I strongly encourage you to watch 1x06 "There's No Place Like Homecoming" prior to reading this chapter. That way you'll easily see the connections. Please!

Chapter 2 – In the Past

"She's here now!" Alison announced. "She's late, but she's here."

"Well excuuuuuse me. I'm accustomed to swimming, not flying," Emily snapped back.

Ali rolled her sea blue eyes as Spencer's chocolate orbs enlarged at the new visitor.

"Emily! You can see her?! You can see Ali too?!" Spencer shrieked as she ran to hug her brunette friend.

"Of course she can see me; she's a ghost, too," Ali informed her disbelieving friend.

Ignoring the blonde's statement, Spencer extended her arms to hug Emily. "Thank goodness you're here! I thought I was losing my mind!" When Spencer enclosed her arms to envelop her friend, she was astonished when the only tangible thing her right arm met was her left arm. Her arms went right through Emily's body. Spencer jumped back with tears in her eyes. That's when Ali's statement registered in her brain.

She swiveled her head towards Ali who gave her the I-told-you look.

"When did Emily die?!" Spencer wailed.

"Stop crying; she's not dead. This is the spirit of the past. All the spirits will be in the shape and form of someone you love and trust. Hopefully, you'll listen to what they have to say and learn the error of your ways."

"But…" Spencer inquired.

"Enough questions!" Ali barked. "Emily, to the past we go!"

"How…" Spencer smirked.

But before she completed her inquiry, both ghosts placed their hands on her shoulders and everything around her seemed to melt away into a sea of pure blackness. As an assortment of images and a collection of voices zipped past her at the speed of lightning, Spencer screamed in fear. She shut her eyes and crouched down, shivering in anxiety.

"Spencer?" a familiar male voice called out to her over.

Peeking from her hiding place, Spencer noticed a smiling curly haired boy coming her way. She stood up and just stared at him as he enclosed the distance between them.

"Alex…" she cried. "Oh my, I haven't seen you since last year at homecoming…"

"What are you doing here? Homecoming doesn't start for another 27 hours."

Spencer frowned up as the second set of dialogue confused her. It was her voice who said that, but her lips weren't moving. What really confused the hell out of her was when Alex walked right through her. He walked through her! She turned around to see Alex greeting Spencer.

Spencer closed her eyes and counted to ten before opening them again. Nothing had changed. There before her eyes stood Alex talking to Spencer.

"That boy is cute!" Spencer turned to her right to see Ali complimenting Alex. Emily nodding in approval, "If I wasn't gay, I would totally pick him."

"How can you guys be concerned with my ex's sex appeal when I'm dead?" Spencer freaked out.

"You're not dead. What's up with your obsession that everyone is dead?" Emily wondered.

"Because Alex just walked through me, meaning I'm a ghost! And, hello!" Spencer pointed frantically at Alex and Spencer. "I'm staring at myself across the room and I'm not looking in a mirror!"

"I wish there was a manual to explain this stuff to her," Ali complained to Emily. Em just giggled. Ali walked over to a sobbing Spencer. She assured her, "I'm the only dead one here. You are not dead, ok? We are in your past to view your first mistake. So, pipe down and enjoy the show."

Spencer did as she was told.

"I need to know the color of your dress, so I can buy a matching suit," Alex told Spencer.

"Oh, no. You don't have to purchase a new suit. Just wear whatever you have and I'll match my dress to yours," she stated.

A loud horn erupted in the room, piercing Spencer's eardrums. Spencer thought it was the fire alarm and proceeded to exit the school. But when she looked around the room, she froze in place. No one was concerned with the alarm. The homecoming committee was still busy, prepping for the dance. Even past-Spencer and Alex hadn't acknowledged the sound. But that's when Spencer remembered—what she could see and hear, they couldn't. She looked to Ali and Em for clarification of what that noise was.

"Anything you hear that, it indicates something you did wrong. First mistake here," Ali instructed, pointing to past-Spencer and Alex. "You hurt Alex's feelings, making him feel less fortunate. People don't have to be a Hastings to afford nice things. He doesn't want your pity; he just wants you and to have a good time with you. Don't focus on a man's status or rank. It makes them feel less than a man."

Spencer folded her arms and rolled her eyes. "I was just trying to be nice," she retorted.

"I know, sweetie, but what you did was a blow to his self-esteem. He's already extremely nervous about the dance. Because you bear the last name Hastings, you create internal fear in any boy trying to court you. They work really hard to impress you, Spencer."

Spencer sighed and returned her attention to past-Spencer and Alex. Alex retrieved a folded stack of bills from his pocket and extended it to the brunette. "For homecoming tickets," he smiled.

"No, don't worry about it. My treat," past-Spencer professed.

Spencer jumped when the horn went off again. With a look of annoyance on her face, she looked at Ali and Em, who was trying hard to mask their smiles. They loved irritated Spencer.

"Sorry," Em stated, "You did it again. No guy wants his girl to pay for their date, even if that girl is filthy rich."

Before Spencer could debate Emily's claims, the blond and brunette positioned their hands on Spencer's shoulders again. The scene faded away as the time travelled again. Spencer closed her eyes, wondering what the present would hold.

