When Tori and I walked through the halls we saw Robbie, Andre and Cat talking by the vending machines and we went over to say hi.
"Hey!" I say.
"Hey Sav, hey Tori" Cat says swinging her arm around my shoulder.
"Well after school I was thinking we should all go hang out at the grove. You wanna wanna?" Tori asks. The three hiss.
"Ooh"
"Uhhh"
"We really can't" Cat says to her. I feel like I know what this is about.
"How come?" Tori asks.
"Well uh, we have ping pong practice" Robbie says. Everyone hums. It's true. Cat told me about ping pong and how they'd go to that fancy restaurant. I wonder if I could join?
"Shut up" Tori teases.
"It's true" Andre says.
"We're all on the Ping- pong team" Robbie says.
"Me, Andre, Robbie, Beck, Jade, and Savannah" Cat says.
"Wait when did I-" Cat shuts me off by shushing me. Okay then. Tori looks at me and raises an eyebrow. I shrug.
"There's no ping pong team at Hollywood arts" Tori says. The three laugh.
"Listen, Tori um, you're still kinda new here and there's some things that you just don't under-" Robbie cuts himself off mid-sentence. He leans closer to Tori and sniffs. "What kind of gum are you chewing?"
"I don't know Sinjin made it" She answers.
"You took gum..... from Sinjin?" I ask. She shrugs
"Smell her mouth" Robbie tells Rex. I cringe.
"Sure" He says and sniffs her gum chewing mouth. I don't know how Tori didn't smack him into another universe. "Hmm, smells like....that trip we took to Acapulco last year"
"Yes!" Robbie agrees.
"You have Mexican flavoured gum?!" Cat asks.
"Mexican's not a flavour!" Tori defends.
"Thank you" Sinjin appears and then walks away. He's so strange.
"Look, if you guys don't wanna hang out with me then just say so. Why make up a lie that your all on some ping pong team?" Tori says. We all look at each other not knowing what to say.
"Hey Tori!" Cat smiles.
"How's it going?"
"Sup"
"Hi?" I say confused as to why they won't tell her the truth. Tori nods her head with a fake smile.
"Okay so now you're going to pretend like were not having the conversation we're having?" She asks.
"About what?" My sister says.
"The big ping pong team lie!" Tori says frustrated before walking to her locker.
"Look, if you don't believe them, us, then go to the wreck room" I say.
"You can see all the trophies we've won" Cat says.
"First place" Andre says. She raises her eyebrows.
"Really?"
"Yeah"
"Uh huh"
"Please"
"Okay. Then I want to try out for the team" Tori smiles. We all hiss. "What?"
"Look if you want to try out for the ping pong team then you have to talk to the team captain" Robbie says.
"Fine. Who's the team captain?"
"Jade" Tori scoffs in disgust.
"Or you could join my team. I call it Rex's all hot chick volleyball squad" Rex laughs. Tori mocks his laugh before taking her gum out of her mouth and sticking it on his nose and walking away.
"Tori!" Robbie yells after her.
"Just get it off my nose. Snatch it off" Robbie pulls it off and it expands. Cat and I chuckle quietly.
"Aww man it's the stretchy kind"
—————
"You know what would be really nice" Beck hums into my neck as I sit in between his legs in the black box theatre. We have a free period. I laugh at the tickle that caused.
"What?" I ask.
"I nice date night. We haven't gone on one in forever" He says. I tilt my head and look up at him with a smile.
"How about this weekend?" I ask. He smiles and pecks my lips.
"Perfect" He mumbles against my lips. Pretty soon he moved my hair to the side and his lips started travelling to my jaw and then to my neck. My breathe hitched.
"Beck, we're at school you animal" I laugh and get up. He pouts and I grab his hands lifting him up from the ground. "Patience my love"
"I can't be patient around you" He groans. I shake my head at the hormonal boy in front of me. He can be such a child when he wants to be.
"Come one" I chuckle pulling him out of the theatre.
We then got a text from Jade saying that she's forced to let Tori audition for the ping pong team. Like it's the end of the world. Beck and I head to the ping pong room and see every is there. Jade says that Tori has to play against all of us. Beck went first. And surprising all of us, Tori beat him. And Andre...and Cat.... Who literally ran away as soon as the ball came her way....and Andre, and Robbie. I almost died of laughter when Tori hit the ball right into Robbie's nuts. Beck covered Rex's eyes. My face scrunched up confused when Rex started playing. He's a bloody puppet. Is that even allowed? When Tori beat him Jades face got even more furious, she really didn't want Tori on our team. Finally it was my turn.
"Alright Tor, think you can beat the champ?" I ask smirking. Sure I've never played at this school before, but us British people take out sports very seriously. Well at least I do.
