A/n: Hi! This is my first Victorious fanfic, so I hope you enjoy. It's a little dark at some points, but I promise it's in the right direction and has a fantastic ending. I know that this pairing is a bit underdeveloped, so I hope to add new dynamic.
Enjoy! P.s., I don't own any of these characters. If I did, this is story wouldn't be on this site. Oh and I don't own the script from 'Just Friends'
And She Is
Chapter One: The Beginning
"Come on, Jade, we'll be late." I holler at her from up her stairs, tapping my foot for emphasis.
"Who cares! I don't like any of them enough to be thankful we're going anyways."
"Jadee. Come on, do this for me?" Begging, trying to pout a little.
"Fine." She tosses her hair over her shoulder, bounding down the steps and heads into the car.
We're headed to the Vega household tonight to celebrate "Thanksalotgiving", a made up holiday where we all get together and eat junk, the week before thanksgiving. Jade has been protesting about it, but I know a part of her wants to go, seeing as she dressed up and took her time getting ready.
As we're driving, nightfall seems to come glimmer, and a lone person was walking, about ten blocks away from Tori's.
I slow the car down realizing who it is.
"Hey, Cat! Why are you walking out here? Come on, we're headed to Tori's too."
Cat looks up from her position, gives me a half smile, and climbs in.
Jade leans over to me, "Do you always pick up girls off the sidewalk at night?"
"Do you ever realize that what you're accusing me of is ridiculous?"
She slouches back in the chair, and I watch Cat enter the car. Her hair seems a bit less bright, and her facial expressions are there to match.
The quiet Cat evokes a ton of questions in my mind, but before I can even begin to ask, Jade beats me to it.
"Cat, what's wrong?" She's always had a soft spot for Cat, no matter how annoyed she may seem.
"Nothing." One word: spoken softly and entirely used to avoid the truth.
Jade's glance shifts to my own eyes, and we obviously have enough cause for concern – especially when she didn't respond, "What's that supposed to mean?"
The rest of the ride to the Vega house was silent, I had no clue what to expect from this quiet, reserved side of Cat.
"Andre! Robbie!" With enough energy to make me and my girlfriend jump, Cat rushes out of the back seat, like nothing ever happened prior to it.
"Hey, what about me?" Rex asks, as he, Robbie and Andre are walking up the Vega's driveway, spotting the sprinting 90-pound ball of energy bounding up to them.
"Beck," Jade whispers in my ear, "Pretend that never happened. For Cat's sake." I nod slowly; convinced that Jade knew something I did not.
Walking to the house with Jade's hand in mine, Mrs. Vega opens the door cheerfully beckoning us inside, hands full of plastic cups and plates.
"Let me help you with that, ma'm." I take the things from her hands, and she looks grateful. I hear Jade huff at this and she walks away.
What a great help.
I contribute more by grabbing Andre and setting out some other things for Mrs. Vega – all the girls were in the living room talking girl about something or other. I'm vaguely sure Robbie was the lead contributor. (Pretty sure Trina or Tori was talking shades of hair color. Yawn.)
As soon as Mr. Vega walks in the door, hands full with pizza and pop, everyone scrambles over to the dinner table, where a feast made for junk food kings is set.
"Okay, well, I want to thank you all for coming tonight, for our first ever thanks-a-lot-giving; so I think we should go around the table saying what we're thankful for – no repeats! – before we dig in."
Everyone nods his or her heads in agreement; although I hear Jade muttering, "what is this, first grade?"
"Er, um, I'll go first. I'm thankful for my family, even though Trina drives me insane, and I'm thankful for my friends."
"I'm thankful for clothes and my amazing singing voice!"
"I'm thankful for my buddy Rex here."
"I'm thankful that I'm a puppet and I don't have to be thankful for anything."
"I'm thankful that Tori invited us all together here."
"I'm thankful that Beck picked me up." Quiet, still bright voice. Stop, what?
"I'm thankful for my lovely girlfriend."
"I'm thankful that I'm the last one saying this stupid thing so we can just eat already."
With that Jade grabs a slice of pizza and bites it, then looks at Tori with a carless look on her face.
"Uh, dig in everyone."
