Hanna's POV

So, not only is my best friend in jail, but she's also in there because of me. She was in the hospital because of me, and she told me she would do this 'for' me. Voluntarily, Emily sacrificed her good name for me and I still have no clue why. I thought I had a friend who I could trust before but she turned out to be a phony. But from the day I met Emily, we always had each other's backs and it stayed that way, like a silent pact and this is the one time I broke what I thought could never be broken.

I'm the person I am today mainly because Emily has always been by my side. I hated who I was before. I hated who I always tried to be. And in a way, when I met Emily, she was feeling the same way. Together, we helped each other become who we always really wanted to be.

Except, right now, I don't want to be in there for me. She's always been the first to help me, I'm tired of following her lead on that.

No One's POV

(Flashback)

"Hey Hefty Hanna, where do you get your clothes? Do you have to have them made special for you? I bet you do, don't you? Who helps pay for them? I know it's not your dad, he left your mom and you, didn't he?" Becca Jacobson sneered from the seat of the bus just two rows in front of Hanna Marin, giggling and whispering into the ears of her followers beside her.

"Shutup Rebecca! You don't know anything, so…shutup!" Hanna's lower lip quivered and she fought not to let these mean girls see her break.

"Oh Hefty Hanna's getting mad, what are you going to do? Sit on me? I bet you can't even get here fast enough to do that."

Hanna kept her head down and chewed on her bottom lip, forcing herself to ignore the skinnier, prettier, more popular blonde-haired, blue-eyed girl. Hanna wanted so much to be pretty like her, to have friends, to be popular, to have boys want to kiss her, but ever since the 4th grade, Hanna had to face the wrath of Rebecca Ann Jacobson, and what she did to deserve it she didn't know.

"Oh Hefty Hanna is all quiet now, she probably has food stuffed in her big, fat-"

"Oh would you shut the hell up already Rebecca?"

Hanna and Rebecca whipped their heads up at the same time.

"It's Becca! And who's going to make me? You? You and what army Mona? You're just as worse as she is, you and your nerdy little friends."

Hanna looked over to Mona who sat a seat to the right of Rebecca and a row ahead. Mona and her friends were kind of nerdy, but Hanna didn't think they weren't pretty. Under all the layers of clothing and long skirts, Hanna could tell they were skinny, they had long hair pulled back into ponytails, and narrower faces than hers…and to everyone Hanna ever knew being skinny was their idea of being pretty.

"It's been years already and god damn I won't go on this trip with you opening your stupid fat mouth the whole way there. We're in eighth grade, grow up already, I doubt this will be this fun when you go to that private high school that's 2 hours away that your dad is paying for just so he doesn't have to see your face too often." Mona laughed her own laugh and huffed, facing forward again, but not before smiling weakly at Hanna.

Other kids on the bus snickered and Rebecca clenched her fists, shouting, "you're just jealous Mona, you've always been jealous since I moved here in the 4th grade. You always wanted to be like me."

Hanna looked between Rebecca and Mona. Mona wanted to her? Like Hanna did? But Hanna couldn't tell, surely it was a lie.

"You're so full of yourself, you think you're so perfect? I seen picture of you before you moved here. You moved here because you were being teased too! You weren't so skinny, and you had braces, and let's not forget that unibrow. You can say all the shit you want to Hanna to me to whoever you want, but you're no better than the girls you ran from either. Just because your dad paid to fix you doesn't mean everyone who isn't trying to be like you is broken."

Wow, Hanna thought, she is smart.

Rebecca looked at all the kids staring at her, whispering, wondering if what Mona was saying was true, some laughed, some pointed to Rebecca and scoffed, making the girls face turn red.

"How do you know that? You're making all that up, you don't know anything. Liar, you little liar!"

Mona laughed and shrugged, "okay well no one is perfect, so what that we're different Rebecca, or should I call you Becky…wait, why don't you like being called Becky again?"

Rebecca stood up again and ignored the teachers' and bus driver's warning, "shut up Mona, shut up!"

