chapter four
can you hear me now?
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The next day the girls met up by a bench in town, one they were going to make into a dedication to Alison. "How bad did your mom bust you over wrecking Sean's car?" Emily asked. "Okay, I did not wreck it, I damaged it." Hanna said, defending herself. "And, actually, everyone's being really mature about it." Hanna added. "Oh." Emily said, making Hanna look at her. "There's no "Oh" we're just being grown-up, that's all." Hanna said. "Okay, so the town is gonna put in a new bench," Aria said, pointing to the run-down bench.

"And we'll plant flower beds, and there's gonna be a pathway of art tiles." Adalind added onto her cousin's sentence. "Art tiles?" Spencer asked, confused as she sat down on the bench. "Mmm," Adalind hummed and nodded. "Messages, Pictures, Memories of Alison." Emily said. "Oh, like little headstones." Hanna said sarcastically. "Hanna!" Adalind said, hitting her arm lightly. "What?" she said, as if she hadn't said anything. "We should each do a tile." Emily said, and Adalind nodded in agreement.

"You know, I've had Alison's bracelet since the day we found it in the woods, and I don't want the responsibility." Hanna said as she dug through her bag for Alison's purple bracelet. She held it out towards her friends, hoping one would take it. "I don't want it." Aria and Adalind said in sync. "Seriously, somebody take this." Hanna pleaded with her friends, and eventually Spencer took it from her. "Look at us, bunch of babies." she said as the rest of them went silent, not knowing what to say.

"There's nothing 'A' can say or do to get us into trouble without making trouble for herself." Spencer said as she looked at her friends. "Are you sure it's a her?" Adalind asked. "Him, her, it doesn't make any difference." Spencer responded before pulling out her laptop from her bag and opening it up. "What are you doing?" Emily asked. "I'm gonna black all messages from people that i don't know." she answered, typing away on her laptop. "IMs, texts, emails, everything, screw 'A'." she added before a noise came from her computer. "There." she said, before looking at her friends. "Who's next?" she asked.

It was Emily who took the computer from Spencer, and as she sat down Spencer stood up, who then noticed Mr. Fitz riding his bicycle across the road from them. "I spy with my little eye, something that begins with 'F'" she said. "Hey Mr. Fitz." Hanna called out with a wave, making him look over at them as Adalind looked over at Aria who looked like she wanted to anywhere but there. "Looking good, Mr. Fitz." Spencer called out before Aria had sat down next to Emily just as she finished. "My turn." she said as she took the computer from her.

"There are teachers that you don't wanna see on a bike, and there are some teachers you do wanna see on a bike." Spencer as she stared at Mr. Fitz. "I would not wanna see Mr. Gilardi on a bike." Hanna said, making Adalind cringe as she shook her head. "I don't wanna think of Mr. Gilardi in motion of any kind." Adalind said as she crossed her arms as the girls, besides Aria, chuckled. "Ah, Mr. Fitz." Hanna said in a dreamy tone. "Hanna. Your turn." Aria said, snappily, making Adalind give her a look.

Hanna sat down next to Aria and took the computer from Aria so she could block her number from whoever 'A' is as Adalind sat next to Hanna so she could take the computer from her once she was done. "You talk to Ben?" Spencer asked Emily. "Nothing to talk about," Emily said. "So, you're really done?" Aria asked. "It's okay, I'm fine." Emily said as Hanna passed the computer to Adalind. "Okay, if you say so." Adalind said as she typed on Spencer's computer.

"I wish we had a drum roll for this." Adalind said, almost finished on the computer. "Alright, here it goes." she added as she clicked something she had done, she had blocked any unknown person from contacting her. "We are officially 'A' proofed." Hanna said happily as she closed the computer for Adalind. "Listen to all those little messages zipping through the air all around us," Spencer said.

"Yep, and none of them from 'A'." Aria said as she leaned on the bench. "This feels like a good thing." Emily said with a smile on her face. "Of course it's a good thing." Hanna said. "Hanna's right, Out of mind, out of sight," Adalind said just as a piece of paper flew towards them, causing Aria to pick it up. It was a missing poster of Alison, obviously from a year ago, but it had 'DING DONG, THE BITCH IS DEAD' in red on it, making Adalind sigh as her friends looked around to see if anyone could have done it in the last five minutes. Aria screwed it up into a ball. 

