The All-Nighter
By: Riley
Summary – Working in the music industry is hard. The all-nighters that are needed to complete projects are harder. Having to do it when stuck at Rocque Records is the hardest thing of all. [Set during season 2].
Having a career in the music industry, to become the biggest pop stars that the world has ever seen was very overrated.
At least now that the boys had been told they were going to be stuck in Rocque Records all night had proven. Not that they were alone, of course their bad luck had to spread outward. The Jacksons—aka the DarkElements—were stuck with them as well. Not that it was so surprising; the two were working on writing songs for their albums to Gustavo's insistence. That wasn't the clincher, no, what caused them to be stuck in Rocque Records were the recordings that had been lost from earlier that day.
Kendall, Logan, Carlos, and James had finished a recording of a song potentially titled Music Sounds Better along with a more upbeat song potentially titled Ready To Go and had been told they could leave after they finished a round of choreography, harmonies, styling, and a round of songwriting with their friends. And just as they had all been leaving, Gustavo Rocque, Kelly Wainright, and Ronan McGuire had all stopped them.
"I'm afraid we have some bad news," Kelly had said, chewing her lower lip.
"If by 'bad news' you mean 'good news' in terms of me going home to sleep, then I'd agree," Patrick said with a half smile.
"'Bad news' is never good news, Pat," Ronan said calmly. He cleared his throat and crossed his arms. "And as Kelly said, we have some bad news for you guys. About the songs that you just worked on today."
"They weren't bad songs," James immediately went to the defensive. "They were some of the best ones we've written. Gustavo, you said that yourself!"
"You're right." "He did." "He so did." Kendall, Logan, and Carlos came to James's aid when they saw the sour expression on Gustavo's face. It was one thing for the music producer to be angry, and it was another for him to look like he had just had his favorite toy taken away from him. And as far as the boys were concerned, Gustavo's teddy bear had just been kidnapped.
"What's going on, Ronan?" Riley asked. "And get to the point, please, because I'm about this close to bloody dying of starvation." She held her thumb and index fingers a bit apart then exchanged a glance with Rhuben, who looked just as irritated as she did.
"And if we had to eat someone to be able to get through here it'd be Sydney," Rhuben added, whose mouth dropped open in shock and surprise before he crossed his arms and turned away from her. "All because someone doesn't like to have snacks stocked here." She looked Gustavo up and down as he scowled back at her.
"Have you seen what these dogs do when they're given a snack?" He demanded. "Remember that fruit water that Kelly thought was such a great idea when they were first recording? It ruined my sound booth that cost thousands of dollars!" Everyone winced as Gustavo shouted the two words at the top of his lungs. "That's not happening again!"
"So what's the problem?" Kendall asked through gritted teeth.
"Okay," Ronan said. He held up his hands in case any of the teens were about to launch themselves at him. "The boys did a great job with their recording today. And we had everything mastered and ready to be sent off while you all were getting them done with choreography and everything. However…while that was being done, there was a power shortage throughout the circuitry and…we lost the recordings that you've already finished."
"Not to mention that Griffin called and said he wants four more songs to be written and demos done by tomorrow for him to listen to," Gustavo added. As he continued to speak his voice took on a whining tone until he was seconds short of pouting. "And of course we have to do what Griffin says because he's the boss and we all have to do what he says!"
"Gustavo!" Kelly snapped her fingers in front of his face. "Stop before you start pouting."
"I'M NOT POUTING!"
Logan winced and wiggled a finger in his hear.
"We'll have to stay here all night to get this done," Ronan explained.
The two bands groaned and moaned as Noah rested his hands atop his head and said, "By 'we' I hope you mean, you, mate."
And that had been three hours ago. Since that time little to no work had been done to finish the recordings of the songs that had been done before as well as writing other songs. Because of the unfairness of having to do everything over again after having run their bodies ragged through their other lessons, Kendall, Logan, and James refused to do anything. Carlos, on the other hand, was the only one that was excited to be able to sing the song again. Unfortunately, when he tried, his voice came out like a dying frog's due to how long they had been recording before so they opted to try writing a song.
