To Kill A Mocking Girl
"Who's idea was this again?" Hanna questions pointedly as the five girls follow Emily's lead into the woods.
"Emily's mum," Spencer answers, as they climb up a steep incline of a track they once all knew well.
"The shed was me, my mum just said we should do something," Emily explains to them.
"And we couldn't have chosen to do something less out of the way and time consuming?" Kelsey mutters, as she walks in last behind the four other girls.
"Or without mosquitos?" Hanna complains.
"They're no mosquitos, they're gnats," Aria corrects her.
"Whatever they're small and annoying, and they're flying up my nose," Hanna says annoyed, as she struggles to walk the dirt path in her small heels.
"Well, they attracted to your perfume, and your hair product and your lip gloss," Spencer informs her, a small smile on her face.
"So what are you saying I attract flies?" Hanna questions, turning to look at Spencer, a glint in her eyes.
Kelsey smiles at Hanna, "Gnats Hanna, she's saying you attract gnats," she corrects her jokingly.
"Why do I feel like this is the wrong way?" Emily questions from the front of the line, stopping to take in her surroundings.
"No this is it," Spencer says, coming forward to a stop, "I remember that tree, it's the halfway point, there's a 136 steps left to the shed," she informs them pointing up to the giant oak.
"Have you been out here since," Emily begins her words cautious, "Alison?"
"Me?" Spencer responds in surprise, "no, no way."
"But you remember that tree," Aria says, her words fill of suspicion.
"You guys, its not that weird," Hanna springs to Spencer's defence, "I mean we came out here in eighth grade like every day. Even after."
"Why are we putting a shrine to Alison out here anyway?" Kelsey questions, still not sold on the entire point of this venture.
"It's not a shrine, its just a place to remember Alison. What's wrong with that?" Emily asks, looking at each of the four girls.
Kelsey sighs crossing her arms, "Why can't we remember Alison in a place not in the words, or maybe we don't need a place to remember her at all," she counters Emily.
Emily gives Kelsey a hurt look opening her mouth to respond but Spencer jumps in, "Maybe Kelsey's right doing it out here makes it look like something to hide."
"You're worried what other people think?" Emily asks in disbelief.
"Well aren't you?" Spencer counters, "do you really want to give that creepy detective more reasons to question us?" Hanna shakes her head at the conversation walking forward, causing the other four to follow after her.
"Hanna why are you so quiet?" Emily questions as she trails after her.
"I'm trying to keep the bugs in my nose and out of my mouth," she tells them as an excuse to evade what was really on her mind.
"You're allowed to have an opinion on this," Emily tells her.
"You want my opinion?" Hanna asks, stopping and turning to face the four girls, "I say we hold off and not remember her until we know for sure she's not still here."
"What?" the four girls question in unison, shocked by Hanna's words.
"You think she's still alive?" Emily asks.
"Hanna, they found her body," Spencer reminds her.
"Stop," Aria says, holding up her hand, "I'm officially scared. Can we just not."
"You know, you asked for my opinion," Hanna interrupts Aria, "I don't believe she's really gone." With those words Hanna turns around, walking forward and leaving the four girls to rush after her again.
"Hanna, we went to her funeral," Kelsey reminds her friend, though her words sounded uncertain. Alison still being alive would explain a lot.
"Yeah and when we left we all got a text from her," Hanna replies.
"It wasn't her," Emily tells her firmly, "someone is messing with us."
"How do you know? And what about all those nasty messages? How does A know stuff that only Ali knew?" Hanna asks, trying to make them doubt their own surety.
"Okay, this conversation giving me a hive," Aria puts in, attempting to change the subject.
"That's a bite," Hanna says stopping, "mosquito," she tells Aria as she turns to face them again.
Emily sighs, "Spencer, have you gotten anymore messages?" Emily questions her.
"Haven't you?" Spencer asks in response. Cracking of branches startles the five girls, causing them to turn and look into the bushes.
"What was that?" Emily questions, eyes wide, "did you hear that?" she asks Aria.
"Yes I heard that I'm standing right beside you," Aria whispers, not taking her eyes off the direction the sound had come from.
"Hello? Is anybody out there?" Hanna calls.
