"Again Ava? Putting your friends mad at you for doubting them so much, not a very good friend are you?-A"
Rosewood, Pennsylvania 2010
"It's insane. How many words do they expect you to learn in one night?" Hannah commented, playing with the notes on the table.
"You aren't supposed to be studying for the SAT'S in one night Han," I say to her, I'm sat in one of the kitchen's chair's on the counter, with multiple cards in front of me.
"Stringent" Aria read out loud.
"Umm,tough, inflexible" Spencer asnwered
"It's not like you are going to actually use them"Hannah continued complaining.
"Meretricious" Aria read again.
"It's not like you go to colege and then you start speaking a completly different language."
"It's about getting into college" Spencer explained.
"Meretricious: phony, flashy"
"Ugh Han, why are you still eating that?" I ask looking at the blonde
"Because it's here" she replied.
"Put it in the garbage" Spencer told her.
"Then I would to stand over the garbage and eat it" She joked.
"Besotted"Aria read.
"Infatuated, enamored, in love with" I say out loud.
"That's right" Aria said to me
"Hey, what did Noel say to you after the memorial?" Hannah asked Aria.
"Hello, we are taking the SAT'S in less then twelve hours." Spencer called, amking me chuckle at her .
"Okay Spencer you do not need to know anymore big words.You are already scary enough." Hannah commented.
"I'm not scary. Am I scary?" She asks us.
"Just a tiny bit like these" I say opening my arms as far away from each other.
"Stop" She said .
"Hey, I hear your conversation with Noel Kahn the other night"
"You did?" I ask her confused.
"You two would make a cute couple" Hannah tells me.
"Hannah, I have told Noel, I don't date" I smile at her.
"But why not, you never date" She whinces.
"It's just who I am" I joke.
"But don't you want something real? Someone you can scratch and sniff?" She asked me.
"I'm not sure what you want to say by that" I laugh.
"Wow, maybe you should just eat that over the garbage" Spencer said.
"I'm sorry but not all of us have smoking-hot boys from the country club"
"What is going on with you and ALex? Is he back from that tournament?" Aria asked.
"Yeah, he's back"
"Serious, just that. You are not giving us anything else?" I ask annoyed.
"It's good, so good" Spencer starts." I want it to last but I'm afraid I'm gonna blow it"
"So when can we officially callhim the boyfriend?" Aria asked.
"Hey Mrs. Hastings" I say greeting the older woman.
"Hi girls. Oh it smells so good" The older woman comments
"Garlic bread. Want some?" Spencer offered.
"I can't. God, I miss food . Eat some butter for me, will you?" Mrs. Hastings jokes.
"Hey, maybe you should Alex to-" Hannah started but Spencer cuted her off.
"Stop, not know"
"Your mom still doesn't know?" Aria asked.
"Like I said I want it to last" Spencer admited.
"Where's Emily?"Mrs.Hastings wonders.
"She's probably on her way" I replied. For the rest of the night we continued studying, well, me, Spencer and Ariaa did, Hannah just continued sying random stuff.
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Rainy days and me don't get along. Honestly any other season besides summer and I don't go along. Wether it's autum or winter, the weather is the same, rainy, cold, dark, I hate it. Summer on the other hand it's perfect, you can wear beautifull dresses and you look tanned, your body is free of big ugly colthes and you feel alive. The sun is always shiny, and everyone is happier.
It's like all the bad things in life happen at the same time, SAT's on rainy days, bad hair day, whitch made me do a half up half down hairstile, with just a few starps of hair falling in front, framing my face.
Mrs.Hastings, drove me and the girls to school today, she was taking Spencer and offered us a ride. The road was terrible and she did not look happy about the SAT's being today, if anyone is asking I totally agree with Mrs.Hastings about changing the SAT's date.
"You don't have to come inside,mom. If it were cancelled, nobody would be here" Spencer tells her mother, walking fast behind her, as we follow behind.
"Oh, excuse me. Hi" Said the older woman to an school worker, ignoring Spencer "Are they actually giving this test today?" She asked
"Decison hasn't been made yet" The other older woman replies.
"Well, can you tell me who makes that decision? They are predicting a strom." Mrs.Hastings says, walking by the other one's side.
