A/N: Here! I did it! ={) Sorry, I'm not very good at updating, am I? I hope this chapter makes up for it!
I can't make any promises on when the next one will be up. I keep misplacing the notes I've made, and I really need them to write.

Enjoy!

Chapter 4

Tori's POV.

Okay, so let's go over this situation again. I'm sat in my room, alone with Jade. My sister is with Beck downstairs, and, oh, we're all supposed to be practicing stage kissing. Yeah, sometimes I wonder if joining Hollywood Arts was a good idea.

"Jeez, Vega! Are you just going to sit there gawping all night or are we going to get some work done!"

Jade's voice made me snapped me back to reality, that, or the fact she kicked the edge of my bed, very near to where I was sat. The dark haired girl sat in my desk chair, an eyebrow raised in question as she glared intently at me.

"Er, right."

Jade groaned and slammed her head against my desk in annoyance, making me jump. She was visibly just as annoyed with the arrangement as I was; it was just like the stage fighting all over again, only worse. I couldn't help but watch Jade as she picked her head back up off my desk, the way she swept her long hair impatiently out of her eyes, still scowling, but it maybe more from the blow to the forehead she had just given herself.

"Vega! For chiz sake!"

I'd been staring again. What was wrong with me! Maybe it was just the nerves or something. I don't know. All I knew for sure was that the pen Jade threw at me to get my attention had really hurt when it struck me in the eye.

"OW!" I yelled, covering my streaming eye with my hand while glaring at the pale girl with my good eye.

"Should've been paying attention" Jade shrugged, reaching over to pick up the offending pen and twirl it around in her fingers.

"All right, you now have my undivided attention, you highness." I mocked. That really hurt and right now I was in no mood to put up with Jade and her random attacks on me. "Have you thought of anything?"

"As a matter of fact, I have." The goth girl grinned, thrusting a notepad into my lap, tapping at the page with my pen as she pointed out her ideas. "You see, I thought we could do something high school related. You be the nerdy girl and I'll be the popular one-"

"Why do I have to be the nerd!"

"Just shh, Vega." Jade glared. She pinched the bridge of her nose and closed her eyes for a second before continuing. "Look. You be the nerd, I'll be the popular girl, right? And the story is that they've been best friends since they were little kids, but when they got into high school, they started to drift apart a bit. The popular girl went off and made a bunch of new friends, getting into all of the chiz that little teeny bopper girls like, while the nerdy girl went off and did whatever nerdy kids do, like, I dunno, read books or play with puppets or something."

I rolled my eyes at the blatant dig at Robbie, almost opening my mouth to say something, but Jade quickly spoke over the top.

"Yeah, yeah, defend your little boyfriend later."

"He's not my boyfriend!" I said quickly, in a little more disgust than I was meant to, which seemed to amuse Jade greatly.

"Whatever. Can I continue?" I nod. "Good. So, they've been friends for years, drifted apart, blah, blah, blah. But, they'd been meeting up every so often, in secret because the popular girl doesn't want all the other popular morons to know that she's friends with a dork. Basically, our play starts when the nerdy girl comes up to confront the popular one about this, saying she's sick of being this girls dirty little secret and says that if she really wants to be friends, then she has to prove it."

Right now I was stunned by how much work Jade had already put into this assignment, even in the few short hours we'd had to work on it. I just nodded in the right places, allowing the girl to tell me all of her ideas.

"Anyway, this popular girl has a secret, you see." She smirked at this. "She secretly fancies the pants off of this little nerd, but she's been too afraid to admit it, partly because she doesn't want to ruin this reputation she's built up for herself, but also because she's scared she'll ruin the friendship she has with the girl. But when she's faced with the ultimatum, she spills her secret and bam! They kiss."

Jade sank back into the desk chair looking pretty pleased with herself. "Well?"

"Sounds great!" I admitted. It really did sound good, and was much better than anything I had come up with, which was, well, nothing. "Hey! Maybe I could be Louise Nordoff again!" I chuckled.

"No way!" Jade shot down quickly.

"Why not!"

"'Cause it's bad enough I have to kiss you. There's no way I'm doing it if you're wearing that stupid disguise."

"Well." I fake offence, but only earn an eye roll from Jade. "Fine then. Shall we just work on a script for now?"

"Go for it." The pale girl said without much enthusiasm. She dropped herself onto the floor with her notebook in hand and looked up at me to do the same so we sat opposite each other on my rug, the notebook between us and a pen each.

