Ms. Vega Goes to Seattle
Summary: Determined Trina uses Tori and Carly's new friendship to arrange a guest appearance for herself on iCarly. Her sister, Andre and Jade go to Seattle with her.
A/N: I got the idea for this right after iParty with Victorious (clearly), but kept putting it off since I had other writing other projects. The idea wouldn't leave me alone, so here we are. It takes place shortly after the special and before iOMG. I do not want to mess with post-iOMG Seddie. Since it's not exactly official how far apart these episodes occur, I'm taking some creative license here and saying iOMG happens over a month after the crossover.
If you like this story (or just want to be nice) please follow me on Twitter, I'm writerchic16 there too!
"Tori Vega! Don't you hide from me!"
Hearing her sister's angry shout, Tori yelped and ducked under the cafeteria table. "Hide me!" she whispered to her friends. "I've been avoiding her since she found out I was on iCarly." Though the video was posted during their epic party at Kenan Thompson's house, Trina hadn't seen it until late the next day, after she finished up some homework.
Andre, Jade, Cat and Beck barely looked up from their lunches. At this point they were used to Trina Vega's irrational fury.
Before Tori needed to stretch her couched legs, Trina rushed over to the table. dramatically glaring at each of its occupants. "Where is she?" the diva seethed. "Don't protect her! I know you know where she is right now!"
Cat stared at her, confused. "Who?"
"Tori!" Trina shrieked.
"Oh, she's under the table," Cat replied without hesitation. When the others rolled their eyes at her, she nervously giggled and took a sip of her soda.
Meanwhile, Tori had been trying to crawl out the opposite side of the table from where her sister was standing, but Trina ran around and cut her off. Caught, Tori slowly got to her feet, trying to at least act like she wasn't scared. "Hi Trina." There was an awkward silence, then, "So...what's up?"
"How could you be on iCarly without me?" Trina demanded. If they weren't watching already, that got everyone in the cafeteria to pay attention to the argument. "You didn't think to invite your only sister?"
"Oh look, someone's mad at Tori." Amused by the confrontation, Jade grinned. "This should be fun."
Aware that they had an audience, Tori put on a brave face so she didn't appear intimidated. "It was all spur of the moment! Carly and I talked, then we figured out how to bust Steven! It wasn't even that big of a deal!"
Her words had no effect on crazed Trina. "Not a big deal? You got to random dance with Carly and Sam of iCarly!"
"Technically it was random humiliation with a little dancing..."
"Plus you got to hang out with Kenan Thompson in a closet!"
Her face red, Tori turned to the other students. "That's not what it sounds like." She paused. "Wait, you all probably saw the video, I'm good." That said, she turned back to her sister. "Look, I'm sorry I didn't think to include you in our plan. But what do you want me to do about it now?"
Unfortunately for Tori, Trina had expected that question. "Call up your new best bud Carly and ask her to let me on her show! You owe me!"
"I do not!" Tori retorted, getting angry herself at her sister's outrageous behavior. "Again, I am sorry you missed everything, but I am not asking Carly for a favor like that! I just met her! And I don't want her to hate me after you sing on her show!"
Though insulted, Trina calmly explained, "It's true, I would like to sing on her show. But I think sketch comedy is the perfect way to show off my acting skills. I would be such a fantastic guest in one of their 'Pathetic Plays.'"
Tori smirked. "Yup, that would be fitting."
"Cheap shot," Jade remarked.
"Oh, you thought it too," Tori retorted. "Look, Trina, I'm not asking Carly for a favor! She already helped me out a lot by telling me about Steven. I mean, maybe if we do become good friends I'll mention it, but not yet."
Childishly stomping her foot, Trina spat, "You're such a meanie!" She then stomped away, and everyone who'd been watching resumed eating their lunch.
Tori fell back onto her seat, very relieved that the confrontation was over. "Thanks a lot, Cat," she muttered, annoyed that the airhead had given Trina her location.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Cat exclaimed.
"That was rough, Tori," Andre said, concerned. "You okay?"
Tori shrugged. "Yeah, Trina's...Trina. She'll 'forgive me' within the week I'm sure. I'm just annoyed that she yelled at me in front of the whole cafeteria."
"Huh, that's fascinating," Jade said sarcastically. When Tori raised an eyebrow, she exclaimed, "Can we talk about something besides your little non-problems for once?"
