chapter sixty two — mona mania
[ season three, episode fifteen ]
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The girls, minus Aria, were sneaking into the school at night to get the journal out of the janitor's office. "Either there's something in that journal that explains why Aria's dad would meet up with Ali the night she died, or we have to believe Garrett's story." Spencer said as they snuck around in the dark. "We couldn't do this at lunch tomorrow?" Hanna asked, nervous as they looked around the corner making sure no one was there.

"Unless you wanna run into Harold and his rusty bolt cutter." Josie responded. "The school basement is creepy at night." Hanna complained as they made it to the door to the basement. "How does this prove anything Garrett says? He was in Ali's room that night, maybe he just made that stuff up from reading her journal." Hanna asked. "Why? To stop us from thinking he did it?" Emily asked.

"You guys Garrett was shot because he talked, kinda makes me believe he was telling the truth." Spencer remarked. "I really hope it's not true about Aria's dad, I've got enough daddy issues of my own, I can't deal with having issues about hers, too." Hanna said as they made it to the door of the janitor's office. "All right, you guys go in, me and Em will keep watch." Hanna said and Spencer and Josie nodded. "Okay," Josie whispered.

Spencer slowly opened the door and she and Josie walked in. "You hit the switch." Spencer said and Josie nodded, she looked around for it, but she couldn't find it. "I can't find it." Josie whispered to Spencer when there was a noise. "There's somebody in here." Spencer whispered, making Josie look over to see someone in a black hoodie stand up, the two of them screamed, alerting Hanna and Emily who were outside.

"Hanna, Emily, look out!" Spencer screamed as the person went to run out of the room, stopping slightly when seeing Hanna and Emily but ran past them. "Did you guys see anything?" Josie asked. "I didn't get a good look." Hanna said and Emily shook her head. Josie found the light switch and turned it on, making the room light up. "Guys," she called out and Spencer, Emily and Hanna walked in to see everything gone. "Where is all of Harold's stuff?" Hanna asked. "It's like he was never here." Spencer said, shocked. "Look, there's Ali's journal." Emily pointed out but Josie had a feeling it wasn't really her journal, because whoever was in the hoodie had taken  everything, why leave it a place where someone could see it or leave it at all.

Emily reached over and took the journal. "Come on, let's go." Emily said but Spencer stopped her. "No, wait." she said, taking the journal from her and opening it. It was blank, except for the last page.

Keep moving ladies,

Nothing to see here

⎯ A

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The girls and Richie were in The Brew. Josie cuddled into Richie's side. "Soy?" Aria asked as Spencer  walked over to them with their drinks, minus Richie's. "Unsweetened, no foam." Spencer said. "You deserve a medal." Aria breathed, making Josie laugh. "You guys, I tossed and turned all night, I'd wake up from a dream about keeping secrets from Ezra and then I'd fall asleep and I would dream about falsely accusing my dad. Weirdly, both of them ended with my teeth falling out." Aria rambled.

"Yeah. Anxiety dreams. In mine, usually there's always a piece of gum in my hair and I just keep pulling and pulling until I'm bald." Hanna remarked. "Academic decathlon. I show up to state finals with my underwear on the outside." Spencer said. "I dream I'm in scream," Josie said, making everyone look at her. "Maybe I watch it too much." she muttered before taking a sip of her coffee.

"Are you still gunning for team captain?" Emily asked Spencer, changing the subject. "Didn't you hear? Brad Langfield got into a bike accident. He's gonna need physical therapy and the very grim upside is that I'm running unopposed." Spencer explained. "Are you the only one of us that got sleep?" Spencer asked Emily. "Are you kidding? After last night?" Emily asked. "So everything's gone?" Richie asked. "Everything but a fake journal." Josie responded.

