27. Red Flags.
Jade had stayed holed up in her room for the whole weekend, only occasionally emerging for food. By the time Monday rolled around, she had compiled an entire song from the writing in her notebook. She recorded a demo for herself and listened to it thirteen times before deleting it, changing one word in the first verse, and recording again. When she fell asleep on Sunday night, her song stuck in her head — always a good sign.
On Monday morning, with a cup of coffee in one hand and her PearPod in the other,Jade attacked Cat.
"Cat!"
"'Morning Jadey!" Cat waved enthusiastically, despite the fact that Jade was standing two feet away.
"Listen to this," Jade shoved the PearPod and a pair of earbuds at the redhead, then tapped her foot impatiently as Cat closed her eyes and bobbed her head to the music. Finally, after what felt like about four millennia, Cat opened her eyes and handed the PearPod back.
"Is that Ke$ha's new song?"
"I… What? No. That's me, I wrote it last night."
"Ohh," Cat nodded her head in understanding.
"I don't sound anything like Ke$ha."
"I thought maybe they were just taking her in a new direction."
"Anyway," Jade rolled her eyes. "Did you…you know, did you like it?"
Cat nodded, bouncing slightly on her toes.
"Do you think it's…effective?"
"For what?" the redhead cocked her head until she practically had her ear against her shoulder.
"For—" Jade cut herself off as Tori approached.
"Hey guys!" Tori greeted with a smile. She pulled out her PearPhone. "Look at this thing I found last night on—"
Jade just walked away.
Hollywood Arts may have been short many things — reasonably sane teachers, legitimate sports teams, famous alumni — but backup singers was not one of them. In fact, all Jade had to do was burst into one of the advanced vocals classes later that morning and pick three girls who looked like they might be tolerable (a.k.a. not friends with either Vega sister). Musicians were only slightly more difficult to acquire, since Jade had to search through the entire music department to find the accompanists she needed. But by the lunchtime on Monday her name was on the "original songs" list in Sikowitz's room, and she had recruited an entire band. On top of that, she found a coupon for a free coffee sticking out of someone's bag, got a 100% on a History quiz she didn't study for, and got to terrify some kid who tried to talk to her about something (she didn't even know what) while she was at the vending machine. As she sipped her soda, she couldn't help but smile smugly. For the first time in awhile, she was having a good day. Like, she was downright gleeful.
But of course nothing like that lasts long for Jade West.
After lunch, she was at her locker searching for that free coffee coupon when someone approached her.
"Hey."
Jade just looked at the guy. She'd never seen him before. He was wearing a pullover hoodie though, so she wanted to hate him. Hoodies needed zippers.
"My name's Gilbert."
As soon as Jade stalked out of that too-crowded janitor's closet, her anger dissipated. She picked up her bag from where she'd thrown it on the ground, and felt nothing but sheer humiliation. Just what she needed today— a kick in the teeth, from Tori and Andre nonetheless. And Meredith. Jade slouched in her seat in the back of her study hall, only looking up when she felt Cat take the desk to her right.
"Hi Jadey!"
"Yeah."
"Oh no," Cat's face fell. "You're sad."
Jade shrugged, sitting up and leaning against the back of the plastic chair. It dug into her spine.
"Aw, tell me what's wr—" Cat was cut off by her own bloodcurdling scream. Her soprano shriek filled the room as she flapped her hands violently at her ear. Then, as if nothing was the matter, she stopped. Smiling absently, Cat leaned on her elbow. "Tell me what's wrong."
Jade (and the rest of the students wandering into the classroom) was staring at Cat in horror.
"What the fuck?!"
Cat opened her mouth to respond (quite indignantly, from the look on her face), but Robbie rushed in before she could get the words out.
"There you are! I've been researching butterfly behavior, and I've come to the conclusion that this is not normal."
"That what isn't normal?" Jade interrupted.
"Oh, a baby butterfly fl—" she started screaming again. When she stopped, Robbie responded.
"A baby butterfly flew in her ear," he explained calmly.
"What?"
"I said, a baby butterfl—"
"I heard you. I meant how the fuck does that even happen?"
"Oh, well you see I'm babysitting my sister's butterfly for her, and Cat wanted to say hi, so—"
"I don't care how it happened!"
"Okay," Robbie sat down on the other side of Cat and opened his notebook for class. "So Jade, I hear you're performing a song at the Full Moon Jam this Friday."
Jade's eyes widened. The song. She couldn't perform that song this Friday — not after the events of today. She let out a little whimper of frustration as she rubbed her temples.
"Jadey, you never told me what was wrong."
"Oh no, something's wrong?" Robbie and Cat looked at Jade with matching wide eyes.
