ꗃ ﹕𝓓𝐎𝐍'𝐓 𝓑𝐋𝐀𝐌𝐄 𝓜𝐄 . . . . . 𓈈 𓍢 ░
⤿ 𝖱𝖠𝖳 𝖬𝖤 𝖮𝖴𝖳
❪ ﹆ ━ 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐁𝐀𝐃𝐀𝐒𝐒 𝐒𝐄𝐄𝐃｡𖦹°‧❫
❪ ﹆ ━ 01𝗑18 ⋆⭒˚.⋆ ❫

𝒊. 𝗪𝗘𝗟𝗖𝗢𝗠𝗘 𝗛𝗢𝗠𝗘, 𝖦𝖮𝖫𝖣𝖨𝖤 ‧₊˚📱✩

▐ 𝖱𝖮𝖲𝖤𝖶𝖮𝖮𝖣 𝖧𝖨𝖦𝖧 𝖲𝖢𝖧𝖮𝖮𝖫

❝ 𝐈𝐅 𝐘𝐎𝐔'𝐑𝐄 trying out for The Bad Seed, you need to sign up here and wait by the auditorium door until your name is called. ❞ Ezra spoke to the students, "Thank you, and good luck."

"Start with the line about the stolen medal." Spencer says as she and the other sat in a circle in the floor.

"Why isn't she wearing any shoes?"

"So she can look short enough to play an eight year old." Sadie joked, playing with the loose threads on her jeans.

"What's my line?"

Emily looks over the paper in her hand, "I didn't see anything about a medal.

"Huh. That's what the eight year old killed her classmate for." Spencer says as she leaned over to look at the paper, "The Penmanship Medal. That's why they call her the Bad Seed."

"A Penmanship medal, really?" Hanna asked in disbelief.

"Didn't you read the whole play?" Spencer questions the blonde as Sadie keeps checking her phone.

Aria looks up to find Spencer looking her, "Don't look at me. Hanna's the one trying out. I'm just here to make her look taller.

"Why do I have to read the whole play?" Hanna looks at them, "I don't wanna be the bad seed's mother. I wanna be the other mother, the one who's drunk all the time."

"Same." Sadie mumbled as the girls laughed.

"Unlike Sadie, no comment."

"Are you still ragging on me for bringing a flask to a dance? I don't need another parent, Spencer. One's plenty."

"Well, has the "one" figured out that Jughead is living in her basement?" Sadie raised an eyebrow.

"Do you just have a bag of nicknames for him in your head?" Emily laughed.

"Possibly."

"No, but A has."

"What are you gonna do?" Emily asked her.

"I'm gonna tell my mom before A gets to her. I'm just gonna ask her if Caleb can stay in the guest room."

"Well, if that doesn't work out, I already asked Will and he's all for letting Caleb stay at the house." Sadie tells the blonde, "We have the space so why not."

"What about Cassie?" Spencer asked, "Didn't she move into the house?"

"Yeah, but it's not like we made her sleep in a separate bedroom, she's bunking with Will."

"Hey, there, Hanna and her clan-na." Mona walks up to them, ignoring the loud groan that leaves Sadie as the blonde throws her head onto Spencer's shoulder.

"Hey, Mona. How'd it go in there?" Hanna asked.

"Honestly, I nailed it." Mona sends them a smug look, "It was epic. I think Mr. Fitz cried."

"He probably cried because it was over."

"Good for you, Mona." Spencer tells her, nudging Sadie in the ribs. "I guess the rest of us should go home."

"No. There are no small parts, only parts that don't make it into the yearbook." She tells them before walking away, "Good luck."

"You could be nicer to her." Aria looks over at Sadie, "You make it seem like she's the one that hit you with that car."

"Me? Be nice to Mona?" Sadie snorts, "Yeah, in her wildest dreams."

"Why don't you audition?" Spencer turns to Aria after seeing her lock eyes with Ezra, "You kind of have an in with the director."

"Stop."

"Is he wearing the tie you gave him?" Hanna laughed.

"Stop."

"It would be so awesome to hang out with you two after school, see you as a couple." Spencer says.

"Yeah, I don't want to see it." Sadie says, "I might not say anything about the two of you anymore, but I still don't think you should be dating him. After high school? Maybe."

"News flash, just because we're on this side of the building doesn't mean we can suddenly light candles and slow dance."

"That's the opening night party." Spencer joked with her, "Hello, Aria. Hello, Ezra."

"Are you finished?" Aria asked as the girls laughed.

"It's not like we'll always be able to go on a double date with you guys." Emily smiled.

