Chapter Text
It was the second Saturday in a row where Tori didn’t get to sleep in. Instead, she had to get up early, shower, and be ready just like a regular school day. All because Jade and Vice Principal Dickers got into some kind of face-off (which, as much as she wanted to blame Jade for it, Dickers was the one who was out of control, in her opinion).
Coffee was easy enough to come by in the Vega house, because her dad always started a pot when he got up. Breakfast, on the other hand, was never something either parent regularly prepared for their daughters, at least not once she and Trina had both started high school.
Because it was so early on a Saturday, Tori was getting a ride in with her father, since her mom and sister were both still sound asleep.
Lucky, Tori thought, as she filled a bright purple travel mug with steaming coffee.
“You about ready?” asked her dad as he moved for the stairwell off the kitchen that led down to the garage.
“Yeah,” said Tori. She’d been able to grab a banana, which would at least get her started for the day. On the kitchen island was a plastic tub of oatmeal cookies, which probably wouldn’t last longer than a day in their house, so Tori quickly wrapped one in a napkin and stuffed the snack into her jacket pocket then followed her father to the car.
-
Jade was already downing her third cup of coffee by the time she crossed the threshold into the Hollywood Arts entryway. This was stupid, another Saturday wasted. Maybe she could at least get some writing done. That is, if Tori could keep her big mouth shut. Actually, Tori probably could, if there wasn’t anyone else there to egg her on. Robbie was the one who generally talked too much, doubly so when he had the damn puppet with him.
When she entered the library and saw Sinjin sitting at one of the tables, she sighed heavily. Maybe today would actually be the worst.
“Hello, Jade,” he said.
“Don’t,” she replied. That was enough to quiet him, though he kept staring at her as she chose the furthest seat away from him as possible. “Stop looking at me!”
He startled and turned back to face forward.
Jade heard the sound of someone’s shoes skittering in the hall outside and, after a moment, there was Tori, rushing into the library and grabbing a seat at the table next to Jade’s. The second her butt hit the chair, Vice Principal Dickers sauntered in.
Jade groaned, anticipating another big speech like he’d given the week before, but he seemed less motivated to inspire through fear as he had the previous Saturday.
“Phones in the box.” He pointed to the cardboard box on an empty table. “Do not leave this library.”
Sinjin raised his hand. “What if we have to go to the bathroom?”
Tori cringed. “Shhh.”
“Yeah, shut up,” muttered Jade.
Dickers eyed the two girls in the back row and Jade suddenly wondered if he was about to give them ten more detentions. Instead, he waved a sheet of paper that he then let flutter onto the empty table in front of him. “Bathroom breaks and lunch are listed here. If you fail to follow the schedule, you’re in trouble.”
Jade glanced over at Tori, eyebrow raised. Tori shrugged. This wasn’t quite the same hardass they’d experienced before.
“Luther will be checking in on you,” Dickers continued, “as I have an appointment. I can’t be expected to put my life on hold for you delinquents. Any questions?”
Tori’s hand hovered as if it might begin to climb, but Sinjin’s shot up quickly. “Are we allowed to work on homework? I have a scale model I’m expected to finish by Monday.”
“I don’t care, just stay in here and don’t cause a ruckus.”
Sinjin nodded. “Could you describe what you mean by ru--”
“Stop talking,” shot Jade.
The room was quiet and that was enough for Dickers to leave them alone.
Tori stood up to walk her phone over to the box.
“What are you doing?” Jade asked.
“He said to--”
“Who cares? No one’s watching us. Even Dickers is bored of this already.”
“Yeah,” Tori realized. “Last week he wanted me to pop his arm zit and this week he’s going to an appointment?”
“Ew, he what?” Jade was repulsed but intrigued.
“It was… a weird experience.”
“I would have done it,” said Sinjin.
Jade banged a fist on her table. “No one asked you. Build your thing.”
Sinjin turned back around quickly, digging into his backpack. Jade watched him for a moment, making sure he wasn’t about to turn back around to stare at them or talk to them or think about them. After a few moments, she was reasonably satisfied, and pulled a notebook from her own bag, intending to work on writing.
Perhaps in part because it was still early, the library was mercifully quiet at first. Even the noise level from Sinjin’s project was reasonable, the light scratching and scraping of materials just the right level of frequency for Jade to be able to mostly ignore it. Tori was also working on something, which included occasional humming, probably songwriting. Jade made an effort to tolerate that until the humming increased, pulling Jade’s focus from her work. She glared at an oblivious Tori for a few moments, tapping her pen against her notebook in irritation, until she couldn’t stand it anymore.
“NO!” Jade shouted.
Sinjin startled so hard that he knocked whatever he was working on off the table, and groaned in despair. Tori, however, looked back at Jade, unperturbed.
“Sorry,” Tori said, not sounding it in the least. “I’m working on a song.”
“Yeah, that part was easy to figure out with all the sounds coming from your mouth. It doesn’t make it any less annoying.”
Tori sneered back at her, but Jade’s attention was focused on Sinjin, who was scrambling to pick up all the pieces he’d knocked onto the floor. She smiled in satisfaction.
Jade tried to go back to her writing, but the silence had been shattered, and her mood had shifted. Tori frowned at her PearPhone, and Jade watched her for a moment, hoping that she was getting some bad news that might entertain Jade for a little while.
Tori noticed her staring, and explained, “I sent what I had of my song for Andre to look at, but he’s not responding.” She groaned, and slumped forward. “He’s probably still asleep.”
