Please don't hate me guys, but it looks like we're getting a flat tire...lol. Actually, life is starting to get in the way with my sister and her baby, so I'm apologizing in advance because I may have to break my posting streak. I've been trying to get a new chapter out every few days, but it's looking like it'll probably be at least a whole week after this one before I can get Chapter 8 out. I'm just warning you ahead of time because I don't want anybody getting stranded and having to wait for the bus to ride back home :p. Thanks for sticking with me, and hopefully the wait will be worth it! :)

Guess what time it is now though? That's right...it's SHOUT OUT TIME!

Maximas ago vobis gratias (who said Latin is a dead language? :p) to: Dawnmist of RiverClan, tsttoain, Kaylee, Jadorade, and greenkittycat.

Still don't own either The Proposal or Victorious, but my lawyer says I might have a pretty good case, so here's hoping!...lol.

Until that happens, enjoy this chapter :D

Chapter 7

Both Beck and Jade became still as statues, while their eyes had widened in shock and locked on each other's, upon hearing the voice they knew so well.

Cat came running up to the trio, (as best she could in high heels) while dragging Andre by the hand behind her.

"Hey Jadey! What are you doing here?" Cat asked with her usual confusion. She knew they were at Beck's family's house to welcome Beck home, but seeing Jade with Beck threw her off. Cat had been having such a great time with Andre in Canada, however, that she had completely forgotten Jade's extreme outburst at work from earlier that week, and was acting like normal...well at least what constituted as normal for Cat.

Andre chimed in with his own, "Hey Beck. Jade." He hadn't noticed Violet standing there at first, as he was still in shock at seeing Jade at the Oliver family home in Canada, of all places. At Violet's happy shout of, "Andre!" however, he turned towards the girl and had just enough time to brace himself before she threw herself into his arms.

"Dang girl, it's good to see you again." He stepped back after the requisite amount of time for a friendly hug, and stood next to Cat, wrapping his arm around her waist. "Violet, I'd like you to meet Cat, my girlfriend. Cat, this is Violet. She's one of my oldest and closest friends from childhood, along with Beck here." Andre pointed his free thumb at the still stunned Beck as he said the name.

Luck was with Jade as Cat was suitably distracted for the moment, and the red haired girl gave Violet her full attention. "It's so nice to meet you! So you've known Andre since he was little? What was he like? Tell me all you know!" Cat, in her enthusiasm, grabbed Violet's arm and started dragging the Canadian girl across the lawn, breaking away from Andre's hold, and not even acknowledging his shout of 'Hey!' as she left.

"Good to see you again Violet. Cat don't believe a word she says. I love you baby! Guess I'll see you both later!" Andre hollered after the girls, but only received an over the shoulder wave with her free hand from Violet in response. Cat was too busy rapidly firing off more questions at the blonde to acknowledge her boyfriend's words. He then turned and raised a questioning eyebrow at Beck and Jade who were still doing their immaculate imitation of statues, as they hadn't moved a muscle, except to blink, since Cat and Andre had first joined the group.

Glad that Cat had left, but slightly panicked with Andre still there, Beck finally turned to give his full attention to Andre, and waited for the dread-locked guy to speak first.

"Sooo, anything you want to tell me now Beck?" Andre's voice held none of the current anger he was beginning to feel.

Beck, at a loss for words, ran his hair through his hair while saying, "Well...you see..."

Jade was extremely grateful that Cat had left, and had been staying silent since her departure partly in shock, but mostly to think of reasons to explain her presence here at Beck's family's house. She was brought back to attention at seeing Beck's familiar hand-through-hair gesture. Upon hearing his ineptitude to reply properly, Jade took it upon herself to answer the question. "Beck didn't tell you that I would be coming with him here because I threatened to fire him then blackball him in Hollywood if he ever told a soul. I'm here to gather information for my next screenplay. It's going to be about the worst horror imaginable-being stuck in Canada for an indeterminate amount of time with no way out. Now if that's all, go away so I Beck and I can get back to work."

"One-you can't boss me around here because I'm not on work time, and two-you're making him work while he's on vacation?" Andre didn't fully believe Jade's explanation, but the words did cause his anger to abate somewhat. He wondered if their behavior had anything to do with the reason both had been gone from work the previous morning, but he let his suspicions go for now, and decided he would talk to Beck at a time when Jade wasn't around.

Beck's brain had finally started to function correctly again, and he was able to contribute to the conversation. "Dude, it's okay. Just go find Cat and Violet, and we'll talk later."

"Alright man. I still think something wonky is going on here, but I'll take you at your word...for now. Cat and I are in town all weekend because your mom invited me to your Grandma's birthday party, so call me some time and we'll hang out."

"Sure man. See ya later." Beck watched Andre walk away, and tried to process all that had gone on within the past twenty-five minutes. Beck knew he would have to figure out something good to tell Andre because when it came to most people, but especially his best friend, Beck never could keep secrets for too long.

