Cassette 1: Side B
- Side B of tape 1 is for Alex Standall.
- Alex is on the tape because he put Hannah down as "Best Ass in the Freshman Class"(4.8).
- Clay remembers the list, and he remembers seeing Hannah's name on it.
- The problem with the list, Hannah says, is that the person voted worst ass was her then-friend, Jessica Davis. Alex only wrote Hannah's name down because he was mad at Jessica, who he'd been going out with.
- Hannah says that the reason Alex did it isn't important. She says, "This tape is about how people change when they see your name on a stupid list" (4.43). She places blame on Alex.
- Clay knows that Alex's list was just a joke and that he had no idea what it would do to her.
- The more he listens, the more Clay wonders what he did to her – why he's on the tapes. He wonders what people will think about him when they hear whatever it is.
- Hannah says that Alex's tape is about the consequences of his actions on her life.
- Clay gets to the first star on Hannah's map – her old house. He recognizes it, but from something totally different.
- He had been walking home after a party about a month ago. A few blocks from this house, the man who lives in the house now had hit another car.
- Clay called the police, then came to this house to tell the man's wife he was okay.
- The driver of the other car was a guy from Clay's high school and he was in bad shape.
- Back to the present, as Clay walks, Hannah continues Alex's tape.
- She wants to give Alex an example of how her life changed after the list, and she directs listeners to Blue Spot Liquor on the map.
- One day after school, Hannah went there to buy candy. A guy, who Hannah isn't going to name, walked in. Hannah says that he "has a whole tape to himself" (4.86).
- This guy smacked her ass and told Wally, the guy working there, about the list.
- Hannah smacked his hand away.
- Clay gets to the liquor store and goes in to buy a soda and a candy bar.
- The tape continues: Hannah tried to leave, but the guy grabbed her wrist.
- Now Clay knows who the guy is. He's seen him grab other girls' wrists before. Clay always wants to make him stop, but he never does. He doesn't know how he'd do it anyway.
- Back to the story: Hannah tried to get away, but the guy was holding her wrist tight.
- He took his hand off her wrist and put it on her shoulder. He said he was "only playing" (4.133).
- Hannah says that Alex's list "gave [the guy] an excuse" (4.143) to treat her this way.
- She says, "the point is, when you hold people up for ridicule, you have to take responsibility when other people act on it" (4.150).
- But, she says, she wasn't really the one being ridiculed – Jessica Davis was.
- Hannah says the next tape is for Jessica, and Clay switches to listen.