chapter nine
perfect storm
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The group of girls, minus Emily, were all sitting in the Hastings kitchen, studying for their SATs. "It's insane, How many words do they expect you to learn in one night?" Hanna asked. "Stringent." Aria said as she quizzes Spencer and Adalind on words. "Uh, tough." Spencer answered. "Inflexible," Adalind added. "It's not like you're gonna actually use 'em." Hanna remarked. "Meretricious." Aria read out.

"It's not like you're gonna go to college and just start speaking a completely different language." Hanna continued as she looked up from her notebook to her friends. "It's about getting into college." Spencer responded to her before answering Aria. "Meretricious, um, phony, flashy?" she asked, unsure and Aria nodded with a hum. "Han, why are you still eating that?" Adalind asked her once she saw that Hanna was picking from their food they had ordered.

"Cause it's here." she answered. "Put it in the garbage." Spencer told her. "Well, then I'd have to stand over the garbage and eat it." Hanna responded, making Adalind laugh. "Besotted." Aria read. "Infatuated, enamored, in-love with." Adalind answered. "Speaking of in-love with, have you spoken to Jason?" Hanna asked Adalind who shook her head. "No, I haven't." she answered. "I've been busy, but I know I should and I will, just not yet." she added and Hanna nodded, satisfied with Adalind's answer before moving on to Aria.

"Hey, what did Noel Hahn say to you after the memorial?" she asked. "Hello, we're taking the SATs in less than twelve hours, can we focus?" Spencer asked, not wanting to get off topic. "Okay, Spencer, you do not need to know anymore big words, you're already scary enough to anyone under fifty." Hanna teased. "I'm not scary!" Spencer protested. "Am I scary?" she asked Adalind and Aria. "A little." The cousins responded in sync.

"Hey, I saw Noel Hahn hug you, and he did not wanna let go." Hanna said to Aria. "Talk about not wanting to let something go." Aria said as she looked at Hanna. "Why can't you give him a chance?" Hanna asked. "He's smart, he's cute, his dad owns, like, half of rhode island and he's got great lips." Hanna continued. "His father?" Spencer asked, screwing up her face in disgust.

"Noel. Ew." Hanna responded, making Aria laugh. "Seriously. Aria, you and Noel would look amazing together." Hanna said. "Can we just drop it, please?" Aria begged. "I'm not looking for anything more than a friend." she added. "Why? Don't you have enough on Facebook? Besides, don't you want someone real? Someone you can, I don't know, scratch and sniff?" Hanna asked. "Wow, Han, maybe you should eat that over the garbage." Adalind teased with a laugh, making them laugh as well.

"Okay, Look, I am trying to help out a friend here." Hanan said, defending herself as Aria got up and got herself a bottle of water. "We don't all have hot older ex-boyfriends," she said to Adalind before moving to Spencer. "Or smokin' hot ball boys from the country club." she said, making Adalind sigh at the mention of Jason. "What is going on with you and Alex? Is he back from that tournament?" Aria asked. "Yeah. he's back." Spencer answered shortly while smiling

"And?" Adalind asked. "And it's... good." Spencer answered, still smiling, causing the girls to share a smile. "It's so good." Spencer added with a laugh. "I want it to last, but I'm afraid I'm gonna blow it." Spencer continued. "So, when can we officially call him the boyfriend?" Adalind asked but Spencer just shrugged as Spencer's mom walked into the kitchen.

"Hi, mom." Spencer greeted her. "Hey, mrs. hastings." the girls greeted in sync. "Hi, girls." She greeted them back. "Oh, what smells so good?" she asked. "Garlic bread. Want some?" Spencer asked but Veronica shook her head 'no'. "I can't. God, I miss food." Veronica groaned. "Eat some butter for me, will you?" she said to Spencer, making her tilt her head and smile in amusement.

"Oh, why do I have so many messages?" Veronica said to herself as she looked through her phone. "Hey, maybe you should ask Alex–" Hanna started as she turned to Spencer, but she was cut off hastily. "Stop. Not now." Spencer told her in a hushed voice since her mom was still in the room. "Your mom still doesn't know?" Adalind asked her in a hushed voice. "Like I said, I want it to last." Spencer responded quietly. "Where's emily?" Veronica asked them. "She's probably on her way over." Spencer answered her moms' question with a shrug.

