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~0.1: rAndom texts~

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September 1st, 2010

Alexis rummages through one of the many boxes labeled Books. She moves books around, looking for her favorite trilogy, The Hunger Games. She huffs out a frustrated sigh as her mom walks past her door.

"You okay, sweetie?"

"I can't find my book. Have you seen it? It's The Hunger Games," Alexis says, explaining to her mom. "It's a black cover, with yellow lettering and a Mockingjay pin on the front."

"You mean the book that's right there." She looks to where her mom is pointing, and there it is in a stack of books she placed on her nightstand an hour ago.

"How?" she says, and her mom laughs, walking away. She grabs the book, sliding it into her purse.

"I need a ride to lacrosse!" Mike, Alexis's younger brother, says, walking past Alexis's door. Alexis walks out of her room and stands in Aria's doorway that is next door. She notices her mom, who has her back facing towards her, and Aria's gaze meets Alexis's green eyes.

"I'll take him," Alexis says. Her mom stands up and turns around to face her oldest daughter, only by two minutes.

"You coming, Aria?" Aria nods while grabbing her purse, and they all walk downstairs.

"Lacrosse today?" Byron, Alexis's dad, asks Mike, who is rummaging through a box hurriedly.

"It's first tryouts, and my stuff's in about a hundred boxes," Mike answers, continuing to look through the box.

"A hundred?" Ella says, laughing at Mike's exaggeration.

"You know what I mean."

"Let's go look in the garage."

"Come on."

"I'll help," Alexis says, following her brother and mom into the garage. The three begin looking through boxes until Alexis finds one labeled Mike's lacrosse gear.

"Found it!" Alexis yells, and Mike comes rushing over. Mike grabs whatever he needs, and the Montgomery kids walk out of the house towards Alexis and Aria's shared car, a blue Nissan their parents gifted them for their 16th birthday.

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Alexis pulls up to the curb of Rosewood High School. Mike opens the backseat door, gets out quickly, and Alexis rolls down the passenger window.

"Mike!" Aria yells. Mike stops, looking through the passenger window, and glances at his two older sisters. "What time are we picking you up?"

"Uh...six," Mike answers, shrugging and turning around, walking up the steps of Rosewood High.

"Do you think we should call them?" Aria asks before Alexis can drive off. "Mom thinks we should."

Alexis sighs, looking over at her sister. "I don't know, Aria. It's been a while."

"I'm thinking of calling one of them."

"Go for it if you really want to, but I'm not." Alexis pulls out of Rosewood High, heading to the Apple Rose Grille.

"You know what, I don't think I'm going to actually."

"I'm gonna stop at the Grille, and then you can take the car and go wherever unless you want to stay at the Grille too," Alexis shrugs, not knowing where her sister wants to get food. "It's up to you."

"No, I'll probably get something to eat somewhere else," Aria says.

"Okay." Alexis parks in front of the Apple Rose Grille and exits the car. Aria slides into the driver's seat, and Alexis stands in front of the passenger side window.

"See you later," Aria says.

"Later." Alexis watches her sister drive off before walking into the Grille. She orders a lemonade and sits down at the counter near the front door in front of the windows. Taking a sip of her lemonade, Alexis pulls out The Hunger Games. A boy sits a stool away from her, glancing at her and the book she's reading.

"What book are you reading?" Alexis hears a deep voice beside her, and she glances to her left, noticing the boy. Strands of his short brown hair fall in front of his forehead as he smiles at her.

"Do I know you?" Alexis asks, keeping her thumbs inside to stop the book from fully closing.

"No, I'm uh," the brunette boy answers. "I'm new to Rosewood."

"Well, welcome to Rosewood," Alexis says, smiling. "I'm reading The Hunger Games."

"Great book. I'm Joshua, but you can call me Josh," Joshua says.

"Have you read it?"

"Yeah, it's by Suzanne Collins, right?"

"Yeah, it is." Alexis smiles as she watches Joshua move to the stool next to her. "I'm Alexis, but you can call me Lexi."

They continue talking to each other for an hour, laughing and joking around. Joshua tells her stories of living with his parents in California, and she tells him a bit about her stay in Iceland for a year. She listens to his next story about his grandfather's birthday gone wrong but then notices a piece of paper sticking out of his messenger bag on the counter.

"What's that?" she says, cutting his sentence off.

"Oh, it's the newspaper. I keep seeing this blonde girl all around Rosewood." He pulls out the newspaper, a picture of Alison smiling. Alexis tries to look away, but she can't. "Did you know her?"

"She was one of my best friends." She says coldly. She takes a sip of her third lemonade, finally looking away from Alison.

"Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't---" Joshua says, shoving the newspaper back into his bag.

"It's okay." Alexis's phone vibrates on the counter, and she opens it. It's a text from Aria saying she's here to pick her up.

"Everything okay?" Joshua asks.

"Oh, uh, yeah, it's just my sister. She's here to pick me up."

"Here, let me put my number in your phone." Joshua sticks his hand out, and she places her black flip phone in his hand. She watches him put his number in under the contact name Josh. He hands her phone back, smiling.

"Thanks. Bye, Josh."

"Bye, Lexi."

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Alexis's dad, Bryon, pulls up to the curb of Rosewood High School. Mike and Alexis exit the car, and her brother quickly runs up the steps, meeting up with his lacrosse friends.

"Aria?" Alexis says, looking at her sister still sitting in the passenger seat.

"I'm right behind you."

Alexis walks up the steps of Rosewood High, thinking of her, Alison, and the other girls walking up these steps together. She shakes the thought out of her head, walking through the doors. The noise of loud teenagers talking and laughing fills her ears as she walks to her old locker. Surprisingly, she got assigned her old locker next to Alison's.

