Voodoo Curse

Disclaimer: Don't own Victorious

A/N:

Chapter 7 (Stability and Shelter)

"What the hell is this?" Jade paced in front of her former home, staring down at the smartphone her father had given her. It wasn't new so much as it was a former version he owned before upgrading to a newer version.

His explanation of the phone and the process of its upgrading made about as much sense as Erwin's had. She was still hung up over 'data' and 'wifi'.

Currently she was the internet, making use of the unlimited data plan her father had, which she thought may have been a good thing since she was using so much trying to figure out how the phone operated as some sort of pocket computer.

"Why am I bothering with this right now?" She lowered the phone and took a slow, deep breath. Every nerve in her body was screaming from the storm her stress-filled mind was under fire from. "Screw looking up Benatar…whatever happened to cassettes and records?"

Her father had also given her something called an iPod, and she left it his house.

With a steadying breath of air, she pushed open the seemingly ancient door to her home and walked in. In the center of the room were a number of house cleaning products she brought over from her father's place. Chores around the house always calmed her, steadying her mind from any frantic thoughts or depression she may have suffered, and now was the perfect time to get to cleaning.

The teenage emotions and anxiety she'd faced so long ago were finally returning to her; she'd recently had a thought that Beck might be looking towards other girls again. That was when she knew she needed to find a way to regain control of her thoughts and her emotions; it was of little doubt to her that she'd be able to find a way to save herself and Beck if she didn't find stability.

"Broken home, here I come." She grabbed a pair of thick latex gloves that slightly resembled gardening gloves, and yanked them over her hands while examining the living room from the top down.

"Sweeping's last." Her eyes narrowed and she spoke to the house as though speaking to another person. "Think I can't clean you up? Don't underestimate a stressed out housewife with nothing to do…"

She felt a sudden chill that ran down her arms and legs, leaving a trail of goosebumps behind. "Another thing…" Jade inhaled deep and started to growl. "What that red haired girl's saying about spirits and rituals? If any spirits, demons, or otherwise are hanging around in this house right now. It's time you left, this is my home."

Jade stepped forward, her eyes drifted to the left and her nostrils flared. "I was going to raise my babies in this house, my husband was going to retire in this home, and we were going to die in this home." Tears welled up in her eyes and she started to choke on the saliva building up in her throat. "We were going to ie old and with grandchildren, not young and in front of our baby girl. This is my house, and if there is anything 'connected', you have to leave. Now!"

Her firmness brought forth her confidence, and she felt an overwhelming amount of peace in the odd silence of her home. Feeling as though she won, if there was anything to win against, she smirked and grabbed the broom and dustpan.

"Well then. Let's go ahead and get started, shall we?" While she wanted to do the sweeping last, she needed to get all the debris out of the way. The structure of the home still seemed stable, despite being left to rot for fifteen years. There was a chance she could convince Beck to do some heavy duty work on the home.

"Deed's still in our name, we still own the house, so no one can question that," she thought.

It was true that both her father and Beck's parents never sold the home, for reasons she didn't quite know, but she was grateful. As far as she understood, her father said they held out hope maybe one day the couple would return, and they wanted them to return to a home.

Perhaps a more accurate statement would suggest that her father had taken over ownership of the home, but left it empty and untouched for almost the last decade.

Several hours went by before she was anywhere near finished, and it was beginning to grow dark outside. Jade decided to take a break by sitting at the stone island counter in her kitchen and to start up the laptop computer she had with her.

It was another gift from her father, this time it was something that he went out of his way to go to the store and buy.

Her father had already done a great deal for her in regards to this particular home; for example, he called the electric company and had them turn it back on. The things he was having done was because she asked him to.

As for internet access, for now she was using the way that was familiar to her: Ethernet and phone lines. A dialup modem was 'simple' and a 'thing of history' for these present times, but she liked having the feeling of working with something familiar at her fingertips.

Alone in the empty kitchen with only her laptop in front of her and the dim ceiling light above her, she felt incredibly nervous and uncomfortable. Beck was going to swing by since he knew she was there, but he couldn't get there fast enough.

Beside her computer was a plate with cheese and crackers. As Jade searched the world wide web, she grabbed a cracker and focused half her attention on it as she ate.

The internet as it was had changed dramatically since 1995. Gone were the days of the simplistic browser and floppy disks, now browsers could hold multiple 'tabs' as they were called and almost anything could be found just by typing a question in a search bar.

Seeing websites like Amazon and Ebay filled her with amazement and intrigue. Witnessing internet celebrities like those on youtube and iCarly provided a distraction from the somber silence that surrounded her.

Then came the more stunning discovery; social media. While at the school, she heard a student make a comment about parents finding their children on social media, or how their grandmother discovered Facebook and was posting countless cat photos.

"Beck might do that," she laughed while staring at what was called a 'meme' of a grumpy cat. The image was of the cat in front of a burning home with the words that said The Christmas Spirit? I exorcised it.

She belted out a brisk laugh and wiped away a stray tear while moving her eyes to the living room. Beyond the archway leading into the room was a light that came from the Christmas tree. She'd gone through the process of dusting every orb and cleaning it as much as she could, but wound up getting new Christmas tree lights since the old ones no longer worked. She didn't care much for Christmas anymore, not after what happened, but maybe things could change.

Much of the day not spent cleaning had been spent shopping for these new things, including food. She was considering moving back in the house, but wasn't sure if it was a good idea or not. On part, she didn't want to burden her father or force herself on him, but he was old and she wanted to spend time with him.

Jade stared back at the computer and looked to the registration screen of Facebook. "Email?" Her face scrunched and her forehead started to crease. "My email doesn't work anymore." She used to have an AOL server back in 1995, but the times had changed and that no longer was an option.

