Like Cats and Dogs

by disnickyX

Tori and Jade don't get along. They're always fighting, even over the smallest of things. But then Tori's ex shows up at Hollywood Arts; and he's dating a girl named Melissa there. Tori tells him that she's dating someone new too. He invites her on a double date and now she's got a problem. She needs a date. Rating may change if I can get the courage to write one of those scenes

25. Hershey Kisses in a Cupcake: Chapter 25

Author's note: I know, I know! I suck. Honest truth? I was nearly ready to update about six or seven months ago, but then I got this virus on my computer. A "ransomware" virus. It encrypted all my files so that I couldn't access them. When I say all my files, I mean everything I've ever written including the original books I was writing, my music, and pictures I no longer have access to; which means I'll never see them again. In their place was a ransom note, telling me to pay five hundred dollars to get the key to decrypt my stuff.

Um, no.

Yeah, I realize it was kinda my fault, because I didn't back up my computer regularly or renew the virus protector on my computer. And I was well aware that my computer could catch a virus if left unprotected, but I wanted...Actually, I don't remember what I bought in its stead. But I figured having a few pop ups on my computer would be worth buying whatever I bought instead. I didn't know the ransom shit existed or I wouldn't have taken the chance.

Anyway, I tried to get my stuff back. I searched the internet, youtubed, and I called up computer repair places; but was told I couldn't get the virus off without rebooting my computer, which meant I was really gonna lose everything.

I saved that action for the last resort, and a couple of months later I had to do it.

I was sad, not only for all the work I'd lost, but because I knew you guys wouldn't be getting an update any time soon. Among the things to get lost were the notes I had for this story, as well as the outlines for the rest of the story. Which meant I had to read this story from the beginning and take notes on it because I didn't remember all of the reveals left to come. I mean, I remembered the major ones; but there are some small nuances I try to put in the story as I go so that a lot of later information doesn't seem to come out of left field. Know what I mean?

Anyway, that took forever because this story is so freaking long. I don't see how you guys do it, but I'm so glad you do; and it made me appreciate the time you guys take to not only read this long ass story, but to leave feedback for me as well. So thank you for that!

And then – no the story's not over – about two months after I'd finished with my notes, and starting on this chapter... again. I lost my files... again. To the same. Fucking. Virus.

Only halfway my fault this time. I renewed my antivirus software and I scanned my computer regularly; but I still didn't back my computer up regularly. I hadn't backed it up for about three weeks, so I still lost a lot.

Anyway, I figured the ransom virus assholes had my IP address or something and that my computer would never be safe to use, which meant, I had to get a new one. Which meant, I had to wait until I could afford it.

So...yeah. Believe it or not, that's what happened. I'm sorry. I promised myself that I would back up my new laptop every day, but I've already failed on that front. I still only back up my computer once every two or three weeks. You'd think I'd learn a life lesson from some f'd up shit like that, but alas. No. I am very human.

{~~~~TORI~~~~}

Jade's been giving me space like I asked her to. Real space. She doesn't try to hold my hand. She doesn't call me. Or text me. She barely talks to me at all.

I hate it.

It's awkward. And tense. And I'm absolutely miserable.

I just...god, I miss her. I miss her so much...all the chizzin' time; and it's driving me absolutely wonkers!

The only reason I haven't completely lost it is because I get to see her almost everyday at school. It's not a lot, but it's something. And there are other little 'somethings' that help as well. Like the fact that when Jade does talk to me, she struggles with calling me Vega. She'll get half of the word "baby" out before she corrects it. I don't remember her having that struggle with her ex. When she stopped dating him, she always remembered he was Beck. She never accidentally called him babe. Well, not to my knowledge anyway. It makes me feel special. I'll admit it.

Another thing? She stares at me. A lot. These long, intense, longing-like stares. She doesn't even look away when I catch her. Which is all the time because I'm always staring at her too.

In fact, I'm staring at her right now. I can't help it. She's standing in line for the grub truck so it's not like she can see me do it. And it's not like I'm staring at her, staring at her. I was just thinking my random Jade-obsessed thoughts and my eyes just so happened to unconsciously wander over to where she is.

And now that I'm consciously aware of the fact that I'm staring, my eyes wander again. Not away, downward. I can't help that either. Jade really does have a nice-

I feel a sudden, and sharp, pain to my side.

Reflexively my head whips around to the left side of me so I can glare at my jabber. Melissa.

All at once I'm aware of everyone around me. Of Cat and Robbie arguing...or foreplaying. I can never figure out what's up with those two. And Beck and André are loudly conversing about some videogame...or is it a movie? Know what? It doesn't matter.

"Stop staring! It's creepy." Melissa says once she's got my attention.

I glare at her some more before speaking. "Ow." I say slowly; deliberately drawing out the "w" at the end.

"You're welcome." She smirks back before making a gesture toward the right corner of her mouth.

Apparently, I'm drooling and she wants me to wipe it away.

Fine.

I wipe the back of my hand along my bottom lip and then clean my fingers on Lissa's pants.

She stares at me, mouth open. You'd think she's momentarily forgotten how to talk. I mean, the effort to do so is plain to see as her lips start making random shapes while not emitting a single sound.

I smile at her. Totally amused.

All of a sudden she remembers how that hole in her face is supposed to work. "OH MY GOD!" She screams. "ICKY, I SWEAR TO DAN AND HIS FATHERFUCKING MAMA..."

I tune out the rest – She's not gonna do anything but scream at me and try to clean her pants – and I opt to look at Jade again.

Dang it! She's not ordering food anymore. She's on her way to our table. No more booty views.

Wait. No. I meant...Ugh, Can I be any more pathetic?

I look down at my food and start pushing it around some so it looks like I've been eating the whole time. While I'm arranging and rearranging the food on my plate, I hold my breath, anxiously waiting for Jade to choose her seat. There's an empty spot in front of me; between Cat and Beck. And there's an empty seat right next to me.

Please don't sit next to me. Please, please, don't sit next to me. I chant steadily in my head.

She sat next to me Wednesday, and it was okay at first. But after a while my neck started to hurt. Hey, you have no idea just how awkward it is to try to inconspicuously stare at someone who is sitting next to you.

Unconsciously, I breathe a deep sigh of relief when Jade sits down in front of me, in between Cat and Beck. I even look up from my plate and smile at her. But my smile drops quickly when I notice she's frowning at me. Well, not really at me. More like at my plate.

Despite my attempt at hiding how little I've eaten, she's noticed that I'm not eating. That I'm just pushing my food around.

Jammit.

I know that it bothers her when I don't eat. It bothers her so much that she tattled on me to my papi once; but her obsession with what I eat is slightly annoying. I don't have an eating disorder. I'm just not that hungry right now. But, I will admit that her concern for me…I like it. A lot.

I find myself smiling a little, only for my smile to be met by Jade deepening her frown at me.

I scowl right back. Not to be rude or anything, but I know she wants me to take a bite. And if there was room in my belly, even a little room, I would. I'd eat; but right now, just the thought alone of putting food into my mouth is making me feel sick. Physically sick. So, I pull my phone out of my back pocket instead and pretend to get lost in the world of texting, slap-paging and gaming.

But how lost in my phone could I really be if I find myself glancing up at Jade not even a full two minutes later? And you can bet that quick glance I give Jade turns into a bit of a stare.

Because she's staring at me. Blatantly, barely-blinkingly, staring at me. With her Eyebrows drawn down tightly and everything.

Its way too intense for me. I look away. My eyes just so happen to look down at her hands. They're laying there, palm down against the table.

She hasn't touched her food.

I make a conscious effort to go back to doing what I was doing on my phone before. Which was pretending to be busy. I was hardly into it before, and now that I'm super aware of Jade's gaze on me, it's an even harder to feat to accomplish.

But I still do it. For five minutes. After that, I can't ignore her anymore. Because no one else is ignoring her. Everyone's gone quiet, including Cat. I can see them continuously looking from me to Jade out of the corner of my eyes.

Ugh, fine! I exhale slowly and look up at Jade.

Still, she stares at me. Still, her hands lay palm down on the table beside her plate. Still, her food is untouched. I'd have to be stupid not to know what she's trying to say.

She's not going to eat until I do.

Can you say passive aggressive?

I should let her starve.

Whoa. That was harsh; and I didn't even really mean it. I have no idea why I thought something like that. Just me being a bitch, I guess.

All of a sudden I feel obligated to take a bite, just to kinda ease the guilt I'm feeling for wishing ill will toward Jade; but when I look down at my food my mouth clamps shut. It's like my body is telling me, "hell no!"

I look back up at Jade and yes, I admit it's pathetic, but I pout. "I'm not hungry." I plead, wanting her to understand that I'm fine. I'm not purposely starving myself. "I ate a big breakfast."

Nothing. Her face doesn't so much as twitch. She just continues to stare at me.

I get the urge to just get up from the table and throw my food away so she can stop staring at me like that; but I have no doubt she'll skip her lunch if I do. And I can't do that to her.

Ugh! It's not healthy to care this much! Jade is old enough to know she shouldn't starve herself just because I'm not eating. She's old enough to take the consequences if I decide not to rise to the bait. I think vehemently to myself, trying to pump myself up; but of course it doesn't work.

And since I can't take my anger out on Jade, I look back down at my food and glare at it. Food is my enemy right now and it's all Riley's fault.

Okay, it's my fault. I was trying to get Riley to go home for a few hours. Not that I wanted her to leave, but my little monstrito has been with me since Monday night and she absolutely refuses to go home.

It's Friday now.

Anyway, to make a long story short, I challenged her to a pancake eating contest. Loser had to do whatever the winner said for an hour. She didn't know it, but when I won, I was gonna make her visit her home. Well, no. I was gonna make her visit Jade. I know she sees Amber at school, but she hasn't seen Jade since Monday. Oh, and her uncle, Derek. He's staying at her house until Joy comes back, but since Riley's so adamant about avoiding Jade, she won't even go home to spend time with him! And frankly that's just ridiculous because I know she absolutely adores her uncle, so I had to do something. My plan just...backfired. That's all.

Riley accepted my challenge; and silly me thought it would be an easy win because I'm bigger than Riley, which means my stomach is bigger, which means I can hold more food, right?

Wrong. She ate eight pancakes. Ocho! And they weren't those small microwavable flimsy things. They were thick, home made, half a plate sized, monsters! I could only eat six and a half before I thought my poor tummy was gonna rip open and leave a bloody mess of pancake ooze on the floor.

Needless to say, Riley won. Thankfully, she made me do the normal things an eight year old could think of. Play with her, grab her book bag and carry it for her, etc. She ended up being late to school. Well, we ended up being late to school.

That was fun trying to explain to her mother.

I find myself smiling again; just at the thought of the phone call I received from Joy this morning. She wasn't mad at me or anything, but I felt bad for not being "the responsible adult." It's so weird, but I think she picked up on how guilty I was feeling over the phone because she kinda went out of her way to let me know that I was okay. That she still trusts me with her children. Jade included.

Ugh. Jade. I'm sure her mom wants her to eat. And if I know Jade the way I think I do, this isn't just a today thing. She's not gonna eat until she sees me eat from now on.

I sigh deeply and put my phone down. Just knowing what I'm about to do has got me feeling sick. Did I mention physically sick?

I try not to think about it as I pick up my fork, poising it above my salad. I pause there and watch Jade's hands; waiting to see if she'll do the same. Well, she's got a hamburger and fries, so I know she won't pick up a fork. But I wait to see if she'll pick up some fries, or her burger.

She doesn't.

I quickly fork up a bit of salad and put it in my mouth. And oh god, the second it touches my tongue I gag. Literally gag before clamping my hand over my mouth. My body wants nothing to do with food. Not for a few more hours at least.

Again, I'm painfully aware of everyone staring at me because of how quiet they are, but I ignore everyone. Everyone but Jade. It's her that I watch as I'm fighting to keep my food down.

She watches me too. A deep frown and narrowed eyes are aimed at me as she's undoubtedly trying to figure out why I'm struggling so bad with my lunch. I'm not too worried about it. She'll see tomorrow, or actually tonight, that I'm okay with eating. And then whatever theories she has rolling around in her head about me and my relationship with food can be disproved.

Finally, I finish chewing and swallowing my first bite; but still Jade just stares and her hands don't lift from the table.

Seriously? What is she waiting on? Proof?

Well, knowing Jade, she probably is waiting on proof.

I open my mouth, to show her it's empty. I even press my tongue to the roof of my mouth so she can see underneath it.

She smirks at me. I know she didn't mean anything by it. I know she was amused, not flirting with me, but still; it was a sexy smirk.

I bite my lip praying that I don't start thinking bad thoughts. I tend to zone out when I do, and now is not the time for zoning out.

I raise an eyebrow at her. 'Your turn,' I'm trying to communicate.

She gets it; and she pops a fry in her mouth. One freaking fry, before laying her hands back on the table. Palms down.

Seriously?!

Suddenly my phone rings; scaring the chizlets out of me. I fumble with it, my hands being extra clumsy because I'm so chizzin' annoyed right now. So when I answer, I, and everyone else at the table, hear Joy say, "Hello Sweetheart."

Oops. I accidentally put my phone on speaker.

As I'm fixing it, I hear Jade ask, "Is that my mom?"

I ignore her and say hello to Joy again to let her know that we haven't been disconnected.

"This is the weirdest break up ever." André says.

"We're not broken up!" Jade yells.

I ignore them both.

Truth is, I'm not surprised Joy's calling me. Since Monday, she's called me every morning and every night so she can check on Riley. I thought it was weird at first because Riley has a phone, but then I found out Joy took the twins' phones away…

So, yeah…the fact that Jade's mom is calling me isn't weird to me at all. Not anymore. And if I'm being honest, it never really bothered me when Joy called. I liked it. Still like it.

"So, I figure we could get this straight now." Joy's voice interrupts my musings. "I don't come back until Tuesday. I have a feeling Riley doesn't want to come home until then, do you mind…"

"It's no problem." I'm quick to tell Joy. Too quick I realize.

"Honey," Joy sighs. "You can say no if you want. Riley will get over it."

I shake my head, as if she can see it through the phone. "It's really no problem. I love her." I wince a little as soon as that comes out of my mouth. Why couldn't I say something casual like, "I love having her around?" Or, "I love it when she comes over?" No, I just had to let out a super desperate-sounding "I love her."

Ugh.

But Joy doesn't seem to care about my confession. "Okay, well, if you're sure," she continues easily. "I can have Derek drop a few things off when he picks up Amber from school."

At the mention of Amber's name, I feel my whole countenance fall.

And that's when I finally notice Jade's doing the gimme gesture with her hand. It's obvious she wants to use my phone.

"Jade wants to talk to you." I interrupt Joy quietly before handing my phone over to her daughter. I hope she's not too offended by how rude that just was, but I'm suddenly feeling a little emotional.

I miss Amber. It's been great having Riley around. It really has, but I'm so used to the both of them being together.

But Amber won't come to my house. I know she's not mad at me. She told me she doesn't want Jade to be alone so I don't take it personal; but I still miss her. So, so much.

"You're the mom!" I hear Jade suddenly shout, and I remember she's on the phone with Joy. I look around a bit and note that everyone is watching Jade, so that means I can do it too and not look like a creeper. So I do. "Just tell her to come home. Amber misses her." She explains.

There's a small beat of silence, and then: "I do not miss her!" Jade huffs.

I bite back a smile. Which she sees me do. She glares at me for it. For some reason that makes it even funnier to me, so I take a bite of my salad to keep my mouth occupied.

And I nearly throw up. I totally forgot about how unhungry I am.

Jade eats another french fry. I totally forgot she was doing that. Man, what a control freak. I should just toss my salad in the garbage.

Dang it. Another bad thought. I don't know where they heck they keep coming from. I take another bite of my salad out of guilt.

Ugggghhhh. Don't chuck, don't chuck, don't chuck...

Jade eats another fry.

I'm mentally hyping myself up to take another bite when Ryder walks up to me. I bet Jade's glaring at him, but I give him a cordial smile to acknowledge his presence.

"Hey, Tori." He smiles at me.

"Hey." I say casually. I find myself wanting to grab onto Jade's hand, just to reassure her that I'm not friends with him. I know what kind of person he is. She doesn't have to worry. Or whatever.

"Don't forget we have rehearsals today." He winks at me.

Crap. I totally did forget. I even made plans. Me and Lissa were supposed to go to the mall to pick out the cutest onesies we could find for the parade tonight. Well, the parade's really tomorrow morning, but since the cupcake only goes ten miles an hour at max speed, we have to leave tonight if we wanna get to the parade on time.

I'm supposed to get a onesie for Riley too…crap, Riley! I have to pick her up from school!

Maybe I can get Melissa to do it….but then again, I can't. She's not on the pick up list.

Jammit!

Maybe I can ask Derek…it'd be so weird. I mean, he was really nice to me at Bradley's birthday party; but the only reason I have his number is so he can talk to Riley at night.

