1.16

•

"Je Suis Une Ami"

"Halle, breakfast!"

The shout came from her mother, stood the bottom of the stairs, yelling for the third time for Halle to hurry up. Halle yelled back a quick "coming," before the sixteen-year-old heard the sound of shoes against the wood walking away.

Halle grabbed her school bag from where she chucked it when she came in yesterday, up against the wall. She had her house-keys between her teeth, two glasses clasped in between her fingers in her left hand and a history text book under her right arm. With all that, she finally left her bedroom and hurried down the stairs, already running behind.

The doorbell rang. Halle gave a groan as Pacha came bounding towards the front door. "No, Pacha— no!" she yelled through clenched teeth. Halle placed the glasses down on the cabinet of drawers near the front door with a clatter and dropped her history textbook on there also; her bag fell to the floor. She opened her jaw and let the keys crash down into the bowl on the cabinet. "Pacha, stay," she said, as she dog got more excitable when the doorbell rang again. "I'm coming!" Halle screamed.

With one hand firmly holding Pacha back by his collar, Halle opened the front door with an exasperated sigh. "Yes?" Noticing her sudden harshness took back the harmless delivery man, Halle apologised. "Sorry, stressful morning."

"Uh, I have these for a Miss..." he glanced down at the clipboard and said, "a Miss Halle Brewster," he said.

"Oh, that's me," said Halle in surprise, and then man handed her over a bouquet of pink tulips and white lilies.

"Have a good day!" called out the man, already retreating down the porch.

"Yeah, thanks! You too!" Halle called out after him. She shut the front door, her brow furrowed. She let Pacha's collar slip from her hand and allowed him run off to the back of the house, towards the kitchen.

Curious, Halle picked out the card from the bouquet and slid it out of the envelope. She read the note aloud, "'Sorry about the other day. Forgive me? Love Noel.'" Halle gave a sigh and pressed the card to her chest. She smiled to herself whilst she walked towards the kitchen. She'd had to text him to say thank you and that the flowers were beautiful.

On arriving into the kitchen, Halle immediately noticed her mother's eyes were on the flowers. All tulips were a sign of Jason according to her mother now; it made Halle roll her eyes.

"Relax, they're from Noel," Halle droned. She put them on the counter and moved to place a sweet kiss to Riley's head; her little sister was sat at the kitchen island with her breakfast in front of her.

Luisa Brewster chose to ignore her daughter's comment. She said, "Myles left early for Math Club, you'll have to catch a lift with your dad."

"Math club," Halle rolled her eyes again and groaned, "how did I end up with a dork for an older brother. You know, most people have cool older siblings. Me — I have a mathlete."

"Don't be rude about your brother, you should try being more like him," Luisa said.

"Smart?" quipped Halle sarcastically.

"Academic," Luisa corrected.

"Well, actually Mr Fitz thinks I'm really smart. He thinks I have a real shot at getting an academic scholarship... in English Lit," Halle added, eyeing her mother's reaction over a cup of coffee.

"Why would you even need an academic scholarship?" asked her mother. "You're set to get one through cheerleading. Yes, grades count and they should always be good, but cheer is sure thing. And your brother, he wants to go to Stanford next fall and college tuition is far more expensive than your father and I ever imagined it would be when we were planning a family. We can pay for one of you without a loan—"

"Lucky you," muttered Halle under her breath.

"— And an academic scholarship is really hard to come by. A cheerleading scholarship is one way of getting full ride with your degree. We're really counting on you, Hal," Luisa explained, though Halle had heard the same thing most of her life. "And you're really good at it."

"Yeah, I know." Halle looked to her little sister peacefully munching down her coco-pops. "Have some free advise from your big sis, don't grow up," Halle told Riley, "it's crap."

Riley giggled. "Got it. Don't grow up."

"You really are the smart one," complimented Halle, tickling her sister's cheek to get another giggle from her. Voices dragged Halle's attention from the kitchen and towards the hallway.  "Dad's got a client over?" she asked.

