I look out the window of my new apartment, well technically my aunt's, and sigh absentmindedly before turning my attention back to my laptop. My email has two messages: both from Carly with a subject of "Sorry!" I instantly delete both; I want nothing to do with either one of them anymore. It's been a week since I moved to Los Angeles from Seattle after my mother died and to be honest I haven't really felt like going anywhere.

"Freddie?" Comes the voice of my aunt Jennifer from the kitchen, "You hungry?"

"Sure!" I call back, "What're we having?"

"Bologna sandwiches."

"Sounds fine." I reply before turning my attention back out the window. The city looks so big from my window that it makes me almost miss the familiarity of Seattle but no way in hell am I ever going back there. I find myself going to the iCarly website and browsing the new videos and click on one dated two days ago. I smirk as whoever they got to replace me tries his hardest to keep the show running but fails, all the props and other various things I had set up fail at random intervals- in fact the only thing that does work is the remote I gave Sam.

I close the laptop as the feed is cut short, apparently the camera failed too, and smirk. No wonder Carly had sent me those emails, she must be desperate to keep her precious web show going. I set my laptop gently on my desk before heading into the kitchen.

"There's our recluse." Aunt Jen teases me.

"Yeah sorry I just, needed some time alone I guess."

"Completely understandable. Have you decided what you want to do now?"

"Well, I mean obviously I'm staying here with you." I tell her with a smile, glad she's letting me make my own choices. "I'll go back to school, start my life here."

She gives me a relieved smile, "Well I was looking at some schools while you were having some alone time." She paused for a moment to grab something out of her pocket, "There's a school for talented people such as yourself called-"

"Hollywood Arts."

She looked at me strangely, "You know it?"

"Well kind of, we went there once to confront someone... Long story, I don't wanna talk about it." I tell her.

"Fair enough." She said. While I hadn't told her the full story she was smart enough to guess I'd left Seattle on bad terms with my friends. "So do you keep in touch with anyone from the school?" She asked.

"Yeah, a couple of the students."

"Why don't you email them? You might as well start making some new friends, besides maybe they could help you get into the school? "

Why hadn't I thought of that? It seemed painfully obvious now, I had friends here... I just needed to get in contact with them. "I'll be right back." I said and went to email the first person that I could think of: Tori Vega.

[Jade]

The moment the door opened the phone rang and I groaned "What now?" I snapped at the phone before answering it, "Hello?" I said, annoyed that I had just yelled at an inanimate object.

"Hey Jade." Came the voice of Tori Vega, the person whom irritated me more than anyone else at Hollywood Arts. We got along fine sometimes, but I just wish she wasn't so nice. It makes it so hard to hate her sometimes.

"What."

"Remember Freddie Benson?"

"Vaguely." I lied. Of course I remembered the technical producer for iCarly, we'd talked a bit when he came with his friends to confront that cheating bastard. He'd seemed like an okay guy but I could tell he was slightly intimidated by me, though from what I've seen on iCarly it's no wonder he's afraid of any girl who looks tough, almost felt sorry for him. Keyword being almost.

"Well he just emailed me and he's moved here!" She said in that irritating voice she used when she got excited, "And he might be going to Hollywood Arts."

"Oh Joy..." I said dryly.

"Anyway, we're gonna show him around town so meet us at Wok Star."

"I don't-" But before I could finish my protest she had hung up. I groaned and put the phone down and decided to get ready for a day out with a bunch of people I didn't like, why in the hell did Beck have to go to Canada?

I arrived at Wok Star five minutes late, purposely of course I hated being early, and joined Freddie and my fellow Hollywood Arts class mates at their table.

"About time you showed." Tori said.

"About time you showed." I mocked in that voice I knew drove her nuts.

"I do not talk like that!" The half Latina teen whined.

I looked away to hide a smirk, I loved irritating her like that, but Freddie noticed (or at least looked like he did).. "So are we gonna eat or just sit here and look stupid?" I asked.

The brunette teens just sighed and Tori led us to a table in the back, "So Freddie, why did you move to L.A?" Tori asked.

"Long story." He replied and I could hear just a bit of sadness in his tone, interesting...

"Where's everyone else?" I interrupt.

"Oh um Andre, Cat, and Robbie couldn't make it."

I'm relieved about Robbie, he's annoying, but Cat's the closest thing I have to a friend and Andre isn't so bad most of the time "Pity." I said dryly.

"Oh, I can't believe I forgot, Freddie you remember Jade right?"

"Y-yeah." He said, giving me a quick glance before turning his attention back to Tori "So Tori um, I might be going to Hollywood Arts in the Fall."

I roll my eyes as they talk, while I usually like being ignored for some reason it irritates me that he didn't even say hi to me "Really?" I blurt out, "So Freddie, what talent do you have?"

