THE FIVE GIRLS were gathered at the Applerose Grille, all sat round a table a drink in front of each of them. "Why was Jenna there?" Aria asked the burning question they were all desperate to know the answer to. Harley felt guilt creep up on her as she looked down at her drink. Jenna Marshall and Alison Dilaurentis were not friends, so why was she at her funeral?

"I guess she's back." Spencer whispered to the others.  Harley took a sip of her diet coke, avoiding the eyes of the girls. 

"That cop acted like we were suspects or something." Hanna added. Harley stirred her straw in her drink before speaking, "Just been we were there the night she... died, doesn't mean we killed her."

"Do you think we looked guilty?" Emily asked, looking between all the girls.

"Why would we, we haven't done anything wrong." Harley snapped, looking up from her drink.  "Except lie about the Jenna Thing." The blonde girl corrected, looking at the Blake girl.

"We promised, we'd never bring up the Jenna Thing again, remember? It never happened." Spencer narrowed her eyes at Hanna.

"Have you found a way to forget? I still wake up sometimes in the middle of the - " Aria began to explain as Hanna pulled her flask out and poured it into her drink. "Aria, it was an accident." the Hastings girl snapped.

Hanna screwed the lid back onto the flask and caught the eye of a judging older man. "It's medicinal." she smiled innocently at him. Harley held back a laugh as the man gave her an unconvinced glare.

"Cramps." she shot, the other girls looked over their shoulders at the man as the Marin girl sipped her drink. "You're drinking?" Harley questioned, a grin on her face. Hanna looked over at her and smiled. "Learned from the best."

Harley couldn't help but smile at her. "You want some?" The blonde pulled the glass towards herself, but Harley acted quick. "No!" She grasped the glass, Hanna furrowed her eyebrows at her. "No, I'm okay, thanks." she fake-smiled at Hanna, who nodded awkwardly.

"How does A know something about me that only Alison knew?"  Emily asked, slightly anxious.

" I don't think Ali even knew mine." Harley whispered, Ali always found a way to figure out other people's secrets out, and then she'd hold them over your head until she got her way.

"Ali knew all of our secrets, but we never knew any of hers." Aria admitted, feeling deflated.

"I knew some." Spencer said, looking down at her coffee. The four other girls exchanged a quick glance before turning back to the Hastings girl. "Go on." Aria argued her.

"Talk." Hanna insisted.

"I can't." Spencer whispered, Harley rolled her eyes. "Spence, you can't just drop a bomb like that and then clam up." Aria sighed.

"She'd so kill me if I told you." The brunette replied. Harley rolled her eyes, "She's dead." she snapped.

"Sorry." She quickly apologised, realising just how insensitive she had just been. She looked over at Spencer, waiting to hear Alison's secret.

"Ali was seeing someone that summer." Spencer confessed, Harley's eyes widened at the recent revelation Spencer brought upon the group.

"I knew she was keeping something from me... from us." Emily exclaimed before quickly backtracking and correcting herself.

"Well, why didn't she want us to know?" Aria questioned the Hastings girl. Harley leaned in  closer to hear Spencer response.

"He was an older boy, and he had a girlfriend." Spencer answered, making Harley scoff. The four turned their heads to her. "Sorry, but she was always telling me how it was skanky to go after another girls boyfriend, knowing he was in a relationship and she was doing it behind our backs all summer."

"And he was older." Emily added.

"So? Ali dragged us to frat parties all the time she hooked up with tons of older guys." The redhead reminded her. "Anyway, what was his name?" Harley questioned.

"She never told me his name." Spencer admitted sheepishly.

Hanna rolled her eyes, "Okay, that's only half a secret." She groaned. Harley shifted in her seat as Spencer glared at the blonde. "It's more than you ever got from her." The Hastings girl defended.

"How was it thar Ali told us nothing and we told her everything ? " Aria questioned, Harley frowned at that. Did she even know anything about Alison?

"Because she made us feel like we  were a part of something special." Emily answered. "We were." Hanna reassured the girl.

"I miss that." Harley whispered, looking back down at her drink. "Me too." Spencer chimed in.

"I miss Ali." Emily said.

"I can't believe you still wear that." Hanna said as she spotted Emily's bracelet, Alison gave them all matching ones with their name on it.

"Ali still wears hers... wore." Emily responded.

"When Ali didn't come home that night, I knew something terrible must have happened, but there always was some part of me that imagined someday she'd just show up." Spencer confessed.

