Disclaimer: Don't own Victorious or any of it's characters. Not gonna mention who the children are inspired by. You never met half of them anyways.
Just something I wrote a while ago, and since I had no where else to put it, added it to this story. It is in the exact same universe, just, fun.
:}
Fran wasn't to surprised when her morning bliss was broken by the appearance of two blond haired heads peaking in. "Frannie, can you cook us something?" Lia asked. "Daddy has an early morning meeting, and we're starving. I mean, I'm SO hungry, and daddy won't even let me make cereal."
"That's because you can make a mess just getting a breakfast bar." Francine, usually called Fran, replied. She'd accepted that the twins were gonna sneak in to her room when they wanted something, since her room was next to theirs, and that was normal for five year olds. But to have her holiday morning sleeping in disturbed, while expected, was only forgiven by the fact that they reminded her of the child she'd chosen not to have. The child she'd avoided back when her ex boyfriend had told her the only way to win, to keep him, was to carry his baby, like her rival had agreed to. "So Mister Oliver's in a meeting, huh? School district has a teachers training day, and he didn't accommodate? Figures. Man just doesn't know how to plan."
It was easier to take out her frustration on their foster father then the girls. Fran liked the girls, even if Lia could be so melodramatic, and Maya was so shy. Shy and destructive, in the way small children sometimes were, even while trying to be helpful. 'At least their not the boys.'
Marcus and Kane were already fighting over something, probably something stupid, while Mike was on his tablet, playing some game and ignoring the world as a whole. "Has anyone eaten yet?" Fran asked.
"Nope." Kane said, pausing his war with his brother and rival long enough to answer. And like any good opponent, Marcus let him. Black and white tussled as the boys ignored race and background to continue to bond in a way so foreign to Fran that she hopes never to have a son.
"Guessing I have to get you all something, then." She announced, letting the family know that once again, she'd bear the responsibility of feeding the family when the man of the house forgot. 'Not that he does often. I mean, he buys so much easy to serve chiz, sometimes I wonder why he even bothers to hire some lady to come and cook for us. What does she do, other then place warm food in our bellies. Then again, I could go for some eggs.'
Decision made, the eldest of the brood, even if she'd only been here a few months, shifted directions, heading to the office where Beck did his work. If she didn't want to get in trouble for cooking, then she'd have to talk to him. It was forbidden temerity, the adult world in this house of kids, so if he was home, he'd be there.
Fran had to admit, after the group home, this was paradise, plenty of reason not to lose the placement, even if the man needed to hire someone to feed his kids from time to time. 'He's a good father. Takes the time, does everything he can to be there for us. But every parent needs the occasional morning to themselves. Plus, betting he was hoping we'd sleep in, like I'd planned to, in order to get his whatever done before we started demanding things like food and love, and lets face it, something to do that doesn't involve the kids listening to another impromptu concert on my guitar.'
A momentary reminder of her crush flashed through her, the kind nerdy boy who taught her how to play guitar. The man wasn't tough, like she usually liked, but he was kind, and funny, and she had no idea how sexy funny could be before she'd met him. 'Only, he likes 'em shorter then me, with that elfin look, and maybe really, really crazy. Not sure about that, cause Cat and me, we don't really get along, even if she's the most frequent babysitter we get. Sam, on the other hand, I kinda like her, but at her age, she should be more then a professional babysitter. Cat's right, they need to open a garage so Sam has something else to do.'
Fran had been talking to Sam, discovering that the blond was thankful that juvenile records got sealed, cause otherwise the state wouldn't let her earn the extra she got helping mister Oliver (Fran still refused to call him dad) take care of the kiddies. But the short blond understood so much about the kinds of backgrounds that kids like Fran had come from, with broken homes, and street violence, and just needing someone to believe in them. Sam was related to organized grime, while Fran was gang affiliated, jumped into the Norteños, thought now she'd been considering not going back. 'You don't just stop being in the gang, you just stop being active. They don't care, as long as I stay away from the old neighborhoods. Nothing for me there anyways…' Fran had been in the system for a long time, and hadn't really had parents most of her life.
The twins, and in fact everyone in the family, they all made the decisions she'd made here feel right, about having a life, a future. 'Hollywood Arts is a magnet school, so while we get a few gang related kids there, we put it all aside, cause they don't have to have us. They can kick us out at any time, and would have dozens of kids in line to replace us. No big, wasn't getting much out of the gangs anyways. Just Carlos, and he went and had a baby with a different mama.'
