.:Chapter Fourteen – How to get to know your rival PART 3:.

"Getting to know someone else involves curiosity about where they have come from, who they are…" ~Penelope Lively

"So do you have a boyfriend?"

Riley let out an exasperated sigh as she looked away from the menu that she held in her hands, for Umami Burger. She did her best to avoid James' gaze, but she knew that there was no way that she was going to get out of answering the question this time. She had never answered when he had asked, hours ago, Rhuben quickly changed the subject, getting him to forget about it, but it was obvious that he wasn't going to give up until he got the answer now. That was the only thing that the Jacksons had noted about actually going somewhere to sit down for dinner, they knew that the questions were going to start flying.

It was one thing if it had to do with their music career, and it was another if it was innocent questions to get to know them, but now the questions were getting personal and it was making them nothing short of anxious. Patrick couldn't sit still, Noah's eyes kept darting over to the exit, and Sydney was looking at his lap, if he wasn't silently watching each of the boys. Not even the fact that their friends (Dak and Lizzie) being there to help deflect some of the questions was helping.

They restaurant was pretty crowded, but the noise from the other patrons wasn't loud enough for her to pretend that she didn't hear his question. They were sitting outside of the restaurant as it was, at one of the dining tables outside, watching as cars passed by, allowing the cool air that blew off the ocean to cool them down.

Riley hesitated for a minute, crossing her legs as she nursed a root beer float. Kendall, Logan, and Carlos seemed to have fallen silent at the question as well, also wanting to know the answer, but trying not to look to eager about it.

It's probably not that they want to know if we are dating someone, it's probably that they wanted to know who it was, in case they could meet someone famous, Rhuben noted as she spun her straw in her grape soda. Either that or the silence is starting to get to them. They had all been sitting in silence for about twenty minutes just enjoying the view and not-so-much each other's company. Even Lizzie, who always seemed to be talking, didn't know what to say to break the silence.

James watched as Riley tried to think of a way to dodge the question. Her eyes moved to the side, as if asking Patrick, who was sitting next to her, for help. A small, curious smile crept on his face.

"Don't act like you don't hear me?" He said with a lift in his voice.

Riley pulled her long, black hair out of her face. "We're back to this?"

"Yep."

Riley's lips pursed for a moment."No," she said, shaking her head. "I don't have a boyfriend."

"Why not?"

"Not looking for one," She said with a shrug and then in a quieter voice added, "It's not worth it, anyway." She raised her voice again. "I don't date in the music industry and it's not like it would matter anyway," her mouth moved to its default, a smirk. "We have that rule for our bands, remember?"

"Oh, you mean that 'no dating because you're working together, rule?'" Lizzie spoke up. She gave a mischievous smile as she nudged her brother on the arm. Dak gave her a warning look, but she ignored it. "He has it too, since he's been working with them for two years now."

Dak glared at her.

"Don't worry about it," Patrick broke in, waving a hand. "Basically, since you guys are just starting, Gustavo doesn't want you guys to get distracted with girl drama and everything, since a relationship can easily take your focus away from your work to unnecessary drama."

Noah nodded in agreement.

"So research tells me that you're 'The Face' of the band." Rhuben said after a moment. "Since we're on the topic of dating and everything," she brought her foot up to rest on the edge of her chair as she looked at the four boys seriously, her blue eyes boring into theirs. "You're used to girls liking you because you're all attractive in your own way," she paused, her eyes shifting back and forth. "I guess. What'll you do if you guys aren't a success?"

Logan shifted in his chair uncomfortably. This wasn't the way he wanted things to go. He wanted to easily fall back into the friendship that he used to have with them. He wanted to be able to pick up right where they left off, right before he had to move. He remembered them being sad when they left, he remembered writing letters…but he got nothing in reply. It made sense in a way, they were famous now, and it must be hard to write back when they had so much fan-mail to go through. But that didn't mean that they couldn't be friends anymore.

Did it?

To them it obviously meant that, as they were acting like he was gum stuck to the bottom of his shoe. They didn't act like that before, something was wrong. He knew that for sure. Something had changed them for the worse, and he was sure that it wasn't the fame that they now had.

It was something else.

"That's not going to happen." Kendall replied smoothly, noting the challenge hidden in her tone. "We're going to be a success."

"But you can't guarantee that," Dak pointed out patiently. "You can't be sure that as soon as you start releasing music it will be well-received. Pop music may be on its way back in, but it can easily be on its way out in the next month. Take Hanson for example."

"Who?" Sydney asked, his eyebrows lowering.

"You're too young to know them," Lizzie explained quickly. "They were a huge success with their song MMMBop, but as soon as the pop scene went out, they basically fell off the face of the earth." She flipped her hair over her shoulder. "But that wasn't the case, they continued to do their music, but either people didn't know or care anymore." She shrugged. "It's bound to happen to anyone."

Dak nodded in agreement. "It's hard to break into the US market," he motioned to the Jacksons. "That's why I've been helping them these past few years."

"Which we're thankful for," Riley agreed with a nod and a half smile over to her friend. "And that's why we probably have a bit of a leg up, to try and get back into it, that and that Ronan has been successful with a few other bands besides ours in the past couple of years." She looked serious. "And Gustavo hasn't had a hit in 9, it just makes it that the odds are against you." She tilted her head to the side. "Do you think that you can handle it?"

