You all got a kick out of smart Hanna and Spanna, and I've got to say, I agree with you. Spanna is pretty badass. Ctrl + A, anyone?

prettylittleliars39464: Well, it'd be boring if I just had her mope about Caleb the entire time! Hanna does get pretty smart in this story... well, at least as smart as she CAN because, well, she's Hanna :)
Ava B: Don't forget, I know as well ;) I can tell you, though, that in a few chapters, Aria will know about who Ezra is. How she'll find out, however... you'll need to read on to know!
eveningshades1107: You are just full of ideas today, aren't you? Unfortunately, I did not manage to incorporate any of those into this story, haha. And well, the girls are going to attempt to tell Aria about EzrA, but she reacts... interestingly. And whether she choices to believe it or not is for you to find out ;) and no worries about the PM, I'm going to read it just after this!
Lady Elena Dawson: Welcome to the story! To answer your question, I sent you a PM. Hopefully that helps :)
Guest: Thank you! I'm glad you're enjoying the story so far :)
Bagilia: Wow, I'm happy you enjoyed the chapter so much! I think you'll find that this chapter is even better :P seriously, though, the best is yet to come. This story will get even more exciting as it goes along, so hold onto your socks! And oh please, I'm perfectly allowed to have cliffhangers. I update every day, after all!

Alright, now for the chapter, where a lot happens. And I mean a lot. But this is only the beginning. There's still plenty more to come. So enjoy! And don't forget to REVIEW!


Spencer threw her ice pack into the center of the table as she stood up from it. "Guys, this is insane."

"Ezra knew Ali?" Emily said, stunned, looking just as shocked as the other two. "That doesn't even make sense!"

"Actually... it does," Hanna whispered, only for the other two to whip their heads toward her, appalled.

"How could you say that?" Spencer exclaimed. "It's Ezra! The man wears sweatervests and reads Hemingway for fun. He's basically a teddy bear!"

"Teddy bear or not, Ezra was in Rosewood around the time of Ali's death," Hanna shot back. "He went to Hollis!"

"But Board Shorts was from Cape May, Hanna," Emily said, only for Hanna to throw up her hands in a so what fashion, indicating that this did not affect anything.

"Ali probably met him in Cape May, but then continued a relationship with him once she found out they lived in the same area," Hanna explained, surprising the other two with how articulate she sounded. "I mean, do you really think Ali would've wanted a long distance relationship?"

"Yes," Spencer said bluntly. "She was slutting it up in three different zip codes, Hanna."

"Yeah, briefly," Hanna fought back. "Those were just little affairs, but what happened with Ezra must've led to something bigger."

Spencer bit her lip, pondering this. Hanna had a point, but she didn't want to admit to that. For the first time, Spencer Hastings did not want to know the answer to the question on all of their minds.

"Guys, let's not get ahead of ourselves," Emily said, interrupting the debate. "We see a picture of Ezra in Alison's diary and we're automatically assuming he murdered her?"

"We're not saying that quite yet, Em," Spencer said calmly, "but it is a little suspicious that he knew Alison and never thought to mention it."

"Because maybe he didn't even know her!" Emily pointed out. "That picture could be anyone."

"It looks just like him!" Spencer squeaked, her voice going into her higher register the way it always did when she got worked up. "Who do you know that has cheekbones like that? And she even got the crinkle in his eyes when he smiles right!"

When Spencer looked up again, Hanna and Emily were eying her suspiciously. Spencer didn't need a mirror to know that she was blushing. "I'm not... it's not that I... I don't pay close attention or anything, but come on."

"... Anyway," Emily continued awkwardly, "it just doesn't make sense to me."

"Emily, look at the facts!" Hanna said frustratedly. "Ali was into older guys, and hello?"

"He came to Rosewood High right when the A stuff started with us," Spencer added.

"Not to mention he randomly appears at the worst times," Hanna continued. "Remember when he came to Ravenswood?"

"Or when he appeared on the Halloween train," Spencer said thoughtfully. "Was I the only one suspicious about that?"

"No, I think we all were," Emily muttered, starting to see things from her friends' point of view. "I just didn't want to say anything because..."

"Aria," Spencer breathed. Oh god, how would they tell her? How would she react? She was going to be crushed when she found out.

If anyone knew what that was like, it was Spencer.

Spencer gulped loudly. "Maybe we're getting ahead of ourselves."

Hanna and Emily stared at her for several seconds, before taking long breaths as well.

"Yeah, maybe," Hanna agreed, and Emily responded with a nervous giggle as she picked up the knife from the middle of the table.

"I mean, next thing you know we're going to be claiming that this belongs to Ezra, too?"

Hanna's eyes widened. "Where the hell did you get that?!"

