AN: Just a few things to quickly mention before I start. This story is set after Alison's disappearance, although large paragraphs in italics signify flashbacks. In this world, the girls remained friends and didn't drift apart when Ali went missing. This story is loosely based on a certain movie. I won't name which one but if you wanna guess in the reviews, feel free! I'll tell you which one in chapter two ;)

I'm actually really, really, really, really nervous about starting this new story. Since 'Wait For It,' I've only written one-shots for Aria and Ezra, and this is completely different to anything I've ever written before because it is slightly AU. Anyway, I hope you enjoy it. Please let me know what you think and review as it really helps me out :)

Aria sighed. The backseat of this cab was hot, too hot. She wasn't sure whether it was nerves, or the fact that she'd been inside this thing for what felt like an eternity, but it was too much for her to handle. The plane ride had been long, especially with a screaming toddler next to her, and all she wanted to do was take a shower and sleep, forever. She took off the cardigan she was wearing. This morning she'd shoved it into her purse, trying to prepare for any weather eventualities. Now that really did feel like an eternity ago. At home, in her bedroom. She closed her eyes and imagined that she was on her bed, feeling the warmth of her soft pink sheets, instead of in a sweaty taxi with a driver who didn't know the meaning of the word 'ventilation.'

The car finally came to a halt, but when Aria looked out of the window, they were in the middle of nowhere. Still.

"Where is it you wanted to go? I tend to forget -" The driver had turned to face Aria. He was old, and big, and if Aria wasn't so done with everyone and everything right now, perhaps a little scary.

Aria rolled her eyes. "The all girls school? I'm assuming there's only one around here. And could you perhaps please open a window, I can't -"

"Ah, private school girl are we?" He gave her a wink as he turned back to the wheel. His voice was rough, and Aria narrowed her eyebrows, cringing all over as the vehicle began to move again.

Silence returned to the air, and Aria had no intention on breaking it. The greenery got more and more sparse as they turned onto country lanes with the odd building here and there. It didn't take long for the buildings to become more frequent, and Aria smiled to herself when they turned a corner and drove up to a large building, castle-like, that Aria had only ever imagined or seen pictures of.

Winterly, a private school for girls aged 11-18, Aria's new home.

She got out of the car and looked up at the building. It was big, huge even, and looked practically magical. The building rested next to a large lake, with a forest beyond that. She couldn't peel her eyes away, checking out every little stone detail, every window, every tree..

"Hey!"

Aria jumped back at the sound of the car horn being pounded loudly. She sighed and walked towards the trunk.

"Guess I'll be getting my own bags then," she muttered under her breath as she got them out one by one. She'd attempted to travel light, but it wasn't going to happen for her, ever.

She closed the door with a thump and proceeded to walk around to the front of the car, where the driver had rolled down his window.

"That's £30," he told her absentmindedly, with his eyes more focused on Candy Crush than his customer.

"What the hell? That's like $50! The journey was long but not that long."

"Hey, you either pay or I call the police. Your choice, sweetheart."

Aria huffed and reached into her purse to retrieve the money which she reluctantly handed over. The car spun away and at last Aria could finally be at peace..

Well, until the sky started to rumble with thunder and the heaven's opened to shower her with rain.

She ran quickly, hauling her bags with her to the front of the castle. The water was making her skin go cold and her hair was dripping, soaked right through. Her make-up had ran, staining her formerly rosy cheeks with a thick, black mess from her mascara. She shivered as she made her way to the door, but when she arrived and tried to push it open, it wouldn't budge.

"You have got to be kidding me." She got as close as she could to the wall, sheltering herself underneath the thin drain pipes as she banged loudly on the glass. It seemed isolated, empty, like there was no one at all in this massive building.

Just then, Aria heard the faint sound of an engine in the distance. The storm was still going strong as a motorbike spun around the corner and onto the gravel that covered the ground to the entrance of the school. A cloud of dust blew Aria in the face as the rain continued to pour.

She coughed as the rider quickly hopped off the bike and removed his helmet. The guy in question was tall, although compared to Aria, everyone was. His short, deep brown hair dampened instantly thanks to the weather, but he could easily pull off the wet look. She caught his blue eyes for a moment, but looked away quickly, unable to handle the power they already had over her. Expecting a middle-aged, pompous, grey-haired know-it-all, she was surprised. He was young, he was smiling, and he was hot.

His smile quickly turned to a frown when he saw Aria's face. He ran over to her, taking off his jacket quickly and holding it up.

