The Sixth Doll~ Pretty Little Liars

She's Better Now

"What have you told him?" Spencer asked.

"Nothing," Emily shrugged. "If he knew half the crap we'd been through, he'd ship me off to Guam."

"Hey!" Aria smiled as Hanna walked up to them. "I thought you were playing Mona's bodyguard..."

"Okay, I said I'd be around for her," Hanna scoffed.

"I'm thinking maybe we all should be her friend," Isabel sighed, and they all stared at her. "Look, Spencer's right, I mean, if Mona knows why Garrett died-"

"Right after he told that story about Aria's dad-" Emily added.

"Stop!" Spencer demanded, and Emily shut up.

"What's going on?" Hanna frowned.

"Nothing," Isabel said loudly. "We're not gonna talk about that."

"No, go ahead," Aria snapped. "Talk about it. Just do it when I'm not here."

"Aria-" Spencer started.

"What's next?!" Aria huffed, rounding on her. "Are we all gonna start wondering if my dad was on the Halloween train, too?" She stormed off, and when she ascended the stairs, Mona waved at her.

"Hello, Aria!" Mona smiled.

"What are you doing here?" some girl shouted.

"Yeah, you shouldn't be here!" a boy leered.

"Welcome to Mona 2.0.!" Spencer said sarcastically.

"More like Mona 3.0," Isabel sighed, following Aria. When she entered the school and caught up to Aria, she said, "Aria, I'm sorry. I wasn't trying-"

"Don't worry about it," Aria shrugged as they walked along.

"None of us really believe your dad... anything..." Isabel went on.

"I know," Aria nodded. "I overreacted. The thing is, Garrett did say it, and it's really freakin' hard when you can't look at your boyfriend, and now your own dad, without..."

"Without what?" Isabel frowned, looking at Aria weird. "Wait, what's with Ezra?"

"I still haven't told him about..." Aria sighed, looking down.

"His son," Isabel finished. Ezra had a son who was now seven, and Aria couldn't tell him.

"Yeah. You know... I plan on telling him every time we're together, but I just bail!" Aria complained. They walked into History, and instead of Mrs. Grizzuti, they saw Meredith. "Where's Mrs. Grizzuti?"

"Uh, I'm guessing she had her baby," Isabel replied as they watched her.

"And now Meredith's her replacement?" Aria scoffed. "Please stick a fork in my neck!"

-

"The check and balance system was established so that no branch could wield absolute power over another branch," Meredith stated. They were in her class, listening to her drone on about checks and balances. "Why do we think this was so important to our founding fathers?" She looked around and spotted Aria on her phone, and called on her even though Isabel's hand was raised. "Aria!"

"What?" Aria blinked, looking up.

"Look, guys, I don't know what Mrs. Grazzuti's take was, but while I'm here, no phones in class!" Meredith sighed.

"I wasn't... I wasn't on my phone," Aria lied.

"Yeah, you were," Meredith nodded. She walked over to Aria. "Tell you what. Give it to me." Aria stared at her and begrudgingly gave up her phone. "This way, you won't even be tempted." She walked back over to her desk and called on Isabel, who had her hand raised.