AN: Merry Christmas to you all! As hoped for I managed to get this done a couple of days earlier than usual and I hope it is something of a present to you all and a thank you for sticking with the story.
At this stage I normally address the reviews from the last chapter but, since they all mostly centred on the same thing I will just thank Challenge King, SpazzQueen15, ArtisticAngel6, LittleMissMusical, Agent M and Guest for your kind words. The main point from that chapter really was the establishment of a genuine Seddie friendship and that, while Sam is out of juvie, I don't see her ending up permanently in LA with Freddie. She may be the occasional "guest star", especially if Freddie is in need of a friend in a few chapters time, but I doubt she'll enrol at Hollywood Arts.
Finally, like Freddie, I'm not asking how she "got a new phone"…
Cat Valentine sat in her bedroom; it was Sunday evening and school would be back in session the next morning. The red velvet-haired girl was reflecting happily on a good week, having seen plenty of her friends and also spent a little time with the guy she was dating. Speaking of whom, her pearphone beeped to signify a new text message. She picked up the device from her bedside table and looked at it.
Can you call this evening? We need to talk.
She swallowed nervously at the tone of the message. She re-read it a couple of times; unsurprisingly it never changed. She took a calming breath before calling.
"Hey Jake…"
It was with something akin to delight that Freddie and Lindsey reunited at school on the first morning after their Semester Break. The blonde hadn't arrived back from Cancun until the previous evening so they had been unable to get to see each other before arriving at school. They sat with Freddie's freshman friends in the Asphalt Café and traded stories of Spring Break. The pretty sophomore had loved her vacation (apart from missing her boyfriend and their, now mostly mutual, friends) and it had been the perfect opportunity for her to de-stress after all the rehearsing she had done for her Big Showcase performance and the rigours of a long term at school. She was also eager for details of Freddie's week (and glad to hear snippets from the others) so the group had a good time before school filling one another in on what had happened over their week's break as they waited for the morning bell.
The tenth grader felt a pang of concern over Cat's sombre mood; the red-head and Jake were no longer dating. One of the main reasons, he had complained, was her failure to introduce him to her friends (such as the way her meeting with Jade became a "girl's afternoon out" and the fact that he didn't get invited to the beach with them). He felt that meant that she wasn't seriously interested in him so he decided to pull the plug. The fifteen year old girl's lips thinned at the news; she wasn't blind to the recent failures of Cat's romances and she felt a little worried that they may lead to her looking again at Freddie.
Her additional concern was something that had occurred to her while thinking of her boy during her break. Yes, he had his guy time, particularly fencing or just hanging with Beck and André– or with Eli and, if one's being generous she thought with a grin, Robbie but most of his friends seemed to be girls; Carly and Sam who she knew he had made plans to see in Seattle the previous week and, of course, Cat and Jade. Though she had, surprisingly even to herself, not felt any jealousy when he mentioned that he was seeing the two girls during his trip back to his home city, the large number of girls that her man considered friends was beginning to trouble her a little, not that she wanted to let it show at the moment.
"Y'know," the blonde teen remarked casually as she and Freddie walked towards the entrance to the main school building with his friends following behind them; his left arm was hooked around her back and resting on the left hand side of her abdomen, "we've been together for a bit over three months now."
"Yes," Freddie agreed, doing the arithmetic in his head and thinking that he was picking up on her meaning, "just over a hundred days now isn't it?"
She nodded with a grin. "There's usually a tradition for a hundred days, but we missed it because we were both out of the state," her grin faltered and her tone turned regretful at the thought. "Your mom's on days right now, isn't she?"
"Yes, so there's no way I can be out at midnight before the weekend." It was the young tech producer's turn to speak in a disappointed voice.
"My birthday's this Friday though," she noted spiritedly and he nodded, "and my parents are taking me out for dinner; they've said I can invite you if I want to."
"Do you want to?" he asked with a smirk, earning him a playful swat on the arm.
"What do you think?" she laughed, leaning close to him again, resting her head on his left shoulder.
"Hi lickle Fweddie!" a voice called out, imitating a baby's, to the couple's right and interrupting them. They, and the freshmen behind them, turned to spy its owner, a black haired girl who eyed them maliciously. Jade instantly wore her best frown; she felt that whatever the tenth grader had to say wouldn't be good.
"What do you want Jen?" the blonde sighed.
"Oh I just wanted to see if you'd grown tired of your little boy-toy yet," she snarled, "Obviously not so maybe you'd be willing to tell us how much you were earning for your baby-sitting services instead."
