15. It's Easier to Give In.
Jade steadied herself as she heaved some textbooks into her locker then joined Cat at the lunch table with the rest of the gang.
"Hi Jade," Tori said cheerily.
"Yep," Jade responded like she had to Andre that morning.
"Jadey, my mom stopped buying English muffins because of my brother and I'm so sad," Cat said, eyes wide.
"What do English muffins have to do with your brother?" Robbie asked curiously.
"Oh, well he dips them in the toilet, and then—"
"Cat," Andre broke the news, placing a comforting hand on hers, "Cat, this is not something we want to hear about at lunch."
Cat pouted, sipping her pink smoothie.
"Where's Beck?" Tori asked suddenly, looking around. There were shrugs around the table, Jade muttering "who cares" under her breath. Tori gave Jade a look of confusion, but didn't comment. Jade sighed, smearing cream cheese on her bagel with dazed eyes.
Beck didn't say anything when he did finally show up at the table. He just shook his head noncommittally when Tori asked curiously where he'd been. Jade pretended not to feel the glances he kept casting her way as conversation resumed. She chewed the inside of her cheek and spun the cap to her cranberry juice in a circle with her finger, reliving every word exchanged between them in the janitor's closet not ten minutes earlier.
"…Jade? Jade! Jade!" Tori's voice broke into Jade's thoughts.
"What?"
"Did you hear what I said?"
"Of course I did," Jade lied sourly.
"No you didn't," Tori corrected. "I said Robbie looked very handsome today, and you are literally incapable of letting a comment like that go."
"Well maybe she thinks I look handsome today!" Robbie protested indignantly.
"Man, you're dee-loo-sional," Rex said with a shake of his plastic head.
"What are you trying to say, Tori?" Jade snapped, ignoring the boy and his puppet.
"That you're distracted. What's wrong?"
"Nothing."
"Jadey, something's wrong?!" Cat asked worriedly.
"Did no one hear what I just said?" Jade threw her hands up exasperatedly.
"But when you say nothing's wrong normally it's because something's wrong!" Cat said, her eyes welling up.
"Maybe you should just tell them, Jade," Beck said, looking at her encouragingly.
"OMG you two got back together?!" Cat shrieked, all traces of tears disappearing.
"How would that be something wro—" Beck shut his mouth quickly and looked down when he realized what he was about to say.
"That," Jade snapped, slapping the table sharply with her palm. "That is exactly what I'm talking about. Mind games."
"Jade, what happened?" Tori asked.
"Yeah, Jade, who did you murder this time?" Rex asked, chortling. Jade launched herself across the table, but Robbie pulled the ventriloquist dummy out of her reach.
"Robbie! I swear to God I will kill you if that puppet doesn't stop its shit!"
"Rex is not a puppet!"
"Jadey, don't hurt him!"
"Yeah, don't hurt me!"
"Robbie, you might want to hide."
"That's not going to stop her, Andre."
"For once, Vega's right."
"Jade, come on, leave him alone."
"Don't you dare tell me what to do!" Jade rounded on Beck, rendering Robbie safe (at least for now).
"I was making a suggestion!" Beck defended.
"A stupid one!"
"It's not stupid if it stops you from hurting someone!"
"Oh, so now it comes out. You all think I'm a criminal!"
"No one said that!"
"No one had to."
"Jade…." Beck sighed, closing his eyes. Jade sighed too, plopping back down onto the bench.
"So," Tori said, hesitant but apparently undeterred, "back to the original topic. Jade, what's going on?"
"Nothing."
"Can you please just tell us? We're your friends, we want to help."
"You can't help."
"You don't know that!" Tori protested.
"Okay, fine," Jade said. "Do any of you have twenty-five thousand dollars I could have? Because my dad is making me leave Hollywood Arts at the end of the quarter."
The Scooby Gang responded about as Jade expected them to.
"What?"
"Holy chiz."
"Noooo, Jaaadey!"
"Twenty-five thousand dollars?!"
"That's how much tuition costs, Vega," Jade said impatiently.
"That's so much money!" Tori's eyes were wide.
"You didn't know how much it costs to go here?" Andre asked, surprised. Tori shook her head.
"You all pay twenty-five thousand a year?!" she asked.
"I'm here on almost a full scholarship," Beck said.
"I'm on a full scholarship," Andre said.
"I have financial aid," Robbie revealed. Cat nodded — she did too.
"Wait," Tori said. Apparently she couldn't wrap her head around this new information. "That means my parents are paying fifty thousand dollars a year for me and Trina?"
