Conspiracy
Disclaimer: I own nothing
A/N: Thought I'd give you another little semi-investigative fiction, this one primarily in Jade's perspective and it's taking place early on. Circa the first few episodes-there are some reasons due to the plot of the story that doing it during the years of the show's progression would not make a lot of sense.
Chapter 1 (Something is Amiss)
"I will destroy every bit of your life, piece by piece. I will take your career, I will take your wife and your daughters, and if you ever try to get them back from me…I will bring the wrath of hell on your siblings, your parents, your aunts and uncles, and every member of your family. Then I make you watch as I kill your wife and children."
"I can't believe you're making us visit them so often," Jade muttered uncomfortably. She walked behind Beck, meeting up with his good friend Andre, her friend Cat, and cousin Robbie at the Vega family's home. "The girl was flirting with you, and you know it bothers me, so why-"
"That was weeks ago, Jade. Can we drop it?" Beck stopped on the porch and stared at her with an annoyed glare. "Besides, she's a new student and she needs friends." She still found it strange because Beck never just became friends with random girls that had crushes on him. "That, and mom wants us to be friends with her for some reason. I don't bother asking."
"What the hell do your parents care?" He responded with a shrug and hit the doorbell. "Maybe you're right, maybe I'm just letting paranoia run away with me. Tori's friends with Andre and Cat, so what can it hurt?" The door opened and Tori appeared in red flannel pants, and a pink shirt. She raised an eyebrow and scowled at the girl. "Seriously Vega? You have friends over and that's what you're wearing?"
"Be nice," Beck warned. Jade rolled her eyes and entered the house while flinging her hair over her shoulder.
Andre, Cat, and Robbie were seated around the table with sandwiches on plates before them. The counter had deli meats, cheese, and open bags of Orowheat bread sitting on the surface.
She was about to comment on the bread, but stopped when she heard two men talking. When she looked to the wall behind the counter, she saw Mr. Vega leaving with another man wearing a suit. He had a similar hairstyle as David, but his hair was greyer, and he was an inch shorter. "Congrats on another promotion," the man said. Jade noticed his shoulders dropping and his face was tense despite the tiny smile.
"Thanks Gary," David replied, "It means a lot coming from you." Gary looked at the girls, then to Holly on the couch, and parted his lips. David brought his hand down to the man's shoulder, causing him to flinch. "So Detective, I guess you'll be calling me Commander Vega from now on."
Jade stepped to the side as the two men approached the door. "Sure." She turned her head and watched Gary step outside. David put his hand on the door frame and pointed at him with a wink and a smirk.
"Keep it up Gary, you'll be a Sergeant again someday. It's always been a shame when you lost that Lieutenant promotion."
"Yeah Dave. Sure." Gary smiled politely at the others and Holly looked up to him with a lingering gaze. David closed the door and turned to the others.
"The rest of your friends showed up, Tori? Play nice." Tori smiled at him and watched him walk back to the study.
Ever since they started hanging out with Tori, she had a strange feeling about their father. The man was rarely present, and whenever he was around, he didn't seem to talk to his family.
This Gary she'd seen once or twice before, it looked like there was something between him and Mrs. Vega that made Jade think the woman could be cheating on her family. Since there wasn't proof of this, she didn't want to ask, because that was an assumption she didn't need to make.
"You have a very strange family," Jade mumbled. Tori put her hands to her hips and turned to Jade. Tori's foot tapped on the ground and her eyes squinted. Jade threw her hands up and peaked her shoulders. "I'm only saying, your relatives are weird."
"What do you mean?"
Aside from Trina clearly acting up for attention, which made sense seeing as how the girls didn't get any attention from their parents, there was David's peculiar ability to be entirely invisible from his family. "They certainly don't act normal. Where's your sister?" Tori folded her arms and looked to the stairs with a shrug.
"She heard you guys were coming and went to her room. You rag on her so much that she doesn't want to be around you. I don't blame her. She may be a bit off, but she's my sister…" Jade exhaled and followed Tori's gaze. "Anyway, want me to make a sandwich for you?"
"I got it."
They started to play a game of poker, and all the while, Jade wondered what it was that David was doing in his study. The door was still shut, and she could hear nothing coming from inside, even when she walked by with the intention of trying to listen for something.
Holly remained on the couch. She had a book in her lap, her legs were crossed and her shoulders were sloped. Rather than reading the book, her unwavering gaze had been focused on the blank television as though it had been on for the past hour.
"Where's the bathroom?" Jade stood from the table and dusted off her skirt. Without looking from the cards, Tori swept her arm through the air and pointed to the stairs.
