.:Chapter Two –Scandals and News:.

"And then you place your hands on the ground and rock your body weight forward, then move your legs to the side…"

"I don't think I can move my legs like that," Kendall said, lifting his head. Sweat ran down his face as he sat back and stretched his legs out in front of him on the polished, hardwood floor of the Rocque Records dance studio. He hastily wiped it away. "Without having to be rushed to the hospital at least." He flashed a smile.

"You need to stretch more," Rhuben commented as she sat down in front of him. She tossed him a towel before scratching at her left hand by her star tattoo. "Or exercise a bit more. If you want to improve, you're going to need to be flexible."

"But?" Kendall asked, giving her a hopeful smile.

"But," Rhuben pushed her shoulder length black/purple hair behind her shoulders and fixed her dark blue eyes on him. "You have been getting better. There are a few hiccups here and there, but you're getting better."

Kendall smiled his thanks.

He had been working along with her and her siblings for three years now and she was one of his best friends. Judging by appearances, some people would question why he was friends with her; she was the person that could look at you in a way that seemed like she was looking right through you. She could also look at you so coldly that you wanted to apologize for something, even if you didn't do anything to apologize for. But at the same time she had a heart of gold and was fiercely loyal of her friends and family and was willing to help him and his friends with whatever they needed help with. Sure she gave a comment here and there about how stupid they were to get in some sort of predicament, but she would jump to help with no questions asked.

"Is that all for today?" Kendall opted to use the bottom of his shirt to wipe the sweat off of his face, ignoring the towel that Rhuben had thrown at him.

"Yep." Rhuben nodded. "You're done."

"Sweet!" Kendall lowered the bottom of his shirt. "Do you need to have another guitar lesson?"

"Not that I'm aware of," Rhuben replied slowly, thinking about it. "We don't have anything coming up, so there's no rush." She stood up and stretched her arms over her head before going over to her own gym bag. "Pun intended." She slung her bag over her shoulders. "Thanks for the offer though."

"No problem." Kendall got to his feet and went over to his own gym bag, throwing it over his shoulders. "I'm glad to help, since you're still willing to give me private practices with our choreography." He rolled his eyes. "Even though I'm such a dope at the moves."

"You're not a dope," Rhuben reassured him. "Kinda slow, maybe, but not a dope. No worries, you're doing fine, K-Dawg."

"Thanks," Kendall rolled his eyes. He reached into the side pocket of his bag and pulled out the car keys to the Big Time Rush Mobile, a key to the crib attached o it. "Are you coming to the apartment on Friday?"

"At 6:30, like usual." Rhuben led Kendall out of the dance studio, turned off the lights, and locked the door.

"You can bring Dak if you want," Kendall offered, leaning against the wall by the door, watching her movements. "I know that you don't really have much time left until he has to go back to New York or wherever." He knew that her boyfriend, the teen Icon, Dak Zevon's leaving, more often than not now, to work on theatre tours bummed her out whenever it got closer to him leaving. Usually they didn't allow anyone but the two bands to come to their 'tradition' but he figured that they could make an exception sometime.

"We'll see," Rhuben said shortly. "You never know what could happen if he's around…" she trailed off mysteriously and Kendall nodded, knowing what she was implying. "See ya, babe." She raised her hand in a peace sign and when the two walked out of Rocque Records, she went to the right as Kendall went to the left to get into the Big Time Rush mobile.

He pulled out of the parking lot and drove back to the PalmWoods, opting to take the long way to get there, just so he could enjoy the sunshine and the warm weather. There were many times over the past three years that he forgot that he had ever lived in any place other than LA. It seemed like it was a second home to him, once they got comfortable with all of the new 'rules' and the way that people lived in LA. Once they started to become a big success, and even had the potential of leaving the city if their demo didn't get picked up, he realized that he had quickly fallen in love with it. Not that he didn't miss Minnesota; he did miss how it got cold, and how he could play hockey every day, and how people still enjoyed sledding and snowball fights. But he wouldn't trade his experiences with his best friends and with their band for anything.

When Kendall got back to his crib, he noticed that things didn't seem as lively as usual. James was the only one that was acting like himself, looking into his handheld mirror and combing his hair with his lucky comb. The smile that was on his face could rival the one that someone that had just won the lottery would wear. But then there was Carlos, who was nervous biting his nails, and Logan, who was staring off into space that worried him.