Jade glanced at the clock. The morning was dragging, and certainly, if it were a normal Saturday, she’d still be asleep right now. Tori hadn’t gotten the tragic news Jade had been hoping for, but she decided to engage with her a little, anyway, since there wasn’t much else to do. “Yeah, it’s not even lunch time yet. I think you’ll be waiting awhile.”
Tori groaned again. “When is lunch time?”
Sinjin got up and dashed over to where the schedule had been left. “Not until noon,” he reported.
“I don’t know if I can wait that long,” Tori sighed, then made a face. “I hope it’s not room-temperature tuna again.”
Sinjin stared, wide-eyed. “You got room-temperature tuna last time?” he asked with evident envy.
“No one’s talking to you!” Jade snapped, and he hurried back to sit down in his seat.
There was a soft crinkling sound coming from Tori’s table and Jade whipped her head back in her direction, ready to lash out again, but then she realized Tori was eating something. Jade raised her eyebrows expectantly.
“Erm.” Tori chewed, then swallowed. “It’s a cookie.”
Jade looked at the cookie, then back at Tori’s face. “And?”
“And…” Tori squinted, searching Jade’s expression. “Did you… want… some?”
“Yes.” Jade’s hand shot out, palm up, waiting.
Tori, to her credit, broke off a full half of the baked good and held it out to Jade. She was such a good person, sometimes. Usually. Practically all the time. It was sickening.
Jade took a bite and tried to pick up where she’d left on her writing. She really wanted to break a story she could use to make another short film. That didn’t seem to be happening because, right now, she felt compelled to continue roasting Tori.
“This tastes weird.”
Tori shrugged. “My mom made it.” But as Tori finished her own half, she considered Jade’s opinion. “I think. It does taste kind of off. Oh chiz, I hope Trina didn’t make it.”
Whatever the problem was, it wasn’t bad enough for Jade to throw her piece away. She shoved the rest in her mouth, then washed it down with what was left of her coffee.
-
Tori found herself watching the clock, waiting for noon, which meant both lunchtime, and a greater likelihood that Andre would be awake. And really, though Andre’s feedback was important to her, lunch was her greater priority. The cookie she’d split with Jade had done little to stave off her hunger. If anything, it seemed to make her hungrier.
Time absolutely dragged until it was a few minutes before noon, which was when they spotted Luther for the first time as the janitor strolled past the doors to the library. Tori perked up when she saw him. “Maybe he’s here to bring us our lunch.” She stood and waved to him.
Luther stopped, staring at them through the door, and then walked in. “What are you kids doing in here?”
“Uh,” Tori replied, “We’re in detention. You were supposed to check in on us?”
Luther shrugged. “Not right now I’m not. I’m on break.”
“But...it’s our lunch time. What are we supposed to eat?” Tori asked him.
“You should’ve brought something,” Luther admonished. “I’m on break. I’m going to Inside-Out Burger.”
“Wait!” Tori called to his retreating back, “Can you bring us something?” She sagged as she realized he wasn’t listening. “Great. I’m starving,” she whined.
“Well, why don’t we do what we did last time?” Jade asked, glancing at Sinjin.
“I don’t know if that will work,” Tori sighed. At Jade’s expectant look, she explained, “Trina only brought us tacos last time because Beck was here, and she wanted to impress him.”
Jade’s face had been contorting weirdly as Tori spoke, and she realized why when she heard Sinjin turn in his seat. “Tacos?” he asked.
“No!” Jade shouted at him. He spun back around. Jade turned back to Tori as if nothing had happened. “Come on. You can’t think of any way you could convince Trina?”
Tori thought about it. “Maybe she’d do it if I offered to buy her some, too.”
“I was going to suggest telling her I wouldn’t replace her windshield wiper fluid with pig’s blood, but okay, if you think that will work.”
“How would you even…? Where would you get that much…? You know what?” Tori shook her head. “I don’t want to know.” She picked up her PearPhone to text Trina. She ended up telling Trina that Beck was in detention with them in order to seal the deal, but as a result, Trina promised tacos in twenty minutes. “Thank chiz,” Tori sighed. “Tacos are coming.”
“Not bad, for you,” Jade replied snidely, still looking at the notepad she was writing on.
Tori realized that Sinjin was staring at her. “Um, can I help you?”
He turned all the way around so he was kneeling on his chair and leaned toward her. “I’m willing to keep this all between us… for a price.”
“Um.” Tori hadn’t really brought much cash with her. “How much?”
“Two tacos.”
Tori sagged in relief. That was easy enough. “Fine.”
But then he opened his mouth again, “And--”
“No!” shouted Jade. Her voice was much louder because she was now sitting next to Tori at the same table.
Whatever weird addition he’d been about to demand was quickly forgotten as Sinjin spun back around and resumed working on his model.
“Why are you sitting here?” asked Tori.
Jade’s answer was a flat, “I’m bored.”
“That’s the point, this is detention. It’s not supposed to be exciting.”
“Ugh,” Jade groaned, “now I’m even more bored.”
She knew she had no obligation to entertain Jade, but they were the only allies each other had while they were here. “You want to see something cool?”
“Yes, but I doubt whatever you think is cool is something I’ll think is cool.”
“Just follow me.” Tori quietly slipped out of her seat and moved toward the back of the library. Jade remained stationary for a moment, then rolled her eyes and began to follow.
As they walked up the ramp toward the library stacks and into the reading lounge area, Jade mused, “Wow, yeah, more library. Fun. Like we didn’t see this for six hours last weekend.”
Tori ignored the complaints and stopped right over a cut square of carpet. “Check this out.” She lifted the square, which opened to the passageway that led to the janitor’s closet below.
