Tori's POV

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To say the first day of school had been a whirlwind would be an understatement in my opinion. First I was intimidated by a angry goth girl who later made me had a panic attack, but then proceeded to help me through said panic attack only to later end up injuring me with a slinky.

I think that's everything?

I was lost in my thoughts as I made my way through the hallways towards where my mother's classroom was, hopefully.

Jade was incredibly confusing to me. Her actions and words didn't line up, and her actions didn't even line up either! That girl had my head in a jumble as I tried to figure out what her deal was. Luckily I arrived at my mom's room before long, but I stayed outside the door for a few moments.

I took a deep breath before reaching up to lightly touch the gauze covering the wound above my eye, wincing slightly as it stung. Knowing my mom she'd freak out, so I took a few moments to mentally prepare myself for the onslaught of protective parenting I was about to receive before opening the door and entering.

The first thing I noticed about the room as I entered was the ungodly amount of similarity it held to my mother's art room at the house. Pallets, paints, different mediums, canvas, and most importantly artwork was strewn across the space before me. I snorted as I stepped in and let the door close behind me, having spotted my mom's signature piece of art she always brings with her to decorate her workspace, a painting of a watermelon dog she'd made when she was just breaking into the art world. The painting had been her first piece of work that had received any awards, so she held it in very high esteem even though she had countless award winning paintings now. Whenever I saw the painting it made me laugh because she'd painted the watermelon dog licking the face of a little girl that was supposed to be me when I was a toddler.

After smiling at the painting for a few moments I looked around the room again and noticed that there wasn't anyone in here besides me. I also noted that there wasn't a desk anywhere in sight, so I had no idea where my mom was at the moment.

I wandered into the classroom a little further, curiously looking around the room for my mom and got about halfway in when I heard a loud bang come from somewhere in the back of the classroom.

"Mom?"

"Oh! Tori! I'm in the back!"

I sighed as I made my way towards where her voice originated from, finding a door slightly opened in the back I peeked my head in to find my mom standing in front of some boxes.

"You alright mom? What was the loud bang?"

"Oh yes I'm fine honey! Just accidentally dropped one of the boxes, but it's fine. So how was your fir-on my gosh! Tori! What happened to your eye?!"

My mom frantically scampered over and started inspecting my face as she exited the small supply room. I sighed as she cupped my cheeks, turning my face every which way to see if I was hurt anywhere else.

"Mom, calm down! I'm okay, it's just above my eye! Just a little scratch from an incident in science class, okay? Please let go of my face."

I pleaded to the frazzled woman still holding my face. She gave me a skeptical look before letting go of my face, raising an eyebrow at me.

"It seems you had an interesting first day then. Care to share how Physics of all things ended up with you injured?"

She looked at me expectantly, her mouth slightly curled up into a smile because she knew just how danger prone I was. Leave it to me to get injured in a science class that doesn't do chemical labs, and on the first day of school no less. However, I froze up when she asked how it happened.

Knowing my mother, if I told her that Jade had done it she'd have the girl's head, accident or not, and I really didn't think the goth girl had purposefully hurt me, so I'd rather not sick my mother on her and make her potentially hate me anymore than she already does. If she does hate me because I'm not really sure she does considering her conflicting actions, but I wasn't about to chance it in case she doesn't hate me.

"Oh ya know me, danger prone Tori! We were working with slinkies and I was messing around with one when I let go of one of the ends and it hit me in the face. Everything is fine though, I promise mom."

I lied to her, getting an affectionate eye roll from my mother as she sighed.

"What am I going to do with you Tori?"

I grinned before responding,"Love my clumsy butt unconditionally?"

She chuckled before scooping me into a hug.

"I suppose so, but only because you know how to make some mean cookies!"

I pushed back from her and gasped, pretending to me offended.

"You wound me! Only keeping your only daughter around for cookies! Shame on you!"

We stared at each other for a few moments before we both broke down into fits of laughter. It was a good minute or so before we both calmed down and stopped laughing. My mom gave another chuckle before she checked her watch, her eyes widening.

"Crap! I have a meeting I have to attend in less than an hour! Lemme grab my stuff and we can walk out to our cars together."

My mom scurried off to grab her stuff which left me smiling in amusement at her forgetfulness. She'd always been like this for as long as I could remember, always forgetting things until the last second. She always managed to make deadlines on time which amazed me in all honesty. I silently mulled over the different times in the past she'd managed to put together entire projects in no time at all until she returned with all her belongings.

"Okay! Let's go. You can tell me about the rest of your first day in the car."

"Sounds good, but I'm just going to warn you that I may or may not have had a panic attack today..."

