Disclaimer: I don't own Victorious or any of it's characters, Schneider's bakery and Nickelodeon do. I just borrow them from time to time. Seems, fair, as the owners aren't really using them any more.
Warning, this story gets a touch odd. Also, not my best work.
:}
Tori almost danced into school, excited about her first day as a senior. However, it wasn't just that now, she and her friends would functionally rule the school. They'd almost been doing that since junior year. No, the problem was deeper, more personal. Over the summer things had gotten tense, some of her friends fading into the background, only rumors spreading about what they'd been up to. But now, school was back in session, so everything could get back to normal, just like it always did. Issues that needed to be resolved, or were left handing from the end of last year. Things like Beck and Jade. Jade may have broken up with Beck, again, on that last day of school, but they'd soon run into each other, and them being Beck and Jade, they'd be a couple once more within days. Only, there was one complication...
It had felt weird not having Jade around over the summer. Not that Tori expected the goth would want to hang out much, all things considered. Yet somehow she'd felt that maybe., just maybe, they could be friends. Only this time, the breakup had been epic. 'I remember, it was bad. I mean, Beck and Jade made it to the last day of school, everything feeling just fine, then boom, he goes and announces that he's landed some small role on a Canadian television show, and won't be around most of the summer. He was spending his summer, or at least a big part of it, in Canada, instead of here where his friends where. He was spending his summer far from his girlfriend. Away from Jade.' Tori reminded herself, momentarily breaking her happy. 'What was amazing, cause she's already known, was that Jade tried to be supportive. She really tried. No screaming, no random acts of Tori abuse. Not even using Rex to unclog the toilets. No, Jade tried being stoic, which was so weird. I guess that had to be the warning, cause Jade, she's way to, um, I guess the diplomatic word is psychotic. I mean, we all know she's way to much the violent rage monster to have just let her boyfriend be away all summer. Away, and around the available, and lets face it, often beautiful girls he'd be filming with.' She shook her head.
'I'm amazed she lasted as long as she did.' Tori continued, clearing her mind of this so she could get back to her happy thoughts. 'I mean, you could see how bad it would be, what with Jade here, trying to stay strong, and him up in Canada, making her jealous just by smiling at the first cute celebrity who walked by him. We all knew it was straining Jade, thinking about that, so naturally, she chose to do something about it. So she lasted until lunch, picked a fight with Beck, and they exploded. It was bad, with Jade trying to get him to break up with her, or looking for the excuse to break up with him. Either way, before lunch was over, everyone at school knew they weren't a couple any more, and Beck Oliver was free to date whomever he wanted, all summer long.'
Coffee eyes looked around to see who, if anyone, was there before continuing with her review. 'Then, Jade waited. She just waited, disappearing and not interacting and waiting for Beck to return to her.' Tori recalled. 'Only, he wasn't alone when he came back. July ends, and he comes home, ready to spend all of August, or at least as much as we get, give how early school starts for us. But we were all looking forward to a couple of weeks of fun with Beck, but then, he shows up, and it turns out, up in Canada, he wasn't single for long.'
She leaned against her locker, watching the doors. 'I kinda like Priya, even if she's really not his type.' Tori thought. 'But she did have so much in common with Beck. She's a Canadian girl of Desi decent, meaning her families from some part of India. And she was moving, has moved to California to pursue acting.
Tori recalled meeting Priya during a visit the girl did before she actually moved here, and found the girl to be a sweet person, reminiscent of Beck in so many ways. 'If I didn't know how sisters worked, I'd swear she was his, cause their both good looking, she does look a little like him, and they have the same laid back personality. I mean, she's nice enough, but didn't Beck once tell me he liked a challenge, and that girl, Priya, she's anything but a challenge.' Tori hesitated. 'Or maybe she is, and I just don't see it. Either way, I feel like she just won't last long as Beck's girl. She just, there's no other way to explain it, she feels like his sister. My god, Beck is dating his sister!' Tori managed not to laugh at her own joke, since she knew it wasn't funny. 'It wasn't supposed to last...'
To Tori, that relationship seemed doomed, and Beck would soon be looking for the familiar, in the form of a dark haired goth with a scissor obsession. However, here it was, the first day of school, and the pretty, proper girl was still attached at his hip. Naturally, Tori was anxious to see how Jade would react, especially given the rumors she'd started to hear as the school year drew near.
