Hello my dear readers. I'm sorry for the gap in updates to this story. Hopefully my time will start to free up after next week to post more often.
Agent-M-0167: Thanks. I see Teddie as an ideal form of Creddie, that of a boy next door getting with the girl next door. They are actually the relatively normal ones of the shared universe, so I think they would really get along toether.
I see the Charger as one of those fixed things that will always find a way to appear in my stories since they are all part of a greater multiverse. It's like a TARDIS in many ways, but probably with a Flux Capacitor.
I'm looking at the potential friendship between Jade and Freddie as what I think Dan had in mind for Sam and Freddie, but failed miserably at. It would be nice to actually write Freddie and Beck becoming friends instead of usually writing them pretty antagonistic to one another.
Mister Singer probably would be able to get you parts to a '67 Impala.
pbow: You are correct that the Tori spelling with an 'I' is usually reserved for females, but I have found males with that spelling, plus I think it is an acceptable stretch of disbelief to get me the initial setup. The one that typed it in may have not given it a second thought or it was a cupid to make sure they met :P
I wouldn't put it past Sam to sell him out, but then she'd have to deal with Cat and for the moment, she's living off of her just like she did the Shays and she's in a far more precarious position than she was in Seattle.
Jeremy Shane: Here is another chapter, sorry it took so long.
PD31: Tori, jealous of Jade? That would be a second time that's happened :D
Boris Yeltsin: Freddie and Jade interaction is one of those great wasted potentials from Dan. He was nerdy like Sinjin and Robbie she couldn't stand, but handsome and sweet like Beck and André who she likes. It would have been an interesting interaction, if Dan would have let his other writers write it as I thought they could write better when they had more freedom before S4 of iCarly and S2 of Victorious (Dan didn't start putting his name in the writing credits on a regular basis until then).
Fanfic-Reader-88: Three months of being a lone and reflecting on his life can surprisingly change a person, plus he has no reason to put up with her or Sam since life as he knew it was over and there wasn't anything left to preserve. Will there be a confrontation that violent between Jade and Sam if she finds out everything, I guess will see. Actually from what previews I've seen so far with Sam&Cat and how she's treating Cat, I think Jade would beat the mess out of her.
The Charger is a TARDIS.
How does Freddie soften up Jade? He'll give it right back to her, yet he'll listens to her and thinks she is pretty without making her feel inadequate next to other girls. That kind of sounds like the complete opposite of a certain guy she's know for a very long time and blew off those concerns.
It is strangely odd how two characters that Dan had no intention to ever really interact could have such things in common or how perhaps the respective actors' attractiveness to one another could translate on screen.
Challenge King: All points I'm glad you enjoyed as that was exactly what I was going for since Freddie is trying to start over and needs that support system… and a nice set of wheels. I hope you like this one.
If you get a chance, take a read of PD31's 'Here's to Us' update. He blames me for writing a particular scene in the story… I take full responsibility. Oh, and I here Victoria Justice will be guest starring in Big Time Rush this Thursday, June 6. Support Vic even if you don't care for the show. One last thing, I was messing up the dates in the last couple of chapters, so the ones now are the corrected ones (I was looking at a September 2011 instead of 2012).
Rating: T Language
Chapter 6
Apartment 316
Venice/Barry Apartments
11811 Venice Boulevard
Los Angeles, CA
Tuesday, September 25, 2012
Tori took a deep breath as she stirred from her sleep. She rolled unto her back and stretched out on the apartment provided bed as she done the previous mornings. She smirked from still enjoying the fact that it was larger than the one at home. It was easily large enough for two, maybe three people… including a very muscular young man sleeping over in the next room. She took a sharp breath as her mind going into that direction, but quickly turned her thoughts elsewhere on a random subject like bunnies with pancakes on their heads.
Once her mind was settled, she sat up and blew out a breath in an attempt to get some of her bed hair out of face. She stretched her arms above her head as part of her usual morning routine, but stopped midway through with a groan when she felt the sudden soreness and stiffness in her shoulders and arms.
She frowned that quickly turned into a pout at the sensation and started rubbing her left shoulder. She whispered out in disgust, "Oh jamn it." She blew out a breath and threw the sheets off of her legs realizing her feeling sorry for herself in bed wasn't going to accomplish anything.
She exited her room and took the left into her bathroom for a few minutes then headed to the living room.
Freddie was sitting on the couch watching television and sipping on a cup of coffee. The lithe framed teenager immediately caught his attention with her presence and held back a smirk at seeing the lovely teenager with such bed hair. He playfully greeted her, "Morning."
Tori noticed his expression and the direction his eyes were focused. She slightly frowned at his apparent enjoyment of her morning appearance. She had quickly done her morning routine of using the bathroom and washing her face, but failed to have done anything to her hair other than brush it out of her face. A moment later a part of her realized that it wasn't necessarily a bad thing at such a handsome guy not being turned off at seeing what she looked like first thing in the morning.
She slightly tilted her head to the side and returned his smile. "Morning." She walked over to the couch and had a seat next to him, crossing her legs and resting her hands in her lap.
