It was a pretty warm day in L.A. There was a light breeze that passed by every now and then that really gave me the feeling of warmth. It was nice to be back at the Palmwoods. I thought the last tour was forever long, the All Over Again one seemed to never end. I had fun don't get me wrong, but it was nice to be back home. I looked at my friend James, who was seated on a long chair catching some sun. You could tell he was enjoying the return to our hotel. Carlos and Logan were by the pool just talking. I looked at the lemonade in front of me. It was gathering water on the outside due to the heat. It seemed to be a quiet day. Suddenly I heard a girly giggle from across the pool area. It was unfamiliar. A sound I had not heard hear at the Palmwoods. It was cute and if I had heard it before I would have surly remembered it. I turned my head to look at the direction of the laugh, another soft wind breezed by and my blonde bangs shifted with it slightly blocking my view. I could make out a female entering the pool area. I was quick to move the astray hair out of my eyes. With a better view I saw this slender girl, light brown curly waist long hair. Her hips swayed with each step. She was new. I knew that without doubt.

She was being followed closely by Camille. "Holy crap!" I heard from the side. James was pulling out a chair and taking a seat beside me. His eyes locked on the girl. "New girl…" he said.

I looked back at the girl. "She's really pretty," I agreed.

"Pretty?" James repeated. Pretty was not enough to describe her.

"She's fucking hot," James corrected. I shook my head laughing.

"So what are you going to do?" I asked. In all honesty I didn't want him to do anything. She had grabbed my attention just like she had James and something inside me…moved. James looked at me and shrugged his shoulders.

"Nothing…"

My heart let up because partly I wasn't expecting this, but now I knew I could try for her.

"I'm going to let her come to me," he said.

That I was expecting. I pressed my lips together not showing any sign of disheartenment and just forced out a chuckled.

"How are you going to do that?" I asked curiously, though a part of me really didn't want to hear it.

"Easy. I'm going to walk by her," James said. It sounded completely stupid but then I remembered who I was talking to. He could simply smile at a girl and the girl would melt. I guess the girl was worth the walk by and the half nod. I laughed to myself. James looked at me with a brow raised.

"What?" James asked.

"Nothing," I replied and sipped my drink. I brought my attention back to the girl whose hair danced in the wind. Then I saw Camille look at James and I. The girl looked as well and Camille motioned for her to follow her.

"Shit, so much for the walk by," James said. He seemed a little annoyed by this.

"Hey guys!" she shouted cheerfully. "This is Kristy. She's new and I thought I'd introduce her to the 4 guys that make this place…nuts," she said.

Kristy laughed again. It felt like music to my ears. I found myself smiling because of it.

"The blonde one is Kendall. And that is James." Camille said. Kristy's eyes fell on me, and I could make out the bright blue color that they were. My heart raced. Her eyes flitted to my shirt and she pointed. "The Beatles rock," she said. I glanced down at my shirt then back up to her.

"We're big fans. We just covered several of their songs. We're the band "Big Time Rush," James stated. Kristy looked a little taken off when James spoke. She gave him a nod. Awkward. For some reason…

"That's cool," she said to me as if I had been the one to state it. "I'm hoping to start a singing career here, as well.

"I could give you a few pointers," I said. It left my lips without me even thinking.

"I'm sure you could," I heard James mumble.

"Great," Kristy said.

"Guys! Guys! Guys!" Logan had appeared from behind Kristy. He did a double take from me to her and then when he finally registered what James and I had he smiled. "Well hell-o new girl."

Kristy smiled and went slightly red. "Logan-" he said taking her hand and kissing it.

"Logan taken," Camille said.

Logan looked at her incredulously. "You don't know my last name? It's Mitchel," he said to Kristy. Camille rolled her eyes.

"Party tonight?" Logan suggested.

"We have an ass load of school work to catch up on," James said. It was true. After being gone for a long period of time they had accumulated quite a lot of school work.

"A party sounds fun," Kristy said. She looked at me again. Something in her eyes screamed for me to agree.

"We each have 2 term papers to write and are due in three days," James said. I don't know why he was being so insistent on doing work. He never cared for it anyway. It was always one of us who did it anyway. But I wasn't dumb. I knew what was irking the hell out of him – the lack of attention he was getting from Kristi. This was never the case when it came to James. So this was new and nothing James was a big fan of. It was amusing to me and a bit interesting.

