The temperature in the RV had now reached 107 degrees, which had caused the group to share a bottle cap full of washbacked water, Andre to contemplate drinking his own pee, and Robbie to dunk his head in Beck's horrifically dirty fish tank. The vomit which now lined Trina's bag indicated that this had not been a smart idea.

"Man, if you take care of your baby as well as you do those fish, I feel bad for him." Andre joked, hoarsely.

"Toby's a baby, not a fish, Andre. I think it's a little different." Beck replied.

"Still," Andre shrugged. "he's probably lucky Jade's around or his cot might be filled with algae." He continued, earning a laugh from Beck.

Tori watched this exchange, finding Andre's comments about Jade interesting. To her, yes Jade seemed to have Toby more than Beck, but he was by far the more nurturing type, surely. She found it hard to believe that someone could look at the two of them and decide that the baby was luckier to have Jade as a parent than Beck.

"Hey, how come none of Toby's stuff is here?" Tori asked, suddenly realising that the RV was devoid of all the baby-related things that she had seen in it only a few weeks prior.

In answer to this, Beck, with great effort, drew himself up from the floor and headed towards the base of his bed, before pulling at the bottom and lifting the entire mattress up. As he pointed into the empty space the mattress had vacated, Tori peered in to see that it was full of baby toys and supplies, in addition to the folded up cot she had first seen Toby asleep in.

"All here. Just hidden away." Beck explained. "He doesn't live here and I don't have much space as it is, so..." He trailed off, knowing his explanation was understood. Tori nodded as Beck collapsed back onto the floor. It was too hot for movement of any kind.

"Is that weird for you?" Tori continued.

Beck looked surprised; he had thought the conversation was over. "Is what weird?"

"Toby not living with you."

Beck furrowed his brow. "Not really. He can't live with both of us."

"But is it not weird for you not seeing him all the time?" Tori continued to press on the subject.

Beck chewed his lip. "It's how it has to be, I guess. He can only live with one of us and he needs to be around Jade a lot more than he needs to be around me, so yeah."

Tori was silent, contemplating this.

"Also Jade would never let him live in this thing." Beck added, patting the floor of the RV. "She calls it a metal death trap."

"I think I agree with her right now." Andre groaned from the floor.

"If I die, I am so suing you, Beck." Trina added, maliciously.

"How can you sue him if you're dead?" Robbie asked.

"I would find a way!" Trina hissed at the boy, who shrunk back into Beck's bed.

Tori couldn't help but agree with Jade. It certainly felt like they were going to die of dehydration and heat exhaustion from within the awful tin can. "Thank god the baby isn't still here." She thought out loud, having the sudden realisation that no matter how much discomfort and relative danger they were currently in, it would be substantially magnified were her friends' young child also there.

Beck visibly recoiled. "Jeez, don't say that. I don't even want to think about that." He said, covering his eyes. Tori almost felt bad for bringing up the notion.

"Wherever they are, at least they're not here."

Wherever Beck and the others were, it had to be more pleasurable than where Jade was. For the past hour, she had been sat on an uncomfortable stool in the only small available patch of shade by the pottery wheel, watching Cat flirt with the boys, and being intermittently hit on. Add to that a screaming baby and she had just about her least favourite way to spend a Saturday. And to think - without Vega, she would've been able to enjoy a relaxing family outing with Beck. She hated that girl.

"Waterfight!" Came a scream from in front of her, and she witnessed as Cat was ambushed by water guns from all sides. After a moment, Kyle turned with his gun and pointed it towards Jade.

"Don't you-" Jade began, but was cut off by a stream of water splattering her directly in the face. Gasping, she wiped the water from her eyes and glared at the laughing boy. Toby, who'd been hit with some of the splash, began to wail, and Jade had to pull him into the crook of her now soaking neck in an attempt to calm him down.

"What the fuck is wrong with you?" She snapped at Kyle, who still found the situation amusing.

"You love it really, baby." He smirked, coming closer to her. Jade, on her perch, couldn't back away from the advances, and more notably she couldn't believe that she was having to. How on earth she could make it clearer that she wasn't interested she didn't know.

Before Kyle could try something, his attention was caught by the cry of his friends behind him. Logan had called out towards the opposite direction and Jade peered over to see a group of scantily-clad girls moving their way. Observing the waves and greetings shared between the two groups, Jade registered that they knew each other. What she wasn't expecting was to also know them. But when the girl at the rear end of the group stepped out into the view, Jade realised that it was none other than her sister.

"Why the fuck is my sister with you?" Amber asked, pulling away from Ben, whose shoulder she had just seen Jade over.

