Pretty Little Liars belongs to Sara Shepard and Freeform.

I do not own anything.

I wake up the next day and realize that it's sometime in the afternoon. When I see the time I completely freak because I totally missed practice. Coach is going to have my head for that.

"Oh shit!" Are the only words that come to mind as I ninja jump out of bed and rush downstairs. "Why didn't anyone wake me? I had practice this morning!" I notice quickly that there's no one down here.

"They're at the police station."

I turn around on the stairs and see Mike standing at the top of the steps. "Why?"

"Your friends and Aria got themselves in trouble last night. So they had more questions for them."

"Oohh." I say as I nod. Then I think for a second in confusion because I have no idea what he is talking about. "Trouble for what? And my alarm didn't wake me up this morning, why didn't you wake me up for practice?"

He raises an eyebrow. "What?"

I walk up to him. "Practice, Mikey. You know, it's what you do to get better at things."

He half smiles. "I had no idea. Thank you for the lesson."

"Mike. I'm serious."

"Chill okay. You didn't have practice today."

"Yes I did?"

He shakes his head. "No, you had off. You told me yourself."

I start to think. "There will be no practice Friday or Saturday. I have some things I need to do. So enjoy your weekend off." Mr. Brooks voice echoes in my head from the talk he had with us after practice was over Thursday. He started giving us Sunday's off, so we had the entire weekend to ourselves this time.

"Oh...I forgot."

"Exhaustion is clearly getting to you."

I nod. "That's what happens when there's a million things to do almost everyday of the week."

"Yea. On top of your tough year and your friends having attention moments, it surprises me that you haven't gone insane."

I give him a confused look. "Attention moments?"

He has me follow him to his room and we sit on his bed as he explains what happened last night. The girls claimed that Ian tried to kill Spencer in the bell tower of the church, confessing that he killed Alison and then someone random threw him off it. Which made him land in the ropes below that hung him to his death. Except that the Rosewood police didn't find him and now everyone thinks that they are out for attention.

"Tell me you're kidding?"

He shakes his head. "Wish I was."

"Why does it always seem like something is going on with them. Am I the only one that's noticed?"

"Nah. I know what you mean."

I start to shake my head as I try to wrap my brain around the situation. "They think Ian's dead?"

"That's the story."

"But there's no body?"

He nods. "Exactly."

I slowly nod. "Well it has to be true right? Why would they make something like that up?"

He shrugs. "It would be a stupid thing to lie about."

"I agree."

It gets quiet for a minute.

"You wanna go for a walk?"

I nod. "Yea. Let me get ready."

"Okay. Knock on my door when you are done."

"Gotcha."

We're out for about an hour or so. I grab a sandwich and soda from the Grille to go as we talk a bit. What bugs me is that we keep getting stared at like we have two heads from everyone in town. Then we get around the Brew area of town and head inside to relax. But about ten minutes later we leave because Mike has plans. Honestly, I couldn't have been happier to leave because everyone is creeping me out by not taking their eyes off us.

On our way out we see Toby walk past us, heading towards where my store is.

"Hey Toby."

He turns around and smiles. "Jessica, right?"

I smile a bit. "Jessie, actually."

"Oh." He gives me an apologetic look. "Sorry."

"No problem."

It gets quiet for a second.

"So what's up?"

"Not much. I went to see Spencer but she wasn't home." He looks at his phone, seeming to check if she's called or text him. "Have you talked to her?" He looks back at me.

I shake my head. "No. I haven't even talked to Aria."

"Don't you live with her?"

I nod. "Yea. But I was asleep when she got home last night, and when I woke up she wasn't there."

He nods. "So you heard what happened?"

"Yea." I nod. "Everyone has. They were eyeing us hardcore in there." I point to the Brew.

"They do that." He says out of experience. "Don't pay mind to them. They're idiots."

I see movement from next to me and look at Mike, forgetting for a second that he was there. "Uh. This is Mike." I tell him. "Aria's brother."

"Nice to meet you." Toby stretches out a hand.

Mike half smiles, reluctantly returning the shake. "You too." Then he gives me an iffy look.

I know he is giving me that look 'cause a lot of people still avoid Toby because of his reputation. It seems that Mike is not too thrilled about being around him.

"So where you headed?" I ask Toby.

He shrugs. "Was just taking a walk."

I nod, then it gets quiet.

"Can you do me a favor?"

I watch him for a minute. "Depends on what it is."

He half smiles. "If you get a hold of Spencer let her know that if she needs me I'm here."

I smile and nod. "Sure thing."

"And that I'm going to try and pass by tomorrow."

"I'll let her know, Tobs."

"Tobs?" He smiles.

"Uh, my bad. Toby."

