.:Chapter Two –Going Through The Motions:.
"Guys, you're late!" Kelly Wainright stated as soon as she caught sight of the guys walking down the poster lined hallways towards Gustavo's Rocque's office. "You were supposed to be here at 12:00 and it's…" she looked at her watch, her dark shoulders slumping as she relaxed. "12:01." She lifted her head and flashed her pearly whites. "Sorry about that."
"What's the matter Kelly?" Logan asked as he raised an eyebrow.
He had never seen Gustavo's assistant so stressed out before, not even when they were very close t not having their first concert because (one of) Gustavo's rivals, Hawk, had tried to steal the guys away. But now, here she was, nearly biting her nails as if they were coated in sugar and looking at her watch as if she had a facial tick. And if that were the case, he wouldn't have been surprised, as Logan and his friends had caused Kelly nothing but stress ever since they moved to Los Angeles.
"What's the matter?" She replied, blinking slowly. "What's the matter?" Her pleasant features then morphed into one of someone who had just woken up and hadn't had their coffee yet. She gritted her teeth and tightened the grip on her PalmPilot, enough so that the boys could hear tiny cracking sounds emitting from the poor electronic device.
"Incoming!" Carlos cried and jammed his helmet onto his head before slamming his hands over his hears. Beside him, Kendall and James moved closer to Carlos, squeezing their eyes shut as they waited for the outburst.
Logan, on the other hand, let out a squeak as Kelly tossed her PalmPilot to the floor and lunged forward, grabbing onto his shoulders tightly. He let out another squeak as she started to dig her fingernails into him, while putting her face close to his. Normally if a woman Kelly's age, probably about 27 if he had to guess, got that close to Logan's face he would be turned on. But now that she looked like she was going to murder him, he was definitely not enjoying it. The look on her face, the look of pure rage and stress, and Logan knew that he never wanted to bug her ever again.
Huh, I guess this is what staring death is the face is all about Logan randomly thought to himself as his knees started to shake.
"What's the matter?" Her voice was deathly quiet. "You have a concert in 7 hours." She reminded him, slowly moving her hands up to his neck. "You have to work on your vocals, finalize rehearsing, get down to the staples center to do a sound check, do a meet and greet with the fans that have paid for VIP, make sure your clothes have arrived safely and fit right from last week, make sure you know the blocking for the pyrotechnics, make sure the headmics you're using for the first time works, eat dinner, and find some time to take a nap throughout that whole schedule." She was full on starting to choke Logan. "Now do you want to ask me, what's the matter?"
"Help, please!" Logan managed to cry as he tried to pull Kelly's hands off of his neck.
"Kelly, Kelly, let go," James hurried over to the stressed out woman and grabbed her around the waist, eventually holding upright as he pulled her. Kendall and Carlos were holding onto Logan, pulling him in the opposite direction. "Kelly, release!"
I'm going to die! Logan's thoughts raced as he pulled on Kelly's hands. I thought that all of the stupid stunts that Carlos had put me through, I never thought that it would be Kelly that kills me.
The guys' shouting mixed in with Kelly's growling got so loud that it easily drowned out the loud humming of the refrigerator in the break room only a few doors down.
"Uh, what are you doing?"
Kelly looked up and suddenly let go of Logan's neck, causing James to go flying back one way and Kendall, Logan, and Carlos flying back in the opposite direction. The five of them hit the ground hard, groaning in pain.
I know I always thought that I needed new friends…but now I think I need a new co-worker. Logan thought as he sucked n large mouthfuls of air, the edges of his vision already turning back to its normal color. Either that or I'll just quit the band and become a doctor, whichever comes first. Logan rolled onto his stomach and pushed himself up into a sitting position and looked at the Jacksons and Ronan, as they looked back at him and his friends with an odd expression. Jackson-McGuires he quickly reminded himself. I have to remember that. "Hey guys," he greeted with a wave. "What's up?"