Katie was standing over the couch, her arms crossed over her chest, and looking at them while shaking her head.

"What's going on?" Kendall asked with a look of bewilderment as he tossed his bag to the floor. He turned and hung up the keys to the Big Time Rush mobile on the hook by the door so whoever needed it next could use it. He then turned back around and kneeled down, scratching Yuma on the back and behind the ears as she ran over to him. "What's up with Carlos and Logan?"

"I don't know," James shrugged, still engrossed in his reflection. He stretched his face a few times and made funny faces into the mirror. Kendall made a face and exchanged a glance with Katie, who shook her head, rolling her eyes. Kendall turned turned back to James, his eyes widening when he noticed that James was now stretching his lips. "I didn't even notice."

"That's a shock," Kendal deadpanned. He turned his attention to Katie. "What's up, Baby Sister?"

"With me or them?" Katie asked, turning to face her brother. "With me, nothing, and that's been the usual thing since we came here." Kendall moved to her side and gave her a kiss on the head. "With them, girl problems of course."

"What is it this time?" Kendall asked with a laugh. "Camille not giving you enough attention?" He teased Logan. Everyone knew that that wasn't possible.

"No," Logan said slowly. He gave Kendall a pitiful look. "I just have a feeling that she's bored with our relationship."

"Well, to be honest, you two are in the proverbial married for years stage," Kendall said with a half smile. "If you're not making out like crazy in the lobby, you're either fighting about something stupid, or are just sitting there enjoying each other's company."

"The whole making out thing is gross, by the way," Katie added.

Logan ignored her. "So how am I supposed to make a relationship more interesting?" He threw his hands into the air. "I feel like she doesn't want to do anything with me anymore."

"I don't know." Kendall shrugged. "I've never had that problem with Riles." He grinned, raising and lowering his eyebrows. He burst out laughing when Katie glared over at her older brother. He held up his palms, letting her know that he was kidding, though the way that he was laughing made her think otherwise.

Logan sneered at him. "Thanks Kendall, that was really helpful."

"Just talk to her about it." Kendall's laughter subsided although he was still smiling. "The only way you're going to figure out how to fix things is if you talk it through." He looked over at Carlos. "So what's up with you, dude? Are you and Stephanie bored too?"

"No," Carlos said slowly. "It's just that her father asked me to meet up with him so we can talk." He jumped up and grabbed onto Kendall's shirt. "I don't know what to do or what to say! I've never really talked to him for more than a few minutes."

"Carlos, you and Mr. King get along, he likes you," Kendall reminded him.

"Yeah, but he never asked me to actually talk to him before!" He started to shake Kendall, causing Katie to laugh. "Help me! You've dealt with Jo's dad before!"

"Only when he tried to have me arrested at Prom." Kendall grabbed onto Carlos's hands and pushed them off of him. "After that, I stayed clear of him as best as I could. He's part of the CIA; you never know what he could do. I was paranoid for weeks after she and I broke up. I thought he was going to kidnap me or something." He thought for a moment. "All I can say is that I think that you should just be yourself and talk to him, you don't know what he wants until you do."

"Geez, Kendall, you should become a guidance counselor," James said as he put his mirror down. "I mean, after years of your speeches and motivational speaking, you might as well get paid for it."

"Sorry, but I still want to be a hockey player." Kendall smiled. "But if that doesn't work out, then I might think about it. I might give you guys a discount too." He laughed as he headed into his room to get ready to take a shower.

He walked by his desk and noticed that he had a letter. Curious, he picked it up and studied the loopy handwriting, trying to figure out who it was from.

As soon as he saw the return address he ripped the letter to shreds.

Logan waited until Kendall was in the shower before he went into their bedroom, closing the door behind him. He sat down on his bed and picked up a picture of him and Camille that had been taking when they had first started dating. He couldn't help but admit that Kendall was right; they didn't really do much else other than make-out and go to plays of the science museum if he wasn't too busy with his music or she wasn't too busy with her acting career. His band was getting even more popular than ever and she was already starting to get more opportunities for auditions.

