A Little Birdie Told Me

Chapter One

A/N: hey everyone! this is my first ever attempt at writing a fic, and i hope you enjoy it :) reviews would be greatly appreciated; tell me what i'm doing right and what i could do to make it better
suggestions are welcome and if you have any questions, my tumblr is emisonslut

"Ms. Dilaurentis, are you paying any attention?" Alison's snapped out of her daze and looked to the teacher.

"Yes, of course!" Alison squeaked, trying to hide her embarrassment.

"Well I guess you won't have any problem explaining why this answer is incorrect then," the teacher returned.

"Um…" but before the blonde could answer, the bell rung, signaling the end of the school day. Alison breathed a sigh of relief as she began to pack her things. She walked over to Emily's desk and waited for her to finish packing. As the two were about to leave the classroom, the teacher stopped them.

"Alison, you really need to start paying attention in class more, the test is coming up soon," the geometry teacher reminded Alison.

"Yes, Mrs. Buren. Won't happen again," the blonde muttered.

"Ali that's like the fifth time she's caught you this week. What do you even do in class?" Emily asked the blonde by her side as they walked through the hallways. "It's not that hard to pay attention."

But it is. It is for Alison when she sits in the back corner of the classroom, and Emily sits two seats up and one seat over from her, giving Alison a perfect view of Emily's back and the right side of her face. It's extremely difficult to pay attention in class when Emily is just so distracting. Alison finds she would much rather watch Emily absentmindedly twirl her pencil during lectures, than listen to the actual lecture itself. When Emily throws all her hair to one side and crouches over her desk to do the practice problems, Alison can't bring herself to tear her eyes away from the brunette to her own paper.

She really should start working on that, though. Because Emily wasn't exaggerating when she said that this was the fifth time she's been caught. Unless she wants her kinda-sorta-maybe-huge crush on Emily to be announced to the whole world by her geometry teacher of all people, she really needs to stop spending so much time drooling over Emily during class. Or at least, not make it so obvious. She's pretty sure she's being subtle, but Mrs. Buren has been watching her like a hawk lately. Constantly reprimanding her for not paying attention during class. She wouldn't be all that surprised if Mrs. Buren suspects Emily to be the cause of her lack of attention during class. Though the thought makes her cringe.

"Don't worry about me, Em. It's not like I'll ever need to find the angle of a heptagon in real life." Alison hopes that Emily will let it go. Telling Emily the reason she's not paying attention during class is the last thing Alison wants to do. And she's already realized long ago that she can't even lie to Emily about the tiniest things.

"Yeah I guess you're right… but that test is still coming up," Emily reminded her. The two continue to walk through the halls as they talked about their days. Once they were outside the school, Alison found herself asking Emily a question before she could think it through or stop herself.

"Wait Em, do you think you could come over? Maybe you're right about that test… do you think you could help me study?" Alison asked, with a hint of hopefulness in her voice. She mentally cursed herself for sounding so vulnerable.

"Oh Ali, I'm sorry, I can't today," Emily regretfully replied. Alison really hoped her disappointment didn't show on her face. "I have swim practice, and it's my turn for locker room clean up today, so I'll be staying extra late," the brunette explained. Alison was about to brush it off, claiming that it wasn't important anyway, but Emily continued before she could start. "I'm free tomorrow though. Coach has a doctor's appointment," Alison tried to fight the huge grin that found its way to her face. She really did.

"Yeah, sure. Sounds good," Alison tried to sound casual. She was already counting the hours until tomorrow after school.

"Are you going to be okay walking home by yourself?" Emily asked, furrowing her eyebrows. Alison felt her heart flutter at Emily's genuine concern for her. She almost rolled her eyes at herself for being so pathetic.

"Yeah, I'll be fine. I'll just catch a ride from Spencer," the blonde replied. Spencer, being the oldest one in their group, was the only one that could drive. Although she only had a permit, and technically wasn't legally allowed to drive the others around yet, she was only a week away from getting her license, and it's not like the clowns that go by the name of "Rosewood Police Department" cared anyways.

"Alright, cool. See you later," Emily turned around to head to the locker room. But after taking two steps, she turned back around, and gave Alison a one-armed hug. The blonde was shocked at first, but then quickly returned the hug. When they let go, their eyes met. Neither of them looking away. There were a mere few inches in between them, and Alison's heartbeat quickened at their close proximity. After a couple silent seconds of staring into each other's eyes, Emily cleared her throat, "I better go before I'm late."

"Yeah you should," Alison replied softly. Although she would love to have Emily for a few more short moments.

"Bye Ali," Emily whispered.

"Bye Em," Alison whispered back. Emily reluctantly turned around and headed off towards the locker room again. Alison stood and watched as Emily walked away. Oh god, even the way she walks is beautiful, the blonde thought. Did I seriously just say that? Snap out of it, Alison. The blonde shook her head in attempt to clear her head of thoughts of Emily.

"Hey Spence? I need a ride home. I'll meet you in the parking lot."

When Alison finally ended up in her bedroom, she threw her backpack off and plopped down into her bed. She closed her eyes, wanting to get a quick nap before she started her homework, but a loud, obnoxious squawk interrupted her stupor. She grumbled and tried to go back to sleep, but the squawk came again, "FOOD! FOOD!". Alison gave up on her nap and got out of bed with a grunt. "FOOD!".

"Shut up, you stupid bird, I'm getting your food."

"Tippi is a pretty bird!"

"Tippi is a pretty bird," Alison agreed, "Annoying, though." The blonde recieved a loud squawk in response. Alison chuckled as she continued to feed the bird. Over the past month, Alison had been talking more and more to Tippi. At first it was trivial things like complaining about how boring her teachers were, or how homework was so annoying, But as she started talking to Tippi more and more, she started becoming more comfortable and confiding some of her deepest secrets to the bird. A lot of the times, Alison found that she was only comfortable talking about certain things with Tippi. Lately, her mostly one-sided conversations with Tippi have been all about a certain brown-eyed brunette. Today was no exception.

