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Spencer’s eyes darted back and forth, sort of like those of the big lizards Aria had seen on display at the Paris Zoo "Um, no," she said "But I’m really late, so…" She ran down the hall Aria bit down hard on her lip Okay

Someone put a hand on her shoulder She let out a little shriek and dropped her water bottle It clunked to the floor and started rolling

"Whoa Just trying to get by"

Ezra stood behind her He’d been absent from school on Tuesday and Wednesday, and Aria had wondered if he’d resigned "Sorry," she ht red

Ezra had on the same rumpled corduroys he’d worn last week, a tweedy jacket with a tiny hole in the elbow, and Merrill lace-ups Up close, he s and saffron-scented " rooo, but it felt like two lifetimes had passed since then

Aria tiptoed into the classroom behind him "So, were you sick?" she asked

"Yes," Ezra aswered "I had the flu"

"Sorry to hear that" Aria wondered if she was going to get the flu too

Ezra looked at the empty classroom and walked closer to her "So Listen How about a fresh start?" His face was businesslike

"Uet through," Ezra added "So we’ll forget this happened?"

Aria sed She knew their relationship rong, but she still had feelings for Ezra She’d bared her soul to him, and she couldn’t do that with just anyone And he was so different "Of course," she said, although she didn’t entirely believe it They’d had a real…connection

Ezra nodded slightly Then, ever so slowly, he reached out and put his hand on the back of Aria’s neck Tingles ran up her spine She held her breath until he brought his hand back to his side and walked away

Aria took a seat at her desk, her et it, but it hadn’t felt that way

Before she could decide if she should say anything to Ezra, Noel Kahn slid into the seat across from Aria and poked her with his Montblanc pen "So, I hear you’re cheating on me, Finland"

"What?" Aria sat up, alert Her hand fluttered to her neck

"Sean Ackard was asking about you You know he’s with Hanna though, right?"

Aria poked the backs of her teeth with her tongue "Sean…Ackard?"

"He’s not with Hanna any into his seat in front of Noel "Mona told me Hanna dumped him"

"So, you like Sean?" Noel pushed his wavy black hair out of his eyes

"No," Aria said auto back to the conversation she’d had with Sean in his car on Tuesday It had felt good to talk to so a hand across his forehead "I orried"

Aria rolled her eyes

Hanna sauntered into the roo on her desk and sinking draht smile

"Hey" Aria felt a little shy In school, Hanna seemed awfully closed off

"Hey, Hanna, are you with Sean Ackard anymore?" Noel asked loudly

Hanna stared at hi between us Why?"

"No reason," Aria butted in quickly Although she wondered why Hanna had broken up with him They were two peas in a typical Rosewood pod

Ezra clapped his hands "All right," he said "In addition to the books we’re reading as a class, I want to do an extra side project on unreliable narrators"

Devon Arliss raised her hand "What does that mean?"

Ezra strode around the rooht? But what if…the narrator isn’t telling us the truth? Maybe he’s telling his skewed version of the story to get you on his side Or to scare you Or maybe he’s crazy!"

Aria shivered That n each of you a book," Ezra said "In a ten-page paper, you are tounreliable"

The class groaned Aria rested her head in her palm Maybe A wasn’t entirely reliable? Maybe A didn’t really know anything but was just trying to convince them otherwise Who was A, anyway? She looked around the classrooh a tiny hole in her stockings; at Mason Byers, secretly checking the Phillies scores on his cell phone, using his notebook as a shield; and at Hanna, writing dohat Ezra was saying with her purple-ink feather pen Could any of these people be A? Who could know about Ezra, her parents…and The Jenna Thing?

A groundskeeper zoomed by on a John Deere mower outside the , and Aria ju to take a sip out of his an to thruestured to Ezra "So, I hear Fitz gets soh for Aria--and the rest of her row--to hear

Hanna looked at Ezra and wrinkled her nose "Hiirlfriend in New York, but he’s on a different Hollis girl every week," Jahtened up Girlfriend?

"Where’d you hear that?" Noel asked Jarinned "You know Ms Polanski? The bio student teacher? She toldcorner soh five "Dude, Ms Polanski is hot"