A/N: From an idea by smardiculous.

PART 1 OF 2.

FRIDAY

Tori felt exhausted when she was finally released from her Ancient Civilization Philosophy course. That Professor Stuart has the most monotone voice and when he rambles on and on for over an hour, it becomes a struggle to stay awake.

"I seriously need to record the next lecture on my phone while I nap and play it back later," she thought.

Speaking of her phone, she dug it out of her pocket and checked the time - 1:25. Tori smiled, knowing Cat and the others would be converging in the student center for lunch. And she was never more hungry than when she got let out of Stuart's class.

The half-Latina bounded up the two levels of steps toward the front doors. Upon entering, she felt a chill. This time of year, the heat normally breaks in California but the college acts like its still the dead of summer and keeps the interiors of the student center at a brisk 65 degrees. Tori decided to forgo her usual chicken salad and instead have a slice of pizza to warm up. She saw her friends at the table by the back wall where the windows ended.

"HEY!" she waved.

Her redheaded best friend, Cat, perked up and pulled up a chair to receive her.

"Thanks," Tori sighed, dropping her back onto the floor. She rested eyes on the two boys sitting opposite of her and Cat. "Hey, guys."

"'Sup, girl" smiled Andre, who was scrawling in his notebook with one hand and holding half a hoagie with the other.

"You look tired," quipped Robbie, adjusting his glasses. "Stuart again?"

Tori's head dropped onto her sprawled arm.

Andre chuckled, "That's a yes."

"I swear that man should be used for people suffering from insomnia. He's like the opposite of a cup of coffee."

The mention of coffee made Cat think of Tori's girlfriend, Jade. If the hot beverage had a fan club, she'd be the president.

"Is Jade joining us?" asked Cat.

Tori raised her face, "No."

"Why?"

"She's in line for tickets to the Amity Affliction concert. Box office opened this morning."

"Why not get them online?" Andre asked.

Tori shook her head.

"No, they deliberately only made some of them available online. They added as a special treat to the real fans if they wait in line will get better seats than if they ordered through their phones."

"And Jade's been waiting in line since this morning?"

"Some were already there from the night before but Jade was sure she made the right call. Not the best part of town to be after dark."

Robbie and Andre exchanged looks and nodded.

"What was that look for?" Tori queried.

The spectacled boy flung his fist forward, making a snapping sound.

Tori crossed her arms, "Really? You think I'm whipped?"

"Not you," Andre said. "Jade."

"Jade? No, she's not."

"What are we talking about?"

The gang of four looked up and noticed Beck.

"Oh just about how Tori's girlfriend is whipped."

The tan girl slammed down her hand on the table, trying to hide how much it hurt.

"She. Is. Not!"

Andre rolled his eyes. "Come on, she spent the whole morning waiting for those concert tickets...just for you?"

Tori leaned in "For the both of us!"

"This is pretty serious," Beck added.

"It's not like she had anything else to do, her one class was cancelled anyway so her whole day was wide open."

Beck smirked. "If you're so sure, why not try an experiment."

"What?" Tori deadpanned asked.

"Yeah, the only way to be 100% is if you deliberately make Jade do something you know she would hate."

Cat frowned.

"I dunno," Robbie pondered. "Doesn't that sound a little..."

"It wouldn't hurt," Andre added. "Think about it, if she doesn't put you over her then she's not for you. But if she does, you know you have a keeper. I don't see a downside here."

"You left out the part where this is wrong!" Cat protested.

"ENOUGH!" Tori stood, startling her friends. "You know what, boys? Fine. I'll show you don't know what you're talking about. This coming week I will fill it up with all the girlfriend crap that I know Jade will hate..." She began counting on her hand, "shopping, romantic comedies, antiquing, whatever I can think of!"

The men at the table collectively shuddered, knowing those activities all too well.

"I still don't know about this," Cat sighed to herself.

SATURDAY

Tori woke up her slumbering girlfriend with the intoxicating aroma of hot cafe. She swore the steam rising from the small hole in the plastic lid formed fingers and were enticing Jade to come out of her sleep.

The pale girl rolled over and her eyes fluttered open, focusing on the smiling beauty before her who was holding a Styrofoam cup with her name on it, adorned with little hearts.

"Good morning," Tori chirped.

Jade sighed, taking the cup and sipped. She always cherished that first sip of coffee of the day.

"Now I can get used to waking up to that every morning."

Tori asked, "You talking about me or the coffee?"

Jade sipped a longer one this time.

"Can it be both?"

"Get dressed and I promise we can grab breakfast on the way."

Jade looked up, "On the way to what?"

"You'll see," Tori winked.