"WHAT! VICTORIA VEGA!"

"Mom! Calm down! It was fine! It didn't even last that long and I didn't even have to go to the nurse's office! It was so small! I just got a little overwhelmed by everything new! Please! I'm okay! I swear!"

"So help me god Tori, if it happens again you go straight to the nurse's office, got it? I don't want you collapsing or anything, okay? I already put in your anxiety meds with the school, so you can go get your midday ones starting tomorrow, okay? I'm sorry I didn't set it up beforehand, I thought you'd be okay for one day without them. I'm sorry honey."

My mom frowned as we finally reached her car. I lightly bumped her shoulder and gave her a soft smile as she looked up at me.

"It's okay mom, it really wasn't that bad, but I'm glad I'll be able to take all my meds again. Now you better get going, or you'll be late to whatever art meeting you're going to tonight. I'll see you later, love you!"

I kissed her cheek before she got in her car. She waved at me before she made her way out of the parking lot. I watched her leave before turning to make my way to my own car to head home to do homework, eat, and then sleep.

I wondered what the second day of school would bring the entire car ride home.

~

Next Morning

Whoever decided that high schoolers have to go to school at 7 am deserves to be burned on a stake.

I groaned in annoyance at the sound of my alarm clock going off, notifying me that it was time for another fun filled day of school.

I'd gotten maybe 2 hours of sleep last night since I'd spent most of the night doing makeup work to catch up in all my classes, and now I was going in early to drop off said assignments so that I wouldn't be behind anymore.

I let out a massive yawn as I begrudgingly got up to get ready for another fun filled day of school.

Today I was much too tired, so ended up leaving my house dressed in a lovely dark blue hoodie, some grey sweatpants, and some white converse. I'm just the epitome of fashion.

I let out a yawn as I drove to school, occasionally sipping on some coffee I'd made before I'd left the house. I'd never cared much for coffee, but it was wayyyyyy to early to be up, so I'd needed some if I was going to function properly.

I let out a small sigh as I reached the school, carefully parking before laying my head back against the headrest. I reached up to groan into my hands before opening my eyes to stare at the ceiling of my car.

What thehell was I thinking?

Doing all of that work last night even though it isn't due until the end of the week!

I could've slept instead of having to be azombie now!

Well, what's done is done. I hum softly to myself for a moment before reaching over to grab the stack of papers I needed to turn in along with my backpack. Exiting my vehicle I made my way across the parking lot and up the steps of the school for the second time ever.

Once I entered I noticed how there was literally nobody here. I was about an hour earlier than yesterday, so it makes sense that there isn't anybody here yet which is what I wanted. I just wanted to drop off the papers for each class on the teacher's desk and avoid having to talk to them because that always causes my anxiety to rear it's ugly head.

I made my way around the almost completely empty school, save for a few cafeteria ladies and janitors getting ready for the day there was nobody here yet. After dropping off my last assignment to my science teacher's room I pondered what to do for the next hour until school starts. I figure that I could go to my mom's room and just hang out until school starts, so I made my way towards there. My mom had given me a room key last night when she'd gotten home from her meeting, and told me I could go in there in the morning if I wanted.

I was quietly humming to myself when I reached the room, but quickly stopped when I realized the door was open.

A janitor?

That was all I could think to explain why the door was open because they're the only other people besides my mom and I that have keys to the door. I cautiously pushed the door open a bit to peak inside, and was met with a scene I didn't expect in a million years.

In front of me in the middle of the room was Jade West. She was standing with her back to me as she was twirling around to some music that must have been playing through her headphones, but that wasn't the weird thing. The goth girl was painting. It wasn't weird that she was painting either. It was WHAT she was painting.

Before I could fully comprehend what I was doing my mouth was open.

"Is that... me?"

The goth girl before me immediately froze up before slowly turning to look at me. As soon as I could see her eyes I saw a mixture of embarrassment, anger, and surprise. I was frozen in the doorway, unsure if I wanted to get closer or if I should run because Jade's face was quickly morphing into a face of anger.

"What are you... why are you here! Nobody is here this early!"

She snarled at me as she pulled her headphones down, letting them rest around her neck as she frantically reached for a tarp to throw over the canvas. I stood flabbergasted and at a loss for words as she began to quickly pack up her stuff mumbling to herself.

"Well Vega? Why the hell are you here so early? And invading my privacy while you're at it?"

Jade said with a glare, slinging her backpack onto her shoulder as she waited for my response.

