Disclaimer: I don't own Victorious or KIIS-FM radio in Los Angeles or Z100 in New York. Those are actual stations, but I do own "KIMM-FM" radio and "The Lone Rabbits".
The Lone Rabbits
By xHeSaidSheSaidx
A very irked Tori Vega popped up in bed with a loud groan at the sound of one of the most whiny, irritating voices she'd ever heard in her life but that she'd been stuck with having to hear ever since the day she was brought home from the hospital 16 and a half years ago.
"TORRRRRIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII!"
She'd tried desperately to ignore the obnoxious repetition of her name being shouted up the stairs, pulling her blankets tighter around herself, slamming her pillows over her head; but eventually, as always, as she knew she would, she gave in. It didn't help that the annoying sound of her sister's voice was mixed in with the only slightly less irritating constant ring of the doorbell. Throwing her legs over the side of her mattress, she stumbled lazily out of her bedroom after stealing a quick glance at her bedside alarm clock.
"TORRRRRIIIIIII!" There it was again.
"Ugh, Trina, it's eight in the morning. What do you want and why are you awake so early anyways?" The youngest Vega sister groaned as she harrumphed her way down the stairs into the living room, where she found her sister sprawled out on the couch with a pair of nail clippers and her hair thrown back in a messy bun.
"I'm pampering myself to get ready for my date with Sean tonight," Trina explained to her without looking up from her toenails as some weird music video flickered across the TV screen ahead of her. "So get the door!"
"Trina, for the last time. He doesn't want to go out with you; you can't keep considering delivering random pizzas to his house every weekend as a date. Besides, didn't you realize he has a girlfriend?" Tori snapped as she made her way over to the front door which was still being pounded on ferociously. Before Trina could answer, Tori let out another exclamation.
"Jeez you'd think the FBI is at the door! You suck for waking me up for this," Tori grumbled, throwing the front door open. She was about to scream at whomever was behind the door for not knocking like a normal person since she was so cranky in the morning when she didn't get a full good night's sleep, but she was cut off before she could even get one word out.
"Finally! I was going to try to climb in through your window!" The bright and cheery face of Cat Valentine even this early on a Saturday morning greeted her with a giggle, brushing past Tori and welcoming herself into the home. It was then that Tori realized her friend had a cell phone in each hand; her own bright pink Pear Phone in one, and a mysterious yellow one in the other that Tori had never seen before.
"What are you doing here, Cat?" Tori asked her, wondering how on earth it was possible that someone could appear so energetic and alive at such an early weekend hour… and willingly. Was she the only one that wanted to sleep in around here? Call her crazy then, but she was about two seconds away from leaving Trina to have to deal with entertaining Cat, and storm back up to the indulge in the comfort of her bed herself.
"Where's your phone?" Cat asked her eagerly, ignoring her question but really just oblivious to the fact that she'd asked her one. Tori ran a hand back through her bed-messy hair, shooting a confused look at her friend.
"Uhh... upstairs, why?"
A wide grin spread out over the other girl's tanned face. "Go get it!" she squealed. Tori knew better than to try and force any kind of a logical explanation from Cat, so with a short sigh she began making her way out of the room and back up the steps.
"Hurry!" Cat called after her and she began ascending the stairs two at a time.
"Why'd you do that?" Trina looked up from her toenails for a split second.
"Do what?" Cat inquired dumbfounded as she plopped down on the couch opposite Trina who rolled her eyes. "Why do you want her to get her phone?" she repeated clearer.
"Oh!" Cat smiled, her whole face appearing to glow. "You'll see," she said, then added "where's your phone, Trina?"
Not all that interested in Cat's antics any longer, Trina held up her orange phone for Cat to see, picking it up from the spot on the couch beside her then setting it back down quickly. "Right here."
"Yay!"
Tori returned a few seconds later, blue Pear Phone in hand.
"Okay, what's this all about?" she asked, taking a seat next to her friend.
"Well, you know that radio station KIMM-FM?" Cat began, launching into her explanation. Tori's forehead wrinkled in confusion.
"…You mean KIIS-FM?" she corrected, speaking of one of the most popular music stations in Los Angeles. It was the equivalent of the New York "Z100" that played all the hottest hits.
Cat blinked at her friend, chocolate brown eyeballs appearing blank as her smile dropped suddenly.
"…No," she stated blankly after a while, a hint of thoughtful confusion in her own voice.
Tori shook her head. She was almost positive a "KIMM-FM" radio station didn't exist, but she decided to give Cat the benefit of the doubt.
"Okay, well, what about it?"