I'm sitting there, grabbing polite portions, scowling at Jade, when I bump my elbow accidentally into Cat.
"Aren't you hungry?" I notice her plate, an array of celery, cucumber sticks, and two sushi roll pieces.
She gives me a strange look, looks down at her plate, then back up at me.
"Hmm? I've been eating fast, haven't I? Sorry." She looks sheepish, glancing around bashfully.
"No, Cat, you need to eat more than that!" Andre piles a bunch of things onto her plate, and I hear her sigh, almost under her breath.
"I'm not hungry." 7 pairs of eyebrows raise.
"Oh, come on Cat, its thanksalotgiving, you have to stuff your face!" Trina chimes in, I'm surprised she didn't have some selfish comment to back it up.
"No, that's okay…" Refusal. Cat needs a sugar rush to be Cat like.
"Oh, come on, she's so fat, she doesn't need it." Rex chimes in. I think it came it out sarcastically, but bang, Cat shot out of the chair quicker than anyone I've ever seen and bounded up the stairs.
Everyone froze, unsure of what to do. Tori stood up first, followed by Jade.
My head whipped to Rex and Robbie's seats, glaring daggers at them.
"He didn't mean it! It was a joke!" Robbie says, putting his unused hand up in protest.
"She's like eighty pounds, she needs to get a reality check." Rex says, following the statement up.
I bang on the table with my fist on the table, the pair, Andre and Trina jump in response.
"Grow up." I stand up and walk off in the direction of Cat, Tori and Jade.
Navigating my way up the stairs, I hear Cat's sniffling and my girlfriend's voice.
Knocking lightly on the doorframe, Jade and Tori look up at me, as Cat keeps her face covered, head in hands.
"What are you doing up here? Do you always follow other girls into their bedrooms?" Jade's comment only made me angrier; I only noticed that this was apparently Tori's room now.
"Cat, are you okay?" I get down onto her level; she's sitting on the bed, I'm crouched down in front of her.
"Beck." She just says my name and cries harder. My heart sinks in sympathy.
Looking back and forth between Jade and Tori, my body language asks them, basically, 'what the hell happened?'
Both of them shrug; Tori's face emits pity, while Jade's just looks a mix of jealousy and confusion.
"Cat, talk to me. Why are you crying?"
She's still crying, but her voice chokes out "R-rex."
I sigh and lift her chin up to look at me.
"Listen to me. You are stick skinny, so tiny. Rex was being sarcastic, he didn't mean it; he was trying to be funny and failing as usual."
She shakes her head, disbelieving.
"You're kidding me, right?" I nearly started tickling her, but figured I could cheer her up better in a different way.
"Hey!" I pick her up with easy and swing her over my shoulder and walk around the room.
"Beck! Stop!" She's pounding on my back, but laughing at the same time.
"But Cat, why haven't I fallen over from the weight of you? Why do I feel like I just picked up a kitten instead of a person?"
"Beck!"
"Admit it. You are NOT fat."
"Fine, I'm not."
I flip her back over and set her down gently, and she's still laughing. I ruffle her hair that's already messy and she sticks her tongue out at me.
Tori's voice brings me back to reality. "See, Cat? I wish I were as skinny as you. Don't ever think otherwise. Lets go back downstairs."
My girlfriend takes my hand and pulls me the opposite direction from the steps, waiting until we hear them join everyone else at the table.
"WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?" She yells, her whole face turning red.
Shit. "What do you mean? I was trying to help!"
"Oh, right. Help. More like take my best friend and flirt your way out of a bad situation." She was fuming; I'm shocked that her ears didn't start emitting smoke.
I put my hands on her shoulders, trying to calm her.
"Jade. Listen to me. I just wanted to cheer her up. She can't go thinking she's fat when she is bone skinny. She was crying, she needed to be helped."
"She could suck it up. She's Cat, she just needed something to remind her of lala land, and I could've done it, not someone's hot boyfriend." I was getting more and more irritated at Jade's insensitivity, but Cat was Jade's best friend, so I just needed to admit defeat.
"Okay, Jade, I'm sorry I helped." I look her square in my eyes, trying my hardest not to speak with sarcasm, though I was right on edge.