He turns his attention on me and shrugs "Well I did keep iCarly up and running, alone, for about four years."

He had me there, if he used even half the skills I'd seen on the few episodes of iCarly that I'd watched he'd get in for sure "You'd be a senior then?" I find myself asking, but why do I care?

"Yeah, I moved here after my last day of junior year."

Finally someone came to take our order. "About time." I muttered and brushed a strand of stray hair out of my eyes before ordering the same thing I always ordered. Once our orders were taken and the waitress, a young Asian woman not much older than me, had left Freddie and Tori began talking again- leaving me to my thoughts.

Why the chizz did I want to talk to this kid so bad? I wasn't even that big of an iCarly fan, the show was amusing at best, and he was nothing like Beck. The thought of my boyfriend made me scowl in irritation, which Freddie noticed immediately.

"What's wrong Jade?" He asked.

I blinked in surprise, how had he noticed my scowl when he'd been busy talking to Tori? And why did he care? Luckily for me Tori answered for me.

"She's always scowling at something." She said in a dismissive tone that made me turn my scowl towards her.

"I'm fine." I finally answer so the two can resume their conversation. Finally the food arrives and we all begin to eat. Once we're done eating Tori's phone rings and she has a short conversation, mostly one sided as she's quiet for most of it. Once she hands up she gives a sympathetic glance at Freddie.

"I gotta go." She explained, "Trina needs me for something... No idea what. Jade will show you around."

Before I can protest she's gone, guess I'm showing Freddie Benson around L.A.

[Freddie]

I tried not to look disappointed as Tori left, the girl was beautiful... Nice, kind, my kinda girl... I shook my head to clear those thoughts out of my head, I had no chance in hell with her. I turned my attention to the intimidating girl in front of me and smiled, the girl was dressed in a gray tank top, black jeans, and black boots. Her hair was black except for a light green streak that ran all the way through her hair. She was beautiful, too bad she scared the chizz out of me.

"So where should we go?" I finally asked.

I was rewarded with a glare as she finally sighed, "I guess we just walk, I don't have anything better to do."

"Really?" I asked dryly, "So glad I'm not an inconvenience."

She gave me a curious look before standing up and heading for the door. I quickly followed, after all who wouldn't want to spend the day with an intimidating girl like Jade? "Where are we going?" I asked her.

"I'm showing you around." She said simply, so you might wanna memorize where we go and how we get there."

I sighed and nodded as we walked, "So you go to Hollywood Arts with Tori?" I asked

"Thanks for stating the obvious."

I sighed again, this wasn't going to be easy, "You sing?"

"Yes."

"I'm sure you're amazing."

"I am."

Well at least she wasn't making fun of my horrible conversation starters like Sam would have. "I'm sorry if I seemed to be ignoring you earlier."

"I'm used to it."

I stopped walking and looked at her, "What do you mean?"

"Well, Tori was there. She's much easier to talk than me, I don't blame you for ignoring me."

Did she really feel like that? That just because Tori was around I would purposely ignore her? "You surely don't believe that."

"Sure I do."

"Why?"

"Experience." she said simply.

"Well I'm sorry."

"Why?" She asked me.

"Because no one should be ignored." I said, thinking of how Carly and Sam had treated me, "Or used."

"Used?"

Crap, she caught onto me. "Long story."

"Well, as you can see I have time."

I take a deep breath, this really was a long story. I began to tell her about how Sam and Carly only really wanted me for iCarly, how I'd been in love with Carly since I was eleven and that she used it to get what she wanted out of me. "It became a sick joke." I began to rant, "She'd say 'Please, for me?' and I'd almost trip over myself to do it."

"Sucks for you." She said dryly.

"Yep." I replied, trying to bite back the rising anger, "They didn't even give a damn when my mom.."

"Your Mom?"

"She.. died." I forced out the words, I hadn't really confronted the fact... And saying it out loud seemed to make it more real, she was gone... Forever. "And they didn't give a damn."

Her facial expression shifted from annoyance to something resembling pity but quickly shifted into a more neutral one. "I'm sorry."

"It's life." I said with a shrug.

"No it's not, you were right. No one should be ignored. But they shouldn't be used either." She looked down at her phone, "Damn it, my Mom wants me home.." She sighed, "I guess I'll talk to you later." She paused for a moment, as if she had something to say, but turned and walked away.

I watched her go, realizing two things: There was more to Jade West than I had thought and I had no way to get in contact with her.

Note: Sorry it took so long to get this chapter out, I've just been busy with other stories but I'm going to start focusing on this now. I hope you guys enjoy this chapter and please feel free to leave me a review! I don't own iCarly or Victorious, I'm just a fanfic writer, and extra thanks to DG31 for helping me make this chapter readable.