06, INTERVENTION
act one: the disappearance of alison
(THERE'S NO PLACE LIKE HOMECOMING)
(season one, episode six)

•━━━━ CRUEL SUMMER ━━━━•

Aria, Sabrina and Everly laid in Aria's bed, One cousin feeling extremely depressed, and the other feeling nervous.

Sabrina has to meet Jason in an hour at his apartment to drop Everly off and Aria only because of her parents, but also because of her break up with Ezra, who ended up breaking up with her after seeing a text from A about their relationship.

He assumed Aria had told someone, other than Sabrina who knew he knew had known. But he was scared of someone jeopardizing his job and reputation so he broke up with her.

"What are you guys doing here?" Sabrina asked, confused seeing her three best friends enter the room.

"We're here for an intervention" Spencer replied.

"We brought takeout and rag mags" Emily informed the two cousins , placing the magazines on Aria's bed.

"But you can have any of those until you get out of those sweats" Hanna said.

"No" Aria shakes her head turning from the girls, "They're comfy".

"Aria, they're starting to graft to your skin" Spencer said as Sabrina looked at her cousin with an I told you so expression.

"Don't care" Aria said, pulling the comforter over her head. "And like I said, they're comfy"

Spencer removed the comforter from Aria's face, making her glare at her, which had no effect on the Hastings girl.

"Yeah, so are mom jeans and platform flip-flops" Hanna said.

"Plus, how are we gonna help you guys choose a homecoming dress, if you two don't try some on for us?"
Emily asked.

''I already have my dress" Sabrina replied.

"I'm not going " Aria said.

"What do you mean you're not going?" Hanna asked shocked.

"Han, do you know how depressing it is to go to homecoming without a date?"Aria asked.

"You can't just not go Aria, come on even Sabrina agreed" Spencer said.

"I was going either way" Sabrina said "I was asked to sing a few songs"

"Oh come you can miss that" Spencer exclaimed "Sabrina singing makes you wanna cry and be proud at the same time" Spencer told Aria, making her chuckle and Sabrina blush.

"What are you doing instead?" Emily asked.

"I don't know, I guess I'll just read these magazines and then inhale a gallon of chunky monkey" Aria replied.

"Not happening, Aria" Sabrina said, "If I'm going, so are you"

"And cutting yourself off from the rest of your life is not gonna help your parents" Spencer told Aria, "And besides, they still might work it out".

"Doubt that" Sabrina said as she takes Everly.

"Sabrina's right, they're barely speaking to each other" Aria said.

"People get angry, they blow up, doesn't mean it's over" Emily assured.

"Emily, they didn't blow up over her dad missing their anniversary" Hanna said, "He slept with one of his students"

Hanna looked at the cousins and saw the upset and a pissed expressions on their faces, "Sorry"

"I'm just saying, things can look over on Friday" Emily said, "And by Monday all is forgiven".

"Not this, Em" Sabrina said, "I haven't even forgive my uncle yet, and l've known for a year, there's no way my Aunt is forgiving him".

"Some things just take time, Bri" Emily said.

"Somethings not all things" Sabrina retorted, she turned to cousin, "if you don't get up I'll tie you up and drag your ass there"

"Seriously, Bri?" Aria asked, "You're planning to kidnap me now?".

"Yeap" Sabrina replied forcing her cousin to stand up, "Now come
on, up before I grab the rope if we have any"

"I think about it" Aria told the girls.

"Well, if you're not coming can you at least cast an absentee ballot?" Hanna asked Aria, making the other girls look at her in amusement, "What? I need her vote"

"Hanna, stop already" Spencer said, "You've got homecoming queen locked down"

"Really? You can rig the election?" Hanna asked, slightly hopeful.

"Sorry, I have enough to do already"

Spencer replied, "I'm head of the committee, half of which is out sick with the flu, so I'II be restocking the ice and refilling the hummus bowl, and trying to look cute for my first official date"

"With Alex?" Emily asked shocked, Spencer nodded, a small smile on her face.

"Wait, you're bringing him to homecoming?" Aria asked, not excepting the Hasting girl to do that.

"Wait, so this means Alex and Spencer are official?" Sabrina asked, Spencer just gave her a small shrug.

"Look at her blush!" Hanna pointed.

"Stop" Spencer laughed.

