Jades head lightly hit her desk with a dull thud. She was vaguely aware of Vega staring at her with her big chocolate eyes from the other side of the room. *thud* Just as she had been all week. Without a break. *thud*. Ever since she'd broken up with Beck last friday, Vegas eyes had become totally magnetized to her. *thud* Even Cat had managed to get a flight over to reality from which ever planet it is she usually lives on to tentatively ask Jade about it. *thud* But Jade didn't have the answer. She didn't know why. And it was starting to eat at her.

"..Earth to Jade?" Sikowitz' voice called manically from the front of the room. Even though the voice jerked her from her thoughts, she ignored it. A moment went by, and she considered resuming banging her head off her desk, when a hand reached out and jabbed her arm. She sat up suddenly, flying round to face in the direction of the invading hand.

"WHAT?!"

Robbie squealed in terror and flew sideways, careering off his chair and into Andre's lap.

"There goes another pair of underwear." Rex drawled from below him.

"Rex!" Robbie hissed.

Jade smirked to herself.

"Ohh Jaadee?" Sikowitz's voice sounded again and she turned to glare at him. "Come hither." He said dramatically, gesturing to the space before him.

"No." she grumbled. Tori's eyes were still burning into her skin.

Why do I even care?

He scowled "Aaannd double homework in 5, 4, 3,-"

Jade growled, flung her pen down and marched over to him, standing exactly where he pointed and completely in his personal space, still giving him a poisonous glare. I hate this school. She thought bitterly. She waited. For a long moment they stood glaring at each other before Sikowitz, without taking his eyes off of the predator that stood before him, reached over to a near by table and presented Jade with a large, straw-pierced coconut. "Now drink from this coconut." he boomed enthusiastically. Silence. With one swift move Jade backhanded the coconut from the teachers grip, sending it flying out of the- luckily opened- window. She slid her hand back to her hip.

"Child of evil!" sikowitz cried, pointing a finger in the goths pale face. She deadpanned, staring at him blankly.

"Aren't you late for something?" she asked in sickeningly sweetly. Sikowitz's hands flew to his head, eyes widened in shock and his jaw hanging open. He stood for a second frozen to the spot before suddenly resuming a totally neutral pose "No. Class dismissed."

Jade groaned and stomped back over to her chair, grabbing her bag and hauling it over her shoulder. Tori did much the same, and to Jades irritation they reached the door at the same time.

"Uh, you, uh, go on ahead" Tori stumbled, trying her best to scramble a smile through the slight tinge of fear that came across her eyes.

Those bloody eyes. Jade muttered inwardly. What does she want... Why does she keep giving me that look.. why do I even care? Since when did I ever care about what vega did? Tori began to squirm uncomfortably. "Uhm.. Jade?"

Jade snapped out of her thoughts and found herself staring at Tori intently.

Goddamnit this has to stop. Even without beck to make me feel guilty now, there is no way I am going back to how it was before. No way am I going back to crushing on Victoria Vega. I pushed past her wordlessly, heading for my locker. There was nothing I needed from it, but it was either that or walk to the Asphalt cafe with her.

By the time she returned from her pointless locker trip, the rest of the group had already sat down at their usual table. Jade sat down by cat, who sat next to andre, next to Tori, next to Robbie. Beck was absent. Jade snorted in contempt. Last week she would have been looking for him, scanning the crowds for any sign of his casual clothes and well groomed hair. Not this week. Never again. She pushed another piece of grapefruit into her mouth, chewing slowly.

Maybe his nice new girlfriend has dragged him into an alley way and eaten him.

Cat glanced up from her mango salad and eyed the grapefruit with comical caution. "My bother ate on of those once... then he disappeared for a week... But.. I don't think thats why he disappeared." she chirped.

The group all stopped to stare with raised eyebrows at the red head, who had already forgotten the moment and returned to her food. Jade worried about her sometimes.

Tori was next to speak. Miraculously, she'd managed to peel her eyes off of Jade for a moment to address the group. Jade tried to focus on the bitter little red globe in her hand instead.

"So, who's going to karaoke dokie tonight? They're open real late- one of the girls from the group Trina forces herself on is leaving Hollywood Arts soon to move to Europe and she's hired the place for a huge party, everyones welcome."

The group all nodded along with "yeah" and "cool" and "i'm up for it". Jade stayed silent.

"Jade..?" Tori returned her intoxicating gaze back to the raven haired beauty once more. And that gave her an idea. "I'll be there." Jade said shortly. And I'm going to find out whats going on with you.