Toby groaned and rolled over as his alarm clock blasted Train's "Hey Soul Sister" throughout his room. He tried to pull his pillow down over his ears as Train sang about "lipstick stains on the front end of my left side brains", but the music was too loud to be blocked out.

"Ugh," he muttered as he pressed the off button. It was 5:30 am. Toby had promised to meet with his old friends before school to discuss A. Toby shuddered thinking about the A message he'd gotten the night before. He grabbed his phone to make sure he didn't dream it. What's simple, but complex at the same time? A tattoo. Watch out for that family of yours, Tobs. When someone kills, they kill someone they know. Kisses –A. Nope, wasn't a dream. There it was. His first message from A. He knew it probably wouldn't be the last.

"Toby! Mom said if you're going to make it to the school in time for play auditions you have to get up now!" Jenna yelled from the other side of his door. Toby had told his mom that play auditions were the reason he had to get up so early. But really play auditions weren't for another week.

"I'm up, Jenna," Toby informed her.

"Okay. Whatever," Jenna grumbled, and stomped back down the stairs. Toby rolled his eyes, and headed over to his dresser to grab something to wear. He decided on jeans and a plain grey t-shirt. After getting dressed, he headed downstairs to get some coffee. And something quick he could bring in the car on the way to school. When Toby walked into the kitchen, he was surprised to see Ian and Jenna sitting on the opposite side of the kitchen counter from the stairs. Ian was reading something in a manila folder while effortlessly cutting up his fried egg, and Jenna was eating a bowl of applesauce with one hand while checking her phone with the other. The door to the house flew open, and Daniel walked in. He was dressed in jean cut-offs, and there was a white shirt draped around his shoulders. It looked like he'd been working all morning. The Cavanaugh's were renovating, so Mr. Cavanaugh had to clear the property from excess leaves and tiny trees beforehand.

"Morning, Dad," Toby greeted, "Morning, sis. Morning, Ian." Toby was still trying to act friendly. Especially after that A message he'd gotten.

"Good morning, Toby," they all replied in unison. Toby didn't know why all three of them were up this early in the morning, but he didn't ask. It was most likely that Daniel had been working all night. And maybe Ian was a morning person just like Jenna, or maybe he was called into work early. Whatever the reason, none of those people was the person that had the keys to the car he had to drive to school.

"Where's Mom?" Toby asked.

"In her office," Jenna replied cooly, obviously trying not to let Toby get her worked up again. Toby knocked on the door to his mom's office.

"Yes?" she questioned.

"It's Toby," Toby responded.

"Oh," Marion uttered, "I'll be right out." Toby looked around the hallway he very seldom went in as he waited for his mom. There was a picture of him and Jenna when they were younger. Jenna's dark brown hair was pulled back into a messy ponytail. She had a big, cheesy, smile on her face, and her green eyes were sparkling in the light. She was holding Toby on her hip. His slightly curly blonde hair went a little past his ears. He had a deer in the headlights expression on his face, and his eyes were the bluest they'd ever been. Toby remembered the shirt he was wearing. He'd been obsessed with it at the time the picture was taken. It was a simple white t-shirt with the words Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart printed across the front in light blue. The picture next to that one was of him, Ezra, Paige, Caleb, and Noel. It was taken a couple of days before Noel disappeared.

Toby turned to the next page of "The Catcher and the Rye". He was hanging at Noel's house with Ezra, Paige, and Caleb. But Noel was talking to the construction workers out back about what his mom wanted the gazebo to look like, so the four of them were just sitting around passing time until Noel came back in.

"How the book, Tobs?" Paige inquired.

"It's really good, Pay. I love the way the author describes things," Toby enlightened. Paige nodded, then moved her eyes back to the picture of Erica that was on the mantle. Toby didn't know why Paige was always looking at that picture, but he wanted to find out. But just before Toby could pull Paige to the side to ask her about it, Erica walked into the living room. She had her phone up to her ear, and she seemed to be in some sort of argument with the person on the other side.

