrugging. "So? Your socks don't match fifty percent of the time."
"I'm the bad influence that you don't want to be like. I've seen your sock drawer, Spencer, it might as well be alphabetized."
"How do you alphabetize socks?"
Alex halted a moment, thinking about that, then she jogged to catch back up with her sister. "That's not the point. I'm saying you're practically immune to the washing machine eating your socks, but today you're ankles look like it's laundry day! What is going on with you?"
"God, Alex, why is it a big deal? They're socks." She huffed, then took off ahead of Alex and disappeared into the crowd of kids.
Threat detected, defenses activated.
Damn it.
Lunch time rolled around, and by then Alex had given up trying to communicate with Spencer. In every class they had together, her sister would flat out ignore her, so it looked like she'd have to figure out what was up by other means.
She was sat at the group's usual outdoor table, picking at her food as she tried to come up with a plan. Alison and Hanna were talking about something or other. Emily was listening to them, glancing up from her homework occasionally to nod. Spencer hadn't shown up, which worked for Alex. That way she could see if any of them had noticed something.
"Lex?"
Alex nearly jumped out of her seat as a small hand rested on her shoulder. Aria—who'd been sitting beside her this whole time, who always sat beside her. Of course.
"Jesus Christ, Bird, you scared the shit out of me."
The nickname was exclusive to their friendship, one nobody else was allowed to call her—even Spencer, but they had their Sparia thing. Alex had been calling Aria that since they'd become friends. She may or may not have looked up the meaning of the name (a total stalker move, but whatever) and concluded that "bird" was an apt comparison. A tiny, solo singer with her head in the clouds.
"I see that," said Aria, grinning. "You're really spacey today. Is it something with Spencer?"
Alex rubbed her forehead. This whole thing was starting to give her a headache. "Yeah. Notice she's absent from our humble lunchtime gathering?"
Aria nodded. "Yeah, I did. Hanna's misused two words, but Spencer hasn't popped up to correct her. It's weird. So where is she? What's up?"
"Probably sulking in the library. And that's what I'm trying to find out. But you know how Spencer is—it's like interrogating a porcupine. I tried asking her about her socks because they're all mismatched today, and now she won't even talk to me!"
"Socks?" questioned Aria, brow furrowing. "I didn't even notice. And Spencer's sock drawer is immaculate, that's so weird!"
"Right?" Alex threw up her hands for emphasis, then shook her head, frustrated. "You and Spencer talk about feelings and shit, don't you? Have you noticed anything? Has she said anything funny lately?"
Aria wrinkled her nose up in thought. It was really cute, and Alex had the sudden urge to just go ahead and kiss her right here and now. But she'd been pushing away those thoughts forever and she could do it right now, when there were more important things to be worried about.
But Aria's single… she's been single for a while… maybe she likes me back–
"Nope."
It was so sudden a response that Alex almost thought Aria was a mind-reader—in which case she'd go up to Look Out Point and throw herself into the abyss because, Christ, she'd had sooo many unholy thoughts about her friend that it wasn't even funny.
And her mind was betraying her yet again, exposing her to her superpowered crush as her eyes drifted to Aria's lips and she wondered how they'd taste… and how soft they'd be and if she'd literally take Aria's breath away and maybe they'd never want to stop and clothes would start to come off and holy hell Alex would die at all that beautiful pale skin and sweating was totally worth it if sex was involved and–
"Wait, yeah, actually. Spencer's been kind of on edge lately. I just thought it was because exams are coming up, though. Oh! And there's the time she..."
Alex's jaw hung loosely for a moment as she attempted to process what exactly Aria was saying. Something about Spencer, which probably meant Aria wasn't a mind-reader and hadn't heard her thoughts. Thank fuck.
Fuck. What a versatile word. So many uses. A swear, an action...
That's the last thing you should be worrying about right now, you dumbass. Pay attention.
But she really wanted to grab Aria and–
"Alex Drake to the office."
Alex sighed in relief as the intercom put a stop to her unsavory ruminations and cut Aria off. She pushed her tray into the middle of the table and stood, collecting her backpack from the floor. "Here. Someone eat my baby carrots. I gotta go."
For once in her lifetime, she'd be relieved to see Hackett's ugly mug, an excuse to get her mind off Aria's unfathomable beauty.
The empty halls were good for clearing her head, and Alex took her time to get to the front office so she could think. She had quite a few experiences under her belt when it came to sex. Was an expert on the topic, really, and could spew innuendo like her life depended on it. But she'd never really had cause to consider her sexuality. Everything she'd ever done was always with guys. Yeah, she checked out other girls and could definitely drool over some of them, but that didn't mean she was gay, did it? Male butts were just as pleasing to the eye.
So what was that? Bi?
She'd ask her sister about it. Not Spencer—who was a bit of a prude and straight as a ruler anyway—but Charlotte. She'd accidentally witnessed plenty of girls and guys climb into Charlotte's window at night—and she could sometimes hear what they got up to, but ew, she didn't want to think about that—so she might know a few things. And her big sister was a guru on everything and anything anyway.
