A few days later, Emily was chatting and laughing at the town fair with a girl named Samara, waiting for Paige to show.

She and Paige had made up way earlier in the week, and Paige had gotten her an expensive ticket so that she could to go to the festival with her. Emily had convinced Paige that she should talk to a girl from the Sheridan Prep Pride Group so that she could figure out what she was going to tell her parents when the time was right.

However, although Paige had agreed to meet the girl, she had never showed up at the cafe, but Emily had.

The girl she was supposed to meet was Samara, and Emily quickly became friends with her, hitting it off nicely. By the next morning, they were strolling happily along the vendors in the Rosewood Festival, while Samara tried to convince Emily that she could have a pair of earrings that she had made for free.

"Seriously, Em. Wow, they look amazing with your skin tone. No charge; take them!"

"Wouldn't that be considered stealing?" Emily teased.

"I suppose that it could be considered stealing, but I'm giving them to you, so isn't that more of a gift? Besides, they are mine to give, anyways." Samara said.

Emily giggled, not wanting to give up quite yet. She shook her head 'no', stubbornly.

"Here," Samara turned around, "I'll turn my back. See? Steal them, now." She laughed, trying to get Em to take them as... as a token of their new friendship.

"Emily?"

Emily's smile dimmed and Samara's wavered as Emily registered the voice. She turned around, "I thought you'd never make it."

"Well, here I am, right?"

"Yeah, yes you are." Emily said, grin returning. Samara was standing nervously to the side, a bracelet flitting through her fingers.

"Ah, this is Samara. Samara, Paige," Emily turns to face Paige, "Samara is the girl who you were supposed to meet earlier today, remember? At the cafe? She goes to Sheridan Prep..."

"Oh. Hi." Paige said nervously, here eyes flicking back and forth between the two girls.

Samara giggled uncertainly, and then held some earrings from her designated vendor up. "I was trying to convince Emily that these would go so well with her stunning skin tone, don't you think so? They really compliment it! Unfortunately, she won't take them. Maybe you can convince her to?" Samara asked, trying to bring an actual flowing conversation into the scene, rather than incomplete sentences.

"I suppose..." Paige said nervously, still seemingly annoyed with the threesome, "I mean, yeah, they do look great, Em. You should get them; Samara's right. They're perfect for you!" She exclaimed, trying a bit too hard to sound happy.

Em bit her lip, trying hard not to smile, as she was quite giddy at this point. "Ugh, fine. I suppose I'll have to go with it since I'm overruled, but two to one seems unfair, especially when I'll be the one wearing them!"

"Well, I really hope I'll get to see you again sometime soon, Em. You too, Paige, and if you ever need to reschedule, call. Emily has my number." Samara said as she readied the booth for oncoming consumers.

"Look, I know you're trying to be nice and everything, but honestly, you don't even know me!" Paige said angrily.

"Paige!" Emily scolded, shocked.

"What?" Paige snapped,"Sorry, Emily, but I'm not looking to join a club and ride down main street on a rainbow chopper!"

"Actually, I drive a Jeep. But that's beside the point." Samara buts in.

"You know what? I'm gonna... take this to go. I've got a paper that's due, and... tell your friends that it was really nice to meet them." Emily said to Samara.

"Emily, wait!" Paige grabbed Em's hand as she turned to go.

"What? So you can be rude to me, too? You know what, Paige. This is becoming way too much drama. I don't want to be your secret." Emily left, leaving a stunned Paige and Samara to stare after her blankly.

Spencer's shoes clicked across the pavement as she walked past Toby's house on the way home. A smile appeared on her face when she saw that he was outside working on a motorcycle, his sleeves pushed up enough to show his muscles.

"Hey. How are you?" Toby asked, looking up at Spencer from his place amidst the tools he was using.

"Relieved. That you're speaking to me. I wasn't sure if you'd heard the cops theory about me planting the evidence." Spencer smiled.

"We shouldn't... talk about this." Toby adjusted a part on the motorcycle nervously.

