A/N This was originally planned to be a one-shot that instead grew into a short fic. I have actually finished the story so you can expect regular updates. Hope you enjoy :)

"Hello?" Emily asked, unsure. It was a Rosewood area code, but she didn't recognize the number.

"Emily?" asked the mysterious female voice in her ear.

"Um." She hesitated a brief second, not wanting to confirm her identity.

"It's Anne McCullers," the woman said. "Paige's mother," she clarified unnecessarily.

"Of course," Emily said, only slightly less confused now than she'd been when she saw the number flash across her screen. "Hi, Mrs. McCullers."

"I'm sorry for calling so early and unexpectedly. I got your number from your mother," she began explaining. Emily didn't know Mrs. McCullers had her mother's number. Her mom moved to Texas almost immediately after she graduated from high school.

"Mrs. McCullers," Emily interrupted. "Is everything okay? Is Paige okay?" She had no idea why her former teammate/classmate's mom was calling her on a September Saturday morning from the other side of the country. Paige had to be the reason, though it still didn't make any sense to Emily since she and Paige hadn't spoken in years.

"Well, that's the thing," the woman on the phone said. "We got a call from Paige's roommate early this morning. Early for us, even. She said that Paige was in a car accident last night-"

"Oh my God!" Emily exclaimed, getting her roommate's attention. "Is she okay?"

"We were told that she's fine. She's not in any danger. Spencer mentioned she hurt her foot and broke her collarbone but, other than some minor cuts and bruises, she's fine."

Emily breathed a sigh of relief. She hadn't even realized she'd been holding her breath. "Thank God she's okay. I-I-I mean, thank God it wasn't worse," she stuttered.

"Yes," Mrs. McCullers said. "Spencer said the car is totaled, but our baby is okay."

"I'm glad," Emily said, feeling the conversation was about to take an awkward turn. Much as she appreciated hearing firsthand that Paige was in an accident and was okay, she was still unsure why Paige's mom would call her.

"Look, Emily," Paige's mom began, hesitantly, "I know this is a big ask, and I know you and Paige didn't end as the best of friends," she continued, making Emily's stomach start to churn, "but I was wondering, if you had the time… I know it's a bit of a drive, but I was hoping you'd go see her-see that she's actually okay." Emily could feel the beating of her heart. This wasn't good. "It's not that we don't trust Spencer, but we don't know her that well, and we want to make sure that Paige is really okay. And you know Paige well enough to know that she isn't going to give us the whole picture. It would just make us feel better knowing you had seen her."

It was a big ask. Emily had just returned from a run and was about to jump in the shower before meeting some teammates for brunch and beginning that sociology paper she'd neglected all week. "Sure," she said anyway, knowing that she wouldn't have ever said no.

"Oh thank God," Paige's mom said, audibly relieved. "You don't know how much that means to Nick and me."

"It's not a problem. I'm glad you called me," Emily said, with a frightening amount of honesty. "I'll just need know where to find her."

"Of course. Spencer called from the hospital, but she said Paige would likely be discharged late morning or early afternoon. So, depending on when you're able to get there, they might already be home."

After Mrs. McCullers provided her with her phone number, the hospital information and Paige's address, along with Paige's and this girl Spencer's numbers, she thanked Emily again, insisting she'd only reached out to her because she was Paige's closest link to home and she didn't know what else she could do besides catching the next flight to the Bay Area. Emily assured her that wouldn't be necessary and ended the call with the promise of being in touch soon.

When she hung up the phone her roommate asked her," Is everything okay?"

"Yeah," she answered, distracted. "I just need to get to Palo Alto as soon as I can," she said, walking to the bathroom to take a now overdue shower, providing no further information.

Emily met Paige the summer before the start of their ninth grade year at a swim camp for students interested in the Rosewood High School swim team. Emily's family had just moved to the idyllic Pennsylvania town because the swim program was so strong and to give Emily a chance to settle down somewhere for high school, even if it meant she'd only see her father during holidays and extended furloughs. He was a Colonel in the Army, and his career had taken the family all over the US, as well as five years in Germany just after Emily was born.

