The next day at school, Jade looks around for Tori, but she can't seem to find her. It's frustrating, because Tori hasn't answered her text, either, and a part of her is…well, not worried, exactly. But concerned, maybe.

She somehow doesn't encounter Tori in the halls at all that day, and doesn't see her until they're both in Sikowitz's class in the middle of the day. But Tori is talking animatedly to Cat and Andre and doesn't so much as acknowledge her, even when Jade sits down behind her, kicks her chair, and props her feet up on it, attempting to force Tori to pay attention to her. Instead, Tori rolls her eyes, pushes Jade's feet off her chair and ignores her.

Jade fumes, a little, and spends the class glaring daggers at Tori, willing her to look at her.

Tori is out of the classroom so fast when the bell rings that Jade can't even grab her.

By lunchtime, Tori is the last to arrive at the table, and she sits one person away from Jade—not beside her, and angled so they can't really see each other. Jade can't even glare at her surreptitiously.

And in the middle of lunch, Tori takes a breath. "I have an announcement to make," she says, and Jade's stomach flips nervously. Tori isn't looking at anybody, and she speaks to the table, mostly, "It's kind of weird, but…" Jade's heart is hammering, "My whole family, including me, are…Canadian."

"What?!" Jade exclaims, unable to stop herself. Beside her, she realizes, Beck has relaxed significantly.

Tori looks around Andre to glare at her. "I didn't mean to keep it a secret," she says pointedly, "But I only recently found out."

"It never needs to be a secret," Beck tells her, smiling a little, though he is scrutinizing her a bit.

"Thank you, Beck!"

"But I thought you said you were born—" Cat starts.

"So, Andre," Tori interrupts, "How's that new song you're working on?"

"Oh!" Andre gamely picks up the topic, though Jade almost immediately tunes him out. She's frustrated.

Toward the end of the day, she finally catches Tori at her locker. She doesn't say anything, just grabs the collar of Tori's shirt and starts dragging her away.

"Hey!" Tori cries, though she doesn't struggle much as Jade pushes her into the janitor's closet and follows, shutting the door behind them. "What the hell? Are you trying to wazz me off?"

"Why did you lie today at lunch?" Jade asks pointedly.

"I don't want to talk to you," Tori folds her arms and looks away.

"What did I ever do to you?"

Tori doesn't answer, just purses her lips, but finally says, "Thanks for leaving me alone last night."

Jade sputters for a moment, "I…what?! I didn't have a choice. I couldn't stay or Beck would've gotten suspicious, and he's too good at reading me."

Tori glares, "Not then. After that."

"I…" Jade stares, then rubs her forehead, "At the back door?" As Tori nods stiffly, Jade grits out, "I thought you were saying goodbye to me!"

"What?!"

"When you kept turning and barking at me. I figured that was goodbye! I figured neither of us wanted to stand and stare at each other through a glass door all evening."

Tori exhales in frustration, but her shoulders have relaxed somewhat, "I was trying to go get something to hopefully unlock the back door," she explains dully.

"How was I supposed to know that?!" Jade demands.

Tori ignores her query and then reverts to their former topic. "I told them I was Canadian because I heard Beck telling you he was confused about my conversation with him. It was the only thing I could think of to put him at ease so he'll think I don't really know his secret, and so that I can preserve my own secrets."

Jade groans, "I don't know how I'm ever going to be able to convince him that you're—wait, secrets plural? What else are you hiding?"

Tori rolls her eyes and pushes past Jade. "Goodbye."

Feeling oddly wounded, Jade lets her.

.

In spite of Jade's explanation for leaving that night, Tori still seems upset with her, and remains a bit distant. It frustrates Jade a little, because she's still fascinated with the whole Tori being a werewolf thing, but she doesn't have a lot of opportunity to talk about it. She elects not to text Tori continuous questions about it, because she doesn't want to appear to miss her.

And admittedly, she's also wondering what other secrets Tori might be hiding. Does it entirely make sense that Tori would assume Beck was a werewolf? It seems insane, to be honest. Jade wonders if Tori was trying to tell Beck she was gay, and it just got confusing.

It occurs to her in the middle of the week that Tori's best friend might be a source of untapped knowledge.

She corners Andre at his locker one morning. "Oh. Hey, Jade," he greets warily, after flinching when he realizes she's standing right behind him.

