Fresh Start at Life

Disclaimer: Don't own Victorious

A/N: The tale is almost complete, there are 58 chapters total, and this is 55. Enjoy. Clear time passage by the way.


Chapter 55 (Separate Roads in Life)

As Spring Break rolled around, Trina finally made the decision to fly out to California with Jason. They were with George, Diane, and Sarah. By some miracle, Sikowitz hadn't found or bothered them, but Jason hadn't told his father or uncle about the coming wedding just yet. His mother and her side of the family all knew about it, and they were all trying to get involved with the planning of the ceremony.

Trina wanted it simple and traditional, and that's what she was getting. Some of the relatives wanted it to be something elaborate and extravagant, but this was far too overwhelming for her. "We need to drop by Jade's first," Trina said while pointing her aunt in the direction of her friend's home. She was riding shotgun since her aunt insisted on driving, despite the familiarity this town served to Trina.

"I thought you already told her you wanted her to be a bridesmaid?" Diane looked inquisitively at her and tapped her thumb on the steering wheel. "She's able to fly out, right?"

"I think so." The wedding was set on May 5th, which was Mexican Independence Day. While her father's family was from Spain, she didn't want to wait until October 12th to have her wedding. October 12th was Spain's Independence Day. Despite not knowing her dad's extended relatives, and being on less than decent terms with her father, she was still proudest of her Spanish heritage. "After this we'll head to California State."

California State Prison in Los Angeles was where her father was held. He was going to be in for nearly twenty years, with the possibility of parole. She hadn't spoken to him since their conversation before Christmas, and even now her heart was heavy thinking about seeing him. It was the reason she wanted to see Jade first, so she could relax.

"She wants to know how everyone's doing too," Jason stated. Trina nodded and leaned back slowly. Things were bound to have changed, and typically she wouldn't care how much, but she was curious. It was the last half of the senior year for Jade and the others, so she wanted to know what they were going to do going on.

Upon reaching the house, Trina was the first to bolt out. She looked over her shoulder with a smile and watched the others file out. Jason walked next to George, sweeping his hand through his hair as he continued the conversation they'd been having. "Honestly, I have no idea who my groomsmen are going to be."

For sake of matching, it was Sarah that was her maid of honor. Sarah's boyfriend and Jason had been getting along well for the last several months, so Ben was Jason's best man. "Beck's one of them, is he not?" George questioned. Jason took a deep breath and folded his hands at his waist.

"Yes, but her first bridesmaid is Lindsay. I don't have that many friends."

"You and your coworker get along great," Trina folded her arms and tilted her head as Jason walked up to her. "At the Fitness Connection center." He raised an eyebrow and moved his hands to his pockets.

"Brian? I suppose I could." Jason was now a certified personal trainer and a couple months away from achieving his Bachelor's Degree. She was incredibly proud of him. "We'll see what happens." He smirked and she shook her head, amazed he could be so relaxed about it. Though it seemed like he did that just to tease her on the basis that it was constantly on her mind.

When she turned to the house, she saw a curtain in the window shift. Within seconds, the door opened and Jade rushed out with Beck walking calmly in tow. "Trina! How are you?"

"I'm great." Trina hugged her friend, lingering for a second before releasing. Beck and Jason did some sort of handshake, both acting as though they were too cool to greet each other in a more emotional way.

She tucked her hair behind her ear and met Jade's happy gaze. It amazed her how different the girl looked. The once pale makeup was gone, softer brown hair had grown out from the roots and her cheeks had risen up with pleasure lines stretching out from her eyes. "So how is everything going with you, Jade? What's new? You seem really happy."

"Well, life's going well. I'll say that much. Beck and I just got accepted into the same college. It took some doing because there are only so many universities that accept Hollywood Arts diploma." Trina rubbed her chin and nodded.

One of the reasons she got into Midwestern was because the state of Texas accepted any high school diploma. Even a non-accredited one like Hollywood Arts. HBU was made possible by her Midwestern GPA. "It's always best to have a secondary high school when going to HA. Where did you manage to get in at? I know you were looking at performance arts."

"University of North Carolina School of the Arts," Beck answered. Trina's eyebrows rose and she leaned back, surprised that they got a university so far away. "We applied to Juilliard, auditioned at the California Institute of Arts. We didn't get into the California Institute and a bunch of the New York based colleges like Juilliard laughed when we handed them Hollywood Arts education."

"You would think art schools would be more accepting."

