Author's note: OMG! You guys are really making me feel special with all the reviews! Thank you so much! I hope you enjoy this one!

{~~~JADE~~~}

"Guess what!?"

I slam my locker shut and openly glare at a perky Vega. I don't care if she's supposed to be my girlfriend. It's too early in the morning for this shit.

"I hate guessing things, babe." I tell her before leaning in and placing a coffee flavored kiss on her mouth.

"Oh, okay." She says absently as she reaches behind her and pulls her phone out of her back pocket. It just beeped, alerting her that she got a text message.

Out of the corner of my eye I notice we have an audience; which is just plain stupid if you ask me. Me and Vega have been a thing for nearly a week. We should be old news by now! It's not like we're the only lesbian couple at this school.

Then again, it probably has nothing to do with the lesbian stuff, and everything to do with the fact that it's me and Vega. On that front, I can't really fault them for the gawking. But I still want to take a pair of scissors to every last one of their eyeballs. Or maybe just one eye each. It'd be kind of cool to see half the school walking around with an eye patch.

The image makes me smile.

"See ya at fourth period, then." Vega interrupts my musings as she shoves her phone back into her pocket. Then she starts to walk away.

Really? Who does that? Huh? You can't just go up to someone, say "guess what?" and then leave them hanging. It's inhumane.

I grab Vega's hand before she gets too far and I yank a little, making her face me. "Whoa, babe, aren't you forgetting something?"

Her eyebrows dip in confusion for a second and then her eyes light up. "Oh, sorry." She apologizes before nipping my bottom lip.

She never kisses me. She always bites. And I love that she does that. It's way less of a mushy-gushy/intimate interaction, and more of a freaky casual thing, which suits me just fine. It kind of balances all the soft and loving kisses I have to give her because my new "girlfriend" doesn't exactly get pleasure from pain. No matter how little it is, it's a huge turn off for her. I caught on to that fairly quickly while we were mussing each other up in the bathroom last Friday.

I shake my head and focus. Vega's turned and is leaving again, but I still didn't get what I wanted out of her.

I pull on her arm, again turning her back around to face me. "Not that." I scoff. "Didn't you want to tell me something?"

"But you didn't guess." She frowns, cocking her head to the side like she's confused.

"And I'm not going to guess." I cross my arms over my chest defiantly. God, this girl makes me want to open up a vein. And not one of my own.

"I figured that part out when you told me you hate guessing," she chuckles lightly, mirroring my stance but in a more playful way.

I'm not playing.

"So?…" I inquire, not bothering to chuckle or even smile back. I'm losing my patience.

"So, what?"

"Tell me!" I yell, throwing my arms down and making two fists at my side.

My patience has been lost.

"Tell you what, Jade?"

"How the hell should I know!? You're the one who said "guess what?!""

"But you didn't guess." She answers calmly, innocently, with just a hint of a mischievous twinkle in her eyes.

I work my jaw from side to side. She's fucking with me. And I hate being fucked with.

"Vega…" I warn. If I have to count I'm gonna end up putting this chick in the hospital.

That's not nice, Jade.

Ugh! Tori's in my head, again, trying to be my conscience and telling me what's right and what's wrong. I swear to God this shit is getting old. Why's she still here? Why? No other character that I've played has stuck around once my performance was over. So, why the fuck is Tori still here aggravating the shit out of me?

"Later, I gotta get to class." Vega winks at me before heading off.

I blink after her a few times before remembering we're still in the middle of something.

"We still have five minutes until the bell rings!" I shout after her.

"I gotta wazz!" She calls over her shoulder.

I glare at her retreating back. That girl sure does wazz a lot. And I mean a lot. So much so that I'd swear she had a bladder problem if I didn't know any better. And I do know better. According to her medical records, the only thing wrong with Vega is she's allergic to bush daisies.

Yeah, that's right. I checked her medical records. I do my research.

"So, what do you have on her?"