It's utterly ridiculous that the thought of asking Jade and Derek for a favor are two different, but equal, kinds of awkward. But I think I'm gonna go with Derek.

I reach into my back pocket for my phone, but it's not there. That's when I remember Jade has it.

Is she seriously still using it?

I look up. Everyone's watching Jade stare at me…again. Her hands are resting, palms down, on the table...again. My phone is sitting in the middle of the table, but I sigh and reach for my fork instead.

I start on my salad, quickly eating as much as I can – without throwing up – because there are only a few minutes of lunch left. I get through half of it; and I hope Jade got enough to eat. I'm kinda scared to check so I blindly grab at my phone and hurry away to fifth period.

{~~~O~~~}

I don't remember my Riley dilemma until school is over. Quickly, I send a text to Melissa, letting her know she'll have to go shopping alone and asking her to pick out a onesie for me and Riley, then meet us at my place. After that, I have a small debate with myself over asking Derek to drop Riley off, and nearly immediately decide not to do it. It'd be a little rude to call him now. I mean, he might have plans or something.

Which means I gotta ask Jade.

I search for her quickly before I can over think it and back out.

Thank Dan she's still at her locker so I run up to her.

"Jade!" I call.

"What?" She snaps. She doesn't even turn around to look at me. Which is a little weird. Even though I'm always expecting her to show just how much I irritate her, she hasn't really shown it. She's been extra nice to me lately. Patient too...until now, that is.

"I uh…" I falter.

"Spit it out." she continues to go through her locker.

She still has her back to me.

"I'm sorry." I blurt out nervously. I don't know what else to do.

She inhales deeply and finally faces me. I watch her rearrange her scowl into a neutral gaze. "What do you need, Vega?" She asks. Her tone is still a little snippy, but it's a lot more civil than before. Like she doesn't want to be cordial, but she doesn't want to be outright rude either.

Instantly I feel guilty...like an unnecessary inconvenience. I mean, I'm the one who has her on break, even though she's asked me a hundred times to end it; and yet here I am, expecting her to be nice to me. To do favors for me. What was I thinking? I don't have the right to ask her to do anything!

"Nothing...um, never mind." I tell her. I'll just pick Riley up myself. It would mean being super late to rehearsals, and hoping Keaton doesn't absolutely murder me, but I don't really have much of a choice. Well, I could still ask Derek…

"I hate it when you do that."

In a way, I hear Jade. But for some reason it doesn't register to me that she's expecting my attention. I'm too busy checking the time to see if I still have enough time to catch Derek. And when I make the final decision to scratch that idea, I check the time again to calculate just how late I'm going to be to rehearsals after I go pick Riley up myself.

Yeah, Keaton's gonna have my coffin laid out for me by the time I get to the -

Abruptly, Jade snaps her fingers in my face, demanding my attention. I let out a very startled, "What?"

"What did you want?" she counters.

I shake my head. "Nothing, I'll see you tonight." I answer dismissively as I make to walk away.

"I hate it when you do that." She says again, blocking my attempt to walk passed her. "What did you want?"

"Oh." I pause. "Uh, I was just wondering if you could do me a favor. But I can do it." I answer as I make another attempt to go around her.

She steps to the left and holds out her hand to stop me. "What favor?"

"Nothing." I shrug. "I'm sorry I bothered you." I try to step around her again, but she raises an eyebrow at me. A warning. A very sexy warning.

"Ask me."

I sigh, knowing she's not gonna let this go. So here goes:

"Do you think you can…Can you bring Riley to my rehearsals? I was gonna ask Derek, but then I didn't want to bother him, not that I'd rather bother you but…."

I stop right there. And look down and my shoes. She's staring right at my lips, probably because I'm talking so dang much, but it makes me think bad thoughts. Well they're not really bad. I just want to kiss her is all. But I can't. We're on break.

"Beg me." She says.

I bite my lip. My usual way of handling this would be to refuse. When Jade makes a person beg, it's always a humiliating experience. And an even bigger blow to one's pride. Unless it's foreplay. Which this isn't. But I'm not really in the mood to prolong the torture. I just wanna get this over with. So I look up, straight into her eyes. "Please." I beg. "Can you please pick up Riley for me?"

Her eyes widen. I recognize it as shock. She's probably surprised I gave in so fast. Like I said, I usually don't.

"Okay," she says softly. Like even her eyes get softer.

I blink at her. What? That's it? I honestly expected her to draw out the begging part. Make me get on my hands and knees, or lick her boots or something, but she just said okay. Just like that.

Suddenly, and I mean suddenly and not surprisingly, I get the urge to kiss her for being so uncomplicated and accommodating. This urge is so strong that I literally step on my right foot to keep from approaching her, and I pinch my wrist to keep from placing a hand on her waist so I can pull her closer to me.

She notices. She looks downward and watches as my own body fights itself, and her eyes soften even more.

I bite my lip again.

"Are you okay, ba-Vega?"

There she goes, almost calling me baby again.

"Vega?"

Right. She asked me if I was okay.

I nod my head.

I don't think she believes me. She takes a step closer to me, and I get the urge to take one back. But I know if I do that, she'll just take another one forward and I'll probably kiss her; so, I run away. Literally.

I try to convince myself that the only reason I'm running is because I don't want to be late for rehearsals. Keaton is just as loony as Sikowitz…but not the good kind of loony.

And even though I make it just in time, I feel really late because everyone's already here, and they're all facing the door; like they're waiting for me.

"Victoria!" Keaton shouts from the front of the stage. I'd tell him I go by Tori, again; but it'd be a waste of breath. "It's so nice of you to finally join us."

I hurry to the stage, not even bothering to tell him that I'm not actually late. He wouldn't care.

"Now that we're all here..." Keaton pauses here as he glares at me so childishly I expect him to stick his tongue out at me. "We can finally start. And we start..." another dramatic pause as he closes his eyes and puffs out his chest. "At the end!"

I wince at the unnecessary shouting. We're all standing not even five feet away. There's no need to be that chizzin' loud, man!

"In this scene, Patty has eaten poisonous berries. Richard discovers this and tells Emmeline. Emmeline asks what they should do and Richard presents Emmeline with those same poisonous berries their son just ate. Together, they commit suicide via the berries!" Keaton thunders. "Simple, right?"

Everyone watches Keaton. Not daring to answer. Not daring to move. I can't even tell if anyone is breathing.

"No." Keaton answers for everyone. "Those are merely words my young thespians. Words that can't evoke emotion, that can not even evoke a stirring from the most sensitive of us humans." He pauses there, clearly enjoying the fact that he's got everyone's undivided attention. As if the drama queen would have it any other way.

"I want to feel." he hisses. "I want to live this! I want to mourn Patty, Richard and even Emmeline." he looks to me again.

The nerve!

"Now go!" he shoos us away with a fancy flick of his wrist. "Make me mourn!"

Everyone scrambles to their places. Me, Ryder, and Sinjin take center stage and sit on the floor mat laid out. We're supposed to be in a boat.

I sit down next to Sinjin. Ryder sits on front of the both of us; and we all wait for Keaton to call action. Of course, since he's so dramatic, he takes his precious time. Once we finally have the green light to go, Ryder immediately yells, "Patty no!" as he slaps imaginary berries out of Sinjin's hands.

There's horror and panic on Ryder's face. It's supposed to freak me out and alert me of the fact that something dire has happened. But I know no such thing has happened.

"What happened?" I yell, pretending to be alarmed.

"He ate the berries!" Ryder says, holding up his hand to show me the imaginary berries.

Now, I'm supposed to try and dig the berries out of Patty's mouth, but it's Sinjin. Sinjin! I gag a bit before prying his mouth open and sticking my fingers in.

It's so freaking gross. I know my face is showing it. I also know Keaton's about to call cut, but I get my line out first.

"What are we gonna do?" I ask Ryder as I pull my fingers out of Sinjin's mouth and wipe my hands on his shirt as inconspicuously as I can.

Subconsciously I note that this is the second time I've wiped slobber on someone else today.

But that little thought of randomness goes away when Ryder solemnly holds out a handful of "berries," offering them to me. And I can't help but to think of the Hunger Games. Well, in reverse because in the Hunger Games Katniss offered Peeta the berries, but-

"No, no and NO, Victoria!" Keaton finally can't take another second.

He kicks at the air, nearly losing his balance in the process, but no one laughs. Then he squeezes his eyes shut and pinches the bridge of his nose…with both hands. I think it's to show he's doubly frustrated but it just looks so dang stupid. And I'm so busy trying not to laugh that I don't realize he's stalked up to me.

He yanks me up by my arm. My left arm. The one with the bruise on it. I wince out of reflex mostly. The bruise is still ugly, but I can hardly feel it. I snatch my arm away quickly, surprised that I'm even surprised. I've been attending this school for four months. I should be used to all the hands on. But I guess I'm not. At Sherwood, the teachers weren't allowed to touch us students. Well, they could give us a high five I guess, but who wants to give their teacher a high five?

"Your son is dying!" Keaton yells. He's so close to my face that I go cross-eyed for a second before taking a step back. "Act like your son is dying. Show me some emotions, girl!"

I glance down at "my son." Sinjin. Sinjin! How the heck am I supposed to get myself to feel bad over his death?

Whoa, that sounded awful. I didn't mean it like that. I meant it like...I don't know. I mean, I know Sinjin's not dying. And yes, I'm an actress, but I can't make myself feel genuine sadness. I can pretend, but this school hates the word "pretend." They barely tolerate the word "act." They want you to be. And I can't be sad about something tragic that's not real. Meaning I'll probably never be a proper actress; but hey, I excel at singing and performing! I can still become a famous pop star.

"Victoria!" Keaton snaps in my face.

I blink and give him my attention.

"Again!" He commands, pointing down to where Sinjin and Ryder are sitting on the mat. I get back down there with them, but one glance at Sinjin and I know I'll never be able to pull this off. It's just like when I couldn't get the "I love you" part during the play about the narcoleptic astronaut. Jade had to coach me for two hours straight.

Ugh, there I go, thinking about Jade again. I should be proud of myself though. This has got to be some kind of record. I think it's been a whole seven minutes.

Keaton snaps in my face again.

I blink. I seriously gotta stop spacing out.

He groans and grabs me up by my arm again.

I'm just about to apologize, and really mean it, when the door opens and I see three of my favorite people in the world. Riley, Jade, and Amber.

For some reason, I totally forgot Jade was dropping off Riley. Another weird thing, I didn't expect her to bring Amber.

"Gimme five minutes." I tell Keaton.

He grabs my arm even tighter, which actually does hurt this time. "Did you just tell me"-

"Yes!" I snatch my arm away and run off stage.

"Hey, girls!" I smile brightly; hoping I've successfully arranged my face so that it shows zero percent of the pain I'm feeling in my arm right now.

I open my arms for a hug. I don't really expect Riley to hug me because she's been with me all week, but she does. She's also the first to let me go.

"You're gonna sit up there where I can see you," I tell her while pointing to the chairs in the front row, "And do your homework while I rehearse."

"I don't have homework." She says…like I can't tell when she's lying. And she's definitely lying.

I place my hands on my hips. "Do your homework or I'm leaving you home tonight. I know Trina would absolutely love it."

Riley scowls at me. Normally, she has no problem hanging out with Trina, but she's been looking forward to the parade all week.

"Fine." she mutters, before going to sit where I told her to.

I turn back to face Jade so I can thank her for helping me out when I realize Amber's still got her arms wrapped around me. I smile, no grin, as I greet her. "Hey, Mamita."

"Hi, Tori." She mumbles into my side. I don't mind her refusal to let go of me, not even to greet me properly, but I would like to see her face. So, I place my hands under her pits and heave her up into my arms.

I'm all set to tease her until I realize she's already blushing. So I decide against it, turning my attention onto Jade instead. "Thank you so much for bringing her," I nod my head towards Riley. "And for bringing this one too." I tickle Amber's side a little. She giggles and squirms before wrapping both arms around my neck.

It's apparent she's missed me as much as I missed her, and the thought brightens my mood exponentially.

"It's no problem, Vega." Jade tells me. And she seems to really mean it too. And since she's being friendly and polite, I feel as though I can ask her for another favor.

"Can…Is Amber coming tonight?" I practically plead.

Jade smiles at me. "I guess I could leave her home with Derek, but that would just be cruel. The kid is seriously excited about riding in a stupid cupcake."

"Thank you!" I smile widely, super excited; and before I can think about what I'm doing, I kiss her.

Dang it!

I pull back quickly, facing going red. "I'm sorry, Jade. I don't know why I keep doing that."

"It's fine." She smirks at me; which is something I wish she would stop doing because it just makes me want to kiss her even more.

"It's not fine." I groan in embarrassment. "I asked for a real break and I keep messing it up."

Jade shrugs. "I don't mind. I miss your kisses." she teases, a playful smile on her perfect lips.

"Jade..." I whine.

Her smile drops abruptly and she stares at me. But not really at me. It's like she's spaced out. I nearly say her name to get her attention but then she comes back. Her eyes focus on mine, and she speaks. "I can't wait 'til I can kiss you again, baby."

I bite my lip. Torn between not knowing what to say, wanting to kiss her again, and wanting to reprimand her.

She called me baby. Not ba-Vega. Just baby. She's not supposed to. I asked her not to while we're on this "real break" and she said she wouldn't. But she slipped up. Although, I do have a sneaking suspicion that it wasn't actually a slip. That she consciously, and deliberately, called me baby. And that she knows if I reprimand her for her "slip," she'll be able to remind me of mine. Of how I keep accidentally kissing her. And I'd have no way of combating that because she'd be absolutely right.

"You should get back to your rehearsals." Jade says, breaking our silence.

I glance back at Keaton. He's pinching the bridge of his nose with both hands again.

I turn back toward Jade; she's making the gimme motion with her hands. It takes me a second to realize she wants Amber. Which is super weird. When did this start? I think I've only seen Jade carry her once. Or twice. But I'm pretty sure it was once.

"Tell Vega bye, Booger," Jade tells Amber as I transfer my mamita into her sister's arms. There's a slight pain in my chest at having to give her up and I nearly roll my eyes at the absurdity of my overactive emotions. I mean, I'll see her tonight.

"Dame un beso." I tell Amber as I pucker up for a kiss.

She gives me two. "Uno de parte de Jade." She explains.

I'm a little shocked at first. One from Jade? And then I get it; she realizes that Jade's not "allowed" to kiss me. So she did it for her.

Awwwwwwwww! See, this! This is why I miss this kid so much. She's so chizzin' sweet! And thoughtful! And loyal! And-

"Vega? Are you okay?"

I sniff. Wait...When did my nose start running? Am I...Ugh! When the chiz did I start crying?

I wipe my face quickly. "I'm fine, Mami." I answer before standing on my tiptoes and giving Amber one more kiss. "Bye, Mamita."

I notice Jade's just grinning away at me and I roll my eyes. Not at her; just in general 'cause I just realized I called her Mami and I'm not supposed to do that either.

Ugh!

I turn away from them and quickly make my way back to the stage before I break any more of my own rules.

Looking ahead of me, I can see just how disturbed and astonished the rest of the crew is at my lack of respect for their time, and I'm kinda sorry about that. I just know Keaton is gonna have a full blown wazzfit on me, but ninety percent of me doesn't really care about that. He has a full blown wazzfit over everything.

As I pass by Riley, I ruffle her hair playfully. She scowls, but doesn't look up from her homework. Then I hop back on stage and stand in front of Keaton, just in case he wants to yell at me some more. "I'm back." I announce unnecessarily.

"Shh." He shushes me so ferociously that there's spit on my chin.

I just might chuck.

But I keep my lunch and wipe my chin with the bottom of my shirt before taking my seat next to Sinjin once again. The only thing to do now is to wait for Keaton's silent wazzfit to be over.

It takes forever.

The weird thing about it is no one moves a muscle, not to check their phones, not even to cough.

Finally he opens his eyes, raising his hands up above his head. "I've come to a decision." he pauses there for dramatic effect. An over dramatic effect if you ask me.

"You," he snaps, suddenly pointing a finger towards Sinjin. "You're no longer baby Patty!"

"What!?" Sinjin half squawks half squeaks. It's a very disturbing sound. "That's not fair. I-"

"Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh." Keaton hisses. For a very long time.

Sinjin gets up and quietly moves away from me and Ryder.

"You." Keaton whips around and points at Riley. "Baby West." Riley looks up and Scowls at him. "You are to play Baby Patty."

She glares at him for a second before looking to me. I say nothing because I'm shocked, and confused, and speechless. He can't just ask an elementary kid to be in this school's play…. Can he?

Riley gives him a light shrug and goes back to doing her homework.

I guess he's not used to that kind of behavior because he stamps his foot and puts a hand on his hip. "Baby West. Up on the stage, now!"

"My name is Riley." she glares back at him. "And I can't go on stage."

"Why ever not?"

"You didn't say please."

I snicker a little, until I realize everyone's about to wet their panties. Then I pretend it was a cough.

"I didn't say please?" he snarls.

