A/N: This is my first attempt at a chaptered story. Not sure exactly where this story is headed but hopefully it will be funny and fluffy and maybe just a tad angsty. I'll try to update often! Feedback is appreciated :)

For spring break that year, Beck had invited Jade to come with his family and visit has aunt, who lived in Colorado. Jade's parents were both going to be away on business during the break, and most of Beck's family was going to be congregating on this trip, so he figured she'd like to come, and that having a girlfriend around would be a pleasant distraction for him when the family became too overwhelming. It was win-win. Although Jade had half-heartedly protested when he told her where the trip was going to take place ("Colorado? As in mountains and rivers and bears, oh my?" ) and that it was kind of serving as a mini family reunion ("Beck, I am your girlfriend. Not your wife. Aren't I supposed to be able to avoid the mundane, painful family gatherings?) she'd eventually caved when he pointed out that otherwise she'd be spending spring break at home, alone.

Now however, standing in the airport, watching helplessly as Beck's mother argued with the gate attendant, Beck knew Jade was regretting coming, and he was almost regretting inviting her.

"This is completely ridiculous." Jade hissed, for about the tenth time in two minutes. The four of them, Jade, Beck, and his parents had just missed their connecting flight into Denver, and they were now apparently stuck in Phoenix for the next 16 hours. Beck had his eyes glued on his mom, who appeared to be losing what ever argument she was having with the gate attendant, Jan. She'd been somewhat unhelpful so far, and had insisted that their only option was to spend the night in Phoenix and fly to Colorado tomorrow. Beck's parents had not been pleased.

That was why his mother was still standing at the gate, talking expressively with her hands, and why his father was pacing a few yards to the left, on his phone, looking more and more frustrated.

Beck sighed, glancing from his angry girlfriend to his angry mom to his angry dad. "I'm going to the bathroom." he muttered. Jade grunted in response. Beck took his time, washing his hands for a solid 3 minutes in an attempt to avoid having to back out there, where his fun-family-vacation had already deteriorated into complete and utter disaster. When he finally did emerge, his mother was turning away from the gate and his father was off the phone, and they were all walking back towards Jade, who was guarding the luggage.

"Well?" Jade snapped, when Beck's mom was within talking range.

"There's nothing she can do." She replied exasperatedly. Every other flight is booked solid, they can't possibly fit us in until tomorrow."

"What?" Jade roared, somehow turning 'what' into a two syllable word.

"Airline said the same thing," Beck's dad interjected, "they offered to compensate us with some travel vouchers, but that won't help us tonight."

Beck watched Jade carefully, and he was reminded of one of those cartoons, where you can see the character literally filling up with rage, the red rising like liquid in their bodies, totally overtaking them, building like pressure in a baloon.

He decided to intervene before she popped.

"So they're getting us a hotel, right?" Beck did his best to sound optimistic, like staying in a hotel in Phoenix was exactly what he wanted to do.

Beck's mom nodded tiredly, "They set us up at the Marriott, it's just outside the airport."

"Sweet, let's go there now." Beck pointed behind him with his thumbs, turning in one swift movement, and started walking back towards security. He hoped that if he just led the way, the rest would follow, but after about 10 feet he turned around to see that his parents hadn't moved.

Jade, however, had.

"Who do you people think you are?"

Jade was yelling at the gate attendant, who had paled a little, and whose eyes were wide with shock.

"You can't just make us miss our flight because YOUR plane was running late and then not wait for us even though we paid for our tickets…"

"She didn't pay for her ticket." Beck's dad casually commented. Luckily for him, Beck noted, he was standing too far away for Jade to hear.

Jade was still raging, and Beck's parents were both standing about 40 feet away from her, just sort of staring, helplessly. Beck rolled his eyes and placed a hand on his forehead as he marched up to retrieve his girlfriend.

"…it's not our fault, JAN, that you hate your job or that you never bothered to obtain a profession that doesn't require you to wear that HIDEOUS…"

Beck contemplated trying to calm Jade down with words, but he was almost positive that it would be ineffective, or at least, it would work too slowly to stop Jade from getting them thrown permanently out of the airport. So he just grabbed her arm and started dragging.

"Hey." Jade snapped, her attention off of Jan for the moment, and all of her fury aimed towards Beck.

"She's sorry." Beck said quickly to Jan, continuing to pull Jade away.

"What are you doing?" she turned back towards Jan, "I'm am NOT sorry!" and then back towards Beck, "Hey!…let go!…Beck!…come on!"

They had attracted quite a lot of attention by the time Beck was pushing Jade back through security, his parents trailing behind.

"I won't forget this!" Jade yelled back towards Jan, and Beck was finally able to let go of her now that she couldn't go bounding back through security. There were still a lot of people staring at them, and Beck's parents looked slightly shellshocked. "Well…" Beck started. "How 'bout that hotel room?"

"This is ridiculous." Jade muttered.

"Yeah, I think you have made it well known to the entire airport that you think this is ridiculous!" Beck snapped back, and Jade looked surprised, though not bothered by his annoyance.

"What's with you?" she asked.

Beck gave her a disbelieving look, because that was a really stupid question, but then just shook his head, pinching the bridge of his nose. "You. Hotel. Now." Jade shrugged, her casual calm a stark contrast to the hysterical fury of a few minutes ago. Beck's parents were just staring at them from a few feet away, and Beck realized that he'd probably given them far more insight into his dysfunctional relationship than they'd ever wanted.

"Mom? Dad?" Beck said, waiting for them to do something. At his voice they jumped, looking startled.

"Right." Beck's mom said.

"Marriot." Beck's dad responded.

"Let's go."

"Yup."

And with that they headed off towards their hotel for the evening, with the only repercussions of Jade's freak-out (besides the obvious embarrassment) turning out to be that a pissed-off Jan had called the airline and made sure that they didn't get their ticket vouchers after all. Beck figured it wasn't that big of a deal considering that at this rate, his family was probably never going to travel again.