Moving around so much as a child-she'd lived in five states and two countries by the time she entered high school-Emily was used to keeping to herself. She'd heard herself described as shy, which wasn't exactly true; she just didn't see the point of making connections she knew may be ripped from her in a year's time. But her parents had promised that no matter where her dad was stationed, Rosewood would be her address for at least four years.

Emily hadn't had a chance to set up her room before she found herself on a bus to State College where the Rosewood High swim newbies and veteran members of the swim team would be holding their swim camp. She sat by herself near the front of the bus, deciding whether or not to put her earbuds in and let the familiarity of her music calm her down. Even though she wasn't the only new student to Rosewood High School, the coach told her parents that Emily would be the only one who was new to Rosewood altogether. These girls spent the year, when it wasn't swim season, swimming together for the Rosewood Swim Club. Emily was used to being the new kid, but being thrown with these girls for a two-week long camp without getting to know them first made Emily feel even more like a fish out of water than she had before.

The coach glanced at her watch and huffed at bit before telling the driver to wait a few more minutes. Then, turning to the girls on the bus, she said: "We'll be leaving in a few minutes, but while we're waiting, I want to introduce you to Emily Fields," she said pointing to her, which wasn't necessary since all the other girls had been whispering about her since she'd arrived. "She's going into ninth grade and has just moved to Rosewood from Washington, and she will be a valuable member to our team, so please introduce yourselves when you have a chance." Emily looked at the other girls and the bus knowing her cheeks were flushed and gave an awkward wave. Coach Fulton's introduction wasn't very inspired or helpful for her, but at least the other girls knew a bit about her now. One girl even yelled "Hi, Emily" from the back of the bus, making her teammates giggle.

"It'll be a few hours until we arrive, so I'm going to let you decide your room assignments, so that we're sorted before we get to Penn State. There will be two girls per room, and we have an even number of girls, so this shouldn't be too difficult. I'll come around soon, so be ready-"

At that moment a lanky brunette ran onto the bus. "Sorry, Coach," she said sheepishly without offering more of an explanation.

"Have a seat, Paige," Coach Fulton replied and then nodded to the driver who took the cue and started pulling out of the high school parking lot.

The tardy girl decided to sit in the closest available seat rather than risk another reprimand, one seat back and across the aisle from Emily.

"As I was saying," the coach continued, "Seniors, you get priority, so I'll see you first. The rest of you be ready," she said as she moved to the back of the bus.

Emily supposed it didn't matter who she roomed with. Everyone here was a stranger, and, if she'd learned anything from the constant moving around, it was that kids rarely made it easy at first.

Coach Fulton approached the two remaining swimmers but stopped to speak to Paige, sitting in the seat in front of the girl and directly across from Emily. Emily could hear everything that was said.

"We were late leaving because you didn't get to school on time," the coach said.

"I know. I'm sorry. My dad-"

"I don't need an excuse, Paige. I just need you to be on time." Paige nodded but otherwise remained quiet. "I know high school is going to be an adjustment, but I expect great things from you this year," their coach continued. "I'm looking forward to working with you. But you were late, and tardiness is something I can't allow, so come see me after dinner. Be ready to run."

"Okay. Thanks, Coach," Paige said, avoiding Fulton's eyes.

"Oh, and you'll be rooming with Emily at camp," their Coach said, pointing towards Emily, who'd turned towards Paige when she'd heard her name. "Emily, this is Paige." She stood up and walked to the front-most bench and where she starting jotting notes on a pad of paper. When she looked back at Paige, the girl was staring at her with a neutral expression.

"Watch out for her, new girl," Emily heard someone behind her say, breaking the brief starring standoff she and Paige were in.

Emily turned to find the voice and saw a beautiful dark-skinned girl smirking at her, while the girls near her tried, failingly, to quell their laughter. "Huh?" she asked.

"A word of friendly advice," she offered. "Sleep with an eye open. You wouldn't want to wake up to McCullers molesting you in your sleep, fucking dyke," she finished, her friends succumbing to laughter.

