"This is Mona. She started lying when she was a fetus." -Aria Montgomery
The girls were all at the Brew late at night.
"When was the last time your mom called you from New York?" Aria asked Hanna.
"I don't know, the day before yesterday. I haven't really been keeping track," she snapped.
"Have you checked your phone?" Emily pressed
"She called me from the hotel room, Emily," Hanna scoffed, holding up her phone. "She has no cell. Who was that freaky woman at the funeral?"
"Which freaky woman? There was a couple, Han," Aria huffed.
"The one in black with the veil, and she was just diving into that town car," Isabel clarified. Mrs. D had come up to them to talk at his funeral, but Isabel avoided her. Seeing his mother just... hurt more than it was supposed to.
"Speaking of freaks, where's Melissa?" Emily asked Spencer, who was arranging the food on the table to make some kind of... what the hell was that? "Spencer?"
"What?" she replied, looking up.
"Where's your sister been?" Emily repeated.
"DC, she's interviewing for an internship," Spencer shrugged.
"With who, Satan?" Hanna scoffed.
"Wait a second," Aria frowned. "You think that Melissa was the woman in black?"
"Do you?" Emily asked.
"I didn't really get a good look at her. I was trying not to wet myself when that new cop made a beeline over for us," Aria said, and Isabel shuddered. Holbrook may not be as inappropriate as Wilden, but he was just as creepy.
"Well, he can beeline all he wants. We didn't do anything to Wilden," Hanna snapped.
"Except for throw his car in a lake and leave fingerprints all over it when 'A' pulled it out," Isabel hissed, but then caught sight of her precious french fries being used as stacking tools. "Spencer, what are you doing with my french fries?!"
"I'm re-created the geography around the lodge to see if it's even possible that the person who jumped out of the plane could rescue you four from a burning building," Spencer explained, re-arranging some more fries. "Wait. Put down the mozzarella stick," Spencer said as Isabel and Hanna reached for some.
"It's mine," Hanna scoffed, about to eat it.
But Spencer just snatched it out of her hand. "No, it's not. It's a plane."
"Spencer, you can stack all the food that you want, it wasn't Alison," Aria said.
"Wait, why are you so sure?" Hanna frowned.
"Because I went to her funeral twice," Isabel replied sarcastically.
"We never saw a body," Hanna shot back.
"Oh, god, please-" Aria started, but Emily just sighed.
"We've been through this," she scoffed. "Okay? You were oxygen-deprived."
"She wasn't, and you saw her, right?" Hanna huffed, looking at Spencer, who was silent. "Oh. So now I'm the crazy one. Gimme my mozzarella back." She snatched it from Spencer's contraption.
"Okay, it looked a lot like Alison, and I'm not ruling it out," Spencer said hastily, taking it back.
"So you're saying that you think her mom is laying out all of her old pillows and toys because she's expecting her return?" Aria asked skeptically.
"It was just one toy. A clown," Emily muttered.
"God, Emily, please. Not you, too," Aria huffed.
Suddenly, Mona walked up to them. "Hey, guys. Sorry I'm late. So I've been thinking a lot about the Alison question."
"Really? I've been thinking a lot about how you put my mom's phone in Wilden's casket," Hanna snapped, getting up and standing there.
"Nice," Mona sighed as the others gathered their stuff and followed Hanna. "What else do I have to do to prove to you that we're in this together? I gave you that chip from his dash cam, you were all there when my computer was hacked... I have cashed in all of my 'get out of hell free' cards, so if you don't believe me and you still think I'm keeping secrets, go out there and search that RV for yourselves." Spencer just raised an eyebrow at her as Isabel gathered up her mozzarella sticks and fries. "What?"
"Lead the way. We'll follow," she shrugged.
-
"Why are we doing this now?" Emily huffed. They were out in the freezing cold, in that trailer park.
"Because if we wait until later she can get back here before us and purge," Spencer whispered back.
An owl hooted, and Emily looked around, alarmed. "What was that?"
