The last two chapters have been pretty short. They'll be longer now.
So, in this chapter... Emily attends her first day at Rosewood Day, meets a girl she likes (while Alison gets pissed), has a rather interesting conversation with Mona Vanderwaal, and finds out the truth about a certain someone's relationship with a certain ex-English teacher.
into the inferno
i went the distance
— steve byrnes
"EEEMMMIIILLLYYY!"
Emily groans as she hears Aria shout at the top of her lungs, jumping down from her bunk bed to pull Emily out. Emily groans again, and pulls her pillow tightly against her chest, as if letting go would literally mean having to face the Eagle, and many, many fifty-minute lessons, on a certain first day of school.
Emily finally allows Aria to pull her off by her legs, and she wakes up fully as her head crashes onto the ground. She waits for an apology, doesn't receive one, and grudgingly gets up to splash some cold water on her face. That is when she notices Aria is already fully changed, in clothes very Aria-like (very black, and chain-y), and rolling her eyes, she wonders why she got a roommate who was so freaking organised.
"Newbies have to go see the guidance counsellor," Aria states as she starts to brush her hair—she looks at the clock, and then back at Emily. "And as of the time, newbies are meant to be at the office... twenty-five minutes ago."
Emily's expression turns to horror, as she disbelievingly stares up at the clock—"That was not on the enrollment letter... I... I—what?"
Aria laughs. "I'm joking, I'm joking. Our guidance counsellor got fired in my freshmen year."
Emily sighs in relief. "Jesus Christ."
Aria, seeing that Emily is still in her butterfly pyjamas, pulls her out of the bathroom with such force they both topple onto the ground, and that's when the door opens.
"Ah, what a lovely sight," Alison smirks as she walks in, and takes a seat on Emily's bed. She pulls out a pack of cigarettes, lights one, and then offers Emily and Aria one, to which they politely decline. "Put on something decent, Em. There's the Eagle you need to tackle, but you can start wearing a sack from tomorrow." She looks at Aria. "Smidge, you wore that last week, hon."
Aria rolls her eyes, and picks up her bag. She walks to the door, and mutters, "I'm going to meet up with Spence and Han. Don't go picking anymore fights."
Alison raises her eyebrows as she leaves, and crosses her legs, still smoking. "So... are you, or are you not going to enlighten me with one of your last word things?"
"Oh," Emily says, a little taken aback.
"Why don't I enlighten you?" Alison grins. "Everything is an illusion."
"Mata Hari," Emily responds immediately.
"We have a winner," laughs Ali. "It's always puzzled me—everything is an illusion. That's what the world is, isn't it? An illusion. She was about to face the firing squad." She sighs wistfully. "Talking of which, have you found anything regarding the labyrinth we were chatting about yesterday?"
"Well..." Emily pauses. "It's been... twelve hours?"
"Yuhuh," Ali laughs, and then walks to Emily's rather stuffed chest of drawers—she picks out a pair of black shorts, and a baggy white tee. She tosses the clothes to her, and ransacks the drawer again for a suitable outwear. "In this case—" Alison passes her a baseball jacket. "—the Eagle won't treat you like a vagrant, and even the Weekday Warriors won't spit in your face." Pause. "Straight away."
Emily nods, and thanks her quietly for the clothes, before asking, "Who are the Weekday Warriors?"
"The rich bastards. I like to keep my distance," Alison smiles, and then stands up. "They're here only for day school, and they have parents who actually care. They go home every night, and get to miss the sweet, sweet smell of BO."
My parents care. They just live about five hours away. "Right, uh..." She gestures to where Ali is standing, and then looks down at herself. "I sort of need to change. Can you, um..."
"Chill, Emmy," grins Alison. "We're all girls here."
