chapter fifteen — if at first you don't succeed, lie, lie again
[ season one, episode fifteen ]
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"Wait. Where's Ian?" Emily asked as she and the girls followed Aria down the stairs. "Don't worry. He went to Philly to be with Melissa." Spencer answered. "I didn't realize that real life existed at this hour." Gwen groaned. "Come on guys, just walk. You need to see this." Aria said, and the girls followed her into the kitchen. "You know, I'd always hoped my first sunrise would have tequila in it." Hanna remarked as she joined the girls at the kitchen island.

"I'll make coffee." Spencer volunteered. "Well, when it's ready just pour it down my throat." Hanna remarked, causing Gwen to stifle a laugh before Aria opened the photo that Spencer had gotten from 'A' the previous night. "I thought we were done looking at this." Spencer said once she noticed as she her printer printed the photo. "I mean, we know the shadow is Ian, right?" she asked as Aria got up to receive the photo.

"You seriously woke us up for this?" Gwen asked groggily, still sleepy. "It's important. I-I couldn't let it go." Aria insisted, sitting back down between Hanna and Gwen before putting the photo on the kitchen island. "Have you been up all night?" Hanna asked her. "Maybe." Aria responded. Gwen laughed. "Yes, you have. One eye is bigger than the other. You look like a strung out powerpuff girl." she said and Aria waved her hand, dismissing her. "Stop looking at the eye. Just look at the picture." she said.

"Who's having coffee?" Spencer asked, turning back to the girls but they didn't answer her. "I mean, there's only one place where this picture could've been taken from." Aria said. "Where?" Gwen asked. "Alison's bedroom." Aria answered, putting the photo back onto the kitchen island. "No, Alison is in the picture. She clearly didn't take that." Hanna responded.

"Okay, but somebody in her house did." Aria remarked. "Like who, her parents?" Emily asked. "No, her brother." Aria answered. "Jason." Spencer breathed. "You know, my mom ran into him at the bank. He's back in town." Hanna told them. "Why?" Gwen asked, confused. "Well, we have to call him." Aria said. "No. Ew. I am not going to talk to him." Hanna remarked, causing Gwen to laugh. "Me either." "Nope." Emily and Gwen responded in sync. "I will." Spencer said, and they all looked at her. "We need to know if he took this." Spencer said, as the girls stared at each other.

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Gwen was walking with Aria and Spencer when they spotted Hanna, talking on the phone. "Han?" she asked, as they walked up to her, causing Hanna to pull the phone away from her ear. "Who were you talking to?" she asked. "My mom." she responded. "Is everything okay?" Spencer asked as she opened her locker and Hanna turned to her. "Hmm? Uh... yeah. Everything's fine." Hanna answered, but Gwen didn't believe her.

"Oh! Here." Spencer gasped, putting something out of her bag. "I forgot to give these to you last night." she added, handing it to Aria, who sighs in relief. "Thank you." she said before hugging Spencer. "Oh, I owe you big time." she said before they pulled apart. "Are you sure your dad's not gonna miss these?" she asked Spencer.

"Oh, please. He joined the museum board for networking. The man doesn't know the difference between a Monet and a Mojito." Spencer responded, causing Aria to smile, amused. "Well, hey, how can I get you back?" Aria asked, and Spencer turned to her. "Pay for the extra toppings on my pizza delivery." she responded. "Alright, you got it." Aria said. "Oh, and a DVD rental." Spencer added. "Because if I have to hole up in my room all night as your alibi, I would like to do it with Jake Gyllenhaal." Spencer sighed dreamily Gwen shared a confused look with Hanna.

"Alibi? Why would you need an alibi?" Gwen asked, as Hanna shut her locker. "Aren't you both going to the museum thingie?" Hanna asked, pointing in between the two of them. "No, um... Spencer got the tickets for..." Aria trailed off, looking around before looking back to Hanna, whispering. "Me and Ezra." she smiled, "You're taking Mr. Fitz?" Hanna asked and a frown replaced her smile. "I really wish you'd just call him Ezra." she said. "And yes, I'm taking him, he just... doesn't know it yet. It's a surprise." she added. "I don't know, I-I just figured that a date out of town would give us a chance to actually have a date." she explained. "Yeah. uh, I get it." Spencer said and Gwen nodded in agreement. "You guys have the social lives of shut-ins." she said, making Aria chuckle.

