May 20th
at home as Ashley comes home from work
"why can't Tori talk right now, she was fine yesterday, it's scaring me" asks Kayla
"she has Tourette's Kayla, one of her tics is what we call lock jaw and it can be very dangerous, especially if she was eating when it happens, it really freaks her out trust me, especially since the longest it's locked her jaw was twenty-eight minutes, she has zero control over it, when did it start" says Ashley
"ten minutes ago, Cat's been massaging her jaw for three minutes, why" says Hannah as Carly and Sam walk in
"we bought some muscle relaxers for Tori" says Carly
"thanks Carly, we've had good luck massaging her jaw and it relaxing a little so her mouth is open about a quarter of an inch, her jaw would still be locked but the muscle strain wouldn't be as much, her fans saw it the day she got back from the mental health facility and her first stream back again, it was very scary because she really doesn't want her fans to see just how bad it is for her" says Ashley
"I can see why, is it ok if we cuddle next to her so she knows she's safe" asks Kayla
"should be fine just be careful not to jolt her, it has made things worse in the past" says Ashley as Cat walks out
"she just came out of a really bad lock jaw tic, she's not sure she wants to eat tonight, also she could really use some cuddles" says Cat
"I didn't know dating you guys would be this scary" says Andre
"I'll make her favorite soup then, she knows it's not good to not eat because of fear, especially since I know full well she's afraid of choking on the food because it never just happens once, it's a lot harder to choke on soup than it is twirled spaghetti and we all know she likes twirling her pasta if possible, Andre you and Cat go take Hannah and Kayla with you and cuddle Tori, they want to help her know she's safe" says Ashley
"but Tori isn't fully dressed, isn't that dangerous legally" asks Cat
"you think that would stop them, Robbie and I were really depressed yesterday as the trial I'm backing lost two girls to their cancer, Kayla cuddled Rob and Hannah cuddled me and would only leave us alone once we admitted that loss was a part of life and to cry over something that had a slim chance of success anyway was wasted tears, that those girls were pain free in heaven now" says Jade
"hey has anyone tried the sensitive skin easy wax strips, I always seem to get razor burn when I shave my bikini area" says Ashley
"yeah Tori said she tried it yesterday, the wax melted the wax strip, no joke she tried to pick it up and it burned her fingerprints off her left hand, she uses her left hand for everything, specifically in this case unlocking her phone so she was locked out till she found a way to register her other hand, it took Jenna three hours talking her way up the tech support ladder at pear over the phone for them to remotely unlock her phone on the specific condition that they not remote backup anything on her phone and just unlock it" says Jade
"I'll never understand why she takes those pictures" says Ashley
"it's not for the reason you're assuming Ash, some of her tics make her feel ugly, she takes those photos so she has an album of HER showing herself she's pretty, honestly I understand why, she's mega famous and extremely insecure about her looks, the tics only make it worse" says Cat
"but those pictures make it a problem if she gets hacked" says Andre
"dude I understand you're new to this version of her but she's liked you from the moment she first saw you, by the time she got past the nerves of her feelings you had asked someone out, you never once acted like you had feelings for her, Beck never had the nerve to bring it up either, I mean the tension between them was huge, you have no idea the toll it's had on her, nearly every guy she's had feelings for either led her on or abused her looks and talent, both Ryder and Danny used her, Ryder used her talent and good looks for a grade, Daniel is a whole different beast, he was a serial cheater, as much as I shouldn't be happy someone died this one I took an exception to, to told Tori all the girls I saw Daniel with when they were together, she cried for an hour" says Trina
"how do you know he was cheating" asks Andre
"I'm a serial shopper, I'd see him everyday after school and on the weekends, I'd literally see him kissing them, he had told Tori he'd never get caught in a girly store yet that's where I always caught him, I always confronted the girls, I asked for their number then texted them the truth, they always thanked me" says Trina
"ok so Jenna and her sister are together right" asks Andre
"yes but with limits" says Cat
"what, like they can't make love, that's not right, they were given the green light by the LA lawyers association because of how bad her sister had been, all the abuse she suffered, they saw no reason to tell them no, hell I heard the DOJ was willing to put the issue aside because she doesn't let her feelings affect her work, that it matters in their situation more than ever because they're sisters, at least that's what my lawyer Frankie says" says Andre