"Who's your sister?" Ben asked, whipping his head around rapidly, as if a teenage girl was about to jump out of the shadows.

"Her." Amber said, pointing at Jade.

"You guys are sisters?" Kyle grinned. "Damn, I guess hotness runs in the family." He said, winking at Jade.

"Ugh, you're such a creep, Kyle. You do know she's 16, right?" Amber spat.

"I know. But Jade here likes older guys."

The sisters both rolled their eyes. "She has a boyfriend." Amber said to the boys, before turning to Jade. "Or did you break up for the millionth time?"

At this, the girls beside Amber became a little more interested. They'd met Beck, and, like seemingly every girl in LA, were eager to hear that he was on the market once again.

"No, we're still together." Jade replied, through gritted teeth, and the girls almost visibly deflated.

"What are you doing with these guys then?" Amber asked.

"Ask Cat." Jade replied, and her sister turned to the redhead, another one of Jade's associates she didn't care for.

"We're making pottery." Cat replied, bouncing slightly, and Amber turned away with visible contempt.

"Wait, wait, wait." Logan began, holding up his hands. "If that's your nephew, then that must mean there's a third sister. Is she here too?" He asked, pointing at Toby and then scanning the beach theatrically.

Jade bit her lip. "What are you talking about, you doof? That's her kid not her nephew." Amber asserted, her voice dripping with annoyance.

"That's your kid?" Kyle asked, moving away from Jade as if she was contaminated.

"So?" Jade retorted, defensively.

"Ohhh, so this is your kid sister that got pregnant?" Ben said, connecting the dots of the different information he'd acquired.

Amber shifted uncomfortably from foot to foot, but didn't reply. Unfazed, the boys began to squawk about what they had been told.

"No way, we've heard so much about you." Kyle laughed, and Jade raised an eyebrow.

"Hey Amber, why didn't you tell us she was this hot?" Logan grinned, looking back and forth between the sisters.

"Yeah, when you said her boyfriend cheats on her I was not expecting her to be this sexy." Aaron commented in a way that made Jade's skin crawl. She shot an accusatory look at Amber, who failed to meet her eye.

"No, she said she cheats on her boyfriend." Logan corrected him and there was a chorus of 'ohh's' between the boys.

Jade gritted her teeth so hard they could've broken. "I've never cheated on my boyfriend." She snarled.

Logan raised his hands in defence. "Sorry girl, we're just going off what we've been told."

"Which is-?" Jade asked, as Amber squirmed in between the boys. A glare from Amber kept them quiet for a few moments before Logan broke.

"That you're Amber's slutty little sister who slept around and got pregnant and how we shouldn't make stupid decisions that could ruin our lives like you did."

Anyone else might be embarrassed at this brazenness but Logan only looked pleased with himself, regardless of the two explosive-looking sisters bookending him.

Jade glared at him in response, but he didn't seem to care, so she turned to stare daggers at her sister. But Amber had other plans - punching Logan in the arm, she turned on her heels and stalked off. Jade sprung off her chair and went to follow, but not before unleashing a few curse words Logan's way.

"Hey, where do you think you're going?" Jade called after her sister. Amber didn't reply. "Running away after that is pretty fucking pathetic, don't you think?"

Amber glanced at Jade over her shoulder but kept walking. Jade quickened her stride to catch up and grabbed Amber by the shoulder, pulling her back.

"Get off me." Amber spat.

"Shut the fuck up." Jade hissed. "You don't get to tell me to do anything after that. Why the fuck were you saying those things about me?"

Amber looked away, unable to meet her sister's gaze.

Jade shoved her backwards. "Answer me, you fucking bitch."

Amber looked shocked and paced up towards Jade. "Do that one more time and you'll be on the floor. I don't care if you're holding your stupid baby." She spat, glaring not only at Jade but also at Toby.

"Don't you dare touch him." Jade responded, menacingly, but Amber barely backed off.

"What do you want me to tell you, Jade? That I didn't say those things and that they're silly boys making it all up. Because that's obviously not true."

"Why did you tell them I cheated on Beck? You know that's not true." Jade asked through gritted teeth.

"Do I?" Amber laughed. "You two are on and off like a light switch. How am I supposed to know the last person you slept with?"

"You have no idea what you're taking about." Jade retorted. "You just lie about me to your friends so you have an interesting story to detract from your boring personality. It's pathetic, really."

Amber laughed in her face. "I'm the pathetic one? Jade, you're sixteen years old holding your own baby, with your boyfriend nowhere to be seen and calling me pathetic - that's fucking hilarious."

