Hello, everyone! This is Umbra the Hedgehog signing back in! Well, seems like it worked. I managed to not make this a total mess. I guess that means it guarantees a few more updates. Thanks to the people who gave me their feedback. To all of you, and to those who didn't but still care, here goes some more!
NOTE:
-I do not own anything presented in this story other than my own OCs.
You Haven't Seen the Best of Me
Hollywood Arts High School.
It was the day after Tori and Trina's plans had been derailed by a series of random events. All in all, compared to the events of the previous night, things were fairly normal… or as close to normal as they could get in this school, at least.
Lunch time had come, and the students were on their way out of their classrooms. Most of them were moving out in a hurry, but Trina was too distracted by her phone to even think about going any quicker than she was. There was a post on that she was looking at with what looked like interest… kind of.
The post read:
It's Mystery Monday at the Grub Truck! Anything you want available! No idea what you get! You want to know? Don't ask me, buddies!
"Mystery Monday?" Her confusion was clear. "Oh, come on! What happened to Mystery Meat Monday? Or… Wednesday, I guess?"
And as if on cue, she heard a voice right behind her.
"Retirement package with full benefits, maybe? Either that or a trip to New Jersey."
A familiar voice.
Sure enough, as soon as she turned around, she was greeted by the sight of the one who she had met by sheer chance the night before. Slightly different wardrobe, sure, but it was the same face and the same tone of voice.
"Trina, Trina, Trina Vega!" And from the looks of it, he was delighted to see her again.
A tiny laugh escaped from her mouth.
"Heeey, Dodger!" She responded to his silly greeting with a similar one. "Opening up with a joke this time instead of saving it for lunch?"
Dodger rubbed the back of his neck in mild embarrassment. "Yeah… it's just that the setup was right there and I had to take it."
"Not running away from it? Going out of your way to say 'hi' to me?" Trina scoffed at him with a bit of a sly grin. "Sounds like someone's doing pretty well outside of his comfort zone."
This made him turn his eyes away from her. "Nah… you really think so?"
"Yyyyyyup!" Trina replied in a very hammy fashion.
That got a laugh out of him, which she took as her cue to keep going.
"Hey, by the way, how'd it go last night with the crazy guy?"
"Oh, right, that call I got." He cleared his throat before looking directly at her again. "Let's just say it involved a 50 ft. rope, about two hours of cat videos, and enough paper towels for a Sham-Pow! commercial. After that, it's hard to put it into words."
And just like she had done the night before, Trina found herself grimacing at the description.
"Yeah, I know."
Before he could say anything else, however, her expression suddenly and quickly changed from disgust to surprise.
"Oh, hey, look, there's Tori!" She pointed in front of herself, which in turn got Dodger to turn around and look in that same direction. "Great! Now you can tell her what happened last night!"
He immediately turned his attention over to Trina again. "Wait, didn't you tell her about what happened?"
"Oh… yeah, about that…" This time, it was her who averted her eyes for a moment. "I kind of… forgot to do that?"
Dodger blinked a few times. "…Oh."
"But hey, now we can fix that." She quickly gestured in the direction she had pointed at before with her head. "Come on, let's go!"
Before he could say or think of anything else, Trina had already grabbed him by the arm and was basically dragging him along. It was almost like what had happened the night before, except backwards, which he couldn't help but find both ironic and a little funny. As they got closer to where she was going, he started to get a good look at the group of students gathered there, and he quickly recognized each and every one of them.
André Harris, the incredibly musically gifted guy who has an odd sense of humor, but also a very friendly disposition that everybody likes.
Robbie Shapiro, a slightly awkward but good-natured Jewish boy, and Cat Valentine, a very spacey but equally sweet girl with very, very red hair, both known as the ones who have just as many odd quirks as they do diverse talents.
Rex Powers, the puppet that Robbie carries around everywhere, which is inexplicably treated as a real person by a good deal of people at Hollywood Arts.
Jade West, the scissor-loving, goth-looking "bad girl" that most everyone fears, and Beck Oliver, her mellow Canadian boyfriend who is somehow unbothered by her prickly personality for the most part.
And finally, Trina's little sister, Tori Vega, the student who seems to be liked by everyone, good at everything, and lucky enough to get both the biggest breaks and the most perfect cheekbones in the history of mankind. Most importantly, though—to him, at least—she was the one who indirectly made his meeting with Trina possible.
