Beck's Problem

Chapter 1

The day before the rehearsals for Sikowitz's new play, the gang was at Tori's house to decide on the cast together. Instead of holding formal auditions, their teacher had left choosing the star up to themselves.

"So, what? Are you saying I can't act?" Jade demanded, glaring daggers at Tori. She was currently sitting next to Beck and was leaning against him. While the two girls were yelling, Cat was sitting on the floor and making a house for her purple giraffe stuffed animal out of three of the Vega's couch pillows.

"No!" Tori shouted, sighing in frustration. "I just think that there's no one here better suited to play a..." she glanced at the play description and read off the bit about the lead role, "'care-free, silly, and slightly unaware' girl stuck in the middle of the woods than Cat!"

"But the entire point of acting is that you're acting," Jade shot back. "I can play a 'care-free, silly, and slightly unaware' girl stuck in the middle of the woods if I want to!" She leaned against the couch, glancing between the rest of them for support.

"If you really think so then only the 'slightly unaware' part would be correct," Rex commented. Jade, fuming, pulled him off of Robbie's arm and tossed him into the sink. Robbie ran after him after he heard the water in the sink slosh around from the puppet falling in it. Cat gasped, accidentally knocking over her pillow house.

"It doesn't matter what my personality is," Jade said. "Movies would be pretty boring if actors could only play parts that matched their personality. Robbie would only be able to play freaky weirdos and Cat..." She glanced at the redhead, who was waiting expectantly for her insult. "..wouldn't be cast." Cat gasped again.

"Cast for what?" Trina called from the top of the stairs.

"No one likes you!" Jade screamed.

"Oh, shut up, Jade!" Trina yelled, stomping down to the living room. "Plenty of people like me!" She put her hands on Beck's shoulders. "You like me, right Becky?" she asked, interrupting Beck before he could object. "And again, cast for what?" she demanded.

Jade hopped onto Beck's lap, straddling his knees and pulling Trina off of him. She grabbed a pair of scissors from her pocket and pointed them at Trina. "A cast for your neck if you don't get your hands off of him!"

"Jade!" Trina, Tori, Andre, and Cat said at the same time. Beck was busy avoiding staring at her for modesty's sake. He felt something stir in him with Jade's protectiveness and the fact that her chest was almost up against his face.

"What? It's her fault for always going after Beck." She leaned over Beck to shout at Trina, still holding the scissors. "He's taken, pre-turd!" Beck looked up at her, surprised by her sudden aggressiveness. It was normal for her to get jealous but rarely would she whip out her scissors.

"God! Okay!" Trina said while standing up and brushing herself off. "You don't have to be so scary."

"I'll be scary if I want to," Jade sneered from on her knees, pressing herself against Beck to get closer to Trina. Beck quickly turned his head to the side, blushing slightly.

"Come on, Jade," Beck said nervously, grabbing her hips to try to guide her off of him. He changed his voice to a whisper. "Just get off." Jade, still focused on Trina and not paying attention to Beck, sat down on Beck's lap from her previous position hovering above him. She stared at Beck in shock when she felt something hard meet her between her legs.

"Oh, I'm sorry," Jade said back, flustered. She rolled off of him to sit on the couch next to him. Beck grabbed a pillow as soon as she was gone and placed it casually on his legs. The rest of the gang was completely clueless as to what had just happened.