"Cool story, James" Logan said.

"I don't think we should – "

"LET'S PLAY ALL THE VIDEO GAMES! WATCH ALL THE MOVIES! SLEEP ALL THE TIME! DAMN ALL THE THINGS!" Carlos shouted.

I shook my head laughing to myself. Then Logan slammed a book down. "200 pages to read?"

"Check"

"eight fourteen page long term papers" put those down on top of the book.

"Check"

"Finished as fuck?" Logan looked at Carlos.

"Check!" Carlos said but then something dawned on him and he gasped. "We did a semester worth of homework in 12 hours!"

"I could probably cure cancer!" Logan said just as mystified as Carlos. They both then broke into laugh.

"Naaaahhhh," they said simultaneously.

Everyone was laughing now and even a smile cracked on James lips. "Alright!" he gave in. Kendall figured they just helped him out of his short bad mood. Kristy clapped her hands together. "Fun!" she said.

"We should go shopping," Camille said to her.

"Even more fun!" she said. "Wait, I need to pick up my guitar from the shop. It just game in," she said.

"You play guitar?"

"An Old Gretsch," She said proudly.

"No way?" I said half shocked, half turned on. I think I like this girl more and more every second.

"Kendall!" I looked around and then from behind his group of friends Lucy was approaching. She was carrying a heavy purse and when she got to the table she heaved it on to it. It gave a slight rock.

"Necessary?" James asked pointing at him. Lucy smiled.

"Hi James…" she said avoiding his comment. She looked at me and sighed. "I need help moving something things around in the apartment, and…" she looked at my friends. "You're the only one I feel won't stare at me the whole time," she said.

"Why are you moving things around?" I asked.

"For the party," Logan said.

"Of course," I said. I looked at her pleading eyes and sighed. "Sure. No problem."

Lucy smiled brightly. "How much do I love you?" she asked picking up her bag and fastening it over her shoulder.

"Just helping you move things around…not a big deal…" I said feeling slightly awkward. Kristy watched me curiously. This was not looking good on my part. Lucy and I are friends but this was making it look like there could be more. I didn't want Kristy to think that at all. Probably doesn't matter. She's probably already moving on to James. Lucy laughed and grabbed my hand and pulled me out of my chair. "Hold on," I said taking it back pausing next to Kristy. "Text me when you're back so that I can look at your guitar," I said.

"I will," she said and I was being pulled into a walk…

How cute. I felt completely out of place and didn't know what to say or do. So I smoothed my brown soft hair to the side. As if it could be pushed in anymore. Then Carlos reached down and grabbed what appeared to be Kristy's purse. It was pink just like her cotton capris and the pink eye shadow that was colored and shaped perfectly on her eyes. Kristy let him have it and watched him.

"How does one hold these things?" Carlos said observing the purse with its long strap. "Like this?" he asked just gripping the handle in his right hand by his side. "Nah. That's not right. Over the arm?" and he did that. "No doesn't feel right…maybe the other shoulder?" he then proceeded to put it on his head. "Where the hell do I put this?" Kristy pressed a hand to her forehead and laughed. "I kid," he said and handed it back.

"I take it you're the funny one?" she asked.

"Oh yeah…" he said. "I'm chalk full of them. Knock, knock," Carlos said.

"Really?" Logan asked skeptically.

"Who's there?" Kristy asked playing alone.

"you know." Carlos said.

"You know who?"

Carlos laughed. Kristy's face lit up. "I know what you did there," Kristy said.

"LONG LIVE HARRY POTTER!" Carlos shouted thrusting his fist into the air.

"Dude let's go to the supermarket to get some food and all that good stuff for tonight!" Logan directed to Carlos.

"Right!" Carlos said.

"Wanna come?" Logan asked me. I really didn't want to. I honestly wanted to be left alone. So I answered with a No.

"You sure,"

"Positive,"

"How positive?" Carlos questioned.

"Like HIV Positive?" Logan asked.

My eyes grew wide. Seriously? I saw Kristy mouth wow and then look away as if acting like she didn't hear what he just said.

"Yes…like…HIV…Positive," anything to make them go away. And just like that they jogged off and vanished into the Palmwoods.

