Namaste guys! Okay so I'm new to this fandom but not to the show. The BTR was totally fetch series and I'm a massive fan girl. Okay now I know that majority of the couples here are gay or Jo, Lucy and Camille centered. So I thought what if we bring Kelly into the picture?
Yeah so I decided to do a Kelly featured fic revolving romance with James. Also there will be some platonic relationships with the other three too. So let's hop into the story y'all.
SAUCOY!
Chapter 1: Meeting Him…
Los Angeles, California. Call it City of Angels, La-la-land or my personal favorite- The Big Orange. It was my second home. Most people think that Los Angeles is a hard city to truly love. Not because it's always thrusting you away like an unwanted orphan, but because it's difficult to understand. Sure there is a lot to like—the weather, the food, the space—but love requires something deeper. It requires a deep understanding. LA is a city that continually obscures its own history and forgets what it has going for it. So it's no wonder that "getting" it is so difficult.
But people who have at least once lived in this city of lights would know that more than just a city of gustatory delights and fantastic parking, it's the one place on the planet where people come exclusively to believe and create. They say that dreams are made and they literally come true in this city. You can't cross the street without bumping into a celebrity. That is, if I had the time to cross the street by walking. Being Gustavo Rocque's assistant wasn't exactly the world's best job.
So yeah, I'm Kelly Wainwright and my life was going perfectly normal. I lived in a beautiful city, had a steady job, pretty decent apartment and unlimited burritos! Even though working with Gustavo was too stressful, it was nothing a regular yoga routine couldn't handle. And so, this was my life.
Gustavo was a highly unpredictable chump, and was having a hard time putting up with the scarcity of the chart busters in recent years. The CEO of our record label, Mr. Griffin was an aggravating old man who was constantly down Gustavo's throat for not being able to score a hit in 9 consecutive years. But this time, Griffin had threatened Gustavo to cut off his contract if he was not able to have a successful debuting artist. He was going through a hard time and it was affecting me as well. So that day, when he called me in early than usual, I was a little anxious.
It was a cold morning of November and I laid in my bed, curled up in a huge, puffy SpongeBob blanket. I was in a sugar sleep just when my phone began blasting out 'Hips Don't Lie' at its peak volume.
Crap, I forgot to turn that thing to silent mode.
I groaned and sat up in my bed rubbing my eyes. It was 5:45 am. I turned my head towards the source of the sound and saw my phone vibrating. I quickly brushed off the laziness and grabbed my cell phone from the bedside desk. The caller id flashed GUSTAVO in bold letters. I quickly picked it up.
"Gustavo, do you even know what time…" I started but was cut off by his rambling voice.
"Just get here at the studio. . .CAN!" He yelled the last part and then without waiting for my response, he hung up.
I sighed and placed the cell phone back on its place. It was Saturday and I thought I was having a day off. Nonetheless, I pulled myself out of the bed and headed straight towards the bathroom. After a quick shower, I put on something from the closet, grabbed my keys and locked the apartment behind me as I made the way towards my SUV. By 6:30, I pulled up in the parking lot of the studio. I fastened my pace and almost jogged towards Gustavo's office.
I knocked on the door. No reply. Twice, Thrice. Nothing. Finally I twisted the knob and went inside only to find Gustavo in his seat, seemingly lost in his thought with an American map spread out on the table with some marked states. He didn't acknowledge me coming in so I coughed on purpose to hold his attention.
He looked up and the usual frown appeared on his face, "What the hell did it take you so long?"
I returned his frown and spoke as calmly as possible, "Give me a break. Anyway, why did you call me so urgently?"
His expression went from angry to worried. He sighed and answered, "Kelly, you know about Griffin. The giant pain in the ass that he is…"
Look who's talking.
Despite the slight eye-roll, I nodded and he continued in his usual tone, "…So I have planned a talent searching tour round the country and I need you to spread the news to every single news channel that there is. Of course you're coming with me, so get your stuff together 'cause we'll be leaving in a week."
My jaw hung open. A tour of the country, within such a short notice? "ONE WEEK! But…"
He cut me off, "No buts, Kelly. It's already long since overdue. Go get your packing done and meet me later." He said and waved me off.