This time, however, Kelly had made sure there were no drum sticks or tinfoil around for any of the boys to get into before they started writing. She, Gustavo, and Ronan left the bands alone as they opted to go back to the sound board they had been using to see if they could recover their lost files.
"What time is it?" Patrick asked. His voice was a low mumble, the side of his face pressed into the couch cushions, glasses askew as he did so.
Logan sighed loudly and pressed his fingertips into his temples. "Twenty minutes passed the last time you asked that question."
"Are you surprised?" Sydney asked, eyebrows rising. "Patrick can't tell time." He laughed as Patrick reached behind him and picked up a pillow from the couch cushion and threw it over to his baby brother, who ducked out of the way. Then he sighed and picked up the notebook that was resting in his lap and leaned over to Noah, holding it out to him. "Noah, is this good?"
Noah gave him a half smile as he took the notebook from him. "That question will give you a really subjective answer, Little Man," he pointed out.
"Sub-what?" Carlos's nose wrinkled.
"It means to be based on or influenced by personal feelings, tastes, or opinions," Logan murmured, reciting the definition by heart. His eyes were closed and fingers were pressed against his temples even harder, as if that would force words out to write a song. "In other words, Syd could think it's good and Noah could have a completely different opinion."
"Oh."
"Just like how James thinks he's God's gift to women when they're all actually repulsed by him," Kendall said with a laugh. An acoustic guitar satin his lap and he absentmindedly plucked at the strings, trying to work out a melody while others worked on the song lyrics.
James reached out and placed his hand on Kendall's shoulder, gently shaking his head. "That's just your jealousy talking," he said.
"Envy," Riley corrected him before Logan could. "Envy is when someone else has something that you want and jealousy is when someone else has someone you want." She twirled the end of her pigtail around her finger. "In this case, I'm envious of everyone else that's not stuck here." With a frustrated sigh, she ran a hand through her hair and turned towards Kendall, holding out her other hand. "Hey Hockey-Head, may I see that guitar for a tick?"
"Yeah, why?" Kendall pulled the guitar strap from around his neck and started to hand it over to her.
"Your playing is getting on my bloody nerves and I want to beat you over the head with it." With the guitar inches from Riley's grasp she lunged for the neck of it but Kendall immediately pulled it back out of her way, causing her to fall face forward onto the ground. "I'm so tired!" She moaned before rolling onto her back and stared at the ceiling. "I'd kill to fall asleep." She repeated it a second time, singing the words.
"That sounds like a good song," Noah commented from where he sat next to her, fanning himself with his hat.
Rhuben rolled her eyes. "Yeah, right. Who'd want to write a song like that?" Noah shrugged and she reached out, ruffling his hair, pushing his overgrown bangs into his face.
"It's better everything else we've already come up with," Logan pointed out glumly. He motioned to the pages that sat scattered in front of and around him. "I mean, we knew songwriting was hard, but to have to do four more?"
"I'm hungry," Carlos announced.
James gave him a dirty look from the corner of the room. "You just finished off the last of the two pizzas. Which isn't going to be good for your complexion, by the way. How are you still hungry?" Carlos burped loudly and shrugged, making James wince and pulled his head back, waving a hand in front of his face. "Two words, Oral Hygiene."
"Two words: You're too obsessed," Carlos shot back.
"That was three words," Logan reminded him.
"Whatever!" Patrick and Noah snapped in exasperation.
Exasperated sighs moved around the room once more and then there was silence. The silence continued to stretch out and instead of it bringing any sense of relief or creative sparks; it just seemed to make the teens even more annoyed than they had been before. And all it took for it to break was Carlos complaining, once more, that he was hungry.
"We heard you the first time!" Rhuben practically snarled, causing Carlos's eyes to grow wide.
