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

𝒊. 𝗪𝗘𝗟𝗖𝗢𝗠𝗘 𝗛𝗢𝗠𝗘, 𝖦𝖮𝖫𝖣𝖨𝖤 ‧₊˚📱✩
˚ ༘ ೀ⋆｡˚ 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐏𝐄𝐑𝐅𝐄𝐂𝐓 𝐒𝐓𝐎𝐑𝐌
── 01𝗑09 ｡𖦹°‧
𝖲𝖧𝖠𝖳𝖳𝖤𝖱𝖤𝖣 𝖳𝖨𝖫𝖤𝖲 & 𝖲𝖠𝖳𝖲 𐙚𓏲⋆ ִֶָ ๋𓂃 ⋆ᡣ𐭩

▐ 𝖧𝖠𝖲𝖳𝖨𝖭𝖦𝖲 𝖱𝖤𝖲𝖨𝖣𝖤𝖭𝖢𝖤

     ❝ 𝐇𝐎𝐖 𝐌𝐀𝐍𝐘 words do they expect you to learn in one night? ❞

Sadie sits in Spencer's kitchen with her, Aria and Hanna, the girls studying for the SAT's they were going to be taken at school.

"Stringent." Aria reads off of the flashcards in her hand.

"Uh, tough. Inflexible." Spencer answers.

"It's not like you're actually gonna use them." Hanna continues her tangent of distaste for having to study.

"Meretricious." Aria tries to pronounce the next word.

"It's not like you you go to college and then . . . you start speaking a different language."

"It's about getting into college. Meretricious." Spencer says before repeating the word, struggling to find the right definition.

"Phony or flashy." Sadie answers without looking up from the book in front of her.

"You actually knew that?" Spencer turns to the blonde with an eyebrow raised before looking at Aria, "Is she right? Tell me she's not right."

Aria smirks, "She's right." She looks over at the blonde standing next to her, "Uh, Han, why are you still eating that?"

"Because it's here."

Spencer scrunches her face, "Put it in the garbage."

"Then I'd have to stand over the garbage and eat it." Hanna says in a 'duh' tone of voice.

"Besotted."

"Infatuated, enamored, in love with."

"Mm-hmm."

"What did Noel say to you after the memorial?" Hanna asks the Montgomery girl, wanting to know what had been said.

"We are taking the SATs in less than twelve hours. Can we focus?" Spencer asked.

"Spence, you don't need to know any more big words." Sadie looks up with a chuckle, "Your head is big enough as it is."

Hanna laughs, "Yeah, you're already scary enough to anyone under fifty."

"I'm not scary." Spencer pouted, looking at Aria and Sadie, "And I scary?"

The two girls share a look, Sadie shrugging as the two of them nod, "A little."

"Hey, I saw Noel Kahn hug you. And he did not wanna let go." Hanna smiled.

"Talk about want to let something go."

"Why can't you give him a chance?" Hanna asked, "He's smart, he's cute . . . his dad owns, like, half of Rhoad Island. And he's got great lips."

"His father?" Spencer questioned.

"Noel. Ew."

"You know who has nice lips?" Sadie smirked, "Eric Kahn. Great kissed, too."

Hanna's jaw dropped, "You've kissed Eric Kahn?"

"It was during a game of truth or dare. It only happened once." She shrugged.

Hanna shakes her head, "Seriously, Aria. You and Noel would look amazing together."

"Can we drop it? Please?" Aria asked, "I'm not looking for anything more than a friend."

"Why? I mean, don't you have enough on Facebook?" Hanna asked her, "Besides, don't you want someone real? Someone you can, I don't know, scratch and sniff?"

"Wow, maybe you should just eat that over the garbage." Spencer says, causing them to laugh.

"Okay, I am trying to help out a friend here." Hanna says, "We don't all have smoking-hot ball boys from the country club."

"What is going on with you and Alex?" Aria questioned.

Sadie raised her head up, "Is he back from that tournament?"

"Yeah. He's bad."

"And?"

"And it's good. It's so good." Spencer smiles, "I want it to last, but I'm afraid I'm gonna blow it."

"So when can we officially call him the boyfriend?"

Spencer shrugged just as the door comes open and her mom walks in, "Hi, mom."

"Hey, Mrs. Hastings." Aria smiles at the woman.

"Hi, girls." Veronica greets them, sitting her stuff on the counter, "Oh, what smells so good?"

