"Why? I mean, don't you have enough (friends) on Facebook?" -Hanna Marin
Isabel was at Spencer's house, studying with Aria, Hanna, and Spencer for the SATs.
"It's insane," Hanna scoffed. "How many words do they expect you to learn in one night?"
"Stringent," Aria read.
"Uh, tough. Inflexible," Isabel answered. Aria handed her the card. The exact words.
"I mean, It's not like you're actually gonna use them," Hanna rambled.
"You're vexatious," Isabel sighed.
"Annoying, irksome," Spencer said automatically.
"Hey, I'm just speaking the truth!" Hanna argued, making the others laugh.
"Meretricious," Aria read off another card.
"It's not like you go to college and then...you start speaking a different language," Hanna went on.
"It's about getting into college, Hanna," Spencer huffed. "Meretricious. Um...phony, flashy."
"Mm-hm," Aria nodded, giving her the card. "Uh, Han, why are you still eating that?" She asked her, pointing to the old pasta Hanna was twirling.
"Because it's here," Hanna shrugged.
"Put it in the garbage," Spencer sighed.
"Then I'd have to stand over the garbage and eat it," Hanna scoffed. The others just exasperatedly stared at her.
"Besotted," Aria read.
"Infatuated, enamored, in love with," Isabel answered.
"Mm-hm," Aria repeated, handing her the flash card.
"What did Noel say to you after the memorial?" Hanna asked Aria.
"We are taking the SATs in less than 12 hours," Spencer pointed out. "Can we focus?"
"Okay, Spencer, you do not need to know any more big words," Hanna joked. "You're already scary enough."
"Oh come on," Spencer huffed. "What about Isabel? She knows all of these words, too!"
"Spence, I was held back a year," Isabel said, rolling her eyes. "I'm supposed to be a senior right now. Besides, most of these words I'm just learning. Now, you on the other hand, have known what meretricious means since kindergarten."
"And, besides, you're scary enough as is," Hanna added.
"I'm not scary," Spencer frowned. "Am I scary?"
"A little," Aria shrugged. They were quiet for a moment as Isabel tried to figure out what 'undulate' meant.
"Hey, I saw Noel Kahn hug you. And he did not wanna let go," Hanna smirked at Aria, breaking the silence.
"Are you two dating?" Isabel gasped, giving up on reading the whole 'u' section of the dictionary.
"No, but talk about not wanting to let something go," Aria sighed.
"Why can't you give him a chance?" Hanna argued. "He's smart, he's cute...his dad owns, like, half of Rhode Island. And he's got great lips."
"His father?" Spencer frowned.
"Noel," Hanna replied.
"Ew," Isabel gagged at the thought of Noel having great lips. Especially when he tried to force those lips on her...
"Seriously, Aria," Hanna said. "You and Noel would look amazing together."
"Can we drop it? Please? I'm not looking for anything more than a friend," Aria scoffed.
"Why? I mean, don't you have enough on Facebook?" Hanna persisted. "Besides, don't you want someone real? Someone you can, I don't know, scratch and sniff?"
"Scratch and sniff, Hanna? Really?" Spencer stared at her.
"Wow, maybe you should just eat that over the garbage," Isabel agreed.
"Okay, I am trying to help out a friend here," Hanna protested. "We don't all have smoking-hot boys from the country club."
"What is going on with you and Alex?" Aria asked, grabbing a water bottle. "Is he back from that tournament?"
"Yeah. He's back," Spencer shrugged, screwing the cap back on her own water bottle.
"And?" Isabel pressed, expectant.
"And it's good," Spencer sighed happily. "It's so good. I want it to last, but I'm afraid I'm gonna blow it."
"So," Aria smiled. "When can we officially call him the boyfriend?"
The door swung open, revealing Spencer's mom, Veronica Hastings. Mrs. Hastings was a very professional woman, with her straight-cut light brown bob, and her business-like suits. She was a lawyer, anyway.
"Hi, Mom," Spencer called.
"Hey, Mrs. Hastings," Isabel said. She was very polite to adults.
"Hi, girls," Mrs. Hastings smiled, walking into the kitchen. "Oh, what smells so good?"
"Garlic bread. Want some?" Spencer offered.
"I can't." Mrs. Hastings shook her head sadly. "God, I miss food. Eat some butter for me, will you?"
"Will do," Isabel joked, grabbing a slice of garlic bread. Mrs. Hastings chuckled at her and pulled out her phone.
"Why do I have so many messages?" she asked no one in particular.
"Hey, maybe you should ask Alex to-" Hanna began, but Spencer cut her off.
"Stop. Not now," Spencer hissed.
