Chapter 1. Of Expectations and Frozen Fright

Disclaimer: I do not own Victorious.

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The Asphalt Cafe - December 9th, Senior Year

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"You ever wonder where they came up with the idea of sushi?" Andre asked, marveling at the roll that he twirled around with his chopsticks.

"What do you mean?"

"You know, like were they sitting around all asking themselves how best they could use raw fish. Like a bunch of dudes were all sitting in a circle, one guy with a big bag of rice, another one with a bunch of chopped vegetables, and then a third dude walks up to them and is like, 'Let's combine all this together.'" Andre leaned back slightly as the group sat around the table, the two chopsticks in his hand keeping steady the tuna roll, admiring it as though it were a piece of priceless art.

Beck looked down at his own lunch, an assortment of various rolls, poking at one another with his chopsticks, as if playing a game of Eenie meenie miney mo to determine which one he'd eat next. After a couple of seconds of playing this game, he finally settled upon a crab roll, though it was promptly taken by Jade who didn't even bother to use chopsticks, picking it up with her fingers and gleefully swallowing it whole. Giving a weak frown at his girlfriend, he turned his attention back towards Andre, who's theory had the rest of the group in deep thought. "Well I mean, they were probably like of their day how the infomercial is now for us. You know, something that nobody expected to become big but then suddenly exploded and will carry on for generations and generations."

Tori looked down at her salad again, her eyes every so often teetering towards the small trays before Andre and Beck, her conscious wanting her to regret opting against getting the sushi. "What if it wasn't intentional at all? Like, imagine this." Tori said as she discarded her fork, taking the opportunity to grab Andre's food as a means both of demonstration – but equally to take it for herself. "So like, there's this fishmonger who likes in this village and he catches all this fish and stuff. But his wife is sick, like seriously sick."

"The fishmonger's wife? What's she sick with?" Robbie asked, having finished his third gluten-free cookie. Since Hollywood Arts had begun pushing more variety and options for those of particular diets, lunch was becoming far more of an enjoyable period of the day, though more often than not the selections did not compare to that of the cookies.

Tori stared at Robbie for a moment. "Does it matter?"

"Yeah. I mean, it could just be a cold or maybe she's got something serious like frozen fright." Beck added.

"Frozen fright?" Andre chimed in. "You mean like when you get so scared that you just freeze?"

"You know, it's like a rapid cold that you get. First you get really cold and then you start to get all panicked and once you're freaked out then it completely freezes you."

"Aw, so the fishmonger's wife has frozen fright?" Cat frowned slightly as the sadness attribute was audible to it.

Tori lifted her arms in confusion at how the conversation had gone astray, "No! She doesn't have frozen fright, if that's even a real thing."

Cat immediately perked up at hearing this, "Yay!"

Robbie piped in, "So if the fishmonger's wife doesn't have frozen fright, what does she have?"

Jade unashamedly grabbed another of Beck's sushi, again in the same barbaric manner of using no chopsticks. "Probably cancer."

"Oh come on, I'm just trying to tell a story and you have to go and be like, let's be as dark and depressing as possible?" Tori interjected. She could only shake her head disapprovingly at the gleeful smile on Jade's face, clearly proud of how she got Tori to react. Unfortunately, if she protested it, it would probably mean more and more time devoted to them trying to diagnose the fishmonger's wife, so she reluctantly conceded. "Fine, she's got cancer. Happy?"

Almost as if on cue, pretty much everyone at the table save for Tori and Jade all contributed with low pitched "Awww."

Andre then contributed, further delaying Tori's story. "But wait, what kind of cancer?"

Tori dejectedly tossed her arms onto the table, "I don't know. Toe cancer."

And again, there came another "Awww" from the group.

"So anyways, the fishmonger's wife has toe cancer. And the fishmonger is like, 'these fish I'm getting aren't big enough to pay for my wife's medicine.' So he's gotta get bigger fish, but he doesn't have time to try to catch more of them. So instead of trying to catch bigger fish, he instead stuffs them with vegetables from their garden."

Jade leaned forward a bit, becoming more interested of the darker elements to the story. "I'm starting to like this story."

"Now, the fishmonger has all these heavy fish and he sells them to this one guy who's going to make some fish stew. So he takes his heavy fish home and begins to cut them up and he notices the vegetables falling out. And you know, he's feeling adventurous, so he eats the piece of fish, vegetables and all, and he's thinking, 'This is amazing.' Then he begins to sell the idea to people and boom, sushi."

Cat clapped her hands at the story, but then stopped for a moment, looking directly at Tori from across the table. "But wait, what happened to the fishmonger's wife?"

