Full Summary: Gustavo has to leave Rocque Records, so Griffin declares that the boys must go on hiatus, and use their own resources if they want to book shows or release any new music. Of course, this means that they can no longer afford to live at the Palm Woods, so they have to leave and start attending a public school. Meanwhile, Kendall has to deal with mending his broken heart after Jo's departure to New Zealand, and Camille lands a part on a new show, which just might finally make Logan realize what his true feelings for her are.
A/N: I anticipate this being a pretty long story. Hopefully I'm not being too ambitious with this, but we'll see how it goes. Please let me know what you think!
Chapter 1: Never Say Never
Logan watched as Camille wrung her hands nervously and checked her phone for what had to be the forty-second time in the last ten minutes. Not that he was counting.
"You need to relax," he told her. "Making yourself sick with worry isn't going to make your phone ring any faster."
"I know," Camille sighed. "I just really want this part! I worked so hard to—" She stopped mid-sentence, momentarily distracted. James and Carlos zoomed by—James running, holding onto to one end of a jump rope, Carlos on his skateboard, being pulled along. James came to a sudden stop near the edge of the pool and gave the rope one last tug before letting go, sending Carlos flying into the deep end, splashing water all over Kendall, who was napping nearby in his favorite lounge chair.
As Kendall spluttered awake, Carlos resurfaced yelling, "That was awesome!"
Logan rolled his eyes and turned back to Camille, who was already checking her phone again. "Don't make me confiscate that, Camille," Logan said, playfully reaching to tug the phone out of her hands.
Camille laughed. "You wouldn't dare," she responded, trying to snatch it back from Logan. As she did so, she was startled by the sudden ringing and dropped it to the ground. She stared down at it. "Oh my God," she said. "Oh my God, it's my agent." She still hadn't moved.
"Answer it!" Logan prodded her.
Coming to her senses, Camille stooped to retrieve the phone and answer her call. "Hello? Hey Amanda… No, I'm not busy… Okay… Is it good news? It is? Oh my God, are you serious?... Oh my God! Thanks so much, Amanda!... Okay… Okay… Yeah, that's fine… Got it! Thanks again! Bye." The small girl finally looked up to see all four boys grinning at her. It didn't take a genius to deduce the good news.
"I got the part!" Camille exclaimed as all four boys enveloped her in a group hug.
"Congratulations!"
"That's so awesome!"
"I knew you'd get it," Logan said.
"Thanks," she said, blushing both from all the excitement and the attention. "I gotta go have dinner with my dad and then call my mom and email Jo. Can we hang out later though?" All four boys were still standing in front of her, but she was clearly speaking directly to Logan.
James, Carlos, and Kendall shuffled away quietly to try to give the on-again, off-again pair a little privacy. They happened to be off at the moment, but with those two, who knew how long that would last.
Logan smiled nervously. "Sure. I'll come by your apartment around eight o'clock. We can go for a walk or something."
"Cool. See you then."
Back at the apartment, Kendall had gone straight into his and Logan's room and shut the door. The other three boys looked sympathetically after him.
"Poor guy," Carlos said, shaking his head sadly.
"We've gotta do something to get him out of this funk," James said.
"Like what?" Logan asked. "It's been almost two months, and the mere mention of Jo's name still sends him into a spiral of despair."
"Well you know what they say," James said. "The best way to get over someone is to—"
"Eat a lot of ice cream?" Carlos finished.
"Focus on your school work?" Logan tried.
James rolled his eyes. "Uh, no, and definitely not. The best way to get over someone is to get under someone else. If you catch my drift."
Logan threw a pillow at James' head. "Perv," he said, while Carlos snickered. "Besides, I don't think Kendall even wants a new girlfriend. He's not ready."
"Who said anything about a girlfriend? This is LA, he's single, he's in a band, and he has a ton of female fans who would do anything for a chance to be with him... You're the genius, you do the math."
"Uh, I'd rather not," Logan replied. "I just think he needs time to really get over Jo. He can't do that by hooking up with random girls."
James shrugged. "Never know until you try," he grinned.
"How would you know, James?" Carlos teased. "Last I checked you were still as virginal as the rest of us, even with all those adoring female fans."
"Pfft, can we leave the status of my virginity out of this, please?" James said, throwing the pillow he'd caught from Logan at Carlos.
