Hey look...I was able to update in less than a week...yay! I make no promises for the next chapter, but hopefully this one is enough to tide you guys over until I can get chapter 6 out.

To those of you who are still enjoying this story-thanks a bunch! I'm having a blast writing it, and it makes me really happy every time I see that at least one person has viewed/visited my story.

SHOUT OUT TIME! Domo arigato (not to Mr. Roboto...lol) to: xFabinao and Dawnmist of RiverClan. :D

Quick note, this chapter does contain another flashback (told you I would warn you first). I thought about leaving it out, but then the chapter was kinda short and I felt more needed to be added. It's not essential to the story, so if you want to skip it you won't lose anything. I just thought it'd be a cute scene and wanted to add it for my entertainment. So if you like it, great, but if not, well then you probably should've skipped over it...lol. You can always let me know if there's anything you would like me to add into the story, and I'll try to work it in for the future. If you don't want to leave it in a review, feel free to PM me :)

Time for the appetizer: I did not receive anything in the mail stating otherwise, so as of today, I still don't own either The Proposal or Victorious

Aaaaaaand now for the main course...

CHAPTER 5

Beck had been prepared for Jade's tirade as soon as they left the government building, however he was shocked when she simply ignored him, strode determinedly to her car, and proceeded to drive who knows where. Beck shook his head in resignation because he knew it was inevitable that he would be on the receiving end of her wrath. The only thing he wondered was if he would be murdered quickly, or if she would rip him apart limb by limb. He just hoped for now that she went someplace where she could release most of her frustration without inflicting damage to anyone else. He heaved a sigh as he got into his car, and decided to drive home so he could pack for his trip to Canada. He, or rather they, were supposed to fly out at 9 in the morning. Beck wondered if Jade would try to contact him sometime today because he knew for a fact that he never told Jade of their flight time.

At first Jade didn't know where she was going when she left. She simply drove around town perpetually lost in thought. Despite what Beck believed, she really wasn't all that mad. Sure she hated Canada, and would rather stab herself in the eye with her scissors before ever stepping foot in the country. On the flip side though, she was also a reasonable, intelligent woman, and knew she would have to pull off the performance of a lifetime this weekend in front of Beck's family if she wanted to keep Mr. Amberson's approval.

She had been driving around aimlessly for about 20 minutes when out of nowhere it dawned on her that she had absolutely no idea what time their flight was scheduled to leave tomorrow, but she did know it was going to be tomorrow because she remembered Beck telling her a couple weeks ago that he needed Friday of this week off for his grandma's birthday celebration. At the time she had begrudgingly let him have the day, but after the way the first two days of this week had gone, she had then revoked his day off. Now, however, she was forced to not only give him back the vacation day, but to also take off the day herself so she could travel with him. With this thought in mind, she turned to head to the movie set in order to inform everyone of their forthcoming absences.

She was surprised to learn from Tori (since Cat still couldn't be around Jade for more than two minutes without crying yet) that Beck did not come back to the set after their meeting with the Immigration agent.

No one on set had known why the two were gone that morning. Jade had already taken care of that problem by telling everyone, in very unsavory terms, that it was no one's business, and if she heard anyone asking about it, that person would be fired immediately. Since everybody knew Jade was deadly serious when she said something like that, no one dared to test her.

After demanding that Tori gather everyone together on the main set, Jade informed them all of what was going on. "Alright everyone listen up! I'm only going to say this once so if you don't hear it, ask someone who did. Tomorrow I am giving you guys the day off from filming." Everyone began to get excited at this news, but Jade only had to give them a single look before they all quieted down within the blink of an eye. "Now, as I was saying, you're getting the day off because I will not be here and neither will Beck." Normally when Jade's off she sends Beck texts every 5 minutes giving him specific instructions on what needs to be done, and demanding he send her a report no later than every 15 minutes. Beck hates those days because he usually goes through 3 or 4 phone batteries by the end of the day.

Robbie had never known that Beck had originally requested the day off, so in his naivety, he risked Jade's wrath by asking. Knowing Jade for as long as he has, however, he wasn't going to just interrupt her and face the chance of castration. Instead he raised his hand as if he was in school, and waited for Jade to call on him.