"Garlic bread. Want some?" Spencer pushes the basket towards her mother.

"I can't." She denied, "God, I miss food. Eat some butter for me, will you? Why do I have so many messages?" She holds her phone in her hand as she walked to the refrigerator.

"Hey, maybe you should ask Alex to . . . ,"

Spencer cuts Hanna off with a shake of her head, "Stop. Not now."

"Your mom still doesn't. . . ?"

"Like I said, I want it to last."

"Where's Emily?" Veronica asked, noticing the absence of one of the fifth girl.

"She's probably on her way over."

˗ˏˋ 𖤐 ˎˊ˗

     𝐒𝐀𝐃𝐈𝐄 𝐅𝐎𝐋𝐋𝐎𝐖𝐄𝐃 behind Spencer and her mom, Aria and Hanna following close behind.

"You don't have to come inside." Spencer tells her mom, trying to get the woman to leave the school, "If it were canceled, nobody would be here."

"Oh. Excuse me. Hi." Veronica tapped a lady on the shoulder, "Are they going to give this test today?"

"Decision hasn't been made yet."

"You didn't say Alex was taking the test here too." Aria taps Spencer on the shoulder as the boy comes around the corner with some friends.

"Why do you think I wanted my mom to drop us off and leave?" Spencer asked as Alex made his way over to them.

"Hey, you." He greeted Spencer.

"Hi." She smiles, kissing him.

Sadie scrunches her nose at the display of affection coming from the too, mumbling a small, "get a room" under her breath.

"Spence. Spence." Aria taps Spencer on the shoulder as her mom walked back towards them.

"Nobody here can make a decision to save their life." Veronica tells the teens, "It's absurd."

"Mom, this is Alex Santiago." Spencer introduced the two of them, "Alex, this is my mother. Alex that I went to homecoming with."

"Oh, of course. I . . . from the club." Veronica sends him a tight smile, "Yeah. It just . . . It took me a moment to put it together. So, you're Alex."

Alex turns to Spencer, "Listen, uh, I need to check in. Um. . . seeing you. Meeting you." He turns to Sadie with a playful look on his face, "Stella, good luck. Hope you score the lowest."

"Oh, that's how you wanna do it? Okay." Sadie nodded as the girls look at them in amusement, "Well, Atticus, I hope you succeed in failing this test and crying in your room like a girl."

Alex smirked, "Oohh, harsh. See you guys later."

"Test is on today. Rosewood students should register in the library." The lady Veronica had spoken too walks up to them.

Hanna leaned on the lockers, "But, like, half the school isn't even here yet."

"And may never make it." Veronica says, "We saw a huge tree on Sawmill Road, and they've closed off York Street."

"That wasn't because of a tree." Wilden walks over to them, "York Street's been closed since last night."

"Why?"

"Somebody decided to pay a visit to Alison DiLaurentis' memorial . . . and destroy it." He says, "Shattered the tiles, broke the bench."

"What?"

"When the hell did this happen?" Sadie crossed her arms.

"We had to cordon off the area, it's an investigation."

"Spare them the details." Veronica shakes her head, not wanting them to have to think about it while taking their test, "They're about to take their SATs."

"Right. Good luck on the test, ladies." Wilden walks away from them.

"We should probably get to the library." Spencer tells her friends as she turns to walk away from them.

˗ˏˋ 𖤐 ˎˊ˗

   ❝ 𝐈𝐓 𝐖𝐀𝐒 trashed. ❞ Aria sighed as they stand in the library waiting to take the test, "Just when you thought that 'A' would give it a rest."

"It's like Toby had to kill Alison all over again." Spencer accused the Cavanaugh boy.

"Toby?" Sadie looks over at her in confusion, "What do you mean, Toby? His motorcycle was totaled."

"Isn't he dead?" Hanna looks at them.

"Well, I hear more from Alison now than when she was alive." Spencer tells them.

"I thought we decided 'A' wasn't Toby." Hanna says, "'A' was happy to have Toby out of the picture."

"How do we know that Toby didn't send that text?" Aria asked.

Sadie leans on her elbow's, "Why are we suddenly trusting 'A'? The bitch made a fake bracelet to mess with us."

"Emily." Hanna greeted the Fields girl as she walked towards them, "Hey. Where've you been?"

"Yeah, why weren't you at Spencer last night?"

Emily sits her bag next to her, "I know, I'm sorry. I didn't get out of practice till really late . . . so I went straight home and crashed. So, what did I miss?"