"Your Mom still doesn't...?" Isabel frowned.
"Like I said, I want it to last," Spencer muttered.
"Where's Emily?" Mrs. Hastings asked.
"She's probably on her way over," Spencer replied.
-
On the day of the SAT testing, the girls put all of their things away in their lockers. Only Emily was missing. Where was she?
Isabel's phone beeped, making the four of them jump.
"'A'?" Hanna frowned.
"No," Isabel smiled, checking her phone. "Mike. He says good luck, Aria."
"Hm, thanks," Aria replied, closing her locker door.
"You and Mike seem happy," Spencer remarked with a small smile.
"We are...kind of. Even though he blew me off at Ali's memorial, he seems okay. We've kind of had a texting relationship since then," Isabel explained.
"I'm glad you're dating my brother," Aria grinned. "Maybe one day, you'll be married!"
"Whoa, whoa, Aria!" Isabel chuckled. "We've been dating for, like, a week. Why are you already preparing for marriage?!"
"You never know," Spencer shrugged. "Hey, Han, you've been quiet. What do you think?"
"Why are you asking me what I think? You know my opinion," Hanna smirked.
"No, I don't," Isabel frowned. "Spill."
"I ship Isabel and Jason," Hanna teased. Isabel groaned and shut her locker door shut. "What?! Okay, look, I could be wrong, and if I am, you can say 'I told you so', yada, yada. But if I'm right, you better be prepared for the long 'I knew it was gonna happen' speech at your wedding."
"Why is everyone suddenly talking about me getting married?" Isabel sighed. Spencer shrugged.
"You didn't say Alex was taking the test here too," Aria suddenly remarked. Isabel turned around and saw Alex walking over.
"Why do you think I wanted my Mom to drop us off and leave?" Spencer muttered. Alex pulled her into a passionate kiss.
Mrs. Hastings made her way down the hall, and Isabel hit Spencer's arm pointedly.
"Spence," Aria called.
"Spence," Isabel repeated. Spencer pulled away right as Mrs. Hastings approached them.
"Nobody here can make a decision to save their life. It's absurd!" Mrs. Hastings scoffed.
"Mom, this is Alex Santiago," Spencer gulped, introducing them. "Alex, this is my mother." Her mom just stared. "Alex that I went to homecoming with."
"Oh, of course. L... From the club," Mrs. Hastings recalled. "Yeah. It just... It took me a moment to put it together. So you're Alex."
"Listen, uh, I need to check in. Um...Nice seeing you. Meeting you," Alex stuttered, and scampered off.
"Ak-ward," Isabel muttered, watching Alex leave.
"Test is on today," a staff member called. "Rosewood students should register in the library."
"Half the school isn't even here yet," Hanna pointed out.
"And may never make it," Mrs. Hastings added. "We saw a huge tree on Saw Mill Road and they've closed off York Street."
"That wasn't because of a tree."
Wilden stood a few feet away. He walked up to them. "York Street's been closed since last night."
"Why?" Isabel frowned.
"Somebody decided to pay a visit to Alison DiLaurentis' memorial...and destroy it," Wilden explained, watching Isabel's reaction. "Shattered the tiles, broke the bench."
"What?" Isabel gasped, turning toward the other girls.
"When did this happen?" Spencer frowned.
"We had to cordon off the area, it's an investigation," Wilden continued.
"Spare them the details," Mrs. Hastings interrupted. "They're about to take their SATs."
"Right," Wilden nodded. "Good luck on the test, ladies." Then he walked off.
"We should probably get to the library," Spencer agreed, and stalked off. Isabel just pursed her lips, processing the news they had just heard, and followed her.
-
"Can't believe it was trashed," Aria scoffed. They were now in the library, reviewing the maths section. Not so much reviewing as talking about what had happened to Ali's memorial.
"Just when you thought that 'A' would give it a rest," Spencer whispered. "It's like Toby had to kill Alison all over again."
"For the last time, Toby did not kill Alison!" Isabel snapped.
"Toby?" Hanna frowned. "What do you mean, Toby? His motorcycle was totaled. Isn't he dead?"
"Exactly," Isabel nodded, tears welling up in her eyes. She took a deep breath and resumed. "Remember that text we got after we found out?"
"Well, I hear more from Alison now than when she was alive," Spencer muttered.
"I thought we decided 'A' wasn't Toby," Hanna whisper-shouted. "'A' was happy to have Toby out of the picture."
"How do we know that Toby didn't send that text?" Aria argued. "And why are we suddenly trusting 'A'? 'A' made a fake bracelet to mess with us."
