

That afternoon, news comes that workers found Alison's decomposed body underneath a slab of concrete used for a gazebo at the old DiLaurentis house, now occupied by Maya's family. Aria says no, and attempts to tell Emily about A, but decides against it when Emily starts for her bike home. She asks if Ali ever told the other girls something about her behind her back. Aria starts to worry if Ali's ghost is sending her messages as A.Before she can think about the subject anymore, Emily shows up at her door, seeming panicky and terrified of something. The next morning, Aria wakes up from a nightmare about Alison showing up at the Montgomery house and rotting while talking to Aria.

In a panic, Aria tells Ezra that she has to leave and hurries home. However, while Ezra is in the bathroom, Aria receives a text from A, taunting her and Ezra's relationship and threatening to tell Ella about Byron's affair and that Aria knew about it. She breaks her promise of not leaving to Noel and hurries to Ezra's place, where they nearly have sex. However, once at the party, Aria is bored out of her mind and is thrilled when she gets a phone call from Ezra, inviting her to come to his apartment. She even picks Noel to be her partner in a project for Ezra's class, kissing Noel on the cheek and loudly accepting his invitation for his party for Ezra to hear. Frustrated, Aria starts to try and make Ezra jealous by talking to Noel, who has a crush on Aria. The next day, Aria approaches him in his classroom about their relationship and Ezra tells her that, although he still has feelings for her, it's not a good idea.

The next day at school, they are both shocked to see each other in English class, which is where A's texts begin to arrive, taunting Aria about Ezra. They immediately bond when Aria mentions having been in Europe, they end up hooking up in the bar's bathroom. They meet at a bar before the school year begins, neither of them knowing that Ezra would soon be Aria's teacher, due to Aria lying about being a college student. In Pretty Little Liars, Aria begins a secret relationship with her English teacher, Ezra Fitz. However, the girls continue to receive messages after Alison's body is found buried under the concrete base for a gazebo at the old DiLaurentis house. She believes it's Alison at first because the texts contained information about things only Ali knew, like the affair her father had with his student.

Aria comes back to Rosewood for her junior year of high school and, along with Spencer, Hanna and Emily began to receive texts from someone called A. Ali had constantly teased Aria about the affair, leading Aria to avoid her for a few weeks before Ali's death. Byron makes Aria promise not to tell Ella or Mike, and she keeps the promise, trying to keep her family together. Before she had left, Aria and Ali had discovered that Byron was having an affair with one of his students, Meredith. After Ali's disappearance, the remaining 4 girls all drift apart and Aria and her family move to Iceland for three years due to Byron's job as a professor and lecturer. Aria, along with Spencer, Hanna, and Emily, suddenly finds herself as one of the most popular girls in Rosewood when Alison, the princess of their local private school, randomly decides to make them her new clique in 6th grade, and the 5 girls all quickly become best friends. Her family is a bit odd too her parents want her and her brother Mike call them by their first names, Ella and Byron, and they are much looser with rules than most Rosewood parents.
