Emily was laughing when she opened the door to the girls' room on the third floor at Rosewood Middle School. Her friend, Alison, had just made some snarky remark to some poor unfortunate soul who had passed a little too close to her on the stairs.

It wasn't that the remark was particularly funny; it was the fact that Alison had said it.

Alison was pretty much the opposite of Emily: fair-skinned, blonde, a couple of inches shorter. But the physical differences weren't the biggest thing. The main difference was Alison's confidence. There was a way that Alison carried herself, and the fact that she could say something snarky like that to a stranger on the stairs.

Emily was sometimes surprised that Alison would hang out with someone like her, but, most of the time, she didn't bother to wonder why. She just reveled in Alison's aura, slightly drunk on Alison's charisma.

Emily's laughter faded once she was on the other side of the door. Her nose turned up at the smell of smoke. In the far corner, an auburn-haired girl was sitting on top of the heater, puffing away. She had her arm extended towards the vent, as if that made any difference.

Emily froze in place. The girl, with her faded jeans, ripped, with band logos scrawled across them at random points in black marker, and her well-toned arms, visible through her sleeveless white blouse, was obviously a tough chick.

Alison strode right past Emily. "Hey," she said defiantly. "You can't smoke that in here!"

That's what Emily loved about Alison. She was fearless. She couldn't be intimidated by anything – or anyone.

The smoking girl stood up. Even though she had a couple of inches on Alison, Alison didn't back down.

"This?" the girl asked, holding up the cigarette as she glared at Alison. As they stood with locked gazes, the girl slowly retracted her index and ring fingers, flipping Alison the bird.

Emily smiled, despite herself. She caught herself quickly, hoping that Alison hadn't noticed. Alison was so grown up; she wouldn't stand for Emily being so immature.

Alison may not have noticed, but the smoking girl did, and the small sign of vulnerability softened her. She rolled her eyes and smashed the cigarette out, flicking it deftly into the toilet bowl in an open stall, then stepped to the side, gesturing theatrically with both hands toward the mirror as if to say, "It's all yours," as she exited.

About a week later, Alison surreptitiously showed Emily something in her handbag.

"What is it?"

"It's a smoke bomb!"

"Where did you get it?"

"Never mind about that."

"What are you going to do with it?"

"It's for that bitch in the girls' room. She likes smoke? We'll give her smoke!"

Emily liked the sound of "we" - of being included in whatever group Alison was a part of. Especially in times like this, when it was an exclusive group; just the two of them. Plus the smoking girl. Emily was suddenly worried.

"Ali, what if..."

"Oh, chill, Em!" Alison waved her hand dismissively. "It's just a smoke bomb! It's not an actual bomb!" The way that she was shaking her head made Emily feel stupid and childish for worrying.

Almost before Emily knew what was going on, Alison had lit a match and used it to ignite the fuse. She pushed the door to the girls' room open, shielding herself and Emily behind it, and yelled in the direction of the cigarette smoke, "Hey, Pigskin!" as she tossed the bomb inside.

Pigskin?

Emily didn't have much time to process that name. Alison had grabbed her hand, and they were running down the hallway, ducking behind a row of lockers.

The smoking girl, meanwhile, her eyes wide with surprise and panic, yelled out, "Holy shit!" and picked up the device, slightly burning her fingers, and tossed it into the nearest toilet. She was breathing heavily, holding her hand to her chest, not quite sure exactly what it was that she had defused.

Emily and Alison were breathing heavily, too, and laughing at the rush of it. There was a feeling in the pit of Emily's stomach that she wasn't sure what to make of. It might have been the adrenaline from the act, or the exertion from their impromptu run. It might have been the gnawing regret and fear over what might have happened to Smoking Girl. It might have been the fact that Alison was still holding her hand, but that didn't occur to Emily's pre-teen brain.

Whatever it was, it had faded by the time school was over. All that remained was the regret and fear. The regret was still for the act, but the fear was no longer for what might have happened to the girl in the bathroom. It was for what Emily was about to do.

She was leaning against a brick wall on the side of the school building for support, clutching her binder to her chest like armor, waiting for the girl to walk by.

"Hey," she said when she saw her, but her voice came out weak and tentative. The girl didn't hear. Emily cleared her throat and tried again.

"Hey!" Emily meant for the second time to be louder, but it ended up sounding angry and aggressive, like a threat. The girl turned around on her like a lioness rounding on her prey. Emily had been planning to apologize and check that the girl was okay, but she got frightened by the look in the girl's eyes. And it was clear that the girl was okay. So she did what she had seen Alison do in frightening situations: She put on a brave face and responded defiantly.

"You shouldn't smoke!" Emily felt foolish and childish as the words escaped her lips, but she couldn't stop herself. "It's the worst thing for you. And it's not even cool."

The girl kept slowly walking toward her. Emily wasn't sure that she was going to stop. She clutched her binder tighter, not sure whether she was shielding her herself against a potential attack or muffling her heartbeat, so that the girl wouldn't be able to hear the fear. Her gaze fell from the girl's eyes down to her combat boots and back up again.

The girl took her cigarette and extinguished it on the bricks behind Emily, exhaling a long column of smoke into Emily's lips. With a smirk and a grunt, she turned and walked away, as if Emily was too easy a target to bother with.

Once Emily was sure that the girl wasn't going to turn around, her shoulders slumped back to their relaxed position and she exhaled the cough that she had been suppressing. Her heart was still pounding against her rib cage. She put it down to fear, but, had she been more self-aware, she would have recognized it as the same reaction to a strong, fearless girl that Alison always elicited from her.

Emily might not have understood the reaction, but it was the reason that she was waiting at the same spot on the wall after school on the following day.

"Hey."

The girl turned around with a smile. "Well, if it isn't the surgeon general. With another public service announcement, no doubt. Let me guess: Second-hand smoke?" The girl took a deep drag of her cigarette.

"Ha ha," Emily mocked. "I'm not the surgeon general. And I have a name."

"Really?" Smoking Girl was standing uncomfortably close to Emily again, but, this time, she turned her head to the side for the exhale, putting the cigarette out beneath her boot. "And what would that be, Princess?"

"Emily." The name came out tentatively, as if Emily wasn't sure that she should be telling her.

"Princess Emily."

Emily didn't want to let the girl see her smiling shyly, so she dropped her gaze, pushing her hair behind her ear. "Just Emily." The false bravado had faded from Emily's voice. She looked up slowly, trying to figure out how she could ask the girl's name. Her eyes widened for an instant at something in her peripheral vision. The girl picked up on it. She twisted her neck to see what had caught Emily's eye, and chuckled, standing aside.

"Don't let your friend catch you talking to me."

Emily was embarrassed by what she had been thinking when she saw Alison behind them - and by the fact that the girl had picked up on it. But she took the escape hatch, with a slight, apologetic shrug of her shoulders. The girl smirked, shaking her head.

"Were you talking to Pigskin?"

"No, I..." Emily tried to come up with an explanation.

"You don't have to tell her anything! She can't prove that we did anything!"

"I wasn't talking to her, Ali!" Emily rarely took that tone with her. "I was just standing there, waiting for you!"

"So, what did she say to you?"

"Nothing! She just put out her cigarette and I happened to be standing there!"

"What was that, some kind of threat?"

"No, Alison! It was just a coincidence. I was there and she was, too, end of story."

"Well, if she says anything, or threatens you..."

"I know, Alison! Nothing happened, okay?"

Alison's scowl faded to a smile. "Okay." she put her hand on Emily's shoulder. Somehow, that contact didn't mean as much to Emily as it might have before. "I just worry about you, Em."

Emily nodded, because it was easier than protesting that she didn't need Alison's concern. That would only have made the conversation go on even longer, and Emily had already heard more than enough on that subject.

Emily spent most of that weekend thinking about Monday. Would she have the courage to wait in the same spot again? Would the girl walk by? Would Emily find out her name? Why was she even worried about all of this?

Monday finally came, and after her classes, which had seemed to drag on forever, Emily found herself planted in her spot against the wall. But the girl never showed up. When Alison walked by after yearbook, Emily pretended that she was the reason that Emily had been waiting there. Alison rewarded the gesture with an arm around Emily's shoulder and some attention, but it was a weak consolation prize.

"Is this a new top?"

"No," Emily lied. She wasn't really sure why she had chosen to wear a new top that day, or why she felt the need to lie about it to Alison.

"It's pretty," Alison said, fiddling with the collar.

Emily didn't know why she was there against the wall again on Tuesday. She had no excuse prepared. Not that Smoking Girl would ask her for one. But Alison might.

When the girl rounded the corner, she looked over at the spot, as if she expected to see Emily there. As if she wanted Emily to be there, Emily thought. The girl quickly put out her cigarette, as if she didn't want Emily to catch her smoking, and she called out, "Princess Emily," with a husky voice and a smile that Emily couldn't interpret.