"Hey, you brought it up."
"Brought what up?"
The boys turned to see that Katie Knight had walked into the room. Not wanting her to hear where their conversation was heading, Logan replied, "Oh, uh, we were just trying to figure out if there was anything we could do to cheer up Kendall."
Katie frowned. She'd been trying for weeks to get her big brother to cheer up, but nothing she said shook him out of it. She'd even gone so far as to ask Mrs. Knight what they should do. "He just needs time." She went and squeezed in on the couch, sitting between Logan and James.
Kendall stayed in his room until dinner time. He still looked kind of bummed out, but no one said anything about it, and he acted as if nothing had happened. Mrs. Knight reminded the boys not to stay up too late, as they had to be at the studio by 8 am the next day to meet with a new choreographer. All four boys groaned. They knew that 'meeting with a new choreographer' was code for 'hours upon hours of dance rehearsal.'
After dinner, it was Logan and Kendall's turn to clean up and wash the dishes. Logan turned on the garbage disposal and started filling the sink while Kendall cleared the table. James and Carlos had disappeared, probably to play video games in their room, and Katie (a bit to James' chagrin) was hanging out with her friend Kyle in the lobby.
"So… you okay?" Logan asked.
Kendall didn't need to ask what he was talking about. He paused before answering. "I just miss her. I didn't think it would be this hard."
Logan nodded sympathetically. "I know you probably don't want to hear this, but you really do need to let her go. You can't get over her if you're still talking to her every morning and emailing her and stalking her Twitter to see what she's up to."
"I know, I know," Kendall sighed. "I need to just let her get on with her life but it's hard knowing that she's out there having the time of her life, and I'm still here in LA working as a struggling boy-band member."
"It's gonna get better, buddy. Now. I gotta go meet Camille. Can I trust you to be alone, or should I call James and Carlos for suicide watch?"
Kendall splashed water at his friend. "I'll be fine, thanks. It's pretty cool that Camille got that part. How are things with you and Miss Roberts, by the way?"
Logan tried to play dumb. "What do you mean?" As he said it, James and Carlos walked into the kitchen and started rummaging through the refrigerator. "I guess her method acting finally paid off."
"Don't give me that. Are you two like, a thing again?" At this, Carlos poked his head out to pay attention.
"Not really. She's sort of seeing that Steve guy. We're just hanging out. As friends." Logan shrugged, trying to look nonchalant. "Are you two really searching for more food? We just had dinner, like twenty minutes ago."
"Black Ops takes a lot out of you, okay?" James said. "But back to you. You know this means you're not allowed to be jealous of her potential love interests on the show, right?"
"Psh, jealous? Why would I be jealous?"
"Oh, I don't know," Kendall said. "Maybe because you still totally like her and you guys make out every chance you get."
"What? We do not!"
Carlos and James snorted loudly at this. "Except for that time when Griffin tried to make a reality show about us, and you guys 'pretended' to be totally into all the kissing you 'had' to do," James said, using air quotes for emphasis.
"But you're not into her, right, Logan? Even though she's the coolest girl you've ever met, and even though she definitely still likes you, and even though it's super obvious to everyone but you that you still like her?" Carlos teased.
"Okay, enough, you guys! Camille and I are just friends. We tried dating, remember? It didn't work out so well…" Logan gave a pointed look at James, who squirmed uncomfortably and tried to avoid eye contact. It wasn't that he was still mad at James, but still—he had to wonder how things would've gone with Camille if they hadn't kissed, even if it was accidental. The fact remained that he had been cheated on, and that wasn't something he could really take lightly. "She didn't even go to prom with me. Now, are you all done interrogating me, or can I go see my friend now?"
"Go on, Logie, but remember not to stay out too late," Kendall teased as Logan headed out the door.
"Kelly, can you come in here please?" Gustavo called from his office. The two were working late at the studio in preparation for their week of meetings.
Kelly appeared at the door, wearing her normal office attire with a pair of green fuzzy slippers. "What's up?"
"I need you to cancel the boys' meeting with Tyce tomorrow and instead set up a meeting between me and Griffin. Tell the boys they don't have to be here at 8, but they're still on call and need to be ready to come in tomorrow afternoon. After I meet with Griffin, tell them to get here as soon as possible."
