The Birthweek Song
Tori was sitting at the top of the stairs as she searched through various websites, scrolling down and looking for something to buy. Sitting on the step below her, Jason was tossing a rubber ball into the air and catching it repeatedly in an effort to alleviate his boredom.
"What about this, a pillow that you can put on your head so that you can sleep anywhere you want?" Tori asked, looking for Jason's opinion.
"Trina is annoying as it is without sleep. You really wanna find out how annoying she'll be when she's rested?" Jason asked her.
"You forget, I live with her. I've seen what she's like when she's rested." Tori pointed out to him.
"And?" He asked.
"Let's keep looking." She replied, going back to try and find something to buy Trina.
A few minutes went by and they were still none the wiser on what to get actually get Trina. The girl just seemed impossible to buy for.
"No."
"No!"
"Ugh, no."
"Hey! No."
Tori rejected pretty much everything that she saw. There were a few things that had grabbed their attention, but they were quickly written off as Trina would probably find someway to hate it.
"Hey, Tori. Hey, Jason." Cat greeted the two of as she walked down the other set of stairs, Robbie walking alongside her with Rex in his hands.
"Hi, guys." He added.
"Yeah. Hey, hi." Tori replied, not taking her eyes off of her computer.
"What it do?" Jason replied absentmindedly, still tossing his ball into the air.
"Watcha doin'?" Cat asked.
"Thanks." Said Tori, obviously not paying attention to the conversation.
Cat looked toward Robbie confused. He responded with a shrug, just as confused as Cat was.
"Hey, what up, girl, you got a numb tongue?" Rex asked.
Without any hesitation, Jason threw his ball at the puppet, bouncing it off his head and back into his hands.
"OW!"
That managed to get Tori to look up from the screen for a split second before she immediately went back.
"All right, that's a time out, mister!" Robbie told the puppet, grabbing his backpack.
"No, no time out!" Rex exclaimed.
Cat held it him open for him as he stuffed Rex into the bag.
"Don't you put me in the backpack! I'm serious Rob!" The puppet told him.
Robbie zipped up the backpack and ignored the pleas of his puppet. After Rex was dealt with, André walked in and saw his friends hanging out on the stairs.
"Hey, what goes on?" He asked, walking over to them.
"We're gonna go get some iced coffee." Robbie said, referring to himself and Cat.
"I thought caffeine makes you vibrate?" André asked, confused as to why Robbie would want to drink coffee.
"Sometimes it's nice..." He replied.
"Oh, a massage helmet!" Exclaimed Tori, getting everyone's attention.
"A stylish helmet that massages your head. That sounds fun, right?" She asked everyone.
"Hmm... Yeah..."
"It could be..."
"Sure..."
As Robbie, Cat and André were giving her their less than enthusiastic responses, Jason leaned over and looked at at the helmet that was on Tori's screen.
"No, it's awful!" Tori said suddenly.
"That's not good of an idea."
"I hate helmets."
"It's a bad thing."
"That does not look comfortable."
They all chimed in, along with Jason this time. Tori sunk, letting out a sad "oh" as she did not have any clue on what to get Trina. Cat placed an arm on Tori's shoulder for some comfort as sat down next to her on the same step.
"Why is she all--"
"'Cause its only three days until Trina's birthweek." Tori said, answering André's question before he could finish asking if.
"Her birthweek?" Cat asked, confused on what she was talking about.
"You mean her birthday?" Robbie asked.
"Apparently, the ever illustrious woman that Trina thinks she is has decided that a single day of celebrating her birth is an injustice to the world. So, she graciously indebted and bestowed upon herself a new holiday called a "birthweek," so that we all may celebrate her even more." Jason explained to his friends as if he was a sophisticated English butler.
Everyone looked at him weirdly, but they didn't say anything about his explanation, or why felt the need to explain it as if he was Alfred Pennyworth.
"Yeah, basically that... Now if I don't get her an amazing present, I'm gonna have to listen to her complain about it for the next six months." Tori told them.
"All right, all right, chill down. We'll help you through this." André said, clapping his hands before taking off his backpack and sitting down at the bottom step.
"Totally."
"Yeah."
Cat and Robbie both agreed, with Robbie taking a seat next to Cat.
"Okay." Robbie said as he sat down.
"The perfect present for Trina." Cat added.
"Something amazing." Added André.
They tried thinking of something, though none of them had any ideas at the moment.
"Just get the massage helmet!" Rex yelled out from the backpack, his voice muffled.
'Okay... I'm ninety percent sure that the voice came from the backpack...' Jason thought as he stared at the backpack from which the voice originated from.
Tori kicked the bag, causing Rex to shout out in pain.
"Oh, my ribs!"
-----------------------------------------
Sitting at lunch, the whole group, besides Beck, were all sitting together to try and help Tori out with her Trina situation. Well, most of them anyway. Jade wasn't really all that interested, and, oddly enough, Sinjin was sitting with them for some reason as he was just staring at Jade.
"Suggestions for birthweek presents for Trina." Tori said as she typed it down on her computer.
"Okay, André, start us off." She said to him.
"Cheese." He suggested enthusiastically, getting weird looks from everybody except Jade, who was busy cutting a fry into pieces with a pair of scissors.
"Let's not do cheese..." He said as he crossed off cheese from his notebook.
"Robbie?" Tori asked.
"Lotion." He suggested, getting looks from everyone, including Jade. "Or various lotions."
"Gross. Cat?" Tori said, looking over to Cat.
"Well, for my last birthday, I thought my parents were gonna get met me a bike, but when I got home from school, my brother was trying to cut off his hair. So my mom started yelling--"
"Jade." Tori said, wanting to move on before it went even more off topic.
"Yeah?" Jade asked.
"What should I get Trina?" She asked.
"Talent." She replied bluntly.
Jason chuckled at her response, getting a nudge in the side by Kevin. Tori rolled her eyes, finding it unhelpful, but ultimately she was not surprised.
"Jade is so pretty..." Sinjin said wistfully.
Kevin, having enough of Sinjin's antics for one day, brought up his leg and kicked Sinjin out of his seat.
"Boy, you better run." Jason told him, not really caring about his wellbeing at all.
Not having to be told twice, Sinjin grabbed his bag and ran away from the table. Kevin took the seat next to Jade and wrapped his arm around her, causing her to smile for just a split second and lean into his shoulder.
Kevin may be a lot more "moral" than Jason when it comes to the treatment of other people, but that goes straight out the window when it comes to people flirting with Jade. Jade maybe crazy and crazy jealous, but what others fail to realize is that Kevin is almost as crazy about Jade as she is about him. It's just that you would rarely see it on account of the fact that he's a lot better of a person.
To most people anyway...
"Does anyone have a good idea about a present for Trina?" Tori asked, trying to get back on track.
"You people give me a rash." Jade told them, grabbing her bag and getting up from her seat to walk away.
"A rash? What kind of rash?" Rex shouted, not getting an answer.
Kevin gave Tori a sympathetic look before following after his girlfriend.
Getting a text, Robbie checked his phone and let out a sigh. "Ugh, it's my grandmother again."