"You didn't say Alex was taking the test here, too." Aria said looking at Alex a few feet away and then to Spencer. I turned my face to look at him, he polity waved and so did I.
"Why do you think I wanted my mom to drop us off and leave?" She asked.
"Hey, you" The couple say to each other. The three of us look at each other and smile.
"Oh my love hi" I joke looking at the empty space by my side.
"Spencer" Aria shakes her, once noticing her mother kaing her way towards us.
"No one here can make a decision to save their life"
"It's absurd" I comment, looking at the older woman facing Spencer and Alex.
"Mom, this is Alex Santiago. Alex this is my mother" Spencer introduces the two.
"Alex, that I went to homecoming with" Spencer makes it more clear, after the older woman doens't say nothing in response.
"Oh of course, hi. From the club" Mrs. Hastinges acknowledges, turning to me at the end.
"Yeah" He replied.
"It just took me a moment to put it together. So, you're Alex " She acknowledges once again.
"Listen" Alex said turning just to Spencer " I need to check in. Nice seeing you, meeting you" He corrected himself " Bye Ava" He said.
"See ya" I say, I can feel Mrs.Hastings eyes on me.
"Test in on today" The woman from before says approaching Spencer's mom"Rosewood students should register in the library" She informs her.
"But, like, half of the school isn't here yet" Hannah informed.
"And they may never make it . We saw a huge tree down on Sawmill Road, and they already closed off York Street."
"That wasn't because of the tree" Detective Wilden speaks.
"Were you listening to our conversation?" The asked the freak. He looks at me but doesn't say anything back to me.
"York Street's been closed since last night."
"Why"Mrs.H asked.
"Somebody decided to pay a visit to Alison Dilaurentis memorial and destroy it." Wilden tells us " Shattered the tiles, broke the bench."
"Whe-When did this happen?" I ask in complete shock.
"We had to cordon off the area, given it's an ongoing murder investigation" He explains
"Maybe you can spare them the details, they are about to take their SAT's"
"Right, good luck on the test ladies" He said, walking out.
"We should probably get to the library" Spencer spoke as I start to walk towards it.
"Can't believe it was trashed" Aria exhaled "Just when we thought A was going to give it a rest".
"It's like Toby had to kill Alison all over again" Spencer said.
"Wait Toby? What do you mean Toby?" Hannah asked, as lost as I was"His motorcycle was totaled. Isn't he dead?"
"Not even that, do you really think he could have killed Ali, he grew up with us. I don't think it was him" I comment, looking at them.
"Well, I hear more from Alison now, then when she was alive." Spencer said looking between us.
"Emily" I say, watching the girl approaching us " Where were you last night?"
"I know, I'm sorry. I didn't get out of practice till really late, so just went straight home and crashed. So what did I missed" I look at Spencer and she looks at me, something is of with Em.
"Well, we studied, they studied, I annoyed them" Hannah tells her " And Alison's memorial got trashed"
"Yeah,I heared."
"What is my mom doing here?" Aria asked, I followed her eyes to the outside where Ella was.
"Is it just me or Ella is just a lot more hotter now?" I ask out loud looking at the older woman.
"The test will now begin at ten" Annouced "If this interferes with any plans you've made for this afternoon, I suggest you make some calls"
"Can you stop with the staring game with detective Wilden" Spencer hits me on the arm.
"What, he is the one staring, I'm just holding eye contact" I say, not taking my eyes of him.
"Serious Avie, do you know him, like I don't know from your father's job or something?" She asked again.
"No, just met him a couple times before." I say, this time taking my eyes from him to look at Spencer's " I swear".
"God, he is freaking me out! I mean whose locker is he poking into now?" Hannah admited sitting down at the table next to us.
"He's desperate. Ali's brother is breathing down his neck" Spencer whispered, of course he is, that's just Jason.
"Yeah, and our's too." Oh he could be breathing out on my neck as much as he want's I think to myself.
"What if Jason told the police Alison's version of what happened the night of the fire?" Aria wondered.
"He didn't. If he had any intention of doing so, he would have, a year ago" I tell them, sure of my words.
"Well, why did he bring it up?" Hannah asked me.
"To mess with us. He is a Dilaurentis don't forget that" I warn them, they don't know Jason, for them Ali is the only one capeble of doing shitty stuff, but that's were they are wrong, in some ways he is worst then Ali.