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Gwen was walking through the hallway, when she passed the P.E. Teacher. "Gwendolyn, we missed you in P.E. again today." she said, causing Gwen to cringe and turn around. "I miss you too?" she responded, but it felt more like a question, Gwen went to walk away, but the teacher kept talking. "Oh, well... that's the third time you've ditched P.E., so I'm gonna have to give you a detention for the rest of the week." She explained to Gwen, causing her to turn around.

"But– my ankle is still... throbbing." Gwen said, trying to get out of it, but the teacher didn't believe her. "I don't know if you heard, but I got hit by a car." She added, "You know I heard, but I also saw you dance at the six-hour dance marathon on saturday." the teacher responded and Gwes sighed, knowing she'd be called out. "I'll be at detention." she said, and the teacher smiled, handing her the slip and walked off. "I'm so screwed." Gwen said before going to walk off.

"Skipping Gym?" someone asked, making Gwen turn to see Caleb. "If you really wanna earn some bad girl stripes... I'd be happy to help." he said, Gwen narrowed her eyes, and crossed her arms. "If you're proposing that we get matching tattoos... I'm out." she responded before walking to her locker across from his. She opened her locker to see an envelope sitting on top of her school books, confused, she looked around before taking it out.

She opened the envelope to see a 'Happy Mother's Day' Card with a text bubble with 'I need Money!" inside it. Confused, she frowned. She opened the card, to see an 'A' message.

WANNA HELP MAMA MARIN

GET $$$?

SHOW ARIA'S MOM

WHAT HER KID'S

BEEN HIDING

⎯ A

Gwen frowned, not understanding what 'A' was talking about. She looked inside the envelope to see a ticker for the show Aria's taking Mr. Fitz too. "Crap." she muttered, before stuffing the card and the ticket back into the envelope, putting it in her bag, not wanting to deal with 'A' right now.

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Later on, Gwen was sitting outside in the courtyard with Hanna. "You okay Han?" Gwen asked, noticing how Hanna hadn't been very talkative. "Yeah." Hanna responded, taping her nails on the table. "I'm just worried about my mom," she added and Gwen felt the heavy presence of the 'A' message in her bag, but before Gwen could respond, Hanna's phone rang, making her grab it from where it was laying on the table.

"It's my mom," she said before getting up and answering the phone, and Gwen frowned, she noticed Hanna looked stressed, making her sigh, knowing that whatever was going on, 'A' knew about it, and was using Gwen as a chess piece to hurt Aria and help Hanna.

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During her next class, when the teacher wasn't looking, she pulled out the envelope, and made sure the ticket was still in there, before sealing it shut and writing 'Ella Montgomery' on the front before flipping it to the back and writing 'Thanks for all your hard work. Rosewood PTA'. she put the envelope back into her bag as the bell rang, and she was one of the first people to leave, she stood around at her locker, before heading to the teachers lounge, she looked around to make sure it was empty before putting the envelope into one of the slots on the wall before leaving, heart heavy.

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Gwen was sitting outside, against one of the brick walls, just thinking about how Aria would react once she found out it was her that got her and Mr. Fitz caught, she hated it. "Hey Gwen." someone said, making her turn to see Aria. God the world hated her today. "Oh, hi." Gwen responded. "So, I'm gonna get a mani-pedi after school. Do you wanna come?" she asked, standing beside where Gwen was sitting. "Uhh, I can't. Homework." Gwen said, nodding her head softly, guilt eating away at her.

"Homework? What subject is more important to you than your cuticles?" Aria jokes, knowing that Gwen actually did care about her grades. Gwen smiled softly, but Aria knew something was wrong. "Hey," Aria said softly, sitting beside her. "What's wrong?" she asked. "Is it because of the 'no date?' thing?" she asked, knowing how down Gwen had been about not being able to find someone she was interested in.

"It doesn't mean you give up on trying. Believe me, with all the stuff that Ezra and I have had to deal with we should have been history by now." Aria said. "Maybe it's a sign from the universe." Gwen said before she could think. "Maybe you guys need to cool off for a while," she suggested, looking anywhere but Aria. "What do you mean 'cool off'?" Aria asked.

