Harmony amidst Chaos | A Jori story

Back to square one

-TORI'S POV-

André and I step into Sikowitz's classroom, the usual chaotic energy buzzing in the air. We'd just been talking about André's new song—he let me hear it right before class. It's amazing, of course. He's so ridiculously talented.

At the back of the room, Jade is sitting with her phone in hand, furiously typing like she's ready to set it on fire.

Next to her, Beck is doing the same thing, his fingers moving across his screen with a calm intensity that somehow feels even more threatening.

Ever since Jade's play, they don't talk to each other anymore. Now, they text fight. Constantly. I don't know what they're saying, and honestly, I don't want to. But it's going on for days now and the tension between them is so thick, it feels like it could slice through steel.

But it's not just the fighting. Jade's been... absent. Not physically, of course—she's here, always present in a way only Jade can be. But emotionally? She's been quieter, more distant, she doesn't talk to me as much anymore, like she's retreating behind those walls I hoped were coming down.

I think back to the moments we've shared over the past few weeks—those rare, unguarded glimpses of Jade West that felt like they were just for me. The way she'd let herself laugh, really laugh, when I said something dumb. The way her voice and her eyes softened when she talked to me about her play. The way her walls would crack just enough to let me see something real, something vulnerable.

I don't know when I started noticing those things. Or when they started to matter so much, but I already miss it a little.

"What? Really?!" Beck exclaims, his voice cutting through my thoughts. He looks at Jade, his eyebrows raised in disbelief. "All right. Okay..." he mumbles, before starting to type furiously on his phone again.

Jade's phone dings a second later. Her eyes narrow as she reads the message. "What?! Okay, you wanna go there?!" She snaps, her fingers flying across her screen.

"What do you think they're on about now?" André leans in, his voice low.

"Honestly, do we want to know?" I whisper back, shaking my head.

Before I can think too much about it, Sikowitz bursts through the door like a man on a mission. His wide grin stretches from ear to ear, and he's carrying a big box that looks suspiciously like it came from the clearance aisle at Big Mart.

I slide into my seat in the front as Sikowitz sets the box down on the podium like it's a treasure chest.

"Good morning, people! Or as they say in Guatemala, 'Una tortuga se comió a mi mujer.'"

I blink. "That means, 'A turtle ate my wife.'" I tell him, unable to stop myself.

"Oh. That's sad... But hilarious!"

I scrunch my eyebrows together, but before I can respond, André leans forward in his seat, nodding toward the box. "Hey, whatcha got there?"

"This," Sikowitz announces, patting the box like it's a prized possession, "is a one-cup coffee maker. A gift to me from our esteemed principal."

"What, is it your birthday or somethin'?" André asks, leaning back in his chair again.

"My anniversary!" Sikowitz declares with a theatrical flourish, his voice rising. "Ten years teaching here at Hollywood Arts!"

The class erupts into cheers and applause, some of the students even standing to give him a ovation. Sikowitz bows deeply, grinning as if he's just won an Oscar.

"Whoa, wait." I say, holding up a hand as the applause dies down. "It's your ten-year anniversary teaching here, and they gave you a one-cup coffee maker?"