When Worlds Collide
Disclaimer: I own nothing
A/N: This chapter's title is a song by Sick Puppies
Chapter 21 (You're Going Down)
"Okay let's go over this," Amelia Valentine sat before Holly and Tori in her office; the walls were light brown and the oak desk was centered in the center of the smoky brown floor with the large window directly behind the woman. She had piercing blue eyes sharp as her wit, and long brown hair with honeyed highlights.
Her fingers caressed the papers on her desk and her squinted gaze moved over the words. "I'm afraid the situation your husband has left you in is about as ironclad as it gets." Tori sank in her chair and placed a hand on her mother's wrist, mentally bemoaning the woman's words. "However I'm certain I can try and help. I do both civil and criminal cases, but mostly criminal. Still, you're in luck."
"Are we going to lose the house?" Tori inquired. She looked at her mother, who was holding her breath and had an incredibly tense posture. "Is Dad really in that much control?"
"I'm afraid his name is on the deed." Amelia leaned back and enclosed her hands, lacing her fingers together. "The house is his and like any landlord to tenant you have to abide by his terms. However, that does not allow for said landlord to bully and harass. I could put together a case that you could take to him as a civil suit, citing improper treatment and harassment."
Holly did a double take, raising her hand to her chin and stroking it. "You're saying we can sue him?"
"It's a possibility..." The meeting lasted a while longer before the woman's next client came in. As Courtney and Sinijin strolled in, they requested Tori be with them. So she remained in the room, sitting in a backup chair behind them.
Her mind was spinning with the details of what the woman said about her father and what might end up having to happen if they go to court. The way he threatened and cajoled them was to be used against him, but the problem was there was quite an overlay of marital dispute that wasn't proper for a landlord-tenant lawsuit. Regardless, some of his terms were too much, and they never signed an 'official contract' with him.
As for Courtney and her brother, Tori had to put aside her own case for the moment to focus on them; and it was difficult to do. She wanted to have total focus for respect and gratitude. After all, Amelia was doing this out of the kindness of her own heart, offering discounted services as requested by her daughter; and given her legal prestige, those discounts were a great boon.
"Let me understand this." Amelia reclined slowly, studying the brother and sister for several minutes. "You're wanting to sue your classmate for damages received when she showed the school a humiliating videotape of your traumatic ordeal." Courtney nodded and Sinjin leaned forward, tapping his finger downward on the desk.
"My sister was underage. We've already sued the ones involved and the website, but this is a different situation altogether." Tori listened with earnest to Sinjin's tale, watching Courtney close. The girl was quiet and had a look of rage on her face.
Tori understood what was going through Courtney's mind as they've discussed the matter for some time. Courtney was afraid of doing something, but at the same time she didn't think the lawsuit would amount to much.
In the back of her mind she recalled what Cat told her just before coming to Mrs. Valentine for her mother's own case. "Monica may be powerful, her family might have some influence, so you're going to want a tough attorney that won't be afraid to stare down even the devil himself-and that's my momma." Tori smirked, hoping Cat was right, because Courtney's and hers were not the only potential lawsuits pending.
"I've done my research," Amelia said with a soft and soothing voice that did little to betray the piercing fire within her eyes. After what Kyrie had done to her daughter, this woman was just as interested in bringing in a case against the troupe. "It won't be an easy task, but I will take your case and I won't back down."
"What's difficult about it?" Sinjin inquired.
"Her mother runs the local news agency. She used to be a reporter for the company, and eventually came to run it. Her father is a former actor, small-time, turned businessman. He's the proprietor of several car dealerships throughout LA." Amelia leaned back in her chair and raised a hand to her right temple, tapping it gently. "Had a grandfather sitting in as a councilman on City Hall."
Tori felt her heart sink, but also a note of intrigue. For every person Monica chided for being a stuck-up rich kid-she was one herself. Amelia put her hands together in prayer form and gestured with it towards the group.
"They carry a lot of influence-they even had a lawsuit against Hollywood Arts once, which was settled out of court."
"Lawsuit with HA?" Tori leaned forward and the others turned their gazes upon her. She started to withdraw, blushing from her outburst. "Sorry, I don't mean to interfere."
"That's okay," Courtney replied with a gracious smile as though relieved for the distraction. "I'm curious what that's about too." Courtney looked at Amelia, who shook her head.
"I cannot legally discuss the matter. I can tell you at the very least that it involves Monica auditioning for the school." Tori's heart skipped a beat and she looked away in an attempt to conceal the grin spreading across her face. Cat's mother may not be willing to discuss much, but she knew someone that would.
Once the meeting was over, Tori made her way to the attorney's breakroom and called up her old teacher from Hollywood Arts. When he answered, she could hear the sound of water and birds crowing in the background. "Wow, Mr. Sikowitz where are you at?"
