Disclaimer: Still don't own it
The car ride was awkward to say the least; in Spencer's opinion anyways.
She didn't know why she accepted Mona's offer for a ride, since she was more than willing to just walk home. But there was something about Mona's demeanor that made Spencer say yes, so she got in the passenger seat. Although it was a friendlier ride than what she was used to in the last few months.
"This is a nice car," Spencer said, feeling comfortable in the leather seat. The look inside was very retro but nice none the less.
"Thank you; I bought it from Jenna Marshall before she moved to New York," informed Mona in an off handed tone.
Spencer froze at hearing the name, and became a lot less comfortable. The memory of what happened that night when Jenna was blinded still haunted her memories, even though it was Alison who had done it. During rehab, Spencer almost came clean about what happened, but stayed silent since she couldn't prove what had happened.
Also Spencer couldn't put it past Alison to lay the blame on her, and get away with it.
"Yeah, I just fell in love with it when I first saw it, so I bought it a few days after I got out of Radley," Mona explained with a smile as she rubbed the dashboard.
"You could afford buying this?" asked Spencer, curious. She didn't know anything about Mona except that she lived with her mother not too far from where Spencer lived.
"Yeah; when you have no friends because you're declared a loser, one can save up quite a bit of money," Mona said with a slight twitch of anger in her voice.
"Oh." was all Spencer could say, guilt returning to her, and she wished that she had just walked.
"Don't you have a car or could have borrowed one?" Mona asked innocently. She knew the answer but wanted to hear it from Spencer herself.
"My license was suspended so I can't drive for a while," Spencer admitted, feeling slightly ashamed.
It happened the night that Alison had kicked her out of the group. Spencer had taken a bunch of pills, and went for a joyride with her mother's car. She couldn't remember what happened but apparently she hit a tree, and kicked a cop in the leg before getting arrested. Her parents managed to get her sent to rehab, but her license was suspended for six months.
"I'm sorry. That just sucks," Mona said, seeming genuinely apologetic. Spencer just smiled at her in thanks.
"So Jenna left town?" Spencer asked, both out of curiosity and wanting to change the subject. She hadn't heard about Jenna since she entered rehab, and was curious to know what happened to her.
"Yeah, she and her girlfriend moved in together, in a place in New York after they took the exit exams at her school for the blind," Mona informed as she turned a corner.
"Jenna's gay?" Spencer asked, slightly confused. She thought Jenna Marshall was into guys since they were always hanging out with her before she was blinded.
"She's bisexual, always has been. She is living with an ex-friend of Alison's named Shana," Mona stated and Spencer looked at her astounded.
"Ex-friend of Alison's?" she asked, now wanting to know every detail.
"Yeah; believe it or not, you are not the only one who was a friend of Alison. Not the only one who saw who she really was," Mona commented with a slight smirk.
Spencer didn't know how to respond to that. She genuinely felt that she was the first of her kind to be pulled in by Alison, but came to recognize that she was a monster. Spencer wanted to meet this Shana person now, she even wanted apologize to Jenna for what happened. She also wondered if there were any more people out there who were ex-friends of Alison's.
Spencer was also curious to know how Alison pulled it off the night of the prank that caused Jenna's blindness. She knew that Alison had somehow blackmailed Toby and Jenna into keeping silent, but she never found out how. There was part of her now that wanted to find out; especially since there wasn't a single thing she knew about Alison.
This was the power that Alison yielded over the others; their secrets. Spencer, blinded by her admiration, had told Alison all of her secrets, and she suspected that the others did as well. That was why Spencer felt so defeated by the blond since she had no power over her. Spencer had never bothered to find out her secrets.
They had arrived at Spencer's house, pulling up in front of it.
"Thank you for the ride," Spencer said, smiling at the smaller girl.
"No problem; see you in school tomorrow," Mona said, smiling at Spencer, who then turned and headed to her front door. Mona waited until the taller girl entered her house before driving off.