"What can you tell me about Tori's personal life?"

"Um…what?" To his credit, Andre appears affronted by the question.

"You know. Tori's inner life."

"Why are you asking me this?"

"Because I want to know."

Andre nods uncertainly, as if this answer is in any way an acceptable one. "I don't know any more than you do," he tells her.

"I find that hard to believe." Jade circles him, "You're her best friend. Surely she shares more with you than with anyone else."

"Well, um, yeah, that may be true, but she's Tori, she doesn't have a lot of secrets…"

"So she has some?"

"Well, um, NO!" Andre finds a break in Jade's circling and bolts. Jade goes to chase him, but stops after a few steps. It isn't worth it. Not yet.

For two days, Jade leans on Andre. Subtly, sometimes, when they're with their friends and she reminds him that he's a very knowledgeable person whenever he says anything factually true. This seems to make him sweat. She also texts him occasionally, letting him know that she knows he must know something, and she would hate for the Diddly-Bops video to have a resurgence in popularity (not that she'd sabotage herself like that, but it's a good threat).

Finally, on Friday, she manages to pull Andre into the janitor's closet, where he breaks.

"Alright! Alright!" he cries intensely, then grabs her shoulders, "But you can't tell anyone I told you this!"

She bats his hands off her immediately, "Don't touch me and you have a deal."

"Okay," he backs up and glances nervously at the toilet paper shelf. Jade crosses her arms and waits. He runs his hand anxiously through his hair and starts quietly, "Now, I don't know anything about this for certain, but…there are a few weird things that have made me wonder."

"About what, specifically?"

"Let me finish!" Andre sounds desperate, so Jade just holds up her hands in surrender. "So, I mean, she's Tori, she's my best friend, and that's cool and everything. And I've just never really asked her about this, but it's always kinda stuck with me." He takes a deep breath. "It happened last year when I got a crush on you."

Jade unsuccessfully stifles a laugh, "What? You had a crush on me?"

"I'm not proud of it," Andre mutters.

Jade is instantly offended, "Why not?" she asks icily.

"Whoa, hey, it's not because you're not like…a great girl. But you were seeing Beck at the time, and I…like I said. Not proud of it."

She subsides a little, "I get it."

"So, I told Tori about it. I was freaking out. And she kept telling me I can't have a crush on you, and the reasons why. Lots of well thought-out reasons. And I came over the next day, and she was all dressed up as you and acting just like you, in an attempt to make me get over my crush."

Jade listens with her eyebrow steadily climbing higher. "That is…weird."

Andre nods, "I know. She even had a wig for you."

"Okay, what is up with her wig collection?"

"I wish I knew. I've never asked."

"Okay, so…she has a me costume."

Andre nods, "Yeah. And she helped me sing the song I wrote for you."

"Wait, you wrote me a song?"

Andre looks away, his anxiety rising, "It was the only way I could purge my feelings for you! And she sang it right along with me. And…I dunno. She sings all my songs with me, even though they're for girls, but this time…it felt different somehow."

"What are you saying?" Jade has an uneasy feeling growing in her chest.

Andre looks over Jade's shoulder at the window to the closet, then pitches his voice even lower. "What I'm saying is…my thoughts the whole time? Tori has reasons of her own for all these things. Reasons to think over why having a crush on you was wrong. Reasons for having a way to dress up as you. Reasons for singing that song." He wrings his hands, "It's just a hunch, but…I haven't been able to shake the idea that Tori has feelings for you."

Jade can't explain the flutter of anxiety she feels. She stares at Andre for a long moment. He looks scared and earnest.

Finally, she says, "That's it? All you have is a hunch that Tori might…like me?"

Andre's face falls, "I've just told you the biggest secret I have. I'm sorry I don't have any more dirt on my best friend," he tells her angrily.

Jade glares at him, and he looks in terror toward the toilet paper again. Finally, she huffs, "Whatever. Okay," and storms out of the janitor's closet, ignoring his relieved sigh.

.

If there's distance between the two girls the next week, it's because of Jade. Tori seems to have forgiven her for abandoning her on her last wolf night, and in fact texted her over the weekend to see what she was up to. Jade ignored the text entirely, and when they saw each other in school, Tori looked unmistakably hurt.

Jade felt a surge of sadistic pleasure overriding her guilt.

