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"I’estured to the bed--"this"

Garrett sat tentatively on the edge of the bed, staring at Emma as if her skin had turned purple "Butwe’ve been talking about it all summer"

Eht about it," Garrett went on, running his hands over his spiky hair "And I realized you were right: There’s no reason to wait I want my first time to be with you Don’t you want it to be with me, Sutton?"

E strip of boxer shorts peeking out of the top of Garrett’s jeans I’ed ed your mind?" Garrett searched her face desperately Then he placed his palms flat on the petal-strewn mattress "Wait a minute," he said in a low, shaky voice "Were all of our sex talks just so prank? Is this what you did to Thayer?"

"No, of course not!" E what Sutton had done to Thayer "It’s justI can’t"

She took a big step back The essential oil sain Then she flung the door open and fu down the stairs to the party, she turned the other direction and dove into a room one door down

She shut the door just as Garrett stepped into the hall "Sutton?" he called E around, his footsteps soft on the carpet "Sutton?" he called again

E herself to breathe quietly and praying he wouldn’t coroaned A door slaain E through the foyer

She turned and slu in relief The roohts that illuminated a bed with a black-and-white striped bedspread A white-and-pink egg chair sat in the corner An avant-garde irls lined the walls Emma blinked hard at the three-way mirror on the wall by the closet She frowned at the MacBook Air on the desk and the flat-screen TV on the low bureau This looked exactly like Sutton’s room, but in reverse So this wasLaurel’s room?

Emma’s knees cracked as she slowly rose to her feet She’d never seen inside Laurel’s room before--Laurel always kept the door closed Eht at Laurel’s desk and peered at the photos on the bulletin board The picture of Sutton and her friends in front of the monkey house at the zoo looked oddly familiar So did the one of Sutton, Madeline, and Charlotte waving cookie-batter spoons at one another They were exactly the same photos from Sutton’s room--Laurel wasn’t even ineerie about Laurel’s roo such a precise knockoff of her sister’s Al to become her

Emma tiptoed to Laurel’s bed and stuck her head under the dust ruffle Besides an extra tennis racket, there were only balled-up socks and a couple of hair ties She peeked into the closet A slight smell of perfu in Sutton’s closet had its place, Laurel’s blouses and dresses hunghalfway off, jeans and T-shirts piled in the corner Shoes lay scattered on the floor

Eain and rubbed her te here Some kind of proof of what Laurel had done

I hoped there wasn’t I hoped she hadn’t done it

A single blue light on Laurel’s co hard, Emma paced to the desk and sat down The screen saver was a e of Sutton, Laurel, and the rest of the crowd at dances, restaurants, and sleepovers It quickly dissolved when E a dark desktop jas like SHAKESPEARE PAPER or C’S PARTY

A creak sounded outside the door Eed fro She strained for any sounds that were close, every nerve ending tingling Slowly she breathed out

Turning back to the co Game into the search field The little rainboheel whirled One folder popped up, buried deep within a temporary drive Emma clicked on it several ti sound

The folder listed a series of videos Emma clicked on the first one, and a short clip of Madeline pretending to drown in a pool appeared It was the same video Emma had seen on Facebook Another video showed Sutton, Charlotte, and Madeline on a green golf course at night, spray-painting a rock "A thousand bucks says Laurel doesn’t show," Sutton said It was another video froe

She clicked onthe in a Du Mrs Mercer’s car while she shopped at AJ’s Market, the rest of the girls hiding in the bushes with the ca when Mrs Mercer ca the desks in a classroo upside down on its pole On and on it went Prank after prank It never see sicker and sicker Every prank we’d pulled was cunning--and cruel We’d hurt a lot of people Maybe not everyone found it funny

Emma clicked on the very last video, a file at the bottom of the list titled THE QUEEN GOES DOWN A dark screen appeared For a few seconds, the ca trees and bushes and the round Someone breathed close to the microphone There was a sharp snap, and the camera became level and still, as if it had been fastened to a tripod It focused on a close-up of a chair in the ure landed on the chair as if she’d been pushed She had a black blindfold over her face A round silver locket bounced at her throat Emma clapped her hand over her mouth, filled with both terror and relief

This was the video that had started it all for Eht her here This was her proof

A figure appeared on the screen Easped as the person leaned into the caht fro features adjusted, and her face came into focus Emma pressed her hands to her mouth She felt like she was on a roller coaster that had just plunged down a hill Laurel