"Nope."

"I'm Bernie Keaton!" he says. "I-"

"I'm Riley." she interrupts.

I think I see her mutter something along the lines of "you still didn't say please" under her breath.

He squints at her.

She squints back.

He crosses his arms over his chest.

And just when I think she's going to mimic him by crossing her arms over her chest as well, she surprises me by giving me a small glance before going back to her homework.

Oh God, it's like she committed some kind of unpardonable sin or something. There's like silent mayhem. Everyone communicating their disbelief with their silent gasps and widened eyes.

Still Riley keeps her head down. I can't help but notice just how adorable she is as she counts on her fingers. The amount of concentration on her face as she sticks her tongue out to the side and frowns down at her little hands. She looks just like Jade.

Ugh. Jade thoughts. Again.

"Please." Keaton utters, successfully gaining my attention. I've never heard him say please before. And judging by my soon-to-faint peers, they've never heard him say it either.

"I can't." Riley answers, she doesn't even look up.

More shocked, silent gasps.

"I'm not saying that again!" He announces.

"You don't gotta." Riley scowls down at her fingers. I think she's lost count. "I can't go up there because Tori said I have to finish my homework first or I can't go to the parade."

Crap. Now all eyes are on me. I wonder if I can get Keaton to say please. He turns to me and glares, and I think he's gonna yank me up or double pinch his nose again.

On second thought...

"It's okay Riley, come up here." I yield.

I barely finish that sentence before she's standing in front of me, grinning like a maniac. I try my best not to think about how Jade gave me the same grin when I accidentally kissed her. But as you see it didn't work.

I turn Riley around and rest my hands on her shoulders after dropping a light kiss on her head.

She pinches my leg, letting me know just how much she appreciates my PDA.

"Right!" Keaton yells, unnecessarily, to get everyone's attention. Or maybe it's to gain back control of the theatre. "You are gonna be four year old Patty." He points at Riley. Then he points at me. "That is your mom." Now he points at Ryder. "That is your dad. You're gonna eat some poisonous berries and die. Got" -

"Yeah," Riley interrupts. "You want me to pretend Tori's my mom and"-

"No, no!" Keaton cries, genuinely disturbed.

"Amateur!" I hear quiet a few people hiss,

"She's eight!" I glare back at everyone and pull Riley closer to me.

"No, Victoria!" Keaton screams at me. "She's four! When are you going to understand? You are not pretending. You are..."

"Yeah but you don't have to scream at her like that! She's just a-"

Riley turns and hugs me around my middle. "It's okay mama." she says soothingly while patting my lower back.

Huh? Mama? What the – Oh right. Acting. She's Patty now.

Keaton gives me a triumphant glare and continues with his lesson. Riley hangs on every word. She barely even blinks.

Great, now she's a Keaton zombie too.

"Everyone in position!" Keaton thunders. I sit down in the pretend boat. Riley sits beside me and Ryder sits in front of us. "Ready, action!"

Immediately, Ryder yells, "No, Patty!" He lounges forward and slaps at Riley's hands, genuinely startling the crap out of me.

"What?" I freak. I'm like three seconds away from breaking his nose for laying a hand on her.

"She ate the berries, Em!" He's got her arms in his big hands and is most certainly about to shake her. Like that'll do any good; but it is what the script calls for. And now I'm supposed to dig the berries out of Patty's mouth.

I push Ryder away – not part of the script – and pull Riley into my arms. "Open your mouth!" I scream at her. She looks alarmed at both me and Ryder's wazzouts and clamps her mouth shut. "Come on!" I grab at her face, maybe a little too rough and force her mouth open. Without the slightest bit of hesitation my fingers search her mouth for the stupid berries. There are none to be found. According to the script, Patty's already swallowed them. But the real reason there's nothing there is because there was nothing in Riley's mouth in the first place.

I try to remember that.

"What are we going to do?" I moan miserably. I deliver my line perfectly because I'm slightly freaked out in real life. With Sinjin it was never gonna work, but with Riley...

Ryder looks down at Riley in my arms, his heart seemingly breaking. His face crumbling up in absolute devastation.

I blink at him. Then I glance down at Riley too, and I frown. The last time I looked at her face, she was alarmed, trying to clamp her mouth shut because she didn't want me digging in her mouth for berries. Now... Now, she looks so...unconscious. "What are we gonna do?" I whisper again. (Not part of the script)

I bring my hand up and touch her face. Still she doesn't move. I know she's acting. I know she's a good actress, because she pretends to be Amber a lot. But she's doing so well that I can't help but think, if this were real. Even though she's not my child, if she was lying there, dying...

I shake her a little. No response. No conscious response. Her head lolls to the side lifelessly.

It gets do me. I snap.

"Do something!" I shout abruptly, bringing Riley close to my chest and hitting Ryder with my free hand.

He doesn't move. Just looks at Riley sadly.

It pisses me off. "Do something!" I scream. Hitting him again, harder this time. He ignores me. Opting to reach out and touch Riley's head. "Patty." he whispers; so much anguish in that one word. In our child's name.

I go into full flip out mode.

"Why weren't you watching her!?" I snatch her away from his grasp and hug her tighter to me. Pulling her face into my chest. "Why didn't you check her before? Why didn't you...why?!" I hit him. Over and over again. Each time harder than the one previous.

Ryder takes my abuse quietly for a little while; then he hugs me. Me and her together. I don't want him touching me, us, so I struggle.

He holds us tight until I'm too tired to fight him. So tired that I don't even realize Riley's no longer in my arms. He's laid her down beside us as he hugs me. Just me. Then he holds the berries out to me. This time I don't think of The Hunger Games. I look at her. She's still lifeless. And I know, if I was presented with poisonous berries in this situation I'd take them. It's either that or stay in this boat with Ryder and maybe be returned to the island full of cannibals.

Carefully, I take a few from his hands, and before I put them to my lips, I give her a sound kiss on the forehead. Then the berries are in my mouth and I lay down beside her. Waiting for my death too.

I feel Ryder trying to get in on the hug and I nearly push his hands away; but I remember, he's Richard. Patty's daddy. He has the right to hug her as we all die, I guess. He covers my hand with his, and I entwine our fingers together.

"And cut!"

Abruptly I'm being pulled up by both my arms, and then I'm being suffocated.

God, I wish teachers in this school would learn about boundaries. I think this is the first time a male teacher has hugged me this close and this long. It's so freaking weird.

"Yes, Victoria! I knew you could"- he breaks off there as he's suddenly sobbing uncontrollably.

Eww, ew, ew, ew. He's snotting on my shoulder. Ew, ew, ew...

{~~~O~~~}

"Tori, do I gotta still finish my homework?"

Rehearsals didn't run as late as I thought it would considering all the reworking we had to do because of Riley's part. So technically, Riley has time to do her homework before we get ready for the float. Only it'd be too cruel to make her do it. It's not like she has to go to school tomorrow. She can finish her homework on Sunday.

"No." I answer.

"Yes! She said no, Mom…..she did I promise."

I shake my head a little and smile. First thing Riley did when we got in the car was swipe my phone so she could call her mom and tell her the great news. That she's in a play at my school.

Of course Joy didn't believe her because it's….unbelievable; but I told her what happened and she said she's gonna check with the school about its policies.

I hope everything turns out alright. Riley's really excited. I'd hate for the principal to tell Keaton he can't just pick up actors from the elementary school across the way.

"Here," Riley thrusts my phone in my face. "Mom wants to speak to you."

"Hello?" I answer while getting all my chiz, and some of Riley's chiz too, out of my car. On our way to the front door, I quickly note that Melissa's car is here. Hopefully she got the right sizes.

"Hi, Sweetheart. Just checking in."

I frown. "With me?" Why would she be checking in with me?

"Well, since Riley's in a play at your school now she's going to be spending even more time with you." Joy explains patiently. "I know you'll say it's fine, but I still have to ask if you're okay with it."

"I'm more than okay with it." I tell her. "Of course I'd be more okay if I got to spend time with Amber too." I mumble to myself. Just not quiet enough 'cause she heard that.

"She'll come around." she answers. "Well, I'm gonna let you go..."

"Okay, bye."

"Bye, Tori."

I hang up with a smile on my face. I really love how Jade's mom is still really nice to me even thought I put her daughter on a break. It makes me feel all warm and gooey inside.

"Come on Tori, open the door." Riley's dancing impatiently beside me. At first I think she has to wazz; but then I realize there's music coming from the house.

Really loud music. And that's why she's dancing.

I quickly unlock the door, but before I can fully open it, it's yanked open from the inside and I'm pulled inside, straight into my father's arms.

He's in a good mood.

And it's not even his birthday.

But instead of questioning it, I shrug my shoulders and dance with my father. It's one of my favorite songs too, kinda old, but still fun enough to dance to at a party.

Abruptly, my dad leaves me to dance by myself. That, I don't mind too much, but then I see him heading towards the couch while yelling, "Up, up, up! It's dancing time!"

Now, it'd be okay if that was Josie he was heading toward. Maybe even Trina, as destructive she is. But I just realize that's Melissa over there! He can't-ugh!

"Papi!" I rush over and cut in front of my dad before he can start tugging on the poor girl.

"Go dance with Riley." I tell him, which he does with a happy backwards jig.

My friend is absolutely mortified that my dad was gonna pull her up and make her participate in his overly happy mood. And I don't want to make it super awkward by leaving her there so I can go back to enjoying my dad's good mood; or by going upstairs with her and leaving my dad alone to celebrate...whatever he's celebrating; so, I hold my hands out to her. "Come dance with me." I tell her.

It's a win-win. Papi gets people to party with, and Melissa isn't awkwardly left out.

"No." she shakes her head. Less mortified and just plain old embarrassed now.

Progress!

I pull on her arms.

"Icky, I can't!" she protests

"Yes you can." I pull on her some more.

"No I mean, I don't know how." She points to my dad; he's in full blown cha cha mode. He is making it look a bit hard to dance to this type of music… if you've never danced to this type of music, I guess.

Luckily for me, I have been doing it my whole life and am an excellent teacher.

"It's easy. Just do this." I do a basic four count. She watches my hips, trying to figure out how she's supposed to move hers, before shaking her head again and trying to sit back down.

"Oh no you don't!" I yank on her, and she crashes into me. Which, kinda hurt, I'll admit. I right her, and then hold her hips as I show her how she's supposed to do it. She grabs at my hands, and I don't know what she was going to do next because Riley forcibly separates us.

"Teach me!" She commands.

"Riley! Don't be rude!" I scold.

"Enseña me!" she repeats.

I'm about to tell her she should at least say excuse me to Melissa, but my friend says it's fine and goes back to sitting and watching. Well, she's more or less on her phone.

"Fine." I relent.

I grab Riley's hands and keep a little distance between us so she can watch what I'm doing. I'm all set to go into full blown teacher mode and fix her first stance, but there's no need.

She already knows how to do it.

It seems my dad already taught her how to do this dance. And before I can ask her why she wanted me to teach her if she already knows how, Trina comes home.

And then Trina starts dancing.

Oh, how I hate it when Trina starts dancing. Something gets broken every time. Last time it was Mom's pinky.

Trina grabs Riley up and starts twirling her around, and oh my God if she breaks anything on my monstrito, I swear….

Riley squeals and laughs, encouraging Trina to be even wilder. She's obviously having a blast and I don't want to be the one to spoil it by demanding her to separate from my sister. So, I dance with them. Following them around and copying the idiotic looking moves my sister makes. That way I can catch Riley if Trina does anything irresponsible

I won't admit to anyone on this planet that I'm actually having fun though.

"Icky, you should get ready." I suddenly hear a few minutes later.

I dismiss the non dancer with a wave of my hand, as I'm having a very rare moment of fun with my family. If Melissa wasn't such a party pooper, she wouldn't be so bored.

"It's seven o'clock." Lissa tries again.

So?

Wait...

"It's seven o'clock?!" I pull away from my sister to gape at Lissa.

It just can't be seven o'clock already. We just got in the house!

She rolls her eyes at me and puts her phone in my face.

"It's seven o'clock!" I yell.

Again she rolls her eyes at me.

"We have to be there at 7:30!" I scream.

Ugh! I run up to Riley and pull her away from Trina.

"Hey!" They both protest. Which I thoroughly ignore. "Shower, monstrito!" I urge while pushing her towards the stairs.

Realizing that I didn't feed Riley I call a quick, "Melissa can you fix us some sandwiches to go please!" over my shoulder.

"Okay."

"I said ple-" Wait. I stop on the bottom of the steps and turn, making my way to the kitchen where Melissa is already pulling out the bread and stuff. "Did you say yes?" I ask incredulously. Lissa never agrees to anything so quickly. I'd even go as far as to say that it's easier to get Jade to do things for me than it is to get Melissa to.

"No. I said okay."

It's meant as a joke. I know it is, but her heart didn't really seem into it. She seems...sad.

And I'm reminded of the fact that she stayed. Her family moved away and she's still here. Of course, Hollywood Arts is such an awesome school, you'd have to be nuts to leave no matter the consequences. But she must be missing her family something awful.

Selfishly though? I'm glad she stayed, that she didn't leave me. She's one of my best friends. Well, my best normal friends. And she chose not to leave me. Well, Hollywood Arts. Which includes me. I should thank her for that. Even though she didn't stay specifically for me, I should thank her for staying behind anyway.

I throw my arms around her neck and hug her. "Thank you."

"It's just a sandwich." she stiffens, refusing to hug me back. "Peanut butter and jelly."

Since I realize I've made this awkward, I choose to play it off to save us both some embarrassment. I squeeze a little tighter and say, in my creepiest, stalker-yish, almost Sinjin-like voice, "You smell good."

"Oh my God! You're so weird!" she laughs.

Really laughs.

Success!

I sniff harder, more so to tickle her in the weirdest way possible. Thank Dan she actually does smell good.

Her body gives an involuntary shudder. "Lemme go!" She squeals as she pushes away from me.

I hold her tighter and giggle...and sniff. I end up coughing a little this time as some of her hair gets snorted up my nose.

Gross.

"Tori!" Riley snaps suddenly, jerking on my arm. "We're gonna be late!"

Oh, right. "I'm coming." I cough some more.

"Now!" she screeches.

"I said I'm coming!" Jeez, who wazzed in her cereal this morning? Wait, did she have cereal this morning? Nope, it was pancakes. Lots and lots of pancakes. I start to feel a little queasy at the thought as I'm marched up the stairs. And I am in fact being marched up the stairs, with Riley behind me, two palms pressed firmly against my back as she pushes with all her might.

I laugh at her eagerness and open the bathroom door, ushering her inside. "I'll go get your clothes." I offer briskly.

"No. set the water."

I frown at her. One: she doesn't need help setting the water. She knows how to do it herself. Two: what's up with her being all demanding and chiz. Ordering me to set the water rather than asking me? I mean, yeah, she's always been a bit unruly and/or a smart alec, but never is she like this.

As I stare at her, she puts her hands on her hips and glares at me.

She's definitely cranky. The crankiest I've ever seen her, now that I think about it. Or maybe she's simply homesick and wants to hurry to get to the school so she can see Amber? That could be it.

"Are you ready to go home Riley?" I ask her casually as I set the water for her.

"Why?" she folds her arms over her chest and continues to glare at me. "Do you want me to go?"

I sigh, not sure where to go from there. I don't know how to deal with this Riley without saying, or doing, something I'll regret later. So I choose not to deal with this at all. "You have to take a quickie because we don't have a lot of time." I tell her as a way to change the subject.

"Gee, I wonder who's fault that is." She sneers.

I grit my teeth. She's starting to irritate me and it's a new feeling for me. Usually, it doesn't bother me too much when she does her smart alec thing. I bristle up and correct her, but it doesn't truly bother me. Right now, I kinda do want her to go home. If I wanted to have a person who looks like Jade, glaring and snapping at me for no dang reason, I'd be with Jade!

Those thoughts racing through my brain, I turn to go get her jammies out of my room. On my way out I hear an indignant, "Where are you going?"

"To get your jammies." I try my best not to snap.

"Come right back." She doesn't try at all not to snap.

I roll my eyes. I love that kid, I love that kid...I tell myself over and over again before I'm tempted to do something not so friendly to her. Like murder her to death.

Hm...That sounded like a threat Jade would make.

Another thought I try to push away as I gather up Riley's colorful onesie and a random tank top before heading back to the bathroom. I've barely stepped a foot inside when I hear Riley's demand of, "Stay in here with me."

I ignore her. Opting to get ready in my parents' bathroom. That way we can kill two birds with one stone. And I can get a few minutes of peace without Riley. Of course since it's peace I want, it's peace I have ripped from me while I'm washing my face. The shower curtain is pulled back suddenly, and I open my eyes to see who's invading my privacy. Am I surprised to see that it's Riley with Jade's scowl on her face? No. I'm not.

"What!" I yell at her, irritated because there's freaking soap in my eyes and it stings. Really bad.

"I told you to wait for me!" She yells back at me.

