Tori Vega loved Hollywood Arts. The good things just kept on coming. She felt as though she could pirouette around the corridors, and sing at the top of her lungs, but instead she settled for a high pitched squeal and a skip over to her locker.
"What's got you all excited?" Andre smirked, wandering over.
"Oh, nothing, I just might've seen the cast list for Uptown Downtown." Tori replied coyly.
"It's out?" Andre asked, swinging round to see if he could spot it. "And..." He continued, turning back around.
"I got Penny!" Tori squealed, hopping up and down.
"That's great! Congrats, girl!" Andre grinned widely, pulling his friend in for a hug.
"I'm so happy. I know I messed up a little in the audition cause I was so nervous so I didn't think they would pick me."
"Don't be so hard on yourself, you were amazing. I could see that and so could they."
"Thanks Andre." Tori replied with a smile.
"So... if you're Penny, who's our Peter?" Andre continued. The play was a smaller production, concentrated to their year, so he knew almost everyone that had auditioned, despite stepping back himself in order to focus on the musical side of things.
"I think it was Robbie actually." Tori replied with a laugh.
"Ah, Robbie playing an awkward, tactless manchild - I have to admit, I really can't see it." Andre joked.
"Hmm, me neither. Good thing we're at a performing arts school because that's going to be an acting challenge."
Andre smirked in response. "Okay, okay, so we've got our leading lady and our awkward love interest, but who's our leading man?"
"Oh, Beck actually." Tori blushed.
Andre squinted a little at her response. That girl was going to get her heart broken if she didn't get over Beck quickly.
"Oh, Beck, right. That's cool." Andre nodded. "You looking forward to it?"
"I can't wait." Tori replied excitedly. "Another lead and I've only been here a few months. I love this school!"
"What's got you so excited?" Jade asked sourly, pulling up to Andre's side. "Hey, do you have gum?"
"Oh, er, the cast list for Uptown Downtown is out." Tori replied, still unsure of how to act around Jade. The mean girl had been nicer, or - to rephrase - less mean, to her since she'd helped out during the breakup, but Tori still wasn't quite sure whether they were friends, or even friendly.
"Where?" Jade asked, her eyes growing wide, as Andre searched for gum, beside her.
"Over by the vending ma-"
Tori didn't even manage to finish the word before Jade had begun to stalk off towards the list, but not before snatching the packet of gum from Andre's hand.
"Hey, that's my last packet!" Andre called after her, but if she heard, she didn't make it known.
"That was my last one." Andre pouted, but Tori's concentration was fixed on Jade. The girl in question has reached the list, a long black painted talon already tracing the names. There was a moment of pause as she drew her hand away from the list, as though it was obstructing her vision of the parts. And then, with a growl, she snatched the paper from the wall, screwed it up in a ball which she threw to the floor and, to Tori's horror, came stalking back over.
"You! You've been here for less than a semester and you think you can have every lead you want?" Jade snapped, towering over Tori in a manner that her very slight height advantage shouldn't have allowed.
"I didn't ask them to give me the lead-"
"You auditioned for it didn't you?"
"Well, yeah, but-"
"Then what are you talking about? You wanted this lead just like you wanted Catherine in Moonlight Magic and just like you'll want Juliet and Elphaba and Mrs Lovett and every other role I will ever want in my life!"
"Jade, I don't think-"
"I don't care what you think. I want you to get out of my way and stop trying to ruin my fucking life."
"Jade-" Andre began, warning Jade against overstepping her mark.
"Oh shut up Andre, we all know you're just trying to get in her pants."
Woah. Not true.
"Not true." Andre insisted in a panic, to both girls. Not true, Jade, not fucking true.
Tori grimaced. She sure hoped it wasn't.
"Whatever. I'm sick of you people." Jade muttered, marching off, presumably to find a new victim.
"I'm sorry about her." Andre winced.
"It's not your fault." Tori sighed.
"For the record, I'm not trying to-" He added hastily.
"I know, I know." She replied, waving him away, in a way that wasn't totally convincing.
"She's just mad because... I don't know, she's mad a lot." Andre shrugged.
"I know, I just... I don't get her. Sometimes I feel like I'm making a breakthrough and she doesn't hate me that much, and then stuff like this happens and I'm scared of her."
Andre nodded pensively. "Jade, she's... I've never met anyone like her. I doubt you have either."
Tori shook her head.
"No, she's very passionate." Andre continued, choosing his words carefully. "When she feels, she really feels, which is why she seems to swing between the extremes."