"Bring it" She smirks getting into position. I start and hit the ball on her side. We rallied for a couple seconds before I slammed the ball down on her side and won the point.
"That's my girl!" Beck cheers with a goofy grin. Wow my own cheerleader boyfriend. Because it was best out of three we went again. The ball bounced back and forth between the two of us and Tori tried to slam the ball on my side but I managed to slam it right back and win another point. I smiled and she pouted. We played again, Tori winning the point, and then the next.
"Sudden death" Robbie narrates. Insert cowboy stare down music. We hit the ball back and forth and I thought about winning this point, but know Jade will look for any excuse to not let Tori on the team so I decide against it and let her win, knowing how much she wants to make the team. Tori cheers and I give a small smile.
"Good game" I say and we fist bump. Jade sighs and walks up to Tori.
"So..." Tori says.
"You didn't make the team" Jade smiles. I pinch the bridge of my nose. I knew she was gonna do that.
"W-what? I beat everybody" Tori says.
"I don't care. Read the school website" Jade says handing her phone to Tori. Tori's eyes scan it.
"When a student tries out for a sports team for which there is no coach, the team captain shall decide if the student is granted or denied acceptance to the team" She reads.
"Captain says denied" Jade sings. Tori crosses her arms upset.
"B-But you can't- you can't just-"
"Read the phone Tori, read the phone" Jade mocks as if they've been through this before.
"Don't you steal my phone in face bit" Tori spits. So I was right. She storms out of the room and Jade smirks Victoriously.
———
It was officially my first ping pong practice. And you would think we'd play ping pong right? Nope. We are currently playing twister. After I was was confused everyone just said they don't actually practice. So it was like free hangout time.
"Left foot purple" Beck calls out. We all moved our foot to purple and almost fell due to the extremely twisted position we were in.
"This is the best ping pong practice ever" Andre says.
"I love this game!" Cat squeals.
"Wait wait don't lean on me-!" Robbie says but we all went tumbling down onto the floor. We all burst out into laughter. We all playfully poked at Robbie for making us fall. Beck holds his hand out to me and helps me up.
"Okay. Let's start over" Jade says.
"Okay okay. Let me get a drink first" Beck says.
"Oh me too please" I say. He nods and kisses my cheek before going to the machine and putting his money in it. Robbie gets up and groans.
"What's wrong?" Cat asks.
"I think I pulled a muscle" He grunts.
"You can't pull what you don't have" Jade and I say. We look at each other and laugh. Robbie looks unamused at our joke.
"What up with this machine it ate my dollar" Beck says banging the machine.
"Aight let the doctor handle this" Andre says rubbing his hands together.
"Go doc" Beck says. Andre begins tapping the machine and Beck joins.
"Guys, try rocking it" Jade says. They all begin to rock the machine back and forth. Apparently they rocket it too much and it began to fall.
"Woah!" They all scream.
"Ah!"
"Did the vending machine just scream?" I ask. Beck kicks it and then the back of the machine pops off and Tori gets out. What the? We all give her looks.
"Alright. Who put me in the Soda machine?!" She asks trying to cover up the fact she's been caught. Beck and Andre sigh before trying to lift her out of the machine, to which she squirmed like a fish out of water.
"Ok I got it I got it! Paws off!" She pushes them away and fixes her messy hair. The two boys back away in surrender.
"Why were you hiding in there spying on us?" Robbie asks.
"Cause, I had a feeling your guys' ping pong team was just a big fake, and I was right" She glares at us. "You weren't practicing ping pong. You were playing retro party games. So what is up?!"
Everyone stays silent and avoids eye contact. Then Andre sighs.
"Let's just tell her" He says.
"No" Jade replies quickly.
"Yes" Beck says.
"I think we should tell her" Cat also says.
"Why don't we just drive her out to the desert and drop her off" Rex says. I roll my eyes.
"Rex!" Robbie scolds.
"She knows to much" He whispers.
"Bloody hell. What's the big deal?" I say.
"Fine. Just tell her" Jade snarls before grabbing my arm and sitting me down on the couch with her. Beck following and throwing his arm over me.
"There's no real ping pong team" Andre says.
"Aha!" Tori yells and points at him. Then she frowns. "Then what's this all about"
"We'll it all started two years ago. When the school put that ping pong table in this room. We just walked in....and there it was. Then Robbie suggested that we form an official ping pong team here at Hollywood arts, to compete against other schools"
"So I slapped Robbie hard on top of his head" Jade says.
"It really hurt" Robbie says. Everyone looks at the boy and he shrugs. "It really hurt"
"I heard that" Tori says. "So...?"
"So a few days later, me Andre Jade and Robbie were hanging out..."Beck says.
"When cat walked up" Jade says.