She disappointingly looked at him as he immediately sat his mug on the coffee table and got up from his seat to head for the kitchen. He spoke not a word as he got up and made his way to the kitchen.
She looked over her shoulder, but couldn't see him in the kitchen. She hoped that if she couldn't see him that he couldn't see her, so she sneakily bent forward and swiped his coffee mug off the table then brought the edge to her lips. She took a sip from the mug and instantly closed her eyes from the pleasant sensation of the warm liquid past her lips and tongue.
She cradled the cup and let a small smile play on her lips, but her momentary pleasure was interrupted by the sound of Freddie clearing his throat. She opened her eyes to see him wearing a boyish grin and holding another steaming mug in an offering gesture.
She guiltily looked down for a moment then muttered in an apologetic tone, "Sorry."
He reached for the mug she was holding, his strong hand gliding across her smooth skin and delicate hand, sending a slight shiver through her then pulled it away to trade it for the one he was holding.
She eagerly accepted the fresher coffee then mouthed, "Thank you."
He gave a polite nod and softly answered, "You're welcome." He retook his seat next to her while she took a sip from the coffee.
She sighed in pleasure as the coffee he had handed her tasted even better and waking her up. She steadily held her cup and closed her eyes so she could begin to nod her head from side to side around then rolled her shoulders back to try to relieve the tension and soreness. "I think you wore me out last night."
Freddie's eyes snapped open wide and looked at the disheveled brunette.
She quickly opened her eyes and blushed when she realized what she had said then hastily corrected herself, "I mean—I think, I think I over did it last night playing video games."
He cleared his throat then laughed, "Right… I thought I was just trying to keep up with the pace you were setting."
She lifted a corner of her mouth and answered, "It's okay. I guess I got caught up in the moment since Trina would have given up far sooner even if she's really competitive. It was just so much fun playing with someone that was enjoying it as much as I was."
"I guess next time we'll stretch out properly before we go toe-to-toe like that again. I don't want you to get hurt." He smirked as he finished, "What's the funny in beating you when that happens?"
She smiled in return and slightly nodded her head. "Good idea."
She closed her eyes and took another sip of coffee. She swallowed the wakening liquid then looked back to her roommate to curiously ask, "So what are you going to do today?"
He shifted in his seat and brought his right leg to rest on the couch then answered, "I was thinking that I would take my own tour of the campus."
She knotted her brow in a such a way that Freddie was finding it adorable. "But didn't you do that during orientation?"
He shook his head and answered, "I didn't go to orientation. Oh, I went through the placement testing for some of my general ed courses and meeting with my computer science advisor to get my classes planned out, but I didn't want to spend the extra money they were going to charge for it. I mean housing and paying for school was already taken care of, so I didn't need a talking to about that."
He let out a soft laugh and gave her a boyish smile as he answered, "Besides, I'd much prefer to do that at my own pace instead of with some monotone guide and surrounded by dozens of other students. I don't want to be antisocial, but I want make sure I know exactly where my classes are for Thursday instead just knowing which building is which. The last thing I need is to be late to my first class of the day."
Tori's smile brightened as she complimented, "That's not such a bad idea." She smirked as a thought came to mind. "If you don't want to be antisocial, you wouldn't mind some company, right?"
He slightly leaned towards her and asked, "I guess it would all depend on the company."
The brunette let out a soft laugh seeing at his teasing of her then asked, "So when do you want to head out?"
"I was thinking as soon as we can get ready before it gets too late in the morning. We can pick up breakfast on our way and get back to beat the lunch traffic."
She titled her chin up and gave him a big closed mouth grin. "I like that. We can come back, have lunch then check out all the amenities that we have here." She smirked and pointed a finger at him. "I hear we have a pool and a sauna."
Freddie raised an eyebrow and playfully questioned, "A sauna? I've never been in one of those."
"Then that's something we have to try at some point." She quickly shut her mouth shut as she realized the second goof she said this morning, "I mean, obviously not at the same time, but you know… after stressful week it might be nice."
He let out a laugh and slightly nodded his head. "Right."
Tori looked back to her mug, in the hopes of taking refuge in sipping her coffee and not saying anything else ridiculous in front of him. The pair turned to watch television as Freddie had been watching the morning news.
The lovely brunette finished her coffee and sat the mug down on the table then relaxed back in her seat just to enjoy the quiet company with Freddie.
The peaceful moment was short lived however as the tension of her muscles were becoming too distracting. She stretched her arms up above her head to try to relieve the tension, the act lifting the hem of her small night T-shirt and exposing her midriff and bellybutton.
He glanced away and tried to focus his attention on the television as to not stare at her toned abdomen and bellybutton, but the news of the annual meeting UN General Assembly didn't seem all that interesting compared to the potential sight of sitting next to just a lovely and loving girl.
She gritted her teeth in frustration from the continued soreness. She dropped her arms back to her side, giving up on trying to stretch properly with feeling so sore. She muttered, "Too bad Rex isn't here; I could really use the massage to loosen the muscles."
