Jade sent Beck a text as soon as she got into her house, "I think rehearsal went pretty well."

She sent him one right after dinner and before her shower, "Hey."

She sent him another one right before bed, "I guess you're busy... goodnight."

Waking up the next morning, she sent him another one, "Morning."

Nothing was ever sent back. For the past three days, they had been texting nonstop, and finally being ignored gave Jade a dark feeling in her stomach.

Had she been too annoying? Had she said something that bothered him? Was Saturday only good on her part? Did someone say something to him about her? Whatever it was, it had to be a lie. She hasn't attended the school long enough to even have a bad reputation, unless her attitude has already spread, which she doubted with her entire heart. She has yet to curse out a teacher, or get into a fight. She was being pretty well behaved, in her own opinion.

Her dad was driving her to school today, which always seemed to catch Jade by surprise. Mr. West was always a workaholic, and taking her to school in the morning, when his business was booming, made her nervous. That must mean there was something they had to talk about.

"Jade, I've got something to tell you," he stated as they sat at a red light. His gray eyes were facing straight, and Jade could see the wrinkles on his face forming from the stress his job was putting on him. He was only thirty two, yet his face had aged as if he were forty.

"Yeah?" she said, pulling out her headphone and pausing her music.

"You know how your play is in just a week and a half... right?"

The light switched to green.

"I'm fully aware of when my play is, dad," she said, showing her annoyance. Her father had a masterful way of beating around the bush.

"Well, anyway," he said in a playful tone, "There's going to be a huge party at The Dome that night... it's Kourtney Kardashian's birthday, and we're already going to be short on staff, and every one of the waiters is going to be flipping out because it's the first major celebrity function at The Dome. The bottom point is... I don't think I'm going to be able to make it to your play."

Jade couldn't get an emotion through her whole body before it changed, "Oh... okay."

Thankfully, as she said that they pulled into the front of Hollywood Arts. Her door opened and closed as her father was telling her a lame apology. She didn't care. This was the first time they had ever missed a show. They didn't even miss the one she did in the second grade about the water cycle, and now they were missing the most important play of her high school career.

Her father never really supported her interest in theatrics, but her mother always did. He still tended to show up though, and end up liking what he saw after he left. Now he wasn't even making an effort to go, and it really did disappoint Jade.

But, she wasn't going to think about this the rest of the day. The way she acted when she was in a bad mood wasn't very good, and could be slightly dangerous to everyone around her.

She plastered her signature smirk onto her flawless face and entered the school with about twenty minutes to spare before the bell sounded.

Her combat boots walked down the hallway, hiding the end of her ripped up leggings. She stopped off at her still blank locker, deciding if she wanted to get started on her design. The supplies were all in her bag, it was only going to take a little bit of time.

She grabbed the tape and black spray paint out of her messenger bag and outlined her locker, making sure that if she went too far out of the lines, she wouldn't have messed up the locker next to hers. She started to shake the bottle, making that loud clicking noise she hated.

Some students looked at her funny for a second, but realized the true purpose of the paint. She started attacking the locker with a base coat of the black. Once that had successfully dried, she took out a silver, Sharpie paint marker, pressing that against the base and drawing her heart out...

The finished product: a girl with her head down, her hair covering her face, held onto the middle of the locker. She was standing on a pathway that came from the told of the locker down to the bottom. Her arms were strung out to the side, and you could see the chains and marks along them. Water colors of purple, green, blue and red, trailed down the path, spreading a little color against the black. She even decorated the lining of her locker with scissors.

Jade took a step back to admire the work she had put into the locker, when she collided with someone, yet again. Her head shot around to look at the person, and it just so happened to be the same person as before.

"Are you making this a habit?" Beck asked, moving around her and kneeling to his locker.

"Oh, so now you talk to me?" Jade didn't mean to come right out and say it, but she had a problem with biting her tongue half of the time.

"No. I said a sentence to you, and I planned on that being it." he shoved his backpack into his locker as Jade began to glare at him, "I can feel that, you know."

"Good. I'm glad. Now, what the fuck did I do? I don't remember doing anything wrong, so would you like to enlighten me a bit?" Jade said, taking a defensive stance with hip jutted out to the side a little and her arms crossed over her chest.

Beck slammed his locker closed, grabbing a binder off the floor and tucking it under his arm. His eyes held anger, and a little bit of hurt from what she could tell. Now she was really concerned. What could she have done to him to do this already? She snapped back to reality before she lost her attitude.

"Why don't you go ask Dante?" He spit at her.

Not even waiting for her to answer, he walked away to class, meeting up with Jessica in the process.

She stared at him in confusion. What was he talking about? Fortunately, Andre walked up to Jade before she could follow Beck, "See what happens when you don't tell people things?"