"She was all pumped up about some fancy restaurant her parents took her to the weekend before"
"They had amazing steaks and crab cakes and lobster mashed potatoes. And classy live music and the most insane desserts I had ever seen" Cat says.
"Which all sounded pretty good to us" Andre says.
"So I said. "Well we gotta go there"" Robbie says.
"And I told Robbie there was no way we could go there cause it's really expensive" Cat says shaking her head.h by
"Where is this story going?" Tori asks frustrated.
"It actually gets weirder" Beck says. Everyone nods.
"You see when cat told us the restaurant was too expensive"
"I remembered something Beck had told me about all the sports teams at Hollywood arts getting a minimum of $1,500 a year to pay for travel and equipment. And that's when I got the idea..." Jade says trailing off. Tori looks at her incredulously.
"We'll what was the idea?!"
"Oh. Right I was telling a story" Jade says. I chuckle next to her. "Uhhh I said "maybe we should form a fake ping pong team, take the $15,000 and use the money for all of us to have a fancy dinner at the restaurant Cat told us about""
"At first we thought Jades idea was crazy" Robbie says.
"But after we exchanged some looks..." Andre says.
"We started to think it might be a pretty cool idea" Cat says.
"But then Robbie said "wait-"
"I reminded everyone that all sports teams are required to have at least one faculty advisor" Robbie says.
"So...we went to the only teacher we could trust"
"Sikowitz"
"But he told us our plan was way to devious. And illegal"
"But then he said "hey, did you hear that principal Eikner might get fired?"" Andre says.
"Help me?" Tori says completely lost.
"See the principals boss"
"The super intendant"
"Was mad cause Hollywood arts didn't have any winning sports teams" Andre says.
"And he told principal Eikner at least one team better bring home a trophy this year or else" Beck makes a fired motion. "Your fired"
"So I said to Sikowitz, "what if the five of us-"
"Six" Rex adds.
"Six of us, pretend to go to a ping ping tournament" Robbie says.
"Take the $15,000 the school gives us" Beck says.
"Use $400 of it to buy us a nice trophy for the school" Andre says.
"Which would keep principal Eikner from getting fired" Cat adds.
"And then use the rest of our money to take our favourite teacher to the restaurant cat told us about" Jade says.
"And have the most amazing dinner of our lives" Robbie says.
"And then Sikowitz was on board" Jade concludes. That should deserve a round of applause.
"So... you guys formed a fake ping pong team so you could get some money, buy a trophy for the school, save the principals job, and take Sikowitz for a big fancy dinner?" Tori sums up.
"Yeah...I guess we could have just told her that way" Andre says. Tori sighs. Jade gets up from the spit next to me.
"So...are you gonna bust us now and ruin everything?"
"No..." Tori sings tauntingly. "If"
"If what?" Jade glares.
—
"And I'm very proud to announce the newest members of the Hollywood arts ping pong team, Savannah Valentine and Tori the paddle puss Vega!" Sikowitz announces to the school in the Hollywood arts parking lot. Why didn't I get a nickname? Tori took my hand and we ran out in our ping pong uniforms. Everyone cheering for us. All of this for a ping pong team? People were holding signs and cheerleaders were waving their Pom poms.
"Now wish us all luck and hopefully we'll bring home, yet another, first place trophy for Hollywood arts!" Sikowitz says and everyone cheers louder and cameras go off. I'm honestly shocked their aren't any other sports teams. I mean this school is focused on talents and I right? "All team members, in my van!"
We all pile into our crazy, but favourite, teachers van and begin driving away.
We bought the trophy from a nice looking shop before heading straight to the restaurant to eat. Apparently Jade didn't tell Tori about the dress code so she didn't bring a change of clothes for the fancy restaurant. My dress wasn't to much just a pretty long sleeve white dress. Okay who am I kidding it's gorgeous. I've been dying to wear it somewhere.
The waiter sat us down and it was a pretty busy restaurant. Full of wealthy people. But the food was incredible. If I knew the chef I'd kiss them! Don't tell Beck I said that. Everyone was moaning at the taste of the food. It sounded like we were coming into the room. I laugh at my joke.
"Oh my god, best food ever!" Tori exclaims.
"Right?!" Cat says. Everyone hums in agreement. Beck then stands up and raises his glass.
"To ping pong" He says. We all stand up in agreement and clang our glasses together.
"To ping pong!"
"To the ping to the ping"
"Pingy pongy"
We all sit down and Beck rests his hand on the upper part of my thigh. I pretend not to notice. He is such a horn dog this week. Everyone laughs in joy and then Tori stops and looks over at two lady's who looked like the were gossiping about the way she's dressed.
"Yes I'm wearing a ping pong uniform!" She states. The two lady's scurry away embarrassed that they were caught.
"How could you not think to bring a fancy dress?" Andre laughs.
" I don't know, I just didn't okay" She says.
