Thirteen.

Rich was in a good mood, even though it was a travel day, and travel days sucked. All day long spent on a moving bus, trapped with four other boys, was not exactly the most fun thing in the world. And it was as exhausting as doing a show, somehow. Probably from dealing with everyone all day.

CJ and Nick were talking, as they sat around for breakfast. Nick handed Rich a menu so they could get room service before they took off. They only had an hour left, though—not a lot of time for eating and hurrying out the door. He called in an order of scrambled eggs and toast, since sitting on the bus all day was also not great for his stomach and the less he ate at breakfast, the better.

"You're up early," CJ noted cheerfully. "Lately, we haven't seen you until we're on the way out the door and Shawna remembers she has to return you."

"You're jealous," Rich answered.

"Absolutely," CJ agreed. "She's hot."

Nick rolled his eyes. "There's more to liking a person than being hot," he scolded.

"Not when said person is Shawna."

"Hey!" Rich objected. "There's more to her than…"

"Tits?"

"CJ, shut up."

"What did I say? She's got a great rack!"

"CJ!"

"What? Every other breathing male in the country can say so, and I'm not allowed?"

"Shawna is also a really interesting person," Richard snapped.

"How would you know? You never get out of bed."

Richard was about to reply, but Chris wandered into the room, still looking tired and wearing his pajamas. "Hey," he said, smiling a little as he automatically ordered French toast and coffee—it was what he always had for breakfast.

"You look like you're in a good mood," Nick noted. "Happy dreams?"

"Something like that." Chris grinned at him, and Nick raised an eyebrow.

"Someone smuggle in a groupie when we weren't watching?" CJ asked.

"Something like that," Chris repeated.

Everyone exchanged looks. "Chris? Uh… What's up?" Richard finally asked.

"Nothing. I'm just in a good mood. A great mood, really. Have you looked outside today? It's beautiful."

"It's overcast and freezing out."

"Well, you say potato. Is Alejandro up yet?"

"I think he's showering."

"Cool."

"So, um," Nick said, "why are you in such a good mood?"

"I'm not allowed to be in a good mood?"

"Early in the morning on a travel day? History would indicate that no, you are not," CJ said. "So what gives?"

"Nothing," Chris said.

Alejandro and Rosalia strode into the room, Alejandro's hair still damp from the shower, and still buttoning his shirt.

"Morning!" Rosalia chirped.

"Hey, cutie," Chris answered, but he was looking at Alejandro, who blushed and glanced away.

"Uh, 'morning," Alejandro said and picked up the phone. "Rosalia, what do you want for breakfast?"

"Um…" She looked at Chris. "What did you have for breakfast, Chris?"

"French toast." He nodded. "The only way to go. We're still waiting for it, actually."

She turned to Alejandro. "I'll have French toast," she declared.

"Yeah, okay." He coughed. "Me, too." He called the kitchen to place the order, and sat down next to Chris, much to Rosalia's dismay.

Richard raised an eyebrow. "So, how're you this morning, Alejandro?"

"Uh, fine. Good, actually. Great." He ruffled Rosalia's hair. "It's great having her here."

Chris gave him a slightly odd look, one Rich wasn't sure how to interpret. "Yeah, uh… Good. I'm glad you're happy."

"I'm really happy."

"I'm glad."

Richard glanced over at CJ and Nick, who were also watching the exchange, a little confused. "So…" Richard said. "It was a good birthday, then?"

"It was amazing." He smiled, but stared down at the table, still blushing. "It was the best day of my life."

"Wow, you're easy to thrill," CJ noted.

"CJ!" Nick hissed and hit his arm.

"What?"

Alejandro laughed a little, and Chris smiled at him, and Nick stared at both of them. But Alejandro didn't look up.

Finally, Chris reached out and tentatively put a hand on Alejandro's shoulder. "Uh… Everything is okay, right? I mean… You're happy?"

Alejandro looked over at him finally, at a loss for words. He nodded.

"Well… Good, then." Chris pulled his hand away and awkwardness hung in between them.

Nick was now gaping at them. "CJ?" he said quietly, and poked CJ in the ribs.

"Ow! What?"

Nick didn't say anything, just nodded towards Chris and poked him again.

"What?"

Nick added a cough to the gesture.

"What!"

"CJ!"

"What? If you're talking about those two giving each other dopey looks, yes, I noticed."

"Are we giving each other dopey looks?" Chris asked, trying to sound amused, though Richard was pretty sure he was forcing it.

