"A never existed," Spencer told her friends as they sat around the barn.
"What do you mean?" Emily asked.
"I made a wish," Aria began, "that A..."
"Me too," Hanna breathed.
"So if A doesn't exist," Spencer explained, "all the things she made us do, they never happened."
"Like the museum ticket," Hanna explained. "A never made me give Mrs. Montgomery the ticket and now..."
"...now my parents are divorced," Aria said. "The museum. My mom said she borrowed my dad's car. That's how she got back together."
"I never told Caleb about it," Hanna continued, "so now I don't owe him anything but we're not even friends."
"The photos," Emily breathed. "A never took the photo strip so I never came out to my mom. That's why I'm still dating Ben."
"This is weird," Aria said slowly.
"What about Wren, though?" Spencer asked. "He had nothing to do with A."
"Who knows?" Hanna sighed. "Maybe with A out of the way, he was able to make up with Melissa."
"Toby," Emily said quickly. "Are we still friends with Toby. I mean, I was his lab partner."
"I don't get it," Aria sighed. "If we want to figure out what A changed, we need to figure out her motive."
"That's kind of hard when she never existed," Hanna retorted.
They all looked around aimlessly. Somehow they were starting to miss the trouble that A caused on their lives. Sure, A hit Hanna with her car, but she also helped Hanna fall in love, not that it mattered now. Aria never quite appreciated A's harassing texts about Ezra but now that her father had moved out, she missed how A made everything fall into place. Emily was still in the closet. As much as she hated A, having this influence in her life had allowed her to face her fears. Spencer was even more confused. Why was Melissa back with Wren?
"Are you guys hungry?" Spencer said looking around at her friends. "Or can we at least go somewhere? I can't stand being cooped up in here any longer."
"We can go for a walk to grab some coffee," Emily offered. "We can take the long way through town."
"Yeah," Hanna answered. "I think that's a good idea."
The girls got their things together and headed for the door. They walked through Spencer's neighborhood and past Ali's house where all of the lights were off. They made their way to town and reached the only coffee shop in Rosewood that was open late. They ordered a round of lattes and took a seat at a table on the patio.
"How do we figure out what changed?" Spencer sighed.
"Do any of you guys keep a diary?" Hanna asked. "Ali was also trying to convince me to do it but I can't get into the routine."
"I journal sometimes," Aria said, "but it's mostly poetry and short stories."
"I think I can help," Emily told them. "Let's go back to my house."
The girls heard a familiar giggle from across the street. They looked up and saw three girls walking together wearing some revealing outfits. The one in the middle had wavy blonde hair that seemed to glow under the street lights.
"Is that...?" Spencer was speechless.
"Alison," Aria finished her friend's sentence.
"Wait!" Emily said slowly. "In order for A not to exist, Ali never died."
"Who are those girls with her?" Aria asked.
"Mona," Hanna said recognizing her former best friend. "...and Jenna."
"Jenna's not blind," Spencer realized. "She and Ali were friends."
"Do you think Ali died," Aria asked, "because she was friends with us?"
The four friends sat in silence for a moment letting everything sink in. Then a dark figure walked by coming closer and closer to them. Spencer recognized Ian's face.
"Ian," she breathed.
"Spencer," he smiled leaning over to give her a kiss on the cheek. "I've been texting you all day."
"Sorry," she smiled uneasily. "I've been busy with Melissa's shower."
"Well," he let out an awkward laugh, "I see that I'm interrupting girls' night. Spencer, why don't you just give me a call later?"
"Okay," she smiled as he walked away.
"It's okay," Emily said rubbing Spencer's shoulders. "I know it's weird but he's not a killer. Ali's alive."
"I know," Spencer replied, "but it's just so surreal."
XXX
The four girls sat around Emily's room on their laptops trying to uncover clues from their past. Hanna, the social butterfly, was on all the networking sites she could think of while Emily dug through her old diaries. Spencer and Aria were researching every newspaper in the area for local news on them and their friends.
"I found something," Emily said looking up at her friends.
"What?" Aria asked her.
"Ali shared our secrets," she explained. "We stopped being friends with Ali just before the Jenna thing so she told our secrets. The Montgomery's never moved to Iceland because Ali told your mom about Meredith before you could."
"What about me?" Spencer asked.
"Ali told your sister about Ian because she was jealous," Emily read off her screen. "Once it was out in the open you guys started dating. You probably didn't have a chance to kiss Wren because you were with him."
"Is there anything about what she did to you?" Hanna asked her.
"Not really," Emily told her. "It's more about things I didn't do. I never met Maya because her family never moved in. I guess I'm still in the closet."
"Look at this," Spencer pulled up a photo of Hanna which was dated from a year ago. "It's you."
"No it's not," Hanna breathed. It was her, but she weighed even less than she did now and she was wearing an evening gown.
"There's more," Spencer told her, "you've been Junior Miss Rosewood for the past two years. You're the resident queen bee."
"I guess that explains why I have two thousand virtual friends," Hanna laughed, "but I don't get it."
"You weren't in Ashley's shadow," Aria explained. "You guys are social competitors."
"This is such a trip," Emily sighed shutting her laptop.
"There's one more thing," Spencer told them. "I can't find anything on Toby."
"What if he's..." Hanna said slowly.
"No," Spencer told her. "Don't say that."
Then Aria pulled up an obituary about a year old. The name Tobias Cavanaugh was listed next to a photo of the suspect they had come to love. Cause of death: Burned alive. Spencer held back tears when she saw it. This changed everything. The girls weren't expecting an innocent wish to turn their lives upside down and they had no idea what was coming next.
