My first Big Time Rush FanFic! When I wrote this chapter, I had only seen about five episodes. I'm addicted to it now, but I don't know the characters very well, so if you guys could help me along with that as the story goes that would be a great help. I DO NOT OWN BIG TIME RUSH

Just so you know, the first scene starts in the middle (In Medias Res means "In the middle of things" in Latin), and in the next scene, the story "rewinds" to the beginning.

Originally started: 10/23/10

Big Time Love/Hate Story

Kendall Knight sat right in the middle of a couch that seated five, staring intently at a flat screen TV. He blocked out the noise around him, which wasn't much. Carlos was surprisingly quiet. That was no surprise to Kendall, though, considering recent events. One sound he could hear was the shuffling of nervous feet, and a few short breaths, coming from James. Two habits he'd picked up, almost out of nowhere. Kendall had a feeling there was a reason behind that too, but he couldn't focus on those things.

He, like the ten others in the room, was only interested in on thing at the moment: what they were watching on TV.

Over 300 eyes were glued on Jo Taylor as well. Those 300 or so were part of the studio audience for a talk show, which had just come back from commercial break. Kendall couldn't imagine how many other people were watching at home, tuning in just to hear what the actress (who also happened to be his girlfriend) had to say.

The interviewer had forgotten all about the questions typed out on the cue cards. The next (and last) question for Jo wasn't the question on everyone's mind since the interviewer wasn't a mind reader. To everyone watching, the question seemed to come out of thin air.

"Jo, can you tell us… what's the hardest thing about being an actress?" The question caught everyone of guard, but even though the camera only focused on Jo's face for a quick second, Kendall could tell it affected her the most.

By the way her face went pale. By the way she averted her eyes.

Kendall saw that Jo was speechless. She seemed physically hurt by the question, which crushed him. Kendall looked around the room nervously. He wanted to help Jo somehow, comfort her, but he knew he wouldn't be able to, even if he was in the studio audience.

Kendall looked at his band mates and saw their confused, surprised eyes point down at the floor as their mouths formed frowns. He heard his mother and sister gasp in unison. When he turned back to the television screen, he knew why.

A single tear rolled down Jo's cheek as she answered the question in total honesty. "For me, the hardest thing about being an actress is… remembering to drop the act…"

Gustavo Rocque stopped the recording for the fifth time that Saturday afternoon, but for him it felt like the fortieth. For him, he just felt like screaming. No shock there. Anyone who knew the music producer knew he had a short fuse. On this particular day, people could hear him yelling within a 49-mile radius of Rocque Records.

"JAMES! You're not even singing the right tune!" Normally, that would never happen. Even though he was only seventeen, and was a little full of himself, James always strived for perfection. This time, he had an excuse. Subconsciously, he had been singing the same tune all day long. He couldn't help it. It was stuck in his head, but he had no one to blame for that. James never got a chance to see the girl's face, all he knew was that she had the voice of an angel.

James gave a sad nod in response to Gustavo's little rant, but no one seemed to notice. Not even Gustavo's assistant, Kelly, who was desperately trying to keep herself from going into a laughing fit. She pressed the intercom so she could talk to James. "Correct me if I'm wrong here James, but, were you singing to the tone of the Dawson's Creek theme song?" Hearing this, James watched his band mates turn to him, awaiting the answer as well, along with Gustavo.

"Yes." James answered reluctantly, fully expecting the chorus of laughter he got in response. The laughter was interrupted, however, by the sound of clicking heels approaching. The band looked up to see a girl their age standing there, behind Gustavo and Kelly.

Then she started talking, without introduction. "Hey, Ms. Wainwright." Hearing that brought a sort of Mona Lisa smile to Kelly's face. "Hey, how did everything go?" The girl gave a shrug, but smiled. "I'm in." She told her.

"See?" Kelly said. "I told you not to worry." "I guess I owe it all to you, then." Kelly shrugged that off. "Thanks for the advice." "No problem."

"Oh." The girl said, remembering something. "One more thing." She pointed right at James before she spoke again. He expected for her to ask for a date with him, or at least a picture. Instead, the girl said: "I saw Mop-top over there drop his comb outside."

