I don't own the show. I don't own the characters, and I don't own the song that's quoted. That is all.

(Saturday March 3, 2012; Hollywood, Los Angeles, California; sometime after 12AM)

Friday night had now turned into Saturday morning, and what was initially a nightmare of a forced so-called date had ended up being somewhat fun for the two girls, or young women involved, Tori Vega and Jade West. The pair had only been hanging out together in the first place because, according to their teacher at Hollywood Arts, Erwin Sikowitz, he believed that Tori and Jade needed to go on a "date" in order to make their upcoming performance as "husband and wife" believable during the play they were due to be in.

"There is no good reason why you and I shouldn't be able to sit here together and have a conversation."

Tori's words had barely relieved the tension, if at all, between herself and the Goth. But if the threat of a F for the semester didn't drive them toward a united front, then the sudden hassling by two "bros" with severe douchebag tendencies sure did. Alan and Chad may have made an impression on Sinjin and Burf from a distance, but up close, they were striking out with the girls in the worst way possible, even if they were too stupid to notice it. But when Tori and Jade sung "Take A Hint", the boys appeared to get the message, even if it was short-lived, seeing as how the duo had the nerve to show up to the play later that night. But for now, the guys knew that they had to get lost, and that was good enough for the pair of aspiring singer-actresses.

Now the pair had arrived at the Vega household, and for a friendship, if it was that, that normally seemed hostile, Tori and Jade seemed to be getting along pretty well. It may have been because they were truly at a new stage in their relationship, or they just could have been really happy to get away from Alan and Chad (and Sinjin and Burf), but they were closer than they were when they first showed up at Nozu.

"Seriously, we rocked up there tonight," Jade said as she and Tori made it to the front door. "I think we should be okay for the play tomorrow."

"I'm just glad we got those creeps off our backs, and other parts of us," Tori answered.

"Yeah, those guys were idiots. You'd think getting elbowed in the gut would be a clear sign to back off, but no, they just kept bugging us."

"Well, hopefully, they got the message now. But anyway, I'm gonna head inside. See you at school."

"Later, Tori."

With that, Jade got back to her car and drove off, while Tori went inside. She expected to walk into a empty and possibly pitch-black house, but instead, she found her big sister Trina on the couch closest to the front door, laying on her right side in a seemingly depressed mood.

"Hey Trina," Tori called out. "Is everything okay? I thought you were going out with that Seth guy tonight."

"I thought I was too," Trina began. "Apparently, we were both wrong."

"What happened?"

"Well, I was here waiting on him to show up so we could go to the Lakers game tonight, and at some point, the doorbell did ring, but it wasn't Seth that was here. It was Robbie and Cat."

"Okay, why would they be here if they knew you had a date?" Tori asked, appearing to be confused.

"Well, Seth must have knew that they had been going around giving bad news to people by putting it in a song. So he decided to use them to stand me up."

"He did what?!" Tori was upset for the simple fact that her older sibling had been ditched, but after finding out how it was done, she virtually saw red.

"Yeah, he sent Robbie and Cat to sing a song to tell me that we weren't going on a date. It basically went like, 'Trina, oh Trina. Yeah Trina, you're staying home tonight,' and then basically they said that Seth thought that hanging out with me 'was insane'."

Between the issue that Seth simply didn't have the balls to tell Trina that the date was off in person - or at least to call her himself, using Robbie and Cat to deliver the bad news, and that he thought going on a date with Trina was "insane", Tori was seeing red at this point, and felt the need to do something about it.

"Okay, I'm gonna kill Seth the next time I see him, and he's gonna know that it was a bad idea to ditch you. Then I'm gonna have a little talk with Robbie and Cat about - "

"Tori, Tori, Tori, just stop," Trina said in a mildly irritated voice. "Killing Seth isn't gonna solve anything, even if he did deserve it. And besides, Robbie and Cat shouldn't have done his dirty work for him, but they're not the problem."

"You're okay with what happened tonight?" The perceived lack of anger on Trina's part was shocking to Tori, especially since she had witnessed her get unreasonably upset over less important things.

"No, I'm not okay with it, Tori! Hell, in fact, when Robbie and Cat finished their little song, I took his guitar and smashed it in the front yard."

