The Calm Before the Storm (Pretty Little Liars, #1)
Title: The Calm Before the Storm
Author/Artist: gildedgardens
Character/Pairing: Alison and Courtney DiLaurentis, Emily Fields, Spencer Hastings, Hanna Marin, and Aria Montgomery
Fandom: Pretty Little Liars
Theme: #1, 2 a.m.
A/N: Based on a small scene in the prologue of Unbelievable.
An evening downpour that hit the quaint suburb of Rosewood had finally ended in the early hours of the morning.
At this very moment, six girls woke up far earlier than planned.
Hanna Marin rubbed at her eyes as she squinted at her clock across the room. It was two in the morning…what made her jump up so early? The brunette shook her head after a moment and yawned sleepily. Probably just her excitement about the last day of seventh grade.
She pulled her comforter closer around her body. Though it was June 20th, the nights were still fairly chilly. The huge rainstorm from last evening didn’t help much. She idly surveyed her room, admiring the posters of *NSYNC and Justin Timberlake that adorned the walls. She eased out of bed and walked towards the window overlooking her neighborhood.
Her heart clenched at the sight of the nearly empty driveway. Her father was now living in Annapolis with a new woman to call his sweetheart and a new girl-thirteen years old just like her-to proudly call his daughter. Hanna grimaced while remembering that horribly awkward meeting with the Randalls a few months ago. It seemed as though he'd moved on to better things and in a sense, Hanna could see why. Oh, Isabel had nothing on her much hotter and smarter mom, but when Hanna matched herself against Kate…the odds were clearly not in her favor.
Kate was slim, pretty, and graceful, while Hanna was chubby, awkward-looking, and far too fidgety for her own good. She blamed that last one on her friend Alison DiLaurentis: she had a feeling the blonde was lying to her about skinny girls fidgeting all the time.
Ali. The brunette’s thoughts moved to the most popular girl of Rosewood Day and her best friend for nearly two years now. There were times when she still couldn’t believe the gorgeous student picked her of all people to be in her clique. Though she’d never say it aloud, being a part of Ali’s exclusive circle made her feel honored and special; after all, the blonde must’ve seen some unique quality in Hanna to pick her out from the masses, right?
Hanna’s brow furrowed. For the past few months, Ali had been acting rather strangely. She was texting and talking to other people and being unusually secretive about it. The girl was also becoming more distant and displayed an alarming amount of mood swings. Sometimes she wouldn’t be available for entire weekends and she seemed to be getting bored with the company of Hanna and the others. The brunette was worried that Ali might ditch them soon.
She shook her head forcefully. No. It wasn’t going to happen. Ali had said it herself yesterday: this would be the Summer of All of Us. The blonde had every right to keep whatever secrets she held to herself as far as Hanna was concerned. Besides, she knew about the brunette’s eating disorder. Hanna didn’t want to upset Ali and potentially have her bulimic tendencies exposed to everyone.
You’re worrying about nothing. Tomorrow-well today-is going to be great! If she kept telling herself this, maybe she’d eventually believe it. Letting out a huge yawn, the brunette decided to go back to bed. She needed her energy if she wanted to stay up for tomorrow night’s sleepover.
***
On the other side of town, one of Hanna’s friends was also feeling restless. Emily Fields tucked a loose strand of chlorine-damaged red hair behind her ear as she watched the forest bordering her family’s backyard. It was full of pines and other types of coniferous trees. The redhead grinned to herself as she remembered her recent science lesson on the differences between coniferous and deciduous trees.
The smile faded as she noticed how eerie the moonlight looked over the woods. They weren’t nearly as vast as the forest surrounding the Kahn mansion or Ali’s neighborhood, but they still spooked out Emily. Rosewood was a Main Line town and as such, there were plenty of spooky tales to accompany the town’s long, venerated history. She heard a few ghost stories about the woods behind her house and she never could stray far beyond her backyard. Ali mercilessly teased her for it, but she didn’t care. She had always been a bit superstitious.
Of course, that didn’t mean she didn’t care about other things the blonde made fun of. Her hair for instance was normally a reddish blond hue, but the onset of puberty was pushing her hair color closer to red. It was a little hard to tell with the years of swimming and the resulting damage from the chlorine water. Emily winced as she remembered Ali’s constant taunts about her hair in fifth grade. To this day it still hurt when she commented on the swimmer’s hair color.
But more importantly, there was another thing about Emily that her wily friend loved to bring up. It was something she was certain her family would be ashamed of and would make her an outcast at school. The redhead didn’t even think she was gay, but being around someone like Ali DiLaurentis blurred her understanding of everything in her life. The blonde was just so…beautiful and enchanting and wonderful that Emily couldn’t stop thinking about her.