Jade’s arms dropped from their crossed position. “Wait, what?”
“It’s a secret passage.”
“This is real? I’ve seen that sign in the closet, but I thought it was a leftover prop.”
“Nope.” Tori stepped down onto the ladder and began to descend. “You coming? We have to meet Trina for the tacos soon, anyway.”
“Whatever, hurry up.” Jade moved down after and, within moments, they were both standing in the janitor’s closet.
Tori peered through the small window on the door. “Looks clear.”
Jade snorted. “Luther is ‘on break,’ remember? No one else is here, Vega.”
“It doesn’t hurt to be cautious,” Tori replied.
“Yeah, sure,” Jade said, “I thought that gorilla beat all the caution out of you the other night.”
“Maybe,” Tori said, wincing at the memory. “But, after the risk I took for my audition, maybe I like caution a little more again.” She’d been hurt when the gorilla tackled her, but playing up her injury by wearing casts on her arms to emphasize her ability to deliver her lines regardless of physicality had only led to her losing the role. In her pocket, her PearPhone buzzed. “Okay, Trina’s here. Let’s go.” Tori pulled on the door, but it wouldn’t budge. “Hey.” She yanked again. Still stuck.
“What’s the problem? You can’t work a door?” Jade shouldered past her and pulled, but it didn’t open.
“Are we locked in here?” Tori began to panic. She was so hungry. “Maybe we should both pull tog--”
The door swung open, knocking them both backward.
“What are you guys doing, messing around in here?” Trina chastised. “I have a tight schedule to keep.”
“Trina! Thank you so much,” Tori said as Trina handed her the bag.
“Yeah, whatever. Where’s Beck?” Trina asked. She looked past them, as if he might be tucked away in the closet somewhere.
“You want to ask that again?” Jade asked dangerously, folding her arms and glowering at Trina.
Trina just rolled her eyes, “Whatever. It’s not like looking is a crime.”
“He’s in the library keeping watch for Dickers,” Tori said quickly, before Jade could retort, and changed the subject quickly. “Seriously, thank you Trina, we’re so hungry. We even ate one of those cookies that Mom made, but it didn’t help at all.”
“Wait. You took the cookie?” Trina’s eyes were wide, “Mom wouldn’t stop accusing me of taking one!”
“Oh, well, sorry about that,” Tori said. “I was--”
“Tor-i!” Trina drew out her name in that way that Tori knew meant she’d messed up badly. “Those were special cookies!”
Tori felt her stomach sink, and as she blinked, she slowly realized that everything around her looked sharper, more colorful. “Oh, no.”
“What’s she talking about?” Jade demanded of Tori, turning away from Trina entirely.
“Uh, well,” Tori grinned. “Our mom is in the business of...um. Cannabis products?”
“Okay, so let me get this right.” Jade’s expression softened to amusement. “You brought weed to school and got us high during detention?”
“I didn’t mean to!”
“I’m telling Mom,” Trina sing-songed.
“I didn’t know!”
“You’re really proving to be more interesting than usual today, Vega.” Jade had busied herself with buying two cans of Wahoo punch from the vending machine, probably to avoid talking to Trina.
“I--”
“Yeah, yeah. Didn’t know, didn’t mean to. I’m hungry. We’ll tell Beck you said hello.” Jade grabbed Tori by the wrist and pulled her back into the janitor’s closet.
-
“Here.” Jade dropped two tacos on the table in front of Sinjin. “Don’t bother us, don’t look at us, don’t talk to us.”
Sinjin nodded. “Do you--”
“That’s talking to us!” It was Tori who spat the words at him, apparently picking up Jade’s energy. Maybe she was on a power trip from the cookie and all the sneaking around. Jade wasn’t ever sure what made Tori tick.
“--have any hot sauce?”
“Oh.” Tori dug around in the bag and handed him a packet.
“No more questions.” And then Jade was back to dragging Tori behind her, this time toward the lounge area in the stacks. It was more comfortable back there and they wouldn’t have to listen to Sinjin crunching away.
Now that Jade realized she’d been accidentally dosed with a cannabis cookie, she was really noticing how the world around her was beginning to move differently. That shit was probably just starting to settle in.
“We should have brought water,” she realized.
“For what?”
“Have you ever been high before?”
“No! Why, have you?”
“Not a lot, but I’ve dabbled.” Jade placed the two cans of punch on the small table. “Really, your mom doesn’t have you test her batches?”
“My dad is a cop!” Tori dropped onto the couch.
“And your sister is Trina. Your family doesn’t exactly make a lot of sense.” Jade could tell she was only about to climb higher and she decided they really needed to make sure they were hydrated when the worst of it hit. “I have a water bottle in my bag.” She looked back the way they came. It seemed like it was really far away. Jade sucked in a deep breath. “SINJIN!”
“Yes, my darling?” came the hopeful reply from down the ramp.
“Bring my bag to the edge of the stacks and leave it there. Do not look in it. And don’t you dare come back here.”
“Can I smell it?”
Tori frowned. “Ew!”
Jade crossed her arms. “Just. Bring. It.” There was the thumping of Sinjin’s feet clamoring on the ramp, then quiet. Slowly, Sinjin peeked around the corner. “I said leave it!” The bag hit the floor and Sinjin scurried away. Jade collected her bag and placed the bottle of Crystal Waters water next to the cans of punch.
“Seriously, are you planning to be really thirsty later?” asked Tori just before she bit into a taco.
