Tori woke up exhausted. Feeling more like a zombie now than she had looked just two weeks ago, she dragged herself out of bed and waited for Trina to vacate the upstairs bathroom. Normally, she would berate her selfish older sister for hogging their shared bathroom. Normally, she wasn't falling asleep while leaning against the wall, either. Trina's intense wail, a failed attempt to hit a high note far beyond her reach, was only enough to bring Tori back to the world of the living when the bathroom door swung open violently. Trina ignored the younger Vega and strolled past her with misplaced confidence. Tori shuffled past Trina without a word.

A shower and bite of breakfast later, Tori finally felt alert. Trina was busy fawning over herself in the mirror, so Tori checked TheSlap for updates. Her stomach fell.

The Robarazzi video from last night had over a thousand views. By now everyone in the school must have watched it – some several times. Tori groaned in embarrassment and frustration. Her fingers danced across her laptop before she could think to stop herself.

"Dear fellow students: PLEASE STOP LOOKING AT MY PIMPLE!" read her latest update. Tori regretted it the moment she saw it post to her home page. Her regret burned further when, seconds later, a classmate she didn't recognize reacted to her status update with a laughing-face emoticon. The house rattled as the front door slammed shut; it was enough to pull Tori's attention away from her computer, and she quickly snapped the laptop closed.

"Trina, wait!" she called out as she chased after her ride to school.

While that morning at school was difficult for Tori, it was by some small miracle that Jade had not physically, literally exploded. Every class, every hallway, every locker brought more faces. Faces that didn't matter. Faces that existed to fill space like so much unfocused color behind a portrait. Faces that judged her. They didn't even know her and, despite being a school for performers, Jade saw their thoughts through their flimsy, amateur masks. Some showed pity, some smugness, most were just irresponsibly curious. The online gossip show had sowed public doubt in the strength of Beck and Jade's relationship. The student body couldn't help but silently inquire; most people don't want a train to crash, but no one averts their gaze during the moment of impact.

None of them, save Cat, were in a pleasant mood by the time lunch rolled around. Any previous thought Tori had to speak with Jade about Robarazzi had long since been forgotten; this morning had drained all her energy. Tori picked nervously at her bagel while constantly glancing around. People had been staring at her all day. Why did she write that stupid post this morning?!

"I am so mad at Robbie," Tori lamented with a sigh of disgust. Unconsciously looking at Jade to seek comfort, she whined, "I feel like everyone is staring at my pimple." Unfortunately, Jade was fresh out of empathy – even for Tori.

"Everyone is," Jade responded flatly, not quite insulting the girl. She just didn't have the energy to coddle her right now. Her flatness earned a glare from the singer and Jade looked away from her, irritation at the student body still trumping her other emotions. Jade stabbed at her food without an appetite.

Andre turned the group's attention to himself. Robbie hadn't spared him either, claiming that Andre had an unhealthy relationship with ketchup. Apparently one kid had gone so far as to call him 'Mr. Ketchup'. Jade grimaced.

"It's all Tori's fault," she explained to the musician. Andre looked confused, but Jade wasn't leveling an accusation just to hurt the half-Latina. Tori mistook Jade's tone for something more judgmental and furrowed her eyebrows in irritation.

"Really?" she challenged. Now Jade was irritated with Tori. And Jade never backed down from a challenge.

"They were about to kick Robbie off TheSlap," she said firmly without malice. Tori's face fell and she turned away. Jade was right – Robbie was about to lose his blog before-

"You were the one who told him to start reporting on our personal lives, and then you gave him ideas by letting him shoot video of you playing with your pimple!" Jade saw by Tori's expression that she had finally gotten her point across. Challenge accepted – challenge won.

After further harassment by students who dropped off an industrial-sized bottle of ketchup for Andre and a flash mob of underclassmen photographers, they were all at their wit's end. Tori took a deep breath.

"I think we just have to show Robbie that we're not going to be his friends until he stops embarrassing everybody," Tori suggested. Andre, Beck and Jade all nodded along in agreement and tried to return to their food. Despite Cat's antics with a juicer - "You're so screwed up," Jade had observed – it finally seemed like they were going to be able to eat lunch in peace.