"Look at you, doing math," Jade smirked.
"I can't believe you didn't know that," Andre said, chuckling a little at Tori.
"I can't believe how expensive it is here!" Tori exclaimed.
"This is a private high school in Los Angeles. Of course it's going to be fucking expensive!" Jade put in.
"So…. How are you going to pay for it?" Tori asked worriedly.
"I can't."
"Are you on any scholarships?" Robbie asked. Rex was laying on his lap out of sight.
"Yeah, I got the "Triple Threat" scholarship when I was a freshman," Jade said with a shrug. "It's like nine thousand a year."
"You got that?" Andre asked, impressed. Jade nodded.
"Okay, so that leaves sixteen thousand," Robbie calculated (on his PearPad). "Can you pay that?"
"Yeah, sure, I'll just crack open my piggy bank," Jade snipped, glaring. Robbie pursed his lips, looking back to his lunch.
"How did you pay for it when you were living with your mom?" Tori asked.
"Child support checks," Jade said quietly. She kept her eyes on the spinning juice cap.
"And your dad's refusing to pay for school now?" Tori confirmed. Jade nodded.
"I told you — he thinks my dreams are stupid. Actually, the word he used the other day was 'laughable.'"
The boys all looked down at the table while Tori looked at Jade sympathetically and Cat sniffled.
"You can't just leave," Cat said softly.
"I don't want to," Jade assured the tearful redhead.
"Then can you tell your dad that?" she asked innocently.
"I… I'll try that, Cat."
The bell rang. Beck's hand caught Jade's shoulder as the group dispersed to class.
"I'm sorry I yelled at you earlier. I didn't mean it."
"Well I did mean it," Jade declared, removing his hand from her shoulder and, once again, walking away. Once again, he didn't follow.
Sikowitz approached Jade suddenly where she sat alone in the dark audience of the Black Box during rehearsal. Tori was onstage, stuttering through her lines.
"Jade," he whispered. "Go tell those chuckleheads backstage that I can hear them whispering."
Jade sighed. Under normal circumstances, she would've said do it yourself, you crazy man, but in light of the talk they'd had that morning and the weird dynamic between them, she stood. She went the back way, going down the hall to the stage door, which stood ajar in its frame. Just as she reached out to open it, she stopped, listening to frantic whispers just beyond.
"…know, Cat. No one wants Jade to leave. But we can't really do anything about it. None of us has that kind of money."
"Can we do a bake sale?"
"I…I don't know how much that would really help…."
"But Beck! We have to do something! I mean… She's Jade."
"I know. And I love her too. But I don't know what we can really do."
"We can't do nothing."
"We won't do nothing."
"Promise?"
"Promise."
"Pinky promise?"
"Pinky promise," Beck confirmed with a chuckle.
"Good. Pinky promises are better than regular promises, and one time Jade said your promises didn't mean anything."
"Well I'm trying to fix that…." Beck sighed. "She really said that to you?"
"Yeah. And this other time Jade said—"
"What did I say?" Jade interrupted, deciding she'd heard enough. "Actually, I don't care. But hey, listen to what Sikowitz said: shut up. We can hear you whispering."
"Sorry!" Cat whispered, eyes wide. Jade smirked somewhat affectionately, retreating back into the hall to return to her spot in the theater.
"Hey wait," Beck whispered, following.
"You'll miss your cue," Jade declared quietly. She couldn't look him in the eye.
"Well, with the way Tori's flubbing up today we might not even get to my cue," Beck joked good-naturedly. Jade kept her eyes on the wall behind him.
"What did you want to say to me?" Jade asked a little impatiently. She looked at him. He just stared back, his forehead tensing ever so slightly, apparently trying to fathom the look in her eyes.
"Hm? Oh. I was just wondering…um…n-nothing. Never mind. You're right, I gotta go listen for my cue…."
"Yeah." Jade turned away, the phrase mind games weighing in her mind. She twisted a lock of hair around her finger tightly, pulling at her scalp. Though Cat was the one notorious for emotions as fickle as the weather, but it was Beck who was the thunderstorm.
I'm packing my bags, 'cause I don't want to be
the only one who's drowning in their misery.
Sorry to the user Prt, the Bat conversation got moved to this chapter when I was revising. It's just a little snippet, but I hope you enjoyed anyway. Thank you so so much for everyone's reviews, they give me life. For example, the user JandreIsPerfection told me I was the literal god of Jade torture on FanFiction. And seriously I want that on a t-shirt. Or my tombstone.