Voodoo Curse

Disclaimer: Don't own Victorious

A/N: Short chapter for you, so it gets put up now XD

Chapter 10 (Poker Night)

Jade felt the icy glare of her sister upon her as she sat amongst Tori's friends at the table. She attempted to focus her attention on the cards in her hands while playing poker with the others, but was distracted by thoughts of what her sister might be scheming.

"I think you need to lie down," David said to his wife. Jade's eyes squinted and slid to the corners of her sockets. "You're worrying too much about a small coincidence."

"Do you take me for an idiot?" Holly asked. "It's no coincidence. Same names, same appearance, and I spoke with them already. I think I know my sister." Jade rolled her eyes and started to smirk. If David didn't believe his own wife, then maybe that was an advantage. Holly was on her own. "I'm not crazy, David."

"That's up for debate," Jade thought. She felt someone nudge her side and glanced to see Beck pointing to the three cards on the table. "Oh, I check." Beck nodded and tapped the table twice, signaling Andre to flip the next card. "So Cat, have you heard anything more from your grandmother about that house?"

"Not really," Cat replied. Tori's eyes darted over and the girl shifted uncomfortably in her chair. Jade caught the movement and for the moment she was sorry to bring up the home. By now the sisters likely knew what home Cat and the others had gone to, so she wanted to speak as little as possible about it around them. "You are oddly curious about it."

Tori raised her cards in front of her face, mumbling into them. "Seems like somebody's living there now." Jade flinched and Beck turned his attention to their daughter. "I saw you guys when you visited that place, I didn't say anything about it."

"You saw us?"

"I go by that house a lot. I have since I was a kid. I was watching the house when you showed up. Figured you were just interested in abandoned homes." Tori lowered the cards, revealing a discouraging frown. "Last time I went by, it was fixed up like someone was living there now."

"I imagine it's still owned by the family." Jade dropped the cards to her lap and folded her hand over them. She didn't have to ask why Tori went by the house so frequently, especially if the girl felt a connection to it or knew it was where her own family lived. "It was just something we were curious to see."

Tori likely felt the group had been intruding into her family home, even though she didn't live there any longer. "Why do you go by it so much?" Andre inquired. "It was just an old beat up home."

"I don't know." A husky breath rolled from Tori's lips and she averted her gaze. "Guess I've been fascinated with abandoned places." Andre smiled faintly and reached his hand over to the girl's shoulder.

"We could probably go back if you wanted. Check it out. If someone is living there, maybe they'll let us see the place again?"

Jade stifled a laugh and raised her cards up to shield her grin from the rest. There was zero chance that she'd ever let them into the house. Especially since it might freak certain people out.

Beck moved back slowly, sliding his hand across the table and turning a chilling glare onto Andre. "I don't Andre. Whoever's living in that house might not want to let you or Robbie back in if they knew you two were thinking of stealing from them."

Jade reached for his knee. Her eyelids fell halfway and she gazed at her husband with concern. "Honey…not now." She knew he didn't like either of the boys, but he had to stop getting so irritated. They didn't know who he was and wouldn't understand why he was so angry with them.

She was angry at them as well, especially after hearing Robbie was the one stalking Tori outside the home, but she had to do her best to hold back. Beck needed to do the same.

Jade was worried about him and how he was coping with everything. She knew he was taking it harder than he was admitting, he couldn't be calm under extreme pressure like this, especially not when she was freaking out as much as she was.

Beck looked beyond her and at the older couple standing nearby. "How come they haven't thrown us out yet?" He whispered. "You'd think your sister would-"

"She knows these are our kids." Holly seemed to have enough grace and concern to let Jade spend time with her children whether she liked it or not. Who was she to complain? "She probably feels some guilt for the last fifteen years."

"Maybe…"

Jade peered at the cards on the table, then the ones in her hand. "I fold." She held out as long as possible, but the cards she had couldn't win anything. Beck flashed a toothy grin and pushed forward a chip worth $100.

"I raise the bet." The others started to groan, but Jade simply smirked with pride. Back in the day when Beck and Erwin weren't cruising the town-or picking up chicks as they did before she came along-they would play a number of card games.

It wasn't so much luck as it was he knew how to read people and piece together the strategies that helped him to see what others may possibly have. "Confident there, Beck?" Tori smirked at him and called his bet. "You guys really should play with my sister, she's really good at poker. She used to play solitaire all the time when she was a kid…collected pokemon cards all the time too."

"Fascinating. I collected baseball cards when I was a kid." Beck crossed his arms and furrowed his brow. "I wonder what they're worth now."

"Assuming you still have them," Jade replied in a casual tone. She remembered his baseball card collection; he had several rare cards that would likely be worth a good amount in this day and age, but she hadn't seen them in a long time.

"You don't remember, Jade?" She shook her head and he started to sigh. "I sold them. I sold a lot of them and gave the rest to mom so she could put them in a safety deposit box."