"Take a break. Don't see each other. In Rosewood or... anywhere else." Gwen responded, shrugging softly and Aria sighed. "Honestly?" she asked, looking at Gwen. "I can deal with the universe throwing me curve balls, but if they're gonna start coming from my best friend then I have a problem." Aria said, annoyed. "Aria, you have to sneak off to Philly just to have a date with him!" Gwen said, frustrated. "You really don't want me to be with him." Aria said, annoyed.

"I just don't want to see you get hur Aria." Gwen said softly. "He's not the one who's hurting me." Aria snapped, making Gwen frown. "Please, just don't go tonight, okay? I have a bad feeling about this date." Gwen begged, not wanting Aria to get caught. She was regretting giving that ticket to Aria's mom. "I think that bad feeling is called 'Jealousy'." Aria snapped and Gwen looked away from her, hurt. "This is not what this is about." Gwen said. "Really?" Aria questioned. "'Cause that's exactly what it looks like." Aria said before grabbing her bag and leaving.

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Gwen sat in front of Hanna in their last class of the day, which was Ella's class, and Gwen had noticed the envelope sitting on her desk, meaning she had received it. "Chamberlain employed a policy where concessions were made in order to avoid war. Who can tell me if appeasement actually worked? Anybody?" She asked the class, but nobody answered. "It didn't." she said. "When the territory was annexed Hilter's aggression only increased." she explained.

"Would anyone like to share their thoughts on why appeasement did not work?" she asked and Spencer raised her hand. "Spencer," Ella pointed to her. "Because giving it to a bully never works." Spencer said, and Gwen shifted in her seat. "Can you elaborate on that a little bit?" Ella asked. "Even if you give them everything that they ask for, It'll never be enough. Your only choice is to stand up to them, even if it costs you something." Spencer continued. Gwen looked back towards the envelope, a plan forming to get it back as the bell rang, signaling the end of class, and the end of school.

"Very nice." Ella said, turning back to her desk, grabbing the things she needed to take as everyone grabbed their stuff as well. "Okay, people, please do not race me towards the door, it hurts my feelings." she said, as Gwen shoved everything into her bag. "Term paper is next week. Don't forget." she said before walking out of the classroom, Gwen sped walking to try and catch up to her.

But as she was walking, she ran into the coach, making her stop. "Mrs. McKnight." she said, and Gwen sighed. "Detention is that way." the coach said, pointing to the other classroom at the end of the hall. "I know, and i promise I'll be there, but i've gotta talk to Mrs. Montgomery." she said, "It'll have to wait until tomorrow." the coach said and Gwen sighed. There was nothing she could do now, so she turned around and walked into detention.

When she got there, she looked around and the only open seat was beside Caleb. Gwen sighed as she walked towards it and sat down. "Woah! Are you stalking me?" he asked sarcastically, making Gwen turn to him with a blank face. "Yep. can't get enough of the knock-off cologne." she deadpanned before facing the front again, missing the twitch of a smile he gave her.

She looked around before moving to get up, but Caleb stuck his foot out, stopping her. "Hey, princess, where ya goin'?" he asked. "The Princess has to pee." she responded. "Hmm. Good luck. We get our bathroom break at ten after." he said, and Gwen sighed, sitting back down. "I have got to get outta here." she muttered to herself. "What's the hurry? You want to be the first in line to see your boy Justin Bieber's new movie?" he asked sarcastically, and she turned, giving him a glare.

"I don't even listen to Justin Bieber, thank you very much." she responded, rolling her eyes before looking down at her nails, and stabbing her acrylic nail into her palm out of stress. "Calm down girl. It's only an hour." he said, noticing how freaked out she seemed to be. "An hour? In an hour she'll already be in Philly." she scoffed, shaking her head. "Who?" he asked. "Mrs. Montgomery." she answered, sighing. "The teacher?" he asked, furrowed brows. "Why do you care? Forget to turn in your homework?" he teased.

