Title: Try to Keep Up, West

Genre: Romance & Friendship
Rating: K+ or T to be safe

Description: She strides directly in front of him, placing a hand on his bare chest. "You ready to get your ass kicked, loverboy?" Dear God, if only Andre wasn't here, Beck swears he would just... He shakes the thought from his head, but still sends a look her way. "Try to keep up, West." – For Adopt-a-Prompt; prompt was basketball.

Disclaimer: Nothing is mine. Not even the prompt idea...

Author's Note: This is my first time to participate in an Adopt-a-Prompt! I'm super excited and hopefully will do it justice! :)

"I don't think I can make it today, I have plans with Jade tonight," is the sentence Jade overhears her boyfriend of nearly four years say when she approaches the lunch table.

She purses her lips sharply as she lifts one leg after the other over the bench to sit down. Once situated between Beck and Cat, she asks, "What can't you do because you're spending time with me?"

It's more of an accusation rather than a general question.

Beck chuckles. "Play basketball with Andre and some of the guys after school."

Robbie Shapiro furrows his eyebrows while adjusting Rex on his thigh. "So, wait, why am I never invited to your after school sporting activities?"

"Because you're ill-equipped for anything physical, preterd!" Rex responds immediately, turning his head back and forth between Robbie and the others surrounding him.

Andre shrugs. "He's got a point, dude." And this causes Rex to laugh quietly.

Cat, finding herself in a position to add onto the conversation, begins with, "One time, my brother was playing basketball with some of his friends at the special hospital and –"

"Nooo," Tori interrupts slowly, patting Cat's vibrant red hair. "None of that."

Jade rolls her eyes and sets her black-studded purse on the table, only to rummage through its contents. She retrieves a small spray bottle from the bottom and points in the direction of Cat's face.

"Caterina," Jade calls sweetly to gain the attention of her perky friend before pulling the trigger on the nozzle, spritzing the smaller girl into shock. Cat gasps loudly and freezes as Jade reprimands, "What did I say about telling nonsense stories of your brother's problems?"

"That they're stupid and a waste of everyone's time," Cat recites sadly, wiping her dampened face with a napkin she finds lying on the table. "I'm sorry, Jadey."

The black-haired girl raises the bottle and blasts it quickly into Cat's eyes again. "Don't call me that."

"Kay Kay," Cat agrees without another word.

"So, basketball," Jade continues, setting the torturous spraying mechanism onto the table to stand as a threat. "Sounds like fun."

Beck scoffs. "Fun? Since when is anything 'fun' to you?"

"I use to play basketball as a kid. My parents signed me up in order to release some of my rage... It didn't help, but I was still the best on my team."

"Is that so? Then how would a little friendly competition sound, hmmm?" Beck offers. He places his arm around her shoulders, pulling her closer to him. "Me against you, and Andre can be the referee."

Andre nods in approval, seemingly interested in the challenge.

Jade smirks. "Okay, what's the wager?"

Beck bites his lower lip in concentration until his eyes light up enthusiastically. "If I win, you have to wear pink for a week!"

"What?" Jade barks menacingly, causing the rest of the table's occupants to burst out laughing.

"And it has be legitimate pink; no black with pink accent. The base of the outfit has to be pink," Beck confirms with a curt nod of the head.

Cat raises her hands above her head. "Yay! We can go shopping togeth–"

"NO!" Jade screams at the top of her lungs, thus grabbing the spray bottle and attacking Cat's face at least six times.

Cat squeals sadly, spitting out some of the water that had landed in her mouth when she was surprised. Tori only sighs and shakes her head at Jade's actions.

Infuriated, Jade whips her head around to look at Beck. "Alright, well if I win..." she pauses for dramatic effect. "You have to get rid of your fish."

The others go silent and suddenly still, waiting for Beck's reaction. He finally stammers, "A-all of them?"

She leans in to where their lips are a centimeter apart. "Every last one of them." And she finalizes her answer with a brief peck to his mouth.

Beck swallows, officially knowing that his girlfriend means business. "Well, then I'll see you on the court at four o'clock sharp."

Then the bell rings in its unique fashion, alerting the students of Hollywood Arts to report to their next class.

The six teenagers, and one puppet, gather their belongings and hustle to their respected classrooms.

The sun shines brightly against the black asphalt court of Hollywood Arts High School, causing Beck to already start sweating as he ties his laces into a double knot.

"Man, are you sure you want to do this?" Andre asks as he twirls his silver whistle around his arm. "This can only end badly."

Beck looks up from his shoes. "How?"