"I don't have to do what you say!" I enlighten her.

"Oh?"

Ugh! "You know what? Maybe you should go home!" I close the curtains back.

She snatches them back open. "I'm not going anywhere!"

Oh my God! "Get out!" I draw the curtains back closed with a forceful snap and I swear if she opens them up again I'll chizzin' lose it!

"I'm not going anywhere!" Riley repeats, this time even louder. But she leaves the curtains alone.

So I holler, "Stop acting like a little brat!" as I step back into the water to finish my shower.

"Stop acting like a skanky gank!" she screams back.

I snap my mouth shut. I'm not doing this. This being me and Riley fighting like peers. We're not peers. She's eight years old. I'll be eighteen in a week. So I'm not going to have a screaming match with her. I'm going to tell her what kind of behavior is expected from her, and if she doesn't like it, she can go home. I'm not going to let her think it's okay to just snap at people like this just because she's having a bad day. She needs to learn better communication.

That decision in my mind, I step out of the shower. Riley's still here. Hands folded over her chest as she glares at me.

I grab up my towel and wrap it around myself before I go to my room. She follows behind me and watches me get dressed without saying a word.

I try not to let that irritate me either.

This is when I should have that talk with her, about her manners...or lack there of, but after checking the time, I realize I don't have the time.

I sit in front of my vanity and yell for Melissa.

"Ready to go?" she asks the moment she steps into my room.

"In a minute. Will you do my hair for me while I put on my make up?"

"How do you want it?" she asks. Not one small protest does she utter. Probably because she knows we don't have time.

"Pigtails."

"Pigtails?" She frowns questioningly even as she takes my comb and starts parting my hair down the middle.

"I'm wearing a onesie," I tell her. "I might as well complete this look."

"Makes sense." She shrugs.

"Makes enough sense for me to style your hair the same way?" I ask wiggling my eyebrows at her in the mirror.

"Sure." she shrugs without hesitation. "But make it quick."

"Uh...What?" I ask. I was not expecting her to say yes.

As an answer, she finishes my hair quickly and moves me out of my seat so I can do hers.

Which I do quickly, wondering if Riley will let me do hers as well. She'd be so freakin' cute! I glance over at her, see her very annoyed scowl and remember she's super wazzed off at me.

Man, I wish Amber was here.

"All done!" I announce brightly not even a full two minutes later.

"Aren't you gonna do mine?" Riley snaps.

"Can you ask nicely?" I retort without even thinking about it.

Her nose flares angrily and she clamps her mouth shut. Refusing to say another word.

I shake my head at her. Yeah, definitely need to have that talk with her before the night is over.

"Girl..." Melissa shakes her head beside me, a small smirk on her lips.

"It's not funny!" I whine.

"It is, actually."

"Shut up!" I smack her on the arm. "Come on, it's time to go anyway."

I run down the stairs, Melissa and Riley hurrying behind me. And just as I open the front door, I'm pushed out of the way. I end up falling gracelessly on my butt.

"And where do you think you're going?"

Aw man! It's Trina. I was hoping to keep this a secret from her. If she knew what we were doing she'd beg to come, and even though I'd say no, she'd find a way to come anyway.

"A parade." Riley answers.

I glare at her.

She ignores me.

"A parade?" Trina frowns. "This time at night?"

"It's tomorrow." Riley corrects.

"Tomor"- and it clicks. "You're going to the Parade Parade!" Trina gasps.

"You're not invited!" I yell quickly.

"Daddy?!" She screams unnecessarily as Papi's sitting right there on the couch, not even five feet away.

"Tori, just let her"- My dad tries.

"No!" I scream. "That's not fair. I had to baby-sit her when she had her wisdom teeth pulled. Not to mention, I have to deal with Trina alone on my birthday because you're going to New York for that cop convention thing!"

"Hey, you said you're okay with that. Remember the compromise?"

I do. He told me he'd try to get out of it, but I wasn't trying to make him miss out on stuff. I told him we could sort of compromise. I have a party while he's gone and then another when he comes back. Hey, Trina gets a whole week to celebrate her birthday. I'm not gonna say no to two birthdays.

But still…

"This could be my birthday present from you. "

My dad just stands there, stunned. And I start to think I've guilted him into letting me have a night out without Trina, but then my parents are never too good with babysitting Trina themselves, so I'm not surprised at all when he says, "rock, paper, scissors."

Seriously?

I'd argue more, but Trina's just flung herself upstairs. I gotta do this quick.

"Rock, paper, scissors, shoot!" We say.

I hold out paper.

He holds out rock.

I win.

"Two out of three." he tries, but I pretend not to hear him as I rush out of the house.

{~~~O~~~}

Surprisingly, we're not that late. Well, we're late, but we're not the last to arrive. Jade is. Everyone's already here except her. Oh, and Sikowitz. He isn't here yet either but he doesn't count. He's always late.

I greet everyone here already, even Beck... Rex too. And then I wait for Jade. I mean, Amber and Jade…so we can go…and stuff.

A car that none of us recognizes pulls up, and we all frown a little, ready to either help the person who's obviously lost, or run if the person's some kind of killer.

All of us except Riley, who runs toward the car; and before I freak out, she squeals, "Uncle Derek!" I calm down immediately. Her uncle is most definitely not a killer.

He and Amber get out of the car at the same time. And I smile at the sight of my mamita. She scans us all quickly, spots me and screams "Tori!" before running toward me. Full speed. I tell you, my heart nearly bursts right out of my chest, just seeing how happy she is to see me despite the fact that she just saw me a few hours ago.

She leaps at me, and I catch her midair. I pretend to struggle. "Dios mio, Mamita. You've gotten so big since the last time I saw you. What have you been eating, huh?"

"I ate spaghetti tacos!" she confesses. "Jade got me some."

"She did?" I gasp. "And you didn't save some for me?" I start to tickle her all over. She squeals and squirms in my arms, but I'm careful not to drop her.

I'm loving the sight and sounds of her laughter, of her being happy. Probably because Riley did little more than scowl and glare at me for the past thirty minutes or so. I feel like I deserve to see a happy West.

"Para, para," Amber giggles. "Lo siento! Para! No mas."

"Di por favor..."

"Por favor!" she squeals immediately. The girl has absolutely no pride, and even less stubborn in her…unlike the other Wests.

I stop with the tickles and plant a dozen kisses on her face before setting her down. She wraps both arms around my leg and clings to me as she catches her breath.

"Well, I think I'm jealous. I've never gotten a reception like that from my niece."

I look up, startled by the sound of a male voice suddenly beside me. "You scared the chiz out of me!" I semi glare at the girls' uncle.

"My approach was loud." he shrugs. "It's not my fault you were to busy stealing all of my niece's affections to hear us coming."

Us? I realize Riley's at his side. Hugging onto his legs tightly the way Amber's hugging onto mine.

It saddens me. It's obvious Riley's missed her uncle, but because she doesn't want to be near Jade she's missed out on spending a lot of time with him this week. Which, again, is absolutely ridiculous. I just wish I knew why she was so angry at Jade...

At the thought of Jade, my eyes wander, automatically searching her out. And when they spot her...

"Jeez, Louise and Steve." I gasp softly.

I barely even register Beck's beside Jade, talking to her. That usually puts a bit of a damper in my moods; but right now my eyes are roaming...all over her body.

We're supposed to wear onesies with candy on them. But Jade's not. I'm not surprised she decided to forgo hers. She let everyone know that they're "tacky as all hell;" when Cat decided she wanted everyone to wear 'em. But she is still wearing a onesie of sorts, I think. I mean, it's a one piece with a silver zipper going up the front; but it's not made out of this half velcro half cottony material that the rest of our pajamas are made out of. It's silky; all black and sleek. Hugging all of her curves the correct way and adding a bit more to her curves as well. And her footies, they're boots. Silver boots that are actually a part of her "onesie." Which is oh so cool.

But there's no candy on it, so-

Then she opens the back door and bends so that she can grab something that's inside. And oh my. There's the candy she's supposed to have on her onesie. Two silver Hershey kisses. One on each butt cheek.

God I want some kisses now.

"I made it myself," Derek says beside me.

"It's um...n-nice." I stammer down at my feet; totally embarrassed that I was caught ogling the guy's niece...er step niece...um ex-step niece. Yeah, that's it.

"Why don't you girls go help Jade bring the stuff in?"

I frown up at Derek, thinking he's talking to me; but I see him looking down at the twins.

"Okay," Amber all but skips away.

Agreeable as always.

Riley, on the other hand, stays put.

Stubborn as always.

"Riley, vete." I dismiss her.

She scowls a little, but does as she's told.

"So, how's it going between you and my niece?" Derek says once the girls are out of earshot.

So it's niece. Just niece. That's nice, and unsurprising if I'm being honest. I remember the way Derek talked to me about Jade at Bradley's party. It was the same way he talked about Riley and Amber. Proud and...attached.

"Earth to Tori." Derek waves a hand in my face.

"Huh?" I blink.

"I said, "How's it going?"" He gestures toward where Jade is having yet another conversation with Beck. This time with the twins bustling around them.

I shrug my shoulders. "It's complicated."

"I see." He squints over at Jade for a second. "Is that the ex?"

"Yeah."

"He's...pretty."

"I know." I sigh.

"You're better."

"Looking?" I ask skeptically, almost doubtfully. No, most definitely doubtfully.

"No." He shakes his head lightly. "Just better overall. I've known Jade since she was five years old. I've never met any of her friends until you showed up at my baby brother's birthday party. You're special to her. That makes you special to me too."

If Derek wasn't gay, that could've been a little creepy.

"Call me Uncle Derek."

"What?" I gawk at him. Okay, that was creepy, gay or not.

"It'll piss the ex off." He whispers conspiringly and nods in front of him; that's when I realize Beck and Jade are coming our way. "Watch." He winks.

Jade stands in front of us, eyes narrowed in suspicion. "What are you guys talking about?"

"Nothing, just catching up with your girlfriend. When are you gonna bring her by again?" Then he turns to Beck, and his eyes widen as if he's been startled. "Oh, how rude of me, I'm Derek. You are...?" He asks as he holds out his hand to shake.

"Beck." Beck says as he offers his hand to Derek.

"Unique name, I've never heard it before. Are you from around here?"

"Shouldn't you be leaving now, Uncle Derek?" Jade asks through clenched teeth.

"Uncle?" Beck frowns, turning on Jade. He doesn't seem too disturbed, but he's an actor and kinda my friend… in a way. I know what he looks like when he's truly not disturbed, and what he looks like when he's in "acting mode." And right now, he's acting calm, cool, and collected. "You have an uncle?" He inquires.

"Apparently." Jade snips.

Wow. I'm surprised Beck's never met any of Joy's brothers. But I'm absolutely stunned that he didn't even know they exist. And I have to admit. It's fun to watch Beck realize I've already met a member of family he didn't even realize Jade had. And also, Derek acting like he doesn't know Beck's Jade's ex, implying that he's never ever even heard his name before...oh, that's got to be some kind of burn. Instinctively, I know that Derek's right. If I call him uncle, that would put the cherry on the sundae.

So I do it.

"Amber, Riley, give Uncle Derek a hug. We gotta start getting settled in the cupcake." I announce. Okay, so I didn't call him uncle directly, but Beck still reacts to it all the same. He snaps his attention toward me, eyebrows furrowed. But I ignore him in favor of shooing the girls toward the cupcake.

"Wait, where's the teacher?" Derek stops me. "I'm not letting any of my nieces out of sight until the teacher comes." He gathers me and Jade into a bit of a headlock. Then he kisses the top of Jade's head before doing the same to mine. And I get it; he's pretending to be more familiar with me than he actually is in order to mess with Beck's head, but still... Is today violate Tori's personal space day, or what?

"Let go!" Jade grabs her uncle's arm and throws it away from her with a scowl. "He's right over there."

I turn to look in the direction of Jade's pointing, and sure enough, Sikowitz is walking his hobo-looking self towards us.

Derek's eyes go wide and his loose grip around my neck gets a bit tight. "That's your teacher?" He all but squeaks, seriously wazzing out. I can feel it; and I truly expect him to snatch the twins, Jade, and me (even if it's just for show) up, before pushing us all into his car and driving off.

"Calm down, Joy." Jade rolls her eyes at him.

"I resent that." Derek glares at her.

"You're strangling my girlfriend." she mutters before removing his arm from around me. I try my best to not respond in any way to the fact that Jade just touched my boob. I'm 70 to 80 percent sure it was an accident. She was just trying to save me from her uncle, much like when I had to save Melissa from my papi.

"All right! Everyone in the cupcake!" Sikowitz shouts. He's on his way to the cupcake too but Derek steps in front of him and holds out his hand for a shake.

"Hello, I'm Jade's uncle."

"That's wonderful. Absolutely splendid!" Sikowitz sings, throwing his hands up in the air as he does so. Then he tucks a fist underneath his chin and narrows his eyes. "But why are you here?"

Derek's jaw drops. And he blinks rapidly.

Jade snorts. Highly entertained.

"Come on Sikowitz, don't be so…you…." I groan out a bit of a reprimand. I can't help but be a bit sympathetic towards Derek. He's not used to the artsy-ness of this school.

"Psycho?" Derek starts to freak. He looks around nervously, panic all over his face as he makes eye contact with Jade. "Your teacher's name is psycho?!"

"It's Sikowitz." Jade rolls her eyes. "Siko-witz. Not psycho."

"Does your mom know?" He ignores her. "Where's the female chaperone? There's a female chaperone coming too, right?"

Jade's eye twitches, and then she steps up to her uncle, grabs his arm and pulls him forcefully to the side. There, they have a very heated hissing match.

"Tori! Beck! Let's go! Jade... Argue with your uncle later! " Sikowitz calls once everyone else has been ushered into the cupcake but us three.

Jade ignores Sikowitz and continues to argue with her uncle. So I make it my mission to fetch her. I expect Beck to get into the cupcake, but it seems he has the same idea as me. Which kinda irks me a little.

"Uh, Mr. West." Beck clears his throat, rushing forward with an almost skip just so he can get to Jade and Derek before me. "We have to get into the cupcake now, sir." He's obviously trying to make a good impression; but he's made a huge mistake. One that has me shaking my head and smiling on the inside.

Derek sends a menacing glare Beck's way before going back to arguing with Jade.

"It's Frankfurt." I say, by way of explaining Derek's hostile reaction. I also try my hardest not to show just how good it feels to know this bit of information as I finish off with, "He's Joy's brother, not Grayson's."

Beck looks at me; just stares for a minute before saying, "Oh." His tone is nonchalant; but I know he's only acting nonchalant. He's aggravated. I can see it in the tense way his jaw is set.

That only makes it so much harder not tofeel good about this.

"Fine!" Jade suddenly yells, and both me and Beck turn to look at her. "I will call every hour on the top of the hour! Now can I go?"

Derek thinks about it. Hard.

Then he concedes with an irritated-sounding, "Fine. Fine! Go!" He grabs her up into an unreciprocated hug and then rushes at me.

And I just know that it's time for my space to be violated again. And yep, there it is. A super hard squeeze from a kinda stranger.

"You call me at the bottom of every hour!" He commands. "That way I get a call every thirty minutes."

"You have his"- Beck cuts off whatever the rest of that sentence was going to be with a clamp of his lips. I'm pretty sure he was going to ask me if I have Derek's number in a disbelieving sort of way, but thought better of it.

I roll my eyes. Not at Beck. At Derek. "At the bottom of the hour all night?" I groan.

"Yes!"

When am I gonna sleep?

"When are you gonna sleep?" I ask instead because it sounds less selfish.

"You think I'll be able to sleep?"

"Vega, Let's go!" Jade snaps. She reaches toward me, like she's gonna pull me by my arm, but I guess she remembers at the last second that she's not supposed to touch me.

I glance back at Derek, not comfortable leaving without at least telling the man bye, and I instantly feel bad for him. He's biting his nails nervously. The man is truly freaked out about letting his nieces spend the night with Sikowitz.

Instantly, I change my mind. If I say goodbye he might come hug me again or something.

I hurry after Jade and Beck, but not fast enough to walk beside them. Two Hershey kisses have caught my attention and I don't know… walking a few steps behind them isn't a bad place to be, you know?

"I didn't know you had an uncle." Beck says lowly.

"She has five. All Maternal. Grayson's an only child. So is Ellen. But if Ellen did have any siblings I doubt Jade would claim them as her family." I say absently. It doesn't register to me that I'm butting in. That Beck's speaking so low because he was talking to Jade, and Jade alone. Actually, not a lot is registering to me other than those two Hershey kisses on Jade's butt cheeks at the moment.

"Would you not tell everyone my business?" Jade hisses back at me. And just like that, my two Hershey kisses are hidden from me as she yanks open the cupcake door and holds it open for me and Beck.

Beck hesitates, wanting me to go inside first I guess, and since there's no reason not to, I do.

"Give it back, you little...!" I hear André yell, as first Riley, than he, runs straight passed me.

