A/N: To answer some of your questions, yes, I did use the summary from the book. Don't kill me, okay? I used it because, well, what summary would better fit a Pretty Little Liars summary than the actual Pretty Little Liars summary? Like I said, if you want me to continue, I'm going to be using a lot of dialogue from the book. So if that makes you feel uncomfortable, then I'm warning you, you might not want to read this. But don't think I'm the fist person of to do this. I've seen a lot of other writers do the exact same thing, and people seem to be okay with this. So again, don't call the cops on me or anything.
And to answer yet another question: Couples? You'll have to read and find out. ;)
Pretty Little Liars
Three may keep a secret, if two of them are dead.
- Benjamin Franklin
"Shelley! Shelley, can you please just tell us where we're going?" a young brunette girl squealed into the darkness.
"To the old barn, of course," another young girl replied. The girl known as Shelley, had bright blonde hair, with she had dyed because of her obsession with the color and she was sick of her own boring brown.
"Guys, would you please just wait up?" This time, it was a girl with fiery red hair. You could almost say that the color of her hair fit her personality.
Just when they reached the barn, two other girls ran up behind them, holding hands. They were terrified of the dark. Shelley instructed the brunette to open the door, and with a roll of her eyes, she obliged.
"Why do you always tell me what to do?" she whined.
"You were the closest, that's all," Shelley replied nonchalantly.
"You were closer!" The brunette shrieked.
"So? Alright, everyone's in. Brooke, you can close the door now," Shelley said. Brooke, who was practically fuming with anger, flipped Shelley the bird and sat down in the hay that covered the entire floor of the rusty barn.
One of the girls that came in holding hands sighed. "I'll get it." She slid the door shut and took her place next to the pouting brunette on the floor. Noticing that the brunette was upset, the girl put her arm around her. The brunette smiled at her as the others took their places among the splintered floor. Their were five girls total, each looking unique in their own way. There was Haley James, the one who had closed the door.
She had long, wavy auburn hair that fell just below her shoulders. She was known as the quiet one of their group. At school, she was a bookworm, straight "A" student, and loved reading. Although she was somewhat of a geek, she had natural, pretty features, with rosy apple cheeks. The girl to the left of her was Rachel Gatina.
Rachel had hair the color of boiling lava. To the girls, Rachel was completely in love with herself. She could have any boy she wanted, yet she still preferred herself. Keep going around the circle, and you would come across Peyton Sawyer, a tall girl with mop of messy, wild blonde curls atop her head. Peyton was dark and moody and very sarcastic. It was one of her talents, she would say.
She also had another talent: drawing. Her mother had taught her when she was little, and it grew from there. She would've loved to show her mother her artwork, but that would require her mother to be alive first. Next to her was Shelley, the leader of the group. Shelley was the holder of all the secrets.
She knew everything single thing about all of the girls, and that was sometimes a dangerous fact. Last, but certainly didn't think of herself as least, was Brooke Davis. Although Rachel believed herself to be it, Brooke was definitely the beauty of the group. It was truly a gift for someone so young. She had long, chocolate silk for hair. Her head of hair was the one all of the Tree Hill boys wanted to run the fingers through. When she smiled, dime-sized dimples would pop out of nowhere, making your heart sizzle. Brooke knew she was beautiful; she could use it to her advantage. It was her gift and her curse.
In a way, Brooke was the only girl in the group that made Shelley nervous. Although they considered each other friends, Shelley was always afraid that Brooke would be the one to knock her out of her place as the leader of the group. That was why Shelley was always ordering Brooke around, more so than the others. It was now getting to the point, though, where Brooke was growing tired of Shelley's orders, and a fire was beginning to grow inside her.
"So," Peyton spoke, breaking the silence. "What are we going to do?"
"We could play truth or dare," Haley suggested.
"Oh, please, Tutor Girl, like you would ever take a dare," Rachel snorted. "Last time we played, you would even take chickens when you picked truth!"
"Whatever," muttered a defeated Haley.
"Oh, I know!" Rachel clapped her hands. "We could streak naked and fence the pool and go skinny dipping again!"
All the other girls started giggling at the thought. It was noticable that Peyton was laughing a little more enthusiastically than the others.
"If I recall, Goldie Locks, you seemed to enjoy that event a little too much," Shelley said, raising her eyebrows. Peyton's smile faded and she looked down at the ground, where she sat cross legged. Shelley smirked and Brooke rolled her eyes.
"Leave her alone, Shell," she sighed.
"Or what? Shelley spat.
Brooke stared hard at her but didn't say anything. Finally, she was about to open her mouth when Haley suggested another idea. Haley was always the peace maker of the group, and it was too late to get into an argument now.
"Let's just tell ghost stories or something," Haley recommended.
"Ghost stories?" Rachel scoffed. "Isn't that like, for seven year olds or something?"
"You got a better idea?" Haley challenged.
"Oh, I know something we can do!" Shelley exclaimed, as though a light bulb just went on in her head. "I could hypnotize one of you!"
"Hypnotize?" Brooke repeated.
"Yeah. My brother learned it from some Gypsy woman he met at a fair near the college he goes to. He showed me how," Shelley said proudly.
"Please," Brooke scoffed. "You cannot hypnotize someone."
