Thanks for all the reviews, follows, and favorites. To Stunned Monkey, the answers to your questions will come throughout the fic, but as a quick summary of answers: Shelby doesn't live with the Vega's because of her fighting career, but she does have a room, she took her mother's last name, her grandma Edith's (from 'iFight Shelby Marx') last name, and I'll explain more in detail throughout the fic.
For the fic, as noted above, Holly Vega's name before marrying her husband was Marx, her mother is Edith from the 'iCarly' special. Shelby took it when she started fighting, not wanting her family to get swarmed when she became famous.
Hope that helps with part of the background you needed Stunned Monkey, and to anyone else curious. And to Invader Johnny, I didn't really know about the whole 'finishing each others sentence' things twins do. I might add it in, and to ScottyBgood, the nicknames you came up for me to use are seen in here.
This chapter takes place during the pilot of 'VicTORious'. It's also the first chapter where the twins talk to each other in person, Shelby there to visit while not training or having to worry about a fight. Also, in 'Jade Dumps Beck', the grandma Tori mentions is Edith, so unfortunately, Edith won't be seen anymore. I'll explain more on her passing later.
No POV
"How'd the 'mold bush' project go?" Shelby asks her twin as she walks into the other's room.
"It didn't." Tori says, getting out of her desk chair to hug her sister. "Trina interrupted and we were unable to turn it in." She says as the releases Shelby from the hug. "What are you doing here so early? You said you wouldn't be here until tomorrow?" She says, sitting down on her bed, Shelby following suit.
"Rod let me go early. I have three months until my next big match, so he gave me the next month to just relax. After that, I start training and doing publicity." Shelby answers, sighing. "Oh, before I forget. Grandma Edith sewed this for you. She hasn't had a chance to send it, so she asked me to when I got here." She says, her voice quiet.
"I can't believe it's been three months since she passed." Tori says, holding the pillow close to her. "You didn't have to pay for the entire funeral. Mom was more than willing to pay it." She tells her twin.
"I know. I wanted to." Shelby assures her sister. "I felt bad. I invited her to that thing to promote the fight with Carly, and her falling like that didn't help anything. She was barely on her feet just getting there." She says in a whisper.
"It wasn't your fault. She told you that multiple times." Tori says, hugging Shelby. "It was an accident, and grandma never held that against you. Heck, she apologized to Carly herself, didn't she?" She asks, rubbing her sister's shoulder.
"Yeah, but still. I invited her the day she got out of the hospital. And three hours later, she was knocked off the stage, through a podium, and down to the floor." Shelby says, a few stray tears rolling down her face.
"Stop beating yourself up, One." Tori says, using the old nickname they used to call each other as kids. "No one is at fault. She never hated you for inviting her, and you know it." She says, locking eyes with Shelby.
"Sorry. Just taking a while to get used to not seeing her so much anymore." Shelby says with a sad smile. "Anyway, what's this I hear about you helping Trina with an audition?" She asks with a small laugh, wiping the tears away.
"It's for some Big Showcase her school does. Somehow, I got roped into helping her and her partner, someone named André who's pretty cool, for it. He wrote this awesome song, and he's amazing at the piano, and Trina's singing." Tori answers, groaning at the memory of the oldest Vega sister's voice.
"How bad is she?" Shelby asks, cautious of the answer.
"You know those huge bottles of headache pills with like, a thousand pills in it? The extra strength stuff?" Tori asks, staring at Shelby.
"Yeah?"
"We keep it close to where we're practicing, mainly the piano. We went through half a bottle already, and it's only been three days." Tori says, her eyes closing as she falls backwards, laying on her bed.
"Dang." Shelby says, laughing. "Where are mom and dad during all of this?" She asks, mirroring her twin.
"Dad's at work. I think he took the extra hours to avoid Trina. And mom has a 'serious' case at the office, and she has to stay there hours after she's supposed to in preparation for the court date." Tori says, laughing. "Yet her partner at the office says the only case they have is an easy one, all the evidence is against the other guy, so there's no need for extra time." She says, turning her head to face Shelby.
"Good luck?" Shelby says, trying not to laugh.