"It's just Emily," Emily replied, smiling like a goober. She subconsciously lowered her binder from chest-level down to her waist, visibly letting her guard down. The girl's eyes drifted down, responding to the motion on reflex, and widened ever so slightly at the tastefully form-fitting top Emily had chosen that morning. Emily suddenly felt exposed, but there was no subtle way to raise her shield again. She had to say something, to change the focus. "What's your name," she blurted out, almost as a demand.

The girl smirked. Emily held her gaze until she deadpanned, "Pigskin." Then, Emily inhaled sharply, dropping her eyes. "Don't worry about it," the girl droned, still in monotone. When Emily didn't look up, the girl answered her question. "It's Paige."

Emily nodded. "I'm sorry," she said, looking off to the side and pushing a strand of hair behind her ear as she finally said what she had wanted to tell Paige since the first time that she waited for her at the wall. "It wasn't my idea. I didn't know that she was going to do it."

Paige nodded, shifting her body directly in front of Emily. It didn't feel threatening. Still, Emily felt that she had to say something, if only to let Paige know that she wasn't afraid. She peered into Paige's eyes with a smile that was more confident than she, herself, was. "Alison wouldn't like it if she knew that I was talking to you," Emily admitted. Paige smirked, stepping back slightly, to provide an escape route. "But I don't care," Emily continued. She locked eyes with Paige for another second or two before she stepped aside with a shrug. "Anyway, I'd better go."

As she walked away, she heard Paige's low, raspy voice behind her. "Emily?"

Emily turned around, with a soft smile.

Paige looked away. "I'm trying to quit."

Emily nodded her head and turned back around, feeling almost as if she had won that round. At the very least, it was a tie.

The next time Emily saw Paige McCullers was dramatically different. Emily strode into the girls' room and gasped, seeing Paige sprawled on the floor, her face swollen and bloody, her breathing irregular.

"Get help!" she screamed to Hanna as she dropped her books and ran over to Paige, sitting next to her on the floor. She cradled Paige's head in her lap, wiping the hair away from her face. "Paige?"

Paige managed a smile through puffy lips. "Princess Emily."

"What happened?" Emily asked desperately.

"I must've slipped."

"Who did this to you?" Paige just shook her head. "Did Alison do this?" Emily was livid.

Paige's response was a barely audible "no." Emily knew that the question was stupid. Alison might spar verbally with Paige, but could never go toe to toe with her in a physical confrontation. And if she had gotten one of her posse to do it, she would've done it in such a way that the blame would never get back to her.

Whoever had done it, if Paige knew, she wasn't saying.

Hanna returned with the vice principal and the nurse. After the paramedics left, with Paige on a cart, the police interviewed Emily and Hanna. They told the police what they knew, which wasn't much.

Rosewood Middle School was in the news for a couple of weeks after that, for bullying. Some stations reported it as a hate crime. None of the reports mentioned Paige by name, of course, but there was no mistaking whom the stories were about.

The following week, there was a school assembly on tolerance. There were speakers who talked about their experiences of being bullied because of race, nationality, religion, and sexuality. The school board rushed through changes in the curriculum to emphasize tolerance.

Emily wanted to hear what had happened from Paige herself. She wanted to know that Paige was okay. She wanted to know why it had happened. But Paige didn't come back to school that week, or any of the following weeks. Rumor had it that her parents transferred her to another school. Some of the rumors said she was attending a cyber school. Some said private.

By the time Emily started at Rosewood High, Alison was out of the picture as well. Not unlike Paige, she had disappeared under mysterious circumstances, but, in Alison's case, the implications were more dire, involving search parties with dogs, and dredging the lake.

But that firestorm died down, for the most part, and Emily was looking forward to a normal high school experience, with the support of her three best friends, Aria Montgomery, the artsy one, Spencer Hastings, the brainy one, and Hanna Marin, the popular one. Emily was the jock. They were a crew which might never have assembled were it not for the controlling hand of Alison DiLaurentis. If for nothing else, they owed her for that.

The girls went their separate ways once the bell rang for home room, meeting up at lunch to discuss how their first day had gone. Everyone was eager to share, but Hanna noticed that Emily was distracted. She turned her head to see what was going on behind her, following Emily's gaze to a table where some of the tough girls were sitting.

"Ooh - those are the bad girls, Em!" Hanna and Aria began trading stories that they had heard of the girls: smoking, maybe drugs, tattoos, vandalism, grand theft auto, juvie.

"They weren't threatening you were they?" Aria asked, puzzled about why Emily was fixated on that table.

"No," Emily said quickly, shaking her head. "I was just looking at the girl on the end. I think she might be..."

