This is for Amy, because I promised her this story months ago, when we came up with the idea of awkward pre-dating Bade set during The Great Ping Pong Scam, and for Mad, because she kinda waited with Amy lol.

Disclaimer: I don't own Victorious and this is really suckish I'm so sorry. And yes, I totally used the Veronica Mars theme song for the title because I freaking love that show & I'm terribly uncreative.

. . a long time ago . . (we used to be friends) . .

Today. Today was the day he was going to ask her. He had spent hours in his room, practicing in front of his mirror what he was going to say to her, and he was probably more prepared for this than for any audition he had given so far. He was actually sure that she was going to say yes, but still he was more nervous than he had ever been in his whole life. One does not simply ask Jade West to become their girlfriend.

Beck didn't really understand what made it so hard for him to ask her such a simple question. He had asked it countless times before (okay, not that often. Despite his good looks he had only ever had two real girlfriends), but with Jade it was different. She was different. She had something about her that made it impossible for him to resist. And all he ever wanted these days was to hold her and to kiss her and to call her his.

Beck liked to think that he and Jade were kind of dating already. But only kind of. A few months back, when the school year just started, Beck, Jade, Andre, Cat, and Robbie had all quickly become friends. It all started with sharing a lunch table and doing group assignments together, and soon turned into a real friendship of some sort, where they would hang out after school or take trips together. Inside the group, it was obvious that Jade and Cat were best friends, for they had known each other since kindergarten. Andre and Beck were the "cool" guys (that referred to each other as "bros"), and they also accepted Robbie as their friend, despite his weirdness.

And then there was the unspoken relationship between Beck and Jade. Admittedly, they hadn't liked each other right from the beginning. When they first met in Sikowitz's classroom, Jade shrugged him off as the pretty boy, while he was a little too intimidated by her dark clothes and makeup to take a closer look and notice Jade West's beauty (in and out; even though her inner beauty was a little harder to spot than the superficial one).

But as the group of friends slowly formed, they started looking beyond the obvious and soon found themselves growing on each other, until even Jade was ready to admit that Beck was one of her best friends. But he was not her best friend, because it didn't take long for them to realize that whatever it was between them, was more than just friendship.

And it wasn't that hard to miss, either. Beck and Jade constantly seemed to seek proximity to each other; whether it was in class (where Jade would always be early and take a seat in one of the back rows and give him a little smile when he entered the classroom almost late and plopped down in one of the empty seats next to her), or when they just hung out with the group (where you would always find Beck either standing or sitting right next to Jade, his hands often suspiciously close to hers).

And a few weeks ago, they even started hanging out by themselves. Not like a date, Jade assured him the first time they went to Jet Brew's together, alone, after school, but she never bothered to clarify it again after that, and a few spontaneous stops at the coffee shop soon turned into a habit that they pursued almost daily. Whispers got loud around them at Hollywood Arts, were they dating or not? was what almost every student wondered at some point. But Beck and Jade were not dating. Not officially at least. And this was what Beck Oliver was about to change.

A freshly brewed coffee in his hands, that he had picked up on his way to school, he approached Jade's scissor-covered locker, where the brunette was currently sorting out her books for first period. As she noticed him coming closer, she couldn't hide the little smile that was playing on her lips, even though it vanished almost as fast as it appeared (she was Jade West after all). He didn't even have to say anything, as she took the steaming cup of coffee out of his hands as soon as he was within her reach, and he gave it to her willingly. "How you doin'?" he asked, casually leaning on a locker next to her.

"Cat and Robbie are annoying me," she told him after taking a few sips of the coffee. Black with two sugars, exactly how she liked it. "They're all excited because apparently the recreation room got a new addition. They just won't shut up about it." She slammed her locker shut, turning to Beck. He thought of the colorfully painted room that his school allowed all students to use to relax or sometimes even record songs, and of all the different game machines, sofas, vending machines, and other stuff it held.

"So what's the new addition?" he asked, getting curious.

"I have no idea," she retorted, rolling her eyes. "That's why Cat and Robbie are so excited. Because they 'love surprises' or something."

"Oh."

"Yeah. So is there any special reason why you're hanging out at my locker?" she asked teasingly, knowing that the answer would probably be no. He always came to wish her a good morning or bring her some coffee before first period.

"Actually," he began, his nervousness from before, that he had temporarily forgotten during their little chat, suddenly emerging again. "yes." Jade raised an eyebrow at him, obviously waiting for him to continue. "Well, I was wondering, since we are kinda-"

Beck's question was interrupted as an overly excited redhead came skipping towards them, dragging a nerdy looking boy with a puppet along and squealing in delight. He let out a frustrated sigh, as the pair came to a halt right in front of them. "Jadey! Beck! Guess what?" she rejoiced, and continued after earning an exasperated moan and a (slightly annoyed) shrug from Beck, "They'll unlock the recreation room in five minutes! We'll finally get to see the new thing they bought!" Cat started bouncing excitedly, grabbing Robbie's hands and pulling him up and down with her, which didn't really work out as she had planned, since she was a lot smaller than him, so she barely moved his arms.

"So what?" Jade asked, rolling her eyes for the nth time this morning.

