Title: Stille Nacht
Writer: Invader Johnny
Disclaimer: Victorious belongs to Dan Schneider , I own squat!
Plot: Jade listens to a Christmas story and it makes her think that maybe for once she shouldn't be such a Grinch.
Author Notes: What can I tell you about this story? I originally wanted to post it last year but unfortunately I was not able to since last time I put all my effort on my "Secret Sam-ta" Christmas story and when I actually did finish this... Well it was too damn late to post so I was left with the only option of posting this tale until next year.. i.e THIS year, but of course I HAD to forget under what what name I saved this, so needless to say that it took a hell of a lot of time trying to find this story again after so long; I really need to organise my lap top, so for all intents and purposes this X-Mas fic is meant to take place in December 2014 and you'll see why when you read below.
Anyways, just to let you all know the title of this story is in German which means "Silent Night" I meant to use the full name of "Stille Nacht, heilige Nacht" which translates into "Silent Night, Holy Night" a popular Christmas carol, composed in 1818 by Franz Xaver Gruber but it seemed too long a title so I shortened out of necessity, but again you'll understand why the title is in German soon enough.
BIG NOTE HERE: I want to make it clear the story is for entertainment purposes as well as teaching purposes since the tale Jade will hear is 100% true, it just goes to show us all how powerful a Holiday such as Christmas can be.
Oh and yeah as always this will be Jori.
"Christmas bites"
"No it doesn't!" Cat snapped out defensively "It's the best time of the year! Peace on Earth, presents! And... And more importantly it's the day Santa was born!"
Jade blinked twice "What?!" had to made sure she heard right "Mind repeating that Cat?"
"Christmas is the day Santa was born!" The redhead repeated happily, too happy in Jade's opinion since from the look of things her best friend seemed as if she was about to explode from holiday eagerness.
"Too bad she won't"
" So to celebrate she brings presents to all the little boys and girls all over the word!"
"Huh? A she? What the fuck?"
"Cat..." Jade spoke her friend's name slowly "Are you blind? Santa is a big fat guy"
The petite girl giggled uncontrollably for a few seconds, as if she was in on something that no one else knew "Are you sure?"
The Goth slaps herself on the forehead "There is so much wrong with this"
"Cat, Christmas bites!" She said darkly "For that matter, Santa blows"
"You take that back!" Cat yelled out with wide eyes, horrified that her best friend had insulted her childhood hero "Christmas is the most wonderful time of the year! And if you keep calling Santa names, you'll be getting coal in your stockings!"
Jade rolled her eyes at the girl's naive opinion of the holiday season, "Screw this time of the year!"
It was no surprise that seconds later the petite redhead's eyes began to water with tears; the Thespian mentally groaned; she knew what was gonna happen next and to be completely honest with herself, it was one of the few times she did not want to relish in the misery of others.
After all making Cat cry was pretty much the equivalent of kicking a hurt puppy, so while the little yapping machines were on the list of things she hated; Jade would never intentionally hurt Cat's feelings, just because she acted dark, cruel and vindictive most of the time, the brunette sure wasn't a complete monster.
The redhead just never understood why Jade was such a scrooge around the holidays, and most likely she never would.
The truth of ther matter was that as long as she could remember; Jade used to spent Christmas day alone.
Her so called father was a bordering workaholic who preffered to stay at his office working on cases for his clients over spending time with his only daughter, her mother on the other hand was a whole different topic, a very painful one.
Jade never knew why, maybe it was her father's cold demeanour, maybe she just never really wanted a kid or simply things took a toll on her and cracked since one cold December night her mom just got all her things and left when Jade was very young, never looking back on the family she left behind.
That was the day her innocence was crushed into a million tiny pieces.
It cut her very deeply for a quite some time which is why Jade was very careful on who she allowed to be a part of her life.
Then she one day meet Beck and after much insistence he wormed his way into her everyday life; Jade wouldn't admit it but she was content but not happy, she never really experienced happiness, after all no one really had made her happy before.
... Well almost no one.