"Aww, I never thought I'll see the day in which Spencer Hastings blushes over a boy" Sabrina teased, making Spencer slap her shoulder.

"Hey be careful precious cargo" Sabrina explained as she lifts Everly.

"Damn, now I have to come" Aria said.

"But seriously, you guys, he's not gonna know anybody there" Spencer said, "So, can you just do your best to make him feel included?".

"No, we were planning on freezing him out" Hanna replied, sarcasm evident in her voice.

"Don't worry Spence, we'll treat him right, as long as he treats you right" Sabrina said. "If not I'll kick his ass to the ground"

"He does treat me right" Spencer admitted, rolling her eyes at the Diaz girl but sill making the other girls aww at her blushing face, "Anyways, moving on", Spencer turned to Emily, wanting to change the subject from her and Alex, "Em, who are you gonna bring?"

'I think I'm gonna go stag" Emily replied.

"I will, too" Aria told Emily.

"Me too" Sabrina added

"Why don't you guys come together?" Spencer asked Emily and Aria, "Oh, you'd make such a cute couple".

"You'd make a hot couple " Sabrina corrected while wiggling her eyebrow, making the other girls laugh.

"How did I just go from wearing mom jeans to being Samantha Ronson?" Aria asked amused with the situation.

"Who cares who goes to this thing with?" Hanna asked, "I mean, it's just a dance, you should bring someone who you have fun with".

Emily looked at Hanna and gave her a small nod, "I might wanna go with someone" she revealed, "I just don't want people thinking it means more than it does"

"Are you and Ben back together?" Spencer asked curiously.

"Emily Cathrine Fields, You better not have" Sabrina said, after finding out what Ben did to her friend, Sabrina  developed immense dislike for the guy and maybe he randomly came to school with a broken nose but whatever,

"We're not" Emily assured Sabrina . "And stop with the middle names Grace"

"Thank god" Sabrina said again ignoring the last part.

"So, who's the mystery dude?" Aria asked.

"I'm starving" Hanan suddenly said, quickly changing the subject and grabbing the fortune cookies while the other girls grabbed their takeout, opening the fortune cookie, Hanna was shocked seeing the message inside.

"What's wrong?" Emily asked, seeing Hanna's shocked expression, "Bad fortune?"

"Yeah, Confucius says, stop being such a drama queen" Spencer teased.

"Lions and tigers and bitches, oh my!" Hanna read, "There's no place like homecoming, see you there, A".

The girls looked at each other in shock, wondering how A managed to get the message into the fortune cookie, Spencer quickly grabbed the remaining cookies from Hanna and started opening them, realising all the cookies had the exact same message.

"Damn it the bitch ruined my favorite part of ordering Chinese"

•━━━━ CRUEL SUMMER ━━━━•

"Sabrina have I told you how much I love you" Hanna says joining the Diaz girl at her locker.

"What do you want?" Sabrina groans, turning to her best friend.

"Come with me to this virgin club, please?" Hanna asks throwing in a pout.

"Hanna, you do know I'm not a virgin right? I mean I did push a baby out of my lady garden" Sabrina says giving the Marin girl the raised eyebrow.

"I know but please I don't wanna go alone" Hanna pouts, flashing the girl puppy eyes.

•━━━━ CRUEL SUMMER ━━━━•

"Hanna and her fucking puppy eye" Sabrina grumbles as she sits next to Hanna and Lucas who couldn't look at the girl, not that she blames him.

The group Hanna forced the girl to go to is Real Love Waits, gag, Sabrina's not the one to judge if they wanted wait then go for it but obviously, she didn't wait and just fucked Jason the first time on the side of the road.

Sabrina sat, glaring at the floor as Sean and a girl did sexercise that Hanna dragged her along too.

Sean and this girl sat down and he was looking for 2 more people to do the next one.

"Good, nice work, you guys. Sit down. May I have two other volunteers, please?" He looked at Hanna. "Hanna, you want to give it a go?"

"No." She answered. "See? I can say no."

"So can I, get up. You can be the instigator." He turned towards Lucas and pointed. "Lucas!"

"Uh, no, l'm really more comfortable in an observational role during sexercise."

"Come on, you two. Let's go." They both got up and Sabrina was finding it hard to control her laugh. Sean saw this and stared at her.

