I hated this, I hated not telling Hanna that Caleb was still working on A's phone. Yet I still stood in Spencer's kitchen with, Aria, Spencer, Emily and Caleb. Caleb had another update with the video.

"Can you turn the volume up?" Aria requests

"Can you make it full screen" Emily continues

"Can you make it lighter, it seems kind of dark." Spencer adds

"Can you three shut up I'm trying to listen." I snip at them

"Okay, I've officially stopped taking requests." Caleb huffs. Spencer moves round to the other side of him. "Can you guys back up a little bit?!"

"We're not even standing that close." Spencer retorts

"Really? Then how do I know that you had a cheeseburger for lunch." I snort in amusement then make Spencer swap with me.

"Better?" I ask standing a couple of inches

"Thanks." The video was replaying what we had already seen before.

"Um, haven't we already seen this before?" Aria wonders, as he continues typing, the video continued.

"Yeah, but look there." The camera falls to the ground 

"That's the box Jason gave me of Ali's." I breathe

"Just give me a second though." A phone starts ringing. Emily, takes hers out to see who's calling.

"It's Hanna." Em states then ignores the call

"We may be able to get a clear shot if I..." my phone starts ringing. It was Hanna

"Hanna." i say

"If I play it out frame, by frame..." Caleb's phone rings. He igornes it

"Uh, I can maybe blow the image up, but then...." it was Aria. She groaned slightly, before Caleb can speak again. Spencer's phone rings.

"Guess we know who is low on the totem pole. Okay, i can't take this anymore." She goes to answer it.

"Hey Hanna....not much....uh....Sorry Han, I really can't right now . I'm just with my family and..." Emily knocked a glass over.

"Emily!" Aria and I  scold.

"Guy's shhh." Spencer says "Sorry Hanna, I really have to go." She hung up and turned to us.

"Seriously." we apologised

"Ladies." Caleb called to our attention. We looked back at the laptop.

"Is that a drivers licence?" Spencer wonders

"Think so." he zooms in, it was but it still wasn't clear.

"Is that Melissa?" Em questions

"I don't know it could be Jenna. It's kind of hard to tell." Aria mutters.

"Hold on." he clears up the image a little more and it should have been obvious from who's box it was in the first place.

"It's Ali." I breathe "But that doesn't make sense she already had a fake ID."

"And it defiantly wasn't that one." Aria continued

"Why would she need an ID that didn't look like her?" Spencer thinks. This was a different side to Ali that we had yet to figure out. Caleb left a while later and Spencer was staring at the picture of a dark haired Ali.

" God, it's so weird seen Ali with dark hair. I can't even look at that anymore." Spencer puts her phone down on the counter.

"Sorry guys but I gotta go. I'm meeting up with Maya. But I'll see you tomorrow?"

"Bye Em" We wave off. I sighed, we better get going as well.

"Ready?" I ask my twin.

"Yeah."

"Wait, do you have to go too? I was hoping you two would sleep over. We could both use the company."

"We'd like that but we made plans with Holden." Aria informs her

"Oh I thought you were only gonna hang out with him so you could see Ezra." I bit my lip busying  myself, with putting my jacket on.

"I was but, we actually started to become friends." she had lied

"So you haven't heard from Ezra. I can't believe he didn't show up and he never called you." Spencer sighed shaking her head in disbelief, another lie that had made itself into the world to protect people from the truth and more importantly ourselves.

"Yeah. What about you have you talked to Toby?" I slipped on my jacket

"No." she answered "Erica?" I turned to her "Have you...spoken to Toby?" she wondered

"No, not since he left the truck for me to keep safe." I told her. Well it was a lie, he had asked me not to say anything but he checked in.

"I just. I don't know how your holding it together." She started to cry and We hugged her. She wiped away her tears .

"I'm not as put together as I seem." Aria replied and we pulled away.

"Okay, I need you to tell me the truth. I feel like i'm the reason that we're lying to Hanna. Did I push us into doing this?" I sighed

"No, of course not. There are just certain situations where you have to lie to your friends. Even if you hate doing it." I tell her.

"We'll talk to you later okay?" Aria says and we leave. Mom drops us off and we all separate. Jason picks me up and started driving away.

"You okay?"

"Yeah, fine." I sigh

"What is it?"

"It's just it feels like I'm lying to all of my friends and family about different things and it's driving me crazy. One or two secrets yeah sure but this. I'm struggling to remember who knows what." I admit messing about with my clothing.

"Then why don't you come clean?"

"Because that's worse, you tell everyone you've been lying it will take a long time to get that trust back. Spencer and I are just on good terms again, If I tell her I've been talking to Toby and that he asked me not to say anything... then there is my sister, Hanna, Mom and Dad. I just..." I shook my head. He takes my hand and kisses it.

"You'll figure it out. I know you will."

"How come you never ask me about my secrets? I know, you know I keep them."

