Emily walked through the halls leading to her high school's library, anxiously shrugging her purse higher on her shoulder. Her arms and legs were sore from swim tryouts earlier that day and she was a bag of nerves for this upcoming tutoring session. Not only was she going to go over the semi-average quiz she'd done in English class today, she was going to do it with the help of Ms. DiLaurentis, and after last night, she wasn't sure how to even act around the teacher.
Their encounter had felt like an alternate universe of some sort. She had never spoken so freely with a teacher of hers before, she didn't know what came over her last night. Something about Ms. DiLaurentis just put her at ease and she felt like she could joke lightheartedly back and forth with her, even though she barely knew her.
That was the thing - she found herself wanting to know more about her.
Maybe she really did have a crush on the woman, she thought miserably. It only proved to stress her more about this upcoming hour.
Something else that didn't help her tense state was running into Paige earlier at the tryouts. She somehow managed to avoid the girl these past few days but she had known they would inevitably cross paths at the pool. They even spoke briefly, just quickly catching up. Emily hadn't seen her in nearly three months before today, and coming into contact with her just then... It did something to her.
It didn't make her want to take back her decision. In fact, it made her more confident in it. Speaking to Paige felt friendly at most. Her ex, on the other hand, seemed like she wanted to talk more before they were called on by their coach, but Emily didn't know what they could possibly speak further about.
She opened the door of the library, scanning the area as she walked in. To her right were closed booths meant for studying in groups and a corner with beanbags for students who wanted to read. To her left were many tall, categorized bookcases alongside an area with long library desks. She saw that some of the closed booths were occupied but she couldn't spot Ms. DiLaurentis anywhere, so she turned left and went to the area of desks, sitting down at one of the many empty ones and waiting for her teacher.
She pulled out her notebook and her copy of The Great Gatsby, sitting patiently. A few minutes passed before she glanced around at the people in the library, spotting some familiar faces. There weren't many students there since it was past school hours and people always rushed to get out of this building.
Other than that, the elderly librarian was silently watching cat videos on her ancient computer, which made Emily smile for some reason.
Glancing at the time on her phone, she realized her teacher was actually late. She hoped Ms. DiLaurentis hadn't forgotten about this, or worse, intentionally didn't come because she was weirded out by last night.
Emily turned back to the desk, her eyes closing on their accord for a few moments. She was fairly tired from swimming, from the whole school day, and frankly, just from thinking.
Last night, she had fallen asleep long after Aria. She had over-analyzed her entire odd interaction with Ms. DiLaurentis for the longest time. She hadn't told her friend about it, either. She had only tried to mute out her thoughts with the movie Aria allowed her to pick, but that didn't work. She couldn't stop thinking about her teacher.
What was wrong with her?
She heard the chair next to her scrape against the floor as someone pulled on it and opened her eyes, expecting to see her teacher, but instead, she came across Paige.
She sat up slightly in surprise. "Paige? What are you...?"
"Can we talk, Em?" Paige asked softly, silently pleading.
Emily saw that Paige was now donning her regular clothes rather than a swimsuit and a cap, the way she had been dressed at tryouts. The girl had grown out her hair over the summer, and now it was relatively long rather than reaching just below her shoulder line. She had also gotten some highlights in her hair and started curling it.
It looked nice, Emily noted off-handedly.
"About what?" she asked, staring at her in mild puzzlement.
"About us," Paige insinuated, placing a warm hand on top of hers on the desk.
Emily glanced at it for a moment, expecting to feel something, anything. A single zing of electricity didn't pass through their touching skins, and she found herself gently retracting her hand, much to Paige's apparent disappointment.
"I've already told you everything I need to say," Emily said apologetically. "I'm sorry, Paige, I feel the same way that I did at the end of last year. That hasn't changed."
"Em, if you give us another chance, I know we'll be able to make it work," Paige tried.
"I don't want to make it work. That's not the kind of relationship I want to have. And I think you deserve way better than that too," Emily appealed calmly, trying to drive her point. She didn't want Paige to carry this feeling around all year, trying to force them together time and again.
"You are what I deserve, Emily," Paige insisted, her eyes turning slightly bleary as she stared at Emily. "I-I want you back."
"I can't give you that," Emily responded remorsefully. "I'm sorry, but my opinion's not going to change. It's better for the both of us if you let us go."
