Monday came and I had to go to school. I put on a cute floral sweater with jeans and converse and put on some basic makeup. I went downstairs and took some pain pills with some toast before my mother drove me. I stood at my locker, grabbing my books as I heard someone touching multiple lockers,
"Grace. I know you're there." Jenna said from next to me.
"I'm kind of in a rush." I stated, closing my locker.
"Do you have it?" She asked.
"I... I don't, and no one else does, either. Listen, you don't have to worry about it anymore, okay? It's gone... for good. I answered.
"What? What are you talking about?" Jenna questioned.
"Just what I said. It's gone." I repeated.
"I hope you're not lying to me." She sneered before I quickly walked away.
I made it through the day. Barely. Everyone kept asking how I was, and I was getting sick of it. Once school was done, I was out of there. I walked home, and when I got to Toby's house, I froze.
On the back of a truck was Toby's motorcycle. And it was extremely beat up. There were dents in it and the front tire was at a weird angle. I saw Jenna sitting on the front steps sobbing.
What happened to Toby?
...
"So, is Toby dead?" Hanna asked, rubbing my back.
"I couldn't bring myself to ask. Jenna was so upset. But his bike... it looked like it was... like it was wrecked." I stated, looking down at my lap.
"Well, I'm not gonna cry over this, and neither should you." Spencer said and I glared at her.
"Spencer, if she liked him she can cry about it." Hanna defended.
"Well, I'm sorry for speaking." Spencer said before going quiet, "Look, she's right. I... I can't tell you what to feel."
"I'm sorry for what I said about your family yesterday. I didn't mean it." Hanna said to Spencer.
Wait, what?
"It's true. You're not the first person to think it." Spencer replied.
My phone beeped and I grabbed it from my lap,
"It's probably Aria. Something weird's going down at her house." Hanna said.
I stared at the text and tears formed in my eyes.
"What is it?"
Spencer grabbed the phone from my hand, "'Thanks for getting Toby out of my way. 'A.'"
I buried my face in my hands and Spencer touched my arm in comfort.
"It's for the best, Gracie."
...
"I was afraid she wouldn't get it done in time for the memorial. This was someone from your mom's gallery?" Hanna asked as Spencer and Aria pushed a giant box into the living room of Spencer's house.
"Right." Aria answered.
"Where is your mom?" Emily asked.
"There's an apartment above the gallery. So she's staying there. For now."
"Kind of weird, isn't it? Your mom moving out." Hanna stated.
"Yeah, like my dad should have left. That's what you'd expect."
"Aria." Spencer scolded.
"Hey, I'm sorry. I didn't mean it like that. The whole thing just sucks." Aria apologized.
"I know."
"Did anyone call Shelly Leonard?" I questioned, unscrewing a nail from the box.
"Done. I told her that if she plays anything depressing, I will kick in her cello." Spencer answered.
"Oh, what about the program?" Aria asked her.
"Almost done. But we should finish it before Ali's brother gets here."
"When is that?"
"Tonight. He wants to see us in the morning." Spencer said.
"God, you know what? I barely remember Jason." Hanna said, getting up to help.
"We didn't know him. He was just Ali's older brother down the hall." I stated
"Behind the closed door."
"With his hardcore-punk music vibrating the floor boards." Emily continued and we all laughed,
"How did he get into an Ivy League school?" Aria questioned.
"I don't know. It must've been affirmative action for goths and emos." Spencer replied before we lifted the lid and peered inside.
The head was amazing. On it were six women made out of copper.
"Wow"
"It's beautiful."
" Pedestal's already out there, next to the bench. This goes up Friday morning." Spencer stated.
"Do you think Jason will like it?" I asked.
"Of course he'll like it." Hanna replied.
"You know, years from now, people are gonna see this memorial and that's all they'll ever know about Ali. She'll be the girl that they dedicated the bench to. And we'll all be gone, but Ali will still be remembered." Aria said.
"'That's immortality, my darlings'." I quoted, remembering the day Ali said that.
"Where did she get that from, a movie?" Aria asked.
"Ali was a movie." I replied.
...
The next morning Emily picked me up in her new car and we drove over to Spencer's to meet with Jason. He was different then what I remembered. His hair was shorter and he was in a suit. He was a lot more handsome than before.
"You've done a great job. Really. Mom and Dad and I are really grateful." Jason stated before the door opened behind him and Hanna came in, "There she is."
