Chapter Twelve – Big Time Boys

"Hut, Hut, Hike!"

Ronan and Julius winced as Patrick and Noah ran into each other; both trying to keep each other from getting the football that Rhuben was running down the field, Riley and Sydney running behind her. Beside them, Brittany was sitting down on the grass, reading a book. Sydney finally tackled Rhuben to the ground and they set up another play.

"Ooh that one had to hurt." Julius stated as Patrick lay sprawled across the grass, laughing. Noah and Sydney were standing over him, obviously wondering if he was ok as Riley and Rhuben stood off to the side, waiting.

"I don't think so," Ronan shook his head, narrowing his eyes as he watched. "He's laughing."

"He always laughs when he gets hurt." Julius replied simply and smiled a little as Riley walked over and tugged her brother off of the ground with one pull. "The only problem with that is that we can never really tell if he's really hurt or not because he's laughing too hard."

"I'm sure that's the only problem," Ronan replied sarcastically, causing Brittany to laugh.

They were taking one of their days off, before Thanksgiving, to spend some time with each other, just their family. (Not that they don't like to hang out with their friends, but they want some time for their family to just hang out with each either.) So Rhuben had suggested that they go to the park to hang out and to play some games and they all jumped at the chance, since it was still in the low 60s and they knew it was probably one of the last few days that they would be able to do it.

Ronan reached over into the picnic basket that they had brought along and grabbed a green apple. "So have you guys thought about the date of your wedding?" Ronan questioned as he loudly bit into the fruit and chewed loudly. Julius looked at Ronan as if he were crazy. He opened his mouth to reply, but Brittany beat him to it.

"We haven't really thought anything of it because of all of the tour stuff that we've been doing," Brittany replied as she shook her head. "And there's so much to do, since we want to have our friends and family there." She started to count off on her fingers. "We need a place for the wedding, a place for the reception, a catering business, invitations, along with having to get pictures done to announce our engagement-"

"Yeah about the getting pictures to announce the engagement thing," Ronan interrupted. "I have a suggestion." He looked over his apple and took another bite. He waited for Julius and Brittany to respond to what he said.

"Oh yeah, what's that?" Julius tilted his head to the side, looking skeptical.

"Don't." Ronan replied simply.

"Why?" Julius asked slowly.

"Well that means that it's going to get all over the world, you know because you're the brother of probably one of the hottest bands in the world right now," Ronan replied as he motioned to Julius. "And that means that everyone is going to know, and while I think that your family is going to be really happy for you," he now looked at Julius. "I wouldn't want it to get out."

"Why?" Julius repeated in the same tone as before. Brittany elbowed him in the side, but the suspicious look on his face didn't falter.

"Honestly," Ronan pursed his lips and rubbed the back of his neck. He blew out a breath of air and shielded his face from the sun. "I wouldn't want my family to know about it."

"Because?" Brittany prompted.

"My family is crazy." Ronan replied point-blank.

"They can't be nearly as crazy as my family is," Julius pointed out as he motioned onto the field where Rhuben and Patrick were yelling at each other, most likely over a bad call to see who had just won a touchdown. "Exhibit A"

"I'm telling you, that point doesn't count!" Patrick was saying as he crossed his arms over his chest. "You didn't go past the line of trees that we specifically said would be the end zone."

"Hey Pat, I have a suggestion," Rhuben stated, cradling the ball in her arms. "How about you stop talking?"

"Why?" Patrick crossed his arms over his chest."

"Because you're a guy and whenever guys talk, stupid comes out!" Rhuben replied and shoved the football into his chest. "Our point!"

"Oh yeah, well," Patrick moved the football to this hand. "At least I don't throw like a girl!" He started to throw the ball over to Noah, but it slipped out of his hands and went shooting across the grass and into Julius' face.

"Ooh" Riley, Rhuben, Noah, and Sydney winced.