"Oh, yes you can!" Shelley insisted. "It worked on me."
"Your brother did it to you?" Peyton questuined.
"Yep. He made me act like a monkey." Shelley giggled.
"Made you act like a monkey? What's so special about that? You act like a monkey on a normal basis. You actually kind of look like one, too." Brooke smiled evilly as the others laughed nervously. They knew not to mess with Shelley. Haley only wished Brooke knew the same. Shelley, however didn't see Brooke's little comment as funny.
"Okay, then, you will be my victim," Shelley said.
"Victim?" Brooke asked confused.
"The person who is being hypnotized of course."
"Oh, right," Brooke flicked her head and rolled her eyes. "Silly me," she said, her voice dripping with sarcasm.
Shelley just glared at her. "Unless you're a chicken to my monkey?" Shelley said, raising her eyebrows challengingly.
"Oh, yeah, I'm utterly terrified!' Brooke feigned terror.
"Alright. Well, you want to see if it works?" Shelley asked.
"Hit me with your best shot," Brooke said, not backing down.
"How do you do it?" Haley asked.
"Beats me," Rachel said.
Peyton just sat in silence and watched as the event laid out before her eyes. "I don't know, you guys..." she finally spoke.
"Why not?" Shelley asked. Her eyes flickered to the sketch pad Peyton was clutching. She was always weird like that, carrying it around wherever she went. It somewhat resembled a baby blanket for Peyton.
"Doesn't hypnosis make you say and do things that you don't really want to do or say?" Peyton asked clutching her pad even tighter as she spoke.
"Why? Is there something you don't want to confess to us?" Shelley responded.
"No," Peyton squeaked. "I just..."
"Yes? Shelley pushed.
"Um...Never mind."
"Okay then, will you guys join?"
Rachel and Haley shrugged their shoulders. "Sure," they both said at the same time.
"Blondie?" Shelley directed her gaze toward the curly haired girl.
"Okay, I guess," Peyton sighed.
"Splendid!" Shelley squealed.
"Okay, everyone just chillax," Shelley chanted. "Your heartbeat's slowing down. Think calm thoughts. A winter day, a spring meadow, an autumn breeze, a summer's day at the beach."
"Shelley's infatuation with seasons," Brooke said, and the others had to stifle their giggles.
"Anyway," Shelley ignored her. "I'm going to count down from 100. When I touch all of you, you'll be in my power."
"Ooh, scary," Peyton laughed shakily.
It became deadly silent, and the only thing the girls could hear was the sound of the wind as Shelley began her counting. "One hundred...ninety-nine...ninety-eight..."
Twenty-two...
Eleven...
Five...
Four...
Three...
She touched Haley's forhead with the fleshiest part of her index finger. Brooke creased her forehead. Rachel toyed with her hair. Peyton had a death grip on her pad.
"Two..." she slowly touched Rachel, then slighty grazed Peyton's forehead with her finger, and then moved toward Brooke. "One."
In a moment, Brooke sprang up from where she had been sitting and had darted across the room before Shelley could a lay a slender finger on her.
"What are you doing?" The tone in Shelley's voice had anger. "You just ruined the moment!"
"I didn't ruin anything!" Brooke shouted back. We just need more light in here, that's all."
"No, we don't. Hypnosis requires darkness, so close that door!"
"No!" I want some light in here!" Brooke stood her ground.
Shelley barked out a laugh. "Close that door!"
Go jump in front of a train," Brooke snorted.
"You think I should jump in front of a train?" Shelley demanded.
"Guys, please stop," Haley begged. But it was no use.
Shelley and Brooke stared at each other for few moments before Brooke spoke.
"Leave," she demanded.
"Exuse me?" Shelley said quizically.
"You heard me," Brooke spat.
"You can't tell me what I can and cannot do," Shelley said, her voice cracking.
"Wanna bet?" The look in Brooke's eye was enough for Shelley to take the hint.
"Fine." And with that, Shelley turned and exited the barn.
For fifteen minutes, the girls sat in silence, not one of them daring to say anything at all. After the fifteen minutes had passed, however, was when Haley started to worry.
"Where's Shelley?" she had a frightened tone to her voice.
"I don't...I don't know," Brooke's voice quivered.
"Should we look for her?" Rachel asked, concern evident on her face.
"Yeah, I think we better," Peyton offered.
When they left the barn, however, there was no trace of Shelley. The next morning, the girls woke up to find that Shelley wasn't there.
"She's probably at Theresa's," Brooke told herself more so than the others. "Yeah, she's got to be there." But she wasn't. Days went by, and still, no one had heard from Shelley.
"Did the cops interview you?" Haley asked Brooke on the phone.
"Yeah," they still don't have any evidence as to what happened to her."
"Oh, my God, this can't be happening," cried Haley on the other end.
"It is," was all Brooke said, numbly.
Days turned into weeks, that turned into months, and those months turned into years. In those three years, Not one soul had known what had happened to Shelley Simon. She was the girl who had simply disappeared. And in those three long years, no one would have expected the four remaining witnesses to turn into the bad girls they would become. Bad girls with secrets.
Secrets that can destroy.
A/N: First chapter. You like? I'm actually quite proud of myself. I didn't use a lot of dialogue from the book.
reviews/: My anti-drug.