Hour and a half later, Jade found herself in a flea market by the pier. She was surrounded by bohemians and straight-up gypsies, all with their own tables (some in the back of their vans) selling their wares.

Jade's one hand dangled while her other hand was held hostage by her peppy girlfriend. And apparently Tori was ready to check out...everything. She stopped at a table with many homemade bracelets and necklaces.

"Oh my god, Jade!" her face lit up as she held a necklace made of what Jade could only figure was some shit they found washed up on the beach. "Isn't it beautiful?"

"No, it isn't!" Jade thought. "If it were nice, they'd be selling them in a fucking store!"

"Uh-huh," was all the Goth could choke out.

As her bae was obsessed with overpriced costume jewelry, Jade's wandering eyes settled on a table covered in muffins. Tori's lack of attention allowed for Jade to slip away and saunter over to the muffin table. She looked over the different colors of yellow and brown with little cards telling you the flavors.

"Can I help you?" asked the older woman behind the table.

Jade didn't answer. She was just staring at these muffins. But she wasn't even hungry.

In the theater of her mind, Jade wondered how would everyone at this festival would act if she just started punching the muffins. She could imagine herself slamming both fists down onto the baked goods beneath her, the whole time maintaining eye contact with the hapless muffin patron.

The girl continued not to answer, even though she was asked two more times if she needed assistance.

But as the mysterious young woman began cackling like an insane person, tickled by her imagined act of "violence," the muffin lady just sat in her chair very uncomfortable.

"JADE!"

Snapping out of her little fantasy, blue-green eyes darted to the half-Latina.

"Come on, you have to see this."

Jade held eye contact with the muffin lady for a moment and silently vanished into the crowd.

SUNDAY

After letting her sleep in, Tori then dragged Jade to the mall. While it was a decided improvement over the outdoor hippy-dippy marketplace, Jade still wasn't looking forward to the excursion. Jade didn't care for shopping in general. She was the make a list, go in and get your shit, and get the hell out of there type. Jade wasn't a browser. And if she didn't see what she was looking for at the first place she tried, she would be all forget this and just order online.

Last three Christmases, Jade did all of her holiday shopping from her computer. No lines, no parking, no bullshit.

Jade decided if there was a hell, one of the levels would look a lot like a shopping mall. And Black Friday would be every day for all eternity.

While shopping wasn't one of her favs, Jade had to admit she didn't exactly mind having Tori model outfit after outfit for her. She asked Jade if she wanted to try anything on but the dark-haired girl flatly refused, deciding to remain on the bench. Jade glanced over at a similar bench a ways away where a man sat with some bags, looking bored out of his mind.

"I hear you," Jade sighed.

About an hour later, Tori was gleefully sprinting out of the store with two big brown bags, Jade lagging behind.

"Hey, let's do something fun" Tori said.

Jade raised an eyebrow "What do you have in mind?"

Downstairs at the indoor arcade, Tori and Jade stood in line for Dance Dance Revolution. It must have felt like forever until it was their turn. Jade was a pretty good dancer but felt out of sorts because she wasn't wearing the proper footwear. Her signature boots really didn't lend to two-steppin'. Despite that, she held her own but once Tori really took off, Jade could not keep up. The game ended and Tori's score was "Perfect" while Jade's was...well, she didn't know. She stormed away the second her side of the game screen turned red.

"You okay?" Tori asked Jade.

"Yeah, I guess. Can we get something to eat?"

Tori smiled, "Sure thing. What can you go for?"

"Anywhere, as long as they have chili cheese fries."

The sounded good to Tori, as well as a strawberry/banana smoothie. Luckily, the food court catered to all tastes.

However, once they got there, there were no tables or booths available. Apparently, some really popular toddler was having a birthday party, which occupied almost 20% of the food court. And the rest were taken by the usual army of patrons and occasional employee on their lunch break.

"Hey, let's just check out one more store and if its still crowded, we'll get our food to go."

"Fine," Jade groaned.

Tori and Jade went into a furniture store, yet another window shopping excursion. Prices were fair, but Jade was bemused why Tori was even bothering with all this stuff. She wasn't exactly decorating a whole house here. Indeed, it would be a couple of years before they leave college, but Tori said time and again that she likes this stuff. Jade rolled her eyes and went along with it.

Jade noticed a sofa in the living room department and was looking for somewhere to lay down, at least for a minute. She was on her feet for hours and that dancing in the arcade wasn't doing her any favors. It was white and fluffy and looked comfy. Jade planted herself on it, then found her feet leave the floor. She sank into that couch like quicksand, feeling somewhat trapped.

After a couple minutes, Tori was looking for Jade and soon found her.

"Jade, what are you doing?" she grinned, hands on hips.

"Being swallowed by an evil couch!" the Goth groaned. "Get me out!"

