This is an AU story loosely based on the movie "The Proposal" starring Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds. While watching the movie I pictured Bade as the leads, and was inspired to write this story.

For the purposes of this story, Beck is still from Canada, but has a dual citizenship in the United States, and Jade is from Italy (because it's a country I haven't visited yet but is number one on my 'to visit' list). I will be taking certain liberties with the characters and changing different aspects of the story, but the general idea will stay the same. No offense to any fans of specific characters because I like all of them, but some will not be appearing in this story as often as others *cough* Tori and Robbie *cough* simply because either they aren't A-relevant to the story, or B-I'm not comfortable enough yet writing for them. Also sorry to all of the Tandre and Cabbie fans (I honestly think both couples are really cute and read stories featuring both), but I loved Candre as a couple in TWC so that pairing will be in this story as well.

Disclaimer: I do not own either the movie "The Proposal" or the television show "Victorious."

Side Note: This is my very first attempt at writing a story on here so any and all reviews are welcome-good, bad, and ugly. Thanks and I hope I can do justice to this amazing fandom with my little story :)

CHAPTER 1

At only 25 years old, Jade West is one of the youngest, most well-known, and respected/feared movie directors in the industry. Her impeccable vision and talent is shown in every movie she makes. She also has a fierce personality and the ability to socially and emotionally crush anyone who stands in her way. Her jet black hair helps her image, along with the multitude of colorful highlights she weaves into it on a daily basis. Her most striking feature, however, is her eyes. One can often tell what mood Jade is in before she even opens her mouth, just by taking one look into those expressive pools of blue.

Growing up in the Italian countryside, Jade often dreamed of becoming a famous actress. She has always had beautifully pale porcelain-like skin, which she thought would be an asset to any director looking for a leading lady, but sadly for Jade, her career in front of the camera was not meant to be. Every time she went to audition for a leading role, she would end up having to compete against the same girl. It didn't take too long for Jade to decide that enough was enough. After losing one too many roles to Tori "cheekbones" Vega, Jade decided that she would turn the tables and find a job which allowed her to boss around both people like Tori, and any others she deemed as unimportant.

She had been on the set of her latest movie for about 5 minutes, trying to have a conversation with her friend Cat, and waiting on her assistant to bring her usual morning beverage, when she was surprised by a couple of executives from the movie's studio. They requested an urgent meeting with her. She asked the men to wait in the conference room for just a minute, and she would be right with them. The men acquiesced, and went inside to wait on Jade. Seeing as how no one else was around, Jade gave Cat a message to relay to her assistant. Putting faith in the fact that Cat would actually deliver that message without screwing it up too badly, Jade turned and made her way into the meeting room where the men were waiting.

/

Beck Oliver is a stereotypical handsome guy. He is olive-skinned with shoulder length fluffy black hair in which he constantly running his fingers through. He body is of average stature. His muscles are not as big as a body builder, but the ones he does have are extremely well-defined. He was born and raised in Canada and came to America to try and make it as an actor in Hollywood. Similarly to Jade though, things so far haven't work out as well has he had hoped.

For the past 3 years Beck has worked as Jade's assistant. Is he the Assistant Director one might ask? Sadly, that answer is no. Poor Beck is simply Ms. West's personal assistant-doing all of the menial activities required to keep Jade from exploding into a murderous rage at any and every one who is unfortunate enough to cross her path. Beck is known as a saint to all who work on Jade's movie sets, for he is the only person able to withstand her tirades without either crying or fainting, and doesn't get on her bad side as much as other people on set tend to do.

It is a gorgeous Autumn Wednesday morning, and Beck is currently on his way to the set with Jade's coffee in hand ("black with two sugars-get it wrong and you'll be wearing it" she had told him that very first day...and every day ever since), reminiscing over the last three years of his life and wondering why he is still Jade's assistant and not an actor.

/

3 Years Ago

Beck Oliver and his best friend Andre Harris moved to Hollywood a couple months ago and Beck had been very grateful to have his best friend with him in this new and exciting city. They shared a one-bedroom apartment and alternated between sleeping in the bedroom and the sleeper sofa in the living room. It was decided that even though Andre was crazy talented in music composition and had a great singing voice, he would initially focus on being Beck's agent and use Beck's roles as a means to get into the business himself.

It was nearing the end of their second month of living in California and the boys were beginning to run out of money. Beck is ironically from a very wealthy family back in Canada, but after a fight with his father (a story for another time) he vowed to never ask his parents for money-he was going make it on his own. Just yesterday, however, the guys had been informed by their landlord that they would have 2 weeks to come up with the rent for this past month or else they would be evicted.

Beck was contemplating breaking down and actually calling his parents to ask for some little money when Andre burst through the door and told Beck that he had just landed Beck an audition for the lead male role in the then up-and-coming director Jade West's new movie (coincidentally she also wrote the script). The movie was not a romance film, but rather a horror film because that's what kind Jade loves the most.

Beck was hesitant at first to act in a horror film, but with his looks Beck knew he'd be typecast in the business as just another handsome guy who can only act in romantic films, and decided to try out for this role in order to prevent that from happening.

He was currently sitting in the waiting room with Andre and getting ready for his turn to audition.

"Next" a commanding voice called from inside the audition room.

Beck took one last look at his script, stood up from his seat, accepted a pat a back and a "good luck" from Andre, and walked into the room with his head held high and an aura of cool confidence, but not arrogance around him. Even though it was his very first formal audition as an actor, he knew he really had nothing to lose so what was the point of being nervous?

He opened his mouth to speak, yet only got out a "Hi my name is B..." before being interrupted by none other than Jade herself.

"Yeah yeah whatever-just get on with the audition and pretend like you can do any justice to my superiorly written script."