"Who's going to make me? You, 'Bucky Becky Beaver'? Oh that's why you hate being called Becky, because there were girls who did the same thing you're doing, and they called you Bucky Becky and Becky Beaver didn't they?"

Rebecca whipped her head frantically between Hanna and Mona and Hanna actually started to laugh, 'Bucky Becky,' it was funny, but right now Rebecca looked like a chicken with her head cut off.

"Ah! I hate you Mona!" She stood up and pointed to Hanna, "and you, you're still fat."

Hanna laughed this time and shrugged, calling out so the whole bus could here, "oh yeah? Well guess what Becca? You still look a little bucky."

Rebecca squealed and sat down promptly, hiding her tears in the palms of her hand.

Mona looked back and met Hanna's eyes and they exchanged a smile. That was the day the first version of Hanna, Hefty Hanna, had started to end and another version of Hanna was born. After that day, she spent a lot of time with Mona, and consequently, her friends, and when summer was over and high school was going to start, with no more Becca, and she was no longer Hefty Hanna, Hanna pledged to herself she would be the new "It-Girl." And she was…for awhile.

x-x-x-x

"Mona, why do you have to leave? We just made the cheer squad in spring, why can't you wait until after sophomore year? C'mon school starts in three days." Hanna huffed as she dropped onto her friend's bed surrounded by big brown cardboard boxes.

"Hanna, I already told you, my dad's work. We have to leave in two days or else. Don't get all emotional, you'll be fine, besides, I heard the girls are planning on you surprising you with something the first day of school."

Hanna was close to Mona, but she didn't really talk to the other girls if Mona wasn't around, so this surprise…surprised her.

"Really? How do you know?"

Mona smirked, "because I planned it of course, you think they're smart enough to pull off something on their own?"

Hanna laughed, "no probably not."

"Exactly, now come on, let's go to the mall,I can't look at another box. Besides, I seen a really cute top that I want before I leave."

Mona got up and motioned to Hanna to follow her. On the way out Hanna spotted Mona's wallet on the dresser.

"Wait Mona, you forget your wallet!"

Mona snickered and snatched the wallet from Hanna, "Han, you should know better, we have these," she flung the wallet onto her bed and wiggled her fingers in front of Hanna's face.

"Mona, we hit the mall twice this week already, I think I can afford to buy you a shirt."

"Aw, c'mon, what's the fun in that? Your mom bought you all those clothes when you lost weight, let's get her something too."

Hanna shrugged, "yeah, fine, I guess, let's do it then."

"That's the spirit, plus you owe me since I won't be there for your surprise at school."

"Fine, let's go shopping."

"See, now we're not down in the dumps about me leaving…shopping is uplifting. That's why they call what we do shoplifting."

Hanna laughed, even though she knew Mona was the smart one, that was some pretty stupid shit to say, and stupid in Hanna's book, was…well, it was really stupid.

x-x-x-x

"I went to school with Hanna since I could remember but we finally became friends in the 8th grade, well it was the last day, so more like the summer before 9th grade. And here's a little secret, she wasn't the Hanna Marin you all see today, she was someone else, she had no friends, she was awkward and, she was a little heftier." Mona's voice echoed through the speakers.

Hanna stood frozen in the middle of the gymnasium too shocked to move. This was Mona's surprise for her? What the fuck?! Hanna looked at the other 3 girls and when she saw them laughing she knew, this, this whole thing and friendship was all an elaborate and sick game to just break Hanna again. She looked, horrified, at the screen and dropped her pom-poms to the floor. This was supposed to be the Welcome Back Rosewood video her and the other cheerleaders worked on during the summer. This was definitely not it.

Hanna looked at the kids in the bleachers and she wanted to vomit. The teachers looked baffled and one Mr. Jones tried to get up and disconnect the video. Hanna ran away before any of Mona's friends, girls who all pretended to be hers, could laugh in her face any more.

When she barged through the gym doors, she could faintly hear the voices of Mona, Alex, Tiffany and Carly on videos calling her one name she thought she wouldn't have to hear again….Hefty Hanna.