"You said you reminded everyone to bring nice clothes" I say to Jade. She shrugs.
"I did"
"You didn't remind me" Tori says.
"Whoops" Jade says before eating her steak.
"How's everyone doing?" Our waitress asks at our table. Everyone Ives there approval of the food.
"So good"
"Amazing"
"Delicious"
"So good" She smiles before leaving.
"Wait! Ma'am!" Robbie says before running up to her. I shake my head and continue eating my dish...and occasionally sneaking food off of Becks plate. He would glare playfully at me. His hand slides further up my leg and I almost drop my fork. I look over and glare at the side of his face as he smirks and doesn't look my way, plopping lobster mashed potatoes in his mouth.
"Is everyone happy tonight?" A man asks walking over. I assume he's the owner of the restaurant. We tell him the same thing we told the waitress.
"How is your drink sir?" He asks Sikowitz.
"Very moist" He replies. I mentally face palm. Then a beautiful blonde woman walks up to the man's side.
"Two more people are complaining there's no live music" She says worried.
"So offer them a free dessert" He says.
"I did. They're still upset" She says.
"E-excuse me" The man says to us and walks away. I have been wondering about the live music. Maybe their singers canceled.
——
By the time dessert came everyone was stuffed. And I mean stuffed. Andre was practically forcing his cake down his throat. The look on his face was priceless.
"Uh so good! But I'm so full" He groans. We all stare at him amused.
"Come on man up. Here we go" Beck says and feeds him like a baby. "There it is. That's nice isn't it?"
"Mhm" Andre hums as Beck helps him chew. I force my hand on my mouth so I wouldn't start cracking up. "Thank you"
"Breathe through it" Beck says.
"You're a good friend"
Beck taps his face.
"Okay, what if like a farmer, planted a lobster and a potato in the same whole. Maybe it would grow a lobtato!" Cat says. I smile at my sister.
"Yes Kit Cat, a lobtato would grow. I'll tell the farmers" I say. She giggles.
"Here's your check" The waitress says placing her hand on Sikowitz's shoulder and planting it on our table. Sikowitz perks up at her touch.
"Thank you" he says. He takes a bite of his cake before looking at the check and spitting it across the table. We all flinch back. "What the hair balls?!"
"What's wrong?" I ask.
"It's $13,00!" He whispers harshly. All of our eyes widen.
"What?!"
"Huh?!"
"Holy shit!"
"It's never been over $700!" Cat says.
"Way to go Tori!" Jade says. I roll my eyes.
"I ordered the same as you. And what about Savannah?!" She says. Jade glares at her.
"Wait, wait I se the problem" Sikowitz says. "They mistakenly an extra $600 for caviar"
"Ohhhhh" we all sigh in relief. Sikowitz waves over the owner and he walks over.
"Excuse me! Sir"
"Hi, is anything wrong?" He asks.
"Yes, we were mistakenly charged for $600 worth of caviar" Sikowitz says handing the check to him.
"Oh that's not a mistake" our waitress says walking over. I furrow my eyebrows. "That awkward young man ordered a large bowl of caviar" my eyes widened.
"Robbie, do you know how bloody expensive caviar is?!" I ask him. He shrinks away in his seat. Everyone looks at him like they're about to kill him.
"Man what we're you thinking?!" He asks Rex.
"Au I didn't order any caviar" Rex states.
"Robbie?!" Cat says.
"I didn't know it was that expensive!" He defends. Everyone begins arguing not knowing how we're going to pay this huge bill.
"Alright alright alright!" Sikowitz shushes us. "Robbie can't help what he is. Nevertheless Uh... we don't have enough money, to pay the check"
"We'll sir I'm sorry but payment is required or I'm going to have to call the police" The owner says handing us back the check.
"The police?!" Sikowitz asks. We all break out into slight panic. The owner, waitress and the blonde woman from before begin to enter the argument of how well pay the bill.
"Claude, Claude!" Another man interrupts our arguing.
"What?"
"Where is the live music? I thought Perry and Joyed were preforming" The man asks.
"There was a golfing accident. Perry took a ball to the head" The owner, Claude, says. My eyes widened as an idea pops into my head.
"And you didn't book another music act?" The man asks.
"I didn't find out until 4:30" Claude says.
"Well people come here for classy live music. Do you know how many costumers are complaining"
"Sir I didn't have the time-"
"Wait! Uh guys" I stand up. The two men face me. "I think Iay be able to fix both our problems here" I smirk and make eye contact with Andre who smiles.
I freshened your in the bathroom before coming back out and onto the stage where a classical piano stood. Andre sat down ready to play.
—
The slap
Savannah Valentine: Boutta kill it with my new song Andre and I wrote!
Mood: fancy 🍷
—
(I know it isn't classical but shush ;))