"You're giving him dopey looks and he's blushing."

Rosalia watched the conversation, looking confused. Alejandro glowered at Nick. "Can we discuss this later?" he snapped.

"Oh!" Nick squeaked, and clapped a hand to his mouth. "There's something to discuss!"

"You are so gay," Chris sighed.

"But I'm not the only one," Nick answered in a sing song-ish voice.

"Damn it, Nick, shut up!" Alejandro snapped.

"Alejandro is gay," Rosalia said. "But he doesn't swear usually."

"Oh, god." Alejandro half-buried his head in his hand. "Don't tell Mama, okay?"

"She doesn't like it when you swear."

"That's why you shouldn't tell her."

"I'm not going to lie."

"It was only a little swear word, Rosalia. It's one of the okay ones for grownups to say sometimes."

"You're not a grownup," she scoffed.

"I am eighteen."

"You're a dinosaur," Chris said, and Rosalia giggled.

Richard watched, bemused by how uncomfortable Alejandro looked at all of this, but even more curious. Because if things were what they seemed to be, something important had definitely happened between Chris and Alejandro. And while everyone had seen it coming—even if Rich hadn't been as blatant about it as Nick, he'd noticed—there was a lot of potential for trouble down the line. He wondered if anyone else had thought about that.

But judging by the stars in Nick's eyes, the smirk on CJ's face, and the still remarkably dopey looks that Chris and Alejandro were giving each other, he doubted it.

The bus had pulled up in front of the hotel, and there was a whole rope line of screaming girls outside, which Chris could see through the window. He was waiting casually—well, trying to look casual—for Alejandro, hoping he'd be alone. Chris wanted to talk to him, to make sure everything was okay. He'd been acting really oddly at breakfast, and if there was something wrong…

Chris didn't want to think about that. So he leaned against the wall and waited, but luckily he didn't have to wait long. Alejandro walked around the corner a few seconds later, with his duffel bag slung over his shoulder.

"Hey!" Chris called out, and Alejandro walked over to meet him.

"Hey," Alejandro said quietly, smiling.

"I, uh… Is everything okay?"

"What?"

"Everything. Between you and me. Is it… okay?"

Alejandro looked a little surprised, and kind of nervous. "I… I thought it was. Are you okay?"

"I'm great. I just wanted to make sure we're… on the same wavelength. We are, right?"

"Well… I haven't stopped adoring you since last night, so…"

"Oh, good! Me neither. About you, I mean." He laughed nervously and shot Alejandro a grin, and Alejandro smiled back and set down his duffel bag. "I, I just noticed you seemed a little out of it at breakfast so…"

"Well, you know, my sister's here. It would have been weird to… to be so blatant in front of her. And the other guys already have a habit of minding everyone else's business, so…"

"Okay. I can be subtle." Chris nodded.

"No, you can't." But Alejandro grinned. "I kind of like that about you."

"Well, uh…" Chris shrugged, not sure how to answer, but Alejandro grabbed his hand and tugged him back over to the wall. Chris smiled as Alejandro leaned down to kiss him quickly.

"Good morning, Chris." He grinned back. "See, I couldn't do that at breakfast, with Rosalia there."

"Okay, I got it. Good morning." Chris kissed Alejandro and wrapped an arm around him, and was oblivious enough to the rest of the world that he didn't notice Nick squeak and hurry by so as to not interrupt them.

He was also oblivious enough that he forgot to keep an eye on the hallway and didn't notice Rosalia walking up, backpack in tow, until it was too late.

"Rosalia!" Alejandro yelped, pulling back quickly. "We were just—I just—I—"

She was gaping at them. "Alejandro?" she murmured.

"Oh, god. Um, there's… There's no really good way of putting this, is there? Uh… See, what just happened was, Chris and I… We…"

"See," Chris said, interrupting, and crouching down so he was eyelevel with Rosalia, "the thing is, you said it at breakfast—Alejandro's gay. You understand that, right?"

She nodded.

"Well, me too. And, uh, Alejandro and I are together. I like him a lot."

"You do?" she repeated, sounding stunned. "Why would you like my stupid brother?"

"We, um, should talk about this on the bus," Alejandro said, and reached for his bag. "But don't say anything until we get in the bus, okay, Rosalia?"

"Okaaaay," she said, still sounding unsure.

Chris picked up her backpack and Alejandro took one of her hands, and led her outside. The fans started screaming and normally Chris would have waved and flirted with a few of them, but today he just wanted to get to the bus to explain things to Rosalia. Because if she was upset, Alejandro would be really upset, and Chris didn't want to mess things up between him and his sister. Though he did still smile and wave, and so did Alejandro.