But it was still hard for them to be together. They had just gotten the news that they could have whoever they wanted over at the studio and Camille was excited. Logan knew that she, Jo, Stephanie, Katie, and Lizzie, Dak Zevon's little sister, felt annoyed or just bad because they had to get permission first before they were able to go to the studio and hang out. Gustavo and Kelly wanted to keep them from getting distracted from girls and that worked for a while…before Kendall started to get interested in Riley and Logan and Rhuben went out for that short period of time. But it was different with them since they had always been allowed to go to Rocque Records as they had worked with them the whole time. Even when they weren't signed to Rocque Records anymore they would still to go to the studio to help out with whatever they could.

Kendall got too distracted waiting for her and her siblings to get to Rocque Records after their own studio work, to tell her a story about what had happened to them during their day, worked hard with whatever they were doing to try and impress her, or get mad whenever she would be paired up to help James for the day. It didn't really help with Logan either, since he would pay too much attention to the way that Rhuben moved for their choreography to do it himself. And when he was called out on it, he would try working even harder…and either become so frustrated with the work he was doing that he would mess up even more, or just shut down and not be able to do anything.

Or course James and Carlos never had that problem; Carlos had been committed to Stephanie ever since they had started dating, he liked her so much that he barely even looked at the Jennifers since he first saw her. And James never got distracted by girls, he could do anything he wanted to do as long as he had girls watching him and he certainly never got the comment that he was stuck in the marriage stage of the relationship. He and Jo seemed to be doing very well anyway.

Logan put down the picture and started to pace the room. What could he do to make things more interesting for their relationship? Logan glanced back over at the picture before turning to the mirror. He studied himself for a moment before a slow smile started to worm its way across his face. He grabbed the bottom of his shirt and pulled it up over his head, gently laying it on the end of his bed. He then pulled his phone out of his pocket and angled it towards the mirror, placing himself at the perfect angle. He opted out of smiling, wanting it to be a more serious picture and then took it before sending it to Camille with the comment thinking of you.

A few seconds later he got a text back from Camille: Whoo! Hottie alert! Nice pic, Logan!

Logan smiled.

"Hey Jo," James said into his phone, stretching out across the pool chair. "How's your audition going?"

"I'm still sitting waiting for my chance to go," Jo replied with a heavy sigh. James could hear muffled talking in the background. The commercial audition must have been more popular than any of them thought. "There're so many people here, I don't think I'm going to be back at the PalmWoods before the sun goes down." James could practically see her roll her eyes. "So what's going on over there? What did Gustavo want to talk to you guys about?"

"We were talking about our new CD and the direction that we want our band to go," James said slowly. He ran a hand over his face before resting his palm against his eyes, blocking out the sun. "Jo, if I told you something, will you just listen and let me know what you think later?"

"Yeah," Jo sounded concerned. "What's up?"

"Well, with the direction or our band, we're thinking of going back to the sound of our first CD," James said slowly. "And we have more creative liberty when it comes to writing. And I'm totally for that, it'll be really cool…but…we have only a three year contract with Rocque Records and when that ends…we don't know what the band will do." He paused and licked his lips. "Do you think that it's the wrong time to talk about going solo? I mean, I brought it up, but I think they think I was joking."

"James, it's perfectly fine to think about your future," Jo said gently. "And they can't tell you what you think. If you do only have a three year contract left, then it's smart to think about your future right now."

"But what about the other guys?" James asked. "Especially when we could potentially have our contract renewed or extended. What if they want to continue with Big Time Rush? I wouldn't know how to bring it up."

"But you were the one that wanted this whole thing in the first place," Jo insisted. "Not the other three. They'll understand." There was a shuffling sound and James could hear Jo say something in the background. "Oh, it's my turn to go in, I'll talk to you when I get back, ok?"

"Sure thing, Babe," James replied. "Love you."

"Love you, too," Jo said and hung up.

Carlos paced back and forth in front of Stephanie's apartment. He knew that Mr. King was waiting for him; Carlos had been prompt in reply to his earlier phone call wanting to talk to them. But he had never talked to Mr. King seriously before. It had always been a 'hi' or a 'bye' or quick small talk as he waited for Stephanie to go on a date or when they were staying in and Mr. King was leaving for work. What could it be? Carlos brought a hand up to his mouth and started to chew on his fingernails. He wished that he had his helmet with him at a moment like this; it would bring him more comfort than trying to remember Logan's tips of not hyperventilating.

