Big Time Work

Audrey sits in her nearly clean room at the piano bench writing a new song. Papers were strewn about the floor. Some were completely scribbled out and others were crumpled while some had circles to mark when she comes back to use them. She taps for bass on the keys of her electric piano. Bags hung underneath her eyes from writing from days on end and coffee mugs sat about the room long forgotten. She ignored phone calls from her friends wanting to party, she ignored Kelly trying to get a hold of her, and she ignored texts from James. A knock came from on the other side of the door but Audrey she tried to ignore the outside world.

"Audrey?" Aunt Carrey called softly into the artist's room. "Someone is here to see you."

"Tell whoever it is I'm busy," Audrey said not even looking away from her precious music sheets and piano.

"Audrey," Carrey sighed. "Come down to see him."

Audrey rolled her eyes and slammed down hard on the keys creating a formidable, awful sound. She glared at her aunt as she comes out of the room into the clean apartment that her aunt had fixed it up while Audrey was holed up. Standing politely in the kitchen was an extremely large black man. When she made her way over to him she didn't even reach up to his shoulders.

"Yes?" she asked.

"Gustavo requires your attendance in the studio today," he said in a low voice not giving her a comforting smile of any kind. "I'm Freight Train."

"Tell him I will get back to him," Audrey said as she walked over to her apartment door and opened it. "Now here is the way out. It's the very same way you came in."

"I'm afraid that's not gonna do," he said then looked over at Audrey's aunt. "I will have her back after work."

"What?" Audrey said backing into the door as he walked up to her. The floor underneath him, she could swear, was shaking. He then picked her up and threw her over his broad shoulder. "What are you doing?"

"Have a good day, Ms. Rowl," he says then shuts the door behind him.

Audrey didn't go with Freight Train without a fight. She tried kicking, punching, and threatening to sue but none of her tactics worked on him. He brought her faithfully all the way to Gustavo at Rocque Records. She finally gave up and hung limp on his shoulder coming upon the work place. He threw her down on the lobby couch then blocked the doorway. Audrey glared at the man waiting for Gustavo to come out and yell at her.

"Do you get a joy from kidnapping people from their homes?" Audrey asked but he just stood silent. "I'm going to take that as a yes."

"Audrey!" Gustavo yelled from the recording booth. "Get in here!"

Audrey gave him one last grimace before entering the recording booth. Kelly was waiting in the chair, writing on her clipboard. Gustavo glared at Audrey through his yellow sunglasses. Audrey popped her hip out waiting for the verbal abuse to make her feel guilty and work hard.

"Today, we going to finish recording Piece of me and work on the music video," Gustavo said through gritted teeth. Audrey's jaw nearly dropped at how much he was trying to be pleasant. "The music is already in the booth for you."

Without a single word, Audrey complied with Gustavo's desire. She sang the song just as he wrote it and admitted to herself that the lyrics weren't that bad. He had even changed a lot of the song the way she had sung it previously. She even let slip a smile that Kelly noticed when she did she smacked Gustavo. By the time that he looked it was replaced with her usual smirk. Then came the discussion about the music video, ending this beautiful work day.

"That's stupid," Audrey said. "We should probably get another director for this video."

"How about a crowd of people following you trying to pull you down but you end you overcome this obstacle," the director said.

"Like people chasing me down in the middle of a street?" Audrey asked him and he nodded his head vigorously. "No thanks. Next?"

"I can't work with this!" the director yelled from frustration. Audrey had been shooting down every single idea he came up with. "She is too… ah!"

Audrey laughed at his frustration which responded in Kelly, Gustavo and the director grimacing at her. "How about a club scene but the paparazzi won't leave me alone?"

"That's absolutely-" the director began to shout, "brilliant."

"Really?" Gustavo and Kelly both asked him.

"Yes," the director said as Audrey smiled victoriously. "This is a part of who she is and who are we to deny that this isn't her? And she has shot everything else down."

"We need a lot of people for that," Kelly said. "That's a lot of actors to pay."

"Seriously?" Audrey asked. "I live in a place for the wannabe famous. Who wouldn't want to get exposure in one of my videos?"

"Choreography?" Kelly asked.

"You'll still have to pay for that but I know someone perfect for the job," Audrey said. "Do you want me to start working on it now?"

"Really?" Gustavo asked with complete shock.

"Yeah," Audrey said. "Is that a problem?"

"No, no!" Kelly answered for Gustavo. "There's a dance studio downstairs. I can show you where it is."

