Chapter Text
The Big Showcase, Friday Night
The big showcase was always presented in random order. Beck did a scene with a couple of seniors as the third act; Jade sang a dramatic song with some juniors as the fifth act. The showcase was nearing its end and they were both looking forward to watching Trina embarrass herself in the final act. Beck felt bad for Andre (so did Jade even if she wouldn't admit that fact in front of their musically gifted friend). He was stuck with the talent-less and obnoxious Trina Vega, they knew that the song he had written for the showcase was amazing; they'd heard him practicing it for two weeks now. There was one thing that they knew for sure, no matter how awesome a song was, Trina could be relied upon to ruin in.
Beck had his arm wrapped around Jade and was periodically rubbing her shoulder. During the third to last act, they began to hear loud moaning, the voice was recognizable as Trina's but it sounded distorted. "Wonder what trouble the freak show got into now," Jade commented darkly. Beck chuckled and tightened his arm around her. If everyone else understood how much Beck tended to agree with his girlfriend's dark and sarcastic comments, then maybe they would understand why he and Jade were so right for each other.
"Who knows," Beck replied with a smirk, "But, Andre may have just lucked out." Beck kissed the side of her head and they watched as Principal Eichner pulled three people out of the audience below them. The moaning stopped shortly thereafter. Jade relaxed against him as the second to last act (Robbie and Rex doing a standup routine where Robbie tries to play guitar but Rex kept making fun of him).
They were both shocked when instead of Trina her sister, who did not even go to Hollywood Arts, performed the closing act. Jade scoffed when everyone applauded to encourage her to join, Beck kind of agreed with Jade. There was usually a lot more to an audition then just a single musical performance. Things like grades, charisma, a personal essay, and multiple talents usually had to be established in front of a panel as well as an interview. The fact that she did one performance and was just offered a spot and everyone went along with it was absurd. Beck shook his head while Jade rolled her eyes. They stood up, and Jade grabbed his hand to lead him back to his car. He laced his fingers with hers and followed her out. They leaned against the side of the car while waiting for Cat since the three of them were going out for pizza to celebrate after the showcase.
Sikowitz's Class, Monday Morning
Beck walked into class while texting Jade, apologizing that he missed her this morning and letting her know that he was at Sikowitz's class. He was holding a half-full coffee cup in his hand with no lid (the shop had been out). A girl he didn't quite recognize turned around and smacked the cup out of his hand; he got splashed with the remainder of his coffee. It quickly stained his shirt and the girl who, now that he had the chance to look at her he recognized as Trina's sister, began rubbing up and down his chest with the sleeve of her coat wrapped around her hand while he tried to tell her everything was cool.
Trina's sister kept wiping down his chest with the sleeve of her shirt and Beck started to get nervous. He didn't like how everyone was okay with just touching him and commenting on his body. He didn't like the look in her eyes as she looked at him. Jade was the only one who understood how much other people could make him uncomfortable. It had been drilled into him as a small child to be polite to the point where now he struggled to tell people to stop. He usually relied on Jade to do that for him.
The tanned teen raised his hands a little and took a step away muttering to the girl that it was okay when the door opened and the familiar sound of combat boots stomping in reached his ears. He sighed in relief and took another step away as Jade began to yell at the new girl to get away from him. Beck turned fully to look at Jade and smiled at her, he whispered, "Relax," to let her know he was okay then kissed her cheek in thanks.
Jade stayed tense though and Beck knew she was having a crappy day (she usually did after a weekend of court-mandated visitation with her father). and he wrapped his arm around her shoulders. She had just started to lean into him when Sikowitz burst into the room screaming about a fire.
Everyone in the class started yelling and stood to get ready to run when the crazy acting teacher laughed and said he was kidding before telling them to take their seats. Jade scoffed and lightly stomped her foot before she walked over to a chair and threw herself into it before dropping her stuff, she was not in the mood for Sikowitz's antics. Beck followed her and pulled a seat close to hers and sat down before wrapping his arm around her shoulders again.
As much as both of them valued their personal space, they both drew comfort from touching each other. The way Jade leaned into his chest as Sikowitz started explaining the importance of practicing improve, after introducing Trina's sister, Tori, to the class, let him know that she just needed some tie to settle down after a crappy weekend with her dad.
Sikowitz announced that they will be doing a group improve scene and nominated Jade as captain. Beck got a sinking feeling at the way Jade sashayed up to the stage with a strange and angry grin on her face. He wished that he hadn't been running late that morning. Usually, if he and Jade had the chance to talk about whatever her dad had said or done over the weekend she would calm down and be her usual charming self. Instead, he felt like he was about to watch something terrible godown.
"Okay Jade," Sikowitz said, oblivious to the fact that he had essentially just set a train wreck in motion, "Pick your team."
"I choose, Cat, Elie, Beck, and..." Jade paused for a moment, "Tori." The class then chooses the location of the home and the theme of big news. Beck was hesitant to step on the stage, not wanting to get in the middle of whatever it was that Jade was planning. Jade told Tori to go wait in the hallway.
Sikowitz called, "action!" and Beck shook himself out and stepped on the stage while Jade turned and grinned at him (she was a talented actress, he almost believed she was happy for a minute), "Hey, babe, how was work today?"
"I got fired," he told Jade hoping to change the trajectory of the scene.
"Well I have good news," Jade replied, refusing to go with his statement. This was unusual because Jade usually put her work above her anger. She walked over to the door Tori had exited, "I went the shelter today and got us a dog."