"Okay..." Nervously, Emily starts to take her pyjamas off, and blushes profusely as she catches Alison devote her wholly attention to her body. They lock eyes, and Ali gives her a little wink, in which Emily blushes even harder, if that was possible. She shoves on the shirt Ali picked out, and then proceeds to take her bottoms off. She can still feel Alison's gaze linger on hers.
"And... we're good to go," Alison take Emily's hand as soon as she's completely changed, and they walk to the main school building together, stopping once in a while as people wave at Ali, or marvel at her, or both. "And there's the Eagle," says Ali, once they're in the atrium. "I give you the best of luck."
Emily gulps, and turns back around, where a man, maybe in his late twenties, is staring at her with such malice she feels like shrivelling up. This the Eagle, she thinks to herself. He resembles the average creepy bartender, and she guesses some people could find him okay-looking, once upon another time, but he's still creepy, and Emily has no fucking clue what to do.
"Ahah," the Eagle starts, and he carries on glaring. "You must be Miss Emily Fields, out newest student." Numbly, Emily nods. "Welcome to Rosewood Day, Miss Fields. You're given a large measure of freedom here. If you abuse, you'll regret it. You seem like a promising young lady. I'd hate to bid you farewell." His expression breaks into an even creepier smile. "And I'm Detective Wilden. No drugs, no cigarettes, no drinking, no sex, bla bla bla, yeah, yeah."
Emily smiles, gritting her teeth, and watches him leave.
"That's the look of doom," a girl says from behind her. Emily turns around to see it as the blonde she saw yesterday—the one who Ali nicknamed "Hefty". She doesn't understand why, because she's not in any way fat. "The whole scary grrr, and then that creepy smile. The next time you see that, you're doomed."
"Right," Emily nods. "Hanna, isn't it?"
"Yup," Hanna grins.
"And Spencer," Emily turns to the brunette holding a pyschology textbook.
"That's correct," Spencer smiles.
"Well, if you stop being a swot, Spence, and if you stop catching flies with your mouth, Em, can we please please please head to the cafeteria, because I. Am. Starving," Hanna groans, and she places her hand on her stomach. "Guys, come on!"
Hanna pulls both girls' arms, and they reach the cafeteria. Aria and Alison are already at the table in the far right, munching on hash browns and waffles.
"Took y'all long enough," Alison laughs as they gather round at the table. "Aria and I were just discussing out new English teacher. I think her name's Mrs Shepherd, but I don't know. But if anything, she'll be better than that Mr Fitz, yeah?"
"Mr Fitz was a nice teacher—a good one, too," Spencer says. "He was probably one of the only teachers at school who could actually teach. And now he's gone." Spencer sighs, and takes a bite out of Aria's toast—talking of Aria, she seems on the verge of breaking down. "But shit happens."
"Yeah! It does," proclaims Aria. "Um, we'll be—"
"Such a looker, too," giggles Hanna.
"Please, he was a fucking creep," Alison rolls her eyes. "He was sleeping with a student, remember? That's the reason he got fired." She pauses. "There are still rumours going around—some say it was Jenna Marshall. What a fucking slut."
"Okay, we're going to be late," Aria quips up, and refuses to meet anyone's gaze. "Hello?"
The bell for first period rings, and Emily lines up in an orderly fashion outside the laboratory. An downside—Emily's terrible at chem, at anything apart from swimming, in all honesty; an upside—at least she shares the class with Alison.
"Mr Banks," starts Alison. "is a toad with demented front teeth. He'll bore you out within the first two minutes, and whatever you do, please please please, don't stare at his monobrow. He also stinks of cabbage—please ignore that, too."
"Duly noted," says Emily, and she turns back around, to see several students peering at her maliciously—and it's almost as terrifying as the Eagles "look of doom". She nervously clears her throat, before turning back to Alison. "Why are they staring?"
"Because they're Weekday Warriors," says Alison. "And all Weekday Warriors hate me, and because you are my sort-of friend, they hate you, too. But you'll get used to it for a while—it's just that the tossers think I ratted out Noel and Jenna. Nonsense—just nonsense."