She didn't even think about why Mona did it, or how she was so good at faking their friendship, why Mona helped her lose the weight and become who she always wanted to be.

But even that wasn't true, Hanna didn't want to be the "it-girl" she was tired of acting bitchy because Mona said that's what it took to be popular, tired of stealing clothes because Mona said her dad would notice her, and tired of cheating on tests because Mona said she would never be as smart as her.

Mona did always want to be like Rebecca, but she didn't know how. So spent years obsessing and watching how she did it. She targeted one girl and let the whole see, and everyone knew Rebecca for that, she was infamous for it. Mona wanted to feel bad for Hanna but she couldn't, Hanna gave Rebecca the power and Hanna was an easy target – especially after Mona got her on her side. All Mona had to do was give Hanna something she could easily take away if she had to. Goal accomplished.

x-x-x-x

Hanna missed the whole first week of school. She begged her mom to transfer her to a different high school, but Ashley Marin insisted it would all blow over. Hanna and her mom had a meeting with the Principal of the school to discuss the actions being taken and blah blah, she heard it all before.

Monday morning came too soon and Ashley had to practically drag Hanna from her bed, "Hanna, you've been in this bed in those same sweats and t-shirt for a week, get up, now."

"Ugh," Hanna groaned, "mom, I can't show my face there."

"Hanna, you're better than that, you don't need Mona to be confident, you never did. You want to know what I think?"

"Is it letting me stay here so you can home school me?"

"No."

"Then nope, keep your thoughts to yourself please."

"Hanna," her mom continued, "I think you used Mona as an excuse to be who you were when you were with her, but I know you always had and still have it in you to do this on your own. Of course, I'll be here whenever you need me, but you can handle high school sweetie."

"Ugh, you sound like a mom."

"Um, excuse me, that's because I am."

"Fine," Hanna huffed and sat up, "ugh but I hate when you do this."

"I love you Hanna, now get dressed."

"I love you too," she called as her mom left her in her room to change.

x-x-x-x

The meeting with the principal was over and now Hanna had to actually go to class.

'Great,' she thought, 'I don't even know anyone else here.'

Hard to believe, but Mona kept her group close and didn't let anyone in, Hanna was too occupied trying to please Mona and make sure she was upholding her image of the Queen B, to make any new friends. Mona was the mastermind behind everything the group did but Hanna was the face of it all. That also made it easy for Mona to admit to all the things her and Hanna did for fun. Of course no one's face showed up in the video except Hanna's and the cheerleaders were let off because they couldn't be identified with just their voices, it wasn't 'sufficient.'

As luck would have it, also 7 minutes of slowly wandering and a stop in the bathroom later, Hanna was standing outside of her second period class, Algebra 3-4. She thought about sneaking out using the door in the back of the locker rooms that lead to the gym that lead to the parking lot, but she knew her mom would get upset. So she sucked in a breath and knocked timidly on the door.

A new teacher named Mr. Sugimoto opened the door and guided Hanna into the class. She wore everyone was staring and it was silent.

Silent until she heard one of the basketball players shout to loud, "hey look it's hefty…I mean Hanna!" The portion of the class that surrounded Nick Suarez snickered and he high fived his friend next to him.

"Enough, the incident in the gym was an act of bullying and I will not and nor with this school tolerate it. Hanna please take the seat in the back behind Miss…" he looked down at the seating chart on his desk, "ah yes, Emily Fields. Emily, raise your hand please?"

Emily Fields rose her long, tanned, slender arm and waved her hand.

'Damnit, did she have to be gorgeous?' Hanna was intimidated already. And as she walked closer, ignoring the chants and whispers, that intimidation only grew. Hanna knew of Emily from the announcements in home period. Her name was always being called for breaking another school or district record for swim but as popular as Hanna thought she should have been, she hardly ever seen Emily Fields.

Looking at her now, she wonders why not. Emily was long, even sitting, Hanna could tell, she had thick brown hair, killer bone structure and almond shaped brown eyes, smooth baby-like skin and an amazing tan. Damn she had a killer bod. Hanna felt sick, surely Emily Fields was never bullied, surely she was never hefty.

