Today is Doomsday. The apocolypse. The end of the world.

The day I have been dreading. Saturday.

Today is the day I spend a whole day with...Jade West. The Ice Queen, the Wicked Witch of the West (See what I did there huh?) The female Grim Reaper.

You get the point.

As I'm being pushed towards her house, I silently cry.

"Don't be a wuss kid. You'll be fine." Beck says.

I scuff my feet on the pavement. "Okay, no offense but your girlfriend is freaky!"

Beck scoffs. "And no offense but your girlfriend is crazy."

I don't know why, but I burned up and snapped. I got this new strength inside of me.

One minute I'm being pushed towards Jade's house, the next Beck is on the ground. Both Beck and I are surprised at what just happened. I shake my head and offer my hand to help him up.

He takes it and dusts himself off.

"I'm sorry man, it's just..." I stumble for words. Does Cat have that much of an effect on me? I just roughly pushed one of my best guy friends to the ground.

Beck punches my shoulder, hard. "Now were even." He chuckles.

I fake smile as he walks past me. Gently rubbing my poor shoulder. I stayed a few paces back as Beck knocks on the door.

Immediately Jade tackles him into a hug, then kiss.

I awkwardly stand there, rubbing my shoulder. How could I have done that? I mean, Beck's stronger than me. Oh Heck, everyone's stronger than me. Just calling Cat crazy really ticked me off.

At least it wasn't Jade...

"Be nice to him babe. Remember your people skills." I hear Beck whisper to her.

"He's not people..He's Shapiro." Jade scoffs. I look up to see them making out. I clear my throat loud enough to pull them apart. As Beck gave his girlfriend one more peck on the lips, he muttered "Don't let him near any of your clothes."

My eyes widened. "You know I heard that.." I say.

"Just protecting my freaky girlfriend." He winks, patting my back and walking towards his car. Protecting her from what? Me? Please,I couldn't even try to make an attempt if I wanted to.

Jade's already walked back into her house, leaving the front door wide open so I could get in.

Jade's house is actually pretty cool. I walked into her living room to find beige colored walls, black comfy furniture, a big wide brown shaggy rug, and a HD TV.

There was a huge portrait of two people. One was Jade, who was wearing a dark purple tank top and black skirt. She seemed to have a smirk on her face. She hand one hand on the shoulder of who I'm assuming is Jade's dad. Who has raven black combed hair to the side, a little mustache, and bright blue eyes. He was wearing a black Italian suit, which I'm guessing is made by the finest designers.

Looks like a man of power to me.

I turned back to Jade who was also staring at the portrait. "Where's the rest of the family?" I ask her.

Her eyes looked to mine. And I swear, I thought I saw a sad expression on her face. But importantly, tears.

"My family business is none of your concern. Only mine." She answers darkly. I raise my hands up defensively. Maybe I shouldn't have asked. Jade rolled her eyes and grunted.

"Let's just get to know each other."

I nod my head, and sit next to her on the couch. I made sure to sit on the other end so she doesn't do anything...

"So um, what do you wanna know about me?" I ask, after a long moment of awkward silence. Jade shrugs, her eyes still fixed on the portrait. "Well, I know that your a perverted peeping Tom who likes to snoop into people's business."

I roll my eyes. "I'm sorry about that. I just thought it'd be interesting to know why your mother isn't in that." I gesture to the portrait. Next thing you know, Jade bolts out of the room. And I think I heard a quiet sob.

I've never seen Jade cry. Or at least I think she's crying now. It's kinda weird. She seems like a person with no feelings whatsoever. I look back at the portrait. I've seen Jade's mother before, we all have. She's a nice lady. Just last week, she had started a book club. And-

Grrr

I jumped in my seat as a black Rottweiler launches itself onto me. It starts barking in my face, slobber landing on my clothes. All I could do was wriggle and scream at the top of my lungs. The dog started to tear at my shirt, making it's way down to my shoes.

"JADE! JAAAAADE!" I yell, trying to shake the massive canine off of me. "JAAAAAAAADE!" That's when I thought I was going to die. I knew things weren't going to end well at this house.

I can't see much anymore as the dog's cracked one of the lenses of my glasses. The Rottweiler was now biting at my socks, I cried out loud as I saw my eaten shoes lying on the floor.

Then Jade enters.

"Wiley!" She yells. "Wiley!" She begins to prise the dog off me. Man is she strong. She was now at the corner, cradling the dog, and kissing his jaw. Yuck.

After the dog stops it's barking, Jade gives me a cold hard stare. "What did you do to him?"