Jade sat next to her, the bag of tacos between them. “You are too, you just don’t know it.” She was tired of Tori’s incessant questions and she was starving, so she grabbed a taco and tore into the wrapper. After taking a bite, she groaned. “This is really good.”
“I know!” Tori moaned around her mouthful, then she covered her mouth as she swallowed her bite, looking sheepish. “Sorry. I just don’t remember them being so good last week.” She chased it with a few audible gulps of Wahoo punch, then lifted the bag, staring at it, as if expecting to discover that they were different tacos.
Jade wasn’t interested in explaining to Tori why the tacos were better, not when she could be eating said tacos, so she snatched the bag from Tori to grab another. She did, however, find herself gushing, “This is the best hot sauce,” as she drizzled the packet onto her taco.
“It really is,” Tori agreed. “I don’t think I used very much last week, and I was missing out. I usually like the medium one, but Trina only got--”
“Tori,” Jade snapped, then leveled out her tone. “Stop talking. We’re eating.”
“Right,” Tori mumbled just before taking another bite. “We’re eating the best tacos on the planet.”
Jade let that one slide, because in this moment, Tori was absolutely right.
They quickly worked their way through the remaining tacos in the bag, until Tori reached in and frowned. Jade could hear her hand digging around among the napkins and hot sauce packets, the paper bag rustling madly, before Tori looked in the bag. “Aw, man!” she griped. “I told Trina she could take four tacos. She must’ve taken six.”
“That, or we lost track of how many we ate,” Jade said, staring at the cluster of empty wrappers in front of her. It seemed possible.
“Maybe,” Tori grumbled, slouching back against the couch and folding her arms. “I think I’m still hungry.” She picked up her can of Wahoo punch and tilted it over her mouth, seeming surprised to realize that it was empty. She set it down with a sigh. “And thirsty.”
Jade pushed the water bottle toward her. “Here. But you’d better not drink it all.” She wasn’t looking at Tori, because she was distracted by a lens flare that was coming off of the wall clock, when she tilted her head and the light hit it just so…
-
Tori watched as Jade stared at something on the wall, closing one eye, then switching to the other eye. “What are you doing?” She glanced over her shoulder. “Is there a ghost? Are you winking at a ghost?”
“I wish there was a ghost,” replied Jade. There was a beat of silence, then she began laughing, which made Tori start to giggle. “Seriously, can you imagine how cool that would be?”
Tori didn’t want to think about anything haunting them. “No, really, what are you looking at?”
Jade rolled her eyes, but it wasn’t as effective as usual with the smile that was still on her face. “The clock. It’s just... really shiny.”
“It looks regular shiny to me.” Tori tried doing what she watched Jade do with her own eyes, closing one, then the other. “We should have asked for more tacos.”
“Tell Trina to bring more.”
“She won’t do it.”
“Yeah, that’s probably true. She’s a grunch.”
“Hey, that’s my sister.”
“And?”
“And…” Tori didn’t really have anything to counter with. Trina had been plenty terrible to her friends. Even if Jade refused to classify herself as one. “I wish I had a mint.” She leaned back against the arm of the sofa, eyes focused on the ceiling tiles. “Do you think there are other secret passages around h--” Something hit her in the chest. “Ow!” Whatever it was, it rattled. She glanced down to see a tin of mints. “Oh. Thanks.” With a little pressure, the lid of the tin flipped open and she popped one of the mints into her mouth.
“I don’t like when people smell bad. Or like weird food.”
“Do I smell like weird food? You had the same food!” As she rolled the candy around in her mouth, she realized it wasn’t minty. “This is… spicy.”
Jade took back her tin. “I just mean in general. And they’re cinnamon.”
“Kinda burns.”
“I like that it burns.” Jade popped a mint of her own and immediately crunched on it.
“I like when it… stops burning.”
“You would,” Jade retorted, but she was still smiling.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Tori bumped Jade with her shoulder, giggling.
“Nothing,” Jade said, laughing too. Tori was beginning to wonder what they were even laughing at, but it didn’t matter. She felt warm, comfortable, and cozy on the little sofa, and if only they’d had more tacos, she thought it’d be perfect. She drank some of Jade’s water, and passed it to her waiting hand, though she wanted it back almost immediately, because her throat still felt dry.
“Ugh, we’re going to need more water,” Tori realized.
“Probably,” Jade said, though neither of them made any move to go get any. “Would you rather die of dehydration or drown?” Jade asked abruptly.
It was so out of left field that Tori giggled about it for a long time before saying anything. “I don’t know why I’m laughing. That’s a horrifying question.”
“It is, isn’t it?” Jade sounded pleased and was examining her nails, very closely. “Now answer it.”
“Um.” Tori really didn’t want to dwell on it, so she tried to think fast. “Drowning. At least it’d be over quicker.”
“Fair enough,” Jade said. “Now you go.”
“Oh, uh…” Tori thought about it, eyes scanning the room for inspiration. She looked at the clock. Was time going backwards? It seemed much earlier than she thought it should have been. She tilted her head thoughtfully, then the clock seemed to catch a sunbeam from somewhere and she grinned. “I think I see the ghost in the clock,” she told Jade.
“I told you!” Jade gave her shoulder an enthusiastic whack, and Tori pushed her back playfully.
“Okay, so,” Tori asked, inspired. “Would you rather see a ghost or...hear a ghost?”
“That’s a stupid question,” Jade said, though it lacked any real bite.
“You still have to answer it.” Tori was unfazed.
“Ugh, fine.” Jade’s brow furrowed, then she held up a finger and pointed it at Tori slowly. “Can the ghost hear me?” she asked, very pensively.
