I do not own Victorious.

No, no. This could not be happening. Gingerly, I touched the puffy skin around my eye. It was already swelling. The cut underneath was slowly leaking its sickening maroon liquid down the side of my face. Not on a weekday. Couldn't he have waited till the weekend? I have school today! Hastily I reached for the bottles on the counter of my vanity. I was used to covering up the evidence of my father's lack of restraint with make-up. But usually, I didn't need to worry about it until after the swelling went down because I had a weekend for it to settle and bruise.

I splurged on the concealer; hoping it would cover the scratch from his ring. It did, but no amount of make-up could hide the swelling of my eye. I glanced again at the clock. Beck would be here any minute to pick me up for school. I finished applying what I hoped was a decent amount of base on my face. My hand was shaking the entire time. Once finished with the entire process I took a final look at my face. I cursed. Blood was leaking again from the cut. Hastily I dabbed at it. There, now I just need to bring the bottle of base for touch-ups.

Outside, Beck honked his horn. I grabbed a bottle and shoved it in my backpack. I quickly made my way down the steps and practically ran past my father so that he couldn't have the satisfaction of seeing his handy work. Before I could make it to the door, he called my name.

"I want an apology for your bad manners. Now," he said in a deadly quiet voice. I gulped. Every muscle in me was straining to tell him to shove it, but my mouth wouldn't listen to will power.

"I'm sorry," I told him while still facing the door.

"Will it happen again?"

"No."

"No what," he said; a dangerous steel now present in his voice.

"No sir," I ground out.

"Good. Get out of my site."

"Yes sir." I hastily yanked open the door. This time, I did run. I ran to Beck. I threw myself into the passenger seat and breathed in the smell of his car.

"You okay," he asked. He was trying to be casual but I could sense rather than hear the worry in his voice.

"Yeah, I'm good. Let's go." He wanted to argue back that I obviously was not 'good'. I could tell. Thankfully, he shrugged, turned the radio on to a country station, and began to drive to school. The car ride was silent. I could feel the atmosphere thicken with his suspicion. So, I decided to alleviate it. "God Beck," I nagged in the bitchiest voice I could muster. "Why do you have to go to this station? You know I hate country."

"You hate a lot of things," he replied. He was relieved that I seemed to be acting normal again. "You made both a list and multiple videos about it." The heavy atmosphere lessened and we began to banter for the rest of the ride to school.

Once Beck parked, I began to get out. I nearly stopped cold as I felt the moisture on my cheek. I must not have noticed it in the car ride. Thank god my eye was on the opposite side of him. I casually wiped my cheek with my hand and wiped it on my skirt; the black color hiding the blood. To anyone else, I was merely wiping dirt off my face, but on the inside I was panicking. Did anyone see that? More importantly, did Beck see that? Of course he didn't. I can already see him making his way over to the bitch Tori and our friends. Well, his friends. I only counted Cat as a friend. Either way, I had to make sure that there wasn't any blood left on my face.

I came up behind him and angled my face to his so that the others couldn't see my eye. "I'll see you in class," I whispered into his ear. He smirked.

"Alright, see ya babe."

I walked off and made my way straight to the restroom. Once there I kicked everyone else out and hastily rummaged through my bag. I sighed in relief after I grabbed the bottle. I quickly turned the tube upside down and squirted the gel into my hand. The tube poured out some blue liquid instead of my skin colored base. I had grabbed my liquid eyeshadow by mistake! I glanced back into the mirror to see some of the make-up rubbing off already.

What am I going to do? They'll find out! I wasn't afraid of Beck finding out because he already knew. I had to beg him not to do anything about it when he found out. Well, actually, it was more like I demanded and he obeyed. On the condition that I would tell him when it happened, let him grab the first aid box, and sit still like a good girl. But that wasn't the point. The point was that everyone else would find out, and Beck would find out that I didn't tell him immediately. I wasn't even sure why I didn't tell him this time. Well, that was I lie. I didn't tell him because I didn't want to deal with his reaction. Not so soon after it happened. I wiped at the blood again. I should be taking pleasure in the wound. Didn't I usually brag about my uncommon fascination with anything gross? I was too scared though. The great Jade West, afraid of the thoughts of people she didn't even like. Tori would probably use it as an excuse to convince Beck to dump me and go out with her.

I could see it. She would tell Beck that he would be better off with a prettier girl. She'd say that I had obviously been in a fight and that I was too violent. She'd even accuse me of possibly hitting him. I wouldn't let it happen though.

Even without make-up to cover it up. It wasn't too bad. I would just keep dabbing at the blood for the rest of the day. If someone noticed, I would use my superior acting skills to pretend nothing was wrong. Then, they would think they were just imagining it.

I kept repeating this to myself as I walked out the door to the restroom. Last night I had received an e-mail that my first period was going to be held in the stage area. It didn't say why, but I had a feeling that they were going to have a special guest present to help teach us about some 'new' concept of acting. I would have preferred to get there before everyone else like Beck and I always do, but that wasn't an option anymore. I had spent too much time in the restroom, and would have to hurry just to make it to class on time.