"Because it's redundant. You're stubborn as a mule and you'll fight to keep them for as long as you can. That and I have to trust you'll tell me at some point. Right."

"Right." I nod, just a matter of when. I pulled  out of part of my seatbelt and leaned my head on his shoulder. I got there just before 11 and Holden was there.

"Hey." I smile giving him a hug

"Hey, how was your date?" He wondered

"Chill, we saw the prince of Persia." I vaguely explained what it was about and was doing so when I saw Dad's car.

"Shit, Aria's not here."

"Yes I am, I'm here." She came  just as Dad pulled up. We got in.

"Hey guys. How was the movie?" he asked us

"Great." " Cool" "Interesting" we all replied

"Good. Oh you know what can you guys give me a sec i just need to get some money from the ATM." he got out and we started at Aria.

"I'm so sorry."

"You sure know how to make a guy sweat." Holden joked

"No, I know. We tried to take this shortcut, and then we ended up..."

"Don't worry about it. Okay so Erica and I came up with this Dinner. You had the pasta with pesto, I had linguine with meat sauce and Erica had lasagne"

"Did we get any sides?" she questioned

"Garlic Bread and slices potatoes  with cheese." I told her she nodded, Holden was confused "Mom has him on a low cholesterol diet, he lives vicariously through others." I told him

"So are we still on for tomorrow?" Aria wondered

"Yeah, why?"

"It's just this will be the third time we'll be going out this week. What will people think."

"Nothing cause there is three of us. Unless people think your a dirty dog dating twins." I joke. Dad came back

"So what did you guys have for dinner." I tried to hold back abroad grin as I look at Holden.

'told you so'

--------

The next day at school we all met up for breakfast in the cafeteria. We stood in the lunch line with Hanna who looked a little agitated.

"So what did you do last night?" Hanna asked

"Oh, we studied for a them test." Aria lied while she picked something.

"We all went to Spencer's for help." Em continued

"I fell asleep, because Spencer wouldn't stopped talking." I shrug picking up some berries. It's something I would do just not at that moment so was it really that big of a lie?

"So today is doomsday huh?" Spencer questioned

"Wait did you see her?" Hanna freaked slightly

"Han maybe Kate wants a fresh start." Em offered

"Please she's the devils wife. She wants to wreak havoc for all eternity." i scoff

"Ri, not helping." Aria scolds

"Last time I gave her the benefit of the doubt I ended up blowing chunks out of my chunky heels." I shook my head

"Oh my god is that her." I looked back "Never mind."

"Hanna, you need to chill out." I say

"I would do if you were doing a better job as a look out." she retorted and we all went to sit down

"Hanna i never got a good look at Kate to begin with. The only time I've ever seen her is across a crowded church." She replies.

"What is that hanging out under your sweater? Is that a dude's under shirt?" I glance and where Hanna's talking about.

"Maybe." she sat down "It's Toby's" We all sit down

"Do not look like I'm one of those dogs that has wheels for legs. Em when is your Mom coming?" Spencer wonders.

"Tomorrow. I'm really excited." Em smiles

"Hanna?" A innocent voice calls our best friend. We look over.

"Kate." Han tries to say without contempt "Welcome to Rosewood High."

"Thanks." she looks to us "Hi. I'm Kate , we haven't officially met yet." I already don't trust her.

"I'm Aria."

"Erica"

"Emily"

"Spencer." We all introduce ourselves. You could tell she was nervous but I'm sure the snake inside of her was just ready to slither out.

"So I got my schedule and first period, I have history with Mr Barocas?" she read out.

"Oh, Mr Barocas. He's easy, everybody likes him." Aria replies. There is an awkward silence

"I can take you there. I actually have that class too."

"Actually Kate. have we met before?" Spencer wonders

"Yeah, at the wedding." I roll my eyes I think what Spencer meant was apart from that train wreck.

"Well I'm going to go before I say something insulting and you all tell me off." I grabbed my things and left the table. The day went as normal and at lunch we were talking about Ali's fake ID.

"Who know what she needed it for." I comment after I ate some of my sandwich

"She was seeing Ian. Maybe they used it to go out together. So maybe Ali found a loophole. Like a way to fly under A's radar." Spencer replied

"By being someone else?" Aria wondered

"Yeah, the brunette on the ID" We heard loud talking. it was Noel and his buddies, he was back on top with his friends and now dating Jenna.

"Ew. I was never his fan, but I can't look at him now that he's with Jenna" Em made a grossed out face.

"He's been going through girls in this school like kleenex." Aria added

"Who cares that he's a player, he's A's new eyes." Spencer continued

"It's annoying they're always just out of reach. if we could get close enough to..."

"Wait." Spencer cut me off "What if Ali wasn't trying to get away? What if she was trying to get closer?"

