Disclaimer: I do not own Victorious or Nickelodeon.


I did NOT want to go to school today and it was all stupid Vega's fault.

"Damn you, Tori!" I cursed out loud as I parked into the lot at school. I pulled out my bag and coffee and slammed the car door. As if on cue, Cat came bounding up.

"Good morning, Jadey!" she said in her annoyingly cheery voice. I grumbled at her greeting and sipped my coffee, not paying her any attention. Cat ignored my rudeness and wrapped her arms around me.

I immediately stiffened at her contact. "Cat, what are you doing?"

She snuggled into my neck. "Hugging you," she looked up at me and smiled, "you look like you need one." her brown eyes sparkled in the morning sun.

Why was it always Cat? Its been a month since Beck and I broke up and it's been hell ever since. But a new, also strange, window opened: Cat Valentine. She was there when I basically pushed, more like shoved, everyone away, not wanting anyone from the group to talk to me. She would sit with me at lunch when I wanted to be alone, away from the world. Cat would just sit across from me, say hi, and start eating her food. I would glare at her to go away, like I did to the others when they decided to show compassion towards me for once. But she just stayed there and smiled the whole time, not even starting up a conversation. I would just get up and throw away my half eaten lunch, saying I had to go talk to a teacher or something. She would get up with me saying she'll walk with me, all the way offering me cookies or brownies or whatever that's bright and colorful for me to eat. Sometimes I would ignore her offer, but then my stomach would interject and I'll have to shove the food item into my mouth so my stomach would shut up.

But it wasn't just her being there when no one else was, or wanted to be; it was just Cat in general! I don't know what it is or what's causing it, but these... these feelings have started to well up inside me whenever I'm with her. I've caught myself several- no, multiple times just letting my eyes wonder over her body, like it's the first time I've seen her. The way she'll tilt her head and twirl a lock of red hair when she's confused on, well, just about everything. When I call her name for something and she always manages to say my name in the sort of way that has meaning, like she's calling my heart to come to her per say. And what really gets me is that she insists on sitting on my lap. It seems like every time she does, she's wearing a miniskirt or really short shorts. Damn those thighs, she knows I can't say no to them. Flawless tan skin, muscular legs, if I didn't know better, I'd say Cat was purposely doing this to drive me crazy. Now I try to avoid all physical contact with her, hugging included... but I couldn't resist.

I used my free arm to pull her closer to me for a warm embrace... then pushed her away and mumbled my thanks. I started walking towards the front doors of Hollywood Arts, Cat skipping and holding my hand all the way. I hated it when she did that, like a child grabbing their parent's hand when not needed. But I enjoyed it, not that I'll say it out loud.

I walked to my locker, putting in the combination when who else but Ms. Tori Vega came striding up.

"Jade, I'm sorry about-"

"Just shut up, Vega! I don't want to hear your bull this morning." I opened up my locker getting the books I needed.

Tori walked up to my locker and slammed it closed. Did she want to get punched in the face at 7 in the morning?

She pushed back a brown lock from her face, giving me a determined look. "Look, I know you don't like me-"

"I hate you," I corrected her.

She rolled her eyes and crossed her arms. "Ok, you hate me. But that doesn't give you the right to blame for something I didn't do."

I chuckled. "Forgive you? Vega, you MENT to set my dress on fire the night before one of the biggest play of the year!" I was getting really pissed off with Tori's shit now. If she didn't walk away now, I might do something I'll regret. Nope, I wouldn't regret it.

She was about to speak again when she looked down. Her eyes looked up at me with confusion. "Um Jade... why are you holding Cat's hand?"

What? It took me a moment to calm down before I realized Cat was still holding my hand, using her thumb to gently rub over my knuckles in small circles. When Tori mentioned our connection, she stopped her soothing sensation and squeezed my hand. I looked at her and took a deep breath and let it out slowly.

I turned back to Tori. "Tori, what is it you have to say?" I squeezed Cat's hand back to relax a little bit.

Tori shook her head and kept talking. "Uh anyway... I didn't mean to set your dress on fire, it was Sinjin's job to take it back to your dressing room to be fitted a-and then he tripped-"

"No, he didn't trip. Your clumsy ass was running in the hallway for no reason and ran straight into him."

What happened was that Sinjin was suppose to drop off the dress but ended up getting stopped halfway. Tori's side was that she had to use the bathroom (age-old excuse) and that Sinjin was the one that ran into her, not the other way around. Which ever one did it, the dress wasn't going to come back in one piece. Speaking of the dress, how it got set on fire is the funny part of this story. When the two bobble heads collided, at the same time a student was walking by carrying a metal bin filled with fire. Yeah, a real fire! So when Sinjin fell, the dress flew and you know the rest.

Tori uncrossed her arms and brushed back her hair. "Well whatever happened, the dress is gone now and it's not my fault. So why won't you forgive me?" she put her hands on her hips and waited for my answer.

I finally let go of Cat's warm hand and pointed a finger at Tori. "One: because I hate you, two: you planned on destroying my dress so you could get the lead, three-"

I never got to three because Cat tugged on my arm. "Jade!" she pulled on my arm to silence me, even though the simple contact was enough for me to shut up for a while. "Tori," she pulled on her right ear lobe, which was a bad habit of her, "I don't want my two best friends fighting over a dress," she giggled causing goosebumps to rise on the back of my neck, "which is ironic because it's all burned up!" She giggled some more.

Tori just raised her eyebrows at her. I shook my head at the remark and turned back to Vega. "Well whatever, I forgive you and all but I've got my eye on you, Tori." I gave her one last glare and started walking to class, Cat holding on the whole way.