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Tori hated being stuck at school after hours. The place was empty and honestly kind of creepy without the bustle of the other students hanging around chatting. It was also always a pain trying to get a ride home from Trina. At least, she thought with a smile, she had another option these days.
She had, unfortunately, missed a test when she was ‘sick’ a few days ago and naturally had to stay after school to make it up. It wasn’t really anyone’s business that ‘sick’ in this instance meant skipping class to chase down her delinquent love interest who’d had a bit of a freakout and run off in an attempt to try and hide from her (and everyone else). Fortunately Jade wasn’t very good at hiding, and Tori had found her in a local park a few minutes walk from school. They had talked it out, sorted through their feelings and decided that they did, as it turned out, want to be together. It had all been so romantic to Tori. Finally crossing that boundary, hearing Jade confess that not only did she not hate Tori, she in fact cared a lot about her, much to her own dismay. It was like the end of a movie. Jade had kissed her right there under a big pretty tree in the park and everything in the world was perfect.
The women in rom-coms never had to stay after school to take an algebra test a week later, though. She sent her girlfriend -Girlfriend- a text asking if she could still come give her a ride and got a reply saying that she was stopping to get coffee and would be there in 20 minutes. Yeah, maybe she could get used to not needing to rely on Trina for these things, and instead having someone that, not only could she count on, but that she really liked. And that was to say nothing of the… activities that they could get up to before she finally ended up back at her house for the day.
She blushed at her thoughts and made her way through the empty halls toward her locker, opening it and switching out her books for the ones she would need for her homework, and that’s when she heard a commotion from around the corner. There was usually hardly anyone here after school, but she definitely heard a bunch of guys talking and laughing.
Curious, she peeked around the corner just in time to see a bunch of guys heading out the back doors toward the parking lot. Actually, she thought she saw Beck and Andre among them, but she wasn’t sure. And then, from a classroom to her left a bit down the hallway emerged Robbie, adjusting Rex on his arm. He turned to head towards the back door the rest of the guys had left through.
“Robbie!” she called to him, but oddly, when he saw her his eyes grew wide. She thought for a moment about the strangeness of it, and then it just got stranger when she took a step towards him. The boy simply turned on the spot and sprinted at the back door, saying nothing.
She froze in place, shocked, just watching him flee from her like she was a serial killer, or at least an angry Jade. Sure, the guy acted weird from time to time, but this was a strange even for him.
Okay that was bizarre. She thought to herself, but just then her phone went off. Jade was outside to pick her up. She turned back towards the front of the school and as she stepped outside, saw her girlfriend pulled over at the edge of the sidewalk.
Her girlfriend. Even just the word still gave her butterflies. It barely felt real. True, in some ways it had felt inevitable, they had been building toward it for months beforehand, but in other ways it still seemed entirely impossible. Some part of her still wondered if Jade was about to pull the car away from her in some final, twisted, joke and reveal that she had never liked Tori at all, and this was all some elaborate prank.
But instead she just reached over and opened the door for Tori from the inside and smiled at her in a way she wouldn’t have believed was possible 6 months ago, and after Tori sat down she reached over and cupped her face and kissed her sweetly, and damn. Yeah, not impossible. Inevitable.
“You owe me a coffee, for the record.” Jade smirked at Tori, handed her an iced coffee, and pulled away from the school.
It wasn’t until the next day at school that she remembered the strangeness with Robbie and the other guys she had seen. She watched as he walked into school, noticed her at her locker, and then just turned around and walked back outside. She was still thinking about the weirdness of it when Jade walked up and kissed her good morning, again handing her coffee and yeah, she could really get used to all of this.
“Good morning.” Jade said in a way that was probably normal, but man, Tori just found everything Jade said or did so attractive these days.
“Morning.” Tori smiled at her and then moved to her locker while Jade leaned against one next to it. “Hey, have you seen Robbie in the last couple of days? He’s been acting weird.”
“Weird how?” Jade asked, stiffening up a bit. Her eyes began searching the halls around them. “He’s probably secretly into you and now that we’re public he’s realized it’s just him and the puppet from here on out.”
Tori laughed at the comment but shook her head and continued. “No I don’t think its like that. I saw him after school yesterday with a bunch of guys, but then when I tried to say ‘hi’ he just turned and ran away at a full sprint.”