Seriously? There's not a lot of room to run around in this cupcake. Which is why André catches her within seconds. I'm not sure what they're arguing over but despite being caught, Riley's still not giving it up.

"Tori!"

I look across the cupcake to where Amber's beckoning me over. She's sitting between Cat and Melissa and I do a quick scan, making sure Robbie's not around. He's no allowed anywhere near Amber if his hand is up Rex's butt. The puppet is very callous towards my mamita, much like the way he treats Cat. There's no sympathy whatsoever with the way he teases her despite the fact that she's just a kid. So I may have, or may not have, threatened to remove Robbie's lady balls if I ever saw Rex near Amber again.

Apparently, Robbie likes his lady balls because he and Rex are over there by Riley and Andre.

Quickly, I make my way over to Amber and sit next to her.

Not even three seconds later, Riley's sitting on the other side of me. Well, Melissa was sitting there first but Riley kinda pushed her out of the way.

"Riley!" I admonish.

"It's fine." Melissa brushes it off before going over to where André and Robbie are.

But it's definitely not fine and I'm so close to embarrassing the chiz out of my mal-mannered monstrito when I catch Jade staring at me. Well, she's not really staring at me, just looking in my direction. It's like she doesn't know where to sit. No, scratch that; it looks like she knows where she wants to sit, but doesn't know if it'd be a good idea.

I reach over Amber's lap and pat the spot beside her while making eye contact with Jade. Letting her know that I'm very much okay with where she wants to sit.

She smiles before doing so; then she pulls Amber into her lap and scooches closer to me. Amber is beaming with so much happiness that I can't help it; I lean over and kiss her cheek before poking her side playfully. She squirms in Jade's arms, causing Jade to squirm as well as she keeps her sister from sustaining any injuries. It's only when I stop tickling Amber that I realize how much closer Jade's gotten to me. Her knee is now touching mine. It's not supposed to, but I pretend not to notice. And if Jade realizes it – and more than likely she does – she's pretending not to notice as well.

I also pretend not to notice that Beck's watching Jade...again as he makes his way to the driver's seat. I think this is the only time I'll be thanking Dan for Sikowitz's suspended license, because with Beck driving it means he can keep his wandering eyeballs glued to the road.

And I can keep my wandering eyes...no, no. I gotta do something other than stare at Jade. Needing a distraction, even if it is a cheesball one, I start singing:

The wheels on the cupcake spin around,

Spin around,

Spin around...

Amber joins in immediately, followed by Cat and Robby. Then Jade? I look over at her, full of surprise and confusion. I totally expected her to be the last to join. In fact, I totally expected her not to join at all.

"What?" She shrugs. "Tori was nagging me to sing along."

I grin at her. She didn't mean me, Tori. She meant her conscience, Tori. Nobody knows about her but me; so it's like me and Jade have our own private little inside joke, which yes, makes me feel all kinds of special.

"You should listen to her more often." I tease.

"I'm trying ba- Vega." She lowers her eyes to my lips. "Sometimes it's really hard."

I bite my lip nervously. She's not teasing me back. She's so…

"Really, really hard." she whispers so low that I'm pretty sure she hadn't meant to say it out loud at all.

Oh God. The urge.

Don't kiss her. Don't kiss her. Don't kiss her….I chant to myself.

"Tori, I'm hungry."

I jump. Startled out of watching Jade stare at me by one of the twins. Which one? I have no idea.

"Tori." The twin snaps. Oh, Riley. Definitely my monstrito. "I'm hungry." She repeats.

Right. I should feed her since I haven't done that yet. I mean, even Jade remembered to feed Amber before they got here.

I try my best to ignore the fact that I unnecessarily brought Jade into my thoughts again.

I get up, not losing my balance for a second despite standing in a moving vehicle as we're barely moving anyway. "Lissa where are the PB and J sandwiches you made?"

"I don't want peanut butter and Jelly." I don't have to look at Riley's face to know she's scowling. I can hear it in her voice.

"You love peanut butter and jelly." I push out through clenched teeth.

"I don't want peanut butter and jelly." She insists. "Just sit back down!"

"Hey!" Jade barks. And man, the glare she gives her little sister reminds me that Riley is just a baby form of Jade. "Cool it!"

Riley's eyes widen briefly, and it looks like she's about to yell back at Jade. And I expect her to because that's what normally happens; but I guess Riley is still giving Jade the ultimate silent treatment. So since she can't, won't, acknowledge Jade, she sets her glare back on me instead. I bristle at the look she's giving me. She doesn't have to say anything. I can tell she's daring me to keep standing. Daring me. Like, what the chiz is she going to do if I don't sit down?

"Vega, can I put Amber in your lap for a minute so I can get the brat something to eat out of my bag?"

I find it odd that Jade asked me to hold Amber. I would've expected her to just set my mamita down on the ground. But at the same time I'm extremely grateful. Now I can sit down without it seeming like I let an eight year old boss me into it. Because I was considering either standing here for the rest of the ride, hands crossed over my chest defiantly; or, embarrassing both myself and Riley by having it out with her right here, right now; or simply moving over to where Andre and Melissa are and sitting with them for the remainder of the ride. But if I did that, I wouldn't be sitting next to Amber and Jade anymore.

This however? Sitting back down because Jade politely asked me to hold Amber for her, I can do this no problem. Hm…I wonder if Jade knew that? If she purposely helped me save face? If she did – and more than likely she did – is it a surprise at all that I want to thank her by kissing her?

Gah, this has gotta stop!

"Come here, Mamita." I say, sitting down beside Jade and reaching for Amber. She comes willingly, but quietly. She doesn't like yelling. There wasn't much of it, but still….

I hug Amber close to my chest and kiss the top of her head. A nonverbal apology for making her uncomfortable.

"Here," Jade suddenly says, handing me a bag of chips and a sandwich in a baggie. I nearly ask her what she's giving it to me for when she inclines her head toward Riley. I sigh as I take the food from her. Despite me and Riley having our…issues, there's no doubt in either of our minds that Riley will refuse to take anything from Jade's hand.

"Here, Monstrito." I say politely before handing the food to her. I try not to be irritated when she takes her meal without saying a word. Not one little "thank you."

"Vega." Jade calls. And I turn my head to look at her. She's holding candy in the palm of her hand. Not just any candy either. Chocolate. Not just any chocolate either. A Hershey kiss. "Do you want a kiss, Vega?

"Jade…" I warn… with a whine.

She smirks at me. "It's just candy, ba-Vega."

Just candy my butt! She knows what she's doing!

"So do you want one of my kisses, or not?"

"Yes." I do. But not the chocolate kind. I want some of her personal kisses. Either from her lips or….Oh no, stop it! I groan inwardly, realizing that I'll never again be able to eat a Hershey kiss without thinking of Jade's butt.

"Take it." Jade commands. That smirk still in place.

I bite my lip and force my thoughts to a clean zone before grabbing the candy from her hand. It takes me a total of thirty two seconds to unwrap it and pop it into my mouth due to my trembling fingers

"Is it good?" Jade leans in a little closer and practically whispers in my ear.

"Jade!" I gasp…and choke a little.

"The candy, Vega." She chuckles. A sexy chuckle. "What are you thinking about in that dirty little mind of yours?"

"Isn't it time for you to call your uncle?" I snap, using anything, and I mean anything, to change the subject. I don't care if it was considered a low blow or not. Then I check my phone to see what time it is. 8:02. Yeah, definitely time for her to call Derek.

Just then Jade's phone rings. I'd be willing to bet my life – literally – that it's her uncle.

Jade scowls at her phone before answering:

"What?" she snaps. "...I was going to call...It just turned eight o'clock!"

Amber flinches, and I automatically press my palms over her ears

"...You're worse than Mom!" Jade screeches, clearly overwhelmed with irritations. "...I will do no such thing...I don't give a fuck!...I'm still alive, what more do you want?...57 minutes!? No, it's excessive and I want to get some sleep!...I know what I said….I fucking lied. How else was I going to get you off my back?...Don't you dare bring my mom into this!...Because!...No!...NO!...and don't call my girlfriend either!...because she wants to fucking sleep too!" then she hangs up.

"Um"- is all I get out before Jade cuts me off.

"Not now, Tori," she moans as she massages her temples.

If Jade hadn't told me about her conscience, I would've thought she was snapping at me just now. But I know she wasn't talking to me. She's beating herself up about how she talked to her uncle; and she looks absolutely miserable. Of course I want to comfort her; just wrap my arms around her and let her lean into me for as long as she wants while I press gentle kisses wherever my lips can reach.

But I can't do that on this "real break."

Ugh, but I have to do something. And before I can lose my nerve, I hesitantly reach my hand up and place it on Jade's shoulder.

That's nice and platonic, right?

Jade doesn't open her eyes; but her hand shoots up quickly and rests on top of my wrist. Lightly. Like she's scared I'll pull back. Which I should, because I don't want to lead her on, but I don't. Touching Jade on purpose…it's such a familiar thing. It brings back so many feelings, moments. I can't recall one individually; but I remember what it felt like to just touch her, knowing she was mine. That I could touch her and she wouldn't jerk away from me, or scowl. She'd smile at me. Come closer to me. Touch me back. Kiss me even.

I feel a gentle squeeze on my wrist and notice Jade's brushing her thumb across the back of my hand soothingly; and I realize I'm doing the same to her shoulder. I honestly have no idea who started it. And then Jade moves her hand up a little and gently starts brushing her fingers against the back of mine.

I get the sudden urge to drop a kiss onto her shoulder; but I manage to suppress it. Barely. I don't, however, suppress the urge to stare at her. With her eyes still closed, it makes it feel less creepy on my end. Like as long as she can't see me stare, it doesn't feel weird to do it. Unless others catch me, I suppose.

That thought reminds me that I'm actually surrounded by "others;" so I look up, checking to make sure I'm creeping on Jade unnoticed.

I'm not. Melissa's staring at us…with a frown. And I'm reminded of what she told me. That I look like a bitch because of the way I lead Jade on without the intentions of ending break any time soon.

I guiltily snatch my hand from Jade's shoulder.

And I pretend not to hear her whimper out an anguished, "fuck!"

{~~~O~~~}

When the cupcake suddenly starts making this odd noise and being all wobbly, I know it's bad. My suspicions are confirmed when it comes to a stuttering stop soon after.

"What's going on?" I ask Beck.

"Cupcake broke down." He answers shortly.

I ignore his snippy attitude. Maybe he feels like he doesn't have to be as cordial to me as usual because he doesn't have an audience right now. Everyone else is asleep; have been for a while. Yep, it's just been me and Beck for the past hour or so. Surprisingly, it hadn't been awkward or tense at all until now. Beck kept his face pressed into the little view finder-like contraption that allows him to watch the roads from inside the cupcake; which meant I got plenty of time to just guilt-free stare at...I mean, to look around. And stuff.

"What the blazes is going on!" Sikowitz suddenly yells. He's the first to awake.

"The cupcake broke down." I explain.

"Good Gandhi!" Sikowitz swears. Well, that's the closest I've ever hear him come to actually swearing anyway. "Where are we?"

I want to check my Pearphone's GPS for our location, but I don't exactly remember where I put it. Since I don't have pockets, I must've set it down somewhere around me. Problem is, the twins are all over me: Amber straddling my lap; and Riley pretty much straddling my hip, both arms wrapped around my elbow possessively and face smashed into my shoulder. They're making it impossible for me to search for my phone properly without waking them.

"We're on the corner of Spates and 83rd." Beck says.

"Good Gandhi!" Sikowitz swears again.

Thinking he's freaking out because we're still so far from our destination, I try to reassure him by saying, "I'll call triple A as soon as I find my phone. we can still make it on time."

"Good luck with that!" he shouts. "I'm gonna get help. Stay here!" He shouts dramatically.

I roll my eyes at his diva-ness before resuming my search for my cell, even though Beck has his and can call triple A himself. And he does.

I find my phone in Riley's lap just in time for him to announce that he's not getting any service. I check my bars and note that I have three. Plenty enough service to make a call.

After I get a hold of Triple A, I discover what Beck meant about not getting service when they hang up on me.

Okay…

I call again, thinking it's a mistake; but they hang up on me again…and twice more after that. It freaks me out a little; but I stay calm.

I snoogle the tow truck companies nearby and call the one closest. I'm told politely, but firmly that they don't service my neighborhood.

Seriously?

I go down the list on my phone; the companies getting further and further away, but the answer remaining the same. No one's willing to come out here.

Is it really that bad?

And as if to answer my question I hear a loud bang. Two of them.

Gun shots.

Surprisingly, only a couple people wake up. Riley and André.

"What was that!?" Riley's head shoots up and she holds onto my arm even tighter.

"Fireworks." I lie smoothly. "Everyone's getting ready for the parade."

"Cool, I wanna see!" Riley jumps up.

With Amber still asleep in my lap, I was never gonna make it to my monstrito fast enough without seriously hurting her in the process; and that's truly what was gonna happen. I'm ashamed to admit that, at that moment, I was so worried about Riley that I nearly tossed Amber aside to go after her.

Luckily, André's quicker. He must've gotten his ridiculously quick reflexes from years of dealing with his unpredictable crazy grandma. He snatches Riley up around the middle with one arm; "Nope, little lady. They're a surprise." He says as he carries her back over to me.

"What?" Riley scowls.

"He's right, Monstrito." I try to keep my voice steady. "You'll see them when everyone else sees them. Those were just testers."

"Aw man." She whines; oblivious to the fact that she's now securely wedged between me and André. Should she decide to shoot up and run out of the cupcake again, it'll be that much easier to stop her.

We hear the sound of tester fireworks for a good two minutes before they stop.

Amber wakes up during the last of it. Which is my fault entirely. I was squeezing her too tight and she couldn't breathe.

Now she's squeezing me so tight that I can barely breathe as I cover her ears. I'm not sure if she didn't believe me when I told her the guns shots were fireworks, or if she's simply afraid of fireworks. It could honestly be either of the two.

I wait about five minutes after the tester fireworks stop going off before scraping Amber off of me and setting her down next to Riley. Then I go up to the little window, stand on my tiptoes and see if I can spot Sikowitz.

I can't. He's not out there. But someone else is. Two guys: one on the ground while the other beats the wazz out of him. I gasp.

"What?" Riley inquires. Not the scared kind of inquiry. The nosey kind.

"There's a man out there walking the cutest little puppy." I say without missing a beat. Another smooth lie. I'm getting really good at this.

"I wanna"-

"He's gone in the house now." I interrupt, turning away from the window before she can tell me that she wants to see the puppy too.

"Dang it!" She exclaims while swiping her arm across her forehead. It's then that I notice the twins' are sweating their little butts off.

And that I am too.

I swipe my forehead with the back of my hand before walking up to Riley.

"Stand up, Monstrito." I command softly.

She does it without a fuss; which in turn makes me smile because I was expecting the bad attitude version of Riley.

Quickly I unzip her onesie, thanking Dan that I gave her a tank top to wear under this itchy sweat-maker disguised as pajamas. Then I pull her arms out of the sleeves and tie them into a knot over her belly. The sleeves, not her arms.

"Better?" I ask while seizing her hair and piling it on top of her head. I yank my spare hair tie off my wrist with my teeth before using it to secure Riley's bun.

Riley nods her head and sits back down. It's Amber's turn now but I don't know if I can do the same for her.

"Mamita, que tienes bajo eso?" I ask while pointing to her onesie.

She pushes sweat from her forehead into her hair before answering. "Nada."

"Jammit." I frown.

"What?" André asks.

"She's not wearing anything under her jammies."

"Oh." André walks over to where Melissa and Cat are still sleeping and grabs up his bag. He rummages around in it for a few seconds before pulling out a short sleeve t-shirt. "She can wear this." He offers.

"Thank you!" I exclaim, practically snatching the shirt out of his hand. Then I make him and Beck turn around so I can dress my mamita. The t-shirt's so long, I just decide to do without the onesie all together.

She smiles brightly at me once she's out of the onesie, super relieved.

I kiss her forehead.

Then she steps around me, walks up to André and pats him on the back. "Thank you, Andre." she says shyly once he's turned around to face her…and she does this without any coaxing from me whatsoever. Awwww! I know, I know; It's utterly ridiculous the amount of pride I'm feeling because of how much that little girl has come out of her shell since I've met her.

"Welcome, little lady." André smiles down at her. She blushes. Then he looks up at me and mouths, "I like this one."

I'm about to respond when I suddenly hear "Hey," right beside me.

I jump a little.

Beck. He scared the chiz out of me. What does he want?

"Hey," I parrot back.

"I just wanted to apologize for the extra strain I'm putting on you guys and your break and stuff." He gestures between me and a still slumbering Jade.

I frown at him. What strain is he talking about? I mean, yeah, our break is difficult, but why is he apologizing now? Our break was at its most strained about a week ago. We've been getting much better since then; though it's obvious we're nowhere near where either one of us want to be. I guess I just don't see how Beck could possibly think he's personally putting a strain on our break up. We've discussed him; and yeah, it irks me a little when I see him with Jade; but we've never argued about him. And we barely have any interactions with him outside of school; so what the chiz is he talking about?

