The Perfect Storm

"Ugh…" Nyx let out a groan as she slowly banged her head on her kitchen table, "I. Hate. This." With each word, Nyx smacked her forehead on the table. Next to her was a pile of papers and two books.

"Hey now Missy stop that," Max scolded slipping his hand under Nyx's forehead.

"This suuuuuuucks….." Nyx drawled out looking down at the book in front of her.

"But you need it," Max said

"I hate test and the SAT's are like the ultimate test," Nyx said

"A very important test will help you in the future," Max said

"Yes, the American dream go to school for 12 years to one day go to even more school and be in tremendous debt," Nyx mused out loud.

"You young lady won't have to worry about debt once you get that dance scholarship," Max explained

"You sound so sure I'll get it," Nyx said

"Of course you will. That recruit was practically drooling over the chance to bring you to his college after your last recital. That's a big thing," Max said

"I don't even know what I wanna to go to college for. Music? Engineering? Art? Or even go for a Dance degree." Nyx said

"You go could minor in something else or you could even double major. What is it you want in the future?" Max asked

"Well….I always thought I wanted to own my own auto shop but my music and dance have been a big part of my life," Nyx explained

"Then my suggestion would be to get a Business degree and minor in dance. Or double major between Business and dance," Max said

"That doesn't sound too bad. What's really been on my mind is if….." Nyx trails off not looking at Max.

"Is if what?" Max asked

"It's…nothing." Nyx gathered her things, "I better get to school. The weather's only going to get worse and I'd rather be inside before the rain gets any harder."

"Call if the test gets canceled due to the weather!" Max called out.

Nyx walked inside school closing her umbrella shaking off rainwater.

"I hate rain."

"I can see that," Hanna smirked walking up to Nyx along with Aria and Spencer.

"You look like a drowned cat." Hanna mused

Nyx gave Hanna an unamused smirk, "Haha very funny." She grabbed some of her hair wringing the water out of it. "My fucking umbrella turned inside out on me. I can't believe my Dad spent 20 bucks on this piece of shit."

"Language."

Nyx turned around to see the disapproving face of Spencer's mother.

"Sorry Mrs. H. This kind of weather makes me antsy."

Mrs. Hastings picked at a lock of Nyx's wet hair. "You're soaked. Go dry yourself off before you catch a cold."

Nyx gave a mock salute. "Can due captain." She turned to her friends. "I'll meet you guys in the library."

She headed for the locker room where lucky for her was stocked with towels.

"Well well if it isn't my favorite girl."

Nyx stopped letting out a groan. "Seriously do you have to be fucking everywhere?"

Wilden approached Nyx. "Looking a little wet there."

"Oh, what gave it away? Was it my soaked clothes or the fact that I'm shivering?" Nyx quipped

"Well, it seems that the rain hasn't cooled off your temper," Wilden said

Nyx narrowed her eyes. "You're just full of jokes huh? I don't have time for you."

"You hear about Alison's memorial?" Wilden quickly interjected

Nyx gave Wilden suspicious look crossing her arms, "What about it?"

"Somebody destroyed it last night."

Nyx was actually surprised by the news. She knew a lot of people didn't get along with Ali, she could be a real pain in the ass at times. But she didn't think someone hated her so much that they destroy her memorial.

Nyx uncrossed her arms looking at Wilden. "I'm sad to hear that, but why are you here and not investigating the scene of the crime. All of your evidence is being washed away in this torrential downpour." Before Wilden could respond back Nyx continued to speak. "Let me guess you came here to harass me and my friends. Do you honestly think one of us would do such a thing?"

"You said it not me." Wilden said

Nyx scoffed rolling her eyes.

"Have you heard from Toby?" Wilden asked

"No." Nyx shot back, "What? Do you think Toby destroyed Alison's memorial? Wasn't his motorcycle found crushed?"

"Toby was spotted at a gas station just off the interstate a few days ago, so clearly he's still with us," Wilden said

"Here's a question why would Toby contact me?" Nyx asked

"Well, it's clear the boy's fond of you. Maybe he thought you'd help him." Wilden said

"Well if you think he'd be foolish enough to come back to town plus destroy Alison's memorial then he's stupider than you." Nyx retorted

"Just not ruling anything out, there's also this certain girl who has a love of power tools and has a record for causing mischief," Wilden said

Nyx's eyes got wide, and she reeled back, her rage quickly sky-rocketing. "Did you just point the guilty finger at me? You know you have some balls showing up here. You can go fuck yourself!" Nyx stormed away from her uncle but not before turning around and flipping him off.