"Yeah, you won't even send us pictures."

"I don't want pictures."

"Pictures? Hanna, we meet at his apartment. It's not SeaWorld."

"We're just saying, it'd be nice."

"Believe me, I know." Aria lets out a sigh, "Wish I could. But I can't. Um, where's your other scene?"

Tapping is heard and the girls turn towards the noise to see Jenna making her way into the building, her stick tapping on the ground and a rectangular black box in her hand.

"Is Mr. Fitz in the auditorium?" Jenna asked the five girls.

"No, but I can tell you where to find him. In the lowest pits of he—,"

"Sadie!" Ezra sends a sharp look at the blonde, cutting her off, moving to stand in front of Jenna, "Uh, I'm, uh, right here, Jenna. What can I do for you?"

"I don't know if you're interested. But I would like to compose some music for the play." Jenna turns to the English teacher.

"Mm, sure. That'd be great." He tells her, "For the flute?"

"Yes. Is there a reason that you picked The Bad Seed?" Jenna asked him, "It's one of my favorites. The theme is so inspiring."

"Uh...inspiring?"

The girls look at each other.

"I'm fascinated by the nature of evil."

──── ୨ৎ ────

❝ 𝐌𝐘 𝐇𝐄𝐀𝐃 is killing me. ❞ Sadie groaned, laying her forehead against the kitchen counter, the cool surface helping just a bit.

"Are you getting sick?" Will moves away from the stove to lift her head up, putting his hand against her forehead, "You're not burning up, so no fever."

"I'm not getting sick." She swats his hand away, "I think my migraines are coming back. It'll last for a couple of days before I'm back to normal."

"Well, if you aren't your normal self in a few days, I'm taking you to the hospital to get checked over." Will gives her a stern look. "Now, go, before you're late to school."

"Oh, shit, I still have to go pick up Mike." The blonde stands up and grabs all of her stuff, calling out an 'i love you' to her brother as she walks out of the house, but the sound of her phone going off stops her in her tracks.

❛ ᴛᴇʟʟ ᴛʜᴇ ɢɪʀʟꜱ ᴛʜᴇ ᴛʀᴜᴛʜ ᴏʀ ʏᴏᴜ'ʟʟ ᴘᴜᴛ ꜱᴏᴍᴇᴏɴᴇ ɪɴ ᴛʜᴇ ꜱᴘᴏᴛʟɪɢʜᴛ. ❜ ── ᴀ

"God, you're my biggest headache of them all, you stupid ass bitch."

──── ୨ৎ ────

❝  𝐒𝐎 𝐓𝐇𝐄 pay raises an interesting question. ❞ Ezra sits with the students in the play, Aria on his right and Sadie on his left, the blonde having to help anywhere she could with the play since she was in a little trouble after the way she had talked to Paige's dad. "Are people born evil or do they learn it? I brought some additional material to give you guys some background on the period. Sadie's gonna hand it out."

"If I stand up, I might fall over." Sadie mumbled as her eyes scrunched, "The lighting in this room is killing me."

Ezra looks over at her in worry, "I have migraine medicine in my bag. Pass the papers out and get them."

The Beaumont girl stands up with a sigh, passing the papers out to the students.

"So I recommend that you read the novel. And to whet your appetites, I copied the first chap..," Ezra opens the folder but the papers spill on the floor, Aria moving to help him, "I — I got it. Thanks. Why don't you hand out the schedules?"

Aria looks around for a moment before standing up to pass the papers out.

"Oh, Aria, um, while you're up, could you do me a favor?" Mona spoke up.

"Uh, sure. What do you need, Mona?" Aria turns to ask her as she turns to her.

"Could you hit the vendi and grab me a PowerBar and some mints?" Mona asked her.

Sadie scoffed loudly, "Your hands aren't broken, get your ass up and get it yourself, Princess."

"Sadie."

"What?" The blonde sits back down in her chair, arms crossed over her shoulders, "She's not helpless and needs us to hold her hand to get coffee."

"I think you'll see even with the novel Rhoda is not the typical eight year old. Only the janitor is....yes?" Ezra sits on the white table he had set up, pausing as Ian walked through the door.

"Uh, I'm guessing this isn't the Varsity Booster Club. My bad. Sorry."

The girls all looked at each other as Ian walked back out.

"Let's all take a look at the first scene with Rhoda and the janitor. If you'll turn to page twenty-five." Ezra stands up, leaning down to talk to Sadie quietly. "If you wanna go home, just let me know."