"Umm okay" Beck said. He then took a breath and began his audition...

Beck had not even gotten out two lines before Jade harshly yelled out, "You can stop now."

He really wanted to know how he did, but he didn't dare ask because he was trying not to get kicked out of the room when this could be the role that gives him his big break into show business. Instead he just stood there glancing coolly, or so he hoped that's how his face looked, at Jade and the rest of panel.

The panel consisted of Jade, a synthetically dyed red haired girl who kept giggling every few seconds and in whose mouth Jade would shove handfuls of cereal into after each giggle until she could no longer make a sound, a curly-haired weird looking guy wearing what one would term "nerdy" glasses and talking to a what appeared to be a puppet sitting in front of him on the table, and a dark haired girl with ridiculously high cheekbones and an award winning smile that she flashed at Beck every time he glanced in her direction.

After what seemed like an hour, but was in reality only a few minutes of the panel discussing (well basically Jade talking and the rest just nodding and going along with whatever she said) when Jade finally turned back to Beck and said, "Well it was not as good as I had hoped, but it was decent. You're not getting the part though because I can't stand the way Vega keeps staring at you and smiling stupidly."

"What? I was not doing that!" the brunette (who was apparently Vega) exclaimed.

"Yeah you did so shut it before I kick you off my movie."

"Well thanks for the opportunity. I'll just be going now" Beck stated while trying not to look too dejected.

"Wait" he heard just as he was about to walk out the door.

He turned around and raised his eyebrow while looking at Jade.

"Even though I don't want you working opposite Vega here-"

"For the 10th time...my name is Tori."

"Yeah I don't care! As I was saying before being rudely interrupted, I'm not giving you the role in my movie, but there is an opening for a job being my personal assistant."

"But I thought I was your assistant Jadey?" The red headed girl asked in a child-like voice.

Jade turned and looked at her semi-yelling, "NO Cat! And don't call me that-you know I hate that name! Now here, have some more cereal."

"Kay Kay." Cat went from looking as if she was about to cry to cheering and clapping her hands like a five-year old in a matter of seconds.

While the girl's conversation was going on, Beck stood there debating his options. While he really wanted to be a famous actor one day, he also knew that most people were not fortunate enough to make it big at their first attempt, and had to pay their dues and exercise some patience before stardom comes. He wanted to turn Jade down because not only did he think she would be a hard to work for based on first impressions, but also because he really wanted to find a movie role where he could advance as an actor.

On the other hand, he also thought about Andre sitting out in the holding room waiting on him to exit. They were in desperate need of money and since it had taken almost two months to find this audition, who knows how long it would take to land another one? Although he wasn't exactly thrilled about being a personal assistant, he decided that would be his best option right now. Plus, he figured that being the assistant to a movie director would allow him to make connections in the business, thus greatly improving his chances to move closer to his ultimate goal.

After making up his mind he looked at the front of the room and saw the panel all looking at him waiting on his answer. "Um sure, I'll take the job." He said plainly.

"Whatever. Now go get me a coffee-black with two sugars. Get it wrong and you'll be wearing it. You can get it next door at Skybucks, and if you're not back within ten minutes, don't even bother to come back at all." Jade declared harshly.

"You could've asked him nicely you know." The curly haired guy told Jade.

"Shut up Shapiro! I don't need my hair stylist telling me how to speak to my new assistant."

"Eep." Robbie (as Beck had later learned was the guy's first name) made a weird noise and begin squirming in his seat with his puppet now currently resting on his lap.

"Man did you just pee on yourself again?" The puppet asked. "Because I'm feeling very uncomfortable right now."

Embarrassed by what the puppet had just revealed, Shapiro hastily made his way out of the room mumbling something about the bathroom on his way out.

No sooner had Beck watched the guy leave when a booming voice declared, "Nine minutes Oliver! Your attempt at acting like a statue is not impressing me, and right now you'll be lucky to keep this job even if you do make it back in time."

/

Present Day

To this day Beck is still amazed that he somehow found a way to make it to the coffee shop and back within the time frame allotted. He had even managed not to mess up her order, thus saving his both his clothes and his job.

Author's Note: Ok, here's Chapter 1. If you have read this far, thank you for checking my little story out. If you want to leave a review that's great, but if not, that's fine too. No offense to anybody, but I'm not a writer who will hold my story hostage until I get a certain number of reviews. I just read a story recently where the author, memorysdaughter, expressed my opinion exactly. So I hope she doesn't mind, but I'm going to put her note here since I agree wholeheartedly-she just said it so nicely.

Remember these are my thoughts expressed in memorysdaughter's words: "I have a huge problem with authors who demand a certain number of reviews before giving you the next chapter of their story. What a silly system! If no one reviews, are you just going to stop writing? To me it suggests that you're not as committed to the story as you think you are. I don't write for a certain number of reviews - I write because I have a story to tell. Whether you review or not, I'm still going to see this through to the end. Even if it takes me a long time to get a new chapter up, I still know exactly where this story is going, and I'm committed to it because I love it, not because I'm feeding some sort of need for a certain number of reviews.

To be fair - I love my reviewers and readers! I love everyone who sends me a note or favorites my story! If you choose to review, I'm always happy to read your notes and suggestions! But if you don't choose to review, you might still be emotionally invested in the story, so I'm not going to deny you the satisfaction of being able to read along with the rest of us. I'm grateful you've joined me on this journey.

In the end I'm just a girl with a story.

So, thank you to all my reviewers and readers - even the ones who don't leave a review!

I will never make you "work for it."

Just knowing you're here is worth it to me."

See? That's way more eloquent than I would've made it sound. You should definitely go check out her story if you haven't already-it's called Breathing Room and it takes you on an amazing roller coaster of a ride, but it's worth every second! :)