"Kelly," Gustavo yelled. "When are the dogs going to be here?"

"They will be here in a few minutes," Kelly said as she walked Audrey out of the door into the hallway of boy bands.

"Dogs?" Audrey asked Kelly ignoring all the boy band posters.

"Big Time Rush is Gustavo's other project besides you," Kelly explained. "They're from Minnesota and got signed a while ago."

"Is it another boy band?" Audrey asked with a bit of disgust. "Am I the only project that hasn't been a boy band?"

"Well, Big Time Rush is a very good band," Kelly said. "Have you heard of them before?"

"No, I don't need to," Audrey said blowing them off. "I've heard every other boy band. They're pretty much all the same. 'I'll do anything for you, girl, even though in real life I'm a total prat.' No thank you."

"I think they could change your opinion," Kelly said sticking up for them. "Maybe you'll get to meet them. Anyways, this is the studio."

Kelly led Audrey into a brightly lit room. An entire wall consisted of a mirror and a bar. The floor was concrete and a large stereo sat in the corner giving it a hole in the wall feel. The coolness of the room swept over Audrey's skin. She smiled at the thought of rehearsal here.

"This is perfect," Audrey said. Kelly smiled handing her the demo CD of her newly recorded song. "I will definitely get started."

She gave Heather a quick text and popped in the CD. She listened to the recording from the other side for the first time. She nodded approvingly to the beat. Catching sight of herself in the mirror, she stood in her gray sweats and Beatles t shirt. She knotted the shirt above her belly and began stretching. She turned the radio up loud as she warmed up her dance skills. Not very long after, Heather showed up beaming from ear to ear.

"Do you know who's upstairs?" She asked as she through her wavy blonde hair into a pony. Heather didn't wait for an answer. "Big Time Rush! They are so cute!"

"Whatever, Heather," Audrey laughed.

"You should put them in your video," Heather said as she smirked. "There's an easy on the eyes brunette I wouldn't mind getting close to."

"Maybe I will," Audrey laughed at Heather as she goofed off getting warmed up to dance.

Heather was the classic blonde: ditzy and boy crazy but she could dance better than anyone Audrey has ever met. After listening to 'Piece of Me' and discussing the video, Heather started coming up with dance combos. Although Audrey had danced plenty it was not her strongest point in life. Heather broke everything down as simply as she could. Audrey would hold a pose as Heather would kick one of her feet out or replace her hips. After a couple hours and glistening in sweat the girls agreed to be done for the day.

"Have you heard about Marcie?" Heather asked spinning like a ballerina.

"No, I haven't," Audrey said laying flat on the floor absolutely beat from the rehearsal. "I've been trying to keep her out of my mind."

"She's been going on a lot of talk shows for her new movie recently," Heather said not dropping the subject. "She's been saying things about you."

"So?" Audrey said shortly. "Who is really going to listen to her anyways?"

"Well," Heather said sitting down next to Audrey. "I think you might need to do a little bit of damage control. Everyone has been asking her about the car accident and your personal life. Marcie isn't really holding anything back."

"Seriously?" Audrey swore, getting off the floor. "Maybe I can get an interview with a magazine or something. I'm going to talk with my producer about it."

Heather smiled, "Can I come with?"

"You want to see Big Time Rush again?" Audrey smirked and Heather's smile grew wider. "Whatever."

"Yes!" Heather said jumping up and pulling Audrey all the way up to the recording booth. "They are so hot. Wait til you see 'em! But I call the brunette."

"Don't you have a boyfriend?" Audrey asked trying to wrench out Heather's grip.

"Yeah," she said letting go of Audrey and leading the way into the booth. "But I can look."

"You seem so hard to know. Say goodbye, say hello. Then you say it's time to go."

Audrey stopped just inside of the booth as a tall man and his security guard turned to stare at Audrey and Heather. Gustavo and Kelly immediately turned to glare at the girls as well. Kelly put a single finger to her lips to signify her to be quiet.

"From the top, dogs!" Gustavo yelled at who Audrey guessed was Big Time Rush. Audrey and Heather stood behind Gustavo and Kelly. Audrey's jaw dropped seeing Kendall, Carlos, Logan, and James sitting in the booth.

"Here I am. There you are. Why does it seem so far?"

Audrey stared at James with wide eyes. He was in a boy band. One of the most detestable things to grace this earth, or so Audrey thought because the smile that James was giving Audrey was shooting a blush across her cheeks.