AN: Hello readers. I hope you enjoy the latest chapter of this story.

I couldn't believe where the months had gone; suddenly we're only a week away from the Christmas holidays and the end of my first term as a college student. I reflected on the way my life had changed since arriving in Los Angeles. There was my relationship with Tori and how it had progressed. I had met up again with the rest of the Hollywood Arts crowd and become firm friends with them all. There had been negatives; the fall-out from my quitting iCarly, the short-term damage it had done to my already fragile relationships with Carly and Sam, the impact it had had on my first few days at UCLA but on a brighter note the way it had resolved itself with the Thanksgiving special and really strengthened my friendship with Carly; I felt we were on better terms than we had been when I had left Seattle last summer. Sam was a different matter; it was clear that she was jealous of Tori being with me. I knew that this would be something that would be addressed while I was home over Christmas. How it would play out was still anybody's guess though.

As far as college work was concerned Andy and I had already submitted our project; other assignments had been completed and handed in as well so we were in the nice position of winding down for the final week. Tonight, however, our dorm had been invited to an end-of-term party and I had persuaded Tori to come with me.

She arrived at 7, Trina in tow. My girl cast me a slightly apologetic look as her elder sister breezed into the dorm.

"She wanted to come to a college party and convinced our dad that she would be able to keep an eye on me; keep me safe" she explained before hastily adding "Not that he doesn't trust you!" while looking earnestly at me.

"Isn't it more likely to be us looking out for her?" I asked, trying and failing to keep the smirk off my face and the mirth from my voice. Tori matched my expression and we shared a laugh at the thought of Trina being the responsible Vega sister.

"Yeah" she conceded, "maybe it's closer to the truth that dad just wanted her out of the house for the evening and wanted us to keep an eye on her."

I turned my gaze to Trina and appraise her outfit: while Tori had opted for her trademark T-shirt and skinny jeans combination (I was in dark blue jeans and a dress shirt myself) her sister looked resplendent in a dress of shocking pink and pink high-heeled shoes. Obviously it's never good to be caught looking at your girlfriend's sister but I could barely help it; she looked amazing.

I quickly turned my attention back to Tori and enquired as to how her day had been. Like us they had one eye on the holidays, Tori had given her final graded performance of the term today; all that remained were a few classes before school ended for a couple of weeks. We discussed our mutual friends and she informed me that Jade and Beck were heading to Canada to see some of his family (they were a little happier to see Jade these days, now that she had mellowed fractionally). Neither André, Cat nor Robbie had made any major plans, nor had her family (except, of course, for Tori herself who was coming up to Seattle with me for most of the holidays).

Once Tom and the rest of the guys were ready we made our way to the party; it was in full swing when we arrived. Music was blaring, people were dancing and the obligatory beer kegs had been tapped. Cups of the stuff were pressed into our hands on arrival. Tori and I shared a look, touched cups to 'toast' and each took a small sip of the beverage. We laughed as we both grimaced at the bitter aftertaste. Trina's approach was somewhat different; she took an altogether larger swig of her drink, stifled the look of disgust she began to form and took another draught.

Trina was quickly finding herself at home among the college crowd, she certainly appealed to the frat boys in attendance (many of their girlfriends threw murderous glances in her direction, however, when their men's eyes wandered) and was having a fine time flirting with the male population of the party. Tori and I were sure to keep glancing in her direction regularly; we were becoming a little concerned as her beer consumption increased (what we hadn't realised at the time was that she was drinking even more than we had thought; some of the boys were topping up her cup while she sweet-talked them and she had also taken to mine-sweeping the party area).

Tori and I were content, meanwhile, to spend a large portion of the evening chatting with my friends on the fringe of the main room. Occasionally a guy would attempt to hit on Tori or a girl on me (obviously we both rebuffed the advances, much as we enjoyed the attention and laughed about it between ourselves). If a song came on that we liked we would hit the dance floor for a bit before returning to the sidelines and our drinks (trusting a friend to ensure they were not spiked while we were away). I saw a couple of the guys from my course (not "friends" as such but people to say hello to on entering the class or passing them on campus) and struck up brief conversations with them, but it really wasn't a night for talking shop; it was an evening to relax in good company and have a little fun after a busy term.

Irrespective of how it came about the result of Trina's drinking and flirtatious behaviour was that Tori and I found ourselves after a couple of hours in the position of having to keep an increasingly slurring and struggling Trina out of trouble; and at a frat party there was plenty of trouble to go around. To begin with she was still suitably self-aware, albeit even louder than usual, but there inevitably came the point where some of the older guys decided that she would be easy prey; and these weren't the type of guys who would readily take 'no' for an answer.