“I don’t know!” Tori laughed, “Um, sure, it can hear you.”
“Okay, then my answer is hear,” Jade said decisively.
“Really? Why?”
“Did I make you explain why you picked drowning?”
“No, but I explained anyway.”
“True,” Jade acknowledged. “I picked hear because if it can hear me, I can talk to it, and I want it to tell me what dying is like.”
“O...kay…” Tori replied, “I guess that makes sense.”
“My turn.” Jade shifted on the couch so she was facing Tori a little more. Tori could see her eyes were a bit glazed, her cheeks lightly flushed. Something about actually looking at each other made Tori want to laugh again, but she stifled it. “Would you rather…” Jade began, “jump out of a moving vehicle, or be buried alive?”
“What?” Tori asked, “What kind of question is that?”
“One you have to answer if we’re going to keep playing this,” Jade responded, sounding highly amused.
“I mean, jump out of a moving car, of course,” Tori decided.
Jade’s eyebrow hiked up. “Interesting.”
“What do you mean? I don’t think it’s even a question. At least you can survive jumping out of the car.”
“What if you weren’t like, fully buried?” Jade asked, “What if you were just a little bit buried alive?”
“Um, I’d still choose the car,” Tori said firmly.
“How fast would the car have to be going to change your mind?” Jade asked.
“I...don’t know!” Tori shook her head. “Jump from the car, final answer!”
“Interesting,” Jade said again.
“Why is that interesting?” Tori asked.
“No reason,” Jade said lightly. Even her smile seemed softer, especially as Tori noticed the way the light in the library seemed to make her eyes a more vibrant blue. “Your turn.”
“Uh, okay." Tori thought about it, and felt heat rise on her cheeks as she considered a question. She glanced at Jade, trying to decide if she should ask it.
“What?” Jade asked sharply, eyes flitting over Tori’s face. “Come on, spill.”
“Would you rather, um…” Tori licked her lips, glancing at the now empty water bottle. “Would you rather kiss Andre or Cat?”
“Okay, first of all, ew. Andre’s my friend and Cat is basically a family pet.”
Tori shrugged. “You still have to choose.” She grinned triumphantly.
Jade exhaled in frustration, but looked thoughtful. Finally she said, “Cat.”
“Really?” Tori was intrigued, looking over at Jade with new eyes as she considered her answer. “Why?”
Jade shrugged. “Cat would be so much less stressful. Andre wants it too much and he’s so neurotic he’d probably have a meltdown after it was over.”
“Oh, please,” Tori waved Jade off. “He’s totally over you.”
“Uh, excuse me?” Jade asked, her eyebrow arching high.
“Nothing!” Tori shouted, with no volume control. “He never had a crush on you and I never helped him sing a song to get over you and I’m shutting up now.” She clamped her jaw shut.
Jade’s eyes narrowed as she locked them on Tori. “What about you?”
For a fleeting moment, Tori thought Jade was asking if Tori was over her and, despite never having been…under…her, it made her stomach flip. “Uh, what?” And then it dawned on her that Jade was probably actually asking about the Andre vs. Cat question. “Um, oh.”
“Uh, um, yeah, yeah. Answer.”
“I mean Andre’s a really good friend and he’s like…I don’t know, a non-annoying sibling.” Tori considered what that meant. “So, then…I guess...Cat.”
“Wow, you’re so excited about it,” droned Jade.
“Well, I’ve just never kissed a girl before so…” The way Jade had so easily and logically landed on Cat for herself made Tori wonder. “Why, have you?”
“Of course I have. When I was thirteen. At theatre camp.”
“Oh.” But then Tori wasn’t sure if that meant on stage or for real. “Like in a play?”
“No.” Jade didn’t offer up any more, but it was enough for Tori to get the picture.
“So you’ve…”
Something about Jade softened. “It’s not like you have to. If you’re not into it.”
“I’m not not into it.”
“Then you should do it.”
“Fine, the next time it comes up, I’ll look into it.” Tori rested her head against the back of the couch. She felt like her heart was racing but her body was so relaxed.
Jade was similarly static, her elbow propped up against the sofa cushion. “If you wanted to, you could. Like…now.”
“I could now? If I wanted to?”
“Yeah, that’s what I said.”
Tori realized what Jade was suggesting. “Like, with you?”
“What, I’m not pretty enough?”
“You’re pretty! Also scary.”
Both sentiments appeared to please Jade. “I’m just saying that it’s not like there’s anything else to do. And then you can check it off your bucket list or whatever.”
The idea did kind of excite Tori. Maybe because of the cookie. Maybe because she’d defeated the gorilla the other night. Maybe she was the kind of girl who made out in detention with someone like Jade. Not that she was planning to, like, make out. “Fine, okay.”
“Yeah?” Jade’s pierced brow arched upward.
“Surprised?”
“No. You already said you think I’m pretty.”
“Wait, what about Beck?”
“Yeah, he’s pretty.”
“He’s your boyfriend.”
“And I’ll tell him I did you this favor. He’ll understand.”
Was it really just that easy? Knowing Beck, it probably was. “So how do we do this?”
“I’m not going to explain kissing to you.”
Tori adjusted her position on the couch so she was facing Jade more squarely. “You just want me to go for it, then?”
Jade groaned. “Don’t make me regret the offer!”
It was an offer and it would be rude to turn it down, right? Tori leaned forward and pressed her lips to Jade’s. They were really soft, which felt so opposite of Jade’s hard-edged personality. She’d only planned to go for a quick, friendly peck, but Jade wasn’t pulling away. She was actually kissing back, which made it basically impossible to want to stop.