"How about you stay here and help practice and I slip out? Only Trina will know you're not me, but with how she tends to be during the practices, she won't notice until after André leaves." Tori says, looking at Shelby with a smirk.
"I will kick Trina's head off." Shelby deadpans, glaring at Tori.
"Hey Thing One and Thing Two. I need more clothes." Trina says, walking into Tori's room.
"Aren't we a size or two smaller than her?" Shelby asks as Trina digs through Tori's closet.
"Like she cares." Tori says, rolling her eyes as the older twin laughs. "If you take any of the new shirts, sweaters, jackets, pants, shorts, or shoes, I'm shooting you with dad's extra gun!" Tori yells at Trina, who's in the back of the closet rifling through the clothes.
"But the new purple one would look so great on me!" Trina whines, walking back into the room with the purple shirt in question, tag still on, in hand.
"Put it back or I'll break your arm like I almost did to Feckner when I took the title." Shelby adds in, coming to her twin's defense.
"Oh, come on!" Trina says, tossing the shirt on the bed before walking in and grabbing an older, but still relatively new, shirt of her sister's.
"Think she'll be mad if I let you wear it to dinner tonight?" Tori asks, picking up the shirt and smirking.
"You and I both know she'll be pissed if you do." Shelby says, laughing.
"True." Tori says, tossing the shirt to Shelby.
"What time's the reservation?" Shelby says, laughing as she takes off the belly shirt she's wearing, undoing her blue strapless bra and digging through her sister's underwear drawer for one better suited for the shirt.
"7. We have an hour before mom and dad come home, then another two after that to be ready. You want to shower first?" Tori answers, grabbing a shirt, same style as the purple one Shelby's putting on, but in a yellowish orange.
"Sure." Shelby says, leaving the shirt on the desk and putting the one she came in with on. "I'm glad we're the same size." She adds, grabbing a pair of panties, socks, and a pair of black dress pants from Tori's closet.
"Me too. And I'm glad you ask before borrowing." Tori says, grabbing a change of clothes for herself. "And even though you didn't ask, you still knew I'd allow it." She points out, smiling.
"Twin telepathy." Shelby says, her tone serious, as she heads for the door. "Can you grab my suitcase from my room? I don't want Trina going though it while I shower." She asks, stopping at the open door.
"Sure." Tori says, laughing, as she stands up. "It'll be under my bed." She says, following Shelby out the door, flinching when she hears Trina downstairs singing.
"Remember when I knocked that Russian girl's teeth out?" Shelby asks, staring at the stairs with a hint of fear in her voice. "She sounded better after losing her teeth that Trina does now." She continues after Tori nods.
"Just don't let Trina hear that." Tori says, rolling her eyes, as she heads for Shelby's room, which is across from hers, to grab the suitcase.
Twenty minutes later, Shelby walks into Tori's room, dry and hair and make up done, dressed in her clothes. "Hey, is Trina practicing with your boyfriend today?" Shelby asks with a smirk, putting an empathis on boyfriend, as she tosses her dirty clothes and towels in the clothes basket in the closet.
"I don't have a boyfriend?" Tori asks, confused, as she stands up.
"That André dude? With how you were talking, I thought you two were a thing." Shelby says, keeping her smile hidden.
"He's just a friend." Tori says, rolling her eyes. "Just because I say he's awesome at writing music and playing piano, doesn't mean anything." She says, collecting her clothes. "Just that he's good."
"Sure." Shelby says, rolling her eyes. "Anyway, answer my question."
"He's here now." Tori says, smirking at her sister. "You know, I'm supposed to go down and help them, but I need to shower. Why don't you go down?" She asks, quickly leaving her room before Shelby can respond.
"What the hell just happened?" Shelby asks, staring at the empty door, confused at what just happened.
Next chapter will have a bit of Shelby meeting André, though only Trina will know. André will just think it's Tori. It'll also have the dinner with the family.
We'll also hear a few differences between Tori and Shelby that the family use to know who's who, something pointed out to me in a review that even identical twins have differences, . (Such as Tia and Tamera Mowry from the show 'Sister, Sister', where one has a mole on her cheek, and the other has no mole.)
Thank you for reading. I can't promise the next chapters will be as long as this. If there are any spelling mistakes, please let me know.
Blessed Be.