The excited grin was plastered across the bubbly girl's face again in an instant, as if it had never left. "They're having this contest right now, well at 8:15- caller number 15 wins two tickets to see The Lone Rabbits play live in concert this Friday at The Grove!" she explained animatedly. Tori checked the time on her phone. 8:11, it read. Cat was apparently right on time.
"So I wanted you guys to help me call in so there's a better chance of me winning. Then maybe we can go to the concert Tori, whattaya say? My brother even let me borrow his phone to call!" she exclaimed happily, holding up the yellow Pear Phone.
The cheeky kiddish grin that Cat wore was enough for Tori to agree to helping her out with the contest (if it really did even exist because really, "KIMM-FM?" What?). Though there was one thing Tori was shocked about above all else.
"Sure Cat, but aren't they a type of screamo band? I didn't know you were into that kind of music?"
"No, silly! My brother met them last year backstage at another one of their concerts. He even has the restraining order they signed to prove it! … He said they were mostly nice though but just gave him some weird looks. But they definitely didn't scream at him," Cat explained. "Besides, they have rabbits in their name, so they're probably big softies!"
Tori couldn't help but shake her head again at her friend's bizarre form of logic. She was almost positive that The Lone Rabbits were indeed a band of "scream-o" styling's, but she didn't want to be the person on earth that stomped all over the dreams and hopes of Cat Valentine. It would be like stomping on an innocent little puppy's tail; she just couldn't do it, so again she decided to just go along with it for her friend's sake. She also decided not to comment on the whole "restraining order" against her brother part of her explanation. The Valentines were one strange family quite often…
"Alright, what's the number?" Tori asked, pulling up the keypad on her touch screen phone before directing her attention at her sister. "Trina? Are you going to help us call?"
"Can't you see I'm in the middle of something?" Trina snapped as she continued to clip away at her toenails. Tori rolled her eyes but stood and went to go grab her sister's phone before settling back into her spot on the other couch, ignoring Trina's shouts of "hey!" as she phone-jacked her.
Cat was giggling the whole time as she read off the phone number to Tori from her own phone. Tori had the number typed into both phones and by the time it was 8:15 on the dot, both girls were quickly pressing "talk" on each of the two mobile devices in their hands.
"KIMM-FM radio! You're caller 4!" an automated voice greeted Tori on the first line, with a frown she hung up and hit the re-dial quickly and did the same thing with the other phone she held when it told her she was caller 8 on that one.
Wow, it really does exist, Tori thought when the station greeted her.
"Anything?" Cat asked her hopefully after redialing her own two phones again. "Oh! Caller 13! What about you Tori?"
"Shh!" Tori waved a hand at her quickly to silence her. The second time she called she was caller number 12 on Trina's phone but the sound coming from her own phone was nothing but pure static for a few seconds until finally, a different voice greeted her. The automated voice had been a recording of a woman but this time she was greeted by a man, and he didn't sound automated at all.
"KIMM-FM radio! Congratulations you're caller 15! Caller 15 you're live on the air right now. Why don't you tell us all your name and location?"
Tori shot a thumbs up sign at Cat as grin of her own suddenly sprung across her face.
"You won?" Cat half whispered half squealed as Tori nodded her head vigorously in response. She wasn't so much excited about the concert itself as she was about just winning something in the first place. It was a cool feeling and apparently she was live on the radio which made it even cooler.
"Yay!" Cat clapped her hands together excitedly as Tori finally managed to get her excitement at least halfway under control and she quickly sputtered her name into the phone.
"Uh Tori Vega- Hollywood!" she stammered, Cat clapping and bouncing up and down on the couch beside her.
If Jade West hadn't yelled out in exasperation loud enough when that stupid automated voice told her she was caller 16, than she certainly did upon hearing the three words spill out of the speakers of her Pear Phone dock radio that sat, turned on to almost full blasted volume on her desk after the real winner was announced.
"Tori Vega- Hollywood!"
"WHAATTTTT?" Phone flying out of her hand, the Goth girl nearly tumbled out of her bed, scrambling across the room quickly on her hands and knees and making a mad, frantic grab for the Pear Phone dock. She clenched the small electronic between her hands tightly, eyes glued to the speaker as the words continued to pour out of it as her hard heavy breaths escaped through her hard, clenched teeth.