She made the huge mistake of acting on those feelings of infatuation and kissed her best friend in the DiLaurentis tree house nearly two months ago. Since then, Ali had taken every opportunity to poke fun at the redhead’s confusion about her sexuality. What made it worse was the lack of subtlety in Ali’s taunts; no one really understood yet, but Emily was paranoid that people would figure out the meaning behind the blonde’s mocking words soon enough.
Emily bit her lip and glanced up at the stars. She had no clue what was up with Ali lately. Sure, she wasn’t the friendliest person in school, but she never targeted her own friends before. The redhead didn’t like how her friend had started to make fun of Hanna’s weight gain, especially when the brunette’s parents were going through a divorce. The blonde’s snide remarks about Hanna’s too-tight pants and snacking habits unnerved her.
Ali was slowly but surely slipping away from them, she just knew it. Emily frowned and lowered her gaze to her backyard again. She wished the blonde would just talk to her. Ali always let Emily be a bit closer than the other girls and she felt incredibly grateful to have that sense of trust placed in her. I’d do anything for you Ali. I’ll always be there to help you no matter what. You just need to let me in…I feel like you’re pushing us all away.
Sighing softly-her sister was sleeping on the other side of their shared room-Emily saw the numbers 2:14 flashing brightly on the digital clock and decided to go back to bed. Maybe she could talk to Ali alone later that day and figure out what was wrong.
***
Aria Montgomery stared forlornly out of her window as she listened to the sounds of low yet harsh sounding voices from the direction of her parents’ bedroom. She pressed her head against the glass and closed her eyes. Every time she saw her dad Byron, the scene of that afternoon in May kept replaying in her mind. She and Ali caught him and one of his college students making out in his car. She hadn’t told anyone-not even her own mother Ella.
Was this why Byron had been so ‘busy’ and absent from home for the past few months? Did he really find the company of some twenty year old girl more worthwhile than being with his own family? He made Aria promise not to tell Ella and the weight of the secret was killing her inside. Having a manipulative friend like Ali wasn’t making this any easier for the raven-haired girl.
Every snarky comment Ali made about Byron and college girls set Aria on edge. Quite frankly, she was getting sick of it. She began to avoid Ali near the end of May, unable to put up with the blonde’s insistent questions and comments about her dad’s affair. Aria only tolerated the girl’s presence when at least one of her other friends was around. She felt like her life was crumbling around her and it just had to be Alison of all people standing there with her as she witnessed her father cheating.
She sniffed quietly and stared at the moon. She didn’t know what she would do if her parents divorced. Just thinking about it made her sick. For the millionth time, Aria found herself wishing that she didn’t catch her father kissing his student. At least she could be naively distressed about her parents’ arguments and worry about her own issues. Things like fitting in with Rosewood Day’s preppy student body and confessing her feelings to Noel Kahn seemed so small in comparison to this. She knew her parents’ child-rearing methods were unconventional and she usually appreciated that, but now she wished they would just be normal for once and treat her like an actual kid. She was too young to deal with such adult matters and she didn’t want any part of it.
Sometimes Aria wished she could just start over, preferably somewhere far away from Rosewood. It wasn’t just because of her family problems; the people in this town were generally getting on her nerves. She always felt like a total outsider and even being friends with the most popular girl at school didn’t change that sentiment much. The raven-haired girl couldn’t stand the snobby attitudes and materialism of her classmates. They were only in middle school for crying out loud and the girls were already showing off designer bags and three-inch sandals. Typical Rosewoods.
Ali was the biggest Typical Rosewood of them all. She started the trend of wearing Kate Spade purses instead of more practical schoolbags. Aria thought that befriending the girl would’ve made her absorb some of that extravagance into her own style. Instead, it only heightened her distaste for people like the blonde. In fact, she was surprised to discover that she was beginning to dislike Ali herself.
She idly wondered where these feelings of bitterness towards her friend suddenly came from. It was probably because of the whole Byron dilemma. It was amazing to have actual friends and be able to have get-togethers on the weekends, but lately Aria was wondering if it was really worth it. The recent drama with Ali was getting to her, as well as the fact that the blonde was becoming quite standoffish and rude to their other friends.
Aria had a sinking feeling they were only Alison’s temporary playthings. She wouldn’t be too surprised if the girl dropped them within the next few months and moved on to cooler people. The raven-haired girl managed to shake herself out of her brooding and returned to her bed. She could blame her sudden awakening at 2 a.m. on her parents, but truthfully there was something else bothering her. She just didn’t know what that ‘something’ was.
***
Spencer Hastings woke up as soon as the downpour stopped. Fumbling for her phone, she checked the time and saw that it was 2:02. Weird. She slowly sat up and eventually got out of bed. Making her way to her large bay window, she sat on the ledge and looked outside.
She had a good view of her extensive backyard and the DiLaurentis’ yard next door. The perfectly mowed grass and the stone pathway in her yard shimmered in the moonlight. The dirty blonde shifted to look over at her neighbor’s yard…which didn’t look too appealing at the moment.
