AN: I do not own or operate the characters from Victorious nor the implied story line of "It's A Wonderful Life". I just keep them alive. Someone else owns them and has already made a fortune from them.

I have been thinking about writing this story for a long time. I came across a story with the same name, but it wasn't this storyline so I was disappointed. It was a good story, but this one was inside of me and wanted out for Christmas.

Enjoy S.M.

It's a Wonderful Jori

High school is what it is no matter which one you go to. There is boredom and drama and romance and rumors. The only difference at Hollywood Arts High School is the drama and the rumors all seem to be just a little bigger. What do you expect with a school full of extroverted neurotics?

I have been going to this school for two years now. When my sister Trina's tongue swelled up and she couldn't go on stage at the Big Showcase, I went on in her place and earned a place at the prestigious school.

I hid a secret for a long time, but then one day early this fall I could no longer keep it to myself and I came out of the closet in a big way. I professed my love for Jade West, a girl who spent all of her time ridiculing me and making my life hell.

It turned out that it was all a cover and she wanted me too. We have been seeing each other since October. We have really been good for each other. She had made me more assertive and I have made her a little more kind.

I was trying to raise some money for a children's charity. I had a bucket and I was standing outside the school door ringing a bell. So far I had raised almost five hundred dollars. Things were going well.

"How are things going Tori?" Cat Valentine my strange redheaded friend asked.

"It is going very well Cat." I have almost five hundred dollars as of today.

"Well this is the last day of school so hopefully you can meet your goal." She turned and hurried off to get to her class.

"I have twenty dollars for you." Jade said with her slow sexy voice.

"Why thank you Jade. Just put it in the bucket." I said.

"What do I get in return?" She asked.

"You get the enjoyment of giving to less fortunate children and a kiss from me." I said with a grin.

"I will take the kiss and you help the children." Jade said.

I threw my arms around her neck and kissed her deep and long. As a reflex I lifted my left foot off the ground like they used to in old movies. Jade makes fun of it, but I know she finds it cute.

"I have to run." Jade said giving me a small kiss and she turned to leave. I was staring at her beautifully curved ass as she walked away. "Take a picture it will last longer!"

"Good idea." I clicked a picture on my pear phone.

She walked away shaking her head and laughing.

"I love you West!" I shouted.

"I know." She returned.

I picked up my bucket and went to my locker. I put it in my locker and went off to class. I would take the money to the charity after school. They were expecting me. There would be pictures for some newspaper and small ceremony.

I got my project mark back in my language arts class. I thought that I aced it. In reality I had failed it. It was my first failing mark ever. I was shaking and starting to hyperventilate. I left the class and found that my new pear phone was bent in half from being in my back pocket. This was a six hundred dollar phone. My parents were going to kill me.

Now I had no phone and I failed my project. I was fuming. I stomped down the hall to my locker and grabbed the bucket with the money in it. The bucket was empty. Someone stole the money from my locker. The charity was expecting five hundred dollars. I didn't have that in my bank account. Where was I going to get the money from by four o'clock? Everyone is going to think I stole the money and I had no way of proving otherwise.

Jade would know what to do. I was headed to her locker when I saw her kissing her old boyfriend Beck. The tears started flowing down my cheeks. How could she do this to me? Especially at Christmas time! I loved her and she knew it. I ran outside crying. I heard Jade calling my name and chasing after me.

I ran into the park next to the school and hid behind a large tree. I waited until I couldn't hear her voice anymore. I then started to cry freely. I couldn't believe that this was happening to me all on Christmas Eve.

Reaching in my bag I found a bottle of pills. I had taken them from my mother's purse. They were sleeping pills. I took them from her because I knew she was abusing them. Now I was sitting here and the only answer I could come up with was that if I take these I can get away from all these problems.

"So what are you going to do? Are you going to take them or not?" a voice broke my trance.

I jumped and looked around. That was when I saw the little man sitting against the next tree over. "Well are you going to take those pills or not?" he asked again.

"Who are you?" I managed.

"I am Clarence. Angel second class." He said getting up coming over to where I was crumpled.

"Angel?" I asked.

"Yes I am an angel."

"Where are your wings?"

