And now let's continue with part two of the storyline based on episode 8!
Other notes: thanks for the reviewers since last time - Boris Yeltsin (I'm amazed at how quickly you read each update and review!), Lucifer143 (thanks for both reviews!), and Zeroastai!
Also, happy 4th of July to my American readers!
Now, enjoy!
...
On Tuesday, Beck groaned as he saw more packages in Cat's arms as she skipped along. After nothing showing up on Monday, he had been hopeful that the shopping had been nipped in the bud. He had boasted to Jade just last night that maybe he was as good at handling Cat as she was.
"Cat!" he called out now. Jade turned and looked and snorted with laughter.
"I see that you really tore up that catalog, Mr. Strong-and-Serious," she teased under her breath.
Now I understand why my dad and mom always were hissing "united front" to each other when disciplining me!
"I did!" Beck protested. He noticed Cat about to skitter away in the opposite direction, but Jade had decided that maybe she should be involved after all and dashed forward and caught Cat's arm, pulling her over to Beck's locker where she and Beck had been talking.
"What are you up to, Cat?" Jade demanded.
"Noooothing," Cat sang innocently.
Maybe a little too innocently.
"Why do you have more packages? I thought we decided that you wouldn't get anymore," Beck said suspiciously.
"Um … these are the last ones I ordered before you took away my catalog," Cat explained, clutching them tightly and frowning with a tiny spark of defiance. "I got a litter box that plays classical music, and a few more things. And I'm keeping them!"
Beck softened. "That makes sense that you still had some in transit. Okay. Enjoy them then. Remember – no more, right?"
Cat avoided saying "right" as the bell rang right then. "I've got to go to class now!" she said before zipping down the hallway for shelter from the suspicious looks of both Beck and Jade.
"She's acting suspiciously," Beck stated with a groan, retrieving his own necessary books and slamming his locker closed.
"How can you tell?" Jade asked rhetorically, before agreeing. "Yeah, she's up to something. If anymore packages show up, we're checking the receipt date."
Beck smiled a little.
"Do you think it's weird that we're so invested in our friend's life like this?" He hesitated. "Do you think that maybe we should just let her learn from experience that she shouldn't spend all her money on stupid things? Am I crossing boundaries, Jade?"
Jade shrugged. "If you are, then I'm right there with you. I'm not a usually helpful person, so helping anyone is off-brand for me. But … I don't think it's wrong to interfere in this situation. It's for Cat's own good. And Cat's parents are not exactly …." She left the rest unsaid. Then she shrugged. "Someone needs to watch out for her, right? And it might as well be us because we actually …."
"Care," Beck inserted with a chuckle when Jade switched to embarrassed coughing right before she said the "sentimental" word.
She shrugged. "Get to class, marshmallow. I've got to get to mine. See you later."
They parted with a kiss – and increased suspicion over Cat's behaviour.
….
"CAT!"
Beck did not usually yell at others (except Jade, who seemed to like it when she was able to rile him up to her level of passionate discourse), so it was Jade who was demanding at the top of her lungs that their little redheaded friend, arms once again full of packages, stop. School was over for the day on the warm Thursday afternoon, and so was Cat's shopping spree. Or, it was going to be.
Cat heard Jade and froze guiltily. Beck and Jade started walking toward her purposefully, which led to her darting out the door. One of her boxes slipped and she gave a little squeak as she looked back and saw Beck and Jade chasing her down. She abandoned the box with great sadness, only for it to be picked up by Beck twenty seconds later.
Ten seconds after that, Jade had captured Cat out in the parking lot and was easily detaining the squirming, squealing girl who was trying to pull away but was incapable of it.
After forty seconds of insisting, "Let me go! I got … I got to get to the bus!" and "I don't want to talk about my packages! No, I don't! No, I don't! Nooooooo!" Cat finally settled down and stopped trying to (unsuccessfully) scratch Jade's hands so she'd let go.
And then it was fifteen seconds of stern looks from Beck and Jade until Cat broke down in confession.
"I ordered more! I did. I had another catalog because mean old Beck" – pause to glare at him with great condemnation – "tore up my first one. I had another hidden in my backpack though! And Sinjin gave me some money and I borrowed some from my brother and …."
"Enough."
Even Jade was impressed with how final Beck's tone was. He could see her smirking from the corner of his eye. He did not need Jade at her most beautiful distracting him, so he turned fully to Cat.
"So you were lying about being done?"
"Not … lying, really?"
"Cat."
"Just fibbing!"
Beck closed his eyes for a moment and rubbed his forehead. Better that then yelling. "Fibbing is lying, Cat."
"But … but I really wanted more!"
"It doesn't matter," Jade said, sensing that although Beck's patience was not gone, it was well-stretched. She was better at scolding anyway. "You still aren't supposed to lie – especially not to us, Cat."
"Why not?"
