Chapter Text
7 AM, Nickelodeon Studios, Victorious Table Read Room.
“Ms. Ari and Ms. Liz, what are you doing to Mr. Matthew’s hair?” asked Dan while filming all the craziness going on in the room.
“Braiding it.” was the giggly response he got back from the red haired girl.
“Um, excuse me? It’s Matteo, thank you very much.” said Matt as he casually sat back and let Ariana and Elizabeth braid his hair in patches.
“Cabbage patching it.” said an equally giggly Elizabeth Gillies.
“What?” asked Ariana, laughing at her friend’s hair term.
“I don’t know.” answered Elizabeth, as they continued styling Matt’s hair.
“They don’t know kids, they don’t know.” said Dan speaking to the potential viewers of this video he was sure to post on his YouTube account. “Well good luck with that Sir. I’m sure it will turn out terrible.” “Hey!” said all three, in mock offense, as their show creator went to stalk their other cast mates. “And we have some people you guys don’t know…Oh and here’s some you do! Doing something equally random.” He says as he films Avan, Victoria, Daniella, and Leon having a random arm-wrestling contest.
It appeared to be boys versus girls, with Avan vs. Victoria and Daniella vs. Leon. And for some reason they were all wearing fake mustaches.
“This is the stuff that happens when we’re about to wrap up a season. Random cosmetology and facial hair growth. Witness this heated battle of the whiskers.” said Dan whispering the last part as he zoomed in on the four, getting them to somewhat break their serious faces for a second. “Avan! Leon!” He yelled really loud distracting the guys and causing them to lose, getting complaints from the guys and very manly cheers and fist bump from the girls.
“Oi! What’s up with making us lose? !” asked Avan in a tough British accent, accompanied with Leon’s 70’s “Yeah man, that ain’t cool brotha.”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about. Do you know what they’re talking about?” Dan asked Mikey (Sinjin) and Eric (Sikowitz) as they watched with amused expressions.
“Not at all.” said Eric and Mikey just shook his head no.
“See no one knows.” said Dan.
“No one knows.” “No one.” added Victoria and Daniella as seriously as possible before laughing.
“No one.” said Dan before he just shut off his camera, definitely another random ending to another random DanWarp video.
After Dan turned off his camera, everyone knew it was time to get down to business. Mustaches were removed, hairdressing was stopped, and everybody got ready to read out the first scene of their two hour fourth season finale. Earlier in the year, before they had started officially writing out episodes for this season, Dan had a meeting with all of the cast and the writers. They talked first about the obvious change that Victorious would be moving to TeenNick, which they were all down for. All of them were ready to handle some riskier material, but still wanted to stay true to their comedic style. There was that and the fact that they only had one more season after the fourth one. By the time they would finish the fifth season all of the main cast would be in their early to mid-twenties and would be ready explore other things, whether that be finishing school, finding other acting gigs, focusing on music, or for some of them all of the above. Until then though they were just going to enjoy being the same old Victorious gang, just a little more grown up for two more seasons of awesome madness. Before they began shooting though Dan and the writers wanted to talk to the gang and see if they were comfortable with the direction they wanted to take with all of their characters, but two characters especially.
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
Flashback…
“Good so it seems like you guys are feelin’ the new material.” said Dan. “Ari you sure your brother will be down for playing your psychotic screen brother in a couple episodes?” he asked.
“Are you kidding me? ! Frankie would love that! Many of the fans have already suggested it, so I think they’ll love it as well.” said Ariana excitedly.
“Ok so there are a lot of major hookups and breakups this season, but there’s one hookup in particular that we wanted to get you guys thoughts on. Vic and Liz this involves mainly you two.” said Dan seriously, his words getting all of the kids’ attention.
“Hookup? !” “I knew it!” “Told you.” said Victoria and Elizabeth simultaneously, the second was Daniella, and the third was Avan to Victoria.
Leon and Ariana just sat wide eyed and amused, as they looked back and forth between their co-stars. Who looked suddenly like they were going to pass out.
“How would you two feel about Tori and Jade becoming a couple?” asked Dan.
“I uh…” stammered both girls, as they looked at each other from opposite ends of the couch they were sitting on.
Even though the cast was close it seemed like the two were always in opposite worlds, but both girls knew that if either one needed the other they’d be there in a heartbeat.
“You don’t have to answer now. Just think about it, talk about it and let us know what you think.” said Dan.