The unpleasant sophomore's friends laughed sycophantically at her taunts and the knot of girls pushed roughly past Lindsey and the freshmen as they headed inside. Jade bowed her head a little as the couple's shoulders sagged (Lindsey's from her classmate's continued criticisms, Freddie's from a fear that his girlfriend would just ultimately decide that he just wasn't worth the grief she was getting because of him). I could make you pay in so many ways, she thought, narrowing her eyes on the tenth graders and their ring leader in particular.
"Hey!" Beck complained in a yelp, drawing her from her plotting.
"Oh, sorry," she smiled awkwardly at her boyfriend, slackening the grip on his hand that was actually beginning to cause him some pain. He frowned at her (she was looking away from him so didn't notice his expression) but he said nothing further as they all headed to the Black Box theatre to collect their timetables for the new term.
The yelp had also drawn Lindsey's attention to the couple; she caught Jade's 'death glare' aimed at her former friends; for some reason she drew more concern from it than she did gratitude. For the first time she began to wonder if losing her friends from her year group really was a price worth paying for Freddie, especially as she began to see girls wherever she looked queuing up to take him from her. She shook her head a little to try and clear the unwelcomed thoughts. When it failed she hoped that her new timetable would do the trick instead.
"Urgh, history… great way to start the term," the blonde complained, "and it's about as far from here as I could get." She sighed. "I guess that means I gotta go." She gave Freddie a quick peck and a promise to discuss plans for their belated 'hundred day kiss' later before she followed some of her classmates from the theatre in the direction of the history department; the rest of Freddie's "gang" waved her off.
"What have I got today?" Freddie muttered rhetorically as he collected his own timetable. "Oh, Sikowitz first… then music. Not too bad for a Monday morning."
Comparing timetables with his friends he saw that he would be in Sikowitz's class with all of them and was in music class with Jade between now and the end of the school year. He was glad that there was at least one friendly face with him but a little disappointed that he wouldn't be able to continue working with André; the two got on very well and the musical genius had certainly helped him with both his keyboard playing and his broader GPA for the subject over their time at the school. His afternoon would see him, Cat and Beck in Science together and then he and André would be together, but in Maths this time.
"Welcome young actors," the balding teacher announced in excitement as the freshmen filed into his room. "The theme of the next few weeks is going to be… comedy!" Freddie raised his eyebrows at the statement and he threw a glance at Jade; the mean girl looked remarkably displeased at their teacher's news. The tech producer guessed that she may not think that comedy was going to be her strong point. He caught Beck's eye and saw the long-haired actor was grinning softly; he had also noted his girlfriend's discomfort at the eccentric teacher's announcement.
The class was divided into small groups; Freddie was with Eli and Jade, Cat with André and Beck. The songsmith and Canadian-born teens opted to take a back seat and allow the red velvet-haired girl to decide on the scene, feeling that her somewhat unique outlook on life would enable her to plan something suitably crazy for them.
"How about…" she began, "we're working in a kitchen at a restaurant and things start going wrong and a big food fight breaks out!"
The two boys looked at one another, instantly regretting their decision to cede creative control to their classmate. André palmed his forehead in dismay and shook his head sadly.
"I think we should do slapstick," Jade began as she sat in a corner of the room with her team mates.
"Let me guess, you'll be doing the slapping?" Freddie smirked, albeit his voice was a little cautious as a result of the girl's eagerness. Eli looked positively terrified at the thought, and the predatory expression the brunette wore.
"Oh I'm sure there'll be plenty of pain to go around," she said in a low voice, almost a whisper, enjoying the way Eli's terror rose another notch as she did.
"Ok, what do you all have so far?" Sikowitz drew the class together as the end of the lesson approached.
The groups each elected a spokesperson who talked publically through their plans to date; Cat's scene (the boys insisted she explain it to the class) caused widespread mirth and bewilderment in equal measure among the class. Jade eagerly explained her idea (a clumsy girl who doesn't know her own strength and keeps "accidently" injuring her friends; Eli still looked to be experiencing mortal dread as her eyes shone throughout the pitch - and it was a feeling shared by several people in the class). Beck made a mental note to have a talk with his girlfriend after class about reigning in her idea.
The bell sounded and the students got up to leave. Sikowitz surprised them by setting them homework; they were to have a script written for the scene by next class on Wednesday. As they had music together Freddie and Jade were able to discuss and complain about this throughout their journey to the next class. Cat and Beck were also in the same class (English); the actor listened patiently as his bubbly friend pitched ideas for their script.
"You play, I'll sing," Jade suggested to Freddie as Anthony, their teacher, instructed them to get into pairs for the project they would be doing in class this term. As it was really more of a demand than a proposal he merely nodded his agreement – plus he thought the girl had a lovely singing voice so he was more than happy to hear her use it; it was just the idea of putting together a tune that bothered him.