Paige's desperation deepened, dampness building up in her brown eyes, "I still want you, Em, I-"
A shadow suddenly fell over them, and they both turned to find Ms. DiLaurentis approaching, her gaze subtly transferring between the two of them, as though trying to assess the scene.
"Um... Paige, I have a tutoring session right now, so," Emily quietly told her, a woeful tone to her words. "Think about what I said, okay? I want the best for you, but I can't change what I'm feeling."
Paige wiped secretly at her eyes, nodding slowly. She got up from her seat, meeting Ms. DiLaurentis' inquisitive gaze for a split second. She looked away, embarrassed, before walking off, tugging at her hands.
Emily morosely watched her leave, swallowing the lump she felt in her throat. She hoped Paige would eventually understand that she was thinking of her too when she told her they shouldn't get back together. Paige didn't need to be in a relationship with someone who didn't reciprocate her feelings or the volume of her emotions.
"Hey," the blonde softly called out, pulling her out of her thoughts, "you okay? That seemed kind of intense."
"Yeah, I'm fine," Emily sighed heavily, turning in her chair to face the desk as Ms. DiLaurentis settled in the seat by her side, where Paige had sat just a minute ago.
"I'm sorry that I'm late," the teacher apologized, "I got a distressed call from my sister because she thought her car had been stolen, and-"
"What?" Emily asked in a panic, concerned at the news.
"Oh, no, her car's fine," she rushed to soothe her. "My sister just happens to be an idiot, who parked it where she shouldn't have and it was towed."
"Oh," Emily said with a faint grin of relief. "Well, I was just worried, I didn't know if maybe you had forgotten about this or..."
"No, not at all," Ms. DiLaurentis dismissed in a gentle tone, "I really am sorry."
An idea popped into her head and before the rational part of her brain could quickly write it off, she was already offering it. "Here, maybe you should write down my number in case this happens again. If I'm late in the future for some reason, I'll be able to let you know," the blonde wrote her number quickly on a piece of paper from her day planner, ripping it out and handing it to Emily.
The brunette looked slightly stunned but took the paper nonetheless. "O-Okay, sure," she nodded.
She then remembered something, sharing it with the blonde, "I should probably give you mine too, actually. Sometimes my coach just pulls me into thirty-minute conversations that I can't escape from." She shrugged, "Wouldn't want you to wonder where I am in case that happens."
Alison hesitantly accepted the paper that Emily wrote her number on in a similar manner to how she had done.
Emily pulled out her phone in order to insert the number into her contacts, noticing the teacher staring at her from the corner of her eye.
"What?" she asked honestly.
"Nothing, I just..." the woman gave her a scarce smile, looking around them for a moment, "I'm pretty sure I'm not supposed to do this, so I'd appreciate it if you could save the number under something that's not 'Ms. DiLaurentis'."
"Oh. Yeah, I can do that," Emily said agreeably, but found her fingers unsurely hovering over the keyboard on her phone screen, not knowing what to type if not exactly that.
"You can save it under my first name," Ms. DiLaurentis warmly informed her, causing her to turn to her curiously. "It's Alison."
Emily smiled tenderly without meaning to. "That's a pretty name," she uttered quietly as she typed, thinking Ms. DiLaurentis' number was actually quite 'pretty' too, with the last four digits being a mere 2-7-2-8. Everything about this woman was appealing to her, even the smallest details.
"Thank you," Alison smiled a bit, almost shyly. Her eyes met Emily's for a heated moment before she cleared her throat subtly, sitting up straighter. She suddenly appeared more professional. "We should get started."
"Yeah," Emily conceded shortly.
Alison pulled out Emily's quiz from her bag, sliding it over to the brunette.
Emily saw the big glaring "B" on the top right corner of the page. It was actually a better grade than she'd expected, but she didn't like the thought of not getting an A on the easiest quiz of the year. It was the first English quiz and there was barely any material yet, so how could she not ace it?
"You know you need to actually listen to the lectures in class too and not just read the book, right?" Alison asked jokingly, causing Emily guiltily to look up. She pointed at the paper, "Look, I marked the questions. All of the ones you got wrong or didn't answer were things that were said in a lecture in class and aren't necessarily in the book itself or the textbook. Mostly analysis and character deep-dive."
"Oh," Emily mumbled to herself, knowing exactly why she hadn't been listening to the lectures in class. The reason was sitting right next to her, wearing an aromatic vanilla perfume.