The two girls nodded and soon the meeting was over and everybody pretty much left them alone. Victoria was staring at the floor, when a pale hand appeared in front of her face.
“Come on.” said Elizabeth softly, while offering her right hand.
Victoria took it and without a word, let the darker brunette lead her until they got to the roof of the building. Each girl’s thoughts were going a mile a minute as they leaned against one of the railings and looked out at the city.
“This is big.” said Elizabeth.
“Yeah.” answered Victoria.
‘I mean I knew they were going all out these last two seasons, but love interest? !’ thought both girls.
As shocked as the girls were at Dan and the rest of the writers, in the back of their minds they weren’t really. Even if Dan and the rest of the writers didn’t verbally tell them until now, they could tell certain scenes from the last season were written to test the waters of this particular pairing. Tori and Jade’s Playdate anyone? And even way before that episode they just had this connection on screen.
‘I wish it was off as well. What am I saying? !’ thought Victoria.
‘It’s going to be ten times harder to ignore my feelings off camera. What feelings?’ thought Elizabeth.
“Everything will change. I mean not just our characters. Something like this will be big news. Simply because our characters grew up and didn’t stick with the norm.” continued Elizabeth. “On the other hand who wants to be normal and I think it will be good to show kids that the characters they love aren’t just one dimensional.” She said meaning every word, but still nervous as hell.
“Yeah.” was Victoria’s ‘deep’ response yet again.
She agreed wholeheartedly with Elizabeth, but like her was nervous for so many reasons; one big one in particular. Both girls thought about everything that could come out of this decision.
‘…Well, if I can’t have her in the real world…’
Soon they both stopped thinking and just turned toward each other and said…
“Well I’m down if you are?” triggering a laugh from both girls.
“Well then come on boo.” said Elizabeth, taking Victoria by surprise and kissing her on the cheek.
Victoria giggled and rolled her eyes, trying to appear like she was not flustered from the unexpected contact. The young actresses simply linked arms and made their way back into the building, ready to face this new chapter in the Victorious universe together.
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
Present…
So now it’s been a season of crazy new changes, but apparently they have been worried about the audience for nothing because they’ve been loving it. Of course there were haters who flipped on the show because of its changes, mainly the Tori and Jade one, but they were overshadowed by all the love and support they had gotten from other old and new fans of the show. It seems they have been wanting to see the cast grow up as much as they did. So far Cat and Robbie have become official now, there is a potential pairing for next season of Beck and Trina maybe in the works, Tori and André were only used to set up her and Jade. It was the whole bringing out the goth’s jealousy and feelings, etc. Besides Tori was there when André fell for the new girl at HA: La’Shay “Shay” Brown’s character played by the awesome Keke Palmer, who will be back to guest star next season. All that crazy goodness was the build up for the two hour finale, which is mainly focused on the gang getting to do a random spot on MTV and Tori and Jade’s first kiss. It was written to be one of those ‘Yes, they finally got together! WTF! We have to wait till next season to see them be all coupley? !’ cliffhangers. Well, so far all has been well and good, the table read was intense and had all the emotions one could ever want in a season finale. Elizabeth and Victoria of course killed their scenes and it left everybody and the room either cheering, teary-eyed, or both. They hadn’t known just how hard it’s been on the actresses to do this storyline for the last couple months. Victoria wanted to cry, but not out of joy like the others, but out of sadness because what she thought would have brought her and Elizabeth closer together; she was all but certain it was driving them further apart. It started off like she wanted. Elizabeth and her started to hang out more, growing in their friendship. The pale skinned girl even finally asked her to be in one of their WeAreStoopKid videos, titled ‘Vic Goes to the Spa’. It involved a cream cheese facial done by Elizabeth and a Cheese Whiz pedicure from Ariana; there was random toe licking in there by Matt, but were not going to get into that. It had been fun, but shortly after that things started to go back to the way they were; even worse. Victoria would hardly see Elizabeth, if at all, until they had to do a scene together. They would both throw their all into it and then it was as if the dark haired girl would disappear. The half-Latina was really starting to regret agreeing to this storyline.
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
1 month later…
‘Is it crazy to be jealous of a character you play?’ thought Victoria as she sat in her room, staring up at the ceiling. ‘Probably. Thanks conscience. You’re welcome.’