Tori seemed to have a blank expression upon her face, shrugging her shoulders, "They got her her medicine and she was all better!"

"Yay!" Cat exclaimed as she clapped excitedly, stopping shortly after, realizing that nobody had joined her.

The quietness that followed seemed to persist for a short time actually. Andre finally realized that Tori had eaten several of his rolls, leaving him contemplating whether to go wait on line to get more or to take Tori's salad in retaliation, though neither option seemed particularly exciting. Beck begrudgingly shared his food with Jade, demanding that she use the chopsticks rather than touching each one of them, which brought a bit of entertainment in itself, watching her struggle to use them.

"Have you never used chopsticks before," Andre asked, but not before swatting Tori's hand away as she stealthily moved her fork in the direction of his last roll. "No," his tone childish yet at the same time sincere.

Jade glared across the table at Andre. "No." Seeing the surprised expression on Andre's face only seemed to infuriate the girl, "What? Is that such a huge revelation for you? Jade West unfamiliar with chopsticks, news at 10!" She mockingly exclaimed as she threw her hands up in the air for further effect. The feeling of a hand gently patting against her back seemed to have a calming effect to her.

"There, there. No need to get upset," Beck consoled, his words gently flowing, seeming to behave like a relaxant to Jade. As it seemed Jade was finally content and calmed down enough, he leaned over slightly, wrapping around her body as he elegantly plucked the chopsticks out of Jade's hands, it all seeming to happen in a single motion. As the final piece, he took possession of one of the few pieces left on his place and popped it right in his mouth, the entire time smiling at his girlfriend.

"That's real nice," Jade said, her annoyed tone seeming to immediate return to the forefront, though it was quickly calmed down as the corners of Beck's lips lowered as he moved his head forward, just enough to plant his lips upon her own.

Tori rolled her eyes at the mushiness displayed between the two, "Ugh, can you two just get a room?"

Jade parted her lips from Beck's to stare down the half-Latina, "Does that bother you?" she asked with a disingenuous tone.

Tori nodded her head, "A little."

This only prompted Jade to wickedly smile, "Good." She then returned the kiss to Beck, putting more passion behind it, hoping that it would cause Tori to walk away, or better yet, vomit. Perhaps even better than that, vomit and leave!

Robbie, who the group had at this point seemed to have forgotten about, had left and picked up another few gluten free cookies, letting their wrappers accumulate further and further into a large pile before him. As he began to tear open another wrapper and take his seat, he couldn't help but notice the interactions between Tori and Jade. "You would think after almost three years she would be used to this."

Andre quickly looked at the garbage heap Robbie was creating, smirking as his eyes darted up to see him eat what was probably his fourth or fifth cookie by this point. "Hey you know, some things just never change. I think once we graduate we're actually gonna miss seeing the valuable romantic elements that the two of them provide."

Tori paused, looking at Andre briefly with denial on her face before shaking her head, rejecting the idea that her friend had entered into her head. "Ew, no! If I really wanted romantic elements," she said as she raised her hands, creating air quotes with her fingers for further emphasis, "then I would just go and watch Days of Our Lives or something."

At hearing Tori mention the soap opera, Cat's eyes seemed to light up as she turned towards her friend, "Oh I love that show!"

It was at around this point that Andre got up from the table, lifting up the backpack and tossing it over his shoulder. "Well, gentlemen. Ladies. I am tapped out."

"Wait, you're leaving?" Tori asked.

Andre shrugged his shoulders, lightly nodding his head, "Yeah."

Tori's eyes widened in surprise. "You can't leave!" Never in the years that their group had been together had had Andre skipped class. Plus the randomness of it didn't really make sense. They had lucked out and all had gotten the latest lunch period possible – no doubt partially attributed to them being seniors – which meant that they only had one class left before their school day ended. If any of them were going to leave school early, the idea of waiting until after lunch just to get out of one class would be as Jade described it, 'stupid and pointless.'

"Ah come on. I'm tired, besides I'm sure that there's anything important than Beck can just give me the assignment tonight at your house." Andre proposed.

"Sorry man, after that final bell my brain turns off until Monday. So I doubt I'll even remember what we were given by the end of next period, let alone by tonight." Beck countered, not even bothering to turn around to meet Andre, instead just getting parting the loose strands of hair that would fall in front of Jade's face.

Andre found it surprisingly that in this situation, Beck would be taking Tori's side, which was ironic given Beck's propensity of skipping class, sometimes as soon as after he was accounted for in homeroom. "You really gonna leave a brother hanging?" He said, hoping to be as 'fly' as he could.

