Aria first caught my attention in English class. She seemed super artsy. I guess because she dressed kind of emo and had pink stripes in her hair. She wanted to be seen as "alternative" and "edgy". But I feel like there was more to it than that, no one tries so hard to stand out unless they have something buried deep down.

Our English teacher always praised Aria for her writing, she apparently knew how to tap into deeper emotions than the rest of us. As if she had lived more life than the rest of us had at the ripe old age of fourteen. I always rolled my eyes as the teacher went on and on about how we all wasted our lives behind screens while we could be out there living.

One day after school I asked Spencer about how she would feel if we became friends with Aria.

"Why? Do you have something on her too?" Spencer raised her eyebrow. I was holding a secret of Spencer's that she didn't want to come out and so now she suspected that I always had some kind of agenda when it came to making friends.

"No, but I think we need a third member of the group. No offence but I need someone to hang out with while you are stuck in the library all day." I slapped Spencer's textbook closed. I often agreed to keep Spencer company while she studied in the library, but mostly it was me on my phone or browsing on the school computers while Spencer worked. It was getting super boring.

"Non-taken. It would be good to get some work done without being distracted." Spencer reopened her textbook.

"See? This works out for both of us. Besides, wouldn't you love to find out about all this life she's supposedly living compared to us?" Plus, all the secrets she is probably hiding underneath her angsty poetry.

"Oh please, she probably went to Europe one time and thinks she's cultured." Spencer rolled her eyes. "But sure, I guess we could invite her to lunch or something."

"Cool," I smiled and swung my legs off the side of the table. "I gotta go now, my mom needs me home to help with dinner."

"Okay, I guess I'll see you later."

I didn't really need to go home, so I decided to stop by the gallery where Aria's mom worked, and I heard Aria was there all the time after school helping out.

I walked into the space and was looking around; it was a small gallery with a couple of exhibits on display. I never knew how to feel about being in places where all you could do was walk around and look at pictures on the walls, it seemed like the space could always be used for better things, like scheming or throwing parties.

As I walked around, I heard voices from the back storage room.

"Mom, I'm fine, really."

"Are you sure honey? I just feel like you haven't been yourself lately."

"It's just stress from school you know. Nothing major."

"Are you making friends? I know it can be tough to start school and not have immediately clicked with anyone..."

That sounded like my cue. I knocked on the storage room door and popped my head in. "Hi, Mrs Montgomery? I'm Alison, I was looking for Aria."

"Hi Alison, yes Aria is here." Mrs Montgomery practically pulled Aria off her feet and shoved her towards me. Someone thought her daughter was a loner. "And call me Ella."

I linked arms with Aria and pulled her out of the gallery and towards the Rosewood Grille so we could talk and get milkshakes.

"Did my mom put you up to this?" Aria said, sitting down and taking a menu. She didn't seem to be protesting, I guess she was glad to have somewhere else to be.

"No, I was just in the gallery and overheard you guys, it sounded like you needed an excuse to bail."

"Thanks...you're in my English class, right? Friends with Spencer?"

Ah, so she noticed me, good. I never was one to purposely draw attention to myself but over time I think people began to notice that I'm not like everyone else. Plus, everyone was talking about how the queen of the nerds, Spencer, had suddenly gotten a very pretty and outgoing friend. It was an unlikely pairing, and with Aria, as a third, it was going to become more confusing. But I wanted my girls to be unique.

"Yeah, we were actually talking about you today."

"You were?" Aria blushed. "Nothing bad right?"

"No, I was just thinking you should come to have lunch with us tomorrow."

"That sounds nice." We sat in silence for a while before Aria's phone beeped. "Oh, I have to pick my little brother up from lacrosse practice, I gotta go."

"Sure, well tomorrow then."

"Yeah, tomorrow."

(***)

"You invited her to lunch? That's it? I thought you would have had her butchered by now." Spencer said later on the phone, she had called because her sister had seen me at the Grille. I guess someone was annoyed that I lied.

"You know that's not my style," I replied.

"True, you like to lure people in with a false sense of security before you go in for the kill." Spencer was still bitter about how I got her to spill her secrets to me and threatened to use them against her immediately after. She was secretly impressed but would never let me know it.

"Now you're getting it."

"So, this is about secrets, and has nothing to do with wanting an honest friendship based on common interests?"