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The girls, minus Emily, were in the school cafeteria before classes started. "Spence, why didn't your folks take you to New York with your sister? I mean, you deserve some retail therapy too." Hanna asked. "Not as much as Melissa." Spencer said as she held a cup of coffee as Emily joined them, sporting a new scarf. "Ohh, hot scarf Em," Spencer said, complementing the red scarf Emily was wearing. "Thanks." Emily said shyly. "Is it new?" Hanna asked and Emily hesitated before answering. "No." she said, shaking her head as Hanna's cell phone rang, making her pull it out and looking at it in shock before looking at her friends. "Go ahead, answer it." Aria said. "We know who it can't be from." Adalind added.

"Hanna," Emily urged her when she noticed Hanna hadn't answered the call and her phone was still ringing. "It's my dad!" Hanna said, a smile lighting up on her face in excitement before and answered it. "Hey, Dad." she said as she walked away to go outside and the friends watched her go. "Has she... even, like, talked to her dad since he walked out of them?" Emily asked. "I don't know, and then, her father, it's one of those "Don't ask, Don't tell" situations." Spencer said. "We shouldn't stare at her, come on." Adalind said as she went to walk away, her friends followed her just as Aria's phone went off, making her look at it. "My brother's post showed up on my loop." Aria said, making Adalind laugh.

"You added Mike as one of your favourites?" she asked. "Yeah, moment of weakness." Aria said in amusement as she chucked out her empty coffee cup into the bin before they crossed paths with Toby Cavanaugh. "Sorry," he said to Emily, who he nearly ran into. "My fault." Emily said before catching up with her friends. "I wonder if we just bumped into 'A'." Aria whispered to them, making sure to be quiet. "It doesn't matter. We're done with 'A', right?" Spencer said as she looked between Aria, Emily and Adalind. "Right, yeah. I mean... but, I'm still staying out of Toby's way." Aria said. "Yeah, and Jenna's." Adalind added. "I guess that's the safest thing to do." Emily said as they continued to walk the hallways.

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The whole group was walking down the hallways as Hanna spoke about her father. "He has to be in New  England for a couple weeks but he's making a special trip out to see me." Hanna gushed, excited to see her father again. "That's–That's great, Hanna." Aria stuttered, making Hanna look at her friends, noticing their looks, making her confused. "What?" she asked. "It's just.. Do you think he's out here because of the thing with Sean's car?" Emily asked and Hanna shook her head. "No, he's not." she said. "Look, I asked, absolutely not." she continued. "And besides, even if he was, at least he's still coming out to see me." Hanna finished, making Adalind sigh.

"Spencer!" Mr. Sheldrake called out, rushing over to the group to speak with Spencer. "Mr. Sheldrake." Spencer greeted him. "I was gonna tell you in class, but, ug, here you are." he said, with a smile on his face. "Remarkable job on the russian history essay." he congratulated her. "Oh, Thanks." she added, awkwardly as her friends watched the conversation. "Very lucid presentation," he continued. "It's not really a new idea." Spencer said. "I've submitted it for the Golden Orchid," he said proudly before going to walk away. "Wait, you what?" Spencer asked as she turned to look at him in shock. "There's an honorarium, but you know the real upside to winning an essay competition like that is how it looks on your applications." Mr. Sheldrake said before he walked away.

"Wait, can we–" Spencer started speaking but Mr. Sheldrake cut in. "We'll discuss the details after class," he said before walking away. "Okay, what's a Golden Orchid?" Hanna asked Spencer with a laugh. "It's a national competition for historical writing." Spencer said as she turned around to face her friends. "More academic bling for Spencer." Emily teased Spencer just before the bell rings signalling class was starting. "Okay, see you later," Aria said with a smile before walking off, Hanna following her as Adalind walked the opposite way as she went to her locker and as she opened it, her phone rang, making her take it out of her jacket pocket, but froze when she saw who was calling her. Jason. She declined it before putting it away and getting her books before locking her locker and heading to class.

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Adalind was sitting on her couch in her living room when her mom entered the room as well, "Hey, was thinking we order in tonight, your dad's gonna be late and i'm tired as hell," Lorelai said as she crossed her arms and leaned on the doorway. "Yeah that sounds good, maybe Pizza?" Adalind asked and Lorelai nodded. "Pizza sounds amazing." she said before she walked off to the kitchen to get her phone to order the food.

As her mother left, her phone rang again, making her pick it up from where it layed on the seat beside her. Jason it said, again, making her sigh as she watched her phone ring out and her phone slowly turned off, before she sat it down again. She didn't know if she was gonna call back, it's been a year and he's just now calling her? She doesn't understand but she didn't feel like having that conversation right now so she chose to ignore it.

