Hidden In Plain Sight

(I'm sorry this is a really long chapter, but I couldn't find a suitable place to end it.)

Chapter Two:

Beck's POV;

It had now been nearly three months since Jade ran away. Me, Tori, and Cat had told Lane straight away what had happened and he called the cops to report it. She was all over the news for weeks. They ruled it out as a simple teenager thing, though. A silly run away. They had hope she would come back, but after two months, they changed it to a missing persons case. I don't know why, but if it got Jade found, I didn't care.

Right now, nearly three months later, me, Cat, Tori, Andre, and Robbie sat at our usual table. A tense silence settled over us all, the entire school, actually. It had been this way since Jade ran away and was then deemed a missing person. No one dared mention her name for fear of 'upsetting' any of our group. It was obvious, though, that her running away had affected everyone.

Sikowitz wore shoes, Sinjin was no longer a weirdo, Trina wasn't as annoying and settled down, Cat was quiet, Robbie had ditched Rex for a while, unable to take his remarks about the "Wicked Witch". It was odd, the person everyone feared most at our school had affected everyone with her disappearance. I was unable to say whether it was for the best or not because I actually missed how things used to be.

I was ruthlessly dragged back to the present when Cat's phone started ringing and her Sesame Street ringtone started blaring. At least she had kept that, I thought. The red-head rummaged through her bag and brought her pear phone out to see who was ringing her. Her eyebrows furrowed, "it's an unknown number. Shall I answer it?" She asked us. Tori readily nodded and pointed to the phone, "it might be about Jade! Maybe they've found her," I sighed, and so did Andre. Tori never seemed to lose hope in finding her frenemy.

Cat pressed the answer button and put the phone to her ear with a dejected, "hello?" There was a moment of silence as she listened to the other person. Her eyes widened and she let out an ear piercing squeal. "It's Jade!" She shouted and everyone around us quickly turned their head to look in our direction with shocked and happy expressions.

Trina and Sinjin ran over from where they had been talking near the Grub Truck. I was shocked that Trina cared about the girl who was always poking fun at her. They both sat down at the empty spaces at the table where none of us ever sat for some reason. "Put it on speaker!" Robbie ordered. I would have said it myself if I wasn't so shocked. Everyone else nodded their approval and Cat did as she was told with a "KK."

She pressed the speaker button and suddenly we could hear our favourite aggressive person calling Cat's name. "Cat! Listen to me goddamnit!" She yelled. Cat yelped and apologised profusely. There was a sigh on the other end, "sorry, Cat, I'm just in a bad mood," I could have sworn I heard her voice crack at the end of her sentence but I played it off as the phone connection. "Jadey, where are you? We're so worried. The police have reported you missing," Cat cried. Literally, she now had tears running down her face.

There was silence on the other end, only broken by the odd footstep and twig breaking. Was she in a forest? I wondered, with worry. What the hell? I thought. "I'm in LA still. I-I need some place to stay for a bit and I was wondering if I could stay with you? I can't go back home, not with my dad there," she admitted. Both me and Cat knew why she hated her father and we shared a look before Cat decided to reply to Jade. "You can stay with me, Jadey. For as long as you want. You can even live with me, we'll have so much fun! We'll have sleepovers every night and have hot cocoa-" she was interrupted by Jade once again yelling her name. Both me, Andre, and Tori shook our heads at the fact that Cat might be blowing our one chance at getting Jade to come back home. "Cat, I don't want to stay at yours for sleepovers. I just need a place to stay for a few days," Jade said. Cat let out a breath of air, sadly, and told Jade she could still stay at hers and she'd see her later.

Jade ended the phone call without a goodbye, and Cat put her phone down on the table. The silence was broken by Tori jumping up and yelling in joy. She ran over to hug Cat and we all joined in. This was the happiest we'd been in three months. We even let Trina and Sinjin join in the hug because they deserved it. It was weird to say that but over the past few months, we'd gotten closer to the two and had actually gotten used to Sinjin's weirdness and Trina's ego. Not that we'd accepted them into the group, of course.

We all separated and decided to go and find out favourite teacher and tell him that we'd just spoken to Jade. He'd be over the moon, he'd been oddly depressed since Jade had run away. I guessed it was because Sikowitz was more like a father figure to us all, than a teacher.

Cat's POV;

Me and Tori were on our way to my house to wait, or see (if she's already there), Jadey. I had brought Tori along because she really wanted to see Jadey after nearly three months. I could tell Beck wanted to see her, too, but they had broken up and he knew it wasn't a good idea. I think Jade ran away in the first place because of their breakup. I could never hate Beck, though so I didn't voice my thoughts for fear of upsetting him or him hating me. I didn't want anyone to hate me, especially Beck.