"Paige McCullers!" Spencer interjected, leaning over to look. "She transferred into my math class. They had placed her in Math for Dummies, but, apparently she's some kind of math genius."

"I thought that was Paige," Emily commented with a nod.

Paige had changed since Emily had seen her last. She looked stronger. And harder, somehow; not just fit, but badass.

Hanna was staring at Emily, confused. "You know her?"

"Hanna, that's Paige!" Hanna needed more information. "Remember? Seventh grade? The ambulance? The police?"

"Ohhh - yeah!" Hanna nodded her head and pointed her finger at Emily in recognition. "Wow. It's no wonder she got her ass kicked!"

"I still want to know what happened to her that day," Emily wondered aloud with her eyebrows creased. "And what happened to her for the past two years."

Aria shook her head, taking hold of Emily's forearm. "You're better off keeping your distance from her, Em. She'll drag you down with her."

Hanna nodded in agreement. She could tell by the look in Emily's eye that Aria's words weren't dissuading her. "Seriously, Em. You don't want any part of the shit those girls are into."

Emily sighed and nodded, although she wasn't convinced that Paige could be so bad. She had been bullied, and that can harden someone, but those times when Emily talked to her, she had seen good in her.

Emily was determined to connect with Paige. She just didn't know how. She knew that she couldn't just walk up to Paige and all of her friends, especially if what Hanna and Aria had said about them was true. And also since she wasn't even sure that Paige would remember her.

Emily tried to come up with ways to bump into Paige. Rosewood High was much bigger than the middle school. Emily wouldn't even know what brick wall to stake out and wait for Paige to walk by.

She thought of hanging out around the advanced math classroom, pretending that she was waiting for Spencer. But that was no good, since Spencer would actually be there. Emily would end up either having to walk off with Spencer, or having to try to convince Spencer to play along; something that Spencer was unlikely to do, given the girls' opinion of Paige.

At lunchtime, Emily kept an eye on Paige's table, hoping that Paige would see her and give her some kind of "I'll see you later" signal - or that she could see where Paige went after lunch period, so she could follow her.

It had come to that. Emily was a stalker.

Emily's opportunity, when it came, wasn't the result of any scheming on her part. One evening when her mom was asked to stay late at the precinct at the last minute, she called Emily and asked her to pick up something from the Grille for dinner. As Emily stood in line, she saw Paige walking by on the sidewalk, all by herself. Emily wrestled with her intentions for a moment or two before she stepped out of her place in line and headed outside, walking quickly to get into voice range.

When she got close enough to get a whiff of Paige's cigarette, she stopped, calling out, "Still trying to quit?" Her mind was screaming, "Please remember, please remember, please remember!"

Paige turned around with a defensive scowl. When she saw Emily, who was standing there without her binder to use as armor but still hugging herself protectively, she broke into a smile. "Princess Emily!"

Emily lowered her head and laughed in relief. She still hated being called princess, but she was grateful that Paige remembered her.

Paige quickly tossed her cigarette aside. "I don't really... anymore," she said sheepishly.

Paige's guilty reaction gave Emily a bit of boldness. "I'm sure you were just holding it for a friend." Paige chuckled weakly, combing her fingers through her hair. Emily took a step closer. Still hugging herself with her left arm, she lightly punched Paige's shoulder with her right. "I never knew what happened to you."

"Listen, Emily. I never had a chance to thank you for what you did that day." Emily shrugged. She didn't need a thank-you; she just needed to know that Paige had been okay. "It's just," Paige continued haltingly, threading her fingers through her hair a couple more times. "Well... Look. It's – I'd better get going."

And Paige turned and trotted off, without so much as a handshake or a good-bye, or the promise that they would talk later.

Emily knew that whatever happened to Paige had been pretty traumatic. Still, she couldn't understand why Paige had gone from polite to evasive so quickly.

The next morning, when Emily opened her locker, an envelope fell out. She opened it and found a note from Paige. So I'm not the only stalker.

The note explained that Paige was grateful for what Emily had done for her, and that she understood that Emily wanted to talk about it, but that Emily should keep her distance. "I'm bad news," she wrote, adding that Emily didn't want to get caught hanging out with a girl like her.

Paige had pushed the wrong buttons. Emily was tired of having everyone treat her as if she couldn't think for herself, and telling her whom she could and couldn't hang out with.

It was Friday, and Emily knew that Spencer had an away game with the field hockey team. That meant that she would have an excused absence from her last-period class: Advanced Math.