"Who else would call you?" Asked the puppet, making Jason laugh.
"Shh." Robbie shushed the puppet before answering his phone. "Hi, Mammaw... Ugh, another computer problem?"
Cat laughed, deciding to put down her drink before she started to choke on it.
"No, Mammaw, I was not being sarcastic. Mammaw, don't-- what? Mammaw, don't hang up on m--"
She indeed hung up on him.
"What's your grandmother bugging about?" André asked.
"Oh, she bought a stupid computer and she can't figure out how to work it, so calls me like every four minutes for tech support." Robbie explained to him.
"Oh, that's cute." André said, chuckling at the situation.
"It's not cute! I was at her house for three hours last night and I have to go back again tonight." Robbie told him.
"Oh, will one of you come with me?" He asked, looking around the table.
Jason grabbed his soda, looking at anything and everything that wasn't in Robbie's direction.
'Ah, yes, the sky is looking particularly blue today...'
"Sure, I love old people. It's so cute how they shake when they pour their juice." Cat said, giggling at the thought.
Tori chuckled at Cat's statement.
"You know what that makes me think of?" She asked.
"What?" Cat asked.
"NOTHING!" She exclaimed.
"Now what am I gonna get Trina for her birthweek?" Tori asked.
Sinjin, seeing that Kevin was gone, walked back towards the table and stood over Tori's shoulder, holding a bobblehead in his hand.
"How about a bobblehead that looks like me?" He suggested.
Everyone looked at him with weird looks, wondering how this guy manages to get even weirder as time went on.
"Sinjin..." Jason called out his name.
"Yeah?" He asked.
"Remember when I told you to run?" Jason asked, looking at his with a strained smile.
"Right away, sir..." Sinjin replied, taking the hint and leaving immediately.
Soon after he left, Tori looked towards Jason with a pleading expression on her face.
"Jace, please tell me that you have something?" She asked.
"Well... I got two ideas. Whether or not they're any good is up for debate." He told her.
"Okay! What are they?" Tori asked, hoping that he could end her seemingly endless search for a good gift.
"Well, the lotions thing that Robbie isn't such a bad idea when you think about it." He replied, getting a surprised look from everyone at the table.
"Really?" Robbie asked, surprised that Jason agreed with him on something.
"Yeah, don't get it twisted, dude. You're still gross." Jason told him, wiping the smile off Robbie's face. "But the whole beauty thing. Isn't that what girls usually want? Things that make them look prettier? Soft skin, shiny hair, or whatever."
"Okay, so beauty products! That's a good one! What was the other?" Tori asked enthusiastically.
"Ear plugs." He said blankly.
"Ear plugs? What would Trina do with ear plugs?" Tori asked.
"They aren't for Trina. On the chance that you can't find anything, do you really want to listen to her bitch for six months?" He asked.
Tori looked at him with an indiscernible expression before quickly typing down "ear plugs" onto the list.
------------------------------------------
Outside his grandmother's apartment, Robbie and Cat had arrived and where just about to head inside before Robbie turned towards Cat.
"All right. Before I take you in there, I should warn you." He told her.
"About?" Cat asked.
"My grandmother. She can be... critical." He warned.
"That's okay. I take criticism really well." She replied.
"No, you don't." He told her.
"What's that supposed to mean?!" Cat asked, offended by his statement.
"Just that you don't take criticism very well." He replied hesitantly.
"Why don't you just kick me in the face?!" Cat yelled at him.
"I'm sorry, I take it back." He apologized.
"Okay." Cat said, switching back to her cheerful demeanor almost immediately.
Writing off what just happened as Cat being Cat, Robbie pressed the doorbell that was next to the door so that his grandmother could let them in.
"I have a gun!" The voice of an elderly woman yelled from inside the apartment.
"Mammaw, it's Robbie!" Robbie shouted back.
Almost immediately, they heard the door unlock, swinging open to reveal an elderly heavyset woman who was looking at Robbie with a smile.
"Hello, Robbie." She greeted.
"Hi, mammaw." Robbie replied, giving his grandmother a hug.
"This is my friend, Cat." He said, pulling away from the hug and motioning to the girl behind him.
"Nice to meet you, Mrs. Shapiro." Cat politely said to the woman.
"You too, sweetheart. You're so pretty! Come in, come in." She told the girl.
Cat smiled and went inside the apartment full of enthusiasm.
"She's your girlfriend?" The woman asked Robbie.
"No." Robbie answered, confused by the question.
"Good, you can do better." She told him.
Not knowing what to say, Robbie just stepped inside and prepared himself for what was going to be an annoying evening.
-----------------------------------------
Tori Vega:
OMG - I finally found a GREAT birthday prez for Trina. Yeee-HOOO!
Mood = Relieved 😎
-----------------------------------------
At the Vega residence, Jason and André were sitting at the dining table with their eyes closed, at the behest of Tori, waiting for the reveal of whatever present she got Trina.
"Are you guys ready for this?" She asked excitedly.
"I don't know, we can't see." André told her.
Jason nodded along, not really seeing the need for a surprise reveal.
"Look it!" She exclaimed.
The boys opened their eyes, seeing a pair of dark purple shoes that had a number of rhinestones on them.
"Shoes?" Both André and Jason asked at the same time.
"Boots!" Tori corrected, smacking both of them in the back of their heads.
"Fazzini boots." She said, walking in front of them.
"Ow." André said, rubbing the back of his head where Tori had hit him.
"Alright then..." Jason muttered, not really understanding what the big deal was.
"Trina has been dying for these. I had to go to eleven different stores before I cou--"
Tori was cut off by the door opening and Trina stepping inside with a loud "Hello!"
Tori quickly put the shoes back into the pink box that was on the table and placed it onto the seat that was behind her.
"Hey!" Tori responded.
"Mm." Jason hummed unenthusiastically.
"What's up, Trina?" Asked André.
"Okay, what had two thumbs and is already having a fantastic birthweek?" She asked the trio, holding up both of her thumbs.
"I'm gonna go out on a limb and say--"
"THIS GIRL!" Trina cut Jason off as she wiggled her thumbs at herself while doing a little dance.
"Check out my kicks." She said.
Trina stepped onto the coffee table, showing off her new boots, which were the same boots that Tori had just gotten her for her birthweek.
"Fazzini boots!" Exclaimed Trina.
Upon seeing the boots, Tori's face sunk as she realized that she had spent all that time searching for nothing.
"Got 'em at Simone's on sale!" She told them, doing a little spin.
"Aw..." Tori whined sadly, crossing her arms.
"Oh, don't be sad." Trina said as she stepped back onto the floor. "You could borrow 'em, after I'm dead." She said with a laugh.
Tori rolled her eyes at her sister, which she seems to do a whole lot now.
"Mom, I got Fazzini boots!" Trina yelled as she ran up the stairs to go show her new boots off to her mother. "Mom... MOM!"
"The voice of a generation..." Jason groaned when he heard that last screech from Trina.
"You're gonna have to come up with another prese--"
"I know that!" Tori exclaimed, cutting off André.
