Jade Awakening

Screenwriting Class

A/N: If you're new to this fic, welcome!!  This story has become a passion project for me over the past few months and it's been SO fun to write.  I promise that if you continue to read that the chapters become much more interesting and fleshed out -- I hope you enjoy!

A couple notes:

* The events of this story take place BEFORE Tori shows up to Hollywood Arts (this is Freshmen Year) 

*This is all told through Jade's POV

*Jade has not yet fully developed into her character that we see in the show... yet.

*I try to incorporate as MANY details nodding to the show as I can -- let me know when you catch them!

Disclaimer: I do not own Victorious.

***

I walked into my screenwriting class with a to-go coffee cup in hand and sat in one of the many empty chairs. Nobody, including the teacher, Mr. Gradstein , had shown up for 1st period, yet. The lights were still off and only a few rays of the morning sun had begun to illuminate the large, dull room. I liked to show up a little earlier than everyone else so that I could claim an additional seat as a footstool to prop my feet up onto. I opted for a seat near the back of the room and took a sip of my coffee. The hot liquid burned my tongue, but not enough to prevent me from continuing. I could feel it heating my body from the inside out, making me almost sweat. During this time of year, most people might prefer a cool, iced drink, but the comfort of a hot coffee in the morning is one of the few things that bring me true joy.

I sat there for a few moments, enjoying my solitude. There was no talking, no yelling here. I could take a few full breaths and let my mind be clear. I braced myself for change as people slowly began to file in. To let people know not to speak to me, I fished out my notebook and pretended to focus on a drawing. The page was covered in indistinguishable scribbles.

Mr. Gradstein came in at some point, but did not make much conversation with anyone. Once the 5 strikes of the bell commenced class he finally addressed us all.

"You kids know the drill. Get out your notebooks and follow along."

We did know the drill. Every single day, all he did was lecture as we took notes in our notebooks. I'm almost certain he was the only teacher at Hollywood Arts that taught exclusively through PowerPoint presentations, but nobody really cared. It was absolutely mindless work to copy words down for an hour. I won't complain though -- it's pretty easy... though incredibly boring.

While he stays on a slide for a long time, I mindlessly doodle stars in the margins. Sometimes I would catch Cat drawing hearts in her margins. I wonder if she started doing it after watching me doodle first. Copy Cat.

Just then, I realized that Cat wasn't here today. I darted my eyes across the room to be sure I wasn't missing her, but she definitely wasn't in the room. I don't know why, but I was worried so I sent her a text through my Pear phone.

"Where are you at??"

I was careful to not let the brightness of my screen give me away in the darkness. A few moments later, the phone buzzed on my leg.

"At the hospital, but I'm okay! My brother made me a sandwich for breakfast, but he put beads from my charm bracelet in the jelly... I can feel them in me when I do jumping jacks :)"

I let out a small sigh at her typical dopiness and simply responded with, "Never eat anything he gives you again."

"Kay kay!"

I returned my phone to my bag and continued with the notetaking and doodling. When screenwriting class was nearly over, Mr. Gradstein started speaking with more projection so that the students who hadn't been paying attention the entire time would look up. I broke my focus off of an inky, nautical star to listen to his closing remarks.

"Okay, there are only a few minutes left of class so everybody listen to your assignment instructions, please!" He waited for everyone to look in his direction. "In a moment, I want everyone in this room to partner up with someone else. You will be tasked to draft a 5 minute play that follows the 3 C's we covered today."

If I was being honest with myself, I had already forgotten what the 3 C's were. Glancing back at my sprawled pages, I saw the words clear, concise, and creative.

"To make the assignment less broad, I also ask that you highlight food in some way in addition to following the 3 C's. You can have your characters be food, a conflict over food, a plot completely revolved around food, or whatever else you can think of. This should be a fun exercise -- don't overthink it too much. The script is due Monday, so make sure that you either meet up with your partner sometime over the weekend or email or text each other. You may pick your partners now and begin!"

I suddenly began to panic. Cat was the only friend I had in this class and now she wasn't here. People paired up with each other quickly and I was running out of viable options. I felt stuck to my seat. I didn't want to make it obvious that I didn't have a partner yet. After scanning my eyes around the room one more time, I made eye contact with Ryder Daniels who also needed a partner.

Of course he's the only person left I thought. Nobody likes to work with Ryder because he has a reputation of always making his partner or group do all the hard work while he contributes nothing.

He walked over to the seat next to me and gave a beaming smile. "Looks like we're partners," he said, "I'd prefer to meet at my house to work on this assignment. I never email and I don't want to have to go anywhere. Cool?"

I wanted to give a clever retort but was intimidated by his status as a sophomore while I was only a freshman. And I could hardly refuse when he was my only choice.

"Yeah, that works," I said just before the bell rang.

He wrote his address in my still-open notebook, winked, and said, "See you tomorrow," before he left the room.

Involuntarily, my heart gave one hard beat. I felt betrayed by myself for reacting to his charm at all and immediately scowled at myself as I picked up my belongings. The last sip of coffee had gone cold and lost its grounding effect. I threw it away on my way out.