Jade was startlingly happy as she walked through the halls at school. She'd just finished a long talk with Lane, and apparently she'd be getting community service hours for working at the youth center. If Jade was drawing pay, as opposed to the stipend, she wouldn't qualify. This way, she'd be done with one of those annoying out of school requirements that she otherwise would have had to struggle to accomplish. The only down side was she'd hoped to work in the morgue to get her hours. Now, it'd have to be for fun.

Jade was used to people giving her space when she was in a bad mood, and since a truly good mood was so rare, they were still giving her a lot of space. But something was off. Jade hadn't figured it out yet, but something was different in the way they were staring.

That's when it hit her. They were staring. Normally they were too afraid of her to stare so openly, unless she was doing something to get their attention. Now, they were looking, and it was everybody. Boys, girls, everybody seemed to be looking at her, trying to see something.

Cat walked up, hands behind her back, giggling about something that probably only existed in her head. Cat was strange like that.

"Hi Cat. What do you want?" Jade felt her good mood fading, and she felt tired. She loved Cat, almost like a sister, but today she didn't need any weirdness. Cat giggled.

"Cat." Jade's voice took on a warning tone. Cat was strangely calm about the whole thing.

"Jadey." Cat replied. Jade's eyes darkened just a bit, and sane people took a step back.

"What. Do. You Want." Jade breathed out each word.

"My roommate wants your autograph." Cat said. "Only she wants it spelled with an M. you know, that walking name of yours."

Jade took a step back. It was unreal, like Cat knew a dangerous secret, yet was totally unafraid of it. "I'm not Mandy Walker!" She whisper yelled.

"Sure you are. I've seen the picture. This picture." Cat pulled her hands from behind her back, and it was an eight by ten picture of her as Mandy, probably enlarged from a promotional picture. The kind of picture found in the programs sold at fights.

"That's not me." Jade said, barely looking at it.

"Sure it is. I'd have seen the similarities even if I'd never seen you as a blond before. Thanks to 'The Blond Squad', anyone can compare pictures and see this is you." Cat said, still strangely calm.

"Okay, whats up. You're acting funny today." Jade said, looking around.

"I just want you to admit you're this Mandy chick and sign this picture for my roommate." Cat said.

"And you didn't post this on the Slap or anything?" Jade asked.

"Nope, Sinjin did." Cat said, smiling.

Jade nearly blew a gasket. "And how did Sinjin find out about Mandy?" Jade asked, stepping forward in a somewhat threatening way. Cat still stood there, totally calm.

"I looked on line, and couldn't find any pictures of you as Mandy, so I asked Sinjin to find me some. He got me this picture, and posted it so everyone can see you were famous for something." Cat was smiling. "You always told me you wanted to be famous." She almost whispered.

"You realize, If I'm this Mandy girl, I'd be a professional level MMA fighter." Jade said.

"You mean ma fighter." Cat corrected her.

"You pronounce each letter... never mind. Why the fudge are you so calm? I could jank you up before anyone could move. Do you think the teachers could stop me?" Jade asked.

"Nope. I just know I can get behind Tori, and you can't beat her." Cat said, smiling.

Jade took a second to process what she'd just been told. 'Could Cat thing Tori was Shelby Marx?' Shelby and Tori looked a lot alike, but Shelby was different. Up close, you could see who was who. Cat had seen a picture, but it wasn't enough to see the differences. Maybe a black and white. Those showed off the features so much better than color pictures. Jade wasn't aware she was smiling at the thought of Tori.

"Cat, Shelby Marx is not Tori Vega. Shelby had thicker arms. I know, I was closer to her than I am to you now." Jade said.

"Oh." Cat seemed to think for a second, then pointed "Look, a distraction." Jade didn't want to look, but much to her shame she foud herself turning her head. It was as if something inside her made her look. As she turned her head back, she saw that Cat hadn't made it five steps before tripping over herself trying to get away.

"Jade." She heard her name, distracting her from doing something to the now prone Cat. It was Sikowitz. "Jade, could you come here please. I need help, and I don't know where Sinjin is."