Emily nods—sort-of friend. Ouch. "Okay. Um..."
They start moving, and pour into the lab. Ali turns to Emily—"I'll be back pronto." She leaves, and so Emily walks on, alone. She sees Mr Banks by the blackboard, and holds her breath as she walks past him—she stands awkwardly in front of everyone, looking for an empty seat. She sees Toby Cavanaugh in the corner, but the seat next to him is taken by this ginger guy she's never seen before. The Weekday Warriors don't stop staring (glaring, even). Emily has no idea what she is supposed to do.
"Hey," a voice brings her out of her troubles.
"Um... hi?" Emily wonders if the voice belongs to Hanna, Spencer, Aria, or even Ali—it doesn't, and so she turns around to see who it is. She doesn't recognise the voice, let alone her, and without meaning to, she stares into this new girl, with the hair just the right shade of brown, and the beautiful, beautiful caramelised eyes. She's wearing a light blue denim jacket, and matching denim jeans, and something about her is so... so...
"You must be new," this girl says, interrupting her thoughts—her voice is kind of husky, an beautiful all the same. It's charismatic—she's charismatic. (Almost almost like Alison, except not quite.) "My name's Paige. Paige McCullers."
"Hi, Paige," says Emily, smiling. "I'm Emily Fields."
"That's a lovely name," Paige grins. "Want to be my lab partner for the year of 2011, and beyond?"
Emily hesitates, hoping she hasn't seen her reluctance—she wants to sit next to this... Paige, she really does, because she's absolutely beautiful, and she seems so nice, yet if she does, Emily won't be sitting next to Alison, who's also beautiful (maybe even more), and nice in her own special Ali way. She's a little torn, and she doesn't know which way is more shredded. So she keeps quiet (she's good at keeping quiet).
"You don't have to," laughs Paige. "I may have approached you in the wrong way."
"No, no," Emily shakes her head. "I'm sorry. I just don't have many friends yet, so I was kinda confused whether you were talking to me, or someone else—I'd love to sit next you; be your partner 'for the year of 2011, and beyond'." Paige laughs, and so does Emily, and they both take one of the empty tables.
"I'm pretty awful at this," Emily admits.
"At what?"
"At all of it—making friends. I mean, I have a couple now—Alison, Aria, Hanna, and Spencer," Emily sighs—she notices Paige's smile falter at the mention of "Alison", but decides to ignore it. "but that just... happened. And I'm crap at all things science-y, so I beg you to bear with me."
"No problemo," Paige grins. "I came here with a full ride chemistry scholar—"
"You what?" exclaims Emily.
"I'm joking," laughs Paige. "I got a U in my last exam. Mr Banks wasn't... particularly impressed."
"Oh, that's good," Emily sighs in relief. "I mean, not... what I meant... I didn't mean 'good' as in, I'm glad you got that in your test... I meant... damn..." Emily tries to stop herself from blushing, but Paige has already seen her, and now she's blushing even more. "I'm glad to be sitting next to—"
"Alison DiLaurentis is back in the game!" The door is bust open, and Ali sashays in. "Sorry, got a little held up, but I. Am. BBBAAACCCKKK!" Emily notices how not everyone is pleased with Alison's great return—some cheer, particular the boys (including that ginger); some, like Paige, stiffen as she speaks; some, especially Toby, roll their eyes, as if this is something she does every day. It probably is, but Emily doesn't even so move an inch; she has no idea what she's meant to do. If Alison's her sort-of friend, then she's supposed to cheer, no?
Alison's eyes meet Emily's, and they flicker to Paige's. This time, Ali is the one to roll her eyes, and she takes the remaining seat, right at the back—Emily's stomach is churning. This isn't how she is meant to feel, right?
