Pretty Little Memories

Chapter 1: Food Fight

A/N: Here's my second PLL story. This one will focus on some of the memories the girls had of their friendship with Ali/Courtney. Some of these will be memories from the books that were talked about but not elaborated on while others are of my own creation. I really hope you enjoy this story. This first memory was mentioned in Perfect when Aria was looking through her video collection.

Summary: Memories can often last a lifetime and bond people together. Follow the memories of five best friends and their shared time together before tragedy struck their lives and changed them forever.

Disclaimer: I don't own anything associated with Pretty Little Liars. All of that is owned by Sara Shepard including some of the memories portrayed in this story. Other memories belong to me as well as the basic plot of the story. I'm making no money off of this and am only writing this for fun.

It was another beautiful day in Rosewood, Pennsylvania. The sun was shining, the birds were singing cheerful songs, and the grass was the healthy green of a fresh spring day. Aria Montgomery, Spencer Hastings, Alison DiLaurentis, Hanna Marin, and Emily Fields were all walking to Hanna's house on a crisp Saturday. The girls tried to spend every day together because that's what best friends did. Aria, Emily, Hanna, and Spencer still couldn't believe that Alison had chosen them to be her new best friends. The girls often wondered why she did that and sometimes had the urge to ask Ali the same question. But each time they thought about it, they lost their nerve to do so. Why did it really matter anyway? What did matter was that Ali was their friend and that they had fun together.

Once they arrived at Hanna's house they went into the living room and turned on the TV. They flipped through channels, sometimes stopping on one to mock a show they didn't like before moving on to another channel. Finally they stopped on MTV and started watching MTV Cribs. They gaped at some of the houses and talked about their ideal mansions.

"Wow, check out Tony Hawk's house!" Emily gasped. "It's huge!"

"Yeah, but it would be even better if he didn't have all those skating ramps," Ali commented. "They just take up space."

"Ali, he's a skater," Spencer reminded her. "That's what he does for a living."

Ali sniffed. "They still take up way too much space," she insisted. "I would tear them down and put in a Jacuzzi if I were his wife. And I'd tell him to get a better job."

Hanna started squealing when they showed Justin Timberlake's house. "It's so gorgeous!" she swooned. "I so wish I could live there. Justin and I would be so happy."

"Get over it, Han," Ali responded. "He's never going to go out with someone like you."

Hanna glared at her. "How do you know?" she said.

"Because he likes girls who are model thin," Ali replied giving Hanna a knowing look.

Hanna turned away from her and continued to watch the show in silence. What Ali had just said really bothered her, but no one else seemed to notice. Maybe that was just the code of best friends, or maybe it was because they really hadn't picked up on what Ali had said.

After the show was over, the girls tried to think about what else they could do. Emily suggested they do makeovers, but Ali stated that they'd done that at her own house last week. Spencer wanted the girls to help her study for the spelling test, but they vetoed that at once.

"It's the weekend, Spence," Aria groaned. "Why do we have to do school stuff now?"

"Fine, it was just a suggestion," Spencer pouted.

Hanna's face lit up. "I know what we can do," she said. "Let's bake cookies. I've had a taste for them for a while. I'm sure Mom won't mind." Hanna's mother had gone to work that weekend. Even though she was technically not supposed to be in the office, Ashley Marin never let that deter her. She was more devoted to her work than she was to Hanna. Things had gotten worse since Hanna's dad had moved away and in with his new girlfriend and her daughter.

"Good idea," Emily agreed. "Let's do it."

So the girls went into Hanna's kitchen and began to make cookies. Aria took out her video camera, which she carried everywhere with her. Since they all became friends, Aria had been obsessed with filming all of them just for posterity.

"Aria, do you really have to film us?" Ali groaned.

"Hey, this is for our video scrapbook," Aria protested. "When we're old and gray, we can look back on all the fun we had as kids."

"I'll never get gray hairs," Ali declared. "I'm going to dye my hair blonde and keep it that way."

"What if hair dye doesn't exist by then?" Emily asked her.

"It will," Ali declared. "Or maybe they can invent a way to make people stay young forever. Either way, I'm never going to be like all those old people you see in Rosewood."

Hanna was mixing the dough for the cookies while Emily got out the cookie sheet and Spencer sprayed it with non-stick cooking oil. Aria continued to film them while Ali just stood there and looked a bit bored.

"These cookies are going to be so good," Hanna commented.

"Yeah, you better hope you don't get sick on them, Hanna," Ali teased.

"That would only happen if she ate all of them," Emily replied.

"Well, she does eat a lot," Ali said. "Just how many calories are you eating a day, Han?"

Hanna continued to mix the dough, but she felt anxiety filling her stomach. She looked tentatively around at her other friends to see if they'd caught Ali's remark, but they didn't seem to understand what Ali meant. Hanna breathed a silent sigh of relief. She was afraid that Ali would out one of her worst secrets to her other friends. She couldn't bear it if Ali told them about how Hanna once made herself puke while on a trip to Annapolis to see her father, his girlfriend, Isabel, and her daughter, Kate.

With a mischievous smile, Ali sauntered over, picked up some dough, and flung it at Emily. The dough hit her on the face, making her gasp. "Hey, Ali, what are you doing?" she cried.

"I'm livening this party up," Ali answered. She scooped up more dough and flung it at Spencer this time. Spencer dodged it then ran to the bowl and put it in Ali's hair. Ali shrieked, and that led to a full-fledged food fight. Aria kept filming the fight, laughing as she did so. Then one of the pieces of dough almost hit her camera.

"Hey, be careful," she warned. "I don't want to ruin this camera. My parents spent a lot of money on it."

"Oh, Aria, lighten up," Ali teased. She flung another piece of dough at her friend, and Aria put her camera down and joined in on the fight. By the time it was over, the dough had been spread all over the girls and the kitchen.

Emily looked guiltily at the mess. "Maybe we should clean this up before Hanna's mom gets home," she suggested.

The girls agreed and began to clean up the kitchen. When it was spotless, they grabbed another tube of cookie dough and made cookies for real this time with no food fight. The girls still had a lot of explaining to do when they got home and their parents saw them with dough on their clothes and in their hair, but it was all worth it. It had been a fun day, and the girls knew they'd never forget it as long as they lived.

A/N: This was a memory that kind of intrigued me when I read Perfect, so I decided to elaborate more on it. I really hope you enjoyed this chapter. Feel free to leave a review, and have a shelltastic day.