"They would like more of the core items like Economics and so on." His eyebrows meshed together and his shoulders rose. "Apparently the diploma wasn't 'complete' enough to be accepted."

"Why are we still standing in the yard?" Jade cleared her throat and motioned the others to the porch where several chairs had been positioned around a glass table beside a porch swing. She and Beck sat on the swing while Trina and her relatives took the chairs. Jason and George stood at the wooden railing on the edge of the porch, leaning their waists against the top of the rail and crossing their arms. "So. We're looking forward to getting to the wedding."

Trina breathed in and brushed the bottom of her hair behind her shoulder. "Glad you guys can make it. It's good to hear you guys got into the same college, but North Carolina?" She whistled and Jade let out a soft chuckle. "That's a long way off."

"To be honest, there's nothing for us here." Jade moved her hand to her chest and looked to the door of her house. "My mom doesn't want me around because she doesn't like Beck. Then he doesn't want to stick around a town where he's got a lunatic birth father that could one day realize there's a connection and start coming after him."

"So what about your friends? Tori, Cat, and everyone else?"

Beck raised an eyebrow and pulled his arm from behind Jade. "You didn't tell her, Jade?" Trina pursed her lips as Jade bowed her head.

"I thought I had. Must have slipped my mind with all the excitement." Jade met Trina's eyes with a sad smile and a lift in her shoulders. "Everyone's kind of moving on now. When we graduate we're going different ways."

"Oh?"

"Yeah. Andre isn't going straight to college, instead he's going back to where he grew up in New Orleans and try to work as a bandmaster at the club his father worked at before the hurricane." Trina hummed to herself and slowly crossed her legs. "Robbie got offered an opportunity to tour with Jeff Dunham."

Her lips parted and she drew her lips into a smile. "That's great news! I didn't know that guy was still active." Jeff Dunham was a famous ventriloquist most known for his skeleton puppet, Achmed. "I hope he does well, though I never imagined he'd go into stand-up."

"Yeah, there was more to Rex than we thought."

"I guess so." She shrugged and watched with a smile as Jade set he head onto Beck's shoulder. Her mind drifted to Cat, she wondered how the girl was going to cope with the fact that one of her best friends was going to be leaving after the summer. "What about Cat? How's she handling all this?"

"She actually hasn't been around much," Beck replied. "She spends all her time with her roommate now. Can't say I'm surprised, she and Tori had a massive falling out. Remember that, Jade?" He nudged his girlfriend and Trina's heart sank at the mention. Jade moved her head back and breathed in sharply as her eyes widened.

"Oh yeah, Tori's big meltdown." Jade snapped her fingers and crossed her arms. "We haven't seen Tori since. She literally threw everyone under the bus after her mom's death. Poor Cat tried to comfort her and she just lost it."

"I'm sure it wasn't Tori's fault, she was going through a hard time."

"Yeah, but Cat was hurt. Had a meltdown of her own and called us all a bunch of vain self-centered and self-absorbed assholes. Now she won't even sit with us at lunch anymore."

"I'm sorry to hear that. What about Tori?" Tori was the one she was painstakingly waiting to hear about. The poor girl's life had been turned upside down, but she didn't know how badly. When she saw the couple frown and shake their heads, her heart sank further. "You have been talking to her, haven't you?"

"To be perfectly honest, we haven't seen or heard from her since that meltdown, and that was before Christmas break." Trina moved her hand up to her chest and glanced to Jason with a great sorrow. "We assume she's alright, though."

"Why has nobody seen her?"

"Grandparents." Jade rolled her head to the right and exhaled. "They were the reason for her meltdown. When she moved in with them, they adamantly declared that she restart her years at Sherwood and stay away from Hollywood Arts or any of us."

Beck scoffed and moved his hand up to make air quotes. "They called us a 'bad influence'." He swept his hand through his hair and sighed. "They won't let her get a job, so she can't make money and move out. She can't go into any college until she gets her diploma at Sherwood, and they forced her to start as a Sophomore."

It was a harsh fate and Trina wished she could do something, but this wasn't her place and they were not her grandparents. All she could think of was how much they did remind her of her own, but still not as terrible it seemed. "Why are elders so stuck like that? Judgmental, not with the times, and…I don't know, just overall crazy?"

"I don't know. Wish I did." Jade looked over to Jason with flattened lips and arched eyebrows. "What about you guys? Hear from Sikowitz lately?" Jason shook his head and Trina sighed.

"Amazingly no. We thought you might have heard something."