"I told you, Spence, the best kind of friendships are formed based on secrets. They keep us closer than just sharing a common interest like a band."

"If you say so; but this time keep me out of the secrets, please. I don't need you to have something else over me."

"If you say so, just be nice to Aria at lunch tomorrow."

"I'll be on my best behaviour."

Spencer hung up the phone and I decided to try and get to know more about Aria. She had an Instagram page like everyone else, naturally, it was super emo and angsty looking, giving off super dark vibes. Her dad was a professor at Hollis, her mom worked at the Rosewood Gallery, and her younger brother, Mike, was a lacrosse player and focused all his time on trying to impress the girls. Basically, your average family.

I read some of the stuff she posted on her Instagram and I could single out that she probably had daddy issues...everyone does when they're an artist. I'm not sure what issues she had with her dad but I'm sure they would come out soon enough; especially if I went straight to the source.

I looked up Aria's dad, Byron, on the Hollis website and got his details to send him an email. I think I would be interested in taking some extracurricular classes at Hollis and maybe Professor Montgomery was the perfect person to talk to about it.

(***)

The next day at lunch I sat in the cafeteria waiting for Spencer and Aria to arrive. I always left the period before lunch early to make sure we got the table in the middle of the room. It always served as the best place to scope everyone out from and I guess it didn't hurt to be the centre of everyone's attention either.

Spencer came in first pulling her lunch from her bag, she always had perfectly made sandwiches cut in half, wrapped in cellophane, an apple and a juice box. It was kind of cute like she was still five years old.

"What's today's sandwich?" I asked, grabbing the juice box and stabbing the straw through it.

"Peanut butter and jelly, a classic." Spencer smiled offering me half.

"Thanks," I accepted her offer.

It was a little while later before Aria came over to join us. She was flushed and her hair was up, and she had paint on her face just like a true artist.

"Hey, sorry guys I got caught up painting and didn't notice the time." Aria pulled her own brown bag lunch.

"It's cool, Aria, this is Spencer, Spencer, Aria," I said introducing the girls.

They smiled at each other, but I could sense right away Spencer wasn't going to warm up to her quickly. But it's not like Spencer was begging to be my friend either, I kind of forced her into it, but she had warmed up to me over time.

When Spencer told me that she had a thing with her sister's boyfriend Ian, I threatened to tell Melissa, but Spencer begged me not to and said she would tell Melissa herself. I don't think she ever did tell Melissa but a week later, Spencer told me she had, and they had worked things out. But still, anytime I mention Ian and Melissa she gets jumpy.

Now, all we needed was for Aria to spill her secrets and we could all be in this together. Although Spencer didn't know any direct secrets about me, she tried her best to get them out of me. She was always watching me and asking me random questions to see if I would reveal anything scandalous so we would be on the same playing field. So far, she had been unsuccessful.

"So, what's the art project?" I asked, trying to sound interested.

"It's kind of an abstract piece. I don't really know if it has a theme yet but I'm just letting myself be guided by the paint." Spencer and I exchanged a look that said, 'did she really just say that' and Aria burst out laughing. "I'm kidding, it's this stupid thing we all have to do in class, and I'm basically just painting fruit and shit."

"Thank God, I thought I had made a mistake in asking you to join us." I sighed. I suppose I still could have.

"So, is this some kind of initiation or something?"

"No, that comes later." I winked.

The rest of lunch was spent finding out more about Aria. Not much more than I already knew about her from her online profile. She said that she has always liked writing and that her parents always want her to be able to express herself in any way possible, hence the pink stripes in her hair (although they are only clip-in as her parents would freak out if she actually dyed her hair). She has never really had friends before because she felt like no one ever properly understood her or took the time to get to know her so that's why she's glad I saved her from the gallery yesterday.

With the way she talked about herself at lunch, I was sure she would be an open book about everything, so I couldn't wait to hang out more and find out what else she is hiding.

(***)

When I arrived at Hollis, I made my way toward Professor Montgomery's office. I had been to Hollis a few times before when my brother was looking for colleges to apply to, so I vaguely knew my way around.

I was walking toward the creative arts building when I saw Professor Montgomery and a blonde woman walking across the quad. They were smiling and their arms were so close they were almost touching but being careful not to, they looked like they had something to hide. I walked slower and followed them making sure to keep a safe distance.