"Hey, guys! Guess what? Your favorite person's here!"
As the two joined the group, he was taken out of his thoughts by Trina's greeting. A good deal of them only barely reacted to what she said.
"Hi, Trina!" Cat, however, happily waved at her. "Who's your friend?"
Trina patted his back a few times, like she was trying to get him to step closer. "This is Dodger. We met last night."
"Uhh… h-hey, guys." As if in opposition to that gesture, he merely gave the group a small wave. "How's it going?"
"Wait, last night?" Tori asked in confusion. "I thought you were going to meet with Jeff!"
"Right, 'cause you were busy with… whatever it was." Trina shrugged in a nonchalant way. "Yeah, he didn't show."
Tori's eyes widened at this. "He didn't?"
"No, he had another commitment that came in at the last minute." Dodger raised his hand as he picked up from there. "Something about his bandmates and a bottle of Grizzly Glue, he said."
The mention of that brand immediately made the Vega sisters wince.
"He asked me to go and let you know that he was sorry he couldn't make it, but then it turned out that you asked Trina to do the same thing for you, so we talked the whole thing out and then just… went off to do something to pass the time." He finally put his hand back down. "The rest of my night was a bottle of Peppy Cola and ZapLook's Pak-Rat doodle." Then he shrugged. "The things you do for family, huh?"
That last part caught Tori by surprise. "Wait, you and Jeff are family?"
"Yeah, he's my cousin. Don't feel bad if he's never told you about me, though. No one talks about me." He suddenly started waving his hands around, almost like he was in the middle of a horror story. "In fact, I probably don't even exist and you're just hallucinating me right now… or maybe I'm just a ghost!" He followed this up by making spooky noises.
While this got an amused scoff out of Trina, all the others could do was stare at him in silence, something he quickly took notice of.
"…Right, that sucked. Sorry. Just forget I said anything." He cleared his throat for a second. "Except the part about Jeff. Please don't forget that part."
Despite the awkward attempts at humor, Tori did her best to shake off her earlier surprise.
"Alright, well, anyway…" She then waved at him, almost like he had just walked up to the group. "Hi, Dodger. Nice to meet you. I'm Tori."
"Oh yeah, I know who you are." Dodger turned to look at the rest of the group. "All of you, actually."
This time, it was André's turn to be surprised. "You do?"
"Of course I do. Everyone around here does." His answer came very quickly, as if he knew one of them would ask that. "You're the ones who do pretty much all the important stuff in this school!" He started to keep track with his fingers. "I mean, come on. You're in the ping-pong team, you star in all the plays, you sing all the cool songs, you get to mingle with all the really famous people…" Then he offhandedly pointed at Tori. "Heck, Tori over here was the opening act at the Platinum Music Awards and got to be in an episode of iCarly with Kenan Thompson that one time!" Finally, he put his hand back down. "It's kind of a rule by now. If anything interesting's going on here, it's bound to revolve around you guys!"
Robbie was the next one to make a comment. "Yeah, we've… we've heard that before."
Most of them were unnerved at how they'd basically gotten nearly the exact same spiel from two completely different people, not to mention for completely different reasons. Granted, at least they weren't being scolded this time around, but it still caught them completely off-guard.
"Hold on a second…" Beck was the first one to bounce back from it, since he had a question. "If you're a student here at Hollywood Arts, how come we've never seen or heard of you before?"
Dodger shrugged. "That's what happens when you just sit back and react to stuff. You blend into the background so well, even a ninja would be jealous."
"Wait, so you're another shrugger?" Tori immediately asked.
He shook his head at this. "I used to be a shrugger. Then I got laser shrug surgery."
Out of the blue, Cat started to laugh. Not in a mean-spirited way, but more like a child who had just heard the "chicken crossing the road" joke for the first time.
"That sounds like something from a video game!" She kept laughing for a moment longer. "That's so funny!"
It wasn't until she noticed the weird looks that everyone was giving her that she eventually stopped.
…Well, almost everyone. Rex didn't seem to be focused, and everyone could hear him snickering loudly.
Dodger raised an eyebrow. "What? It wasn't that funny, dude."
"That really what you're called?" Rex asked after he finally stopped snickering.
The question made Dodger facepalm and sigh. "…Unless I missed a memo somewhere, yes."
"For real?"
