Lessons in Respect

Disclaimer: Don't own Victorious.

A/N: This was meant to be a oneshot, but the content of what it involves promotes more than that, however it's not a full-fledged story at the same time, so it's a short story right in the middle of it. Of course it revolves around Tori, but it's something I've not seen really done before.

Chapter 1 (Disrespect and Distraction)

Tori hunched over her AP Chemistry textbook, scratching her head with the eraser of a number two pencil. She had a few more months left of her senior year and needed to bring up her grade in science, which was appalling to her. Somehow, much to the shock and dismay of her family, she managed to let it slip.

It wasn't anyone's fault but her own, she put too much focus on theatre and singing, influenced by her friends, that she neglected her passion for science. Of course, there were a lot of things she knew she'd been neglecting, and she was beginning to grow tired of it. Her dream was originally to be a biologist, and her childhood dream had been to be a veterinarian.

Her best friend Courtney, she'd neglected since joining Hollywood Arts, and that was the girl she did everything with including sharing the same dream. Of course, Courtney's elder brother, Sinjin, was now engaged to her sister, so the two were trying to reconnect. Then there was t `he boy she was working on a science project with when she first met Andre-it was the one time she strayed from working with Courtney on a project because she had a crush on the guy. Now, it was more recently, she'd ran into him again and started talking about how their lives were going, and she suggested they go out on a date. He turned her down, primarily because she 'changed'.

Changed how, she wondered? Why wouldn't he take her out? So what if she focused more on a hobby than anything, she still thought she was the same old girl she used to be. Then, after some time of contemplation, she was starting to see how she'd been letting her friends treat her family, and it was slowly beginning to piss her off that she was allowing them to walk all over them! They thought it was okay because she never said anything, surely that was it.

Tori licked a finger and turned the page in her book. "Concept of chemical imbalances in the human brain…" All this cramming wasn't so good either, since she was beginning to stress out and grow increasingly frustrated at even the smallest of instances. "Changing attitudes or behaviors through strenuous testing…" She never believed much in the whole 'give a treat for good behavior' trick, but at the same time, there was solid proof that it ended up working. It all had to do with the Serotonin in the human brain.

This project was assigned to her by her professor, and she'd have to write an essay about the chemicals in the human brain and how people acted to different tests. What annoyed her was it seemed more to do with psychology than chemistry, but the two did go hand in hand much like science and math. "I can't believe I'm failing this stuff. That's not me…" Trina was the athlete like their father, but she was the one with the firmer intellect. Like her mom, who was a nurse that worked seemingly endless shifts, Tori still wanted to go into something similar.

She understood the human body, she understood the chemical makeup and everything. Science was her thing like sports was Trina's! How embarrassing it was for her to be failing the one subject that should be the highest.

Just then the front door flew open. She jumped at Jade's voice and leaned against her hand, propping her elbow on the table while slowly furrowing her brow at the friends. "Tori! Get the cards out!" Jade declared. "We're playing cards now!" Her eyebrow rose and her head rolled towards the right.

"I'm busy guys."

"You've been studying all week," Beck remarked, "It's time to take a break." She was taking adequate breaks. For every hour she studied, she took a ten minute break each thirty minutes. "Besides, it's our weekly game night."

"This is important."

Jade grabbed the book from the table and slammed it shut. Tori's hair fell before her slowly widening eyes. Her lips dipped into a frown and her left hand fingers slowly tapped her knee. "Not more important than game night. Besides, you're already passing every class, smartass."

"I'm borderline on science. That's an issue for me."

"Oh whatever, so what if you make one D. You're making As in theatre, a B in Math, who cares if you have a D?" Normally this wouldn't be that problematic, but that was assuming a C or a D was in one of the grades that didn't have a big tie in to her ego or pride.

"I do?" It was her favorite subject they were talking about! "You guys don't get it-"

"You got to make time for friends," Robbie chortled. Tori straightened herself and lowered her right hand to the surface of the table. Did she not make time for them? Considering how they treated her family, constantly calling her mother lazy or saying how talentless Trina was, she was pretty sure she let them have free reign for long enough. Now she was asking for some alone time so she could study, and they weren't getting it?

"I have a test coming up, plus a paper I need to write on human behavior and the neurotoxins of the brain."

"Bah! When are you ever going to use that crap anyway?"

"Do I hear your friends down there, Tori?!" Trina's voice echoed from upstairs, giving her little time to react. She listened to her sister's footsteps making their way down. Trina herself had been studying for one of her college courses and did not want to be disturbed, so she was well aware that if her sister was getting involved, she would be equally annoyed.

Tori watched her friends roll their eyes and moved her lips into a flat line. Her eyes dipped to the textbook in Jade's hand. Her body was beginning to heat up as she fought off the temptation to tear that book away from her friend. "Who asked you?" Jade inquired of Trina. "We're only here to play poker like always, this isn't any of your business."

