Chapter 1: Questionable situation
Cat Valentine rushed up to her friend, Tori, who stood at her locker.
"Hey, Tori," she said with a giggle.
Tori looked at the bubbly redhead. "Hey, Cat. What's up?"
"There's a new girl, and she looks just like you."
"Really? Where?"
Cat pointed to the front doors of Hollywood Arts. A girl stood near them, gazing in awe at the people around her: some boys having a dance battle, a girl playing a saxophone, a singing quartet. Her mouth formed the word "Wow". Tori's eyebrows wrinkled in confusion.
"She doesn't look anything like me," she said. "You do realize that she's black, right, Cat?"
"So?" Cat said, not understanding.
"I'm Hispanic." Tori had to be patient with her bipolar friend, but it was hard for her not to snap at the girl.
"But she looks just like you did on your first day here." It made perfect sense to Cat.
"Oh." It finally dawned on Tori. "I guess I see your point."
Cat nodded, her hair bobbing right along with the motion of her head.
"Gotta run. See you in class." Cat disappeared around the corner. Tori waved bye.
She had been impressed with Hollywood Arts on her first day just like the new girl. She was amazed that such a school existed and that she got to be part of it. At first, she had chafed at going to the same school as her sister, but now she was here and loved every minute of it.
"Vega." Someone called her by her last name.
Well, almost every minute.
"Hey, Jade," Tori said. "How are you?"
The pale, dark-haired girl shrugged. "I could be worse."
She was doing surprising well despite her breakup with her longtime boyfriend, Beck. Or maybe it was just a front. Tori could never tell with her. Jade was so good at hiding her emotions that it seemed like she didn't have any. The first time she and Beck had broken up was the first and only time Tori had seen her cry. Why was this breakup different?
"What are you doing this weekend?" Jade asked.
Oh chizz. Tori thought. Cat told me about how Jade had accompanied her while she was dog sitting for her mom's boss. Jade must want to tag along with me this weekend. I gotta come up something. Something that Jade would hate doing.
"I have to help Trina practice for a part in the musical," she said.
Jade cringed, her eyebrows narrowing and her scowl deepening. She took a deep breath. "Sounds fun," she said in an oddly high pitched voice. "I'll come by at six."
Tori's face fell. How could that not have worked? Jade hates Trina! Everyone does. She must be really lonely.
"Okay," Tori said hesitantly.
The school bell rang, and students moved toward their respective classes. Tori and Jade walked into Sikowitz's class together, but they didn't sit by each other. Jade sat in the back, and Tori went to the first row, taking the seat on Robbie's left. Sometimes Jade could be as bipolar as Cat, and she had an ongoing rocky friendship with Tori. Tori didn't mind; she was just glad that Jade considered her a friend.
"Hey, pretty thang," Rex's obnoxious voice spoke out in the room.
The puppet sat on Robbie's lap. Tori was about to respond to him when she realized that he wasn't talking to her; he was talking to the girl sitting on the other side of Robbie. The new girl.
"Are you for real?" the girl said. "You do know that the puppet is a device for you to express your inner self. You use him to say the things that you can't."
Everyone laughed while Robbie looked horrified.
"What?! Rex isn't a puppet. And that other stuff is not true. Rex is a person."
"Yeah, this fool is nothing like me. Not even his inner self," Rex said.
The girl rolled her eyes and muttered "whatever" under her breath.
Sikowitz entered the room and leaped onto the stage with a coconut in hand. He sipped on his drink through a straw and stared out at his students. Five minutes passed before he said anything, and everyone just stared at him in silence. Suddenly, he pointed at the new girl. She didn't even flinch at his sudden motion. Could she be as fearless as Beck?
"Who…are…you?" he said. "Come up on the stage and introduce yourself."
The girl got on stage and turned to face her classmates. Tori offered her a smile for confidence which the girl didn't seem to notice. She tucked her hands into her pockets.