I flinch a little. I hate it when people sneak up behind me and talk in my ear. Even if people happen to be Beck.

I turn and face him, an aggravated scowl on my face. "What?" I ask, though I heard him perfectly well the first time.

"I said, what do you have on Tori?"

I narrow my eyes. "What do you mean?"

"I mean," he pauses there to pop a stick of gum into his mouth before continuing. "How'd you get her to pretend to date you?"

I cock my head to the side, seriously contemplating whether or not I feel offended. It doesn't take me too long to figure that I don't. Truth is, blackmailing Vega into doing something as drastic as dating me is something I would do. Beck knows me well.

I miss that. I miss almost everything about him.

But now is not the time to take a useless trip down memory lane. It's an opportunity that I plan on taking full advantage of. Although Beck's only talking to me on Vega's behalf, the fact of the matter is he came to me. Attention is attention, whether it's negative or positive. And I can always turn this into a positive for myself.

"You've known Me and Vega are dating since Monday." I tell him, pausing there to un-cock my head and give him a pointed look.

"I'm aware." He prompts, encouraging me to continue.

"It's Friday and you're just now asking me this? You're an awful friend." I accuse. Then I walk away, heading toward first period. I know he'll follow. I never answered his question.

I hear him come up behind me and I smile to myself.

"Well, I'm here now." He says once we're walking side by side. "Come on, Jade. She's a nice girl. This has gone on long enough. Whatever you have on her just drop it. Let her go."

His speech is very simple and straight to the point. No moral lessons on how I wouldn't want anyone to do this to me, or how wrong it is to treat people the way I do, etc. etc.

I like it better that way.

"What makes you think Vega didn't ask me out?" I ask.

He gives me this look, like I tried to kill a rare butterfly or something.

Okay, so he has a right to look at me that way. Vega asking me out does sound a bit unfeasible, so I'll leave that one alone for now.

I shrug my shoulders and avoid eye contact. For most people, it's a sign of guilt. For me, it just reaffirms the fact that I don't give a flying chiz. "Why do you think I have something on Vega?"

"Because she wouldn't pretend to date you otherwise." Beck rebuttals immediately. Confidently.

I nod my head slowly and purse my lips. That's a fair assumption to make. But it's also the wrong assumption as I really don't have anything on her. Nothing juicy enough to blackmail her with anyway. But again, I let it go. "And why would I make her pretend to date me?"

"To make me jealous." Once more, he answers quickly and confidently.

I stop in my tracks, but not because I'm shocked or anything pathetic like that. We've made it to my classroom. I put my hand on the door knob and turn it. "If I wanted to make you jealous, I wouldn't use Vega. She's just for me." I say before walking into class and leaving Beck in the hallway to think about what I said.

Once first period is over, I hurry out. Not only do I hate this class and often skip it, but I expect Beck to be waiting for me. I purposely left him hanging, knowing that he hates that.

And I'm right. He's standing off to the side.

I pretend not to see him and head for my locker.

"Jade!" He calls out to me.

"What?" I answer, not even bothering to check behind myself.

Beck has to jog a bit to catch up because I'm practically powerwalking.

"What did you mean back there, before homeroom?"

I make a face, like I don't know what the chiz he's talking about. "Be more specific, I said a lot of things before homeroom."

"You said, you wouldn't use Tori to make me jealous."

"That means exactly what it sounds like it means." I roll my eyes as if he's an idiot.

He hates that too.

"Then who would you use to make me jealous." He scowls and crosses his arms over his chest.

I ignore him, stopping in front of my locker and putting in my combination.

"Don't you have to go to your locker?" I snap, seemingly tired of all the hounding.

"Nope." He holds up his notebook, indicating he's got everything he needs for his next class, and leans against the nipple covered locker beside mine. "Can you answer my question now?"

"What question?" I mutter distractedly, pushing in my world history, and retrieving my geometry book before slamming my locker shut.

