Yay! School's over and I am back at home so now I can write and write and write until September. I am sorry for keeping you guys waiting and for the relative shortness of this chapter.

I don't own Victorious.

In His Shadow

Chapter 16-Hiring a New Team

Tyler: Dude that pic of u and your lovely lady. U guys look like u want to eat each others faces off ;)

Beck: What picture?

Tyler: The one at yesterday's baseball game.

Beck: Ugh has Tania seen it?

Tyler: Most likely. Y are u letting her control ur personal life?

Beck: U won't understand but whatever I'm done with her.

Tyler: Good job man. I have to tell you I'm a huge Bori fan.

Beck: What's Bori?

Tyler: Ur name and Tori's meshed together. Like it?

Beck: :| like those celebrity couples

Tyler: Yeah there were different ones but I liked that one the best.

Beck: If u had a girlfriend I'd come up with a cute name for u guys.

Tyler: If I had a girlfriend u wouldn't know about her ;)

Beck: So the great Tyler Perry has a girlfriend the press doesn't know about?

Tyler: Do I? ;)

Beck's phone rang, he groaned at the picture that was displayed on the screen. He thought about not answering but decided that ignoring his publicist wasn't really the best idea. Reluctantly he hit 'answer' and prepared himself for a not so pleasant conversation with his ganky publicist.

"Hello."

"Beck we talked about you keeping your relationship out of the media, this normal girl that you're dating won't help your image." Tania said sternly.

"Tania I'm going to date Tori because she's the only person I want to date and there is really nothing you can do about it. I am not going to lose her because of something that I really could live without, I could live without an image I have been for the past sixteen years but I can't live without her." Beck said hanging up the phone before she could say anything back. He ran his hand through his hair and sighed, "She is so going to drop me as her client."

At that point he could really careless about Tania or any of the people who managed his career. If it were up to him he'd have them all fired and he'd hire people whom he could truly trust, at that point he figured his mother or Sikowitz could do a better job managing his career. A smile grazed his lips as an idea formed in his head, an idea that he was sure he would not regret. He looked at the clock and saw that school was almost over and while Tori was going to head over to Cat's to get ready for that premiere it didn't mean he couldn't just drop by to say hello.

Andre draped his arms around Jade's shoulders and kissed her cheek before greeting the rest of his friends. Jade took her scissors out of her bag and made a face, they were bent. "I let Sinjin use my new scissors, the ones I bought this past weekend and used to cut up Robbie's trashcan, and the little noob bent them."

"Did they loose their sizz?" Andre asked softly.

"Yes can't you see." Jade said as she angrily waved them in front of his face. "They lost their sizz!"

"Babe don't worry I'll get you a new pair of scissors." Andre said reassuringly while the others in the group just stared at one another with their eyebrows arched. "How does that sound?"

"That sounds good, thanks." Jade said smiling at Andre. "Sinjin better watch out, he's in dire need of a haircut and when I get my new scissors I'll see to it that he gets a free one."

Just by the way Jade and Andre were staring into each others eyes Tori could see that they genuinely cared for one another, she'd go as far as to say that the two loved each other. She tore her eyes away from the couple and looked around, there wasn't a table in the Asphalt Cafe that didn't have a couple sitting at it. She grimaced at the sight of a couple making out like they were the only two people in the world...it was really disturbing. She turned around and wrinkled her nose at the sight of Andre and Jade doing the same thing as the other couple.

"I think I may have lost my appetite." Tori said picking up her sandwich and getting up from the table. "I'll catch you guys later, make sure they don't swallow each other."

Tori walked back into the school not sure why it bothered her so much to see her two friends so wrapped up in each other when she was sure she and Beck looked that way when they were together. She really didn't like intense PDA but seeing everybody around her acting in the typical couple fashion made her sad and slightly disturbed her.

"Tori?" She jumped at the sound of Jack's voice.

"Jack you scared me." Tori said.

"Sorry, that wasn't my intention." He said falling into step beside her. "So what's on your mind?"

"What makes you think I have something on my mind?" Tori asked sitting down on the stairs.

"Its written all over your face Tor," Jack said sitting down beside her. He linked his hands behind his head and looked up at the ceiling. "You're like an open book to me Miss Vega, I've never have to try to read you I just can."

"I feel left out." Tori sighed. Jack arched his eyebrow at her. "I'm not complaining or anything because my boyfriend is the most amazing person in the world and I really really like him but seeing all of the couples walk down the halls holding hands or giving each other pecks on the cheek before class just makes me feel left out. I really want to hold hands with my boyfriend and receive pecks on the cheek before class."

"You want to be a normal couple with your movie star boyfriend." Jack said reaching into his backpack and pulling out his grey Pearpad. She watched him tap away and then took the Pearpad when he handed it to her. She was looking at a magazine article about Beck and the picture was the one of the two of them at the baseball stadium parking lot. "I take it you guys get that a lot."

"We only just started going out in public and I love him for going against his publicist's instructions just for me." Tori said reading over the article. " 'Hollywood's new bad boy has a secret girlfriend, that he's obviously crazy about. Beck Oliver's answer is always the same when he's asked if there is someone special in his life, every person is special to him. This mystery girl with amazing cheekbones is obviously a little bit more special than the rest. Is Hollywood's bad boy playing this doe-eyed mystery girl or is he playing his Paired co-star Isabelle McLean, whom he's been spotted with on various different locations.' These people just want their story...right?"

"Yeah." Jack agreed taking his PearPad from Tori. "Didn't this happen to you, this manipulation of who you are to establish an image?"

"It did, why does a person have to have an image? Why can't people just like them for who they are?" Tori sighed. "People are amazing just the way they are and the world should see that."

"I don't think that Beck will let his life get manipulated because he loves you Tori, this picture says it all." Jack said with a small smile.

"He hasn't told me that he loves me."

"He will."

"How are you so sure?"

"I just am."

"You're a great guy Jack, whatever girl you marry is going to be a lucky one." Tori smiled.

Beck covered Tori's eyes with his hands and asked her to guess who it was. To humor him she guessed Robbie and he told her that she wasn't even close. She giggled and twisted around in his arms.

"What are you doing here?" She asked after he kissed her by her locker just like she had wanted him to do.

"I need to talk to Sikowitz and I really wanted to see you before tonight." He said kissing her forehead.

"What are you going to talk to Sikowitz about?" Tori asked as they walked hand in hand down the hall.

"I want to ask if he'd like to take up a second job." Beck said winking down at her as they reached their favorite teacher's classroom. "Well this is me. I'll see you tonight."

"I really don't have anything lined up except for the two sequels, I'm actually planning on returning to school and I'm currently in the process of changing my team of people. It really wasn't working out with the people I was working with and I really wanted to do this with people who really care about me as a person and don't see me as a person they can manipulate." Beck told the reporter.

"Who are you here with Beck?" Another reporter asked.

"I'm here with my best friends." Beck said, he would have told the world at that moment that Tori was his girlfriend but he was planning on doing it on the Ellen Show in a couple of days, Tori loved that show.

"What are you most excited about?"

"For everybody to see the movie." Beck answered.

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