ꗃ ﹕𝓓𝐎𝐍'𝐓 𝓑𝐋𝐀𝐌𝐄 𝓜𝐄 . . . . . 𓈈 𓍢 ░
𝖯𝖱𝖤𝖳𝖳𝖸 𝖫𝖨𝖳𝖳𝖫𝖤 𝖫𝖨𝖠𝖱𝖲 ── ༅𓂃👜゛໒ ࣪˖˚

𝒊. 𝗪𝗘𝗟𝗖𝗢𝗠𝗘 𝗛𝗢𝗠𝗘, 𝖦𝖮𝖫𝖣𝖨𝖤 ‧₊˚📱✩
˚ ༘ ೀ⋆｡˚ 𝐂𝐀𝐍 𝐘𝐎𝐔 𝐇𝐄𝐀𝐑 𝐌𝐄
𝐍𝐎𝐖? ── 01𝗑04 ｡𖦹°‧
𝖩𝖴𝖭𝖦𝖫𝖤 𝖱𝖤𝖣, 𝖠𝖫𝖨𝖲𝖮𝖭'𝖲 𝖢𝖮𝖫𝖮𝖱 𐙚𓏲⋆ ִֶָ ๋𓂃 ⋆ᡣ𐭩

▐ 𝖱𝖮𝖲𝖤𝖶𝖮𝖮𝖣 𝖯𝖠𝖱𝖪

❝ 𝐇𝐎𝐖 𝐁𝐀𝐃 did your mom bust you for wreaking Sean's car? ❞ Emily questions Hanna as the group of girls walks through the park.

"Okay, I did not wreak it. I damaged it." Hanna tells them, "And actually, everyone's being really mature over it."

"Oh."

"There's no "oh", we're just being grownups."

"Okay, so the town is going to put in a new bench, and we'll plant the flowerbeds, and there's going to be a pathway of art tiles."

"Art tiles?" Sadie raised an eyebrow as she and Spencer sit on the bench.

"Messages, pictures, memories of Alison." Emily explained as the wind blew.

"Awe, like little headstones." Hanna says, Sadie biting her lip to stop from laughing at the girl.

"Hanna!"

"What?"

"We should each do something." Emily says.

"You know, I have had Alison's bracelet since the day we found it in the woods. . . ," Hanna digs through her purse to pull the purple accessory from it, ". . . and I don't want the responsibility anymore."

Sadie holds her hands up, "I'm not taking it, so don't even turn to me."

"I'm with Sadie, I don't want it either." Aria stands with her arms crossed over her chest.

"Seriously, someone take it!"

"Look at us, a bunch of babies!" Spencer takes the bracelet from Hanna, "Anyway there is nothing that 'A' can say or do to embarrass us without endangering this too."

"Are you sure it's a "her"?" Hanna asked.

"She, he, bitch, doesn't make a difference." Sadie shakes her head.

Spencer pulls her laptop from her bag.

"What are you doing?" Emily questioned.

"I'm gonna block all messages from people that I don't know." Spencer tells them as she types on her keyboard, "IM's, texts, emails, everything. Screw 'A'. There. Who's next?"

Sadie takes the laptop from Spencer's hands, doing the same thing that the Hastings girl did.

"My turn." Emily takes the laptop and Sadie's spot as she stood up.

"I spy with my little eye, something that begins with 'F'." Spencer tilts her head to the side, the other girls turning to see Ezra riding a bike though the town.

"Hey, Mr. Fitz!" Hanna calls out with a wave.

The teacher looks at the girls, waving at them.

"Looking good, Mr. Fitz!" Spencer calls out.

"I hope you fall off!" Sadie calls out to the teacher, who raises his hand up in the air, flipping the teenager off as she laughs.

Aria sits down next to Emily, taking the computer from her hands, "My turn."

"You know, there are some teachers that you don't want to see on a bike, and there are teachers that you do what to see on a bike." Spencer has a little smirk on her face.

"Dude, he's like my brother, that's gross." Sadie scrunches her face.

"I would not want to see Mr. Glory on a bike." Hanna stands with her arms crossed as the girls look back at the English teacher.

"I don't want to think about Mr. Glory in motion of any kind." Emily joked, causing the girls to giggle.

"Mr. Fitz."

"Hanna!" Aria calls out, feeling both jealous and angry at the girls attention on her secret boyfriend, along with guilt, "It's your turn."

Hanna takes the computer.

Spencer looks at Emily, "You talked to Ben?"

"Nothing to talk about."

"So, you're really done?" Aria looks up at her, pushing her hair away as it got in her face thanks to the wind.

"It's okay. I'm fine."

"Okay, if you say so."

Hanna sighs as she's blocking numbers from her phone, "I wish we had a drum roll for this. Alright, here goes. We are officially 'A' proof."

"Listen. All those little messages zipping through the air all around us." Spencer enjoys the wind blowing.

Aria sits back with her elbows resting on the top of the bench, "Yep, and none of them from 'A'."

"This feels like a good thing." Emily sits down next to Aria.