"He's not gonna do that" Spencer says to the girls, once she noticed their worried face.
"Oh well, the sun can go back to shinnying the great detective Wilden is here" I make a cocky remark, he smiles annoyed before starting talking.
"Sorry about the memorial, I know how hard you girls worked on it. Shocking though right?" He asked, looking at each on of us "Something like that could happen out in the open and nobody saw anything?"
"Well, everybody here was studiyng for the exam we are about to take, so you might wanna look for eyewitness's somewhere else" Spencer advised him, each he nooded.
"So you were all studying together last night?" He asked.
"Yes, we were all at Spencer's" Emily said, making all of us look at her, before he could catch our confused eyes I spoke.
"In case you want to know I can even tell you how many times I went pee" I said sarcastly.
"Okay, good luck" He said leaving.
"Emily what is going on?" Spencer questioned.
"Where were you last night? The truth this time" I ask her.
"I told you I went home" She said anxious.
"Then why did you lie?" I ask.
"What happened to all of us sticking together?" She asked getting up from her place.
"Em, we just wanted to know, you don't have to leave" I say, placing my pencil down on the book.
"I'm going to the restroom, but if you don't believe me we can all try to squeez into one stall" She remarked.
"What is going on with her?" I ask the group they just shruger.
I pick up my pencil again but before I can go back to writting my phone vibrates in my leg.
Anonymous
"Again Ava? Putting your friends mad at you for doubting them so much, not a very good friend are you?-A"
Without a word, I showed the girls the message turns out Spencer got one too, but it was completly different from mine.
"I will be back" I tell Hannah leaving my place, I see Noel with a couple of his friends at one table. I walk towards there and stop at his place, looking down at him.
"So, I'm bored." I whisper in his ear, he imidiatly reconizes my voice and looks up at me with a smirk.
"There are other rooms around here that are more fun than this, wanna come?" He says getting up from his seat.
"Lead the way" I say, he grabs my hand and walks me out of the library.
"Shut up you play too?" I asked suprised, he smiles at me and start's playing.
"Shh, it's a secret" He says.
"Too bad little Kahn, you would get lot's of babes,if they knew this. Girl's love a guitarist" I say, sitting in front of him.
"Well, what about you? Do you love a guitarist?" He asked, his blue eyes catched mine and I couldn't help but smile.
I guessed I never really thought about what I loved in a guy, my whole life, I only had eyes for one man only, he was my type. Not even the messy dirty blonde hair or the reckless behavior, Jason. Just Jason, he was my type.
"I like them more rebleious" I joke
"I can be that too" He says facing me, he places the guitar down, his hands hold the foot of my chair and pulls me to him. He holds my face in his hands, he stares at me for a moment and then he kisses me.
"Why did you stop?" I ask, opening my eyes to look at him, Noel was focused looking at the door, I slowly turned my face to the direction he was looking.
"Jason" I breath out, he was at the door looking at me and Noel, he had a stern look, my breath gets caught in my throat and my breathing gets uneven. He notices me and startes walking out of the doorframe. I get up to go after him but Noel grabs my hand.
"You going after him?" He asks me, he get's up as well, looking up at him, his eyes tell me two things one, if I go after Jason probably will end everything I could possibly had with him, I would be going after something uncertain, after someone who has hurted me more than once, that would also hurt Noel, that has always been by my side, even when I told him to back off, because I was scared, he never left. While Jason left even when I needed him the most.
The thought of having to choose hurting Noel by going after Jason, but some part of me hated the idea of Jason thinking I was with someone, I mean I could be with anyone, but I didn't want to.
"I'm sorry Noel, it's just-" I try to find the words to tell Noel, but he cuts me of.
"Ava, look, I like you, like a lot, but I can't keep being your plan b Ava. You have to make up your mind" He tells me and leaves me in the music room.
I stay inside the room for one more minute, but then I hear someone on the door, I turn to see if it's Noel, but for my own surprise it's Jason.
"You are going to say anything, or are you just gonna stand there?" I ask him, he leaves a husky laugh escape his lips.
"You still on the Kahn thing, I see" Jason comments walking futher in the room.
