How Alison Met The Liars

Emily

I didn't meet Emily until we were paired together for a school project. Emily wasn't my first choice for a school project partner, I usually partnered with Spencer. However, she was mad at me over something stupid so she had chosen Aria. I also didn't want to work with Hanna because she was too focused on trying to get Sean Ackard's attention and had partnered with him. So that left me with Emily.

I chose Emily because she seemed like a normal girl. Someone who wouldn't make a big deal about working with the 'popular' girl in class but also someone who would probably do most of the work with some persuasion.

"Hi I'm Alison," I introduced myself as I sat down. I didn't think I needed to introduce myself to anyone in school now I had a reputation but I thought it was the polite thing to do.

"Hey I'm Emily," Emily replied. She quickly looked away from me to her notes as if afraid to look me in the eye. That wasn't a good sign, I hoped she hadn't heard about what happened with Hanna at Noel's party. I didn't need her thinking that I was pushy.

Hanna was a recent addition to the group, only after I deemed her worthy enough after daring her to strip tease at Noel Kahn's party. It wasn't a glamorous strip tease like most but it was enough to break Hanna emotionally to get her to bend to my will. She doesn't like to talk about the event but I know she's grateful to be part of the group now.

"So what do you think we should do for this project?" Our assignment was to make a 3D model of some cell or something. Not exactly rocket science but still not something I wanted to concern myself with. If I was partnered with Spencer, she would probably have the whole thing done in a day, all I would need to do was sign my name at the bottom.

"I have a few ideas, I just don't want it to be too difficult," Emily flipped through the pages of her textbook. She still wasn't looking at me though, was I really that scary? "What about this?"

I looked down at the page, there was a big clear diagram of something that I didn't care about but would look impressive if we pulled it off. "Yeah, that looks good!" I tried to sound enthusiastic.

"Great, we can figure out a good time to work on it after school. I'm usually busy with swim practice after school but we can meet up after that?"

"Sure," I didn't want to turn her down right away, I couldn't let her know I had no intention of showing up or doing any work so soon.

"Great," Emily sounded happy. Maybe she liked the idea of being friends with the popular girl in class.

The rest of the class passed in silence as Emily paid attention to the lesson, she gave the impression of a goodie two shoes like Spencer, and she took a lot of notes on what the teacher was saying. Meanwhile, I just spent time sending daggers to Spencer and Aria and rolling my eyes at Hanna fawning all over Sean.

At the end of class, I gave my number to Emily so we could figure out a schedule or when to meet up. I didn't expect to hear from her for a few days because our deadline was a few weeks away, but she had texted me at lunchtime to ask when I was free. I texted back telling her anytime would work for me.

"So Ali, how's your new science partner working out?" Spencer asked as I sat down at the lunch table.

"How's yours working out? I heard Aria can be kind of flaky. Definitely not project partner material."

"I'm sitting right here!" Aria waved her arm at me.

"She's deflecting. That means it's not going well." Spencer smiled.

"It's going as well as it can be. Do you guys know much about Emily Fields?" I scanned the cafeteria looking for her, she was over in the corner with the rest of the swim team, looking like any high school jock would with their clique.