Finally, Carlos reached out a hand and knocked on the apartment door. He waited, his hands behind his back, rocking on his heels, for the door to open. He looked up and down the hallway before he turned back to the door when it opened. Carlos's bright smile faded when he saw Stephanie's face. She had tears in her eyes, her eyes were red and puffy, and she was looking at her feet.

"Steph, are you ok?" Carlos asked, reaching out and resting his hands on her shoulders. He reached up and brushed her tears away. "What's wrong?"

"Oh, it's nothing," Stephanie said unconvincingly. She brought up her hands and wiped her eyes with her palms. "Nothing in particular." She sniffed loudly before giving him a shaky smile. "How are you doing today?"

"Good before I saw that you were upset," Carlos said quietly. "Do you want to go somewhere to talk? I can talk to your dad later, he'll understand." He reached out a hand and grabbed onto hers, gently rubbing it with her thumb.

Stephanie shook her head.

"I'm alright, but my dad really wants to see you," Stephanie said. She tightened her grip on his hand and led him into her apartment, closing the door behind him. She gave him another smile before walking over t the couch. Her father was sitting in the arm chair across from the two of them. Stephanie avoided her father's glance and continued to wipe her eyes.

"Hey Mr. King," Carlos said with a respectful nod. He reached out a hand and Mr. King took it, shaking it firmly. "How are you doing?"

"I'm good Carlos," Mr. King said casually. "How're you?"

"Great." Carlos smiled. "We got some great news about our band and our new CD, so we can't wait to get started."

"That's good, that's good." Mr. King nodded. He leaned back in his chair, pressing his fingertips together. "So I bet you're wondering why you're here. "Carlos looked over at Stephanie and nodded. "Well, I may as well cut to the chase. I know that you really care for my daughter and I know that you really care about her."

"Right." Carlos's smile widened as he looked over at Stephanie. "I'm in love with her." Stephanie gave a small smile back, then immediately looked away.

"And I bet you believe that you're going to spend the rest of your life together," Mr. King continued. Carlos's smile started to fade. "Carlos, I couldn't help but notice that during the last year at the PalmWoods, Stephanie's grades had dipped down a bit lower than they usually were. Now that you guys are done with school at the PalmWoods, she's thinking of taking some college courses at a nearby community college, while she gets her filming off of the ground. I don't want to see her squander her future over a boy."

Carlos frowned. "What does that mean?"

Mr. King pressed his mouth into a thin line. "Well, I think that what you guys have is really special, but I don't think it's what you need right now. When you work on your music, while touring, you'll be leaving her behind and I'd rather not have her just sit around waiting for you to get back." He crossed his legs. "Long story short, I think you two are too into each other right now and that you need a break."

"What?" Carlos blinked.

"He wants us to beak up," Stephanie said.

Sydney frowned, lowering his goggle from his face as he leaned into his computer screen. He then sat back and sucked his bottom lip into his mouth, making a sound of frustration before rubbing his eyes. He barely looked p when Ronan entered his room after knocking on the door.

"Hey Ronan," he greeted his father.

"Hey Little Man," Ronan replied. His hands were in his jeans pockets. "What are you doing?" He then held up his hand. "Actually, don't tell me, I don't think I'll be able to understand it." He laughed a little as Sydney smiled. Ronan stared to say something else, but then stopped and looked to the side. His eyebrows twitched as he picked something up. He studied it in his hand before turning it towards Sydney. "What's this?"

Sydney briefly looked up. "Cigarettes," he replied.

"I know that," Ronan said.

"So why'd you ask?" Sydney quipped, still looking at the computer screen.

"Haha." Ronan walked over to the computer chair and grabbed the back of it, turning it around so Sydney was facing him. "Why do you have them?" He asked, studying him carefully. Sydney rolled his eyes before looking back at Ronan.

"I'm studying the carcinogen content in cigarettes and then taking that information to figure out what age is the one that's most affected in the future as well as trying to figure out who would be more susceptible to lung cancer and who would be more susceptible to dying form said lung cancer and at what age," Sydney explained, crossing his arms over his chest. He looked at his dual computer screen. "I'm working on it with Professor Gentle at the University of Queensland on it."