/

After Andre had gone, Jade let her semi-calm facade fall. "Oh my god. Oh my god. Oh my god. How the hell are we going to explain this to them? Cat won't be a problem because she'll believe anything I tell her, but Andre's another story. He already suspects that I lied to him about the real reason why I'm here. WHAT ARE WE GOING TO DO?" Jade's voice rose an octave as she spoke, and by the time she uttered her last question, she was shaking Beck's arm.

"First, you're going to calm down and let go of my arm so we don't cause anymore of a scene." He punctuated his words by taking the hand she was shaking him with in his free one, removing it from his arm, and placing it back at her side. "Then, you're going to tell me who the hell abducted Jade West, because you are not the same woman who just went off on Andre not even three minutes ago." Beck found this new side of Jade extremely amusing, but knew that he couldn't laugh right now because they really were dealing with a serious issue.

Hearing the amusement in Beck's voice brought Jade back to her senses, and she snarled out a, "Shut up."

"Ah, there she is! It's nice to see that you're back to normal." Beck couldn't hide his smile this time. There were still curious eyes watching the two, however, and Beck saw how nervous they wee starting to make Jade, so he suggested a change of scenery. "How about we go inside and have a private conversation?"

Jade, thankful that Beck knew she hated people staring at her, was quick to agree, and the two made their way back to the house.

/

"Ok, so now that we're alone, what are we going to do about this predicament? We need to come up with a story we can agree on so no one will find out the truth." Having gotten away from any prying eyes allowed Jade to return to her no-nonsense, in-charge self.

"Look, I want this deal to work out just as much as you do, (he ignored her snort at this) but I am not lying to my best friend anymore. I've never been able to keep any secrets from Andre, and you have no idea how hard it has been for me to not tell him about this situation." Beck was becoming frustrated by the fact that he couldn't tell anyone about the plan, but he also knew that he couldn't ruin anything for Jade since this meant so much to her. He was starting to get a stirring waaaaay deep down, (where he still believed such places didn't exist) anytime he thought about Jade having feelings other than anger or disgust.

"Hard for you? So what...you think this is just a walk in the park for me?! UGH! How did I get stuck with-" She was about to continue with something that would've made a sailor blush, but was interrupted, however, by Beck's dad joining their conversation.

"There you are! I've been looking all over the place for you Beck." Craig was aware of the almost murderous glare Jade was sending his way, and decided to add, "Am I interrupting something?" The question had merely been for posterity's sake. Craig knew very well that he was in fact disrupting the conversation Jade and Beck were having. He had been upstairs when the other two had come in, and it wasn't Craig's fault that their voices had carried up the staircase, even though they were muddled and he couldn't quite make out any specific words because they weren't standing directly at the bottom of the stairs. His curiosity got the better of him, and he decided to move closer to investigate...just to make sure everything was okay of course, because he didn't like the tone he was beginning to hear in Jade's voice. He felt it was time to make his presence known, however, when Jade's voice rose above normal volume, and he started to get concerned for his son.

"Actually-" Once again Jade was stopped from saying anything, but this time it was by Beck.

"No dad, we were just finishing up." He studiously ignored Jade as he spoke because he knew there would be nothing positive about her countenance. "Is there something you needed to speak with me about?"

"Actually yes, there is." Craig had seen Jade's expression, and again, what he saw made him slightly uneasy. "Can we go somewhere else?" Craig was not Jade's biggest fan, and based on her current mood, he wanted to be around her as little as possible.

"Sure, let's go back outside." Turning to Jade, "I know you don't want to hang out with people you don't know, and I'm pretty sure you don't want to find Cat right now, so how about you go to the entertainment room-it's right down this hall, third door on the left-and find a movie to watch, and I'll come get you when we're done?" Beck wasn't trying to boss Jade around, but he was trying to currently placate everyone.

Although Jade was still pissed off at Craig's initial interruption, she knew in the back of her mind that she needed to somehow earn Beck's parent's approval because Mr. Amberson was bound to question them, at some point, regarding their opinions about Jade. Telling them about her and Beck's 'relationship' was going to be a whole bowl full of cherries on its own, and Jade hoped Beck would do it this weekend, while swearing them to secrecy. So after squaring her shoulders, and schooling her expression into a much calmer facade, Jade turned to walk towards the entertainment room without saying a word.

/

Beck and Craig found privacy in a corner of the back porch because just about everyone else was on the lawn socializing.

"Ok spill. I know you were eavesdropping and overheard at least part of my conversation with Jade, and that's why you and I are here now, but what I really want to know is what did you hear?" Beck wasn't going to reveal anything to his dad until he discovered how much Craig already knew.

"Honestly Beck I didn't hear all that much. Your voices were muffled. I did hear Jade yelling that something was hard for you, and then I think she said something about walking in the park. What is going on between you two?"

"Dad you know how much I hate keeping secrets, and this is a big one, so I'm going to tell you, but you have to promise that you'll let me tell mom when I'm ready. Can you do that for me?"

"Now you're starting to worry me Beck. Are you in some kind of trouble?"

