~*~All We Know Is Falling~*~
by Hatter of Madness

I walked through the halls of Hollywood Arts. For some reason, everybody seemed to be in little cliques, talking about something in hushed tones. At first, I wasn't fazed by it—nothing really did faze me anymore. I was walking down the halls, contemplating dying my hair a different color other than the usual red I kept going for, when I realized that the more people talked, the more they continued to shoot glances at me, and it was making me uncomfortable.

I had matured, in more ways than one, since my enrollment at the school, so obviously I knew when something was wrong. And that day, something was horribly, horribly wrong.

As I continued to think about how blue hair would look on me (which came out to be a negative result, in my opinion), I could still feel stares at me and decided I was going to ask Robbie, my best friend, if he knew what was going on. But when I arrived at our usual meeting place, his locker, I realized he wasn't there. Nor was he at my locker, I realized as I continued wandering down the row of lockers. His puppet—excuse me, dummy—Rex was nowhere to be found, either. It was odd to me, not hearing Rex and Robbie's two distinct personalities and voices. He must be sick, I told myself, more as means of reassurance than anything.

The rest of the school seemed to notice Robbie's absence, too; his attendance record was almost perfect, other than the one time he swallowed a toy car and had to go to the hospital. But I was sure that he had to be fine… Maybe I was just overreacting.

Their hushed whispers made me nervous as I sat down in Sikowitz's class. It made me wonder if I had missed an assignment—if we had a project due today or something. It wasn't extremely uncommon for me to miss information like that.

Tori sat next to me and talked in a soothing voice, almost sounding like she was trying hard not to say anything that might upset me. "Good morning, Cat."

"Good morning, Tori," I said back brightly. "Hey, do we have something due today? The way everyone's talking is making me nervous…"

"No," she said back, a bit too quickly. "Hey, do you know where Robbie is?"

"No," I said as well, looking around. "He won't answer his phone…" I had already sent him a number of texts, all of them basically with the same meaning: Where are you? It wasn't like him to miss school or to ignore his phone. Maybe he was sick? I tried to reassure myself again. But then, wouldn't he have called to tell me? Or have Rex call at the very least? Or answered any of my texts?

"That's odd," Tori said, voicing out loud exactly what I had been thinking. It was definitely unlike Robbie to ignore a call or text, especially one from me.

Mr. Sikowitz went off on his lecture. After almost half an hour, I couldn't take it anymore and texted furiously: HELLO? Where r u and why r u M.I.A.? Answer meeee

"Cat, put the phone away," Sikowitz said, and I miserably shoved my phone in my pocket. I was itching to know what was wrong with Robbie.

It was the end of class and he still hadn't answered a single text. The bell rang to release us for lunch and I went to my locker to put my stuff away. I looked up and down the hall. Still no Robbie, still no Rex. They had to be alright, didn't they? They wouldn't just have something major going on without telling me.

Again, I reassured myself in saying that Robbie was probably sick in bed. Maybe he was so sick that he didn't even have the energy to answer his phone…

I shoved my stuff in my locker, looking around for my wallet so I could buy something to eat at lunch. I knew fully well that I would be lucky if I actually ate anything, since I was getting so nervous and even a bit dizzy, but I knew I'd regret it later if I skipped lunch. I had already bypassed breakfast since I was running a bit late. I walked to the cafeteria, bought a salad, apple, and a bottle of mineral water, and went to the usual table where my friends I and I all sat.

The spot usually occupied by Robbie and Rex was vacant, chilling me right to the bones. Tori and Jade seemed to be in an argument, Beck and Andre were comparing thumb sizes (though I wasn't totally sure why), and Trina was fixing her makeup in a compact mirror, but all talking ceased when I walked up. Apparently, my best friend's absence had taken a toll on my mood, because all of my friends talked to me in soothing voices, yet again. It was as though somebody died. Jade broke the silence first.

"Still no news from dummy boy?" she asked.

"Jade!" Tori said, absolutely shocked.

I forced a smile. "No," I said, looking at my phone just to be sure. Nothing, not a single sign that he had seen that I had attempted to contact him at all. I sighed, shoving it back in my pocket. "It's starting to get a little…"

"Troublesome, disheartening, depressing, spooky?" Beck said. Tori punched him in the arm.

"Scary," I finished.

I picked at my salad as they continued to talk. They said they all wanted to see a new movie coming out that Friday and asked if I wanted to go, too. I mumbled something, but I honestly don't remember if I said 'yes' or 'no'.