When Emily turned back to her roommate, Paige had turned her head to look out the window and remained silent for the duration of the ride.

Camp was pretty much what Emily had expected and she finished each day craving for the comfort of her dorm-room bed. She'd impressed her new coach and teammates by proving she could swim. Even as a freshman, Emily promised to be a valuable addition to the Sharks' team. She'd even managed to make some friends, which wasn't surprising since Emily had often been described as adaptable and likeable, but it was nice to know she wouldn't be panicking to find a place to eat her lunch when school started.

She'd also learned a lot about her roommate, Paige, even though she mostly kept to herself and barely looked at Emily the entire fortnight of camp.

When they'd found their shared room, Emily attempted to address the awkwardness their teammates tried to stir up on the bus. "Look," she began. "I'm sorry about what those girls said on the bus-"

"Don't," Paige said forcibly. "I'm not gay, so you don't have to worry about anything."

"I-I wasn't," Emily said.

"Shana's just a bitch who likes to torment me because she can't beat me in the water," she explained.

"Well, I was gonna say that it wouldn't have mattered. If you were gay, I mean. It wouldn't have weirded me out," Emily insisted.

"Good to know, I guess. But it's not gonna be an issue," she said, throwing some stuff into a small bag before she stalked off and disappeared until bedtime.

Paige and Emily didn't become friends that week, that didn't happen until school started, but even though they barely spoke, Emily learned a few important things about her loner teammate.

First, Paige was a phenomenal swimmer. When Coach Fulton said she expected great things from her this season, she didn't think she meant that Paige would be expected to compensate where the team was otherwise weak. Even her weakest stroke, the breaststroke, was only a fraction of a second off from the senior who held the best time for the event for the last couple of years. There were rumours that Paige had already been invited to US Swimming training camps and may one day be an Olympian.

Second, Paige did everything by herself. Emily wasn't yet sure if it was driven by something innate or if it was a defense mechanism from all the teasing and snide remarks she received regularly from the swim team when Coach Fulton wasn't around. Whatever the reason, Paige kept to herself. She even waited to shower until everyone else was done, which, if Emily had to guess, was directly related to the rumours that were spread about her.

Third, Emily had gathered that Paige's father was a giant asshole, which was almost funny since she also learned he was the lead pastor at Rosewood's largest evangelical church. But after the teasing she endured from her supposed homosexuality, taunts about disappointing her father came a close second.

Fourth, Paige didn't go out of her way to be liked, but Emily didn't blame her entirely. Emily was still trying to understand how far back Paige's isolation went, but even with Emily, who wasn't at all connected to the baggage the other team carried when it came to their star swimmer, Paige rebuffed all attempts at kindness she made, so Emily stopped trying to be nice. She didn't join in the bullying that she witnessed daily, but she stopped making an effort to be Paige's friend.

Emily called ahead and found out that while Paige hadn't been released from the hospital, and as she was in emergency, she wouldn't get to see her there anyway-not without Paige's expressed permission, and there wasn't really a way to get that at this point, and, even if she could get it, Paige had no reason to give it. So she decided to mull around and eat brunch with her friends as planned and then drive down to Palo Alto.

When she finished showering and readying herself for her day, she plopped herself onto the living room sofa, where her roommate, Samantha, was watching an infomercial on kitchen knives.

"Why are you watching this?" she asked. Sam never cooked anything that needed more than a butter knife.

"No idea. But now I'm sort of hooked." She glanced over to Emily, who was gnawing on skin around her fingernail, a nervous habit. "I thought you were in a rush to get to Palo Alto?"

"I am," Emily replied simply, honestly. "But I need to wait for a while."

"Is Paige McCullers alright?" Sam asked cautiously.

Emily's head snapped towards her roommate, her brows scrunched together in confusion. "Who said this was about Paige McCullers?" she asked defensively.