"You know what its probably a rabbit," Kelsey assures the four girls.
"Hello," Hanna calls out once more.
"Hanna rabbit, its not going to start talking," Kelsey tells the blonde girl, earning a glare from Hanna.
"Can we just get to the shed?" Emily says, her voice sounding slightly panicked. More branches snap and this time the sound seems to be even closer to the five girls.
"Okay that is definitely not a rabbit, someone's out there," Hanna whispers, looking at the four girls before quickly looking back at the path.
"Lets turn around," Emily suggests, the girls all nodding turning just as each of their cellphone's go off. Kelsey pulls hers out of her pocket with dread, opening the new message from an unknown sender.
Heads up, BFFS. Its open season on liars and I'm hunting… - A
Kelsey ties the laces on her shoes, looking up to find Troy standing in her doorframe, hands behind his back. "Can I help you?" she questions him, her words cold.
"Found this on the porch," he says, revealing a white envelope that Kelsey recognized all too well. "Trying to work out who you know in Atlanta," he tells her, turning the envelope over in his hands.
Kelsey stands up, snatching it from him, "None of your business," she snaps, glaring at her older brother.
"Kels," he begins.
"Troy," she counters, pushing him out of her room and closing the door. She sighs, sitting cross legged on her bed as she looked at the envelope. She didn't understand how it ended back on her porch, she had sent it to Atlanta for goodness sake. She sighs picking it up again and turning it over to find the letter was no longer sealed. Her eyes immediately turned to the door, assuming that her brother had opened it. Her fingers pulled the contents of the letter out, bills of money flowed out along with a note written on white card.
Careful Kels, if you keep helping your father, I might be forced to turn him in again. And it looks like I know where to find him… - A
Kelsey eyes read the card quickly, before stuffing it and the money back into the envelope. She pulls her box from under her bed, hiding the letter under layers of photos before taking a deep breath. Maybe Hanna was right, maybe Alison was still around because this felt like her. Who else could know about her father? Kelsey shakes her head, Alison was dead and this person was just somebody trying to mess with her and her friends. Kelsey could just imagine them sifting through mail to try and get the letter and the thought brought a smile to her lips. Grabbing her bag off the floor she shrugs the fear away but the threat still lingers at the back of her mind. How far would this person really go?
Kelsey quickly steps back from her locker as someone slams it shut. "Noel," she complains in annoyance, "that could have hit me."
"You've been ignoring me," he says to her as she forces her books into her bag.
"Not ignoring, just been busy," she mutters putting her bag over her shoulders.
"Did I do something?" Noel questions her, catching Kelsey eyes.
She sighs, "No its just you've been so excited about this party, which is fine," she assures him, "but."
"But you thought I forgot what tomorrow night is?" he finishes the sentence for her.
"You didn't?" she asks in surprise.
"No of course not, I know how hard it was for you to tell me about your mother, I wouldn't forget," he tells her sincerely, giving her a small smile.
Kelsey puts her arms around him hugging him, "Thank you, for remembering," she says pulling away.
Noel places his hand on her wrist, "If you don't want to come to the party I get it, if you asked me to I wouldn't go," he informs her.
The words make Kelsey smile, she twists her arm so her hand is on Noel's wrist, "Of course I'm going," she promises him, "it's the party of the year remember?" Noel smiles broadly, giving her kiss on the lips but Kelsey quickly pulls away when she hears the familiar sound of a cane clicking against the floor. She turns to see Jenna walking in with her step-brother Toby on her arm. Kelsey inwardly cringes at the sight of them. Did that mean Toby was back to? "Catch up later," she says to Noel, walking up at the same time as Emily to group up with the other three girls.
"He's back too, when did that happen?" Aria asks in shock.
"Maybe she needs help sending radioactive emails," Hanna suggests and Kelsey thinks back to the letter underneath her bed.
"Yeah, or maybe he's sending some himself," she says, reasoning that no blind girl could have found that letter.
"Hanna," the voice of Wilden startles the girls.
"Great cops on campus," Kelsey mutters, looking up at Wilden.
"I just spoke with your principal asked him if we could have a chat," he informs Hanna.
"No, I have to get to class," Hanna argues immediately. Kelsey couldn't blame her, Wilden was off.