"Who would you use to make me jealous?" He repeats.

I sigh impatiently as I begin heading towards my next class. "You mean if I was going to do something as stupid and pathetically immature as that?"

"Yeah." His answer comes out slow and hesitant. He's not as confident as he once was. I've managed to plant a small seed of doubt in his head by insinuating that using someone else to make an ex jealous is "stupid" and "pathetically immature."

God, this is easy.

I shrug my shoulders, keeping my cool demeanor when I answer. "I don't know, some random dude."

"Some random dude?" He frowns.

"Yeah, someone to kiss when you're around, and send on his merry way when you're not."

"And Tori?" He inquires.

"What about Vega?"

"You said, she's for you."

"And?" I make a speed it up gesture with my hand because I've arrived at my next class.

"What did you mean by that?"

I give another sigh of impatience before answering. "It means, I'm not dating her to make you jealous. She's someone I kiss whether or not you're around."

"And now we're back to square one." He sighs impatiently.

"And square one would be…?"

"What do you have on her? Like I said, she wouldn't agree to date you unless you threatened her."

I roll my eyes and open my classroom door.

Because I didn't answer, he runs his hands through his hair out of pure frustration.

I miss that.

I smile to myself as I sit down in the back of the classroom. The good thing about leaving a cliff hanger like that is I know he'll be back after class is over, again.

This whole dating Vega to make Beck jealous is working better than I thought it would; maybe not as quickly as I'd like, but definitely easy enough.

See, I know Beck. And I know he's not gonna give in to this right away. It'll be like the five stages of grief with him. First, there'll be denial, which he's already going through. He's not gonna believe I've moved on so fast, and he'll assume I'm lying. He'll probably even go as far as to try and prove that me and Vega are faking; which means I've got to lay some ground work down. I've got to extend our relationship, bring it outside of school and into the home. Joy already thinks we're doing the do, so that's no problem on my end. But I've got to make sure Vega's parents know we're dating. Today. That should be fun. Especially if her parents are prudes or religious. Then all my bases will be covered. Well most of them, Vega's still gotta perform; but if we can do this, if we can successfully convince everybody that we're dating, stage two should be right around the corner.

The anger one. I doubt Beck'll be obscene with it, but once he realizes me and Vega are the real deal, I expect to see a bit of anger simmering just beneath a seemingly composed exterior. He'll feel resentment towards me of course, but most of it will be directed at Vega. He'll be wondering what she has that he doesn't; how she could keep me, tolerate me, make me happy, etc. Which means, I've got to pretend to be happy. Not in an obvious way 'cause I'm still me, but the "Jade" kind of happy. And I can do that, no problem.

It'll probably take a couple weeks of Beck realizing we're a legit couple to get him to this point. That's when stage three, the bargaining, will come in. I doubt he'll beg me to take him back. That's not like him. He'll probably do something a little more subtle, like get a girlfriend to make me jealous. It'll be hard for me, but I'm determined to stay strong during that stage. I'll show that I'm a little uncomfortable, but still okay with it. Because let's face it, pretending to be completely indifferent will only make it seem as though I'm trying too hard not to care, thus tipping Beck off to the fact that something's not right. And I don't want to do that.

Last but not least, the depression stage. I know acceptance is the last stage of grief, but I don't want Beck to get that far. If he accepts me and Vega as a couple, then he won't care about me anymore and I'll be stuck with Vega. And that's not the plan.

Abruptly, the bell rings, startling the crap out of me. If we take a pop quiz on what was taught today, I'll fail it completely. That's how much attention I spared my lessons.

When I get out of class this time, Beck's not off to the side. He's standing in front of the door. I'd either have to be blind not to see him, or one of those freaks with low self-esteem who stare at the ground 95% of their life. And I'm neither of those.

I make my face drop at the sight of him, like I'm tired of having to see him. "You know, you're not my boyfriend anymore. You should stop walking me to my classes. I don't feel like doing that reassuring shit with Vega."

