Jade and Trina met up again outside the Vega household. Jade was wondering why she didn't come here first then carpool with Trina, but in the end decided it was better to have her freedom. 'Also, I don't want the guys in class to know I'm dating her sister.' Jade decided, briefly forgetting how easy it would be for them to find out.
She noticed Andre's car sitting in front of the house as she walked toward the front door. 'Andre's here. Must be working on the music for my play.' Jade thought. 'Or rather, they'd better be.' The boy wasn't interested in Tori romantically, and was pretty much terrified of Jade, so she had no reason to be suspicious. However, Jade was Jade, so she felt that twinge of jealousy.
"Oh good, my voice tutor showed." Trina said as they moved slowly towards the front entrance. "The rules are simple. You can listen to music upstairs, hangout, you know, snuggly chiz. I'll be in the living room working on my voice with Andre. Keep the door open so my parents can check in on you, everything's good. Enjoy the evening. And Jade, no funny business."
"I'd never..." Jade started. She saw the look in Trina's eyes. "Okay, I wont start anything, but I can't..." Jade wasn't the type to be intimidated, but Trina wasn't going for intimidation. The look of sheer disbelief was enough to unnerve the fighter. "Look, I don't start that kind of chiz."
"You once told my sister you were good at saying no. You even sang it at her." Trina said, reminding Jade of one of her early conflicts with the singer. "I'm not saying Tori is going to start anything. She's the prototypical good kid. I'm just saying, it may be on your highly disciplined shoulders to make sure that a moment doesn't go too far." Trina smiled at her mentor. "Tori won't deliberately do anything, and we trust you. It's just bad for my dad's ego if he catches you and can't throw you out."
"I'd let him." Jade protested, then she thought for a second. "But I see what you mean. You're parents are here, so keep it PG."
"Keep it G." The older girl said as they reached the door. "Maybe slip into PG once you've been together for a while. Let tori keep that unbelievable innocence she's somehow held onto a little longer."
Jade was almost floored. "You mean she's a...A.."
"Probably not. I mean, Danial was pretty good at getting what he wanted from her, and lets not forget Steven. That guy could have gotten anything he wanted." Trina replied. "I don't know, but even if she's not, she still has that innocence. Believes in the best in everyone. I'd like for her to keep that a little longer."
"You're planning to use it for your own benefit, aren't you." Jade said as Trina opened the door.
"You know it sister." The older girl said. They saw Tori and Andre going over the music for the play, making sure everything sounded right.
"Jade. Hi." Andre sounded nervous. "We were wondering if there were any changes you'd like to make to the music?"
"You didn't tell him?" The fighter asked Trina.
"Tell me what?" The musician asked.
"Oh, yea, Andre, you're kinda helping me with Trina's vocal training." Tori said. "Sorry about that, but I desperately need some snuggle time with Jade, and Trina's getting better."
"Really?" Andre asked, looking at his best friend like he wanted to do something unpleasant to her.
"It's all for a good cause." Tori told him. "Best friend credits and all that chiz."
"She has a nice voice." Jade said. "She's just tone deaf."
"So she can't sing." It was a statement. The musician wasn't too happy about this turn of events.
"She can. She seems to be trainable. Lots of work, but were helping her learn to tell when she's off key. Then she'll be able to sing" Tori said. "Jade, with all that research chiz, found out we could help her."
"Research chiz?" Jade said, raising her pierced eyebrow. Everyone ignored her. Tori had little to worry about from her girlfriend, or so she believed.
"And so I gotta suffer through her terrible singing so she may some day be a decent singer?" Andre protested.
"Actually, if you follow the instructions, and do it right, she gets noticeably better as she goes along." Tori said, opening her phone to a web page. "I'm sending you the link Jade sent me. Just follow the instructions and you should be fine." She gave her friend her best smile. He sighed. Tori knew she had won again.
"Yo, Dre, I was wondering if there's an app for tuning chiz?" Jade asked.
"I don't know, maybe?" The musician answered. "If there is one, we'd have to make sure it worked for singers, and in a was that would show her when she was off key and help her correct herself." he said.
"I'll look into it." Jade promised.
"Nah, I'll look into it. I can do that while I help Trina with her singing practice." He said.
It had been fifteen minutes and Andre was already wishing he'd started with the stupid tuning app. Trina did have a nice voice, once he got through everything she did wrong. He had to work carefully with her to correct her every sound, but on the rare occasion she hit the right note, it was pretty. He still wanted revenge on Tori for saddling him with this task. He was a trained enough musician to know exactly why this was driving him crazy, and he would bet that Tori had the same exact problems. "Okay Trina, I think we're making progress here. Maybe we should take a quick break while I find the app, and you can go outside and see if you can hear what your doing right and wrong." He said. Trina just shrugged and walked outside. He could hear her singing, but the muting from the glass was almost enough to make it bearable.
