Hollywood Arts: A Beacon of Hope

Disclaimer: I own nothing

A/N:


Chapter 12 (Red Mark)

"So you want me to suggest an instrument for you to learn? Why? You aren't required." Tori sat across Mr. Sikowitz's desk, tapping her fingers nervously on her leg. His hands were clasped at his chin and his eyebrow was arched high on his forehead. "You're more than welcome to sign up for any our music classes."

"I guess I could, I just wanted to feel more artsy. I'm already taking the vocal classes. I just know I want to be home at a certain time so I don't have time for the other classes." Sikowitz nodded and leaned back slowly.

"Well, think about what instruments you like." He waved his hand in a circle. "Didn't your sister say once that you had a piano at your social worker's home?"'

"We do."

"So why not try and learn piano? You even have a friend who can play, do you not?" She smiled and nodded, amazed she hadn't thought about that fact herself. Her eyes moved to a small picture in the corner of the teacher's window behind him. She pointed and he looked over his shoulder.

"Who's that a picture of?" He was standing beside a man with a thick moustache and a cowboy. Sikowitz smiled and turned back to her.

"That would be my brother Harold. The picture was taken when he lived in Texas. He, his wife and boy live up in Bakersfield right now. His son's thinking of taking classes at the University of California here in Las Angeles."

"Awesome. Does he know what he wants to do when he graduates?"

"Yes." Sikowitz folded his hand over his left and relaxed his shoulders. "He says he'd like to be a personal trainer slash fitness instructor and open his own gym. He may have an opportunity too with his current martial arts teacher." She was caught off guard and intrigued to hear that Sikowitz had a nephew that was into martial arts and already had a plan for his life.

"Awesome! Trina's really into Martial Arts, but she doesn't have money to take classes at a dojo, so she just works with old class tapes from her idol. Miss Alexis Ortiz." The man's eyebrows shot up and the right corner of his lip twitched upwards for a second.

"That's the name of my nephew's instructor. He's on his way to getting a black-belt this summer and will be going to a camp to get it." She wondered if she should let Trina know this guy might be up there at camp, but then she figured her sister would forget by then. "I've heard many good things about the woman. You know she was in the army?"

"She was?" Tori's jaw dropped and Sikowitz nodded.

"From 1988 to 1992, So I've heard. I think it was around that time she got into combat specialization and martial arts."

"Trina says the woman was a blackbelt in the 80's, so it was before then, but that is really interesting information." She cleared her throat and straightened herself in her seat. "So, you must be proud. Your nephew's getting his black-belt and going off to college. I guess he's eighteen already?"

"Almost, and yes we're very proud of him. He didn't have an easy childhood growing up, got himself into trouble a couple times, but he's making something out of his life. He's still got an ego the size of Manhattan, though." Tori laughed.

"Man, if Trina meets him at camp, she might try to cut that ego down some. She has an ego herself but oddly people with massive egos she likes to one up if she can."

"That would be something." Sikowitz put his pen in the small holder on the desk and smiled at Tori. "He's always saying he doesn't have time for girls, though. He's so devoted to his studies, we try to get him to relax-too much studying can be just as bad as not studying at all."

"Has he ever dated anyone?"

"He has in the past, but that was when he was much younger." He sounded like her sister, the two would have interesting conversations at least if they ever did meet. "We're hoping he'll find some time to loosen up at camp, we want him to be able to learn how to be more laid back so he'll put some time for himself when he gets off to college."

"Yeah, I want my sister to learn to chill and give herself time as well…"

"Well, four months at camp should truly help."

There was a knock at the door. Tori turned to see Sasha walking in and smiled at her. "Sasha! Hey!" Sasha waved and smiled back at her, then looked towards Sikowitz.

"Mr. Sikowitz, my teacher wanted to know if your sister-in-law wanted red dye satin or blue dye."

"Blue."

"Okay, I'll let her know." Sasha glanced at Tori and bounced once in her step. "Tori, did you want to see my dress? It's finished!" Tori gasped and jumped up out of the chair, looking at her teacher for permission. He smiled at her and motioned her off.

"I'd love to see it." She followed Sasha out and into the classroom where the dress was. "I bet Jesse's going to love it."

Sasha laughed nervously and glanced over her shoulder. "You haven't even seen it yet, Tori."

"Doesn't matter. Jesse's going to love it, I'm sure of it." She leaned against the surface of a nearby table and watched as Sasha grabbed up her dress and held it in front of her. There was lace on the ends of the sleeve and the bottom of the dress, the collar was low cut and rounded, and there was no back. The straps were made of crystal gems.

Sasha placed it against her front and ran her hand down it while spinning around. "What do you think?" Tori applauded while visualizing Sasha wearing the dress.