"So how do you want to do it? Do you have words in mind that need a tune or are you waiting for a tune to fit words to it?"
"Well… we can work on the tune between us – and the lyrics – then split things up after."
The former Seattle native was more than happy with to go along with this and the pair got to work.
Lunch saw the tech producer having to attend a hastily called meeting of "The Slap"'s crew; he was disappointed at the fact that he would see neither his friends nor his girlfriend. He consoled himself a little with the thought that he would at least see Cat in Science after lunch, but his time with Lindsey would be limited to mostly mornings this week; in addition to his fencing classes on Tuesday evenings and his and André's gym session on a Thursday after school, he had to meet Eli and Jade to discuss their script and also do a little work with the gothic girl on their music assignment. Between all of these, and the news that his mother also wanted them to spend a little more mother/son time together on a night while she was working days, it meant that he wouldn't see too much of his blonde girl outside of school until her birthday meal on the Friday night.
In the immediate aftermath of their week apart at Spring Break this was not an appealing thought for either of the teenagers and it promised to make the ensuing week a frustrating one for them. They lunched together, along with the rest of his freshman friendship group on the days the gang wasn't playing ping pong, but they were definitely disappointed by the lack of quality time to spend together.
"Mom's working late on Saturday night," Freddie informed her over lunch on the Wednesday, "do you want to see a movie?"
"A movie sounds great," she enthused, happy to be making plans with him; after her thoughts over Spring Break and early on Monday, she was starting to feel more than a little pang of jealousy from the knowledge that he and Jade were working together both in music and in Sikowitz's class – and thus were spending a lot of time together outside of class on their projects. She knew Beck was in the picture, which partially allayed any of the fears that were threatening to manifest, but she did have to work hard to try and hide her nervous looks when she saw just how comfortable her boyfriend and the mean girl were looking together these days.
"How about you guys? Fancy hanging at the mall earlier in the afternoon on Saturday?" he invited his classmates. There was a general murmur of agreement and they arranged to meet around 3 o'clock on the Saturday afternoon. Lindsey bit her tongue gently; on the one hand she didn't want to keep him from his friends, on the other she wanted a little more alone-time with him.
The ninth graders arrived in Sikowitz's class, scripts in hand. Their teacher collected them in and dropped them on his desk at the back of the stage.
"Ok," he clapped his hands, "you've all got your scripts written, excellent – I hope you've made another copy because you'll be practicing today."
"I have," Freddie smiled; ever organised he had made them each an additional copy of their work.
"Score one for the nerd," Jade teased gently with a smile, raising her hand for a high five. He grinned back and the teens, along with Eli, managed a three-way high five before they got to work rehearsing her scene. Most of the other groups were at a loss, having made only the one copy that they gave to the teacher, so had to retrieve the script so that they could practice in class. Beck and André looked far from comfortable at the end of the lesson, having tried to write a script to make sense of Cat's scene, but the other trio were in far better spirits; they felt that they were well on track with their short production, and the boys were happy that Jade had yet to start slapping…
Jade and Freddie stayed behind after last period and returned to the music room. They were not alone in the room but they were able to secure one of the sound-proof recording booths and use it to make some good progress with their music assignment. Freddie found himself entranced by the pale girl's voice as she demonstrated what she had been working on. Involuntarily he closed his eyes and allowed her soothing lyrics to wash over him; she grinned at the effect she had had.
"So, what did you think?" she asked, working hard to put the edge back into her voice.
His eyes snapped open as he finally became aware that she had stopped singing. "Jade, that was incredible!" he enthused with a huge smile. "The words were great, the tune was perfect for them; I'll figure out how to play it and that's definitely our chorus. We'll put together a tune for the verses, some lyrics – but we're definitely on a winner with that."
"I know," she smirked confidently. "Now come on, write some music for the verse."
He rolled his eyes as he smiled back at her before returning his attention to the keyboard in front of him.
Lindsey's sixteenth birthday began well for her with a celebratory breakfast; usually the blonde's father would leave for work before she got up but today he had arranged to go in a little later so that he could celebrate with her and she was happy that he had done so. The three ate together as she opened her cards and gifts from them and some of her other family members. So, despite having to be in school on her birthday, she was in high spirits when she got there (not that she expected much good news during the day – she didn't expect any of her sophomore peers, aside maybe from Christine, would be eager to celebrate with her) and found Robbie and André sat near the Grub Truck.
"Morning guys," she greeted them brightly.
"Oh hey," the dreadlocked songsmith smiled at her while the curly-haired ventriloquist just nodded guardedly; he still remembered with some irritation her "critique" of him before Spring Break.