Luisa Brewster's face tightened. "Yes. Jason DiLaurentis," she stated. "He has business with the bank and chose your father to handle his accounts. Looks like he sticking around Rosewood this time," Luisa said.

"Why? There's nothing here," Halle said. She put down her coffee, half gone. "I can't wait to go to college and get out of here." She kissed Riley goodbye and mentioned, "I'll be home around five. I'll text if anything changes."

Trying to disguise her hurt behind a smile, Luisa managed to nod and get out a small, "have a good day," before Halle rushed out. Luisa looked to her youngest child and sighed. "Never leave me, okay? Don't grow up."

"I'm not going to," Riley mused, "Halle said growing up is crap."

"HALLE BREWSTER!"

Nick Brewster turned at the sound of his wife's shouts. He saw Halle cringing as she walked towards him and Jason. "What have you done now?" he asked her.

"Do I really have to do anything? She's always getting at me," Halle said. "Either way, we should probably go and go quick. She sounded mad, right?"

Her father let out a chuckle, shaking his head. "Keys," said Nick, handing them over to Halle. "You can drive, get your practice in for your test," he said. "I need to get my coffee flask, go wait in the car."

"Ooh, can you take those glasses?" Halle asked, picking up the two glasses she came down with this morning. "What? I can't go back in there. She'll have me and we won't be able to leave for another ten minutes, then."

Nick sighed, "Give them to me."

"Thank you," Halle said, beaming when she handed them over.

At least, Halle was smiling properly now. Fully, with all of her face. Her smiled even reached her eyes again; something her father was overly fond of. He was far too happy to have his little girl back.

Nick turned to face Jason and said, "Look them over. It's the best deal you're going to get from them if you want it done quick."

"Yeah, will do. Thanks again, Mr Brewster," Jason said politely.

"Please, you can call me Nick," replied Halle's father before he walked off towards the kitchen.

Halle went and picked up her bag from the floor. While she was there, she scooped up the history book and plucked her own keys from out of the bowl. When she turned back around, she saw Jason looking at her. "What?"

"I think your dad likes me," Jason replied, smirking.

A scoff left Halle. "He's getting a commission out of you, he doesn't like you."

"Tell me," Jason smugly crossed his arm over his chest and asked, "can Eric call him Nick or is that just me?"

"You're asshole," Halle cursed, only making Jason more amused by it all. He even laughed as she stalked out of her own house, slamming the door behind her.

Because Jason was right; her dad had never once told her boyfriend that he could call him by his first name. Jason — well, he could, and he was making Halle suffer for it.

Sat in the driver's seat of her father's car, Halle even had the perfect view of her dad walking out of the house with Jason. They laughed about something. It seemed her dad got on with Jason more than ever, now he was a client. He never got on with Ken DiLaurentis like that, but then again, Ken was a hard man to like.

"Call in around lunch and I'll have those prospects lined out for you," Nick called out to Jason as he opened the passenger's door. He said a goodbye to their old neighbour and got into the car. He shut the door and asked Halle, "Am I picking you up today or have you got a lift?"

Halle focused on correcting her mirrors. "Em's got training, so I'll probably walk home with her," Halle answered. Her eyes were firmly on watching Jason leave in his car as she spoke. It wasn't until she saw him drive off that Halle looked to her father, typing away at his emails on his phone. "What was Jason doing here? Hanna mentioned you had a lunch meeting with him," she said, trying to sound as casual with her questioning as she could.

It didn't work.

Nick Brewster looked up from his screen and raised an eyebrow up at his daughter. "Why do you ask?"

"I just, I didn't know Jason was back in town until Hanna told me. She said that her mom ran into him at the bank and that he was with you," said Halle.

"Jason's looking to stay in Rosewood. More permanently," Nick told his daughter. "He wants to move back."

It didn't take much for Halle to piece it together. "He's buying the house from Maya's family, ain't he? He's moving back across the road— in that house."

