Things are not what they seem

Chapter VI

Monday comes around in a rush.

School was normal but there was a sensation of something going amiss.

Jade West wasn't in the school today.

That was the reason that today the school seemed so peaceful… Tori was nervous, she hadn't seen Jade in any of the classes that they shared. She didn´t want to have to face Sikowitz and tell him that she didn't have the homework because her partner decided to not show that day... Tori face palmed, why didn't she make a copy of the writing?

Tori and her bad luck…

Cat was worried about her best friend, Jade wasn't a person of missing school at least without telling her. Something bad happened. She had a feeling which only rises up her worry.

It was nearly lunchtime and still no signs of Jade West in the school. Cat had tried to text her many times but there was no reply. She called but it went straight to the voicemail.

-/-

Jade West parked her car on the parking lot of Hollywood Arts. There was left 10 minutes of lunch. Jade West was really pissed off.

She went inside of the school, straight to the janitor's closet, the trashcans of the janitor will suffer the attack of her scissors.

So there she was, cutting the third trashcan in that place, with a very sharp scissor, letting her frustration out, thinking about her family and she imagined that the trashcan was her father and she smirked imagining the screams that he would give and the blood running down from his body to the ground.

Suddenly the door opened and Jade looked up to see who disturbed her, already looking with one glare of pure hatred.

In the frame of the door stood her little redhead friend, who slowly closed the door behind herself. Jade internally groaned, she knows that now Cat will give her a preaching of not appearing in school and making her worried sick.

Cat slowly went down and sat on the ground next to Jade who was surrounded by black plastic pieces of trashcans, she put her arm around her best friend and they stayed like that in silence for a while.

"Here you are" Cat said softly and calm giving a soft squeeze to Jade's shoulder.

"Hey" Cat gently wiped away the tears that were falling from Jade, "Don't cry… I'm here" Cat said in a low voice, like a whisper as she tighter her squeeze in Jade's shoulder to show her that she was there.

Jade, she didn't realize that she was crying until her best friend said that and it only made it worse. Her crying became more intense, she wanted to stop, trying hard but it only made her to chock in a sob as her tears were falling freely through her cheeks. She hated it.

She hated how easily her walls fall and she becomes weak when Cat is around. She hated how her efforts to keep on with her 'bad girl' attitude went down and expose her broken heart so freely to her best friend. She didn't like to show how her heart had another shattered piece falling, a new scratch, and another new scar to the collection.

She hated being weak. It only shows how broken she is, and it only brings pain and she hated it.

But she couldn't avoid being what she hated the most around Cat, her best friend. She had the ability to put her walls down in seconds and see the little broken and scared girl inside. She can throw away her façade of a 'bad girl' and see her real self.

She hated the control that Cat has over her and she couldn't do anything to change that.

-/-

Sikowitz class arrived and Tori were still very nervous, Jade West still didn't appear. Sikowitz made his appearance through the window, his typical craziness.

He was drinking his coconut like always when he asked "Where's Jade?" Nobody answered, everybody was asking about the Goth girl not coming to the school.

"And where's Cat?"

And with that, the gossiping went on, everybody was making theories about the both girls going M.I.A, some theories were crazy but made sense, like "Jade kidnapped Cat because she shaved her eyebrows again" and stuff like that. Tori, facepalmed, she hadn't notice the disappearance of the petite redhead. "She maybe is lost in the hallways looking in the SkyStore through the app in her phone and lost track of time" Tori thought, that crazy lovely Cat… She unconsciously smiled.

Suddenly the door swung open to reveal one of both girls. The crazy lovely redhead, who was giggling.

"Hi guys" She said in a singing voice and giggled. She went bouncing a little to her seat.

Sikowitz ignored her, calling Beck, Robbie, Andre to the stage.

Settled an improvised situation, in which Robbie is a nerd guy who was going to a bar because he wanted to prove that he could be cool too... In that bar, were two good looking guys. The bad guy (André) was the first one to notice the shy nerd guy, who was looking the place and the bad boy decided to humiliate him. Things escalated quickly and it turned into a fight, till the partner of the bad guy interrupted and said it was enough.

The scene went well, Robbie's comments made the classroom to laugh... In this task that Sikowitz made, he wanted the guys to correctly express the emotions to make the scene real like a spontaneity thing that would happen in real life.

The guys did it well, however Sikowitz said that it leaked of believability and then went with random things that Tori didn't understand and chose to ignore him. He could be the best teacher of the school but his craziness sometimes turns to be too much to deal with and she wasn't in the mood to try and make sense of what her teacher was saying.

Suddenly the door busted open by a really pissed off raven-haired girl. Who as she walked to the teacher, was making a loud sound by her combat boots when they hit the ground.

"Ah, Jade… Thanks for coming by and grace us with your sweet and feminine attitude" Sikowitz said ignoring the death glared that Jade was giving.

