Reply to reviewers: Well, Tori's alright I suppose and yeah they can share equal blame. But really it has nothing to do with the story, just a random opinion. Anyways. Sorry for the wait, I had things to catch up on, haha. Here's the next chap!

Chapter Two

The Sinner

[Meanwhile]

The storm had come out of nowhere, in the middle of the night.

A boisterous crackle of deafening thunder dawned upon Hollywood, following suit the irritating flashes of bright lightening and the rain trumping the ground. One came after another, and if she had looked out of her window, she would suspect she was in a night club or Karaoke Dokie, by the way the twilight sky light up so furiously. The hail pounded loudly against the rooftops, crushing against the pavement of the roads, accompanied by loud, curiously eerie sirens that signaled just how severe this storm was coming to be. She's always hated those sirens because no matter if they warned the people of danger, they would always give her the chills and than her cheerful dreams would be disrupted by them. The wind, blowing the palm trees and pushing against the windows of her flat, was not doing anything to help her fears – to one, it would appear to have been a hurricane passing through the state, and she was worried her basement was going to begin flooding.

Honestly, she would run into her big brothers arms if that meant to get closure, but with him gone and her father gone (like he mattered), Cat Valentine was left alone in a house far too big for just three people.

So instead she curled up on her couch in front of the big screen television with a blanket around her shivering, five foot form and her laptop resting on her thighs; attempting to ignore the very same sirens she had grown to fear and hate by playing her earphones extra loud. She could just imagine was Jade was doing; enjoying the storm with a nice bag of popcorn and gory movies to celebrate. But for Cat, no matter how much she went over the songs she was supposed to be practicing for her vocal class, the whistles had become such an annoyance of high and low pitched beeps that every loud thing was beginning to give her a headache.

More than once she had peered out of her window to see how bad the rain was getting or if it was hailing again – something, she presumed, out of mere boredom and curiosity. She was quite lonely, as much as she loathed to admit, and try as she might she could not figure out what to do beside scroll down the endless pages of TheSlap, watch the Harry Potter movies with her Hufflepuff scarf she got from the theme park in Florida on and sing to herself. She attempted to call Jade to see what she was up to since Beck was off in Canada visiting relatives, all things considered after all – they were best friends – but it appeared that the signal to her PearPod was out, and she couldn't get in contact with anyone whatsoever.

Her pointless scrolling down TheSlap old pictures came to an abrupt halt when she had come across one of herself; one of herself and not to mention, Daniel Kenneth with his arm around her. The couple looked completely content in the picture, each smiling at the camera; she vaguely remembered making Robbie take the picture for the two of them because no one else would…rather, no one else was around. Cat stared longingly at it before exiting the tab and gently shutting her laptop, pushing it from her lap and onto the cushioned seat beside her.

No negative thoughts, Cat. No negative thoughts….no…negative…

…

…It had been three months since she and Danny had broken up and still Cat was absolutely devastated about it. When she had met him at the mall that one day she knew that he was special, it was just a feeling she had gotten since they had locked eyes. Of course she never believed in love at first sight, especially at such a young age, but it was definitely something to contemplate at the time. Every day she had talked to him after the run in incident, she felt…appreciated. Danny didn't look at her like everyone else looked at her; he had laughed along with her corny and ridiculous jokes and stories and made her smile and made her stomach explode with a billion fluttering pretty butterflies and unicorns.

They got along so well, she and Danny, and she assumed that was always because the two were completely different. He liked darker things and he was quite the pessimist, but he had a good sense of humor, an easy going attitude and a romantic side that made her completely melt. In a way, he had made her calmer and made her feel herself; she liked that side of her if she was brutally honest. It wasn't the side she forced upon herself in front of her friends and everyone within the town.

It absolutely killed her with she caught him sucking face with someone who was supposed to be her close friend. She never thought she would see him kissing Tori.

She drove home to an empty house and cried and cried and cried and only her brother cared.

Punching Tori three days later, though, did make her feel at least a little bit better. She acted as if she was immediately fine around the gang because if she wasn't herself, people would ask her what's wrong and honestly, she didn't want to open up to anybody in exception to Jade – who later that day, showed up at her house demanding to know what was wrong and of course she told her; they were best friends for a reason after all. It felt good to let everything go (well, not everything) and act like her real self. But it reminded her of times with Danny, and for some reason that made her cry even more even though she shouldn't, because she had known her longer than she had known him and that didn't make sense.