"How did you...?" Nick trailed off at the end of his question. "I shouldn't ever assume anything slips by you," he said.

"So he is?"

"We're keeping it quiet for now. So no telling your friends," her father warned. "Jason doesn't want the attention. You of all people should understand that."

Halle reeled back, eyes wide. "Why would me of all people?" she asked.

"With what happened to Alison of course," Nick explained.

"Oh... of course," she repeated to herself.

"This town still hasn't gotten over it, I doubt it ever will," said Nick truthfully. "Rosewood's never seen a tragedy like this one before. It's unlikely to forget it easily."

Halle grew quiet. "Yeah."

Nick reached his hand out to hold his daughter's face. He saw the sadness in her eyes that came whenever Alison was mentioned. That, too, would never go away. "I'm proud of you, Hal," he said, "for starting over again this year. And I really think it's doing you good to be around the girls again."

"You think?" Halle asked, hopeful.

"After you spent so long playing Alison's games, they were the best thing to happen to you," Nick spoke truthfully. He leaned forward and pressed a kiss to his daughter's head. "I love you sky-big," he said.

Halle smiled for him. "I love you sky-big, too."

•

Halle Brewster wasn't the only one with family drama either. Aria Montgomery had been swallowed up by it even before A made its first appearance. It was why, somehow, Halle found herself trailing Byron Montgomery with both Aria and Hanna.

What happened to being a normal teenager?

With that thought looming around her head, Halle hid behind a bookshelf in the school library. She cringed on hearing Aria's parents flirting; the sound of them kissing was enough to make Halle considered outing her and her friends' hiding spot. Surely that would make them stop, Halle thought.

Halle really didn't want to be here.

"Listen, we should just tell the kids," they heard Bryon Montgomery say.

"We can't," Ella Montgomery replied. "We can't tell them until we know what this is. Okay, I think I got everything," she said. "Let's go."

The moment the three girls heard the two adults leave, Aria was instantly high-pitched and shrill as she spoke. She exclaimed, "Oh, my god, my parents are having an affair with each other!"

"At least it's not on each other," Halle commented, as though it was the silver lining to Aria's dilemma.

"But after everything that went on this—" Aria stopped talking when she noticed Hanna slipping away from them; the blonde walked towards the far wall of the library. "Hanna— Hanna! Hanna, what are you doing?" she asked.

Hanna was now stood on the small couch there while she peered into the vent. "Come up here. Hurry!"

Both Halle and Aria crossed the library and joined her on the couch. "Pennywise definitely doesn't work vents, does he? He's strictly sewers, right?" Halle asked, as she reluctantly balanced herself up on the couch, wobbling a little.

"What are you looking at?" Aria asked Hanna.

"This." Hanna showed them the little den she found hidden in the library vent: a sleeping bag she saw hanging out of the corner and several empty bags of chips littered the vent-floor. Hanna tipped out the contents of a plain bag she found in there; out came wads of cash and what seemed to be a few burner phones. Confident in her theory, Hanna explained to them, "Someone sending a bunch of texts? Spencer's laptop disappearing? Our lockers being broken into? I mean, all this stuff happens at school. This is A!"

Halle still was looking in the vent while Hanna ranted madly about A's hideout. Something caught her eye. Something that shouldn't be there. A grey beanie. Where had she seen that grey beanie before?

Unnerved, Aria shivered. "Let's just get out of here. Come on," she said, stepping down from the couch.

Halle followed. She noticed that Hanna was still hovering over the contents of the vent. "Hanna, leave it alone, we have to go," said Halle. The cheerleader never liked school after hours, not even when she was in practice. It crept her out — made her skin cold. When she was little, she used to think all the teachers slept at school as well, which made her even more uneasy being there.

When Hanna joined them on the floor, Aria instantly furrowed her brows at the sight of the blonde holding the wad of cash that was in the vent. "Hanna, you're taking that?" she asked.