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"You don't have to come inside, mom, if it were canceled, nobody would be here." Spencer complained as she, her mom and the girls walked through the school hallways. Spencer's mom ignored as she spotted a teacher. "Oh, excuse me." she said, gaining a teacher's attention. "Hi." the teacher greeted her. "Are they actually going to give this test today?" she asked as the girls stopped at the lockers.

"You didn't say Alex was taking the test here, too." Aria said as Hanna and Spencer shut their lockers and turned around. Spencer quickly looked at Alex and smiled. "Why do you think I wanted my mom to drop us off and leave?" Spencer asked as Alex approached them. "Hi." he greeted her. "Hey, you." Spencer responded before they began to kiss, making the girls share a look.

Adalind was the one to notice Mrs. Hastings Hastings. "Spence." Adalind whispered to them before pulling on her arm as her moms joined them. "Nobody here can make a decision to save their life, it's absurd." she complained. "Um, mom?" Spencer spoke, getting her attention. "This is Alex Santiago, Alex, this is my mother." She introduced them. Adalind looked towards Mrs. Hastings and she looked like she had seen a ghost, making her confused.

"Alex, that I went to homecoming with?" Spencer questioned, trying to job her memory when she saw she was confused. "Of course. Hi. From the club." Mrs. Hastings said with a smile. "Yeah." Alex responded with a smile and a nod. "It just took me a moment to put it together." Mrs. Hastings added. "So, you're Alex?" she asked and Adalind could feel awkward tension now. Alex turned to Spencer. "Listen, uh, I need to check in. Um," he paused and looked towards Mrs. Hastings. "Nice seeing you." he said. "Meeting you." he corrected himself before walking away.

"Test is on today." the teacher that Mrs. Hastings had talked to before, said as she approached them. "Rosewood students should register in the library," she added. "But, like, half of the school isn't even here yet." Hanna remarked. "And may never make it. We saw the huge tree down on Sawmill Road, and they've already closed off York Street." Mrs. Hastings said.

"That wasn't because of a tree." Detective Wilden said from behind them, causing them to turn to him. "York Streets been closed since last night." he said as he walked over to them. "Why?" Mrs. Hastings asked. "Somebody decided to pay a visit to Alison DiLaurentis's memorial and destroy it." he answered. "Shattered the tiles, broke the bench," he explained. "What?" Adalind asked. "W-w-when did this happen?" Spencer stuttered, shocked.

"We had to corner off the area, given it's an ongoing murder investigation." Detective Wilden explained. "Well maybe you can spare them the details, they're about to take their SATs." Mrs. Hastings said, glancing at the girls and Detective Wilden. "Right. Good luck on the test, ladies." he said before leaving. "We should probably get to the library." Spencer suggested and the girls walked away towards the library.

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"Can't believe it was trashed." Aria said. "Just when you thought that 'A' would give it a rest." Adalind breathed out with a sigh. "It's like Toby had to kill Alison all over again." Spencer said. "Toby? What do you mean Toby? His motorcycle was totaled, isn't he dead?." Hanna asked. "Well, I hear more from Alison now than when she was alive." Spencer responded. "Guys, I thought we decided 'A' wasn't Toby, 'A' was happy to have Toby out of the picture." Hanna said.

"How do we know Toby didn't just send that text? And why are we suddenly trusting 'A'? ''A made a fake bracelet to mess with us" Aria said. "Emily, hey, where've you been?" Hanna asked once she noticed Emily approaching them. "Why weren't you at Spencer's last night?" Aria asked as Emily joined them. "I know I'm sorry I didn't get out of practice till really late so went straight home and crashed." Emily told them.

"So, what did I miss?" Emily asked. "Well, we studied," Hanna said. "Well, they studied and I annoyed them." She corrected herself. "And Alison's memorial got trashed." she added. "Yeah, I heard." Emily said sadly. "What Is my mum doing here?" Aria said, making the girls look out the window to see Ella as Aria walked out to talk to her mom.