"What is it Shapiro? If you ask me why I'm not going to be here I swear I will castrate both you and your little puppet."

Robbie's eyes had grown exponentially upon hearing the words that came out of Jade's mouth. He started to think that Jade possessed the power of telepathy, so he did his best to try and block everything out of his mind. Ironically, the words weren't even said with half the malice she generally reserved for those working for her. Robbie was still trying to process the fact that she might be able to read his mind, when Rex, his puppet, chimed in with a, "Hey you don't know what I got!"

Jade simply rolled her eyes at Rex and barked out a, "Well?!" at Robbie.

"Oh! Well, um, normally Beck's in charge when you're not here, so, um, I was just wondering since you're going to be gone, w-w-where w-w-will h-h-he b-be?" Robbie had started shaking and stuttering at the end of his question and couldn't even look at Jade as he asked it.

"I should fire you for even asking, but since I'm still processing a lot of stuff in my mind right now, I'm just going to ignore your question and move on. Ok, where was I? Oh yeah, so you guys won't just have tomorrow off. I'm also giving you the rest of today because I have to go home and do some stuff that is NO ONE'S business!" She glared at Robbie as she said this, and took a little pleasure at seeing a few silent tears leak out of his eyes. "Make no mistake, however, I want everyone here at 7 am sharp Monday morning to be ready to film the final scenes."

At the end of her speech everyone simply stood there staring either at Jade, or each other until Jade spoke up again. "Why are you all just standing there? Get out of my sight before I change my mind!"

No one needed to be told twice after that outburst, and everyone scattered like ants to finish things up and get them ready for Monday morning.

Jade knew she couldn't go home just yet because she needed to finish up some things herself. One of said things being the fact that she had to suck up her pride and call Beck regarding their flight time.

/

After Jade had left, Tori, Cat, Andre, and Robbie (and by default, Rex) gathered in the conference room to discuss this sudden shift in scheduling.

Andre (with Cat seated on his lap, her arms around his neck, and her head in the crook) opened up the discussion by saying, "Ok is it just me, or is it really weird that both Beck and Jade were gone this morning, and now they both have to be off tomorrow? I bet you guys anything that it has something to do with that meeting Jade had the other day with those studio guys. She's been acting even more of a gank than usual ever since then."

Cat and Tori both nodded their heads in agreement, while Robbie let out a "Yeah it is strange, but you heard her when I asked about it. I'm not going through that again."

"Yeah especially since you cried into a whole roll of toilet paper."

"REX! I told you what happens in the bathroom is private and isn't supposed to be shared!"

"Yeah, but when have I ever listened to you? You don't have any friends."

"That's not true! Just yesterday-"

Andre was starting to get a headache while listening to the two(?) argue, and knew he needed to put an end to it. "Alright enough!" Cat winced at Andre's tone, but after a hushed, "sorry baby" and a kiss on her forehead, she settled back down. "Obviously we're not going to get any answers out of Jade. Has anyone called Beck and asked him about it?" He received negative head shakes from everyone. "Ok then. I'll call him and put him on speaker. It's alright if he knows you guys are here, but I'm going to be the one to talk to him so it doesn't get confusing."

After everyone else agreed to this, Andre placed the call then set his phone on the center of the table to wait for Beck to answer.

The call went straight to voicemail, meaning Beck was either on the phone with someone else, or his phone was turned off. Andre left him a message asking for a call back, then hung up his phone and put it away.

"Ok, soooo what do we do now?" Tori spoke for the first time.

"Well you two (pointing to Tori and Robbie) can go do whatever, and I'll call you if I hear from Beck. Cat and I have our own plans." They all exchanged goodbyes as Tori and Robbie left the room, with Tori getting Cat to promise to call her later. Cat sat back down on Andre's lap after giving Tori a hug following her promise to call.

Cat smiled at Andre while batting her eyes, then gave her signature pout as she asked, "What are we gonna do?"