"I think Alison's ignoring me," Emily quips up as they gather into the English classroom—this time, there are many upsides, because English is something Emily actually has knowledge on, and she shares it with not only Alison, but with Spencer, Hanna, Aria, Paige, and the boyfriends, too. One downside—Alison is pissed at her. Very. She knows that from the way Ali stormed out as soon as the bell cued the end of chem.
"Alison has her moments," Aria says, and she sits down. "You learn to ignore it."
"Why was she mad anyway?" asks Hanna, and she takes the seat beside her. "She seems to like you."
"I didn't know she wanted to sit next to me!" Emily says loudly.
"Even for her, that's a little... childish," Spencer says. "I mean, not being able to sit next to a friend is something preschoolers fight about." Spencer sits down in the seat behind them, and Emily joins her. "Who was this... person you sat next to?"
"Her," Emily nods to Paige's direction, currently deep in conversation with this dark-skinned girl.
"Oh," Hanna lowers her voice.
"Oh?" questions Emily.
"They've got a bit of history," answers Aria.
"Pigskin," adds Spencer. "That's her nickname for her."
Alison enters the classroom, her eyes coolly dropped—she finds a seat behind the girls, and as they try to talk to her, she hums, and blocks her ears.
"Good morning, class," the teacher (Mrs Shepherd) walks in—she's the typical middle-aged teacher, with the too-tight pencil skirt, and too-tight blouse, with the lack of a bra underneath (huge mistake, really). Her blonde-grey hair is tightly secured with a pin, and she turns to the form. "As you know, Mr Fitz was, uh, sacked due to creative reasons last term, so I will be your new English teacher."
The class groans. (Aria stiffens at the mention of Mr Fitz; Emily makes a mental note to ask her about it.)
"None of that," the teacher snaps. "I have a few ground rules if you expect to graduate and get on with your lives—I'm expecting a class who listens to me. Three strikes, and you're off. No English class for you. Non. Nein. Nada. No inappropriate behaviour—no kissing, no... contacting, nothing like that." A few snickers go around the room, causing her to stamp her foot. "No texting, no calling, no emailing. I believe that this school is of grace, and integrity, and I'm expecting no less from you."
More groans. (Aria seems to relax a little.)
"I also have allocated seats for you," she declares, and smiles. "When I read your name off the list, come and sit with your new partner. In this order—" Mrs Shepherd points at the table closest to her. "Hanna Marin, Shana Fring. Spencer Hastings, Andrew Campbell. Paige McCullers, Caleb Rivers. Alison DiLaurentis, Sean Ackard. Lucas Gottesman..."
Emily waits until her name is called out—she is one of the last ones.
"...Emily Fields, Mona Vanderwaal."
Emily moves to the seat she is allocated, and sees that Mona is already there. She doesn't think she's spoken to her before, but she remembers her face, yesterday, when they were eating bufriedos. Mona smiles at her, and pats the seat next to her.
"Hi," Emily starts.
"Hello," Mona nods politely. "Let's start with the basics—I'm Mona Vanderwaal. I hate the smell of sweat, but I also hate it when people put on too much perfume, you know? So don't overdo it, I don't want the class to smell of Febreeze—that can give you cancer, so can cola. I hate those liquid-y glues, so please please just use pritt sticks. I do not allow skirts any more than seven inches bellow the pelvis, but you're wearing shorts, so that's alright. I don't date guys who are younger than me. I can't stand the colour orange, and..."
"I'm Emily," Emily holds out her hand, which Mona takes. Somewhat reluctantly.
"Coolio," she grins. "You're Alison's new friend: I saw you at lunch yesterday. She's a bit of a bitch, isn't she? I saw what she did to you in chem. I mean, just because she doesn't like Paige that much. Like, how could someone even do that?" Mona sighs. "We used to be alright, you know? Me and Hanna—we were best friends, like, forever. But then Alison took over the world, so I'm stuck with my guy-friends."
"That's lovely," Emily offers.
