Voodoo Curse
Disclaimer: Don't own Victorious
A/N:
Chapter 5 (Finding a Connection)
After the class ended, Beck and Jade ran to catch Tori before she took off to go home. To their fortune, she was standing in the main hallway before the school's exit. With her was Trina, giving her a sisterly hug. Jade extended her hand, calling out to the girls. "Tori, over here. Do you have a minute?"
Trina slid back from her sister, placing a protective hand on Tori's shoulder while turning her head. Her eyes opened wide for a second and her eyebrows fell flat above her eyes. "That's her?" Trina asked to her sister. Jade nearly collapsed at the shock of hearing the anger in Trina's voice.
It was a terrible way to come across to her own child, but they didn't know.
Trina stepped in front of Tori and crossed her arms. Tori bowed her head, letting her hair fall forward. The girl swept her hair back and tucked it gently behind her ear. "You're the girl with the music box in her locker." Trina rolled her head to the right and scanned Jade up and down. "You're the reason my sister was almost ready to give up and go back to Sherwood? She deserves this school."
Jade held her breath and looked to Beck for support. His shoulders fell and he extended his hand. "You got yourself into this Jade, I can't apologize for you." She felt a stab of anger, but it was washed away by understanding. "You know we have to try and keep control." He smirked and leaned into her. "It's astounding, isn't it? Time is fleeting…Let's keep madness from taking control of us, dear."
She grunted with disgust and rolled her eyes. "Not now, Beck." She walked forward, stopping as flashes of that movie hit her mind. It was hardly the time to think about it. Beck had been obsessed with that movie and watched it every year since it came out in '75. To the point he would even watch it regularly once their children were born.
Trina's eyebrows rose and her index finger poked out towards Beck. "Good movie." Beck's face lit up with joy and Jade breathed out a despairing sigh. "Last Halloween when Tori was going to Sherwood, I convinced her to do a flash mob to the time warp song in her science class."
Beck laughed openly. "You don't say. What did her teacher say?"
"He got in on it." Trina looked back at her sister. "Didn't he?" Tori raised her head up and nodded. The girl's lips spread into a wide grin and she moved up next to Trina.
"It was amazing," Tori chimed, "Mr. Luyster took over as the professor's part. Our entire class actually did it during the school lunch period. You forgot that, Trina. It started in my science class, then we decided to go into the cafeteria, going from class to class." Tori threw her head back, laughing excitedly. "It was the best Halloween ever."
Trina chuckled softly and shook her head as she swept her hair over her shoulder. "It was pretty great, I wanted to be there but I had an appointment. I don't know why, but we've always loved that movie and that dance number."
Beck rushed forward with excitement, gazing proudly upon his two daughters. "You two should consider doing it here! Erw-Sikowitz would probably love to do the professor's bit in the Time Warp."
Jade tucked her hand under her chin and listened, amazed. She couldn't interrupt when her husband found something to connect to his daughters with, nor did she want to. Seeing him light up like this was pleasing, and there was no way of knowing whether or not they would ever be able to fix things, so it was crucial in her eyes to make these bonds while they lasted.
Tori looked away as Trina and Beck went on to discuss the Rocky Picture Horror Show, and moved meekly towards Jade. "My sister's a bigger fan than I am, I think." Tori gripped her wrist before her waist and a timid smile graced her lips.
The nervousness in her eyes stung Jade, striking her with a painful guilt. "I'm sorry," Jade said abruptly. Tori's eyebrows rose and Jade had to resist the urge to hug her daughter. "I…might have overreacted this morning."
"No I'm sorry." Tori breathed in shakily and looked back at her sister. "I was just telling Trina what I was trying to do in class earlier, that I wanted to get back at you for earlier, and she scolded me for it. I guess I should be thankful nothing happened."
Her eyes darted over to beck and she cleared her throat. "Yeah…" Her lips slid into a smirk and she folded her arms neatly across her chest. "I think everyone's glad nothing happened. It was a weird moment."
"I know." Tori leaned forward, throwing her hand to her chest and starting to laugh. "Did you see the look on Mr. Sikowitz's face when I made that request? He looked ready to keel over!" Jade stifled a laugh and covered a growing smile with her hand.