"That's not what I'm saying, Jason," Erica protested, "I'm just saying we should take a break!" She paused, probably listening to whatever Jason was saying, "No, Jason, there isn't someone else. I promise you there isn't someone else. I just need some time to myself to figure some stuff out." She paused again, "Yes of course I still love you." More of a pause, "Okay. Bye, J." Erica hung up, and stuck her phone back in her pocket.

"Hey, guys," Erica greeted them, "Paige, I need to talk to you for a second."

"Okay…" Paige slowly got up. Toby could tell she was nervous to be around Erica. Maybe Erica had threatened her, or hurt her. Toby didn't know, but he was going to figure it out. Erica grabbed Paige's hand and led her out of the room.

"God, those construction workers are stupid," Noel stated as he entered, "I had to repeat what I said to them like a hundred times. Wait, where's Paige?"

"Your sister had to talk to her," Ezra replied. Noel rolled his eyes, and plopped down next to Toby on the couch.

"Yeah right. They're probably just making out," Noel muttered under his breath.

"Huh?" Toby thought aloud.

"Nothing," Noel shook his head, "We should take a picture today, guys. My mom insists on having a really good one of the five of us to put on the mantle."

"I can take it if you want," Erica offered, walking in. Paige followed shortly after. There was a huge smile on her face, and her dirty blonde ponytail was a bit messier than it had been when she'd left the room.

"Yeah, thanks, Erica," Noel smiled.

"No problem," Erica responded. Caleb tugged at the long sleeved, Hershey's, shirt he was wearing, trying to pull it over the top of his army print cargo pants. There was a simple pair of black socks on his feet, and his brown hair was styled sort of shaggily. Paige was wearing white denim shorts, and her Rosewood Sharks Swimming t-shirt. And there were the typical white and black converse on her feet. Toby was in a Star Wars t-shirt, kaki cargo shorts, and Nike flip flops. His blonde hair was slightly long, and the area around his eye was still slightly purple from getting hit in the face with a dodgeball when the five of them were playing at the Rosewood Rec Center earlier that week. Ezra was dressed in shorts made out of kilt fabric, a shirt covered in Renaissance style paintings of frogs, and black rain boots. His curly black hair swirled around his head, and his pink highlights were very noticeable in the light of the mid-afternoon sun. Noel wrapped his arm around Caleb's shoulders, who wrapped his arm around Paige's shoulders, who wrapped her arm around Toby's shoulders, who wrapped his arm around Ezra's shoulders.

"Okay, 3-2-1-say cheese," Erica stated.

In the end it wasn't the best picture they'd ever taken as a group, but it was still a good picture none-the-less. It was one of the pictures that was circling news reports for the year after Noel's disappearance. It was the last picture with Noel in it that had been taken before his disappearance.

"Toby, honey, do you want the keys?" Marion asked, tapping him on the back as she exited her office. Toby turned around.

"Yeah, just thinking about, Noel," Toby admitted.

"I know you are," Marion smiled sympathetically, handing him the car keys. Toby took the keys from her outstretched hand.

"Thanks, Mom," Toby smiled, turning to leave the hallway.

"You're welcome. Have a good day at school," Marion answered, going back into her office. Toby drove passed the school to the old playground where they'd used to hang with Noel, and parked in the grass. He could see his friends. Paige was sitting on one of the swings. She was looking down at the dirt under the swing. She was drawing something in it with her foot. Caleb was sitting down in the mulch in front of Paige. He was tossing a piece of mulch up in the air. Ezra was leaning against the swing set. He was looking at something on his phone. Toby reached into the passenger seat of his car to grab his, no longer A free, phone. After slipping it in the pocket of his jeans, he exited the car, locked it, and walked briskly over to the swing set. Caleb was the first to see him.

"Hey, Toby!" he greeted.

"Hey, Cay," Toby replied.