Cat let go of one of Robbie's hands to grab Jade's. "Let's go take a look!" she prompted, pulling the brunette and the nerdy boy with her. Beck followed the pack, inwardly cursing Cat for interrupting the important question he was about to ask Jade. Just when he had plucked up enough courage to finally ask.

Jade managed to wrench her wrist out of Cat's grasp and let herself fall behind the redhead and Robbie to walk next to Beck. "What was it that you wanted to ask?" she inquired.

Beck sighed and shook his head. "Let's postpone that." Jade gave him a questioning glance, but didn't have time to chase it up, since they had arrived in front of the recreation room, where Andre was already waiting for them, his brand new PearPhone in his hands.

"Cat," he said, waving his phone in front of her face. "Why exactly do you need me here this early?"

"Because we'll reveal the surprise!" she exclaimed excitedly and shoved Andre aside to get to the door. She peaked through the little window, squealing. "It's a... ping pong table?" she questioned as she pushed open the door and took a few steps inside, followed by the rest of the group.

They stared at the black table somewhat sceptically, before Jade spoke first of them. "So that's it? The big surprise you were bugging about all morning?"

"Well..." Cat said, obviously just as disappointed as the rest of them.

"Hey, we could form an official ping pong team for Hollywood Arts!" Robbie suggested. "You know, to compete against other schools! It could be fun." Jade groaned and slapped him on top of his head. "Ow! That really hurt!" the boy complained, to which the brunette just shrugged.

"Let's get to class," Andre directed. "The bell will ring any minute."

The five of them turned around and started heading in different directions, as they didn't have first period together. Sighing, Beck watched as Jade walked off with Cat to their singing class, wondering if she would have been his girlfriend by now, if they hadn't been interrupted. So maybe today was not the day.

/ / /

The new ping pong table in the recreation room stayed untouched for the next couple of days (except for a few freshmen who played for a bit the first day, but lost interest quickly). And Beck's question remained unspoken.

It wasn't that he didn't want to ask Jade or that he was lacking the courage to do so, it was just that he never seemed to get a chance to talk to her alone. Even when they went to Jet Brew's after school on their daily kind-of-but-not-really-date, Cat decided to spontaneously join them, because she loved the cupcakes they sold there. So in the end, three days passed and Beck still hadn't asked Jade to become his girlfriend.

"What would you guys say if I pierced my eyebrow?" Jade asked, plopping down in the empty seat between Beck and Andre in the Black Box Theater, where they were hanging out with Robbie, and taking the cup of coffee Beck was offering her out of his hands. It was an unusually hot day, even for California, and so the teenagers rather spent their lunch break in the cool theater instead of the hot sun outside in the Asphalt Cafe.

Andre almost dropped the guitar that was in his lap, and let out an outraged "gurl", while Robbie gaped at her. "You want to pierce your face? You're fourteen!"

"Almost fifteen," Jade insisted, glaring at the boy. "And I don't care about your opinion anyways," she added shrugging, and looked at Beck.

"Beck, tell her that it's a bad idea," Andre ordered, gesturing towards Jade.

Beck glanced from his best friend to the brunette girl and back, uncertain what to do or say. Jade raised an eyebrow at him expectantly. "Uhm," he said, trying to picture her beautiful face with some additional jewelry. "I think... I think you would look pretty in anything," he admitted, while a mild blush crept up on his cheeks.

"Oh dude, come on!" Andre groaned, throwing up his arms in exasperation, but Jade smirked at Beck, biting her lip to keep herself from grinning, and he immediately forgot about his best friend who was now rolling his eyes at the two of them.

"Just get a room, will ya?" Rex mocked, earning a glare before Jade reached over Andre to grab the puppet from Robbie's lap and threw him across the room.

"Hey!" Robbie objected, but didn't get up to pick Rex up. Jade smiled contently.

At this moment, Cat entered the Black Box Theater. Her red side ponytail was whipping up and down as she bounced excitedly, while jabbering about some fancy restaurant her parents had taken her to. "And they had classy live music, and the most insane desserts I have ever tasted!" she eventually concluded.

"Sounds pretty good," Jade concurred, nodding her head.

"We gotta go there!" Robbie suggested excitedly, but Cat shook her head.

"There's no way we can go there, it's really expensive," she explained. Robbie let out a sigh and pouted.

Jade glanced at Beck, who looked just as disappointed as the rest of them, when she remembered something. "Hey," she said and all heads immediately turned to look at her. "Remember what you told me at Jet Brew's last week?" she asked Beck, who just shrugged. They always talked about a lot of things, so he wasn't sure what she was hinting at. "About all sports teams at Hollywood Arts getting a minimum of $1,500 a year?"

He slowly recalled the conversation they had had, it had just randomly come up the other day, but he still wasn't sure what this had to do with the expensive restaurant. "Yeah, why?"

"Maybe," she started explaining while getting up to stand in front of the group. "Maybe we should form a fake ping pong team, take the fifteen-hundred bucks, and use the money for all of us to have a fancy dinner at the restaurant Cat told us about." She gave them a proud smile, content with her idea.