Tori felt herself melt into Jade. There was no better word for it. Her body felt light, loose, pliant, and kissing Jade felt good. And all she could really focus on was the sensations where their lips connected, and how she wanted to keep feeling them. She felt like a flower, drawn to the sun, and that metaphor was about as rational as her brain was capable of being as she kissed Jade.
It felt like they kissed for a long time, but then, everything seemed to be moving slower today. Still, though, it felt too soon when Jade pulled away. Tori stifled a whimper of complaint, and Jade said, “Whoa, there. I do have a boyfriend, remember?” She sounded entirely too calm to Tori.
“Oh my god. I’m sorry.” Tori leaned away, certain she was blushing. “Chiz. Sorry,” she rambled.
Jade, however, was still smiling as she watched Tori trip over her own tongue, but then spoke again, “Hey, chill out. It’s not a big deal. Besides,” she held onto the next words for a beat, as if deciding whether or not she really wanted to offer them up, “you’re a pretty good kisser, Vega.”
“Really?” Tori couldn’t help smiling in return. It was hard to say which sensations in her body to attribute to what, since she’d never been high before and also had never kissed a girl, but she wondered what was making her feel like she might float away.
Jade was still looking at her expectantly, and Tori wondered if it might be an invitation to kiss her again, but then Jade’s eyebrow rose. “You could say I’m a good kisser,” she prompted.
“Oh! You are. You definitely are.” Tori nodded enthusiastically.
“I know.” Jade was smug as she settled back against the sofa cushion.
Taking a moment to try and center herself, Tori also slouched into the sofa and propped her feet up on the small coffee table. She took a deep breath, which only relaxed her body further and left her feeling as if she’d sunk further into the couch. “I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to get up from here.”
-
“Yeah, I think we’re pretty couch-locked,” Jade replied. She looked over at Tori, who was opening her mouth. “Don’t make me explain that word to you. Just think about it.”
Tori closed her mouth, and nodded. “A high thing?” she asked.
“A high thing,” Jade confirmed, smirking at her wording. “Guess we’ll have to entertain ourselves here for awhile. I’m in no shape to do any homework right now, anyway.”
“Yeah, me neither,” Tori agreed. She stared at something past Jade’s head for a long moment, and then asked, “What should we do? Oh! I have that Talking Reggie app.”
“Here, give me your hand,” Jade said, thinking of something, anything better than that annoying app.
“Why?” Tori asked, but she was already offering Jade her hand.
“You ever do this when you were a kid? Make a fist.” It was something Jade had done with Andre a few months back, having him make a fist while she massaged his fingers, exploiting one of those quirks of the body that made the hand open slowly and produced a tingly sensation. Probably from disrupting circulation. She did it now with Tori, who seemed absolutely delighted.
“Whoa,” Tori said, holding up her hand once Jade had let it go. “So tingly!”
“Here, do it to me.” Jade pushed her own hand at Tori.
“Okay, so I…” Tori copied what Jade had just done to her, although Jade had to encourage her to be more forceful. Jade watched in satisfaction as her own hand opened slowly, and enjoyed the rush of tingles as blood flowed back into her extremity.
Then Tori remembered some other weird game from childhood and pretended to “plant a garden” on Jade’s arm, though she was evidently too nice to actually try to make it hurt, which was mildly disappointing. But by the time that was over, they were sitting together, fingers trailing over each other’s skin and occasionally entangling. It was surprisingly nice. The kiss itself hadn’t been a big deal to Jade, though it had been a lot more fun than she’d expected, coming from Tori. And now, they were just casually touching, and that...was also nice. Jade often forgot that physical contact was something she sometimes liked, since she certainly didn’t want most people to touch her. But Tori was someone whose contact she’d never minded all that much, and right now, when she was really high at school in detention and every physical sensation was that much more intense...it was actually really pleasant.
“I wish we had glue,” Tori said, out of nowhere.
“For what?”
“Remember when I used to do those videos for The Slap?”
“Oh yeah, and people sent you all those creepy requests?” Jade suddenly recalled what Tori was referring to. “We did the one with the glue on your hand.”
“Is that the first time we ever hung out?”
“We hung out plenty before then.” But Jade knew what she meant. They didn’t really ever hang out together. “I used that trick in a short film,” she said, still stuck on the glue experiment. “When there was a part where a guy’s skin peeled off.”
“How many films have you made?”
“Like a dozen? Maybe. Some are really short. Some are just me scaring Robbie so bad that he wazzed in his pants.”
“You did not.”
“You’re doubting me?”
“Well, no.” Tori watched the clock without really processing what time it was telling her. “How come you’ve never asked me to help?”
Jade pushed out a single laugh. “Yeah, I don’t know if you’re cut out for the stuff I like to do.”
“You think I can’t take it?”
“You couldn’t take the fall in that movie.”
“I did… eventually.”
Another laugh. “Yeah, because I pushed you.”
“Which, by the way, was very dangerous.” Tori raised her arm to wave a finger at Jade, which was immediately slapped back down. “I can do scary. I live with Trina.”
“I… can’t argue with that.”
Tori settled back with a satisfied smirk. Jade had decided not to let go of her hand after slapping it down, which seemed to distract Tori for a moment. It was always fun to spring something unexpected on her, to see what kind of reaction she’d have. Apparently, she didn’t really have one, because she fell right back into asking Jade more questions about her movies.
“Have you ever entered a film festival?”
“Yeah, obviously. That’s kind of the point of making them.”
“I don’t know, I feel like a lot of people just put stuff like that up on their Slap pages.”
