Really happy Victorious won at the KCAs. :)
CHAPTER 14 -Day 6-
Beck's POV
I slowly opened up my eyes and found myself staring at the ceiling. I reached over to my left, expecting to feel a body, but I ended up hitting the wooden paneling of a bed.
What the?
I sat up, finding myself suddenly entangled in a swarm of white blankets. I was on soft plush carpet of the hotel room. Wait…did I fall off the bed again? I stood up as quickly as I could and looked back onto the bed. Jade hogged the entire surface, her limbs splayed out like spider, and she was half-covered in blankets (the rest were drooping onto the floor) and snoring softly.
Little did people know, but she was not only a heavy sleeper but also liked to kick…a lot. Twice already had she knocked me off and continued sleeping through it, although I would always wake up and be a little bit frustrated each time.
There was a couch that I considered sleeping on because it wasn't exactly nice to wake up in the morning and expecting to see the girl of your dreams sleeping next to you, but instead finding the dusty area beneath the bed and carpet.
I glanced over at the digital clock. It read 8:05.
Hold on…8:05? Weren't we supposed to be at the studio and starting the broadcast at 8:00?
Suddenly, all of the realization hit me like a train. In an instance, I was halfway across the room and slamming the bathroom door behind me. I found my PearPhone plugged into the outlet by the sink. Yeah, it probably wasn't very smart to keep it there, but Jade's phone was right by our bed and I didn't want to leave my phone on the floor, so this was the only other place I could really put it.
I turned it on and saw no new messages. The time was still 8:05. I dialed Sikowitz immediately, at the same time grabbing my toothbrush, slathering toothpaste on it and jamming it into my mouth.
I looked up in the mirror frantically. My hair looked okay—the same wild fluffy mane I always kept—but then again, it always looked like that anyway.
"Hello?" a sleepy Sikowitz suddenly answered.
"Dood!" I practically shouted, spraying the counter with white foam. I remembered to lower my voice because Jade was still asleep, but she was going to have to wake up eventually so I ran out of the bathroom.
"What?" Sikowitz asked calmly.
"I'nt are broad-cath at a-o'clock?" I said, picking up the nearest pillow on the coach and lobbing it at Jade's head. She didn't even move.
"I can't understand you-u-u, Beck," my teacher responded, obviously stifling a yawn.
I pulled the toothbrush out of my mouth. "Isn't our broadcast at eight o'clock?" I repeated. "It's eight-oh-five now!" I double-checked the alarm clock across the room just to make sure. Yep, I was right.
"Calm down, Beck," Sikowitz muttered airily. "Did no one tell you that we don't have a broadcast today?"
"It's Thursday. Of course we have a broadcast."
"Well calm down, sonny. Last night the regular reporters got here, because apparently the snowstorm eased up enough for the airplane to take off. Mr. Highes wants to work with them this morning, seeing as all of you 'failed' by his standards and each of you practically had some sort of breakdown."
Breakdown? No one had a breakdown as far as I could remember. Well okay, maybe Cat was nervous, but she didn't 'breakdown.' Jade kind of did with Ron the restaurant owner, but she obviously wasn't 'nervous'…
"Anyway, I thought that wasn't part of the deal," I said.
"What deal?"
"When we were interviewed to first come on this trip, we read through some brochures. It said that we would have to do a broadcast for ten days. And then the other four were just to be spent goofing off here in Vegas," I recalled.
"Well you always have to be ready for the unexpected. But Mr. Highes's told me that it's been a while since something 'bad' like this happened. And anyway, it was a lot more serious—I think he said something about a shooting."
"See? We got tranquilizer darts used on us. We are more than capable of continuing."
"Maybe you are, but I don't think Jade wants to. Or Cat. And anyway, it's too late now. The broadcast started seven minutes ago."
"It would've been nice if you told me earlier so I wouldn't just wake up and be all freaked out like I am now," I complained. Jade was sitting up in bed now, looking at me, her expression like a deer in headlights.
"Sorry, Elvis," Sikowitz apologized.
"Okay, so what are we going to do today then?"
"Well, we can just hang out here, unless the girls or Robbie want to go shopping or something," he said. Robbie? Well, he is rather 'weird' I guess. "I think we also have the day off tomorrow too, so there's no rush, if you want to go visit certain places and they're too busy or not open or something."
