A repost since the first time was a calamity of coding errors ... I'm trying to figure it out, dear readers!

This chapter is based on the "Freak the Freak Out" episodes.

...

Jade was different from typical mothers in that she wanted Cat to have an attitude.

So that was why she was coaching Cat on how to display such said attitude at Karaoke Dokie during a show down with two complete ganks. Cat was trying desperately to make a face at their "competition" and ... oh, goodness of which I have none, why is she trying to look like a prim old lady struggling to swallow?!

"Don't make that face!" Jade hissed, and Cat immediately listened.

Good. Jade liked having her people well trained. Beck would be sweet and gentle at times, but they both knew that when it came down to it, he had limits with her. Cat, however, rarely did. If Jade had told her to do a handstand on a moving train while holding her head in a hermit crab tank, Cat would have attempted it cheerfully.

Thankfully, there were many other possible victims that were more fun to torture than Cat.

Like the aforementioned ganks who just won the competition despite having no where near the talent that she and Cat did. Even if Jade's opinion was slightly biased - after all, Cat had needed to tell one of those girls that Beck was taken, and the girl had flat out insulted Jade to her face, implying that she was not enough to satisfy Beck for long - she knew that the crowd had cheered more for her and Cat than for Hayley and Tara.

Jade could handle the rejection herself. It happened regularly. She knew that wanting a career in the arts would likely at least start with more rejection that appreciation. Besides, she was thick skinned and as long as she knew she was the best, she could handle being placed second.

But Cat's face when the realization hit that the situation had all been a set-up so a daddy's girl could repeatedly "win" the karaoke challenge? That had hurt.

"That is so tight!" Cat had protested, angry at their opponents for using paternal advantages.

"Tight means good," Jade had corrected as an aside to her.

Cat had wanted to correct her error and had burst out, "That is so not tight."

How was she going to teach Cat attitude if she didn't get to display attitude when winning?

So off Jade went to engineer a revenge plot. Tori was easily drawn in when given an alternative to caring for a demanding Trina recovering from dental surgery. Cat bopped along like the bit of sugary sweetness and constant confusion that she was, but pulled out the stops on creating a memorable disguise for a certain "Louise Nordoff".

Take two - and that went for attitude, as well as competitive singing.

Hayley had come over and sneered at them, not recognizing or respecting what a stupid idea that was around Jade.

"I thought I smelled failure."

Jade was thinking up some zingers, but Cat beat her to the punch!

"Then you must be sniffing yourselves." Cat turned to Jade for confirmation, happily asking, "Good, right?"

Jade held an even, bored tone. "For you." It had been a stupid retort, not nearly as strong as what Jade would have gone for in a cutting exchange, but for Cat? It truly was good, and Jade had to hold back her pride to keep from appearing overly emotional at the moment. It was truly a relief to express pride not only in the plan but also in Cat's budding attitude when their plan with Tori was the smashing success that they had predicted.

Vindication is ours!

...

"Cat, it's time for you to brush your teeth and go to bed. It's nearly 1:00 and I'm exhausted!" Tori begged. She had convinced Cat and Jade to stay for a sleepover after the competition. Jade refused to acknowledge that Tori had any sort of influence over her, insisting to herself that she was convinced to stay mostly by whining/threatened pouting from Cat (secretly prompted by Beck, who wanted Jade to develop healthy friendships).

Cat was not yet ready to have her fun brought to an end. Tori might be exhausted from caring for Trina for the last couple days, but Cat was high on pixie sticks and a rogue cupcake that neither Tori nor Jade had noticed until only the wrapper was left to wrest from her surprisingly tight hold in her tiny hands. Jade lay lazily on the sofa, watching Cat. Now that Trina had been collapsed in her bed for the last two hours, the drama had been a little low. It seemed like Cat was about to ignite it again as she squared off her stance, looked Tori in the eye, and defiantly shouted "NO! I'm staying AWAKE!"

Way to go, kid! You remembered what I coached you on yesterday!

There were going to be no more weird faces in confrontation. It brought Jade's image down when her companion looked like a sniffly pompom.

And the expression on Vega's face!

