According to Mason, Tori's paperwork was still being processed by the rest of the legal department and other producers at Neutronium Records, so before any real work could be done with her, he had given Tori free rein over one of the studio rooms while she waited. The room she was ushered into was empty and looked a lot like the conservatory back at Hollywood Arts, right down to the multitude of instruments scattered against the walls. Sitting down on the carpeted floor, she looked ahead at her faint reflection against the glass door into a soundproofed booth most likely used for recording vocals. Tori smiled as her mind was filled with memories of cramming for tests, randomly playing popular songs, and just making fun music with her friends back in LA. She started to wish she could see any of them again, to catch up on the hectic first week she and Jade have had in Miami. With a sigh, she settled for taking a selfie in front of the recording booth to share with them later.
Stowing her phone back in her pocket, Tori plopped down on the bench of an electronic keyboard situated next to the booth. Her fingers instinctively traveled to certain keys to play a set of chords she had memorized years ago for a past assignment. Closing her eyes, she started to play the song perfectly, her lips quietly moving as she recalled the lyrics. In her mind, she heard the accompanying instruments her classmates played as part of the assignment; a beautifully flowing violin accompanying her keyboard's melody, a bass that made up the lower range, and a drum set that kept the rhythm for everyone. The harmony of the piano echoing in the room and the other instruments playing in her imagination felt too good not to sing along to, so Tori began from the first verse:
I like your smile
But even introductions need to last awhile
Sometimes I don't know if I'm right or wrong
And in the end it seems like everything is worse when you're gone
She prepared for the chorus as it drew close, but another voice suddenly filled her airspace, making her yell and jump back—almost falling off the bench. Tori opened her eyes and turned toward the source of the singing; surprised to see Nora West leaning against the wall with a smile. "M-Ms. West! How long were you...?"
Nora held her hand up and motioned for Tori to continue, which she hesitantly did. The melody eased her back into the mood and they both sang the chorus together, Nora taking the lower harmony alongside Tori's melody.
There is no upper hand. I'm giving you mine
It doesn't have to end up wasting your time
There's things that I could say
But here in my way
I wanna let you know
That it's all okay...
As Tori exhaled slowly, her hands returning to her lap, Nora chuckled and shook her head, "Sorry about that. I just happened to be on break and thought I'd see what you were up to. You're quite skilled on the piano, Tori."
Tori blushed, instinctively brushing her hair back, "Oh, I've had lessons since I was little, but this song is kind of hard-wired into me after I had to memorize it for a school thing. You know, you sounded really good singing it! I didn't think you knew it."
"Why do you assume that?" Nora raised an eyebrow, looking slightly offended, making Tori double back and clear her throat.
"Oh I...I didn't mean you couldn't know songs like this! I mean, you just sang it so well, like you've heard it...a lot?"
Nora laughed to herself, taking a seat next to Tori on the piano bench. "I'm just messing with you! I only know this song because Jade sang it in her audition for the Platinum Music Awards. I remember how she kept stopping and restarting the song again and again until she got it perfectly in one take."
"It took her that many tries to memorize the song?" Tori blinked, finding that mental image hard to see, "But I heard from one of our friends that she once sang it perfectly!"
Nora chuckled again, "Oh, the song wasn't the problem! She was obsessed with the video itself; everything from the framing to her body language while singing. She told me that everyone was getting so worried about their singing that they'd probably forget that they'll be on stage, too!"
Tori nodded, finally understanding. It made her gulp, realizing that she was exactly in that crowd of perfecting her singing over her appearance—and yet, ultimately became the one Mason chose. "W-Well, I can definitely see where Jade gets her musical talent from!"
Nora waved away the compliment, "Oh, stop! I haven't been in the music scene in so long—I'm rusty, believe me!" She sighed and smiled nonetheless, "It was enough for Piper, at least..."
"Piper?" Tori blinked, trying to recall the name, then suddenly remembering, "Oh! You mean that woman who came to your hotel room last—"
Throwing professionalism out for a brief moment, Nora quickly covered Tori's mouth and brought a finger to her lips, "Tori! Not here!" As both of them slowly settled back down, Nora took a deep breath. "Well...I guess that leads into what I was about to ask you, anyway."
Tori's eyebrows raised curiously as she mumbled, "Ask me what?" against Nora's palm, which was promptly removed after. "Um...ask me what?" She could tell Nora was looking very nervous about whatever she was about to ask.
"Tori, how would you and Jade like to go out with me and Piper for dinner tonight?" Nora maintained a straight face through the whole question, but when Tori wouldn't answer for several seconds, she started to worry if the young woman didn't hear her or was simply caught by surprise.
With a casual smile painted on her face, Tori was screaming internally.
"We're going on a double date with my mom?!" Jade nearly crushed the coffee cup in her hand when she heard the news.