The gangs had been safe, a feeling of belonging in a hopeless world. But Beck promised hope, school leading to an education, leading to collage, and a life. Fran knew he'd keep his end of the bargain, as long as he remembered, some days they don't have school, cause the teachers have to train, and he'd have to feed the little ones. 'Small children get up early, regardless of your plans. Should have just let them watch TV. Only, Lia's gonna be Lia, and that means demanding food, cause if she's late to one meal, she'll act like she'd been through a famine.' A smile crossed her face.
Frannie knew that she could cook something, in theory, except she hadn't really learned too much about home economics. Her last school had cut those classes because of budget concerns, and while Hollywood Arts not only had the class, but it was a requirement for freshmen, the young girl wasn't taking it until the second semester. Simply put, she wasn't that good at the basics of applying heat to eggs. 'Besides, this is a really sweet placement, and I don't wanna risk it. Best to get permission, and maybe have him buy some of those microwavable eggs. Just as god, and no risk of burning the place down'
She hesitated outside the office. Because Beck often worked from home, he had a special setup for his home office. The one time in-law quarters was more then a bedroom with it's own en suite. It was a small apartment all on it's own, including and outer space, a mini-living room, a kitchenette that acted as a kitchen, and the bedroom that was now his office. The whole thing even had it's own, external entrance, allowing Beck's many clients to come and go without disturbing the house. 'He hired a nanny, but with government requirements, things got complicated. Sides, teacher work day, and mister Oliver, big time casting director, forgot. So now, I hafta knock on the door, see if maybe he can spare a few minutes from his meetings with the hopefuls to maybe tell me how to make eggs. Man, you'd think that would be easy, but the fire alarm, it was so loud…'
Banishing the memory of that time the smoke detector let her know she'd burnt the eggs, the teenage girl knocked on the connecting door, hoping that whatever secretary he had this day would just take mercy on her and tell her to make cereal. 'I can handle cereal.'
The door swung open, revealing the foster father himself. "Frannie, what is it?" He asked. "I'm with a client."
"Sorry, Lia wants eggs." She said, not willing to admit she hadn't asked the hungry five year old what she wanted. 'I wanted eggs, damn it.'
"Well, give me a few minutes, and I'll be out to cook you guys some." Beck told the girl.
"Really?" A female voice, silky and dark, asked. "Really? You're just gonna cook her something?"
Beck turned to face the unseen woman, releasing a far to familiar sigh. "Yea, cause kids, they like to eat." He said, snark echoing through his frame.
"Yea, but sometimes, when their old enough, you teach them to cook." The woman said, even as she slipped into view. "I was fending for myself from much younger then this one." Deep blue eyes, more the color teal, locked on the teen. "You're what? Thirteen?"
"Fourteen, and not everyone has parents who expect them to fend for themselves." Beck countered. Fran suspected, in his mind, he was defending her. That is, if she could think.
"F-forteen." The teen stammered, even as she took in the woman. Her business suit was stylish, dark and intimidating, while still screaming success. The woman's hair fell free, styled a bit, but then left to flow, with highlights replacing the extensions she used to wear, blond replacing various colors that had added to the woman's beauty. All this Fran knew, because she'd been following this woman's work ever since "Zombie Gladiators." "I-I'm fourteen, and I…" Words fled as she had her first moment of starstruck, trying to not embarrass herself from the queen of mean herself, the dark diva of the movie industry, Jade West.
"And it's past time someone taught you how to cook." Jade continued. "Only Mister Beck Oliver, savior of the masses, never once got it through his head that you need to teach people to do things themselves."
"Hay, I teach." Beck objected. "It's just, my kids, they're all kids. They're so young, and have been through so much…"
"She's chizzing fourteen, Beck." Jade shot back. "Teach her to fucking fish!"
'Fish…?' Drifted briefly through the girls head, but she'd almost found her voice. "You're Jade West!"
Beck glanced over at his tough little gang banger. "Yea, forgot you two hadn't been introduced. Francine, this is my good friend, and high school girlfriend, Jade West. Jade, Francine Flores."
"You know Jade West, as in THE Jade West, of Zombie Gladiators, and Kiss of the Succubus, and, and, and…" Frannie racked her mind to find what else the horror maven had directed, possible appeared in.