"no they can and have made love they just put limits on how often they feel is acceptable to do, though they set no limits on making out, anyway while Ash makes supper we should probably get back to Tori, Selena and Paisley can only answer so many questions" says Cat
With Tori
"what's it like being strong" asks Tori
"mom stop asking that, I'm not strong, I'm a dreamer not a fighter, I don't know what strong even means that way" says Selena as everyone walks in
"babe stop making Seli uncomfortable, Kayla and Hannah are here for cuddles and they refuse to leave until you are proud of your body the way it is" says Cat
"that's gonna take awhile" says Tori as the girls cuddle her
"depression bad again" asks Andre
"yeah, though Seli really does have a scary talent of calming people down, why does everyone seem to have a purpose but me" asks Tori
"huh" asks Cat
"you help people know it's ok not being normal, Selena can calm just about anyone, Hannah can connect with just about any living animal, Paisley fights fights with proof, Andre's super charming, what reason for living do I have" says Tori
"come on Tori don't do this again, you're more than just a person, you're special, please don't do this to yourself" says Andre
"you love me right, this isn't some lie or joke to get pictures of me naked to send to Beck right" asks Tori in tears
"Tori I haven't spoken to Beck in months, the only guy other than me likely to come across you naked as you come out of the shower is Robbie and he swore on his grave he'd never take a picture of you period, why would you ever think any pictures I take of you I'd share without your ok" says Andre
"do you know what it's like not being able to stop yourself from swearing or saying very private things on stream because of Tourettes Andre, it doesn't matter how focused I am, I could be mid song and still swear, the anxiety of me ticing on stream tends to make me tic more" says Tori
"my parents hated my pursuit of music, they saw it as very girly and a waste of time, my dad called me Andrea any time I brought up music" says Andre
"oh….., I guess that explains why you lived with your nuts grandmother instead of your family" says Tori
"my parents have been trying to get her in a home for four years, they always said her symptoms weren't real, their reasoning was they didn't believe white people at the homes would treat her right anyway, I managed to get her a psych evaluation from Cameron's staff therapist and while she's staying at the facility for the month, she is getting sent to a home, she called me this morning saying her new house has spas, cookies and oatmeal, the doctor confirmed it, honestly I've never heard my grandma so excited, they have her on some new meds which is helping her not be so crazy, sure it was tough at times staying with her and ya it was annoying but I couldn't let her think nobody cared" says Andre
"what about your little sister" asks Cat
"see now that's a tragic story, she was a serious skate park queen, she's only a few years younger than I am, she tried impressing this skater dude because she liked him and messed up her timing, big crash, lost her right arm and left foot and when she came to couldn't remember who she was, her short term memory is completely shot, she once brushed her teeth for three hours because she didn't believe us when we told her she already had, mom pulled her out of school because her math teacher yelled at her because she kept forgetting the math equations, she'll never be able to have a job" says Andre
"Charity Valerie Harris right?" asks Tori
"yeah how do you know that" asks Andre
"because she keeps making the same comments on Princess's small music videos, always the same comments, grammar errors ya but always the same comments on the exact same videos, what is her general window of memory" says Tori
"in general six hours but the small things completely bypass her, you have to give her one instruction at a time, last week dad told her to put socks on because she hates them and won't wear them then to do her laundry, she took the two instructions as one and put all the clothes on and put herself in the washer, ya that wasn't fun explaining to the emergency doctor why she had glass shards in her ear, she knows she only has a six hour window so some of her mis-steps are purely because the list she's given is too long and tries to find the quickest way to do it, last month dad asked her to wash and vacuum the living-room carpet because it was really dirty, so what does she do, connects the outside hose to the kitchen sink, soaking the carpet and tried to vacuum up the water, the vacuum caught fire and she put it out then locked herself out of the house and sat on the steps crying till mom came home an hour later" says Andre
