Hey guys! So I know I said that since it was summer I would be able to post more frequently, but I don't know about that. I'll be here next week, but the week after that I'll be in Orlando. Maybe I can get two or three chapters written and posted before I leave then. Anyway, I'm sorry if this chapter seems a bit rushed. I didn't mean for it to, but...well, it happened. Leave a review. (: Thanks.

That evening when Jade got home and Nathan threw open the door furiously, she was greeted by smoke in her living room that could only mean that her mom was having another one of her pot parties.

"We're home, Denise," Nathan said, and Jade rolled her eyes and debated on whether or not she should just run out the door. She decided against it after Nathan closed it and locked it, and then he grabbed her arm and dragged her into the living room where her mom and five other people were lounging around looking high already.

"Good, good," Denise West said, scooting over on the couch just a little bit so that Nathan could sit next to her. A joint was passed to Nathan, and he took a drag from it and handed it to Denise. She passed it to the next person and smiled up at Jade, who was standing in the middle of Nathan's smoke that he had blown out and coughing. "Jade, you've been gone for two weeks. Why didn't you tell me when you were coming home?"

Jade shrugged as more smoke was blown out into the room, and she grimaced at the smell. How could her mom be doing this while she was at home? She had grown to hate drugs and alcohol with a burning passion, and she would never even dream about getting into any of that because she had seen the effects that it had on her mom and Nathan. She knew that other teenagers were out there getting trashed, but she wasn't one of them. It disgusted her.

"I wasn't exactly planning on coming home any time soon," she said.

"She was at that boy's house," Nathan said. He had the joint again, and he took another hit. "Did you know that she was over at his house the whole time?"

Denise nodded and patted him on the arm consolingly, like he actually cared about Jade's well-being. "Yes, but she always runs off to Beck's house when she gets mad at me. It's okay, dear. Beck's a good kid. This one on the other hand," she gestured to Jade, "is a mess. I don't know how she ended up like that."

Jade bit her lip and tried her hardest not to make a rude comment, because she knew that if she did, Nathan would be after her in a heartbeat. She just took a step back and wondered whether or not they would notice if she just left the room.

"You know that they're not just sitting around watching TV, Denise," Nathan said. "She's gonna end up pregnant."

Denise shrugged and held the joint out to Jade, whose eyes widened as she backed away from it. Her mom was offering her drugs now? And they were talking about her as if she wasn't even there.

"If she ends up pregnant, that's not my problem. She'll be out of the house in the next few months, anyway."

Jade couldn't take it anymore. "I'm not gonna end up getting pregnant because I'm not an idiot like you are! You're the one that chose to get knocked up at sixteen and drop out of high school. I actually have a little sense, whether you know it or not. I'm not as fucked up as you think I am."

"Hey, don't talk to your mother like that," Nathan warned through gritted teeth.

Jade coughed as the smoke in the room became much thicker, and she glared at him as best she could under the circumstances and ran up to her room, locking the door behind her. She threw herself onto her bed and stared into the mirror on the wall for a long time before the first tear fell. Another fell, followed by another, until all of her black make-up was coating her cheeks and dripping onto her fingers.

Maybe they were right. Maybe she was the one that was screwed up, not them. She had so many problems, and she wished that she could have a perfect life like Tori had. She didn't have to go home and worry about getting drugs offered to her or whether or not she was going to get hit by her mom's boyfriend. She hated her life so much, and she wanted to end it as quickly as possible. But that tiny little thought about Beck and the future always crept back into her mind, and she lost the courage to cut a little deeper into her skin and die.

After a few minutes, she threw her shoe at the mirror as hard as she could and watched as the glass shattered and fell to the floor. Another tear fell, and she wiped it away as she got up and walked over to the broken glass all over her floor. She picked up a piece and examined it carefully before pressing it to her skin. Forget Beck. How do you know he even loves you? You'll always be second best in his eyes. Second best to Tori Vega…

Her phone vibrated in her pocket, and she dropped the glass to the floor and pulled it out to see who could possibly be texting her. She saw two new texts, one that she had gotten from Cat while she was downstairs. She opened it, and it was only one of those chain messages that everybody sent around that Jade never resent. But it began with "I love you," and that was all she needed to forget about death and how great it would be right now. Even if Beck didn't care about her, Cat still did. And she couldn't leave poor Cat alone.

The other message was from Beck. It read: "Everything okay, babe?" She tried to text back telling him that everything was fine, but she heard a thunderous knock on the door and dropped her phone in fear.

"Jade, open this damn door right now!" It was Nathan, and he sounded angrier than he had when she had run out of the living room. She could ignore him, but she knew that he would find a way in. So she got up and opened the door, trying to look calm despite the fact that she had been crying for the past few minutes.

"Did something break up here?" he asked as he stepped into the room without invitation.

"No," Jade lied. "Can you please get out of my room now?"

Nathan shot her a glare, and then his eyes fell on the shattered mirror. "Why'd you break that mirror?"

"Because mirrors are for people who like to look at themselves, so I figured that it was of no use to me," she said, her voice staying level despite the fact that she wanted to burst into tears again. She wouldn't normally just spill out her feelings like that, but her true feelings seemed kind of like a smartass comment to make as well, so she said it, just to make Nathan mad. He wouldn't hurt her…hopefully.

"You know, your mom and I work hard to pay for things for you," Nathan said, ignoring the comment. "You could show just a little respect for it."

