Ali woke up with the feeling of Emily's arms wrapped around her. She was feeling a bit better than she had been on Thursday because she had stayed home from school yesterday, but she still hated the fact the she needed to stay home at all. She hated the way that people were being so ruthless to her, and she hated the way that Mona had turned her back on her so quickly, but most of all, she hated feeling so helpless. She couldn't even get out of bed on her own right now. She would have to either lie still and wait for Emily to wake up or wake the brunette up herself. She knew what the swimmer would want her to do, but she already felt bad that her girlfriend had to take care of her. She wasn't going to wake her up now as well.

Ali decided to try and get into her chair on her own. If she could get from the bed to the chair, then that would be one less thing that Emily had to do for her. She carefully slipped out of Emily's arms and dragged herself to the edge of the bed. She looked at the spot where the chair was waiting next to the bed, and she knew this was a bad idea, but she had to do something for herself. She had to try, at least. Ali held firm to the arms of the chair and began to pull herself out of the bed and into the chair. She smiled when she realized that it was working. Then, her legs fell from the bed and acted as deadweight, dragging her down. She crashed to the floor with a thud. Emily's eyes flew open, and she began to blink the sleep out of them as she tried to figure out what had happened. "Ali! What the hell are you doing?!"

Ali sat up, frustrated with herself and immediately on the defensive. "I was tired of feeling so damn helpless, so I tried to get in my wheelchair on my own for once."

"How could you do something like that?" Anger was still boiling behind Emily's brown eyes. "Please don't ever do it again. You could've gotten hurt!"

Emily's anger only fueled Ali's frustration, and she found herself snapping at the other girl. "Have you forgotten, Em? I already got hurt. What could be worse than this?!"

Ali tried to quell her rage when she noticed the hurt look in Emily's eyes, and she took a deep breath, realizing that Emily was only trying to keep her safe. Ali instantly felt guilty, and she opened her mouth to apologize, but before she could get a word out, she was interrupted by the sound of Emily's phone ringing. The brunette grabbed it off her nightstand, checking the caller ID before answering it.

"Hey Hanna," Alison heard her say, and the blonde wondered what it was that the other girl was calling for. She tried to listen in to what Hanna was saying, but she could only hear Emily's end of the conversation. "Well, I'd have to bring Ali. I obviously can't leave her here by herself." Ali's face flushed with embarrassment when she heard that, and she chanced a glance up at the brunette to see brown eyes glaring at her. Ali instantly dropped her own eyes back to the ground, feeling a bit like a naughty child. Emily then put her hand over the mouth piece, taking her phone away from her ear a bit to speak to Ali. "Do you want to come with me to hang out with Hanna and Aria?"

No. That was Ali's immediate answer. She had liked Hanna and Aria when she met them at school, but she really just wasn't feeling up to hanging out with anyone. She wished she could just stay holed up in Emily's house forever, but she knew that was not an option, and she also knew that she needed to go with Emily today. There was no way the brunette would let her stay at the house by herself after the stunt that she had just pulled, and she didn't want Emily to have to stay behind and look after her instead of hanging out with her friends. Ali supposed that it could be fun, so she shrugged in answer to Emily's question. "I guess. Can I invite Spencer?"

Emily put the phone back to her ear, speaking to Hanna again. "Can Spencer tag along as well?" Emily nodded to Alison, and the blonde smiled a little at the thought that her friend would be there.

"Okay. See you soon," Ali heard Emily say before hanging up the phone. Ali didn't really want to go hang out today, but she decided she'd have to bear it because she didn't want to burden Emily any more than she already had.


When the two girls arrived at Hanna's house, Ali admired the outside of it. She didn't know what she had been expecting, but she hadn't thought Hanna's house would look so nice. The inside was no different, and Ali was pleased to find that Spencer was already there, along with Aria. Emily simply carried Alison into the house, leaving her wheelchair in the car. Ali knew the brunette was only trying to make her feel better, but it wasn't working. Having to be carried in wasn't any different than using her wheelchair. It didn't make her look any less weak.

When they got upstairs, Emily sat down on Hanna's bed with the other girls, placing Ali down next to her, and the blonde immediately buried her face in her girlfriend's shoulder, hoping that she could just sit there and pretend she didn't exist. This only worked for about five seconds before Aria was already talking to her. "Alison, what's wrong?"