"Well, we studied." Hanna says before pausing briefly, "They studied, and I annoyed them. And Alison's memorial got trashed."

Emily nodded, "Yeah. I heard."

Aria looks over at the window where her mother was walking towards in, "What is my mom doing here?"

Sadie's phone rings in her back pocket. Pulling it out, she raised an eyebrow, "I gotta take this. I'll be back. Hey."

"Hey." Jason's voice comes on the other end, "I was just calling to wish you luck on the SATs today. Will called me."

"Oh, thank you." She leans against a wall, "Kinda wishing they cancel it so I can go home. This is nice sleep weather."

Jason chuckled, "Your need to sleep in rainy weather is adorable."

Sadie grinned, before sighing, "Look, Jase, I think I need to tell the girls
. . . before they find out from someone else."

"Sades, baby, if you wanna tell them, then go ahead and tell them." Jason tells her, "Or you can wait 'til I come back, and we can sit them down and tell them together. It's whatever you want to do."

Turning her head to look back at where Aria had joined the other three again, she bit her lips as she brought her hand up to run it through her blonde hair, "I really think I should tell them."

˗ˏˋ 𖤐 ˎˊ˗

      ❝ 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐓𝐄𝐒𝐓 will now begin at ten. ❞ The administer spoke to the library of students. "If this interferes with any plans you've made . . . I suggest you make some calls. If you didn't bring a phone, I am sure this tap-happy gentleman . . . would be glad to lend you his."

Sadie snickers as Lucas looks up from the phone in his hand.

"What?" Lucas looks between the two blondes, "Was she talking to me?"

Hanna smiled, "You didn't miss anything."

"Do you wanna borrow my phone? Either of you?"

"I brought mine." Sadie chuckled, "But if you could transport your brain into my head, that would be nice."

Hannah laughed, "She's right, your brain would be nice. Can you do the math section for me?"

"Hey, I'm already your marketing manager." Lucas tells her, leaning forward, "And you just got three hits on your leather jacket."

"Hey there, Lady H." Mona walks over with a smile before looking at Lucas, "I know you also answer to that, Hermine, but I was talking to her."

Sadie rolled her eyes, sliding over to sit next to Lucas, using his shoulder to prop her elbow up, "Come on, Mona. We know you wanna be the next Alison DiLaurentis, but please, come up with something more original than, "Hermie".

"Sadie!" Hanna hisses under her breath, nudging the girl.

Mona scoffed, looking over at Lucas as he laughs quietly, "What's so funny?"

"Nothing." Hanna shakes her head, "You need to sign in."

"They know I'm here." Mona sends them a look before looking back at Lucas, "You can go now. This beauty doesn't need a beast."

"Bitch." Sadie knocks her shoulder harshly into Mona's as she moved to sit in her seat at the table with the others. "What the hell is he doing now?"

"Who would I speak to about getting into the locker room?" Wilden asked the lady.

"I'd have to find a custodian. Do you wanna follow me?"

Wilden looks back at the table where the girls are all sitting, "That's all right. I'm gonna wait here."

"God, he's freaking me out." Hanna leaned forward to talk quietly to the girl. "Whose locker is he poking into now?"

"He's desperate." Spencer mumbled. "Ali's brother's breathing down his neck, which he should be."

"Ours too." Aria whispers, "I mean, what if Jason told the police . . . Alison version of what happened the night of the fire."

"If Jason was gonna tell them, he would've told them a year ago." Sadie tells the girls, "Jason knows the truth about that night. We're okay. He knows that the story's bogus."

"Then why did he bring it up?" Hanna asked.

"To try to drive a wedge between us." Spencer says, "But he's not gonna do that."

Wilden walks over to the table, "Sorry about the memorial. I know how hard you girls worked. Shocking thought, right? Something like that could happen and nobody saw anything.

"Well, everybody here was probably studying for the exam that we're about to take . . . so you might wanna look for eyewitnesses somewhere else."

"So, you were all studying together last night then?"

"Yes." Emily quickly answers, "We were all at Spencer's."

The girls discreetly eye each other.

"All of you?"

"Yes." Aria sends him a smile, "All of us."

"Okay.""

"Emily, what is going on?" Spencer asked after Wilden walked away from them.

"Where were you last night?" Aria asked her.

"I told you. I went home." Emily tells them.

"Okay, then why didn't you tell him that?" Sadie raised an eyebrow.

"What happened to all of us sticking together?" She asked as she stood up.