"Man, you know things are bad when Rhu snaps at you," Patrick chuckled. "Just think how bad it would've been if it was Riley was yelling."
"I wouldn't have to yell, he'd already be dead," Riley said calmly, though Carlos wiggled away from her.
"Okay. Okay." Kendall held up his hands. He stood up, adjusting the bottom of his shirt. "Obviously we're just starting to get on each other's nerves. Why don't we just get away from each other for a little bit and see if we come up with something. Sitting around and waiting for things to happen isn't going to work, we have to make them happen."
"If I don't have to listen to your speeches anymore then I'm all for it," Noah muttered, causing Kendall to roll his eyes.
"I'm going to see how Gustavo and Kelly and Ronan are doing," Sydney announced, getting off the ground. "Maybe there's something I can do to get the songs back that they haven't thought of yet." The others followed suit and left the room, immediately breaking off into pairs to wander around Rocque Records.
Kendall watched as Riley paused, seemed to think about something, and walked fast-paced down the hallway that led towards Gustavo's office. He jogged to keep up with her. "Where are you going?" He asked.
"You mean other than seeing if Gustavo has a stash of food somewhere?" Riley shot back. "I want to see if he has any of the music files on his computer. No offense, Hockey-Head, but I don't know why we have to stay here to help you when it's not our songs that have to be written and re-recorded."
"Because you're our friend and you're being nice," Kendall pointed out.
She smirked. "Last I checked being friends didn't really help much in this industry. Something is going to screw you over, no matter what, yeah?"
"Yeah, well, I still think it's better than your original idea of kidnapping Griffin and hoping no one would notice," Kendall remarked as they arrived at the door to Gustavo's office. "That was probably one of your worst ideas, by the way."
"Yeah, well, you try to bloody think of a plan when you're hungry, boofhead." Riley twisted the doorknob and walked into Gustavo's office with Kendall following her. She plopped down into the seat and shook the mouse as Kendall leaned on the chair behind her. She frowned, glancing at the password protector on screen. "Bollocks. Where's Syd when you need him?"
"Oh, that's easy." Kendall leaned over Riley and tapped a few of the keys before pressing ENTER, allowing the lock screen to go away. Tilting her head back, Riley glanced up at him in surprise. "What? Gustavo uses the birthday of his hairless cat on almost all of his devices."
"So you were the one that sent out those strange messages on his scuttle butter?"
"Actually, that was Logan."
"Ace!"
Riley looked through the file folders on Gustavo's computer and came up empty handed. Defeated, she started to shut down the computer until she noticed a web browser at the bottom of the screen. Curious—and judging by Kendall leaning further over the back of the chair he was curious, too—Riley pulled up the browser.
It took a second for the two to react to what they saw on screen. But when they did they were in hysterics.
"Holy shit!" Riley yelped as a picture of a half naked Gustavo in a speedo appeared on screen. From the split second she looked at it, the picture appeared to be part of a profile for a dating website. She didn't want to look too much or else it would become seared into her brain. "Aah! My eyes!"
"Close it!" Kendall cried, leaning over the chair. He pushed Riley's hand out of the way of the mouse and tried to move the pointed to the corner of the screen. Then he got an up close look at the picture and his entire body froze, much like the time Gustavo had taken the bad advice from the guru at the Palm Woods. Rainbow of Love still haunted Kendall's dreams when the time came. "Close the window!"
Kendall removed his hand from the mouse and turned away, rubbing at his eyes as Riley's index finger rapid-fired against the mouse. She resisted the urge to use her middle finger the same way. "I'm trying it bloody won't close!"
Kendall reached for the mouse again but Riley slapped his hands away.
"Give me that!"
"It won't fucking close! I just told you that!"
"I think it froze! Oh my god, is that a thong?!"
"Ahh!"