He laughs. "No problem." He puts on a thinking face. "I like it. It's different, but good different."

I look at Mike and he gives me the sideways head move to leave. "Well we gotta go."

"See you around?" He asks.

I nod and smile. "For sure."

When we get back to the house Aunt Ella and Uncle Byron are both hanging in the dining room, whispering as we walked inside. The pretty much stopped their conversation at once and tell me that Aria is upstairs. So when I head upstairs I see that the door to our room is closed. I slowly open it and see Aria laying in her bed, facing the wall.

"Ria?"

She doesn't answer so I walk over to her bed and sit at the bottom of it, rubbing her leg to get her attention. She looks over at me and takes out her earbuds.

"Hey." I smile.

She half smiles back. "Where were you?"

"Hung out with Mike." Then I think to myself, debating how to ask her. "So what's going on?"

She sits up and leans against the headboard of the bed. "Nothing."

"Nothing?"

"That's what I said."

"Well I'm not an idiot. I know something happened last night, and I have ears that can back up what I've heard."

"And what have you heard?"

"That Ian tried to kill Spencer." I stop there to see if she would tell the story for me.

She nods. "He did."

"Okay. Then why doesn't anyone else seem to be on your side?"

She starts playing with her fingers. "Look." She says. "I'm not in the mood to talk about this."

"Why don't you ever want to talk to me about anything?"

"Don't start, Jessie."

"Don't start? You've been shoving me aside since Ali died. I'm your best friend!"

She watches me. "I know. But I'm not ready yet..." She gets quiet and her eyes start to tear up a bit.

I don't hesitate to hug her.

On Monday me and Mike get a ride to school from Andrew. Aria decides to catch a ride from Aunt Ella because her mom is running late and thought it would be good to avoid being there early. It feels weird being around just Mike and Andrew this time, because usually Aria is around when Mike gets a ride from one of us. He's never gotten a ride with my boyfriend before.

The walk to the school from the parking space we find is kind of a mess. Everyone knows I'm best friends with Spencer and Aria, close to Emily, and decently close with Hanna. Then of course Mike is Aria's brother. So everyone we pass gives us dirty looks or laugh at us. Amber however, takes it a step farther.

"Hey loser." She says when we get closer to her and the rest of her friends.

"Leave me alone."

She starts to smile. "I have a theory about what happened with your friends."

"I really don't care." I push through and start heading up the front steps.

"I don't think the girls lied to the police about Ian Thomas being dead."

I stop, debating if I should just keep going. But I turn around anyway and watch her.

"I think they were the ones who killed him, and then moved the body so they could look like the victims." She gives me a mean smirk.

I turn away, rolling my eyes as I do everything I can to ignore her. Which I'm doing pretty well at until she opens her mouth again when I'm almost at the front doors.

"Obviously they suck at it. Stupid bitches actually thought anyone would fall for that?"

"Amber, shut up!" I turn around but both Mike and Andrew grab me before I can do more.

"Stop." Andrew whispers.

"I'm so scared, Brant. I'm pissing my pants from fear." She starts cracking up.

"Walk away." Andrew says. "Please?"

I look up at him and the look he gives me is enough to drop it and turn away. As I do I can hear Amber and her gang of assholes still laughing as I walk into the school.

"See you later." Mike says as he heads off down the hall. No one hesitated to look at him or me in whispered conversations.

"Babe." I don't look at him as I open up my locker, but I see him lean up against Em's locker. "I know everyone is being mean about what happened the other night, but you have to try and relax. You're going to get yourself into trouble."

"It's nothing new."

"But the difference is that now you are playing basketball. They'll kick you off the team if you get into fights."

"I get it." I say, throwing books into my locker. "I just hate that people are talking about them as if they don't have feelings."

"Well at the moment they aren't around. That's why everyone is running their mouths more."

"Well I'm here." I say. "And so is Mike. Do you see anyone backing off knowing that we are connected to them in some way? No. Because everyone is an asshole and don't give a shit about anyone's feelings."

He gives me a sad look. "Just promise me you'll try to ignore them and stay calm? You don't need the girls walking into school after that nightmare, and not have one of their good friends by their side to back them up because you got yourself suspended or expelled for fighting before first period even started."

"Well if that happens at least they'll know I did it for them."

He laughs. "Always so positive."

"It's better than snapping or breaking down."

He smiles and kisses me on the head. "I'll see you at gym okay?"

I nod. "Yea."

It's still a bit early but I figure sitting in Mr. Fitz's class till the bell rang would be better than sitting out here with everyone staring at me. Sadly, Mr. Fitz isn't there but a few other kids are already inside. When they see me they start talking obnoxiously to each other about the girls so I can hear.

