Summary: Jade is smoking and drinking. Sikowitz, having been down that path himself, tries to help Jade by letting her yell at him, and giving her a coconut.
Vodka and Coconuts (one shot):
Sikowitz had been a teacher at Hollywood Arts for over thirty years. Living in Hollywood, he had seen his fair share of unusual things, including his students who choose a dangerous life path: drugs, alcohol, anything in that family of bad decisions.
He hated bad actors. The only thing Sikowitz disliked more than narcissistic yet horrible actors (a.k.a. people like Trina Vega) were kids going down dangerous paths.
He had gone down a dangerous path once, and no one had tried to help him. In college, he had practically been addicted to smoking cigarettes. He still smoked on occasion, but he has been obsessed with coconuts for the past couple of years.
Whenever Sikowitz saw Hollywood Arts students smoking, he made it a point to pluck the cigarettes out of their mouths. Usually, it was Seniors or Juniors he would see smoking; not Freshman.
Jade West was the only student of his he had seen who as a Freshman, nevertheless, had had the audacity to light another cigarette right in his face just to spite him.
Later, it occurred to him that maybe she thought he was homeless and not her teacher. Either way, it didn't matter.
During Jade West's audition for Hollywood Arts, Sikowitz had had to put down his coconut so that he could pay better attention.
Jade was bizarre; he knew it from the start. She had a complexion as translucent as skim milk, and her gank-like personality was far from boring.
This weird macabre girl who had an affinity for wearing black and playing with scissors and yelling at girls for talking to her boyfriend, had something special from the moment she walked into the Hollywood Arts doors. Sikowitz just knew. He wasn't going to let her waste her talent. Jade West was a triple threat. She could act, she could sing, she could dance, and, later, he would find that she could make her own plays and short films.
•
Jade was about a week into high school the first time Sikowitz had caught her smoking and decided to actually approach her about it.
"Hello Jadelyn," he had said, strolling up to her. She had been leaning against the Hollywood Arts High School sign in the front of the building.
"What's up Psycho?" Jade had rolled her eyes at the man in front of her.
"Oh Jade. So rebellious and witty," he had laughed as he plucked the cigarette from her hand, and threw it in the closest ash tray.
"Why do you keep doing that?" Jade had asked, annoyed. He had plucked her cigarette out of her hand only once before.
"You're not even old enough to be smoking," Sikowitz told her, sipping his coconut, raising her eyebrows.
"Like I care," she rolled her eyes, walking away from him, toward the school, probably toward her group of friends that consisted of a fluffy haired Canadian, a synthetically-dyed happy red headed girl, a boy with a jewfro and a creepy puppet, and an African American boy who for some reason, always carried around his keyboard.
Sikowitz did in fact have all of these weird children in his Introduction to Acting third period class at the time, but he hadn't managed to learn all of their names yet. He was working on it, though.
Before Jade made it too far away from him, Sikowitz managed to yell: "Smoking can damage your vocal chords!"
He had seen Jade stop walking for a second, possibly contemplating what he had just said. Sikowitz watched as she rushed off, glaring at anyone who dared to look at her.
•
About a week after Jade had first encountered her homeless looking acting teacher who had tried to reprimand her about her smoking habit, Jade had volunteered to complete the bird scene. She was the first one in her acting class to try, and she completed it successfully the first time.
After the scene ended, without waiting for Sikowitz's cue, she had sat down in her seat. No one in her acting class had passed the scene in their first try except for Jade, which made her pretty proud.
She had been taking a break during lunch to celebrate her acting achievement. She was surfing through the Slap, about to inhale her cigarette again, when her insane teacher had asked her why she was smoking.
"I'm celebrating," she had said, fake smiling, making him roll his eyes.
"Here. Celebrate by learning your lines to your first play at Hollywood Arts. You are the lead. Give me that," he had said, switching the cigarette with the script form a play, putting the cigarette out. She sighed as she made her way inside the building.
She forgot about how annoyed she was with Sikowitz, and she started reading the play in her hands.
•
Sikowitz had been pleased to see Jade had stopped smoking on school premises. He didn't know if she had stopped smoking completely, or if she had just stopped while she was at school, but he was proud.
He noticed she started drinking tons of coffee, but he was fine with it. As long as she stopped smoking, he told himself.
He compared her love for coffee with his love for coconuts.
Jade was doing extremely well in all of the plays she starred. She could go from being a heartless gank at one moment, to being an innocent, emotional, tear filled, teenage girl when she hit the stage. It was amazing.
