Jade's POV

When I entered school this morning after my mother and I's typical morning argument, that ended up with me storming out and a slammed door, the last thing I expected to see in front of my locker was a shorter girl standing without a care in the world as she studied my locker.

Who the fuck is she?

She was wearing a purple hoodie that obviously was too large for her along with some ripped jeans that seemed to correctly fit her slim figure. I began studying her, trying to figure out who she was when she suddenly stiffened before whipping around to face me, the shorter girl having to look up at me slightly. Finally being able to see her face I immediately concluded she was new because I had no idea who she was and I knew everyone in this school. The smaller girl seemed to be frozen which made me internally smirk because she seemed to already sense I wasn't someone to fuck with. However, the girl didn't say anything, I got bored waiting for her to speak since she was clearly malfunctioning, so I put on my best glare before setting up my usual front.

"Who are you, and why the fuck are you in the way of my locker?" I growled out at the new girl, glaring down at her.

"I-I... I-I'm Tori Vega! I-I was just admiring y-your locker was all..." She managed to squeak out, somehow appearing to curl in on herself even more beneath my critical glare. I glanced down at the girl's hands as she began nervously fidgeting them. I quickly noticed her refusing to make eye contact with me, feeling an overwhelming sense of curiosity to found out why she wouldn't, but I shoved that unwelcome feeling back where it came from. I knew I was intimidating, but usually people made eye contact with me at least a little, so the complete lack of it made me decide to dial it back a bit since I didn't want the girl pissing herself.

"You can admire it all you want, from over there." I pointed to the other side of the hallway, looking at the still frozen girl with an unamused and bored look. "I need to get my shit and you're in the way, so move midget." I growl at her, feeling a sudden pang of guilt as I watched the shorter girl complete tense up at my words. The curiosity from earlier bubbled back to the surface as I watched the shorter girl's eyes, she appeared to be struggling with something internally which only increased my curiosity towards the girl standing as stiff as a board in front of me. It was clear to me that Vega wasn't completely here with me anymore the longer I studied her eyes. It looked like there were two different emotions fighting for control over the girl, I could only really make out the fear that was present in her eyes and radiating off of the shorter girl's body.

I'm not sure how long we stood like that, me observing the internal struggle of little miss Vega before the smaller girl finally snapped out of her stupor.

"You finally out of your own head weirdo?" I asked with genuine curiosity, making me growl at myself internally for allowing myself to feel anything but hatred towards the short girl since I didn't do emotions. My voice seemed to have shaken the younger girl from her own thoughts, causing her to tilt her head up slightly to look at me. While the girl had been in her own world I'd moved to open my locker, her body seeming to shrink away from me automatically as I came closer to her which caused her to move out of my way. I'd let my mask fall when I was watching the younger girl, so I was doing my best to cover up the curiosity that had probably been plastered across my face with a look of disinterest that I typically wore.

"Uhm... y-yah... sorry about that... uhm...?" The shorter girl attempted to apologize, and I realized she was trying to get my name which made me raise one of my eyebrows a bit, beginning another internal battle of my own because I was supposed to be being an asshole to this girl so she knew to fear me like everyone, but my mouth was moving before I even had time to comprehend what was happening.

"Jade. Jade West. You're definitely new here if you don't know who I am." I scoffed, furrowing my brows as I looked down at her.

"Why does everyone know who you are?" She asked curiously, looking at me with curiosity burning in her chocolate brown eyes with an intensity I'd never seen before that made my stomach feel strange... I contemplated scaring the shit out of the girl so she'd know, but another part of me strangely wanted to leave the girl alone. I suddenly realized as I stood thinking that Vega's eyes had began roaming over me, snapping out of my thoughts and making me cock my hip out with a hand out, smirking as the girl seemed to realize what she was doing, causing a light blush to dust her cheeks.

She's pretty cute when she blushes...

I frowned internally at the unwanted thought before pushing it away, ending up smirking at the girl in front of me. "I think you'll find out in time Vega." Grinning, I closed my locker, swaying my hips as I made my way down the hallway without glancing back at Vega, leaving her to stare after me while I was left wondering why I hadn't been mean to the girl like I was to everyone else.

As I made my way towards Beck's locker to wait for him to get to school a sudden wave of anger washed over me.

What the fuck? Why was I nice to that girl? She was in my way! I should've shoved her and insulted her like I would've done with anyone else! What the fuck are you doing West? Nobody is allowed in expect Beck, and even then he can't be allowed in all the time. There wasn't anything special about that girl, so why didn't you show her who's in charge just like you normally do? Sure, she was smaller and looked kinda cute, but we chew and spit out small, cute things! She didn't even do anything, but she managed to make your facade falter for a moment! She can't be trusted! Shut her out!

I frowned as I let my thoughts run through my head, closing my eyes and leaning against the lockers as I realized I definitely couldn't act the way I'd acted towards Vega earlier because then the girl would get the wrong idea, or she might end up destroying the walls that I'd worked so hard to build up. I grinned a little to myself, nobody can come in, before quickly spiraling down into my thoughts again.

It's not like you'll probably see the girl very much anyway, she's definitely not a senior, so you probably won't be forced to purposefully be mean to Vega. If I do and she tries to be nice or interact with me like a friend I'll just respond like I do with anyone else, with a cold shoulder.

I nodded to myself a bit, still consumed by thoughts on the Vega girl when I felt something touch my arm which caused me to immediately snap out of my thoughts, yanking my arm away from whatever had touched me before nearly snarling towards the source of the contact.

"Don't FUCKING touch me!" I nearly screamed at whoever it was, my arm feeling dirty from the contact. My heartbeat was pounding in my ears as I opened my eyes to see Beck in front of me, frowning at me with a look of concern painted across his face.

"Sorry Jade... I thought you'd heard me say hi... are you okay...?" Beck cautiously asked me, closing my eyes again I took a shaky breath in before opening my eyes and slowly nodding at him.

"I'm okay... sorry... it's been a long time since I've yelled at you for touching me..." I grumble softly, rubbing the spot he'd touched to get rid of the dirty feeling. I felt guilty for lashing out at the boy in front of me, and mentally cursed myself for allowing myself to get so lost in my thoughts.

Beck was watching me like I would break if he made a wrong move and that began to agitate me, causing me to start glaring at him which made him raise his hands up in surrender.

"Hey- I'm just trying to make sure I don't freak you out again babe..." He mumbled the last part quietly, the word making me flinch a little before I closed my eyes and let out a deep sigh, dragging my hand through my hair before reopening my eyes.

"It's nothing Beck. I'm just stressed more than usual because of my mother. She and I have been arguing more than usual." I lied to Beck, not feeling like dealing with his likely questions because of the actual cause.

What the hell Vega, what are you doing to me? He's literally my boyfriend and I just lashed out at him like I didn't know him...

I reach my hand out to grab Beck's, entwining our fingers as he took my hand, he gave me a soft smile along with a nod.

"It's okay babe, I know it only really happens when you're really deep in your thoughts, no harm no fault. You know I'm here for you if you need someone to talk to, and you're always welcome at my place if you need somewhere to escape to, don't forget that." Beck said, giving my hand a squeeze which made me let out a shaky sigh of relief I hadn't known I was holding. I leaned up to peck his lips briefly before nodding at him with appreciation.

"No harm no fault... so you wanna go make out in the black box?" I grinned as I lightly tugged his hand towards the theater, desperately wanting to erase the previous events and keep the Vega girl out of my mind. Beck chuckled before nodding, letting me drag him towards the theater for a session that would hopefully make me forget the incredibly strange morning full of a lot of emotions that I didn't know I still had.