Julius caught the ball in his outstretched hands and rolled his jaw as Ronan burst out laughing. "Who threw that?" he demanded. Riley, Rhuben, Noah, and Sydney took one large step back, leaving Patrick standing in front of them with a sheepish smile on his face. "You know you're going to want to run, right?" he stated as he stood up and tossed the football to the ground.

"There's really no point," Patrick replied with a shrug. "You could catch up to me in three steps."

"Good point" Julius bounded down the small hill that he, Ronan, and Brittany were sitting on and ran over to his brother, lifting him over his shoulder and spinning him around in a circle as Patrick laughed and screamed for Julius to put him down.

Ronan smiled and laughed as he watched the six of them run around, laughing and having a good time with each other. He hadn't seen it in a while and it was something that he enjoyed very much. He laughed as Riley and Rhuben grabbed Sydney by the arms and legs and started to swing him back and forth. Patrick and Noah jumped up onto Julius' back and knocked him to the ground.

Brittany smiled and rolled her eyes as she looked over at Ronan. "Go ahead" she stated and laughed as Ronan got to his feet and ran over to his kids and started to play with them as well.

"DOG PILE!" He shouted and (gently) jumped on top of his kids.

"It's a good thing they aren't normal," Brittany stated as she grabbed Julius' camera and started to take pictures. "Or life would be very boring."

"Hey, what are we doing tonight?" Kendall asked as he grabbed Riley's arm as she walked by him in the sitting area of the Jacksons' suite. (They had stopped in Nebraska on their way to Minnesota for Thanksgiving.)

"We," she pointed to herself and Kendall. "Aren't doing anything because we," she pointed to herself and Rhuben, who was sitting down on the couch, channel surfing, ignoring James and Carlos as they shouted at her to stop on a channel. "Are having a sleepover tonight with the girls. You guys are going to have to fend for yourselves."

"What do you mean we have to fend for ourselves?" Carlos asked, furrowing his eyebrows together. "It's not like we're going to burn the suite down or anything."

"You don't know that for sure," Rhuben stated and slapped the remote into WayneWayne's hand. "The only reason I'm giving it to you is because you didn't bug me for it." She stated and patted him on the head.

"You're welcome." WayneWayne replied with a smile and stuck out his tongue at Carlos and James, who glared over at him. "Hahaha." He sang mockingly.

"Go and have fun," Sydney stated, kicking his legs back and forth as he lied down on his stomach on the floor. "Patrick, Noah, and I will make sure that they don't burn down anything. You deserve a day where you don't have to worry about testosterone."

"Suck up" Logan coughed and smiled sweetly when Sydney turned his head and stuck his tongue out at him.

"Right," Rhuben replied slowly and got up from the couch and walked up to her sister by the door. "I say we call them ever hour to make sure that none of them are dead." She whispered, making sure that none of the guys could hear her."

"Agreed." Riley replied and gave a nod before the two left the suite.

"Now that the girls are gone," James announced as he stood up. "I suggest, to make a night where we don't have to worry about anything girly better, we go and get some junk from the grocery store."

"Oh yeah?" Noah snorted. "How do you plan on paying for it?" He looked at the ceiling as Kendall, James, Logan, Carlos, and WayneWayne all smiled at him. "I should have seen that coming." He stated, shaking his head. He nudged Patrick's shoulder with his own. "Did you get Ronan's credit card?"

Patrick smiled as he pulled his hand out from behind his back and held up a gold card. "You'd figure by now he would stop leaving his wallet in his back pocket when anyone who is a trained pick-pocket can get it."

"You pick-pocketed him?" Carlos laughed, sounding impressed. "Where'd you learn to do that?"

"Internet" Patrick replied quickly and stood up, brushing off the back of his pants. "So are we going to go get the junk or are we just going to sit here making each other laugh until we puke."

"No, we'll do that when we get back," Kendall replied, shaking his head. "It's much funnier when you have something to puke up then stomach acid."

"Not for the ones that have to clean it" Logan reminded him, shaking his head.

