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Everyone at Hollywood Arts was scared of Jade West. Everyone except for Cat Valentine.
Everybody knew that the cheery redhead was incapable of disliking anybody. Truly, that girl didn’t have a single mean bone in her body. However, what nobody expected was for the broody, dark haired girl to be so fond of Cat.
Robbie Shapiro was the first to witness Jade’s soft spot for the girl.
“Good morning, people.” Robbie waltzed into Sikowitz’s classroom on a Monday morning.
“No.” Jade replied bluntly. She stuck out her boot clad foot and tripped the boy and his puppet. Robbie let out a yelp and fell flat on his face.
A few seconds later, Cat came bounding into the classroom with a bright smile on her face.
“Hi, Robbie.” Cat smiled stepping over the curly haired boy on the ground.
“Hey, Cat.” Robbie’s voice was muffled by the floor.
Cat just giggled and made her way over to the empty chair next to Jade as the rest of the class filed into the room. Cat took a seat next to the grumpy girl and beamed over at her.
“Good morning, Jade!”
“Hi, Cat.” Jade gave the girl a soft half-smile and took a sip of her coffee.
Robbie’s jaw dropped in awe as he climbed back up to his feet and made his way to his chair next to Andre.
…
Beck already knew about Jades feelings toward Cat. Beck was the only other person in their group that was genuinely friends with Jade. Not nearly as close as Cat, but closer than the other three. So it was never hard for Beck to notice when Jade was crushing on Cat.
Jade walked into the courtyard full of tables after the lunch bell rang. She was carrying two coffee cups in her hands.
As she approached the table her group of friends were seated at, she noticed that Beck was sitting in the spot next to Cat.
“Move.” Jade demanded. Beck looked up at her and smirked knowingly.
“Jade,” Cat began to reprimand her. Jade looked at Cat, “Be nice to Beck.”
Jade huffed and turned back to Beck who was still staring up at her.
“Beck, move... please?” Jade monotonously asked him. It wasn’t really “nice” per say, but for Jade that was about as good as it gets.
“Sure, Jade. Since you asked so nicely.” Beck got up and moved around the table to sit next to Tori.
“Hi again!” Cat exclaimed when Jade took the vacant seat next to her.
“Hey. I got you this.” Jade said, setting one of the two coffee cups in front of Cat.
Cat frowned regretfully at the girl next to her.
“What’s wrong?” Jade asked her.
“I don’t really like coffee.” Cat said softly.
Jade smirked at her and pushed the cup closer. “I know. It’s earl grey tea with honey and a little bit of sugar.”
Cat’s face broke out in a big smile as she took the cup and squealed a thank you to Jade.
Beck was still knowingly smirking at Jade from across the table. She locked eyes with him for a moment and he gave her a subtle wink. If he was feeling risky, he would have pointed out the faint blush on Jade’s cheeks from being caught, but Beck valued his life, so he said nothing.
…
Andre didn’t seem to notice much and if he did, he never said anything because it wasn’t really his place.
However, one particular morning, Cat came running up to Andre, Jade, and Beck at the lockers with a new contraption in her hands, and he couldn’t help but notice how everyone rolled their eyes at the chipper girl, except for Jade.
“Whatcha got there, Lil Red?” Andre pushes through the initial mild annoyance he had at the girls pep and asked the question he knew she wanted to hear.
“Carpet slides!” Cat laughs.
“What do they do?” Andre asked her.
“You put them on your feet and you can slide really fast on any carpeted area!” Cat poked Andre’s stomach and smiled.
“There’s no carpet in here though.” Robbie gestured to the tiled hallways they’re all standing in currently.
Cats brows furrowed. She knew there was no carpet now. She just wanted to bring them to school so she could show her friends how cool they look. She didn’t always understand why everyone though she was so stupid.
Before Cat could share her thoughts out loud, Jade interjected.
“Don’t be an ass, Robbie.”
“I’m not being an ass.” Robbie whined.
“Whatever. Come on Cat, let’s go to Sikowitz’s class and you can show me how they work.” Jade let Cat grab her hand and pulled her in the direction of the carpeted room.
Andre didn’t notice much. But he definitely noticed that.
…
The last one to catch on, was of course, Tori Vega. Tori was what we call a little bit self-centered. Most of the time she was too busy opening her mouth to “gift” somebody one of her original songs to notice other people around her.
One night, everyone was at the Vega household playing poker. Jade didn’t really want to go, but Cat asked her if she’d come and who is Jade to say no to the girl?
“I’m in.” Andre said as he tossed his four pieces of candy into the middle of the table.
“Me too.” Beck tossed his candy in as well.
“Me three.” Jade slid her candy into the pile and looked over at Cat.
“I don’t know if I should be in or not.” Cat pouted.
“Well you’ve gotta figure that out.” Tori said to Cat.
“Shut up, Tori.” Jade snapped. “Here, Cat. Give me your hand.”
Cat set her cards down and intertwined her fingers with Jade’s.
“No,” Jade smirked and dropped Cat’s hand, “ I meant your hand of cards. That way I can help you decide if you want to put your candy in the pile. ” Jade explained.
Tori was a little thrown off. She was pretty sure if she ever touched Jade’s hand, she’d get it torn off. And not only was Cat’s hand still in tact, but Jade offered to help Cat with her cards. None of it really made any sense, but Tori ignored it for the time being.
Later on, after Cat had (unsurprisingly) won the poker game, they were all sitting on Tori’s couch watching The Scissoring. Cat was not the biggest fan of scary movies, but she wanted Jade to pick her favorite movie since she helped her win all the candy from poker.
“This movie is wack.” Andre whispered to Tori.
“SHH!” Jade shushed both of them. She hated when people talked during her favorite movie.
“Hey, Jade.” Cat leaned over and whispered.
“What’s up?”
“This movie is scarier than I remember it being.”
“Do you wanna hold my hand?”
“Yes, please-y.”
Jade let the other girl reach over and intertwine their fingers for the second time that night. She even let Cat scoot a little closer and lean on her shoulder for the remaining duration of the film. Tori looked over at them in pure shock. She thought the first time that night was just a coincidence and some freak moment where an angel took over Jade’s body, but that’s not it. Jade just liked Cat. Tori went back to watching the film with all of her friends and let Jade and Cat have their moment together.