Pretty Little Liars

Emily’s mom tells her that a new girl has moved into Alison’s old house. She asks if Emily wants to bring over a welcome basket and Emily, being an obedient daughter, agrees. She’s also curious to see Ali’s house again since it has been over three years since she disappeared. While everyone else seems to have moved on, Emily still hasn’t. She misses having a friend like Alison and knows she isn’t easily replaceable. She heads over and notices a pile of trash being given away at the curb. She sees some of Alison’s old items, including books, clothes, and papers. As she picks up an old swimming medal that she’d left at Alison’s house, a girl comes out and introduces herself as Maya St. Germain. Her shirt reveals a bra that Emily also has with oranges, peaches, and limes on it.

Maya explains that Alison left all that stuff in her old room. She asks Emily if Alison is a friend of hers, and Emily isn’t sure Maya knows anything about what happened to Alison. She says they were friends back in seventh grade but now Emily is going into eleventh at Rosewood Day. Maya exclaims that she’s also going to Rosewood. She then asks if Emily will help her carry some boxes up to her room. Emily agrees and sees Alison’s room for the first time since her disappearance. Maya has made the room different but there was something about the room that hadn’t changed, “as if Alison’s presence was still floating here” (24).

After the two girls briefly talk about their boyfriends, Maya asks why Emily isn’t friends with Alison anymore. Emily realizes for certain that Maya doesn’t know anything and feels she won’t be able to explain without crying, so she tells Maya they grew apart. The other girls moved on too. Spencer became even more “hyper-perfect” (26), Aria moved to Iceland, and Hanna is now best friends with Mona Vanderwaal. When Emily’s mom ran into Hanna recently, her mother described Hanna as “slutty” (26).

Maya asks Emily if she can smoke a joint. Emily has never smoked weed and as Maya is smoking, Emily decides it looks “sexy” (27). When Maya offers her some, she agrees. After she inhales, she starts coughing and Maya asks if it’s her first time. She suddenly hears loud clanking sounds and jumps. Maya tells her the workers are there for renovations. She grins at Emily, asking her if she’s ever been busted by cops. Emily laughs because “it was such a ridiculous idea” (28). Emily then tells Maya she must leave. Maya seems disappointed but asks Emily if she’ll show her around school on Tuesday. When Emily gets back to her car, she realizes she never gave Maya the welcome basket. She decides it’s unnecessary since Maya already lives there—a fact she realizes she’s happy about.

Aria and her family return to the area after two years in Iceland. They were there while Aria’s dad, who is an art history professor, was doing research for a documentary on Scandinavian art. While Aria’s brother, Mike, is happy to be back, Aria was glad for the fresh start in Iceland. When they left the fall after Alison went missing, Aria no longer felt she had any real friends. She never had dates with boys and “didn’t know how to fit in” (31). She’d tried on several different identities but none of them ever worked. Only when they went to Iceland did things change.

Her family had packed up and left the country quickly. Aria thought it might be because of a “secret about her dad that only she—and Alison DiLaurentis—knew about” (32). It was something she promised herself she’d never think about again once they took off for Iceland. In a new environment, her parents seemed to rekindle their love and Aria met and fell in love with several boys. She felt her Icelandic identity was the best version of herself yet. Now, coming back “reminded her of the past she wanted to forget” (33). As they pass Alison’s old house, Aria feels memories returning that she’d been able to put out of her mind in Iceland. She covers her eyes and tries not to cry.

They pull up to their old house, which Aria feels is a “letdown” (34) after their waterfront rowhouse in Iceland. Her mother asks her to give her brother a ride to lacrosse tryouts even though she doesn’t have her license. She agrees and waits for him in the car, observing that every Rosewood boy is a “carbon copy” (35). One of the boys she used to like, Noel Kahn, comes up to the car with his friend and starts talking to her. He calls her “Finland” since that’s where his friend says she’s been. Although Aria flirts with Noel and his friend, she’s no longer interested. She decides she has time to drive to the local bar, Snookers, and have a beer.

Although the bar brings back memories of a dare she once did with Alison and the other girls, she stays and orders a drink. The bartender serves her a beer that she spits back into the glass because of its watery taste. A cute guy sitting at the bar asks her if she’s okay. She tells him that she’s used to beer in Europe, which she thinks tastes better. After she tells him she was in Reykjavik, Iceland, he says he was once there on his way to Amsterdam. He moves down the bar to sit next to her and orders them both a scotch. When he asks if she was there for her junior year abroad, she lies and tells him yes. He introduces himself as Ezra and explains he just graduated from college and is staying to do some teaching. They have three more drinks and bond over Iceland. When she says she must go to the bathroom, he asks if he can come. They go together and he makes out with her. She finally feels like her Icelandic self again.

