Sara Shepard - Perfect

“Hanna!” Emily cried. “Oh my God!”

It only took a second. Hanna didn’t even realize she’d been hit until she was in the air, and she didn’t realize she was in the air until she was on the pavement. Something in her cracked. And then pain. She wanted to cry out, but she couldn’t. Sound was amplified—the car’s engine roared, her friends’ screams were like sirens, even her heart pumping blood sounded wet in her ears.

Hanna rolled her neck to the side. Her tiny, champagne-colored clutch had landed a few feet away; its contents had sprung out like candy from a burst piñata. The car had run over everything, too: Her mascara, her car keys, her mini bottle of Chloé perfume. Her new BlackBerry was crushed.

“Hanna!” Aria screamed. It sounded like she was coming closer. But Hanna wasn’t able to turn her head to look. And then it all faded away.

“Oh my God!” Aria screamed. She and Emily crouched down at Hanna’s contorted body and started yelling.

“Hanna! Oh my God! Hanna! ”

“She’s not breathing,” Emily wailed. “Aria, she’s not breathing !”

“Do you have your cell?” Aria asked. “Call 911.”

Emily reached shakily for her phone, but it slid out of her hands and skidded across the parking lot, coming to a stop by Hanna’s exploded evening bag. Emily had begun panicking when she picked Aria up and Aria told her everything—about A’s cryptic notes, about her dreams, about Ali and Ian, and about how Spencer must have killed Ali.

At first, Emily had refused to believe it, but then a look of horror and realization washed over her. She explained that not long before Ali went missing, Ali had confessed that she was seeing someone.

“And she must have told Spencer,” Aria had answered. “Maybe that’s what they’d been fighting about all those months before the end of school.”

“911, what’s your emergency?” Aria heard a voice say on Emily’s speakerphone.

“A car just hit my friend!” Emily wailed. “I’m in the Rosewood Day School parking lot! We don’t know what to do!”

As Emily cried out the details, Aria put her mouth against Hanna’s lips and tried to give her mouth-to-mouth like she’d learned in lifeguarding class in Iceland. But she didn’t know if she was doing it correctly. “C’mon, Hanna, breathe,” she wailed, pinching Hanna’s nose.

“Just stay on the line until the ambulance gets there,” Aria could hear the 911 dispatcher’s voice say through Emily’s phone. Emily leaned down and reached out to touch Hanna’s faded Rosewood Day sweatshirt. Then she pulled back, as if she was afraid. “Oh my God, please don’t die….” She glanced at Aria. “Who could have done this?”

Aria looked around. The swings swayed back and forth in the breeze. The flags on the flagpole fluttered. The woods adjacent to the playground were black and thick. Suddenly, Aria saw a figure standing next to one of the trees. She had dirty blond hair and wore a short black dress. Something in her face looked wild and unhinged. She was staring right at Aria, and Aria took a step back across the pavement. Spencer.

“Look!” Aria hissed, pointing to the trees. But just as Emily raised her head, Spencer disappeared into the shadows.

The buzzing startled her. It took Aria a moment to realize it was her cell phone. Then Emily’s Call Waiting lit up. One new text message, Emily’s screen said. Aria and Emily exchanged a familiar, uneasy look. Slowly, Aria brought her Treo out of her bag and looked at the screen. Emily leaned over to look, too.

“Oh no,” Emily whispered.

The wind abruptly stopped. The trees stood still like statues. Sirens wailed in the distance.

“Please, no,” Emily wailed. The text was only four chilling words long.

She knew too much.

—A

Perfect was the toughest Pretty Little Liars book to date, because there were so many pieces that had to fit in exactly the right places to make everything work. So I want to thank all of the careful readers, plotters, chart-makers, word arrangers, and other brilliant people who helped in the process: Josh Bank and Les Morgenstern, who saw Perfect through its early stages, spending days with me hashing out how exactly Spencer should go mad. I’m very grateful to have you guys on my side. The wonderful people at HarperCollins, Elise Howard and Farrin Jacobs, who puzzled over many drafts, catching all kinds of things I constantly missed. Alloy’s Lanie Davis, who drew brilliant charts, was on-call whenever, wherever, and remained an unflagging fan. And, last but not least, my patient, incredibly competent and wonderfully innovative editors—Sara Shandler at Alloy and Kristin Marang at HarperCollins—whose hard work helped to really snap this book into focus. I appreciate all of you for knowing these characters so well, loving this series as much as I do, and really believing in its success. We truly are Team Pretty Little Liars, and I propose we start a bowling team, or perhaps a synchronized swimming team, or perhaps we could all just wear matching Lacoste polo shirts.

Many thanks and much love to Nikki Chaiken for professional advice on early drafts about Spencer and Dr. Evans. Love to my wonderful husband, Joel, for his research on what sort of plane would be used to write messages in the sky and the physics of what happens to cars when they crash into each other, and who continues to read all the drafts of this book—amazing! Love also to my wonderful friends and readers, including my fabulous parents, Shep and Mindy (no swanky bar that serves red wine would be complete without either of you), my sweet and loyal cousin, Colleen (no swanky bar would be complete without you, either), and my good friend Andrew Zaeh, who texted me as soon as he stepped off a plane to tell me that someone was reading Pretty Little Liars , 20,000 feet up. And thanks to all who have reached out so far with your thoughts and questions about the series. It’s great to hear you’re out there. You guys are part of Team Pretty Little Liars, too.

And thanks to the zany girl this book is dedicated to—my sister, Ali! Because she’s nothing like the Alison in this book, because we can still go on for hours about the magical, fictitious world of pelicans, owls, and square-headed creatures we made up when we were six, because she doesn’t get mad when I accidentally wear her $380 Rock and Republics, and because tattoos look very nice on the back of her neck—even though I think she should’ve gone with a certain man’s face and a huge eagle tattooed there instead. Ali is quality with a capital Q , and the best sister anyone could ask for.

Oooops! So I made one teensy tiny slip-up. It happens. I’ve got a busy life, things to do, people to torture. Like four pretty little ex-best friends.

Yeah, yeah. I know you’re upset about Hanna. Wah. Get over it. I’m already planning my outfit for her funeral: appropriately somber with a touch of flash. Don’t you think little Hannakins would want us to mourn in style? But maybe I’m getting ahead of myself—Hanna does have a history of rising from the dead….

Meanwhile, Aria just can’t catch a break. Her soul-mate’s in jail. Sean hates her. She’s homeless. What’s a girl to do? Looks like it’s time for a life makeover—new house, new friends, maybe even a new name. But watch out Aria—even if your new BFF is blind to your real identity, I’ve got 20/20 vision. And you know I can’t keep a secret.

I wonder how CONVICT is going to look next to CLASS VP on Spencer’s college apps? Seems like Little Miss Golden Orchid is about to trade her kelly-green Lacoste polo for a scratchy orange jumpsuit. Then again, Spence wouldn’t have that perfect GPA if she didn’t have a few tricks up her sleeve—like, say, finding someone else to blame for Ali’s murder. But know what? She just might be right.