Before Tori could get really offended, Beck explained, "Jade's in even more of a bad mood than usual because I'm going to Canada for my cousin's sweet sixteen. It's in a few weeks, but I told her the news an hour ago."
"Cool, sounds like fun!" Tori said. Cat and Andre reacted similarly.
This seemed to only make Jade more grumpy, but instead of snapping at them, she turned to her boyfriend. "You could skip the party. A sixteenth birthday isn't even important! It's not eighteen or twenty-one or..."
Beck gave her a reassuring kiss on her cheek. "Relax, will you? My cousin just wants to show me off to her friends. I'll make sure all those girls know that I'm taken."
"Whatever," Jade grumbled.
"Well, it's not for a while but have a good time, man. Can't wait to hear all about it..." Andre trailed off when Jade glared at him. "Uh, so...Tori, do you think you'll keep in touch with Carly? To be honest, I wouldn't mind being on the show too. They get like a million hits per episode."
Tori shrugged. "I don't know, maybe. I guess I could email her this week." At his hopeful expression, she quickly added, "But just to say hi."
That night, Tori had to search for her laptop, which was usually right where she left it. She'd emailed Carly a few hours ago, but needed it again when Andre called and told her download a worksheet their teacher had sent to the class. Finally she found it on the dining area table. This was very mysterious because she distinctly remembered that she'd put it away in her room.
"Weird," she said, but shrugged it off as she took her laptop over to the living room, then sat on the couch. Her parents had gone out to run some errands, and she assumed Trina was in her room, so Tori had peace and quiet while she logged into her email. Since she didn't need more than one address, she used the Hollywood Arts account for both personal and school purposes. Opening her Pear Tunes, she played some music as she downloaded the PDF file.
Sitting there staring at her inbox, Tori became self-conscious about what she wrote to Carly, worried that it didn't sound cool and casual enough. To reassure herself by reading over the email, she opened her sent messages.
Then Tori saw a message she definitely didn't send.
"What the...?" Wondering if her account had been hacked, she clicked on the email. Everything made sense once she read it.
Hey Carly,
By the way, I meant to add in my last email that my sister Trina is like, this incredible singer/actress and would love to be on your show! I do feel kind of bad about leaving her out of the scene we did, especially when I knew she's a major iCarly fan, so I figured I'd at least ask for this small favor. Please? I promise, she's really talented.
-Tori
Too shocked to react at first, Tori stared for a long moment, figuring out what to do next. Should she email Carly again ASAP for damage control? Or would she look weird no matter what she said because she emailed three times in the same day? Should she wait until Carly replied? But what if they set up a whole show with Trina as a guest, then Tori had to break the news about her sister's severely lacking talent? Or should she actually call Carly's cell phone to explain the situation? They did exchange both email addresses and cell phone numbers after the party...
Her sister walking in the front door distracted Tori from her thoughts. Suddenly, deciding what to do about Carly could wait.
She had to kill Trina first.
"Trina!" Tori shouted angrily, turning off the music and leaping to her feet. "How could you?"
Frozen in the doorway, dry cleaning in her hand, Trina carefully replied, "How could I what?"
"Hack my email account!" Tori yelled. "I can't believe you did that! Okay, yes, I know how desperate you are to be famous, but I can't believe you did that!"
Trina stayed calm despite her sister screaming in her face. "I didn't hack your email. You really shouldn't save your passwords."
"It's my laptop! I have every right to save my passwords!" Tori shrieked. "On the other hand, you have no right whatsoever to steal my identity and put words in my mouth that I would never, ever say!"
Still not bothered by her sister's outrage, going around her and putting the dry cleaning over a kitchen chair. "I had to do something! Who knew if you would even keep in touch with iCarly? I needed to get their attention while you were still a valuable contact."
"You could have, I don't know, emailed them as yourself? You didn't have to pretend to be me! You could've just said you were a fan and asked if they remembered you from the party! We did chat with them for a while after karaoke."
"Nah." When Tori indicated for her to continue, Trina explained, "It's strange really. I know I'm wonderful, but for some odd reason I don't make a great first impression."
Stubbornly holding on to her anger, Tori accused, "Well, whatever your reasons, what you did was still wrong. I want an apology!"
"Fine, I'm sorry!" Trina replied condescendingly, as if Tori was completely overreacting. "Just let me know when Carly replies, okay?"