"I think it's beautiful! You did a wonderful job, Sasha. Really. You're going to blow Jesse away with that."

"You really think so?" Sasha's cheeks grew as red as the dress and she looked down with a curved smile. "I mean…I really wanted to surprise him with it." Tori walked up and placed a gentle hand beneath the dress, lifting up the fabric. It was like air, and very soothing to touch. Sasha bit her lip and closed her eyes, breathing in slowly. "We're going to try and grab some dinner after the movie. I've been waiting so long for this date."

"I hope you two have a lot of fun, and you better tell me how it goes." Sasha laughed for a minute before leading her over to the dressing rooms. She waited for the girl to change.

Sasha came out after a minute with the dress on and shiny red heels. Tori squealed delightedly as the girl spun around. "You are gorgeous in that! Let me get my friends to come see you!" Sasha froze and moved her hands up to her face.

"No, I'd be too embarrassed."

"Nah, it'll be fine. Trust me, they're going to love it just as much." Sasha hesitated before letting Tori call her friends. When they arrived to see what the excitement was, they were stunned by Sasha's dress. Tori heard a whistle and shot a glare at Robbie, who immediately blamed Rex. "Robbie, she's got a boyfriend!"

"Sorry, it's just the way Rex is," Robbie whined. Tori rolled her eyes and snapped her fingers at Sasha, instructing her to turn around. Sasha did so and blushed at the approval she was receiving from the others.

"What is going on in here?" She heard her sister's voice and looked to see Trina walking into the room. Trina's eyes fell onto Sasha and her eyes widened for a split second. "Holy shit. That's one hell of a good looking dress, Sasha. All that for a movie and dinner date?" Sasha moved her hands together in front of her waist and nodded.

"Mhm, do you think Jesse will like it?"

Trina gave her a comforting smile and nodded her head. "I imagine he would. He seems like an okay guy, anyway." Tori knew Trina had been associating with Jesse on some level in regards to searching for her parents, so in turn, she and Sasha knew the two had become friendly whether they wanted to admit it or not. "You must be really excited."

"I am, I can't wait until he sees me in it!" Sasha ran up to a nearby, full-length mirror and began to adjust the dress by straightening it and pulling at her shoulder straps. Trina rolled her head to the side and lifted her shoulders.

"His opinion of it seems pretty important to you. He's a guy, he'll probably love it even if it wasn't beautiful like it is." Tori put her hands to her hips and exhaled slowly. She knew Trina wasn't a romantic, hell it was Tori that read all the romance novels, but even her sister should be able to understand how important a man's opinion of a woman's attempts to beautify herself for them was to a girl.

Tori walked over and set her elbow onto Trina's shoulders, smirking at her older sister and shaking her head. "It's not just a dress, Trina. She put a lot of hard work into it."

"And Jesse will love it, of course. The guy is head over heels for her."

Jade glanced disapprovingly at Trina and coughed into her hand. "Just because you've never had a guy fall in love with you or fallen in love with a man doesn't mean love doesn't exist." Trina did a double take while Tori moved her hand up to her forehead.

"I know it exists, I just don't have time for it."

"Everyone has time for it. You just have to let it happen."

Trina crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow. Seeing no positive end to this conversation, Tori immediately interjected before it spun in a way that couldn't be salvaged. "Hey Trina, you know Miss Ortiz?" Trina shot a corner glance at her and nodded slowly. "Sikowitz's nephew is one of her students!"

"Really? How nice."

"Yeah, and he's going to be at camp too."

"Sounds great." She was annoyed at her sister's nonchalance, but it was fine in the long run. The woman would come around eventually. Trina met Sasha's eyes and flashed a tiny smile. "Please let me know how the date goes, Sasha."

"I don't know," Sasha replied, "I'm nervous."

"Why?"

"I just am. It's our first time really going out." Sasha brushed her hair back and closed her eyes. "Jesse doesn't like leaving the mansion unless he has to, so a date seems almost trivial to him."

Trina waved her hand in the air and reassured Sasha. "I think once he sees you in that dress, he's not going to worry one bit about all those other things." She turned her head to Tori and reached over, rubbing Tori's hair. "Anyway Tori, it's nice to hear Sikowitz's nephew is into martial arts. I'm more interested in seeing Alexis than I am meeting a guy at camp."

She pouted a lip and groaned as Trina walked out. Sasha followed after her, to Tori's surprise, but she opted to not follow. She had to go with her friends to Beck's play, they all got parts as an extra.


The next chapter does kind of go with this, and for regular readers this is a nasty place to leave off of. Hmm, yeah, I'll go ahead and give you the next as soon as I make some changes to it.