"I gotta cheese guy that could put together--"
"I'm not giving her cheese!" Tori cut him off again, moving the pink shoe box back onto the table.
André accepted that and Tori sunk down onto the chair beside her.
"Maybe I should just give up and accept the fact that I'm not gonna find anything good and Trina is gonna hate me for the next six months." Tori said pessimistically.
"I can't believe you hit me in the back of the head..." André told her, rubbing the spot where she hit him.
"Help me!" Tori whined, rubbing André's dreads.
"All right... Uh, how about a song?" He suggested.
"A song, as a present for Trina?" Tori asked.
"Yeah. You can write it, perform it yourself, you know, do it up real big." He said.
"That's not bad. That is-- I don't know how to write a song!" She told him.
"Think-- what has four thumbs and knows how to help a friend write a song?" He asked.
Tori shrugged, not knowing what he was referring to.
"These guys!" André told her, pointing at himself with both his thumbs and doing the same dance that Trina did.
André looked over, expecting to see Jason doing the same, but was only met with disappointment.
"Come on, man! Do it with me." He told his friend.
"I refuse to do that." Jason told him blankly.
"Come on."
Jason didn't respond.
"Come on..."
Again, no response.
"You know you want to."
Jason rolled his eyes and let out a sigh, but there was an amused smile on his face. Bringing up his thumbs, Jason pointed at himself and looked towards André.
"These guys!" André repeated, this time with Jason backing him up.
Tori laughed at the two boys, her mood doing a 180 from how sad she was a moment ago.
-----------------------------------------
Back at Robbie's grandmother's apartment, Robbie was trying to teach his grandmother how open a window. When he gave it to her after demonstrating, she lifted the mouse off the table and tried to move the cursor with it in the air.
"No, no, no, no, no, no, no. You just-- you just click on that little square to open a window." Robbie told her as he took the mouse from her and put it back on table.
"I don't want to open a window. It's already to cold in here." She told him.
"That's not what I meant." Robbie said.
"Maury, turn up the heat!" She yelled out to her husband.
"NO!" He yelled back.
"Mammaw, a window is just this little--"
"Why did you do that to your hair?" She asked.
Robbie turned and saw that his mammaw had aimed the question towards Cat, also seeing that she a handful a handful of Cat's hair in her palm.
"What? You mean the color?" Cat asked.
"Do you hate your mother?" Asked Mrs. Shapiro.
"I love my mother!" Cat told her, offended by the question.
"So how do I email this to my doctor?" She asked Robbie, pointing towards the screen and ignoring what Cat had just said.
"Email? Those are your system preferences. Why would you email a doctor your system preferences?" Robbie asked, becoming increasingly annoyed.
"Maury! Robbie is screaming at me!" She yelled at her husband again.
"I'M HUNGRY!" He yelled back.
"Turn up the heat!"
"NO!"
Upset, she slammed her hand onto the table in frustration.
"Why does he do that to me?!" She asked the two sitting beside her.
Cat looked confused while Robbie rubbed his face and let out a loud groan.
-----------------------------------------
At Tori's, Tori was laying upside down on the couch with her head laying on the coffee table that had a couple of pillows on it. On the same couch as her, Jason laid horizontally with his head laying on her stomach as Tori absentmindedly played with his hair.
André sat over on the couch next to them, his hands on his keyboard that was connected to his laptop. There was also an acoustic guitar leaning on the couch just a couple feet away.
"Okay, how about this?" André said as he started to play on his keyboard.
Heading the music, Tori started to move her head to the song and kick her feet up into the air. Jason smiled, looking over and seeing that she had stuck out her tongue as well.
"I love that, but you guys really think we're gonna be able to have a whole song ready by Trina's birthday?" She asked as she combed through Jason's hair.
"No worries, and I'll get a banging band here, some girls to back you up, lights, it'll be the chiz." He told her, leaning back on the couch with his drink in hand.
"What is chiz anyway?" She asked curiously.
"I think it's a German sausage." He said, putting his drink back on the coffee table.
"Let's get back to the lyrics." He told her as he grabbed a notepad.
"No, I can't write lyrics. Just play more stuff on your thingy!" She said, Jason finding her really cute.
"We'll help you. Just tell me some of your favorite things about Trina." He said, looking down at the notepad and getting ready to write down whatever she said.
Tori thought about this question for a second before raising an eyebrow and looking towards the ceiling in really deep thought.
"I said, tell me some of your--"
"I heard ya!" Tori said as she nodded her head.
"Come on, dig deep." André told her.
"Yeah, there ain't no digging deep enough for her to come up with an answer to that question." Jason told him, closing his eyes as Tori played with his hair.
Tori playfully rolled her eyes at the boy.
"Dig deep... um... Oh, how about she's the whole reason why I got into Hollywood Arts?" She suggested.
"Now you're digging." André told her, writing it down on the notepad.
"Yay, I'm diggy." She said, causing Jason to chuckle a bit.
"All right, now, when you think of Trina, what's the first word that pops into your head?" He asked.
"Crazy." Tori said pretty much instantaneously.
"Crazy..." He repeated, writing it down.
"But, I love her." She added.
"Lord knows why..." Jason muttered, getting a slap at the top of his head.
"Yeah, I deserved that one." He said, causing Tori to laugh at him.
"Have you told her that lately?" André asked.
"No... Wait, are you sure this stuff is gonna help us write a song?" Tori asked.
"Let's see. J?" André called out.
"Hand it over." Jason said, holding his hand out for the notepad.
Reading it, he saw that there were only four things written on it.
"Reason I'm in Hollywood Arts."
"Crazy."
"Love her."
"Haven't said it lately."
"Not the most I've worked with, but it definitely ain't the least either." He said after seeing what was on it.
"Does that mean you got something?" Tori asked.
"Mm-hmm. André?" He called out, sitting up on the couch.
"Full on?" André asked.
"Nah, give me something light." He told him.
André played a few notes and Jason listened carefully as he did, motioning for him to stop when he heard enough.
"Take it back from the top."
André did so and Jason started to sing the few lyrics that he came up with just a second ago.
"You might be crazy~
Have I told you lately that I love you~
You're the only reason that I'm not afraid to fly~
And it's crazy that someone could change me~
Now no matter what it is I have to do, I'm not afraid to try~
And you need to know that you're the reason why~"
Cutting the music, Jason looked over to Tori to see what she thought and saw her looking at him with an adoring smile as she twirled a strand of her hair.
"You good..." She told him.
Hearing her answer, Jason let out a chuckle and leaned back on the couch.
"How can you do that? You came up with a verse in only a few seconds!" She said, absolutely stunned.
"That's nothing. Give Jason any situation you want and he could give you a whole song in half an hour. We used to do it all the time when we first started going to Hollywood Arts." André told her.
"Really? Any situation?" Tori asked, a little skeptical.
"Go ahead." André told her.
"Um... how about... you come up with a song that's about a guy who wants to ask a girl to be his girlfriend?" She suggested.
Raising an eyebrow, Jason looked at her for a few seconds thinking that the request was a little too off the top, but eventually wrote it off as nothing.
