Authors Note

OK yes. So Ryder is in this. And I get that doesn't make sense because Ryder was a senior in Beggin' On Your Knees, while the others were juniors at the time. But lets just forget that he was a senior. Or he failed because no girls would do his work for him so he had to repeat a year. Or anything else you can dream up, because it's not too important.

In my head canon, Ryder lives next door to Jade's dad, with his parents. And his dad and Jade's dad are best friends and business partners, so they hardcore ship...Jyder? Ryde? Oh yes. They hardcore ship Ryde.

Chapter 4: drop it down to that base drum, i got what you dream about

The rest of the morning went much the same - people glared and muttered about Beck, Jade got sympathetic and worried looks, but now at least Andre, Cat, Robbie and Tori were there as buffers for the stares. Although, as the gang was heading to lunch, it once more kicked off.

"Hey asshole! How fucking dare you?!" A familiar voice shouted out as they passed the lockers in the main hall, and Jade groans under her breath as she recognised it.

"Ryder, shut up." She stated bluntly, intercepting his strides towards Beck by stepping right into his path with her arms crossed and one eyebrow raised.

"No Jade - I can't believe he has the fucking guts to walk around school like nothing's happened!" He tried to step around her but she moved into place in front of him again.

"Nothing has happened." She ground out through gritted teeth, noting out of the corner of her eye that Tori and Andre had moved to flank Beck, Tori's face screwed up in confusion and anger at her former 'boyfriend'. Confusion because why would Ryder be so upset (because it was none of her business that she was kind of friends with Ryder) and anger both at the threat of him jumping Beck and just because that was her default feeling around the older teen.

"Stop defending him! I knew the moment you started dating him he was an asshole, I told you so! But I didn't think he'd stoop so fucking low! C'mon Oliver, grow a fucking pair and stop hiding!" He shouted and then made a mistake. He put his hands on Jades shoulder, obviously to move her aside to get to his goal, but well...

Jade really hates being touched.

"Take your hands off me right now before you loose them!" She hissed, pushing him back when he let go like burned him, obviously realising his mistake. "Now shut the fuck up. Leave Beck alone. And if you so much as look at him funny, I swear to God I will cover the school with those photos from Halloween when you were 13." She snapped, arms crossed and fists clenched.

"Fucking hell Jade, he's got you brainwashed or something, that sick fuck-"

"RYDER DANIELS SAYS HE'S GIVING AWAY FREE TICKETS FOR ARIANA GRANDE!" This came from Cat, and once again the gang was left in awe at how such a loud voice could come out of such a tiny girl.

However, it had the desired affect and Ryder was suddenly swamped on all sides by eager Ariana Grande fans, allowing Jade to dart away, grab Beck and then for the entire group to high tail it to Sikowitz's class room (where they'd agreed to have lunch, considering Beck was public enemy number one at school).

Once they'd slammed the door shut, everyone turned to look at Cat with wide eyes. "Cat...that was amazing." Robbie gushed, quickly followed by the rest of the group, all agreeing that her shout had been a pretty genius move - even Jade gave her a very quick and loose one-armed hug, and Beck ruffled her hair. The attention made the tiny redhead beam brightly and let out a squeal of happiness.

"So we hide out here until the end of lunch?" Andre asked curiously, looking around the classroom. "What about food?"

"Some of us could go to the Grub Truck and get stuff for everyone?" Tori suggested.

"Who goes?" Robbie asked, glancing around the classroom at his 5 friends.

"I'm gonna make an executive decision and say not Beck. Or Jade; if only because without Beck I don't think anyone else'll be able to stop her murdering people who try and speak with her." Tori tossed out, feeling a little bit of pride at the fact Jade gave her something close to an approving smirk.

"I'll go." Andre offered. "But someone gotta help me carry it back. I'm good, but not good enough to carry 6 lunches."

"Oh! Oh! Pick me! I wanna go!" Cat exclaimed, raising her hand and hopping around like a little kid needing the bathroom. And with that, Cat and Andre left to get lunch for the group (After money had been exchanged).

Once Cat and Andre returned, the group sat on the stage in a circle, avoiding the giant elephant in the room – the fact that Beck was now public enemy number 1 and Jade was an apparent damsel in distress. Although Tori had something else on her mind.

"How come Ryder was so...angry? Like, it seemed almost personal to him."

