Warning: There is a slightly mature reference for the name of a casino in this.

CHAPTER 7 -DAY 2-
Trina's POV

I was very ready to get out of The Royale. At seven in the morning, I got my things together and left the hotel. I would eat breakfast while I was shopping.

I trotted down the brightly lit streets, admiring all of the stores lined up by the sidewalks, the doors open, just waiting for me to come and buy something from them. For the next hour, I went in and out of different shops, ending up with a load of bags and boxes. I wanted to go back to the hotel to put my stuff down so I could come back out and shop some more.

On my way to the hotel, I stopped at a street corner, where two men were standing. They approached me before I could cross the street.

"Hey, girl," the taller one said to me.

"Oh hi there," I responded, trying to get around them, but the other guy blocked my way.

"You havin' some trouble carrying those bags?" the one in front of me said.

"Yeah, can I have some help?" I asked, shoving several of my bags towards them. "My hotel's just over there."

"Okay, baby," they said, taking my things.

We walked down the street until we were about a hundred feet away from the hotel entrance when my helpers darted down an alley with my things.

"Hey!" I yelled, looking after them. "Where are you going?"

"Just follow us, baby. We know a shortcut!"

Shortcut? The hotel is right there! I sighed exasperatedly and followed after them into the dark alley. "Hey! Slow down you, guys!" I had four-inch heels on and carried a very heavy box of candy, and it wasn't easy walking fast.

"Over here!" one of them yelled.

I turned to the right, and saw light at the end of the new alley. I followed it, ending up on a not-too-busy street. I saw one of the men standing in front of a crowded building, and he was waving at me to come over to him. I hurried towards him.

"Hey, girl, you wanna hang with us for a little bit?" He gestured to the other man beside him, who had held my bags earlier. "We were just gonna go in here—" he jabbed a thumb at the building "—and have a little party. You wanna join?"

"Well, actually, I want to go shopping some more, and I need to bring my stuff back to the hotel," I began.

"Come on, baby. Just chill with us for an hour or so," the man begged. "You look like you need it. I'll show you the best places in town here, baby," he laughed. "Damien! Take sunshine's bags over here." He snatched the box out of my hands and gave it to the man named Damien. "You can call me Hawk, baby. Now come on." He grabbed my hand and pulled me through the crowd to the entrance of the building.

My dad, being the cop he was, always told me not to go with strangers, especially the crazy ones. But these guys weren't crazy; they had helped me with my things after all. As I went into the building with Hawk, I didn't realize that it was a notorious casino-strip club: Chips and Dicks.

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Tori's POV

Oh my God, today was the day of our first broadcast! We arrived at the studio at 7:00, even though we were broadcasting at 8:00. Mr. Highes was there, waiting for us, dressed in a crisp blue suit with a red tie, grinning at us broadly. He directed André and Jade towards the makeup and dressing rooms, because they needed to get ready quickly so the crew could take them out into the 'field' while the rest of us gathered in the green room, with some of the other crew members.

"Miss Tori and Mr. Beck, go to the dressing rooms to get your costumes and makeup," Mr. Highes said, seeming incredibly professional all of a sudden. "Robbie and Cat, go to the stage to get a heads-up of what you'll be reporting on."

Everyone left the room quickly. Sikowitz had gone with Robbie and Cat, so I was left with Beck. We walked down the complex maze of dark halls before finally finding the right room. André and Jade were there, getting ready to leave. They both looked very nice. Jade gave Beck a quick kiss before they were ushered out.

A woman sat me down in one of the chairs before putting some makeup on my face. She handed me a button-up shirt and blouse to get changed into, while another woman was working feverishly on Beck's fluffy hair. He gave me a small grin when I walked past him to the stalls.

In about twenty minutes, we were done. Beck was looking very handsome in a suit similar to Mr. Highes's, and I thought I didn't look too bad in my button-up and blouse. We went to the main stage floor, meeting Robbie and Cat on the way there.