I made it on time, only to find Tori on the back of some guy with curly hair. She was freaking attacking the helper. I smirked at the trouble she would surely get in, and walked into class to join the already formed crowd.

"That guy was beating up Beck!" Tori obviously had no know clue that Steve was the helper of the week. I almost felt pity for her.

"Oh, you poor thing." I probably shouldn't have commented. It could draw attention to myself and my eye, but I couldn't resist. She kissed my boyfriend. I had to get back at her somehow. I quickly glanced at him to make sure he was ok. Vega might have hit him while she was freaking out about Steve. I quickly dabbed underneath my eye while no one was looking.

"We were practicing," he explained. It was obvious he was annoyed. Though, I don't think she could tell. I could tell that Beck looked fine however. I slid my arm into his. I loved the warmth that Beck gave off.

"This is Russ," the professor told us.

"I'm Russ!" Darn, I guess he wasn't a Steve. He still looked like one though. I remember Beck cancelling one of the dates I had planned so that he could go practice with this guy. They stopped by afterwards and Beck introduced us. I didn't really make an effort to remember his name then, and I wouldn't now either.

"He's a professional stuntman. I invited him here to teach the class about stage fighting."

"And now Tori says, 'What's stage fighting?'."

"I wasn't going to say that," she said as though it were the most obvious thing in the world.

I turned back to Beck to take a second look, just to be sure. "I'm fine," he murmured.

"You'd better be. We have a date tonight."

"Really? When did I ask you on a date?"

"It's girl's choice."

"That's what they do at dances."

"So I can't do it with you?" Now I was getting pissed. I had planned a date for us and he didn't want to go. What, was he going to go hang out with the Vega girl to do 'homework'?

"No, no. A date sounds nice. Where at?"

"You'll see," I answered, but he was paying attention to Vega instead and decided to answer her.

"I took a class with him last summer." Oh, yeah. He used that excuse to ditch our date now that I think about it.

"Well, it looked like he was hurting you."

"Why do you care?" Why did she care? He was my boyfriend. Her crazy stunt could have distracted him. He could have been too distracted to follow one of Steve's punches. He could have actually gotten hit, and it would have been all her fault. We would have matching black eyes. Actually, that would be really cute. Something to talk about when we get home and I tell him about my own fight.

"Cause I figured he already suffers enough pain dating you." I saw red. How dare she make insinuations on our relationship? Just cause she wanted him. And now she'll start to list reasons why he should dump me. Well I wasn't going to give her the chance.

"You wanna see pain?" I would show her pain. She would never understand my pain. Not with her caring father that obviously loved her and Trina. I could show her a glimmer of it though.

"Hey, why don't we go sit over there?" Beck guided me to a chair and sat me down. He sait down next to me and looked at me condescendingly.

"Come on. Why'd you let her goad you."

"She insulted out relationship. How could you not see it? She basically just told you to break up with me."

"No, she didn't. She was reacting to you picking at her, again."

"She kissed you!" I whispered fiercely.

"No, I kissed her. It was a stage kiss, and our lips didn't even touch. You were just at a bad angle." He looked at me closely. "Hey, is there something wrong with your eye?"

"No," I quickly replied while looking away. I didn't want him freaking out in the middle of class.

"Were you crying again last night?" This was my chance to blow it off. Maybe he wouldn't even have to find out about it later.

"Ye - Maybe," I mumbled; changing my mind half-way through. I did want to tell him about it. Just, not now.

"What was it about?" I refused to look at him. I felt pretty bad lying to him, but there was no other way. Plus, I would tell him about it tonight. "Jade, tell me."

"Shhhh. Class is starting." Cat was on stage with Steve now.

"Now, if I throw a punch at Cat, like this. It's easy to see that my fist didn't connect with her face." Thank you Steve, for explaining everything. Even the things we already knew.

"Thank you," Cat told him. It was easy to see that he wasn't used to Cat and her ways. He stared at her like she was weird. That got my blood boiling. Cat may be a little strange, but you do not treat her badly. I was ready to offer him my own version of 'stage' fighting when he finally continued with his teaching. Not that I paid any attention.

"You okay?" I looked at Beck out of the corner of my eye so that he wouldn't get a better look at my eye.

"Course."

"Really? Cause you looked about ready to kill Russ just now. He's just teaching."

"I'm naturally intolerant."

"With Tori maybe. Not so much with a teacher's guest."

"So now you're bringing Tori into our conversation again."

I heard Cat shriek and quickly focused my attention on her. She was holding her face until she ran out and said, "I'm okay everyone." I relaxed … slightly. Is that what I looked like this morning? Did I hold my face like that too? I couldn't remember. How could he enjoy making someone look like that?

"Jade, snap out of it." Becks voice cut through my thoughts. I shook my head and quickly rubbed my eye again. "Seriously, what's eating you?"

