Chapter 17, Confronting Mom

Courtney DiLaurentis's Perspective

"Get your freaking paws off of me!" Ali hissed at Jason.  Jason shot Ali an irritated look. 

"Do you want my help or not?" Jason hissed back. "Mom was about to see you peeking out, and you would have blown the whole operation! I just grabbed you back. I touched you for like, five seconds." I turned around to face my squabbling siblings. 

"Will you two shut up? I can't hear Mom!" I whisper-yelled. Ali and Jason looked at each other with disdain. Then Ali made a face at Jason. He rolled his eyes at her. I rolled my eyes at both of them and returned to spying on Mom. She was in the middle of a phone call to my real father. I knew because when she called him, she said 'Peter' instead of Jason's father, Kenneth. 

"Will I be seeing you tonight?" My mom asked, looking excited at the prospect of a chase.  I felt sick. Didn't fidelity mean anything to her? Meanwhile, Ali brightened. I could tell she was tired of sitting on the floor. 

"At 8:00? Won't Veronica be home?" So she did know he had a wife. But she did everything anyway. She deserved to be taken down. Even if she was my mother. 

"Oh, all right. That's good. So, backyard again? Won't Veronica's daughters see us?" I guess my father must have said something back because my mom pursed her lips.

"Yes, fine, Melissa and Spencer are your daughters, but so are Alison and Courtney. They don't even know about you!  You should see your other daughters too. Yes, I mean it! But let's not argue. We'll talk about it after 8:00. Bye!" My mother blew a kiss into the phone. Ali smirked.

"Slut," Ali whispered, giggling. [A/N I do not actually like the word 'Slut'. I personally think it's a terrible word. But Ali just says those kind of things. Just saying. Thanks! Now back to our feature presentation.] Jason and I stared at her. Ali shrugged. 

"You know it's true," she whispered. I decided to move on. 

"All right, so we follow Mom outside at 8:00, catch them in the act-" 

"Then what?" Ali said, interrupting me. 

"Tell them that we know the truth." I said.  

"You do realize that everything could go wrong, right?" Jason asked. Ali rolled her eyes.

"Wow, Jason. You're such an optimist." Ali said loudly.

"Alison! Courtney! Jason! Why are you hiding by the stairs?" My mom asked. Ali's eyes widened.

"Shit!" Ali whispered. Jason looked clueless. 

"Promise you won't laugh, Mom?" I asked, trying to do damage control, and think of a plausible reason as to why we would be skulking around the stairs. 

"Just give me a reason, Alison-" My mom started but I was already protesting.

"I'm Courtney, Mom! That's Ali!" 

"God, Mom, get a freaking clue," Ali said, rolling her eyes. My mother looked  impatient.

"One of you had better tell me what you're doing or I'll-" My mother said angrily (And I detected fear as well), but I had finally figured out an excuse.

"We were looking to see if there were any secret staircases behind this one," I said. "And it's so disappointing. There isn't even a hidden storage room in this house!" I whined. I was a great actress. Ali shot me a glance that said, Nice save. Jason flashed me a thumbs up. My mother looked relieved. 

    "Well, now you know. I would suggest you all get changed so that we can go out for dinner to celebrate having our normal lives back. We're leaving at six." And she left us by the stairwell. We got up.

"Nice save." Ali said.

"Courtney wouldn't have had to save us if you hadn't spoken so loudly in the first place, Alison." Jason said.

"You're just mad because Courtney was smarter than you!" Ali accused. 

"That's stupid." Jason said.  Ali tossed her hair back.

"Whatever," she said. Ali then turned to me. "Court! We have to wear the new Dior dresses Mom bought us. Do you want the marine blue one, or sky blue one?" 

"Sky blue," I said. "Marine goes better with your eyes, because they're more blue. Sky blue will match mine."

"Awesome," Ali said, grinning. "Let's go!" We both changed into our new dresses. We wore matching silver Tory Burch wedged high heels. Everyone looked at us with admiration in their eyes. Ali got most of the looks, but I didn't mind. At first, it seemed like a real family outing. I almost regretted what was going to happen later. Almost. Because my mom was talking on the phone seven minutes in. Kenneth was eating with bad table manners. Jason looked moody and tired. It was just me and Ali, acting normal. So with that, my mind was set. There was no turning back.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~"I have to go run an errand!" My mother called out to us at 7:58. 