"No." she snapped quietly before sighing. "But if she gets there... a lot of people are gonna get hurt." she said quietly, looking down at her hands. "Is Mrs. Montgomery running a terrorist cell?" he asked, making her turn to him. "Why am I even talking to you about this? Just go back to whatever you were doing." she said, shaking her head before a teacher walked up to Caleb with a note, before walking back to the front of the classroom as Caleb cleared his throat before shutting his book.

"Okay, why do you get to leave?" she asked. "Hmm." he hummed, "My social worker just had me excused." he responded and Gwen shifted in her seat. "You know, email is a beautiful thing," he said. "Meet my social worker." he said, holding up his phone, and Gwen scoffed as he walked out of the classroom.

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The next day, Gwen walked through the hallway into the courtyard, and she spotted Aria sitting at a table, and so Gwen hesitantly walked up to her. "Aria?" she asked, and she turned around, putting her phone down. "Hey! I was just calling you." she said. "Yeah, well, I've kind of been avoiding you." Gwen admitted, sitting down at the table. "Yeah, I kind of got that feeling." Aria responded softly. "Listen, I need to tell you something. Last night–" Gwen started.

"Last night was one of the best nights of my life." Aria said, smiling, and Gwen looked at her. "Wait, did you go to the museum?" she asked. "Yeah. In a limo." she said, smiling wider than she ever had. Obviously Ella hadn't caught them, making Gwen feel better, but the guilt was still eating away at her. "And the only thing that made it less than perfect was being in a fight with you." she said and Gwen smiled sadly.

"I'm sorry, Gwen, I'm... I'm sorry for going off on you like that. I... An-and you're right, okay?" Aria said, making Gwen tilt her head. "Being with Ezra, it's a risk... but he's someone that I'm willing to take a risk for." she said. "I know it sounds stupid." she added. "No. It doesn't." Gwen stopped her. "So, what did you want to say?" she asked. "Nothing. It's not important." Gwen smiled, shaking her head. "I'm just glad it worked out for you." she added.

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Gwen walked up to her locker, but noticed Caleb leaning on it, making her sigh. "Hi leech." she said, crossing her arms, making him laugh. "I thought fancy Rosewood girls like you knew how to say 'Please' and 'Thank you'." he said. "Can you please get off my locker. Thank you." she mocked, and he moved out of the way, allowing her to open her locker.

"So, do you want to give it back to your teacher, toss it, or uh... put it into your charm bracelet?" he asked, holding something up, making her furrow her brows, confused. "What is that?" she asked. "It's what stopped Mrs. Montgomery from getting to Philly." he answered and her face lit up. "She didn't get there? How do you do that?" she asked.

"You want a lesson in popular mechanics or do you want to just say thank you?" he asked, holding it up. "Thank you." she said. "How much do you want?" she asked, tilting her head. "I don't want money." he responded, making her frown. "Then what do you want?" she asked. "I'll think about it." he answered, before walking away. She watched him go, not even realizing she was smiling before she shook her head, grabbed her books and shut her locker, ignoring the feeling in her stomach.

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"So, the shadow in the picture isn't Ian, it's you?" Aria asked as the girls sat around Spencer in her room. She had explained the fight she and Alison had the night Ali went missing. "Yeah." Spencer choked out, having been crying. "Why didn't you tell us before?" Emily asked. "I don't know." she responded as Emily rubbed her back. "I guess that I was scared. I mean this is gonna sound crazy, but I think that I didn't tell you because... there was always part of me that wondered if it was my fault" she admitted, a tear running down her face.

"I mean, I wished it, and then it came true." she added. "Spence, you didn't mean it," Hanna said softly, and Gwen nodded in agreement. "How could you have known." she said, rubbing Spencer's knee. "It was just something you said in the heat of the moment." Emily assured her. "Besides, Ali said stuff to us that was worse. Much worse, right?" Aria added, looking at the other girls and they all nodded but then Spencer noticed something.

"Spence?" Gwen asked, seeing her staring off, so they all looked to where she was staring at before she moved and got off her bed, moving to stand in front of her window, the girls following. There was someone in Alison's room. "Oh, my god!" Aria muttered, shocked. "Is that?" Spencer trailed off as the person moved so they could see him. "It's Jason." Hanna said as the girls stared at Jason, staring at them.

⎯ AUTHORS NOTE
new chapter <3 | caleb+gwen <3