Sorry for the delay, here's #12, enjoy!
Anger was peeling off Jade in waves. She didn't think she'd ever hated anyone as much as she hated Tori Vega.
See, the problem with her, Jade reasoned, was that she had credibility - people took her seriously. Trina Vega was god awful, yes, but the general agreement with that idea really reduced her threat. Tori Vega, on the other hand, was listened to, even when what came out of her mouth was just as stupid as the words of her older sister, which made her far more dangerous. So why did no one else appear to see this?
She could mull over this all evening. As it was, she was driving around aimlessly, with no real target location. There were just too many thoughts racing around her head and not enough time to rationalise them unless she just kept driving, so she continued to move forward, her knuckles turning white on the wheel and the ringing of her phone encasing her in a cacophony of sound.
"What?!" She barked into the phone once she'd finally answered.
"Hi Jade. I saw on The Slap that you were looking for Robbie so I thought I'd let you know that he's at home."
"Who is this? And how did you get my number?"
"Sinjin. And I got your number off the girl who answered your door when I knocked. I think it must've been your sister - she was pretty like you."
"She gave you my number? Wait - how do you know where I live?"
"I... um, anyway, Robbie's been back for about a half hour, but he's got needlework club at eight so if you want to speak to him you'd better go soon."
"I'm not gonna ask how you know that but thanks, I guess."
"Anything for you, Jade. So, I was just wondering..."
Jade hung up before she could hear the rest of that question. At best, it would probably be an inquiry into her favourite type of chips. At worst, it could be a question as to whether she'd kept her placenta and could he see it or something equally as terrifying.
Focusing instead on the task at hand, Jade changed direction as she reached the end of the road and began to head towards Robbie's house. Not to sound like Sinjin, but she knew where everyone lived - revenge was made easier that way. For his own good, Jade hoped Robbie hadn't yet taken out his knitting needles.
As she turned onto the next road, her phone rung once again and, with the accompaniment of an eyeroll, she picked up.
"What?"
"Hi Jade! Did you know that you can print money?" Cat's cheery voice blared out over the line.
"Yeah, it's paper." She replied stonily.
"Oh, well, did you know you can print money with your face on it?"
"What?"
"Yeah, I got this new device from the sky store that lets you print dollars with your face on them! How cool is that!"
Jade wished Cat could hear her eyes rolling through the phone. "Really cool, Cat. Um, I'm actually really busy right now so-"
"Wait, wait, don't go!" Cat cried and Jade sighed. "You haven't heard about my tennis racket yet - it's the lightest one ever made - or, or my ball cleaning machine or-"
"Yeah, I really don't think I'm missing out so-"
"Jade, wait! Please stay on the line! I'm so bored and there's no one else to talk to."
"Go talk to your brother."
"He's at the hospital getting his special medicine."
Jade grimaced. "Your mom then."
"Both my parents are with him. You see Jade, there's no one to talk to."
"You have neighbours don't you? One of them might want to talk."
"Nooo, they're old and boring. I want to talk with you, Jade. You used to talk to me all the time, why not now? You sound just like Tori."
"No I don't." Jade snapped. "Look Cat, I'm just a little busy right now but I'll call you later, okay?"
"Do you promise?"
Jade sighed. "I promise as long as you promise to stop buying things from the Sky Store."
"But, but-"
"No buts, Cat. That's the deal."
"Okay then." Cat sighed. "But only as long as you call me."
"I will. I promised, remember?" Jade replied before signing off the call.
She closed her eyes briefly and had to refrain from banging her head against the wheel. There was another thing she had to do tonight. Great. Add that to the English homework she'd been set that day, and Toby's bath time and everything else she already had to do, and it felt like a black hole of an evening. She'd probably have to skip dinner to get even half of it done.
Nearing Robbie's house, she pulled up on the side of the road and turned off the ignition, but the sound of the car's engine was quickly replaced by the sound of her phone, which at this point seemed to be constantly ringing.
"Why is everyone on planet Earth trying to call me right now?" She snapped by way of a greeting, not even checking the caller ID listed before she picked up.
"Hello to you too." Came the sarcastic reply from her boyfriend.
Jade bit her lip guiltily. "Sorry, but you're the third call in a row now. Do you people think I have all the time in the world to talk?"
"I was calling to check you were okay." Beck replied, with new venom. "But yeah, sure, I won't do that again."
"I don't mean it like that."
"Sure you don't."
"Oh my god, Beck, could you just not? I'm just busy is all, and people keep calling me so I'm getting annoyed. I didn't mean to take it out on you."
"Where are you Jade?"
"I'll be back soon."
"That's not what I asked."
"It doesn't matter."
"Jade."
"Fine." She huffed. "I'm outside Robbie's house."
"Jade! What are you doing?"
"I'm just going to have a word with him about his little blog."
"Well if it's anything like the word you just had with Tori then no you absolutely will not."
"What? What did she say to you?" Jade replied, sitting up straight.
"Nothing, Jade." He sighed. "She just said you paid her a visit and could I tell you that she's not to blame for Robarazzi."
"But she is!" Jade spat. "If she hadn't told Robbie to write about the people of Hollywood Arts then he wouldn't have made that stupid blog and those stupid videos and I wouldn't have people coming up to me asking when we broke up and how I could possibly give up my child!"
There was a silence on the line. "Is that what this is all about?"
"What?"
"Jade, I'm not going to break up with you - I was kidding. And no one believes that you're leaving Toby with me and running off, either."
