.:Chapter Three:.


"Ok guys, we have to try extra hard not to be late today." Logan said as he dropped his gym bag onto the floor of the apartment before walking over to the refrigerator.

"Logan, we're going down to the gym," Kendall pointed out, resting his elbows on the counter as he lifted a spoonful of cereal up to his mouth. "Two floors under our feet, there's no way that we can be late to that." He rolled his eyes as he took another bite of Trix.

Logan gave a half smile, as if saying 'prove it', and scanned the refrigerator for something to eat really fast. He ended up just grabbing an apple before walking over to the counter, taking a bite. "You know that I was right when I said that she was going to be mad that we were late." He pointed out.

Kendall sighed, pushing his bow always. "Logie, you've been saying that for the past three days." He shrugged. "And she seemed perfectly fine during Game Night." He pointed out.

Shortly after they started working together, Big Time Rush and the Jacksons had come up with this 'tradition' where the Jacksons would go over to apartment 2J to have dinner. Depending on whether or not they had an early dinner they watched a movie or played board games afterwards. Then Riley, Logan, and Rhuben would go to hang out and Patrick, Noah, and Sydney would sleep over. That last Friday went on as usual; they had an early dinner so they decided to play some board games. From Kendall's point of view, things were perfectly fine, but it seemed that Logan had seen things go differently.

"So you think the fact that whenever Rhuben would pass you on the board, her knocking you off each time showed that she was 'perfectly fine'?" Logan used air quotes around the words. Kendall nodded. "If you think that's when she's 'fine' I hate to think what you think she is when she's annoyed." Logan shook his head.

"This phone is so cool," Carlos said as he left his room, walking slowly. His bag was dangling against his back and he was staring hard at his new iPhone as if it would disappear as soon as he took his eyes off of it. "Did you know that there have, like, 20 free apps that you can use?" He lifted his head and shoved his phone out in front of him. "Look, this app tells you whether or not the sun has set."

"Yeah," Logan nodded slowly. "There's something else that can tell you that, it's called the sun!"

Carlos snorted as he put his phone into the mesh pocket of his gym bag. He turned his attention to Kendall and Logan before slowly turning in a circle, looking around, noticing that the apartment was quieter than usual.

"Where is everybody?" he asked.

"Uh, Mom went to talk to Gustavo about something," Kendall said as he tilted his head back, looking at the ceiling as he thought about it. "James is probably down at the gym like he usually is at this hour," he shook his head at the thought. "And Katie is…probably scamming some people out of their money at the pool." He finished his bowl of cereal and moved to put it in the sink.

"That's what you'd think, big bro," Katie said as she entered the apartment, looking bummed. "No one was really at the pool and Bitters is too busy watching some sort of Soap Opera on his computer." She placed her hands on her hips as she looked at the three boys. "Are you headed to the gym?"

"Yep," Logan said as he tossed his apple core away. "Instead of going down to Gold's gym, Patrick is meeting us at the PalmWoods this time."

"Oh," Katie perked up a little bit. "Can I come too? I haven't gotten any boxing done in a while." She slowly started to back towards her own room, waiting for an answer from one of the boys.

"Go ahead," Kendall chuckled. "Just hurry up so we're not late." Katie turned and hurried into her room to get changed and Carlos turned to Kendall, opening his mouth to point out something. "I know," Kendall interrupted, already knowing what he was going to say. "Trust me, I know."


Katie followed her brother and his friends into the PalmWoods gym, looking around, making sure that the punching bags were open. Most people who looked at her would think that she wouldn't even think of getting into boxing. Many would think that she was easily to break and that she needed someone to protect her. But she was one of the toughest girls that you could meet and her interest in boxing was pretty much inevitable.

"Hey guys," Patrick Jackson-McGuire grinned, moving his long black hair out of his face as he appeared in front of them. "I was wondering when you'd get here." He said.

"Are we late?" Carlos sprang forward and grabbed the boy by his shoulders, starting to shake him. "I swear we left to get here on time. Tell me we're not late!"

"Carlitos," Patrick pushed Carlos' hands away. "I was just saying 'hi'," he reassured him before turning his attention to all of them. "You're not late. But I'm sort of surprised that you didn't get here as early as James did." He motioned over to James, who was lifting some weights.

"Oh, you know James," Kati said with a condescending tone. "He worries so much about his appearance that he would work out every single hour of every single day if he could." She cracked her knuckles. "So what do you have in store for these idiots today?" She asked her friend.

"That's for me to know and for them to find out," Patrick replied with a mischievous glint in his eye. He turned to Kendall, Logan, and Carlos. "Just get started on the bikes, an easy start, and then we'll lift some weights and get on the treadmill, ok?"

Katie waited until the other guys went to go do as they were told, grabbing James along the way. She gave a small laughed as she grabbed onto Patrick's forearm. "You're going to run them into the ground aren't you?" she asked.

"You know me too well," Patrick replied and lightly patted her hand before going over to the rack of weights to get set up for the workout that day.

Katie grabbed her bag from the ground and walked over to the large punching bag that was sitting in the far corner of the room. She reached inside and grabbed her boxing gloves, sliding them over her hands before she started her barrage on the work out equipment. With each hit, she could feel her frustration starting to melt away. She wasn't going to say anything out loud, but she was starting to feel as annoyed with the boys as her friends and family were.