"Whatever, here you have your script writing" Jade said giving the script and then she walked out of class.

As she closed the door, the bell ringed, meaning the end of school for the day. Everybody had already gave their homework to Sikowitz, Jade was the last. Tori still felt nervous, she didn't know what the end of their story was.

Things between Tori and Jade went pretty awkward since the day that they were stuck together in her house. Tori had beaten up herself for making things more complicated than they already were.

Jade was out already of her house when Tori woke up, she didn't mind about it. Jade didn't appear at her house at 7 pm like she did all week, Tori found that weird but shrugged it off.

The next day Jade didn't appear her house again, and Tori decided to text her, telling her that they should finish their work. She didn't receive a reply, till she had send around 4 or 5 messages and the only answer was 'I'll do it. Stop bothering, Vega'.

Tori had let the things that are going on in her life take the best of her and she let take out some of her frustration and stress out on Jade when she only asked a question that she would have to expect when someone comes to your home all week and only found you to be here.

-/-

Jade was gathering her things from her locker, she was really pissed off and she closed her locker with too much force, making a loud sound.

Everybody knows that when Jade West was pissed off the best thing to do is give her space and let her be alone because when Jade West is pissed off is really dangerous. Even Beck doesn't get close to her.

But Tori Vega doesn't know when she should be in her own things and don't try to socialize with Jade, is she so blinded by her own cheerful and positive attitude that she doesn't see the signs that she should stay out of Jade, the further away, the better.

"Hey Jade" Tori said with such cheerful tone that only made Jade to get more angry.

"What do you want, Vega?" Jade said harsh, every word dripping venom. It was clearly that Tori should step away and go but she didn't realize that or she ignored it.

"I only wanted to know if you have a copy of the work and you could give me it, I want to see how you ended the story"

Jade turned around to be face to face with the annoying half-Latin girl, leaning on her locker.

"No." she said indifferent

"No?"

"No." she said harsh, losing the little patience she had, she didn't needed this conversation with the half-Latin girl.

"Well, at least do you can send it to me via email?"

And with that, Jade exploded in rage "I said no, Vega… You know? You are a bad writer, your story was bad, a piece of trash. And you only gave a few ideas. You don't deserve the grade, I do. I did the whole work. I had the idea, I wrote it, I edited it and I gave it to Sikowitz. You did nothing. You suck; you only have your name written in there. So stop annoying me with this, be happy that you will have a good grade because of me, because I'm a very good writer. Not like you, a deficient writer that have tons of errors and creates stories that are pieces of trash that makes me want to throw up". She said harsh, her eyes were in fire.

And after that she had hurt her classmate, she left the school, leaving behind a hurt brunette, who stood there looking as the raven-haired girl was going out. She stood there, feeling as her eyes were clouding by unshed tears, with her hands empty.

-/-

She was running, as faster as she can, her muscles of her legs were burning but she didn't care, she won't stop, she wanted to get the further away of her house, she was lost in the blasting music of her earphones, trying to forget the war that was going in her house.

Tori hated that her parents were like this… Everything was shattering around, their fights were driving her mad, their relationship was falling more as every minute pass… What they were doing is wrong, they are out of their sight; one burying himself in work so he doesn't have to come home, the other was going out on trips… And when they were home, they are fighting over everything; the fight never stops as they move around the house, following each other, trying to get the last word in.


I ran away today, ran from the noise, ran away
don't wanna go back to that place, but don't have
no choice, no way


Trina never is around, she is always out… Tori doesn't blame her sister for never being home, she would do the same. She wishes that she could have her driving license, getting out of the house is one thing that she desired now.

What she hated the most about the situation is that she feels like she is losing her whole family, her parents are never at home, as they hated seeing each other, and when they were home, they doesn't take a moment to see how they daughters are, they are only there to get what they need and if they see each other, the fight start and never ends. Her sister is never at home, she uses the situation as a possibility of hanging out with her friends… Tori imagined Trina going to a lot of parties and getting drunk… She shook her head, thinking about that won't do anything good.


Not every family is built to last


-/-

And here she was, in a little park near her house, in the night, sitting in one of the swing, swinging back and forth slowly, as she was drinking her water that she bought from a little market near the place, her foot dragging along back and forth in the dirt floor. Preparing mentally to go back to the war zone that once was a happy home where she felt safe.

Across the park, there was a coffee bar; a raven-haired girl landed her eyes on the brunette, through some trees, seeing her looking at the ground. The sight was sad, the once cheerful, carefree girl looked so sad, depressed. It was like she was replaced with other person.

She frowned, she had been noticing the changes in the girl's personality but that wasn't her business. Shrugging it off, she went back to drink her coffee.


She always tries to fix what's wrong when someone is down…. But what about herself? Who is there for her?