The Heart of Beacon Heights

Beacon Heights Blues

A/N: I was iffy writing in this world. I want to be straight up about the ups and downs in this fic, so just know that this one is a little rougher than the first chapter. The timing when I was writing this chapter was back when Marlene was saying that Emily and Alison loved one another, but that they were struggling. I want my intentions to be crystal clear here. Emison is absolutely endgame in this version of "The Perfectionists". There is no divorce. There is no separation. There are struggles. There is conflict. There is mystery. And there is drama.

I want readers to keep in mind that I wrote this fic before "The Perfectionists" aired. I had my own theories and ideas from the trailers/sneak peeks that I blended into Alison and Emily's world. This means that a majority of the plot may or may not match up to what is happening in real time on screen and the personalities of the new characters may or may not be the same to their screen counterparts. While it's an Emison-based fic, it is still in The Perfectionists' world, which means that we will see Ava, Caitlin, Dylan, Mona, and more. And it will be centered around what's happening in Beacon Heights.

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Chapter 2:

Beacon Heights Blues

Alison tapped her pen against the podium, lost in thought. The discussion was at a stalemate. Her kids had been giving her shit since her first day, when Nolan had laid her past out in front of them. It had been a power move. She'd seen it hundreds of times before. And she did not appreciate it.

Her initial reaction was to size him up and take him down with a dose of his own medicine, to peg him as the affluent little snob that he was. She wanted to ask him if he was overcompensating for the lack of something he was missing in life.

Instead, she'd simply let it roll off of her shoulders. She had come to this town for a fresh start, to work on herself. The old Alison would have eviscerated him verbally, but the new adult Alison had quietly pulled him aside after class and warned him not to make an enemy out of her. It turned out to be the best decision of her life. Because had she snapped at him in front of the whole class that day the investigation would be honed in on her as the top suspect.

But in the eyes of the rest of the class, Nolan had owned the new teacher. All of the students had been slacking off and not taking her seriously.

All except three. The three very people who had been close to Nolan. She'd suspected something amiss the second she'd seen them together. After the boy had been killed she'd noticed them acting strangely. So she'd reached out. They were, understandably, wary of her. But she was slowly getting to know them. Part of it was a residual need to protect them, even though she didn't know them. They reminded her too much of her family back in Rosewood to ignore. Of course, her ulterior motive was because she and Mona needed to find out who was responsible for Nolan's death. Because whoever it was was a danger to her, and to her family.

The murder had derailed everything. And she felt guilty for thinking that, but it was true. It's like she was cursed and couldn't have a normal life no matter what she did. She'd moved away from Rosewood specifically to get a fresh start, to leave everything that was haunting her from her past in the dust. She'd moved because she wanted to grow as a person, a wife, and a mother.

But she'd quickly discovered that things didn't always work out like that. The insanity of Rosewood wasn't just limited to Rosewood. Shit happened everywhere. Ominous things seemed to follow her around like a storm cloud ready to strike her down at the worst possible moment.

"...question about the assigned reading." A pristine voice interrupted her train of thought.

She glanced at the classroom full of students. The question had come from a petite blonde girl sitting behind one of the students she was investigating, Caitlin Park-Lewis.