Disclaimer: Still don't own it
Mona and Spencer watched as Cece tried to break into Ezra's apartment.
Both were surprised to see the blonde since she had yet to be seen for quite a while; at least a few months.
Mona had lost track of Cece some time ago; much to her anger. The blonde was still the number one person on her hit list and she desperately wanted to pay her back for the incident with the car some time ago. Mona had even planned out her revenge and involved a much larger vehicle as well as a train; which alarmed Spencer slightly. Though Alison was someone that she was willing to see dead, there was to be no one else on that particular list. She was kind of glad that Cece had vanished from the scene since it meant that there was one less person in Alison's corner; though it did not seem that way for long. Having the blonde back into the fold after all of this time would complicate a few things. It also meant that they might have to watch their backs again since Cece was definitely Alison's hit man of sorts.
It also occurred to the two that they didn't really know all that much about Cece Drake; other than she once dated Jason DiLaurentis. When Mona tried to dig up more information about the blonde, her searches were coming up very little; which made the teen even more curious. While finding her picture in the Rosewood High yearbook, it seemed that Cece never attended the highschool; which was rather odd given the caption underneath the photo itself. There was also very little background information from the UPenn database and Mona could swear that what she did find seemed to be fake; as if someone had done a superb job of setting up a false identity for the blonde. This perked Mona and Spencer's interest even more on Alison's mysterious ally; which added another task in their growing list.
While it did seem true that Cece had been kicked out for the prank involving the student being pushed down the stairs, which Mona already knew about as well as who really did it, she was still registered with the University through online classes; which was really strange and told Mona that the blonde's parents had to have major pull somewhere. This was interesting since Cece's parents were never listed on the school application; which was required by law in the State of Pennsylvania. What was also missing was a social security number and the emergency contact information seemed to go to Radley; which was even more unusual since there was no patient named Cece Drake there. Mona also never saw Cece as a patient there and the teen had made it a habit to at least know most of the active patients when she had been incarcerated. She was tempted to go back to Radley in order to ask about Cece; even inquiring if she had been a former patient who was now free.
Thus Cece Drake was now a mystery to be solved.
It seemed at first glance that Cece had beaten them to the punch and was about to intrude on their plan to break into Ezra's apartment. Mona shouldn't have been surprised since there had to be others who would take the shooting of Ezra Fitz as something to take interest in; especially if he had some sort of secret history with Alison. It was interesting that the blonde was the one who was breaking into the place though it did make sense given that something like this was more suited for someone who was closely allied with Alison. They knew that they had to stop Cece before she broke and get whatever treasures lay inside the apartment; if there were any to be found. There might be a chance that everything of consequence might be back at the secret office that Ezra maintained out of town. Mona though had a feeling that there was something to be found here; though she might be wrong. Still, they needed to be sure and Cece was an obstacle that needed to be overcome in some way.
"We have to do something before she gets in there," Spencer whispered to Mona as they watched Cece try to pick the lock on Ezra's door. It seemed that he had changed the lock from the standard issue used by the rest of the apartment building's tenants.
"I know; give me your phone because I have an idea," Mona said to her friend as she turned to grab the device. Spencer knew which phone to give her; one of their A Phones used to send harassing texts to their enemies.
Cece's phone buzzed loudly; which caused the blonde to look up from her lock picking to see who had just texted her. She looked visible shaken by the message that Mona had just sent her and the two teens had to duck out of the way before they could be spotted as Cece looked around to see who was spying on her. By luck, the apartment door across from Ezra's opened up suddenly and Cece had to jump away from the door in order not to be seen that she was trying to break in; from an oversized man who was looking out into the hall with a suspicious look upon his face. When his eyes met Cece's, the blonde just smiled and scurried off before he could question her. They could hear the blonde's footsteps go down the stairs on the other side of the hall and waited a few minutes before the door slammed by the neighbor. They also waited to make sure that Cece was gone; which seemed to be the case given that she never came back.
"We got lucky there," remarked Spencer as they crept silently towards the intended apartment; making sure that they could not be heard by the neighbor. While Mona went for the door itself, Spencer went to make sure that the blonde was really gone.
