Author's note
So this is my first ever published fanfic… Kinda nervous about it, but I hope you like it:) If I've made any mistakes, that's because I don't have someone to proofread (hint), so let me know if I have to make some changes.
Rated T, but might change in later chapters.

Disclaimer: I do not own Victorious or any of the songs mentioned in this story.

Tori's POV

A new year. And not just any year, but my senior year. I smile at my mirrored image and apply some mascara. Just one year left at Hollywood Arts and then… Well, then I'll become a professional actress. Or a famous singer. I'm not sure yet.

'TORI!'

I jump and the tube slips between my fingers, streaking my cheek and nose with black lines before it clatters into the sink.

'Trina! What have mom and dad told you about using your inside voice?'

My sister sticks her head in my room and rolls her eyes. 'Puh-lease, I need to exercise my vocal chords. Anyway, you need to hurry if you still want a ride.' And she's gone again, barging down the stairs and screeching an opera song that I'm sure will make anyone's ears within a mile radius bleed. I mutter something about whether ripping out Trina's vocal chords would be enough exercise, quickly wipe my face clean of mascara and follow my sister downstairs. We kiss our parents goodbye, wave, and are out the door and on the road minutes later.

'Oh-oh-oh-oh-oooh, caught in a bad romance,' Trina sings loudly, drowning out the radio and dramatically rolling her head from side to side, 'rah rah ah-ah-ah! Ro mah ro-mah-mah, Gaga oh-la-la! Want your bad romance!' I sigh and look out the window, wishing for the hundredth time that Trina had just passed her song writing module and graduated so I wouldn't be stuck in the same class with my sister in my senior year. Not that I don't feel bad for her…

Okay, maybe I don't.

A girl wearing earphones is cycling next to the car. Standing on the peddles of the mountain bike her legs pump rapidly up and down, one earpiece bouncing against her chest. Dark curls are blown out of her face as she smoothly rides alongside us on the asphalt.

If Trina hasn't blasted my eardrum by the end of this semester, I'll learn to ride a bike and cycle to school.

'I want your love and I want your revenge. You and me could write a bad romance. Come on Tori, do the back up singing!' I roll my eyes and open the window, letting the cool morning air breeze past my face. Trina is now trying to do some sort of sexual dance in her seat, blaring the lyrics in her pretend microphone and studying herself in the mirror.

'Oh-oh-oh-oh-oooh! I want your love and all your lovers revenge, you and me could write a –'

'Trina, watch the road!'

'Oi!' The girl on the bike narrowly avoids our car and flips Trina off, 'Take some singing classes, ye big numpty! And watch the fucking road!'

'Excuse me?!' Trina leans over me but I push her back in her seat.

'Just watch the road Trina, you nearly drove her into the bushes. Sorry,' I yell out the window to the girl who is still cycling next to us, albeit at a distance, 'my sister gets uh… easily distracted.'

'What's she doing driving a car for then?' The girl yells back and I bite the inside of my cheek to keep from smiling.

'I honestly don't know, we think she might have bribed the instructor… Ow, Trina!'

She has hit me on the top of my head with her phone and I rub it, glaring at her.

'Must've been a lot of money then. See ya!' The girl raises her hand and turns right, pedalling away.

'What. A. Freak,' Trina huffs, swinging her hair over one shoulder, 'She should be grateful I didn't actually drive her into the bushes. And what did she call me, a nugget?'

'I think she said numpty.'

'Whatever.' Trina turns up the radio and whoops in excitement when the DJ announces that the next hit song will be Taylor Swift's I Knew You Were Trouble. I groan when Trina informs me that she will exercise her vocal chords some more and roll up the window. No need to make everyone else's morning miserable. Luckily, we reach Hollywood Arts within minutes and I fly out the car.

'Bye Trine, see you later!'

Trina calls after me to help her carry her bag, but I ignore her and push open the doors. Immediately the sounds of different musical instruments surround me and I smile, moving swiftly past a dancing couple and Sinjin, who is sticking some chewed substance to his locker.

'Chica!' André bounds over, broad smile in place and dreads flying everywhere when he gives me a rib crushing hug. 'I've missed you!'

I laugh and pat him on the back. 'It's good to see you too, how are you?'

'Toriiii,' a high-pitched voice sings from behind us and I let go of André, turn around and smile at Cat, who is dancing on the beat of a saxophone playing dude, 'look, I am dancing to my own beat!' And she shuffles her glittering pink shoes, twirls her skirt and laughs airily.

'So, how was your holiday?' I ask but Cat only laughs and starts on what is clearly an elaborate tap dance, so I turn to André again, who smiles.

'It was good. Well, apart from grandma calling the cops five times because she thought an Apache helicopter had landed in her house, when she was just the ceiling fan.' I laugh, but André shakes his head.

'I'm not kidding, she also called me every hour of the day when she'd wandered into the bathroom and thought she'd gone shopping at the mall. Oh well,' he sighs, opening his locker and stuffing some books inside, 'nothing I can do about it.'

I'm about to comfort him when Jade and Beck join our little group. Their hands, I notice, are intertwined. They have made up and broken up numerous times over the past years, including this summer and apparently they are a couple again. For now.

'Why, if it isn't Tori 'I'm the best singer in the whole wide world' Vega,' Jade says in her trademark drawl she uses to mock me.

'I don't talk like that!'

'Be nice, Jade. It's only been five minutes,' Beck says, shooting me an apologetic smile and kissing his girlfriend on the cheek. The bell rings and I quickly look around.

'Oh my God, is it 8.30 already? I still have to get my books!'

After a hasty 'see you later!', I scurry to my locker, smiling at the coloured lights. 'I'm definitely gonna make it shine this year,' I say softly as I open the door and neatly put my books inside. Everyone in the hall has dispersed by now, so I close my locker, turn around and am about to go to my first class, when the front doors swing open and a girl with dishevelled, dark curls, lanky body and one earpiece bouncing from her chest hurries into the hall. She looks around, clearly lost, and her eyes fall on me. Recognition dawns on her face and I clear my throat, raising my hand in a limp wave.

'And what did she call me, a nugget?'

'I think she said numpty.'

Great.