Jade raised an eyebrow. She was feeling a little braver now. "So I guess 'working hard' is lying on your ass half the day and then getting drunk out of your mind at night?"

She wasn't sure what happened next, because everything just happened so fast. Nathan swore a few times and yelled something at her, and then she was on the floor on top of all that broken glass. A small piece of it dug into her back, and she could have sworn that she felt blood trickling down her skin. She looked up at him, her eyes wide with panic and fear, begging him to just leave her alone, but that wasn't the case. His eyes were shining with anger, and he kicked her in the side as hard as he could. She curled into a ball and gasped in pain as she lightly touched her side. It hurt badly, worse than anything she had ever experienced. There were some kinds of pain that she liked, but this was not one of them.

"Don't ever disrespect me again!" Nathan yelled at her before walking out of the room and slamming the door behind him.

Jade lay in silence for a few seconds, and then she heard her phone vibrating on the floor somewhere close by. She looked up and saw Beck's name flashing on the screen just a few inches away from her fingers. She shifted and tried to reach it, but a pain shot up her body, and she lay still again. The only thing that she could do was watch his name flash across the screen every few minutes until she had twenty missed calls from him. Maybe he did actually care…

…..

It wasn't easy getting up. When she finally managed to, she was crouched over holding her side, which she was pretty sure held a few broken bones from the impact of the kick. She returned Beck's calls, trying to sound like everything was completely fine, but she could tell by the way that he was talking that he didn't believe a word that she said.

She had to take herself to the hospital after her mom and Nathan and all of their friends were passed out, which wasn't an easy job. But she was tough, and she could withstand the pain just a little bit longer. It turned out that she only had one broken rib, and when the doctors asked what had happened to her, she had to lie and say that she fell.

She stayed at home for an entire week, refusing to get out of bed and go to school because she was still in pain, physically and emotionally. The play was supposed to be performed that weekend, but what did it matter? She wasn't anything special to them, and they could do the show without her. Beck called every day to check up on her and tell her about all the work that she was missing, but she didn't really care about all of that. Well, except for the assignment that she was missing in Sikowitz's class. They had to perform a scene from their favorite musical, and Beck didn't even need to ask because he knew that Jade would want to do something from Sweeney Todd.

When she returned to school the next Monday, she walked in to find a large group of girls standing in the middle of the hallway giggling and acting idiotic. Beck was in the middle of them looking particularly happy, and Jade pushed her way through all the girls to get to him. They all scattered when they realized that she was there.

"Is this what you do when I'm not here?" she asked, her hands on her hips and anger shining in her eyes.

"No, they just came by to see the dog," Beck replied.

Jade looked confused for a second, and then she noticed that Beck was indeed carrying the rat that he had brought home a few days ago. "Why do you have that thing at school?"

"It's for Robbie," Beck answered as he pet the dog. "He came over yesterday and saw it, and he thought that it would help him pick up girls. You know, because girls love dogs."

"So he's going to carry a dog around at school? Why would he-" She had lots of questions to ask about this, but then she realized that she didn't really care. "Whatever. Let's just go to class." She grabbed his hand and started to walk in the direction of their first period class, but she stopped when she saw Tori heading their way.

"Hey, Jade. Did you have a nice weekend?" she asked in a falsely sweet voice. "Because I was on stage where I was supposed to be while you were sitting at home doing nothing."

"I can't dance with a broken rib, Vega," Jade said, her voice razor-sharp. "The show went on, didn't it? You didn't need me." She tried to walk around Tori, but Tori side-stepped as well.

"How did you break your rib?"

"I fell. Now get out of my way." Once again, Jade tried to walk around Tori, but something in the other corridor caught her eye. A group of people were surrounding the notice board and signing their names down for something. Tori seemed intrigued by this too, because she walked over to the crowd like she completely forgot her conversation with Jade.

"What's going on?" Beck asked, looking at Jade with curiosity.

She shrugged and stood on the sidelines until the crowd died down, and then she made her way to the notice board to see a post that was about the end-of-semester show that the school always did. The students got to choose what they wanted to do in the show, as long as it was appropriate, and they auditioned to see if they if they got a segment in the show. It usually wasn't that big of a deal, but the notice board also had it posted that college recruiters and casting directors were coming to the show.

"Oh, there's one more spot left," Jade said as she signed her name. Just above her name was Tori's, but she ignored that and focused on herself. She had to choose something that would catch the recruiters' attention, something that could make her really stand out from all the rest.

"Just one spot? I kind of wanted to do something too," Beck said. "I mean, Juilliard recruiters could be here…"

Jade frowned and then drew a line under hers, and she signed his name. "There, they'll just have to extend the show a few minutes. Because we're both talented, attractive people, probably the best the school has to offer, and we're both performing." She smiled a little as she turned to walk toward her first class again, but she was almost knocked over when Robbie came flying by.

"Thanks, Beck," he said breathlessly, taking the rat and putting it in a bag that looked a lot like a man purse. "Girls are gonna love me after they see this thing."

"No problem. Just be sure to get it back by the end of the day because Jade loves her too much, and she'll miss her." He smiled at Jade, and she looked like she was ready to punch him.

"Wow, Jade likes it? This dog must be powerful," Robbie said as he scurried away and disappeared around the corner.

"You can keep the dog! I hate it!" Jade yelled after him, but there was no response. "I hate you," she said to Beck as she walked away from him.

Beck smiled again. "Love you too."

Anybody have an idea for a song that Jade can sing in the show? Because I'm clueless. Leave your ideas. They'll be greatly appreciated. (: