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September 1st, 2010

Abigail rummages through one of the many boxes with the word 'Books' written in Sharpie on the side. She moves some books around, looking for a specific trilogy, The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. She sighs in frustration as her mom walks past her open door.

"Everything okay?"

"I can't find my book. Have you seen it? The Hunger Games," Abby explains, tucking her brown hair behind her ear. "It's a black cover with yellow lettering. Oh! And a Mockingjay pin on the front."

"You mean... the book right there," her mom says, pointing to a stack of books on her nightstand. The Hunger Games sits on the top of the stack—a stack she put there an hour ago. How? She hears her mom giggle behind her as she walks away.

"Thanks, Mom!" she shouts, sliding the book into her black messenger bag. She slings the strap over her head and lets it rest on her right shoulder. The plan today: ignore what today is. She wants to read her book at the Apple Rose Grille and pretend for one day that she isn't the best friend of Alison DiLaurentis. Standing ahead of her mirror, she fixes her hair and curtain bangs.

"I need a ride to lacrosse!" Mike, her younger brother, says as he speeds past her room and her twin sister's next door. She leaves her room and stands in Aria's doorway, where their mom sits on a small ottoman, and Aria's gaze meets Abby's.

"I'll take him," she says. Their mom stands up, turning around to face her.

"Okay, sweetie."

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

"Lacrosse today?" Dad asks Mike, who is hurriedly rummaging through a box.

"It's first tryouts, and my stuff's in about a hundred boxes," Mike answers, continuing his search for his lacrosse gear.

"A hundred?" Mom says, laughing at his exaggeration.

"You know what I mean."

"Let's go look in the garage. Come on."

"I'll help," Abigail says, clutching her messenger bag strap and following them to the garage. The garage is filled with more boxes that haven't been unpacked yet and probably won't be until tomorrow. Yet with how efficient she's been with her unpacking, she should be done by tonight.

She opens a box in search of the Rosewood High School logo. Rummaging through, she finds nothing related to Rosewood High School and moves on. She opens a black storage tub, removing the top. Inside, she sees a blue duffle bag and a white lacrosse stick.

"Found it!" she shouts. Mike races to her side, nearly pushing her aside. He has too much energy, I swear. He grabs his gear, and we head out of the garage. The three siblings walk out of the house towards the blue Nissan that their parents gifted Abby and her sister for their 16th birthday.

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Abigail pulls up to the curb of Rosewood High School. Mike rushes out of the backseat, and Aria rolls down the passenger window.

"Mike!" Aria yells. Mike stops, looking through the passenger window. He ushers Aria to hurry up and say what she needs. "What time are we picking you up?"

"Uh... six," Mike answers, shrugging and bolting away from the car up the steps of Rosewood High.

"Do you think we should call them?" Aria asks. Abby looks at her, confused about what she's even talking about, and her sister clears her throat to clarify. "Mom thinks we should call the girls."

The first person popping into her head—Spencer. She sighs, pulling out of Rosewood High School. I can't call her. "I don't think that's a good idea. It's been so long, and you know what today is."

"You're right. I don't know what I was thinking," Aria responds, closing her phone. She looks out the window as they pass familiar clothing stores and restaurants.

"I'm stopping at the Grille. You want to stay?" Abby asks, taking a right turn toward the Apple Rose Grille.

"No. I think I'll drive around for a bit."

Abby nods, silence filling the car. Aria and her are close—well, they are twins. They share everything, even a best friend, and today is the anniversary of her disappearance. A constant reminder that she's gone and still hasn't been found. A day she'd rather not talk about, and she knows Aria feels the same way.

She pulls into a parking spot beside the Grille, handing the keys to Aria. "See you in an hour?"

"See ya."

She walks away from the car with her messenger bag and enters the Grille. The familiar sound of the bell above the door fills her ears, reminding her of the several times she and the girls would spend time here. Maybe I shouldn't have come here.

She quickly orders a lemonade and takes a seat by the windows. Being back in Rosewood felt strange. Yet it oddly felt as if she never left for Iceland. Living in Iceland was completely different. And while her whole family loved it, she hated it. It was beautiful, but something always calls her back to Rosewood.

She pulls out The Hunger Games, removes the bookmark, and continues from where she left off. Although she's read this book at least five times, the story still has her obsessed. I mean, Peeta Mellark alone is enough of a reason to read this book more than once.

"What book are you reading?" A deep voice asks from beside her. She glances to her right, noticing a boy who looks her age, sitting on a stool away. Strands of his short brown hair fall in front of his forehead as he smiles at her, waiting for an answer. 

"Do I know you?" she asks with a small smile.

"No, I'm uh..." he answers, pausing to chuckle. "I'm new to Rosewood."

