Author's note: I wrote this as part of a fic tennis thing with moon soon, enjoy
Camille knew it was stupid; it was her own fault really. She had asked for their help after all… it was just… she knew Logan would probably never want to see her again. This fact seemed irrelevant now that she would probably never want to see him either out of her own embarrassment.
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"Do you really think it was safe to leave Logan alone with Gustavo?" Carlos asked as he James and Kendall fearfully, they were making their way through the Palm Woods lobby panting heavily from exertion. "He's the smart one remember? He'll be fine!" James answered dismissively trying to catch his breath; He pulled out a comb and adjusted his hair back into its usual state of perfection.
"I mean it was our idea to play extreme teepees and Indians in his office... Oh no what if he tortures him- or worse puts him in the pound or something! Oh no- Logan! We have to save Logan!" Carlos bounces on his heels and pulls at James who gasps in response stilling his comb momentarily. "Logan does not do well with big dogs! Do you remember that time at the state fair?" James asked seriously before falling into some sort of unsettling flash back.
Kendall only half rolled his eyes when he began to speak, "Gustavo was only kidding last week when he said he'd replace us with the dogs at the pound" he paused thoughtfully "…I think. Anyway Logan's recording his solo for the new song remember?" he concluded feeling slightly more sure of himself- leaving pop stars at the pound couldn't be legal, right?
"What about the mess we left in Gustavo's office? Isn't that what he was yelling about before?" Carlos asked he felt calmer now. "You know now that I think about it… I think that was something else we did" Kendall laughed, Gustavo's face looked way to purple for this to be over one little, tiny, ginormous mess "hmm oh well!"
"Then. Why. Were. We. Running! Look at my hair Kendal, look at it!" James screeched, petting his hair and face portraying his desire to launch himself at Kendall.
"Hey guys do you here that? It sounds like someone crying" Carlos interrupted the soon to be physical squabble, lifting his helmet up slightly looking around in concern. Camille entered his eye line, make up smudged and face contorted.
"Camille? What's wrong? Are you auditioning for another role?" she sobbed harder and Carlos panicked, "wait your not gonna hit one of us are you?" Kendall questioned cautiously, as James instinctively covered his face and Carlos took a giant step away from them.
" I-mmisss lllogann!" She wailed, the boys shared a concerned look over her head.
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"Well if you miss him so much why don't you get back together with him?" Carlos asked sitting down across from her, trying to pat her lightly on the shoulder but hand faltering awkwardly stopping short. Camille shot James a wary look, he stumbled over his thoughts trying to form a diplomatic sentence.
"It's cool I'm sure there's someway you guys can get back together. It's not like your breakup ended badly or anything in the end," Kendall told her words full od half sympathy. "Key word being break up" James reminds her not unkindly, but earns him a cool glare anyway.
"Well actually it's two," Kendall retorts smartly, James narrows his eyes at the blond and opens his mouth, Camille cuts them both off before there argument proceeds any further. "Um thanks… but I don't think any of this is gonna help me win Logan back. I mean he wants to be myyy friend and-and I keep telling myself that that's okay, but-but I can't anymore it hurts to much." She breaks out into another heart retching wail and the boys wince. None of them were very good with dealing with crying girls- even if that girl was just Camille.
They lock eyes, in their creepy 'let's read each other's minds way' and nodded at one another determined.
They were going to help her get her man.
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James felt pretty bad. Not even his pink strawberry "her" smoothie was cheering him up, and that was usually a sure fire way to improve his mood. He lay back down in the pool chair and shielded himself from the sun with his arm, he was feeling pretty bad about the whole 'Logan Camille thing.'
He knew he and Logan were cool now- mostly, but he sort of felt like he'd lost Camille as his friend after the whole ordeal. He took a thoughtful sip of his smoothie, Logan would love him if he the one to get his girl back, James reasoned happily, then its a total win-win.'
