Disclaimer: The show Victorious, its characters and other associated copyrights are property of someone else and not me.

Unfairly Judged.

Chapter 11 – No beast so fierce.

No one's POV.

Quite surprised about Jade's sudden volunteering to work with her, the Latina looked over to Jade and got a nod in reply.

Moments later when the bell rang, Tori walked over to Jade and cautiously said. "You want to work with me?"

Jade quickly grunted in annoyance. "What are you deaf now? That's what I just said."

"I….I….I just wasn't sure…you know you and I we, aren't really….I mean…we're."

Not waiting for Tori to finish speaking, Jade gently pushed her out the door. "Bla Bla Bla, why don't you try and actually forming a complete thought, before you spout words like a crazy person. Vega, walk with me."

Tori nodded and walked on. "I chose you because as I see it, is the next step in things. I will tell you my feelings are still hurt and I'm sure yours are as well. But I think we've both made an honest effort and can try to work together. Note, this is not a date. We will keep this strictly business. Understand. I want to see if we can work together without someone ending up in a pool of blood and it won't be me."

Tori briefly frowned, but then realized this was a sign of Jade returning to a semblance of her former self. But the question was, how much her former self would she be.

"Ok. I'm fine with that."

"We're going a horror radio show. You also ok with that?"

"I kind a figured I didn't have a choice in the matter."

Jade suddenly closed her mouth and for a moment appeared to think. Finally, she half took a deep breath and began to speak. "Do you want to do something different? I'm willing to listen."

Appreciative of Jade offering to possibly do something different, Tori smiled. "No, we can do horror. It sounds kind of fun. Now days, it's mostly just torture porn, with one nameless teen after another being butchered by some unkilliable killer. I can imagine even you'd get tired of the same old stuff after a while. Am I right?"

Jade smirked in approval. "Actually, you are. I love horror and I love gore, but sometimes, the only imagination they use in how the victim gets slaughtered and it does get tiresome eventually, I dare even say boring sometimes. Especially if the killer is always the same. There's a scene in the 1990 movie, Exorcist III where the viewer sees the action at a nurse's station, from down a long hallway. It's a killing scene, yet you neither see the victim killed or so much as one drop of blood. But It remains one of the most effective and scary scenes in modern horror. That used some serious imagination and the scene itself uses the viewer's imagination to pull it off. That is something I'd like to do. You game."

"That sounds fun."

"Good. I've got a bunch of old horror radio shows on mp3. I'm going to send you a couple of the very good ones. Ones that you won't see the ending coming. Scary and creepy as hell."

"Which ones?"

"I'll send you three when I get home. Not sure yet, but they'll be good. How about you listen to them on your own, take some notes and we talk tomorrow about what we want to do."

Tori nodded enthusiastically. "I'll do it. You're such a great writer, I'm sure we could really come up with something good."

Pleased with the comment and Tori's willingness to do horror, Jade smiled. "Thank you."

The pair parted and the rest of the day went rather uneventfully. Though as it progressed, Jade began to think of the matter of respect. She wanted to be respected for her talents but finding out her actions far overshadowed them, really hurt. It all tied into Beck's telling her to occasionally show some humanity.

While things where progressing with Tori and her friends, Jade looking around, realized that most if not all the student body held her in very low regard. She saw looks of contempt and fear everywhere she went. At first she enjoyed being feared, but lately it seemed to have lost a bit of its luster.

It was a problem, but one she really didn't know how to approach. For the most part her persona she projected was in fact her, but she also wasn't the kind of person who wore their heart on their sleeve. Emotionally, Jade in some respects was a rather private person.

As the day ended, she found herself wrestling with the problem, when ahead of her she happened to see something fall out of the purse of a blonde haired freshman girl, in what she thought to be an ugly, lavender sweater, ahead of her. It appeared to be a small, notepad, with writing on it. The girl had tilted her purse in just the right way, and it fell out. But the girl didn't notice and kept going.

Normally, Jade would have laughed and just kept going, but this time, she stopped. Looking down, she pondered. "I've lost things, I hate losing things."

But still, Jade didn't really feel the need to be good. She felt no connection to that person.

Curious, she picked it up and looked at the pad, which appeared to have detailed instructions on how to take care of someone's dog; where the food was kept, how often they liked to go out, how often to give the dog it's medicine and how, etc. Jade concluded that the girl must have be taking care of someone's dog.

Suddenly Jade found herself remembering her childhood dog, Jason Voorhees. She loved Jason and Jason loved her, until he got sick and died. It was a sad memory and she found herself not wanting someone else to have a similar memory. It just didn't sit right.

"It's a small deed, but a deed none the less." Jade muttere,d as she found herself walking towards the girl.

"Hey blonde girl in the ugly lavender sweater."

Immediately, the girl stopped, turned and gave Jade a look that as a mixture of scorn and fear. "I didn't do anything to you."