"Well. Welcome to Rosewood. I'm Abigail, but everyone calls me Abby."

"Joshua Anderson, but call me Josh." He sticks his hand out for her to shake, which she does, and he moves to sit on the stool beside her. She looks away and places her hand-painted bookmark back into her book. "The Hunger Games. Great book."

"Oh yeah, have you read it?" She asks, turning her head back to look at him.

"In English, at my old school. My teacher made it a mandatory read," he explains, eating some of his fries in the basket in front of him.

"Mockingjay just came out, so I'm re-reading the series." She slides the book back into her messenger bag, closing the flap. She takes a quick sip of her lemonade, which is starting to taste watered down.

"So, how long have you been in Rosewood?" He asks, continuing the conversation.

"All my life, but my family and I just came back from a year in Iceland," she explains, pushing her hair behind her ear. She looks down at her nails and picks at the chipped baby blue nail polish. "Where are you from?"

"Iceland? Wow. I'm from California. My dad is a professor, so he got a job at Hollis College."

"My dad works at Hollis too," she says. "He teaches English."

"No way. Mine too."

She continues to listen to Josh tell stories about California and his family, and in exchange, she tells him about Rosewood and her stay in Iceland. They show each other photos and joke around for an hour. He's telling her about his grandfather George's birthday party gone wrong when she notices a piece of paper sticking out of his bag.

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

"Oh. I keep seeing this blonde girl all over the papers and even on posters all around town." He pulls out the newspaper, a picture of Alison smiling on the front. Abby stares at her eyes. Even in death, she's still so captivating—like a car crash you can't look away from. "Did you know her?"

"She was my best friend," she says coldly. She pulls her eyes away from the picture and chugs the rest of her lemonade. So much for avoiding it.

"Oh. I'm sorry, I didn't—" Josh responds, quickly shoving the paper back into his bag.

"It's okay," she cuts him off, not looking forward to the pity party. Her phone vibrates on the counter. The small screen on the front shows a text bubble with Aria's name on it. Opening her phone, the text says Aria is here to pick her up.

"Everything okay?" He asks.

"Uh, yeah. It's just my sister," she answers, grabbing her bag. "She's here to pick me up."

"It was nice meeting you, Abby."

"It was nice meeting you, too. Bye, Josh."

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Their dad pulls up to the curb of Rosewood High. Mike and Abigail exit the car, and he wastes no time before running up the steps and meeting with his lacrosse friends. She throws her hands up and rolls her eyes at her brother's energetic and impatient antics.

"Aria?" she says, looking at her sister, who is still in the passenger seat.

"I'm right behind you."

Great. Now I have to walk in by myself. She walks up the steps, and memories of Alison, her, and the other girls walking up these steps for the first time flow through her brain. She quickly shakes the thoughts out of her head. Thinking about Ali yesterday was enough for her. Walking through the doors, loud teenagers talking and laughing fill her ears while she walks to her locker. To her dismay, she got her old locker, which is right beside Alison's old locker.

September 2008

"Freshman year! I'm so excited!" Abigail cheers. Linking her arm with Alison and the girls following behind them. They walk up the steps into Rosewood High. "Aren't you Ali?"

"Of course, we've been dreaming about this moment since the eighth grade," she says, smiling and holding her purse on her shoulder. Alison leads them down the hallway to her locker.

"Omg, Ali, my locker is next to yours," Abby says, opening her locker as Alison opens hers.

"No way. Best year ever!" Alison exclaims, and they all smile with her.

Abby sighs and puts her combination in, opening her locker. She takes her English binder and the assigned reading they have into her arms, putting the rest of her books away. She looks down at the book on top of her binder. To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee.

"Hey stranger," A voice says beside her. She jumps, almost dropping the stuff in her hands. Looking to her left, she sees Spencer, clutching the strap of her brown messenger bag.

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

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

"Beautiful. I have so many pictures, but I missed Rosewood. I needed some normality back into my life," Abby says, closing her locker. "How's Melissa?"

"She's Melissa." Spencer shrugs. "We're meeting her fiancé tonight."

"Fiancé? Did she marry Ian?"

"No. Uh, he's a med student named Wren."

"Good for her. Ian always gave me the creeps." Silence comes over them in waves as they stand beside each other awkwardly. Over Spencer's shoulder, Abby spots Joshua walking up the hallway with two other guys she thinks are on the lacrosse team. He says goodbye to his friends, looks up, and meets her gaze.

He smiles at her, making her smile. Spencer looks over her shoulder, seeing Josh walking over to us, and she looks back at Abby with an intrigued look.

"Hey, Abby," Josh says, looking from Abigail to Spencer.

