.:Chapter Twelve – Big Time Red Carpet pt.1:.
"Ok guys, here's the news about your first CD release," Kelly stated and then paused, gauging each boys' reaction. With each word that she had said, they leaned forward and were now holding onto the sides of their chairs so hard their knuckles turning white. Kelly looked over at Gustavo and smiled, loving how much tension they were in. "Big Time Rush has gone gold."
James let out a little squeak of happiness as Kendall, Logan, and Carlos stared in confusion. Carlos finally spoke up after a few moments. "Is that good?" he questioned innocently.
"IS THAT GOOD?" Gustavo shouted, causing the four boys to jump and scream in fear as he slapped his hands on the desk. "IS THAT GOOD?" He took off his sunglasses and glared at the four boys as if he was going to stomp their faces into the ground. "For a first time CD from a new boy-band, that's actually pretty damn awesome!" he replied with a grin causing the boys to erupt into cheers again.
"And to think" Kelly jumped into the conversation. "One month ago you guys just finished your first tour." She shook her head as a large smile filled her face. "Congratulations guys. There's going to be a big party here for you guys next weekend." She added as she looked at her Palm Pilot. "Are there any food preferences for you guys?"
"Yeah, I'd like a little bit of salmon." James spoke up and then looked around at his friends as they stared at him. "What? Salmon is good for the skin."
"That's not the only good news we have for you," Kelly added and then shoved Gustavo back from his desk and opened a drawer, pulling out four large passes. "How would you guys like to go to a movie premiere?"
"No way!" Carlos screamed as the four boys dove forward, scrabbling to get the passes. "What movie?"
"Some vampire one I think, I really don't know." Kelly replied and then brightened again. "All I know is that it's going to be your first official red carpet experience, so you're going to have to meet with your stylist and your publicist today."
"Why both?" Kendall asked from where he was engrossed in looking over his pass, as if trying to prove that it was real. Logan scoffed and rolled his eyes, once again telling himself that he needed to get new friends. "What?" Kendall's eyes widened. "Is it really that obvious?"
"Kendall my friend," James sighed as he patted his friend in the chest. "We need to go to our stylist, because, let's face it, your guys' clothing style stinks!" Logan and Carlos glared over at James, but he ignored them and continued. "But we need to go to our publicist so we can talk about questions to answer and avoid. There's nothing worse than having what you say get twisted around into something that it's not."
"James is right," Gustavo agreed. "Now, Kelly and I are going to the premiere too," he leaned forward and glared at them, narrowing his eyes. "So we're going to keep an eye on you." He added through clenched teeth. "To make sure you don't screw anything up."
Kelly slapped Gustavo on the back of his head and he immediately leaned back in the chair, breathing deeply and making 'ohm' sounds as if he was trying to channel his energy. "Anyway," she sighed once she was sure that Gustavo was calm. "With those passes you're allowed to bring one guest with you. So have fun and we'll see you tomorrow night."
"Wait, we get the day off too?" Carlos asked eyes wide.
"Yep," Kelly smiled and nodded. "You guys deserve it. See you."
The four boys jumped up from their chairs and started to back out of the room slowly, as if it was some sort of a joke and they were about to get called to sit back down. When nothing happened, they turned and started to run out of the room, pushing and shoving each other when they got to the doorway and hurried out as fast as they could.
"Can you guys believe it?" Carlos demanded with happiness as he lifted his pass over his head and looked at it in the sunlight. "We're going to an actual movie premiere! Ow!" He shielded his face when the sunlight got to bright and walked into a lamp post, falling back to the ground.
"How many times have I told you to not look directly in the sun?" Logan asked as the other three boys stopped and waited for Carlos to get back up.
"I don't know, mommy," Carlos replied, sounding dazed. "How many times do you want to tell me?" He held onto his helmet as he got up from the ground. "Ouch! I think my helmet left a bruise when I walked into the street light."
"It wouldn't make much of a difference to the way you act anyway," Kendall replied with a laugh as he helped his friend off of the ground. "Are you ok, dude?"
"Yeah, I'm good." Carlos replied and grinned. "I can't believe that we're going to a movie premiere!" he cried again.
