Courtney DiLaurentis (Book Character)

"And my friends...I don't even know them any more."

- Courtney to Nick

Courtney DiLaurentis was the identical twin sister of Alison DiLaurentis. She was also the girl who Aria, Spencer, Emily, and Hanna knew as "Ali" and was their best friend. She was actually not mentally insane, Alison just made a plan to make Courtney look like it. Before the DiLaurentises moved to Rosewood their last name was Day-DiLaurentis, they changed it due to their secret daughter, Courtney. Courtney was killed by her sister and an unknown person soon after completing seventh grade, due to her, having had impersonated her sister, the real Alison. She was found three years later buried in her backyard.

Physical Appearance
Courtney has long, wavy honey-blonde hair and deep, cerulean blue eyes; bow-shaped lips and a heart shaped face less pronounced than Alison's. Courtney's hair is lighter and wavier than Ali's, and her eyes are smaller and less blue. Her waist is a little less narrow and her chest a little smaller than her sister's. Both her and Alison have said that she's the less beautiful twin.
 * Distinctive feature: Her heart-shaped face and impish smile
 * Known for: Her beauty, her alleged insanity, and her disappearance
 * Favorite things: Field Hockey, her friends, and Nick Maxwell
 * Biggest Regret:  Having an unhappy life and treating her friends badly
 * Worst offense: Stole her sister's identity, blinded Jenna Cavanaugh, and manipulated her friends

Biography
Courtney since childhood was tormented by her twin sister (despite their initial friendship). Alison was always jealous of her more popular sister and forced Courtney to impersonate her, at the same time tormenting Courtney to the point when angry Courtney got into a physical fight with her. When the doctors were called by girls' parents, Courtney panicked and revealed that Alison was threatening her and forcing to impersonate. Alison (who was acting very innocently all the time) claimed it was not true and decided that her sister had to go (allegedly for everyone's safety). In the outcome, Ali's master plan worked: Courtney was recognized as a paranoid schizophrenic.

The DiLaurentis family moved to Rosewood and Courtney was placed at the Radley, a mental institute. She occasionally came home on the weekends, but she was forced to stay in the house, as the DiLaurentis family pretended they only had two children (Jason and Alison). She stayed there for about three years until the Radley was closed down. Her parents planned to send her to The Preserve at Addison-Stevens in Delaware (because Alison lied that Courtney threatened her), but she did not want to start over.

One weekend, Courtney was staying at home while her parents were planning to switch her between institutes, and she was having yet another fight with Alison. It was the same weekend the Time Capsule competition at Rosewood Day School was announced, and everyone wanted to find or steal a piece of the flag. Aria, Spencer, Hanna and Emily each wanted to steal Alison's piece for their own reasons, but when they arrived in the DiLaurentises' backyard, they noticed each other and came out to confront each other. Courtney noticed this from the house and alerted Alison, who only brushed it off, revealed her lie and started teasing her sister again (malicious yelling in the DiLaurentis' house which the Liars heard was actually Alison's one, not Courtney's). Courtney had stolen Alison's "A-is-for-Ali" ring and she pretended she was her sister, lamenting about her flag already being stolen and discussing what she drew on it. Her mother Jessica, believing she was the real Ali, came out to tell her that she was leaving. Courtney barely acknowledged her and kept up the chatter to see if her mother would really be fooled into taking Ali in her place. Jessica hesitated briefly, but she then left with Ali in tow.

Courtney was immensely relieved that her plan worked; she was now Alison DiLaurentis. She had to figure out her sister's life quickly and so she read Alison's diary and realized couldn't maintain Ali's friendship with Naomi Zeigler and Riley Wolfe, because there were things she didn't understand about them. Instead, she deliberately got in a 'fight' with Naomi and Riley and dumped them, making them uncool. She set her eyes on the four girls she talked to in her backyard, Spencer, Hanna, Aria, and Emily. The girls were shocked but flattered that the most popular girl at Rosewood Day wanted them as her friends. Throughout sixth grade, the five most popular girls in Rosewood had a great time together. She had always considered them her best friends, even getting jealous when they weren't around her.

Their lives suddenly grew more complicated when Courtney decided to get revenge on her neighbor, Toby Cavanaugh  for spying on the girls while they were changing. She intended to launch one of his fireworks near his tree house, but she saw him molesting his stepsister Jenna Cavanaugh. She was so shocked that the firework launched out of her hand and directly toward the tree house. As a result, Jenna was blinded and Toby took the blame, even though he saw Courtney and intended to tell the police. However, Courtney threatened to tell everyone about his sexual assault of Jenna, so Toby in the end confessed to lighting the firework and he was sent off to boarding school in Maine. The girls were horrified by the event and named it "The Jenna Thing". After the accident, Courtney made friendship bracelets for the girls and made them promise to never tell anyone what really happened. Three years later, Aria confesses to Jenna that they were involved in the accident, but Jenna tells Aria that she and Courtney had bonded over "sibling issues" and they had planned the whole thing to get rid of Toby. And even though it didn't go quite to plan and resulted in Jenna losing her sight, she couldn't be happier that Toby was finally gone.

