THUNDER ECHOED BEYOND the Hastings kitchen. I found herself lost in thought as she stared at the stormy night.

"It's in sane. How many words do they expat you to learn in one night?" Hanna grumbled.

"Stringent?" Aria questioned

"Uh, tough." Spencer recalled. "Inflexible."

The blonde sighed. "It's not like your going to use them."

"Meretricious?"

"It's not like you go to college and then.. start speaking a different language."

"It's about getting into college." I rolled eyes at Hanna before looking at Aria

"Meretricious. Phony, flashy."

Aria nodded. "Uh Han, why are you still eating that?"

"Because it's here." She replied

Spencer frowned "Put it in the garbage."

"Well then I'd have to stand over the garbage and eat it." Hanna restored

Aria looked at the next word. "Besotted."

"Infatuated, enamoured, in love with."

Hanna perked up. "Hey, what did Noel Khan say to you after the memorial?"

Spencer looked up. "Hello, were taking the SATs in less the 12 hours. Can we focus ?"

Hanna shook her head "Okay Spencer, Lexi you do not need to know anymore big words. Your already scary enough to anyone under 50."

"I'm not scary." Spencer turned to Aria. "Am I scary?"

"A little."

"I saw Noel Khan hug you, and he did not wanna let go." Hanna continued to push

"Talk about not wanting to let something go." Aria restore staring at Hanna.

"Why Can t you give him a chance. His smart, his cute, his dad owns like half of Rod island and his got great lips."

At that I stared at the blonde. "His father?"

"No. Ew. Seriously Aria you and Noel would look amazing together."

Aria sighed. "Can we just drop it, Please. I'm not looking for anything more then a friend?"

"Why don't you have enough Facebook besides don't you want someone real. Someone you could scratch and sniff."

Spencer looked up. "Wow. Maybe you should eat that over the garbage."

Hanna laughed. "Look I'm trying to help out a friend here. We all don't have smoking hot boyfriends and ball boys from the country club."

Aria leaned forward. "What is going on with you and Alex. Is he back from that tournament?"

Spencer stiffly nodded. "Yeah, his back."

"And..?" Aria pushed

"And it's good." Hanna, aria and I silently laugh. "It's is good and I want it to last I'm afraid I will blow it."

I tilted her head. "So when can we officially call him the boyfriend?"

Soon mum walked in placed her things on the table. "Hi mum." Spencer and I greeted in unison

Mum looked up. "Hi, Girls. Oh what smells so good?"

"Gaelic bread. Want some?" Spencer asked as she eyed it hungrily.

She shook her head. "I can't. God I missed food eat some butter for me will yeah. Oh my God I have so many messages."

Hanna turned Spencer. "Hey maybe you should ask Alex-"

I quickly shushed her making Hanna and Aria turn to Spencer.

"Stop not now." Spencer whispered

"Your mum still doesn't know?"

"Like I said I want it to last."

Mum looked up at us once more. "Where's Emily?"

"She probably on her way over." I shrugged

THE STORM DIDN'T let up the next morning as mum gave us a ride to school.

"You didn't have to come inside mum." Spencer told mum. "If it were cancelled nobody would be here."

But mum wasn't listening. She spotted the exam producer. "Excuse me. Hi. Are there actually going to give this test today

"Decisions haven't been made yet."

As mum followed after this women for further questioning.

Aria glanced down the hall. "You didn't say Alex was taking the test here."

I shot her a look. "Why so you think she wanted our mother to drops us off and leave."

"Hey you." Alex greeted his girlfriend with a smile and kiss making us share a look.

Raven wraps his arms around me scaring me. "Hey."

Holding my hand over my heart. "Don't do that you scared me." I scolded him before leaning into his chest

The PA cracked to life. "Attention all students. The SATs will be held today. Report to the library for sign in."

Aria quickly broke Alex and Spencer apart when she saw mum heading towards us.

Mum stormed towards us with a huff. "Nobody here can a decision to save their life. It's absurd."

I smiled. "Mum, this is Raven Channing. Raven this is my mother Veronica Hastings."

"Channing." Veronica thought for a moment. "I met your parents at the club actually. Lovely people."

Raven smiled. "Thank you."

Spencer cleared her throat and gestured to the boy beside to her. "Mom, this is Alex Santiago, Alex this is my mother. Alex that I went to home coming with."

Mom stared frozen in shock before shaking her head. "Oh, of cause I.... from the club."