He quickly brought his hand down with a groan. "What, do you want that in writing or something? I've got like three different ID cards on me if you really need that much proof!"
After that, Rex finally started laughing.
"What the heck kinda name is that? I mean, come on! Are you for real?" Then he turned his attention over to the others. "Is this guy for real?"
Annoyed, Dodger just rolled his eyes and turned to Trina.
"See? That's what I meant." He pointed at the puppet. "Every single time. It's always like this!"
She shrugged at this. "Still no clue what's so funny about it."
"Seriously?" Rex kept on laughing. "Nah, man, you can't be serious! It's gotta be some kinda joke! That's not a baby name! That's a dog's name!"
The response came so quickly, you'd swear it had been planned months in advance.
"Yeah, you'd know about that, wouldn't you, Rex?"
Not from Dodger, though. It came from Trina.
Rex's jaw dropped in shock, while Robbie's eyes just widened. The last time the puppet had gotten on Trina's bad side, she just punched him right in the face and went on with her day… before she got injured in an accident, but even then, she hadn't given it much thought. Also, there was that one time she had fried his foot just because, but that was entirely different.
Snarking at him? Turning his own slam against him? Doing something nice out of the blue for someone other than herself? That was all new.
"By the way, stealing the insult that Sam from iCarly threw at you first? Really?" And she apparently wasn't finished. "Did you finally run out of things to say, or is that a Cheetah Chatbuddy doing all the talking for you today? Should we expect a commercial plug next? I bet you've got a Sky Store ad lodged in your throat somewhere!"
Once she finally wound down, she noticed how everyone had reacted to her outburst. Some of them just looked like they were trying to process what had just happened.
"…Oh." Jade had put her coffee down, shocked at the verbal assault.
André looked both surprised and impressed. "Burn."
"Wow…" Dodger and Beck ended up saying the same thing, even if it wasn't at the same time.
Trina slowly took all of this in, and after composing herself, she had only one more thing to say.
"Yeah… you heard me."
In the hopes of avoiding any more potential awkwardness, Dodger turned his attention away from her and back to the others.
Much like what happened last night, Trina noticed how he looked like he was just about to say something, only for his expression to slowly turn thoughtful all of a sudden.
The only difference? This time, instead of spacing out without looking at anyone, he was staring right at Tori as he did.
"What's up?" And she quickly noticed.
"You know, I never thought about it before, but now that I'm actually getting a good look, you remind me of someone I saw on TV." Dodger crossed his arms.
Upon hearing that, Tori immediately made a guess. "Shelby Marx, right?"
"No, no, not her." He looked like he was going to continue before he abruptly stopped, and he suddenly got a bit closer. "Actually… yeah, now that you mention it, you do kinda look like her."
Tori shrugged with an amused look on her face. "Yeah, I got that a couple times. There was this one time when we got a special discount at the movies. The woman at the ticket booth really thought I was her, and the guys just went with it."
"Cool." A chuckle escaped him. "But I was actually talking about this show that I watched once. What was it called? Gender Defenders?"
This made Cat gasp loudly. "Oh my God, I love that show!"
"Honestly, I never really got past the pilot. I tried, but the time slots were always getting shuffled around like crazy. I swear, it was like that Firefly story I keep hearing about! You guys ever watch Firefly? Because it's a really good watch if you—" Dodger barely got a look at their faces before cutting himself off and stepping back. "Sorry, getting off-track. Anyway, have you ever watched something you've never been into before, just because someone you know or admire showed up there once?"
The others gave various answers at random, which were hard to make out because they all spoke at the same time… except for Jade, who very audibly made it clear that she didn't care.
"Well, the pilot had an old friend of mine as one of the contestants, and I just couldn't let that pass me up." With that out of the way, Dodger continued. "And I swear, one of her teammates looked—"
Before he could finish, Cat suddenly gasped again.
"Tori!" And right on cue, she looked at Tori. "One of the girls from the first episode looked just like you!"
Surprised, Tori turned to Dodger, as if expecting him to confirm this. Most everyone else soon did the same, while Jade just continued to sip her Jet Brew coffee without paying any attention.
"…Right, what she said." He pointed at Tori very casually once again. "You definitely have more of a sense of style, though. The other girl's fashion sense was all kinds of janked up."
Cat nodded. "My brother looked just like that after he dunked a Food Pocket in Red Lamb."
