Hello dear readers. I'm sorry for the lateness of this update as I was shooting for a last Friday update, but it didn't work out. I hope you enjoy this chapter.

Boris Yeltsin: I'm just playing up the negative stereo type Dan use with her. I pray to God that people aren't making any judgments on Christianity from her behavior on the show in regards to Freddie.

Challenge King: Well, I hope you like this chapter with the buildup starting for the pair.

Fanfic-Reader-88: Real dads would have their concerns and Mrs. Benson would flip. She freaked out one time when he was about to say 'Oh my God' as if he was taking the Lord's name in vain. She'd go nuts with co-habitation.

I don't know if he would stay or not if they were still their after the series ended. Dan had Freddie pretty much whipped by the girls at that point or he would have cut them out of his life a long time ago with their behavior during the last two/three season (Nick had a strange way of dividing season up, but I mean from the beginning of the 'Seddie Arc'.)

darck ben: She would have had to tell him one way or the other at some point even if she wanted Freddie to stay permanently with her.

SouthernB3lle: It's like Freddie and Shelby, but without the professional fighting. It's a different version of boy/girl next door vibe between them to play with.

Agent-M-0167: Well Dan always artificially shortchanged Freddie in the ladies department to somehow for the audience to believe that he was still that thirteen year old from Season 1, but obviously failed miserably as the audience just couldn't buy it. He's out of Seattle now and in a place where people won't be artificially thinking he's not a ladies man.

green aura: One of the things I'm going to be exploring is how much do they really know each other and the rest of the two casts. If you actually watch the crossover, there's very little interaction between them. Yes, there is Spencer/Jade/Beck bonding and Tori with the Trio, but if you really look at it, there is no canon proof to show that Freddie or Sam even KNOW Jade, Cat, Beck or Robbies NAMES least long all buddy buddy at the end of the episode (they were just all breaking character at that point). In 'Who Did it to Trina?', Nathan isn't even credited as being Freddie other than a Slap entry by Lane and that is dubious canon (I'm using it anyway though). It's another reason why Sam and Cat as a show is going to be interesting just to see how they interact in the Pilot.

Lebensender: We'll see, we'll see.

Okay, on with the story.

Rating: T

Chapter 3

The morning light filtered through the blinds of the apartment bedroom and softly touched and warmed the mix Caucasian and Latino teenager's skin of her face and left bare arm. The light touch of the sun's rays over her eyelids and face caused the lovely girl to stir from her sleep. She squinted her eyes tightly shut and buried her face into her pillow in an effort to ward of the coming day that disturb her peaceful sleep and regret in forgetting to close her blinds last night.

After a few minutes of futile effort to go back to sleep, she rolled on to her bed and stretched out her arms and legs across the bed with a cute little whimper escaping past her lips. A moment later, the brunette yawned and stretched her arms up above her head with the hem of her shirt pulling up her toned abdomen. She smacked her lips several times as she threw the covers off her leg and slipped out of the queen size bed.

She scratched the side of her head with her right hand and tried to wipe the sleep out of an eye with the other as she exited her bedroom. She immediately stopped in her tracks when she opened her eyes to see that Freddie in the common area between the front door, dinning room table and living room was on the floor in the process of rapidly doing pushups.

He had changed from his sleepwear into a white athletic shirt and blue athletic shorts for what looked to her as an impromptu workout session. She cleared her throat at seeing his exertion of his exercise as she could easily see the beads of sweat on his forehead and his arms.

Apparently the sound of clearing her throat caught his attention as he stopped after pushing upward and looked to her with a humorous smile. He stood up and her mind flashed back to months ago about how muscular Beck's friend from Canada, Moose, was under his shirts, but realized that this view was a far better one since the white athletic shirt showed off his muscular arms and fit nicely over his chest.

He reached over to a towel hanging on the back of one of the dinning room table chairs and wiped his brow. He looked to her with a smile and warmly greeted her, "Morning."