"I don't have them yet. I have to help someone to earn them. I have been assigned you. I am here to show you that things get better. But how?" Clarence said.

"Well I wish I wasn't born!" I said.

"Oh don't say that!" Clarence said.

"Everyone would have a better life if I wasn't born to interfere." I said.

"Yes… yes…. that might just do it. Yes!" Clarence said to himself.

There was a flash and suddenly it was night. I guess I just have fallen asleep and dreamed all of this.

"Well get up and let's go." Clarence said.

I got up off the ground and brushed off the grass. I walked back to the school. When I got to the school I found it locked. I guess it was dark and it was probably closed for the holidays.

It wasn't the same though. There was graffiti everywhere and the place looked run down and old. I ran to the entrance and checked the sign. It didn't say Hollywood Arts. It said Burbank High School and it looked like it had been closed for a long time.

"The school went broke and closed about two years ago. After something scared the audience at a Showcase concert they stampeded and trampled three people. The laws suits ruined the school. It had something to do with a tongue." Clarence said.

"No Trina didn't go on stage and her the swelling in her tongue went down. I went on instead…" Clarence cut me off.

"You were not born, so you were not there to keep Trina from going out on stage and scaring the audience." Clarence said.

We walked to my car and drove to my house. When we pulled up I got out and ran to the door. I grabbed the door knob and turned it expecting it to open and let me walk in. It didn't open.

"Why won't the door open?" I asked Clarence.

"This is no longer you home Tori. You were not born so the Vegas only have one daughter. She embarrassed them so bad at the Showcase that they moved back east to Florida somewhere. There was no reason to stay in California." Clarence said.

"Someone must know who I am. What about Cat? She will know me." I stated.

I drove like a crazy person to get to Cat's place in the hills. I ran to Cat's door and rang the bell. When the door opened Cat was standing there. She was Cat, but she didn't have her signature red hair. She seemed kind of normal.

"Hey Cat!" I said as she stood there with a confused look on her face. "It is me Tori!"

"I am sorry, but I don't know you. How do you know my family nickname? Everyone calls me Catarina except my father and he ran out on mom and me years ago. Who are you?" she asked getting louder.

"We went to school together at Hollywood Arts. Don't you remember?" I asked.

"Very funny! I was thrown out of H.A. They said I stole money from some stupid charity bucket. I couldn't prove I didn't so I was expelled. Go away! Is this your idea of a sick joke bringing all this up again on Christmas Eve? Very funny Harris!" She yelled into the yard. "I am calling the cops."

Cat slammed the door in my face. "What happened to Cat?"

"She told you she was kicked out of Hollywood Arts. She had to get a job. She had to quit being the Cat everyone knew. She stopped dying her hair and she started talking in her regular voice again. She hasn't sung a note since she left the school." Clarence declared.

She mentioned Andre. He will remember me. He will know me.

Clarence lay his hand on my shoulder and suddenly we were in a dim smoke filled room with a black piano player hammering on the keys. He didn't seem all that skilled, but it didn't seem that the clientele really cared all that much.

When the song was over I approached the piano. The musician looked up at me as he drew on his cigarette.

"Hey Andre." I said.

"Do I know you?" Andre asked.

"Ya we went to H.A. together. It is me Tori! We sang together all the time. You were my best friend."

"I was kicked out of H.A. They didn't have room for a black kid. They said I wasn't good enough. I could never get any of those uppity white kids to work with me. I knew I could make it, but I never got my chance. I doubt we worked together. I would have remembered a sweet thing like you." Andre said.

"Clarence, why does't he know me?" I asked.

"He was out of H.A. after one semester. You were never there. Remember you were never born. You were never there to sing for him to make him better." Clarence said wondering why I wasn't getting this.

"Is Robbie Shapiro desolate too?" I asked.

"No he is the only one that went on to have a good life. He was a headline act in Las Vegas with his puppets. He created a puppet that was a terrorist and he made a lot of people laugh."

"So he at least is happy." I said.

"Well he was. He was killed by a religious extremist that did not take to his terrorist humor. A nut brought a gun to his show and shot him while he was in the middle of his act. The guy was caught and arrested and is serving a life sentence in a federal prison." Clarence said looking down. "He had no one to put him in his place without Cat around."