Jade climbed them, and with each step, the pit in her stomach grew. She mulled over Tori's words regarding Trina and felt a slight bit of guilt over this girl feeling ostracized by the group. "Beck is always getting onto me about being overly harsh to people, so maybe I should be more open to giving a damn…"
In truth, she only disliked Trina because it was Trina that pushed Tori to attend and not give up on Hollywood Arts. It was her own jealousy that was driving her insane and treating Trina like a piece of trash rather than human, when it was Tori who not only flirted but kissed Beck clearly to spite her.
Her fingers slid along the bathroom door as she bypassed it. When she approached Trina's door, she hesitated. The door was cracked open and the seventeen year old was inside on her bed.
"Trina?" Jade pushed the door and entered quietly. Her eyes moved to a photograph on the end table beside the bed. It was of two very young girls on side of their mother, holding Holly's hand as she guided them through a parking lot. "Hey Vega, how old are you in that picture?"
"Five. Tori's three." Her heart stopped and Trina rolled onto her back. She'd assumed Trina was asleep, and only asked out loud to say her thought to herself. "I hate the picture, to be honest." Trina sat up and pressed her back against the headboard.
"You hate it?" She was perplexed by the sudden admission, as though the picture were just a fleeting annoyance in Trina's life. She gazed at the photo more closely, all three women had their backs to the camera. The older daughter had both feet off the ground as if she were skipping, while the younger was looking up at their mother. Holly was glancing over her shoulder. "It looks like a fine picture to me."
"Dad wants it there. I don't know why, he just does." Trina crossed her arms and looked up at her. "So what did you want? I told Tori I didn't want to be bothered by you guys, since apparently I do nothing but bother you."
The scorn cut into Jade, causing her to cringe. "I know." She raised her hands defensively, then dropped them like a crashing wave. "Listen I just wanted to apologize. I get out of hand sometimes-"
"Yeah why don't you like me?" Trina's eyes slanted and like arrows they pierced Jade's still heart. "Not that I care that you like me or not, but what the hell did I ever do to you?"
"Nothing. You did nothing." She took a step forward, but hesitated when Trina's glare sharpened. "I was angry with you because you encouraged Tori to keep trying at Hollywood Arts." Trina scoffed and threw her head back, laughing out once.
"You hate me because I was being a sister. Wow, that says a lot about you." Jade wanted to bite back, but she resisted the urge. "Now here's something else. I don't like you. This family's already screwed up enough as it is, has been since I was a little girl, and we don't need judgmental little people like you coming in and treating me or my sister like shit. Okay?"
"I-I know, I'm just-"
"You're 'sorry'. That's what so many people say, and that's just a word. They never mean it." She closed her eyebrows together and took a step back. This wasn't about her, it couldn't be. "Anyway, I shouldn't be snapping your head off so-could you just leave me alone please?"
"Yeah."
Jade turned to leave and stopped short of the door when Trina spoke up. "I guess you're going to go and make fun of me to my sister some more? You know the only reason she agrees with you guys and calls me crazy too is so she can please you, right?" She started to turn her head, pouting her lower lip as she tried to glance over her shoulder.
"She wants friends and attention just as much, so don't even think she's not trying to kiss up to you guys when she says something bad about me."
"It shouldn't be so hard for you guys to make friends."
"You don't know our dad very well, do you?"
Jade flinched and left the room almost immediately. Before entering the bathroom, she stopped to look at the open door across the hall. "Tori's room," Jade whispered. At Tori's bedside was the same photograph Trina had. It gave off a creepy vibe, but Jade didn't know what was so odd about it. "So their dad likes it, who cares?"
When she entered the bathroom, the same framed photo was on the white marble countertop. She focused once more on it and carefully picked up the photo. Taking a closer look, she could see that Holly's brow was furrowed and her lips were parted briefly. Her eyes focused on the camera at just the right moment to make it seem like she was looking at the camera man, but seeing her hurried and uncomfortable pose, Jade was able to deduce that Holly was trying to get into the shop as fast as she could.
She pursed her lips and ran her thumb over the glass, tracing Holly's face. "So weird. She's pulling the girls too."
Someone cleared their throat, causing her head to jolt back. David was standing outside the door, his right hand was pressed against the frame and his eyes shifted from her face towards the photo in her hand. "Tori's friends aren't allowed upstairs, Jade."
"Sorry sir, I asked where the bathroom was and Tori pointed to the stairs."
"Okay. Well hurry on up and head downstairs, please." She felt a lump grow in her throat and nodded. David pulled his hand away from the frame after a moment and started for the stairs.
With that, Jade quickly set the photo down and shut the bathroom door.
Well, what are you thinking? Does David seem sketchy, and why do Beck's parents want him to befriend the Vega's? Is Beck to be trusted, does he even know anything? What is up with that photo?
