Chapter 4

Spencer was at the country club with her parents, when she heard hushed murmuring. She managed to strain herself to hear snippets of the conversation, and suddenly felt the hair on the back of her neck begin to prickle.

She whipped around in her seat, but no-one was behind her. Turning back around, she caught sight of a pair of big blue eyes across the room-they had to be several inches high and had the caption I see you. -A*1 A shiver ran down her spine, and she excused herself, lighting a cigarette and taking shaky breaths.

Maybe the others knew about this? Maybe they were getting the same kind of treatment from this A person? It was probable..

What Spencer didn't know was that there was a blond with brilliant sapphire blue eyes watching her intently, and mentally noting down everything she was doing. Just then, her Sidekick buzzed, and she yanked it out hurriedly.

Spence, you may have a 4.0 average, but your intellect doesn't seem to run to matters of emotion or memories of the past. I know what you did, and even if you think I can't, I'm watching. -A

She slowly turned a full 360 degree circle, carefully canvassing her surrroundings, scrutinizing the people around her. No-one seemed to be holding a cell phone, nor was anyone trying to conceal themselves. She hated to admit it, but whoever A was, they were doing an excellent job of terrorizing her.

P.S You really shouldn't smoke. It's terrible for you, and do you really want that pretty little face to be wrecked? Quit, and nothing very bad will happen to you. -A

Now she didn't doubt at all there really was someone watching. They were doing an incredibly thorough job.

The girl giggled and pulled up the short film of Spencer on her BlackBerry, opened up a fresh text and sent it to her.. What were they, exactly? mentor/intern? That would fit. But of course she was the intern. Her mentor was carefully guiding her, making sure she didn't mess up. With the two of them working together, it was impossible to mess up. I think you've rattled Spencer enough to last the next few days. If you try anymore, she'll start investigating and that could be a total disaster. Try Aria. She isn't so easy to mess with, but that's good. It gives you practise and affords you a few extra days-Spencer gets some quiet from us while I dig up more info on her.

She was right. Always. Her guidance was a blessing, a gift that no-one else had, and she was incredibly lucky. Really, she dind't mind being the intern. It came with so many priviledges. Yet there were also rules, do's and don'ts.

Some of her rules popped into her head. One night, she'd gone over them, learning each of them word-for-word, aiming to know them all off by heart. Now she knew them all, and if asked, could quote them verbatim, and with pride.

Don't ever show weakness.

Do always look perfect.

Don't get drunk-in vino veritas*2

Do sneak around, and practise where necessary.

Don't talk to people unless you're friends with them or can't avoid it.

Do get good grades, have a decent amount of school spirit and show interest in your school surroundings.

Don't ever make anyone suspicious.

That was just the shortlist, and the last one was the most important. Naturally, they got more complex as they went on, but it would help her finally heal and put the past behind her. At the moment, she was looking at the future.

Maybe she could devise different ways to kill each of them? Like a personalised death for each of them... Something in the pool for Emily, for instance. Somehow Aria could die in Iceland-after all she was so fond of the place. Hanna and Spencer were harder, but she'd figure them out... If not now, she would manage it when it got most important.

A few months from now, this knowledge would be crucial. It wouldn't really take very long. Hell, they could have it all over and done with by next week if they wanted to.

But they didn't want to. They wanted to drag it out slowly and painfully.

Teachers criticized them, for not aspiring, not aiming, not having goals. But if they knew the dark secret the girls shared, they wouldn't be saying that. Not that they ever would know, because they planned to pull it off carefully and make it all perfect. Like the most perfectly tailored dress, the most exquisite shoes... They had a shared aspiration for the best. Never mind grades-Spencer already got in there, and Hanna was the most popular in the school thanks to her old friendship with Ali. Emily was the best athlete, so that was out, and Aria was the best at just being herself.

When you took all of that out of the high school equation, you really weren't left with a lot. Not in typical Rosewood, anyway. There were the jocks, the populars, the brainiacs, the weird kids, and so on. It was all so cliquey.

Aria tossed her Treo aside and picked up one of her knitting projects. Knitting always soothed her, and she felt a lot better after she'd been doing so for an hour or so.

Today though, she couldn't seem to focus, and she knew why. As she tried to pick up the next stitch she'd dropped, she sighed and shifted to a more comfortable position. Moonlight glowed through the open curtain, and she hastily pulled the curtain closed. That felt better. Now it would be much harder for anyone to see what she was doing through the heavy black material. She flicked on her TV, suddenly feeling the need to hear human voices, even if it was just the news.

She ran her fingers over a metre of knitted wool, estimating how much more she would need to do before she had the super-long scarf she wanted to have done by winter. Being November, she had a little while left, so she would finish it later. Meantime, she would finish her English homework. Since Ezra had started teaching her English class, she'd been even more into English than she used to be.

Too bad nothing further could happen between them. She'd gotten an A note yesterday about it, and A probably had the power to reveal the message to the whole school. The message was still on her Treo. Aria-it seems to me young girls hooking up with their teachers runs in the family!-A.

Did that mean A knew about Meredith and her dad? Obviously. And A probably wouldn't mind outing her dad and Meredith anymore than she minded outing Aria and Ezra.

Unfortunately, Aria hadn't completely closed her curtains, and she didn't know that as she sat there harmlessly doing her English homework, a blond girl was peering through the little crack unshielded, twisting and contorting her body to get a better view of what Aria was doing.

Nor did A know that Aria had elected to do something boring, so if anyone happened to be watching, they couldn't get any ammunition from what she was doing.

Or could they?

Wow, my biggest chapter yet.

Please review. It encourages me to write more.

I haven't yet received a lot of reviews, which is disappointing, but I'm continuing anyway because I like this story and I know how I want it to play out.

Please do review, I appreciate all feedback. Even gentle flames. I now have eight internal assessments going on, and the stress will probably send me crazy. So reviews are like a bright spot in the dark days of being crazed with busyness.

Also, if someone could give me an idea of an American school's timetable, I'd also greatly appreciate it. I believe American school timetables are considerably different to what we have in New Zealand, and I'd like an idea of it.

*1: Inspired by the scene where Emily and Maya are in the glasshouse and Carolyn sees them sitting together-I believe it's in Perfect.

*2: From the Latin, meaning 'In wine there is truth' as in drunk people forget to lie, so if A was drunk and forgot to lie, it could be disastrous... And so on.

Please R&R! :)