"So you do think it was me?" Her grin slipped as she said that.

Toby sharply looked in her direction, startled. "No, of course not!"

Both of their heads turned at the sound of an engine. Coming up the street was a cops car, slowly making its way toward Toby's house.

"But I can't say the same for my family," Toby continues, "Spencer, you should go home. Those guys have a way of adding two and two and coming up with five." Toby said, glaring at the cops car. Spencer looked over the still vehicle, too, concerned for both their sakes.

"I'll stop by your place later." Toby said.

"Um, I'm not sure that that's such a good idea." She looked into his eyes, begging him to understand.

"Why not?"

Spencer looked down at the ground, too ashamed to say it.

"Because your parents don't want you near me? Yeah, I know. It makes sense."

Spencer smiled sadly and then enthusiastically said, "How about the festival? Maybe we could meet up behind a tent. Or the fun house. Seven o'clock?" She asked hopefully.

Their eyes moved away from one another at the sound of the opening of the house's front door. Jenna steps out onto the threshhold.

"Toby? I need you to drive me to school- I have a make-up test." She said, her eyes flicking around behind the dark sunglasses.

"Okay," Toby replied, "Just let me get cleaned up."

As Jenna steps back inside the house and shuts the door, Spencer optimistically held seven fingers up, indicating that he should meet her then. Toby grins slightly and gives a short nod, watching her leave. A warm feeling spreads throughout Spencer as she happily leaves.

Spencer steps away from the Cavanaugh house as the door to the cop car opens.

"Hey Spencer. Hows it going?" Garrett steps out onto the road in full uniform. His badges gleam in the sunlight as he eyes Spencer.

"You tell me, Garrett. I thought you were on our side." Spencer said stiffly.

"I don't get personal feelings when I'm in uniform." He said.

"Well, if you put on a pair of jeans, this would be called stalking." Spencer retorts, growing more irritated with every passing second. Why can't he just get to the point?

"Spencer, look. If being trailed is going to help clear your name, better its me than someone who thinks you're guilty." Garrett says lightly, backing up a step.

Spencer stared at him for a minute and then turned on her heel, walking back to the house and dismissing the thought. What a weird cop...

"Okay. So even though we can't see her profile, Jackie and Mr. Fitz-"

"Ezra!" Aria interrupted, hating that Hanna still insists on calling him 'Mr. Fitz'.

Hanna rolled her eyes, "-Went to the same college. So I looked up alumni and punched in random names until I found a girl who already didn't have a page." Hanna said, her fingers flying over the keyboard.

Aria laughed lightly, surprised that Hanna knew so much about it.

Aria and Hanna were sitting on Aria's bed in her room, crowded around the silver laptop. Last night, Hanna had suggested that Aria 'make a fake profile, friend Jackie, go through that skank's page, and nail his ass to the wall'. Aria actually had sort of taken her up on that offer, minus the 'nail his ass to the wall' part, despite the pleasure she would likely have in that.

Right now, the laptop screen held a newly created website page.

"Tonya Freeman?"

"Yep!" Hanna said.

"Who is that?" Aria asked, undoubtedly curious to see if this was even legal.

"Who cares?" Hanna said, rolling her eyes at Aria's discomfort.

"This is starting to feel so wrong." Aria worried.

"Hey, it is so not! Look, I don't want what happened to me to happen to you! Fool me once, shame on you, and fool my best friend, you're dead frickin' meat!" Hanna exclaimed.

"Hmm. That's- tender." Aria said, amused, "Well, what about a profile picture?"

"Oh, we're not putting one up."

Aria looked at her, confused.

"Okay, well, if the profile is faceless, Jackie will assume it is someone she used to be friends with. Feel guilty- she forgot they exist- and accept the friend request." Hanna said, fully confident.

Aria had to give it to her- this girl had it all planned out. Although Hanna looked, well, quite stupid, the girl knew her stuff. Aria turned back to the laptop screen.

