Fanfiction/Re-imagining Rough Ideas

Allison goes missing the summer before the start of the Liars senior year of high school. The series starts 5 years later the summer after they would have all finished traditional  undergraduate programs. Each liar is either already back in Rosewood due to life circumstances or drawn back with the discovery of Allison’s body. 

Emily- had great college swimmer career wanted to go pro for injured/parents didn’t like it, moved back home to a parent financed bachelorette apartment while she plans her wedding to an overly “understanding” male fiance, before marrying, holding a unimportant job until she starts having children and living in suburbia forever near the family. She meets up maya who works at the rear window and coffee shop, knowing of her but not being friends or friendly before that. She is envious and in awe of mayas freedom but also can’t bring herself to be brave enough because of self hating classist ideals (military family isn’t poor but they made sure Emily heard how hard they had to work for every cent and to keep up appearances)

Emily befriends maya under the guise of bringing her to the proper light/world (read Christian), maya chafes at it and they fall in love once Emily comes to terms with her grief for Allison and being gay.

Emilies parents- dad was gone on duty all the time and is now settled in a more stable position, office wise. Pam wanted to be a housewife, but takes admin work occasionally to keep things going. Def willing to go into debt for appearances. Pam is kind of a bitch but both of Emily’s parents are fiercely protective over her. 

Maya-works at the rear window brew, also everyone’s weed plug. Hippy dippy alternative, she lives in a crappy apartment with too many roommates, because she doesn’t want her parents life because they sold out. Her parents live corporate lives in Philly now after they transplanted the family in Maya’s senior year of high school to Rosewood, selling their house and moving to the city once she was out of college. Still love and kindness b/w the family just disappointment as they don’t understand why Maya can’t grow up. Maya doesn’t go to true north but rather county jail in the city and a diversion program after being caught with a minor marijuana charge. 

Hannah-went to fashion school but it wasn’t what she thought it would be, surrounded by a million Allison’s, takes time to find herself working retail jobs meets Mona who finished design school not realizing they went to HS together cuz Mona looks so different. Bond intensely as best friends. Hannah had already moved home to help Ashley through the divorce and she and Mona work at the luxury wing of the mall together. Hannah’s dad is a dick still and offers her no support unless she wants to take his preferred route in life like his darling new step-daughter Kate did. Kate is a trophy that shines brite and Hannah feels like a stain. Hannah grapples the responsibility of helping her mom emotionally, now financially, feeling like she failed herself, like she’s still ugly, etc 

Was still the ugly duckling fat girl in high school, question…. Why Allison incorporated her into the fold? 

Hannah still gets in trouble for being a kleptomaniac, though she keeps the rule never steal at work. Also the stress of A sends her backsliding into self harming ED like behaviors as she controls the only thing she knows how to is food and desperately fears being the fat ugly duckling again. Hannah hears the news of Allison’s body being found through women checking out at her work. 

Could be Allison’s secret twin? Who knows 

Spencer- still forever stuck in the shadow of her big sister, to the point of living in Melissa’s old college apartment as she hears up to start her masters degree in the city. Sees the news of Allison’s body being found online.

Comes back for the memorial and switches to online coursework, to live in the barn since her parents are worrying about another slip. Not with sincerity just in that 

Her freshman year of college Spencer went nuts on a downward spiral with drugs and alcohol stemming from abuse of adderall to keep up the intense scheduling she subjects herself to to outdo Melissa. 

Melissa is engaged and lives in the city but comes to antagonize spencer all the time over the pain and strife Spencer’s substance abuse caused the family. 

Spencer still does things to antagonize Melissa like steal boyfriends fight etc.

As they deal with A addiction rears it’s ugly head and the secret Spencer kept of not only being an addict but being sexually assaulted by Ian Melissa’s big love, who inexplicably dumped her about a year prior to the start of the series. 

The Hastings have a toxic narcissistic family system that has Spencer as the black sheep and Melissa as the golden child. Peter is the narcissist and Veronica the enabler. Peter still had an affair and Jason is still Spencer’s half brother through Jessica DiLaurentis. Allison took Spencer into the fold because Spencer is a threat, better friends than enemies

An arc for the Hastings are how the women empower themselves and decide to break the generational trauma they all have, as Veronica leaves Peter and comes into her own and owns up and apologized for the mistakes she made raising Spencer and Melissa

Melissa Hastings- a preppy snotty daddy’s girl in every sense of the word. She is the most like Peter in the family and is vindictive but not outright cruel. She blames Spencer for all the problems the family has though the systems that created the issues were there long before Spencer’s first spiral down. 

Aria- had a wild indie sleaze phase. Took a gap year to travel again, that lasted longer than a year. Byron and Ella permitted it cuz they didn’t know how to deal with the tragedy around Allison’s disappearance. So she’s supposed to buckle down this year with the free tuition at Hollis and finish her creative writing BA,and photography minor. She’s a little old for living on campus so lives in the same building as Emily, but they don’t hang out. Because she goes to Hollis it becomes impossible for Byron to hide his current affair, Meredith, and the rumors around campus that she isn’t the first coed prof Montgomery has canoodled with. 

She’s really phony with writing indie hipster self she is, and get wrapped up with her creative writing professor Ezra Fitz (he’s like 31-32 first year at Hollis) unethical but not illegal. Power dynamics are fucked. She has to hide it not only for her academic integrity but her dad’s reputation as well. Ella is helping mike get through his senior year of high school, and is focused on renovating/redecorating the house to cope as news of Byrons affair shakes the family system. 

