Disclaimer: Still don't own it.
Spencer had to think fast.
Not caring if she was heard, the teen bolted down the hall to her room before she could be spotted in her garb.
"Spencer?" her mother asked as the teen slammed her door.
"Sorry, it's me; I had to go get a drink of water," said Spencer through the cracked door. She stood on the other side and out of sight so that her mother could not see what she was dressed it.
"So why did you run back to you room?" Veronica asked, puzzled by the behavior.
"I forgot how I was dressed and I was afraid you were dad," the teen stated in a fake embarrassed tone.
"I see; well make sure you dress in your robe next time," said her mother as she yawned.
"I will; sorry," Spencer said, closing the door.
Once inside, she pulled off the sweat shirt and pants, tossing them in the corner along with the gloves. Putting on her pajamas, she grabbed the robe to further cover herself. With the diaries still in the pile of clothes, Spencer walked over to them and put the notebooks under her pillow so that she could read them later. She then wiped her face of any dirt and left her room to get that drink of water.
She was telling the truth somewhat; she was thirsty.
Walking downstairs, Spencer found her mother nursing a glass of milk at the counter; she smiled at her mother as she went for a glass in the cupboard. Her adrenaline was at its max from her recent foray to the DiLaurentis place as well as almost being caught by her mother and she was doing her best to calm herself. She wondered if it had been like this for Mona when she was spying on Alison and sneaking around.
"Couldn't sleep?" Spencer asked her mother as Veronica finished her glass of milk. Spencer knew that her mother always drank milk at night when the woman couldn't sleep.
"I gave your father the last pill; we had to go through a lot of them lately and your father needed it more than I did after what has happened the last few days," informed her mother and Spencer's curiosity was perked.
"What do you mean?" asked the daughter as she stood by the sink.
"Your father took what happened to you not well and went on a tirade at school; nearly getting arrested," informed the older woman and Spencer blinked a few times at that.
"I don't know what to say," Spencer said in all honesty. For her father to come to her defense made her feel happy since it was a first.
"You don't need to say anything Spencer; you are our daughter and we want what is best for you," Veronica said, fully meaning it.
"I am sorry for what happened," Spencer said, feeling a little guilty. Mona had said many times over the weekend that the prank wasn't her fault but Spencer felt it was since she had fallen for it.
"We don't blame you; we are just angry that you were treated like that," said her mother with a heavy sigh.
"Well you don't have to worry; I just have to move on," Spencer stated though she wasn't exactly going to do that but something more.
"Well I am proud of you for the maturity that you are showing; that goes for your father too. Just make sure you concentrate on your schoolwork and you will be out in no time," her mother said and Spencer nodded.
Her mother then left the kitchen after putting her glass in the sink.
Spencer, after finishing her water, retreated back to her room and slipped into bed. She was tired and had school in the morning but couldn't pass up the opportunity to dive into Alison's diaries. Turning on her lamp, Spencer grabbed the pink volume and started reading while curling up in the covers. She was tempted wait for Mona so that they could read them together but went for it anyways and hoped her friend wouldn't mind.
From the reading the first pages, Spencer could tell that this was from an earlier time in Alison's life; maybe even before she was brought into the group. Some of the stuff she read was innocent enough though it had a good amount of detail about the various arguments that Jason had with his parents. Apparently, the older brother wasn't deluded about the innocence of his sister so Alison had framed him for a few things that she had done.
There were some new things that she had discovered about the blond though; it turned out that Alison had put together groups of friends before. It was always a set number of four with a range of personalities; apparently Spencer had not been the only brain that Alison had recruited in the past. She felt a little prideful at that though since this meant that Alison never brought in just anyone into her circle of friends.
It seemed that each girl was supposed to fulfill a particular role in the group; she wasn't surprised at Hanna's and Emily's role though Aria's was interesting. Now that Spencer thought about it, Aria was indeed the more compassionate one, and was the first to forgive if there was some slight against her. So it made sense to have Aria in her group in case Alison needed a peacemaker because she had gone too far.
Spencer thought about finding some sort of psychological book to go along with Alison's diaries so that she could properly diagnose the blond.
She felt that if she did that, it would better help her understand her former friend. Alison definitely had her issues, and it would make sense for her to get ahead of the blond in order to anticipate what she would do once things moved forward on the A front.
Seeing that it was getting even later, Spencer got up and took the diaries to put in a safe place. There was really only one place to hide them; the one location that her parents never found when they had searched her room for all the pills that Spencer had stashed. She knew they hadn't found it because there still had been a bottle of pills in the secret place when she first noticed that it had been undisturbed.
She had disposed of the bottle quietly so that the secret place could be kept to herself.
The place was a hole in her floor in the corner of her room; where a dresser sat above it so no one but her knew that it was there. Spencer had found the place by accident one day while rearranging her room and had used it ever since. Moving the dresser quietly, Spencer pulled up the loose carpet and put the diaries inside the hole. After that she sealed up the space and went to bed.
She actually slept pretty well and was awoken by her alarm for once. In fact, it took a minute for her to even recognize the sound of her clock alarm, since she had not heard it in months. While she was still tired, she still felt somewhat refreshed though she was still nervous about school. Spencer once again was tempted to take her parent's offer of skipping school for today but knew that she would have to go eventually; better when Alison was away.
Shutting off the alarm, Spencer got up and stretched out before going to her closet to pick out an outfit for the day. Going with something conservative, Spencer got dressed and went to the bathroom to finish up. Once she checked out herself in the mirror, she checked out her bag for her school stuff and found everything there; the bag left undisturbed since Friday before she had left for the dance with Noel. All of her current school work had been turned in already so there was nothing due today; which she was thankful for since she had not had the time to do anything this weekend.
"Morning," Spencer said to everyone as she entered the kitchen, offering a small smile that was somewhat fake.
