[ Pilot ]

Deep in the night, four law students stood in the woods traumatized from the events before. They were feeling scared as they waited for the return of another student.

One student, Connor Walsh, stood pacing back and forth whilst arguing with another student, Michaela Pratt. "And stop acting like a little bitch baby."

Michaela scowled at him, grinding her teeth when she spat, "Do not tell me how to feel right now!"

Behind them, the one they were all waiting to arrive, Wes Gibbins, uttered a loud enough, 'Hey.' That made the four jump and the girls let out a small screech.

He bent over, a bag dangling in his hand trying to catch his breath. "Sorry, it took so long." He apologized letting the bag softly hit the tree. "I went back for this."

Bringing the bag to his abdomen, Wes opened it digging inside only to pull out the Lady Justice trophy.

Michaela immediately jabbed her finger at him, scared of how having the object would affect them. "Now, you- you take that back right now!"

Laurel Castillo who sat on the ground rocking back and forth with the last student there that night, Annora Keating, breathily assured her, breath visible in the cold.

"No. It's smart. Commonwealth v. Deloatche." Laurel patted the girl's back as she stood up brushing her dirtied hands on her jeans. "A case the prosecution should've won but lost because there was no murder weapon."

Connor brought his eyes up from the sticks which laid on the ground, shivering as he held his arms close to his body, he questioned the girl. "So, what are you saying?"

Laurel let her eyes travel around at the four people that looked to her for answers. "We clean it. And we put it back. Hide it in plain sight."

She rubbed her hands together hesitation pure when she went to speak her next words. "After we bury the body."

Michaela shook her head raising her lip in disgust, "No, absolutely not."

Connor who stood a couple of feet away from the others shook his head stuttering on his words. "Yeah, I-I-I-I'm with Michaela. I-"

Laurel with tearful eyes shook her head raising her hand out to him. "No, Connor, think."

He gestured his hand out to the trophy that was gripping in Wes' palm, "The trophy we need, yes. But the body stays where it is."

Her brows furrowed in disbelief, leaning her head more in his direction. "No, the body is what gets us caught." Michaela let her teeth grind as she hissed at Laurel, "You are not thinking straight."

Laurel shook her head at her going to speak but didn't have the chance to do so.

"Then what do you suggest?!" Annora's eyes peered at the girl with distinctive tear stains on her cheeks.

"Something that doesn't involve carrying a body across campus on the busiest night of the year!" Michaela's voice was angered as she spat out each and every word.

Annora shook her head at the girl, facing her lap when she heard the words that came from her mouth.

Connor looked at Laurel an undistinguishable glint in his eyes. "She's right, Laurel. Even if we get it out of the house, unseen, the ground is frozen!"

He stomped down onto the seeming rock-solid ground his hands in his pockets to provide some sort of warmth.

"We have all night to dig." Laurel tried to get him to agree.

He released a fake chuckle throwing his hands out in her direction. "You don't know what you're talking about!"

Laurel's eyes widened at the man before her letting her arms go up at her sides. "This is murder! None of us know what we're talking about!"

Michaela flung her own arm about stepping up to Laurel, hissing at her, "Just yell that a little louder!" Wes tried to gain their attention with a small, 'Hey.' But he was only ignored by the students.

"Honestly, you're all dumber than I thought if you think..." Connor leaned forward voicing over her. "Look, I'm agreeing with you-"

Laurel's eyes cast to the ground while Michaela yelled in the background before she spoke on her own. "You two need to man up and think because we're going to jail."

Connor and Michaela began shouting at either each other or to the other three that stood with them in the woods.

Wes finally having enough of the arguing, reached down picking up a coin then looked over yelling at them all. "Shut up! Shut up!"

They instantly stopped arguing letting the man talk. "It's two against two, leave Annora out of it. We have no other choice. We flip a coin."

His head turned back and forth as his eyes glanced over all of them when he spoke. Michaela threw her head back letting the tears take over her, "That's the dumbest thing you've ever said."