"We've gotta talk to my mom about where my dad was that night, my teeth actually feel kinda loose right now." Aria stressed out. "Hey Ladies, Richie. Losing sleep? Me too." Mona asked as she walked over to them. Richie tightened his hold on Josie, feeling her tense up. "What exactly are you talking about?" Emily asked Mona. "Remember that creepy Harold guy, from the lost woods motel?" Mona asked. "What about him?" Aria asked.

"He was at our school, stalking me. He bribed the real custodian so he could have the job." Mona said. "And why would he be stalking you Mona?" Josie asked, staring at her. "I used to talk to him once in a while, and he sort of ran with it. When I told him it was inappropriate, he didn't take it so well and after what happened at the 10K, I told my parents, and we went to the school administration." Mona explained. 

"You think that he rigged that explosion in the shed just  to hurt you?" Spencer asked. "I guess the police are looking for him now, but Harold's gone completely off the grid. I really hope they find him soon." Mona responded. "You sure it was him?" Hanna asked. "Who else would it be?" Mona asked with a shrug and the group shared a look. "Anyway, I just thought you guys should know." Mona said before walking off.

"Okay, please tell me no one else bought that." Emily asked. "Well, I'm just glad it's over with. I mean Meredith  thought that we did that." Aria responded. "Okay, so. Mona did us a favor. We did not ask for it. We definitely do not owe her anything." Spencer said. "I wouldn't call anything that Mona does a favor." Josie said, messing with her necklace. "You know her better than any of us, Hanna. What do you think?" Spencer asked. "I think there's more to the story." Hanna answered.

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Josie smiled as she pulled away from Richie, "Not into the whole-school-make-out thing?" he joked, making her laugh. "No, I am, but... I like doing this where no one can see," She said, looking around the courtyard, seeing people sitting and eating. "Fair." he said, wrapping his arm around her waist and the two began to walk. "So, how's your mom and her boyfriend?" he asked. "They're good, he's started spending the nights, having dinner with us, and he treats mom well." she responded. "That's good. Think he's gonna propose?" Richie asked and Josie sighed. "Maybe, but I hope so. He makes her happy." Josie said as the two of them continued to walk through Rosewood High.

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The next day the girls were sitting outside in the courtyard. "Maybe her phone was hidden or something," Emily said. Spencer had explained what happened at the Academic decathlon. "If she's gonna dip bag into 'A' bag to scare me off the decathlon team, she's got another thing coming." Spencer said. "Is being captain brainiac really that important?" Hanna asked, making them look at her. "Do you know something we don't?" Josie asked.

"No. I'm just saying, if Mona's back to her old tricks, then maybe we should stay away from her." Hanna responded. "Like sabotaging Brad so she could run against me for team captain? That's so..." Spencer trailed off. "Ali." Emily filed in the blank. "She's coming over here." Hanna quietly said. "Hi, Spencer." Mona said, standing in between Emily and Aria.

"Listen, I just wanted to thank you for being such a good sport. I know that the two of us running for the same position could have caused some... tension." she said and Spencer scoffed. "I didn't mean to make a big deal of it, I mean I would've called or texted, but–" Mona was cut off. "Oh, no, Mona, I got your text. Yesterday." Spencer said.

"Oh. I'm not allowed to have a cell phone. No texting, no internet. Part of my release terms from Radley." Mona explained. "No internet. So how did you post that apology video?" Emily asked. "The vice-principal said that I could have limited access to the computer lab, homework only, supervised." Mona answered. "Yeah that was certainly calculating, but I wouldn't call it trig." Aria said.

"I thought it was the right thing to do, so I asked Jason and–" Mona was cut off. "He's helping you?" Spencer asked. "He supervised. It was my idea." Mona answered. "Mona, we know you were sneaking out of Radley." Josie said. "How are we supposed to believe anything you say?" Hanna asked and Mona went quiet, and the girls stared at her. "Mona?" Hanna prompted.