"A cruise ship, Miss Vega!" He laughed jovially, warming her heart. She almost envied him, going out on a cruise. "The cruise ship Atlantis. It's remarkable." He cleared his throat. "So to what do I owe this call from you?"
"Just something I was curious about. You were on the committee that oversaw student auditions for HA, right?" He confirmed so she went on to ask if he ever recalled Monica auditioning.
It took a bit of time for him to ponder, then his pitch rose as he remembered her. "I do recall this girl. We were pretty much tied as to whether or not she'd be accepted. I didn't think she gave the best performance and wasn't a great fit for the school, so I voted no."
"What did she try?"
"An acting performance. It felt a bit flat to me. Plus, she was constantly going on about her father, an old small-time and washed up actor that never truly made it big." Sikowitz grunted and Tori pictured him scratching at his beard. "I think he went to selling cars or something."
"Who decided her vote?"
"Eikner. She actually tried to talk some of us into changing our vote when he got up to use the restroom." Tori furrowed her brow; she remembered how Eikner used to always do that during someone's audition. As it turned out the reason he did was so he could deliberate by himself and give the other judges time to deliberate for themselves. "Seems to me, Monica actually tried telling us a story about Eikner's wife dating her dad in high school and that he probably wasn't going to give her a fair chance."
"What did you think about that?"
"Hogwash! Maybe there's merit to it, but Eikner would never allow personal feelings or grudges to decide whether he thought someone was the right fit for his school." It was clear that Eikner voted against Monica, that matter wasn't what Tori was interested in. She now had something on the girl, but the question was how to use it.
She took a seat in one of the chairs next to a wall and folded her elbow on the countertop adjacent to her. "Did the deciding vote always fall on him?"
"No, no not always. Like your sister, I had the deciding vote." Tori's breath hitched and she looked up. Her heart clenched at Trina's name being mentioned. "I had a chance to talk with her before the audition and learned why she was auditioning. She said she didn't care so much about acting or about singing, but was going to act like she did because that's what the school was all about and she wanted to see if it would be a good fit."
"A good fit?"
"Yes. For her little sister. She wanted to watch over her. Tori raised her hand to her chest and closed her eyes. "I advised her that we had an athletics program. It wasn't much, I told her, but it was something for her to fall back on. A lot of how she acted at that school was because I told her to act in such a manner…because it's an arts school and if students are there but not taking advantage-or trying to-of anything that's offered, they'd be put out…once you showed up, she really started putting on that show because she didn't want to get kicked out for not participating in the school's projects…"
"Oh." Tears spilled from her eyes and she looked away as her heart began to sink. She'd known Trina gave up everything for her, but she didn't really understand the extent of it all. "You know something, I never let her know how much I appreciated her for it all…" Her voice broke and it seemed Sikowitz had fallen silent.
"I really love her Mr. Sikowitz. I've always wanted her in my life, even when I did show it." She wanted to blame it all on Monica, but she knew it was her fault. Even though Monica was a reason for her fears and her acting the way she did, it wasn't Monica that made her throw out her old friends and turn away from her sister. It wasn't Monica that forced her to hide herself from her new friends and pretend to be someone she wasn't. "I made mistakes that I wish I could take back, all because I was afraid of Monica…"
"Is Monica the same girl that you were just asking me about?"
"Yes. I was curious what issue she had with HA. Someone mentioned a lawsuit."
Sikowitz spoke up with a growl trembling from deep in his tone. "Her parents sued the school, yes. They sued due to bullshit, saying Eikner wouldn't accept her because he was discriminating against her as a result of his history with her parents. Total bullshit."
"Cat's mother implied they didn't have a case…"
"They didn't have one, but the school chose to settle out of court and pay them the money to just get it all over with." The disdain in his voice was startling; Tori had never heard such disgust from him. "What a entitled princess she was!" He laughed out and Tori's eyebrows rose. "Sorry, I speak my mind about it now because I'm not a teacher anymore."
"Oh yeah, I heard something about that recently. That's too bad, but I guess you deserve a break." She smiled and extended her arm upwards. "I mean look, you're on a fantastic cruise, seeing the world."
"I have my nephew to thank for that."
"Jason?" She furrowed her brow and smiled. "How is he?" She remembered seeing him at Sikowitz's big sleepover project some time ago, she was a bit dazed not because she found him attractive but because she recognized him. She knew him from the photographs in the school and in all the yearbooks, she knew him from every time Trina talked about wanting to rise to his level or above. "Trina had a huge rivalry going on with him, didn't she?"