Her mouth formed an oval and she brought her hand to her head. "Oh. I can't believe I forgot about that." He'd sold a good handful of them to help pay for their wedding, since he didn't want their parents paying for everything.

"Well dear, we have been forgetting a lot of things lately…"

Andre hunched himself forward and stared at the pair with slanted eyes. "Geez you two talk like a married couple." Jade opened her mouth, wanting to tell him to shut up, but held back and shook her head. "An old, married couple."

She heard her sister chortle and shot a glare at the woman. She turned her eyes back to Andre, shifting herself in her chair and holding her burning glare until he turned away. "So Andre. Are you calling us old?" Andre raised his hands up as though defending himself from an attack.

"No, I'm just saying it's different. Nice, even. I mean hell, you guys talk like you're extremely close-as though you've been together for ages." He lowered his hands with a sigh. "I'd be lucky if I could even talk on a dating level with girls I go out with, but they hardly even last more than a few days."

"Well." Beck flashed an icy smirk and his eyelids sank halfway. "Maybe if you were more respectful towards women, your dates would actually last longer than they do." Andre frowned and Robbie let out a mocking laugh while slapping the man on the shoulder. "Oh you're not in the clear either, Robert…"

Robbie cringed and appeared to sink in the chair. Jade would be less irritated with him if not for the whole stalking bit, but she wasn't going to try and tell Tori not to be friends with the man.

After all, Tori could legitimately tell her with full belief and confidence that she 'wasn't her mother'. Jade was in no position to tell her daughter what to do, and she knew it.

"Dude." Andre crossed his arms and his brow started to furrow. "Are you still bent up over me calling Trina crazy? I don't get it, she's not even your girlfriend, man."

Holly's eyes darted over and Jade watched the woman place a hand over David's leg, causing him to raise his head and turn his attention to the game. "It has nothing to do with who my girlfriend is." His chair scraped against the tiled floor as he pushed back with his foot. "It has to do with your attitude towards women in general. It's disrespectful, demeaning, derogatory, and all around hateful. Immature. Your parents did a poor job teaching you manners."

"Excuse me?" Andre scoffed and brought his hand up to his chest. "I do not have a problem with women." Holly started pounding her palm against David's leg, and a worried expression came over her. Jade sensed the woman's anxiety as she was nervous herself, it didn't take much to see where this was leading, but she didn't know how to defuse the situation.

"Boys let's not argue right now," she said in an attempt to distract them from the conversation.

"If you knew anything about women…" Andre stood from his chair and glared into Beck's eyes. "You'd know not to disrespect your woman by caring more about whether or not another girl's been disrespected."

Beck cleared his throat and started to stand. He closed his eyes and took a slow and calm breath. "Jade understands. You have very little idea what you're talking about and who you're talking to." Jade clenched her eyes and brought her hand to her forehead, groaning softly.

"Oh yeah?" Andre crossed his arms and started to laugh. "Look man, I meant no disrespect. Hey Trina's attractive and all, okay? I mean she might be crazy, but at least she's fuckable right?" Her heart stopped and Andre froze, realizing what he just said. David tensed and Holly's eyes expanded. "I didn't mean that! It slipped out."

Beck pushed his cheek out with his tongue and looked down at his chair. He whistled softly while sliding his fingers along the top. "Well Andre." Jade felt a rush of anger shooting through her veins, but she didn't need to act on it as it was already too late to keep Beck from acting.

"Andre," she spoke with a calm and trembling tone. Her chest and shoulders rose and her head twisted around as he peered at her. "You have less than five seconds to start running for that door."

It came fast and it came hard, but within seconds Andre was on the ground cradling his face from Beck's powerful right hook. Jade rose and put her hands to Beck's chest, holding him back as he tried to lunge for Andre.

The others at the table rose, but each stood like statues, watching as Andre looked up in horror.

David came next, picking Andre off the ground and shoving him into the counter. The boy screamed out in pain and tried profusely to apologize as the man locked his wrists behind his back.

"You're leaving my home now," David said with a growl. "Before my wife decides to handle you herself, and believe me, she's a lot scarier than I am."

"I didn't mean it!" Andre cried out as David opened the door and pushed him to the doorway. More shocking was when he took a step back and kicked his foot into Andre's back, forcing the boy to stumble and fall off the front porch.

Tori pulled her hands over her mouth and searched the room with frantic eyes as a sudden hush fell over everyone. David turned around and pointed to Robbie.

"You can go as well." Robbie gasped out and David jerked his thumb over his shoulder. "I've held my tongue when I heard you were hiding in my back yard the other night, but it's clear you and the other boy are causing some friction here. So get out of my house, before anything else happens tonight." His tone was threatening and venom seemed to drip from his lips as his sharp glare cut into the puppet holder.

"Yes sir!" Robbie rushed out of the room and David glanced at the others, huffing angrily.

"Poker night is over. Go home."

Well, thoughts?