Disclaimer: Still don't own anything in this or any fanfiction. Oh well.
Author's Note: Thanks for your reviews. I'm hoping this chapter is alright though I'm not too sure of it. Also still unbeta'd, but anyway enjoy it.
"Shoot me now" was all Jade said as she sat down in Biology Class that Monday morning as Beck sat down at his own lab table. "I don't get why you're so tired. You've got your coffee and all." This earned him a glare as he turned to pull his books out of his bag.
'Lack of sleep due to someone wanting to stay up late and talk, and talk, and talk may have a little something to do with it' she thought as she glared at his back, willing it to burst into flames. He turned back to her and smiled "You should take my lead, wide awake and chipper."
She knew he was just joking but at that moment her desire to burn the boy grew exponentially 'Of course you're wide awake all you had to do was talk, I had to listen to you all night.' She let her murderous thought dissipate as she turned to her own bag to get her books out and took another sip of her coffee, wishing it would do it's job and wake her up.
Her thoughts were interrupted (as always) by the appearance of Tori Vega who was quite unlike her usual self. Her hair was down in a messy pony tail, her face was void of all makeup, her pace was slow and labored, and she was dragging her bag right behind her and in that moment Jade still thought she looked amazing.
Her eyes were glued to the very visibly exhausted girl as she lumbered towards their desk and plopped down in her chair. Jade could barely help but smile as she watched the girl's head make a slow descent onto the desk. "Geez what the hell happened to you, you're not your annoyingly awake self like usual." Tori's eyes turned to the dark haired girl.
Jade earned herself the rarely seen 'Tori Glare' that was usually reserved for Trina but was directed at her this morning "You've got no room to talk." was her reply and Jade had to admit it was a good one. She had worn her very best sweatpants because they were the first thing she could grab, her hair wasn't completely unlike a crow's nest and she had neglected make up as well. "Ooh getting a bit snappy in the morning, not sure it suits you." was all Jade said and she could barely hear the other girl's reply as it was muffled by the desk she tried sleeping on.
Rolling her eyes Jade decided to be a bit nicer, she knew she'd have the same reaction to herself if she had to deal with it this early so she slid her coffee over to the other girl. "All right, now really what's up?" Tori eyed the cup suspiciously as it was pushed over to her. "Hey! What's with the look?"
"The last time you offered me coffee it came from the garbage so excuse me if I'm a bit more suspicious this time." was the answer she got. To be honest Jade had actually just bought the aforementioned coffee for Tori as a peace offering but lost her nerve at the last second and returned to her 'mean girl' ways, but this time she wasn't going to lose nerve. Probably.
"Yeah well this one's never been anywhere near a garbage can, ask Beck he saw me buy it. Got a receipt and everything if you need anymore evidence inspector." Ok, so she couldn't help but add some of her usual 'charm' to the comment, it was in her nature and it got the job done as Tori finally took the coffee in hand and sipped at it. "Atta girl, drink up I know it's one of your favorites. Now why is Princess Tori looking more like Bag Lady Tori this morning?"
"Trina's been flipping out over this new guy in her class and she needs to talk about him day and night because he's like so cute and totally into her and junk", Tori's voice dropped into a spot on impression of her older sister which put a barely there smile on Jade's face. "I'm guessing Beck kept you up all night?" she asked as she took another sip, pepping up just slightly.
"Mmhm, it may not seem like it but once you get him talking it just doesn't stop. He's kind of like one of those yipping toy dogs that are fun at the start but later you just want to rip out it's battery pack." Tori laughed at the comment and Jade joined her, glad to have made the girl she wouldn't admit crushing on laugh.
"Oh I know the feeling. When I'm talking with Trina it's like pulling the string on one of those dolls that talk, but the string snaps so it just keeps going until you chuck it out the window." Slightly surprised but not very surprised that the girl could match her joke for joke Jade found her mood lightening. "This coffee is really good by the way, I can't taste dirty banana peel or dry gum at all."
Her sly smile almost made Jade melt, though no one would be able to tell the frosty girl may have been losing her cool so she just scoffed "Well you know I got this one out of one of the third floor trash cans, they rank up there with some of the cleanest trash cans in the school, cleaner than the ones on the fourth floor but not as clean as the ones in the east wing of the second floor."