The tan girl grabbed Jade's hand and helped her from her cushiony prison.

"That looked soft and comfortable."

"Like a marshmallow of death," Jade panted.

MONDAY

Tori had called Jade earlier, checking to see if her classes were ending on time. When she texted back that they were on schedule and she would be back at her apartment by 4, the half-Latina perked up and began loading her bag of goodies.

Fifteen minutes later, Tori knocked on Jade's door and her girlfriend opened up and invited her inside.

"Hey, babe. You okay?"

"I'm fine," Jade sighed. "Have a paper about the Council of Trent to work on; I've already started brainstorming" she pointed to her messy spiral notebook with post-its sticking out of it.

Tori felt a little deflated. "Oh, I guess you're busy."

"Why, what's up?"

"Thought we could make it a study night. We work on school stuff for a couple of hours, and then we can fall asleep watching movies."

Jade smirked, "Sounds like a plan." She then looked toward the bag in her girlfriend's hand. "What'd you bring?"

"Oh, just some romantic movies."

The pale girl bit the inside of her cheek, mentally screaming. She hated those kinds of movies with a passion. They were always so trite and predictable and schmaltzy. Tori started happily stacking the DVD's on the coffee table: Sixteen Candles, Ghost, Mamma Mia!, Amelie, and Titanic. Also was some microwave popcorn.

Never in her life had Jade been so riveted by history because it meant staving off the chick flicks. Jade could probably tolerate Titanic and Ghost with the special effects, or maybe Amelie since she liked French films and this one was shot in such an offbeat way, but the rest didn't interest her. She wondered why Tori couldn't grab something a little better suited to them like Heavenly Creatures or Blue is the Warmest Color or Carol. Yeah, they didn't always end happily but Jade found those romances more relatable by comparison.

Jade started to wonder if the deck was stacked against her just to piss her off.

But she loved Tori and she didn't have to help her with her paper. And it was also nice when she nuzzled her neck as she fell asleep on the couch beside her.

"I love this stupid weirdo," she said to herself.

TUESDAY

Tuesday night was the opening of the local carnival. It would be up until the following Sunday.

Jade detested crowds and Tori figured if she was ever going to drag her to something, it might as well be a weeknight when there would be less kids wandering around. Jade West didn't care for children. She probably swore she never was one; that she came out into the world a smaller version of her cynical self, coffee in hand.

The carnival had the usual games, which were clearly rigged. Jade was frustrated when her and Tori played a ball tossing game and they clearly hit the target a few times, only for the pyramid of empty milk bottles not to fall over. The Goth gave the hapless teen running the game a cold glare and after he filled up his shorts, he gave the girl a purple hippo. She then turned and handed it to Tori, who took it wholeheartedly.

"There you go," she sighed. "I better not hear you wanting a hippopotamus for Christmas."

Tori just squeezed her prize and followed Jade to the next thing.

They passed several concession stands that smelled even better than the last.

"Is there anything they will not deep fry?" Tori asked.

"No, I don't think so" Jade shook her head. "Avoid the deep fried Kool-Aid. Its nasty."

Brown eyes widened at the sight of a giant shiny ride.

"Jade!"

"What?"

"Let's go on the Ferris wheel," she pointed upward.

If it was possible for Jade to look even more white, she just turned that. Her stomach felt like it dropped to her feet.

"I don't know Tori..."

"Please?" she asked, taking her slender hand.

That usually made Jade melt but she still felt nervous.

"When we come back down, there's a funnel cake in it for you."

The prospect of a tangled french fry covered in sugar was tempting. Plus, Tori was going to be with her the whole way. Jade closed her eyes, took a deep breath and sighed heavily.

"Alright, let's go."

Moments later, they were already being boarded onto their car. It was one of those Ferris wheel cars where there was no top, allowing you an even greater view of the sky around you. Lines were usually short by this one, more people went to check out the more thrilling attractions.

The whole thing jostled, which made Jade jump, clinging to Tori. Then the mechanisms went into action and the girls were moving backwards, higher and higher. Jade was tense the whole way up and when the ride stopped, leaving the pair at the very top, the Goth's heart was beginning to beat faster and faster.

"Jade?"

Tori noticed right away that her girlfriend wasn't normally this quiet and her nails were beginning to dig into her arm, feeling them through her jacket sleeve.

"What's the matter, Jade?"

"I...I..." the words would not come out.

The tan girl's face fell as she held Jade's chin, deeply concerned.

"Jade, talk to me. What's wrong?"

"I,I thought I'd be...okkkkaaay..." Jade started shaking. "But I'm not okay." She gripped tighter to Tori. "Take it down. Ha-ha-Have them take it down. N-Now!"

