Title: Who Knew
Chapter Twelve: The Change
Summary: When Tori Vega stopped talking to her long time best friend Jade West she never expected the heart break she felt, and now that she's found her again she wont let her go.
Rated: T for now, but possibly M later on. I'm not sure.
Disclaimer: I don't own Victorious, unfortunately.
"Alright students, quiet down!" Sikowitz's voice boomed over our excited chatter. My mouth snapped shut instantly and I turned away from Andre to face Sikowitz, and various other teachers from classes I both did and didn't have, who were standing at the front of the Black Box Theater, "Now, as I mentioned about us doing a play that Cat is writing-." Groans from students drown out his next words, "end of year project."
"What?" someone yells from behind me, I'm not sure who it was since there are about four classes in here as well as my own class.
Annoyance flashes across Sikowitz's face as he rubs his hands together, "you will all be working on this play- that will now be a movie- and be graded as a big end of the year projects in your classes. Each of you, whether you are actors, writers, directors, set designers, singers or make up artists, in each class you have you will contribute something to this movie, the end result will be a huge end of year grade. Now Cat would you like to announce the big change to the movie?"
A grin curls on Cat's lips and she pops up out of her seat and bounces on stage, the skirt of her dress flying up dangerously high with her bounces, taking command of the audience as soon as she opens her mouth, "The beast, will be a girl." A quiet murmur shoots through the crowd, "and so will the beauty." Silence, long and nervous, and then finally a slow clap. Cat's had a good plan and a collective sigh of relief circles the room.
Most of us feared nudity, rainbows or crappy kid's songs. But Cat has picked something good, something age appropriate. But now I realize that she's grinning at me, smiling pointedly at me. Dread fills me, she did not intend for me to play the beauty or the beast did she? Something about her grin tells me that's exactly what she's planning, and she's going to be helping with casting, which is all controlled by the students and Cat can win almost anybody over with her smile and charm. I'm doomed.
Cat's gaze shifts across the room, Jade is in that general direction. Shit. Cat looks back at me and I shake my head quickly, no, no, no! She just shrugs and sits back down in her chair, two rows ahead of me so all I can do is glare at the back of her pretty red head. Sikowitz announces we will audition for whatever role we want, but the casters can stick us in whatever role they seem fit.
Oh well, it's just a grade, and just a class. It'll be okay. I must repeat it in my head 50 times, I still don't believe it.
We were asked to audition now, starting with kids who were ready and given time for those to practice who hadn't right away. Jade went first and then stormed out after she was done, only stopping to scoop her bag off of the floor. I went about midway through and went home to start on my homework.
I had stacks of homework to do and it was dark by the time I was done, I hadn't even noticed the time go by and that had been the entire point. If I realized the time went by I'd start counting down the moments of the casting list being posted tonight or tomorrow morning.
After a quick shower to relax my muscles, sore from being hunched over my desk working on my homework, I dressed and wandered downstairs where my mom had made dinner, spaghetti and meatballs, salad, and breadsticks. I grabbed a glass, filled it with tea, and took my usual spot at the dinner table beside Trina's empty seat. Mom and dad were talking about something, but I tuned them out, instead focusing on the food I was eating.
"Tori!" Trina's screech made me almost spit my tea across the table and sent mom into fit, coughing and spluttering water across the table. Trina stomped angrily down the stairs, hands on her hips, cheeks puffed out, face red, "You're stupid friend Cat posted the cast list on theSlap but blocked me and I can't see what part I am!"
My heart raced and I ran past Trina to the couch, diving across it to retrieve my laptop. I typed in a rush, trying to get to the set list. The page was taking forever to load, my speed had silenced Trina and now she and my parents were standing behind me, watching the page, Trina was leaning dangerously over the couch.
"I better be Belle." Trina muttered, you won't be. My brain said, my eyes trained on the screen as the list slowly loaded, I knew my doom but it wouldn't be real until my name was on that screen.
Beast….Jade West.
Belle…..Tori Vega.
"No way!" Trina snapped angrily, snatching my laptop from me, "I'm the freaking wardrobe!" she screeched. Somehow, even though I knew what Cat was going to do, I didn't have to accept it, until it was on the screen in front of me, taunting me.
"I'm going to kill Cat." I don't even think about it before I say it, it just slips out. Mom looks at me like I'm crazy, "I'm going to bed." And then I sprint up stairs after snatching my laptop from Trina.
