Disclaimer: I don't own Victorious, credit to Dan Schneider.
This will probably be a three chapter story, but I'm not sure at this point. We'll both just have to wait and see what I end up with.
Cat and Jade's relationship was very complicated. They were best friends, and yet from an outsiders perspective, you wouldn't realize it. It may even seem that Jade heavily disliked the energetic, overly happy redhead. Maybe sometimes she did, especially when Cat tried to hug her too much, but their friendship went back years. It was something neither of them really talked about, both for their own reasons. No one ever asked Cat anything serious, because if it was attempted the result would be a story about unicorns, the French Revolution and sushi. No one asked Jade because, well, everyone was scared of her.
The story was also a difficult one to wrap your head around unless you got the WHOLE story, which went all the way back to Jade's dark early childhood. But it is a story worth hearing, so sit back and try to take it all in.
Jade West was a strange third grader. She didn't like to run around and play with friends, she didn't like music day in class, and she did NOT like being with her family. Most days at recess she spent ripping flowers out of the ground and using stolen classroom scissors to cut them up. She'd only been caught twice before, so she had learned to be careful where she used them.
No one in her class even wanted to be her friend. She wore black every single day, even though black clothing in California is torture. On parent days she would only glare when asked why her mom or dad didn't show up to see her work. The one time a child did try to be her friend, he ended up on the roof of the school without his pants on.
Don't ask.
School life may have been bad enough for Jade, but she would have preferred staying at school 24/7 instead of going back home.
Her mother worked often, and so it fell on her father to watch over her most of the time. Jade hated her father. He always yelled at her, sent her to her room, and threatened to ship her off to some foster home if she didn't listen. Every night she prayed that he would actually do it, especially after... never mind.
The sixteen year old Jade West you would think of isn't the same as the little girl. She used to be scared. She used to be more sensitive.
She used to cry.
She would sit in the back corner of the classroom and glare at her desk when the teacher called her out for not listening, and then give the silent treatment when everyone laughed. In all honesty, it killed her. She didn't like being laughed at or made fun of, and it happened every day. The reason? She refused to let others define her as a person. She wanted to be herself, but the person she really was wasn't the kind that everyone would accept.
Then one day, the strange little girl with a crazy smile moved to LA and was put in Jade's class.
Her name was Cat Valentine. Man, what a name. Jade thought it was weird, although she didn't say that aloud. No use getting another stupid time-out.
The girl had long brown hair, a freakishly annoying peppy voice and was gushing over red velvet cupcakes, or something like that. Jade was hardly paying attention. At that moment she was doodling a butterfly with it's wings torn off in her math book.
"What's your name?"
Jade's hand stopped it's steady motion at the sound of the girls voice. Even without looking up, the dark little girl could tell that the question was directed at her. She considered ignoring it, but decided it would be more fun to freak her out. Without a smile, Jade lifted her head and turned to face the new girl.
"Jade," she replied simply, raising her eyebrow to wait for the next question.
"Hi Jade!" Cat squeaked, waving and smiling like she was at Disneyland. "I'm Cat, but you probably already know that." Another giggle. Jade rolled her eyes visibly as the girl continued. "Do you want to play at recess?"
"Sure!" Jade replied in a fake-sweet voice. "I can show you my dead animal collection if you want!"
Cat's face visibly paled, and Jade chuckled before getting back to her drawing. But to her immense surprise, within a few seconds the girl was smiling again and asking her more questions.
"I really like your hair!" she exclaimed, and Jade frowned. Had Cat just complimented her hair? She had used left-over paint from the art room to dye make-shift blue streaks in it. It looked no where near professional, but pretty impressive for a third grader who had done it in the school bathroom the previous morning.
"Thanks," Jade mumbled, putting down her pencil and resting back in her chair, her eyes flicking over to the new girl.
She seemed harmless enough, and hadn't been initially turned off by Jade's dark appearance and attitude. That was something to give her credit for.