"Oh, hey, Tobs," Paige smiled, looking up from whatever she'd been drawing in the dirt. Ezra looked up from his phone. As usual he was the only one out of the four of them that couldn't put A out of his head for long enough to cheerfully talk to anyone.

"Hi, Paige," Toby spoke.

"Hey, Toby," Ezra stated, biting on his fingernails as he looked back down at his phone. He was just staring at the A text he'd gotten in class the other day trying to figure out how anyone other than Noel could have known about Cece and his dad.

"Hey, Ez," Toby said, "Are you okay?"

"No! And I don't know how you guys are!" Ezra exclaimed, "Someone other than Noel knows all our secrets that only Noel knew!"

"We're worried too, Ez," Paige declared.

"Guys, A could know about, Melissa," Ezra pointed out, lowering his voice.

"I'm pretty sure if A knew about Melissa we'd be behind bars by now," Caleb claimed, standing up so Paige could actually swing if she wanted to.

"Actually not necessarily," Toby shook his head, "They could blackmail us with it. If A isn't Spencer or Melissa they'd probably get more out of blackmailing us then just turning us in."

"You guys don't have to say if you don't want to, but what did your text from A say?" Caleb asked, trying to distract Ezra from what Toby had said.

"I kissed Erica!" Paige blurted out. She'd been debating whether to tell them or not. She wanted her friends to know, but she didn't want them to ask questions that she herself didn't know the answer to.

"As in Noel's older sister, Erica?" Ezra inquired.

"Yeah," Paige nodded.

"So is that why you were always staring at that picture of her on the mantel?" Toby asked, raising his eyebrows. Paige laughed nervously.

"I wouldn't call it staring," she protested.

"You were staring, Pay," Toby assured, laughing.

"Okay fine, maybe I was staring," Paige shrugged.

"So, what does that mean?" Caleb asked, "Are you gay, or bi?" Paige looked down at her feet. Caleb had the tendency to say the wrong thing in those types of situations. Toby reached over and punched Caleb in the arm.

"What?!" Caleb yelled. Toby glared at him, "Sorry, Paige. You don't have to answer that if you don't want to," he added, getting what Toby had meant.

"No, Caleb, it's fine. Honestly I don't really know," Paige explained, "I think I may be gay. I haven't really had any feelings for any guys. And I think I might have a crush on the new girl, Sara, but idk."

"Well, it's okay not to know," Ezra reassured, "And if you're, gay, bi, whatever, we'll still love you just the same."

"Yeah we will," Toby and Caleb agreed.

"Thanks, guys," Paige smiled, getting off the swing so she could hug them. As she hugged Ezra he gasped. Paige turned so she could see what he'd gasped at. There were two people in the student parking lot of the school. One of them had long dark brown hair and brown eyes. She was dressed in a blue button down over a peach blouse, brown leather jeans, and boots. She was pushing the other girl in a wheelchair. The other girl had similar long dark brown hair and similar brown eyes. She was wearing a long sleeved, dark blue, pullover, pink jeans, and tan flats.

"Is that?" Ezra began.

"Spencer and Melissa," Caleb interrupted, having turned to look as well. Spencer turned towards them. She didn't seem to realize who they were from the distance. I guess it was harder to tell them apart from anyone else when it was the four of them, and not the five of them. Spencer continued to wheel her sister towards the handicap entrance. Melissa turned at the last second before they entered the school. She waved. She hadn't recognized them either. They waved back.

"Well they look happy," Toby observed.

"Yeah. I would be too if I'd found a way to get back at the people who'd accidentally paralyzed me and then blamed it on my step sister," Ezra proclaimed.

"Do you think it's them?" Paige asked.

"I don't know. I honestly have no idea who it could be," Ezra shrugged, "I just want to find out. Maybe we'll have something against them?"