"That's what I thought for the longest time. I thought we'd get a call one day saying she's home and she's okay. That call never came." Harley added.

"I used to think she'd just run off with some guy." Aria huffed a laugh. "She was lying on a beach somewhere." Emily continued.

"Or getting a tan out by the pool with that hot lifeguard." Hanna smiled. "Oh, yeah, what was his name?" Aria looked at the other girls for the answer.

"Who cares? 'Save me!' " Hanna intimated,  causing the other girls to laugh. Harley couldn't help but think how much she missed this.

When the Grille door creaked open and something clicked on the tiled floor, Harley's eyes went wide. Jenna had just walked in. The  girls kept their heads down as she walked through, tapping her cane and feeling her surroundings.  Spencer shot all the girls a look, and they all nodded, looking over at Jenna.

Quietly, they all placed money down for a tip and walked to the door, all leaving at once. They muttered goodbyes to each other and headed off in completely opposite directions to one another.

𒊹︎︎︎𒊹︎︎︎𒊹︎︎︎

HARLEY WAS TALKING to Hunter and Devyn in the hallway at Hunter's locker. "I can't believe Eli is back." Hunter said, looking in her compact mirror, applying lipgloss. Elias, Harley's older brother, had graduated from Harvard earlier that year, and now he was crashing at home while he tried to find an apartment.

"Tell me about it. Having one brother run around is too much." Harley joked.

"Will the following students please come to my office?" The principal's voice came on the intercom.

"Emily Fields, Aria Montgomery, Harlyn Blake, Spencer Hastings and Hanna Marin." Harley let out a groan and turned to her friends, who were giving her a look of sympathy. "See you later." She sighed as the hallway emptied. The two girls nodded and walked in the direction of their first class.

The five girls started walking in the direction of the principal's office when Aria's phone buzzed.

"Wait. It's from A." The brunette said, the four others gathered around her to read the message off of her phone

UNKNOWN
Dead Gils Walking
- A

Hanna read it out loud, and then they all looked up at each other in horror.

𒊹︎︎︎𒊹︎︎︎𒊹︎︎︎

IN THE PRINCIPAL'S OFFICE, they were delighted to see Officer Wilden, who immediately had started questioning them.

"So, let's see. You thought you heard her scream." He said, flicking through a file and then pointing at Spencer.

"I said that, yeah."

"And when you four woke up in the barn, Alison was gone, and so was Spencer?" The man asked. "Yes. I woke up before them, and I realised Alison was missing, so I -"

"Went looking for her." He finished for her, Harley held back an eyeroll. Who does he think he is?

"That's what happened." Spencer responded, an innocent smile plastered on her face. "I got that. So, what's up? Was this a slumber party or - ?"

"Is this an interrogation?" Harley snapped, crossing her arms over her chest. Her mom used to be a cop, but then she became a doctor. Her Aunt Mary, however, was still a detective, so she knew that if you were interrogating a minor, an adult had to he present, and there was no other adult in the room.

"No, just a routine follow-up." He paused, a thought crossed his mind. "Why did you guys fall asleep?"

"We were tired."  Harley explained, trying not to snap at the man. The man turned to look at her again. "Tired? Really? Is that how you remember it, Hanna?" He singled her out.

"Yeah." She nodded.

"Yeah, you guys were tired." He nodded and looked back down at his file. Harley's patience was thinning every second she spent in that room.

"We were. And when you're tired, you fall asleep. That's just what happens." The redhead gritted her teeth, Spencer nudged her arm, hinting at her to stop talking.

"Look, we've told you everything we know just like we did the night she went missing." Spencer told him.

"I know, I know. You see, the thing is, it's almost exactly what you said last year. Almost like it was rehearsed." Wilden said, that did it for Harley.

"Funnily enough, our story is very simple, and last year, we were questioned a lot, and we had to keep the story straight and the same so if it sounds rehearsed it's probably because we repeated it so much we have it memorised." Harley snapped, leaning forwards. "Our story isn't going to change because what happened that night actually happened. Stop trying to pin Alison's murder on us. She was our friend, you, jerk."

"Harley."  Spencer muttered, narrowing her eyes at the girl, Harley's head snapped to the brunette. Seeing her scolding face, she leaned back against the couch.

"Like Spencer said, we've told you everything we know." Aria said.

