Disclaimer: The show Victorious, its characters and other associated copyrights are property of someone else and not me.

Unfairly Judged

Chapter 10 – A bit of a temper.

Jade's POV.

I feel like a total mess some days. I thought I had everything figured out. I was Jade; mean, fierce, uber talented, respected and unstoppable. But now, with everything that's happened, I feel like I've become unraveled. At the same time, I feel apathetic, as if it's hopeless.

Things have changed though, Trina's treachery has been exposed and Vega and I are talking again. Not really talking, just a few short conversations. The first one was hideously awkward, the others since, less so.

Could there be a chance that we could go on that date, I'd wanted to go on. I want to, but I still don't fully trust her. I still have hurt feelings and bear some resentment for how she treated me. I know I brought some of this on myself, but it's still hard.

It was Monday and I had been avoiding Tori all morning. I just wasn't up to it. That and I just didn't know what to say. I hadn't spoke to her, or anyone else for that matter all weekend.

Finally just before lunch, Tori her brown hair looking particularly silky today, cornered me just before I was going to find a place to hide and eat my lunch.

"You've been avoiding me today."

"So."

"Well…..I was wondering if you'd like to join us for lunch again. Rex even promised not to make fun of you. "

I instinctively scowled. "Why should I?"

Tori half shrugged. "You've barely talked to anyone since all this started and I know you're feeling bad. It may help to join us again. We miss you."

"You mean you miss me."

"No Jade. We all miss you. This isn't about you and I, this is about….I don't know. Just bringing you back into the world."

"No one wants me in the world."

"I do."

"And that's why you weren't home when I came to pick you up." I shot back sharply, in a momentary surge of anger.

Stepping back, Tori sighed. "Jade, I'm sorry. I thought we were making progress."

Pushing the anger aside, I carefully considered my response. "We are, but all these hurt feelings don't just go away. They will come out from time to time. Besides, I am harsh a lot of the time. That's a part of me."

Tori nodded slightly. "Good point. But maybe that's it, I want to know the other side of you. The part you never show. The part that liked me. I handled it all wrong, but you did too. You hid that part of you so well, that people assumed what they saw is all that there was. But back to my original reason, please join us."

I think over it, but find myself very hesitant and scared of going back to the asphalt café. I know it's very unjade like, but I am more than one thing, more than one person.

She must have sensed my fear, so with a reassuring smile, she said. "We all want you there, we're all there for you. I know you're scared. It will be ok."

I'm depressed, apathetic and hurt, but the sight of Tori, looking all fucking beautiful, her brown eyes looking at me all puppy dog like, draws me in. Everything in me tells me not to trust her, but she's been honest and done her best to make things up to me. I won't get anywhere, by isolating myself. I want to trust her. So I fight myself and acquiesce.

"Ok, I'll join you guys."

Tori grinned, which was both annoying and made me feel speical at the same time. "Good, you don't have to sit next to me. I know we have issues to work out still. Cat wanted you to sit next to her."

"Ok. Lead on."

I followed Tori out of the school out onto the asphalt café and at that moment I realized that this was the first time I had been out there since I had been so humiliated by Tori, two months ago. The cynical part of me couldn't help but reflect that it was like Tori was leading me out there like some sort of conquering hero; parading the defeated Jade, for all to see.

Quickly becoming aware of many eyes on me, I hid my apprehension and fear and proceeded on. As we approached the table, I looked to see my friends, if I can call them friends, giving me looks of encouragement

"Jade, welcome." Said Andre.

"Jadey's back. Sit next to me." Squealed Cat.

"Thanks for coming back." Said Beck with a welcoming smile.

"Hi Jade." Came the greeting from robbie.

"See Jade, everything is ok." Said Tori.

No sooner than Tori reassured me, a certain dummy had to put in his 2 cents.

"Knew she'd come crawling back, Hold on to your lunches folks. Miss wimp has returned."

"YOU PROMSIED ME, YOU'D BE NICE!" Shrieked Tori almost instantly.

"I had my fingers crossed." Retorted Rex in a rather smug tone of voice. Sometimes, I really hate that stupid thing….well actually, all the time.

It was like something out of a cartoon, as Tori turned almost blood red and fumed. The only thing missing was steam coming out of her ears. "YOU APOLGOGIZE NOW, OR SO GOD HELP ME I'll…AWWW FUCK IT."

Then with one swift motion, Tori tore off Rex's head and then proceeded to toss it on the roof. Robbie naturally started to get up to go after Rex' s head, but sat back down upon receiving a deathglare from the Latina.

"Leave him where he is….He can return, when he apologizes. And if Rex ever makes a crack like that again, I'm going to take it out on you, starting, by breaking both your hands." Hissed Tori.

"Uhhh….ok…..he….he needs a rest anyway." Replied a rather intimidated looking Robbie, as he cautiously put the rest of Rex down.

My that Latina's, got a bit of a temper on her. I guess it only goes to show that looks aren't everything. It's fun to watch, when you're not on the receiving end of it. I'll have to admit that I kind of liked it. Not only because she got mad, but I could tell she was really upset that I wasn't welcomed as she had wanted me to be.