One of Courtney's biggest (supposed) secrets was her (supposed) affair with Ian Thomas, a high school senior who was dating Spencer's sister, Melissa, and whom Spencer also liked. In fact, it was later revealed that Courtney did not actually like Ian and was creeped out by the age difference between them; however, she pretended to like him in order to convince him to kiss Spencer (originally, for the purpose of both making Spencer happy and ensuring that Spencer would want to stay friends with her). She promised to kiss Ian herself if Ian kissed Spencer. Unfortunately, right as Ian kissed her, Courtney's new boyfriend, Nick Maxwell, caught them, leading Nick to dump her. Courtney's misery over the breakup was a major source of much of Courtney's nasty behavior towards her friends in her last few days. To celebrate the end of seventh grade, Courtney and the others decided to have a sleepover to kick-off the summer and on the evening of the last day of school, everyone gathered in Spencer's barn apartment. However, that same weekend, Alison was home from the Preserve and was furious with what Courtney had done, leading Ali and an unknown person killing her.

While the other girls were generally happy, she made teasing statements to them which made everything tense between them all. She told everyone about how she knew how to hypnotize a person and insisted on trying it out on them (which, unbeknownst to the Liars, was to keep them from noticing her sister spying on them, and also to be sure that they stayed loyal to her forever, in case Alison tried to charm them and take them from her). It took some convincing, but they eventually agreed. Before she could get to Spencer - the last one not yet hypnotized - Spencer had jumped up and refused to do it. She opened her window blinds to let some light in, but Courtney noticed her twin hiding right by the window with a camera. She ignored her (though was secretly terrified that her friends would see her) and argued with Spencer before storming out. Spencer followed her to the edge of the Hastings property and they continued their argument. After Spencer shoved her lightly to the ground, Courtney, in anger, dropped the (false) bombshell that she was seeing Ian and another (true) bombshell that she convinced him to kiss Spencer. As she continued to taunt her friend, Spencer shoved her into the stone wall of the Hastings property. Courtney recovered quickly but noticed someone up ahead in her own backyard. Knowing that it was Alison, she ran off and ignored Spencer, who would be the last Liar to see her alive. When Courtney runs into the woods, Alison appeared and began threatening and taunting Courtney. Then the two girls began wrestling on the ground. Courtney said that all she wanted was for the two of them to be sisters and Ali says that she wants to kill Courtney, but she can't. At that moment someone else came, then Alison pushed her into the hole for the gazebo. In the few minutes before Courtney died she recognized both voices, her sisters and another one. They have planned the murder all along. Alison and her accomplice throw a lot of dirt on Courtney's body. The next day the construction crew poured concrete into the hole, unaware that Courtney's body was lying in it. Alison was sent back to the Preserve.

The media stakes out the DiLaurentis mansion and jumps on the story of a beautiful rich girl who is "missing." A campaign to find "Alison" was soon started by her family. Three years later, the St. Germains moved into the home and were planning to put in a tennis court where the unfinished gazebo stood. When the construction team excavated the concrete, Mrs. St. Germain (Maya's mom) saw Courtney's body and screamed. The police swarmed the property and reopened the investigation as a murder case. Courtney was buried under Alison's name.

Alison DiLaurentis
After the initial friendship, Ali started to be jealous of Courtney so much that she tormented her and framed her into being insane. The two sisters hated each other, and Alison was constantly teasing Courtney, treating her with superiority. When she was forced to take Courtney's place at the new mental institute, she was livid. She had a perfect life in Rosewood and Courtney successfully co-opted it, all because of Spencer, Emily, Hanna, and Aria's unexpected appearances in the yard. They provided the perfect distraction for Courtney and Ali hated them for it. Though Ali despised Courtney, Courtney was almost able to talk Ali out of killing her by stating that she just wanted them to be sisters again. However, Alison's accomplice in the crime (whose identity is currently unknown) showed up, causing Ali's hatred for her sister to win over. Ali killed Courtney, and, though she seemed shocked at first by what she'd done, she later convinced herself that Courtney deserved it (which was not true), and did not regret killing her. She planned to take her life back afterward, but her parents figured out that she did something horrible to her twin, and she was sent straight back to the Preserve.

Spencer Hastings
Spencer and Courtney had a complicated relationship. They were close friends and shared many interests, but they often got into fights the most. Being raised by no nonsense lawyers, she was the only one that was tough enough to stand up to Courtney. She often teased Spencer about not making the JV hockey team and having a crush on Ian. She was also secretly resentful that Spencer was unwilling to tell her crush on Ian. On the night of her death, Courtney taunted her friend for always wanting what she had and never being able to be as close to Ian as she (supposedly) was. Her last interaction with her friend thus ended on a very negative note.

