our names in unison // prologue
It was raining the day that Marina Bello and Jason DiLaurentis met. They were vaguely familiar with each other since they had attended the same Elementary School and were now in Middle School together, but all they knew was minimal. Jason knew that Marina had worn the same Navy Jansport since before he could even remember and that she missed a day of school, on average, every other week. He could tell you that she almost never put her hand up except for in math class, in which she constantly asked to go to the toilet; he could probably also tell you that she wasn’t a particularly gifted student but her artwork was the best artwork he’d ever seen a real life person do. She could do wonders with a pencil. Her books were notorious for being completely doodled on to the extent where you couldn’t even read her name on the front. People in class generally knew her as the weird, quiet girl who kept everything completely in order and impeccably clean; her pens were constantly arranged in the same way, anytime she had to wash up she’d do it 20 times over until the teacher looked at her sadly and told her to sit down and her handwriting could probably be a font. Marina was never one to pay a great deal of attention but she knew Jason wasn’t overly shy. He had never been the loudest kid in class but he did like winding up the teachers sometimes; she didn’t really find it irritating, but she knew some of the other girls would gossip about him. It was also blatantly clear that he was kind of a loner. Marina could never suss out if it was the other kids or him, choosing to be alone. Her bet was, like her, it was a mixture of both. On every single other day of his life, Jason’s mother had come to pick him up from school. She’d be outside waiting and getting ridiculously impatient when he was even a second later than planned. Today, though, his mother and father had gone away to celebrate their wedding anniversary so Jason was left to his own devices; on his lonesome walk home, he somehow found himself sat on the swing in a park that was inhabited only by a father and his toddler daughter kicked a football around. He sat on his own for about 5 minutes before Marina appeared beside him, placing herself on the adjacent vacant swing, throwing her hood up as she sat. It was a few minutes before either of them said anything. “Jason — right?” Marina had taken herself by surprise; she hadn’t meant to say anything; she hadn’t particularly wanted to say anything. It just slipped out. And it wasn’t even like she wasn’t sure if his name was Jason; she had absolutely no doubt he was Jason. “Yeah... and you’re Marina?” “Yeah, I am.” The brunette paused, thinking. “You don’t usually come here.” Jason’s head rose, blue eyes gazing over her. He shrugged casually. “Just felt like a change.” Marina smiled softly before her eyes glanced up, watching the rain fall around them. “Have you got a hood or something?” “Nah.” Jason let out a half laugh. “Oh. I have an umbrella. You should use it.” Marina bent down and pulled a small umbrella from her bag, shoving it into Jason’s hands. “It’s not great but your hairs already started going flat, so...” A silence filled the air for a few minutes as Jason put the umbrella up and examined the zoo animal themed patterned material; Marina lightly swung on her seat, feet dragging across the floor each time. Neither of them really knew what to say, but it wasn’t an uncomfortable silence. In fact, in a weird way, they both felt more at peace than they ever had before. It was Marina who took the decision to break the silence with yet another question she did not mean to ask. “It’s weird, don’t you think? How we’ve always been in the same class but never spoke.” Jason nodded. “Yeah, I guess it is.” His blue eyes found her brown ones and he held her gaze for a couple of seconds. “No offense, but I don’t really ever see you talking to anyone.” Marina smiled and laughed softly. “I think most the girls in our class are kinda fake.” “What about the boys?” “They’re all gross. You’re the only one who doesn’t make me wanna scrub my skin off every time you come near me.” Then, she stood up suddenly. Small hands reached into the bag and came out clutching packet of baby wipes and a large bottle of hand sanitizer, which she used to clean up her hands. Once she had finished, she looked over at Jason. “Well, it’s been fun hanging out but I’ve got to get home and mindlessly watch TV for a few hours. I’ll see you tomorrow.” And just like that, she was gone, Jason sat watching her go. Things weren’t really the same since.
