Life Sucks and then You Die.

Disclaimer- I own lots of stuff, Victorious is not included in any of that stuff.

Call me negative, but of we're being honest, (and isn't honesty the best policy?) life sucks, then you die. Even the happiest people in the world have issues, they just know how to cover them up, I'm not so good at hiding my issues, Cat's great at hiding hers. Cat and I both have what you'd call 'daddy issues' we have 'mommy issues' too I suppose, at least I had a father for a few years before he decided a new life would be fun.

Cat's parents had never really been around, her father is a senator, and her mother runs around campaigning, and helping him look good. They hired a nanny for Cat and her brother, Tateen, her real name was Kathleen, but Cat couldn't say Kathleen for years so she became Tateen. Tateen was in Cat's life more than her both her parent put together, Cat also hung out at my house often, and my father became somewhat of a father figure to her, he'd pick us up after school, and take us for ice cream, he'd watch our soccer games, and cheer for us both. He seemed like the picture perfect everyday suburban dad. Until he left. We we're a quarter of the way through our seventh grade year, when he left, no note, no goodbye, no nothing. He just upped and left, we had even hired a private investigator to find him, we got the news he was living it up on the beach in Guam, I went numb, Cat cried. Watching Cat cry is like looking into the eyes of an abandoned puppy on the side of the highway, you couldn't not feel something. I hugged her, the feeling of genuine hate for my father seeping through my body; he knew Cat's father saw her once every three months, for a few hours, most of the time he was on the phone, talking about bills and whatever the hell senators talk about. He knew he was the closest thing she had to a father, he loved her, and he knew she was fragile, and he broke her, beyond repair.

I remember the night Cat called me, it was around eleven thirty, I was shocked because she usually went to bed at nine, she informed me she's be at my house in fifteen minutes, and that I should meet her at the jeep.

"Is The Car driving?" I asked, The Car is what we called her driver, he never talked to us no matter what we said or did, we didn't even know his name.

"Yep," she hung up promptly I quickly threw on a Burbank (our middle school) sweatshirt and some dark skinny jeans with flip flops, I thought about where my mother would be, so she wouldn't know I was sneaking out. I could always go out my window, but then I'd have to run across our grounds, and there were two problems with that- one, our grounds are very large and it would take a few minutes unless I ran, and two- I'd probably be spotted by my mom's poodles, the dumb things never shut up, and would cause a racket if they saw me running through the yard.

"Hey mom?" I pushed the intercom button.

No response, she had probably already fallen asleep or was in the bath with a glass of white wine. She didn't do much anymore; she made enough money to live extravagantly for the rest of her life, quit her job, and spent her days walking around the sprawling garden in our backyard with her poodles, Nigel and Easton, good dog names huh? Even if I did sneak out she probably wouldn't notice, my room was in what Cat and I called the 'West Wing' of my house. My house was set up in a somewhat of a main area, and four 'wings' that each of us lived in, my brother got the North Wing, I got the West, my mom the South, and guests the East. It took a relatively long time to get from one wing to another, which made for very interesting hide-and-go-seek games when we were younger, once while Cat and I wear playing I searched for three hours trying to find her, when I did, she had fallen asleep watching Dora the Explorer and eating skittles and popcorn in the home theatre under my room.

I ran down the spiraling stairs that lead to a fairly large kitchen I had to myself, my mother tried to get me to become interested in baking all the time when I was younger, I don't think she's given up quite yet.

I walked softly out of the marbled kitchen to the cobblestone path that lead to the drive, I got there just as The Car was pulling up in the Jeep. I jumped in the back seat, nearly landing on Cat,

"So Kitty, where are we going?"

"You'll see Jadey,"

"Sketch!" I laughed.

We pulled up to a shabby looking building in a part of Los Angeles I wasn't familiar with, it looked more like a building I would pick out rather than pink bows and frills Cat, but as we pulled up she jumped out seeming not to notice the overall appearance.

"Kitty, where are we?"

"I'm getting my hair dyed!" she chirped back excitedly.

"And we had to do this here because...?"

"Because they're the only beauty shop open at midnight!"

Jade rolled her eyes, following her friend into the musty complex.

"What color are you dying your hair Kitty?"

"Red."

"Red?"

"Like a cupcake."

Like a cupcake. Of course.

I wandered off as she got her hair dyed by a guy named Victor, I was about a thousand precent sure he was gay, which made me like him even more. Cat was sitting under the hair dryers while I looked at the piercings,

"You would look fabulous with a nose ring darling!" yep, defiantly gay.

"You think so?" I wondered aloud, I'd asked my mom a few times about the possibility of me getting a piercing; each time was a solid no.

"Defiantly!"

"Can you do that for me?"

"Of course honey!"

I wondered if this was even legal. But hey, you're only young once, why not?

After Cat had very red hair, and I had a nose piercing and some colored hair extensions we headed out where The Car was waiting patiently for us. He didn't make any comment on where we had been for the last two and a half hours, or Cat's new hair, or my piercing. As usual.

"Are you sleeping over?" I asked as we drove up to my house.

"We're going to be so tired tomorrow," I took that as a yes.

"All nighter!" I practically screamed as I ran to the east wing, where Cat practically had her own room full of clothes, and anything else she might need, we stayed there most of the time when she was over.

That night was one of the last nights I remember before Cat started to put up a ditzy front for everyone, though she still acted the same around me, when we were alone. I asked her about the change in personality once and she whispered back,

"It makes the pain go away,"

So I didn't find their childhood to be oh so interesting to write, because the biggest drama is someone stealing your crayons. So I jumped ahead to ninth grade. Sorry if I offended anyone with Victor, but I'm yay for gay, so none of it was meant to be offensive, I know not all gay men are so flamboyant, but I wanted Victor to be. Also, sorry about my other story I'm a bit uninspired at the moment, and I have to figure out where I want to go with it, so if you have any suggestions for either story I would love them! :)

Xoxo- Ari.