For a split second, the hurt was obvious on her face, but then she shrugged and chirped, “Okay! Well, have a fun lunch, guys!” Mona and Hanna had collapsed into giggles when she walked away.
The thing was, not that long before that, Hanna had laughed at Mona when she was in Ali’s clique. And not long before that, Real Ali had laughed at Hanna. At the way her rolls of fat spilled over her jeans. At how she couldn’t do a cartwheel in gym. Hanna remembered how humiliated and ashamed she’d felt. And yet, when it was her turn to wear the Queen Bee crown, she’d teased people so effortlessly, like she’d never been on the other side.
Popularity had turned Ali, Mona, and Hanna into remorseless bitches. It hadn’t affected Colleen at all, though—even dating Mike, she’d remained exactly the same girl as before. And now Hanna was being tormented by the worst popular bitch of all—A. Did Hanna really want to do that to someone else?
Her phone suddenly beeped, shrill and loud in the quiet hall. A new text envelope appeared on the screen. Frowning, Hanna exited out of the text she was planning to write and opened the new one. The sender was a series of jumbled letters and numbers.
C’mon, Hanna. Send that video. You know you want to.
Hanna’s stomach felt like it was on fire. Did she want to? She missed Mike desperately. She wanted him to be her date here, not Colleen’s, and for them to go on runs and sneak into the movies and play hours and hours of Gran Turismo like they used to. But could she live with herself if the only way she accomplished that was to send around the video? It reminded her of the way she felt when she wore a pair of shoes or a bracelet she had shoplifted: It was amazing to have a Tiffany toggle around her wrist, but something about it made her feel a little dirty, too. Colleen might have been annoying, but she didn’t deserve her own personal A.
Hanna returned to the text with the video link, took a deep breath, and pressed DELETE. Doing so felt cleansing. Almost . . . good. Like she’d beaten A at A’s game.
A high-pitched giggle swirled from one of the corners, and she whipped around. Footsteps rang out behind her. Suddenly, Naomi Zeigler and Riley Wolfe sauntered up to Hanna, their phones in their hands.
“You’ve outdone yourself this time, Hanna,” Naomi snickered.
“Nice one,” Riley added, pushing a lock of bright-red hair behind her ear.
“What are you talking about?” Hanna snapped.
“That video.” Naomi waved her phone back and forth. “It’s priceless.”
Hanna’s stomach plummeted to her feet. Video? Did Naomi mean what she thought? But Hanna had deleted the text! Had A sent it out anyway and just said it was from Hanna? “It wasn’t me,” she blurted.
Riley gave her a crazy look. “Uh, this sure as hell looks like you.”
She shoved her cell phone in Hanna’s face. Hanna stared at it, fully expecting to see Colleen in the Latvian yogurt commercial, but her own image popped up instead. The first part of the video was Hanna at the pole dancing class. Her skimpy top rode up and her shorts rode down, showing off a strip of her lacy underwear. Her hips looked huge as she did circles and rolls, and when she tried to climb that pole she looked like a deranged monkey. The camera caught an unfortunate shot of her crotch as she tumbled to the ground.
“What?” Hanna whispered.
The video kept going. The next part showed Hanna skulking through the bushes at the King James Mall, staring into Victoria’s Secret with binoculars. The camo made her skin look red and blotchy and her waist so much bigger than it really was. And when she emerged from the bushes, she had a couple of leaves on her butt. The camera zoomed in on them as she followed Mike and Colleen down the concourse.
Hanna peered at the girls, her heart thudding faster. “I don’t understand.”
“Doing some spying, were you, Hanna?” Naomi giggled.
The video continued. Next was a clip of Colleen walking into the photographer’s studio, Hanna sneaking up behind her, looking desperate and ridiculous. And then it showed Hanna just a few hours before, retrieving Colleen’s photos, looking through them angrily, and tossing them into her glove box. The final frame was a message in bold, red type. Hanna Marin, desperate stalker!
“Oh my God.” Hanna’s stomach sank.
Naomi snickered. “I always thought you were a loser for going out with a younger guy, but spying on him after he dumps you? That’s a new low, even for you. And now everyone knows.”
“Everyone?” Hanna croaked.
She stared into the ballroom and got her answer. A bunch of Rosewood Day kids gaped at their phones, then raised their heads en masse and gawked at Hanna. “Looking hot in camo, Hanna!” Seth Cardiff said. “Hey, Mike, you’ve got a secret admirer!” Mason Byers chuckled.
Mike. Hanna found him and Colleen near the window, staring at his phone. Hanna could pinpoint the exact moment when Colleen got to the part in the video where Hanna stole her photos. She covered her mouth with her hand and then turned to Hanna with a betrayed look on her face. Mike’s head shot up and he stared at her, too, his eyes burning. Colleen turned and fled into the lobby. Mike followed.
Hanna took a few crooked steps backward, almost tripping over a long curtain that separated the main room from a little hallway. How had this happened? Who had been following her around? Who had sent that video to everyone?
Of course: A. This was A’s reason for encouraging her to spy on Colleen: to throw it back in her face and make sure she lost Mike for good.
28
TIME IS RUNNING OUT
“They went all out, huh?” Isaac said as he and Emily walked into the Hollis Gemological Museum.