"Great, now what the hell are you going on about?" Jade said rolling her eyes. Her left hand went up and rubbed her temple.

"He's mad at you," Andre said.

He knew! Jade turned on Andre and pushed him up against the locker, holding his shirt within her fist, getting in his face, "What do you know, Harris?"

"Woah, woah, woah, violent Jade. I'm not liking this," her fist got tighter and her gaze became more demanding, "Fine! He saw you coming out of the dressing room yesterday with Dante. Then Dante said something to him that basically said you were dating him."

"Dating who?" she said, appalled. Dante was gross, there was no way she would have ever stooped to that level. Especially not when her reputation was actually growing at this school as a good person, manipulative and mean, but good.

"Dante," Andre said wincing a little. Her fist was grabbing at his collar, making it slightly harder to breathe than it was before.

Finally, her grip let go completely. She stood there, looking at Andre with anger, "Are you kidding me? Does he really think I'd stoop that fucking low?"

"I think he just saw what he saw, and after Dante decided to tell Beck that you both were dating, it was all he needed for his decision to be made," Andre explained.

Jade let out a strong breath, glaring at everyone around her. She was about to go on a rampage that his school has never seen.

"Jade...?" Andre said cautiously. He hasn't been around Jade long enough to have ever seen this side of her. She had the ability to become a raging, violent, horrible, bitch, and Dante was about to feel her wrath.

He had no choice but to follow her as she went up the center stairs of the main hallway. She was looking left and right, searching high and low for the man who she was "dating." Some smarter people moved out of her way, looking at her with fear. The dumb ones would stand in her way, waiting for her to move so they wouldn't collide. Too bad she didn't move.

She pushed through person after person, with Andre following close behind, apologizing to the people he thought deserved one. She was searching hard and long for this kid, ending up at the Asphalt Cafe.

Beck was sitting at one of the tables, with his girlfriend next to him, and her friends surrounding them. Normally, Beck kept his distance from the annoying girls, hanging around Robbie and Cat in the morning, but he had been so pissed off at Jade, all he wanted to do was be away from his friends. Avoiding their questions and stares at his bad mood. He knew Jessica wouldn't ask, and it was a comfort he didn't know he liked until now.

That's when he looked straight at an angry Jade walking towards her new boyfriend. He rolled his eyes and turned his attention back to the table.

Andre saw everything Beck did. He went up to the sitting boy, grabbed his shoulder, and pulled him away from the table, "I think you want to see this, man."

"Why?" Beck asked, watching Jade march her way up to Dante and his cocky friends.

They could hear everything from where they were, only a few feet away.

"What's up, babe?" Dante said with a smirk as he high-fived a friend.

Jade bit her bottom lip, suppressing an 'you've got to be kidding me' smile that was shifting into her muscles, "Babe?"

"Yeah, baby," he said, moving closer to her, giving her a pleading look, as if asking her to play along because of his reputation.

Fuck that, "have you ever tasted pure silver?"

"Why would you ask me-"

That was all he could get out before Jade's hand, clad in two different silver rings, indented itself in his mouth, making the boy fall back onto the rest of the table. His friends all stood there speechless. Dante's mouth was dripping blood from the inside, and the outside. Her punch packed quite a bit of thrust behind it.

"Don't you ever think you can get away with telling people we're dating. Just because we're together in that stupid play, doesn't mean I would ever date someone that's a complete douche bag, like you, get it? Got it? Good. Have a nice trip to the nurse," she stated, making his friends flinch with every motion it took for her to turn and leave.

She was still annoyed, and she walked straight up to Beck, "you should have just asked me if you were that damn curious. Next time, don't jump to stupid conclusions."

And with that, she was off to class.

Beck stood there in awe. He couldn't believe she just punched him in the face... he couldn't believe he didn't ask her first. This was one of the dumbest things he could have done. He felt every word that passed by Jade's lips, and they all felt of hate.

"Did I just fuck everything up with her?" Beck asked as he watched Dante regain his composure.

"I don't know, man. She's pretty pissed," Andre had to speak over the bell.

"God damn it," Beck said, grabbing his binder off the table. He motioned for Andre to come with him to their first period. In the front of his mind, he had to play it cool. In the back of his mind, he had to find Jade and talk to her.

"Yeah. Just leave me here like this," Jessica said in her best attempt at an attitude. Her friends all laughed at her when Beck didn't even look back when she yelled. She huffed and headed towards her own class...

Beck texted Jade during class, because she was no where to be found, "where are you?"

He texted her at lunch, "I'm worried. Where are you?"

He tried again after school, "Jade? Seriously... I'm about to come to your house."