Alex nodded his head. "Yeah."

"It's just that it took me a moment to put it together. So your Alex."

Alex gave mum a tight smile before looking to Spencer. "Listen, uh, I need to check in." He glanced at mum. "Nice seeing you. Meeting you."

"Test is on today." The proctor approached the group as Alex quickly departed. "Rosewood students should register in the library."

Hanna frowned. "Half the school isn't here yet."

"And my never make it." Mum added. "We saw this huge tree down on Saw Mill Road and they already closed off York street." I looked at Raven sighing when he wrapped an arm around my waist.

"That was because of because of the tree." I tensed at the familiar voice as Darren came from him behind and Raven. "York's streets been closed since last night."

"Why?"

"Somebody decide to visit Alison Dilaurentis' memorial and destroy it. Darren eyed each of the girls to take in their reactions. "Shattered the tiles, broke the bench."

"What?" Spencer spoke up. "When?"

Darren looked at her. "We had cordon off the area, it's an investigation-"

"Spare them the details." Mum interjected. "They about to take their SATs."

"Right." He raised an eyebrow. "Good luck on the test ladies and gentlemen."

As he walked way Spencer sighed. "We should get to the library."

"I CAN'T BELIEVE it was trashed." Aria admitted softly as the four sat at a table in the library. "Just when you thought A would give it a rest."

"It's like Toby had to kill Alison all over again."

Hanna looked over at Spencer. "Toby? What do you mean Toby. His motorcycle was totalled. Isn't he dead?"

Spencer shrugged "I hear more from Alison now then when she was alive."

"You guys I thought we decided that A wasn't Toby." I huffed

Hanna nodded. "A was happy to have Toby out the picture."

"How do we know that Toby didn't send that text?" Aria argued. "And why are we suddenly trusting A. A made a fake bracelet to mess with us."

We shook their head before Hannah caught site of their missing member. "Emily. Hey, where have you been?"

"Yeah, why weren't you at Spencer's last night?" Aria asked as she joined us.

"I know I'm sorry. I didn't get out if practice till really late... so I went straight home and crashed. So what did I miss?"

"We studied-"

"They studied and I annoyed them" Hanna interrupted me. "And Alison's memorial got trashed."

Emily gave a soft nod. "Yeah I heard."

"What is my mum doing here?"

The girls watched with curiosity Aria made her way out the library to confront Ella

I WALKED THROUGH the library aisles searching for a book running my fingers along the spines until I found the one she was looking for.

"Hey." Raven gave me a slight smile. "How do you feel?"

"I am feeling a lot of things right now." I say looking at him from the corner of my eye

Raven let out a low chuckle. "Just so you know. I'm asking about the SATs."

My eyes widen before going back to their normal size. "Yeah I knew that." I lied

Raven had an amused e expression "Do I wanna guess what you were thinking?"

I shook my head

Raven shook his head and grabbedMt waist givingit a slightly tight squeeze. "Words sweet heart, we use words."

I let out a moan as I was pressed against the shelves, Raven's lips working against my own. Kissing him was like a drug and I didn't want to stop.

The kiss deepened just as the PA cracked to life breaking the two apart with a sigh.

"This is a huge sign." I laughed. "We shouldn't be doing this here."

Raven laughed shaking his head.

I WATCHED AS Wilden asked Emily to follow him. Wanting to know what's happening Hanna, Aria Spencer and I followed.

"What is going on?" I asked as we walked in.

Wilden smirked "Perfect we can all be together for an update."

Hanna shook her "No we're supposed to be on the girls locker room."

"Yeah I'm guessing you girls are used to being in places your not supposed to be." Wilden told us before turning to Emily. "Did you tell them where you were last night when you weren't studying for the test. See cause I got these really interesting photos."

Wilden handed Emily his phone which she passed around. It was a photo of Emily at Alison's trashed memorial.

"I see you didn't get a chance to clean your shoes either." He pointed out.

"That's not why I went there." Emily defended

"Really so you didn't go back to the memorial to go finish Toby's handy work. Or were you just there covering his tracks." He argued

"I found it like that, it was already destroyed."

"Really?" Wilden mused. He walked over to Emily's bag and pulled out a letter. "Let me ask you a question. What were these doing in your bag?" He asked holding a sculpture. "Souvenirs? Something Toby asked you to save for his trophy collection?"

Emily took the sculpture from him. "This has nothing to do with Toby."

