.:Chapter Three – When You Have a Rival:.

"If all you're trying to do is essentially the same thing as your rivals, then it's unlikely that you'll be very successful." ~ Michael Porter


"Dad? Dad, wake up. We have to meet up with Gustavo in an hour."

Robert Jackson grumbled and pulled his covers up over his head. He then let out a sleepy growl and roughly pulled them off of his face, looking down at the small boy that was standing by his bed. "I'm up, ok! Get out of here so I can keep getting ready!"

"Yes, sir." The boy replied quietly before leaving the room, closing the door behind him.

Robert winced and jerked at the sound of the door closing. To him, it sounded like a thousand bombs going off at one time, right next to his head. Robert let out a groan and fell back onto his pillows. "What the hell happened last night?" He murmured eyes still closed.

Reality hit him hard. He didn't even remember falling asleep the night before. One minute he out with his friends, watching a football game at Buffalo Wild Wings, and the next thing he knew, he was being woken up by his youngest son at the god-awful time of early morning.

I guess that's why it's called a black out. Robert's lips curled into a short smile. He would have sat up, but everyone movement made it feel like someone had hit him over the head with a hammer. Opening his eyes, he noticed that his cell phone was sitting in front of his face on the bed. He tried to grab it, but his arm must have still thought he was asleep, just trying to grab his phone became a problem all its own. Finally he managed to pick up the phone, which felt like a brick, and brought up to his face so he could check the time. For a moment he thought he'd never be able to see again, but then his eyes adjusted to the screen's brightness and he saw it was about seven in the morning.

Finally managing to push himself up into a sitting position, Robert let out a heavy sigh, hanging his head and taking in a few deep breaths before he got up and walked over to his dresser. He grabbed a few clothes and walked over to the bathroom.

Once he snapped on the bathroom light, he let out another groan and shielded his eyes as he waited for them to adjust. Stumbling his way over to the sink, he dropped his clothes to the ground and turned on the water, taking the time to splash some onto his face. He then stumbled over to the shower and managed to get his clothes off and turn the hot water on before he slumped, face first against the shower wall.

The feeling of the hot water sliding over his skin sent shivers of comfort up and down his spine, but that still didn't stop the dull pain in his head.

"That's the last time I go drinking with those lunatics." Robert murmured. He tilted his head back and allowed the water to run over his face for a few moments. He then quickly finished showering, changed into his clothes, and headed down into the kitchen. "There better be some food at my spot," he said loudly as he entered the spacious living room before walking to the kitchen. He smirked when he saw that there was, indeed, a steaming plate of bacon, eggs, and pancakes at the head of the table. He sat down in his seat and looked up at his five children, who were seated at their spots at the table, quietly waiting.

"Thank you."

"You're welcome." His eldest daughter, Riley replied with a slight nod. She drew a circle on the table top with her right index finger. "How'd you sleep?"

"Not bad," Robert ran his hands over his face. "I must have been really shit-faced though, I don't remember anything from last night."

"That's…nice." Patrick, one of his sons commented and then sank low in his chair, not sure what else to say.

"Sit up," Robert commanded and all five of his children did as they were told. He closed his eyes and waited for them to say grace before starting into their breakfast.

After forking a mouthful of eggs and pancake into his mouth, Robert sat back and looked at his kids as he chewed. Just by looking at them and then at him, you could easily tell that they were not biologically his, but they were his kids just the same. Sometimes he wondered why he adopted all five of them from their home in Sydney, Australia at once, but he had a heart, he didn't want them to have their family broken up. But that's when he found out about their singing/musical ability and knew that it was god's will that brought him to them. Plus, just by being their manager, he felt that his duties of being their father were doubled.

Riley Jackson, her twin, Rhuben, and their three brothers; twins Patrick and Noah, and youngest Sydney are a band that is trying to make it in America called, the DarkElements. They had been in LA for only a few shorts months, after having "moved" from their home in Australia to try and break into the music industry there in America. They hadn't moved from their home permanently, every few months they went back home to work on furthering their music and fan base there, before going back to LA. So far, they had a small fan base on the West Coast of the US, but he knew with the plan that he (begrudgingly) agreed to do, they would be worldwide famous quickly.