Kelly was already typing away on her Blackberry, trying to get a hold of Griffin's assistant to get the meeting set up. "Got it. Is everything okay? Did Tyce cancel on us?"
Gustavo inhaled deeply and rubbed his temples. "No. I—I just got some bad news. I'm going to have to leave Rocque Records."
Kelly gasped, shocked. "What? You can't leave!"
"It's my sister," Gustavo said. "She just called me. She… she's been diagnosed with leukemia. I have to go stay with her in Colorado. She's a single mom..."
"Oh my God," was all Kelly could say. "Is she.. is she going to be okay?"
"It's too soon to tell, she's in the early stages of treatment still. But she's got no one to look after kids, so I have to go help her out."
"I understand," Kelly said. "I'll text the boys and tell them to be on call tomorrow, and I'll let you know when Griffin can meet. When are you leaving?"
"As soon as I can. As soon as I meet with Griffin and get the boys squared away. I'm really sorry about this, Kelly. You've been a great assistant, I know my leaving kind of puts you out of a job."
"Don't you dare worry about that right now," Kelly said. "You need to get home and start packing and figuring out what you're going to do with your mansion and staff and your alligator."
"You're right. I'll see you tomorrow," Gustavo said as he gathered his things.
Logan's phone beeped as he and Camille were talking in the park. He took it from his pocket to read a text:
From: Kelly Wainwright
Boys! Change of plans for tomorrow. No need to show up at 8 am. However, you will be ON CALL all afternoon, so be ready to come in when I give you the word. Thanks guys. See you all tomorrow.
"Sweet," Logan said, slipping the phone back into his pocket.
"What's up?" Camille asked.
"Our morning dance rehearsal got cancelled," Logan said happily. "We're off until the afternoon."
"Awesome," she answered. "I'm gonna be at the studio all day tomorrow."
"So," Logan said. "Tell me everything. What's the role? How was the audition? How did everyone react to the news?"
Camille smiled and tried to decide where to start. "Well here's something cool. My agent actually accidentally double-booked me for auditions today, and they were for two really different roles. So when she called me to tell me about the mistake, I had to choose which audition to go to. One of them was for a spot on a show on the Disney Channel, which you know, it's Disney, that's huge. But with Disney there's not a ton of stability because their shows never last longer than like four seasons, and the show's already on its third. So the other audition was for a new show that's gonna be on MTV 12 called Wings. My agent wanted me to go to Disney, and usually I take her advice, but today for some reason I decided not to. So I auditioned for Wings, and I was there for hours and hours doing different readings, and finally they let us go and said they would let us know later today."
"That's so cool," Logan said.
"I'm so excited. So the show's about a girl named Laurel, that's me, who finds out she's a fairy and meets another boy fairy who helps her discover where she comes from and then you know, there's the whole fighting against the bad guys… I know it sounds kind of lame, the whole fairy thing," she said, seeing Logan smirking at her.
"No, no, that's not it. I, uh, I just like seeing you so excited about it. You deserve this." Logan tried not to blush.
"Thanks, Logan. That means a lot to me. I never in a million years thought I could land a part like this."
The two sat in comfortable silence for a moment, until—"So, you sure you won't forget about all us little people when you become a big star?"
"Please. This, coming from Mr. Up-and-Coming Boy-Band Heart Throb."
"Um, I think you have me confused with James," Logan laughed. "He definitely has a monopoly on the heart throb status. It's his thing."
"And what's your thing?"
"I'm the smart one, duh. Carlos is the funny one, and Kendall is the leader," he shrugged.
"Oh yes, you were sooo smart to hypothesize that a watermelon could not, in fact, make toast," Camille teased.
"Hey, I was only going for a C plus. And, if you must know, it was the first C I've ever gotten. Anyway. Tell me more about the show."
"Hah. Okay, well, it's going to be set in LA so we'll be shooting on location a lot instead of in a studio. But we won't start shooting for two weeks or so, since all the characters are still being cast. And then of course the script for the test pilot episode has to be edited, and THEN we have to see if the show will even actually be picked up by the network, or if there are any changes the executives want to make. But for now I definitely have the part, so I just have to go in and read with some different actors until all the pilot characters are cast."
"Well, I think you're going to be amazing. We're all really excited for you."
"Thanks. But I better go up to bed now. I have to be there by 8 tomorrow."
"Alright. Good luck."
"Night, Logan."