There was a definite lull in the conversation after that, leaving me alone with my thoughts, which I really didn't like. I liked it better when there was some inkling of conversation, because then I could force my brain to focus on something other than Robbie for a little while. And I was definitely not up to par enough to come up with a topic of conversation on my own. No, it was best that I kept my mouth shut, it seemed. It was anyone's guess what would come out of my mouth, anyway.

Trying to brighten the mood, Andre said, "Hey, does anyone want to see me juggle?"

We all looked at him suspiciously. Tori, in the role of the peace maker, said, "You can't juggle."

"Yes, I can!" Andre said.

"No, you can't," Trina said insensitively, finally looking up from her compact.

"In Sikowitz's class when you tried to juggle all of the balls suddenly became projectiles and Sikowitz had a black eye for a week," Jade reminded.

"I've practiced since then," he assured, picked up his orange, and said, "Beck, Cat, toss me your apples."

We both obliged, though I was not really in the mood to see Andre's talent, or lack thereof. But I was drawn in by how well he was doing; it was definitely an improvement since the incident that Jade had mentioned. We were definitely impressed, so much so that Andre started doing tricks, saying, "Say, Beck, do you really want this apple back?"

"Not really, why?" he asked, but instead of answering his question out loud, Andre caught my apple and his orange in one hand, Beck's apple in the other. He took a bite out of Beck's apple as means of finishing.

"Impressive," Tori said.

"Cat?" Andre asked; I forced a smile. "Alright, I need a new apple…"

We laughed—minus me and Jade, who forced a smile as well—as he filled the rest of us in on how he had learned this trade, then two new apples later, he was juggling again. I was still lost in my thoughts, terrified to the brim about Robbie. He had to be okay, I tried to reassure myself for the umpteenth time. He has to be…

But I wasn't an idiot. Robbie wouldn't just mess up his perfect attendance record unless something was really, really wrong. That thought sent chills down my spine. Just the thought of something being wrong with Robbie…

At that moment, my cell phone started vibrating. Not even thinking about who it could be, I fished it out of my pocket.

Incoming call: Robbie.

I was confused, but felt much better. Finally, I would be getting an explanation. But why was he calling? He knew I was in school; why didn't he just text? Assuming that he must have known I was at lunch so that talking wasn't that much of a problem, I answered. "Robbie, about time. Why aren't you at school? Why wouldn't you answer me?"

"Cat?" a definitely female voice said.

I frowned. "What happened to your voice?"

I barely registered that all eyes were on me. "Cat, this is Siobhan, Robbie's mother?" I frowned, starting to get even more confused than I was moments ago. "I would have texted you since you were in school, but I thought this was something I should say over the phone instead. I thought he'd want you to know…"

"What are you talking about?" I said. Whatever it was, it didn't sound very good.

"Cat, Robbie's been in emergency surgery at Hollywood Presbyterian Hospital for a little over half an hour."

"Why?" was all I could manage to squeak out.

"There's something wrong with his lungs. It's all very complicated to explain. I'm not really sure how things are going to turn out, though." She sounded afraid. I would be, too, having to tell someone that my son is in emergency surgery.

I felt like I was going to faint, but I didn't. I could hardly comprehend the situation. He seemed so strong—indestructible, even. Robbie and hospitals just didn't seem to go together. Seeing that there were things that could tear him down seemed like a wakeup call to both me and Siobhan. It seemed long overdue, this news, and I wished that it could be overlooked. But it couldn't. Something was definitely, definitely wrong.

I stood up. The group gave me quizzical looks. Slinging my bag over my shoulder, I made an impromptu decision. I was sure one of them was asking me what was wrong, but I couldn't hear anything over the sound of my frantic heartbeat. I walked right up to the gates of the school, sliding them open and walking out. Surprisingly, no teachers or staff members tried to tell me to come back, and no one in my group of friends or any other students had started after me, trying to see where I was going and what was wrong. But to be honest, I didn't really know what was wrong myself, and that was enough to terrify me. My phone still pressed to my ear, I said four words that shocked even me when they left my mouth:

"I'm on my way."

Hello all. This is my very first Victorious fic, I only just recently became a fan of the show. Sorry if facts are a bit off, I've only seen a few episodes so I'm just getting into the gist of things, but this is supposed to be AU anyway. Reviews are appreciated. I know Cat is OOC in this, but I honestly thought this idea would never work if she was as ditsy as she is in the show. I have some plans for this story already, but I only really know what to post if you tell me in reviews that you like this idea or not. I wrote this last night when I was half asleep and sick, so sorry if some parts don't make any sense or are grammatically/factually incorrect. So um. Yeah.

- Hatter of Madness