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Mrs Hastings raised her glass "To Spencer s clinked "And to being on the front page of this Sunday’s Sentinel"

Spencer raised her glass and clinked it with them, but the effort was halfhearted She didn’t want to be here She wanted to be at ho about her strange session with Dr Evans this ht with Ali the night she disappeared--was haunting Why hadn’t she remembered it before? Was there rats, Spencer," her hts "I hope you win"

"Thanks," Spencer reen napkin back into an accordion, then went around the table and folded all the others, too

"Nervous about soed her chin at the napkins

Spencer immediately stopped "No," she said quickly Whenever she shut her eyes, she was right back in the Ali ain It was so clear now She could srew in the woods that paralleled the barn, feel the early su the dark sky But it couldn’t be real

When Spencer looked up, her parents were gazing at her peculiarly They’d probably asked her a question she’d completely missed For the first ti the conversation

"Are you nervous because of the doctor?" her mother whispered

Spencer couldn’t hide her smirk--she loved that her mom called Dr Evans "the doctor" instead of "the therapist" "No I’otten a lot…" Her father see with his tie pin

"…accomplished, with the doctor?"

Spencer rocked her fork back and forth Define accomplished, she wanted to say

Before she could answer, the waiter appeared It was the sauy who had a Winnie-the-Pooh voice "Hello, Mr and Mrs Hastings" Pooh shook her father’s hand "And Spencer You’re looking lovely"

"Thanks," Spencer h she was pretty sure she wasn’t She hadn’t washed her hair after field hockey, and the last time she’d looked in the mirror, her eyes had a wild, scared look to the around the restaurant to see if soht?" Pooh asked He fluffed up the napkins Spencer had just refolded and spread them on everyone’s laps "Here for a special occasion?"

"Actually, yes," Mrs Hastings piped up "Spencer’s a finalist in the Golden Orchid competition It’s a major academic prize"

"Mom," Spencer hissed She hated how her mother broadcast family accomplishments Especially since Spencer had cheated

"That’s wonderful!" Pooh bellowed "It’s nice to have soood news, for once" He leaned in closer "Quite a few of our guests think they’ve seen that stalker everyone’s been talking about Soht"

"Hasn’t this town been through enough?" Mr Hastings lanced at her husband "You know, I swore I saw so at me when I met Spencer at the doctor’s on Monday"

Spencer jerked her head up, her heart racing "Did you get a look at hied "Not really"

"So it’s a man Others, a woman," Pooh said

Everyone tsked in distress

Pooh took their orders Spencershe’d been getting ever since she stopped ordering off the kids’ menu As the waiter trundled away, Spencer looked blearily around the dining room It was done up in a ramshackle-Nantucket-boat theme, with dark wicker chairs and lots of life buoys and bronze figureheads The far wall still had the ocean iant squid, a killer whale, and ablond hair and a broken, Owen Wilson–style nose When Spencer, Ali, and the others used to coe deal, back in sixth and seventh grades--they loved sitting next to the merman Once, when Mona Vanderwaal and Chassey Bledsoe came in here by theive theFrench kiss Tears of shaues to the painted ht Her dream floated back You can’t have this, Ali had said Why did Spencer get so angry? Spencer thought Ali was going to tell Melissa about Ian that night Was that why? And what did Dr Evans s that happen to them? Had Spencer ever done that before?

"Mom?" Suddenly Spencer was curious "Do you know if I ever, like, randoot a whole bunch of stuff? Like…experienced temporary amnesia?"

Her ?"

The back of Spencer’s neck felt clammy Her mother had the same disturbed, I don’t want to deal with this look she’d had the tiot too drunk at one of their parties and prattled off a few deeply protected farandmother had a iven away a child for adoption when she was seventeen "Wait, I have?"

Her e "You were seven You had the flu"