Jade looked happier when she was acting or singing, he noticed. She was still as bitter as she ever was, but she seemed more well behaved. And that was a good thing.
•
He noticed something in Jade during her Sophmore year. She was different. He knew it had to do with Tori Vega's presence.
The day Tori Vega kissed Beck Oliver, Jade was upset. She was so upset, she had gone outside to smoke a couple cigarettes. Jade solely smoked cigarettes; she hated smoking pot, she hated the feeling of being high. She wanted to be aware of her surroundings.
Sikowitz had noticed this. He had thought she had gotten over this, but apparently she had not.
He approached her, like he always did, but she yelled at him, more angrily than ever before.
"This is none of your business, Sikowitz!" She had yelled extremely loudly.
Sikowitz left her alone, because he was kind of scared of her.
•
Tori Vega wasn't anything special. She had some raw talent. Usually, he would give his lead roles to Jade, because, well, she was the best.
Jade practiced a lot. Jade was far more advanced than Tori, and even, if Jade was unaware of it, she was more advanced than Beck.
Sikowitz had given Tori the leads of multiple musicals because she need them to become better.
Jade had even approached him about it, asking him what he was thinking for giving away her roles.
"What's up with the cast lists, Psycho?" She had cornered him after class one day.
"What do you mean?" he had shrugged, infuriating her further, making her storm out of his class.
Every time Jade lost a role to Tori, she took it out on Tori by threatening to hurt her in various ways.
She stopped threatening to hurt Tori the second she broke up with Beck, and started hurting herself.
•
The whole school was aware of the break up between Hollywood Art's most well known couple. The screaming between Beck and Jade had subsided, but the anger Jade carried around with her had not.
Sikowitz was aware that Jade had skipped his class at least twice during the week of her break up.
Sikowitz was aware that Tori and Beck seemed to be rather close.
He noticed Jade had started smelling more and more like cigarette smoke every day.
He noticed that when Jade didn't get the roles she wanted, she stopped threatening to hit Tori with a bus, and she started leaving his class to smoke.
Sikowitz noticed that she started smelling like alcohol as well as cigarette smoke.
Sikowitz just noticed. And he decided something needed to be done.
•
Sikowitz decided to talk to her after class. He was going to use Plan A: ask her what's wrong. It probably wasn't going to work, but it was worth a try, right?
Wrong. Very wrong.
The first time he had asked her what was wrong, she almost slammed his fingers in his classroom door.
He had asked her to stay after class.
"Want to tell your favorite teacher what's wrong?" He had started.
"No!" She had yelled.
"C'mon," he whined immaturely.
"I told you to stay out of my business! It's is all your fault anyway. Stop trying to fix everything!" Jade had yelled, slamming the door behind her, crushing one of his coconuts and almost cutting one of his hands off.
•
The second time Sikowitz tried to figure out what was wrong with Jade, he tried Plan B: bribe her with coconuts. It kind of worked, in a way.
Sikowitz was coming out of his classroom window, walking to his van, when he saw her. Jade was leaning against the side of the building, chugging something in a water bottle. Around the raven haired girl, he noticed, was a drink she had spilt, smelling vaguely like vodka, which made him worried.
"Jade?" Sikowitz called, walking over to her.
"What?" She yelled angrily. He noted the whiff of alcohol on her breath as he approached her, as well as her eyes that were slightly red.
"Are you drinking vodka, Jade? Since when?" He asked in shock, removing the bottle from her hands.
"Hey! Give it back, Sikowitz!" She yelled angrily.
"I'm afraid I cannot. It is quite illegal to give alcohol to anyone under the age of 21," he told her, crossing his arms.
"It was mine first! Since when have you worried about what's legal?" She rolled her eyes.
"Stop arguing Jade West. I'm not giving it back," he told her, throwing the clear bottle into the trashcan. He had it with her behavior. She needed to stop this before she went on a complete downward spiral.
"Hey! What the fuck? That was expensive! Why do you have such a problem with me, anyway?" Jade snapped angrily.
"I'm sorry, Jade," he said, going back into his classroom through the window, knowing Jade would follow.
"Come sit down with Daddy Sikowitz," he said, pointing to the chair.
"What's wrong?" he asked as she cautiously sits down in the chair.
"You took my vodka! That was so rude. I don't steal your coconuts," she glared, making him laugh.
"Oh, Jade. So bitter...I didn't steal your vodka. I disposed of it. You're sixteen, Jude. You aren't like this, and I know that. Something's wrong," he sighed, hating that one of his best students was being this way.
