Chapter 1. "You're kind of… tough."

"Come on, Cat." Tori was begging the little redhead. "Just come with me. There's no way my parents are going to let me go alone. I need at least one friend to go with me. Please, Cat."

"I don't know, Tori…" Cat's little voice sounded conflicted. "I don't think my parents are going to like us driving for six hours. And… we'll be away from home for a long time… and my mom might not be able to handle my brother alone and…"

"She'll be all right." Tori insisted, her voice rising several octaves in desperation. "Please, Cat. I really need you to do this one thing for me. We may not get another chance and you know it."

"Six hours, you say?" Jade interrupted, stepping forward, her boots looking impressibly bulky next to the other girls shoes. "Why would you need to drive for that long, Vega?"

Tori turned and then narrowed her eyes at Jade.

"Have you been eavesdropping?" Tori accused, crossing her arms. "Don't you have anything better to do?"

"Don't flatter yourself." Jade smirked. "I don't care about what you say or do, Tori. I just happened to overhear is all."

"Well, you can just forget what you overheard." Tori insisted. "This is between me and Cat."

Jade turned and looked to Cat, who shrank a little under her intense gaze.

"What is she trying to get you to do?" Jade asked. Cat bit her lip nervously and played with her hair.

"I'm not trying to get her to do anything." Tori insisted. "She can say no. Jeez, I'm not you."

Jade smirked again and looked close to almost letting a laugh slip.

"You wish you were." Jade replied.

Tori just rolled her eyes and chose not to respond.

"Let's see…" Jade said slowly and lifting her eyes to the ceiling in thought. "Six hours… that will get you... where? Sacramento, I'm guessing? No… maybe that's a bit too far. San Francisco?"

Tori's eyes widened slightly, not expecting her to guess so quickly like that.

"Aha!" Jade said pointing at Tori in triumph, Tori's expression was all she needed to know she was, in fact, correct. "You want to go to San Francisco then? Why? What's there? And why do you want Cat to go with you? You couldn't pay me to take Cat in a car with me for six hours!"

Cat gave a little indignant gasp, but said nothing.

Tori eyed her for a moment then she grabbed Jade's arm and pulled her in closer to her. Jade leaned backwards and cringed.

"What do you think you're doing?" Jade demanded.

"I'm going to tell you, but first you have to make a deal with me." Tori said and had lowered her voice considerably.

Jade was squinting at her in a disturbed way.

"I don't make deals with the likes of you, Vega." Jade said. "Unless I'm sure I'm going to come out on the better end of the deal." She added as an afterthought.

"I want you to come with me and Cat to San Franscisco." Tori said.

"What?" Jade demanded loudly, as if it was the craziest proposition she had ever heard in her lifetime. And it kind of was. She wrenched her arm free from Tori's grasp. "No! No way. I am not going to be stuck in a car with you and Cat for six plus hours. I would rather… I would rather… I don't even know. Paint my room yellow. Jump off a bridge. Watch a marathon of Jersey Shore."

"But Jade, you're so good at doing their accents!" Cat piped up happily, giggling her bubbly Cat giggle.

Jade sighed and rolled her eyes. "Whatever." She said dismissively and crossed her arms.

"Oh, come on!" Tori was now begging her instead of Cat as if she already knew Cat was going without a doubt or something. She stuck out her lip in a pout, and Jade looked away, embarrassed by her.

"Why would you even want me to go?" Jade asked. "We're not even friends."

Tori sighed and grabbed both Jade's arms and shook her until Jade pulled away angrily.

"Will you just keep your hands off me?" Jade demanded.

"You're just so demented." Tori told her. "Of course we're friends, okay? If we weren't friends we wouldn't be talking after your and Beck's break up, all right? Now just… shut up about it, okay?"

Jade looked unsettled at Tori's words and straightforward manner, but was shocked into silence for the moment.

"Now just… come with us." Tori said after a little silence.

"Yeah, Jade, come along!" Cat agreed enthusiastically. "We'll have so much fun. We'll be like the Three Musketeers! You know, one Halloween my brother dressed up as a Musketeer and he had this big, plastic sword and he was playing a little too rambunctiously with it. My mom was trying to tell him to calm down and then he accidentally hit my dad in the-"

"Cat!" Jade yelled to shut her up and she clamped her mouth shut and straightened up with a little squeak.

"Look, I don't even know why you're going up there." Jade said.

