Disclaimer: I don't own Victorious or any of it's characters.

Warning, I like to end things in a life goes on kinda way.

:}

As the summer was coming to a close, the gang had, once again, gathered in the Vega's home to talk about their show, "Hollywood Arts presents." For the first time anyone could remember, Sikowitz had joined them in the Vega home, sitting on the red couch, watching the students work on their big project for the next year, the show they (And quite a few other Hollywood Arts Students) would be producing. Each one of the group who was still in school would get one period each day for their "Work Studies" class, where they could work on the show. This year the school would produce one of it's best classes, with the student body doing almost everything to make the show.

"So, kids, how was your summer?" The balding teacher asked. It almost sounded so normal, the kind of thing one student might ask another, or maybe a teacher would ask their students to write a paper about. For Sikowitz, it served another purpose.

"Great." Robbie said, smiling big. "I was an intern, which is like slavery, but they claim you get valuable work experience. Now normally, that doesn't help you get a job. But I was able to shadow the head writers on a couple of shows at Hollywood Bronson, and let me tell you, I learned a lot from them."

"And we're dating Molly." Cat added. "What? It's true. She's done with her last candy boy, cause she has a place now, and moved on to dating us. Since we work together, you know there won't be any problems."

"Sugar daddy." Jade said, not looking up. She was working on something, and had barely bothered to give anyone her full attention.

"I also babysat, worked on costuming, and with Molly's help, set up my own small costuming shop." cat said, ignoring Jade. "Robbie even helped me pay for it by getting them to hire me to make more sexist costumes for some of the girls over at Hollywood Bronson. But now I have a shop, and there's a place, I can't talk about it, but we have a place for the shop. Yea.." The redhead was now fairly evasive. "Um, Ryder?" She prompted.

"Alex and I had a blast over the summer, and we even managed to drag Jack into a couple of the classes. It was a hoot." Ryder said, smiling. He was only too happy to bail Cat out. "Learned a hell of a lot about comedy theory, application, that kind of chiz. But mostly, in my other training, I learned that the show runner is one busy boy. I have the job of making sure the parts of the show fit together."

"Hi, for those who don't know me, I'm Alex, Molly's new roommate." The new (to some of them) girl said. "I just wanna say I'm very thrilled to be having this opportunity to work with you all…."

"Boring." Trina cut her off. "Be a lamb, and go get Jade some coffee before she does something messy to someone. Rex isn't here, and everyone else bleeds." The older girl had only gotten back that morning. She hadn't even bothered to unpack, not that anyone believed she would. They could all see a very frazzled personal assistant in her future.

"I wish she were kidding." Ryder said to his girl. He gave her his best sympathetic smile.

"It's okay, I've met Jade. I've seen her on coffee withdrawals. Since your assistant isn't here, I'll go get the coffee." Alex said as she stood up.

"Thanks." Jade said, smiling at her for only a second before blue eyes were once again locked on her laptop..

"Both Andre and I got our albums done." Tori jumper in. She had that excited bounce to her that said she couldn't wait to share her good news. She was even moving her fists around like she did in her excited walk.

"DUDE! Don't you think I'd have liked to talk about my album?" Andre asked, but he didn't seem too upset.

"Then go on, I can wait." Tori said, smiling, pulling her arms back down and almost sitting on her hands. Jade absentmindedly stroked her thigh, all without looking up from her computer.

"Okay, I got my album made, and managed to avoid the setup you freaks, and you Jade, had planned for me. Well, I did, for most of the summer. I guess I should have seen that one coming. By the way, Melanie's a wonderful girl, but did you have to set me up with someone related to a Jade clone?" He glared at Tori, who only shrank into her seat.

"Hay, Sam may be a lot like me, but we're very different people." Jade protested, looking up from her work. "For example, I like revenge, where she enjoys protecting those close to her. Also, she lacks that pesky restraint and refinement I developed over the years." The smile she was giving the musician was bone chilling. "However, she doesn't have someone like Jack to restrain her." She paused for a second. "Weeellllll, she did, but that was back in Seattle. No one local. Guess you'll just have to treat this girl of yours right."

"Enough threatening Andre with a small, psychotic blond." Alex chimed in. "I wanna know about the album?"

"Um, Alex, how'd you know she was blond?" Andre asked.

"What, I'm one of the group now. I was in on the planning. Had to be, since Tori was so busy, and Trina was out of town. It was Just me, Molly, and Cat doing most of the setting up." Alex explained. "And she's supposed to the twin sister to Sam, the girl from iCarly. Thus her sister would be short, blond and psychotic. Now tell us about your album."

"Not much I can tell you yet." Andre said, shrugging. "Mine is fairly pop music in nature, but as I was playing shows and trying to learn, I discovered an interest in more street like sounds, giving it an edge that my Hollywood Arts music just lacked. You know, cause we kept everything so clean at school."