Jade shook her head "Now is not the time"
she recalls early morning drives to his house or more accurately his trailer for Christmas, beginning to feel for the first time ever why people loved this time of the year so much; as far as she was concerned things were good, things were excellent however she should have known it wasn't meant to last.
So it came as to no surprise to anyone that they ended up breaking up after a big fight so now Jade was back where she started.
"Well... Almost."
Finally breaking from her train of thoughts, the Goth remembered that she had a very important matter to atend to if she wanted to avoid some serious water-works courtesy of the redhead in front of her.
"Fine... Santa doesn't blow" Jade relented with an eye roll "Are you happy now Valentine?"
She groaned seconds later when the younger girl launched herself into her, hugging the pale teen as tight as her arms would allow.
"Can't breathe" Jade mumbled "Godddamn it, how in the fuck is Cat so freaking strong?!"
The Brunette was about to warn Cat to let go by ominously counting to three, that is until something or rather someone finally catched her eye.
And made her narrow her eyes in contempt.
"There she is" Jade mentally sneered "The selfish gank"
Trina Vega just got out of her car without a care in the world.
The pale teen unintentionally holds her best friend tigther, not that Cat minded, if anything in that wandering mind of her's she simply believed that Jade was finally getting into the holiday spirit, giggling at "affection" she was getting out of the other girl.
However if she knew what Jade was actually thinking then she wouldn't be all happy and care-free.
It was no mystery that the Goth held Trina in the lowest of regards; And just when she thought that the bar couldn't go any lower the banshee did something so low that even a slug had more of Jade's respect than the talentless wonder ever could.
Why? Well simply put, Trina did not want to share Tori as of late.
For what reason? Because Christmas time is family time.
Jade rolled her eyes in annoyance at the half-ass excuse; since December began, every day after school the Vega sisters had made an "unscheduled stop" to the mall before heading home.
The Goth knew this since afterwards the Half-Latina would usually vent her frustration on the slap, telling us all what nightmare is being dragged store after store so her sister would show her the latest products, clothes and whatnot that had caught her eye, so it really was nothing more than a less than subtle approach just so Trina could get as many presents out if her younger sister.
Clearly her parents weren't about to pass away any more money on gifts for their eldest daughter.
Unfortunately that decision meant that Tori had no choice but to endure these tiresome excursions to the mall since Trina was her ride home and was not about to risk driving with anyone else after so many fiascos hitching rides from her friends, she nearly went crazy.
Speaking of the younger Vega. She finally got out of the passenger's seat a few seconds later with muder in her brown eyes.
Jade couldn't help but smirk proudly.
Clearly the younger brunette wasn't thrilled about her sibling's idea of "sisterly time" in the loose term of the phrase but it was the holidays so Tori usually tried to be more patient towards Trina's crazy shenanigans which was easier said than done.
Cruelly, (In her opinion) Tori couldn't get out of this dilemma but only because she promised her parents that she wouldn't trap Trina in the black box, ditch her and conveniently "forget" about her for the rest of the night like she did the previous year just so she could have a good time at Andre's Christmas party.
But in her defence, it had to be done; after all the last thing the half-Latina needed was to check herself into a nearby looney bin thanks to a "Christmas Meltdown" courtesy of her obnoxious older sister.
So unless a holiday miracle happened sooner rather than later; Tori was heading towards the crazy house.
Meanwhile Jade never thought the day would come where she would actually be jealous of Trina Vega but bitterly... She was, very much so.
"She can't keep Tori to herself!"
She wordlessly walked away from Cat and her bone crushing hug, ignoring the redhead's complains.
Jade hatched a plan, one she needed to implement and now was the perfect time! she searched for some cover before the torn on her side spotted her.
The Goth grabbed a pair of scissors she had hidden in her left boot, she would do the job quietly and neatly.
Trina's car was just a couple of steps away from her; by slashing the tires she would free Tori from her torment, giving her a ride and let the talentless teen figure out how to get home as far as she was concerned.
