Disclaimer: "Characters and Setting from The Television show Victorious, Belong to Dan Schneider and The Nickelodeon Company. Any other Places and Characters are my own. Also, I do not support any form of Criminal activities nor do the characters belonging to Dan Schneider, This only a work of Fan-Fiction."
(!) "Out of Oregon and Finally into California, Jade and Tori's first stop is Shasta Lake, then it's to the National Steinbeck Center and from there, and lastly To the City of Angels; Los Angeles."
Chapter 4: Mulch on Rose Seeds
Wednesday
5, March 2014, 2:30 [Afternoon]
Shasta Lake, California
"That's not how you swim Tori, do I have to jump in there and teach you properly?"
"Ah screw this, I prefer to doggy paddle, it's so much easier! Jump in Jade, it's a little cold but you'll get used to it." Tori shared.
Jade looked around and saw no one on her left or on her right, she pulled her pants off and kicked away her boots. She lifted her shirt off and ran towards the lake, she fought against the cold temperature and swam towards Tori who was dog paddling in circles and giggling. Jade dived underwater and swam freely, she kept her eyes open long enough to see fishes swimming below her and a few turtles, something else was also down there. It was large and oval shape, but it was to fast moving, Jade couldn't see exactly what it was. She surfaced above the water and hugged Tori, keeping them both afloat.
"About time, what took you so long Jade."
"Nothing…hey Tori, Anchor weight!" Jade wrapped her arms and legs around Tori's body and sunk both of them down into the lake.
A small 12inc wingless disk utilizing some form of unknown propulsion flew overhead of them, it circled around the bubbles coming up to the surface, obviously being created by Jade and Tori. Someone, somewhere far away operated this hovering toy saucer and had a visual on the girls on their control pad which had a monitor on it.
They pressed a button which made the hovering flying toy saucer dive under the water, and open up a small hole in it's body to record what was going on below the water. They watched Jade and Tori embracing each other, kissing one another while slowly rotating together in upper depths of the sun lit lake.
The hovering toy saucer swam around them extremely fast in a highly elliptical orbit, it went so fast that it made a heart made of bubbles, and Jade and Tori were inside of it. Jade saw the toy circling around her and Tori, she and Tori swam back to the surface where they refilled on some badly needed oxygen. Jade and Tori ran back to the shore and changed out of their wet underwear and placed some dry clothes they had in their car.
The toy saucer shot out of he lake and floated just high enough to watch the girls changing, it caught glimpses of their naked glistening bodies, their breasts and fantastic curves. Jade had noticed the hovering toy saucer and grabbed a rock from the sand when she was fully clothed, she pretended to be talking to Tori about something unrelated to the situation. When the saucer kept moving in closer, Jade tossed the rock in her hand and flinged it at the toy. The rock struck it, damaging the component that made it airborne. It descended erratically for a bit before falling to the ground.
"Hey! That Toy was Expensive!" shouted out a young man who was to the left from them, they watched this boy get on a black moped and drive over to them.
He was wearing a black leather jacket with blue and white stripes across his back that came around to the center and stopped at the lining of his open zipper. His hair was brown and curly and he wore glasses which appeared to have flashlights imbedded in joints of black glasses he wore. He parked his moped and got off and grabbed his toy from the ground.
"What the hell you doing still playing with toys, you look a little to old to be playing with them." Jade asked the mysterious young man.
"It's not a toy, I'm making and testing out my own drones, it's part of a revolution against the government and people in authority positions. I know the government is on to me, their afraid of my intelligence which increases every six months, like a human computer."
"You hate the law?" Jade Queried the young man.
"I don't hate the law, I try not to break any of them. But how many people j-walk and don't get stopped. No, I hate those who know their in a position of power and purposely and knowingly abuse their power. Like this damn Kleptocracy Americans call a Government for the people and by the people. More like for the elite and by the elite. What am I doing, I'm monologuing, my name is Robbie Shapiro."
