23. A Shadow on My Mind.

Jade looked out the window only to find the driveway void of her father's car. She crept down the stairs still in her pajamas and clutching her phone. The house was disturbingly quiet. Jade wandered into the kitchen to find a note and an envelope on the counter that had been covered in spilled wine just last night. Frowning, Jade picked up the note. Gone for the weekend. Left money for food. Will return Sunday evening. Sure enough, the unsealed envelope was filled with twenty dollar bills. Jade crumpled up the note and tossed it aside, fishing through the envelope and calculating the shopping she could do if she ate nothing but cereal for the weekend. But as she passed through the foyer to head back upstairs to dress, something caught her eye. Her car keys weren't hanging on the hook. He'd trapped her here. Richard had taken off with Celia for the weekend and trapped Jade in the house. He got to punish his daughter without risk of being exposed for two whole days. Plenty of time for him to think up an alternative plan — without doubt they'd be unreachable for the weekend.

Jade shook her head angrily, squeezing her PearPhone until it hurt. When the device started buzzing in her hand, she jumped (inanimate objects never fought back before). A picture of a certain artificial redhead appeared as the phone vibrated.

"Hi Cat."

"OMG! Jadey! You're right, it's me!"

"Wow, it's almost like I knew who was calling," Jade remarked in her Valley Girl voice. Cat giggled herself halfway into hysterics. "Why are you calling, Cat?"

"Oh, I wanted to hang out! And I'm so glad I called, you're so funny," Cat kept giggling. Jade couldn't help the smile that graced her face for a moment.

"You wanna sleep over tonight?" she asked. "My dad's out for the weekend, so we can do whatever."

"Okay! Yay!" Cat squealed. "Oh Jadey I'm so excited we're going to have so much fun!"

"Have your mom drop you off whenever," Jade instructed. "I am officially refusing to get out of my pajamas."

"Okay. I'll get into my jammies too and we can have a pajama day!"

"Text me when you're leaving and I'll order pizza."

"KK!" Cat started cheering and squealing all over again. Jade lost the battle to another smile as she hung up.

"I'm sad you're not going to be in the play," Cat sighed. She was sitting on Jade's bed, surrounded by mounds of pillows and blankets, reading the script for Sikowitz's show. The one and only performance was approaching quickly, less than a week away.

Jade shrugged as she adjusted a frame she was hanging on the wall. She stood back to admire her work — most of her butterflies, paintings, and scissors were back hanging on the walls. The only true casualty of the unauthorized repaint was the Scissoring poster, which was beyond repair on her dresser. (Cat nearly cried when Jade explained the carnage).

"I don't know why Sikowitz is being such a meanie," Cat remarked, tossing the script on Jade's desk. "You're so much better than Tori."

"What?" Jade looked at Cat, surprised.

"Well you are!"

"Clearly we're the only two people that think that," Jade turned back to the wall.

"No, Beck agreed with me."

"Oh," Jade stayed impassive. She tore a piece of pizza crust off with her teeth.

"Yeah," Cat continued, spreading the blankets out over the floor next to the bed. "Beck thinks Sikowitz is upset about something and is taking it out on you. I think Sikowitz is like this one boy I met when I was visiting a doctor with my brother. He was really mean me, and the doctor said he was mean to people who dyed their hair bright colors because someone with dyed hair tried to hurt him or something when he was little. So maybe Sikowitz is being mean to you because you remind him of something."

Jade's eyebrows hit her hairline.

"Whatty?"

"Nothing! That was just…really…insightful."

"Well, I've been thinking about it for awhile," Cat shrugged. "It makes me sad when people are mean to you."

"Well, it makes me sad too," Jade admitted, plopping down on the bed next to the redhead. Cat sighed, patting Jade on the head as if it was comforting.

"It makes Beck sad too. He always sighs when Sikowitz says things that are mean and then he's grumpy for the rest of the day."

