Ok this is my first fic ever. It took me awhile to get the first chapter out. If you like it, which i hope you do, be patient with me. It might take some time to get each chapter up. But hopefully it will get easier as i go. oh, and i own nothing related to PLL.

"I recognized you instantly. All of our lives flashed through my mind in a split second. I felt a pull so strongly towards you that I almost couldn't stop it." ― J. Sterling

1834

The sun is high in the sky, it's a warm day at the end of summer. Emily is walking through town taking care of some errands. She stops in at the general store for some odds and ends her family needs on the farm. Seems like any other day as she walks back out into the sun. Looking up at the sky she wipes the sweat off of her forehead and coughs as she walks through a cloud of dust from a wagon going way too fast through town. She watches as the wagon's wheel hits a rock and something flies off the back.

It's a horseshoe. And it's headed right towards a girl that's standing across the road. A girl who is staring right at her and seems somewhat distracted. Emily's eyes lock with the girl's deep brown ones, she's beautiful. The horseshoe slams into the girls head and she falls to the ground.

Emily rushes over to the girl. She's breathing but unconscious. She takes her hat off and puts in under the girls head, determined to stay with her until she wakes up. She tells herself it's just to make sure the girl's ok.

About 20 minutes later Emily feels the girls soft hand twitch in her own. She's not sure when she grabbed it, but it feels natural. The girl opens her eyes and looks as if she's about to panic.

"Hey..hey there. you're alright. you're fine. I got you." Emily says trying to calm her down.

"What...happened?" the girl's hoarse voice does something strange to Emily that she doesn't want to think about right now. She shook her head and went on to explain,

"You got hit in the head with a horseshoe," she just sees more confusion in the girl's eyes, "if i hadn't seen it all for myself, I wouldn't believe it either. I'm Emily by the way." she introduces herself hoping to find out the girl's name.

A little smirk crosses the girls face, just for a second, before she responds, "I know who you are, I'm Paige." she continues as she sits up "my family is somewhat new to town...woah.." Paige goes to lay back down feeling a bit dizzy. She was aiming for the hat, but her head somehow ended up in Emily's lap. She was too out of it to move, that's what she told herself anyway.

"Yea, you might not want to get up quite yet." Emily says as she puts her hand on Paige's head...to comfort her of course. "Here let's move out of the way a little and we can sit for a few minutes until you can stand," Emily moves to lean against a building and helps Paige over. And she won't admit it, but she's happy when Paige lays her head back down in her lap.

"Thanks Emily, for staying and helping me." Paige looks up at Emily with the sweetest smile, which in turn, makes Emily smile back as she speaks, "It's no problem at all. I couldn't just let you lay there all by yourself."

Emily remembers then what Paige said a few minutes ago, "So how exactly do you know who I am?" she wonders out loud.

"Oh, ha, yea. My dad is the new pastor at the church. I've seen you there every Sunday since we moved here. My dad told me your name and that your family owns the farm right outside of town." Paige looks away getting nervous, "My dad wanted me to try and become friends with you. I'm not so good at making friends."

Paige looks really sad now and Emily has to hold herself back from giving the girl a hug, thinking it might scare her away.

"Well, I guess that horseshoes hit you for a reason huh?" Emily smirks at Paige, "I think we'll be fast friends." she says giving Paige a warm smile.

Paige blushes and looks away again. "Yea, I'd say that's pretty lucky." She reaches up to touch the bump on her head from the horseshoe. "And I feel like if this bump was just a tad over this way," she explains and touches her temple, "It probably wouldn't have turned out this way."

2014

Paige walks out to the field while looking around at her competition. She's always been competitive, but today she's trying out for the field hockey team at her new school. She wants to prove herself, show them what the new girl is made of. She's bringing everything she's got. While she's looking around she doesn't notice the team running out to the field. Someone slams into her from behind, but before she can say anything, the tall girl with long brown hair shouts "Watch it!" over her shoulder and continues running.

She hears cheers behind her, "Go Spencer!" and "Yea Spence, go get em!" Paige looks back towards the bleachers and immediately feels as if someone ran into her again, from the front this time and taking all the air from her lungs. She can't take her eyes off this girl, all tan skin, long raven hair, and dark rich brown eyes...that are staring back at her. Paige looks away quickly, not entirely sure what just happened, but finding herself wanting to impress the girl. She jogs out to catch up with the rest of the team, more than ready to play.

It's a hot and humid day, the sun is high in the sky and there are no clouds to give relief. An hour into tryouts Paige is standing at one end of the field, breathing hard, with sweat dripping down her back, but ready to run another drill.

She's doing well so far. With tryouts and with the girl, she got a smile from her. She glances over to the bleachers and is disappointed when she sees the girl getting up to leave with 3 others. She shakes her head and gets ready.

The coach blows the whistle and she takes off as fast as she can. She just has to be the first to make it to the ball. She reaches her stick out to the ground to take it. Out of the corner of her eye she see another ball. In the air. Flying towards her. And fast. She sees it too late.

There's a white light in front of her eyes, she feels grass under her hands, her knees are digging into the dirt. Then she's on her back and everything starts to go black. And then nothing.

Emily was walking through the parking lot outside the football field. Her and her friends had just been watching Spencer during field hockey tryouts. Spencer had told them beforehand to leave early and grab them all a table at The Grille and she would meet up with them.

A sharp pain on the side of her head, almost causing her to fall. She caught herself on a random car. She looked up to find her friends staring at her looking worried. "I'm ok guys, that was really weird though."

Emily, along with Hanna, Aria, and Alison, were now sitting at The Grille waiting for Spencer.

She was playing with her phone when the sharp pain came back making her shoot up from her seat. It wasn't going away this time. She doubled over, hands on her head and her vision fuzzy, and she passed out.

Emily was waking up as Spencer was running in the door.

"Emily! What happened!?" Spencer yells as she continues to run and kneel next to Emily on the floor.

"I don't know, my head just hurt really bad right here," she explains touching a finger to her temple.

All the girls were surrounding her looking worried again.

"I'm fine guys, it's completely gone now, I'm ok." she says to try and get them to stop worrying. "Why so late Spence?" she continues, changing the subject.

"Oh, actually, i was at the hospital. The new girl that was trying out for the team...she just died...hit in the temple with a rogue field hockey ball..."

"What.." Emily whispers, completely stunned.

If only Paige had seen that ball a couple seconds earlier, to give her enough time to move, even just a centimeter.

She got hit in just the right spot, or the wrong spot, if you want to look at it that way. The thinnest part of her skull, right in the middle of her temple.

Paige made it to the hospital, but the hemorrhage caused by the blow was too far along and they couldn't save her.

Just a centimeter. That's all it would have taken for Paige to still be here. To make the field hockey team, to start her senior year, to find that girl from the bleachers. But a freak accident took it all away. And because of this, there are other people who's lives won't happen how they were meant to. But don't worry, fate is coming up with a new plan.