Beck by this point had turned around now, lifting his head up to look directly at Andre, a wide, almost cartoonish smile on his face. "Word, dawg." Andre seemed only able to respond with a dejected sigh.

...

Sikowitz's Classroom

...

Slouched against the back of his chair, Andre lifted his arms behind his head to both help support and keep himself awake. "You know, I could be starting my weekend already. Sitting back, feet up, glass of strawberry milk, and get some much needed snuggle time with my pillow."

Jade rolled her eyes, "Just the idea of you snuggling with your pillow. That's about as scary as… as… as Tori's acting!"

Tori turned around in her chair to face Jade, an offended look on her face, "How rude!"

"Now now, children! No need for violence. That's what recess is for!" Sikowitz laughed halfheartedly, similar to a father laughing to his own joke, even going as far as to slap his knee for added effect. That quickly stopped when he realized that he was the only person who was laughing. "Yes, well… So class, what can you tell me about this?" Similar to on a game show when a prize is being highlighted, Sikowitz threw his hands out onto the structure on his desk.

The class was silent.

Sikowitz frowned. "Really? Nobody has any opinion on this? Come on now. I understand that it's Friday, but you could at least show some sort of effort!"

"Is that sheet supposed to be covering it?" Beck asked, probably asking the question that many of the students were wondering.

Sikowitz looked at Beck for a moment, the two of them basically having a staring contest for a moment. He then shifted his focus onto the structure which he had highlighted only a moment ago, noticing that it was, in fact, covered by a large white sheet. "Oh so it is!" Facing the class, he quickly pulled the sheet away, revealing what he was originally intending to show them. "Now then, what can you tell me about this!?"

The looks on the faces of the kids seemed to show confusion, unsure if this was a trick or not.

Robbie broke the silence, weakly lifting his hand up to answer, "It's a bunch of erasers?"

"Not quite," Sikowitz countered, which only further made the class confused. On the stage, where there had been a small structure covered by a white sheet, there was now a large cluster of dry board erasers, stacked on top of each other.

"That's exactly what it is." Jade remarked.

"No! Look deeper into it!" Sikowitz exclaimed, "Look at the shape of it! What do you see?" He began to move his hands in a triangle-like motion to try to get his point across better.

Beck took a shot in the dark and spoke the first thing that came to his mind, his teacher's games starting to get old, "A pyramid of erasers?"

Sikowitz clapped his hands as a large smile appeared on his face, "Exactly! Thank you Beck! Now, we can get to the actual lesson of today. When I showed you this, what did you think of it?"

Tori, who up until now had been quiet, threw in her two cents, it being apparent that unless they were Sikowitz, it'd be impossible to tell where he was going with this, "I don't know. It was different."

"Anything else?"

"Kinda weird," Andre chimed in.

"Alright. Now can we be a bit more specific? Maybe about walking into class and seeing this. That initial reaction you thought?"

"Nutty," Jade remarked.

Sikowitz finally gave up in trying to gauge the reactions of his students, "Unexpected! When you come into a classroom, the last thing you expect is to see someone create a pyramid. And of erasers no less!"

"Aren't there other things which would be more unexpected? Like, a monkey wearing a sombrero?" Robbie offered, which to his surprise and that of the class, was met with an eraser that was thrown right at him, narrowly missing his head. "Ouch!"

Jade laughed, but her glee was quickly silenced with an eraser being thrown her way, hitting her shoulder. "Hey!" She barked out.

Tori couldn't help but gloat at this, pointing and jokingly laughing at Jade's expense. She was so engrossed in this though that she didn't see the eraser being thrown at her, hitting her also in the ribs. Turning back towards Sikowitz, she simply held her mouth open in apparent shock.

"Ha!" Jade kept the cycle going, laughing now at Tori's expense, but unlike her didn't take her focus off of their teacher, being aware enough to lift up her bag to block the eraser that was coming right for her! "Will you stop that!?" At this point her tone had gone from being just annoyed to that of an angry shout.

Sikowitz smiled. "Very good Jade. If I were grading you all with stars, you would get a gold star." Hearing this, a smug smile appeared on her face. "But, because you did allow yourself to get hit, I'd have to take it away and instead give you a silver star." Jade's smile weakened as a smirk formed upon Tori's face. "Tori and Robbie though, unfortunately I would have to give you both no stars."

Tori let out a disappointed sigh, "Aww."

