Aria Montgomery laid in her bed silently twisting a stray piece of hair around her finger, as she stared up at the wooden beams of her ceiling. She had hoped to be spending her birthday night alone with Ezra at some fancy restaurant or having an intimate dinner at his apartment, but her mother had other plans. She had been planning a party for Aria for a month now and invited half of Rosewood High to their house tonight. The only person that was not attending was the one person that she wanted there, Ezra.

Aria sighed as Ella's distant voice called from the bottom of the steps, "Aria! Can you come down and help me set up?"

"Sure Mom." Aria stood and prepared herself. She had to spend the entire night pretending that this party was the best birthday she'd ever had.

Truth be told, she did appreciate all the work her mother had done to give her a great party. It wasn't Ella's fault that she didn't know about her relationship. She had been trying to get Ezra to go public ever since he started working at Hollis, but he just wasn't ready yet.

Aria entered the kitchen to find food, trays and bowls everywhere. Ella appeared to be dressed and ready for the party, but had thrown an apron over her clothes and was now feverishly slicing a block of cheese for the cheese and cracker tray.

She looked up as Aria entered, "Oh good. I really need you to grab some of those bowls off the table and dump the chips in. I got a few different kinds, so we have a nice selection. Also there are salsas and dips in the fridge, so after you do the chips could you please get some of the tiny glass bowls from the cabinet above the toaster and put those in there. Then…."

"Mom." Aria called, stopping her seemingly endless ramble. "Let's slow down and do one thing at a time. Everything looks great. Don't worry."

Ella smiled with amusement as she realized how crazed she must seem. "I just want your party to be a success."

Aria grabbed the first bag of chip and pulled it open. "It will

"Good." Ella smirked and took a sample bite of the cheese. The door bell rang.

"I thought the party doesn't start until 8:00. It's only 7:30." Aria pointed out with confusion.

"It doesn't. That's my friend Sara." Ella replied, wiping her hands on a dish towel. "I hope you don't mind, but your father and I have a few friends coming over as well. We want to stay out of your hair though, so we'll be in the other room all night."

"Yea That's fine. As long as they don't try to join in on the keg stands." Aria joked.

Ella rolled her eyes with a smirk, "Very funny."

She disappeared from the kitchen to open the door and returned minutes later with Sara in tow. Aria was surprised to find a tall, thin young women with a short blonde hair and big blue eyes. The girl was dressed in dark blue jeans, a hot pink top and knee high leather boots.

When Ella said she had a friend coming, Aria had expected someone closer to her mother's age. Sara looked like she was closer to Aria's age than Ella's.

"This is Sara." Ella introduced and Sara reached out to shake hands. Aria accepted with a polite smile.

"It's nice to meet you. Happy Birthday!" Sara's voice was bubbly and sweet.

"Thanks." Before Aria could say another word, Sara was already mid-conversation with Ella. She obviously had no interest in getting to know Aria any further.

"I'm so excited to finally get to hang out with you and Byron!" Sara exclaimed, as she accepted a glass of wine from Ella and took a sip.

"Us too. We've been talking about it for ages." Ella agreed, than looked over at Aria. "Sara and I met at one of your Dad's Hollis faculty events and hit it off right away."

"You're parents are always so busy. It's impossible to make plans with them." Sara added, once again preventing Aria from getting a word out. "I have to say though, I am really excited to meet this guy you've got picked out for me."

Ella's eyes widen in excitement, "You're going to love him. He's handsome, intelligent and well-read. He writes. If I weren't married, I might have taken him for myself."

Aria felt her heart begin to beat rapidly, "Wait, what are talking about?"

"Sara just broke up with her boyfriend of 4 years, so I thought she could use a little distraction. Your Dad invited Mr. Fitz over for the night, so I figured he could be the perfect distraction." Ella explained.

Aria's mind was on overload. So now Ezra would be here for her party like she was wishing, but he would be on a blind date with another girl. This was the opposite of a birthday present. This was a birthday slap in the face.

Aria scanned Sara once again. This girl was not even close to being Ezra's type and, besides, he was not available. "Mom, don't you think it's going to be awkward for my friends to have Mr. Fitz at my party."

"They won't even see him. I promise."

"Did he agree to this?" Aria asked, trying to sound as calm as possible.

Ella shrugged, "Not exactly. "

Aria lifted an eyebrow, "Not exactly? What does that mean?"

"Ezra approached your father yesterday and invited him out for drinks tonight. Of course, he couldn't because it's your birthday, but he figured it would be nice to invite him over here." Ella clarified, "Ezra doesn't know. All he knows is that we have other friends coming as well."

Aria clenched her fingers behind her back as her cell phone chimed. She quickly pulled it out of her pocket and read the screen. It was a text from Ezra:

Happy Birthday! I've got a surprise for you. – EZ

Aria frowned. She knew he had set up this whole situation just so that he could be there for her birthday party and now it was ruined. She hit the reply button:

I've got an even bigger surprise for you. – Aria