The Pretty Little Lying Game (A PLL and TLG Fanfiction) *PAUSED*

Chapter 8

Chapter 8

Six classes and an awkward lunch period spent in silence later, the girls strutted down the hall to get to Emma's tennis period at the end of the day, with her friends Charlotte, Laurel and Madeline. They had all changed into their gym clothes: white T-shirts, black Champion shorts and dull colored Nikes. The liars felt out of place with the sporty-looking group. Earlier, after their last class, Emma'd whispered to them that she had tennis and that they could leave if they wanted. She'd offered a twenty dollar bill in their faces for a bus ride, but they refused, insisting that it was fine that they tag along.

They strode down the yearbook hallway, which was covered in hastily taken pictures of students from the previous years. Although Emma and her girls just zoomed on by, they hung around, eyeing the pictures of Sutton. There was one of them laughing at what looked like the front courtyard of the school, another featuring Laurel and a familiar dark-haired guy on the gym bleachers, engaged in a thumb war.

Thayer. The guy Ali had mentioned, who'd apparently disappeared months ago. Well. Didn't that sound familiar. Emily remembered him from the few Facebook photos they'd seen looking at the old laptop back in Pennsylvania. Secretly, she'd taken the laptop with her to Arizona, although it probably held no more good information. She imagined where it was-snug in the bottom of her navy blue suitcase, covered by clothes and shoes. Emily wondered what had happened to him. Where and why he'd run away. If anything, it probably had something to do with Sutton, no doubt. She bit her lip. Was that mean?

Aria blinked, watching Emma and her friends giggle and talk in front of them. Like on the canyon, when they'd first spotted Sutton (or Emma, rather), they were divided into two groups, Emma's being ahead. She and Spencer, Hanna and Emily just followed behind, barely saying a word. They turned down the biology wing. A human skeleton stood outside of one of the classrooms, and at that moment, Aria turned to look at it. It seemed to be staring straight at her. Looking at the skeleton's empty holes on its head where the eyes used to be, it felt eerie. Just like their situation.

Spencer moved her chin up and arched her shoulders back, striving for rod-straight posture. Even if it really hurt to keep doing that, the lessons her mother had drilled into her were hard to shake off. She wanted to looked confident and easy-going for the team, but she was a nervous wreck. Seeing A had shaken her to her core, and she didn't know why. Spencer'd been in plenty of more dangerous situations before, yet just realizing that A had the means to do anything was making her want to curl up into a ball and hide.

Straining over to hear their conversation, Hanna tiptoed closer to the girls, stepping one heel in front of the other. Luckily, they hadn't noticed her yet, but Spencer, Aria and Emily were giving her looks of questions. She turned around, putting a finger to her lips and cupping her hand around one ear, trying to signal that she was going to eavesdrop. But from the confused expressions on their faces, she was not doing it right. She rolled her eyes, turning so her back faced her friends.

"God, why'd you have to bring them along? And for the entire day?!" Charlotte whispered.

Hanna wrinkled her nose. Little bitch. What was her problem with them? Was Alison's visit really that bad?

"Guys, you don't even know what they're like. One little description from Alison, who I thought we hated," Emma cocked her head. "And you believe every word of it, and judge them."

"Remember what you said. Any friends of hers are none of mine." Laurel said.

"Shut up!" Emma hissed.

Hanna sucked in her cheeks, making fish-kissy lips. Emma said that? About them? 

Madeline, the ballerina girl, Hanna thought, put her hand on her hip. "This is ridiculous. I don't want to be stalked by a bunch of randos."