By this time, the two friends were hysterically laughing amongst their screams of torture. Finally, they managed to close the window and put the computer back to its original position before racing out of Gustavo's office. They got snagged at the door at one point, the sleeve of Kendall's flannel shirt catching on the doorjamb, before they finally managed to run away from the office. They flew by Gustavo and Kelly who watched them go.
"What's that about?" Gustavo asked.
"I have no idea," Kelly replied.
Kendall and Riley ran all the way back to the costume closet before collapsing to the floor in hysterical laughter.
"Ow! My eyes!" Riley cried as he mascara stared to run. She fanned at her face and Kendall took one good look at her raccoon eyes before starting in a fresh round of laughter.
...
..
.
James hummed to himself as he stood in front of a mirror, staring at his reflection. He turned his way and that, pulling at his shirt and hair, making sure every strand fell right into place. Patrick stood on the other side of the conference room, glancing at the trophies and memorabilia that lined the shelves while Carlos did cartwheels across the empty room and Noah sat on the floor, looking at his phone.
"I just asked Ronan, he says they still haven't figured out how to get the stuff back yet," Noah announced to the room.
"That's okay," Carlos declared. He did another sloppy cartwheel. "I'm having fun."
"You're the only one," James stated.
"Oh come on!" Now Carlos beamed, pressing his hands to his hips. "Who else gets to spend all of this time with their best friends? Making music, writing songs, hanging out? Isn't it fun?"
"About as fun as a needle in my eye," Patrick muttered.
"Or having to study," Noah teased his twin. He looked over at James, eyebrows coming together as he noticed the mirror James was standing in front of. "Who has a full length mirror in a conference room anyway?"
Patrick picked up a baseball that sat on a shelf and twisted it back and forth in his hand, examining it closely.
"Griffin probably but it just works well for me." James frowned, making a whimpering sound as he ran his hands over his face. "I knew it. My complexion is already starting to turn ruddy. Look! I'm getting bags under my eyes and my hair is becoming lifeless!"
Patrick looked over as James started to lift his arms and flex his muscles. "You're not going to start fondling yourself now, are you? If you are, I can leave."
"Did you know that I'm missing my second workout? I always do two-a-days."
"Dude, so do I but you don't hear me, bloody complaining." Patrick tossed the baseball up and down for a few minutes then whipped it around towards James. "Think fast!" His eyes bulged and lower jaw dropped when James ducked his head, to look at his stomach muscles as he lifted his shirt, and the ball shot into the glass. It immediately cracked into an intricate spider-web of lines and fragments.
James, who had ducked out of the way, slowly straightened himself and glanced at the mirror. He turned back to Patrick, who's wide-eyed; deer-in-the-headlights looks mirrored his own, and then turned back. He reached out a finger and pressed it into the glass where it cracked even further. Then a high-pitched shriek escaped his lips and his hands went flying to his hair.
Carlos burst out into hysterical laughter, pointing at James while Noah stared, eyes as wide as they could go.
"Dude." Patrick whistled. "That's seven years bad luck."
"Why do I have to get the bad luck?" James demanded. "You were the one that threw the baseball at my head."
"Yeah, and I reckon I have no idea how I missed since your big head was just right here." Now Patrick gave a lopsided smile, crossing his arms. "You lot must be cursed. First your music gets lost and now you've got seven years. Well, good luck with that." He turned and started to leave the room and stopped when he heard whistling. "What was that?"
"Sounds like Griffin," Carlos said off-handedly. "Hey, let's ask him why he had a mirror in here." He started towards the door but James leapt over and tackled him before he could. The two fell to the ground where Carlos's helmet clad head smacked the ground. "Ow! What'd you do that for?"
"Are you crazy?" James declared.
"Not as crazy as Griffin, I can say that," Noah remarked.
"You know what Griffin is like. He likes to wear warm pants and pet llamas and find new ways to torture Gustavo and by extension, us! And by even further extension them!" He gestured wildly towards Patrick and Noah. "Do you know what Gustavo will do to us after that? He might eat us."