"That wasn't my intention when me and Jade kissed last week." He goes on to explain. "I just thought that since you guys are on a break that meant you can see other people."

Oh. He kissed Jade…recently.

"We can see other people, Beck." I answer. I try to keep my voice from radiating all the anger I'm feeling towards him right now but it's not working. My voice cracks and trembles. I'm so wazzed off at him right now that I could just punch him in the face. And not because he kissed Jade; but because I know he's purposely trying to hurt me. After all I've done for him. I've only ever tried to be his friend. I tried to get him and Jade back together. And I told Jade she could date him….

But then I asked her not to….

But that I changed my mind again and told her that she could….

But then tonight, I actually enjoyed rubbing his ignorance of Jade's family in his face. Wasn't I trying to hurt him too? Did I hurt him?

I probably did. "Jade can date whoever she wants." I sigh. "It's none of my business who she kisses. I told her she can date you. I'm sorry if it didn't work out."

"What?" he frowns; clearly not getting the reaction he was expecting.

I shrug. "You kissed her a week ago; but you don't seem to be dating now. Unless you two are sneaking around"-

"What's going on?" Jade interrupts. I jump a little. When did she wake up?

"I was apologizing for our kiss." Beck says boldly.

Then suddenly, he's on the ground, Jade on top of him trying to absolutely murder him. Instinctively, I look around for a teacher. I don't know why, it's just a lesson that's stuck with me since kindergarten. If there's fighting, tell a teacher. But my teacher isn't here, I realize. He's still out there trying to get help. I totally forgot about him. Shouldn't he be back by now?

Deciding to go find him myself, I walk over to the door. Riley and Amber are huddled up next to it; Riley's hands covering Amber's ears for her since everyone else is trying to separate Beck and Jade. It is possibly the cutest thing I've seen tonight.

"You two stay here." I command.

"Where are you going?" Riley asks.

"I'm going to get Sikowitz." I answer. "Hopefully some help too so we can hurry up and get to the parade."

"I wanna come with you."

"No!" I shout. She jumps, clamping onto Amber's ears even tighter. "No." I repeat softly. "Just stay here and make sure nobody knocks into Amber, okay?"

She gives Amber a glance and agrees quickly upon seeing just how freaked her sister is. "Okay."

I shut the door firmly behind myself and inhale deeply. It feels much better out here. Like I can breathe; but I'm still aware that I heard gunshots and watched a man get beat up not too long ago.

I set off in a random direction, expecting to be out here for a while. But luckily for me, I find Sikowitz quickly. He's nearly being arrested.

I run up to him. He's bent over the hood of the cop car, screaming at two cops about how he has to get back to the children in the cupcake.

Seriously? No wonder he's being cuffed!

"Hey, that's my teacher!" I yell at the cops.

"Thank god, Tori!" Sikowitz swivels around to look at me. "I was just trying to explain about the cupcake!"

I groan and roll my eyes. Then I turn my attention onto the officers. "Our cupcake float broke down."

"Your cupcake Float?" Officer One asks.

"You're gonna be in the Parade Parade?" Officer Two surmises.

"Yes sir." I tell them.

"Well why didn't you says so?" they both let up on Sikowitz.

I glare at Sikowitz. Yeah, why didn't he say so? It was such a simple solution; but then again, Sikowitz rarely does anything the easy way. I'm just remembering how he admitted to throwing himself down a flight of stares so he could be properly in pain for a role he wanted to play.

We lead the cops to the cupcake and they promise to come back and change the tire! Oh, I'm so happy that worked out so easily for me. I mean, this neighborhood is probably the most unsafe place I've ever been in my whole entire life.

I open the cupcake door, and smile at everyone momentarily forgetting that I left them all fighting. "I found Sikowitz. And"-

Jade pulls me in by the front of my onesie. She just grabs a fistful and yanks hard.

"WHAT THE FUCK WERE YOU THINKING!" she screams at me.

"I"-

"You can't go out there, in this kind of neighborhood looking like fucking jailbait!"

"I"-

"Anything could've happened to you!"

"I"-

Shut up!" I snap my mouth closed. She drags me over to the center of the cupcake and forces me to take a seat. "You sit right there and don't fucking move!"

I'm so shocked I do what she says. Even as she leaves the cupcake, slamming the door as hard as she can, I sit still. For about half an hour. Then I get up and head for the door.

I know she's really wazzed off; but she's been outside for a good little minute and I just want to check on her. This neighborhood's not exactly the safest. Hopefully she's sitting right outside the cupcake and I don't have to go search for her.

As soon as I open the door, I'm yanked out of the cupcake. It's like reverse déjà vu; but for some reason, I get scared this time. The yank was a lot more powerful, the grip on my arm a lot stronger. Like a man is handling me and not Jade.

But even with all that going on in my head, I'm still trying to focus on not falling flat on my face. I don't even realize I'm being yelled at, or that it's not even English, until I'm safely on the ground, having been caught before I could fall out of the cupcake.

There's a small bit of relief when I realize the man is my father. But then I quickly realize just how angry he is and I finally tune into what he's saying:

"Que demonios te pasa?" He's screaming at me. He's pointing at my arm. My left arm. I didn't even realize he'd lifted my sleeve up. I push it back down quickly. "Te doy una buena vida!" He continues without missing a beat. "No sabes lo que es dolor verdadero. Tristeza Real. Te crié mejor que esto. Te crié para ser mas fuerte. Una chica te chantajea y te quieres morir. Una Chica!? Eso no es dolor Victoria!"

I blink at him. I never said I wanted to die. I'm sad that me and Jade are going through all of this, and it is painful to me; but it's the kind of painful where I just want to sit up in my room and eat, or not eat.

Well, that's how it was before. I would do nothing but sleep and stay in the house all day while I thought about everything. And when the thinking would get to too much, I went to The Gorilla Club because I needed a distraction. But lately I haven't really been thinking about going. Not only because I promised Jade; but because Riley's been with me for a little while now and she's more than enough distraction.

I feel like I've been getting better. Honestly. But he's making it seem as though I'm about to jump out of a window any day now.

Still, he's going on and on about me not really knowing what pain is. That he could show me real pain. Which makes me laugh. I'm not exactly sure why. It's just something he would say before I got a spanking and I haven't had one of those since I was like five.

…and two seconds ago.

I saw him raise his hand up, and I felt him grip my arm tightly. And I felt a slight sting on my butt; but it didn't register to me immediately. Not until he snatched the back door open and threw me inside.

The back. The back of the squad car is where he put me. Where the criminals usually sit. After he literally spanked me...in front of Jade.

My face heats up. And my eyes water up.

I don't want him to see me cry. In fact, I don't want to cry at all. I don't want to give him the satisfaction. But the tears fall anyway. I wipe them silently. And I wish he would start yelling again, because then I wouldn't be able to hear myself sniffling pathetically.

God, I hate him so much right now.

{~~~O~~~}

By the time we get home, I don't hate my father anymore. I'm not even mad at him anymore. I'm just embarrassed, and ashamed, and hurt. I know he was just freaked out by the bruise on my arm and the fact that it was essentially self-inflicted. He's got a stressful job; and he deals with kids who do that kind of stuff all the time. He's probably beating himself up about it, wondering how he missed the signs or whatever.

When he opens the door for me, he doesn't look at me, and he doesn't wait for me to get out either. He just opens the door and walks away.

My father can't even look at me. That saddens me. Makes me feel lonely.

I barely even look in front of me as I'm walking towards the front of the house. Then I walk into the door because I wasn't expecting my father to shut it behind himself.

I feel even worse. And I want to apologize and make it better. Or something.

I quickly surmise that he's in his room so I walk up to his door and take a deep breath. I'm just about to knock but I freeze because I hear this sound. A sniffle, then another, and another.

I'm hearing my dad cry. There is no worse feeling than knowing you've made your dad cry.

I go to my room and sit on my bed. I don't move at all until my dad comes into my room. He's composed now. No tears. But there's anger and disappointment; and he won't look me in the eyes.

"For the next three weeks, anywhere Trina goes. You go. If you want to go somewhere that Trina does not, you do not get to go." He says stiffly before shutting my door firmly behind himself.

I sit there in the dark. Maybe for hours as I replay what happened over and over in my head. It didn't really sink in at first. Yeah, it was embarrassing to have my father come and yell at me in front of everyone. And of course it was nothing short of mortifying when he spanked, literally spanked, me in front of Jade before shoving me in the back of his squad car; but I didn't fully process all of that.

Now I have. Now, I've had time to think of my punishment. To think about the fact that I am punished. But for what? Going to The Gorilla Club? Going to get help while we were stranded?

I'll admit that The Gorilla club is a big death trap; but it's not like he ever said I wasn't allowed to go. I'll also admit that the cupcake didn't break down in the suburbs; but I was just trying to get help! Okay, so maybe I didn't have to go by myself; but everyone was fighting and ugh!

And then there's my punishment to consider. The fact that I'm not grounded in a normal way. I've been Trina'd. Never have I ever had a punishment so severe. I mean, it doesn't sound too bad until you realize it's Trina. That I can't go anywhere unless Trina is willing to go too. Not only does that mean she has to go everywhere I go; but it means I have to go everywhere she goes as well. Which means, if she wants to go shopping at the mall for fifteen hours straight, I have to go. And it means that next Saturday, I'll either have to bring Trina with me on set of Alyssa's movie, or not go at all.

That thought alone makes me want to get up and go to The Gorilla Club right now. In fact, I don't think there's ever been a time when I felt the need to go as bad as I do right now.

I check my phone real quick. It's nearly twelve, meaning the gorilla club will close in two hours.

I get up and tip toe to my door. I won't be surprised at all if my father is sleeping in front of it. And if he is, I'll just say I'm using the bathroom. From there, I don't know. I'll figure something out. Even if that means climbing from my window.

Quietly, I turn the knob. Thankfully, my door doesn't make a sound. And even better? My father's nowhere in sight. Carefully, and oh so slowly, I make my way down the stairs.

I have a plan. If my dad pops out, I'll just tell him I'm making a snack. But he doesn't, and I make it downstairs without incident. I go to the kitchen and stand there silently for a good minute. Nothing. No one moves at all.

Quietly, I walk over to the living room. If my dad pops out right this second, I'll tell him that I can't sleep and that I want to watch TV. If he asks me why I'm not watching TV in my room, I'll tell him…I'll tell him…Oh, I can tell him that the living room TV is closest to the kitchen. That I won't have to keep walking up and down the stairs to get snacks and drinks or whatever.

He might not believe that as that's something Trina would do, not me; but it's better than saying nothing.

After deciding that's the plan I want to go with, I realize I have to change it. Next stop is the door. I can't watch TV from the door. Maybe I'll tell him I was just making sure it was locked. Again, horrible excuse; but there isn't really anything else I could pretend to be doing at this time of night.

Of course that plan goes out the window once I reach the door because now it's time for the escape. Once I open the door, there'll be no going back. If I get caught, I'll be caught.

I turn the handle, slowly. I step out, then I shut the door behind me. There's a small debate as to whether or not I should take the time to lock it back; but I decide to lock the door. I can't put my family in harm's way just because I want to sneak out.

Once I'm inside my car, I realize I'm in my pajamas. Which isn't really a lot. Either I call it quits and sneak back up to my bedroom or I finish what I started.

I opt to finish what I started.

It's not like there's a dress code for The Gorilla Club anyway.

Like always The Gorilla Club is packed.

"Hey Tor." Big Dee and Billy greet me at the door. I smile back, wondering why I was ever afraid of them. They're huge teddy bears.

I sign the paper that literally lets this place get away with murder and set my sights on the games. Usually, I like the Balls of Pain. I'll play that one at least four or five times before I leave.

I watch a guy play, trying to weave through the metal balls. He doesn't make it. He almost did. He made it all the way to the other side to collect a ring; but on his way back he gets knocked off the beam by the ball. I wince, subconsciously grabbing at my arm. The way it hit him... the sound it made...and the blood on the floor. I don't very much feel like having that happen to me tonight.

I look around, seeing the gorilla cage. I remember the first time I tried to get the banana. I nearly sprained my ankle. There's a girl in the ring with the gorilla and...wow, I had no idea the body could bend like that. Well, sort of, I remember my toe touching my ear once…courtesy of Ja- no nope. Not gonna think her name. I've got to stop. It's not healthy.

Need a distraction, need a distraction. I guess I could ride the bun-whoa! Nope. That's fire. Real hot fire.

I look around me again, searching for another game to play. I look for a total of ten minutes maybe. But nothing's appealing at all.

I sigh, realizing I don't actually want to be here.

I walk out. Head home.

I'm not quiet when I get in. Is there a part of me that wants to get caught? I don't know. You know what, yeah. There is. I snuck out. I snuck out the night my father lectured, grounded, spanked and humiliated me.

All that worrying and yelling and hitting he did. And he couldn't even be bothered to make sure I don't actually sneak out! I mean, he's a cop! He should've been able to use his cop skills to realize I just might do something rebellious like sneak out while I'm grounded. If he was as concerned about me as he said he was, he would've at least made sure I was actually safe!

{~~~O~~~}

I do not need a shrink. I don't! I'm fine! But this morning my dad approached me while I was getting ready for school. I was internally freaking out – half nervous and half excited – because he hadn't really acknowledged me since Friday. And then he said, "Tori, I've arranged for you to talk to someone today after school. Trina will drop you off, and then she'll pick you up after you're done." After that, he handed me a business card, a business card, and left for work.

I stared down at the card for a good five minutes before realizing it was a shrink he was sending me to. And I had a debate with myself. To go, or not to go. I mean, what else could he possibly do to me if I chose to skip it? Then I changed my mind super quick. He'd probably prolong my punishment. And I can't take any more quality time with Trina. I really, really can't.

So, at exactly 4:00pm on a Wednesday afternoon I find myself standing outside of Yana Pallapa's office.

I take a deep breath and reach toward the door; but then my phone rings, giving me the perfect excuse to procrastinate just a little bit more.

I bite my lip anxiously when I realize it's Joy. Since today's Wednesday, she's probably wondering if I'm going to get Riley tomorrow. I haven't exactly talked to her or the twins since Friday.

I've barely talked to anyone since Friday. I'm still mortified by the cupcake incident. So I avoid all my friends by making sure I'm never early enough to chat outside the lockers. Then, during lunch, I pretty much hide in the bathroom; and then after school, I go home immediately…or wherever Trina goes.

"Hello, Tori?"

"Oh," I start. I didn't realize I'd answered, and pressed my phone to my ear, already. "Hi, Joy."

"Hi, sweetheart. Just wondering if you're gonna get Riley tomorrow."

"Sure." I answer uncertainly. I can't get Riley myself as my father took my car away. Seems I won't be needing it since I'm only allowed to go wherever Trina goes. Which means, I have to convince Trina to pick up Riley. Which shouldn't be too hard. Trina likes having the twins around. They're like mini slaves.

"Is everything okay?" Joy cuts into my thoughts.

"Yeah, fine." I answer brightly. Too brightly.

"…Okay, I'll see you later sweetheart."

"Bye."

I check the time real quick. 4:02. I'm two minutes late. Knowing I can't put this off any longer, I knock on the door.

"Come in," my shrink calls back.

I take another deep breath before opening the door. And I just stand there in the doorway, taking in my surroundings. This place is nothing like what I expected. Which was grey walls, a comfy couch and a stiff chair.

The walls are not grey. It's a gigantic mural. I'm pretty sure it was made by patients because of the inconsistencies with the quality of work. There's a purple dog looking to my immediate left, and right beside it is a very well done butterfly.

There are no chairs in this office at all. No desk either. Just two huge bean bags in the middle of the floor. One of them is already occupied by a woamn with loose dread thingies and dark sunglasses. She resting comfortably, phone in her hands.

She looks up at me and smiles. "Hello, Tori. I'm Yana."

She seems cool. Too cool. Not cool. Progressive. Yeah that's the word. Well, she's not gonna get me!

I narrow my eyes at her as she bends forward to pat the empty bean bag.

"I don't need therapy." I scowl.

"Alright! She exclaims. "Free money."

I frown at her.

She says nothing back. Just starts using her phone again.

It irks me. "What do you mean by free money?"

She shrugs. "I get paid to therapy you. If you don't need therapy, I still get paid for you to stand there and glare at me."

I stand there for a total of ten minutes before feeling stupid, and antsy, and totally manipulated. So I plop down on the bean chair with a huff...totally sounding like a spoiled rotten child.

"Fine...You can therapy me." I concede.

She puts her phone away and leans forward again. Her legs crossing into Indian style so seamlessly that I'm not even sure she's noticed her change in posture.

"Let's play a game." She grins. Like she's super excited.

She reminds me of Cat.

I groan. Loudly.

She ignores me. Blatantly.

"Hold up ten fingers." she instructs.