Sikowitz began laughing. She waited for him to finish and folded her hand over her leg. "I remember those days. It sounded more like friendly competition." His speech faltered for a moment and he suddenly cleared his throat. "Jason is doing well. If I'm more accurate, his…fiancé is the one that invited me on this cruise. She wanted to get to know his family a bit more."
There were sounds all around Tori, be it the coffee maker dripping into the pot next to her or the hum of the fridge; but they all died down at the word 'fiancé'. She did her best to swallow the knot in her throat while bringing her hand to her chest.
"What? Jason's getting married?" She sucked in a heavy breath of air and recalled Trina's friendship with the man. There was so much she didn't know because she was still in junior high and hadn't quite made it to HA to witness their interaction; but Trina did talk about him, albeit not much. "I wonder what Trina would say to that one…"
"Not until after college." She nodded and mustered the smallest smile she could. "They're waiting to graduate from college first."
"Well tell them I said congrats. I only wish I could know what my sister might think about that, but she's nowhere to be found."
"Yeah." He lowered his voice, his words seemingly falling out with a rush of air. "I'll tell them." It sounded like he wanted to tell her something, she could tell he was holding back; but she wasn't going to press him.
"Has his fiancé met the rest of the family?"
"Yes. Some of our relatives are in Germany, some in Poland and I have a great-aunt who resides in Russia. Jason and his fiancé have seen them all. Then travelled to Spain."
"Spain? What's in Spain?"
"More family members."
She chuckled, raising her dim gaze to the ceiling. "Funny. I have extended family in Spain-or did. Mostly my dad's side. Grandma gave Trina everything when she passed, so I don't know what other family we have over there."
Sikowitz paused for a moment, his voice quivering. "I hate to do this but I need to get off the line, I'm about to miss the big dance."
"There's a dance?"
"Yeah, an elegant ball-like event. I'll be sure to take photos. After all, I'm going to be the wedding photographer when my dear nephew gets married." Tori smiled and nodded her head, giving her farewell to him.
"Enjoy the cruise. I hope you know, I've always valued your teaching."
"I know, Miss Vega."
"I only wish you could see me as who I am and not who I pretended to be."
"Maybe one day I shall." Her heart skyrocketed to her throat and a tear dripped down her cheek. "Goodbye Victoria. Give your friends my regards." The breakroom door opened, the latch clicking back, just as her teacher hung up.
When she looked up, she was startled to see Jade walking in. "Jade? What are you doing here?" Jade had her purse strapped to her left shoulder and a grocery bag in her hand.
"Beck and his family went in to talk to Cat's mom." Jade sat at the table and pulled a small turkey and ham sandwich from the sack. "They want to see if they can sue Monica. Not so sure if they have anything, but they still want to ask. That chick's making a lot of enemies." Jade bit into her sandwich and Tori chuckled.
"She's had a lot of enemies, but yes. Any news on the school play?"
"Oh yeah." Jade lowered the food and raised her eyebrows high. "Mrs. K has put me in charge of directing. She's handling auditions and has already cast someone as the lead…that isn't Nancy." Tori's heart skipped a beat. Jade swallowed down another bite and wiped her mouth with a napkin. "Ciara Jackson. She's a girl in the back row of my class, she's always wanted perform in a school play, so this is her chance."
"That's amazing."
"Yeah, some of the others are already taking notice and following her lead. Mrs. K says she hasn't seen so many students auditioning for one school play in such a long time."
Tori felt a note of pride coming from within. There could be no better news. "And has she filled any other parts?"
"Yes."
"Nancy in anything?"
"No, actually, she's auditioned but her auditions have been a bit flat. Mrs. K also has caught Nancy trying to threaten some of the students, so she won't be getting any parts." Jade smirked and her eyelids fell halfway. "Mrs. K and those students have my protection, Nancy knows this."
Tori cupped a hand over her mouth to stifle a proud smirk. "Jade, you're not!" Jade could be scary enough when she wanted to protect someone, and that's what Tori hoped she would do. Jade was a bit afraid of Monica, sure, but not of Nancy. "What did you do?"
"Oh nothing…" Jade took another bite, chewed it slowly as the smirk upon her face deepened. "Just made sure Nancy knew that if something were to happen to Mrs. K, Ciara, or any of the students auditioning in the play that I would make her every passing day a living nightmare-and showed her how I could do exactly that."
"Any help from Courtney?"
"Yep." Tori rolled her eyes and laughed; it was amazing to see Courtney and Jade getting along so well. Individually the two were powerhouses, but together Tori couldn't imagine how deadly a force they could be. "Ian's got Beck making friends everywhere too, so students are seeing how this guy from Hollywood Arts is trying to be friendly, socializing and well…everything that Monica says HA kids aren't."
"Yeah. Have you spoken to Ian, by the way?"
