After school, Tori found her home empty as usual. The peace and quiet allowed her to finish her homework in short order, but then she found herself overcome with boredom.
She thought about phoning one of her friends, but then her thoughts turned to her sister. Her conversation with Andre earlier in the day had reminded Tori that she still hadn't met Trina's boyfriend. Maybe now would be a good time to change that.
She dialed her sister's number.
"Hey Tori!" Trina's voice chimed cheerfully through the phone. "How's my favorite sister?"
"Not as good as you apparently," the younger woman replied with a chuckle. "You sound extra happy."
"Well, I am having a great day," Trina admitted. "Gil showed me the latest version of the script for his sci fi movie...and it's so good!" The elder Vega sister then proceeded to ramble on, absolutely gushing at times, over her boyfriend's genius and how this project was going to take Hollywood and the entire world by storm.
"Seriously," she concluded. "It's going to be awesome! And really change things for the whole company like Gil and his Uncle have always wanted. It's so exciting!"
"Change things for the company?" Tori asked. "What do you mean?"
Trina's enthusiastic tone faltered a bit and she started speaking more hesitantly. "Oh, uh...see...the company has always produced sort of...niche product. They're really successful at it, but they've always wanted to expand and do bigger mainstream films. Now they're finally in a position to try that."
"That does sound pretty cool," Tori agreed. "But what sort of stuff do they do now? You said niche productions?"
Trina continued to sound hesitant. "Well, nothing you'd have seen. Like...commercials...but for foreign markets. Yeah...that's right. Nothing you'd see in America."
"Huh, that's different," Tori said. "But as long as it makes them money, I guess that's cool. So when can we get together so I can finally meet Gil?"
There was a noticeable pause. "Uh, yeah...that would be...great. I'll ask Gil and get back to you when we have some free time."
"Well, I hope it can be soon," said Tori. "It's been over half a year and I still haven't met this guy you're so crazy about." She paused. "Also...I miss you."
"Oh, I miss you too, Tori," Trina said. "Hey, even if Gil is busy, I'll make sure you and I get together soon."
"That would be great. But I still am looking forward to meeting-"
"Oh, gotta go now," Trina interrupted. "Love you. Bye!"
Tori was surprised at the sudden end of the call. Her sister may have changed quite a bit since graduating High School, but she was still a bit strange.
She didn't have much time to ponder Trina's strangeness however, for she soon heard a knock at her front door. When she answered, she was surprised to see all her closest friends, Beck, Jade, Andre, Cat and Robbie (who thankfully did not have Rex with him).
"Hi guys," Tori said. "What's up?"
Beck looked at her seriously. "We need to talk."
******'******
Tori found herself feeling a bit ill at ease even though she was surrounded by friends.
The problem was that they had seemingly come over to talk about something with her, but then had remained strangely silent after they'd all taken a seat in the living room.
Finally Tori turned to the one person she knew would be the most forthcoming.
"Jade, what's going on?"
The Goth stood and walked over to stand in front of Tori.
"Okay, Vega. We found something online. We figured it's going to be pretty upsetting for you to see...but thought it best if you found out from us."
Jade handed Tori her phone, with the porn site already displayed on it.
Tori's level of discomfort rose immediately. Why was Jade showing her a porn site featuring naked women? Was this some sort of test to see how she'd react? But these thoughts faded instantly when Tori looked closer at the nude model featured in the center of the screen.
"No," Tori said even as she looked closer. The women on the screen was wearing heavy makeup but that couldn't disguise her identity, no matter how much Tori wanted to deny it. "No no no!"
"Sorry Vega," Jade said quietly. "But it's your sister."
******'******
Tori's friends did their best to comfort her as she tried to process the upsetting news. Kind words didn't improve her mood though. Tori felt the need to take action.
The upset young woman and her friends began investigating the adult website that featured Trina. It only took a few simple online searches to find that the site was run by Gorman Productions. A few more searches revealed that this type of content was typical of Gorman's output.
"She lied to me!" Tori said angrily. "Commercials for foreign markets! Niche products!"
"Well, technically porn is a niche product," Robbie offered. "A pretty big niche, but still..." He trailed off as Tori glared at him angrily.
"I bet this is why I've never met her boyfriend," Tori went on. "She's was worried that If I had met him, I'd have figured out he's a dirty smut peddler!"
"You might be right," Andre agreed.
"Let's not go overboard here," Beck said. "Trina may have been keeping secrets from you. But you said she's really happy with her boyfriend. You might not want to condemn him before you actually get to talk to him."
"But he makes porn!" Tori replied angrily. "And he's got Trina doing it!"
"People who make porn aren't automatically evil," Beck countered, causing more than a few eyebrows to be raised.
"Well, maybe not evil," Andre spoke up. "But sort of sleazy at least."
"Extremely sleazy!" Tori agreed. "These Gorman people are going to ruin Trina's life!"
