Crazier ➳ Emison (COMPLETED)

56 - Lean On Me

Hanna was just about furious at the school's decision to give them a self-defense class. Not that she didn't think self-defense was important, it was just, the entire cafeteria was covered in mattresses and unfortunately, Hanna had worn her favorite pair of heels to school that day, only for her to step on a mattress, falling and nearly breaking a heel. Luckily, Caleb helped her up, but she had still gotten a scratch on her blue Manolo Blahnik heels, and she was obviously not happy about it.

On a whole other hand, Emily was overjoyed by this quick course of self-defense. For one, she loved almost any type of sport and this one was no exception, and secondly, she was missing history class because of this, and she thanked God for that. She couldn't believe she would need to suffer two more years of this crap. Alison was also excited for this, any opportunity to see Emily in yoga pants was more than enough to convince her. Besides, she could use this course. Rosewood was known to be a small town and all, but she used to hurt a lot of people in the past, and she just wondered if someone out there felt like paying her back.

The school didn't give the students any sort of explanation for this sudden curiosity around self-defense, a curiosity that obviously hadn't been there before, not even when a gnarly rumor was being spread about a gang of pedophiles that had invaded their calm town back in seventh grade. Alison was never sure whether that rumor was true or not, but at the time, everyone took it pretty seriously, so she thought it might've been real.

After not getting answers from the school, Spencer - unsurprisingly - was the one to provide some to her best friends. She told them that she had thought about it ever since their sleepover, when they had played Never Have I Ever, and Emily had said it was always important to know how to protect yourself. Spencer might've been highly intoxicated at the time, but her comprehending skills were not damaged, and she had taken what Emily said to heart. And, of course, as the president of the student council, she was one of the people who eventually decided what activities were planned out for the students. She had offered the idea to one of the teachers who was in charge of activities, and they were very fond of it, enthusiastically agreeing to help.

That was how the group ended up standing in a bunch at one end of the cafeteria, waiting for the course to begin, when an unfamiliar guy approached them. He was tall and had a nice set of muscles; he obviously wasn't a student there because they'd never noticed him before that. He was handsome, Alison had to admit, but his beauty didn't even scratch the surface of Emily's. Sometimes, Alison felt like she appeared as some enthusiastic school girl whenever she gushed or fantasized about her girlfriend, but she simply knew Emily looked at her the exact same way.

"Caleb? Is that you?" the guy inquired as he shamelessly stepped closer to the group of friends.

Caleb lifted his head from Hanna's phone where she had been showing him a funny video, an episode of 'Freaky Foodies' as a matter of fact, the one where the lady ate the foam out of some seat cushions. His girlfriend was overly obsessed with the odd show.

"Jake?" Caleb laughed lightly in disbelief, jogging to the guy and embracing him in a tight 'bro hug' - or whatever it was called when two guys did the weird patting-firmly-on-the-back thing, Alison mused. The group stared at him in confusion. He parted from Jake, glancing at his friends like he had momentarily forgotten they were there. "Oh, sorry, guys. This is Jake, Jake, these are my friends, and that's my girlfriend Hanna," he pointed at the phone-holding blonde.

"So, you're the famous Jake," Hanna acknowledged, moving to stand beside Caleb. "Caleb's told me a lot about you."

"Well, you don't just spend seven years in a foster home together without getting close to one another," Jake said meaningfully, but there was a woeful tone to his voice. He smiled somewhat sadly and gave Caleb some more of those firm pats on his shoulder.