"Then answer my questions." He shrugs.

It's an ultimatum. If I answer his question he'll leave me alone.

I hate ultimatums. And I hate being told what to do. He knows that.

"Don't tell me what to do." I scowl.

"Fine." He walks beside me, silently. And instinctively I know it's time to send Beck away.

I know this because I'm an actress. And right now it's like both of us are in a play that's entirely improvised. No script, no lines, no sound effects. Just real people interacting until curtain call.

If I continue to let Beck walk beside me, he'll know that I don't mind his company. He'll know I'm pretending to be tired of having him follow me around.

So, I have to send him away now. Timing is crucial in a play. The right line delivered at the wrong time can fuck up a whole production. And I don't plan on fucking up my own play.

"Fine," I relent, stopping in my tracks. "I don't have anything on Vega and I never asked her to pretend to be my girlfriend, now will you leave me alone?"

I may be twisting the truth a bit here but it's true. Initially, Vega asked me to be her girlfriend. Not the other way around.

"So…." Beck makes a motion with his hand, silently asking me to continue and I oblige.

"So, she's my girlfriend. Probably a rebound right now, but if she can keep up with me there's a good chance I just might keep her. And honestly, I have a feeling she'll last; but if you tell her that I swear to God, Beck, I'll use my special scissors on your hair!" I threaten.

"Jade, cut the crap okay. You don't like Tori. You never liked Tori!" He yells irritably, finally losing his patience with me.

Trust me, it's a good thing. A very good thing.

I roll my eyes as if I'm exasperated and stomp past him. "She's grown on me." I mutter, rather than deny the fact that I didn't like Vega off rip.

He follows after me. "She's grown on you?" He mocks me disbelievingly.

I hate being mocked.

"Look. I know there are these unwritten rules and rights and stuff exes have. Like the whole "we broke up so I don't have to answer to you" thing, or, "my business is my business…" yada yada ya. But if I give you an answer, an honest answer, will you drop it?" I snap, not really playing a part anymore. He's really starting to get on my nerves.

"If I believe it."

I roll my eyes knowing that's the best I'm gonna get. "I like her because she's not afraid of me. Happy?"

Wait, what? I was not meaning to say that. It just came out. In fact, I don't know what the fuck that even means.

"Nope. I'm still waiting for this to make sense."

Yeah, you and me both Oliver.

Then it comes to me and I smile a little, like I'm remembering something endearing. And I kind of am. Her first day of school, I was gonna pour coffee in her hair, and Vega bit the shit out of me. She saw a shovel in my car, and she jumped out of it while it was moving, I could literally list a dozen more ways she defied me within her first week. Vega's got guts and I can respect that. She never lets me walk all over her. "She never lets me win." I smile softly.

"What?"

I snap out of it, shaking away the uninvited fuzzy wuzzy feelings I was experiencing. "She's a challenge." I shrug nonchalantly. "I like challenges."

Beck says nothing to me. There's no argument he can come up with because I'm telling the truth. I do like a challenge.

{~~~O~~~}

"So how come you never buy your own lunch Tori? Don't you have any money?"

I roll my eyes. Like I expected, Beck is on a mission to prove me and Vega aren't really dating each other. He's gonna scrutinize and question every odd thing he sees when it comes to us.

And I guess this is odd. Vega hasn't bought her own lunch since last Friday. She's always leeching off of my plate. Why? Because she gives me her allowance and lunch money.

"I put her on a diet," I answer quickly, basically telling Beck to mind his own damn business.

Vega chuckles beside me and steals a tortilla chip off my plate. "Jade, would it really kill you to let them know how nice you are?"

"Yes." I push out through clenched teeth. Though I don't know what the chiz she's talking about, I still know what my line is.

Everyone else at the table is sporting a majorly confused expression. I'd like to be right there with them making the "huh?" face, but I've got to pretend like I'm in the loop.

Vega rolls her eyes and pops another chip into her mouth.