"Yeah maybe," Caleb nodded, "Noel did have a knack at getting secrets out of people." All of a sudden the blare of a siren filled the air. It was obviously near the playground. They turned to look back at the school. Sure enough an ambulance was turning onto the street. It drove passed the school, across the grass, and stopped right next to the swing set. The back doors flung open, and a group of paramedics jumped out.

"We got an anonymous call telling us to send an ambulance to the playground by Rosewood High," one of the paramedics announced, "Did any of you make that call?"

"No," the four of them replied.

"None of us are hurt, and we're the only ones here." Toby added.

"I find that questionable!" the paramedic that had checked behind the shed on the other side of the playground yelled, "Bring the stretcher!" The other paramedics hurried over to the shed as quickly as they could, rolling the stretcher with them as they went. They disappeared behind the shed. When they reappeared there was a body on the stretcher. It was a girl. She had long dark hair, beautiful brown eyes, and olive skin. There was serious bruising around both of her eyes. Her nose and mouth were bleeding. From the way the paramedics were handling her it was obvious there was bruising on her stomach and rib areas as well. There were visible cuts on her arms and legs. She looked familiar to Paige, and as Paige looked closer she realized why. She was on the swim team. Emily Fields was the only person on the team that was a threat to Paige, and now she definitely wouldn't be swimming for a while. Paige wondered what had happened to her.

"Jane Doe. Cuts all over her arms and legs. Bruising around both her eyes, and on her stomach and ribs. Looks like it may have been bullying that went too far. The attackers are nowhere to be seen." one of the paramedics announced into the walky-talky he was holding.

"Wait," Paige stated, "She's not a Jane Doe. It's Emily Fields. She swims for Rosewood. We both swim for Rosewood."

"Okay thanks, miss," the paramedic smiled, announcing what Paige had said into the walky-talky, "Is there anything you know about Miss Fields? Anything that may have made people bully her? Any contact information for any of her family members?"

"Um, I don't know. Coach Fulton would probably have contact information for her family," Paige replied.

"Okay we'll send someone to go get that," he spoke. Emily shot up into a sitting position on the stretcher. Paige rushed over to take her hand. She was the only person there that knew Emily, and she thought it might be a comfort for her to see a familiar face.

"Paige?" Emily questioned hoarsely.

"Yeah. It's gonna be okay, Emily. They're gonna take care of you at the hospital," Paige reassured, "And I'm gonna make sure they get a hold of your parents."

"What happened?" she asked.

"They found you behind that shed over there," Paige stated.

"Oh," Emily spoke, "That's how far I managed to make it last night after he beat me up. I thought I was going to die,"

"Well you didn't, okay?" Paige smiled, "And after who beat you up?"

"My boyfriend. He's older. I told him I thought I might be gay," Emily paused, trying not to cry, "He didn't take it that well. As you can see."

"Okay, well he's going to pay for what he did," Paige claimed. Emily nodded, closing her eyes. She was really weak, and wanted to sleep.

"We're going to take her to the hospital now," the paramedic that had been talking into the walky-talky declared, "Thanks for your help."

"My pleasure," Paige smiled, "I can take whoever's going to find Emily's parents' numbers to Coach Fulton's office if you want."

"Thanks for the offer, but we're going to send a non-paramedic who works at the hospital to get it," the paramedic shook his head, "You kids get to class."

"Okay," Paige said. The paramedics loaded the stretcher into the back of the ambulance. They climbed in, closed the doors, and the ambulance drove away. Its lights flashing, and its sirens blaring.

"Who do you think called them?" Ezra queried.

"Maybe A did, but didn't know about Emily," Caleb suggested.

"Yeah probably," Paige nodded.

"It sucks that A can just make calls like that. If Emily hadn't been there, and they'd blamed it on us we could have been in some serious trouble," Toby proclaimed.

"Yeah," Caleb, Paige, and Ezra said. The four of them started walking towards the school. All of them still wondering what they would do about A. The meeting had kind of been a dud when it came to original purpose. But school was about to start, so they'd have to continue it later. After Paige visited Emily in the hospital that is