Ronan looked impressed. "And here I was wondering if one of the others made you mad about something," he joked. Sydney shrugged. "Speaking of the others…have you told them about what you've been feeling lately?"

Sydney shook his head.

"You know that you have to tell them eventually, it'll help if you tell them now," Ronan said gently.

"I know." Sydney reached out and absentmindedly stared to push his computer mouse back and forth. "But I don't want them to be mad at me and I know that they're going to be mad at me about this."

"You don't know that for sure, Smurf," Ronan said gently. He reached out and ruffled Sydney's long hair, making it fall even further into his eyes. "If you put it off any longer, it's just going to get worse." Before Sydney could move, Ronan grabbed him into his arm and lifted him over his shoulder, upside down. He started to tickle Sydney's stomach. "You don't want to have them find out on their own do you?" He tickled faster as Sydney shrieked with laughter. "Huh? Do ya?"

"No!" Sydney finally managed to say. He rapidly kicked his legs back and forth, trying to thrash out of Ronan's grasp. "No! Ok, ok, please put me down!" Ronan gently laid Sydney on the floor. "That's really not fair," he said, trying to catch his breath.

"Too bad." Ronan grabbed onto Sydney's foot and dragged him across the hardwood floor out of his room and into the landing in the hallway. "Hey, guys, we need to have a little meeting!" He called before lifting Sydney onto his feet and lightly patting him on the butt.

Sydney sighed and went downstairs to the living room. Riley, Rhuben, and Noah were already there, watching something on the National Geographic channel, and he could hear Patrick rummaging around in the kitchen. Sydney twisted his hands together, waiting for Patrick to come out and settle on the couch beside Riley, a large sandwich in his hands.

"What's going on, Syd?" He asked around a large bite.

"Um, well," Sydney tried to stall for time. But he couldn't come up with anything.

He just thought about how they were going to react to what he had to say. Would they be mad? Would they be sad? Would they be supportive? What was going to happen to their future at that moment? He was nearly having a mental breakdown because of the way that he had felt for the past couple of weeks. He was somewhat surprised that his brothers and sisters hadn't noticed that he didn't say much at the meeting with Gustavo about their music. But he didn't put it past them, they probably did notice that he didn't say anything but didn't want to push him on it. Part of him was glad that he was the youngest for that reason, they didn't push him to talk until he felt like it, but on the other hand, being the youngest, he was the one that had to be the most watched out for and the one that was left out of a lot of things.

Now he just wished that he wasn't going to throw everything away.

"Syd, what's wrong?" Riley prompted.

Sydney made a whining sound and then turned to look at Ronan. He was standing behind him, his arms crossed over his chest, his green eyes looking at him patiently. When he caught Sydney's gaze, Ronan nodded, encouraging him to go ahead with his news. Sydney let out a heavy sigh as he turned back to look at his brothers and sisters.

"I'm…thinking of…" Sydney nervously ran his hands over each other. "Leaving the band."

A/N: So this chapter shows, specifically, the things that the BTR boys are going through and it directly affects everyone else's plots as well. (And by everyone else, I mean, DE, Dak, WayneWayne, Camille, Jo, Stephanie, Ronan, Mrs. Knight, Gustavo, and Kelly). A couple of the storylines coincide with each other, just so you know. Also, Kendall's father isn't a bad guy in this fic, so the letter isn't from him. At this point, Kevin isn't going to show up, but he might in the future. As the story goes on, I'll have the chapter split up into small parts with multiple characters and focus a bit more on one than the other. This one was Kendall, next is James, then Logan, then Carlos.

Also, soon (probably during or after Wait For Me) I have a story called Let Me In coming up. This story is all about Ronan and DE, I got the idea after I realized that everytime I want to show more of their homelife, it doesn't get shown a lot, so I thought I would do a story all about them. It's gonna be under the Misc. TV shows section because it ties in with our BTR stories and if any of the BTR characters show up it'll be mentioned in conversation, over the phone, through text, or they appear once or twice, but the whole story is based on our OCs.

I hope you guys liked the chapter.

Cheers,

-Riles