Sara Shepard: Perfect

Hanna frowned. Despite being cute, incredibly rich and part of the über-sexy clan of Kahn brothers, Noel wasn’t really her type. “No boys,” she decided. “Although that’s very cool about Eric.”

“This is going to be a fabulous Frenniversary.” Mona grinned so broadly that her dimples showed. “Can you believe this is our third ?”

Hanna smiled. Their Frenniversary marked the day Hanna and Mona had talked on the phone for three and a half hours—the obvious indicator that they were best friends. Although they’d known each other since kindergarten, they’d never really spoken before cheerleading tryouts a few weeks before the first day of eighth grade. By then, Ali had been missing for two months and Hanna’s old friends had become really distant, so she’d decided to give Mona a chance. It was worth it—Mona was funny, sarcastic, and, despite her thing for animal backpacks and Razor scooters, she secretly devoured Vogue and Teen Vogue as ravenously as Hanna did. Within weeks, they’d decided to be best friends and transform themselves into the most popular girls at school. And look: Now they had.

“Now for the bigger plans,” Mona said, flipping another page of her notebook. “Sweet seventeen,” she sang to the MTV My Super Sweet Sixteen melody.

“It’s going to rock,” Hanna gushed. Mona’s birthday was this Saturday, and she had almost all the party details in place. She was going to have it at the Hollis Planetarium, where there were telescopes in every room—even the bathrooms. She’d booked a DJ, caterers, and a trapeze school—so guests could swing over the dance floor—as well as a videographer, who would film the party and simultaneously webcast it onto a Jumbotron screen. Mona had carefully instructed guests to wear formal dress only on the invites. If someone turned up in jeans or Juicy sweats, security would not-so-politely turn them away.

“So I was thinking,” Mona said, stuffing a napkin into her empty paper coffee cup. “It’s a little last-minute, but I’m going to have a court.”

“A court?” Hanna raised a perfectly plucked eyebrow.

“It’s an excuse to get that fabulous Zac Posen dress you keep frothing over at Saks—the fitting is tomorrow. And we’ll wear tiaras and make the boys bow down to us.”

Hanna stifled a giggle. “We’re not going to do an opening dance number, are we?” She and Mona had been on Julia Rubenstein’s party court last year, and Julia had made them do a dance routine with a bunch of D-list male models. Hanna’s dance partner smelled like garlic and had immediately asked her if she wanted to join him in the coatroom. She’d spent the rest of the party running away from him.

Mona scoffed, breaking her biscotti into smaller pieces. “Would I do something as lame as that?”

“Of course not.” Hanna rested her chin in her hands.

“So I’m the only girl in the court, right?”

Mona rolled her eyes. “Obviously.”

Hanna shrugged. “I mean, I don’t know who else you could pick.”

“We just need to get you a date.” Mona placed the tiniest piece of biscotti in her mouth.

“I don’t want to take anyone from Rosewood Day,” Hanna said quickly. “Maybe I’ll ask someone from Hollis. And I’ll bring more than one date.” Her eyes lit up. “I could have a whole load of guys carry me around all night, like Cleopatra.”

Mona gave her a high five. “ Now you’re talking.”

Hanna chewed on the end of her straw. “I wonder if Sean will come.”

“Don’t know.” Mona raised an eyebrow. “You’re over him, right?”

“Of course.” Hanna pushed her auburn hair over her shoulder. Bitterness still flickered inside her whenever she thought about how Sean had dumped her for way-too-tall, I’m-a-kiss-ass-English-student-and-think-I’m-hot-shit-because-I-lived-in-Europe Aria Montgomery, but whatever. It was Sean’s loss. Now that boys knew she was available, Hanna’s BlackBerry inbox was beeping with potential dates every few minutes.

“Good,” Mona said. “Because you’re way too hot for him, Han.”

“I know,” Hanna quipped, and they touched palms lightly in another high five. Hanna sat back, feeling a warm, reassuring whoosh of well-being. It was hard to believe that things had been shaky between her and Mona a month ago. Imagine, Mona thinking that Hanna wanted to be friends with Aria, Emily, and Spencer instead of her!

Okay, so Hanna had been keeping things from Mona, although she’d confessed most of it: her occasional purges, the trouble with her dad, her two arrests, the fact that she’d stripped for Sean at Noel Kahn’s party and he’d rejected her. She’d downplayed everything, worried Mona would disown her for such horrible secrets, but Mona had taken it all in stride. She said every diva got in trouble once in a while, and Hanna decided she’d just overreacted. So what if she wasn’t with Sean anymore? So what if she hadn’t spoken to her father since Foxy? So what if she was still volunteering at Mr. Ackard’s burn clinic to atone for wrecking his car? So what if her two worst enemies, Naomi Zeigler and Riley Wolfe, knew she had a bingeing problem and had spread rumors about her around the school? She and Mona were still tight, and A had stopped stalking her.

Kids began filtering out of the coffee bar, which meant that free period was about to end. As Hanna and Mona swaggered through the exit, Hanna realized they were approaching Naomi and Riley, who had been hiding behind the giant swirling Frappuccino machine. Hanna set her jaw and tried to hold her head high.

“Baaaarf,” Naomi hissed into Hanna’s ear as she passed.

“Yaaaaak,” Riley taunted right behind her.

“Don’t listen to them, Han,” Mona said loudly. “They’re just pissed because you can fit into those Rich and Skinny jeans at Otter and they can’t.”

“It’s cool,” Hanna said breezily, sticking her nose into the air. “There’s that, and at least I don’t have inverted nipples.”

Naomi’s mouth got very small and tense. “That was because of the bra I was wearing,” she said through clenched teeth. Hanna had seen Naomi’s inverted nipples when they were changing for gym the week before. Maybe it was just from the weird bra she had on, but hey—all’s fair in love and the war to be popular.

Hanna glanced over her shoulder and shot Naomi and Riley a haughty, condescending look. She felt like a queen snubbing two grubby little wenches. And it gave Hanna great satisfaction to see that Mona was giving them the exact same look. That was what best friends were for, after all.

Emily Fields never had practice the day before a meet, so she came straight home after school and noticed three new items sitting on the limestone kitchen island. There were two new blue Sammy swim towels for Emily and her sister Carolyn, just in time for their big meet against Drury tomorrow…and there was also a paperback book titled It’s Not Fair: What to Do When You Lose Your Boyfriend . A Post-it note was affixed to the cover: Emily: Thought you might find this useful. I’ll be back at 6.—Mom.

Emily absentmindedly flipped through the pages. Not long after Alison’s body had been found, Emily’s mother had started surprising her with little cheer-me-ups, like a book called 1001 Things to Make You Smile , a big set of Prismacolor colored pencils, and a walrus puppet, because Emily used to be obsessed with walruses when she was younger. After Toby’s suicide, however, her mother had merely given Emily a bunch of self-help books. Mrs. Fields seemed to think Toby’s death was harder for Emily than Ali’s—probably because she thought Toby had been Emily’s boyfriend.