Forced to make a decision, Tori went back to thinking about what she should do. Her best bet probably would be to wait for Carly's response. Maybe she'd even say no on her own for whatever reason. Plus they would have to run their trip by their parents, who might object as well, especially if airfare and hotel costs turn out to be too expensive. "Fine," Tori spat. "We'll see what Carly says."
"Okay. Oh! Mom and Dad stopped by, they just remembered another errand and will be back in a half hour," Trina said, totally dismissing their fight.
Curious about the full clothes hanger, which Trina had picked up again, Tori asked, "What did you need dry-cleaned?"
"After last period yesterday, Sikowitz forgot to take home his nasty old sweatshirt, so I had it cleaned. Hopefully now at least it doesn't smell like...well, I'm not sure what exactly, but it always reeked."
"Why did you do that? Failing his class this semester?"
"Of course not! Didn't you hear me? It reeked."
Tori laughed, then finally returned to her worksheet as her sister went upstairs.
Vertically across the country in Seattle, Carly Shay was also trying to understand her sibling's unusual thought processes. Spencer had brought in several new wooden pieces of furniture, then told his little sister and her friends to gather around. "What's going on?" Carly finally asked, pointing to the plain, dark-wood desk that didn't go with anything in their loft.
"There was this class on antiquing at the community center," Spencer explained happily. "You take something new and make it look ancient! It's almost art! After I'm done with all these pieces I'm going to sell them online."
"Wow, that actually sounds cool. How do you 'antique'?" Freddie asked.
Much to their surprise, Spencer picked up a hammer that had been on the couch. "You get to hit it! Of course there's other stuff that you need to do, but basically you just..." To demonstrate, he whacked the side of the desk, making the others wince. "This makes the furniture look like it's been damaged from years of use. But I just think it's fun."
"Of course it's fun! Let mama try." Sam took the hammer from Spencer and slammed it on top of the desk. The edge turned out severely dented, and a drawer opened from the sheer force. While Sam stood there, enjoying the moment, the others slowly backed away.
An awkward few seconds passed by, then Spencer slowly reached over and took the hammer back. "So yeah, um, before was just for demonstration, I have to sand it first. But, uh, thanks Sam."
Sam grinned. "No problem."
"So yeah, let's get back to the website," Carly said. Before the interruption, the iCarly trio had been browsing their website, looking at fan feedback and based on that, planning which they should do next. But when they stood around the computer, Carly was distracted by a blinking mail icon. "Oh, that's my personal account. Hold on a sec." Not caring if her friends saw the email, she opened her inbox to find not one, but two new messages from the same, unexpected person.
"They're both from 'torivega at HollywoodArts dot com.'" Freddie paused, surprised but not unpleasantly so. "Oh, it's Tori! Tell her I said hi! She's single now, right?"
Carly and Sam glared in annoyance, then ignored him as Carly read the first email aloud. "Just wanted to check in. How was your flight back? Hanging out with you, Sam and Freddie at the party was awesome, and I still can't believe I got to be on your show!"
At his name, Freddie melted instantly, a goofy grin on his face. "She mentioned me!"
"Shut it, ya nub! She lives all the way in Hollywood, get over it!" Sam snapped. When the other two each raised an eyebrow, she quietly said, "Carly was reading."
Shaking her head, Carly went back to the email. "My sister is so jealous, by the way! And I was thinking that you all should sing in a video, people would go crazy over it! You sounded great at karaoke, and it's awesome that someone recorded it so you could put it on the site. Anyway, keep in touch! Oh, and thanks again for telling me about Steven. What a skunk bag!'" Carly laughed. "She's right, he was a skunk bag."
"You know, it's weird," Sam remarked. "She and her friends are all creative, artsy kids. You'd think she'd have asked if one of her friends could be on the show."
"Maybe she didn't want to ask because she's not rude. Like some people." Freddie then glared at Sam, who again ignored him.
Carly shrugged. "Plus, they're in Hollywood, how would they even get here? I guess we could've played a video of someone singing or acting." Remembering the second email, Carly clicked it open. "I wonder what this is. Tori's first emailed seemed pretty...complete." No one had any ideas, so she read that email aloud as well.
"And there it is," Sam said, groaning. "Looks like she forgot to be rude in the first email, so she had to send another one."
"Come on, she asked nicely!" Freddie argued, quickly changing his tune. "Her sister probably is really talented if she goes to Hollywood Arts! And we could have Tori on the show too, we know first-hand that she's an amazing singer."
Sam rolled her eyes. "Oh please, you just want Tori to come here because you think you actually have a chance of dating her."