"Jason. Uh... Hey. Sorry I'm late." Hanna apologized, hugging him.
"No problem. I was saying you've done some lovely work on the memorial. I might've done one or two things differently. We can adjust that along the way. Here's a copy of the program for the dedication." Jason handed Emily a piece of paper and Spencer spoke up,
"Oh, I emailed you the program that we worked up."
"Right. I saw the draft. This just fine-tunes it. Let's see. If Shelly Leonard's gonna play something I don't think we can give her more than three minutes." He smiled, "I remember she's somewhat of a showboat with that cello. Then, uh... Oh." He held up a photo of Ali, "Is this the picture for the program?"
"Yes. It's everybody's favorite." I said.
Jason nodded and looked at me, "It's the one I would have picked. I thought I was gonna be able to get my whole family out here...but, you know, at the last minute, my mom, um..." He chuckled, "It's crazy talking about this, isn't it? When I think about her, I think about you. The five of you in her bedroom, laughing, keeping secrets. Long time ago." Jason grabbed his coffee, "I want each of you to speak. I'd rather hear from you than Miss Slocomb from the PTA."
"The PTA was a lot of help." Spencer said.
"What about the rain?"
"The rain?" Spencer questioned.
"Forty percent chance before the weekend." Jason elaborated.
"They said that we can use the school's multipurpose room if we have to move the ceremony inside."
"Great. People think this dedication is about closure." Jason put his hand on the tile that the five of us made, "There won't be closure until they find out who did this to Alison. The cops in this town have been jerking my family around for more than a year. No more of that. I'm here to get some action, and this memorial is gonna help me get it." He grabbed a pen and grabbed the program, "Oh, and I'm adding one speaker to the program."
"Jenna Marshall?" I questioned, reading his handwriting,
'You want Jenna to speak... at the dedication?" Hanna asked.
"That's right."
"Why?"
"She asked me if she could." Jason answered.
"Jenna asked to speak?"
"Is there a problem?" Jason asked us.
"It just didn't occur to us that Alison and Jenna were that close." Spencer said.
"We weren't."
"I didn't know either. Jenna called and said my sister was a lot of help to her after her accident. Well, concentrate on what you're gonna say. Leave the rest of it to me. Now I'm going to have a talk with Detective Wilden and find out why they haven't located Toby yet." Jason said, packing up his things and leaving.
"Did we just get fired?" Emily asked.
"Shh! Keep it down." Spencer hissed.
"Why is he talking to Jenna?" I asked.
"I don't know."
"What does she have to say?"
"This is turning into a nightmare." I stated.
"What else did he say?" Hanna asked.
"Nothing. Just kept smiling like he was running for office." Spencer answered.
"Spence, why does Jenna wanna speak at the dedication?" Aria asked.
"And why does Jason want her there? He clearly knows they weren't friends." Hanna said.
"We can't let Jenna speak."
" How are we gonna stop her without looking like bitches?" I asked.
"How're we gonna stop her at all? In case you didn't notice we just got patted on the head and sent off to play." Spencer stated.
"You need to stay on top of him, find out what's going on." Hanna told Spencer.
"Why me?" Spencer questioned.
"Because you're the big organizer. You've got the laptop of all knowledge, and he's gonna need some of that." Aria answered.
"Jenna could get up there, she could tell about the fire and Toby. She could tell about everything." Emily said.
...
Later that week, Spencer, Jason, and I met with Principle Hartman to talk about the memorial.
"Well, that was painless." Jason said.
"Not for Principal Hartman." Spencer muttered.
"He means well, but he needs to know who's in charge." Jason replied.
"I think we all know that."
"Okay, is... is there a problem?" Jason questioned us.
"There's no problem. You're Alison's brother. You should have the final say. But you're not the only one dealing with this." I told him.
"See, there's that closed door again. The secrets of the girls cuddled up in Alison's bedroom. Do you think that means you knew her better than I did?" Jason replied.
"No. It just means we knew her in a different way." I stated.
Then we saw Detective Wilden and the custodian along with another officer walk up to Toby's locker,
"What are they doing?"
"That's Toby's locker." I stated.
"Detective Wilden." Jason greeted as the three of us walked up to him,
"You'll find this interesting. We're having a look in Toby Cavanaugh's locker." Wilden said.
"Why? Do you think he's hiding in there?" Jason asked.
