Spencer Hastings had always been the "smart one" in her group of friends. It wasn't something she craved or wanted, but it just always was. Her sister, Melissa and she had always been extremely competitive, which is probably why her intelligence was the only thing she ever really liked about herself.

Her intelligence, however, didn't stop her from using alternatives froms of coping when things went wrong in her life. As a child, whenever her and her sister fought, she would hide in a treehouse and use a stick or something sharp to carve into her skin. As she grew older, a lot more went wrong in her life and the tools she would use got sharper and more dangerous.

When she was around fourteen, she met Alison for the first time. She never liked her, but she noticed the friendship she was forming with Hanna, Aria, and Emily and wanted to keep them safe. This didn't work because Alison's harsh words came down hardest on her. She was always the one able to stand up for herself and the other girls. However, when she was alone, Alison's words and attitude cut her the deepest.

One time, Alison made a comment about how her parents loved Melissa more. This was obvious to anyone who saw the family interact, but there was no need for Ali to make such a comment. So, later that night, she grabbed a pocket knife and slashed her wrists three times vertically. She then wrote in her journal about how much she hated Alison.

This was probably why she was standing there now, a year after Alison's death, with her three former best friends, feeling guilty as hell. They had found Alison's body and the police were interviewing everyone associated with her again. The journal she had she kept hidden in a safe box in a vent in her room. This didn't keep her mind from worrying though.

She knew she had nothing to do with the murder, but she didn't think the police would believe that. Spencer wanted to believe that everything would be okay again one day, but here she was, at her Alison's funeral, receiving text messages from someone who identified themselves as "A". She'd just found out Aria, Hanna and Emily receiving the texts too. She knew she had to do something to stop this, but right now, she pushed it aside, held onto Aria's hand, and let a few tears fall down her cheek.