They piled on to the bus and sat down in the middle section, which was supposed to be something like a comfortable living room, but was really just cramped because of the table that shouldn't have been there.

"So…" Alejandro said. "Uh… Rosalia? Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," she pouted.

"You don't sound fine."

She scowled. "I'm fine. I'm gonna read for awhile. You can go away if you want."

Alejandro looked a little bewildered at that. "I… I don't want to go away. I want to hang out."

"With who?"

"With you. You're my sister. And you sat in a plane for ten hours to come visit me."

"Fine." But she still was pouting.

"If you're upset, we should talk about it, Rosalia." He glanced up at Chris, who was sitting across from them, looking on with concern. "I don't want to upset you."

"I'm not upset!"

"Ooookay. Do you wanna… put on a movie or anything?"

"No."

"Do you want to talk?"

"No."

"Do you want to play video games? CJ's got a lot of them."

"No."

"Rosalia, come on. This is your vacation, you should have fun. What's wrong?"

She looked over at Chris, then back at Alejandro, and finally whispered, "You never had a boyfriend before."

"Well… No," he said. "I never met anyone I liked before, who liked me back."

"I liked you."

"Yeah, but you're my sister." He paused. "Is that it, Rosalia? You're still my sister. No one's ever gonna be more important to me. You come first, kiddo."

Chris felt a twinge of jealousy at that, which he knew was irrational, but which he felt nonetheless. But he was smart enough not to say anything.

"Promise?" she asked.

"Cross my heart," he answered, and she held up her pinkie. He nodded solemnly and they locked pinkies on it, and because he could, he pulled her into a bear hug. "Don't worry. You'll always be my favorite."

"I missed you," she said. "I see you on TV all the time but I miss watching shows with you and you helping me with my math homework. Dad's not a very good helper."

"I know, he used to help me with mine. He's not very patient."

"Mama misses you, too. She records it every time you're on TV and she buys every magazine you're in. She keeps a giant book of them."

"I miss being home," Alejandro said. "So I'm really happy you're here."

"Alejandro…" she said.

"What?"

"I can't believe you took Chris. I liked Chris!"

"Well, I liked him too. I liked him first."

"Nuh uh."

"Yeah huh."

"Nuh uh."

Alejandro glanced up at Chris and smiled. "Well, I'm pretty sure I'm right, but who knows?"

"I know! I'm right!"

Chris cleared his throat. "This sounds like a family problem to me. I'll, uh, go hang out with the other guys for awhile."

"Bye, Chris."

"I baked him cookies!"

"Rosalia…"

Chris could hear them bickering in the background as he walked towards the back of the bus, but it sounded like they were mostly joking, now. He hoped.

He was greeted with a hug that was more of a tackle. "Chris! Oh my god! Chris!"

"What? Nick, get off me." He pushed Nick off of him. "Jeez, calm down."

"You like Alejandro! I knew it! I was right!"

"He's going to be insufferable, you realize that, right?" Richard sighed.

"I don't see why he should. It has nothing to do with him," Chris answered.

"It does so. I set you two up."

"Like, three months ago, and you failed."

"But you must have thought about it this whole time!"

"Not… Not really."

"Please," Nick scoffed. "I rule."

"Yes, Nick, you're amazing," CJ answered, his voice monotone.

"You know I am," Nick said, and fluttered his eyelashes at CJ, who threw a pillow at him. "Chris, spill the details now, please?"

"Uh… No?" Chris said.

"You have to. We've all been waiting for this! You two finally slept together, and—"

"Whoa, hey, no we didn't."

"What! But… What?"

"We… didn't sleep together," Chris repeated. "Not that it's any of your business, but we just… talked. And, uh, yeah. Mostly we talked."

"So you two are together now?" Richard asked.

Chris nodded, and grinned despite himself.

"Well… Congrats, then. I… guess…" Rich trailed off, and shrugged.

"But you guys can't make a big deal about it," Chris continued quickly. "Because Alejandro's not really… He's shy, he doesn't like it when people pay attention to him, so if you make him uncomfortable I'll kick your asses."

Nick squeaked again.

"Nick, knock it off." Chris rolled his eyes. "And especially in front of his sister."

"Are you going to tell her?" CJ asked.

"She already knows. Uh… Yeah." Chris looked a little guilty. "Alejandro's trying to explain it to her."