It took all of Sam's strength not to roll her eyes at her oblivious roommate. "You didn't, but the phone called from a 'Mrs. McCullers,' followed by a mysterious urgency to get to Palo Alto... It wasn't too hard to figure out. Plus, you actually said 'Paige' to the phone." When Emily didn't respond, Sam added: "She's the best swimmer in the conference and you went to high school with her. It doesn't seem weird her mom would call you. So I'm asking again: is Paige okay?"

Emily had hoped to avoid talking about this until she had the chance to see Paige with her own eyes. She knew it would eventually be common knowledge, but she didn't feel it was her place to announce it. "She was in a car accident," she said reluctantly.

"Shit, is she okay?" Sam asked thoughtfully.

"I think so. I mean, her mom mentioned a couple of injuries, but it sounds like they're relatively minor."

"This may change the entire swim season," Sam said a lot less thoughtfully.

Emily turned back Sam quickly. "I really couldn't care less about the swim season right now, Sam," she said seriously. "I just found out that a girl I grew up with was in a potentially career-altering car accident and all you can think about is how it might positively change your swim season." Emily stood, shaking her head. Maybe she wouldn't go for brunch after all.

"Em," Sam said, scrambling to get her roommate's attention. "I'm sorry. That was really insensitive of me." Emily looked back to Sam and saw the sincerity in your eyes. "I didn't know you and McCullers were that close, though. You two barely even look at each other at meets. The only reason I knew you even knew her is because Erica noticed you went to the same high school. Honestly, Em, I wouldn't have said anything had I thought she was anything more than just our rival's star swimmer."

Emily took a deep breath and grabbed the back of the couch. "Once upon a time she was my best friend," she admitted quietly.

Sam looked incredulous. "Emily, we've known each other for two years and I'm only finding out about this now?"

"Yeah, well," Emily said, "we haven't spoken since high school, so it didn't seem relevant."

Sam looked at Emily. She looked really shaken up. "Are you okay?" she asked. "Didn't her mom tell you she wasn't in any danger?"

"Yeah, I suppose," she replied, taking a deep breath. "I'll feel better when I can see her."

"Yeah." Sam sat quietly for a moment, while Emily decided to sit back down on the sofa next to her. "So you and Paige McCullers were once best friends." It wasn't a question; she was still trying to make sense of it all.

"Yeah," Emily breathed.

"So, uh, what happened?" her roommate asked, curiosity winning out over tact.

Emily looked over at her green-eyed, sun-kissed teammate and roommate. She looked almost adolescent waiting to hear the salacious gossip of a friendship gone bad, ante raised when they received scholarships to rival schools in the same conference. Emily gave a small laugh and shook her head before dipping her head down and taking a deep breath. "It's complicated," she said, avoiding all eye contact with her current best friend.

She knew Sam was staring at her, trying to figure out the whole story Emily wasn't willing to share. Subconsciously, Emily began to chew on her finger again, before excusing herself to pour a cup of coffee.

"Best friends?" Sam asked again. What Sam was thinking was best friends-who-can't-even-look-at-each other, but she didn't say that out loud. Suddenly, as if putting all the pieces together in her head, Sam shrieked, "No!"

"Keep your voice down, Sam, our neighbours may still be sleeping," she said, returning with her drink, but otherwise ignoring her roommate.

"You and Paige?" Sam tried a little more directly.

"Well, technically no," Emily offered, blushing slightly and sipping her coffee.

"Technically, Em?" Sam was mostly amused by Emily's obscurity on this information. "That's all you're giving me? We've known each other for two years and this is the first I'm hearing about this?"

"It was a long time ago," she replied, shrugging her shoulders.

"You or her?" Sam asked cryptically, knowingly.

Emily didn't say anything. Instead, she brought her mug to her mouth, cocked her head slightly to the side and winked at Sam, knowing Sam would be able to decipher meaning from the gesture, before she took another sip of her coffee.

"OH MY GOD!" Sam said, looking shell-shocked herself. "Okay," she said after she recovered, "this all makes sense to me now."

"What does?

"It's just, now I understand why Berkeley's hottest lesbian has never had a relationship that's lasted more than a month."