As Mona drove, she decided that she needed to reevaluate her plans. Originally, all she wanted to do was see if the rumors were true about Spencer getting kicked out of Alison's posse, and pump the girls for information. But after spending the day observing her, Mona could see that Spencer was a broken mess.
Sure she put on a good mask; but Mona had long learned to look underneath the lies.
She turned on the radio to her favorite music, and the sound of classic French music filled the car. Mona sang in tune with the person on the radio, speaking in flawless French that she knew for years now. The music soothed her as she drove, making her temporarily forget all the drama of high school.
After arriving at her house, Mona parked the car next to her mom's in the driveway. Grabbing her bag, she locked the car, and walked up the front door. Entering the house, she closed the door behind her, heading to the kitchen where she knew her mother was.
Leona Vanderwaal smiled at her daughter as she pulled the cookies from the oven and set them onto the stove. Looking at the clock, the older woman noticed that Mona was home a little later than usual, but said nothing since Mona had a smile on her face. Truthfully, Leona had been dreading that her daughter would come home a broken mess.
"So, how was today?" Leona asked as she poured a cup of tea for Mona along with a couple of cookies.
"It went alright; I don't think that too many kids recognized me so they left me alone," Mona answered as she grabbed a cookie and bit a piece off of it.
"So no names?" Leona asked, concerned for her daughter.
"Well I am known as "Crazy Mona" now, but no one has said it to my face or pranked me yet," Mona said offhand. Leona sighed at that and offered a sympathetic smile to her daughter.
"We can still get you to a new school; even have you do home school," Leona offered, putting the ideas on the table. Despite her complaints, the school seemed to not take action when it came to her daughter's bullying which angered her greatly.
It was because of that bullying that Mona snapped and started planning to go after the source of it all; Alison DiLaurentis. Leona thanked God that she had come home early that night before summer break and caught her daughter in that black hoodie, ready to start stalking Alison. She also was thankful that Mona saw reason, and was able to be convinced to get help.
"It's okay; like Dr. Sullivan said, I have tune out the negativity and focus on my future," Mona said with a reassuring smile. She hated using a mask in front of her mother to deceive her.
"So why were you late coming home?" Leona asked, changing the subject as well as being curious.
"I gave Spencer a ride home," answered Mona, taking a sip of her tea.
"As in Spencer Hastings, a friend of Alison's?" Leona inquired with a frown. She knew all about Alison's posse.
"Not anymore; Alison threw her out of the group. She also just got out of rehab," Mona explained, reassuring her mother that everything was okay.
"I see; I hadn't heard that," Leona said though she wasn't surprised since she never got involved with the town gossip.
"Yeah; she just seems lost right now and could use a friend," Mona stated with a smile.
"Well that's nice of you; just be careful because Spencer is a Hastings, you can never really turn your back on them," Leona warned and Mona nodded.
The two had dinner together, eating a classic French dish that Mona helped her mother with. It was just the two of them, given that there was no father involved. After dinner, Mona went up to her room to do homework, while Leona finished editing a novel as part of her work for a publishing company.
Mona entered her room and tossed her bag on her bed. After making sure the door was locked, she got on her knees and moved her desk out part ways, opening a hidden compartment that she only knew about. The space was big enough for a large suitcase to be hidden from those Mona didn't want to know about it.
Opening the case and leaning back against the wall while still sitting on the floor, Mona pulled out a laptop and placed it next to her. She then pulled out a doll that was the depiction of Spencer and held it close while examining it. Pulling out a small comb out of the case, she began to brush the doll's head while humming to herself.
While Radley and her mother considered her cured, the truth was the exact opposite. What she learned at the sanitarium was that she needed to be more careful as well as put on a better mask. Mona also understood that she needed a partner in enacting her justice on Alison, and Heaven seemed to have thrown her a bone.
When Mona first heard about what happened to Spencer, she couldn't believe her ears and had to check it out for herself.