Tori quickly darted around them, hoping that outburst didn't attract too many ears. Luckily, she saw that no one was looking at them beyond a startled glance. Feeling glad she chose a very isolated table in the café, she sharply whispered, "Your mom said it's partly to make up for the 'freak-out first day' and partly because it's her first date with Piper! She just wants some familiar faces around to keep her calm!"
Jade's eyebrows furrowed as she leaned close and whispered just as sharply, "You know who else hasn't had a first date yet? Us! This was not the first date I had in mind for us!"
"Oh? What did you have in mind?"
"It doesn't matter anymore because you shanghaied us into being my mom's 'dating wheels'! Besides, why does she need help on a date? I'm living proof that she's gotten to home base before, right?"
"Jade, I don't know, okay? But if we help her with this, it'll score some trust points in our favor, won't it?"
With Tori lightly jabbing her propped elbow on the table, Jade relented with a groan and took a big gulp from her coffee cup. "Fine! We'll do it!" Tori celebrated with a little dance in her seat, but then Jade suddenly leaned in close, grabbing the neck of Tori's shirt. "But be warned: I'm considering this our first real date, so prepare to have your mind blown, Vega~"
With a quickly fading smile painted on her face, Tori was screaming internally...and could swear Jade was glancing down for a second.
After coming home straight after work, Jade locked herself in her room, leaving Tori to get every detail from Nora about where and when they were meeting for dinner. At 7:00 pm, Tori emerged from her room, using her tablet as a mirror since Jade had occupied the bathroom. Setting the device against the kitchen counter and the adjacent wall, she straightened out her red jacket, the white-striped top underneath, and her dark denim jeans that she hoped didn't look too casual for a date night. She briefly knelt down to secure the straps of her shoes, but caught a glance at a pair of red lace-up boots, followed by a pair of black jeans and a dark tank top covered by a jet black leather jacket.
As Tori stood up straight, her eyes widened at the sight of Jade sending her a wink as she stowed her phone in her pocket. "Wow," Tori cleared her throat before taking a quick sip of water, "You look really nice, Jade."
"Thanks..." Jade smirked for only a second before shoving her hands in her pockets, trying to hide any nerves she had about tonight, "Don't get me wrong. I'm still not excited for this double...date—ugh! It's creepy just calling it that!" Jade made a face as she trudged toward the door.
Tori rolled her eyes as she fished her keys out of her bag. Since this wasn't the ideal first date either of them were hoping for, Tori was expecting some resistance to the plan. "Let's get going, then. Your mom texted me that she and Piper are heading for the restaurant already." Once she had her keys in hand, Tori promptly shut off every non-essential light and herded Jade out the door with her, locking it behind them.
Following the directions Nora sent to them, Tori quickly found the Asian fusion restaurant they had gone to before, Nichijou, halfway between their apartment and the Neutronium Records office. As they parked and stepped out into the Miami nightlife, Jade rubbed her eyes at the sight of the restaurant, also comparing its appearance to Nozu back home.
"Another Asian restaurant, huh?" Jade wasn't displeased with the choice of venue, but frowned nonetheless, "You sure Sikowitz didn't choose this place for our date...again?"
"It was your mother's idea!" Tori rebutted, locking the car as they both stepped out, "And at least it's familiar territory, right? You liked Nozu back in LA!"
"It was the only decent place near Hollywood Arts that didn't burn a hole in our wallets!" Jade scowled, but sighed as she took Tori's hand, "Just promise me we won't have to tell any stubborn boys to leave us alone this time."
Tori smiled as she gave Jade's hand a squeeze, "Don't worry! We're with your mom and her date this time, remember?"
"Gah! That almost feels worse!" Jade groaned, squeezing her hand back a bit tighter as they made their way inside the restaurant.
Once they were inside, Tori spotted Nora waving to them from a nearby booth and quickly joined her and Piper. Nora was dressed in a light grey blazer and slacks with a simple black t-shirt underneath, a sort of midpoint between her professional attire at work and the Stanford bedwear from her hotel room. Piper was wearing a black, flower-patterned blouse under a light-blue sport coat.
After exchanging quick greetings and ordering sushi all around, the four women sat awkwardly, wondering who would risk breaking the ice first. Piper silently volunteered herself as she took a long sip from her glass of water.
"So," she pointed at Jade, clearly trying to look in any direction but Piper's, "You're Nora's little girl! Well, I guess you're not so little anymore. I can really see the resemblance!"
Jade raised an eyebrow, as if the statement repulsed her, "Well, my hair is dyed black, not natural like hers. So I'm not sure I see what you mean by 'resemblance'."
Nora made a face to her daughter, wishing not to start an argument before dinner could even be served, but Piper just laughed it off. "It's right there in your voice and your face! When I knew your mom, she looked every which way to avoid making small talk, but when she couldn't, she tried to look like a turtle that lost its shell!" At that, it was Nora's turn to blush and look like said turtle.
