Hey guys! This fanfic that you're (hopefully) going to read is an idea that I've had in mind for quite some time now. So to give you some background: this is set before Tori shows up at Hollywood Arts and before Beck and Jade are a couple. I imagine they're all about 16 years old — I don't know if that messes up canon timelines, but let's roll with it! In this story, I will be drawing from my own personal experiences (as artists/authors are apt to do) that I felt needed to be shared. We'll get to those experiences in later chapters :) The M rating is for chapters that are still to come, so don't worry! It'll get saucy soon enough ;)

Here's the first chapter which is not SUPER exciting, but hey, we need a place to start.

Disclaimer: I do not own Victorious… duh.

Enjoy!

Jade walked into her screenwriting class with a to-go coffee cup in hand and sat in one of the many empty chairs. She liked to show up a little bit earlier than everyone else so that she could claim an additional seat as a footstool to prop her feet up onto. The hot coffee burned her tongue as she took a short sip and heated her body from the inside-out, making her almost sweat. With it being already toasty in the classroom, most people would prefer to have a cool, refreshing beverage, but Jade liked the comfort that coffee brings her in the otherwise obnoxious environment that is high school.

Everyone else made their way to their seats gradually and took out their notebooks. Mr. Poe, the screenwriting teacher, trudged in with no enthusiasm like always. He was one of the few teachers at Hollywood Arts that taught only with powerpoint presentations, but nobody cared — writing down words on notebook paper is easier than actually paying attention to what teachers teach you.

Jade took a blue notebook out her messenger bag and copied the notes down while tuning out Mr. Poe's monotonous voice. When he stayed on one slide for a long time, she doodled stars in the margins. Cat, who always sat close to Jade, would sometimes draw in the margins, too, when Jade does. Whenever she caught Cat doing the same things as her, she would call her "copy cat."

But Cat wasn't here today. She had to be taken to the hospital after her brother fed her a sandwich with beads hidden in the jelly. Cat should've known better than to accept ANY food from her brother, so it was almost her own fault.

Doodling made the time go by a lot faster. When the screenwriting class was almost over, Mr. Poe started speaking louder so that the people who haven't been paying attention the entire time would look up. Jade broke her focus off of her nautical star to listen to the closing remarks.

"Okay there are 5 minutes left of class so everybody listen to your homework instructions, please!" Mr. Poe said, "You and a partner are to write a 5 minute play that includes 'food' in some way. You can have characters that are food, a conflict about food, a plot revolving around food, or whatever you want. This should be a fun exercise — don't overthink it too much. The script is due Monday so make sure that you meet up with your partner sometime over the weekend or email each other. You may pick your partners now."

Shit! Jade thought. Cat is the only friend she has in this class. She looked around the room, but most people paired up pretty quickly. She felt stuck to her seat. She didn't want to make it obvious that she didn't have a partner yet. After scanning her eyes around the room one more time, she made eye contact with Ryder Daniels who also needed a partner.

Of COURSE he's the only person left Jade thought. Nobody likes to work with Ryder because he always makes his partner or group do all the hard work while he contributes nothing.

He walked over to the seat next to Jade and gave her a beaming smile. "Looks like we're partners," he said, "I'd prefer to meet at my house to work on this assignment. I never email and I don't want to have to go anywhere. Does that work for you?"

She wanted to respond angrily but could only muster up a "Yeah, that works" before the bell rang. He wrote his address in her still-open notebook, winked, and said "See you tomorrow" before he left the room.

Jade detested his ego, but that wink made her heart beat just a little harder.

Congratulations, you're still here! I'll try to get the next chapter up soon. It's definitely too early for me to ask you guys to leave a review, but that would be WICKED COOL if you did. Toodles xx