"Here," he said, as he held up the jacket to cover Aria's already dripping hair. She pushed it away and stood closer to the door.

"Little too late for that, don't you think?" She told him angrily, knocking on the glass again.

She heard him laugh quietly to himself, and without even turning around, she glared at him through the reflection in the glass. "Oh yeah," she said, her back still all he could see, "this is hilarious. Absolutely side-splittingly funny -"

But she was cut short when he produced what looked like an ID card from his pocket and swiped it over a digital panel over the door. It opened instantly where Aria had been leaning on it, causing her to trip slightly. He walked forward to help her but she steadied herself, and eyed him carefully. She took a deep breath, mentally counting to calm herself, before picking up all of her bags and walking into the building, leaving him stood in the rain. What a great start.

"What do you mean she's missing?"

This was a conversation that Aria never imagined her and her friends having. They were sat opposite Mr and Mrs DiLaurentis in their home. After a night of gossiping and drinking and having fun, none of them imagined having to end the weekend with a meeting quite like this one.

"When we woke up, she was gone. There was no trace of here anywhere, not a single thing." Spencer had been instructed to do the talking. Emily was a blubbering mess, and Hanna was on the verge of tears herself. Aria was numb, confused, shocked, worried. In that moment she didn't know how she felt, it was difficult to pinpoint a particular emotion.

"Girls, I know you're concerned," said Mrs DiLaurentis as she passed Emily a box of tissues, "but she does this a lot. I'll call around and see if anyone has seen her. Don't worry. She'll be fine. It's Ali."

Spencer nodded. She was sat next to Aria on the couch. Aria was shaking, her hand was holding onto the soft fabric of the pillow next to her but it was still moving. Spencer grabbed it and held on tight.

"I know. But it just feels.. different. This time doesn't feel like another one of Ali's games."

Alison's Mom stared Spencer out. Her eyes were cold and even Aria picked up on it, squeezing Spencer's hand back just as hard.

Aria cleared her throat and began to stand up, "um, we'd better get going, then."

The other three joined Aria and got up onto their feet, said their goodbyes to Ali's parents and left.

"I'm sorry, how do you spell that?" Stood at the reception desk, Aria was losing patience quickly.

"Ar-ia. Literally like it sounds. A, r, i, a. Aria Montgomery. And Montgomery is spelt -"

"I know how it's spelt, love, I'm not dim."

Aria sighed quietly to herself. She could just about understand the accents here but some of the vocabulary baffled her. British slang was a whole new language within itself. After she had entered the building, it didn't take long for her to find the reception desk, and the ditsy blonde receptionist who was sat in front of a computer with her headphones in. It even took a few taps of that window before she even noticed that Aria was there.

"So, Ah-ri-a," said the woman, emphasizing Aria's name, "welcome to Winterly. Here is your timetable and some other information that you'll need. You're scheduled for a meeting with the headmistress at 9am sharp tomorrow morning." She looked over her shoulder and then leaned up to get closer to Aria, her voice barely a whisper. "Don't be late. Trust me."

Aria's eyes widened and she nodded her head slowly. "Okay."

"Your room is on the first floor. The lift, sorry, elevator to you," she giggled loudly and Aria stared at her, too pissed off to even register a joke right now, "is on your right."

"Thank you." Aria said, although she wasn't even sure that it was noticed by the receptionist as she was too busy laughing at her own joke, if you could even call it a joke, Aria thought as she made her way to her room.

"Aria, honey. Um, look this is gonna sound really bad. And it is, but in other ways it's not. It's just, um. Oh, Byron, I can't do this."

Aria was sat on the couch downstairs in her house, and her Mom and Dad were sat opposite. It had been a week and no one had seen or heard from Alison. There had been no cheeky text of, "missing me yet?", or rocks thrown at the window in the middle of the night, urging one of them to join her in Spencer's barn for a late night party. It had been radio silent, nothing at all had been seen or heard of Alison DiLaurentis.

Aria's Dad took her Mom's hand with his left hand, and Aria's with his right. It took all everything Aria had for her to not pull her hand away. If it wasn't for her Mom being there, her hand would be tucked securely away, away from her Dad and all of his secrets.

"Alison's Mom and Dad have declared her as being officially missing. This isn't one of her jokes, it's serious."

Aria stared at her father, for a second, and then beyond him, over his shoulder and at a photo of the five of them. Herself, Spencer, Hanna, Em, and Ali, at their freshman year winter dance. Her eyes focused on the diamonds in Ali's tiara, and the glitter on her dress as a tear escaped her eye.

