The halls of the college were bustling as usual with people making their way through classes. The halls were lined with posters of on campus clubs, and several lockers for those who cared enough to purchase one. It made on campus travel much easier. "Who would have thought the things we were granted for free in high school would actually make life easier." Hanna thought to herself as she stood in front of her locker. She fluffed out her hair and slowly turned her face from left to right, gently rubbing her cheeks. She determined that left was for sure her better side.

Down the hall from Hanna, about five or so lockers away, the clutter of one of them slamming shut made the blonde jump and let her head jerk toward the noise. Her lips frowned slightly as a certain sadness glazed her eyes. The only eyes that looked back were the angry one's of Lucas. She followed them as far as they could go and even further after that, that is until the chirp of her cell phone caught her attention. Hanna hesitated a moment before looking down at the screen. It was thankfully only her mother. The awkwardly scary moment she just had with Lucas made an all too perfect moment for A to stick her ugly nose in. She sighed as she opened the message and began to read.

"Anyone I know?" asked Emily as she stood straight up, her arms wrapped tightly around her books as if she had constant fear of dropping them. Her Dark hair was pushed over to one shoulder as a scarf took up the space on her neck.

"Someone you know? yes, Someone you know but don't know...no. Its just my mom" Hanna said with a small smile.

"What did she want?" Emily inclined as they began to walk and her hair began to fall back over her shoulder.

"Just to tell me that she was going to be late" As the It girl spoke she didn't seem convinced. Convinced her mother wouldn't be home, sure. But not convinced that it was for work. She hadn't been acting the same. Emily looked at her friend with concern on her face.

"Penny for your rants?" she spoke softly.

"Nothing really, she just has been acting really weird. Its not like her to stay at work so late. And for so many days straight. Its not big deal. Its the summer time. Lots of high school kids getting accounts at the bank because of their first jobs and all that" She smiled in a attempt to convince not only Emily, But herself as well. The two walked in silence for just a moment. Only as long as it took for them to turn the next corner where Aria met them with wonder pouring from her voice.

"Hey did you guys see Lucas?" She asked, Emily and Hanna were about to respond when his shadow like figure passed them in the halls. The grew silent until he turned the corner, when the cost was clear they returned to their conversation.

"He just keeps getting darker" Emily said as she looked over her shoulder making sure he wasn't around. Hanna's stare dropped to the ground, she was never able to shake the feeling that the change in Lucas was her fault. A's fault, Mona's? that's what she told herself, but that didn't quite make her feel better either. Aria noticed the change in her best friend, Emily not too far behind. "Hanna, I'm sorry I didn't mean to"

"Its fine Em"She lied it wasn't fine. The three of the walked into room B26. Suddenly the it girl perked up. "Speaking of English, how is Mr. Fitz?" The Blonde asked in Aria's direction.

"Guys seriously?" The goth asked looking at her friends, "Ezra. Not hard. Ez-ra, see. We're out of high school can't you guys just try to call him by his first name?" Aria laughed though the matter truly did frustrate her.

Emily rolled her eyes slightly with a smile to match "Aria we tried. It was really awkward!"

"Its true" Hanna injected "I felt like he was going to give me detention or something for being insubordinate. To us he is always going to be Mr. Fitz" She said exposing her left side to the light coming in from the window.

"The wedding of Mr. Fitz and Aria" Emily laughed. Aria sighed and shrugged having silently given up for the day. Maybe the week...the month.

"We're great by the way, Better than ever, it feels really good to have no secrets" The two girls froze and looked at her awkwardly. "Well, no secrets about Ezra" She corrected. The three took their seats in the room and retrieved their note books.

"Where is Spencer?" Aria had noticed that their usual four-some was now only a three-some. It was unlike someone as punctual as their friend to be late, judging by past experiences it wasn't a good thing. Last time it meant Ian Trying to kill her.

Spencer stood impatiently at the admin office, hoping to transfer herself into Latin. She never saw use for German these days, which is what she was currently taking. Even though she was well aware of the fact that there was no never ending demand for the use of Latin either. Not unless she planned on being a historian or a conspiracy theorist. She planned on being neither. Since Spencer had already taken Latin in high school she was more than well prepared to dominate the top of the class.

Sure it was hard. But it was also special and beautiful. The first two drove her because she was a Hasting, but the last because she was Spencer, and she appreciated beauty. The well dressed young woman took a few steps closer to lean against the faculty mailbox. It was then when a familiar face caught her attention. Her body shot up standing straight as she tucked herself out of the office door. Transferring to a different class could wait.

Spencer cleared the door and backed up against it taking a deep breath. "Oh my god" she whispered to herself. An old woman opened the door behind he and caused her to stumble back.

"Excuse me young woman but that is a very bad place to stand, in the way and rude!" she scolded before walking off. Spencer gave her and odd look. She wasn't usually disrespectful but it did catch her off guard.

"Sorry!" she said quietly before grabbing up her phone and allowing her fingers to do the rest of her talking.