"'Sup my peeps?" came a grating voice. Tori frowned before making eye contact with Robbie. Jade refused to give him the benefit of her direct attention, settling on a scowl at the skyline. When Robbie decided he had permission to sit next to Jade, she leaned back to glare at him. "How's everyone doing this fine day?" he continued, completely oblivious to the mood at the table.

An offhand comment about the industrial-sized ketchup bottle was all it took for Andre to snap. He snatched Robbie's backpack from his arms and hurled it back towards the mezzanine. While Robbie was distracted, Jade seized the opportunity to open his lunch container and throw its contents all over the concrete floor, a move that earned a tense smile of approval from Tori, before slamming the empty container back down in front of the curly-haired disaster.

"What's wrong with you guys?!" Robbie exclaimed. Tori was livid – Robbie couldn't be this dense.

"Stop embarrassing us on your dumb Robarazzi blog!" she shouted at him, finally uncrossing her arms.

"Seriously, it's not funny anymore!" Jade yelled in agreement. The rest of the group chimed in, all shouting over themselves before Robbie raised his voice over their cacophony.

"You guys embarrass yourselves! I just get it on tape and show the world!" he defended himself poorly. Tori stared at him aghast, mouth fallen open in shock. She couldn't even form words. Andre filled the gap.

"Well, we don't wanna be your friends 'til you stop," he clearly, calmly delivered. Robbie's uncharacteristically smug smile and reply their only reward.

"Fine. See you on the web!" And with a small hop he was gone, leaving an irritated, frustrated silence in his wake. Jade rubbed her neck, hoping to pull some of the stress out by force. Tori sighed, arms crossed once again in self-comfort. The silence would last forever, save a clueless redhead's inability to process reality.

"D'you want me to juice your bagel?" she asked Tori sincerely. Tori groaned.

"I really don't!" she complained. Jade caught Tori's tone; it matched the tone she had taken last week when Cat was playing with her poisonous snow machine. She idly wondered if Tori was still angry with the tiny, ditzy thing. Jade was too upset with the Robarazzi situation to properly enjoy the idea of Tori being mad enough to hold a grudge against Cat of all people.

She sighed as the lunch bell rang. At least it was Friday, which meant that the next time she'd have to deal with this gossip trash would be next week. At least she'd have a weekend relaxing with Beck.


Jade was going to end up in prison. Her crime? Murder in the First Degree. Victim: Robbie Shapiro.

By the time Jade had gotten home from school and unwound, the Sun had already set. That suited her just fine – Jade preferred evening. But then an alert lit up her phone – a notification that she was just tagged in a new video. Her eyebrows raised as she tapped on the alert, bringing her to the video in question. Robarazzi, of course, and before the introduction was over she already felt a growl low in her throat.

"Wait, you got what?!" came Robbie's irritating voice from his grinning, punchable face. The video replaced Robbie with an even more punchable face; that of a freshmen who was trying too hard to look like a typical California surfer.

"I got Beck and Jade in the front of Beck's car, and you gotta see this!" mysteriously alluded Surfer Dude. Jade's eyes joined her eyebrows, as both reached for the heavens. The video began to play and Jade remembered – it happened this past Tuesday! She had forgotten about it, focused as she was on the rumor Robbie was using to push a wedge between her and Beck.

Beck had driven Jade to school that morning, and she was staying late to continue working on an upcoming project – it hadn't been assigned yet, but Jade preferred to prepare. She didn't finish until evening, and Beck was still hoping to reclaim the rest of the night.

"C'mon. Let's just go, it'll be fun" he coaxed. There was a local party starting up soon that held Beck's interest.

"No," she whined. Her voice sounded pathetic to herself. Jade wasn't in the mood to be around a group of people. She usually wasn't.

"Why not?" Beck asked patiently. Jade hated justifying her feelings, but she knew Beck responded better to a softer tone. When they were alone, Jade could afford to be a little less guarded. Besides, if he felt like he was protecting her, Jade knew he'd usually back off.

"C-Cuz I didn't shower this morning, and I had tuna fish for lunch, and I just-" she lamented, only stopping when she saw a shadow behind them. She twisted around, staring in disbelief.

