5

WATCH YOUR BACK, LADIES

Spencer grabbed the History, Algebra II and Chemistry books off her handmade wooden desk and stuffed them into her Kate Spade bag.

"Mom!" she called downstairs. "I need money!"

She took a Burt's Bees tube of chap stick, popped off the cap and smothered it onto her lips. She puckered her lips in her closet mirror.

"Mom!"

"What?" her mother snapped from downstairs.

"I need money!" Spencer slipped the bag onto her shoulder and checked her eye makeup in a hand mirror.

"For what?"

Spencer groaned and rolled her eyes, fixing her hair. "For lunch today. I don't have any money left in my account."

She heard her mother flopping up the stairs in her J. Crew heels.

"Spencer." she said when she arrived in Spencer's bedroom doorway. "If you need money for lunch, you should've told me last night, so I could write a check out for you. Now I have to go back downstairs and..."

Her voice carried as she went from Spencer's doorway, down the stairs and back into the kitchen where she had her own private office for God knows what.

"...write a check...sign it." she continued, back up the stairs in a hurry. "I'm not made of money, Spencer. I know it may seem like it, since we have nice things, but we're really not that rich."

Spencer turned around, adjusting the braided headband on her head. She rolled her eyes, slipping on her bright red peacoat with the hood.

"Here." Veronica Hastings handed her daughter the check and turned, stomping back down the stairs angrily.

Spencer shoved the check into the back pocket of her Forever 21 jeans and put her BlackBerry into her bag.

"Spencer! Hurry up! You'll be late for school if you don't leave now!" her mother yelled up the stairs.

"Okay!"

Spencer slipped down the stairs, out the door and into her silver Mercedes Benz. Buckling her seat belt, she put the key into the ignition.

"Shit." she said as she dropped her BlackBerry. She bent down to get it, bumping her head on the steering wheel.

Her aqua nails grasped her phone, which sat next to a crumply piece of paper by her gray Ugg boot.

"What the-?" she started.

Spencer picked up the paper, uncrumbled it, smoothing it out.

Suddenly, she gasped.

She read the note aloud:

" PRETTY RED RIDING HOOD, HUH, SPENCE? SWEET, BUT ONLY IF YOU WERE..."

Shaking her head, she pulled out of the driveway, trying to stay calm.

She crumbled the piece of paper up again and threw it into the back seat.

"Fuck it." she whispered.

She stopped at a red light, checking her Facebook profile on her BlackBerry.

Beep.

It was from Emily.

Spence,

Noel's in the hospital, Aria isn't coming to school 2day. Hanna & ill b the hospital, 2, u should come!

- Em

Spencer texted her back, saying she'd be there.

Then she called the school's secretary, saying she'd be in after 12.

Spencer stopped at Starbuck's on the way to the hospital, buying her friends and herself, their favorite drinks.

She hummed a tune on the way to the hospital, trying to entertain herself.

When she pulled into the hospital parking lot, she parked and found Noel's floor.

She was greeted by Hanna and Emily, who sipped their frappucinos as they took Spencer to the room.

"So...what happened?" Spencer asked as she sat in a lumpy chair by the window. Noel tried to sit up in bed, fully aware, even though Emily explained that he had barely been awake when she and Hanna got there.

"This jackass was riding my bumper, and I..." Noel's words were a little slurred.

Aria sat on the side of the bed and put a hand over Noel's shoulder.

"And he tried to get into the left lane, while we were at the red light. But the asshole kept driving, didn't stop and slammed into our truck which made us slam into another car and then another car. It was TERRIBLE." Aria explained.

"Yeahh..." Noel sipped orange juice from a straw. "And Aria bruised her head, it was bleeding pretty bad."

He kissed her on the cheek. Aria blushed.

"I was so scared. There was glass and blood everywhere, he was passed out. Then the jackass that started the accident came over and told me to tell my boyfriend to watch himself. I yelled at him. What an ass."

Noel looked up at her. "He yelled at you?" he asked. Aria nodded. "I'll kick his ass."

Aria blushed again.

"That must've been horrifying," Hanna said. "I don't know what I'd do if you guys didn't make it."

She looked teary-eyed. "Yeah," Emily agreed. "I feel the same way."

Spencer agreed, too.

"Um..can you excuse us for a second, Noel?" Aria said. Noel nodded and Aria grabbed her old friends' hands, leading them into the hallway.

"Is something wrong?" Hanna asked, fiddling with her hair.

"Yeah, are you okay?" Emily said.

"I'm fine, you guys." Aria replied. "It's just, right before the crash, I got your text Spence, about getting a new text from A."

She took out her Nokia.

"Then I got this text from a restricted number." she said.

Hanna, Emily and Spencer crowded around Aria as she showed them the text.

Aria,

Too bad your guy's truck crashed, huh? Maybe he should've paid more attention to you. 'Cause that's how you lose your bf's, sweetie, you treat them like shit. But hey, accidents happen.

-A

Hanna's eyes widened.

Emily gasped.

Spencer shook her head.

"No matter who A is," Spencer concluded. "She or he is a bitch. I bet they had something to do with that crash, Aria."

The other girls agreed.

"I hope..." Emily started. "I hope that A just goes away."

Everyone else agreed again.

Suddenly, Emily's Treo chimed. Hanna's Palm beeped. Aria's Nokia sung a sunny tune. Spencer's BlackBerry rang.

Each girl picked up their phone, pressing READ.

They couldn't resist to read that one, irresistible text:

Ladies! Great to have you all together again! Just like old times, huh? Not really. And btw, I'm never going away...ever. -A

They all looked up from their phones, each one wide-eyed.

"You guys," Spencer said. "A planned that car crash."