Narrator's POV

Location: Hollywood Arts Gymnasium

Date: Saturday March 28th 2012

Time: 3:53PM

The gang all stormed through the building, running through the hallways, all determined to be the first team to make it back to Sikowitz in the gym.

While Trina, Robbie, Beck, Andre and Cat ran way ahead, Tori and Jade were falling behind, moving at a much slower pace due to the latter's current state.

"Hey... you good?" Tori asked the older girl, jogging alongside her. She made sure to keep her voice down to avoid gaining attention from the rest of the group.

"Mmhmm." Jade responded, refusing to make eye contact with her. Tori noticed that the goth's jaw was visibly clenched and sighed at the short response she'd gotten. Looking ahead, she fixed her gaze onto the back of Beck's head.

"I... I really think you should tell him."

Jade snapped her head to the side.

"No." she blankly said, and turned her head back.

"Jade." Tori pleaded.

"What?" the older girl sighed.

"Really think about this; if you don't tell Beck, can you ever begin to get past this? What about when you guys want to start a family when you're older?"

"I... he doesn't need to know. What's the point upsetting him over something that isn't even his?"

"Well, what about the assault? If he's your boyfriend, shouldn't he know about that, at least?" Tori urged, the two of them catching up to the group, mere steps behind them. The latina's words made the goth stop running, and anger overcame her.

"If he's my boyfriend, shouldn't he have noticed how fucking terrified I've become within these last three months. How I've suddenly begun to flinch everytime he touches me, or how I jump every time I hear some sort of loud noise?"

"Jade, I-"

"Yeah, he should've noticed. But no, he hasn't. Why would he? I mean, it's not like I'm important enough to him that he'd bother to." the goth scoffed, crossing her arms across her chest.

Tori was rendered speechless for a few seconds at the sudden revelation from Jade, regret and guilt immediately flooding her chest.

"Jade, I'm sorry, I shouldn't have pushed you, I-"

"Just drop it, Tori. Please." Jade cut off, her words lacking any emotion whatsoever.

"Jade-"

"Drop it. Now."

The younger Vega simply nodded.

A few minutes later, the gang, led by Trina, all finally arrived. The seven of them burst through the door, to find Sikowitz sat cross-legged on the floor of the gym, playing with a bag of marbles.

"SIKOWITZ! FLAG! WE... GOT THE... FLAG!" screamed Trina, struggling to get her words out between pants as she thrust the pole infront of Sikowitz's face.

"Ahh yes, indeed you have! Wonderful!" he exclaimed, getting to his feet and walking over to the microphone wired to the PA system, in the corner of the room. Flicking on the sound, he gave the mic a few taps with a finger before clearing his throat and bringing it to his mouth.

"Attention students, it is with great pleasure to announce that we have a winner of Scavenger the Flag! Congratulations to Andre Harris, Beck Oliver, Cat Valentine, Trina Vega, Robbie Shapiro, Tori Vega, and Jade West! All remaining students, make your way to the gymnasium!"

Sikowitz placed the microphone back where it was and rejoined the teens, waiting for the rest of the kids to return back to the gym.

Less than ten minutes later, all of the students were seated on the floor of the gym, except for the gang, who had been advised by Sikowitz to wait by the side of the room, and not to move until he said so.

The bald headed teacher merrily skipped to the middle of the room and clapped his hands together, to gain the attention of the students.

"Children, lend me your ears-GOOD GANDHI, NOT LITERALLY, SINJIN, IT JUST MEANS LISTEN TO ME! Now, as you all know, we have a winning team of Scavenger the Flag! Let's hear a round of applause for our victors!" Sikowitz announced, banging his bare feet on the floor, mimicking applause, which the teens all joined in with, creating a rippled sound that echoed throughout the room.

Sikowitz motioned to the gang to join him, and the seven of them made their way to the middle of the gym, being showered in applause along with a few congratulatory shouts here and there. The gang all excitedly rejoiced and exchanged hugs with each other.

At one point, out of habit, Beck turned with his arms spread wide, to hug Jade, who was standing a couple steps away from the celebration by herself, but at the last second, he recoiled, and tried to play it off by diverting his hug to Cat instead.

While Jade had decided to ignore Beck's invitation for the hug, she did notice in her peripheral vision how he'd awkwardly hesitated and shied away from her.

She didn't want to think about what could've caused him to turn his hug into that... that not-a-hug. But before she could ponder on it anymore, Sikowitz cut the celebration short.

"Alrighty kids, I know today has been jam packed with activities and you guys are all probably burnt out, so for the rest of the day, I'm gonna let you all relax. Now, I've set up a projector and snacks in the blackbox, so you guys are all gonna spend the rest of the day watching movies in there. How's that sound?"

The room filled with positive murmurs, until Sikowitz butted in, once again, turning to the gang.

"And also, since you guys won, you get to choose the movies as a prize! So... make your way to the blackbox everyone, and enjoy!"

Without having to be told twice, the students all rushed to blackbox, with the gang leading the way.