CHAPTER ONE
(two years later)
Aria's father picked her up from the airport early in the morning. Way too early for Aria's taste. Byron, a college professor, was used to waking up early. It had been a year since Aria had seen her father, so even if she was still angry with him for cheating on her mother she was still happy to see him. Byron hugged his daughter and took her luggage from her.
"How was Germany?" Byron asked as they walked to his car.
The Montgomery family had left Rosewood not long after Alison went missing. It was Ella's idea. Byron was on sabbatical and Aria needed to get away, so they decided to go to Iceland for a year. Just two days before the family was set to go back to Pennsylvania Aria heard from one of her friends that they had found Alison's body. Or the remains of it. That information set Aria back a little bit.
She had gone from locking herself in her bedroom all day to finding a few friends in just a few months. The rest of her time in Iceland was spent being happy and having fun with her friends. She even got closer with her younger brother and she was forced to spend more time with her parents. After finding out about the discover of Alison's remains Aria retreated back into her shell.
Her parents had to go back home because they both had jobs and her brother didn't want to stay in Iceland, but apparently, she had family in Germany on her mother's side. They had two kids, twins, her age and were willing to take Aria in for as long as she wanted. Thankfully, they spoke English very well. So, instead of taking their scheduled flight home, they took Aria to her temporary home and flew back to Rosewood from there.
"I loved it!" Aria exclaimed, "It's so pretty there. Historical pretty, not gorgeous pretty. But there are those places," she said, "But it is an amazing place. I would love to go back with all of you. Oscar and Petra were very welcoming. And Ansel and Anja were helped a lot. Especially teaching me German. I am trilingual now, Dad," Aria said, "I can speak English, Spanish, and German. Just don't ask me to keep a full conversation because I'm not extremely fluent."
"That's great, Aria," Byron said, "And I'm sure your mother would love to spend some time with her cousin. I think that was only the third time they've met," he told her, "The question is, did you keep up with your schoolwork?" he asked, "I know your mother was keeping up with it for a while, but keeping up with hundreds of kids' schoolwork is a lot. And Petra said she would keep on top of it."
"Yes, Dad, I've been doing well in school," Aria said, "I will be starting my senior year with the rest of my class this year," she told him.
"Ezra Fitz is teaching at Hollis College," Byron said, "Do you remember Ezra Fitz?" Byron asked, "We met him in Reykjavik. He was there for about two or three months," he said.
Aria did remember Ezra Fitz. He works with Byron at a school that Aria and Mike were attending, but he was also secretly dating Aria. It started a week before her parents even met him. Maybe her father already met him since they worked together, but her mother had never met the guy.
"He was working at the high school, but just recently started working at the college," Byron informed her.
"Oh," was all Aria had to say. Byron didn't seem to notice anything, so Aria let it go, not saying anything else.
"Your mom will be so happy to see you," he told her, "Why don't I drop you off at the school and she can drive you home. School should be letting out in just a few minutes," Byron said.
Aria looked at what she was wearing. A pair of black, cutout, leggings and a black tank top with a grey Yale hoodie. She had on a pair of black sneakers. The most comfortable thing she could find for a long flight. Extremely long. But was it appropriate for going to school. Not really. But at the same time nobody would be there but Aria and her mom for the most part.
"Okay," Aria said, "I'll try to convince her to bring home something for dinner.
"Sounds good to me," Byron said.
Byron dropped Aria off at Rosewood High 20 minutes later. They watched the students pour out of the school and when Aria was convinced that most of them were gone, she said goodbye to her father and walked into the school. He told her where to go before she left, and she had been trying to find the room for a good five minutes before someone walked out of the principal's office.
"Excuse me," she stopped the woman before she walked outside, "Do you know where Ella Montgomery's classroom is?" she asked.
"Take this hallway to the end. Turn left. It will be the third door on the right," the woman told her.
"Thank you," Aria said and took off down the hall following the woman's directions. It didn't take her long to make it to her mother's classroom, but when she got there she could make out two distinct voices. One male and one female, her mother's.