"What do you mean?" Em asked

"By creating a alter ego so she could get close to investigate. To expose A." That was a very good point and I wish I had thought of it.

"Hey." we turned to face Hanna

"Hey, where's monster." I smiled

"Who?'

"Kate" I clarify

"Oh she's just at orientation, and she's being freakishly nice to me." I could tell she was bothered by something else.

"so what's the face for?" Spence wondered

"Do you think that Caleb still has that video file somewhere? because A thinks he does." Oh man, it was coming back to bite us.

"What makes You say that?" Aria inquired

"I got a text saying to call off my  techno boy toy." Okay do not freak out or show any signs of lying..

"A probably got their wires crossed." Spencer suggested

"Yeah. Maybe they're like a step behind or something." Aria added

"Since when has A been behind." the bell rang, oh thank the lord. i stood up.

"Where are you going."

"We've got chem lab. We'll talk later okay?" Aria, Emily and I left

----------------------------------------

The next day at lunch. Kate was sat with us and we were asking her questions. I can't remember who started with this but I was asked my by twin to play nice for now.

"So you moved her from Baltimore?" i questioned

"Yeah. So i can still go home on weekends and visit my friends." She answered smiling.

"That's nice." Em commented

"Do you have any family in maine by any chance." Spencer inquired trying to figure her out. It was amazing to watch actually.

"No, no only in Maryland."

"Have you ever been to Maine? The north east harbour area?" she continued

"Nope"  I started coughing as something went down the wrong food hole. The others attention turned to me as I held my hand up and shook my head while still coughing.

"I'm okay, wrong pipe." I took a swig of my water and a deep breathe.

"So Kate are you thinking of going any clubs or sports?" Emily wondered

"Yeah. I was actually thinking of ..."

"Debate!" Spencer cut in. I started laughing silently my shoulders jumping up and down in amusement

"Orchestra" she corrected

"Sorry I just um, thought Must have seen you at a debate." she cleared her throat. Kate chuckles awkwardly.

"Are you sure we haven't met before?"

"Pretty sure." she answers "I'm gonna head to class early and introduce myself to the teacher. I will see you all soon."

"bye." we smile and she's gone

"What the hell are you doing?" Hanna snaps

"I know her. I know, I know her. I just don't know where I know her from." Spencer grumbles.

"I don't care, that was too funny." I wipe away tears

"Can you back off. I'm not having her complain to my Dad that my friends are giving her the fourth degree."

"It's the third degree."

"Whatever just stop giving her degrees, okay?" 

------

Since I was still excused from doing P.E. I sat on the bleachers  and Did homework. During free period i went to talk to my Mom because she was free as well.

"Mom." she looked up from her desk

"Hi sweetie." I lean on her desk.

"So I was hoping to get a pass from anymore 'chaperoning.'  Both of them behave themselves. They talk more than I do and I feel like a third wheel." I partly lied. She sighed

"I guess I can talk to your Dad."

"Thank you. Not that I don't like hanging with them but I'm just bored." Truth is I didn't want to keep being with Jason a secret again. It felt like a step back.

"If he agree's what are you gonna do?"

"Well, Jason has been wanting me to teach him to dance. So I was thinking, to meet you half way before you flat out say no and ask him to the house instead. That way you can keep an eye on us." she sighs

"I don't know."

"I know that the who Aria and Ezra is still raw but, you eventually understood Jase and I, what's the difference."

"He was your teacher Erica, You and Jason are different you've know each other your whole lives, you were best friends with his sister and I see that trying to split you up will do more harm than good right now, with everything that has happened. I began to understand because i saw the way he treated you."

"Then do the same with them. Or at least think about it."

"I will talk to your Dad about the chaperoning and Jason."

"Okay." I gave her a hug

----------

The doorbell rang after Dad had taken Aria and Holden to philly. I opened the door and there stood Jason. My parents had agreed well Mom convinced Dad that this was okay.

"Come in." He did and we hug

"Hello, Jason." Mom Gave a small smile. As I shut the door

"Ella." he nodded

"Do you want anything to drink?" I asked

"Just water." I went to get a glass and I could hear them quietly talking before i came back and handed him the glass.

"It's no studio. But it's a start." I gestured to the living room, everything had been moved out of the way. "Shall we get started."

-----------------

The next day while I was at school I got a text from Hanna. it was photo of Kate naked. I went to find my friend. The others were already there

"Hanna, I love you but even I admit this is to far."

"Will someone please tell me what is going on?" I handed her my phone and she looked at the text.

"I didn't do this, where would i have even taken the picture?"

"It look like it was taken in the girls locker room.." Emily replied

"I didn't send this to you guys."

"You didn't just send it to us Hanna..." Aria started

"You sent it to your entire address book." I finished. Hanna stepped away and you could see the panic on her face. Okay....

"If you didn't send it..." Aria trailed off

"Do we even have to ask?" Spencer replies as everyone was talking and whispering