Hi! I'm Bells are Still Ringing, I've been on fanfiction for awhile now, and have written stories, but never for the Victorious section, so I thought I'd give it a shot! I love to write about minor characters because I can expand so much on them :) For instance, this story is about Tara Ganz, who likes her right? But this story is about her, and I'll hope that you'll stick with it for awhile despite your hatred. Rated T for language. Without further ado, enjoy!
Summary: Tara Ganz is a horrible person. Infamous for her ear-splitting singing and her snappy attitude; most genuinely good people tend to avoid her, fearing the sharp tongue of her 'friend' Hayley and the social destruction that she could cause them. But there's more than that to this untalented girl. There's always more than meets the eye.
More Than Meets the Eye
Chapter 1
"Tara!"
The sharp, shrill voice of Hayley Ferguson cut through the wails echoing through the large house. Hayley slammed her hand down over the arm of the screeching girl, her hand gripping her thin arm and holding on tight, her eyebrows knitted together in a furious, impatient expression, her eyes containing a new kind of irritation and rage inside of them.
"Tara! Are you listening to me? You did not even turn your head in my direction!" The brunette snapped. "I told you to get the rinse water! And hurry about it too! Trina isn't going to be this docile forever!"
Tara quickly swung her head in her friend's direction, her blonde hair swishing against her ears. "Yes, sorry Hayley." She apologized quickly, getting to her feet to wipe the drying blood off of her hands and onto her tight blue jeans. She winced to think about what kind of reaction she'd get from Hayley if she'd seen her doing this.
"Tara! What the hell do you think you're doing? Do you know anything about being sanitary? You do not- I will repeat, not wipe some stranger's mouth blood onto your perfectly clean jeans! You could stain them and ruin them! Who'd want to be around a 17-year old girl with a blood stain on her pants! Ew! As if! Now go throw off those jeans and toss them in the wash, find something like a mini-skirt, that'll suit your profile much better anyways."
Tara cringed as she thought about how accurate her impersonation of Hayley would be. Maybe I could go into acting since my singing career isn't quite in order. She recalled her latest visit to Karaoke Dokey, how humiliating and depressing it was, as the audience screamed and cheered for that Tori Vega while she hadn't received a simple pat on the back, or a word of "Good job" from the competitors. As she had stood there, taking in the humility of losing, she had felt tears tug at her eyes, threatening to take over full force. She had, of course, fought them hard, and in a short time, they were gone, and she wasn't threatened by anyone seeing her like that anymore.
"Tara, hurry!" Hayley shrieked from where she stood in an awkward position, struggling to keep Tori Vega's older sister, Trina, under control.
"Well sorry!" Tara replied sarcastically, venom dripping from her voice. While her and Hayley's friendship wasn't exactly… well, friendly most of the time, it was all Tara had. And she knew that if she let Hayley see her true interior, she'd lose everything that she had worked so hard to achieve.
Her tan hands fumbled around the counter, searching for the so-called special water mixed with special chemicals to help Trina in her current situation. Squinting her brown eyes, Tara struggled to find the water for this hour. Eventually, she came across it, picking it up with glory and tossing it to Hayley who snagged it out of the air with ease.
"Thank you!" Hayley seemed to have trouble hissing out her appreciation. She held Trina down skillfully and proceeded to tear her jaws apart to dump that water down inside, much to the older Vega's dislike. Tara guessed there might be a reason why she was the star-athlete at school.
Tara sighed as she plopped down on the couch. She should be helping, but it seemed that Hayley had it handled, sure the girl would be angry with her, but would most likely get over it quickly. She never seemed to hold too long of a grudge as she had other drama to seek out.
Capturing this moment for herself, the blonde thought back to her horrible actions this day, and the day before as well, she hadn't had time to sit down peacefully in the past week. She thought back to that boy, André was it? He was a handsome student who she was immediately attracted to. Hayley had told her that she had to serve as a wing-woman while she went after Beck, so Tara decided that she'd flirt with him a bit, surely Hayley would approve.
What a bitch I am. She thought crudely, remembering to how she would respond to the things he said. "That's hot!" she remembered herself stating loudly. A slut too. All I am is a bitchy slut. She felt tears rushing to her eyes beyond her control, and one slipped away, sliding down her cheek and dripping off of her chin. Hurriedly, she wiped it away, holding back the emotions coiled inside of her. Now's not the time for self-pity. She reminded herself. Not now, not ever.
"Let me go!" Trina screamed. With a shriek of annoyance, Hayley jumped away from the brunette, her hair tangled into a mess, and her eyes crying bloody murder.
"When do we get to leave?" Tara groaned, drumming her nails along the rough exterior of her jeans. She had changed clothes since they'd left Karaoke Dokey, she knew that babysitting meant getting messy, and she wasn't willing to let the most expensive piece in her closet become ruined, so she'd picked out her favorite pair of pants, some long comfortable jeans. Hayley had disapproved. The friends had argued for ages before Tara had agreed to let Hayley pick her top, which happened to be a very low-cut pale blue tank top accompanied with a violet push-up bra.
Tara hated the way she had to dress. If she wore anything less revealing Hayley would casually avoid her as much as possible at school. Nonetheless, the way that Tara dressed now earned her plenty of guys, Hayley too. Their school wasn't about true talent, after all, it was their high school, which happened to be mainly based on looks. Tara wasn't sure if any of the kids there were very friendly at all, but then again, she'd only gotten to know one cliché in the school, where really there was so many, and maybe some of them could be real friends.
Ding-dong
As the doorbell sounded, Hayley gave a screech of joy. "Answer it! Answer it!" she wailed.
Tara leapt to her feet, sprinting to the door and grasping the golden knob. She opened it, relieved to see Tori and André standing in the doorway. Tori was wearing an unmistakable smirk of pride on her face as she saw the scene before her.
"Glad to see you took care of things." She said casually, stepping inside with André following.
"Not to our choice." Hayley grumbled, picking herself up and running her fingers through her hair in attempt to brush it down.
"But to your challenge," Tori said with a smile. "You're free to go home," She added, walking inside and kicking off her heels to plop down on the couch.
Tara couldn't help but frown at how smug Tori was being. Then again, she probably did deserve this. "Come on." Hayley grunted. "I'll drop you off at your house." The brunette flipped her keys in her hand and headed down to the silver car waiting for them in the driveway. Tara got in shot-gun silently sitting and fiddling with her fingers while Hayley started it up and cruised along the street.
Tara sighed as she crossed her arms. Tomorrow was school again, and that didn't happen to be her favorite place.