"what if I gave her a job sorting my fan mail, my tics make it very hard to do it myself, I'm willing to pay her for every package or letter she sorts through, Carly, Sam and Alisson remove the hate-mail but it still leaves me with fifty letters and fifteen packages a day, there is a massive backlog" says Tori
"what would her pay be, she is a massive fan of you two" asks Andre
"ten dollars for every individual piece of fan-mail she sorts, I can set up a camera to verify her count, not just for me but for her so she can see just how much she's doing to help" says Tori
"why help her, nobody else would" asks Andre sceptical
"because I understand what it's like to feel like crap, to feel worthless, I can't begin to understand how it would feel to not understand why I feel like crap or worthless, I have three thousand fan-mail letters to open and five hundred packages as of today, that's thirty-five grand I'm willing to give her Andre" says Tori
"I'm willing to do the same, I can maybe get through fifty packages a day but the moment I get a tiara or some other gift from my fans all package or letter opening stops as I accessorize and see how it looks with outfits" says Cat
"you know I'm really happy Cameron got your cloth blend allergy all figured out Cat, to know I have to wash my hands and other things before touching you is a little annoying but it's better than causing you to head into another coma" says Andre
"I do still seize Andre but they're way way less intense than the ones that send me into a coma, I noticed you made out with Tori this morning and she didn't tic once during what we generally call her tic attack half hour" says Cat
"yeah it confused me too honestly, so anyway I'll go call my mom up and ask the question and if Charity agrees then it's a deal" says Andre
"my body couldn't focus on anything else, also Andre let me know if she agrees to the deal before she gets here so I can call up a printing company and get a poster printed and get it delivered so she has a frame of reference every six hours, my hope is that I can get something into her long term memory, even if its just the fact that she would be working for the two most popular artists in the world right now, my goal is to gain her trust, mainly because I'm fairly certain she doesn't think she should be trusted" says Tori as Andre walks into the hall to make the call
"you really want Andre's kids huh" asks Cat
"yes, though I'm unsure of when but my body seems to have other plans, the moment his lips touched mine it was like a whole different world, I suddenly had full control of my body, though its probably what caused my bad jaw lock tic" says Tori as Ashley walks in
"ok so I made several family pot pies and soup for Tori, I'll make Tori her own when she feels comfortable enough to eat" says Ashley as The girls leave, leaving Ashley alone with Cat and Tori
"thanks Ash, it's not that I can't or don't want to eat it's just my jaw lock tic always comes in waves of two and I'm afraid of choking to death on food" says Tori as Andre walks back in
"Charity agreed but she wants to be called Sarah, also she doesn't want to be paid, that the privilege and experience is payment enough" says Andre
"if only I could not pay her Andre, If I was running my own label I wouldn't mind just letting her be happy, however not only do I want to pay her as she will be providing Cat and I with a service but also the label requires we pay anyone that provides us with a service, like Jenna for example" says Tori
"you know you'd never believe my dad is homophobic" says Ashley
"wait like really, but he has like fifteen artists who are gay, trans or bi, it doesn't make sense that he would be homophobic" says Andre shocked
"that's because he believes in equal opportunity employment, he learned that by hurting me my chances of being a dancer or singer went down dramatically, trust me it turned his world upside-down, he went to therapy for it and what he and his therapist say my dad got out of it is that just because my dad doesn't understand why being gay or bi or being trans is what people want to be to feel like themselves he chose to believe that his misunderstandings about sexuality shouldn't stop people from following their dreams" says Ashley as Cat sniffs the air
"hey does anyone else smell crispy crème donuts" asks Cat
"you know I'd really rather not imagine my kitty making crispy crème donuts thank you very much Cat!" says Tori
"oh shoot, uhhh Ashley how long do we have till food is ready" says Cat realizing Tori isn't fully dressed
"about forty minutes, the girls all went upstairs so as long as we close the door we should have just about enough time, you want in Andre" says Ashley
"sure, let me just go wash my things quickly" says Andre as he heads to the bathroom
"man he sure is a keeper isn't he" says Tori
"indeed he is, he really does care" says Cat as Ashley nods in agreement