Disclaimer: I don't own the source material, and make no money off this.
Disclaimer 2. Part of this was written after reading an article on how kids in the foster system are being over medicated. I have no dislike for the pharmaceutical companies, just concern that some well intentioned people think psychoactive medications are like cough syrup, and that's all you need. If you have a prescription, then keep taking the prescribed dosage.
:}
Tori was worried. Jade had been distant since the whole lunch indecent. And, in typical fashion, was trying to figure out what she'd done wrong. 'I hope it wasn't the whole groping comment, cause I really wanna.' She told herself.
Trina, have you seen Jade?" She asked as she was leaving school. The goths car was missing, not a good sign.
"I haven't seen her." Trina said. "Is there trouble?"
"Maybe. I don't know." Tori replied. "Congratulations on dancing in the showcase. You deserve it."
"Yea, maybe." Trina replied. "But if somethings wrong with Jade, we need to fix it quickly. Look, lets ask Robbie, he's in her last class."
"Robbie, why did Jade leave so fast?" Tori asked.
"Don't know. She missed the most of the class, showed up late and only long enough to get her homework and have me agree to email her a copy of my notes. That was about twenty minutes in, and I have no idea where she was before that." He said. "Have you seen Cat?"
"No." Trina said. "Do you think she'll know?"
"Not since you had us remove the bugs." Robbie replied.
"Jade was with Lane." Sinjin said, out of no where. "Cat found out, and went to see if everything is all right."
"Is Jade in trouble?" Trina asked. Tori was asking the same thing, half a beet behind her.
"No, According to Lane's secretary, Jade wanted to talk to him." Sinjin said. "Trina, congratulations. I hear you're dancing in the big showcase. Looking forward to it."
"Thanks, I think." Trina replied, not really paying attention. The lanky boy stood there for a few more moments, then just walked away. "How does he know this chiz?"
"Did you notice, he didn't hit on either of us." Tori said. "Could today get any weirder?"
"I gotta go." Trina said. "I need to get some things done before class. I'm meeting with the dance teacher to come up with my routine for the showcase, then I'm due at the center, and hopefully Jade'll be there, cause I'm not sure I can teach that class on my own. Do you think you can catch a ride with someone?"
"I'll give her a ride." Crystal said, walking up to them. "Tori, we need to talk."
"I'm not sure I can help any more. I mean, I've given you all the advice I can." Tori started.
"This is about you." The popular girl said. "I'm not sure, but I think you touched on one of Jade's issues."
"What makes you say that?" Tori asked.
"I have someone working in the office. They told me Jade asked to speak to Lane during study hall. Didn't finish until just before his next appointment, when he had to end the session. No idea what they talked about." Crystal said.
"I'm surprised your informant didn't listen in at the door." Tori said, feeling a bit uneasy about the conversation.
"And risk expulsion? They take confidentiality very seriously here." Crystal said.
"So, um, thanks?" Tori didn't know where she stood with the popular girl.
"Don't thank me, just..." Crystal seemed at a loss for words.
"Yea, a lot of that going around today." Tori said, trying to sound reassuring.
"I can only imagine what she's going through." Crystal said. "Look, we were never friends, but I'd like to change that."
"Why?" Tori said. "I mean, why are you suddenly so interested in being my friend?"
"Ignoring your impending celebrity status, I'd have to say that one thing Robbie told Beck rang true. High school only lasts so long." By now they were at Crystals car. Tori noticed it was some kind of sports car, in a nice baby blue. Tori really didn't care what kind of car it was, but it was probably fast, expensive, and with any luck, comfortable as anything. They climbed in.
"I realized that I was treating the world like High school lasted forever." Crystal continued. "Like popularity was a matter of knowing how to crush anyone who was even a little bit of a threat, and maintaining fear among those around me of what I could do to ruin their reputations."
"I started thinking, who gets ahead, and I saw, in business, it's often the guys who act like I did all through high school." She said. "Then I looked closer, and I realized that for every person who gets ahead that way, dozens more falter. In the adult world, it's often about supporting those you work with, and that's often not people you chose."
"So what does this have to do with giving me a ride?" Tori asked.
"It's time for me to grow up a little. Not too much, but expanding my horizons doesn't hurt." The popular girl said. "Besides, my attitude's already cost me Beck, and..."
"You don't know that." Tori said. "Beck might like you. The new you." Tori gave her best smile.
"Or I can accept this was a limited window, and that I missed my chance." Crystal didn't sound nearly as broken up about it as she'd been. "It got me thinking. Why did I want Beck."
"He's a great guy?" Tori guessed.
"Every girl wants Beck." Crystal said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. "Only you, and Jade, have ever said no to him. Let that sink in. The only two girls he's ever pursued both were ones who said no to him."
"He does like a challenge." Tori tried.
"He wants more." Crystal said. "And I think he saw something in Jade. The same something you saw." Crystal looked at Tori, then back at the road. They were getting close to Tori's home.
'Tits?' Tori thought to herself. "That she was a lot more than meets the eye?" She said, purging her mind of the less than PG thoughts.
"That she was hiding something." Crystal replied. "I know about hiding. If she has a dark enough secret, then it was easting her from the inside. Whatever happened, it made that secret more... I don't know...Present?"
"Okay..." Tori said.
"Jade went to Lane cause she needed to talk to a shrink." Crystal added. "And as your friend, I wanted to explain that, so you'd know it's not your fault. Hell, I'd bet she's not breaking up with you. That thought probably never entered her mind.. Just needs to get her head sorted out." The stopped outside Tori's house. "You okay?"