“So maybe he’s secretly into you and afraid that if he bothers you I’m going to murder him.” Jade reasoned “And for the record he’s right about that.” Jade looked at her in a decidedly protective manner but Tori just rolled her eyes and ignored the butterflies the other girl had elicited without even trying.
“You know, everyone isn’t secretly into me, yeah? That was pretty much just a Jade thing as far as I know.” She smiled sweetly at Jade, who just rolled her eyes in return.
“Then I dunno. If I run into him later I’ll interrogate him, if that’ll make you feel better.” Tori paused to wonder what methods Jade would use to ‘interrogate’ someone and figured that it would probably not be great for Robbie, but then she was very curious about what his deal was.
“Just don’t hurt him too badly.” She smiled a devious smile at Jade before pulling her in and kissing her again. “Anyway, I’ll see you after class, yeah?”
“Yeah.” Jade answered simply, and Tori watched her walk off down the hall. Her eyes were active though, presumably looking for Robbie as she went. Tori smiled at Jade’s perverse brand of thoughtfulness and walked off to class.
It was just before her last class of the day when she saw motion from the corner of her eye. Jade was dragging Robbie by his arm towards the Janitor’s closet despite the boy clearly struggling as hard as he could to pull free of her. He was not finding success. Tori laughed under her breath and decided it was probably for the best if she went in with them. She didn’t want the poor kid to be hurt on her account, and she knew the questions to ask him better than Jade did anyway. She caught a passing Andre by the arm.
“Hey. Robbie has been acting strange since I saw him after school yesterday. Jade and I are going to go confront him, if we’re not in class, make something up for Sikowitz, yeah?”
“Sure thing girl.” He answered quickly and then she saw him freeze up and glance at the closet for a second before calmly walking off toward class. Weird.
By the time she opened the closet door and walked in, she found Jade holding a pair of Scissors and Robbie a blubbering mess pushed up against the wall. It can’t have been more than two minutes, she thought to herself.
“Oh thank God, Tori, please tell Jade not to murder me! I’m too young to die like this.” The boy was completely defeated before she had even gotten here. Damn, Jade was effective.
“Jade isn’t going to hurt you” Tori attempted to reassure the terrified boy.
“Don’t make promises.” Jade remarked coldly. Eyes flashing to Tori and then locking back on Robbie and, okay, why was she so attracted to this? She would have to think about this later, but for now there was info she wanted.
“You’ve been avoiding me.” Tori said, looking back at Robbie. “Ever since I saw you yesterday after school. What’s the deal?”
“I didn’t see you yesterday!” He was not a good liar. “I swear!”
“Robbie, I literally made eye contact with you and you sprinted out the back of the school.” His head fell as he realized his lie was not going to convince her and she watched as he panicked and started trying to come up with another reason.
“I was just- um” and she could already tell that whatever came out of his mouth next was going to be a load of crap. “I was practicing a musical number with Rex?” She rolled her eyes. Even Robbie couldn’t believe she would buy that.
“And all those other guys?” Tori asked him, watching his expression change into one of even greater fear. “It’s not a big deal, Robbie, I’m just curious.”
“It might be a big deal.” Jade corrected her. “Depending on how weird whatever you were up to is.” She gave a few snips with her scissors in his direction and he recoiled, whimpering again.
“I can’t tell you, okay?” The boy was entirely defeated now, it was only a matter of time. “If the other guys find out I told you…”
“Told us what, Shapiro?” Jade was curious now, stepping even closer to him.
Just then a few light knocks sounded from the door.
“Hey can I come in for a sec? Its Andre.” Tori and Jade looked at each other and Tori just shrugged. She didn’t see why not. Jade opened the door to let him in, but shut it behind him.
“Andre! I didn’t tell them, I promise! You’ve gotta believe me!” Tori watched something pass between the boys and realized that what ever was going on here, Andre was in on it somehow.
“What are you guys in some kind of cult?” Jade asked, clearly having picked up on the same thing Tori had. Tori watched a silent conversation transpire between the guys before Andre just sighed.
“Just go, man. I’ll explain it to them.” He said to Robbie
“No, they’re gonna kill you! Especially Jade, she might literally kill you!” Tori just watched the guys, disbelievingly. What could possibly be so dramatic?