"So why are you so calm about it now?"

"I'm really not all that calm. But if I was, it's because I've had time to cool off about the situation," Trina began. "And I realized that Seth standing me up tonight, that was just business as usual."

"Wait, business as usual? What do you mean?" Tori knew that Trina didn't have the best of luck with guys, but she didn't think that she was completely unappealing to them. Little did Tori know that her sister wasn't just referring to her standing with the opposite sex.

"The fact that Seth ditched me tonight, and had the nerve to use Robbie and Cat to give me the message, as fucked up and wrong as it is, he's just another name on the long list of guys that I wanted that don't want me. I mean, I know that I come off as arrogant, self-absorbed and maybe even like a brat sometimes - "

"Actually, most of the time," Tori said jokingly, although it didn't do anything to lighten Trina's mood. In fact, it may have made it worse.

"Okay, most of the time," Trina responded. "But seriously, am I so horrible that nobody sees me as girlfriend material?"

"Well, I wouldn't say nobody, just maybe not the guys you're interested in. And it doesn't help that one of those guys already has a girlfriend." Tori's reference was to Shawn Becker, the guy who Trina dubbed "160 pounds of senior hotness" at the beginning of the school year. As stated, he already was with another girl, and it didn't help Trina's cause that she passed herself off as a pizza delivery girl who made the mistake of giving him a sausage pizza with green peppers, among other things.

Meanwhile, Tori continued by saying, "but hey, you are attractive to somebody. I mean... Robbie and Sinjin like you... and that Lendle guy was interested in you, at least until I lied and told him you were dead."

"Okay, so those are three guys, but really think about who those three guys are," Trina said. "Sinjin's a nice guy, but he's just too weird for his own good. Then Lendle... well, Lendle, he was just a creep. And if Robbie's so interested in me, then tell me why he's so hung up on Cat, or why he was willing to put me in the hospital just because I hit Rex, or why he never said anything when anybody else said something bad about me. Hell, he even had the nerve to come here with André and Beck to act like they were fighting over me because they wanted me to be their girlfriend, but in reality, it was just some bullshit prank that they were playing."

"When did that happen?"

"It happened last week, when you, Jade and Cat went to that actress' house in San Diego. They all showed up, and they pretended that they were all so into me. André sang to me, and Robbie had even brought flowers, but they ended up fighting each other, or they acted like they were, but then when I went to get Dad, they hid behind the couch and acted like they were doing a puppet show."

"What did Dad say?" Tori asked, shocked at hearing about the prank that took place while she was gone.

"Oh, I'll tell you what Dad said," Trina began in a irritated manner. "When he saw Beck, André and Robbie with the puppets, he said, 'just make sure when you go to college, you'll go someplace far, far away'." The last part made Trina upset to the point where she mocked her father's tone.

"He really said that?" Once she saw Trina nod yes, Tori could only stand in silence, albeit a very brief one, before asking, "does Mom know about that?"

"I doubt it. And even if she does know, it's not like she gives a shit about it. Hell, Mom and Dad don't care about me, and it's worth asking if they care about you either. In fact, it's worth asking if you care anything about me."

Trina had Tori's attention regardless, but the end of her sentence still caught her younger sibling off-guard at the sound of it.

"Look, I heard everything you said about Mom and Dad, and I can't argue with it," Tori began. "Dad always has to work on a case, and even when he's here, he barely says anything to either one of us. And then Mom, she's too self-absorbed and caught up in her own shit to pay attention to whatever we have going on. And I know she has a thing for Dad's old partner, so there's no telling what she's doing about that. But what makes you think that I don't care?"

"How could I not believe it? For one thing, ever since you got into Hollywood Arts, we hardly spend any time together, and when we do, I usually have to butt in and tag along, plus it's almost never just me and you. It's always me, you and those rotten friends of yours."

Before Tori could respond, Trina then continued with, "and speaking of which, every time they're around, they just say and do whatever they want, however they want to me, and you don't say shit about it!"

"Where is all of this coming from? I mean, yeah, Jade might say that nobody likes you, and we all might have complained at one point or another about you hanging out with us, but other than that, what have we really done or said to make you this upset?"

