When Worlds Collide

Disclaimer: I own nothing

A/N:

Chapter 1 (Reality Hits Hard)

Tori hadn't a care in the world, walking down the corridors of Hollywood Arts towards the auditorium for a new performance she was going to start rehearsing for. Hollywood Arts was to her what it had always been, an escape. When times were hard, this was where she'd be-singing or dancing to forget all her worries.

Today she felt almost like humming the theme song of American Dad, for the sun was indeed shining and she had a huge smile plastered across her face. All she could think about was the play she was about to do.

The play wasn't much, just about a boy trying to find his lost dog in the wilderness. She managed to convince the writers to add the part of a loyal, supportive female friend so that she could have something close to the lead. So many things worked out in her favor here at this school.

"You're too happy," a voice said from behind, catching her off guard. She turned and saw Cat looking at her sympathetically. "I know I can be blissful and happy, but I also know how to be happy to cover something up…" Tori's eyebrows rose and she folded her arms. Cat walked forward, furrowing her brow. "When are you going to talk about it, Tori?"

"Talk about what?"

"The divorce. Your dad moving out."

"What's there to talk about?" She swept the hair from her face and glanced to the side, feeling a painful surge in her chest. "My life's going great. Dad's out of the house, my crazy sister's been out."

Trina moved out of the house a few months ago and took everything with her. The last anyone heard, she had a job somewhere but wouldn't say anything about it. She essentially dropped off the face of the earth; and while Tori did miss her, she covered that up. Her friends didn't like Trina, so she continued her charade about how her sister was too crazy and she was glad to have her out.

"I know you're lying to us when you say you're happy about everything going on, Tori." Cat's eyes narrowed into slits and the air intensified around them. It wasn't as though she was happy about what was going on, she just didn't think there was anything worth mentioning. "We're not stupid either, we know shit is going bad."

"It isn't important. Not like this rehearsal I'm about to be late for." Cat moved her hands to her hips and Tori turned around, pulling her backpack shoulder straps tight over her shoulder. Walking away, she felt a dark cloud being left behind and could practically feel Cat's judging eyes burning into her.

She inhaled and blew out a heavy breath of air while returning the focus of her mind to the play. It was better that way. "Tori!" Cat's voice made her freeze up and she glanced over her head. "We know about the lawsuit too. Jade was wanting to talk to you about that, see how you were doing. Maybe talk to her after rehearsals?"

"What lawsuit?" She chuckled nervously and averted her gaze. The hospital her mother worked for as a registered nurse was quickly falling under fire these days, and among the many malpractice lawsuits had surfaced some former workers that had been fired or told to cover things up. One of these was a nurse that had taken blood from Tori, the cameras had found a girl with long dark hair and dark clothing breaking into the lab to steal the packs of blood the nurse kept refilling.

"She's in trouble too, Tori. Just talk to her. Hell, talk to us." Cat threw her arms into the air. "We're your friends, but it's like we don't even know you." Tori scoffed and continued on her way, slowly shaking her head. Cat didn't know the half of how true her statement was.

The dawn is breaking, a light shining through. I'm open, you're closed…

Tori stopped as she turned the corner, listening to soft piano music coming from an open doorway. She approached slowly, her fingers sliding down the painted blue door frame. Her eyes closed and she leaned her head against the wall, listening as someone in the room sang Howie Day's Collide.

Even the best fall down sometimes. Even the stars seem to shine, out of the back you fall in time. Somehow find, you and I collide.

She raised her head, pursing her lips and looking over her shoulder to see if Cat had followed her. Her heart was racing now, and she tried to think on the events spinning around in her head. It was hard to focus, hard to breathe; and all she wanted to do was forget everything. Hell, the whole reason she said yes to going to Hollywood Arts was just to escape and forget

The song brought a memory to her which caused her heart to skip and dance within her chest. Her eyes filled with tears and she opened her eyes partially, sighing gently as she whispered the words to the song.

As the singer and pianist finished their song and started to move on to another, she pushed herself to the auditorium.

"You're late," said Mr. Sikowitz. She hung her head and glanced to the side, seeing her friends all standing nearby watching her. She put on a strong face, not wanting them to see her upset.

"Sorry, I got a little distracted on the way here. It won't happen again." She glanced at Beck and her breathing grew still. It never left her mind, since the day she first saw Beck, how much he resembled him. Such an uncanny resemblance drew her to him, even though it drew the ire of his girlfriend. Even after all these years she could still hear Jade's utterings under her breath.

