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Jenna had paused just a few yards from Aria, seemingly staring right at her.
Aria paused for a moment. “Hi, Jenna,” she called quietly.
Jenna cocked her head—not hearing, and certainly not seeing—before she pulled on the dog’s collar and continued down the path into the school.
Goose bumps began to rise up on Aria’s arms and legs, and an icy shiver went from the top of her head all the way down to her feet. Even though it was frigid outside, Aria was pretty sure neither response was due to the weather.
17
OH, THE SACRIFICES TO BE POPULAR
“Something about Kirsten Cullen looks fatter,” Naomi whispered in Hanna’s ear. “Is it her upper arms?”
“Definitely,” Hanna whispered back. “But that’s what happens when you drink full-calorie beer at Christmas parties. ” She watched as Sienna Morgan, a pretty sophomore, walked past, her prized monogrammed Vuitton tote swinging. “And you guys know the truth about Sienna’s bag, right?” She looked around at the others, pausing for dramatic effect. “She got it at an outlet. ”
Naomi clapped her hand over her mouth. Riley stuck out her tongue, disgusted. Kate flicked her chestnut hair over her shoulder, reaching inside her own, bona fide Vuitton bag for lipstick. “I hear the stuff at outlets is fake,” Kate murmured.
It was Thursday morning before school, and Hanna was sitting with Kate, Naomi, and Riley at Steam’s best table. Classical music began to play over the loudspeakers, which meant it was time to get moving to homeroom. Hanna and Kate stood up and linked arms, and Naomi and Riley brought up the rear. They were a four-girl parade, with a small entourage of guys following. Hanna’s auburn hair bounced. Naomi looked fashion-forward in her forest green ankle boots. Normally flat-chested Riley looked rather buxom today, thanks to the Wonderbra they’d made her get at the King James yesterday. It had definitely been the best shopping spree Hanna had been on in a long time. No wonder the small knot of sophomore girls by the lost-and-found were gazing at them with envy. No wonder Noel Kahn, Mike Montgomery, James Freed, and the rest of the lacrosse team had been ogling them from a table at the back of the café. Only a handful of hours had passed since Hanna apologized to Naomi and Riley, but everyone in school already understood that they were the people to envy, the girls to know. And it felt so frickin’ good.
Suddenly, Hanna felt a hand on her arm. “Do you have a sec?”
Spencer twitched against the lockers. Her dirty-blond hair was pulled off her face and her eyes darted back and forth. It seemed as if the little mechanical key in her back had been wound way too tight. “Uh, I’m busy,” Hanna said, trying walk past.
Spencer pulled her into the water fountain alcove anyway. Kate glanced over her shoulder, raising an eyebrow, but Hanna waved her on. She turned back to her old friend. “God, what?” she snapped.
“I got another note last night. ” Spencer shoved her Sidekick under Hanna’s nose. “Look. ”
Hanna read the text silently. I thought we were friends, Spence! Blah, blah, blah. “So?” she snapped.
“I was in the Rosewood library at the time. And when I turned around, I saw steam on the window. Breath marks. I swear to God it’s Ian. He’s watching us. ”
Hanna sniffed. This probably would be the time to mention her own A note from yesterday, but that would mean she believed the notes were something to be afraid of. “Wilden told us it’s just a copycat,” she whispered. “Not Ian. ”
“It’s got to be Ian!” Spencer shrieked so shrilly that a pack of younger girls dressed in winter cheerleading uniforms looked over in alarm. “He’s out of jail. He doesn’t want us to testify against him, so he’s trying to scare us. It totally makes sense, doesn’t it?”
“Ian’s under lockdown,” Hanna reminded her. “This is probably just from some loser kid from Rosewood who saw you on the news, thought you were hot, and thinks this is a way to get your attention. And you know what? He has your attention. He’s won. The best thing you can do is just ignore him. ”
“Aria got another note too. ” Spencer whipped her head around and looked down the hall, as if Aria would miraculously materialize. “Did she say anything about it to you? Do you know if Emily has gotten any?”
“Why don’t you bother Wilden with this instead?” Hanna said hurriedly, taking a step back.
“Do you think I should?” Spencer put her finger to her chin. “This note says I should keep quiet. ” Hanna groaned. “You are so lame,” she said. “It’s. A. Fake. ”
With that, she gave Spencer a parting shrug and whirled away. Spencer let out a squeak of disbelief, but Hanna ignored her. She was not about to let Knockoff A manipulate her—she would not be that scared, weak little girl from just a few months ago. Her life was different now.
Kate, Naomi, and Riley were clumped at the end of the hall near the big picture window that looked out onto the snowy soccer fields. Hanna rushed back to them, hoping she hadn’t missed anything good. The three of them were chattering about what they were going to wear to the Rosewood Day charity benefit at Spencer’s house Saturday night. The plan was to spray-tan at Sun Land in the morning, get mani-pedis at Fermata in the afternoon, and then change and do makeup at Naomi’s before hopping in a rented town car. They’d considered arriving in a stretch Hummer limo, but Kate had informed them that Hummers were so two years ago.