"There's a dude in the back seat!" she shouted in equal parts anger and terror. Jade had never seen the kid before, but he had a video camera and its bright red LED was glowing. "GET OUT OF HERE! WHAT'S WRONG WITH YOU!?" she screamed and the kid quickly retreated from the vehicle. "Yeah, you better run! I'm gonna kill you!" she threatened the echoing sounds of flip flops sprinting across pavement. Beck drove Jade home immediately after that incident. Even though he especially wanted to go to the party now, there was no way he was going to convince Jade. He'd just go by himself.

Jade was seething. Her blood would boil were it not contained safely in her vessels. With that video posted, everyone at Hollywood Arts would be receiving a new video notification. It would be on the home page all weekend. People were going to hear a part of Jade never meant for anyone else. It was a massive betrayal of trust, not that she extended any special conditions to Robbie, and it dug at old scars she thought had long since stitched themselves shut. Her eyes burned. She didn't think she had sounded that whiny in the moment, but hearing it played back – ugh! She sounded like Tori!

Tori. Jade's mind fixated like a bull seeing red. This would never have happened if she hadn't encouraged Robbie. She wouldn't be fighting off further advances from girls who already fawned over Beck who now thought Jade and Beck would break up any day now, and she wouldn't be a laughing stock among the student body. Jade's fingers flew over the screen of her phone. The boy knew better than to ignore a rare call from her. She was greeted by booming bass from the receiver.

"Hold on, I gotta move past this speaker real quick. All right, what is it, Jade?" the voice struggled to shout over the background music.

"Andre, text me Tori's phone number," Jade commanded. Refusing to permit time for Andre to establish context, she quickly ended the call. A muffled scream announced the arrival of a new text message. Without a plan, Jade opened the message and tapped the number Andre had provided. The phone rang. Once. Twice.

"Who are you and why is your number blocked?" a sassy voice immediately challenged. Jade's vision briefly flashed crimson. A cooling thought prevailed; Tori didn't know it was her – of course, she had forgotten about the restriction feature she activated earlier in the year – she earned one chance to pull Jade back from the cliff.

"You have three seconds to walk back the tone, Vega," Jade firmly stated.

"Jade?" was Tori's confused response, although her tone had considerably changed. Good girl. Now Jade could be mad at her.

"Your little Ms. Sunshine act needs to stop, Tori! It's affecting people other than you now, and I refuse to let my reputation suffer for your-" Jade began to rant, a veritable overgrown jungle of words and accusations.

"W-Wait. Jade," Tori interjected. Jade fumed.

"Don't interrupt me!" she shouted back across the receiver.

"I-I didn't!" Tori quickly backpedaled. Jade growled but continued.

"Look, you need to figure out some people are beyond helping! They are black holes, destined to consume and destroy without remorse. And you playing the part of a stupid little "Fix-It Girl" won't help them – it will just hurt everyone around you!" Jade firmly ignored the fact that it was only because of Tori's weakness for helping people that she reconnected with Beck.

"Why are you screaming at me?" Tori asked, only partially whining. Jade sighed in frustration. She really didn't want to put the video into words, but she had no choice. How could Tori be simultaneously so observant and so dense? The girl was an enigma wrapped in flesh.

"Because of you, one of Robbie's little goons snuck up on me and Beck, shot a stupid video and now it's all over the web!" Jade explained, her voice growing louder as she explained.

"How was it my fault that Robbie-" started Tori's indignant reply. Jade swore a blood vessel would pop if she continued this conversation.

"I've already told you how it's your fault, Tori! I hate repeating myself-" she laid into the singer on the other end of the call.

"Jade!" Tori interrupted again. Jade growled; her voice dripped venom.

"And I hate being talked over! Whatever, I'm done talking. If you don't understand, just go watch the video. Everyone else in the world already has, I'm sure!"

"Okay, okay, yes! I'll watch it," Tori consented. Jade needed to push a little more, just to make sure her point had been received. After all, Tori was apparently in a 'dense' mood tonight.

"Now!" Jade commanded.

"Right now!" Tori consented. She sighed and hung up her phone. Whatever, she was just in the middle of working on a school assignment, but sure – she'd drop everything to watch another dumb Robarazzi video. She had suffered enough humiliation over the stupid blog. Jade probably was just not used to being so firmly on the receiving end; the video probably wasn't even that bad.

