Hello!

So a thought occurred to me today.

Beck was absent for two episodes which would typically equate to two weeks buttttt I didn't want to do that lol

So instead we're all gonna pretend that it's totally normal to have a play on a Wednesday night and we're all gonna ignore the fact that I might have to add another day to the week lol We'll call it BadeDay, it'll be in between Thursday and Friday haha

So if that's alright with you thennnnn

Enjoy?

Beck's POV

"Hi," She'd said almost a full minute ago. Neither of us spoke, but even this silence was comforting. I heard her sigh, and knew she didn't know how to say sorry; she never was good at it.

"Beck, I—," Her voice softened for her apology, but I cut her off.

"It's okay," I interjected.

"But, I—,"

"Jade, really," I stopped her again. "It's okay."

"You're sure?" She asked cautiously, knowing I was taking her cut off sentences as an apology.

"Yeah," I nodded even though she couldn't see me. "It doesn't matter."

"Okay," She replied quietly then cleared her throat. "So how's Canada?"

"Boring," I answered honestly.

"Tell me about it," She said.

And I did.

For three hours we talked without pause. I told her how much this trip was already beginning to annoy me, and she told me about the one day of her life I'd missed. I laughed for five minutes straight when she told me about her step mother's gift. She said she wouldn't keep it, but the gift gave me ideas. Not to mention, a funny story.

"Are you kidding me?" Jade sounded outraged when I told her how my uncles were behaving. "Beck!"

"What?" I was split between panic and laughter.

"YOU set his car on fire!" She argued.

"I did not!" Details of our childhood mishaps were always remembered differently by us.

"You lit the match!" She reminded me of my pyromaniac phase.
"Yeah, but you pushed me and made me drop it."

"It's not my fault you were so scrawny," She turned it around on me again. "Maybe if you weren't a little runt you wouldn't have been so easy to knock over."

"Okay, okay," I talked to her like she was right in front of me. "I'll give you that, but remind me…who poured nail polish remover all over the hood?"

"I was trying to clean it!" She explained like she had many times before. "See? This is what I get for trying to do something nice."

"An arson record?"

"Noooo," Her voice was annoyed, but I knew she wasn't mad. "I get a lifetime of hatred from your family."

"A lifetime?" I questioned. She never really indulged in my fantasies about or future, but when she did, I pounced on it.

"Well…," She hesitated and I imagined her biting her lower lip. "You know what I mean."

"Yeah, I do," I smiled and leaned back onto my mattress, suddenly feeling tired.

"It's getting pretty late," She commented. I hadn't even noticed when the sun went down. "I guess I should let you go."

"Not yet," I disagreed. A lingering silence ensued, and I closed my eyes to pretend she was next to me.

"Beck?" She said a few moments later.

"Hmm?"

"I'm sorry for not going to see you before you left," Her voice was sincere. "I just…hate goodbyes."

"In that case," I opened my eyes, and braced myself. "I have a weird request."

"If this is about whipped cream or car sex, I'm going to slap you," She said sharply.

"No, no it's not," I chuckled. "It's just…remember when we were kids and we'd sleep with those walkie talkies every night?"

"Yeah, to talk if we woke up in the middle of the night. At least, until we got cell phones. What about them?"

"Maybe we could do that again…" I hesitated.

"Get walkie talkies?"

"No," I shook my head. "We could…leave the line open. I mean, if you don't think that's too weird."

"It's not," She said instantly. "I mean, I don't mind if you don't."

"Really?"

"Really."

*Next day *

Jade's POV

You know how people say they see red when they're angry? Not me. I see black. And then I see myself strangling whoever's responsible for upsetting me. In this case, that person is Tori Vega; no surprise, she'd been pissing me off since the first day she got here.

Now, not only is she a boyfriend rubbing, wannabe southern belle with twigs for legs…she was also Steamboat Suzy. A role that should have been mine. That's not just my ego speaking, I saw her audition. Mine was better.

Right after the news about my new understudy career, I stomped my way to my locker; shoving puny freshmen out of my way as I went. After slamming my locker open, I buried my head inside, treating the small space like my new sanctuary. I heard someone clear their throat, and decided to ignore it. I was not in the mood for people right now.

"Umm…Jade?" A boy's voice called to me, and I lifted my head up a bit. The split second sight of Ryder Daniels made me drop my head back inside. There was nothing out there for me. "Very funny," He assumed I was kidding. "I need to talk to you."

"No," I spoke into my locker. "You need oxygen."

"Fine. I want to talk to you."

"Well," I finally stood up straight, but still didn't bother looking at him. "If you want to live, you should walk away. Now."

"It's about your play," He said while I stared into my locker, suddenly wishing it was a portal to Narnia; I think the White Witch and I would get along. "'Clowns Don't Bounce'?"

"What about it?" I turned to him, slightly interested, but too angry to follow through on my intrigue.

