Fake It
Jade's a great actress, one of the best Hollywood Arts has ever seen. She acts okay, and everyone believes her, everyone that is, except for Tori. After her second break up Jade runs back to her old habits and her bad friends with bad reputations and worse habits. Jade's spiraling down a dark path with only her new found friendship with Tori to keep her a float, will Jade fall down, or will new love pull her free?
Rated M
I do not own the characters mentioned, the places mentioned, or anything else. If I did jori would be canon and it wouldn't be on Nick anymore.
I apologize for a lot of things in this chapter:
1) it's lateness, I've been sick and I hated how I wrote the original version of this so I had to rewrite it and I couldn't write. I also had a huge art project and my driving test to take, which made me super nervous so I practiced a lot.
2) The spelling errors in this. I'm super tired but I wanted to post this and I wrote most of it tonight.
3) If the next chapter is really late.
4) How much of a filler chapter this seemed to be, it pretty much was.
And in further news, the fun substitute part happened in my art class yesterday(not exactly because the girl it happened to wasn't Jade and I was simply a snickering bystander) but I thought it was funny and I wanted to write it. Yep. That's it.
I hope this isn't too horrible, sorry it's short. I hope the next chapter wont take so long. Thanks for reading!
"I don't understand you, Jade." Ryder slurs, tossing an arm across my shoulder, he's got a beer in one hand and a cigarette hanging from his lips, "you hate Tori, you like Tori, you don't want anything to do with Tori, you want to call Tori. Make up your mine."
"Bite me, Daniels." I snarl, he actually leans over and bites my neck where it meets my shoulder. It makes my vision dot and I almost drop the beer in my hand, not expecting the sudden bite. He lightly presses his lips to the spot he bit before we continue wandering through his back yard.
"What the hell does it matter, Ryder? Why do you care how I'm acting? You're my fuck buddy, my problems aren't yours." I snarl, my fist tightening around the brown bottles neck. He sighs, his arm pulling tighter across my shoulders so I sink into his side. I put the bottle to my lips and tip it back the disgusting liquid rolling through my mouth and down my throat forcing me to grimace, "how the fuck did you con me into drinking this shit?"
"Who knows." He grins, takes a drag from his cigarette and then tosses it to the ground, putting it out with his boot before we walk back inside where there are about 10 kids sitting on the couch pasting a blunt around. I avoid them all and we head into the kitchen where I hop on the counter as Ryder gets me a red plastic cup filled with drinks only he knows. I knock it back quickly, "you wanna talk about her some more?"
"No." he shrugs and leans on the island across from me, looking up at me while I stare into the depths of the red cup, "its just, besides you, nobody has really tried to be my friend. Especially not since the breakup. And I don't even know what drew Beck to me, but in the three years we were together we never talked about anything that mattered. And with Tori, she just forced herself on me. Made me talk to her, and I don't know. I guess she just cared."
"Then why don't you just talk to her." Ryder said, like it was the simplest thing in the world.
"I can't and you know that."
"No, I know you think you can't but even in your drunkest state you refuse to tell me so I'm going to guess its something bad." Ryder took a sip from his cup, "but have you stopped to think, maybe she needs you?"
"I'll make everything worse."
"She's all alone."
"She has the rest of them." I counter.
"You're the only one who knows. You're the one she ran to. You're the one she needed."
"Fuck you." I hiss, he shrugs and pushes himself away from the counter, holding out his hand to me. I take it and we leave the kitchen, Ryder holding three bottles of something that might put me in the hospital, and we join the ten in the living room for a fun game of beer pong black out.
At six thirty the next morning Vivian started a rousing round of slam-every-door-in-the-house-open-and-blast-the-radio to wake us up, sending any chance of me being in a good mood slipping down the drains as I dragged myself out of the bed and putting my jacket on and fixing my shirt.
Ryder was watching me with half mast eyelids while I fixed my hair in his mirror and wiped the smudged makeup from under my eyes, "bye." He waved before curling up around his pillow. I closed the door silently behind me and flicked off lights in the hallway as I went into the kitchen where Vivian had the coffee pot brewing some piping hot coffee.
She dumped a generous amount in an over sized coffee mug with strange big headed dogs on it and pushed it toward me with a bottle of creamer which I dumped into it until it turned a milky color, "thanks." I said before walking out to my car, fishing my keys from my jacket pocket.
I drank the whole cup before I made it half way to school and stopped to get a second cup before I made it to class, and then I let again after 3rd to get more coffee and spent fourth in my car drinking it before heading to Sikowitz's class, yet I was still ready for a nap.
"Alright children!" he yelled, walking into the room and casting his bag aside as he made it to the top of the stage, "we're starting our new assignment today, I'd like to congratulate you on the successful play last night, and give you a break, but sadly I don't feel like it. You will get into pairs-which you will draw from a hat, and each of you will get a movie and a song to combine into a new script."
