Disclaimer: The show Victorious its characters and other associated copyrights are property of someone else and not me.
Unfairly Judged
Chapter 16 – El Santo
No One's POV
Tori awoke the next morning in a rather good mood. It was Saturday of course and that would be enough to put anyone in a good mood. The real reason of course was that the practice date had gone very well.
It was around 9:30 when she finally came downstairs. Trina was sitting on the couch watching one of her reality shows, Tori didn't know which one.
"So how did your practice date go last night? I take she let you live." Quipped Trina, with a heavy dose of sarcasm in her voice."
Slightly annoyed, and wanting her sister to dampen her spirits, Tori turned right around and began to head back up the stairs.
"Wait Tori, Please."
Stopping at the top of the stairs, Tori turned her head. "Why should I."
"Look, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said that. I know you want all this to go right. "
"I do." Said Tori, with a curt nod.
"I know I it will take a while for us to be ok again. We can start by you telling me how it went."
"Can you keep the sarcasm to a minimum."
"To a minimum, I promise."
Giving her sister a chance, Tori came down the stairs and recounted the events of the previous night. Trina listened carefully, with only a mild scowl on her face.
"So what do you think?" Asked Tori as she braced herself for a snide reply.
"I'm glad it went well for you. All else I can say is just be careful. She's …." Trina paused as she tried to put it in more diplomatic.
"Different."
Appreciating Trina's restraint, Tori smiled. "Thank you. I'm wondering should I call her today. Is it too soon. I've been wanting to call her since I got up, but I'm just not sure."
"I thought this wasn't a real date?"
"It wasn't, but I want another not real date."
Trina was about to speak when the Katy Perry ringtone of Tori's phone, sounded.
Grabbing her phone, Tori looked. "A text from Jade."
Tori read it and half her smile morphed into a frown.
"What?" Responded Trina with a raised eyebrow.
"She's mocking me for agonizing over if I should call her or not. "
Trina leaned back and laughed. "I told you so."
Irritated, Tori picked up the phone and texted back.
"Was not. I was only considering it. You're not supposed to mock me."
Jade's reply was quick. "Says who? We're not really dating yet, so I can."
Not wanting to have a conversation over text, Tori called Jade.
"You're a total gank, you know that." Announced Tori as soon as Jade picked up.
"It's very poor manners to start a phone conversation with an insult." Replied Jade smugly.
"We had such a nice night and….."
"I have to ruin it by mocking you and making fun of you…blah…blah…blah. Get ready to go out."
"Why?"
"Uhh….let me think. Me ask you to get ready to go out. Most normal people would guess that I was going to take them out."
"What if I have plans?" Snapped Tori, a bit incensed by Jade's attitude.
"Don't care."
"What if I don't want to?"
"Don't care Vega. I want another practice date."
Tori quickly grinned, but decided to be a gank back. "How much money are you going to spend money on me?"
"I'll buy you a pack of gum. Be there in 30 minutes." Jade said, before hanging up.
Tori, realizing she hadn't put on her make up yet, ran upstairs and got ready. She had hoped to banter on the phone a bit longer, but much to her irritation, Jade denied her the chance.
Some 45 minutes after Jade hung up, Tori was waiting outside impatiently when Jade's car showed up.
Instead of getting right in, Tori stood by the door and poked her head into the window. "I'm not just going to come when summoned you know."
"I didn't summon you. I'm picking you up. There's a difference, nitwit."
"You know what I mean. I can't just be expected to drop everything when you want to come out."
"Yet you asked not just half an hour ago how much money I was going to spend on you. So you asking me how much money I'm going to spend on you, is acceptance to me of my offer to take you out. So you have lost the ability to complain or in other words. Get in the damn car."
Tori huffed in frustration. "That was 45 minutes ago, you specified 30 minutes. which means you're late. And you being late technically counts as a violation of our agreement to go out. So I can complain."
For a moment Jade scowled, then burst out laughing. "Ok, you got me. And a good point. I need to…."
Jade then grew somewhat serious as Tori got in the car. "be a bit careful about what I do. We've both made too many missteps already."
"I was just giving you a hard time. But you are right. Where are we going?"
"Going to have some fun."
"Fun?"
"Yes Vega, Fun." Quipped Jade, sounding just a bit annoyed. "Perhaps you've heard of it."
"I'm fun." Protested Tori.
Jade pulled away from the curb. "Yes, that punch in the face was horribly fun."
"I said I was sorry. You're still angry about that."
Jade grinned, but in a rather twisted way. "That and you standing me up as well and I will be probably for at least 8 or 9 years."
Tori who already was frowning, started to grow visibly sad. "I thought you had forgiven me."
"I did. But that doesn't mean I won't still be angry about it. I like anger; it's one of my favorite things. It makes me happy. I hold onto my anger."
Tori scratched her head. "So let me get this straight. Even though you've forgiven me, you're still angry at me. And you want to say angry, because you like it and you like me at the same time."
"Yes."
"That doesn't make any sense."
"Not my problem." Jade said with a shrug as she turned the corner.
"What if I make you angrier, will that make you happier."
"I'll just happily kill you then."
"OH!"
Sensing the odd conversation would only result in her frustration, Tori pushed Jade's illogic aside and asked.
