Jade hates her father. And she's pretty sure would hate her mother too, if she'd ever met her.
So Jade settles for the next best thing. She makes up things about her mother to hate. She says her mom told her she couldn't get her face pierced. Ha. As if anyone ever cared enough to forbid her from doing something.
For a split second, when she first sees her father sitting in the audience of her play, Jade thinks that maybe, just maybe, he'll like it and he'll be proud of her and that will be enough. But then she remembers her childhood- filled with empty chairs for every single event ever, and yelling and crying and she reminds herself that she is Jade West, the Jade West- the one everyone is afraid of. And she tells herself she's right to hold a grudge.
The first time Beck comes over to her house, he's surprised. He says he expected her to have some mansion with two country-club-member parents. She tells him she's who she is for a reason.
They sleep in his RV that night- curled together, celebrating the nothingness they were given in life.
The next day they walk into class hand-in-hand, and Tori glares at them.
Tori, the girl who somehow managed to cast Jade as the antagonist in her life. Tori, the girl who has everything and can't understand why Jade- broken Jade- would ever be jealous of her.
Jade steers Beck across the room and sits next to Cat. Jade likes Cat. The two of them are really similar when it comes down to it.
They deal with their lives in different ways- two very extreme ways. Cat's on one side of the spectum and Jade's on the other, but when they're just themselves, they're practically the same.
Broken.
Two broken actors racing through life, hoping they don't get caught in their lie.
Beck caught Jade.
He pulled her down and held her close and told her he would never leave.
Jade hopes someone will catch Cat.
Soon.
Before she falls.
Tori doesn't understand them. Any of them. She has a family- a great family. A family that wants her and needs her in order to be whole.
Beck and Jade have each other. And as bad as things get, they can always sit back and just be happy they found one another.
Andre has his music. And for the moment, that's enough. Whenever he's lost, whenever he starts to feel a little too much, he picks up an instrument and learns how to play it. Music numbs him, helps him forget.
Robbie has Rex. Someone to speak for him and act for him. Someone he can live through.
Cat only has herself. So she plays with that. She colors her hair and twists her personality until she can't recognize herself. Then she congratulates herself for a job well done.
She's really just waiting to fall.