Ali’s parents decided to build a gazebo and the construction workers had just finished digging the hole to set the foundation. A good portion of their yard was currently very muddy. The hole, which was apparently around fifteen to twenty feet deep, seemed dark and unending. Spencer’s eyes moved towards the large porch, then up towards Ali’s bedroom window.
Her fists were unconsciously clenched as she thought about the last three weeks. The dark blonde did something she had no right to do, and she was stupid enough to tell Alison about it. Kissing Ian Thomas, her older sister’s boyfriend, was better than she imagined but she never expected him to turn it into a make out session. Confused by that evening’s strange events, she talked to Ali about it a few days later and hoped for some good advice. What she got in reality was a threat to tell Melissa about the kiss.
The girl breathed in and out slowly while staring blankly at Ali’s home. She had problems with Melissa for the longest time and she thought the blonde would understand her latest issue. She never expected her so-called ‘friend’ to be so…malicious. Spencer’s parents always favored Melissa and she was getting tired of it. She was sick of having her older sister play the nice girl in front of other people and be a complete bitch to her.
Now she was becoming irritated with Ali’s callous attitude. The blonde was never a nice person to begin with, but in recent months she began to use Spencer and their other friends as her main targets. She didn’t know what exactly Ali was teasing the other girls about, but it always brought tension to the normally jovial atmosphere. The dirty blonde snorted. She should’ve known better than to talk to Alison about her hook-up with Ian. The girl was proving herself to be more of a hindrance than a help.
Spencer narrowed her eyes thoughtfully as her gaze shifted back to Ali’s window. The two blondes had always been competitive. Even before their friendship, they would occasionally knock heads in field hockey. But even so, she sensed there was something off about their latest argument. Ali’s mean streak always came out during their spats, but this was…different somehow. It was almost like they hated each other.
She snorted again and redid her ponytail. She and Ali had been on the outs for a long time now; it was probably just buried feelings finally coming to the surface. Spencer never liked the way the blonde acted like she was the ringleader of the group. Everyone always had to do what she said and it just wasn’t in Spencer’s nature to take orders like a dog.
Yet she had to admit that this particular fight was going too far. She was sick of Ali threatening to tell her sister about the kiss and she was still confused as to why the hell the girl was being so spiteful about it. She liked Ian-a lot-and she was happy to know that he saw her as more than Melissa’s bookish little sister. Spencer even dared to think he might like her better than her sister. It was a high hope, but he was the one who kissed her first. All she wanted to do was flirt a little.
She jumped up from the window sill and grabbed her flashlight. She aimed it at Ali’s window and flicked it on and off three times. The girl thought she saw the blond sitting up in bed and figured this would be a convenient time to talk about their problems. Waiting patiently at the window, Spencer didn’t see any response from Ali. Huh. I could’ve sworn I saw her sitting up. Then again, maybe she was awake and was just avoiding her.
Rolling her eyes, Spencer set the flashlight on her desk and trudged back to bed. She’d have to talk to Ali alone some other time.
***
Courtney DiLaurentis shot up around the same time as Spencer, heart beating erratically in her chest. Ugh, what the hell? She raked her fingers through her hair and looked around. Her door was locked, so there was no way her twin Ali could’ve done something to wake her up. She turned in the direction of her bedside window after noticing the rain had recently stopped.
The hole for the gazebo was situated close to the woods bordering her family’s backyard. The blonde grinned in anticipation of the summer; she was going to have amazing parties when the structure was completed. Her smile gradually faded as her gaze fixated on the ditch. It looked a bit creepy, with the moonlight piercing through the trees and casting an eerie glow on the area.
The blonde continued to stare at the hole, entranced and strangely anxious, until the sound of an owl hooting shocked her out of her stupor. She shook her head ruefully. Whatever dream she was having must’ve been really weird to make her act like this. Courtney vaguely recalled seeing plants and a deep well, but other than that she couldn’t remember what she just dreamt about.
Lifting a small hand in the air, she admired the A-is-for-Ali ring she wore on her pinky finger. Ever since she stole it from the rightful owner two years ago, she’d been able to usurp her twin’s life and become Alison DiLaurentis. Everything was just as it was meant to be. She smirked as she thought of her sister being forced to assume her identity at the mental clinic in Delaware. She could stay there forever as far as Courtney was concerned. That bitch didn’t deserve to be Alison anyway.
Her expression darkened as her thoughts shifted to the gawky girls she reluctantly befriended, particularly one who lived right next door. Spencer was probably so giddy about kissing Ian Thomas. Her Ian. Her boyfriend. It didn’t matter that he was officially dating prissy Melissa Hastings. It didn’t matter that he was a graduating high school senior secretly having a relationship with a thirteen-year-old. Age didn’t matter much to Courtney; it was only a number, right?