"So, what is it? Is something stopping you from concentrating in my class?" Alison questioned. "Maybe the fact that you sit next to your friend, Toby-"
"No, that's... that's not it," Emily rebuffed weakly, playing with her fingers under the desk. "Um, I guess it's just the start of the new year, you know. I haven't really gotten fully into school yet," she made up.
"Okay," Alison nodded slowly, "well, I trust you to figure it out because you could've easily gotten an A on this. It would be a shame if this affected your grades."
"Trust me, I know," Emily muttered under her breath. She had to get herself under control. She wished this 'crush' thing would just die, but how could it, when she had Ms. DiLaurentis' - Alison's - phone number burning her back pocket?
They went over the questions thoroughly, and the teacher filled Emily in on the answers she didn't know. Emily wrote down the summary of the explanations Ms. DiLaurentis was giving her. She liked the concept of a private class with the blonde. Considering the way they were seated, if she didn't look at Ms. DiLaurentis while she wrote, she could finally concentrate very well.
At a certain point, Alison was explaining something to her when she abruptly got a call from one of the other English teachers, asking if she could make copies of an article they wanted to hand out in the joint class they were planning. The other teacher had been forced to leave early today to take care of her sick kid, so she hadn't gotten around to doing that herself.
Alison reluctantly agreed, apologetically informing Emily that she needed to go do that before they closed the photocopy room. The brunette casually tagged along with her to the room in the back of the library. She had nothing to do all alone at the desk with The Great Gatsby, after all.
Alison was pressing the buttons on the machine, turning a bit frustrated at the lack of cooperation from it, when Emily chimed in.
"It takes a couple minutes," she said in a kind voice. "I've used it a few times to make copies of stuff for The Sharks and this machine is older than the dinosaurs."
"Oh," Alison observed with a sigh, leaving the machine alone while it was processing. She gently positioned herself against the wall behind her in the meantime, watching Emily lean on one of the other heavy machines.
"So, were you a teacher somewhere else before this?" Emily piped up then and Alison turned to look at her questioningly, though she figured she should get used to entering private conversations with the brunette, simply because the girl seemed very curious about her. Emily shrugged lightly, "Just making conversation until this thing decides it wants to work."
"Not exactly," Alison answered her question truthfully, "after college, I was TA for a year in Hollis before I actually moved to Rosewood."
"Wow, then you really are very young," Emily murmured lowly to herself, remembering Hanna's words from the first day of school.
"What?" Alison asked, having not heard what she last said.
"Nothing," Emily waved off quickly. "Where did you move here from?"
"Philadelphia," Alison provided, a bit amused at Emily's stream of questions.
"Oh," Emily nodded. "Well, if you were in the English department at Hollis, you might know my friend's boyfriend," she said, piquing Alison's interest, "Ezra Fitz."
"Yeah, I think I talked to him a few times," Alison recalled, remembering the man. "He kept mentioning that he wasn't getting enough time for his writing," the blonde added, chuckling lowly.
"So?" Emily asked, not understanding the cause for the blonde's sudden humorous tone.
"I've read some of his stuff," Alison smirked, "maybe it's better for the world if he doesn't have time to write."
Emily scoffed out a laugh of surprise at Alison's bluntness, the blonde lightly chuckling by her side.
After a few moments, Alison retracted her statement though her smile remained intact, "I'm sorry. He's your friend's boyfriend, I-"
"No, it's okay. I won't tell her you said that or anything," Emily assured, calming down her laughter. "Now, I'm kind of interested to hear what you think about the same friend's father, though. He also teaches at Hollis. Byron Montgomery."
"Byron's a good professor, but there were all these rumors about him," Alison said but didn't elaborate in order not to hurt Emily's feelings.
The brunette picked up on it though, revealing what everyone at their school sadly already knew - Mr. Montgomery had an affair with his student, Meredith, resulting in Aria's parents' divorce. "Oh, those... weren't just rumors."
"Huh," Alison acknowledged airily, discovering that Hollis was perhaps a more scandalous place than she had initially thought when she was temporarily there for a year. "Wait," she broke out of her thoughts again when she realized something, "you said that her father and boyfriend work in the same college?"
"Yeah, why?"
Alison's smile turned into a grimace, "Nothing, it just sounds a little awkward, is all."
"Uh, yeah, I guess so," Emily admitted with a shrug. "I don't know, I'm not really focused on Aria's dating life."