Yeah. Good plan.
She could've tried to sort through her jumbled mess of feelings for Aria, too, but no way were the halls long enough for that.
Vice Principal Hackett was going through a stack of papers with the glumest of looks on his face when she stepped through the door. He glanced up, seemingly getting a migraine as he laid eyes on her for what was probably the hundredth time this year. He pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed in pure exhaustion. "Miss Drake, why can't you be more like your sister and stay out of my office?"
"Well," she began, plopping down in the cushioned chair in front of his desk. "I'd love to answer that, but I'm not sure which sister you mean."
"Ah, yes, the elder of you three: The infamous Charlotte Drake. She sat in that chair more times than I'd like to remember."
"And now she's turned her life around. Which means there's hope. For me. And I'll get there eventually, which means there's no need for any sort of punishment." She started to push herself to her feet. "But good talk, Hackett–"
He pointed at her. "Sit. Down. I'm sorry, Alex, but I'm obligated to give you two more days of detention for skipping the last. Please try your best to stay put this time."
"Great! I will! So if that's all–"
"I'm also obligated to call your mother, who might be interested in hearing about this."
Alex winced. Damn. She'd managed not to be a victim of homicide so far in her life, but there was no guarantee that record would last when her mother got a call from Hackett again.
"You can go now, but I hope I won't see you again for a while, Miss Drake," he said, with a pointed look. "Alright?"
Her shoulders slumped. "Yes, sir."
She shuffled out of the main office, unconsoled by the secretary's sympathetic glance and offer of a mint. Nancy was such a nice lady and all, but Alex really wasn't in the mood to return any smiles.
She took the mint, though.
"So you got two more days of detention and Hackett's calling your mom? Brutal." Alison pulled a folder out of her locker, flipped through it, and put it back.
Leaning against the locker beside her cousin's, Alex crossed her arms and watched a confused ant crawl across the floor tiles until it was crushed under the feet of people stampeding to escape the building. "Yeah. It really sucks."
"Well my mom is planning to drag me to some dumb dinner party on Saturday. I know it's not really your scene, but Hanna's having a date night with Caleb and Spencer said she's busy, so it's just Em and Aria going. But Aria's worried she'll be a third wheel." Ali shot her a conspiratorial look, a smug smile on her lips. "You should come. You might get some alone time with her."
Alex pushed herself off the locker, lifting an eyebrow. "Alison Dilaurentis, what do you think you know?"
"I saw you being all slack-jawed at lunch—you looked like the walking definition of lovesick. Em and I were talking about it in chem. She thinks it's cute." Ali tucked a textbook under her arm and closed her locker door. "You'd look good together. And I think she might like you too."
They started to walk towards Emily's locker, where she was sliding the same textbook Ali had into her backpack.
"Hey, babe," said Alison, standing on tiptoe to peck Emily on the cheek. "Ready for our study date?"
The swimmer smiled, acknowledging Alex with a friendly nod and turning to return Alison's kiss. "Yeah, of course."
Ali raised up to Emily's ear then and whispered something that made her girlfriend's face flush red, and Alex concluded that they were probably going to be doing more than studying.
Lucky them.
"Can you two stop being gross a minute?" Alex cut in, after Alison had abandoned her book and looped her arms around Emily's neck, and the pair had been staring lustily into each other's eyes for several long seconds like this was the fucking prom. "I need to ask you something."
"What is it?" asked Em, visibly deflating as Ali slipped out of her embrace.
"Have you noticed anything weird about Spencer?" said Alex. "I mean, besides the fact that she wears too many ties?"
Emily shook her head, while Alison seemed to be thinking about it.
"She brushed me off earlier when I asked about the dinner party," said the blonde. "But otherwise, she seems like the usual uptight Spencer Drake we all know and love."
"Is everything okay?" added Em.
Alex sighed. "No, I don't think it is. She kind of had a mini breakdown on Charlotte and I yesterday and now she's avoiding me so I don't ask anymore questions. You said she told you she was busy on Saturday?"
Alison nodded. "Yeah. What do you think is up?"
"I have no idea, but I'm starting to think it's nothing good."
"Are you guys talking about Spencer?"
They all spun to face Hanna, who looked slightly irked.
"Yeah, why?" Alison lifted a brow.
"I just ran into her in the bathroom, and she was all jittery and nervous like she had something to hide."
Emily crossed her arms. "Did she talk to you?"
Hanna mirrored Emily's posture, shrugging. "She kept looking at her watch when I asked why she was M.I.A. at lunch and then ducked out of there awfully fast."
"At her watch? She doesn't have practice today or anything," said Alex. "Was she meeting somebody?"
"What like a drug deal?"
Emily rolled her eyes. "Hanna, it could literally be anything else."
Alison's head swiveled to look at Alex. "Toby, maybe?"
"You think she's pregnant?"
