season 1, episode 8 part 2
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"Well, that was painless" Jason sighed as he walked out of the school's meeting room alongside the girls.
"Not for principal Hartman" Spencer mumbled.
"He means well, but he needs to know who's in charge" the boy replied, clearly not catching on to Spencer's displeased tone.
"I think we all know that" Sophie shot back at him. The girl hadn't said one word to the boy since the other day at Spencer's. In fact, she had done everything in her power to avoid seeing him. The girl had spent the past two days at home, hauled up in her room, lying that she was sick. That was until the Hastings girl practically dragged her to school in order for her to attend the meeting with their principal.
"Is there a problem?" Jason said, stopping in his tracks and turning around to face the girls.
"You finally noticed" Sophie grumbled.
"There's no problem" Emily said, shooting her friend a look, "you're Alison's brother you should have the final say, but you're not the only one dealing with this".
"There's that closed door again" Jason said, "the secrets of the girls cuddled up in Alisons bedroom. Do you think that means you knew her better than I did?"
"No, it just means we knew her in a different way" Emily told him.
"Actually, yeah it does" Sophie shot back, ignoring everything Emily had said, "we were her friends which means we knew things and she told us things that you would never know"
"You'd know all about knowing things that others wouldn't" Jason fired back, causing the other girls to share a confused look. Sophie huffed, but before she could shout back a reply, Wilson's voice interrupted them from down the hall.
"Right here" he said, pointing to a locker, followed by one of the schools' janitors and a uniformed officer.
"What are they doing?" Sophie asked.
"That's Toby's locker" Emily informed them.
Sophie saw the look on Jason's face, she knew he was pissed, "Jason don't" she warned, reaching out to grab his hand before he could storm off. The Delaurentis boy looked down at Sophie's hand which was holding his own, he had missed her touch, and he didn't know how much he had needed it until now. She followed his gaze down to their interlocked hands, and quickly let go causing a frown to fall across his face.
"He needs a push Soph, and that is exactly what I intend to do" he said as he took off down the hall, the other girls following quickly, "Detective Wilden".
"Ah, you will find this interesting" the other man started, turning to face them, "we are having a look in Toby Cavanaugh's locker"
"Why do you think he's hiding in there?" Jason questioned sarcastically and Sophie couldn't help but let out a scoff at the comment.
"He's a suspect" Wilden replied, seemingly unamused from the comment.
"What exactly are you trying to find?" Sophie questioned, "I highly doubt that Toby would hide the murder weapon somewhere as stupid as his locker"
"You made it clear that you weren't happy with the pace of the investigation" Wilden said, "you wanted action and I'm trying to give you some"
"Yeah, you've got nothing" Jason scoffed, "I realized that yesterday"
"You know Jason, sometimes we withhold progress on the information to avoid any interruptions" he replied, evidently getting more annoyed.
"The only reason you're tearing this kids' locker apart is because he's not here to object" Jason snapped.
"Toby Cavanaugh called your sisters phone the night she died. I checked the phone records; she took the call"
"Toby called Alison the night she died?" Emily asked.
"He did, or someone pretending to be him did"
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Sophie let her knuckles knock against the Hastings' back door, as she stood outside waiting for the girl to answer. She was wearing one of Jason's old hoodies and a pair of pajama pants as she had been curled up in bed watching Harry Potter when she had received the S.O.S text from Spencer.
It didn't take long before her friend opened the door, allowing the girl to step inside. She followed Spencer to the living room where she saw the rest of her friends sitting around the sofa, cups of coffee one each of their hands.
Sophie took a cup from Hanna as she sat beside the girl, "What's going on?"
"Jason knows about the Jenna thing" Spencer said.
"I'm sorry what?" Sophie said as she choked on her coffee. The girl had not said one word about that night to her ex-boyfriend, it didn't take her long to figure out that it was Ali that had told him. She never knew that Jason was aware of Jenna thing, he certainly had never mentioned it to her.
"Ali tried to pin it on Spencer" Emily said.
"That's what she told Jason" Spencer said a little panicked.
"But why you?" Emily asked again.
"Because Spencer was the only one brave enough to stand up to her"
"But so was Sophie Han"
"This is officially insane" Hanna exclaimed from her position on the sofa.
"Is that what she told Jenna at the hospital?" Emily asked, specifically directing her question to Sophie.
"No" Sophie responded.
"I don't know," said Spencer.
"Okay so one minute she's trying to cover it up but the next she is ratting us out to her brother" Aria said, trying to make sense of the situation. This whole thing was making Sophie's head hurt.
"Like she wanted Jason to know the fake story in case anything happened to her" Emily finished.