"It was a bird. A beaver. Do you need to wait in the car?" Spencer scoffed.
Mona walked past them with a flashlight, and Emily replied, "I'm just saying I don't even know what we're supposed to be looking for."
Mona pulled open the gate to reveal nothing. The trailer was gone.
"Oh, my God," Mona gasped, walking into the empty spot. "Oh, my God, it's gone."
"What do you mean it's gone?" Aria snapped.
"This is where I left it," Mona swore, pointing to the spot. "I mean, you saw me, Hanna. I haven't been back here since. I swear. Somebody stole it."
"Somebody?" Spencer asked in a mock-surprise voice.
"Let's get out of here," Hanna huffed, and Isabel followed her. The last thing she heard were Mona's pleads of "That somebody wasn't me!"
-
Later, in English, Isabel was one of the only ones listening. Supposedly, 'A' had attacked Mona, and when Emily and Aria saved her, 'A' tried to hit them with a car. They were fine, but Emily's shoulder was badly injured, and she hadn't told her mom or anyone else.
"So... tackle the last four chapters. We'll go over the historical context on Monday, and for those of you who are ahead, and can't enough of doomed romance, um, pick up 'East of Eden' for extra credit," Ezr- Mr. Fitz droned on as everyone stared at him, zoning out.
The bell finally rang, and a herd of students rushed out the doors.
"Spence, you comin'?" Aria asked when Spencer didn't get up.
"Uh, yeah. I'll catch up to you guys at lunch," Spencer nodded.
"Okay, we'll meet you in the courtyard," Mona replied, and walked off. Isabel and Aria exchanged weird looks. Since when did Mona eat with them at lunch?
Nevertheless, they walked out to lunch.
-
Isabel was at home, washing the few dishes she had accumulated over the last few days. Normally, she'd wait, but if she stopped moving, she'd have to think about him.
About what he had said.
If he even said it. Mrs. D might be back in town, and Emily may have talked to her, but it didn't mean that those words came out of his mouth. Emily may have just wanted to cheer Isabel up (the hell with that, it didn't work), or Mrs. D felt bad for Isabel.
She already ruled out Emily. Emily was close to tears when she'd told her, and she seemed truly sorry. Unlike him, of course. That left Mrs. D.
But since when did Mrs. D feel bad for her? Sure, they knew each other a bit, but she wouldn't lie to make her feel better.
"He never forgot about you. He loves you, Isabel," Emily had said. Did he mean it?
Isabel sat down on her bed, staring at her hands. The words slammed around in her head, making it impossible to think about anything else.
Then she was crying again. She told herself she'd never let herself cry over him, but he made it so easy. She loved him. She loved him with all her heart, and it hurt to know that after breaking her heart, he still did, too.
-
Isabel was listening to Aria explain her run-in with Mona.
"How are we supposed to trust anything that she ever says? I mean, who knows what she told those cops?" Aria scoffed. "This is Mona. She started lying when she was a fetus." She paused, seeing a silent Spencer. "Hey, why was Toby so upset when he left?"
"Were you guys fighting?" Isabel added as Spencer poured herself, Aria, and Isabel some lemonade.
"No. No," Spencer assured her. "Go back to the fetus."
"Did I tell you I'm done with martial arts?" Aria scoffed, walking over. "Yeah. I can't even walk down that street. I kissed him."
"Who?" Spencer asked.
"My instructor," Aria replied.
"Why?" Isabel frowned, taking a sip of her lemonade.
"I don't know," Aria sighed. "I guess 'cause I miss Ezra, and I almost got killed last Thursday, and he smells like cinnamon."
"Who does?" Isabel blinked.
Aria stared at her. "Jake."
"Who's Jake?" Spencer pressed, and Isabel exchanged a confused look with her.
"My instructor," Aria sighed. "Pay attention."
The door swung open to reveal Hanna and a... bird cage? "Thanks for returning my calls," she snapped.
