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Jade West was born October 30, 1993. Her parents were in their early 30s when they had her. Both of them had high powered careers and never wanted a child. Her mom was a lawyer and her dad was a powerful business man. Her mother spent as much time as her career allowed with Jade (which was very little). She knew that her mother loved her on some level. Even if she didn’t want her to begin with, they still had that mother daughter bond. Her father, on the other hand, never loved her. At least, he sure never did anything to make Jade think he did.
Jade had dozens, if not hundreds, of nannies throughout her childhood. Even as a young child, Jade was a lot to handle. She threw lots of tantrums to get her way (which almost always worked). Most of them quit because of Jade’s difficult behaviors. Naturally, Jade learned not to get too attached to people because they always left her eventually.
As a child, Jade loved arts and crafts, particularly those involving scissors. She was also a dancer from a young age. Her mom signed her up for classes when she was five to give her something to keep her busy. However, she was always more interested in the music. She was always singing around the house and her mom eventually signed her up for voice lessons too. Eventually, when Jade was around eight she got into theater. Everyone knows that Jade’s father isn’t a big fan of the arts, but he was actually fine with it at the time. He thought theater might be a nice extracurricular to add to her college applications. He may not have cared about her physical or mental well-being, but if she could get into an ivy league, at least she’d be something he could brag about. Plus he wasn’t exactly around that much anymore.
When Jade was six she found a necklace in her parents room. It was a simple silver chain with a black stone in the middle. Jade had never seen her mother wear it, but she thought it was pretty so she put it on. Her mom was furious when she saw the necklace. Not at Jade but at her father. Jade didn’t connect the dots about what actually happened until she was much older. All she knew was that her father was moving out and it was somehow her fault. He literally told her that. She even remembers his exact words: “This is your fault Jade. You need to learn not to touch things that don’t belong to you.” As if she ever listened to anything he said.
Her mother got full custody of Jade in the divorce, with the exception of every other weekend in which she spent at her father’s new condo. Jade was angry and confused about the whole situation. Six years old is arguably the worst age for your parents to get a divorce. She was old enough to understand what was happening, but not old enough to understand why. Up until now she had been happy, or at least oblivious to the horrors of the real world. As much as Jade wanted to think that her parents divorce had no effect on her, it did. At least, it did at the time. The once loud and bold six year old Jade West was now quieter and more outspoken. Her parents put her in therapy for a little while but that didn’t do much. Jade didn’t understand what she was feeling and she didn’t want to.
She stayed that way, in that numb sort of state, until the beginning of third grade. Every year, in the fall, her elementary school put on a play. Any student between third and fifth grade was allowed to “audition”. Except it wasn’t really auditioning because everyone got to be in the play. If you were bad they would just make you play a tree or something stupid. This year’s play was Snow White, well a very shortened down version of Snow White since the actors were all between the ages of 8 and 10. Jade mentioned the school play to her mother, who was thrilled that Jade was showing interest in, well, anything, and pushed her to audition for the play. Jade ended up playing the Evil Queen (a very fitting role for her, some might argue), which was a pretty big role for a third grader.
Both of Jade’s parents came to see the play. That was the only time Jade could remember them both being at one of her plays. That night was the moment she fell in love with theater. She loved everything. The attention, the costumes, the acting. Jade loved pretending to be someone else. That’s when she decided that if she couldn’t be who she wanted to be, a happy little girl with a perfect family, she would just pretend to be someone else. And from that moment forward, Jade hid her emotions and put up a tough girl façade. If she couldn’t be happy then no one could. Jade wouldn’t say that she was unnecessarily rude to everyone, only people that were rude to her. And those really annoyingly nice girls (although she later learned that they aren’t all awful). Everyone quickly learned not to mess with Jade.
Surprisingly, that actually made people like her more. People liked Jade because she was a good person to have on their side if anyone hurt them. Either that or maybe it was just because she was finally developing a personality after being as bland as a saltine cracker for two years. However, Jade never had any real friends until 6th grade.
It was Mrs. Lewis’s English class that made Jade realize she had a passion for writing. And a love hate relationship with bubbly red heads. Although technically, Cat was still brunette when they met. She didn’t start dying her hair until 7th grade but that’s besides the point.
