A/N I do not own Victorious or receive money for this story or any story I have written on this site. I do not own the title to the songs that are named in this story or any ring tones that may be used for the entertainment uses for this story.

Chapter 3

Symphony of Destruction

Jade

Mom and I came downstairs to get Cat and Tori, only to find them in a very deep, heated discussion. I started to walk down the stairs when I was stopped by Tori's water bottle whipping by my face and into the window. I turned to see my wife and Cat in a stand-off, glaring at each other. Tori stormed over to the stairs and stomped up them, only to stop and turn back to look at me when she heard the ring tone I had assigned for only one person.

'They hide in the dark so you can't see their tears

They hide in the light so you can't see their fears

Forgive and forget, all the while

Love and pain become one in the same

In the eyes of a wounded child'

I looked up from my phone to the landing to see Tori's fierce glare giving way to a questioning look. I'm sure my face was twisted between confusion and misery while my ring tone continued.

'It's all so confusing

this brutal abusing

They blacken your eyes,

Then apologize

Be daddy's good girl

and don't tell mommy a thing

be a good little boy and get a new toy

Tell grandma you fell off the swing'

"It's my dad." I looked back down at my phone. I looked at the displayed ASSHOLE, not believing that it could be him. I haven't talked to him since the day my mother kicked him out of the house. "Shit, what does he want?"

"For you to answer the phone would be my guess," Tori said as she turned and walked up the stairs, not giving me a second glance. Obviously, she was still pissed about whatever that fight was about. I step off the stairs and walk toward Cat.

"I don't get it. What did I do?" I said to the scowling redhead. She walked passed me, shoving me aside as she stalked toward the door.

"You came from a broken home, and Little Miss Perfect can't handle it," Cat snarled as she walked through the door. I felt a hand on my shoulder, and turned to see Mom giving me a weak smile.

"You go talk to Tori and I'll go talk to Cat. Later we'll talk about you calling your father back," Mom said, shaking her head as she walked to the door.

I stood outside my bedroom door, thinking that at this moment, I would rather be anywhere but here. I took a deep breath, raising my hand to knock on the door when a sleepy voice behind me said my name and made me jump. I turn to see Trina leaning against the door frame. She pulled her robe tighter around herself and yawned before she started talking again.

"What is going on? I'm woke with the crashing and the stomping and now the slamming." Trina says from her bedroom door. "I sleep because I'm making life. Oy Vey!"

Great. First Cat and Tori get into a fight, I'm about to enter the hornet's nest, and Trina has turned into Mel Brooks. "Mazel Tov." What else could happen to make this day any better? I open the door to find Tori sitting at the desk looking at a framed picture with a sad look on her face.

"What was that all about down there?" I ask, closing the door behind me. I cross the room slowly, wondering if she was going to throw something or start crying. She didn't turn around, and I noticed her right leg was bouncing with nervous energy. I couldn't quite tell what picture she was looking at, so I walked behind her chair and peeked over her shoulder.

Tori sat gazing at a picture of all of us. It looks to be from a time from when Beck and I were still dating. Funny how much you can tell from a picture though. It was a picture of all of us sitting around our lunch table, Beck and me sitting next to each other, and Andre and Tori across from us with Trina in the middle. Cat and Robbie were sitting in front. I was looking over Beck's shoulder at Tori and she was doing the same with Andre, looking back at me. You could see the love we had for each other even back then. I had not paid too much attention to this picture in a while, so when I really looked closer at the picture, I could see Beck and Trina looking at each other as well, with the same loving eyes as me and Tori. Wow, the things I missed when I just didn't care to look.

"This is one of my favorite pictures," Tori told me with a smile. "It was one of the times that we were all together and happy. Funny, how we all looked at the people that we really wanted to be with. Look at Cat, at how she is looking at the person taking the picture." She pointed to Cat and I looked but I just shook my head. "That was the day that Sam came to Hollywood Arts for lunch and Cat begged her to take this picture." I had forgotten about that. But leave it to my wife to remember the little things that would make someone happy.

"You know babe, Cat was right. We did forget about her, and she has all the right to be furious with us. But I ask again, what that was all about down there?" Tori put the picture down with a small sigh, and got up from the desk, turning to me. She leaned back on the desk and crossed her legs at the ankles. She looked off to her right and after a moment, looked back to me.

"I don't really know where it all started. We stared talking about her and Sam getting married, and then motherhood." I made a surprised noise. Tori nodded to me to confirm what she had just said and continued. "And then she said she wouldn't be a good mom. Of course, I told her she would, and she freaked out on me. She told me that I would be a good mom, because I had a mom that was always there for me, and I don't know how it feels to come from a home like you guys did. That Trina and I were lucky. That pissed me off. I am so tired of every time one of you don't like what I say, you throw in my face that I came from a good home with loving parents. The same loving parents that see every single one of you as their kids, but when something doesn't go right, Trina and I are the goody-goodies that had it all. Well, guess what? We didn't have it all. We didn't get everything we ever wanted. Not even close. Look around this room, at the things that are mine. I had to work for these things. Daddy didn't just hand it over because he was trying to make up for not being there. Mommy didn't just give me money because she was at work all the time. No, Trina and I had to find summer jobs and make the money ourselves for the things we wanted. True, Trina did get a lot for her Birth Week, but I didn't. I worked, and worked hard. So you guys can stop treating me like I am some spoiled little brat that has everything handed to her on a silver fucking platter." Tori then picked up her phone and turned it on. I stepped forward and took it out of her hand, tossing it onto the bed. Tori's eyes went wide and her lips compressed into a thin line. I knew I had to nip this in the bud or I was about to take the worst verbal beating of my life.