"No," Jade started throwing everything from her desk back into her bag. "Nothing's wrong. Everything's just peachy."
She turned her shoulders to squeeze past three giggling sophomores to get out of the room. Cat had started screaming again so, thankfully, no one followed. Jade resolved to spend her study hall destroying something from Tori's locker. But as soon as she turned the corner to go down the stairs she saw a certain Canadian that she now despised more than literally anything. She steeled herself for two seconds, put on her BAMF smirk, and stomped down the stairs.
"Jade," Beck approached her with a PearPad in his hands.
"No. Absolutely not."
"I just wanted to—"
"Stop talking to me."
"But—"
"Stop talking to me."
"Sikowitz—"
"Stop talking to me."
"Needs to—"
"Stop talking to me."
Beck stopped for a moment, staring at Jade in exasperation.
"Sikowitz needs to know—"
"St—"
"Oh for God's sake!" Beck interrupted her this time. "Let me finish! Sikowitz needs to know if you're still performing in the Full Moon Jam."
"Why?" Jade was genuinely perplexed. 'Sikowitz' and 'follow-up' weren't exactly two ideas that meshed.
"I don't know," Beck shrugged. "I guess some people've chickened out or whatever."
"So you're asking me if I've chickened out?" her voice went into the 'danger' register.
"I'm just doing what Sikowitz asked me to do."
"Well you can tell Sikowitz that I have not chickened out and I will be performing on Friday."
"Okay. Great."
"'Great?'"
Beck just rolled his eyes, making a note on the PearPad.
"Listen, Jade…"
"Stop talking to me."
"Fine."
They split paths, Beck heading up the stairs and Jade continuing on her way toward Tori's nauseating "Make it Shine" locker. She was fiddling with the lock (Vega apparently learned her lesson from the last time Jade poked around in her locker) when she heard a petite "ahem."
"Oh. Hey Vega," Jade smiled mischievously. "Just admiring your locker."
"Yeah. Sure," Tori covered the lock with her hand as she input her combination and opened the star-spangled door. Jade started walking away. "Jade, wait."
Jade pivoted to face Tori with a raised eyebrow.
"Jade, I'm really sorry I paid Gilbert to ask you out."
"Sorry you chose Gilbert, or sorry you did it at all?"
"Um…both."
Jade rolled her eyes.
"Seriously though," Tori pleaded, "can you forgive me?"
"Tori," Jade stepped closer and Tori cringed in apprehension, "Tori do you even realize how humiliating that was?"
"Jade, I'm so sorry."
"'Sorry' doesn't make a difference. If 'sorry' was some sort of magic word that could take us all back in time and actually fix things, then yeah, I'd totally forgive you. But it isn't. 'Sorry' doesn't do shit."
"No, you're—" Tori sighed, "you're right. It doesn't. So what can I do?"
"Jump into an active volcano."
"I…can't do that."
"Get barbecued by a suburban dad."
"…I can't do that either."
"Then there's nothing you can do," Jade shrugged. "So…whatever."
"Hey," Tori brightened up slightly. "Cat and I had plans for a girl's night tonight, but she's having this, like, butterfly thing. So maybe you could come over and we could paint our nails and you could talk about Beck and stuff."
"Why in God's name would I want to do that?" Jade looked revolted.
"Well, maybe if you talk about it — you know, get your feelings out and stuff — maybe that'll help you feel better," Tori suggested innocently with a sympathetic smile.
"I don't have any feelings. I'm fine. He could get sucked into the Saw universe tomorrow and I wouldn't care. He could shave his head and I wouldn't care. He could—"
"Methinks the lady doth protest too much," Tori grinned cheekily while poking Jade in the arm.
"Methinks thou shouldst fuck off."
And another one bites the dust.
Yeah let's be clear, I'll trust no one.
Woah. I published a chapter. Holy shit. Well, I'll start by apologizing for not posting in forever. But, I've graduated now (yay!) and have a stupid amount of free time. So now all I need to write is inspiration. Which has been pretty hard to come by. So any comments/suggestions/questions you have would be helpful. Okay. So this chapter's song is "Elastic Heart" by Sia, whom I love. Chapter 13 was "Buy the Stars" by Marina and the Diamonds. 12 was "Head Full of Doubt/Road Full of Promise" by the Avett Brothers. 11 was "Speechless" by Lady Gaga. 10 was "The Party" by Regina Spektor. 9 was "No Matter what You're Told" by Broken Bells. 8 was "Rootless" by Marina. 7 was "Why Am I the One?" by fun. 6 was "Highway of Fallen Kings" by Civil Twilight. Okay. Thanks. And sorry. And thanks.