"Oh, sweetie." Ella flung her arms around her daughter.

"But, she's gonna be okay, right?" Aria asked, pulling away slightly and wiping her eyes. "They're gonna find her?"

"We don't know, honey," said her Dad, and Aria eyed him carefully, "but they're gonna try their best."

The room was dull, and boring. Her family had paid extra, however, so that Aria could have a private room with her own en-suite bathroom. Stood by the entrance, her desk was on the left wall, right in front of her, and her bed was on the opposite side. There was no comforter or pillow case, it was just plain white, and Aria was glad she'd listened to her Mom and bought her own. It was a single, much smaller than her bed at home, and there were a few shells on the wall above it. The bathroom broke off around the corner from where she was stood, consisting simply of a toilet and a shower. Aria was very much a bath person, but she knew that she wouldn't have one here so she had the time to get used to it. Standing still, Aria took everything in, and decided that a few books, posters and of course, some art, could really spruce this place up. She left her bags at the door and went to sit on the bed. If she closed her eyes and thought hard enough, she could almost convince herself that she was back at home in Rosewood, on her bed with the soft pink sheets. She opened her eyes with a flash. She didn't want that. She had come here to escape and get away from everything, not to wish she was back there as soon as she arrived.

It was silent now, apart from a soft buzz of music that she could hear coming from outside. She walked over to the window and opened it a little, to get a look at who was making the noise. It was the guy from earlier. But this time he was sat in a car, a silver Toyota Camry. The window was down and for a moment, Aria was confused as to why he was sat in the passenger seat. Then she remembered that she was in England, and they drove on the other side of the road. She stayed by the window for a few moments, listening. She recognised this song. It was turned up loud enough for her to hear it from her window, so it must be really loud for him. She closed her eyes and listened intently. It was The Fray, one of Aria's favorite bands. It took her a few moments to catch the lyrics, but then she was humming along gently to Happiness, one of her favorite songs from them. Soon she was gently singing, until she felt a twitch in her nose. She placed a hand to it and pinched it, to try and rid the sneeze, but it was coming and there was no way she could stop it now.

"Achoo!"

The sneeze was ridiculously loud, and for some reason, it seemed to echo and become even louder thanks to all of the stone. The music immediately shut off, and the guy opened the door and stepped out slightly, looking up. Aria ducked quickly, and jumped over to her bed, cringing all over. Great, you don't look like an idiot at all, she thought to herself, shaking her head. She let a few minutes pass until she heard the music resume playing, along with the engine, this time, until it all faded away into the distance.

"What do you mean, England?" Spencer's tone was half sad, half confused. "Do you realize that that's like over three thousand miles away?!"

"I do now," Aria said playfully as she packed a floral dress into the suitcase that was resting on her bed.

"Aria, please stay. We all need you. It's almost been a year since Ali went missing, what if she never comes back?" Hanna's face was full of sadness. Since Ali had gone missing, Hanna had succeeded with her weight loss. Her new friendship with Mona had ignited something new in their friend. She was more confident than she'd ever been, and was the new 'Queen Bee.' Unlike Alison, Hanna didn't let her social status get to her. She was the same old Hanna, full of warmth and spirit, same as she'd always been.

"I'm sorry, Han," Aria said, stopping what she was doing completely. "But things are just.. I need to get away."

Aria turned so that her back faced the girls now, and she felt a shiver run up her spine as she thought about the burden she was carrying. Only Alison had known about her Dad's affair. Her Dad had asked her to keep it a secret from her Mom. He said that it was all over, that Meredith meant absolutely nothing to him, but it didn't stop Aria feeling sick every time he hugged her Mom, or every time he smiled at her. She should have listened to Alison, she should have told her Mom. But now it was too late, and she wasn't even sure she could tell the four girls.

"I get it."

Aria turned around and noticed that the words had come out of Emily's mouth. She was cuddled up in a chair, sipping on coffee, her eyes full of understanding and warmth.

"You do?"

"Yeah. This is all crap. All of it. Our best friend shouldn't have gone missing. Some sick freak could have taken her, or she could have ran away, but either way she's gone. And we can try to come to terms with it and help one another as much as we can, but we gotta deal with this in our ways." She focused her attention onto Hanna and Spencer now. "It's only for a year. And we can visit. If Aria needs time away, then we gotta let her have it. We don't just have this one problem, we've all got our own, too."

Tears brewed in Spencer's eyes as Emily finished speaking. "I know.. I'm just really, really gonna miss you, Ar."