"I have never treated you like a spoiled brat, and I never once thought you had everything handed to you. How dare you stand there and say those things about us? Not all of us see you two like that. In fact, Cat was the only one to say anything at all, and that was because she is hurting. Dammit Tori, Cat has lived her whole life in the shadow of her brother and his illness. Her parents would drop everything. Just run off to make sure he was okay, and didn't look twice at her. In fact, she was born because there was a chance that she could help him. Donating organs, tissue, blood, whatever. And when they found out that it wouldn't work, Cat was shit canned. The only reason she ever had a chance to go to Hollywood Arts was because her Grandmother saw her as a person and not a tool, and is paying for it. Now we turned our backs on her, just like her birth family did, and you know that has to hurt ten times worse. With her birth family, that is all she knew. But with us, we made a promise. We gave her hope and then we kicked her in the teeth. Tori, there was three of us in that accident, and only two of us are being helped." I pointed to her phone on her pillow. "So who are you going to call?" She looked back to me with a silly grin. "That question is forever ruined, isn't it?" We both smiled, but then she looked back at her phone again.

"I was going to call Cat, but I don't know what to say to her." All the anger had left her frame. She wasn't sad, wasn't crying, but her face was a study of pain. She'd not shown such pain since before her wounds had healed. I ached in sympathetic pain, but I knew she would feel better soon.

"Don't bother. Mom is talking to her. When she stormed out of here, she didn't take her bag, and I drove, so she isn't going far. Mom followed her outside to talk." I took Tori's hand and gently pulled her off her desk and into me. "Babe, you have to get over this feeling that we look down on you for coming from a good home." I sat her down on the bed and curled down next to her. "Let me tell you something. If thought this was some sort of messed up family, I would have never directed the others to Mom or Dad," I told her, and she gave me a look that told me that I had to go on. "Tori, honey, I was the one who brought all of them here. Cat: when she was so upset, when Robbie and I found her living in the school after her family moved away without her. I left her on the couch crying so Mom would find her. Robbie: I put out on the patio by the pool so Mom would find him, and waited with him until she saw him and brought him inside. Andre: I brought to Mom's office and waited for him in the waiting room while he talked about his grandmother, and Beck: I dropped off so he could talk to both Mom and Dad." I counted off on my fingers as I told her what I did to help them. "I also talked to Dad about Robin before Robbie did, and made sure everyone was out of the house so they had enough time to make a plan of attack. So if I thought you were just some spoiled brat, then I would have never trusted your parents with my near and dear, because until you, they were all I had," I said with deep feeling.

"I just hope this fight won't hurt Cat and I. I also hope that she can forgive us for not seeing past our own noses, and that we do care about her." To add to the many other talents Tori has, I would have to say that worrying is right up there with her singing. This girl can worry so much I fear that she will get an ulcer before she is even twenty.

"Look. Let's go downstairs and see if Mom and Cat are back inside. We can also make lunch for everyone…including Mel Brooks." I chuckled at the look she gave me and told her about my encounter with Trina in the hallway. By the time we made it to the kitchen, Tori was laughing at Trina, of course. We had finished making lunch by the time Mom and Cat came back in and asked them to join us. We all talked about what was going to happen for Cat next, and how we as a family would be helping her. Trina didn't like that the fight happened in the first place and accused Tori for starting the whole thing. At this point I was going to say something to Trina when Mom spoke up.

"Okay, I have had it with all of this fighting today. Now what has happened between Tori and Cat is their business, none of yours Katrina Ann Oliver. As for this fighting, it stops now." Mom yelled as she sat at the table, pointing a finger at all of us.

"I wasn't the one to break the window, so why am I getting yelled at?" Trina pouted.

"Oh, get over yourself, Trina," Tori snarled back.

Mom stood up, scratching the chair across the floor as she did it. Slamming her hand down hard on the table, making all of our drinks spill, she thundered at us, "I said I had enough of this fighting. Now shut the hell up, before I start knock your heads together." We all snapped our mouths closed, even if we weren't talking. "Now Trina, take your ass upstairs and get ready for your doctor's appointment. As for the rest of you, work this out and start playing nice. Like it or not, Tori, we all messed up here and now it's time to pay the piper."

A/N The title Symphony of Destruction belongs to Megadeth. Jade's ring tone is part of Hell is for Children and belongs to Pat Benatar.