"I'm not ashamed to be a teen mom." Jade replied, shifting Toby in her arms as he started to squirm. "I've grown up a hell of a lot quicker than you."

"Oh right, so that's why you told them he was your nephew then?" Amber smirked.

Jade felt as though her vision was turning red. Amber had managed to compose this idea of her as an unfaithful whore and an irresponsible mother, a cautionary tale against unprotected sex for her to tell her friends and laugh about, as though Jade wasn't a real person with real responsibilities and hardships. It seemed as though Amber had crafted the exact version of Jade which she had so desperately tried to avoid becoming. But perhaps worse than that was Amber pointing out realities that she could not deny - she had hidden Toby away, as though she was embarrassed of him, ashamed that he was hers. What a typical Jade West thing to do. That was the exact kind of thing Hollywood Arts students would've predicted her to do, whispering in the bathrooms when she'd left. Jade didn't give a shit about people's opinions on her as a mother because she knew no one really knew her, and no one knew how much she loved Toby and truly treasured his existence. But here she was acting as though he didn't belong to her, feeding into their beliefs, yet looking at herself in the mirror and preaching a mantra that she was completely different to what they said. It wasn't Amber's lies that really affected Jade, it was her truths.

Jade could no longer deal with Amber's unapologetic face staring at her like an unwanted reflection, so she turned away and headed back towards Cat. The redhead looked far more uncomfortable than she had previously, as she stood on the outskirts of the circle of boys and Amber's girlfriends who were engaged in an animated conversation.

"Hey, Jade's back." Kyle grinned at her, moving towards her.

"Get out of my way." Jade barked, sidestepping the boy, and heading towards her friend. "We're leaving." She informed Cat, and was grateful that the girl looked relieved.

"Kaykay, let me just get our things." She answered, moving to collect her bag, as Jade grabbed hers off the stool she had been sat upon.

"Let's go." Jade ordered, grabbing the girl's hand.

"You're leaving?" Ben's face fell. "But I haven't even got your number." He smiled at Cat.

"She doesn't want it." Jade said roughly.

"But-" Cat began.

"You don't want it, Cat." Jade informed her and Cat closed her mouth.

"Oh, bye I guess." Ben said, sadly, and he and his friends waved at the pair farewell as they headed back to the other side of the beach.

"See you at home, Jade." Amber smiled smugly as they passed her, and Jade promptly told her to fuck off.

"I don't like it when you swear, Jade." Cat said timidly once the pair had gained some distance from the group.

"Everyone swears Cat, get used to it."

"Not everyone swears as much as you."

"Well, I have a lot to swear about, okay?"

Cat wasn't sure she had a solid rebuttal to this argument. The pair walked across the beach to their earlier spot and then kept walking.

"How are we gonna get back?" Cat asked. "We can't get through that path."

"We can and we will." Jade replied, eager to get out of the place, regardless of what anyone said. The pair headed to the path's entrance, where the lifeguard from earlier was now sat on a deckchair.

"We're going this way." Jade informed him, with no room for negotiation.

"Be my guest." The man replied, surprising the pair.

"Huh? You're not gonna give us that spiel about how dangerous it is?" Jade asked, dumbfounded.

"Why would I do that?" The man responded. "The tide's been out for over an hour. It's perfectly safe now." He smiled smugly.

In that moment, Jade decided that if one more person smirked at her that day, she would probably find herself in a dashing orange jumpsuit the following week.

"So wait, we can go?" Cat asked, and the man nodded. "Yay! Jade, we can get back to the others!" She cried, pulling on her friends arm. "How funny is it that the path's been open for an hour?" She giggled, failing to gauge her friend's impatience.

"Hilarious." Jade replied monotonously.

She almost broke into a run when she spotted the RV. It had felt like such a long day and she wanted nothing more than to find Beck and get him to drive her home, regardless of whether Robbie or Andre or one of the incredibly annoying Vegas wanted to stay to swim with the dolphins or something stupid like that. Arriving at the trailer, she saw that no one was waiting beside it, but she was done walking. She could send Cat to find the others whilst she and Toby took a nap in the RV.

Opening the door, Jade was hit with an almost explosive wave of suffocating heat, as well as the sound of weak, off-tune singing. Stunned, she looked around to see five bodies lying in various unflattering positions across the RV. Vegas One and Two were both sprawled across the couch, top layers discarded, whilst Robbie lay face-down and topless on Beck's bed and Andre, in a similar state of undress, was collapsed on the floor. Her boyfriend, his usually pristine hair mangled with sweat and humidity, sat shirt-off with his back against the couch. All five teenagers looked thoroughly wiped out, but seeing Jade, some life began to re-enter their eyes.