The seating chart in that class was alphabetical by last name, so naturally Valentine and West were right next to each other. Jade was prepared to hate Cat’s guts from the moment she sat next to her. That girl’s mouth was open before her butt even touched the chair.
—“Hi! What’s your name?” Cat had asked as she sat down next to Jade.
“Jade,” she mumbled in response.
“I’m Cat Valentine. What elementary school did you go to? You must have gone to Briarwood because I don’t recognize you from Fairview. My brother went to Briarwood in fifth grade after he got expelled from Fairview.”
That caught Jade’s attention. “How’d your brother get expelled from elementary school?”
“Uhh, it’s a long story,” Cat said nervously. “Hey you should come over and meet my brother! But not today. He’s still in the hospital because he drank half a bottle of laundry detergent last weekend, but he gets out tomorrow! Do you want to come over after school?”
Jade had no idea how to respond to anything that Cat had just said, but she didn’t want to miss out on a chance to meet someone who definitely had some severe psychological problems, so she agreed.—
The next day Jade rode the bus home with Cat. She wasn’t sure what to expect of Cat’s brother. She figured that he was older than them, but she definitely wasn’t expecting him to be a full grown man. Cat’s brother was ten years older than her, making him 21 at the time they met. Jade remembers that day vividly. Cat’s brother asked if he could suck Jade’s toes which earned him a kick in the shin. After that they just hung out in Cat’s room. They discovered that they both shared a love for music, singing in particular, and boy could Cat sing.
Jade didn’t remember much else from that day. She assumed they just hung out in Cat’s room for the rest of the afternoon. Jade did remember meeting Cat’s parents, however. Cat’s dad was a total deadbeat. Jade couldn’t remember a time when he wasn’t passed out on the couch with a drink in his hand. Her mom on the other hand, was one of the sweetest people Jade had ever met. She worked two jobs to support her kids and pay for Cat’s brother’s “special medicine”. When Jade left her new friend’s house that night, she realized that maybe she and Cat weren’t all that different. Cat’s home life was pretty screwed up, maybe even more so than Jade’s. Sometimes Jade wondered if Cat’s bubbly persona was just a mask she put on to hide from her true feelings. After all, that’s what Jade had been doing for the past three years. Although Jade’s whole mean girl act wasn’t even an act anymore, it was just who she was.
Like she said earlier, 6th grade English class was where Jade developed a passion for writing. Their first assignment in that class was to write a short story. It could be about anything and the only requirement was that it had to be at least two pages. Jade wrote seven. Her story was about a little girl who got possessed by a demon and killed her parents. Evidently, that got her sent straight to the counselor’s office. They even made her mom come up to school which Jade thought was a little extra, but to be fair she did write about some concerning things that the parents did to the little girl in her story. The counselor needed to make sure that everything was okay in Jade’s home life. Once Jade explained that her story had nothing to with anything happening at home and agreed to rewrite her story, they were free to go. Since it was practically the end of the school day, Jade left with her mother.
—They walked to the car in complete silence. Jade knew she was in trouble. Her heart began to pound in her chest as she ducked into the front seat. Her mother didn’t utter one word to her until they had left the parking lot.
“Why the hell would you write that?!” Her voice exploded through the car. “Your father and I don’t hit you like you said we did in that story.”
“That story wasn’t about me.”
“Well when you write things like that people think it’s about you, and it makes us look bad as parents.” Of course she was defending herself. She didn’t care about Jade, she only cared about her image.
“It’s not like you’re up for mother of the year or anything,” Jade mumbled, not really intending for her mother to hear her.
“What the hell is that supposed to mean?” her mother snapped. “Your father and I give you everything you could possibly need. What, just because we have jobs and can’t spend every waking moment with you makes us terrible parents?”
“That’s not what I said!” Jade exclaimed. Before she had the chance to elaborate her mother cut her off.
“Is it the divorce, then? Your father cheated on me. I wasn’t going to stay with that lying son of a bitch just for you.” The emphasis on “you” made Jade’s stomach drop. It was as if Jade meant nothing to her.
They were almost home by now and Jade was planning on staying silent for the rest of the ride. Her mother, however, had other plans.
“You’re grounded,” she said plainly.
“But mom, it was a just a dumb story!” Jade cried. As if her mother hadn’t already made her feel bad enough, she had to add this on top of everything.