"Oh, I guess we didn't tell you," Spencer muttered, only to cause Hanna's eyes to widen even more as they wandered to the cut on Spencer's hand.

"Is that why you have that? Did someone attack you?"

"No!" Spencer said defensively. "No one attacked me, I was just stupid and pressed my hand to it in the woods by accident."

"Why were you in the woods?"

Spencer opened her mouth to answer, only to close it reluctantly. "It's a long story," she said tiredly, not wanting to get into the details of how she found her supposedly dead best friend hiding out in there.

"Long story short, that knife belongs to A," Emily summarized. Hanna motioned for Emily to hand it to her, and Emily did. Hanna held it up close, letting the light bounce off of the silver sheath as she twisted it to and fro. After a minute, she brought it back down to the surface of the counter, her index finger pointing at something on the handle.

Two initials. PF.

"PF?" Spencer spoke the letters out loud. "What does that stand for?"

"Someone's name, probably," Emily said morbidly. "I'm guessing F as in Fitzgerald."

"But Ezra starts with an E, not a P," Hanna pointed out optimistically, only for Spencer to dismiss this right away.

"It could belong to a family member," she pointed out, and with that she was already reaching across the counter for her laptop.

"What are you doing?" Emily asked as she watched Spencer's fingers rapidly prance across the keyboard as though they were performing a well-rehearsed tap routine.

"Searching up Ezra's family," she answered, not taking her eyes off of the screen. Because of that, she was unable to get a glimpse of Emily and Hanna's confused expressions.

"Spence, do you know how common of a last name 'Fitzgerald' is?" Emily said unsurely.

"Do you know how uncommon the names, 'Lila and Francis Springer' are?" Spencer pointed out as she hit the 'Enter' key in the search engine.

"Who?" Hanna asked, making a face at the untasteful names.

"Ezra's grandparents," Spencer answered as she scanned the computer screen with her eyes. "I remember Aria telling me about them one time. They're filthy rich and own an exhibit at the Osgood. Aha!"

Spencer clicked the mouse once more, before turning to Emily and Hanna, a mischievous grin gracing her porcelain face. "I found their website page. Now if I can just find their bio..."

"Spencer, maybe we're taking this too far?" Emily croaked, not bothering to hide the fear in her voice. "Maybe we should wait until Aria gets here."

"I feel as bad about this as you do, believe me," Spencer responded, her insides churning at the thought of keeping Aria in the dark. "But if we're going to tell her about it, we need legitimate proof. Otherwise she'll never forgive us. Bio! Found it."

Spencer clicked the mouse once more before scrolling down. "Alright. Achievements... how they met... process of founding their establishments..."

But suddenly, Spencer stopped. Her face fell, and all of the adrenaline that she had contained for the past few minutes had vanished. She rose her eyes once again, newfound sadness present in her brown orbs. "Family," she said in a voice barely above a whisper, and Hanna and Emily immediately jumped off of their stools and met Spencer on the other side of the counter.

Spencer took a shaky finger and rose it to the screen. "It includes children, grandchildren, and..." She took this time to swallow. "Spouses."

Emily and Hanna narrowed their eyes, before they saw it.

A family tree was plopped down in the middle of the page, easily accessible for anyone. Connected to Lila and Francis was a line toward Diane Fitzgerald, Ezra's mother, and next to her was her husband, who went by the name of Paul.

Paul Fitzgerald. PF.

Neither of the girls wanted to say anything more. For so long, they'd wanted to know the truth, but the truth had never felt so... bad.

The silence seemed to stretch on for ages, like an invincible rubber band that never seemed to break no matter how far you stretched it, until finally Hanna was the one to snap that rubber band.

"So that settles it," she said weakly. "Ezra is A."


"Mona, could you not file your nails while you're on watch duty?"

Mona looked up from her position on the swivel chair and rolled her eyes. She had her feet propped up on the desk and was carefully taking an emory board and applying it to the tips of her fingernails, cautiously shaping them into perfectly curved ovals and planning to paint them an intimidating red color later. On the computer screen was a video montage of what looked to be Spencer's kitchen, and in it were three of the four girls they were targeting.

"I hope you know that I like working with Cece better," Mona spat as she removed her feet from the desk and sat up as though a string were slowly pulling her upward into a sitting position.

"Does it look like I care?" Ezra spat back as he slammed the filing cabinet he was previously sorting through shut in a show of anger. "Besides, I called Cece on behalf of your behavior the other day, and she is not pleased."

"Oooh." Mona threw her hands up in mock fear. "What are you going to do? Put me in a time out?"

"The more you act like a five year old, the more I consider it."