'But how do I do it?' He asked himself, not completely aware he was talking to himself which made him appear a little crazy 'I'll just get her all dressed up! Even Logan can't resist her if I make her look really hot.' James thought nodding satisfied with his plan. Pool patrons were slowly edging away from him, his 'I have a plan' face appeared a little maniacal.
He spotted Camille walking over towards him and waved enthusiastically, beckoning her to move quicker.
Camille wasn't to sure about asking the guys for help, but she didn't have anything to lose right? She wasn't so sure when it turned out James' plan involved dragging her to the biggest mall in LA.
"No." She told him flatly, "What do you mean no?" he asked her incredulously, punctuating his disbelief with his hands.
"I mean a negative used to express dissent, denial, or refusal, as in response to a question or request." She told him, arms crossed, a faint air of superiority that reminded James of Logan. "No wonder Logan likes her…" James muttered.
"Well to bad, meaning-do-as-I-say-if-you-want-your-boyfriend-back." He snapped at her, he didn't take this kind of behaviour from Logan, so he wasn't going to start with his not-a-girlfriend. That would be inconsistent, and James was- if anything- consistent. "And what dictionary's that from?" she asked sarcastically, throwing the small article of clothing James had told her was a dress at him.
"Mine," he replied smarmily, he threw the dress back at her, hitting her in the face. "Now quit stalling and put it on" he ordered pointing to the dressing room. Camille huffed dramatically; becoming more aware that people were beginning to stare and walked into the dressing room without further argument.
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Carlos leant back in his chair, balancing himself on the chair's hind legs. He suspended himself in the air for a moment before placing his feet on the opposite chair from him and took a large bite from one of two corn dogs he was holding.
He really wanted to help Camille… they'd never really talked that much or anything but he really hated seeing her cry… or any girl cry really. He'd once made Katie cry when he broke her new 'business manager clipboard' playing Frisbee with it. Needless to say he never wanted to see a girl cry ever again. Or get beat up like that again either…
'But how do I get them back together? I don't even know how to get myself a girl- let alone break up with one for her to want to get back with me... man Logan was an idiot.' Carlos pulled a face, one that looked half confused and half angry. Which James had named "Carlos face." Which James suspected he only pulled out for dramatic reasons, but was really just how he looked when he was trying to think about something serious.
His mind went to the first time that they had all liked a girl at once, Jo. He had kind of imagined her in a hockey uniform. She had looked really cute- man he couldn't resist a girl who liked hockey… "That's it!" Carlos screamed, in the process whacked his foot on the table.
"owwwwwwwwwwwwww- being smart hurts!"
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"Urg!" Camille groaned in annoyance, gripping at the ridiculously tight dress James made her buy. "Quit fidgeting will you," James said trying to keep his concentration. He was carefully applying eyeliner and other goopy stuff to her eyes. "Sooo- tell me again how you know how to do this?" Camille asked, trying to distract herself from the uncomfortableness of the charade.
"My mum owns the largest cosmetic company in the north west, you do the math." He stuck his tongue out in concentration and then his eyes narrowed and he growled at her "and if you tell any of the guys -Logan included- I will kill you." James wore a very serious look, "seriously." Camille tried not to laugh, she didn't want to ruin whatever James had taken 20 minuets to do to her lips
"Don't worry your secret safe with me."
Camille heard a knock on the door and went to move, until James gave her a look that clearly said 'move and you die.' "I'll get it, and don't worry I'm basically finished." James said getting up and moving towards the door, he practically skipped over to the door ' this is great. Camille and I are friends again and Logan's gonna LOVE me' James let out a little girl squeal- if only in his head.
He opened the door to reveal Logan. "Hey Logan, what's up?" James cheered, before taking in Logan's unusual expression and withdrawn posture.
"Who is it James? I thought my dad wasn't home till later..." Logan pushed open the rest of the door to reveal Camille.
