Chapter Text
CHAPTER I
FIRST MEETING
September 2nd 2008
Jade walked through the halls of her new school exuding confidence with every step she made, an intimidating aura surrounding the girl that was uncommon to see from a first year at Hollywood Arts and immediately catching the attention of her classmates whose fear & envy filled gazes locked onto Jade as she walked past them spitting out blunt remarks and demands, the other teenagers knowing better than to dare to test the truthfulness behind her threats directed at those that got in her way, as well as the seniors who would stare at her as if making some huge decision on whether or not they would accept her presence into the schools pre-set hierarchy.
People would respect her here, she would make sure of that. If she hadn’t already earned anyones attention just by her appearance and attitude alone, she’d easily fix that with her sharp glares and harsh threats that she’d mastered over the years, rolling off her tongue so effortlessly and lingering behind her so perfectly.
She could feel more than see the constant stares that followed her on her first day at Hollywood Arts as she claimed her locker, but she made a point of acting as if she hadn’t noticed any of them, as if it was just some normal thing for her to experience. A sense of pride overtook her as she slammed the temporarily undecorated locker shut and made her way to the first class of the day, she could already see just how inflamed her ego would become the more time she spent at this school.
Rightfully so, at least she believed it to be. Not many people would be able to rise in a schools hierarchy so soon after joining, especially when everyone else there is so much older than you - Jade was only thirteen, being a year younger than the rest of her classmates. She’d skipped a grade in middle school when she had to switch to a different school, the school where she ended up meeting her soon-to-be best friend Cat Valentine.
“The concept of Best Friends is just childish. And plus, it’s so commercialized in the same way that Valentines Day is, companies use it to make money knowing people will buy anything with ‘BFF’ written on it, and then people prove them right!” or at least that’s what Jade had to say the one, and only time, Cat had tried to refer to them as such.
Stepping into the classroom filled with students, Jade looked around for a few seconds before her eyes locked onto a specific seat right at the front of the class. She walked quickly towards the front of the class, sending a glare to everyone that dared to meet eye contact with her before stopping in front of one of the many occupied seats.
“Move.”
The brunette boy looked up from his notebook and furrowed his eyebrows at her, looking around calmly before looking back at the goth girl who was glaring down at him with a purpose, pointing to himself as he spoke,
“Me?”
Jade rolled her eyes and scoffed, crossing her arms and staring into his eyes with an intense look that would have anyone else in the school crumbling immediately.
“Yes, you. Who else would I be talking to? The chair?”
The boy shrugged, looking a few seats behind him causing Jade to follow his gaze, “Definitely not this chair, you could be talking to one of the chairs back there that isn't already taken, though.”
She quickly snapped her glare back on to him with a sharp inhale at his remark, her posture straightening as she looked him up and down decidedly.
The boy sat in front of her had annoyingly perfect long-ish brunette hair, and an irritatingly calm expression that remained on his features since before she had even started speaking to him that remained completely unmoved throughout the entire interaction.
She hated that.
“Fine.” Jade let out with a dramatic sigh and made a show of moving around him, starting to walk towards the empty chair before stopping behind the chair that started this altercation, and out of the infuriatingly undisturbed boys line of sight.
She caught a glimpse of the smug smile on his face at the fact he seemed to have won, making her so much more frustrated than any of the things he said had already left her feeling. Jade took note of the students watching the interaction go down and smirked to herself, biting her lip before taking hold of the back of the chair and tipping him off of it, rushing to take the seat before he could as he sat there on the floor in front of it completely stunned.
She heard an exclaim from one of the other boys in the class, sounding distant and almost entirely unimportant compared to the overwhelming pride she felt in that moment.
“Shit, Beck! You good, man?”
Beck. That must be his name. She noted to herself, staring down at him with a taunting smile.
“Yeah, Beck. are you alright?” She spoke slowly, faux politeness dripping from her voice as she rested her chin in her hands.
“Wow.”
Jade watched as Beck stared up at her with a mix of shock and amusement, before standing back up and dusting himself off.
“Don’t worry, there’s still one of the chairs back there that isn’t already taken.” She spoke with the same tauntingly polite tone of voice, mocking what he had said to her hardly even a minute ago.
Beck raised his eyebrows in an amused expression as he moved to sit in the chair a few rows back for the rest of the class, but truthfully, where he sat wouldn’t have mattered anyway considering paying attention to whatever was being taught at the moment had become the least of his priorities, his gaze remaining locked a few seats in front of him for the entirety of the next hour, caught in a trance as he stared at the long brunette hair donned with pale highlights in front of him, feeling a strong urge to know more about the rude girl.
To the amusement of all the other students attending Hollywood Arts, Beck and Jade spent the next two weeks post-meeting in some sort of constant back and forth game of cat and mouse where every day, without fail, it always went the exact same way.
Jade makes it clear she has no interest in him whatsoever, Beck tries talking to Jade anyway.
Jade sends him her usual death stare that makes any other boy run as far away as possible, Beck remains unmoved in his attempts at getting her attention.