Freddie pursed his lips and narrowed his eyes on the brunette. He questioned in a tone that suggested that he was also questioning himself in even asking the question, "Rex? The puppet?"
She let out an embarrassed laugh, "We humor Robbie far too much, but when I was cramming for an exam so I could opt out of a class last year, he gave a surprisingly good massage of my neck. He even got a kink out of it."
He nervously cleared his throat then hesitantly offered, "Since I'm partially responsible, but I'm no puppet…"
She turned to offer her back to him.
He placed his hands on her shoulders then softly started kneading her shoulders.
She closed her eyes and lolled her head to the right side and let out a sigh from the relaxation he was already bring to her sore muscles.
The brown eyed teenager held back a smirk, quite pleased with himself that he was at least adequate so far. He started moving his hands towards each crook of her neck and slightly increased the pressure of his fingers. He finally reached to her neck and tenderly pressed his thumbs under the base of her neck as his fingers worked each side of her neck around her pulse point.
She lolled her head backwards and let out another sigh, really appreciating the contact from his fingertips and soft touch that was such a contrast to his obviously strong hands. She couldn't help but think back to a comment Jade had made to Beck's friend Moose the time he visited, 'You must destroy gloves' and Tori quickly realized that Freddie could probably do the same thing. She sighed out with a nearly husky voice, "Oh my God Freddie, you're good at this."
He put on awkward smile that he was thankful that she couldn't see then answered with a forced casualness, "I guess I'm just a natural… and just remembering where I hurt the most when I sometimes over do it at the gym."
The pair sat there for a few more minutes with Freddie continuing his ministrations. He figured that he had loosened her muscles enough for them to stop bothering her, but he didn't say anything and left the decision to stop up to the brunette.
Tori on the other hand was to caught up in the relaxing sensation and really was in no hurry to stop him especially with the butterfly sensations in her stomach and lower abdomen, but the more rational side of her mind finally forced her to speak up before things could get awkward between them as she had nearly done twice so far this morning. She slightly leaned forward and whispered, "Thanks Freddie."
He instantly got the message and pulled his hands away. He politely replied, "You're welcome."
She looked over her left shoulder to look at Freddie and commented, "I'm going to go take a shower and see if the hot water can help relax me."
He let out a soft laugh, "Okay. I need to hit the shower myself. I think I smell a little funky from my morning workout. You wouldn't want to spend the day with a stinky Freddie."
Tori turned her head back and looked down at her lap so she wouldn't see her expression as she didn't actually mind the manly musk that she had noticed since taking a seat next to him. She let out a nervous laugh to cover herself as she stood up. "I'll see you in a little bit."
"Okay," he reflexively answered while she turned to head back to her room.
About forty minutes later, the pair was outside of their apartment and walking to Tori's car as she offered to drive today. She didn't see the point of putting any more mileage on Freddie's car until he really had it checked out and perhaps started replacing some parts.
As soon as they reached her car, Freddie took a good look at Tori's vehicle: a dark blue 2012 Nissan Maxima. He laughed out, "I haven't got a chance to mention this, but you have a pretty nice car. Was it a graduation present?"
She stopped at the driver's side door and answered, "Actually it was because I took Trina with me to Yerba. I didn't want to take her, but my dad bribed me."
He gave her another confused expression. "Why did he try to bribe you?" He laughed off, "Did he really not want Trina around?"
She regretfully admitted with her head bowed down as she couldn't meet his eyes, "I'm the favorite child."
Freddie put on a guarded expression, not exactly sure how he should react as she sounded so ashamed with that being the truth.
"Well, I suggest when we get back that you park this in the underground parking. I think it'll be safer."
She tilted her head slightly to the side and teased him, "You're just so full of good ideas this morning aren't you?"
He patted the roof of her car and joked, "I'm just glad someone's listening to them for a change."
The pair's respective smiles slightly faded as each realized that his comment wasn't exactly funny from what she had learned over the last few days.
Tori forced a cheerful expression on her face and called out, "Okay, breakfast?"
Humanities Building, UCLA
Tuesday, September 25, 2012
The pair had shared a quick breakfast at one of the many food establishments on campus then started on their self-guided tour around campus. The started with a building that they would fortunately be sharing a class together and casually walked through the various hallways of the building, lazily exploring while passing the random student or potential professor. They eventually made their way up to the third floor and started looking for the classroom where they would be sharing a literature class.
Tori was the first one to spot the room and stopped at the door labeled 350. The lights were off, but fortunately the room had windows and enough light shined into the room so she could peak into the classroom through the rectangular window. She let out a relieved breath at seeing that it didn't look much different than a usual classroom. She feared one of those huge auditorium sized classrooms where there would be hundreds of students and she would just be a faceless member. She knew she would have at least one or two classes like that, but was grateful that one would be a little more intimate.
He playfully asked, "You okay?"
She rolled her eyes then answered, "Okay, I'm nervous; it's a big campus and a lot of students."
"It certainly different from high school…" He laughed and shrugged a shoulder, "You got me."
She gave him a thankful smile then looped her arm through his arm. "Yeah, I have you."
