Beyond the Reasons || JUSTIN FOLEY

Eighteen

FLASHBACK
SOPHOMORE YEAR
LIBERTY HIGH SCHOOL GYM
IMOGEN'S POV

The cheerleading squad and I all sat together in the gym making the signs and poster for the One Dollar Valentines thing. We do it every year to raise enough money so we can go to cheer camp, and I know you're probably thinking, if it's for cheer camp, why only charge everyone one dollar for the survey?

You wouldn't believe how many people participate.

Jess joined cheerleading, which actually kind of caught me by surprise, but she said she did it because she missed me and wanted to spend more time together, which I admitted that I missed her too, so me, her and Sheri, we were all very close, and I kind of felt bad, being close to Jess again, but I wasn't as close to Hannah anymore. Sure, we still talked every now and then.

But not like we used to.

"Sheri, I am so sorry, but your hearts look like butts." I said to her. I was sitting next to Jess and Sheri was across from us and Jess started laughing as she nodded her head.

"They do." Jess said, and Sheri started laughing too and soon we were all laughing. Once we finished, each girl grabbed a survey and started to fill one out, and I was sitting with Jess as we both filled ours out.

"I don't even know why I'm doing this. . like I'm actually about to go on a date with someone who's not Justin." I said, shaking my head and Jessica laughed.

"Oh yeah. . how was formal? Before I got drunk, I remember you told me and Hannah that you came with Justin." She said, and I nodded my head.

"At the end of the night, he asked me to be his girlfriend." I said, not able to hide the smile on my face, and Jessica had a wide smile on hers.

"MiMo! Oh my gosh, that's amazing, how do you feel?" She asked, and I laughed.

"For the first time in a long time. Happy. . really happy."

•

"Hannah Baker! Hey!"

I immediately looked up when that name left Sheri's mouth and I saw Hannah approaching our table with the survey in her hands. We pass them out at the beginning of the day and we collect them during the lunch period and give everyone their matches. Certain cheerleaders do it depending on what period they have lunch so me and Sheri were doing it now.

"Did you fill out a survey?" I asked her the obvious dumb question because I could see it in her hand, but I guess at the same time, just because it's in her hand, doesn't mean she filled it out.

"Yeah, well, I figured, why not?" She said. She sat down in front of us and handed Sheri her paper, and the both of us looked over her answers.

"This is so cool. I've always wanted to set you up with someone." She said.

"I mean, it's obvious. Clay." I whispered in her ear, and Sheri looked at me and shook her head, and my eyes widened. How could she not think that? Possibly because she's harbouring her own little crush on my brother?

"How does this thing work anyway?" Hannah asked, as Sheri was doing what she had to do for the survey on her computer, so I decided while Sheri did that, I would answer Hannah's question.

"I don't know really, but Prakash Agrawal in Mr. Merrimen's A.P. Computer Science came up with it. He says it's like a proprietary algorithm. He's gonna license it to us for free as an act of charity, and it's going to make him millions someday." I said, and then I looked over at Sheri's computer.