This earned her a multitude of weird looks from the others. Even Jade, who was too busy with her coffee to say anything, seemed thrown off by her comment.
"Wh-Wha…?" Dodger was definitely the most confused, though. "B-But… wh-why would—"
Trina quickly put a hand on his shoulder and shook him a little. "Protip: don't even bother."
"Yeah, pretty sure the answer's just gonna confuse you more." Tori backed up her sister's claims.
Everyone else agreed without much to say.
"Right…" Dodger started to check his right pocket. "Well, I think I'm gonna go get a can of Wahoo Punch, because… I really need to try and drown that thought out." Then he took out a one-dollar bill. "You guys want any?"
"Nah, I'm good. Thanks." Tori was the first to answer him, while André just shook his head.
Cat was the next one. "I already had some Alaska Punch, but thank you!"
"Maybe next time. I'm a little short." Then came Robbie.
Rex immediately decided to butt in. "And uncool, and not funny, and—"
"Will you stop it already?"
Beck decided to go next. "No, thanks."
Jade said nothing; she just drank some more of her coffee.
Dodger shrugged at this. "Alright, whatever you say, guys."
Just as he was about to head towards the vending machine, however, he looked as if he had suddenly remembered something.
"…Right, sorry. Duh. Moron." He then turned to Trina. "How about you?"
She shrugged in much the same way he had done. "Yeah, I'm in the mood for some Wahoo." After going through her purse, she handed him another one-dollar bill. "Go and get it for me."
"Sure thing, Trina."
As he began to walk away, the others immediately turned their attention to Trina.
"So… what's the deal?" Tori was the first one to speak.
Trina raised an eyebrow at her sister. "What do you mean?"
"What does he think you did for him?" Jade was the next one, but unlike Tori, she sounded like she was bored out of her mind. "Unless you want him to do something for you."
Cat's eyes suddenly widened. "Oh! Do you need him to wash your car?" Contrary to how Jade had just come across, her tone of voice was still bright and genuine as she asked her question.
"Pfft, like you even need to ask."
Trina's retort came fast, bursting with confidence, but all it earned her was a bunch of confused looks like the ones Dodger had gotten earlier… and it only took about two seconds before she realized why that was.
"…No, I don't want him to wash my car!" She brought a hand up to her face briefly, groaning in annoyance before putting it back down. "Isn't it obvious?"
Just for a moment, no one said anything, but then André spoke up again, still as confused as before. "Does he owe you money?"
"Did he write a play that you're desperate to hijack?" Despite being the next one, Jade still sounded like she couldn't possibly care any less.
Beck, meanwhile, seemed fairly honest when he asked his question. "You didn't hit him with your car, did you?"
"…You guys are the worst." Trina's expression had switched over to a disappointed pout. "Is it really so hard to figure out why your average everyday guy would want to spend some time with someone as awesome as yours truly?" She then pointed at herself, a smug grin making its way to her face as she did. "I mean, come on! Does anyone even need a reason to hang out with me?"
Rex wasted no time with his answer. "In a word? Yeah."
Before she could say or do anything in response to that, the group suddenly heard some yelling nearby.
"No, no, no!" They all turned to see where it came from, only to find that Dodger was hitting the vending machine. "Come on, not this! Not now!"
Noticing how genuinely frustrated he sounded, Trina walked up to him while the others just watched. "What's up, Dodger?"
"The stupid thing ate the bills!" As she led him back to the rest of the group, he let out a sigh. "I'm really sorry, Trina. Guess I lost your money."
"Hey, come on, don't worry about it." She put a hand on his shoulder, trying to calm him down. "It's just a buck. Big deal."
He started scratching the back of his head. "Sorry, it's just… I've never been mugged by a vending machine before. You know what I mean?"
"Yeah, well, I'd never been on a game show before, but then Brain Squeezers happened, so I guess there's a first time for everything… even if it sucks." After taking her hand back, she lightly punched him in the shoulder. "If it makes you feel any better, you can always buy me a Wahoo some other time."
That got an amused chuckle out of him. "Okay, I'm gonna hold you to that, Trina… or is that the other way around? You have to hold me to it? Is that how it goes?"
"No idea, but either way, you better make some space in your calendar, because I'm not letting you off the hook now."
His answer came a lot quicker this time. "Promise?"