"Yeah, sure, let's play at recess," Jade sighed, resolving to give the girl a real chance, if only for the forty-five minute break. Cat squealed happily and clapped her tiny hands together. At that moment the teacher told everyone to pull out their worksheet from the previous day, so both girls had to be quiet. Jade allowed one last glance at Cat. Of course she was smiling.
When the teacher let the students out for recess, Jade waited impatiently for Cat to get her things put away and follow her outside. She clutched the scissors in her pocket, the ones she had snatched up while the teachers back was turned, and eyed the new girl. She was humming to herself, a cheerful sounding tune that Jade didn't recognize. A few seconds later, Cat skipped over to Jade, her humming increasing in volume.
"We can play, but cut the humming," Jade growled through her teeth, grabbing Cat's wrist to pull her outside before they ran out of time.
A few minutes later
"La la la la la laaaaaaaaa," Cat sang happily, skipping along behind Jade as she led the new girl to her favourite flower cutting spot. Jade clenched her teeth together and tried to avoid yelling for her to shut up. There was a teacher standing near by, eyeing them suspiciously, and the last thing she needed was to get in trouble for yelling.
"Sit," Jade commanded when they reached the spot next to a tree, under which dozens of flowers were blooming. This was Jade's favourite spot, because you could always see someone coming before they saw you. That gave her ample time to put away the scissors if a teacher came over.
Cat sit down obediently, and Jade lowered down cross legged next to her, pulling out the scissors and turning them around in her hands.
"Why do you have those?" Cat asked her innocently, eyes wide and a friendly smile painted on her face. Jade glanced up to her, ignoring the question and instead eyeing the new girl with renewed interest.
"Who put you up to this?" Jade asked with a hint of impatience, her paralysing gaze finally affecting Cat, although she looked much more confused than afraid.
"What do you mean?" Cat questioned, frowning as she tried to decipher the meaning of the simple question.
"I mean, who told you to talk to me and try to be friends?"
"Well, my mommy says I should always try to make new friends, especially at a new school, and I thought you looked lonely!"
Jade's eyebrows raised as she continued to stare at the strange little girl. There was something about her, something very unique that she hadn't seen in another classmate before. There was also no real fear on her face.
"You really want to be friends with me?" Jade inquired quietly, averting her eyes down to the scissors in her pale hands. She reached over and plucked a flower from the ground, opening the blades enough to slip the vibrant petals in between.
"Why wouldn't I?" Cat responded with a giggle and an inviting smile. Jade raised her eyes to the girl again, finding nothing but honesty and laughter in her expression. Here was a girl who seemed to honestly want to be friends with Jade, instead of just faking it for a couple of cheap laughs. Going against her natural instinct to deny her friendship and leave, Jade allowed a small, but genuine smile onto her lips.
"I think I might keep you around for a while Cat."
A few days passed, and Cat Valentine was still feeling extremely pleased with herself. Her mother commented on how nicely she seemed to be settling into life in LA. Her brother may have been another story, but the little girl couldn't have been happier. After all, as far as her jumbled brain was concerned, she and Jade were the best of friends. Whether or not Jade felt the same wasn't very relevant. Cat was perfectly happy with where she was.
That is, until Jade showed up one day with a large purple bruise on her neck.
Cat kept glancing over at her new friend every few seconds during class, hardly paying attention to the teacher at the front of the crowded room. Jade would only stare at her notebook, occasionally bringing a delicate hand up to rub the bruise, which was always accompanied by a wince. She wouldn't look at Cat, not even when the bell rang and they were free to go for recess.
"Wait up Jade!" Cat called as her new friend hurried out of the room, leaving her bag behind on the desk. The normally laughing young girl frowned in confusion, leaving her own bright pink bag on her chair before hurrying out after Jade. She managed to leave the room just in time to see a black streak entering the girls washroom down the hall. Cat walked as fast as she dared through the teacher infested hallway in fear of being scolded for running. When she reached the door of the restroom, she heard the last thing she would have ever expected to come from Jade West.
