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Crumbling World
Disclaimer: I own nothing
A/N:
Chapter 29 (No Longer Loved)
Back in school, Tori felt like she'd rather be with her mom and dad while they looked at houses. Several of her relatives were still in town, and she wanted to visit with them; but she had to swallow the pill.
She no longer enjoyed it at Hollywood Arts, mainly because of the students that were constantly picking on her. Jade did what she could to try and alleviate the situation, but she could only do so much and her threats of violence were beginning to get to the point where some of the students didn't care anymore.
Cat had even been trying to help, but the girl couldn't do a whole lot either because of how passive she was. Even now, she was much too passive-and certainly afraid to fall to the ire of the bullies and hecklers out there. After all, if the students were chiming about how Trina had sex with a teacher, they certainly would do the same to Cat if they knew about her.
Whenever she sat in drama class, she could feel the icy glares of the students that actually liked Sikowitz. So she took her seat and ignored them, focusing on her square lunch box. She opened it up, intrigued to see what her mother packed for her today. "Hey," whispered one of the students. "Hey you."
For some reason, Jade wasn't in this class today. Cat had transferred out of the class when everything went south. Tori removed a sandwich and smiled as she studied it close. "Ham and cheese on wheat."
The sandwich consisted of three slices of black forest ham, two slices of sharp cheddar cheese, pickles, lettuce, mustard and ketchup. Just eyeballing it was enough to make her mouth water. Of course, it was quick and simple to make, and Trina hadn't the time today to make a Spanish lunch.
"Hey!" The student's voice was irritated now, rising with anger. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "Your mother make that?" The student smirked and Tori's muscles began to tense. "Did she have enough time away from fucking teachers to cook you something." The students started to laugh and gave high fives to one another for the joke.
Rather than incite them, she bit down on her tongue and looked around her lunch box for other items. There was a banana, which she loved, and a water bottle. "Hey, Teacher's pet, we're talking to you." The student nudged her and she arched her back. "Or should we say, teacher's kid?"
She rolled her eyes and started to close the lid. "I'm not a teacher's kid," she muttered. It wouldn't work, she already tried telling people about the DNA results, but no one budged. "I have proof…" The student laughed and leaned back, looking among the others.
"Proof? She's got proof. Probably fake."
"Guys…" It was Robbie, his voice taking an exhausted and warning tone. "Really, do we have to keep on? I think that's enough." Tori smiled weakly and the student accosted him, telling him to mind his own business. "Funny, you're not minding yours."
Tori looked to the empty teacher's desk with a heavy sigh. Anger coursed through her veins. It was like this day in and day out, so much she simply wanted to get away from this place.
That said, her parents were looking at homes that were a bit further away from the city, outside of the school district range for both HA and Sherwood.
Robbie dusted off his shoulder and looked back at the textbook in his lap. Every now and then he would try and help out, but for the most part he simply wasn't involved in her life. "I'm going to text Jade if you guys keep it up," he muttered angrily. The students laughed again, clearly unafraid.
"Ooh what's she going to do, threaten us some more? Dumb bitch won't even attack anyone anymore ever since her boyfriend died, you think we're scared of her? Besides." The kid leaned towards Tori, narrowing his eyes. "Doesn't change the fact that Tori's mom's a slut." Tori snapped her head upright and growled.
"Don't talk about my momma like that."
"Why? What're you going to do about it?"`
"My mom is not a slut, she is not a whore. You don't know anything!"
"She's a teacher fucker and a teenage mom, she's a whore." Robbie tried again to silence him, but it was too late. Enraged, Tori rose from her seat and flew at the student, tackling him to the ground, her hands around his throat.
"Stop talking about my mom like that, you asshole!" She began hitting him, screaming at the top of her lungs, pushed to the brink from all the bullying that had been going on.
Robbie had texted Jade, who had been in a classroom nearby. Eventually, Jade was rushing into the room and trying to pull Tori away, but found it difficult as she continued trying to get away. "Leave me alone Jade, they won't stop talking about my mom." Tears fell from her eyes and her chest heaved. "I hate them!"
"It's okay, Tori, they're not worth it." Jade yanked her to the other side of the room with Robbie's help. The student stood, a smirk on his face as if he'd won some prize. Blood dribbled from the corner of his mouth and he wiped it away just as the teacher walked in.
"Excuse me," the teacher said while looking around the silent students. "What just happened here?" Tori was breathing heavily and pointing at the student.
"He called my mom a whore."