One of the sites that was prominent was yahoo, so she decided to create an email through that.

It took her several minutes to get an email set up and then an account on Facebook. The only reason she wanted to get one was because Erwin described it as a tool to keep in touch with friends and family.

"Okay." Her fingers slid off the keys and curled into her palm as she leaned towards the screen and stared at the 'upload photo' option. "How do I upload a picture?" She scratched her head and mumbled under her breath. "God I never thought I would be out of touch with technology. It's left me behind…"

There was a button that allowed her to skip the step, so she reached for the mouse and hurried past that part of setting her account up. When she reached a screen allowing her to enter a status, she thought for a moment and began to type.

"Taking a break from cleaning. Need help with this Face…book thing…"

Her shoulders dropped and she let out a sigh of defeat. All of a sudden a red number appeared over an icon in the upper corner of the screen. Her eyebrow rose and she clicked it, jumping back as she saw two people friend requesting her: Tori and Trina Vega.

Her heart began to thump and she hit the accept button on them. A message box popped up and she saw something from Tori. "Hey Jade, Trina and I were just lounging around after dinner and thought we might look you and Beck up on our phones. Did you just set up an account? It doesn't look like you have much…"

Tori added Trina to the chat. "My god she has less stuff on her account than our father," Trina said. Jade's face turned red and her eyes darted away from the screen.

She returned her hands to the keys and narrowed her eyes. "I just made a new account. I'm new to Facebook, and I'm sure your father would have a time with it too." Once she hit the enter key, she instantly regretted it.

To her surprise, the girls responded with an L-O-L. She didn't recognize what it meant, but didn't want to ask for fear of embarrassing herself. "Our dad hates facebook with a passion," Tori replied, "Also, we noticed Beck doesn't have an account."

"Hey Tori, did you see Jade's status message? I think she needs someone to walk her through setting Facebook up. Maybe you want to do that?"

"No I'll be fine," she typed hastily. She needed help with more than just Facebook, and she didn't want to admit that to either one of her daughters. Instead, she preferred to learn on her own.

Trina responded first after that, telling her if she wanted to get acquainted with what she could see on facebook, to click her name. "My account is set up as private, so unless you're on my friends list, you can't see anything at all about me. Since you're on my list, you can see certain information that I put out there…so go ahead and take a look, you can see what all you would be able to do with Facebook."

"Thank you." Jade did as suggested. Seeing her daughter's account page was so surreal to her. The primary photo was that of a glamour shot, and she gazed at it for a lingering amount of time. The photo was breathtaking, and it drew a tear from her eye.

As she scrolled, she could see the 'about me' page. It said Trina was 'in a relationship', and there were a few 'comments' on that status. One of which was Trina herself, answering a question someone posed. She stated the man was someone she met at camp, named Jason, and he didn't use social media.

It was intriguing and it made her happy to see she wasn't the only person in the world that didn't have social media.

Furthering that, there was only a few people in Trina's contact list-most of which were classmates or people she may have met personally. Clicking onto Tori's, she saw the girl had at least a couple hundred friends.

"Do you know all those people?" She typed to Tori. "Your sister only has a few in her friends list." Tori replied with another l-o-l.

"You sound like our mother," Tori replied. Jade scoffed and was tempted to type that she was, but thought better of her impulse. "No, some of those are friends of friends and others are just people who sent me friend requests."

"She's popular," Trina said while adding a face icon that was rolling its eyes. "I only use Facebook to talk to people I personally know. If someone sends me a friend request and I don't know them, I'm not adding them."

"Good, it seems like it could be dangerous having people you don't know looking at all your personal details." She knew she sounded like a parent, and to her credit she was one, but she also realized the importance of being careful not to sound older than she appeared. This was despite mentally being as old as she truly was.

As time passed by, Beck arrived with some items from the hardware store. Jade met him at the front door with a hug and took a step back to let him take in the newly cleaned home.

His hands clasped his waist and his chest puffed out as he inhaled strongly. "Wow," he said while scanning the clean living room. "You've outdone yourself."

The living room stains were still present, unfortunately, but other than the scorch marks and the spilled stain on the carpet, every surface was near spotless.

"Are you wanting to move back in, Jade?"

"I don't know." She took him by the hand and guided him into the kitchen. "I think it'll be good to come back here from time to time. I missed it, and it's still our home. Plus, with everything going on, I needed a stress relief. Housework helps."

"Do you feel better?"

"Yes."

He kissed her cheek and she smiled back at him. "Good. As long as you got it out of your system, that's all that matters."

"I talked to Trina and Tori, by the way." She pointed to the computer and watched Beck's cheery expression fall the moment he laid eyes on the device. "Set up a Facebook account and everything."

"Yeah, all this new technology stuff is over my head." She chuckled as he shook his head and moved towards the computer. "How are the girls?"

"Doing well, I think. They were on at the same time after eating dinner, so we talked through IM." Her hands slid towards her waist and her lips started to purse. "I probably sounded like a middle aged woman to them, though."

"By all accounts, we are middle aged." He sat at the counter and flashed a handsome smirk. She sat beside him, slowly moving her hand over his and gazing into his eyes. A warm, comfortable feeling swept through her, drawing peace out from within. Beck leaned forward, gently kissing the top of her head. "I love you."

"I love you." She placed her head on his shoulders and slipped her arms around him. While he was there to work on the windows and other parts of the house's structure, she just wanted him to hold her for now.

Beck hugged her back and they swayed together, feeling at peace for the first time since Holly's weird ritual. Perhaps now they could attempt to find stability, and fixing up the house was certainly a good place to start.

Always fun seeing Beck and Jade trying to figure out technology. You have to remember, in 1995, things were much different-especially the internet. So, what are your thoughts on everything happening here?