Nyx entered the library quickly locating her friends and sitting at a table which was now also occupied with Emily. "Guess who I just ran into."

"Our local friendly detective?" Spencer asked

"Detective dip shit had the audacity to imply that I was the individual culprit in vandalizing Ali's memorial." Nyx seethed

Nyx's friends all stared at her looks of confusion.

"What?" Nyx asked

"Those are some big words." Spencer joshed

"I've been cramming my brain with large vocab words might as well use them," Nyx said

Aria was distracted from the conversation looking out the school's windows. "What is my mom doing here?"

All the girls turned to see outside spotting Aria's mother walking up to the school carrying an umbrella. Aria power walked out of the room heading for her mother.

"First Spencer's mother, now Aria's. I hope my Dad doesn't show up." Nyx chuckled

Nyx sat around the table doing a little extra cramming with her friends. Although the girls couldn't really keep their focus as Wilden kept popping in and out of the library.

Wilden approached one of the teachers as the girls observed.

"Who would I speak to about getting into the boys' locker room?"

"I'd have to find a custodian. Do you want to follow me?"

"No, that's all right. I'm gonna wait here." Wilden lingered in the library as the teacher left.

"God, he is freaking me out!" Hanna whispered. "Whose locker is he poking into now?"

"He's desperate. Ali's brother's breathing down his neck." Spencer said

"Yeah, ours too. What if Jason told the police Alison's version of what happened after the fire?" Aria said

"If Jason was gonna say anything, he would've told the police a year ago. He knows Ali, and he knew that her version of the story was bogus." Nyx said

"Well, then, why do they bring it up?" Hanna asked

"To try and drive a wedge between us," Spencer said. "Well, he's not gonna do that."

Wilden approached the girls. All the girls looked away from the detective expect Nyx who made direct eye contact glaring at the man.

"Sorry about the memorial. I know how hard you girls worked on it. Shocking though, right, something like that could happen out in the open and nobody saw anything?"

"Well, everybody here was probably studying for the exam that we're about to take, so you might wanna look for eyewitnesses somewhere else," Spencer said

"So you were all studying together last night, then?" Wilden asked

"Yes, they were all at Spencer's," Nyx answered

"And where were you?" Wilden asked Nyx.

Nyx scowled wanting nothing more than to slap her uncle's egotistical face. "I was with my Dad's, helping them with one of their cars. It was making weird noises."

Wilden hummed staring at Nyx before turning his attention to the rest of the girls. "So the rest of you were at Spencer's studying?"

"Yes. All of us." Aria answered

"All of you?" Wilden asked leaning in close.

"Okay, you know what!" Nyx slammed her hands on the table standing up.

"Nyx!" Aria whispered grabbing onto the girl's wrist.

Wilden smirked at Nyx before walking away.

"Nyx calm down," Spencer said

"I'll calm down when I knock some of his teeth out with my wrench." Nyx fumed sitting back down in her seat.

"Emily, what is going on? Where were you last night?" Spencer asked

"I told you. I went home." Emily said

"Then why didn't you tell him that?" Spencer said

"What happened to all of us sticking together?" Emily stood up grabbing her bag.

"Where are you going?" Aria asked

"To the restroom, but if you don't, believe me, we can all try and squeeze into one stall," Emily remarked before briskly walking out the room.

Nyx watched Emily leaving the room, confusion on her face. "Uhm am I missing something? Why is she pissed?"

"Emily told us that practice ran late yesterday, and she went home and fell asleep," Aria explained

"Oooh okay. So when I said you were all at Spencer's studying it was just you three. No Emily." Nyx replied

Aria nodded her head. "Should one of us go talk to her?"

"No." Hanna shook her head. "She'll talk when she's ready."

As the girls went back to studying Spencer's phone beeped. She picked it up opening a new message. As she read the text she gasped and showed it to the other girls.

Define "Desertion" seems like your about to lose Emily who's next - A

The girls looked worriedly around the room wondering who and where their enemy was.

All the girls were on edge now. Emily had yet to return to their group and the chilling atmosphere was only growing heavier.

