So here I am, with a whole new story. :) This one might get kind of mushy or kind of angsty depending on the path I decide on...but I guess it's something different for me for a change. The rating will probably change later on, too. Oh, and for those of you who read SYTL, there's definitely some mention of Brooklyn & Logan in this, and they just might play a part in this later on. I dunno, I'm just kind of winging this one. Enjoy. :D
- Veg
There are a lot of things I should never be trusted around- fire, sharp objects, other peoples' girlfriends… the list can go on forever. Anyway, like I said, there are plenty of things I never should be trusted with, not that anyone would ever be stupid enough to do so, but there are always two certain ones that I really need to watch for: children and animals.
For starters, children just always remind me of that little terror I created after the guys and I finished our first tour. The little brat locked me in a cage and tried to steal my identity, which was so not cool. Besides, kids are whiny, noisy and always need to be entertained, which I definitely don't have the patience for. Animals, on the other hand…well, they're just like kids in some ways, only worse. They're twice as noisy and a hundred times needier, because unlike children, who can learn, animals actually can't do anything for themselves. You have to feed them, walk them, bathe them, and just pamper them so they don't have to move an inch. And, not to mention, they never really like me. I guess there was a reason behind why my family never got me a dog when I was a kid.
When Kelly informed Kendall that he was stuck doing his volunteer work at a daycare center, I thought I lucked out. You see, Gustavo is determined to keep Big Time Rush's image as squeaky clean as it already is…so, I guess his way of stressing it is to throw us out into a sea of commoners and force us to do volunteer work. I glance over at Kendall, who doesn't exactly look thrilled with the idea. The only one who is relatively pleased with their destination is Logan, of course, who gets to spend some time down at the hospital. Kendall's stuck with a bunch of kids, Carlos with a bunch of little kids, and I end up with… "The Partrov Rescue Center...an animal shelter?" Kelly informs me, her eyes nearly popping out of her head when she looks down at her clipboard. I can tell she knows none of this is a good idea, too. "Well, you boys, erm…" She clears her throat, which couldn't have sounded any faker, and hurries out of Gustavo's office. "Have fun with that!"
"Please tell me what we did to deserve this," I suddenly blurt out, glaring down at our manager, who is lazily slouched in his chair with his feet up on his desk as he completely absorbs his self in his cell phone.
"Oh, cry me a river!" He replies, a lot louder and slower than necessary. "It's only a few hours out of two days of your weeks. It's not gonna kill you to help some people other than yourselves." I swear I hear Carlos mumble, "Like you're one to talk," and try my hardest to contain my laughter.
"Alright, guys, I guess he's right," Kendall says with a sigh. "This will be a good thing for us…right?"
Carlos and I just mutter an, "I guess so," while Logan just looks at the three of us with an insolent smile that I'm tempted to smack right off his face.
"Now, get out of here," Gustavo tells us, mid-yawn. "You were all supposed to be at said destinations…" He takes a moment to glance down at his watch, which confuses me, considering he most likely had the time right in front of him on the phone he refuses to put down. "15 minutes ago." Logan rushes himself out of the office while the three of us slowly follow behind. This isn't going to be fun.
I take all the time I possibly can, considering I'm not exactly in any hurry to get there. I spend a good 10 minutes trying to find a decent song on the radio while trying to prevent my seatbelt from locking itself. It's not like Gustavo will find out I'm late. I don't even think you can be late for volunteering, anyway. They're lucky if I even decide to show up. For a minute, I actually consider not even going, until my phone starts to ring and I see its Gustavo. Dammit, he knows… After taking another moment to quickly run my comb through my hair, I swerve out of the parking lot of Roque Records.
"Animal shelter…" I mumble to myself when I come to the stoplight right before my turn. "I mean, what the hell is he thinking?" I realize, after talking to myself out loud, that I sped right past the Partrov Rescue Center and have to turn around. "I can already tell this is going to be awful… God, I really need to stop talking to myself out loud…" I let out a loud groan before pulling into the parking lot of the small building. "By the time I get out of here, there will be news of Carlos, like, blowing up an old person or something…and I'll just have rabies from a furry little demon." I take a deep breath before pulling turning the car off and reluctantly dragging myself out and to the entrance. "I don't want to do this…" That's, of course, until I look through the window and see a young girl, probably around my age, sitting at the front desk. "Okay, maybe I can do this." After taking a quick glimpse at my rather attractive reflection in the glass, I swing the door open with a little more force than I needed, most likely scaring the poor girl at the front desk, who nearly jumps out of her seat.
