I discovered one of The Slap videos (there is a very long, 4-5 hour compiliation of old Slap videos on Youtube, and sometimes there are shorter ones too) from around the time of Season 1, which I had to include here before moving to Season 2 episodes. It was just too cute. It's one of Cat's random thoughts videos (well-named), and Jade is helping her. I included all the dialogue, so you should be able to understand. So, the dialogue during the "video recording" is borrowed from the video (except I switched out a "God" for "Gosh" as I don't feel comfortable writing that kind of dialogue as a Christian), but the rest is mine. :)

Enjoy!

...

Jade sighed deeply as she lifted the camcorder she had swiped from Beck. She was in Cat's insanely pink bedroom, doing her distractible, bouncy friend a favour by recording a video for their school's private social networking and sharing site, The Slap. It had gone live recently and everyone at school was in a flurry of activity, trying to make their accounts grow. Jade believed she had the coolest profile video ... or two of the coolest. Beck had jokingly called his profile video hers, because she had perhaps tried to take over to show off that one of Beck's most notable qualities should be that he was her boyfriend. Beck had rolled her eyes at her, then given in. The footage of them making out was sweet, and Jade had perhaps watched it on repeat a dozen times since he posted it.

Apparently at least Cat agreed with Jade's assessment that her videos were some of the best, because Cat had clung to her arm and pleaded with giant doe eyes for Jade to help her make a video. At least Jade chose to interpret it that way instead of her being Cat's easiest target with her pouty lips and high-pitched pleas. After seeing Cat's previously scrambled attempts at videos, Jade agreed. Someone needed to give her a helping hand. Besides, Beck had the camcorder in his backpack and it would be easy to borrow. It would be fun watching him panic about where it went before she would explain. Such antics would result in a scolding, she was sure, but it would be worth it and she could always shut him up with either caramel coffee or kisses.

Trying to look a little bored (it never paid to show too much enthusiasm publicly, according to Jade), she started recording her hyper bestie. The topic of the video seemed a little unclear, but Jade had hardly expected anything different from Cat, who started out with a bubble gun spurting bubbles. Jade frowned harder to suppress any expression that it would indicate she thought Cat was cute. If those bubbles landed on her, it could be sticky, and she would hate it (Jade's Slap account was full of "What I Hate" videos, a series of her own imaginative rants).

"Yo yo yo!" Giggle. "My name's Cat! But you probably already know if you go to Hollywood Arts, which is where I go to school, which you probably know if you go to Hollywood Arts, or if you go to ..."

"Get to the point," Jade interrupted. This randomness was bringing out her director's side. Cat's face displayed a second of refocusing. Good. Then it dimpled into more giggles. Not good.

"That was Jade!"

"Ignore me and talk," Jade directed in a fairly calm voice (for her). Sometimes some forcefulness was necessary in helping Cat stay on task.

"Okay. Sooooo many people ask me the same question..."

There goes the focus. She looks confused again. Great.

"Wait. I don't think you're recording."

"Yeah, I am," Jade answered, making a motion for Cat to continue.

"But the red light's not on."

Jade could understand the confusion. It had been just a few days ago when she and Beck had been recording a video together and she had been confused about whether or not it was recording too (although she was not going to tell Cat that little detail). It had taken Beck a few moments to explain to her where the red light was, but it had only been visible to Jade as it was on the monitor screen which had been flipped around for them to see themselves while recording. With this current recording session, the monitor side was in the regular position so Jade could see it but not Cat.

"This camera doesn't have a red light," Jade simplified. That was easier than explaining the full situation, and Jade did not really count it as lying to Cat. Anything to keep Cat's brain from overload was kindness.

"Then ... how do I know it's recording?"

"Because I'm telling you it is!" Jade was getting exasperated. Cat's eyebrow quirked higher in confusion. "Talk!" Jade demanded, teettering on the verge of quitting.

Cat looked bewildered for a moment, twirling her bubble gun in her hands, but the prompt worked. In a few seconds, Cat had retrieved her former line of thought and started again with her bubbly smile and speech. "So a lot of people ask me this question. As my name is Cat, do I like cats? And the answer is ... yes! I love cats! I don't have a cat, but I might get one soon if our neighbour's cat down the street has babies. They think she's pregnant but she might just be fat. But she could be pregnant and fat. We don't know, but my mom thinks ..."

There was a momentary pause, and Jade had to refrain from slapping her forehead dramatically.

Here she's about to go... again.

"... My mom ... my mom thinks that's she's ..." The eyebrow quirked up again and Cat's eyes darted to Jade again. Yes, Cat was majorly confused.

"Why'd you stop?" Jade asked, knowing that it was a necessary point of interruption.

"Don't all camcorders have red lights?"

Jade sighed, "All but this one."

Cat did not seem comforted by this idea. "Should I keep going?" she asked Jade after a moment of sad contemplation on the red-light-less-ness of the camcorder in front of her.

