Hi, welcome back. I know I left this to fester for a while, because if I'm honest it was only ever going to be a one-shot, and I had no idea what to do with it, but I've decided to fire it up again, give it an oil-change and a respray, and hit the road in a slightly different direction, hopefully with a destination on mind.

We're also going to have a little less inner turmoil and wistful pining, and a little more stuff actually happening.

And when I say 'stuff', I mean, of course, pointless bickering.

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Had Jade felt a little less like death, things might have gone better. Had she had anything else in her head beside mucus and painkillers, she might have paused to consider. But as it was her irritation levels were pegging the needle and her tolerance was at an all-time low.

Tori bounded up the steps of Hollywood Arts with a certain enthusiasm. She'd written her letter - well, she'd written a lot of letters, her floor was covered in screwed up balls of paper, but she'd finally come up with a draft she could live with - and snuck out of the house. She hadn't dared involve Trina, so she'd had to walk all the way over to Jade's house, hunched up against the cold, dressed all in black as befitted her secretive mission, to slip the envelope through the door. So now she pushed open the door and breezed confidently into school, straight into the line of fire.

"What the hell is this?" Jade demanded, thrusting something in her face.

"Er.. what?"

"This, Tori, this." Jade waved the object impatiently. Tori took a step back to see that she was holding up a piece of paper covered in squiggly writing that she recognized as her own.

"It's a letter."

"I can see it's a letter, Tori. It's clearly a letter. I mean what's in it."

"Well, I just thought that maybe, after the other night, I should explain."

"Explain?" Jade said. "This is your explanation is it? You felt sorry for me?"

"Yes."

"Bullshit."

"Jade!"

"You know, one of the things I've always liked about you, Tori, is your honesty. The way you just put yourself out there. I kind of admired you for having the guts to come over, to just turn up and tell me that. And now you're covering your ass by giving me this pile of crap?"

"It's not crap!"

"So you just made all that up after the party?"

"I was drunk!"

"In vino veritas, Tori."

"Don't get all smart-ass with me! It was a party, I was drunk, and people were being mean about your text, so-"

"So you just thought, 'I know, I'll head on over to Jade's house and give her a cheap thrill by pretending I like her'."

"I wasn't..." She snatched the letter, angrily. "You know what would have been the decent thing to do, Jade? The kind thing? The thing that any other human being in the world other than you would have done?"

"Well, I-"

"To believe it, Jade! Or even to just pretend you believed it! To be gracious, to spare my feelings, to just say, I understand, forget it, and get on with things. But you couldn't do that, could you? You couldn't bring yourself to be nice about it because you're so far up your own butt that you couldn't bear the idea of being pitied. You'd rather it was true because that panders to your big, fat ego, but you're not willing to offer anything back, are you? Ever. Not even a little bit of consideration. You want to know the truth? Yes, yes I did like you. For one brief, fleeting moment, I thought I saw something in you, because I was kind of drunk and I thought things could be different. Well thank you for opening my eyes. If I ever was deluded enough to think I liked you, I sure as hell don't now."

"Tori!"

But it was too late. Tori fled, tears stinging her eyes, leaving Jade alone in the closet.

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Two weeks. The tension lasted for two weeks.

Nothing was said, there were no arguments, no bickering, just a tacit understanding that where one was, the other couldn't be. If Jade was sat at a table, Tori would take a different table; if Tori was talking to Andre in the hall, Jade wouldn't even slow down to acknowledge him. And every time it happened, their eyes would lock, briefly, with enough animosity to stun anyone passing between them. To Tori, seething with embarrassment, Jade's attitude was exactly what she should have expected, the arrogance, the lack of any kind of empathy with her situation. She felt betrayed, as though the girl that she'd felt so strongly about the night of the party had let her down by disappearing and leaving her to face this Jade, and she cursed herself for ever having been stupid enough to think she'd let it go.

For her part, Jade couldn't see where she was wrong. What had Tori expected? If she'd waited one damned minute before going off on a tirade, Jade might have got around to saying all the things that Tori wanted, that she understood, that she was a little flattered, that she'd keep it to themselves. But Tori had tried to brush it off, and if there was one thing Jade hated, it was being brushed off.

And so it went on, the never-ending dance, each orbiting the other, equally convinced of their own righteousness.

But there was a difference. After each close encounter, Tori would look around and see expressions of sympathy. Jade looked around to see only accusations.

