The Pretty Little Lying Game (A PLL and TLG Fanfiction) *PAUSED*

Chapter 9

Chapter 9

"Aah!" he cried, stumbling backwards over a large toolbox. "Who—who are you?!"

Aria reached over, since she was closest, and turned on the lights that they'd shut off when they'd heard Mr. Mercer, revealing themselves to him.

"Aren't you S—Sutton's friends from school?" He appeared to still be in shock, because he was stuttering like crazy as he swiveled his head from girl to girl.

"Uh, yeah," Spencer stepped forward, giving a sheepish-looking grin. "We were playing a game of hide-and-seek with your daughter, and we thought this was the perfect place to hide."

"Good save," Hanna mumbled. Aria shot her a look that read shut-up-he-might-hear-us.

"With Sutton? Oh, okay. Sorry, girls. Would you like to join us for dinner?" Mr. Mercer offered.

Before anyone could say anything, Aria had accepted the offer. Well, it would be rude not to, right? Sutton's father led them up and out of the room, to the grand kitchen they'd been in not too many hours ago, where Mrs. Mercer, Emma and Laurel were sitting politely. When they saw Mr. Mercer coming back with four girls, they were plenty surprised.

Emma twisted a cloth napkin in her hands under the table. She'd known that once Mr. Mercer stepped down there, he'd catch them in the act, but she hadn't quite counted on him to be so calm. What had they told him? Coughs erupted from his mouth as he cleared his throat and announced that the four girls behind him were going to be joining them for dinner. Emma was surprised. Normally, Sutton's dad would've assumed they were hobos that had broken into their basement through a hole in the wall or something, but he looked fine to her.

Laurel gave her a questioning look, followed by mouthing the words "What are they doing here?"

"So, I didn't know you had invited these young ladies over here today." Mr. Mercer said, before she had the chance to reply.

She snuck a glance at Spencer, Aria, Emily and Hanna, then turned back to him. "Oh, yeah. It was just a quick thing. I invited them when we were at school."

"I didn't see them come over here." Laurel stated.

"Yeah, we ran up to her room really quickly," said Emily.

Emma slowly nodded, as if agreeing to the comment.

"Oh, well, it's nice to have you over," Mrs. Mercer smiled. "I'll get extra plates to serve you girls. Give me just a minute."

At that, she put her hands on the table and brought herself up, walking over to get their meals. Laurel plopped her elbows on the table and stared at Emma and the liars.

"So, how did you guys meet? I've never seen you four around before these two days." She folded her hands under her grin, regarding them with scrutiny.

"We've been in a town a few miles over for a while. You know, our friend Alison used to tell us stories of this place a lot. We haven't talked to her in a while, though." Emily said at all with a straight face, rather calmly, acting like she was simply telling a story, instead of lying right to a person's face.

Emma was somewhat marveled by this. Emily had successfully dodged the question while seemingly answering it. She wondered if Sutton was this good at lying. Well, the Lying Game was more of a pranking thing, really. It was a strange thing to see, because it felt like it came naturally to them, like lying was a sport and they were in the pro leagues. Each girl sent out a calm, confident vibe that you would never guess was false. Emma always stuttered when she lied—not to mention the thing with her palms itching whenever she lied to adults. She could never pull it off like they did.