"Hey, no offense, but if she's sad she could cry in New York." -Emily Fields
(A/n: ...
I have nothing to say for myself.)
"I'm sorry, Spence," Emily sighed. They were in Aria's living room talking about how Toby found out about Shana. "Okay, nobody likes lying to Toby. But if he finds out what happened in New York-"
"Just tell him the truth," Aria said abruptly. "If you're lying to protect me, you don't need to." She looked over at Ali, who was staring out the window and back at Spencer. "It's your decision, Spencer. It's not hers."
"Ali, you don't have to stand watch," Isabel pointed out as Ali kept looking between them and the window. "Spencer said that Toby was taking her home. Jenna's not coming here."
"He said she sounded broken," Spencer replied quietly.
"She's still full-on blind, right?" Emily asked.
"Maybe she came back 'cause she wants to be close to her family," Aria shrugged as Ali sat down on the couch.
"Hey, no offense, but if she's sad she could cry in New York," Emily huffed.
"Let's face it, we blinded Jenna, we killed her girlfriend. She's back to punish us for it," Hanna scoffed.
"Said with absolutely no tact but you're right," Spencer agreed with a sigh.
"I had no idea that Jenna was living in New York," Ali muttered, making them look at her. "Which means that Shana was lying when she said that Jenna didn't know that she was after us."
"She came home to finish what Shana started," Emily added.
Hanna looked down sadly. "And I still don't have time for a hobby."
"What?" Emily blinked.
"The new normal was supposed to be a carefree senior year," Isabel explained, leaning back. "'A's dead and we're still plotting our zone defense in the dark."
"You guys have put up with so much to help me," Ali sighed. "And I've made a lot of enemies. But it's not going to be us against them tomorrow. Just like I'm working to earn back your trust, I'm going to try and make amends with everyone I hurt."
"Does that include Jenna?" Aria asked quietly. Ali was silent.
-
"Maybe she's not coming," Hanna said as they waited in front of the school for Ali.
"Oh, she's coming," Isabel scoffed.
Aria sighed. "We should have picked her up. Why didn't we pick her up?"
"Her dad wanted to drop her off," Emily explained, but then Isabel and Spencer spotted her.
"Guys, I don't think she's coming," Spencer replied. "I think she's here."
And there she was. Ali, in a blue fancy top over a floral dress and a pink bag. Walking into school like nothing happened. Everyone seemed in awe of her, but also ticked off.
"Once a bitch, always a bitch," some girl huffed as Ali walked by her.
"Hey, Ali, remember me?" another guy called out.
"Do they love her or do they hate her?" Hanna frowned.
"I can't tell," Aria replied just as confused. Ali walked up to two girls, all smiles and politeness.
"Wait, Ali knows Cindy and Mindy?" Isabel blinked.
"She used to call them 'gayrons,'" Emily muttered, and Aria stared at her.
"Gayrons?" Aria repeated.
"Yeah, like gay morons," Emily replied, crossing her arms. After a few minutes, Ali walked up to the girls. "Ready?" Emily her asked brightly.
Ali smiled at them. "Thanks for waiting for me."
Isabel pressed her lips together tightly as they trudged into the halls. Everyone stared at Ali, who was, of course, leading the group.
"Ali, do you know where your first class is?" Aria questioned as soon as they stopped at the end of the hall.
"I'm supposed to go to the guidance counselor's office," Ali told her. "But I can't remember where it is."
"I've got chem lab. It's close. I can walk with you," Emily offered.
Ali smiled at her. "Thanks, Em."
"Well, I hope you have a good first day back," Hanna said.
"Yeah," Aria nodded. "Call us if you need us."
"We'll meet up for lunch, okay?" Isabel added, fixing her bag strap.
"Thanks," Ali replied, a ghost of a smile on her face. "For everything."
Isabel grimaced before walking off. She liked public attention, just not like this.
-
"Spence, call us back," Emily sighed as she left yet another voicemail for Spencer. "We're getting worried."
"I haven't seen Ali since first period," Hanna remarked. Isabel poked at her food while the others talked about them.
"Maybe they skipped," she shrugged, brining the fork to her lips.
"No, Ali sent a text," Emily replied, putting down her phone. "She's in guidance counselor hell."
"With everything going on with Spencer's family, I don't like not knowing where she is," Hanna muttered.
"I was thinking about going to Jenna's after school," Aria mentioned. "I can swing by Spencer's."
"Okay, back up. Why would you be going to Jenna's?" Hanna blinked as Isabel dropped her fork. Guilt.
"Because I believe what Toby told Spencer," Aria whispered. "And if Jenna's broken because of what I did- I don't know, maybe there's something I can do to help."
"What could you do to help?" Isabel frowned, picking up her fork again.
"Yeah, last night you thought she was staring blind daggers at you," Hanna agreed.
"Both of you, back off, okay?" Aria scoffed, suddenly, defensive.
"I'm just saying, if she's not looking for us or smelling for us, then-" Hanna replied, but Aria cut her off.