Ali made no move to answer, and Emily rolled her eyes. "She's okay. She's just having a hard time getting used to her condition."

Spencer was quick to jump in. "Aw, come on, Ali. Just forget about that for today. We're not going to treat you any different like those freaks at school. Let's just have fun, okay?"

Ali groaned, realizing they weren't going to stop trying, so she relented, looking up. "Fine."

Hanna gestured over to the pizza boxes that were sitting on her bedside table. "We ordered pizza. What kind do you want?"

Ali just shrugged. "I'll have cheese."

"Coming right up, Your Majesty," Hanna put a slice of cheese pizza on a plate and handed it to Alison. This caused Ali to crack a smile as she thanked the other girl. She didn't know if Hanna was just trying to make her feel better or if she was still holding onto her idolization of Alison, despite the fact that she was not popular any more. Ali thought that it was probably a mixture of both, but nevertheless, she was glad for the distraction. She noticed Emily shoot Hanna a grateful look, and she knew that the brunette didn't think she noticed, but she was glad for the reminder of how much her girlfriend cared about her all the same.

After getting slices of pizza for everyone else, Hanna resumed her position on her bed. "So, do you guys want to watch a movie?"

Emily nodded in agreement. "Sure. What did you have in mind?"

Ali had to admit that she wouldn't mind watching a movie. She always loved that activity because it took her mind off of things for a while. It was like an escape from the real world, and she certainly needed that every now and then. She listened intently as Hanna next started speaking to see what movie she would be suggesting.

"How about The Notebook?" Hanna asked.

Aria was quick to disagree. "No. We always watch that, Han. How about something old-school, like The Scarlet Letter or Wuthering Heights?"

Spencer nodded. "Yes. I agree with Aria."

Ali was not surprised. Spencer loved all of those movies that were based off of the books Ali would only ever read in literature classes. Spencer loved all of the classics, and Ali couldn't say that she joined in this love. She found herself agreeing with Hanna on the movie choice.

Aria smiled at Spencer's agreement, and a smug look took over her features. "Ha ha, two to one, and we all know Emily's always neutral. Looks like I win."

Hanna scowled for a moment before turning to Ali with bright blue eyes. "Wait. Alison hasn't picked yet. Her vote counts for like a million."

Aria mulled this over and then shrugged, seeming to agree. "Fine. What movie do you want to watch, Alison?"

Ali didn't know if they were giving her special treatment because of her accident or because of the power that she had previously held at school, but Ali didn't want it either way. She wanted them to see that she was no different than them, but she figured the only way that that would happen was if she hung around them more, so she gave her honest answer to the question. "I'd actually rather watch The Notebook if that's okay."

Aria's shoulders slumped a little, but she didn't argue. "Yeah. That's fine."

Hanna cheered and put the movie in, and Ali smirked when she noticed Spencer glaring at her out of the corner of her eye. However, Ali hadn't just done it to make Spencer mad. She really didn't want to watch those movies that Aria had listed because she had never really cared for the classics that she had read. Besides, Ali had to admit that she loved The Notebook. She had watched it a lot as a kid, and she really loved the story. She had always admired the strong love in the movie and had always hoped that she would find her own someday. She thought that she might have just found that kind of strong love with Emily, and she certainly never intended to let the brunette go. She had been a fool to ever even think of it.

As Ali cuddled into Emily's side, she could tell that this was one of Hanna's favorite movies by the way she mouthed a lot of the quotes. Ali would be lying if she said that she didn't know most of the movie by heart as well, but she didn't want the others to know what a sucker she was for the film. The movie did succeed in taking her mind off of things, and by the time it was over, she felt a lot better than she had when she first arrived. So much better, in fact, that she actually wanted to hang out with Emily and her friends.

"Do you guys want to play a game?" Ali asked, and everyone looked surprised at the fact that she seemed so much more lighthearted than she had earlier.

Hanna was the first to recover from her shock. "Yes. Let's play truth or dare."

No one argued with that, and Ali found that she was actually kind of excited. She and her friends never really played games, and she knew that truth or dare was a popular game at parties. Ali could never allow herself to join in with everyone else's games though. She, Mona, and Spencer were normally holding court somewhere or flirting with some of the boys on the lacrosse team. Alison definitely wanted to play this game that she had been missing out on.