"When...you knew my mom?" Jade blinked in confusion. "How long ago did you know her?"
Nora sighed and looked back to the table to explain. "Piper is...an old friend. We met at Stanford around sophomore year, hung out, had classes together, then she moved here soon after for graduate school. This is actually the first time we've seen each other in person since then..." Nora couldn't hide her blushing as she finished explaining, and Tori knew the feeling all too well.
"Sounds like you're a little more than friends..." Tori gulped, hoping she wasn't overstepping, "Considering you told me this was a double date?"
Nora knew the subject wasn't going away, so with another sigh, she continued, "Piper and I were practically inseparable during college, but after she moved to Florida, it all just stopped. I never thought to call, to write, or send an IM; even when social media became a thing. You know that whole thing about seeing old classmates and childhood friends on socials, adding them as friends, but never really talking afterward? It was the same case when I found Piper online, but after your father and I divorced and you were in your 'rebellious phase', I just really wanted to talk to someone who wouldn't yell back at me." Nora could see a twinge of guilt in Jade's eyes as she took a sip from her glass and continued.
"We started catching up on each other's lives, remembering our college days, then I let it slip that...I missed her." Nora looked to Piper, listening intently next to her with just an honest smile on her face. "Somewhere in all that reminiscing, I remembered we had a sort of...unspoken thing...between us. Something we were too scared to really act on at the time."
Both Tori and Jade's eyes practically lit up at those two words-unspoken thing-specifically. Tori bit her lip, anticipating the rest of this story, while Jade silently held her breath.
Piper could see the tension growing between the three of them, so she stepped in to continue, "Now, I don't know what kind of screwball situations you kids got into at school, but Nora and I had probably the craziest times of our lives together! Of course, it's not like we had cameras in our pockets, so you'd never see any evidence of our...shenanigans, right?" She gave a knowing wink to Nora, who turned red immediately and shied away.
"But anyway, when Nora told me that she missed me, it got me thinking...that I missed her, too, and I wanted to see her. Unfortunately, her job had her going anywhere and everywhere, and I couldn't afford to go back to California to see her. But when she told me that she was coming here for work, I said we ought to meet up right away; which we did that other night!"
"So that explains why my mom was in a robe when we met her in the hotel," Jade blinked, trying to absorb every bit of her mother's backstory as she could, "And you were dressed like—"
"-a very beautiful, successful woman!" Tori cut in, afraid of what Jade would probably say. Jade just shrugged and nodded to that substitute.
"And now you know why I asked you both here..." Nora cleared her throat, "As you can now see, your situation isn't too unlike that of mine and Piper's, which is why I'm both sympathetic and a little worried for you both. Jade, I'm proud that you and Tori were able to admit your feelings for each other, but I also hope your generation is more...accepting than ours." She gulped and snuck her left hand under the table to meet Piper's. Piper smiled back and playfully bumped shoulders with her.
Jade could only flash a sympathetic smile to her mom, not wishing anything ill like she originally planned. Looking aside to Tori, she could see her girlfriend's trademark smile, reminiscent to a similar "date" before they simultaneously took a drink to mask their nerves.
Suddenly, spotlights on the ceiling began spinning as a voice rang through the PA system, "Alright, alright, Nichijou customers! Are you ready for a little Random Karaoke?!"
As applause started to fill the restaurant, Nora's eyes widened in surprise. "Oh my god, it's actually a thing?!"
Tori blinked in her direction, "What was that?"
"N-Nothing! Just keep your heads down and hope they don't—"
"How about those two young ladies down by the bar?" the restaurant host pointed a spotlight almost directly over Tori and Jade's spots on their booth. Anyone within earshot of Jade might have heard her hiss at the blinding lights. "Don't they seem like the songy-song action types?"
Tori was stunned as the applause only grew louder around them, but Jade merely smiled as the lights backed away and she made her way to the center stage with confidence. Looking back at her confused girlfriend, she winked and quickly typed in a song code.
A familiar, classic beat started to play, eliciting many nostalgic "ohhs" and "yeahs" from the audience, but it wasn't until a certain electronic riff played that Tori's jaw dropped in surprise; recognizing the song immediately. Jade crooked her finger toward Tori to call her over, still relishing in catching her off guard.
Rushing onto the stage to the waves of encouraging applause, Tori quickly whispered, "Is this your doing?!"
Jade grabbed two microphones, passing one to Tori, saying, "You know this one, right? Show 'em what you got, babygirl~"
Tori had no time to snap at her when the first verse's lyrics flashed on screen.
Talking away
I don't know what I'm to say
I'll say it anyway
Seeing the next set of lyrics in a different color, Tori looked to Jade, who took up the rest of the verse without missing a beat.