"Where did you get that?" Spencer frowned.
"Mrs. DiLaurentis's porch," Hanna replied as they walked over to her.
"You stole her bird?" Aria scoffed.
"She gave it to me," Hanna said, still holding the cage up like a piñata. "And it's not just a bird, okay? It talks. Alison and Tippi were roommates in Georgia. This bird probably knows more about what happened to Ali than any of us." They stared as the bird squawked. "It talks a lot."
"You think it's gonna tell us if Ali's still alive?" Spencer asked incredulously.
"Wow. I thought that I was losing it," Isabel added, raising an eyebrow.
"If you guys would shut up for a minute, maybe it would say something," Hanna snapped. She set down the cage on the counter, and they waited for it to do something.
"Does it take requests?" Spencer asked sarcastically.
"Ugh!" Hanna huffed, storming off. She started pacing. "Okay, you know what? Ali was hooking up with someone in Cape May that summer, and she was telling her mom that it was us."
"Yeah. We know. Wilden," Aria nodded.
"No, we don't know," Hanna said. "If Wilden had his own boat, why would he be staying at Ali's parents' beach house?"
"You know what, Hanna, that's a really great question, but we can't ask him because he's dead. All right? And that lake is now a crime scene. The shoreline that we threw the car-" Aria ranted.
"Aria, you have to stop, okay?" Spencer sighed, walking over. "That was weeks ago, and you guys weren't wearing pumps. The footprints that the police are looking for are high heels."
"Wait. Whose high heels?" Hanna frowned, suddenly intrigued.
"Well, the cops don't know, but Mona's trying to tell us that they're Alison's," Isabel said sarcastically.
"Was it... muddy that night?" Hanna gulped.
'Hey, board shorts. Miss me?'
Isabel turned around and saw the bird let out another squawk. Board Shorts? Who the hell was that?
"Did you just hear that?" Aria gasped.
"Yeah. I'm standing right next to you," Isabel scoffed as they stared at the bird. Hanna and Spencer walked off to talk, leaving Isabel and Aria to stare at Tippi.
"Hey, what's this song?" Aria asked no one in particular. Isabel shrugged and waited for it to start up again. "What's she singing?"
"Don't look at me, I'm terrible at remembering the names of songs," Isabel scoffed. Tippi kept singing that same song over and over and over, it almost drove her insane, if she already wasn't.
-
So... it turned out that damn bird wasn't singing a song, but rather a phone number. Isabel, Aria, Hanna, and Spencer were calling the number at Spencer's.
"It could be a business, but Saturday night they're closed," Isabel suggested as it rang.
"Let it- Just let it ring, okay?" Hanna sighed. "Where is this area code, anyways?"
"York county," Spencer responded, holding the still ringing phone.
"Did Ali know anybody from there?" Aria asked Isabel.
"I don't know," Isabel shrugged defensively. "I'm guessing that she called her beach hottie -'Board Shorts'- obsessively from Georgia, and that's how Tippi learned this number."
"Maybe you just dialed the number wrong," Aria replied.
"I didn't!" Spencer scoffed as it miraculously still rang.
"How do you know? You dialed it, not Tippi," Hanna shot back.
"Okay, let's just go record the bird," Aria snapped, and they stared at her.
"You guys, she's been singing this phone number on a loop," Isabel huffed, crossing her arms. "I've heard it like twenty times."
"So have I, but I want someone to answer," Hanna argued.
"Don't we all?" Isabel said bitterly.
"So Aria, let's just go get your phone and we'll record it together," Hanna continued, and they all followed her upstairs.
"Okay," Aria muttered.
But when they got upstairs, the bird cage was open, and Tippi was gone.
"What's going on?" Spencer asked as she walked over.
"Tippi's gone," Isabel replied, wide-eyed.
"Yeah, but how?" Hanna asked incredulously. "Who opened that cage?"
Spencer picked up a feather and looked out the open window. "Probably the same person who opened the window."