"Don't worry you've been excused," he tells her, "let's go."
"What is going on? Why just her?" Aria questions as the two walk off.
"Probably thinks she's the easiest to crack," Emily guesses.
"She is," Spencer says.
Kelsey shrugs, "I think Hanna's tougher then you think," she argues, after all it took a lot to transform like Hanna had in a year.
"Whisper, whisper, whisper, almost feels like Alison's still here," Jenna comments as she strides past the four of them.
"What are you doing?" Spencer questions Aria as the four girls lean against the lockers, wondering about Hanna, "is that a new phone?"
"Yeah, I'm checking my Kin. I'll just write on Hanna's wall from here," Aria explains to them.
"If she's not answering her texts, why would she be on Facebook?" Kelsey questions Aria's logic.
"Its worth a try," Aria shrugs, continuing to type into her phone.
"What's going on?" Hanna greets them all.
"We've been trying to get a hold of you," Aria tell her, stepping out of the way so Hanna can get into her locker, "what happened in there?"
"Nothing, just the same old stupid questions," Hanna replies, pushing books into her locker.
"You were in there for an hour Hanna, what else did he ask?" Spencer questions her, worried about what Hanna might have said.
"Nothing, he just took a couple calls, and I just there waiting for him to shut up," Hanna assures them, closing her locker and turning to face the four girls once more.
"Well, is he going to question all of us alone now?" Aria asks her worried.
"Who knows," Hanna responds shrugging, "look lets do this at lunch okay? I have to hit the ladies before my next class," she tells them, walking away leaving the four girls to stare after her in confusion.
"Is she being weird?" Spencer asks, as she watches Hanna disappear into the bathroom.
"She's being weird," Emily confirms, "I'll see you guys at lunch."
Kelsey smooth's the crinkles in red dress, while slipping on her black heels. She wasn't exactly in the dress up mood with everything going on, but Noel was so excited about this party and she probably needed something to get her mind off things. Kelsey sighs smoothing out her straight hair, wondering how she ended up with someone who loved to party, when she tended to despise the practice. Depending on the time of party of course. "Drinking already?" Kelsey questions as she makes her way downstairs, grabbing her black purse off the coffee table. Troy stretches out his legs from where he sits on the couch, so that his feet occupy the spot her bag had just been.
Troy shrugs, taking another swig of his beer, "Figure if you miss dad so much, I might as well do what he did on this day," Troy mutters.
Kelsey sighs, taking a seat on the coffee table, "Don't do this Troy, don't be this person," she begs him. Troy pulls his feet from the table, leaning his body forward so their inches apart from each other.
"What makes you think I'm capable of being anyone other than this person?" he questions her, his voice low.
"Because I've remember who you were before dad left," she whispers, just as her phone goes off. She takes it out of her bag, "Noel's here," she mutters standing up once more, "you're better than this," she says to Troy taking the beer bottle out of his hand and putting it on the table.
Kelsey watches Noel and Sean playing foosball at his cabin party, fighting the urge to yawn. Hanna stood beside her, clearly impatient that Sean was basically ignoring her. Kelsey knew the feeling. It seemed strange to her now, that Hanna and her hadn't stayed closer, considering Noel and Sean were such good friends. It probably had something to do with Kelsey missing all the team parties. "Let's go outside for a bit," Kelsey suggests to Hanna.
Hanna looks at her before nodding, "I'll be right back," she says to Sean as they walk past. Their eyes catch Emily, Spencer and Aria talking together.
"What's going on?" Kelsey asks them as they approach.
"Toby Cavnaugh got into a fight with Ben over Emily," Aria explains to the both of them. Kelsey's eyes widen at the piece of news.
"It wasn't over me," Emily corrects Aria, "god, he just saved me."
"For what himself?" Spencer asks.
"Ew," Hanna comments at the thought.
"If we hadn't of asked you about Ben, would you have told us about this?" Aria questions Emily.
"Toby is not a good guy Emily, who could be seriously dangerous," Spencer says when Emily doesn't answer Aria.
"If he's such a bad guy, why'd he take the fall for us?" Emily counters. Spencer falters at the questions opening her mouth to say something but no words come out.