"Because she is." The student spat out and ran his arm across his mouth. The teacher rolled her eyes and looked at Tori. "She attacked me! Look, I'm bleeding." Jade scowled as the teacher approached Tori.
"Miss Vega, I'm going to have to send you down to the principal's office…" The teacher frowned at her, an apologetic look came over the woman's face. Tori's heart sank and a rush of anger and annoyance came over her.
"But he started it. It's not fair! Why should I get in trouble when everyone else is always picking on me and picking on my mom?"
The teacher guided her towards the door. Jade followed and pointed at the student with a threatening and menacing demeanor, but when the students only smirked and laughed, she recoiled in shock.
"Probably just as much a teacher lover as Tori," the student said, "She'd have to be if she wanted to still be associated with that mess. Probably one of them would be the next teenage pregnancy, if only Beck were alive." Jade stammered and her eyes went wide. Robbie quickly pushed her out of the classroom as well, ensuring she didn't do something crazy.
"It's for your benefit," the teacher whispered to her, "I'm sorry. Maybe talking to Mr. Eikner will help you cool off a little."
"But they-"
"I will talk to them. Still, you can't be assaulting other students on school property. The bullying is becoming an issue, I know, but if you begin attacking other students, you are making it worse for yourself and for others."
"Not fair…"
She had to wait outside Mr. Eikner's office for what felt like an eternity to her. Everywhere she turned, she could feel judgmental gazes burning upon her, and she hated it. She hated where she was, she hated the school, she hated Mr. Sikowitz and everything these students stood for.
The catcalls of her bullies plagued her mind, causing her to curl her fingers and grit her teeth.
"Hey your mom's hot, I like MILFs."
"Is your momma still open for business?"
"Hah, you're a teen baby."
"Teacher's pet. Teacher's kid."
Tori shook her head and slowly buried her face into her hands. Her body trembled as a sob shook away from her lips.
The office doors flew open and Trina came rushing in with Spencer quick on her heels. "Where's my baby?" Trina exclaimed at the top of her lungs. "Where's my child. Tori!" Tori lifted her head and curled her eyebrows as her mom hugged her.
"Momma, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to get into a fight. I just…"
"It's okay. It's going to be okay." Spencer looked out the office windows into the hallway, his hand curled over his chin and his eyes narrowed on the students walking by. Trina looked up to him. "It's getting worse. They've been picking on her ever since the news got out."
"I can tell." He lowered his hand with a sigh. "I almost went off on that kid that whistled at you coming through the doors."
"Don't." Trina shook her head. "It gives a bad impression. Besides, you would have had to stop me from tackling them first."
"I don't understand." Tori's entire body was tense and she was shaking like a leaf in the wind. "People used to like me here, and even Jade's lost some of her sting." Perhaps the people that had been afraid of Jade were afraid of her and Beck both. Because Beck was popular, everyone wanted to be on his good side; and he let Jade chew out just about anyone that wronged her, so they were scared of her. Now, in their eyes, she was next to nothing because Beck was no longer there. "Maybe Beck had more of the power over the students than I thought…"
Just then the door to Eikner's office opened up and his secretary stepped out. "Mr. Eikner is ready to see you now." Tori stood up, using her mom's arm for support. She'd never been to the principal's office because of anything bad, so this was a scary thought.
As they entered, Tori saw the principal reclining in his leather chair. His heels were on the corner of his desk and his hands were folded over his stomach. A deep frown and look of disappointment was etched on his face. "I never thought I'd see this day," he remarked as the three sat in the chairs across from him. "Much less, never thought I'd be a principal, having to give a talk to one of my own former students' fifteen year old daughter."
Spencer formed a slight smirk. "I promise you're not that old, Mr. Eikner." Eikner pulled his heels down and sat upright with a sigh.
"Nevertheless, it is good to see you. Unfortunately, as I'm sure you're aware of how serious this situation is." Spencer nodded slowly and Eikner looked to Tori with a frown. "You could very well get suspended, Victoria. You know better than this, but I know how difficult things have been on you and your parents both."
"He shouldn't have been talking about my mother like that." She crossed her arms and scowled. "They don't know anything. They have no right." Trina reached around Tori's shoulder and gently stroked her back. "It's not right that I'm here and that kid's not."
"Don't misunderstand, I will be calling him to my office as well." Eikner leaned forward and laced his hands together. He pressed his lips firmly together and closed his eyes. "I've been observing how things have been progressing. Never once after finding out about your mother did I not suspect that you were Spencer's child, so I have been watching and I know how out of hand things are becoming…The kids here, some of those who liked your former teacher are upset, a lot of them upset with Beck and with Sinjin. There are several who simply don't understand."