"Make no mistake, this is war and to the victor's goes the spoils"
War... That was a word that made her think back... To the previous day.
"You know, people always said war was hell" Robbie said tiredly, an unmoving Rex resting on his knee, Jade was intrigued by the fact that the usually arrogant puppet was dressed like a World War One soldier "Then the First World War broke out they found out what hell really was."
"Shappiro.. What the hell are you doing?!" The Goth yelled at the top of her lungs, startling the geeky ventriloquist.
"Oh um.. Hi Jade" The boy greeted the scary girl with caution "I was just practicing something"
"I don't care!" She hissed ominously "Get out! I'm plotting revenge and I need to be alone!"
"You can't just kick us out!" Rex sneered "There are many places you can think if revenge but not so many that people don't laugh at Robbie!"
"Rex!"
Jade rolled her eyes "Whatever you are doing I'm sure it will go down the crapper now GO!"
Instead Robbie had the guts to ask something else so either he was growing a double or he was suicidal "Um... Jade.. You are into history right?"
"Only when torture is involved"
"No surprise there" Rex muttered, earning both him and Robbie a death glare from the pale teen.
"I'm going to count to ten"
"Wait Jade!" The scrawny teen said with fear "I'm just trying to get into an oral report I have to do for history class and well you are the scariest person I know... If u could um.. Hear me out... That would help a lot"
"Gimme twenty bucks"
"What?! Why?!"
"My services don't come cheap" She snapped out "So either you pay me or get out!"
So Robbie had no choice but to give the Thespian money.
"Ok.. Go ahead.. AND MAKE IT FAST!"
"Um ok.. See when the First World War started a hundred years ago... Everyone thought the war would be over and done with in six weeks, but nearly five months later they were still at it."
"Who was winning?" Jade asked; he already payed her, might as well give him a break.
"Nobody" Robbie answered solemnly The British and the French had stopped the Germans from getting any further into France, but they couldn't get them to leave. So both armies dug in, literally, in long trenches. In some places they were only a couple of hundred yards apart."
"When winter arrived it began to rain, and the rain turned those trenches into endless pits of mud. On Christmas Eve 1914, that's where they were. Instead of being home and sharing the holiday with family, they were soaked with mud, eating the same rations every single day, freezing and being shot at."
"What sort of guns were they using?" She asked another question.
"Why is that important?" Rex snapped out.
Jade shrugged "Twisted curiosity you could say"
"See, the thing was that all countries were using machine guns in war by then, and later in the war they started to use mustard gas."
Finally Jade had advanced past the rows of students cars; straight into Trina's piece of junk, everyone in the school's parking lot was doing their own thing so she wasn't worried about getting caught.
"Too bad I can't get my hands on mustard gas, slowly losing theabily to breathe seems like a better way to die than a machine gun, to fast a punishment... Depriving me of Tori from me should be a crime.
With that in mind, her eyes narrowed with contempt, she can't kills Trins so leaving her temporarily without a mode of transportation would have to do.
"So while in the trenches it became a waiting game. Soldiers waited for their orders, whether to attack or retreat didn't even matter anymore, anything just for things to go forward in the war, All of them had one thing in common... They were all there together, sort of, in the same atrocious conditions, and when that happens, things tend change."
"Why should anything change just because of that?"
"Desperation made the difference actually" Robbie answered " See Jade, It's easy to hate someone who's far away because you don't know who you are fighting, Everything turns upside down when you see someone right in front if you, it becomes more difficult to hate somebody when they're nearby, and the closer you're close to him, the faster you get tired of hating him. In fact, they used to have a brief ceasefire every morning."
"Why?"
"So both sides could eat breakfast. As soon as they finished eating, though, out came the guns once again. It sounds like something you'd see in a movie, but it really happened, war is terrible in so many ways, so having not to worry even for a while about getting shot was a blessing even if a temporary one.
"Then what?"
"According to witness accounts in the evenings the men would sing sentimental or patriotic songs to pass the time, try to forget where they were. The amazing part is, sometimes the other side would join in the applause and even call for an encore, it was almost like old friends gathering at any event"
"Ok, now I know you are making shit up Shappiro" Jade scoffed "That part sounds so fake!"