So that's how it all started. For the rest of the week, our team planned the tours and the news was spread across the country like wildfire. Every wannabe singer round the corner was excited to be Gustavo Rocque's next hitman. Little did they knew that it wasn't going to be a 'he or a she' but a 'them'.
Our last stop was the border state of Minnesota and as we had still not found our artist in the last 11 states it was our last hope, which turned out to be a very bad choice during the winter. It was snowing cats and dogs and the temperature was always around -4oc. The Minnesota snows were the worst ones I'd ever been in. It was freezing cold out of the car and I wasn't ready to go out yet. But when we reached our destination and I saw hundreds of screaming artists, a smile tugged at the end of my lips. As I stepped out onto the icy earth, the young energy sent warm breezes through me. And that's when I first saw him.
Even though there was a gigantic crowd of people he was clearly distinguishable. He seemed to be a display of bright light amongst the other dark-ish teenagers. Even though I had just a brief glimpse of him, I knew that this wasn't the last time I was seeing him. Gustavo's voice finally broke through my trance as he grumbled over his frost coffee which now had found home on the road. I rolled my eyes and said, "Let's go."
The auditions were the worst possible in the entire tour. Not even a decent sounding voice. Gustavo was fuming beside me and I worried that he might blow up the entire auditorium. It was almost the time of closing the auditions when I found Gustavo slumped back and a dark look passed over his eyes. He was dreaded of something for sure. Griffin was going to cut him off, which meant cutting me off too. I looked over at him with concern flooding my veins. He looked back at me. I smiled a little and whispered, "Don't worry, we'll find one. I just have a feeling. I'm gonna go out to see if anyone's made it, okay?"
He nodded and gestured me to hurry. I sighed and made my way towards the exit and hoped that there was at least something in the store for us. And it certainly was there.
The guy I saw earlier came running through the entrance like his life depended in here. That's when I really noticed him. He surely was good-looking. Good-looking would be an understatement, he seemed like he'd been a sculptured art of the renaissance. Perfect and edged. He was tall, had an athletic build and his muscles flexed from under his V-neck. I tried hard not to stare and quickly turned all business.
He finally halted in front of me and said in an enthusiastic voice, "My name is James Diamond and I wanna be famous…" with that he started singing before I stopped him by slamming a sticker on his V-neck shirt. He frowned but I smiled inwardly. We had found it. The spark that would light up the whole world on fire. Not literally, of course!
But that's when three other guys came in who could only be this kid's best friends. I moved on to them before giving each of them a silent look. The first one I noticed was a mid-heighted brunette with a meek looking face and a dazzling smile. I nodded at him when an ingenuous glow captured my attention. There stood a shorter guy whose features did not hide the look of extreme excitement and his lips spread out into a big-wide grin that was so infectious that I found myself smiling too. The last one was the most difficult to read. He was tall, blonde and with the greenest eyes I had ever seen. He seemed unnerved by the whole deal and deemed to not care.
So I approached the boys in hope to convince them to do the auditions so that we'd have more than just one choice. And given the extraordinary talent scout that I am, I was easily able to do so.
"Hey, so you here for the auditions too?" I asked the brunette in a genuine voice.
"Oh no, we were just here to support James. I'm gonna be a doctor." the brunette answered. The other two just nodded.
So, James huh?
That aroused the talent scout in me and my voice raised in an inspiring ramble, "Oh well, that's too bad. I'm a talent scout searching for new buds and Justin Timberlake just made $3 million last year." I smirked at my victory as the expression on their faces changed.
"Forget it, just hit me", he said and I did. The shorter boy then appeared straight out at my face and yelped in an exhilarated voice.
"Oh I wanna be famous too…" Then he started singing in a screwy voice but I hit him a ticket too because honestly, at this moment anything could work.
Then I made my way towards the blonde who didn't seemed to be altered in the least. A frown tugged at the end of my lips but I continued with the act, "So you here to make your dreams come true?"
He folded his arms and smiled carelessly, "Not really. I'm more into hockey."
My face fell as I sighed and continued in a low voice, "Ah, classic Minnesotan huh? But look just give it a shot, okay? Just for me, I might lose my job otherwise." I gave him my best defeated look and he sighed in return.
"If you say so." He gave me a half-smile and went on to join his other two friends on to the bench near the auditorium. I turned to go when I bumped into someone. James.