"What the hell you looking at?" Sabrina glared at him.

"So, you want to come up to my room?" Hanna asked, boringly.

"I can't do this."

"But you make me so hot." Hanna said clearly not getting the hint as Sabrina giggled into her hand.

"No." He laughed. "I mean, I can't do this with you. Girls like her don't approach guys like me unless they have deep-seated self-esteem issues and a serious drinking problem."

"Hey, that's offensive" Sabrina exclaims shocked before thinking about it "Never mind carry on"

"Just play along, Lucas."

"This is embarrassing." Lucas sighed.

"Why?" Mr Mazzara asks.

"Because I don't need to know how to rebuff the advances of a genetic splice between Barbie and Shakira." Hanna smiled but Sean looked furious. "It's just never going to happen."

"The point of this is to be prepared for the situation when it does arise..."

"Mr Mazzara, let's look at the facts. I have the upper-body strength of Screech, and I spend my weekends playing Wii...alone. I think my virginity is pretty well safeguarded." Lucas interrupted him and Hanna smiled.

"I honestly thought the same thing now I'm a teen mom who is sitting in a virgin club with a bunch of people who play with themselves" Sabrina says and Mr Mazzara walks over covering her mouth.

"Both of you, start again." He told them.

"So, you want to come up to my room?" Hanna started to say.

"Yes!" Lucas interrupted and everyone started laughing except Sean who would be death glaring him but Hanna was in the way.

•━━━━ CRUEL SUMMER ━━━━•

Sabrina sat in her car in front of Jason's apartment bouncing her leg as she tries to encourage herself to go up She takes a deep breath as she get out and moves to the back to grab her dress and Everly's things.

Sabrina knocks on the door and wait till the door opens.

"Hey" Jason greets as he moves out of the way so Sabrina can walk in.

"Hi" Sabrina greets back "Do you mind if I change into my dress here" as she enters the apartment.

"Yes sure"Jason replies "the bathroom is down the hall"

"Thanks" Sabrina replied as she hands Jason Everly's car seat and dipper bag and a bag of frozen milk.

Jason sighed closing the door before looking down at the car seat that held his daughter. After putting down the car seat and unbuckling the straps, Jason picks up the sleeping baby and hold her gently while he moves slowly, scared he's going to drop her. He sighs in relief as his back made contact with his back.

Once comfortable Jason looks at his daughter with an expression of awe and disbelief.

"Hi, Eve I'm your dad and I think you are the most beautiful girl in the world" Jason whispered kissing her head as Everly lets out a sigh. "I like to think you got most of your looks from me but don't tell you mom cause she might kick me in my throat" he says unaware that Sabrina was standing in the entrance of the room.

After changing into her dress she walks out to see Jason holding Everly on the couch looking at the girl sleeping in his arms as he whispers to the little girl. Sabrina had to mentally relax her core at the sight of Jason holding their daughter.

"Okay so she eats around Seven before bed which is at eight make sure you run the bottle of milk under the sink with warm water" Sabrina said as she sit beside him "um she will feed another one around eleven or twelve and I should be here around twelve thirty if any later I'll call you and make sure to keep the milk you not using in the freezer and- what?" Sabrina paused what she was saying as she looks at Jason who was already looking at her.

"You look beautiful" He replies.

"Oh thanks umm i gotta go but i wrote everything down if you need anything and can't get a hold of me, All of the girls numbers are on the paper in her diaper bag" Jason just nods as he stands up and walks her to the door.

"Oh and she is teething so if she is in pain her Motrin" Sabrina starts to say but is cut off by Jason.

"Rina I got it I've babysat kids before"

"This isn't just someone else's kid Jason she is your daughter and needs more care than siting her in front of a tv and giving her food she a baby jace she needs constant care" Sabrina snapped.

"You right, she'll be fine go have fun at homecoming and we'll see you tonight"

Sabrina just nods as she kisses Everly's head ignoring the familiar smell of cologne she likes loved that was usually mixed with alcohol before walking out.

•━━━━ CRUEL SUMMER ━━━━•

Sabrina entered the homecoming dance, and immediately was in love of all the decorations. Sabrina made her way over to Hanna, Spencer and Aria, who were standing with Sean and Alex.

"Hi, there she is" Hanna greeted, hugging Sabrina.