"Emily," Hanna said loudly, making Isabel look up from her trig section. "Hey. Where've you been?" Emily took a seat next to Isabel.
"Yeah, why weren't you at Spencer's last night?" Isabel frowned.
"I know, I'm sorry," Emily sighed. "I didn't get out of practice till really late...so I went straight home and crashed." She paused. "So, what did I miss?"
"Well, we studied," Hanna shrugged. Isabel gave her the 'oh, really?' Look. "They studied and I annoyed them," she added.
"And Alison's memorial got trashed," Spencer nodded.
"Yeah. I heard," Emily gulped.
"What is my Mom doing here?" Aria frowned, getting up. Sure enough, Mrs. Montgomery walked in.
-
Isabel took a seat next to Spencer.
"Ugh, why is he still here?" Isabel muttered, eying him as he talked to the staff.
"I dunno. Maybe he's finding more suspects to harass," Spencer huffed.
"Who would I speak to about getting into the locker room?" he asked.
"I'd have to find a custodian," the staff member told him. "Do you wanna follow me?"
"That's all right. I'm gonna wait here," Wilden declined, making eye contact with Hanna, and the Isabel.
"God, he's freaking me out!" Isabel spat.
"Whose locker is he poking into now?" Hanna whispered sarcastically.
"He's desperate," Spencer said. "Ali's brother's breathing down his neck."
"Ours too," Aria muttered. "I mean, what if Jason told the police...Alison's version of what happened?"
"Jason's not gonna tell the police," Isabel assured her.
"What makes you so sure?" Hanna grumbled.
"If he was gonna tell them, he would've a year ago," Isabel explained. "He knows that story's just that. A story."
"Why did he bring it up?" Aria asked.
"To try to drive a wedge between us. But he's not gonna do that," Spencer said.
"Jason wouldn't-" Isabel began, but someone interrupted her.
"Sorry about the memorial."
Isabel turned around to see Wilden walk up to them.
"I know how hard you girls worked. Shocking though. Something like that could happen and nobody saw anything," he added.
"Everybody here was studying for the exam that we're about to take...so you might wanna look for eyewitnesses somewhere else," Spencer scoffed.
"So you were all studying together?" Wilden asked, pointing to them.
"Yes," Emily said a little too quickly. "We were all at Spencer's."
"All of you?" Wilder pressed.
"Yes. All of us," Aria snapped.
"Okay," Wilden said suspiciously.
"He is so annoying," Isabel muttered. She twirled her pencil and stared at a math equation that she could easily solve in her head, but she wasn't really paying attention.
"Emily, what is going on?" Spencer frowned, turning to her.
"Where were you last night?" Aria agreed.
"I told you. I went home," Emily murmured.
"Then why didn't you tell him that?" Spencer huffed.
"Spence, stop," Isabel sighed.
"What happened to all of us sticking together?" Emily scoffed, getting up.
"You tell me," Aria replied. "Where are you going?"
"To the restroom. But if you don't believe me, we can all try and squeeze into one stall," Emily shot back, and stormed off.
"Should one of us go talk to her?" Isabel asked worriedly.
"No. She'll talk when she's ready," Hanna assured her. Someone's phone beeped. Spencer picked it up and showed it to them.
'Define "desertion". Seems like you're about to lose Emily. Who's next? -A.'
-
In the locker room, Isabel talked to Hanna. There was a power outage, so the teachers and advisers moved everyone there.
"Where's Emily?" Isabel asked.
"She's over there," Hanna replied, pointing to Emily as she walked in. "Hey, Em!" Emily walked in. "You've been in there this whole time?"
"I didn't hear. I was looking for my purse," Emily shrugged.
"It's probably still in the library," Isabel pointed out, seeing as Emily didn't have her purse.
"Em, if you were hooking up with Maya last night..." Hanna replied. "You can tell Aria and Spencer."
"Wait, are you serious?" Isabel squealed, grinning. She loved listening to gossip about crushes and boyfriends. Or, in this case, girlfriend.
"What are you talking about?" Emily muttered, not meeting her eyes.
"It doesn't have to be this huge secret. It's not like I fell apart," Hanna pressed.
"Okay, can we not talk about this in here?" Emily asked, obviously uncomfortable.
"Ok, Em," Isabel nodded. Hanna begrudgingly shut her trap.
"Emily, we found something that belongs to you."
Isabel turned around and saw Wilden. Again. Why was he always trailing them like a god damn bloodhound?
"Could you come with me, please?" Wilden added. "Emily. Let's go." When they left, Isabel and Hanna followed. They went into the library.
"What is going on?" Spencer exclaimed, wrenching open the door. She and Aria had also followed them.