"This is just like what would happen if we were in any hockey game," Kendall said after a moment. He missed Patrick letting out an annoyed sigh, Noah rolling his eyes, and Sydney turning and giving Riley and Rhuben a look, to which they returned with a raised eyebrow. "You've been losing the whole game and seem to have done nothing right, but do you give up? No, you take the puck and try to get as many slap shots as you can to pull ahead and get that win." He reached out and smacked his hand on the table top. "And that's what we're going to do here. We don't care if our first CD fails; we'll work hard and make a second one to make it work."

With a determined grin, he reached out and grabbed onto James' shoulder. "I only came out here to make my bud's dream come true, and I'm not going to stop until that happens." James grinned back as Kendall turned back to Riley, Rhuben, and Dak. "So we can take whatever you throw at us to get us there."

Riley and Rhuben looked at each other for a few moments, silently talking to each other. Dak leaned back in his seat, trying to hide the smile that was worming its way on to his face.

You have to give him mad props there; it looks like they're not going to give up anytime soon. That's going to be a good thing to have while they're out here. Dak thought to himself.

He waited for Riley and Rhuben to finish before leaning towards the two girls. "I'm in if you are." He said, holding out a hand towards Big Time Rush as he did so.

Rhuben looked over at Riley, who waited a second before nodding at her and then at her brothers. The five of them leaned forward and held their hands out as well. "We're in, but not making any promises that this is going to be easy." She warned the boys.

Carlos beamed as the four boys reached out and placed their hands in the circle as well. "We wouldn't want it any other way."

"Famous last words." Noah said so quietly that only his siblings could hear.

They nodded in agreement.

"So, what's the first thing that we need to do to be sure that we have major success?" Logan asked clearing his throat as the waiter came with their food. He sat up straight, waiting as the waiter placed his plate of food down in front of him before turning his attention back to his new co-workers.

Patrick looked amused. "Well, for one thing, you could do with a better wardrobe…"

"So, you should bring Katie with you next time," Lizzie said later that night as they dropped Big Time Rush off at the PalmWoods. The four of them were carrying two bags each of the new clothes that had been forced upon them while they were out.

"I'm sure she'll like that," Kendall agreed. "She was actually kind of jealous that we were able to go hang out today while she went to an audition that she didn't really want to go to."

"Oh, I hope it went well for her." Lizzie gave a warm smile. "Bring her by anytime you feel like, my parents won't mind and I would like to hang out with her. It gets kind of boring, only having to hang out with my brother all the time."

"Thanks for that, Liz, thanks a lot." Dak said as he reached out and purposefully messed up her hair.

"Little sisters, right?" Kendall asked with a light laugh.

Dak gave him a look, letting him know that he knew exactly what he was talking about. He looked at his watch and then made a face at the time before turning back to the new upcoming band. "So you should turn in early today." He said. "You need to focus on getting some sleep, since their whole career is really going to start tomorrow. Bright and early." He added.

"Don't worry, we're ready for this." Kendall said with a determined nod.

"If you say so," Rhuben shrugged. "Be at Rocque Records at twelve sharp and we'll start from there." She crossed her arms over her chest as Kendall, Logan, Carlos, and James waved and disappeared inside the PalmWoods. "Something tells me that we're going to regret this." She said as she turned back towards the limo.

"You said the same thing about meeting me." Dak reminded her.

"And I'm still regretting that." Rhuben replied.

Riley chuckled as she walked back from talking to Drake and then walked to the back of the car. She turned to her brothers, who had their heads poked out of the sunroof window. "You can take this to drop Lizzie off at home and then go back to Ronan's apartment. We'll meet you there to take you home," she jerked her thumb over at Dak and her sister. "We're going to go back to get his truck and talk about what we're going to be doing to help the guys tomorrow."

"You look like you'd rather suck a lemon." Patrick remarked.

"Good observation." Riley replied.

"Its fine," Sydney said with a smile. "We'll see you back home." He, his brothers, and Lizzie poked their heads back into the car as the limo pulled out of the parking lot and disappeared down the street.

"So what do you think?" Dak asked as he turned to the Jacksons as they started to walk out of the parking lot and down the street. "I think they have a lot of potential." He placed his hands into his jeans pockets. "We have our work cut out for us."

"I agree on the potential part." Riley said, crossing her arms over her chest as she looked at him. "But right now I think they're throwing it away because they're so star-struck with LA and everything."

"But you have to see where they're coming from," Dak reminded the two of them. "They haven't been in LA for long, so they're still trying to get used to everything about them. Plus, the people at the PalmWoods are trying to do the same thing, achieve their dreams. So it's going to be around them almost 24/7."

"We'll give them the benefit of the doubt," Rhuben agreed, pursing her lips slightly. "For now."

A/N: Don't forget to follow us on tumblr dark-elements-10 . tumblr . com as well as our twitter DarkElements10. We love to answer your guys questions, so you can do it on our tumblr or our formspring which is DarkElements10 as well.

Next chapter will have a bit of everyone. Still don't know if I'm gonna fit all three stories in this one, or split them up.

Cheers,

-Riles