I do as I'm told. Albeit a bit hesitantly.

"Alright, I'm gonna set my timer on twenty fives seconds, alright?"

I nod my head.

"Then I'm gonna ask you to list ten things. As you list them, tuck one of your fingers in so we can keep count, alright?"

She says 'alright' a lot I mentally note before nodding my head again.

She sets the timer on her phone.

"Alright. Give me a list of ten...people in your life. Go!"

"Jade." I blurt out. I can't believe, or maybe I can believe, she was the first person I thought of. I just know my shrink, Yana, is gonna have a field day with it. I named some girl before my parents? What kind of-

"Fifteen more seconds." Yana cuts into my thoughts.

"Um. My dad, my mom, Trina. Amber, Riley, Beck, Melissa, Josie, Andre, Cat

"That's eleven Tori." She smiles easily at me.

I look down at my fingers and realize I hadn't been tucking in any of my fingers.

"Eleven's fine." she shrugs. "Ready for another game?"

I have no idea where this is going, so it's with so much uncertainty that I nod my head yes.

"Alright, this time you have three seconds, alright?"

I nod my head.

"Describe André with one word."

"Chill." I shrug.

She doesn't react in any way. Not even to take notes.

"Cat?" She continues.

"Naïve."

"Josie?"

"Candid."

"Melissa?"

"Sad."

"Beck?"

I falter because I don't know what to say.

"It doesn't have to be a nice word."

I frown. It's not that his one description word isn't a nice word. It's…I don't know what to say because I can't find the word. It's on the tip of my tongue; a word that describes a person who kissed my girlfriend a week ago and held it in until I made him want to emotionally scar me. And only because I know more about Jade after dating her for four months than he does and he dated her for nearly a year.

What is that word? How do I describe that kind of person with one word? Manipulative? Vindictive? Petty? None of them sound right.

I shrug my shoulders and go with "hurt." It's the best I can do. And it feels right. I know he's hurt because he's lashing out, even if he is doing it as inconspicuously as he can.

"Riley?" Yana continues. I frown a little. How does she remember al these names? She didn't take any notes.

"Need more time?"

"No, Stubborn." I apologize. "Riley's stubborn."

"Amber?" she continues without missing a beat.

"Sensitive."

"Trina?"

"Loud."

"Mom?"

"Inattentive" I whisper, not wanting to say it out loud, because it sounds bad, but it's not…it just is. It just works.

"Dad?"

"Overbearingly-overprotective."

She quirks an eyebrow.

"I made it one word by putting in the hyphen."

"Awesome." She chuckles. "Would you like to play another game, Tori?

I frown at her. She didn't ask me to describe Jade. Why not? She asked me about everyone else. Is this part of her therapy? Is she waiting for me to volunteer the information?

Possibly.

"Jade is complicated." I offer.

"Oh? How so?" she asks. It's then I realize she got me. Not only am I going to tell her all my troubles. I want to tell her.

Oh, she's good. She's really good.

{~~~O~~~}

I have to cancel going to the set of Alyssa's movie. I know that I do. I just don't know how I'm going to do it. How am I going to tell her that I'm grounded? Well, not grounded. Trina'd. She's definitely not gonna understand. She'll probably think I'm lying to her just so I don't have to go. But who in their right mind wouldn't want to go?

I pick up my phone and sigh. I'm such a procrastinator. I've been trying to call her up since last Saturday to tell her that I wasn't coming; but at the last second I'd lose my nerve and promise myself that I'm going to do it tomorrow. Well, now it's Saturday, the day of, and I'm fresh out of tomorrrows.

My phone rings as I'm holding it. I know it's her. Not Jade. Alyssa. I have no idea why I'm so nervous but my stomach turns into knots at the thought of canceling on her.

"Hey gorgeous," she all but sings after I answer. It makes me feel even worse.

"Um... hey."

"Uh oh." She can already feel that something is wrong. Not because she knows me well or anything; but because I'm making it soooo chizzin' obvious.

"I'm sorry I can't come." I blurt out; just to get this chiz over with. Just so I don't lose my nerve.

"Why not?"

"I'm grounded." I say, but it ends up sounding more like a question.

"For what? You're such a good girl." She pouts and suddenly I just can't lie to her.

"Well, I'm not grounded in a normal kind of way. I just can't go anywhere unless my sister is willing to go as well." I admit with a grimace.

"And your sister doesn't want to come?" she asks skeptically.

Here we go….

"Oh, I'm sure she'd love to come."

"But?"

"She's Trina. I can't do that to you." I sigh and switch my phone over to my left ear. Why? No reason. Absolutely not one reason. And plus, this way feels a bit odd so I switch it back immediately.

I hear her laugh on the other end. The real kind of laughing.

"I'm serious." I groan. "You don't understand the damage she can do."

"Just bring her. I'm sure it won't be that bad."

"Yes it can. And yes it will be."

She laughs again before telling me once more to bring my sister along, and then she hangs up on me. I'm guessing that's her way of saying I don't have a choice

There's a small part of me that wants to march right into Trina's room, tell her where we're going and have her act the worse she's ever acted in her life; that way Alyssa will see just how serious I was when I warned her about Trina; but there's the saner part of me that really, really doesn't feel like being embarrassed by my sister today. I mean, I've had enough embarrassment to last me a lifetime.

Once again, my phone rings while I'm holding it. It's Alyssa again.

"Did you talk to your sister yet?" she asks before I can get a word in.

I roll my eyes. Can you say persistent? "No."

"Tori"-

"It's really a bad idea, Alyssa." I try.

"I really wanted to see you today. I was looking forward to it." She whines pitifully.

Ugh! How can I say no?

"Alright. Fine." I finally concede.

"Yay!" she celebrates briefly before hanging up on me again.

I shake my head and trudge my way to Trina's room.

She never locks the door for some reason. It reminds me of Jade. She doesn't lock her door either. Then again, she's not allowed to….ugh, thinking about Jade again.

"Trina." I enter without knocking and groan internally at the sight of her. She's got her home made yellow mask on, while she's simultaneously shaving her….everything.

This is going to be a really bad day. I can feel it. I can literally feel it.

"What, Tori?" she asks casually. No shame. Not an ounce of it.

I shut her bedroom door behind me, not wanting to be stuck in here with her and her smell; but also not wanting anyone to see her either. "Do you have any plans today?"

"Yes, of course! It's Saturday." She scoffs at me.

I'm so tempted to leave Trina's room. Just call Alyssa up and tell her Trina said she already has plans; but I know that won't work. Alyssa will just ask me if I gave Trina the option of her plans versus my plans. Because let's face it, no matter what Trina's got planned, it's not as exciting as being on set with Alyssa Vaughn.

So I just say it. Just get it over with. "Alyssa Vaughn invited me on set of her new movie but if you don't want to go, we can do whatever you had planned instead."

Just as I figured she would, Trina changes her plans.

She pushes me out of her room so she can get ready, only to open her door right back up and drag me inside of her room so I can help her get ready.

It takes forever. No, longer. Way longer than forever.

By the time we're done with her, there's no time for me to get ready. Not that I feel like getting dressed up and stuff anyway. And it's not like I'm in my pajamas or anything.

Instantly, I'm reminded of the pajamas Jade was going to wear to the parade, and just as quickly, I try to make myself stop thinking about her.

"Let's go, Tori!" Trina says as she physically puts me in her car. I guess I dazed off for a second. Thinking about Jade. Shocker.

Trina doesn't even wait until I'm buckled in before she starts off. And I leave my seat belt off. I smile a little, thinking of how I used to buckle Jade in..ugh, Jade again.

Ughh. This is driving me insane.

Abruptly, Trina stomps on her breaks and my face almost meets the windshield. Trina freaks. She's not paying for a new windshield if I crack this one. What? Did you think she was freaking because she was worried about my safety?

I did, for a second. Jade would've been.

I put my seat belt on, not because I want to; but because if we do get in an accident, and I hurt myself, my dad will probably blame me. Seriously. He'll probably think I was being reckless. That I knew just how bad of a driver Trina is and knew there was a good chance of getting into an accident and that's why I didn't wear my seat belt. Because I wanted to get hurt.

Just as I buckle myself in, Trina slams on her breaks again. Honestly, I don't know how she got her license. I wasn't this bad the time I failed my drivers test.

It goes on like this – a bunch of random near-accidents – all the way until we get to the studio. I mean, we literally almost run into the gate.

Could be why the guard's giving us such a hard time about getting in.

Not that I mind. Maybe he'll say there's no way I can come in and then I can go home. I won't have to deal with Trina on Alyssa's movie set.

But after talking on his walkie for a few minutes, the guard lets us pass. My heart sinks because I know this is it. We're here. There's no turning back.

Alyssa meets me at the car so she can walk us in.

"Hello, Gorgeous." She sings as she hands me a present. "Happy birthday."

"Thank you." I quickly put the present in my bag and give her a hug.

"Are you two dating?" Trina asks, both appalled and excited at the same time. Appalled because how dare someone choose me to date over her – even though she's not gay – and excited because if we are dating that gives her access to Alyssa Vaughn.

"We're just friends." Alyssa chuckles beside me.

"Alyssa, this is my sister, Trina," I introduce them. I don't have to do the whole, "Trina, this is Alyssa Vaughn" thing because well, who doesn't know who Alyssa Vaughn is?

"Nice to meet you, Trina." Alyssa smiles. But that smiles immediately turns into a confused frown when Trina says, "You're welcome" and then holds out her hand. But not like she wants a handshake….like she's royalty and wants Alyssa to kiss the back of her hand.

When Alyssa doesn't seem very inclined to do it, Trina huffs, huffs, and lets herself inside of the building

I wince, smacking my forehead just shortly afterward. It's already starting.

"It's not too late to let us turn back," I say. Then I pout, like pout. A pathetic "please don't make me do this" pout.

"Aren't you cute," she bops my nose.

Then she grabs both my hands and drags a reluctant me inside.

I swear, I can already hear the building burning down.

{~~~O~~~}

"Who let her in here?!"

Twenty minutes. No. it hasn't even been a whole twenty minutes.

Seventeen minutes. That's how long it took Trina to single-handedly destroy two cameras, a table with an assortment of snacks on it, a huge tornado blowing fan thing, six different costumes, and two stunt doubles. Like they can't work anymore today, probably not this week at all.

"Bye, Alyssa," I say miserably. Simultaneously letting the director know that Trina's with me and trying to make a graceful exit. Well, not graceful. It's too late for graceful.

"Come on Allen, it's her birthday tomorrow." Alyssa points to me. "Let them stay."

"She can stay," Allen points to me. "The other one has got to go!"

"I can't stay if she can't. part of my punishment." I explain, while beckoning Trina to follow me. As if she'll listen to me.

I'm scanning the area for security because let's face it, I'll need one of them to help me get Trina out.

"Punishment?" Allen says.

"Yeah," I answer, still searching for security. "Instead of grounding me, my dad said I can't be anywhere she isn't."

"What'd you do?"

I shrug, not thinking he wants an answer.

"No seriously. You must've done something drastic in order to deserve this kind of a punishment."

"I was reckless." I shrug again.

"Reckless?"

Another shrug. "I got bruises and stuff from going to The Gorilla Club. My dad wazzed out." I explain.

"I've heard of that place." Finally, I look Allen in the face. Not because I've got the courage to do so now. It's the tone of his voice. Curiosity, wonder, interest. Lots and lots of interest. "Does it really have a fire breathing bunny?"

"Yeah." I answer a little nervously.

"Have you been on it?"

"Yeah," I answer, getting even more nervous. I feel like I know where this is headed.

"Reckless, huh?" He begins to tug on his beard, and suddenly I remember him. I met him once, at Jade's. He was one of Joy's clients. "You know I'm short a stunt double because of your sister, and you kinda look like the actress. Do you think you could…."

And there it is.

"Seriously?" Alyssa asks.

He shrugs. "I mean, it'd almost pay for the damage her sister caused. But I guess I could just send her parents the bill."

And there's the blackmail.

I shouldn't do it. I should just tell Allen to bill my father; but at the same time, I don't wanna cause any trouble for my dad. Who knows how much money it will cost to pay for the damage Trina did.

"What do I have to do?" I sigh.

"Nothing too dangerous, just jump off of that over there." He points to a spot that's like two stories up.

I blink at him.

"Don't worry, there will be a big fluffy pillow at the bottom. You can't miss it." He says with a whole lot of confidence.

Alyssa grabs my arm and makes me face her. "You don't have to do it, Tori. Allen's not really gonna bill you."

"Who else is gonna pay for the damage?" Allen challenges her.

"Seriously?"

"You can pay it, since they're your guests."

"I'll do it." I blurt out. There's no way I'm gonna have Allen charge Alyssa for the damage Trina's done.

"Okay," he claps excitedly. "I'll have someone draw up a contract for you real quick."

I guess they just have contracts lying around like The Gorilla Club because I was signing my life away not even a full ten minutes later.

"I'll have Randy show you up." Allen points toward the general area of where I'll have to do my stage fall.

"And take that with you too!" He doesn't even have to point to Trina. Everyone knows what he means by what he just said.

Once up upstairs I start having second thoughts. It's much higher than it seems. I peer over the edge. Nervously watching them inflate the balloon pillow thing.

"Oh my gosh, it's Andrew Bowdis!" I hear my sister squeal. I register the sound of her rushing to get at him, and the sound of someone chasing after her before I feel a bump. A hard bump.

I'm falling. I'm falling from two stories up and all I can think of is the fact that I'm definitely about to die because the pillow thingy isn't blown up all the way yet.

{~~~O~~~}

When I open my eyes, I can only think about how happy I am to be able to do so. That I'm not dead or anything. I'm in a hospital- wait….yeah, definitely in the hospital. I can tell by the smell alone. I hate the way hospitals smell.

I make to sit up, using my hands to do so; but immediately I realize there's something wrong. There are casts on my arms. Both of them. The casts start midway between my shoulders and my elbows and they go all the way down. Like all the way down. My fingers are wrapped up too.

I look around, instinctively knowing that I'm not alone. That Trina's in here with me. I can smell her too. You don't even wanna know what she smells like.

"She's awake!" My sister screams.

I cringe at the sound of her voice. Though I'm used to it, it's just not a sound I want to hear. Especially because it's her fault I'm in the hospital to begin with.

I look off to the side, and catch sight of my father. Immediately he makes me feel ashamed of myself. Like I ended up here on purpose. I'm not exactly sure why everyone thinks I'm suicidal; but they do. Him most of all. I bet he thinks I was trying to end up here. That I jumped and missed my mark on purpose.

I turn away from him and give my attention back to Trina. At least she's not giving me any disappointing looks. In fact, it seems she doesn't care that I'm hurt at all. She's going on and on about how she has to rearrange her whole life because of my injuries. Injuries she caused by the way.

Yeah, it's not long before I tune her out.

And just as I'm about to feign sleep, my room door is opened and a short balding man with a stethoscope comes walking in. I'm gonna go out on a limb and say that he's my doctor.

"Good afternoon." He grins cheerfully.

Immediately, I come to the conclusion that I don't like him. He's too happy, and this is not a good afternoon.

"How are you feeling, Miss Vega," he asks as he checks me over, pressing on this and tapping on that.

I don't answer because it's more than obvious it's a rhetorical question.

I'm proven correct when he jumps to the next part of the conversation, telling me about all my injuries. Severely bruised ribs, broken arms…both of them and a lot of broken fingers. Then he proceeds to tell me how lucky I am and how it could've been much worse. And then, then, he smiles at me…like I should agree with him.

Ugh, has he seen my fingers?! They're bound together! How am I supposed to function with my hands like this?

Just then, my mom shows up. But she's not really here. She's on the phone. My doctor pauses, wanting to include her into the conversation I guess, but both me and Papi let him know it's not necessary.

"Just continue." We both say at the same time, in the exact same way. Using the exact same tone of voice. I expect my father to smile at me because that's what he usually does when I act like him; but he doesn't. He's not exactly proud to have me as his daughter I guess.

My doctor ignores us. "Mom?" he says patiently.

My mom looks up at him.

"Can I get you over here so I can explain Miss Vega's care?"

She nods her head, giving him the "one minute" finger.

My doctor waits patiently for exactly two minutes before interrupting my mom again with a still patient, but not as patient as before, "Mom?"

My mom puts her hand over the phone. "I'm coming!" she shoots me a smile. My face breaks into a full out grin. At least she's not giving me disappointing looks and assuming that I'm suicidal.

Then she's off the phone moments later. She walks straight up to me, stepping in front of my doctor and giving me three loud kisses on my face. "Hey, baby." She croons.

"Mami..." I whine, trying to turn my face away from hers, but it's an act. I'm totally loving the attention. Well, maybe it's more to do with the fact that she's not judging me for accidentally hurting myself like her husband is.

"Well, Now that I have your attention, Mom." My doctor inserts as passively aggressively as he's allowed. "These can't get wet," he says as he points to my casts. "Baths and wash offs only. Mom, big sis, you're gonna have to help Tori"-

"Eeewww!" Trina exclaims. "I'm not going anywhere near her duey!"