"Hey, that'd be great!" Jade said in her forced upbeat Cat-specific voice. It was her attempt at sounding paternal. At least it seemed to work, as Cat settled back into the idea of making her video. By now it was so fragmented that Jade tiredly wondered if it would actually be worth making, but Cat was determined to be involved on The Slap too, so this was going to be a necessary evil for the next while.

"What was I talking about?"

"Your neighbour's fat pregnant cat," came the prompt. This. Was. Exhausting.

The prompt triggered instant giggles. "Oh my gosh! Do you know what that reminds me of?" an animated Cat asked.

Long pause.

"What?!" Jade asked.

Man, this kid is a good perfomer, but not a good storyteller. I should coach her on that.

"Um ... one time! I was with my family at B.F. Wang's and the electricity went out! No light!" Cat's eyes were lit up with excitement.

Another long pause.

"So, what happened?"

How can three minutes be this torturous?!

"The electricity came back one and one of my szechuan dumplings was missing!" Cat giggled, hiding her bright smile behind the bubble gun.

Meaning you or your crazy brother probably ate it and forgot about it in the "excitment" of the lights coming back on!

Then the confused look returned again, quirked eyebrow and all. The serious eyes and solemn expression were as adorable as they were aggravating.

Let's bet if I can guess what topic she's going back to...

"I wish there was a red light."

"Okay, this is over now," Jade decided unilaterally.

"No! No, wait! I want to say one more thing!"

"No," Jade said decisively. When she said "no", she meant "no". She highly doubted she would be one of those "sure-screaming-'buddy'-have-five-more-minutes" parents.

Cat spoke quickly, trying to get in her next story as she dove toward the camera. "One time, I was milking a cow and the cow was all like ..."

BEEP!

"It's done now," Jade said, closing the camcorder and packing it back into it's bag.

"Nooooooo, Jade! Pleeeeeeease! I want to make a video that will make people laugh!"

"This one will make people laugh just fine," Jade said drily.

"But I wanted to tell the cow story!" Cat pouted, folding her arms and scowling at Jade from under her eyelashes.

"If you had wanted to tell that story so badly, you should have started with it," Jade retorted, zipping the camcorder back into its case. At least she would be able to tell Beck that she had been careful with it.

"But ... but ... oooh, isn't my bubble gun pretty?"

"And there! Like that!" Jade said quickly. "You can't be constantly doing that!"

"What?" Cat asked, looking up from her bubble gun innocently.

"Changing the story! You need to focus, little hummingbird. That'd be a good life skill for you to practice anyway..."

"Hummingbird! I love hummingbirds! They are so pretty and ... oooh, can I do a video about a hummingbird? I want to tell a hummingbird story!"

"No."

"But..."

"No!"

"But ..."

"Cat, what does 'no' mean?"

Cat twirled a strand of her hair around her finger.

Great, she's pausing now to think through her answers.

"Um ... maybe it means 'yes' sometimes?"

"What does 'no' mean when I say it?"

Cat smiled confidently. "Then lots of the time it means 'yes'!"

"No, it doesn't!" a scandalized Jade protested. She was firm. She was stern. She was immovable. She was not a push over!

"Yes, it does! You say 'no' all the time, and then I get you to change your mind! So 'no' means 'yes'!" Cat chortled excitedly.

That little schemer...!

"Well, today that changes. 'No more using the camcorder' means 'no more using the camcorder'." She swung the bag onto her shoulder, away from Cat's grasping hands.

"It's not even your camcorder! It's Beck's!" Cat protested.

"How do you know that?" Jade asked suspiciously.

Has Beck already figured out I "borrowed" it?

"Because you don't have a camcorder and it has Beck's name on the camera case strap. And I heard him tell you yesterday that you can't just borrow it without asking. So I'll text him and ask if I can borrow it and ... Jade? Jade! Where'd you go, Jade?"

After five minutes of searching, Cat finally determined - with a great deal of surprise - that today Jade's "no" had been a lot firmer than was expected. She had meant "no" so much that she actually disappeared in the finality of it!

In reality, it was more like Jade had decided to get over to Beck's RV in time to witness the mad search for the missing item (and it was well worth the five-minute scolding after she finally dissolved into giggles after Beck spent a frantic forty-five minutes tearing apart his RV in search of the camcorder).

Meanwhile, Cat was left in contemplative thoughts.

Hmph! Maybe I should get someone else to record me next time, like my brother! Or ... maybe I could work on doing those things Jade told me to do so that I could make good videos. I think one of them was to focus more on my stories instead of switching all the ... oooh! I should make some more bubbles! What if I used my bubble gun in a bubble bath?! Then there would be sooooooo many bubbles! I should text Jade about that!

She did. Jade texted back an eyeroll emoji, but also emailed her the video clip later that night, and was the first to like it and comment when Cat posted it in the morning. Cat may have a short attention span, but she was always near the center of Jade's focus.

...

I hope that you enjoyed! Season 2 chapters coming soon, I hope!