AN: Hello to my readers; thanks to all who continue to read it and special thanks to my reviewers – your feedback is always appreciated.

I awoke with a start; looking at my bed-side clock told me that the time was just after 4 a.m. My dreams had ebbed away; all I could recall was that a scream had roused me from my slumbers. I gazed around my room in bewilderment, squinting as I tried to take in what little light there was and make sense of what had woken me up. Had Trina had a nightmare? I know I scared her a little recently but surely not enough to cause nightmares! My confusion turned to surprise as my door burst open and my dad charged in, mom in hot pursuit.

"Sweetie, are you ok?" my dad's concern-laden voice enquired.

"Uh yeah, other than being woken by Trina's scream" I replied, bewildered as to why they'd come to check on me.

"That wasn't me!" drawled my elder sister as she joined the party. "You woke me up Tori and I wanna know why."

"We all do" my mom told me sympathetically, taking a seat on my bed near my feet. Dad sat near my midriff and placed a comforting hand on my shoulder. "What made you scream like that?"

"I didn't realise that I had" I admitted, now utterly perplexed by the night's occurrences.

"Well you did" Trina complained huffily before turning on her heel and returning to her own room. Having reassured themselves that I was ok my parents followed her out the door and I tried to get back to my own dreams.

The Slap Mobile

Trina Vega: Tired and cranky. Thank you Tori!

Feeling: Wazzed

My sister's mood was not improving because my woes continued for the next couple of nights; again I roused the house with my screams, again my family rushed to my room and again Trina complained that I was disturbing her sleep. Worst of all, for me anyway, I could still remember nothing of my dreams; all I knew was that a scream was waking me – and that it was my own.

By now dad was suggesting that I talk to someone, perhaps Lane rather than seeing a shrink just yet. I made a mental note to try to make an appointment when I returned to school on Monday. In the meantime I had the weekend to look forward to; as usual for a Saturday Freddie was at work today but I would be picking him up afterwards and we were going to have a nice meal and evening together before returning to my place. I spent the morning with André; we still had our project to work on (he had written a song and asked me to do the vocals for him; I would be happy to do it for him anyway, that I could claim credit for one of my own music classes was a bonus) and we made a lot of progress over a few hours. After that I met Cat for lunch at the Green Meadow mall. She knew of my recent 'troubles' but unfortunately, being Cat, she was unable to suggest anything useful; it merely elicited an anecdote from her brother's problematic life.

"One time" she had interrupted "my brother fell asleep and then woke up screaming. Oh wait; that's most nights" and her face fell at the recollection.

I decided the time was ripe to change the subject; school seemed a safe topic while we finished our meals from the food court so we discussed projects, forthcoming plays (Jade was to cast her in another of her short plays; this time the school had agreed to put it on after how well received "Well Wishes", or at least the proper version, had been). Afterwards we went on to spend a fun afternoon roaming some of the stores before she headed home and I left to pick up Freddie.

As ever my man was waiting outside the store, his gorgeous smile in place as my car pulled up. He continued our regular routine as he slid into the passenger seat, greeted me with a kiss, soft, tender but full of promise and we exchanged small talk about our days on the drive to the restaurant.

I had yet to tell Freddie of my interrupted sleep; I was resolved not to spoil his meal and I felt that the news could wait for the drive back to Hollywood Hills. Instead I smiled my way through dinner at Nozu; Freddie would later divulge that he wasn't really a fan of the food there (hey, works for me, the proprietor is crazy!) but as we've said: there are a lot of restaurants out there for us to try.

As I expected Freddie's reaction was one of concern when he learned of my nightmares. We speculated as to the cause, our recent ordeal was the most obvious thing (although Freddie's sleep hasn't suffered any ill effects; or at least none that he's admitted to). He echoed my dad's suggestion that I talk to someone about it. In the meantime, however, I was determined to just enjoy the rest of the weekend with my boyfriend.

Once home I checked my e-mails and Slap profile; there was the usual bizarre set of suggestions for my Tori Takes Requests segment but one or two looked doable at least. Freddie set up his trusty camera and I began the sketch.

"Ok, it's me Tori and umm… it's been a while since I've taken a request for my Slap page because… honestly? A lot of the requests were weird… like weird." I sighed at the thought of the suggestions I'd discarded and continued "I started this whole 'Tori Takes Requests' thing because I thought maybe people would ask me to sing a song or I dunno… do a cool dance or maybe make a sandwich but nobody ever wants me to do anything normal so… I dunno." I sighed again. "Alright, I'll give it another shot… ok; let's see what you guys want me to do this time. Uh… oh ok here's one. 'Hi Tori, this is very important to me, I want to see a video of you with another person.'" I noticed Freddie's eyebrows rise several inches. "Not that kind of video Freddie" I laughed at him. "We'll cut this bit, right?" and he laughed back. "Ok, back to it… 'I want you to put glue all over on your hand then let the glue dry, then have the other person peel the glue off your hand. And the whole time please play the song you sang in the Big Showcase. Also the person who helps you with the glue should be someone you don't like very much.'" I shook my head in bewilderment at this point.