On the other side of the door, she heard crying.
Cat tentatively pushed on the door, enough to slide through without making a sound that would announce her presence. She peeked around the divider wall into the main area of the restroom, and couldn't hold in her gasp at the sight of the girl she had never thought would shed a single tear.
Jade was standing at one of the three white sinks, staring into a dirty mirror with tears streaming down her pale, childish face. Cat could hear her barely contained sobbing, and in all honesty, it broke her heart.
"Jade...?" she called to her friend quietly, letting out a squeak of surprise when Jade spun around to face her with a pair of scissors in her hand and a look of bloody murder painted on her face. When she saw it was Cat however, she only let out a weak, choking cry and fell onto the ground, leaning her head back against the sink while she wept.
Cat sniffed back her own tears at the sight of her friend reduced to crying on a bathroom floor and glided over the Jade, kneeling down next to her and allowing the girl to lean into her for support. For several long minutes the girls stayed quiet, the silence broken only by the sound of Jade's attempt at covering her sobs. Cat was still very confused, but she did know one thing. Jade needed her in that moment, and she just needed to sit there and be willing to help.
"You'd better not t-tell anyone about this," Jade sniffed, closing her eyes and using her black sleeve to wipe away the tears on her cheeks. Cat pouted and carefully stood up, running over to grab a paper towel for Jade. She handed it to the still crying girl, who took it thankfully without a word and proceeded to dry her cheeks as best she could. When she was done with it she tossed it aside with a look is distaste and put her head down on her knees.
"I can't believe you just saw this," she mumbled against the rough fabric of her jeans. Cat bit her bottom lip, trying to decide what to do, before electing to sit and listen. She was still feeling rather dizzy at the whole situation, but as clueless as she could sometimes be, she couldn't let down a friend.
"I mean, no one ever sees this!" Jade continued, her voice rising as she lifted her head and let out a painful laugh. "No one would ever think that weird, scary Jade would cry. Bunch of stupid idiots..."
Cat held in her gasp at the last part, hesitating for a second before leaning over to pat Jade comfortingly on the knee. To Jade's credit, she didn't give her new friend the death glare, which was some serious progress for her.
"Do you need me to get something for you?" Cat asked after a moment, unsure of how to go about this. "Or I could get a teacher to call your dad-"
"No!" Jade shouted, startling Cat and causing her to lean back slightly. Jade sighed and shook her head, eyeing the faded tiling on the floor. "No, I don't need to give him another reason to..."
She trailed off rather suddenly, leaving Cat wide eyed and expectant. When Jade didn't speak for nearly half a minute, she elected to ask the question that had been on her mind since the beginning of the day.
"What happened to your neck?" the girl inquired in a whispered voice, her face holding nothing but curiosity and worry. As it happened though, the question hit a nerve in Jade and she shot up from where she was sitting, nearly whacking her head on the sink in her hurry to get up.
"Why, is everybody noticing it?!" she demanded in as loud a voice she dared to use while hoping to remain undiscovered. Cat shrunk back, not quite afraid, but very, very puzzled. Jade realized this and sighed, taking a step over to offer her friend a hand. Cat took it gratefully and hopped to her feet.
"It's nothing, just a..." she trailed off again, her eyes roaming everywhere but her friend's face. After a moment she let out another pained laugh and put on a fake smile.
"It's nothing new," she finished, finally eyeing her quirky friend and keeping the smile. "C'mon, we're missing recess."
A brilliant smile lit up Cat's face, the bruise and crying forgotten as she thought of the warm sunshine outside. Both girls laughed and Jade tugged on her friend's wrist to pull her out of the gloomy bathroom and out into the fresh air, where they could both focus on cutting flowers and their new playmates.
More to come soon!