What she found made Mona both excited and feeling pity at the same time. Spencer was broken; she tried to put on a mask saying otherwise but Mona could see right thru it. Alison's punishment had left Spencer alone in a high school that fed on those who couldn't run with the pack. She was without allies, and dealing with a blond teen that could be very vindictive.
But now she had Mona now to make it all better.
Mona was going to make Spencer into a doll like Alison had; but unlike Alison, Spencer would be forged into something greater and special. Spencer was just about her intellectual equal so she was the perfect partner that Lucas couldn't be. Now all she needed was a little time to work her will upon the unsuspecting girl.
Looking at the doll, Mona wondered if Spencer could replace the hole in her heart left by Hanna. Ever since the blond had been poached from her by Alison, Mona had been lonely and wanted Hanna back. But now that seemed impossible since Alison had now forged Hanna to look exactly like her.
Maybe with Spencer's help, Mona could get Hanna back.
Looking inside the case, Mona saw her other dolls; depicting the girls in Alison's posse as well as Alison herself. There were also photos of some of Alison's dirty deeds as well as videos; taken from months of surveillance. She would have had more if it weren't for her being in Radley so Mona now had to catch up for lost time.
The biggest prize Mona was aiming for was Alison's diaries, which had everything that Mona could ask for. The smaller girl knew that there were volumes that Alison had written, in the blonde's room as well as other places she thought were safe. Mona had gotten a hold of one such volume, which she found to be in some sort of code. It had taken some time, but most of it was decrypted and contained some pretty juice details.
Mona, when she had the chance, planned to try and get the rest of the diaries when she could. Her mother was keeping a close eye on her, making sure that Mona was staying out of trouble. She had a set curfew, and was given medication to control her mental instabilities; which her mother kept strict track of.
Fortunately for Mona, the pills she was forced to take had been switched out for placebos; something Mona had done inside Radley when she had been first prescribed them. The pills had made her feel dull witted and not herself; which was why she never wanted to be on them again. She would rather be in jail.
Mona heard her mother's door open, and she quickly put everything back in the case, putting it back in the secret space in the wall. After moving the desk back, she quickly unlocked the door and jumped on the bed. Pulling a book out of her bag, she laid back against the pillow and opened it just as the handle on her door turned. Her mother smiled at her as Mona looked up from her book, faking that she was reading it.
"I'm going to bed; it's getting late, are you turning it?" asked Leona as she yawned.
"Yes, I have to be up early since I plan on picking up Spencer for school," Mona informed her mother with a smile.
"I see; that's very nice of you," Leona said, not sure what to think about it. While she was happy that her daughter was trying to make new friends, she wasn't so sure that befriending a Hastings was a good idea.
Leona had gone to school with Peter and Veronica, though they ran in different social circles. While she didn't mind them, she always found the couple too driven and disliked their attitudes of perfection. While she had used Melissa as a babysitter in the past for Mona when she was young, she always felt uneasy about doing so, since Melissa seemed too much like her parents.
Leona was curious if Spencer was cut from the same cloth though a visit to rehab was uncharacteristic of a Hastings.
"Well I will see you bright and early. Goodnight honey," Leona said to her daughter, blowing her a kiss.
"Goodnight," Mona said, returning the kiss. She then watched as her mother shut the door behind her.
Mona got back up and changed into her pajamas, before grabbing her Hanna doll from the shelf on the far wall. Unlike the other dolls that she kept in the case in the wall, Mona had left this doll out in the open as both a reminder of what she had lost, and to remind her of her desire to have back. It was always next to her as she slept as a form of comfort.
Shutting off the lamp next to her bed, Mona wrapped the covers around her body while snuggling with the doll close to her side. Though it was a bit early for her to go to bed, Mona had had a long day and she was tired. Besides, she needed her beauty sleep for what she now needed to do.
Mona had plans and it was now time to enact them.
Please R&R and thanks to Paraddicted for the edit!