It has been five months since the A-team was arrested by the FBI. After Spencer finally broke down and told the girls about Toby, they'd gone to their parents and told them everything. They were shocked, to say the least, and somewhat hurt that their children hadn't come to them for help sooner. But most of all, they were angry, and their anger fueled their determination to take action. Emily's dad had a contact in the FBI, so they took over the case, and after a few weeks of investigating, made the arrests necessary. The girl in the red coat was Jenna in a blond wig. Several other students at Rosewood High were involved with surveillance for the A-Team; they were the people who were never able to forgive Ali and the way she bullied them.
The girls had to relive the whole sage several times at the trial. No one cared that Ashley Marin had an affair with Wilden, or that Ali had been responsible for the Jenna Thing. When asked about it, the judge said that the girls had been punished enough, and they had been victims for long enough.
All of the girls were relieved, to say the least. They were free from the burden that had been holding them down for years. Naturally, the story became national news. Every week the girls got hundreds of letters from people expressing their sympathies, or congratulating the girls on 'staying strong'.
They were doing pretty good with moving on with their lives. Aria and Ezra got an apartment in Philly, where she could write, Ezra could teach, and Malcolm could spend the weekends with them. Hanna and Caleb moved to California. Hanna was a freelance fashion stylist, spending her time making celebrities look stylish - well, not yet, but she was sure her dream would be fulfilled soon.
Emily and Paige remained good friends after breaking up. Together with her new girlfriend, Dawn, Emily took the summer off to travel around the world. She moved to Texas after they returned so she could be closer to her family and still study for her degree in Sport Science.
When it came down to it, Rosewood held too many memories. As beautiful as it was, and as much as it held their childhood, it would be forever haunted. They didn't want to stick around and let ghost of their pasts ruin their future.
Except for Spencer. Instead of following her Ivy League dreams, she stayed in Rosewood, surviving on a steady stream of anti-depressants and scotch. Once a month, she took a flight from Philly to Harrisburg and drove 75 miles to the Federal Correctional Institution of Allenwood, PA.