The silence of apartment 2J was only interrupted by the quiet breathing and sounds of Carlos snoring. That is until Logan's alarm went off. The four boys groaned as they awoke and the constant beeping became unbearable. Leave it to Logan to ruin one of their few opportunities for sleeping in.
"Turn it off already!" Kendall shouted in a groggy morning voice. Glancing at his own bedside clock, he saw it was eight. Not incredibly early, but he was still tired. Plus, it was Saturday, and their day off from rehearsing. That never happened. He had been looking forward to getting up whenever he felt like it and not having to worry about being anywhere or doing anything.
Logan finally shut his alarm off and slowly got out of bed. Kendall, and James as well, realized they mine as well get up, too. Carlos still laid there, the boy could sleep through anything. James shook him awake, though. The four of them lounged around for a bit, eating breakfast and just relaxing. When noon rolled in, Kendall spoke up.
"You guys want to go down to the pool?"
This was met with an excited response, and the members of Big Time Rush headed down to the pool area of the Palm Woods. Finding their usual four water-side chairs, they sat down, ready to just chill and hang out. They had not been counting on getting interrupted.
After getting things moved into their new room, Ari had been practicing a bit on the keyboard she had brought with her the night prior. Pleased with the development of her song, the brunette had scribbled down a few chord progressions before heading to bed. Here she was, Ariana Vitarelli, in L.A. of all places. Who would had thought that would ever happen? She was supposed to hate it here. She wasn't supposed to be happy, away from her friends and her home. But there was something in her that was excited, and she couldn't stop it, no matter how hard she might try.
Waking up early the next morning, Ari continued unpacking and getting settled in. Her mom had left early, going to several job interviews. The apartment they had wasn't the best and it needed a little work. But it was nothing that she couldn't fix. She kind of liked it, actually, since it looked lived in. And hey, what could you ask for? She could be spending twenty-four seven at her uncle's house. She'd take 3J over that any day.
After spending most of the morning in her room, she decided she had better explore the place a bit. She hadn't had much time the night prior, only getting checked in and bringing in all their things. Ari had heard there was a nice pool, and thought she would check it out. She called to her chocolate lab, Skip, to come down off the couch. She had had begged her mom to let her take Skip, and she had finally agreed. Ari wasn't sure if the Palm Woods even allowed pets… She supposed it did, since she had heard another dog. Still, she didn't want to find out any time soon.
Ari changed out of her pajamas and into one of the many summer outfits she now had. Her mother had taken the liberty of getting her a new warm weather wardrobe. She was more of a tom-boy, and didn't care for shopping much. Ari did find a few nice things in the jumble of clothes, and she put on a pair of dark jean shorts, a black tank top, and a black and white plaid shirt that she left unbuttoned. She quickly brushed through her wavy chestnut hair and left it down, slipped on a pair of flip flops, and headed out the door with Skip in tow.
She headed down to the pool, taking care not to run into the manager Mr. Bitters. He wasn't the most pleasant person in the world, to put it nicely. Stepping into the pool area, she saw a few other people were there. It was pretty nice. Ari had been so busy looking around, she hadn't been paying attention to Skip. That was, until the dog pulled the leash right out of her hands. He ran across to the other side of the room where a group of four boys, about her age, were sitting. Oh great… one of them had a smoothie. Ari mentally scolded herself. In all the hustle and bustle of moving, she'd forgotten to feed him this morning!
Chasing after the dog, it was too late and he tackled the brunette boy sitting with the smoothie, who proceeded to spill it all over himself. Skip didn't waste any time licking it off his face. Ari caught up with her dog, but one of the boys, with his back turned to her, had gotten Skip under control and was petting him.
"You're a good dog, yes you are, yes you are," he said affectionately.
"Uh, not my lucky white V-neck!" the boy with the smoothie (well, he didn't have it anymore!) said. His shirt was covered with the strawberry liquid. Looking around, she couldn't help but start laughing, and soon his friends followed suit. The look on the guy's face was priceless. He was grumbling to himself, and she thought she heard 'I'm gonna kill whoever…' It was just so stupid and silly, and she laughed harder than she had in a long time.
"Sorry, sorry," Ari said, catching her breath from laughing. "I'm really sorry about that, he just got loose."
"Oh, this is your dog?" the guy asked. He had chiseled features and long-ish brown hair. Ari looked over the rest of the group. There were three others; tall, blonde, and eyebrows over there still laughing to himself, a boy with slightly spiked dark brown hair and a nice smile, and then the guy getting slobbered on by Skip who still had his back to her.
"Yeah…" she began slowly. "Sorry about your 'lucky white V-neck'." She used air quotes around that and almost started laughing again, but didn't.
"Oh, it's no problem," he said with an insanely white smile. "I'm James." His attitude seemed to change. Something told her that if it were another boy's dog, he wouldn't be so understanding. Case in point, he took off his shirt right there! Ari just rolled her eyes and crossed her arms over her chest.
"Dude, we don't need to see that!" joked the fourth boy who finally turned his attention away from her dog. Wow, why hadn't she noticed before? He was wearing a helmet. She thought she saw someone she recognized from the studio when she was checking in the night before, and now this. One more look at his dark brown eyes, and Ari was sure it was him.
"Helmet guy?" she questioned.
"Piano girl?" Carlos asked in return. He really shouldn't focus so much on dogs… It had to be her. First the person in the lobby, then the music last night, and now this. It was too much of a coincidence not to be her.
Author's Note: Please review, even if you hate it! I don't enjoy flames, but criticism is fine, and it's a heck of a lot better than the whole lot of nothing I'm getting right now. Is this a completely stupid story? I'm not so sold on it. Please help me out by reviewing! It doesn't help one's story mind-set to be one of only like three in the archive that doesn't have a single review.