Her mouth opened up and closed almost comically like a fish then finally muttered out, "Morning… working out?"

He snorted out a soft laugh at her questioning the obvious, "Yeah, just a little until I can hit the school's gym. I'm sorry; I hope I didn't wake you up."

She shook her head. "No, the sun did that all on its own." She took a step closer to him and playfully pinched his muscular bicep, "I didn't realize you were so into working out."

He maintained his boyish smile as he shrugged one of his muscular shoulders and wrapped the towel around the back of his neck to hang off of his shoulders, "I decided to keep up my workout routine after I was done with my rehab after the accident. It keeps up the strength in my leg and stiffness out of my wrist."

She nodded to his explanation as she lost her friendly smile. She had heard in broad strokes the story of his 'run in' with a taco truck years ago in order to save Carly's life from iCarly. However, she didn't realize that he had any lingering problems due to it.

He walked to the kitchen and took a quick swig of his bottled water. He wiped his mouth with a dry part of the end of the towel then sat the bottle on the counter and opened up the refrigerator. "I could fix us some breakfast, but…" He took a quick glance of the contents and finished with a regretful tone, "I'm not seeing much I could use."

She paused in replying as she stared at his muscular back and felt her cheeks partially warm and figured that she was blushing. She finally shook her head and muttered out, "No, just a few instant meals to last a few days before I could go out shopping."

He closed the refrigerator and turned to the lovely brunette. "We could go out for breakfast and I could help go grocery shopping with you?"

She gave him an awkward smile as she answered, "That's fine. You're going to need to eat for the next week and I think you'd want more than just take out every night." Tori leaned against the counter and asked, "You want to hit the bookstore today? I still need to pick up a few things."

"I've already ordered my books on-line, but I'd be happy to go with you and be an extra set of hands."

She gave him a bright smile which her eyes shined in agreement. "Thanks."

The pair looked at one another while silence fell between them. Tori tried to avoid staring at his muscular build highlighted from the sweat still on his arms from the work out. At the same time Freddie was trying to randomly glance away from seeing how well Tori wore her T-shirt as his baser instincts had decided that she wasn't wearing an undergarment under the T-shirt and how her very short shorts accentuated her shapely and toned legs.

Freddie let out a forced laugh, "I'm going to get a quick shower and meet you out here in a few minutes."

She put on an awkward smile and laughed along with him, "Right. I actually need to hit the shower myself."

He motioned towards the bathrooms as they were in the same general direction and he was being polite in letting her start first towards her destination. That's what his conscious mind was telling him as an explanation to let her walk ahead of him, but as the brunette smile to him and turned to head for the bathroom that went with her room, his head bowed and eyes went to look at the back of her legs and her behind. Once again he blushed in shame for doing such a thing.

Tori turned and headed to the bathroom that was to the left of her bedroom and partially blocked from view with a partition wall. This short wall created to create some symmetry with the end of the other bedroom allowed her to slip from her room to the bathroom without one seeing her from the end of the short hallway created by the other room and bathroom on the other side.

She was happy with this fluke up architectural design as she knew it would reassure Freddie that they would be maintaining proper decorum between them for the rest of his stay. Also it shielded her for a moment to allow her to look over her shoulder and capture a quick glanced towards Freddie as he slipped into the first bathroom in the hallway.

The pair quickly went through their respective routine of stripping and heading into their showers, each not realizing the other was starting the shower off as a cold one because of the other.

UCLA Bookstore
308 Westwood Plaza
Los Angeles, CA
Sunday, September 18, 2012

After grabbing a quick breakfast, the brunette pair made their way to the school's bookstore. The pair walked fairly close together as they made their way through the bustling bookstore with Freddie carrying a store basket to carry Tori's textbooks and whatever else caught her eyes. The occasional guy passing them by would eye Tori in a near leering manner, but quickly lost interest as apparently they figured Freddie was her boyfriend at seeing the closeness the pair was walking together and they didn't want the hassle of competing with the muscular teenager for Tori's attention.