"Spencer, please tell me you are not keeping another secret," Kelsey begs.
"Guys, why don't we just like chill and talk about this somewhere else? When we're alone." Hanna suggests, noticing the people around them.
Aria shakes her head at the words, "I don't even know what just us, means anymore."
Hanna turns around, her attention being drawn to Sean who was walking outside, "Yeah, uh, lets talk about it tomorrow," she says, "are we still meeting up at the shed?" she questions as she walks away.
Kelsey shrugs, "Sure I'll see you guys tomorrow," she tells them, heading after Hanna and over to Noel.
"Sorry about before," Noel says to Kelsey, as she sits on the edge of his lap.
Kelsey shrugs, "I should have known I can't compete with a foosball table," she jokes, taking a sip of her drink. She wasn't even sure what was in it, to be perfectly honest. She wasn't one for drinking but for tonight she thought she could make an exception.
"I'm sorry anyway," Noel replies quietly. Kelsey gives him a quick smile, before turning around and trying to tune back into the conversation that was going on around them. Kelsey hears Hanna's name, watching as Mona calls out to Hanna who was getting into Sean's car. From the distance Kelsey was out she could was unsure if she was upset or not but judging by the fact she was ignoring Mona, Kelsey was willing to bet she was. She was also willing to bet, Hanna wasn't meant to be taking Sean's car.
"Give me your keys," Kelsey demands from Noel, standing up quickly.
"What?" Noel questions in confusion.
"Keys give me, I'm worried about Hanna," she quickly explains, one eye on Sean's car that Hanna had just started up. Noel reaches into his pocket handing them to her. "Thank you," she says, clasping the keys in her hand as she makes a run to Noel's car. She wasn't entirely sure why she was going after Hanna. Or maybe she did know, because it had meant the world when someone had gone after her.
Flashback
Kelsey wipes the stray tears from her eyes as she walks through the dark streets of Rosewood, quiet at this time of night. The air was frozen and goosebumps covered her bare arms as she shivered in the cold. She had given trying to walk in the heels Ali had given her a couple of streets ago and they hung loosely from her hands. A car pulling up beside her causes her to turn, as the window of the car winds down. "Kels," Alison's voice calls from the passenger seat, "get in." Kelsey shifts on her feet before nodding and slipping into the car.
"You're not allowed to drive," she reminds her friend, trying to hold back any more tears.
Alison laughs, "I don't think I'm going to get caught, besides I had to know you were alright."
Kelsey places the heels on the floor of the car, "I'm fine," she mutters.
Alison places a hand on her back, "Kels I know what happened," she tells her quietly.
Kelsey holds back a sob, "God Ali, I don't know what I was thinking," she confesses, her words strained.
"I could have killed him for what he said," Alison responds, her words harsh.
Kelsey smiles sadly, "It's fine," she says shrugging, "I don't why I keep thinking people are going to stick around."
Alison pulls her best friend into a hug, "Don't worry Kelsey I'll always be here, you and me we're going to be friends forever," she promises.
Kelsey realized the irony of the memory now, Alison used Kelsey's fear of people leaving against her. That's how the whole mess with her dad had happened. Alison could make her do almost anything by threatening her friendship, and yet Kelsey still thought of the dead girl as the closest thing to a sister she had ever got. Kelsey slows down as she sees the broken wreck of Sean's car. She drives carefully, her eyes searching for Hanna and finally catching her further up the road. "Hanna," she calls, stopping the car and jumping out.
"What?" Hanna snaps, wiping the tears out of her eyes, as she glances back to Sean's car.
"Get in, I'll give you a lift," Kelsey suggests. Hanna considers the offer not saying anything. "I'm not letting you walk all the way back," Kelsey tells her firmly.
"Fine," Hanna concedes jumping in the passenger seat. Kelsey doesn't say anything as she starts the car, guessing from Hanna's brisk manner she didn't really want to talk.
"Home?" Kelsey finally questions. Hanna just shrugs not responding to the question. Kelsey sighs adjusting her route so she was heading back to her house. "I took no answer as a no," Kelsey explains as they pulled into her driveway.
"Why are you even here?" Hanna finally asks, as Kelsey unclips her seatbelt.