"Hollywood Arts is really beginning to fall apart now, it's weird. Some of the teachers have been fingered for a number of white collar crimes." Trina's jaw dropped and Jade looked up to the ceiling. "It's not the school's fault, but it's a bad mark on them. Makes it harder to look serious to colleges-they might make it another five years but I don't think they'll still be around long."

"Damn…are you saying Sikowitz got caught up in that?"

"He's named as one of the teachers involved in a number of stuff. He was fired when Beck and I brought to attention what he said about the school and the kids here, but since the FBI and LAPD came out with that list of wanted teachers…he's been hiding."

Jason scoffed and Trina looked up to him, concerned as he looked away and down the street. "Fucking figures." He turned his gaze back and unfolded his arms. "What's Uncle Psycho wanted for?" Jade scrunched her face and looked at Beck.

"I don't remember. Beck, do you remember what the police said?"

"Sort of." Beck tapped his knee and glanced up towards the right. He looked back with a nod. "Racketeering, Money Laundering, credit card fraud…" Beck shook his finger in the air and let out a quick grunt. "Blackmail and Bribery! He tried to blackmail Principal Eikner into not firing him, then bribed the superintendent to keep things quiet. I think they listed off another charge, but I can't remember. Probably embezzlement or something."

George lifted his head up with a huff and looked to Beck. "So he's looking at a lot of jail time if found?"

"All those crimes? If caught, he'd probably be in prison for the rest of his life even without being given a life sentence." Beck leaned back and pushed the bench with his feet on the ground. "I think most of those probably happened within the last few months of his career, his life was in shambles."

Trina shook her head slowly and closed her eyes. It was hard to hear what the man had done, but she wasn't overly surprised. "What were the other teachers found for?"

"Racketeering. Same thing Sikowitz was dealing with. It was something that a bunch of teachers in the school involved with. A bunch got fired, a bunch arrested, and others just vanished. Bounties are being offered to anyone that finds the ones that are hiding out-but Jade and I are just glad to be done with this town."

"Not surprised."

The group grew silent for some time, all staring blankly into the distance as if trying to think of something they could say. Jade finally spoke up, startling Trina. "What else are you in town for, Trina? If we can get away from all that depressing nonsense."

"Actually I was going to try and see my dad at the prison." Jade furrowed her brow and Trina inhaled slowly. "Haven't seen or heard from him since December, but it's about time I say something. I don't know what can be built relationship wise with him in prison, but…he is my dad…"

"I hope that goes well. Let me know what happens."

"I'll do that." Trina pat her knees and turned her eyes to the car. It was getting late, and visitation hours would be coming to an end soon. "Which, if we want to get that done today we'd better go now."

Jade stood up with Trina, smiling gently. "Okay." Trina walked around the table and hugged her friend. When the girl pulled back, she reached up to sweep Trina's bangs away from her face. "Let me know how it goes and we'll be ready to be at the wedding."

"It was good catching up with you."

"Same."

Walking back to the door, Trina looked over her shoulder with a wistful gaze. Jade was beside Beck, his arm was around her waist and she was waving. Trina waved back and carefully entered the car, ready to move on and handle the difficult part of the visit.

"Sounds like everyone's going their own way," Jason remarked, "It's a little disheartening."

"It's just life," Trina answered. She understood what it was now, after so long. Nobody's life had crumbled, nobody's life was in shambles, it was just everyone going their own path. Even the teachers at Hollywood Arts chose the path they were to go on. "You move on to where your life is going, and a lot of time that means you take different roads from the others. That's what happened. People grow up, go their own way in life. Jade and Beck will be okay, I know that. Andre, Robbie, Cat…I wish them all the best. Even Tori."

Trina caught a flicker of a smile on Sarah's face and turned to hear what she had to say. "That's a lot to say about your stepsister, given how she and Holly had been to you." Diane started up the car and Trina turned back around.

"She got a bad deal, but she'll be fine. She didn't deserve to lose her mother. Does that mean I like or trust her? Does it mean I agree with how she and Holly were? No, but I forgive them. Isn't that what is important?"

"Yes. Very much so."

"I hope she'll find her way." She reached around the chair and took Jason's hand. Her eyes turned up to the rearview mirror, meeting his gaze, and her lips curved upwards. "I know I have." He squeezed her hand gently and she took a deep breath. "Let's go see my father, I'm ready now…"


Yep nothing at all uncommon and surprising about people going on their own paths in life. I wonder how the talk with her father will go. Stick around, and give me your thoughts of this chapter.