"You're such a worry wart," WayneWayne stated as he slapped his friend on the back. "Sometimes it can be endearing, other times, like now, it's very, very annoying." He shoved him towards the door and followed after him. "Let's go already; we'll get a cab or something." He stopped and grabbed Carlos' shoulder. "And this time, please don't moon the cars that we pass."

"It was Kendall's idea," Carlos defended himself. "Besides, what kind of trouble can you get into at a grocery store?" he rolled his eyes.

"SYDNEY, DROP THAT!"

"Patrick, stop messing with the price tags!"

"Noah, you could at least try to help me!"

Kendall laughed as he watched Logan try to keep the three, now sugar high Jacksons, under control in the large and somewhat empty grocery store, as they went to find food to pig out on. Logan had warned them about getting into the cookies that were the free samples, but it didn't seem to make much of a difference. As soon as they had seen them, they had eaten them all and immediately went into a sugar high. Surprisingly enough, Noah was also running around and yelling loudly.

"See, what'd I tell ya?" WayneWayne commented as he grabbed a shopping cart and turned to Kendall. "If it wasn't Carlos that would go crazy it would be one of those three." He leaned against the shopping cart. "So are we going for candy or for a bunch of chips and spray cheese?"

"I think we should get the candy last," Kendall stated as he watched Patrick, Noah, and Sydney run down an aisle, hanging onto a cart with Logan running after them. "You know, just in case we get kicked out, and that way we won't have to worry about them getting into a sugar high when we're back at the hotel."

"Good point." WayneWayne stated and watched with an amused smile as Kendall got into the basket of the car himself. "Dude, what are you doing? Get out!"

"No!" Kendall replied stubbornly and smiled a little. "I like riding in the shopping cart." He had to have his legs stretch out of the front of the cart because he was so tall. "Do you know when the last time I was able to ride in the cart was?"

"The same time that Carlos had made that slingshot-catapult thing?" WayneWayne guessed and shrugged.

"Exactly." Kendall nodded. He let out a cry of shock as WayneWayne tilted the cart over and spilled Kendall onto the floor. "Dude, I was just joking! I wasn't actually going to ride in the thing." WayneWayne stuck out a hand and hauled Kendall to his feet.

"I wasn't going to take any chances." WayneWayne replied and then a serious look crossed his face as he drummed his hands on the cart, following Kendall to the chip aisle. He smiled a little as Kendall grabbed every random chip back and started to throw them into the cart, obviously not caring if he broke any chips in the bag. "So, can I ask you something?"

"Yeah, dude, what's up?" Kendall questioned as he looked at another bag before shrugging and tossing it into the cart as well.

"What's going on with you?" WayneWayne asked point blank. "You, James, and Carlos seem to be acting really, really strange lately and I'm not the only one that's noticed it." He stated. "The girls and Logan have noticed as well and we're all worried about you."

"Nothing's going on," Kendall replied with a shrug.

"Kendall, we're your friends, you can tell us." WayneWayne insisted.

"Dude, I'm telling you, nothing's bothering me." Kendall replied with a laugh and then rolled his eyes when he saw that WayneWayne still had the serious expression on his face. "Ok, I don't know about the other guys, but I'm just a little worried that we won't make it back home to Minnesota in time for Thanksgiving." He lied quickly; it was the first thing that came to mind. "I really want to see my family and I would like some actually down time for a while."

"Really?" WayneWayne sounded skeptical.

"Really," Kendall replied and forced a mile. "I don't know what's wrong with the other jerks though, but what I can tell you is that James has been annoying me with his healthy food obsession, so I'm glad that for tonight he's going to go and eat unhealthy for once."

"And Carlos?" WayneWayne asked.

"You're going to have to ask Stephanie about that one," Kendall replied. "'Cause every now and then he's like, depressed, and then the next moment he's happy." He tossed a chip bag at WayneWayne and grinned. "Plus the two of them have been giggling like they have a secret or something, and I'm sure everyone wants to know why."