All of the Jacksons share the trait of having black hair and blue eyes. But they each have different personalities, even the twins. Riley has a bossy personality, Rhuben has a cold one, Patrick has a loud, eccentric one, Noah has a shy one, and Sydney has a cute one. To be told apart, Riley dyed a stand of her black hair red and it falls into her eyes, Rhuben has a strand of hers dyed purple. Patrick gels his hair up into a Mohawk with the tips dyed blonde, and Noah has his hair in his face with the tips dyed silver. Sydney keeps his hair in a shaggy messy style and the tips dyed aqua blue, to match his eyes. Riley and Rhuben are sixteen, Patrick and Noah are fourteen, and Sydney is nine.

It bugged Robert to no end when they got their hair dyed the first time, especially since he knew that they had gone and done it behind his back on purpose, just to tick him off. But that was well-received by their fans. As long as they were making money, and lots of it, and not embarrassing him in public Robert didn't care what they.

"Alright, this is what we're doing today," Robert said after a few more mouthfuls, getting the attention of his kids. "We're going to meet up with Gustavo Rocque in about an hour to talk to him about that band that you're going to be working with."

Rhuben let out a heavy sigh. "I wish we actually got a say in this before we were told that this was going to happen." She muttered under her breath before turning to her father. "When are we even going to figure out this band that we're meeting on Friday?"

"Today when we go to Rocque Records," Robert replied as calmly as possible. "We're going to work everything out then."

"I'm surprised that you're willing to go to Rocque Records," Patrick said after noisily swallowing a mouthful of orange juice. He wiped his mouth on the back of his arm. "I mean, since you hate Gustavo so much." He then laughed. "You're already shaking, just at the sound of his name."

"Shut up!" Robert replied forcefully, causing Patrick to immediately fall silent and Sydney to whimper. "Now, when we get to Rocque Records I want you guys to listen and don't speak unless you're spoken to." He explained. "I don't want you to mess up the deal that we have going with Rocque Records."

"I'm guessing that this deal is only so our name can get bigger and so you can get more money?" Riley guessed, her blue eyes flashing. "That's alright, we do all the work and you just sit there and hate-"

Robert surged to his feet and smacked Riley across the face. He slowly sat back down as Riley moved a hand up to her cheek, which had already turned red. She kept her head down, glaring at her plate, knowing not to say anything else. Robert sucked in a deep breath, his chest rising and falling as he tried to keep calm. His eyes moved to the others, Sydney shrank under Robert's gaze, and the others skillfully managed not to look directly at him.

"Do the rest of you have anything else that you'd like to say?" he barked.

"No, sir." Noah said his voice barely above a whisper.

"Good," Robert finished the rest of his breakfast and got up, leaving his dishes on the table. "Clean that up when you're done and let me know when you're ready to go. It shouldn't be too long; we can't afford to be late."

"Yes, sir," came the unanimous reply.

Looking at them, you wouldn't think that they were being abused by this man, the one that acted like everything was fine, when on the inside he had a rage that was getting harder and harder to control. You wouldn't think that it would happen in Hollywood. But that's what you don't know about the "City of Angels", there's always someone holding onto a secret that they don't want the public to find out.


"WHERE ARE THEY?" Gustavo shouted as he looked at his watch for the umpteenth time. He and Kelly were sitting in one of the board rooms in Rocque Records, waiting for their guests to arrive. "They're ten minutes late, Kelly," he turned to his partner, who looked up at his accusing tone. "Where are they?"

"Gustavo," Kelly tried to stay as calm as possible. "You had been asking me that question for the past ten minutes," her tight smile slowly turned into a grimace of gritted teeth. "What makes you think that I would know now, if I didn't know before?"

"That guy," Gustavo clenched his hands into fists. "He's doing this on purpose!" He slammed his fists onto the table. He turned to Kelly as she gave a loud sigh. "You know he is, you know that he hates me-"

"As much as you hate him because of something that happened between the two of you years before and blah, blah, blah," Kelly interrupted, adding an eye-roll at the end of her rant. She shook her head at Gustavo as he pursed his lips, clearly ticked off. "Gustavo, Robert Jackson may not like you, but I don't think that he would jeopardize something that would benefit the record company that he represents as well as our record company. He's been in this business almost as long as you have, so he knows what kind of risks there are."

"Ha," Gustavo snorted loudly, crossing his arms over his chest as he leaned back in his seat. He raised his eyes, behind his yellow tinted sunglasses, to the clock on the opposite wall and stared at it as the seconds ticked by. He knew that Robert was doing this on purpose; something told him that that was the reason. He didn't even know what it was about him that he didn't like, but there was something shady about him that rubbed Gustavo the wrong way as soon as the two of them met. It must have worked both ways, for Robert also was on edge around him.