"I'm Felicity Aarons," she said, waving. "I just moved here from South Carolina."
"Ah, a South-Easterner! Tell me, do they have coconuts there?"
"I'm sure you can buy them in some grocery stores." Felicity shrugged, unsure.
"Excellent. You may be seated."
Felicity went back to her seat. Cat, in the row behind her, leaned forward.
"Hi, Felicity," she said. "I'm Cat, like the animal."
"Okay. Nice to meet you."
Cat giggled. "It's nice to meet you, too. You should eat lunch with us today. We sit outside."
"Good to know." She sounded sarcastic as she said it, though.
Tori was trying to figure this girl out. Was she a combination of Beck and Jade? Oh, god, was she worse than Jade? Was that even possible?
"Tori, Beck, get up here and do a scene," Sikowitz said.
Why does he always pair us together? Tori wondered.
"Why do you always pair us together?" Beck voiced Tori's silent query.
"Hmmm, I don't know," their quirky acting teacher said. "It just seems like you two would make the perfect couple."
Jade snorted loudly.
"Jade, thanks for volunteering. Why don't you and Tori do a scene together?"
"I'd rather cut my tongue off with a pair of dull scissors," said the possibly psychotic teen.
"That's a bit harsh, don't you think?" Tori asked. "I'm not that bad to work with."
Jade pretended that she was barfing but went up to the stage anyway. Tori followed her.
"Okay, now give me scene suggestions," Sikowitz asked the rest of the class.
"Siamese twins on a train," Robbie said.
"They're astronauts on the moon," Cat said. "I love the moon."
"No, how about two clowns in the circus," Andre said. "On pogo sticks."
"Ooh, I like pogo sticks," Sikowitz said, pondering this suggestion.
He was about to pick that one when the new girl made a suggestion.
"They're two girls who have just finished their first date. The gothic one is walking the perkier one to her door, and they're nervous about having their first kiss."
"What?!" Tori and Jade screamed at the same time.
The class erupted into laughter. Anyone who knew Jade and Tori knew that they hated each other. They would never agree to that. Jade would kill Tori before kissing her.
Sikowitz's eyes lit up, and he jumped up and down. "Even more perfect. Now, act!"
Jade crossed her arms and scowled, silently refusing. Tori's eyebrows were raised in the most innocent fashion. She looked at Sikowitz, her eyes growing big, begging him not to make them do this.
"Did you two not hear me? I said act!"
Jade rolled her eyes and threw her hands up in the air. "Oh, alright."
Then, Jade's whole personality changed. She turned to face Tori. "I had a really great time tonight." She spoke in a sweet shy voice, one hardly anyone had heard from her.
Shock froze Tori for a moment. She shook herself out of it and acted right along with her nemesis. "Me too," she said, just as shy sounding.
"Would you like to go out again?" Jade touched Tori's arm and smiled.
Tori nodded and grabbed Jade's other hand, holding it in hers. "I would love to."
They both leaned toward each other. Jade's hand moved up Tori's arm to push back her brown hair and cup her cheek. Tori shivered from Jade's cold hands but smiled. They closed their eyes, and their lips meet in a light touch. Tori wanted to play the role well, so she put her hands on Jade's waist, pulling her closer to her. Something fluttered in her stomach, and Tori found herself enjoying the kiss entirely more than she should. How could this be? Jade resisted a little but eventually allowed herself to get closer to Tori. I'll show her, Jade thought. She pressed her lips harder onto Tori's, whose eyes opened at the sudden intensity.
When applause filled the room, the girls broke apart from each other. Tori smiled sheepishly at her classmates. Jade smiled and, of course, ever the performer bowed.
"Brilliant, girls, brilliant," Sikowitz said, his coconut drink forgotten as he slow clapped.
Tori glanced at Jade. How could she be so nonchalant about this? she wondered. No one had ever kissed Tori like that before. Did that mean something?