"I saw your post on the Slap this morning," He explained while I looked him over; his hair was still in that ugly part, and his leather jacket made me want to hurl.

"Is there a point to this?" I tapped my foot impatiently.

"I know you're looking for someone to replace Beck," He basically summarized my post. "And I was wondering if I could fill in for him?"

"Is this some kind of joke?" I crossed my arms over my chest.

"No, I'm serious," His expression seemed genuine, but who really knew? I raised my eyebrows at him in disbelief, and he finally rolled his eyes. "Okay, fine. I just need credit for my acting class."

"What, you couldn't cheat your way out of it?" I brought up the little scheme he'd used on Tori and countless other girls.

"Look, you need somebody for the part, and I need the credit," I was surprised at how direct he was being. The only other interactions I'd had with him involved him leering at me and dropping some lame pick up line. "Do we have a deal or what?"

As much as I hated admitting defeat, or compromising to this douche bag, he had a point. The only other person who'd expressed interest in the role was Sinjin, and well, no. Just no.

"Can you act?" I asked.

"Yeah," He nodded. Another eyebrow raise from me and he sighed. "Okay, I'm probably not as good as Beck, but I don't suck."

"Fine," I shrugged and shook my head. "Rehearsal tomorrow after school in the black box."

"Great," His big smile made me mad for some reason.

"If you're late, I'll rip out your skull and beat you to death with it," I warned as he backed away.

"I won't be!" He called before turning a corner out of my sight.

This is what my life has come to? A long distance relationship with my favorite Canadian, being an understudy to Vega, and letting morons who 'don't suck' play the lead in my show. It was only Monday and already my life had gone to hell.

I slammed my locker shut and struggled with my next move. Where would I go without Beck here? I couldn't sit through lunch with all our friends congratulating Vega on getting my part, but I didn't want to sit alone somewhere like a loser. I chose option three: call Beck. His idea of leaving our phone lines on last night was actually pretty helpful. I slept like a baby with the sound of his light snoring on speaker; it was almost like he was next to me.

I made my way to the main staircase and sat down, making the few nameless kids that were seated there leave. My reputation precedes me. Just as I pulled out my phone and clicked on Beck's number I felt a warm hand on my shoulder.

"'Sup," Andre greeted me as he sat down beside me. "You still mad?"

"It's only been ten minutes," I glared at him.

"Right," He nodded and looked like he didn't know what to say next.

"Look," I figured I'd do him a favor. "If you're here to give me a pep talk or say that Vega deserved that part, you can forget it. I don't need a pity party."

"Okay," Andre clapped his hands together and nodded. "So what do you want to talk about?"

"Nothing!" I raised my voice. He was the one who approached me, why should I have to come up with conversation topics? I was fine on my own.

"Man, whatever," He mumbled to himself and shook his head as he stood to leave. Something tugged at my guilt, and I sighed heavily with a low grumble.

"Wait," I stopped him in his tracks. He looked at me and waited for my verdict. "You can stay."

"Cool," He smiled and sat back down like nothing had happened. I always liked that about Andre; when he wasn't busy overreacting, he usually bounced back from any bad news quickly. Like one of those annoying inflatable clowns that keep swinging back up after you punch it.

We sat in silence for a few minutes, neither of us eager to converse. I don't know why I'd told him to stay; I just didn't mind him being here. It was a teensy tiny comfort to not be alone. If it were Cat, she'd try to hug me, and Robbie would end up fighting with Rex. With Beck gone, my options were limited.

"You know what'll make you feel better?" Andre asked, breaking the silence.

"Pushing Tori in front of a bus?"

"Maybe," He let out a low giggle that almost took my frown away. "But let's save the Mean Girls plot for another time, yeah?"

"Fine," I shrugged. In my movie, Vega wouldn't have made it to the prom.

"Anyways," Andre grinned and looked around like he was about to share a secret. "The solution to all your problems is simple," He paused for effect. "Ice cream." I almost burst out laughing at his seriousness. He sounded certain that desert would compensate for my shitty day.

"No," I shook my head.

"Yeah," He nodded.

"No."

"C'mon, you know you wanna."

"Andre, one more word about ice cream and I'll shove a pint of Rainbow Sherbert down your pants," I threatened and he sat back, putting his hands up. As much as I hated to admit it…ice cream did sound good. It was a cold, breezy day; perfect for cold treats, in my opinion, but again, I was too stubborn to give in.

"You know what?" I stood up abruptly, changing my mind. "Let's do it."

"Now you're talkin'!" He jumped up like a child would. "Come on," He nodded in one direction. "Let's eat ice cream cakes till our tummies ache."

Beck's POV

"May I be excused?" I asked as I stood up from the dinner table. I never had to ask at home, mostly because we rarely ate together anymore, but here in Canada my parents liked to parade me about like a good little boy. So please and thank you were the magic words.