Andre knew she wasn't there yet. There was no way Trina would be able to hear her mistakes. He was just buying time. The App. Wasn't too expensive, and was good for a lot more than just singing. He decided to buy it and then he could use it for whatever project he might have coming up. The download started and Trina came back in.
"Andre, tell me if you think I got it." Trina asked. She then proceeded to sing her song just a bit off key. It was still going to be a while before she was someone he wanted to hear sing, but he could tell she was improving. 'Forty minutes to complete the download. Oh Chiz.'
Upstairs Tori was recovering from Jade's revenge. "So you sorry you just blew off my incredible research?" she asked. Tori's breathing was almost back to normal.
"You know, tickling shouldn't be allowed when we snuggle." The Latina said.
"You're dad thought it was okay" the goth replied. "He just shook his head and walked away."
"So even my dad abandoned me?" Tori pouted. "This is the worst thing ever." Tori froze, her words slowly eating through her play pouting towards something important. "You felt this way, haven't you?"
"Yea, Adam is wicked when it comes to tickling." Jade sighed. "I think he was a tickling Jedi master, using the force and all that chiz." Jades heartfelt confession was met with a pillow to the head.
"That's not what I meant, and you know it." Tori said. "I mean, to think your own father didn't care..."
"No sympathy." Jade growled. "I wasn't a son. I got used to it. I had plenty of men who wanted to love me for being me. My dad, Beck says he loves me, but I always failed because his first legitimate child wasn't a son." She huffed. "I tried, I really did, and when things got too much, and he couldn't take me or my family, I had his precious son to take over and love me."
"It must have been hard." Tori observed.
"I don't want to talk about it." Jade said. She rolled over and lay their, letting Tori deiced what to do next. The Latina sat on the end of her own bed, not sure if it was okay to hold her girlfriend. After a short eternity, Jade spoke. "It's not that I'll never tell you, I just don't need the pain right now. Me and Adam, were solid now. So no worries. I'm good."
"Was it hard on him?" Tori asked. "Oh, sorry, no questions."
"Hold me, and I'll answer that one." Jade smirked. Tori climbed onto the bed behind the goth and put her arm around the dark haired girl. Jade sighed as she felt Tori's arm tighten around her waist. "I gave him hell."
"Because you blamed him?" The singer asked.
"Because he was dads favorite." the goth said. "Honestly, I think part of it was I needed someone to blame. But he went and brought me into his world. First he taught me, then Wyatt did, then Adam again. Slowly we built a relationship, but I never truly got my anger under control." She smiled, and glanced at her girlfriend. "wanna hear a secret?"
"Tell." Tori smiled.
"This is just between you, me, and probably Trina and Andre." They both glanced to make sure no one was listening in. "Okay, you and me. The reason I never got control over my anger was because I thought there was power in being that angry, unpredictable girl. Instead of dealing with my anger, I let it fester and grow. Maybe that's why I'm so insecure, because I'm just this front of anger with nothing behind it."
"That doesn't sound right." Tori said. "And you're not insecure."
"I'm totally insecure." The black belt said, shifting so that she was facing Tori, They were really close now, and things could start happening, especially since now that Jade had let Tori in. "I worry about what people think about me, or what I do, all the time. If I was secure, or fearless, or whatever, then I wouldn't care what people said about me, and I could let chiz go." Jade took a moment to take a deep breath. Tori knew better than to speak. Jade wasn't done yet. "No, I worry all the time, and sometimes I really need someone to hold me and let me know it'll be all right. I know, it won't be a fairytale ending, but it could still be happy for a while, right?"
Tori saw it, in the other girls eyes, so much fear. 'Oh my fudging chiz, what do I do? I've never been asked that before? I mean, what do I say.' Tori then let go of all that and did what she felt was the most unnatural thing, and just held Jade in silence, stroking the girls hair as they listened to the music from her Pearpad playing in the background. Jade was smiling within minutes, and they were able to joke a bit before it was time to go. Tori escorted her girlfriend, and Andre, to the door, and gave Jade the kiss goodnight.
Trina's voice was heard drifting over the couple busy with their goodby's. "Don't even think it Harris."
Shortly after that Tori realized she's made the right choice. 'I guess sometimes it's not the ability to solve the problem as much as being there for them so they can. No wonder I always wanted Jade.' Tori smiled, and wondered if the smile would relax enough for her to get to sleep that night. In the end, she didn't care. Jade had opened up to her. It was all that mattered.
:}
Early today, but only cause I have chiz to do. Enjoy.