𒊹︎︎︎𒊹︎︎︎𒊹︎︎︎

THE FIVE GIRLS sat together at lunch, a cold chill amongst them. "He knows we're lying." Aria said finally.  "Lying is not a crime." Hanna pointed out.

"It is when you are giving false statements to the police. It's called instruction of justice." Spencer explained. Harley rolled her eyes and looked around Aria at Spencer.

"Oh, please. We lied about drinking . Look, the truth that matters is that we don't know anything about what happened to Ali that night." Harley clarified. They didn't want to get in trouble with the police for underage drinking, so they lied about that.

"We also know about someone who might have wanted to hurt her." Spencer narrowed her eyes at Harley.

"We should've told the police the truth of Jenna's accident the night it happened." Emily    said with a guilty look on her face. "I wanted to, remember." Hanna pointed out with an eyeroll.

"Well, we had a chance to do more than tell the truth. We had the chance to stop Ali." The Montgomery girl murmured.

"But we didn't." Spencer hissed. The girls all turned to look at her. "And telling the police now about what happened to Jenna isn't going to make her see again. It'll just ruin our lives."

The girls all went silent, looking down at their food. The sound of tapping on the tile floor made Hanna look up. "Oh, my god. She's back in school, too?"

They looked over at Jenna using her cane to guide her way to a table, and two football players pushed past her. She flinched, and Aria pushed herself out of her chair and went over to Jenna. "Jenna, hey. It's... it's Aria. Do you wanna come sit with us?" She asked, looking over at our table.

"Sure."

"Okay." The brunette said, taking Jenna's tray off of her. "Thank you." Jenna muttered. She grabbed onto Aria's shoulder and let the Montgomery girl lead her to the table.

"Okay, so you're going to be between Hanna and Emily, and Harley and Spencer are just across from you."

Aria placed Jenna's tray down in between Emily and Hanna. "Thank you." Jenna said to Aria, who was turned around to pull a chair up.

"Yeah, and here's a chair." she said, pushing it towards the table. "So, this would be Alison's chair, right?" Jenna asked as she sat down.

"No. We're not even sitting at that table." Emily dismissed immediately. Harley looked up at Emily, a look of sympathy across her face.

"You know she came and visited me in the hospital after the accident." She infromed the girls. Aria, Spencer, and Harley's eyes all went wide, "Alison did?" Spencer asked in shock.

"Mhm, everyone misunderstood Alison, but I knew exactly who she was." Jenna smiled, menacing as she took her bag off, Harley shot Spencer a look, and Spencer turned her head back to Jenna.

"When did you get back, Jenna? We heard that you were in Philadelphia at a school for the visually impaired."  Spencer hesitated with they way she phrased her sentence.

"You can say blind, Spencer. It's okay. It's not a dirty word." she laughed slightly as she picked up her juice and drank from it.

"Wow, it's so quiet. You guys used to ge the fun table. What happened to you girls?" She asked, laughing.

FLASHBACK : JULY 4 2009

The six girls were in Emily's bedroom, music playing loudly as they tried on different tops and skirts. "Wait, hand me that." Aria said, pointing to a black top that was laid out on Emily's bed, Harley picked it up and tossed it to her.

The red head picked up a colourful long skirt and pressed against her waist before twirling. Hanna picked a blue top and held it up hesitantly, Harley grinned at her approvingly.

Alison threw a blue skirt back onto the bed and started looking for something else. Harley spotted at top and passed it to Spencer, who grinned at the top. 

"Ali, that is so cute."Aria told the other blonde, who was holding a top against her, and pouting her lips. 

Emily and Hanna giggled over something one of them had said as they looked at a puffy sleeved, black top. Harley found a pink skirt and pressed it against the one she was already wearing and looked in the mirror. "That is so cute, Harls." Emily smiled at her, holding a yellow floral tank top against her chest.

Alison picked a pink top with flowers on and put it on over her blue tank top. She smiled at herself in the mirror as she took her hair out of the shirt. Harley slipped the pink skirt on and gave the girls a twirl, making them all giggle.

"I see you!" Alison yelled and charged to the window and smacked on it. The five other girls stood behind her, exchanging confused looks.

"Oh, my god. I can't believe it!" Alison sighed, turning around to face them. "Who was it, Ali? What did you see?" Emily questioned.

Alison took another glance out the window before answering. "He was in that tree spying on us!" She told them, anger flushed her face. "I am so creeper out!"