"Jade west, and this here is my girlfriend Tori Vega. Got anymore of those fancy…what you call em, drones?"
"Yeah I got a few ones with me, I call them, insectdroids…[Birds Chirping, Crickets singing]…ok so I'm still working on proper names for them at the moment. if you want one, you're gonna have to pay up first."
Jade walked over to the trunk of her CoachCraft and pulled out a stack of one thousand dollars from the bag of bank money they stole from their bank heist, she chucked the stack over to Robbie. He grabbed it, almost dropping it.
"Jesus Christ, I was only going to say like 20 or 30 bucks, but because you paid so much. I'm gonna…eh, give you The Squirrel Drone, Codename SQ14. Robbie pulled out a life size squirrel out of his Moped Saddlebags and handed it to Jade.
"It's made to look and function like a real living squirrel, it's skeletal structure is made out of flexible plastic, the internal mechanics are self lubricating, and it has a brain which Is a technical marvel of science and technology. It's a Positronic brain, it provides it with a consciousness recognizable to Humans. Don't worry about feeding it, it doesn't need food, only water. Take care of it now. It took my an entire year to build it."
Robbie got on his moped and started up the engine, But before he could drive off Jade had a few more questions about her new drone.
"Wait a second there curly, how exactly does this thing work and does it need programming."
"It's fully autonomous miss, which means it'll learn new methods of accomplishing it's tasks if it is given one. It'll gain information about it's environment, work for an extend period without your or anyone else's intervention. And it'll avoid situations that are harmful to people, property or itself unless those are part of it's task accomplishments. Alright, I'm outies, laterz."
Mr. Shapiro sped away, leaving Jade and Tori in his dust. Jade took a look at this squirrel which felt as stiff as a dead hamster. She brought it up to her ear and listened to something, she shook it back and forth when she couldn't hear anything and played with its tail while she was at it.
"Turn on…" Jade uttered, The eyes of the Squirrel Drone lit up in bright white lights. It began to move, like it came back from the dead even though it was never alive to begin with. It looked around and scanned Jade and Tori, it captured their faces, their body weight and asked for their names.
"Jade West."
"Tori Vega."
"Jade West and Tori Vega, it's a pleasure to meet you two, what are my orders." SQ14 asked in a male voice, for some odd reason he had a English accent to go with his personality.
"You have no orders for the moment SQ14, go to sleep mode." The squirrel drone went limp in Jade's hand. Jade placed the android in the backseat of their car and jumped into the driver's seat. Tori jumped into the passenger's seat and all three of them continued on down to their next location.
U.S Route 101, National Steinbeck Center, Salinas
5:30 [Evening]
Driving down Interstate 5 or, the I-5, Jade took a change in direction and got on Route 101 where they drove down to the Sunny City of Salinas and visited the National Steinbeck Center. She looked for parking and came around to the side of the center, she parked her car and left SQ 14 in the backseat. Actually, she thought about it and took him with her, since he was not a real squirrel; she carried him inside her shirt.
"Ah Good Ol John Steinbeck, The only book I ever read from him was Of Mice and Men. I mean, which high school student hasn't."
"But we're not in High School Tori, it be pointless to return, especially after what we did in the past. C'mon forget about that and let's swing by here for a bit, let's look around and talk about what we're going to do when we get to L.A, ok?"
"Ok Jade, let's go inside."
The girls walked in and ventured into different exhibition halls, which were dedicated to where John grew up, what his early days of his life were like and much more. There were paintings and human sized wax models devoted to him, his family members and there were also plasma monitors on the walls. They had movie clips from movie adaptations from works such as, The Grapes of Wrath, The Red Pony and of course, Of Mice and Men.
Jade had her photo taken with John Steinbeck's Wax Model in different poses, hugging him, kissing his cheek and throwing up rabbit ears behind his head. Tori took pictures of herself standing next to an oldmobile with a wax chauffer standing next to it. Tori pointed her hand at him like it was gun, and wore the chauffer's hat for laughs.