"Did you just call me Jude?"
"Yes. And?"
"Ugh, never mind," she rolled her eyes, before backtracking.
"Wait... What do you mean I'm not 'like this'?" she asked him angrily, hopping out of her chair and pacing as she spoke.
"Jade," Sikowitz says, but she cuts him off.
"I'm not like what? I don't smoke? I don't drink? Well news flash, Psycho, it's not the first time I've smoked or gotten drunk on school property. I know you know all about it. Why is this time any different? Can't you just pretend to care for a minute or two, and then let me go about my business?"
"I do care-"
"No you don't! It's your fault that I even started drinking in the first place!" She cried, staring angrily into his eyes,
"How is it my fault?" He asked, forgetting momentarily that smoking and drinking are illegal for sixteen year olds, and that he has been ignoring the fact that Jade is an avid participator in both of these activities. He ignores the fact that Jade isn't treating him as respectfully as most of his students do. Then again, she is Jade West. She never treated him like his other students do. She hated almost everyone and almost everything.
"It's your fault because you got me to stop smoking for a while. You gave me something to look forward to, which was being the lead in your plays. It's your fault because you were being a gank and you let Trina Vega into this stupid school because you were tripping out over coconut milk. It's your fault, because Trina couldn't go to the showcase, so her dumb sister got in to Hollywood Arts!" Jade started pacing around the room, spitting out her feeling toward her favorite teacher.
"It's your fault," she cried, pointing at him, "because Tori has been ruining my life! She has been taking everything away from me, and I and take it anymore! It's your fault, because she has taken away all of the roles that I clearly deserve, she took my boyfriend from me... she took everything I had! It's your fault, because the only way I know how to deal with this is through smoking and drinking, and because of all these problems you've caused, I've started doing both again! It's all your fucking fault!" She yelled, kicking a chair with her foot.
"Please calm down," he tried, but failed.
"I'm not gonna calm down!" she yelled.
"Listen to me, young Jude," he said, making her groan in annoyance.
"Here, have a coconut," Sikowitz said, pulling a purple bendy straw and a coconut out of his desk.
She rolled her eyes but didn't decline.
"You want to know why I haven't been giving you roles lately, Jadelyn?" He asked, siping his coconut milk.
"Yes!" She yelled impatiently, throwing her hands in the air.
"Because you don't need them."
"Like hell I don't need them!"
"You don't."
"What the hell are you talking about?" She sighed, sitting down, crossing her arms, drinking her surprisingly good coconut milk.
"Okay. Well, remember when you did the Bird Scene," he told her, making her think back to her Freshman year.
"I knew from before that moment, actually, I knew from your audition, that you were gonna go places, Jude," he told his student, who ignored the name he gave her.
"I don't understand..."
"You are an impeccable actress with a very bold personality. I may not tell you enough, because I don't want you to think that you're my favorite, but I do believe in your abilities. I'm sorry about taking away your expensive vodka, but I don't want you to end up doing nothing with your life. You have to ability to become something big," he said, sipping his coconut milk.
"But why-"
"Sush-shh-shh-shhhhhh," she stopped her from speaking.
"Listen, Jude. You are a much better actress than Tori. She is good for a beginner; you are not a beginner. You are better. You will make it, undoubtedly, as a professional someday if it is what you choose to do. Tori, well, she might just barely make it. Get what I'm throwing down?"
"Wait... So you're saying that I am better than Tori, but you're giving her a chance to improve because she sucks, and you're confident in my abilities?"
"Well, I guess so."
Jade grinned. She quickly suppressed the smile and turned it into one of her famous smirks, realizing what she had done.
"Thank you, Sikowitz," Jade said, really meaning it.
"Sure thing," he said.
"One more thing?" He asked, holding in a laugh at her groan of annoyance.
"Please try to not resort your anger out on smoking or drinking. Try writing a play about death or something morbidly satisfying. It helps. Also, try coconuts. They're lovely alternatives."
"Yeah, okay," she laughed, turning away from him.
•
When Jade gets back together with Beck, Sikowitz notices the spark of happiness in her eye, even under the anger and death threats she sends to various people.
He's happy that she's happy.
When she brings him a play she's written, he gives her the opportunity to put it on. And she gives him a genuine smile.
•••••
Author's note: I think these are just going to be random oneshots. I know this is kind of a weird fanfiction, but I just got an idea and decided to run with it. If you're giving it a chance, then thank you!