Jade, frustrated beyond embarrassment over her emotions, snapped, "Because we care about you, you silly girl! We don't want you getting in trouble with people you keep borrowing money from. We don't want you to spend all of your money when you might need it for something else. And we just want you to learn common sense principals, like not wasting time and money on useless things! And if you can't listen to us to on something so obvious, how in the world are we supposed to trust that you're actually listening to anything anyone says to you about things that are a LOT more important, like your safety or health?! You can't be an idiot in this world where 'survival of the fittest' will get Little Miss Sunshine-and-Candy-Roses crushed!"
It wasn't how Beck would have worded it, but it seemed to get through to Cat enough that her face flushed up a little with shame and she bent her head. He could see the first of many tears trickle down her cheeks. He felt instantly uncomfortable, hating to make anyone but especially a girl upset. Jade did not share this discomfort and elbowed him to stop him from saying anything comforting.
Let her feel upset. It'll help her learn, she mouthed to him. So he did.
When Cat finally mumbled "sorry" Jade nodded briskly.
"Good. Now, get in the car. Call your parents and tell them that you're with Beck and me, right? Then we'll help you figure out how to return these packages and punish you for lying to us in the first place."
"Kay kay," Cat sobbed, heading to Beck's car with her packages while pulling out her phone to text her mom about spending the rest of the afternoon with her friends/annoyed guardian angels.
"Punish her?!" Beck hissed to Jade. "What exactly are you thinking, Jade?"
"That I'm serious when I said that she can't lie to us because we are trying to watch her back and we can't do that when we can't trust her to tell us the truth," Jade said bluntly. She shrugged. "What bothers you about it? You try to make me behave all the time by using consequences. You punish me. Why are you freaking about the idea of us punishing Cat? Don't you want her to learn not to lie?"
"Yeah, of course. But … that's us. And you agree to it."
Jade smirked a little. "Yeah, because if I didn't there's no way in the universe that you could make me listen to you." Beck did not argue as Jade was entirely right. Still, he was glad that she did agree to let him tell her when she crossed over the boundaries of rudeness into cruelty.
Jade shrugged with a small smile. "I'm pretty sure I'm good at giving appropriate punishments – I take my brother out for a Saturday afternoon once a month and he doesn't freak out any more with me than he does with my mom when I put him in time out or whatever. And I love Cat too much to do anything too mean to her. You know that."
"I do," Beck said calmly, kissing her forehead. He looked down at her. "So, what are you thinking?"
….
"I finally finished," Cat sniffled. She had been crying on and off all afternoon, but she had finally finished the punishment that Jade had set up for her.
"All the peas are shelled?" Jade asked sternly. That question – and a patented Jade glare - half an hour ago had convinced Cat to confess that she had hidden two bowls of the vegetables in one of the cupboards when Jade and Beck had gone out to put the packages – return labels firmly affixed – into the mailbox down the street.
"Yeah. I got them all done. All ten pounds," Cat sniffled. "I hate peas, and now my hands are stained green and smell like them and they are so yucky! Peas are BAD!"
Jade crouched down next to Cat and looked over her work to confirm it had been done properly and that she was not simply hiding more At Cat's comment about peas being bad she quickly said, "Good. Lying is bad too." She motioned to Beck, who handed her a small bowl of cooked peas that he had made in the microwave.
"Eat this," Jade demanded. Despite another round of Cat's tears, she obeyed and ate all ten spoonfuls of her most hated vegetable. When she finally finished with a little cough, Beck compassionately handed her a glass of water which she quickly downed.
"No more lying, right?" he said firmly.
"No more lying!" she echoed with a hiccup.
Jade pointed to the rest of the shelled peas. "See all those, Cat? I'm going to put them in the freezer, and if you lie to Beck and me again, then I'll make you eat the rest of the peas. Got it?"
Cat's eyes went wide in horror. Beck had to hide his amusement at how upset she seemed to be by the fairly mild discipline attempt by her best friend.
"I won't lie again," she assured them.
"Okay, then. Want a grilled cheese? We shouldn't send you home hungry since it's past your family's dinner time."
When Cat had gone home – full of her favourite sandwich and least favourite peas, tears finally gone from her eyes, and the second Sky Store catalog also confiscated and torn apart – Beck turned to Jade who was bagging the rest of the peas and looking quite content with herself.
"I told you I was good at punishing."
"You did," he said with an amused smile. "I never knew peas could hold that much horror."
Jade smirked.
"Anything can hold horror when I get to be in charge!"
"True."
"Anyway, if we're responsible for her, we've got to have some way of motivating her to listen."
"Then I think we found it!"
"We?"
"You."
"That's right!"
...
Still working on the "Rex Dies" episode. So much fun Cat/Jade stuff in that one! Got a little side tracked with my new Bade story, "An Issue of Timing", which I recommend for you to check out if you haven't done so already. ;)
Have an awesome day, people (and whatever bots show up to read)!