"I could ask you guys the same thing," Ronan stated as he tilted his head to the side, watching as Kelly, James, Kendall, and Carlos jumped to their feet, brushing off their clothes. "Because just a second ago, for you guys, it was the ceiling." Behind him, Sydney rolled his eyes at Ronan's attempt at a lame joke.
Logan smiled over at him and opened his mouth to reply, but Kelly beat him to it.
"Oh I was just making sure that the guys knew everything that they have to do today to get ready for their show tonight," Kelly stated and then grimaced again. "You know?" She prompted. "The one that's in 7 hours?"
"Yeah, I think we're all aware that it's in 7 hours," Ronan replied, nodding slowly.
"Especially since it's the guys' first headlining tour." Riley added, sliding her hands into the back pockets of her black jeans.
"Why'd you have to say it like that?" Kendall asked, looking slightly annoyed, flicking his fringe from his face. Riley just looked at him and raised an eyebrow.
"Uh, because it's true," She pulled a clump of mascara from her eyelashes. "It's nothing to be ashamed of," her lips curled into a devilish smirk. "Everyone has to start somewhere."
"Riley," Ronan turned his green eyes to her and looked at her hard. "Cool it." Riley fell silent.
Logan twisted his mouth to the side as he watched the exchange. They had only been adopted about three months ago, but it was obvious that she showed a lot more respect towards Ronan than she did her former father, Robert Jackson. He remembered when Robert was around, Riley and her brothers and sister would dig and dig at him, not listening to anything that he had to say, but would do whatever Ronan asked the first time. At the time, Logan hadn't thought anything of it, he just thought that they weren't really that close to him because they were adopted and didn't really bond with him, but it wasn't until almost a year later that he and his friends found out the truth. They were being abused, and to give them credit, they hid it very well. Even Logan felt stupid when he finally found out the truth, especially since he should have figured it out very quickly.
"Anyway," Ronan turned to Kelly and gave an easy-going smile. "That's why we're here, Gustavo called us in to help you guys earlier than planned, so we pushed back the video conference call that we had set up with Blazing Phoenix back in Sydney to come in."
"Oh," Logan licked his lips, suddenly feeling uncomfortable. "You didn't have to do that, we know that you guys have your own stuff to work on." He didn't know why, but he never liked the idea of them giving up their own time to work on their music to help them. They did it out of their own time and on their own free will and he hated that Gustavo, Kelly, and Big Time Rush never seemed to give them anything in return. Not that they really seem to care.
"It's no problem at all," Patrick stated as he raised his hands, palms out. He flashed a lop-sided smile. "We were going to have to come in and help you guys anyway," he then raised a finger. "Don't forget that this is your guys' 'dress rehearsal'," beside him Noah did finger quotes around the words. "For your headlining tour while we're, just the lonely opening act."
"Not lonely," Carlos stated and moved over to the younger boy, throwing an arm around his shoulders and putting him in a headlock. "We'll be there too."
"Yeah, still not sure if that's a good thing," Rhuben commented, pulling her long hair from her ponytail and retying it. Ronan shot her a look and she just shrugged.
Logan made a face and turned, only to notice Kelly, Kendall, James, and Carlos each shot him a look. Despite feeling slightly confused at hers and Riley's attitude towards him, he was also annoyed. He had known Riley and Rhuben since they were 8, back in Texas, and they were best friends, but that didn't mean that he knew absolutely everything that was going on with them. It bugged him how just because he was their best friend…the others thought that he would know exactly what was going on with them at every second of every day.
Patrick made a whimpering sound as he pushed against Carlos' side and Kelly noticed it quickly. "Carlos, let go!" She stated, her tense cry causing him to release the younger boy quickly.
"Sorry," Carlos frowned, his brown eyes suddenly losing their excited shine. "I forgot."
"No worries," Patrick mustered up a smile, but it was significantly less chipper than it had just been.