"I need to see Jade. Do your flashy thing and take me to Jade."

Clarence tried to protest, but I would hear of it. So he put his hand on my shoulder and the next thing I knew we were standing outside of a prison.

"What are we doing here?" I asked.

"You wanted to see Jade West, well she is in there!" Clarence said.

"She is in prison?" I asked.

"Well she is doing time for murder. She stabbed her boyfriend with scissors. She said it was self-defence, but there was no proof. She had a violent side to her that could not be tamed. Supposedly Beck liked to hit her and she stopped him. The judge gave her twenty to life. See you were not there to keep her calm. She continued to date Beck instead of you and she ended up killing him. He deserved it, but she is doing the time." Clarence said.

"Why is this all happening Clarence? These are all good people. Why do they have such horrible lives?" I asked with tears streaming down my face.

"Well you weren't born Tori! That is what you wanted. We touch so many with our lives that we are not aware of. Not just our friends and families, but hundreds of others. You were a good person Tori. You made all of these other people's lives better for knowing you. Strange, isn't it? Each person's life touches so many other lives. When they aren't around they leave an awful hole, don't they?" Clarence said.

I was wracked with sobbing, "Clarence! Clarence! Help me, Clarence! Get me back! Get me back, I don't care what happens to me! Get me back to Jade! Help me, Clarence, please! Please! I wanna live again. I wanna live again. I want to live again. Please, let me live again.

There was a strong wind and then nothing. I looked around and I was back beneath the tree. I looked around and it was still daylight. Clarence was nowhere to be seen. I slowly made my way back to the school.

"Hello H.A." I ran through the doors, "Hello lockers, Hello students. People looked at me like I had lost it all, but if they only knew what I knew. I had lost everything and now I had it back.

I hugged Cat when I saw her and she squealed. "Tori, I have been looking for you. Sikowitz wants you to come to the black box theatre."

"Oh Cat you know me! You know me!" I shouted.

"Of course I know you Tori. Why wouldn't I know you? I have known you since you filled in for your sister at the Showcase last year." She said.

I followed Cat through hall to the black box. When I got inside the place was full of students. My friends were all there. They were all patting me on the back and telling me how they were all so happy that that I was okay.

Andre came up and hugged me before sitting down to a piano and playing a Christmas song. Then I saw her.

Jade came over like nothing had happened. "Where were you Baby Girl I was trying to catch up to you and you just disappeared?"

"I ah.. saw you kissing Beck and I thought you didn't want me anymore. So I ran.." I tried

"That is what I thought. That bastard tried to kiss me in the name of Christmas. I only want you Tori, only you." She said kissing me.

Then I saw Beck coming in the theatre. I broke the hug and went straight to him. "Why were you kissing my girl?"

"It is Christmas and …." He never finished. I kicked him square in the balls. He went down like a sack of potatoes.

Soon a big bowl appeared and people started throwing money in the bowl.

"What is all this for?" I asked.

"We heard that the money you raised was stolen and we want to help." Cat said.

Soon the money in the bowl was twice the amount that I had raised. I had friends, that made me the richest girl in town. That was the lesson Clarence was trying to teach me. Now I understood.

"Hey everybody look at this!" Robbie said.

He was holding an envelope that had fallen out of Beck's pocket. It was the envelope with the charity money in it. Beck had taken the money. "I have already called the police." Two of the bigger guys grabbed Beck by the arms and sat him in a chair. They kept an eye on him so that he didn't try to run.

As we were drinking punch and watching Beck being arrested for theft we raised our glasses of alcohol free eggnog in a toast. Andre made a toast to the best friend any of us have ever had. It took me a while to figure out that he was talking about me.

That was when the final bell for the day rang. "It is said that every time you hear a bell ring an angel gets their wings!" Sikowitz said.

With tears in my eyes and hugging Jade I shouted, "That's right, that's right, atta boy Clarence!"

Then we all sang "Auld Lang Syne" before taking the money to the children's charity.

The End

AN: This was fun. I hope you liked it. I wish each and every one of you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. (or what every you celebrate) Let me know what you think. S.M.