"Why?" Hanna asked.
"So they would know who to blame" Sophie said.
"Unbelievable, just when we thought Alison couldn't get any more twisted"
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Sophie pushed her way through the crowd as she tried to find her seat in the school's hall. It was Ali's memorial, and admittedly, Sophie was shitting it. The girl had always loved to be the center of attention – there was no doubt about it. However, the thought of everyone's eyes on her as she spoke about her dead best friend made her hands shake and her heart rate rise. She hated the pity, she hated the sympathetic look, she hated it all.
She made her way over to the rest of the girls, who were all already sat down, and exchanged smiles with them, giving Spencer a gentle nod as she was the first one to stand up to speak.
She watched as Spencer walked up to the front, and watched the girls expression turn to one of pure shock. Sophie followed the girls eyesight to the back of the hall, where Ian Thomas was entering. Sophie's breathe caught in her throat as she locked eyes with the man.
She turned her head away from him, and focused on Spencer as she cleared her throat and began to talk.
"I can't remember not knowing Alison, not having her as a friend. She was the first person I knew long enough that I felt that I could get angry with without being scared of losing. It made me feel like something was going to last, and you need that, especially as a kid. She would have liked that you are all here, she would have liked the attention – actually she would have loved the attention. It would have made her laugh, and Alison laughing, that was amazing".
Next came Hanna's speech, "Friends can be hard on you. Maybe they expect more from you than strangers. Strangers see you the way you want them to, but you can't fool friends. That's what makes them friends".
Emily was up after Hanna, "The corner in the park is going to be a safe place, where you can go and sit, read a book and just think. You should think about Alison whilst you're there. She would want to make sure you don't forget her"
Aria straightened her dress before she followed up after Emily and began her speech, "When you do something like this, a memorial, its partly because you don't understand what happened. You plant flowers, paint tiles, and somewhere in the middle of that, you stop crying. I guess that's the point".
Before Sophie even knew it, she was making her way up the front of the hall, hands shaking as she clutched the piece of paper on which her speech was written on. She faced the crowd, and cleared her throat before speaking. However, it felt like her voice got caught in her throat, no words coming out of her mouth. She glanced around the room, locking eyes with Jason as he gave her a gentle nod and a small smile.
"I think I've written this speech a million times but nothing I come up with seems to do justice. Alison was my best friend, she was the person I trusted with my whole life, I told her things that I wouldn't dare tell anyone else. Ali knew me better than anyone, and I knew her better than anyone else. It was always just us two. I can't remember a time when she wasn't in my life, I have millions of memories with her. I could talk for days about all of the special memories we shared, but sometimes those memories are better off staying private. You always hear about things like this happening around the world, you just never expect it to happen to you. I never imagined that I would have to go on living my life without her. But I know, despite the fact that she's gone, Ali's memory will live on through us all, and those special memories we have of her. No one will forget you Ali"
Sophie made her way back to her seat, keeping her head down as to not look at anyone. She sat back down, and felt Spencer take ahold of her hand, squeezing it gently.
Jenna was the last one to go up and speak. "We all think we know who we are, but we don't. Not until something bad happens to us, and then all of the useless things fall away and we are left with who we really are. I learned that from Alison Dilaurentis. I thought I knew who she was, but I found out the truth when she came and talked to me at the hospital. I found out she was the strongest person I know, and it's that strength that touched us all. That's her legacy. That is how her memory will endure in the actions of those she inspired in many different ways".
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"I need sugar" Hanna announced as she walked into the Hasting's house.
"Me too" Aria agreed.
"I need coffee" Sophie groaned, setting her things on the coffee table.
Before anyone could reply, Jason walked back into the room, putting his phone in his pocket, "that was my folks. They say thanks, so do I".
"You're welcome" Sophie smiled at him.
"And I wanted you to have something" he said reaching back into his suit pocket, "the police returned this to my family. I think you should have it".
The girls looked in shock as he placed Alison's bracelet onto the kitchen table, the bracelet that the girls had found in the woods.
"The police gave this to you?" Emily asked as Sophie gently picked up the bracelet.
"She was wearing it" he nodded.
"When they found her?"
"After listening today, it thought you should have it" he said looking around awkwardly, "I'll be in touch". He looked at Sophie as if to say something else, but didn't and soon left the Hasting's kitchen.
"If that is Ali's bracelet, then who's is the one we found in the woods?" Emily asked once Jason was out of earshot.
"I have no clue" Sophie said sighing.
"Someone made a copy of her bracelet" Hanna whispered.
"And made sure we would find it" Spencer finished.
"This just keeps getting better and better".
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word count: 2028