Life for her was never laid back, never easy and always full of struggles. Of course, being her, she loved to stay on the optimistic side and think positively of everything, but admittedly that was a tad bit hard for her to do at some points. She had learned the hard way, that the people that smile the most are the ones that go through so much shit in their life – but she never liked using that dirty word, because she was raised better than that and she was taught to be polite. Yet Cat knew that that was true, in fact, her life revolved around that. She would like to meet the person who came up with that saying because really she'd like to befriend them and make their life cheerful and full of happiness instead of darkness and hate. Darkness like Jade and hate like Jade.

Sometimes, she felt a bit bad for Jade whose parents are never around for her – not to mention her father hates her. Cat had met her long before she had a home in California, which was undoubtedly so long ago that she couldn't count the years. Really, it wasn't that long ago, because well…she wasn't an old lady. She was sixteen!

Before Hollywood Arts – scratch that. Before California, Cat was born and raised in New York City. She lived in a flat with her mother Carol, her father Alexander and her older brother Mouse just on the outskirts of the time square. It was a nice little apartment with three bedrooms, a single bathroom, kitchen and living room; nothing too special and nothing too over the top. In the heart of NYC she grew up, went to a boring school that was nothing like the one she attends now, just wishing to do something fun, to do something exciting…rather than get endlessly bullied because she was always so childlike and according to some people, a complete "ditz" or "bimbo."

Whatever those meant.

Despite the bullies, New York had Broadway theaters that Cat would kill to perform in. She went there to see show after show with her parents, brother and the few friends she had wishing to hop up on that stage and sing her pretty little heart out.

13 The Musical, when she herself had just turned thirteen, was her chance. She had desperately asked her mother and her father to audition and the next day, she was standing in front of three very important judges giving it her all. Naturally, Cat was as good as an actress as she was a singer; it came as a second nature to her and she hadn't tried hard for this audition, she didn't spend days frantically going over the lines like normal people would. She kept optimistic thoughts and a smile on her face and sang as if she was in the shower and acted as if she was really Charlotte.

She had met Jade that day, a silent girl her age who had come all the way from Hollywood California to audition for Lucy and dressed in all black. She frowned when she saw the pessimistic aurora around the girl in dark colors, but had bound over and greeted here with her usual bubbly, happy demeanor. Of course she was shot down straight after learning her name with a "Do you ever stop talking?" and an eventual "Go away." She tried not to take that to heart because she was so used to the bullies at her school anyway.

Turns out, Jade had gotten her part as well as Cat had gotten Charlotte. Gradually they had gotten to know each other more and more over the course of practicing their lines together; they became, Jade would admit begrudgingly, friends. They shared a dressing room together and they would have a good time together, but the latter was always…dull. But, she was doing quite the good job in getting her friend to smile more often and insult less. Getting her to be nice didn't work out in the end however, and her gratitude to just having someone other than her brother to talk to made her forget about trying to change her.

Being in the musical was everything she thought it would be and more. When the spotlight was on her she dove into the action and wowed the crowd, singing her very best and portraying her character with accuracy. It was a weird musical and might have left people vaguely scared, but she didn't mind. At least she had gotten the thrill of finally being on the big stage and having, though short lived, fame.

And then after the Broadway show was over two weeks later, Jade went back to California and once again Cat was alone once again. However, her mother and father had approached her several months afterwards with small frowns and sat her and Mouse down on the loft couch. "We're moving" they had said to the siblings.

("Daddy's job has gotten moved to California and he's getting promoted. We need the extra money as soon as possible." Said Carol, smiling hopefully.

Cat jumped up from the cushion with wide doe brown eyes and clapped her hands together. "Where in California!"

"Hollywood, you'll both be attending St. Genevieve schools in the district.")

Cat was pulled from her memories, her silent and spacey reverie at the sound of repetitive beeping coming from the television. She glanced at it with wide doe brown eyes; it had changed from 90's Nick to a completely gray screen, the buzzing refusing to stop for even just a minute. The words "warning; severe weather update – chance of flooding, high winds and power outage. We urge all to keep inside in the following areas…Los Angeles, Santa Barbra, San Diego…" dancing across the bottom half of the screen in a blinding red font.