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Later that day the girls were sitting at a table in the library, studying. "God, he's freaking me out, I mean whose locker is he poking into now?" Hanna said, referring to Detective Wilden. "He's desperate, Jason's breathing down his neck." Adalind responded. "Yeah, ours too. What if Jason told the police Alison's version of what happened the night of the fire?" Aria asked but Adalind shook her head. "He wouldn't do that." she replied to her.

"If Jason was gonna tell them, he would've told them a year ago, he knows that story's bogus." Spencer said, causing Adalind to sigh. "Well, then, why do they bring it up?" Hanna asked. "To try to drive a wedge between us." Spencer answered. "But he's not gonna do that," she added. "Sorry about the memorial, I know how hard you girls worked on it." Detective Wilden said as he stood at the head of the table, making them all look at him.

None of them answered, staying silent. "Shocking though, right, something like that could happen out in the open and nobody saw anything?" he asked rhetorically. "Well, everybody here was probably studying for the exam that we're about to take, so you might wanna look for eyewitnesses somewhere else." Adalind told him. "So you were all studying together last night, then?" he asked.

"Yes, we were all at Spencer's." Emily answered and Adalind side-eyed her in confusion as the girls shared a look. "All of you?" he asked, looking at Emily. "Yes. All of us." Aria answered and it was silent for a moment, Wilden staring at them. "Okay." he said before walking off. "Emily, what is going on?" Spencer asked her once Wilden had left them alone.

"Where were you last night?" Aria asked her. "I told you. I went home." Emily answered, making Adalind furrow her brows in confusion. "Then why didn't you tell him that?" she asked. "What happened to all of us ticking together?" Emily asked with a scoff before getting up. "Where you going?" Aria asked her. "To the restroom." she answered. "If you don't believe me we can all try and squeeze into one stall." she added before walking away. "Should one of go and talk to her?" Adalind asked, worried but Hanna shook her head. "No. She'll talk when she's ready." she responded.

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A little while later, the girls had focused on studying, Adalind was helping Hanna with something when Spencer's phone went off. She showed Aria before showing Hanna and Adalind.

UNKNOWN
DEFINE "DESERTION."
SEEMS LIKE YOU'RE ABOUT TO
LOSE EMILY. WHO'S NEXT?
⎯ A

The girls shared a look before they looked towards where Emily had walked off to before looking around them, seeing if they could spot anyone on their phone who would have sent that message.

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Later that day, everyone had been moved to the locker rooms, Adalind was sitting next to Spencer and Hanna when Emily walked in. Adalind's phone went off, making her pull it out of her pocket to see Jason calling her, again. She declined the call and sighed. "Why didn't you answer him?" Spencer asked her. "It's– it's weird, I guess," she answered with a shrug.

"We never really broke up, he moved away after Ali went missing, and he didn't respond to any texts or calls so we just ended and I just don't wanna open my heart to him– again, and get hurt." she explained and Spencer nodded in understanding before they looked up to Wilden taking Emily somewhere and Hanna turned to us before we looked over to see Aria had seen it as well before they all stood up, following them.

They followed them into the Library. "What is going on?" Spencer asked as they walked into the Library. "Oh, perfect! We can all be together for an update." Detective Wilden exclaimed. "No. were supposed to be in the girls locker room." Adalind snapped. "Yeah, well, I'm guessing you girls are used to being in places you're not supposed to be." he responded before turning to Emily.

"Did you tell your friends where you were last night? When you weren't studying for the test?" he asked but she didn't answer, just looked at her friends sadly. " See, 'cause I got these really interesting photos," he said before handing her phone to Emily. "Go ahead and pass it around, there's plenty more where that came from at the precinct." he encouraged as Arai took the phone from Emily and showed the others.

It was Emily at Alison's destroyed memorial. "I see you didn't get a chance to clean your shoes either, huh?" he asked, motioning to Emily's dirty shoes, making the girls look at them then at Emily before sharing a look. "That's not why I went there." Emily argued. "Really? So you didn't go back to the memorial to finish up Toby's handiwork? Or were you just there covering up his tracks?" he asked.