"Beck, you barely touched your dinner," My mother tried giving me a disapproving look, but I was already putting my dish in the sink. "Well, okay. Just don't forget you're going hunting tomorrow morning."

"That's right, son," My father chimed in. "6am bright and early!" He called to me as I turned to walk towards my room.

Hunting was my least favorite activity I was forced to go through. Ever since I was a kid, my dad would try to get me as interested in it as he was, but I just wasn't made for the sport. I'd rather watch old films or play my guitar or almost anything else. Now wasn't the time to argue about that, though. Now was the designated time Jade and I had set to skype each other.

I checked the time on my cell as I closed the door behind me. I rushed to get my laptop out of my bag and logged into Skype. Within thirty seconds, Jade was video calling me. After accepting the call, I grinned when I saw her lying on her stomach on my bed. The thought of her in my RV made me homesick.

"You're late," She told me instead of hello.

"What?" I checked the clock then rolled my eyes. "By two minutes."

"So you admit it then?" She cocked her head to the side and stared at me.

"Fine, I'm sorry," I gave in, still smiling. "How are you?"

"Terrible, you?" She didn't frown, but I had a feeling something was wrong. We'd been texting all day, and she hadn't mentioned any bad news, but I could tell from the tone her texts took that she wasn't happy.

"What happened?" I found myself immediately concerned and hateful that I was so far away.

"Ugh, what didn't happen?" She gave the shrug she used when she was ready to give up. "Sikowitz finalized the casting for Steamboat Suzy today," She told me monotonously and I remembered going with Jade for the auditions a while ago.

"And?"

"And guess who got the role of Suzy?" Her voice was feigned enthusiasm.

"I'm guessing it wasn't you?" I could feel my face fall. Not getting to play the character you want is just part of the job, but I hated any time Jade had to go through it.

"Nope," She lowered her head. "So guess who got it?"

"Oh, no," I grimaced.

"Yep," She knew what I was thinking already.

"Seriously?"

"I know."

"Didn't she forget a few lines when she tried out?"

"Hah," She scoffed. "More than a few."

"I'm sorry," Was all I could think to say. Jade had a special grudge against Tori, and this wasn't going to help. For some reason she hated losing out to Tori more than anyone else.

"Yeah, me too," I wished I could reach through the screen to hug her. It wasn't really helpful, but I know how much better I feel with her in my arms.

"Do you wanna talk about it?"

"Not really," She shrugged. "I was really pissed off after it happened, but Andre calmed me down."

"Andre," I said his name as if I'd never heard it before. "Since when are you and Andre friends?"

"We're not," She told me as she sat up onto her knees. "He was just trying to help."

"How nice of him," My voice sounded more cynical than I intended.

"Yeah," It didn't seem to be a big deal to her so I didn't question it further. "Ugh, and I got someone to replace you for 'Clowns Don't Bounce'."

"Really, who?"

"Guess." She told me again. The fact that she wanted to play the guessing game almost made me think she wasn't too upset.

"Robbie?"

"Eeee," Her voice mimicked a buzzer sound.

"Andre?"

"Eeee,"

"Brandon?"

"Who's that?"

"Okay, not Brandon," I smiled to myself. She never was good with names. Or people. "I give up."

"Think scum of the earth," She hinted.

"Sinjin?" I tried to think like her and only made her laugh. "Alright, scum, scum, scum….oh, no," I said again.

"Yep."

"Ryder Daniels?" I felt my face twist into a disgusted expression.

"I know," She looked slightly ashamed and embarrassed. "But he was the only one who volunteered besides Sinjin! What was I supposed to do?"

"Cast Sinjin!" Anyone would've been better.

"Beck, be serious."

"I am, Jade," I hated the idea of that guy spending time with my girlfriend. "He's an idiot."

"I agree, but he's the only choice I have right now," She went on while I tried not to think of the fact that I was the reason she needed to recast her play. "Besides, I talked to him for a couple of minutes and he seemed sincere about it."

"Sincere?"

"Yeah, he needs the credit for class so I don't think he'll screw it up."

"Since when are you and Ryder such great friends?" I didn't mean to sound like a jealous boyfriend, but why did it seem like boys swarmed to Jade whenever I wasn't around.

"Beck, relax," She must've sensed my discomfort. "I already had this conversation with Andre. If it means I can still get my play going then it's for the best. Did I tell you about the fake blood?"

"Umm, no," I shook my head and tried to look like I was paying attention while she told me about Cat's brother being her supplier. What I was really doing was trying to talk myself out of imagining who else was starting to hang around Jade now.

First, Ryder then my best friend? It seemed like my trust was wavering in everybody I knew. Jade wouldn't do anything unfaithful, but who knew what they were capable of. The burning issue I was trying to ignore was the one that worried me most. While I was here plagued with nothing but thoughts of her, why did it seem like Jade was doing just fine without me?

The end for now!