Hanna rolled her eyes and took her seat quietly, not meeting anyone's eyes on the way.

"Alright class, please get out your textbooks and look over the practice problems at the end of chapter 1, you should be able to get through 30 of them before class is over, I'll be going around to see if anyone needs help, but please get as much done on your own. Ask your questions sparingly."

Hanna lifted her bag to the table and let a single "oh shit" out. She forgot her textbooks in the backseat of her mom's car.

Hearing this, Emily turned around smiled, "forgot your book?"

Hanna looked at the open text in the brunette's hand and looked between it and Emily. This was how things started with Mona. Mona was nice, Mona helped her out.

"Ladies, is there a problem?"

"No Mr. S, it's just Hanna here forget her text, I offered to share with her, if that was okay with you of course."

"Well, Miss Marin, it's your first day back, I don't have a problem with it, just make sure you two do your own work."

"Okay." Emily smiled a toothy grin. 'Ugh' Hanna groaned internally, 'I want to hate you already.'

Hanna had no choice, she was already behind and Emily was being so nice, and sincere, Hanna scooted her desk over and brought out some paper and a pencil.

"Thanks." She mumbled.

Emily looked over at the blonde and smiled timidly, she tucked a strand of her hair behind her ear and replied, "welcome."

No more than five minutes later and Nick and his gang had managed to scoot closer to Hanna and Emily.

"Oink oink, did you hear that Hefty, I'm speaking your language."

Hanna's back muscles tightened but she remained silent and kept her head down, working.

"C'mon, what's the matter Hanna, you're not such a bitch without that Mona telling you what to do, are you? Too bad you're not the popular one anymore and too bad you used to be fat."

"You insensitive ass! Shutup Nicolas and do your work if your brain can work on such complicated tasks like doing some basic math."

"Nicolas, Emily, what's going on?"

Emily put her pencil down and Hanna stayed silent, if she didn't intervene, she wouldn't get dragged in again.

"Nothing, Nick here is just running his mouth in places he shouldn't, he should be more concerned with running up faster on the court, he couldn't get back on d fast enough when Redbridge's bench player stole the ball from him and had that break away last year. Motormouth here caused the freshman to lose the qualifying game."

Nick's friends laughed and teased him playfully.

"Whatever, what do you know about sports all you do is jump in some water, big whoop, no one even knows who you are."

"Okay, I heard enough, if you don't stop, I'll assign you both detentions."

Emily's mom was too strict for that so Emily shut her mouth, quickly flipping Nick off when Sugimoto had his back turned.

Emily returned to her work and looked over at Hanna, she wasn't expecting to hear thank you, but it was strange that she was silent.

"Hey, you don't have to take that crap from them." Emily was giving advice she wished she actually believed. Although she just spoke up now, Emily was more sheltered and reserved and such a goody-two shoes that if anyone actually knew her, they would know that it was so out of character for her to speak up, but she had seen what happened to Hanna and she hated that the poor girl was humiliated like that in front of everyone.

"It's whatever, just stupid guys."

Emily shrugged, "still, you don't deserve that."

Hanna looked at Emily, wanting to ask what her deal was but Nick was back, sitting backwards in the chair in front of them.

"Hey, so I'm back, and guess what, by boy Ben over there told me something really interesting about you Emily, and it totally makes sense."

Emily looked at Ben and regretted ever talking to the greasy-haired, horndog last year at all. Ben was a total pig even for only being 14 at the time and Emily was disgusted with his ideas of what friends should do for friends.

"What are you talking about, Ben hardly knows me."

"Oh I think Ben knows you pretty well. And he told me why you didn't want to go out with him either. And it makes sense. This." Nick waved his hand between Hanna and Emily and smirked.

Then he shuddered, "you're sticking up for Hefty Hanna here because you like her, don't you. You like her you little lesbo, you're sick."

