"oh, come on," she groaned, hands flying to her head.

her pulse pounded in her ears. her chest heaved.

the weight of everything—lucas, amanda, the whispers, the looks, the suffocating wrongness of walking back into a world that had already decided it didn't want her in it—pressed against her ribs, heavy and sharp.

she exhaled, hard. get it together.

then—

"you done?"

her head snapped up so fast she nearly gave herself whiplash.

xavier baxter.

he was slouched at a desk near the window, phone in one hand, looking utterly unbothered by the fact that she had just attempted to commit violence against furniture. his leg was stretched out in front of him, the brace on his knee propped up slightly.

she had heard about his accident. about the hit-and-run. about how he'd been laid up in the hospital for days. almost died.

bethany groaned, dragging a hand down her face. "jesus christ, can you make some kind of noise next time?"

xavier smirked. "why? so you can throw me at the whiteboard too?"

for a second, she considered walking right back out.

but the thought of stepping into that hallway again, of hearing one more person whisper about her like she wasn't standing right there, made her stay.

she exhaled sharply, crossing her arms. "didn't know this room was taken."

xavier shrugged, still looking at his screen. "technically, it's not."

bethany stared at him, then at the backpack lying on the floor in defeat. she sighed, walking over to pick it up and dropping into the desk beside him.

for a moment, neither of them spoke. the silence was thick, but not as suffocating as the hallway.

xavier finally glanced up. "rough day?"

bethany scoffed. "try rough week."

xavier nodded slowly. "yeah. i get that."

she exhaled, leaning back against the desk. "you're not in class."

xavier lifted his phone slightly. "grabbing my books. doing my work in the library all week."

"because of your—?" bethany gestured vaguely at his leg.

xavier tapped the brace with his knuckles. "yeah. kinda hard to get run over and not get special treatment."

bethany hesitated. "right. i heard about that."

there was a beat of silence.

"i swear to god," she muttered, more to herself than to him. "if one more person looks at me like i'm about to pull out a machete, i'm gonna—"

xavier tilted his head. "murder them?"

bethany blinked, her frustration turning to bitter disbelief. "wow. not even out of physical therapy and you've already heard about my public execution?"

xavier's smirk lingered, but there was something thoughtful behind it. "maybe a little."

her stomach twisted. of course he did.

she swallowed. "let me guess. you heard that i lost it. that i murdered everyone's favorite white boy for no reason. that i snapped. everyone's got a very dramatic version of events."

"everyone's got their own version of everything," xavier said simply.

bethany studied him, trying to figure him out.

"you're not asking if it's true," she noted.

xavier shrugged. "wouldn't be fair if i did."

her brow furrowed. "why not?"

his gaze sharpened slightly, something unreadable in his expression. "because no one believed me when they thought i killed maddie."

bethany's breath caught.

right.

xavier had been through this. the stares. the whispers. the way people decided they knew exactly who you were before you even had a chance to defend yourself.

she looked down at her hands, tracing the lines on her palms like they could give her an answer. "and now?"

he arched a brow. "now what?"

"now that it's me instead of you," she said quietly. "now that i'm the one being called a murderer."

xavier didn't look away. "i think i'd be a hypocrite if i believed them."

something in bethany's chest loosened—just a little.

she hadn't realized how much she'd needed to hear that until right now.

she glanced toward the door, then back at him.

"you really gonna sit in the library all week?"

xavier smirked slightly. "yeah. why?"

bethany shrugged, pushing herself off the desk. "no reason."

she turned to leave but hesitated at the doorway.

"you, uh..." she cleared her throat. "don't get run over again."

xavier grinned. "i'll try."

bethany didn't smile back.

but as she stepped into the hallway, the weight in her chest felt just a little bit lighter.

just a little.

👻

the greenhouse smelled like damp earth and overgrown leaves, the air thick with the scent of soil and something faintly metallic. dust floated in the beams of sunlight streaming through the fogged-up glass panels, catching on the edges of the worn notebook spread open between them.

maddie rested one hand on the pages, fingers skimming the ink-stained edges. while wally, charley, and jenna squinted down at the cramped handwriting like it might rearrange itself into something that made sense.

wally squinted at the notebook. "so you're telling me this was just sitting in there?"

charley nodded, flipping a page. "yeah."

jenna crossed her arms. "so he knew janet."

"yes," charley confirmed, tapping the cover. "this has to be the notebook, right? the one mr. martin was keeping on her? the one we couldn't find?"

maddie ran her fingers along page, her expression tightening. "these first ten pages are like... chemical equations." she turned the notebook slightly, like a different angle might make it make more sense. it didn't.

charley stood, stretching. "i mean, maybe they explain why these notebooks are still here. why janet's pot is still there. and how mr. martin locked that door on us and it didn't reset."

maddie sighed, flipping another page. "i might as well read this upside down." she turned toward wally. "does... does any of this make sense to you?"

wally snorted. "maddie, all the chemistry i know, i learned from the professor on gilligan's island."

jenna wrinkled her nose. "okay, i don't know what that is, but i don't think it's helping."

wally shot her a betrayed look. "seriously?"

charley ignored them, scanning the greenhouse with mild confusion. "where's rhonda?"

wally gestured vaguely toward the building. "uh, she's trying to lose the horn player."

charley arched a brow. "does that horn player have a name?"

wally deadpanned. "yeah. horn player."

maddie sighed. "it's quinn."

before anyone could comment further, the greenhouse door creaked open, and simon stepped inside. the light caught on his tense expression, his gaze sweeping the room before landing on maddie.