Nonetheless, "Happy birthday," he echoed André's wished for her, following his lead in handing her a card.
"Thanks," she expressed her gratitude to the younger kids for their cards and wishes. "Have you guys seen Freddie this morning?" She wondered if the boy was working on his music assignment with Jade again; the thought was not an appealing one for her.
"Uh yeah," the musician replied, gesturing towards the school as he did, "he said he had some stuff to do for the new school website before class today. I think he'll be in the computer room."
"Thanks," her voice carried the hint of relief that she could not repress and she tapped him gratefully on the shoulder, "I'll catch you guys later?" Without waiting for a response she sped off in search of her boyfriend.
The blonde heard her man before she saw him; he was having a surprisingly vocal disagreement with one of his colleagues from the team.
"What is your problem?" Freddie's voice was exasperated.
"My problem is that I don't like being bossed around by some little boy who thinks he's God's gift to nerd-dom just because he used to work on a crappy little web show!" Lindsey's eyes widened at the verbal slap someone was giving her boyfriend. She quickened her pace to see what was going on and rounded the corner just as Freddie got to his feet to confront the older teen.
"If you don't like it then you should have said something when the teams were decided," he was struggling to keep his cool.
"Whatever, I'm off to class," the other boy turned on his heel and stormed away, barely avoiding crashing headlong into the birthday girl as he passed her near the doorway. She saw Freddie sit back down and rest his head in his hands, sighing audibly as he did and she made her way towards him.
"Are you ok?" she asked in a soft voice.
He looked up, slightly surprised to see her. "Oh hey Lindsey, yeah I'm fine thanks, just a bit of a disagreement with one of the guys," he tried to shrug it off. "Anyway…" he reached into his bag and withdrew an envelope and a wrapped parcel, "Happy Birthday!" He stood up and gave his girl a quick birthday kiss along with her gifts.
"Ok, let's wrap it up for now!" he called to the others noting the time; the bell would be going in a few minutes and he would rather spend them with his girlfriend on her birthday. He offered his hand to Lindsey and she took it, leading him out of the computer room.
The birthday girl frowned slightly and briefly as the couple rounded the corner by their lockers and approached the main stairway; Cat and Jade were stood talking at the foot of the stairs and waved as they spotted them. Fortunately they were looking in Freddie's direction rather than hers so her dissatisfaction went unnoticed as she quickly replaced her grimace with a smile, one that became genuine as the fourteen-year-old girls turned to her and pressed cards into her hand along with voicing their birthday wishes. Cat went so far as to fling herself into a hug of the blonde which, as she still held Freddie's hand, was a rather awkward predicament for her. She patted the red-head's back awkwardly as the other freshmen shared a laugh and a quick glance.
"I recorded a couple of possible tunes for our song," he told the mean girl. "Do you have time over break or lunch to listen? Otherwise it's probably Sunday or Monday before we can do anymore."
"Break sounds good," Jade said, eyeing Lindsey's posture stiffening at the brown-haired tech producer's proposal.
"Aw, I was hoping we'd spend breaks together today," his girlfriend complained.
"I know," he said, trying to placate her, "but we've got this assignment due soon and I… we," he gestured to the pale girl, "really want to do well on it. That means we need to put the work in."
"I guess," she grumbled with a sigh.
"Tonight – I'm all yours," he promised.
She nodded in defeated resignation. "We'll pick you up at 7:30." They shared a quick kiss as the bell sounded then she released his hand and headed for her English class; the freshmen headed for Maths.
"Happy birthday sweetie," Lindsey's mother told her, again, over dinner; they had decided to take their daughter and her boyfriend to Maestro's to celebrate and the quartet were enjoying their meal immensely. She handed her an envelope; the blonde accepted it with a surprised look.
"Mom, you already gave me a card and a present this morning," she pointed out.
"Yeah but I think you'll like this one," her dad added with a knowing smile.
The birthday girl looked to her boyfriend; he shrugged at her but commented in a light tone, "Hey, you can never have too many birthday presents!"
The newly-turned sixteen-year-old laughed and turned to her parents with a grateful smile as she slit open the envelope. Her face exploded into a massive grin as she withdrew two tickets for the Northridge Prom in a couple of Saturday's time.
"You said you wanted to go to a prom – and that your school doesn't have one," her dad said simply.
"Oh this is amazing; thank you, I love you both," she exclaimed excitedly and leapt from her seat to slip in between her parents and wrap an arm around both.