"Oh, sorry," she quietly says, pushing back a strand of dark reddish-brown hair that falls loose from her clip. "You scared me."
"Sorry about that," I reply, flashing my overly-flirtatious smile. I can't help but notice her pale face turn a bright shade of red as she pushes her black, plastic, glasses frames further up the bridge of her nose. "I'm James." I offer her my hand, and she hesitantly shakes it. "James Diamond."
"Oh!" She suddenly says, still as quiet as she was before. "You're the new volunteer?"
"That's me." I just smile again, trying my hardest to pretend like I actually want to be here. I have a feeling I shouldn't make a lousy first impression on this girl.
"Um, right…" She quickly takes her big, grey eyes off of me to stare back over at the laptop in front of her and types something. "Just…give me a second… Okay." She rolls her chair back to the filing cabinet behind her, pulls the bottom drawer open and flips through a few manila folders until she pulls out a single sheet of paper and hands it to me. "Just a, uh, volunteer agreement form you need to sign." When she hands me her pen, I gently take it from her hand, playfully tangling my fingers with hers as she coyly looks away and jerks her hand back. I just smile again and lean down on her desk to fill out the form, only bringing my face closer to hers.
"I'm sorry," I then say, looking up at her. "But, I didn't seem to catch your name…"
"Oh, um, I'm Vera." She finally shows me her sweet but wary smile in return.
"Like the song?" I can't help but tease, and then only feel obligated to hum her the first line of the famous Pink Floyd song. She nervously giggles and diverts her attention over to her computer again, until she hears someone calling her name. Before she can reply, a woman who looks like an identical, but much older version of her, steps out of the door behind her desk. Not to mention, the woman has a giant white fleabag hopelessly trailing behind her that immediately growls when it lays eyes on me. Upon closer inspection, I notice it actually only has one eye, which made me feel a bit…uncomfortable.
"Vera, can you- oh!" She suddenly stops herself when she notices me, her mutt growling at me at the same time. "And who do we have here?" Vera sweetly shushes the dog, stroking the top of its head.
"Ma, this is James," Vera tells her, and I smile over at the older woman. "That new volunteer you were telling me about."
"Oh, right!" She says, smiling and offering her hand to me. Obviously, Vera and her mother have completely opposite personalities. "You're the one from Roque Records, correct?" I nod and shake her hand. "I'm Anya Partrov. I see you've already met my daughter." She puts her hand on Vera's shoulder and quietly says something to her that doesn't even sound like English to me. Vera just sighs and shakes her head in return. "Are you getting everything set up for James here?" She nods, resumes typing away on her computer, and inaudibly says something in that indecipherable language again. "Alright, I have to head home. Will you be able to stay till 7?"
"Yeah, I'm just gonna…" She pauses to let out a yawn, just as quiet as her speaking voice. "Finish up this paper, and then I'll, um, finish up walking whoever's left." She makes eye contact with me for a short second, but then quickly looks away. I refrain from chuckling out loud at how unbelievably shy she is.
"Oh, by the way, Vera," she then says before walking out the door. "Your, erm, David called." She kind of snarls the name and rolls her eyes before closing the door behind her. I wonder what that's all about.
Once Mrs. Partrov leaves, everything goes completely silent again, except for the mutt snoring at Vera's feet while her fingers rapidly move across her keyboard. I uncomfortably clear my throat as I continue to take my time with filling out the paper I was given. "And…done." Vera whispers to herself before letting out a deep sigh and closing her computer. I quickly finish up filling out my form and then hand it back to her. She gives me a quiet, "Thanks," and then searches the cluttered desk until she finds the appropriate folder for it.
"So," I say, smiling at her once again. "What can I do for you?" Although, I was mentally screaming, "I gotta get the hell out of here…"
"Ah…um…" She gently places her index finger on her lip, taking a moment to think, and then rolls back in her chair to look at the bulletin board behind her. She starts to quietly murmur to herself as she reads one of the papers in the center of everything. "No, that's being taken care of…that's done…uh…" She sighs and spins her chair back around, looking up at me and innocently shrugging. "Some dogs still need to be walked…if you want to help me with that."