I try to keep myself occupied by looking elsewhere and I notice that someone is drawing the picture from the game Hangman on the board, then five lines at the bottom. The ones that are filled in are the first, third and fourth lines. L_AR_ is what's written. If I'm figuring it out correctly it spells liars, and the hangman is supposed to be Ian. Clearly it's meant for the girls.

"Seriously?" I look at the kid who drew it and then whoever is sitting at the desks. "Immature much?"

They start smiling.

"You're all assholes."

"Why the long face Four Eyes." Riley's voice comes to my ears and I watch her walk in with the Carrie twins as they head to their seats.

"I'm not in the mood for your bullshit, Riley." I walk over to the board to erase it.

"Everyone's just having some fun. Why ruin it?" I hear Stacy say.

I turn back. "Because you are all being dicks and bullying them."

"It's not bullying if it's true." Riley says with a smile.

"Okay." I nod. "Then you're a bitch."

Her face drops and everyone else gasps.

"How's that for truth."

"Why you..." She gets up.

I'm waiting for her to pounding me as she walks closer, but before anything can happen I see a familiar face standing outside the class.

"Is there a problem?" Noel says as he walks in, everyone looks and smiles.

No one really has time to welcome him back from his suspension as Riley starts up. "This little spick just called me a bitch."

"And you just called her a spick."

Me and Riley both watch him. I have a smile and she is pissed.

"So it's okay for you to call her names and not the other way around?"

Her face drops a bit and she's lost for words for a second. "Why do you always defend her?"

"Because she's my friend and I don't like that people bother her just because she's Hispanic, or wears glasses, or whatever reasoning you guys have for it. Knock it off."

"Seriously, Noel?" She says. "How many times have you done the same to others? You only befriended her because Hanna is her friend and Sean was dating Hanna, so that gave you no choice but to be friends with this loser."

"Shut up okay."

She has a defensive look.

"Whatever reasoning on how we became friends doesn't matter. Now we are and I need you to back off. Your cousin is already on my bad side. I'm sure you don't want me keeping you away from popular parties too."

I smile a bit and she gives me a look. "Whatever." Then she sits back at her seat.

We both take our seats, trying to catch up a bit. I find out that his parents didn't believe that he had anything to do with stealing the exam answers and allowed him to basically do whatever he wanted. Like heading out to the mall, having friends over all the time, even going over friends houses. You know, the usual Kahn ways. Any other parent probably would have grounded him for life. But it's good to see him in school again. Last time I saw him was during Christmas vacation when I had gotten so drunk that he had two heads and glowing red eyes. Most of that night I still don't remember much of, but I do remember that.

Then we hear. "Mr. Kahn." We both look towards the door and see Mr. Hackett. "A word."

"Yes sir." He winks at me. "See you in a bit." Then he walks out the door.

I had erased the stupid picture off the board, but someone got up to try again. I don't realize this though because in my attempt to ignore the stares I'm getting from everyone I put my headphones in and start to draw instead.

When I finally look back up I notice that it's back on the board and I get up in anger. But then Maddie grabs me before I can fully get there and drags me to the second door to the classroom in the back of the room, pinning me up against the wardrobe next to it.

"Get off me!"

"Noel's not here this time shorty. So have fun getting out of this mess."

I just assumed she meant getting out of the position I'm in with my arms crossed behind my back, but what she actually means is that she's going to stuff me into the closet side of the wardrobe and now I have to deal with it.

"Hey!" The door closes and then darkness. "Maddie!" I slam my hands against the door, hitting it as hard as I can. "Maddie let me out!"

I can't see but I can feel how small the space is. My claustrophobia starts to kick in now as my breathing gets a bit heavy and I slide down onto the floor, leaning up against the back of the closet and holding my knees together between my arms in panic.

"It's okay." I whisper to myself, rocking back and forth. "It's…." I take a deep breath and I must say it hurt to even do that. "It's just a closet. Nothing to be worried about. Someone will come to help." But no one does. They're just laughing in amusement.

It feels like forever that I'm stuck in there when I finally hear the voices die out. It's very quiet at first, but then I hear someone whisper "Look." and whispered conversations come again from outside.

"Maddie." I hear Riley. "You can let her out now."

The door opens and I have to put my hand over my eyes as the light blinds me. I can't see more than random figures of people sitting in their seats, but then I hear a gasp.

"Oh my God!" Aria yells from somewhere through the temporary blurriness the light is making me see "Jessie."

Running steps come and then Emily and Aria both come to view in front of me, bending down to see if I'm okay.

"Are you guys crazy?" I hear Spencer.

Em and Aria both grab an arm as they get me out of there. The damage is already done as I can barely walk from all the shaking I'm doing to even get to my seat.

