Little Sister

By: Riley

Summary – Katie has always been the guys' little sister. But at sixteen she's not so little anymore. Big Time Rush is bigger than ever, keeping Kendall and the others away from home for long stretches of time. So she's has to learn how to deal with her problems on her own. It might not have been a good idea to turn to the internet to do it.

*Story warnings: Rated 'T' for language and sexual themes. Though this level of 'T' inches closer to 'M' at some points. This story focuses mostly on the Knight family but has OCs as well.

.:Chapter One:.

Happy 16th Brithday!

Katherine Apple Knight.

The Palm Woods.

You're invited to…

Fifteen-year-old Katie Knight twisted her mouth to the side as she gazed at the postcard sized invitation that harmlessly rested on her bedspread. All she had to do was put it in an envelope and send it off. Like all the others. Her mom was definitely going to be there (no matter how hard Katie tried to say she didn't need supervision for her sixteenth birthday), her grandparents, both sets, were coming from Virginia and Kansas, her friends were going to be there, Gustavo and Kelly were going to be there, her boyfriend was going to be there, and all four of her brothers were going to be there.

Okay, so Kendall was really her only brother. But he, James, Carlos, and Logan were a package deal. Besides, they were all brothers to her and they wouldn't forgive themselves if they missed her high school graduation. And, she'd begged and pleaded with them to get their mom to not come to the party because she really didn't need a chaperone, and it blew up in her face when they insisted they'd be there to watch over her party instead.

"No, you really don't have to do that," Katie said, shaking her head. She couldn't keep her eyes from growing wide with horror at the mere thought. "I just don't want mom to make a fuss."

"Who's making a fuss?" Logan asked.

"Yeah, we'll make sure it's the best party any girl could have for her sweet sixteen," James agreed.

Carlos nodded and leaned toward her, face growing serious. "What sort of games did you want to play? I know Pin the Tail on the Donkey is out, but everyone likes a good pinata!"

Katie turned her pleading gaze to Kendall, all but getting on her knees, throwing her arms around his waist, and screaming to the heavens that his goofy friends would be worse than her mother because they'd find even worse ways to embarrass her. Just by "helping". Just by being themselves. Just by existing.

Kendall had merely laughed and placed his hand on Katie's shoulder, squeezing it as he said, "I promise your party's going to be fine with or without mom there." Katie glared. He quickly added, "And I'll make sure these guys are on their best behavior. No one's going to embarrass you." He plastered a smile on his face, squeezing Katie to his side. "So long as my baby sister doesn't get any funny ideas."

"What funny ideas?" Katie struggled to free herself form his grasp, planting her hands on his side and pushing with all her might to get away from him.

"We were sixteen once, we know how those parties go," James said. He started to count with his fingers. "Seven Minutes in Heaven, Spin the Bottle, Truth or Dare…"

"Mom banned us from playing Truth or Dare since Carlos was sent to the hospital with food poisoning," Katie pointed out.

Logan sighed, shaking his head as Carlos beamed with pride. "I told you eating everything in the fridge on a dare was a bad idea. Those hot dogs had to have been in there for weeks."

"They tasted fine to me." Carlos patted his stomach for emphasis.

"Going down or coming up?"

Katie groaned as the guys all laughed and exchanged high-fives. Boys. But she couldn't convince any of them not to come. Just about everyone was going to be there.

Except maybe one person. Katie twisted her mouth to the side, tapping the invitation against her palm. She tilted her head, studying the address posted on the other side. Not that she didn't have it memorized by that point, she'd read it so much.

There was a knock at her door and Katie scrambled to hide the invitation, whipping back and forth, trying to figure out the best place to stash it that no one else would find. Immediately, she felt silly. What was so incriminating about an invitation if no one knew who it was for?

"Come in!" She sat back just as the door opened. Her mother came into the room with a smile. Katie smiled back as her mother ventured into the room and sat on the end of her daughter's bed. "Hey mom."

"Sweetie, you've been in here for hours now." Mrs. Knight reached out and gently stroked the side of Katie's face. "Is everything okay?" Her eyes searched Katie's face in only the equally calculating and warm way a mother could.

"Yeah." Katie smiled. "Everything's fine."

How could things not be fine?