At the moment, Freddie stopped the pair in front a particular section of the shelf of books as he thought he may have found one of her books. He idly commented as he double checked the title while running his finger across the spine of the book, "Hey, I have this book. We can just share."

Tori took the literature book from him and took a look at the back of it. She thankfully laughed out, "Thanks, that's a hundred bucks I don't need to spend. I guess at least some things we're sharing is a good thing: classes."

He snorted out a laugh, "With some of the class sizes, we were bound to be in some gen ed classes, but I never said that sharing an apartment with you was a bad thing."

She rolled her eyes and laughed out, "Right, it's not a bad thing, you're just totally against the idea and unhappy with it."

He leaned slightly forward and invaded her personal space just a little more than he already was doing with them walking so close together. He whispered in a conspiratorial manner, "True, but I never said that it was a bad thing."

She gave him a soft nod of her head and a corner of her mouth lifted in a smile. She turned back towards the aisle of books and started making her way down the shelf searching for the next book on her list.

He paused for a moment in following her then took a deep breath and put on a serious expression so he could ask, "You know it's not because of you, right?"

She stopped and turned to look at him with a confused expression.

He continued with what he hoped was a sympathetic tone, "It really is the situation, not because it's you. There are plenty of guys that would jump at the chance of living with you for the obvious reasons."

Her brow knotted in such a cute way to Freddie's eyes as she responded, "Reasons?"

He let out a soft chuckle as he commented, "I've lost count how many guys have checked you out while we've been here. If you don't mind me saying, you're a beautiful, hot girl. Do I need to paint a picture of combining that living in close quarters with you?"

She bowed her head and tried not to blush at his compliment. She obviously was not naïve in that aspect of being blind to such an occurrence or she wouldn't have thought to reassure her father during their phone call or Freddie. She was half tempted to make the same comparison with having such a handsome guy under her roof, however she decided against it, fearfully that he might draw an unwanted conclusion about how she may feel about him. She finally looked up at him and questioned with a coy tone, "So you haven't thought about that picture for yourself?"

His friendly smile faded and Tori felt a momentary ping of regret as she felt that she may have just offended him. He bowed his head for a moment then looked up to answer with a regretful tone, "I chucked my morality and let my hormones and peer pressure of what others thought I should do make a decision for me one time before… I'm never going to let that happen again."

Tori nodded her head as she may not have understood the situation he meant, but would respect how serious his feelings were in the matter.

He cracked a soft smile as he whispered, "But I can't deny that the company is going to be great in the meantime."

She let out a soft laugh from his tension relieving joke.

The pair quickly fell into a comfortable silence just in time to hear Tori's phone ring from her pocket. She gave him an embarrassed smile and quickly reached into her jacket pocket to pull out the Pear device that was an identical model phone to Freddie's phone. She looked at the caller ID then quickly back to Freddie. She answered the call as she explained, "It's Beck." She turned her attention back to her phone and answered, "Hey Beck."

She pause to let the actor speak then she answered, "Oh, I'm out book shopping with my new roommate—"

Freddie was about to speak, but she raised her pointer finger of her free hand to her lips and playful smirked to him. He got the message that she didn't want to reveal to the actor on the other end of the phone the identity of Tori's mysterious roommate.

Tori smirked as she continued, "We're out getting my books for class." She waited again then answered, "Oh, we're getting along great. Actually, you won't believe who my roommate is—at least for this week until they find them another place." She paused again to wait for Beck to finish his question. "You do know the person and it's an interesting story that I have to tell you and Jade… hey, how about we meet you back at my place in about an hour, but you're bringing the food. We haven't gotten a chance to make it to the grocery store to stock the kitchen yet. Does that sound good?"

She put on a bright smile as apparently the actor agreed to her suggestion. "Okay, we'll see you later, bye." She pressed the end call button and let out a soft laugh, "You get to see Beck and Jade."

Freddie softly smirked to her as commented, "Good, it'd be nice to see them again. I guess I'm going to be a nice surprise for them."