"What did you do?" Beck demanded, yet again, as Tori sailed past with her tray, shooting an angry glance in their direction. They'd been back together less than a week.

"I didn't do anything!"

"Right."

"What, you don't believe me?"

Beck wavered between honesty and self-preservation. "Well something must have happened," he said. "You two have never been like this before."

Jade gritted her teeth. She could explain, but then she'd be opening up a whole can of worms that neither of them wanted wriggling around the school. "It'll blow over."

"You could always apologize."

"I don't need to apologize!"

"Then at least talk to her."

"Fine."

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Tori closed her locker door to reveal an stone-faced Jade. She made to move away, but Jade grabbed her arm. "This has got to stop."

"What?"

"This. All this."

"I don't know what you mean."

"Yes you do! It's not fair, Tori," Jade said, angrily. "Everyone thinks I've done something terrible to you, and I can't tell them what's going on without blowing your little secret. I'm being treated like a criminal and I haven't even done anything."

"So what do you want me to do?" Tori snapped back. "You want me to tell everyone, is that it? You want me to embarrass myself in front of our friends to get you off the hook?"

"Well, no, but-"

"Right, fine," Tori said, and stomped out of the hall towards the café.

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Beck, Andre and Cat were sitting at their usual table, or at least their usual pre-Tori-and-Jade-falling-out-and-making-everyone's-life-a-misery table, when a wild-eyed Tori approached. She paused in front of them, and seethed for a moment.

"You guys want to know?" she demanded. "Hmm? You guys want to know why me and Jade are arguing?"

"Er..."

"I'll tell you why. You remember the party? On New Year's Eve? Well-"

"Yeah, you all remember the party."

There was an acid drip to the voice. Tori turned in surprise, to find Jade coming up behind her. "Jade..."

"You know, the party where you all ignored me."

There was a general guilty shuffling of feet. They'd already paid the price for this one. The first week back had been hell. "Anyway," Jade went on. "Tori wasn't supposed to be there, she was grounded. But I didn't know that, so I called her house, 'cause I was kind of sick and not thinking straight, not that any of you guys cared," she said, pointedly, "and I kind of blew it with her mom by telling her where she'd gone. So now she's in trouble."

Seconds ticked by as Tori processed this, her lips moving as she tried it out for plausibility. "That's... right!" she said, brightly, turning back to the others. "That's exactly right. That's what happened. That's just it. What she said. Yes."

Beck raised his eyebrows. "So that's it?" he said. "That's all you've been fighting about all this time?"

"Yeah. But now we're all good, aren't we?" She nudged Tori.

"Hmm? Oh, yeah. All good," Tori agreed. Andre frowned.

"I thought you said your mom gave you a ride to the par-"

"I said, we're all good," Jade said, sharply. Andre shrugged. The bell rang.

"I guess we've got to go," Beck said. "Catch you later." He gave Jade a brief peck on the cheek and the three non-combatants headed back into the school, leaving Jade and Tori alone.

Tori sank down onto the bench, sagging with relief, as Jade perched cautiously next to her, and they sat in silence.

"Thank you," Tori said, finally.

Jade shrugged. "I really am sorry, okay?" she said. "I acted badly the first day back, I was feeling like shit and I wasn't thinking straight. I understand sometimes you get a passing thing for someone, even if it's only a moment of madness, I mean, look at the way we acted around Moose. And I was pretty flattered that it might have been me, even if it only lasted until I opened my big mouth."

Tori was about to protest, but Jade cut her off. "But I'm also," she said, quickly, "pretty open to the idea that you just felt sorry for me, and I guess I should be grateful for that, too." She reddened slightly. "Sorry. I'm not good with that kind of thing."

Tori smiled at her discomfort. "I guess not. So, could we just forget all this and move on?"

"Sounds good to me."

"And are we still friends?"

"Wait, we were friends?"

"Jade..."

"Okay, fine. We're friends."

"Good." Tori reached out to take Jade's hand and give it a squeeze. She realized what she was doing, and began to pull it back, but Jade put her other hand on top to hold it there, and for a few seconds they sat, hand in hand, in comfortable silence. A perfect moment.

The simulated sound of a shutter, a throwback to another age, to the time when cameras were mechanical, cumbersome, when they couldn't be slipped out of a pocket unseen.

A perfect moment, captured.