Andre looks up and shields his eyes from the sun's rays. "Well, if you lose, then you have a cocky girlfriend and no fish...but if you win, you might have no girlfriend."

"Wouldn't that be an interesting turn of events," is the reply, but it's not from Beck. The boys peer their heads over their shoulders to find Jade entering through the wired gate, clad in barely any clothing.

Beck's lips twitch into a smile as he stands to his feet, eyeing his girlfriend up and down in the process. Jade saunters over in their direction wearing black, skin-tight spandex, a white tank top with a black sports bra – in which he notices that she still is exposing cleavage for his sake – and black tennis shoes. Her hair is pulled back into a ponytail with the colored streaks still visible, and she has sunglasses supported on the bridge of her nose.

He knows she dressed this way to distract him, and he isn't gonna blame her for trying.

Hell, they haven't even started playing, and it is working.

She strides directly in front of him, placing a hand on his bare chest. "You ready to get your ass kicked, loverboy?"

Dear God, if only Andre wasn't here, Beck swears he would just...

He shakes the thought from his head, but still sends a look her way. "Try to keep up, West."

Jade raises an eyebrow, and Beck's certain that there's a glint in her eye under the sunshades. Andre grabs the basketball from the bench beside the water jugs and gestures for the couple to follow him to the center of the court. He has Beck stand on one side of the line and Jade on the other before going over the rules. "Here's how it's gonna go: I'm gonna call what I see, and any denial or argument of my calls will automatically give the opposing player a free-throw shot. Got it?"

Beck and Jade, never breaking eye contact, nod in unison.

Andre beams proudly. "Good! Now, we're gonna play to thirty points. I know it doesn't seem like a lot, but it will be a while since it's one-on-one... Hey, looks like y'all got an audience!"

Beck and Jade look to their left to find Tori, Cat, and Robbie with Rex sitting in the metal bleachers patiently. They hear Cat giggle as she holds up a florescent, sparkling sign that reads 'Jadey!' and yells, "Jadey, look –" she points to her neon pink tank top and sets down her sign momentarily to wave a matching shirt in the air, "– I got you one too so we can be twinsies!"

More high-pitched giggling causes Jade to scowl, and Beck to comment, "Looks like someone is rooting for you to lose..."

"No, she wants me to wear pink," she snaps back icily before sneering at Andre. "Let's get this over with."

Andre sets the orange ball in his hand, blows the whistle, and tosses it into the air for the jump. Beck, being a few inches taller than his girlfriend, snags it easily. Jade takes a few steps back, giving room to play appropriate defense as Beck takes his time dribbling between his legs.

"Well, aren't you macho?" Jade teases, and is completely oblivious when Beck makes a move behind his back and rushes right past her. He sets in a smooth lay-up, earning himself two points.

Robbie adds two tally marks to his PearPad to keep score, and gives a whooping noise in Beck's victory.

Jade grasps the ball in her hands when it falls from the net, and shrieks slightly when she feels Beck slap her butt playfully as he runs to the opposite side of the court. She rolls her eyes as she begins to jog in his footsteps, contemplating on which route she should take toward the basket.

She halts at the three-point line, drawing Beck in a bit before lifting the ball above her head as if to shoot. Beck jumps to block it, but she breezes against his shoulder by faking. She lays it up just as beautifully as he did, and Cat and Tori go wild in the bleachers.

Basking in her glory, Jade takes a bow, only to be interrupted by Andre's whistle. "Travel!" he announces, rotating his arms around each other.

"What?!" she protests. "That wasn't a travel; it was a fake shot!"

"You dribbled, picked up the ball, and then put it back down, Jade!" Andre retorts slowly.

Jade's face scrunches up angrily as she grabs the ball and chunks it at Andre's head with all her might. The orange ball makes contact with his forehead with a loud 'thud'. Andre stumbles back a few steps, exclaiming, "Really?! Beck, that's a free-throw shot for you!"

Beck sighs and bends down to pick the ball from where it rolled after smacking Andre. He figures that this game is easily going to be a win for him if he keeps receiving these free shots. He then situates himself at the free-throw line, takes a few dribbles before simply flicking his wrist. The ball spins evenly and the others find it swishing straight through the net.

"Yeah! Go Beck, whoooo!" Robbie cheers from ten feet away, when adding another point.

"Would you calm down? You're embarrassing me!" Rex complains from Robbie's lap.

"Sorry..."

The game continues on normally for the next half hour, Beck and Jade each earning their points somewhat fairly. A few more attempts at knocking Andre unconscious were taken, but he had learned to dodge them quickly, and so Beck was rewarded with more free-throws.