I bury myself under the sheets and squeeze my eyes closed. Jade is going to be so angry, because I doubt Sikowitz is going to let Cat change the cast list now, no matter how big of a fit Jade throws, and me throwing a fit wouldn't help either so I calmly lay in bed, panicking on the inside. I have to work with Jade on this. Closely with Jade on this. My character would be in love with Jade's in this. My character will be kissing Jade's.
"I'm fucked." I mutter to my ceiling, a sigh escapes me and my eyes are glued to the stars glittering on my ceiling. I was always going to love Jade, but she won't ever be with me again. If Cat and Beck and everyone would just stop shoving me into her I'd be able to at least start letting that little part of me that loves her heal so that I can move on and find someone else, maybe.
A week had passed since we'd been handed out scripts after our roles were assigned. The play Cat wrote, with the help of some people in the script writing class-Jade, Beck, Eli and Sinjin, was actually really good and I was almost excited to work on it.
Jade had been pretty decent about this whole thing, even though she constantly ignored me, she hadn't screamed at Cat, and Cat also said Jade had been a huge help in writing the play.
I'd been busy learning my lines, my vocals and painting the set with Robbie, Sinjin, and the other band of set design kids-even if it wasn't one of my classes I needed something to do to keep my busy.
Andre and a few of his friends from his music class helped write new songs and change a few of the songs from Disney to high school, but most of them remained the same. Eli, Jade, Beck and I all worked on helping Cat design our costumes, even though Jade ignored me, and today I was supposed to be helping Sinjin with more of the set.
I was painting a wooden chair a darker color, "Tori!" Cat came screaming, make-up brush in her hand, brown eyes panicked, "Tori!" she slammed into me nervously ducking behind me, "Jade-." She started to pant, trying to catch her breath.
The makeup studio was on the other side of the school, and she'd probably run the whole way here, the poor thing, "Cat, calm down. Cat!" she finally looked me in the eye and started breathing, "What happened?"
"Jade…she has this…"
"Cat!" Jade's voice growled from behind me, I nearly screamed, she was literally right behind me, I could feel her a few feet away from me. Like I always could.
"She has a huge bruise on her…." Cat started before Jade cut her off.
"Cat! You don't need to be bugging Tori with this! I told you I tripped over one of Tyler's stupid toys and fell down the stairs. It's not a big deal." I wasn't facing Jade to be able to tell if she was lying or not, but I didn't really think she was, and then again she was an actress.
"Come on, Cat. It's just a bruise. Why are you so worked up?" I asked, kneeling in front of her where she was sprawled out on the ground still trying to catch her breath from running all the way here.
"I don't know…I guess…I just…I don't know." She shook her head, trying to clear away something that had her nearly in tears. I reached out and pushed her hair away from her face, "I just…I don't deal well with people being hurt. I'm sorry Tori."
"Its okay Cat. Come on, let me help you up and we'll go get you some water." I stood and held out my hand, pulling Cat to her feet trying to shake away the nagging feeling in the back of my mind that Cat wasn't over reacting.
"I need to pee." Cat mumbled when we were standing at the vending machine behind some girl that had been working on the set design with me, I think her name was Madison. Not that it mattered.
"Then go. I'll get you water." I told her, stepping up to the vending machine with Jade as Cat slowly walked toward the bathroom. The hallways were empty now, "How bad is the bruise?" I asked, not looking at Jade.
I pushed the button for lemon flavored water and then the button for regular twice, "It's not that bad, I mean it looks pretty gruesome, but it's really not that bad."
"You repeated yourself, liar." I snapped, turning to face her as my arms automatically crossed over my chest and I fixed my eyes on hers, "let me see it."
Her eyes turned to slits and her face was a calm mask of rage, a contradiction I know. I cocked an eyebrow at her and met the glare with a calm expression. She scowled as she did it, but she carefully rolled her shirt up to reveal the bruise.
It was a green and blue bruise, yellow around the edges and covered nearly her whole rib cage, "did you break a rib?" I asked, my hand reaching out so my fingers gently felt down her ribs. They didn't feel broken, but I wasn't a professional.
"No, I just banged them up pretty good, you know how long my staircase is. Besides, even if they were nothing a doctor could do about them." She stated dryly. I nodded and pulled my hand back away as she pulled her shirt down, "I forgot it was there, I should have warned her, I just wasn't thinking." I bent down and grabbed the three bottles of water, handing the lemon one to Jade, and scooped the change from the machine and dumped it into my pocket.
"Yeah, I hope she feels better." I murmur as an awkward silence descends between us, the air feeling thick, I scratch my head and bite my lip, "I should go finish the set, give this to Cat." I hand Jade one of the two plain bottles and start to walk away.