The two of us made our way over as a group of "elder statesmen" began to gravitate towards my girl's sister. One of the jocks told me, none too politely, that my intervention was unwelcome and that I should leave Tori behind with them and make myself scarce; neither point was one that I was pleased to hear or willing to accept. Instead I advised him, in a more friendly tone than I really felt like using, that he should back away from her. He declined and instead took a swing at me. As he was more intoxicated than I (both Tori and I had just about finished nursing the beers we received as we walked through the door) his punch was wild and he missed. My quick reply did not and he staggered back into his group of friends, a trickle of blood appearing at the bottom of his left nostril. As one he and his friends turned to me and the Vega sisters with angry looks on their faces. At this point my only concern was for the safety of the girls; I stepped in front of them and threw my arms out to the side.

"Tori, keep hold of Trina and the two of you stay back" I muttered, "if you get the chance, get yourselves away from here."

"I'm not leaving you here with them!" she whispered back.

"Trina's our priority" I insisted, quietly but firmly. "Get her out of here when you get the chance."

I balled my hands into fists as the angry crowd closed in on us. Even though I'd had far less to drink than any of them I really didn't rate my chances in a brawl against half-a-dozen jocks. I figured that my job was to keep them at bay until Tori could get Trina and herself to safety and I had to hope someone would pull them off me before I lost too many teeth.

All too quickly the first punch was thrown; it was the same guy as before. Again it was wild and again it missed. Again I did not. This time I sent the guy to the floor but had no chance to savour my success as a second combatant quickly replaced him in the fray. This guy was less drunk and more accurate; he landed a clean blow to my jaw, rocking me slightly. I was able to keep my feet though and returned the blow with a quick left-right combination of my own. Suddenly a punch came out of nowhere sending one of the group to the floor. I chanced a quick sideways glance and saw Tom stood beside me, coming out swinging. I felt the girls brush past me; Tori was using the diversion to her advantage and hauling her sister out of the party. Tom and I continued to battle gamely; the guys we'd put down were back up and fists were flying everywhere. I had taken several to the face and chest, I could feel a throbbing under my right eye and my jaw was definitely tender. I had put a few good blows in myself, however, determined to do as much damage as I could before their superior numbers told. I realised, however, that Steve and Shane, two of our other dorm-mates had followed Tom across and joined the fray. Now it was four freshmen against six seniors; the seniors were drunk, my friends less so and me almost completely sober, which made it an even contest, perhaps even one that we were slightly dominating: until other guys stepped in and began separating us and dragging us away from one another.

The four of us were bundled out of the house and went in search of the girls. I spied Tori hunched over her sister several feet away and we walked across to them. It transpired that Trina was in the process of throwing up; Tori would later inform me that this wasn't the first time she'd done so since leaving the party. I thanked the guys for their intervention and support.

"No problem" Tom insisted. "We weren't gonna leave you to take on six guys on your own – especially when you were protecting the girls here" he finished with a gesture to Tori and Trina.

"Well, thanks anyway and sorry that it led to us getting kicked out" I repeated as we headed back towards our dorm.

"Hey, you've not done college until you've been kicked out of a couple of frat parties" Shane piped up eagerly, causing the rest of us to laugh loudly.

"What am I going to do Freddie?" asked Tori worriedly as we entered my room, supporting Trina between us. "I can't take Trina home in this state. Mom and dad will freak!"

"Stay here for a while" I suggested. "Trina's just about asleep anyway, put her on my bed; we'll hang with the guys in the common area for a couple more hours." I checked my watch before continuing "It's still only 9:30, stay until midnight or so, we'll wake her up, hopefully she'll have sobered up a little by then, you can head home, put her to bed, hopefully your dad won't still be up and she'll be ok, if a little hung over, by morning."

"Sounds like a plan to me" she agreed and we set Trina down on my bed. Almost as soon as we did she began snoring softly so we crept out of the room and joined the other guys on the couches. They had acquired a few bottles of beer and offered them to us. Tori declined, she had to drive home after all, but I accepted and nursed a second beer of the night while furnishing Tori with a bottle of water instead. We watched a bit of TV and talked for a while before Trina emerged, looking unusually dishevelled, around midnight, which Tori took as their cue to leave.

We helped her sister to Tori's car and she belted herself in. We turned to face each other.

"So" I said.

"So" she echoed.

"Interesting night."

"Sure was – I'll remember my first college party for a long time."

I smiled. "Well, I'll see you here on Saturday, packed and ready for a couple of weeks in snowy Seattle." This caused her to grimace slightly.

"That's going to be a bit different from the climate here" she observed. I nodded. It was true, even for a December evening it was comfortable with just a light jacket over my shirt; in Seattle it would be a much different (and colder) story.

"Goodnight Tori, love you" I leaned in for a kiss.

"Love you too Freddie, see you on Saturday" she said as we broke apart and she got in her car to head home.