"That's not-" Emily stopped speaking when Sam looked at her with a don't-try-to-bullshit-me-right-now look.

"I mean, I always thought it was weird, once I knew you'd gone to school with her, that you never talked about her after our meets, but I never suspected this. Shit," Sam finished.

Emily just sat quietly, not daring to look at Samantha. The knife infomercial had turned into an all-in-one fitness machine infomercial since she's finished her shower.

"That's not what you're wearing, is it?" Sam asked, forcing Emily to look down at her outfit of faded blue jeans and a vintage-looking gray Phillies t-shirt.

"What's wrong with what I'm wearing?" she asked.

"Emily."

"What?"

"You're about to see her, like, actually have to look at her and talk to her, for the first time in years," she prodded.

"I'm not trying to impress her, Sam," she insisted. "High school was a long time ago."

"Uh-huh. Sure. If you say so."

"I'm not! I'm going because her mom called me and asked me to go for her."

"You know, I've never really thought about it before, but Paige McCullers is really hot," Sam said, ignoring Emily's pleas.

"You're not even gay, Sam."

"No, that's true," Sam agreed, "but I didn't hear you deny what I just said."

"Ugh!" Emily growled as she stood and took her mug to the sink before going back to her room.

"Change your clothes while you're in there," Emily heard Sam yell after she slammed her door shut.

She didn't even realize she was doing it. She didn't realize, walking through the halls at Rosewood High School on that first day, searching for her locker, finding her classrooms, looking at her new classmates, that she was actually looking for Paige. Swim camp ended the three weeks prior the start of the school year and Emily hadn't seen her since. She was busy trying making Rosewood her home: fixing her bedroom, biking around town, shopping for school supplies and spending as much time with her father as possible before he went to Texas, where he was now stationed. She didn't even see her at church, since Emily and her parents were "non-practicing Catholics," who preferred lazy Sunday brunches to mass and wouldn't be caught dead in an evangelical church.

But Emily couldn't stop thinking about her enigmatic teammate-how expertly she dove off the starting block, how seamlessly she moved through the water, how an always unflattering one-piece seemed to find purpose on Paige's lithe body, how she slouched just a little bit when the team gathered to hear Coach Fulton's instructions. These images usually surfaced at night, after she'd turned off the lights, before her body surrendered to sleep, the ones she tried to rationalize in the morning.

But there were other things about Paige that stood out, too. These came to her during the day-how she bravely ignored the constant bullying she endured, how much confidence she had in her ability, how when Emily came back to the room some nights to see her already in bed reading Harry Potter, absently playing with her shoulder-length, auburn hair, how it sounded when she laughed at something in the book, and how she forgot that she wasn't speaking to Emily when she told her, with a rare smile on her face, "My dad's forbidden me from reading these, but my mom sneaks them into the house for me," before she remembered and closed her book and turned off the light. But there was that smile.

Emily couldn't explain why she was so drawn to this girl who had made it clear she didn't want to be friends. But Emily knew the moment she saw her step onto the bus that she was brought to Rosewood to meet this girl. She kept that thought to herself.

She didn't see her all morning, and Paige's name wasn't on the register of any of her classes. She didn't even see her lunch, though she did spot some of the other ninth-grade swimmers. She met some of the boys swim team, including a boy called Noel Kahn, who immediately asked her if she had a boyfriend, and when she glanced at Shana and Madison, she knew a wall was being built between her and them because Noel Kahn had flirted with her. She wasn't interested in Noel, even if he was undeniably gorgeous with perfectly coiffed black hair and vibrant green eyes. Shana and Madison could have him, but she knew, deep-down, the damage was already done. The urgency to find Paige suddenly seemed greater.

It was perhaps serendipitous that she saw her in fifth period, the period immediately following lunch, which for Emily and Paige meant Ancient History with Mr. Hill. When Emily saw her, she smiled and waved, two gestures Paige, clad in black, faded Penguins t-shirt, dark blue jeans that made her legs look impossibly long and black and white checkered Vans, returned. Emily took a closest seat available when she felt her cheeks start to burn.