She can't stop thinking about what Andre told her and her conflicting feelings about the whole thing. She spends most evenings at Beck's or at home working on her latest project, because at least it gets her mind off things. Beck has definitely noticed that Jade is ignoring Tori at school, but he, uncharacteristically, doesn't say anything to Jade about it. He just hangs out with her.

It's when they hang out on Friday that Jade finally tries to process what Andre told her. "Beck," she asks tentatively, "How did you, you know…know?"

Beck glances at her, waits a few moments to see if she'll elaborate, then asks, "How did I know that I'm gay?"

"Yeah," Jade nods.

Beck shrugs, "I just…knew. It's hard to explain, but once I allowed myself to really think about my feelings, they became clear. It was a little hard, especially since they're not feelings I really wanted. I don't think anyone really wants them."

"Was there a specific person that you were into?"

Beck reaches over to pause the movie, "Jade…is this about Tori?"

Jade's jaw tightens, "What? No. Why would you ask that?"

"Because I've seen the way you were with her this week. You've been aggressive to Tori and…semi-friendly to Tori , but you've really never flat-out ignored her before. What happened between you?"

"Nothing happened," Jade says, which is technically true, "Do you just not want to answer my question?"

Beck regards her impassively for a few moments before saying quietly, "Robbie."

"Robbie? Oh, come on, no way. You can't go from me to Robbie. It's shameful!"

Beck shrugs, "I'm just saying that's who I've had feelings for. I mean, I don't have a lot of hopes that he's also interested in men, but…"

"Come on," Jade scoffs, "He wears leather pants and male makeup."

"Not all stereotypes are true. You wear Doc Martens and flannel."

"What are you implying?" Jade asks dangerously.

"I'm just saying, as an example, if Robbie is queer for what he wears, you could be, too." Jade mutters that everyone wears these things, but Beck continues gamely on, "Besides, even if he did like men, I think he's too in love with Cat to really consider me seriously." Beck shrugs, "And it's okay. I don't need to date right now."

Jade sighs, "Well, good. Because like I said. You can't downgrade from me to Robbie."

Beck chuckles a little, then turns serious. "So this isn't about Tori at all?"

Jade finds she can't deflect the question easily, "Indirectly. Someone…said something that made me think she might have feelings for me. I'm just wondering if it could be true."

"Could be," Beck said, "You know, I get that she was trying to backtrack on outing herself to me, and maybe she really did out herself by mistake, but when she told me? I wasn't all that surprised."

"Really?"

"Maybe it's gaydar," he says, then looks at her again. "But I wonder why this interests you so much."

"I doesn't," Jade says flatly, reaching around him to restart the movie. It's then that she realizes that it wasn't actually uncharacteristic of Beck not to call her on her treatment of Tori. It's just evidence of how well he knows her; he knew she would bring it up herself.

She considers ignoring him for a week.

.

On Monday, Tori isn't quite sure how to react when Jade approaches her at her locker.

So she doesn't say anything or acknowledge her in any way, until Jade finally says, "Hey."

Tori turns and raises an eyebrow. "Hey? That's all you have to say?"

Jade folds her arms, "What else should I say?"

Tori sighs, "I guess it was too much to hope for an apology."

"Sorry," Jade grits out, looking away. "I was dealing with some stuff."

Tori's anger evaporates, "Why didn't you say so? I wouldn't have taken it so personally."

Jade shrugs and doesn't answer. It's clear she doesn't want to talk about it.

"So you weren't like…freaked out by me?" Tori glances around to make sure no one's really paying attention.

"No."

"Good. Okay. Good."

There's another awkward pause, and then Jade just walks away. Tori lets her. Her mood has lifted, and she isn't keen to push what is clearly an awkward interaction for them both.

It's not like it was a bad thing to spend the past week hanging out with Andre and Cat more than Jade. But she'd missed spending time with Jade. It was stupid, she thought, because they'd really barely hung out one on one. But Tori had come to really enjoy her company. Even if Jade did have the tendency to treat her like a household pet…she finds she doesn't mind it, all that much.

She's glad it appears that Jade isn't angry with her. She'd been terrified that Jade had changed her mind and become disturbed by the fact that she's a werewolf. She elects to let Jade decide when they might spend time together again. She doesn't think she could stand having another text go unanswered.