Mona scoffed as she scooted her chair closer to the desk. "You're the immature one in this relationship," she snapped. "You overreact over nothing. I mean, look! They're not even doing anything."

"You don't know that!" Ezra said with a sigh. Working with Mona was tasking labor, he'd say that. He could never win with the pint-sized ball of fury! But at the same time, he did respect her. She was smart and calculating and knew what she was doing, and they wouldn't have recruited her if she wasn't. She almost reminded him of...

No, he thought to himself, blocking out thoughts of another certain dark-haired, pint-sized ball of fury. Do NOT go down that road.

Shaking off his inappropriate thoughts, Ezra leaned down in front of the computer screen, searching for anything crucial that the girls could be doing. But Mona was right; he couldn't point out anything.

"Just... keep a look out," he finally said shortly as he stood up and walked back over to the filing cabinet he was working on organizing. But as he reached for the handle, it wouldn't budge. Confused, he jiggled it again, and it still remained stationary. Before Ezra knew it, he was in a fierce game of tug-a-war with the cabinet, pulling with all his might to try to get it open, but that only led to his grip loosening and him stumbling backward, breathing heavily.

Mona looked up from her spot on the chair and raised an eyebrow in amusement. "Is something wrong, Chief?"

"I told you not to call me that!" Ezra barked, pointing a gloved finger at Mona, before turning back toward the filing cabinet and kicking the base of it soccer style. He ignored the low ring the cabinet made as it reverberated throughout the lair, and then turned back to Mona. "The cabinet's jammed."

Mona just shrugged carelessly. "There's an emergency key over by the journal on the top shelf."

Ezra nodded as he wordlessly went over to the bookshelf where the silver journal - belonging to a certain blond haired, blue eyed girl - had lain.

But when he got to the shelf, he found the key, but he wasn't looking at the silver journal in question. All he saw was an empty surface before him, covered only with cobwebs and a layer of dust.

"M-Mona..." Ezra stuttered, and he heard Mona huff behind him as she stood up from her chair.

"What now?" she said exasperatedly, and Ezra whipped around, terror present in his blue orbs. He opened his mouth to answer, but he found that he couldn't. He felt his throat physically lock, no matter how hard he tried to cough up the words. Several seconds passed, and Mona was tapping her foot impatiently as she waited for him to speak.

Finally, Ezra took a deep breath and squeaked out the words. "The journal is missing."

At Ezra's words, Mona reacted in a way she rarely did. Her eyes bulged to record levels and her face paled as she did all but leap over the desk to where Ezra was. "What do you mean it's missing?!"

"I mean it's not here!" he exclaimed nervously. "Gone. Absent. Not in the premises."

"I know the definition of 'missing', Ezra, I used to read the thesaurus for fun in 6th grade," Mona snapped as she examined the shelf, and everything surrounding the shelf. But Ezra was correct, for she could find nothing in sight.

"Those bitches must've taken it when they got to the lair," Ezra muttered bitterly as he started to walk away, but he had to stop when he felt a small hand grip his arm and spin him around.

"Repeat that, please?" Mona said apprehensively, and Ezra froze. Mona hadn't known yet about how he had returned to the lair the other night to find the closet door open and every chart, file, and piece of equipment sifted through.

"The girls were in here?" Mona exclaimed furiously. "Why didn't you say something?!"

"Don't blame me!" Ezra shouted back. "It's not my fault they managed to get in! I'm not the one who had the key last!"

"Forget it," Mona said finitely, throwing her hands to the side to indicate that the conversation was over. "The damage is done. We just need to keep a closer eye on them to make sure that - "

But Mona couldn't finish her sentence, because as she was talking, her gaze was averted toward the computer screen, where she spotted something.

"Mona, what's wrong?" Ezra asked concernedly, but Mona ignored him as she went back over to the desk and took a closer look at the screen, and soon Ezra followed close behind. On it, Hanna, Emily, and Spencer were conversing around the kitchen counter just as before, but Ezra and Mona noticed something different about them this time.

In the center of the counter, in between the three girls, was a silver notebook. The silver notebook in question.

"They do have it," Ezra sighed. "They're probably going through it right now. We're toast."

But Mona just turned toward him, a sly grin gracing her ethnic features, without a hint of defeat present on her face. "Not if we can get it back from them..."

As Ezra stared into Mona's face, he understood what she was implying.

The girls wanted to play dirty? They'd just have to play dirty back.

It wasn't even near the end. It was only the beginning in their eyes.


So as you can imagine, the A team is ready to retaliate against anything the girls have planned, because the A team is always ready to strike. So the next chapter is going to deal with that, as well as other things, and I'm really excited for you guys to read it. So on that note, I'm going to go watch Elf and enjoy the fact that CHRISTMAS IS IN TWO DAYS!