Sorry for not uploading another chapter yesterday, guys! Time kind of escaped me, I guess, and I ended up spending most of the day at my aunt's house. But I'm here now!

Liz: Yep, kudos to you! You got it, haha. And Aria doesn't cry in this specific chapter, but you can bet your ass she'll be doing some crying later in this story.
prettylittleliars39464: I mean c'mon, we're ALL thinking it! And well, you won't find out what their actual plan is until much later in this story, but trust me, there's going to be plenty to keep you occupied until then :P
Ava B: Believe me, I do too :( but it had to be done. But I will tell you that it won't be for long! But of course, you can probably guess what that means :/
ComeOnWe'reTeamSparia: First of all, I still am unable to get over your username, even though I've seen it numerous times. Second of all, thank you so much! I'm glad you're liking it so far, and your predictions for what will happen next are very realistic. Whether they're accurate or not will be for you to read on to find out ;)

And now, the chapter in front of you. Enjoy, and don't forget to leave a review at the end! Seriously, even guest reviewers, because reviews are my favorite, and it would mean so much to me! :)

"Has anyone talked to her today?" Spencer asked as she pulled her French textbook out of her locker, needing it to complete her homework assignment for that night. Emily and Hanna, standing next to her, shook their heads.

"I saw her in chem, but we hardly even made eye contact," Emily replied, and Hanna nodded her head in agreement as she reapplied a coat of lip gloss.

"She's not in any of my classes besides English, and we all know how well that went," Hanna said as she popped her lips and screwed the cap back onto her gloss.

Hanna had a point. In English that morning, which they happened to have with Ezra, Aria had spent the entire class stealing glares at the girls any chance she got, but then returning to her attentive, doe-eyed self any time she faced Ezra again. Hanna had even reported afterward, rather upsetly, that when she looked at Aria's notebook, she had seen detailed sketches of all of the girls in pointed hats and warts on their noses ("That's always been my thing!").

Spencer sighed as she closed her locker and slipped her textbook into her bag. It was Monday, and neither of the girls had spoken to Aria in the last two days. It was worrisome.

"I saw her in history, but we didn't speak a word to each other," Spencer went on to say as she marched down the hall at an intense pace. "I'm scared, guys. She usually comes up to at least one of our lockers in the morning."

"Do you really think she's going to go out of her way to talk to any of us after what we said the other day?" Emily mused, and then let out a long, heavy breath. "Maybe we were wrong to say what we said. Maybe Ezra's innocent after all."

"What?!" Hanna halted in the middle of the hall, pivoting her feet so that she was facing the others. "If you two keep flipping back and forth on whether he's guilty or not, I'm going to get even more confused. I thought we agreed he's A!"

"We've jumped to conclusions before," Emily said unsurely, her eyes wandering to the meet those of the lanky brunette beside her in accusation. Spencer bowed her head, knowing how obvious her tendency toward assuming things was.

"But we have proof this time!" Hanna said exasperatedly. "Or at least... we had it."

"Guys, keep your voices down," Spencer said warily as she continued to walk forward, dodging the confused glances of gossipping freshmen and members of the Spanish club hanging up posters. "Ezra does work here."

Emily and Hanna nodded as they walked on, but as soon as they started up did they stop abruptly again.

Walking in the opposite direction was a petite girl wearing a pair of black lace-up combat boots, a pair of black leggings matched with a navy blue sweater, a white knit beanie, and a smile that could light up any room.

Aria was happily chatting up a group of girls in her film studies class, but as soon as she laid eyes upon Hanna, Emily, and Spencer, her smile dissipated. The cheerful gleam to her eye disappeared, leaving nothing but a coal black stare, and with that Aria turned on her heel and strutted in the other direction, ignoring the confused glances of the girls she was talking to as she walked away from her three best friends.

Spencer started to follow, but Emily pulled her back, knowing this wasn't logical.

"Give her time," she said reasonably. "She'll come around."

Spencer huffed as she turned on her heel, too, only she went in a different direction than Aria, quietly muttering to herself, "Why does she have to be so stubborn?"

Emily stared after Spencer in surprise before turning awkwardly to Hanna. "Has she seemed bitter to you lately?"

Hanna shrugged. "I think she's just tired," she speculated. "She talked to Wren about her hand yesterday."

"And what'd he say?"

Before answering, Hanna let out a sly giggle. "He cleaned it up and all, but apparently he advised her not to have coffee since it'll dehydrate her blood cells."