Jade raised an eyebrow. "About?" Tori took a deep breath and looked to her right. She was letting Ian come around on his own out of respect, and understood how difficult it was.
"I'll let him tell you."
"Everything okay?"
"Yeah. Talk to your stepmom about her family, I know you hate her but…You never know what other relatives you have out there."
"I guess." Jade shrugged. "Why are you so interested in my family anyway?"
"I don't know." She looked down and sighed. "I guess because I've run my own family off?" Jade lowered her sandwich down again and started to reach over to pat Tori on the shoulder. Tori raised her head and sighed. "I just got off the family too, you remember Mr. Sikowitz's nephew?"
"Yeah?"
"He's getting married. After college, but he's engaged."
"I heard something about that from Sikowitz." Tori formed a half smile and nodded at Jade.
"He and Trina used to have a sort of friendly competition going on back in the day." Jade started to cough on her next bite and Tori furrowed her brow as the girl yanked a bottle of orange juice from the sack and drank a few sips of it. "It's kind of disheartening to hear he's engaged to someone now." Tori leaned back slowly, her eyes glittering under the lights of the breakroom. "Trina rarely talked about him and I never saw their interactions, but I sometimes wished those two would get together with as much as she did talk about him."
"What'd she say about him?"
"Just stuff about how she was trying to surpass him and that they would constantly tease each other. I don't know much about it, but she always said he made her want to improve."
"Wow…who would have thought it? Do you know if they ever-"
"I don't. When I saw him at Sikowitz's I wanted to ask him, but couldn't think of how to do it without breaking my role. Then Cat dragged him off."
"Interesting…So um, Cat said something about her musical play." Tori lifted her gaze up, smiling gently as Jade shook her head. "She's befriended a girl in this class, she's kind of like her. A bit eccentric, says she was a friend of yours once." Tori blinked twice, trying to think back. She had a few friends from Sherwood within the arts area.
"I can see it."
"Kacey Nobles?"
Tori gasped, her eyes lighting up with recognition. "Oh yes! She went to the church my family went to, she was in my youth group." She cupped her hands over her mouth and started to laugh, recalling some of the crazy antics she and Kacey had over summer bible camps. "She and Cat are so alike. I can't believe they've struck up a friendship."
"Yeah, Cat says the girl has a pair of pipes on her and has the choir director considering Kacey as a lead part in the musical."
"That would be great." Kacey sang in the church choir as well and was, to Tori's own acknowledgement, a far better singer. "Kacey's entire family has always been active in the church choir. Her mom was the choir director back then, coming up just after her own father. Kacey's great grandparents even sang in church choirs in their day, so she's got the talent."
"That's why Cat likes her. Hell, the choir teacher is the one that told Cat that Kacey was being considered for lead. Kyrie's well miffed."
"Great. The pillars are falling, and now with Cat's mom…Monica's going to have her hands a bit too full to help her girls out."
"Oh Monica's going down; but guess what…" Jade's smirk grew and Tori leaned in, full of intrigue. "There's been whispers from the walls of Sherwood. You and Ian have been nominated for prom king and queen…and you're a strong contender against Monica, who has nothing." Tori froze in place, overcome with shock and a brief stroke of fear. She had to wonder who would put her down, especially because even Ian wasn't interested in that sort of thing.
"I-I don't know what to say. I can't, wow…"
"Yeah, and you know who nominated you two? Your all-time favorite teacher." She leaned back, instantly thinking of Mrs. DeBord. She chuckled nervously and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. "Looks like Mrs. DeBord heard the students in her class talking about how they would like to see you and Ian up there instead of Monica, who gets celebrated at every fucking dance, and she went ahead and put you two down."
"Oh my god, this is all…" Her voice shook and she began to tremble, too nervous to form a straight train of thought or any sensible words; but excited at the same time that her teacher and the students thought she stood even the smallest bit of chance against Monica. "I don't know what to say."
"I don't think you have to say anything. People believe in you, and you can just be yourself. Don't have to be anything other than that, and people like it." Tori grinned and Jade twisted around as the door to the room swung open and Beck shuffled in. "How'd the meeting go, Beck?"
"Still going," He muttered, "I needed some air. Care if I join you two?"
"Sure." He plopped down beside Jade and she leaned her head against his shoulder. "Everything's in place, Beck. Monica and her girls are going down, they don't have much longer…"
"Fina-fucking-ly." Beck's entire body sank as though pushed down by the heavy breath of air tumbling from his lips. "Long time coming."
When worlds come together, enemies fall hard it seems. So much in this chapter, Cat's mom helping out against David and Monica, the plans against Kyrie and Nancy are working, and now we see Sikowitz definitely knows something of Trina. So what stands out and catches your attention? What thoughts have you here? Do tell.