When we got to my house and were at the front door, I put my key in and tried to unlock it only to realise it was already unlocked. That meant Jadey was already here! A long time ago, my parents gave her a key to our house because she always got kicked out of her house after an argument with her dad. I was so sad Jade couldn't get along with her dad, but I guess it didn't matter because she had me and everyone else in our group.

I walked into the house and left the door open for Tori to follow me in. I heard it click behind me, but I wasn't too bothered with that because I was looking for Jadey. As I got further into my house I could hear music. It was really loud and scream-y. I covered my ears and allowed Tori to lead me to the music, which I recognised as Jade's music. She always loved that music, but I don't know why because it was so loud, and sad, and- and vulgar. Robbie had taught me that word after Rex had said some stuff and I heard Robbie call him 'vulgar'. He had to explain what it meant and what Rex was saying, was vulgar.

I removed my hands from my ears when both me and Tori were outside of my bedroom. The music was really loud and I wondered how Jade could handle it, especially if she was in the room, not outside of it like me and Tori were. I opened the door to my bedroom and was suddenly assaulted with the sound of loud, screaming, music. I yelped and covered my ears. I saw Tori go into my room and turn off the music so I could remove my hands and hear again.

Now that we were in the room, I looked around and spotted Jadey on my bed. She had her eyes closed and her breathing was heavy, so I realised she was asleep. I briefly wondered how she could sleep with that music so loud, but then I remembered she had slept soundly during the war when we visited Yerba. That was a disaster...

I was pulled out of my wandering train of thoughts when Tori went up to Jade and took a look at her. She was very pale, now that I had a better view after moving closer to my bed. Paler than usual, I mean. We didn't think much of it, though because Jade had always been pale and after running away, we assumed she had been hiding out or didn't have much to eat.

I sat down on the bed next to Jade and gently started shaking her shoulder. She was curled up on her side in a fetal position and she looked really comfortable so I felt kind of bad for waking her, but we needed to speak to her. After all, this was the first time we'd seen her in nearly three months. I could feel Jadey waking up so I stood up and called her name a couple of times.

I saw Tori reaching down to shake her shoulder as I had done. Everything happened so fast, but one minute Tori was waking Jade up fully, the next she was awake and holding a pair of bent, bloody scissors to Tori's throat as the Latina was pressed against the wall, creasing one of my favourite posters of the Waggafuffles. I gasped when I realised what was happening and Jadey's head whipped around to stare at me with wide eyes. She looked back at whom she had pressed against the wall and her eyes widened. She must have only just realised that it was Tori because she immediately let go and quickly put the, now ruined, scissors I got her for Christmas back in her boot.

She put her hand to her forehead, "Kitty, why is that here?" She sighed, pointing over in Tori's general direction. Tori raised an eyebrow at the nickname and her aggression towards her, but didn't comment on anything for fear that she would have a pair of scissors at her throat again. "Well, when you called me we were having lunch in the Asphalt and everyone was there. Tori wanted to come see you and make sure you were okay," I explained. I knew Jadey didn't like Tori, I was there whenever Jade came crying to me because she was losing everything to the Latina. No matter how much anyone else might deny it, I knew Jadey was right. But I also knew Tori didn't mean for any of this to happen and she just wanted to be friends with Jadey.

Jadey shook her head and sighed, taking a seat on my bed again. I joined her and after a moments hesitation, Tori joined us, too. We stared at her, waiting for her to explain where she had been these past couple of months, but she only looked down at her feet, ignoring us. "Where have you been, Jadey? And why are you upset?" I asked, getting impatient. I knew she was upset because she had, once again, used my nickname. And in front of Tori, of all people. She only used that nickname whenever she was upset. "I'm not upset, Cat," she defended, "and I've been in LA the entire time," me and Tori shared a look.

"Wait, you've been in LA this entire time and you didn't think to at least call us?" Tori asked, shocked.

"If I had called you and told you, you would have come looking for me and gotten your precious daddy to trace my cell," Jadey said.

"Jadey, you were declared a missing person. Everyone was looking for you. Where did you hide?" I asked. I was busting to ask more, but I didn't want to overwhelm her. Jadey suddenly took her scissors out of her combat boot and showed them to me. "I'm sorry, Kitty-Kat, I ruined the scissors you got me," her eyes teared up, I knew they were her favourite scissors because they were the same ones used in her favourite movie- The Scissoring. I was extremely proud to say I had bought them for her. "It's okay, Jadey. We'll get them cleaned up and fixed, eh?" I offered, giving her a hug. She tensed up and after a couple of seconds, pushed me away. She nodded her head at the idea of getting her scissors fixed and I smiled.