Jade throws petty insults his way, Beck makes flirty remarks back at her.
Jade spends the rest of the day plotting how she can publicly humiliate him or subtly ruin his day, Beck reacts by slipping notes in her locker and winking at her when she inevitably finds them.
She could not stand him whatsoever; that was a fact she had made very clear to Cat every moment she got, describing the boy as some sort of unnecessary nuisance in her life that resulted in a constant headache every time she had the misfortune of seeing him, even just in passing.
Still, the redhead seemed to have not gotten that memo at all when she walked into the Asphalt Cafe one day after having finally convinced Jade to let her invite a new friend she had made to eat lunch with them, Andre.
Jade had already been having a worse than usual day when she sat at her and Cat’s usual table, her sour mood only seeming to be getting worse when she heard a familiar voice coming up behind her, pausing as she attempted to remember where exactly she hadd heard that voice before. Coming to an unfortunate realisation, she swiftly turned her head around, if only to confirm what she had already figured out.
“Shit, Beck! You good, man?”
Her first day. That was when Jade had heard that voice, Beck’s friend that had called out to him when she pushed him off the chair.
“You’ve gotta be kidding me…” Jade whispered as she came face to face with three people walking up to the table she was seated at, Cat Valentine, Beck Oliver, and a third person she didn’t recognise, but assumed must have been Andre.
The trio took their respective seats at the circular table and Jade scoffed, crossing her arms over the table, and looking back and forth between Cat and Beck.
“Why the fuck is he here?” She demanded loudly, leaning towards Cat while still staring directly into the eyes of the boy she was talking about, ignoring Cat’s quiet squeak at the harsh tone Jade directed at her.
“Well, someone’s excited to see me.”
Jade narrowed her eyes at his sarcastic comment before redirecting her glare towards the other girl at the table, still waiting for a response to her question.
“Uhm… this is Andre! Beck is Andre’s friend!” Cat pointed towards Andre sheepishly, the redhead completely unfamiliar with being on the receiving end of Jade’s aggressions.
“Sure, yeah, okay whatever. How does that explain him being here, exactly?”
“Oh! Right! Andre wanted Beck to join us since they usually eat lunch together anyway.” Cat explained happily, her confused expression instantly being washed away by her usual bubbly personality, “We couldn’t just leave him to eat lunch alone, silly!”
Says who?
Jade didn’t verbalise her thought, instead letting out an exasperated groan and resting her head in her arms. She shut her eyes and took a deep breath as she resisted the urge to snap at her best friend and therefore create a horrible first impression for the person awkwardly sat in-between Cat and Beck.
“He could’ve asked any girl in this school and they would immediately jump at the chance to have a moment alone with him.” She mumbled stubbornly, breaking the short silence she used to take a moment and think of a response.
“Maybe I didn’t want to ask any girl. Maybe I wanted to have a moment alone with you, Princess.”
“HEY!” Jade’s head snapped up at the pet name he dared to use on her, any semblance of the effort she had used to try and calm herself down mere seconds ago immediately disappeared as her sour mood from before returned with a vengeance, coldly glaring at the boy that caused it whose face now conveyed somewhat of a stunned expression as if he genuinely hadn’t expected that reaction from her.
Pulling her scissors out of her boot in a swift motion that would’ve gone completely amiss had any of them blinked, Jade angrily pointed the blade towards him and spoke in one harsh breath, “Watch it before I use these scissors on something your smug-ass would never want to lose, you perv.”
She skilfully shoved the weapon against his chest hard enough to instil some level of intimidation, yet not actually cause any real damage, before Cat swiped the tool out of her hands and crossed her arms obstinately, shaking her head in total disapproval at Jade’s usage of less than favorable language.
“Dude! Give me back my fucking scissors!” Jade yelled, standing up and leaning over the table to reach for the scissors that were stolen from her, easily snatching them from the girls loose grip and returning them to their usual hiding place in her combat boots, grabbing her uneaten lunch and sending Beck one final harsh glare before walking off frustratedly.
“I’m sorry… She isn’t always like this…” Cat’s attempts at reassurance slowly faded into nothing the further Jade got from the table. Throwing her food into a nearby bin and exiting the Asphalt Cafe. Jade made a mental note to herself about making a conscious effort to distract herself with her classes for the rest of the day as she ignored any further attempt made by Beck or Cat to interact with her.
Over the next week, Cat insisted on the four of them continuing to eat lunch together everyday despite the constant protests made from Jade, the banter between her and Beck slowly lost its aggressiveness as the week progressed until she reluctantly allowed the brunette boy some peace, coming to terms with her newly founded group of friends and allowing Beck the privilege of existing in the same room as her without countless death threats directed at him, no matter how desperately she wished to do so.
And you know what, maybe Beck wasn’t just some thorn in her side like she had explained to Cat countless of times, or maybe, just maybe, the girl had actually grown to somewhat enjoy the constant exasperation the boy caused her in some sort of weird and masochist, but entirely Jade-like way.