"That's understandable," Alison said distractedly, thinking about the conversation she had found Emily in when she first arrived earlier. "You have your own to worry about, after all." She wondered what was the nature of Emily and Paige's connection. It didn't seem like they were talking about matters revolving around the swim team.
"Right," Emily agreed weakly, feeling like the blonde could look right through her.
When the machine finally seemed like it was jarring to life, Alison let out a sigh of relief.
"So, how were the swim tryouts?" she asked casually.
"Pretty good. I kept my position from last year for competitions. Anchor." Emily answered easily. "It's good for the college to see that that's the position I compete in," she explained.
"Well, I don't know if this is news to you but your swim coach is kind of in love with you," Alison teased, her eyes twinkling with mischief. Emily smiled shyly at the imploration.
"She loves everyone on the team," she mumbled modestly.
"If you say so," the blonde provided absentmindedly.
"What?" Emily asked suspiciously. "Wait, why?"
"She didn't seem that much of a fan of that girl you were talking to before. Paige McCullers," Alison answered. She was only going off of true things she had heard in the teachers' lounge but she was mostly doing it to scope out Emily's reaction.
"Yeah, I guess she doesn't like her as much," Emily said with a small frown. It wasn't news to her, she had always noticed Coach Fulton's cold attitude toward Paige. "I don't know why, though. Paige is a better swimmer than I am."
"I doubt that," Alison said under her breath but their proximity allowed Emily to hear her. She turned to the brunette, elaborating, "The first thing you see when you walk into school is a big case with all of your swim trophies." She smiled faintly, her eyebrows raising as she stressed her point, "There's a lot of them."
Emily blushed at the compliment, feeling her face warming.
"Are you planning on coming to watch the meets when the season begins?" she finally managed to innocently ask.
"Maybe, yeah," Alison shrugged nonchalantly.
"Really?"
"Yeah, why not?" Alison supplied with a gentle grin. "A friend of mine in high school used to always say that the way some girls swam reminded her of mermaids, you know. Thought it was poetic at the time."
Emily stored the words for safekeeping in her mind, taking them personally for some reason.
"Ugh, finally," Alison exclaimed excitedly when the machine finished printing all of the copies, gathering all of the warm papers in her hands. Emily watched her in amusement, smothering her smile when the blonde turned to her, gesturing for the both of them to go back to the general area of the library.
By the time they finished going over the quiz, the librarian was setting out to close. They gathered their things, exiting last out of the room before the elderly woman locked it behind them.
They were walking alongside each other through the empty halls of the school, headed towards the main exit, when Alison came up with a new inquiry.
"Paige seemed pretty sad when she left," she said sympathetically, causing a slight frown on Emily's face. "Is she okay?"
Emily swallowed shortly, quietly responding, "Yeah, she will be."
"Why was she so upset?" Alison wondered out loud, but noticed the uncomfortable look on Emily's face and wavered. "Sorry, you don't have to answer that, I'm just being nosy."
Emily made a sound of consideration before playfully uttering, "Yeah, you kinda are."
They shared a small laugh, and Emily relented softly, "But it's okay."
As they kept walking, she found herself wringing her hands nervously, something inside of her urging her to spill the answer to the blonde's question.
"The reason was," she started bashfully, garnering the woman's attention, "um... Paige and I dated last year, and I broke up with her before I went away for the summer. So, what you saw was one of the first conversations we've had in months." She chewed on the inside of her cheek, sighing, "That's why it was so tense."
"Oh," Alison mumbled after a few seconds, absorbing all of the new information. It explained a whole lot. She could tell Emily was troubled enough by thoughts of her exchange with Paige, so she decided to steer the discussion in a different direction. "Why were you away for the summer?"
"I was in Haiti," Emily said shortly, seeming grateful for the topic change.
"For a trip?"
"Not really," Emily said with a tiny smile. "I was volunteering with Habitat for Humanity."
Emily looked like she didn't even want to provide the information, almost as though she feared that someone would compliment her. Alison didn't think she had ever met someone capable of being so tongue-in-cheek one moment and painfully humble the next. It almost gave her whiplash.
"That's amazing," she told Emily with a soft grin, truly meaning it.
Emily smiled gently, looking away.
"Did you meet any cool people there?" Alison asked then secretly rolled her eyes at herself. Why did she sound like a twelve-year-old talking to a crush? She wasn't sure why she was so hyper-fixated on figuring out the people in Emily's life, but she just had to know. Her level of curiosity about this girl was astounding.