"I don't think he'll go that far…"
"You never know," Patrick said wisely. "Blokes that big…they do strange things when they get hungry. And if we were starving, then Gustavo has a bottomless pit." He turned back towards the door and crouched down. He grabbed the door handle and slowly rotated it down, motioning for Noah to come his way.
Noah got down on his stomach and shuffled over to Patrick's side. He poked his ear out and listened as the whistling started to get closer. For a moment it stopped and then it sounded further away before coming closer once more.
"I think he's looking at a bunch of the rooms…? Or maybe he's looking for us to see how the songs are going," Noah whispered. "We need to get out of here." He turned back to James and Carlos, who were both staring at him. "What?"
"Nothing," James replied. "It's just the most we've ever heard you talk."
Patrick laughed and Noah reached out his hand, pressing it into Patrick's face and shoved him to the floor. Then he grasped Patrick's arm and leg and lifted his twin brother up, slinging him down over his shoulders. Then he turned back to James Carlos, waiting for the boy banders to get up as well.
"James, will you get off me?" Carlos asked, his voice was muffled by the floor.
"Why? Do you plan on saying 'hi' to Griffin?"
"No. But the fact that you've been lying on me this long is making me a bit…too comfortable."
With that, James flung himself backwards off of Carlos, who laughed hysterically. Then James placed his hand over Carlos's mouth and forcibly dragged the boy from the room. Noah followed the two with Patrick still slung over his shoulders. The four waited for Griffin's whistling to fade away before leaving the room.
But Noah moved too quickly and swung Patrick's head into the doorframe, causing James and Carlos to muffle their laughter as they went.
"Ow!"
"And there goes the last of his brain cells!" Noah declared as he ran.
...
..
.
Logan sighed as he pulled open the cabinets in the break room and found nothing inside it. Rhuben pulled open the door to the refrigerator and shrugged when she found a jar of peanut butter. Opening it, she looked through a few drawers and found a spoon. Sticking one inside the spread she stuck the spoon into her mouth and offered the other one to Logan.
He fended her off with a wave of his hand. "I don't like peanut butter," he explained.
Rhuben's eyebrows rose. She had known him since she was about eight years old, hated dated him, and had broken up with him but always knew he loved peanut butter. When could that have changed? Sensing the question that was on the tip of her tongue Logan noted.
"Do you know how long that Peanut Butter has been in there?" He demanded. "Not to mention how many times we've eaten out of that and what other kinds of bacteria and other bugs are in there?" He took the jar from her hand, looked into it, and tilted it so she could see little green chunks inside. "You see that? That's celery that someone ate and dipped into the jar, the amount of backwash and saliva and food particles within this jar is a cesspool waiting to happen."
Now Rhuben rolled her eyes and grabbed the jar back from him. "Well excuse me for not wanting to go hungry, Logie-Bear," she commented. "I don't know if you noticed, but you and Kendall, James, and Carlos ate most of the pizza."
Logan smirked. "Trust me when I say I'm glad. Normally if there's food around you five we're at the risk of losing our fingers. Besides, there was plenty to share!"
"What sane people Pineapple on a freaking pizza?!" Rhuben demanded.
"Uh, we do."
"Exactly! None of you lot are sane!" She hugged the jar to her chest and childishly stuck her spoon into the jar. "Now, I'm going to eat my Peanut Butter from my jar and you can have some if you're polite." She made a show of sticking the spoon into her mouth and worked the food around. "Sucks being hungry doesn't it," she teased.
"Shut up."
Logan continued to move through the other cabinets and drawers, looking for food and found nothing. Not wanting to prove Rhuben right he instead grabbed a glass out of the cupboard and filled it up with water from the sink. "I'm not really that hungry anyway, it's just my dehydration talking. Science has shown that most people mistake their hunger for just being very dehydrated. And we worked really hard when we were doing choreography and everything earlier today." He made a show of gulping down the water and smacking his lips when he finished.