"Look, Hanna, I really hope that you find a hobby," she said, glaring at her. "And I hope you have a carefree senior year, Isabel. And that you mend your relationship with Ali, Em. But I've got to find a way to live with what I did in New York." She picked up her lunch tray and got up.
"Okay, Aria-" Emily began.
"I can be sorry for her loss," Aria snapped. "All right? That's what I can do." She stormed off, leaving three speechless girls behind.
-
Isabel was at her apartment, reading on her bed while Jason typed away on his laptop at the kitchen counter.
"Hey, you hungry?" Jason called as he shut his laptop closed. Isabel wasn't paying attention since she was engrossed in her book.
"Yeah, sure," she muttered, not looking up. Suddenly, his arms snaked around her waist, pulling her closer to Jason, who had sat down next to her. "Hello there." She dropped her book, hugging him back.
"What would you like for dinner?" he asked.
"Hm... how about Chinese?" she suggested, and then realized that was the first time she wanted Chinese food since he left her.
"You got it," he smiled, pulling out his phone.
About ten minutes later, there was a knock on the door, making Isabel look up from her book, which she was reading while Jason held her in his arms.
"Speedy delivery, this time, huh?" he joked as she got up. "Usually takes them about twice as long, then mistakenly giving it to the old lady next door."
"Ah, but she's a nice lady and never complains," Isabel smiled. She opened the door, ready to tip the guy or girl a nice amount when she realized it wasn't a delivery person.
It was Caleb.
"Miss me?" he asked with a ghost of a smile on his face.
"C- Caleb?" Isabel blinked. His hair was cut shorter than usual, and he adorned all black, which was strange for him. "You- you've changed... cut your hair..." She paused. "I really thought you left me."
"Of course I wouldn't," Caleb promised her, pulling her into a hug. She smiled to herself, a bit ticked off that he left for so long, but decided to let bygones be bygones. She felt him tense and draw back. She turned around to see what he was looking at, and realized that Jason was still sitting on her bed. "What's he doing here? I thought he broke your heart. Need I remind you-?"
"Caleb, I'm forgiving you now, and actually, I'm being way nicer than I was to Jason," Isabel scoffed, crossing her arms.
"Oh yeah? What's not nice to you, then, being so whipped that you probably had to beg for him to-" Caleb snapped, and Isabel's eyes widened. What the hell had happened to him? And who was this rude snappy guy standing in front of Isabel?
"Whoa, what is wrong with you?" she scoffed.
"What's wrong is that you're letting him stay with you, Isabela," Caleb replied, just as angrily. "After he left you, you were a mess!"
"Caleb, people can forgive each other," Jason called, and Isabel gave him a look. Don't.
"You wanna go man?" Caleb huffed, starting forward. Isabel shoved him back.
"Caleb! What has gotten into you?" she gulped, looking him in the eyes.
"Nothing. I just gotta go. Bye, Isabela," he said gruffly, and walked off. Isabel stared after him.
Who was that, and what had they done with her brother?
-
"Hey, Han, we're all at Ali's," Aria was saying as she left a voicemail. Apparently, Mona confronted Ali at the church and slapped her. "You might be asleep, but just call us when you get this."
"I don't think it was a coincidence that all of you were busy tonight," Ali said shakily.
"Ali, I was with your brother, and you know I'm always busy at nights," Isabel scoffed, rolling her eyes. They all stared at her. "Oh my god, no, not in that way! Well... slightly in that way..."
"Did you see who was driving?" Spencer asked after a second.
"It couldn't have been Mona," Ali replied. "She got into that church way too fast. She had help."
"Sounds like an ambush," Aria remarked from her spot in Ali's chair. Emily walked over and handed Ali a cup of tea. Her hands shook as she took it, making them all look at her worriedly.
"You're shaking," Emily pointed out.
"Hey, here," Aria offered, taking the cup from her. She set it on the side table and looked back at Ali. "Well, what did you do when she slapped you?"
Ali took a full five seconds to respond. "I just stared at her."
"Look, I think you're right," Spencer sighed. "If Mona had any proof that we were in New York, she would have used it by now."
"She was just trying to scare you," Isabel agreed.
"Well, she succeeded," Ali huffed.
-
The next day at school, Isabel, Aria, Spencer, Emily, and Ali walked up to Hanna. She wore huge sunglasses, a beanie, and a cardigan.
"If you feel as bad as you look-" Aria began.
"Not so loud," Hanna complained.
"Okay, so how does Mona know that we were in New York?" Ali asked worriedly.
"She's Mona," Isabel scoffed, rolling her eyes.
"But how did she send that 'New York minute' text to your burner phone the night we got back into town?" Aria frowned.
"The other day I learned how to make my own satellite on the Web," Spencer stated, and Isabel raised an eyebrow at her. Seems like a Spencer-y thing to do.
"What are you going to do with a satellite?" Hanna asked.
"The point is that you can learn to do anything on the Web," Spencer explained as she typed away on her phone. "Using a Bluetooth sniper rifle, the hacker can receive signals from a thousand yards away. You can be blue-snarfed in seconds, and the entire contents of your phone will be wirelessly uploaded."