Hanna dropped her pencil and seen the break in Emily's eyes. She knew deep down it had to be true; it was the same look she felt on her face exactly one week ago.

"Oh real clever, yeah that was romantic for Ben, I bet you're sticking up for him getting rejected by Emily, aren't you? What is that, you're bro code, just fuck off Dickolas Sparks, I think your boyfriend Ben is getting a hard-on because he's jealous you've over here so long."

Nick's face turned red with anger and he slammed his hand on the table, "shut your mouth, you're already disgusting to look at, why would you want to make it worse by sitting next to this little les-"

Nicolas was leaning over her desk so Hanna stood up abruptly and brought the heel of her hand into his nose, wincing when she heard a small snap and watched as blood poured from his nose.

"AAHH! YOU BITCH, YOU BROKE MY NOSE!" The boy was doubled over holding his hand to his nose.

Mr. Sugimoto ran over to Nick, grabbed him by the shoulders and moved to lead him to nurse's office.

"Class continue your work, Miss Marin, I'm afraid you're going to need to report to the principal's office. Now."

Mr. S left with Nick and Hanna stood, breathing heavy and shoving her things in her bag. She was standing behind Emily, who sat silent in her seat, unmoved since Nick came over. Hanna walked down the aisle and stopped next to Emily's desk, "Math is exciting, huh?"

Hanna laughed and hoped Emily would too. When the brunette smiled, Hanna was relieved.

"Dickolas Sparks?"

Hanna laughed and rubbed her neck, "yeah, I know, not the best but, actually that was real crappy, but he in my defense I was caught off guard and he was being a real stupid dick, so it seemed…fitting."

"It was perfect. Thank you."

"Yup, us girls should have our own bro code too plus, you don't deserve that either."

Emily smiled at the return of her words and held out her hand, "Hi, I'm Emily," laughing lightly at the new 'bro' she felt she was gaining.

Hanna took it and returned, "Hi, I'm Hanna."

Mr. Sugimoto returned and stood in the doorway, "Miss Marin, principal's-"

"I'm coming. Bye Emily, see you later."

"Yeah, see you later."

From that day on, the two of them were thicker than thieves, a phrase Hanna liked more than the original 'thick as thieves,' since things with her thieving friend ended the way it did.

x-x-x-x

Hanna quit the cheer team and dedicated her after school hours to hanging out with Emily or cheering her on at every swim meet there was. Ashley was more than happy to see the change in Hanna's mood that her newfound friendship with Emily had brought.

A friendship that stayed strong and loyal to the very day, a friendship that was very doubted, not until there was a reason to…

x-x-x-x

The guard stopped in front of the opening and Emily was escorted by a female guard the rest of the way towards her new sleeping and living area. The tall brunette guard stopped in front of the opening and handed Em a new pillow, "well her you are fields, say hello to your new roommate."

Emily looked up and swallowed hard, "shit."

"Well, that's not really what I was expecting to hear. But that's okay, hello Emily." Her voice was velvety and smooth, calm, considering what Emily knew about what happened the day before.

"S-so, it looks like we're bunkmates now." Em stuttered nervously.

"So it seems." Why was she so calm?

Emily shuffled to her side of the unit and was met with a box of all her belongings from her old bunk. She sighed in relief and started to set up her side the same way as before.

"Well, this should be fun."

Emily thought, for someone who 'doesn't' speak much, she was sure talking a lot.

"Yeah, well I'm going to get to bed now.

Emily shoved the box under her bed and laid down facing the wall her back to the girl and held the scratchy blanket close to her body.

"Okay, goodnight, Emily."

Emily swallowed hard and shifted in her bed, laying on her back and feeling an unease wash over her, "goodnight Alison," she breathe out heavily.

x-x-x-x

AN: a surprise update because some of you couldn't handle the cliffhanger…lol and I don't want to be sued ;) HAHAHA

I thought it would be good to give some back story on Hanna and Em before some real shit goes down later…stay tuned

P.S. I really shouldn't have written this today, I have an Exam tomorrow…oh shit, oh well, y'all better love me, wish me luck babies!

Lina