"I was worried you bailed" Spencer said as she looked at the Diaz girl.

"Um traffic from dropping Eve off with her dad" Sabrina replied shrugging.

"How was it?" Spencer asked.

"It was good she fell asleep on the was up to his apartment so we'll see by the end of the night how it goes than we'll work from there when he can see her"  Sabrina answered before looking at her cousin "Im happy that you came"

"No, I promised you that I wouldn't bail" Aria said, "I'm ready to have a fantastic time tonight and see you sing in a year."

"That's the spirt" Sabrina said, smiling at her cousin .

"But with no date?" Mona asked, walking over to the group, "My, how the mighty have fallen"

"Whatever, they can share my date" Hanna said grabbing Sabina arm before she could punch mona.

"Yeah, I have no problem with that"
Sean assured.

"Yeah, and mine" Spencer said, gesturing towards Alex.

"Yeah" Alex said.

"Look at the Mona, while you're here with one date, we now have three, more than the number of friends you've had in your life how do you feel about that?"

Mona gave Sabrina mock smile, to which Sabrina just smirked she had no problem returning.

"Unfortunately, you have to work before you can play" Spencer told Aria, "Cause you've got the first shift at the beanbag toss", Aria laughed and went towards the beanbag toss.

"You're a hero!" Spencer exclaimed.

•━━━━ CRUEL SUMMER ━━━━•

After exploring Sabrina went over to Hanna and Spencer.

"Hey, that was a quick shift" Spencer said, seeing Aria walk over to the three girls, "You okay?"

"No, my claustrophobia kicked in" Aria lied, truth was she had just had an unpleasant encounter with her ex-boyfriend Ezra Fitz, "Can you find someone to take my place?"

"Yeah, alone in a dark booth with Fitz? It's, like, every freshman girl's dream" Spencer replied, making Sabrina realize, that it wasn't because of her claustrophobia that Aria had finished her shift early, it was because of Ezra.

"Hey, Hanna" Maya greeted, walking over to the group.

"Hi" Hanna greeted, while the other girls gave Maya a smile.

"Um, have you guys seen Emily?" Maya asked curiously.

"No, I was just about to text her" Hanna replied, taking her phone out of her clutch.

Sabrina looked towards the front entrance, wanting to see if Emily was here or not, but what she saw, left her shocked, Emily was entering the dance, with Toby Cavanaugh.

"You don't have to text her Hanna, she's here" Sabrina informed.

The rest of the girls and Maya looked in the direction Sabrina was looking, and they were left equally as shocked as her, Maya not wanting to see Emily with Toby, quickly walked away.

"Hey, guys" Emily greeted, walking over to her friends with Toby right beside her.

"Hey 'Em, Toby" Sabrina replied smiling at the two.

"'I'm go get us some drinks" Toby told Emily, seeing the apprehensive looks the girls were sending him.

"You're here with Toby?" Spencer asked Emily, once the Cavanaugh boy was out of hearing distance.

"Either you've got some genius plan of sleeping with the enemy, or you've lost your mind" Aria scolded.

"I've slept with the enemy" Sabrina say defending Emily.

"You don't even know him" Emily defended Toby as she smiles at the Diaz girl.

"What is there to know?" Spencer asked "Who else could've helped Jenna?"

"Wait, why are we all of a sudden so sure it was Jenna?" Sabrina asked confused, "A lot of people use jungle red guys, hell I have two stick in my desk and Emily is right, we don't know Toby, we can't judge him".

"Sabrina, he has every reason to hate us" Spencer snapped.

"Half of this fucking town hates us Spencer" Sabrina snapped back her hands shaking.

"Well he doesn't" Emily retorted grabbing her best friend's hand

"Emily" Hanna said, "If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it's a freaking duck"

"What?!" Sabrina asked confused.

"Wow, I thought at least you'd understand" Emily told Hanna, walking away from her friends, frustrated that they wouldn't understand.

Sabrina looks at the time to see she has to sing "I gotta go on we'll finish this when I get back" Sabrina said before walking to the stage as The principal announces her name

"How is everyone night going? Good? Great this is a new song I wrote it has deep meaning it's like my baby this song is called Betting on us"  Sabrina said before she started strumming her guitar.