It was that bad. Tori slammed her laptop closed, all thoughts of her open assignment gone. She grimaced as she leaned back in her chair, arms crossed protectively over her chest. Robbie had gone too far this time. No wonder Jade was furious – that video was a more invasive breach of privacy than anything Robbie had done so far. Spreading rumors about pimples and weird favorite foods was one thing, but he was now condoning literal spying! Stuff like that could actually drive people apart, and Jade and Beck had just gotten back together a month ago. Tori was mad at Robbie before, but now she finally felt the full gravity of Jade's words. Even though she never intended for Robbie to run roughshod like this, it was Tori's fault. She needed to fix this.

Tori was afforded a very brief distraction with her mom's return from the store. She had apparently found some new depilatory cream – "Oh my God," Tori had groaned at her mother's terrible pun even as she lathered the cream under Tori's arms – and had caught on to Tori's odd mood. While her parents were gone an awful lot, the question from her mom made he realize she was taking out her irritation the wrong way. She would have explained the entire situation if the flashing lights outside the backdoor hadn't caught her attention. Robarazzi goons, cameras clacking away, had taken residence on her porch, and Tori struggled to balance her rage at them with her focus on keeping her arms in the air while the hair removal cream did its work. The little monsters finally retreated after gathering plenty of ammunition. That teared it - Tori was at her wits' end.

"Okay, I need to put an end to this now!" Tori announced before stomping off to the bathroom. First, remove this stinky hair cream. Then, send a message to Andre, Beck and Jade to invite them over tomorrow to plan the details to punish Robbie. Since he didn't care about their friendship, it was time to hit him where it would hurt – Robbie's new found popularity.


Jade didn't even try to fight back the grin gracing her lips. Seated in Tori's living room, leaning against Beck on the couch, she listened patiently as Tori laid out her revenge plan. It had taken an angry phone call, but she refused to argue with results. When she read the group text message from Tori the night before, she first was hesitant.

"REVENGE! Meet at my house tomorrow morning. I have a plan," the message read; it ended with an emoticon meant to represent "devious". When Jade received it, she rolled her eyes. Of course Tori's texts read just like her status updates on TheSlap. But she was intrigued enough to show up. Jade had seen Tori mad, even livid, and this presented an opportunity to see if Tori was capable of channeling that anger into productive action. Jade was also a little excited to see if Tori could craft and execute an adequate plan.

Jade wasn't disappointed, a fact that was equally surprising and amusing to the aspiring thespian. After Tori had explained the events last night at her home and her full plan, Jade was on board. The plan just needed a little help.

"Fine, but I'm bringing my camera as back-up. And we need to do it right at the end of class so more people are in the hallway," Jade expanded upon the plot. Tori nodded in agreement, smiling smugly. They liked her plan. This was actually going to work!


Monday afternoon arrived quickly. Jade and Tori met by Tori's locker, both had arranged with their teachers for time out of class for a 'film project', and double-checked Tori's video camera and Jade's digital camera. Equipment at the ready, Tori started aggressively checking her phone. With five minutes until the end of class, Tori was pacing the hallway anxiously while Jade looked up and down the hallway, her nerves feeding off Tori's behavior.

"Ugh! Where are they?!" Tori fumed, stomping her boot. Jade glanced over at her, unable to resist giving her a once over. Tori's outfit was cute, but she refused to compliment the girl. She needed to focus, herself.

"Patience," she replied firmly.

"They finished gym ten minutes ago!" Tori exclaimed, her arms flopping to her side. Jade rolled her eyes slightly.

"It takes time to get from the locker room all the way here," she explained, only sounding a little condescending. Tori had turned her back midway through Jade's assurance, opting to look down the hall again. Jade felt a minor irritation at Tori's decision to ignore her while she was speaking. "Hey, did that pit cream work?" she asked. She was also genuinely curious. If Tori had twisted around any faster, she would have given herself whiplash.

"Never speak of it!" she growled out, holding up a single finger while staring Jade in the eye. Jade looked away, her eye brows raising and her stomach fluttering. Whoa.

She froze, mentally counting to three in her head. Calm down, girl.

As if answering the need for a distraction, the sound of a door quickly flying open caught both girls' attention and they twisted back towards the opposing hallway. Jade felt a rush of what she could only describe as giddy energy.