"All right, cool."
"Yep. So if you want to go out, tell me beforehand, but otherwise, you can sleep in as late as you want."
"Thanks, Sikowitz. Bye!"
I hung up.
"What happened?" Jade asked. She glanced over at the clock. "Holy chiz! We should've been at the studio eight minutes ago!" She threw off the covers and stumbled towards the closet. "What the heck are you doing, Beck! Dang it, Mr. Highes is going to kill us all!"
It was quite a sight to see her panicked for once. I was surprised that she didn't listening to my conversation with Sikowitz, but she was still half-asleep so I couldn't blame her too much. She ran towards me, and I wrapped my arms around her, tackling her down to the floor. But she was in no mood for fooling around.
"Stop it, Beck!" she tried to push away from me.
That hurt my feelings, seeing that she was serious when I was just playing around. I tightened my grip, and she started struggling harder, me laughing silently.
"Beck!" she choked. "We need to go…"
"No we don't. I just talked to Sikowitz, if you weren't paying attention. We don't have to go today because the regular reporters are filling in for us," I whispered into her hair.
"Oh. Well in that case." She pushed her back against my chest as hard as she could and I thudded onto the floor, laughing softly and pressing a kiss against her forehead.
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Cat's POV
I woke up with a start and looked around wildly. The hotel room was dark, and I saw Tori snoring loudly on her side of the room. Half of her body was hanging off the edge, and her head was upside-down with her mouth wide opening and snoring loudly.
"Snnaaaaawwww…snnaaawwww…."
"Hee hee," I giggled, throwing off the blanket. I wondered how anyone could sleep and snore like that.
Suddenly, there was a crashing noise, and Tori was on the ground, the blankets spread around her. She rubbed her eyes, looking like a confused puppy.
"Good morning, Tori!" I sang at the top of my lungs and hopping out of bed.
Tori let loose a bunch of garbled noises and flopped back onto the plush carpet while I hurried over to the bathroom.
My red hair was just a mess of tangled magenta strands, so I picked up my brush and started to comb it gently, getting all of the knots out as slow and painlessly as possible.
The last time I checked the clock it had said that it was 8:07 a.m., but I wasn't worried. Sikowitz had come to our room last night and told us that we wouldn't be broadcasting for the next two days because the usual reporters were back and going cover for us since Mr. Highes wasn't very happy with our performance yesterday.
I left the bathroom, still fixing up my hair. Tori hadn't moved from her spot on the floor.
"What do you think we're going to do today?" I asked.
"We're going to go shopping, I think. Or at least I want to," she responded, getting up and sitting on her bed to face me. "Sikowitz said he'd like to check out the hotel, since you know, we haven't actually properly done that yet. But for the most part, I think we have freedom today."
"Oh-kay," I mumbled back.
Suddenly, there was a knock at the door. Tori continued to sit there, a blank look on her face, indicating that I should probably go and answer it. I opened the door and found Robbie standing there awkwardly, still in his pajamas.
"Hi, Robbie!" I exclaimed.
He looked at his hands, which fiddled around restlessly, before looking back up at me, his eyes shining. "Hi, Cat. I was, uh, I was just wondering…" he stammered. I stared at him, waiting for him to continue. "Well, you know, since we're not going to be doing a broadcast today, I was, well, I was wondering…"
"Hello, Robbie," Tori said, suddenly standing right behind me.
Robbie nodded a hello, and continued staring at me. "Uhm, well, I was just wondering…do you guys want to go do some sightseeing or something with Rex and me? You don't have to if you don't want to," he added hastily.
"Sightseeing?" Tori sounded doubtful.
Robbie turned white, a sharp contrast from the bright red he was seconds ago, and it looked like he was going to throw up at any moment.
"Well can we go shopping too?" I asked, and he nodded vigorously. "Okay, then sure, I can come."
His expression was appeared enormously relieved.
"All right cool. So I'll come back at 9:00 to pick you up." I don't think he realized that Tori hadn't given him an answer yet. "I'll see you later then!" He disappeared down the hall without another word.
I shut the door, turning to see Tori standing there, her arms crossed, a suspiciously wide smile crossing her face.
"What?" I asked.