She turned to Freddie and showed him the tickets. "I really want to go, and I want to go with you." Her mother smiled at him, hearing again how much her daughter must like the brown-haired tech producer, though her father's expression was far less readable – possibly for the same reason. "You will go with me, won't you?" Her voice held a slight edge of desperation and fear that he could possibly derail her dreams.
He glanced at the date (not that it mattered; he would have rearranged whatever he had to in order to be able to attend). "I would be honoured to be your date for Prom," he said sincerely, causing her to squeal in delight, drawing funny looks from neighbouring tables. She ignored the looks and raced back over to his seat so that she could hug him. Forgetting for a moment that they weren't alone she also planted a tender kiss on his lips, a kiss that was only curtailed by her father meaningfully clearing his throat across the table from the teenage couple. They parted with identical guilty and embarrassed looks. The blonde slipped back into her seat and asked casually,
"So, who wants dessert?"
The blonde's high spirits were still evident by the following afternoon when she and Freddie joined the freshman gathering at the Green Meadow mall food court; they arrived there just before three, only to see that the others were already there waiting.
"Oh, someone's happy!" Beck's tone was light and jovial; the long-haired actor had his arm wrapped around his girlfriend; she sat there sipping a Jet Brew coffee and wearing an even expression. "Did you have a good birthday meal then?" he asked the sixteen-year-old girl.
"I had an awesome time… with an awesome guy," she tugged Freddie's hand and the couple shared a smile, "and my parents had one last present for me that they gave me over dinner."
"What was it?" André asked curiously.
"Tickets for the Northridge Prom," she declared gleefully.
"Oh I love proms!" Cat piped up brightly, oblivious to Jade's scowl and eye-roll at the turn this conversation was taking. "I wish someone would invite me to one." Her eyes saddened as she realised that the likelihood was low that she'd get an invite, not now that she and Jake, aka "smoothie-guy", had broken up; that he had set it in motion via text had given Jade the desire to hunt him down and injure him. She was still toying with exactly how to do just that.
"Nah, forget it," Rex piped up in response to Robbie's brightening expression. His handler's face fell again in disappointment, particularly as the red-haired girl remained completely oblivious to what "they" were talking about.
Jade, having emptied her coffee cup and deciding she was in need of another, leant on her boyfriend's shoulder and spoke softly in his ear.
"Proms are stupid, don't even think about it…" she warned him before releasing his arm and standing.
"Wasn't gonna," he muttered as he held his hands up defensively but his eyes narrowed as his gaze followed his girlfriend as she walked briefly away from the table.
"You want another smoothie Cat?" Freddie asked, seeing that the girl's cup was empty. She giggled her acceptance and he turned to Lindsey, raising an eyebrow to ask her the same question. She nodded with a smile and the tech producer headed to the smoothie counter to buy three more drinks. She frowned behind his back, pondering on the significance of him asking Cat before her.
He returned shortly before Jade did; the gothic girl had to head a little further across the Food Court and wait impatiently in line at the Jet Brew stand before getting her beverage so her already fragile mood took a turn for the worse as she returned. Listening to Lindsey and Cat talking eagerly about proms caused her to begin shooting dark looks across the table at the pair. She caught Freddie grinning at her response; she rolled her eyes and, in spite of herself, she smiled softly along with the boy.
After a few hours at the mall the group began to break up. Lindsey and Freddie decided on a movie (Lindsey decided, as it was part of her 'birthday treat' as Freddie dubbed it), while Beck and Jade decided they would also catch a movie while they were there, albeit a different one. Rather awkwardly Eli offered to walk Cat home; she accepted and the pair managed to hold a friendly conversation during the journey, though the sandy-blond was rather relieved when he reached the Valentine home and wished her goodnight. Robbie, meanwhile, got a ride home with his mother when she came to collect him.
"Who texted?" Jade asked as Freddie's phone alert went; the two couples were sat together in the concessions area of the cinema while they waited for their respective showings to begin.
"Oh, just Sam," he answered, meeting her eyes and smiling softly. "She's complaining about her mom again." He chuckled as he re-read the message.
"She's out of juvie then?" Lindsey asked. "You were only there last week."
"Oh, yeah," he said, "they let her out last Friday so it's been just over a week now."
"Maybe I'll get to meet the legendary Sam over the summer," she commented.
"Hopefully, it would be good if she could get down here for a few days."
That wasn't exactly the response the blonde was looking for; she hid her expression behind a swig from her soda but couldn't hide her stiffening body language from the observant brunette sat opposite. She raised an eyebrow and made a mental note that the blonde wasn't quite so cool and relaxed as she liked people to think. The mean girl wasn't sure why; there was no guy on the planet, in her opinion, less likely to cheat on her than Freddie was (well, maybe Beck, she grinned internally) but the thought that all was not well with her gave a kernel of hope that one day he could make Cat happy again.
