*Chapter 1: Look For the Girl With The Broken Smile*
I pull open the door to Hollywood Arts only after taking a deep breath. I feel that I not only need it, but deserve it. I know who is waiting for me: my ditzy, bubbly friend Cat and my Goth, intensely terrifying friend (friend?) Jade. Beck will be with Jade, and Cat will either be giving out free hugs or sulking in the corner.
I'm right.
Cat bounces up to me, smiling, and before I can even say a word her arms are around me in a warm, heartfelt hug. "Hi Tori," she whispers into my ear before she pulls away.
"Hi, Cat," I greet her back. She's beautiful, nobody can deny that. Her eyes sparkle with naieveness and wonder. Everyone in the world could learn a life lesson just by talking to Cat.
"Vega," a deep voice spits, and I know it's Jade. I turn to her, my eyebrows raised.
"Yes, Jade?" I ask, my tone edgy. I'm not always happy with her harshness and her biting words.
"I need your help for an assignment," she commands, fists clenched. "And you, Cat. I'm supposed to record a song sung by three people, I don't even..." she fades off, swiping her hand around in the air as if to motion about something.
"Maybe if you ask me nicely," I tell her. "Can you ask me nicley?"
"Cat," Jade says defiantly, whirling away from me. "You'll help, right?" Cat shakes her sweet little head slightly from side to side timidly, entertwining her fingers with mine.
"CAT!" Jade yells, and heads turn our way. Cat whimpers and steps behind me, like a young child stepping behind their mother.
"'Mm sorry," she whispers hurridly. "I don't wanna."
"CAT!" Jade yells again, and I can see Cat's jaw twitch as if she's about to cry, but she doesn't. I dislike Jade's cruel methods; I feel that they're uneccessary.
"If I did it, would you?" I ask Cat, and she gives a slight nod, looking up at me with sad, pleading eyes.
Jade raises her eyebrows and shoves a hand towards Cat. "SeeEE?" she asks in that annoying way that she does. "Come on, Vega."
I roll my eyes, but I feel obliged to give in. "When should we come over?"
Cat squeaks in happiness.
"I'll come to your house," Jade says hurridly. My fists clench from hatred. "Make dinner. I'll pick you up, Cat, and we'll go to Tori's house at seven thirty."
She then whirls away, saying nothing else on the matter, and she grabs Cat's arm as she leaves, dragging the redhead away with her.
Everything is ready. Dinner is set out; it's pizza and salad. I bought some soda for Jade and some placebo-soda for Cat (there's no way I'm letting her get as hyper as she does).
The clock hits seven thirty and the second it does, Jade throws open the door with no knock or warning that she has arrived. Cat follows behind; she's wearing a puppy dog shirt and skinny jeans whch match her hair perfectly.
It troubles me that Jade doesn't have anything with her. "Where's the recording equipment?" I ask, irritated. "How are we going to record? Should I call Andre?"
"I didn't have a stupid song assignment," she spits, and Cat insecurley slinks along the wall, trying to go the long way around the couch so that she doesn't have to pass Jade. "I just wanted dinner and a place to hang out, without letting you think that we're friends."
This does it. I jab a finger towards the door. "Out," I command, seething with anger. "I want you out of my house, now. This... out."
Jade rolls her eyes and picks up a slice of pizza. "I'm not leaving, Vega," she reinforces. Cat darts out from behind the couch and sits on top of it, playing with a pillow propped up beside her.
"Yes, you are," I tell her, walking up to Jade confidently, my jaw set in a hostile stance. She rolls her eyes, and before I can even think, her stiff arms are around me in a cold, awkward hug.
"Thanks for inviting me," she tells me stiffly, pulling away and walking over to the couch. She sits next to Cat. "Hey, baby kitten."
I don't really have a choice. I take a slice of pizza too, and sit on the couch on the opposite side of Cat.
Jade turns on the TV and it starts to play a horror movie that I saw the trailers for somewhere. Pleased, she sits back against the couch and begins to watch, angrily munching on the pizza.
Cat shrinks back every time ambience starts to play in the background. The camera pans over to a man with fangs, and she shrieks, curling up against me and turning away from Jade.
Instinctively, I kiss her forehead as I would kiss a young child's.
Blush spreads through my cheeks; I hadn't even thought about what I was doing. Cat seems unphased, she continues to peer at the horror movie. I turn so that Jade can't see my embarrassed face. Oh, my God, I hope she didn't see that.
"It's okay, Vega," she tells me with an evil tint to her voice. "I didn't see a thing."
I blush even harder, and the scene starts to replay in my head. Me turning to Cat, her head nestled against my shoulder...
As I turn my red face back towards the screen and away from a patch of wall I was deeply intrigued in for a minute, I feel Cat's lips press against mine lovingly.
I can't think. My heart stops beating and my breath catches in my throat. It's a long kiss, and she refuses to break away until I back up, panting, and exclaim, "W-what was that?"
I know what it was. It was love, and it was right, and it felt so warm and it made me feel so good. I can't admit that.
"Whoa," Jade says, and she's smiling a huge grin, an evil one that I see so often from her. A rock forms in my stomach. "I DID see that one, Vega."
