Pilot

"Are you mad at me?" Beck questioned.

Jade sighed into the receiver rolling her eyes, "no. Where you'd get that idea?"

"Jade, I'm sorry I couldn't come over tonight." Her boyfriend replied. "I just got busy with my assignments."

"Oh, so you don't want to see me anymore, is that what you're saying?"

"What?! No Jade you're being ridiculous."

"So you think I'm fat!" The girl made her way down the stairs to grab a snack.

Beck let out an impatient sigh, "that's not…No, I don't think you're fat. Jade, you know that. I love you."

"If you loved me you'd be standing beside me right now. Trying to help me decide what to eat." She really wasn't mad at him. In fact, she understood why he couldn't come over. He comes over all the time. They're like permanently stitched together. She just likes giving him a hard time every once in a while. And he plays along because he does love her.

"How about you eat some popcorn?" Beck suggested. Jade could sense the smile on his face. "Put a little red pepper on it and make it a little spicy."

"That actually sounds appetizing."

"Don't forget to get some coffee to go with it."

"You know me so well." Jade grinned, as the doorbell sounded. "Hey, I gotta go. Cat's here."

"All right. I love you."

"I love you too." Jade replied before she placed her phone on the counter top and walked toward the door.

Cat giggled as Jade pulled the door open, "hi."

"Yeah, hey." Jade said, stepping away from the door and allowing the girl into her home. They made their way into the kitchen so Jade could grab the popcorn before they went back to the living room, "do you really want to work on homework?" Jade asked as they sat down.

"We could watch a movie." Cat suggested, on the couch opposite of Jade. She took a handful of the popcorn and stuffed it in her mouth. "Ah, hot! Oh, my God, it's burning my mouth."

Jade chuckled, "yeah it is." She too leaned forward and took a handful of the snack. "Crushed red pepper…a little seedy." She winked.

The girl sitting across from her was too cheery. She had this bright smile on her face and it was super annoying. It's not like it was a surprise really, Cat had always been that way. But still it was annoying nonetheless. "Did you go to the big showcase?" Cat asked.

"No," was the response.

Cat shrugged, "well, you should have. It was awesome. There were lobster cakes and a chocolate fountain I love chocolate…that reminds me of this one time when my family went to a restaurant that had a chocolate fountain an-"

"Cat!" Jade growled. This was completely ridiculous.

The red haired girl gave a little jump as her name was called but she still looked toward her friend, "yeah?"

Jade Shrugged, "I don't care."

"Oh."

There was a long moment of an awkward silence before Cat whispered, "we're gonna have a new girl at school."

Jade glared her way, giving her the I-still-don't-care look.

Cat shrugged, "just saying."

"Dude why you rubbing my boyfriend?" Jade questioned as she entered the room.

Tori stopped rubbing the coffee stain. "Oh, uh-I spilt coffee on-"

"Get away from him."

Beck walked over to her smiling slightly, "relax." He soothed, leaning forward and kissing her cheek.

"Oh my God, there's a huge fire!" Sikowitz yelled as he crashed inside. The whole class panicked, running each way; screaming, trying to get to safety. "I'm kidding! Kidding!" Sikowitz laughed, "I just wanted to get your blood pumping, which I did. Ha!" He closed the door, "Alright, now let's get started. Rumps in chairs."

Tori, her name was Tori and she was this prissy little wannabe who just started, and she was just annoying. So aggravating. She arrived with her little innocent little mind, not knowing anything and she spilt coffee on Beck. And then proceeded to try and wipe it off.

She was smiley and cheery, but not in the Cat sort of way that she could handle. Jade just couldn't wrap her mind around this girl. Hollywood Arts was not big enough for the two of them and she was going to make sure that Tori knew that fact.

"Crash course. Improv; acting without a script. Which means the actor must make up their own actions and dialogue as they perform the scene," Sikowitz explained to Tori. "Understand?" When she tried to object he smiled, "excellent. Jade you will captain the first group of the day, choose your actors."

Jade walked up to the little stage sighing briefly before saying, "Cat, Eli, Beck and Tori."

"You know what you did today wasn't cool." Cat said the next day as she looked across the room to her friend.

Today they were at Cat's house; they were working on a script for one of their writing classes.

