INTRODUCTION

This is my first fanfic, and I am uber excited to see what comes of it. I hope you like the story. I spent a load of time plotting and planning it out. If you like it be sure to comment. Good or bad, it doesn't matter. I'm all about constructive criticism. So, please be sure to give me plenty of it. I want to be the best writer I can be.

AUTHOR'S NOTES

This chapter is a base line to let you guys get a little feel for my version of the charries in this story, who are, now, very much grown up. More dramatic and mature themed chapters will follow. My musical inspiration for this chapter was Waking Life by Schuyler Fisk. Not sure why, it just worked. :)

DISCLAIMER: I do not hold any rights to the characters in this story, legal or otherwise, other than those that are the product of my own imagination. Aria, Ella, Ezra, Emily, Hanna, and Spencer are all the result of the genius mind of, the author of the Pretty little Liars book series, Sara Shepard. I am a fan and this is meant strictly for entertainment purposes only.


Aria smiled at her reflection admiring the splendor of the ivory gown which now adorned her figure, accentuating every curve just perfectly until it finally draped out into a beautiful mermaid form at the base. This was the first gown Aria could actually say she was completely smitten with.

"I think this is the one." Aria grinned like a five year old on a sugar high.

"What do you think?" She questioned the three women seated in a row of chairs behind her. Aria knew her friends, Spencer Hastings and Hanna Marin-Gottesman, would like whatever she chose, but her mother, Ella Montgomery would be the hard sell. Ella, always to be counted upon, was the first to chime in. Still reigning judgment over her eldest child's taste she spoke critically.

"I don't know, honey. Don't you think it's a little too…revealing?" Ella asked, crinkling her nose slightly in the process.

"What about that Oscar De La Renta you tried on? Now, that was lovely."

This was the fourteenth dress Aria had tried on in the last two hours. Listening to her mother's words, she simply rolled her eyes, she knew it was just like any mother to be protective of her daughter's image, but she was no longer twelve years old. Besides, it wasn't going to be her wedding album which she would be looking back at fifty years down the road.

"You mean the granny gown?" Aria asked with a blatantly sarcastic undertone to her voice. The one dress Ella had liked was in Aria's opinion, atrocious. It was a victorian number with a lace bodice going all the way up to her neck. Definitely not Aria's taste.

-It had been hellacious since the entire planning process had begun. Ella knit picking and ridiculing every decision Aria would make concerning the second most life changing event she'd yet to face in her short life. From floral arrangements and menus, right down to the last candle stick, she wanted to control it all. If they started a new reality series called MOB-zillas, Ella would have been a shue in.-

Aria turned to face the group dead on.

"Han? Spence? What's your consensus?" Aria fished for a change of view, looking at them expectantly.

"Beautiful." "Gorgeous." Both of her friends spoke in turns, reluctantly voicing their opinions for fear of insulting the mother of the bride.

"That's it. Really? You don't love it?" Aria raised an eyebrow to them incredulously, pressing them to say something, anything more than a simple one word answer.

She'd expected more support than what either of them seemed willing to distribute. It was enough to make Aria want to spit as a sour expression rose to her features. She'd practically had to get down on her hands and knees to get them to agree to tag along with the way things had been going between her mom and herself.

After a few moments of awkward glances between the two, Spencer gave her two cents.

"Aria, it's your wedding." She began glancing between the mother and child.

"No offense, Mrs. Montgomery, but these are going to be Aria's memories not yours. If she doesn't absolutely love the dress she's going to be in on the best day of her life. There's not much point in paying some lavish amount for a garment she'll only wear once." Spencer stated, at last, graciously taking some of the weight off her friend's shoulders, voicing what Aria herself couldn't.

A moment of silence passed, Ella finally nodded in agreement, though, still not smiling.

"I get your point, but you can't blame a mother." Turning to look at her daughter.

"Aria, I'm sorry. It's your wedding, and if this is the dress you have your heart set on. Who am I to stop you?" Ella stated, finally surrendering her attempt at dictation, for the time being at least.

Aria dropped her scowl, replacing it with a more pleasant façade and went to give her mother a hug.

"I know you mean well, but Spencer's right. And this is definitely the one." She smiled as she spoke into her mother's hair.

"Thanks for understanding." She finished before she pulled away from her mom and headed back into the dressing room where her real clothes were located.

Aria dressed quickly without even checking the mirror when she was done. Not especially caring to know what her hair looked like. Since her head had been in and out of so many dresses in only a two hour period she guessed it probably looked similar to a deflated balloon. She stepped back out into the main area where her mom and friends awaited her return. Now, joined by an attendant, as well as, the shop's owner/seamstress, she went straight to work scheduling a fitting.

"Thank you so much, Renee." Ella said to the seamstress as they stood at the checkout counter and she proceeded to pay the allotted amount for Aria's dress and fitting in advance.

