Pretty Little Liars

Chapter 1: Blast From the Past

Bree Veluz blinks through the morning sunlight streaming in through her window on the other side of her large bedroom painted in a pale pink with white accents. She tosses her legs over the edge of her bed, covering her mouth as she yawns. The calendar strung up on the wall by her bedroom door reminds her that today is the first day of sophomore year, circled with a red pen.

"First day of school," Bree coaches to herself, peeling herself out of bed to open the door to her huge, walk-in closet by her bureau. "It's going to be a good one, Bree."

She sifts through her pastel-colored clothes strung up on hangers, running her fingertips against the fabric. It's not like she has a certain reputation to uphold at school, but there is a certain flare she would like to remind people she has. High school is a pool of sharks with teeth as sharp as nails, desperate to dig into the flesh of the weak. Fortunately for Bree, she declares herself one of those sharks now... but a nice shark. Like, a baby shark. Alison, on the other hand, would be considered one of those ones starring in Jaws.

With flaming orange hair and petite features, Bree is often compared to a baby phoenix-- a nickname Alison gave her in the third grade. Bree took it as the best compliment anyone had given her and even tried getting her older brother to call her it as well, attempting to get the name to stick. It died with Ali.

Bree's phone pings from across the room on her nightstand. She yanks a forest green turtleneck and high-waisted off their hangers before thumbing through her most recent new message:

Have a good first day, beautiful reads the message from her boyfriend, Jordan Meyer, a pucker face emoji strung onto the end.

Bree smiles thoughtfully, plopping down on the edge of her bed to shoot back a response: Thanks, handsome face. Have fun at college!

The two of them have only been dating a year and Bree has never felt over the moon like this before. She knows that if Alison was still around, she would make fun of her for getting so giddy to be with someone like Jordan. He's eighteen, starting college, and since he's a family friend, her parents already adore him. Sure, the age thing was a bit weird to get around at first but age is just a number. That's what Ali used to say. And like most things she spewed, Bree went along with it.

Bree pulls herself into her outfit and skips breakfast because breakfast is for kids who get up at the crack of dawn. Cameron, her brother, now twenty-one, is waiting in the foyer, impatiently tapping his foot against the thick oriental rug by the front door. He's wearing a baby blue button-down shirt and black slacks, a tie wrapped around his neck.

"Finally," Cameron comments impatiently. "You do realize that we should have already been at the school by now, right?"

"I didn't even take that long." She rolls her eyes, coming down the last few steps, her heeled boots thumping against the floor. "Calm down, Mr. Teacher-Boy."

"This is my first day as a TA," Cameron reminds her as they head out the front door, as though he hasn't been talking about this for the last few weeks. He locks it behind them with his key. "I know you don't really take anything but yourself seriously, but this is a big deal for me."

She rolls her eyes again, climbing into the passenger seat of his beat-up Jeep. She would never admit this to her brother, but she's secretly proud of what he's done. He went from being some douchebag jock in high school to actually making something of himself. She thinks some of it has to do with her parents' divorce back when she was in middle school and how her mother married John so quickly. But, Cameron would never admit that his parents' failed marriage had anything to do with wanting to better his own life. It's too much of a cliche.