Apartment 316
Venice/Barry Apartments
11811 Venice Boulevard
Los Angeles, CA

About an hour after the conversation between the friends, the doorbell rang to the apartment and Tori was quick on her feet off the couch to answer the door. She opened the door to reveal the long haired actor with the addition of a mustache and hair on his chin. By his side was his very lovely and attractive girlfriend of one Jade West wearing a soft smirk at seeing the brunette.

Beck put on a bright smile at seeing the brunette and shouted with a joyful tone as he held two pizza boxes, "We come bringing lunch to warm your new home."

Tori laughed and opened her arms up for a hug, "Thanks."

He shifted the pizzas in one hand to allow for an awkward one arm hug. The friends pulled apart and Tori and Jade traded nods of their heads, but genuinely friendly smiles.

The brunette stepped aside to allow the couple to enter the apartment and shut the door behind them.

The couple stopped in their respective tracks when they saw the brown eyed boy smirking and waving at them from the couch.

The actor awkwardly laughed, "Freddie? Hey?"

Beck sat the pizzas down on the table next to door while Freddie got up from his seat and greeted them, "Hey you two."

Jade smiled at the former tech-producer and brought him into a quick hug. "Hey to you too."

He happily returned the hug then pulled back and gave her a quick once up and down. He smirked as he playfully asked, "You cut your hair? You're trying to go back to your natural hair color?"

Jade's hair was still a dark brunette color as it was before graduation, but the last time he had seen her in person was the previous September when she had experimented with the raven color for a few months and her hair was far longer than just the few inches past her shoulders. She smiled as she answered, "I wanted to try something a little different and it can be a pain maintaining hair that long."

He nodded along. "I've actually heard that once or twice, but it looks good."

She actually gave him a bashful smile as she answered, "Thanks."

He looked to Beck and commented with another laugh, "Are you making up for her cutting her hair?"

Beck absently ran a hand through his hair that had grown out to almost the same length as Jade's hair. He jovially laughed, "Maybe." The actor stuffed a hand in his pocket and asked, "What are you doing here?"

The Seattle native softly laughed out, "I'm going to school here."

"And he's my roommate," Tori laughed as she motioned to the muscular former tech-producer.

"That's a nice surprise," the pale girl commented with a genuine smile then raised her pierced eyebrow as she questioned, "Wait you're roommates? He's your roommate?"

Tori smirked and shook her head. "Yeah, for a little while at least. There was a mix up and they assigned us together. We're hoping they can figure out something before school starts, but in the meantime we're stuck together."

Beck's brow furled as he questioned, "How could they accidentally assign you together? I heard the housing thing was a problem, but…"

Tori rolled her eyes and blew out an overdramatic breath, "I wrote Tori out of habit instead of Victoria on the housing application and they thought I was a guy, so they put Freddie with me."

Jade crossed her arms and softly mocked, "Way to go Tori."

"Jade," Freddie softly admonished with a boyish grin.

She slightly bowed her head to the side as she pointed out, "You're really going to defend her? You're the one out of an apartment."

He shrugged a shoulder and confidently smiled. "It's in my nature."

"You know what they say happens to nice guys…"

He passed a quick glance to Beck then raised a coy eyebrow to Jade as he answered, "They get with beautiful, loving multitalented ladies? Sounds like pretty good way to act to me."

She crossed her arms under her chest and slightly frowned, but her eyes didn't match her irritated facial expression. If anything, her eyes showed that she was flattered with the compliment.

Beck wrapped an arm around the small of her back and rested his hand on her hip so he could pull her close and give her a kiss on the cheek. The act just infuriated the dark brunette further, but he ignored it as he asked, "So, how about lunch?"

The group gathered around the small circular dinning table with Freddie passing drinks all around while Tori divvied up slices of pizza for them. Freddie took his seat after passing the filled glasses and asked Jade with a genuinely curious tone, "So, what have you been up to lately?"

