Tori's POV
I was frozen in place by the furious emotions whirling around in Jade's stunning eyes as she glared at me. Beck must have noticed how I froze up because he looked down at Jade and gave her a slight nudge with his elbow which tore her attention away from me, allowing me to breathe again.
"Why the death glare at Tori, Jade?"
"Because why is she sitting here?"
"Because she's new and she's pretty cool, I mean she let me borrow a pencil in math class."
"I don't really give a damn. I don't want her sitting here."
"Babe- come on- you're being irrational about this!"
"I don't give a FUCK Beck! I don't want this bitch sitting here!"
The two continued to argue, each sentence making me curl more and more in on myself as the voice returned at full force.
Jade sees right through your act...
She hates you because you're a freak...
Why don't you just...die...
I harshly flinched at the voice when it said that, starting to shake in place as I held back tears. I gasped when I felt someone touch my back, whipping around to hit whoever it was away and was met with a very confused Andre who had retracted his hand before I could hit it.
"Whoa whoa. You okay Tori?" André asked cautiously, but I could barely focus on him as my chest started to constrict.
"I-I-I... I gotta go! I-I'll see you later!" I managed to squeak out as I barreled past Andre, making my way through the lunch area until I reached a corner of the school that didn't have anyone near it. I practically collapsed against it as my body began violently shaking, struggling to get oxygen into my body as I gasped. I tried to remember the techniques my therapist had taught me, but they were completely eluding my anxiety induced mind which only added to my anxiety ridden haze. I kept gasping for air, trying to get enough in but I couldn't, the edges of my eyesight were starting to get fuzzy and black as I choked on the air I was trying to breathe in when suddenly I heard a soft voice.
"Listen to the sound of my voice- can you hear me Vega?" I couldn't really tell who was speaking, but I could comprehend what they were saying so I gave a little nod.
"Okay, good- keep listening to my voice, okay? Breathe in... 1... 2... 3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10... and out." I followed the voice and began to calm down as my vision started returning, and my breathing returned to normal. I closed my eyes as I finally got myself under control, letting out a shaky breath before opening my eyes to thank whoever had just helped me. I froze when I was met with the sight of Jade crouched down in front of me, watching my reactions with a surprising amount of concern in her eyes considering what she'd been saying minutes earlier.
Of course I immediately assumed she'd come to harass me in some way, so I curled into a ball, shrinking against the brick wall of the school behind me as I watched her movements intensely in case she decided she wanted to get physical. It wouldn't be the first time I've been beaten up at school. Her face held a combination of emotions that included sadness, guilt, and something else I couldn't place that made her eyes darken a bit.
"Vega? I'm not- I'm not here to hurt you... I swear..." I stiffened at her words, not really believing the goth girl in front of me. I didn't respond to her at all, just kept staring at her, remaining curled up to protect myself.
Her eyes swept over me as she let out a loud sigh and dragged her hand through her raven colored hair, sending a glance towards me as she sat down in front of me.
"Look... I can be a bitch- I don't like new. Which means I don't like you. Plus I have an image to uphold as the badass bitch of the school, so no- I'm not going to be nice to you Vega. But like- don't take anything I say to or about you personally..." Jade slowly explained to me, which only confused me further. Why hate me if you don't know me? My curiosity got the better of me at this point and I managed to find my voice.
"Why did you follow me then?" I ask, watching as Jade's face morphed into a scowl which made me flinch a little.
"Because I was the only person who realized you were having an anxiety attack, and I knew you didn't know where the clinic was, so I guess I didn't really want to be the reason you were found passed out on sidewalk somewhere..." Jade mumbled her explanation, refusing to look at me as I slowly I uncurled myself. Her response honestly just created more questions than it answered, but before I could ask anything else she briskly stood up and glared down at me.
"Look Vega. We're not buddy buddy now and this never happened. You tell a soul and I'll make your life here an actual living hell, got it?" She growled out at me, so I quickly nodded as I heard the bell ring in the distance which resulted in Jade letting out a groan of annoyance.
"And thanks to your little anxiety attack I'm going to be late to my next class. Thanks a lot Vega!" She snarled at me as she stalked off towards the school, leaving me once again, very confused.
I eventually got myself together and gathered my stuff and scurried off towards the school with about 2 minutes to try and find my next class. I was unsuccessful and ended up finding my English class about 5 minutes into it. I made my way to my seat and was much too preoccupied to even care about all the kids staring at me with Jade's actions swarming my head.
The girl had gone from causing an anxiety attack to helping me through it, and then saying I shouldn't take her mean comments seriously but then proceeding to practically growl at me. Her actions where incredibly confusing to me, and I spent the entirety of my English class trying to decipher the goth girl's actions towards me. I didn't figure anything else by the time the bell rang and now one of my fingernails was shorter than the rest thanks to my anxiety over the entire situation.
Nobody bothered me the rest of the day thankfully, well until last period which was science. I was doing much better at navigating the school at this point and actually managed to make it to my science class on time. As I entered the classroom I scanned the room and felt a familiar sinking feeling in my stomach as I saw the only open seat in the class was next to the absolute LAST person I wanted to see. Jade West.
Fuck.
I internally groaned as I squeezed my books tighter to my chest as I maneuvered my way over to the table where Jade was. The goth girl had her headphones in and was working on something when I sat down next to her, and I instantly noticed how she tended up and lifted her head with a death glare that would've paralyzed anyone, but I found myself somewhat amused by it instead of being scared. She must have noticed it was me because she rolled her eyes before returning to whatever she was working on, seeming very indifferent to the fact I was sitting next to her. I wondered why she hated everyone so much, and how she knew how to deal with an anxiety attack among many other questions.