Sadie grinned, "This is a good thing. Out of mind, out of sight.

A piece of paper flies towards the girls sitting in the park, Aria reaching down to pick it up.

Sadie's hands freeze from where they were trying to keep her hair out of her face.

In Aria's hand was the missing poster that had Alison's face plastered on it, red writing written over the page.

❛ ᴅɪɴɢ ᴅᴏɴɢ, ᴛʜᴇ ʙɪᴛᴄʜ ɪꜱ ᴅᴇᴀᴅ ❜

The girls look around each other before Aria crumbles up the paper in her hand and the five best friends leave the park.

˗ˏˋ 𖤐 ˎˊ˗

     ❝ 𝐒𝐏𝐄𝐍𝐂𝐄, 𝐖𝐇𝐘 your folks take you to New York with your sister? ❞ Hanna asked as four of the five stood around the cafeteria before classes started. "I mean, you deserve some retail therapy too."

"Not as much as Melissa. Oh, hot scarf, Em." Spencer says as Emily joins the other girls.

Emily looks down at it with a smile, "Thanks."

"Is it new?" Hanna questioned.

"No."

Hanna's phone rings in her bag, the shorter blonde pulling it out of her bag as the five stood in a tense silence as it rang.

"Go ahead, answer it." Aria nodded for her friend to answer her phone. "We know who it can't be from."

"Hanna!"

Hanna shakes her head as she looks at who was calling her, "It's my dad. Hey, dad."

Emily looks confused, "Has she. . . even, like, talked to her dad since he walked out on them?"

"I don't know. Hanna and her father, it's one of those, 'don't ask, don't tell' situations." Spencer says.

"We shouldn't stare." Aria touches Emily' hand the girls turning away from the phone call going on between Hanna and her dad. Her phone dings, "My brother's post just showed up on my loop."

"You added him as a favorite?" Spencer asked in amusement.

"Yeah, a moment of weakness." Aria tells them.

Sadie shrugged, "I have him as a favorite."

Aria turns to look at her with an eyebrow raised, "You have my brother as a favorite?"

"I watched the kid when you wouldn't, and your parents needed time to their selves." Sadie laughs, "Besides, Mike is my favorite of the two of you."

"Owe, harsh." Aria laughed as Emily bumps into Toby.

"Sorry." Toby apologizes.

"My fault."

"I wonder if we just bumped into 'A'." Aria freaks out as the four walk away and Toby headed in the other direction.

"It doesn't matter. We got rid of 'A', didn't we?"

"Right, yeah. . . but I'm still staying out of Toby's way."

"Yeah, and Jenna's." Sadie sighed as her phone dings. "What is up with all of our phones going off?"

"Who is it for you?" Spencer asked.

Sadie looks down, quickly hiding her phone screen before the others could see it. "It's just my brother. I'll see you guys in class. Hey, what's up?"

"Morning, gorgeous."

She smiles widely, "Morning, Handsome."

˗ˏˋ 𖤐 ˎˊ˗

❝ 𝐇𝐄 𝐇𝐀𝐒 to be in New England for a few weeks, but he's making a trip out to see me. ❞ Hanna tells her friends as they walk down the hallway.

"That's . . . that's great, Hanna."

"At least your parents make the effort to see you." Sadie rolls her eyes, "I haven't seen either my mom or dad in years."

"What?"

"It's just . . . do you think he's out here because of the thing with Sean's car?" Emily asked the girl.

"No, he's not." Hanna stops them from walking, "Look, I asked. Absolutely not. And besides, even if he was, at least he's still coming out to see me."

"Spencer!" Mr. Cheldre one of the teachers call out to the Hastings girl.

"Mr. Cheldre?"

He walked closer to the girls, "I wanted to tell you in class, but here you are. Remarkable job on the Russian History essay."

"Oh, thanks." Spencer smiled.

"Very clear presentation."

"It's not really a new idea." She tells him.

"I've submitted it to the Golden Orchid."

"Wait, you what?" Spencer spins around as he goes to walk away from the group of girls.

"There's an honorarium. But you know the real upside to winning a compaction like that is how it looks on your application." He tells her, "We'll discuss the details after class."

"What's the Golden Orchid?" Hanna asked as Spencer stares after the teacher in disbelief.

Spencer turns back to the girls, "It's a national competition for historical writing."

"More academic bling for Spencer." Emily joked as the bell rung.

"Right, see you later."

˗ˏˋ 𖤐 ˎˊ˗

     𝐒𝐀𝐃𝐈𝐄 𝐒𝐈𝐆𝐇𝐒 as she flicks through the channels on the large TV while laying across the couch in the living room. Another sign leaves her as she settles on some movie she couldn't remember the name of before a knock at the door.

"Who the hell is at the door?" She mumbles under her breath, getting off the couch and walking towards the front door, pulling it open.

The tall figure at the door smirks, "Got any plans tonight?"

A squeal leaves her lips as she throws herself into the person's arms, his grip tightening around her waist as they hug, "Jesse!"

Jesse Beaumont, the middle child of the Beaumont siblings, laughs at his little sister's excitement, "Hey, SJ."