Schoenberg Music Building, UCLA
The pair crossed Portola Plaza road to walk over to take a quick peak at the music building for the class that Tori was going to share with Jade and Cat. She had failed to let go of his arm during their trek over or their exploration of the building. He had stolen a few confused glances at her entwined arm with his arm, but eventually just accepted it.
As they finished exploring one of the music rooms, a voice called out from behind the pair, "Tori? Tori Vega?"
The pair turned to the sound of the voice (without Tori actually letting go of Freddie's arm) and brunette eyes widened as she tried to recognize the blonde that passed a resemblance to Tara Ganz from Karaoke Dokie.
The girl placed a hand on her upper chest and stated, "I'm Lindsey; we went to Hollywood Arts together. I graduated last year."
Tori instantly placed her as the girl her sister said was her friend but knew didn't actually like her. However, Tori put on a bright smile and answered, "Lindsey, hey. How are you?"
"I'm great, but…" The blonde smiled to Freddie and gave him a flirtatious laugh, "You look like you're doing better though."
The brunette's brow shot up and eyes widened then let out a quick laugh to correct what the blonde was thinking, "Oh, Freddie's not my boyfriend."
Freddie shook his head. "We're not together."
"Oh?" Lindsey spoke with her eyes immediately lightening up even if she wasn't entirely convinced about the veracity of the statement with Tori holding her arm around Freddie. "So then who's your friend?"
Tori's smile faltered at hearing the tone she had used to describe the former tech-producer as a piece of her disagreed with the description. She cleared her throat then answered with the faintest of hesitation, "Oh? This is Freddie."
The former tech-producer spoke up with a polite wave of his hand, "Freddie Benson."
The blonde studied him for a moment then questioned, "Freddie Benson? As from iCarly?"
He let out a chuckle while rocking for a second on his heels and toes. "One in the same."
"So, what are you doing here?" She looked to Tori to finished, "And how do you know the famous Freddie Benson?"
The former Seattleite answered, "I enrolled into the computer engineering program and we're taking the morning to see where are classes are going to be."
Tori picked up, "We met back in March of last year at Kenan's party…"
"That's right, you sang together. That was a blast of a party, but happened with Steven? I heard you two were going pretty strong."
The younger Vega sister frowned and hesitantly answered, "It didn't work out. He wasn't… he was like Ryder Daniels."
The blonde sucked in a breath through her teeth at the mentioning of her ex-boyfriend. "Sorry to hear that."
"Me too."
Lindsey clapped her hands together and picked up with a happier tone, "Well I'm glad I bumped into you, so I can go ahead and tell you. Friday night, we Hollywood Arts Alumni here are having a party to welcome all the incoming freshman alumni to campus. It'll give us a chance to re-network with one another and let'em know they have support while they're here. Back at Hollywood Arts they were going to tweet it out over the Slap in the hopes of getting the news out. You still follow TheSlap through TweetFlash?"
Tori nodded her head, "Yeah, I do."
"Great, it's a way to keep in touch." She smiled as she looked to Freddie then commented, "You're welcome to bring a guest."
Tori only needed a moment to accept for the chance to hang with some fellow students from HA. "Thanks, it'll be nice to catch up with some people… and make us feel welcomed." She flicked her eyebrows up and let out an awkward laugh, "College… can be very scary especially with being on such a big campus."
Lindsey gave her a reassuring smile and wrapped an arm around Tori's shoulders. "Don't worry, we Hollywood Artsies stick together." She pulled back a moment later and happily finished, "Well I'll DM you the details later. I got to go meet up with one of my professors, so I'll see you at the party."
Tori waved her at Lindsey's retreating form while He raised an eyebrow and gave her a boyish grin while questioning her, "So I'm your guest?"
She gave him a slight pout while answering him, "What? I'm just going to leave you at home?"
He let out a laugh then led them towards the exit.
They passed by the inverted fountain and took a few minutes to admire it before continuing on their the half circle track from the Humanities Building, Schoenberg then finally to Boelter Hall so Freddie could check out his department that he'd be spending most of his time for the next four years.
They headed up to the third floor for Freddie to take a quick peak at the department and facilities. He knew how boring this part of the tour could be, but was happy that Tori was humoring him. He doubted that Carly would have done such a thing if she was here instead of Italy.
A part of him was happy that the buildings that they would be spending so much time were relatively close together and it would be easy to drop in on one another (since he would be moving out), assuming that Tori would want to do such a thing as he understood that computer engineering was nowhere near as exciting as her music.
Tori politely waited while he was able to look around like a kid in a candy store. However, he wasn't willing to test her patients (or wanting to keep such a lovely girl waiting), so he finished fairly quickly and she naturally slipped her arm back around his as if it was the natural thing to do between them.
The friends made their way down back to the first floor and exited the building. During their entire tour, Freddie had noticed the random guys they would pass almost leering at her in a fairly blatant manner and a few more guys were taking a little too long to look at Tori just as they left the building. If it wasn't for his presence, they would probably directly approach her and start trying the lamest pickup lines. He had no room to talk about lame pickup lines, but he was comforted in the fact that at least he was genuine in his attempts with the ladies.
