A/N: I couldn't help but meander on those first couple of days, much like the previous story, to establish everything.
But we will jump ahead here and there. I will do my best to illustrate where we are in the timeline. If the title wasn't a dead giveaway, instead of the course of a school year; this story is taking place during the three-month break. So, we will be in June for some time, but things will continue to heat up when we get to July and August!
Just keep that in mind.
BTW: next chapter of Stuntwoman is almost done and should be out tomorrow (FINGERS CROSSED!)
;-)
It was almost nine in the morning at the Barnes and Noble in The Grove, an upscale shopping district in West Hollywood.
Jade was setting up her station, employees stealing glances as they passed.
"You nervous?" asked Tori.
"Not nervous," Jade sighed. "It's just people...yech!"
The Latina grinned and squeezed her girlfriend's hand.
"Oh, but they're your fans!"
Tori in a moment of OCD straightened the stack of paperback books.
"Are you going to need me to hang out?" she asked.
"What do you mean?"
"You know...stand by my woman...for emotional support?"
Jade smirked.
"I'm your woman now?"
"Why is that hard to believe?" asked Tori.
"Hard to believe, no. More like inexplicably impossible," huffed Jade. "A hundred monkeys with a hundred typewriters couldn't have come up with us getting together!"
Tori squinted with a half-smile.
"Well, it's almost opening. Better step aside so I don't get trampled by the throng of fans."
"It's okay, babe," Jade said. "Just walk around like the girls."
"I promise to bring you a coffee on my way back."
Jade tilted her head with adoration.
"You know me so well, Vega."
Tori waved bye and started stalking the stacks.
Row after row of books for sale, usually bustling with way more people but since they haven't opened yet, there was an air of privacy. So much so, Tori wandered into non-fiction, which was broken up into sections. About a third of non-fiction could be considered "self-help" as they dealt with nutrition, spirituality, learning hobbies, etc.
The Latina eyed her surroundings as she backed into the area that harbored books on love and relationships.
Her brown eyes scanned the spines until one grabbed her attention, light grey with dark purple letters: THE MODERN SAPPHIC.
She bit her lip and took it off the shelf.
When it came to anything non-fiction, Tori had the habit of perusing through the table of contents in the front as well as the index in the back. Then she would randomly flip through and take quick snippets of what was inside. This was Tori's way of feeling around if a book was what she was looking for.
One word that was bold in the index was "Cunnilingus," which had related subjects in smaller text under it. Tori flipped to the page in bold.
"Huh, there's a whole chapter on this," she mused. "OH!"
A turn of the page revealed some very informative illustrations. They weren't titillating or gross, but they were graphic. Tori might as well had been leafing through a copy of Grey's Anatomy.
Tori visibly blushed and continued to read.
"Hey, mom! What are you reading?"
The woman yelped and closed her book, hiding the cover.
"MIA!" she chuckled nervously. "You scared me!"
"Sorry, I was..."
The teen quickly noticed the sign above her mom that these were the relationship books.
"You haven't seen Alice, have you?" she asked, acting quickly.
Tori shook her head no.
"She's...um...probably in the manga section like I thought. I'll meet up with you and Jade, OK!"
Mia skedaddled before Tori could say anything in agreement.
Tori let out a breath when her kid was out of sight, and she slumped down to the floor.
Seeing that the coast was clear, she started leafing through the book again.
"Uh-huh, uh-huh..."
After a few minutes of reading, Tori closed it and sighed.
"Fine, I'll buy it. You win this round, bookstore!"
Tori hustled to the cashier so that she could purchase the book, run out, and stow it into the trunk without being noticed.
Jenna had spotted an ad on social media advertising a youth improv group right here in L.A.
It would be comprised of participants (ages 16-21) and within this troupe, those serious about getting into acting could find some camaraderie in a workshop-like setting. Best part, every Friday afternoon, they would perform their sketches based purely from prompts given by the audience.
Jenna felt confident because she was accustomed to being on stage in front of a crowd. But she was curious about improv. After slaving over a script, memorizing her lines, the idea to think of a character or a scenario on the spot sounded exciting.
There were some improv exercises at Hollywood Arts, naturally. However, they had only performed for the class. Even the spectators of last fall's play were nothing but other students and faculty, along with friends and family of the participants. Here, it was different. Here, they would be performing in front of total strangers.
Sounded like a cool opportunity to get more experience with her acting.
Other than working a couple days at For the Record, Jenna didn't have much else going on, so why not?
Jenna parked in the small lot behind the brick building.
She double-checked the address and walked around the wall and sure enough, there was the sign.
"The Onyx," Jenna said out loud. "Found it."
She entered and there was about a dozen people.
"Hello? Is this the youth improv group?"