"Oh! Turn it on, turn it on!" she gushed, grinning wildly as she reached out to touch Tori's arm. Tori was focused on her camera and didn't immediately register Jade's uncharacteristic excitement. She only had a few seconds before Robbie would be here. She started recording.

On queue, Andre and Beck ran around the corner. Jade leaned forward, camera up to her eye; it would only take another second or two before-

"It's not funny!" rang out Robbie's frustrated voice, accompanied by the sound of his bare feet slapping against the tile floor. As he rounded the corner, Jade instantly snapped several photos. Robbie shrieked in surprise. "Turn off the camera!" Tori heard other students laughing over her shoulder, but Robbie remained her focus. She forced a smile she didn't mean.

"Why? You look so cute!" she chimed with fake excitement.

"Dance for us, Robbie," Jade urged, her voice sultry. Tori looked over at Jade to catch her expression, her smile turning genuine. Robbie demanded they return his clothes, all while Jade continued clicking the camera away. Tori pretended to consider Robbie's request, asking the group what they thought. With unanimous consent, they disagreed. Jade moved behind Tori to her other side; she needed another angle.

"Nah, I think we need to put this video online," Tori flatly answered Robbie's plea. Robbie begged further.

"Sorry," Jade answered, but clearly did not mean. Tori again glanced at the girl, eager to match her response.

"The people wanna see what the people wanna see," Tori added in a resigned tone, as if her hands were tied.

"You can not put this video online!" Robbie claimed, his voice an odd mix between sounding angry and begging. Tori nodded as Andre agreed to kill the video.

"If you kill Robarazzi!" she stated, her gaze icy. In shock, Robbie only now saw the similarities between Tori and Jade – their expressions were identical, as if they had practiced this confrontation, down to their body language. Their lips mirrored the other, a flat line painted in place, and their brows were creased downwards, critical, dangerous. It didn't make sense. Tori had only been here for two months, and Jade didn't seem to even like the girl. How were they both so in sync with each other?

"What? No!" Robbie exclaimed, incapable of abandoning the only project that had ever gotten him positive attention.

"Yes!" Tori demanded. Jade grinned; Tori sounded good and pissed. She liked it.

"My blog is a hit!" Robbie tried to defend himself. Without a word between the two, Tori and Jade moved synchronously to collect more images. Robbie again was struck by their similarity.

"All right, then I'm just going to zoom in right here and..." Tori trailed off, moving the camera to do exactly as she threatened. Robbie reached out to block the camera, begging her to cease.

"Are you gonna stop?" she asked, danger flicking across her dark eyes. Jade tilted her head, her own pale orbs focused on Robbie's reaction. He glanced between the two of them, looking for any help. None was available. He was alone.

"Well if I don't do Robarazzi, what am I going to do for my blog on TheSlap?!" he desperately asked, as if he couldn't possibly stop the show without a replacement. Tori couldn't believe his audacity. She glanced at Jade, the dark clothed girl mirroring her action unbidden. She felt...something...exchange between them. An understanding? Agreement? Words couldn't describe it, but Tori felt like she was inside Jade's mind. And Jade was right. Some people were black holes, feeding off the starlight of others.

Jade saw it in Tori's chocolate irises – she understood. It was more of a human connection than Jade ever had with another person, even Beck. Oh, he was patient, he tolerated, but he didn't understand. Even though it was limited, it was just one small fragment of her world view, Tori clearly understood Jade in that moment.

They both turned their gaze back to Robbie.

"Two words," Jade started flatly, two fingers held in the air.

"Your problem," Tori finished firmly. She snapped her camcorder closed. Now armed with blackmail, she knew Robbie wouldn't dare continue to embarrass them. Andre and Beck tossed the stolen clothing back to Robbie, who slunk off with only a sad whimper. Tori ran a hand through her hair. Now that the confrontation was over, she felt a rancid bubble in her stomach fighting to escape. She really didn't like treating other people like that, but she was glad the whole thing was finally over.

Jade watched Tori's internal struggle with hidden interest. Tori was clearly feeling conflicted, but now she finally understood. Where would that understanding lead? With a quick congratulations among them, the group dispersed – they still had afternoon classes to finish and it was only Monday.

The black star's orbit slipped a little lower, circling the aspiring singer that much faster.