He slipped his arm from her grip and momentarily drawing a frown from her that he didn't notice, but it quickly vanished as his hand slipped down to hold her hand. The next moment she allowed him to slip his fingers between hers so that they were laced together.
Freddie suggested, "We could stop by the Terrence Food Court and pick up lunch. We wouldn't have to worry about cooking and it is on our way back to your car."
"Great idea."
Venice/Barry Apartments
11811 Venice Boulevard
Los Angeles, CA
Tuesday, September 25, 2012
The pair was able to quickly get their food and arrive back to the apartments before the lunch rush, but the brunette insisted that they take a few minutes to quickly tour the apartments' amenities even if it meant their lunch cooling.
They reached their apartment about fifteen minutes later after briefly checking out the pool and sauna.
Tori smirked as she took her seat at their dinning room table and commented, "Before the week's out, I'm hitting the pool or the sauna. One of the two."
Freddie laughed as he placed their food at the center of the table then took his seat across from her, "I can hit the exercise room when I don't feel like stopping by the university's gym or make a special trip out."
She leaned over and reached across the table and playfully picked at his muscular bicep. "You have to stay in shape to impress the ladies."
He shrugged his shoulder and answered, "I don't think I'll have much time for the ladies with studying."
She fired off without thinking, "Unless you're studying with me, Jade and Cat?" She nearly blushed when she realized what she had spoken.
He raised a finger and agreed to relieve the attention Tori was feeling, "You have a point."
She let out a laugh and the pair turned to their lunch.
RPX Records
Hollywood, CA
Wednesday, September 26, 2012
The thrown together roommates had one more day before classes started, so Tori wanted to take the opportunity to catch up with one more person before she got busy with classes. So that was the reason that the brunette was at RPX Records first thing in the morning trying to find her musical friend.
The pair was directed to a particular recording room and Tori called out from the door as she saw André sitting on a stool and drumming on his guitar while working on lyrics, "André!"
The songwriter looked up from his guitar and instantly put on a smile. "Tori!" He sat it down into the guitar stand and quickly got up from his seat to share a nearly knockdown hug from his eager friend.
The brunette pulled back and laughed, "It's great to see you."
"It's great to see you too college girl." He looked over her shoulder and surprised to see Freddie standing a few paces behind. "Freddie?"
The pair approached one another and André clasped his hand and pulled him into a one arm hug.
"Hey André. It looks like you're doing well 'about to be a major musical star'?"
He nodded along. "Yeah, but what are you doing here? Is Carly and Sam with you?"
"No—" He tilted his head to the side as he corrected, "Well Sam is in L.A., but I'm here because I'm going to school at UCLA and me and Tori kind of ran into each other as I was moving in."
The lovely brunette rolled her eyes and lazily commented, "That's one way to describe it."
The dreadlock wearing teenager gave them a questioning look and Freddie quickly offered, "I'm ah… Tori's roommate."
He furled his brow in an instant and asked with a perplexed tone, "Roommate?"
Tori embarrassingly answered, "It's a long story."
Freddie quickly rattled off, "She put Tori on the application and forgot to put her sex. Someone thought she was a guy and put us together in one of the apartments."
She rolled her eyes and lolled her head to the side. She let out a slightly sarcastic remark, "Okay, not so short."
"Wow, roommates. They don't have any place to move either one of you?"
The former Seattleite answered, "Not yet, so we're just waiting it out until something is free. In the meantime, we have to put up with each other."
Tori playfully punched his arm and countered, "He's exaggerating. We're getting along great. We have our own rooms and bathrooms and I've been treated to some good meals and company. He's been a better video game player than Trina, but don't tell her that."
André resisted the urge to comment on the time they had been roommates, but instead teased, "Careful there Tor, you might miss him when they find one of you a new place to live."
Her smile slightly faded from that idea, but she quickly covered by eagerly asking, "So how are you? We've been kind of out of touch these last few weeks."
He let out a charming laugh and answered, "I'm doing well. I've been busy trying to get my album done. It should be ready for a holiday release then I should be going on tour in the spring. Quincy's really been looking after me." He whispered under his breath, "And keeping Hope off my back. I think he likes me more than her."
Tori nearly shouted for joy, "That's fantastic! I can't wait to see one of your concerts."
"So how's your music coming? When are we going to see Tori Vega's debut album?"
The brunette nodded her head, but wasn't as eager to share, "I'm doing well. My songs are coming along and I'm hoping for the same thing, but maybe waiting to tour in the summer. I want to get my first year done so I don't have to worry about cutting into school."
He seemed oblivious to her hesitation. "Sounds great. Maybe we can duet a few times since I would be done by then?"
"I'd love that. Do you think Quincy would let you since I'm on a different label?"
He waved her off, "He'd be cool with it. He'd look it as a way to get me further noticed: singing with the PMA performer herself."
She joined him in a quick laugh before he offered, "Why don't I show you personal tour? I'm sure Quincy would love to see you."
Tori threw out her hands and laughed, "Why not? We're here to see you."