"And she won't say anything to anyone?"

He shrugged. "Alejandro is smart enough to tell her that. I think."

"Things would look pretty bad if fans found out that you are not interested in any of them."

"Yeah, I know. Alejandro knows too. He's the smart one, remember? I just don't want his sister to be upset."

"That's so sweet," Nick cooed.

Chris tried to kick him from where he stood, but the bus chose that moment to finally pull out, and the sudden movement sent Chris careening across the tiny space and into CJ and Richard.

"Hi," he said.

"Get off me," Richard answered.

It was strange how quickly his little sister had managed to permeate every level of his life away from home. Well, Alejandro amended with a slight grin, almost every level. With her gone – she'd left approximately two hours before, clutching her backpack and promising not to tell Mama and Papa that he'd sworn – his room seemed very quiet.

He'd been hoping that Chris would be able to come and spend some time with him; that would definitely have cheered him up. Unfortunately, Chris was busy being interviewed by Seventeen, and he'd been warned beforehand that the interview could take a very long time.

Alejandro would be playing video games to keep busy, but he'd promised CJ that he wouldn't anymore, so that wasn't an option. He could read a textbook, but frankly, at the moment, he was just a little too down to read about wars and the like. Richard was being interviewed by Seventeen as well, Nick was on the phone with his family – again – and CJ was off on a date, so the options for social interaction were fairly limited, unless Alejandro felt like going another round with Weisel. Which he didn't.

And so, it was a Friday night and Alejandro was sitting alone in his room, reading over his contract.

Something that Chris had said the other day, about not being able to afford plane tickets for his family, had stuck in his mind. After all, they were a fairly successful band; shouldn't they be able to afford plane tickets for three people? None of the other guys had seemed all that concerned about it, but Alejandro had checked his account, and had been more than slightly worried to find only three hundred dollars in it.

No one had been satisfactorily able to explain to him why none of them had nearly as much money as they really should, so after Rosalia left, the first thing he did was print up a copy of his contract.

Reading through a contract, he reflected, was something like reading though the Constitution: it was written in legalese, not designed for the average person to comprehend. Luckily, a challenge was just the thing to take his mind off of the fact that, again, it was a Friday night and he was sitting alone, reading his contract. And he'd certainly debated the merits of pre-law when he'd been looking at colleges, and had taken a business law class in high school, before leaving to join the band. And he'd read books about lawmaking, so he was pretty sure he could work it out.

He frowned and circled a paragraph in red pen and moved on. The contract was long—pages. And a little depressing. Weisel kept telling them they were under contract and they had no real choices in what they performed, or where or when, and that was exactly what he was seeing. They were puppets, and Pulitzer Inc. owned them.

He made a note in the margin to check on some of the language about payment of services; it was pretty ambiguous and full of lawyer-speak, but it was an explanation of the pay scale they worked for.

He finished the contract and turned back to the beginning, opened Nick's laptop (graciously loaned, though Nick had shooed him out of his room quickly so he could get back to his conversation—and Alejandro thought he was close to his family), and found an online reference guide to common legalese. After doing some quick translating, and looking it over a few times, he sat back, amazed, with a very clear idea of what was going on.

Pulitzer Inc. was screwing them.

"Chris!" Alejandro half-yelped as Chris and Richard came walking through the door.

"Hey, babe." Chris grinned and slid an arm around Alejandro's waist. "Miss me?"

"Yes, but I have something important."

"Can it wait awhile?"

"No."

Chris frowned. "But you said that after Rosalia left, you and I could take some… private time."

"And we will, but this is really important."

"What's up?" Richard asked.

"Band meeting," Alejandro answered, and glanced at the door, almost paranoid. "In my room. Come on." He glanced down the hall, then called, "CJ! Nick! Come on, meeting!"

"I'm on the phone!"

"Still?" Alejandro wondered aloud.

"Come on," Chris called. "If Alejandro says it's important, it probably is."

"Yeah, yeah." A few moments later, Nick (looking grumpy from having been interrupted) appeared, and CJ followed quickly.

"It has to be better than my date," he mused.

"That bad?" Nick asked.

"No one can compare to you, Nicky. You've ruined me."

"I do what I can," Nick answered, and turned to Alejandro. "What's up?"

Alejandro ushered them into his room and shut the door. "We're being screwed," he said.

The others exchanged looks. "Well, what you and Chris do is your own business, but—"

Alejandro ignored CJ's comment and waved a copy of his contract at them. "I went through my contract today. I worked out everything in it, things I only skimmed and didn't bother understanding when I signed. We're being screwed."