"If you think I believe anything you're saying, then you certainly deserve the name the Big Time Brain, Logie," Rhuben commented, rolling her eyes.
"Thank you, Bella." Logan practically beamed as he turned the faucet then frowned when the water didn't turn off. He twisted it back and forth and the water still continued to drain into the sink.
"You're welcome. So why don't you try to figure out what's going on with that, then."
Logan didn't have to look at her to know she was smirking at him. Instead, he dropped down below the sink and opened the doors that revealed the pipes below the sink. "It's simple, really. All I have to do is turn off the water." Logan grabbed the faucet under the sink and twisted it. Instead of it turning the water off, the knob came off in his hand and the water in the sink started to spew out even faster.
Shaking her head, Rhuben pointed at the sink with her spoon. "You took the knob off," she said.
"I can see that!"
Logan watched as water continued to spill into the sink and he let out a shrieking sound, biting his knuckle. His eyes shifted back and forth over the water that filled up the rapidly flooding sink and the knob that was now in his hands. He was smart and he could always make the best out of any situation. But he was hungry, he was tired, he just wanted to go back to the Palm Woods and sleep, and all of that made a better case for him than trying to fix the sink.
"Let's go!" He declared and quickly walked towards the door, dragging Rhuben behind him by the hand.
"What about the sink?"
"Forget about the stupid sink!" Logan snapped. He whirled around and grabbed the jar of peanut butter from her hand and threw it into the corner of the break room. "And forget about the stupid peanut butter, we have to get out of here before Gustavo sees this mess."
"I'm sorry weren't you the one that always said 'honesty is the best policy'?"
"That was before we had to be locked in here with Gustavo all night long. I'll just blame it on Carlos. He's ruined this room with that stupid coffee maker once more, who's to say he couldn't do it again with a sink?"
Suddenly, the faucet shot off sending a torrent of water directly into Logan and Rhuben. The two screamed in surprise, trying to shield themselves from the water shooting into them. They even went as far as to push the other person in front of them to stave off the water. Finally, laughing, they slipped and slid out of the break room, leaving a pool of water in their wake.
...
..
.
Sydney pushed open the door to recording studio B and watched as Gustavo and Kelly yelled back and forth to each other with Ronan sitting off to the side. He lay slouched in his chair and tilted his head back, looking back at the ceiling and gently shaking his head. Gustavo stuck his fingers in his ears and stuck his tongue out at Kelly.
"Blah, blah, blah, I'm Kelly and I think I know everything!" He declared.
Kelly glared back at him and puffed up her chest, lowering her voice. "I'm Gustavo and I think I can get my way about everything just by YELLING AT THE TOP OF MY LUNGS LIKE SOME SORT OF A SPOILED BRAT!" She hollered.
"I don't sound like that!"
"Yes, you do!"
Sydney stared at the two before walking further into the room and over to Ronan. He tapped his adoptive father on the arm and Ronan turned his head his way, bloodshot eyes blinking slowly. "Have they been doing this all night?" He asked.
"You have no idea," Ronan replied. He sat up and winced, sticking a finger in his ear. "And I thought it was bad when all of you guys yelled."
"Did you get any of the songs back?"
"Noah just texted me to ask the same thing. Not yet. I don't think we've even tried; they've been arguing since we got here." Ronan motioned to the two who were now yelling over each other to the point that they weren't making any sense. Gustavo seemed to think saying 'la, la, la, la, la' over and over again would be enough to keep Kelly from determining that losing power to the sound board and their music.
"Oh. Okay." Sydney walked over to Gustavo and Kelly. Looking back and forth between them he sucked in a deep breath and then said loudly, "Hey! Hey! Hey!" Until they got his attention. "Thank you. Okay, it doesn't matter whose fault it was that we lost the music—"
"Yes it does!" Gustavo and Kelly pointed to each other. "It's his fault!""It's her fault!"
