Chapter 5 Summary: 8:02 a.m.

⚠️ Spoiler Warning: This guide contains detailed spoilers for the entire novel. Proceed only if you've finished reading or are comfortable knowing the plot.

Summary

The chapter opens at 8:02 a.m. on the last day of school. Rowan arrives at homeroom with a late pass, and Mrs. Kozlowski greets her as the likely future valedictorian. A trio of junior girls from student council—Olivia, Harper, and Nisha—ask Rowan to sign their yearbooks, which she does with personalized messages. She then joins her best friends, Kirby and Mara, and recounts her chaotic morning: a power outage, a car accident involving her ex-boyfriend Spencer, and a prank by her academic rival McNair, who wrote her late pass in calligraphy. Mara asks if she's okay after the accident; Rowan says she's shaken but fine.

The three friends flip through yearbook photos, including a senior superlative picture of Rowan and McNair posed back-to-back under the label