"Hey! You, you're not allowed to touch the wax models!" yelled out a nearby security guard.
"Relax Paul Blart, we're being extra careful. We respect Mr. Steinbeck." replied Jade.
"Paul Blart? I'll have you know I lost 100 pounds." The security guard said in his defense, sounding insulted also.
"Goood, now lose another 100 and you're good money, c'mon Tori let's head to the gift shop."
"Ooh gift shop, it's been a long time since I been in one. Let's just buy up the whole gift shop. I might just the book Of Mice and Men, I feel like reading it again. Guess who my favorite character is Jade."
"Let me see…Lennie?"
"No! why does everyone pick Lennie, I like George. Because he has a decision he has to make that's going to affect his life and everyone else's around him. Strength comes from within, not from Above."
"Above, below, in, out, blue or red. We might be going to hell Tori." Jade shared, sounding a bit worried.
"Well…if we are going there, I'll make sure to go with you. I don't want you feeling abandoned and alone. You might end up crying for the first time in your life. I mean in death."
"Yeah right, let's go Sweet tits."
Thursday
6, March 2014, 4:00 [Evening]
Capybara Recreation Park
Walking out of Hollywood Arts with his friends, Logan and Marshall, Andre and the other two boys split and went their separate ways when they walked over and stopped at a crosswalk. The traffic light was green and cars zoomed past by them, Logan and Marshall lived on the same block but followed Andre everyday after school to either his house or to the park where he usually liked to hang out.
"You gonna head to the park again Andre?" Logan asked, Andre looked over at him and nodded.
"What are you gonna go on this time, the slide or swing on the swing set?" Marshall asked in a light Mocking manner.
Andre looked up at the sky, and thought about it. Marshall raised his eyebrow and checked to see when the green light would turn red. Andre beamed, a smile coming across his face. He gestured to Marshall by making a wide 'U' with his index finger, Logan saw this and knew Andre was going back on the swing set.
"I know you don't go there to act like a kid Andre, but maybe you can pick a better spot next time. Like Wok Star or The Freezy Queen. Damn I can go for some Icee's"
[ASL] "Maybe some day, but in the park is where I feel most comfortable in."
The traffic light turned red and all three boys crossed the street, Andre gave a pound to Marshall and Logan and went his separate way. Resting his hands inside the side pockets of his H.A Sweater, Andre felt the cool air blowing past his baggy jeans and all around his head. It didn't snow in Los Angeles, but the final month that made up winter brought in cold air from the north that drifted down the Coast range Mountains and into L.A.
Andre neared the Park and walked in it, he saw little kids with their parents playing around the slide, sitting on 20inc fiberglass Capybara statues which were modeled after the animal the park was named after. He walked over to the swings and removed his book bag and laid It on one of the legs of the park swing set. He sat on the swing and slowly propelled himself back and forth, he swung quietly by himself, no one bothered him except for a few kids who decided to swing next to him.
Magnolia Burbank Twnhses, E Magnolia Blvd, L.A
5:30 [Evening]
"I love this place so much, I thought we weren't going to be able find anyone who would rent us a home." Tori expressed excitedly, running all around inside of their new home.
The outside of their new Townhouse was a beige color partnered with the color white, they had a one car garage that went under their home and was guarded by a black bar gate that opened up electronically or manually. Their car was parked inside the garage, their bags, and other belongings were brought inside after bribing management with enough money to let them rent a Townhouse. Their was already furniture inside, but only at the dining table which was connected to the Kitchen and in the living room where some sofas and couches were covered in plastic.
"We're gonna have to go out and buy some beds and some chairs and…and I'm just glad we finally a got a place to call our own. No more hotels which weird sounds coming from the other side of the walls" Jade sounded happy and relieved.
"Yeah and 2000 a month ain't so bad, we might need to keep pulling off heists to keep living here, but they're going to have to be out of state ones. And we can get into stealing and selling cars, drugs is still la gray area for me. And we are in L.A, so fighting the local gangs just to keep them off our backs isn't going to be easy."
