XIII.
Want a birthday surprise?
Look behind you, Princess.
— A
Hanna whipped around, heart racing. So many faces blurred together in the crowd outside on the quad — groups of students tossing a frisbee, some lying down on the grass reading, others flicking out the ashes of their cigarettes into the dirt.
It only took a moment for her to spot Caleb standing by a tree, grinning with a cell phone in his hands.
Jerk.
It had been months since her last text from the real A, and no one at Rosewood Academy had seen Aria since her withdrawal, but Hanna had never lost that edge, that sense that someone had the upper hand.
"Don't scare me like that, you moron," she said as Caleb approached her, but she hugged him nonetheless. "Why can't you be a nice boyfriend and surprise me with cupcakes? Little vanilla cupcakes with mountains of frosting and sprinkles."
"Since when have I ever been a nice boyfriend?" Caleb said with mock disgust, kissing her forehead. "I only block my number and send you creepy texts out of love. But! That's not to say that I don't have a real surprise for you." He took her hand then, pulling her away from the quad. "Come on. It's in my room."
"Sounds scandalous."
"You wish." He rolled his eyes. "It's PG-rated, trust me."
The walk to Cavanaugh Hall was the most freeing walk Hanna had ever taken in her life. So much had happened in the past few months, but the weight of it all had only been sinking into Hanna's skin gradually. Now, it crushed her all at once, but in the best way. She was free. Her scholarship was intact. Her fourth-year project was complete. She would probably be graduating at the top of her class in a couple of months, much to the bitter disappointment of the famous Spencer Hastings. And she was walking hand in hand with the boy who had been there through all of it.
He smiled at her then, and she realized she must have been staring at him for a good minute, all dreamy-eyed and happy. Some months ago, she would have scowled. Blushed. Looked away and pretended the eye contact had never happened.
Now, she had no shame as they approached room 503. Still holding her hand, he reached into his pocket for his key, savoring that slow, endless moment as he unlocked the door and pushed it open.
The room looked unimpressive at first glance. Caleb kept it shockingly clean. It was fuller than Hanna's — something filled up every available shelf space — but it remained sparse-looking.
Caleb flipped on the light switch and shut the door behind him, and suddenly Hanna understood what was different about his room today.
"SURPRISE!" Lucas shouted, leaping out from the closet. He held a single vanilla cupcake with a leaning tower of frosting in one hand and a party-blower in the other. He blew it then, and Hanna was almost disappointed when a spray of confetti didn't come flying out.
She laughed. "Okay, you got me. I can't say I was expecting this."
They all cleared a spot on Caleb's floor and sat, Lucas handing the cupcake to Hanna, and Caleb producing a party hat — topped with tinsel, even — for her to place on her head.
Lucas and Caleb sang "For She's a Jolly Good Fellow," and since they had no candles, Caleb sparked a flame from his pocket lighter for Hanna to blow out.
"Let's raise a toast," Lucas said, holding up an invisible glass. "To a future without A."
"And without worries," added Caleb.
"And without twenty-page AP Calculus exams," Hanna said boldly.
They clinked imaginary glasses and drank up, their ears ringing not with the sound of buzzing or pinging or beeping cell phones and email alerts, but with the sound of their own laughter, loud enough to overcome it all.