Another factor to consider was what Beck's new girl was doing. Priya, it seemed, had gone to a private school, one that followed the British traditions, and at seventeen was now finished with her primary education. She instead had a job of some sorts as she studied acting from local teachers. 'Beck does seem happy to be with her, almost giddy. It's like, she makes him happy, despite being nothing like what he told me he likes. So, did he lie, or did he need someone who challenged him, but didn't threaten him? And what will happen when Poor, pretty Priya finally runs into Jade West, the pale death.' Tori chuckled. 'Okay, maybe she's not that bad, but she… I have no idea how bad she'll react, given what I've heard, and I've been hearing almost nothing. And, and how the holy chiz does he kiss her? It'd be like me kissing Trina, only more weird, cause girls sometimes practice kissing with other girls, know it doesn't mean anything. Beck may be giving his sister tongue...' She wondered as she finished cleaning out the dust from her locker. Her head spun with the thought.
Her mind turned to the rumors she'd been hearing. Yea, she'd heard them before, many times. It seemed that those rumors spread whenever Jade was away from her friends for any length of time, but especially during this last summer. Rumors of destructive behavior, self harm, and who knows what kind of debauchery. Tori knew better then to give those kinds of rumors too much credit, usually. However, this time they was different. New rumors had been floating around, in many ways just like the old ones, but they had become more consistent, in a scary, dark and worrisome kind of way. Tori had heard them, as she interacted with people she knew from school, and now had to accept that those rumors might have something behind them.
'It started some time late in July. I believe it was around her birthday.' Tori recalled, now once again watching the door intently. 'That was when the rumors started getting serious. People were whispering to one another, any time one of us, Jade's friends, might be close enough to hear. I heard they even whispered around Sinjin, so they had to think it was serious, cause Sinjin, not Jade's favorite person. The odds of him telling her are low. Moreover, the odds of her letting him be that close, long enough for him to tell her, were even lower.'
Tori knew the rumors. 'They start off with her getting kicked out. Like, apparently, Jade and her dad, and we might as well include her mom, but the rumors usually say dad or family, but they got in a fight. Some people say disagreement, but one doesn't get kicked out over a disagreement, even if Jade overreacted. And she, as usual, overreacted.' Tori scanned the entryway for any of her friends, cause they'd know, she hoped, if any of the rumors were true. 'Of course, no one knows any details. Not even what the fight was about. Just that they fought, and Jade got thrown out. Then, what most people seemed to agree on, is that Jade went down hill fast. Got all depressed, had no one to help her out, no support, and she spiraled. They claim she tried to kill herself. Like really kill herself.' Tori sighed. 'Like she'd just give up. That girl is so full of fight, she probably took over some place, forced them to help her, and now rules the street.' She smiled. "Nhaa, but Jade can survive. She's tough. Wouldn't try to end things, cause she's determined to be a star, right? Jade would never try to end her life, right?' Tori was drifting in her worries, no longer watching around her as intently as she'd been just moments ago. Tori didn't just want to see Jade walk into the school, she needed to, so she'd be sure Jade was alive and well. Tori needed those rumors to be just that, rumors, with no basis in fact. Only, some rumors had at least that kernel of truth, so Tori needed to see the goth. Jade walking in was her cue that everything would go back to normal soon.
"Tori, hay, whats up?" Beck said, smiling. He'd been so invested in his new girlfriend that Tori doubted anyone would have told him the Jade rumors. Most of the students, including some of the one's who wanted Beck for themselves, weren't gonna break up this romance, at least not for a while. They felt that Beck deserved his bit of happiness… for now.
Of course, Beck had other things on his mind. Priya had been very distracting towards the end of summer, wanting to do the various California things with her boyfriend. Tori had gone with them to the beach, insisting that Trina drive, since there was enough room for all four of them in the older girls car. It was also the end of Trina's crush on Beck. As for Tori, she was just happy to see him at school, not attached to the girl.
"Oh, you know, the usual." Tori chirped back. "But hay, seniors. Am I right?"
"It's a new year." Beck agreed. "Our last year together." His eyes seemed to sparkle. "I say lets make the most out of things. Have us a great, memorable year."
"Is Jade here?" Sinjin asked. He'd walked up in Beck's shadow. Now that they were better friends, the lanky boy had become Beck's most trusted confidant, the role that Jade, oddly, had once filled. "I was wondering if maybe she'd be willing to go out with me."
"Sinj, you know she'll just try to push you through the paper shredder, again." Beck warned his friend.
"But she was really depressed all summer." The lanky boy explained.
Beck's head whipped around to Tori. "And this is the first I'm hearing about this?" He asked, a hint of anger under his calm exterior.
"In my defense, she's been avoiding me." Tori said. "I'm as anxious as anyone to see her, see for myself that the rumors are totally wrong."
"What rumors?" Beck asked both his friends.
That was when Cat walked in, looking far less happy then anyone could remember her being. A week in a Yerbain prison hadn't broken her, but a two month sentence in an Arizona Jail almost did. "Hi." She said, looking straight ahead.
"Cat, you okay?" Tori asked.