"Where are you going?"

"To the restroom." Emily grabs her bag, "But if you don't believe me, we can all try and squeeze into one stall."

"Should one of us go talk to her?" Aria points towards where Emily was walking away.

"No. She'll talk when she's ready."

Sadie shakes her head, "This weather is really messing with everyone."

Spencer's phone goes off next to her, the Hastings' girl picking the device up to look at the screen. Nudging Aria, she shows her the phone before turning it to where Sadie and Hanna could see the message.

❛ ᴅᴇꜰɪɴᴇ "ᴅᴇꜱᴇʀᴛɪᴏɴ". ꜱᴇᴇᴍꜱ ʟɪᴋᴇ
yᴏᴜ'ʀᴇ ᴀʙᴏᴜᴛ ᴛᴏ ʟᴏꜱᴇ ᴇᴍɪʟy.
ᴡʜᴏ'ꜱ ɴᴇxᴛ? ❜ —— ᴀ

˗ˏˋ 𖤐 ˎˊ˗

      ❝ 𝐖𝐇𝐘 𝐈𝐒 Mike Montgomery calling you? ❞ Mona asks as she glances down at Sadie's phone as it vibrated against the table.

"Because I deflowered Aria's little brother." Sadie says sarcastically as she grabs her phone, "And if you couldn't tell, that was sarcasm." She answers her phone walking away, "Mike, what's up?"

"How good are you forging a signature?"

Her eyebrows shoot up, "Why do you need a forged signature?"

He sighs, "I'm on a lacrosse trip and my permission slip wasn't signed. Mom usually handles all of it, but since she moved out, it's Dad's job. I would ask my sister, but I know she won't do it."

"Okay, uh, email it to me and hurry before the weather knocks the school power out. I'll sign it and fax use the fax to send it back." Sadie tells him, walking towards the computers. "With a good fax number."

"You're a lifesaver! Thank you!"

"Yeah, yeah. Whatever, kid."

˗ˏˋ 𖤐 ˎˊ˗

      ❝ 𝐌𝐎𝐕𝐄 𝐀𝐋𝐋 the way in, people. You don't need to touch every locker. ❞

"This sucks." Lucas walks next to Sadie, Hanna and Mona behind them, "The first time I get to photograph a tornado . . . they shove us in a room without window."

"You don't want to see a tornado." Hanna shakes her head.

"Of course he does." Mona says, causing Sadie to roll her eyes at just the sound of her voice, "He need to get to OZ so he can ask the Wizard for a penis."

"Okay, you know what--,"

"Sadie, Sades, it's okay." Hanna puts an arm out as Sadie moves towards the girl, "Go sit with Lucas. I got this." 

Sadie sent a sharp glare to Mona before leaving the two along, moving to sit on the floor next to Lucas, "I'm sorry about Mona."

He shrugged, "I'm used to it."

"Well, you shouldn't be." Sadie shakes her head, "Seems she forgot that she was in you position not that long ago."

˗ˏˋ 𖤐 ˎˊ˗

   ❝ 𝐘𝐎𝐔 𝐊𝐍𝐎𝐖, Sage, you're actually pretty smart. ❞ Alex looks down at the girl who had moved to sit with him, asking if she could help him study.

"Well, let's hope so, August, because my brothers would kill me if I don't pass it." Sadie smiles at him before Wilden's voice caught her attention.

"Emily, we found something that belongs to you." Wilden stops next to where Emily was talking with Hanna.  "Could you come with me, please? Emily. Let's go."

The four share looks with each other from where they were sitting or standing before quickly following behind towards the library.

"What is going on?" Spencer asks as they come in a few seconds after Emily and Wilden.

"Oh, perfect." Wilden looks at them, "We can all be together for an update."

Sadie crossed her arms, "We're supposed to be in the girl's locker room."

"Yeah, well, I'm guessing you girls' are used to be in places you're not supposed to be." Wilden looks at them, "Did you tell your friends where you were last night? When you weren't studying for the test?"

Emily looks over at her friends as they look back at her.

"See, because I got these really interesting photos. Pass it around." Wilden hands the girl his phone, pictures of her at Alison's destroyed memorial the night before on the screen. "There's plenty more where that came from. At the precinct. And I see you didn't get a chance to clean your shoes either."

"That's not why I went there." Emily tells the detective.

"Really? So you didn't go back to finish up Toby's handiwork?" He questioned her, "Or were you there covering up his tracks?"

