Disclaimer: I don't own Victorious, which is probably a good thing because if I did, that would be a lot of hard work ;)
Jade fiddled with the long scissors in her hand, purposely ignoring the teacher, who was rambling on, and on to the class about who-knows-what. Covering her mouth as she began to yawn, she glanced around the classroom to see who was listening, and almost started chuckling at the very few amount of people actually paying attention to the class.
'It's way too early in the morning for class to be on,' she decided, quietly scowling at the clock.
Jade, still looking around the classroom, focused in on Beck, who was lightly dozing a few rows behind her. She allowed herself a small, hidden smile. See? He agreed with her. Her gaze then settled on Cat in the seat across from hers, who was also deep in sleep. Seriously, Jade should just gather all of the tired students and go on a strike to enforce a law that the teachers start their classes later.
Amused, she started poking Cat in the ear to wake her up before their teacher noticed that she was having a catnap. Cat didn't wake up however, just grew a sleepy smile, and curled up tightly on the desk.
"Valentine!"
Ah, chiz.
Cat sprang up from the desk, along with the rest of the class; as if vice Principal Dickers' booming voice had electrocuted them all. She squeaked out a timid, "Y-yes?"
Jade quickly looked around once more to see if Beck had woken up. He had, and was now looking worriedly at the back of Cat's head. The rest of the class was staring at Cat and the teacher in rapt attention, this being the most exciting thing that had happened all morning. Jade found herself reluctantly agreeing.
She focused back in on Cat and Dickers. The teacher was glaring at Cat intently with his pasty face and beady eyes.
"Why were you sleeping in my class, wazzbag?" He yelled furiously.
"U-um, b-be-because I was really t-tired," Cat stammered out, clearly terrified of getting into trouble. Jade rolled her eyes. She just wanted to shout at Cat to toughen up; that this teacher was all bark, and no bite. She didn't obviously, not wanting to get her friend or herself into further trouble.
"Well, you're going to be even more tired when you come to this evenings' detention!" Dickers smirked, strutting back towards the white board in the front of the classroom, tucking his shirt into his pants as he walked.
Cat visibly sagged down in her seat, fighting back tears at this news. Jade felt sympathy for Cat and anger towards the teacher swelling through her.
'Screw black marks on my record, - ' and before she knew it, she had flung her hand out and thrown the scissors that she was previously playing with at the classroom wall, purposely missing Dickers by a long shot, but receiving the effect she was looking for. She heard a few surprised gasps from around her as the teacher swivelled around, a furious and slightly scared expression on his face, and she fought back a laugh. She settled for a wide, evil smile instead, and stared him down.
"Jade West!"
"Yeah?" She called back casually.
"Did you just throw those scissors at me?! You'll be joining Valentine in detention this evening AND on Saturday!"
"Did I get a good deal on it?" She taunted, clearly aggravating him.
The class had to hide their snickering. Dickers somehow managed to ignore them and went back to teaching his incredibly boring subject. Jade, still grinning, turned to look at Cat, who was shyly smiling at Jade, tears long gone.
"You shouldn't have thrown your scissors! What if you had hit him?" Beck asked concernedly as he and Jade headed out of the classroom at the end of class.
"I couldn't just sit there and listen to him nag and whine to Cat! He was scaring her and he knew it! Plus, there's no way I would have actually hit him. I aimed the other way." Jade headed over to her locker, Beck trailing behind her.
"I'm proud of you for sticking up for Cat, but now you have detention! We were going to go out tonight!" He put on an exaggerated sad, pouty face.
"Aww, are you going to miss me?"
"Of course I am!"
"Well, grow up. You can last without me for one night," Jade snipped, slamming her locker door closed and walking away. Beck shook his head as he watched Jade's retreating figure and jogged to catch up with her.
As they made their way over to the Asphalt Café, they immediately spotted Cat sitting with Tori, Robbie and Andre. Beck lifted his hand in a friendly greeting while Jade just ignored the group, both reaching the table and sitting down. Immediately, Jade was bombarded with questions from Tori.
"Jade! I heard about what you did in Dickers' class! I can't believe you threw your scissors at him!" Tori exclaimed with wide eyes.
Jade merely shrugged. Rumours had changed the story slightly, but she didn't deny them, actually finding it more amusing than anything.
"How much trouble did you get into?" Andre questioned, Tori nodding her head vigorously, curiosity covering her features.