"Oh no, it's a pleasure." The stout middle aged British woman said to both Ella and Aria, giving them both hugs. "I recall fitting this one for her cousin's wedding. Nothing but skin and bones, you were." She teased fondly, placing a hand to Aria's cheek.

"Look at you, now. What a beautiful woman you've become, Aria. I'm so glad to be doing your gown."

Aria returned the smile painted on the woman's face.

"Thanks, Renee. You're the best seamstress in Rosewood. We wouldn't have taken our business any place else." She stated assuredly.

Spencer and Hanna giggled lightly as they watched the exchange. Though it was sweet, it was short lived as Renee's 2:30 appointment arrived, signaling their required departure.

The women exited the building, standing by for a moment to say their goodbyes.

"Girls, thank you for your company." Ella said with a half-hearted smile, still not entirely over the occurrence in the display room. She took her leave going to the vehicle she and Aria had arrived in, pausing only a moment when her daughter didn't follow. "Coming, Aria?" She inquired.

"Yeah, Mom. Just a minute. " Aria shouted back over her shoulder. Aria began as soon as Ella was out of earshot. "Spencer, you are amazing. Thanks so much for what you did in there. She's really starting to suffocate me with that mommy dearest act." She spoke in reference to her mother.

"Pssh. Not a problem. I'm sure you'd do exactly the same for me." Spencer said waving her hand dismissively, with a Mona Lisa smile on her mouth. Almost appearing as if her words had a double meaning, Aria typically would have pressed her friends for information when she observed such a curious gesture from them.

"And, Hanna, what gives with the pet rock routine?" Aria raised an eyebrow in her direction, playfully laying into her girlfriend.

"After dealing with my mom over the planning of mine and Lucas's wedding. There's no way I'm touching yours with a ten foot pole." Hanna defended herself.

"Well, thanks for being here all the same." Aria said whole heartedly. "It means a lot." She hugged two of her best friends in the world. Ella impatiently honked the horn of Aria's Honda Civic Hybrid, breaking up the happy gathering.

"Crap. What time is it?" Aria asked quickly releasing her friends.

"Um, 2:45." Hanna volunteered, staring into the screen of her iPhone.

"Gotta go." Aria said jabbing her thumb in the direction of her car. "I'll call you guys later to finalize plans for Em's homecoming." She said quickly before turning and stepping into a jog to get to her vehicle.

Aria slipped into the driver's seat and snapped her seatbelt as Ella started the engine for her. She floored it getting out of the parking lot as quickly as possible. Aria jetted all the way across Rosewood breaking heaven only knows how many traffic laws in the process. She released a sigh of relief as she saw Rosewood Day come into view. 3:00 on the nose, she'd made it just in time. Turning into the first driveway available not caring whether it was entrance or exit. She parked in front of the elementary school, looking to her right to survey her mother's reaction to her maniac driving.

"I hope you don't drive that way with Jeremiah in the car." Ella said critically.

"I've never been late picking him up. I'm not about to start now." Was Aria's only response. She made a beeline for the door to the main building followed by Ella. She went straight to the gymnasium where all of the children were seated in rows like soldiers all getting antsier and antsier by the moment in anticipation of the school day actually being finished.

Aria and Ella stood side by side in a line of parents that had alread congregated to retrieve their children.

"This is ridiculous, crowding five year olds into a room like they're in a holding tank." Ella said about the child retrieval system she an Aria were currently taking part in.

"They were much more organized when you and Mike were in school here.

"Their enrollment was also thirty-five percent less then than it is now, and a gymnasium is hardly a holding tank." Aria informed her mother.

"I'm here to pick up Jeremiah Montgomery." She said to the teacher's aid that was stationed outside the door of the gym once she reached the front of the line.

"Jeremiah Montgomery." The woman echoed back robotically into a walkie talkie what Aria had just said.

Aria watched through one of the glass panes in the door as a little kindergartener with baby blues eyes and dark hair came walking, no charging through the door at which she stood.

"Granny Ella!" Jeremiah interjected upon seeing his grandmother standing next to Aria waiting for him not seeming to care his own mom was present. Just like any other six year old would do.

"Hi, Jeremiah." Ella said, genuinely smiling for only the second time since she and Aria had begun their outing.

"Hey, kiddo." Aria greeted smilingly at Jeremiah messing his hair a bit before crouching down so she could be on his level.

"How was your first day?" She questioned her son.

"Nyah…It was okay." Jeremiah shrugged uncharacteristically nonchalant for a child his age.

"Well, do you think you wanna come back?" She asked with an expression of phony seriousness.

"Mo-om, I gotta go to school if I'm ever gonna be an astronaut." He said matter of factly.

"Well, if you say so." She said laughingly before standing erect once more.

"Thank you." She said to the woman with the walkie talkie as she pulled her child to her side.

She took his hand as the posse turned and headed down the hall back to the entrance from which they came.