Aria hesitated. "Em', why do you have those?"

"You put those in there you creep. Emily would never do that." Hanna accused Wilden. "The memorial was her idea."

"Yeah, so I heard. Nice cover huh." He dug into his coat pocket and pulled out a note. "Would you like me to share this with them or would you?" Emily tried to grab the note from his hand. "Go ahead Emily tell them about the angry letter you wrote to Alison. Which is dated by the way. Three days before she disappeared."

Emily shook her head. "You had no right to read that."

"Emily what is in that letter?" Spencer asked

"Tell her. Tell her how you wanted to punish Alison for rejecting you. Tell her how you felt relieved at the funeral. She wasn't going to be around to humiliate you anymore." He pushed

"I went back to the memorial to say I'm sorry. There were horrible things in that later. I didn't mean them, suddenly she was gone and... I loved her move then a friend. I just never had the chance to tell her in the right way."

I shook my head. It was never supposed to come out this way.

"Give her the letter back. Give it back to her I swear to God I'll rip your head off." Hanna threatened.

"Sorry I can't." He snapped. "But no one is leaving this room until you tell me why you carving a round pieces of Allison's memorial!"

"I took them because they were the only things that weren't broken."

"What's going on in here?" Mum asked. "Why aren't they in the locker room with other kids."

"Who are you?" Wilden questioned

"Their mother." Mum pointed at me and Spencer . "If this is the schools idea of keeping my children safe. I'm glad I came back."

Mum looked at us and saw Emily crying. She looked at Spencer. "Honey, why is she crying?"

"He accused her of killing Allison." Spencer walked over to Emily.

"What!"

"He went through her purse and now his accusing her-"

Mum cut Aria off. "Hold it. You're questioning minors without an adult present? What police department do you work for."

I shake her head. "Don't bother mum it's not the first time he does it. Except he drags them off the street and does it privately."

Mum looks at me eyes widen as she watches me walk out the room.

I WAS SITTING alone when mum joined me.

"Can we talk?"

I looked at her. "Yeah."

"Why didn't you tell me about Detective Wilden?" She questions

I sighed shaking my head. "Would you believe me if I told you I was so busy so I put it aside?"

"Andrea-" I smiled up at her. "What?"

"You haven't called me that since I turned 9." I say with a sad smile.

"Talk to me baby what's going on." Mum begged

Tears fell from my eyes scaring mum slightly. "There are some things that Wilden knows that if they got out I don't think I'd ever be able to live with my self."

Mum frowned. "What ever it is you can tell me I help you."

"I'm not ready to talk about it but rest assured I didn't kill any one."  I place my head on her shoulder

"I love you sweetie." Mum says as she kisses my forehead

"I love you mum."

MUM LED SPENCER and I into an empty class room because Spencer wanted to know what happened between her and Alex.

"Oh my God this requires closing a door." Spencer dreaded making me smile. "Maybe I should just walk home."

"You girls remember the weekend your father took both of you and Melissa to D.C. and I stayed behind?"

Spencer and I nodded. "Yeah."

"I said I had to work all weekend but that wasn't the truth. I spend most of Friday drink. Sunday I was hungover. Saturday I don't remember-"

I raised my hands taking little steps back eyes wide.

Spencer shook her head. "I think I actually change my mind. I don't really want to hear this-"

"-I started at the club Friday morning. It was empty there wasn't a soul to talk to so I order a side car another then another by the time lunch rolled around I had walked through trailers and couldn't find my shoes. It was Alex's first week there he kindly listened to me spill my guts and later poured me into a cab. With my shoes." She explain

Spencer frowned. "Why were you spilling your guts to Alex?"

"I had a doctor's appointment before I went there. They moved a lump from my breast. I was feeling a little overwhelmed and powerless. After that I avoided the club for months the next time I saw Alex I made him promise he'd never ever bring it up."

I swallowed a lump. "Mum are you sick?"

Mum shook her head. "No."

"Well why didn't you and dad tell us?" Spencer asked

"What makes you think your dad knows?" Spencer shook her head while I placed her hand over her mouth. "Girls, our family doesn't handle imperfection very well."

"Mum." Spencer whispered. "Being sick is not an imperfection."

"Just so you both know I gave up side cars for splinters." mom joked. "And by the way Alex and Raven are good kids they're keepers."

The three of us sat in that room and smiled at each other each feeling some what relieved they had this talk.