"Oh, nothing. I hope you have fun with Robbie?" Her smile never turned down, and she walked past me to the beds. The ways she was acting was very suspicious. I didn't see what was wrong with spending a day in Vegas with a cute nerdy guy. Wait…what did I just say?
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Robbie's POV
I was very excited that I was going to spend the day with Cat. I'm not sure about Tori, though; she seemed very hesitant, but that was okay with me. Either way, I'd still get to be with Cat.
I quickly got ready, with André still fast asleep. Sikowitz was bowling by himself, and he had a pretty high score. As I was getting ready to leave the room, Rex, on my arm, I heard my acting teacher say:
"Oh, Robbie, I think Jade might be interested in going shopping with you two. Unless Tori's going."
"Huh?"
"Go see if Beck and Jade want to go with you."
"Okay, fine." I proceeded down the deserted hallway, knocking four times on the solid wood door.
Beck answered, his hair a mess.
"Oh, hello, Robbie."
"Do you and Jade want to come and go sightseeing and shopping with Cat and me?"
"Oh, um…" He looked away awkwardly before calling to his girlfriend. "Hey, baby, do you want to go shopping with Robbie and Cat?"
"No."
"Hold on," Beck said with a wink. He disappeared for a few moments, and there was a scuffling noise. He came back, holding tightly onto Jade, who wore a half-buttoned shirt and baggy jeans. "Okay, Robbie, we're coming."
"Beck, let go of me. I don't want to go, especially not with that guy!"
"Nope. We're going." Beck was adamant.
"I don't even have my purse."
"I'm sure Cat will have something for you," he replied with a grin.
"I hate you."
"And I love you, too." Beck stuck his tongue out at Jade, who continued to glare at him angrily.
We made our way to Tori and Cat's room. Jade pounded on the door before Beck and I could get there.
"Wake up, Vega! You too, Cat!"
Cat opened up the door, her face shining brightly. "Tori's not coming. She wants to sleep some more."
"WAKE UP, VEGA!" Jade yelled obnoxiously loud, trying to push Cat out of the way and get into the room.
"Go away," came back Tori's lame response. Cat quickly closed the door before Jade could get past her. We made our way down to the elevators, everyone looking at each other as we waited for the elevator.
Finally, Beck said, "Let's go have some fun in Vegas!"
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-DAY 7-
Trina's POV
It was Friday afternoon, and I was, for the first time, not looking forward to the weekend. No doubt Mom and Dad would keep me busy with chores, and it wasn't like I could have any fun anyway since I wasn't allowed to go anywhere or have anyone over.
I was in the Black Box theater, standing in the back. Lane had brought a group of people here for some unknown reason, not that I really cared. I spotted Sinjin near the front, standing behind a fancy-looking camera and a newly set-up screen across the wall.
None of my friends were here so I sat down in the last row of chairs by myself.
Lane appeared at the front of theater, smiling eagerly.
"All right, well, you're probably all wondering why I've called you here today," he said, eyes gleaming.
No, not really.
"Do you see this screen right here? And this camera?" He gestured to Sinjin's camera and the movie-like screen. "Well, I've managed to get ahold of Sikowitz and the students there, and they agreed to do a v-chat with you guys about their experiences so far. So please be polite, as this is a privilege and you were all individually selected by the students themselves to talk to."
Everyone nodded meekly.
Without another moment, the screen lighted up, and my very own baby sister appeared. She waved furiously, then stopped, turning her head to the left and moving her mouth. There was a loud popping noise and we heard a burst of chatter coming from the speakers. Sinjin swiveled the camera around expertly, probably letting the others see exactly whom they were v-chatting with.
"Hi, everybody!" Tori shouted.
A few scattered hellos were heard briefly around the room.
"Hello, Tori," Lane answered enthusiastically as Sinjin focused the camera on him. "Where's Sikowitz?"
"Right here." The teacher-chaperone appeared in the far corner of the screen. "Hello, everybody and Lane. We're in Vegas."
No duh. I would be there with you guys, if it hadn't been for Tori and her stupid friends.
"If you guys have any questions for them, just say so," Lane explained. "Where's the rest of them, Sikowitz?"
"Oh, they're right here." Sikowitz turned around and waved his arms. Suddenly Beck and Jade came into view, trying to fit themselves between Tori and Sikowitz unsuccessfully.
"Are you guys having fun so far?" someone in the front asked.