"He's fine." James stated as he rolled his eyes. "I mean, with that helmet it's not like he's going to get any more brain damage than he already has." He looked thoughtful for a moment. "Then again, the publicist will probably tell him not to wear that so he might want to get used to it." With that, he grabbed Carlos' helmet off of his head, causing Carlos to shriek and run his fingers through his short hair, before glaring at James and yelling out a battle cry.
James screamed in fear and Kendall and Logan laughed as Carlos chased James down the street, shouting for his helmet. Kendall sighed as he put his arm around Logan's shoulder, watching their friends tear off down the sidewalk, pushing people out of their way.
"Do you still want to have new friends?" he asked with a laugh.
"Sometimes," Logan replied with a shrug. "But I know that I can't replace you guys."
"That's good to know." Kendall grinned in reply and they hurried after their two friends as they continued to run down the sidewalk, attracting weird looks as they went. It was only when they reached the Palm Woods did Carlos tackle James to the ground and he finally got his helmet back.
"Oh I missed you," Carlos cried as he cradled his helmet in his arms and kissed the top of it. "Did you miss daddy too?" he placed his helmet on his head and gave it a compassionate slap.
"Ok" James, Kendall, and Logan stated slowly.
"Carlos, could you do me a favor and get off of me!" James shouted as he thrashed around, trying to get his friend off of his back. Carlos stuck his tongue out in reply and rolled off of his friend's back. "Thank you."
"Uh, you're welcome?" Jo replied from where she was standing in front of James. She was walking by when he had said thank you to her. (Which is why she phrased it as a question.
"No, not you." James replied as he got to his feet, brushing off his clothes carefully. "I was talking about Carlos." He replied and smiled warmly, causing her to smile in reply. 'Wow,' James thought to himself as a goofy expression filled his face. 'I didn't notice how pretty her smile was.'
"James?" Jo waved her hand in front of James' face as Kendall, Logan, and Carlos crowded around to see what was wrong. "James, are you ok?"
"Me?" James suddenly came back to life. "Yeah! I'm fine! Nothing's wrong here!" he started laughing nervously, causing Jo and his friends to look at him strangely. "Just being me!"
"Ok," Jo replied as she made a face and started to walk away.
"Wait!" James shot his arm out, stopping her as she almost walked right into his arm .She blinked rapidly as she turned to face him.
"Yes James?" Jo asked as calmly as possible although she looked like she was trying not to laugh. Her smile wilted into a frown when he started to babble, staring at her. "Ok, I'll just be going." She backed away slowly before turning and walking to the Palm Woods pool.
James sighed and ran his hands over his face as Logan, Kendall, and Carlos moved around James, with arms across their chests and smirks on their faces. James spread his fingers apart and looked at his friends. "What?" he demanded.
"You like Jo." Kendall stated simply.
"No, I don't." James replied as he shook his head, bringing his arms back down to his sides.
"Yes, you do." Logan replied. "The signs are all there." He moved forward and looked at James' eyes. "Your pupils are huge, you can't say more than a couple of babbles whenever she is around, and you have a stupid smile on your face."
"Carlos has that look all the time when it comes to food, and half of the stuff he doesn't like." James pointed out.
"It doesn't matter, you like Jo and that's all there is to it." Kendall replied and then snapped as he thought of something. "You should ask her to be your date for the movie premiere."
"I can't do that." James replied, shaking his head. "I'll just make a fool of myself and I don't want her to think that-"
"Aha!" Carlos shouted. "You care what she thinks, which means that you do like her!" he laughed as he started to dance around his friend. "You like Jo! You like Jo!" he sang as he danced around. "James and Jo sitting in a tree K-I-S-S-I-N-G."
"Carlos, knock it off." Kendall laughed as he forced his friend to stand still. "Don't worry Jamesie; we're going to get you that date with Jo."
"You have an idea don't you?" Logan asked when he saw the sly smile that was sliding onto Kendall's face. Kendall slowly nodded, his smile growing bigger.
"So what did you call us over here for?" Patrick asked as he played doodle jump on his iPhone. "I mean, we were just planning on how we were going to-"Noah slapped a hand over his brother's mouth.