"Oh my gosh, you guys are so pretty!" she exclaimed. "Well, I mean, you're handsome, Beck," she giggled. Beck laughed and we kept walking.

Someone directed us to sit on the beautiful stage. I took the right, and Beck sat on my left. I looked down at the papers scattered on the desk-island, swallowing nervously. The lights were incredibly bright, and wherever I looked all I could see were cameras and crewmembers running around to get ready for the airing, which was in about half an hour.

"You okay, Tori?" Beck asked, looking at me.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm just kind of nervous. No, I take it back, I'm really nervous," I admitted, looking down at my shaking hands.

"You'll be fine," he encouraged. "Just think of it like being in a theater, in front of an audience. Except the audience is basically everyone in Vegas who watches the news." He smiled.

"Yeah, yeah," I said. Someone came up and helped get us comfortable under the lights and in the awkward chairs. Beck left to use the bathroom, and I got off the stage, feeling my adrenaline pumping. I went to the green room, and found that it was completely empty. I calmed down there for about ten minutes before returning back to the main stage. Beck was in his seat again, and someone re-adjusted his hair. I walked up and sat down next to him.

A man came up with two glasses of water for us. I took one and sipped it, my eyes still darting around. Someone came up and did something to the TV screens behind us; there was a loud popping sound that made me jump, sending my water all over Beck's suit.

"Oh geez, I'm so sorry, Beck!" I yelled, reaching over and trying to rub the water stains out. It vaguely reminded me of what happened on my first day at Hollywood Arts.

"Vega!" a voice shouted suddenly.

I turned around and saw Jade on the screen behind us, holding a microphone to her mouth. She stood in front of noisy construction site.

"Vega!" Jade repeated.

"Wait, can she see us?" I asked one of the crewmembers frantically. They nodded, pointing to one of the main cameras below the stage. I took my arm off Beck as some crewmembers came up to fix his shirt. "Well, hi Jade!"

"You spilled water all over my boyfriend! And you were rubbing on him! Again!" Jade yelled, her eyes glittering angrily.

"Yes—wait, you saw that?" My face went gray. A door slammed, and in came Robbie, Cat, and Sikowitz. Cat was wearing an outfit similar to mine, and Robbie looked like Beck. Even Rex had a suit on. They waited by the doors, smiling up at us.

"Vega! I'm going to kill—" Jade was cut off because the screen went blank.

"We go on air in two minutes!" someone said.

"Two minutes?" I said shocked. I looked at Beck, and could still see some of the darker parts of the jacket that the water had stained. More people came up and helped touch-up our makeup and someone had a blow dryer they used on Beck.

Mr. Highes came up himself and gave us some more words of wisdom, his outrageously excited mood coming back. I straightened myself up, pulling the papers on the desk together and glancing down at the main camera, the little screen underneath lighting up with green words. Beck cleared his throat nervously.

The main person behind the big camera started the countdown: "We're on air in five, four, three, two…"

I took a deep breath. "Hello and welcome to LV: Daily Reports. My name is Tori Vega," I read from the screen before my co-anchor took over.

"And my name is Beck Oliver," Beck added calmly. He put his hands together on top of the desk. I was jealous at how natural he seemed. "So for today, we'd like to tell you about…"

We continued reading the green words underneath the main camera, talking about the different stories for the day: charities going 'bankrupt,' several murders and suicides, missing people, and just news in general. Occasionally we would switch looking at the cameras, something I found a lot more difficult than I had thought, as I would briefly get confused with the lines I was supposed to say. My hands, which I kept for the most part underneath the desk-island thing, were shaking wildly, but my voice was smooth and steady.

"After this commercial break, we'll be going to Cat Valentine for the weather," Beck finished.

"We're off air now, people!" the main cameraman yelled. "Five minutes until we're back on!"