What do you even see in her? She isn't the slightest bit interesting.

Still the bullying wasn't so bad when it was only one person. Now that she was a part of the popular crowd it didn't matter so much because people left her alone.

Staring at Beck, she imagined the transformation. Light, sun-kissed skin and flush brown hair framing warm, hazel green eyes. "Hey!" Jade's voice shook her away from her daydream and she smiled nervously as Jade snapped her fingers. "What are you staring at my boyfriend for, don't you have a play to rehearse for?"

Jade was the queen of the popular crowd, an embodiment of all the girls Tori used to envy. She was queen once, but it was of something much different, something the friends she had now would probably find boring. She had a new life now, she was happy and didn't want to be picked on anymore.

"Sorry Jade, sorry Beck." Jade scowled while Beck retained a smile. She heard the woman beside him mutter something about having thought Tori was over the guy. She closed her eyes and spoke with a hushed tone. "I guess you still remind me of him."

"Who?" Beck asked. She froze, her head raising up and muscles tensing. She hadn't realized she spoke her thought out loud, loud enough to be heard.

"Nothing, no one, sorry." She turned away, looking at the stage. In the past, it had been other things that kept her mind preoccupied, like the man Beck so frequently reminded her of. Usually she only thought of him when triggered by something; and that trigger had to have been the song.

Now as one memory faded, so returned the memory of how her sister left them, and then their father took off. Maybe, just maybe he'd come back when he realized looking for Trina was futile. Thanks to the divorce, all she had left was her mother, and it was killing her inside. Her friends, her old friends had always been there for her when she needed them; and now she needed them, but didn't have them. The friends that she did have, she never truly shared anything with them; so they were right if they felt angry or baffled over why she never talked about anything other than performances and things related to Hollywood Arts.

After all, HA was her life now. She'd given everything else up when she became a part of the popular crowd. Yet, despite having it all, she still felt as though she were missing something.

Shaking away the thoughts, Tori straightened her poise and walked up to the stage where the other actors were. Near the stage was a small cage with two gerbils, one running around on a large wheel and the other eating. She smiled at them, letting her mind wander to an older time. "Who's gerbils?" She asked aloud, to no one at all. One of the actors looked over sheepishly and raised their hand.

"Mine. I just got them from the pet store and I've been so attached." When Sikowitz crossed his arms and glared, the actor ducked his head. "It took the better part of the evening to convince Mr. Sikowitz to let them stay for rehearsals."

"Be careful when you move them around in that cage. Throw a blanket over them and don't shake it too much, I'd hate for you to lose one because the cage was bouncing around." The actor's eyes rose and he nodded fervently.

"I'll keep that in mind!" He tucked a finger over his lip and a worried look came over him. "My car can be a little rickety, and the road home is a mess…"

"If you'd like, I could take them to your house for you."

"Would you?"

"Sure." She felt curious eyes upon her and looked over her shoulder to see her friends staring half-expectantly. Whatever it was they expected, she couldn't know.

"I appreciate it. Doesn't seem like you to do that for anyone outside your inner circle." She did a double take and looked back, half offended and half confused. Had she become so wrapped up in this life that she'd forgotten to care about other people? She didn't think so, but then her sister did accuse her of becoming 'so vain' before moving away.

"Well just for your information, I love animals." She flashed a toothy grin and the actor stared back skeptically. "Used to walk the dogs in my neighborhood when I was younger, you know. Also was a dog-sitter."

"Really? There's a surprise. Here most people think all you care about are your performances. Even your friends think it." He shrugged and she bit down on her lip. "Isn't it practically all you ever talk about?"

"I…"

"Just saying, even your friends don't know what interests you outside this school, but that's not important. We should get rehearsals started…"

As he walked off, she looked towards her friends with a furrowed brow. She had to wonder if they'd been talking about her behind her back, but that was hardly a huge concern. As the sound of the gerbil's wheel spinning echoed in her ear, she turned her head sideways and began to lose herself once more in her thoughts.

After the rehearsal and helping to take the guy's pets home safely, she went home, having forgotten that Jade still needed to talk to her about the something. She made her way to her bedroom, dropped her backpack alongside her bed and moved for her desk.

She turned her laptop on and smiled at the background picture. It was a younger version of herself standing shoulder to shoulder with a girl with long blonde hair and glasses on her face. Her heart rose and her lips spread into a wide grin as she studied the trophy the two held in the center.