He rambled on about whose names were being left out of the hat-those that were drawing the names from the hat- and then about the requirements for the script. The best in the class will be put up into a pile and one would be selected to be the new play-clearly he was too lazy to come up with his own anymore, "this will be a shared grade with your script writing class." Yippy, "and if you refused to do it or don't work on it, you will get an F for both. No partner switches or movie switches, school appropriate. Yada, yada blah, blah. This will be due by the end of the week, full movie length!"
"Jade pick." He said, since I was sitting closest, "keep the name to yourself."
I grabbed a random paper from the hat and kept it in my hand without reading it, my eyes half closed, "now Tori, you pick the movie and afterwards you can find your partner and discuss what you'll do." Everyone picked new slips, I heard people complaining about the ones they got stuck with, the people, the songs or the movie, it didn't matter. People like complaining, even I did, but they were all getting on my nerves.
"I'm going to assume since everyone is paired up, and since you haven't read your paper yet, that we're paired up." Tori's voice grumbled from in front of me. I uncrossed my arms and opened the slip; Tori Vega was scrawled across it in Sikowitz's horrible handwriting.
"Yep. What do we get?" she hands me the slip as she drops into the seat next to me. Mr&Mrs. Smith and Anyway You Want It by Journey. I fished my notebook out of my bag and we started to jot down idea, I'd write one first and then she'd write another one or add something to mine. We didn't really say anything to each other.
When the bell rang to dismiss us we went our separate ways, her to Andre and Cat and me out to the asphalt café to get something from the Grub Truck before I plunked myself down at a table by myself, my back to the usual table occupied by my friends. I picked at my burger with disinterest, sipping at the soda I'd bought and staring at the black iron fence that circled the eating area.
I was staring down at my burger when the table shook and I picked my head up to find Beck and Jen sitting across from me. Beck flashed me a smile and then started to eat, Jen gave me a similar smile before picking up her burger and scribbling in her notebook while she ate.
"What are you two doing?" I hissed through gritted teeth.
"Sitting with you?" Beck said, like it was the most obvious thing in the world, and then went back to his burger. I sighed, finding myself lacking the energy to argue with them. Instead I just ate my burger in silence as well. That is, until Vega, Andre and Cat plunked themselves down around the table.
I glared at each of them in turn, including Cat, but if she even noticed she didn't care. Andre just ignored it and played his keyboard, Vega's eyes watching his fingers closely, "I still keep getting nagged to find an instrument, but I just can't get any of them down. None of you guys play an instrument, do you?"
She glances around the table, "I play the drums." Beck tells her, pausing in his eating of the sandwich.
Jen picks her head up with a slight smile on her lips as she does, "I play the harmonica." She, too, turns away. Andre just shakes his head as Cat squeaks where she's sitting, grinning from ear-to-ear.
"Cat, tell her what instrument you play." I demand in a light voice, she squeaks some more, grinning and I'm not really sure what about the stupid instrument makes her so happy.
"I play the oboe!" she says with delight, almost bursting my ear drums when she yells it. Almost everyone winces. I shake my head and look back down at my food, picking at the burger with disinterest.
"What about you Jade?" she asks.
"Piano." I mumble.
"Really?"
"Does it shock you?" I ask her, she nods and I roll my eyes ignoring her and looking over Beck's head so maybe she'll leave me alone. Unfortunately luck isn't on my side today and she leans on the table, too interested for my liking.
"Play something." Beck comments, I swing my eyes to his in a glare and he grins, "I could never get you to play for me."
"You're not getting me to, today, either." I tell him. Beside him Cat looks at me with pleading eyes, which our mirrored by Vega, Andre, Beck and even Jen. I sit up abruptly, lean over Vega and hastily play the Harry Potter theme song on Andre's keyboard before slumping back into my seat, "happy now?"
"That was the Harry Potter theme song!" Cat giggles, "I didn't know you liked Harry Potter, Jade!"
"My brother does so I learned it for him." I snap. It's not really a lie, he does like Harry Potter, but I'd learned it when I was little. My parents forced me into piano classes, because apparently that was an acceptable art. And I loved every minute of it. A prodigy my teacher liked to call me, and my only classmate. Andre.
"Come on Jade, quit being such a sour puss." Andre grinned at me, "you love-."
"Shut it, Harris." I warn him, he sighs at me and starts playing a song I didn't recognize. It sounds lovely and I find the notes weaving their way through my mind, my fingers itched to play the song, too and I wanted to hit Andre in the head for purposely doing this to me, if the grin on his face said anything for it. After lunch I stomped into my chemistry class and sat in my seat, thankfully in the way back, with my head down on the table. I was completely exhausted and all I really wanted to do was take a long nap.
A textbook thudded on the table beside me and I picked my head up in time to see Vega walking to her seat at the large table next to mine. I glared at her through the strands of hair covering my face before dropping my head back onto my folded up arms, my head was still throbbing, my eyes itched to stay closed, but once more a book was slammed on the desk and I was forced to sit up. Tori was now sitting beside me, one leg crossed over the other, elbow propped on the desk, her fingers weaved through her hair as she read her book, not looking at me.
