ONE-SHOT
Aria, Emily, Hanna, and Spencer desperately needed a break. Emily was sick of swim team, but carried on with it as was her duty to her parents. Hanna needed a break from the stress that her dad getting married brought on. Aria just wanted out- her parents' fights were getting worse and worse. Spencer needed a break from her hostile family; they just wouldn't let bygones be bygones.
So they all made plans to go to the mall, attempting to get away from their problems. It seemed that their day would go well, as they were laughing and carrying on like the old days.
Soon enough, problems emerged. They started out as simple things; Aria forgot her wallet and was forced to window shop for the rest of the day, even though she thought that her wardrobe needed a major refresher; Emily couldn't try anything on because of her arm, and resorted to guessing at sizes the whole day; Hanna wasn't allowed into her favorite store after she had shoplifted the sunglasses, so she had to pass by the amazing sales they were having; and Spencer was just having a bad day, and couldn't find anything she wanted.
These were small problems, of course, but they got gradually more prominent until they were almost sure that their day would be ruined. Try as they might to ignore them, it seemed like fate was out to get them.
In the food court, a little kid spilt ketchup all over the front of Hanna's white blouse, and when she wiped it off it accidentally smeared all over Emily's light-wash jeans. The cashier got Aria's order wrong, and she ended up with onion rings instead of fries, so she gave them to Emily and didn't eat lunch. Spencer didn't have enough money on her to pay for all of their meals, as she promised, and embarrassedly resorted to asking if they could split it.
When they left to go out to the parking lot, Hanna ran into the cop. He asked her if she was shoplifting again, and she made sure she showed him the receipt for the one pair of shoes that she did buy. He kept talking to her and decided to take it upon himself to give her a ride home.
Emily ran into Maya (literally), knocking boxes from her hands. It turns out that Maya was working, but Emily offered to help her with the boxes and a few other chores, and became separated from the group too.
Wren was in town, and immediately spotted Spencer, talking to her for a few minutes. Soon enough, though, Alex spotted her too, and began a catfight with Wren over who Spencer liked more; she tried to slip away multiple times, but it seemed like that wasn't happening.
Aria bumped into Ezra when she slipped away from the group to go to a book store (the only store that she could actually buy something in, because she had a gift card) and he began to lecture her on stalking and how that would never get her very far in a relationship- not that they had one, of course.
By the time they all got home that night, they were all thinking the same thing: How could a day that seemed so good turn out to be so bad?