The first time Beck sees Jade, she is singing at the talent show to her now ex-boyfriend. She sings Kiss 'N Tell by Ke$ha, and God, how could anyone cheat on this girl who sounds and looks like a Broadway star? Beck guesses that the guy is the one in the front row who looks like he's about to sh*t his pants, and is surprised by this strong urge to walk up to the a$$hole and punch his lights about. But this girl (he doesn't know her name until after she's done singing) looks like she's plenty strong enough to do so on her own. The lights had been colored and flashing through most of her performance, but there is suddenly one straight beam of white light on the girl and Beck loses his breath. She is stunning and pale and dark and thrilling and lovely, sounding like an angel from Heaven and looking like one from Hell. The guy is just sitting, petrified, and all of a sudden, as this dark angel gets to the final chorus, she points to him and a spotlight follows her finger, and Beck just laughs and laughs at the look on his face. As she finishes, over the applause a girl in the front row starts jumping and cheering, her red velvet cupcake hair flying, and she is (Cam?Cali?Cat?) trying to be heard over everyone else.
"Yay Jade! Yaaaay, Jade!" and Beck tunes everything out to look at Jade (God, her name is as beautiful as she is) and tries to catch his breath as she smirks out to the crowd, leaning back into the mike to say one last thing before going backstage to await the results.
"Stay right there, David, I'll be out in five." Her voice is ice cold and her eyes are shooting lasers, and as she walks offstage, Beck wants to chase her and ask her if she knows how perfect she is. He looks back down to David and notices that the guy is slowly standing up as the rest of audience loses interest and chats about who was the best. The boy next to the redheaded girl (André and Cat!) immediately stands up and moves in front of David, shaking his head and pushing him back down. David tries to stand again, but Beck is up and standing next to Andre and Cat without thinking, and shakes his head along with the other two.
"The lady said stay, jerkface. I think you should stay." Beck nods to André and Cat, and as the three make eye contact, David notices that they acknowledge one another as guardians for Jade, for this strong girl that some idiot decided to hurt and break, and he slinks back into his seat. As the lights dim, the three crouch in front of David to make sure he doesn't try to leave during awards. Third and second place are announced, and after an agonizing wait, Jade is proclaimed the winner. Amidst the cheers and applause she stalks onto the stage, the devilish smirk on her face unsettling quite a few people as she bows to the crowd, but only a few people in the front notice that her stunningly blue eyes are like ice. She rushes off as the curtains descend again, and the three teens in front of David stand once more.
"C'mon guys, please! You gotta help me ou-" He breaks mid-sentence and goes pale, eyes fixed somewhere a little behind Beck's shoulder. Cat turns first and rushes to hug Jade, both their faces lighting up.
"Jade, you are so amazing! I love your voice." Jade shrugs with a slight smile on her face before turning to face David, a sneer quickly taking place of the smile.
"Well? Let's hear it." She quirks an eyebrow in his direction, haughtily commanding whatever pathetic excuse this boy could produce. He blushes and stammers before swallowing and weakly smiling.
"Babe, I'm so sorry. It was a mistake." David stands and takes a step towards Jade, and Beck has to fight every part of his mind screaming 'DANGER' to just take a wary step back, exchanging cautious glances with André.
"Of course you're sorry. Sorry you got caught, a$$hole! And you're right," she pauses, looking at him up and down with disgust smeared across her beautifully angry face, "it was definitely a mistake that cost you me. Bye, David." With that Jade whirls around and starts to walk away, held head high and shoulders back. Beck admires her strength, and turns to André to ask 'what now', but immediately whirls back around as he heard David call out and watches him run after Jade.
"Wait! Baby, please, we can work this out." David smirks flirtatiously and grabs Jade's wrist. Time just stops for Beck as David grabs Jade's wrist and pulls to turn her around. Cat gasps and André's eyes go wide when Jade flinches and shrinks back, two actions that are practically invisible to most people exiting the theater, but Jade's actions seem unbelievably apparent to Beck. Within ten seconds of seeing Jade cower, Beck acts without thinking (again).
