A/N: Hello, everyone. I first published this story a while ago, but for personal reasons I decided to delete it. No I will publish it again, with a different twist. Hope you like it and review! xoxo
Spencer Hastings took a deep breath and ran a hand over her face. She had to admit that she felt kind of nervous; coming back to this place where so much had happened was taking its toll on her. She shifted feeling uncomfortable. Get a grip. She thought to herself. She inhaled once more and entered the classroom. It was empty, as she expected. She'd gotten there 20 minutes early to take a look at her surroundings.
Rosewood Day looked exactly the way she remembered, except that now different students walked these halls. Even most of the faculty members were the same than when she attended high school there. She never thought she'd be back here, much less as a teacher. The day she'd stepped out of her parents' house she'd vowed she would never return. And now here she was, living in the same house and going to the same school every day as she'd done before.
It had really been a surprise when she was called to attend the reading of her mother's will. She hadn't expected any inheritance; she'd given her back to her family a while ago. She'd been even more surprised to learn that her mother had left her the house in Rosewood. It was almost a joke, as it was the place she had been most desperate to escape from. Life has a way of twisting thing to its own will: Having no trust fund to lean on, she was in desperate need of money; she had just lost her job and she owed 4 months in rent. So she'd taken the only way out of her situation, moved back to Rosewood, and accepted the job that had been offered to her for quite some time in Rosewood Day.
She set her things on the desk, inhaled deeply for the millionth time, and sat. She'd planned on sitting there until her students began filing in, but found herself too restless for that. She got up, took a step toward the chalkboard and wrote 'Spencer Hastings' with impeccable handwriting.
Just as she was putting the chalk down, she heard a voice. "Spencer?" Spencer turned toward the door and found a pretty blond woman standing there gaping at her. "Spencer Hastings?" the woman repeated taking a step toward her. "It's me, Hanna Marin. God, it's been years since I last saw you!" The woman smiled excitedly and entered the classroom.
Spencer inspected the woman's green eyes for another second before a wave of realization washed over her. She immediately ran and threw her arms around her former best friend's neck. "Hanna! I can't believe I didn't recognize you! It's been years." She took a step back and looked at those familiar blue eyes. Hanna looked just the same as she had years ago, except she had a more mature air about her and now wore a ring on her left hand.
"Yeah, I can't believe you didn't recognize me either. I like to think I don't look that different from the time we graduated." She joked smiling. "You on the other hand look exactly the same."
"What are you doing here?" Spencer asked surprised, this was something she had definitely not expected.
"I live here. I actually just came to drop off some of my daughter's paperwork; it's her first day of school here."
Spencer swallowed hard. "Y-you have a daughter in high school?" She stammered. That wasn't possible, Hanna's age didn't match. Maybe her husband already had a daughter when they got married she thought.
Hanna suddenly began to laugh; it was a delightful sound after 8 years. "No silly, she's just starting preschool, but I was told to leave some of the paperwork here, for some strange reason." She looked around a faraway look crossing her face. She suddenly snapped back into focus and her eyes locked on Spencer's with an emotion she couldn't identify. "But of course you would probably know that if you had ever written or at least answered my calls." There was pain in her voice.
Spencer looked down feeling guilty. She hadn't had any sort of contact with Hanna for years. When she'd turned her back on her parents she'd also turned her back on her friend too, she realized that now. "Hanna" she started, but she didn't really know what to say. "I'm really sorry. A lot was happening, and… I should've answered your calls." She said at last not being able to find the words she wanted to say.
Hanna's eyes softened and she took Spencer's hand in hers. "I know, I just wish you hadn't shut me out for so long." She said. Spencer felt Hanna's ring in her hand and smiled.
"Who's the lucky one?" she asked gesturing to Hanna's hand. Hanna immediately smiled broadly.
"Caleb." She said, pronouncing his name with so much love it made Spencer's heart ache. Spencer looked at her surprised, Caleb had been Hanna's boyfriend for most of high school, and she'd never imagined they would end up married.