"Courtney," She sighed. She'd missed Courtney's visit to Hollywood Arts some time ago. She was Sinjin's sister, but strangely neither she nor Sinjin ever spoke to Tori about much else. It was partially her fault; the minute her new friends deemed Sinjin to be too weird and disturbing, they pushed him away and she started acting as they did in order to please them.

Perhaps this made Courtney not want to see her during that time she visited Hollywood Arts. Whatever reason the girl visited, Sinjin never told her. Her friendship with Courtney went back many years, and while Tori never thought the friendship ended, the girl stopped talking to her once she left Sherwood to go to Hollywood Arts.

"I wonder if she still has that butterfly collection we were working on." She tilted her head and pursed her lips, thinking back to the time she and Courtney would scour parks and hills in pursuit of all kinds of butterflies.

Courtney's brother preferred rock collections as a primary collection, but he had all sorts of collections, from basic and normal to the most obscure. She hadn't meant to run off in terror when he showed her his gum collection on the locker, but her friends would have been watching and expecting her to rush off rather than stay and talk about it.

She never was great friends with him, since it was Courtney that had been her best friend. Sinjin was often around, protective of his little sister-and by extension he was protective of Tori as well. What he was up to these days, Tori didn't know; since he was Trina's age and no longer in the area.

"Hey Tori?" Jade's voice startled her, causing her to slam her laptop shut and leap away from the desk.

Her eyes went wide and she shot a glare at Jade. "What? Why are you up here? Mom let you in?" Jade raised an eyebrow and started to step in, looking around at the bedroom.

Tori's bedroom essentially mirrored that of a nature fanatic. Her walls were green, covered with a type of wallpaper that had vines all along the wall, while flowers appeared along the baseboards and leaves were painted along the top. In each corner, Tori had potted plants hanging from the ceiling, and at her bedroom window was a small box on the outside with soil and live flowers.

Her bed's comforter was blue with various ameba floating on it, while on her bed were pillows stuffed in pillowcases with animal pictures.

"Get out!" Before Jade had a chance to see much of her room, she raced forward and shoved the girl into the hallway. None of her friends had ever been in her bedroom, and none of them were ever going to be. "You can't be up here." She closed the door behind her and turned to see Jade dusting herself off and moving her hands to her waist.

"Okay, I'll forgive you for shoving me." Jade's eyes narrowed and the girl walked to the steps with a huff. "I wanted to talk to you about this whole lawsuit thing that's going on."

"I try not to think much about it." Tori followed her down the steps, hesitant and filled with anxiety. "Cat said you were in some kind of trouble?"

"Well yeah, I mean my dad's having to pay a huge ass fine and I just narrowly escaped having to go to Juvie." Jade let out a sigh and bowed her head. "That's the kind of trouble I'm in. I just wanted to know how you're dealing with things."

"Since when do you care?"

"I don't know, since you haven't told any of us how you've been feeling." Jade whirled around and raised an eyebrow. "I might be mean, but not stupid. Your sister's gone, and for as much as you talked shit about her like the rest of us-she was still your sister…it's not normal for someone to act all happy like everything's fine when their sister abandons them, you know."

"So? None of you guys liked Trina, so-"

"So what? You shouldn't like her either?" She hesitated and looked away while Jade walked towards her. "Then this divorce. I know that's got to be bugging you, especially since your dad's moved to who-knows-where." Jade stopped, curling her eyebrows together and leaning forward. "Do you know where he is? I mean, you haven't told us about that either."

"No. I think he went to try and find Trina."

"Try and find her? You mean you don't know where your sister is?"

"It's not like she's missing." Tori closed her eyes and brushed past Jade. "She just doesn't seem to want to be found. She hasn't told us where she is, just that she's at college somewhere. She wants nothing to do with us, apparently."

"And that's not affecting you?"

"What? No." She was still afraid of letting her friends know anything about her or how she felt. At least, she didn't think they'd approve or accept certain things. Jade scoffed while Tori moved further into the living room.

Before Jade could say much else, a frustrated scream echoed in the house, followed by the sound of a plate shattering on the ground. Tori's gaze flew over to the kitchen, where her mother was standing over a broken plate, burying her face into her trembling hands and sobbing into them.

"Momma?" She ran over to Holly, throwing her arms around her and looking down at what would have been tonight's dinner. "Mom what's wrong?"