"You want a whole song or...?" Jason asked, wanting some clarification on what she wanted.
"Hmm... nope. Just a verse and a chorus is fine." She told him.
"All right, then..."
Jason was deep in thought for a few minutes, blocking everything out as he focused solely on what he wanted to have the song done.
"Okay, I think I got something. You mind?" He asked André, pointing towards the keyboard.
"Nah, go ahead." He told him.
Placing the keyboard in front of him, Jason messed around with the settings a bit before finding the sound that he wanted. Sitting on the edge of her seat, Tori watched as Jason started to sing while playing on the keyboard.
[Charlie Puth - Girlfriend]
"Tired of this conversation~
We didn't come all this way~
To touch a little, kiss a little~
All night long~"
Hearing the lyrics, Tori couldn't help but feel her face heat up as she visualized herself in that situation.
"You wanna hear me say it~
I know I kept you waitin'~
Just a little, just a little~
All night long~
Can't stop~
'Til you're lyin' right here next to me~
I should stop...~
But I think I'll do it anyway~
Baby, would you ever want to be my girlfriend?~
I don't wanna play no games~
This is more than just a phase~
Baby, would you ever want to be my girlfriend?~
If you want it, let me know~
We could make this official~"
Jason stopped the music and looked towards André and Tori. André gave him a nod and a thumbs up, believing in him the entire time. Meanwhile, Tori just seemed to be staring at him with no discernible reaction.
"Tori?" He called out her name.
"Yes!" She exclaimed suddenly, getting confused looks from both of the guys beside her.
"Yes... what?" Jason asked.
"Y-Yes I-I... liked the song! It was a great song! That's what I meant! Yup... exactly... what I meant..." She told him.
"Okay..." He said, looking at her with confusion before shrugging his shoulders.
"We should probably go back to focusing on Trina's song. Her birthweek starts in two days, yeah?" He asked.
"Yeah! Yeah, let's do that!" Tori said, grabbing the notepad and staring at the page.
Ever since Tori overheard what Jason, André and Beck said in the hallway a couple weeks ago, she's been running herself ragged thinking about when Jason was finally going to ask her out. Tired of waiting, she thought that requesting a song about a guy asking a girl to be his girlfriend would help Jason get the hint, but it obviously didn't work.
-----------------------------------------
Tori Vega:
Ahhh! Jason, André and I are writing SUCH A COOL SONG. This will be the best present Trina EVER GOT!
Mood = PSYCHED 😜
-----------------------------------------
"Everything all set?" Jason asked, looking at all the decorations that littered the living room.
"Tori is still getting dressed, but everything else is good to go." André told him.
"Boys!"
Turning around, they saw Mr. and Mrs. Vega walking up to the two of them, their arms wrapped around each others.
"I just wanted to thank you. It's so nice that the you two are helping Tori with Trina's birthweek present. She's been stressing about it for over a week." Mrs. Vega told the two of them.
"It's cool." André said.
"It's really no big deal, Mrs. Vega." Jason told her.
Before she could argue, Tori walked out into the living room wearing a tight zebra print dress that had roses scattered all around it.
"What do you guys think?" She asked.
"You look good."
"Fantastic!"
"You look amazing, sweetheart."
Said André and her parents. Meanwhile, Jason could only stare at her as she made her way in front of him.
"Jason?" She called out his name, snapping him out of his trance.
"Huh?" He uttered, not hearing the question.
"What do you think?" She asked shyly.
"I think... that you look absolutely gorgeous." He told her.
A big smile grew on Tori's face as she twirled from side to side. The two seemed to be off in their own little bubble, unaffected by the outside world until Tori's dad suddenly came and popped it.
"You know that I'm a cop, right?" He asked.
Jason flinched and immediately took a step back as he wasn't particularly interested in being put on a t-shirt today.
"Dad!" Tori shouted.
"I'm just making sure that he's properly educated, sweetheart." He told her with a smile.
'More like making sure that he's at a properly safe distance...' Tori thought as she rolled her eyes at her father.
"Oh, Trina just pulled up!" Mrs. Vega shouted, causing everyone to scatter.
Tori quickly rushed up the stairs and hid herself at the top. Jason and André hid behind the piano, along with two of André's friends that he got to help perform the song, a drummer and backup singer. The other backup singer hid in the hall next to the stairs, and their drummer just lowered himself behind his drum set.
"I'm home!" Trina yelled as she walked in from the garage, stunned at all the decorations that everyone had put up.
""Happy birthweek!"" Both of her parents exclaimed, standing by a two layer cake that had candles spelling out her name.
Trina grew excited, quickly putting her things down on the counter before running towards both of her parents.
"Mom! Oh, dad!" She said as she hugged the both of them.
When she pulled away, she saw the cake and was shocked at how good it looked.
"Make a wish." Her dad told her.
Trina leaned down towards the cake, stopping to think for a second, before blowing out the candles. Her parents cheered and clapped for her.
"Where's Tori?" Trina asked, looking around for her sister.
"Oh, over there." Her mother said.
"With a special surprise!" Added her dad.
They both sat Trina down in a chair and rolled her over to the living room, facing the back.
"You're gonna love it." Her dad said, running back towards his wife who handed him a camcorder.
Everyone came out of hiding, all holding their respective instruments. Jason was holding a dark blue electric guitar with gold accents, both his favorite and signature guitar that his mom had gotten him for his sixteenth birthday.
"Ooh, I'm liking this surprise already." Trina said, looking directly at Jason.
'Don't say it... Don't say it...' Jason repeated in his head like a mantra, trying not to ruin the girl's party.
He couldn't give less of a shit about her week, but he won't ruin the party. Lord knows that they spent too much time putting this all together...
"Well then you're really gonna enjoy this." André said, pressing a button and activating the smoke machines.
The drummer hits his drumsticks together three times, signaling for the music to start. Tori jumps out of hiding, posing at the top of the stairs before walking down the stairs and into the middle of the two back up singers.
"I don't wanna make a scene~
I don't wanna let you down~
I try to do my own thing~
And I'm starting to figure it out~
That's it's alright~
keep it together wherever we go~"
Tori walked down towards Trina, leaning down and grabbing both of her hands. She shook them up and down before popping up and walking back in between the back up singers.
"And it's all right~
Oh well, whatever, everybody needs to know~
You might be crazy~
Have I told you lately that I love you?~
You're the only reason that I'm not afraid to fly~"
As Tori pointed towards her, Trina put her hand over her heart, seemingly touched by the lyrics.
"And it's crazy that someone could change me~
Now no matter what it is I have to do, I'm not afraid to try~
And you need to know that you're the reason why~"
Tori popped back down to Trina's level, beckoning her over to follow her. The back up singers quickly went behind Trina and pushed her where Tori had stopped, which was in front of the piano.
"I don't even care when they say you're a little bit off~"
Tori swirled her fingers around her head, making Trina take on an offended look.
"Look 'em in the eye~
I say, "I could never get enough"~"
Tori went up to Trina and looked her in the eyes as grabbed her face and shook her around, making Trina's face light back up again.