"Hey there!" came a cheery-faced girl with a half shaven blue hairstyle.
Her look caught Jenna off guard for a second but it was evident this gal was rocking it.
"I'm Jenna. I saw the ad and..."
She was pulled into an intense handshake from the twenty-something.
"My name's Margot and... oh my, you're a tall drink of water!"
If Jenna could describe the denim-clad girl in two words: aggressively kind.
"Don't think I've seen you around campus. You go to UCLA, Cal Arts?"
Jenna blushed.
"No, uh, Hollywood Arts."
Margot looked genuinely surprised.
"Cool!" she grinned. "So, you're in high school still?"
"I'll be a senior this fall."
"Okay, then. Haven't gotten too many of you. Mac there is a junior. MAC!"
A boy with spiked hair in a bright green tank looked up and acknowledged the waving girl.
"That's not my name," explained to Jenna. "Name's Rodney, but people called me this since I started spiking my hair."
Now that he mentioned it, he did bear a resemblance to the boxing character, Little Mac. It was the tank that sold it. All he was missing were the gloves. Jenna remembered seeing him in Super Smash Bros. Video games like Punch Out or Fight Night Round 2 were a little before her time.
"I'm Jenna."
"Good to meet you, Jen."
It was nice to have somebody else who was in high school. The rest of the troupe, it seemed, were in college. So, Jenna wasn't only the tallest but one of the youngest in the room. Always a standout one way or another.
"GREETINGS, YOUNG ACTORS!"
Everyone looked at the older gentleman who entered. He was dressed in black save for a bright red scarf that was so obscenely long that it was wrapped multiple times around him. It looked like a boa constrictor trying to choke the man and eat him.
"I am Clive Gardell. And welcome to The Onyx!"
The middle-aged man had more enthusiasm than the nervous teens and young adults.
"Let me get something right out," huffed the white-haired man with horn rimmed glasses (who looked like a shoo-in for Steve Martin). "There will be, maybe, a teeny tiny bit of leeway the audience will give you because you are young and coming up. But if you keep making mistakes or just don't sell the scene; they will turn on you and it will be ugly!"
He walked down the line of impressionable hopefuls.
Jenna had a flash of déjà vu when he eyed her height compared to the rest of the applicants.
"They will boo. They will heckle. You might get silence, which is worse, believe me. This isn't the ballet. This isn't Broadway. People are not so formal here. I once had someone hit me in the temple with a battery once!"
"What?" blurted out Jenna.
He looked back at her and nodded.
"Believe it. When I came to, I couldn't see the color blue for a week!"
Gardell then stared into nothing for an uncomfortable 25 seconds.
"What were we talking about?"
He then blinked and snapped his fingers.
"Oh, yes!"
The man then rubbed his hands together like he was going to start a fire between his palms.
"Alright! Let's start with some exercises!"
Chase was tuning his guitar when his phone rang. He excitedly (but carefully) put down his instrument to answer the call.
"Lauren?" he huffed.
"Hey, babe!"
"Oh, man! You're sounding so much better!"
Lauren laughed, which brought on a minor cough.
"Not a hundred percent yet, but there are high hopes that I will be good by the weekend."
The boy sighed and laid back on the couch.
"That's a relief," he told her. "I... missed your voice."
Lauren hummed pleasantly, wishing he could see her smile.
"I feel like I went to Mars the last few days. What have you been up to?" Lauren asked.
"Nothing much," he shrugged. "Talked to my mom recently."
"How is she?" an eagerness in her voice.
Lauren had been wanting to meet Sheri but living on the other side of the country made that difficult. At the very least, they could video chat. She didn't think it was very fair that Chase met her mother and a chunk of her family, while she only had met his uncle.
Whenever she would broach the subject of Chase's kin, he would get visibly uncomfortable. She didn't detect that he had a bad relationship with his mom, quite the opposite. Lauren had watched him take calls from her and watch his posture change in a cute way. She had a feeling Chase was a mamma's boy. But with mothers come a whole litany of connections.
"She wanted me to come back home for Independence Day. It would be a few days, really."
There was a little silence.
"You should go, Chase."
"I want to...geez, I haven't seen my mom in a couple of years."
She sensed the trepidation in his voice.
"What's wrong?" Lauren asked.
"I dunno. This past week was tough because I couldn't talk to you. Makes me realize how much I'll miss you when I'm in Nashville."
Lauren giggled softly.
"My mom is so important to me, Chase. And I thank God that she's in my life. I know things were shaky because you were basically sent to L.A. You were probably mad at your parents back then. But people can change."
"Yeah," Chase nodded.
"You have friends, babe. But don't neglect your family."
"Thanks, Lauren. I was thinking about going. I guess I needed to hear it from another person why I should."
"Is the gang still shooting for the beach next week?" she asked.