"And what if I am?" I ask, facing him. He smirks at me before speaking again.
"He doesn't seen to be your type Bennet" He says,shrugging his shoulders.
"You don't know anything about me Dilaurentis" I say, also using his last name. He smiles a little at the action, while I roll my eyes at him.
"You really think that?" He asked once again, walking more towards me.
"I know that, two completly different things" I say fermely.
"It must be true, the Bennet I knew wouldn't fall for a Kahn" He comments, holding eye contact.
"Maybe you are mistaking me for my brother" He doesn't say anything else, he just stands there. His stare makes me nervous, so my subconscious to realive the anxiety starts playing with my fingers.
"Kahn is nice, I like him. He treats me good and he cares for me." I say once he just kept on staring, once again I hear him laugh.
"He cares for you?" Jason repeated, I nood my head.
"Yeah, he does. It's nice to have someone who actually cares and worries about you" I assert.
"You think that's the truth about Noel Kahn" Jason asks, saying his name like it was poison on his mouth.
"I know it is Jason, not every guy is like you, some of them are actually good man"
"Oh please Aves, saying that Noel is a man is an insult to actuall man" Jason says, he calls me Aves, he hasn't called me that in forever. Once again my mind is brought back to all the moments we spent together that summer.
"Like you would know" I remark.
"If he is such a gentleman, why are you here with me and not with him?" I look at my feet, before holding back to him.
"You are right, I shouldn't be here waisting my time when I could be with Noel. Goodbye Jason" I say, getting towards the door, passing right by him.
"He is just like his brother Ava" He says, this time calling my actual name.
"Like you would know what is being just like your sibling" I say, not turning myself to look at him.
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"Hey, where have you been?" Hannah asked me as soon as she saw me in the locker's room.
"I was with Noel" I tell her.
"Noel is here" Hannah says, pointing to him talking with Aria. Oh great he already found some new company I see.
"Yeah well, I was with him but something happened and he left and now I'm here" I say harsly, trying to change the subject.
I look one more time to Noel, he is laughing with Aria, I don't think I ever made him laugh, or anyone in that matter. I was never that kind of friend, my role in the friendgroup was different, it always has been. I'm not the smart one, that place is Spencer's, I'm not also the cool one that is Aria. The loyal and the one who keeps the group together is Emily's role and the trust worthy friend, the one you go to to help you cry and feel safe is Hannah, she can also be the funny one. I am just the pretty friend, I don't bring anything to the table and nobody learns anything with me, like they do with the others. I'm just the face of the group, nothing more.
"I'm gonna go talk to Emily" Hannah said getting up from her place and towards her.
"Is that your bag on the table?" Detective Wilden asked the younger girl. Us four followed the man and our friend Emily to the library, where he had Emily's bag above the table.
"Where did you find it?" She asked anxious.
"I shouldn't have to tell you that leaving a bag unattended in a public place, not a very smart move" He commented , stoping by the table, where the bag was.
"What is going on?" Spencer asked as we walk into the room.
"Oh perfect! We can all be together for an update" Wilden starts.
"No, we are suppoused to be in the girl's locker room" Hannah spoke.
"Yeah, well, I'm guessing you girls are used to being in places you're not suppoused to be" He said, looking between all of us " Did you tell your friends where you were last night? When you weren't studying for the test" He asked Emily, making us all turn our attention to her "See cause I got these really interresting photos" The man says, giving his phone to Emily.
"Go ahead pass it around, there's plenty more where that came from , at the precinct" Aria grabbed the phone from Emily's hand to let us all look at it. It was a picture of Emily's at Ali's memorial, when everything was already trashed " And I see you didn't get a chance to clean your shoes either, huh?" He suppoused.
"That's not why I went there" Emily spoke firmly.
"Really?" He asked, with a joke tone" So you didn't go back to the memorial to finish up Toby's handiwork?" He asked, trying to acusse Emily of destroying the memorial"Or were you just there covering off his tracks?"
"Alison was her best friend, of course Emily wouldn't do it" I say, getting his attention.
"You really believe that Ava?" He asked, holding eye contact.
"I found it like that, it was already destroyed." Emily admits, making Wilden break eye contact with me, to look at her.