I'm getting you frozen lemonade tomorrow, Cat!

Tori was certainly surprised at getting shouted at by Cat. Thus began a long negotiation. Would Cat quiet down and go to sleep for Tori's sake ("I'm soooo tired Cat!")?

"No, sorry. I'm busy."

Would she cave if Tori offered her watching a Disney movie as she fell asleep? Jade thought that one would crack Cat's resolve, but ...

"I'm having fun. We all have to stay awake to keep having fun!"

Would a sheet of sparkly stickers or a pink popsicle in the morning or helping her make a special Slap video work as bribes?

"Nonono!"

The cycle went on, an increasingly tired Tori inching closer to tears. Jade smirked when the first droplets appeared. Even they did not sway the overexcited Cat who was taking full advantage of the previously offered hospitality, exploiting it even to a level that Jade rarely reached.

As it reached 1:30 am, Jade began to feel a headache coming on, and Tori was looking to her as the last hope.

"Jade, please!" she whimpered pathetically, curling into a defeated heap on the stairs.

"Fiiiiiine," Jade huffed. Honestly, she was just as desperate for Cat to get to sleep so she could too. She snapped her fingers loudly, capturing Cat's attention. She bounded over like an innocent puppy.

"Oooh, Jadey Jade! Teach me how to snap my fingers! I still can't figure it out and ..."

"Brush teeth. Pee. Go to sleep. Now."

Cat blinked her big eyes at Jade in what may have been an attempt at hypnosis.

Then ...

"No!"

Jade raised an eyebrow and waited. Cat's chin was protruding defiantly, but it began to lower just a little.

"Nooooooo!" she whined.

"Now," Jade repeated, minorly regretting having coached Cat at all on "attitude presentation". Usually Cat would be in her sleeping bag by now. Must be all that sugar Vega gave her (because Jade herself on let Cat have what would make her moderately hyper... probably).

Cat shook her head, still stubbornly holding her stance on the stairs. Okay, so some stubbornness was funny, but Jade was no longer laughing. Tori was watching this! There was no way that Cat could out-stubborn or out-attitude her. Jade leaned forward a little.

"I can help you make the attitude, and I can break your attitude. Get upstairs now and brush your teeth. You have two minutes to get in your sleeping bag or ..." She let the threat hang. What could she finish it with? Anything, but it really meant nothing. She could never truly do anything bad to Cat. But that little bit of fear that now had Cat tumbling up the stairs to obey her?

Jade smiled smugly and fell down on the sofa to clasp her hands behind her head for a moment of enjoyment.

"You're welcome, Vega. Now you'd better to sleep in two minutes too or ..."

"I'm not Cat! You can't scare me into doing whatever you want!"

Jade rolled over and fixed a steady glare on Tori. Tori tried to glare back. Jade recognized some of her own technique. Oh, yay, in all that time Tori spent following her around, she was also learning from her?!

"You ... you ... I've never seen you actually follow through on a threat with Cat!"

"Who says I won't with you?"

"Eep!" Tori tumbled away from Jade as fast as she could, her bare feet slapping against the stairs as she jogged upstairs to retrieve a few final blankets for sleeping in the living room.

In two minutes, the lights were off and two minorly threatened girls were trying to keep quiet enough that Jade would not "follow through" on whatever silent ending there had been to her threats.

They would never know that it was neither one of them that set off the sudden burst of in-the-dark giggles that broke out after five minutes. It was Jade, trying to muffle her amusement at how much power you could get simply by narrowing your eyelids strategically.

Ah, well, someday they'd learn.

But she would also out-attitude them. That was a given.

...

Yay! We've got through all the season 1 episodes that I'm going to cover in this story! Now on to season 2. If you have a particular season 2 episode that you particularly would like to see covered, please let me know. I'm especially hoping to do some more "daddy Beck" moments, so episodes including him would be very appreciated. I'm hoping to keep my inspiration flowing. Someone in my family is in mental health crisis and I'm struggling with feeling helpless. Writing late last night to get this chapter ready was so cathartic. :) So, thanks for being part of my "self-therapy". :)