A/N: So, here it is. The chapter is obviously still under Part I. :) :) :)

Uh. Right. Almost forgot. I don't own Victorious.

I hope you enjoy!

I

Every Little Thing

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Tori is Stressed

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In our everyday lives, we concur with assumptions; from waking up to hitting the showers and from eating breakfast to attending a crazy teacher's class. Point is…the very basic things we do are involved in if not invoked by assumptions.

It can be said that assumptions have saved millions of people and, to this day and very minute, it continues to. Really. Take this for an example, before you walk across the two-way street keeping your apartment building and a convenience store apart, you will most definitely look both ways first...and then cross.

But.

However assumptions save people, it should be kept in mind that it is equally important that an adequate amount of analysis should be put into it, because, at times, the very basic of assumptions may become the source of your dignity's downfall. Well. Putting "dignity" and "downfall" in a single sentence is a little too much but, yes, this can happen.

Take Cat for example. As soon as the bell rings, Cat Valentine bids – or giggles, rather – goodbyes at everybody. She then giggles a little more, skips out of the door and just when everybody in the classroom assumes that she would be skipping her way through the hall, she doesn't. She pauses by the door, looks both ways…and crosses.

Now, imagine that very scene with a different character in Cat's stead, it's not as cute – like how Robbie Shapiro did exactly the same thing that the redhead did purely out of confusion.

Other times though, assumptions can be a little constraining. Well it depends on the dosage of assumptions made; assuming lots of things and a little too much of "these said things" at the same time can drive people towards acute paranoia.

The perfect example would be Tori Vega and Jade West.

None of these girls are stupid (not saying Cat is. She's just ditzy and undeniably lovable.). Thus, almost at perfectly the same time, they would assume that something is definitely "off" in their comparative-to-an-explosive relationship.

Tori drums her fingers a few times on her desk before making just about the eighth glance over her shoulder, towards the row that had Jade in it.

Jade West, on the other hand, appeared to be less bothered – that is, unless her notebook was raided and all the doodles of tattoo designs she imagined on the half Latina's shoulder blade wouldn't be exposed.

'Are you okay, Babe?'

And that's Beck Oliver, just another regular person making regular assumptions that his girlfriend is bothered by something due to her lack of interaction with him.

'Yeah.'

'Andre and I will be working on a song for my other class. I'll be going now. You coming?'

Almost as if to see if she had freezed-out, he places a hand on her shoulder. She shakes her head casually. He mumbles a soft okay, kisses her temple and leaves.

Right after the last student leaves the classroom, Tori decides that, despite whatever was "off", she needed to return the other girl's shirt anyway. She had washed it herself.

Finally standing up, she turns to see Jade spacing out, head tilted towards the floor.

With the absence of naivety at pretty significant levels, both girls were actually struggling to settle for the much safer assumption – Jade West was just Jade West; she can do anything without putting any meaning to it.

Tori lets out one final sigh and walks over to Jade. She hadn't even gotten to a full stop in front of the paler girl when this said girl looks up and hisses.

'What?'

And so enters the much more logical assumption – Jade West also happens to hate Tori Vega. Thus, spending time involving Tori is almost comparable to her life "slipping away" – that's IF the paler teenager doesn't benefit from the said involvement.

Suddenly feeling ridiculous, Tori almost hits her forehead with her PearBook but she doesn't. She shakes her head with an unsurprised yet faintly disappointed look in her face. Pulling out the shirt, which she even stuffed in a transparent plastic bag, she hands it over to Jade, whose expression softened yet still indicated annoyance.

'Thanks,' Tori offers a smile, which was, of course, wasn't returned but was given a barely audible "meh" and a shrug of a shoulder.

'Well?' Jade noticed how Tori still stood there, still smiling too.

'Let's go?'

Some actions, apparently, are based on returning assumptions. Assumptions that only re-arise over the ones that were thought to make much more sense over the other. In this case, Tori assuming that Jade didn't plan on letting anything change.