I raise my voice, answering angrily. "What could I have possibly done?! It started attacking me for no reason!"

"Get. Out." Her voice quaked a little, and she was giving me a frosty death glare. Which was really frightening.

"Much obliged." I mutter as I scoop up my sneakers in my arms and bolt out of the room, out of the house, and away from Jade West.

My face stung, my feet throbbed, and my back was aching. But I kept on running. Every once in awhile, I'd look behind me to make sure Jade has'nt sent the dog to chase after me.

I can only see with one eye, and I'm pretty sure I almost got a by a car.

Finally, I make it to my house. I vigoriously tried to put in the house key, but my hands were shaking. As I tripped on my way up the stairs, Megan came out of her room.

"What the hell happened to you?" She laughs, gently kicking my sides with her foot.

I glare at her, and walk to my room, making sure to slap the door right on her face. I threw myself on the bed facedown and screamed into my pillow.

"Whoa, did you get by birds again Rob?" Rex laughs.

I gently prod the scratches on my face. "I'm never going to Jade West's house ever again! I got attacked."

Rex chuckles. "Well we all saw that coming."

My face hurt too much to even glare at him, so I just ignored him, and started to look for my first aid kit my Mammaw had given me.

After a whole day of begging other people in my class to switch partners with me and being rejected, I decide to head over to Tori's house.

"Oh, hey Robbie?"

I nervously wave at her, and she steps aside to let me in. I walk to the red couch and sit down. Tori raises an eyebrow at me. "What's up?"

"Please, please, PLEASE let me switch partners with you!" I blurt out.

Tori stares at me, "What happened to your face?"

"Jade's dog attacked me."

"So you want me to be attacked by a dog?"

"Oh please Tori!" I plead.

"I'm sorry Robbie, but you know Jade and I can't stand each other. How come you didn't try Beck and Cat?"

I look down at my feet. "I'm sort of avoiding them right now."

She sits down next to me, intrigued. "Why?"

"Because, what happened at Jade's house was...weird. And I think I may have upset her." Tori giggles. "How could you have upset Jade West?"

"I saw this portrait. And it was only Jade and her dad. I asked where her mother was and she-"

"Robbie, it's best that you don't ask Jade about that." Tori cuts in softly.

"Your telling me now?!" I yell, pointing at my stitches.

"Look, that's only between Jade and her family. And Beck."

"But, we've got to learn things about our partners. That's the assignment."

"Well, don't learn anything about that particular subject."

"What's going on? Has something happened to Jade?"

Tori's eyes widen. "Jade's mother...It's none of your business, it's none of anyone's business."

"Well then how do you know?"

"Come on Robbie.."

I sigh, rubbing my eyes. "Okay whatever, anyway, I'm afraid Jade may have told Beck what happened..and I think he may want to talk to me...And I don't want Cat to pester me with questions about what happened to me. You know how curious and concerned she gets."

Tori nods. "But you'll have to deal with them at school tommorow."

"Not if I ditch school." I mutter to myself.

Tori hears this and rolls her eyes.

"Ugh, why can't I switch with you?" I ask, getting back to the matter at hand.

"Because, Andre and I know practically everything about eachother. We've got an A plus coming our way." She grins. Well, I'm screwed.

I get up and leave, deciding on what to do. So something's happened to Jade's mother. And it's a real touchy subject...

I arrive at school twelve minutes late, hoping everyone's already got to class. I head over to the Asphalt Cafe to have a little breakfast.

Grabbing a coffee and a donut, I made my way over to our usual table, where I found Cat nibbling on a small piece of fruitcake, with a can of Wahoo Punch in her other hand.

She was concentrated on her cake, so I slowly turned around and searched for a table where she wouldn't notice me.

"Oh hey Robbie!"

Damn!

I slightly turned, so she could only see a little side of my face. "Uh, hey Kitty."

"Why are you standing like that? Come sit with me."

Oh what do I do?! Uh,...Ooh! I quickly set my backpack on the table in front me, so she wouldn't see my face.

"Robbie...?" She whispers.

"Yes?"

"Why are you hiding?" Her voice still in a whisper.

"Uh, ...I just like to sit this way." I say in a rush. She tries to get up, to see me over, but I clutch the backpack to my face.

"Robbie, do you not want to see me?"

"No Cat, it's just...I gotta go!" I get up and run away, bumping, and tripping into a few things. Think I ran into the hallway now, I'll just eat on the stairs.

Then I crash into someone.

"Oh, I'm sorry." I remove the backpack from my face to find Beck and Jade standing across from me.

Oh Damn.