Paige walked out of the door of her last class excited for the start of the weekend. That excitement turned to momentary fear as she felt herself being yanked by the arm from behind. She turned around, ready to defend herself, when she was met by the glaring eyes of Emily Fields.

"Prin -"

Emily's eyes narrowed at what Paige had started to say. Paige quickly changed it up.

"Emily!"

"What the hell is this?" Emily held up the note from her locker.

"Look, Emily. The thing is, I hang out with the wrong crowd. It's social suicide to hang out with me. Not to mention, it could get you suspended. Or expelled."

Emily rolled her eyes. "I'm not a creampuff," she said, shaking the note in Paige's face, for emphasis. "Or a princess."

Paige smiled knowingly. "Of course you're not." Paige looked to the left and to the right before she quickly pulled Emily into the girls' room. Emily's heart was beating with anticipation of finally getting some answers.

Paige did a quick check of the stalls. Once she had verified that they were alone, she set her books down on the counter, held Emily by the biceps, and kissed her.

When Emily's mind caught up with what was going on, she let her books drop to the floor and pushed Paige off of her.

Paige scrunched her eyes in shock at the rebuff, before she read Emily's expression. She smiled slyly. "That's the first time you've ever kissed a girl, isn't it?"

"No!" Emily answered too quickly. She frowned, hoping that her feigned anger would cover up the fact that she was lying.

Paige's smile widened. "You've never kissed anyone before, have you?"

"I've never kissed anyone who tasted like a cigarette," Emily shouted defiantly. Paige dipped her head, ashamed, giving Emily just enough of an advantage to strike. "If you want to kiss me again, you'd better quit smoking."

Emily quickly picked up her books and headed for the door, letting it slam behind her as she speed-walked all the way home. It took all of her strength to keep herself from running, but she couldn't let Paige see her running away in fear. She peeked behind her from time to time, half worried, half wishing that Paige was following her.

She only allowed herself to run once she was safe inside her house. When the front door closed behind her, she ran up to her bedroom, collapsing onto her bed and looking at the ceiling as she traced her fingertips over her lips.

It started as a smile. Soon, she was laughing, not entirely sure why. Everything was beginning to make sense: The feeling that she used to get in her stomach when she was getting attention from Alison, or those days when Paige stood too close to her; why her heart had started beating so fast when Paige pulled her aside into the bathroom just minutes ago.

Emily was tingling with excitement - and a bit of fear - at this discovery. Part of her wanted to throw open her windows and shout it to the world. Mostly, she wanted to tell her closest friends, but she knew that she couldn't. Regardless of how they may have felt about Emily liking a girl, they had made no secret of how they felt about her hanging out with Paige McCullers - much less kissing her.

And Emily couldn't tell her mother. She knew where Pam Fields stood on the subject. And besides, even if Paige were a boy, she would meet with the same disapproval from Pam as she had received from Emily's three best friends.

So this... thing with Paige would have to remain a secret. Whatever it was. Emily didn't even know. But she knew that Paige had kissed her - had pulled her into the bathroom and kissed her. And that had to mean something.

Emily curled up on the bed, hugging herself and smiling as she replayed the kiss in her mind. After a bit, she got up and walked over to her desk. She checked her pants pockets for the note that Paige had given her, panicking for a moment when she thought that she had lost it - and that someone might find it, but turned up tucked into her social studies book. Smoothing it out, she pinned it onto her noteboard. She immediately realized what a bad idea that was. Her mother didn't need to see a note from someone who proclaimed herself to be a bad influence. Emily tapped the note against her hand as she looked around for a place to stash it where her mom wouldn't stumble across it, and where Hanna's snooping eyes wouldn't uncover it.

"So, who was that new girl at your table today?"

Emily curled her lip as she thought back to lunch. She and Paige were standing together in a deserted corner of the campus. This had become their thing over the course of a few weeks. Emily's back was against the wall, and, although Paige was standing close, they weren't touching. There had been no kisses since that first one in the bathroom.

"Oh, Sydney!" Emily's eyes lit up and she put her hand on Paige's shoulder, excited at having come up with the answer that Paige was looking for. "She's on the swim team with me," Emily explained.

"Sydney," Paige sneered, a little leery of Emily's sudden excitement.

"What? You have something against Sydney?"

"Maybe I don't like swimmers." Paige droned, trying to deflect her dislike for Sydney, since she couldn't really justify it to Emily.

"So, you don't like me?"

Paige rolled her eyes. "Some swimmers are okay," she said sarcastically. "I guess."

"Well, Sydney's one of the good ones. And she's a great swimmer, too! You should meet her!"