Tori leaned in closer to Jade, putting her arm around her shoulders and also around Cat's who scooted in closer and giggled softly as she completed the little huddle they were suddenly pulled into.

"So… there's this boy band, okay?" Tori began.

"Boy band?" Jade spat in disgust. "Are you kidding? Six hours for a boy band? You have reached a new low in my eyes, Vega."

"That's not all, Jade!" Cat whispered loudly, excitedly.

"Just let me finish." Tori hissed. "They're a boy band from England, okay? They're coming over here for one night, Saturday, for a popular radio show in San Francisco. They've never come over here to the US and done a whole tour… I think this may even be their first time coming to the US. There's been a rumor on their message boards online that they're going to do a secret show there. Someone leaked the details and it was deleted, but I took a screenshot on my PearBook. I still have the deets."

"Are you kidding me?" Jade demands, pulling lose from the huddle so abruptly and violently that Cat stumbled and had to catch her balance. "You don't even know if those details were genuine. It could have been someone screwing around and the board moderator got angry and removed it."

Tori shrugged.

"It could be, but I don't think so." Tori said. "Besides, even if the concert isn't real, they're still going on the radio show. We could at least find the studio and go wait outside and try to meet them there."

Jade was shaking her head in disbelief.

"So, let me get this straight," Jade began, one hand on her hip and one hand against her temple as if she was beginning to get a headache. "You want to drive six hours straight just because there might be the slightest chance you might encounter a british boy band?"

"Well…" Tori said looking a bit uneasy now. "Yeah."

"See ya." Jade said and turned to leave, but Tori's hand shot out and she grabbed the strap of Jade's over the shoulder schoolbag, effectively stopping her in her tracks.

"Wait." Tori said. "I'm desperate. I'm begging you. Please come with us."

Jade had turned around to look at her once more and was now studying her as if she was didn't know what to make of her.

"Why do you want me to go with you?" Jade said. "I've never been nice to you and we barely get along as it is."

"Well… for one… it'll make my parents happier if I have two close friends with me since we'll be traveling pretty far, you know." Tori said. Jade snorted loudly when Tori described them as 'close friends'. "Look, you don't have to pay for anything. It'll all be on me. The hotel, all our food, everything."

"How do you even have money to pay for all of this anyway?" Jade asked.

"Well, I'm always saving up money." Tori said. "Whenever I babysit or… you know… we do any of those weird little jobs Sikowitz asks us to do."

Jade sighed.

"Is there any other reason you want me to go?" She asks.

"Well… you're… you're kind of… tough." Tori said awkwardly. "I mean, that'll come in handy if we run into any trouble or anything.

"So, what am I now? Your guard dog?" Jade snarled.

Tori sighed and ran her hand through her hair, pushing it out of her face.

"No… I'm just saying you wouldn't take any… you know… stuff from anyone." Tori said.

"I never do." Jade said. Then she sighed and crossed her arms. "Look, Vega, I'll just… if you really want to go on your stupid trip to meet your stupid boy band, I'll just tell your mom I'm going with you and cat, okay? But there is no way, and let me repeat, no way I am riding in a car with you and Cat for six hours. That would be the highest form of torture for me and I would never subject myself to that, especially for such a stupid reason."

Tori looked about to argue and then her shoulders slumped. She had no other options. She couldn't force Jade to go with them.

"Fine." Tori sighed out. She raised her eyes back to Jade and suddenly noticed her whole body had stiffened and she seemed to be staring off to the side, purposely avoiding looking at something.

"Uh, gotta go." Jade said abruplty and quickly stomped off without a goodbye.

"Hey." Robbie called to them, Beck by his side. The pair stepped up next to Tori and Cat and now Tori knew why Jade had taken off so suddenly. It was because of Beck. Jade had been avoiding him, refusing to talk to him or even be in close proximity with him.

Tori stared off into the direction Jade had disappeared, feeling the corners of her mouth drooping. She couldn't help feeling really weird and sad about Beck and Jade's breakup and she wasn't even sure why exactly. She could tell everyone kind of felt that the same way though. It was weird because they all said they were so miserable when Beck and Jade were together because they would fight all the time, but now that they were apart… it was somehow worse. Their relationship had been the one constant among their group of friends and now, everything felt a little awkward because at any given time, when all of them were together, Beck or Jade seemed to be missing.

So, I know this is a chapter still kind of setting things up, but I promise I'll get into better things soon. Reviews are always welcome and appreciated! I love to know what you think! :)