"Yeah, some," Emily shrugged nonchalantly. "I keep in touch a little with my supervisor, Zoe, but all of the volunteers are scattered around the country, so..."
As she trailed off, they walked out the main doors of the school, descending the steps.
"Is your car back from the shop yet?" Alison asked.
"Uh... yeah," she lied through her teeth, knowing damn well she was only getting her car back tomorrow. "I have it."
She didn't like lying to her teacher, but she definitely didn't trust herself to get into a car with Ms. DiLaurentis again.
"Good," Alison nodded with a small grin, starting to walk away, "see you tomorrow."
"Yeah, see you," Emily stood there for a few moments, watching the blonde go in the direction of the faculty parking lot, before leaving the opposite way and starting her walk home.
XXXXX
Alison DiLaurentis was a woman who knew how to get what she wanted. At most times, it was the ultimate advantage in life. She could persuade people to do things for her, to think a certain way, or even to completely abandon their previous beliefs in order to follow her own.
In high school, she ruled the halls and called the shots on everything. In college, she dialed it down a notch when she found herself in a serious relationship and in the midst of getting her degree. Ever since then, her devious, got-it-all side remained mostly under the covers, but peeked out at certain times.
Either way, she always got what she wished for in the end.
Only this time, she felt the need to smother that handy skill, because what she was pretty sure she wanted was something she desperately couldn't have, since that would be illegal and immoral.
The more time she spent with Emily, the more she seemed to feel drawn to her. It surprised her when she came to that realization, but then again, it wasn't completely out of the realm of possibilities.
She had found herself a few times in her life, curiously attracted to a girl. She never acted on it, even when she was in her wild phase in college, but she knew that it was there, buried deep down. While she had been mostly attracted to guys her whole life, she acknowledged that she wasn't closed off to the idea of girls, but this particular girl was out of reach for more reasons than one, and rightfully so.
Emily was just... special. Alison could feel it. There was something about her that was so wholesome and cute yet very desirable at the same time. Add that to the fact that she was absolutely gorgeous, funny, and kind, and Alison wasn't clueless as to why she found her so attractive.
But she knew it was unacceptable. Emily was her student, and the mere thought of her like this was inappropriate.
She just had to keep it to herself and nothing would ever happen, she decided. She was terrific at secret-keeping and lying, after all. She often thought back to the many troubles she could have gotten into in her high school days if she hadn't lied or cheated her way out of it.
Hopefully, I can kick off this Emily thing by the end of the week, she mused to herself. No one would ever have to know.
One morning, a few days after her first session with Emily, she was walking out of the teachers' lounge, holding a binder to her chest. She strode in the direction of the administration office to drop off some forms with her personal details, being a new teacher at the school and all.
She turned the corner of the hallway when suddenly spotted the infamous girl at her locker, sorting out textbooks. Her bubbly blonde friend was by her side, talking her ear off, but Emily didn't seem to mind. The sight alone was enough to cause Alison to stop in her spot. She stared at Emily for a long moment, willing her pulse to slow down, before she made the decision to turn around and find another route to administrations.
She made a 180 turn in her place, satisfied with her plan, when she abruptly heard, "Ms. DiLaurentis?"
Silently cursing the voice, she turned tensely to find Toby Cavanaugh. She quite liked the polite boy so she felt herself relaxing a bit. "Hey, Toby. You wanted something?" she asked genially.
"I just had a question about the homework assignment," Toby explained, pulling out a paper from his bag which she recognized as the assignment she handed out yesterday which was due in a few days. He pointed at a question and began asking away, but Alison's gaze couldn't help but be drawn over his shoulder to the sight of Emily leaning against her locker as she talked casually with her friend, now being joined by their two other best friends. When the brunette laughed at something her friend said, Alison found herself adoring her radiant smile.
She and Emily had gone through one more tutoring session yesterday after school, and when the girl had finished silently reading a passage Alison asked her to repeat from the book, she promptly turned to the blonde and asked her some more of her choice personal questions. They had managed to go through more side discussions than actual material. Alison didn't know why she felt so obliged to answer Emily's questions every time, anyway. Probably because she wanted Emily to know more about her, like she wanted to know more about Emily.
In conclusion, Alison wasn't sure how long she could take this.
Her eyes bounced to the brunette every few seconds as she nodded distractedly, struggling to listen to what Toby was asking. She was becoming too interested in this girl and the school year had barely started yet.
