Monday morning, Jade tried her best to avoid Cat. When she walked in arm in arm with Beck and saw Cat on the other end of the hall, Jade would unhook herself from Beck and make a sharp turn back where she came from. Leaving a perplexed Beck to answer to Cat. She waved at him and smiled as she walked over to him. "Hi Beck! Was that Jade?"

"Looks like she forgot something, I guess," he said putting his hands in his pockets. "So what's up?"

Cat played with her ends, "I was wondering about the play you had written for us. I lost mine. Well more that my hamster ate it. Do you have another copy?"

Beck stared at her. "Your hamster?"

"Mhm, he likes plays. I soon as I told him it was a play I knew it was all lost. Never leave your homework by a hamsters cage." Cat said with a sage nod as if what she was saying was wise advice.

Beck nodded with tight lips. "Okay, well, I'll go print you one. I'll give it to you in class."

"Yaaay! Thank you!" Cat said cheerfully. Beck nodded and excused himself to go to the library.

Just then Jade came around with a cup of coffee put to her lips.
"Hiiiiii Jaaaaade!" Cat called a few feet away. Jade saw her and coffee spurt out of her mouth in surprise. Cat was still in the same hallway! Why didn't she pick a different route! "Uh, hi." she said wiping her chin.

Suddenly the bell rang for first period. Saved by the bell! Jade and Cat hurried over to the next class, Cat right beside her trying her best to talk to her while Jade kept grimacing and trying to drink her coffee, trying to block her out.

In class they had to do improv exercises which got a lot of the students excited. Cat turned around in her seat to look at Jade who was texting. "I call dibs on Jade!"

"Good. Jade and Cat, you two pair up," instructed, seemingly never without a coconut in his hands.

Jade not paying attention to the class, snapped her head up when she heard her name and Cat's. Suddenly her stomach was hurting again. Oh no!

"Jade get over here and we'll sta-"

"NO!" Jade jumped up from her seat and was surprised herself by the intensity of the shout. "I … I need to go to the nurses office…" she said after a few seconds, grabbing her stomach.

"Okay… Cat will you escort Jade to the -"

"Tori!" Tori leapt in her skin by the shout. "Tori can take me."

Everyone looked at each other. Jade must be really be sick to have Tori help her out. Tori was just as confused and when she looked at Jade's smoldering green eyes she knew she had little time to comply.

"Uh, okay!" Tori grabbed her things and quickly followed Jade out into the hall. They were quiet as they walked side by side.

"This is odd for you Jade. I mean you rarely get upset stomaches. Maybe it was something you ate? Andre was in here earlier about -"

Jade stopped in her tracks, cutting Tori short. "Go back Tori, I got it from here."

"But Mr. Sikowitz just -"

"I'm fine." Jade said with a stern tone, eyes unwavering. It took the other girl a second.

"I knew something was up," she accused, jutting a finger at her. "You don't fool me!"

Jade gave an exasperated sigh and looked away from her.

"Does this have to do anything with Cat?"

"No."

"Beck then."

"What!? No!"

"Jade!"

Jade ran a hand through her hair with a sigh. "I'm not sure myself. Maybe I just need to lie down. Just haven't been feeling like myself lately. It has to do with me, no one else. Go back to class. Tell the teach I'll be fine."

Tori stood a few moments with her arms crossed, seizing Jade up with her eyes. "Fine. Feel better." Then she turned on her heels and left her in the hallway. Jade waited until the girl was out of sight. She turned around and walked past the nurses office.

At lunch they were all in the lounge area. Beck was sitting on the couch and Jade was sitting across his lap with her face buried in his neck, her dark hair falling over her face. He rubbed her back gently and rubbed her thigh over her tight black leggings. Her combat boots dug into the cushion next to him. She had her friends sympathy but she was not acknowledging them. When Cat joined them with her cheery voice, Jade's heart stopped beating for a second and she moved. Beck felt her flinch and rubbed her back, wondering if Cat's loud voice had bothered her. Cat hushed up and lowered her tone. "Sooooorry."

"How she feeling?" She whispered to Beck. He shook his head. "Feel better Jade," Beck nodded at her for Jade with a sympathetic smile.

"Wow. Jade must be catching something. She better not be contagious, we have that dance performance contest next week."

That made Jade slowly raise her head. "Ohhh trust me if I was contagious, you'd be the first to find out" she said more in a groan. Beck helped her settle back in, wrapping his arms around her. Jade now faced the group and gave a small smile showing that she meant no harm with her remark. She wasn't acting too differently now. Cat was smiling at her, giving a little wave. Jade nodded in response. "Would you like some water?" Cat offered it to Jade. Jade nodded and Beck reached over to take it and gave it to Jade.

"So," Andre started the conversation again. "That dance competition thing. Is the whole school taking part?"

"Cat who you pairing up with?"

"Ohhh I don't know. Whoever asks me first I guess." In that instant Robbie's eyes lit up and before he got a chance to speak, Rex spoke. "Ohhhh you wanna get down with that?"

Tori looked at Andre. "I'm yours if you'll take me." Andre grinned and nodded, making his dreads bounce. Beck motioned to Jade who was relaxing back against his chest, eyeing everyone.

"Okay, I'm done." Jade got up from Beck's lap and stood up, grabbing her bag. She leaned over and kissed Beck on the lips and gave everyone else a dismissive wave.

The next few periods, Cat kept trying to talk to Jade, but Jade either had her earphones in, blaring loud music or she was walking too fast. "Okay! I see you're busy!" she shouted after her. Cat wrung out her hands not knowing what to do with herself.
The last class of the day, Cat sat at the foot of her locker in the hall where Jade usually walked by to get to her next class. Jade was looking at her book and nearly walked past Cat but red head latched onto her leg and was dragged along a few feet. Jade teeter tottered to a stop with a few hops. She looked down at Cat with murderous eyes.

"Cat! What the hell!?"

"You need to talk to me!"

"I have nothing to say to you!"

"You're lying! You're avoiding me and that's not fair! Tell me what's going on!"

"You want to know what's going on?" Jade said loudly. "You really want to know?" Cat nodded eagerly and rose to her feet, eyes expectant. "Well here it is."

"Robbie has a crush on you," Jade blurted out. Cat eyes widened and her head jerked back.

"What?"

It just keeps rolling out as I write these on my lunch breaks lol