"I found it like that. It was already destroyed!"

"Really? Then let me ask you a question." Wilden digs into her purse, pulling out one of the metal figures that had been a part of the memorial. "What were these doing in your bag? Souvenirs? Something Toby asked you to save for his trophy collection?"

"This had nothing to do with Toby!" Emily snatches the piece from his hands.

"Em, why do you have those?" Aria asked her.

"No, you put those in there, you creep." Hanna spits at the detective, "Emily would never do that, the memorial was her idea."

"Yeah. So I heard. Nice cover, huh?" Wilden asked, pulling a letter from his pocket, "You want me to share this with them? Or would you like to? Go ahead and tell them about the angry letter that you wrote to Alison. Which is dated, by the way, three days before she disappeared."

"You had no right to read that."

"Emily, what is in that letter?" Asked Sadie, looking over at one of her best friends with a sad look on her face.

"Tell her." Wilden taunts the teenager girl, "Tell her how you wanted to punish Alison for rejecting you. Tell her you felt relieved at the funeral. Yeah, she wasn't gonna be around to humiliate you anymore, was she?"

"I went back to that memorial to say I was sorry." Emily cried, "There were horrible things in that letter. And I didn't mean them. But then suddenly she was gone and . . . I loved her as more than a friend. I just never had the chance to tell her in the right way."

"Give her the letter back." Hanna tells him, "Give it back to her now or I swear to God I will rip your head off."

"And I'll help." Sadie glares at him, "Better yet, let me call by brother. I'm sure he has more friends on the Rosewood police force than you do, dick."

"Sorry. I can't." Wilden glared at them, "And we're not leaving until you tell me what you were doing carting around pieces of Alisons memorial."

"I told them because they were the only things that were broken!"

"What's going on in here?" Veronica walks into the library, walking over to stand behind the kids, "Why aren't they with the other kids?"

"Who are you?" Wilden asked her.

"Her mother." Veronica answers, pointing at Spencer. "If this is the school's idea of keeping my child safe I'm glad I came back." She looks at Emily before looking at the other girls, "Honey. . . why is she crying?"

Sadie crossed her arms over her chest, putting on her acting skills as fake tears pool in her eyes, "We were looking for Emily 'cause she wasn't with the rest of them, and he just attacked us out of nowhere, accusing Emily of killing Alison!"

The four girls discreetly look at each other, all trying to hide their smile as they realize what the Beaumont girl was doing.

Veronica looks at him in disbelief, "What?"

"That's not even the best part, Mrs. Hastings." Sadie catches the woman's attention again, "He was yelling at us, and he went through her purse and now he's accusing her . . . ,"

"Oh, hold it. Hold it. You're questioning minors without an adult? "Veronica asked, "What? What police department do you work for? What century are you in?

"I would advice . . . ,"

"Oh, no." Veronica cuts him off, "I would advise you to back off. Because anything that they said to you . . . is inadmissible in a courtroom. Period. Let's go. Emily, honey, grab your things."

Emily grabbed her stuff, and the five girls walked out of the library.

"How did you just pull off the fake tears?" Spencer mumbles as they walk back towards the girl's locker room.

Sadie shrugged, "After Will and Jesse moved out, and into the house together, I would always throw a fake tantrum to get my parents to let me stay with them."

˗ˏˋ 𖤐 ˎˊ˗

      ❝ 𝐖𝐇𝐀𝐓'𝐒 𝐆𝐎𝐍𝐍𝐀 happen to him? ❞ Hanna asked Spencer's mom, the woman standing in the locker room with them, "Cana they get him off the force?"

"If he's smart, he'll leave before that happens." Veronica says, "Oh, where did he get that protein bar?"

"Oh, I'll get you one." Aria walks away.

"Can I have your attention, please?" The administrator walked in, "The storm warning has just been lifted but the SAT will have to be rescheduled.

"Thank God." Sadie sighs as cheers rang out. "I'm going home to sleep for ten years."

˗ˏˋ 𖤐 ˎˊ˗

      ❝ 𝐇𝐄𝐘! 𝐇𝐎𝐖'𝐃 the test go? ❞ Cassie greets the youngest Beaumont siblings as she walked into the house, her and Will cuddled up on the couch with a movie playing.

"It didn't." She shrugged, throwing herself down on the other side of her brother, cuddling into his side, "What are we watching?"

"Grease."

"Again?"

"What? It's a classic!"