Aria Montgomery
Besides Spencer, Aria was the only other friend who wasn't totally enchanted by Courtney. In fact, she felt keen resentment toward her for constantly bringing up her father's affair with a college student. In actuality, Courtney was originally trying to make Aria feel better and be there for her; however, she became resentful that Aria didn't want to confide in Courtney about her feelings, leading her to tease Aria about it. She was there when Aria discovered them making out (and, in fact, made sure that Aria discovered this, having already discovered it herself). In the last several weeks of Courtney's life, Aria avoided her as much as possible, unable to deal with her teasing.

Hanna Marin
Hanna idolized Courtney and wanted to emulate her. Of the four girls, she was the most surprised and flattered that "Ali" wanted to be friends with her. She was overweight due to her stress-based overeating after her parents' divorce, and Courtney's jokes about her weight made her feel worse. Hanna never fought back and sometimes felt like she deserved the teasing, believing she was worthless. Courtney would tell her lies such as fidgeting would make her skinnier (though she was actually likely trying to do this to make Hanna feel better), and Hanna usually believed her.

Emily Fields
Emily also adored Courtney, but not for the same reasons as Hanna. She had strong feelings for her friend and expressed them by kissing her one day. Unbeknownst to Emily, Courtney already knew about Emily's crush on her, having read it in Emily's notebook, but did not acknowledge it until Emily kissed her. Courtney was initially shocked but soon found it a source of amusement. She often pointed out things connected to gay people, such as the gay parade, and asked Emily what she thought. Emily was embarrassed by her crush's teasing, but she maintained a sense of overprotective feelings. In fact, Emily was Courtney's favorite, and Courtney felt more guilty when she teased Emily than she did about anyone else she teased. Courtney jokingly called her "Killer" because she defended her like a possessive Rottweiler. It is revealed in Ali's Pretty Little Lies, that Emily was probably her favorite, and she loved it when she complimented her, even when Emily said "I can't believe i know you" it meant a lot to Courtney, even if she didn't show it.

Ian Thomas
Ian was quite philanderous and liked flirting with other girls, especially Alison DiLaurentis. Both the real Ali and Courtney were creeped out by him; however, Courtney, knowing that Spencer liked him and wanting to both help Spencer and earn her gratitude, flirted back with Ian, promising to kiss him if he would kiss Spencer (though, due to her relationship with Nick, Courtney never intended to hold up her end of the bargain). Courtney, disgusted by Ian's willingness to cheat on his girlfriend with her own sister, later demanded that Ian break up with Melissa before she would kiss him (though this never ended up happening). This promise of a kiss ended up leading to the ruination of Courtney's and Nick's relationship; when Ian forcibly kissed Courtney, Nick caught them and broke up with her on the spot, leading Courtney to be miserable (which, in turn, lead her to be quite nasty to her friends). Due to Courtney's flirting with Ian, Melissa began to (falsely) suspect that Ian and "Ali" were having an affair. Courtney later falsely claimed to Spencer during a fight that she and Ian were having an affair, and revealed that she had told Ian to kiss Spencer, leading Spencer to shove her hard against the wall. Courtney wanted to meet with Ian the night of the sleepover. Unfortunately for her, Ali got to her before Ian did. He actually saw the two arguing (as did Spencer) but he was drunk, and he was only able to tell that the person with Courtney was blonde.

Jenna Cavanaugh
Before the switch happened, during Courtney's visit home, she and Jenna and Alison played Barbies in the backyard one afternoon. Shortly after the switch, Alison came home for a weekend and when Courtney wasn't watching, Alison escaped the house and told Jenna about the switch. Courtney tormented Jenna in school for unknown reason, but Jenna never told the secret to anyone. Shortly before "The Jenna Thing" happened, Courtney saw Jenna in tears. Courtney suddenly wanted to atone for her nastiness and asked what's wrong. When Jenna told that Toby was molesting her, Courtney decided to help her.

Death
Courtney was tackled by her sister in the hole near the gazebo. They wrestle, and Ali is about to shove her in, but changes her mind. Courtney says she just wants a sister again. Ali looks like she will let Courtney go, but Ali sees someone and says "You're here". Courtney looks, then turns around only to see Ali's sinister face. She shoves her in the hole, and Courtney feels something sharp and metallic bang on her neck. She falls in, breaking something. She looks up, and can't move. She finally realizes who the person was, right before she dies. She died of hard impact and a blow to the neck. Three years later, the St. Germains family moves in her house, and are having a tennis court made. When they are digging, Mrs. St. Germain sees her body and screams.

Covers
Both Alison and Courtney are thought to be on the cover of Ali's Pretty Little Lies.