Jade finally sighs but not out of annoyance, almost as if out of defeat. She decided that, after getting her shirt back, Tori at least deserved someone to walk towards the usual lunch table with. With that, she picks up her bag and only looks into the other girl's eyes for a second before showing that she takes up the offer by nodding.

While Jade West was Jade West, Tori Vega was Tori Vega too. She can be very, very nice and confused and tangled with all the assumptions that uncontrollably pop-up. She suddenly thinks how – perhaps – sixteen or not, her awfully transparent emotions just beat her brain when it came to her actions. Impulsive is what she was and in understanding the current situation, this trait just isn't helping.

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'You mean you actually took Advanced Script Writing?'

Tori sets the ridiculously thick stack of paper on the part of the table before her and looks at Robbie quizzically, giving off her question before she even asked.

'Yeah? Should I be worried?'

'Jade, Beck and Cat got that class last year and they weren't too happy with the whole thing,' Robbie slows down as he reached the end of his sentence, realizing what might have led Tori to take Advanced Script Writing. 'Who the fudge punk'd you into taking that class?'

'Punk'd? You mean suggested. Jade was all nice and—' Tori stops mid-sentence, looks from the stack of homework in front of her and to Jade who was smiling a very Jadey smile. 'Oh, right. Thanks a lot, Jade! Real mature!'

'You're always welcome,' she widens the smile before returning her attention to her food.

'You know what that class is like, Jade,' Robbie began, 'it may be open to non-seniors but it's highly discouraged to take that class!'

'I know,' Jade responds flatly.

'I avoided that class all year last year until this very minute!'

'I know.'

'Tori will be having a hard time with that class!'

'She knows,' Tori interrupts. She pushes the plastic tray of her supposed lunch to the center of the table and began skimming through her homework with a furrowed brow.

Jade wanted to take pleasure with the youngest Vega's predicament; it was her doing after all. To her misfortune though, she couldn't get herself to. She loved getting on her nerves but seeing her rather bothered was different. If this had taken place during the first day she met Tori, she might have actually enjoyed it.

Robbie sighed in concern and scooted closer to Tori. 'Here, let me help you.'

It was Jade's turn to furrow a brow. She knew something in her clockwork didn't feel like it spun correctly but she persisted and shrugs it off. Normal is what would make her happy so normal is how things should be.

'Hey, guys!' came the cheery voice of Cat as she skipped towards the vacant seat beside Tori. Her eyes widened with excitement upon noticing the contents of the page Robbie and Tori were working on. 'Oh, wow! Advanced Script Writing!'

Tori give Robbie a bitter look, 'I thought you said they – including Cat – didn't like this?'

'Well, that's Cat; one moment she likes something and then the next, she wouldn't.'

'What's that supposed to mean?' Cat, now looking worried, asks.

'He meant you're awesome for surviving this class and managing that smile,' Tori says, putting a little emphasis on "smile" and darting an accusing glare at Jade, who only stares back at her with an expression that nearly broke into a mischievous smile again.

Cat, being clueless about the situation, giggles as she apparently took it as a compliment. Averting her gaze, she playfully pinches Tori's cheekbones. Jade felt her back suddenly straighten like how it usually does when she is "alarmed" over things.

'Thanks, Robbie,' she says, which only confused both Tori and Robbie.

'So, I get the thanks and you get the pinch?' Robbie asks disappointed, 'I would've been happy if it were the other way around.'

'I can help you with that,' Cat offers, smiling with that ever genuine smile of hers. 'I'm not too busy tonight so I can maybe come over too.'

'Really?'

'Mmhm!' Tori pulls Cat into a really tight and grateful hug, which peaks Jade's annoyance even more that she decided to take it out on the plastic spoon she held. Her grip tightened as the two girls before her talked about fun stuff they could do after homework.

Robbie, who decides he also deserved a hug, embraces Tori from behind, trying so hard to reach Cat as well.

It felt like her cue more than anything. Jade West crushed the spoon she was holding and stood up. She throws the tattered spoon away and grabs her things.

'I'm leaving.'

The three broke the group hug and look up at her innocently, not knowing how the Goth's bitterness shot up to overdrive.

'Aren't you going to wait for Beck?' Tori asks, finding herself trying not to sound too desperate to have the other girl stay.

