Page 102 of Zero Chance

“Hey!”She whirled around glaring, only to blink down at the book as it fell to the floor again.“How did you…?”Bending to pick it up, she frowned at the book in her hand, clearly trying to figure out how I’d lifted it from the floor while I was standing on the other side of the counter.

When her gaze slid to me in question, I said nothing, just lifted my eyebrows as if to say I’d spill my secrets if she spilled hers.

Not engaging, she scoffed.“Real mature.”And she spun away to slot the book onto the cart.

“Dammit,” I muttered, pressing my hands onto the countertop and leaning over it to hang my head.“Come on, Waverly.There’s got to besomethingyou want.”

Pausing, she glanced over, and I swear I saw the lure of thatsomethingglistening in her eyes.She knew exactly what she wanted.I started to straighten eagerly, ready to get her anything, but she blinked, and the look dissipated before she sniffed.“From you?Nope.Nothing.”

“Gah,” I hissed, pushing away from the counter to furrow my brow in irritation.“Why are you being so…?”

She lifted her eyebrows, waiting for me to finish that sentence, but I didn’t continue.

Huffing out an irritated breath, I pointed threateningly.“This isn’t over,” I promised, and I whirled away to stomp off.

Xander had clearly gotten to her too.

As I jogged back up the stairs, a rush of cold air wafted over my hair.“Yeah, thanks for trying,” I told my mother.“Now I just need to know who actuallywrotethe note.”

In answer, she tugged on the note I had in my hand.

“What?”I glanced down in surprise to find that my mother had gotten another book and clamped it around my note as if biting it with pages of teeth.

This time, when she tried to lead me with the note via book, I followed much more readily.

And back down the stairs we went.“I swear,” I whispered to my mom under my breath, “if you take me back to that checkout counter, I’m leaving.”

I was not having another embarrassing, unexplainable encounter with Waverly.

But my mom steered me away toward a portable whiteboard that was sitting in the middle of the floor, with a handwritten message on it, saying that English 236 classes were being held in the computer lab.

The note and book didn’t stop moving until they plastered themselves directly against the whiteboard, and then the book slipped away to leave me holding the note up by myself.

Utterly confused, I started to shake my head as I squinted at the note.“I don’t—” But even as I spoke, I noticed what my mother had been trying to show me.

The penmanship.

Whoever had written on this board had written my note.I swallowed thickly as I studied the E’s and L’s.

“Holy shit,” I breathed.My mystery girl worked in the library.

My mom poked me with her book and then jabbed it in the direction of the checkout counter as if she were trying to point something out to me.I glanced over.

Waverly was still there, drawing something on a sheet of paper with a thick marker.As she finished, she turned and taped the sign that said those books were ready to be shelved to the end of the cart.The E’s and L’s matched the whiteboard letters perfectly.

I blinked, unable to stop staring.

Full denial spread over me.

“No,” I said.“No, no, no.”

My vision wavered, and I went dizzy as a cold sweat coated my skin.

How was this happening, though?It couldn’t be.Because there was no way Mystery Girl wasWaverly.She didn’t attend parties; she wouldn’t have even been within a mile of my house last Friday night.

Except Xander knew all the details from Mystery Girl, and the two of them had become close.

And…

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