“Robbie, just leave, they’ll take it better from me than from you anyway.” Robbie just whimpered again before picking up Rex off the floor and scrambling out of the closet, the doll turning back with parting words to Andre. “We’ll remember your sacrifice.”
Andre let out a small laugh under his breath, and Tori figured that whatever the deal was, Robbie had to be being a bit over-dramatic about it. The door shut, leaving just the three of them in the closet.
“Alright, spill it.” Jade demanded. Andre looked back and forth between each of the girls as well as Jade’s scissors before speaking.
“Okay, so, you’re probably not going to like this.” He looked at Jade first and then Tori. “Can you at least get her to put the scissors away?”
Tori looked at Jade and then just shrugged at her. Jade rolled her eyes and tucked the scissors back into her boot.
“I just want to start by saying you two are among my best friends, and I don’t want you to take any of this the wrong way.”
“We will take it how we want to take it, now talk.” Jade remained unamused. Tori just watched Andre. He was clearly trying to phrase something in a way that wouldn’t piss them off.
“Some of the guys at school…” He shook his head and started over. “I mean, okay you two surely know about High School boys right? They are maybe at times a bit…kind of…” Tori just watched him struggling, now insatiably curious about whatever he was going to confess.
“Dre, I swear to God another 5 seconds and the scissors are coming back out.” Jade was running out of patience.
“They’re a bit, maybe, obsessed with the girls here.”
Tori scoffed, having no idea what that could even imply.
“What does that mean? You’re all hanging out talking about girls? Who cares?” Jade was clearly getting more annoyed by the second and Tori watched her fighting the urge to just pull her scissors back out.
“Okay, so, don’t be mad.” He was clearly working up to something. “There's sort of a group of us who have a sort of…” He winced before saying the word.
“Ranking?” He said it like a question. Tori paused for a second and watched as Jade’s eyes got big.
“Oh my God you’re ranking girls? You are actually perverts.” She began throwing punches at Andre’s shoulder as he stammered.
“It’s not- It wasn’t my idea, It’s something that guys do sometimes. OW!” Tori just scoffed at him in disbelief.
“There were like a dozen guys in there! You’re just all hanging out after school ranking girls by what, hotness? What the hell, Andre!” She was bewildered, and a bit skeeved out at the idea as well.
“Its not something that happens all the time!” he pleaded with the two angry women in front of him. “It’s just, there was sort of a ‘crisis’.” He punctuated the word ‘crisis’ with air quotes. “Because of you guys, and we-”
“There’s going to be a crisis alright. Give me names Andre. You and Robbie, who else?”
“Wait what do you mean because of us?” Tori interrupted. “What do we have to do with any of this?” She was watching him grumpily as he tried and failed to squirm away from Jade.
“It’s just…Oh whatever the secret is out anyway.” He rubbed his face in his hands and resolved himself to continue. “The list is about single girls at the school. And so when the number 1 and number 3 girl on the list start dating each other, it causes a big shakeup. So the council had to meet up an-”
“COUNCIL?” Jade had picked up a bottle of cleaning product from a nearby shelf and started hitting Andre with it. “You sick little horny pieces of shit. I am going to end every one of you.”
Tori couldn’t believe what she was hearing, she laughed to herself, even though she wasn’t sure if she found it funny. This was worth Robbie fleeing in terror? The guys of the school were literally meeting up to talk about this stuff? And then another thought fought its way into her mind, and she was almost embarrassed at herself from the bit of pride it was giving her but…
“Wait, so, just for the record,” She paused as Jade continued to stare daggers into Andre. “The guys here think Jade and I are the hottest girls in school?” she asked. Jade looked over at her dumbfounded but Tori just shrugged at her and gave a half smile.
“Of course you would just take it as an ego boost, Vega." She looked at Tori disbelievingly. “They are literally ranking us like prized pigs or something and you don’t care because you’re at the top of the list.”
“Uh, I mean. That isn’t exactly the case.” Andre said, wincing away from Jade’s assault via Clorox bottle. Then Tori saw Jade pause, the bottle of blue liquid still in her hand. She looked back and forth between Andre and Tori. Tori could only fight against a laugh and feel some twisted sense of pride on Jade’s behalf. God this was kind of fucked up.
“Me? These motherfuckers are meant to be afraid of me.” She was at least calming down a bit, and Andre was probably out of any immediate danger. Probably.
