Disclaimer: I don't own any of the copyrights to the shows Victorious and iCarly on Nickelodeon so I receive nothing for this story.
Author's Notes: This is my take on the episode iParty With Victorious. I've changed the ages of the characters to make it a little more realistic and believable. Other than that I'll try to stick to canon.
Xxxxxx
Oranges
Chapter 10
Jade's Personality
Xxxxxx
Sunday Morning
Wanting enough sturdy metal around her for protection in case of an auto accident, Mrs. Marissa Benson opted to buy a two year old, used, black-hued town car from Cat's uncle. (Getting a very good deal in the bargain.)
Carly and Freddie didn't have as many concerns regarding what kind of vehicle to purchase so they bought a brand new, full-sized, extended cab pick up truck. There was enough room in the back seat for at least three of their new friends to catch a ride if needed and the truck bed would come in handy if Freddie ever wanted to haul any audio/video equipment or props and set pieces for the movies he and Carly would need to shoot during some of their classes at Hollywood Arts.
Freddie and Carly also knew that they'd have to keep the vehicle for quite a few years since they'd wouldn't be able to buy something else until after college.
After insuring the vehicles on-line, the teen couple spent the rest of Sunday unpacking and setting up the rec room down in the basement. Of course when they finally managed to maneuver one of the heavier pieces of furniture into position they just had to stop and take a short break... and the breaks always consisted of a ten or fifteen minute make out session.
When Carly and Freddie had finally finished they went upstairs and found Cassie and Spencer already home from the art gallery.
"I sold four more pieces today," Spencer proudly exclaimed without so much as a hello, "and got two new commissions. How about them apples!"
"That's great, Spence," Carly enthused and hugged her brother in congratulations. "What kind of commissions are they?"
"Well, one is suppose to be a ten foot tall metal palm tree that lights up for Christmas and the other is a series of lawn sculptures depicting wildlife from the northwest. I already got the Beavcoon started."
Before Carly could voice her concerns, Cassie spoke up and said, "I've already contacted a friend who'll help Spence with the wiring for the lights so the Christmas tree won't burst into flames."
"I'm not that bad with wiring," Spencer defensively protested.
"Yes you are, you big lunk," Cassie cooed to her beau as she wrapped her arms around his waist and gave him a brief but passionate peck on the lips. "Your reputation proceeds you. I've heard plenty of stories about your work bursting into flames from my friends up in Seattle, and I've also heard that the fire department up there has a special code assigned specifically for your apartment."
"Need I remind you," Carly said, playfully jabbing her brother in the ribs, "that you roller blades cause on fire after you fixed them?"
"Your roller blades?" Cassie let out a huge laugh that had her collapsing and rolling on the floor, not having heard about that incident before.
"Yeah, well..." Spencer sighed in defeat. "At least the roasted hot dogs tasted good."
"Don't worry about it Spence," Freddie tried to console his girlfriend's brother. "With someone helping out with the wiring, you can spend more time working on the other commissions."
"You're absolutely right," Spencer said, feeling a lot better about the situation. "I'm gonna be very busy working on the other things."
"Plus it'll help keep our fire insurance rates down," Cassie playfully teased her lover as he helped her up off the floor.
Xxxxxx
Monday Morning
Freddie and Carly stood at the edge of the Hollywood Arts High School parking lot gawking at all of the students dancing, singing, playing their musical instruments or just generally talking in small groups around the Asphalt Cafe. They both felt sooo out of place.
"Well?" Carly anxiously said, bracing herself for the start of school in a new city.
"Yeah, well?" Freddie echoed, also nervous. He slipped an arm around his girlfriend's waist in support and started to walk her onto the school grounds.
A few of the boys and girls must have recognized the couple because Carly and Freddie were immediately surrounded by students asking them questions about the web show and requesting pictures and autographs.
Luckily, Jade West stepped in.
"One side people," the dark-haired, wanna-be actress/singer harshly yelled as she pushed her way through the crowd. "Move aside!" Jade stood beside the couple, stared down the crowd and hollered, "I'm only going to say this once. Carly and Freddie are new students here and you shouldn't bug them just because they had a little show on the internet. So leave them alone."
"Thanks Jade," Carly sighed in relief as the students quickly went back to what they'd been doing earlier. She'd had a moment of panic when the teen fans had surrounded her and Freddie clamoring for their attention, but Jade had scared them away. "I've never seen fans act like that before except when we attended Webicon a few years ago."