"She's claustrophobic." Spencer continues. "You could have killed her."

"At least there would have been a body after it happened." Riley says and people start to laugh.

"Shut up…" I take a shaky and painful breath. "Riley." I add and try to put enough emotion in my voice to make me sound serious. But she just smiles and starts talking to her friends.

"Jessie." I look at Em from the seat in front of me. "Are you okay?"

I nod, wiping some tears from my eyes. "Yea." I take a deep breath." I'm good." I look at my hands and notice they aren't just shaking, but also red from hitting the door so hard.

They both have concerned looks as I cross my arms to keep my shaky hands out of view.

"What did they do that for?" Aria asks. She looks pale from fear.

"I tried to stop them from drawing that." I point to the board. "Locking me in there was their way of saying to butt out."

"God I hate this town." Aria says.

I look over and see Riley eyeing me. Then Hanna mouths the words "You okay?" as Mona walks in. I put a thumb up to her and try to keep a smile on my face as I take some more breaths.

Mr. Fitz walks in as the bell rings and sees the board. He gives the class a look and walks to it. He's in the middle of erasing the board when Noel walks in again.

"Need help with that Mr. Fitz?" Once again people start talking. Whoever wasn't around before have shocked looks.

"Take your seat, Mr. Kahn." Fitz says.

While he makes his way to his seat the class gives him high fives and people start talking to him.

"Hey, Noel."

"Suspensions finally over?"

He takes the seat next to Aria and smiles. "Missed me?" He says to her, then he looks over at me after a minute and sees what probably is sweat and fear on my face.

I do my best to not make eye contact and look away as soon as he did so that he wouldn't notice. I even tried not to shake because I wasn't thinking of telling Fitz what happened either. But he picked up on my attempt not to make myself noticed very quickly.

"Jessie."

I close my eyes. Crap. I think to myself, then slowly turn to him.

You alright?"

I nod. "Yea."

"But..."

"Noel." I smile. "I'm good."

He doesn't seem reassured but he leaves it at that as Fitz asks for our homework. Then the rest of the day was the regular flow of the school day.

When I get home from my game (that we won by the way) I go up to our room to find Aria sitting over on the bench window seat in between our beds. She's just staring outside in a bit of a daze with one of the pillows from the window seat between her arms and body.

I hesitate for a second. I don't want to bother her so I go to tiptoe away, but she turns and sees me.

"Hey."

I scrunch my face in frustration that she saw me, but luckily she's smiling a bit at me. "Hey, Ria." I walk over. "You okay?"

She shrugs. "Not sure yet."

"It was a tough day."

She nods as I sit beside her outstretched legs.

"Are you ever going to tell me what happened?"

"What's the point?" She looks back outside. "You won't believe me either."

"You know me better than that."

She nods. "I do. But if everyone else thinks we are liars why would you think differently?"

"Because we are best friends?

She looks back at me.

"I've known you since diapers and we have a better bond than anyone in this town."

She starts to smile a bit.

"Plus you've never lied to me, and you're not an idiot. Why would you lie about something like this knowing it could get you into serious trouble."

"You've always been good at logical thinking."

I half laugh. "Yea. Obviously that's something this town lacks."

She nods. "I couldn't agree more." She gets quiet. "Did mom tell you that she's moving back in?"

My mouth drops. "She is?"

She smiles and nods. "Yea."

"That's great!"

She nods "Best news I've heard since Friday." She says, but her voice is still sad.

I half smile. "Do you need me to do anything?

She raises an eyebrow.

"Beat someone up maybe?"

She laughs. "I think I should be the one beating people up after they locked you in the closet for trying to stick up for us."

I shrug. "Just another regular day at school."

She shakes her head. "I can't believe you didn't tell Fitz."

"It would just make things worse. You know that."

We both get quiet for a bit as we look out the window.

"How was therapy?" I ask her.

Veronica suggested that the girls go because no one seems to believe them about Ian being dead, and sadly all their parents agreed. They think it has something to do with lashing out and trying to get attention from all the emotions they have from Alison being murder. That family can never butt out.

She shrugs without taking her eyes off the window. "It was okay."

"Do you want to talk about it?

She shakes her head. "Not really." She looks at me. "Go take a shower and get some rest. You look exhausted."

"So do you."

"Yea. Well I guess that happens when you cry wolf."

I give a sad look. "His body will show up eventually. Then everyone will owe you guys major apologies."

She smiles. "I love your optimistic attitude."

"Hey. Someone has to have it, especially the way this town works."

She smiles and springs a hug on me. "Thanks."

"For what?" We pull away.

"For being my best friend."

I smile. "Best decision I've ever made."