So this is my first published Victorious story. This is also my second multi-chapter (the first one's on Fiction Press under At the Edge of Insanity) and the first time I've decided to put the first chapter online without finishing the story first. I guess I wasn't sure how good it was. If you, the knowledgeable people of the Fan Fiction universe, think it's worth continuing, please send me a review saying so, and add this to your story alerts, as I'm sure I'll update again soon. And by the way, if anyone notices any inaccuracies, please let me know. I do have personal, daily experience with people on the spectrum, but only with Asperger's. Thanks so much! Enjoy!

"Hey, André," my best friend Beck said as he tapped my shoulder, grabbing my attention. I turned around from my locker to face him. He was pointing at a beautiful girl around our age who was wandering around the lobby, looking terrified and confused. "Do you know who she is?"

I shook my head. "I have no idea. But she looks scared. We should go find out what's wrong." I began to approach the girl, but Trina pushed past me and rushed to her side.

"Tori!" I heard her shout/whisper. "What are you doing here?! Did Mom and Dad drop you off again?!" The girl she called Tori nodded. "Ugh! I told them not to do that anymore!"

"Is everything okay, Trina?" I asked as Beck and I stepped closer to her.

"Everything's fine!" Trina said hastily as she stepped in front of Tori as if she was ashamed of her. Tori pulled on the hem of Trina's shirt; Trina slapped her hand away and continued to smile at us. Tori looked like she was about to cry. Trina only noticed when she started to whimper. She put her hand over Tori's mouth.

"I swear to God, Tori, if you start crying here, I will kill you!" she said in a hushed tone, but loud enough for us to hear.

"Trina, who is this?" I asked.

"No one! She's no one! Go to lunch!" Trina insisted. She opened her mouth to speak again, then yelped as she jumped away from the petite brunette, who was no longer on the verge of tears. Instead, she looked quite proud of herself.

"How many times do I have to tell you?! No biting!" Trina scolded her. Tori's eyes sank to the floor, but the faint smirk never left her face.

"I don't even know who she is, and I like her," Beck said.

"Me, too. Seriously, Trina, who is she?" I asked.

Trina sighed. "She—" Tori pulled on her shirt again. Trina groaned. "What?!" Tori pointed at the watched strapped to her wrist. Trina rolled her eyes. "Right. Noon. Feeding time. Alright, come on. I'll get you something to eat." She turned to us. "Follow me. I'll explain everything."

We all went outside to the Asphalt Café. Beck, Trina, Tori, and I sat down at our usual table with Robbie, Cat, and Jade. Trina grabbed a little cup of applesauce out of a bag Tori had brought with her, removed the foil, handed it and a plastic spoon to Tori, and let her eat.

"Why are you sitting here?" Jade asked Trina harshly. She then turned her attention to Tori. "And who's she?"

Trina sighed. "This…is my little sister. Tori."

"How come you never mentioned having a sister?" I asked, smiling at the quiet, beautiful girl eating her applesauce.

"Because I hate her," Trina said simply, her arms crossed over her chest.

"That's not a very nice thing to say about your little sister," Cat said matter-of-factly.

"I don't care if it's nice. It's the truth," Trina said. "I hate her. She's such a hassle. You can't leave her alone for ten minutes."

"She can't be younger than sixteen," Beck said.

"She is sixteen," Trina confirmed.

"Then how come you can't leave her alone?" Jade asked.

"Because she's autistic," Trina answered.

Cat gasped. "Autistic?! Oh, no! How long does she have?!" I sighed and slapped my hand over my eyes. Even for Cat, that was pretty bad.

Trina rolled her eyes. "All the time in the world, unfortunately. Autism is a developmental disorder. It doesn't affect her life expectancy."

"So she won't die? Yay!" Cat jumped up from her seat and ran over to Tori, who inched closer to her sister, clearly afraid of the harmless redhead. "Did you hear that, Tori?! You're not going to die!" She threw her arms around Tori. Tori screamed before pushing Cat off of the bench and onto the asphalt.

"What'd I do?!" Cat asked as she got back on her feet, brushing the dirt off of her poufy, pink skirt.

"A lot of autistic kids have problems with physical contact, especially coming from people they don't know," Trina explained as Cat sat back down. "She barely lets our parents touch her. Forget about you people."

"Why didn't you say you have an autistic sister? And I want a better answer than because you hate her," I told Trina.

Trina shrugged. "Do I need another reason? She's way too difficult. She takes away all of my time. You know how I spend my Friday nights and weekends? Babysitting her. Every. Single. One. That's why I never go out. I never have the opportunity."

"Well, today's Friday," I said. "We could babysit her for awhile, give you a little break."

"WHAT?!" Jade screamed. Tori dropped the plastic cup and spoon, spilling applesauce all over herself, as her hands shot up to cover her ears, clearly displeased by the sudden loud noise. Trina sighed, picked up the applesauce, and started to clean her up.