“Society photographers might be there, so I’m going to go for my Derek Lam halter dress. ” Naomi swept a lock of long white-blond bangs out of her eyes. “My mom said I had to save it for prom, but I know she’ll forget in a week and let me get something else. ”
“Or we could all dress alike,” Riley suggested, pausing to gaze into her Dior compact. “What about those Sweetface dresses we saw at Saks yesterday?”
“Sweetface, blegh. ” Naomi stuck out her tongue. “Celebs should not be allowed to design clothes. ”
“Those dresses are totally short and cute,” Riley urged, not giving up.
“Stop cat-fighting,” Kate said, bored. “We’ll go to the King James again this afternoon, okay? There are probably tons of stores we didn’t hit. We’ll all find something fabulous. What do you think, Hanna?”
“Done. ” Hanna nodded. Naomi and Riley quickly straightened up and agreed.
“And we need to find you a boyfriend, too, Kate. ” Naomi wound her arm around Kate’s waist. “There are so many cuties in this town. ”
“What about Noel’s brother Eric?” Riley suggested, edging her scrawny butt against the heat vents by the windowsill. “He’s so hot. ”
“He went out with Mona, though. ” Naomi glanced at Hanna. “Is that, like, weird?”
“Nah,” Hanna said quickly. For the first time, she didn’t feel a twinge at hearing Mona’s name.
“Eric would be perfect for Kate. ” Naomi widened her eyes. “I heard that when he was dating Briony Kogan, they snuck off to New York and stayed in a penthouse at the Mandarin Oriental. Eric took her on a carriage ride around Central Park and bought her a love bracelet from Cartier. ”
“I heard that too. ” Riley swooned.
“Well, I certainly could use some romance like that,” Kate admitted. She shot Hanna a covert pout. Hanna nodded back, catching Kate’s oblique reference to her secret, the disastrous, complicated relationship with Herpes Boy in Annapolis. Though Kate still hadn’t confirmed it was herpes, she’d asked that Hanna not get into it with their new friends.
Hanna felt another hand on her arm and exasperatedly turned, thinking it was Spencer again. Instead, it was Lucas.
“Oh, hi. ” Hanna coolly ran her hands through her hair. Over the past few days, she’d communicated with Lucas via only a few terse e-mails and texts, ignoring his repeated calls. But she’d been busy cultivating her new clique, which was as delicate an art as hand-beading a couture gown. Surely Lucas would understand.
Hanna noticed a tiny speck of what looked like pink donut frosting on the tip of Lucas??
?s nose. Normally, she found Lucas’s inability to get all of his food in his mouth cute, but with Kate, Naomi, and Riley here, it was embarrassing. She quickly wiped it off. She wished she could also tuck in his shirt, tie the laces on one of his Converse sneakers, and muss up his hair a little—it appeared he’d forgotten to use the Ceylon-scented styling gel she’d bought him at Sephora—but that might seem really high-maintenance.
Kate stepped forward, grinning broadly. “Hi, Lucas. Nice to see you again. ”
Lucas’s eyes darted back and forth from Kate’s arm, which was linked around Hanna’s, to Hanna’s face, then back to Kate’s arm again. Hanna smiled dumbly, praying that Lucas would keep his mouth shut. The last time he’d seen Hanna and Kate together was over winter break, when he’d picked Hanna up to go skiing. Hanna hadn’t even bothered to acknowledge Kate, pretending like she was merely another piece of living room furniture. She hadn’t had time to tell him about the latest turn of events.
Kate cleared her throat, looking amused. “Well. We should leave the lovebirds alone, girls. ”
“I’ll catch up with you,” Hanna said tightly.
“Bye, Lucas,” Kate trilled as she, Naomi, and Riley clacked down the hall.
Lucas shifted the books in his arms. “So…”
“I know what you’re going to say,” Hanna interrupted, her vocal cords taut. “I decided to give Kate a chance. ”
“But I thought you said she was demonic. ”
Hanna put her hands on her hips. “What am I supposed to do? She lives in my house. My father basically told me that he’ll disown me if I’m not nice to her. She apologized to me, and I decided to accept her apology. Why can’t you just be happy for me?”
“Okay, okay. ” Lucas stepped back in surrender. “I am happy for you. I didn’t mean for it to sound like I wasn’t. I’m sorry. ”
Hanna let out a long, fiery breath through her nose. “It’s fine. ” But Lucas had killed her buzz. She strained to hear what Kate, Naomi, and Riley were saying, but they were too far away. Were they still talking about dresses, or had they moved on to shoes?
Lucas waved an arm in front of Hanna, a concerned look on his face. “Are you okay? You seem kind of…weird. ”
Hanna snapped back to him, mustering up the best smile she could. “I’m fine. Great, actually. But we should go, right? We’re going to be late to class. ”
Lucas nodded, still looking at Hanna funny. Finally, he sighed, leaned over, and kissed her neck. “We’ll talk more about this later. ”
Hanna watched Lucas as he loped down the hall to the science wing. Over the winter break, Hanna and Lucas had built a huge snowwoman in the snow, something Hanna hadn’t done since she was little. Lucas had given the snowwoman big plastic surgery boobs, and Hanna had tied her Burberry scarf around the snowwoman’s neck. After they finished, they had a snowball fight, then went inside and baked chocolate chip cookies. Hanna virtuously ate only two.