Rolling his eyes Sydney pushed them out of the way. He looked over the sound board that sat in front of him and studied the faders, flips, and knobs placed in front of him. It really was stare of the art equipment, probably a little bit better than the ones Ronan had at his recording studio—Blazing Phoenix. Still, glancing over the computer screen that went along with the sound board it appeared to be as simple as all of the others he had ever worked on before.
"Did you get the power back in this at all?" He asked Gustavo.
"Yeah, that came back about an hour ago," Kelly explained.
"And this computer is a RCM CBT Global Net Sanyoid Computer, right?"
Gustavo rolled his eyes. "Right. Griffin won't let us have anything but the best in the company." He eyed Sydney warily as he pulled his cell phone from his pocket. "Why? What are you doing?"
"Hang on a tick." Sydney flicked his thumb over the screen a few times before an app pop up. He pressed into it and then started to type on the screen. Then he paused and looked up at Gustavo, Kelly, and Ronan to explain. "If this computer is the most recent model of computers from RCM CBT Global Net Sanyoid, then I reckon I can get the music files back."
"How are you going to do that?" Kelly asked.
"Yeah and should I expect police to show up on my doorstep?"
"Can it, McGuire! If we're going to get everything we need done and to Griffin by tomorrow morning, which isn't that far away, some sacrifices have to be made! He's young; he'll do fine in juvie!" Gustavo snapped. His eyes were wild behind his sunglasses, proving how desperate he was for it to work.
"Thanks for that vote of confidence, Gustavo," Ronan snapped back.
Sydney sighed calmly and started his explanation. "All of our smart phones are little basically mini computers. They come with specific IP Addresses, much like a laptop computer would, based on the router you're around. Which is why if you logged into your computer at a library you'd have a different IP because it has the same external connection as the library." He motioned to the computer. "Mr. Fujisaki's company had come up in the news recently due to their computers being very easy to hack, they have a very weak firewall and if you know what you're doing, you can get into all of the data that is needed. Since this is the same sort of computer, I can just my phone to hack into the firewall of that computer through Rocque Records' network—"
"—In English!" Gustavo barked.
Kelly ignored him. "And that'll give you access to this computer?"
"And the music files because every computer has at least one recovery option for a document, or anything with data, that you're working on, so…" Sydney typed a few more times on his phone screen and went over to the computer to turn it on. The screen came to life and when it finally booted up he navigated to where their music files were stored and took a step back. "And voila!"
Kelly leaned into the screen to check then leaned back with a little shriek. "Ah! It's there! He did it!" She grabbed Sydney into a tight hug and he smiled as he hugged her back. "Thank you so much, Sydney!"
"You're welcome, Kelly," Sydney replied. Ronan's eyes narrowed and he got up from his seat. Sydney looked up at him calmly as Ronan stood in front of him then slowly kneeled down until he was at Sydney's height.
"Syd?" Ronan asked.
"Yes?"
"If you could do this the entire time…why did you wait so long?"
"Nobody asked me."
Ronan's face twitched before he smiled and started to laugh. "Okay, we really deserve that. But you're gin got pay for this one later, too." He spoke to Gustavo over his shoulder. "Let the others know we've got the music. Get them here."
"I'm already doing it!" Gustavo declared, fingers flying over his keyboard.
It didn't take long for the others to come back to the room but when they did, it was obvious something had gone on. Riley's cheeks were stained with mascara, Logan and Rhuben had splashes of water on their shirts, James looked heartbroken, and Patrick had a massive welt above his eyebrow. Gustavo took stock of all of them and decided not to ask them what had happened.
"I'll deal with this later, but I've got good news, dogs! The kid here got our music files back!" Sydney beamed as Kendall, Logan, Carlos, and James all started to cheer.
"That means we don't need to write those other songs!" James declared. "The curse is broken!"
"What curse?" Kelly asked.
"And we can go home!" Carlos added.
