Disclaimer. I only own the original characters. The rest belong to someone else.
:}
Jade walked into school with a purpose. She had a whole new agenda of things to accomplish, and was organizing her priorities. With the auditions already finished, her play was set to begin rehearsals soon. Jade smiled when she though how all of the gang was represented this time. Tori got a part, the lead went to Cat, who was better able to play the clueless girl along for the ride.. Andre and Robbie also had roles, with the musician again letting the other take the lead, accepting only a supporting role. Jade was one of the few great actors at school who didn't audition, but is was her play, and she had other priorities. She was helping with the production. Beck would direct, and Jade would be on hand to help solve any problems that could come up. It was normal enough for a play, when it's first presented, to need some tweeking before it's perfect. Jade was, as the producer and writer, responsible for tweeking of the scrips. That was, in addition to her other outside projects like working at the community center and winning the love of her family, spending time with her girlfriend, and for all she knew, saving the world. Jade was feeling overwhelmed, so was scheduling everything, or trying to. Some things just refused to be defined by how long it would take. She saw someone she wanted to talk to. "Sinjin, I was wondering, have you given any thought to the set design yet?"
"Nope, but if you want to get together later, we could talk about it." The lanky boy said.
"I could use a punch dummy. Care to do double duty?" She gave him her most evil smile.
"Why don't I just email you my preliminary sketches?" He answered back, suddenly aware of how dangerous she was.
"Okay, you do that." She said, while writing in her notebook 'Re-work Sinjins sketches so they don't suck.'
Cat watched as the curly haired boy scurried away from Jade, fear practically dripping from his pants. She smiled, and from the corner of her eyes, saw Trina walking in. She shifted to watch the newcomer, who's face was also buried in a notebook.
Trina, for her part, was working on her senior project, a new one woman. She planned to show her improved skills with a comedy about a princess who makes a mistake and agrees to marry a prince by mail, only to discover that both nobles had androgynous nicknames, and her intended was expecting a man to come in, marry her, and rule. Throughout the difficult farce of a story, she wanted to show how often the princess ideal that little girls grew up with was basically a pampered wife in training. The senior smiled at Cat as she passed.
"Robbie? You listening?" Cat asked, hoping the puppeteer had remembered to put his earpiece in, and carry the amplifier unit somewhere on his person. She needed him now.
"I'm here. I'll be turning this off during class, it's becoming too much of a distraction." came the reply.
"Trina's working on something. Find out what." Cat briefly wondered where Tori was, but then saw Scotty walk in, humming something to himself.
Scotty was also dealing with his senior project, recoding multiple cover songs to make an album of sorts. The staff would grade it on how well he sang, but also how well put together the album was. Apparently there was an art to how albums were put together in the past, before everything was sold on line, one song at a time. It was all so confusing, but he was going to get the work done, and then community college, followed by the police academy. Still, first things first.
"Scotty, my man, I was wondering..." Robbie started.
"Don't do that." The big guy said. "It doesn't make you sound cool. It actually makes you sound pretty lame.. Be yourself, that's plenty cool enough for most people." Robbie seemed stunned, but only for a second. The nerdy boy recovered quickly, ignoring the comment and pressing on with his question.
"Okay, but Cat wants to know, what's Trina working on?" He asked.
"She's writing a one woman play. I hear it's going to be her second. Her first was a comedy, and from what I've been told, a big hit." Scotty sounded proud, but Robbie shuddered at the memory of reviewing what had originally been a serious play. He'd only described it as a comedy to avoid the beating Trina promised if he'd given it a bad review. It worked, the audience was expecting to laugh, so took Trina's actions as being over the top on purpose.
"Okay, good to know. So what're you up to?" The nerdy boy asked.
"Just heading to class. Say, do you think Andre will have the time to help me record my album? It's for my senior project, and I really need someone who understands music to work with me. I'm getting kinda lost." Scotty said.
"I'll help." Robbie replied. "I may not seem it, but I have the fundamentals down, and even write my own music. Why don't we get together after school today and go over things?"
"I'm helping Trina with a project. How about tomorrow, while she's teaching her class?" Scotty said.
"Or I could help both of you tonight." Robbie offered. "Unless it's a date type thing, in which case I'd be happy to help you tomorrow. God, I can be so stupid sometimes..."
"STOP THAT!" the future police officer's voice was sharp and commanding. Robbie stopped. "It's an okay mistake to make. Robbie, tonight's a date. It's fine though, we get together tomorrow, and everything is cool." Robbie smiled, happy to be forgiven.
The nerdy boy heard his dream girls voice whisper in his ears. "Real smooth there Robbie. See, you don't need Rex." despite the unintended sarcasm, Robbie felt the warmth of her approval.
Tori by this time was walking in, looking for her girlfriend. "Cat, have you seen Jade?" She asked her friend.
"One moment." The redhead replied, pulling out her phone. "She's seems to be... Cross reference with a map of the school, and...she's in Sikowitz's classroom. Probably wanted to talk to him about something."
"And how did you know that?" Tori asked, trying to see the screen of cat's phone.
"I had Robbie put a tracker in her bag." Cat said as if it was the most natural thing.
"Why?" Tori asked, "Wait, What, How, I mean, what?"