What did matter was that her ‘friend’ overstepped her boundaries. She had no right to waltz up to Ian and hook-up with him so easily when Courtney had to scheme and plan for months to get him to date her. Oh, Courtney knew he liked her a lot-even before she became Ali, he flirted with her twin constantly. But he was several years older than her and that was a huge stumbling block in terms of getting further than mere flirtations.
She breathed out forcefully and saw a light flash through her window three times. The blonde snorted derisively. So Spencer wanted to come out and talk, eh? She reclined and turned her back to the window. Courtney knew her friend had the biggest crush on Ian. She also knew that her diary wasn’t exactly hard to find. The dirty blonde likely read it and was probably bitter over the fact that Courtney got to him first. It didn’t matter; she would put Spencer in her place soon enough.
As for Ian…she needed to make sure she was the only girl he dated. Since Melissa would be out of the country for a couple of weeks starting sometime tomorrow night, it was the perfect time to discuss her ultimatum with him. The blond boy had been reserved when she first gave him the ultimatum a few days ago, but she was sure that he liked her more than Melissa and was just stalling for time. He knew what the consequences would be if he didn’t accept her terms.
Courtney’s breathing gradually slowed and her eyelids slid shut. There was really nothing to worry about. She had planned everything out meticulously and she stood to gain either way. With that last confident thought, she fell asleep once more.
***
In the bedroom next door, a blonde identical to Courtney was also awake. Alison DiLaurentis only went to sleep a couple of hours ago but something disturbed her sleep. Ever since her parents told her about the plans for the gazebo, she’d started working on some of her own schemes. Now she was back for the summer from the mental hospital because the doctors said she was making so much ‘progress’. The very thought of it made her want to gag in disgust. She glanced around the plain bedroom resentfully. This wasn’t her room. Her name wasn’t Courtney. She wasn’t mentally ill. She didn’t belong at the Preserve at Addison-Stevens. It was as simple as that, only it really wasn’t when Courtney was involved.
She scowled as she remembered that fateful Saturday morning in sixth grade. It was the day her life was ruined forever. The blonde was so happy Courtney was switching to a mental hospital farther away from Rosewood. She despised her unstable twin ever since she tried to drown her in Connecticut when they were eight years old.
But of course Courtney couldn’t be satisfied with the way things were, could she? The insane freak just had to take everything that was Ali’s. Her room, her belongings, her entire life…she gripped her sheets tightly as she relieved the horror of her mother telling her to get in the car. The sheer anger at discovering her A ring was stolen again. The sinking realization that Courtney had played her cards disturbingly well and orchestrated the swap without a single hitch.
And it was all because of those nobodies from school. Those four losers had no business hanging around her backyard at all, much less on a Saturday morning. If it wasn’t for them, none of this would’ve happened. Courtney would’ve never been able to pretend to be me. I would have my perfect life instead of this wrecked mess. She regretted boasting about her older brother Jason giving her a piece of the Time Capsule flag more than anything else. Maybe if she kept her mouth shut, those freaks wouldn’t have poked their noses in places they didn’t belong.
Ali closed her eyes and took slow, deep breaths. Soon everything would be resolved. She looked outside and saw the hole glowing in the moonlight. In less than a day, she would reverse everything that happened in the last two years. It was a severe act and Alison knew there would be no turning back once it was done. But she didn’t care. Years of hatred already divided her and her sister. Courtney’s bold identity theft was the last straw for her.
She read her crazy twin’s diary entries the other day. She couldn’t believe the ridiculous things the girl had done under her name. Befriending losers like Spencer Hastings was bad enough, but blinding Jenna Cavanaugh? Secretly dating a perverted creep like Ian Thomas? Courtney had taken far too many liberties and it was time for her to pay the price.
Ali's attention remained on the ditch. Her father said it was approximately 19.6 feet deep. A long, hard fall for someone of her stature. Courtney’s last diary entry revealed that she was planning to meet with Ian Thomas tomorrow night during a sleepover at Spencer’s house. And wasn’t it just convenient that they would be meeting in the woods bordering the Hastings and DiLaurentis homes?
She leaned back into the bed and twisted a strand of hair around her finger. All she had to do was intercept Courtney and Ian’s meeting. She had no doubt that the high school senior would be celebrating his graduation with a six pack or two. It would be far more surprising if he didn’t. Ali was counting on that to delay his rendezvous with her twin. She couldn’t take any chances though, so she would do her own sneaking around that night. A Polaroid camera sat on the nearby cherry wood desk. She would use the device to capture her sister in her final moments. After that…she would only have one sibling. And she was perfectly fine with that outcome.
An unpleasant smirk appeared on her face. Enjoy your last day of school, Courtney. It’ll also be the last day of your twisted life.