But as the week goes on and Jade seems normal enough in school, but they still haven't hung out together, Tori starts to wonder. Maybe she's making a bigger deal out of this than she should. Maybe she's become too invested in the idea of her and Jade getting close.

Maybe Jade is only interested in her when she's a werewolf, and it's not about Tori at all, it's about Jade's fascination with the bizarre.

Maybe that's why Jade hasn't wanted to hang out for the past two weeks.

.

Jade doesn't quite realize that she's losing track of time until she tries to book the black box theater through Sikowitz. She's been working hard on her performance piece the past two weeks, because it's been a good distraction from thinking about…everything else in her life. Sikowitz has an opening in two weeks. Jade tries to figure out if she can have everything ready by then, and decides she'll just have to make it work.

She's been working with Cat on the project. It seems to be turning into a sort of short play that's a modern retelling of Faustus, with a woman striking a deal with the devil in exchange for bearing the devil's child. Cat thinks the play is very weird. Jade had wanted to play the devil herself, but as he has fewer lines, she ends up making Cat play him, and Jade plays the woman.

She's had to scrap a few ideas, unfortunately, including the planned orgy scene. But she thinks she can get away with it by projecting some sensual images onto a screen during a scene change to convey the idea.

Every day as school ends, she finds herself either reminding Cat that they're getting together in the evening, or Cat asks her when they're meeting. Toward the end of the week, they're staying late at school to start working with some of the sets that Sinjin and Burf have been working on. They've made a remarkable amount of progress in a few days. Jade supposes that's one perk of having people be so afraid of her; they'll do what she says, and quickly.

The piece is coming together slowly. The woman Jade plays is in despair; she has no one to love. So she eventually calls upon the devil to bring her love. The devil agrees to do so in exchange for her firstborn, the devil impregnates her through a magic ritual. The play ends with the devil leaving with the baby and telling the woman that it's the only creature that could ever love her unconditionally, and so she has ruined her chances of finding love. The woman, in despair, becomes a cat. Jade still has to put together the sensual images to represent the orgy that summons the devil, but with Cat and her mostly memorizing their lines, it is coming together.

After a scene in which Sinjin has absolutely ruined the lighting, Jade yells at him and then storms off to the bathroom to cool off. When she walks back out, Tori is standing there.

"Oh. Hey," she says, a little surprised.

"Hey," Tori answers dully.

"How did you know I was here?"

Tori shrugs, "I could hear you."

"Where were you?" Jade asks, confused.

"The student lounge. Working on a new song with Andre. His grandma was driving him nuts, so we stayed here."

"And…you could hear me? From there?"

Tori points to her ears, "They're good," she explains. She looks away, a little sheepishly. "I could smell you, too."

Jade tries not to look affronted, even though it's a little strange. "Oh."

Tori regards her for a long while. "So, what is Cat? A vampire?"

"What?" Jade asks, completely thrown off.

"I figured she must be something supernatural, the way you've suddenly become fascinated with her."

Jade stares at her for a long moment, "Are you…jealous?" she asks incredulously.

"No," Tori grumbles unconvincingly.

Jade sighs. This is why she is sometimes not convinced that friends are worth the trouble. "I'm spending a lot of time with Cat because we're working on a project together. I would like to spend more time with you, but only if you stop being a baby about everything."

Tori's face brightens a little. "You do?"

"Yeah. Sure." Faced with Tori, Jade concedes that she actually has kind of missed her these past few weeks.

"How about this weekend?" Tori asks.

"I…can't," Jade answers, and Tori immediately appears crestfallen. "I still have a lot of work to get through with Cat."

"It's okay," Tori tries to brush it off sullenly.

"Wait," Jade says, "Maybe I could find some time Sunday. Lunch? I'll take you to Nozu."

"Yeah?" Tori asks, her face brightening.

"Sure," Jade replies, wondering if she can really spare the time. But something about Tori looking so sad really got to her.

"Okay," Tori answers, then glances down the hall. "I'd better get back. It sounds like Andre is about to come looking for me."

Jade glances down the hall, but of course, she can't hear anything. "Me, too. I've left Cat alone with Sinjin and Burf. Nothing good can come of that."

Tori chuckles and begins to stride away. "Sunday?" she calls, as if checking that it's real.

"Don't act so excited, or I'll cancel just to make you sad," Jade calls back snidely.

Tori grins.