"Don't worry Tori, I don't plan on staying here more than five years, I do got safe houses in Maine that we could live in free of charge which were given to me by Edward, god rest his soul. This is just temporary, we're going to lay low while the heat gets cold and they lose interest in us. As for work, there are other ways to make money. And these wannabe gangsters will learn to stay away from us if they even try to make a move against us. That family of psychos known as the Valentines aren't the only people to find pleasure in killing, Edward was known to specialize in several forms of executions and fear propaganda that made his enemies tremble. A few I picked up on and learned how to do, So don't worry."
"I'm not worried, hey, I'm gonna go take a stroll around our neighborhood. Starting with checking out that school we passed, Hollywood Arts I think it was called. You wanna come?"
"You go ahead Tori, and see if you can get us some food while you're outside. I'm gonna go search up some furniture stores on my phone." Tori kissed Jade and walked out of their home, unlike your average home entrance, their townhouse entrance was in a alleyway instead of facing the main street which the back of their house faced.
Tori chose to walk around the corner and head toward the School that grabbed her attention when they arrived to Burbank. She walked, stopped when the traffic light turned green and continued on when the light turned red, she took a look at the front of the school and was amazed just by the entrance of the school.
Hollywood Arts High School, the name of the school was displayed proudly on a wall with three wide rectangular openings. Paintings of a mermaid inside an ocean, jewels aligned in a concentric pattern lined the walls of the entrance wall of the school.
"To bad I no longer go to school, it would have been nice to see what the inside of the school's guts look like. Ooohh Well! just gotta keep on moving." she said carefree.
Tori reached the crosswalk after a good two minutes of walking, the school was surprisingly long, but that was only because the school had a lot of areas dedicated to a multitude of athletic sports. A Football Field was one, A baseball field was the second, then a large rectangular swimming pool and even several tennis courts. There were still a few students hanging around with friends, chitchatting and laughing.
Being around them and just feeling the auras of being around young and rebelling or followers ignited a small fire inside of her. A part of her yearned to be a part of that life once again, but the other half of her was so dedicated to being with Jade that it strengthened her resolve. What was the point in returning to High School, to pretend to wanna see the world, to pretend to fall in love and worry about getting into a good college afterwards? All of that was laughable to her now.
She waited at the crosswalk for a green traffic light to turn red, at the change of light she walked across the street and made a turn. She came across Capybara Recreation Park and thought about entering it for a good thirty seconds.
"I do have to get some food for me and Jade, but I also feel like sliding down a slide and swinging on a swing set. Oh hell yeah! Let's see how high I can swing until I fall on my ass! Yeah let's go with that."
Tori stuck her tongue out between her lips and smiled, she ran inside of the park pushing a mother and child to the side. The small child fell who was around the age of 6 fell on his little butt and started to cry.
"Hey Watch it Young Lady! This is a Children's Park you Know." said the mother of the boy out loud,
"Sorry About That Lady and Baby!…I just need to get to the swing set real bad." Tori shouted over her shoulder.
"No what you do need is to be thrown into an Insane Asylum, Young Teenage girls today. Lord help them." said the mother of the crying 6yr old boy. She picked her son up and carried him.
Tori saw the swing set and the setting sun in front of it, but before she could get on a swing, it was there that she saw him. An African American boy around the age of 18, great plump lips, eyes as kind as an enlightened Buddhist monk, short thin dreads and a facial expression which she read as filled with happiness and Melancholy. A sort of sadness of happiness or happiness of sadness kind of expression. Either way, She only made those features out because this boy spun around on his swing. When he noticed her, he turned back around, facing the orange sky.
A muscle jerked somewhere inside of Tori, she wasn't sure from where. But she swallowed hard and walked over to him.
Next Chapter: Seedlings
(!) "Continued in Chapter 5. For those Wondering about Broken Crowns Vacant Thrones, it's on hold until this story finishes which i hope is soon."