"maddie?"

immediately, she snapped the notebook shut, placing it off to the side as she stood. "hi."

simon eyed the book, but didn't press. "do we know anything more?"

maddie shook her head. "no. no, not yet, but i'm on it." she exhaled. "any idea why janet got off the bus in rockton?"

simon's brow furrowed. "we only know what she was running from. haven't figured out what she was running to."

he hesitated, glancing at the others, then back at maddie. "maybe we gotta ask what she might be looking for out here."

maddie motioned toward jenna, wally, and charley, though he couldn't see them. "we're working on it."

simon's eyes flicked around the greenhouse as if checking for unseen eyes as he shifted to the corner of the room. jenna scoffed in disbelief from the sidelines, crossing her arms. maddie ignored her, glancing at the others before finally meeting simon's gaze.

"maddie," he said quietly, "even if... even if we find this person, do we even know if we can get your body back?"

"you said you heard her cries for help," he pressed. "but you... you were technically still alive that day, walking through a boiler room, hearing a dead girl." he hesitated. "how?"

maddie's stomach twisted. she let out a slow breath. "i don't know."

simon didn't move, waiting for more.

maddie swallowed. "i can only guess that I was in a dark place. i was in pain. and... she was too. maybe it's the same reason you could see and hear me."

simon studied her carefully, something shifting in his expression—an understanding that neither of them knew how to fully explain.

👻

the library was mostly empty, save for a few students scattered at tables, pretending to study while actually scrolling through their phones. the overhead fluorescents buzzed faintly, casting a cold glow over the rows of bookshelves.

at the far side of the room, wally lounged at the computer, feet kicked up on the desk, absentmindedly squeezing a stress toy in his hand. charley stood behind him, watching over his shoulder.

"yo," wally said, clicking through the archives, "they got records going back to the day this place opened."

across the room, maddie, rhonda, and jenna huddled over janet's old notebook at one of the study tables, flipping through its yellowed pages. quinn stood directly over them, peering over their shoulders.

jenna squinted at the scribbled handwriting. "is it just me, or does this look like something carved into a pyramid?"

quinn leaned in even closer, her breath warm against jenna's ear.

rhonda put a hand up immediately. "please don't hover. i hate people who hover."

quinn didn't budge. "i'm not hovering. i'm six inches away. that's regulation distance from our tuba."

jenna made a face. "you say that like we all play the tuba."

before quinn could respond, wally's voice rang out from the computer station.

"whoa. guys, check this out." he leaned forward, reading off the screen. "okay. janet checked out fahrenheit 451 like four times. does that mean anything?"

from the other side of the room, charley barely looked up. "that she liked it."

"make that five times," wally added, scrolling again. "once for the science club."

before anyone could process that, the library door creaked open. xavier walked in, moving stiffly, his backpack slung over one shoulder. he took a seat across from maddie and the others, completely unaware that she was right in front of him.

rhonda nudged maddie. "you gonna be okay, cherry pop?"

maddie stiffened. "yeah, i'm fine. feels like he's staring at me."

jenna watched xavier carefully. she wasn't sure why, but something about the way he moved, the way he glanced around like he could see something, made her uneasy.

meanwhile, wally swung his feet off the desk, standing abruptly. in one fluid motion, he leaped over the table, landing with a dramatic thud.

"you know what?" he announced. "i wanna figure out who these science kids are, because for all we know, janet could be racing around town with one of her egghead friends right now."

he grabbed a random book off the shelf as he walked past.

rhonda smirked. "those eggs are now 83. only thing racing is their pacemakers."

as wally wandered off, quinn suddenly tapped the notebook in front of them. "this is shorthand."

jenna blinked. "what?"

quinn shrugged, flipping through the pages. "that code, the loopy slashes and hooks? my grandma was a secretary. she taught me some of it."

maddie straightened. "what are you saying?"

jenna leaned in, hopeful. "you can read that?"

"well, i'm not fluent," quinn admitted, tracing a line with her finger, "but kind of, yeah."

maddie exchanged a glance with jenna. "translate. please."

quinn picked up the book, her eyes scanning the page. "um... i don't think these sections were written by the same person."

charley leaned over them now, frowning. "of course they were. see all this weird chicken scratch? his a's always looked like o's, remember?"

rhonda shot him a look and raised a hand. "tuba distance, please."

she flipped further into the notebook, narrowing her eyes. "i wonder if the pages starting from back here were written by janet."

wally reappeared, holding a different book now. "why?"

quinn tapped at a specific paragraph. "because this part's referring to mr. martin in the third person."

the group stilled.

wally's brows shot up. "okay, so you think she stole the notebook written about her so she could write about him?"

maddie hesitated. "we don't know if she stole it."

charley folded his arms. "then why was she hiding it?"

quinn flipped another page, her brow furrowing deeper. "she's using the word our a lot. it seems like whatever experiment he was conducting, they might've been a team."

maddie's expression darkened. "there's no way. he kept her down there for months. she was his prisoner."

quinn hesitated. "maybe when you found her. but not when she wrote this."

jenna's stomach twisted. "that is extremely unsettling."

wally frowned, flipping through the book. "yo, what was going on between those two?"

quinn let out a slow breath. "looks like they both planned on getting out of here."

she turned the book toward them.

"together."