"Good point." WayneWayne agreed with a shrug.

"Dudes, check this out!" Kendall and WayneWayne looked around to see James running over to them, his arms filled with different cans and bottles. "All of this Cuda stuff is HALF-OFF!" He dumped it into the cart. "Now I can be set for the rest of the tour!"

"Good for you, James." Kendall stated through a fake smile and then leaned towards WayneWayne. "Remind me to hide this stuff when we get back."

"Got it." WayneWayne replied, also through a fake smile. "Which way are you thinking? Death by fire or that we 'accidentally' threw them away?"

"I'm thinking-"

All of a sudden they heard Carlos' loud scream and a loud crash followed by Patrick, Noah, and Sydney's laughter, and Logan's shout at them saying that he told them to stop before they had broken something. WayneWayne sighed. "I now understand why the girls get annoyed being around you guys all the time." He commented. "Because you guys can't go more than twenty seconds without getting in trouble."

Kendall made a face at him before he, James, and WayneWayne turned and hurried to where the source of the sound came from. Sydney, who had quickly crashed from his sugar high, looked up as Kendall, James, and WayneWayne had joined them.

"We didn't do anything." Sydney denied quickly.

"What did you do?" WayneWayne demanded, looking around at the broken jars on the floor as well as the red stuff that was seeping onto the tile and on some of their clothes, mainly their shoes and shocks.

"We didn't do anything" Sydney insisted.

"Oh yeah, then what's that all over you?" Kendall asked.

"Blood!" Carlos immediately replied.

"Carlos that was the worst excuse that I have ever heard." Logan stated, lightly shoving his friend away from him before turning to face Kendall, James, and WayneWayne. "They were just having a little sock race, when I told them not to, and Carlos and Patrick crashed into the shelves containing the jars of tomato sauce."

"Dude," James pouted a little. "Why didn't you ask me to join in?"

"Clean-up on aisle 3, clean-up on aisle 3," a voice said over the intercom.

"Dude, we gotta get out of here!" Patrick cried, as he suddenly crashed from his sugar high. "There's going to be some fabricated story about us in some sort of a trashy newspaper if we don't get out of here and buy the rest of this crap if we don't hurry up." He gritted his teeth as a worried look slid onto his face. "And you know that Gustavo is going to somehow find out about it and yell at us."

"You mean yell at them," Noah stated as he pointed over to Kendall, Carlos, James, and Logan. "We don't work for him."

"Good point." Patrick replied with a nod. "Bye" he turned and started to walk away, but WayneWayne grabbed onto the back of his shirt.

"Are you really going to leave your friends when you were the one that caused this mess?" WayneWayne asked. Patrick thought it over for a second and then WayneWayne tried a different tactic, knowing that it would get him. "You can help be a distraction while the rest of us hurry and get this stuff out of here before we get kicked out or arrested or something."

"Do you really think that we're going to be arrested?" Logan asked skeptically.

"No, but I wouldn't want to take my chances with it." WayneWayne replied.

"Good point." Patrick replied with a grin.

WayneWayne smiled back. He knew that that would get him, but it wasn't the only reason that he got Patrick to help. Unbeknownst to Kendall, James, and Carlos, Logan was trying to show them that they could have a good time without having to constantly worry about what was bothering them. He didn't believe Kendall for a second when he said that he was worried about getting home on time, it was definitely something bigger than that, he knew that James had been going to the gym a lot more than usual lately and was wondering what the cause of that could be, and he had noticed that Carlos was constantly bouncing back and forth from being happy to being depressed. Logan was the only one that seemed to be having no problems with anything at all, but WayneWayne knew that Logan knew that there was something up with his friends. They just hoped that they could figure out what it was soon so they could help their friends.

"Ok, so what are going to do?" Sydney asked, cracking his knuckles.

"How good are you guys at acting?" WayneWayne asked as he slowly started to smile.