Tori looked nervous, and Beck didn't blame her, but she agreed and mildly said: "Yup, I'm a dog, woof." Clearly not understanding that she was supposed to start truly acting like a dog. This just made Jade angry, she broke character and yelled for Sikowitz to make Tori do what she was supposed to do to play the role of a dog.
At Sikowitz's prompting, Tori sank to her hands and knees and barked properly. Jade then picked at Tori's hair and said she thought the dog had bugs. Beck took a step towards her, not sure what he could do to stop Jade's determination to be cruel to the new student. Jade takes a couple of steps off the stage and grabs a cup of ice coffee, announcing that coffee is good for getting rid of bugs. Beck says her name, breaking character himself to try and get her attention. She was too focused on her anger though and poured the coffee out on Tori's head. Beck almost couldn't believe what he was seeing, that was a low move; lower than Jade would usually sink to. Beck frowned at Jade as Tori stood up and ran out of the room, followed shortly by Andre.
Jade looked at Beck, the smile on her face slightly off and unnatural, and he shook his head before taking his seat. Sikowitz began giving a speech about the importance of boundaries during scenes and that certain behaviors are only acceptable if they are properly scripted. Jade sighed and took her seat next to Beck while Sikowitz decided to send Robbie out to bring back Tori and Andre.
Beck reached out and touched Jade's shoulder. She looked at her boyfriend, he was still frowning but he raised an eyebrow at her. Jade knew she had taken things too far, she would have to explain what was going on to Beck. She sighed and put her head in her hands. Beck, recognizing that the anger had left her and seeing in her eyes that something was truly wrong, wrapped his arm around her shoulders again. While he was still mad she had stooped to dumping coffee all over a new kid on their first day in school, he knew that she wouldn't normally do something like that; and, he couldn't help but comfort her.
When Robbie still hadn't returned five minutes later Sikowitz decided to send Cat out to find them. Beck pulled Jade close to him and whispered, "Let's go talk in my car during lunch," then kissed the ear he had just whispered into to let her know that he still loved her. All four of the others re-entered the classroom and Sikowitz realized it was probably safer to just lecture on the historical context of improv for the remainder of the class.
Beck's Car, Lunch, Monday
"Jade," Beck spoke softly touching her chin, "You've been off today."
"I know," Jade sounded frustrated, "Mom never picked up the refill for my meds last week. Friday, I took my last dose and she told me that Dad would just have to pick them up this weekend." She looked away from Beck and glared out the window, "He just kept making excuses about needing to run errands for his girlfriend and never got around to it." Beck grabbed her hand to kiss her knuckles. She looked at him, "I told mom I shouldn't come to school; but she told me she had too much to do to have me underfoot and refused to call me in sick."
"I love you," Beck said, as he always did when Jade talked about her crappy parents. She smiled and blushed lightly before she kissed his lips sweetly with hers.
"I love you, too," Jade replied resting her forehead on his.
"What do you want for lunch?" Beck asked leaning back and buckling his belt. Jade did the same before saying she wanted sushi. He agreed and drove with her. As they were driving back to school after their lunch date (Jade still seemed off; but, she was less angry) Jade said she would apologize to Vega the next day.
Sikowitz's class, Tuesday
Beck and Jade had gotten distracted by each other that morning and spent a little too much time kissing. They were running late and as a result, there weren't anymore seats next to each other when they arrived in class. Beck sits in the front row and Jade sat behind him wither her arms crossed. Her mom had picked her meds up the afternoon before, but it always took a couple of days for her to stabilize whenever she missed some days.
Tori came into the room and Sikowitz announced that she's back, sounding surprised, then started talking about windows. He then announced that the improv exercise for the day would be Alphabetical Improv. Tori volunteered to be the lead and chose Andre, Cat, Beck, and Jade. Beck got a strange feeling when he sees Tori looking angry and mischievous as she said Jade's name.
Beck smiled when Jade stepped up to him and kissed him as she stepped onto the stage. The scene began with the letter P and Tori started right in on Jade. Beck walked over to her and tried to intervene; knowing Jade still wasn't quite in control of herself and wanting to stop her from doing something she would regret again. She certainly wouldn't be apologizing anytime soon. Cat joined in on trying to calm Jade down while Andre took the approach of trying to actually start a real scene. When Beck's character as an alien began fainting (he couldn't think of another F word with all the distraction of Tori and Jade going on) and Tori grabbed his arm he face-planted so she would stop touching him.
Jade and Tori immediately began fighting above him. He was quietly impressed that they managed to stick to alphabetical fighting. Beck heard Jade barely clinging to herself and was about to try to stand up, but then Jade got buzzed. He stood up and returned to the ridiculous scene where he was an alien. When Tori's character (he hoped it was her character) asked him to kiss her, he glanced at Jade and said, "Let's not." He agreed with Sikowitz's lecture from the day before that some things should only be done when scripted. Tori responded, "Well..." and got buzzed.
Jade smiled when Beck won the first round of Alphabetical Improv and the class continued with a new group of students coming up.
Asphalt Cafe, Lunch, Tuesday
Jade had refused to apologize to Tori like she said she was going to; but, Beck didn't blame her. It was inappropriate for Tori to suggest that they kiss during an improv scene. Especially since it was clear to everyone in the room that she only did it because she wanted to upset Jade. Sure, Jade had been mean to Tori; but, that didn't give her the right to be a jerk either. Beck had heard Cat telling Tori that it wasn't cool to try to get people to kiss you during improv so he hoped it would never happen again. Jade was eating a burrito while reading a book; Beck watched her with a smile on his face. "What?" she asked him. He leaned over and kissed her cheek, "I love you," he told her before pulling out his phone and opening up a game. Sometimes, it was nice to just be together.