"So, when you say we have to bathe her..."My mom scrunches up her face. "All the time? Are you sure these can't get wet?"

I groan loudly and close my eyes, tuning them out completely. I mean, seriously? Mom and Trina are supposed to give me baths and make my breakfasts? Ugh, just kill me now. In fact, it won't be necessary. I'll probably die of starvation or an infected duey or something.

{~~~O~~~}

My doctor says I'm free to go; but I've convinced my family to go eat in the cafeteria first while I take a nap. Honestly, I just want some time alone because soon it will be a rare occurrence.

And I'm not looking forward to that at all.

I hear my door being opened and I sigh inwardly. So much for having time alone.

More than likely, Mom forgot her phone or something. I know it's not my dad. And Trina would never leave any of her belongings behind.

But then my door is closed softly. Like someone doesn't want to disturb me. That means I have a visitor because my mom wouldn't care about that kind of stuff.

There's a part of me that thinks it's Jade. That wants it to be Jade checking up on me; but when I open my eyes I'm not at all surprised to see Alyssa there with a bouquet of roses.

At the sight of the flowers, the first thought that comes to my head is of Jade. How she got me a bouquet of bush daises knowing I'm allergic to them.

I mentally give my head a shake. It's like I can't do anything without thinking about Jade. Not even receive flowers from a celebrity.

"Hey." I say once I realize neither of us have spoken and just how weird that is.

Alyssa doesn't say anything back. She wants to. I can tell because she keeps opening her mouth, as if she's about to speak; but then it seems she loses her nerve and can't look at me.

"Are those for me?" I prompt, unnecessarily pointing at the roses.

Wordlessly she hands them to me. And still, she won't look at me.

Weird. Why is she acting like this?

"The last time I got a bouquet of flowers they were bush daises. Which I'm allergic to." I laugh lightly, just to ease the somber mood she's in.

It doesn't help.

"I know." she frowns.

Okay….

"Don't worry, I'm not gonna sue the studio or anything." I try again to lighten her up because frankly she's starting to wazz me out.

"I'm really sorry, Tori." She says softly.

She's so serious about it that my urge to lighten the mood amplifies. "Hey, don't worry, I don't feel a thing. They gave me the good stuff." I nod my head towards the IV bag. Thank Dan I'm no longer attached to it though. Needles give me the wonkies. "And I'm going home today, so…" I trail off with a shrug.

Nothing.

She doesn't even give me an accidental smile. You know, when you don't feel like smiling, but you can't help it so a little one escapes before you can reign in your emotions and hide it.

She takes a few steps forward; and it looks as if she's gonna sit on the bed beside me, but she doesn't. She changes her mind and just stares at the spot where she was going to sit.

She's so... disturbed about me being hurt. I start to wonder if maybe Jade was right. Maybe Alyssa does have a crush on me. But then she finally speaks. "You're such a sweet kid." She whispers. And I know for fact that Jade's wrong. You can't call someone a kid and be attracted to them. Not unless you're a creeper, and I don't think Alyssa is. "I didn't mean for any of this to happen to you."

"Hey, it's alright." I rush to comfort her. It should be irritating considering I'm the one laying this stinky hospital bed; but I actually like it. It makes me feel a little less helpless.

"No it's not, look at you!" She gestures toward my bed, then my casts.

I shrug. "It was an accident. It wasn't your fault."

"Yes it was."

"How? Trina knocked me over." I point out.

"You shouldn't have been there in the first place!" She hisses back.

Jeez.

"I didn't really have much choice after Trina did all that damage. There was no way I was gonna make you pay." Crap! I shouldn't have said that. Now she's gonna think she's right. "And just because I did it for you doesn't mean it was your fault." I rush to add on.

"No, not the stunt." She looks at me briefly. "I meant you shouldn't have been there, on the set, today."

"Well I"-

She cuts me off. Good thing too, 'cause I didn't really have much to say more than that. Possibly because I'm not sure how to take that statement. What does she mean I wasn't supposed to be on the set. She's the one who invited me.

"You didn't even want to be there."

"Of curse"-

She shakes her head, putting a hand out to silence me. "I didn't really want you to be there."

I blink at her. "What?"

Yeah, that's the best I could come up with.

She runs a hand through her hair. There's agitation in all of her movements.

It makes me nervous.

"I wouldn't have minded you there, Tori." She explains. "But I didn't want you there as bad as I let on."

I frown at her, getting more and more confused by the second. "So why did you beg me to come?"

"Fuck." she whispers. "Fuck." She rubs at her forehead, like she's getting a headache.

Um...

Abruptly she turns on her heels and she's on her way to the door.

I want to stop her. Yell out a quick, "Alyssa, wait!" But my vocal cords aren't getting the message.

I don't have to anyway, because as soon as she reaches the door, she turns back around, just as abruptly, and starts walking back toward me. Well, she takes four steps toward me before she's turning back around and reaching for the door knob.

"Alyssa?" I call. "What's wrong?" I don't even care that my voice was shaky. I'm just glad I got my voice to work at all.

I watch Alyssa sigh. Then she straightens up, squaring her shoulders. Her hand drops from the door knob quickly...with determination. she marches back toward me. And she stands really close, looking me straight in the eyes.

"um...You're making me really nervous."

She ignores me. "You getting hurt is my fault. I invited you because I wanted to impress you. I wouldn't have pushed so hard on my own; but he asked a favor of me and I was just trying to be a good friend, you know?

"God, If I had known...you know what? I don't know what I would've done if I had known because I didn't know you when I agreed. I didn't think about whether or not you'd get hurt. I didn't even care if you did. Because I didn't know you. He was my friend, not you. And I"-

"Can you maybe start at the beginning." I stop her from going any further. "I'm so lost."

She exhales harshly. Then she runs a hand through her hair. Again, this action is done with an intense amount of agitation, so I try to calm her down before she starts pacing between me and the door again.

"I just got the part where I'm not your friend. He is...who's he?"

"Beck." She admits with a heavy sigh. "He said you guys were faking. And that he just wanted to get Jade jealous so she'd stop pretending to date you and go back out with him. So he asked me to flirt with you a little. And I did it... am still doing it even though it's more than obvious you two aren't faking it.

"So, I'm sorry. You being here like this," she waves a hand toward my casts for emphasis, "is my fault because I wouldn't have begged you so hard to come on set if I wasn't trying to help him out."

"Oh." That makes a lot of sense actually. Alyssa was never my friend. She only pretended to like me to make Jade jealous so she'd break up with me and go back to Beck. I should've seen through that from day one. I mean, why else would someone like Alyssa Vaughn hang out with me?

"You're not angry." Alyssa accuses, eyes narrowed.

I shake my head. Truth is, there's no reason for me to be angry. Yeah, Alyssa pretended to be my friend; but I did the same thing. I pretended to be Jade's girlfriend to make Beck and Danny jealous. Like Alyssa, I was trying to get Jade and Beck back together. Only problem is, I ended up falling in love with my fake girlfriend. So I wonder...

"Do you like me now?" I blurt out. Good thing I did it without thinking because I wouldn't normally have the courage to ask her something like that.

She blinks at me.

"Not like the way you've been pretending to. Do you like me as a person now that you've gotten to know me a little better. Could you see us as friends, maybe?"

She opens her mouth to answer, but I cut in before she can get a sound out.

"You have to tell me the truth. Well, you don't have to do anything, but can you please tell me the truth." I beg. "I can handle it."

But what if I can't? What of she tells me that after spending time with me, she still sees me as just a favor she's doing for her friend? What if-

"Yes, I can see us maybe becoming friends." she rolls her eyes. But it's not at me. I can tell. "I wouldn't be feeling like this if I still didn't care about you."

I beam up at her, so relieved by her answer.

"What's the matter with you? she scowls at me. "I just told you I'm an evil piece of chiz and you're smiling at me."

"You did not say that." I giggle.

She glances at my former IV bag. "They really did give you the good stuff." she groans. "I'm gonna have to repeat this whole conversation again when you're sober. Fuck my life! I knew you took it too well."

"Don't worry. I'm sober." I roll my eyes at the drama. "I'll remember this in the morning."

she stares at me, disbelieving and hopeful at the same time. It's adorable.

"Friends?" I ask.

She leans down and kisses my cheek. "You really are a sweet kid."

I roll my eyes. "Don't call me that." I moan. "It's embarrassing!"

"I got something for you!" She ignores me completely as she digs in her purse for a few minutes and pulls out a sharpie. Then she starts writing on my cast.

"Do you always carry sharpies in your bag?"

"No, but I figured you'd be in a cast so I stole one from Allen's trailer." she shrugs. "There! All done." She smiles brightly.

I look down to read what she wrote.

"Get well soon, Gorgeous" is on one cast and her autograph on the other.

"Thanks." I smile back at her.

Then she drops her smile. "Friends." she finally agrees. "But Beck's still my friend so can you maybe not..."

"I won't tell him I know." I promise her.

"Thanks." she says

I pat the bed beside me, to my best ability, offering her a seat. It's definitely time for a subject change. "Friends know stuff about each other, you know. What's your mom's name?" I ask.

She laughs; really, really hard. "Oh God, I think I just developed a small crush on you." she says once she gets her giggles under control.

Now it's my turn to laugh; and it feels amazing since I haven't been doing a lot of that lately.

{~~~O~~~}

The whole ride home, I can't help but to think about how awful my life is going to be for the next six weeks. Well it should get better after two weeks. That's when my doctor said my fingers will be unwrapped; but still, even with just the arm casts I'll still have to depend heavily on my family to help me.

Seriously. Have you met my family!?

Ugh! It puts me in such a bad mood that I actually groan when I see Josie's car in the yard. I am not in the mood to have company. Not even from my best friend. I just wanna throw the biggest pity party anyone's ever seen, and then go to sleep.

And since I'm so lost in my thoughts, I don't realize everyone's out of the car and on their way to the front door. Like I didn't even register the sound of the doors shutting. I sigh, moving to unbuckle myself when I'm reminded that I can't. With my fingers wrapped up like this, I can't unbuckle my seat belt or pull the car door handle.

I sigh some more and watch my family go inside. I can't even call anyone to come back for me because I can't use my chizzin' phone!

Oh, this is going to be the longest two weeks of my life, I think to myself as I lay my head against the window and close my eyes.

I wonder how long it will take for someone to remember me; their injured daughter, or sister in Trina's case. Ten minutes? Twenty? A full hour? Dios mío, I hope they remember me before an hour is up. It's so chizzin' hot out here. Well, in here.

I can feel sweat starting to accumulate under my arms and...other places.

Suddenly, my door's yanked open. Thank Dan I wasn't able to get myself out of my seat belt, because I most definitely would've fallen out of the car just now. I look up and glare at the door yanker, because it could only be Trina; but it's not her. It's Josie.

She doesn't unbuckle me immediately, Just stares really hard and intense-like; which makes me squirm like nobody's business.

"I couldn't get out or call anyone." I say defensively as I hold my hands up so she can see exactly why I couldn't.

Nada. Absolutely nothing. She just continues to stare.

I feel my face heat up, the internal kind on top of what the sun is already putting my body through.

Why am I embarrassed? It was an accident. I didn't stay out here on purpose.

"Who sent you?" I ask. Not so subtly changing the non-subject. And also, I kinda just wanna know who remembered me first.

"David. And he's pissed at you about it."

I almost smile. Even when my dad's so ashamed of me that he doesn't want to look at me, he still remembers me. But then I realize what Josie said. He's pissed? Why would he be mad at me? Surely my papi doesn't think I tried to commit suicide via heatstroke. Come on! Who would do that!?

I get angry.

"Because he, Mom and Trina forgot that they're supposed to be helping me because I can't do any chizzin' thing by my chizzin' self!" I yell at her. "That's why he's pissed?!"

Finally, she stops with the intense staring. I even see a slight smirk grace her lips before she leans in to unbuckle me.

"Come on, baby girl." she chuckles dryly "Let's get you to the bathroom."

"Okay." I smile back at her. Wait...what? "The bathroom?" I frown up at her as she helps me out of the car.

Then it's like Oh. My. God. Out of nowhere I gotta wazz so bad that I can't hold it.

I run past her, which is awkward. Running with these casts on seem to make my balance even worse than it already is.

Once I reach the door, I start hopping up and down impatiently because I can't open it myself.

Josie lets me in quickly, following me all the way inside the bathroom. Like normal people, I'm used to using the bathroom alone, so when she shuts and locks the door behind her, I just kind of freeze. 'What are you doing?' is on the tip of my tongue, but I don't ask. Because without hesitation, without warning me in the least, she unbuttons my jeans for me and sits me on the toilet.

Then I remember. I can't use the bathroom by myself.

Patiently, Josie waits for me to finish; and then again, without the slightest hesitation, she cleans me up and buttons my jeans up for me.

It was weird. But it wasn't as humiliating as I thought it would. Possibly because Josie didn't allow it to be uncomfortable for me or her. She didn't make a fuss, or make me feel bad about needing her. She just did it.

"Thanks." I mumble.

You don't have to thank me, baby girl." she says as she leads me to my bedroom.

I frown. She's acting kinda weird. The way she's just opened up my bedroom door and is waiting for me to go inside….usually she'll just let herself in and I'll follow. Or vice versa.

"Come on, Tori." she coaxes me.

Unconsciously, I take a step back. Now I know something's going on.

She rolls her eyes at me before grabbing on to my arm, no my cast, and pulling me into my bedroom.

My jaw drops at the sight of my bed. There are presents on it. Lots of them. Maybe more than fifty. They're small though, and all the same size.

I walk over to get a better look. they're wrapped in pink yellow and purple birthday wrapping.

That's right. My birthday's tomorrow. Are they from my dad? Was he being all extra bad cop with me so that these presents would come as a huge, but insanely good, shock to me? He's done it before.

"They're from Jade." Josie answers my unasked question. "There's 99 of them."

I'm a little sad that they aren't from my father; but I don't dwell on the thought too long because 99. There are 99 presents on my bed. 99!

But wait. Why ninety nine though? that's such an odd number. Why not make it an even 100.

It's as if Josie's reading my mind because she says, "There's supposed to be a hundred, but Jade still has the last one."

"Why don't I have it?" I snap. Rudely. I don't even know where it came from.

But Josie doesn't seem to care. She just shrugs. "Maybe she wanted to give that one to you in person." she says before plopping down on my bed, grabbing one of my presents up and tossing it in the air.

"You gonna open them?" she doesn't look at me as she asks this. Just concentrates on throwing and catching the one she's holding. "Well, technically, you'll only have to open one. I'm sure once you've opened one, it'll be like you've opened them all since they're most likely the same thing."

I reach my hand out, and am reminded about my casts. "I can't open anything." I mumble.

"You want me to?" she asks nonchalantly, no sympathy in her voice whatsoever. I have to admit that it makes me feel a little better. Like she thinks I'm okay; and this cast situation is not that big of a deal.

I nod my head, giving her permission.

She tears the wrapping paper off the present and frowns at the box in her hands.

"What?" I ask warily. I mean, it is a gift from Jade. Who knows what it is?
"This is really fucked up; but kinda sweet at the same time, I guess," she says before turning the box so I can see.

Instantly, tears start to form in the corners of my eyes. It's a box of band aids; but they're custom made. Jade's face is on them, puckering her lips as if she's about to give a kiss.

"This is an inside thing?" Josie frowns some more.

I nod my head, not trusting my voice to work properly. Jade said she was going to get those for me once when I hurt myself. She said she was gonna get me band aids with her face on them so she can be the one to make me better. I thought she forgot. And even if she remembered, I didn't think she was serious.

"Can I have one?" I blurt out. I've just thought of the perfect place to put it; but as I think about my own request, I just kinda freeze. I can't put them on myself. Josie would have to put it on for me. I don't think I'd ever be able to live that down.

"Where do you need it," she asks, not noticing my turmoil at all.

I shake my head. "Never mind." I can't tell her where I want it. It's way too pathetic.

She stares at me. It's not as intense as when she did it outside, but it's intense enough for me to look away.

"You guys are so stupid," she says, after a few seconds. "Lift up your hands, baby girl."

I do as I'm told and she lifts my shirt up, covering my face with it and leaving me in the dark. I can hear her unwrapping a band aid and crumbling up the trash. Then she places it over my heart-exactly where I wanted it.

{~~~O~~~}

Author's note: I know Tori's too old for spankings, but trust me when some parents are mad, or scared, enough, they still hit their adult children. Speaking as a witnesser and an experiencer. lol

Oh, and next chapter is M rated. If you're not following this story make sure you change your filter to allow M rated stories in your search. Um, hopefully that didn't sound like I was begging for followers. I was just letting you know...

Um, it's gotten awkward...hasn't it?

Anyway, I know you won't believe me, but I believe you'll get the update for chapter 26 sooner than usual. I worked on it a little while I was working on this one. Fingers crossed!