At this, Emily let out a loud laugh. No coffee? Spencer? She must've been going crazy.

After an awkward silence, Emily pursed her lips, searching for something to say. Normally, it was so easy to talk to Hanna, but under the current circumstances she found that her tongue was just refusing to work properly. "So... I guess this is where we go home, right?"

"Pretty much," Hanna said, not bothering to hide her annoyance, even if she felt bad that she had to direct it at Emily. She put her cherry lip gloss back into her Longchamp bag, zipped it, and hiked it further up her shoulder before saluting Emily and making her way out of the building.

As she watched her friends depart, Emily took her phone out of her back jeans pocket, sending a quick text to Paige to make sure they were still on for that evening, but she was interrupted mid-text when she bumped into something hard.

Or someone, that is.

"I'm so sorry!" Emily instinctively squealed as she bent down to pick up her phone from the ground. "I should really watch where I'm going."

But before she could do so much as touch her long, dark fingers to her new iPhone, a larger, more masculine hand had swooped down to pick it up for her. One with striped cusps by the wrist that could only belong to someone wearing a button down.

Emily gulped. She had a good idea of who it might be.

She slowly stood up from the ground; slowly enough that she could almost feel each vertebra stacking on top of one another as though she were a marionette doll (No, not dolls. Don't think of dolls). When she was fully upright, she drew in a breath, even if she knew what to expect.

Ezra was standing before her, in his usual attire consisting of a sweater-vest-button-down combo with a pair of loafers to match. He held out her phone for her amicably, a charming smile on his face.

"Don't worry about it, Emily," he said warmly. "It's the end of the day, we can all get wrapped up in stuff."

Emily nodded her head, avoiding eye contact and wanting to get out of the interaction as soon as possible. If Spencer found out she was talking to one of her suspects...

"I meant to ask you," Ezra went on, not noticing Emily's obvious uneasiness, "how are the college apps going? I know you were nervous about getting a recommendation, so I was hoping it ended up working out."

"Yeah, it did," Emily said, going with the answer that provided the least room for further discussion. But when she finally dared to look up, she felt her heart melt and wished she had found a way to stay in the conversation longer.

Ezra was staring at her with the most earnest look he had to offer, his blue eyes glimmering with promise and his perfectly white teeth peeking out through his cute boyish smile. For someone who played for the other team, Emily was surprised at the way she found herself breaking into a sweat at his mere presence.

"I'm glad," he finally said, in that compassionate way he always did. He then reached into the satchel bag around his shoulder and pulled out his itinerary. "If you wanted to schedule another meeting for further preparation, I'm staying after today - "

"I'm good," Emily said quickly, but upon seeing Ezra's startled expression, she added, "I mean I'm pretty booked up lately, so I doubt there'd be time."

"No worries," Ezra said as he held up his hand and flashed another smile. Emily felt her knees go weak. Why did he have to smile so much?

He's dangerous, she finally told herself as her brain kicked in. Get AWAY.

As she gained feeling in her legs again, she started to turn away. "Well, it was nice talking to Mr. Fitz, but I need to get going."

"Wait!"

As Emily started to walk in the other direction, she felt a tight squeeze on her arm. It was not a welcoming squeeze, and her first instinct was to cry out, but she swallowed her fear as she turned to face Ezra. They were in the middle of the school hallway. He couldn't do anything to her... right?

Ezra bowed his head bashfully. "I... I noticed some tension during class between you three and... Miss Montgomery," he said under his breath, hoping he was being discreet. "Is everything alright between you girls?"

No, and it's because of YOU, Emily's more aggressive subconscious shouted in her head, but on the surface she simply nodded. "Everything's fine! I don't know what would convince you otherwise."

Ezra shrugged. "When you're a teacher, you notice things like this," he said candidly, but Emily couldn't help but think of how observant one would have to be in order to be the sociopathic cyberstalker that Ezra most likely was.

"We're fine," Emily said curtly, and with that she bid Ezra farewell and headed out the door as fast as her near shaking legs could carry her, while Ezra just stood back and watched in confusion.

But before he could ponder over it further, he felt a persistent tapping on his shoulder. Looking over, he saw his less-than-faithful accomplice, decked out in her normal school day attire of a perfectly pleated cashmere sweater, a pencil skirt, and a headband to match. It was the new preppy look she was going for.

He hated it.

"Mr. Fitz," she piped, still caught up in her innocent act so that bystanders wouldn't catch on. "Could I ask you a quick question about the homework?"