Just like the night two years ago in the bar that was the catalyst for their relationship, Andre couldn't resist her pout. This time though, instead of just giving her a quick peck, they made out for a few minutes before he responded. "Well I was going to mention it to you later tonight, but since we have the rest of the day off I'll tell you now. Beck's mom called me last week and invited me to his grandma's 90th birthday party since, to quote her, I've 'always been a part of our family.' I was gonna see if you wanted to go up for the weekend, but since we have some extra time off, do you want to leave tonight and tomorrow I can show you around the town where Beck and I grew up?"

She smiled wide and squealed out a yes before throwing her arms around his neck and giving him a long, deep kiss.

/

Beck didn't answer his phone when Andre had called because he was already talking to someone else, Jade to be exact.

She hadn't wanted to call him at all, let alone as soon as she entered her office, but she knew that the earlier she called, the quicker she could get everything else settled on set, and get home to pack for her trip.

Beck had let his phone ring for a few times as he contemplated answering Jade's call. He remembered how she had acted after their meeting with Mr. Amberson this morning, and was slightly unsure as to how she would treat him during this call. He finally answered as he realized that it had only been two hours since they left the meeting, and it was Jade calling him so she couldn't be in that bad of a mood.

"Hello?" He decided to inflict a bit of smugness into his tone for he knew why she was calling, and in this situation, he was the one in control. Jade needed him more than he needed her, for the plan to work.

Jade bit her tongue to restrain herself from saying anything snarky, and simply said, "Look, I'm only calling to find out what time I need to be at the airport tomorrow so stop sounding stuck up and just tell me."

As much as Beck wanted to tease her, he chose to take the high road this time, and calmly told her, "The flight is scheduled to leave at 9 am, so you should probably be at the airport by 8."

"Fine, I'll see you then." And with those words, Jade had ended the call.

/

As she was packing, Jade started thinking about how she had left things with Cat. Cat was one of the first people Jade had met in America, and their quirky friendship was one of the few things Jade actually treasured most in the world, though she would kill anyone who asked her to admit that the two were even friends at all.

When Jade had first come to the United States, she had planned to go through the process of Naturalization and obtain a dual citizenship. That plan had changed when Cat literally ran into her as Jade was leaving the Immigration office, and her application papers got knocked into a puddle in the street.

7 Years Ago

Jade had just turned 18 ten hours ago, and was waiting impatiently for the flight that would take her out of Italy. Her father had left her and her mother last year, about a month after she turned 17. Jade wasn't very bothered by that fact, as she and her father didn't get along all that well. What just about broke her though, was when her mom died roughly six months later. Jade and her mother had always been extremely close, and to lose her so suddenly forced Jade to grow up and become bitter and resentful towards everyone, not letting anyone else get close to her.

It wasn't just her personality that changed after her mom's death. It was also during this time when Jade started to changed her wardrobe to nothing but black clothes, and dyed her hair jet black with clip in highlights.

Jade's mom had left only a small amount of money behind, but if was enough for Jade to make it to America. She had to stay with a friend until her eighteenth birthday since she had no other family left, but then booked herself on the first flight out with no idea of where she was going to stay once she arrived.

She chose to go to Hollywood because she always wanted to be a world-famous actress. She had taken classes in English her whole life, making her bilingual. She believed this fact would be another asset for her in obtaining roles. Being only eighteen, however, she was somewhat naive, and also believed that she needed to be a United States citizen in order to work in the country. She had checked her luggage, so after picking up her bag, she went outside to hail a taxi. She barked at the driver to take her to the Immigration office.

Jade was a tad intimidated as she walked into the building, but she refused to show any weakness on the outside. She walked straight up to the desk, looked the twenty-something secretary straight in the eye, and asked with as much attitude as an 18 year old Jade can have, "Look, I'm here to become a United States citizen, and I'm going to need you to make that happen right now."

The girl behind the desk looked at Jade with disdain, then popped her gum loudly before replying. "Yeah, I don't think so honey. With that attitude you should consider yourself lucky that I'm even acknowledging you. See this machine right here?" She pointed to a machine on the counter that spit out numbers for people to take and wait to be called upon. "Take a number, then sit your little gothic butt down before I have you escorted out by security."