"I- I uhm- I had to turn in assignments and I didn't want to have to talk to the teachers so I just left them on their desks and well this is my mom's room so I was going to sit here until school started and I noticed the door was open so I was confused about who would be in here since my mom and I are the only ones with keys besides the janitors I didn't mean to see it oh god please don't kill me!"

I word vomited at her out of pure anxiety from the situation. I'd never meant to invade her privacy at all! Here I was standing in the doorway of the classroom, looking down skittishly as I picked at the skin on my thumbs out of anxiety. Jade didn't say anything for a few moments, so I risked a glance up and noticed her face softening before she muttered something that sounded like, "fuck it."

"Calm down Vega. I'm not going to kill you, even though now when nobody is here would be a perfect time to do so. I have a key to the room from the previous art teacher, so I can come in here whenever I want before or after school."

The goth girl said nonchalantly as she moved to pickup the painting she'd covered up.

Well that explains how she got in.

But what about the painting of me?...

"Oh. Okay."

Jade raised an eyebrow at me as she began picking the painting up.

"Wait!"

"What Vega!"

Jade snapped at me, giving me an irritated look as she was just about to pick the painting up.

"It... it was me... wasn't it..?"

I ask quietly, watching curiously as Jade's face dissolved into a light blush as she huffed and looked away from me.

"It definitely wasn't you Vega. Don't flatter yourself."

I felt myself sink a little from her words, but I'm not sure why I wanted to be the one in the painting anyways.

"S-Sorry. I must have been mistaken."

"Definitely. Why would I be painting you?"

"I don't know... that's why I was confused."

"Well I wasn't painting you. Are we done here?"

She said with her annoyance with the entire situation very evident in her voice. I gave a little nod and she rolled her eyes as she picked the painting up finally and moved it to storage. I watched her move it to the storage room, finding my gaze traveling over the goth girl's curves before realizing this and turning my head away with a blush painting my face.

"Hey tomato girl, not sure what's got you all red, but you tell a soul about the fact I paint and I'll stab you with a pair of my scissors, got it?"

I gulped before furiously nodding at Jade. She hummed for a moment before leaning back against the door to the storage room. She eyed me which made me a big self conscious and I could feel the voice trying to break through, but it didn't get a chance because Jade spoke first.

"So Vega, how's your cut?"

I blinked a few times in surprise at the question. How did this girl go from threatening me with a pair of scissors to asking how my wound is in a matter of minutes? Dumbfounded by her quick changes in personality I didn't realize I hadn't responded to her until she coughed loudly.

"Vega? You get brain damage from the impact or something? I asked you a question."

"Oh! Right! It's fine. A little sore, and tender but it's okay. Thanks for asking."

"Least I can do considering I'm the one who inflicted it."

I nod before unintentionally yawning loudly, causing a smirk to appear on the face of the goth across the room.

"Didn't sleep well Vega?"

"Uhm... no I was up almost the whole night doing the makeup work I came in early to turn in."

Jade hummed in response before she stopped leaning against the wall and stalked towards me. I tensed up as the raven haired girl made her way towards me, her hard gaze never leaving my eyes. I gulped nervously as she stopped a couple feet from me and seemed to be studying my face.

"Yah. You look like shit!"

She laughed loudly as she said that, my tension melting away as I flushed from embarrassment, and the new sound of Jade's laughter. It was slightly raspy almost, but the sound of it was melodic and I found myself wanting to hear it more once she stopped.

"Wow. Thanks Jade."

"No problem Vega."

Jade grinned at me, making my heart flutter a bit in response.

Wait what?

My brain was struggling to process everything I was feeling from the past few minutes when a bell rang overhead, snapping me from my jumbled up thoughts and feelings. I saw Jade looking at me expectantly and I started to panic a bit.

Did she ask me a question and I didn't notice?

Does she want something from me?

"Yo Vega, move. I kinda need to get to class."

"Oh. Oh! Yah! Sorry!"

I quickly moved out of the goth's way, watching as she strut down the hallway towards her locker no doubt to see Beck before the last bell for class.

It wasn't long before I saw my mother scurrying down the hallway towards me since I'd stayed standing in the doorway after Jade left still trying to process everything that had to happened.

"Tori! Shouldn't you been getting to class?"

My mom asked curiously as she pushed past me into the classroom, setting her stuff down on the floor next to the storage door.

"Oh yah, right! School! See you later mom!"

"Later sweetie! Remember, I have a faculty meeting after school, so you don't have to wait for me!"

"Ok mom! Love you!"

"Love you too sweetie!"

I grinned before finally exiting the doorway of her classroom in order to make my way towards my first class of the day.

This school year was definitely shaping up to be something else entirely.

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Hey guys! Long time no see! Got another urge to write so here's another chapter!