"That's what they say happened" Robbie insisted. "And on Christmas Eve, the Germans put up Christmas trees beside their trenches, and even decorated them with candles."
"They stole that from us?"
"On the contrary Jade, they started the Christmas tree tradition, we simply borrowed it from them!" The eyes behind the glasses seem to twinkle. "Incredible that one symbol of Christmas... Of peace on Earth was first seen by us at a time of great despair and tragedy in the world, don't you think?"
Jade remained silent.
"So as things would have it, the Allies were trying to figure out what these then new objects were, Adding a new enigma to the events they all heard the Germans singing Christmas carols, quite a few of which we know too. 'Silent Night' and 'Oh Christmas Tree' originally came from Germany."
"Then some Germans began shouting "Merry Christmas!" towards the Allied trenches, much to the surprise of the soldiers."
"They knew English?"
"Not all of them" Robbie said "A few of the German soldiers had worked in Britain before the war, so they knew a little of it. Then the German soldiers began calling the Allies to come over to visit them... Naturally the Allied soldiers didn't want to go since they feared it was a trap"
"Well DUH" Jade blurted out.
"The thing is Jade; it wasn't an ambush, however they felt more comfortable if the Germans came over to visit THEM. The only trouble was, the Germans weren't willing to enter their territory either, and for the same reason.
"In one place someone threw a cake to the other side. Of course there was a mad scramble, as you can imagine," Robbie chuckled, "but when it didn't explode, that's when they realized it was a cake.
"A goddamned cake... Really?"
Robbie nodded, frowning at his friend's use of foul language, choosing to ignore it, he continued with his tale "I don't know for sure if the British or Germans threw it, but in various places here and there all along the front, soldiers from both sides came out of their trenches and met each other, right in the middle of No Man's Land, all fear if an ambush and death gone from their minds.
"So... What happened next?"
"Everyone began by shaking hands and wishing each other a Merry Christmas."
Jade couldn't believe that people who wanted to kill each other one minute would greet each other the next, it was very enigmatic and in reality it made her want to know more, like something that needed to be understood further.
"Things weren't exactly forgotten to a full extent since the Allies knew they were right out in the open facing the 'enemy' and no doubt the same thing was also on the minds of the Germans. They began talking, and if they couldn't understand the other's language then they improvised, there were no shootings, no worries, no death and everyone acted like friends... As if the war was nothing more than a petty thing of the past"
"Everyone was in on the truce?"
Here Robbie lowered his head "No... The truce was technically unofficial so some German soldiers wanted to continue the fight, one man in particular was the most outspoken against the truce calling it treason among other things"
"Dare I ask who?"
"Adolf Hitler... The biggest monster in history... He wanted to fight on Christmas Day, see where I'm going with this?"
"I have an inkling... Yes" Jade admitted "Are you saying a person full of hate can't find peace?"
"I am"
"I assume the truce was still on?" The Goth asked uncertainly "Despite oppositions?"
"Very much so and it was truly incredible when you think about it. In the middle of the worst war the world had known up to that point, soldiers from opposing nations got together and sang Christmas carols side by side."
This was truely a different kind of Christmas story; Jade was nothing less than amazed. "Robbie? You're not kidding me? I mean.. This happened?... For real?"
"I researched this myself Jade... I wouldn't be doing a report on if it it was fake"
The boy continued to tell her more and more, how soldiers began to reach out, until all along the front, little groups of Germans and Allies were greeting each other, singing, laughing, showing each other pictures of their families back home, sharing cigarettes, and even exchanging little gifts."
It was the sort of Christmas Jade never experienced.
"Where'd they get Everything?" Jade wondered. "They had nothing to eat but rations!"
"Oh, actually the soldiers's families and friends knew they wouldn't be home for Christmas since the war was lasting longer than expected, they began sending packages of warm clothing, cigarettes, and treats. So there they were, visiting, even partying with men they'd been trying to kill only hours earlier."