"Yeah, I saw." Maybe Erwin got a bit old, but ages ago he would have been laughing his ass off at the concept of his best friend almost accidentally kissing his daughter. "He's really gotten stuffy these last few years."
"You know him?"
"Yeah I-" She looked out to the side and waited until an idea struck her like a light. "Have you ever seen the show, 'Boy Meets World'? From the early nineties?" Tori pursed her lips and clasped her left hip with her hand.
"I've seen a few reruns."
"You know the teacher? Mr. Feeny?"
"Yes."
"Mr. Sikowitz is like that for us." She lowered her hand and shrugged. "I guess he's always just been around." It was more true for Beck; the two men knew each other from close to childhood. Jade hadn't met the man until Beck brought him to a Pat Benatar concert she was attending in their first few years of high school.
She glanced at Beck, who was still talking to Trina about some of his favorite movies. Trina was now filling him in on the Terminator movies-of which there were new ones that had come out. Judging by his nervous fretting, he was going to want to watch any new movie that had come out in the last fifteen years.
Jade felt a spark of envy and looked at Tori with a smile. She wanted to find that common bond with her daughter as well. "Did you ever listen to Pat Benatar?" Tori's forehead crinkled and for a second, Jade was dismayed.
"Yes." Her heart shot up and her lips spread wide. "I'm actually a fan. Some of my friends from back at Sherwood would tease me, but I don't think she could ever fade." Tori's head tilted and her fingers snapped. "Love is a Battlefield is one of my all-time favorite songs."
"You don't say." Her heart skipped a beat and her thoughts drifted back to her first meeting with Beck. "Beck and I fell in love over that song. It's our song."
"Interesting choice."
"I had the strangest fixation with Pat Benatar growing up." She closed her eyes and hugged herself, swaying gently while thinking of the woman's songs. "Some days while cleaning the house, I'd put her on in the background for hours." Tori's eyes lit up with excitement and she started to laugh.
"Really? My mom was the same way, I'm told." Her muscles tensed with confusion and a new anger began to simmer within. Holly never liked Pat Benatar. She wanted to shout that at the top of her lungs, to scream that it was her thing.
"Your mom? Mrs. Vega?"
Tori's mouth formed an oval and her eyebrows arched high. "No. I mean my real mom." Tori's words almost floored her, washing away the anger and grief, and leaving only the confusion in her heart.
"Your-" She squinted and raised her hand to her chest. "Your real mom?" Could Holly have been honest with the girls? What did they know about her, and what did they know about Beck? "You mean your mother that raised you isn't your mom?"
Tori's eyebrows moved inward and she quickly crossed her arms. "Well she raised us, but no." There was an inexplicable sorrow in the girl's eyes, an indicator that this was a subject too sensitive to talk about. "We love her, we call her mom because she is essentially that, she's the woman that raised us even if it's out of obligation like Trina says."
Jade reached out to her, placing a gentle hand to Tori's shoulder in an attempt to console the girl. "I'm sorry if I'm bringing up something that's hard to talk about…" Tori raised her eyes and formed a sad smile.
"It's okay. I guess Trina has a harder time talking about it. I don't really know anything about my parents. Mom says they disappeared when I was just a baby, around Christmastime. Just a month before my first birthday, and a couple months before Trina's third. Other than that, mom outright refuses to talk about our parents."
"Oh…" Her hand slid down Tori's shoulder and she looked to the side as her heart beat slow against her chest. A somber feeling surrounded her as a fog might, and her once angered thoughts became concealed by doubt and confusion. "I'm sorry."
"It's okay. You asked."
"Yeah. I did…" She closed her eyes and shook her head. "I guess she never talks about the connection with your mother?"
"They were sisters. They had their good times and their bad times, like any pair of sisters, I guess. Trina and I, we've always wanted to know more, but like I said…mom doesn't talk about them."
"I-I can't imagine why." Her voice caught in her throat and a burning sensation grew beneath her eyelids, drawing her to sweep at it with her finger. "Maybe she didn't like her sister or something?"
"Wouldn't know."