Chase stretched and stood up.
"Yep!" he replied. "That should give you plenty of time to get better. I told them I ain't going to the beach without you."
"You're sweet. OH! I can't wait. These toes need to touch some sand."
Alice was reading in a brown chair overlooking the manga section.
"There you are!" smirked Mia.
"Oh, hey!" she looked up and smiled.
"You still reading that one about the stripped cat?"
Mia had borrowed that manga one day and was drawn to its cute house cat protagonist. No sci-fi or fantasy; just a day in the life of this adorable kitten. Alice was a real one and lent the book to Mia without any ribbing. She knew the older girl had a softer side but tried not to be overt with it.
"Not these days," said Alice. "Been getting into this one. I'm only on volume 3. There's like seventeen more!"
Mia looked over and noticed a book right next to Alice with a similar cover, which signaled this might be the next volume. She picked it up and thumbed through it.
"So, who are they?" she asked, showing Alice a page.
"That's Akiko, she's a police officer and the shorter one is Sora. She is the daughter of a Yakuza enforcer."
Intrigued, Mia skipped a little ahead and saw the two protagonists in very close proximity, blushing.
"Do these two...?"
Alice made a guttural growl.
"They had better!"
It wasn't like Alice was consciously avoiding "Yuri" stories, or the genre of anime and manga that concerns women loving other women. She just hadn't found a story that she gravitated toward, until now. This girl was hooked on this slow burn romance between a woman of the law and the apple of a crime boss' eye.
"I just hope they don't do or say anything until the very end!" Alice added. "I hate it when things do that. Keep them apart for 99% of the story and have them kiss and say I love you two seconds before the end appears."
Mia chuckled and looked toward the front of the store, where Jade was signing autographs. Behind Jade was her mom, looking so proud.
"I guess our moms are in a Yuri, kinda."
Back in The Onyx, the young upstarts were taking a much-needed break.
"So, this Clive guy is pretty nuts, huh?" asked Jenna to nobody in particular.
A shorter fellow with purple hair nodded.
"I worked with him before in another actor's workshop a couple of years ago."
"How was he?" she asked.
"He was okay," he shrugged. "But you do not want to get stuck in an elevator with him."
Purple-haired guy suddenly got this thousand-yard stare.
"I never felt more alone and crowded at the same time."
"You okay there, buddy?" asked Mac.
He shook his head and his eyes looked normal again.
"Yeah, I'm good," he said with a sigh before taking a huge gulp of water from his bottle.
Jenna smiled to herself. This ragtag collection of oddballs reminded her of her own friend group.
She psyched herself up for the remainder of the day because next Friday was going to be their very first live performance.
(OH...this is gonna be GOOD!)
Jade waved her hand, stating to feel the strain of penning her name a billion times.
"Tired?" asked Tori, standing behind her.
"I am going to need some ice after this," Jade sighed. "Can we take it easy the rest of the day?"
That last thing was a borderline whine, but Tori found it adorable and stroked the back of her neck.
"Sounds good to me."
Next in line was a blonde girl with tight orange shorts and an equally tight grey tank top. Her clothes weren't tight because they were small, but rather the girl's...assets made them tight. She looked to be about ten years younger than Jade.
"Oh. My. God. I can't believe I'm meeting you!"
She eagerly presented Jade with the hardcover of her first novel. The woman had a copy of the new paperback under her arm to buy.
"I honestly never liked reading until I found your books in middle school!"
(That doesn't make me feel old!)
"Who should I make it out to?"
"Dedicate it to Caitlin, with love."
Tori raised an eyebrow.
(Fucking excuse me? Jade only signs MY books "with love")
Jade opened the cover and started writing on the first page.
When she was finished, she handed the book back and the girl asked to take a quick selfie and Jade begrudgingly obliged. Despite not being in the mood for pictures, she smiled whenever a fan took one because why have a frowny face circulating online?
The author could feel the heat coming from behind as the blonde departed, marking a much-needed break in the line.
(Back off, Jezebel!)
Jade turned back with a snide grin, knowing full well Tori hated every second of that.
"I thought you don't get jealous," the former goth whispered.
"Oh, I don't. I do trust you. But that doesn't mean I don't have to be happy when some harlot drools all over my girlfriend."
The word girlfriend was emphasized with a playful squeeze of the thumb and forefinger on Jade's neck, which made her whole body shiver.
"Fair enough."
A/N: I like how both this story and Stuntwoman touch upon the subject of making love to someone with zero experience in that department (as far as WLW couples are concerned). Since Jade wasn't that experienced either, Tori is making an attempt to learn what she can on her own.
Apple doesn't fall too far with what we had seen with Mia and her boyfriend. Tori is more mature but even she has her limits.