"Ahh!" James bolted from the recording booth, but stopped abruptly when he reached the girl, realizing something. "Wait a second, you saw me drop it?" "Yep, got a big ol' eyeful. What's your point Drastic Plastic?"

"Drastic Plastic?" James echoed. "What does that mean?" The girl put a strand of her chestnut brown hair behind her ear before she answered. "Well, if you care so much to know than I guess you really don't have a point, now do you?" She asked him, talking at top speed.

"I do have a point." James said, feeling annoyed with this girl. A total stranger making fun of him, calling him names that didn't even make sense. His annoyance made him repeat himself, so he could really try to get his point across. That point? "I have a point."

The girl didn't seem convinced and she talked through her teeth. "Well, then, what is it?"

"You saw me and you didn't say anything?" "I had better things to do." She replied, scoffing. "Oh." James said sarcastically, looking right into her wolf hazel eyes, which were rolling. "You had better things to do, so you stole my luck comb?"

The girl laughed harshly as she took the comb out of her pocket, mumbling: "Must not be so lucky if it got stuck with you for it's owner."

James was about to thank her, but he couldn't because she shoved the comb right in his mouth. "Something's gotta shut you up." She said. Then she turned on her heel and walked out.

James pulled the comb out of his mouth, wondering why the others hadn't laughed at him again.

"Ms. Wainwright?" Kendall said, quoting the stranger. "What's up with that?" "Who's that girl?" Logan asked, voicing everyone's confusion. Carlos said nothing, but he wanted to know the answers to those questions. All eyes were on Kelly.

She sighed, but answered, right away. "Her name's Falina Florence and she asked me for advice about a audition." She was going to explain to the boys that Falina was a big fan of theirs, which is how she knew who Kelly was, but that was hard to believe by the way she talked to James. Plus, Carlos interrupted her.

"What kind of audition? What is she? A singer? An actress?"

"Falina says that's a secret, but trust me, you'll find out soon enough."

"Yeah, enough about that." Gustavo said, looking up at the boys. "One of you has work to do… now." "We're not even done with the song." James argued. "And whose fault is that?" Gustavo asked harshly. "Maybe I should make you deliver this." He held up one of their CDs, and explained: "Some rich snob wants this hand delivered, apparently she's got that kind of money."

"I don't know if I can face somebody who sounds more self-absorbed than I am." James told Gustavo, practically insulting himself. "I'll do it." Carlos offered, sounding more than happy to do so. He walked out of the recording booth and stood beside James. Gustavo tossed him the CD and he caught it between two fingers. "How did you do that?" James asked, sounding as amazed as everyone else looked. "I don't know." Carlos answered, looking at the girl's address, which was stuck to the top of the CD case.

"I can't walk there it would take me all day." "Flip it over." Kelly instructed. Carlos found $40 taped to the back of the CD. "Call yourself a cab." Gustavo ordered. With that, Carlos was gone, headed over to Rich Snob's house.

"Well, as long as we're not gonna work on the song anymore today—" "Actually we should be calling you guys back here when Carlos is done delivering that CD." Kelly accidentally interrupted James.

"Meanwhile I'm gonna go find that girl and ask her if she was dropped on her head as a baby… twice." He walked out after that. "That was mean." Kendall said, once James was gone. "He seems really mad." Logan added. "What do you think he's gonna do, plot revenge just because somebody doesn't like him?"

Logan chuckled. "That would be really immature." "James does let things go to his head." "Hey, Kendall." Kelly said over the intercom. He looked up. "Don't you have somewhere to be right now?" He didn't seem to recall that, judging by the look on his face. "Isn't a certain show being filmed right now?" That's when it hit him. "Gotta go." Kendall said. "Bye everybody."

"Bye." The three others said at once watching him run out the front door. Kelly waited a few seconds before she spoke. "So, who's hungry?" "Me." Gustavo answered right away. Logan didn't respond, but he sure looked hungry. Kelly smiled as both her and Gustavo got up from their chairs. "C'mon Logan, let's go to lunch."