André laughed and took his friend by the arm to lead them out of the room and around the building. "I'm not sure if Rihanna is here today, but let's go see."
Tori excitedly asked, "Rihanna?!"
After about an hour of catching up (which wasn't really all that much), touring, meeting a few other artists (Rihanna was scheduled for tomorrow unfortunately) and a happy reunion with Quincy, the three were back in the room the pair had met up with André.
Tori thumbed over her shoulder and towards the door while commenting, "If you'll excuse me, I'm going to run to the restroom then be right back."
The songsmith nodded his acknowledgment and she was off.
Freddie glanced to make sure she was out of sight and earshot then idly commented, "André, I was wondering something—it's just something I picked up when Jade and Beck were over for lunch on Sunday—that Mason was kind of being taking his sweet time in getting Tori's career going—do you think your boss would be interested in picking up Tori? He seemed pretty excited to see her."
André eagerly asked, but his voice soon waned, "Absolutely, but that's the problem, she's signed with Mason."
Freddie nodded his head to the side and softly laughed, "Maybe, but there is something I learned a long time ago from Spencer and his seventy two hours at law school: every contract has a loop-hole."
The songsmith nodded along, willing to trust Freddie's experience then asked, "Should I mention to Quincy that Tori could be interesting in going with him?"
"Not yet, I'm just thinking out loud. We'd have to talk to Tori again about it. She's afraid that Mason could not only fire her, but ruin any future career."
"I'd like to see him try if Tori signs up with RPX. Quincy plays hardball and he's not intimidated by anyone."
Freddie nodded along, feeling reassured by the answer.
Tori returned a few minutes later and began to politely excuse her and Freddie, "I think we need to get going. We didn't mean to interrupt you—I know we had to do that with the tour—and I don't think I ate enough of a breakfast."
Freddie restrained himself from telling her 'I told you so' from her eating such a skimpy breakfast.
"Okay, I'll you later or I'll call or video chat. I may just drop by and see the little nest you two have."
Tori lifted a corner of her mouth and slightly glared at him, but he knew she really didn't mean it. She pointed a finger at him, "Don't be a stranger André."
"I won't."
Tori turned and headed out the door, while Freddie was purposely a step behind.
André whispered to the muscular teenager, "I'll keep what you said in mind."
"Thanks André. It was good to see you again," he answered with a nod then quickly walked to catch up with Tori.
"Later."
Apartment 316
Venice/Barry Apartments
11811 Venice Boulevard
Los Angeles, CA
The roommates arrived about a half an hour later and the pair grabbed a quick microwavable meal. After eating and relaxing separately in their rooms for about another hour, Tori peaked into Freddie's room in the hopes that he was up for a rematch with several of her sports games. Freddie didn't mind getting in another round of video games before the first day of college tomorrow. She made it a point this time to properly stretch while Freddie set up the game.
He volunteered to get the game ready as he wouldn't have to watch her stretch out while she was in a T-shirt and loose shorts. He was felt enough guilt subconsciously stealing glances at her from how well her shirt fit her, her behind and her toned legs. He debated a few times in his head if he was any better than the guys that had leered at her yesterday. Of course unknown to him, she was checking out his muscular form with how well he wore his athletic shirt.
Tori called out, "You ready?"
"Yep, all set."
He stood up and took his place beside her. "Okay, make sure you set a pace you're happy with. I might not have time in the morning to give you another massage."
She smirked at him as she wouldn't mind for a repeat occurrence.
After about an hour of playing (with Freddie edging out again for a win), Tori retired to have a shower. As inappropriate as it may have sounded in Freddie's head, he was glad that he was wearing lose fitting shorts at seeing her walk away since she had worked up quiet a sweet and her shirt and shorts were sticking to her.
While she was in the shower, he decided to his mind to a more productive endeavor and to treat her to an early dinner instead of some microwave instant meal.
Half an hour later, Tori stepped out of her room and into the living room after showering, drying and changing. She immediately saw to her left that Freddie had set out dinner for them at the dinning room table.
He smiled up to her and asked, "I hope you'll like my Spaghetti Tacos. That was some workout we had."
She beamed a smile to him. He had made dinner for me.
The pair mostly ate in silence, but Tori didn't mind as she just enjoyed the company. She looked up several times and saw a playful smile on his lips as if he enjoyed just watching her eat. She was a little flattered then became a bit subconscious in her eating etiquette as she didn't want to embarrass herself in front of him.
Once they were done eating, Freddie laughed, "If you'll excuse me, I need a shower. I don't know how you put up with the smell."
She gave him a flirtatious smile, one that even she could acknowledge to herself, and answered, "Oh, you don't smell that bad."
He chuckled and stood up from his seat to head for his bedroom. She turned in her seat to watch him go. Her eyes nearly bugged out at seeing him pull off his athletic shirt over his head just before turning into his bathroom. She had to clench her jaw tight and swallowed as she saw his muscular and toned back. She turned back in her seat and had to take several calming breaths as she suddenly felt warm.
