Chapter One

"Alright, Angel. Welcome to the Palm Woods, home of the future famous," Kelly said before turning to the fat man behind the desk. "Hello, Mr. Bitters. Any damage today so far?"

"Oddly no, but I wouldn't be-," Just then four boys came flying through the lobby and crashed into one of the couches. "-surprised if it happened soon..."

Kelly gave a sigh and asked without even looking at them, "Kendall, is your mom home?"

"In the apartment," answered the tall blonde boy as he struggled to get out of the tangle of limbs.

"Alright thanks. Angel, head over to the elevator. I'll be there in a second," Kelly said handing me my other bag.

"Alright Kelly," I replied in a quiet voice before making a quick exit.

Unfortunately, I didn't get out of there early enough to miss the boys jumping up in unison before yelling, "New girl!"

Kelly's arms shot out and grabbed the tall brown-haired boy and the helmet-wearing one as they attempted to run after me. The two that hadn't bothered to run after me, just followed my form with their eyes curiously as I left. "Whoa boys, leave her alone! I need to talk to you before you head off to Rocque Records."

"Kelly! I must talk to that girl," James exclaimed pointing at my retreating form.

"James, stop and let me speak. That girl you are ogling is Angelena and I'm about to go up and talk to Kendall's mom about letting her stay with you boys until another apartment opens up. Now-"

"Wait," Carlos interrupted. "That girl is staying with us?"

"Yes, but-"

"Score," James and Carlos exclaimed high fiving each other.

Kelly sighed and pulled out an air horn to get them to focus again. "Guys, seriously listen. Angel just got out of a bad place so please don't do anything stupid."

"What kind of bad place," Logan asked with concern written all over his expression.

"I don't think I should be the one to tell you, but don't be surprised if she doesn't trust you at first. Anyway, she's going to be a singer for Gustavo and is also going to be helping him write songs. I'm going to need you guys to be careful with her and if anything happens I need you to get me immediately."

"Is the situation really that bad?" Kendall asked.

"I'm afraid so," Kelly sighed. "Now go to Rocque Records before Gustavo starts yells more than usual."

"Hello, Mrs. Knight. How are you today?" Kelly asked as the woman who led us into her apartment.

"I'm fine Kelly, but what can I do for you? The boys already left for the studio," she asked.

"I need to ask a favor. Mrs. Knight, this is Angelina, the daughter of a late friend of mine. I was wondering if she could stay with you until another apartment opens up," Kelly explained while taking a seat on the couch next to Mrs. Knight.

She smiled brightly at me. "Of course you can stay with us, dear! Katie why don't you show Angelina to your room?" she asked the brunette girl who was playing video games.

"Sure hang on one second while I defeat the she-beast," she replied not taking her eyes off the TV screen.

I quickly brushed it off. "It's fine. Kelly, I'm going to go look around for a bit, alright?"

Kelly looked at me sadly and nodded.

With that I took my leave, ignoring the stares that practically burned through my back.

The three girls watched as I left and as soon as I was out the door Mrs. Knight turned to Kelly. "Okay, what's the catch?"

Kelly laughed nervously. "Catch? There. There's no catch." Mrs. Knight and Katie crossed their arms and raised an eyebrow each at Kelly. She sighed. "Okay. Here's the deal. Angel-"

I looked around the pool, before sitting under an umbrella by the smoothie bar. Heaving a large sigh, my head fell into my hands.

"Oh big sigh, are you alright?" a brunette girl came and sat down by me followed by a blonde.

I jumped slightly out of shock. "Oh no I'm fine. Thanks for asking," I lied.

The blonde girl looked at me skeptically. "I don't buy it. Do you Camille?"

"Nope," 'Camille' said popping the 'p'. "What's up?"

I sighed knowing this was a losing battle. "It's not a very comfortable subject to talk about, so please drop it."

"Alright," the blonde girl sighed. "I'm Jo by the way. This is my friend, Camille."

"Hey," Camille said with a warm smile and wave. "So did you just move in? I've never seen you before and I know everyone."

"Yeah, I'm Angelina Iris. I just moved here."

"Well it's nice to meet you, Angelina," Jo replied with a smile.

I cringed slightly. "Please just Angel or even Iris. Anything but Angelina... or Angie for that matter."

The girls blinked before nodding, slightly unsure. "Well our friends will be showing up soon, so why don't we grab a smoothie and talk while we wait? Then we'll introduce you."

Camille laughed. "Oh this should be interesting. Just watch Carlos and James will jump her!"

I involuntarily cringed. Thankfully it went unnoticed by the girls as they ordered their smoothies from the waiter. "Just tell me when to duck," I said putting on my fake smile even though I knew they could probably still see my true feelings through my eyes.

They laughed and continued our conversation. Eventually I loosened up and relaxed. After about a half hour my fake smile, was slowly turning into the first real smile I have had in years.

"Dogs! Leave! NOW!" Gustavo yelled as he had Freight Train kick the boy band out of his studio.

"You really shouldn't have done that. Do you even realize how much trouble we'll get in?" Logan asked his helmet wearing friend.

Carlos shrugged his shoulders. "Yeah, but didn't you see the new girl? We've got to meet her!"

"Yeah! Besides just being able to look at her will be worth the trouble we'll get in," the ever-conceded James said while combing his hair to 'perfection'.

"Okay, okay, I'll admit I am extremely curious about her, but let's try not to scare her. As Kelly said she probably won't trust us at first," Logan said with his hands held up as a sign of surrender.

"So it's settled. Let's go give Angelina a big time welcome," Kendall stated with a small smile.

"Oh my god," Mrs. Knight gasped after Kelly finished telling her my story. "It's so hard to believe someone would do something so terrible!"

Even Katie was frightened, but hid it behind her typical no care attitude.

"Yeah, but it happened and the damage can't be undone. Now I got to be going before Gustavo gets too angry. Now here's a list of things you should know about Angel and here is a second bottle of her medication...just in case," Kelly said handing over the objects before leaving in a hurry.

"So... what are we going to do?" Katie asked breaking the silence.

Mrs. Knight cleared her throat and said, "We'll just have to take it step by step. First off we should make her feel at home." Her eyes widen at what she said. "I mean make her comfortable!"

"Real subtle, Mom," Katie said rolling her eyes.

"So, you're telling me that I should get use to the unexpected while I'm here just because of four teenage boys?" I asked with a single eyebrow raised.

"Yup," Camille said. "I've been here way longer than them and since they came here, everything has been upside down."

Suddenly, the four boys from early rushed outside into the pool area causing me to become scared and hide behind Camille. When I took a peek over the laughing Camille's shoulder I saw they were looking around frantically. Jo looked up and smiled softly as the tall blonde boy and shorter of the two brunettes walked towards us.

"Hey, babe," the blonde boy said leaning down to give her a quick peck on the lips.

"Hey Kendall. How was recording?," Jo said as her apparent boyfriend sat next to her as the brunette sat next to Camille with an arm resting on the back of her chair.

"Crappy. We got kicked out of the studio early," Kendall said with a bright smile.

"You know, some day Gustavo just won't let you back in," Camille pitched in before dragging me out of my hiding spot. "Guys, this is our new friend Angel. Angel this is Kendall, Jo's boyfriend and my friend, Logan, two of the guys we were talking about."

I looked down out the table in front of me. "We sort of met earlier. You were right their friends did try to jump me."

Kendall smiled guiltily as he scratched the back of his head. "Yeah, sorry about that. We really should put them on leashes, shouldn't we Logan?" Everyone laughed at his comment and even I cracked a small smile. Logan opened his mouth to reply but sadly never got the words out.

"Found you!"