"Look, I would normally be the last person to defend Trina," Jade said. "But she is a grown woman. Might be a good idea to get her side of the story before deciding that she's a helpless fool being manipulated by her evil boyfriend."
"Come on, Jade," Tori argued. "You know that's exactly what's happening."
"No, Vega, I don't KNOW that's what's happening." Jade paused. "I can certainly believe that's what's happening, but until we learn more, we can't be sure."
A somewhat timid voice then sounded and captured everyone's attention.
"Why does everyone think something bad is happening?" Cat asked. "I mean...Trina looks like she's having lots of fun on the website."
Tori was so upset about her sister that part of her was ready to yell at Cat...but fortunately Jade could guess as much by seeing the look on Tori's face. The Goth girl quickly gave Tori a warning glare that would have given even a hardened killer pause.
"It's not that simple, Cat," Tori said with forced calmness. "Doing porn is very bad."
"Doing porn can be very bad," Jade corrected as she looked to Cat. "And we want to find out if it's going to be bad for Trina."
******'******
One of the advantages to having a highly eccentric acting teacher was that he would sometimes do big favors for his students without asking too many questions.
So when Tori and her friends asked Sikowitz to give them a pass to skip school to participate in a 'special field trip' he was happy to oblige...though the teens knew that this favor would no doubt result in them having to repay the man by participating in more of his wacky 'acting challenges' outside of school hours.
Free from school for the day, the gang rode in Beck's RV as he drove them to the Gorman Productions building. Tori and Andre were somewhat surprised as they arrived.
"This looks a lot more respectable than I imagined," Andre said.
"What were you expecting?" Jade asked snarkily. "A rundown dump with neon triple X signs on it?"
"Sort of," Tori admitted.
"Forget the exterior," Rex said loudly. "Let's get inside and see some action!"
"Did you have to bring him, Robbie?" Tori complained.
The teen merely shrugged as his ventriloquist dummy answered. "You're going to a place full of hot girls who get naked for a living and you think I'm staying home? Think again!"
Glancing back towards Robbie and Rex, Beck shook his head. "I see no possible way this could go wrong," he said quietly to Jade, causing the girl to smile wickedly.
******'******
The teens had no difficulty in entering the building, but found their first roadblock at the receptionist's desk. The woman working there politely told them it would be impossible to see either Sid or Gil Gorman without an appointment. When they asked if they could see Trina Vega, they received a polite but more strongly worded refusal.
"I'm sorry, but for security purposes, we cannot allow people to just come in off the street and ask to meet our performers."
"It's not like that," Tori explained. "I'm her sister."
The receptionist paused at this and looked closely at Tori. "You do have a certain resemblance," she said with a friendly smile. "But if she's your sister, why not just call her? If she vouches for you, there's no problem."
"Um...I sort of wanted to surprise her," Tori replied.
"I'm sorry, but I don't think it would be responsible of me to allow that. You must understand, we take our employees' safety very seriously."
At that moment, a tall man wearing a grey suit and fedora walked up to the receptionist. He had an unlit cigar in his mouth which he removed before speaking.
"Trudy, remind me later not to go to lunch at noon. I've got a last second meeting I need to be here for."
"Sure thing, Mr. Gorman."
"Wait," Tori said to the man. "Are you Sid Gorman?"
"Indeed I am, Miss. Indeed, I am." He looked over Tori and her friends. "Well, I must say, this is quite a group."
He looked from Tori to Beck and Jade, seemingly appraising each of them. "Good gravy, I am looking at some real star material if I've ever seen it. And believe me, I've seen star material."
He then glanced to Andre and Cat. "My word, you people are a veritable gold mine. Great variety of looks, and all of you gorgeous."
Finally he looked to Robbie and Rex and raised an eyebrow, though his smile did not fade. "Now this is different...but I appreciate originality. Do all six of you work together? I'm curious to see how you use the puppet."
"Wait," Tori said as she realized what the man was thinking. "You think we're here to audition?"
"Why wouldn't he think that, Vega?" Jade added with a grin. "After all, he sees that we're star material." She turned to Beck. "How much money do you think we could make working together?"
The young man chuckled in response, but Tori was not finding the humor in the situation the way that Jade and Beck were.
"Vega?" Sid asked upon hearing Jade say the name. He looked to Tori. "Are you related to Trina Vega?"
"I'm her sister," she answered.
Sid's smile grew bigger. "Well, why on Earth didn't you say so?" He spread his arms wide and then grabbed Tori in a big hug. The young woman felt utterly mortified, but Sid couldn't see the expression on her face as he hugged her.
"Now why don't you all come into my office and we'll get to know each other," Sid said as he released Tori. "I want you and your friends to always feel welcome here, as I'm mighty fond of your sister. Mighty fond, indeed."
To be continued...
author's note: Please review. What do you think of Trina doing porn? Do you think the rest of the gang should start working there as well? :P