"What the hell are you doing here?!" She grinned, happily as they pull away from each other.

"What? I can't come visit my little sister and our older brother?" Jesse raised an eyebrow as the two move into the house, him shutting the door behind him. "Where is Will?"

"He's not home yet." She tells him as they sat down, "He worked last night so he should be home any minutes now."

"Well, I guess we can catch up while we wait for him to get off, and then we can go out and get some food."

˗ˏˋ 𖤐 ˎˊ˗

      ❝ 𝐈𝐓 𝐖𝐀𝐒. . . it was great. ❞ Hanna smiles as she tells the girls about her night with her dad. "Incredible, really."

"Where did Tom take you?" Sadie raised an eyebrow from her seat in Ezra's classroom.

"The Jollyrogers."

"The lame amusement park?" Aria laughs.

"Okay, it is not lame! We didn't go on the tilt-a-whirl, we walked around and talked." Hanna grinned, "And I told him about what's going on."

The girls look at each other.

"Some of what's going on." She corrects herself, "And he listened. He wants to take me to a real dinner tonight. He said he has something to tell me. I don't know, I think he wants to spend more time with me. I mean, maybe, summers in Maryland."

"Seriously?" Emily smiled.

"Would you go?"

"Well, I wouldn't move away." Hanna tells them, "I wouldn't want to leave my mom alone. I would like to see my dad more."

Spencer nodded, "Wow." She turns to Sadie, "You didn't drive your car this morning, who dropped you off?"

"Oh, Jesse's here for a couple of days." Sadie tells them, "And I didn't have my car because we drove it last night when the three of us went out to dinner, and he complained about the way it drove, so he's taking it to a mechanic friend he has that still lives around here. I just hope he doesn't mess it up more than it already is."

"You know, it's so unfair that your entire family, is like, attractive." Hannah sighs with a dreamy smile on her face, "Are you sure you don't want to turn lesbian and date each other?"

"Sorry, but I have a little someone back in Philly." She shrugged just as the bell rang, a smirk on her face at the looks of shock on her friends faces. "Yo, English teacher."

Ezra sends an amused look in the blonde's direction, "Yo, student of my English class."

Sadie scrunches her face up, "Yeah, don't ever say 'Yo' again."

"Note taken."

"Anyway, Jesse is in town, and he wanted me to tell you that you are hanging out with him and Will tonight."

˗ˏˋ 𖤐 ˎˊ˗

     𝐒𝐀𝐃𝐈𝐄 𝐖𝐀𝐋𝐊𝐒 down the hallway, papers in hand as she studied for her history test that she had next period when she hears people laughing.

Looking up, she notices some of the football players laughing as they watch Toby opening his locker, foam pouring from it.

"Seriously?!" Sadie turns her head to look at the group of boys laughing, the laughter stopping as they turn to the blonde in fear, "Grow the hell up, assholes!"

Emily, who stood at her locker, watched her blonde friend with a confused look on her face as she walked up to Toby.

Sadie quickly writes her locker combination onto the corner of the study guide and rips it off, "Here. My locker combo. Clean your books and put all your stuff in mine. I have more than enough room. Just until you can get this cleaned up."

Toby sighs, smiling at her softly, "Thank you."

"Why are you always thanking me?" She grinned, patting his shoulder as she moves away from him. "Stop thanking me!"

"Stop giving me reasons to thank you!"

˗ˏˋ 𖤐 ˎˊ˗

❝ 𝐈 𝐓𝐇𝐎𝐔𝐆𝐇𝐓 you guys were hanging with Ezra tonight? ❞ Sadie raised an eyebrow as her older brothers walk through the front door, laughing as they carried Chinese takeout in their hands, "Aren't you sick of Chinese by now?"

"Hey, I haven't had Rosewood Chinese since I moved to Chicago." Jesse sits the bags in his hands on the table.

"And Ezra bailed on us. Said he has something different to do." Will sits down next to Sadie, Jesse sitting across from them. "So, it looks like you are stuck with the big brothers tonight."

Sadie snorts, "Just what I want to be doing." Her phone dings from beside her, causing her eyes to glance down at the message on her phone, "Oh, um, I'll be right back. Spencer texted me."

"Hurry back!" Jesse calls out to her, "Or text if you end up not coming back home!"

"Don't forget to text either of us if you're staying!"

❛ ꜱᴏꜱ ❜ —— ꜱᴩᴇɴᴄᴇ

˗ˏˋ 𖤐 ˎˊ˗

       ❝ 𝐖𝐇𝐀𝐓 𝐓𝐇𝐄 hell? ❞ Sadie stares at Spencer's mirror, all of the girls looking at the words written in shock. "Of course, this all comes back to bite us in the freaking ass."

❛ ɪᴛ ᴡᴏɴ'ᴛ ʙᴇ ᴛʜᴀᴛ ᴇᴀꜱy ʙɪᴛᴄʜᴇꜱ ❜ —— ᴀ

"Is that Jungle Red?" Hanna walks closer to the mirror.

"Alison's color."