Shortly after eleven the couple left the mall; Lindsey hailed a cab rather than walking home at that time and the two arrived at her home around eleven-fifteen.
"A shame we can't get into school tonight," she joked. Then, in response to her boyfriend's curious expression she elaborated, "there'd be a nice symmetry to having our hundred day kiss by the lockers where had our first."
"Our first as a couple," he reminded her.
"Oh yeah, we'd need to sneak to directing class again wouldn't we?" she grinned mischievously. "We'll have to settle for somewhere inside where we can find a moment of privacy," she gestured to her front door before unlocking it and letting them in.
"Hi sweetie, hello Freddie," her father greeted them, him rather formally.
"Hey dad, I didn't think you'd still be up."
"Oh we just wanted to wait for you to get in," her mother contributed.
"Will you need a ride home Freddie?"
"No sir, it's only a ten minute walk, I'll be fine."
"Yeah dad, are you trying to get rid of him already."
"Well it is getting late…"
The blonde groaned, causing her boyfriend to have to suppress a snigger. Still not as bad as my mom, he thought.
"Come on dear, we're embarrassing our daughter," her mother laughed and the two disappeared upstairs.
"Not funny," she told her grinning boyfriend.
"Of course not," he replied, trying and failing miserably to keep the smile off his face.
The two hung out for a while, listening to some music (quietly) on the stereo, watching a little TV and sharing a few more details about their respective Semester Breaks that they hadn't gotten around to mentioning. Finally a beep on the blonde's phone attracted her attention; she drew it from her jeans and checked the display.
"One minute to midnight," she whispered. She stood up and took Freddie's hand, urging him to stand as well. She then surprised him by releasing his hand; the blonde walked over to the wall, dimmed the lights and returned to stand in front of him. "Happy hundredish days," she whispered with a nervous smile.
"Hundredish days, I like that," he grinned before they leaned in for a tender kiss.
Their lips parted and instantly the ringtone of Freddie's phone began to play.
"Mom," he groaned, checking the caller ID. "She must be home and seeing that I'm not… Hey mom," he answered, listening for a couple of seconds before continuing, "no, no, I'm just at Lindsey's… ok, I'll leave in a minute and be home in about fifteen. No, I don't need a ride… Yes, I'll see you then." He rang off and sighed. "As you can tell, I have to go."
The sixteen-year-old nodded reluctantly. "I'll see you on Monday. Good night Freddie."
"Good night Linds."
"I wish someone would ask me to the prom," Cat said mournfully for the tenth time that Monday. The little red-haired girl's spirits had been sinking steadily lower since Lindsey's news had put the thought in her head over the weekend; she really wanted to go to a prom – and she really wanted a date for a prom. Since her short-lived relationships with Eli and Jake had ended things looked like they would be quiet on that front for her. Again she found herself having to bury her regrets and wishing that she had got to the Seattle-born teen before Lindsey had back in January.
"Cat, if you don't stop saying that then I will gag you," Jade threatened. The brunette was becoming increasingly irritated with her friend's complaints. Cat squeaked a little but lapsed into silence while Beck shook his head. "What?" she challenged him as she turned to face him. "No, come on, what?" she repeated when he didn't answer, squeezing his hand a little tighter than was necessary.
"Do you have to talk to your best friend like that?" he shot at her, "Why can't you just be nice to her."
"I was just – " she began before he cut her off.
"Apologise to her," he demanded. They glared at one another for a few seconds before she relented with a sigh.
"Fine; I won't gag you Cat but can you please stop going on about the stupid prom?"
Beck looked little happier at this form of moderation, but opted not to say anything else for now. Freddie stole a curious glance at the pair and furrowed his brow at their interplay; something in the long-haired actor's attitude towards his girlfriend didn't sit well with him. Feeling it wasn't his place to comment on their public spat, or their relationship, the fifteen-year-old kept his counsel and carried on walking with his friends towards Sikowitz's room, his mild disappointment with his timetable displacing concerns over his friends' relationship in his thoughts.
The tech producer had compared his schedule to that of his girlfriend after the school returned from Spring Break; both were frustrated to find that they wouldn't share any of their creative classes for the rest of the semester, something that would limit the time they could spend together this term. They would have to content themselves with getting together at break or lunch time (something, Freddie noted grimly, would displease his red-haired friend if it meant they weren't hanging together) and after school.
"Rehearsal!" the balding teacher declared excitedly as the students gathered in his class. "You've planned your scenes, you've written your scripts and you've run through them a little in class – now it's time for a proper rehearsal. You have this lesson to do so before your scenes are performed to the class in the Black Box theatre on Wednesday."