"Yeah? Well get used to it," Jade said as she sat down at one of the outdoor tables and took a sip of her Jet Brew coffee before continuing. "The students here loved your show so you're kinda famous. But those idiots were acting like they've never seen a celebrity before."
"May we sit for a minute?" Freddie politely asked. Jade simply gave a noncommittal shrug so the teen couple took that as a yes and sat down. The brown-haired former Seattle-ite observed, "You don't seem fazed by our notoriety."
"I've lived in L.A. all my life," Jade stated as if they should've known that. "If you get out at all you'll see plenty of celebrities around; At the movies, at restaurants and even out on the street. It's just a fact of life living here."
"I suppose it is," Freddie shrugged a shoulder. "Well, Carly and I need to head inside to get our schedules and locker assignments."
"Thanks again for shooing the autograph seekers away," Carly said with a warm smile. "We'll probably see you around."
"Whatever," Jade absently said, looking over her shoulder to the parking lot, obviously trying to find someone else to talk to, probably her boyfriend Beck.
The teen couple shared a disappointed glance from the obvious cold shoulder before they got up and headed inside. When they were far enough from the table to not be overheard, Freddie observed, "Well, she's a barrel of laughs. I wonder what's got her pretzel in a twist."
"I don't know," Carly said as she passed through the doorway Freddie had opened and held for her. "She acted the same way when we met her Saturday at Nozu and later at Karaoke Dokie. Maybe she just has a caustic attitude for some reason."
"What? You mean she may be trying to hide some kinda insecurity or something?" Freddie begged as they reached the high school office and paused outside the door to finish the conversation. "Or maybe she's just mad at the entire world for some reason."
"Or she acts that way to retain her spot as one of the alpha females here at school," Carly guessed with a shoulder shrug. "Who knows. It could even be a combination of those things, or something completely different."
"Well, we have a year and a half of school to figure it out," Freddie said as he took the doorknob in hand and opened the door. "But it seems as if all of the guys in their little group have something they're either hiding or is wrong with them. Cat is so childlike. Beck acts like a cool dude but you know something is simmering under that hair." He ticked off the teens with his fingers as he mentioned each of them. "André is either perky or else he's extremely moody, and we don't even have to mention Robbie and Rex."
"Yeah. They're all hiding something except for Tori," Carly laughed as they went up to the front desk to get their schedules and lockers assignments.
Xxxxxx
As it always seems to happen in both good and bad fan fiction stories on the internet, Carly and Freddie's first period of the day was an acting class with Sikowitz. They found Cat, Robbie and André sitting together talking, with Jade and Beck cuddled up in two chairs beside the first small group. Tori was sitting behind Jade with her twin sister, Shelby, parked to one side of her.
"Hey Shelby," Carly greeted the Mixed Martial Arts Champion in surprise at seeing her here in school. "What are you doing in this class?"
"I'm trying to learn a little more about my sister's life," Shelby said to the teen couple. "And what better way than to sit in on her classes for a couple of days." She could just imagine the next question coming from Freddie and/or Carly so she stated, "I haven't been in a regular classroom setting for around five years or so. Normally, Rod has a tutor standing by to teach me between sparring sessions so it'll be interesting sitting in a normal classroom once again."
"As if this is supposed to be a normal classroom setting," Freddie joked as he and Carly took seats next to the twins. "After meeting Sikowitz a week ago during our auditions, I don't think you can associate him and the word normal in any context of the word."
"That is soooo true," Tori huffed out, thinking about all the odd events that had gone on with that particular teacher over the past few years.
What seemed like forever past as they waited for class to begin. Suddenly Freddie's PearPhone rang. He checked the caller I.D. and said to Carly, "It's your dad." He quickly accepted the call, answering, "Hello Colonel."
"Say hi for me and tell him I send my love," Carly whispered in Freddie's free ear as he listened to his, hopefully, future father-in-law.
"No sir," Freddie said into his cellphone. "We're in class right now but the teacher hasn't shown up yet, so we can talk." He listened for a minute before he said, "No, Colonel. We don't think we're rushing into anything. As I said in my e-mail, we plan on waiting for at least a few years before getting married. We both just think it'd be a good idea to have some kind of visual proof for everyone to see and I came into some extra money this past weekend, so we wanted to buy our engagement and wedding rings now." Freddie smiled as he listened for a few more seconds. "Of course, Colonel. We'll keep you in the loop with any future developments concerning our relationship. Thanks for your blessing." He looked over to his girlfriend, smiled and gave her a reassuring wink. "Both Carls and I appreciate it and I think she wants to thank you, too."