"'Cause it's alright~
Keep it together wherever we go~
And it's alright~
Oh well, whatever, everybody needs to know~"
The back up singers strap a party hat on Trina's head as Tori lifted herself up onto the piano and sat atop of it.
You might be crazy~
Have I told you lately that I love you?~
You're the only reason that I'm not afraid to fly~
And it's crazy that someone could change me~
Now no matter what it is I have to do, I'm not afraid to try~
And you need to know that you're the reason why~
Whilst in the middle of the chorus, Tori hopped over from the living room onto the kitchen counter. As the singers rolled Trina over to the kitchen, Tori sat down on the counter and spun herself around before hopping down onto the floor, in front of the back up singers.
"If it was raining you would yell at the sun~
Pick up the pieces when the damage is done~"
As she was singing, Tori was dancing in sync alongside her back up singers.
"You say, "It's just another day in the shade"~
Look at what a mess we made~"
The back up singers spun Trina around, making her face her parents for a split second before Tori hopped onto Trina's lap and hugged her head close to her.
"You might be crazy~
Have I told you lately that I love you?~
You're the only reason that I'm not afraid to fly~"
Tori stood up from Trina's lap and started to dance around, with everyone else just rocking out to the final chorus of the song.
"And it's crazy that someone could change me~
Now no matter what it is I have to do, I'm not afraid to try~
You might be crazy~
Have I told you lately that I love you?~
You're the only reason that I'm not afraid to fly~
And it's crazy that someone could change me~
Now no matter what it is I have to do, I'm not afraid to try~
And you need to know that you're the reason why~"
The music stopped and Trina jumped out of her seat to give Tori a hug. In the background, Jason and André gave each other a bro hug, along with the other guys in the band before walking over towards Tori and Trina.
"Happy birthweek, Trina!" Tori told her sister.
"Thanks!" Trina squealed, looking around at everyone surrounding her. "So where's my present?"
Her question seemed to wipe the smiles off everyone in the room. Tori looked over at Jason and André, wondering if they heard the same thing that she did.
"Oh, shit..." Jason muttered under his breath, only André being able to hear since he was right beside him.
"Are you kidding me?" Tori asked, the smile from before having been completely erased from her face.
"No. Where's my birthweek present?" Trina asked, looking at Tori with a confused expression.
Tori was about to let Trina have it, but she calmed herself down and looked towards her parents.
"Mom, dad, could you please take Jason, André and everyone else outside?" She asked.
"But it's raining." Her mother pointed out.
Tori leaned down and picked up a small pink umbrella from the ground, handing it to her mother.
"Here's an umbrella." She said.
Seeing the look on her face, her father decided that it was for the best that they didn't argue.
"This way, everyone." Said Mr. Vega, motioning towards the back door.
"I think we'll just... wait in my car..." Jason told them, both he and André pointing towards the front door with their thumbs as they slowly walked backwards.
"Don't break anything." Mr. Vega told Tori as he lead his group outside.
"No promises." Tori replied, looking straight at Trina when she did.
The angry look that her sister was giving her genuinely confused Trina, as she couldn't figure out why she was so pissed.
Before exiting through the front door, Jason quickly turned to Tori, giving her some advice on how to handle the situation.
"If you're going to fight, aim for her liver."
Trina looked towards Jason with her mouth agape, to which he just gave an uncaring shrug before walking out of the house with André.
"The song was your present!" Tori told her sister.
Trina tilted her head, giving her sister a questioning smile.
"How much did it cost?" She asked.
"It didn't cost money." Tori replied, not believing what she was hearing right now.
"Then it's not a present." Trina told her sister in a mocking tone.
"Oh, you are unbelievable." Tori said, walking out of the kitchen and into the living room.
"I'm not the one who didn't get her sister a present for her birthweek." Trina said as she followed Tori.
"I wrote a song for you, I rehearsed it. The people-- I performed it for you!" She pointed out, motioning towards the background where she performed the song with everyone else.
"Yeah... I think you were a little flat on that last chorus..." Trina told her.
Tori, having enough, grabbed her sister by her shirt and was about to punch her in the face until Trina interrupted her.
"Ah, can't hit your sister during her birthweek."
Tori let out a sigh and let go of her hold on Trina, walking a few steps away from her to calm down.
"I can't believe you're not deep enough to appreciate a gift that totally came from my heart." She said.
"A song is not a present." Trina said.
"It is too." Tori responded through gritted teeth.
"Can I wear a song? No. Can I eat a song? No. Can I flaunt a song and make everyone jealous? No. You failed." She told her.
Seeing that she was fighting a lost cause, Tori grabbed a flash drive from her bra and gave it to Trina.
"Here, I am so sorry this is all I got you." She said sarcastically.
"What is this?" Trina asked, holding up the flash drive.
"A flash drive with the song on it." Tori told her.
"How many gigs?" She asked.
"I don't know-- Eight?!" Tori replied.
"Kinda small..."
As the two sisters came to the end of their argument, Jason and André were sitting in Jason's car as he was on the phone with someone that he called as soon as he got into the car.
"Yeah. Mm-hmm. No, not me. Put it under the name, Tori Vega. No, Tori with an I. T-O-R-I V-E-G-A. Uh-huh. Yeah, thanks Eddie."
Jason ended the call, seemingly satisfied with whatever they were just discussing over the phone.
"Eddie was your producer, right? What was that about?" André asked, wondering what the call was about.
"Nothing, just some peace of mind." Jason told him.
André looked at his friend with a raised eyebrow, but he didn't say anything after that until he saw Tori waving the boys over from the front door.
"Looks like she's done killing Trina." Jason said jokingly.
"You think she'll need help moving the body?" André asked with the same joking tone.
The boys chuckled and got out of the car, running back inside Tori's house.
"So, can't help but notice the lack of blood." Jason said, looking around house and noticing the lack of carnage.
"And body." Added André.
"I didn't kill her." Tori told the two, rolling her eyes at them. "Yet..."
"And I'm guessing by that the look on your face that Trina wasn't exactly grateful?" Jason asked, already knowing the answer.
"Nope..." Tori replied, letting out a long exhale before slumping down onto the couch.
Seeing that she was in a bad mood, Jason sat down beside her and wrapped an arm around her shoulders. Tori responded to this by snuggling herself into Jason's shoulder.
"You tried your best, Pop Star. It's not your fault that your sister didn't appreciate it." He said.
"I know... But you guys worked so hard on it..." She responded.
"Hey, you were there too." He told her.
"Come on, you guys basically made the entire song. All I did was sing it..." She said in a self deprecating manner.
"Hey, you were the one who came up with all the dancing. And you rehearsed the song for three days straight trying to make it perfect. So you didn't write most of it, so what? You put in just as much effort as we did. Plus, you were absolutely amazing when you did perform." He said.
As he said this, Tori's sad expression was slowly turning into a smile as she listened.
"I was?" She asked.
"Of course you were." He replied, squeezing her a little tighter.
As they were talking, André looked at the two of his friends and couldn't help the smile that grew on his face. André loved to see his friends happy, so seeing two of his friends being happy together made him even happier.