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The photograph itself might not have aroused much attention had it been pasted into a scrapbook, or part of a collage. But as it circulated, people began to add to it, hearts, flowers, speech bubbles, until it became a meme in its own right. The first Jade became aware of it was when she noticed a group of freshmen crowded around a phone. They looked up and sniggered.

"What?"

They said nothing, but hurried off down the corridor. She shook her head, and headed towards her locker, to find a picture stuck to the door. She stared at it. Her and Tori, holding hands, gazing at each other like a pair of soppy love-struck idiots. Around it someone had digitally added a large, pink heart-shaped frame, and on top of it someone had scrawled 'Awwww!' in green sharpie.

She felt her blood boil. She snatched it from the door and set off in search of someone to take it out on.

"Have you seen this?" she demanded of Beck. Beck, it turned out, had seen it. He'd seen quite a lot of it. His phone had been beeping all day with different variations of the picture, and he was in no mood to see another one.

"Yeah," he said, sourly. "You two look very cozy."

"We were just making up!" Jade said.

"Up or out?"

"Don't try and be funny. We were just being friends."

"You don't see pictures of me and Andre holding hands."

"That's different!" she protested. "You're guys. And you know what Tori's like, she's all… touchy-feely."

Beck raised an eyebrow, to indicate that 'touchy' and 'feely' were not words he wanted to think about right now, particular not in relation to this picture.

"Ugh." She left him and went to find Tori.

"Have you seen this?" she said again. Tori, who looked as though she'd been dreading this moment since the day she was born, nodded, miserably. "It's all over the school."

"What?"

"On the Slap, on the noticeboards," Tori said. "There's even one in the girls' room." She shuddered. "You don't even want to know what that one says."

"Right," Jade said, furiously. "This had got to stop. I'm going to find out who did this and-"

"There's no point," Tori sighed. " Everybody did it, Jade. It's just been going around."

"Oh, and you're all right with that, are you?"

"No, of course I'm not all right with it!" Tori said, testily. "But what are you going to do? You can't beat up every kid who forwards a picture. Just leave it alone. It'll pass. By tomorrow everyone will have moved on."

Jade stood, steaming, but Tori's logic was right. If she made a big deal of it, it would only get worse. Better just to forget it.

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Beck found it harder to forget. "I look like an idiot."

"Tori says to leave it alone and it'll pass."

"Yeah, well that's easy for her to say. She not the one who looks like his girlfriend's cheating on him."

"Jesus. No one seriously believes that, Beck. It's just a joke."

"And how would you feel if everyone was 'joking' about me and Meredith?"

Meredith was still a sore subject. "That's a pretty low blow, Beck Oliver."

"Just saying. And I bet Meredith would be okay with it."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. What's that supposed to mean? You think Tori had something to do with this?"

He said nothing.

"Ten seconds, Beck. You've got ten seconds to take back whatever sick little conspiracy theory you've got going on and apologize."

"I'm just-"

"Nine."

"Okay, fine. But just try and see it from my point of view."

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Two days and the rumors showed no signs of abating, although the sight of Jade prowling the corridors looking for culprits forced it underground. Jade really wanted to hang out with Beck, to counter the accusations, but Beck was now strangely reluctant to be seen with her, and so she found herself gravitating towards Tori, who could at least offer some comradeship. There was an odd comfort in the fact that, for once, they were both on the same side, the only difference being that while Jade was angry, Tori just looked worn-out.

But of course, that comradeship only fueled the fire.

"This is ridiculous," Jade muttered, ignoring a smirk from a passing student. "What the hell is their problem? I don't get why they'd care."

"They care because it's us," Tori said, wearily.

"What do you mean?"

"You and me."

"What difference does that make?"

"Because we've spent the last two years fighting," Tori said. "The idea that we'd end up dating is just too..."

"Stupid for words?"

"Ironic, I was going to say. But yes, 'stupid' covers it too."

There was movement behind them.

"Hey there!"

Jade groaned. Sinjin. Never a pleasure, always a chore. "What do you want?"

"I was sorry to hear about you and Beck."

"What about me and Beck?"

"You guys splitting up. And I just want to say that if you ever need a shoulder to cry on, I'm your man."

"There are so many things wrong with that sentence I don't know where to start," Jade said. "What do you mean, splitting up? We haven't... oh, right. Look, the photos are just a prank, okay? Someone's messing with us." She frowned. "Although if it was true, it's pretty insensitive for you to come over here hustling in on me and my new girlfriend, so go screw yourself."