"Said you wanted to talk What's the odds, I've seen you three times in a month?" startin' to feel like God's playin' games" Sabrina sings the beginning of the first verse.

"Now it's 11 o'clock you tell me your dreams and how your dad met your mom you've got me feelin' some type of way" Sabrina harmonizes as the she looks at Melissa who agreed to press play on the Player.

"Cause you're a high I tried to fight but can't resist they say that love's a game, you lose more than you win" Sabrina sings the pre chorus before she stops playing the guitar.

"Who is this about?" Spencer asked leaning towards Aria who shrugs not looking a her but looking at her cousin knowing the truth behind most of her songs.

"I'm bettin' on us 'til this party ends call my bluff, but I'm goin' all in double or nothing just don't make sense scared of rollin' the dice, but I'm takin' that chance" She sings the chorus grabbing the microphone.

"The way you're holdin' me tonight got a feelin' the odds are on my side so I'll try my luck, mm cause I'm bеttin' on us I'm bettin' on us" Sabrina sings the chorus as she moves to one side of the stage.

"Next thing I know wе both say, "I love you", when we're talking on the phone your hands all over me, so much for tryna not take it slow" The girls grew worried when they see tears falling down their best friends face. Obviously the song hit the girl but no one really knew how much.

"Laying in your arms, I think you're gonna feel like home and you already know" Sabrina harmonizes as she grab the microphone stand.

"That you've got me in checkmate kiss me 'til I can't think straight oh, and I don't wanna play it safe" She sings the pre chorus again.

"I'm bettin' on us 'til this party ends call my bluff, but I'm goin' all in double or nothing just don't make sense scared of rollin' the dice, but I'm takin' that chance" She sings the chorus grabbing the microphone.

"The way you're holdin' me tonight got a feelin' the odds are on my side so I'll try my luck, mm cause I'm bеttin' on us I'm bettin' on us" Sabrina sings the chorus as she moves to one side of the stage.

"I'm bettin' on the pennies and dimes and calling you mine no hesitation, I I'm bettin' on beating the odds this feelin' I got, don't think I can shake it" Sabrina sings the bridge as her friends watch her in worry.

"I'm bettin' on us 'til this party ends call my bluff, but I'm goin' all in double or nothing just don't make sense scared of rollin' the dice, but I'm takin' that chance" Sabrina sings as the music slows down.

"The way you're holdin' me tonight got a feelin' the odds are on my side So I'll try my luck, mm cause I'm bettin' on us"

"I'm bettin' on, I'm bettin' on um i'm bettin' on us, ooh-ooh" Sabrina finished as everyone to cheer.

"Thank you now this songs is call He loves me he's love me not" Sabrina says earning cheers as she waits for Melissa to start the beat she made.

"He loves me, he loves me not" Sabrina sings the intro.

"Heartbeat screaming, love so good that the walls start talking hardly breathing, one more touch and you'll kill me softly" Sabrina sings the first verse.

"Roses, daisies, I've been asking every flower I can't read your mind" Sabrina sings that last of the verse.

"He loves me, he loves me not cause I don't know the difference when our clothes are off he loves me, he loves me not" She sings as Jaden plays.

"But doеs he really know me whеn the lights are on? Does he think about me when I'm gone? Does he know he's everything I want? Watchin' every petal drop He loves me, he loves me not" Sabrina sings as the band joins the two.

"Sweet psychosis, lethal dose of you in all my veins Deep hypnosis, numb my mind 'til I'm used to the pain Iris, lilies, I've been asking every flower I can't read your mind" Sabrina sings as she spins in circle.

"He loves me, he loves me not cause I don't know the difference when our clothes are off he loves me, he loves me not" She sings as the band join her again.

"But doеs he really know me whеn the lights are on? Does he think about me when I'm gone? Does he know he's everything I want? Watchin' every petal drop He loves me, he loves me not" Sabrina sings as she grabs the Microphone stand and bends towards the audience.

"I cannot read your mind, boy I cannot read your mind" the band sings with Sabrina.

"He loves me a little, he loves me a lot loves me in the middle, does he love me or not?" Sabrina sings the post chorus.

"He loves me a little, he loves me a lot I wish it was simple, does he love me or maybe not?" Sabrina finished as the beat plays.