"I know; thankfully, we actually have a key for this," stated the shorter teen as she pulled the spare key out of her pocket. She had made a copy earlier in the week by stealing it from the manager's office that was in another building; Ezra being required to provide an extra as part of his lease agreement.
The two teens slipped into the apartment without making a sound; making sure to lock the door behind them in case Cece came back. The apartment was a rather open space with no real bedroom though there looked to be a bathroom not too far away. As expected of the English teacher, there were shelves full of books everywhere; as well as posters showcasing various classic plays. The kitchen was a little messy and had a small pile of dishes in the sink; which was typical of an apartment owned by one person. The duo did note that the dishes seemed to be in pairs; which told them that there had been a guest these last few times the apartment had been used. Given that Aria was Ezra Fitz's secret girlfriend; her being over to have dinner multiple times was to be expected. Spencer though was curious to how far the relationship had gotten and if her former friend had spent the night at all.
"So I guess the question is where would he hide something if he is connected to Alison in any way," mused Mona out loud; more as a statement than a question. She looked throughout the apartment in order to deduce where all the good hiding spots were.
"It would work out if we knew anything about the guy; but neither one of us have his class," stated Spencer as she also looked for a place to check out first. Given that all of her former friends had the same English period as she and Mona, they could not be in the teacher's class because of that.
"Well we do now know about his family background a little as well as his academic career; that he is from a wealthy background though he seems to be cut off from his family," Mona said as she went over to one of the bookshelves to glance through the books. After finding out that Ezra's last name wasn't Fitz and that it was really Fitzgerald, it had been easy to go through his school history.
"True; I'll g check out his closet," the taller teen said as she went over to the slightly open door next to the bed. His apartment wasn't too dirty and the bed was well kept; though it definitely looked like it was slept in recently.
Opening the door to the closet, it was full of stuff from boxes of objects to a clothes hamper that appeared to be almost full. While almost all the clothing seemed to be male, something caught Spencer's eyes and she grabbed an article of clothing that she instantly recognized; it was a black gothic shirt that she had given Aria about a year ago. Her eyes widened at the thought that her former friend seemed to be spending a lot more time than she would have thought here; clearly having a more adult relationship than expected. She was tempted to go through the dirty clothing to see what else was in there but decided not too; though she would use this down the line if she needed a weapon against Aria. Even though the State of Pennsylvania was a little more liberal than the rest of the country on certain laws, the age of consent was still at eighteen; though she wasn't sure that Aria was sleeping with Ezra.
"Well hello," Mona suddenly said after a few minute of silence between the two teens. She had moved to the desk and had noticed something odd about one of the drawers.
"Did you find something?" Spencer asked from the bed; she was down on the floor looking under it for anything of interest. She didn't see anything other than a few pairs of socks as well as some paperback books.
"Yes; there is a secret compartment in the desk here that I am trying to get into," answered the other teen as she started fiddling with the right drawer by taking everything out of it. Spencer came over to see what her friend was talking about.
The drawer itself looked to be bigger than the rest of the compartments inside the desk; as well as a little shallower which did not fit with the rest of the desk. Mona had seen this before and concluded that there was a secret hiding place underneath the bottom of the drawer. At first sight, all there was inside was a stack of papers that looked to be old school assignments and other miscellaneous documents inside that looked to be unimportant. Once everything was out of the drawer, the teen felt around until her fingers touched a hidden switch; which she then activated and the bottom seemed to come out. Exposed were a whole slew of files and documents that looked to be quite important which Mona started taking out; placing them on the ground next to the large desk. Both she and Spencer then sat down on the floor to go over the newly discovered files to see if there was anything of value.
They were not disappointed.
"If I am reading this right; Ezra Fitz was writing a book about Alison," stated Spencer as she pulled out what appeared to be a manuscript and skimmed through it; speed reading which she had a talent for. It wasn't completed and was using pseudonyms for the characters; though Spencer could tell it was about her former friend just by reading in between the lines.
"More than that; I think they were dating," the shorter teen informed her friend in astonishment as she looked though what appeared to be journals written by Ezra. There were also photos of Alison in one of the files that appeared to be taken by the older man; which Alison clearly posed for when they were taken.