She huffed and rolled on her side, she could help it. In the Victorious universe, Tori got the girl and she… It was driving her crazy thinking about the kisses she had shared with the now ever elusive Elizabeth Gillies for the finale and the music video they shot for it, but that’s just it. In those moments she was not Elizabeth Gillies she was Jade West and she was not kissing Victoria Justice she was kissing Tori Vega. A lonely tear made its way down the side her face and she wiped away quickly, while taking a deep breath. As soon as she moved her hand away she was confronted with two little fur balls coming into her room barking over who got the chew toy. She couldn’t help but giggle at their little puppies’ cuteness.
“Play nice Sam and Soph!” she yelled after them as they just as quickly let her quarters, still fussing away.
There was a bleep from her phone letting her know she had gotten a text.
Avan: Outside chica. ;-^{)
Vic: Haha. : {D B down in a min.
Dan and the cast wanted to watch the finale and music video together, so they were all meeting up at his house and chillin’ in his home theater. Victoria knew she didn’t have to dress up; she was just going to hang with her friends and boss who seemed to act younger than them a lot of the time, but she knew she would be there. So before heading down to meet her bff she made sure to check the little bit of makeup she was wearing and gathered herself before saying bye to the fam as she ran out the house. They were the last ones to show up to Dan and Lisa’s and were quickly ushered to his and his wife’s huge movie room. The rest of the cast and some others close to them were already in there, eating popcorn and other junk foods.
“Ay!” said everybody as they noticed them enter the room.
“Come on guys! Hurry up!” yelled Daniella from recliner, getting an echoing ‘Yeah.’ from everybody else.
“Yes, Ms. Monet.” said both her and Avan, while giving mock salutes to their laughing cast mate.
“Hey Vic over here!” said Ariana sitting next to, you guessed it, Elizabeth. “Here you can have my seat since you two are the new lovebirds and all.” she said getting up from her seat.
“Oh, no you don’t have to.” said Victoria, trying not to blush at what her redheaded friend just said.
“Oh, no I insist. I think I’m going to go sit with my onscreen boo.” replied Ari, turning to give Elizabeth a sly smile and a wink; in return of the death glare she was getting from the pale skinned girl.
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
Earlier at Ariana’s house, just before the episode showing…
“Dude you should just tell her.” said Ariana as she looked over her face in the mirror before turning to look back at her hopeless dark haired friend, who was currently splayed out on her bed face down.
Elizabeth groaned and then flipped over, “I can’t.”
Sigh, “You know what you’re being right now?” asked Ariana.
“No, what oh wise red one?” asked Elizabeth sarcastically as she lay on her back, with her head hanging off the side of the bed.
“Your being a…” said the redhead then tossed something on the pale girl’s stomach.
Elizabeth brought her head up to look at what the tiny little demon threw at her and saw that it was a tiny cat stuffed animal. Putting it together, she couldn’t but let out a laugh.
“Oh, ha ha. You’re so fun-né.” the dark haired girl said, giggling and then throwing the stuffed cat back at her laughing friend.
“I mean seriously. If this about how you think we’ll all feel about it, well you know how I do already. I’ll support you know matter what and you know Frankie will. Heck Liz you know you’re like our little sister anyway according to both of us and our parents. And speaking of parents, you know yours love you and Jorge like there’s no tomorrow and George loves you to death you know that. The rest of the guys are no different either. They’ll still be their same crazy selves.” said Ariana, as she made her way to sit next to her friend on the bed.
“I know. It’s not that. Well maybe I was worried about you guys a little bit.” Ariana gives her a look, “But! But I know you guys and I know how loved I am.” Ariana smiled and nodded, “And I’m so blessed for that, it just…”
“Just what?” asked Ariana in caring tone.
“It’s Victoria ‘Fucking’ Justice!” said Elizabeth as she got up from the bed and began to pace. “One of Nick’s perfect little straight princesses! I seriously doubt that she’ll risk her perfect world for just…me.” she finished softly, sitting dejectedly on the edge of the bed next to Ariana.
“First of all, who are you and where is the confident, sexy Liz Gillies that I know? Second, I can’t answer for her but I don’t think she’s as ‘straight’ as you think. Obviously you’ve been oblivious to how she practically craves your attention and affection. Which brings me to third, maybe if you stop going all M.I.A. when she’s around you’d see whether she’s feelin’ you or not? I can already tell you she is, but since you’re so hard headed…” the redhead lightly nocked on the pale skinned girl’s head, getting a glare in return. “…you’re just gonna have to woman up and go for it.” she finished simply, with a shrug.