They both headed into Professor Montgomery's office and I crouched down under the window in the door to see if I could listen to what they were saying.

"Thanks so much for helping me in that meeting, I totally froze." The blonde said.

"No worries, besides you have shown great promise so far, there's no need for them to mark you down based on one slip up." Professor Montgomery replied.

"It means a lot to me,"

"I'm glad I could help."

I looked up to peek through the window and saw the blonde kissing Professor Montgomery. So, he's a cheater? I wondered if Aria knew about it and if that's where her issues came from. I decided to let my presence be known before I saw or heard anything more...plus didn't Professor Montgomery know if you're going to have an affair you should at least close the blinds?

I stood up properly and knocked on the door. The two jumped apart and the blonde opened the door.

"Hello, do you have an appointment?"

"Yes, I do, I am Alison DiLaurentis and I have a meeting with Professor Montgomery about the summer writing classes?" I replied, acting like I didn't see anything.

"Yes, of course, you can go in." The woman pulled the door open the whole way and allowed me to slip past her into the office. She closed the door and went about tidying up the desk just in front of the office. I guess she was a secretary or something, what a cliché.

"Hi Alison, you're Aria's friend, right?" Professor Montgomery smiled, holding out his hand. He and the blonde may have only kissed for a second, but he had a slight pink sheen to his mouth which was the tell-tale sign of a careless adulterer.

"Yes, I am, I don't think we have met before," I replied, shaking his hand and sitting down.

"No, we haven't but Ella, my wife mentioned you and Aria were friends."

"We are," I smiled. I could tell he was trying to figure out if I saw anything or if I was going to tell his daughter. "But I'm not here to talk about that, I want to know about your extracurricular classes."

"Right of course," Professor Montgomery began hunting around his desk for a folder. "I seem to have misplaced what I'm looking for," he pressed a button on his desk which I assumed connected to the desk outside. "Meredith, can you please bring me the extracurricular information pack?"

A moment later the blonde reappeared with the folder. She handed it to the Professor and walked back out of the room, making as little contact with him as possible. Another rookie mistake.

"So, what kind of thing would you be interested in? Here at Hollis, we offer a range of different activities and classes for high school students who are looking to get an edge on their college applications."

I sat and listened to Professor Montgomery give me the whole spiel about Hollis and classes and everything else, pretending to be interested. Mostly I just couldn't wait to get out of the room and find out what Aria knew about her father's affair. This was just too juicy to keep to myself.

"Thank you so much for all the help Professor Montgomery. I have a lot to think about." I smiled, taking the information packet from him.

"It's no problem Alison, and please, call me Byron."

"Thanks again, Byron. I will be sure to come back if I have any more questions."

"Any time."

(***)

After meeting with Byron and finding out the source of Aria's potential daddy issues I tried to think of a way to expose them. I wasn't sure if Aria knew about her father's extracurricular activities as she didn't talk about her family much. It was surprising as she was so open about other aspects of her life but when it came to her family there was 'not much to tell'.

We started to hang out a lot more because I was desperate to move things along, but eventually, I realised that maybe she didn't know at all. She had mentioned that her father was sometimes absent, but it wasn't a big deal because he worked so much. So, my next plan was to try and find a way we could catch them.

It wasn't going to be easy to have Aria stumble upon an affair, especially without raising any huge suspicions. I also didn't want to outright tell her about it because it would seem worse if I knew and had hidden it from her. This was going to be a lot more work than I thought, and I couldn't turn to Spencer because she wouldn't want to be roped into this.

So, I decided to return to Hollis and find out more about Byron and his schedule. I made another appointment to see him and talk about school.

When I arrived, Meredith was sitting at her desk typing away, I took a seat across from her and studied her. She was the picture of a perfect secretary, wearing a smart dress with her hair up in a messy bun. I could tell that she wasn't happy to see me again but smiled and greeted me when she saw me anyway.

"Alison, Professor Montgomery will be with you soon." She said continuing to do her work.

I think she was trying too hard to play the perfect student but maybe this was part of her relationship with Byron, maybe he was way too into his student-teacher fantasy...

After sitting for about five minutes under my gaze, Meredith got up to go to the ladies' room. She told me not to move until Professor Montgomery had come to get me. I could tell that she was unnerved by the staring, it was going to be hard for her to teach if she couldn't handle one person looking at her, never mind hundreds.