Suddenly, a sound of a phone vibrating came from inside Camille's closet and she was quick to answer it. "Shoot…" she said reading the text she had just received. "Hey um…you mind just hanging around for an hour?" she asked Kristy. Camille looked at me. "Something just came up. Can't believe I forgot," she turned back to Kristy. "I'll be right back. Promise," I then saw her look at me from the corner of my eyes and she smiled. "I'm sure Jaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaames here would love to keep you company," She said.

"Not really," James said. Kristy didn't look too happy with the idea either.

"Oh come on!" Camille said and pulled out a chair from across from me and pulled Kristy to sit in it. Kristy dropped her purse on the table and huffed. "Have fun and be nice," she said and rushed off.

Fuck. I sighed to myself and began to look up at the sky. I did not know what to do or say…again.

"So…" I said not able to withstand the awkward silence anymore. What did it matter anyway if I talked. If I made it worse it didn't matter. If I was able to get us on smooth ground, still didn't matter. She obviously had her eyes set on Kendall. I'll stick to small talk since it would avoid any disagreement. "Do you like video games?" I asked when her eyes found mine and her attention was mine.

"They're all right. But I found that I'm so much better at playing them drunk than sober," she divulged.

"Come again?" I asked stifling a laugh. Did she really just say that?

She laughed. "Yeah…I got drunk once…long story. Anyway, I ended up playing "Call of Duty," and I don't know how I did it but I rose like 80 spots on the board…wish I could remember…" she said which sounded like she was talking to herself more than to me. I laughed though. It was funny.

"While we were on tour the guys and I went out to a club. We had an amazing show and decided to go out once we were done. So we headed to a 21+ club. We were all 18 but for some reason they let us in and drink. The song "Shots" came on by Lil John and LMFAO on and it really got us into the mood. We had a good time. Didn't get totally wasted or anything. When we came back to the hotel to crash I decided to clean up. And you know I was still feeling so good, and that song was stuck in my head that when I opened the mouth wash and poured some into the cap I threw it back and swallowed," I said. She started laughing.

"Oh no!" she laughed.

"I seriously thought it was the end. I was going to die because of a song," I said. We laughed together. "I wasn't the only one that was going to die that day. When Kendall's mom said "I hope you have a good reason for coming back at 7am" he said "yea…" and she waited and he looked at us then back at her and said "Breakfast…" it was so bad. She was pissed." I said.

To my surprise things were going pretty smoothly. I was actually enjoying her company. Then from the other side of the pool area the heavy short stake red head came running. Closely followed was his mother. She looked pissed as she chased her son. The mother screamed "You better get over here right now!" Then in the burst of either confidence or stupidity the kid says "Suck my dick!" dear god help us all. Run kid run! The shit storms coming! Never in a million years could I have imagined her saying what she so angrily shouted at her son "Oh it's on now you little scrawny spitfuck," When she stopped out of breath she saw us sitting there just watching her. "Just because I have red hair doesn't make me a devil!" she said. I never wanted to laugh so hard in my life. Kristy looked slightly petrified and just nodded. The mother continued with her chase.

"Must be nice to have friends like Kendall, Logan and…" She said. I then busted out laughing. Kristy lowered her head trying hard to not laugh.

"Carlos…" I said bringing us back to what she had said after several seconds of laughing.

"The funny one," she said smiling to herself. "Are they all single…or…" she waited for me to answers watching me. I knew what she was really asking though. I'm not that stupid. "Was Kendall single?"

"Kendall is free to date whomever he likes," I said. She had gone a bit red. "Lucy might get there before you though…" I said without really thinking. I watched her bite she lip a little saddened now. I felt a little bad now.

"But hey, who'd be dumb enough to choose a girl like Lucy over a girl like you?" I said trying to cheer her up.

She smiled faintly. "That's very sweet of you but…if you're going on looks then yes you're right, but you guys don't really know me to be able to truly mean that,"

It sounded a little conceded for her to say and it reminded me of me and how it would be something I would say. It was something we had in common.

"You and Kendall have some things in common. That's something that makes the statement a little truer," I said. She eyed me for a minute.

"What I asked?"