My hands shot out from under the desk and wiped my forehead quickly. Cat stood in her position near the stage in front of a large green screen. Sikowitz hid behind some camera crew, waving and grinned big at us.

"Thirty seconds!"

Everyone got prepared to go back on air.

"Five, four, three, two…"

"Welcome back, and now here's Cat Valentine with the weather," Beck said, a huge smile on his face. The cameraman waved his hand in front of the camera, signaling us that we weren't being shown on TV. I sighed with relief and slouched back down in the chair.

"Hi! I'm Cat Valentine!" Cat exclaimed, waving furiously at the camera. She paused, staring hard at the camera like she couldn't remember what to do. "Oh! Well this week it looks like we'll be having another dry spell here in Vegas," she said calmly. The green screen behind her was not labeled at all, but Cat started pointing to different areas randomly as she spoke about the weather patterns, and I was ninety percent sure that she was pointing to the completely wrong cities and areas. A crewmember waved his arms, trying to get her attention.

"Huh?" Cat stopped reading the script, staring at the crewmember.

Beck smacked his forehead.

"Oh, you don't want me to point anymore? Wait, why not?" I grabbed my hair, feeling so embarrassed for her. This was live on public television! "Oh, because I'm pointing at the completely wrong cities? Oh, okay!" Cat smiled again. She stood there, looking around lazily.

"Cat!" the crewmember hissed. "Keep going!"

Cat jumped up, gave a small apologetic smile to the camera and continued to report the weather. Beck slumped in his seat, his hands in his face. Things were getting worse, and I later realized that Cat had started a chain reaction of mishaps.

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Beck's POV

It was uncomfortably hot sitting there on the main stage, especially since Cat kept messing up. Watching her report the weather was extremely painful, as she kept communicating with the crewmembers behind the camera, which was something we were told to avoid at all cost when we were being filmed.

Finally, finally Cat was done. The cameras switched back to us, and I put my game face on.

"Um, thank you for that wonderful report, Cat," Tori said in a tense tone.

I squinted at the screen for a moment and then said quickly, "And now we'll go to one of our field reporters, Jade West, who is at a construction site."

We turned around to watch the TV screens behind us, where we could see Jade's performance, while the audience would be watching her directly.

The first thing I noticed what was wrong was that Jade wasn't even looking at the camera. Instead, she faced the other way, her microphone hanging at her side, and I could hear her yelling at someone.

"Get out of the way! I'm doing something on TV!" my girlfriend screamed. There was a very mumbled response and she said back, "No! This is my job, not yours! No, you can shut up, mister!"

"Jade," a calm voice from behind the camera said, "you're on air. Right now."

"Huh?" Jade spun around, revealing the homeless man behind her, crawling away. "Oh, hello. I'm Jade West, out here. In the field." She smiled, but I could tell she was embarrassed. She went on to say that the building was going to be built sometime soon into yet another Vegas casino.

"And now back to Beck and Tori," Jade finished.

I straightened up while Tori said, "Thank you for that report, Jade. We'll go to another commercial break, and when we come back, Robbie Shapiro will give us the breakdown of the sports."

"We're off air!" Mr. Highes shouted, coming up to the stage with us. "Excellent job, kiddies. I think I'm going to go speak to your friend, though." Mr. Highes left us to go and talk to Cat, who was still as bubbly as ever. When she was the man coming towards her, her face fell, and I saw Mr. Highes's mouth moving a mile a minute. I couldn't read lips, but I could tell that whatever Mr. Highes was telling Cat it was not good, because her face got sadder and sadder.

"That was so embarrassing," Tori said to me.

"I know, but she was so adorable doing it," I sighed.

Tori shot me a strange look.

"What? You'd think this was a comedy show instead of a news report," I said, quickly changing the subject. Tori laughed.

"Yeah, and Jade is certainly not going to be happy that she was on air while yelling at some homeless person," she said. I smiled, wondering how my girlfriend would be when she got back to the studio.