"Tori!" The small girl cried, then she rushing up and hugged her friend hard. "I'm so glad to see you again."
"You saw me last week." Tori said, trying to break fee from her friends death grip.
Cat had been sentence to sixty day in jail for assaulting a hair models hair, but like many well behaved prisoners and youthful offenders, she only served 60% of her sentence, or thirty six days. Had she been in prison, federal law required her to serve at least eighty five percent of the sentence, but only being in jail got her out early. Still, the time in jail, with her probationary period making up of the remainder of her sentence, had dulled her normal sense of joy. It wasn't completely gone, just dulled around strangers. But the worst part of the whole ordeal was that her roommate, Sam, could have done something to help her avoid going to or staying in jail.
Those in the know had found out that Cat could have paid a fine and only served a few days in jail. But her roommate, Sam, had not only decided not to go rescue her, the blond had convinced Cat's Nona that the perky girl was just spending more time in Arizona, and so no one needed to do anything about her. Because of Sam, Cat served her sentence, and then had to find a way home. Luckily for the redhead, Cat's friend Dice was able to send her a bus ticket home, then arrange for her to be picked up and dropped off at the apartment. But feeling abandoned by her friends, Cat fell into a deep depression.
'Of course, Cat rebounded, but not before going through an isolationist phase.' Tori reminded herself. 'She probably wondered about Jade, but never asked. I guess that's a good thing. Jade's not the most understanding of people.'
In fact, Cat did wonder about Jade, wanted to talk to the gothic girl, but at the same time wasn't sure it would have been a good idea. She just didn't want to be made fun of for having been in jail. So Cat wound up not seeing her best friend the entire summer. Instead, when not working, she hung out at the Vega residence. 'Trina made sure she didn't hear any of the Jade rumors. Said Cat needed the time to recover, feel better about herself. Also, why worry her if the rumors weren't true. Heck, Trina even told me that, since we couldn't do a fudging thing about Jade, at least until she contacted us, we needed to focus on the things we could do, like taking care of Cat. Or Trina's nails. Not sure how that kept coming up, but in an odd way, buffing Trina's nails did help Cat feel a little more normal. God, I wish Trina were here...' Her eyes refocused on the wall. "Never thought that before."
"What?' Beck asked.
"I just wished Trina was here." Tori explained, as she wiggled out of Cat's death grip.
Cat smiled, as she could do in the presence of her friends and the people she knew cared about her. It was only at home, where her and Sam were still in a strained relationship, or among strangers, that she fell back into prison normal. "Trina's been good to me." Cat said, looking her friends over with deep, worried brown eyes. "So, um, has anyone seen Jade yet?" She asked, her voice smaller then usual. The collected others shook their heads no.
Just then, saving them from a potentially uncomfortable question, there was movement at the front door.
Tori braced herself for the reaction, from any one of her friends, for when the goth walked into the school. Instead, she saw Andre and Robbie arguing, again. That had started when Robbie's father made him get a summer job at the same mall that Andre worked at.
'Turns out Robbie's a good worker bee, doing the grunt work and looking competent.' Tori reminded herself. 'So he bounces around the mall, helping out where the store owners feel they need him, and winds up working at Yotally Togurt, with Andre. Rob then asks his dad to help the owner, who I remember was a dufus whenn it camew to business. But robbie asked his dad to try and figure out how they can increase profits, or maybe make on their next big product. Rob's dad invests in the shop, takes over some of the management duties, cause lets be honest, the owner had no idea what he was doing. That mister Shapiro managed to convince him was a miracle. and since this was the first thing Robbie did that his father approved of, Rob wound up the new assistant manager.' Tori sighed in solidarity with her friend. 'Good on Robbie, but now he's the assistant manager of Yorally Togurt, and Dre's supervisor. Naturally, that's driving Andre nuts.' She'd heard her best friend complain about it often enough.
"I'm just saying, if we remove the soap particles storage from next to the other toppings, we reduce accidents, and can add another yummy topping to the menu." Robbie was saying. "We'd just switch to a liquid cleaner."
"And I'm saying that we've always done things that way, and we've had almost no mistakes." Andre argued. "Certainly we don't have any repeat mistakes." Tori knew that Andre was just arguing to argue, since he, and her, could clearly see how good the curly haired boy was at the job. It was just Andre hated having Rob as his boss. He'd told Tori, back when she was trying to sell those disgusting berry balls, that they'd never had an assistant manager at Yotally Togurt. Mr. Mooney, the old boss, often just left Andre to run the store during his shifts, no one worrying who was in charge. In fact, Dre often ran the store by himself as his boss tried to figure out how to increase business. Only now, Dre had someone new to answer too, and it was the same by they'd all thought of as their charity case friend. And if that wasn't bad enough, sometimes Robbie would let his power go to his head, like when he made Rex employee of the month. "Beck, Little Red, Tori." Andre greeted his friends.