Connor walked forward lowly hissing at Wes. "I'm not letting a freaking coin decide whether or not I go to jail tonight!" Wes leaned his upper body forward arguing his own.

"We don't have time to fight! We need to make a decision and commit to it. So if someone has a better idea, say it now!"

The group stayed silent all letting their gaze rest on Wes. Holding a coin between his fingers he met his eyes travel to all fo the cold faces. "Heads, we get the body. Tails, we leave it where it is. Okay?"

Annora and Laurel were the only ones who gave him a nod, which made him flick the coin high into the air with each of their eyes following it.

Annora smiled at the people as she passed them on her bike.

She made sure not to hit any other bikers while doing so. As she seemed to struggle with paying attention. It was the first day she would be attending Middleton University, the Law School she was most excited for.

Annora would be attending the same class her mother taught, already knowing that if she got good grades it would be blamed for being the professor's daughter.

Pulling her bike around to the rack she locked it onto the skinny wheels bar. As she was detaching her bag, another biker pulled into the racks locking his bike up as well.

When he lifted his head up their eyes met. Annora softly smiled at the plaid shirt wearing man. He gave her toothy smile in return watching as she turned around with her eyes wide, blowing out a hard breath.

Looking up at the building which read, Middleton Law School, she brightly smiled walking inside of the building not knowing that the man was following her with the same intentions.

Annora made her way into the large classroom that was filled with students, checking the seating chart, she sat in the seat right in front of the desk which her mother would be teaching at.

"Of course." Her voice wasn't sarcastic, or rude in any way but more that she already knew this would happen.

Someone next to her exhaled sharply before they spoke. "Here we go."

Her head shot up seeing the guy from the bike rack smiling at her. "I'm not usually a first-row kind of guy, but I promised I wouldn't hide in the back of the class." He nervously laughed seeing as smile appear on her face as well.

"Annora Keating." He was too busy trying to make a friend that he never noticed who was connected to her name. The smile never left his face introducing himself as well, "Wes Gibbins."

Annora looked down at her lap before bringing her eyes to the desk in front pointing her pen at it.

"I'm really sorry to tell you this but... there are assigned seats. The charts on the desk. But maybe we could talk after class, I could give you my number?"

She seemed almost hesitant to ask him, Wes, this as she hasn't known him for merely more than two minutes.

Wes stood from his seat, grabbing his bag from the floor awkwardly smiling at her. "Yeah, that'd be nice." He was mentally hitting himself now that he's embarrassed himself on the first day.

Getting to the desk a man in a suit leaned next to his ear humor laced through his words, "Nice try player."

Wes looked back at his, eyes big, trying to justify his actions. "No. I wasn't trying anything..."

Going to walk away, the man, smirked back at him gesturing to the seating chart. "You should find your seat. You don't want to be a sitting duck when he shooter gets here. Especially when you're hitting on her daughter." Whispering his last words, his eyes quickly looked Wes over before he turned to find his seat.

"What?" Wes followed after him letting his light brown eyes glance at the girl, while the man groaned. "Oh, my God. You have no idea what you just walked into."

Before they could reach their seats, the door opened from below and in walked Annalise Keating.

"Good morning." She walked to the desk setting down her bag. "I don't know what terrible things you've done in your life up to this point, but clearly your karma's out of balance to get assigned to my class."

She took some things out place them in which where they go grabbing one of the three pieces of chalk from the glass. "I'm professor Annalise Keating, and this is criminal law 100."

She turned around beginning to write on the board. "Or, as I prefer to call it..." Her voice trailed off as she wrote walking small steps when she did.

Stepping back she revealed the words to the entire class letting them read it. "How To Get Away With Murder."

Annalise smirked letting her eyes meet with Annora's who softly smirked back at her.

"Unlike many of my colleagues, I will not be teaching you how to study the law or theorize about it, but rather how to practice it - In a courtroom, like a real lawyer."