"How so?" Richard asked.

"Well, aside from Pulitzer declaring himself the sixth member of our group and cheating us by taking a sixth of our share of the profits; if I'm reading our contract right, they're taking almost fifty percent of our profit directly."

"What?" Nick asked, frowning. "Can they do that?"

"It's in our contract, they can do whatever they want."

"Oh my god," CJ said. "That's ludicrous! I know the label needs to make cash off of us, but…"

"From my calculations," he pointed at the paper he'd been doing the math on, "we're barely breaking the poverty line."

There was a long silence, then, "What?"

"What we're making comes out to about minimum wage—in a progressive state with a high minimum. In some states, we wouldn't even be considered above the poverty line at all, and we're working more than full time."

"Jesus Christ!" Chris snapped. "This is—it's—you're sure?"

"Pretty damn sure, yes. I went over it three times and triple checked my math."

"So… what do we do?" Nick asked.

"What can we do?" CJ shot back. "If it's in our contracts—if we signed them—then there's nothing we can do until we renegotiate."

"There has to be something! How long until we renegotiate?"

"Four years," Alejandro said.

"Oh, fuck that," Chris said. "We have to be able to do something."

Alejandro shrugged. "I don't know. The contract is pretty… Pretty solidly written."

"So why did you sign it?" CJ asked. "You didn't bother to read it before you signed?"

"Did you?" Alejandro asked.

"Fair point. But you're… You're the smart one!"

"I had my reasons, okay?" Alejandro sighed, glancing over at Chris. "And we all wanted to make it. We'd have signed anything."

Richard nodded. "My mom would have, that's for damn sure. I can't believe she…" Whatever he couldn't believe, his sentence degenerated into a frustrated growl.

"So what do we do?" Nick sprang to his feet and started pacing back and forth, his hands clenched into fists.

"Yeah," CJ said. "I mean, you took the time to read through this whole thing, you've gotta have some kind of idea of… something we could do."

Everybody watched Alejandro intently, and he shrugged, clearly uncomfortable.

"I'm not a lawyer," he said, frustrated. "I don't know. I barely had time to figure this all out before we all came in here."

"So…" Richard said. "You think we'd need a lawyer?"

"I think we should consult one, I guess. If there are any holes in the contract, I don't know enough to find them. And he might be able to tell us what we can do. I guess."

Chris reached for Alejandro's hand to reassure him, and Richard nodded.

"Okay," he said. "Can I use your phone?"

Alejandro nodded, and Richard reached for the phone and dialed quickly. "Hello? …Dad? Do you have a couple of minutes?"

Having Richard's mother and his father in one place was a fairly stressful experience. Though his father seemed to be a fairly relaxed person on his own, as soon as Virginia stepped in to the room, he tensed and things got explosive. For his part, Richard was sitting between them, trying to keep them from yelling. He was used to it, though. It had been a full year of his childhood.

"So you're saying I've failed him as a mother, is that what you're saying?"

"I'm saying you failed him as a manager, Virginia. You failed him as a mother when

he started having panic attacks before he went on stage!"

"Dad, hey, calm down," Richard said.

"So you blame me. Typical. His emotional problems couldn't have had anything to do with a father who was never there for him!"

"I wasn't there because you wouldn't let me be there!"

"Hey, Mom, Dad, come on. Please, let's just… talk business."

"Fine," his dad snapped. "In my professional opinion, you have a very lousy manager."

"John!"

"Well, what kind of a manager doesn't read her client's contract through when she signs it!"

"Okay, well, uh… What's done is done, so, um, if we could just move on from that and figure out a solution…" Richard pleaded.

"Of course, I'm sorry. You know how she gets me."

Richard's mother made a disgusted noise but didn't say anything.

"Okay, we'll just… focus…" Richard said.

"The way I see it, the contract is unfair and exploitative. You signed it, but you did so naively and were both pressured and uninformed by the label of its exact terms. So there are grounds to sue."

"Sue?" Chris asked, glad that the squabbling was at least temporarily over.

"To get out of the contract and have it voided."

"We really would have to sue?"

"Well… yes," he said.

"What would happen to the band?" Alejandro asked.

"Well, if you lose, Pulitzer retains all of your trademarks and music—so you couldn't use any of your recordings, do any of your old songs, or even use your name. And I suspect he's got your faces registered as well, though I'm not sure he can actually do anything with that."

"Great. We can perform wearing masks," CJ said. "And singing Mary Had a Little Lamb."