"Hay Beck, girls." Robbie greeted them. "Have you heard about Jade?"
"Why?" Andre asked.
"She's going to be here any minute, assuming she chooses to show up at all." Rob continued. "But from what I heard, she tried to kill herself after her mother told her that she, the mother, was moving to New York, and that Jade was on her own now that she's eighteen." He leaned in conspiratorially. "But here's the kicker. She's seventeen. She's been pretending to be a year older, probably because people respect older girls, and her parents used that as an excuse to throw her out. Of course, her father wont take her, so no one knows where she's been living. Maybe in her car, right? But no, cause her dad took that too." He ran his eyes over the group. "Anyways, expect a different Jade when she walks through that door."
"You shouldn't spread rumors." Tori said. But out of the corner of her eye, she could see Andre nodding, seeming to agree with Robbie on this, if nothing else. That meant that this was more likely to be the truth then anything Tori had heard so far. It also did fit with a lot of the things she had heard, often overheard as various girls talked to Mrs. Lee at Nozu, since that woman loved hearing about how Jade was suffering.
'Those girls even said, as of last week, Jade hadn't bothered coloring her hair, or even cleaning her cloths. Nothing since she tried to take her life.' Tori reminded herself. 'Of course, I didn't believe them, cause that would hint that Jade's like seriously depressed, lost and giving up, and I just can't have her giving up yet.' Tori knew that, if those rumors were true, it was only a matter of time before she snapped, and the best case scenario was Jade would be gone. Worst case, others would go with her. It was one of the reasons she was so desperate to see the girl walk into school, head held high, pretending that Beck moving on didn't mean a thing to her.
Cat had grabbed onto Tori for support, holding herself up for the short time she needed to get a hold of her emotions. "I heard about Jade." Cat said after a moment. "What? You didn't think I'd try calling her? Maybe talking to her parents. Okay, it was only within the last couple of days, after I heard the rumors, but still, I tried." Then the anger faded, and the small girl's face, almost her entire world, fell. "I blamed her for leaving me in Arizona, like I blamed Sam. But Sam had the means to help me. Hell, she could have helped Jade. But she didn't. And now, I'm left feeling all guilty for avoiding Jade when she could be out there on the streets, dying, or worse." Tori felt the petite girl shaking.
"Worse?" Tori asked. But Cat didn't elaborate. Instead, she continued holding onto Tori's arm for support and tried to make small talk.
"So, what do you think Sikowitz is gonna try to teach us this year. I mean, he was scraping the bottom of the barrel towards the end of last year." Beck asked, equally eager to avoid speculation until Jade arrived. If Jade arrived. "I mean, bus theater?"
They talked, making small talk and in general being friends, until just before school was supposed to start. That's when, once again, the door flung opened, this time revealing the girl they'd all been avoiding talking about. Jade walked in, head held high, and for a second, just a second, it felt like things had gone back to normal.
The goth was in rare form. Her black dress said sexy and dangerous, with leather and lace hugging her thin but curvy frame. Her eyes screamed danger, a warning that anyone who was between her and her goal was likely to end up in traction. She strode to where the gang was gathered, reaching into her 'Gears of War' bag for something as she closed. No one, not even students new to the school, wanted to be in her path, as powerful, determined steps took her straight towards Beck….
Towards, and beyond. Jade walked past her ex, closing the short distance where Tori stood, too shocked to move. As what was happening started to register with the gang, the singer braced for some unspeakable act of violence, or anything related.
Moments later, she opened her eyes, since all Jade did was place a quick kiss on the Latina's lips. "Morning." Jade said, turning to see everyone, looking almost chipper. "So, we all download our schedules?" Her smile felt warm, which of course made everyone else nervous. "Of course you didn't. Here, babe, I downloaded yours." Jade pulled out a piece of paper from her bag, a printout with Tori's schedule on it, and handed to the stunned Latina. Jade spoke directly to her. "We have three classes together this year." Her voice was an odd mix of soft and excited. "The lucky break was both of us getting the TA gig for Sikowitz's beginning acting class. Together. That should be a trip." She looked around at her friends. "I'd love to stick around, but we all need to get to home room. You guys can get your schedules, and I can relax while they go over chiz I already know. Later." She looked at Tori. "Later, babe." Then, after another quick peck on the lips, the goth was gone.
Everyone was looking at Tori, "Okay, that wasn't in any of the rumors I heard." Andre said.
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So, thoughts? I have a couple of more chapters, and wanna know if anyone wants to see how things work out. Just, I love my happy endings, so you've been warned.
Oh yea, review.