"Hanna!"
Hanna threw her hands up in defense. "What? I'm throwing out options!"
"She better not be." Alex looked to the heavens and sent a brief prayer to whoever was listening. "Our mom would kill her, bury her in the backyard, dig her up, and then kill her again. And then we'd both be dead!"
"Speaking of, don't you have to get to detention?" said Ali.
"Shit!" Alex cried. "I'll see you guys tomorrow?"
Everyone nodded, so she shoved through the lingering groups of kids and headed toward the room detention was in.
Turning a corner, her eyes landed on the junior English classroom, where a particular petite brunette was talking to Mr. Fitz. She was holding a paper, probably a bad grade she was hoping to get fixed or something, and she looked to be pleading. As Alex got closer, she noticed how close he was standing, how his hand lingered on Aria's shoulder.
She'd never realized their English teacher was such a creep.
She waved at Aria as she passed, made sure she was okay. When she got a little further down the hall from them, she paused when she overheard Fitz hushed words.
"We can continue this in my classroom."
The door closed with a chilling click and Alex spun on her heel. What was this guy's intent? He spoke with the cadence of a serial killer… and who closes the door to talk about a paper? The blinds were drawn, but she managed to peek through a tiny crack to see him sit Aria on the edge of his desk, looking at her like she was his whole world.
But his hands were holding both of her wrists, trapping her. He was saying something, though Alex couldn't tell what, and Aria shook her head hesitantly, recoiling away from him. He apparently took this as an invitation and pushed her further onto the desk, sliding a hand up Aria's thigh, his face twisting in a nasty, gleeful way that made Alex's blood boil.
She yanked open the door and made a beeline for him, vision clouding with red. Before she knew what she was doing, she had a fistful of fabric at the back of his collar and was yanking him off of Aria. He choked, twisting around and throwing a clumsy fist at her. She saw it coming and ducked away, but wasn't lucky enough to keep her grip on him.
He whirled around and glared at her, chest heaving and a cold look in his eyes. She felt sick at the way his lip curled like a predator when he sized her up, eyes raking down her body. "Miss Drake. To what do I owe the pleasure?"
"What the fuck are you doing, you sick bastard?"
"Miss Montgomery was just turning in an extra credit assignment. Now that I think about it, your grades aren't perfect either, Miss Drake." He chuckled, but there was a particular nastiness to his level tone. "Of course, I'd love to help you with that."
Her knuckles ached as they made contact with his face, and she heard the sickening crunch of his nose breaking. He screamed, and she followed up with a knee to his groin, sending him sinking to the ground.
"Not today, asshat."
Aria dodged around his crumpled body as Alex reached out to take her hand.
"What the hell is going on in here?"
A couple of guys were rushing into the room to help Fitz to his feet, and his face became eerily calm, even as blood gushed over his lips and down his chin. "It's fine, it's fine," he was saying. "She just snapped."
Alex went for his throat. "You liar–"
It was only when the meaty hands and buff arms of jocks pulled her off of Fitz did she realize that she'd played right into his hand. They were dragging her out of the room like she'd gone full-on psycho and—with a reputation like hers—they probably believed it.
Well shit.
"He's a fucking pedophile!" she screamed. "Let go of me, you pricks! I didn't do anything wrong!"
Even amidst all the chaos that had erupted, she had to hand it to him. Mr. Fitz was playing this perfectly, looking wide-eyed and wounded at the accusation. Consolatory hands patted his shoulder, handed him tissues to wipe the blood off his face.
And Aria, the real victim in all of this, was standing among the small group of curious passerby, unnoticed. Her eyes were red with tears, lips pressed together in an expression that nearly broke Alex's heart in two. It also made her want to castrate Fitz, but that was for another time. Right now she needed to convince everyone that she was calm.
She went slack in the restraining hands, let herself be surrendered over to the resource officer, who gripped her upper arm hard.
Then she was in Hackett's office again. Only this time she had ice on her knuckles and an officer watching her like a hawk. She'd explained the situation, but they'd listened to Fitz's take and believed him. Aria had attempted to come to her aid, though two teenager's words weren't much against the word of a reputable, scholarly man.
Her next stop was the back of a police car. It was highly unpleasant, but all she could do was try not to slide around on the hard plastic bench. The cuffs on her wrists kept cutting into her skin and her bandaged knuckles hurt like a bitch. It smelled faintly of urine and vomit in the backseat, and that mixed with the bite of antiseptic lingering on her skin was enough to make her eyes water. Oh, and someone had probably died right where she was sitting, yet the words "Have Fun" were carelessly scrawled on the plexiglass barrier in sharpie, mocking her.
Alex was not, in fact, having any sort of fun whatsoever.
A/N: Thanks for all the lovely reviews last chapter! I have a feeling they'll be what helps keep the ball rolling with this story, so keep 'em coming :) And if you can't tell, I'm totally winging these chapters, but I've got a loose series of events in mind. Stick around to see what they are. :D
