Page 52 of The Forever After Bet

“What the heck is all this?” Jack asks, walking up to us.

I scrub a hand through my hair. “Good luck notes for the game tonight.”

“Holy Crap!” Ty exclaims. He and June are back from going to her locker.

“How did they find out about Hannah’s note?” Jack asks.

“You knew?” Hannah asks Jack.

“Yeah, I saw it after the game Tuesday and asked Ford about it.” Jack shrugs.

“Oh.” Hannah nods. “Amy Russell picked up the note when it fell out of Ford’s jersey at the game. I would bet there’s one from her in here. Either she couldn’t keep her mouth shut and gossiped about it, or girls saw what was on the note and made their own.”

“Will you help me pick them up?” I ask Hannah.

“Yeah.” She gathers the ones that have fallen on the floor, and I get the ones from my locker. I take out all my books and check in the crevasses. “I have eight,” Hannah says.

I hurry and count mine. “I have seven, including the two we opened.” I shake my head.

Jack walks back down to us from his locker and holds up three notes. I shake my head, laughing. He scowls, dropping them in Hannah’s pile. “I hope this doesn’t become a thing.”

“You and me both.” I laugh.

“We can go through all of them on the bus,” Hannah suggests.

“Or we could throw them away.” I arch an eyebrow.

“I’ll amend my statement. I can go through them on the bus.” She tilts her head, smiling.

“Come on. We better get to class.”

Hannah shoves the notes in the back pocket of her backpack, and we head to calculus.

Mr. Nelson hands back our quizzes from last class. He stops when he gets to Hannah’s desk, looking over her quiz. “You’re slipping, Miss Clark,” he says, handing back her quiz. I don’t see the score, but I can see it’s covered in red marks.

“Well done, Mr. Cross, as usual.” He hands me my quiz, patting my shoulder.

Hannah’s hunched over her desk. I rub my hand along her back and up under her scalp. “Hanny, please look at me.” She turns. Her face is red, but she’s not crying. She hands me her quiz. She got 79 percent on it. Oh no. I don’t think Hannah’s ever gotten below an A on anything in her entire life. This is bad.

“I don’t understand imaginary numbers. I’ve done every problem in the stupid book at least twice.” She runs a hand down her face. “I asked Mr. Nelson to explain it to me again, and it was like he was speaking a foreign language. I don’t know what to do.”

“I’ll help you. It’s easy once you get the hang of it, I promise. We’ll work through some problems on the bus tonight.”

Hannah takes a breath, calming down. “Thank you.”

“I promise you’ll keep your 5.0 GPA.”

She glances back at me. “I better. I’ve got to get into Sutherland.”

I tilt my head, smiling at her. “That’s not going to be an issue.”

Coach Harris dismisses us from sports PE since we have a game tonight.

Jack tosses his key fob in the air as we head for the parking lot. “Hey, I’m going to run home. My mom made Hannah and me food for the bus. Jim has to work late, so they’re not coming to the game tonight.” Jack tosses his key fob in the air as we walk.

“Same here. My mom works nights at the hospital this week. She said she left me a bag of stuff,” Ty says.

“I’m going to head to McCaffery’s and buy some snacks. I’ll meet you back here.” My parents left town this morning. They don’t pay much attention to basketball. My dad didn’t want me to play this year. He said I could get injured and ruin my football scholarship.

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