Right as she was about to answer him, a loud clank was heard and he immediately fell to the floor, much to the group's shock.
"…Wow." Even Jade, despite her expression remaining indifferent, commented on what had just happened before taking another sip from her coffee.
Tori stared at Dodger's unconscious body for a moment before looking at her friends. "Okay… what just happened?"
"Oh, hey, look!" Cat abruptly pointed at a spot just behind where he had fallen.
Trina immediately turned to that spot, only to find…
"A can of Wahoo Punch?"
In response, the entire group turned their attention over to the same vending machine that Dodger had hit earlier in the middle of his frustration, and it only took about a second before they figured out what had happened.
"Dodger, huh?" And Rex wasted no time before making another quip. "Well, he sure didn't dodge that one!"
The others just silently stared at him in irritation, as they normally do… and were quickly blindsided when the same can that Trina had picked up flew right at him and hit him in the face.
"I'm gonna fry more than your foot this time if you don't shut up, puppet!"
The act itself would've been surprising enough, but most of them were even more taken aback by the sheer level of anger in Trina's voice. Not the usual exaggerated annoyance or casual indifference; this was genuine, legitimate rage on display.
Shaking off her shock, Cat crouched down and poked Dodger with her right index finger for a bit. "Is he alive?"
"I'll check." Jade, the only one who wasn't disturbed by the whole display, followed suit and carelessly lifted his head. "Hey, are you alive?"
All he did was groan for a moment before she let his head drop back down.
"Yeah, he's alive."
Pretty much ignoring them completely, Trina began to flip him over. "It's okay. Everything's okay. Everything's fine. I'll just get him some help."
"Need a hand?" Tori made her sister an offer.
"Don't worry, I got it." Once he was facing upwards, she reached out and grabbed his ankles. "I'm gonna go look for Nurse Kotter… or is Lane doing that job now?" After standing back up, she gave a nonchalant shrug. "I don't even know who the nurse really is anymore. Who cares?"
She'd only barely moved him before being interrupted by Cat.
"Hey, Trina, wait! You never told us why he's hanging out with you!"
Coming from anyone else, she'd think it was a snide remark, but Cat came off more like she honestly did want to know what the story was.
"Isn't it obvious?" Her tone of voice made it sound as if it really should've been. "He's hanging out with me because I am amazing!"
And with that, she dragged the unconscious Dodger away from the scene before any of the others could say anything else.
Suddenly, another loud clank. Next thing they knew, Rex had fallen out of Robbie's hands and hit the floor with a thud and a yell of pain.
"Rex!"
Jade, who was sipping coffee while that happened, soon commented on it. "Oh, look, there's the other one."
"Man, that packs a real punch." André added at the end, which got a good laugh out of most of the group.
…Most of the group. Tori, however, looked lost in her own thoughts as she muttered something to herself.
"…What just happened?"
The Asphalt Café.
That's the name of the outdoor eatery at Hollywood Arts. Even though there's apparently an indoor eatery, most people at the school, be they students or teachers or other staff, don't really use it. This is the place where students eat lunch and buy food more often than not, since the Grub Truck has many different kinds of meals available… even if they are kind of dodgy sometimes.
Tori and her friends were sitting at their usual spot, each of them eating something different… or rather, most of them were eating while Tori silently stared at her slice of mushroom pizza as if it contained the answer to life, the universe and everything.
"Hey, my tamale tastes weird. Does anyone else's lunch taste weird?" Robbie asked his friends.
Beck's answer was weirdly restrained. "My ravioli tastes like… sushi."
"My burger tastes like…" It took a moment for Jade to figure out hers. "…hot dog?"
Everyone suddenly stared at their food of choice for a moment, much like how Tori had been doing, and their curiosity over how her lunch was turning out was what led to them realizing she hadn't taken a single bite out of her pizza.
"Uhh… Tori?" André waved a hand in front of her face, which she didn't react to.
Without any kind of prompting, Jade grabbed one of Cat's fries, dipped it in ketchup, and then tossed it right at Tori's face, which finally got a reaction out of the girl.
…Namely, she fell right off the side of her seat like she was jumping out of a moving car.
"Had a nice trip, Vega?" Jade snarked as Tori got back up to her seat.
André soon got her attention as soon as she was sitting comfortably again. "You okay, Tori? You've been staring at your lunch like you were gonna marry it."