"Detention tonight and on Saturday," Jade took a quick glance at Cat to see her reaction about detention, seeing that she was in a similar predicament. Surprisingly, Cat's facial expression didn't change that much.
"Jiminy! I heard his Saturday detentions are the worst! Only the baddest of the bad end up there," Robbie piped up, Rex adding his usual little, "Eh!"
Jade rolled her eyes, ignoring the two. Cat clearly thought that was valuable information and started tugging on Robbie's sleeve.
"What about Wednesday night detentions?"
"Uh, I'm not sure. I haven't heard much about evening detentions," Robbie chuckled nervously. Jade fought back a sneer. Clearly all of Robbie's information about detention was from the gossiping mouth of one Sinjin Van Cleef. "Are you worried for Jade?" The girl in question just raised an eyebrow at Cat, wondering why she hadn't told the group that she had detention too. Beck looked just as confused as her.
"Yeah, I just don't want her to be lonely!" Cat replied worriedly.
"Baby, I wouldn't worry about Goth-girl. She seems pretty capable on her own. Especially with that sharp glare of hers -"
"Ok, let's stop talking about me as if I'm not here!" Jade decided that it was probably better that she interrupt Rex now and not wait until she lose her temper and rip his arm off again. "Cat, come with me for a second." She stood up and motioned to Cat to follow her back inside the school building. Cat jumped up gleefully.
"Kay kay!"
The two walked away from the table, their friends watching after them, confused. They made their way inside the building and stopped at Jade's locker. Cat looked up at Jade curiously, waiting for her to talk.
"How come you didn't tell Vega and the others that you're in detention too?"
Cat blinked, looking dazed.
"What are you talking about? I don't have detention!" Jade furrowed her eyebrows in confusion as a small smile started creeping its way onto Cat's face and a giggle slipped out from her lips. "But that totally reminds me of something!" Jade groaned.
"What?" She demanded impatiently.
"I had a dream that I got detention! And it was Vice Principal Dickers that gave it to me! I thought only the baddest people got in trouble from him, so I felt really cool, but I've never gotten in trouble so I was kinda scared too. And you stood up for me which was so, so sweet of you!"
Jade had to fight back an eye roll.
"Ok, Cat? First of all, 'baddest' isn't correct grammar," She stated. "And second, that wasn't a dream. All of that really happened; you do have detention tonight. We both do."
Cat's eyes widened in shock.
"What?! I actually got in trouble?"
"Yeah, but don't worry, detention's not too bad," Jade felt bad for her friend, trying to ease her worries. "It's actually pretty fun if you get good people in with you."
Cat didn't look convinced, however.
"Is it scary? 'Cause vice Principal Dickers scares me. Not as much as the dark scares me though,"
She asked innocently.
Jade hesitated. Cat's definition of 'scary' was a little bit different than hers.
"No, you should be fine. I'll be with you, remember?" She replied after a second's thought. Cat still looked unsure, so Jade added, "Do you want me to pick you up and drive you tonight?"
A smile finally made its way onto Cat's face and she nodded.
"Yes, please, Jadey! Maybe this won't be so bad! Maybe the other people in detention can help me with my colouring books!" Cat giggled, perking up considerably.
Jade had to hide her smirk. Poor kid. She had no idea what she was in for.
"Yay! We're at school at night!" Cat whispered excitedly, clutching her school bag tightly to her chest as she and Jade entered the lit school. Jade rolled her eyes.
"Yeah, yeah, it's not exciting at all. I'd rather be home. Where's Dickers?" Jade stated monotonously. As soon as the words had left her lips, the man in question stepped out of a nearby classroom and spotted the two.
"Evening, wazzbags! Detention's in here!" Dickers pointed towards the classroom he had just stepped out of. Cat scampered inside nervously, Jade trailing behind. There were only a few other students inside, which Jade recognised as some of 'the people who just sit in the back and react to stuff' from Sikowitz's classes. This may end up being a lot more boring than she had originally anticipated.
The two girls seated themselves in the back row as Dickers confidently strolled to the front of the classroom and slammed his hands against the top of the teacher's desk, making a few of the students, Cat included, jump in fright.
"Do you all understand why you're here?" He began. A few of 'the shruggers' nodded, some shook their heads, and some just shrugged their shoulders in confusion. Cat giggled quietly at them and Jade scowled. Dickers sneered at the small group.
