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.
It had been Hanna’s favorite winter break memory, but now she wondered if she and Lucas should’ve been doing something more mature. Like sneaking off to the Mandarin Oriental in New York City, for example, and shopping for jewelry on Fifth Avenue.
The halls were almost empty, and many of the teachers were shutting their classroom doors. Hanna started down the hall, tossing her hair and trying her hardest to snap out of her weirdness. A tiny beeping sound from inside her bag made her jump. Her cell phone.
A small seed of worry began to throb in the pit of Hanna’s stomach. When she looked at the screen, she was relieved to see it was just from Lucas. I forgot to ask, he wrote. Are we still hanging out this afternoon? Text me when you get this.
The between-classes classical music went silent, meaning Hanna was late. She’d forgotten that she’d offered to help Lucas pick out new jeans at the mall. But she hated the idea of Kate, Naomi, and Riley dress-shopping without her, and it seemed weird to have Lucas tag along.
Can’t, she replied, typing while walking. Sorry.
She hit Send and clapped her phone shut. When she turned the corner, she saw her new BFFs standing at the end of the hallway, waiting for her. She smiled and caught up to them, pushing her sinking, guilty feelings out of her head. After all, she was Hanna Marin, and she was fabulous.
18
A JURY OF ONE
Thursday evening, Spencer sat at the dinner table all alone. Melissa had left with friends an hour ago, and her parents had made themselves scarce and then pointedly breezed out the front door, barely saying good-bye. She’d had to scavenge in the fridge for some leftover cartons of Chinese food for dinner.
She stared at the pile of mail on the kitchen table. Fenniworth College, some podunk school in central Pennsylvania, had sent her a catalogue and an accompanying letter saying they would be thrilled to show her around their campus. But the only reason Fenniworth was still willing to let Spencer apply was probably because of how much money her family had. Money she’d thought she was entitled to—until now.
Spencer pulled her Sidekick out of her pocket and checked her e-mail inbox for the third time in fifteen minutes. Nothing from the adoption site. Nothing else from that creepy new A. And, unfortunately, nothing from Wilden. At Hanna’s suggestion, she’d called him about the note she’d received in the library, adding that she was positive someone had been watching her through the windows.
But Wilden had seemed distracted. Or maybe he didn’t believe her—perhaps he thought Spencer was an unreliable witness too. He’d reassured her yet again that this was just some bored kid making trouble, and that he and the rest of the Rosewood PD were investigating the origin of the notes. Then he’d hung up on Spencer when she was in the middle of a sentence. She’d stared at the phone, peeved.
Candace, the family’s housekeeper, started scrubbing the stove, filling the room with eucalyptus-scented cleaner. The latest season of America’s Next Top Model, Candace’s favorite show, droned on the little flat-screen TV above the cabinets. The caterers had just come to drop off some of the ingredients for Saturday’s fund-raiser, and the alcohol distributor had brought in several cases of wine. A few magnum bottles sat on the kitchen island, constant reminders that Spencer was not included in these preparations. If she had been, she certainly wouldn’t have ordered merlot—she would’ve gone for something classier, like Barolo.