"Oh, perfect! We can all be together for an update," Wilden said sarcastically.
"We're supposed to be in the locker room," Hanna huffed.
"I'm guessing you are used to being in places you're not supposed to be," Wilden frowned. "Tell your friends where you were last night? When you weren't studying for the test?" He rounded on Emily. "See, because I got these really interesting photos," he continued, pulling out his phone to show her. "Pass it around. There's plenty more where that came from. At the precinct."
Isabel stared at the photo. It was Emily. At Alison's memorial.
"And I see you didn't get a chance to clean your shoes either," Wilden pointed out, gesturing to Emily's muddy shoes.
"That's not why I went there," Emily muttered, not meeting anyone's eyes.
"Really? So you didn't go back to finish up Toby's handiwork?" Wilden pressed, raising his voice. "Or were you there covering up his tracks?"
"I found it like that. It was already destroyed," Emily replied, on the verge of tears.
"Lay off her, you freak," Isabel snapped. "She says she didn't do it, she didn't do it."
"Really," Wilden scoffed, pulling out six black little figurines from Emily's purse. "Well, then let me ask you a question." He held up one. "What were these doing in your bag? Souvenirs? Something Toby asked you to save for his trophy collection?"
"This has nothing to do with Toby," Emily sniffled.
"Em, why do you have those?" Aria frowned.
"No, you put those in there, you creep." Hanna attacked him. "Emily would never do that, the memorial was her idea."
"Yeah. So I heard. Nice cover, huh?" Wilden continued. "You want me to share this with them? Or would you like to?" He held up a letter. "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," Isabel scoffed as Emily broke down.
"Emily, what is in that letter?" Spencer frowned.
"Tell her," Wilden said nastily. "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 explained, tears running down her face. "There were horrible things in that letter. And I didn't mean them. But then suddenly she was gone and..." Isabel went over to Emily and hugged her. "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 demanded. "Give it back to her now or I swear to God I will rip your head off!"
"Sorry. I can't. We're not leaving until you tell me...what you were doing carting around pieces of Alison's memorial!" Wilden shouted at Emily.
"They were the only things that weren't broken," Emily told him.
The door burst open, and an angry Mrs. Hastings stood there.
"What's going on in here?" she asked. "Why aren't they with the other kids?" She walked up to them.
"Who are you?" Wilden shot back.
"Her mother," Mrs. Hastings scoffed, pointing to Spencer. "If this is the school's idea of keeping my child safe...I'm glad I came back." She looked at the five of them and saw Emily crying. "Honey... Why is she crying?"
"He accused her of killing Alison," Spencer huffed.
"He went through her purse," Isabel spat. "And now he's accusing her-"
"Oh, hold it. Hold it," Mrs. Hasting cut her off. "You're questioning minors without an adult present? What- what police department do you work for?" She stared at him, disgusted. "What century do you live in?"
"Ma'am, I would advise you to-" Wilden started, but Mrs. Hastings cut him off too.
"Oh, no. I would advise you to back off," she snapped. "Anything they've said to you is inadmissible in a courtroom. Period." She turned to the girls. "Let's go. Emily, honey, grab your things."
Isabel picked up Emily's bag, shot Wilden one last nasty look, and stormed off with the others.
-
"What's gonna happen to him? Can they get him off the force?" Hanna asked once they were back in the locker room.
"If he's smart, he'll leave before that happens," Mrs. Hastings replied, giving them a knowing look. "Oh, where did he get that protein bar?" She pointed to some guy eating a protein bar.
"Oh, I'll get you one," Isabel smiled, walking over to the cart of boxes.
"Can I have your attention, please?" a staff member called. "The storm warning has just been lifted...but the SATs will have to be rescheduled." The whole locker room erupted into cheers. Isabel smiled to herself, handing Mrs. Hastings the protein bar. She didn't want to have to take it later, but oh well.
"Thank you, honey," she smiled. Isabel nodded and left to go get all of her stuff out from her locker.
Suddenly, as she was putting away her calculus book, she got a text.
'A?' No. Mike.
'How'd the SATs go?'-Mike
'They were canceled cuz of a power outage.'-Isabel
'Lucky. It's pouring outside and I still have to study 4 my Algebra test.' -Mike
'Yeah, but I still have to take them. Gtg, my car will turn to scrap metal if I don't leave now.'- Isabel
'Bye.'- Mike
-
That night, Isabel lay on her bed, listening to music. It was the C.D. Toby had given her. Just thinking of him made her want to cry. Could he really have killed Alison? Could he really be dead?
Personally, Isabel didn't believe Toby killed Alison. It had to have been someone else. Not Toby.
But who?