"Keep those hands to yourself, young man!"
All their heads snapped towards the back door and they saw the face of a drenched Mr. Vega staring at Jason through the glass. Quickly shuffling over, Jason unwrapped his arm around Tori and raised them up in surrender.
"I forgot they were out there..." Tori muttered, feeling bad that she left everyone out in the rain.
-----------------------------------------
"But the most surprising part of the play happened at the end when the monster gouged out Priscilla's eyes, which, for whatever reason, I found really funny."
Jade was giving a presentation on a play that was assigned to her by the teacher. Which, obviously, didn't go the way that she thought that it would, as Jade was... well... being herself.
"Questions?" Jade asked, looking around the room.
"I have two questions." Sinjin said, raising his hand.
"Okay, no questions, great, I'm done." She said, ignoring Sinjin and going back to her seat.
Which was probably for the best, considering that it was Sinjin.
"Thank you, Jade, for that... disturbing report." The teacher said, making Jade give her a brief smile. "Robbie, you're up."
"Right." He said.
Leaving Rex on his desk, Robbie walked up to the front of the class and opened up his laptop, which was sitting at a table. He brought up his prepared PowerPoint before turning back to the class with a smile.
"Hello, everybody."
"Hi!" Cat replied enthusiastically.
Everyone in the class looked back at her, confused as to why she actually said anything back. Cat looked at their reaction and realized what she did, internally admonishing herself.
"My report is on... Vaudeville!" Robbie said, pressing the space bar and causing the word "Vaudeville" to appear onscreen.
"Now, if you all look at--"
Before he could even go to the next slide, his laptop began to ring and a window popped up, showing that "MamMaw327" wanted to chat with him.
"Oh, my God..." He muttered.
"Aww, your grandmother wants to chat." Cat cooed, finding it to be adorable.
His other classmates however, found the situation to be humorous. Kevin, being the good person that he was, held back his laughter as he did not want to add to his friend's embarrassment.
Robbie accepted the call, instantly hearing his grandmother call out his name when he did.
"Robbie, Robbie, can you see me now?!" She asked, making the class laugh even more.
"Why did you accept the call?!" Kevin asked.
And that was his limit. Any sympathy he had was now null and void.
"Hi, mammaw." Robbie greeted, ignoring Kevin's question. "Is this important, 'cause I'm kinda in the middle of--"
"How do I open the internet?" She asked, cutting him off.
The class erupted into even more laughter, with this round being louder than the other two.
"Mammaw, Mammaw, you're on the internet. We couldn't be video-chatting if you weren't on--"
"Hey, Robbie, I see your puppet. Are you still taking your puppet to school?" She asked.
"Rex is not a puppet!" He told her.
"Maury, Robbie still plays with his puppet!" She yelled out to her husband.
"I'M IN THE BATHROOM!"
"Doing what?!" She asked.
The toilet flushes and everyone yet again erupted into laughter. Robbie falls to his knees, his embarrassment seeming to cause him physical agony as his grandmother proceeded to call out his name over and over.
-----------------------------------------
Tori Vega:
Still mad at Trina.
U reading this Trina?
Hope so!
Mood = IRKED 😡
-----------------------------------------
"Hey, Vega!" Jade called out to her.
Now in the hallway, Jade walked up to Tori as she was opening her locker, holding a cup of coffee in her hand.
"Tori." She called out again, finally getting the girl's attention.
"What?" She asked.
"Try this coffee and tell me what it tastes like." Jade said as she handed her the cup.
With a sigh, Tori grabbed the coffee from Jade and took a sip.
"Hazelnut?" She guessed.
"I don't know, I found it in the garbage." Jade told her as she grabbed a piece of gum from her bag.
Upon hearing what she said, Tori immediately started to spit out whatever was left in her mouth. Jade watched on in delight, chewing the blue piece of gum as she did so.
Trina came around the corner, spotting the two girls and walking over towards them.
"Hey, Tori. Hey, Tori's friend." She greeted.
Tori rolled her eyes upon seeing her, choosing instead to go back putting her books inside her locker.
"Yeah, I'm not really her friend." Jade told her, walking away as soon as she came over.
Trina watched as she left, a little confused by what she said at first, but she wrote it off and turned towards her sister.
"So, listen--"
"I'm not buying you a present." Tori told her.
"Ah, you already did. This hat!" Trina said, pointing towards the hat that she had on her head.
"I didn't buy you that hat." Tori said, confused as to why she said that.
"Did too. Well, indirectly. See, I sold the song and used the money to buy the hat. I know most girls can't pull off the whole hat look, but my head has the perfect shape, you know, so--"
As she was explaining this to her, Tori closed her locker and went to walk away, but she did a double take when she realized what Trina had just said.
"Yeah, yeah, yeah. Whoah, whoah, whoah, whoah, whoah, whoah! What do you mean you sold the song I gave you?" She asked.
"Well, you know my friend, Molly?" Trina asked.
"Little feet, big thighs?" Tori asked.
"Mm-hmm. Her uncle is one of the main dudes at Devolution Records. I played the song for him and he, like, freaked over it." Trina told her, giggling a little bit at the end.
"The song that I sang for your birthday?" Tori asked.
"Yeah! He gave me five hundred bucks for the rights. And get this-- he wants me to record it professionally." She said.
"You? Y-You're gonna sing it?" Tori asked.
"Of course, he think it could be a hit! I turned your terrible present into a new hat and a great opportunity!" She said, going to walk off.
"But wait-- But, but, but, but does he know that I was the one singing the song and not you?" Tori asked as she grabbed Trina and pulled her back.
"You know, that did not come up." Trina replied.
"Trina, how can you just do that?! You can't--"
The bell rang and Trina decided to use this to make her exit.
"Got to scamper. Hey, are you gonna finish your coffee?" She asked, pointing towards the coffee that Jade had dug out of the garbage.
"No, Jade found this in the..." Tori trailed off, looking towards Trina.
"You can have it." She said, handing Trina the coffee.
Trina grabbed the coffee from her sister, genuinely looking touched as she blew her a kiss before walking off to class.
"That's right, drink the garbage coffee." Tori said as she watched Trina take a sip.
-----------------------------------------
"Come on!" Robbie said.
"No! You said you were taking me to play baby golf." Cat said as she held up a small pink golf club.
The two were outside his grandmothers apartment once again, only this time, Robbie had tricked Cat into coming with him as he knew she wouldn't willingly come back.
"We'll only be here a half hour." He told her, ringing the doorbell.
"But your grandmother hates me." Cat said.
"She doesn't hate you." He responded.
His grandmother opened the door and immediately cringed at the sight of Cat.
"Aah! Why did you bring that one?!" She asked, motioning towards Cat.
Having seen all she needed, Cat gave Robbie a quick "Bye!" before trying to walk away. Robbie quickly grabbed her by the arm before she could get too far, telling her to "Stay!" before dragging her inside.
As they entered, they found a meek-looking girl sitting in the living room, hugging a teddy bear tightly in her arms as she saw the two unfamiliar people enter the apartment.