The teacher took several of the erasers and began to indiscriminately toss them up over the heads of the students, causing some to wonder what Sikowitz was trying to accomplish while others sought to take cover. "When we play too much according to the script, to the typical path that our audience expects us to go, things become boring. It becomes routine. Robbie gets struck by an eraser, it's something that happens. Jade gets hit next, and we start to realize there's a chance more people can be hit." Sikowitz reached for one of the remaining erasers, smirking at the sight of some students flinching in their seats. "By then, you could probably say that it wasn't that much of a shocker that Tori was hit. Three times people spoke, three times people got hit by a ruler. You have a pattern. Unfortunately, too often, be it in a play, a television show, or what have you, if your audience can identify the pattern, some of the magic disappears."

"I don't know, I'd still probably find it entertaining if Tori got hit again," Jade chimed in.

Tori frowned, "I wouldn't!"

Sikowitz ignored both of the girls, "Now then, we're going to do a few exercises on being unexpected. As I point to you, I want you to call out a number, starting with the number two."

"Two?" Beck asked.

"What about one?" Andre added.

Sikowitz smiled. "Because you'd expect that!" Jade and Andre found both of themselves face palming at this explanation. "Now, starting with you Beck."

Beck sighed, "Two."

"Three," Tori continued.

"Four," Jade spoke.

"Five!" Cat exclaimed.

"Six," Andre added, continuing the cycle.

"Seven," Robbie piped in. When Sikowitz kept his attention on Robbie, gesturing his hand in a circular motion to indicating he was waiting, it finally dawned on him.

"Eight," the voice of Rex echoed through the room, causing Tori to giggle very slightly, particularly at the irony of it, that Sikowitz would recognize Rex as someone in the class but Robbie in that moment didn't, which in itself could have been a scenario reversed.

Oh, that's why. He's trying to not be predictable. I get it. Tori flashed an accomplished smile as her mind worked out what was going on, her mind hopeful that she had a grasp on what to expect from here on out. She reflected in this sense of accomplishment as the class continued to count on, one by one, until every single person had a number assigned to them.

"Excellent! Now then, let's begin!" Sikowitz clapped excitedly as he reached into his pocket, fumbling around, a look of panic almost enveloping his face at the prospect of forgetting whatever it was he was looking for. "Ah, there we go!" He excitedly proclaimed as he pulled out two pairs of six-sided dice, both in different colors, red and blue, similar to those found in board games. "Now then, the first two will be," his voice trailed as he gently tossed the dice, watching as they rolled across the stage, watching intently as they continued along, only seeming to slow down after they rolled over the edge of the stage, stopping upon landing on the hard ground. Walking over towards them, he knelt down, careful as to ensure he did not accidentally move them. "Six and three. How about that. Tori, Andre, come on up."

The two of them began to get up, slowly though, as the earlier incidents with the erasers showed that there wasn't any clear cut idea of what to expect today, and neither wanted to be pelted. Their hesitation wasn't much appreciated by their teacher, "Well, come on now, we don't have all day." The two of them got to the stage quickly, though were a bit confused given the fact that Sikowitz had seemed to have forgotten about them as he had stepped off the stage, retreating to the back of the classroom. It wasn't until Tori attempted to get his attention but gently tossing one of the remaining erasers at his general vicinity that he seemed to recall the assignment in the first place, though still not before scolding Tori. "Tori! Don't throw things! You could hurt someone!"

Tori's jaw dropped in awe at the apparent double standard displayed, "But… but you threw-" The swift hand gesture of Sikowitz was to get her to stop pleading her case, lest perhaps she get hit with the eraser that she had thrown only moments earlier.

"Now then, for this exercise, you two will act out a scene. It can be about anything you want, any topic, but there is one rule. You must be unpredictable. Include a twist that nobody may see coming, give the plot a different element, whatever you would like. Just do not get caught in a typical clitche which we've seen so often in television and on stage. Now Tori, you begin!"

Tori stood silently for a moment, thinking about what exactly they were going to do for a scene. She loved the exercises where they were given free reign, but the unpredictable stipulation was the one thing that could have presented a challenge. Hmm. So like, should I just go with the first thing that comes into my head? Her mind raced, so many different possible situations that they could have started off with, until one in particular that she seemed to narrow in on.

"And… action!" Sikowitz yelled from across the room.

With no time wasted, Tori closed the distance between her and Andre, her feet never seeming to even lift off the ground, her hands tightly gripping at the collar of his shirt, pulling it slightly in her direction. "Oh professor, we only have a few moments before the Martians break down the door and try to capture us! What do we do?"

"Oh, a Martian invasion! Interesting." The teacher further contributed.

