Disclaimer: I only own the made-up actions of the characters that haven't taken place in the show. I do not own the characters, Victorious, The Beatles, or Shakespeare. This is my first fanfiction!

3 years ago, he'd asked her out.

3 months ago, their usual playful bickering turned cruel.

3 weeks ago, he'd broken up with her, left her via door.

3 days ago, he'd thrown his arms tightly around Tori, showing more support for little-miss-sparkles-and-sunshine than he'd shown her in three years.

3 hours ago, he'd tried to kiss her: 3 hours ago, she was the one to push him away.

3 minutes ago, she gave up the chance to prove her father and his oh-so-perfect new wife wrong to Tori.

And 3 seconds ago, that bastard had the nerve to smile at her. He had the nerve to give her his stupid, wow-I'm-checking-you-out cocky little smile after she'd sat next to him because Toooori couldn't. Toooori was too busy making it shine on the stage. (...okay...she'd done a good job parading around the stage. Even Jade had to admit.)

But what could Jade do but put her big-girl panties on and smile back? He didn't know that she'd seen. He didn't know that she'd heard those fatal words, "Why can't we kiss?"

...he didn't know how her heart had dropped into the pit of her stomach when 10 seconds were up and she was still starring at the polished wood pattern of the Vegas' front door.

She smiled and looked away. She gave Vega a congratulatory hug. And then she went home. (Jade may have been happy for Vega, but she wasn't going to stand around to watch her sign the autographs that were meant to have her John Hancock.)

As she drove home, she dug her black-donned fingernails into the steering wheel. And she thought. And she thought. She thought about how hard she'd worked on the video she'd sent in for her Platinum Music Awards audition. She thought about the hours that she'd put in getting the notes and tonal quality just right, the pain-staking effort she put in so that the judges felt the same amount of emotion listening to the song as she had when she'd first recorded it on a midnight alone in the school-recording studio with Andre. She remembered seeing Cat's video, which was , as usual, great. And Andre had showed her his audition tape before he sent it in (because, who can give "constructive criticism" the way that Jade West can?). Even before Andre fixed his video after getting Jade's feedback, jade had thought his video was fantastic.

But who won the audition? Tori. The same girl who'd performed as a last-minute player on the crazy stage only known as "performance art" for the first time one year ago, and then experienced no turbulence whatsoever after that. Once Tori was invited in, all anyone would ever talk about was how she hadn't had to audition to get into Hollywood Arts, oh no, she was so good, she was freakin' invited. Everyone quickly forgot that Jade had gotten in on a full scholarship after Principal Eikner saw her performing magic, music, and mischief on a street corner near the school building. (On the first day Eikner saw her, Jade belted out "Eleanor Rigby" by the Beatles, and then made her body disappear. Her decapitated head finished the song. On the second day, Jade performed all of the parts in Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, complete with costumes and live music supplied by one of her closest friends at the time, Andre. On the third day, Principal Eikner walked up to her and asked her how she would feel about attending Hollywood Arts.)

But, of course, no one remembered any of this once Tori came into the picture. Not even Beck, whose only purpose in life seemed to be paying compliment after compliment Tori to anyone who'd listen. But would Beck dare to tell her he loved her in public? Dare to give even a hint that he was proud to have her as his girl? No, he had better things to do with his time. Like call Jade insecure. Yeah, there was always time for that.

…it wasn't that Jade could deny that the girl had talent. She couldn't even convincingly call Tori a bad person. She just didn't understand how with her experience, her work ethic, her tireless decidation since childhood to making it big time…how she could keep losing. How she had lost the leads in school plays, whatever amount of respect Sikowitz had had for her…for pity's sake, she'd even managed to lose her boyfriend's love, and the small amount of attention that her father dared to give her for an hour every three months. Whenever she went into her father and new wife's house, she would have hardly stepped in for 30 seconds to wipe off her combat boots on the welcome mat when her step-mother would give her the usual disapproving look and ask her why she didn't dress more like that pretty girl who her father had met at her play, Well Wishes. But Jade didn't care about what her step-mother from hell had to say…but she did care when her father would deftly nod his head in agreement.

As soon as Jade shut the front door behind her, she collapsed in tears, her back slowly sliding down the door. The house was silent…save for the pattering of the tiny feet of her little brother, Johan. Johan saw his big sister crying, and quickly asked, "Jadey…what's wrong?" Then remembering the last time that he'd caught Jade crying, "Did Beck hurt you again?"

Jade couldn't do anything but clutch his tiny 3-year-old body to her like a teddy bear. Oh yes, tonight Beck had hurt her. But, if she had it her way, no one would be able to see the tears she'd cried. No one…especially not that stupid JerkBot.