"You swear?" Cat asked. She sounded shocked, strange from a girl in an open relationship with multiple people.

"Nope, but I do use some of our more frightening experiences to help me give an edge to some of the songs." He replied. "Caught in a cupcake while in a very bad neighborhood, or being in prison in Yerba…' His voice faded.

"Okay, that brings something up." Trina chimed in. "If Tori hadn't stopped that huge men-woman, would Jack have intervened?" Her attention was on Jade now.

"Roll to the right, take out the leg at the knee, and get to my feet so I would have the chance to do some damage if she got back up." Jade rattled off. "So, um, yea..."

Beck spoke up. "Okay, as long as we're talking, I have a question, but will pay for it with my story." He smiled. "Hope and I attended over a dozen rock festivals over the summer. We saw bands, spoke to people, and in general learned how to find that diamond in the rough hiding in those festivals. We helped sign four new bands to RPX while learning about the minor bands that make up the majority of the performers at music festivals."

The handsome Canadian took a deep breath. "While on the road, Hope and I worked out a lot of our differences. It seems that traveling with someone can do wonders to either build, or destroy, a relationship. We came close to destroy more then once. But in the end, somehow, we wound up still together. She's not like Jade at all. I mean, she's mean, and a challenge, and hard to be around when she's full of herself. However, she has a father who gives her money but not praise, while jade just didn't get much of anything out of that sperm donor." he gave Jade a small smile. "Jade turned out to be a great training girlfriend for dating hope. Still, Jade's more of a direct physical threat, while Hope is more verbal, and maybe has a threatening bodyguard. So we talked, a lot, letting her open up about her fears and worries, and we learned how I could help rein her in and redirect that angst towards something constructive."

"So you had a very productive summer." Jade said dryly.

"Jade, be nice." Tori scolded. "So I'm next?"

"No, cause Beck has a question." Sikowitz pointed out. "Go ahead, Beck."

"What happened with Rex?" The actor asked.

"Rex is having one of his moods." Cat answered.

"We found out that, somehow, maybe because of the differences between Jade and myself, Rex isn't staying as distinct as we'd hoped." Robbie explained.

"As you'd hoped." Beck corrected.

"No, we." Cat said. "I didn't wanna date him, but I kinda liked Rex."

"You kinda like everyone." Jade complained. "And you only liked Rex cause he was the less gross part of Robbie."

"But you get to keep him, cause he's gonna be a part of Rex, right?" Tori asked, looking back and forth between Cat and Robbie.

"Does anyone wanna know what I did all summer?" Trina huffed. She looked annoyed. It was obvious that she had been waiting to wow the group with her summer adventures.

"You traveled, got minor star treatment, and now your back." Ryder said. "Or did things go sideways?"

"Okay, everything you said happened." The older Latina said, smiling. "But more happened as well. Our show is gonna be in so many markets, so many chances to catch on, we'll be a hit for sure. You have no idea how many markets both the Spanish language channel and the Nostalgia Channel reach. Major overlap. I was in Canada for a bit. Canada. And I got all three of my singers to perform at one show or another during my tour. Even got the shows I was visiting to have a cameraman record those performances, and give me a copy for our websight. It's gonna be so good."

"All three?" Alex asked.

"I got both our signed peoples, that being Tori and Andre, performances on the road. But I also got Jade to sing for a couple of the smaller shows." Trina smiled. "I do wish Cat and Robbie would have flown out for some of the dates. I'm sure we'll have both of them singing on the show."

"Did Jade get signed?" Cat asked.

"Not yet." Jade huffed. "Okay, Vega, you wanna go last?" Jade asked her girlfriend.

"Sure." Tori replied, sneaking a quick kiss in before the goth started.

"Then lets start with Jack." The blue eyed girl said, shifting to let her other half have the stage.

"Okay, we'll start with the easy stuff." Jack started. "Jade and I, we're actuality slowly integrating, but not gonna go all the way. It'll be like a computer with two operating systems, only it's running them both at the same time, one in the background. Maybe one of those dual core computers where they can run two different things at once..." He looked around. "Okay, letting the metaphor distract me. But, thing is, we're heading to a time when we're both kinda on all the time, and the reactions you'll get will be based on who's running things. Jade and I will be sharing out lives, with Tori if we're really lucky, quiet Jade, and it's a new experience."

"So Jade's still here?" Rob asked.

"In the background, making snide comments. But there's a haze still, since we have a ways to go. I suspect we'll be like this until all our past is revealed, processed, and absorbed." Jack replied. "But anyways, I got really lucky, and the years of on line classes I took are being accepted, kinda, so I'm close to getting my bachelor's degree in engineering. Just had to take some tests to pass those classes, and now I'm so close..."

"How close?" Tori asked, pushing herself into him just a bit.