Andre seemed to quickly get an idea as to how to proceed, taking hold of Tori's head on either side and moving it into his shoulder, similar to as if he were consoling her – which he had done in the past. Unlike those times though, he continued to look outwards, paying no direction attention or focus towards her, "Do not worry my dear! In just a minute the transmogrification machine I constructed will turn us both into earthworms. Once we've changed, we will escape through the cracks in the damage wall following the radioactive monkey attack!"

Radioactive monkey attack? Earthworms? Here I thought that I was being a bit creative with a Martian attack, and he gives me this? Crud. Tori tried to come up with an idea as quickly as possible, as she had noticed Sikowitz seeming to look at his watch after each of them had gone, checking to see how long it took before they came up with something new. She pushed herself free from Andre, fixating her gaze to the ground, an almost dejected look on her face. "But, that does not solve the issue of your wife? If we are to run away together as earthworms, how will your wife react? If the stories are true and she has aligned herself with the Bird Army, can we really expect her love of you to outweigh her new found loyalty, especially under these circumstances?" Nice going Tori, adding a little political drama to the story. Go me for binging Game of Thrones!

Sikowitz rose his eyebrows in surprise, a smile on his face at how Tori was seeming to completely throw out conventional storytelling. This exercise was proving to be a success.

Placing a hand on Tori's shoulder, causing her to very slightly jump in shock, Andre used it as an anchor to move closer, still staying behind her. "I wouldn't worry too much. As dangerous as the Bird Army is, certainly the Martians will recognize the threat that they pose. We will use that to our advantage, escaping during the fighting, take one of their ships and then travel to the North Pole, where Pope Santa will offer us safety!"

There was a good bit of laughter coming from the students watching the performance. If this exercise was going to teach the class only one thing, it was at least that they could get afford to get away with quite a bit of insanity, especially if it's acted convincingly enough.

Tori quickly turned around to face Andre, her face of panic and concern, her hands gently gripping at his shoulders, "Santa has not forgiven my family since my grandmother sold his underwater hockey team to the Easter Bunny so the Muffin Man could be elected as Chancellor of the Clouds. I can't imagine him helping us, especially after we ignored his invitation to the last sleepover…" For as weird as some of Sikowitz's exercises have been, this one is definitely up there on the fun factor… and the weirdness.

Andre and Tori continued along with the exercise, somehow managing to continually change things up and not only leave each of them curious as to what the other might do next, but pretty much have everyone in the class giving up on trying to figure them out. From competitive pumpkin rolling to a religion devoted to the eating of only yellow Skittles in the morning and red Skittles at night, the two of them had warped the story in so many ways it was likely they forgot what they may have been talking about only two or three tries earlier. What neither of them had noticed, nor anyone in the class for that matter, was that Sikowitz had spent the last several minutes not focused at all on their performance, but was instead wholly involved in what seemed like a rather heated conversation with the Hollywood Arts principal, Helen Dubois. As their conversation seemed to come to an end, he quickly chucked the eraser that Tori had thrown earlier at the stage, "End scene!"

Between Sikowitz's yelling drowning out the voices of those on stage and the velocity at which he had thrown the eraser as it smashed against the remaining erasers, it caused Tori to literally jump up in panic, letting out a high-pitched yelp to go along with it. With adrenaline pumping through her body and her heart racing, Tori looked up at Sikowitz, her face of bewilderment and confusion. "Why!?" She whined, throwing her arms up in a bewildered confusion.

"Tori Vega! I want you in my office! Now!" It was then that Helen's voice boomed through the classroom, causing everyone in their seat to turn around to face her, their focus switching back and forth between her and Tori, whose face seemed to be pale white as blood drained from it quickly. What!? What did I do? She was needless to say, confused. Never had she been called into Helen's office before. Trina, that was a different story, but Tori had made sure as to not follow her older sister's footsteps in that regard. She stood there on stage for a moment, unsure if it were a mistake or honestly what to think really. "Do I look like I'm playing around? Let's go." Helen's voice was cold, there being no humor or any even friendliness to it, which only further terrified Tori.

Grabbing her things as she left the room, she quickly turned her head to face her friends, the expressions on their faces – Jade's included – all seeming to share the same confusion that was going through her head. As she exited the room and the door slammed shut behind her, all she could feel was utter terror, of what was to come, of not knowing why Helen was singling her out, and what she could have done to illicit this sort of attention.

What did I do?

A/N: So here's the first chapter of what I hope will end up being an entertaining story to read!

Hope you guys enjoy it! Reviews, feedback, critiques, criticisms, they are all welcome!