Carly snatched the phone from her beau and joyously asked, "So it's okay if Freddie and I buy our rings and plan on getting married sometime during college?" She got up out of her seat and walked away to continue the conversation in private by the front door.
Just then, Erwin Sikowitz came in through the back hallway door to the classroom, clapped his hands and said, "Okay all you fine young actor-wannabes. Let's get started."
"I'm afraid not," Freddie said as he stood and picked up his backpack. "Class has been canceled."
"Oh?" Sikowitz begged in surprise. "I'm the teacher here and only I can say when class is over."
"I'm afraid not," Freddie said as he got a pamphlet out of his backpack, thumbed though it to the page he was looking for and held it out for the balding teacher to see. "According to the student handbook, class is canceled if the teacher, or any other school official, doesn't show up within ten minutes of the bell that starts the class. You're over fifteen minutes late. That means the class is over and we're free to do whatever we want until our next class."
When that realization sunk in, all of the students except for Freddie, Carly, André, Cat, Robbie, Jade, Beck, Tori (the usual gang) and Shelby swiftly left the room.
"Let me see that," Sikowitz angrily said, stomping barefoot over to the boy and snatching the booklet from his grasp. After reading the rule, he said, "Well I'll be a singing waiter at High School High. You're absolutely right."
"But he's always ten or fifteen minutes late," Robbie tried to rationalize the situation. "That just means the class is short and sweet."
"No," Freddie said. "That means he's simply being irresponsible in his duties. As a teacher, he's supposed to set a good example for his students. He's supposed to be punctual, prepared to teach the class and dressed appropriately."
The teens, less Carly who was still over by the front door talking to her father on the phone with one finger in her ear, took in Sikowitz's appearance. His hair was an absolute mess, he was wearing a loudly colored poet's shirt under an equally colorful yet clashing suede vest, gaudy parachute pants and nothing on his feet. (And don't forget the coconut with straw in his hand.)
"Well," André spoke up, hoping to justify the situation. "This is an acting class and things are a bit more relax around here."
Freddie chuckled and said, "Do you really think you'd get an acting role if you showed up at an audition fifteen minutes late looking like a hobo or a clown? They'd think you're eccentric and unreliable, and wouldn't even let you read for the part."
An awkward silence filled the room for a few long seconds before Sikowitz let out a huge laugh. The students didn't know what to think. Was their favorite teacher losing his mind? Had he finally gone nuts from all of the coconut milk he'd drank over the years?
When the teacher finally settled down, he said, "Very good, Mr. Benson. I've taught this class for ten years now and you're the first student to speak up to me and question the way I dress and act. That shows you have confidence in yourself; Which also means you don't have to perform the 'Bird Scene'."
"Yeah but we've all thought the same thing," Jade practically yelled as she swiftly sat up in her chair. "We all talk about the way you dress and act before and after class."
"Yes, but you never said anything to my face," Sikowitz countered with an ever widening grin. "I've been acting the part of an eccentric acting teacher all these years and Freddie's the only one who's had the confidence to call me out and express his opinions. Class dismissed." With that short explanation, he turned and left the way he'd came.
"What'd I miss?" Carly questioned, looking around and seeing all of the other students were gone, as she walked over to the group and handed Freddie his cellphone back.
"Freddie just got us out of class," Cat laughed and threw her fists in the air. She yelled, "Free period. Yeaaaa!"
The red velvet hue-haired girl skipped out the front classroom door followed by Robbie. Rex looked over the curly-haired boy's shoulder and said, "Thanks Freddie. I don't know if I coulda sat through one a Sikowitz' classes today. Those Northridge girls really wore me out over the weekend."
"Man, there's just gotta be a song in what Sikowitz pulled on us," André absently said as he quickly made for the open door. "I need to work on the lyrics."
"Can we help?" Tori asked as she and her twin sister followed the songwriter toward the music room to work.
"You actually read the entire student handbook?" Beck incredulously asked Freddie with a light but appreciative chuckle as he handed Jade her cup of Jet Brew coffee and snaked an arm around her waist. "I didn't think anyone read those things."
"I glanced through it on the way to class," Freddie answered as he mirrored the former Canadian by bringing Carly into a one-armed hug. "It's not that much different than what we had at Ridgeway, and one of our teachers there was suspended for being late to class a few days in a row last year. Ridgeway was extremely strict with the rules which meant the teachers came down on the students that much harder."