After Freddie took his shower, the roommates wasted the rest of the afternoon after making sure they had their materials ready for tomorrow and making a few family calls by relaxing in front of the television to catch a rerun of Celebrities Underwater and other shows they took turns in watching or surfing online with their respective laptops. At some point as they were watching television, she rested her head on his right shoulder and he apparently didn't mind.
After another smaller meal and a few more hours of just enjoying each other's company, the time was approaching ten that evening and the brunette lifted her head off of his shoulder once more and commented, "I'm going to go ahead to bed. Early morning an all."
Freddie softly smiled to the brunette and whispered, "Right, you have a goodnight. I'll keep the TV down."
She softly patted her hand on his shoulder and had to stop herself from placing a kiss on his cheek. "Goodnight Freddie."
He blew out a breath as from his position sitting on the couch his eye level was completely level with her rear.
As soon as she slipped into her room, he clicked off the television and headed to his room for bed.
Introduction to Study of Language
UCLA
Thursday, September 27, 2012
It was about fifteen minutes to eight A.M. and Tori was taking her seat among the throng of students for the Introduction to Study of Language class and the brunette was nearly freaking out with that many students in the room. She couldn't understand how she could possibly learn anything with that many students in the room. Her only reassurance was that Jade, Beck and Cat would be in the class with her and they signed up for the same discussion class as well.
Her nervousness was also lessened by the surprised presence of Freddie having a seat next to her. He hadn't signed up for the class but for a philosophy of science class in the same subgroup of classes that would meet up at the same time, but on Mondays and Wednesdays. So Freddie had gotten up when he could have easily slept in and slipped into a class that he expected no one would notice an extra student in a class of nearly three hundred and fifty.
Freddie leaned over to whisper, "You nervous?"
She turned her head to meet his eyes to answer, but hesitated when meeting them and from his lips so close to her own. She swallowed down her apprehension, hoping he would think she was just nervous about the class. "Do I look it?"
"I'll tell you a little secret."
Her eyes opened wider to the confession of wanting to tell a confession. "What's that?"
"I'm a little nervous too."
She put on a relieved smile and Freddie leaned away to straighten up in his seat. She continued, "You didn't have to get up this early and come with me. You could have slept in."
"You seemed nervous, I mean… there's like three hundred and fifty people in the class; it would be nice if you knew someone here."
She tried holding back a blush of being touched by the sentiment. "Jade, Beck and Cat was supposed to be here and we signed up for the discussion part."
Freddie smiled as he caught sight of Jade and Cat walking in together and by some miracle spotting them. He waved them over to make sure they had spotted them and the group of friends quickly made their way over.
Jade took a seat next to Freddie while Cat had a seat to Tori's left while Beck of course took a seat next to his girlfriend. Cat was happy to see Tori and gave her a sideward hug.
Since they had arrived a few minutes early, they took a few minutes to catch up with one another. Tori filled them in about meeting up with André and telling him how he was doing, which Jade already knew, but it was news to Cat. The brunette then turned to a bit of other news, "We were out on Tuesday doing our own personal tour of the campus and when we were stopping by Schoenberg, we ran into someone that graduated Hollywood Arts last year, Lindsey. She invited us to a party Friday night."
Cat spoke up, "Oh, I remember her from a few productions. She seemed really sweet."
Tori followed up, "Trina thought they were friends, but she doesn't like Trina."
Jade let out a chuckle, "I'm liking this girl already."
The lighter brunette cocked her head to the side and frowned at her 'friend'.
The pale girl continued, "But a college party already? You sure you want to go to one Vega?"
The brunette surprised her with a calm smile. "I've heard plenty of warnings from my dad, but it's okay. It's being thrown by former Hollywood Arts students to welcome us new graduates to campus."
"Alumni get together?" Beck asked for clarification.
"Exactly."
Beck smile as he leaned in front of Jade and answered, "Sounds like it could be fun. Catch up with some people that graduated last year."
Jade glanced to her side to Beck and muttered, "I guess."
The professor walked into class and gave them a surprisingly warm welcome and introduced his TAs that would help him with the class and the discussion classes. The professor seemed personable and went through some housekeeping with the class and what was expected then started on his first lecture.
About two hours later, the group exited from the language class and Freddie spoke up, "I'll meet up with everyone at Comparative literature at eleven?"
They quickly agreed and he went off to go to his first real class of the day while the others agreed to get a brunch as they wouldn't get done with their classes until about two without a break to eat lunch.
The group met back up at eleven and patiently sat through the comparative literature class. It was a far smaller class of less than thirty people and Tori felt far more relaxed. Their professor was a very lovely dark brunette in her early thirties and introduced herself as Doctor Queen. Several of the male students sat up straighter in their seats at seeing her. Jade held back a look of disgust as sheer immature reaction from the teenagers and the odd early twenty something year old. She had to outright bite her tongue as she noticed the professor hold a little too long a glance at Beck in her opinion then an equally long one at Freddie.
Jade was particularly happy when the nearly two hours were up as she had gotten tired of watching the professor making eyes at her guy and the former Seattleite. She passed a glance to Tori and noticed that she didn't seem her usual chipper self. It crossed her mind that her rival may have noticed the same look from the professor. The group, minus Freddie, went on to their one o'clock discussion group class from their morning language class.
