Chapter 19 A da Vinci Amongst Us

October 26, 6:07 P.M.

Nina's P.O.V.

I stared looking at my play script that I had just thrown to the other side of the auditorium, the papers coming apart and falling to the ground at different paces. I rubbed my eyes, trying to clear my vision from the blurriness of just being tired and annoyed.

Everybody was restless at Odin House, with nerves on edge and everybody ready to snap at the slightest insult to them or to somebody they cared about. It had quickly come to our attention that Tony didn't suffer too much from the student courts punishment as he didn't participate in any extracurricular activities. Everybody who supported Michael was steaming from that decision. No doubt Tony's father had something to do with that.

Debbie seemed oblivious to the tension in the house, continuing to act like her normal self and make extremely bad food. I probably had the worst dinner of my life when Debbie made us all sit down at the table together to eat dinner. Everybody was giving each other death glares and Debbie seemed oblivious to it, and she continued talking about stupid stuff.

I sat down on the edge of the stage in the auditorium, thinking about Debbie. She's lost it. Michael was absolutely right when he confronted Tony several days ago. Debbie had overreacted, demanding that we all go to the student court even though a couple of detentions were sufficient. That's another thing that's bugging me. Why would Tony want to go to the student court? What did he have to gain by putting himself on the line like that? And where did he get all that money? Probably from his dad.

'Debbie is crazy!' I finally decided to myself. I couldn't think of another word to describe her. Her child like behavior, terrible house and cooking skills, and her ability to overact to situation just backs that up. I miss Trudy, I want her back. I want to be living at Anubis House again.

What annoyed me was the play itself. Since Michael was no longer my co-star, Mr. Winkler had to choose the only other candidate for the part, the freshman Jim Battle. The first day he came on stage, he put a lot of lame pick up lines on me. I was polite as always and tried to tell myself it would get better.

It didn't.

Jimmie Jim, as I've started to call him along with everybody else, enjoys being close to me. Really close. Today he actually had the guts to ask Mr. Winkler if we could practice the romance scene. I nearly slapped him and Mr. Winkler just said that we could do it later. I was so furious at everything after that. Thank god Fabian wasn't there, he already has trouble with Michael, and he doesn't do anything!

I really miss Michael too. He's been a bit depressed lately, not eating or talking to anybody. Alan said he's just going through some stuff, and I'm willing to bet that stuff had to do with a certain red head.

I was brought out of my thoughts by a door slamming behind stage. Startled, I jumped off the edge of the stage down onto the aisle in front of the stage. I looked up and saw Tori come on stage. I furrowed my brow in confusion.

'What is she doing here?' I thought to myself. The rage that I had possessed towards her come bubbling back up and I ducked down a little bit to see what she would do. To my surprised she reached into a bag she was carrying and pulled out a box that reminded me of a toolbox, except black. She also pulled out her cell phone and I heard it shut off. I was shocked again.

'Tori never turns off her cell!' I thought shocked. I watched as she went through the curtains on the other side of the stage, and heard her start moving things around back stage. Slowly I moved out of my ducking position and moved back up onto the stage.

I peered cautiously through the curtain to see what Tori what was doing. I heard the faint sound of music playing, and I saw that Tori had her ear phones in, her head bopping up and down to whatever the new hit song was. Her back was too me and she was leaning over a large board, looking like she was writing something.

I then realized that the toolbox was actually a paint box, which already had an assortment of colors inside and also laying around the box. Realization came to me as I realized what was happening. 'Tori is the head painter! She's painting the sets for the play right now!'

Sure enough she was, and after several minutes, she got back up off her knees and dragged a unfurnished chair out from the dark. I recognized it as a set piece in 'The Glass Menagerie', and I watched her begin to make lines on it and pull out an assortment of glazes to paint it.

"Tori?" I called out uncertainly. She didn't hear me and continued painting, so I decided to step out of the curtain and reveal myself. "Tori?" I said, a bit louder this time. She turn around this time, shock all over her face. She back up a little bit as a reflex and knocked over some paints, staining her pants.

"Nina! What are you doing here?" She said, in her shocked Italian accent. Her composure was completely gone and she was completely open to questions. I had a bit of a deju vu, remember how Charlotte was last Friday when we were talking to her about the student court.

