Andre sat down next to Cat with his burrito. "Hey Lil Red. How's it hanging?" Andre asked casually. "Something's hanging? What's hanging?" Cat asked looking around panicked. "Nothing hanging. It's just a saying you moron." Jade huffed rolling her eyes.
"Oh. That's good. One time my brother tried to hang him pancake. It didn't work very well. Mom kept..." Cat started. "Colour the pretty unicorn." Jade said with a fake smile giving the cute little redhead the colouring book.
"Yay! Unicorns!" Cat smiled taking the yellow enthusiastically. Jade grinned and leaned back into Beck's embrace. Beck stroked Jade's hair before giving her a peck on the lips. Tori groaned rolling her eyes. While Cat giggled. "You look like you're eating each other." She said between laughs.
"COLOUR THE PRETTY UNICORN!" Jade yelled. Cat pouted and went back to her colouring. "Looks like the wicked which of the West is in a especially bad mood." Rex sniggered. But other than that no one batted an eye.
Except Andre. For a while he had been worried about Cat. Jade was always so rude to the loveable redhead. And more often than not Cat would end up coming to either him or Tori in tears. It had to stop. The more Cat hung out with Jade the more she hurt.
Andre hated to see any of his friends hurt. So he stood up. "Lil Red? Can I talk to you?" He asked hoping his nickname would lighten the mood enough to get her to agree.
"We are." Cat said confused. She tilted her head to the side trying to figure out what Andre was saying. "Alone." Andre added.
Cat seemed to understand what he meant. She stood up and waved to Tori and Jade before skipping off behind him. (Tori gave her a smile but Jade just gave Cat a half-hearted, dismissive hand gesture. Cat deserved better.)
"So what did you want to talk about? Outer space? Once my brother signed up to be an astronaut. But dad ripped up his form and said he was too 'unstable'. So we just bounce on our beds and pretend we're in space. It's really fun!" Cat giggled.
Andre noted how Cat did air quotes over the word 'unstable' as if she didn't believe it.
"Cat. Are you and Jade okay?" Andre asked carefully. "What's that supposed to mean?" Cat replied using her famous catchphrase. "I just meant Jade's been kind of mean to you lately." Andre shrugged.
"We had a sleepover just last night. It was all over TheSlap." Cat frowned confused. "I saw." Andre mumbled.
"It was great! We had loads of fun! And Jadey even let me cuddle her. As long as I didn't say anything." Cat giggled. Then she slapped a hand over her mouth horrified. "I wasn't supposed to say that." Cat whined.
"See? You're scared of Jade." Andre said gesturing to her. "Only sometimes. But if I can slip cinnamon into her coffee I should be okay." Cat replied brightly. "You couldn't be sneaky if you tried." Andre laughed. "But Sinjin can." Cat smiled. "Thanks Andre!" She added.
Suddenly, Andre was surrounded by Cat's perfume. "Bye bye!" Cat smiled skipping away.m
'That really didn't go as planned.' Andre thought.
.
.
But the next day Andre watched closer. Jade may do all the shouting and screaming and insulting. But Cat had a hidden advantage. All Cat had to do was pout and do her baby voice and giggle loudly at someone else's jokes. And suddenly, Jade was putty in Cat's small innocent hands.
Cat Valentine had the upper hand. Not Jade West.
Well sometimes.