Jade's hand was on the zipper of her bag, ready to pull out her scissors and show this stick-up-her-ass bitch just who she was trying to mess with, but one look at the security camera in the corner of the ceiling had Jade settling for giving the girl a hard glare and yanking a number out before taking a seat. Jade had to piece together the paper she tore off to see that she was number 21. She had just made that discovery when the receptionist hollered out, "Number 5!" The girl had smirked mockingly at Jade as the number was called out.

Two hours later, nearing 5 o'clock, Jade's number was finally called. As she got to the counter the girl gave her a saccharine smile and asked sarcastically, "How can I help you?"

Jade grit her teeth before asking how she could begin the Naturalization process.

"Take these forms, fill them out, then bring them back and make an appointment to take the citizenship test." (And again I have no idea how this whole process works. If you want to look it up and tell me that's great, but sadly the only reward I can give you is a specialized shout out in the next chapter).

Jade took the papers without a word, then left to find somewhere to stay for at least the night.

She was looking over the papers, and noticed that one asked for her address, when someone bumped into her and knocked her papers right into a muddy puddle in the street.

"WHAT THE HELL? WHY DIDN'T YOU WATCH WHERE YOU WERE GOING?" Jade shouted at the girl in front of her with too-red-to-be-natural hair.

"I-I-I-I'm soooooo s-s-sorry!" The girl wailed out, as she couldn't stop bawling. "I-I was j-j-just playing with Mr. Longneck a-and, WHERE IS HE?" The girl looked around frantically before spotting the stuffed giraffe in the same puddle that included Jade's forms. Not caring that the giraffe was wet and dirty, the red haired girl picked it up lovingly and cradled it to her chest.

There was just something so innocent about seeing the little redhead holding the stuffed animal with tears continuing to cascade down her face. Seeing the girl acting so child-like reminded Jade of happier times, and for the first time since her mom died, Jade felt compelled to quell her murderous urges, and instead say to the girl, "It's okay. I can get more papers tomorrow."

"Oh thank you, thank you, thank you!" The girl's countenance changed from sad child, to ecstatic teenager so quickly Jade almost got whiplash. In her joy the redhead moved to give Jade a hug, but was stopped in her tracks as Jade hollered, 'NO!' while taking a step back. The girl wasn't as bothered this time by Jade's harsh tone, so instead of crying she said, "My name is Cat. What's yours?"

"Jade, and I don't like cats." Jade hadn't meant for her words to come out harsh, but the tone just seemed to emerge naturally in her voice now.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Cat's eyes got huge and this time they did start to get watery again.

"Nothing, never mind." Jade was slightly calmer by this point, but still was not in the mood to explain what she meant to the clueless girl standing in front of her.

"Kay Kay. I like your accent. Where are you from?" Cat asked while petting her giraffe.

"Italy. Now I've got to go find someplace to stay, so bye." Jade started to walk off, but was stopped by Cat's shout of excitement.

"WAIT! You can stay with me! You can be my best friend and we can have sleepovers every night." Cat looked at Jade hopefully.

"Yeah that's not gonna happen. Your family probably won't like you bringing a stranger home...though I bet it wouldn't be the first time." The last part was mumbled.

"Oh that's okay. It's just me, my dad, and my brother. My mom died ten years ago when I was 8. She's the one who gave me this giraffe for my birthday that year, and my brother does things all the time that he's not supposed to do. LIke one time he-"

Jade had to bite back a few tears at the mention of Cat's mom's death. Jade fingered the sterling silver circle necklace (a gift from her own mother for her 18th birthday as a symbol of her mom's never ending love) adorning her neck, and knew right then that she and the child-like girl in front of her were kindred spirits. She interrupted Cat to say that she would accept the offer, then proceeded to follow Cat to what would become her first home in America.

Present Day

Long story short, Jade never made it back to the Immigration of Naturalization Services office to get a new application. Through Cat's dad, Jade made connections in the movie industry, and stayed in the country by receiving work Visas. This caused her to forget all about the process to become a U.S. citizen, and allowed her to eventually work her way up the ladder to become the successful director she is today. She and Cat have become like sisters, and Jade couldn't ever imagine a time when Cat isn't in her life. She vowed to herself that as soon as she got back Sunday night, she would call Cat to apologize and make things right again.

A/N: I really don't have anything to say this time, so I'll leave you with a bon voyage my bodacious barracudas :)