"Pull your jeans up," are the first words she ever says to him.

Not exactly the response he was hoping for, he admits, because the words that prompted them were, "Hey, I'm Beck Oliver, and you are?" and he doubts that the name of the very pretty blue-eyed brunette is Pulyore Jean Zupp, if such a name even exists. He gives her the benefit of the doubt (consoling himself with the thought that the name would be a lot prettier if Zupp were substituted with Oliver, for example) for about two seconds. That's when he realizes he's watching her walk away, and he curses himself for half a moment. He takes a surreptitious look around, hooks his thumbs into the loops of his pants, and gives them a quick tug upward.

It's a guy thing, the low-rise jeans.

He doesn't know when it started for him exactly. Middle school, probably, when ghetto was the in thing and his greatest dream was to be the next 2Pac. That's until he realized he has more faith in his singing voice than his rapping voice (and that's saying something). So he ditches the snapbacks, the bandanas, the bling, and the whole hip-hop lifestyle altogether, but the jeans stuck around, apparently much to the chagrin of Jade West.

He doesn't fault her for not getting it, but it amuses him when, half a year later when they're finally friends, he's going through her Internet history and he finds a Google search with the question, "Why do guys wear their jeans so low?" Admittedly, the answers amuse him even more.

"They think it's cool. Obviously no one told them otherwise."

"It's how rebellious teenagers say 'Fuck you, I do what I want'."

"I think they are signalling to baboons. Under NO CIRCUMSTANCES should you give them a banana. This will only encourage them."

He asks her for a banana not long after, out of the ones she brought to lunch that one day. He just couldn't resist. It's an effort to keep a straight face while he does it, but he's an actor, and a good one, so he manages somehow. It turns out to be well-worth it, though, because the way she stiffens for just a moment, debates, and hands him a banana. He couldn't keep himself from grinning from ear to ear. He's not surprised, though, that she stops bringing bananas to school after that.

It's enough to know that she encourages him at least that one time, because after another few months he's standing next to her at her locker, officially her boyfriend. It's nice to know that some things change.

She gives him a once-over and says, "Pull your pants up."

… And other things don't change.

He raises an eyebrow at her, not as easily affected as he was that first day. Now, he isn't as disarmed by her bluntness. Now, he isn't too busy staring into her eyes, at the pale expanse of her neck, at her… um. What he means to say is that now, he has a speech prepared, and nothing's going to stop him from delivering it this time. "When I was a kid," he begins as he shifts his weight from one foot to the other. "I was…"

He doesn't get to finish his story. "Yeah, yeah," Jade says as she takes a step closer to him, and he has no idea what the next words in his script are. She's in the proximity he's nicknamed kissing distance, and it's painfully obvious that she knows the reason he's suddenly clammed up. She smiles up at him as she leans in close to his ear and says with excruciating quiet slowness, "Pull up your pants, or I swear to God I will. Pull. Them. Down. All. The. Way."

It takes him a moment to realize that it's a threat and not an offer, so he lets out a sigh and pulls his pants up obediently. His speech can wait.

One day he asks her why his jeans bug her so much. Jade always makes a point of going on and on about the things that irritate her: the ocean, tuna fish, and Tori Vega, to name a few. It seems the way he's wearing his pants falls under that category, as well. Almost as soon as he asks the question, he both regrets it and thanks himself for being such a genius.

Jade, who sits across from him, looks up at him, a mischievous glint in her blue eyes. But there is no trace of that mischief in her voice as she says, with a perfectly straight face, "You don't know what it does to me, Beck Oliver."

He's about to.

A few weeks later, she shows up at his RV completely rain-drenched, the result of a sudden summer shower and the absence of an umbrella. She sleeps over that night and goes to school the next morning in his shirt – nothing new, really, except this time around her jeans are too wet to be worn. She shrugs and says she'll borrow a pair of his jeans, and she slips them on. They're a little long on her, so she rolls them up to an inch or two below her knees.

He doesn't realize how bad an idea it is until they finally get to school.

She walks away from him to head off to her first class, and he's suddenly conscious of all the heads turning to look at her. Most days they all know that that is Jade West and their eyeballs have no business ogling her, but today it's like they can't resist. So his gaze follows theirs to Jade's retreating form: to his plaid shirt, to her slender waist, to those goddamned jeans that rest a little too low on her hips.

He gets it now.

He catches up to her after class and she's still unaware of the fact that the male half of Hollywood Arts' student body is staring at her backside (unaware, he knows, because no one has visited the school nurse yet today). He can't help but brush his lips against hers possessively in front of all the prying eyes before he says, "Hey, Jade?"

"Yeah?"

"Pull your jeans up."

Author's Note: I'm sorry if it's terrible! This was written way past my old grandma bedtime. Khay can vouch for me. Written for Worldwide Day of Bade (which it is, because it's officially 12:22 am in my timezone) and badeprompts' Adopt-A-Prompt. My prompt was "Beck's jeans". So, yeah, haha, I didn't really go crazy creative with the prompt. Hope you guys enjoyed reading it anyway!

Disclaimer: I do not own Victorious, the prompt, or that last answer on the Google search about the bananas. That was, incidentally, a real answer on Yahoo answers.