Jade frowned. “No, they don’t. Not stuff like I’m doing. They’re posting stupid sketches and cute videos. I’m making art.”
“Don’t you want people to see what you make?”
“The right people.”
“Oh.” Tori sounded kind of sad. “Is that why you don’t show them to me?”
That was a stupid question. Jade thought Tori was probably an ideal person to give feedback, given how she’d stepped right in when Dale Squires had all but abandoned his own movie. Not that she’d ever give Tori that much credit to her face. “I haven’t shown them to you because I assumed you’d hate them.”
“But you like freaking me out.”
“I don’t know if it’s the cookie or the boredom, but you have a good point. Next week, I’ll bring my PearBook and you can see something.”
“Yeah?” Tori tipped her head in Jade’s direction and it was like Jade could feel her big stupid smile.
She couldn’t remember anyone ever being so enthusiastic about watching one of her films. It made Jade feel…good. “Dial it down, I’m not kissing you again,” she teased, needing to deflect from all the positivity.
That seemed to fluster Tori because she stayed quiet. Or maybe she was just caught up in her high because the next thing out of her mouth was, “What do you think it was like on the Titanic?”
“What, like as it was sinking?”
“No!” Tori sat up. “Before that. Just all the glitz and glamor.”
“It was probably really fancy? And how’d we end up on the Titanic, anyway?”
“I guess we just bought tickets?”
“The topic, dingus.”
“Oh, well…” Tori pointed at one of the shelves. “There’s a book over there about Mary, Queen of Scots and that got me thinking about the Queen Mary, which is supposed to be the same class of ship as the Titanic.”
The boat Tori rambled on about was basically a floating museum about an hour away. “Yeah, it’s supposed to be haunted, too.”
“Have you ever been?”
“No. I don’t do the ocean.”
“But it’d be docked.”
“It’s still in the water.”
“Don’t you want to see a ghost? Or, excuse me, hear a ghost?”
Actually, yes. Jade did very much want to have any kind of experience with a ghost. “It would be cool.”
“You should go. I can go with you, if you’re scared about the ocean.”
“I’m not scared of it. I just don’t do it.”
“Oh, like sweating? Which it turns out you can and will do if the circumstances are right.”
“You have no evidence of that ever happening.”
“If you can sweat, you can board a creepy, haunted, docked ship.” Tori jabbed her in the arm. “Come on, you know you wanna.”
Jade threw an elbow back at her, not hard, just enough to make the poking stop. “I’ll think about it.”
Tori grinned. “I’ll go with you for moral support.”
“Okay, are you trying to make me never want to go?” Jade teased. But really, Tori wouldn’t be bad company on a ghost expedition. She was basically a stereotypical Gryffindor, brave but also clueless half the time. And, looking at the rest of their friends, Andre would be too freaked out by any little thing, Robbie would pee, Cat would wander off and probably enter a portal to the underworld, and Beck would just be so cool about everything that they might as well not even be looking for ghosts.
They contemplated the types of ghosts that haunted both the Queen Mary and the Titanic, complete with Tori’s theoretical action plan on how one would try and ghost hunt at the site of the Titanic wreckage at the bottom of the sea.
Eventually, and maybe it was all the talk about being underwater, they both decided acquiring more water was a priority but Jade still basically had to drag Tori off the sofa to get her moving so they could refill the water bottle at the fountain in the hall.
Getting up and moving around was enough to give Jade more perspective on just how high she was. She wasn’t dizzy or off-balance, really, but it was almost like she was experiencing lag, like in a video game or something, and her brain needed slightly longer to catch up to what her legs were doing. It was more interesting than off-putting, but it did make Jade wonder if driving home would really be the best idea, especially given that she was underage.
Tori, on the other hand, once she had groaned about being pulled off the couch when she really didn’t want to move, was now dancing behind Jade as she filled up the water, with big, slow steps and dramatic movements of her arms, which was entertaining to watch. Entertaining enough that Jade eventually realized the water was overflowing out of the bottle and she didn’t know how long it had been happening.
Once they were back on their couch in the lounge area, Jade got out her phone to text Beck. She decided to keep it simple.
Hey, can you come pick me up after detention?
I’ll explain later, but I can’t drive home.
Beck responded quickly enough, agreeing, and Jade tucked her phone away.
They still had over an hour left to kill and Tori was scrolling through her music collection, playing various songs, trying to find inspiration for her songwriting project. Jade heard a bit of Take a Hint playing before Tori jumped to the next track.
“Wait, play that one. I like it.”
Tori obliged and turned up the volume. They both hummed along with the first verse and by the chorus they were singing together. When it ended, Tori immediately restarted the song and they took it from the top. Seven replays later, they’d worked out their own arrangement of melodies and harmonies. Too bad they couldn’t get extra credit for it.
“I think we sounded pretty damn good,” Jade said.
“You did,” came Sinjin’s voice from around the corner.
“Stop creeping on us!” Tori shot to her feet and stormed over to where he was hiding but he was gone before she reached his hiding place.
When detention was over, they walked out together, letting Sinjin get ahead of them in hopes that they wouldn’t have to talk to him. Trina and Beck were both waiting out front in their respective cars, with Trina evidently not realizing that Beck was in the car behind her as she wasn’t climbing all over his windshield. Tori turned to Jade with a smile, “Bye! I can’t wait to watch your short films next week.”
“Yeah, bye, Vega. Enjoy the rest of that cookie buzz.”
Tori looked confused for a split second before she laughed and got in Trina’s car. Jade watched her as she made her way to Beck’s car.