"Thanks for the water, Vega." Jade calls after me, I wave over my shoulder in a dismissive manner as I walk back to the Black Box, only then realizing I automatically bought Jade her favorite flavor of water. I shook my head and pushed the door to the Black Box open. Inside it's quiet, people work in silence painting or build. The sound of the hammer and a nail gun are the only things I hear.
I walk to the chair and sit down in front of it, slowly painting in a repetitive motion. Up, down, up, down, up, down. Why had Cat come running like that? Why had Jade chased her? Why did Cat look so frightened? Could it have just been that Cat is frightened of seeing people hurt? Or was there something they both weren't telling me?
"Tori!" I pick my head up slowly and look in the direction of Sinjin's voice, "can you go help Eli with the lighting?" I nod and push to my feet absently, climbing up the back steps to the catwalk, taking a quick gulp of my bottle before stepping up to the light controls.
After helping with the lights I got to math- our schedules have been rearranged to have our first four classes be the classes we're tied to the play with. For me its Sikowitz, Vocal Class, Theater, and Dance in that order. Then I have math, history and English three. Thankfully I don't have a science class this year.
We all have math together, I sit behind Jade and between Cat and Andre while Beck sits next to Jade in front of Cat and Robbie sits next to Jade in front of Andre. We're silent while we work on our math. Up front our teacher is reading and paying zero attention to us.
After math we had lunch, and today Jade sat with us, between Andre and me. Cat was to my left next to Beck and Robbie was between Beck and Andre. Rex was absent again, much to everyone's pleasure.
The chatter at the table was comfortable, for the first time since their breakup, everyone was laughing, joking at everyone else's expense. There was no tense air around the table, no fighting, and no resentment.
Cat and Beck were all cuddly together, Beck's arm slung around her shoulder why she had her head resting on his chest as she joked with Jade. People around us found this strange, but seemed to be even more drawn to watching our table when Jade cracked a joke about someone and the pair of us burst into laughter, because Jade threw her arm around my shoulder and laughed into my shoulder.
Afterwards she'd reeled back like she's been burned, I heard her mutter bruise, so I guess maybe she'd hurt it somehow. I grabbed her shoulder and she looked at me, I didn't need to voice my question and she gave a quick nod. She wasn't hurt.
I went back to eating my burrito.
During English Jade, Cat and I worked on our textbook work together, silently giggling at jokes Cat kept cracking in the back of the room much to our teacher's annoyance. But none of us seemed to care.
After English we all go to finish setting up the stage and separate. We start filming tonight. To eliminate the need for a lot of special effects the characters of Chip and Mrs. Potts and everyone else are going to be changed in their own ways-not into cups and pots or brooms but into servants who can't talk to anyone but the other servants.
They can't talk to or console the Beast, or persuade anybody who happens upon the castle to fall for the monster that the Beast is. Over all I love the concept of the play, but nerves still strike me at the thought of Jade and I having to kiss.
It's not like we haven't before, but it's always been a private thing. It's acting, but will people see more into it?
"Tori!" Cat screeched, flying around the corner. I was sitting in a chair, Christian was finishing my makeup, both of us jerked involuntarily as she teetered on her feet- nearly falling over- her hand clutching her chest, "Jade's not here and she wont answer her phone! It's been 3 hours and her phone just keeps ringing!"
"Calm down, Cat." Jade's sarcastic voice spits as her boots stomp into view, "I'm here. I can't talk and drive. Don't wanna crash like Vega." She gives me an over done wink and flops into her chair so Cat can work on her makeup.
"Wasn't my fault, West." I snap back instantly, Jade lifts a pierced eyebrow at me and smiles.
"Who drives for three hours!" Cat screams, stomping over to Jade in a childish manner, pulling out her makeup kit to work on Jade. We're doing the prologue last since we want to get the parts with Jade in her 'Beast' form out of the way as fast as possible.
Jade's beast form isn't really too wolfy, she's wearing contacts and she has a lot of makeup that gives her face an evil, ugly, deadly look. She's got fake teeth that she's practiced singing in, pointed and dangerous like dogs teeth. The finished project is shocking.
We're not filming in order, because like I said we wanted Jade's makeup out of the way. We were starting with me walking up to the castle, to look for my brother- played by Eli. My hair is tied back in a low pony tail and I'm in a blue dress that is a little shorter then Belle's in the real movie.
We've even got a real horse for me to use for this part, a large white mare with a black spot on her nose. She's really pretty and calm and thankfully not frightened by the cameras, lights or fake snow.
