Chapter 1

There was one of those pushover types in the dorm.

First day of school, and she was already treating the whole room to expensive snacks.

When she saw me come in, she waved me over like it was nothing.

"You must be our last roommate, right?"

The other two were gushing about her, calling her a rich girl.

"This is Silvia Dotson. Chocolate-covered chips, I've never even had these before. You can't even buy them anywhere!"

"Silvia's treating us to all of it. Come on, join us!"

Silvia laughed easily and gave a generous little wave.

"Eat, eat. We're all roommates here, don't be shy."

I looked at the snacks piled across the table. Every last one of them was what I'd just set down on my bed.

Especially that box of dark-chocolate-coated chips, the ones my aunt brought back from Ridgeport.

A hundred and eighty-eight a box, ten boxes total.

I'd rationed my way through the first eight. The last two I'd been craving for two weeks and hadn't let myself open.

And now here they were, all torn open by them.

Looking at the empty wrappers, I didn't shout, didn't make a scene. I just smiled and pulled out my phone.

"Plain Brazil nuts, one twenty. Imported Wagyu beef jerky, six hundred."

"Swiss chocolate, four bars, two seventy. The rest, all the odds and ends, call it three hundred."

I watched their jaws drop, then pointed at the half-box of chips still in Silvia's hand.

"These chips, two boxes, three seventy-six. Comes to one thousand six hundred sixty-six total."

"So how would you like..."

"...to pay?"

...

"What?"

"One thousand six hundred sixty-six?"

Silvia's voice shot up, and the half-open bag in her hand nearly hit the floor.

Paige Chavez froze for a couple of seconds, then laughed awkwardly, trying to smooth it over.

"Jenny, you're joking with us, right?"

"We were just about to cheer Silvia a big six-six-six. You nearly scared us to death."

Bianca Lambert forced a smile too, but her eyes kept darting to my face.

But the longer they smiled, the more the smiles slipped, because I just stood there in the doorway and didn't move.

Paige slapped the bag of chips down on the table and frowned.

"What's the act for?"

"This is all Silvia's stuff. She hasn't said a word, so who are you to come in here totaling up a bill?"

Bianca crossed her arms, her tone hardening too.

"Right, Silvia, look at her. Who does she think she is?"

Silvia had her head down, like she wanted to bury her face in her collar. It took her a long moment to squeeze out a word.

"I, I didn't know... I thought those snacks were just left on the bed for anyone."

Paige went blank.

"They're not yours?"

"Then just now you were treating us to them?"

I pulled the door shut behind me, slow, and walked over to the table.

"Left on the bed for anyone?"

I tapped the nuts and the jerky on the table.

"What, did they grow legs and sprout up out of my bed on their own?"

The color drained out of Silvia's face.

I didn't give her the chance to explain. "The stuff was clearly on my bed, and you picked it up and started handing it around."

"It's not like you don't have eyes or mouths. Before you eat somebody else's things, it didn't occur to you to ask first?"

I swept my eyes over the three of them and let out a small laugh.

"And treating me to it."

"You think you've earned that?"

Paige's face went crimson. "Jeanette Finch, that's a really nasty thing to say."

"Silvia just saw you bought so much, she figured you wouldn't care. We're all roommates. Does it have to be like this?"

"Yeah," Bianca rolled her eyes. "A thousand-plus dollars of snacks, you were going to finish it all yourself?"

"Whether I can finish it and whether you steal it are two different things."

I held up the payment request.

"The list and the prices are all right here. One thousand six hundred sixty-six total."

"Send it now."

The air went quiet.

Silvia's lips moved, and her eyes slowly went red. "Jenny, I really didn't know..."

"Not knowing means you get to help yourself?"

I stared at her. "Weren't you the one who said it was left on the bed for anyone?"

"I..." She opened her mouth, and in the end all she could manage was, "I thought you wouldn't make a thing of it."

"So because I don't make a thing of it, you get to throw a party with my stuff?"

Paige tugged at Silvia's sleeve, her voice full of complaint.

"A thousand-plus is way over the top, isn't it?"

"Over the top?" I let out a cold laugh. "Funny, you didn't think it was over the top while you were eating it."

Bianca's face cycled from green to white. "So what do you want?"

"Nothing."

"You ate my stuff, you pay for it. That's just how it works."

"Our monthly allowance is only two thousand."

Bianca blurted it out. "How are we supposed to pay that?"

"That's your problem." I lifted my chin. "When you were taking someone else's things, how come it didn't cross your mind that you couldn't afford them?"

The three of them fell silent for a moment, and in the end, grudgingly, they scraped together the money and sent it over one by one.

I confirmed each transfer right in front of them, then turned and opened the dorm group chat.

And casually sent back a six-dollar tip.

"First day of school and I've already learned something."

"Here's a solo six for you. Keeping the change even, this bit's on me."