SORRY! I'M BACK Third quarter KILLED me.

I'm at Cat's house. I was going to go to Jade's, but I realized after speaking with Andre, that this wasn't just a skirmish. Jade was genuinely upset, and when she's that sort of upset the last place you'd find her is home. It's about six at night. I knock on the door. Cat answers.

"Is this a bad time?" I ask.

"No" Cat says "My parents to my brother to the doctor again."

"How long has it been?"

"A few months. It's a record!" she says cheerily, but then her smile quickly fades.

"Is Jade here?" I ask even though I know. Cat nods.

"She upstairs in my room. She's really sad. She didn't go to school today" Cat tells me as we walk up the stairs "And she cut up our recycling bin."

"Sorry about that" I say.

"Don't be" Cat says "We were getting a new one anyways."

"Why?"

"My brother cut out the bottom" she explains "So that he could hang it in his room." She sighs as if it was simply an irritating action rather than something irrational.

We're at her bedroom door when Cat opens it. "Jade" she sings softly. "Beck is here."

"No!" Jade replies and I walk into the room. Cat follows me. Jade is sitting on Cat's bed with her scissors and large chunks of blue plastic. We both sit down on either side of Jade.

"I don't need you to come here and save me" she snaps. "I can take care of myself."

"Bu we don't want to save you" Cat says "We just want to be there for you" she puts her hand on Jade's shoulder. I take Jade's hand.

"We just want to do what we can to help" I say. She looks at me with watery blue eyes, but she bites it back.

"I thought- We were something like friends. We weren't friends, but now- I never want to see her again! What did I do? I retaliated later, but that's what happens and then it's over- Like an eye for an eye- But no she makes me prom queen! An eye for an eye and then take another!" She takes in a deep breath "I worked so hard on that play. I got gallons of blood! Fake and real! What do I do about it now?"

"You could still the play. We could-" Cat starts, but Jade doesn't let her finish.

"I told you!" Jade snaps "I don't need anyone to save me."

"I'm sorry" Cat says. Jade takes in a deep breath and squeezes my hand.

"Dammit" she mumbles under her breath.

It's not much later when Cat and I let Jade be alone for a while. Sometimes she just needs it, to digest, to compose, to rest, to fall apart while no one's looking. Just for a second.

"Okay-" Cat says on the phone "Thank you. Bye" she hangs it up as I make a right turn. "Andre said Tori's at home."

"Can you call Tori now?" I ask. Cat nods.

"Tori?" Cat asks into the phone "Hello? Oh. Hi!" My fingers tighten around the steering wheel. I know I have to let Jade fight her own battles, but this isn't a battle. This is the aftermath. "No she wasn't today. She's at my house. Why? Oh…" Cat looks around nervously "See you in a minute!" she shouts as she hangs up. "I told her we'd be there soon."

When we get to Tori's house Tori answers the door. "Come on in guys!" she says happily. "To what" she says waving her hands in an exaggerated manner "Do I owe the pleasure?"

"It's about Jade" I say as I sit down on her couch. Cat sits, and Tori sits down next to her.

"What about? Is she sick?" Tori asks "She wasn't at school today…"

"She's heart sick" Cat says and Tori looks shocked.

"You broke up with her?" Tori gasps.

"No I did not" I answer "But she isn't sick. She's angry and sad."

"About what?" Tori asks. I knew Tori wouldn't have a clue. I sigh.

"About the prom Tori. The prom."

"It was a prome" Tori retorts.

"I don't give a shit what it was called" I say in a harsher manner than I expected, "You made Jade cancel her play that she had been working really hard on!" Tori's a bit taken aback, but she recovers.

"Well everyone wanted a prome!" Tori responds "It's not like Jade's play was-" She stops in her tracks.

"Was what Tori?" I demand "Was what?" She doesn't say anything "Was good? Was important? Was wanted? No please finish your thought." She still doesn't say anything. This isn't what she's used to, she's not used to seeing me angry. I try to quell my anger, but it's only thinly veiled. I need to remind myself why I came here. Not to fight Jade's battle, to explain her pain.

"Jade puts everything into her writing" I say "It's her art. It's her passion, and you demeaned it. You ask all the time why you and Jade can't be friends, but then you do this. It hurt her a lot. You hurt her."

"I was just doing what everyone wanted " Tori replies.

"Can you please stop hiding behind you were doing what everyone wanted? It's an immature way to defend yourself. You could just try to take responsibility."

"Well she tried to destroy it!" Tori explains.

"Yes and then you had her carried away by a creepy baby man" I snap. "Does that make your action any better? The point of the matter is Jade worked hard on her play and you disregarded it." Tori says nothing now.

"It's important to her" Cat says "Like singing is to you."

We leave Tori's not long afterwards. I drop Cat off at her house. I don't go in. I know that right now Jade's in good hands with Cat, and I'm tired as hell. The time difference is starting to catch up to me so I go home to sleep.

Question time!:

Beck has three grandmas?-

Yes. Two sets of grandparents, three grandmas. I thought it might get complicated.

Why is there a second notch?-

Well she was there for multiple days so-hahahaha.

What's boba?-

It's a drink (it could be a tea, or shake, or slushie type drink) but what makes it boba are the little bobas at the bottom- Boba are tapioca balls. LOOK IT UP I LURVE IT.

I never thought Jade had money-

(I might go into some character back story here that I might go into during the story so if you don't want to read it don't but YEAH YOU CAN IF YOU WANT TO)

Here's my thought process behind this- Hollywood Arts is most definitely a private school. With everything it has and all of its resources it would be an expensive private school. Then looking at the characters- Tori for example her family has money. You don't live in a house like that and send 2 kids (one talentless) to a private arts school.

Now Jade has nice things and she buys CRAP loads of coffee. Not reason enough- I know a lot of people give Jade physically abusive parents but I see no reason for them to be physically abusive. Especially after we meet her dad when he comes to her show. He's in a suit- he's a business man. He doesn't approve of Jade's desire to be an artist because of his beliefs of what is right for a career path. Career oriented. Jade's actions always seemed to me out of rebellion so I always thought it made sense that she rebelled against her parents in every way, and that's how I wrote her mom. Her dad is the opposite of her passions and her mom the opposite of her actions.

I see Cat's family as being pretty well off enough to pay for private school and still have a big house and such. Then I see Beck's family being able to pay but not having money to spare (but his grandmas' got BANK). Tori and Trina can pay- The only ones I can see as being on financial aid are Robbie and Andre. Robbie is an AMAZING ventriloquist (the actor really is a ventriloquist) and while he was some sort of strange split personality disorder I feel like that would still really impress the admissions peeps. Andre, not he's fantastic at everything so there's a total possibility that he could be on aid. He has the largest possibility actually because he's just AMAZING.

And those are my thoughts.