"Ooh fancy, didn't know you could care so much Jade." was the sarcastic reply. "Only the best for you Princess." was Jade's equally sarcastic reply but neither of them held the hostile edge they usually did and instead the girls were smiling as Tori passed the coffee back for Jade to take a sip.
"You better be careful Jade, some of your inner nice girl is showing. If you're not careful I might think you have a soft spot for me." And at that Jade let out a snort, shooting out a bit of warm coffee through her nose. "Oh god are you ok?" Jade put the coffee down quickly and looked around to make sure nobody saw her reaction, thankfully they didn't garner any attention as Tori grabbed some tissues from her purse to clear the mess.
Jade's eyes widened as Tori continued to ask if she was ok while reaching up to wipe her nose for her but Jade ripped the tissue from her hand and wiped it herself. "Hands off, I'm fine. It's just funny that you think I'm nice, pft yeah right.", Jade let out a nervous breath she didn't know she was holding in as Tori nodded 'Yep, that's all it is. Has nothing to do with you jokingly referring to an actual soft spot, nope nothing to see here, moving on.
"Well alright, but I bet there's a somewhat nice girl somewhere in there lurking and waiting to break out and give everyone a great big hug." the following laugh from Jade didn't deter Tori from smiling, not even when Jade responded "Ha maybe in your dreams Vega."
"And what makes you think you'd even be part of my dreams West?" the two girls stared one another down, the mood light as they went back and forth. "Because I'm awesome, everyone dreams of me or of being me."
Tori's giggles got slightly louder "Oh wow, now who's delusional?" The two lowered their voices as more students started filtering in to class. "Still you, what could possibly make you think I was nice?" The teacher interrupted Tori before she could continue talking so Jade sat back in her chair and when the teacher turned his back Tori turned to give Jade and held up the now empty coffee cup "Because you gave me your coffee, and you knew it was one of my favorites." And before Jade could respond class was underway.
Jade was thankful for the quiet and uneventful Bio Class as it gave her the opportunity to keep talking with Tori, surprising both herself and she's positive she surprised the other girl as they found themselves talking throughout the period. It was out of character for herself, she knew that much, but she knew if she didn't finally manage to have a civil conversation with the girl they'd continue on this hostile cycle they had been on since Tori arrived, something Jade had wanted to end before it even began.
In fact her entire day continued in that way, talking casually with Tori as if they had never been semi-enemies and it lifted Jade's mood to levels it hadn't been at in a long while, though only those who had known her the longest could tell. Her change in mood was subtle, Beck could tell because she didn't taunt Robbie and Cat when they inexplicably walked by with Cat carrying Rex and Robbie wearing a ridiculous poncho.
"Hey, what's up with you today?" was his question during study hall in the library. She knew what he was asking but couldn't tell him the truth, right? "What're you talking about?"
"Well no offense but you've been unusually not mean today. You didn't even trip Cora when she walked down the hall with all her books over her face like you usually do." It was a pastime of hers, it was funny to her kind of like when people walk into a wall while they're texting. "Well maybe I didn't feel like it today, no shut up I'm trying to study.
"You didn't even laugh when Mr. Turton fell out of his chair and couldn't get up." She had been to distracted chatting with Tori in scriptwriting class to notice the turtle-like man had even fallen over. "Well it's not funny, he could've gotten hurt."
"Now I know you're lying, you love laughing when people fall plus you're studying out of an Italian textbook." She hadn't even realized it, just snatched a book to try and get him to change the subject. "What's your point?"
"Jade, you're not taking any language courses."
"It's never too late to start!" was the quick response he got from her as she got up and started gathering her things and putting them in her bag. "Look Beck, you're being hysterical and I can't deal with it. Get it together, calm yourself down, take a chill pill, etcetera." With that poorly veiled excuse she got up and made her way out of the library, leaving an extremely confused boyfriend in her wake. She knew that she could've came up with a better lie but she wasn't thinking, just worrying about her mood giving her away.