There was a short silence and Ronan cleared his throat, loosening his tie as he did so. That was something that Logan really admired about Ronan McGuire, even though he was 35, he still had an air of a younger man; being very laid back and choosing to dress in a dressy shirt, tie, and jeans. Plus, unlike Gustavo, he didn't yell and scream at the DarkElements and that was something that he was somewhat jealous about. But over the past year, at least since he had met him, Gustavo had actually toned down his yelling and being rude to him and his friends, and things were getting better.
"Where is Gustavo anyway?" James spoke up, he looked somewhat offended. "I cut out my blow drying and styling time just to get here and now he's not even here to freak out about us being here on time for once!" He made a loud huffing sound, causing the Jackson-McGuires to laugh a little.
"Well, if Gustavo isn't here yet, I'm sure it's for a good-"
"SORRY I'M LATE DOGS!" Gustavo Rocque came storming down the hall, if it was possible, looking even angrier than he ever had before. "There was A LOT of traffic on the way here today! There was some car accident or something, but WHO CARES? We got a lot of work to do and we need to get started RIGHT NOW!" He turned and saw Ronan and the Jacksons standing next to him. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?"
They all jumped and Ronan looked at Gustavo as he slowly reached a hand up and wiggled it in his ear. "Nice to see you, too, Gustavo." He stated sarcastically and then looked perturbed. "You asked for us to come in early today…remember?"
"I don't remember that." Gustavo stated, shaking his head once.
"How can you not remember?" Sydney suddenly spoke up; placing his hands on his hips and tilting his head back all the way so he was looking at up him. He paused and took two large steps back. "In the middle of the night, you called and started screaming through the phone," he looked over at Big Time Rush. "And I mean, through the phone saying that you needed us over here early." He then puckered his bottom lip, his eyes welling up in tears. "And out of the bottom of our hearts we come here and try to help you guys. And now you're acting like you don't even-"
"Cut the theatrics Syd," Noah grabbed the back of his little brother's shirt and pulled him backwards away from Gustavo. "I don't think he's buying it."
Sydney's tears immediately stopped and he wiped them off of his face with the sides of his arms. "It was worth a try," he shrugged.
"We only have seven hours to get ready for this concert," Gustavo declared loudly, getting right to the point. "And in that seven hours we have a lot that we need to get done! " He turned and pointed at Riley. "So what I need first is I need to make sure that their clothes still fit and that they get to the venue in time!"
Because the DarkElements were helping Big Time Rush with their music as well as working on their own, Gustavo had somewhat 'hired' them to do different jobs for BTR; Riley got their wardrobe together, Rhuben worked on their choreography, Patrick and Noah worked on their harmonies, and Sydney helped Gustavo with the music producing.
"You think I would let anyone near those clothes?" She snorted. "Fat chance, especially since these morons ruined them last time!" She added with a glare over to Big Time Rush.
They couldn't help but smile. Of course they had been playing lobby hockey when they were supposed to be on their way to Rocque Records. And when they realized how late they were, of course they freaked out and tried to get there as fast as they could. So when they came charging into Rocque Records at high speed on their skates, they just so happened to crash into Riley, who had been wheeling a cart filled with their clothes to the dance studio for a dress rehearsal, and knocked her over; ruining all of the clothes she had specifically chosen for each of them.
She had been mad at them for weeks; not that it made any difference, she could get mad at just about anything.
"And I need you," he pointed to Rhuben. "To go over the setlist with these guys, since you don't need to go over their dancing until we get to the Staples Center."
"Got it," Rhuben agreed.
"And you three…" the turned to Patrick, Noah, and Sydney and opened his mouth to say something but was cut off by the sound of his office phone ringing off the hook as well as Kelly's PalmPilot starting to ring incessantly. "DO WHATEVER, I HAVE TOO MUCH STUFF TO DO!"
"Gustavo, hold up a second," Rhuben grabbed his attention. She pulled the pieces of hair that was framing her face out of her eyes, behind her ears. "You said there was a lot of traffic on the way here…what happened? Did it say on the news?"