Jade looked up to her friend, her hand sliding the pen away from the paper. Her mind drifted back to school that day and she sighed, "It wasn't my finest moment," Jade whispered, "but it's over and done. I can't change it." It's not really like she wanted to change it either. Tori deserved it. Really, she did. She had spilt coffee on Beck. And Jade was pretty sure there was this flirty look being sent to her boyfriend in the process of wiping away the coffee.

Cat nodded as she looked back at her paper.

The iced coffee poured down the new girls scalp before she stood up astonished. Jade just stared at her a moment, a slight smirk gracing her lips as she raised her eyebrow daringly. "What's the prob? Dog."

Tori ran off the stage and out of the room, just hoping the tears stinging her eyes wouldn't escape until after she cleared the room.

It was an instinct. She had to set Tori straight, the coffee was in her hand and the moment was there, she couldn't just not take advantage of the opportunity. Beck gave her a look after the coffee had been poured and once Tori had run away from the class, he had even scolded her a little. Telling her she was being out of line.

Yeah, right.

But she guessed in a way she was out of line. In a way things were handled wrong. But like she said it was an instinct. It just happened. Kind of like she had no control. And admittedly she did feel a little bad about it.

"Would you?" Cat asked after a moment.

The gothic girl sighed as she looked toward the other girl, "would I what?"

Cat shrugged, "change it. If you could go back and change what you did to Tori today, would you?"

Jade was actually thinking about it for a moment, but in the end she shook her head, "no." She shrugged, "probably not." The girl stared into Cat's eyes a moment as she set her pen down and grabbed the Pepsi the young Valentine had gotten for her upon her arrival. "In the end it'll just help her grow."

Cat said nothing as her friend took a drink.

"At least now she knows her boundaries."

The next day was surprising to most. No one really expected Tori Vega to turn back up in Hollywood Arts. Honestly Jade wasn't really sure how she'd felt about it. The girl waltzed into Sikowitz's classroom ready for their lesson. Of course when Sikowitz told Tori to pick her actors she'd picked Jade.

That meant she wanted revenge. But acting was a skill Jade excelled at. There was no way a newbie like Tori Vega was going to mess her up.

"You eat your pants!" She panicked, "wait!"

Sikowitz shook his head, amusement clearly written on his face, "sorry Jade, the next letter was-"

"F I know!" Jade hollered.

"Jade!" Beck called after her, quickly striding down the hall. "Jade, come on, just talk to me."

"You kissed her!" Jade growled turning to face him. "You just kissed her. You could've said no. It wouldn't have ruined the scene."

"It meant nothing." Beck replied. "Really, babe, you know how I feel about you." He reached down and grabbed her hand, "I was only acting. It was nothing."

"I hate her."

"Jade-"

"Stop." Jade said quickly, "I've made up my mind, it's not going to change." She pulled her hand away to make her way to lunch, "I want to eat alone."

"Hey," Beck said, sidestepping over to meet her eyes, "are we okay?"

"Oh, just peachy!" Jade snapped.

But she honestly thought they might not be. Robbie, Andre, Cat and Beck all seemed to be liking Tori more than her. Sure the girl was nicer and Jade was for the most part was bitter, but she had a personality. And she'd do anything for her friends. They all knew that. Didn't they?

Later during lunch Jade was still mentally kicking herself because she had messed that up. "How did I screw up?" She mumbled as she jabbed her fork into the salad that was currently occupying her tray. It was unbelievable that Tori had beat her. She normally aced acting challenges.

"Hey!" A chirpy voice greeted as the table shook a little and Cat sat down, "where's Beck?"

Jade just glared, "I don't know." She said.

Cat continued to smile as she opened her bottled water and took a drink, "you almost beat her," she tried.

Jade just continued her glare, if she did it enough maybe Cat would leave. "Go sit with Robbie." She said eyeing the lonely boy at another table.

"But Rex doesn't like me." Cat pouted.

"Then rip his head off!"

There was a moment of silence before Cat said, "that's a little mean."

Jade shrugged, "well, I'm not a nice person."

"Beck seems to think you are," the red head pointed out.

"Why are you here?" Jade questioned.

Cat thought about it a moment before saying, "because you're my best friend!"

Jade sighed, because she really wasn't expecting that answer. It was surprising how long it took her to come up with her comeback because it usually only took her a second to respond. However, she finally shot something back, "well…go be friends with Tori."

Cat smiled, "I am friends with Tori, but I'll always be better friends with you."