She found herself in the mostly empty cafeteria where there were a few other students hanging around on an off period or just skipping class, one of which was Robbie. 'Well I've been astonishingly trailblazing today, why not?' she asked herself as she walked forward and joined him at the table. He was working on Rex, fixing the pulleys in his back and adjusting his jaw. For a while Jade just watched as he tinkered with it, not knowing it was so complicated inside the crude dummy.
Without even knowing it Jade had leant forward to get a closer look and when she did Robbie jumped in his seat when she suddenly entered his field of vision. "J-Jade, what're you doing here? Is this your table? Cuz if it is I could just-well there are lots of tables so…"
"Hey relax, I've got study hall this period so I decided to come here." He raised his eyebrow, visibly confused. "What? What is it?"
"You decided to sit with me? Instead of Beck or well pretty much anyone else?", she expected the reaction but wasn't too sure of how to respond. "Well uh…I don't really know anyone else in here and Beck's being really annoying today. And so I thought 'why not sit with my old friend Robbie.'"
The eyebrow still didn't lower "You actually want to talk with me?" and Jade still wasn't sure how to respond so she decided to (for once) go with honesty. "Well, yeah. I mean I know we haven't really talked or anything in a few years and that kind of sucks so yeah, I do want to talk with you." And like that the eyebrows finally lowered as he nodded slightly and let out a shy smile.
"That'd be real nice, just uhm I don't really think I'll be great company. I mean I don't really know anything you'd like or…", she began chuckling a bit and pointed down at Rex. "Well you still need to fix this…whatever the hell it is so why don't you tell me about that." He nodded and went back to fixing up the dummy, all the while letting Jade know about the intricacies of puppet handling.
To be honest Jade was completely lost and disinterested in these intricacies but she was glad that by the time the bell rang indicating the end of the class period she was back on speaking terms with her old friend. 'I'd better be careful, next thing you know I'll be turning in homework and holding the door open for people. But probably not.'
The rest of Jade's day went on much the same, save for avoiding the inquisitive Beck in the hopes of dodging her unusually less negative attitude today. And when the final bell rang she made her way to her locker where Beck finally caught up to her. "Hey, what's up?"
When she saw him Jade knew she was caught because he had one of those grins, one of those grins that says 'I know something you don't want me to know'. "Nothing's up, see you tomorrow." But when she tried to walk passed him he stepped in her way, still grinning. She leant forward and pecked him on the lips. "There you go, can I pass now?"
"May I pass now you mean?" he continued smiling and Jade was getting increasingly annoyed rather than worried. "May I punch you if you don't move?" And the annoyance grew as he just laughed. "I finally know what's been going on with you today."
"Oh you do, do you now? Well kindly tell me so I can laugh, tell you you're wrong, and go along with my day unbothered by the delusions of my so called boyfriend." He crossed his arms and answered "You're being nice today. You didn't trip anyone today, you didn't steal my notes and turn them into paper airplanes, you didn't insult anyone during improv, you actually threw out your lunch instead of making me do it, and you talked to Robbie."
So he did know something she didn't want him to know but he didn't know everything she didn't want him to know and that was good enough. "So I was being less mean than usual, people underestimate how much energy it takes to be me. I was just having an off day." She began walking off as he followed quickly behind. "No Jade, I've seen you on an off day. You on an off day means you don't talk to anyone and your lunch ends up on someone's head, this is different. This is you being nice. Something happened to make you all nice today and while I'd love to think it were me I know it wasn't."
"Nothing 'made me nice' today because I'm not being nice, I'm being lazy. End of story, be gone." and with a wave of her hand Jade wished he disappeared but he just stepped in front of her with that same stupid grin. "Something did happen and I'm going to find out what. I'll see you tomorrow." He pecked her on the cheek and walked off, intent on getting to the bottom of his girlfriend's unusual mood.
Annoyed and worried Jade continued walking to one of the tutoring classrooms with her books in hand, knowing that tomorrow she'd have to convince Beck that there was nothing different about her. But when she walked into the room and saw Tori sitting there amongst the other student, biting her lip in concentration as she read over her homework she knew that was much easier said then done.
And when Tori finally sees her at the door and her face breaks out into a smile as she waves Jade over, she knows that her days of being just a little nicer are just beginning.