If you told me a week ago that she is nurturing and caring, I would have escorted you to a psych ward in the hospital and made sure you stay there.

But now, I'm not so sure how to describe this mystery known as Jade West.

It all started when I overheard Beck talking to André and Robbie about hanging out at Jade's house last weekend, watching some horror movie. I have always been interested to see what Jade's house look like, having only caught a glimpse of it (I think that's her room?) during our video chat on my flight. My impression of it was that it is sorta cozy, but filled with dead things, like the collection of butterfly corpses on her wall.

As expected, Jade did not extend the invitation to me, so I did not get to go with the rest of the gang. Despite one whole year of me trying to become friends with everyone, it's sad to know that she apparently still did not consider me as an amiga. I have tried multiple times to be nice to her, helping her whenever I get the opportunity to, but she had always pushed me away so far.

So you can imagine my surprise when she asked me to hold out my wrist and dragged me into the Janitor's closet to "invite" me to her house for the weekend. I almost gave in to the urge to reach out and touch her forehead to check that some sort of fever wasn't burning her sanity away, but the thought of her pulling out her scissors from thin air and cutting off my fingers made me decide otherwise.

When I sat with the gang at lunch, Jade was nowhere to be found. I picked at my spaghetti, trying to start a conversation, "So guys, Jade invited me to her house for the entire weekend. Who is coming along?"

Andre dropped his spoon in his pile of mash potatoes, his mouth agape. "She invited you to her house?"

"Yes. You guys are all going, right? Right?!"

Beck had a mysterious grin on his face, his next words alarming, "Actually, I think it's a solo weekend for the both of you."

"Solo? What do you mean? None of you guys are going?!"

He continued smiling. "Yes, you are probably going to spend the weekend with her all alone, since she did not ask any of us to hang out."

At that point, I was seriously considering not going, in spite of the possible deadly consequences that I would have to face in school from the next week onwards. A weekend alone with Jade? It already sounded like a death sentence. There were so many ways things could go wrong and end badly, and it all ends with my unfortunate demise. But I had already given her my word, and the prospect of having my curiosity sated created an un-scratchable itch in my mind.

Jade inviting me to her house? Sounds like an once-in-a-lifetime thing.

Since there is the possibility of me dying either way, I decided to go after all. At least, I'll get to see what her house even looks like, right? As long as she decided not to dump my dead body in the desert after cutting my head off with her scissors in her car or something like that.

If she did, they can put She was brave and went to Jade's house alone on my tombstone.


She was already waiting for me at the main door of the school, and dragged me straight to her car right after all the classes ended. I only stopped struggling to get into her car after a quick glance at the backseat to make sure there is no shovel there this time. The pit in my stomach never went away for the entire ride, especially when she turned into Shadow Creek Park. After escaping her previous attempt to murder me and bury my body in the desert during the ride to school, I thought it was an improvement this time. At least there is no shovel, right?

But that's Jade we're talking about. She can probably dig a hole with her scissors or bare hands to bury me in if she wanted to.

Jade must have sensed my fear, because she turned her head to look at me, a devious smirk on her face. "Relax, Tori. I'm not going to kill you and toss your carcass in the desert. If I wanted you dead, you'd already be in the trunk by now."

I smiled at her nervously, trying to calm my nerves. Jade had a point. If she wanted to murder me, we wouldn't have to wait till I got into her car. She would have struck me down right there in the school parking lot. Besides, given Beck's response, if he knew she wanted to kill me, he wouldn't have been smiling during lunch, right?

Unless he hated me, but I don't think so, since he actually seems to be happier after breaking up with Jade and being besties with her. Wait. He did try to kiss me on the couch that day, and I did kind of push him away with my fist and sort of avoided being alone with him after that, so maybe he does hate me after all. Oh God, is this a conspiracy between him and Jade?

Gulp.

She rolled her gorgeous emeralds at me when I tried to unlock the car door. "Don't even bother trying, Vega. You won't be able to do anything stupid like jumping out of my moving car like last time and hurting yourself. I made sure of it."

Huh, Jade was concerned about me injuring myself? That's a surprise.

Holding on to my nerves as much as I could, I settled down and tried hard to stop myself from squirming in my seat for the rest of the journey. At least she didn't hum that creepy tune this time, just looking straight ahead with a scowl on her face.


We arrived at Jade's house safe and sound, without my corpse being stuffed in the trunk.

I gasped as I took my first glance at the house. To put it mildly, Jade's house is huge. It's more like a mansion, no, a castle. The only thing lacking is a moat around the structure, guards armed with pikes patrolling around and dragons flying around it.

Jade rolled her eyes again when she saw me staring with my jaw on the ground. She grabbed me by my wrist, throwing open the car door and dragging me out of her black Mustang to her front door. I held my breath as she stuck the large gaudy key that Cat swallowed once into the lock; I was about to take my first look into this mysterious place known as Jade's house.

She pushed the handle of the door open after a loud click announced that it was unlocked. Still gripping on to me, she dragged me into the building, while I tried hard not to wince at the pain on my wrist.

I bit my lips as I took in as much of the house as I could. The insides were tastefully decorated, with light green walls, a giant television and an even bigger couch in front of it. There was a huge staircase leading up to a second floor, and the floor was covered with large brown carpeting.

She continued tugging at my arm, stomping through the house to a smaller door on the left at the far end of the hallway. I followed her, not out of choice, and waited with bated breath as she opened the mysterious wooden door.