"I was about to leave when I heard something in the back. I came to see what it was." I lied. Tori gave me grueling stare, looking me over with terrified eyes. I hate seeing people so scared so I decided to move things along. "I didn't know that you painted. Can I help?"

"No." Tori said plainly, "Now get out of here!" she turned around to try to focus on the chair in front of her but couldn't.

"Please Tori, I just want to help. I won't do anything major, I can help with painting the chairs and stuff so you can work on the background paintings. Make things go faster." I could see that Tori was mulling things in her head, and after a couple of seconds handed me a large paint brush with an angry stare.

"You can finish this chair. It still needs the glaze so you can apply that." I nodded and kneeled down to dip my paint brush in the glaze, while Tori turned her attention back to the backdrop she was working on. I don't know why I agreed to help her, probably because I didn't want to return to the house just yet. We worked in silence for several minutes before I repeated myself.

"I didn't know that you painted Tori. Those backdrop paintings are really good, where did you learn to paint like that?" I asked, pointing towards two completed backdrops that looking stunning.

"I'm Italian. It's in the blood." Tori said abrasively. I recoiled a bit from her tone which Tori saw. "Dio, it was meant to be a joke!" I laughed a little and she did too, breaking her icy exterior. It quickly froze again as she returned to working. I decided to keep on questioning her.

"Did you do a lot of painting back in Italy?" I asked

"A bit." Tori said in a monotone, her attention drifting a little away from her painting.

"Do you like to paint a lot?"

"Ovviamente." Tori muttered.

"What?" I asked. Tori groaned and turned to answer me. "It means obviously in Italian."

"Ah." I said, "What do you like to paint most? Just backdrops or other things."

"Per l'amore di Dio! Do you ever stop talking?" Tori said, annoyance in her voice. There was something else there as well, almost desperation in her voice. I noticed blotches on the backdrop that Tori was working on and grew still. Tori saw where my eyes were looking and gasped loudly when she saw the blotches of paint in the middle of her work. She grabbed her paint box and began pulling out things until she found a bottle of something and began putting it on a towel. She then put the towel on the backdrop and tried to scrub the stain out, with a lot of vigorous movement.

"Tori, I think that's a little fast." I said softly, but she continued to scrub, now it seemed she did it even harder. "Tori, stop." I said more firmly. She continued scrubbing. "Tori! That's enough!" I said moving to grab the towel, but she spun around and threw it at me. It hit me square in the chest and I felt some of the glaze seep through my shirt. I was shocked to see that Tori's eyes were red.

"Why are you helping me now? Hmm? Why?" She said, desperation sounding through her voice. "Is it to annoy me? Is that it?"

"What?" I said surprised, my mouth agape. "No! I just wanted to help-"

"You're just trying to get back at me because of what happened at that ridcolo trial! Because I didn't testify for Michael!" Her voice was beginning to break now, and she was shaking her head vigorously.

"No! It's nothing like that!" I protested, stepping closer to Tori.

"Get away from me!" She screamed, back away from me and almost tripping over her paints and the boxes around us. "You think I'm some sort of puttana don't you? Selling myself out for Anthony's money! Well I'm not like Mitchell! I'm not! I do care!" She was shaking her head so fast now that I thought it would snap. Her voice had become hysterical with grief, and she let out a nervous laugh. "I do care that I sold my testimony out! I do!" She then began to speak in Italian quickly, faster than I've heard anybody speak.

"Tori! You need to slow down! Ok? Take some breathes." I said, grabbing her now and lowering her down to sit on top of one of the boxes. She began to control herself, slowing her breath and wiping away a few of the tears that had appeared on her cheeks.

"Nina I'm sorry! Dio, I'm sorry about testifying for Tony. I knew it was wrong, but I did it anyways! I just… I just care for him so much!" Her lower lip quivered and burst out in Italian again. I patted her back a couple of times, unsure of what to do.

This was Tori. Tori! She wasn't supposed to break down like this at all. I wanted to comfort her, to do something for her! But I couldn't think of anything to say, how can you comfort someone you hardly know? If it was Amber I would have no problem at all, but this was Tori, the girl I haven't spoken with at all for most of the year and who has closed herself off to most things happening at the school.

"What do you mean you care for him Tori?" I questioned, deciding to figure out she was talking about. "Do you love Tony?"