Paige scoffed. Realizing that her reaction came off a bit harsh, she tried to play it off as being aloof. "Yeah. I can't wait."

"Paige?" Emily was smiling playfully.

"What?" Paige mocked the playful tone back at her.

"Are you jealous?"

Paige chuckled. "Yeah, right!" She was trying to act casual, but she had to turn her head to the side, unable to look Emily in the eyes.

"Paige..." Emily took Paige's hand and began playing with her fingers. "She's just my friend." Emily drew out the word. "It's not as if I'm dating her!"

Paige shrugged her shoulders, turning her head away as Emily tried to look into her eyes. "You can date whomever you want. I don't own you."

Emily laughed.

Paige, annoyed, looked into Emily's eyes. "That's funny?"

"You act like this thug, but then you say things like, 'whomever.' " Emily made the word sound formal. "It's cute!"

Paige broke into a smile. She couldn't hold it in any longer. A second later, she was laughing. "No one has ever called me cute, Emily. Not even when I was a baby."

"Well, I guess they don't know you the way that I know you."

"You think you know me?" Paige leaned her head in, her nose almost touching Emily's.

Emily's heart started beating faster and faster. In a moment of panic, she blurted out, "Are you still smoking?"

Paige turned her head and scoffed dismissively. "What? No!"

"You can't fool me with breath mints, Paige. Let me see your hands!"

Paige reflexively jammed her hands into her pockets.

"Paige!" Emily's tone was sharp. She extended her hands, palms up, as she stared Paige down, wiggling her fingers to get Paige to comply. Paige rolled her eyes and bobbed her head, finally giving in and pulling her hands out of her pockets, letting them hover, palms down, above Emily's hands.

Emily could see the dark tobacco stains on Paige's fingertips. She raised her hands so that they were touching Paige's and smoothed her fingers over the rough skin on Paige's fingertips. For some reason, she enjoyed the feel of them.

"Paige..." Emily whined.

"I know, Emily." Paige dipped her head, chastened.

"You can't keep smoking," Emily pleaded.

"I know..."

"And why are you biting your nails?"

Paige turned her head, avoiding Emily's gaze. "Because I'm trying to quit smoking."

Emily shook her head, with a half smile. She brushed the hair away from Paige's face and kissed her on the cheek. Paige's face lit up instantly.

"You said no more kisses until I quit smoking!"

"I know." Emily brushed Paige's hair away again, letting her hand rest on Paige's cheek. But you're trying. So you get a kiss on the cheek. For effort."

They stood at a stalemate for a few moments before Emily stroked Paige's cheekbone with her thumb and moved her hand away from Paige's face. "Well, I'd better get to practice," Emily said, but she didn't move.

"Give Sydney my love," Paige said derisively.

"Oh, stop it!" Emily laughed lightly.

"See you later, Princess Ariel." Paige's voice was a deep rumble, so soft it was almost a whisper.

Emily giggled. "I'm Ariel, now?"

"You're Ariel. I used to think that you were Princess Pocahontas, but you swim, so you're Princess Ariel."

Emily shoved Paige with her shoulder as she headed off to practice, smiling to herself. As much as she disliked being called "princess," she kind of liked the fact that Paige had picked out a name for her.

"It's infuriating," Spencer complained, flailing her arms. "I work my ass off in math to get a 99.6 average. And Paige McCullers does nothing in class except draw superheroes and text her squad, and guess what her average is!" Spencer looked around and saw that no one was paying any attention to her whining. "99.8," she mumbled anyway, needing to let the words out.

Hanna was staring at Emily. "What's with that?"

"What's with what?"

"That thing you do whenever Spencer brings up Paige McCullers?"

"What thing?"

"Is she bullying you?"

"No!"

"Is she tutoring you?"

"No..."

"Do you have a crush on her?"

Emily looked down at her lap. Her reply was insistent, but barely audible. "Hanna..."

Hanna gasped, realizing that was it. She stood up, covering her mouth with one hand and pointing at Emily with the other. "You have a crush on Paige McCullers!"

Emily grabbed Hanna's pointing hand and Aria stood up, to push Hanna back into her seat, as they both exclaimed, "Hanna!" at the same time.

Aria intentionally lowered her voice. "Maybe Emily's not ready to come out to the entire cafeteria."

Hanna looked puzzled for a second before it hit her. "OMG, Em! You're -"

Aria covered Hanna's mouth before she could continue. "Maybe this isn't the time or the place for this discussion?"