"Who was it?" Harley asked, desperate to know who Alison was talking about.

"It was that perv Toby Cavanaugh." Alison said, Harley furrowed her eyebrows, Toby was friends with her older brother. There's no way he would do that.

"Are you sure?" The redhead looked at Alison confused. "Yes, I'm sure! He was right there!" The blonde girl yelled at her. "I bet he saw us all naked." She whispered, sounding horrified.

"Well, should we tell someone?" Aria asked, pointing to Emily's door. The five girls looked to Alison for an answer. "I mean, we could. But I have a better idea." She smirked.

The six of them crept outside, following Alison as she led them to the Cavanaugh garage. "Are we sure he's not in there?" Aria asked as they walked around the trees to reveal the building.

"He's not!" Alison snapped at the shorter girl.  "You got the lighter, right, Spencer?" Alison asked the taller brunette girl who was in the back.

"Yeah."

"Let's wait a second." Emily grabbed Alison's arm to stop her. "What, Emily?" Alison narrowed her eyes at the girl, frustrated. " I don't wanna do this." She admitted to the blonde.

"Fine, go back. You're on your own." Alison pointed in the direction of her house. "Maybe Emily's right, we should just call the cops. They'll take him, and they'll take care of it." Aria suggested, Harley nodded in agreement. She knew Toby he wouldn't watch girls getting undressed.

"Where's the fun in that?" Alison smirked at her friends, Harley held back an eyeroll. With Alison, it always had to be fun, and it was always extreme.

"Girls, Toby Cavanaugh is a freak, and we need to teach him a lesson. If he thinks he can come and spy on us while we're in your bedroom, Emily. He needs to know that his little domain is no longer a safe little hideout. I mean, who knows what he does in there all day that little freak." Alison explained to them.

"Are you sure it was Toby?" Spencer asked, double-checking that Alison actually did see Toby.

"Yes! And it's a stink-bomb, for gods sake! We're not nuking the place! Now let's do it!" Alison snapped, marching up to the garage door.  "Give me the lighter." She instructed Spencer, who hesitated before caving and handing it to Alison.

The blonde flicked the lighter on and lit the end of the stink bomb and creaked open the shed door and scanned the inside before throwing it in.

She took one last glance before slamming the door shut. "Let's get out of here." She told her friends, and Harley grabbed hold of Hanna and Emily, and they all ran away from the garage, as the ran around the front, a loud bang made them jump. They turned to see the garage lit on fire. "Ali, what did you do?" Spencer asked the girl.

"We have to get out of here, come on, let's go!" Emily yelled, grabbing Harley's hand, and they continued running away.

PRESENT TIME

All of their phones buzzed at the same time, Harley started at her phone and then looked between all the girls. Jenna moved her hand forward and felt around for Spencer's phone. She picked it up and held it out to the girl. "Aren't you gonna get that?" She questioned

Spencer took her phone from Jenna, and the rest of the girls took theirs from the table, looking at the new A message.

UNKNOWN
If only she could see how guilty you look...
-- A

𒊹︎︎︎𒊹︎︎︎𒊹︎︎︎

HARLEY WAS AT Chase’s house helping him with his English homework. They were sitting in his room on his bed, and Chase was focused on other things and not his homework. "Come on, Hales, can we take a break?" he asked, rubbing his hand along her thigh. Harley blushed and looked at him sternly. "No, you wanted my help, and this is how I do my homework."

Chase rolled his eyes and looked back at his book. Harley's phone buzzed, and she grabbed it in a panic, silently praying it wasn't from A.

UNKNOWN
When do you plan on telling Mr. Perfect, who you really are  in love with?
- A

She stared at her phone until Chase nudged her arm. "You okay?" He asked, with his sweet smile. "Yeah, yeah, I'm fine." Harley faked a smile and put her phone down.

"Let's just do your homework."

𒊹︎︎︎𒊹︎︎︎𒊹︎︎︎

WHEN HARLEY RETURNED home her, Mom and brothers were waiting at the table for her, a box of half eaten pizza between them, all laughing. "Oh, Harley." Her mom said as she walked into the dining room.

"Hey, mom."  Harley smiled. She walked over to the table to see what kind of pizza they had gotten. "Hey!" Will yelled at her as she dragged the pizza box towards her. She looked at him with a startled expression on her face.

"What? I'm hungry." She told her brother, as he crossed his arms over his chest and pouted. "Yeah, but it's pepperoni! You hate