'What do you care?'

Jade storms off. Unbeknownst to her, Tori Vega, who happened to be the object of her unexpected behavior, suddenly, felt her attention gravitating towards Jade's supposed seat.

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For three days, even with Cat and Robbie's help, Tori had practically been buried in her homework for her Advanced Script Writing class. She barely showed up to the gang but if she did, she barely spoke; either she was reading and writing or just – like right now – dozing off.

Face buried in hair, paper and her arms, she was faintly snoring. It was quite a situation Jade and Beck could walk into.

'Finally, she decides to show up,' Beck greets, which received a subconscious groan from Tori. He shrugs, sets his bag down and heads for the grub truck.

As soon as he was far enough, Jade gently sets her bag down, not taking her gaze off the sleeping Vega. "Pitiful" is a nice word that could roll off her tongue right now, but her head registered lots of other words she was rather unfamiliar with. Some of these were actually "sorry", "where", "in", "fudge's", "name", "were" and "you".

Carefully sitting down as not to wake the other girl up, she pauses and scans the vicinity for any familiar face – especially anyone from the gang. Seeing as how some of Tori's hair that covered her face lightly flapped from her breathing, Jade reaches over, intending to tuck the hair behind her ear.

'Hey! She's here!'

Jade immediately withdraws her hand.

Andre, all happy and just the sweet guy he is, sits beside Tori and pulls the sleeping girl into a hug, jerking her awake.

'Hey,' Tori smiles weakly and returns the gesture.

'We were beginning to miss you,' Andre says enthusiastically.

'I don't remember beginning to.' Jade leans back in her seat, pursing her lips. To her disappointment, Tori doesn't react. Her attention was in her conversation with Andre about how she was having a hard time with the class.

'I can help too if you'd like,' Andre offers, which Tori declines with a shake of her head.

'It's alright. I should learn to handle this class alone, really.'

That's one thing Jade actually finds impressive about the girl – she never gave up. Depending on the situation, she can be labeled persistent, annoying, determined or compassionate.

'Alright,' Andre shrugs his shoulders. He then casually pushes the tray of his food closer to Tori. 'Just ask if you have any questions, alright?'

'Thanks,' Tori smiles and reaches for the tray and grabs a couple of fries, which she practically shoved in her mouth.

'Wow, down, girl.' Holding in a smirk, Andre pats Tori's back like he would a puppy's.

Now this is where everybody assumes that Jade will think of another snide remark. She doesn't say anything and doesn't even think of any. Feeling rather uneasy, she adjusts in her seat and took out a pair of scissors.

Upon seeing the light yellow handled cutting tool, Tori scrambles for every piece of paper that had something to do with her homework and piled them closer to herself. She kept a protective arm around them. A French fry still dangled at her lips as she chewed on it and watched Jade closely.

For a second, Jade's brow furrowed before she rolls her eyes as emphasized as she could.

It was annoying how Tori's reaction made her feel like a tiny pair of scissors was beginning to gnaw at a small spot in her chest were her heart was. She grabs the ketchup cap and starts cutting it like her contentment rested on it and it only.

'You know,' Tori began. 'That's the only cap they have for that ketchup bottle.'

It puzzled her how the other girl could act like she usually did while she, the supposedly dominant one, was feeling almost queasy with the confusion she tried to suppress. Moreover, it made her even more ganky that she couldn't understand why she was getting these feelings. It ticked her off.

Fearing that this was making her less than creative that she couldn't even come up with a comeback like she could before, she discreetly looks around. Her eyes lands on one of the pages of Tori's homework.

'I thought you couldn't handle that class. Who knows? It might finally get you kicked out of Hollywood Arts – or get you under probation at minimum.'

Tori was – supposed to be – used to Jade being mean. It's either the stress or just the recent blurred out assumptions she had with her relationship with Jade that she could blame at the moment. She actually felt hurt like she did the first time the mean girl embarrassed her in front of the class.