September 2008

"Freshman year, I'm so excited!" Alexis cheers, walking into Rosewood High School. She links her arm with Alison, the other four girls following behind them. "Aren't you Alison?"

"Of course, we've been dreaming of this moment since the eighth grade," the blonde says, smiling and holding her purse on her shoulder. Alison leads the girls over to her locker.

"No way, Ali, my locker is next to yours," Alexis says, pointing to her locker.

"This is going to be the best year ever, right girls?" Alison asks rhetorically. The five girls smile with Alison.

She sighs, puts her combination in, opens it, and puts all her books away. She takes her English book and the assigned reading in her arms. She looks down at the book---To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee.

"Hey, stranger," A voice says beside her. She jumps, almost dropping her books. She looks to her left and sees Spencer standing beside her.

"Spencer." Alexis breathes out. Spencer has her hair tied back, wearing her messenger bag across her body with a button-up shirt and plaid skirt. Classic Spencer attire. "How are you?"

"Good, but I should be asking you that. How was Iceland?"

"Beautiful, oh my god, I have so many pictures," Alexis says, closing her locker. "How's Melissa?"

"She's Melissa," Spencer shrugs, clutching her messager bag strap across her torso. "We're meeting her fiancé tonight."

"Finacé? Is she engaged to Ian?"

"No, not Ian. Uh, he's a med student named Wren."

"Oh, well, good for her. Ian creeped me out." Silence comes over the two brunettes in waves as the two of them stand there awkwardly. Over Spencer's shoulder, Alexis spots Joshua walking up the hallway. "Josh!"

Joshua looks up, hearing his name, instantly smiling. Spencer looks over her shoulder, seeing Joshua walking over to them, and she looks back at Alexis.

"Hey, Lexi," Joshua says, looking from Alexis to Spencer.

"Oh, Josh, this is Spencer, an old friend," she says, regretting having to say that. She and Spencer used to be best friends. They were close, almost closer than she and Alison, but they lost that connection once Alison disappeared and Alexis moved away. "Spencer, Josh."

"It was nice meeting you, but I'm going to head to class," Spencer says.

"Wait, Spence," Alexis says, stopping Spencer from leaving. "I'll see you later, Josh. Have a good first day!"

Alexis walks with Spencer to class, shocking the sophisticated brunette. They walk into English class, sitting next to each other. Alexis spots a familiar blonde with a shorter brunette next to her.

"Who is that?" she whispers to Spencer.

"Hanna and Mona."

Alexis's jaw drops, but she immediately picks it up and looks back at the blonde. She smiles and waves at Hanna. Hanna waves back, a small smile on her face. The classroom door closes, and in walks a cute-looking teacher. He writes his name on the chalkboard---Mr. Fitz.

"Holy crap," he says once he turns around, his eyes landing on Aria. Alexis turns her head, looking at her twin sister.

"Sorry," Aria says, taking out her ringing phone and shutting it off.

"Uh, I'm Mr. Fitz, your new English teacher," Mr. Fitz says.

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Alexis walks into her room, shutting her door with her foot. She shakes and rubs her wet hair into her towel---drying it. She throws the towel into her hamper, walking over to her bed with the last box on it.

She pulls out a journal with the dates 2008-2009 on it. Polaroids stick out the side in between the pages. The brunette puts the journal on her bed, moving the box to the floor. She sits on her bed and opens the journal to a page with a Polaroid picture of her and Aria on their 14th birthday.

She flips to the next page with a Polaroid of her and the five other girls. She and Alison hug while Aria holds the camera up to capture the photo. Hanna, Spencer, and Emily all make funny faces at the camera. The next page is the last one and is the only one dated---September 1st, 2009.

The Polaroid picture is a picture of Alison, her, and Jason. Seeing him makes all the memories of that summer flood her brain, and she reads the words on the page.

September 1st, 2009

We are going to Spencer's barn tonight-it was Alison's idea. I'm surprised she even let me come, considering she caught me with her brother just a week before she left to visit her Grandma. I could tell she was still mad. She told her brother to stay away from us. But it's Jason. He never listens to Ali. Spencer and I are excited to hang out with the rest of the girls, even though we practically spend every living minute together.

I also plan on seeing Jason tonight! I'm so excited!

Alexis flips back to a page with the top right corner folded down. A week before Alison disappeared.

August 2009

Alison caught us. She caught Jason kissing me in her kitchen. She was the last person I'd ever want to see me kissing her older brother. She yelled at Jason and then lashed out at me. She threatened me. But I didn't care. I liked Jason. He likes me too.

Alexis quickly shut the book, not wanting to read more about her old relationship with Alison's older brother. She places the journal in the drawer of her nightstand. She gets up, looking in the box on her floor. She pushes some medium-sized canvases out of the way, finding her jewelry box. She grabs the brown box and puts it on her desk.

She opens it and sees photo booth pictures of her and the other girls. She smiles, moving them out of the way, and there sits the silver necklace. She takes it out of the box, her thumb touching the engraved A. She doesn't flip it over, knowing what's on the back.

Her phone goes off, and she puts the necklace back nicely into the box, shutting the lid. She flips her phone open---a text popping up.

cAreful Lexi, don't forget I know you're dirty little secret. -A

"Alison?" Alexis says.

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Heyyyyy!!! So that was chapter 1!! If it wasn't clear enough, I use italics for Alexis's inner thoughts, flashbacks, texts, or written things like Alexis's journal. Also, from now on the outfit Alexis is wearing in the chapter will be posted up top. If her outfit changes throughout, I will put a collage of the different outfits. For example, one picture will be her casual outfit and the other picture will be her funeral or party outfit. Anyways! I hope you all enjoyed it! Stay tuned for Chapter 2, coming soon!