"Where do I start? How about when everybody came to play cards the night Jade and Beck broke up? Not only did you not say anything when I asked if you were really gonna let her say that nobody liked me, but before then, when Robbie used Rex to call me conceited and untalented, you were quiet then, too."

"Look, I know I don't always stick up for you like I probably should, and maybe you do act a little conceited sometimes, but even if they don't like you, I like you. Hell, I love you, Trina," Tori said. "They might be my friends, but you're my sister."

"If that matters so much, then why were you so ready to ditch me with Beck, André and Robbie when I had my wisdom teeth pulled, and then some random girls after you came back to get them?" Trina asked. "Or how about the time you locked me in the bathroom when you guys were working on your short film for Dale Squires? I get it if you didn't wanna put me in the movie, but that was low, even for you. You could have just said, 'hey Trina, you can't be in the short film', but instead, you just trapped me in there until everybody left."

"Okay, those are two small instances," Tori said. "When I left you with the guys, I did it because for one, I went to help out Jade and Cat, and I hate to say this, but trust me, if I had stayed here instead of ditching you, we would have kept fighting, and something would have happened that we both regret. You had been really difficult up to that point, and I get that it was because you were in pain, but it was really stressful trying to take care of you. I mean, the night before, I had to tie you up just to get you to sleep, and I heard that you tried fighting the guys and those Hayley and Tara chicks when they were here, so I already know that it would have been bad if it was just us together for the whole weekend. Besides, Mom and Dad are the ones really at fault, because they left town so they wouldn't have to take care of you."

"Okay, even if all of that is the case, it still doesn't excuse the fact that everybody treats me like shit, particularly the people who supposedly love me and care about me," Trina started. "I mean, yeah, I'm not so easy to deal with most of the time, but I'm so sick of people acting like... like I'm this really rotten person who's so horrible to be around. I mean, between you, Mom and Dad, your friends, and other people at school, I can't win with anybody. And then after what happened tonight..."

The recap of everything that had happened over the years had driven Trina to the edge, and now at this point, she could no longer hold back her pain. It started off with a simple tear or two, but eventually, her crying turned into a full-blown bawling session. Tori saw this, and she didn't waste any time before rushing to her sister's side to comfort her.

"Shhh," Tori sounded as she held onto Trina while they were sitting on the couch. "It's okay, Trina, it's okay." Still holding on to her older sibling who was continuing to cry, Tori suddenly figured out a possible solution to healing Trina's hurt, even though it had been, and in a way, still was a touchy subject in their somewhat rocky relationship.

"You might be crazy/ but have I told you lately that I love you?/ and that You're The Reason that I'm not afraid to fly/ and it's crazy that someone could change me, now no matter what it is I have to do/ I'm not afraid to try/ and you need to know that You're The Reason why."

"Are you okay now?" Tori asked Trina, unsure if the song had any effect on her mood.

"A little bit," Trina replied. "You know, I never really told you how good that song is."

"Yeah, it's so good that you sold it for 500 bucks and a hat," Tori joked. The irony of it was that now the song was in the hands of a woman who was quite possibly the biggest star in the world in Beyoncé. "But seriously, I'm sorry about everything that I might have done that could have drove you to this point, and from now on, I'm gonna do better as far as we're concerned. I'll talk to everybody the next time we're all together, and we'll definitely have to talk to Mom and Dad soon."

"Thanks, Tori," Trina answered. "And I'm sorry for being such a brat. I'm your big sister, and I should be better than what I've been to you."

"You're not a brat. You might have acted a little bratty sometimes, or a lot of the time, but now I know why that is. But from now on, everything's gonna be different between us."

And with that, Tori wrapped Trina into a hug, which her sister easily returned. Then Tori kissed Trina on the forehead before the two exchanged "I-love-yous". After that, the pair stayed up talking and watching several different movies before they eventually fell asleep. Regardless of what had already happened in the past, or what the future may have held, the girls both knew that in order to be okay moving forward, they both had to be their sister's keeper.

This had been floating around in my head lately, and I decided to write this and post it. I know, it's no good.