hear her family’s stories and become a part of them.
And then I felt myself drifting, slowly detaching from the world I’d always known. For a split second, panic shot through me. I wasn’t ready. I didn’t want to leave them. But then my eyes fell on the tree, on our little silver stars. Laurel had hung hers just below Emma’s. I understood then. We were a constellation. We would always be together.
I turned toward Emma, the twin sister I never got to meet in person, who’d lived my life and brought me peace, even though it had nearly cost her everything. “Thank you,” I whispered.
In the reflection of the stars, I saw my form glowing brilliant silver-gold, getting brighter and brighter until I couldn’t even look at myself. I was turning into energy, pure and vibrant. I took a last look at my family, my constellation, beautiful and bright.
“Remember me,” I said, knowing they would. And then, as fast as a shooting star, I was gone.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Thank you to everyone who made this series possible, including Lanie Davis, Sara Shandler, Katie McGee, Josh Bank, and Les Morgenstein at Alloy, as well as Kristin Marang and her digital team. Also thanks to Kari Sutherland and the Harper team for all their good thoughts and proper direction. And to Jen Graham: You are truly amazing and beyond helpful. I don’t know what I’d do without you!
Also a shout-out to the people at Alloy Entertainment LA and ABC Family—I love what you have done with the TV show, and I hope the fun continues! And thanks, too, to all the readers of this series—I hope you’ve followed the mystery to the very end. I love hearing from you—please don’t stop the tweets, letters, and comments. Hooray!
CREDITS
Cover photo © 2013 by Gustavo Marx/Mergeleft Reps, Inc.
Cover design by Liz Dresner
COPYRIGHT
HarperTeen is an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.
SEVEN MINUTES IN HEAVEN.
Copyright © 2013 by Alloy Entertainment and Sara Shepard.
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
Produced by Alloy Entertainment
1700 Broadway, New York, NY 10019
ISBN 978-0-06-212822-5 (trade bdg.)
ISBN 978-0-06-227238-6 (int. ed.)
EPub Edition MAY 2013 ISBN 9780062128249
13 14 15 16 17 LP/RRDH 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
FIRST EDITION
CONTENTS
1: Facebook Hacking Is So Sophomore Year
2: Up for a Challenge, Down for the Deed
3: Fair Play
4: Fleas and Thank You?
5: No Time Like the Present
6: Zen and Now
7: No Place Like Home
8: Beauty Sleep Is Overrated
9: A Total Waste of a Pedicure
10: Turnabout Is Fair Play
11: You Can Dance If You Want To
12: Surprise, Surprise
13: Regrets Only
14: Just Between Us
Acknowledgments
Credits
Copyright
1
FACEBOOK HACKING IS SO SOPHOMORE YEAR
It’s a typical Saturday afternoon, and my best friends Charlotte Chamberlain and Madeline Vega and I are sitting outside La Paloma Country Club in Tucson, Arizona, where we all live. It’s the last few weeks of summer before we start our junior year and we’re not losing a second of tanning time. We’re all wearing our brand-new Missoni bikinis that are sort of matchy-matchy but not quite, the air smells like Banana Boat sunscreen and freshly cut limes in the neighboring moms’ cocktails, and the high-pitched squeals from the kiddie pool off to the left carry across the neatly landscaped stone patios. As we sip Perrier through skinny red straws—this place is super-strict about underage drinkers—Char takes a breath. “So I have an idea for the next prank for the Lying Game, Sutton,” she says, turning to me. “We go on Facebook, and—”
“No, no, no,” I cut her off, lowering my copy of Us Weekly to my chest. “We’ve done the Facebook thing to death, Char. It’s too easy. The Lying Game is about originality, remember?”
Charlotte flushes, which just makes her freckles stand out more. “It was a variation on a theme, obviously.” She pushes her Chloe aviators to the top of her head and offers a very well-practiced careless shrug that almost has me convinced she doesn’t care about my opinion. The thing is, though, she does. She and Madeline both … as well as everyone else at Hollier High. Not that I’m trying to boast or anything. That’s