"Don't ruin it." He stated causing the boys of Big Time Rush to look at each other with worry as the Jacksons smiled sweetly. "But you might want to make this fast," he added as he turned to Big Time Rush and Katie. "Ronan and Julius are going to be picking us up soon as we can go to the mall."
"You walked here?" Kendall asked as he made a face, turning to Riley and Rhuben. "Why didn't you just drive?"
"Because we were already at the studio," Sydney replied with a warm smile. "And we figured that if we drove we would be making the carbon footprint any bigger."
"What's the carbon footprint?" Patrick asked as he wrinkled his nose. Sydney smiled widely as he sat back where he was sitting on the couch, crossing his legs, letting his brothers and sisters know that he was getting ready to go into a very long explanation.
"A carbon footprint is "the total set of greenhouse gases emissions caused by an organization, event or product"." He explained. "For simplicity of reporting, it is often expressed in terms of the amount of carbon dioxide, or its equivalent of other greenhouse gases, emitted." He frowned when Patrick stared back at him stupidly and he sighed heavily. "You know the giant in Jack and the Beanstalk?" he asked in a fake happy voice.
"Yeah." Patrick replied with a nod.
"It's his footprint in the cloud." Sydney concluded faking a smile.
"Oh, ok." Patrick replied cheerfully, causing Noah to slap himself in the forehead, wondering how he was the smarter one of the two.
After James had made a fool of himself with Jo in the lobby, Big Time Rush had called the Jacksons over to their apartment to get their help with James asking her to be his date for the movie premier. Kendall recruited Katie as well, knowing that she would be able to help them somehow.
"We brought you here to see if you could help us get James to ask Jo to be his date for the movie premiere that we're going to." Carlos replied.
"Oh, you got invited to that too?" Sydney asked as he brushed his black hair out of his face. "So we did we."
"That's not all." Carlos suddenly became animated again as he jumped up and down on the spot. "Our first CD went Gold."
"No way!" Sydney cried his eyes as wide as his mouth.
"Yes way! We got the news this morning."
"Oh, that's so cool, you-"
"If we could get back to the subject at hand." Kendall interrupted, rolling his eyes at his friends' childish antics. (Which you can't blame Sydney for because he's 9) "We need your guys' help to get James to ask Jo as his date to the movie premiere." He studied his friend's reactions and noticed that they all mirrored each other's with 'what can I do to help' looks. "What?"
"Well, James is your best friend," Rhuben replied, nodding slowly. "And he's a ladies' man, how can he not ask her out himself?" Logan rolled his eyes and rubbed his forehead before turning to his girlfriend to explain.
"You haven't seen him like this." He replied and nudged James in the side. James opened his mouth and started to babble again, and Logan closed it with a tap of his palm. "He's been doing that since he tried asking her in the lobby."
"Oh." Rhuben made a face and then stood up as she started to pace the room. "Let me think of something."
"While you're thinking about that," Kendall turned towards Riley, who he had been dating for the past week, but not officially. "What color dress are you wearing to this premiere?"
"I don't know," Riley replied as she rested the side of her head on her fist, sitting in the unoccupied chair. "Why?" she raised her eyebrows as if she was annoyed at something. Patrick noticed and looked over at Kendall but bit his bottom lip, knowing that his sister wouldn't want him to say anything.
"I was wondering so we could match," Kendall replied and then hesitated when she didn't reply. "Is something wrong?"
"No, not at all." Riley replied through a fake smile.
"Right," Katie sighed and then got everyone's attention. "How about he tries asking her with flowers?" she suggested. "Every girl likes flowers."
"Where are we going to get flowers though?" Carlos asked as he rolled his eyes. "I mean, it's not like Buddha Bob is going to waltz in here with a bunch of flowers that he had just cut from the garden saying that he thought that they were being overcrowded and decided to give them to Kendall's mom so she could liven up the place?"
As soon as he finished there was a sudden knock on the door and Mrs. Knight walked out of her room. "I wonder who that is." She stated as she pulled back the bolt and opened the door. "Hey Buddha Bob!" she greeted when she saw the Palm Woods' handyman. Katie and Kendall had recently convinced her that he wasn't an axe murderer and she finally realized that he was a nice man. "What brings you here?"