"Um wow Camille you look um amazing," Logan, mumbled to no one in particular, seeing as he couldn't make eye contact with Camille. "I was just going to ask you if you wanted to play cards with me at the park- but it's- it's cool, I can see you guys are busy." Logan said mouth curved upwards but didn't settle quite into a smile, it didn't reach his eyes like it normally did. He turned to leave.
"Wait what? No, no, no! Logan, I was just helping Camille with something!" James said grabbing at his friend's shoulder desperately. "Don't worry bout it, I already told you that you'd ALWAYS be my best friend remember? Um well ... see you around Camille." Logan turned and took off down the hall, legs wobbly like they might give out; their eyes followed his retreating form until he was completely out of sight.
James shut the door quietly and slid down to the floor, back pressed firmly against the door for support. He ran his hands through his hair not minding that it was messing it up, a key sign indicating he was really upset.
"I'm gonna go change." Camille said sniffling, not only had the plan failed, she was actually further away from her goal now than before.
"Don't you dare cry Camille, your makeup took me two hours!" James suddenly yelled lifting his arm up and pointing at her without moving from his place on the floor.
She breathed in harshly swallowing the bubble rising in her throat and nodded miserably.
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Camille heard another knock on the door and moved from the kitchen to see who it was. She felt pretty awful since the whole Logan/James situation. James had left pretty soon after the whole misunderstanding, not even bothering to fix his dishevelled hair before he raced out the door- but not before telling her to go somewhere looking pretty after all the time he took to do her makeup. Camille had rolled her eyes at his request but promised the tall boy anyway.
She opened the door to reveal Carlos holding a bunch of hockey gear and two corn dogs. He shone her a brilliant smile and pull her out the door and race down the hall dragging her after him. 'What is it with these boys and dragging me places? It's like they don't think ill keep up,' which was true in most cases concerning them, the only page they all seemed to be on was each others, everyone else just had to figure it out on the go or be left behind.
"You look pretty" Carlos complimented her; she flushed even if he had done so through a mouthful of corn dog, it was still nice to be complimented.
"Thanks, James hel- never mind" Camille finished remembering James' threat of death if she let slip James' unique 'talent.' She huffed, he pulled her into the elevator and she caught her breath. "Um Carlos- not that this isn't fun, but where are we going?" Camille questioned as they began making their way to the entrance of the Palm Woods.
"Oh right!" he said letting go of her and halting their movement all together " the ice rink of course," he said like she obviously knew exactly what he was thinking. She raised an eyebrow at him, prepared to ask more questions when Carlos pushed her towards a rental car. She let herself be pushed not bothering to question him further until they were inside, "where did you get a car from?"
"I told Gustavo I had an acute case of "Hollywood fever" coming on, so he gave me this car to go to the ice rink in." Carlos said smugly. Camille couldn't help the surprised expression she was now wearing. "Hey! I have good plans sometimes..." Carlos defended taking in her surprised expression, and Camille settled in for what was going to be a terrifying ride- if Carlos' reversing out of the parking lot was any indication.
Camille always thought the whole hockey thing was easy. But having to stand on skates, then move and push a puck along the ice, was proving to be all to much, even for her girl multi-tasking mind to handle. 'How the hell was Carlos so good at this?' she stumbled again and swore, the blade of her right skate dug into the ice buckling her legs.
Carlos stood back and enjoyed the show, he laughed unhelpfully when she stumbled again. "Quit laughing at me! How is this going to get Logan back?" Camille whined, in the process of falling herd on the ice again. Carlos' hands shot out just in time to catch her, righting her and patting her lightly on the shoulder. "Because… there's no way I'm letting you wear a hockey uniform if you can't skate. Those be the hockey rules," Camille gaped at him like a fish. 'His big plan is to get me to wear a hockey uniform?'
"Trust me none of us can resist a girl in a hockey uniform" Carlos said smirking, half leering at her, "I'm kind of in to you right now just because you're in ice skates." Camille rolled her eyes, 'boys.' And let the lesson continue.