The couple had taken water breaks frequently, one in which Tori was filling Jade's bottle and Cat was dabbing Jade's forehead with a towel. No sweat was visible, but Cat just wanted to help, and mistakenly brought up the RV incident where Jade did, in fact, perspire.

Jade had spoken through gritted teeth, "Never speak of it."

Now Robbie confirms the score as twenty-eight to twenty-eight, meaning it was anyone's game. All either had to do was make one more shot and the win would be his or hers. Beck had scored the last shot, making it Jade's ball, so she casually took her time walking to the opposite side of the concrete floor.

Beck is focused, ready to handle anything she throws his way. But as she grows closer, he sees a pained expression across her face. She's tired, he thinks to himself. And he knows a tired and cranky – and a losing – Jade will be hard to handle when this is all over and done with. Beck figures he's bound to receive the silent treatment for the week she has to wear pink if she doesn't win this stupid bet.

He huffs out a deep breath; he'll admit to being tired as well. His girlfriend has got some serious game within her, so he also is aware of the fact that he can't just stand there and let her win. He's gotta make a big to-do out of it, or else she'll want a rematch or something...something he is not in the mood to take part in.

Out of impulse, as soon as Jade is close enough, Beck charges at her with wide-open arms. Jade's eyes squint in confusion, since she had long given up on the sunglasses, when her boyfriend wraps her thighs into his grasp and begins to carry her toward her basket.

"Shoot!" he demands, nearly out of breath from running while handling her entire body weight.

"No!" she protests wildly.

"Do it, Jade, or so help me, I'll –" but he's cut off by the sound of the ball hitting off the rim and snaking through the rope netting. As Andre blows his whistle to end the game, Beck sets her down and begins cheering. "You won! You won!"

"Yeah, but only because your arms were rubbing my legs the wrong way," Jade replies while inspecting her thighs. She was right; his arms had left giant red markings along her pale skin.

But he doesn't care in all actuality. He examines her once more, seeing that her clothes are sticking to body more than they were about an hour ago, and her hair is all over the place.

"You're so beautiful," Beck mutters absentmindedly.

"I feel disgusting," Jade bites back, ignoring his comment, but Beck knows that redness on her cheeks isn't from being winded, but rather from blushing.

He can't help what happens next, when he grabs her by the waist and presses their bodies together closely. Beck brushes the baby hairs from her forehead before capturing her lips in a searing kiss. Jade finds herself needing to be closer to him as she bites his bottom lip with her teeth, causing him to groan in pleasure.

Just as Beck's hand slides beneath her shirt to rest on her lower back, their moment is broken by Andre's whistle deafening their ears. "That is most definitely a foul!"

The couple breaks apart to find their friends smiling next to them, and Rex says, "Get a room!"

"Later," Beck promises lowly in Jade's ear, emitting a hint of a smile on her lips.

Cat then pouts in disappointment. "What am I supposed to do with the shirt now?"

Jade, attempting to keep her lips pursed and a scowl across her face, snatches the pink garment from Cat's hands and slips it over her head. After freeing her ponytail from the neck hole, she stares at the red head. "Better?"

"Yay!" Cat celebrates with another signature giggle as she jumps up and down excitedly.

"Don't do that."

"Kay Kay," the smaller girl repeats for the second time that day.

"So, Nozu?" Beck suggests, wrapping an arm around Jade's waist.

"I could go for some sushi," Tori responds happily. The group nods and grins in agreement as they head toward the gate in which they entered over an hour ago.

But their light-hearted conversation is interrupted by Andre.

"Is there any way we can go to the hospital first? I'm pretty sure I have a concussion..."

A/N: Here you go! This is my Adopt-a-Prompt August addition! I signed up really late and there were only three options left, so I chose basketball! Sorry, if it's not as good as it should be... I tried! And I wanted to add friendship in there, as well as Bade...

So, is anyone else's world, like, ending since Victorious got cancelled? I tweeted Dan, saying, "Question: why is Victorious being cancelled 'cause of a standard 60 episode count, when iCarly has well over 100 episodes? #nofair" I just don't see a logical argument with the episode count thing, when iCarly is totally violating it...

Thanks for the shout out, iwrite4you3411! I really appreciate it!
Thanks to khay for inviting me into the adopt-a-prompt! :)

Please review! I would really appreciate your feedback on such a special occasion - WORLD WIDE DAY OF BADE! :D :D :D They're the best... Anyway, I reply to reviews and answer questions!

Thanks again for all your support, and happy WWDOB!

XxLadyStrengthxX