Just one week later, many of the freshman students whispered to each other in the halls before school, wondering what in the world had happened to Cat Valentine.

Cat had been missing school for four days. Her friends were all worried about her, and they wondered why she hadn't tried to contact any of them.

"I really hope Cat's okay," Robbie said, concerned.

"She's fine," said Jade, leaning against Beck's locker.

"How do you know?"

"If it was serious, the teachers would've told us something, right?" she relplied.

"She probably just came down with a bad case of the flu," said Rex the puppet. Everyone groaned. Robbie had been trying out his new gift nonstop ever since Cat gave it to him. He was so pleased she had given him a present and wanted to show her how much it meant to him, so he didn't even let Rex out of his sight. Even now, with Cat gone, Robbie continued to talk through Rex.

Suddenly, Cat walked in the front doors. Her friends all rushed to her.

"Cat! You're back!" "Are you okay?" "Why didn't you call us?" Everyone talked at the same time, overwhelming Cat.

"I'm fine," she answered, though the tone of her voice indicated that she was not fine at all. Cat looked down at the floor. "I'm fine," she repeated.

"Were you sick?" asked Jade.

"No…" Cat shuffled her feet around and wouldn't look any of her friends in the eye. Something was clearly bothering her. This was not typical Cat behavior. Where was the bubbly, cheerful girl they all knew so well?

"Cat," said Robbie, putting his arm around her, "what's wrong? You can tell us."

Beck led Cat over to the Wahoo Punch machine on the other side of the hall. He bought her a can, opened it, and handed it to her. Cat took a tiny sip. This alarmed everyone even more; her favorite drink ever was Wahoo Punch. What was going on?

"C'mon, spill," instructed Jade.

Cat sighed and began to talk. "It's my brother. He's not doing so well. He's always been really… weird, you know, since he was born and everything….but now he's really, really sick. It's really serious. I had to stay home with him…in case…in case…" she couldn't finish speaking, as tears began to roll down her face. Her friends enveloped her in a hug, even Jade, who was not a big fan of physical affection.

"So why are you here today?" asked Andre.

"I had to come to school so I could get some homework from my teachers, and tell them I'd be gone for a while."

"What?" yelled Rex.

"For how long?" asked Beck.

"One or two weeks. I don't really know."

"Well, we'll be here for you, whenever you need us," Robbie said comfortingly. Cat simply nodded as she tried to hold back more tears.

The next two weeks were not the best for Robbie. It broke his heart to see Cat so devastated and he didn't like not seeing her every day at school, so he took lots of his frustration out on the other students, through Rex. Andre, Beck, and Jade were also sad for Cat, but Jade had her own problems to worry about.

The girls at Hollywood Arts had only gotten meaner as the weeks went by. Hardly anyone talked to Jade except the losers, such as Sinjin van Cleef.

Beck tried his best to stick up for his girlfriend, but it was hard—if Beck was around, all the girls tried to hit on him and totally didn't get the hint to leave; they would shove Jade out of the way to fawn over Beck. When a jealous Jade yelled at the girls to leave Beck alone, it only confirmed their thoughts. Jade was a bee-yotch with major envy issues, and most freshman girls unanimously decided to leave Jade West alone for good. This caused her to retract into her shell once again.

"You can't let them get to you," Beck said one night over the phone to Jade.

"Shut up. It's easy for you to say, nobody hates you except a couple of lame guys who want to go out with me. All the girls love you," Jade replied.

"I don't care about all the girls. Seriously, I couldn't care less about any of them! You always say they're idiots, and I agree! The only girls I care about are Cat and you. So I really don't want you to worry."

Jade lay back on her bed and squeezed her eyes shut. "I—I just…"

"Jade," Beck said quietly, "you shouldn't worry about those girls. Who cares if they don't like you? You still have Cat; plus me, Robbie, and Andre. We're here for you. We're the only ones who matter. Just let the others go."

"No," Jade said harshly. "You just don't understand. No one does."

"Jade—"

"Stop. This is why I can't talk about this with you. You're used to everyone liking you all the time! You've never had to deal with what I'm dealing with. I've had people hate me since the seventh grade! And guess what, that's hard!"

"But Jade—"

"Don't interrupt me. Just shut up. You can't help me. No one can." With that, Jade hung up.

The next day at school, Robbie found his friend crying in the janitor's closet.

"J-Jade?" he stuttered, shocked to see the always-tough Jade breaking down.

Jade's head snapped up. "What?" she growled.

Robbie took a step back. "I-I just heard, I was walking by, I w-wanted to see…"

"Go," Jade said. She lifted her hand which was holding a pair of scissors. "Now."

Robbie froze, his eyes locked on the scissors. Jade followed his eyes to her hand and sighed. "I'm not cutting," she said flatly. Robbie was silent, too dazed to speak, so Jade continued. "I thought about it, awhile ago, back in eighth grade. But I didn't. And I'm not going to now. I just like scissors, okay? Okay? "

Robbie nodded his head robotically.

"Good. Now leave."

Robbie turned to go, but then Rex spoke. "Talk to Beck," he said. Jade's eyes widened and Robbie shrugged a little, gave a sympathetic smile, and left.

Jade wiped her eyes and threw down the scissors. She sighed, stood up, then stormed out of the closet to Beck, who was standing at his locker.

"We need to talk."

Beck turned around, his arm mid-stretch. "Okay."

"You need to stop all this nonsense about forgetting all the girls."

"Then you need to stop talking to me like that," Beck said matter-of-factly. Jade's mouth fell open. "Yeah, you heard me! I'm not just your boyfriend; I'm your friend, too. Can't you be a little nicer?"

"I don't like being nice," Jade mumbled.

Grinning, Beck kissed her. "Okay. Let's not talk about it again. See you at lunch!"

Jade watched her boyfriend go, the corners of her mouth turning upright ever so slightly.