Chapter 9

It was Friday night, and instead of watching movies with Hannah at her place, or cooking dinner for her grandma, Vada was busy working at Rosie's diner.

She had only been working there for two weeks, and even though the schedule was quite tight, she didn't dislike her job, or the people she worked with. What she did dislike, however, was that the majority of Liberty's assholes would show their faces there, which could only mean one thing: trouble.

Vada couldn't help but cringe when she saw Bryce Walker walk in with his mob of sheep, which consisted of Justin Foley, Zach Dempsey, Montgomery De La Cruz, and Scott Reed. Sometimes Marcus Cole or Alex Standall would be with them, but this time it seemed like it was an athletes-only night.

She loathed the way Bryce would look at her. It made her feel uneasy and helpless, which were two things she didn't like feeling.

Fortunately, she wasn't assigned to be their waitress for the night, so she avoided their gazes as best as she could, and kept on working.

You're doing this for grandma. Remember that.

Back in New York, she used to work at her dad's restaurant, so waiting tables wasn't foreign territory to her. The downside was that being at Rosie's reminded her of the fact that she'd been abandoned for the second time in her life. It's not fair. Even when he's gone, he's still around.

Vada considered calling him a million times, but she just didn't know what to say. She had begun getting accustomed to living in Evergreen County, despite the rumors about her at school.

People would say all sorts of things: that she and Hannah were a couple, that they were having threesomes with Skye, that Jeff was cheating on Leah with Vada, that the reason Vada had moved to Crestmont was because she had already slept with everyone else back at her old school, so she needed to try something new.

Sometimes, she wanted to tell everyone to fuck off. Other times, she would just laugh at the ridiculousness of their statements. But Vada could tell that Hannah felt severely affected by what people said about her. Which is why she rarely ever left her side at school. The only times they were apart was when they were at different classes.

She was about to go to the bathroom to change and finally head home, when somebody called out her name. Oh, shit. Silly me for believing I could avoid this.

It wasn't Bryce's annoying and smug tone that had disrupted her path, but Monty's. Vada rolled her eyes, and walked towards their table. Let's see what this clown wants.

"What?"

"Where's your girlfriend?" Monty asked, making Bryce, Justin and Scott laugh. Zach remained quiet, meeting Vada's eyes briefly. He was without a doubt the best looking guy of that entire group. Too bad his taste in friends sucks.

"You mean Hannah? She doesn't work here."

"Aww, that's right. She works at the Crestmont with that Cory kid."

"His name is Clay, dude." Bryce corrected him.

"Whatever." Monty dismissed. "I was just hoping we could see some action between the two of you tonight. And I know the guys were excited about it too."

"I think I'd rather see her kiss the goth chick." Scott said.

"What the fuck are you talking about? Hannah Baker is way hotter than that girl." Bryce said.

Monty, Justin, and Zach voiced their agreement, and then turned to Vada, who had remained silent. She looked at all of them, and then said in a low voice, "The only time any of you are ever going to see some action from me, is when I kick all of your asses, got it? Oh, and please tip your waitress."

And with that, she walked away and locked herself in the girl's bathroom with her bag, taking off her uniform and putting on her normal clothes.

When she got out, the jocks were still there, but she paid no mind to them. She walked out of the exit door so fast that she ended up bumping into someone.

"Shit, sorry!" She exclaimed. "I wasn't looking."

"It's fine." A familiar voice said. "No worries, Vada."

Oh, fuck. It's Jeff!

It felt weird seeing him out of his leatherman jacket. He looked great... greater than usual.

"What are you doing here?"

"I'm here to meet up with the guys." He explained. "You know, Zach, Justin..."

"Oh, yeah, I know all about them." She said dismissively. "They're in there. Acting really stupid, may I add." God, why are you friends with these guys?

"Okay, thanks." He laughed weakly, quickly walking past her.

Um... what was that? Don't tell me I've offended him or something. Whatever.

Once Vada was back home, she went to Eloise's room to check up on her. Her sweet grandma was already sleeping like a baby, and she decided to join her. The bed was quite spacious, so she felt very comfortable.

She spent a big part of the night reflecting on some things that had been happening at Liberty. There were now awful things written about her in the bathroom walls, right next to the insults directed at Hannah.

The insults weren't even original, they were mostly just dumb stuff like the words "bitch" and "slut". Leah and her cronies' work, I'm betting. Whispers and rumors about Vada's 'love affairs' with Jeff, Hannah and Skye had spread like wildfire, and there was no stopping them now.

The whole thing was annoying and frustrating, not to mention, stupid. Vada had considered trying to reason with Leah and explaining that she and Jeff were just friends, but eventually decided that it would be pointless. People like that just don't listen.

The next day at school, Vada found Hannah with two pink pieces of paper in her hand. "What are those?"

"These are Dollar Valentine surveys." Hannah said.

"Oh, I think I heard about those. You answer some questions, and then get matched with some guys. The money goes to help the cheerleaders, right?"

"Yeah, but don't worry about paying me back or anything. It's just a dollar."

"Hey, come on. A dollar is a dollar." Vada insisted, taking one out of her pocket and giving it to her friend.

"Well, thank you." Hannah took the dollar and handed Vada the survey. "Please let me know when you finish it, so we can go get our results together."

"Okay, cool." But I'm only doing this for fun. I doubt this thing would end up pairing me up with anybody as good as you.

Vada decided to do the survey while she was in the library during her free period. Okay... let's check out these questions...

"How do you spend your Saturday nights?" Working at Rosie's dinner, taking care of my grandmother or having a sleepover with my best friend.

"Favorite reading materials?" Harry Potter, The Perks of Being a Wallflower, and Pride and Prejudice.

"What's your dream date?" Dinner and a movie.

The rest of the questions were nothing out of the ordinary, and Vada continued to answer them with a bit of disinterest. She did as Hannah had asked and waited to reunite with her so they could go get their results together.

They were greeted by a very cheerful (pun intended) Sheri, who took their surveys and did some computer magic to print their results.

"Who did you girls get?" She asked.

Vada was about to look at her results when Hannah spoke up. "How did I match with Bryce Walker?"

"What the fuck?" Vada exclaimed. "That's like... matching with Freddy Krueger or something."

Sheri took Hannah's results out of her hand. "Yeah, that one is a big no. But what about Alex Standall? He's nice."

"I wouldn't be so sure about that." Vada interjected. "But let's be real, anyone's nicer than Bryce. Except Monty, probably."

"Yeah, I'm not going to call Alex." Hannah said. "And I don't know anything about the other three guys on the list. What about you Vada? Who did you get?"

Vada finally looked at the paper in her hand, and raised her brows when she saw the first two names on her list.

1. Zach D.

2. Tyler D.

Wait... what?!