"Yes!" Hanna told them adamantly, "A owes me. Hospital bills. Pain and suffering. Tire marks on my cleavage."

Something about it didn't say A to Halle. It didn't sit right with her. "We don't even know if it's A," Halle tried to offer, but the lights went out and cut off the discussion.

Hanna stayed calm. "It's nothing," she said, attempting to sound reassuring. "The lights are probably on a time."

THUD.

A number of books were knocked to the floor, and out went a lamp.

Halle gave Hanna a dirty look. "That on a timer, too?" she fired at the blonde.

Hanna's breathing quickened. "Okay— we should go," she agreed, starting to show a little panic

As they went to leave, in the dark, they saw a a figure. A tall, dark silhouette that couldn't be made. The three of them screamed and ran. Aria collided with the library doors and pushed them open in pure terror. Their little panic before had turned to group-fear and it was for the lives that they now feared.

The figure followed after them. Hanna tossed over the cleaning trolley, abandoned in the hallway, as they kept on running. A hand came out and grabbed her wrist. In a flash, Hanna's hand dove into her bag and she pulled out a can of the only thing she had in there. She didn't hesitate. Hanna aimed it in the person's eyes.

Disgruntled winces came from the hidden person. The grip left Hanna and moved so the person could pull down their hood. "Stalker?" Halle asked, loud in her shock. "Hanna, stop!" she urged on seeing the blonde go to press down on the spray again.

Caleb had slid down the lockers, blinking rapidly. His eyes burned. He squinted up at her and chuckled through his pain. "Hey, Cheery."

Halle glanced at her friends and said, "Guys, this is Caleb. Caleb, this Aria and Hanna — my friends. I can vouch for him," she added to the girls.

"I know blondie, I left her in detention," Caleb told Halle, surprising the cheerleader.

Aria held up her hand and smiled innocently. "I'm Aria," the petite girl offered him.

After, Halle found herself sat next to Caleb on the floor. She used the hoodie he had, dampened it with water and now was using it as a makeshift towel to clean out his eyes. Halle kept his head in place with her thumb and index finger of her left hand while she did her best to wash out his eyes with a wet sleeve.

A couple of minutes of silence went by before Aria broke it. She asked Caleb softly, "How's your eye? Any better?"

"Still burning," Caleb stated. He winced that time Halle pressed the wet material to his reddening eye. "Ugh, you want a sharp stick for the other one?" he shot at Hanna.

That only seemed to rile up Hanna more. "Hey, you know what? It was just hairspray and it was light-hold. What were you doing in there anyway?" she asked.

"I'm sort of, um... I'm crashing here," Caleb admitted to them, trying his best to avoid Halle's eyes.

"You are? Why?" Aria asked, confused.

"What do you care?" snapped Caleb.

Halle shot him a hard look. "I'm cleaning your eye out, wrong time to ask that."

"Yeah, you know, Aria was just asking a question and Halle is helping you, don't snap at her like that. I have more," Hanna defended fiercely, threatening him as she did.

"Fire away. Just give me my money back first," Caleb retorted, glaring up at Hanna.

Still, Aria hung over the fact Caleb said he was staying at school; she didn't get it. She asked, confused, "I mean, where do your parents think you are?"

Caleb scoffed.

In the silence the boy gave, Halle filled in the blank. "He's in the system," she told her friends, her voice low. She kept her eyes locked on Caleb's face while she continued to clean out his eye. She didn't want to step over the mark and she could feel his gaze on her as she worked.

"My foster parents don't care where I am as long as they keep getting their checks," Caleb admitted, his way of reassuring Halle he was okay with her telling them.

Halle stopped what she was doing, her features softened. "I told you to—"

"I know. Save me the lecture," Caleb urged, and Halle did. Part of him was annoyed he had to digress his sad life story to two of her friends after he told her because she wanted to defend him. So, Halle stayed quiet and carried on with what she was doing.