"I'm trying to save my money, so Jade's sharing her lunch with me."

Hm. That sounds much better than what I said. Good job Vega.

"Cool, so uh…whatcha saving up for?" Beck asks. He's trying to be nonchalant, but I know better. He's being a nosey pain in the ass.

"I kinda don't wanna tell anyone yet. It's a surprise. Jade doesn't even know." Vega lies smoothly.

"Yay! I love surprises!" Cat throws her hands up in a hallelujah/glory to God sort of fashion.

Everyone smiles at her but me.

"I don't." I grumble.

"You don't what?" Vega asks distractedly while pulling out her phone. It just beeped for the second time since we've sat down to lunch not even five minutes ago. I swear she gets a million texts a day.

"I don't like surprises." I clarify.

"You don't like anything, mami." She shrugs, eyes still glued to her phone and fingers flying across the touch screen keyboard.

Mami?

I'm a little lost for words so I stuff a chip into my mouth. I call Vega 'babe' all the time, but she never uses terms of endearments for me. She never calls me anything other than Jade. I've been expecting her to start calling me sweetie, or honey, or dollface, or something as equally gross, but she's been sticking with my name. Until now that is.

Mami. I toss the word around in my head for a minute before deciding that I kind of like it. It makes me feel…sexy; in this really subtle way. I also find myself wishing Vega will call me that more often. Though I don't have high hopes that she will. It doesn't seem as if she realizes she said it in the first place. She was extremely distracted with her phone at the time, so it could've been some kind of slip up. I have no idea how much that word is tossed around at home. Which reminds me…

"Babe," I say, and I wait until Vega gives me her attention before I continue. "I'm giving you a ride home from school today. I left something at your place."

"When? Yesterday or Tuesday?" She frowns.

"Does it matter?"

"Yeah, because on Tuesday you left your, um…" she stops there and glances at everyone at the table, a small blush creeping up onto her cheeks. "You left different things on different days." She finishes a little quieter.

I raise my eyebrows. Maybe I shouldn't be so worried about Vega's ability to fake being my girlfriend. She's not too bad at this.

But before I can say anything to play on Vega's line, Rex's mouth flies open and Robbie rushes to cover it with his hand. Vega laughs at him when the puppet bites him, causing Robbie to drop his hand away from the puppets face immediately.

"Call the police. I have just been violated!" Rex yells.

I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one with a disturbed look on my face when Robbie excuses himself and all but runs away, Rex placed strategically in front of his pants.

That boy seriously needs to get laid; but it's not gonna happen until he stops playing with dolls.

I'm the first to speak, because I desperately want to get rid of any thoughts concerning Robbie and Rex. "So, as I was saying before the disturbing interruption," I put a hand on Vega's shoulder to get her attention. "Meet me at my car after school and I'll take you home."

Vega shakes her head at me. "I don't need a ride home. But if you want I can bring your stuff tomorrow."

I narrow my eyes at her. There is no stuff and she knows it! She knows that I have another reason for wanting to give her a ride home and she's refusing me! Why?

"Who's your ride home?" I demand.

"Me."

"Are you walking?" My eyes narrow even more.

"Nope."

"Catching a cab?"

"Nope." This time she pops the "p" and I begin to lose patience.

"Bus?" I guess.

"Nope."

"I hate guessing things, babe." I snarl.

She gives me a little smile before giving her phone her attention. I'm so tempted to snatch it out of her hands and throw it across The Café when she says, "I drove my car."

I distinctively remember her telling me she doesn't have a car. So I call her out on it. "I thought you didn't have a car."

Vega puts the phone away, and looks me in my eyes. "I do."

"But you told me you didn't have a car." I accuse.

"I did."

"So you lied to me." I state, not question.

"I didn't."

"Stop that."

"Stop what?"

"NO!" I scream abruptly. I've had enough of this back and forth banter that gets me absolutely freakin' nowhere!