Patrick, Noah, and Sydney listened carefully to WayneWayne's plan and then got into their places as Kendall, James, Logan, Carlos, and WayneWayne went to hide behind another aisle. Patrick quickly sat down on the ground and wiped some of the tomato sauce onto his clothes and they lay down on the ground. Noah and Sydney did the same, making sure that their arms and legs were twisted into odd angles.

"What happened here?" a young man, who was wearing the store's apron, asked as he walked up to the three of them, holding onto a broom and a dustpan. "Are you guys ok?"

"Ow, it hurts," Patrick moaned as he slowly sat up, holding onto his lower back. He pointed a tomato sauce covered hand towards the worker. "Your floors were so slippery that we crashed into this shelf and got caused bodily harm.

"Go, go, go" WayneWayne hissed and pushed his friend aside and they started to hurry out of the other aisle and towards the registers.

"Do you know how much we can sue you for?" Noah added as he stood up, miming that he was in pain. "I mean look at our baby brother," he pointed over to Sydney, who then sat up as well, mustering up fake tears as he did so. "He's traumatized; he'll probably never get near another jar of tomato sauce again."

"I'm sorry," the worker quickly apologized and started to turn around

Patrick quickly grabbed onto the guys' shoulders and turned them back around before he could see their friends trying to sneak away. "Ow, my back!" Patrick cried. "I think I broke my back!" He tilted his head back and let out a loud scream, causing the boy to jump and Noah quickly waved his friends away.

"Ok, ok, don't panic," the worker started to say and grabbed a walkie-talkie from the waistband of his pants. "I'll just call my manager and-"

"No need," Sydney rapidly stopped crying and wiped off his cheeks. "We're good now," he stated when the guys moved out of sight and he jumped to his feet. "Really, we're fine." Noah got to his feet and the two of them literally dragged Patrick out of the aisle and towards the front.

"You can walk now, your back isn't hurt, remember!" Noah stated sharply.

"Yeah, but I like being carried around." Patrick replied.

Noah looked over at Sydney, who nodded and the two of them dropped their brother to the ground before running over to their friends and helping them run everything through the self-scan. Patrick pulled himself off of the floor and hurried over to help as well, quickly sliding Ronan's credit card through the machine and punching the numbers of his PIN when asked.

"You know his PIN number too?" Logan asked, appalled. "What else do you guys know? His social security number as well?"

"That and I also know how to break into a-"Sydney slapped a hand over Patrick's mouth and laughed nervously.

"He has such an active imagination." He stated.

"Well come on before we get caught," Kendall and the others grabbed their bags and they quickly walked out of the store. Once they were a few blocks away, they all started to laugh hysterically.

"That was probably the most fun I've had in a long time!" Sydney cried, eyes shining as he laughed gleefully.

"That was awesome," Carlos agreed and turned to Patrick. "How did you think about the broken back thing?"

"Oh, I got if off of Invader Zim." Patrick replied with a blush of pride. "Anyway, who wants to get some movies before we go back?" he suggested. "I'll pay, and we can get, like, the scariest horror movies in the world."

"Don't you think Sydney would get scared?" Logan asked, looking at the little boy, who puffed his lower lip out in annoyance.

"I won't get scared!" he denied.

"That's sounds like fun," James grinned as he thought about being able to scare his friends silly. "Just as long as I can get to sleep at a decent hour," He added. "I need to go to the gym early tomorrow."

WayneWayne, Logan, Patrick, Noah, and Sydney exchanged frowns.

A/N: I just wanted to have a chapter that showed how the guys got along, still with the underlying tones of them having problems that they're facing so not much is going to happen in this chapter or the next chapter. (I love writing about the chaos that the guys can get into.) So this chapter and the next chapter are filler ones. The next chapter shows how the girls get along, but still has the same thing of the BTR guys having some problems. Then the chapter after that gets REALLY dramatic. I'll update again soon.

-Riley