She looked like she was gonna have a panic attack. Tori leaned over and waved frantically at the attendant below, who was distracted talking to a girl. He remembered he was operating a ride and hit the switch, moving the wheel around again. Slowly, the pair made their way back to the ground. The whole time, Jade had her eyes shut and was latching onto the word "down" until they were off the ride and walking away.

Tori kept a hold of Jade, worried she would collapse if she let her go.

"Are we down?" she shakily asked. "Are we down, Tori?!"

"Yes, baby." Tori kissed her head, then directed her toward a bench. She sat while getting Jade to lay down, her head in Tori's lap. "It's over," she cooed. "It's done."

"I'm sorry," Jade said, still refusing to open her eyes. "I have a problem with heights."

"Don't be sorry," Tori teared up, feeling awful. "I'm the one who made you go on that thing."

Jade finally opened her peepers and looked at Tori.

"Not your fault," she said, her breathing getting under control. "I never told you."

Tori still felt like shit. She rubbed Jade's forehead until she was well enough and calm enough for them to pull stake and leave.

WEDNESDAY

Tori hardly slept the night before after getting Jade home.

She had some very minor reservations about the whole thing she had with her friends regarding Jade. But they always had fun together so it was easy to push the feelings down and forget about them. Jade usually complained about certain things so it would really just be more of the same, just turned up to 11.

But Tori would be lying if she didn't think that exploiting Jade's desire to please her was what led to her having that terrible episode on the Ferris wheel. Logically, Jade was right in that Tori didn't know but the half-Latina would've been more forgiving if it had just been a stupid accident. In this case, Tori was intentionally trying to get Jade's goat with these recent dates. Had she been more sensitive, Tori may have picked up on the fact that Jade never went on any big thrill rides as long as she knew her. And maybe had she not been so blind, she would have picked up on her apprehension.

"This is getting out of hand," Tori said aloud to no one. "I didn't want to hurt Jade."

This began as harmless, if not morally ambiguous. But now Tori had real guilt to confront.

It wasn't fair to Jade; I really don't deserve someone so wonderful that she would go on that stupid Ferris wheel even though she was scared.

"Fuck!" she breathed, collapsing on her bed, regarding the ceiling. "I have to tell her."

Tori dreaded that but it was the only way she could live with herself.

She texted Jade shortly after about wanting to meet with her during free period and that it couldn't wait. The longest four hours pass before the brunette came through Tori's dorm. As per usual, her roommate Tracy wasn't around. Their schedules rarely coincided but Tori said she was nice in the brief glimpses she had of her.

"So, what's going on?" Jade planted herself on the bed. "What couldn't wait?"

Tori rubbed her hands together, searching for the courage. "I have something to tell you."

Jade folded her arms "No shit."

Her pained expression made Jade quickly drop the snark.

"You're probably gonna hate me."

The tan girl's heart sank when her girlfriend warmly reached out to her, bringing her to sit beside her.

"Its okay. Whatever it is, you can tell me."

"Okay," Tori sighed heavily. "Well, last week...the guys and I were talking about you."

A scowl began to form on Jade's porcelain face, anticipating the worst. "'Kay..."

"And I was telling them how you couldn't spend lunch with us because you were busy getting the concert tickets and all. Then they started this whole thing that you were wrapped around my finger and would do anything. But I told them you were just being nice and a good girlfriend..."

Jade put on her best "I don't like where this is going" face.

"So, I said they didn't know what they were talking about and the guys were like...well, prove it. And I decided to show them." Tori swallowed what felt like a bowling ball. "To show them..." she began trailing off. The context of the discussion and Tori's "plan" to disprove it sounded more and more ridiculous in her head.

A light bulb went off in Jade's brain.

"That's why you've been extra needy lately. And the marathon of girl-girl stuff? This was all a ruse; to get a rise out of me or something?"

She was standing at this point and despite their equal size, Tori felt five inches tall.

"Wow, Vega. Just wow. And I thought you were just being a little nutty, like you were on some weird romantic kick but no I found out that I was a pawn in some stupid experiment. Not even a bet, but an experiment. What am I, a fucking hamster in a cage to you?"

Tori's shoulders slunk. "I'm s-s-sorry."

"Oh, you're sorry alright" Jade fumed. "A sorry excuse for a bitch who cannot stand up to her braindead friends!"

And with that she slammed the door.

Tori held her face in her hands. There are times when something awful happens and you soothe yourself by thinking, well it could have been worse. This was not one of those times.

A/N: And that is the end of part one. Stay tuned for part two. I will try to post it soon but I need a little break; this month so far as been exhausting.

P.S.: The whole thing with Jade at the market was inspired by comedian Bill Burr.