(Aria could be A? Who knows)

All the girls struggle with life after traditional undergrad window/experience, asserting themselves and healthy boundaries, their own individual traumas, knowing who they are when people want to force their old selves from high school on them, readjusting life in a small town after living elsewhere, trauma, developing ptsd/mental health issues, complex grief with Allison’s death.

Jenna Marshall-  the girls still blinded her in an accident the summer before Allison disappeared, blamed it on Toby. Jenna recovered and is now a concert flautist. She comes back to town to see that her high school bully is really dead and gone. Really still had a toxic relationship with Toby Allison blackmailed her with. Has had a few surgeries that “failed” to correct her vision (she can see way more than anyone knows). Everyone lauds her as being a picture of inspiration to move on from the accident and “forgive” her stepbrother Toby for what he did. She is the personification of quiet rage, cool under pressure, cunning conniving, and twisting the knife of the infantilization of disabled people back out at others for her own gain. Super shady. Could be A? Who knows again. Featured a lot more in the story and interactions with the main liars. 

Mona- was a loser all through primary and high school. Raised by a single mom who worked hard to send her to whatever college she wanted. Secret genius IQ but focuses her skills on a design degree from Hollis. Works as a buyer for an upscale department store in the luxury wing of the mall, unlike Hannah who is a counter girl. 

Mona was teased for being a POC at pwi (predominantly white institutions) and only started making things happen for herself by toning down her otherness- changing hair, using makeup to conceal features, dressing differently talking differently. 

Allison absolutely tortured her not only due to prejudices but because Mona was a threat and reacted in a way that thrilled Allison to the bullying. It was like getting high to Allison to make Mona cry.

Mona hides that she purposefully chose the rosewood location to do her buying job (motives?) as she makes her way up the retail corporate ladder. She could have studied anything she wanted but chose to study fashion, design and merchandising because of poingnant understand she gained that appearances are everything. Mona is unstable and is obsessed almost with getting a re-do on her high school experiences that caused her so much grief. 

Mona now has a reputation as a cool girl, headed places she wants in their career path, chic and sophisticated, wild and fun, but not the most academically minded person. which Hannah idolizes similarly to how she idolized Allison.  Mona intentionally seeks out Hannah when she see’s she back in town to be friends because how to be even closer to being a queen bee than adopting her inner circle? Finds Hannah to be an actual kind soul who has a had a hard life despite it looking the opposite looking in from the outside. Becomes hyper attached to Hannah and so afraid of losing her, but also fears Hannah becoming the new Allison and torturing her (Mona). 

Allison- long gone and dead (for real), she was as cruel as she was supposedly beloved. Disappears the week before the beginning of senior year of high school. Was queen bee of the high school, intelligent and cunning, and an understand of personal relationships as purely transactional. Had so many enemies that could have done her in. Was it loser Mona? Was it blind bitch Jenna Marshall? Melissa Hastings? Byron? Peter? Who knows. 

Eyes so cold under the glib charm they could freeze your heart dead cold. Like the saying goes hurt people hurt people. As the girls delve into the mystery of Allison’s death, artifacts clues and journal entries give insight into her past. Allison was the product her cruel cold and icy mother and emotionally distant father who remained married despite the mutual infidelities. Was abused emotionally, verbally, and physically by her mother, who does ducked up shit like withholding food, Golding her head underwater, etc. neglected by her father. Jason is not a good influence either leaving inappropriate things out like p*rn and drugs that Allison gets access to. She’s groomed into a sexual relationship first by melissa’s college boyfriend Ian Thomas, why she is so jealous that Spencer kisses him on the lawn that summer before she disappears. Through her family and this she learns that’s she can get things she wants like attention, affection, material goods like money from people either by blackmailing, coercing like she has been coerced, and charm. She struggles with feeling degraded and dirty from her abuse from Ian and eventually other older men. With all the pain she feels she take it out on others in the microcosm of high school where she is the one with the power and the control. Allison even grows to enjoy the pain she causes others simultaneously a victim and perpetrator. 

When she goes missing so many people see eerily relieve through town. Her parents play the perfect part of grieving parents who are trying to save their remaining child from the depths of grief when Jason is just a skeevy stoner. 

She is for sure dead and her murder is a mystery independent of who the first a is the. Uber A. 

First arc-Mona is a the year following Alisons remains being recovered. Aria and Ezra only last this year, and he leaves town after.

Second arc, A Team/UberA Closely following first arc Alison still looms over everything but the girls are trying to forget her. Secrets go deeper, finally find who murdered Allison. 

Girls Think they get some closure, but more waits for them.

Third arc, a 10 year time jump and the girls because of a weak economy are still stuck in rosewood. A messages start again and even more is on the line for the girls as they have moved forward with their lives. Revealing of the Uber a who stole the game from Mona, and their motives. Mona is a double agent lone wolf, but eventually bonds with and becomes the 5th list challenging people’s expectation for psychiatric recovery. The girls are dealing with the pressures of bigger life questions of is all there is working? Possibly starting families? What’s my purpose? Did I make the right decisions? Aging parents children? Some are married some a single we get to see the Haleb wedding 👰 

Aria messes around with Ezra a bit again out of nostalgia and a longing for what she had tried to frame in her mind as a good thing in her past. Has like an all too well realization now that she’s the age Ezra was when they were together the first time. How gross and unbalanced the power dynamic was, and how Ezra seems unable to be as attracted or happy with her now that she isn’t naive, emotionally damaged, at a power disadvantage or even physically as small and less developed as she was at 21. Also finds out his trust fund baby status he tries to say he rejected but falls back to mommy’s money when times are hard as a small time academic and writer.