"Evening classes and some extra work, and I'll have it by the end of the school year." He replied, smiling with pride. "Hay, it means I have my life planned out, even as Jade gets hers."

"Jade?" Sikowitz asked.

"Not that much." She said, now back in control. "Or at least not of my planning. Trina, Tori, Jack, everyone seems to want to push me to be a success now, and it's working. I've got people interested in my singing, in my directing, in my writing. I spent the summer trying to make things up to Jack, and in between helping other people out, all this happened. But that in between was a lot. No wonder Vega here always won. People liked her, and made damn sure she got the opportunities to succeed."

"Thats not exactly how it works." The teacher tried to interject.

"But, and I say this cause I need to clarify, I'm not done studying. Not yet. I have school to go to, collage, and I wanna get my degree. But this show, it'll give me that chance. I'll make something of my life, and be able to be there for Tori." Jade looked around, trying to find the words to say she cared about everyone without hurting her image.

"I made a video." Tori chimed in. "It's gonna be released in a couple of weeks, and thats only cause we wanted to wait for the show to be on the air to premiere the video. Jade directed, and as a result there are a few who'd like her to direct their videos. I also have an album waiting to be released, with the same limits."

"Um, Jade, would you consider directing my video?" Andre asked. "You know, so we can have it on the show too, and it'll look consistent."

Tori smiled. "Of course she would, once you get Shawn Quincy to approve a budget, and she can work out the details." The singer replied, sending her girl friend a quick smirk. "But, moving on, when I was not being with my lovely girlfriend, or my boyfriend, I spent my time working out how I was going to promote my music. I figured out that I'd sing at some shows on the weekends, that kind of chiz, to get my name out there. Mostly, however, I'm gonna let the internet and our show help me grow into a star, all on my own. Maybe perform on a few other national television shows, if the opportunity is there, but I'm on the edge of making it, and it feels so good." her smile lingered for only a second. "And oh yea, Jack and Jade and I, we're going strong. I just have to stop getting ahead of us, cause neither wanted to discuss the wedding plans." She looked over at her goth, smiling as the dark haired girl tried to play it off. But they all understood where this was leading, it was just about putting in the time so that there were no doubts, no regrets, and their work lives didn't get in the way.

Sikowitz spoke up. "I spent the summer trying to decide how to work with the students I have, and the ones I'm gonna get, to give everyone of them the best education as actors, and as people, that I can." He paused for a second, to draw their attention. "I came up with several ideas, including having you lot learn about the pitfalls of fame. But for now, I suspect what we need is a bit of reality. So, drive by acting exercise. You're all normal people who've never dreamed of Hollywood, and now you're about to meet some star who's shot into our conscious minds. More specifically, and really think about this, you're about to meet yourselves, as a normal person meeting a star. Be honest, and tell me about the experience."

All eyes where on the quirky teacher as he stood up and walked over to the door. "This exercise doesn't stop when I leave, nor when you go to school, or graduate, or whatever. From this moment forward, I want you to always be thinking of what it's like for someone without your life to meet you. How would you treat them? How would it feel for them if you, the real you, snubbed that person? Snubbed you. And I want you to hold onto the feeling, the lives you'll create for these people who will never have your fame, probably wind up working in some uninspired job, and how you wouldn't be able to really relate to the things the stars go through."

The quirky teacher addressed one of them. "Jack, I'm holding you responsible for making sure Jade never forgets what I'm trying to teach everyone else here. Can you do that?"

"Yes sir, mister Sikowitz." The blue eyed boy replied, only popping up to reply before fading back again. This was Jade's moment with her favorite teacher, learning the most important lesson he had to teach.

"Very good." The coconut lover said. "You got the assignment, Jade?" She nodded. "We live in a world of make believe, where we let ourselves totally give into the fantasy, or the tragedy, of the story we're telling. But as important as that all is, you also need to never forget what it mans to be normal, cause you're not. But unlike the characters you're trying to develop, you can imagine what it's like for them, be them, if only for a fleeting moment between jobs." Once more he raked them all with his eyes. "I look forward to making this show with you all, and will see you Monday at school. Good night."

The drama teacher walked out of the house, leaving silence in his wake. While everyone, including

Ryder and Alex were digesting what he'd said, Jade decided to repeat what Jack whispered in her mind. In her best, (And dangerously close) Sikowitz voice, she said "And… Action."

:}

So, thats where I'm ending this story. Hope I didn't leave too many hanging plot points. But, their on their way, Tori and jade are together, Jack and Jade are working on their relationships, and in general everything's moving forward for them. I liked this place.

Thanks to everyone who's read this story. I hope it was entertaining for you. And a special thanks to everyone who's reviewed this story. I know it was different, and I hope it gave you something to think about.

So, now that we're at the end, I'd like once again to ask you to review. Cause, why not?

Thanks again for supporting this story.