My palms sweated as I clutched my number two pencil. Time was running
out. I could feel it. I stared at number thirty two, willing it to just tell me the
answer.
Baseball player’s chocolate bar. Baseball player’s chocolate bar. It wasn’t
a Baby Ruth. That didn’ t fit. Who the heck else had a chocolate bar?
“Done!” Annie rang the bell and dropped her pencil. She shoved her
completed crossword across the counter for me to envy. “Read it and
we ep.”
I moaned and slapped my book closed. “I suck!” I said, head in hands.
“This is true,” Annie r eplied with a matter-of-fact nod. “Why are you
even here? Shouldn’t you be, like, cheering for your man at the lacrosse
game?”
I groaned again and stood up straight, st epping aside so Annie could ring
up an elderly lady who had a basketful of discount toilet paper .
“First of all, I don’t have a man. And secondly , since I don’t have a man
it would be kind of odd for me to attend the lacrosse game and cheer for
him,” I said, leaning back in front of the second register , which was closed.
“I see. V erboten boyfriends can be dif ficult that way ,” Annie said.
She handed the woman her change and gave me a hesitant look as the
lady moved toward the door. “So, listen, there’s something I feel like I
should tell you, but I’m not sure if I should tell you.”
My heart thumped with forebod ing, and I stood up straight. “Well, now
you obviously have to tell me.”
She took a de ep breath. “Okay , but I’m not entirely sure what it means.”
“Annie, what?” I demanded.
“I was at the Acorn today and Shannen came in to talk to Chloe,” Annie
said, tugging her laptop out of her bag, which was behind the counter. “Of
course I tried to listen in, as I always do, but they were whispering, so it
was hard to hear everything.”
My throat prickled. “What did they say?”