"Well, I was gardening the Palm Woods garden and I cut up these flowers," he shoved the purple bouquet into Mrs. Knights face and continued his explanation in his gravelly voice. "And I thought that it was being overcrowded and thought that you can use these flowers to liven up the place."
"Thank you," Mrs. Knight replied with a smile as she took the flowers and sniffed them. "They're beautiful."
"Wow, that oddly specific." Katie commented before she and Kendall ran up to their mom. "Mom, we need those flowers!"
"I know, don't you think that they liven up the-"
"Thank you!" Kendall plucked the bouquet of flowers from his mother's hands and charged out of the apartment, his friends following him. James tried to sneak off in the opposite direction, not wanting to be embarrassed anymore, but Patrick and Noah grabbed him and started to push him after the others as they headed down to the Palm Woods lobby. They looked around and then hurried outside to see the girls sitting on a bench in Palm Woods Park.
"Ok, this is what you're going to do," Katie stated as they all sat in the bushes, wearing tree hats and camouflage watching as Jo, Camille, and Stephanie talk to each other. "You're going to take these flowers," she picked up the purple bouquet. "And go over and ask her to be your date."
"Just like that?" James squeaked.
"Yeah, just like that." Rhuben replied as she slapped him on the shoulder. "Now go get her!" she added, as she pushed him out of the bushes.
"Wait a second," Logan stood up and grabbed one of the purple flowers from James' bouquet. He turned around and handed it to Rhuben, a large smile on his face. "Will you be my date to the movie premiere?"
"Yeah," Rhuben smiled as she took the flower, breaking off the bottom part of the stem to stick in her hair. "Thanks, Logie." She stood up and kissed him on the cheek, causing him to blush and smile happily.
"Ok if we're done with being disgustingly happy," Noah smiled as his sister turned to him, letting her know that he was only teasing. "Go, James. This is the perfect time."
"But, I don't know, maybe-"Annoyed, Riley stood up and gave him a hard shove on the back before turning back to sit in the bushes to see what was going on. Scowling, James glared at his friends before taking a deep breath and turning back to walk over to Jo.
"Don't look now," Stephanie whispered when she saw James walking over, getting Camille's and Jo's attention. "But I think that James I going to ask you out, Jo."
"I can only hope." Jo replied as she rolled her eyes, laughing a little bit. "After what happened earlier today I can only think that he'll start babbling again."
"Only one way to find out." Camille replied as she leaned back in her chair, watching what was going to happen. "Hey James." She greeted when he finally reached the three girls.
"Hey Camille, Hey Stephanie," he greeted the two girl with a nod before giving Jo a shaky smile. "Hi Jo."
"Hey James," Jo replied as she repositioned herself in her chair. "What's up?"
"I was wondering if you wanted to…." James voice trailed off as he started to babble again. Camille and Stephanie watched with expression of shock. This was the guy that usually was able to talk to girls so well that he could get a date a day for a whole week. And now here he was babbling at them.
Jo started to say something but then jumped when James shoved the bouquet of flowers into her face. "Aww, are these for me?" she asked sweetly.
"Yeah, I was wondering if you wanted to-"
Before James could finish getting the words out, a bee flew over and started to buzz around the flowers. Jo screamed thrashing around as more bees came. Jo, Stephanie, and Camille screamed and ran away as bees swarmed around them. James winced as he watched them run off and then slowly turned and walked away when other people started to see what was going on.
"Oooh," Sydney winced. "Strike one."
"Ok, so maybe I should have thought about the possibility of there being bees first." Katie stated as she bit her thumbnail in worry.
"Don't worry, I have an idea." Carlos stated as he jumped up and slapped his helmet. Kendall stood up beside him and slapped a hand down on his shoulder.
"If it has anything to do with the swirly slide, chocolate pudding, or a billboard, then it's out of the question." He stated, causing Carlos to pout and sit back down on the ground. Sydney patted him on the shoulder.
"Don't' worry, that was my idea too." He stated sympathetically. "It would have worked too."