“It works for some people.” Andre said simply. Tori narrowed her eyes at the memory of an infatuated Andre begging her to help him overcome a crush on Jade. Just then the bell rang, signaling that they had in fact missed the entirety of Sikowitz’ class.
Jade seemed to realize something and looked back at Andre. “Wait and you idiots have someone else above Tori? That’s moronic. Who could you possibly-”
“Kate Aldin, probably.” Tori said matter-of-factly. Jade and Andre both just looked at her, before Andre let out a nervous laugh.
“Spot on, Tor.” He seemed to sense that the danger to his life had passed and took a subtle step toward the door, clearly hoping to escape.
“Kate Aldin? Kate Aldin does not hold a candle-“ Jade caught herself participating in the ranking and found renewed anger about it. “Ugh, just get out of my way, you perv.” She forced her way past them and out of the closet.
Andre just gave Tori a weak smile. “Sorry Tor. I promise it’s all lighthearted stuff, we don’t let people be assholes about it or anyth-”
“I’m think I’m going to just pretend I never learned about this at all and go on with my life, if that’s alright with you.” She gave him a flat, if a bit disappointed look and walked back past him into the school where within moments she noticed that Cat was handing out papers from a stack to a few guys near the stairs.
As she approached the redhead, it became apparent at once that the girl was actually handing out smiling photos of herself. To boys. Of course she was.
“Cat. Please tell me you aren’t doing what I think you’re doing.” But the wink she gave one of the boys as he walked away answered for her.
“It’s nothing serious Tori. I’ve just recently moved into the top five of the single hottie ratings and I figure I might as well use it to my advantage.” The girl was just smiling at her innocently as she waved her fingers at a different boy across the hall, who blushed at her.
“You know about this?” Tori asked, somehow shocked and not surprised at all at the same time. “Cat!”
“Of course. It seems like all my campaigning has finally started paying off.” She handed another photo to a boy as he walked past them up the stairs.
“Cat, you don’t find the idea of boys ranking us based on attractiveness upsetting at all?” She questioned, hands on her hips.
“You’re saying I’m supposed to be mad that all the boys here think I’m pretty? Tori, that’s the goal.” This girl…
“That’s not the- It’s misogyn-” she could tell the word was going directly over the other girl’s head and rolled her eyes. “It’s- they’re being creep- Oh whatever.” She sighed in defeat and grabbed one of Cat’s headshots, looking it over. The girl was smiling with her cherubic face resting between her palms.
“Just- Please never let Jade hear the term “single hottie rankings.” She scolded the other girl. “I don’t think there will be any boys left for you if she does.” She stuffed the photo into the stomach of a random boy and walked off toward her locker.
Jade met her at her locker as she put her books away and the two started making their way out into the parking lot, hand in hand. Jade wasn’t saying anything and had the look on her face she got when she was in her baseline state of ‘moderately annoyed at everything’.
“Beck is in on it too, you know. I got him to confess.” Tori let out a laugh and shook her head as they continued toward Jade’s car. “The guys in this school are such creeps, I swear.” Jade shook her head, still clearly annoyed by all of this.
“Yeah, guess I’ll stick to girls then.” Tori just laughed, flashed Jade her best smile, and held onto her arm as they approached the car. “Although, I must say, knowing I’m with the official hottest girl in the school doesn’t upset me too much.” She smiled mischievously at Jade and felt the other girl tense up.
“Yeah, well.” And she was actually blushing. Tori could see Jade struggling to keep up her annoyed face through reddening cheeks as they climbed into Jade’s car. “It doesn’t change the fact that they’re assholes.”
“Assholes who know a hottie when they see one.” Tori teased again and watched Jade get even redder.
“Whatever. Just because I like to hear it coming from you doesn’t mean I care if Sinjin agrees.” Tori just laughed, taking Jade’s hand on the console as they pulled out of the school parking lot.
“Well I’m glad I have you, whether other people are as attracted to you as I am or not.” Tori gave Jade her flirtiest, wide eyed smile and shamelessly batted her eyelashes at Jade.
“Well. Ugh. Me too I guess. Unless…” Jade just smirked and looked forward, breaking eye contact with Tori. “Do you think this means I have a shot with Kate Aldin?”
Tori punched her girlfriend hard in the arm as Jade laughed and pulled onto the freeway.