"Jade!" Tori, the first to see her, gasped. Trina and Beck's heads immediately swivelled to the door, with Robbie and Andre somehow finding the energy to do the same. Tori jumped up off the couch and scurried to the door, with Jade stepping back outside so the teenager didn't run into her baby. To her surprise, the RV's other inhabitants left with the same sense of urgency, flinging themselves out of the door and into the fresh air with cries of relief.

"Jade, thank god." Beck exclaimed, wrapping his arms around her and Toby and burrowing his face into her neck.

Jade immediately recoiled. "Jesus, Beck, you're so sweaty." She complained, pushing him away from her and immediately beginning to wipe the liquid off her skin. Beck rushed to the back of the truck to grab himself a bottle of water but then came back to Jade's side, seemingly inhaling the liquid.

"What the fuck is up with you?" Jade asked, concerned. "And where the hell have you been?"

"Where the hell have I been? What about you?" Beck cried. "We've been trapped in there for hours."

"Trapped?" Jade reacted, incredulously. "Why didn't you just open the door?"

"Because-" Beck uttered between gasps of air. "there's a huge RV parked right-" He trailed off, and Jade raised an eyebrow waiting for the end of the sentence.

"Huh, I guess it left." Andre finished for him, looking around to see the empty space next to the RV.

"It left and we didn't even notice?" Trina moaned, collapsing onto the floor, before immediately jumping back up as her skin touched the flaming asphalt.

"You guys are all so sweaty and gross." Cat giggled, earning herself multiple glares from her friends.

"Yeah, because you were off frolicking on the beach somewhere whilst we were cooking in this tin can." Trina complained, with mutters of agreement behind her.

"We weren't frolicking. We were waiting for you guys - Jade texted you." Cat said, confused.

"We had no service." Andre explained. "Didn't you notice your texts weren't going through?"

Jade felt a pang of guilt. She should've noticed how quickly her attempts to call Beck had been cut off.

"What were you doing that whole time?" Tori asked, accusingly.

"We met some nice guys and made pottery with them." Cat beamed. "Oh! And then we had a water fight!"

Jade rolled her head back in frustration. "They cut off the path to get back to the parking lot." She explained to a suspicious-looking Beck. "These guys had shelter for Toby. Do you think I would voluntarily have strange guys shoot water guns at me?"

"You didn't have to make pottery with them." Beck grimaced.

"I didn't, that was just Cat." Jade snapped, irritated at Beck's annoyance.

"Okay." He replied, in a tone laced with disbelief.

"Beck, I'm being serious. Why the hell are you getting-"

"Hey, hey, I'm joking. It's fine, I believe you." Beck quickly spoke, pecking Jade on the cheek to calm her down, before prying Toby from her arms.

"It doesn't matter, anyway. We're here now, you two are safe and we've got a beautiful beach in front of us and a massive Pacific Ocean to jump into. Let's go." He said, taking Jade's hand and leading her towards the beach. The others whooped enthusiastically and began to follow Cat back the way they'd just came, but Jade dug her heels into the floor and hung back.

"What are you doing?" Beck inquired, confused.

"Look, we've just come from the beach and I'm really tired so I'm just gonna go sit in the RV for a bit." She explained.

"Is this about the dolphin thing?" Beck asked, sympathetically.

"What? No. Seriously, Beck, I'm exhausted. I'm gonna go lie down." She said, attempting to turn back to the RV but Beck stopped her.

"You can't go back in there Jade. It's boiling. You'll cook."

"I'll turn the A/C on from the truck."

"That thing's gonna need a while to air out - it was unbearable in there, trust me."

Jade looked back and forth from the RV to the beach, feeling as though yet again she seemingly had no good options.

"Then I'll sit in the truck."

Beck furrowed his brow. "Don't, please. From the start, I wanted to come here with you and Toby. He's never been to a beach before - we should take him together."

"Don't make me feel guilty." Jade sighed.

"I'm not, I just want to be here with you both. The others are my friends but you two are my family; you're who I want to make these type of memories with."

Jade suppressed a smile. "I'll come with you for a bit, but then can we please go home? I'm so done with today."

Beck smiled and nodded. "Give me an hour and then we'll leave, okay? I promise."

Jade nodded, and Beck wrapped his free arm around her as the pair began to walk after the others. With Toby asleep on his chest, Jade leant into his side, and the sun beating down on all three of them, Beck felt as though he was modelling for the postcard to serenity. Yet, at the same time, he couldn't help but feel as though he'd missed something with Jade.

It could have been serenity but equally it might've just been the eye of the storm.