Rosewood, Pennsylvania - Wednesday Night

[new_it_girl]

After receiving the text message earlier from Emily, Hanna booked a portal home. It was going to be a short trip. She wasn't even going to stay over night. She was going home for one reason only. Expose 'A.' This wasn't a social visit.

Hopefully, there wouldn't be any singing involved.


The plan was simple. Emily was going to meet 'A' at the greenhouse. The other three girls, Hanna included, were going to hide out and then ambush 'A.' That was how it was supposed to go, anyway.

After a quick dinner with her mom, she grabbed her purse consisting of more than just a nail file weapon. She added pepper spray, too. She was prepared, though she had not expected to be distracted.

Caleb was waiting for her, explaining he was back to finish the school year and that he missed her. Which only made Hanna want to melt. Awww.

"Anyway, heard you were in town. Spencer told me you'd be here, so I decided to stop by so we could maybe hang out," Caleb explained. If by hang out, he meant make out.

Hanna bit her lip, a look of regret on her face. "I'm actually about to meet the girls. I'm sorry. Rain check? Next time I'm in town? Promise. Besides, I hear your birthday is coming up."

He nodded, smiling. Though Hanna could tell he was disappointed. "I'm holding you to that. I'm staying with Lucas again, so, you can find me there."

"I never break promises."

With that, she got into her car, turned the ignition, and waved at Caleb as the car pulled out of the driveway. When she noticed the time, she blinked. She didn't realize how late she was running. She was going to be breaking some laws to get to the greenhouse in a timely manner.

She was about to park the car in front of the greenhouse when a dark shadow jumped out at her, falling over the hood, before running off. Hanna's eyes grew wide in panic as she realized she obviously hit something. "Oh god."

Then Emily, Spencer, and Aria were running out of the greenhouse after whatever it was Hanna hit.

"Hanna!" Spencer called out, motivating Hanna to jump out of the car.

The three girls ran as fast as they could in the woods after that dark figure. Hanna was starting to figure out it was 'A' they were chasing. Eventually, they lost track of the runner. Hanna was out of breath. She was so glad she wore sensible shoes for this.

"Dammit, we have nothing!" Spencer shouted.

"What happened?" Hanna frantically asked before the girls filled her in. They were all late and 'A' attacked Emily when he or she realized it was a set up.

As the girls trudged back to the greenhouse, they all wondered who 'A' was and if Emily was able to get a sense for who it was. She wasn't.

"What's that?" Spencer said, glancing at the ground near the car's front tire. "That's 'A's cellphone."

They rushed inside the greenhouse in search of more clues. Flashlight in hand, Aria asked, "How hard did you hit him...her...it?"

"I thought it was an animal," Hanna said, still a bit breathless. She also felt an odd sense of justice. As far as Hanna was concerned, this was payback from when 'A' ran her down with a car last year.

"It was," Spencer said pointedly. "Is."

"Where's the box?" Emily asked frantically.

The box. The one 'A' wanted so badly. It was empty the whole time. 'A' didn't take kindly to being tricked and nearly killed Emily as a result. This was serious.

Emily had more pressing issues. "Where were you guys? I thought we were supposed to meet up here. Wasn't that the plan?"

Aria explained that she dropped major bombshell at home regarding Ezra and had to sneak out her brother's window. Hanna and her player wondered why something like that couldn't have waited another night. Spencer had been cornered by Toby who had so many questions. Hanna then told them she ran into Caleb. Not as major.

"I was almost killed!" Emily spat angrily as she listened to their excuses. "These are not highlights. This is glass in my hair!"

Aria immediately tried to help get the glass out.

"Okay," Spencer said. "Can you guys talk to me? I have 'A's cellphone in my hand. Hanna! Call Caleb? He's the best way we can get information off of this..."

"No! Leave him out of this," Hanna commanded, glaring at everyone before they could protest. She went on to explain that there were other ways. Like taking it to the phone store tomorrow.

Spencer looked about ready to flip out. "The phone store?!"

"This can't wait until tomorrow," Aria pointed out.

"I get it, okay?" Hanna told them. "But this phone might be connected to Jenna and Garrett, and he has bad history with both of them. We're not going there."

Not to mention 'A' seems to hurt everyone they drag into this mess.

Spencer ignored her. "I will go over there right now..."

"Spencer, stop giving us orders!" Hanna shouted. "We're not your winged monkeys!"

She thought of Oz which made her think of Elphaba...and her friends in Fandom she'd much rather be hanging out with right now.

"Stop!" Aria exclaimed before everyone got into a shouting match. "There's gotta be a way Caleb can help without..."

That's when the phone started to ring. Each girl took turns attempting to answer before they decided it was best not to answer. Whoever was on the other end would know right away that they had the phone. This bought them time to get information off it.

The ID was blocked. Of course it was.

To make matters worse, glass from above started raining down. Emily decided for them. They were going to see Caleb. Hanna couldn't really put up much of a fight now.

She could sit at the other end of the table pouting passive aggressively as the others and Caleb stood around his laptop as he tried to hack into the phone. She was kinda pissed that they'd willingly put her kinda, sorta, on-again-off-again-whatever boyfriend in danger. She knew how crazy 'A' was. At least Caleb was kind enough to ask her if she was okay with it first. At the urging of her friends' wide eyes of pleading, she reluctantly shook her head yes. Not that they found much before 'A' started shutting down whatever files were on the phone. Caleb managed to salvage a picture of those creepy dolls 'A' sent them months ago. What good was that going to do?

So the night was a total bust.

After a half-hearted goodbye with her friends, she booked another portal back to school. She was tired and cranky, and she was going to need a major distraction now as she hid from her 'A' troubles. Good thing Fandom was just weird enough for that.

[many spoilers and dialog from the last two eps; final canon update until break because I'll need more than one night to deal with upcoming plot]