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The next day, the girls were standing around in the English classroom as Hanna talked about what her and her dad did the other night and how it went. "I mean, it was–it was great. Incredible, really." Hanna said as she smiled wide. "Where'd your dad take you?" Emily asked. "Jolly Roger's." Hanna answered, the smile still on her face as her friends laughed. "What, the lame amusement park?" Aria asked in-between laughs. "Okay, it is not lame." Hanna said, defending her choice of place to go. "We didn't go on the tilt-a-world. We walked around and talked." Hanna said.

"And i told him about what's going on," she said, making the friends share a look and once Hanna noticed the looks, she backtracked. "Some of what's going on, and he listened." she said. "And he wants to take me to a real dinner tonight, he said he has something to tell me." Hanna said happily. "I don't know, I think he wants to spend more time with me, I mean, maybe summers in maryland." she continued. "Seriously?" Emily asked. "Would you go?" Adalind asked from where she sat on top of a desk. "Well, I wouldn't move away, not forever." Hanna said.

"I don't wanna leave my mom alone, but... I would like to see my dad more." Hanna admitted. "Wow." Spencer with a smile, as they all smiled at Hanna. "Good for you." Aria said as the bell rang, making everyone move into seats as Mr. Fitz entered the classroom. He clears his throat before speaking. "I'm wondering is anybody else bothered by Atticus' hypocrisy at the end of the novel?" he asked as Adalind opened the book, reading the notes she made on the side of it, but no one answered his question. "No? Well he's Mr. Due process when it comes to Tom Robinson then as soon as Bob Ewell gets stabbed, he's willing to buy into the sheriff's cover-up." he said, causing Adalind to put her hand up, making him point at her to speak.

"He was protecting Boo Radley." she spoke as she put her hand down. "Protecting him? From, from what, the justice system?" he asked. "Atticus is an officer of the court and he's conspiring to cover up a crime," he said. "And he's willing to let his own son take the fall for something Boo Radley did?" he asked. "It was a trade." Aria called out, making everyone look towards her. "What was a trade?" Mr. Fitz asked. "Mr. Ewell would have killed those kids, Boo saved them, and Atticus was still feeling guilty over Tom Robinson so he offered Jem to take Boo's place." she said as Mr. Fitz walked down the line of desks. "Almost like a sacrifice." she added.

"Oh, very Noble." Mr. Fitz said, and Adalind could feel tension in the room, obviously something had happened and it wasn't good. "Too bad Jem was unconscious, you think he might have had a different opinion?" he asked. "No, Jem would have said yes." Aria argued. "You're sure about that?" Mr. Fitz asked. "He was brought up right." Aria said, making Adalind's eyes widen. It was silent for a moment before someone behind Aria cleared their throat. "I'm sorry, Mr. Sperling, do you have something to add to his discussion? Aside from phlegm?." Mr. Fitz asked.

"Just... well, his dad was a lawyer, he could get his kids off. Um... being brought up right had nothing to with it." he said. "Really?" Mr. Fitz cut his sentence off slightly at the end and at this point, everyone was watching this conversation like a tennis match. "The whole book is about what shapes us into adults or haven't you been paying attention?" Mr. Fitz asked. "No, no, i'm just saying that she–" he was cut off by Mr. Fitz again. "No, no you're just saying that Aria made an attempt to understand this book and you haven't." he said, rudely.

"No, i wasn't saying that, Mr. Fitz," the boy said, looking down at his desk. "Sorry, what are you trying to say?"  Mr. Fitz asked. "Well, it'd probably be easier for Atticus to get the kid off than to get Boo off, that's all." he said, and it was silent in the classroom as Mr. Fitz walked back to his desk.

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Adalind was sitting in her bed, reading with her lamp on when her phone went off, making her bookmark her book and reach towards the end of her bed to grab her phone and read the message.

Spencer Hastings
S.O.S.

Adalind sighed and got up, putting normal clothes on before sneaking out of the house, careful not to alert her parents and got in her car and sped to Spencers, she pulled up just as Aria had, "Know what this is about?" She asked her cousin as she locked her car door, but Aria just shook her head just as Emily arrived and the three entered the Hastings house, meeting with Spencer, who led them upstairs into her room where Hanna was, staring at  Mirror. Adalind let out a shaky breath, it was a message from 'A'.

IT WON'T BE THAT
EASY BITCHES
⎯ A

It was in capitals, and written in lipstick. "Is that jungle red?" Hanna asked as she looked closer. "Alison's colour." Emily said as they stared at it in fear, 'A' had been in Spencer's house, if she can get into her house, can she or he get into their houses as well? Most likely and that's what made Adalind scared the most.

⎯ AUTHORS NOTE
another chapter!! i'm really loving adalind <3