Perfect (Book Two)

Two: Hanna 2.0.

Mona Vanderwaal put her parents' Hummer into park but left the engine running. She tossed her cell phone into her oversize, cognac-colored Lauren Merkin tote and grinned at her best friend, Hanna. "I've been trying to call you."

Hanna stood cautiously on the pavement. "Why are you here?"

"What are you talking about?"

"Well, I didn't ask you for a ride." Trembling, Hanna pointed to her Toyota Prius in the parking lot. "My car's right there. Did someone tell you I was here, or...?"

Mona wound a long, white-blond strand of hair around her finger. "I'm on my home from the church, but job. I saw you, I pulled over." She let out a little laugh. "You take one of your mom's Valiums? You seem sort of messed up."

Hanna pulled a Camel Ultra Light out of the pack in her black Prada hobo bag and lit up. Of course she was messed up. Her old best friend had been murdered, and she'd been receiving terrifying text messages from someone named A all week. Every moment of today—getting ready for Ali's funeral, buying Diet Coke at Wawa, merging onto the highway toward the Rosewood Abbey—she felt sure someone was watching her. "I didn't see you at the church," she murmured.

Mona took her sunglasses off to reveal her round blue eyes. "You looked right at me. I waved at you. Any of this sound familiar?"

Hanna shrugged. "I...don't remember."

"Well, I guess you were bust with your old friends," Mona shot back.

Hanna bristled. Her old friends were a sticky subject between them—back a million years ago, Mona was one of the girls Ali, Hanna, and the others teased. She became the girl to rag on, after Jenna got hurt. "Sorry. It was crowded."

"It's not like I was hiding." Mona sounded hurt. "I was sitting behind Sean."

Hanna inhaled sharply. Sean.

Sean Ackard was her now ex-boyfriend; their relationship had imploded at Noel Kahn's welcome-back-to-school field party last Friday night. Hanna had made the decision that Friday was going to be the night she lost her virginity, but when she started to put the moves on Sean, he dumped her and gave her a sermon about respecting her body. In revenge, Hanna took the Ackard family's BMW out for a joyride with Mona and wrapped it around a telephone pole in front of a Home Depot.

Mona pressed her peep-toe heel on the Hummer's gas pedal, revving the car's billion-cylinder engine. "So listen. We have an emergency—we don't have dates yet."

"To what?" Hanna blinked.

Mona raised a perfectly waxed blond eyebrow. "Hello, Hanna? To Foxy! It's this weekend. Now that you dumped Seam you can ask someone cool."

Hanna stared at the little dandelions growing out of the cracks in the sidewalk. Foxy was the annual charity ball for "the young members of Rosewood society," sponsored by the Rosewood Foxhunting League, hence the name. A $250 donation to the league's choice of charity got you dinner, dancing, a chance to see your picture in the Philadelphia Inquirer and on glam-R5.com—the area's society blog—and it was a good excuse to dress up, drink up, and hook up with someone else's boyfriend. Hanna had paid for her ticket in July, thinking she'd go with Sean. "I don't know if I'm even going," she mumbled gloomily.

"Of course you're going." Mona rolled her blue eyes and heaved a sigh. "Listen, just call me when they've reversed your lobotomy." And then she put the car back into drive and zoomed off.

Hanna walked slowly back to her Prius. Her friends had gone, and her silver car looked lonely in the empty parking lot. An uneasy feeling nagged at her. Mona was her best friend, but there were tons of things Hanna wasn't telling her right now. Like about A's messages. Or how she'd gotten arrested Saturday morning for stealing Mr. Ackard's car. Or that Sean dumped her, and not the other way around. Sean was so diplomatic, he'd only told his friends they'd "decided to see other people." Hanna figured she could work the story to her advantage so no one would ever know the truth.