"I'm really happy for you, Han." She said smiling, and squeezing her hand. Hanna stood back and gave her a parting smile. Just as she was turning around to leave, Spencer quickly grabbed her arm. "Wait, Hanna? Why don't we grab a coffee some day? We have a lot of catching up to do." Hanna smiled at her warmly and Spencer suddenly felt butterflies just like in high school.
"Sure." She said, before hugging Spencer and leaving. Spencer stood there watching the doorway for a while before sitting down. She sat at her desk thinking, when a couple of girls walked in. They both had dark hair, and one of them was shorter than the other. The taller one had tan skin and brown eyes. The shorter one, from Spencer's point of view, was beautiful. She had dark hair which contrasted with her pale skin, and beautiful green eyes.
Spencer suddenly found herself running her eyes up and down the small brunette's body, and she internally kicked herself looking the other way. Stop checking out your students! She thought to herself. Oblivious to the new teacher, both girls left their things on their desks and walked back out.
"Why did you break up, again?" Emily Fields asked her best friend Aria Montgomery.
"We just weren't in the same page." Aria said not meeting Emily's eyes. "It was for the best."
They were both talking outside the English classroom, catching up with their respective summer vacations. Emily had gone with her parents to Hawaii and Aria, who had stayed in Rosewood, was telling Emily that she'd just broken up with her former boyfriend.
"Are you ok?" Emily asked worriedly, taking Aria's hand in hers. "Why didn't you tell me?"
Aria felt a pull in her stomach at Emily's gesture. She shrugged, not meeting her eyes. "I didn't want to ruin your summer."
Emily's face softened. She opened her mouth to say something but the bell rung and Aria gladly went inside. There was no way she could tell Emily the real reason she'd broken up. Sighing, she took her usual seat. She felt Emily's stare on her, clearly she was not done with the conversation, and she tried her best to focus on the class. It was the beginning of senior year after all; she had to get excellent grades.
She was pulled out of her thoughts by someone clearing their throat in front of the class. She looked up and her breath caught in her throat. There was a woman standing in front of the class, she couldn't have been much older than 25 and, Aria thought, she was beautiful. Her curly brown hair cascaded softly around her shoulders, she was tall, slender, and for Aria, her most amazing attribute were her warm brown eyes. As Aria watched her closely, their eyes met for a brief second and Aria felt a subtle shiver. The woman's eyes were kind and warm, but they were also full of fire, of an unspoken passion fruit of her youth. They were deep, and there was something drawing about them, Aria felt that she was looking into the woman's very soul, and she felt slightly embarrassed at the intimacy with which those eyes where looking at her. And then, the connection was broken, the woman looked the other way, unperturbed, and Aria was left wondering if she had imagined the whole thing.
"Good morning everyone, my name is Spencer Hastings and I'm your new English teacher."
English has always been Aria's favorite subject, but she just couldn't concentrate today. As much as the new teacher had sparked her interest there were far more important things she had to think about. She glanced briefly at Emily, who was taking note on what Miss Hastings was saying, and smiled softly.
Aria had always had a crush on her best friend Emily, although she'd been in denial until recently. She'd always known deep down that she was gay, since she was 5 watching Disney movies; all her friends would always sigh at the thought of Prince Charming, but Aria would always find herself completely blown away by the princess. Every girl wanted to be a princess to be with the prince, but Aria wanted to be the prince to be with the princess. All the signs started to become clearer as she got older; the way her heart leapt whenever a cute girl smiled at her, how sometimes she couldn't stop herself from checking out girls in the locker room, to her undeniable crush on Emily. And yet she continued dating boys and acting as if she were crazy about them, even after her best friend came out.
So, when Emily told her she was going to Hawaii for the summer Aria gladly used the time apart to think things through. After a whole summer of pondering she came up with two conclusions: One, she wasn't ready to come out to the world. Two, she was done trying to convince herself that she was into boys. So the next morning, she had broken up with her boyfriend and had resolved to tell Emily about her feelings for her as soon as she got back. Unfortunately Emily's return came too soon for Aria, and, not feeling ready, she kept pushing the conversation away as much as she could. Thus came the first day of school, and the more Aria let time pass, the more her fears grew preventing her from having the much needed conversation with Emily.
