Disclaimer: Still don't own it.
Apparently I was wrong; I couldn't hold in my emotions around Alison.
As soon as my eyes landed on Alison and her new group of friends, there was a fury of activity in the school hallway that caught everyone's attention.
First off there was the flashing lights that caused everyone to look up. After that, the air began to get colder until everyone's breath could be seen; causing some to reach for their coats. The last thing was what really caused a scene; a sudden wind that blew out the candles that Emily and Hanna just lit. The wind was so sudden and strong that it even flipped a few skirts.
"Calm down," Caleb said quietly while everyone was distracted. There was an urgent tone to his voice and I nodded, trying to do what he asked.
I took deep breaths and closed my eyes, struggling to rein in my anger. Seeing Alison again just open the flood gates of my emotions; even more so than when I first found out about my former ally's betrayal. Speaking of which, it was weird how much they now resembled the other girls; especially Mindy who tried to mimic Hanna but was just funny to look at.
It was obvious that Alison was behind Mindy's transformation since only she could be so cliché and unimaginative. The first thing was the hair, which was dyed blond to try and match Hanna's; but given that both teens hair texture was so different, Mindy's came out too funky be being too smooth. The next thing was the contacts that seemed to try and mimic my former friend's eye color which was another dud. Then finally was the outfit, a short blue skirt and white shirt that just made Mindy look silly rather than sexy.
In fact, that was what I concentrated on; Mindy's just laugh out loud funny imitation of Hanna which caused me to giggle as I looked at her. As the environment began to calm down, I just stood there giggling like a madman. Caleb looked at me in confusion and I wondered if he thought I had snapped.
"Sorry; she is just hilarious looking," I said to Caleb in between giggles, pointing at Mindy. While he didn't say anything, the smirk Caleb gave signaled to me that he agreed.
"Looks like you'll have to start all over," Alison said with a smirk that I wanted to hit. Jenna and Sydney looked at each other but kept their faces neutral while the twins just smiled.
"It's funny if you think about it," Emily suddenly said to Hanna, looking over at her with her own smirk.
"And what is that?" Hanna asked, not sure to what Emily was referring to.
"That Mona got a memorial here at school while there was none for Alison when people believed she was dead. Only her mother ever reminded us that Alison was gone but she was crazy after all," Emily stated, giving Alison a hard look. My eyes widened at what she had said as well as just about everyone else in the hallway.
That was something I expected from Hanna. That was something I definitely expected from Spencer. I could even possibly see it from Aria but only under extraordinary circumstances. But Emily, absolutely not; this girl practically invented the loving fan girl genre when it came to Alison.
To see her respond with such vitriol was almost mind boggling.
Alison appeared to not have taken Emily's words too well since her face had a mixture of emotions. From what I could tell, there was a mix of furious rage and slight hurt emanating from Alison; almost making me feel sorry for her even though she had brought this all on herself. While Jenna and Sydney looked a little concerned, Cindy and Mindy almost looked terrified; scooting away from the blond ever so slightly.
I caught a shared look of concern between Caleb and Hanna, causing me to be puzzled by it for a minute until I understood why. I remembered Caleb telling me that A had taken a special interest in Emily as of late; doing some pretty brutal things to the teen some of which she was unaware of. It didn't take a genius such as myself to realize that Emily might get a pretty harsh retaliation from A.
Alison gave Emily one last glare before storming off with her posse closely behind. Even though she couldn't see me, I flipped the blond and her friends off and Caleb just shook his head. Hanna and Emily went back to relighting all the candles that I had accidently blown out; which I felt guilty about since I couldn't help them out. It was another few minutes before they were done and Spencer and Aria showed up.
"Have you guys seen Mike this morning?" Aria asked after everyone greeted each other.
"He hasn't been here," Hanna said and Emily shook her head as well.
"Ok, that doesn't make sense. Mike left early because he said that he was going to help you guys with the memorial," Aria explained, now looking concerned.
"Well we haven't seen him; maybe he got cold feet. I am not the only one who is mourning Mona right now," Hanna stated, with a slight hurt in her voice.