While she was gone from her desk, I decided to look around to see if there was anything I could find out, her computer was locked but I expected as much. There were a few files around the desk but nothing that hinted at a diary or planner. When I checked the drawers all I found were candy wrappers, more files, some makeup, a mirror and Meredith's phone which was also locked. It wasn't helpful to me at all, which made me think Byron kept his appointments on his phone, which is inconvenient when you're trying to spy.

I was about to give up when I noticed Meredith's bag under the desk so I quickly peeked in there and discovered that while Byron's schedule may be a mystery, Meredith's was not. I lifted the planner out of Meredith's bag and slipped it into my own.

I knew an anal freak like her would probably notice it was missing so I left her a note saying I had also gone to the ladies' room and locked myself in the handicapped bathroom so I could take pictures of her planner.

Once I was finished, I carefully packed the book back up and headed back to Meredith's desk. I hadn't seen her on the way to the ladies' room, so I was hoping that she would still be gone when I returned. Unfortunately for me, she was back, typing away as if she had never left.

"You can go into the office now," Meredith smiled as I approached.

"You should maybe stop smiling so much, it's going to give your mouth wrinkles," I replied, pulling the door to Byron's office open.

I spent an hour in Byron's office, pretending to listen to him talk about my college options. I tried to look around to see if there were any hints of him having an affair, lipstick stains, dirty underwear peeking out of shelves, but there was nothing. So maybe Byron and Meredith were better at hiding an affair than I thought, or they just don't conduct activities within the office.

Once I was finally given the window to leave, I took it jumping up. I also handed Byron Meredith's planner and lied saying I had found it in the hallway. Byron thanked me and I was able to go on my merry way.

When I got home, I looked through my phone pictures to see if Meredith's planner held any details of Byron. It did, but not how I thought it would, it was clearly marked out in her schedule when she spent time with 'Professor Montgomery'. Boring and not what was needed. I looked to the evenings and weekends where I discovered that Meredith does not have a lot going for herself.

However, there was time scheduled a few evenings a week with 'B'. It didn't take a rocket scientist to figure that out. So, I made notes in my own calendar to correspond to Meredith's meetings with 'B' to see if Aria and I could uncover the real reason her father has been working late.

(***)

My first few attempts at catching Meredith and Byron with Aria were unsuccessful. Somehow, they always managed to escape us, probably because one of them spotted Aria and they dodged her. I think it was the pink stripes, they made Aria stand out from the crowd.

So, I had to start thinking outside the box. Once I had established that Byron and Meredith always had a Friday night date night, I followed them to see what they got up to.

It was never anything exciting, just usual boring couple stuff. They would alternate who would drive, but they always ended up back at the Hollis campus around 9 p.m. probably to stop people from becoming suspicious about their relationship. Although if they didn't want to get caught, they probably shouldn't have a dedicated 'date night'.

The next Friday I asked Aria if she wanted to get ice cream with me after school. I said there was a great place near Hollis that we should check out. She agreed to go with me, Spencer on the other hand didn't seem to like all the special treatment I was giving Aria.

"Why didn't you invite me?" Spencer asked me later.

"I thought you had a hockey game on Saturday."

"So? That doesn't mean I can't go for ice cream."

"Doesn't it? You gotta be in prime shape if you wanna win."

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"I think you know. Besides, you said you wanted to be kept out of the whole secret thing."

"I didn't think that would mean not being invited to go out with you guys ever again. I thought we were friends."

"We are, trust me. If things go my way, I won't leave you out again. I promise."

"If you say so,"

(***)

On Friday night, Aria and I headed to the ice cream parlour near Hollis's campus. I had been a few times with my brother when we were younger and they did have good ice cream, so I wasn't totally lying about why I had invited Aria out.

"So where is Spencer?" Aria asked, loading her ice cream with toppings.

"She has a hockey game tomorrow and didn't want to be crashing on sugar during the game," I said picking a table by the window to sit down.

"She seems kind of jealous that we have been hanging out without her recently."

"Yeah, but she'll get over it, I just want to get to know you more. Besides, I'm sure you guys hang out a lot without me too."

"We actually haven't," Aria admitted, she looked guilty "maybe I should invite her to hang out more."

"Don't worry about it, there is plenty of time for all of us to hang out together. Right now, let's just enjoy the ice cream."