"Who is this?" Robbie asked his grandmother, pointing towards the unfamiliar girl.
"Robbie, this is Brenda, my friend Rona's cousin's granddaughter. Brenda, this is my grandson, Robbie." She told the girl.
"Hi, it's great to meet you." He politely greeted to girl before turning towards his grandmother.
"Why is she here?" He asked in a hush tone.
"So you don't end up with one of those." She replied, pointing towards Cat.
"I'm leaving now." Cat told Robbie.
"No, you're not!" Robbie said, grabbing Cat before she could run off.
"Robbie is so smart. He's here to fix the internet." His grandmother told Brenda, pulling Robbie towards her.
The girl was currently rocking herself back and forth, obviously not comfortable with the situation in the slightest.
"Yeah, why don't I go do that!" Robbie said, going to walk towards the computer.
"Hey, what's your rush? Spend some time, get to know, Brenda." His grandmother said, pulling him back.
"Mammaw!" He exclaimed.
"Is that a face?" She asked, scrunching up Robbie's face and making him look towards Brenda.
The girl gave Robbie a polite smile, but quickly averted her gaze away from him once she did.
-----------------------------------------
At Schneider's Sound Factory, two men, Rico and his sound engineer, were ready to record the song that Trina had sold to them.
"Trina, you set?" Rico asked, pressing a button on the mixing console that allowed Trina to be able to hear him.
"I am super set!" Trina replied, holding up her hands that showed two "OK" signs.
"Okay, then we're gonna put one down." He said.
"Yes, let's put one doooown." Trina repeated in a deeper voice.
Rico looked at her a little strangely, but ultimately ignored it and told the engineer to start the recording.
"Track one."
"Playback."
The music started to play, which caused Trina to start dancing along to the beat before she started to sing.
"I don't wanna a scene
I don't wanna let you down"
As expected, Trina's voice was completely off pitch. Both Rico and the engineer looked confused, as this was not at all what they listened to on the demo that Trina had given them.
"I try to do my own thing
And I'm starting to figure it out
But it's all right"
It was at this point that Rico and the engineer had tried pressing buttons on the console to try and make her sound better, but there was no effect that could conjure up that miracle.
"Keep it together
Wherever we go--"
Rico signaled for the engineer to cut it off, which he did immediately.
"I'm not hearing any music anymore." Trina said, pointing towards the headphones she was wearing.
"Uh, yeah, you're vocal, you're not sounding like you did on the live demo you played for me." Rico told her.
"Oh... right. I was just trying it a different way." Trina lied through her teeth.
"Oh, okay, well, why don't you just try singing it like you did on the demo?" Rico asked.
"Yes, sir. No problemo." Trina replied.
"Great, great. Let's go again." Rico said, signaling for the engineer to start the song back up from the beginning.
"Take two." Said the engineer, the music starting to play again.
Trina started to sing again, but this time was much worse as she wasn't just off key, she was now also off beat.
"Can't you make her sound better?" Rico asked.
"Yup." Then engineer replied, pressing a button on the console.
The music still played, but Trina's audio from the sound booth was suddenly cut off.
"You just turned off her mic." Rica said.
"Mm-hmm. Sound better?" He asked
"Yeah."
Both of the men watched as Trina dance around in the booth, making a fool out of herself when she started to flap her arms as if she was a bird.
-----------------------------------------
Meanwhile, at Robbie's grandmother's house...
"A girl doesn't dye her hair that color unless she has psychological problems." Said Robbie's grandmother.
"My hair color has nothing to do with my psychological problems!" Cat exclaimed.
Robbie's grandmother and Cat have been at this for a while now, with them seemingly having no end to their argument.
"Don't you use that tone with me, young lady!"
"Well, you said a bunch of mean things to me! My mom thinks it's okay!"
"Why would your mother allow that?! Over my dead body, would I let my grandson ever marry--
"We're just friends!"
As they were arguing, Robbie decided to put an end to all this by creating a fake page that read "Sorry, Internet Cancelled." using a pair of scissors, Robbie cut the Ethernet cord that was connected to the back of his grandmother's computer.
"OH, NO, NO! Oh, this i bad news! Oh, no..." Robbie yelled out in fake anguish.
"What?" Cat asked.
"What's wrong, sweetheart?" Asked his grandmother.
"They canceled the internet!" Robbie told them.
"Huh?" Cat said.
"Yeah! Look!" Robbie emphasized, pointing towards the screen.
Cat looked at the screen and saw the fake page, a smile making its way onto her face as she seemed to get was Robbie was trying to do.
"You know, bad economy, low ratings, they just canceled the whole internet. See, it says right there on the screen." Robbie said, motioning
towards the screen.
"Aww, that's too bad..." Cat said, walking over and placing a hand on Robbie's grandmother's shoulder.
"That's terrible!" Said his grandmother.
"Yeah, it's a tragedy..."
"Bye, Mammaw! Let's go, Cat." Robbie said, getting out of the chair and grabbing Cat by her arm so that they could run out of the apartment as fast as possible.
"Hey, wait, Robbie! I made you a chicken!" Hos grandmother yelled.
"GIVE IT TO BRENDA!" Robbie yelled as he walked out the door.
"Bye!" Said Cat, shutting the door on their way out.
-----------------------------------------
Back at Schneider's Sound Factory, Trina's singing hasn't improved in the slightest and Rico had reached his limit.
"Oh, no. Oh, no, no."
Rico got up from his chair and went towards the sound booth. Seeing this, the engineer shut off the music as Rico went inside to confront Trina.
"Wh-What happened? I was feeling that one. You weren't feeling it?" Trina asked.
As she was asking this, Rico took off her headphones and placed on the mic.
"Okay, what up?" Rico asked.
"Oh, you want me to sing louder?" She asked.
"NO!" He exclaimed immediately.
"That live demo you played for me, how come you can't sing like that now?" He asked.
"Well..."
Trina tried to come up with some sort of excuse, but it just seemed to get stuck in her throat.
"Are you the singer on the demo or not?" Rico asked.
"I'm... genetically similar to that singer..." Trina told him.
Rico's eyes widened at the girl, not believing what he just heard.
"All right, that's it, I'm pulling the plug on this. Hey, pull the plug, man. We're going home--"
"No, no, wait. Just wait a second!" Trina told him as she followed him out of the sound booth.
Rico turned around to see what she had to say.
"Let me fix this." She said.
"How?" He asked:
Rolling her eyes, Trina grabbed her phone from her pocket and started to look through her contacts.
"What-- W-Who are you gonna call--"
"Just shush." Trina told him, putting her hand in his face.
After waiting for about an hour, Tori, André and Jason all showed up at the studio and started to record the song that they all had made together.
Tori went inside the sound booth and Jason and André booth stood near the console as she sang her heart out. As they were listening, a dejected Trina was sitting on the couch behind them, wallowing in her own self pity.
"--might be crazy~
Have I told you lately that I love you?~
You're the only reason that I'm not afraid to fly~"
"She killing it or what?" André asked.
"She's fantastic." Rico replied.