"Well congratulations Tori Vega of Hollywood! You just won two tickets to see the Lone Rabbits live in concert THIS Friday at the Grove!" the stupid overly enthusiastic radio host DJ told her. Jade's whole body shook with rage; she had specifically made sure to wake up no later than 7:30 in the morning specifically for this contest- she'd been eagerly anticipating the contest since it had first been announced yesterday afternoon that they would be doing it for some reason at 8:15 AM the next morning. Jade rarely ever awoke before noon on the weekends, but she had been willing to sacrifice anything and everything for this contest, so she'd set at least four alarm clocks to ensure that she wouldn't sleep through any as she knew she was one of the world's heaviest sleepers. The Lone Rabbits were one of her top three favorite hardcore punk-rock bands, or in other words screamo as it was often referred to as. But then that stupid Tori Vega had to come parading in, ruining everything for her as usual. Caller 16, she was just one person too late and Vega had taken it from her! Since when did that peppy little brat even care for that kind of music? Jade was surprised she'd even heard of the band.
Of all the random people in the city that could be the winner, it WOULD be Vega Jade thought bitterly, ferociously ripping the cord of the Pear Phone dock out of the wall outlet and chucking the whole thing carelessly across the room, not bearing to hear Vega's annoyingly excited voice seeping out of it any longer. Yes there could be any number of Tori Vega's spread all throughout the city, but Jade had no doubt that the voice live on the radio station she'd been listening to forever indeed belonged to the one and only Tori Vega that she'd been forced to having to deal with for the last year or so. She could point out that sickeningly sweet Mary-Sue voice any day. In fact, she often mocked it all the time herself; as much as Tori refused that she spoke that way. Jade could recognize her stupid little voice anywhere.
The dock hit the wall with a loud BANG, but Jade didn't care. She didn't even care that it may have very possibly made a thick dent in her wall. Her mother would fix it if she frightened her into doing so. But right now all she wanted to do was fall back into bed and attempt to sleep off some of her anger, so she did exactly that, deciding to just rip Tori's head off at school on Monday.
"So Tori, tell us- how excited are you go get to see the Lone Rabbits in concert? This is the opening act of their tour for their new album, as I'm sure you're aware!" the lively radio DJ continued to fire questions at her. Tori had him on speaker now at the eager demand of Cat to "put it on speaker put it on speaker put it on speaker put it on speaker speaker speaker speaker!"
"Um well uh… I wanted to win them for my friend Cat, actually. She's right here," Tori said, shoving the phone into Cat's hands, as she was not exactly the best liar but she didn't want to tell the radio host that she wasn't really all too excited for the concert itself.
"Hi!" Cat exclaimed into the phone as if she were speaking to her grandma.
"Hello, Cat! Are you excited that Tori won you the tickets?"
"Yeah! We're going together!" Cat informed the host. "Hopefully they won't get a restraining order on me too!"
Tori clapped a hand over her forehead as the guy chuckled nervously, obviously not having a clue as to what Cat was talking about.
"Oh Cat…" Tori shook her head.
"Well congratulations to the both of you," the guy said. "I'm sure you'll both have a great time at the biggest screamo concert of the year!"
At that, Cat's grin dropped almost immediately. "Screamo?" she whispered to Tori as realization struck her. She let out a short "phooey!" before handing her her phone back and shooting up from her spot on the couch and storming into the kitchen in disappointment. Tori was right- they were a punk band! And that was so not Cat Valentine's scene.
Cat grabbed an ice cream sandwich out of Tori's fridge, taking a big bite and chewing quickly as if she was taking her disappointment out on the cold treat, not even caring that she was eating a dessert like that at almost 8:30 in the morning. With a sad sigh she leaned against the counter, only half listening as Tori seemed to be transferred to another person that worked for the radio station as she was looking up at her worriedly while reciting her address for the tickets to be sent to her house.
Tori could tell just by the way Cat's eyebrows furrowed in attempt to appear angry as she chomped away at the ice cream sandwich that in a matter of seconds the girl had changed her mind about going, so she thought about telling the radio station people that they didn't want the tickets after all, but she decided against it after a moment of hesitation, not wanting to sound stupid.
After sputtering a few more "thank you's" into the phone when told that the tickets would be mailed to her by Tuesday, Tori hung up with a sigh.
"What's the matter, Cat?" she asked her friend, getting up and joining her in the kitchen and ignoring Trina's shouts of "while you're up, make me some cream of wheat!"
"I didn't know they were screamo," Cat said with a pouty look on her face, already working on her second ice cream sandwich.
"I tried to tell you Cat-"
"Oh well," Cat shrugged, a skip in her step as she went to throw away her wrapper. "Have fun at the concert Tori!"
Dang. Two ice cream sandwiches and that girl was glowing again as if she'd won the lottery.
