JJ

She seethed with anger as she struggled to resist reacting to what she had just overheard. The fire behind JJ's eyes reignited and her knuckles turned white as her grip tightened and tightened around her pencil. Her knee bounced as she attempted to contain her emotions, but the scene that had just unfolded in front of her replayed over and over.

JJ glanced upward from her paper as she heard metal scrape against the floor and watched Emily slide off her chair and work to file her work back into her backpack. As she realized that she was headed this way, JJ looked back at her paper, distractedly reading and rereading the question as Emily walked by.

"What I would give to tap that." Ian Doyle whispered to JJ's boyfriend, barely audible. She quietly eavesdropped, tuning out the low chatter that filled the room. Ian was Will's best friend and they were practically joined at the hip, as they held the same values in terms of football, misogyny, and "dark humor."

Will looked towards Ian and smirked slightly. "She has to be new," Will added in a hushed tone, before turning to watch Emily walk out the door. "I would remember an ass like that." JJ's brow furrowed before absentmindedly writing something about her down. Will slid his chair away from her and closer to Ian to listen to what his friend had to say about this new girl next, and if they were, in fact, on the same wavelength.

"Give me 'til the end of the day, I bet I could convince her to come over to your place." Ian whispered, his voice so quiet that JJ strained to understand him. Will thought it over. On one hand, he did have a pretty hot girlfriend, but she never wanted to do anything with him. He was lucky if he could stay on first base. Meanwhile, this new girl made him reminisce about being single again. He was already picturing his wildest fantasies, excited that Ian seemed confident in his promise. And he did happen to like brunettes more than blondes.

"I'm in. Do you think she seems easy?" He shifted his jaw from side to side in contemplation.

"Totally. She screams nervous. I heard 'Dr. Who' over there talking about all of her classes and shit," nodding towards Spencer across the room. "Emily Prentiss. It won't take more than a couple periods." Ian smirked.

JJ sighed shakily as she felt her face get warm with alarm and panic, realizing what exactly just happened. Feeling a cold sweat on the back of her neck, she excused herself and walked to the girls' bathroom that was out of the way. She blamed herself, she had always been far too lenient with Will and his antics. It was like she practically was signing off on Will getting what JJ refused to give while she was at soccer practice. No matter how much she wanted to cast the blame onto this problematic new student, she had to take sole responsibility.

As she pushed open the door and strode toward the mirror, JJ reminded herself she could still hold resentment towards this girl. It wasn't even third period and Emily had ruined her life in more ways than one. She stared at herself in the mirror before taking a few deep breaths. She then spun on her heel to leave, and that's when she saw her. Emily Prentiss was staring up at her from around the corner. Of course.

It took all of JJ's strength not to unleash all of her anger unto Emily. She always showed up to make her remind JJ how her current life teetered all on the few things that were out of her control, whether she liked it or not. It was like all of her insecurities and negative ruminations of herself manifested itself into Emily Prentiss and danced around while mocking her from afar. Yet while she now constantly affected JJ's thoughts, Emily got to sit there, acting to clueless as to what she was doing.

Livid, JJ stormed out, unaware her lip was quivering. It wasn't fair. She had worked so hard and sacrificed so much for what she had currently, and within an hour, this girl who nobody's heard of before steps up and challenges her. JJ was thrown for a wide loop. Sucking in almost a forced breath, she walked back to class. She wanted to do nothing more than slap Will straight across the face, but it was as if he created her. If JJ challenged her boyfriend and the relationship then crumbled into nothingness, she would be the one left with nothing. All of her current friends were ultimately loyal to her boyfriend and she easily deduced that her initial friends would want nothing to do with her. JJ was left with an ultimatum that she unknowingly created herself.

As the day progressed, JJ observed almost the entirety of her schedule was shared with Emily. It was as if the universe was punishing her, or her karma was finally balancing out for failing to remain friends with Derek, Aaron, and Penelope. It was now lunch and JJ absentmindedly stabbed at her salad and watched Emily sit a couple tables away, with her old friends, laughing and talking with vibrance. She felt pangs of jealousy course through her, but she dismissed them as mere excitement to see Spencer after practice.

Becoming angrier and angrier with both the brunette and herself, she decided to read over the varsity roster for girls' soccer as a method of distraction. As the captain, JJ needed to be on her game from day one. It was the first time a junior was selected to be the leader, and she figured proving herself meant keeping the spot for next year. She didn't expect it to be hard though, JJ knew she was good. Her room was littered with trophies, and she spent hours sometimes just practicing by herself in the backyard. Soccer was the one thing that held her life together, even if everything else around her was spinning.

JJ's eyes lazily looked at bolded names and the faces next to them, half memorizing them. The last minute distraction was so mundane she found herself attention rapidly dissipate, until her eyes immediately bugged. A girl with a black bob and bangs looked back at JJ from the paper in black and white ink, with a bolded name next to it.

Emily Prentiss.