Coming up from behind them, a lady held four cups of coffee in her hand and gave them all to the guys standing near the console. Thanking her for the coffee, Jason took a sip and was surprised by how good it had tasted. It was definitely better than the coffee served at school, that's for sure.
"Can I have a coffee?" Trina asked.
""NO!"" Replied both Rico and the engineer.
Trina looked at them both with her mouth agape, shocked at their instant refusal.
"It's not that good." André said, trying to give Trina some sort of comfort.
"Yes, it is." Jason stated bluntly, having no remorse for what she brought on herself.
"So good..." André muttered.
Hearing his phone ring, Rico grabbed his phone out of his pocket told the engineer to "Bring it down" before accepting the call.
"Yeah... What? Shut up... Don't play with me, man... Are you serious?... Okay, we're on our way."
Jason and André looked over at each other, wondering what that call was about.
"Cut it, cut it." Rico told the engineer as he tucked his phone into his jacket pocket.
"We're in the middle of a take." Said the engineer.
"Cut the session, man." He said, cutting off the music and the recording.
"What happened? Are we taking a break?" Tori asked.
Jason and André looked towards Tori, not really knowing what to tell her as they didn't know themselves.
"That was Jesse. He played the song for Beyoncé and she went nuts over it." Rico told the engineer.
Everyone in the room started to listen in even more now.
"Shut up!" The engine exclaimed.
"She might wanna record it." Rico said.
"Beyoncé?" Trina asked in shock, getting up from the couch and walking over towards the group.
"He's with her right now!" Rico told the engineer, ignoring Trina.
"OH, MY GOD." He exclaimed.
"What's happening out there?" Tori asked, still not having a clue about what was going on on the outside.
"Beyoncé likes our song?" André asked Rico.
"My song! Best five hundred bucks I ever spent!" Rico exclaimed as he pointed at Trina over and over.
"Hello?" Tori said.
"Come on, man, let's go meet Beyoncé!" The engineer exclaimed, grabbing his bag and going to leave the room with Rico.
"Can I come?" Trina asked.
""NO!""
"But I wanna meet--"
"Aren't you gonna-- yo--"
Ignoring the shouts from both Trina and André, the both of them left the room, shutting the lights off as they left.
"Really? The lights?" André asked.
Tori tapped on the microphone, wondering what the hell was happening.
"Guys?" She asked, wanting an explanation.
Jason rolled his eyes, expecting something like this to happen. He's had friends who had been burned by these types of studios before. And while it wasn't technically their fault as they believed that Trina had sold them the rights, it was still negligent of them to not actually check if she even had the rights to the song in the first place.
Because she didn't.
-----------------------------------------
Tori was sitting on the couch, a blank look on her face as she thought about the fact that the song she had worked so hard on with her friends was sold off and couldn't even be counted as her song anymore.
She was so close to actually recording and releasing her first single, but Beyoncé had to show up and take it. Freaking BEYONCÉ!
Hearing a knock at her door, Tori let out a sigh and got up from the couch to answer it. Opening the door, Tori saw that Jason was standing there.
"Jace? What are you doing here?" She asked.
"Can I come in?" He asked.
Stepping aside, Tori motioned for him to come in, closing the door once he came in.
Without any explanation, Jason placed his bag into the coffee table and pulled out a giant stack of cash. He turned around and held it behind his back.
"Hold out your hand." He said.
Tori did what he said and held out her hand. Jason took out the money from behind his back and placed it into Tori's outstretched hand.
"W-What is this?" Tori asked, now staring at him with widened eyes.
"Sixteen-thousand six-hundred and sixty-six dollars and sixty-six cents." He replied.
"Jason..." She called his name out hesitantly.
"Yeah?" He asked.
"Please tell me you didn't rob a bank..." She said.
Jason rolled his eyes at her assumption. If he had robbed a bank, he would definitely have a lot more than a single stack of cash.
"No, I didn't rob a bank." He told her.
"Then where exactly did you get this money, and why are you giving it to me?" She asked.
"Remember how Trina said that she sold the song to those guys?" He asked.
Tori nodded, still not taking her eyes off the money.
"Well, before she did that, I had called up my old producer and told him to copyright the song under your name." He told her.
Hearing what he said, Tori finally seemed to snap her gaze away from the money and look towards Jason with a shocked look on her face.
"Wait, you did what?!" She asked.
"Yeah. So when those guys down at Devolution Records tried to release their new hit single, my old producer sued them for copyright infringement." He said.
"So this stack of cash--"
"Is what Devolution Records paid out in order to get out of the lawsuit. Well, some of it. It was a hundred-thousand at first, but the lawyer and my old producer took half of that. And the fifty that we got, I split into three ways. This is your cut. I gave André his earlier." He told her.
"Oh, I also took the two cents that were left over, hope you don't mind. I figured since I was the one that copyrighted the song in the first place that I should get the two cents." He added, smirking a little.
Tori smiled at what he said at first, but it was quickly shaken off her face when she realized something very important.
"Wait, what about Beyoncé? Did you sue her too?" She asked.
"First of all, I didn't sue anyone. My old producer did." He corrected her.
Tori rolled her eyes at what he said, but continued to listen.
"Second, no, he didn't sue Beyoncé. That is actually the other reason why I came over today." He said.
"What? Was giving me thousands of dollars not enough for you?" She asked lightheartedly.
"You check your phone lately?" He asked, ignoring the question.
"No, I was so bummed out that I haven't checked my phone at all today." She told him.
"You might wanna check your email." He said with a small smile.
Raising an eyebrow at the boy, Tori went over to the coffee table and grabbed her phone. She opened her phone and checked her email, seeing that there was a email from an unknown person. Tapping on it, she read the contents and almost dropped her phone.
"You didn't..." She muttered, her hand covering her mouth.
"Mm-hmm. She felt so bad that they, pretty much, stole your song, she offered to feature you in her next song. Featuring on a Beyoncé song, not bad for your musical debut."
Jason was smiling at the girl, who was so shocked that she couldn't barely even speak.
"You... got me a feature... with Beyoncé...?" She asked, almost not believing what she's seeing.
"I don't know what to say..." She added as she turned towards Jason, still in a little bit of shock.
"You don't have to say anything." He told her.
"But-- But I-- But this--"
"Tori! You don't have to say anything!"
Jason stepped up to the girl, grabbing her shoulders in an attempt to try and calm her down.
"Seeing you so flustered pretty much makes it worth it." He told her, smiling at the girl who was trying to desperately to come up with something to say.
And it was that moment that Tori had made a decision and snaked her arms around Jason's neck, bringing him in for a kiss.
His eyes now widened, Jason wasn't expecting her to do this at all. While he was expecting her to be grateful, he didn't expect any of what was currently happening, but he was overjoyed nonetheless.
The initial shock of the sudden kiss fading, Jason closed his eyes and wrapped his arms around Tori's waist. Her pulled her towards him, deepening the kiss as he felt her body press up against his.
The heated kiss died down and they both pulled away, staring at each other as they both tried to come up with something to say. And while a million things were running through their heads, they both seemed to understand one thing.
After today, they were definitely more than just friends.