David and Holly sat in the kitchen eating stuffed peppers. Trina and Tori were eating on the couch while Trina forced her to watch game tape.
"Okay, so you see #22, right?" Trina asked. Tori nodded.
"Watch her set this pick and get the mismatch, and then that gives #13 a wide open shot. If I had gotten there quicker on the help defense..."
"We've been watching tape of this game for an hour, Trina." Tori said.
"We can watch tape of my game against Creighton."
"No."
"How about my game against USC?"
"No."
"Texas A&M?"
"Did you ask Tori if she wanted to watch some of her OWN game tape?" Holly asked. Trina stopped talking and looked at Tori.
"I don't want to watch ANY game tape. Mine, yours, anybody's." Tori said, Trina stared at her for a bit.
Tori got up and went to the kitchen, she looked at her phone.
"Andre's coming to pick me up in a few." Tori said, washing her plate.
"I hear him outside now." David said.
"Bye guys, I love you so much." Tori said, hugging her parents. She went over to hug Trina and Trina turned away from her. Tori rolled her eyes and went outside. She saw a black SUV heard unfamiliar rap music. She got into the backseat on the far right. Jade was sitting in the back on the far left and Cat sat in between them. Andre was in the drivers seat Beck was in the passenger seat. Everyone greeted Tori except Jade.
"Hey guys. What's this song?"
"This rapper in Indiana that Beck mastered music for." Andre said.
"Mastered?" Tori asked.
Beck smiled.
"Made it sound professional. Like put the effects in and stuff."
"You do that?"
"Yeah."
Tori thought. Soon they were at Andre's mansion. They walked in the living room and Robbie was sitting there.
"This is like old times." Tori said as they all sat at the table.
"Remember Robbie used to have that stupid puppet?" Jade asked. They all laughed.
"And Cat was addicted to skymall." Beck added. They all laughed again.
"And I wrote that really cool song about broken glass!"
Everyone just looked at Robbie.
"So, what have you guys got planned for after graduation?"
"I might drop out." Jade said. Andre looked at her and sighed.
"Jade, you aren't dropping out."
"The only reason I'm in college is to prove my dad wrong. He said I'll never be able to be successful through theater and he was right."
"Jade, you're really smart." Cat said as Andre put his arm around her.
"All I've done this year is finish 7 projects, write a bunch of scripts, smoke a bunch of weed and pass all my final tests to barely make it to my sophomore year." Jade sighed, crossing her arms.
Tori raised her eyebrows in shock.
"If you tried, you could do it." Beck said calmly.
"I tried but I gave up halfway through the school year. It's too much. What are you doing Robbie?" Jade asked, getting the attention off of herself.
"I dunno. I'm thinking comedian/musician at this point. I'm pretty funny and clever."
"What kind of music do you do?" Beck asked.
"Comedy songs with my piano and my guitar. Some rap. I'll play you something tomorrow. What about you, Beck?"
"I meet people like you and make their music sound professional like the stuff on the radio."
"How?"
"Audacity, FL Studio, etc. What's up with you, Cat?"
"Well, I want to play pro basketball but I'm scared."
"You'll do great." Tori re-assured her.
"Thanks I guess. Andre, are you going to work with your father?" Cat asked.
"I want to produce, write, and record my own music and use his label to promote it. What about you Tori?"
Tori took a deep breath.
"Well. I guess I could play basketball, but I don't know. I was actually gonna ask you something, Andre."
"What?"
Jade looked over at Tori closely.
"Well, I didn't want to be a bother, but..."
"But what?" Jade asked, cutting her off. Andre elbowed Jade.
"Since you're really good at writing and producing music, and your father has a record label, I was wondering if you could help me maybe produce and write and record an album and release it on your dad's record label?"
"That's asking for a whole lot." Jade said.
"Jade." Andre warned. Jade rolled her eyes.
"Yeah, I could. Except, I don't want Dad's people involved." Andre smiled.
"Then how will we do it?"
"You and I will write all the songs and I'll produce the beats, then record them in my studio and Beck can master, if that's alright with him..."
"Yeah." Beck nodded.
"And then I'll get my dad's marketing team to promote it and release it on his label."
"Wow, thanks! How much do you guys want for helping me."
Beck and Andre looked at each other and smiled.
"6." Beck said.
"Six what? Six dollars? Six hundred? Six thousand? Six million?" Tori asked.
"Maybe 7." Andre said, smiling again.
"Seven what?"
"Usually I'd say 8, but Tori's a friend."
"GUYS! EIGHT WHAT!?" Tori yelled.
"Don't get an attitude, I'll jack it up to 9." Andre said. Cat and Jade laughed. Tori sighed.
"You don't have to pay us, Tori." Beck said.
"Really!?"
Andre nodded.
Tori ran over and hugged Andre, then she ran over and hugged Beck.
"You guys are awesome!"
The gang hung out for a few hours until they heard a horn honk outside.