“Stories don’t cause this much trouble. I had to leave a meeting to deal with you.” Of course her mother didn’t actually care about Jade getting in trouble at school. She only cared because it made her have to leave her precious job.
“Why do you and dad even care so much about your stupid jobs?” Jade wondered out loud.
“Unlike somethings in my life, my job is actually something I wanted.”—
That was the moment that Jade found out her parents never wanted her. Jade didn’t think that her mother meant for Jade to understand what she said nor did she realize that she did. Nonetheless, Jade got the memo. That was probably one of the worst things her mother ever said to her. She cried in her room for two hours when she got home and didn’t speak to her mother for a week. The silent treatment was what Jade usually resorted to whenever she fought with her mother. She didn’t do it to get an apology or even to get attention. It just made her feel like she had some sort of power over her mother.
Later that night Jade rewrote her short story. She wrote some crap about unicorns and rainbows and ended up getting an A. Her teacher pulled her aside after their next class to tell Jade that she loved her original story, it just wasn’t school appropriate. She said it was written better than anything most 8th graders could write and encouraged Jade to keep writing for fun. So that’s exactly what Jade did. She must have written hundreds of short stories throughout middle school. However, the only person that ever read them was herself, and sometimes Cat if Jade was happy enough with a story.
One day when Cat was reading one of Jade’s stories, Cat started acting it out and reading the different characters with different voices. That gave Jade the inspiration to start writing plays and short films. She was limited to what she could write since her only actresses were Cat and herself. However, that didn’t stop them from making tons of short films on this old camera that Cat found in her brothers closet (after they deleted a few mildly scarring photos). On Jade’s 13th birthday, she got a camera of her own. It was much nicer than Cat’s brother’s, and it was all her’s.
Also when Jade was 13, she discovered her favorite movie of all time, The Scissoring. Jade had always loved horror movies, but there was something about this one that she just couldn’t get enough of. It could have been the fact that the main actress was smoking hot, and her first ever girl crush. Not that she even realized it was a crush at the time. Both of Jade’s parents were fairly conservative, and neither of them were particularly supportive of lgbtq+ community. Jade, on the other hand, saw no problem with them. Why should she care if someone else wants to date someone of the same gender? But whenever she, herself, thought about girls in that way, she felt guilty for some reason, so she pushed those feelings away for as long as she could (until a certain new girl arrived halfway through sophomore year).
One time Jade forgot to go to her father’s house when it was supposed to be her weekend with him. Like she genuinely forgot to take the bus to his house instead of her mother’s that Friday. Her father never called or texted and Jade didn’t even realize until the next day. She thought it would be fun to see how long she could go without seeing her father before he noticed. It took two months. She spent a couple weekends at Cat’s to make it seem less suspicious, but her mom didn’t seem to notice Jade being around a few extra weekends. Eventually Jade received a text from her father asking if they had missed a weekend because he felt he hadn’t seen her in a while. She made up some excuse about having to work on a school project the past weekend with Cat, and he didn’t question it.
When she went to her father’s house that weekend, he told Jade that he had just gotten a promotion at work that would require him to travel more. He thought it would be best if Jade just came over one weekend a month as opposed to every other weekend, which was fine by Jade. She had just spent a full two months without her father and he barely even noticed. Plus, it’s not like they ever did anything together whenever she visited. He was usually busy working or he was out with some random woman. Jade spent most of their weekends together writing in her room by herself. Which she didn’t mind at all, she just preferred to be at her mother’s house since most of her stuff was there.
In 8th grade, puberty hit Jade like a truck, and the boys were certainly quick to notice. She had two boyfriends that year. Well maybe more like one and a half, she was a little unclear about the first one. His name was Nate, and he was fairly cute for a 13 year old. He took Jade to a movie, they held hands, shared an awkward kiss, and barely talked after that night. They texted for a few days after their date, but he never took her out again. Not that Jade really cared, she wasn’t in love with him or anything.
Her first real boyfriend was Dylan. Jade had had a thing for him for a while and decided to ask him out. She thought he was so cool because he rode a skateboard and actually had some sort of style as opposed to other 8th grade boys. They never really went on dates, they just hung out Dylan’s house and made out a lot. They were together for around two months before Jade caught him flirting with other girls and broke up with him.