"If I'm not mistaken I could have sworn you seemed a little jealous that I was talking to Kendall and not you," there she goes with being conceded I thought to myself. But I was true. She was good. But I wasn't going to let her have the satisfaction of knowing that. I shrugged my shoulders and said casually "didn't bother me,"

She laughed. "I'm sure,"

"Does it even matter?" I asked.

"Well no-" she said going to grab her purse off the table and then it fell to the floor. It was an instant reaction and we both bent over to the side to pick it up. I knew it seemed a little clichéd but when our hands touched and we looked up at one another a spark ignited. She was the one to sit up fast and shoot to her feet. She stepped away from the table. Talk about awkward. I got to my feet as well. She cleared her throat as she pulled the purse over her arm. When she took a step forward the purse she stubbed her foot and went falling forward. I caught her holding her. Again she was inches from my face.

"Looks like the universe is trying to tell us something," I said.

"Never wear flip flops?" she assumed clumsily. She gave a small nervous chuckle. I set her up right and she flattened out her shirt.

From that point on it was weird. I could tell that she wanted nothing more than Camille to return. And when she did, Kristy couldn't have left any faster or had been any more relived. I made her nervous. This was a good thing. This meant I had a shot. It was also a bad thing because Kendall was interested in her as well and let's face it, once they're alone later on checking out her guitar it will all be over. It kind of sucked but she was just a girl. Not worth losing a friend over that's for sure.

When Kristy disappeared into the hotel Camille turned to me. "Sooooo?" she asked with a mischievous smile.

"So?" I repeated furrowing my eye brows. Camille rose both of hers waiting for me to say whatever the hell she was waiting for me to say. "What?" I asked. She smacked a hand to her forehead.

"Did it go that bad?" she asked.

"What?" I thought for a second. "You mean with Kristy?" Camille nodded. "It went…fine I guess?"

"Really?" she asked.

"Well. I guess…why?" I asked. Still unsure. I was seriously waiting for her to slap me. It felt like it was something she was itching to do due to my uncertainty.

"I saw how Kendall was looking at her. Not a good thing." She said.

Now I was really confused. "What are you talking about?" I asked blinking a few times. Camille looked around for listening ears then looked back at me.

"You know…" she said.

"No…no I don't believe I do,"

"Didn't Logan tell you?" she asked me.

"Tell me what…"

"Seriously and your 4 are best friends?" She shook her head as if trying to shake off the aggravation.

"Jo is returning tonight," she said.

I jumped to my feet. "Say what?" I asked listening more carefully this time. Camille moved in closer.

"The party half for her, and half for Kendall! Surprise all around! Isn't it awesome? I needed you to use your charms on Kristy to make sure she'd forget all about Kendall and get to know you…" she then brought her right hand to my arm and gave my upper muscle a squeeze. I was kind of creeped out yet flattered. She shook her head again coming back down from thought. "I was positive if anyone could do it, it would be you."

"Plan failed," I said.

"God…okay. New plan. We're going to go shopping and you're coming! That way you can get to know her a bit more,"

"That probably isn't a good idea…" I said and started to walk away. I wasn't getting into this. Fack that.

"I know you like her!" I managed to get several feet of distance from Camille when she shouted. "I can sense the way Kristy makes you feel!" she said. I was quick to go back to her side not wanting anyone to hear her. Especially if Kendall ends up coming back.

"Camille don't-"

"Look Jo is coming back. Once she's here obviously she and Kendall are going to go back out. They love each other…" I began to shake my head. This was all nuts. "Please. You could tell how much he liked her. It doesn't take a genius. If they're alone later on then my best friend is going to be crying her eyes out all night," Camille said. But that wasn't enough to get me to agree. Jo would get over it. And the girl couldn't come back thinking that Kendall would be standing around waiting. And like Camille said, it only took practically a look for Kendall to fall for the girl. If that was all then there was no stopping them from being together. It wouldn't matter what they did. They'd eventually find their ways to one another. "and…with Kristy hurt by Kendall and Jo, she's going to need a shoulder to cry on…" she said trying to seduce me with the idea. It worked. If there was anything I wanted from Kristy was to just touch her. Even if it was for only one night. I swallowed hard. Camille kept that stupid smile on her face. I knew she knew she had me and her smile grew wider.

"Where are we going shopping?"

"Does it matter? It's bikini shopping," she said.

No. No it does not matter.