"He's been acting really strange lately and I think he has been skipping his therapy sessions," Aria informed the group.I gave a long hard sigh and shook my head; wondering if I should tell Caleb about Mike's extracurricular activities after all. While me and Aria had our issues, I never wanted to get between the two even when I was working for Ezra. I was actually a little envious since I had no siblings growing up, or any close family other than my mother. I also had left Mike and his parents alone during my time as A since I had a respect for close families, unless there were secrets that needed to be exposed.
The downside of telling Caleb about Mike was that Aria would rush on in and confront her brother right away. This would catch the attention of A which would then put Jason and Lucas in the spotlight, and then in danger. I couldn't let more people die because of me so I decided to stay silent, and let Mike's partners keep an eye on him for the time being. And though it sounded selfish, those three were at least doing something relevant and I didn't want that ruined.
While the four girls were focused on their eternal discussion, Caleb moved a little closer to me.
"What is it?" he asked me very quietly, catching me by surprise.
"What do you mean?" I inquired, keeping my tone and face neutral.
"When Aria mentioned Mike, you looked like you knew something," Caleb said, and I could hear the accusatory tone in his voice. I knew that I had to lie to him but needed to make sure that he didn't see through it.
"I was just thinking that Mike skipping his group sessions doesn't sound like something he would do. I was thinking that Aria might not realize that he might have found some other source for comfort," I stated; making what I said as interpretive as possible. I wasn't technically lying to him but just not telling him what I knew.
It wasn't like he could do anything about it. While I needed him to help me move on by bringing down Alison and A, granted if they were separate people, he needed me more since I was the only one with real information; once I remembered everything that is. Even if he found out that I was keeping secrets from him, it wasn't like he could cut me loose. You can't ignore a ghost; especially one like me.
Caleb just shrugged and seemed to believe me, making me feel somewhat relieved though slightly guilty at the same time.
There was an increase in activity as more people began to enter the school and head to their classes. Since Caleb and Hanna had separate classes this time in the morning, they quickly kissed and then Hanna joined the girls to head to first period. I followed Caleb to his locker and stood there while he grabbed his stuff. I noticed that he was a little cautious when opening his locker; which I understood given the threat that was out there.
"So I am going to check out all my former hiding places here and I'll let you know if I find anything," I told him as he closed his locker.
"Just make sure you stay away from Alison; we don't want any more accidents," Caleb muttered, almost making it an order. Lucky for him, the noise from the many students heading to classes muffled out his words.
"I will; I am here for information not petty revenge," I said but nodded in agreement none the less. As the first bell rang, he walked away to his first class.
I knew the first location I wanted to check which would take me to the basement of the school. Despite it being a high school, Rosewood High had a few secrets that had long been forgotten by school administrators; a series of secret rooms in the basement. During Prohibition, the school had been used to store smuggled alcohol by the mob into Philadelphia. I found out about that during a school project and found the secret rooms, using them to house things during my days as A.
With luck, I might have left some useful things in one of those rooms. I had never told anyone about them, especially not Toby or Lucas, and had been careful not to be followed when I had a need to escape to them. I even went to the trouble of destroying any evidence of their existence in order to keep them a secret just in case there was a place I needed to hide during the worst case scenario.
I made my way to the basement steps, keeping close to the walls and only moving through walls into classrooms if I had to. I was trying to keep myself anonymous in case Caleb wasn't the only one who could see me; as unlikely of a scenario as that was, it never hurt to be careful. As the second bell rang, the halls began to empty and I found myself with a little more room to move freely.
I didn't really care if I caused cold spots, but there were enough geeks like me in school that any one of them could think the school was haunted if I wasn't careful. I didn't think that anyone would actually believe that I could haunt the school, but one could never know. I was here to solve a problem, not cause new ones with everyone believing that my spirit had returned. Though the idea had a certain appeal and I wondered if I should make a visit to the school showers to have some fun with the water.
As always, the doors to the basement looked to be sealed; something new since I was last in school. Ignoring the signs and even the door itself, I went right through and found myself in pure darkness. Wishing for some sort of light, I was forced to let my eyes adjust and slowly walked down the steps so that I wouldn't fall. Although even if I did fall, it wasn't like I could break something.