"I don't think I even want to know what the idea was," Riley stated as she brushed her hair behind her ears. "Ok, that didn't work at all." She stated as she gave James a gentle hug. "Don't worry James, we're going to make sure that you and Jo get together." She pursed her lips in thought. "What's another way that girls like being asked out?"
"To their face." Rhuben pointed out as if it was obvious. "The worst thing that you could do is ask her over the phone."
"Treat her like a lady." Sydney agreed as he smiled warmly, his dimples appearing. "Act like she's a buddy and nothing will ever happen."
"Don't burp, belch, or scratch." Patrick added with a little laugh, "I learned that the hard way.
Katie's ears perked up as she turned to look at the boy. "You've been on a date before?" she asked. He nodded in reply and smiled a little bit at the thought. "Oh, that's cool." She bit her thumbnail as she looked away. She cleared her throat nervously. 'Well, that probably pushes my chances of being able to go to the movie premiere out of the water'.
Noah must have noticed the distressed look on her face as he spoke up quietly. "Katie, do you want to go to the premiere with Patrick and Me?" he asked hopefully. "I mean, if your brother and his friends are going to go, you might as well come along for the fun too."
"Really? That's so cool! Thanks!" Katie threw her arms around Patrick's and Noah's necks and they blushed as they hugged her back. Patrick looked over at his twin, noticed that he was blushing, and quickly looked away.
'Don't make a big deal of this, dude.' Patrick thought to himself, shaking his head. 'You already said that you'd back off and let Noah have Katie. So stop thinking about her.'
"Great, now Katie has two dates to this thing and I don't even have one!" James sulked as he threw his arms in the air.
"Don't panic yet," Rhuben stated as she and Riley looped their arms around James' waist. "We're good matchmakers and it helps that we're girls too." Kendall eyed Riley and turned to Logan to see if he was jealous or anything. But Logan had his thinking face on, so Kendall knew that he didn't even notice. "So we're going to help you get a date with Jo even if it kills us."
"If it kills you, can I have your skateboard and guitar?" Patrick asked Riley, smiling eagerly. She reached out her foot and kicked him in the butt. "Ow! I was just asking." He whined as everybody else started to laugh.
"Ok, how about this?" Logan got everyone's attention as he spoke up. "We take the most romantic environment that you can think of, plant those two in it and watch to see what happens." He continued his explanation when everyone stared at him. "Hear me out. Set up a candle-lit dinner and make sure that Jo goes."
"Ok, here's one thing that you need to know about girls." Rhuben stated as she grabbed her boyfriend's hand and gently patted it. "We may like the whole candle-lit dinner thing, but you want to save those for an anniversary."
"Yeah," Noah nodded in agreement. "If you do it too early, then the girl will get scared." He explained. "If you do it before you're even dating, that will just scar her for life."
"And you know this because?" Katie asked, looking slightly scared of the answer.
"Having listened to their rants about dating all the time you can't help but learn something." Sydney replied as he lightly hip-checked his sisters. "Besides, we've watched Julius dating as he grew up, before he met Brittany, and we've seen him crash and burn."
"Hey, maybe we can get him to help." Riley stated, her eyes sparkling with excitement as she turned and tilted her head back to look at James. "I'm sure that he would be glad to do it."
"Remember the last time that you said that he'd be glad to do something without asking him first?" Rhuben asked and the Jacksons thought back about the time that Riley had volunteered her brother for a charity event by making him dress up as a clown and getting pied in the face. He was so made that by the end of the day he chased Riley around and he got nicknamed It. Riley winced slightly when she remembered it.
"Ok, so maybe that's not a good idea, but we'll think of something." She replied.
"Coming!" Mrs. Knight called as there was a knock on the apartment door. She turned off the faucet and grabbed a dishtowel to wipe off her hands before hurrying over to the front door. "Hello Ronan." She greeted as she pulled the door open. "What brings you by?" she stepped back so Ronan could enter the apartment.
"Hello Kacy," Ronan returned the greeting with a smile. "I was looking for my kids," Ronan replied as he looked around, shoving his hands into his pockets. "Julius is waiting in the car and I said that I'd take them all to the mall as a reward for working very hard these past few months." He shrugged. "They haven't gotten a break in a while and I figured that this would kind of make up for it."