"Okay. Who wants to go first?" Hanna asked.

"I guess I will," Aria volunteered.

"Truth or dare?"

"I'll take dare."

Hanna thought for a moment before responding. "I dare you to go streaking down the street and back." Everyone burst out laughing, except Aria of course. The brunette just sat there open-mouthed, looking at Hanna in shock. Ali had to admit that she hadn't been expecting such an extreme dare either.

"Like, naked?" Aria asked, still in shock.

Hanna raised an eyebrow at her. "Yes. That's what streaking means."

Aria vigorously shook her head. "No way. There is no way I am doing that."

"You have to," Hanna told her. "If you didn't want to do it, you shouldn't have chosen dare."

Aria realized that everyone was looking at her expectantly, and she relented. "Fine."

Ali was surprised when Aria actually did it, stripping out of her clothes and walking outside. Everyone else watched from the window as Aria ran down the street and back, butt naked, and Ali could not stop laughing, thinking this dare to be extremely funny, and suddenly sort of glad she had never played this game before. The instant Aria was back inside, she put all of her clothes back on and turned to Hanna. "Alright. Your turn, Hanna. Truth or dare?"

"Dare," Hanna said easily.

"I dare you to go next door and moon Mrs. Galloway while she's gardening," Aria said right away, clearly having come up with this great dare beforehand.

"What?" Hanna asked, and Ali was surprised that the blonde hadn't been expecting something like that after the dare she had just given to Aria.

"You have to do it. You chose dare," Aria teased, repeating Hanna's words from earlier.

Hanna rolled her eyes. "Okay, okay. I'm going."

Hanna walked outside, and the others decided to follow, wanting a good view to make sure that Hanna actually did the dare. Ali clung to Emily as they went down the stairs, and the group stopped on the porch, hanging back as Hanna walked over to the unsuspecting old woman next door. Mrs. Galloway was watering her flowers when Hanna yelled, "Hey, Mrs. Galloway!"

The poor woman looked up to see Hanna turn around and pull down her pants, successfully completing her dare. Mrs. Galloway clutched her heat and shouted in surprise, and the four waiting on the steps snorted with laughter as Hanna ran past them into the house. The others followed Hanna back up to her room and settled back onto the blonde's bed as she scowled at all of them. "I'm never going to be able to face her ever again."

Aria just shrugged. "Everyone else thought it was funny."

The others nodded, and Hanna grumbled under her breath as Ali decided to ask the next question. "Your turn, Spence. Truth or dare?"

"I'm gonna be safe and go with truth," Spencer said, and Ali couldn't say she blamed her after the dares that had just been issued. However, Ali knew that she could think of a truth question that would make Spencer regret her choice.

"Okay, but truth is definitely not safe," Ali told her. "Have you and Toby had sex yet?"

Toby was a year ahead of them, and he was Spencer's boyfriend of two months. The blonde couldn't help but wonder if Toby had finally gotten the prudish brunette to sleep with him yet. As far as Ali knew, Spencer had never slept with anyone yet, and she was curious to see if that had changed. Ali wasn't surprised that Spencer looked uncomfortable at the question. "That's personal."

Ali just raised an eyebrow. "You chose truth. You have to answer the question."

"Maybe," Spencer said in a small voice.

Ali just smirked. "That's not a real answer."

"Okay, fine. Yes, we have," Spencer admitted, blushing, and Ali couldn't say she was surprised. The two of them did seem to be in love, and Ali was happy for Spencer about it. She was still curious though.

"How many times?"

"You only get one question," Spencer said, glaring at her. "Besides, it's your turn. Truth or dare?"

"I'll go with dare," Ali said, not feeling like disclosing any personal information in front of these people that she had just met. Besides, she knew that Spencer would never dare her to do anything as ridiculous as the dares that Aria and Hanna had come up with.

"I dare you to prank call Mona," Spencer said.

Ali's brows furrowed in confusion. "She'll recognize my phone number."

"So use someone else's phone." Spencer looked pointedly over at Aria, Hanna, and Emily.

Aria pulled her phone out of her pocket before unlocking it and handing it over to Ali. "You can use my phone."

