𝑙𝑜𝑣𝑒 𝑖𝑠 𝑑𝑎𝑛𝑔𝑒𝑟𝑜𝑢𝑠, 𝑏𝑒𝑐𝑘 𝑜𝑙𝑖𝑣𝑒𝑟 & 𝑗𝑎𝑑𝑒 𝑤𝑒𝑠𝑡

𝑐ℎ𝑎𝑝𝑡𝑒𝑟 𝑠𝑖𝑥𝑡𝑒𝑒𝑛. 𝑎𝑟𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑜𝑠𝑒 𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑙?

season one | episode sixteen
Wok Star

For most people, waking up to their father making pancakes might be good or even great if they haven't seen said dad in a year but the sight of her father cooking only sends anxiety through her body. "I see you're up early as always, early bird gets the worm," Derek Storm placed a plate of pancakes at her seat at the table. An awkward smile plays at her lips as she takes her seat, poking her food with her fork. Curse her hatred of sleeping in, why didn't her mother even try to warn her? "What are you doing here? Not that I didn't miss you," it was odd talking to her dad like they might have a normal relationship. He sat down next to her, pulling his red sunglasses off and placing his hand on her hers and she could cry. He gives her an entire story about missing his children, his ex wife and how much he wanted to see her perform something.

She tries her best to smile through it before she eventually heads out to school and he offers to give her a ride. "I know I don't have to but I miss you," he wraps her arm around her shoulders as they head out. "Did you watch Alexa's new movie? I couldn't be more proud of that girl," he was referring to Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, a part of her hated her sister for playing in the sequel to her favorite movie and another part of her hated how proud her dad was of Alexa. He was never proud of Arielle, no matter what she did, nothing could push away her queerness. A large part of her, most of her hated herself for it but she loved Beck and Jade, more than anything in the world.

"Yeah, it was good," he spends the rest of the drive asking her about her classes during the weekend, tells her it's nice that she got an A in a geometry test, he asks about Hollywood Arts in a way that she knows her mom made him and she tells him about their show and he promises he'll be there but she assures him it would be fine if he showed up a little late or didn't show up at all. When she walks into the school building, the first person she sees is Tori who wants her to go to some Chinese restaurant she found down the street. "No," Arielle pulls out her phone and walks away, trying to find Beck and Jade.

*ੈ✩‧₊˚

When Arielle gets to the studio, she meets the rest of the group there and Jade pulls her onto the stage. "Welcome, my leading lady," she kisses Arielle who goes silly for a bit after. "Your leading lady also has beautiful cheek bones," the woman in the green suit, Mrs Lee, looks between Arielle and Tori. "Thanks!" Arielle smiled as the woman took Jade's script from her bag, she has made a few notes which Arielle found shocking, the play was crazy and a little weird but she loved it and she fit the psycho range that Jade has basically been teaching her since they were kids. "You wanna change my play?" She asked, gripping Arielle's hand a little too tight.

"Well, I gotta go," Beck gets up, giving both girls kisses as he heads out but Arielle grabs his arm, squeezing harder whenever Jade starts gripping tighter.

"Oh he's so handsome, like a pretty pony and you-," Mrs Lee points at Arielle, points up and down as if referring to her outfit, something her father let her leave the house with so it wasn't bad. She wore a flowery pink halter top and a pair of wide leg jeans and a small white cardigan. "Are those real?" Arielle's cheeks flush as the woman points at her chest. "Thanks," she moves away and lets Beck go as she sits down, watching Jade and Mrs Lee bicker. "So she sings a song while she falls down the well, Ari can sing," Jade says , grinding her teeth a bit as Arielle watches, a little amused.

Suddenly a little girl walks in and Mrs. Lee pulls her to them. "Actually, I was thinking of another, more young, less plastic-" Arielle falls off her chair. "My daughter," Mrs. Lee glares back at Arielle whose mouth is open wide, she needed not just because Jade needed her to play it but because it will be the first performance of hers her dad will go to. "What a great idea," Jade has the fakest smile plastered on her mouth and Arielle gives her a thumbs up as some kind of way to comfort her from her seat.

