AN: Guess who isn't doing what she's supposed to be doing again! Me! I really need to focus as to not ruin my future.
Disclaimer: the Victorious characters belong to Nickelodeon and Mr. Dan Schneider and all others either are mine or someone else's.
{{ Friends and good manners will carry you where money won't go. (Margaret Walker) }}
"I wanna do it again." I shook my head and shoved the headphones back over my ears. Harry had assured me plenty of times that I sounded beautiful and didn't need to be so hard on myself, but being from a theater background with the formal schooling, I just couldn't accept anything but the best. Luckily, I was finishing the last few songs and it was just Harry and me here today. I really didn't want my kids to see me so stressed out and self-deprecating.
"Alright, Cat-" Andre sighed- "from the top Lil Red!"
"Andre-" I laughed heavily- "my hair hasn't been red in years!"
"Just sing your song, heh!" He grinned and turned the track music on again. At the sound of strings and my little ad-libs in the intro, I felt all the stress begin to melt away. I was here in the moment and nothing else mattered. Music had always had this effect on me and I think it truly led me to this career. "Beautiful, Cat! That's a wrap!" Andre rose to his feet and began clapping.
"You really liked it?" I pulled my hair up into a ponytail as I stepped out of the recording booth. "It's the one I wrote for our songwriting class sophomore year!"
"The one about the bunny and the giraffe?" He began to turn the sound equipment off. "Or was it the one you wrote about your grandparents?"
"The grandparents one!" I smiled happily, though all four of my grandparents were dead at this point in my life. "The Happy Bunny Giraffe Song needs a few tweaks before it's ready for its public debut!"
"Cat-" Harry approached me and proceeded to wrap his large arms around my body before picking me up off of the ground- "how's it feel to be done? You sounded absolutely marvelous! As you always do, love!"
"It's absolutely amazing! Like a huge weight's been lifted off of my shoulders! Is this why you always insisted that we all go out for ice cream or pizza after you finished recording?"
"Oh course! But who doesn't love a good excuse for treats! Anyways, let's let Andre go home so we can all see our families," Harry suggested.
"Have a lovely rest of your evening and weekend and be sure to tell the kids I said hello!"
"Same for you, Valentine. Great work in there this week!"
"Heard you're back in the studio." Sinjin looked over at me nonchalantly but also curiously.
"Well, I wouldn't say I was ever really in there for myself." I flicked a popcorn kernel at his head and stuck out my tongue.
"Okay! Okay! Break it up you two!" Beck stepped in the way and blocked my path. "These are supposed to be fun, friendly gatherings we do a few times each year."
"It's not my fault Cat always ends up throwing food at me!" Sinjin threw his hands up in defense. "She's the one who started these HA mini reunions in the first place!"
"I thought we could all use a night away from our stressful lives and children! And I missed you people!" I pouted and walked back over to my husband. "I miss the stuff we used to all do in high school."
"Cat, we all know that you do this just so you have an excuse to get wine drunk without feeling bad about yourself." Jade pointed out as she physically pointed at me.
"Nah, you're right." I shrugged and took a few large gulps of my alcoholic beverage. "Honk honk!" I mimicked my ringtone as every single one of our phones went off with an alert.
"Are you all reading this too?" Robbie looked up from his phone.
"Singer Tori Vega gave birth to a baby girl yesterday afternoon. She joins brother David (3)," Beck read aloud.
"Do you think it's his baby this time?" SInjin looked around at the bunch.
"God she's got a screwed up life!" Jade laughed continued to sip her wine. "Cheers to our happy lives with people we love!" She raised her glass.
"Yeah, to that." I continued rereading the article over and over again. I had heard about the paternity issue when her son was born. I mean, who didn't! She'd been married to Toby for a solid three or four years before the baby was born, and even after they found out he wasn't the father, he still stayed. I guess he deserved to have a baby that was his own, though I'm sure that didn't matter too much to him.
"I feel kinda bad for her." Andre solemnly looked back down to his phone. "I guess I'm glad she's getting her life back together after all the scandals." We all knew how big of a crush he'd had on her, probably similar to Robbie and me. They'd dated briefly after high school while Tori was on the show, but she soon broke up with him when she got famous and he refused to drop out of school.
"Yeah." We verbally agreed, though we still all thought this was karma for dropping all of her friends (and possibly even her family) and letting fame get to her head. If we could all stick together for this long after having our own separate careers and families and even location changes, we could make it through everything and anything. It was nice to know that as cutthroat as this business could be, we could all support each other and stay best friends.
Dear Diary,
Hi it's Cat! I finally finished the very last song of my very first fully produced album! I've been writing songs since before I could even properly hold a pencil! I probably have at least a bajillion songs in my repertoire, though only a couple dozen are even useable. Junior year, we all got a chance to record any song of our choice in a local recording studio, though that was mostly a one and done thing. This time around, I spent hours on end in the booth, trying to sound my absolute best. Once or twice, I was able to bring a few of the kids, mostly as inspiration for the songs I had written about them that they hadn't fully heard. I really hope they truly liked their songs. They're definitely not afraid to give me the cold hard truth, but I'm not exactly sure they'd criticize my music as of yet. Hopefully, everyone else loves them just as much as my children said they did. If the music doesn't work out, I still have my husband and children, and that's truly what'll matter to me at the end of the day. But I really really do hope the music career works out!
Love,
Caterina
AN: So fun! Both the music and the get together. Honestly, I feel like that'd be my ideal night with friends. Most of the time we're all just joking with eat other and drinking way more than we should be. It's great. Lots of fun and a stress relief cause we have stress up to the roof by now. Ugh. Life.
-Sami