"Sorry I'm late," a young looking man pushed open the door to the board room, looking at his phone. "I hit traffic on my way here and-"he paused and looked up at Gustavo and Kelly. "They're not here yet?"

"Nope," Kelly replied before Gustavo could launch into his tirade once more. "I guess they hit traffic as well. How are you doing today, Ronan?" She asked as she stood up and walked over to him, giving him a quick hug.

"Not bad," Ronan McGuire replied as he hugged her back before moving to one of the empty seats and sitting down, placing his phone on the table. "I could be better if I didn't have an emergency at the studio last night."

"Oh," Kelly gave him a sympathetic look. "What kind of emergency?"

"Some of our sample files got deleted so I had to scramble to get them back," Ronan yawned and leaned back in his seat, rubbing his eyes as he stretched. "It took me all night."

"Well, that's what happens when you're not responsible, McGuire," Gustavo stated with a grin, clearly enjoying Ronan's misfortune. "You start to slip."

"Oh really?" Ronan raised an eyebrow as he sat back down. He slowly grinned back. "Does that mean that you stopped being responsible 10 years ago? You know…when Boy Quake was your last…failed project."

"Hey! That was nine years ago!" Gustavo snapped back. "Get your facts straight, McGuire."

"I'm guessing that the anger you're taking out on me is actually being directed towards Rob, right?" Ronan guessed, shifting his eyes over to Kelly, who nodded in reply. "That's about right."

"You can't possibly tell me that you don't hate him either," Gustavo accused.

Ronan thought about it for a moment. As much as he would have liked to admit it, it wouldn't be classy. You didn't complain about your boss, even if he was one of the biggest jerks on the planet. What put him off, at first, was that Ronan was three years older than the manager of his clients, meaning that someone younger than him was calling all the shots and effectively telling him what to do. But then there was also the fact that Robert never seemed pleased with anything that Ronan did, even if he did exactly what was asked of him. But there were the few times where he was treated nicely, and he liked his clients, so that made it all worth it.

"I can see it in your eyes, you hate him too." Gustavo continued.

Ronan sucked a breath through his nose. "I don't hate anyone." He replied after a moment, doing everything but sticking his nose in the air, knowing that it was getting on Gustavo's last nerve.

"Whatever," Gustavo dismissed the conversation again and turned back to the clock. "Now, if they're not here in-"

"Relax, Gustavo, we're here." Robert said as he held open the door to the board room and allowed his kids to file into the room before closing the door behind them and taking the last seat. "We ran into traffic on the way here. What can you do?" He shrugged. "It's LA."

"You're right, it is LA," Gustavo agreed. "So what you can do is, I don't know, LEAVE EARLY!"

"Gustavo, I'm sure that raising your voice isn't going to help matters here," Robert said in an irritatingly calm voice. "We were late, we can't help that. You can't predict LA's traffic, you of all people show know that, considering that you've lived here all of your life, and I've spent most of mine in the Midwest and in Australia."

"Let's just cut to the chase, shall we?" Kelly opened a manila folder that was sitting in front of her on the table and pulled out a glossy photo. "This is the band that you're going to be working with," she stated and turned the picture around, pushing it towards Robert, Ronan, and the DarkElements. "This is Kendall Knight, James Diamond, Logan Mitchell, and Carlos Garcia, also known as, Big Time Rush."

Robert took the picture and looked it over as Riley gave a snort, looking amused. "Big Time Rush?" She asked, sounding as if she was in complete disbelief. "I've heard weird band names before but seriously, what kind of a name is that?"

"What happened to the old' 'Don't Judge a Book by Its Cover' lesson you taught me, Riley?" Sydney asked, leaning over to take a look at the picture himself, before turning his big blue eyes up to his eldest sister.

"I lied," Riley replied with a smirk. Rhuben gave her a disapproving look and rolled her eyes. "What? I'm just setting them up for life."

"Don't write them off, yet," Ronan warned them as he looked over the picture himself, after making sure that everyone else had a good look at it. "They may be better than you think."

"They, in a sense, are your competition," Kelly agreed with a nod. "You may be working with them, but you will also be working against them as well, to see which genre and which new upcoming band will sell more records when each of your CDs comes out."