"Today I got caught not paying attention in math class again," Alison groaned, "Does she have to call me out on it every single time? The whole class always turns around and stares at me!"

"Ali is pretty!" Tippi squawked.

Alison smiled, "Thanks Tippi, but I don't think that's why they're staring at me," Alison paused for a bit before continuing again. "... I hope Emily doesn't catch me looking away whenever she turns around…" Alison mumbles as she plays with the stray end on her pajama pants. "It's so hard not to stare though, Emily is so pretty!" Alison threw her head into her pillow and groaned "Ugh, what do I do?"

"FOOD!" Tippi squawked.

"Shut up you dumb bird, I just fed you," Alison said, voice muffled from the pillow. "Emily's coming over tomorrow!" The blonde beamed. "She would've today, but she had swim practice… sometimes I wish swim season would just hurry up and end, Emily and I barely have any time to talk after school, anymore… but then again that means no more seeing Emily in a swimsuit until summer…" Alison continued to ramble. "And she looks SO good in a swimsuit, oh my god." Alison had no shame rambling about her crush to Tippi anymore. "She hugged me today! I think she likes me back, do you think she likes me back? I think she likes me back."

"Shut up you dumb bird!" Tippi screeched.

"Hey! You're the dumb bird here," Alison argued. She figured the bird was probably right though, that it was time to shut up about Emily and start her homework. She took out her things and started her math homework first. After spending nearly five whole minutes on the first question, she groaned and put down her pencil. Ugh they're right, I do need to start paying more attention, Alison thought as she rubbed her temples in frustration.

Fast forward to the next day, after school, the bell rings, and Alison immediately begins packing up. She had managed to make it through the entire math class without being caught for not paying attention once. Alison silently revelled in her tiny victory and hummed as she walked to Emily's desk and waited for her to finish packing up. "Are you excited for our tutoring session today?" Alison asked in a teasing manner.

"Yeah, let's go," Emily replied as she zipped up her backpack and slung it over her shoulder. They talked the entire time as they walked out of school. Alison realized that this would be the first time in a while where Emily walked home with her. She almost had forgotten how nice it is and how much she enjoys it. A smile was plastered to the blonde's face pretty much the entire walk home as they laughed and joked together.

They made it to Alison's house after 15 minutes of walking. Alison would've been disappointed at this point because this was when she would have had to leave Emily and the brunette would continue walking to her own home. Fortunately, that wasn't the case today.

Alison led Emily up to her bedroom, and they both dropped their backpacks to the floor. "You go ahead and start, I'll go get snacks. Do you want any drinks?" the blonde asked.

"Just water," the brunette replied. Alison nodded and headed down the stairs. Emily took a seat on the blonde's bed and started to unpack her things, when she heard an unpleasant screech.

"FOOD!" Emily nearly fell off the bed.

"Tippi! You scared me!" The brunette laughed as she acknowledged the bird for the first time since she stepped into the room. She got up from the bed and went over to Tippi's cage. She opened the door of the cage and Tippi hopped onto her finger. With her free hand, Emily stroked the bird, and she thought she heard it purr. Alison would always joke about how Tippi liked Emily more than herself whenever the bird seemed to show more affection towards the brunette. "What's up little guy?"

"Emily is so pretty!" Tippi squawked, echoing what he heard his owner say from the day before. The brunette was a little surprised to hear him say that, but still appreciated it nonetheless.

"Aw, thanks Tippi. You're a pretty bird, too."

"Tippi is a pretty bird!" Emily laughed as she continue to stroke the bird's feathers. "Shut up you dumb bird!" The parrot squawked, "I just fed you!" Emily was confused at first, Tippi had never been this talkative before. She figured he must've been parroting back what he's heard Ali say. She smiled as she imagined the blonde feeding Tippi, only to be demanded for even more food. "Emily is so pretty!" she wonders where if Tippi's heard that somewhere, too. "She looks SO good in a swimsuit!" the bird continue to squawk fragments of Alison's ramble from yesterday. Emily froze. Tippi surely must've heard that somewhere? Why else would he be saying it? Before Emily could go further into her thoughts, the Tippi spoke again, "Emily's coming over tomorrow!" The swimmer's eyes widened at that. The bird was talking about her. "She hugged me today! I think she likes me back, do you think she likes me back? I think she likes me back." Emily would've been amazed that Tippi could even say a sentence that long, but she was too busy taking in what she just gathered from the pet bird.

"Like me back?" Emily echoed the bird's words as she mumbled to herself. Emily was overcame with absolute joy as she came to the conclusion, She likes me too…

"She looks SO good in a swimsuit!" Tippi repeated. Emily felt her cheeks warm up and decided it was time to put Tippi back in his cage.

"Okay pretty bird, that's enough for now," Emily said as she led the bird back into the cage and closed the door. Just as she put the lock on, she heard footsteps padding up the stairs and a door open and shut. Emily suddenly became very nervous. She turned around to see her Ali holding two bags of chips and a glass of water.

"Hey, sorry it took so long, the ice thing on the fridge jammed up again." Alison handed Emily the glass of water and a bag of chips.

"Thanks," Emily said as she took the water and chips. She found herself smiling at the fact that Alison remember how she refused to drink lukewarm water.

"Ready to start?" Emily nodded and the two found themselves lying on their stomachs, side by side on Alison's bed, open books laid out in front of them.

this story is probably only going to be a couple chapters long, but i'll try not to take too long on updates... no promises though