When jamming tunes met her eardrums, Spencer opened her eyes. Looking around the dimly lit, crowded auditorium, Spencer realized she was still in the past. She was at the homecoming dance. Dancing students infused by spiked punch partied wildly, often bumping and grinding into Spencer—actually through Spencer.

"Hey. I'm walking here," she snapped. But she knew they couldn't hear nor see her, but she was still annoyed that they could just walk through her.

Unclear of where past-Spencer and Alex were, Spencer found Emily clad in a sparkling sapphire dress near the cookie table. She headed over.

"I don't know where I am," Spencer said and laughed when she realized how crazy her statement sounded.

But Emily never paid her any attention. Her eyes were locked on the guy she was talking to. Spencer turned to see it was Toby. Seeing him made Spencer smiled. She wanted to run into his arms and beg him to make these crazy ghosts go away, but she remembered that he was the past-Toby and couldn't see nor hear her. That's when Spencer's eyes returned to Emily. And then back at Toby.

"Wait a damn minute!" Spencer shouted. "How come you can talk to people here and I cant?"

"Because that's the past-Emily," a voice informed her from behind.

Spencer turned around to see Em and Ali laughing at her.

"Oh… right," Spencer groaned. "Are you guys sure there's no manual for this?"

"Even if there was one, you don't have time to read it. You've got mistakes to recap," Ali directed Spencer's attention to the trio behind her.

It was past-Spencer, Alex, and Melissa.

"Hi, I'm Melissa," Mel greeted herself to Alex.

Spencer screamed in agony as that damn horn frightened her. She growled at the ghosts. "I didn't do anything yet!"

"You let your date meet your sister who hates you for kissing her fiancé. A big no-no," Ali said in her baby-voice.

The siren went off again. Spencer clawed at her face. "What now?"

"For randomly ditching Alex at a school dance with people he doesn't know," Ali smiled. The horn again. "And answering your phone when he was trying to tell you what Melissa told him."

"Ok, fine, I admit that I totally screwed things up with Alex. I'm sorry," Spencer cried.

The buzzer again. Spencer just screamed at the top of her lungs.

"That thing is soooo annoying!" she complained.

"It's supposed to be," Emily shrugged. "That way you'll remember these things after this is over."

"Ok, I get it, but damn, It's so loud and scary. Doesn't it bother you guys?"

The girls smiled guiltily and shook their heads in unison.

"Only you can hear it, darling. This is your intervention," Ali reminded her.

At that very moment, it went off again. Spencer exhaled deeply. She looked to see where the past version of herself was and what she did wrong this time. She and Alex were at the Fortune Teller's booth. She looked at Ali and Em for an explanation of the most recent buzzer.

"You came to homecoming with the wrong person; that's why you were so easily distracted. You didn't want to admit it, but you had feelings for Toby's back then. That's why you were so concerned with him and Emily's rendezvous."

"I was just looking out for my friend. I had my suspicions about him. He seemed… odd," Spencer defensively replied.

"Those two knew each other longer than you knew Emily; they went as friends with a mutual agreement. Em wanted to get Toby out of his house to have a good time, because he had shut himself off from the world when his mom passed. In addition, Emily was still trying to come to terms with her secret relationship with Maya, so by going with a boy, no one would suspect her homosexuality."

"Well, I didn't know that," Spencer said. On the inside, she was smiling. She still secretly inhibited a small amount of jealousy that Toby had once liked Emily, but she was elated to make this discovery. Maybe this ghost-time-travelling-scary stuff wasn't so bad after all…

Spencer quickly changed her mind when the annoying horn disturbed her thoughts.

Ali pointed at the elderly lady in the Fortune Teller's attire. "You didn't pay attention to the warning the first time; this is your second chance."

Spencer looked back at past-Spencer and Alex who were seated next to each other in front of the Fortune Teller.

Turning over several cards, the superstitions lady revealed many predictions to past-Spencer. "This card indicates a journey. It's unclear if it's in the past or from the future," she said.

Past-Spencer kept diverting her eyes over to past-Toby; she hadn't heard anything the lady said. As Spencer watched this scene now, she realized how right the lady was.

"I'm seeing an image. This card here, it's reversed. It means you're running away from something or someone."

Past-Spencer wasn't paying attention, but Spencer was. And she knew exactly what she was running from: her feelings for Toby.

The creepy lady turned over another card. "Ah, the lovers is a joyful card," she smiled until she turned over another. "But paired with the judgment card, it means something is wrong with this couple. It's a bad match."

Spencer's mouth fell agape. She never believed in psyches until now. Everything the lady was saying registered perfectly in Spencer's mind. She and Alex were a bad match, because Spencer belonged with Toby. Damn, why hadn't she paid attention the first time!

Melissa was right—she had screwed up this one all by herself.

Reading Spencer's thoughts, Ali waved the ghost of the past goodbye, stating Em's work was done.

"We're done here. Time to meet up with the ghost of the present," Ali proclaimed.

"But wait, I like seeing Toby all dressed up. Isn't he handsome in his little suit with his…"

Spencer was caught off guard when Ali placed her hand on her shoulder and homecoming quickly faded away.