The Latina nodded yes. "Good. Don't tell anyone about this." Crystal smiled. "But not because it'd hurt my reputation. I'd rather start off this friendship thing by doing things for the right reason."
"You going to be okay?' Tori asked.
"I'm getting there." Crystal said.
Once Tori was out of the car, the popular girl took off. Tori just smiled. "Crystal's growing up" She said to no one.
Cat was sitting outside an office, waiting for her friend to finish. It was a familiar office, since this was the nice man who gave her the prescriptions for her "special candy". Cat sighed, and said to the air "I know I'm being medicated." The patients were used to Cat, and just ignored her.
Jade was finishing up with the receptionist. "Okay, I've got my appointments set." She told Cat. "But they insisted I see a therapist. Said I'd need a recommendation before they medicate me. Apparently, Lane thinks I won't need medication."
"People are over medicated." Cat said, and Jade had to go over that statement again to make it make sense. "Think about it. For every case like me, or my brother, there's three or more where a parent doesn't know how to handle their child, and it's not hard to find someone who'll medicate the child. From there, it's a lifetime of dependance."
"I had no idea you were so upset about this." Jade admitted.
"Well, I am." Cat said. "I mean, some of us, we need it. I might need it for a while longer, and my brother, god, he's going to need it for the rest of his life. And I know, some people can be functioning members of our world with the help of psychopharmaceuticals. These meds have changed a lot of peoples lives." Cat looked at jade, the most serious look jade could remember getting from the smaller girl. "But others, they might need therapy, and the pills, they take the place of really working on the issues that caused the problem."
Cat shifted. "I mean, think about it. If an outside incident caused the problem, then why can't it be fixed. Yes, drugs can help us overcome the symptoms, the pain, or the depression. They can do all of that, for a while, and are a great tool. But my goal is to be off medication. To be able to function on my own. I'm learning how to manage my emotions, and in time, with luck, I'll be drug free. But the medial mindset people have is the drugs are the cure, not a tool along the way to the cure. So, some diagnoses, yes, medicate, but for the love of god, therapy."
"How long you been holding that in?" Jade asked.
"Why the sudden need for therapy?" Cat asked.
"I'd rather not say." Jade said.
"Then I'd rather not say." Cat replied.
"And you're assuming we have equal desire to know what the other person is hiding?" Jade asked.
"Right." Cat replied "Years. Part of my diagnosis is Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, and the usual treatment is medication. No assuming that, even in mild cases, you can work to the point where you're able to handle it, even though the military has plenty of people who have. No, it's 'Take this for the rest of your life, adjusted as your body gets used to it, and you'll be fine.' Its like giving up. The more serious cases, they can lead to suicide, and the meds, they don't always do enough. You need someone to talk to, to help you monitor your emotions. At the very least, you want someone you can trust to keep you from jumping off that last bridge."
"Okaay." Jade said. "Well, thanks for making my freakout seem meaningless."
"No problem." Cat said. "But you know, anything that freaks you out, or makes your life more difficult, it's major, even if you could point to people who have it worse. I'd rather you get help than try to tough it out because you see people worse off than you. I don't want to lose you." Cat squeezed Jade's arm.
"You're not going to lose me." Jade replied.
"Cause six fights in five months is normal?" Cat asked.
"Point taken." Jade said, defeated. "I freaked out because, as far as Lane can tell, I'm not comfortable with the idea that Tori's not planning on leaving me if something better were to show up."
"Wait." Cat said. "Your afraid Tori loves you, and you don't know how to handle that?"
"I know it sounds stupid...Ow" Jade said. Cat had slapped her arm.
"It's not stupid. I just needed to hear it." Cat scolded her. "So your not sure what it means to be loved, or rather to not have to earn, and keep earning, love. Yea, that tracks." Cat said.
"So you agree with Lane?" Jade asked, trying not to let the old her out. By this point they'd drifted to jade's car, and from there they were driving towards Venice. She'd have just enough time to drop her friend off and get back to the center before class.
"Not important." Cat said. "What is important is do you agree? Don't answer yet, cause that's the question you'll be working on in therapy." Cat smiled. "So why didn't you just keep seeing Lane?"
"He recommended I see someone, get a much deeper fix than he could give me." Jade replied. "I was just hoping for a pill to fix the feelings." Jade drove a second longer, then said "And why does everyone think I might hurt myself?"
"Six fights in five months." Cat said again.
By this point the redhead was using her phone to surf the slap. "Hay!" She exclaimed. "Trina's going to be dancing in the big showcase. I've got to congratulate her."
"Really?" Jade asked. "I'll have to tell her how proud I am when I see her at class tonight."
"Yea." Cat said. "She's been working so hard. I think she deserves this. A chance for people to see her as something, anything other than that talentless hack we all knew and were annoyed by."
Jade nodded as Cat finished d her text.
To Tori (From Cat): Don't take Jade's leaving today personally. She loves you, and that's kinda new to her. FYI, Jade doesn't know how to be loved. Be gentle.
:}
The opinions expressed are the authors, and no one else's. (Okay, some people agree.) But that is in no way to disparage the proper use of medications. For some people, they are the answer, but it was discovered that people suffering from severe depression, the type where you have to medicate, were still likely to end their lives if they didn't get therapy in addition to the meds.
This chapter was an extension of the last, and for that, I apologize. Please enjoy whatever comes next.
Couldn't sleep, so I posted early.