"I found It like that, It was already destroyed." Emily told him. "Really?" he asked, not believing her. He then took something out of Emily's bag. "Then let me ask you a question." he said before holding up the status that was on the bird bath they had made, "What were these doing in your bag?" he asked, making the girls share a look of confusion. "Souvenirs? Something Toby asked you to save so he can keep it for his trophy collection?" he asked.

"This has nothing to do with Toby!" Emily exclaimed as she grabbed the status from Wilden. "Em, why do you have those?" Aria asked softly. "You put those in there. Emily would never do that, the memorial was her idea." Hanna snapped. "Yeah, so I heard, nice cover huh?" he asked before pulling something out of his jacket. "You want me to share this with them? Or would you like to?" he asked, showing Emily a blue envelope and Emily tried to take it but Wilden moved it out of reach.

"Go ahead and tell them, Emily, about the angry letter that you wrote to Alison, which is dated, by the way, three days before she disappeared." he said to the girls. "You had no right to read that." Emily said angrily. "Em, what's in the letter?" Adalind asked softly. "Tell her." Wilden urged. "Tell her how you wanted to punish Alison for rejecting you." he added, making the girls confused. "Tell her how you felt relieved at the funeral, she wasn't gonna be around to humiliate you anymore, was she?" he asked.

"I went back to that memorial to say I was sorry." Emily cried. "There were horrible things in that letter and I didn't mean them. Suddenly she was gone, and...." she trailed off shakily. "I loved her as more than a friend." Emily admitted, making Adalind's eyes soften sadly. Emily had been keeping this in awhile and it made her feel bad that she didn't notice. "I just never had the chance to tell her in the right way." Emily cried.

"Give her the letter back, give it back to her now or swear to god I will rip your head off." Hanna snapped. "Sorry. I can't." Wilden remarked. "We're not leaving this room until you tell me what you were doing carting around pieces of Alisons's memorial." he yelled at Emily, his voice getting louder. "I took them 'cause they were the only things that weren't broken." Emily responded just before the Library door opened and Mrs. Hastings walked in.

"What's going on in here? Why aren't they in the locker room with the other kids?" she asked, confused. "Who are you?" Wilden asked. "Her mother." she answered, pointing to Spencer before moving to join them. "I mean, If this is the school's idea of keeping my child safe Im-I'm glad i came back." she added before noticing a crying Emily.

"Honey, why is she crying?" she asked Spencer. "He accused her of Killing Alison." Spencer responded as she moved to hug Emily. "What?" Mrs. Hastings asked, shocked. "He went through her purse and now he's accusing—" Aria started but Mrs. Hastings cut her off. "Hold it. Hold it." she said. "You're questioning minors without an adult present? What-what police department do you work for? What century are you in?" she asked him.

"Ma'am, I would advise you–" he stated. "Oh, no, I would advise you to back off because anything that they've said to you is inadmissible in a courtroom, period." Mrs. Hastings snapped, cutting him off. "Let's go. Emily, honey, grab your things." Mrs. Hastings said softly and Aria helped Emily grab her purse and stuff off the table before they all left, not before Adalind snatched the letter back from him.

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"So what's gonna happen to him? Can they get him off the force?" Hanna asked Mrs. Hastings. "If he's smart, he'll leave before that happens." she answered. "Oh, where did he get that protein bar?" she asked, spotting someone with a protein bar. "Oh, I'll get you one." Adalind said before walking off towards where the protein bars were and grabbed one for her, before seeing Emily sitting by herself.

"Em," she said, getting her friend's attention as she sat down. "I wish I'd known." she said softly. "Look, hey, Alison loved you, and I don't know if it was in the way that you wanted her to, but I know that she did." Adalind said, comforting her before a teacher called out. "Can I have your attention, please?" she asked and everyone looked at her. "The storm warning has just been lifted but the SATs will have to be rescheduled." she said and people cheered in relief before Emily and Adalind got up and joined the girls and Mrs. Hastings, giving her the protein bar.

⎯ AUTHORS NOTE
new chapter!! <3