Instead, I pull her into my arms and kiss her, "Love you, Jade. Always."
She visibly relaxes at this, grin arising, "You better," she says pointedly, before whispering, "Love you too, Beck."
We walk downstairs, hand in hand and things don't seem to be too bad back at the table. Everyone's eating, smiling; I can tell Rex/Robbie apologized to Cat, and I'm thankful I didn't have to pop the head off that puppet and make Robbie devastated.
"So, guys, I have an idea!" Trina pipes up, and everyone groans.
She pouts, but continues; "I think we should have a secret Santa for everyone here."
Shocking, Trina actually came up with a good idea.
"Uh, well. I feel insane to agree, but Trina's idea is actually something we should do." Andre's tone acts as shocked as the rest of everyone at this odd epiphany.
"Rules. Tori and Trina cannot choose each other, because they're related. Beck and Jade can't choose each other either cause they're in a relationship and already going to get something for each other regardless. And no choosing your own name and buying for yourself. And Rex, I'm sorry, but it just doesn't make sense to buy you something."
"Woah woah woah, hold on. I can't pick Beck? What kind of discrimination is this?" Here she goes again.
"Jade, it's okay. I'm still getting you a Christmas gift."
"NO! That's wrong I can't even pick you. That takes a portion out of the secret. Now you know I won't have your name and there goes the fun of guessing."
I sigh and stand up, going into the kitchen to get a drink while she argues it out with everyone else.
"Hi." A small voice rises from the floor.
"Cat? Whatcha doing down there?"
She shrugs. "Acting like a Cat. Kind of hiding."
I sit down next to her, "You know, I don't like you being sad."
"I'm sorry Beck. I disappoint everyone." She sighs, like she has the weight of the world on her shoulders.
I chuckle, "You don't disappoint me. I just care about your well-being. I'm not used to sad Cat. I wish I could help you."
She smiles, bright Cat flickers on like a light switch, "Beck! You do help me! You try to make me happy!"
"Its okay to be sad sometimes, Cat, but please just let your friends in sometimes, we worry."
She shrugs. "No one can help me with my problems like these. It's impossible."
Before I can refute that statement, Tori shows up.
"There you two are. Here, two choices left, pick." A hat is thrust in our faces. Cat picks first, tongue peeking out the side of her mouth as she pulls out the tiny slip of paper. "Your turn Beck!"
I pull mine out in zero seconds flat and unfold.
Cat.
Coincidence? Something tells me no by the way Tori's grinning at me, but who knows. Maybe she thinks I picked her name.
"Beck. Get up." Jade's snarling, tapping her toes at me.
"What?"
"We're leaving. Come on." For once, I follow her, saying my goodbyes as Jade literally pushes me out the door.
I drive back to the Silver Streak, and as soon as we go in, we just sit there.
JUST. SITTING. THERE.
After five minutes of sitting back, tapping my foot in annoyance, I bring it up.
"Jade. Why are we just sitting here? We could've stayed at the party."
"No we couldn't have. You don't understand, we were being victimized by those so called 'friends' of ours." Crazy, much?
"Really, Jade? They just wanted to do something fun for Christmas."
"Santa has nothing to do with Christmas, he's a false idol, and an awful one at that. He promotes obesity and break-ins. No one should have that to look to as an idol."
"You're going to criticize a jolly guy who brings presents to children?"
"He doesn't even exist!"
"Why do you have to be so cynical about it? It's just a tradition."
"It's stupid!"
"Jade." I close my eyes and sit back.
"Okay, fine. Lets just watch something on TV and go to sleep."
When clicking on the TV, there were already specials playing Christmas specials; Jade just clicked through to find some sort of classic band documentary.
She passed out far earlier than I did, so I turned off the television and crawled onto the couch next to her, my mind running a million miles a minute.
I close my eyes; there flashes Cat walking alone down the street. The next, she's bawling on Tori's bed. Then on the kitchen floor.
Something was off, completely wrong, and I was going to figure out how to help.
That's all for now; I promise the plot thickens with the upcoming chapter. I have been writing this story since early November; I had no idea that there were going to be secret Santa exchanges on "A Christmas Tori" – oh well! Please review and keep posted for the next update!
- iHearU