“Thank you, oh mini Red Hot Oprah. I shall take all of that into consideration. May we please go now?” asked Elizabeth in a whiney tone.
Ariana just huffed and rolled her eyes, getting her stuff together so they could head to Dan and Lisa’s.
………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………...
Back in Dan’s theater, the present…
“Where’s my man? !” asked Ariana dramatically as she made her way to Matt, who sitting next to Leon and Mikey, and who also answered with a ‘Over here mama!’ in his so called thug voice.
Victoria and Elizabeth both couldn’t help but laugh at their crazy friends, and then came the awkward.
“Hey.” said Victoria simply, as she sat awkwardly next to the dark haired girl.
“Hey.” said Elizabeth back just as awkwardly, trying to keep her eye contact to a discreet minimum.
The two just sat and stared at the screen while random videos played. Anyone form the outside looking in would be cracking up at how Jade and Tori the moment was.
“So, you excited?” asked Victoria in reference to the finale they were about to watch, trying to at least start a conversation.
“Of course.” said Elizabeth, and then to turning to look at Victoria. “You?”
“Definitely. We worked hard.” Victoria said referring to the two of them. “We all did…And I’m glad I get to share this moment with you.” she finished looking down into her lap shyly.
The half-Latina gasped softly at the feeling of a soft hand taking hold of her left one, she looked up into the blue-gray eyes that mad her heart feel like she just ran a marathon.
“Me too.” said Elizabeth with a genuine and shy smile.
They continued to just stare into each other’s eyes until Dan loudly announced that the episode was starting. Moments later, everyone was engrossed in the first hour of the two hour episode. No one noticed, not even the culprits themselves, that Victoria and Elizabeth had yet to let go other each other’s hands; only letting go if the other needed theirs for a second. The finale was turning out even more awesome than they imagined. The first half was mainly centered on the whole gang getting a lucky hook up from Sikowitz. Apparently a friend of his worked for MTV and was in charge of getting new artist to perform live all day every Friday for a month for a new live music video countdown show that had just started showing on the air. Long story short he got them in for Fresh Face Fridays and it was a big moment for the whole gang, Trina included. When she stopped being such a diva and over doing her singing, they actually found out that she’s not half bad. Jade of all people was the one to tell her that she didn’t need all the crazy to be great, which helped Tori fall for her even more. And Beck helped Trina with her acting, which helped her become even crazier for the Canadian. Somewhere along the line Beck starts to find Trina a little less annoying and starts to have feelings of his own, but they won’t really get into that story till the final season; or André and Shay’s. This ep was mainly to have one big cast hoorah before the focused shifted back to Tori and Jade finally getting together. Before the finale, they have already shared their first kiss in an episode called ‘Expect the Unexpected’. Jade gets rained on while being locked out of her house and decides to go to Tori’s for shelter. Why you ask out of all the rest of the gang? Anyway there’s a cute Tori trying to help Jade get dry moment, which somehow lead to Jade rubbing the back of Tori’s hand with her thumb, Tori sweeping wet hair out of Jade’s face and caressing it, and then finally the two sharing an intense kiss. Jade freaks out and quickly leaves to go to Cat’s. Sound familiar, hmm? So then Jade kind of avoids Tori until the finale. In the second part of the finale, Tori’s parents give her and Trina a huge present; a summer trip to New York City, since they knew both girls were going to go to school there once Tori graduated. They also got it to where two friends of theirs could join them. Trina of course picked Beck, who surprisingly to her said yes. Tori asked Jade, but the goth refused the offer. There was crying, pep talks from both a crazy sister and a redhead best friend. Fast-forward, to Jade finally realizing what a dumbass she was being and running to Tori’s airplane gate; only to find that she was too late and gate had just stopped boarding passengers. More crying by both girls...but then a malfunction with the plane grounds the flight. Tori see’s Jade sitting on a bench outside the airport crying in her hands because she thinks she just lost the half-Latina for good. Tori calls her name and their eyes meet. Jade apologizes, admits she was wrong and scared, but could not handle losing Tori. They confess their love for one another and share a heated kiss. The end.