20 minutes later, Carlos's cab pulled up to a mansion gate. He was speechless, seeing that it was at least three times as big as Gustavo's. The guy at the gate let him in and then happily went on his lunch break. The taxi pulled up right in front of the mansion. Carlos got out, remembering what the man at the front gate had told him: "Just take the elevator up to Maggie's floor."

Once he was inside the elevator, Carlos had a thought. Since no one else was around, he thought out loud. "How am I supposed to know which one is Maggie's floor?" He looked at the buttons on the side of the door, form bottom to top. The first one was 'B', for basement he guessed. 'KO' was the next one, after 'G' for ground. The only thing he could associate with that was 'knock out', which didn't make much sense. The next two buttons were 'R' and 'S'. Then he saw it, 'M' for Maggie, and understood why the mansion had an elevator. It could get tiring, climbing 3 flights of stairs.

Carlos pushed the 'M' button. The elevator went up only one floor before the door opened. Someone walked in, but Carlos couldn't see their face because of all the boxes they were carrying. There was plenty more room in the elevator, so she put it all down, but it took awhile. "Hey." She said. From her tone of voice, Carlos could tell three things: She was straining to carry all that stuff, she didn't want any help, and she had no idea who she was talking to, she was just being polite.

"What's up?" Carlos asked. "Oh! Not me." She answered, dropping everything before her knees gave out. "You okay?" He asked her. "Yeah." She said, turning to look at him. It took her a few seconds to notice the CD in his hand, and realize he was there to deliver it.

"And I'm guessing that's for me?" Carlos paused before he answered, to look the girl up and down. She looked like such a nice girl. Bright green eyes looking intently at him, as if she was going to listen and absorb every word he said, even though he hadn't spoken. Dirty blonde hair that framed her face. Her skin, which was a little on the tan side.

He realized that she was still waiting patiently for him to speak, and he was basically just staring at her, trying to figure out how she fell into the category of 'rich snob'. "You must be Maggie." But she couldn't be the one who made him drive across town to—

"I can't believe my parents made you come all the way over here. I'm so sorry." She interrupted his thoughts, with an explanation. "It's no problem." Carlos told Maggie, handing her the CD. When she went to take it, she noticed why the elevator door hadn't closed yet. One of the many boxes, the smallest one, was in the way.

Maggie took the CD after she moved the box out of the door's way. "Thanks." As they moved up another floor, he quickly signed an autograph. "Wow, thank you." She said, stunned. She wasn't expecting that, just like he didn't expect him to point to her phone and ask: "Does that have a camera?" Maggie nodded and put it out in front of them, smiling along with Carlos as she snapped a picture. Right when the flash went off, they heard a loud *clunck*.

Maggie yelped, since she didn't want to scream in Carlos's ear. A few of the boxes fell over, and she dropped her phone. As she slowly inched over to pick it up, Carlos asked: "We're stuck in here, arent we?" "Well, I don't want to lie to you, so… yes." She answered, inching back over towards him while mumbling. "I've lived her all my life and that's never happened."

Carlos watched Maggie's awkward little two-step. "You're not… claustrophobic, are you?" She looked at him with shifty eyes. "No, of course not." She said quickly. Then she started breathing like she was gasping for air, and she watched his eyes go wide. "Relax, I'm just messing with you." She said with a smile, but she sounded apologetic.

Carlos laughed, and then a few seconds went by without either of them saying anything. Then Carlos broke the silence. "We're going to be here for awhile, so… what do we do?" Maggie shrugged. "Oh, I don't know. I guess we just… talk." "Okay," Carlos agreed, thinking of a question. "Do you like corn dogs?"

Thanks for reading, PLEASE REVIEW! If you have any ideas for what Carlos and Maggie talk about and do while they're in the elevator, just let me know. (I have about 10 ideas of my own) If I have any factual errors (for example, I was wondering if I got James's character's age right) in this chapter just let me know. Also, I need some ideas for things to do that are "extra nice" (like calling someone up just to say hi, or getting them presents when it's not a holiday), you'll see why next chapter. Thanks, I'll update soon!