"I had Robbie put a tracker in her gears of war bag. Hopefully someplace she's not likely to find it." Cat reiterated. Seeing the look on Tori's face, mixed anger and confusion, the synthetic redhead went on. "I got them from Sinjin, and decided it was in my best interests to know where Jade was at all times. It usually works with Pear maps, but Sinjin wrote a program that added a map of Hollywood Arts to the database so I could track where she was when she's at school." Cat smiled.
"Again, why?" Tori asked.
"Were playing spy. Don't tell Jade, she doesn't need to know. I'm the commander, Singin's technical, you know, providing all the cool spy gear type stuff. And Robbie's the field agent." Cat said. "You wanna play? I need someone to get close to the enemy agent to get information. Can't use Robbie, he'd get killed, and then who'd play with me?" Cat managed to hold the pout for almost a second before her smile broke through.
"By enemy agent, you mean Jade, right?" Tori asked.
"Well, her and Trina. There both up to something, and I want to know." Cat seemed totally into this game, and maybe oblivious to the effects it might have on her friends.
"Jade, my girlfriend?" Tori clarified.
"Yep." Cat didn't see the problem.
"I think I'll pass. I want more out of this than a G rated romance, and I'm not going to get it if I'm spying for you." Tori said.
"You could if you seduce her." Cat said. Tori decided to walk away at that point, before Cat asked her to put a camera in her room.
'Note to self, search room for hidden, well, anything..' Tori thought.
Later, during lunch, Tori and Jade were among the first to arrive at the Asphalt Cafe. They'd managed to get their lunch quickly, and were sitting together, kinda flirting as they ate. They'd been joined by the gang, with Trina rounding out the group. Scotty was in the recording studio, recording another song he liked for his project.
"I'm telling you, he really should have waited until after tomorrow. There's an art to how those albums are put together." Robbie was saying.
"Riiiiight." Jade said, not really caring, but still couldn't let Robbie have this when she knew the only consideration thay ever made about music was if it might be a hit.
"He is." Andre said. "Old style records had a science to how they were put together. It was more than just a couple of hit songs. The whole record had to be one you listened to. Even what you needed to do to get the listener to turn the record over and listen to the other side was factored in."
"You mean Robbie's right about something?" Jade asked.
"JADE!" Tori screamed at her girlfriend. "We do not say that out loud."
"He's often good at a lot of stuff." Cat defended. "He got the listening device into your keyboard. Of course, in retrospect, that might not have been the best place to put it."
"Robbie knows a lot about how music used to be packaged." Andre said.
"What, what did you say about a listening device?" Jade asked.
"They're playing spy." Tori said. "She says they got stuff from Sinjin and oh my chiz we need to find out where they hid all the bugs."
"And who's this Ginsing?" A new voice asked.
"It's pronounced Sinjin." Andre said, turning to look at the newcomer. Tallish, solid, of Hispanic decent. His clothing was normal enough, if mostly one color.
"Andy?" Jade said. She never would have expected him here.
"Andy, what are you doing here?" Trina asked.
"And in gang colors?" Tori added.
"I was coming by to ask Trina to pass a message along to Jade, but then I saw her here too, and thought I'd tell her directly." The gangsa said. "Sensei, I'll be able to join you Sunday. Any instructions?"
"Never wear colors on this campus." Tori said.
Jade smiled at her girlfriend. "Andy, Trina told me how hard it is to get out of the gang lifestyle, but we're hoping that the growing responsibilities you're taking on at the center will help you to find a life that's less dependent on violence." Jade offered Tori her hand under the table.
"So Trina, where's this guy you're supposed to be dating?" Andy said, partially ignoring Jade.
"And whats happening Sunday?" Tori asked the table in general.
"Oh, sorry Vic." Andy said. "Sensei offered to have me train with her, her brother, and Sensei Stan at the gym their using in Venice."
"My name is Tori." The singer scolded him.
"She's Jade's girlfriend." Trina added. When Tori glared at her, Trina just shrugged. "Like he didn't already know? Honestly Tori, Andy won't judge. You know that. And Andy, again, you know better than to look for me or my sister while in colors."
"Wait, how'd you know Trina was here?" Jade asked.
"She invites us to see her perform sometimes. Wasn't hard to figure out she studied at the place she performs." Andy said.
"We'll, you mixing two worlds that shouldn't mix, so please..." Tori said. The gangsa just saluted them and walked away. Beck, Andre and Robbie were all watching as the man departed.
"I wonder, is he part of your secrets?" Cat asked Jade.
"If he uses the community center, he might have met Trina, Jade and Vic." Robbie said.
Tori, for her part, was smiling. "Jade, I'm so proud of you." She chose to ignore Robbie's comment.
"Thanks." Jade beamed. "Why?" insecurity started to eat at her.
"You didn't try to kill him for, well, staring, or whatever, and you're taking an interest in one of your students." The singer said, still smiling.
"I kinda have selfish reasons." Jade admitted.
"To make your life easier? Or to give whomever takes over after you and Treen here leave an assistant? Jade, sometimes you have to give yourself credit. You're not always selfish." Tori said, uncomfortably serious with the goth. Then she kissed Jade, to let her know it was okay. "And Robbie, never call me Vic."
:}
I don't know about this one. Maybe I'm drinfting.