"A prank?" Sinjin frowned. "But Beck said..." He trailed off as Jade turned to look at him. "I'd better go."

"Beck said what?" she demanded.

"Sorry, I've really got to get to class. I'm going to be late."

"Damn right you're going to be late," Jade growled, "as in, 'the late Sinjin Van Cleef', if you don't tell me what he said."

"He just said you two were on a break," Sinjin squeaked, shrinking back.

"A break?" Jade said, outraged. "We're not on a break!"

"Don't hurt me."

"I'm not going to..." But it was too late; Sinjin had bolted, leaving Jade to stew in her anger. "Right, that's it," she said.

"What are you going to do?" Tori asked.

"Who the hell does he think he is? No one gets to be on a break with me. Not unless I say so."

"I'm not sure that's how dating works, Jade."

"And what the hell would you know about it, Little Miss Singleton?"

"Hey! I have had boyfriends, you know."

"Sorry. I'm just warming up."

"I understand. You've got to get into the 'zone'."

"Damn right. So," Jade rubbed her hands together, "where was I?"

"You were going to kill Beck."

"Oh, yeah. Okay, see you later."

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"We're on a break?" she demanded as she appeared in front of Beck's car, sending his admirers scattering for cover.

"Uh, yeah," Beck rubbed the back of his neck, as he always did when he was nervous. "About that. I was going to tell you..."

"Oh, were you?" she fumed. "Well that's pretty fucking generous of you. Please, don't feel you need to rush these things, any time will do. Hell, why don't you just send me a note by carrier pigeon, or pin it to back of a passing camel, or maybe you could just scratch it on the back of a tortoise and tell it to take the long way round, because there's no reason I'd need to know sooner than fucking Sinjin that my own boyfriend's dumping me!"

"I'm not dumping you!" Beck protested. "I just think, while all this is going on, that maybe we should take a break."

"Yeah, right. So you don't have to look bad because your girlfriend's a-"

"Shhh!"

"Don't 'shhh' me, Beck Oliver! Right that's it. You want a break, you've got a break. Just count yourself lucky it's not your neck."

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"So how did it go?" Tori asked. She was sitting on the steps as the other girl returned and dropped down next to her.

"Well, it wasn't my best work," Jade said, modestly, "But I think I got my point across."

"So you guys are back together?"

"No, we're on a break."

"I thought you said-"

"I said, he doesn't get to decide. Now I've decided we're on a break. Permanently."

"Oh. Okay, well, if that's what you want." Tori made to get up. "I guess I'd better get to-"

"Where the hell do you think you're going?"

"To class."

"Hey, I've just broken up with my boyfriend. It's your job to stay here and give me sympathy."

"Why me?"

"Because no one else will," Jade said, honestly.

"I'm sure Cat-"

"Ahem."

Tori rolled her eyes. "Right, fine," she said. She reached out and patted Jade on the head, twice. "There, there," she intoned. "Everything's going to be all right." She took her hand back, leaving Jade's hair slightly disheveled. "Is that better?"

"I'm overwhelmed by your sincerity. I think I'm going to cry."

"Well you'd get a lot more sympathy if you hadn't been the one who dumped him."

"Hey, don't you take his side," Jade said. "He practically accused you of setting all this up."

"Me?" Tori said, puzzled. "Why would he... Oh, God. You didn't tell him about New Year's Eve, did you?"

"No of course I didn't tell him."

"Then why would he think it was me?"

"I don't know, Tori. Maybe because it's just the kind of dumb-ass scheme you usually come up with."

"My schemes are not dumb-ass!"

"Paying a guy to date me?"

"Okay, some of them are," Tori conceded. "But not this one."

"So it was you?"

"Tori sighed, and rested her head lightly in her hands. "Yes, Jade," she said, patiently. "Of course it was. Because everyone knows that the way to a girl's heart is through crippling humiliation."

"...You know, you've got a very sarcastic tone, sometimes, Tori Vega."

"Me?"

"You need to work on that. Learn to be more of a people person, like me."

"Ha!"

"So, you want to skip next class and grab a coffee?"

Tori hesitated. "I don't know, I really-"

"Dickers is taking it."

"Let's go."

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And so the two of them found themselves spending even more time together, and in other circumstances both of them might, in hindsight, have come to see 'Photogate' as a good thing, as a gentle nudge towards real friendship. But Fate decided to intervene. And it did so in the form of the new Principal, Mr. Jennings.