Therefore, when Miss Hastings asked her class to write an essay about a book they had read Aria immediately started writing about Les Miserables. What first started as an innocent text about the book, ended as an angry essay, condemning destiny for making the purest souls suffer the most, and criticizing in an extensive way the fact that you have to suffer very deeply in life before anything good comes. When the bell signaling the end of the class rung Aria still hadn't finished insulting faith and destiny so she remained writing furiously.
"Aria, are you coming?" Emily asked impatiently waiting for her. Aria just nodded in response without looking up. After a while Emily sighed and left the classroom.
Spencer sighed contently; the first day had gone exactly as planned and, truth be told, it hadn't been that bad. She began gathering all the papers that had been shoved messily on her desk, humming softly. She'd been dreading this day for weeks, and now that she had actually ended her first class all her fears seemed silly. She remembered clearly how the thought of walking the halls of Rosewood Day had made her sweat and tremble. She now realized that it was the thought of being a high school student in Rosewood that made her panic, and that it was very different to be there as a teacher.
She suddenly heard a scraping noise and, looking up, was startled to see one of her students was still there. It was the girl she had noticed before, the pretty brunette. She was writing furiously. Spencer got up and walked slowly toward the younger girl's desk.
"Hey." She said softly. The girl stopped writing abruptly, blinking several times as if startled out of a trance. "Class is over."
"I know." The girl answered, voice steady, although her eyes told a different story; they seemed confused and somewhat bewildered. "I just wanted to finish my essay."
She finally turned her beautiful green eyes toward Spencer, and the woman held her breath.
"I-I was just leaving." The girl began gathering her things quickly not looking at her teacher. Spencer was very confused, and just stayed there watching. Her hands worked quickly and efficiently but Spencer thought she saw her eyes slightly unfocused. When Spencer saw the girl attempt to put her essay away she quickly put her hand on top of hers to stop her. The girl's movements suddenly stopped.
"Hey, I'm supposed to keep that." Spencer said trying to lighten the mood, slowly pulling her hand back. When the girl didn't say anything she felt uncomfortable. The girl then lifted her head and smiled, and Spencer was dazzled for a moment. She felt something weird inside of her, and she felt her own lips curving into a small smile.
They both stayed like that for a second, before her student grabbed the essay and handed it to her. "Aren't you supposed to take this?" She said raising an eyebrow and smirking slightly.
"Well if you hadn't been so keen on finishing it I would've gotten it long ago. Hell, I would've had read it already! Even graded it!" she answered back in a sarcastic tone. She immediately regretted it, but she couldn't help it; nobody beats a Hastings.
The girl didn't seem perturbed at all. "You'd be surprised of the lengths one goes to trying to avoid someone."
"So you're avoiding someone?" Spencer asked suddenly curious. There was something about this girl, something she couldn't quite understand that sparked her interest.
"Who said I was talking about me?" she replied cleverly. Wow Spencer thought. She liked this girl. She looked at the essay to put a name to that enigmatic face and found Aria Montgomery neatly written on the top of the page.
"Well, I think someone should get to class." She replied. "Ms. Montgomery, right?"
Aria nodded. "Here I'll write a note to your teacher saying you were with me so you don't get in trouble." Spencer said, walking to her desk and writing the note. When she finished writing it and looked up she found Aria looking at her. It send tingles down her spine, it was as if the younger girl were seeing her for the first time. She walked over and handed the note to her. "Here you go, if you have any trouble come talk to me and I'll personally speak to your teacher."
Aria took the note from her keeping her gaze fixed on her. Spencer shifted uncomfortable, her gaze was piercing. "Why are you doing this?" she suddenly asked, and Spencer was suddenly caught off guard.
"Well, it's the first day and, technically, it's my fault you're late for class." She replied.
"Right." Aria said getting up. "Well thanks for the note Miss Hastings. Guess I'll see you tomorrow." She said politely.
"Have a nice day Aria." Spencer said walking to her desk. But before getting there she couldn't help looking over her shoulder to catch a glimpse of her student, noting with satisfaction that the younger girl had just done the same.