Here you go boys and squirrels, a brief but final chappy. And as always, I'm not collecting one red Mohétha (Russian for coin) for penning this awesome tale of high adventure... or boring piece of tripe, depending on your opinion. (And if you think this story is boring, why are you wasting your time still reading?)

Xxxxxx

Victorious N-I-S

Chapter 10

Xxxxxx

It was a bright, glorious Monday morning at the Hollywood Arts High School for the Preforming Arts and there was quite a mob of fans outside the parking lot waiting for their three pop teen idols to arrive. Unfortunately for them, Tori had enough foresight to rent the Party Bus that morning and none of the fans could see in the well-tinted, reflective windows. (Dr. Rhapsody was elated that the teen singing stars had revived his song and decided not to charge them for the ride, especially since large royalty checks would soon be rolling in again.) The fans were disheartened when they saw the three girls exit said bus well past them near the building, but all their time cheering and yelling was justified when Cat, Tori and finally Jade decided to spend a few minutes before school started with their fans.

When the first bell rang, the trio extricated themselves from the crowd and made their way into the building. They'd barely entered the classroom when Sikowitz climbed through one of the windows, clapped his hands together and said, "Okay all you fine young animals, let's talk about the big news story from yesterday."

Robbie asked, "Do you mean Jade, Cat and Tori's big concert last night?"

"Noooo!" Sikowitz enthusiastically replied as he sat down on the step of the stage. "I'm talking about the almost fire that happened in my kitchen yesterday morning. You see, I was making a sandwich in my toaster oven and it started to burn, causing a lot of smoke." He sadly shook his head and added, "Not a pleasant smell... Especially since I had already spread tuna salad on the bread."

Rex chimed in as Robbie motioned the puppet's arm toward Jade, Cat and Tori, "Well, I'd rather talk about the naked concert these fine young ladies put on last night."

"Alright," the eccentric teacher calmly intoned as he pulled a coconut from behind his back and sipped at the straw in it. He suddenly jumped to his feet and yelled, "Good Gandhi!"

"What's wrong," Tori asked in concern. "Did your coconut milk go bad?"

Sikowitz took a long contemplative draw on the straw and smacked his lips a few times, really tasting the nut juice while thinking it over, before saying, "No, that's not it."

Ten, fifteen then twenty seconds past before Rex angrily begged, "Then what got your panties all in a twist?"

"Oh," Sikowitz startled as if he'd just remembered, which he did. "I didn't know you girls sang this weekend. What happened? Did I miss a Kickback or Full Moon Jam or something?"

Tori let out an exasperated huff and answered, "No, Jade, Cat and I sang at the Hollywood Bowl last night after we signed with RPX Records last Monday. Don't you remember? It was the talk of the whole school after we spent the prior week in The Program." She pointed over to one of the Shruggers who was sitting there totally naked, obviously taking her turn in the nude-in-school program. The blonde girl meekly waved at Tori for the recognition.

"Oh yes," the 'adult' answered as he glanced around the room at his students. "Now I remember. Say, where's Beck?"

Tori leaned over to Jade who was sitting next to her and whispered, "Something really must be wrong with his coconut milk today. He's usually not this forgetful or random."

Jade hushed back with a glint of sass, "Maybe he got infected with a bit of Cat?" That brought a snort from the svelte teen when she tried to suppress her laugh.

André spoke up, answering his teacher's question, "Um, Beck told me last Friday that he was maybe gonna quit Hollywood Arts; That he was thinking about giving up acting and find something else to do."

"Well, that's unfortunate," Sikowitz said as he stepped back onto the stage while taking another sip from his ever present coconut. He turned back to the students and continued, "But that just goes to show that all of you won't realize your dreams of becoming actors and actresses. It's a tough industry to get recognized in and you shouldn't..."

Jade tuned him out at that point, digging her PearPhone out of her pocket and swiftly called up a phone number. She was totally disappointed when the call was not completed. The mechanical announcement stated that the call could not go through and that the phone was either turned off or disconnected.

Xxxxxx

Still not receiving an answer, Jade pounded on the RV trailer door a fourth time and waited. And waited. And waited. She had already tried to open the door but found the RV locked, something that normally wouldn't happen if Beck was inside, so Jade walked over to the front door of the house. She knew her ex-boyfriend rarely entered his parent abode so she knew it was a long shot, but she was beyond curious in finding out just what was going on with Beck.

Jade was just reaching for the doorbell when the door opened and a woman stepped out, greeting, "Hello, Jade."

"Hi Mrs. Oliver," the Goth girl meekly replied, being caught off guard. "Um, in Beck in? Can I speak with him?"

"I'm sorry, dear," the woman of the house apologized as she reached into the pocket of her dress and pulled out an envelop. She offered it to Jade, saying, "Beck left town on Saturday, but he said to give you this if you ever stopped by. He said it should explain everything."

"Left?" Jade questioned as she accepted and stared at the business sized envelop. "Left for where?"