Mr. Jennings had been at the school for almost a month, and so far no one had noticed. A mild-mannered man, he'd found himself surrounded by a staff and student body of prodigious talent and personality, and, having no talent of his own to speak of other than a remarkable capacity for collecting green pens, and the personality of a wet dishcloth, he'd failed to make his mark. But no longer. Because now Mr. Jennings had found himself a crusade.

He was going to make a speech in the Asphalt Café. It wasn't compulsory to attend, because Mr. Jennings would never do anything as terribly authoritarian as demand anything, but he let it be known that the food truck wouldn't open until he'd finished, and he was prepared to wait a long time for stragglers.

"Here at Hollywood Arts," he began, "we pride ourselves on our individuality. That's why we're here. We celebrate each other's talents, we encourage diversity. We tolerate our differences, because we know more than most what it's like to be unique. To be special."

"What the hell does he know about being special?" Jade grumbled.

"Shh," Tori said. "I'm listening to this."

"Of course you are," Jade said. She folded her arms on the table, laid her head on them, and closed her eyes.

It turned out that 'diversity' and 'tolerance' were very much Mr. Jennings' thing. Jade didn't bother keeping count of the number of times he brought them up, but if this had been a drinking game she'd have been having her stomach pumped by now.

"… which is why it pains me to discover that we have in our midst a campaign of bigotry, an attack on the principles we hold dear."

Jade started to pay a little more attention. There were in a performing arts school in the most liberal state in America, it was hard to see exactly what kind of prejudice was running riot through the halls. All she could make out through the bluster was that there was something about a couple getting victimized for being gay, which didn't seem very likely. In fact as far as she was aware, the only people getting a hard time right now were her and Tori, what with the whole stupid… picture… thing… Oh, God.

"… an attempt to smear two young people who have done nothing more than express their love for each other…"

No, that couldn't be right. No, no, no. The Principal definitely had Jade's attention now. And Tori's, who was staring at him in horror.

"Who are we," he went on, "to judge others? Who are we to say what's right? Who are we to mock and belittle those who don't conform to what society demands?"

He was looking right at them, hand outstretched in a gesture of sincerity, and there was no doubt who he was talking about. "These two young girls…"

"Oh, my God," Tori gasped. "He's going to out us!"

"You're going to 'out' us in a minute!" Jade hissed. "Shut up!"

But it was too late. Their response had identified them as the target of Mr. Jennings munificence, and now everyone was looking at them, some curious, some nudging each other and whispering, some grinning. Jade closed her eyes. It was all a dream. All a bad dream. Across the table, Beck got up and left, his face like thunder.

And then Cat, who hadn't been listening at all and thought Mr. Jennings was congratulating them for something, began to clap. Someone else picked it up, then another, and, as the ripple of applause grew louder, the Principal, having long since learned the lesson that where the crowd go, the leader must follow, joining in enthusiastically in the hope of pretending he started it. Jade opened her eyes and looked around, aghast.

"They're cheering, Tori," she muttered through clenched teeth. "Why are they cheering?"

"Just go with it," Tori whispered.

"What?" She looked at Tori, who was sporting her most winning smile, eyelids fluttering in modest acceptance of their adulation. "Are you out of your mind?"

"Just do it."

Jade rolled her eyes, helpless to object. Nothing made sense anymore. She managed to muster up a wan smile, and nodded in acknowledgement. Eventually Mr. Jennings, satisfied he'd saved the day, gave them a cheery wave and left, and as the hubbub began to die down, the food truck opened its shutters and students began to wander away, leaving only Cat, Andre, Jade and Tori at the table. Cat, unaware that anything out of the ordinary had happened, began to hum as she pulled out a coloring book, and Andre seemed to have suffered some kind of seizure, rendering him incapable of doing anything but opening and closing his mouth as he stared at them. When she judged they were no longer the center of attention, Jade stood up, grabbed Tori by the arm, and leaned close to her ear.

"Could I have a word, sweetheart," she growled. "Somewhere in private."

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So what do you think? I know it's not the most original plot, but I'm hoping we can still have some fun with it. If you like it, let me know. If not, rest assured VoltageStone's excellent version is also back up and running (and probably makes more sense).

I'm going to try and keep this and 'Green Eyes' going at the same time, unless there's a strong preference for one or the other.