"Oh no you're not! You're coming to that concert with me!" Tori told her knowingly as she went to pour herself a bowl of cereal.
"B-but Tori!" Cat's lip trembled and she looked like she was about to cry. Uh oh. Ice cream sandwich round three?
"Screamo music scares me! I'm surprised my brother didn't get a restraining order on them instead!" she paused and then giggled as she remembered the copy of the framed document her brother had hanging on his bedroom wall with the band's autographs on it. Silly boy. Her smile quickly dissipated, however, when she caught sight of the look Tori shot her way.
"Cat, I only participated in that contest for you. I only agreed to going for you. You can't bail out on me on this. I don't want to go to the concert alone; I don't even think I want to go at all!" her friend exclaimed before taking a bite of her honey comb.
"What's that you're eating?" It wasn't that Cat was trying to change the subject on purpose; her wandering thoughts were just always getting the better of her.
"Honey comb."
"Ooh can I have some?" the small red-head piped up, seeming to completely forget their past conversation.
"Not if you don't go to the concert."
"Phooey!" Cat exclaimed with a stomp of protest on the tiled floor, crossing her arms like a little kid would who just find out they were getting a time out as her forehead wrinkled. An idea quickly hit her half a second later and her look suddenly transformed into its normally cheerful one again when she felt as though a light bulb went off in her head.
"Hey- why don't we just give the tickets away to someone else?" she suggested.
Tori swallowed a rather large mouthful of cereal. "Oh Cat that's-" she started but trailed off as she actually began to consider the suggestion.
"… not a bad idea actually! But who?"
Cat was leaning against the counter again by this point, elbows propped up as she absent mindedly toyed with a strand of her maroon hair.
"Who what?" she asked with a distracted giggle, peering down at her hair which reminded her of the red velvet cupcake her brother had been eating last night but had thrown it at a squirrel in the backyard but missed. He had shrieked and ran off like a frightened puppy when the squirrel started to run in his direction, thinking it was going to attack him.
"Who should I give the tickets to?"
"Oh I don't know. Can I have some honey comb now?" Cat turned away from the counter in Tori's direction where she sat at the kitchen table, seeming to forget or maybe just not care that she'd already had two ice cream sandwiches.
"Sure," Tori gave in with a sigh. Cat was no help, although she did give her props for her shockingly smart suggestion.
"-and then Cat realized that they were indeed a screamo band and decided she didn't want to go anymore," Tori finished explaining to the gang by her locker two days later.
"It's not my fault; screamo scares me!" Cat exclaimed defensively as if Tori was trying to make her feel bad even though she wasn't.
"I know Cat, but you need to help me find someone to give the tickets to. It shouldn't be that hard, right? I don't think they should just go to waste."
"Wait, what band did you say it was again?" Beck asked the two girls, glancing back and forth between the two of them. Andre' and Robbie stood on either side of him, the only one missing from the group was Jade- she was usually the last one to arrive to school so her absence was nothing new: something about "not wanting to hang around you idiotic people more than I have to" had been her reason when Robbie had asked her about it one time, directing it at pretty much everyone besides Beck and maybe sometimes Cat even though they were all technically her "friends" with the exception of Tori. She refused to call that girl her friend. But in any case, she'd meant what she'd said that one time; these people gave her a rash.
"The Lone Rabbits," Tori answered Beck's question.
"Yeah! See! The name is misleading!" Cat exclaimed again, still trying to defend herself even though nobody was personally attacking her.
"For real?" Beck asked, an excited smile spreading across his handsome face. "Jade's been dying to go to that concert. Trust me, if you're going to give them away you might as well give them to her. She'll be so excited- she might even go so far as to thank you," Beck said, totally serious as a thank you from his girlfriend could very much so be considered a big deal since she rarely ever used the term in speaking to anyone; at least not a real genuine one.
"Really?" Tori smiled at the thought of doing something for Jade that the other girl actually might appreciate. Although the girls weren't exactly friends and Tori knew very well that Jade really couldn't seem to stand her for whatever reason, it'd be nice to get to go at least ten seconds with the girl being at least somewhat nice to her. It was the reason she'd helped her out with finding someone to pay for her play all those months ago and even going so far as to formulating a plan so that everything ran smoothly so Jade could impress her father; that and because she may have slightly feared the other girl. It was also why she'd let Jade come along with the rest of them on their trip to Yerba for the last semester break and why she'd helped her get Beck back when the two had split that one time. Jade got under Tori's skin and although Tori didn't exactly try to, she knew she got under Jade's as well, but Tori didn't have a particular issue with her even though Jade had been pretty nasty to her at times, so she only wished that could be reciprocated if only for a little while. Plus she really needed someone to give the tickets away to anyways, so why not Jade?