"You bet," my sister answered, struggling to stay in view of the camera, since Jade was slowly leaning on her with increasing weight and pushing her out of the way. "We had a day off yesterday so we went shopping and stuff…" Her voice trailed off significantly as she struggled against Jade. Beck had moved behind them and was watching with an amused look.
"What's it like being on TV?" another said.
"Just great, just great," Tori squeaked, now half gone from view.
"Stop it, Jade," Sikowitz finally reprimanded, pulling the two scuffling girls apart. Tori huffed several times angrily and brushed off her shirt, Jade looking at her with an evil glint in her eye.
"It's Cat!"
I saw the familiar redhead bounce into the camera's view even before her name was mentioned. Tori, Jade, Beck and Sikowitz melted away to be replaced by her, Robbie and André.
"What's it like being on TV?" the same person repeated.
"It's really, really cool," André said, and I was glad that someone was finally giving an actual answer. There was some brief shouting of Sikowitz and Beck, and I heard Jade whining and Tori sounded upset.
"But doing it live is kind of hard," Cat put in. "If it was just a regular TV show, like the ones I used to watch on Nickelodeon with my brother all the time, it would be easier to film, since we would instead record months ahead of time and stuff."
I had no idea what she was trying to say.
"Did you guys get to look around Vegas yet? Meet any famous people?"
"They met me," I heard Jade shout. That was unusually conceited of her, and we all know that one day, after we all graduate high school, I'll be the first to be signed onto a future Oscar-winning film.
"No. I meant like currently, superstar status people."
"We met Jade," Cat insisted, playing along with Jade's joke, an adoring smile on her face.
"Did you visit anywhere interesting?"
"We went to a haunted house—well, at least Beck, Jade and Cat did—and we also visited a three-story tall candy store," André said, grinning gleefully.
"How did your first broadcast go?" I asked, wanting to participate in the action.
"It was uh, it went okay, I think, for the first time." André looked extremely sheepish. "Um, of course, we had our few mistakes, but besides those—"
"Be specific!" I demanded.
"Well, five minutes before we aired Tori spilled a whole bunch of water on Beck, and Jade saw the whole thing so she started yelling at Tori nonstop before they finally turned off her camera."
"Cat was really funny though," Robbie interrupted, staring down at her. "She kept pointing to the wrong cities and stuff when she was reporting the weather, which the boss wasn't very happy about."
"But Robbie got yelled at on-air," Cat argued back, playfully determined to one-up the boys. "Because Rex was being really rude to the teams. And now he's not allowed to be on the show anymore."
"Who, Robbie?"
"No, Rex."
There was a silence as some people snickered.
"So how have your guys' past few days been?" Man, Lane couldn't keep his mouth shut, could he?
"We got ambushed in the studio," Cat said complacently. "And Jade and Sikowitz got hit with these knock-out dart thingys—"
"They're called tranquilizer darts, Cat," André corrected. Lane's eyebrows shot up. I grumbled, already having this information known to me.
"But everyone's okay," Cat said, obviously must have seeing the shocked looks on everyone's faces. "It was a very exciting experience. Robbie said he tied Jade to his—"
"Yeah okay, we don't need to go that much into detail!" Robbie interrupted, turning scarlet. Tied Jade up? With what? I thought she had a thing on with Beck. "And anyway, I helped save her life, so ha!"
"You slapped her," André said, looking at him funny.
Everyone burst into laughter just at the thought of Robbie slapping Jade. Suddenly, Jade appeared, and she looked upset.
"Yeah, okay, that's enough for you guys to know," she muttered, staring hard at the screen as if she were trying to figure out how to turn it off.
"Wait Jade, I'm sorry—" André tried to say.
"No, Jade, don't turn it off, we're not done yet," Sikowitz said, coming over and trying to move Jade's hands out of the way of the power button. "We still need to—"
The screen turned gray and the 'No Signal' words popped up. Everyone still laughed quietly, and Lane came back up, obviously looking a little bit perturbed that the chat ended sooner than planned.
"Okay, well I hope you enjoyed whatever that was. You may all go now."
Despite what I was thinking earlier of not be exciting for the weekend, I had my things picked up and was the first one out the door.
Well, the gang are officially halfway through their visit to Vegas! Hooray! So that means only a couple more chapters for me to write and you to read. :)
Review!