Victorious

Stage Fighting

I walk into class with everyone else to see... Tori on a guy while holding his neck.

"Who is this chick?!" the guy yells. Everyone starts yelling at Tori to relax.

"What are you doing?" the teacher asks Tori.

"That guy was beating up Beck!" Tori argues.

"Oh, you poor thing," Jade tells her sarcastically.

"We were practicing," Beck says.

"This is Russ," the teacher tells everyone.

"I'm Russ!" the guy, Russ, yells.

"He's a professional stuntman. I invited him here to teach the class about stage fighting."

"And now Tori says 'What's stage fighting?'"Jade mocks.

"I wasn't gonna say that!" Tori says defensively before leaning toward me. "What is it?" Tori whispers.

"It's fake fighting that looks real. For a play or movie," I explain.

"Oh," Tori states.

"I took a class with him last summer," Beck says.

"Well, it looked like he was hurting you."

"Why do you care?" Jade asks.

"Cause, I figure he already suffers enough pain dating you," Tori retorts.

"You wanna see pain?" Jade questions as she steps toward the other brunette. Beck quickly stops her.

"Hey... let's go sit over there," Beck suggests and they walk over to two seats and I sit next to Jade.

*********

"Now, if I throw a punch at Cat like this..." Russ says before demonstrating. Cat gasps. "...it's easy to see that my fist, didn't connect with her face."

"Thank you," Cat giggles. Russ seems to be internally questioning his decision on choosing Cat for the demonstration.

"But if we stage it from a different angle..." Russ moves Cat over a bit. "Then..." he mumbles something to Cat. "Sound effect ready?"

"All set!" the teacher verifies.

"To the audience or camera, it'll look like this..." Russ then throws another fake punch at my sister. Cat gasps and covers her face.

"I'm okay, everyone!" Cat announces. Russ holds up her hand as if she just won a wrestling match and everyone claps.

"All right, I'm gonna pair you guys up, and each team will work with Russ this week to prepare a fight scene,"  the teacher tells the class.

"I thought his name was Steve," Andre calls out.

"That name sounds completely different than Russ," I tell him.

"He does look like a Steve," Tori says.

"Oh yeah, I see that," I mutter. Everyone starts agreeing. 

"My name is Russ!" the guy shouts yet again.

"Okay, and on Friday, you will all perform your fight scenes here in front of the class. Now, the pairs will be... Beck and Cat, Andre and Hailee, Darren and Jess, Tori and Jade..." the teacher announces.

"Tori and who?" Tori interrupts. Oh boy.

*********

I'm sitting with Tori, Andre, and my sister as I scroll on my phone.

"Look at her," Tori states.

"Who?" Andre asks.

"Jade! I guarantee you she's telling Beck all about how she's gonna punch me when we do our scene," Tori complains.