"The hell it's not." Trina swept her hair over her shoulder and narrowed her eyes. "Tori is studying and needs to write a paper, she cannot do anything with you guys tonight."

"Girl no one cares for your opinion," Rex piped. Tori slid her gaze to the puppet on Robbie's arm, and immediately her mind was debating the various chemical imbalances that would lead to Robbie being so devoted to a toy-and pretending it was real.

Jade put her hands to her hips, "He's right. No one likes you, so go back up to your cave and do whatever it was you were doing." Trina moved her hand to her chest and Tori glanced back to Jade. Her lips thinned further as her eyelids slid down halfway. "You can't make us leave."

"Excuse me, but who do you think lives here? When Dad or Mom are not home, I'm the one in charge. So get that through your head. Tori's friends or not-if I tell you to leave-then you are going to leave."

Jade smirked at the woman and sat down on the couch, throwing her heels up onto the coffee table. Tori exhaled slowly and looked down to the assignment given to her by her teacher. "We don't mean anything by it," Andre assured, "We just think it's unfair that Tori hasn't been spending enough time with us lately."

"She did say she was busy-and get your feet off the coffee table please. Mom bought that and doesn't want it scuffed up."

"Mrs. Vega bought the table?" Beck questioned, "With her own money?" Tori bowed her head and moved her hands to her temples. Her focus and concentration was gone, and once more her friends were disrespecting her sister.

Why did she even allow it to continue? Approval? That's what Lane said, that she must have been so concerned with approval of her new friends that she just let them say and do whatever with her family without consequence, and now it had just gotten out of hand and she'd never been able to think of a thing to say.

"I didn't know Mrs. Vega worked," Cat chimed happily.

Rex laughed and Tori lifted her head at the sound of Robbie's voice coming through the puppet. "I always thought she was too busy being lazy and screwing men that weren't her husband." That wasn't entirely true. Yes she had the affair with Gary, but that ended a year ago. Holly and David even reconciled over it.

"That ended guys," Tori muttered, "I told you she wasn't having that affair anymore. Get with the program here, people."

"I still don't believe she works." The door opened and Holly walked into the house, adjusting her purse strap on her shoulder. She paused to look at Tori's friends, raising a disappointed eyebrow. Tori's head fell to the table and a groan drifted from her lips. "Speaking of whom!"

Holly pointed to the friends and looked to Tori. "Victoria, I thought you were supposed to be studying."

"I was, mom…" Her voice was dripping with annoyance. Holly put her hands to her hips while Jade motioned to her, half assuming the annoyance was directed towards Holly.

"Look, she's even annoyed with you guys. As always." She rolled her eyes and lifted her head up, sighing heavily at Jade. If these people really valued or respected her friendship, they would listen to her when she told them she was busy. Right? So why the hell were they not leaving her alone? "Just leave things be, we're playing cards like usual."

"I already said no," Tori growled. She could feel the fire burning in her chest. Cat gave her a sorrowful look, as if understanding her annoyance. Tori pushed herself up from the table and walked to Jade, grabbing the textbook and pushing Jade's feet off the coffee table. "Please keep your feet off that. Please?" Just then, Beck sat down beside Jade and promptly put his feet on the coffee table as if he hadn't heard her. "Beck! Come on!"

"What?"

"Feet! Off! Now!" She was reminded of behavior conditioning, and a lightbulb went off in her head. Her fingers grasped the edge of the heavy textbook and her lips lifted to a small grin. If her teacher needed a report on whether or not human behavior could be modified, maybe she could kill two birds with one stone. She needed to teach her friends respect, and to see if they even valued her friendship at all, and she could easily get some research done to write that paper while studying at the same time.

As Beck removed his feet from the coffee table, the others started to surround them. Tori lifted her hand to her bangs and moved them over the right side of her head. "All right guys, if you don't think that I've been spending enough time with you…" Trina and Holly both looked at her with concern and disapproval, which was to be expected, as she hadn't quite formulated how she would be going about this. "I'll think of a way to involve you guys in something, but like I said-I have to get stuff done tonight. Poker can wait."

The friends all grumbled and protested, but ceased when David entered the home minutes later. The man was in full uniform and did not appear happy that Tori's friends were over and distracting her from her homework.

Needless to say, they left soon after, and Tori was able to return to her homework while planning out some research beneficial to multiple people. She wanted to see how far their friendship and attention went, if they were capable of respecting her and her family, and also she wanted to find out if she could apply them to her science paper in any way at all.

Yes, she'd make ample time for them-as her own lab rats. They used her and treated her family like a doormat, it was time to turn things around.

So like I said, this won't be long, probably 10 chapters or less. Since it's originally a oneshot. I don't have the other parts finished but this is the start. Hopefully it's intriguing thus far. Tell me, what are your thoughts?