"The doctor said that people might have some trouble. It's just been a little more overwhelming than I thought, you know, to confront the past and work it out with all of you," she said. "Will you excuse me?" she asked, voice shaky before walking off and sitting at her table. "That was part of her act, right?" Aria asked after a moment and Spencer looked over at Mona. "Yeah, let's go." she said and the girls got up and left the courtyard.

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After school Hanna, Emily and Josie went over to Aria's. "Spencer says Jason checks out." Emily said as they walked into Aria's bedroom. "Apparently he was working with Mona, but just her internet nanny." she said. "Great, so we still don't know who's helping Mona." Aria responded. "I talked to my mom yesterday." Aria added. "Yeah, you look a little green." Hanna commented.

"Yeah, I've been feeling queasy and... I don't know, I think the stress is just getting to me." Aria said. "What did your mom say?" Josie asked. "I mean, as far as my mom knows, my dad was with her the whole night. But she slept through that storm, she could've easily slept through him sneaking out of the house, he knows how she gets after a couple glasses of wine. I just don't wanna believe that it was intentional." Aria responded.

"So you're saying he wanted her to sleep through the night?" Hanna asked and Aria shrugged. "But it still doesn't mean that he snuck out to meet Alison, maybe he met up with Meredith." Emily said. "Were they still seeing each other then?" Josie asked. "No, they weren't seeing each other." Aria answered quickly, making the girls look at her. "That's what he told me." Aria said, meaning her dad.

"In the journal entry, he said he promised to meet Alison when she came back from her grandmother's. That was the same night she died." Emily said. "Maybe he agreed to meet her at a different time." Aria said, not wanting to believe her father may have had something to do with Alison. "No he didn't. It said that–" Hanna started.

"I'll show you." Aria said as she got up and headed to her closet and grabbed a boot, obviously where she had kept the pages, but she started freaking out as she turned to her friends. "Guys, the pages aren't in here." she said and Hanna, Emily and Josie stood up, "Check the other boot." Josie suggested. "No, I put it in the left one." Aria responded.

Hanna picked up the other boot and checked the inside of it anyway. "Are you sure it's this one?" Emily asked. "Yes." Aria responded as Hanna threw the other boot on the floor and went to pick up another shoe as Emily picked up the discarded boot. "That's quite a mess you're making." someone said, making them turn to see Byron Montgomery. "Did you lose something?" he asked and a chill went down Josie's back. "Oh, no. Yeah, we're just looking for the other one of these." Aria responded.

"Oh, I found it." Josie said, picking it up off the floor. "Here it is." she added, standing back up. "Crisis averted." Aria smiled fakely before turning to her dad. "I thought that you had a meeting tonight?" Aria asked. "I canceled it. I have to pack for a conference, I have a colleague who had an emergency, so, I'm filling in." he answered. "Okay." Aria responded.

"Remember when Mike used to raid your halloween candy? You used to always stash it in your snow boots. He never thought to look there, I always thought that was pretty clever." he said and Josie had a feeling he had taken the diary pages. "Well, I'll get out of your hair." he said before leaving and Aria quickly walked over and closed her door, pressing her back against it, facing her friends. "He knows." she said.

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"So you think Aria's dad took them?" Richie asked as the couple sat in Josie's kitchen. "Yeah. He knows that we know that he promised to meet Ali the night she died. So he probably took the pages to throw us off track." Josie responded as she ate some of the pasta that Richie had made. "But that'd be like, hella suspicious, why not just talk to Aria about it?" he asked.

"I don't know, but it seems he wants to keep whatever Ali had on him a secret, even if we know about the affair with Meredith." Josie said, "Maybe something else happened," Richie suggested. "Like what? They had an affair as well?" Josie jokingly asked. "No. But this is Alison DiLaurentis we're talking about, she probably wanted something from him in exchange for not telling Ella." Richie said and Josie furrowed her brows. "Maybe you're onto something." she said, and he nodded. "Always am." he smiled.

⎯ AUTHORS NOTE
new chapter <3 | richie 'the genius' myers