The class either jotted down notes by hand on paper or typed them on their laptop. Most of many had laptops rather than the 'old-fashioned' way of it.

Annalise walked around as she talked, raising her voice to make sure its heard in the back.

"Now to our first case study, the aspirin assassin." She clicked the button on the remote she held in her hand, changing the image on the tv from Middleton University to a picture of a women's mugshot.

"Tell us the facts..." She walked over to the names of students picking one at random. "Connor Walsh."

Wes's eyes glided across the room trying to keep up with everyone else. He was seemingly confused at how fast they could just do as she says.

The man from earlier stood up from his seat. "The Commonwealth v. Gina Sadowski was a case of attempted murder. The defendant, Ms. Sadowski, worked as the second assistant to the victim,"

Annalise moved with him, changing the slide on the screen. "Arthur Kaufman, the C.E.O. of an advertising agency. Ms. Sadowski was not only his assistant, though. She was also his mistress."

He smirked sitting back in his seat watching Annalise turn around to her desk picking up the name chart. "What happened after Mr. Kaufman's wife of 27 years," She quickly changed the slide once more showing a picture of the couple.

"Agnes, found out about the affair? You." She pointed at a student wearing a black blazer and yellow button up.

"He ended the relationship," The student stood up as he spoke out holding a stack of papers in his hand, "and transferred her to the accounting department. That's when she allegedly switched one of his blood pressure pills for an aspirin,"

Annalise once again changed the slide this time showing a picture of his prescribed bottle and yellow pills. Also the meaning of his blood pressure pills.

"Which she knew he was allergic to." As he finished up his words, a cocky look covered his face sitting back down.

Annalise walked away looking at the seating/name chart she held in her hand. "What occurred when Mr, Kaufman ingested the aspirin? Anyone?"

Multiple students rose their hand into the air, almost dying to be called on. But a student in the front, Michaela Pratt, stood from her seat without being called upon.

"Mr. Kaufman went into anaphylactic shock." When she spoke it made all the others lower their hands and Annalise pay close attention to her student.

"His throat swelled and his brain was deprived of oxygen for even minutes before his first assistant was able to resuscitate him. Michaela Pratt."

She flicked her hair back before smugly lowering herself into her seat letting Annalise continue on.

"So, we've established the actus reus. What was the mens rea?" She looked up from the sheet in her hands calling out a name.

"Wesley Gibbins?"

His head shot up from his desk looking almost shocked that he was called on. He stood up a bit confused as to what was happening, beginning to hesitate on his words.

"The... mens rea? Right." He began flipping through his book with all eyes on him. Annalise almost wanted to help him but didn't, instead, she questioned him.

"Day one and you're unprepared?" He quickly shot out a, 'No.' Trying to save himself. "Well, um, yes, but I didn't know there was anything to prepare."

Some of the class turned away while others watched Annalise shoot back at him. "I emailed the assignment to the entire class two days ago."

Annora was almost shaking in her seat, just wanting to answer the question to save him from any further embarrassment. "Oh. I... didn't get that." He chewed on his lip watching Annalise stare him down. "Mr. Gibbins, as a defense attorney,"

Annalise began walking up the stairs towards where his seat was. "I spend most of my time around professional liars, so you have to work really hard to fool me."

Wes looked away sighing, "I only got accepted here two days ago... fr-from the waitlist," Some students laughed at him for being on the waitlist which made one particular student upset that they'd do so.

"So that's probably why you didn't get my e-mail address." Annalise titled her head to the side walking the smaller bit closer.

"Let me help you out. "Actus Reus" means "Guilty Act"- the poisoning of Mr. Kaufman with an aspirin- whereas "Mens Rea" means "Guilty Mind." So what was Ms. Sadowski's mens rea?"

He only stared his here with his mouth agape, trying to form some sort of answer in his head. "Think, Mr. Gibbins. It's nothing more than common sense." He still stared nothing has yet to come out of his mouth.