"What?" Gustavo snapped. "I don't know, someone in a car accident or something, who cares?" He then looked at Kelly and Ronan. "Come on!" He barked and stormed over to his office.
Rhuben frowned and exchanged glances with her siblings. I wonder what that was about. Logan wondered, slowly drifting off. I mean, it's not like people can't just look at each other…well, I guess they can…but that'd be kind of weird…
"Hello?" Logan blinked and jerked back when he saw that Patrick was leaning close to his face, looking at him oddly. "What? Did your brain spring a leak or something?"
"No," Logan gave a smile. "Just zoned out a little bit."
"Hm, can I guess?" the corners of Riley's lips twitched. "You were trying to decide whether or not you have time to finish next week's homework before you go to the Staples Center." She said. "But as usually, you were indecisive."
"Ouch Landy," Logan replied shortly, not taking any offense. "Any faster and I would think that you actually meant that."
"Is something wrong?" Kendall asked, tilting his head to the side, his eyes darting back and forth between the Jacksons. His eyes rested on Riley and he mainly asked her the question.
"Do you think something's wrong, Eyebrows?" Riley replied, raising an eyebrow. Kendall raised one in reply, mentally wondering whether or not it was worth it to even answer her question. After a few minutes of thinking, he pursed his lips and then shook his head, admitting defeat. "That's what I thought," Riley stated and then sighed heavily. "And now I've got a date with some clothes." With that, she spun on her heel and headed towards the wardrobe closet, pulling her phone from her pocket as she went.
"Guys. Set list. Now." Rhuben ordered as she started to shove their way into an empty office. She grabbed a sheet of paper and a pen and slapped it down on the desk.
"But that's so boring," Carlos stated.
"And the sooner you make out a set list, the sooner you can be unbored," Rhuben pointed out.
James walked over and placed a hand on her shoulder, giving her a charming smile. "Beautiful, I wish you would relax. You're giving me a headache just by looking at you."
"Oh how could she be so thoughtless?" Noah commented, causing the older teen boys to strain to hear him. "She's just having a mental breakdown over here, but your measly little headache is obviously more important in the grand scheme of things."
"I'm so glad you agree," came James' reply. He laughed as Rhuben lightly hit him on the arm.
"Guys—what about that set list?" Logan asked as he took the sheet of paper and tapped a pen against it, the sound of the plastic hitting the wood underneath making a light tapping sound.
"What the fuck about it?" Kendall asked, the gravity of the situation suddenly starting to get to him. Normally he didn't get really nervous about shows, but it was staring to hit him. Headlining tour, that meant that they were getting really big.
"Don't you think we should at least attempt to make one out?" Logan asked. Wait a minute, we already have a set list, why are we making another one? He voiced his thoughts to the Jacksons. Sydney decided to answer.
"This is just in case you want to change around the ones you have already chosen," he explained. "You have to think of how the pyros are going to go off and if you want to give yourself breaks with the slower songs in between since this is a longer set."
"Oh," Logan nodded once. "So, guys, don't you tihnk we should at least attempt to make one out?" He repeated his earlier question.
"Why would we want to do that?" Carlos snorted.
"Oh gee, I don't know," Logan returned, shooting Carlos an annoyed look. "Possibly because we're about to play the biggest crowd we've ever played for?" He shrugged. "Just a random thought, though."
"No need to get sarcastic, Logie," Patrick stated, finally smiling again. "We get that you're nervous." Rhuben, Noah, and Sydney nodded in agreement. "Especially since this is your first headlining tour across the US, and there'll be probably 20,000 more fans here than you ever had, so if you mess up that wouldn't be good. Then there's the fact that you have to go 2 and a half hours straight through singing and dancing, instead of the usual 1 hour or so that you usually have. Then there's the possible DVDs-"
"You're not helping Pat," Noah stated, slapping a hand over his twin brother's mouth.
"Don't forget that we're opening for you guys, each step of the way," Sydney added. "So we'll be there to help you out when you need it."