She breaths in a little too deeply and gathers her homework and began fixing it into a neat pile. This didn't make Jade feel any better like she thought it would. It almost felt like with each piece of paper the other girl piled with the rest, that little pair of scissors in her chest slowly dug through.

'Well.'

Andre narrows an eye - even his assumptions of Jade's being towards Tori suddenly blurred. He always thought the paler girl's mouth was a few words away from poisonous but her last comment was very unlike her normal behavior toward Tori. It almost seemed as if they were strangers towards each other again.

'Hey, hey, cupcake,' Rex greets Tori as Robbie came lifting the little "man" in one arm.

'Oh, hey! You're halfway through your first homework!' Robbie says enthusiastically as he settles himself beside Andre. 'That's six more to go, huh? Way to go, Tori! I knew you could do it.'

'Thanks, Robbie,' Tori smiles but stands up.

'Hey, where are you going?' Robbie asks, disappointed.

'To work on this,' Tori says a little too casually (if that is even possible), making it rather obvious that the statement was meant for Jade. 'You know, try not to get myself kicked-out or stuck in probation.'

With that, she walks away.

'She works hard,' that was obviously a much uninformed comment, which is very understandable since it came from Rex.

Andre, concerned, followed Tori with a stare as she paced further away. He sighs and turns to Jade, looking really annoyed.

Jade's callous expression totally dissipated. Her eyes were on Tori's trail. She felt the larger part of the iceberg of her persona mentally kicking her to walk after the tanner girl.

Jade's feet slid back a bit, getting herself ready to stand up and run after Tori, who, on the other hand, slowed down on her feet. For sure, part of the dynamite had ruptured. It wasn't deadly until they both realized that they had missed a very simple detail in their relationship.

For the longest time, they both thought that the key assumption whenever they opened the curtains and exposed part of their vulnerability to the other was that they were merely "disregarding" their original assumptions of what was normal. Whenever Jade felt cornered, she ran only to little miss sunshine. At times, Tori would think that this was a step closer to Jade but would only end up thinking that this was one of those "disregard-for-now" moments.

Tori would have reached for that spot that Jade had touched if she hadn't thought of the perfect word that replaced "disregard".

Discard.

By touching her, all the other assumptions of normalcy had been discarded – that they were now forced to create all new assumptions. That's why things have become complex by a notch.

Jade sighed in frustration. If she had realized that minutes ago, she wouldn't have to run after Tori. She planted her hand on the table to get herself to stand up but to her dismay, Andre grabs his bag, ditches his food and runs after Tori.

Jade sinks back into her chair.

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I thank you all dearly for the reviews. I was checking my phone for reviews earlier on a traffic light. It's a good thing I didn't die in a car accident because of my excitement. Remind me not to check reviews on the road.

Dani2606 Glad you like it. Haha. I did understand what you meant. And if we are on the same context, it is in fact what I'm really trying my very best to do. I want to make it realistic but, at the same time, Victorious-ish.

xXLordOfInglipsXx Hehe. I hope this is update enough. Sorry they take longer than I intended.

JohnFreemanOverHere I'm glad you find it interesting. I will try my best to keep you interested in this story. Please be patient with this, it's but my second fic and Victorious is just a relatively unfamiliar ground to me so it takes research and pretty rocky chapters.

Little Miss Charlie A Thank you. Same here. I loooove platonic. But I love it more when platonic is being poked at constantly by a little bit more interest. It was your fic, "Is this Okay?" that inspired me to write this.

DramaHunny101 Thanks! I love the girls of Victorious. That's why I try really hard to keep their characters portrayed according to how I have come to love them.

dontblameme-igrewupontv Thanks much! I'm glad you like the writing style I adapted just for this. I try to make it different for every story I write. I hope I keep you as interested with each chapter

AlphaTeam101 Your review makes me want to giggle like Cat does. Thanks! I adore their relationship in the series that's why I love subtlety with this pairing. But yeah, haha, I'll follow the draft I made in my head.

AliasSpyCrazy I'm glad you loved it. I hope I could keep you reading. I'll try to update regulary ;)

Dramacat That episode was awesome. It was actually one of the episodes I don't mind watching over and over. Thanks for the awesome review