Today is another day to find you
Shying away
I'll be coming for your love, okay?
With the audience clapping to the beat, Tori started bopping her head with Jade as the chorus began, which they sang in harmony with each other.
Take on me (Take on me)
Take me on (Take on me)
I'll be gone
In a day or two
As the chorus's high notes rang out of Tori and Jade, whoops and cheers broke out in every direction. Nora started laughing and singing along as she fell back onto Piper, who held her close as the second verse began.
Any anxiety in Tori melted away as she kept her eyes on Jade, who was just as captivated by the moment. It was like their first duet together almost a year ago, but instead of shooing away two annoying boys, they were just performing for an audience—and each other. They alternated every two lines of the verse as they stood back to back, dancing in place to the rhythm.
So needless to say
I'm odds and ends
But I'll be stumbling' away
Slowly learning that life is okay (Life is okay)
Say after me
It's no better to be safe than sorry
The second chorus came to pass as the couple turned to face each other again. As they sang in harmony, they pretended they were the only ones in the whole room; sneaking in a wink or shoulder roll at the other, not caring who saw them being playful or flirty.
Oh, things that you say
Yeah, is it a life or
Just to play my worries away
You're all the things I've got to remember
You're shying away
I'll be coming for you anyway (I'll be coming)
Take on me (Take on me)
Take me on (Take on me)
I'll be gone
In a day or two...
In a day or two...
With the final chorus drawing the song to a close, Tori and Jade leaned close, their noses nearly brushing together as they sang the last take on me before the song faded out. The whole restaurant boomed with applause, but the two were deaf to all of it as they caught their breath.
"So..." Jade whispered with a smile, "Did I blow your mind or what?"
Maybe it was how breathless Tori was, but all she could think of to reply was giving Jade the biggest, most passionate kiss she possibly could. One glance at their wide audience, however, made her decide otherwise. She instead threw her arms around Jade in a tight hug. When she heard Jade sigh in relief and return the hug happily, Tori smiled and whispered in her ear, "Mind. Blown."
After making more bows than necessary to the audience, Tori and Jade made their way back to their booth, their hands clasped tightly the whole time. Nora and Piper looked at the couple as if they were glowing, the latter clearing her throat to remind them of the double date.
Tori quickly backed up a bit and took a big gulp of water before saying, "Well, that was...quite a thing. I thought you didn't like 80s pop music, Jade!"
Jade shrugged, "I don't...usually." She then smiled and booped Tori on the nose, "But I know you do, so I slipped the waiter an early tip and a note to pull a 'random karaoke' for us. Why do you think I locked myself in my room until the date?"
Piper chuckled as she crossed her arms, "You know what that looks like, Tori? A real keeper~" Nora gasped and lightly slapped her date on the arm, making a cute pout. "What? I'm just calling it like I see it! You two have major chemistry! Are you sure you just started dating?"
Tori and Jade took a quick sip and looked at each other with a blush, "It's kind of a long story."
"Now hold on..." Piper raised an eyebrow at the display of awkwardness, "Are you two...out?"
"W-Well, our friends and her parents know!" Jade glanced aside, "And I'm bi, but Tori's the first woman I've ever actually dated..."
Eyes then fell on Tori, who was looking even more nervous and flustered, "I...uh...I've dated guys, but they didn't really work out. Jade's also my first— girl! First girl I've dated! Just dated, and not...that! That thing people do!" As soon as the words flew out of her mouth, Tori cringed and planted her face on the table.
Piper glanced at Nora, who glanced at her daughter, who was covering her face to hide her own embarrassment. The two adults merely smiled and patted the girls on their shoulders with sympathy. "Don't worry, you two. You're adorable, and there's no rush to let the world know that. When the time comes that you're both comfortable and ready, I'm sure you'll have tons of people at your back."
Jade simply smiled, rubbing her girlfriend's back as she sat back up, pouting and waiting for sushi to replace the foot in her mouth.
"Now then," Piper cleared her throat and stood up, "Still gonna be a while till the food comes, so how about it, Nora? I'm thinking a little Top Gun?"
Before Nora could form a word of protest, Piper was already dashing to the host to make the request. Groaning, Nora pouted, "I hate it when she does that!" With no other choice, she got up and followed her date as Mighty Wings was already blaring on stage.
Taking in the spot of role reversal, Tori laughed out loud as Jade's arms snaked under her arms and around her waist. She laid back and gave her a peck on the cheek before they watched the other half of their date rekindle their own loving feeling.
Nichijou = "Everyday", which I relate to the "everyday", slice of life episodes of Victorious.
Songs featured: "Okay" by Michael Corcoran (as featured on Victorious), "Take on Me" by a-ha (specifically the duet cover as featured on Valley Girl).
Until next chapter~