"It's Trina." Cat said, looking out of the window.
"See you guys!" Tori said, grabbing her purse and heading towards the door.
Everyone responded except Jade, Andre looked at Jade disapprovingly. Jade shrugged her shoulders as Tori left. Once Tori had closed the door, Andre turned to Jade.
"Why are you so jealous of Tori?" Andre asked.
Everyone fell silent.
"I'm not! I just don't like her!" Jade said, defensively. Robbie quickly changed the subject.
Meanwhile, Tori got into the car.
"Sorry about earlier, Tori." Trina said, awkwardly.
"Me too."
Trina began driving.
"Since I lost to UConn in the championship game and you lost to UConn in the final four game, I was watching some of your game tape, and I noticed something."
"And what's that?"
"Every time you drive, you hesitate one way and then take off the opposite way. You do it every time, it's obvious you're going the opposite way. You never double fake or just go in one direction. It's just one fake out and then you go the other way."
"Oh...I hadn't noticed. Now that I think about it..."
"And what's number 5's name? Nia? She takes too many shots."
"Yeah, I guess. She's pretty good though."
"You're better. She's too aggressive, you aren't aggressive enough. If you took more shots and she took less, you guys would be the best in the country."
"You're the only good player at UCLA so you don't have this issue." Tori smiled.
"Yeah..."
They rode in silence.
"Trina, when's the last time you've smoked?"
"Like 2 weeks ago."
Tori nodded.
"With who?"
"Elena."
"Jade's older sister?"
"Yeah, SHE'S a stoner."
"Explains a lot."
"What?"
"Nothing."
"You seriously aren't going to tell Mom and Dad."
"I won't tell Dad."
Trina stopped the car and looked at Tori, annoyed. Tori sighed.
"I talk to Mom about everything."
"Tori."
"Alright fine, I won't tell Mom either."
Trina looked at Tori for a little bit more, then started driving again. She turned on her phone and plugged it into the car stereo system. She was playing "Yayo" by Snootie Wild and Yo Gotti on full blast, Tori turned it down.
"Why do you always listen to thuggish loud rap music?" Tori asked.
Trina ignored her and turned it back up. Tori sighed and sat as the bass shaking the seats was giving her a headache. Soon they were home, it was 12:04 AM. They walked into the living room. Trina grabbed the DVD labeled. "Syracuse vs Conneticut, Final Four" and put it in. They both sat down.
"Earlier today, UCLA defeated Texas A&M to make the national title game. This is a win-win situation for the fans. If Syracuse wins, we get to see the Vega sisters have a showdown in the championship game. If UConn wins, we see the two best upperclassmen in the country, Rhonda Richards and Trina Vega face off in the championship game." The commentator said.
"Where did you get this?" Tori asked.
"I was going into your suitcase to borrow a shirt and this was in one of your jacket pockets."
"Classic Trina."
Trina laughed.
"Now Introducing The Starting Line-Up For The Syracuse Orange! Starting At Forward, number 13, Courtney Lewis! Starting at Center, number 28, Julie Lampley! Starting at the other Forward, number 22, Ashley Burks! Starting at shooting guard, number 11, Tori Vega! And starting at point guard, number 5, Nia Moseby!" The announcer yelled.
Tori went and got popcorn while the announcer announced Conneticut's starting line-up. She caught the end of it, hearing the announcement of their best two players.
"At point guard, number 13, Hazel Meredith! And starting at Center, number 90, the women's college basketball 2014 MVP, Rhonda Richards!"
"Where did I finish in the MVP voting? All I was told is that I didn't make the top 5." Tori asked.
"Uh...1 was Rhonda, 2 was Lexi Reed from Texas A&M, 3 was me, 4 was J-Moze."
"Jennifer? Where is she playing?"
"Mercer. 5 was Dana, 6 was you, 7 was that girl from Kansas, 8 was Cat, that's all I remember. Oh and Addie was 10. I don't remember 9."
"Where does Addie play?"
"Mercer."
"Wow, all your friends seem to be at Mercer."
"Yeah."
Trina and Tori watched the game, occasionally, Trina would pause and re-wind, showing Tori mistakes that were made. Eventually they both fell asleep sitting next to each other on the couch.
"And this one is all but over folks. With 32 seconds left and Connecticut leading by 12, it looks like we will see a Connecticut victory and a UCLA vs Connecticut national championship game."
"Syracuse would need a miracle to win this one."
As Trina and Tori sat together and slept, the video went off. Tori leaned on Trina's shoulder and they slept in complete silence besides Trina's snoring. Tori snapped awake. She noticed Trina asleep, she didn't pay it any attention but then she realized.
"Trina, you have insomnia..." Tori started.
"Oh my god, she smoked right before she picked me up. She drove me around, she could've killed me!" Tori thought, she went upstairs.
How will Tori's album turn out, Will Trina's secret come out? And will Jade and Andre work the Tori jealousy issues out?