"Hey. Josh, this is Spencer, an old friend." She regrets having to say that. Spencer and her used to be best friends. Honestly, she and Spencer became closer than Alison and her. After Ali disappeared, our connection imploded on itself. Then, Abby moved away to Iceland. "Spencer, Josh."

"Well, it was nice meeting you. But I'm going to head to class," Spencer says.

"Wait, Spence," Abby calls out, grabbing Spencer's arm. She looks shocked while Abby looks over her shoulder at Josh. "I'll see you later, Josh. Have a good first day!"

Spencer and her walk into English class together, sitting beside each other. She glances around the room to see if she recognizes anyone. She spots her sister and Emily sitting in the back. The infamous Noel Kahn immediately spots her and smirks. She returns his smirk with a smile before noticing a familiar blonde with a shorter brunette.

"Who is that?" she whispers to Spencer.

"Hanna and Mona."

Her jaw drops, but she quickly closes her mouth and looks back at Hanna. Her blue eyes meet Abby's hazel eyes, and she waves with a small smile. Abby offers her a closed-lip smile and a wave just before the classroom door shuts, and walks in as an attractive young teacher. He looks much younger than I expected. He writes his name on the chalkboard—Mr. Fitz.

"Holy crap," he blurts out after turning around, his eyes landing on Aria. Abby turns her head, glancing at her twin sister, looking confused. Aria meets Abby's eyes before her phone rings and leans over to pull it from her bag.    

"Sorry." Aria quickly takes out her phone and shuts it off.

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

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Abby shakes her hair dry with her towel and walks into her room. Shutting the door with her foot, she throws the towel into her hamper. She walks over to her bed, which has the last and final box she needs to unpack. The brunette teen pulls out a journal with the dates 2008-2009 written on the front in gold lettering. Polaroids stick out of the side between different pages, like mini bookmarks.

She moves the box to the floor and sits on her bed with the journal in her lap. She opens it to a page with one of the Polaroids, a picture of her and Aria on their 14th birthday. She flips to the next page with the next Polaroid of her and the five other girls. She and Alison hug while Aria holds the camera up to capture the photo. Spencer, Hanna, 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 like a mental dam finally collapsing, reminding her of the time she wanted to forget most.

September 1st, 2009

PARTY AT SPENCER'S BARN TONIGHT!!!! AHHH!!

Completely Alison's idea of one last fun thing before school starts! I'm excited! Honestly, I'm surprised she still invited me. Considering what happened last week. I think she's just pretending it never happened. SO, I will too.

She did tell Jason to stay away from us. And I know she's still mad about it. Jason told me so. But it's JASON. He never listens to Ali. Like ever. Anyway...

Spencer and I are excited to hang out with the rest of the girls, even though we literally spend every living minute together. I also plan to surprise Jason tonight!

I'm so EXCITED!!!!

Abigail flips back to a page with the top right corner folded down, as if a year ago, she knew she'd somehow want to return to this page. The day before, she left to visit her grandma in Georgia. And a week before Alison disappeared.

August 2009

Alison caught us.

She caught me and Jason KISSING in her kitchen. She's the last person I wanted to see me and her older brother kissing. Her older brother is extremely OFF-LIMITS. 

She yelled at Jason. Implied that he FORCED me to kiss him. Which isn't true! I wanted to. When I told her that, she looked at me with this look. A look I've seen her give plenty of people, but never me. She threatened to tell my parents after that. My parents! I mean, seriously, what kind of friend does that?

I don't care, though. I like Jason. I think he likes me too...

Oh, how wrong I was. She quickly shuts the journal, not wanting to read more about her old relationship with him. She places the journal in the drawer of her nightstand. She pushes herself out of bed, looking in the box she left on the floor. Pushing medium and small-sized canvases out of the way, she stumbles upon her brown jewelry box.

Abby puts the jewelry box on her desk and opens it. She finds photo booth pictures of her and the girls. She smiles, moves them out of the way, and under them sits a silver chain necklace with an emerald gem charm and a silver A initial hanging on it. She slowly takes it out of the box, the memory of when she got it flashing in her mind.

Her phone goes off beside the jewelry box, making her jump. Abby puts the necklace back nicely into the box, shutting the lid. She flips open her phone, and a text pops up.

cAreful Abby. I know you're dirty little secret. -A

"Alison?" Abigail says, confused.

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A/N: Hey, y'all!!! That's Chapter 1 done!! If it wasn't clear enough, I use italics for Abigail's inner thoughts, flashbacks, texts, or written things like Abigail's journal. And yes, Abigail is Team Peeta! No explanation needed. I mean is Gale even an option anymore at this point? LMAO. Anyways! I hope you all enjoyed it!

Stay tuned for Chapter 2, coming soon!