A/N: Now we journey outside the hospital (and the past) to see how the news hit Hollywood Arts.
Sorry it's short but I've been having a crazy few days.
BTW: Happy Valentines if you celebrate!
Monday morning at the eclectic high school began like any other on the surface. But if you listen to the murmurs of the student body, one hot topic is on everyone's mind. News traveled that the opening night of the play Heaven is a Step Away had a disastrous final act.
For those students in attendance, along with whatever member of the faculty or theater majors from the university; they witnessed quite the surprise. An unexpected moment occurred where lead Jade West took flight and it was practically over as soon as it started. Rumors of death and injury and mayhem permeated through the corridors of the school. This kind of drama grabbed the attention of any teenager, let alone Hollywood Arts who were already geared toward drama and show business.
Sinjin walked through the sea of student, sporting some freshly-healed scars on his face and a slight limp.
When he approached the gang, their jaws dropped. The skinny boy looked like he had staggered out of World War II.
"Holy hell!" blurted out Andre. "What happened to you, man?"
Tori stepped toward Sinjin, concerned. He did look rather banged up the more she looked closer.
"Did you fall of your bike?" she asked.
"Or a train?" asked Rex.
Robbie gave his dummy a disapproving glare. Cat just shook her head.
"I'm not the one who fell," Sinjin said, looking at the crew thinking they would say his words were morbid.
But they were clueless.
"Didn't you hear?" he asked, wide-eyed.
Beck and Cat looked at each other as did Robbie, Andre and Tori.
"Nu-uh," Cat said.
"Did any of you see Jade today?"
The friends stiffened in their stances and some folded their arms.
"We aren't exactly on speaking terms with Jade right now," Beck admitted.
"So you have no idea," Sinjin sighed. "She might be still in the hospital I think."
Tori grabbed his arm.
"Wait-wait-wait a second! Hospital?"
"What happened to Jade?" asked Andre.
Sinjin steadied himself by leaning against the row of lockers.
"Okay, you guys heard about a flying scene near the end of the play?"
"I've heard of it," Cat coldly stated.
"Anyway, we rehearsed and it was fine. But that day, the director wanted it to be bigger, more elaborate. Next thing I know some engineer students re-routed the track on the ceiling to go further out into the audience. He told me it was fine. And the stage hands were all so busy I couldn't get a word out of them. And we didn't have time to test it out."
Tori and Cat looked at each other, concerned.
"Don't tell me, it fell apart" Andre said.
"I was nervous," Sinjin said, feeling guilty. "I made sure Jade was secure and for a moment everything looked okay. But it wasn't attached to the ceiling as well as it looked. From my view it looked okay but they must have cut corners."
Beck shook his head.
"No shit."
"Next thing I knew it was chaos. I saw Jade and she was being taken onto a stretcher and hauled out of there. Bunch of us went soon after and went through triage and pretty much let go. This is just some minor cuts, nothing bad."
"But you were walking a little funny," Beck noted.
"Oh that," he chuckled a bit. "That was me twisting my foot a little trying to run when stuff started to fall, the brackets and plaster."
"Did you see Jade? At the hospital?" asked Tori. "Is she okay?"
"What's he look like, a doctor?" quipped Rex.
Everyone shot Robbie's little friend a death glare.
"Dude I swear," Andre warned. "You do something about your buddy there or he's christening my uncle's new fire pit."
Robbie let out a squeal and put Rex down on the floor.
"Have you talked to Jade at all?" Sinjin asked.
"No calls," Cat said. "Sort of part of the not-being-friends thing."
"Well I'd call her," Sinjin offered. "But she changed her number and didn't give it out to me. Not since the...incident."
Collectively the gang thought back to a Saturday night when Sinjin's older cousin gave him one of his "special brownies" and he got completely baked (no pun intended) and started calling his friends while high. This included Jade, whom he was feeling sweet toward that night and would blow up her phone with weird philosophical questions. It drove her crazy and she almost marched to his house with one of her trusty pairs of scissors.
The next school day, they all tried to explain to Sinjin about what happened because he had little memory of when he got fucked up. Then Jade played one of his many voicemails, saying all kinds of things like "If your butt was an 80's hair metal band, what song would your farts play?" or "If I was a giant gummy bear and on an island with no food, could I eat myself?"
This went on and on and on.
Sufficient to say, the teen was embarrassed and that was why he (understandably) was not among the chosen few to get her new digits. Even Tori had her current number.
"I'm gonna call her," Tori said, taking out her phone.
"Are you sure about that?" Beck asked. "After what she said to you? What she did to Cat?"
"No, Tori's right."
They looked at the petite redhead.
"Yes, I'm pissed about the play but this is important."
"Damn!"
Tori made a face and tried texting Jade but the screen said it failed to be delivered.
"Either I'm blocked or her phone's off."
The bell rang and the swath of student broke into packs and headed to different classes.
"I gotta go," said Andre. "We'll talk after fourth period, kay?"
"Me too," added Beck. "I'm sure she's okay. Cat?"
He smiled at her.
"You have a big heart, you know that?"
"And that's exactly what Jade threw away!" said Robbie as he stormed off with Rex.
Once the guys dispersed, Tori and Cat were left.
"What do you think?" asked Cat.
"I've got a bad feeling," Tori admitted. "I don't want to assume the worst but I hate being in the dark."
"You think she's avoiding us?"
Tori bit her lip.
"Not sure," she sighed.
Those wounds from mere days ago are still fresh. Cat was of two minds. She hated Jade for what she did but didn't like the idea of her being carted off to the emergency room. What if she was in really bad shape?
Cat tugged on her shirt nervously.
"We'll talk more later," Tori assured her.
They quickly hugged and broke off in opposite directions.
A/N: Looks like the boys are a little less forgiving than the girls, despite Cat and Tori being the most attacked by Jade's words and actions. What do you think? Are they justifiably angry or are they being too harsh? Or do you feel the girls are too quick to push that aside?