Chapter Two

[Tori]

My hand holds a tight grip around the straps of my handbag as I walk towards the detention classroom, which is basically the library. I am a bit scared about sitting in detention with Jade. I know that she is going to kill me if she gets the chance to do so. It isn't the first time I get detention, but it is the second time. First time it was only me, Jade, Beck, Cat, Andre and Robbie in detention. We had gotten detention because Robbie had choked on a pretzel and made us all late for class, actually I was supposed to get five more Saturday detentions but they somehow got forgotten. I didn't mind that, in fact I had gotten relieved. But that time in detention hadn't been that bad. It hadn't been scary at all because they are all my best friends. Well everyone except Jade. I want to be friends with her don't get me wrong, but she is the one that seems to have something against me.

I enter the room and look around, my eyes land on Jade who sits in the corner furthest at the back. She sits with her legs lying on the chair beside her and in her hands she holds a pair of scissors. To be honest that doesn't come as a surprise. Jade stops fiddling with her scissors and looks up and meet my gaze. She takes her hand and curls a lock of hair behind her ear before she gives me a smirk and a lifted pierced eyebrow.

I am not sure whether it is meant to be a friendly smirk or an 'I was expecting you, now I will kill you' smirk. But because it is Jade I don't want to take any risks, so I place myself on a chair in the front to the right. I look over my left shoulder to find that Jade has returned to playing with her scissors. She weighs them between her hands and makes cuts in the air and she watches with a look that tells me that she enjoys herself. I find myself getting distracted by the scissors and jump at the sound of a man clearing his throat.

I look in front of me and see a long man with black, short hair. It is the vice principal, Dickers. He has a habit of yelling at students…

"Good afternoon waz bags!" He shouts out over the library. And I widen my eyes and press my lips together as I nod to myself because my memories of Dickers just got confirmed. This time I'm not going to say a word because I'm not going to risk to get any more detention, detention the whole week out is bad enough. And if I remember correctly from last year Dickers is very good at handing out detentions…

"You pathetic losers are here because you are incompetent and useless!" Dickers shouts out as he eyes the library. Something he sees creates a crease in his forehead as both his eyebrows almost meet in the middle of his eyes pointing slightly downwards. "Where are James, Oliver and Finn?!" He asks with a loud voice after a few seconds of frowning. I decide that answering is a bad idea so I stay silent.

His gaze shifts between me and Jade. I wonder if he is waiting for an answer… I carefully look back over my shoulder to see if Jade is paying any attention to Dickers. But she is still playing with her scissors, not paying Dickers any attention what so ever. "They will get Saturday detention, all of them!" Dickers exclaims as he walks out of the library with heavy steps.

I feel scared as Jade and I become the only ones in the library. I still have the feeling that Jade is going to kill me or something… I sit stiffly on the chair and focus on a spot in front of me to make sure that, if Jade is standing behind me ready to stab me with her scissors, I won't see it. But when nothing happens for several minutes I decide that the worse danger is over.

As I sit in silence and hear the snap of Jade's scissors my thoughts wander off to Jade. Why does she hate me? That question has been in the back of my mind ever since I started at Hollywood Arts and Jade poured coffee over me. She seems so harsh and I wonder if she actually has a soft side to her? Well yes she has, I remind myself as I remember how she usually acts around with Beck. She is still harsh towards him, but there is something more… something close to love. Well, I know that Jade loves Beck because she had come crashing down at my house crying our pillows black with mascara when she had broken up with him. It was just that Jade had a bit of a weird way of showing her love… None the less, she is very interesting. I wonder what lies buried inside her…

I sneak my gaze back towards her. I watch her with her satisfied smile over her lips. And I decide that the only way I am going to get my questions answered is by asking. So I grab my bag and carefully approach Jade with small steps.

"What do you want Vega?" Jade snaps at me the same time as she clips with her scissors. She doesn't even look at me. But she looks annoyed by my presence, because she sighs and rolls her eyes.

I feel how fear builds up inside of me again. But I try to remember that Jade still is my friend, even if I'm not hers. Am I going to let Jade West scare me? NO! I am going to stick with my conviction that Jade has got a heart, even if it is hard to believe that at times.

Determined, I bend over Jades feet and push them off the chair and seat myself down beside her.

As cheerfully as I can I twitter as I tilt my head to the side and look at Jade with as big puppy eyes as I can manage "What, you don't want to talk to me?"

Jade's whole upper part of her face lifts upwards. Even her upper lip follows the motion and she looks at me with an offended look "Eh, excuse me. What do you think that you're doing?"

"I just want to talk to-"

I don't get to say anything more before both Jade's feet push me with ease off the chair. I land on my side on the carpet covered floor. I know that Jade is a superior 'kick people off chairs' person because she has done it to me plenty of times. I won't be surprised if I, by now, have got a red mark of her boot on my hip. I gently rub my hipbone that just got a push as I seat myself up on the floor.