That was the last try. Nothing ever came back form her, not even when he tried calling her. Luckily, there wasn't a rehearsal after school that day. Actually, Beck couldn't figure out if it was lucky or not. She wouldn't have had a choice but to show up to that if she wanted to keep her part.

He needed to find her. The pit of his stomach was burning him. Something was going on with Jade right now...

It took him almost ten minutes on the city bus to finally get to Jade's street. He noticed that there wasn't a car in the driveway, so he thought it was pretty safe for him to be there. Beck knew that Jade was close with her mom, and somewhat close with her father, and if she told either of them what happened at school, he probably wouldn't be able to see her and check up on her.

He walked up to the front of her house, giving himself a moment to back out if he needed to, but pressing the doorbell anyway. After another minute, he pressed it twice and knocked. Then he heard the sound of her coming down the steps.

She opened the door quickly, then saw who it was.

Before she could slam the door in his face, he put his boot in the doorway, "Jade, please..."

"Please, what?" She asked, looking down at his shoe.

"Let me in so we can talk... Why'd you ditch school?"

"Because I had things to do..."

"What things?"

"Things I can't do in school."

"Jade, just let me in..." he was begging her now. She couldn't keep saying no to him. The way he sounded actually made her heart twitch a little, he sounded sad and actually worried about her.

She sighed and walked away from the door, trudging her way up the stairs. Beck closed the door and followed her. He noticed that she was walking faster than normal, so he made it a point to catch up with her, just in case something in her room was about to be hidden.

He was right, "Can you give me a minute before you come in?"

"Why? What're you hiding?"

"Do you really want to know?" she asked staring him dead in the eye.

"That's why I asked," he said, raising an eyebrow at her.

"Fine. I was going in there to clean up something I can't do in school, and in case you're that dense, I need to put away the pot I was just about to smoke," Jade said, "Now, would you like to come in now or let me clean?"

"I'll come in now," he said, pushing his way through her door without her permission.

She watched him go straight to her bed, and grab whatever he could of the pot. Jade bit the bottom of her lip and looked away from Beck, more ashamed than she would have been if her mother or father had caught her with the stuff.

"What the fuck are you doing with this?" Beck asked, honestly mad at her. How could she do this stuff? It was horrible. He never agreed with drugs, not after his older brother became the person he is today because of them. All the addictions, one leading to the other, everything his brother put his family through.

Jade didn't answer. He took the drugs in his hand and threw it into her trash can next to her nightstand.

"Do you seriously want me to keep asking you, Jade? This stuff is no good. I've seen what it can do, and I don't want to see what it can do to you. Jade, say something... Jaden Leigh, talk to me."

"I can't believe I told you my full fucking name," Jade muttered, digging her nails into her forearm. She held on tight and was sure she was going to draw blood if she kept the pressure going.

"Why are you doing this to yourself?"

"Because..." Jade said, closing her eyes.

"Because why, Jade?"

"Because it's the last time I have from Calabasas. The last thing I have from my friends. This is what we did all the time. Smoke a bowl, go out. Smoke a bowl, go to school. Smoke a bowl, take some coke or E... it's the last thing that makes me think of my friends and I'm sorry if it calms me down a little." She didn't know talking about it would make her this emotional. Jade West never cried. She could have found out she had rabies and it wouldn't cause her to cry, yet here she was, tears falling down her face.

Jadewas attached to the stuff, but when she didn't have it around her, it cut her back to every other day, to three times every week, and now two times every week, but if she didn't get her fix, she had psychological withdraws. Weed wasn't addictive to the body, but it was addictive to the mind when you became dependent on it, especially when she was using it to be closer to the friends who weren't around her anymore.

Beck moved over and took the crying girl in his arms, holding her against his chest, and patting her hair, "I'm going to help you. I'm so sorry, Jade..."

AN: I know that the weed thing is a little hard to believe, but every other drug seems too AU for Jade to use constantly. The drugs are going to be playing a huge part in the upcoming chapters during the After portion. Everything I put in here will tie into another part, so pay attention!

!Should I make the After section an entierly different story?

NEXT CHAPTER: The Wedding Singer. They finally have a preformance ready to go. Will Beck and Jade get caught up in their characters and really make their feelings come out? Or will Jade have to deal with the obnoxious Jessica and have her push Jade over the edge? Find out in the next Chapter!

(Just so you know, I do NOT have the script, so I'm basing it off of what I already know from the play, giving it a little bit of background action behind the curtians)

Because I WILL BE SWITCHING BETWEEN THE NAMES:
Robbie Hart: Beck.
Julia: Jade
Holly: Cat
Sammy: Andre
George: Robbie
Grandma: Sinjin
Linda: Jessica
Glen: Dante.

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