"Someone you don't like very much?" Freddie echoed. "Why not just call a Jade a Jade?"

I stifled a laugh as I eyed my man. "Freddie, nobody likes a smartass."

"You love ONE though, don't you?" he grinned wickedly.

"I do" I agreed, leaning in to kiss him.

I called my dark-haired friend that night to check on her plans; she was with Beck (predictably) but promised that she would come over in the morning for the skit. These days it was a stretch to claim we didn't like each other very much but she was the closest person to that description (well, except maybe Trina).

When she arrived Freddie trained the camera on us and we were ready to begin…

"Hi, I'm here with Jade"

"I'm not thrilled to be here." She really can play a part well; it's all screen-time and publicity for us both after all.

"Did you bring the glue?" I asked.

"Glue" she proffered it.

"Open it" I instructed "and I will start the music."

"What song?"

"Make It Shine; sung by me."

"Can we listen to anything else?"

"No!" and I started the music. "Ok, let me apply the glue to my hand" and we squeezed it liberally over my palm before repeating the action on the back of my hand. "Now rub it around" Jade complied with my request. I turned back to the camera. "Now we wait for fifteen minutes."

"So the glue can dry" she interjected and I paused my Pearpod while Freddie switched off the camera.

Jade grinned wickedly and asked "Do you know how easy it would be for me to glue your hand to your head or something?" She didn't look like she was entirely joking and Freddie laughed at our little exchange.

"Uh, why don't you start editing what we've got so far in my room" I suggested to my man.

"I can do that here and we can all look at it while I do" his tone was confused. Oh Freddie, take a hint.

"Freddie; your girlfriend wants some girl-talk and you're not a girl. Go away." I can always rely on Jade to be blunt and to the point. Freddie took this hint.

"I guess I'll be in your room for the next fifteen minutes" he told us and disappeared with his camera.

"So what do you wanna talk about?" she asked without preamble once he'd gone.

"I'm not sleeping" I confessed. "I wake up, night after night, screaming; it wakes mom, dad and Trina. Last night was the first night all week it hasn't happened and that's probably because I spent the night in Freddie's arms; I felt safe with him there." I lowered my head, feeling embarrassed to admit what was going on.

"You went through a major ordeal Tori; those goons were going to rape you. I'm not surprised you're freaked about it." Her voice was laced with empathy I'd scarcely believe her capable of, even with us being real friends now.

"If only the cops would get the other two" I said, unsure of whether I was explaining to her or rationalising it for myself "I think it would really help; knowing all three were off the streets."

"No news on them getting the others then?"

I shook my head. "Dad's still confident but the cops haven't caught them yet."

"They will" she reassured me. I smiled gratefully at her before turning the conversation towards her life, asking her how things were between her and Beck (pretty good). She bustled round the kitchen to get herself a coffee while I sat there willing my gluey hand to dry. The two of us exchanged a little more small talk while she drained her cup.

The timer buzzed, informing us that our fifteen minutes were up. I called Freddie and he returned, setting his camera up again as Jade and I resumed our positions.

"Ok, we're back" I declared once Freddie rolled the camera. I switched the music back on; it drew an exaggerated sigh from Jade. "Now Jade will peel dried glue off my hand."

"Yes I will" she enthused.

"There it goes, there it goes" I felt an amused excitement as small films of glue were removed from my hand.

"This feels so good" Jade sounded genuine.

Just then she found a particularly large piece of glue film and pulled delicately at it, so not to tear it as it came away from my skin.

"Oh that's a good one. That's a good one right there!"

"Oh" we cried in unison as it came away. We began laughing at the sight of the glue being pulled away. Finally it was all peeled off, Freddie stopped filming and we celebrated with a round of Wahoo punch.

"That was actually fun" Jade noted, not even trying to keep the surprised tone from her voice.

"Great stuff girls" Freddie enthused "it looked really good. I'll get it edited today and you should be able to upload it tonight Tori."

I thanked my man and returned to my drink. Having completed the sketch I found myself returning to brooding over my nightmares. Like I'd said to Jade I felt things would be better once I knew they were off the street. I was utterly detached from whatever Freddie and Jade were saying to one another, lost as I was in my fears. Her hand shaking my shoulder roughly brought me back to the here-and-now; Jade was going home.

"Are you sure you're ok?" she asked with concern.

"Yes" I insisted. "Thanks for asking; I'm gonna be fine."

"Ok, I'll see you tomorrow" and she departed, passing Trina in the doorway as my sister returned from wherever she'd been this morning.

"Hey sister" she cried before turning to my boyfriend with a smile. "Hey Freddie." Her gaze returned to me "At least you didn't wake me up last night" and she breezed upstairs leaving just Freddie's concerned look in my direction behind her.

"Will you stay here tonight?" I asked him. "I can drive you to college on my way to school in the morning."

"I'll stay as long as you want" he promised, his soft eyes meeting my own; again I felt safe and secure in his presence.