The eccentric English Professor was in the middle of a speech on how Animal Farm was a sick perversion of our society to come, and of course Aria listened intently. He has no way of explaining things the way that Ezra did but it would do. Emily focused on her swim schedule and Hanna reapplied her lip gloss, for the third time in fact. Suddenly a loud melody of ring tone's began to echo through the room. The girls flung for their phones in the pockets of their purses but it was too late. The lecture had stopped and all eyes were on them.

"Anything that has the option to be turned off should have been done so the moment you entered my class room. You may not care about the money your mommies and daddies are paying so you can take these classes but some in here do" he said deeply aggravated.

"Yes Sir, So sorry" Aria.

"Sorry" Emily.

"Yeah" Hanna.

The looks transferred from the girls and back to their professor. The three of them looked down at their cell phones glowing screens. "From Spencer: S.O.S." It didn't take long to realize something was wrong. They gathered their things with fear on their faces, moments later they were on their way to meet Spencer with thousands of idea's going through their pretty little heads. Spencer met them out side of the office, her arms crossed nervously as she constantly looked back over her shoulder into the office.

"Hey!" Emily said rushing to her best friends side and taking her arm in her own.

"Whats wrong?" Aria asked looking around. Everything seemed to be normal where they stood. Spence pointed to a small built woman standing in the office at the front desk. Hanna's eyes instantly grew wider now understanding the urgency of her friends S.O.S.

"No. Way." She said squinting to get a better look. Aria looked at the two of them obviously confused.

"Can someone fill me in on what we are looking at please?" The goth demanded.

"That lady right there, that's Mona's mom" Hanna spoke quietly. Her whispered words did no good. Mrs. Vanderwall turned from the office desk and smiled in Hanna's direction, accompanied with a wave.

"What do you think she wants?" Emily asked the others.

"Maybe she wants us to stop visiting Mona" Aria reasoned.

"No, no way" Spencer replied "if that was the case she wouldn't be smiling" The door of the office opened and each of them took a deep breath.

"Hanna! Girls!" Mrs. Vanderwall made her way over, she was a small woman, even smaller than Mona was now. "Hanna, I just wanted to thank you so much for going to see Mona, I know it has really been helping her recovery." She turned her attention to the others and smiled at them as well. "And I heard you three went as well?" She asked with an over enthusiastic tone, not for a woman who's daughter has been committed for being a state certified psychopath.

Aria nodded her head, in part for herself, then in part of the others. "Uh yeah...just checking up" She told Mona's mother while forcing a smile.

"Well that's good. Mona needs friends right now and it is so wonderful that you three are stepping up to fill that position" As a mother she was certainly using the word friend loosely.

"So you came to thank us?" Emily asked.

"Oh no, that was just a stroke of good luck. No my niece is coming to school here and I was just coming here to check it out" she frowned slightly "I had always hoped it would be Mona I would be filling in paper work for" She laughed it off slightly before looking behind her as a tall, brunette, girl approached behind her. She wore a pair of wedged boots, sailor style shorts, an owl tank top, and a large bow inside her straightened hair. "Girls this is"

"Shelby" Hanna finished.

"Oh you remember her?" Mona's mother asked.

"Kind of, a couple birthday parties. Mostly just pictures of you and Mona when you were younger. She used to talk about you all the time" Hanna said politely, even though she was very wary of the new girls presence at the school.

"We used to be pretty close. That's kind of why I came. Arizona got boring anyway so why not come and keep my aunt some company while Mona is...um...away?" Shelby had hoped that wasn't the wrong thing to say. She didn't want to say off her rocker, crazy, or in the nut house. Honestly anything she would have said would seem awkward so it really didn't matter which choice she went with. The new girl stood awkwardly and laughed "umm sorry" she shut herself up.

Her energy made Emily smile, a little bit bigger than the fake smiles the other girls were faking. As appose to Spencer of course. She was never any good at faking her emotions. Her expression was blank. It went with out saying that Shelby and Mona were not blood. They looked nothing alike and had totally different personalities, still Em shook off the smile out of suspicion. "Anyway...I should get going, I have an internship appointment" Shelby said as she played with the scarf around her neck.

Of course the word Internship sparked Spencer's interest immediately. "Where at?" She pried in the polite Hastings way.

"Rosewood Bank, It was nice meeting you guys, and good seeing you again Hanna, maybe we can all hang out sometime"

"Yeah totally! Bye" Emily jumped in quickly with a response. Shelby smiled in her direction. Mrs. Vanderwall waved and soon, the two were gone. Aria looked to Hanna.

"Isn't that your mom's bank?" she asked the blond as they stood in place. Hanna nodded in response.

"It is. so what?" Spencer said "but there is no use in worrying about it until we have to" she told them all, mostly to convince herself not to worry. As the four began to walk in their own separate directions they're phones began to chirp. The all looked back at each other before taking the next step of reading the blessed message out loud.

"Play nice with the new girl, Bitches, you all know what it's like to be a stranger. -A"

"Can we worry now?" Hanna sighed before the four parted, the would discuss their new theories later in the day.

-Hope you guys like it so far, I know its a bit of a stretch. Peace!