"Yeah, whatever," Jade huffed in boredom before she and Beck started to head out of the classroom.
"Jade, can I ask you something?" Carly tentatively queried. When the goth-girl turned to her with an expectant expression, she asked, "Is there some reason why you act like you do? I mean you always seem to be angry with everything."
"Why shouldn't I be?" Jade growled out and took a menacing step toward the new couple in school. She ranted, "Except for Beck and a few others, I'm surrounded by idiots who don't know the difference between an atom and a elephant. My parents are divorced and don't care about me at all; My mom is indifferent and dad doesn't like the career path I'm on."
Freddie raised a suspicious eyebrow and asked, "Just out of curiosity, what did you score on the I.Q. test everyone has to take?"
"Only one hundred sixty-two," Jade spat as if it were a vile, sour number that should've been higher, even though one hundred forty or higher denoted a genius level.
Carly shrieked out in surprise, "That's two points less than Freddie scored and only ten more than me."
"Yeah but Beck scored a one sixty-five," Jade said in disgust, motioning to her boyfriend.
Freddie turned to Carly and said, "Well, there's Jade's problem. She bored with everything here at school except maybe the performance classes."
"No duh," Jade laughed. "I found that singing and acting are the only challenges that interest me here at school, trying to bring a song or character to life. My father thinks I should be studying science or some other such chizz; That scientific research would occupy my mind better. He doesn't think acting or singing is a good use of my talents."
"And we both know he's wrong in that assumption," Beck said, trying to calm his girlfriend down. "You shouldn't look to him for validation because you'll never get it. He just doesn't know who you are." He turned to Freddie and Carly and said, "It's just the same with my parents. That's why I moved out of the house and into a trailer parked in the driveway. It's my place so I don't have to live under their rules."
"I know," Jade heavily sighed, having had this conversation with her boyfriend many times before. "I shouldn't care what my parents think but I do. I'm not the reason dad divorced my mom but it occasionally feels like it."
"Well, maybe you should think of it this way," Carly said, having an idea of how to bring Jade out from under her dark funk. "You're a unique individual who has some very unique talents. You're one out of more than six billion people in the world who is intelligent enough to know what you'd like to do with your life. If anyone can't understand that, then just forget about them and concentrate on your own goals."
"Is that what you two do?" Jade asked the couple. "I mean you're both as smart as Beck and I are. How do you put up with all the stupid chizz that surrounds you?"
"We basically live life for the moment and have some fun along the way," Freddie answered for both he and Carly. "That's why iCarly was such a hit. It was creative, spontaneous and fun to do."
"We generally just try to ignore all the other chizz," Carly continued the explanation, looking to Freddie for confirmation and receiving a nod in agreement. "Sometimes we'd get caught up in it, but we somehow muddled through and move on."
"Well, that's something to think about," Jade said in deep thought, suddenly wondering why she hadn't thought about maybe producing her own record album and selling it on the web.
"Speaking of getting into some chizz," Beck said, changing the subject since he knew Jade was otherwise occupied thinking about what had been said. "What was that chizz with that Major the other night? Does it happened to do with a certain Galaxy Wars replica phaser that exploded in your apartment building a while ago?"
"You heard about that?" Carly asked in surprise.
"Your friend Gibby mentioned something about it on his blog," Beck explained. "I easily get bored like Jade does, but I surf the web to ease my boredom and accidentally ran across his blog that mentioned the incident. And since Freddie made the modifications that Gibby mentioned, I would guess that the Major also heard or read about it and wants Freddie to recreate the phaser."
"You're close," Freddie laughed, now seeing how intelligent Beck was at putting two and two together. He came up with four and a quarter, but Beck had come real close to the truth. "But before I tell you anything, you have to promise not to discuss it with anyone else. If you do, the Major threatened to charge us with treason."
"That's understandable," Jade nodded in agreement after coming out of her reverie and knowing a little about what they were talking about. She and Beck had discussed the situation on the drive home Saturday night and Beck had told her all about what he had read on the web. "If a laser weapon like Beck described can be recreated, it'd definitely be a boon to the military and they'd want to keep it a secret."
After receiving reassurances from both Beck and Jade that they wouldn't say a word about any part of the secret, Freddie told them all about selling the second phaser on Saturday, about the patent he had filed and how that led to the Major finding him.
"So it's all true," Beck lightly laughed. "I guess that means you are a technical wiz kid."
Jade added with a laugh of her own, "That also explains why you were able to understand and operate the sound board in the black box theater."
The school bell rang sending the four young students on to their next class.