"He's a suspect." Wilden stated.
"Your investigation better turn up more than Toby Cavanaugh's old gym socks."
"You made it clear you weren't happy with the pace of the investigation. You said you wanted action. I'm trying to give that to you." Wilden replied.
"Yeah, you've got nothing. I realized that yesterday." Jason responded.
"Sometimes, Jason, we withhold information on the progress of an investigation to avoid any interruptions."
"The only reason you're tearing this kid's locker apart is because he's not around to object." Jason said.
"Toby called your sister's cell phone the night she disappeared. I checked the phone records. She took the call." Wilden stated.
"Toby called Alison the night she died?" I questioned.
"He did. Or somebody else did using his phone." Wilden answered.
"The truth comes out eventually."
...
Later that day, Spencer called all of us over to her place. Apparently Alison told Jenna that Spencer was the one to throw the bomb into the garage the night she got blinded.
"And so she tried to pin it on you?" Hanna asked Spencer
"That's what she told Jason."
"But why you?" I questioned.
"Because Spencer could stand up to her, and Alison didn't like that." Aria said.
"God, this is officially insane." Hanna stated.
"Is that what she told Jenna when she was at the hospital?"
"I don't know. I mean, I don't think so, but I don't know." Spencer answered.
"Okay, so one minute, she's trying to cover it up and the next, she's ratting us out to her brother?" Aria questioned.
"Like she wanted Jason to know the fake story in case anything happened to her." I said.
"Why?" Hanna asked.
"So they'd know who to blame." Spencer answered.
"God. This is still Alison's movie, and we're just filling up the screen." Aria said.
...
It was the day of the memorial and I didn't know what to wear. In the end, I chose a black long sleeve dress that had a grey skirt. I work black heels and a black jacket. I put waves in my hair and put on a thick eyeliner and a light shade of lipstick. Emily picked me up and we went to the school. The memorial was held in multipurpose room as it decided to rain today. There was a giant photo of Alison and Spencer went up to the podium. Before she spoke, she looked at someone in the back of the room and looked at us. I looked back to see Ian.
"Ian?" I questioned.
"Wait, Melissa's Ian?" Hanna replied.
"Um... 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 I could be angry with...without worrying that I was gonna lose her. It made me feel like something was gonna last. And you need that. Yeah, especially when you're a kid." Spencer began and Hanna went up, "Friends can be hard on you. Maybe they expect more from you than strangers. Strangers pretty much see you the way you want them to see you... but you can't fool friends. That's what makes them friends."
"That corner of the park is gonna be a safe place where you can go and sit read a book and just think. You should think about Alison while you're there. She'd wanna make sure you didn't forget about her." Emily continued.
"When you do something like this, well, a memorial it's partly because you don't understand what's happened. So you plant flowers and you paint tiles and somewhere in the middle of all that work, you stop crying. I guess that's the point." Aria said.
"She would've liked that you were all here. She would've liked the attention. No, actually, she would've loved the attention." I smiled, "It would've made her laugh. And Alison laughing... that was amazing." I said before sitting down and Jenna went to the podium,
"We think we know who we are, but we don't. Not until something bad happens to us. And then all the useless things fall away, and we're left with who we really are. I learned that from Alison DiLaurentis. My whole life, 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 that she was the strongest person that I had ever met. And it's her strength that touched so many people, shaped them. That's her real legacy. That's how her memory will endure. In the actions of those she inspired in so many different ways. From all of us... ...thank you, Alison."
After the memorial, the five of us plus Jason went back to Spencer's house.
"I need sugar." Hanna stated.
"Me too."
"I'm buying."
"That was my folks." Jason said, hanging up his phone, "They say thanks. So do I."
"You're welcome." I gave him a small smiled and touched his arm.
"And I want you girls to have something. The police returned this to my family. I think you should have it." Jason said, laying a purple bracelet with Alison's name on it.
Exactly like the one we found in the woods.
"The police gave that to you?" Aria asked, examining the bracelet.
"Alison was wearing it."
"Wait. You mean when they found her?" I questioned.
"After listening today, I just thought you should have it." Jason turned to me, "I'll be in touch."
"If that's Alison's bracelet, what about the one we found in the woods?"
"I don't know." Aria answered.
"Someone made a copy of Alison's bracelet." Hanna stated.
"Yeah, and made sure that we would find it."