"Slapping time," whispered Jade a little too gleefully as she cracked her knuckles, earning her another reproachful look from Beck, which she chose to ignore and a panicked one from Eli, which she chose to grin at.
"You're not scared?" the sandy-blond muttered to Freddie as they went to the corner of the room they had claimed for their own during the last week or so of planning the scene.
"No," he shrugged casually. "Jade's a little mean but she's not intentionally vicious; it'll all be good," he tried to reassure his friend, and failed miserably. "Besides," he smirked as he recalled a memory from the previous year, "Sam pushed me off a ladder once, so it takes a lot to hurt me."
On the other side of the classroom Cat was struggling to keep a straight face as she, André and Beck went through their script. Matters were further impeded by the Canadian-born continually casting concerned glances towards his girlfriend's group as he feared her getting out of control during the rehearsals. His songsmith friend was growing increasingly annoyed with the pair of them as their valuable rehearsal time slipped by.
"Beck!" he snapped eventually. The long-haired teen turned towards him, surprised at his sharp tone. "Everything is good over there; can we PLEASE focus on our own scene?" He also directed a glare at the red velvet-haired girl; she bowed her head a little and promised to try harder, Beck just frowned and turned his attention back to their script.
"Ok, so we've got the whole thing down," Cat recapped as Sikowitz time-checked the class; they had five minutes of rehearsal time left; the girl was doing her best to make it up to André for her lack of focus earlier. "We just need to get our timings finished; maybe we should practice after school somewhere?" she suggested.
"It'd have to be tonight," the musician noted, "we have fencing tomorrow night."
"I can make tonight," the Canadian actor shrugged and the plan was set, much to Jade's annoyance when she found out, as she had wanted to make her own plans with her boyfriend.
"Have you two made plans for tonight?" she asked the former iCarly by the Grub Truck at lunch, after learning that Beck would be otherwise engaged.
"We haven't arranged anything," he commented, casting a casual look to his girlfriend, who was stood next to them; she shook her head in response.
"I have some work I need to be doing tonight for some of my classes and on a couple of the productions I have to do this semester," the blonde explained.
"Want to do a bit more on our song then?"
"Sure."
Lindsey bit her lip; Freddie spending even more time with Jade was the last thing she wanted to think about right now – even more so than with Cat. However she couldn't come up with a good reason to object, plus she really did have some homework to do and things to rehearse, so she simply pushed her growing unease to one side and followed her boyfriend to their usual table in the Asphalt Café.
"So where do you want to work tonight?" Freddie asked the dark-brunette as they sat ready to enjoy their lunch. "Usual place?"
"I'm kinda sick of the music room; my mom will still be at work when we finish so how about my place?" she suggested.
"Works for me," he said, "my mom will be home so the chances are we'd struggle to get any peace and quiet."
Jade laughed; from the limited dealings she had had with the Benson matriarch she could appreciate her friend's sentiments. Lindsey, meanwhile, sipped her drink as she tried to stop her darkening mood from affecting her expression. She turned to her boyfriend and raised her eyebrows slightly as she took in something from his appearance that she had missed earlier.
"Your cheek seems a little red," she commented, touching it gently with the tips of the fingers of her right hand.
"Oh, we're doing comedy in Sikowitz's class," he laughed, "and we…" he shot a telling glance at the mean girl, "decided on slapstick for our production. Can't have slapstick without a few slaps," he shrugged. "Eli gets it worse than me," he gestured to the blond boy and his own rather stinging flesh with a grin.
"And you're both ok with that?" the blonde asked, slightly surprised at his news.
"It doesn't hurt," he dismissed her concerns with another shrug, "and we get our own back at the end." He directed the last comment, and a grin, to Jade, whose own expression plainly said bring it on. Again the looks they were sharing were of concern to the blonde; she took another casual bite of her lunch in an attempt to hide her feelings and worries.
"I've been thinking about it… maybe we could just get a sound effect to play?" Eli suggested. "Y'know, have the person doing the slapping," he shot a nervous look at the brunette girl, "maybe have their back to the audience, swing and miss but play a sound so it appears that they were hit?"
The other two group members looked to one another again; Freddie shrugged. "We could ask Sikowitz," he conceded, "but we don't have all that long to get it done before Wednesday, we can't practice tomorrow night because I'm busy," he gestured to the actors opposite who he would be at the fencing studio with, "and we haven't done any… stage fighting, is it called?" He addressed the last part to his girlfriend, who nodded.
"Yes, that's the term – we did a short course in it a few weeks ago so it's something you'll do next year."
"So it would be tricky to make it look real in such a short space of time," he concluded.