Jade held out the notepad. "No you didn't, but you dropped this. It fell from your purse."

As if it was radioactive, the girl, carefully took the notepad and noticed it was no longer in her purse. "I'm dog sitting, for my neighbor….but you…why?"

Not getting quite the reaction she expected, Jade huffed. "The polite thing is, to say, thank you."

Looking rather surprised and confused, the girl muttered, "Thank you. I still don't understand. You don't do these things."

"You don't have understand, but if this helps, take a quote from Shakespeare. No beast so fierce but knows some touch of pity. Richard the III, Act1, scene 2."

Jade then walked off, leaving the confused girl to her own thoughts. It was a good act and though not something she wanted to do all the time, Jade concluded it made her less boring. It also made her unpredictable and gave her a satisfied feeling. That done, she started to think about what horror episodes to send Tori.

A couple hours later Tori, who was at home, doing her math, got a email from Jade.

"Vega. I've selected three horror radio shows to listen too and attached them to this email. They're all quite good and the best part the action takes place in your mind."

The three were.

1) Ghost Hunt – from the series "Suspense" 06/23/49

2) The Thing on the Fourble Board – From the series "Quiet Please" 8/09/48

3) "Lancerford House" – From the South African series – "Beyond Midnight" 1/24/69

Jade also included the world famous, "War of the Worlds" Broadcast from 1938 which actually managed to convince some people that the Earth was being invaded by Martians.

So eagerly, Tori lay in her bed, put her head phones on and began to listen to the old stories. She half expected them be ultra-corny or very amateurish, like something out of some bad 50's sci-fi program. But much to her surprise they quickly drew her in.

Ghost hunt was the granddaddy of all the found footage movies, that are popular today. Telling the story of a rather upbeat radio announcer who decides to spend the night in a haunted house and record everything he sees and does. He gets much more than he bargained for.

The thing on the Foruble board was a eerie tale of a oil worker who finds a creature from under the earth and the twist ending, caught Tori off guard.

The third was the story of man who rented a house with a rather ugly green vase on a table. God help anyone who dare disturb, that particular vase.

The fourth was just fun and Tori could easily imagine people believing these were real. But in each case, Tori was very entertained and actually scared in some parts. She found herself wanting more. She also liked them as she realized she could listen to the drama's while she was doing other things, such as chores.

By the time she arrived the next morning, she was full of ideas. As soon as she arrived, she walked straight up to Jade's locker.

"I loved the shows you sent me. They were very good, thank you."

"I'm glad, which was your favorite?"

"I liked the Lancerford house one. It was so, original. What did you listen too."

"A couple from the 30's series, The Witches Tale and one from a show called, "The Black Mass" That's from the 60's."

"I have an idea." Said Tori, excitedly.

Jade raised an eyebrow. "Do you. Shoot."

"In the vein of War of the Worlds and Ghost hunt, we do a show where a reporter is doing a story on some strange thing and what happens to said reporter. Sort of a, curiosity got the cat sort of deal."

Jade scrunched her face for a second, then brushed a strand of hair behind her ear. "I like that. I like that a lot. How about I think of a general plot and kind of hammer it out, tonight. Then if we finish we can record it tomorrow night."

Jade spent the rest of the day working out various plots that would fit into Tori's overall framework. By the end of the day, she came up with the idea of a top radio reporter, who after pissing his boss off, gets assigned to a flower show. Something the arrogant reporter regards as as beneath him. The reporter goes into the show and treats the people and flowers with contempt, but soon finds that one person's rather innocent looking flowers, don't like being insulted."

Jade ran the story past Tori at the end of the day and she liked it. So Jade arranged for Tori to come over that evening and work on the project. Tori arrived at the allotted time and despite some nervousness, got right to work. It wasn't a date and Tori wanted to prove that she could work well with Jade. She made a point to work very hard at that. She avoided all personal talk and was as Jade requested, strictly business. Jade who was also nervous, was also just business, but did try to be a good host and offered Tori something to drink. There was still a considerable level of discomfort between them but each knew that things took time.

So they sat in Jade's room for nearly two hours discussing and sometimes bickering about the script as they worked it out. But each felt that they managed to work well and they had a rough draft finished.

The next night, Tori came over again and while both were just business, they again felt that despite their differences and Jade's occasional insult, they managed to work well together.

On the third night, which was a Saturday, they gathered what sound effects they needed and recorded it at Tori's house. As she had a much better recording system for her music. Jade was a bit apprehensive about Tori's family, but as assured, no one else would be home.

It took just over an hour and a half to record the 4 minute and 50 second radio play. The sound effects didn't work right at first and each of them blew a few takes, but each felt that real progress had been made, not to mention they grew much more comfortable with each other.

When all was said and done, Jade thanked Tori for being so professional and went home. All that needed to be done was for Tori to do some last minute editing and email it to Sikowitz. Tori did that Sunday night.