Ever since they got to LA they seem to be doing things their way instead of the way that they're asked to do it. Katie slowly moved in a circle as she continued to punch the leathery object in front of her. It's not that I'm not proud of my brother, but he has to realize that not everything revolves around him. He can't fix everything with a smile and an apology; he can't always fix his friends' problems.

She slowed down her punches as she watched the boys on the bikes. They didn't seem to be going that fast, if anything, they were probably weren't powering the bike too much. Not even breaking a sweat. She knew from watching them enough that this wasn't what Patrick meant by taking things easy. She looked over at the raven haired boy and could see that he was already annoyed by their antics. The slight clench of his jaw as he moved some things around so they could get some work done was a tell-tale sign.

She could have gone over to him and talked to him, saying that the guys were just going through some things that were making them act ungrateful. She could just chalk it up to them being boys. She could say that they were being overworked by Gustavo and were so tired that they were acting different. She could even say that Mrs. Knight was pushing them to do more chores around the place, but they would all be lies.

She could have done all of those things to defend her behavior.

But the way she saw it, it wasn't any of her business and they were going to have to figure out that their actions affected others one way or another.


"Can we stop now?" Carlos asked in some sort a whine as he continued to job on the treadmill. "We've been running for 40 minutes." He looked down at the indicators on his treadmill and let out a heavy sigh. "Whatever we did to make you hate us, we're sorry." He added as a desperate plea.

"Carlos, you've hardly even broken a sweat from running on this thing," James pointed out. He looked like he was taking a breezy walk through the park. As the other boys were breathing heavily, his breathing was steady. It was obvious that he was in the most shape out of all of them.

"You're doing fine guys, you don't have much longer." Patrick commented as he slowly walked back and forth in front of the treadmills that the four boys were running on. He scanned their faces. "In fact, this looks a bit too easy for you guys."

"You're kidding right?" Kendall asked, wiping sweat off of his forehead with the back of his arm.

Patrick gave a sadistic smile as he jumped up onto the front of Carlos' treadmill. He reached out and pressed the up button on the speed and smiled even wider as it went from 6.0 to 10.0. He then moved over to Kendall's, Logan's, and James' treadmills and did the same thing. He jumped down from James' treadmill and backed up a few steps, crossing his arms over his chest.

Carlos let out a shriek and started to run faster, hoping to keep pace with the belt. He was able to do it for about 20 seconds, but then started to slow down. He looked over at Kendall, Logan, and James and saw that they were struggling as well. James looked to be a bit less stressed (he went to the gym almost every day) but even he knew that this was torture. Carlos reached out to grab onto the handles, giving himself leverage to slow down. Patrick leaned over and smacked the top of his hand.

"Don't stop until I tell you to," he instructed before flipping his hair out of his face. He looked at Kendall out of the corner of his eye as he reached for the stop button. "Hit it and I'll break your finger." He threatened.

Patrick took a step back, crossing his arms over his chest, and watched.

Kendall, Logan, Carlos, and James were gasping for air, their faces red. Sweat was streaming down their faces and their bodies, making it look like they were crying. At this point, Carlos looked like he was doing some sort of a galloping-running crossover, James was pumping his arms as fast as he could, even swinging them around in a circle to be sure that his legs would keep moving, Logan was using as little energy as possible by doing high-knees as he continued on the treadmill, and Kendall was promising everything he could think of, mentally, just to get the treadmill to stop.

"Uh, Patrick," Katie moved over to her friend's side, looking at the four boys. "As much as I love to watch the guys be tortured," she made a face when she saw how sweaty they were. "I think that you're taking this a little bit too far."

Patrick shrugged. "Sorry," he apologized. "But I take this really seriously, and if they want to be sure they're in top shape for the band, they're going to have to work really hard."

"And?" Katie prompted, giving him a knowing smile.

"And," Patrick shrugged again, smiling. "I figured that I'd help my sisters, since they didn't take the chance to yell at them."

"I thought so," Katie commented, sounding impressed. "You're just about as devious as I am." She scratched the side of her head. "But I don't blame you guys, they've been late to a lot of things lately. Mom's getting kind of upset, because they've been ignoring their chores as well."

"Hm," Patrick made a grunting sound. He took a step forward and climbed up onto Carlos' treadmill once more; looking at the time as he it slowly dwindled down. "Annnnnnd…..stop!" he declared, jabbing the large, red 'stop' button on the machine. He then moved over onto the other boys' machines and turned them off as well.

He watched with amusement as they fell to the floor of the treadmill and was deposited onto the floor, falling into a heap. Patrick walked over to them and grinned as he placed his hands on his hips.

"So," he stated. "Who wants to do another set?" He laughed when he got groans and Carlos' horrified scream in reply. "Ok, then how about we get smoothies instead?" He grabbed onto Logan's arm and started to drag him to his feet, but as soon as he let go, Logan crumpled back to the ground. "Or you can just lie there, that works too."

Katie smiled.


A/N: Finally we can update again. So, FFN deleated one of my old stories (it's back up now) and we couldn't update for four days. We kept your all posted through twitter though. It wasn't such a long time, but it felt like FOREVER. We'll update our other stories soon. And here's the next chapter. Sorry I didn't have James talk so much, I just went with what I know in real life and had him at the gym earlier than the other guys. What did you guys think?

Cheers,

-Riles