"Okay!" The man who used to be my dad said. Ali looked at me.

"Why does he look so ignorant?" she whispered. 

"I don't know. We have to go follow Mom!" I said.

"Jason! Are you coming or what?" I called into his room. Elliot Smith was blaring from his radio.

"No thanks, I'm not feeling good." Jason said. 

"He must be in his Elliot Smith mood." I muttered. Ali nodded.

"Weirdo. Let's go before Mom and Dad stop kissing." she said. Ali and I snuck out of the house. Before we had left, we had changed out of our Dior dresses, and into Talula Aritzia tank tops and Dolce & Gabbana jeans. Ali's was yellow and ruffled . Mine was the same, except it was a dark blue. I could say without bragging that we looked like supermodels. The hedge separating our house with Spencer' s had just been pruned.  I had just gotten stuck again.

            "Will you hurry up?" Ali hissed. "I'm going to die of old age while you take your sweet time!" 

"I'm hurrying!" I whispered back. Finally, I managed to get through the hedge. Ali made it through in about two seconds. 

"That was so hard, Court." Ali said, rolling her eyes at me. 

"Shut up," I mumbled. It was easier when you went second. Now where were Mom and Dad. Then I heard noises. Bingo. Ali grabbed my hand. This was it. We were going to confront them. But who was going to speak first? 

          "This is disgusting." Ali said loudly. Our biological parents looked like teenagers who'd been caught going too far. My mother's face paled. My father's jaw clenched. He didn't like his daughters in the right. As far as I could tell, he might not even claim Ali and I as his. 

"Haven't you ever heard of marriage vows?" Ali kept going. I could tell she was dying to kick their asses. My mother finally spoke.

"Alison. That's enough. I'm very disappointed in your behavior. Is your sister here?"

"Yes," I said angrily. "Her twin is here. Both of the twins that he-" I jerked my head towards my biological father, "Fathered, are here. Are you going to deny it?" I glared at him. He shook his head. Then I rounded on my mother. But before I could speak, Ali laughed crazily. 

"You're disappointed in us? We're not the ones slutting around behind our husbands' backs.  We're not having affairs. You're just mad because we're right, and we've got you looking bad. You really are a whore." Ali spat at her. Before I could even blink, my mother slapped Ali. It was quick, but appeared painful. Ali yelped.

"That's enough, girls. Go wait for me by the hedge while I talk to-" my mother paused. Deciding that she could say it, she went ahead. "Your father. You won't speak to Kenneth about this. You stay right there, where I can see you."  Ali and I walked over, silently to the hedge. I turned to her. 

"Are you okay?" I whispered. She nodded.

"Yeah, thanks. The bitch slapped me on the cheek. It stings, but it won't bruise." Ali said. I could tell she was furious. I understood. I was too. 

"Want to listen to their conversation?" I asked. 

"Definitely," Ali said. My mother was talking animatedly to our father. 

"What do you want to do? Our daughters know. They're angry. What am I supposed to do?"

"If Veronica finds out, she'll want a divorce. If I divorce her first, I can save most of the money. We can get married. Alison and Courtney can live with us. The girls will see Spencer all of the time. And Melissa will be in the city. It will all work out, Jessica. You'll see. Now you should probably go convince the girls not to tell." My father said. My mother nodded. 

"That's such a great idea, Peter. I'll call you later. Bye!" My mother said. She walked back over to the hedge. She looked at us. 

"I am very, very upset with you girls. However, if you don't tell Kenneth, I will not punish you. Do you understand?" We sullenly nodded. My mother's eyes suddenly gleamed. 

"Don't you two understand how good this will be for us? Peter, the two of you, and I? We'll be a proper family!" Ali raised her eyebrow.  All of a sudden, it didn't look so bad. After the divorces, we would be Hastingses. The Hastings family was richer than the DiLaurentis family. Ali and I would be loved by our real parents. We could get everything we'd ever wanted. But the divorces would have to play out right. And Ali and I, we would have to ply our cards right. Maybe Spencer and Melissa's family would break up. But ours? Ours would come together. And besides, weren't we more fabulous anyway?

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A/N-  I'm thinking that maybe I'll have more than a couple chapters. After all, we have to find out if Ali and Courtney get their happy ending (Myself included. Isn't that wonderful? Even I don't know.) Anyway, thank you guys so much!

Hugs and Kisses!!!!!!!!!!!

jesstime