The group all exchanged a look – they'd purposefully not told Tori about the existing friendship between Ryder and Jade, at first because they didn't want Tori to feel bad for dating him due to his obvious crush on Jade in the past, and then after they realised he was a talentless loser, it was because even the slightest mention of him made Tori tear up (that girl fell in love far too easily).

"Me and Ryder are neighbors. We've been friends since we were 12." Jade told her, as bluntly as possible without it sounding harsh. "Before you say anything, I had no clue he used girls until he tried with you. It's a distant friendship." She shrugged.

"Only because Jade keeps the distance." Andre muttered, but it was loud enough for them all to hear.

"He's been crazy over Jade since they were 12." Rex, tactless as always, stated, as Robbie covered his mouth up. But it was out now.

"What?!" Tori's face was a mixture of hurt and betrayal. "Why didn't any of you tell me?! Didn't that kind of tip anyone off that something was up? That the guy who was in love with Jade suddenly wanted to date me?"

Jade heaved a sigh. "And this is exactly why we didn't tell you. Because you jumped to conclusions." Which was, everyone had to admit, hypocritical of her. Jade was the master of jumping to conclusions, and could get 'So you think I'm ugly?' when being told she was too jealous. "I personally thought that maybe he moved on after 5 years of me friend-zoning him." She wouldn't mention that back then she thought it was kind of in line with everything else; Tori had stolen all the lead roles, her friends, her boyfriend (at least, his attention. She managed to get it back like always though), so why not the guy who had a weird infatuation with her too? Of course, she'd matured enough to realise that no, Tori hadn't gone out of her way to steal all of Jade's roles and people. Beck and Cat still loved her the most, Andre was still her friend and Robbie was still...well, Robbie. But at the time, it was how she'd felt.

"I was just happy he wasn't panting over Jade anymore." Beck admitted, ruffling the hair at the back of his neck.

"He didn't pant." Jade rolled her eyes.

"Yeah he just admires. From afar. And moons over you." Andre snarked, his lips quirking up a little as Jade slapped his arm lightly with the back of her hand. "It's true! Him and Sinjin could start a 'I Stalk Jade' club."

"Wow, what girl wouldn't want a club like that." Jade wrinkled her nose a little and shuddered. Sinjin was harmless though, if not ridiculous in his obsession. Although his habit of breaking into her house was kind of pushing her to her limits. Thank God her dad hadn't noticed yet, because he'd kill the lanky boy.

"I saw Sinjin looking through a bin once. When I asked why, he said he was looking for a coffee cup he saw you throw away because it had your lipstick mark on it." Cat said with wide eyes and tilted her head. "When I asked why he was looking for that, he just laughed then ran away."

All of the group wore an equal look of disgust at the idea of a) rooting through a school bin and b) that he was so obsessed with Jade, even a lipstick stain was a prize.

"So...Ryder could be worse then." Robbie offered awkwardly, and Jade groaned as it seemed to rocket Tori's thought process straight back to what they had been discussing before; she'd half hoped they'd get into more stories about Sinjin's creepiness just to stop talking about Ryder.

"Ryder isn't really interested in me romantically anyway. He just wants to please his dad." Jade rolled her eyes, then explained to Tori. "His dad and mine were like, best friends from college. They're now named partners at the same law firm – West, Daniels & Benson. They've been wanting me and Ryder to date and then get married and have painfully pale babies named things like 'Westley' and 'Maximillion'." She scoffed in disgust at the thought.

"We didn't tell you at first because we didn't want you to feel weird because he had a thing for Jade. Then after...well, you got upset any time his name was mentioned." Robbie told her somewhat sympathetically, although they'd all discussed the fact it was kind of ridiculous how upset she got over a relationship that lasted less than a week. To be fair, she had grown up a lot since then.

"I just don't believe none of you told me that Ryder had history with Jade! I would have thought you'd have wanted to rub it in my face..." Tori looked at Jade with a confused look.

"Beck made me promise not too." Was the automatic reply.

"She's lying. She just didn't want to upset you." Beck mock whispered towards the Latina, which caused Jade to thump him on the arm.

"Shut up!" She exclaimed, giving him a shove for good measure. "He's lying." She told Tori bluntly, whilst wrestling with Beck to clamp her hand over his mouth in case he gave away any more secrets that made people think she might actually be, ugh, nice deep down inside. Because that was a filthy lie.