"Uh... Ms. DiLaurentis?" Toby skeptically inquired when the teacher failed to answer his question. He looked over his shoulder momentarily to see what she was staring at but didn't see anything out of the ordinary.
"Sorry," the blonde apologized ruefully, shaking her brain back to reality. "I'm a little out of it this morning, not enough coffee," she joked lightly, relieved at the understanding smile Toby cracked on his face. "Can you repeat the question?"
Toby willingly asked again, and this time she provided him with the helpful information he needed. He thanked her shortly before walking away, entering the men's bathroom close by.
She was about to finally execute her flawless 'avoid-Emily' plan when she noticed the girl was already walking down the hall with her friends in the direction of where she was standing.
"Morning, Ms. DiLaurentis," one of her friends, Spencer Hastings, greeted with a kiss-ass smile as the four of them walked past. All of the teachers knew of her since she was the student body president.
"Morning, girls," she returned the grin to all of them, her eyes catching Emily already staring at her. The brunette looked genuinely happy to see her, giving her an adorable smile. Alison's stomach turned to knots as she mirrored the mirthful expression shortly, before looking away and taking off in the direction of the office she had intended to reach in the first place.
This is it, she decided. I'm just going to emotionally cut her out of my life. How hard could it be?
XXXXX
Alison often carried useful things in her purse, like a quick makeup kit or a phone charger. One of those handy items happened to be her journal, for whenever inspiration struck.
As she sat down on a bench in the Rosewood Park late afternoon on a Saturday with her loyal dog, Pepe by her side, she found herself reaching for her journal. The skies were in their most dazzling hour, filled with strokes of orange and pink as the sun continued setting. Alison wasn't sure why, but everything in Rosewood just seemed prettier.
Pepe laid his head on her knee and she smiled down at him fondly, petting his fur. She then pulled out a pen, writing everything that was on her mind. All of her journal entries were titled, and the name she gave this one seemed rather fitting to her.
Her hand glided over the paper in the small notebook, words flowing easily from her mind. She wrote about everything she felt ever since starting out at Rosewood, a mere few weeks ago, emphasizing her puzzling feelings toward the girl on her mind. She felt relieved getting it all off her chest. She knew no one was going to read this besides her, so she invested herself in this entry.
Pepe was soon nudging her leg though, wanting to play with her, and she stroked him on the head distractedly, far too occupied.
Pepe huffed through his snout, nudging her more forcefully. She knew he wanted his usual playtime.
"Not now, sweetie," she apologized, scratching behind his ear, "in a minute."
She went back to her writing, getting lost in the text, a peaceful expression resting on her face as she felt all of her worries mellowing down-
"Are you actually everywhere?"
The playful question was directed at her by a voice that was now all too familiar and she raised her head in surprise to find Emily taking out her earbuds as she slowed to a stop in front of her. She was donning running gear and was gathering her breath, seemingly finishing off a lap.
"Following me, or something?" Emily chuckled teasingly.
The sight of the brunette in tight workout clothes, while she was right in the midst of getting lost in her emotions on the page, was quite possibly the worst thing that could happen right now, yet she still found herself breaking into a smile.
"Following you? Seems to me like you were the one who came sprinting over, I was just sitting here, minding my own business," she taunted lightheartedly.
This was not good. She was supposed to be distancing herself from Emily and not getting into these borderline-flirty conversations that they kept falling into. What was she supposed to do though, considering the girl kept crashing into her day unannounced?
Emily laughed at the jab, nodding appreciatively, "Touché."
Seeing her teacher out of her formal work clothes was something Emily didn't know she wanted until it was right in front of her. The blonde was usually in tip-top elegance, with a blazer and heels, her soft hair curled meticulously, not one strand out of place. Now, as she sat in front of her in a gray and red UPenn sweatshirt and a pair of blue jeans, she looked much more laid back, but was still every bit as beautiful as she was every day.
Another thing she thought about was the fact that when they were both in casual clothes, they actually looked very similar in age.
"Aww, is this your dog?" Emily gushed with an endeared smile, noticing the adorable animal by the blonde's legs staring up at her questioningly.
"Yeah," Alison confirmed with a matching grin, running her hand over the dog's rich fur. "Say hi, Pepe," she cooed at him.
The dog took a few hesitant steps forward and Emily all but melted into a puddle when he sniffed her hand a few times, then apparently decided he liked her, licking it affectionately and wagging his tail in excitement.