"No, it really isn't," Mona shakes her head. "I mean, they're not even my proper friends. I'm just their sort-of clever booty call. Lucas is okay, though. He's actually kind of sweet." She then looks at Aria. "And Mike's in my support group—he's quite nice. But I don't date guys who are younger than me."
"I never said you—"
"Anyways, if you're going to be Alison's BFF, then please don't act like a total fat-face bitch around me—I can't stand them. Talk about me, for all I care, just remember that Alison's a toxic excuse for a girl, and she's capable of physically (and mentally) everything. I mean, look at poor Noel, and Jenna!" Mona sighs. "Poor bastards."
Emily nods, a little lost for words.
"No, I'm not a Weekday Warrior, if you're asking," Mona smiles at her. "Just mark my words—Alison's kind of a cow. She plays with you; she plays with everyone. Watch. Out." Mona turns back down to the table as the teacher gives out exercise books. "Liberemus diuturna cura populum Romanum, quando mortem senis exspectare longum censent." Pause. Emily is in sheer shock. "Hannibal. Right?"
The day drones on, with double maths, and calcalus, and geography—as far as first days go, to be honest, this is one pretty crappy one. For one thing, Emily's pretty sure she's developed her second crush in two days, and for the second, Alison is still not acknowledging her existence. She can't still be peed off that Emily chose Paige over her... right?
Emily almost screams in relief when the clock strikes half past four. Her last lessons is music, and as Dr Minim (yes, really) dismisses them, Alison grabs at Emily's arm, singing at the very top of her voice.
Emily's pretty sure her left root canal has been damaged.
"How was little Em-Em's first day?" she muses, and Emily raises her eyebrows. What was it about being extra moody? "Damn, I need a nickname for you, but none seem to fit. I mean, it's pretty easy for others—like Hefty is Hanna, Susan is Spence, Smidge is Ari, and there's Loser Mona, and Hermaphrodite, and Pigskin—"
"Why do you hate Paige so much?" intercepts Emily.
"It's a long story, sweetheart. Anyways. Nicknames," Alison sighs. "It's probably just because you're rather difficult. In a really, really good way. But, as I said, none of my nicknames seem to quite fit you... Hmm..."
Why don't you just call me "Fake", and get it over and done with?
"Okay, Emily," Alison says suddenly. "The girls—Hanna, Spencer, and Aria—and I have a... tradition. First days are the worst, but second days are more worse, right?" Emily shrugs. "Yeah. So, in celebration of the end of seven hours of inferno, we get ass-off drunk."
"...What?"
"I'm joking," giggles Alison. "There's this massive party not far from here—like, everyone from our school goes to it, as I said. In celebration." She giggles again, and sighs wistfully. "And the best thing is, is that they give out these wonderful creations. These hangover tablets—they're like an alcoholic's manna."
"But the teachers—"
"I bet you five quid that the Eagle will be there," Alison says, a glint in her eye. "He's a sadist. He's always there."
They don't end up going—they're dressed and all, but they're already too drunk to function the moment they clink open a bottle of tequila. Alison starts having a giggling fit, with Aria and Hanna following, and Spencer, though a little disapproving, joining in. Emily's never been drunk before, but she's not sure she likes it very much.
"Secrets," Alison laughs, as she opens her dormitory door, and steps outside. "Secrets! That's what keeps us close, hey?" She turns around—"C'mon, girlie-girls, we're going to the shed." She hauls Emily up, spinning her around, before pulling her outside.
Emily understands what Mona said back in English—Alison is capable of physically (and mentally) everything. She's the only known girl who possibly has access to the old shed in the field, due course to her flirting with the janitor.
"We'll... have our OWN party!" giggled Hanna, and she brings a broom up to start dancing with it.
"Yah, Hefty Hanna," Alison says. "We shall."
Emily holds her breath. She hates being drunk. But then again, how is she so sure she is one hundred percent alert. She doesn't. Surely.