Mr. Hill had other plans for Emily's seat, arranging the class alphabetically. With only a Gottesman, Jensen, Lester, London, Martin in between Emily found herself sitting right next to Paige McCullers. This arrangement provided her with another Paige smile to store away for later, this time in the form of a smirk, which carried with it an understanding that only Paige and Emily would find amusing. It was their first inside joke.

The week progressed much in the same way. Her classes were manageable and Emily was starting to feel less and less like an unknown novelty. She had discovered that Paige was taking mostly all honours classes, which is why she wasn't in any of Emily's. She still ate her lunches with the swim team, minus Paige, who she knew wouldn't have been welcomed even if she ever decided to enter the cafeteria. Noel's attention had increased, no matter how much Emily didn't encourage him. And she knew that somehow Shana and Madison blamed her for the attention. She'd learned during swim camp that they could be petty and cruel.

The only difference by the end of the week was the conversation she initiated as soon as the bell rang marking the end of fifth period.

"How come I never see you at lunch?" she asked Paige, as Paige finished zipping up her backpack.

Paige looked to Emily almost defensively before shrugging her backpack over her shoulders and starting to walk out of the classroom. "My dad has arranged that I spend my lunches in the library to limit the amount of homework I do when I get home," she explained.

"Isn't that what study hall is for?" Emily asked. Most students were granted one study period, which Emily had after history.

Paige grimaced. "My dad thinks having study hall on your transcripts tells colleges that you're not a serious student. He thinks my time would be better spent taking an academic extracurricular activity." Paige paused, squinting in the sun. "But then I convinced him it'd look better if I did something non-academic-to make me more 'well-rounded,'" she stressed using air quotes, "so I'm in drama instead of Latin, like he wanted."

Emily didn't expect that Paige would voluntarily join the Drama Club, especially for someone so closed off. "Really?" she asked in disbelief.

This earned her another laugh. "Really. All behind the scenes. I like set design and sound and lighting and stuff like-"

"Aw," a blonde girl Emily vaguely recognized from her Algebra class said, interrupting Paige. "It looks like Paige has a new girlfriend," she said tauntingly.

Emily looked between the girl, who was at least four inches shorter than both Paige and her, and Paige, who's head now faced the ground as her hands grabbed at her backpack straps instinctively. Paige's defense seemed to be to endure and ignore, but Emily wasn't Paige. She'd earned a tough skin from having to move around so much. She'd met countless girls like the one before her, and she wasn't going to let what happened with the swim team, when she didn't speak up for Paige, to happen again.

"I don't know who the fuck you are," Emily said, starring unflinchingly into the eyes of the blonde girl before, "but you need to leave her alone," she said pointing to Paige.

To her credit, the blonde girl didn't flinch either. "You're the new girl." It wasn't a question. "I'll remember this," she said before turning and walking away.

With a bit of trepidation, Emily turned her head to look at Paige. Rather than the withdraw look she expected to find, she was surprised to see Paige smirking at her. Paige, it seemed was particularly fond of the smirk.

"Who was that?" Emily asked, smiling only when she dropped her head.

"That was Alison DiLaurentis," she said mysteriously.

"Is that supposed to mean something to me?"

"No," Paige said, starting to walk again. Emily moved to walk alongside her teammate. "But I suppose I should tell you that you just committed social suicide," she said, before giving Emily her first unrestrained smile. It was a good look on her.

"Ah," Emily replied reflectively. "I guess I'm in good company then," she said with a wink.

It earned her a laugh, before Paige said, "Yeah."

Somehow they ended up in front of Emily's study hall. Paige, in a more guarded voice, said: "Of course, now she's going to tell everyone you're my girlfriend."

"I can handle it," she said confidently.

Paige, however, looked completely uncertain, but she nodded anyway and then asked, "See you on Monday?"

"Yeah. Have a nice weekend."

"You too," she said, before turning and walking away. Emily watched her retreating form before walking into Study Hall just before the starting bell rang.