"That's about the size of it, yes."

"What if we win?"

"If you win, you're free to set up a new contract with another record label, and you'll win the rights to your music, your album, and your faces. Of course, there's no guarantee that you'll win; the contract is well written and thorough. You should think this through and contact a lawyer who specializes in this—I can give you a few contacts."

"You wouldn't do it?" Richard asked.

"Call it creative differences with your manager. That is the show biz term, isn't it, Virginia?"

"And in show biz, the term for lawyer is 'asshole,' but I shouldn't say that with the children around."

The boys exchanged uncomfortable glances, and Richard sighed. "Mom, he's not an asshole. Dad, she's not a bitch. I thought we got through that when I was twelve. And to tell the truth, you two screaming those things at each other at the top of your lungs every night was a pretty big fucking part of me having panic attacks, but hey, it was a long time ago. That's what the therapy was for. Can we please, please be civil to each other for awhile?"

"Ummm… "Alejandro cleared his throat. "Why don't we go… talk about this… For awhile?"

Everyone else nodded quickly and hurried from the room, Richard only lingering for a moment before joining them. He looked totally demoralized when they gathered in Alejandro's room.

"I almost forgot what they were like," he mumbled. "Sorry about that."

"Hey, not your fault," Nick said quickly.

"Yeah, I know. Like I said, years of therapy." He shrugged, clearly eager to get off of that particular subject.

CJ was only too happy to oblige him. "So, what do we think?'

"About suing?" Nick looked slightly uncomfortable. "That's a pretty big step. I mean, what if we lose?"

"If we lose, are we really that much worse off than we are now?" Chris replied. "We're nearly broke, guys. We're a band with a platinum album, and we don't even know if we can afford a lawyer!"

"But if we lose," Nick replied, "we'll have nothing. Not even our faces."

"We can't live like this," Alejandro said quietly. "Not for another four years. Not even for one year."

Richard sighed. "I agree. We can't let Pulitzer get away with this."

"But… Is it so bad? I mean… we don't have a lot of extra cash, but we have our house and we're totally paid for on tour…"

"…and the guy you ordered your Big Mac from this afternoon makes more money than you do."

"I'm not in this for the money!" Nick snapped.

"I am," Alejandro said, and everyone stared at him. "What? I want to support my family—when my parents retire, I want to take care of them. I want to be able to pay for Rosalia's college. I want to be able to pay for my own college, when it comes to that. I love what we're doing, but I joined because I was told that would all happen. And boybands tend to be flash in the pan—after a few years, they fade away. If we haven't made any money when that happens, all I've done is waste time."

"Hey, we won't be flash in the pan," Chris said.

"You're doing this because you have to perform," Alejandro answered. "You won't fade away. I will. I want to, eventually."

"Oh." Chris hesitated, then reached out for Alejandro's hand, almost desperately.

"Not for awhile," Alejandro added quickly, and Chris looked relieved.

Nick sighed. "I know that… I get what you're saying. But if we make it worse…"

"People will still know who we are," Richard said. "Even if we have to change our name…"

"And are forbidden from using any of the songs they love us for?"

"They love us. We can write new songs… We'd be able to write our own songs if we wanted."

"Yeah," Chris said. "We'd get some freedom—we wouldn't be Pulitzer's puppets anymore."

Nick glanced at CJ. "I dunno," CJ said. "But on our last tour, when Chris was dying, according to our contract Weasel didn't have to cancel any shows. He did it out of the kindness of his heart. Which is not something I'd want to count on if I ever get sick, because my mother doesn't kick quite so much ass."

Nick sighed. "I guess that's true."

"I think we have to do this, guys," Chris said. "I don't know about the rest of you, but I've been doing some thinking lately." He gave Alejandro's hand a squeeze. "And my whole life, I've always done whatever the managers said, but I'm sick of not getting to… to express myself. We don't get to be who we want to be, you know? Even if it's not about money—it's about principles, doing what's right. And we're right. We're working hard and busting our asses every day, and Pulitzer's not doing anything but allowing us to work for him. I want to work for myself."

Richard nodded, and Alejandro nodded. CJ paused, then nodded, and Nick sighed. "Well, if I'm outnumbered four to one, there's no real point in arguing, huh?" he said.

"Don't worry," Chris said. "We'll win. We have to."

"Are we all in, then?" Richard asked.The four of them echoed back that they agreed, and he nodded again. "Then it's decided. We're going to take on Pulitzer Inc."