Jade West hadn't actually left yet. She was sitting on her bed, brooding. She was worried, she knew that much. What she had to do wasn't... a comforting burden. And there was something else. An emotion that the old Jade West wouldn't want to let out. The old Jade West was a tough girl, but now Jade didn't feel tough at all. She wanted to run back into Beck's warm comforting arms, but that would mean failure. And Jade hadn't changed completely, she was definitely not a magnet to failure.
She sighed and stripped off her black goth clothes and changed into brown. Nothing too bright and colourful thankfully. She tied her hair back in a pigtail and wiped off her make-up. She looked like a different girl. Then her phone rang. She looked at the screen. Of course... it was Beck.
Her finger hovered over the answer button but she drew it away. Nothing could hold her back, and she knew that if she answered that call, she wouldn't be going anywhere. The call went to voicemail.
"Jade, if you're there, please pick up. If you need to go away, so be it, but wait until tomorrow, I want to say a better goodbye..." Jade left the room, and closed the door, drowning out Beck's voice. She couldn't go back, she had to leave now, before anyone got home.
She looked at the cream envelope on the kitchen table, her scrawled handwriting on it. Then she looked at the pictures of her as a little girl on the wall. And she regretted it. She stormed to the front door and walked out, knowing that she'd never walk through it again... not for a long time anyway.
Tori Vega, Cat Valentine, Robbie Shapiro, Beck Oliver and Andre Harris all sat in the office waiting for Lane.
"She actually left." Beck said, for the millionth time.
"Beck..." Tori began, but didn't know how to finish.
"Look. Jade left. Look on the bright side, she'll be back real soon and we'll all go back to wishing she wasn't here." Andre said, trying to lighten the mood.
"That's not what I heard." Robbie started. "Jade said to me that she won't be seeing..."
Andre coughed loudly. "Cat, what was it that Jade said?"
"She told me not to cry." Cat said sadly, sniffing. "But I did, you know. Do you think I let her down?"
"No, you didn't Little Red and I meant... she said she's going to be back really soon." Andre said, emphasising the really and looking pointedly at Robbie. He nodded slowly, suddenly realising that he'd nearly let on to Cat that things weren't as simple as they seemed.
Just then Lane walked in.
"Right, I'm really busy at the moment. Sinjin had just..."
"Jade actually left." Beck cut in. Lane looked at him like he was crazy.
"She said she loved me..." He said dreamily. "But she still left."
"Um... Beck would you like to... speak to somebody?" Lane offered.
"Oh, Beck's just a little upset, that's all." Tori said. "You see, Jade left in the middle of the night, and she's," Tori glanced at Cat. She wasn't listening to a word that was being said, "not coming back any time soon. Look." Toti pulled Jade's letter out of her pocket.
Lane read through the letter.
"Well, Jade seems to be her usual self. I wouldn't worry, it's probably some prank she's playing. I don't have time for pranks at the moment." He got up to leave the room adding, "I really must healp Sinjin," more to himself than anyone else.