"What?" She moaned as she dragged her feet towards Sikowitz's class. She'd deal with Cat later.

"I need you to look hook up the computer to the monitor. I don't know what I did, and Cat said I needed to see something on the slap. I'd use my phone, but I've never been too big on those things." He said. Jade quickly hooked up the school computer hidden in his room to the monitor he had, and turned it on. Going to the slap, she found what he was looking for.

Side by side pictures of her, as Mandy and as that stupid blond girl from Becks short film. Damn, it was obvious who she was. Sikowitz looked, and a confused expression crossed over his face. "Jade, I need to post something. Excuse me." He then pulled out his phone and posted a warning to Mister Gradstein. Jade read over his shoulder as he hammered out his post.

Mister Gradstien, please make sure Jade doesn't maul your TA. She is apparently a dangerous MMA fighter, and will bury his body in the desert.

Second text

The death of your TA will delay your getting grades out on time, so please be careful. I cannot cover for you this time. Not again.

Jade just stared at her crazy teacher. She was tempted to kill that creep anyways, just to delay the grades. Instead, she decided she needed to let Cat know just how wazzed she was. Jade set out in search of the ditzy redhead.

She found Sinjin waiting for her near her locker. "Jade, I was wondering if I could show you my mad karate skills?' he said, then tried a low spinning back kick. Jade evaded it with ease, and flicked her finger against his head. "Ahhhhh." He screamed as he started to run off. "I've been assaulted. Help. There's a crazy MMA fighter out to kill me!" Sinjin disappeared down the hall, still screaming.

"What the fudge?" Jade said.

"It's always going to be that way, you know." Jade felt the nerves down her back go cold. The day had started so well. She turned to face Tori, wondering why she said that, and why she'd deepened her voice to say it. That voice was almost sultry. Responding to Jade's face, Tori continued in more normal tones. "You're the fast draw now. Every kid with a little training is going to try and take you, to see if they can make a name for themselves." The Latina's face was stone.

"Oh?" Jade said, slowly walking towards the singer. "And what about you? You want a piece of me?" Jade looked at Tori, trying to be as intimidating as possible. Tori didn't flinch, and Jade was wondering if she'd lost a step somewhere.

"Maybe, but I'm a love, not a fighter." Tori said, smirking. Then the singer turned on her heels and walked away from Jade, swaying her hips just a bit more than normal. She stopped for a second, glancing back to see if Jade was watching, then walked around a corner.

Jade stood there, unsure of what to think. 'Was Tori flirting?' She thought. Tori normally sucked at flirting, relying on hair flipping and that million dollar smile. That meant that Tori wasn't flirting, but it felt like she was being flirted with. Her mind was caught in a loop, and she drifted towards her next class.

Tori was around the corner, talking into her blue-tooth. "Was that right?"

"Yep. It did what you wanted. You sure about this? Jade's...Well, she's Jade." The voice on the other end said.

Tori had gone to Crystal Waters to get help. Crystal was the popular girl who seemed to be able to get any guy she wanted, except Beck. He was used to crazy, and she was used to subtle manipulations. Crazy trumps subtle, and she had yet to figure out how to manipulate him into being one of her boyfriends. Adjunct fear of Jade was another reason she'd kept her distance. That was how Tori bought her help, and her silence. The best flirt in the school would help her win Jade's heart, and she'd stay back and let Crystal have a shot at Beck. Crystal breaths a word of what she'd helped arrange, and they both faced the wrath of Jade. Mutually assured destruction to guarantee each does her part. How could it go wrong?

Tori wasn't too worried. She'd struck the first blow. Now she had to be ready for Saturday, when Jade would be training Trina in the back yard. Tori was going to subtly seduce Jade, winning her heart while playing it cool. By the time she was done, she'd have Jade right where she wanted her. Dancing slowly at the next Prome. Tori smiled at the clean, wholesome picture, proud that she'd kept anything dirty from her mind. Time enough for that later, once they were married. As she walked to her next class, Tori busied herself naming the pets...

:}

For the record, I have no idea where this is going. Still, lets enjoy the ride.