Never one good with storms, she hugged her giraffe close to her chest and slid off of her couch with her Pear Phone tucked carefully into her pajama bottom pocket, making way to the kitchen. She stole a quick glance at Taz, a Border collie puppy only a year old, who was sleeping soundlessly in his bed near the archway into the living room, before grabbing a flashlight and heading toward the basement. Cat lived in the valley of Hollywood, unlike the rest of her friends, and she was sure that the river out back had turned her backyard into a giant swimming pool, which meant her basement was most likely underwater as well.

Sure enough, when she had reached the end of the stairs her bright pick sock met a small inkling of water. She chewed on her lower lip and set the giraffe on the stairs away from it, pulling her phone from her pocket – but before she could dial her brother (she had gotten signal down here, by some miracle), a text popped upon her screen. Upon seeing who it was from, her heart skipped a beat and she almost choked on her own breath.

Danny:

Everything okay at the Valentine house? & I know it seems kind of sudden, but I was hoping me, you and Tori could meet up some time tomorrow if the storm dies down. We all need to talk.

Her eyes lingered upon the text message for quite some time, enough for her to partially forget about calling her brother to let him know that their basement was flooding. Her mind was racing so rapidly that she couldn't quite figure out what to do, how to even respond. What was there, she wondered, to possibly talk about and why had he decided this so late? It's been three months since it had happened and she figured that he was off dating someone else and that his and her relationship was just a high school fling to him.

Gnawing lightly on her lower lip once more she finally managed to type a response; a simple 'Sure, when and where?' and nothing else, in which he quickly responded with "The Park."

That made her even more nervous that she had been previously. She and Daniel had often gone to the park when they were dating; hand in hand as they walked through the trails and meadows either during the light rain or shine. He watched her as she gasped and pointed at the butterflies and she dragging him everywhere around her. Meeting up there with her best friend (well, even though she was really close to Tori, she only considered Jade as her best friend…), or rather close friend and her ex boyfriend she was completely mad about, could only end in disaster. And Cat Valentine was not good with disasters.

Regardless of what anyone said around the school, she was by no means manic. She was however, slightly bipolar. She was emotionally vulnerable too, in which had been another reason she was sent to numerous therapists before. Most of them had an early retirement after sessions with her and even though she wasn't sure why, and so far only Lane was the one who could help her through life without shoving bottles of pills and medication in her face. Cat liked to keep optimistic thoughts even though her life might not have been so, and the meds she was forced to take beforehand made her feel anything but.

With a sigh she typed that it was okay they met there despite her real thoughts toward it, and moved her hand to tuck a thin strand of her straight and thin collarbone grazing red velvet hair behind her ear. Her cardigan sleeve fell down to her forearm and to her elbow, forcing her gaze to focus upon it. Interrupting the slightly tan skin were pale and pink gashes – scars – intercepting each other, all in straight lines and ragged. Some were fresh and dully throbbing, covered in white gauze she had applied earlier that morning to keep it from infection.

Cat hastily tugged the sleeve back down and snatched Gaffy from the stairwell, quickly making her way up the stairs and to the bathroom. Her hands automatically found the countertop and gripped it like a lifeline, until her knuckles paled and her fingers cramped, her head bowed toward the bowled, porcelain sink. Eyes beginning to sting and water she clenched them shut, biting at the inside of her cheek as countless memories barreled into her; every single one the reason behind why she began cutting in the first place.

She started when she was in eighth grade, and now she was a junior. She had promised Jade in the beginning of the year that she had stopped, but Cat was always the convincing liar – she was an actress after all.

Her life was the act and her world was the stage.

Kay, there's chapter two. More Danny next chapter, I just wanted to develop more into how I imagine Cat to be – it makes things more angst-y if there's more drama and what not in a story, but you'll find out more of her back story later on. Lol. There's also going to be lots of Cade friendship, so be prepared.

SIDE NOTE: This story takes place in season 1 – for one, it's because I liked Cat so much better in the first half of it, when she was a naïve, quirky and sensitive character rather than looking like an idiot in the second season, laughing all the time. Not like I don't like her character now; because I do. Just my opinion, no need to flame it. Though if you'd like to say something about it, send me a PM rather a review specifically about that alone. So I'd just thought I'd let you guys know that, and it is post "The Great-Ping-Pong Scam." Also, those affected by Hurricane Irene, please be safe!

Please don't favorite without a review :) But I don't want to sound greedy...