Her crying stopped for a little bit and she took several deep breathes. "I don't know. I just don't know." She stopped crying for a bit and began to compose herself again. She then turned to me. "You're from America, you know what it's like don't you?"

I gave her a puzzled look, "Know what what's like Tori?"

"Coming to a new country to live in." She said, "To stay in, to get an education in. You're entire world changes. That's what happened to me, the rich daughter of the Italian Ambassador thrown to the wolves." She laughed for a little bit and cried some more. "When we got here, got to England, I was completely alone. I have no siblings so I had nobody to play with, and my Father was always out doing something. My mother died when I was little, I hardly even remember her and my father doesn't keep many photographs of her."

I nodded to her. I knew what it felt like, to grow up with no parents and going off to a new country to live in. The difference was I had a loving grandma to take care of me and I had worked hard to get into this school. Tori it sounded like had the complete opposite of me. She continued her story.

"I got here when I was about thirteen. I couldn't speak any English and I was shy. Very shy. For the first couple of months I was utterly alone and bored out of my mind. I wanted to go home, to be in Italy again. To hear people speak my language all the time, not just for a few brief moments. I was very sad, until I met someone who changed all that."

"Tony." I said, already knowing who it was. Tori nodded, a smile coming to her face.

"Yes, Anthony. His father was and is a prominent figure in London, and as such it was only a matter of time before he met my father. And when they did, Anthony was introduced to me."

"What happened?" I asked.

"A lot of things." Tori said, "Anthony was so nice about the language barrier. He never complained, he was patient beyond my wildest dreams. And he was charming, so charming. I was encouraged to study English vigorously, just so I could speak to him. And after about a year I was able to speak somewhat fluently.

"It was shortly afterwards that Anthony wanted to take me out to meet his friends. He wanted to show me off. And he did. At first I was ok with it because I was him, and he treated me amazingly. But then things changed. Anthony changed. He wanted me to wear new clothes that revealed more of my body, to begin to 'loosen' myself as he called it. I did it because I cared for him, and he repaid me for that with my first kiss. But it was at that moment that I finally saw what Anthony had become, over perhaps was always." She lower lips began to quiver again and she took a few deep breathes again.

"Our first kiss was observed by so many people, with all his friends cheering him on and cheering him on. It was at that moment that I saw that I was used by him. I wanted to slap him, to kick him, to kill him. But I couldn't, because… Because I loved him!" She said the last part with such sadness and shame that she burst out crying again. I grabbed a clean towel and handed it to her, but she shoved it away.

"I wanted to forget about him, but I had already applied to this Hellish school because of him. On the first day, I prayed that I would be in a different house than him, but I wasn't. And since then I've just been so confused! I want him to be the man I knew when I first got here! And I know that… that person is still inside of Anthony somewhere. I love him!" She began to sob again, and I began to pat her back again. I didn't want to say anything, but I'm pretty sure that there is not "good" Tony.

She cried for a little while longer, before she began to shoo me away. I grabbed the towel that she had thrown at me and began to wipe away the stains on the backdrop. After several minutes it was done and then I finished working on glazing the chair. After about thirty minutes total I was done. Tori was still crying softly, and not knowing what to do I began to pat her on the back again.

"Don't!" She said, pushing me off of her. "I don't need that." I nodded and got up.

"I'll see you at the House Tori." I said, walking away.

"I don't like that name."

I spun around when I heard her speak. She was staring at me with conviction in her eyes. "I don't like that name." She repeated, "That was Anthony's pet name for me, and everybody called me that. I prefer to be called Victoria."

"Alright." I said, with a small smile on my face. "I'll see you back at the house, Victoria."

"Nina!" She called out to me again; I turned to her and was surprised to find her smiling at me. "Thank you."

I nodded and walked away, still baffled at the entire last hour.

For those of you who are upset over Nina being kind of cold towards Tori, try not to be. Nina is a caring person, but the person she is trying to be caring to has ignored her for the entire year and Nina knows absolutly nothing about her. It was wise for Nina just to sit back and be there for emotion support, not give out a Dr. Phil speech to make Tori feel better about herself. That's also a pet peeve of mine, when teenagers or children give out sagely advice to their peers. Their so young! How could they know so much?

Italian translation:

Dio - God

Ovviamente - Obviously

Ridcolo - Ridiculous

Per l'amore di Dio! - For the Love of God!

Please REVIEW!