Hanna couldn't wait. She lowered her head and lowered her voice. "Aria?" Hanna tilted her head to point at Emily. "This means that she's..." Aria rolled her eyes. Hanna returned her focus to Emily. "Emily? You and Paige?"

"We're friends, okay? We've been talking. And I didn't say anything about it to you guys, because I know how you all feel about her."

"Do you like her?"

Emily smiled, biting her lip, and nodded. "I think so," she said softly. Hanna reached across the table for a hug.

"Does she like you?" Aria asked.

Emily hunched her shoulders. "I don't know. I'm not sure. Maybe?" She couldn't tell them about the kisses. She already felt foolish enough.

Aria gave her hand a squeeze. Emily looked over to Spencer.

Spencer sighed. "Look. Just be careful, okay, Em? Bridget Wu told me all about her. She got kicked out of her last school for getting into fights or breaking into the chem labs, or something. And the only reason they let her in here is that she's this genius, and Rosewood has to do well on the state competency tests. She's already on the school's probation list!"

The whole thing sounded a little far-fetched to Emily. What kind of chemistry labs could they have had in eighth grade? And since when did Rosewood recruit students to get their scores up - as if one person's scores would make that big a difference. Bridget Wu was probably just spreading gossip, and Spencer, even though she knew better, swallowed it, because she was always up for a mystery.

"So, which one is it, Spencer? Fighting? Or breaking into the chem lab? 'Cause it just sounds as if people are making up rumors about Paige because she's an outsider!"

Spencer just waved her hand. "Maybe it's not all true, but even rumors have their basis in fact." Emily started to protest, but Spencer waved her off again. "Just be careful, Em. That's all I'm saying."

"My friends were talking about you today."

"Yeah?" Paige curled her lip suspiciously.

"Yeah. Apparently, you don't do anything but text your 'squad' and draw pictures of superheroes in math."

Paige smiled, shaking her head. "Spencer?"

Emily nodded. "I mean, come on, Paige. Superheroes? Isn't that a little geeky?"

"Hey!" Paige protested, waving her index finger in Emily's face. "Batman is not geeky!"

"Oh, whatever, Paige," Emily said as she brushed Paige's finger aside, keeping hold of it and swinging it back and forth at Paige's side. "So you're some kind of math genius?"

Paige shrugged. "I don't know. Math just comes naturally to me, you know? I'm guessing it's the same with you and swimming."

Emily smiled and shook her head, going back to her main point of inquiry. "So, they recruited you to Rosewood because you're a genius?"

Paige tossed her head back and let out a heavy sigh, running her fingers through her hair. "Boy, your friends certainly know a lot about me, don't they?"

Emily quickly changed the subject, seeing how uncomfortable it was making Paige. "We have a swim meet on Saturday," she said hopefully. "You could see for yourself whether or not I'm a natural?"

"Oh, yeah, Emily, you know..." Paige began rubbing her neck. "I don't really... the 'rah rah' thing" – Paige wiggled her hands between the two of them – "that's not really my scene." Emily tilted her head, biting her lip as she looked into Paige's eyes. "Besides, your friends will all be there, and I... they don't really..."

"They don't care!" Emily was a little annoyed that Paige was using her friends as an excuse.

"I... maybe. I don't know. Maybe."

"It's okay," Emily said flatly. "You don't have to come."

"Emily..."

"Anyway, I should probably go."

When Paige arrived at their spot the next day, she was disappointed but not totally surprised that Emily wasn't there. She knew that she had let Emily down, but she had hoped that Emily would forgive her.

She really needed a cigarette.

Their spot was secluded - that's what made it work for their secret meetings. Paige checked to her left and her right before she reached into her sock and pulled out her lighter. The cigarette was loose in the pocket of her vest. She put it between her lips and flicked the lighter, cupping her hands around the cigarette to block the wind.

"Damn it, Paige!"

Paige quickly tossed away the still-unlit cigarette and put the lighter into her pocket. "Sorry. I didn't think that you were coming."

"So, you decided that you should get a smoke in instead?"

Paige didn't know how to explain what she had been feeling, so she just apologized again.

"Why wouldn't I come? I'm here every day." Emily's arms were wide apart from her side, to point out how obvious it was.

Paige shrugged, looking down. "I know you're mad at me."

Emily sighed. "I'm not mad, Paige. I'm disappointed that you won't be there tomorrow, but I understand."

Later, when Emily opened her locker on her way home, a sheet of paper, folded in quarters, fell out. Emily opened it to find a pencil drawing of a mer-shark. Or a shark-maid. Whatever it was called. It was her head and torso blended artfully into a shark's body, from Rosewood's swim team's logo. "Whoa!" Emily had no idea that Paige could draw like that. At the bottom of the page were the neatly printed words, "Good Luck, Superhero!"