"So what are we going to do?"
"Now I love horror, but the intensity of the stuff I love, you'll just have to get used to. You will. But until then, something a bit more fun. Combining my love of horror movies and you will keep this a secret, I'll hurt you if you don't, my love of Lucha Libre wrestling."
"The ones with the mask wrestlers."
"That's right. We'll have some lunch and then at 1:00 we'll see the immortal 1962 classic. Santo Vs. Las Mujeres Vampiro. They're having a special showing at the Grant street theatre today. They do it once a month. The film is in Spanish with English subtitles."
"You like masked wrestling? Well I can see the violence part appealing to you."
"It's fun. What else can I say. When the show the Lucha films, people wear masks, yell stuff at the screens, it's great fun and that's what we need."
Tori had heard of Lucha wrestling, had never seen it, nor was she a wrestling fan in general. But she agreed that fun was what they needed and it did sound fun.
For lunch, Jade took to her this small place that served chili-dogs. According to Jade, they served the best in the city. After a few bites, Tori found herself in agreement.
Now Jade had talked about remaining angry earlier. At lunch she seemed far from it. She was talkative, snarky and made an effort to ask questions about Tori and her interests.
After lunch they headed to the theatre. It was a smaller one screen theatre that showed art house and independent films mostly. The rest of the time, Jade explained, they showed old films.
The theatre had a festive atmosphere this day with various people wearing Lucador masks, particularly that of the films hero, El Santo. When asked, Jade told Tori he was one of the most popular and revered Luchador's of all time.
As they were finding their seat, Jade told the story. "In 1984, after he retired, when he was on a Mexican talk show, he shocked everyone by briefly removing his mask. Something he had never done. He died of a heart attack a week later. Some people believe, he knew he was nearing the end and in effect was bidding his fan's goodbye. His funeral was one of the biggest in Mexican history. They buried him in his mask. His son carries on his tradition."
Popcorn and drinks in hand, Tori and Jade sat down and readied to watch the movie. The scene reminded her of Rocky Horror a bit, with people cheering El Santo on and shouting insults at the villains. Jade along the way, told her a bit more about the world of Masked wrestlers.
As the movie went on, Tori noticed that Jade seemed to relax somewhat and allow herself to get into the movie. Tori, who was enjoying the movie herself, began to get into the movie herself. Finally at the big climax when El Santo burns the female vampires in their coffins, Jade got so excited that she squealed with Joy and hugged Tori.
Before Tori could respond, Jade quickly let go and scowled. "If you tell anyone about this, I'll destroy you."
Tori smiled and crossed her heart.
The movie ended shortly after and once again Jade seemed to be in a good mood. While both girls had a great time, they also had homework to do. So, they reluctantly decided to call it a day.
As they pulled out of the theatre parking lot, Jade smiled. Though Tori noticed it was a slightly nervous smile. "I know this was all last minute Tori, but thank you for coming out with me."
"I really had fun Jade. It was a fun movie and you know your stuff. Thank you."
Jade paused for a moment and a strange and uneasy silence seemed to quickly permeate the car. Tori sensed that Jade wanted to say something and decided to wait to say something.
But Jade said nothing, continuing to shift in her seat as she drove.
"Is something wrong?" Asked Tori, after a few tense minutes.
"I have a confession to make."
"Go ahead. You can say anything."
"I'm supposed to be this fierce person. I watch the goriest of horror films without batting an eye. Yet right now, I'm nervous as hell."
"Just say what you want to say Jade. I'm listening."
"The reason I wanted to take you out today, almost with no warning was that I was afraid that last night and how well everything went so well, was a fluke."
"You really thought that?" Replied Tori, looking concerned.
"No, I didn't want to think that. I was just afraid of that. I woke up this morning, feeling really great about last night, but I suddenly started to kind of panic. I was afraid that last night was just a one off thing. It's hard to admit this, but I really want this to work. I know you feel bad and I said a lot of stuff about still being angry. That's not totally true. I'm more hurt than angry and as a result a bit afraid."
"That I'll stand you up again."
"Actually, that I'll do something or I'll screw up. You made a mistake and I reacted quite fiercely. I can be that way sometimes. I needed to see you today. I needed to know that we could really be good together."
Tori could tell, simply by how nervous she sounded, that Jade really meant what she said. It touched her and made her feel special.
Taking a risk, Tori reached out and slipped her fingers into Jade's hand. The Goth accepted her tan finders readily, threading them amongst her own.
In her best and reassuring voice, Tori spoke. "Jade, I can tell this is very important to you. You're really putting yourself out there for me. To prove that you really mean what you say. I can't tell you how sorry I am that I misjudged you at first and I will probably always feel bad about it. But this is important to me too. I can't stress that enough. Nothing is guaranteed but I feel that if we trust and believe in each other, we can be together."
Jade smiled again, Tori's words of reassurance having done their job. "Thank you."
"You're welcome Jade."
"You know Vega. We may be ready to have a real date now."
Tori looked down at their intertwined fingers and smiled broadly. "I think we just did."
Hope you all like this new chapter. Let me know what you think.
Thanks to Invader Johnny.
Translation "Las Mujeres Vampiro." = The Vampire Women