"Thanks," Logan said with a genuine sigh of relief. "You don't know how much that means to us."
"Hi, what's your name?" Logan greeted the teenage red-head in front of him. He took a good look at her and beamed when he saw her homemade Big Time Rush t-shirt. "Hey, I like your shirt! How long did it take for you to make that?"
"Oh," the girl blushed and looked down at her shirt, stretching it out to look at it, as if she didn't know what her shirt looked like. "It only took a couple of hours," She reached up and pulled her hair behind her ears. "And it was really fun to do." She looked up at Logan and he gave an encouraging smile, causing her to blush even harder. "Oh, I forgot, my name is Angie!"
"Angie," Logan repeated. "That's a nice name," he bent over and started to scribble his name on the CD in front of him. He kicked James in the leg as he started to snicker.
Logan couldn't blame him though. That was probably the fifteenth time that he had said that in the past hour, but it was hard. How many different things could you say to make each and every one of your fans feel really special? There was only so many times you can say 'glad you're a fan', 'I like your shirt', 'Cute name', 'What's your favorite song off the album?' and 'Thank You' before you went completely nuts.
"Thank you," The girl giggled a little bit. "You know, you're my favorite of the band,"
Logan smiled as James let out a humph and whipped his compact mirror out of his pocket and started to study his face, pulling his hair this way and that. Even Kendall and Carlos, who were on the other side of James, laughed at the girl's comment.
"I am?" Logan made sure that he was over the top about it, just to annoy James even further. "That is so awesome! Thank you so much!"
"You're welcome," Angie beamed in reply, her eyes lighting up at the comment. Logan felt a little bad, he hated it whenever fans got overly excited, thinking that he was giving them extra attention, when he was just trying to be nice to them all. In some ways, it was a lose-lose situation for them all. "Um," she suddenly looked very shy, looking at her feet. "Can I have…a…um, a kiss?"
"Oh," Logan took the time to blush. "We're not allowed to do that, but I can give you a hug." He stood up and opened his arms, allowing Angie to lean over the table and give him a hug. He beamed when she pulled away. "How was that?"
"Great," Angie replied. "Thanks so much."
"Hey Logie!" James grabbed the back of Logan's shirt and pulled him down onto the seat. "There are some other people in line and we have to get finished soon!"
Logan smiled impishly towards James before turning to Angie and giving her a wave and turning to the next person in line. He blinked in shock for a moment when a teenage boy lightly tossed a BTR CD onto the table. He didn't mean to be surprised, but they didn't have a lot of male fans and because he and his friends had been called gay numerous times, not many male rushers actually did admit that they were fans.
"Hey dude," Logan greeted the brown haired, light green eyed boy. "How's it going?"
"Not bad," the guy replied, shoving his hands into his leather jacket pockets. He shifted his feet and looked around the arena. "How's it going with you?"
Logan noticed he had a slight accent. "Just getting ready for the show, you know, meeting fans," He stated and then scribbled his name on the CD. "What's your name?"
"Austen," He replied after a moment. "The name's Austen." He cleared his throat. "So, I have a random question, do you guys have bodyguards or anything?" Logan must have given an odd look because he continued swiftly. "I mean, for those weird fans that you may have around." He gave a wry smile. "I'm sure you have them at every show."
"You don't know the half of it," Kendall remarked as he finished with Angie and sent her off with a smile. "There was this one girl that stowed away in one of our vans once," he gave a laugh. "That was a crazy experience." He leaned forward and looked over at James. "Especially when she wouldn't let you go."
"Yeah, I've never seen him get so upset over his hair before," Carlos added.
James pulled his compact out again, and looked at his hair. "That was a scary time, my friends; I won't let it happen again."
"No, we don't really have bodyguards," Logan answered the question. "We haven't had that many crazy fans come along, sure there's security at our shows, but with Gustavo around, most people are too scared to come near us." He pushed the CD over to James.
"Yeah," Austen spoke up. "But he can't be around all the time." He remarked, his eyes shifting over the four friends.