"Oh my god its like a billion degrees in this!" Camille complained; She was starting to re think this plan. They had made there way back to the Palm Woods once Carlos had given her the "honorific privilege" of wearing the hockey uniform. There had been a ceremony and everything- Carlos might have cried a little- but she was told never to mention that.
She was going to wear this thing if it killed her, hell she earned it her bruises spoke for themselves.
They were creeping around behind one of the pillars in the lobby. Camille was prepping herself to go talk to Logan, who was reading a book on one of the lounges. "You want to take this?" Carlos motioned towards another corn dog in his hand. "I'll be alright." Camille replied, confident that Logan wasn't really attracted to corndogs the way Carlos was, and settled for adjusting the uniform again, to be sure.
"Suit yourself," he sang biting into it and pushing her in the direction of Logan, she stumbled a little and he looked up at the sound and proceeded to stare at her. "Hey," Logan's voice cracked a little "auditioning for another role?" She laughed nervously, panicked. "Umm yeah its a movie called… Puck luck" she cursed to herself- 'REALLY CAMILLE THATS THE BEST YOU COULD THINK OF?' her inner voice berated her.
"Well you look nice, I hope you get the part- see you later." Logan said standing up and flashing her a wobbly smile before he walked away quickly.
"I should have taken the corn dog." Camille muttered sadly falling into the seat Logan had just occupied, watching once again as Logan left quickly from her sight.
"Told ya!" a voice called somewhere from behind her, "Shut up Carlos!"
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Kendall wasn't exactly 'good friends' with Camille, he felt like this could be rooted in the fact she had slapped him when they had first met, it had hurt after all. And It wasn't like he didn't like her- or didn't like her and Logan together, it was just that things never... well never ended, really. 'And besides' he thought defensively 'I'll never see him if they get back together again!' she just took up most of his attention, hell she did that now, even with then in uncomfortable friend limbo.
Kendal knew he was being selfish but he already felt like he was being replaced, He couldn't date Jo AND be in a cute bromantic 'b storyline' with Logan. He sighed heavily they hadn't talked in ages (not any one person fault) and he reasoned he wasn't feeling particularly up to doing the right thing today. Especially if what he was doing today involved scheming to get those two back together.
Camille was lying on one of the pool chairs exhausted, none of the plans had worked out and she was fairly certain Logan thought she was even weirder than usual. She sighed and sitting up, Kendall suddenly appeared into her view and next to her handing her a blue smoothie- not her favourite but she'd deal. "Any nuggets of wisdom?" Camille asked hopefully, Kendall was after all the plan guy- she actually wished she'd gone to him first.
Kendall took a large swig of his pink smoothie, he didn't really look at her "Well if you want my opinion on the whole Logan thing..." he started mouth twitching shiftily, "I think you should just ignore him. Maybe date someone else for a while." Camille gave him a confused look so he continued hurriedly, "it'll make him want you more, trust me."
He gave her some of his patented 'Kendall Knight' charm, and smiled encouragingly "well if you think so.." Camille said standing up, she was going to go to bed, today was proving to be very exhausting.
"I'm willing to try anything at the moment, thanks for the smoothie by the way Kendall." she said smiling, walking away. Kendall felt kind of bad, his advice wasn't going to be very helpful at all- but this way at least he was happy right? One out of three wasn't bad right?
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"Steve!" Camille shouted jumping up from her seat with the guys and Jo around the pool, She hugged the guy and kissed his cheek. "Well I guess I'll see you guys later then." Camille said turning to the guys smiling, carefully avoiding Logan's eyes as she grabbed Steve's hand and pulled him away.
Carlos and James shared an equally confused look, Kendall gloated to himself and Logan's eyes watched Camille's retreating figure, sharpening as he sized up the boy holding her hand.
A few minutes had past until Logan spoke, "hey guys... I think I like Camille again." His voice was that of surprise, like he hadn't figured it out until that specific moment.
Carlos and James fist bumped each other, thinking it was there doing and
Kendall just groaned and put his head in his hands.
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