"Yo Vega- take a fucking picture, it'll last longer." Jade huffed out at me which made me whip my head away, flushing with embarrassment. A few students sitting close to us snickered at Jade's snide comment before returning to their own conversations which only added to my embarrassment. I hadn't realized I'd been staring at her that entire time, but I eventually risked a glance over at her where she had a small smirk on her face before she went back to ignoring me which made me flush even more with embarrassment. I can't believe I'd just been staring at her AND she'd caught me staring.
I think I finally got myself to stop blushing once the bell rang and the teacher began the class, explaining that we'd be doing a lab on Newton's Laws of Motion in pairs today. There was a collective groan from everyone in the class at that because labs meant they couldn't just sit on their phones. I decided to steal another glance at Jade and found her just looking at the front with a very disinterested look on her face as she messed with her nails.
I tensed when she glanced over at me, smirking a bit as she raised an eyebrow at me which confused me because I thought she'd said we weren't on friendly terms. My head was starting to hurt from all of the events of the day at this point, so I didn't even hear the teacher announce that the pairs would be made of table partners which got another loud groan from the entire class.
I immediately tensed up as I heard a low growl come from beside me. I wasn't even going to risk looking at Jade this time unless I wanted to lose a finger or something because that was an unhappy sound if I've ever heard one. The teacher continued on to explain the assignment which I did my best to pay attention to, but honestly I was much more focused on making sure I didn't let my anxiety take over again because of Jade's clear disapproval of us having to be partnered for the lab.
Once the teacher finished explaining the lab he released us, so I took the initiative and went and got the lab sheets from the front for Jade and I. As I made my way back I cautiously slid a sheet in front of Jade who had her eyes closed and her headphones in. I paused at that because we needed to do this lab especially since it'd be the first grade for me, but did I want to risk loosing my hand by poking Jade?
Luckily I didn't have to decide if I wanted to sacrifice my hand or not because a moment later Jade let out a loud sigh as she removed her headphones and looked at me with a very bored expression.
"Let's get this crap done Vega." She said with a yawn as she stood up and motioned for me to lead the way. I nodded as I led us to a empty spot in the hallway before heading back into the classroom to grab a slinky and a ruler for the lab. When I returned I found Jade glaring at a couple of freshmen who were roaming the halls which sent them scurrying back to wherever they came from which made me giggle as I approached.
"Fucking freshmen- think they own the damn place." Jade mumbled as she smirked, turning to face me as she eyed the equipment in my hands.
"So? What do we do to get a good grade on this shit Vega?" Jade asked as she crossed her arms and cocked her hip out to the side, looking at me expectantly.
"We're learning about frequency, periods, and wavelength so we're supposed to use the slinky to emulate a wave and figure out wavelength and stuff like that by measuring time and length between crests after shaking the slinky." I tried to explain to the older goth girl who only looked more and more disinterested the longer I spoke.
"I don't know what the fuck any of that means Vega. I meant like what the hell do you need me to do, so you can get the answers for us." Jade deadpanned at me once I finished trying to explain the experiment to her.
"Oh- just uh- sit over there and shake the slinky the way I tell you to." I tell her which she nods and goes to sit on the floor about 3 meters away from me. I slide one end of the slinky to her which she grabs and looks at me expectantly as I get everything setup for the experiment. Once I finally get it set up I nod at her and she starts shaking the slinky side to side, so I record the results. We don't share any words as I record the results of each trial that has something slightly different with them until we eventually finish it.
"We're done Jade- you can send the slinky back over." I call out to Jade who gives a nod and lets go of the slinky. The metal item immediately tried to coil back up and came at me full speed and ended up hitting me in the face, causing me to let out a yelp of pain.
"Fuck! Tori? Are you okay? Oh shit- you're bleeding- son of a bitch-" I tried to open my eye but was met with a wall of red over one of my eyes. Right above my left eye was burning as I let out a whimper, trying to find where Jade's voice was coming from. I felt a familiar presence in front of me, so I reached out and met a shoulder.
"Jade? I-I don't feel great..." I mumble as I started to feel a bit dizzy.
"Fuck- TEACH! Vega got hit in the face with a slinky on accident! She's bleeding I'm going to take her to the clinic!" I heard Jade call out to the teacher before I felt her start lightly leading me with her shoulder. I followed her, keeping a hand on her shoulder to keep up with her since I couldn't see very well. Eventually we reached the clinic and the nurse had me sit down as she cleaned up the wound and covered it up with a bandaid.
Jade stayed the entire time, finally coming over to actually talk to me once the nurse had to attend to another student who'd came in. As Jade approached me I noticed the swarm of emotions in her eyes again, the same sadness and guilt with a hint of anger this time. Why was she angry though?
"Hey Jade...? Why are you angry...?" I asked, my curiosity outweighing my sense of preservation. I watched as she tensed up a bit before huffing at me.
"I'm angry at your own stupidity of getting hit in the face with a slinky of all things Vega." Jade responded as she eyed the now covered wound on my face. I felt like she was lying, but I couldn't think of another reason she'd be mad.
"Sorry... but you shouldn't have just let go of it so suddenly!" I complained a bit, disliking that she'd made it sound like it was entirely my fault I'd been hurt.
"Well if you'd been paying any attention you would've realized I was going to let go Vega!" Jade hissed out my last name, giving me a blood chilling glare that made me clam up- just staring at the goth as she practically fumed in front of me.
Why was it that Jade was always mad at me for something.
Hey again guys, I decided to post this already, but I'll probably be redoing this chapter. Well more like adding to it and revising it. I've been trying to work on Jade's POV, but ended up writing this instead, but next chapter will be Jade once I finish this chapter to a point I like.