"Just face it," Jade laughed, smirking at her sandy-blond friend, "you're getting slapped boy."
Eli's face fell and he returned his gaze to his meal; Beck wore an imperceptible mask as he pondered on how best to comment on his girlfriend's actions.
"Well, I need to get to class," Lindsey sighed as she checked the time on her phone, "See you after school before you go?"
"Sure," her boyfriend agreed and they parted with a quick kiss. "We've got Science next – better get going," he commented to Cat and Beck. The red-head nodded and stood up, the actor remained seated.
"I'll catch you up," he informed them. Freddie shrugged slightly and he and Cat set off together. Eli decided, from the meaningful glance Beck shot him, that he, Robbie and André also needed to depart, leaving just the young couple together at the table. Beck placed a restraining hand on Jade's arm as she attempted to get up, turned to her and took a steadying breath.
"Everything ok," Freddie asked as the Canadian-born joined them in class a few minutes later; the teacher had just arrived and the students were settling into their places.
"Yes," he replied, a little tersely, "I just needed to speak to my girlfriend about something privately."
The Seattleite nodded; clearly the topic was not for public discussion at his time so he dropped it and turned his attention to withdrawing the books and stationery he would need for the lesson from his bag. Cat looked from one boy to the other with a confused expression; the red-head felt that she was missing something here but put it to one side, she needed all her focus on the subject at hand as it was one of her weaker ones.
"Freddie," she asked him in a low voice midway through the lesson, "do you think you could help me out sometime with this – I just don't get it."
He cast her a sympathetic look. "I'll try," he promised, "I don't know when just now, with our plays, the music project Jade and I have, my other work, your other work, spending time with Lindsey, but I'll see what I can do." Then, seeing the sorrowful and almost fearful look in the girl's eyes he leaned towards her. "For now…" and he began to talk through how she should answer each question as they worked. The little red-head really didn't follow the explanations but was at least able to complete the exercise. She left the classroom at the end still concerned about how well she would cope with the subject.
Freddie met up with Jade at the end of the school day and they made their way together to her home. It was the first time the tech producer had been there and he was impressed with the building and neighbourhood.
"Alimony cheques," she shrugged in answer to his unasked question, for he knew her parents, like his own, were divorced.
Jade let them into the house and led the way to the den; she had some basic recording and musical equipment there, including an old but serviceable keyboard.
"It's not as fancy as the stuff at school but it will do for us to get a little more work done," she commented with a hint of bashfulness in her voice; even as a girl who exuded supreme confidence she was awaiting the judgement of another at this time, about her home and belongings, and it gave her a slight nervousness to do so.
"It looks great. I love the equipment you've got here, some of this is pretty high end." The immigrant Angeleno's attention was focussed more on the recording stuff, to which he could relate, than to the instruments but he sounded suitably impressed to allay the girl's nerves.
With confidence restored she was able to put her mask back in place in an instant. "Ok, well we don't have all night, let's write something!"
He nodded with a grin that told her he wasn't fooled by the change in demeanour. She returned it as he settled behind the keyboard and she slipped the headphones on, closing her eyes as he replayed what they had so far, improvising here and there where it had occurred to him that there was room for improvement.
"Whoa, stop it," she blurted out all of a sudden. He gave her a quizzical look and she amended, "What you just played there – that was perfect." She quietly sang the line they had already, I could give my heart to you now, before fitting it to the new tune, I could give my heart away to you now. "How's that?" she asked.
"I think it works better," he agreed, making a few scribbled notes in his book and hooking up his pearphone to record the new tune and line as she sang it again.
An hour or so later the two tired teens heard Mrs West return from work.
"In here mom," Jade called out and the West matriarch followed the voice to the den.
"Hi sweetie, oh – hello… Freddie?" she guessed as she addressed her daughter's friend.
"Yes, hello Mrs West," he greeted her with a smile.
"Freddie and I are working on our song," her daughter explained, gesturing to the equipment they were using, "I think it's going great at the moment."
"That's good to hear; will you be staying for dinner Freddie?"
"Uh no, that's ok thank you," he replied politely, "my mom is expecting me home – actually she probably thought I'd be there by now." He glanced at his phone, surprised by the lack of missed calls or texts from his mother. "Do you think we'll get much more done tonight?" he asked his partner.
"Probably not, I think my brain's frazzled by it for tonight," she admitted.
"Me too," he laughed. "I'll see you tomorrow. Goodnight Mrs West," he gathered up his belongings and Jade walked him out with a promise to pick up on their assignment during their music class the next day.
I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Merry Christmas once again and I hope you all come back next week, on New Year's Day, for the next chapter.