Mrs. Oliver let out a heavy sigh as she replied, "He moved back to Canada to live with my brother and his family." She gently laid her hand on Jade's hand holding the envelop and finished, "It's all explained in here."

"Oh. Okay," Jade said as she stepped back. "Well, thank you."

She turned to leave but stopped and turned back when Becks mother sadly called out, "Congratulations on your new career. You deserve it. You have a beautiful voice."

"Thanks," Jade muttered with a smile. Not knowing what else to say, she simply waved the envelop and said, "Bye," before quickly turning and walking to her car parked out on the street.

As she stepped into the driver's seat, Cat anxiously asked, "Did you talk to him? You weren't gone very long."

Jade settled in her seat, strapping the seat belt snugly as she casually tossed the envelop onto the dashboard and replied, "No, his mom said Beck moved back to Canada over the weekend."

Cat immediately questioned, "Why would he do that?"

Jade checked for traffic then stared straight ahead after she pulled away from the curb and stoically answered, "I don't know. He supposedly sez why in the letter he left me." She pointed to said envelop on the dash.

"Well... What did the letter say?"

"I don't know. I didn't open it."

"But..."

Jade suddenly pulled over to the curb and stopped the car, preventing her friend from asking the obvious question. She put the gearshift in park before turning to Cat and, in slight anger, said, "Look. If Beck is too petty or chicken to say it to my face, I don't wanna know. It's totally inconsiderate of him to simply go off and leave without at least talking to me. For Gawd sake. We were together for almost three years and he doesn't have the decency to tell me in person? I just..."

Tears were welling in the Goth girl's eyes but she held them in by sheer will as she sat up straight and faced forward again in her seat, gripping the steering wheel tightly.

Quickly regaining control over her emotions, Jade put the gearshift in drive and pulled back into traffic. Silence ruled over the interior of the car but Cat couldn't sit still. She continually squirmed in her seat and almost reached out a few time to snatch the letter from the dash, but stopped herself each time. She knew Jade would get mad if she did.

Finally, after five minutes of silence, Jade, not drawing her attention from her driving, firmly said, "No."

"But I gotta know," Cat loudly squealed in frustration.

"No."

"But..."

"No!"

"Phooey," Cat softly huffed and slouched back in her seat, pouting.

Jade let out an exasperated breath and explained, "If Beck couldn't man-up and explain it to us in person, then we don't need to know." She took a calming breath, then said, "Look. I know your curious, Cat..."

"Curious Cat," the petite redhead softly giggled at the moniker.

"...But I don't want to know," Jade finished.

They sat in silence for a few more minutes. Cat sat ramrod straight with her knuckles ash white, clutching the seat. Jade, finally realizing that her friend was in agony over the situation, let out a tired breath and relented, "Go ahead."

The redhead immediately sprang into action, leaned forward and snatched the envelop from the dash. She had the end ripped off and letter out before she fell back into her seat. A wan smile graced her face as she scanned the letter before she let out a light giggle, sat back and played with a strand of her hair.

"Well?" Jade impatiently asked.

"I thought you didn't wanna know."

Jade practically exploded, "Just tell me!"

Cat quietly huffed, "And they call me bi-polar," before she looked at the letter again and answered out loud. "Well, Beck sez he's totally confused with everything that's going on, and he's taking the rest of the school year off to get his head together. He told Helen that he got a part in a play up in Canada, but will hopefully be back next year to finish school and graduate after the play's run ends."

"Is that all?"

Cat scanned the letter again and answered, "Yeah, except that he's actually gonna help his uncle out with his tourism business, taking people out hunting and fishing." She let the letter drop into her lap as she turned to her friend and said, "I don't get it. What's Beck confused about?"

A wry smile appeared as Jade explained, "Beck was always so sure that he'd be the first of our group to make it big in the industry, especially after he got that bit part in Miss Fire. But his ego musta took a huge hit when we signed our contracts with Shawn. He just couldn't cope."

"Oh, okay," Cat nonchalantly accepted with a shrug before she changed topics. "So, what do you wanna do tonight?"

A wicked smile arose on the Goth's face as she replied, "I thought we could pick Tori up and head over to Karaoke Dokie to rub our new contracts and successful concert in Tara and Haley's faces."

"Oooooh, sounds like fun!"

Xxxxxx

Author's Note: And so the story ends. Cat, Jade and Tori's careers are off to a good start after spending a week in the Nude-In-School Program and all is right with the world.

Well, not everything is okay. Beck is having a major personality crisis and there's the civil war happening in Sri Lanka, but I can't clear every little thing up in ten measly chapters. Well, actually I could, but that's another story in a different genre.(Come to think about it, I did clean up the conflict in Sri Lanka in my KP story, Another Scenario.)

I hope you found this mildly amusing, but don't expect a sequel. I'll leave that up to the three girls to figure out and write their autobiographies when they turn forty and retire to a life of ease and luxury. You can read all about their futures when those come out in a score of years.

Anywho...

Read On and Write On,

pbow