"Get offa her!" Beck growls and moves and lashes out and David is on the ground cursing and already pushing himself back up, but Beck gently pushes Jade ahead of him as he starts to run out of there, and he hears Cat shriek something and another smacking sound and he knows that Cat and André are right behind them and then Jade reaches back to twist their fingers together and Beck thinks his heart might stop. He begins to slow as they exit the building, but Jade tears past him and pulls him with her, spurring André and Cat to go faster to try and keep up. They are running fast and Beck stumbles but manages to get his footing back and tries to shout to Jade that they can stop now but sees her shoulders shake from something more than trying to catch her breath and so he just tightens his grip against hers and runs (back into the memories).
The first time Beck sees Jade, he has just moved to Hollywood (such a funny name to a seven year old) and has just finished helping his mom shop for groceries. They're walking home and pass a playground and Beck pleads for just five minutes of play because he hasn't played in so long and there are other kids playing until his mommy says okay, five minutes. Beck gently puts down his bag then dashes over to the play structure, racing to the top so he can slide down. But there is a little girl there, curled up in the top of the slide, and Beck hardly stops himself in time so he doesn't crash into her. He wobbles and falls back on his butt so he won't squish her. She glares at him with a pout, but her blue (it's Beck's favorite blue, the prettiest kind) eyes are tearing up and he thinks his heart might stop when she reaches out and grabs his hand.
"Will you help me run away?" Her little voice is hard but there is sadness behind it, and he blinks one, two, three times to make sure this girl is really real (cause he had a dream like this once) but she is still there when he's done blinking. Beck thinks for a minute, then smiles and squeezes her hand.
"I just bought popsicles from the store with my mommy. How 'bout we each have one and watch the clouds instead?" He is hopeful, shaking his hair out of his eyes and leaning forward to hear her answer. She looks at him thoughtfully, almost frowning, cocks her head to the side, bites her lip, shrugs (and then Beck realizes that she might say no), then nods slowly.
"Okay. But first you…have to go down the slide with me!" She is powerful and glares, daring him to say no, but Beck doesn't hesitate. He nods quickly, smiling gleefully, and scoots forward as the girl turns so his chest is against her back, neither letting go of the others' hand. "We'll count to three and then go. One…" Beck smiles and scoots them a little closer to the edge.
"Two…" Jade squeezes his hand a little tighter as he picks up where she left off. The two tense up in preparation.
"Threeeeee!" JadeandBeck scream in unison as they shove off the slide and they're flying and laughing and smiling and flying and they hit the ground running.
The first time Beck sees Jade, he is crying and so is she, and both are trying to get away from bullies who have nothing better to do than pick on ten year olds in the worst kinds of ways. The two choose the same tree to hide in and fight about it but end up watching the bullies get confused and laugh and laugh and decide that okay, they're not so angry at each other.
"Please don't cry. Angels shouldn't cry." Beck hands Jade his hankie to wipe away the mascara streaks (she doesn't like make-up but her mommy does) and Jade asks Beck to hold her butterfly barrette that tangled in her hair and they help each other down and then Beck sees his watch and (oh no) they should both be home. Jade cries and Beck tries to make her feel better until she pushes him away and tells him that if he tells anyone he saw her crying she'll cut his hair. They pout and forget to give back his hankie and her barrette and BeckandJade part ways (and memories) running.
The first times Beck sees Jade, they are twelve and fall in love across an auditorium. They are both auditioning for a play at the community theater and are trying for the roles of star-crossed lovers. The roles are hard but they nail their audition together, and the passion seen from them is so different from how they seem before and after the audition. No one else gets that they are just playing another character, and so as they are excused and told they will be contacted later on, Beck holds out his hand and they leave together, pretending (for a star-crossed moment) that they are not parting, her to the bus and him to the train, and JadeandBeck burst into the sun running.
"Enough!" Beck shouts and stops running, causing André and Cat to frantically slow themselves as to not crash into him and Jade, who nearly pulled her arm of the socket jerking away from Beck and then back into him. She swipes at her eyes and glares and asks what the hell he thinks he's doing, and Andre pipes up to tell him they could have all been hurt, and Cat just wants to know that everyone is okay but Beck ignores all the questions and comments. "Enough running, Jade. All we ever do is run away from everything, even each other." Her eyes widen as he pulls her barrette (it's his good luck charm) out of his pocket with the hand not holding onto hers for dear life. "I want something to run for."
The first time Jade sees Beck, (really, really sees Beck), it is cold and dark and she is holding his hand and she falls (in love). "Okay." And there they are. BeckandJade.