3. Clip the Lines.

It didn't feel as comforting as she thought it would to drive back home. For all the stories she spewed about her terrible childhood, Jade had rarely come home to an empty house, even after the divorce. Seeing the house in the distance sitting vacant and dark in the shadows brought an unwelcome sense of foreboding to the back of her mind. As she pulled into the driveway beside her mother's abandoned car, the foreboding moved from her mind and pulled her stomach into her shoes. There was a light on inside. Jade clutched a pair of scissors in her hand and shut her car door as quietly as she could, running stealthily up to the front door. She tried the knob, crouching beneath the window. It was open. She crept across the threshold and moved toward the light in the kitchen. Someone was…cooking? Jade could hear something sizzling over a burner and an unsettling voice humming inharmoniously.

"Sinjin?" Jade shouted.

"Oh, h-hi…." Sinjin van Cleef was dropping a handful of sliced mushrooms into a skillet on the stove.

"What the hell are you doing here?"

"Um…." Sinjin stirred the mushrooms with a wooden spoon, searching for an acceptable answer. Knowing there wasn't one, Jade threw her scissors into the wall by his head like a darts champion.

"Have you been sleeping here?!"

"No."

"Don't lie to me."

"No, really, I've just been cooking!"

"Oh my God, get out!" Jade roared. "Get out get out get OUT!"

Sinjin scrambled to gather his things (recipe cards and containers of spices, mostly) and bolted out the door. Jade, fuming, turned off the burner and threw the skillet in the sink. Yanking her scissors out of the wall, Jade marched around the entire house, looking for evidence of the moss-haired creep. Thankfully, she had unmade her bed and packed up most of her clothes before moving in with the Valentines, so there wasn't much for Sinjin to get into in her bedroom. Nonetheless, Jade couldn't help but squirm at the thought of him as she packed up the extra clothes she came for, and locked every door and window before heading back to her car. Once in her car, she slammed the door and seethed. Who does that? Just breaking into someone's house like that. To use their kitchen? Jade's kitchen wasn't even that nice. Eventually her anger lapsed into annoyed bemusement, and she started the drive back to Cat's house. Surprisingly, Cat was there, drinking hot chocolate in the kitchen with Mrs Valentine.

"Hi Jadey!"

"Hey. You're home early," Jade said, setting the box of clothes on the stool next to Cat.

"Yeah, Andre lost a karaoke competition and he got really mad and he and Tori kind of started a fight with the other people and then we left."

Jade chuckled.

"Did you find everything you needed at your house?" Mrs Valentine asked, setting a mug of cocoa in front of Jade.

"Yes, thank you." More than I needed, really.

"Good. Well, I'm going to call Mr Valentine and see how things are going. 'Night, girls."

"'Night, mom!"

"'Night Mrs Valentine."

"Are you excited about going back to school?" Cat asked, a mug in each hand as she followed Jade upstairs.

Jade shrugged, unpacking the box of clothes into the bursting closet that was rapidly becoming more black than pink.

"Well, I'm excited."

"Great. You can just be excited for both of us."

Cat nodded solemnly. It was a big responsibility being excited for two people.

Jade did her best to ignore Cat for most of Sunday, often resorting to her bag of distractions — which meant throwing coloring books, lollipops, and other goodies as far away from her as possible to draw the redhead away. This left Jade mostly free to recheck every assignment she had missed during her absence and redo her nails. She had hoped to plan her outfit for the next day without Cat's regular advice to wear more pink, but Cat was determined to help her friend with her "debut" attire. After trying on nearly every article of clothing Jade owned, the two girls finally settled on an outfit, Cat intent on including a pop of color. Jade went along with it to shut the girl up, but knew she'd be re-planning the next day. When said day, Monday, rolled around, Jade woke before her alarm for the first time in years. Coffee in hand (obviously first priority) she threw Cat's outfit contribution across the room, sticking to her classic black. She was already starting very carefully on her makeup when Cat's alarm went off — a poppy radio station that made Jade slightly nauseous.

"Oh Jadey you look so great!" Cat said, somehow automatically chipper even on a Monday morning.

Jade smiled slightly, but didn't abandon her endeavor of perfect eyeliner. It took her another twenty minutes to be content with her face, another five for her teeth after breakfast. Finally, though, raven-haired and redheaded were on the road to Hollywood Arts, Jade's self-titled "badass bitch" playlist shaking the speakers. The pounding bass drew the eyes of everyone in the vicinity as Jade parked.

"You go, Cat," Jade directed. Cat obeyed cheerfully, skipping into the building. Jade stayed in the car for a moment, reapplying her lipstick in the visor mirror and covering her eyes with the darkest sunglasses she owned. Steeling her nerves, she grabbed her schoolbag and emerged into the sun, lips set in her signature smirk. She approached the familiar crowd at the familiar table in the Asphalt Cafe, focusing on the sound of her boots against the pavement.

"Look who it is," Andre greeted congenially. "Jade West, back in action."

"Yeah, we thought the Wicked Witch melted!" Rex cackled.

Jade had swerved away from the table and started stalking away before Robbie could even scold the puppet.

"Very smooth," She heard Beck say stonily to the ventriloquist. The (very secret) forever optimistic part of Jade made her pause for a moment to hear if Beck would say more. He didn't, allowing the previous conversation to pick up again. The bitter pessimism that everyone had learned to expect from her reviled her inward optimist. What were you expecting? Why would anyone defend you? Robbie's pun was way more important than how you felt about it. And it's not like he ever cared how people made you feel.

Cat, the embodiment of optimism, was suddenly in front of her.

"Jadey, wait, everyone's over there!"

"I'm going elsewhere."

"What? Why?" Cat's eyes widened in absolute devastation. "You're back in school so you have to hang out with us otherwise it's like you're not even here!"

"Yeah what a shame," Jade said blankly.

Digress from the people once by your side

once by your side but now that it's over

have to pick up and just start again, start again.

So really not much happened here. Things kind of pick up in chapter 5... I guess. I'm a little stuck on this story, I'm not gonna lie. Any requests you have (besides "more Bade" because it's coming), could be helpful. I'm kind of feeling like shit today because I sprained my ankle and I have no clue how. But no dance for three weeks means maybe more writing? Hopefully. Anyway, please review! It'll make me feel better and improve this horrifyingly boring story :)