A/N: Wow, I don't really like this chapter. My flow was seriously hampered in this one. I shouldn't have forced it. But, it still isn't completely terrible so it gets posted. I hope you guys enjoy me on an off day.
I don't own Victorious
It's after school. Dante and the gang are leaving Hollywood Arts to head home. They're still discussing Dante's locker and how he came up with the idea with Cat. As he is enlightening them on his thought process and how he got to the '9 Layers of Dante' idea, he suddenly remembers something.
"Uh…guys?" Dante looks troubled and the gang can obviously tell due to the look on his face.
"What is it, Dante?" Tori asks, speaking for the group who are all equally curious.
"Well, two things. First off, I gotta get my stuff from my old apartment. I mean, I managed to get enough for a night yesterday but I gotta pick up the rest of it."
"No problem, man. Beck and me will help out. We'd be glad to." André offers his and Beck's services.
"Thanks, guys. I really need the help too." Dante happily accepts. Robbie is less than pleased.
"Hey! What about me? I can help too!" Jade and Rex scoff.
"Please, Rob! With your noodle arms, you couldn't lift diddly!"
"For once, I agree with the puppet." Robbie is offended at Jade and Rex's accusations. Dante tries to appease Robbie in order to calm him down.
"Robbie, calm down. Of course you can help!" Dante is dragged away by André and Beck.
"Dude, no. Robbie is…not the best person to help with heavy lifting." Beck tries to explain, but Dante isn't having it.
"C'mon, he wants to help. It's not like we need him to do any actual heavy lifting. He can, I don't know, carry my hats or something." André sighs.
"Don't say we didn't try to warn you." They go back to the rest of the group.
"Ok Robbie, you can come with." Robbie smiles while Beck and André groan inwardly.
"Dante, what about the second thing?" Cat asked.
"Oh, right. I need a new cell phone. My last one…mysteriously broke." Dante mumbled, remembering how exactly his last cell phone was damaged.
"Ok, I got it. Dante, you go get your stuff and move with the guys. Cat, Jade-" Tori gets out the beginnings of her plan, but is interrupted by Jade.
"Nuh uh. Count me out. Just because I liked your locker, doesn't mean we're suddenly friends and I'd help either you or Vega. I'm out of here. Beck, I'll see you later." Jade walks away, leaving the rest of them to stare at her retreating form.
"Sorry about that, Tor. You know how she is." Beck apologizes and Tori sighs.
"It's alright, Beck. Anyway, Cat and I will be waiting at my house afterward to go and get the phone with you, Dante. You guys ok with that?"
"Yeah." "Yep." "Got it." Beck, André, and Dante all agree. Tori grins.
"Then it's settled! Cat, c'mon. Let's go meet with Trina so she can bring us home. Later, guys!" Tori and Cat leave the boys to their devices.
"Alright then. Let's get there in my truck. Dante can show me the way." Beck says as he and the guys head in the direction of Beck's truck.
xXx
Luckily for the boys, most of Dante's things haven't been unpacked yet. So the little things that had been unpacked, they repacked and began loading into the truck.
"Hey Rob, what's that?" Rex points out a dirty old, ratty looking box tor Robbie.
"I don't know. Let's see…" Robbie beings to open the box but Rex stop him.
"Oh man, this thing stinks. It's trash. Let's throw it in the incinerator!" Robbie is reluctant to do such a thing.
"I don't know, Rex. Maybe I should just ask Dante about it?" Rex disagrees.
"No, man. Remember how reluctant he was to have you come along? Asking him about this junk will only bother him. Just do him a favor and throw it out." Robbie gives in, lifting the box and carrying it to the incinerator.
"Alright, Rex. If you say so…" Robbie then opens the hatch and chucks the box inside. As he's doing this, Dante is walking towards him, a curious look on his face.
"Hey, Robbie. What did you just throw in there?" Robbie is happy to answer.
"Just some smelly, ratty old box. Looked like trash." Dante's eyes suddenly widen and he begins sweating. In a panic, he brushes past Robbie and back into the apartment. He hastily runs around, opening the boxes that remained inside. Robbie runs into the apartment, worried at Dante's reaction.
"What's wrong, Dante? Was that box not garbage?" Dante stops and slowly turns to Robbie.
"That box…that box had all my hats inside it! WHY WOULD YOU THROW IT AWAY? DID YOU NOT CHECK INSIDE IT FIRST?" Dante was enraged and Robbie could only nervously stutter out his answers.
"N-n-n-no. I mean, uh, Rex told me to just-"
"Rex? The freakin' puppet? The puppet told you to throw out my hats?" Dante asked incredulously.
"Hey! That's a derogatory term!" Rex replied, offended at Dante's use of the word 'puppet'.
"I don't care! WHY DID YOU THROW OUT MY HATS?" Dante screamed.
"Hey, why would you put them in a dirty old box if they were so valuable to you?" Rex argues. Dante twitched.
"…Come here, you stupid puppet!" Dante ripped Rex from Robbie's hands and ran to the incinerator, Robbie close behind.
"You wanna throw my stuff in the incinerator! I'll throw you in the incinerator!" Dante opens the hatch, ready to chuck Rex inside, if it weren't for Robbie practically tackling Dante.
"Rob, help me! He's crazy!" Rex yells, pleading for Robbie's help.
"It was an accident, Dante. Rex didn't mean it!" Robbie tries to convince Dante, but Dante thinks otherwise.
"He's a damn puppet! You control him! Therefore you threw out my stuff. And now I will throw out your stuff!" Dante reasons from his spot on the floor.