"Migraine's not that bad." Sadie sends him a small smile, "But I promise, I'll ask if I need to go home."

"Okay."

Sadie sent him one more smile as she got out of her seat and moved to sit between Spencer and Hanna on the couch, Aria sitting on one of the arms and Emily leaning over the back of it.

"I can't believe you ever kissed him." Aria looks over at Spencer.

"We all wanted to kiss him."

Hanna makes a face, "Never."

"Please, I wouldn't touch him with a ten foot pole."

"At that frat party, when he was big man on campus? The one that Sadie and Alison got us into?"

"Not me." Hanna denied.

"Yes, you."

──── ୨ৎ ────

❝ 𝒀𝑶𝑼 𝑻𝑾𝑶 are so badass. ❞ Aria grinned as she took the fake ID in her hand that Alison and Sadie were handing out to them.

"Did you guys make these?" Emily asked the two blondes in front, taking her own ID into her hand.

"I know a guy who makes fake documents." Sadie shrugged, "And before you ask, no, I'm not telling you who."

"Where'd you get this picture of me? I look like my mother."

"That is your mother." Alison tells the Marin girl in a hushed whisper as Sadie flashed her fake ID to the guy they had checking ID's just in case even thought they had all seen her tons before.

Four of the girls look around the room in amazement as people danced around the room, some girls on top of tables dancing, guys played beer pong, or drinking alcohol from a long clear, plastic tube from a cone.

"Welcome to life as a party girl." Sadie smirked as her eyes scanned the room as she looked for one person in particular.

Alison grinned, turning to the girls, "So you guys can thank us later."

"Wait! So, what do we...what do we do now?" Aria questioned as Alison turned to walk away.

"Act your new age."

"Hey, Spence." Aria notices a guy talking to a short girl and another guy, "Isn't that your sister's new boyfriend?"

"He's kind of cute." Hanna smiled, watching him, "So is his friend."

"Easy. He's a little bit old for you." Emily tells her.

"Not tonight, because I'm twenty-six." Hanna holds up the ID with a giddy smile.

"Put that away." Alison tells her, her tone harsh.

"Yeah, and take a math class. You're twenty-one." Spencer corrected.

The girl that was with Ian laughed loudly catching the girls attention again as Ian held the girl up by the hips, leading her up the stairs.

"Okay. Okay. Alright. Just right here—,"

"Looks like Mr. Melissa is giving Ms. Rum and coke a special tour." Alison keeps her eyes on Ian and the girl as they disappear up the stairs.

"I need a rum and coke." Sadie crossed her arms over her chest.

"Maybe he's just taking her to the bathroom."

"Or finding an empty room so she can lie down."

Alison laughs at Emily's words, "Yeah, on top of her. What?" The four girls are looking at her weirdly as Sadie is still searching the crowd of people, "Look, I don't know about you vestal virgins but I'm here to make memories. Let's divide and conquer and meet back here at midnight."

"Sounds good to me." Sadie grinned before she was rushing off, the girls losing her in the crowd of people.

──── ୨ৎ ────

❝ 𝐘𝐎𝐔 𝐒𝐇𝐎𝐔𝐋𝐃'𝐕𝐄 said something to your sister that night. ❞ Emily tells Spencer as they all think back to that night.

"Like what? 'I crashed your boyfriend's frat party'?" Spencer asked, "I would have been so dead."

"Like your sister isn't now?" Aria asked.

"Yeah, knocked up with his bad seed."

"Hanna, why do you think that the janitor in the play is the only one who knows that little girl's not a liar?" Ezra asked, the girl looking down at the paper to try and find the answer, "Sadie?"

"I'm not in the play. Ask somebody else."

Spencer smiled at her best friend before answering, "Um, that's because the janitor is childlike himself."

"It's like when we were reading Shakespeare Ezra talked about the fools and how they can get away with saying...things that other people can't."

Sadie tilts her head at Aria's slip up as the Montgomery girl catches onto her mistake herself.

"Let's just focus on this play, okay?"

──── ୨ৎ ────

❝ 𝐂𝐔𝐓𝐄 𝐂𝐎𝐔𝐏𝐋𝐄, aren't they? ❞ Hanna asked as everyone stood in the hallway after leaving Ezra and Aria alone.

"We should study our lines." Spencer says, awkwardly.

"I still don't get my second scene."

"Your character is suspicious."

"It doesn't say that in the script." Hanna gives Spencer a weird look.

"That's because it's underneath the words." Spencer says, trying to make the blonde understand, "That's the reason why she's drinking."