Things had gone smoothly and both Tori and Jade felt good about how things had gone.

Monday morning, the gathered in Sikowitz's class and both girls were eager to hear the reaction to their play.

"Children." Announced Sikowitz. "Today we will hear your plays, but one small snag. I have all your radio plays, with the exception of Jade and Tori's."

Jade quickly glared at Tori. "What gives? You were supposed to send that last night."

Tori was dumbfounded and quickly went to check her email. Before she could, Sikowitz with an innocent expression put a hand on Tori's shoulder. "That nice gif of two hand's holding each other, along with the nice poem. You emailed last night. It was very touching. But that still won't get you out of having to turn in your assignment."

There are times in one's life when a person realizes that not only have they messed up, but messed up so badly, that they literally want to, die on the spot. Today was one of those days. Tori had made that gif along with quasi romantic poem to send to Jade when they actually went on their first date. Now Tori, to her utter horror, realized that she had sent Sikowitz the wrong file.

Turning Beet red and slinking down in her chair, in utter humiliation, Tori did her best to not notice the laughter from the rest of the class, nor the rather hostile glare of Jade aimed squarely at her head.

"Now Children, Don't laugh at Tori. It was actually a rather beautiful and poem that showed lots of talent." He then pulled out his phone. "Please let me read it…"

"NOOO!" Tori shrieked as she shot up out of her chair.

Looking disappointed, Sikowitz, turned to Tori. "I can…."

Tori wanted to die and the worst part was that she was sure Jade would make that happen in a very short amount of time. But stills she needed to stop the humiliation.

"I…meant it sort of privately….from a student to his honored mentor….and don't you have to play the other presentations…..I just forgot to send mine. I was so involved in the poem I…kind of forgot. I'll ….I'll send it now." Croaked the Latina, as she pulled out her phone and then sent the correct one.

Sikowitz nodded. "Good point. "Now onto the show….."

Between the humiliation, the snickering, and Rex quietly singing, "Tori and Sikowitz, sitting in a tree…" the rest of the class was pretty much the longest in her life. She barely listened to any of the presentations, as she was to mortified to do much else than stare at the chalkboard.

As soon as the bell rang, Tori grabbed her stuff in an attempt to flee the classroom, but Jade quickly grabbed her arm.

"Miss Vega." Said the Goth, in sickingly sweet tone of voice. "May I have a word with you?"

"I don't have a choice, don't I?"

Ignoring the question, Jade escorted Tori out of the room and towards her locker.

"Look Jade. I'm sorry….I messed up….that wasn't meant for you...I mean him….it was meant for you….but not now…please don't kill me."

Jade however didn't say a word and when they arrived at Jade's locker a few seconds later, the Goth unexpectedly said. "Why should I kill you?"

Tori cringed. "Because I messed up."

"Yes you messed up. Yes you sent the wrong file. But, just a few short months ago, I was utterly humiliated and now you're humiliated. So actually, I feel slightly vindicated as now they'll be talking about you and not me….at least until someone else royally fucks up. Then you'll be off the hook. But for now, I'm off the hook. I was just messing with you. Just calm down, relax. The world hasn't ended. I like you, remember. People make mistakes and I can see you made one."

"I'm not dead." Stammered Tori.

Opening her locker, Jade rummaged around for something. "You don't look dead. Calm down. You may have been too humiliated to notice, but the class was utterly gripped when he played our play. We got an A. "

"I…I…didn't notice…."

"You see, you didn't do it intentionally, but you helped even us out. Not to mention you worked very hard at trying to be professional and work well with me….Ah…here it is."

Jade then pulled out a large, expensive looking and brand new leather bag and handed it to Tori. "I ruined your previous bag. In honor of you working with me so well and the fact that I ruined your previous bag. Here is a replacement."

Still half in shock, Tori looked at the bag, only to realize it was a designer bag, not to mention she absolutely loved it.

"I only paid 19 dollars for my old bag….this one is really expensive."

"Vega, did you happen to notice my house is really big and full of antiques and other expensive things."

"Kind of."

"My family's loaded. That bag not only replaces the one I ruined, but hopefully will make up for the rest of the stuff I did. Plus it may help you get over your utter humiliation, which I will admit I do find funny. I hope you like it, the bag that is. I'm in a good mood and think I'm going to go out on a limb here and please don't make me regret this….but Tori will you go out with me tomorrow night."

Tori, who wanted to die just a few minutes earlier, grinned like a fool. "Yes."

The radio shows listed in this episode are all real and in my opinion, all very good. Give them a listen.

The hallway scene that Jade describes is from the 1990 movie, Exorcist III If you want to see it, go to youtube and do a search for. "Exorcist III nurses station" It's a great example of a ultra-scary scene that does not show one single drop of blood.

Thanks to Nikita aka cocotigressx for the idea. Hope things work out. Just remember, things will be alright.