I sat up enough to rest my head in my hand and stare at her, my eyes following the curly waves of her long hair down to the table where they pooled around her elbow where her purple sleeves were bunched up from being too warm outside. Her glasses were perched on her nose and her eyes took in the words of her book slowly, running across each line as if she were drinking the words with her eyes. They widened when she got to a good part, her mouth falling open in a soft gasp. I chuckled and she turned to look at me as the classroom door was slammed open.
She about fell from her desk and my arm shot out to grasp her arm and keep her on the stool, slowly my head turned to where she was staring. A grunch-y looking sub stood in the door way. She was a squat woman with curly white hair a scowl on her face, which from the lines on her face, I could tell was permanent. She walked up to the desk, picked up the attendance sheet and barked our names.
"I count one too many, which of you isn't supposed to be here."
"I'm not on the attendance sheet-." Tori started to say.
"Then get out." She demanded. Vega's eyes popped open wide and her jaw went slack.
"She's the TA. She's supposed to be in here." I told the woman as polite as I could manage.
"Did I ask you?"
"No. Because you didn't let her finish. So I'm telling you she's the teachers assistant and she's supposed to be in here." I growled, everyone was watching either me or her. She had her beady blue eyes narrowed at me and her mouth pulled into a tight smile. My own mouth curled into a huge grin and I tilted my head sideways at her.
"You're not cute." She snapped.
"Really?" I asked, a few people laughed, but she didn't find me funny.
"Be quiet."
"You be quiet!" I snapped.
"Get out!" she bellowed, nostrils flaring. I grinned.
"Gladly!" I stated calmly, hopping up from my stool and grabbing my bag, "fucking bitch." I grunted as I stormed past her, yanking the door open with the same ferocity as she had. It slammed against the wall beside it as I passed through and slammed shut behind me.
Not even two minutes later the door quietly opened and Tori stepped out, "hey Vega, come on." I grabbed her wrist and tugged her down the hallways and into the Black Box Theater, which was thankfully empty. I went up the steps to the stage and plopped down just beyond the curtain so we couldn't be seen from the door.
"You shouldn't have done that." she tells me when she settles in a chair beside me. I shrug, letting my bag fall to the ground.
"I do a lot of things I shouldn't, but she was being a complete asshole and I'm hungover." I grab my notebook out of my bag and flip it open to the page we'd been scribbling ideas on. I read over them and adjust a few before passing the notebook to her. She silently accepts the book and reads my changes over before scribbling her own idea down.
"So, how do you want to work on this outside of school, because you know Sikowitz won't let us do this during class all week and we can't get kicked out of Science everyday." I grin up at her and she smiles.
"Well my dad usually gets home early and insists on driving me everywhere, so I don't know…" she pushes her fingers through her hair with a groan, "maybe if-. I don't know." While she thought this over I opened up my music player and put on Aerosmith radio, I skipped the first song and Queen came streaming through the speakers.
Tori shook her head when she heard, "Are you gunna take me home tonight? Ah down beside that red firelight." We sang together, "are you gunna let it all hang out tonight? Fat bottom girls you make the rockin' world go round!"
I smiled and shook my head, snatching the notebook back and glancing down at our compiled list of ideas, "maybe I can work on it one night, you can work on it the next and then we'll meet before school and during lunch to work on it."
"Are you sure?" she asked biting her lip.
"It's fine Vega, I'll take it tonight and then work on some of it and show you tomorrow, get here at six thirty and we can work on it together before school starts." I tell her, "for now, we need to narrow down a single idea."
I scratch out the ideas and frown, lying on my stomach while I write, Vega's reading something intently so I scribble down the lyrics in the margin.
"Maybe two assassins that meet on a job to kill the same person and keep running into each other, falling for each other during secret meetings until they're fall too far and their bosses find out and order them to kill each other or go on the run." Tori offers up.
"That's not to far off from the original plot, but it's a good start." I scribble the idea down.
"He falls in love with her and she's his target but he doesn't know he's her target?" I scribble that down too, chewing on my lip deep in thought, "and maybe as a twist in the end, she picks her job over him?"
"Good twist." I nod, scribbling that down, "I think we can work with that, obviously thicken it up. Why's he her target, why is she his etcetera, etcetera, blah, blah, blah." Tori shakes her head at me chuckling softly as she leans over me to read the paper, her hair brushes over the back of my neck and falls over my head, blending with it as she reads the paper.
"She works for the CIA he's MI6."
"She's MI6 he's CIA." Tori nods, her hair bobbing around my head, "and MI6 thinks he screwed up their mission-which he did but he didn't know, and the CIA think she's a terrorist or something."
"That would work, like how in Salt she was CIA turned out to be a Russian spy and she fake killed the Russian president or whatever?" Tori leans over and snatches the pen from me, writing down the idea with an arrow pointing from 'Jane Smith'. I smirk and snatch the pencil back from her.
We spend the rest of the period working and then I skip before 7th period, simply because I'm too tired to sit in a dark room and watch Romeo and Juliet. When I get home I head straight to my bed and pass out not even ten seconds after my head hits the pillow.