"No, she's drinking because her kid drowned. Don't mean that—,"

"Hanna, at this point, even the little girl's mother thinks that she's a murdered. It's the drowning, the old lady who fell down the stairs, the janitor who was set on fire—,"

"You know, I was just talking about this scene. She could think it was an accident.

"Maybe there are no accidents." Emily stood with her arms crossed over her chest as she stared at Ian where he stood with a group of students.

"What do you mean?" Sadie raised her eyebrow.

"We never questioned what happened at that party."

──── ୨ৎ ────

❝ 𝑴𝒀 𝑳𝑰𝑻𝑻𝑳𝑬 party girl. ❞ Jason grinned as he backed Sadie into a wall, one hand laying palm flat above the girls head on the wall and the other hand placed on the skin of her hip since her shirt was tied above her belly button, "Missed you."

Sadie grinned, fingers playing with the hair on the back of his neck, "You saw me yesterday when you climbed into Will's window."

Jason groans, laying his forehead on her shoulder, "Don't even remind me."

She laughed, opening her mouth to say something to him but she's cut off by girlish screams before the two rushed in the direction, the blonde's jaw dropping at the girl Ian had been with at the bottomed of the stairs. "I need to find the girls."

"You brought them with you?" Jason asked in a hushed whisper.

"Alison's idea. I have to go. I'll call you tonight." She quickly kisses him before rushing towards the girls, "Hey, come on. We gotta go. We can't be here when the police show up."

Emily looks up to the top of the stairs to see Ian looking down at the girl with a blank look on her face.

──── ୨ৎ ────

❝ 𝐖𝐇𝐘 𝐃𝐈𝐃𝐍'𝐓 you tell us about Ian at the top of the stairs before? ❞ Spencer questioned Emily, holding her binder close to her chest.

"I..I didn't think about it till now." Emily says, "What if that girl didn't fall just because she was wasted?"

The door opens and Aria walks over, "We're starting. What's going on?"

"The night that we crashed that frat party."

Aria looks at Hanna, "Yeah. What about it?"

"We're thinking Alison wasn't the first person Ian shoved."

The girls turned towards the door where Ian was walking by, playing with a ball in his hand.

──── ୨ৎ ────

❝ 𝐒𝐎, 𝐖𝐇𝐀𝐓 do you think? Are people born bad? ❞

Sadie lays across the couch with her head in Spencer's lap as she listens to Ezra talk about the play.

"I'm having a hard time figuring out who's evil and who's just naughty."

"I think you'd know the difference, Mona. But let's ask some of your cast mates." Ezra looks around, eyes finding Spencer who was looking off into space, "Spencer. Thoughts?"

"Yes. Some people are pure evil."

──── ୨ৎ ────

𝑻𝑯𝑬 𝑭𝑰𝑽𝑬 teenagers stand on the front lawn of the frat house, watching the paramedic's load the girl that had fallen down the stairs into the back of the ambulance.

"We should get outta here." Aria whispers to the girls as she glanced around at the police officers scattered around the yard, "They're gonna start questioning everyone."

"We can't leave without Alison." Emily leans around Sadie to talk to all of them.

Hanna shakes her head, letting out a worried sigh, "I voted for mini-golf. This was a huge mistake."

"What's going on?" Alison walked over to the five, hands in the pockets of her dark jeans, "What happened?"

"You missed it? Where were you?" Aria asked, "That — that girl that was with Ian, she—,"

Emily cuts her off, "—she fell down the stairs, and it was terrible, and—,"

"Can we just tell her on the bus?" Hanna cuts Emily off this time.

"The bus? I brought my car." Sadie tells the blonde since she didn't ride the bus with the other girls, "We just have to walk to get to it."

Alison turns her head to look back at the ambulance, "Note to self. Don't drink and dive."

"If my mom finds out I was here, I'll be grounded until I'm fifty."

"Guys, if we run away like babies, we'll definitely be questioned. We don't all have brothers in the police force that can get us out of trouble with a slap on the wrist."

Sadie scoffed, "Come on. I'll drive you girls home. Alison, can find her own way home."

──── ୨ৎ ────

❝ 𝐈 𝐓𝐇𝐈𝐍𝐊 my character's being totally selfish. ❞ Mona says as she stands up, Sadie scoffing under her breath as she mumbles something that nobody picks up. "I don't even know how to play that."

"Ms. Fern is protecting the future of her school, Mona." Ezra tells them.

"So is she forgivable or not?"

"It's unforgivable if she's only thinking of herself." Aria says, turning her head to send her boyfriend a