"He loves me, he loves me not cause I don't know the difference when our clothes are off he loves me, he loves me not" She sings as Jaden plays before Ashton also joins and the rest of the band following behind him.

"But doеs he really know me whеn the lights are on? Does he think about me when I'm gone? Does he know he's everything I want? Watchin' every petal drop He loves me, he loves me not" Sabrina ends before the room exploded in applause again as Sabrina and the band bow before they walks off stage.

"Did I miss something?" Spencer asked, once Hanna and Sabrina walked back to the girls after talking to Emily, "When did she start hanging out with Toby?"

"I have no idea I've never seen her talk to him" Aria replied.

"They're lab partners, Aria" Sabrina reminded, "Of course she's talked to him".

"There you are" Sean said, walking over to girls.

"Yeah, we, had to, get ice" Hanna lied.

•━━━━ CRUEL SUMMER ━━━━•

Sabrina followed Spencer, who had also gathered Hanna and Aria.

"What's going on?" Sabrina asked, confused seeing the panicked expression on Spencer's face.

"I figured out what Toby's tattoo means" Spencer replied.

"What?" Hanna asked.

"901 free at last, it's September 1st" Spencer informed.

"Oh god" Sabrina whispered, realising why that date was important.

"That's the day Ali disappeared" Aria said, Spencer nodded, Aria then turned to Hanna, "You've gotta get that file"

"Tonight?" Hanna asked.

"Emily's not going to believe us without proof" Spencer replied, "She could be walking into a trap".

"Can we do it after they announce the homecoming queen?" Hanna asked, "Please"

"Hanna, we all need to know what's in that file" Sabrina replied, starting to believe that Spencer was right about Toby.

Hanna sighed, "Okay, fine" she finally said, "Fine, I'l get it, uh, keep an eye on Emily until I get the file".

"Wait, what about me?" Aria asked.

"Keep an eye on Sean" Hanna replied.

"What?" Aria asked shocked.

"Well, I can't exactly tell him where I'm going and if I make something up, he'll wanna come with me" Hanna replied, "Just keen him busy"

"How am I supposed to do that?" Aria asked.

"I don't know" Hanna replied, starting to walk away, "Just, figure it out".

While waiting for Hanna to come back, Aria distracted Sean by dancing with him, while Sabrina spent her night talking to people after some time the two cousins stood by the two best friends, waiting for Melissa to announce the homecoming king and queen.

That's when Aria's eyes landed on the entrance, where she saw
Hanna waving at them, telling them to come over.

Aria tapped Sabrina's shoulder and gestured towards Hanna, Sabrina nodded in understanding Sabrina grabbed Aria's hand and the two cousins ran over to the Marin girl, Spencer also joined them.

"Is that Jenna's file?" Spencer asked, once the four girls were away from the party.

"No, I got Toby's" Hanna revealed,  confusing the other girls, "Turns out Jenna wasn't the patient, the therapist had her come in for one session to see how she felt about Toby coming back home"

"Oh, my god, well, what else does it say?" Aria asked.

"Well, the dates prove he wasn't away at school when Ali disappeared" Hanna informed, "He was still here in Rosewood"

"What else does it say?" Sabrina asked, taking the file from Hanna's hand and reading through it, and what she read shocked her, "This talks about Toby and Jenna sleeping together".

"So that's what Ali had on him?" Spencer asked-

"It's enough to want her dead" Hanna replied.

"And us" Aria said.

"Guys, Emily is still with him" Sabrina said, realisation falling on all of them.

Aria quickly took her phone out and tried to call Emily, but the Fields girl never picked up.

"She's not picking up" Aria informed.

"Text her" Spencer said Aria nodded and sent Emily a text, warning her to stay away from Toby.

"We have to find her, come on" Hanna said.

The four girls quickly rushed to find their missing friend, unaware that Jenna Marshall had heard their whole conversation.

•━━━━ CRUEL SUMMER ━━━━•

"Where the hell did they go?" Sabrina asked, as the group of four friend rushed into the cafeteria, looking around in concern once they realized Emily was no where to be seen, and along with that Toby was also missing.

"Maybe they left" Hanna suggested.

"Get away from me!" The four girls heard Emily's yell.

"That's her" Spencer realised, as the girls rushed towards the voice, hoping to get to their friend before it was too late.

• A U T H O R S  N O T E•