Hey all! I hope you guys like this chapter. Sorry I vanished - I got really sick. Something was going around at my work, and I got it lol. But I'm back!

Several Years Before

Salem, Oregon - 2009

"Get back here!"

Her lungs burned as she ran, ducked, darted, and slipped behind trees. She had gone deeper into the woods than ever before, and for good reason.

Kason Brant was chasing after her – again. The mean twelve-year-old boy was out for blood this time, and she knew why: she had accidentally spilt her carton of chocolate milk on him. Mona Vanderwaal screwed up. Just like always.

"MONA!"

Mona kicked up leaves and tiny twigs as she ran. Her chest hurt and her legs felt like rubber, but she wasn't about to stop. In her nine-year-old brain, Kason was the devil.

She slipped behind a large oak tree, breathing heavily. Her lungs ached and she could hear her heart beating rhythmically inside her chest. She crouched down and squeezed her eyes shut. Her hand was sinking into a pile of mud, but she didn't care. Even though it did feel all slimy and gross, like the spoiled milk her foster siblings would dump on her.

A twig snapped to her left and fear jarred through fear veins. The tips of her fingers prickled, like someone was stabbing her with tiny pins. Another snap. She tensed every muscle in her body and waited with bated breath. Seconds crept by, and the fear slowly oozed out of her. Had Kason gone home to take his anger out on someone else? She hoped not, but…better them than her.

As soon as she stepped out from behind the tree, she was thrown to the ground. Her head bounced off a snared branch and pain shot through her.

"You little bitch!" Kason seethed. "How dare you?!"

Mona stared back, terrified. She tried to move, but Kason had her arms pinned to her sides with his thick, burly legs. She whimpered and shut her eyes as Kason delivered the first blow to her chest. Sometimes if she closed her eyes, it didn't hurt as much.

Rosewood, Pennsylvania – 2009

"Hanna! You're using too much frosting!"

"Am not!"

"Are so!"

"Not!"

"Yes!"

"No!"

Nine-year-old Hanna Marin and her friends Spencer Hastings, Aria Montgomery, Alison DiLaurentis, and Emily a Fields, were in Hanna's kitchen, amongst a giant mess of what were supposed to be cupcakes. Only instead of fluffy cupcakes the girls had made rock-hard clumps of doughy disaster. Spencer had told her friends they shouldn't leave them in their Easy-Bake Oven for too long, but nooo. No one ever listened to her.

"You ruin everything!" Spencer shot back. She huffed and placed her hands on her hips.

"You're not the boss of me!" Hanna glared at her friend, and pushed her blonde hair behind her ears. Spencer sure was a meanie.

"Who's gonna win?" Aria whispered. She, Emily, and Ali were sitting at the Marin's kitchen table with CapriSuns and a box of cookies in front of them. Aria's seahorse necklace swing from side to side as she bounced up and down in her chair.

"Spencer," Ali said, in a bored tone. "Spencer slways wins. It's like the law or something."

Emily's eyes widened and she played with one of the many brackets on her wrist. She nervously twisted her favorite one – an army-print bracelet from her dad! – around faster and faster. It was really a law for Spencer to win? Emily wondered who came up with that one – it was so silly!

"Oh," she groaned, "fighting is bad. Are the police gonna come?"

"Maybe," Ali muttered mysteriously. She snatched up Emily's last cookie and grinned at her.

"That was mine," Emily whispered.

"'Not anymore," Ali teased.

Emily's big brown eyes filled with tears, and she was about to start crying when Aria pushed one of her own cookies over to Emily.

"You can have this one!" Aria chirped. "Mommy says we gots to share."

Emily beamed. Aria was the very best ever!

"Thank you!"

Aria stuck her tongue out at Ali. Alison was, as Aria's mother would say, "a mean little girl." But she also was something her daddy had said, only Aria wasn't allowed to say it, because it was a grown-up word. Aria just remembered it was funny because it sounded like 'witch,' and witches always had cats wth them! Aria liked cats.

The girls were so busy watching Spencer and Hanna argue that they didn't see Hanna's mommy walk in. Her mom announced it was time to clean up and helped the girls with their mess. She tasted one of their cupcakes and said it was 'real yummy,' but Aria saw Ms. Hanna's Mom make a silly face when she tried it.

After the girls cleaned up, Spencer, Emily, and Ali bounded upstairs to Hanna's room, but Hanna and Aria lingered behind. Hanna's mom was watching something on the TV in the living room, and she looked very sad.

"Mommy, what happened?" Hanna's tiny voice broke the silence (save for the news story) of the room, and Ashley jumped. She quickly wiped her eyes.

"Oh, baby. It's nothing." Ashley managed. "Why don't you and Aria go upstairs and play?"

Hanna paused.

"Okay.." She turned around and started to head upstairs, but she and Aria peeked around the wall to see the TV. On it the news lady was talking about how two boys were in big trouble at their school, because they had brought guns to play with the other kids.

Aria's lips twisted. Well, that was just silly. Weren't they just playing with water guns? It was water! The water would dry. Grown-ups could be so weird.

But Aria wonders why the two big boys would bring their water guns to school in the first place. Toys weren't allowed at school!

As the girls made their way up to Hanna's room, Aria reached out and tugged on Hanna's arm

"Do you have water guns?"

"Yeah!"

Aria brightened. Now they could be like the big boys on TV! It was very exciting. After all, the water would dry.

Whew! A little bit of background info from the girls' past. Please tell me your opinions! I really enjoy the feedback, guys. More soon!