"Wait, I thought all that stuff about the social worker was a joke," Hanna revealed.

"Believe me, my social worker is a joke. But, yeah, I do have one," Caleb said.

"This is crazy," Aria exclaimed. "You can't keep staying here."

"Why?" Caleb asked harshly.

"Tone," Halle warned, halting her movements as she did so.

Caleb sighed and offered them, "There's hot water, vending machines, the principal's coach is pretty comfortable."

"Well, they know someone was here last night," mentioned Hanna.

A soft hum left Caleb's throat; his eye was feeling a lot better. "Yeah, I got sloppy." He moved his head from out of Halle's reach and took back his hoodie after she extended it out to him.

When he stood up, Hanna instantly was on him. "Where are you going?" she asked.

"Grab some dinner, then back to bed," Caleb replied. He stuck his hand out to the blonde and she reluctantly gave him back his stack of money. He held it firmly in his palm and then said to them sarcastically, "You know your way out, right?"

"Caleb!" Halle turned her head up to look at him. She still sat on the floor, staring up at him with her big brown eyes. "Why didn't you tell me it was like this?" she asked.

The boy shook his head. "Don't sweat it, Cheery. I leave out the really sad parts with everyone."

•

After their encounter with Caleb, Hanna Marin felt she owed him more than the rest. She did take his money (which she did return) and almost blind him in the process. So, Hanna decided to introduce him to a few of the rich girls she knew with plenty of money to spend; she was helping Caleb build up his clientele and reputation just by having him seen with her.

"When's Emily gonna jump in?" Hanna asked eagerly. The four — Hanna, Caleb, Aria and Spencer — sat on the bleachers by the pool waiting the swim meet to start. The crowd around them cheered and applauded, but Hanna only wanted to cheer for Emily.

"She's the anchor," Aria explained, "she swims last because she's the fastest."

Caleb leaned into Hanna. "Hey, remind me. Which one's Lindsay and which one's Bridget?" he asked, eyeing the two girls Hanna previously introduced him to.

"Bridget's the one drinking from her purse," Hanna pointed out.

Smiling broadly, Caleb turned to her. "Thanks. I'll be right back." The boy stood up and made his way along the stand to reintroduce himself to the girl with a straw in her handbag.

"Why are we sitting with Caleb?" Aria asked her friend.

"Why not?" questioned Hanna. She wasn't sure why it was a problem.

"Hanna," said Spencer seriously, "I like stray dogs too, but sometimes they bite."

"Okay, well, he's had his shots," Hanna shot back at her friend. "Besides, Halle likes him and she likes no one," she argued her defence, and the two next to had admit it was a pretty strong case for the boy sleeping in the school's library vent. Excitedly, Hanna cheered loudly, "Go Emily!"

Aria turned to Hanna and said, "She's not in the water yet."

By the side of the pool, Halle stood proudly in her cheerleading uniform. She shook her pom-poms and cheered for the Sharks; kept the crowd clapping and tried to wear a bright smile the entire time. She stood next to the senior cheerleaders instead of her own year; they were a lot easier on her than the others. Some of the juniors still hadn't forgiven her for breaking that girl's nose, whereas the seniors knew Halle was in her rights to hit her.

"Hey, Halle!"

Turning at the sound of her name, Halle saw that Caleb was sat next to Bridget Woo, the girl who drank out of her purse. He smiled and waved at Halle, which she returned before she faced forward. The senior captain of the squad nudged Halle's side and said, "He's cute."

Halle chuckled and said, "He's just a friend."

"Damn, I wish all my friends were that cute," replied the girl, smirking while she rolled her pom-poms around.

The amusement for Halle only last so long. "Another day, another boy," sang Sophie, the girl whose nose was still bandaged up from Halle taking her knee to it, to her giggling friends.

"As if she gets around that fast," one said.

Another asked, "Who's next d'you reckon?"