*ੈ✩‧₊˚

Jade decides to cast the person Mrs. Lee wants for the role, Cat while Arielle plays her mother and Mrs. Lee's daughter, Daisy, is playing Cat's angel or something which means while Cat lays on the ground, and Daisy swings in the air, Arielle gets to sit back and try her best not to laugh. Daisy's singing is horrendous but when Arielle offers to give her singing classes but Mrs. Lee refuses, claims her daughter has too much talent and then she calls Arielle plastic one more time. "You fuc-" before Arielle can finish her sentence, Tori has tackled her to the ground and her back hits something hard, she thinks it might be one of the props. "Get off me!" She groans, she thinks Tori and the prop might've broken all her ribs.

"Don't you cry little girl," Daisy sings as Arielle gives her a thumbs up, getting off the ground as Tori falls down. "Are you okay, honey?" Jade tugs on Arielle's arm, pulling her into another room. "Yeah, I just taste blood but I'm fine. Are you okay? I know the changes have been a little odd," the two sit down on the small couch that was actually meant for one person, against one another as Arielle swallows a bit of blood down but she's fine, her future stepdad's a doctor, that means she can't die.

"No, I fucking hate this and what makes it worse is that I invited my dad to the opening night," Arielle paused at Jade's words, her father was a scary man, a scary man that liked Arielle but still pretty scary. "He already hates me enough, if he sees that I won't even deserve his respect," Jade took the bottle of water from Arielle's bag as she spat it out immediately. "What is this?"

"I threw in a few pills that are supposed to help me stay up, you should drink some. It'll help you with the play," Jade took another gulp of the water and this time she swallowed it, it was bitter but she could handle it but there was nothing she couldn't handle. "Nothing you can do would ever be bad, we'll help you. We'll all help that, that's what friends and great partners are for," she kisses Jade's cheek as the girl rests her head on Arielle's shoulder who coughs out a little blood before she makes an excuse to go to the hospital but she would be fine, she couldn't let Jade down.

*ੈ✩‧₊˚

Arielle has a cast around her ribs the night of the play which is well hidden behind her dress and because of Mrs. Lee's random decision to make the play a musical, Jade let her write her own song for it which she loved but her anxiety was raging. It had been since Kyle told Arielle she had a bit of internal bleeding earlier this day and Arielle said she would be fine because het blood was supposed to be inside but that only made them all more concerned. Jade didn't want Arielle to be there for her safety or for the sake of her dad having to be there.

Arielle moves to stand next to Jade, both girls looking for their dads in the crowd. "Hey, I made you some relaxing tea," Arielle hands her the tea which she takes back immediately cause of how badly Jade is shaking. "Everything will be fine," she holds the cup to Jade's mouth when Cat walks up to them with a bra in her hand. "I dropped it in the toilet," Cat holds it out to them and Arielle grabs it, throwing it across the room and against a wall. "Take this," she undoes her first button, tugging her bra off and handing it to Cat, it was probably not Cat's size but she could make it work. Cat takes the red bra and runs off while Jade drinks the tea when she sees her dad in the crowd and she turns to Arielle and then she looks up to see Daisy hanging from the ceiling.

It was all a part of the plan they made, get Mrs. Lee distracted at the restaurant by famous actor Alexa Winter and dangling her daughter from the ceiling to stop her from being a part of the play. A small part of Arielle felt bad for Daisy, she did try to secretly help the girl become a better singer but there wasn't enough time and she needed more than a few days to be even an okay singer.

She waved at the girl and her phone starts blowing up with paparazzi pictures of her sister flooding her screen, her sister at Mrs. Lee's restaurant so it's time for the play to start. Cat does her little act and then Arielle has to head onto stage for her song. When her performance is done, she heads backstage, she only had one scene but she felt pretty positive about it, Jade wrote it after all. "You were perfect, as always," Jade hugs her and Arielle can't breathe. "Ribs," Jade pulls away and Arielle kisses her cheek. "You're the greatest writer of all time," she kisses Jade's mouth and the girl gives her a light hug. She leaves five seconds later, heading into the crowd. "You're actually good," is all her dad says as she sits down next to him and her mom while Kyle checks to see if she's alright. The last thing she wants to do is die during Jade's show. "You were phenomenal up there," Kyle says when he tightens the bandages. "Well, I'm no Alexa Winter but thanks,"