"Everything." Holly lowered her hands, revealing red streaks and puffy red eyes that seemed indicative of a day long struggle. "Honey we're broke." Tori furrowed her brow and started to feel the air being sucked from the room. "The hospital is closing down, I've had my medical license revoked and I'm out of a job."

"That doesn't mean we're broke, mom." She felt a lump forming in her throat and started to hug her mother tighter.

"Things are going to change…we can't afford certain things anymore, Tori."

"What do you mean? Surely Dad's-"

"Your father's gone, he took everything." Holly shambled over to the kitchen table and sank into a chair before ripping out a moaning cry. Tori followed her and looked up to see Jade watching with a concerned expression. "We signed a document long ago when we married, saying that whatever we had was our own. I don't receive half of everything. We have no money, no job, and…" Holly took a deep breath and raised her trembling eyes to Tori. "I can't afford your school anymore."

Her heart dropped in an instant, and her eyes grew large as her voice and breath shook. "W-What?" Hollywood Arts was a school you had to audition for, meaning it was not a public school. It was also expensive, it took both her parents having jobs to send both their children there. "No. Mom, that can't be."

"I've already talked to your principal. I can't afford the cost of keeping you there…I'm sorry."

Horrified and grief-stricken, she looked to Jade. Her friend was just as horrified, and certainly this glimpse into her family struggles was shocking. "Mom, what are you saying? What are we going to do?"

"Your sister could help if we knew where she was, but we don't." Holly took a quick breath and sank back in the chair, letting her arms fall limp at her sides. "Oh god, we can't even afford this house anymore."

"Dad would never let us-"

"Don't you understand, your father wants nothing to do with me?" Holly threw her hand out, screaming aloud. "I had an affair with one of his best friends, it was brief and I thought he'd gotten over it but he hasn't. He's kicking us out of the house…"

Shaken and filled with disbelief, Tori fell into one of the chairs. Jade came up behind her, cell phone in hand. "Tori, I'm calling the others." Her eyes grew wide with fear and she twisted around, swatting at Jade's hand.

"You can't! I don't want anyone seeing me like this…" Jade frowned, her eyebrow arching high. Tori's heart wrenched as a powerful pain swept through her body. "I-I don't know what's going to happen."

"I-I guess I should step out then." Jade turned around and started walking, pausing for a moment before looking back. Holly had a hand over her eyes, and fresh tears streaming like a river down her face. "Mrs. Vega? How could Trina help you guys right now?" Tori looked away, shaking her head as Holly lowered her hand.

"She has the money to," Holly answered with a trembling voice. "Please, leave us. I understand you're probably concerned about my daughter, but…"

"I understand. I'm sorry." Jade glanced at Tori with a sigh. "Tori? I won't say anything to the others until you want to, but they're going to know. You do realize that…" She didn't say a word, nor made any movements acknowledging Jade, and waited until the girl left.

Trina had some sort of inheritance that came from their grandmother when she passed away years ago. The woman was Trina's favorite grandmother, so when she fell ill, Trina had been at her side as she always had growing up. Their grandma had been a world traveler and someone who saved up an enormous amount of money, a total amount that went all to Trina when the woman died; but mostly because the woman didn't have any other family and felt like her son wasn't deserving of it.

"What are we going to do Momma? We can't live on the streets. Maybe Gary will help us?"

"Your dad's still letting us stay for a little bit, but we have to pay him rent…The house is in his name, I never signed onto anything. If there were some way to get ahold of your sister, maybe, just maybe we could convince her to come back. To help?"

"Dad's already looking for her, so maybe he'll find her?"

Holly scoffed. "Do you know why your dad considers her the favorite? Because his mother left him out of the will and gave his daughter everything. He wants to find her so he can get on her good side and convince her to share the money with him."

"Well then why would we want to do the same thing, she wouldn't help any of us if she thought all we wanted was money."

"Maybe." Holly shook her head and groaned. "But for now, we're broke."

This is just the beginning. We'll of course be seeing a lot of Tori's friends, we'll be seeing some drama and then there's going to be some old friends coming into the picture. This is the time Tori's friends get to learn more about her, and she'll have to either give them a chance to know and accept her for her while regaining the friendships of those she left behind, or lose all while trying to adjust to this new lifestyle as her parents attempt to locate her sister, who clearly doesn't wish to be found.