"Hm" I hear how Jade lets out with a laugh and I look up at her. She smiles with one corner of her mouth which makes it more look like a smirk than anything. I sigh in frustration as I get up from the floor.

I'm not going to let Jade win this time. All I want is an answer to a question that has bugged me forever! So I lift up her feet again and seat myself underneath her legs so that her legs get to lie in my lap. But as soon as Jades legs touch my thighs they fly off and down onto the floor and the swinging motion makes Jade lean forward.

"What the fuck do you think that you are doing?!" She nearly screams at me, her eyes piercing into mine.

"I just want to ask a question." I say as I hold my hands up to the sides as if she told me to do so or she'll shoot.

Jade wrinkles her nose and eyes me from top to toe. She puts her scissors on the bench beside her, which calms me down significantly, before she leans back on her chair and crosses her legs and arms at the same time. "Go ahead then." She says stiffly. She blinks at me with a bored face and nods for me to ask my question.

"Why do you hate me?" I ask with a concerned expression, both my eyebrows pressed together.

"Why don't you hate me back?" Jade answers with a tone that makes it sound like it is obvious that I should hate her. But I don't hate her, I think to myself before I answer.

"Why should I?" My answer makes Jade widen her eyes and press her chin down so that she looks at me from below with raised eyebrows.

"You ask me why you should hate me?!" Jade laughs slightly with an exhale.

"Yeah… I guess so."

"Because I'm always mean to you." Jade makes a nod as she exclaims her fact.

I think about it for a while. Yes, she has a point. She is rarely nice to me… and somehow everything she does is without a reason. But even though she is mostly harsh we have still had our moments. She has actually shown me that she can be nice to me. Like that time she showed up to help me clean the auditorium after a food fight my first year, or when she turns up at my house unexpected because she needs help. Those times she claims that it is because she doesn't want anyone cool to see her broken, but I take it as if she trusts me. But that still doesn't explain why she is mean to me when she is. I look at her, still smirking at me, and remember that she still hasn't answered my question.

"I agree that you could be nicer towards me." I see how Jade rolls her eyes at my statement. "But why are you so mean to me? Why do you hate me?"

"Why don't you hate me back?"

I frown and sigh at the fact that Jade just asked the same question twice, without answering mine first. "Gosh, Jade. Just answer my question!"

I look at her as she sits quiet for a few seconds. I wonder if she doesn't want to answer or if she doesn't know what to answer. Then she smirks and offers one raised eyebrow. "Because it's fun" To be honest, I don't really know what to answer to something like that. She just announced that she likes to torture me because it is fun (?). I look at her as her expression changes from a smirk to a factual one. "You know that if you hated me back then I wouldn't be so mean to you? The only reason I'm mean to you is because you give me the chance by trying to befriend me all the time."

I turn towards the table as I think, about what Jade just said, for a few seconds. She has yet another point. I always try my best to befriend her. Now, when I think about it, it strikes me how incredibly insane it sounds. That I'm constantly being nice to someone that always gives me back with her fists.

But something more dawns on me as my thoughts wander off. I remember the feeling I get every time Jade is the least bit nice to me, like how she gives me a hug after a bit of persuasion when I have done her a favor. Every time she is somewhat nice to me I feel so happy, like I have accomplished something and my price is one minute of a nice Jade…

"Why do you do it?" Jades stiff voice brings me back to the presence and I turn my head to the side to look at her.

I answer with the easiest (and only) answer I can think of "Because I want to be your friend."

Her chest bounces up when she lets out a contemptuous laugh from deep within between closed lips. "I know"

"… and I am, right? Your friend…?" I ask as I remember the time when she referred to me as her friend when she gave me the opening number on the Platinum Music Award after I had been deprived of it because I didn't want to act like a total bitch just to get attention and a tough, superstar image. Well, she didn't literally call me her friend, but I think I knew what she really meant. It's just that she is Jade so she isn't that good with expressing feelings.

"Sure, if you say so Vega." What she does next surprises me to a level that my eyebrows shoot upwards and I can almost feel how they lift of my face. Because Jade smiles. It's not a smirk, but a smile that somehow feels real. Her smile is beautiful and it makes me smile. It makes her look soft and more human. Not that I have never seen Jade smile or something like that, it's just that she smiled at the same time as she agreed on the fact that we are friends. "You try so hard anyways." She continues.

She does it again. She reminds me of why I even try so hard at becoming her friend. Every time I make progress I feel so special because it is Jade, the girl you're not supposed to get something nice out of.

"I do it because I know that you are a nice person." I chirp with a wide smile.

Jade's response is to frown followed by a pair off rolled shoulders in a light shrug.


A/N: I received a comment saying that the first chapter doesn't indicate that this is supposed to be a Jori story… But *frustrated sound*, it was only the first chapter. I will get there, trust me. Kiss and hugs from me.

And thanks for the response on the first chapter. It's so much nicer to write if you know that someone actually reads it.