"You're all here because you're a bunch of useless, pathetic idiots who have nothing better to do with your time except stuff up life. So, you're all just going to sit here and think about your miserable existences until I decide when you can leave."
A few shrugs, another eye roll from Jade and silence from Cat. Dickers continued rambling on, and Jade looked over at her friend. Her eyebrows rose in slight amusement as she came to the realisation as to why Cat was being so quiet. Cat's colouring book was open on the desk and she was happily colouring in a giraffe with a blue crayon, completely unaware of Dickers' lame detention speech. Jade smirked; entertained that the teacher was so into his lecture that he couldn't even see that one of his few students weren't listening.
Suddenly, as if he could read her thoughts, Dickers stopped his rant mid-sentence, eyes snapping up. They quickly skimmed along the top of all of his students and made their way over to the unaware Cat. Jade coughed into her fist a few times, attempting to get Cat's attention before Dickers could see the colouring book, which was wide open and in plain sight. Cat continued to colour in, completely missing Jade's warning signal.
"Valentine! What are you doing?!"
Ah, chiz. Again.
Cat's head snapped up just in time to watch Dickers storm his way up the aisle to where Jade and Cat were sitting. The other students were watching with mild interest, pity on their faces. Dickers snatched up the brightly coloured book from the desk and yanked the crayon out of Cat's hand.
"Colouring books? Not in my detention!" With that, he held out the bright, childish book in one hand, grabbed the middle of it with the other hand and -
Riiiip.
Jade and the other students winced. Cat could only watch in horror as Dickers continued to shred the already destroyed book to pieces, and then proceeded to snap the blue crayon in half, tossing all of the pieces to the floor. Cat whimpered as if in pain, and her hand made its way to her mouth as tears sprung to her eyes. Little cries emerged from her mouth as she jumped up from her seat and ran past Dickers, straight out of the classroom door. Jade stood up out of her seat quickly, clenching her fists and biting her lip hard. She was torn between chasing Cat and lunging at Dickers in fury.
"How... How dare you?! You don't understand Cat!" Jade screamed in rage at the smirking teacher, fury etched on her face. "You can't just get violent with her! She's too innoce -"
Jade was interrupted by a mighty bang and the room was submerged in pitch black darkness. She heard Dickers swear lightly under his breath.
"Blasted lights. It's just a power dip. It affects the whole school so I'll go fix it. Nobody leave this room, or else there will be consequences!" With that, Jade heard Dickers attempt to stomp out of the classroom but he must have bumped into a desk because there was a small crash and she heard him start to hop around, grimacing and muttering. A few students let out a muffled chuckle, to which they received a: "Zip it, cornpie!" which made them shut up immediately. The door opened, and then slammed shut, indicating that Dickers had finally left the classroom. Immediately, Jade heard the other students start to converse quietly with each other and she thought back to her companion.
Cat...
Then, like lightning, realisation struck her.
Something Cat had told her earlier in the day...
It was important.
'...not as much as the dark scares me though...'
'...as the dark scares me though...'
'...the dark scares me...'
The dark scares Cat.
It scares Cat.
Cat...
Cat.
Cat!
Jade jumped up from her chair and grabbed Cat's backpack, slinging it onto her back. She pulled her PearPhone out of her pocket, shone the light from it on the floor like a flashlight and made her way out of the classroom as fast as she could. Lighting up the way in the pitch black hall, Jade carefully headed in the direction she knew Cat would be, hoping to avoid Dickers. She finally reached her destination and shone her phone on the girls' bathroom door, pushing it open slowly.
"Cat?" She called out cautiously. She was responded with a small sob. Sighing with relief, she stepped inside the bathroom, shining her phone light around the room, trying to find Cat. Her younger friend was sitting on the floor, leaning against the wall, and as Jade made her way closer to her, she could see Cat's tears glistening as they ran down her face in a steady stream.
"Jadey? I-is that you?"
"Yeah, Cat, it's me," Jade reassured her, shining the light onto her own face so that Cat could see her. She put Cat's bag on the floor and knelt in front of the younger girl, gently placing her still-lit phone in Cat's hand.
Cat let out a few sobs, and after placing the phone on the floor next to her to keep the light shining upwards like a lamp, she reached her arms out towards Jade, silently asking for permission for comfort. Jade leaned forward and pulled Cat to her in a tight hug, keeping one hand tangled in her bright red hair and the other wrapped securely around her back. Cat wrapped her arms around Jade's waist tightly, burying her face into the taller girl's shoulder.