Aria walked over and hugged her tightly, "I'm gonna miss you, too. All of you."

It was nearing 9pm. The air had gone cold, and although Aria didn't come from a particularly warm US state, this was still way colder than she ever thought possible. September in Rosewood was still hot, and it didn't get this cold until at least November. But in England, it was freezing now. Dressed in her long pajama pants and a Hollis college hoody (her Dad's), she was curled up reading The Great Gatsby, one of her favorite books. Her room had come with a TV, and she planned on checking it out later, but for Aria, words beat the screen every single time. She was so absorbed in the novel that she almost didn't notice when there was a knock on the door.

Aria jumped up, placed the book on her desk and took a long look in the full-length mirror that hung by the bathroom door. Pajama's were acceptable at this time, right? She played with the two messy plaits that she had divided her hair into and sighed. She was make-up free and in desperate need of sleep. It wasn't going to get much better than this.

The door swung open quickly and Aria came face to face with another girl, someone who Aria guessed must be the same age as herself. She had light red hair, and it was long, like really long, and wavy. Her eyes were a dark green shade, and her lips were full and pink. She didn't look as though she wore any make-up, so if this was her natural look, then she had the ability to make a lot of people very jealous. She, too, was dressed in pajamas, although she sported some navy blue shorts with 'Winterly' on the right side, and a simple black cami top, along with a long, pale pink robe. She was smiling brightly and her eyes glistened. She sighed a deep sigh of relief, closing her eyes and then opening them again as soon as Aria opened the door.

"Oh, good, I didn't wake you! Well, um, I guess I might have done, but you answered so quickly, um, um," she laughed nervously. Her accent was polite, well enunciated, and very stereotypically English.

"No, don't worry. I was just reading. Come in." Aria smiled, already taking a liking to the girl.

"Thanks. You must be Area? This is going to be really awkward if you're not.." she laughed again, and it was of the contagious kind, and Aria laughed, too.

"Yeah, that's me, only it's pronounced like Aria."

"Ah, Aria. Okay, got it. Sorry!"

"Don't worry about it! Oh, please, excuse the mess, I hadn't really been expecting any visitors," she kicked a pile of clothes under her desk, "um, take a seat, please."

The girl sat down at Aria's desk, dodging the clothes, and Aria resumed her seat on her bed.

"I'm Amy," she smiled, "I've been assigned to be your school-sister."

"School-sister?" Aria narrowed her eyes, and then looked down, noticing Amy's slippers. They were like two giant rabbits on her feet. Cute.

"Yeah, it's just basically a friend, a guide, someone to show you around. All of the new girls get one. I'm next door to you, so Mrs Ellington thought it would be best if I was yours. You're only here for the year, aren't you?"

"Yeah. I just need some time away, but I didn't want to abandon my education completely.."

"I understand. You're smart, a lot of girls would just take a year out, get pissed, snog boys."

"Wow." Aria laughed. "British slang really is something."

"Oh, crap, sorry," Amy closed her eyes and scrunched up her face. "I keep forgetting. I love your accent, by the way."

"Thanks," Aria laughed, realising how different she must sound now. "Um, you mentioned Mrs Ellington, she's the principal, right?"

"Yeah, the headmistress. She's okay, a little tough though. Well, very tough." She nodded slowly. "Um, so where abouts in America are you from?"

The sudden change of topic worried Aria, was she really that bad? "Pennsylvania. A little town called Rosewood."

"Rosewood," Amy repeated. "Sounds practically magical."

"Ha, I wish. There's a lot of drama, I'll say that."

"Maybe things will brighten up a bit around here then," said Amy, standing up slowly, "now we've got ourselves an all-American girl."

Aria got up, too. "I'll try to keep as low-key as I can."

"Oh I was kidding," smiled Amy. "Just remember that I'm only next door, and if I remember rightly we've got most lessons together. So at least you've got one friend here. I gotta dash, homework to do, but I wanted to introduce myself before you went to sleep! Goodnight."

"Ugh, homework. I guess I've got that to look forward to, huh. But I really do appreciate you coming.." Aria smiled, it was true. "Goodnight."

They were stood pretty close to each other now, and Amy reached out and gave Aria a hug. She smelt of everything unfamiliar, but it was a nice, welcoming scent. Her hug was completely different to any she had back home from her friends, and thinking about them now, properly thinking about them, for the first time since she left, bought a tear to her eye. Aria pulled away quickly and smiled, and Amy smiled back and left, before she could notice the tears dripping down Aria's cheeks.

tbc