"That's not what it is, Sam! I'm only saying this because having guests on the show is always good for iCarly!" Freddie argued.
Thinking about it, Carly sort of agreed that the suggestion wasn't bad. Lots of kids want to be famous, so they would be interested in sisters who attend a school for future actors and singers. Even if Tori or Trina didn't turn out to be the most talented, they'd be able to tell viewers about their experiences, and share some of their best advice. "Wait, this could be good," she interrupted. "If Tori and Trina can somehow get here, we could interview them! Tori can sing, then maybe we could all play some kind of acting-related game. "
"You mean like improv?" Freddie asked.
"Yes, exactly!" Carly agreed. "Those are the games on Whose Line Is It Anyway?, right?" At their blank stares, she explained, "The old sketch comedy show we sometimes watch on ABC Family at midnight because it came on after a movie once." Her friends nodded in recognition. "So I'll email Tori back, see if she agrees, then we'll plan the show more. Hopefully they'll be able to make the trip."
Sam shrugged. "Could be fun, I guess." Tense from her fight with Freddie, she went back over to where Spencer was sanding the piece of furniture. "Hey, where's the hammer?"
"Uh, Sam, I don't..."
"Hammer!"
"Fine. At least hit randomly. It's not supposed to look like a pattern." Spencer handed over the hammer, then rushed away as Sam began to enthusiastically injure the poor desk.
At lunch later that week, Tori explained the situation to her intrigued friends. Her audience consisted of Andre, Cat, Robbie and Jade since Beck was auditioning for a school play, like Robbie had been several days earlier. "So, after talking with Carly on the phone and working out the details first, we presented it all to our mom and dad. They agreed to pay for plane tickets and hotel costs, but it'll be both our birthday presents this year. We wanted to go this, weekend but plane tickets were too expensive, so the trip will be in three weeks.."
"Okay, so did you tell Carly and Sam about me?" Andre asked eagerly. "Can I be on the show too? My parents said they'd pay for the trip when I told them how much it would help my career."
Tori nodded. "Yup! They love having musical guests." A little reluctantly, she glanced at the others. "So, uh, any of you want to come with?"
"I do!" Cat exclaimed, but then she frowned. "I can't though, my parents spent all their extra money on surgery for my brother's dog."
There was an awkward pause following that, so Robbie said, "Yeah, I can't go either. My parents are afraid of what might happen if I'm left alone in a social setting for an extended period of time. And Rex doesn't like to fly."
"I'll go."
Surprised, they all turned to Jade. "You? Want to go on a trip with us?" Tori asked in disbelief.
"Don't flatter yourself," Jade snapped. "Beck will be in Canada for the stupid sweet sixteen that weekend. He stays with his family close to Washington state, so we'll be able to meet up."
Trying to make sense of that, Tori asked, "Wait, why couldn't you just go on your own? Or with Beck?"
Jade rolled her eyes. "Obviously my dad wouldn't be okay with me using his money to go meet up with my boyfriend for a romantic weekend. Obviously." To answer the second question, she grumbled, "And Beck's family hates me."
"Maybe because you're flying up to hang out with Beck when he's supposed to be spending time with his family," Tori retorted. At Jade's death glare, she smirked. "That's right, I'm taking their side. Hah!"
Before the argument continued, Andre interrupted, "Wow, I can't wait to sing on iCarly! That show is a powerhouse, man. If Carly and Sam like your music, you're an instant Internet sensation. Crazy."
"Yeah, I told them about we all sing and act, so they were saying that they want to do a variety show," Tori said. "We'll alternate between singing and playing improv games. They're calling it their 'Hollywood Arts Spectacular.'"
Jade scoffed. "Well, count me out. I'd rather not owe my fame to some kids' web show."
"Fine, you think that. Andre and I will be random dancing with Carly and Sam if you change your mind," Tori retorted.
Oblivious to the conversation, Cat stared down at her macaroni and cheese. "Hey, what's in macaroni?" she asked, picking up a piece with her fork. When the others stared at her, she explained, "Oh, not the cheese. I mean like, what is macaroni? Is it a vegetable?"
"Uh, macaroni is not a vegetable. It's made with flour and water," Tori informed her.
Cat frowned, apparently disappointed by the information. "Oh." She put down her fork, then stood up from the table. "I'm gonna go buy a vegetable." Totally bewildered, her friends watched as she went over to the food truck and ordered a side of fries.
