Chapter 10. Boiling Point

Disclaimer: I do not own Victorious.

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The Asphalt Cafe - December 16th, Senior Year

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Tori stood there stunned.

She wanted to cry.

She wanted to be away. It didn't matter where. Just anywhere that wasn't here, right now.

But she was still there, standing there in the Asphalt Café, unable to do anything more than feel paralyzed as Chinese food fell from her hair, landing in a small puddle of soy sauce and vegetables that began to build where her feet stood. All around her, people's attention was fixated on her, but she couldn't register a single pair of eyes, other than the ones of utter shock on Jade's face. She couldn't believe it, and Tori didn't want to either.

"What's wrong little Tori?" That voice. In spite of it being an outdoor, public cafeteria, in spite of the people who were watching, gasping, making snide little remarks as they all eagerly took out their phones and began to record what was going on, that was the only voice that Tori seemed to be able to hear. The voice of the kid whose situation mirrored Tori's. The kid whose brother was arrested, just like how Trina was about to be. "What's the matter? Cat got your tongue?"

"Haha, nah. Asian people don't eat cat. They eat dog!" A different voice, one that Tori never heard before spoke. Disrespect. Disrespect, racism, and ugliness just rolled with every word that whomever this person was spoke. She didn't bother moving, not even turning her head to affirm her suspicion that the person was just some guy who was with their asshole friend.

All she could do was fight every urge in her body to cry, every feeling and desire to run away from there as quickly as possible.

But Tori couldn't. As much as she wanted to, as much as it made sense and she would be justified in, she couldn't. She could only further look into those green eyes of Jade, looking for some sort of answer. Looking for a reason why this was happening to her.

Jade couldn't understand either. She couldn't fathom what Tori had done to deserve this. She understood that it was because of Trina, that wasn't any shocker by any stretch. But what would they get out of humiliating and berating Tori? As she finally managed to tear her eyes away from Tori, seeing the boys who had actually done this, it made her blood boil.

Jesse Endelson. Senior. Basketball player for Hollywood Arts. Not exactly talented, or even any good at singing, performing, or anything. A quality that made her wonder why he was accepted into the school in the first place, but upon thinking about it, it was even more a parallel to that of Tori and Trina. Jesse wasn't talented, and neither was Trina. Tori was talented and so was Jesse's twin brother, Josh, who was considered to be one of the best students at Hollywood Arts alongside Tori.

There would even be some who would say he was the male version of herself, but Jade knew better to believe that. One might consider them both to be the smart "tough" student in Hollywood Arts, but Jade was smart enough to 1) not get caught with drugs while on school grounds, and 2) never to trust Trina Vega with anything, let alone buy drugs from her. Really, the fact that it was Josh Endelson who got caught buying drugs from Trina, it was as much embarrassing as it was entertaining, that smart people could be so damn stupid.

But for his own faults, Josh had no business having his brother get involved, let alone go after Tori. She hadn't done a single thing to them. Hell, before today, Jade couldn't remember a time where the Latina had even spoken so much as a word to either of the Endelson twins. "Fuck off Jesse!" She practically roared in anger at the student, to which he and his two friends averted their attention off of Tori and onto her. Similarly, the rest of Jade and Tori's friends had gotten up and where amassing near them as well, creating their own large posse.

"Excuse me?" Jesse spoke, the way he spoke like he was hazing a new freshman, hoping to intimidate them. Jade didn't budge, hardly registering anything other than more contempt towards the man.

"You fucking heard me! Just because your brother is stupid enough to get his ass arrested, doesn't give you any right to do this to Tori!" Her words were like venom and as she spoke of Josh's arrest, everyone who was watching couldn't help but hold their breath in suspense, panicking that things were dangerously close to blows.

In fact, even some of the closest tables to what was going on, along with everyone who had been waiting on line for food, had backed away now, leaving a rather open area. In fact, if someone were to just be walking by and had no context of what was going on, even they would be convinced that there was going to be a fight of some sort. That was certainly a concern that was felt, indicated as much by Beck trying to gently pull at Jade's elbow, trying to gently nudge his way in front of her while equally trying to have stand safety behind him. Andre was trying to help Tori in some way or another, guiding her in the safety behind Robbie and Cat, both of whom tried to console her to no real effect.

Jesse's face was beat red, unbelievably angry at Jade's remarks. So much so that he could practically feel the nails of his clenched fist begin to cut into the palm of his hand. It seemed that in that moment, that he had forgotten entirely about Tori, instead focusing solely on Jade. "I don't give a damn if you's a girl or not, you say another about my bro and I promise I will drop yo ass!" At hearing that, Beck pushed himself forward right before the athlete, both of their faces only about a foot away from one another.

Jesse had a dumb smirk on his face, thinking that he had done something clever, while Beck now was looking angry, angrier than what most people in Hollywood Arts had known him to be. Even Andre, whom he considered his best friend, was surprised by how Beck was reacting to Jesse's tone. That surprise wasn't reciprocated in Jesse, "What's wrong pretty boy? Did I offend your girlfriend there?"

"I'm only going to say this once. Back. The. Fuck. Up." Each word was spoken eloquently. Each word spoken with the same emphasis.

But Jesse did not seem to waiver. Not in the slightest.

Rather, he chuckled slightly.

