Tiny Dancer

1.17 Survival of the Hottest

The Asphalt Café is filled with uncomfortable students as the sun beats down on Los Angeles. Beck, Jesse, Robbie, and Tori all sit around their usual table, each of them doing their best not to melt.

The biggest sign of the heatwave, however, is Beck and Jesse. The two have a clear space between them with no parts of their bodies touching (for once).

Tori fans uselessly at her face with one hand. "Oh my god. I am so hot," she complains.

"Ain't that the truth," Rex agrees.

Tori glowers at the puppet while Jesse- miserable in the heat like everyone else- just sighs.

"Knock it off, Rex," he mutters.

"What's the temperature now?" Beck asks.

Jesse groans and presses his water bottle to his forehead. "Don't ask that, Beck. Knowing only makes it worse."

Robbie reaches down beside him and sets his giant pear pad on the table. "Well, according to my pear pad," he says, earning immediate groans from the other three, "here in Hollywood it is... a hundred and three degrees."

They all groan again.

"See?" Jesse asks rhetorically. "Worse."

Beck sends him a small smile. "Sorry, babe," he says, running one hand through his hair to push it back off his face. "Man, I hate sweating."

"I know," Tori agrees. She feels at her own arm. "My arms feel like warm, wet ham."

Beck chuckles at the comparison while Jesse moves his water bottle so he can send her a confused look.

"When have you ever felt such a thing?"

"I don't know. Leave me alone, Jesse. It's too hot to think up a good metaphor."

"Simile," he absentmindedly corrects.

Tori appears completely unamused only to tilt her head slightly when she really looks at him. He's wearing a sleeveless shirt because of the heat, and she can't help but notice- "Wow. You are covered in freckles."

Jesse glances down at his arms before he looks back at her with an amused smile. "I know."

Cat and Jade make their way to the table, one far more cheerful than the other.

"Hi," Cat chirps, moving Robbie's pear pad so she can sit down. "I'm really hot, but I'm still in a good mood."

"Robbie, you done with that water?" Jade asks as she takes a seat,

He defensively grabs his water bottle. "No."

"Give it to me," she demands, satisfied when he hands it over with no further protests. She takes a sip only to blink in surprise when she suddenly finds Tori leaning into her personal space. "What?"

"You're not sweating," Tori says in disbelief.

"Uh-huh."

Tori starts to frantically feel Jade's face and neck, trying her best to find even a drop of sweat.

"Having fun there?" Jade asks with an annoyed frown.

"How can you not be sweating?" Tori asks.

"I don't sweat," she says simply.

"Everyone sweats."

"Not Jade," Beck chimes in.

"Jade never sweats," Robbie adds.

Tori gives him a look. "What do you mean she never sweats?"

Jade shrugs. "Sweating is gross, so I don't do it."