"Other than starting school here? I've been getting offers from Mason Thornesmith and Shawn Quincy about signing up for a record deal."

Tori blinked in surprise and was nearly dumbfounded as she asked, "Mason and Quincy? They're thinking about signing you?"

Jade confidently smirked as nonchalantly answered, "André introduced us and I sang for him. He liked what he heard and apparently it got back to Mason, so he's trying to get me to sign with him… I think he's hedging his bets with me against you."

Freddie raised a cup and happily called out, "Congratulations. That must be a nice position to be in: them fighting over you."

She gave him a soft smirk. "Thanks."

The brown eyed teenager looked between Jade and Tori with a curious expression. "But what do you mean you think he's hedging his bets?" He looked specifically to Tori and continued, "So you have a record deal?"

Tori finished chewing a morsel of pizza then gave her roommate an embarrassing smile. "Yes, but… Mason's been taking it slow, so I've recorded a few songs during the summer. We might try for a summer tour next year. I might do a few small performances in the meantime."

Beck spoke up, "That's what doesn't make any sense to me on why he's taking his time and it's been bugging me."

The brunette let out a soft laugh and questioned, "Something actually bothering you?"

The long haired actor rolled his eyes then answered with a smirk, "I'm afraid he's just trying to use Jade again to manipulate you for some reason."

The pale girl frowned and gave her boyfriend a dark look while Tori looked somewhat embarrassed. Freddie quickly glanced at all of them and realized that the story was obvious a sore point for all of them.

He spoke up with a hesitant voice, "I'm obviously the odd-man-out on everything that went down at the PMAs about Tori getting it then Jade getting it then back to Tori and one of you might fill me in on the story later, but…" He looked to Tori and suggested, "Maybe you should talk to Quincy and see if he's willing to sign you up and get you out of your contract with Mason. If anything, it might spur Mason on get going with your music career and stop dragging his heels."

Tori spoke up with a raised tone, "Or get offended that I'm looking elsewhere then he'd really cut me loose. He's one of those guys that like firing people."

He shrugged a shoulder and casually commented, "All the more reason you might want to start looking elsewhere, starting with this Quincy guy. How can you have a music career if you're afraid of your producer?"

Tori looked down to her half eaten piece of pizza and thought on his point.

Beck spoke up with a supportive tone, "I think Freddie's right. From what I've heard from André, Quincy has been treating him right even after Hope and I haven't seen anything to suggest that he's leading Jade on or being unreasonable."

The brunette looked up to meet the long haired actor's eyes and seeing him giving her a supportive smile.

Jade surprised them when she spoke up with a quiet voice, "I think you should talk to Quincy too. Mason is willing to use anybody instead of being a partner in the music. He's looking out only for number one."

Beck gave his girlfriend a surprised expression at her suggestion and reasoning.

Jade slightly tilted her head to the side and commented, "What? Maybe just don't like being thought of as an afterthought to Tori?"

Freddie snorted out without thinking in an annoyed tone, "I know how that feels; it's not a pleasant feeling." He took a sip of his drink without bothering to notice the others giving him curious stares with Jade giving him a deeper, probing look as if she was trying to ferret out what he really meant. He sat his drink down then smiled and commented, "Hopefully we'll get a chance to see you two sing together. I was hoping that both of you were going to sing at the PMAs with the switch-a-roo with the names. I was kind of disappointed that it wasn't a duo."

Jade softly tapped the side of her glass with her fingernails as she cradled her drink. She admitted with slight regretful tone, "I was… I was being all noble because it was suppose to be her big night and I couldn't do that to her by performing in her spot. So we switched it on them at the last second. Some say that was probably stupid of me to do… give up the chance to be seen by hundreds of millions of people."

Freddie commented with a heavy weight to his voice, "It's a lot harder than people realize… but not doing it is even harder and costs you more in the end."

Jade gave him a curious expression for a few moments until the dawn of realization appeared on her face at seeing that he understood with him not backing down at her gaze as others naturally would back down. She gave him a slight nod of her head and he acknowledged it with one of his own.