"Canadian references Beck? You know I hate that," I snapped back at him. I had to distract him.

"That's not a Canadian saying." He was exasperated again.

"Are you arguing with me?"

"What? No. I – you know what…"

"I thought his name was Steve." Andre's voice carried over to our discussion.

"He does look like a Steve," Vega agreed.

Man, everyone's a little slow today. I shifted in my chair as I felt Becks eye's watching me.

"We'll talk about it later tonight." Just like I was planning. Perfect.

"Fine," I pretended to mope in my chair.

"My name is Russ," Steve shouted above the class's collective voices as they agreed with Vega.

"Okay," the teacher continued. "And tomorrow, you'll all perform your fight scenes here in front of the class. So, make sure you practice after class." He told us the pairs. I listened enough to know that Beck and I wouldn't be practicing together. Instead, I got Vega. And by the remarks she was making, she didn't want to be my partner any more than I did hers.

"Tori and who?" I couldn't help but tease her by smirking and raising my eyebrows in a suggestive manner. Though I wish I hadn't. My eye was starting to get sore.

The bell rang and Vega got up to talk to the teacher. No doubt, it was about how I would be a terrible partner and just bring her down. A little rudeness was in order. "Hey, partner," I said in a sickly sweet voice. "I can't wait for our fight… … scene."

Beck followed behind me and put his arm around my waist. "That was mean" he whispered.

"I'm a mean person. What are you going to do about it? Put me in time out?" I was only joking of course. Beck would never do that. He surprised me.

"Well…"

"Beck." There was a warning in my voice and he decided not to push it.

Later, at lunch, Beck brought up the scene at class again.

"You know, she was only trying to help. Maybe you've got her all wrong."

"Are you actually defending her? She could have hurt you."

"How?"

"Nevermind."

"Aww, how sweet. Does Jade West care if I get hurt?"

"Shut it."

"No, but seriously. How could she have hurt me? She was defending me."

"What if she scratched you while attacking Steve?"

"Steve?"

"Uhh. Russel."

"You mean Russ?"

"Who cares?"

"He does."

"I don't."

"Okay, back on topic. I don't think a scratch counts as hurting me. Besides, I'm a guy. I can take a hit."

"Not always."

"Ok, when can't I take a hit?"

"Instead of an arrow to the knee, think of a knee to the groin. I win." He shivered.

"Point made."

"See you tonight," I told him as I got up; dabbing at my eye when my back was turned. It wasn't bleeding as much, but it was still bleeding a little.

"Jade wait," he called out after me. I turned to face him and walked back when he motioned me over. "About the date tonight, can we reschedule? Cat's a little nervous and wants to get some extra practice in after school."

"Sure. See you tomorrow."

"I'll call you tonight, I swear."

"Don't worry about it. Vega and I have our scene down, but I have a lot of homework to do. You better text me good night, though."

"Absolutely. Love ya."

"I know," I said as I walked away.

In the next class, I couldn't help but remember our earlier practice this morning.

"So," Vega asked in her overly cheerful and fake way. "The slip says we have to do a scene of an old lady and a burglar."

"I'll be the burglar. You'll be the old lady. I'll knock you out, steal your money, and run off. It's simple and easy. Think you can handle it? Unless it's too hard. Of course, even Robbie could do this scene."

"The old lady shouldn't get knocked out, that's harsh. The old lady should fight back and hit the burglar in the face with her cane." I froze.

My dad used a cane once. It was lying on the floor because my grandmother left it behind after visiting us for a day. Dad didn't like how I dressed for her visit and just happened to spot it. That cane hurt a lot. That night, Beck almost lost it. He threatened to call the cops when he saw the bruises on my arms and side. He made me put ice packs on them while we watched a horror movie. I know Beck doesn't like horror movies, but that night he didn't complain even once. He also made me stay the night. I refused to take the bed; stating that girls only did that if they didn't have a backbone. So, I slept on the couch while Beck slept on the floor; stating that there was no way in hell he would sleep in a comfortable bed while his girlfriend slept on the couch.

"…Does that sound good?"

"Whatever," I mumbled distractedly.

"Great, let's get started."

"What?"

I still couldn't get used to her swinging that damn cane near my face, but I had to suck it up and do the scene tomorrow,

That night, I waited for Beck's text so that I could tell him about the black-eye. When I looked in the vanity earlier, the cut had scabbed a little, but the swelling hadn't gone down any. It was starting to turn slightly blue now as well.

I waited almost all night. Beck was supposed to text me at 10:00, but he texted me at 1:00 instead. He had been busy and hadn't gotten home till late. He just remembered to text me, but I was too tired to text him back any more than necessary. 'I'll tell him tomorrow night' I promised myself as I tried to get at least a fraction of the sleep I knew I needed.

So, this is my first fanfiction for Victorious. I love the series and was just going through youtube when I came across Jade&Beck Hidden Moments – Season 1. After that I started wondering. What if there was more to it than Jade getting back at Tori? So, during the course of one day I wrote this. Let me know what you think.