Walking inside she wanted to see if her mother would notice her before she said anything. She could only see the profile of the male in the room and couldn't tell his age or what he looked like. He was dressed in a light, button down shirt, and blue jeans. His hair fell into his eyes, but wasn't too long. He was leaning against a desk in the front of the class while Ella leaned against her desk.
"Aria!" she greeted excitedly, "What are you doing here? I thought you would be at home being lazy all day," Ella said rushing to Aria and pulling her into a hug.
"I wanted to, but Dad thought it would be a good idea to come see you, so I did," Aria said.
"I'm glad you did," Ella said linking arms with Aria and walking back to her desk, "Look who I ran into," she said letting go of Aria's arm and walking behind her desk to sit down.
"Hey," Jason greeted and with that one word every emotion, every feeling she had toward Jason since meeting him years ago came rushing back to her.
"Hey back," she said.
"I just dropped by to see Mr. Ellis," Jason told her. Aria hadn't been to Rosewood since her freshman year, but she remembered a lot of the older staff and teachers.
"Oh, the guidance counselor?" Aria asked. Mr. Ellis had been working at Rosewood since…probably since before Aria was born.
"Jason offered to talk to some of out at-risk students," Ella said.
"Stoners in training. Like I was," Jason said. But Aria knew Jason was more than just a stoner. He was a full-blown drug addict. He had done multiple drugs on many occasions. And he was a borderline alcoholic. But he seemed a lot better now. He looked a lot better, "I'm going to tell them that there is life after high school," Jason told her.
"That's good," Aria said. The two looked at each other for what seemed like forever before Jason spoke again.
"Well, I'd better get going," Jason said standing up and walking toward the desk at the front of the room, "And thanks again for the note you sent my mom. It really meant a lot to her," Jason told Ella.
"Really? I'm glad," Ella replied.
"So, can I bring anything tomorrow?" Jason asked. Aria was confused. What was tomorrow?
"No, please. Just yourself," Ella told him.
"Tomorrow?" Aria asked what she was thinking.
"Yeah, I invited Jason to dinner," Ella said.
"Well, am I invited, because I have no idea what you're talking about?" Aria said.
"Yes, you live with us, you are automatically invited. And your father would most likely lose his mind if you and your brother weren't there," Ella said, "It's the dinner party your father sporadically has and invites friends and colleagues and says that we have it once a year when that is not true at all," Ella said.
"Oh. Okay," Aria said.
"See you tomorrow night," Jason said to Aria before walking out of the room.
"Why did you invite him to dinner?" Aria asked when Jason left.
"Why? Is there a problem?" Ella asked.
"No, just a little surprised, I guess," Aria said, "I guess because nobody was very happy when I even spoke to him and now he's allowed in our house," she shrugged, "That's all."
"Well, that was when he was on drugs, Aria," Ella said, "He's clean now and I've come to learn that he is not what people say he is and they all just need to leave him alone," Ella told her. Aria completely agreed but was still surprised.
"Why did you send Mrs. DiLaurentis a note?" Aria asked.
"Something happened at the fashion show and I felt I needed to say something to her," Ella said.
"Did you invite Jason because you felt bad about what happened?" Aria asked. Emily, Hanna, and Spencer let Aria know what happened at the fashion show and Aria was just happy she wasn't there for it. She felt terrible for what happened to her friends, but she was relieved she wasn't there for any of it.
"That may have been partly the reason, but his family has been through a lot and I thought he could use some human companionship," Ella said, "Don't you?"
"Yeah," Aria said.
"And Ezra Fitz is coming to dinner as well," Ella told Aria, "I don't know if you remember him," she said.
"Dad and I were just talking about him in the car and how he used to work her and now works at Hollis," Aria said, "So, I understand why he would be invited to a colleague dinner. He didn't mention the dinner, though."
"Well, your father doesn't think sometimes," Ella said, "Do you want to stop and pick up something for dinner?" she asked.
"I was going to ask if we could get Chinese food, but you offered so I don't even have to ask anymore," Aria chuckled, "I would love some Chinese food. Also, where is Mike?"
"Oh, that's a whole other thing we can talk about later. I want to hear all about Germany," Ella said as the two walked to the staff parking lot where Ella's car was parked.
CHAPTER 1: HOME Re-posted