Hanna is at the King James mall gossiping with Mona two days before school starts. They became friends after eighth grade, when they both got cut from cheerleading. They lost weight together so they could tryout again the next year, but then decided that cheerleading was beneath them. Hanna shared everything with Mona except how she’d lost the weight by binging and purging. She felt “it was too gross to talk about” (43). While eating at the mall, they flash their underwear at an older man sitting near them. Mona asks Hanna what her “All-American Boy Scout” (44) boyfriend Sean will think. Sean has been acting somewhat strangely lately, announcing the night before that he signed a promise not to lose his virginity before marriage. Hanna dismisses it as a “passing trend” (44).

As they stroll through the new upscale wing of the mall, Hanna remembers seeing Spencer a few weeks before at Kate Spade. She wonders if Spencer was also thinking that Alison would’ve loved the new wing. She sometimes thinks about all the things Ali missed, like dances and parties, but especially Hanna’s own makeover. Ali had only known Hanna as “a chubby, clingy loser,” (46) but now she looks totally different. She and Mona go into Tiffany’s and ask the saleswomen to try on jewelry. When the women are distracted, they slip the items into their clothing and purses. Hanna feels “buzzy and alive” (47). They make it out of the store without alarms going off or anyone chasing them.

Spencer and her family are having dinner on a clipper ship in Philadelphia. They’re waiting for Melissa, who just graduated from Penn and is about to attend Wharton for business. Spencer is thinking ahead to the school year, which starts in a couple of days. Her schedule is filled with activities and AP classes. Her family is letting her move into the barn, like Melissa did, to prepare her for college. Although Spencer is happy to follow her sister in that respect, in most others she is generally unable to live up to Melissa. The sisters are constant rivals, with Melissa always accomplishing more than Spencer.

Melissa is bringing her new boyfriend, Wren, to dinner. He is studying to be a doctor, but to Spencer Melissa’s boyfriends are all the same: “textbook handsome, well mannered, played golf” (52). However, when Melissa shows up with Wren, Spencer “tried to keep her mouth from dropping open” (52). Wren is tall with dark, shaggy hair, almond-shaped eyes, and a British accent. Spencer must introduce herself since Melissa is immediately distracted with talking to their parents. Spencer asks Wren if he thinks it’s weird her parents haven’t yet asked him anything about himself, to which he responds, “Kinda” (53) and winks at her. When Melissa notices they’ve been introduced, Wren points out that Melissa didn’t tell him she had a sister.

Melissa tells the family she and Wren are planning to move in together to the family townhouse in Philadelphia. However, since it’s been undergoing renovations, their mother asks if they’d both like to move to Rosewood until everything is finished. When she says Spencer will be in school anyway, Wren asks Spencer where she goes. Melissa cuts in that it’s the school she used to go to, and then asks Spencer if she’s class president this year. Spencer has a feeling Melissa already knows the answer but responds that she’s vice president, having lost the election. Melissa remarks that it’ll be easier that way since when she was president it was so much work. She then asks if she and Wren can stay in the barn instead of the house. Spencer swallows her anger over the idea and says it’s fine, excusing herself to get some fresh air.

Outside on dry land, Spencer takes deep breaths and lights a cigarette. She is angry that Melissa had been so polite about taking what she feels was supposed to be hers. Spencer feels like the only one who knows Melissa is “outwardly nice but inwardly horrid” (56). She exacted revenge only once before when she kissed Melissa’s boyfriend, Ian. Ali told Spencer to tell Melissa about it, but Spencer felt it was only because Ali was jealous Spencer had kissed more older boys than her. Spencer realizes she doesn’t like thinking about Ali or that time in her life. She hopes she’s changed since then because they were all so mean. With Ali’s house next door and her bedroom window facing Spencer’s, “it was like Ali haunted her 24/7” (57). The worst memory was “The Jenna Thing” (57), which she wishes she could permanently erase.

Wren comes outside and tells her she shouldn’t be smoking. He tells her everyone was talking, and he used his Blackberry as an excuse to leave the table. When Spencer refers to him as “a big-time doctor” (58), he corrects her and tells her he’s only in his first year in medical school. He then asks for a puff of her cigarette and tells her that he’s from North London and his dad is Korean. She asks how he and Melissa met and he replies it was in line at Starbucks, which Spencer thinks is “incredibly lame” (58). His hands are shaking slightly, and he seems edgy. She realizes they might be flirting slightly and fantasizes about getting in a cab with him and going to the ballpark to watch a baseball game. But she knows it would be wrong, so they go back inside.