It was times like this, while wandering in the dark, that I was glad that I was a ghost. The ability not to be harmed, gave me a sense of relief and the courage I needed in the barely lit area. It seemed that my eyes were getting better in seeing in the dark though I wasn't sure why; whether it be because I was adjusting to my new situation or something else. I just hoped that I could do more in my situation.
The first room was hidden behind a wall, where a part of it functioned as a makeshift door; with a hole functioning as a doorknob of sorts. Since I couldn't pull the door open, I just went through the wall and into an empty room. While I had remembered that I had taken everything out of here shortly before the lodge fire, there was some hope that I had found use of it again. Seeing that there was nothing here, I moved onto the next room.
It was right next to this one so all I had to do was just go through the wall to reach it. This particular room still had things in it that dated back to the 1920s; stuff that allowed the making of bathtub gin. In fact there was an old metal tub in the center of the room, stained with rust and dirt after years of neglect. Other than the rotted tables and chairs, there was nothing here as well.
The last room was down the hall and had been used as a lair of sorts before I had rented that space at the lodge. Its door was hidden by a huge mirror that had a layer of dust on it, which led me to conclude that it had not been opened for a while. My suspicions were confirmed the second I went through the mirror and found nothing of value. I was disappointed since I had hope that there might have been something of value that I had left behind here.
Then again, this might have been the last place I would have hidden something that it could be found at a later time. I went to great lengths to make sure these rooms were only known by me and it would have been silly for me to think that an ally would find them by chance. While I could tell Caleb, I think that this particular area was a secret that I would take to my grave.
I headed out of the basement and into the hallway; pondering where to go next. There was my little hiding place in the girl's locker room or my secret spot in the school library. Since the locker room was the closest, I headed towards that direction. It should be empty right now though it didn't matter since no one could see me anyways.
As I walked down the hallway and passed locker after locker, I began to feel sadness since this was not the way I wanted leave this school. I had longed for my graduation day and to leave this school with my head held high, knowing that I had survived the worst time of my life. But I hadn't survived and all I could do now is to at least make sure Alison couldn't walk down the aisle; unless it was in an orange jumpsuit.
Surprisingly, the locker room wasn't as empty as I though with a few people changing into their gym clothes. I ignored them and went to my old gym locker at the end of the room and away from everyone else. Sadly, Alison had made me a little self-conscious back during freshman year and I had gotten paranoid about my figure; kind of silly now that I thought about it.
Poking my head through the metal door, I sighed in frustration since there was nothing here as well. I sat down on the bench and tried to think up other places that I might have hidden something relevant that could be found. Maybe I should check the places that I had told Lucas and Toby about in the off chance that there was something there. That opened up another few more places in the school that there was more than enough time to check; and keep me distracted from Alison.
I was about to leave when I heard a familiar sound coming my way. Looking over into the next row of lockers, I saw that Jenna had come in alone and was at her locker. Unlike the other locker doors in the room, Jenna's was protected by a padlock than required a key instead of a combination because of her lack of sight. Pulling the key out of her big red purse, she opened up her locker and began to grab her clothes inside.
Once upon a time, I had actually felt sorry for the girl in front of me; now though it was a mix of anger at her betrayal. I had helped Jenna so many times in the past, whether it had been burying her secrets or giving the blind girl information to protect herself with. It was I who tipped her off about Shana, which had allowed Jenna to turn Alison's oldest friend against her. Jenna had owed me everything and now it seemed that it had been a wasted effort.
Jenna's appearance had changed somewhat since I had last seen her and not in the better in my opinion. Not only was she dressing a bit like Alison now but had also dyed her hair to match as well. It was disgusting that the blind woman had sold her soul to the devil even though I knew I didn't know the whole story. But then again, I didn't care because betrayal was betrayal no matter what the reason was.
As she changed out of her clothes and into her gym clothes, I pondered if I should do something while we were alone.
Caleb had told me to stay away from Alison; he said nothing about her posse.
Please R&R and a special thanks to my Beta Paraddicted!