"Vega you little snot!" Jade exclaimed out of nowhere, interrupting the conversation as she stormed up to the group while seething.
Oh, Tori remembered. That's why not.
Her eyebrows shot up as did nearly everyone else's, well besides Cat, who was too busy trying to figure out how many licks it took to get to the tootsie roll center of a tootsie pop after pulling out a red one from her backpack and sticking the cherry treat into her mouth. She hardly even noticed Jade's sudden arrival.
"Excuse me?" Tori sputtered, baffled by Jade's angry approach. Usually the girl waited at least until Sikowitz's class to start throwing insults at her as first thing in the morning since she was typically too tired to take the time to think of ways to interrogate Tori right away.
"Oh don't look so surprised. You stole my tickets from me!"
"What are you talking about?"
"One time," Cat cut in, pulling her tootsie pop away from her mouth. "My brother got a ticket for leaving his car parked in the middle of a bridge," she said, glancing around at the confused faces of her friends. It was unknown whether their confusion was due to Jade's sudden outburst on Tori or because of her own story. It likely was a mixture of both.
"They also totaled it," Cat finished with a tiny smile as she remembered her brother freaking out when that had happened. She stuck the tootsie pop into her mouth then and continued counting off the licks in her head.
Normally Jade probably would've "kindly" told Cat to go save them a spot in Sikowitz's class just to get rid of her, to which Cat probably would've cheerfully answered "kay kay!" and sauntered off willingly, but right now Jade was just too pissed off to care who was around to witness her rampage. She had been seething the whole remainder of the weekend, unable to wait for the moment she emotionally destroyed Vega. She had crossed the line this time.
So, Jade went on, ignoring Cat.
"I was caller 16 to that radio station. 16! One less person and I would've won, but I didn't, thanks to you!"
"Jade-" Beck started, but quieted down when she yelled at him to stay out of it.
"Do you have any idea how bad I've been wanting to go to that concert? No? Well you know now Vega! So you have fun at the concert, but I'm going to make you regret you ever went!" Jade continued on with her ferocious rant. So, maybe she was being a little hard on Tori, but she didn't care. She'd been willing to do anything to go to that concert; she'd heard about the opening tour months ago but both of her parents had refused to buy her tickets, so obviously she'd practically been jumping off the walls in ecstasy when the contest had been announced. And to almost win- to be so close at caller 16?
Prepare to be avenged, Vega.
Tori's mouth was hanging wide open at this point. Leave it to Jade to blow up on her like that, it was as if she thought Tori had won the tickets just so she couldn't, as if she had any idea she even liked The Lone Rabbits when really she hadn't even had a single clue. Jade didn't talk to her about that kind of stuff. She didn't really talk to her about much of anything.
"Jade-" she started.
"No don't Jade me, Vega. This isn't over," Jade swore.
"Tori was going to give you the tickets, Jade!" Beck exclaimed, letting his words come out in a rush before she could cut him off again. At that, Jade's eyes snapped over to his then quickly back to Tori's, her previously hard-set jaw loosening to hang part way open and her stone cold expression noticeably softened, her dark eyes seeming to lighten ever so slightly and her narrowed eyebrows relaxing into frozen shock. A single word escaped her mouth at last.
"What?"
"Yeah," Tori confirmed, crossing her arms and trying to hide a smirk at Jade's stupefied look. It was clear that someone felt like an idiot, and Tori decided to enjoy the sudden change in Jade, as obviously she didn't know what to say anymore, just like that.
"I was," the Vega girl went on, continuing to bite back a smirk as Jade shifted her weight from one leg to the other, letting her arms drop down to her side. Tori could tell the other girl was trying to regain composure but she was very obviously squirming and fidgeting now. It was amazing how quick her demeanor had changed with one revelation.
"But now I'm not so sure anymore," Tori finished, just to see her reaction. Just to see what she would do now.
Jade bit her lip, wanting to punch that stupid smirk off Vega's face. Crap, that skinny little brat had her now.
Crap.
A/N: Hehe. Oh Jade, that's why you should never be so gank-ish :p you never know what might happen.
This was supposed to be a oneshot, but when I saw how long it was getting I decided it needed to be more than one chapter. So I'm not sure how many it will be exactly but I can tell you it will be pretty short. This is my first Victorious writing other than Cat/Jade and I'm enjoying it so far (:
Please review; let me know what you think. More reviews, faster updates. ! Graciiiiiiiiiiaaaaaas.