We sat together eating our ice cream, looking out the window as people passed by. I was only hoping to see one couple in particular...but it wasn't long before we were interrupted by someone. Mona.

Mona was a girl in our grade, she has always wanted to be friends with me, but I never wanted to be friends with her. There was nothing special about her, she wore glasses and always dressed preppy. Sure, at first glance you could say she had about the same amount of appeal as Spencer, but she just wasn't quite as perfect, nor did her family have the Hastings reputation.

Now that I was making some new friends, I had caught Mona's attention again, I was no longer the loner I claimed to be to her a year ago.

"Hey Alison, Aria!"

"Oh, hi Mona," I kept looking out the window and digging into the last of my ice cream.

"Do you guys mind if I join you?"

Aria was about to say something, but I cut her off as I spotted Byron's car driving past the window. "Actually, Mona we are gonna take off."

"Really?" Aria looked at me confused.

"Yeah, we have a thing to get to." I pulled Aria's arm and threw her ice cream in the trash along with mine.

"Oh, okay next time?" Mona asked, hopeful.

"I don't think so," I smiled and dragged Aria out of the ice cream shop.

"That was rude," Aria said to me as we walked around the corner.

"No, it wasn't. Mona needs to learn her place, and it's not with us."

"What did she ever do to you?"

"Nothing, she's just a loser. She would bring down our entire vibe. Anyway, come on, she'll probably still try to come after us."

I began running down towards Hollis's campus, Aria began to follow yelling after me wondering where I was going. I stopped near the edge of the car park to catch my breath, I spotted Byron's car parked with the headlights on, he and Meredith were inside. Aria came up behind me, breathing heavily.

"You can run super-fast,"

"Is she gone?"

"I think so, what's going on?" Aria looked around and then spotted her dad's car. "Hey, that's my dad's car."

We watched through the window as Meredith and Byron leaned in to kiss each other. It's like I couldn't have planned things better. When Byron and Meredith pulled apart, they caught sight of us standing behind the car, this is when Aria ran off and I followed her.

"Aria, talk to me!" I yelled, for someone who said I ran fast, she was hard to keep up with, she eventually came to a stop under a bus shelter.

"I can't believe it," Aria had her head in her hands, I thought she was going to cry.

"I'm so sorry Aria," I sat down next to her and put an arm around her shoulders.

"How could he do this?! To my mom?! I knew something was going on with him, but I never expected it would be this!"

"Yeah, it's pretty skanky of him."

"I don't know what to do."

"There's only one thing you can do."

"What's that?"

"Tell your mom."

"What?!"

"Aria, you have to tell your mom about this. There's no way you can let your dad get away with this."

"But my mum will be crushed when she finds out…maybe my dad can explain."

"No, he will just try to buy your silence or talk you out of this. It's better your mom hears this from you before it gets out."

"Do you think it will get out?"

"Probably, I mean they aren't trying to be subtle about it."

"Oh my God Ali, this is so bad." Aria's phone started ringing and she pulled it from her pocket, it was her dad, she hung the phone up.

"Look, I think you just need to go home and tell your mom what you saw and see what happens from there. There's no point in keeping this a secret."

Aria stayed silent for a while staring at her shoes, her dad called a couple more times, but she ignored it.

"Okay," she said finally.

"Okay, what?"

"Okay, I'm going to take some time to think about this."

"What's there to think about? Your dad is a cheating man-slut and your mom needs to know."

"God Ali, it's not that easy! Things have been bad between my parents for a while and I just need to figure out what I'm going to do."

"I'm sorry I just think she should know what's going on."

"Yeah well, I don't want to hurt her if I don't have to. So please just stay out of this."

"If it were me, I would wanna know."

"It's not you though, is it? So, don't say anything to anyone about this. I have to go home now and deal with this."

After that day, I spent the next few weeks asking Aria about her home situation. She still refused to talk to me about it and warned me that if I said anything to her mom there would be trouble. I kind of liked seeing this fierce side of her; I never would have expected it, but it was a welcome surprise.

I promised not to say anything and told her I would always be there to talk. She thanked me for being a good friend, but I wasn't going to let this go so soon. On the bright side, we were friends now and I had another secret under my belt.

When I started to invite Spencer to hang out with us again, she asked if I got what I needed. I nodded and told her all was well; she didn't want to know what was going on but was glad to be included once more. And now that I had both girls on my side, I knew we would be unstoppable.