He turned back to his glass and raised it, "To a future duet."

Tori laughed out, "You're really hoping for that aren't you?"

"Well I saw you on the PMAs…" he looked to Jade as he finished, "And besides us singing together and Kenan's party, I've heard you sing from the recording you sent Carly. I think I'm stating the obvious when I say you're good. I'm not going to apologize for pushing the idea of hoping to hear two very talented singers sing together."

Tori put on an embarrassing smile and Jade cracked a soft one, apparently being flattered as well. She continued with a proud voice, "We've sung together before. We sang 'Take a Hint' to these guys that were hitting on us at Nozu one time."

The brunette piped up, "We had to go out on a date."

Freddie's brow knotted as he slowly asked, "Go on a date?"

Beck quickly explained, "It was part of an acting exercise from Sikowitz about them playing a convincing married couple. They had to feel the part by going on a date. He's really big on method acting."

Jade added with a disgust filled tone, "He rigged it for us to play husband and wife."

Beck softly pointed out with a slight tap of his fingers on her forearm, "He wanted you two to get along better."

The pale girl snapped her head to her long haired boyfriend and hissed out, "It was none of his business how we got along and threatening to flunk us for the entire semester was ridiculous."

Freddie's brow knotted up as he stared at the couple. He commented with a tone mixed with disbelief and caution, "That seems… really janky to pull. Threatening your semester grade?"

Jade rolled her eyes. "Yeah it was and maybe we should have made a big deal of it after the play—my mother was pretty wazzed off when she heard the entire story—but we let it go."

Beck smirked as he pointed out, "Yeah, but you got along better."

Tori quickly spoke up, "The next week when I needed rides from people to get to school, she took me out to the middle of nowhere with a shovel in the backseat."

Jade smirked and spoke with a clearly innocent tone, "You don't know what I was going to do with that shovel. We were just taking the scenic route to school."

Freddie softly laughed, "You intended to bash her head in with it and bury her body for no one to find? Seems kind of amateuristic and not a lot of planning behind it if you wanted to get away with it if that was what you were planning."

She answered with a toying tone, "You think I would be that obvious and careless if I wanted to do such a thing?"

Freddie smile faded as he answered, "I… I don't know."

Jade frown and knotted her brow as if somewhat hurt by his answer.

He gave her an apologetic smile then quickly glanced to each of them. He regretfully continued, "We really don't know each other… I mean… if you look at it, we've only really known each other for less than three days: a night at Kenan's party and the two days the weekend of Tori's play."

The pale girl nodded along at seeing his point while Beck awkwardly looked away.

Tori frowned and looked down at her piece of pizza. She muttered out with a regretful tone, "Sorry, I guess it just kind of feels like we know you from watching you on the show and your other videos for years."

Freddie nodded his head in understanding at remembering for some, he was a minor celebrity and with that fans had a false sense of familiarity with him.

The brunette lifted her head and let a smile form on her face as a renewed sense of cheer filled her, "But that is a problem we are going to fix, remember?"

The brown eyed teenager returned the smile and nodded along.

The couple glanced to one another obvious in the dark about the previous conversation the unlikely roommates had in private at some point, but individually picked up the general meaning.

Beck spoke up, "Right. This is college and we're supposed to meet new people and experience new things."

The blue streaked hair girl softly laughed, "You're tempting Fate with those words."

Freddie narrowed his eyes and softly mocked, "Let her take her best shot at me, I'm still standing."

Tori's PearPhone rang and interrupted the group's moment. She pulled out the blue cellphone to see the caller ID. Tori looked up from her phone to give a quick glance to the rest of them and answered, "It's Cat." She answered the call and brought it to her ear. "Hey Cat. I'm at my apartment—Jade and Beck are over here eating lunch."

She nodded along and the rest could actually hear the faint excitement of the redhead on the other end of the phone.