"People don't make sense sometimes"
"No they don't" Robbie agreed "The biggest moment of the truce according to some was that right in the middle of No Man's Land, there was a soccer game between the British and the Germans that Christmas."
"They kept scores?"
"Officially? No but in truth Germany beat England 3 to 2. They probably would have played together for quite a while, but the game suddenly ended when the ball got punctured on some barbed wire."
"I gotta ask.. After all that.., why the war continued?"
"Military officials were not impressed... they were not impressed at all. The soldiers had been acting against their orders; like I said before none of that had been officially organized. After all that, the soldiers just could not bring themselves to shoot at each other, and to the officers that was the worst thing of all. Every commanding officer from the General on down ordered his subordinates to stay on the offensive at all times. Any and all sort of friendly meetings with the enemy, for any reason whatsoever, were absolutely forbidden. The record of these orders is how we can be sure it really happened, to the big Chiefs they wanted victory so that terrible war would drag on until 1918, but this was the first and final time the Christmas truce happened.
Jade learned one thing for sure... People can learn to let go of grudges... They can get along and most importantly... There can be good will towards anyone.
The Thespian frowned, her scissors millimetres away from the tires, at another time she would've mercilessly slashed Trina's tires but remembering the previous day and the Christmas story of the First World War she couldn't make herself do it, as much as she wanted Tori to spend time with her, Trina had a right to go first, she was her sister while Jade was her girlfriend.
So without another word she puts her scissors back in her booth, the Christmas season has begun and Jade would not do anything Trina, she would not let her contempt for Trina get the better of her.
She would not be a Grinch.
As she got up to walk back into the building, Jade was surprised to see Tori looking at her, a frown on her features, both hands behind her back.
"Jade"
"Vega"
"What where you doing?"
"Well Vega.. I was about to slash your sister's tires so I could set you free from this aggravation but then I thought...it's near Christmas... I won't waste my time in pointless revenge for now... Plus if I had done so she would've become ten times more annoying and I think you already suffered enough."
Tori smiled.
"What the fuck are you smiling about?"
'Jade West, you never cease to amaze... You know that?"
"I know"
"Thank you"
"For what?"
"For giving my sister a break... For not seeking her misery but most of all for being a wonderful girlfriend and looking out for me"
And with that, Tori got one arm behind her back upfront and high enough between them for Jade to see that her lover was holding a mistletoe.
"Really Vega?"
Tori's smile widened even more, so she quickly gave Jade a peck of the cheek and ran out of the parking lot.
"VEGA!" Jade bellowed out "That's not fair! Get back here and kiss me right!"
"You'll get more on Christmas!"
The a Thespian narrowed her eyes dangerously.
"Ok... New mission... Break into Tori's house and put as many mistletoes as ai can in every room possible"
"I will kiss her on Christmas"
I can only say this, the story sucked after reading it after a year and I had to re-write certain parts, hopefully you will all like it enough.
For those of you who probably didn't notice, this fic takes places in the same universe as my Sam and Cat fic "Secret Sam-ta" which explains why Cat refers to Santa as a she, I'm not revealing anything if there are a few who haven't read the story.
I originally thought about Jade really using her scissors on Trina's car but after much thinking I decided not to, otherwise it would make it seem as if Jade learned nothing from the story Robbie told her.
Also I'm aware that in the "Victorious" universe there grinch is known a the "Grunch" but I hold the green psycho in such high regard because I remember seeing it every year while growing up so I decided not to go with the Vic version, plus you all gotta admit Jade and The Grinch are very similar in some aspects.
Anyways, the story that Robbie told Jade actually happened, as a history enthusiast I just couldn't help myself into giving you all a window into the past, Christmas was indeed a very difficult time in 1914, so if any of you had any ancestors who fought in the first world war, hopefully this story will give you all a small glimmer of hope in mankind.
Finally I want to wish all my fellow readers and reviewers a Merry Christmas!
Invader Johnny Signing Off.