"Prom Massacre." Jade finished for her. "Those are the three I wrote, directed, and I'll admit, starred in…."
"You only acted in a supporting role in the zombie flick." Beck interjected.
"I then switched it up, started making other kinds of movies." Jade continued, ignoring her ex. "Working on a mystery dromady right now, which is why I'm here." Her eyes narrowed, glaring at the man in the office. "Looking for someone to act in my movie, so I won't be seen as giving myself favoritism. And yet, somehow, my casting director insists that I give the roll to someone I've been seeing, socially."
"TORI VEGA!" Fran shouted out. "Sorry, I love her music, almost as much as I love your movies. I mean, Kiss of the Succubus was inspired, the way you portrayed the seductress as being tired of her roll, seeking to turn into a slasher slash stalked instead of just using her whiles to trick men into being her victims. I think it's also the first slasher film I've ever seen where most of the victims are men."
"Hardly the first." Jade said, stepping towards the girl. Towards, and past, elbowing her ex just enough to make room for her to get out the door. "Yea, Tori is looking to transition, do some acting again. And yea, she'd be great for this movie. Only, as Beck here seems to have forgotten, it's not exactly a secret that I'm shacked up with her. So…"
"You don't need to worry so much about what people would think." Beck tried again. "I mean, we've seen the kinds of auditions people have been sending in…"
"In Sophie's Revenge, er, what inspirited that movie?" Fran asked, following along as they moved, quickly to the kitchen. 'She knows the layout. She's been here before.'
"I was told I had to put Wade Collins in a movie." Jade said coldly, even as Lia and Maya rushed to give her a hug. Both legs entwined by the small girls, Jade slowed down so as not to hurt the two children. "Girls, off. I need to be free to cook." She instructed the munchkins. "Anyways, when I met him, I knew the kind of film I wanted. So, I had the story, where Sophie gets hurt by her ex, and kidnaps him, sets up a method of saving his memories at the moment of death, and then she clones his ass, over and over, just to hunt him down and kill him." She chuckled. "I have ten takes, ten ways I filmed that I wasn't able to use."
"We're really gonna talk about this?" Beck asked.
"You want Tori in the roll, get her to audition." Jade turned on Beck. Then, she looked back to the girl. "Now, cooking eggs isn't hard. You just have to remember, clean up is a bitch…"
"Language." Beck, both young girls, and Mark, all echoed.
"But how you cook the eggs determines where. Only hard boiled avoids the worst of it, and no one needs constant hard boiled eggs." Jade continued. "And note I'm using a cast iron skillet. Better to use your own no-stick substance, oil or butter, then have the plastics get into your system."
"What inspired your death scene in Zombie Gladiators?" Fran asked.
"Jade's been fantasizing about her death since she was a kid." Beck filled in.
"What can I say, I'm a sick puppy." Jade added. "And when your cooking scrambled eggs, you need to keep things moving. Now, cut up some bacon, cause we're gonna add it to the eggs. Bacon, shredded cheese, and maybe some sausage. That is, if Beck has the good stuff."
Fran watched, helping out, as they cooked breakfast for all the family. Jade knew her way around a kitchen, and helped the girl see the basics. "There are cooking shows on line. Watch a few. Learn the basics. Trust me, during the lean years, that helps more then almost anything else."
"Lean years?" Fran wondered. "You were a success, from before you graduated collage!"
Jade hesitated, a fork full of eggs just before her mouth. "High school." She took a bite. "Before that. I didn't have a happy childhood."
"And if all kids were like Jade, we wouldn't need the system." Beck told them. "Or we'd have far more mass murderers. Or maybe she slipped through the cracks. Either way, Jade's a special case, and we're gonna let it pass. Jade, thanks for helping Fran learn how to make eggs. Now, have Tori audition, so I can fall back on how good she was, and I'll give her the part. Other then that, we have a hundred others to fill."
"Um…" Frannie vibrated.
"I'm sure we can find a roll as an extra for you." Jade told the girl. "Assuming you can do the job. You'd be window dressing, and nothing more. Play by those rules, and you can be in the movie, when it gets made."
In a very real way, it was the first time Fran felt like Beck might be a great father, because the woman she'd just met would make her her the envy of her entire school.
:}
So, thoughts? Wonder, what will Fran do when she finds out how close Jade's place is to Becks?