"I was so scared," Cat choked out. "When the lights went out, I didn't know what to do! I couldn't see anything, not even my hands! I wanted to find you, Jadey, but I was so, so scared -"
"Shh, it's ok... I'm here now. I'm so sorry that you had to go through all of that, but you don't have to cry," Jade murmured soothingly, resting her cheek against Cat's head.
"I cry when I'm scared..." Cat whispered, pressing herself closer to the taller girl. Jade just squeezed her tightly in return.
After what felt like an eternity to the two girls - but in reality was probably only a few minutes - the lights flicked back on. Cat pulled out of Jade's arms slowly, squinting at the now brightly lit bathroom. She peered shyly at Jade, who just reached out and gently wiped the tears from Cat's cheeks with the tips of her fingers.
"Are you feeling better?" Jade asked, worry lacing her tone. Cat nodded, giving her a small, grateful smile.
"Thank you, Jadey. I know you're not this nice to just anyone, so thank you."
Jade smiled, humorously. Cat did know her too well.
"Now that we've dealt with all this and we just happen to be out of the classroom, what do you say we skip detention and get out of here?"
Cat's eyes widened in relief and she nodded vigorously.
"Can we get some ice cream?" She asked excitedly, a small grin painting itself onto her face as she jumped up from the floor. Jade sighed and nodded wearily, grasping Cat's hand as the younger girl helped her up. The old Cat was back and truthfully, Jade had missed seeing that perky smile. She also made a mental note to buy Cat some new colouring books after the ice cream to keep that smile there for as long as possible.
"So, how was detention?" Tori asked in a sing-song voice as she, Jade and Cat were walking into the school building the next day. Jade had to refrain from reaching her hands out and wrapping them around Tori's neck to strangle her. Cat, who was cheerfully skipping next to Jade, grabbed her hand, unbeknownst to Tori. Jade looked down at Cat as they continued walking and let a small, gentle smile slip from her lips.
"It was ok. Kind of fun actually." Cat caught her glance, a playful twinkle in her eye as they silently shared the secret of what really happened that night. Something that would always and only be known by the two of them.
"Hey, guys! Guys!"
"Oh, great," Jade grumbled, hearing Robbie's excited voice float through the air. "I need some coffee before I can handle this. I'll see you in class." Gently pulling her hand out of Cat's, she started walking towards the Asphalt Café, having no idea what she was about to miss out on.
"What's up?" Andre asked, as he and Beck heard Robbie call out. They made their way over to the little group to see Robbie holding a small paper bag in his hand, Cat peering into it curiously.
"Check it out! I got these awesome pretzels from my Mamaw! They're heaps good, here, try some!" Robbie offered the bag out to the group. Beck shrugged and the others nodded.
"Sure, why not?" Tori replied, taking one from the bag, the others following her line of action and eating them. The bell rang loudly, indicating the start of the first class.
"These are good!" Cat squealed joyfully, ignoring the bell. The rest of the group nodded, giving their own little sounds of agreement. Robbie popped a few into his mouth, chewing quickly. Then, he placed a few more in his mouth.
"Uh, you might want to slow down there, buddy," Beck chuckled nervously as Robbie continued eating the pretzels at a fast rate.
"Why? They're so good, I can't help myse -" Suddenly, he broke off and started coughing and choking. Beck smacked him on the back as Cat and Tori exchanged worried looks. Andre just shook his head in exasperation and took the bag from Robbie's hands to help him as he continued to sputter.
"Wazzbags!"
A loud, familiar shout halted all of them in their steps, causing Robbie to stop choking, swallowing the mouthful of pretzels in fright and the rest of them to turn around nervously. Cat squeaked and she heard Tori gulp from behind her as they saw vice Principal Dickers at the end of the hallway. He had a venomous look on his face as he started walking towards the group in an aggressive manner.
"Class started three minutes ago! Do you know what that means?" Dickers yelled out. They all shook their heads in terror.
"You're all stuck with me on detention this Saturday!"
His lips turned upwards in a sneer.
"Get ready for the worst day of your lives!"
A/N: This is definitely the longest fanfic I've written so far. I'm currently in the process of writing a Cade friendship/Bade fic which is relatively large so far, but it won't be posted for a while. Anyway, hope you enjoyed this! Please review! It doesn't take much effort! It's just down there! All you need to do is type some feedback in that little box! :P 'Til next time!