"No!" Dante and Robbie began wrestling for Rex. Beck and André, who hear the commotion, run upstairs to find Dante and Robbie rolling around on the ground. They manage to pry the pair apart, André holding Dante and Beck holding Robbie. Dante is suddenly seemingly calm and André slackens his grip. As soon as he does, Dante tries to break free and rush towards Robbie. Luckily for him, André manages to get a good grip on Dante and stops him.
"C'mon, you know that stupid puppet deserves what I'm gonna do to him!" Dante yells, and Robbie just clutches Rex closer to him.
"André, take Dante downstairs and calm him down. I'm going to have a chat with Robbie, see what exactly happened here. We'll bring the rest of the stuff downstairs. André, you get Dante's side of the story." André nods and takes Dante downstairs with him. Beck stays with Robbie, who has an odd smile on his face as the other two boys leave.
André and Dante arrive downstairs and get inside Beck's truck. Dante sits silently as André says the first thing that pops inside his head.
"Told ya so." Dante isn't amused and refuses to look at André, who takes it as a sing to continue.
"Robbie's an alright dude. He just seems to mess stuff up all the time. One way or another. As you can now see." Dante sighs.
"I loved those hats dude. And now they're all gone." Dante grabs André and shakes him violently. "MY HATS! I HAVE TO BUY ALL NEW ONES!" Dante screams, while André tries to loosen Dante's grip.
"Calm down bro. You still have the one you wore yesterday. And the one you're wearing now. So it's not a complete loss. It's still pretty bad though."
"Right, right. Thanks, André. I think I'm back to normal." Dante looks to the side and sees Beck and Robbie walking down the stairs, boxes in tow. Robbie looking flushed and disheveled while Beck is smoothing his hair out. They load up the boxes and enter the truck. Robbie turns back to Dante, ready to say something.
"No. I think it would be best if you didn't talk to me for the rest of the day, Robbie." Robbie closes his mouth, frowns and turns back around, clearly disappointed at with how Dante is treating him.
The ride to Tori's is silent. Beck is focused on driving, André and Robbie are in their own heads and Dante is staring out the window, watching the scenery. They soon reached the Vega household. The boys begin unloading the things off the truck, Robbie, being barred by Dante from touching anything else, decides to ring the doorbell. Cat is the one who opens, looking all disheveled and flustered.
"Hi Robbie! What brings you here?" Cat asks, and Robbie gives her a questioning look.
"I'm here with the guys to bring Dante's stuff over, remember? We agreed upon this earlier?" Rex decides to butt in.
"Rob, this girl is loco! Just get Tori over and let's get on with it!" Robbie didn't take kindly to Rex's order.
"You be quiet! You got me in trouble with Dante all because of that stupid box! I don't have to listen to you!" Cat, who has been standing there quietly watching the two argue, decides to head back inside to get Tori.
"Who is it, Cat?" Tori appeared, straightening out her shirt, "Oh, Robbie! That must mean the boys are back." Tori then faces Cat.
"Let's go see if they need any help."
"Ok!" Cat replies happily and the two girls leave Robbie arguing with Rex.
xXx
"Thanks for the help guys," Dante thanks André and Beck, "And Robbie." Dante practically grows out Robbie's name, who jumps and runs behind Beck.
"No problem, Dante. We were glad to!" André and Beck then head out with Robbie, leaving Dante with the girls.
"Ok gals, should we get the cellphone now?" Dante asks them.
"Don't you want to spruce up your room or something first?" Tori asks, curious at why Dante is so eager to leave the house.
"I don't really wanna be around my stuff right now. Robbie kinda burned my hat collection-" Cat gasps.
"Oh no! Did he do it on purpose?" Dante sighs.
"No, but I was really wazzed off at him. I just wanna take my mind off things. So, let's go get that cell!" Dante ends the sentence happily and begins walking out of the house. The girls look at him leaving, then at themselves. He pops in the doorway, "C'mon girls, it's getting late. We should head out now while there's still daylight!" He then walks back out. The girls silently follow him.
The walk to the phone provider store was one filled with small talk and Dante filling in the girls on what happened back at the apartment. Cat gasps, Tori tries not to laugh and Dante bites back a tear as he remembers his hat collection. They almost lost Cat a few times thanks to candy shops and ice cream parlors. After 20 minutes, they made it to their destination.
Entering the Pear Store, Dante was amazed at all the Pear products. PearBooks, PearpPods, PearPads and PearPhones of all types littered the shelves of the store. Dante and the girls head to the PearPhone section of the store. The girls check out the new models while Dante goes to speak to the clerk.
"Hey, um I was wondering if I could get a, uh, PearPhone?" The clerk faces Dante and begins to describe all the different makes and models to him.
xXx
"Oh man! I can't wait to try this thing out when we get home!" Dante excitedly rambles on about all the features to Tori and Cat, who are lessed than impressed.
"Dante, we have them too. It's nothing new to us." The girls show him their respective phones, both PearPhones. Dante's excitement diminishes.
"Well…I'm sure the guys would be excited for me!" Dante rationalizes but Cat dashes his hopes.
"They have 'em too. And so does Jade." Dante stops walking.
"Wait…you all have PearPhones?"
"Yep! Isn't it cool?" Dante was incredulous.
"But…what about diversity and…different models and…"
"We all have Pear products. And now you do too!" Cat is happy for Dante. Dante, however, isn't happy for himself. The girls continue walking ahead, leaving Dante standing there mumbling to himself.
"I…wanted to be different…." Fighting the urge to tear up at the thought of conforming to PearCorp's products, he runs ahead to catch up with Tori and Cat.
A/N: And that's that. Nothing much to say other than review! I'd love to see what you guys thought of this chapter.