"Well, Jackie is about to be reunited with one of her old pals," Hanna grinned, passing the computer off to Aria, "You do the honors, Tonya!"

Aria looked at the screen, the uneasiness growing. She took a deep, calming breath, but she still felt sick. She looked over at Hanna and saw her watching her intently.

"Aria, do you want to know the truth or not?"

Aria looked at her and raised her eyebrows, giving in. Aria took the computer, adjusting it on her lap. Her pointer finger flitted across the mouse in one quick, steady movement, officially locking in the request.

~xXx~

Aria was cleaning up and organizing her room later on when her laptop made a buzzing noise from its place on the bed. Since this morning, Aria has tried not to think of the outcomes of the friend request, but every now and then it kept coming back into her thoughts. Now she would know for sure.

She danced over to the bed, butterflies swirling around in her stomach, and looked at the screen. 'Friend Request Accepted' it said.

Instead of feeling that heightening revengey feeling she had anticipated, Aria only felt dread. It felt all wrong to be doing this, and everything in her soul and body told her to back out. But she couldn't. She had to know. And there was no other... okay, so there was another way. But it involved a few more courage than she already had, and she really didn't want to do it. But didn't it have to be better to hear the truth directly from the love of your life than from some website junkie?

Aria bit her lip, nervous either way. Either she confronted Ezra in person, or she confronted Jackie online. Even though it sounded so much easier to confront Jackie as an anonymous person, it would be another lie between her and Ezra. No, she had to do this in person.

The mouse danced on and off the button 'remove friend' for a while, until she finally did the right thing and removed her.

Was it the right thing, though? Aria wondered. She gradually began to feel more like herself, light and free, rather than weighed down by an unnecessary lie. Yes, it surely was the right thing. She thought happily. But the feeling still lingered, shadowing her happiness.

"Mona? I thought you were gonna help." Hanna sighed, annoyed.

"I am helping!" Mona said, her phone in hand, "I'm making sure you don't host a pity party for yourself and invite a cheesecake!"

Hanna looked at her, eyebrows raised in irritation, but there was a faint smile displayed upon her lips. Sure, she had had her eating problems in the past, but it was rude of Mona to bring them up now. Mona tried to hold in a grin, and she then turned to look behind her at the set-up of an annual festival.

The girls stood in the middle of a major work-in-progress. Nearly everyone in town had came to lend a helping (or not so helping in Mona's case) hand in the set up of the Rosewood Founders Festival.

All the booths were to be set up in the middle of the park. There was to be a fun house, and booths for many different games. The adults naturally brought lots of drinks, so that area hung off to the side a ways. There were to be fireworks and there was a barbecue beforehand for all the workers.

"Um, don't look now, but sketchy's at twelve o'clock." Mona said remorsefully. It hurt her to see Hanna hurt, so in her mind Caleb (or Sketchy as she calls him) is a major no-no boy.

Of course, Hanna looked, hopeful that he would be staring right at her at that exact moment. No such luck. His long dark hair cascaded around his face, making him look even hotter to Hanna- if it was even possible.

"I-I cannot deal with him right now. Just don't tell him I'm here!" Hanna said, exiting the tent the opposite way Caleb was coming from.

She nervously picked at her fingers as she waited, unfortunately destroying any chance of wonderfully manicured nails any time soon. All she could hear was the low murmur of their voices, but she couldn't make out any words. Caleb had actually hurt her more than her dad had, if that was even possible in any way. Why would he assume she would want to talk to him? He really couldn't possibly be thinking straight.

After about ten agonizing minutes, Hanna slipped back into the tent after checking for him. He was gone.

"What did he want?"

"Change for a twenty." Mona lied, trying to spare Hanna's feelings.

Hanna nodded, hurt despite the fact that she knew Mona was lying.

"Can you hand me the tape?" Hanna asked, distracting them both.

She smiled slightly as Mona gave it to her, wordlessly thanking Mona for taking care of that no doubt heartbreaking scene that would have occurred otherwise. Talk about romantic tragedies...