"Oh, hey, can I go to the wedding?" Cat suddenly asked out of nowhere.
Everyone just stared at her in confusion, with Tori in particular raising an eyebrow at the odd question. Rex started grumbling under his breath, far too low for any of them to make out what he was saying, although they could've sworn it sounded like "it should've been me" or something like that.
"Sorry, it's just…" Tori finally picked up her pizza, but instead of eating it, she just said what was on her mind. "Is anyone else still weirded out from earlier, or is that just me?"
Cat suddenly got uncomfortable. "If it's because of the batteries I threw out before class, I had to keep them away from my brother. I don't know why he keeps licking them."
Once again, most of the others just silently looked at her, their faces scrunched in complete and utter bewilderment.
"What? No!" Tori, meanwhile, was too focused on her point to think about that at all. "Seriously, none of you guys noticed anything weird going on with Trina?"
"You mean weirder than usual?" Jade asked.
Tori sighed in exasperation. "Yes, Jade, weirder than usual."
"Yeah… no." She didn't even try to pretend she had thought about it. "After what we did in those cheese costumes, there's no way I can be shocked by your crazy sister anymore."
Rex suddenly glared at her… as much as a puppet could, anyway. "Um, hello? She tossed a can at me!"
"And I ripped your arm off once." Jade replied so quickly, it was almost like she expected him to complain about that. "What's your point?"
Tori did her best to rerail the conversation. "I'm serious, guys. Did you see how she acted with this Dodger guy around?"
"I guess she was… angrier than usual with Rex?" Beck said in response.
André shrugged at this. "Then again, it was just Rex."
"What?!" Rex yelled out in response, much to the amusement of the group.
Even Tori had herself a chuckle before continuing.
"Yeah, but that was after he insulted Dodger. Twice!" She pointed at Robbie and Rex. "The last time I can think of where Rex was being… you know, Rex… Trina got angry, but she just let it slide."
André nodded, seemingly remembering exactly what she meant. "When she won that poker game at your house, right?"
"Yeah… without us." Jade's interjection made most of them uncomfortable.
Beck, however, was undisturbed. "Hey, that one was our fault, Jade."
"Whatever."
Tori suddenly raised a hand. "Look, my point is, can you remember the last time Trina got that emotional over anyone?"
"Well…" Much to her surprise, Robbie came up with an answer quickly. "…there was that one time at Yerba."
The mere mention of that name made most of them groan and facepalm in sheer disgust. They hadn't forgotten how badly their trip to that country had turned out, and as far as they were concerned, the less said about the specifics of that incident, the better.
"Oh, yeah, I remember." Beck, however, simply focused on what Robbie had brought up. "She did kind of go nuts when you got yourself arrested, Tori."
André, in turn, seemed to remember something else. "And I guess… she got like that too when you were stuck at the hospital with Robbie and Jade was all set to replace you as Steamboat Suzy."
"After she had gotten sick by accident." Cat also made an interjection of her own. "Oh, and I think she got upset at me over the Grizzly Glue and the zombie face, too."
Hearing all of these comments in such rapid succession, Tori suddenly slouched on her seat without even realizing it, surprising her friends.
"Yeah… and I guess she did warn me about those bush daisies, too…" Going off the look on her face, as well as how she could only stare down at her lunch, it was as if she had the biggest epiphany ever. "And about Ryder Daniels."
Robbie was particularly shocked by that last part. So much so, in fact, that it caught the others' attention, which was exactly what he needed.
"Wait… I thought you guys were going to warn her about Ryder."
Cat raised a hand. "We did!"
"Yeah, wasn't my choice, but I was there." Jade interjected once again. "All of us were."
André looked at Tori again, likely about as confused as Robbie was. "Hang on… you're saying Trina warned you about that jerk before we did?"
"And she made me check his phone, too!" Tori said in response. "…Because she was eavesdropping on us, but still."
And this, in turn, seemed to stun the others into momentary silence. Some of them looked like they were going to say something, but then they quickly backtracked, while the others just sat quietly, as if trying to figure out what to think.
Eventually, Beck was the one who found something to say. "…Maybe she does care."
"Yeah, when it's about Tori." Jade immediately commented on this. "Good luck being anyone else."
Tori then straightened herself up.
"Well, not anymore, I guess. I don't know what happened last night, but she really went off on Rex—"
The puppet in question interrupted her. "Twice!"
