Chapter 25

Epilogue

August 2025

The question was posed with a burst of energy: "Are you ready for your first day of school?" But it was just Aria pretending like her head wasn't pounding from the hassle that had occurred for twenty minutes prior to settling into the car.

In truth, Aria was excited for her daughter. Daisy had been wanting to go to school ever since she learned what it was, and that her daddy taught at one. Even when Aria explained that "Daddy works with the older kids," Daisy wanted to get started so that she could be with Ezra sooner rather than later. Aria bet that by the time Daisy hit her preteen years, she would regret ever wanting to have her dad as her teacher. But Aria didn't want to think of Daisy growing up. It was difficult enough that her daughter, who was born yesterday, was now five and starting kindergarten.

"I've got my coloring books, my pencils, my markers…" Daisy rummaged through her Princess Belle backpack. She was in her favorite yellow dress and red Mary Janes, already developing a fashion statement like her mother's. Some of her black curls were pulled back with a yellow ribbon. "I brought my Disney book to read to my new friends!"

Aria lightly punched Ezra in the arm out of excitement. What she was most excited about was for Daisy to show off her early reading skills. She and Ezra had spent tireless hours teaching Daisy to read before the average child, and their effort paid off. "Which one are you going to read to them, Scout?" Ezra, who was driving, quickly glanced at his daughter in the backseat through the mirror. It was a curse that Aria and Ezra couldn't help being literary in their nickname choices.

"I want to tell them about Ariel and Prince Eric, and how she's a mermaid and they can't be together. I think they'll want to know what happens." Then, in rapid succession, before her parents could even comprehend her response, Daisy asked, "Are we at school yet?"

"We'll be there in five minutes."

"Okay." Daisy relaxed into her seat. "Has it been five minutes?"

Aria laughed. "That's not how time works, sweetie. You have to be patient, remember?"

Daisy frowned and crossed her arms, sinking farther down on her seat and into an uncomfortable-looking slump. She mumbled a barely coherent "Okay," and Aria and Ezra exchanged a look of relief. Sometimes Daisy was able to cause the biggest fuss.

Continuing into the topic of fusses, the hassle before leaving the house had been because Daisy couldn't find her yellow ribbon, and Jeremy couldn't stop crying. Jeremy, at a little over a year old, would cry like any baby, but would very rarely scream into a tantrum-like state like Daisy had with her inherently stubborn attitude. ("Just like her mother," Ella had liked to point out while Aria and Ezra would be exchanging Daisy in an attempt to soothe her screams. Worst of all, there was never a definite reason to why Daisy was being so fussy.) Despite Jem (as they literary nicknamed him) causing a big fuss in his birth, giving Aria an epidural, he was the most well-behaved, quiet baby. So it was very unfortunate for him to cause a rare scene before the beginning of Daisy's big day.

Daisy could barely contain herself when the school came into view. Aria almost fell out of the moving car when she thought Daisy was going to jump out before Ezra had completely halted. In a quick motion, Daisy was out the door when the car braked and was bouncing on the balls of her feet, examining the bustle of children with their parents. "Mommy, Daddy, look at all my new friends!" she exclaimed while clutching her Disney book in her hands.

"Wait a minute, Daisy." Aria stepped out of the car as Ezra came around to join them. "Aren't you forgetting something?"

"Oh, yeah." Daisy skipped up to Ezra, who had grabbed Jem's carrier, and gave her baby brother a quick peck on his tiny forehead. "I'll see you after school, Jem! Then we can play with my toys, I promise."

In a whisper, Aria said to Ezra, "It's your turn to monitor them today." When Daisy had her playdates with her little sibling, it required constant supervision, since Jem was still so young.

A bell rang and Aria told Daisy that that meant she was supposed to go to class. "Do you know where you're going, sweetheart?" Aria kept herself collected as Daisy clamped onto her leg, her version of a hug. "We'll pick you up right when you get out, okay?"

Suddenly all of the excitement Daisy had had was drained out. It must have finally come to Daisy's attention that she had to leave her parents and be in an unfamiliar setting for an entire morning. Like many kids, though, she was resilient. After a minute of holding onto her parents, she let go of them and took a few steps away from them, waved back to them, and ran to the door to catch up with her classmates. "Hi, my name is Daisy. What's yours?" she said to the girl she was walking next to through the entrance doors.

"Cliché alert: They grow up so fast," Aria said, followed by a sigh. She promised herself she wouldn't make an emotional scene, as she was preparing for this the entire summer. But she looked around and saw all of the other parents pulling themselves together before getting into their cars and driving home without their kids. She leaned her head onto Ezra's shoulder and he pulled her closely to him, propping his head on hers.

"It feels like her first birthday was yesterday." Aria could hear a small crack in Ezra's voice, and the tension she was holding in burst—but in laughter, not tears. He joined in on her relieving laughter. "Cliché alert."

After sharing a few more clichés, some laughter, and some tears, Ezra strapped Jem back into the car as Aria took the wheel. "What are you doing?" Ezra asked, as Aria wasn't too keen on driving in general.

Smiling, she moved the chair closer to the wheel so that she could reach the pedals and simultaneously adjusted the mirrors. "I want to drive."

When Aria finished settling in, she kicked the car into gear and merged onto the street back home. There was something about the added focus of driving that also helped her focus on other aspects; while in the passenger seat she thought aimlessly, in the driver's seat she kept her concentration—and she concentrated on how her life had unraveled so far. She thought of how she hadn't dreamed that her life would be how it was now. At some points in her first year of college, she believed she was going to end up in a place like Radley before she could get her degree. But she was strong, as Ezra constantly told her. They'd powered through a lot of obstacles together. Now her daughter was growing up, they'd introduced another child into their quirky, loving world, and she and Ezra weren't scraping by financially anymore. They'd bought a house in the suburbs. Aria was getting a promotion. Ezra was getting more convenient hours to be around for the kids when Aria couldn't be. They were perfectly happy, though they were battered and scarred.

They were exactly where they were supposed to be.

And that's the end!

Thank you to all of you: for reading, reviewing, favoriting, and/or following this story! These 100,000+ words have been quite a journey. This story was in my head from the moment I first started watching PLL, all the way back in 2012, though I didn't have it mostly planned out until 2014. To think this story began to be written after the craziness that was season 4... Season 4 seems like so long ago!

I would like to specifically thank user becauseofaria, whose kind reviews and support has helped this story reach its ending. I would also like to thank Camp NaNoWriMo, April 2016 edition, for pushing me to keep writing this story. It's going to be sad yet satisfying to move it into the "Completed Stories" folder.

I hope you enjoyed the journey with me,

Lady Elena Dawson