It was a frequent thought that she'd been having, that her sister might hate her for whatever reason. She didn't want to acknowledge that possibility, or remotely fathom it, but she couldn't think of any other reason why her sister would cause her and her husband to essentially explode in front of their oldest daughter.
"If you ever saw her…" She closed her hands before her waist and looked into Tori's eyes closely. "Your mom. What would you say to her?" Tori looked down and to the right, considering for just a few seconds it seemed.
"Where did you go?" The girl's voice wavered for a bit and her eyebrows pushed up in the center of her forehead. "Why'd you leave us like that? Why did we never get to know who you were, and what happened?"
Her heart burst and she choked back on a sob. Her hands started to tremble, so she pocketed them and turned partially away from Tori.
Tori took a deep breath and pushed her hands through her hair. "Happier thoughts now." Jade swallowed air and looked up with a feigned smile. "Do you know that one guy? Andre Harris?"
"We've met."
"Well he's bringing a couple friends over to hang and talk about school, maybe you and Beck would like to join us?"
"I'd be happy to." She wanted to feel excited about this opportunity, but she couldn't bring herself to act on that joy when all she felt was a tremendous guilt and shallowness in her heart. "How did you come to know Andre?"
"He was in one of Trina's classes. She had that showcase she was supposed to perform in, and he was helping her. So I met him through that-just wait until you meet his crazy friends."
"Robbie and Cat?"
"Yes! You've met?"
"Oh yeah…" This would be an interesting afternoon for sure, especially considering the last time they met, she probably frightened Andre more than she should have. "So, when is everyone getting together?"
"In a couple hours. Trina and I are going to have dinner at this restaurant she likes to go to, then everyone's going to meet up at my place later."
"We'll be there, then." Tori smiled openly and told her the address of their place before leaving. To Jade's surprise, it was the same house that Holly lived at so long ago.
Beck approached her once the girls took off, he had a joyous expression on his face and was grinning like a proud father. "Our daughter's into martial arts, Jade. She likes the old classic singers and is an action movie buff."
Jade raised her eyebrows up and smirked at him. She was happy that he could find so much in common with their children, though not surprised. She didn't have the heart to tell him the things she talked about with Tori, for fear of knocking him off the pedestal he was on.
"Tori seems to be doing well too. I would have liked to talk to Trina, but I'm glad you got a chance to."
"Yeah." He took a deep breath and clapped his hands together. "You know…" His cheery expression became serious and he started to hum. "She informed me that she has had an on and off relationship with this guy she met at some camp a few years back, I want to meet this man." Jade rolled her eyes and smiled as she moved past him. "Seems just yesterday we were changing their diapers, and now they're growing up and dating people."
"It was yesterday." She knew he was only trying to make light the serious nature of their problem, and it might have worked if she hadn't learned all that she had. "We're going to spend some time with Tori this evening. The girls live at my sister's place."
"You mean your sister still lives in the same house?"
"Yes." Her hands fell to her hips and she glanced sideways at the school doors. The tears she'd been struggling to keep spilled from her eyes, and the numbness in her gut stretched out to the rest of her body. "The girls know we're their parents." Beck raised an eyebrow and stammered for a second.
"Say that again?"
"They know we're their parents." She closed her eyes and dropped her head. "I don't mean us, us, but Holly has told them essentially that she is their aunt. Tori says she's pretty sure her real mom and dad took off." She rolled back her head and raised her hand to her neck, cringing at the cold skin. "I don't know if Trina thinks the same or not, but I do know Holly refuses to talk about us to them."
"I guess I'm not surprised." His smile faded and a deep sadness flickered in his eyes. "I was thinking how we missed fifteen years of our daughters' lives, and now we can't even explain ourselves to them."
"I'm not so sure an explanation is even what they want."
They might like an explanation, but yeah, they probably don't want just explanations or excuses, and the truth might be a little harder to say. So, what are your thoughts? Think it's good they've been able to make this connection with their children? How about that Holly has in fact told the girls a little about their real parents? Maybe there's something more than what meets the eye. How do you think they should approach this? Should they tell Tori and Trina that they are, in fact, their parents? The girls might have trouble buying it, but at least they would know. At what cost would that come, however? Stick around