"Because you're my friend," Kelsey tries.
"Am I?" Hanna responds, looking over to Kelsey, "I mean you seem like the only one who doesn't want to be part of the old group again," she points out.
"I never said that," Kelsey says quietly.
"Yeah, but you imply it all the time," Hanna counters her words. Kelsey places her hand on the wheel, wondering how they even got into this situation.
"Truth?" she finally asks. Hanna nods in response. "Losing Alison was hard, probably one of the hardest things I ever went through. But then to lose you four as well," Kelsey pauses, "I never want to go through that again," she admits. "Want another truth?" she asks before Hanna as a chance to respond to her words, "I don't know what's going on with you and Sean but I know that's he crazy about you. I mean he talks about you to Noel all the time."
"Really?" Hanna questions.
Kelsey nods, "I've even been there some times, its actually quite cute to be honest," she says jokingly.
Hanna laughs, "Now I'm embarrassed," she jokes in return.
Kelsey smiles, "Stay the night," she suggests jumping out of the car, "Sean and his car are still going to be there tomorrow." Hanna doesn't respond but follows Kelsey into the house anyway. Kelsey flicks the lights on to reveal her brother passed out on the couch, surrounding in alcohol bottles.
"Looks like someone had their own party," Hanna comments as she comes up behind Kelsey.
Kelsey sighs, "Sorry he doesn't normally drink, its just today is," here she stops, walking up the stairs towards her bedroom.
"Is?" Hanna questions the unfinished sentence.
Kelsey bites the bottom of her lips, "It's the day our mother left us, thirteen years ago," Kelsey finally explains, ushering Hanna into her bedroom.
"I never knew that," Hanna says quietly, "I mean I guess I knew she was around."
Kelsey smiles at Hanna, "Honestly it shouldn't be such a big deal, I mean I never really knew her. But dad he always ended up drinking on this one day of the year and we eventually figured out what it was," she admits, going to her closet and pulling out an old top and a pair of shorts.
"So that's why your brother is?" Hanna asks leaving the sentence hanging.
"Yeah," Kelsey confirms passing Hanna the clothes.
"I'm sorry about your dad," Hanna tells her.
"And I'm sorry about yours," Kelsey responds tiredly, taking the seat beside Hanna.
The next day the five girls gathered together at the woods once more. "Alison wanted us across the street, so you could have it out with Toby. Ali had something on him," Spencer tells the girls.
"Besides being a total perv that peeked in our windows?" Hanna questions.
"Yeah, something way bigger," Spencer confirms, "and she was threatening to tell everybody. That's why he took the fall for us."
"Why are you waiting until now to tell us?" Aria asks Spencer.
"I don't know, Ali made me promise, and I guess I was scared," Spencer admits to them all, "I thought if we never talked about that night again it would just go away." Kelsey nods, hadn't she thought the same thing.
"Yet it just keeps coming back up, we're never outrunning this hound," she tells them.
"Look there's four of us and one freak sending messages," Emily reminds them as the girls begin to walk again, "if we just talk to each other like this, I feel like it makes it easier to deal with everything."
"Emily's right," Kelsey confirms, "and this shouldn't be done out here in the middle of nowhere, we should do it where we can all see it everyday," she suggests to them.
"Like somewhere in school?" Hanna asks her.
"No," Aria responds for Kelsey, "in town. We should ask if we can put a bench somewhere. Wait, and you know what? Whoever did this to her, if they're still in rosewood, we should make them look at it every day, too," Aria finishes as they all stop walking standing in a circle.
"That's perfect," Kelsey agrees, "they should have to see it," she mutters darkly. Branches crack in the distance and Kelsey looks at the others before shrugging, she was going to find this person. She marches off towards the words, hearing the other girls come after her. Kelsey stops having lost the noise, she searches around trying to look for any trace of a person.
Hanna glances down, "Look," she tells the others. Five sets of eyes gaze down at the ground as the girls take a step forward.
"Is that yours?" Spencer asks them.
"Alison's," Aria answers, staring at the purple woven bracelet with Alison's name on it.
A/N - So I'm not a 100% sure about this chapter but hopefully its okay.
Thanks for all of the support for this story and especially the reviews it means the world :)