"I saw her with Coach Thomas at the dance-a-thon, snuck off right after it finished," Sophie gossiped to her gaggle of girls. "I mean, there was Mr Fitz, too."

"What a slut," coughed the second girl.

Their senior captain leaned over Halle and scolded the the three girls. She said, "When you put that uniform on, all crap is left in the locker room. Shut your mouth and shake your pom-poms or get out. Decide — now." On seeing the three choose to face the pool and cheer a little louder, the captain settled back in line.

"Thank you," said Halle quietly.

"Next year, you're probably gonna make captain after me, so don't take that crap," the senior said fiercely. "You knee'd her once."

"Coach said I can't get in anymore more fights," Halle argued, "or I'm off the team."

"Your friend Alison never got into fights, but no one dared speak about her like that. Not while she was next to them anyway," the girl replied. "Instil the fear of god in them. If that doesn't work, try the devil. Now cheer, your friend's up."

Halle looked straight ahead at the pool. She held up her pom-poms and shook them rapidly. "Go, Em! Whoo, Em!" Halle's cheers got louder when Emily swam, and it made her captain grin and cheer on the anchor herself.

The crowd was particular loud and enthusiastic when the Sharks won the meet. Halle was dodging blue whenever she walked, laughing a little when she literally had to duck under a 'GO SHARKS' banner. She exited the gym, following the rowdy crowd out with her teammates. She decided she'd congratulate Emily in the locker room.

A hand stopped her. Halle span around and saw it was Caleb who had a grip on her. Halle's new found friend pulled her aside, away from the cheerleaders and the increasingly happy crowds. "What do you think of Rosewood school spirit, then?" she asked him jokingly. "We know how to celebrate a sporting event, right?"

"What was that in there? Before," he clarified, "with those girls in your squad."

"It's nothing," Halle said. Her smile had gone. "Nothing to worry about. Let's go get a chili-cheesedog," she suggested, trying to distract him

"You don't take that from them. You broke her nose once, you can do it again," Caleb said, using the same words as her captain did ten minutes prior. Everyone expected Halle to fight, so what wasn't she?

"I can't fight them, Caleb. I can't risk this position and my words only get me so far." Halle waved it off and said, "I'm fine with it anyway, it doesn't get to me. It's just a few bitches and I can handle them."

"You don't have to," Caleb said firmly. He told her, "You don't have to put up with that."

"You knew what I was dealing with. You heard in in the hallway the day we met," Halle reminded him. "You know what rumours I'm up against. And with the video — it's battle I can't fight. It's ust one more year and then I'll be captain and... and then I'll make their lives suck," she offered him, jesting a little.

Caleb never laughed, or cracked a smile. He didn't like how she was acting about it, like it was nothing. "But your life sucks now," he insisted. "Why do you wanna be part of team that has people like that in it?" he asked her seriously.

"Because when Ali was here, I was like that," Halle regretfully admitted. "I was the bitch. I'm not innocent, far from it. And sometimes I think maybe I deserve it for what I did— what I let Alison do." She shook her hands in front of him and said, "Just leave it alone."

"Isn't that what you told that guy? To leave it alone?" Caleb said, "He was only trying to help, just like I am now."

Something then inside Halle changed. She switched and hardened instantly. Why did everyone think they knew her better than herself? Halle knew exactly how much she could handle, why couldn't anybody else see that?

"Save the lecture, Caleb." She sneered at him, "Isn't that what you said to me the other night? 'Save the lecture'?" She shook her head, her mouth tightening, and said, "It's a few bitches and their words. I'm used to it, I'll get over it. You should too. Or else you'll never survive in Rosewood long enough to actually get out, and we're all aiming to get out. At least, I am," Halle added.

She smiled sadly at him before she turned her back on him and walked away, practicing a smile for when she congratulated Emily on her win. Let it be convincing, Halle pleaded, and then braced herself for entering the locker room by forcing a broad smile on her face once more.

Halle Brewster was a good liar.

Alison taught her well.

•