"What's the problem, Jade?" Cat asked. "I love babysitting!"

"I can't let you guys do that," Trina said as she put the dirty napkins on the table. Her words said no, but her eyes said, "Please, God, YES!"

"Why not?" I asked.

"Have you guys even met an autistic kid?" Trina asked us.

"Of course we have! We're meeting your sister right now!" Cat said with a giggle.

Trina rolled her eyes. "Besides Tori. I know you haven't."

"So what? We've all babysat before. You can leave us detailed instructions, we'll come over to your house, keep her in her own environment, and everything will be fine," I said.

Trina looked as us skeptically. "Are you sure you want to do this?"

"No!"

"Yes," I said firmly, my voice overriding Jade's. "We're sure. After sixteen years of babysitting, everyone deserves a break."

Trina smiled a tired, grateful smile. "Thank you, André. All of you. Thank you so much. I really could use a break." She tapped Tori's shoulder. "Tori, look at me." Tori wriggled in her seat uncomfortably, still staring at the ground. Trina sighed. "Tori, please look at me. I am begging you. Look at me." Finally, Tori turned her head so she was facing Trina, but her eyes were focused on her lips. "Tori, I want to introduce you to my friends. Watch my finger." She pointed to each of us as she said our names. "This is André."

"An-dré," Tori repeated quietly.

"This is Beck."

"Beck."

"This is Cat."

"Kit-ty."

Trina shrugged. "Close enough. This is Jade."

"Jade."

"And that's Robbie."

"Rob-bie."

Trina moved her finger back in front of her face, then lowered her hand when she saw that Tori was looking at her again. "Would you like to spend the evening with André, Beck, Kitty, Jade, and Robbie?" Tori shook her head vigorously. Trina's face fell. "You-You don't?" Tori shook her head again. "Why-Why not?"

"People," Tori said.

"Too many people?" Trina asked. Tori nodded. "Well, okay. Why don't you pick three of them to stay with you? Would that be okay?" After what felt like hours, Tori finally nodded. Trina looked so relieved. "Thank God. Okay, which three?"

"André," Tori said immediately, pronouncing my name more smoothly this time.

"Okay. You can have André. Now pick two more. I don't want to leave André alone with you. He might need help," Trina said.

"Mmm…Beck," Tori said after a moment of consideration. Beck looked like he was honored to be chosen.

"Okay. One more."

"Jade," Tori said.

"WHAT?!" Jade screamed. "WHAT?! Out of all of us, she wants me?! Forget it! I'm out of here!" Jade grabbed her bag and left the table.

"Uh…maybe you should pick someone else," Trina said.

"Kitty," Tori said.

"Yay!" Cat exclaimed. "She picked me! Oh. Sorry, Robbie."

"Even the retarded girls don't want you, Rob," Rex said. Tori threw the applesauce and spoon onto the ground when she heard the word "retarded" slip from the puppet's mouth. She started stomping her feet on the ground and banging her fists on the table. Every pair of eyes in the Asphalt Café was focused on us. Trina looked humiliated as she desperately tried to calm her sister down.

"Tori, stop! Please calm down, Tori! He didn't mean it!" She repeated that several times, and finally, after a five minute tantrum, Tori calmed down. She looked down and saw her applesauce splattered across the ground. She pointed at it as tears sprung to her eyes.

"What do you want me to do about it?" Trina said with a shrug. "You threw it, you have to live with the consequences. Now you don't get any applesauce." Tears began to roll down Tori's face and she started to wail. Trina signed heavily before she let her head drop to the table. She wasn't even going to try to calm Tori down. I decided this would be perfect practice for babysitting. I jumped up, grabbed a cup of applesauce from the bag I had seen Trina get the original one from, opened it, got a spoon, and held it out to Tori. She stopped crying immediately and stared at my offerings. Trina lifted her head to watch the scene. After a few minutes of contemplation, Tori slowly took the applesauce and spoon from me, then began to eat. I smiled proudly before I sat back down.

"Problem solved," I said simply as I pretended to brush dirt from my hands.

Trina smiled a little. "She likes you."

"She does?" I asked. Trina nodded. "How can you tell?"

"She took the applesauce. She trusted you. You're really good with her, André. You're ten times better with her than I ever was or could be, and I've known her for sixteen years. You've known her for sixteen minutes."

I shrugged, pretending not to enjoy her praise. "Guess I'm a likable person. So should we meet you at your house at five?"

"That would be great," Trina said, wiping a bit of applesauce from Tori's chin with a napkin. "Are you really sure you want to do this? She needs a lot of attention."

I nodded. "Yeah. We're sure. Don't worry, Trina. We like Tori."

"Trust me, you won't after tonight."

After seeing so many tantrums over the smallest things, I was wondering if Trina was right.