Tape 2, Side A

Alex Standall

"Chaos theory. Sounds dramatic but it's not. Ask a mathematician. Or better yet, ask someone who's been in a hurricane."

"Alex Standall. You caused the hurricane. It's your turn."

"F.M.L forever," Hannah told the other three, putting her hand in the table.

"F.M.L forever," Jessica chimed, putting her hand on top of Hannah's.

"F.M.L. forever," Alex joined in, placing his hand on top of Jess's.

"This is so cheesy," Vienna laughed before placing her hand on top of the other three's. "F.M.L forever."

"Little did I know you would F. my L. forever. Little did I know you would be my hurricane. Maybe you think I'm being silly. I'm some stupid girl who gets all worked up over a little thing. But little things matter."

"For instance, you never told me when you started dating Jessica. But I remember just how it ended. With your list. Alex we hadn't talked since two got together. And then it seemed like maybe you might not be together anymore. Is that why you did it Alex?"

"Maybe you say it's nothing, Alex. It's just words. Maybe Alex, you were just being a dick."

"Ooh!" A girl, Tony's fifth cousin or something along those lines, cheered. Vienna glanced over in confusion. "Angie Romero, best lips! You know it, baby."

Vienna furrowed her eyebrows, glancing over. Noticing her confusion, Zach handed the list to her. Vienna's brown eyes scanned over the writing. It was comparing girls qualities to each other. Vienna was listed under best sex appeal.

And Jessica was listed under worse.

Dismissing the list as something stupid the boys had put together, she passed it along to Clay's table without a second thought. She never bothered to look at where Hannah was written.

"At first I thought, what a stupid list. Jessica is so much prettier than me. I didn't think of the chaos that it would cause. But it was just a joke. Right, Alex?"

"You think I'm taking it all way too seriously. But here's the thing. You've never been a girl."

"It's good," Clay spoke, flipping Jeff's paper over. Vienna and Jeff had the same problem, where they couldn't do their sports unless they had C's, so Clay was tutoring them. "We just need to work on structure, and you use the word 'unique' like seven times."

Jeff nodded his head, prompting Clay to continue. "If one thing is unique, the other six things should probably be um, something else."

"What's wrong with unique?" Jeff questioned. "If something's unique, it means it's different right? What I'm saying here is this type of literature is different. I mean, it is. Isn't it, Jensen?"

"Clay?" Vienna prompted when Clay stopped answering. She turned her head to see where Clay was looking, a smirk coming on her face when she found him looking at Angie. "Ah."

"You saw the list," Jeff realized. Vienna hadn't really been bothered by the list. The boys around the school knew she was 'easy' as Marcus once put it. And she wouldn't deny it.

It was a way for her to get control back, after all.

"She does have uh," Clay paused.

"Unique, lips." Jeff finished. "You should get her number."

"I don't want her number," Clay protested quickly. "I'm just."

"Thinking about kissing her?" Vienna prompted, a teasing smile on her lips as she looked at Clay. This was at least improvement from the Hannah obsession.

"I am not!" Clay fired back.

"Congrats, Angie," Jeff called. "Looking good."

Vienna hit Jeff's arm lightly. They weren't together, not yet at least. But they were both into each other. Jeff just wanted to wait, to make sure they fit well together, before he made it official with her.

Justin had started to drift from her and set his sights on Jessica.

"Thank you, Jeffrey." Angie replied.

"Shh, library," Vienna turned to find it was Skye talking. Her nose crinkled slightly. "Looking good, Clay."

"Hey, Skye." Clay replied. "Sorry."

"Oh, man," Jeff groaned, pinching the bridge of his nose when he realized Clay was staring at Skye. "Don't tell me you have a thing for Twilight."

"I don't!" Clay pushed his third protest of the day out. "I mean, we just used to be friends."

"Cool," Jeff hummed, glancing back at Skye before turning back to Clay. "She's a pretty girl. I mean, I don't know why she dresses like that, but hey, at least she's unique."

Vienna laughed, leaning her forehead against Jeff's shoulder as she tried to stifle her laughter. Jeff chuckled, wrapping an arm around her shoulder.

"You two are nauseating." Clay groaned, his turn to have a teasing smile on his laps. "Seriously, one of the cheesiest couples."

"We're not together," Vienna sat up, the laughter dying on her tongue as she fixed her hair.

Jeff shot her a fond grin. "Not yet, at least."

"You want evidence, Alex? You want storm clouds and thunder? Let's go to E3 on your maps, everyone. Blue Spot liquor store. Where butterfly met hurricane."

"The Blue Spot was a block and a half away from my first house here. And I went there whenever I desperately needed chocolate. Which was, well, most days of the week."

"It seems like nothing. Until the hurricane hits. Because when you put my name on that list, you put a target on my. Well, it wasn't just my ass. You made it open season on Hannah Baker."

"The butterfly effect. It started with Vienna, then onto you, Alex. And the rest of you. Maybe these tapes will start a new butterfly effect. Who knows?"

"Everything effects everything."