But the others just gave her skeptical looks, and even Beck wasn't too fond of her idea. Jade looked disappointed that her great plan was met with immediate refusal, and was seeking eye contact to Beck, hoping to at least convince him. And it worked. His stern expression melted under her gaze, and he exchanged some looks with his friends, who suddenly didn't seem so opposed to the idea anymore, either. Finally, they were all nodding in agreement and Jade smiled at Beck victoriously, sending shivers down his spine as her ice-blue eyes met his.

/ / /

It didn't take long to convince Sikowitz to help the group with their plan and for everything to be settled, and at the end of the week they were standing in front of the fancy restaurant Cat had gushed over. And as they were looking up to the shining letters that spelled out Symphonia, the restaurant's name, no one could deny that it did, in fact, look very impressive.

"Shall we go inside?" Andre asked, motioning to the entrance using his head, his hands casually resting in his pockets.

"Let's go!" Cat agreed, grabbing Andre and Robbie's arms and dragging them inside, followed by Sikowitz.

Beck, who was watching his friends slowly making their way to the entrance, turned to look at the girl standing next to him. Jade was still taking in the view of the impressive building. "You ready?" he asked.

She nodded, smoothing out her short, black, strapless dress. When she lifted her head again, she found Beck staring at her, mesmerized. As soon as their eyes met, he smiled. "You look beautiful."

Jade quickly dropped her gaze to the floor in an attempt to hide the blush that was creeping up her cheeks. (Jade West didn't do blushing) "You don't look so bad yourself," she murmured confounded, referring to his classy black suit. When she looked up again, he held out his arm for her, which she gladly took, and together they followed their friends and teacher inside.

Cat hadn't been exaggerating when she had told the gang about this place. It was one of the most elegant and fancy places any of them had ever been to, the music was fantastic, and the food to die for. Of course Beck took a seat next to Jade, but the whole group was busy chatting and laughing all night, so that once again, he didn't get a chance to talk to her alone. Any by now he was really getting desperate to finally ask this one little question.

So when the group left the restaurant and split to make their way home each, Beck jumped at the only chance he had gotten all week. Cat and Robbie had already left together, since they lived pretty close to each other, and so had Sikowitz, but in another direction. Andre had also just said good bye, leaving Beck and Jade standing in front of the restaurant by themselves. Beck awkwardly cleared his throat, breaking the short silence. "Want me to walk you home?"

"You live like 10 blocks away from me," she questioned, raising an eyebrow, but her voice was soft and a tad too caring for what you would expect from Jade West.

"I don't mind," he said, and got one of her rare smiles in response. "Let's go." He took a little step forward without detaching his eyes from hers, to make sure she was following. "Tonight was really fun, wasn't it?" he asked after they had left the Symphonia behind.

She shrugged. "It wasn't as awful as I thought it might be."

"Aw, come on, you loved it," he teased, nudging her elbow. It was past eleven and the sun had long set, leaving the city to neon signs and street lights. Except for a few cars that would pass every now and then, the two teenagers were alone on the street.

Jade rolled her eyes. "You can be so annoying."

"But you love it."

She sighed, but didn't deny it. Beck smirked at her, and they continued their way in silence, before he spoke again. "Jade?"

"What?"

"Would you kill me if I held your hand?"

She lifted her head to look at him, thinking about his question for a second, before she answered. "Are you willing to take that risk?" she smirked, holding out her hand.

He chuckled. "Why yes I am," he said and confidently took her hand in his. It felt cold against his, and his heart started racing at the contact of her skin, something he had never experienced like this before (when did Beck Oliver ever show any form of emotion anyway). Out of the corner of his eyes he noticed her mouth twitching slightly, as if she was trying to suppress a smile, which made him smile in return. This was even better than he had imagined.

They arrived in front of the West's house sooner than he would have liked, and his nervousness became almost unbearable for him. Jade slid her hand out of his, getting ready to go inside. She gave him a smile. "You were right," she said. "I actually had fun tonight. We should do this again." She started playing with her fingers and examined her feet, unsure what else to say or do. "Good night, Beck," she eventually said awkwardly, and started turning around, but Beck stopped her by grabbing her hand.

"Jade, wait," he pleaded, and she turned around, looking at him questioningly. "You know, that thing that I've been meaning to ask you all week..." - she raised her eyebrows, signaling him to continue - "Well, I was wondering if, maybe, by any chance, given the circumstances,-"

"Oh my god, Beck, just ask," she groaned. She had never been the most patient person.

"Okay," he sighed, trying to collect himself. "I was wondering if youwouldliketobemygirlfriend." The last part came out way faster than he would have liked, but judging by the look on her face, she had understood him perfectly well. She blinked at him a few times, taken aback by the question, but before he knew what was happening, her lips were on his.

"About time you asked," she scoffed after she broke the kiss, smirked at him, and went off to her house, leaving Beck standing in her yard thunderstruck. He watched as she went inside and brought up a hand to his lips where her lips had been just a few seconds ago. Smiling to himself, he turned around and started heading home. And when his parents asked what their fourteen-year-old son was still doing outside at midnight, he proudly answered that he had just been walking home his girlfriend.

/ / /