Chapter 4

Emily's POV

Hanna Marin lay in a hospital bed as Emily and her friends stared at her, hoping she would wake up. The doctor had reassured them that it wasn't too serious. There weren't any fractures, but her skull had been bruised and might have impaired senses and really bad headaches for about two months. Emily took her injured friend's hand in hers.

"So, are we going to address the elephant in the room?" Spencer asked dryly. Everyone looked at her questioningly. "Paige. What are we going to do about her?" Spencer added.

"What do you mean?" Emily inquired.

"Well, we can't just let her get away with this," Spencer said calmly.

Aria exhaled loudly before saying, "Well, Hanna did charge at her. She's probably going to say it was self-defense. And it was."

Emily gave Aria an exasperated shake of her head. "Aria? Whose side are you on?"

"Hanna's, but she did make the first threatening move."

"Yeah, but Paige was insulting her. She provoked Hanna," Emily piped up.

Aria looked down. It was obvious that she felt bad for defending Paige's actions. "Hanna could've verbally brought her down instead of trying to physically do it. Whoever strikes first is at fault, right? And if the person being attacked throws a punch or two...it's described as self-defense."

Seeing her point, Emily realized that Hanna might be blamed for almost tackling Paige. Spencer threw her hands up in defeat. "Ok, seriously. You have to snatch that captain spot from her, Em. It'll hopefully knock her down a few pegs."

Emily nodded. She had to become team captain. What would happen if Paige became the team captain? Would she finally become nicer since she finally got what she wanted or would she go out of her way to have Emily swim the least during a meet? She decided that she didn't want to find out.

"What's happening?" A voice croaked. Everyone's heads snapped in the direction of the voice. Hanna had lifted her head, rubbing her left eye with the palm of her hand.

"Well...Paige called you a bimbo, you got angry, you channeled your inner Hulk, you charged and her fist flew," Aria said nonchalantly. Emily's mouth dropped open at Aria's explanation while Hanna frowned.

"Oh yeah, I remember that." She blushed, looking down. "That was embarrassing."

"Hanna, you defended me. You shouldn't feel embarrassed," Emily tried to console her.

Hanna raised an eyebrow in amusement. "I don't know what you're thinking of, Em. I got knocked out after one measly punch! THAT is what was embarrassing."

"Oh." Now it was Emily's turn to blush in embarrassment.

"But also, you're welcome," Hanna puffed out her chest, still lying in the hospital bed.

"Emily," Spencer said to get her attention. Emily turned to show she was listening. "Have you told your mom about this?"

"About Hanna getting hurt? Yeah, I-"

"No, about Paige bullying you?" Spencer interrupted.

"Oh...no," Emily stated quietly, moving her gaze down to her clasped hands.

Spencer looked surprised. "Really? Why not? I'm sure she could mention it to Mr. Hackett. He'd do something about it. Or you could tell him yourself. Oh, maybe he'd kick her off the swim team!"

"I really would prefer not to tell my mom," Emily told her flatly.

"But why?" Spencer said, almost whining.

"Because my mom has enough on her plate without having to worry about Paige bullying me. I honestly think it'll all blow over once one of us gets announced team captain."

Spencer grunted. Emily wasn't going to budge on this and she could tell that Spencer had picked up on that. "Ok, fine. But if Paige does anything else, I'm going to tell someone," Spencer warned.

Emily nodded in agreement. "As long as it's not my mom," she added.

Spencer rolled her eyes.

Hanna was released from the hospital three days after the accident, arriving at school to have mobs of people all around her. All anyone talked about was who was at fault. Hanna for charging at Paige or for Paige egging her on. Emily, Aria and Spencer had to form a protective triangle around their friend to shield her from all the people. Hanna didn't seem to mind the attention, but then again, Hanna never minded attention.

Paige had been just as crowded, but unlike Hanna, she just ignored them and shoved her way through the masses of people. She approached Hanna, who was taking pictures with people like she was a celebrity. Paige rolled her eyes and Emily clenched her teeth. She was not going to let Paige bully her friends too. "Hey," Paige snapped, poking Hanna in the shoulder.

As Hanna saw who it was, her smile turned into a guarded look. "What do you want, Paige?" Her tone wasn't aggressive, but more fed up.

"Why the hell are people crowding us?" Paige asked, glaring at the people who tried tugging on her arm.

Hanna looked at her like she was an idiot. "Because of what happened at the bowling alley? Where you punched me and knocked me out."

Paige glowered at her. "Uh, you were the one charging at me like a fucking bull!"

"Because you were the one who called me a blonde bimbo!" Hanna shouted back.

"Oh, so it's illegal to tell the truth now?"

"You know what? I don't feel like dealing with you right now," Hanna huffed. She roughly walked past Paige, her friends hastily following her.

"I don't really want to go to this meet, you guys," Emily muttered as she sat in her car, driving to the meet with the group.

"Why not? It's the last meet of the season. You should be pumped!" Spencer glanced back at Hanna, who was bouncing in her seat like an excited kid. Aria, who sat beside her kept giving her amused/concerned looks.

Emily looked in the rearview mirror, a small smile creeping onto her face. "Yeah, I guess so," Emily said as she arrived at Rosewood High, pulling into a parking space. They got out of the car and walked towards the pool. Emily jogged to her teammates, a big grin on her face. They greeted her with enthusiastic hugs and soon, the meet began. Emily got up on the block and waiting for the cue.

She heard the starting pistol fire, her legs propelling her into the water in a neat dive. She concentrated on her strokes, her legs kicking hard. She didn't try to look at the lanes beside her to see how far ahead or behind she was because it wasted too much energy. Seeing the opposite wall looming closer, she flipped with perfect timing. Her feet landing on the wall, she pushed off, heading back as fast as she could. She pushed with the remaining energy and touched the wall, ending that race.

She bobbed in the water, putting her goggles on her forehead so she could look at the scoreboard. She scanned for her name and was overjoyed to see she had gotten first place. And she had beaten her old record by 13 seconds! She kept her smile as she hoisted herself out of the pool. "Fields! You beat the record set by Kayla Whitley!" Her coach hollered.

Emily stared at Coach Fulton in shock. "W-what? Kayla Whitney? The one who went to swim at the Olympics?" Emily stammered. Fulton nodded, her eyes glimmering with pride. Her teammates were still with shock. Then, all at once, they all rushed to Emily, gathering her in a big hug. They started chanting her name, only stopping when they saw how embarrassed she was.

Emily looked over, feeling someone's eyes on her. She saw Paige watching her, a sullen look on her face. She heard her coach shout something about her becoming captain, but she wasn't really focusing on it. She saw Paige's surly expression turn to jealousy. Emily tore her gaze away from her teammate as she turned back to her coach. "Sorry, what?"

"You're the new team captain!" Her coach shouted. Emily beamed but thought back to how jealous Paige looked. Her heart felt heavy. Paige not congratulating Emily for her achievement stung. Stung a lot. Emily knew that they never got along, but she didn't realize that Paige would refuse to shake hands with her. Or even give her a nod. Paige just walked away and sat on the bench like she was just waiting for the meet to finish.

Emily sighed, finally accepting that she and Paige would never be friends.