We only have to do the scene two times before were done and then we film me wandering through the house, passing Lumiere and Cogsworth who are standing silent in the shadows as I walk up the stairs, calling for my brother Paul.
The kid playing Lumiere- the guy who I told Jade I was staring at- sneezes twice and I trip going up the stairs once so we do four takes of this part and then change the set so I'm upstairs, looking for my brother.
Outside I know people are preparing the spiral staircase in the asphalt café for me to find my brother locked in the dungeon. That scene takes three takes as well, due to me flubbing a few lines out of nerves and then the first scene with Jade and I starts.
I truly applaud the light crew, because they manage to make it look like were inside standing in a beam of light, "Step into the light." I whisper. I have yet to see Jade's full makeup, so when she steps into the beam of light the gasp is not faked.
She looks truly frightening, her makeup paired with the dark outfit- a dress that is deep blue and a blue cloak with red lining and a hood over her head. She would give me nightmares had I not known this was a movie- hell it still might.
I stumble back, eyes wide with real shock, "please, spare my brother. I will take his place! He has a wife and children!" I plead, her eyebrow arches up making her look even more horrifying if it was possible, I fell to my knees, bowing my head, "please."
"Fine." She growls, stepping around me and ripping the door open, "Vlad, take him back to the town!" she 'throws' him into Vlad- played by Andre- who drags him away while I sob into my hands.
"You didn't let me say goodbye!" I yell, chasing after Paul, screaming his name. She catches me around the waist, hauling me off of my feet, "be quiet!" she snarls. Trina's character Wanda- or the wardrobe- appears.
"Take her to her room. You can rest for awhile and then come to dinner, or starve." Jade throws the ends of her cloak over her and storms down the stairs. We follow and the scene ends.
"Great job!" Cat squeals, "I loved it! Especially you're reaction Tori!" she throws an arm around Jade and I each, pulling us into a crushing hug. We both grunted and our heads smacked against Cat's rather hard head.
"Okay Cat, off. You're killing us." Jade wheezed, "I've got to get this gunk off of me and get home. It's late; we'll be back tomorrow early so we can work through the weekend." Jade pushes her and Cat releases us.
Jade and I walk back into the makeup room alone while the others work on cleaning up. Each of us goes behind changing screens and then we scrub the makeup off her face. I help Jade remove her teeth and undo her hair and then we head out together.
"I'll see you tomorrow, Vega." Jade says, slipping into her car. I squeeze between her car and Trina's and crawl into the drivers seat. Trina's car is a mess, clothes and shoes litter the floor. I had to throw all of her shoes into the backseat before I could even safely drive.
I start the car, turn on my lights and switch on a better radio station, beside me Jade's car remains off but she's bent sideways, glaring at the ignition and I could see her shoulder rolling as she turns the key.
She throws her hands up in triumph when her car starts; she turns to face me a huge grin planted on her face. I laugh, and put the car in reverse after clicking my seatbelt into place. Jade pulls out behind me and speeds off to the right while I go left.
Once I get home I crawl into the shower, washing the left over makeup and the lingering stench of sweat from the long day from my skin. I stay under the spray of warm water for longer then necessary, just to enjoy it.
To me everything has seemed to fly by, and this is just a nice way to calm down, stop time-even if it's just me delaying my departure into dreamland. Once I'm completely prune handed, I shut the water off, step out and wrap in a big fluffy towel.
I dry my hair at a leisurely pace with the hair dryer Trina thankfully left in the bathroom, afterwards I go into my room, towel my skin dry and pull on the first shirt I find. Amber and French vanilla drown my senses as my head pops through the collar and the shirt settles against my skin.
Jade's shirt.
I gather the material in my hand and pull it up to my nose, inhaling deeply. It's as if she's here with me, hugging me. I slip into bed with a smile on my face, arm hooked around my pillow, face tucked so I can still smell the shirt.
That night, I dream of Jade. It's a simple dream, we're sitting on a set of swings, and I'm pushing myself back and forth on the toe of my shoe while Jade swings high in the sky with a grin on her face, long black hair flying behind her. I know it's a dream, only because her hair is black, and because she tells me she loves me as we walk up a hill, hand in hand to watch the sunset.
Shorter then usual, but I've been sick so I'm out energy to add more. Edited to the best of my ability. Hope you guys like it! Sorry if it feels a little rushed, but I figured talking about the beginning of production of it would be long and filler-ish and I don't do filler well. Review and let me know what you think! :)