"If I didn't know Alison so well now, I wouldn't believe it. I am surprised though that there has been no contact between the two in school if they were," the other teen said to her friend as she read on; kind of enjoying the story despite who it was centered on.
"I can't believe me and Lucas missed that when we were spying on her last school year. I can tell you with one hundred percent certainty that Ezra Fitz never came up at all," informed Mona as she became angry at herself. A nugget such as this should have been found out by her given that she thought she knew all the blonde's secrets back then.
"Unless Lucas knew and didn't tell you," Spencer suggested as she grabbed on what appeared to be another manuscript that appeared to be new given the date on the corners of the pages. It looked as if it had been written just recently in the last month or so.
"That is something he would do; I'll have to confront him about it at some point. I am curious to what Aria would say when she finds out about this; not to mention the cops," mused the teen as she shook her head out of amusement. It seemed that the teacher had a thing for young women that would definitely get him into trouble if it was found out.
"I think she already knows; there is an updated version his book here that has her name on it as if they were collaborating on it together," Spencer told Mona as she handed the uncompleted manuscript to her friend. Sure enough, Aria's name was next to Ezra's as the author as well as some of her writing on several pages.
"Wow; we sure screwed up by ignoring these two for so long. It seems as if Alison met Ezra while he was still in college by lying her way into a party; even convincing him that she was over eighteen for a long time before he caught on," the other teen said as she read through another journal after handing the manuscript back to Spencer. Spencer then pulled out her phone to start taking pictures of the pages to read later.
"That we did; it appears though that Aria and Ezra are not happy with Alison from what I am reading of this new story they are collaborating on. They are kind of depicting her as she really is; a bully who lies to everyone to get what she wants," stated Spencer as she leaned back to continue reading; taking as many photos as she could. If she could, she would scan them into a computer but was forced to do this instead.
"Maybe we can turn them into allies somehow instead of enemies. Maybe even contacting them as A and letting them know that we were not behind the attack on Ezra," suggested Mona as the thought suddenly crossed her mind. Maybe it was time to take another approach to their harassment as well as their goal to divide the girls.
"That sounds like a good idea; especially if Aria and Ezra are as close as we think. Aria has to be secretly blaming Alison for this whole mess. Even if it were Shauna that shot Mr. Fitz, it was still because of Alison that it happened," stated Mona as she took out her camera to take pictures as well. It was just too tempting to take all this stuff when they left but that would tell Aria and Ezra that someone was here.
"I agree; I have to admit that Mr. Fitz did a rather great job in researching Alison when he found out the truth about her. There are things here that I didn't even know about that could have been used against her," the teen told her friend as she skimmed thought the journals; taking only pictures of the important stuff. All the journals were in little black notebooks used by college students for writing; even being marked that they were sold at the Hollis bookstore.
"Such as?" Spencer asked as she took a few more photos and compared the two manuscripts; noting the dramatic changed between the two. It was interesting to see the change in tone between the two and wondered if she could detect Aria's influence when she read it a little more thoroughly.
"Well it seems that Alison had a history of stealing money from her parents and stashed it away when she wanted something expensive. She even made sure that Jason took the blame back when he had been drinking," answered the shorter teen out of amusement. She once found a secret stash of cash when she had broken into Alison's house but had assumed that it belonged to the parents for some sort of emergency.
"Wow; what a bitch. I have to feel sorry for Jason for even being related to her," Spencer said as she shook her head in disgust. At some point when this was all over, she would have to apologize to the young man for not speaking up when she still had been friends with the blonde.
Before Mona could respond, there was a noise heard from the other side of the door; as if someone was going to come it. Both teens rushed into action and stuffed the files back into the drawer as fast as they could; hoping that they would not be heard doing so. The two manuscripts were still out and Spencer grabbed both while Mona made sure everything was at least closed; though not as perfect as she would have wanted. Grabbing her friend's hand, Spencer pulled Mona as well as herself into the closet and left the door partially cracked to give them a good view of the apartment. The space was incredibly confining and both teens were pressed up close to one another to the point that they were partially blushing; Mona's hand practically on Spencer's butt due to the way they were in the closet together. As they struggled to stay silent, the door to the apartment opened and a figure walked inside.
It was Aria.
Please Read and Review; also a special thanks to Paraddicted for the pre-read!