"Oh my god, Beck." She groaned. "You're so fucking naive. Just because no one would ever think that of you doesn't mean people don't believe it about me. They call me the Wicked Witch of the West for god's sake, of course they could believe that I would do that."
"That's not true."
"It is."
"It isn't, you clearly love Toby so no one-"
"Oh my god, people believe all kinds of things about me, you're just kidding yourself at this point. You know Trina Vega's convinced half the school that Ryder Daniels is Toby's dad."
"Well, they do have the same eyes..."
Jade's eyes lit up with fire. "Beck you better say you're joking in the next three seconds or I will actually break up with you."
"Kidding, kidding-"
"You know what, if this is some joke to you I'm done with this conversation. I'll see you later."
"Wait, Ja-"
Beck's voice was cut off as Jade angrily slammed the red button on her phone. If Beck wasn't going to take her seriously then she wasn't going to listen to a word he said. Putting her phone on Do Not Disturb as another call from Beck popped up, she swung herself out of the car and headed towards Robbie's house.
Robbie Shapiro had never been popular. He'd never even been particularly well-liked. And for that reason, he'd had very few friends over at his house in all of his 16 years, least of all Jade West, who was now seemingly inexplicably stood on his doorstep, eyebrows raised and arms crossed, looking like she could kill a man.
Robbie gulped.
"What the fuck do you think you're playing at Shapiro?" She snarled, vaulting up the steps to grab his shirt.
"Hi Jade, um, so nice to see you." Robbie spluttered, his hands clawing at hers.
"Cut the crap. When are you going to take down that stupid blog?"
"I can't, Jade, it's so popular." Robbie replied, his words becoming strangled as Jade's grasp tightened around his collar.
"I don't give a fuck if it's popular, it's a bunch of filthy lies so you'd better delete it before I delete you." Jade hissed through gritted teeth.
"Well that's actually physically impossible so..." Robbie wheezed before his airways became cut off.
"Take it down!"
"No! If you want me to stop posting embarrassing footage of you then you'll have to stop embarrassing yourself!"
"Embarrassing myself? I haven't done a thing - you're the one putting false stories alongside perfectly ordinary footage of me! And stay away from Cat - she gets made fun of enough as it is!"
"I just post what I believe to be the truth!"
"The truth! I know politicians who lie less than you!"
"Jade, just because you want to give up your baby-"
"I don't, you fucking idiot! We were talking about vaccinations! God, you're even more stupid than you are annoying! Delete that video now and don't post another one." She spat, finally letting Robbie go.
Robbie gasped in relief, breathing in the precious air that Jade's grasp had denied him.
"Get your phone out." She ordered and he obliged, not wanting another strangulation.
"Now delete the video."
Robbie manoeuvred to The Slap and deleted the post, feeling his heart sink slightly at having to bow down to the request.
"Shapiro, if you dare post another video of my son I will personally make sure you can never have a son. Got it?" Jade threatened. Robbie nodded hastily.
"Good. I'm glad we're in agreement." She snarled, and stalked off back to her car.
Robbie rubbed the red marks on his neck where his collar had came dangerously close to garrotting. God, he was glad Rex hadn't witnessed that; the puppet had far too much ammo as it was.
Beck knew who was at the door from the sound of the knock. A far cry from the crashing sound of her boot which had once been so common, Jade West was now the softest knocker of all his visitors because she, unlike most others, knew of the precious cargo that was asleep inside the RV. Or, at least, that should've been asleep.
"God, is he not asleep yet?" Jade commented as she stepped inside, before Beck even had a chance to invite her in.
"No, I think he must be teething or something." Beck answered, closing the door behind him with a grimace. She'd barely even looked at him as she walked in.
"He's too young to be teething." Jade replied matter-of-factly, leaning over into Toby's travel cot.
Right, Beck noted, of course.
"So, when you said you needed to go sort some things out," Beck began, deciding to breach the subject. "that meant tormenting our friends, did it?"
Jade shot him a glare. "I was trying to get Robbie's blog shut down so our son wasn't exploited on the internet. And Tori's not my friend."
Beck rolled his eyes. "Of course she's not. And that makes it okay to scream at her like that, does it? Jade, I don't get why you think you can get things to happen by brute force. That's not how life works."
"Maybe not for you. Look, I don't really care what you say - I'm not going to let Robbie publish a bunch of lies about us and Toby, and if I have to go to his house and scream at him every day to get him to stop then I will. And I don't get how you don't feel the same."
Beck rubbed his eyes in frustration. "Because I'm trying to think rationally here. One of us has to. Robbie's blog will die down soon enough without the need for all of this."
Jade groaned. "That's the problem with you, Beck, you're all 'everything will work out in the end'. Well what if it doesn't, huh? What if Robbie never ends his blog and he just keeps lying and lying until Toby is old enough to read that shit and starts to believe it too?"
"Jade, you're overthinking this."
"No I am not! I have a right to be angry so I am and so should you!"
By now Toby's cries were inescapable and Jade was clearly not far from explosion. Beck turned away from her and leaned over into the cot, scooping up his son and switching to a hushed tone. He began to softly rock the baby before risking a glance back at his girlfriend. She looked like she could cry.
"I think I should go."
Beck nodded. "We can talk about this tomorrow when we've both calmed down."
Jade bit back a cynical retort; it was obvious by 'we' he really meant her.
"Just put Toby in his car seat. I'll sort him out when I'm home." Jade said, opening up the RV door.
"Are you sure? I can get him to settle now so you don't have to deal with that when you get in." Beck offered, reluctantly following Jade to her car.
"It's fine." Jade shrugged. "I do it every night don't I?"
Beck wished that wasn't true.