Ali accepted the phone before looking back to Spencer for instructions. "What do you want me to say?"

Spencer shrugged. "Anything you want. It's completely up to you."

"Okay." A devilish grin spread across Alison's face as she dialed Mona's number. She had just thought of a great plan for her dare, a plan to get back at both of her enemies at once.

"Hello?" Mona answered.

"Hey. This is Paige McCullers." Ali did her best impression of Paige, hoping that she was disguising her voice enough so that Mona would not recognize her.

"That loser from the swim team?" Mona asked skeptically.

"That's me," Ali said before declaring, "I am so in love with you."

Ali saw Emily snickering beside her, and she turned the other way. It was hard enough for the blonde to do this with a straight face as it was. She didn't need Emily making her laugh and blowing her cover.

She could practically see Mona rolling her eyes through the phone. "I'm not a lesbian, and I didn't think you were either."

"Well, I am. You're so gorgeous," Ali continued.

"How did you even get my number, you little creep?" She could tell that Mona's temper was rising, and she intended to push Mona far enough so that she'd do something about it.

"I have so many hot fantasies about you," Ali pushed on, trying to sound as disturbing as possible.

Mona scoffed. "That's disgusting. Just stay away from me, you stalker."

"You don't even know the things I want to do to you right now." Ali heard Mona hang up, and she breathed a sigh of relief as she could finally burst out laughing. The others joined her, clearly having been struggling to keep their own laughter in as well.

"I can't believe you just did that!" Emily was the first one to speak up.

Spencer's eyes were shining with amusement. "I can't wait to see Mona's reaction on Monday. You know she will totally confront Paige about it."

"Oh, I know. That's why I did it." Ali handed the phone back to Aria. She couldn't wait to see what Mona did on Monday either. Her dare might have been to prank call Mona, but she had used this opportunity to bring Paige down even further than she already was. She wished she could do something more, but she didn't want to sink to the other girl's level.

"Well, Emily. You're next," Hanna said. "You're the only one who hasn't gone."

Emily nodded. "Okay. Give me a dare."

"I dare you to TP the Cavanaughs' house," Hanna said, referring to Emily's next-door neighbors.

Spencer immediately began to protest. "We are not TPing Toby's house."

"Why not?" Ali asked. "You said he was out of town with his dad this weekend anyway. The only people who will be there will be his stepmom and his horrible stepsister."

Spencer seemed to mull this over, and Ali could tell she was thinking about it. "Jenna is a huge bitch."

"Wait a second. If we do this, we have to go all the way back to my house," Emily whined. "Can't I just TP one of your neighbors' houses instead?

Hanna scoffed. "All the way to your house. It is like a three minute drive from here. I'll drive if you want, and I can even supply the toilet paper. It's like my mom has an endless supply of the stuff. She won't miss one pack. Or at least, I hope she won't."

"You have to do it," Spencer told Emily, and Alison nodded in agreement. Everyone else did their dares, and she knew it would be hilarious to watch her girlfriend perform her own.

"It sounds like fun too," Ali added.

"Okay, fine. Let's go." Emily huffed, scooping Alison off of the bed to head to the car. On the way out, Hanna grabbed two packs of toilet paper from the supply closet.

Emily gave her an incredulous look. "Seriously, Hanna? Two packs of toilet paper?"

"What? We need enough to TP the house really good," Hanna argued.

Emily just shook her head, and Ali smiled, realizing that she really liked this other blonde and wondering why she had never allowed herself to hang out with Emily's friends before. The way that she had held her reputation so highly before was seeming sillier to her every day now, and she realized that she would've been much happier if she would've just allowed herself to be a normal girl.


When they arrived at the house, Emily got out Alison's wheelchair and placed in on the lawn, setting Ali down in it so that she could watch. Hanna, Aria, and Spencer stood beside her as Emily pulled a roll from the first pack of toilet paper. Emily threw the roll over the top of the house, and Hanna wiggled in excitement. "I have to get in on this."