"Now, you can't avoid this question forever," I told her sternly. I had noticed how she looked away at my question before reaching for her scissors, but I was determined to figure out where she had been hiding. No one just disappears for two months and gets away with it for that long when their face is on nearly every American news channel. "Where were you? You've been gone for nearly three months and we haven't heard from you in those months, so spill," I demanded. No matter what anyone thinks, I'm actually more mature than I let on. My child-like exterior is more of me not wanting to grow up. Being young has its perks, you know?

Jadey shifted on the bed and put her bent and bloodied scissors back in her boot, "oh, you know. Around. Staying at motels until I was recognised, then I the end I bought a bunch of stuff and hid out in the woods near HA," she said. During the entire time, however, she never once looked at me or Tori. I had a feeling she was lying, but I never mentioned it because she had just come back. Maybe not forever, but I didn't want to ruin our hopes at her maybe staying. Tori seemed convinced by Jadey's lie so I went along with it.

Nearly an hour later and me, Jadey, and Tori had decided to have a sleepover. I know Jade said she hadn't come back for sleepovers, but both Tori and I had persuaded her. I guess she must have missed her old life.

Jade's POV (before Cat and Tori arrived);

When I arrived at Cat's nearly two hours before school ended, I let my self in using the key I had been given by Mr and Mrs Valentine. They gave it me a long time ago when I had been showing up at theirs more often than not. I had let Cat know about my father's behaviour when he was drunk and I guess she told her parents so they gave me a key. It was black with small butterflies on it and I don't think I've ever seen a more beautiful key, weird as it may sound.

I closed the door behind me after letting myself in and took in the eerie silence. It was a huge change after where I had been... staying. I walked through the house until I found myself in the kitchen. I hadn't realised how hungry I was until I made my way over to the fridge and threw it open. I looked at all of the food in there and realised I was allergic to most of it. I sighed in disappointment and looked for something I could eat. At the back of the fridge there was a container labelled "CAT". I reached in and pulled it out. Inside there was a fruit salad. I opened it up and looked at the fruit in there. There was no pineapple (which I'm allergic to) so I decided I'd have some then put it back- Cat would understand, plus I'll just take her to Freezy Queen later. Maybe.

After scarfing down the fruit salad specifically labelled for Cat, I closed the lid and put the tub in the sink to be washed by her parents later. I had eaten more than I wanted to and now only hoped Kitty-Kat wouldn't be upset.

Picking up my bag which I'd thrown on the floor when I entered the kitchen, I made my way through the empty house and up the stairs to my best friend's room.

When I entered, my eyes were suddenly violated by the bright pink... everything. I had almost forgotten how bright and girly her room was and had to take a moment to let my eyes adjust. The rest of her room certainly wasn't this bright. It was like I had walked straight from a drama TV series into Cat's favourite kid's show- the Waggafuffles.

Rolling my eyes, I noted the silence once again, as I threw my bag onto her bed. It was overwhelming, a drastic change from the past two to three months. I pulled out my new pearphone, the one I bought the other day for the sole purpose of calling Cat should I need to, and connected it to her, also pink, speakers. Scrolling through my Spotify play list, I chose a song (Wrong Side of Heaven by Five Finger Death Punch) and pressed play. It suddenly started playing really loud and I covered my ears. I pitied Cat's family, knowing she would have been playing childish songs such as the Sesame Street Theme Tune and god knows what other songs on this speaker at this volume.

When I had I adjusted to the volume, I uncovered my ears and sighed. Despite the fact that it was my choice to leave, I'm glad I'm back. I missed seeing the people at HA and my little brother. He was, thankfully, staying at my mother's. We couldn't trust him with my dad after what he used to do to me before I left. I stopped thinking of my dad, knowing it would only upset me and lay down on Cat's bed. It was so much more comfortable than my own bed and the dirty blankets I had to sleep on whilst I was away.

I wrapped my arms around my torso and squeezed tight, closing my eyes against the onslaught of memories brought on by that simple thought. There was the sound of smashing glass and my eyes flew open in a panic. I looked around frantically after sitting up, until I realised that the noise had come from the current song that was now playing. I didn't know how low I was lost in my memories but I knew I had missed half of the song that I had first put on.

I lay down on my side and closed my eyes, allowing sleep to take me.

A/N: Next chapter- The Sleepover. Alcohol will be involved and secrets will be revealed, but will Jade tell Cat and Tori where she's really been and what happened to her?