"Uh sorry, Miss…" He trailed off running his hand through his hair, which I believe were very well taken care of. I could clearly see the nervousness in his hazel eyes. Hazel, beautiful eyes. He seemed like he could break down of embarrassment at any moment. I gave him a reassuring smile.
"Kelly. Don't worry, you've got this…James was it?" I said giving him a friendly pat on the shoulder.
His face brightened up like electricity had burst out to it, "Yeah, and you better remember it 'cause this is the day a star is born. Thanks, Kelly." He gave me a thumbs up and went near his seat. I smiled secretly and started walking towards the hall. I glazed past the boys and disappeared behind the curtain.
As soon as I come in, Gustavo's face lit up with hope. He asked, in a much humble voice, "So…anyone?"
I smiled and nodded, "Four." And his face brightened like a child on Christmas morning.
"BRING IT ON, THEN!" He yelled again and I let out a sigh of relief as I took a seat next to Gustavo.
"Go easy on 'em. They are our last hope." I whispered rather aggressively. He wrinkled his nose and gave me a disapproving look.
"Yeah, I'll worry about that. NEXT!"
First the brunette came up and gave us a twitching smile. He ascended the stage and slowly dismounted the microphone and took a deep breath. He did some small flexi-exercises then when I saw Gustavo's mouth round up for another buncket. I quickly put my hand on his mouth and whispered roughly.
"We don't wanna scare him off, now do we?" He struggled for some time but then relaxed and I withdrew my hand.
After a moment, the brunette started moving and beat-boxing simultaneously. I smiled because that sounded really good. But then Gustavo roared him to stop.
"Stop! And stop it now and stop it forever!" He ordered.
"But I just started…" He said, his voice shaky.
"Right and now you get lost. NEXT!"
I threw him an annoying look as the brunette exited the hall, but he didn't care. Next up was the shorter boy. The ball of energy who came up running on the stage and winked at me. Every move of him shouted confidence. But I couldn't be sure about his voice, though.
So he came over stage and took the microphone in his hand. Then he tossed it from one hand to another making this absurd 'whop-whop' sound. I raised an eyebrow. That's when he held it in front of his butt and well- FARTED! I tried to stifle the laughter that was forming at the end of my throat. He noticed that and winked once again, this time getting on my nerves. But Gustavo wasn't so pleased. He almost threw himself at the shorty if I hadn't caught him before. The shorter boy shaked his head and excused himself off the stage while I shouted "NEXT!"
Then he entered the hall, every step calm and confident as he finally halted in front of the microphone. I was settled in my seat and gave him a small smile when he looked over to me, his eyes reflecting warmth. He took a deep breath and started singing and I was struck. He was perfect. He was it…
His voice was so full of compassion that I found myself slouching onto the desk with my eyes completely fixed on him. And I think he noticed it because I swear I could have seen a smirk growing on his lips. But then when his eyes landed on Gustavo's cold blues, his eyes went blank, he stumbled and choked on his voice. And Gustavo busted.
"…I'm sorry, Can I just go there and start over again?" And with that he shifted to his initial position. But seeing the look on Gustavo's face, I knew that shit was about to go down.
"Yeah, yeah why don't you go to wherever you came from, then do it again? NEXT!" he said, not caring about the kid's feelings.
"But he's good…" I whispered to myself as my eyes never left his face, which was heartbroken.
"What'd you say?" He asked, arching an eyebrow towards me.
Usually I wouldn't interfere in these auditions stuff, but this time something aroused inside of me. I looked straight at him and cleared myself.
"I mean what's the problem? He's good!" I responded in a firm voice.
James nodded and agreed, "Yeah, I'm good. Listen to her." He pleaded in a candid innocence.
Gustavo frowned, "Well, let me clear one thing to both of you. If I want to survive in this city and if you wanna keep your job, Kelly, I don't want good, I need GREAT!"
We both sighed simultaneously as I shot an apologetic look to James as he nodded sadly in response. We seemed to have this conversation almost instantly as he started towards the exit. That's when that blonde came out of the blue cursing and steering straight towards Gustavo.
So that's it for the first chapter. Please let me know what you think about this. I know this I a new pairing but this hopefully get much love here. Redding out!
