Twisted. (Book Nine)

Fourteen: BFFS 4-Evr.

On Wednesday afternoon, Emily stood in front of Steam. As usual, every stool in the cafe was taken. Naomi Zeigler, Riley Wolfe, and Kate Randall held court under the big Italian poster of La Dolce Vita. Kirsten Cullen and Amanda Williamson stood at the counter and argued over which cupcake they wanted to split.

Students swept down the hall, heading to lunch or their next classes. First, Emily spotted Hanna through the crowd. She had a faraway smile on her face, seemingly oblivious to the people around her. Then, almost a split second later, Spencer rounded the corner, talking loudly to Scott Chin, one of her yearbook coeditors. "I had an amazing time at the Kahns' smorgasbord last night, didn't you?" she said.

And next, possibly because Emily was thinking about her, Aria strutted down the hall, arm in arm with that new exchange student from Finland who was living with Noel Kahn.

Not a single one of them glanced at Emily. The horrible A note in Ali's mailbox seemed a zillion miles from their thoughts. Why couldn't Emily forget about it, too?

"Hey, Emily!"

Chloe emerged through the clot of students. Emily waved. "Hey!"

As Chloe ran toward her, Emily felt a happy rush. This was their first lunch together, but since Emily had visited Chloe on Monday they'd friended one another on Facebook, commented on each other's posts, and had a lengthy IM chat last night before bed, gossiping about people in their classes, teachers to avoid, and the long-standing rumor about how the A/V supply room was where horny couples went to have sex.

Chloe looked Emily up and down, a smirk on her face. "Now, where have I seen that outfit before?" She gestured to Emily's Rosewood Day uniform plaid skirt and white blouse, then fingered her own identical blue blazer. "It's so bizarre to go to a school that enforces uniforms. We look like members of a cult."

"I've had to suffer through it for twelve years," Emily groaned. Then she turned toward the cafeteria. "You ready?"

Chloe nodded, and Emily followed the crowd of kids into the cafeteria, which was rapidly filling up with students. As they walked through the food lines, Emily gave Chloe a brief run-down. "The sushi is good, but don't get the chicken teriyaki—it comes out of a can."

"Got it."

Emily selected a Caesar salad and a package of pretzels and put them on her tray. "The pasta bar is okay, but for some reason only kids in band and orchestra eat pasta. No one else."

"What about soft pretzels?" Chloe pointed at the pretzel rack.

"Pretzels are fine," Emily said vaguely. Actually, the big soft pretzels used to be Ali's signature lunchtime food in seventh grade. Once they became part of Ali's clique, Emily, Aria, and Spencer ate pretzels, too, and lots of girls in their class copied them.

A charred smell wafted out of the kitchen then, reminding Emily of the fire in the Poconos. Even though the flames had reached the tops of the trees, even though the police had sworn over and over that there was no way Ali could have survived the explosion, Emily still had a horrible feeling Ali had gotten away. The very night after it happened, she'd had a dream about finding Ali in the woods beyond her parents cabin, covered in burns. Ali had opened her eyes and stared straight at her. "You just dug your own grave, Emily," she said laughingly, reaching out to claw Emily with catlike talons.

"You coming?" Chloe called, staring at Emily inquisitively.

Emily looked down. She'd stopped dead in the cafeteria line, lost in thought. "Of course," she said, scurrying through the checkout.

They found a seat by the windows. Pure white snow blanketed the practice fields.

Chloe pulled out her phone and pushed it across the table to Emily. "Look at this picture of Grace. My mom sent it to me this morning."