Everyone jumps; everyone except for Vega. She's just popped a chip into her mouth and is now choking on it. Seriously? She's choking again? I swear this girl is a complete retard.

I raise my hand, ready to slap the shit out of her. Her eyes widen and she scoots away from me. "I'm fine, mami. I don't need your help." She panics.

I drop my hand and let her recover on her own.

She called me mami again. I really like that.

"What? Do I have something on my face?" Vega asks suddenly while dragging the back of her wrist across her mouth.

I blink at her, realizing that I'd been staring. I roll my eyes, more at myself than at her. I don't know why I was staring like a creeper. All she did was call me mami. It's not that big of a deal. In fact, it's not a big deal at all.

"It's nothing." I shrug nonchalantly, before leaning in and trying to give her a casual kiss.

She coughs in my mouth, soggy bits of tortilla spraying down my throat.

I see red.

Vega sees the look in my eyes and jumps out of her seat. Immediately, I follow after her, ready to kill.

"Vega!" I scream as I chase her around the table. "Get back here!"

"Ring around the rosie…" Cat starts singing loudly and clapping her hands.

I ignore her. Vega's my target, and I'm completely focused on that.

"Jade…" Beck stands up and tries to reason with me. It pisses me off. But what pisses me off even more is the fact that Vega hides behind Beck, clinging to the back of his shirt.

"Get from behind him, Now!" I scream at her.

"You know Jade," she pants and grabs on to what must be a stitch in her side. "You really shouldn't be mad at me."

"OH?"

"Yeah," she sucks in a huge amount of air, still trying to catch her breath. "It was your own fault."

"My fault? My fault!" My eyes widen. I can't believe she's got the nerve to blame this on me.

"Yeah. Why'd you try to kiss me? I was still coughing, freak."

I go deathly still. Oh, I'm gonna kill her. I'm gonna kill her dead. "What did you just call me?" I ask, giving her a chance to back down.

"Don't repeat that." André offers some sound advice to his best friend.

Vega comes out from behind Beck and walks up to me, standing in my personal space. Her face is set in resolute determination as she faces me, bravely looking me in my eyes without flinching in the least.

Suddenly I feel my pinky being molested and I look down to see Vega linking hers with mine. This has become our thing. To outsiders it may seem cute or sweet, but for us, it's a reminder of the deal we made in the girls' bathroom. It's kind of like a warning and a 'trust me' at the same time.

I snap my head up just in time for Vega to lean in and grab my top lip with her teeth. She tugs a little roughly before letting go and attacking my bottom lip the same way. Then she pulls back abruptly.

I lean in for more. Because I want more. Bad. I didn't get anything out of that. It literally didn't even last a full two seconds! I didn't have time to respond, or kiss her back, or….wait. I open my eyes, (when did I close them,) and she's standing in front of me with this smirk on her face and her arms crossed over her chest.

"You liked that, mami. You can't tell me you're not a freak." She challenges.

What the fuck!

My eyes widen and my nose flares. I can feel the rage coursing through my veins and I have one thought on my mind. I, jade west, am going to end up in prison. Today. Because I'm going to murder this girl and give her mutilated body to her cop dad.

I think my thoughts are showing on my face because it's so quiet out here. Everyone at Hollywood arts must be waiting for me to kill my girlfriend. Even Beck looks a little nervous, and I can see him subtly inching his way toward Vega in order to protect her should I lash out.

"Give. Me. Your. Arm." I growl.

"Don't do it, Tori." André gulps out his warning, but he's too late. Vega immediately hands over her arm and I take it, but not before sending André a glare so fierce he falls out of his chair.

{~~~O~~~}

Author's note: So, Jade's still got "Tori" stuck in her head. I hope it's not confusing. I think Jade needs help becoming a better person and "Tori" is the way her mind is working that out for her. I don't think she'd admit, not even to herself, that it's actually Vega making her want to be a better person. She's such a weirdo;)