"…Right." Tori did her best to brush that aside and continue. "And then she dragged him away to get help instead of doing… not… that."
Cat suddenly raised her hands, and her friends quickly took notice of the two cans of Wahoo Punch that she was holding. "And she forgot these."
This just earned her a few seconds of awkward looks and silence before Tori spoke up again.
"The point is, she wouldn't do that unless she thought she could get something out of it… or she actually cared about this Dodger guy." She suddenly stood up from her seat. "Something's up with those two, and I'm going to figure out what it is!" Then she gave her friends a look. "Who's coming with me?"
Most of the others just shuffled around without saying anything, but André merely asked a single question of his close friend.
"Can I take my burrito with me?"
Tori blinked a few times in confusion. "…Sure?"
"Alright, lead the way."
And with that, Tori turned away from the table and left the scene, André following along closely with his lunch on hand.
"…Does she realize that she left her pizza here?" Robbie asked the others.
Cat seemed just as surprised as he was. "And she didn't even try it."
"I'll take it." Jade reached out and grabbed the slice before taking a bite out of it… and promptly gagged in response, followed by her spitting out that mouthful.
Beck quickly took notice. "What's wrong?"
"It tastes like… string cheese and mouthwash!"
As Jade began to wipe her tongue with a napkin, he then took the pizza from her and gave it a try himself. It only took a couple bites for his disgust to come through, but unlike Jade, he swallowed his mouthful.
"…Hm." He put the pizza back down and pushed it away from both himself and his girlfriend. "Yeah, that was… that was gross."
Contrary to his nonplussed reaction, Jade looked at it in horror, much to the surprise of both Robbie and Cat.
"What the chiz is with the food today?!"
The Blackbox Theater.
If you were to ask anyone who works at Hollywood Arts, studies there, or has gone to watch any of their plays, you'd think it's basically the only theater stage in the entire school. There's probably plenty of good ones for everyone to use, but both teachers and students seem to flock to this one specific room for basically everything: teaching, putting on a play, rehearsing for a play, or even just hanging out and doing random things… like hiding from a friend that you sprayed cheese all over, for example.
…And for whatever reason, Trina thought it'd be the best place to bring both her unconscious friend and the school nurse.
"Why are we here?" Nurse Kotter asked her as she examined Dodger.
Trina barely looked at her as she answered. "This is how far I could drag him without making things worse."
"Wait, why didn't you get a stretcher for him? Or a second person to help you carry him?"
She immediately snapped back at her. "Look, that's not the point here! How is he?"
"He seems to be okay." Despite the outburst, Kotter kept her composure. "Just a hit to the back of the head. It doesn't look like it'll bruise."
Trina sighed in relief. "Okay, great. If I'm lucky, he'll at least remember it wasn't a car battery that hit him."
"Right…" The nurse gave her a weird look for a moment before getting to what she was originally going to say. "What was it then?"
Trina shrugged. "A vending machine."
"Again?" This made the woman facepalm. "That's the fifth time this month!" Putting her hand down with an exasperated sigh, she suddenly made a beeline for the exit. "That's it! I've had it! I'm going to complain to someone about this!"
Before Trina could think of anything else to say, she had already been left alone in the theater with Dodger, who still looked to be unconscious.
"…What just happened?"
She stared at the entrance for a moment, as if she was trying to process the situation, before finally throwing up her hands and just sitting down with a sigh.
"At least it's nothing serious."
What a wonderful day…
"I don't know about that—"
At first, Trina's response just came out on reflex, but after it sunk in with her that what she had heard was her friend's voice, she quickly turned her attention over to him.
As you're starting your new adventure
We'll be walking along and singing a song~
He was still lying down on his back. He hadn't woken up yet.
Apparently, instead of merely talking in his sleep, he was singing a random song. A weird substitute for the usual, Trina thought, but as someone who had a problem with sleep-sweating, she knew it wasn't the weirdest thing to be stuck with. Just as he had implied last night, he didn't sound quite right, but since he wasn't conscious, she couldn't tell if he normally sounded like that or not.
"Dodger?" She lightly shook one of his shoulders. "Come on, wake up."
This seemed to be enough, as his eyes suddenly snapped wide open.
"I've got the zootabagas!"
He took a moment to look around and reorient himself, and he soon noticed who it was that was sitting next to him.