"I just wish she would leave me alone." Tori sighed. "She's so mean to me and then she'll do one nice thing, or not even a nice thing - just a not mean thing, and I'll think, okay, there's a chance for a friendship there, and then she'll go right back to how she normally is."
"It'll take time. She's like a pet, she has to adapt to new people." Andre smiled. "And she has a kid now. That's her priority, not random new girls at her school."
"Yeah, I get that it's hard being a mother and all, but she doesn't have to take it out on me all the time."
"It's not forever. I'm not condoning her behaviour but Jade... she doesn't have the easiest life, okay? And it's probably hard for her to have to do all she does on no sleep and see this new girl doing pretty well for herself and not having a baby keep her up all night either."
"I guess I'll take that as a compliment then. As they say, jealousy is the highest form of flattery." Tori laughed.
"I'm not sure-" Andre mumbled, before Tori cut him off.
"Oh wow, we're going to be late if we don't get to class soon." She said, with a check of her watch.
"Oh, sure, it's Sikowitz right?" Andre asked, and Tori confirmed with a nod.
They then headed for the doors, which gave them a front row view of the girl they had just been speaking about storming out of the classroom, the swinging doors threatening to fall off their hinges behind her. Tori wasn't sure of the last time she'd seen Jade walk in a way that couldn't be described as 'marching', 'stalking' or 'storming'.
Sikowitz arrived in the doorway, his feathers looking quite literally ruffled - the man was inexplicably draped in several multi-coloured boas.
"What happened there?" Andre asked, but Sikowitz merely shook his head and gestured for the two to enter class.
Jade, who was also supposed to be present in the class, didn't return until the bell rung, at which point she stormed back in, grabbed Beck's hand and dragged the helpless boy back out into the corridor. Through him, the previous events slowly trickled their way back to the group of friends.
"What the hell, Sikowitz?" Jade had yelled, staging a fight between her own voice and the door she'd just crashed open in dramatic fashion, over which could reach the higher volume level.
"Language, Jade. This is a school in case you'd forgotten." Sikowitz sighed. He'd been expecting something like this ever since he'd put up the cast list.
"Okay, what is this then? Why has Tori got Penny?" Jade said, lowering her voice ever so slightly.
"Tori worked very hard and we were very impressed by-" Sikowitz began conservatively.
"Bullshit, Sikowitz, that girl can't act! I was ten times better and you know it!" Jade exploded once again.
"Jade, you're not going to get every role you audition for. That's just how the industry works."
"Then why does Vega keep getting leads? I can accept that I won't get every role but I cannot accept that she's worked harder than me or deserves those roles more than I do."
"Well, maybe, you need to start being more realistic then. Rejection is hard, Jade, but you're going to have to get used to it if you want to make it as an actor."
"I can handle rejection, okay. But this isn't fair. You said there would be opportunities for me." Jade said, her voice wobbling. With anger or some other more vulnerable emotion, Sikowitz couldn't tell.
"If you work for them." He replied unwaveringly.
"Don't you see I am? I worked my butt off to get that role in Moonlight Magic and you took it away from me, so don't you dare stand there and say that I'm not working hard enough. You stood there and said that it was okay for me to lose that part because there'd be others - well, where the fuck are they?" She cried, flinging her arms out wide.
"Jade, calm down! You're lucky you're one of my favourite students or I would have taken you to Principal Eikner by now. I told you there would be other parts because there will be - you just need to be patient. It'll be easier, anyway, to get parts when little Toby is older and maybe Beck won't want to be in the same plays and-"
"Wait, is this because Beck's in the play?"
"Well, we did think that, given your situation, it might be helpful for you two if at least one of you was free to watch the baby."
"What? We have parents, and sitters! I never asked you to do that!"
"Jade, I think maybe you're trying to take on too much."
"Oh my god, no I'm not! I can have a life outside of being a mom, okay? Did you say that to Beck too, hm? Or is it okay for him to take part in every play he wants because he's a guy and god forbid should he have to take care of the kid he created?" Jade's exasperation was now threatening volcanic levels.
"Jade-"
"No, tell me - did you factor in the baby when considering Beck for the role? Or just for me?"
There was an uncomfortable pause. "Jade, as teachers, we try to do what's best for all our students and sometimes that might seem-"
Jade didn't even interrupt this time, instead just wordlessly walking out.
Except that this was the long version - its true, authentic form. What had instead got back to Tori and Andre, through Beck's loose retelling and the pair's own interpretation of the story, was that Jade had gone apeshit on Sikowitz because he hadn't cast her in the play. And so that became the truth.