"So Mona blue-snarfed us?" Isabel huffed, crossing her arms. Spencer was silent, and they started to walk down the halls. Great, now Mona would see her search history.
There were a group of people surrounding Mona, and she seemed upset. Everyone was giving Ali nasty looks.
"What's going on?" Ali demanded as she crossed her arms.
"Some people really did hope that you changed," Lucas said, getting up.
"We're not afraid of you, Mona," Spencer scoffed.
"Afraid of me?" Mona asked innocently. She walked up to them. "What lies has she told you? Alison attacked me last night." She put a hand up to the thin scratch line on her cheek. "And when she started saying things like she could make me disappear, I turned my phone to video."
She handed Spencer her phone, and Isabel peered over her shoulder. If Mona had video evidence, then...
"You're scared because you know it's not gonna take me long to win over your army of losers," Ali-on-video scoffed. "I made you Loser Mona once and you know I can do it again."
They all gasped as Ali-in-the-video slapped Mona. But Isabel knew from the choppy way it moved that the video was edited, yet nevertheless, Ali had hit Mona.
"It's..." Ali stuttered, looking between them guiltily. She walked off to the bathrooms, and the girls followed her. "That is the last time I underestimate that bitch."
"How are you going to try and spin this one, Ali?" Emily huffed as she crossed her arms.
"I mean, we know you're a great liar, so I'm sure this is going to be a good one," Isabel added.
"Everything I told you last night was true," Ali swore with a pleading look. "She slapped me first. I swear it. I didn't tell you that I slapped her back because I felt terrible about it."
"'Loser Mona'? Really?" Hanna scoffed. "Are we back to that again?"
"I know how it looks," Ali said as Hanna looked away. "But you know what she's capable of. I mean, she set me up. Come on, guys. Mona's found a lot of ways to trick us into believing things were real when they're not. I mean, Spence, you landed in Radley because of one of those elaborate stunts she pulled."
"Maybe Mona deserved it," Emily shrugged. "But you went out of your way to lie to us. Again." And with that, they stormed out.
-
A couple nights later, Isabel was cuddled up to Jason, reading the book he was, when her phone beeped.
'Meet at Emily's- they found out who's in Ali's grave!' -Spencer
Isabel shot up, nearly knocking the book out of Jason's hands.
"What happened?" he asked, also sitting up.
"I need to get to Emily's-" Isabel began, clambering out of bed, but Jason grabbed her arm.
"No, we need to get to Emily's," he replied, and followed her.
When they got to Emily's, everyone was already there. Ali and Emily sat in a chair, Aria and Ezra occupied another one, Spencer and Toby stood in the back, and Hanna and Caleb were standing behind Aria and Ezra. Isabel and Jason stood by the window in the back.
"Have you been drinking again?" Spencer asked Hanna, some part of some conversation.
"I had one sip of beer," Hanna huffed.
"Oh, here he comes, we're going live," the lady on TV said. "We take you now to the Rosewood police chief."
"Good evening, ladies and gentlemen," the chief nodded, walking up. "I've called this press conference because we received confirmation tonight that the name of the victim that was buried alive on the DiLaurentis property was Bethany Young."
Isabel's eyes widened as Jason put a protective arm around her. Bethany Young? She'd never even heard of her.
"She was a 17-year-old patient at the Radley Institution and was believed to have run away from the hospital on the night that Alison DiLaurentis was allegedly kidnapped," the chief went on.
"Did they just say 'allegedly'?" Spencer scoffed.
"The victim's parents have been notified and the family is requesting at this time that you respect their privacy and allow them to grieve over the loss of their loved one," the chief stated. "There will be no comments and no questions, as-"
Suddenly, the window behind Isabel exploded, making everyone, especially her, scream. Without thinking, Jason pushed her to the ground and shielded her, but she already felt the drip of blood down her right arm.
"Oh, my God!" Aria yelled as glass rained down on the others.
"What the hell was that?!" Caleb shouted as they all slowly got up. Isabel looked around. The table she was leaning on seconds ago was on its side, and a lamp had smashed on the floor.
"Are you okay?" Aria asked.
They all walked outside, where Jason noticed the cut on her arm.
"Isa, you're bleeding," he said with wide eyes.
"Yeah, I know," Isabel muttered. "Let's just see what happened, then you can drive me to the hospital or whatever."
"Guys, what just happened?" Ali gulped. There were cars on their sides, ablaze with fire, alarms going off on the still intact ones.
"Oh, my God," Spencer remarked as they assessed the damage. Isabel walked past a chair on fire and she shuddered. "My God."
And right behind all of it was Toby's house, blazing with flames. Glass shattered, and Isabel ducked out of instinct. When she realized nothing had happened, she slowly looked up.
"Toby..." Spencer gaped as they stared at his house. "Your house."
"Was there anyone in there?" Caleb asked, and Toby darted off to go save that anyone.
"Toby, stay here! Please!" Spencer yelled, but it was too late.
Suddenly, their phones all beeped simultaneously.