"To kill." A familiar voice came from down the steps causing Annalise to purse her lips. "Will the individual who just spoke please stand and repeat the answer?"

Annalise turned around to see her daughter stand from the front row seat looking a tad nervous. "The mens rea, also referred to as "intent," was to kill Mr. Kaufman."

Wes sat down in his seat while Annalise looked down at the name charmer resting in her hands, not wanting to do this but didn't want to be biased. "That's right. Your name?" Annora let out a shaky breath wiping her hands on her pants. "Annora Keating."

Given her name that made all of the students look to her in either shock or predicting how the years would come.

"Never take a learning opportunity away from another student, no matter how smart you need everyone to think you are." Annalise didn't mean for it to come out as rude as it seemed but she couldn't take it back now, though seeing the look on her daughter's face almost made her regret it.

Annalise walked down the steps past her daughter not looking at her as she sat back in the seat. "All right, before we move on, are there any other questions?"

Connor Walsh was the only one who rose his hand into the air. "Mr. Walsh." He glanced down at the paper in his hands before bringing his eyes back up to her. "I noticed that the verdict wasn't listed here. So I guess my question is, did she do it?"

"Why don't you ask her yourself? I lied. This isn't a past case but one I took last week after Gins fires her previous lawyer."

The students were now all at The Keating house, crowding the home. Bonnie walked in with Gina bringing her through the tight hall and into the main lounge area, providing her with a seat while the student took notes.

"This one day, I walked into his office when I just screamed, real loud," Gina scoffed out a laugh continuing her words. "'Cause Arthur was standing there behind the door. I thought he was gonna be pissed at me, yell, but instead, he just started laughin'. So then I started laughin' and, well, um,"

Her voice started to become wavered her eyes flickering to the floor. "That's when he kissed me for the first time and... Yeah, I became that girl. It was on my last day workin' for him when I came back from lunch and saw the paramedics. When I heard that Arthur was hurt..."

She shook her head at them all trying to think of words. "I loved him. I know that's hard to believe but I loved him."

Her voice started to break tears forming in her eyes. "Why in the hell would I want to hurt him?" Gina was now out of the room and Annalise stood in the center. "The trial begins in two days, so tomorrow, each of you have one minute to present the best defense for this case. See if you can beat my current plan. Mr. Gibbins?"

His full attention went onto her when his name left her mouth. "Yes?" Annalise held no emotion visible on her face.

"You'll go last, an unenviable position seeing that no two students will be allowed to present the same idea. Use the resources in this office- Gina's discovery file, my library, the people who know me even bet the r than myself-"

She gestured her hand out to Frank Delfino and Bonnie Winterbottom. "My associates." Frank stepped forward in an almost cocky manner.

"Name's Frank, and unlike every teacher you've had, I do believe there are stupid questions. So if you got 'em, please see my lovely colleague Bonnie."

As his arm reached out to her she stood from her seat smiling. "Or, better, you could come to us with answers. We'll like you much better that way."

Nodding Annalise informed, "And one more thing. Every year I choose five students to come work for me. This assignment is used to help me decide who that is. The top student gets this."

Annalise walked behind Wes reaching into the shelf. There she grabbed the Lady Justice trophy raising it up. "Consider this your immunity idol."

Michaela immediately jabbed her finger at him, scared of how having the object would affect them. "Now, you- you take that back right now!"

The balance scales dangled in the arm of the trophy. "The winner can turn this in at any point to get out of an exam. Now go. Find a defense that will free our client." The students began crowding by the door trying to exit to make their defense.

On the way to her bike, Annora was stopped by Wes who awkwardly smiled. "Hey, uh, thank you...for saving me...back in class." He slowly jabbed his thumb behind his back.

"It's no problem, truly." She smiled at him before her miles suddenly formed into a circle. "Oh! I forgot. My number..."

Annora's voice trailed off as she pulled a pen out of her binder, tearing off a piece of paper quickly writing it down. "Here. You can call or text me if you ever want to meet up. Just... don't tell my mom."