"Oh that's sweet." Mrs. Knight smiled warmly. "But they aren't here right now. I think they're trying to help James ask Jo to be his date for the movie premiere." She chuckled. "They think that I don't know about it, but I hear everything that goes on in this apartment building from Buddha Bob."
"Buddha Bob?" Ronan repeated as he raised an eyebrow.
"Yeah, he's the maintenance guy," Mrs. Knight replied. "I thought he was some axe murder at first because he had chopped up a jelly doughnut with an axe and I was scared of him for a while. But Katie and Kendall showed me that he-"she cut herself off when she noticed that Ronan was staring at her. "He's a good friend." She stated lamely.
"Oh, ok." Ronan nodded and then furrowed his eyebrows together. "Well, speaking of the movie premiere, everybody that works at Rocque Records gets to go and can bring a guest." He looked up and gave a charming smile. "Would you like to go with me?"
"To a movie premiere?" Mrs. Knight repeated and Ronan nodded. "Like with an actual red carpet and everything?" Again Ronan nodded. "That sound so cool!" she stopped when Ronan looked taken aback. "I mean, that sounds like fun." She cleared her throat. "I'd love to go."
"Cool," Ronan smiled warmly again. "Its tomorrow night and I know that Kendall and his friends have been invited, so there's going to be about two limos to pick everybody up from here."
"Alright, I'll see you tomorrow." Mrs. Knight replied with a bright smile and went back to washing dishes. Ronan studied her for a minute before leaving the apartment, almost getting run over by James, who was running away screaming, and Carlos who was chasing after him, waving a lasso over his head.
"Oh, hey Ronan." Rhuben greeted with a half smile. "What are you doing here?"
"I was looking for you guys so we could go to the mall." Ronan replied as he brushed off his clothes, checking to make sure that he didn't have any footprints on his clothes. "Remember?" he added as he turned to the Jacksons, who looked back at him blankly. He sighed heavily. "I promised you could use my credit cards."
"I remember now." Patrick replied, beaming. Ronan smirked in reply and rolled his eyes as he turned and led them back down to the Palm Woods lobby. They passed Bitters, who watched them like a hawk with narrowed eyes
"So, are you guys bringing anyone to the movie premiere?" Julius asked as they all climbed into the minivan and headed off towards the mall.
"Logan and I are going together." Rhuben announced and then leaned forward to grab onto the back of Julius' chair. "This means that you have to show me how to put on a boutonniere again." Julius laughed.
"Yeah, we wouldn't want you to stab anyone again." He teased.
"I know," Noah rubbed the left side of his chest. "I never knew that those things could actually go through that thick jacket." He laughed as Rhuben hit him on the back of the head and then kissed him on the cheek.
"Noah and I are going with Katie," Patrick stated, not sounding happy or disappointed at the same time. "So we're going to need to get a corsage."
"I'm nine, I don't need a date." Sydney called from the back, smiling cheekily.
Ronan looked into the rearview mirror and noticed Riley sitting in the back with Sydney, her chin rested in her hand and glaring out the window. He was afraid to even ask, knowing that she could easily be mad enough to take it out on anyone. "Riley?" he asked gently. "Are you and Kendall going together?"
"No," Riley replied flatly as she let out a sigh and ran her fingers through her hair.
"You're not?" Julius asked as he twisted in his seat to look at her. Riley turned her gaze from the window and glared back at her brother. "Guess not." He replied quickly and turned back around, not wanting to upset her even more.
"Well, did he ask you?" Patrick asked as he twisted his head to look at her.
"No, and that's the reason why we're not going together." Riley replied as she set her jaw against the pointed stared at her siblings were giving her. She could already tell what they were thinking; they knew that Kendall already assumed that the two of them were going to go together and that's why he didn't ask her.
"So what are you going to do?" Rhuben asked finally.
"I'm going to go with someone else."
A/N: Actually, you know what I decided to do? I decided to make each chapter a good blend of humor/angst so you don't have to worry about certain chapters being happy and others being sad. I hope you like it that way. Thanks for reading and I hope you guys review and enjoy it! ^-^
-Riley