Nyx's phone beeped causing her to jump.

"Shit!" She whispered

Hanna, Aria, and Spencer all observed on edge as Nyx unlocked her phone reading the message.

"Is it….?" Hanna asked

"No...no….it's just my Dad he's just wondering if the test is still going to happen. I-I'm gonna step out and call him." Nyx got up and walked out the library.

Once she was in the hallway Nyx reopened the text.

You're the only one left. Meet me at our place. -Unknown Number

All the students were soon corralled into the girl's locker room. A tornado watch was declared, so they were being relocated for their safety.

"Move! All the way in, people! You don't need to touch every locker. Come on!"

Nyx sat alone against a locker. All of her friends seemed to be doing their own thing. It seemed like they all had something going on, that included her too. That text message was still going through her head.

A loud crack of thunder jolted Nyx out of her thoughts, then the lights shut off.

"And now there's a power outage….great."

Emily finally showed up in the locker room and Hanna went over talking to her. As the girls were in mid-conversation Wilden showed up butting in.

"Emily, I think we found something that belongs to you. Could you come with me, please?" Wilden walked out the room but Emily didn't follow. "Emily! Let's go."

As Emily trialed after Wilden her friends watched distressed.

"Oh hell no." Nyx springs up from her place on the ground and followed after the two with Hanna, Aria, and Spencer close behind.

The girls followed the two back into the library.

"What is going on?" Spencer questioned

"Oh, perfect! We can all be together for an update." Wilden said

"No, we're supposed to be in the girls' locker room." Hanna countered

"Well, I'm guessing you girls are used to being in places you're not supposed to be." Wilden faces Emily. "Did you tell your friends where you were last night, when you weren't studying for the test? See, 'cause I got these really interesting photos." Wilden pulled out his phone handing it over to Emily. "Go ahead and pass it around. There's plenty more where that came from at the precinct."

The girls studied the pictures on the phone to see a distraught Emily in the rain kneeling in the remains of Ali's demolished memorial.

"And I see you didn't get a chance to clean your shoes either, huh?" Wilden gestured down to Emily's muddy shoes.

"That's not why I went there." Emily was clearly getting upset. She had her arms crossed as she gazed at the floor.

"Really? So you didn't go back to the memorial to finish up Toby's handiwork?" Wilden said

"Hey! He had nothing to do with this and neither did she!" Nyx yelled interrupting Wilden.

"You know you always seem to be defending him. Were you in on this too?" Wilden accused, "Sent Emily in to finish up yours and stalker boys work."

Spencer and Hanna had to hold back Nyx as she attempted to jump at the man.

"I found it like that." Emily interjected, "It was already destroyed."

"Really?" Wilden reached into Emily's bag pulling out something wrapped in a black cloth. "Then let me ask you a question." He unwrapped the cloth revealing the figures from Allison's memorial. "What were these doing in your bag? Souvenirs?"

"Em, why do you have those?" Aria asked

"You put those in there, you creep. Emily would never do that. The memorial was her idea." Hanna said

"Yeah, so I heard. Nice cover, huh?" Wilden reached into his jacket pocket pulling out a letter. "You want me to share this with them, or would you like to?" Emily tried to grab the letter but Wilden pulled it away. "Go ahead and tell them about the angry letter that you wrote to Alison which is dated, by the way, three days before she disappeared."

"You had no right to read that." Emily's voice wavered as she spoke.

"Emily, what is in that letter?" Spencer asked

"Tell her. Tell her how you wanted to punish Alison for rejecting you. Tell her how you felt relieved at the funeral. Yeah, she wasn't gonna be around to humiliate you anymore, was she?" Wilden chided

Tears started to fall down Emily's cheeks. "I went back to that memorial to say I was sorry. There were horrible things in that letter, and I didn't mean them. Suddenly she was gone, and I loved her as more than a friend. I just never had the chance to tell her in the right way."

"Give her the letter back." Hanna demanded, "Give it back to her now, or I swear to God, I will rip your head off!"

"You heard her give it back!" Nyx yelled

"Sorry, I can't. We're not leaving this room until you tell me what you were doing carting around pieces of Alison's memorial." Wilden said

"I took them because they were the only things that weren't broken." Emily sobbed

"That's it you asshole!" Nyx yelled leaping at Wilden punching the man in the face.

