Wide Awake (Emison Short Story)

Chapter One

California, 2017

Sneakers thundered down the hardwood floor as the newly​ hired kindergarten​ teacher rushed to get to her classroom. She couldn't possibly be late on her first day, she had thought about impressing her bosses by showing up early as a bird and completely enchanting all her students. But as she failed to hear her loud and blaring alarm clock in the crack of dawn, she knew she was toast.

Alison DiLaurentis, the new teacher, even skipped breakfast to make it (at least she hoped was) in time for her class. She finally had a good paying job, she can't just let it slip through the cracks by being late for her very first day. Nevertheless, her mind was telling her that she completely blew it, even as she arrived in the barely filled classroom, meeting only one bright and early student.

The little boy smiled at her when they made eye contact, making Alison shiver slightly because it looked awfully similar to the one she fell in love with five years ago. The contact was over as soon as it came, and the boy returned to playing with an action figure, Alison thinks, that he brought.

Alison knew the thought of impressing her bosses are thrown out the window but she knew she still has the chance to make her students love her. She walked towards her desk and carefully placed her bag on the chair beside it, eyeing the boy thoroughly.

The child had shaggy chocolate brown hair, his skin fair and slightly pale. He looked like every ordinary boy, but his eyes brought an uncertain feeling in Ali's body. She wasn't sure what to do with it so like every other normal person would do, she shook her head and shrugged it off.

"Hey," Alison started cheerfully, "What's your name?" She continued, walking over to the boy and sitting cross-legged beside him on the mat.

The boy shyly smiled. "I'm Adrian. My Mom calls me Addy though."

She smiled brightly at Adrian. "Well hi there, Adrian. I'm Miss DiLaurentis."

Another kid walked in with her mother on tow and Alison excused herself from the playing boy and introduced herself to the mother and the girl. Soon after, pre-schoolers began filing in, filling every chair and space in the play mat.

Alison thinks she could do a little more better than this job, preferably one in an elementary school, but she thinks it's nice to have a stepping stone before she tries to reach for something that requires a lot more effort. She looks at all the kids playing, and talking and giggling. She thinks that she's happy with this.

This would do.

***

Another frustrated scream fully woke Emily Fields up from her dream of being with a blonde girl she had been trying to contact in years. She was about to get to the part where the blonde forgives her but of course, her girlfriend of six years just had to make another bloody statement about something stupid.

She rubbed her eyes as she rose slowly from the bed, groggily shuffling to put on her house slippers. She adjusted the elastic of her sweatpants and walked to the stairs where Hanna Marin rambled on about her crappy job. The day wasn't fully finished and she already has something to blab, Emily thinks that she could do a little more better than her, possibly even back to her ex. Then she remembers that Hanna gave her Adrian Fields, her beloved son.

So it was a no-brainer, at least for Emily, that she had to stay. No matter how annoyed the girl makes her.

With an internal heavy sigh, "What's wrong, hon?" Emily asked as she furrowed her eyebrows in confusion, convincingly.

"Just that dumb new intern in the office. God, she can't even spell our boss' motherfucking name right." She hissed as she threw her stiletto somewhere in the living room. Emily huffed as she calculated the spot where it had landed.