"Oh… hey, Trina." He sat up, only to bring his hand up to where his head was hurting soon after. "Did someone punch me? Was it Jade? Aw, jeez, did I make her angry? Were my jokes really that bad? Do I have to sleep with one eye open from now on?"
She gently rested her arm on his shoulder. "No, no, it was just the vending machine. It shot a can at you. And before you ask, no, I have no idea why."
"Well… that's the worst two bucks I've ever spent." He said this with a grin, before proceeding to rub the spot where the can had hit him.
Trina chuckled a little. "You know you still owe me a Wahoo, right?"
Hearing this, he started chuckling as well.
"Tell you what, I'll save up some money and buy you a whole vending machine full of Wahoo Punch." He followed this up with a scoff. "With my current income, I can probably get it done in about… what, a hundred years or so?"
That just made Trina laugh more, and he joined in for a moment… before suddenly turning a lot more serious out of nowhere.
"Seriously, though, please tell me I wasn't out cold for months or anything like that. I swear I'm going to blow a fuse if I did."
The sudden shift caught her off-guard, but she did her best to answer him anyway. "…No, it was just a few minutes."
Dodger sighed in relief at this.
"Alright, good, because Mira said she was preordering our tickets for that new Andrew Garfield movie as soon as possible, and I'll be hanged if I miss it for anything in the universe!"
Trina's interest was instantly piqued. "Did you just say… Andrew Garfield?"
"Yeah, they made a second Spider-Man movie with him!" Dodger's excitement was palpable. "We caught the first one on TV one day and my sister just fell in love with it. Ran like a maniac to get the DVD the exact second she found out it was available; that's how much it meant to her!" A small chuckle escaped him. "I like the earlier movies a little more, personally, but yeah, it was really good and I'm looking forward to the second one!"
It wasn't until he was done that he noticed how surprised Trina looked.
"Wait, when did that happen?"
He thought it over for a moment. "Umm… about two years ago, I think."
The shock on her face only intensified at this, which was something he wasn't prepared for.
"…You've got to be kidding me!" The sheer disappointment and outrage in her voice certainly matched up with that expression. "How? How did I miss out on an Andrew Garfield movie?! What was I doing back then?!"
Despite flinching at her sudden outburst, he did his best to say what had come to his mind. "Are… are you a comic book person, Trina?"
"…No?" Trina replied in slight confusion at the abrupt subject change.
Dodger let out a breath he didn't know he was holding. "That might be the reason why. I guess you wouldn't really know or care too much about an actor you like doing a comic book superhero movie unless you were actively looking for it."
"Or watching it with a friend like with Superhero Movie."
This made him laugh, which got her to do the same for a bit. "Right, yeah…"
"But I still can't believe I missed that." She soon went back to a disappointed pout. "It's Andrew Garfield! I should've been the first in line for it!" An angry groan escaped from her mouth. "I am so upset!"
Despite the overdone theatrics, Dodger could tell that she truly was disappointed and upset about it… and suddenly, almost like lightning, it hit him.
"Well… like I said, we have the movie over at home." As he cleared his throat, he instinctively turned his head away from her. "Maybe you could… come over and watch it… one day? If you… want to?"
Because of this, he didn't catch the absolute astonishment that had taken over Trina's face. "…Whaaat?"
"I-It's okay if you don't!" His immediate reaction was to raise his hands defensively and turn his focus back over to her. "I-I just figured, since you looked so bummed about it… b-but if it's too forward—"
He got so caught up in his attempt to backtrack that he was completely unprepared for when Trina grabbed him by the collar of his shirt and pulled him even closer, and what she had to say after doing so only surprised him more.
"Where and when?!"
Unbeknown to the two, however, there was someone behind the entrance's curtain, out of sight and keeping very quiet.
"…Please tell me you're seeing and hearing what I'm seeing and hearing."
Tori and André had tracked the two all the way to the theater… and they had watched and heard everything.
"I see it, girl… but I don't know if I believe it."
Okay, here it is. Boy, did this take a long while! But that's what happens when you try to make sure everything works fine… like a hundred friggin' times! I probably overdid it. I just hope it's worth it for those who want to keep reading. If it is, then you're welcome!
They came, they saw, and they can't comprehend what they just witnessed. What will Tori and André do now that they're starting to catch on to what's happening with Trina?
This is Umbra the Hedgehog signing off.