"Nyx!"

"Oh my god!"

The door to the library opened and in came Spencer's mother.

"What's going on in here?"

Nyx huffed as she was pulled off Wilden by her friends.

"Why aren't they in the locker room with the other kids?"

Wilden glared holding his now bruising jaw. "Who are you?"

"Her mother. I mean, if this is the school's idea of keeping my child safe, I'm glad I came back." Mrs. Hastings looked to the crying Emily and the fuming Nyx.

"Honey, why is she crying?"

"He accused Emily of killing Alison," Spencer explained comforting the crying Emily.

"What?"

"He went through her purse," Hanna added

Aria spoke up, "And now he's accusing-"

Spencer's mother cut her off. "Hold it. Hold it. You're questioning minors without an adult present? What police department do you work for? What century are you in?"

"Ma'am, I would advise you-"

"Oh, no, I would advise you to back off, because anything that they've said to you is inadmissible in a courtroom, period." Spencer's mother asserted, "Let's go. Emily, honey, grab your things."

Spencer guided Emily out the room while Aria grabbed Emily's bag and Hanna grabbed the figures. Nyx walked up and snatched Emily's letter out of Wilden's hands.

Spencer's mother continued to dominate the situation as she addressed Wilden. "What were you thinking?"

"I have a homicide to solve, okay?" Wilden countered

"Not anymore you don't. You're done. You're done with this investigation, unless you want to face me down with an opposing counsel."

"Haha." Nyx mocked

"Well, she's not going anywhere. Assaulting a police officer is an arrestable offense." Wilden spoke

"Oh no. That was just a family dispute between Uncle and Niece. You're not doing a thing unless you want me to bring Cypress and Max into this situation." Wilden kept his mouth shut, indicating that Nyx won. "Yeah, that's what I thought." She walked out the room with Mrs. Hastings but not before flipping the bird to Wilden, this time using both hands.

Mrs. Hastings brought the girls back to the locker room.

"So, what's gonna happen to him? Can they get him off the force?" Aria asked

"If he's smart, he'll leave before that happens." Mrs. Hastings said

"Mrs. H that was bad ass." Nyx complimented

"Language young lady." Mrs. Hastings smiled, "But thank you."

"Can I have your attention, please?" A Teacher called out seizing everyone's attention. "The storm warning has just been lifted, but the S.A.T. will have to be rescheduled." She said making everyone cheer.

Nyx sluggishly walked into her house dropping her bag on the table.

"Your back early," Max said

"Test got canceled due to the storm," Nyx explained

Max studied his daughter. It was clear she was upset.

"Honey, did something happen?" Max asked

Nyx let out a sigh. "Where do I even begin?"

Max was pretty angry after Nyx told her what had happened with Wilden. She went to her room as she heard her father ranting on the phone to her other father. Today was a real shit storm. Nyx pulled out her phone again reading her earlier text message.

"Come on where are we going?"

"Now it wouldn't be a surprise if I told you."

Nyx giggled as she was blindfolded and guided around a woodsy area. Toby laughed as Nyx almost tripped, and he caught her.

"Haha very funny. Do you really have a surprise or is this just some trick so you can laugh at me stumbling around." Nyx quipped

"Don't worry. Have I ever let you down?" Toby asked

Nyx smiled. "No, you haven't."

"Stand right here and don't move," Toby instructed

"Does that mean I can take this blindfold off now?" Nyx grinned

"Hold on."

Nyx waited as she heard some shuffling. Toby walked behind her putting his hands on her shoulders.

"Okay," Toby put his hands on the blindfold and slowly slid it off. "Happy Anniversary."

Nyx eyes went wide. The couple was alone on a hill overlooking Rosewood and Toby had set up a blanket with a picnic. The sky was clear so you could see the moon and the stars.

"What is this place?" Nyx asked

"I found it a few years ago, it's just a few miles down from the welcome to Rosewood sign. I come here whenever I want to be alone, but now that I have you. I only want to be alone with you." Toby said

"Toby this is….beautiful."

The tall boy smiled bringing Nyx into his arms kissing her. Nyx melted into the kiss returning it with the same amount of passion.

"I think from now on this should be our place," Nyx whispered

"Our place…." Toby whispered back before bringing her back into a second kiss.

Nyx stared at her phone running her hands through her hair, not knowing what she was going to do.