"Umm, sure Mona," he said awkwardly as he led her into his classroom close by. She sauntered in as he held the door for her, and he promptly closed it behind them before turning to her, a serious look on his face.

"What do you want, Mona?" he asked aggressively. Because of this, he shouldn't have been surprised at Mona's feigned shock.

"What?" she asked. "I'm not allowed to ask a simple academic question?"

"I know you," he snorted. "You had that assignment finished practically before I even handed it out."

Mona opened her mouth to argue, but when she found she couldn't make a compelling argument against how brilliant and efficient she was, she simply propped herself on the surface of one of the wooden desks, reached into her purse, and pulled out a pocket mirror and a lipstick.

"I stopped by the lair yesterday," she began carefully, as though she were recounting a trip to the mall or the grocery store.

"... Okay?" Ezra prompted, knowing that there was more to come.

Mona leaned back, taking the cap off of the lipstick and twisting it so that the color was visible. It was a dark, holly red, fitting for the chilly time of year. She briefly contemplated bringing the lipstick to her lips, but held off on it as she reached back into her bag and pulled something else out before sliding it across what was left of the desk toward Ezra.

Ezra's eyes widened to the point that they took up half of his face as he hastily grabbed the knife and stuffed it in his back pocket, out of sight. "Are you insane?! You brought a knife to school?!"

"Please, I once held up a knife with a cow brain on it to the entire student body," Mona said snarkily. "I'm over it."

"You could be expelled."

"I'm number one in the class," Mona said breezily as she popped open the mini mirror. "They wouldn't dare expel me."

Ezra sighed as he fidgeted with the straps on his satchel. It was all so confusing. Had Mona actually showed... kindness?

"You can thank me any day now," Mona offered up as she painted the berry color onto her full lips, perfectly lining it up so that it didn't succeed onto her skin.

"I'm just at a loss for words I guess," Ezra explained tentatively. "But... thank you?"

Once Mona was finished applying, she closed her mirror and capped her lipstick. She then took the time to look up at Ezra, a surprisingly warm smile on her face. "My pleasure."

Feeling uneasy in the current place in conversation they were at, Ezra attempted to change the subject. "Did the girls seem... weird today?"

Mona pondered this as she hopped off of the desk, careful to make sure her skirt didn't hike up as she did so. "Not any weirder than they usually are," she said thoughtfully. "Why?"

"You should've seen them in the hallway! It was like there was a layer of ice in between them, with Aria on one side and the other three on the other."

"So they've finally decided to gang up on the pixie," Mona mused, giggling to herself as she said it. "Well, they're going to wish they didn't after we execute Cece's next task."

"Yeah, I've been thinking a lot about that task actually," Ezra said boldly, finally gaining enough courage to come out with it. "Doesn't it seem a little risky to you? The girls are so tense already, meaning they must've come to some sort of conclusion that they're divided on, and now with this - "

"You know as well as I do that a safer approach won't lead you to Alison," Mona hissed, and Ezra paused. She was absolutely right. It wouldn't lead him to Alison, his main goal and the reason he started this game in the first place, if they played it safe. With Cece's new task, it could lead them to the next level.

It could lead them to...

"What do you think of this new color?" Mona asked, interrupting his thoughts as she pulled her mirror out again, examining her dark, enticing lips. "It's called 'Beguiled'."

Beguiled, indeed, Ezra thought to himself before clearing his throat. "Exactly why are you asking me this?"

Mona locked eyes with him before sauntering over to the door, her hand on the handle as she muttered, "I value your opinion only sometimes."

While Mona exited the classroom, Ezra didn't take any time to be confused by her words. He just about skipped over to his desk, pulling out a stack of papers to grade with high hopes that he could complete it today.

The sooner he completed the papers, the sooner he could get to the task at hand, and the sooner he could get to Alison. And that was how this whole thing started in the first place, right?

I have two announcements for you all: one includes good news, and one includes bad news. The bad news is I'm going to be on a 5 hour flight tomorrow, so I MIGHT not be able to upload the next chapter, but I'm going to try! But the GOOD news is that I'm going to spend that 5 hour flight WRITING, and what I'll be writing is a short Haleb fic for New Years (someone contact Bagilia right now, she's gonna go CRAZY!). SO that will be uploaded around New Years Eve I presume, so you should definitely stay tuned for that!

Once again, I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and if you did, be sure to review/follow/favorite/WHATEVER to let me know. And if you didn't like it... do all of those things anyway! :)