"Yeah, sure," I smile at her again as she shyly purses her lips together and quickly jumps up to lead me through the door behind her. I mean, how hard can walking a dog be?
Of course, when she hands me three leashes, I start to get nervous.
While I can barely handle three puppies, I feel like a bigger idiot than usual while Vera effortlessly controls three huge shelter mutts, plus her own dog, Misha the Great White One-Eyed Wonder, who seems to absolutely despise me.
"You alright back there?" Vera calls back to me, clearly a mile ahead.
"Uh, yeah…" I lie. When she turns around, of course, she's able to see that the Mr. Smooth James Diamond is tangled within the three leashes of tiny little rat-dogs. She just laughs and quickly rushes to help me, though, as embarrassing as it is.
"Here," she says, grabbing the leashes from me. "Hold these two-" She takes two of the leashes and hands them to me. "-in one hand, and then hold this one separate." She looks down at one of the mutts that starts jumping on its hind legs, and then kneels down on one knee to pet it. The dog is quick to jump up and slobber all over her face, and I try my hardest not to cringe. Dog kisses. Gross. "Be careful with this one. She tends to wander and do her own thing, so that's probably why you got tangled." She pats its head once more before I hold my hand out to help her stand back up.
"I'm sorry, I'm not really good at this," I admit, laughing it off.
"You're seriously having trouble walking a dog?" That was probably an attempt to take some kind of shot at me, but it was still as hesitant and sweet sounding as she's been since I walked in today.
"Well, we were never really…animal people."
"And you're volunteering at an animal shelter?" She cocks an eyebrow at me and I can't help but feel somewhat embarrassed. Of course, I don't let it show.
"It's a long story," I coolly reply. "So, what about you? I mean, is this your mom's place or something?"
"Yeah, it's my parents'," she explains. "I guess I kind of grew up there myself."
"Yeah, you see, I always wanted a dog growing up- never got one. I guess I'm just not used to them now."
"That's a shame," she says with actual sympathy. "I mean, they are man's best friend."
"I guess I just prefer to have my best friends that talk." I shrug, and Vera just laughs and shakes her head.
"They shouldn't have to talk, James. You figured out what Misha thought of you, didn't you?" I can't help but laugh there.
"Yeah- he hates me."
"It's not you…he's just overprotective of me." Her gaze kind of wanders as her smile slowly fades away, which kind of confuses me. "He's my best friend." Of course, it's kind of unappealing to hear a pretty girl call a dog her best friend, but I just brush it off. "Too bad I can't take him to college with me…"
"Senior year?" I flash a smile, and she nods.
"Yup, and I can't wait to get out of here," she admits, laughing a bit. "But I'm gonna miss…everyone."
"Where are you gonna go?" I ask, just out of curiosity.
"Hopefully UPenn for vet medicine," she calmly explains, and that's where my eyes nearly pop out of my head.
"University of Pennsylvania? Isn't that, like, ivy league?" She sighs.
"Yeah…that's the problem. I was already accepted, but we're not sure if we can afford it yet." At that moment, I can't help but think of my friend volunteering in the hospital right now. I wonder if Logan still has second thoughts about going to med school. I know he took the SATs last year just in case and actually did pretty well, but hasn't talked about it since. "Then again, my boyfriend really doesn't want me going that far away, anyways." I kind of wince at the word "boyfriend."
"Yeah, my friend's girlfriend is going to NYU, and he hates the idea," I attempt to make some sort of conversation out of it instead of continuing my attempts of flirting. I know a girl's boyfriend has never really stopped me before, but I was getting this vibe that I should stop. "You know, you'd like Logan. He actually always had dreams of being a doctor himself; never really expected to be a pop star in LA."
"Life doesn't always turn out how you expect it to," she blankly explains, her voice trailing off. I get this weird feeling from the way she says it, but I just ignore it.
On my drive home that night, I think of Vera. As I'm walking in the Palm Woods parking lot, I think of Vera. Once I get into the lobby…I see a new, rather pretty girl and end up with a date for tomorrow night.