In January of 8th grade, a couple student ambassadors from the local performing arts high school came to Jade’s choir class to talk to the 8th graders about their plans for high school. They told them about all the programs that Hollywood Arts had to offer and what it was like to attend the school. Jade was particularly intrigued by the film and play writing programs. She had never really thought much about what she wanted to do for a career, but film and acting were the only things that ever really interested her. She realized that if she was going to pursue a career in the arts, she needed to get serious about it. So she talked to her mother about it that night, and she agreed to let Jade audition and said that they would talk more seriously about it if she got in. Auditions weren’t until spring which left her plenty of time to prepare.
The Hollywood Arts students had handed out brochures with information about the school and auditions. In their auditions, students were allowed to act, sing, dance, play an instrument, or a combination of any of those things within the allotted 15 minutes. Jade decided to sing and perform a short scene from a play she had written. She practiced as much as she could, and by the time spring rolled around, she was ready.
Cat had also decided to audition for Hollywood Arts. Her audition was right before Jade’s, so Cat’s mom drove them both to the school. Jade wished her friend good luck and then took a seat outside the theater. As much as she hated to admit it, Jade was nervous. She had never wanted something so badly before. Fifteen minutes later Cat came prancing out of the theater and wished Jade good luck before a barefooted bald man stepped out of the theater and called Jade’s name. The audition was over in a flash. Jade thought that she sang and acted good, but was she good enough? Only time would tell. Decision letters would be sent out in two weeks.
—Jade was laying on her bed listening to music when she received a text from Cat. In all caps it read “I GOT IN”. Jade felt her heart leap in her chest. Hollywood Arts Decision letters were finally out. Jade sprinted up the stairs and out of her room in the basement. Her heart was racing as she ran down the driveway. She flung open the mail box and dug through an assortment of letters before she found the one with the shiny, gold Hollywood Arts seal.
Knowing that Cat got in made her feel at least a little more hopeful. That girl sang like an angel. If she didn’t get in, there was no way Jade would. Nonetheless, Jade was still scared out of her mind as she opened the letter with shaky hands.
Jade only needed to read the first word before she literally collapsed on the ground with relief.
“Dear Jade West,
Congratulations...”—
Now all she had to do was convince her parents to let her go there. Jade had a long conversation with her mother that night about Jade’s future and how Hollywood Arts would impact it. Her mother knew how passionate Jade was about writing and acting, and thought that Jade should have the opportunity to do something she was passionate about. She even agreed to talk to Jade’s father who, after an insanely awkward family dinner, reluctantly agreed. He wasn’t thrilled that Jade was planning on pursuing a career in the arts, but he had long since given up hope of her doing anything that he deemed “worthwhile”.
Five months later Jade was starting high school at Hollywood Arts. This school was far from being a normal high school. From the barefooted teachers drinking coconut milk and the lotion obsessed guidance counselors to the kids randomly break dancing in the hallways, it was impossible to get bored with this school. Jade started her first week of high school knowing one person: Cat. But thanks to a group project in Sikowitz’s class, she ended the week with a weird little friend group. There was Andre, who Jade didn’t care much about but thought was pretty chill and a decent singer. Then there was Robbie, this weird kid who always carried around a puppet. And obviously Cat. But the one that really interested Jade was Beck Oliver. Even as a 14 year old, Beck was hot. Unfortunately, every other girl at Hollywood Arts agreed with Jade. Girls were constantly flirting with him, and Beck never did anything to stop them. Jade assumed that Beck liked to have the attention of multiple girls at one, so she kept quiet about her crush for a while.
Jade’s new group spent the first semester of high school all hanging out together. Eventually, Jade and Beck started hanging out on their own. Jade realized that Beck hadn’t dated anyone since school began, and it’s not like he didn’t have the chance with half the girls in school constantly swooning over him. It appeared that Beck had taken a liking to Jade, and why shouldn’t he? Jade was hot. Her style had improved a lot since middle school and she had colored stripes in her hair now.
However, it took another month of them hanging out on their own before anything happened between them. Jade assumed that she was giving off mixed signals, she knew she could be kind of hard to read sometimes. She flirted with him quite a bit, but Jade’s version of flirting involved a lot of teasing, so she understood if he got confused.