"Really?" He asked once again with the joking tone, we went trough Emily's bag and grabbed a towel that was wrapped around something "Then let me ask you a question. What were these doing in your bag?" Wilden holds up one of the girl's that were designed on Ali's memorial.
"Souvenirs? Something Toby asked you to have, so he can keep it for his trophy collection?" All of us four girl's look at each other with no words remained in our vocabullary.
"This has nothing to do with Toby" Emily speaks louder, grabbing the doll from his hand.
"Em, why do you have those?" Aria asked her.
"No, you puted those in there you creep. Emily would never do that, the memorial was her idea"Hannah screams .
"Yeah, so I heard. Nice cover,huh?" Wilden moves his coat pocket to grab one letter, I could see by Emily's face that she reconized it" You want me to share this with them?Or would you like to?" He asked holding the letter.
"Go ahead tell them Emily about the angry letter that you wrote to Alison. Which is dated by the way, three days before she dissapeared."
"You had no right to read that" Emily said, trying to grab the letter a couple of times.
"Emily, what is in that letter?" Spencer asked her.
"Tell her. Tell them how you wanted to punish Alison for rejecting you. Tell them how you felt relieved at the funeral. Yeah, she wasn't gonna be around to humilate you anymore, was she?" He said, Emily was on the edge by now, the tears were covering her eyes, and we all could see that there was more of the story.
"Shut up, let her talk Wilden" I said, grabbing the letter from his hand.
"I went back to the memorial to say sorry. There were horrible things in that letter , and I didn't mean them. Suddendly she was gone, I loved her as more than a friend, I just never had the chance to tell her in the right way" After Emily's confession, a silence fell, I hold the letter for Emily to grab and keep. It was her's.
"What's going on in here?" Asks Spencer's mom walking into the library. The Hastings family were the best laywers in town, the were incredibly professionls, so the moment I saw her walking in that room, I knew she was going to protect us " Why aren't them in the locker room with the other kids?"
"Who are you?" Wilden asks.
"Her mother" Mrs.Hastings says, pointing with her umbrella to Spencer " I mean, if this is the school idea of keeping my child safe, I'm glad I came back. Honey, why is she crying?" The woman asks Spencer, her daugher.
" He accused her of killing Alison" Spencer said moving to Emily's side.
"What?"
"He went to her purse and now he is acussing-" Mrs.Hastings cuts
"Hold it, hold it. You are questioning minors without and adult present? What police department do you work for? What centrury are you in?" Mrs.Hastings our savior.
"Ma'am I would advise you" Wilden starts.
"Oh no I would advise you to back off.Because anything they said to you is inadmissible in a courtroom, period. Let's go, Emily honey grab your things." It was incredible to see Wilden so helpless.
"What were you thinking?"
"I have an homicide to solve, okay?"
"Oh not anymore you don't, you're done. You're done with this investigation."
"Hey Em" I say sitting by her side on the locker room "I'm sorry I didn't make you feel like you could trust on me to talk about it." I say grabbing her hand.
"It's not that Avie" I smile at her before speaking again.
"It is, on the first day of school I heard you talking with Aria about me being on drugs and getting high, I know that is how you guys see me now, and so I am sorry I didn't give you comfort for you to talk about this or anything really."
"I'm sorry for saying those things" She apologized, I shaked my head, no.
"It's okay" I couldn't say it was the truth, I didn't want her to fully believe in the rumours " But listen Alison loved you, she really did" I smiled.
"Yeah, I know, but it was different" I cut her off before she could advance more conversation.
"No Em, she Loved you" I say getting up from my seat and joining the other girls.
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After we recieved the information that the SAT's were being reschedule, I went to grab my stuff from my locker. When closing the door and turning around, there he was. His tall figure, large back and contagious smile.
"Hey" He says, once he catched me looking at him.
"Hi" I smile" I just wanted to say, that I'm sorry if I maked you feel like you are just my plan b. You are not Noel." He bits back his smile and looks away from me for a second.
"What about golden boy?" He said, I laugh slithy at the nickname, I move closer to him and ask.
"What about him?"
"Aren't you two?" I shake my head many times before speaking.
"That ended a long time ago, I actually been crushing on this other dude, wanna hear about him?"
"I wouldn't mind" Noel says, he grabs my waist and kisses me deeply.
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Episode 9 done