A/N Please Review. I've been lacking motivation lately. How do you guys think the story is going so far? Do you like the journal entries at the end of each chapter? I'm guessing about ten more chapters until the end of the story. What do you think?

Fall 2012 passed more swiftly than Aria had expected it to. Warm summer days turned into cool, chilly ones, and she became settled in a routine that included school and friends and family. The days melded together as Aria's last year of childhood passed by. Still, some events stood out, some much more than others.

On September 3, 2012, Spencer ran all the way to Aria's house from her own. Collapsing on her bed, she admitted that Jason DiLaurentis was her half-brother, born out of an affair with Mrs. DiLaurentis while her own mother had been pregnant with Melissa.

"No wonder Mr. Hastings freaked out when Jason started to date Melissa," muttered Hanna, sitting in Aria's desk chair.

"Hanna," chastised Aria from her place next to Spencer on the bed.

"What?" she exclaimed, throwing her hands in the air, "It's true."

"How are you holding up, Spence?" Aria asked her friend, half-hugging her.

Spencer sighed. "Better now, I think, to get that out there. My parents don't want anyone to know, but screw that." She made a face, "He's my brother, and Jason deserves to know his father. Who cares what the rest of the world thinks."

"Sometimes what the rest of the world thinks affects how we go about our lives," said Emily softly. "I wonder what would have happened if I had had the courage to tell my parents who I really am years ago."

Spencer's gaze softened as she looked at her friend, "But sometimes we have to forget about what the rest of the world thinks about us and believe in who we know ourselves to be. After everything that's happened with Alison and Ian and Melissa's miscarriage and now this," Spencer shook her head, "It's made me think about who I really am and who I want to be."

"What are you going to do now?" asked Hanna.

Spencer shrugged, "Live without any secrets." Resting her hand in her head, Spencer continued, "Be myself. Enjoy my last year of high school. Be with Toby," she finished. The girls talked the rest of the night. It was a Saturday. When Ella came to check on them in the wee hours of the morning, she found them curled up together on Aria's bed, sleeping.

September 15, 2012, was Aria's eighteenth birthday. She woke up to the smell of chocolate chip pancakes and freshly-squeezed orange juice. As always, the presents were on the window seat, and she opened them. The bag from her parents contained a new and rather expensive looking, black journal. Mike's gift was a framed picture of them together in Iceland. Ezra's gift, which he gave to her when she came over to his house later, after school had let out for the day and she had promised her friends she would have dinner with them, was a bracelet.

"Happy Birthday," he wished her giving her the small package.

"No first edition books?" she asked teasingly as she opened the wrapping.

"I promised, remember," he answered, smiling.

"Oh, Ezra," she exclaimed breathlessly. "It's beautiful. But it's too much." She looked up at him.

"No it's not," he said firmly taking the bracelet out of its package and clasping it on her arm. "You said that I couldn't spoil you with books. You never said anything about jewelry. Besides," he finished, "you only turn eighteen once."

Aria looked to where the bracelet sparkled on her arm. It was gold and encrusted with diamonds, sapphires, and rubies. She had a sinking feeling that it cost more than her car. But it was beautiful, she admitted to herself. "You sure?" she asked.

"Of course I am," answered Ezra.

Aria smiled, lost in her thoughts, "Remember when you gave me Mrs. Springer's angel necklace?" She pulled it out from underneath her shirt, "I never take it off."

"You loved her," said Ezra softly.

"I love you too," said Aria. Suddenly, smiling mischievously she leaned up to give him a kiss on the cheek. "I wouldn't say no," she whispered in his ear cryptically.

He groaned, "Aria," he warned.

She shrugged, "Just thought I'd try."

That night Aria's journal entry was written in the new journal her parents had gotten her. She wrote about life, love, family, friends, and the act of writing itself. "It's good to record things," she wrote, "I like remembering things long after other people forget. It's good to tell our own stories."

October 17, 2012 was the day of the Homecoming dance. Spencer roped her friends into helping her set up, and they reluctantly walked into the gym of Rosewood High at 8:00 that Saturday morning.

"Wow," said Emily, taking off her sunglasses to look around. "This looks fantastic, Spence. What was the Homecoming budget again?"

"An anonymous donor gave us a good chunk of change to spend on Homecoming this year," answered Spencer from her place on the gym floor.

"Who donated the money?" asked Aria suspiciously.

"Who cares?" answered Hanna carelessly.

"Can you hand me the scissors from that table over there on that table?" Spencer pointed.

Homecoming, Aria admitted later, was fun. The gym looked awesome, and she didn't have to deal with the drama or emotional rollercoaster that last year's dance had entailed. Both she and Emily went stag, but Aria didn't mind. She enjoyed watching Toby and Caleb dance with Spencer and Hanna, and a couple of times, she and Emily "borrowed" them for a dance. "It's amazing," she wrote in her journal, "what makes us happy. It turns out to be the little things, like spending time with our friends."

October turned into November, and Aria watched as her friends become more and more content with her lives. Hanna became infinitely happier when Kate transferred out of Rosewood High and her stepfamily moved back to Maryland. Somehow, Aria knew in the back of her mind that Caleb hacking into Kate's computer after she publicly humiliated and taunted Hanna had something to do with it. Emily started seeing Paige McCullers, another member of the Rosewood High swim team, and she looked happier and more relaxed than she had in months.

Spencer had come to lean on Toby for support as she slowly, very slowly, came back on speaking terms with her father. Aria suspected that the weekly brother-sister dates she was having with Jason were helping. Aria also knew, somehow in her heart, that she would never really know what happened with Ian and how Spencer had even suspected him. But maybe that wasn't her story to tell.

Soon enough Thanksgiving vacation rolled around. The Montgomery family was spending the holiday in New York. Aria was going to take tours of both Columbia and NYU, and Ella wanted to see the parade with her family. Ezra went with them too on the pretext that he had a meeting with his publisher anyway. On the drive up to the city Aria learned that Ezra had an apartment there and they would be spending their nights there. However, when she walked through the penthouse door to a building located in Manhattan with a superb view of the New York skyline, she saw the word apartment was an understatement. With four bedroom and five bathrooms the apartment was as big as her house, bigger even.

"What do you think?" asked Ezra, setting her bag down in the living room area.

"It's nice," she answered neutrally as she touched the furnishings.

"It's one of the pieces of property I inherited," he explained, half-smiling, "What's wrong?" he asked her. She was too fidgety and too careful with everything she touched.

"I can't feel you in here," she explained. She shook her head, "It doesn't feel like a place you would live."

"Maybe you can help rectify that," he answered, "if you move here next year."

"Maybe," she replied.

November 25, 2012

I'm in the greatest city in the world, and all I can think about is that Ezra has this whole other life I had never thought about. I knew he was a Fitzgerald. I mean, he had told me, and he had admitted it, but I guess with him living in the little three bedroom house next door to mine I had never really thought about it. The bracelet he gave me for my birthday sits at the bottom of my jewelry box collecting dust. I'm too afraid to wear it. What if something happens to it? I'm sure it's worth thousands of dollars.

I think I'm starting to understand why my dad was so worried about our relationship. Not only was Ezra my teacher, not only is he nine years older than I am, but he has the world at his feet. I know that's not the way he was raised, but still…it's an intimidating thought. My mom still sees him as her adopted son, and she still sees him as the nice boy who moved next door. But I'm glad we decided to wait and hold off on our relationship. I never thought I would think that but I do. We really don't know each other. I mean, we've known each other for years, but these new lives we've been given, they change us somehow. I'm not twelve anymore and Ezra isn't a grieving twenty-two year-old either. I guess we'll have to wait and see what happens next.