Ronan held up his hand. "Not quite. We still have to write and record four more songs and we have to get those to Griffin by tomorrow morning .Which is in, about…"—he looked at his watch—"five hours." It was then that a commotion came from outside the office with late night workers running back and forth saying something about "glass" and "water everywhere" causing the two bands to appear to look as innocent as possible.
Gustavo gritted his teeth. "What did you do to my studio?" He demanded.
Eyes growing wide, Kendall held up his hands to defend himself if Gustavo was about to launch himself out of his seat. "Gustavo, chill!" He declared.
"Yeah," Riley added. "Don't get your Speedos in a bunch." The two smirked and stared to laugh as confused glances went around the room. "If there's anything that we,"—she motioned between herself and her siblings—"can do, it's getting things done in a short amount of time."
"Right, we got the demos to our first CD done in a week," Rhuben added. "And you lot got your band started in three days rather than the three months you were originally given."
"If anyone can do it, it's you," Patrick said. He paused, eyes widening as the door to the studio opened and Griffin stuck his head in.
"I just wanted to remind you guys that I'm expecting for my music to be in by tomorrow," he said. With a smile frozen on his face he paused and looked over his shoulder. "And considering your company seems to be, quite literally, drowning, I wonder if you'll manage to get done in time." He ducked his head out of the doorway.
Now it was Kelly's turn to bark, "What happened?"
"Uhhh…"
Gustavo, Kelly, and Ronan finally got an explanation from the bands that sort of chaos that went around Rocque Records while they had been taking their break. Then they spent the next few hours cleaning up the glass, finding a company that would deliver an exact replica of the mirror that had broken, patched up the dent in the wall that Patrick's head had made, showed Gustavo how to change the passwords on his computer, turned off the water, fixed the knob, and cleaned up the break room. That gave everyone only two hours left to get more songs done and by that point of exhaustion they managed to catch their second wind and knock out the rest of the songs.
Were they great? No.
But they got it done.
With only minutes left to spare, Gustavo finished placing the demos on a CD, backed it up to a second one, and they raced to the lobby of the company where Griffin was waiting with his entourage, looking at his watch. Gustavo reached out and slapped the CD into Griffin's chest and everyone else came to a stop behind him.
"Are we done?" Kendall asked, leaning forward to catch his breath. "Did we get it out in time?"
"You're finished," Griffin declared.
As soon as the words escaped his lips, Kendall, Logan, Carlos, James, Riley, Rhuben, Patrick, Noah, and Sydney all sank to the ground out of pure exhaustion. Ronan leaned against the wall next to him and Kelly leaned her weight against Gustavo, who appeared that he wanted to do nothing more than murder his boss.
Pressing the CD Case into his inside coat pocket Griffin continued with, "And in good time, too. If I thought you were able to get all of this done in this short period of time, well, I would've only given you six hours to do it instead of the whole night."
"WHAT?!" Gustavo yelped.
"Are you telling me that we didn't need to have any of this finished by today?" Kelly demanded.
Griffin snorted. "Of course not! The original deadline still stands. I just wanted to know what the proper motivation meant for your work ethic. And now that I know you all can work that hard and get this much done in a short timeframe, I expect better production out of you." He then clasped his hands in front of him and sighed wistfully. "Isn't being the boss fun?"
Ronan lowered his head from where it rested on the wall behind him and glared. "Griffin?"
"What?"
"Run!"
Griffin caught sight of Gustavo's rage-filled expression and frowned in deep concern when he found Gustavo starting to quake with fury, steam practically coming from his ears. Kelly immediately turned away, pressing her hands against her ears, as Gustavo let out a loud scream of fury. Griffin immediately turned on his heel and started to run out of the office with Gustavo right behind him.
Ronan and Kelly stayed behind, dropping to the floor with the rest of the teens and got themselves comfortable.
Soon the sounds of light snoring filled the front lobby of Rocque Records with only Gustavo's intermittent screams to drown them out.
THE END