"Yeah," Carlos replied, seemingly oblivious to the uneasiness that Logan, Kendall, and James were starting to project. "Because he's usually around trying to get some food to eat."
"A guy that big, that's not surprising," Austen took his CD from Kendall when the blonde finished with it. "Have a good show guys." He gave a nod and walked away from the table.
"Great show, boys."
"Amazing job tonight."
"Go get some rest, you deserve it."
Logan nodded and gave short waves of thanks to the Staples Center workers as he, James, Kendall, and Carlos made their way to the back of the Staples Center to get into their van and drive back to the Palm Woods. The next day they were going over to San Diego and their concert tour around the US was officially going to start. But they still had a lot of packing to do as well as work to get from Miss. Collins before they went. Plus, they had to say goodbye to their friends, he knew that Camille would never forgive him if he left without saying goodbye. But he had pointed her and the other 'future famous' out during the show and he hoped they really enjoyed it.
"I just want to get back to the PalmWoods so I can lie down and sleep for a year," Kendall groaned as he stretched, yawning loudly.
"Don't worry about that," James stated, clapping him on the shoulder. "Even if you slept for a decade, you wouldn't be as good looking as me."
Kendall smirked and shoved James on the arm hard enough to send him into the wall of the halfway. Kendall and Carlos burst out into loud laughter and Logan just laughed quietly, too tired to even feel like he was walking straight. He jumped when all of a sudden he heard loud screaming and straightened up, waving to the crowd of fans that had gathered around with signs, screaming towards the four guys. They all waved back to the crowd, trying not to be blinded by the flashing lights of the cameras as they got into the van that had brought them to the venue in the first place.
As soon as they had pulled away from the Staples Center, Kendall, James, and Carlos were knocked out. Unfortunately, there was still a little bit of adrenaline coursing through his veins and he couldn't sleep yet, so he just opted to look out the window. Although exhausted, he was proud. They had just played a packed arena of 50,000 fans that were all there for him and his friends. If he had known that he would be this successful a year ago, he wouldn't have even thought about becoming a doctor. Either that or he would have laughed long and hard at the person that told him he would be selling out the Staples Center.
Logan looked up at the power lines that whizzed by, his eyelids drooping.
As they pulled up to a red light, Logan leaned out the window, painfully pressing his nose up against it as he tilted his head, trying to see what had caught his eye.
In the streetlight he looked up at a power line; there were nine crows sitting there, but what caught his attention was that when they were flying to land on the power line, one of the smaller birds was having trouble; its right wing seemed injured.
The limo pulled started forward as the light turned green and Logan turned away from the window, closing his eyes and going to sleep.
A/N: Just so you know, each chapter is from a different person's point of view. I hope you guys remember that this is only a few months after Ronan adopted the Jacksons, so they're still kind of stand-offish and not very outgoing yet (that's a key point to the story). Oh and as this story is going on, I'm going back and editing chapters, so after your thoughts last chapter, I've edited it some, so you can go back and look at that again.
So keep your eyes peeled as this story goes on, in every chapter until it's revealed, there's going to be hints as to what is really going on.
I'm not sure if Jo, Camille, Stephanie, Dak, and WayneWayne are going to be in this story, if they are, they'll either be secondary characters, or just come in and out every now and then. What do you guys think? Should they be in it, because the story can work both ways; with them in it and without them in it, so your thoughts are welcome.
Oh, by the way, after re-reading my first BTR series 'WFTL I, II, and III' I was thinking of re-writing them, because there was a lot of things that didn't make sense; such as the timeline, some things I brought up but never completely went into detail with, and some things that just made no sense. When I started that series I was trying to write it in a way that was like the show, rather than writing it in the way I really wanted to. So I'm thinking of re-writing it (maybe make it one long story, or keep it split into three like I already have) and re-posting them, but leaving up the original so you guys can see the differences. What do you think?
I'll update again soon.
Cheers,
-Riles