"He's so cute," Emily chuckled, bending down to his level. She rubbed along his head and he panted enthusiastically, reveling in her touch.
"He likes you," Alison said tenderly, watching her friendly dog all but fall in love with the brunette.
Emily seemed joyful at the words, feeling comfortable enough to take a seat on the bench next to her. Glancing at the blonde, she spotted the small notebook resting by her side.
"What's that?" she asked, pointing at it.
Alison appeared tentative all of a sudden, as though she just remembered that the item was there. "It's a... journal," she admitted quietly.
Emily stared at her for a second before looking away, snorting out an amused laughter.
"What are you laughing at?" Alison asked in exasperation as Emily kept chuckling, even though she couldn't help but giggle a bit too.
Emily calmed down, turning to her teasingly, "Ms. DiLaurentis, who keeps a diary?"
"It's not a diary, it's a journal, and I do," she defended herself from Emily's mocking, a smile resting on her face. "And if you had a degree in English Literature, you'd understand the importance of expressing yourself through writing."
Emily shrugged easily at the retort, "Yeah, I guess you're right."
Her eyes couldn't budge from the small notebook. She had the deepest urge to know what was written there, the blonde's most hidden thoughts.
"So, what does one write in a journal?" she asked in an airy voice, trying to appear nonchalant.
"Is this your roundabout way of asking what I'm writing in my journal?" Alison saw right through her, joking back.
Emily chuckled, "Sort of, yes."
Alison looked at her with a particular glint in her eyes, "You really want to know?"
"Yeah," Emily answered instantly.
"Okay," Alison answered aloofly, holding the notebook for her to take. Emily couldn't help but think that was way too easy, but she still reached out for it, only for her teacher to pull it back at the last second.
"Nope, you're going to have to wait till after," the blonde said in a satisfied tone.
"Till after what?"
"After I'm dead," Alison bluntly stated, smirking at her.
"Oh, come on," Emily prodded mischievously, "you can't just say you write a journal and not give away a single snippet."
"Emily," Alison warned playfully, looking her right in the eye, "no."
Just as Emily backed down, Alison suddenly noticed that Pepe had wandered off and was edging closer to the pond a little way down from them.
"Shit," she muttered, getting up. She began walking over to her dog, shouting, "Pepe, get back here!"
Emily watched her coerce her dog to come back and leave the ducks in the pond alone.
Looking to her right, she saw the notebook from before, which was covered in a black and white flower pattern. She didn't dare to touch it, but the pen Alison had been using was stuck inside of it, causing the notebook to remain open a bit on a certain page.
She saw Alison's neat handwriting, recognizing it from the blackboard in class. She was only able to actually see the sides of the paragraphs but squinting her eyes a bit, she could almost swear she caught her own name in the sea of words.
She hesitated before tilting her head down to see the title of the entry. She nearly gasped when she read 'The Mermaid' on top of the page, her mind instantly thinking back to Alison's words to her in that copier room during their first tutoring session.
"The way some girls swam..."
"... Mermaids."
Her head perked up.
There was just no way.
She rubbed her eyes, going back and looking.
Yes, that was definitely her name in there.
What in the world? It was weird enough that she was having these strange feelings for her teacher, but picturing a scenario where the woman had actually written a journal entry on her was a little too much for Emily to bear right now.
Did Ms. DiLaurentis return these feelings? It sounded stupid even suggesting it, but what other reason could she have to write this?
She was rendered in a state of confusion and awe for a minute, only snapping out of it when she heard the blonde's retracing steps getting closer. She averted her gaze so that Ms. DiLaurentis wouldn't see that she was staring right at her personal belongings.
"Sorry about that. He almost drowned one time in a pond so I always stress out when he goes near one," Alison apologized softly, a bashful Pepe in tow as she sat back down.
Emily cleared her throat subtly, "Uh, yeah, no problem."
When she felt those piercing blue eyes focused back on her, she found herself standing up, much to Alison's bafflement.
"I-I just realized that I have to get back home," she stuttered nervously. "I'll see you tomorrow."
"Tomorrow's Sunday," Alison reminded, looking at her oddly.
"Right, I meant on Monday," she let out an apprehensive chuckle, scratching the back of her neck. "See you," she said through a tight smile before giving a small wave to the dog too, "bye, Pepe."
"Uh... Bye?" Alison sat back in puzzlement as she witnessed Emily go and disappear out of sight, not knowing what to make of her hasty goodbye.