"Well I guess it depends on how you look at it." Beck was trying to lighten the mood, but his father was not amused. Seeing this, Beck continued more seriously. "Ok, I know you're not going to like this, but just hear me out before you say anything." When Craig gave Beck the 'go on' hand gesture, Beck said, "I know you and mom have both been dying to know why I've brought Jade home with me this weekend. Mom's been trying to get me alone to interrogate me ever since we got to the house." That finally got Beck's father to crack a smile.

"Yeah, between your mom and Nana, I have to go to the mainland just to get some peace and quiet because even the woods around the house here don't provide enough protection." Beck chuckled at Craig's words remembering how he used to try and hide in the woods himself whenever his mother wanted him to do chores, or something else equally horrific. He turned serious once again, however, as Craig's face became sober as well, bringing the conversation back to its original topic. "So, you were talking about why Jade's here?"

Beck inhaled deeply, and let it out slowly before responding. "Yeah, the reason Jade's here with me is because we're dating and I wanted to show her where I grew up." At Craig's raised eyebrows, wide eyes, and dropped jaw, Beck held up a hand to prevent any interruptions, and continued speaking. "I told you that you wouldn't be happy about this, but you agreed to hear me out."

Craig's features returned to normal. He nodded his head slowly, needing to hear the reasoning behind the madness (in his opinion) of Beck's decision.

"I know you and mom aren't all that fond of Jade, but if you just got to know her a little bit, you'd see that she's really not a bad person." Beck didn't realize the truth of what he was saying until the words came out of his mouth. He actually did want his parents to see another side of Jade, one that he happened to glimpse on extremely rare occasions, but he couldn't explain why he wanted his parents to see that side of her. Again he was getting a stirring of something, but unlike last time, it wasn't as far down. This time it had risen to a level Beck only acknowledged in the recesses of his subconscious. Complete silence had filled the air as Beck finished speaking.

After roughly 3 full minutes (give or take 10 seconds-Beck didn't exactly count) of complete silence Craig finally spoke. "Can I say something now?" At Beck's nod, Craig began speaking again. "I'm sorry Beck, but there is no way I would ever want to get to know that woman. From what your mother tells me, Jade is nothing but horrible to you and everyone else at your job." As Craig saw Beck open his mouth to argue, he held up his own hand saying, "You'll get another chance to talk. I listened to you before, so you can hear me out now." Beck nodded his agreement. "As I was saying...from what I've heard from both you and your mother, and after witnessing her behavior several minutes ago, I am inclined to stay as far away from Jade as I can get for the duration of her stay. I was doing some thinking just now, and I believe that you are only dating that woman to assure yourself a leading role in a major Hollywood movie since none of your auditions have worked out." (Not the best reason I know, but we're just gonna roll with it...lol).

When it appeared that Craig had gotten his thoughts out, Beck took his turn again. "Are you finished?" Beck's voice was full of anger, but he knew he had to present his case rationally, so he calmed himself down before speaking again. "That couldn't be further from the truth. In case you didn't know, I have made connections of my own simply by being Jade's assistant."

"Really? Tell me Beck, why are you still her assistant then and not a leading actor? I think you're just riding Jade's coattails to see how far she can take you. I may not care too much for her, but she seems like a smart woman, and I think that once she realizes what you're doing, she's going to dump you out on the street with nothing. Then what will you do huh? I'll tell you what you'll do. You'll come crawling back here with your tail between your legs begging for my help, but I will not give you one cent. I offered you both money and connections before you left Irricana, but did you want my help? No, you didn't. You wanted to quote, 'make it in America on my own.' (couldn't resist but did have to add a little bit...lol). When this sham of a relationship falls apart on you, remember you've only got yourself to blame." Craig had worked himself up during his rant, and was breathing heavily as he finished.

Again a heavy silence filled the atmosphere surrounding Beck and Craig as both once more became lost in thought.

Unbeknownst to the two men, Jade had gotten bored in the entertainment room, and had wandered outside to find Beck. Once she made her way around to the back of the house, she ran into practically everyone at the party. They were all staring up at the back porch with rapt attention. Jade turned and noticed they were looking up at Beck and Craig. People was chattering amongst themselves trying to speculate as to the topic of the men's argument. The only thing that was agreed on was the fact that it was an argument based on the raised voices of both Beck and his father. Since Jade had no qualms about interrupting the two, (rationalizing that Craig had interrupted she and Beck earlier-turnabout is fair play in her opinion) she proceeded to make her way up the stairs and walked towards them.

Jade had gotten no closer than 15 feet from the men when Beck decided that he'd had enough, and shouted out for the whole lawn of people to hear clearly, "That's it! I will not continue to have you bad mouth either me or Jade. Matter of fact, you want to know something dad? I am not using Jade, and you will get to know her, because not only are we together, WE'RE ENGAGED!"

A/N: Wow look at me with the cliffhangers huh? Super sorry, but hopefully it entices you enough to come back next time and find out where things go from here! Until then, Sayonara my stealthily swift sloths :D