“Hey,” Beck said as she slid into the passenger’s seat. “Everything okay?”
“Oh, yeah,” Jade said, watching as they drove away from the school and onto the street. “I just didn’t think it would be safe to drive myself home. Tori brought in a weed cookie that we split.”
“Wait.” Beck glanced at her. “Tori brought weed to school. Tori Vega.”
“Not on purpose. She’s not that cool. I guess her mom owns a dispensary or something? Anyway, she thought it was just a boring regular cookie when she offered it to me.”
“Oh.” Beck sounded a little surprised, but also exactly like his own chill self.
“Yeah, so, I’m still coming down from that. But, it wasn’t so bad. Sinjin didn’t even bother us that much. And Trina brought tacos again, so that was fun. Though she was being creepy and trying to look for you. Dickers wasn’t even around to bother us.”
“That’s cool,” Beck managed to get in.
“Yeah, Tori and I even kind of hung out and it was pretty cool, I guess. Oh, and also, I told her I’d tell you about this, even though I know you know it’s not a big deal, because of how we are together, but Tori had never kissed a girl so I did her a favor and let her kiss me. So, yeah, I just wanted to tell you that. You’re always trying to get me to be nice to her.”
“Oh, okay,” Beck said, his tone the same as it always was. Something about that frustrated Jade, a little. Even if a little kissing between women wasn’t that big of a deal in terms of the status of their relationship, Jade thought that he might at least be more interested in it.
“Yeah, it really wasn’t a big deal,” she found herself saying. She was starting to realize she was talking a lot, probably from the cookie, but also, even being aware of it, it was hard to stop. “She even tried to convince me to go on the Queen Mary with her to look for ghosts, but, I mean, it is still a boat, on the ocean, so I’m not sure that’s a good idea.”
By the time they’d made it to Jade’s house, Beck hadn’t said more than a dozen words to her. Her phone buzzed, and she glanced down to see a text from Tori, but didn’t open it yet. “Anyway, thanks for the ride,” she told Beck.
“Wait a minute,” Beck said quickly. “Hold on, I have good news for you.”
“Oh.” Jade settled back into her seat, turning to fully look at Beck. Watching the scenery change around her had been oddly arresting during the drive, such that she hadn’t looked at him much even as she’d been talking to him, but now, she turned to take in his handsome face, perfect hair, and eager grin. “Well?” she asked.
“I talked to Helen, and she agreed that Dickers took things too far, so I got yours and Tori’s remaining detentions rescinded,” Beck reported happily.
“Wait. You did what?” Jade asked dully. Her focus crystalized in a way that seemed to make her high recede, and she thought she really understood what the expression ‘knocking the wind out of one’s sails’ meant now.
“Yeah!” Beck sounded humble, but he was clearly pleased with himself. “I know no one wants to spend their Saturdays in detention, plus I know you wanted to go to that movie at the old school theater next weekend. So, I took care of it for you.” He shrugged modestly.
“Did I ask you to do that?” Jade asked through her clenched jaw.
Beck’s brow furrowed, finally beginning to catch on to her change in mood. “I thought you’d be happy. I also thought I’d be better suited to talk Helen out of it and, you know, charm her a little. But I did it for you,” he said, still as calm as always, but clearly confused.
For some reason (not that Jade ever needed a reason), it was really irritating the way he kept referring to the principal as Helen, even though it was her name and it wasn’t unlike Beck to be on a first name basis with adults because he was so damn likeable and charming. But that was beside the point. “I don’t need you to make decisions for me. I’m sure Tori doesn’t either.”
“Hey, I was just trying to do something nice.” Beck rarely ever raised his voice outside of an acting scenario and, while he was still calm, there was an edge to it.
“Well, thanks,” Jade spat as she slipped out the car door and away from him. “I’ll text you later,” she said without turning around.
There was a mildly exasperated, “Bye,” from inside the car.
Once she was inside her house, she opened the text from Tori to find:
“Whoa!” Jade actually exclaimed aloud as she looked at the picture. She texted back:
I guess still too high
That was a trip
The face is sooo much
Wait, there’s a face????? 😳
J/K 🤪
The moment of levity cheered her up a little, but she was quickly reminded of her irritation with Beck as she got onto her laptop. She ended up sending Tori an email with one of her more recent short films attached, then texted her again.
I emailed you one of my films, I can send more if you like it.
But bc of Beck, we don’t have detention next Sat, so I figured you can just watch it on your own.
Tori replied a moment later:
Wait, really? That’s awesome! 🙌
Thanks, Beck! 😀😀
And I’m super excited to check out your short film! 🎥
Jade was irritated that Tori seemed fine with Beck making decisions for them both, but didn’t know how to express that. She was still stewing on it when another text came through.
Sooooo I didn’t get too in trouble with my mom.
She was kinda mad, but she also wanted me to ask ‘my weird friend’ how the high is??
That made Jade smile a little.
I don’t know, it’s not like I’m a stoner.
But I guess it’s like a good body high?
Thanks! I’ll tell her.
I don’t have anything to compare it to so I just said it’s chill and she didn’t find that very helpful.
Please. You have not been chill at all today.
I thought I was pretty chill when we were stuck on the sofa for like four hours. ☃️
Yeah, because you were stoned.
But I guess you were way less annoyingly animated than usual so…
So, you admit I was chill?
You’re definitely not being chill now.
Jade had to admit that was actually funny while also wondering if the officer in question was Tori’s dad. And maybe she could let herself accept that spending the day with Tori Vega, one-on-one, hadn’t exactly been the worst experience of her life.