"Morning Sport; sleep well?" asked her father from the table as he was looking at the newspaper.
"Yes; I slept good, thank you," she said as she grabbed the orange juice from the refrigerator.
While her mother and Wren greeted her, Melissa had yet to say a word and Spencer figured that her older sister was still brooding. From looking at Wren, it was obvious that he had a rough night, and Spencer could only imagine the earful had had gotten from Melissa when the two had been alone together. She felt sorry for him since he seemed like a good guy despite the very little contact she had with him.
"Do you want some pancakes? Melissa made them," Veronica said, and there was a sideways glance from her sister that she would have missed if it weren't for the black look on her face.
"No; I am good. Mona is bringing some food from her mother so that we can snack on the way to school," Spencer said, and she caught the glare from Melissa at the mention of Mona's name. Spencer really needed to find out what had happened between the two given the amount of animosity that there was.
Speaking of which, there the sound of the doorbell and Wren went to go answer it. Looking at the time, it appeared that Mona was a little early and Spencer wondered if her friend had any news that she should be aware of, since the smaller teen had a closer ear on the school than Spencer. Sure enough, it was indeed Mona who came into the kitchen along with Wren with her usual glowing smile.
A smile that always had an interesting effect on Melissa.
"Morning; are you ready to go? I brought homemade pastries for everyone," stated Mona as she put the plate of treats onto the table.
"Ahh…thank you," Peter said as he took one of the treats and bit into it. Spencer could tell that he was enjoying it, and watched her mother take one for herself.
"These are good; thank you Mona," Veronica said and Wren reached for one until he noticed the look from his wife thus he politely declined.
"Did your mother make these? I always found that you tend to use a lot of sugar while Leona just does the right amount," Melissa stated and her smile was a predatory one.
While her parents obviously didn't see it, Spencer knew that Melissa had just subtly insulted Mona to her face; which Mona knew full well by the look on her face. Spencer could see the fire in her friend's eyes and hoped the smaller teen wouldn't fall into Melisa's trap since her sister was obviously baiting Mona. Despite her usual demeanor, Mona did have a temper that could come out at any time.
"Well Melissa, I just learned from you on how to keep doing something until perfected; you after all, taught me well," Mona said to Melissa in a sweet voice and Spencer knew that there was a hidden meaning there, and she wished knew what it was.
"We have to go; enjoy the treats," Spencer said, and grabbed her bag while leading Mona out of the kitchen before Melissa could respond to the taunt. Her parents waved their daughter goodbye with their mouths full of food.
"What is it between you two?" Spencer asked once they were in the car and on their way to school.
"We have a history going back a few years," Mona simply said and Spencer could hear the bitterness in her friend's voice.
"And what is it?" the taller teen asked; wanting to know the answer today since she was tired of guessing.
"Remember Ian?" Mona asked and Spencer nodded since she had a rather unfortunate history with the man.
"I was the reason why your sister dumped him as well as possibly his death," admitted the smaller girl and Spencer looked over at her in shock.
"What did you do?" Spencer asked as they were stopped at a red light. To say that Spencer was shocked was an understatement.
Spencer knew that the breakup between Ian and her sister had been rather nasty, and Melissa had sulked in her room for a week after it had happened. It had occurred when Spencer just started getting into her drug habit thus why her parents caught it too late because they had been distracted by what had happened to Melissa; it had been believed that Ian and Melissa were to eventually marry. But they had broken up and Ian had been found dead in a cheap hotel in Philadelphia though the reason why was still unknown.
"I was the one to tell and show Melissa that Ian was a sleaze because he had been banging Alison," Mona said simply as if it were the weather. Spencer nearly choke on her pastry, and was glad that she had not been drinking coffee since she would have made one Hell of a mess on Mona's windshield.
"Wait; Alison and Ian were dating?" Spencer asked in disbelief.
"No; they were sleeping together; Alison has a thing for older guys, and she seduced Ian while he was dating your sister," Mona informer her friend.
"I can't believe it," Spencer said though she did kiss him once in the heat of a moment while he had been teaching her field hockey. It had only been one time and Alison had saw; threatening to tell Melissa which she never did because even she knew that the older sister would never believe her.
"Believe it; Alison was a sleaze and I had taped them doing it in the back of his car during my many surveillance operations. I then showed your sister who was not happy and did something to chase him out of town," stated Mona with a slight smirk.
"But why is she mad at you; I would be happy to know that my boyfriend is banging that blond bitch," Spencer said, not understanding why there was an animosity between her friend and sister.
"Because I had done it to get back at your sister for stabbing me in the back; and she knew it. That's why she hates me," said the teen as she pulled into the school parking lot.
"What did Melissa do to stab you in the back?" inquired the taller teen since she could hear the anger and hurt in her friend's voice.
"When Alison first started bullying me, I went to Melissa for help since she had been my babysitter and what I thought was my friend. She left me out to dry when I needed her and I still hate her for it," Mona explained and she really did look hurt by it.
"I'm sorry," Spencer said and she meant it. She couldn't believe that Melissa would do that to someone who needed her help. Actually, she could since Melissa wouldn't even help her own sister when she had needed it.
"What really made me angry was that I had looked up to your sister, and I learned a lot from her. So when I had found out about Ian and Alison, I showed Melissa the tapes and rubbed her nose in it just for kicks," Mona admitted and Spencer couldn't be angry with her given the betrayal that her sister had done to her friend.
The two sat in the car for a minute after Mona had parked the car.
"Are you ready for this?" Mona asked and Spencer nodded, opening her door to get out. That was when she spotted something that had caught her by surprise.
She watched Aria climb out of Ezra Fitz's car.
Please Read and Review and once again, a special thanks to Paraddicted for the pre-read!