One day, Beck and Jade were hanging out in Beck’s trailer after school, just like they had many times over the past few weeks. They were just listening to music and talking when suddenly, they had a moment. Jade wasn’t sure who leaned in first but they ended up kissing, and then making out pretty intensely on Beck’s bed. After that he asked Jade to be his girlfriend.
They went on a few dates during the beginning of their relationship, and Beck even cooked her dinner on their first Valentine’s Day together (which was not even a month after they started dating). However, Beck’s meal was a complete disaster. They ended up eating microwaved ramen noodles, but Jade didn’t care. She just liked spending time with Beck. As their relationship went on they went on fewer dates, and instead they just went to Beck’s trailer and hung out. And they kissed. A lot. And sometimes they did a little more than kissing. But they didn’t sleep together until the summer between freshman and sophomore year. They were both only 15 at the time which, to be fair, was a little young, but they were in love and they trusted each other. They were safe about it too. Jade even convinced her mother to let her go on the pill. She told her it was for cramps, but Jade was pretty sure her mother knew she was lying. Whatever, she didn’t care if her mother knew that she and Beck were having sex as long as she didn’t try to stop them.
Towards the beginning of sophomore year, Jade decided she wanted to get her nose pierced. All she wanted was a simple stud, not even a ring, but her mother refused to let her to get one. She said that they looked unprofessional. She told her mother that she didn’t give a fuck about what people thought, stormed out of the room. Later she called Cat to rant, when Cat informed Jade that her brother recently got a job at a tattoo and piercing shop. Who in their right mind would hire Cat’s brother to permanently alter people’s skin, Jade did not know. However, Cat told her that he would pierce her nose without her mother’s consent if she came in after they closed one night. Jade was a little skeptical of Cat’s brother handling needles around her face, but Cat assured her that he was medicated at the moment.
That weekend, Jade told her mother that she was spending the night at Cat’s house (which wasn’t a lie). Thankfully, the tattoo parlor was walking distance from Cat’s house. Jade couldn’t imagine that Cat’s mom would be too thrilled to take her daughter’s friend to illegally get a piercing.
When they got to the shop, Cat’s brother was the only one there, just like he said he’d be. Jade and Cat looked through some pictures of tattoos that her brother had done while they waited for him to get the nose piercing ready. His tattoos were actually pretty amazing. Jade had always wanted a tattoo, but assumed she wouldn’t be able to get one until she was 18. However, she currently had a tattoo artist that was just insane enough to tattoo a 15 year old standing right in front of her. So Jade got a tattoo and a nose piercing. And she threw in an eyebrow piercing too, just to piss off her mother (although she did also think it looked pretty sick).
Jade’s mother was furious when she saw her daughter’s face the next day. Jade got grounded for a whole month, which was the longest she’d ever been grounded. Jade didn’t even care though. She knew there would be consequences, and she was just glad that her mother didn’t make her take the piercings out. However, Jade did feel a little bad that her mother called the tattoo parlor and got Cat’s brother fired. But then again, Jade didn’t force him to do any of it, so really it was his own fault.
Jade showed Beck her piercings and tattoo at school that Monday. He knew that she was getting the nose piercing but she decided to surprise him with the eyebrow piercing and tattoo. He loved them. She knew he would, and even if he didn’t, Beck was too nice to say anything. Plus, they were way past the stage in their relationship where appearances mattered. The thing that Beck was not so pleased about was Jade’s month long grounding. Thankfully, Jade’s mother didn’t get home until after six most nights, so Jade was often able to sneak away for a few hours after school.
As the year progressed, so did Beck and Jade’s relationship. Jade was vulnerable around Beck. She told him things that she had never told anyone else and he did the same with her. Even with other girls constantly flirting with him, Jade knew that Beck would stay loyal to her. They both trusted each other and that’s what made their relationship work. Sure they fought a lot, but what couple didn’t? At the end of the day they still loved each other.
As sophomore year went on, Jade realized that she was the happiest she had been since she was six years old. She had a smoking hot boyfriend that loved her. She went to an amazing school where she got to sing and act everyday. And she even had a weird and annoying, but sometimes nice, little friend group. Jade West had it all. At least, she did until after the big showcase during sophomore year, when Tori Vega transferred to Hollywood Arts and changed Jade’s life forever.