"We should call Deedletum and Deedletee..." Alison yawns loudly. "Anyone got a phone on ya?"
"I'll do it," Emily presses, being the only one who is remotely non-drunk. She takes out Hanna's phone, and goes throw recent calls, clicking on Caleb's contact number. She wonders if he is at the party, and is about to ask, until he answers.
"Hanna Banana?" Caleb's voice rings through. "You at the party?"
"Not exactly," Emily answers. "It's Emily. And—" She lowers her voice. "Your girlfriend, and the others are currently, um... 'ass-off- drunk. Not at the inferno party, or whatever, but at this... shed? I don't know, Alison apparently got to the caretaker... Please come. They're... very drunk."
"Okay, sure. We'll be on our way," Caleb pauses. "Are you okay?"
"I'm not drunk," murmurs Emily. "At least, I don't think I am." She hangs up, and watches as they take in turns to congo around the shed. She doesn't understand the concept of "being drunk"—it was just an excuse to act like a bunch of six-year-olds, was it not?
She waits. She waits, and she waits, and she waits.
Knock. Knock. Knock.
"Finally," Emily says, and she opens the door to the shed/barn, and lets Caleb and Toby in. They look a little stressed out, but laughs at the sight of the others collapsed on top of each other. Quite frankly, Emily doesn't know what is so funny about the situation, because who was going to be the ones who were laughing when they suffered from blown-out headaches, following on the apparent "second days are more worse" saying?
"Caleb-boo," Hanna calls out, and peppers him with kisses. "Missed you. Missed you so so much."
"Han..." Caleb chuckles. "Just how drunk are you?"
"Not very drunk," Spencer says from Toby's grasp. "Just a little bit."
"Yuhuh," Aria says, and without warning, she bursts into tears. Everyone is taken aback, and watches Aria with a careful eye (well, mostly those who are not drunk). She carries on sobbing, the tears running down her cheeks, and her nose messily. Emily wonders if this is what she was trying not to do, when she was in her "I refuse to smile" mood.
"Aria, are you okay?" Caleb asks seriously.
"Typical!" Aria groans, rolling over, still sobbing to her heart's content. "I mean, it's always me me me who gets the worst out of it, you know? Like how... I don't understand how someone could have known! I hadn't told anyone... except for one... and we didn't even do anything like everyone said we did..."
"What's going on?" asks Toby.
"It's always me me me nobody fucking wants," she repeats—Alison seems to be blushing for some reason. She shuffles up to Emily, and Emily lets her hand slip in hers (she loves it, but she doesn't know why). "They all just... picked me up, and threw me down again. And I thought Ezra... Ezra and I had a chance. But nothing ever works out for Aria fucking Montgomery, does it? No, of course not! I mean, it's not like I wanted to marry him. I just... he didn't even say goodbye! He just got sacked, packed up his stuff, and walked away. Stupid, stupid..."
Toby and Caleb look at her incredulously. The other girls, even in their slightly drunken haze seem to catch on what she is saying. Emily tries not to believe.
Aria faints. It all goes out.
Quite a hectic chapter, with not much Emison at all. Now, I have a few things to say: Thank you for your reviews/favourites/follows—they mean a lot! And some of you have either reviews or PMed on whether to have an A in this story, or not. I have decided against it, but instead, I'm interpreting it in a different way, so Mona will have a past with the liars, maybe with stalking them (before Emily came into the picture)—that will all unravel in the next couple of chapters.
One more thing: In this chapter, we met Paige. There will most definitely be a Paige/Ali/Emily love triangle, resulting in, obviously, Emison, but I just want to say, to any Paily fans who could be reading, that there will be NO NON NEIN NADA Paige-bashing. I love Paige too much to do that. AND there will also not be any Ezria—heavy mentions, yes, but it will most likely be a tinge of Wesria, and maybe some Jaria towards the end.
Thank you all already!