Emily took a magnet and hung the picture in the back of her locker. She really wanted to give it a more prominent spot. She really wanted to hang it in her locker by the pool. But that would invite too many questions – with answers that, she was sure, Paige wouldn't want her talking to her teammates about.

The following morning, when Emily got out of the pool after her warm ups, she scanned the bleachers, finding the spot where her friends were sitting with her mother. She waved to them enthusiastically, wearing a broad smile. Hanna held up a sign that she had made and hooted her encouragement.

Emily kept scanning the crowd, hoping to see Paige, even though she knew that it was unlikely. Paige had shown her support with the picture. Emily knew that it meant that Paige wasn't going to come.

Near the end of the meet, Emily stood up and started to pace in her hooded cover-up as she waited for her race to be called. She saw a movement out of the corner of her eye. When she looked over, she saw Paige, emerging from the shadows at the end of a set of bleachers. Emily smiled, delighted that Paige was there. It was hard to tell with the lighting, but she was pretty sure that she saw Paige smile back.

"I'm sorry that I was late."

Emily had gotten to the point where she felt comfortable enough to rest her hands on Paige's sides as they stood in their usual spot.

"I'm just glad that you came. I'm glad that you got a chance to see me swim."

"You're really good."

Emily smiled bashfully. "Thank you."

"I wasn't sure that I was going to be able to make it." Paige took Emily's hands for a moment as she tried to decide whether or not she really wanted to tell Emily what she had been planning to tell her.

"Emily." Emily could tell by Paige's tone that she was about to say something serious. She clasped her hands behind her back to give Paige some space.

"That day you found me? In the bathroom? - I got jumped by four girls." Emily creased her forehead and pursed her lips. "They were older. I'd never seen them before."

"Oh, Paige!"

"But one of them... called me Pigskin."

Emily gasped in shock.

"I'm sorry, Emily. I didn't tell you at the time, because I knew that she was your friend, and I didn't want you to feel conflicted. And, when I saw you again, after what happened to Alison..."

Emily nodded. "Well, thanks for telling me now." Emily stroked Paige's arm. "So, you changed schools?"

"I went to a cyber school."

"Oh." Emily processed that statement. "So you didn't break into the chem lab in your old school?"

"Emily, my old school was a laptop in the dining room."

Emily smiled, embarrassed that she had even brought that up.

"Your parents let you come back to public high school?"

"After Alison was… gone, I convinced them that I really needed to go to school around people again, in an actual classroom. I mean, on-line learning is really great, but..."

"So how did you meet those girls you hang out with?"

"They said hi." Paige shrugged. "They didn't judge me, and I didn't judge them. They're really nice girls, Emily. You should meet them."

Emily nodded. "I want to. And, maybe you could meet my friends, too?"

Paige nodded with a smile, tucking her hair behind her ear.

Emily was happy that Paige was willing to meet her friends. It made whatever they had seem more official.

"I want to show you something." Paige started rolling up her sleeve, slowly and nervously. "This is why I was late on Saturday."

Emily's eyes widened in anticipation. She knew that her parents would never let her get a tattoo. Paige twisted her arm to show Emily, not a tattoo, but a small square of plastic adhering to her bicep. Emily took note of the way that Paige's tight muscles stiffened when she twisted her arm that way.

"What is it?" Emily traced its outline with her fingers.

"It's the patch." Emily looked confused. "The nicotine patch. I've been… going to smoking-cessation meetings on Saturdays."

"Oh, Paige!" Emily couldn't help hugging her. "I'm so proud of you! You're quitting?"

Paige smiled, encouraged by Emily's positive reaction. "Yeah!" Emily gave her arm a squeeze. "And then," Paige continued, "I get to kiss you!"

Emily laughed at their long-running joke, swatting Paige on the shoulder. Paige deflated, dipping her head, and Emily realized that she hadn't been joking.

"Paige..." Emily gave Paige's shoulder another playful slap. "You can kiss me whenever you want!"

"Really?"

"Of course!" Emily added, embarrassed, "I didn't think that you wanted to anymore!"

Paige rolled her eyes. "Of course I want to."

She leaned in and kissed Emily. The kiss didn't taste like the first kiss. Emily probed around Paige's teeth and gums, but she found no vestige of tobacco taste in Paige's mouth.

"Emily?"

"Yeah?"

Paige dipped her head. "I'm still going to quit, though."

"Oh, just kiss me again, Paige!"