His two friends did as well, but it was obvious by how timidly they spoke that it was more out of peer pressure, not out of confidence. There wasn't that great of a difference between Beck and Jesse in terms of their physique and size. Jesse might have been a bit taller and stronger, but his reputation as a bully was more like a dog that was all bark and no bite. Beck had gotten himself into a few fights over the last few years, but he had always walked out of them as the victor.

"You think you're tough? How 'bout you back up and let the freak stand up to a real man," he said, his eyes glaring at Jade, hoping that there would be some sort of fear or a bit of concern in her eyes, maybe at the idea of her boyfriend getting involved in a fight, but she only responded with glaring eyes herself. It was going to take a lot more than empty threat from a punk kid like Jesse Endelson to intimidate her. "Oh, girl thinks she's tough? Is that it?"

Jade chuckled as she leaned her head slightly to the side, "I don't have to think I'm tough to know that you're not gonna do shit." She tilted her head back in Beck's direction, "But I know my man will. So why don't you do us all a favor, save yourself the embarrassment and a broken nose. Apologize to Tori!" She almost yelled out her command, the thunder and loudness of it being a contrast to the quieter tone that everyone up to that point had been speaking with.

Jesse cocked his head back to see his friends, eyebrows raising slightly at seeing his friends seeming to have taken a step back. Mouthing something to them in disappointment, he tensed and turned back towards Beck, Jade, and company, the back of his mind hoping that at least that his two friends wouldn't show their doubt any further.

The gloating smirk on Jade's face proved that otherwise. She noticed the steps too, even sooner than Jesse did, and seeing him turn his head back towards them, words could not describe how validating it was to see. Even before Jesse had turned back towards them, Jade gently pulled on Beck's shoulder, reigning him back in. There's nothing gained from further posturing to an idiot.

And unfortunately, this idiot didn't process what Jade said earlier. "I ain't apologizing to that bitch. Hell, she ought to be fucking apologizing to me!" He took a step towards Andre and Cat, both of whom were standing between him and Tori.

This brought Jade to a boiling point, causing her to reach into her pocket, pulling out a short blade, looking like she had broken a pair of scissors in half and then kept one of them in her pocket. "Don't you take another step!" She barked out as she held them out like a knife.

This caused Jesse to laugh out loud, "What? You expect me to be afraid of a broken pair of scissors!? You goth freak," he dismissively said as he extended his hand out with the intent of taking them from Jade.

Jade pulled her hand back, just as the jock closed his hand.

Nobody saw the blood slipping through his fingers, falling to the ground. At least not before Jade held up the custom-made knife she made, the knife which Jesse mistakenly assumed was just a toy or something.

"AH!" Jesse cried out in pain as he opened up his palm, blood stemming from the long cut which seemed to extend the entire width of his hand. His other arm gripped his wrist, unable to believe what Jade just did. "Ah, you fucking… you fucking cunt!"

Andre, who had been focusing on trying to calm Tori down, couldn't help but see Jade's knife and Jesse's hand. He slowly lifted his head as he focused intently on Jade's face, particularly at the smirk she had as she examined the knife. "Jade, how long you've been carrying that?"

Jade shrugged her shoulders, "I don't know. Like a year or something? Why?"

Andre just blinked. "No reason…"

"The hell is going on here!?" The deep voice of Hollywood Art's security guard, Derek echoed through the Asphalt Café, it having a surprisingly dominating effect on everyone there – Jade, Beck, and Jesse included – causing them to freeze in place. He pushed his way through the crowd of people who had encircled the group earlier, followed shortly behind by Lane Anderson and another teacher who worked at Hollywood Arts. As he entered the circle, the first thing that Derek seemed to notice was the knife in Jade's hand, "Put the scissors down…"

Jade rose an eyebrow to Derek and then nonchalantly dropped the knife, causing it to fall to the ground between her boots, over the droplets of blood that had already fallen. "Alright."

Lane moved forward to the center of the crowd, his field of view bouncing between Jesse's bleeding hand, Jade's knife, and Tori who at this point was for the most part rid of the Chinese food that had earlier covered her. Now though, sauce and a select few bits remained, but otherwise her situation was slightly better off, barely. "Jade… Tori… What happened!?" He seemed bewildered, surprised more than anything. The sight of Jesse's hand was far from a welcome sight, but he felt a bit more concerned about Tori's situation than Jesse's; due in part to Jesse's known reputation and the fact that Tori to this point hadn't spoken to him again – which Lane secretly had concerns about himself.

"I'll give ya a guess," Beck callously said, tilting his head towards Jesse, who was having his hand examined by the other teacher. At least, examined to the extent with which a teacher could come into contact with it.

Lane looked over his shoulder towards Jesse, noticing that the athlete turned his head immediately in response, hoping to avert eye contact. "Derek," he called out, keeping a look at Jesse, his eyes also noticing the white food carton which had been discarded earlier. "Take Jesse here to the nurse's, will you?"

"What about her?" He asked, pointing towards Jade, still a bit reluctant to get anywhere close to her, making his task of retrieving the weapon a bit of a challenge.

The guidance counselor looked to Jane for a moment, and then Tori, before turning to the security guard, "I'll take them in my office." Derek nodded and departed with Jesse, similarly keeping a bit of distance away from the student's open wound. Though it didn't look very deep on the surface, the security guard preferred to be more conservative than risk anything. Once he and Jesse were out of earshot, Lane turned towards the entire group, Jade included. "I want all of you to come with me. So I have an accurate idea of what happened."

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