When the episode went off Victoria and Elizabeth both quickly wiped the tears that had made their way down their faces. The parallels of the characters’ lives and their own had hit them both in the gut. They finally looked down and noticed that their hands were still joined, fingers threaded and all. When Elizabeth let Victoria’s go they both felt saddened at the broken perfect fit. Soon they were jumped by the rest of the cast and the others that were there. Everybody talked about how they loved their storyline and just how much everybody’s grown since their first days stepping onto the Hollywood Arts set. After partying a little longer at their boss’s house, it was soon time for everyone to go their separate ways. The gang exchanged hugs and I’ll see you soon’s because they would try to meet up over their busy breaks. Victoria had just gotten into Avan’s car when there was a knock on her passenger door. There stood Elizabeth Gillies in all her cute glory, looking…nervous?
‘She’s so cute when she’s nervous. Stop.’ thought Victoria, before scrunching her eyebrows saying…
“Hey?” with a sweet smile.
“Hey.” answered Elizabeth with a smile of her own. “May talk to you about something? I can drive you home. If that’s cool with you?” she asked, trying not to appear as spazstic as she felt.
“Yeah, sure.” answered Victoria, hugging and exchanging friendly banter with her guy bff before getting out of his car and walking with Elizabeth to hers. “Whoa, Ms. Gillies when did you get this? !” she asked when they got to the pale girl’s apparently new wheels.
“I know right. It took me forever to get this thing. Avan hooked me up with an awesome body shop to revamp her. Do you like it?” Elizabeth asked gesturing to her new/old 69 mustang convertible.
It was a slate gray (gray/bluish) color, a matching interior with black stitching and a black retractable top. In the front you could see its shaker hood.
“Like it? ! It’s beautiful!” said Victoria as she walked to the passenger side while still inspecting the pale girl’s ride.
“Thanks.” said Elizabeth shyly as they got in the car.
“I’m so jealous.” said Victoria good-naturedly as she shut her door.
“Ah well who knows, maybe I’ll let you drive her sometime.” said Elizabeth.
“Really?” asked Victoria hopefully.
“Yeah. You think you can handle it?” asked Elizabeth dramatically, while revving up the engine and raising a perfectly arched eyebrow.
“Oh, I know I can.” said Victoria with a random burst of confidence, as she got up in the dark haired girl’s space.
The way Victoria said the words and how close she got to Elizabeth, had the pale girl almost losing it and taking the half-Latina right in the car.
“Hmm.” was all she could hum out, not trusting her voice as she put the car in drive and took off; getting a squeal and laugh from her passenger.
“So…What was it you wanted to talk to me about?” asked Victoria, breaking the so far silent car ride.
The dark haired girl’s grip on the steering wheel tightened for a second.
“Uh, so you remember that beach house my family has right?” she asked.
“Yeah, the one you had your birthday party at right?” asked Victoria, curious as to where this line of questioning was going.
“Yeah. So um, I was going to head up there to chill for a little while sans the fam since I’m the only one with some time off right now. Anyway my parents trust me and everything, they just preferred if I didn’t go up there alone…”
‘I know she’s not about to ask me what I think she’s about to ask me. Ok stay calm breathe, just breathe. She’s probably going to tell you about how much fun her and Ariana are going to have.’ thought Victoria, fighting back the little prick of jealousy she had at their close relationship. ‘Stop it, they’re best friends.’
“I’m sorry what was that?” asked Victoria, missing whatever it was the dark haired girl had said.
“Would you like to head up there with me? I’ll probably stay up there about a month, but you don’t have to. That is if you even want to go. So do you?” asked Elizabeth, doing a little nervous lip bite that Victoria found so cute.
‘Oh my God, what’s happening? ! Am I in a freaking dream or something? ! Quick where’s my totem? Alright get it together Justice. I’m freaking out what should I do? ! What do you mean what should I do? ! You should say…’
“Yeah totally, that sounds like fun.” Victoria said with an easy smile.
“Really?” The pale girl asked shocked that the brunette had accepted her offer, but quickly recovered. “I mean cool. I’ll pick you up Monday at 9:00am so we can get there early enough to get settled in.” said Elizabeth smiling at Victoria as she stopped at a stop sign.
“Sweet, I’ll see you then.” Victoria said smiling right back at Elizabeth.
“Till then Ms. Justice.” said the dark haired girl just as they pulled up to Victoria’s house.
The half-Latina try to hide the blush she knew was on her face from Elizabeth’s words and that smile of hers, as she got out of the rumbling mustang. She gave the pale girl a shy wave before making her way up to the side door of her family’s house. After returning the wave, Elizabeth just sat and watched as the girl that had thrown her off her game made her way into her house, before she pulled off hoping that she didn’t just make the biggest mistake of her life.