Wes slowly nodded his head taking the paper from her hand. "I understand. I'll see you tomorrow." He called over his shoulder as he walked his bike away then getting on it riding off.

Annora smiled down at her own bike before she got on pedaling to the library.

It was very late at night and the five students were at The Keating house. Michaela stood off to the side tears coming down her face while Connor and Wes rolled up a body in the rug is laid on, blood staining the rug.

Connor looked up at Michaela hissing out her name. "I never agreed to this! The coin did, so I'm gonna stand here and not see anything so when I'm called to testify, I can just say that." She turned her head to her shoulder sneering at him.

"I just want you to move your feet." She turned her head back at him confused. "What?"

Her voice was quiet as she walked away from the rug she stood on allowing them to roll it up completely.

Laurel came in quickly with the trophy, "Here. I wiped the sink down with bleach after I washed it. Now what?" Wes stood up peering at her. "We put it back." Connor shook his head his eyes shifting between them all.

"Let's just get the hell out of here. Now." Laurel offered her help to Wes and Connor trying to pick up the body.

"Where's Annora?" Wes suddenly asked looking over at Laurel.

"Uh, I left her in the kitchen." Laurel nodded back at the doorway grunting as they lifted the body only to drop it.

Their breaths were ragged with Wes looking to Michaela for help the rest doing the same. She shook her head before walking forward.

"Fine." Michaela walked around to the side of Wes lifting the body with them.

The four stumbled with the body accidentally hitting it on the doorway. "Come out here," Laurel instructed the guys, turning themselves so they could exit.

"Annora come on!" The girl appeared in the entrance of the kitchen gaping at the body they all held. She gulped walking past them, opening the door.

Outside an officer scared them when he spoke making them all jump. "This car one of yours?" He walked through the gate and up to the steps.

They all dropped the body with them all looking more scared than ever. Michaela and Laurel stoped out of the doorway as well, all five of them staring at the officer.

Connor was the one to inform him as it was his vehicle. "It's my car, sir." The officer let his hands rest on his belt pointing back to Connor's car.

"You're blocking the sidewalk." Connor immediately nodded his head glancing back at the car. "Oh. Uh, right. I can- I can move it right now."

He began reaching into his pocket for the keys when the officer suddenly questioned. "This that law professor's office?" Connor brushed his hair back from his face while Michaela looked at him wide-eyed.

She was the one who actually confirmed his question. "Yes. Professor Keating. We're her law students, that's her daughter." She pointed her finger back at Annora who gave a soft fake smile when the officer's eyes landed on her.

"But she's out of town and told us to take this old rug to the bonfire." The officer was quite confused with his brows furrowing at Michaela.

"She asked you to go into her house and burn a rug for her?" Michaela quickly thought of something that would seem believable.

"She actually asked her daughter to, but she needed help carrying the rug so we offered. It sounds weird, I know." Michaela nervously smiled at him seeing his face switch over.

"Why don't I give her a call so she can explain to you herself?" Laurel immediately chimed in, "Uh... it's a little late to call her, don't you think?"

Michaela huffed her lips curling into a fake smile. "The nice officer here thinks we're burgling our professor's house. Let's just clear this whole thing up. I mean, it is a little late." She pulled out her phone bringing it up and began to scroll through it.

"Oh, god, and she had to go to her mother's funeral today. But maybe she's not asleep yet."

In the distance, a loud male voice screamed, 'This'll burn good!' The officer took his hand from his belt wavering it out. "It's fine. Just-"

He was stopped as the sound of glass shattering came from across the street followed by cheering.

"Damn it. Be safe, okay? There's a ton of crazies out tonight." A bunch of frat boys began running down the street holding reindeer and snowman decorations.

As the officer left Connor looked back at Wes growling at him.

"Where the hell has that girl been all night?" The others stayed quiet three of them having no clue as to where she was.

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