The next hour flew by pretty quickly in the class and they seemed pretty confident that it would be a good class. The group of friends exited out of their discussion group in high spirits and meet up with Freddie waiting for them.
Tori smiled at seeing Freddie and couldn't help but think that he had been waiting specifically for her.
They exchanged quick greetings then Jade crossed her arms under her chest and offered Cat, "Do you need a ride back?"
The redhead happily answered, "Sam's going to pick me up."
Freddie slightly frowned as he asked before Jade could get it out, "Do you have a helmet?"
She laughed, "Yeah I have a pink one."
He glanced at her and noticed the particular absent of such a helmet attached to her book bag. He pointed out this obvious fact, "Where is it?"
"Oh, Sam has it. She keeps it for me when she's picking me up."
The pale girl shook her head and looked away just as a piercing voice caught their attention, "Little Red, you ready to go?"
The group turned to the sound of Sam's voice and Jade was the first to frown at her approach.
Sam slightly frowned when she spotted the others, but swallowed down her annoyance as even she had enough sense to not pick a fight with any of them at the moment. She really didn't want to upset Cat because she wouldn't hear the end of it for the rest of the night and besides, it was far too public. Seattle cops may have been spineless and she had trained them well, but they might decide to call campus police on her and if LAPD showed up, they'd gun her down when they realized that the taser wouldn't work on her.
Freddie spoke up, "You going to be careful, right Sam?"
Sam rolled her eyes and nearly snapped, "I'll drive safely Fredweird."
Tori frowned at the insult lobbed at her roommate and had finally lost patience with the girl. She was about to snap back, but Freddie spoke up, "For once take something seriously you blonde she-demon. If you want to become a smear on the road, that's your choice, but remember you have a passenger."
Sam directed a harsh glare at her ex.
The others felt awkward watching the exchange other than Jade with her equally directed cold stare at the blonde.
The blonde was tempted to throw another insult, but she held her tongue on that point. "Cat, you ready to go?"
"Yeah," she quickly answered and approached her roommate. She called out to her friends, "I'll see you tomorrow."
Tori raised her hand and called out, "Later Cat."
Jade turned to the brown eyed teenager and impatiently questioned, as if it was a judgment against him, "And you put up with her for how long?"
He kept his focus on the retreating forms of the unlikely roommates while he answered, "I was in love with Carly and that was why I put up with her then by the time I stopped, I was just used to it and I cared about her. I don't have any reason to put up with it now."
Jade rolled her eyes in disgust, passed Tori a quick glance then commented to Freddie as if she was lecturing a child, "When someone is mean to you, you don't be nice back to them. It's not how it works."
Tori immediately thought back to when her pale friend had said that to her in the Black Box Theater after she faked an eye injury during stage fighting. Beck rolled his eyes and was about to chide her, but Freddie kept his eyes on the retreating girls and spoke up without missing a beat, "I'm Christian, that's exactly how it works for us."
Jade pursed her lips into a thin line and felt a momentary bit of embarrassment. She would mock many things about people, but even she would not mock one's religious convictions.
He looked to the pale girl and asked in completely changing the topic, "We're heading back to the apartment for lunch; you want to come?"
Beck spoke up, "Jade and I already have plans, but how about we do that on Tuesday after class?"
Tori answered, "Sounds good."
The long haired actor rested his hand on the small of Jade's back and bid farewell, "Later."
Jade joined with a nod to the pair and the couple and pair separated to head on their separate ways.
Apartment 316
Venice/Barry Apartments
11811 Venice Boulevard
Los Angeles, CA
Thursday, September 27, 2012
Tori dropped in the couch seat with a big grin. She turned that grin to Freddie while he dropped his book bag in the cattycorner seat and sat on the armrest. She commented in a relieving tone, "It wasn't as overwhelming as I thought."
Freddie shrugged a shoulder as he retorted, "It's only the first day… and just after two thirty and we still have tomorrow to see how the rest of the week will go for us."
She slightly frowned at her roommate. "Are you trying to bring me down?"
He let out a soft chuckle, "Absolutely not. I just… want to keep things a little realistic, but… I think on the bright side, the first semester can be pretty light, relatively speaking in terms of classes. I mean if they can party every weekend and still pass their classes, I think we'll be fine."
"Hopefully you're right."
He smirked while standing up and offering, "I'm going to fix us some lunch then if you need some help studying, I think I took pretty good notes even in your morning class."
The brunette smiled at him, genuinely touched by his offer. "Thanks Freddie."
He shrugged a shoulder then commented, "What are roommates for?" He didn't wait for an answer as he turned and headed for the kitchen.
Author's Note: Wow, that was a longer chapter than expected, but I hope you enjoyed it. Hollywood Arts reunion party? I wonder how that will go. Oh, and in case you are wondering, that is the same Lindsey from PD31's 'A Place to Call Home' and it's prequel story. Hopefully the next update won't be too far off. Later.
Guest star Danielle Bisutti as Professor Katherine Queen