Hanna ran up to grab a roll, not being able to resist getting in on the dare that she had created. Aria and Spencer looked at each other and shrugged, going forward to pick up their own rolls. Ali decided to grab a roll too, throwing it over the house like she had just watched Emily do. Soon, Emily grabbed a roll and tied it to the highest branch of one of the small trees in the front yard, and then she beckoned to Ali. The blonde wheeled over and accepted the roll that Emily held out to her. She squealed in surprise when Emily began to push her around and around the tree, winding the toilet paper around it as they went. Ali let out a chuckle, and Emily shot her a genuine smile. The two of them did the same to the other trees in the yard while Spencer covered the bushes that lined the front of the house, and Hanna and Aria wound it around the porch rail and posts and covered the table and chairs. Before they could finish with the last few rolls, the porch door opened, and everyone looked up in alarm. Ali's shoulders slumped in relief when they realized that it was Jenna, who had been blinded by some accident before she moved to Rosewood. Hanna and Aria carefully crept off of the porch as Jenna called out, "Who's there? Is someone there?"

Ali smiled deviously as she grabbed another roll from the bag and threw it at Jenna, hitting her right in the face. No one could contain their laughter as Jenna fell onto her butt, so they all got away as quickly as they could, hoping that Jenna couldn't pick up on who had been there from the sound of their laughs. The five of them ducked into Emily's house for cover so that they could finally laugh freely as they all fell onto the couches.

"That was so much fun!" Hanna exclaimed once their laughter had died down.

Spencer nodded. "I agree. I had a great time."

"Yeah. Thanks for inviting me, guys," Ali said. "I definitely needed that. I had a blast!"

Aria smiled at her. "No problem. It was definitely fun having you and Spencer along."

Emily looked down at her watch before turning her attention back to the group. "Well, it's like 7. Do you guys want to head back to Hanna's to get our cars?"

"Yeah. If you don't mind." Spencer looked to Hanna.

"That's fine with me," Hanna said.

"Do you want to come with us, Ali?" Emily asked.

"No. I think I'll stay here," Ali told her.

Emily gave her a disapproving glance. "Ali."

Ali's gaze softened as she realized that Emily was just worried about her. "I'll be fine, Em. I won't do anything stupid. I promise I won't move from this couch."

"Okay, fine," Emily relented. "I'll be back soon."

Ali said her goodbyes to everyone, and then she was left to her own devices. She turned on the TV, flipping through the channels to try and find something halfway decent to watch. In the end, she settled on some movie that she was only half-paying attention to. She settled back into the couch to get more comfortable, and she felt her eyelids begin to droop. She realized that she was feeling a bit exhausted, and she tried to stay awake, wanting to wait for Emily to come home, but after ten minutes, she found that she couldn't as she drifted off to sleep.


When Emily finally got back from Hanna's house, she found Ali sleeping peacefully on the couch with the TV on. She breathed a sigh of relief at the sight. She had been worried about the blonde the whole time she was away, and she knew that she would have to learn to let her girlfriend be on her own some, but the stunt that Ali had pulled this morning was still fresh in her mind. She contemplated on whether she should wake Ali up or not to see if the blonde was hungry, but she decided against it, thinking that the other girl looked too calm to disturb, and so, she turned the TV off so that the blonde could sleep more comfortably. Emily made herself a quick dinner, eating quietly before retreating up the stairs to her room.

When she came back downstairs that night, Emily was surprised to find her girlfriend still asleep on the couch. She would've thought for sure that the other girl would be awake by now, but it seemed that Ali was tired and would be out for the night. Emily carefully picked her up and carried her up the stairs, laying her out on the bed and placing a tender kiss to her temple before climbing onto the mattress behind her. As Emily snuggled into her girlfriend, she thought of how nice today had been, for herself as well, but mainly for the blonde. Ali had been so carefree today, in a way that Emily hadn't seen since before the accident. Emily thought that this day might have been the most carefree that she'd ever seen Alison before at all, and the thought made her smile. As the scenes from today played on the backs of Emily's eyelids, she made a mental note to try and get Ali to hang out with her friends as much as she could. She wished that nothing bad had ever happened to Alison, but as she could not go back in time and prevent the accident from happening, she would have to settle for doing whatever she could to make it easier for Ali now. Emily buried her face in Ali's golden curls and tangled her legs with the other girl's in order to feel closer to her, even though she knew the blonde could not feel it.


AN: I hope you all enjoyed the more lighthearted chapter this time, but I have to say that it is the calm before the storm. Thank you all for reading!