Now looking rather embarrassed, Tori turned to me. "I'm so sorry Jade. He promised he'd be nice."

"No problem Vega." I said, while making a mental note to get to the roof first and arrange for that head never to be found again.

No one's pov.

Tori, rather embarrassed by both Rex's behavior and her reaction to it, quickly motioned for Jade to sit down. She had hoped this would go perfectly and wanted to integrate Jade back into the group. Jade needed friends and support, Tori had concluded. So Tori figured this would be the best way to help her.

Only Rex's smart mouth, brought things close to disaster. But after a moment Jade sat down next to Cat and started to eat her lunch. Having told them to not badger Jade too much, they for the most part, left her alone, save for an occasional comment or question; though their embarrassment was equally as obvious as Tori's.

Tori of course did keep an eye on Jade to make sure she was comfortable things were going smoothly. The Goth was rather guarded and Tori found herself not sure if Jade would ever return to lunch with them again.

Lunch ended and without a word, Jade nodded and walked off.

Heading towards her next class, Tori sighed.

"Damn. Now she'll never come back."

She felt like she had failed in her quest to help Jade and for the rest of the day felt rather depressed. It didn't help that Jade seemed to avoid her yet again in the afternoon.

Finally at the end of the day, Tori who was still feeling down walked up to her locker. Just as she was about to open it, she heard Jade from behind her.

"Hi."

Tori quickly turned around and apologized. "I'm so sorry Jade….."

Jade quickly put her hand up to stop her. "You already apologized. Rex is rex. I was half expecting that to happen."

"I just wanted it to go perfectly. To show you that not only I care, but the others do as well. But…."

Jade made a half smirk. "You made a good effort. Plus I got another glimpse of that fiery Latin temper of yours."

"I was just so mad. Rex promised me. I just acted again, without thinking. I need to control myself."

"It was a good toss. Right on the roof."

"That's the strange thing. Robbie got permission to go up there, but never found Rex's head. "

"Maybe, cause someone else got to it before he did."

Tori laughed. "Don't suppose you know who that was."

Jade shrugged. "Who knows? Look, you made a decent effort and I appreciate that and you keeping an eye on me."

"I just want to make things up to you. Show you that I really care and you can really trust me."

"I appreciate that. A lot. Thank you. See you tomorrow at lunch." Jade said, as she departed.

The next day as promised, Jade joined them again at the lunch table. Thankfully Rex was absent, having to be repaired. Jade was quiet, but occasionally joined in on the conversation. Though she joined them at lunch, she still kept to herself at other times. But Tori figured she needed to take baby steps and that was fine.

Over the next few days, they had more small conversations. Mostly it was small talk and the conversations went well.

Though occasionally, things didn't go so well as evidenced by Friday morning. Tori had come up to Jade in the morning, with two cups of jetbrew in hand. One of which she eagerly held out.

"I know you usually get some, but from what I've seen, you've normally drank it all by the time you get to school. I didn't know what get normally, so I got black with 2 sugars."

Jade accepted the drink took a sip and smiled. "Trying to get on my good side?"

"Uh…..kinda…yeah…I guess…..though I should say I wanted to just do a nice thing. I wanted to do that too."

After taking another sip, Jade nodded in approval. "Bribe accepted."

"I will say you're looking and acting a bit like your old self. At least you're starting to interact with other people. I mean that in a good way."

"Speaking of interaction, how are things with Trina."

Like hitting a switch, Tori's face instantly hardened. "I told you I don't have a sister….please don't ever bring up that person….to me again."

Then Tori stormed off, leaving a somewhat perplexed looking Jade behind. Though Jade didn't like Trina and was angry herself, she concluded that leaving festering wounds unhealed can lead to more problems in the end.

A few hours later, as Sikowtiz's class came to an end, he handed out several sheets of papers. Tomorrow I'm going to talk about radio acting. Like the radio shows in the old days. Your only tool is your voice and how you use it and it is a bit different. Now it could be considered obsolete, but I feel that to leave out a particular form of acting would not serve your best interests. Besides with the advent of the internet, any person could easily put on their own radio show. Now on the sheets of papers, I've handed out, you'll find a list of websites where you can hear some old radio shows for free. It also lists some apps, that do the same. I want each of you to listen to one hour of old time radio tonight. It can be anything you like, just as long as it's some kind of fiction or historical reenactment. We'll talk about it more tomorrow and then you'll pare up in teams to write your very own radio show."

Cat raised her hands. "Can it be funny?"

"Yes, it can be a drama, a comedy, a western or as I suspect Jade would do, horror. You write and perform a skit or short show that lasts between 4 and 5 minutes and after recording it, they'll be played for the class. Ok….who will team up."

Surprisingly, Jade's was the first hand up. Though she had to force herself to do so. "I'd like to team up with Tori."

Across the room, Tori who weren't expecting that, especially after this morning, looked to the Goth with surprise. Once again she'd thought she'd taken a step back, only to see Jade take a step forward.

Turning to Tori, Sikowitz said. "Do you want to team up with Jade? You don't have too?"

"I'll do it."

Well they're teaming up. Hopefully this can lead to more.