"You're forgetting though," Robert spoke up. "We have a bit of an advantage as my kids are basically re-mastering their first CD, while you're coming up with a new one."

"But that just means that you're re-working your old stuff while we're going along with the change in pop music." Gustavo said. He had a point. Over the years, the sound of pop music had greatly changed, from Madonna, to Britney, to Katy Perry. But alternative music, for the most part, sounded the same.

Robert just smiled in reply. That's what you think, buddy.

"Do you really think that Big Time Rush isn't much competition?" Noah asked, lightly pushing himself back and forth in his chair. "I've heard that they have really great singing voices and that they could be the next Nsync and Backstreet Boys."

"That really depends on how the fans perceive them and how much promotion they get." Sydney replied quickly.

"Can we hear a sample of their song?" Ronan spoke up, tapping his teeth with his pen. "I just want to see what we're going to be working with before we actually finalize this whole thing."

"Sure," Gustavo pulled his iPhone out of his jeans pocket and pressed a few buttons before laying it out on the table. They all listened as the song Big Time Rush poured out of the small electronic device.

Gustavo looked around the room as the song continued to play; Ronan was lightly bobbed his head along with the music and the DarkElements seemed slightly impressed as well, but Robert was sitting in his chair, his arms crossed over his chest, looking like he wished he could be anywhere else but there. I can't wait to wipe that smug look off of that man's face.

"So what do you think?" Kelly asked as the song ended.

"They have to work on their harmonies more as well as their vocals," Ronan stated after a minute of thought. "But I think that they have a lot of success ahead of them." He nodded as he looked over at the DarkElements, who gave short nods in reply, their faces apathetic, not looking impressed or unimpressed. He turned to Robert. "What do you think?"

"I think this match-up will be interesting," Robert replied after a moment. He stood up and leaned towards Gustavo, holding out his hand. "It will be a pleasure working with you."

"Likewise," Gustavo stood up as well, grabbing onto Robert's hand and the two shook on it. "We'll have the paperwork done later, you know, in case they write songs together or give it to each other or something, so we don't have to worry about song-stealing."

"Song-stealing?" Robert motioned for his kids to stand up. "You don't think that I would stoop that low, do you?" He gave an easy-going laugh. "Well, we have to get back to our studio so we can get some work done. We'll see you at the music video shoot on Friday."

"See you then." Kelly agreed with a smile and a nod. She waited until they all left the room before turning to Gustavo. "See, it wasn't that bad."

"Just wait, Kelly." Gustavo warned.


"Once you get to the studio, I want you to get started working on some of those sample songs that we go," Robert instructed Ronan as they walked outside of Rocque Records. "I want them to be as good as you can make them."

"No problem," Ronan replied before walking over to his car.

Robert then turned to his kids, the picture of Big Time Rush still in his hand. "As for you, I want you guys to research these boys." He thrust the picture into Rhuben's hands. "I want you to know everything about these boys before we meet them on Friday. And I mean everything."

"Got it." Rhuben replied, looking at him through squinted eyes, trying to keep the sun out.

"Good," Robert gave a smile. "Now, let's go have a good day at the studio, alright?" He reached out and affectionately mussed Sydney's hair before leading them over to their car.


A/N: Compared to the first chapter of this story, this only had one scene that was the same from chapter two of the original story 'With Friends Like These: Big Time Rivalry" because I didn't want BTR to meet my characters that quickly, I want to draw it out a bit, making things in the music industry a bit more realistic.

I hope that you guys liked the more in-depth look at Robert and Gustavo's hatred for each other in comparison to Gustavo and Ronan's fake-hate friendship. This story is going to show more of Robert and his background as well as why he does the things he does. Such as, we had mentioned in our other stories that Robert wasn't always bad; it was usually only when he drank that he was a mean person, so I wanted to show you guys that every now and then he was a normal guy, which is why it was shown sporadically here.

I know this chapter focused on my characters and Gustavo and Kelly, but it will get back to the guys, Mrs. Knight, and Katie in the next one.

I hope you guys liked it.

Thanks to Ash, Rage-Against-Time, MysticMelody101, shotinthedark, LogieLvr914, Lella-Kiley-Lover, BigTimeRush-DarkElements-Fan, blue ice, Magical-Memories101, DarkElement-Jackson-Fan, youspinmelikearecord, Got2LiveItBigTime, SuperNeos2, and BigTimeFan-'10 for reviewing.

Cheers,

-Riles