"It's kind of shocking in this day and age," Trina commented. Eikner's eyebrows came together and he started to hum. "I mean, if you thought it was uncommon for teenagers to have sex when Spencer and I were kids, teens today make us seem like prudes." Tori chuckled and she watched her father nod his head.
Eikner's lips twisted into a smirk and he leaned back slowly. "Oh yes, I do miss the days I'd come into school and find a pair of lovebirds going at it in the janitor's closet next to my classroom." Her eyes grew large and Trina started to cough.
Spencer raised a finger. "It was one time." He paused and blinked twice. "We frequented the roof a lot though." Eikner rolled his eyes and grabbed the paperwork on his desk.
"Wonderful."
Trina cleared her throat and lifted her hand away from her purse. "Okay, I'd like to know what is going to be done about the situation going on right now. I'd like to think my daughter is going to be safe." Eikner started to frown and he looked to Tori, who was hoping she'd not be in too much trouble because he knew her parents well.
"If I'm honest, I would make a suggestion you might not care for; but I think it would be in your daughter's best interest." Trina adjusted the purse strap on her shoulder and held it in place for a minute as she listened to the principal. "I recommend placing her in another school, one where she wouldn't be struggling with all the bullying that she has here." Tori's eyes widened and she looked to her parents with a new burst of anxiety.
While she didn't mind the idea, it was startling. "I wouldn't mind going back to Sherwood…"
"Not the best idea," Spencer replied. She furrowed her brow and looked away. Her father started to sigh. "We have been looking at houses a little outside of the city." Eikner smiled.
"Oh good, prices are a bit cheaper the further out of the city center that you go. Of course, that would place you outside of our district range, as well as both Northridge and Sherwood. So Tori would be given a brand new start at a new high school, preferably one where she and her family are not as well known. She would still be able to have her friends, but simply attending a school where she is not being picked on nearly as much."
Trina seemed hesitant and looked at Tori with a note of concern. Tori frowned at her and slowly leaned against her side. "What do you think about all this, Tori?" She closed her eyes and wrapped an arm around her mother's.
"I don't want to be picked on anymore." At this point, she didn't care where she was, she was sick of all the shit she was dealing with.
"We will give it some thought…"
After the meeting with Eikner, they made their way out into the main hallway where they huddled a bit together. "You're welcome to come on home for the day," Trina said with a smile. "Spencer and I could use an extra eye on some of the houses."
She hugged Trina. Eikner hadn't decided to send her home and left it up to her and her parents to decide what to do on that matter, although he recommended she go home.
There was a whistle nearby and Tori groaned as Trina looked to the student whistling at her. "Excuse me?" Trina's voice lowered. "You'd better be whistling jingle bells over there, boy." Spencer glared at the kid, who openly smirked back.
"You can jingle my bells anytime Miss Vega." Trina sucked in a heavy breath, her hands clenching tight. Tori's eyes grew large and, just as Trina was about to lunge, Spencer grabbed her.
"Okay," he said loudly, "Let's go before we're talking to my ol' teacher again, shall we? I doubt he'd be as forgiving next time around." He started to guide Trina to the door.
"So done with this place," Trina muttered, "Absolutely not leaving my daughter in this hellhole." Tori stood in place, her eyebrow rising as her mother's temper continued to flare. "Come on Tori, let's go."
"Okay." She grabbed her backpack off the floor and ran after her parents. She wasn't going to argue, and besides, she wanted to leave just as much. "I want to see what houses you found." It was a bitter pill to swallow, but she knew enough that she was no longer loved here.
If anything, she was terrified. The bullying was only getting worse, and certainly there were going to be those that never left her in peace. Yes Eikner was right in saying another school might not know her or her family, and that there might still be one or two that did; but it wouldn't be nearly as chaotic and stressful as it was here. She couldn't even study anymore, and her own friends weren't able to help her because they were coming under attack too.
Hollywood Arts no longer wanted her, and she was finding it difficult to accept; but she didn't want them either.
So it's easy to see the bullying is still going on, and going on strong. Kids will be kids, but sometimes the best alternative is removing yourself from the problem. Interesting thought I just had though, in the episode where Robbie kissed Trina on stage, so he just kissed a much older woman, wonder what he thinks about that, haha. Sorry, got off track. Let me know your thoughts! Er, on the chapter. XD