The brunette softly laughed, "Yes Cat, I will meet your new roommate. I want you to meet mine too, temporary roommate, you'll figure out why when you see them." Tori happily suggested, "I know what we can do: Let's all meet up to have a partial reunion dinner tonight. It'll be great."

Jade instantly frowned at the suggesting, but quickly relented with a soft roll of her eyes at hearing Cat's excitement on the other end of the phone so loud that Tori had to pull the phone away from her ear.

"Okay, we'll see you at about seven tonight. Bye Cat." Tori pressed the end call button. She happily grinned to the rest of them and commented, "It looks like we're all going to have dinner at Cat's at seven."

Jade blew out a breath. "She's been going on about wanting me to meet her for days. I keep putting it off."

Tori asked with a slightly furled brow. "Why?"

Beck quickly answered for his girlfriend, "She's not happy with Cat moving in with some stranger, but she won't admit it. I don't think she wants to upset Cat."

Jade crossed her arms under her chest and shot the handsome actor a dirty expression.

Tori was not in the mood to witness the pair get into a potential argument, so she asked in the hopes of starving it off and to satisfy her curiosity, "How is she paying for an apartment anyway? I thought she was living with her Nona."

Jade shrugged a shoulder and answered with a tired voice that suggested that it was a question that she had struggled with for a while. "I don't know why she moved out from her. I think her parents are sending her some money and said something about starting a babysitting business out of the apartment."

Tori wearily asked, "Cat babysitting children?"

Jade rolled her eyes and softly shook her head. "Don't ask… it doesn't make any more sense to me either."

Freddie raised a curious eyebrow. "I don't understand. I know she seemed kind of… childish when I saw her last year, but I don't see the problem."

Tori patiently and regretfully explained, "Cat's gotten worst since the last time you saw her."

Freddie's brow knotted up again, but this time it was a hint of fear. He asked with a concerned and fearful tone, "How bad? How bad are we talking about? I mean… is she well enough to live on her own?"

Tori looked surprised that she saw a momentary ghost of a look of fear and concern cross Jade's face with the question.

The blue streaked hair girl pursed her lips for a moment then answered with a resigned tone, "We'll see."

Freddie and Beck gave the girl sympathetic expressions as apparently she had resigned to the fact that she couldn't change the situation at the moment and was just waiting to pick up the pieces of what she thought was going to end up in disaster.

Tori questioned with a more upbeat tone as to not turn the gathering of friends into a melancholy reunion, "So we're all definitely in to going to Cat's tonight?"

Jade still didn't look too thrilled with the idea, however she muttered, "We might as well see who she's rooming with… make sure she's not with some psycho and she's alright."

The brunette gently prodded, "And if she's not?"

The dark brunette frowned as she answered with a near sharp tone, "We have enough room at my house and my mom would be happy for her to stay."

Tori was obviously quite curious to her former rivals feelings on that idea and asked in a straightforward manner, "How would you feel about Cat living with you?"

Jade paused and looked uncomfortable for a moment before she admitted in a quiet tone that to her explained everything, "She's my friend."

Freddie nodded his head at being glad to see that one of the first deep, meaningful things to find out about the girl (other than her genuine friendliness she has shown him in their two meetings) that on the surface looked like a cliché gothic girl was that she had some real depth to her heart and loyalty to her friend to the point of wanting her to live with her in the redhead's time of need.

Tori cracked a soft smile at seeing the Jade's rarely shown sensitive and compassionate side.

The pale girl immediately dived back into her pizza with the obvious sign that she didn't want to discuss the matter any further.

Freddie suppressed a laugh at seeing a close parallel of her to Sam when the dirty blonde cared for the former love of his life, but didn't want to advertise it.

Tori got the message as well and decided to switch to a more pleasant topic. She spoke up with a curious and happy tone, "So Beck, what's this I hear about you auditioning to play a psychopath?"

Author's Note: I hope that was a satisfying chapter and you'll tune in for the next one. It should be an interesting dinner at Cat's apartment. Later, OneHorseShay.