"We're going on air in thirty seconds!" someone yelled.

"We are almost done with the show, only a few more segments left," I whispered to Tori.

"On air in five, four, three, two…"

"Welcome back! It's about 8:45 a.m. right now, and we'll go to Robbie Shapiro and, uh, Rex Powers with the sports report for the day," I said into the camera.

Robbie was in another room, but Tori and I turned around to watch the TV screens behind us. Rex was sitting on Robbie's arm, and both of them were looking carefully at the camera. Robbie wasn't holding a microphone, but there was one hooked onto his shirt, probably because he couldn't hold one and Rex at the same time.

"Hello, I'm Robbie Shapiro."

"And I'm Rex," the puppet butted in.

"Yes, and we're going to go through a quick rundown of some of the teams here," Robbie said, turning around to the screen behind him, which showed a complicated chart of statistics and team names.

"But there ain't no real teams here in Nevada, 'cause you Nevadicans are all too lazy to put your own together," Rex interrupted.

"Rex!" Robbie scolded.

I looked at Tori, and then Mr. Highes. The billionaire was looking quite shocked, and I glanced back at Robbie, who was still struggling to continue with his report of the minor teams in Nevada.

"Haha, well now I can see why you guys ain't got no pro teams! Even your minor statistics suck!" Rex laughed raucously.

"Get the puppet off screen now," Mr. Highes said through his teeth. His mood change was very abrupt.

Someone rushed to the room, staying out of the camera shot, but you could hear them say, "Quick! Give me Rex!" But Robbie chose to ignore the man and continued giving the report, with Rex continuing to interrupt with rude comments.

"Are the 51s named after Area 51? Wow, that's so creative," Rex said sarcastically about the minor baseball team. "I think the 'U.F.O.s' might've been better."

"Shut that puppet up, Robbie!" Mr. Highes bellowed, disappearing to find Robbie.

"I'm not doing anything! He is!" Robbie protested on the screen.

Someone waved at me, pointing to the main camera. I looked at the little screen with words and quickly said, "Now we'll go to André Harris with another report in the field."

The TV screen changed to André. He was playing a keyboard with some other random musicians on a street corner. What the heck? What happened to the reporting?

Meanwhile, Mr. Highes yelled agitatedly at Robbie and his puppet in the other room.

André played a very catchy tune on the piano, and some of the other musicians, the trumpet player, started singing loudly into a microphone. People who walked by put money in an open guitar case.

"What is he doing?" Tori hissed to me. "Raising money for a charity? Well, actually, that wouldn't be too bad though..."

"I don't think they know they're on air," I whispered back, "Robbie's report ended too early. They're not ready yet." I assumed that André had found the musicians performing, and being a great one himself, wanted to join in.

Finally, after five tense minutes, André and the crew realized that they were on-air. Very apologetically, André rushed to do his report, with the band still playing behind him.

And then the camera came back to us.

"Thank you for watching, and you can catch us again tomorrow, same time. I'm Tori Vega," Tori said.

"And I'm Beck Oliver," I said, "See you all soon!"

"And we're clear!"

I let out a sigh as Mr. Highes came stumbling back into the room, his face burning red.

"You can all go back to the hotel," the billionaire huffed angrily, "I'll call you late for your new assignments. Just please leave." He left the room quickly.

"Well, that was very interesting," Sikowitz said as he took me, Tori and Cat to the makeup room to change back into our usual clothes. "We'd better go find the others. And then everything can explain what the bug they were trying to prove by messing that broadcast up."

And there is the first broadcast! I hope you liked it, and I'm really sorry if it's not anything like a 'real' broadcast, but that's as close as I could get without studying regular news shows for weeks. Tell me what your favorite/least favorite part was!

Yep, kind of left it with a cliffhanger with Trina...ooohhh boy I wonder what's going to happen to her. But remember, this story is and will remain K+, so get those dirty thoughts out of your head. :)