"Can that be, like, a taboo word for the night?" Jade asked irritatedly.

"What, 'grumpy?'"

"No, Beck. I don't want to talk about him."

"Oh okay."

"He asked me out on Friday."

"Who?"

"Beck."

"I thought you didn't want to talk about him."

"I don't!"

"Then why—"

"I don't know!" Jade squeezed her eyes shut.

"What did you say to him?" Cat asked.

"I told him no."

"So you don't like him anymore?"

"I…I don't know," Jade picked at her nails, making sharp clicking sounds. "I…I guess I like the idea of him. But the reality wasn't really…" She shrugged, trailing off.

Cat sniffed, tears shining in her wide eyes.

"I'm sorry," Jade comforted immediately. "I shouldn't've said anything. He and I agreed that we'd keep it between us 'cause we didn't want to upset you after—"

"No, it's not that!" Cat interrupted. Her voice was up an octave. "I'm only sad 'cause you're sad."

"I'm not—"

"Yes you are! I told you the other day: you're scared no one likes you but we all miss you so much!"

"I've been hanging out with you guys," Jade defended, crossing her arms. They can't miss her if she's with them 24/7.

"But not really. You're not there."

"I went to Tori's on Wednesday!"

"Yeah, but…I don't know. You're not right," Cat shrugged. "And we all want to make you better."

Jade had more fun with Cat than she'd expected once she'd escaped from the black hole that was the conversation about her relationship. Her car keys had appeared back on the hook by Monday morning; Richard and Celia returned home after Jade had gone to sleep on Sunday. Richard was, understandably, avoiding her by returning to the office instead of working from home. She'd have to buck up and start harassing him for the money. Jade knew she would much rather not tell Celia about Richard's affair. She wasn't sure she could live through another divorce, despite her lack of investment in this particular relationship. There was no way it wouldn't be messy. Jade had witnessed enough messy breakups for a lifetime, (ninety percent of them being hers). But the quarter ended in two weeks — if Jade didn't get the money in, she wouldn't be able to return.

Jade stuck with Cat on Monday. The redhead seemed to be the only thing that could distract Jade from the looming deadline of tuition payments. But another possible distraction appeared in the form of an announcement from Sikowitz.

"Good evening children!" Sikowitz greeted just before lunch. "As we all know, the end of the quarter is approaching"— Jade pretended not to feel ten pairs of eyes upon her—"so, I have some announcements. Firstly, make sure you've turned in any missing work so you receive full credit for all of your classes, blah blah blah grades blah blah blah college. Secondly, Festus would like to inform you of a menu change at the Grub Truck. I have no idea what it is. Thirdlyyyyy…I would like to announce that I am in charge of planning this quarter's Full Moon Jam. For anyone who would like to sign up, there are two sign-up sheets on the window over there. One is for original songs, the other for covers."

"When is it?" Robbie asked.

"When is what?" Sikowitz raised his eyebrows.

"…the Full Moon Jam…." Andre narrowed his eyes.

"Oh! It is a week from this Friday. And this Friday, as you know, my play, Virtually Nonexistent, starring Tori, is at seven o'clock. Be there."

Sikowitz stood from where he had been crouching on the stage and began the lesson. But even as Jade watched Robbie and some blonde girl pretending to be penguins doing yoga, her eyes kept straying to the two pieces of paper taped to the window. There were no names on the list yet, but she knew the slots would fill up fast. She glanced up at Beck as he went on stage as Head Penguin Yogi, then back at the sign-ups.

At the end of the period, there were seven names on the sign-up sheets. Jade's was not one of them.

Oh, we have paved these streets

With moments of defeat.

This one was all over the place - sorry. The next chapter is done, but it doesn't have a title, and the one after that is half done...and that's all I have... Not going to lie, I'm a liiiittle behind. And I'm stressed as fuck with real-life stuff. But I'll keep plugging away and see what I can scrounge up for Saturday! Thanks for your kind reviews, they mean a lot.