When Beck was visiting family in Canada, Jade usually didn't eat with the rest of the group during lunch; after all, she didn't really like any of them (well, except for Cat, but Cat's mind was often floating in some other plane of existence anway), and she much preferred a quiet lunch alone. But ever since the previous afternoon, since the incident at the park, Jade felt curiously drawn to Tori. As though she needed to re-evaluate the rigid judgements she had already formed about the girl.

So here she was, sitting with Robbie, Cat, Andre, and Tori at the Asphalt Cafe. Listening to their stupid conversation about the respective merits of blue jeans and khakis. Jade was completely uninterested, considering she would never dream of wearing any pants that light. And she didn't much care what anyone else thought about them either.

But their discussion dragged on and on, and as Robbie and Andre raised their voices in an argument about which style of pants was better, Jade became uncomfortably aware of how close the others were to her. Her chest tightened with panic, and she instinctively pulled a pair of scissors out of her book bag. She looked around the table for something she could cut up, but nothing immediately stuck out to her. As the noise around her filled her head, Jade quickly reached in her bag again and felt her hand close around a pencil. What the heck, might as well. She pulled it out and began to cut the paint off the wood, making little marks as she used the scissors like a set of mini saws.

As she zeroed in on the pencil and scissors in front of her, Jade's mind gradually stopped racing as the sounds of people talking became background noise. Jade continued to devote all her attention to making lines in the wood of the pencil, and she finally felt some of the tension recede. Cutting things up with scissors always made Jade feel less anxious; maybe it was because there was something calming in the metaphor of cutting away whatever walls were around her (whether they were created by tight spaces or by people being too close and too loud). Whatever the reason was, scissors were Jade's go-to coping mechanism. No one else really understood it, but Jade didn't care. It didn't bother her in the least that people assumed she was an aggressive jerk who wanted to stab someone. If it meant that they would stay out of her business, it was a good thing. If no one wanted to get close to Jade in the first place, then that meant there was no one who could betray her.

But then there was Tori. Tori seemed different, somehow. Jade had initially assumed that she was just a shallow, obnoxious egomaniac, like Trina. But her behavior at the park yesterday showed that maybe she was something more than that. Maybe Jade's initial judgement was off. That didn't happen often; Jade spent a lot of time observing other people, figuring out who they were and what their motives for action were. So that she could protect herself. Because, as Jade knew better than most, just because someone seems nice, doesn't mean they won't stab you in the back in the end.

Although Tori had originally found Robbie and Andre's discussion of blue jeans and khakis quite entertaining, it quickly grew stale, and Tori found herself looking around the table to see whether Cat and Jade were just as bored by it.

As Tori turned her gaze to her right, she found Cat to be staring blankly up at the sky. Maybe she was cloud watching, or maybe was just dancing around with fairies and unicorns in her mind. She really does seem like she lives in a different world, Tori thought enviously. A simpler one, where you don't have to worry about whether the person you want to become friends with could actually be potentially dangerous. Sighing, Tori looked across the table to where Jade was sitting. Jade had been very quiet during this meal; it's not like she usually talked a ton, but she had literally said nothing so far, and it made Tori kind of uneasy.

As Tori looked over, her gaze fell downward to the table, where Jade was aggressively trying to cut up a pencil with a pair of scissors. What the heck…? What in the world is with this girl? She's really not doing a good job of defying what Trina said. Upon a closer look, Tori noticed something even more confusing and concerning.

"Jade, is that my pencil you're cutting up?"

Jade didn't respond right away, and at first Tori thought Jade hadn't heard her. But after a few moments, Jade finally looked up.

"Is that my pencil?" Tori repeated.

Jade glanced down at the pencil quickly, then made eye contact again and shrugged. After a moment, she looked down again and renewed her efforts to saw the pencil in half.

"Jade! Give me my pencil back!"

Jade froze mid-cut, and she stayed that way for a while. Finally, she withdrew her scissors and thrust them back into her book bag, then pushed the pencil across the table to Tori, stood up, and stormed away.

Tori gaped after Jade, very confused about what had just happened. Then she glanced down at her pencil, which just yesterday had been clean and smooth. Now it was marred with dozens of cut marks. The sight made Tori feel perturbed. Is this supposed to be some sort of signal? Or a threat? Tori pushed away the rest of her meal; she no longer felt hungry. As long as I'm wondering about whether what Trina told me is true, I won't be able to feel at ease around Jade. I need some answers.

Jade wove around the tables in the Asphalt Cafe, trying to ignore the chaos and noise as she passed through and caught glimpses of dozens of different conversations. She had never liked how noisy it was out there, but what was she to do about it? When she ate with Beck or Cat, she had no choice but to settle at one of the tables and try to ignore the rest of the people. But when she was alone, she had other options…

Jade went into the school building and made her way to the janitor's closet. Once inside, she closed and locked the door and slid down to sit on the floor in the middle of the room. Even though enclosed spaces typically made Jade feel anxious, the janitor's closet had come to be her safe place in the school. For one thing, it was actually larger than it appeared from the outside, and the dim light made it seem even bigger to Jade. More importantly, when she sat there, Jade could be alone. As much as she hated being surrounded by walls, being surrounded by people was much worse, and the janitor's closet was the only place in the school where she could get away from everyone. Besides, when she was in here, she could cut up a toilet paper roll or a trash can, and no one seemed to care.

Instead of taking out her scissors, Jade pulled her legs in toward her chest with her arms and leaned her head against her knees. She closed her eyes, imagining she was in a wide open space, and she tried to focus her thoughts. Tori. I should probably talk to Tori. Maybe. Well, maybe not. Maybe it's too risky. Maybe she'll end up being a terrible person, just like everyone else. But what if she isn't? What if Tori could actually understand? What if she could… be a friend?

Jade thought about it for a while longer, and when the bell rang to signal the end of lunch, Jade had reached a decision: Friday. If it still seems like a good idea at that point, I'll talk to her on Friday.

As Tori, Robbie, Andre, and Cat got up at the end of lunch, Tori finally worked up the guts to ask the question that had been on her mind since the night before. "Um, guys? Has Jade actually done anything bad? Like, bad bad?"

Robbie and Andre exchanged a meaningful glance, and Cat looked away. None of them said anything, and Tori suddenly got an uneasy feeling in her stomach.

"Guys?"

Robbie started, "Well, there was that one time—"

Cat cut him off. "I don't think we should talk about this… Jade wouldn't want us to."

Andre nodded in agreement. "You're right."

"What?" Tori asked, getting more nervous by the second. "Talk about what?"

Andre looked directly into Tori's eyes. He looked more serious than he ever had before when he said, "Look, Tori, some stuff happened, but it's complicated, it's in the past, and it's really not a good idea to go digging it up. Okay?"

"I don't understand," Tori said, head spinning as she tried to make sense of what Andre was saying.

"Just please, don't go messing with Jade's past, okay?"

"Yeah, okay," Tori responded uncertainly. The cryptic answers she had gotten from her friends only made her more intrigued as to what they could be referring to, and she had no intent of letting it go. Whatever had happened, Tori needed to know.

A/N: Well, I'm not quite sure what to say other than: I'm getting super excited about this storyline. I hope you're enjoying it as well. Thank you so much for reading! Until next week!