"So…" I said slowly, unsure of what to write.

"Why don't we improvise?" Jade suggested, scrawling the title 'Script Ideas' across the top of the paper. "We'll just play out the scene now and jot down anything we think is good."

"Sounds like a plan!" I grin, clapping my hands together.

XXX

"Look, Hannah! I'm sick and tired of being your dirty little secret! If you really want to be my friend, then prove it!"

It was about an hour after Jade had told me all about her ideas from the performance and the two of us we both in full swing of an improv session. I, the nerdy girl called Mary, was up on my feet, pacing around my room as I worked the frustration my character would feel at the situation. Jade, the popular Hannah, was also on her feet, darting back and forth from where her character stood in the middle of the room to the notebook on the desk, which she was using to capture any good lines or ideas the two of us came up with. So far we'd filled a decent couple of pages with all sorts of notes from words to costume ideas. I hated to admit it, but I was having a lot of fun.

"I'm sorry, Mary. I truly am." 'Hannah' whispered once Jade had come back from writing my line down. "It's not that I don't want to be friends with you. I just- I want more than that."

The pale girl paused, running over to the desk and scribbling down what she had just said.

"Mary looks at Hannah in shock" She muttered as she wrote. "Hannah leans forward and takes a hold of both of Mary's hands, pulling the girl closer into a soft, meaningful kiss."

Jade turned around to face me again, leaning back against the desk with a smile and I gulp. I'd almost forgotten about the kiss.

"Maybe we'll save that bit 'til later" I laugh nervously.

"Maybe." Jade said, pushed herself from the table and make her way towards me, taking both of my hands in hers. "Or we could just get it over and done with."

Before I could react, Jade had stepped expertly back into character, squeezing my fingers lightly as she looked sincerely into my eyes.

"I want more than that." She whispered, leaning in closer. "I love you, Mary."

Jade went to close the gap between us. I could feel her warm breath on my face; her lips were so close I could almost taste them. And I panic.

"Wait!"

"What!" Jade yelled, very much like she had done when I called 'Butternut' before performing our stage fight. She dropped my hands to glare at me, waiting for an answer.

"I- I just-" I couldn't explain why I suddenly felt so uncomfortable. I mean, actors stage kiss other actors all the time, don't they? Heck, I'd even stage kissed Beck in my first week of being at Hollywood Arts. So why was I finding this so difficult to deal with?

"It feels weird." I concluded. Jade raised an eyebrow at me and folded her arms across her chest, looking annoyed. "I mean, because Beck and Trina are just downstairs. You know, your boyfriend and my sister. It feels weird to be practicing stage… kissing while they're in the same house."

I trail off from my terrible excuse, but it was the only real reason I could currently think of for my sudden panic. Jade just rolled her eyes. She then stormed forward, grabbed the notebook and shoved it roughly into her bag before she wrapped her fingers around my wrist, like she would whenever she convinced me to talk to her in the janitors closet, and dragged me out of my bedroom, back downstairs to where Beck and Trina were busy working out ideas for their own play.

"Hey!" Jade called as pulled me in front of the two of them. "We're going to my place. Vega here-" She jabbed her thumb unnecessarily in my direction. "- is wussing out on me in the middle of rehearsal."

"Wussing out on you?" Trina repeated, looking from me to Jade in confusion.

"Yeah. She's just being a wimp, so I thought it'd be easier for the both of us if we just went over to mine, then she wouldn't be so damn uncomfortable."

I felt a little confused myself, now. Why was this such a big deal to Jade that she was willing to take me to her house just to make me feel more comfortable. Not to mention leaving her boyfriend alone in the house with my sister. She must have some twisted reason behind it, this was Jade, after all.

"Okay, babe." Beck smiled, standing up to clap me on the back in a very boy-like style of comfort then walking over to peck Jade on the cheek. "Just be good. I think Sikowitz would like Tori to be in one piece when you do your performance. Kidding!" He added quickly. He must've spotted the horrified look that appeared on my face at his words.

"I sure hope you are." I muttered, catching sight of the smirk Jade was wearing.

"Don't worry, I'll take good care of you, Vega." She said, tugging at the wrist she was still holding as she pulled me towards the door. "And I'll bring you back in one piece. See you later, Beck. Other Vega."

Jade saluted to her boyfriend and my sister as we left, I just grimaced at them, half hoping that one of them would pull me back and save me for whatever nightmare Jade was bound to put me through.