They were going to be moving into a house, an actual house, in Bel-Air soon. She was acing almost all of her classes at the Palm Woods school. She worked in commercials every chance she got. She had her brother and her mom. She had the boys in Big Time Rush. She had Gustavo and Kelly and (in a way) Griffin. She had great friends and a great boyfriend.

There was nothing for her to complain about.

Almost nothing.

"So what's kept you cooped up for so long?" Mrs. Knight looked down at the envelope sticking out from underneath the pillow Katie had pulled into her lap. "Besides arts and crafts." She waved the envelope back and forth and raised her eyebrows. "I thought I banned you and Kendall from arts and crafts."

Katie rolled her eyes. "Mom, that was years ago, get over it."

"You don't just get over clumps of glue and glitter ground into the carpet and sticking all over everything, including your children in the five seconds it took for you to get a pair of scissors from the kitchen in only a few years."

Oh yeah. That. Katie pretended to think. "I'm pretty sure that was more than five seconds considering it was long enough for me to get my hand glued to Kendall's hair." She started to laugh. "It's too bad he made me burn all of the pictures from before his hair grew back. I have a few things I'd like for Christmas."

Mrs. Knight pursed her lips. Tried not to smile. "I'm not even going to ask."

"That'd be smart, mom. Keeps the rest of your hair from going gray." Katie smiled sweetly at her mother. Mrs. Knight narrowed her eyes and looked closely at her daughter then at the envelope in her hand. They weren't going to have a teasing conversation of how much she dyed her hair. No, her mother knew something was up and it was only so long Katie could keep it quiet. She sighed. "I was just…I was just thinking that…" she reached behind her and pulled the invitation out from beneath her bedcovers. She handed it to her mother, keeping her eyes down. "I was thinking of inviting dad…to my graduation."

"Oh." Mrs. Knight's head jerked back in surprise. Then her eyebrows came together in a 'V', forehead wrinkling.

Katie chewed on her lower lip, waiting for her response. To say something. Anything. Anything other than the long silence that made the sound of her brother and his friends arguing over what channel to watch that much more deafening. Finally, Katie took in a long breath. "Mom…"

"If you want to invite him, sweetie, it's fine. Your father and I are working through our relationship the best we can. And you know we're getting along better now than we ever have."

Katie was close to pointing out that their entire dating relationship and the years before she and Kendall were born were great between the two of them but found it was smarter than she didn't. Her mother was telling the truth, since her sort of ex-husband showed up, they hadn't argued, hadn't yelled at each other as much as they did when their marriage was imploding. There was still a tense silence at times when they were around each other, that awkwardness they couldn't quite get through. The simmering anger of unspoken feelings that were waiting to bubble to the surface.

But at least they could handle pleasant small talk. Sure, there were a few things that were awkward—Kendall still acted aloof and colder than Katie had ever seen when he was around their dad, (when they weren't talking about hockey), and Katie felt like she was betraying her brother somehow as she was still so close to her dad.

"Nothing should keep you from inviting him if you want to," Mrs. Knight continued. Probably reading her mind. She was always good at that.

"I mean, I was just wondering," Katie said quickly. "I haven't really decided yet. To…invite him or not. I was just thinking." She looked away as her mother was silent. She was getting that look in her eye again. "Mom, please don't start crying. You cry enough every time the guys leave."

"I know, I just can't help it." Mrs. Knight reached up and wiped away her tears. "It's just hard to see how much you've grown up since we first came out here."

"And to think you were close to wanting to go back home," Katie reminded her. She moved to sit cross-legged. Her eyebrows came together. "They're in a band. They're going on tour. Making a name for themselves—"

"—You mean making money," Mrs. Knight broke in, giving her daughter a knowing smile. "That's the part you care about."

"Not only. I'm just trying to broaden my horizons with different means of career paths I can take. I can't help it if Kendall's doing a big part of the work for me." Katie smiled to herself. She twisted her mouth to the side. "They're been gone longer latterly. It was four straight months this time."

"That's what happens when you're in a band, Katie," Mrs. Knight brushed some of Katie's hair back from her face. A move she would've normally jerked her head out of the way of, but felt nothing but the lasting comfort she didn't know she needed. "The bigger they get, the more they have to tour. The more they have to work."

"Do you think he'll miss my birthday?"

Mrs. Knight held her breath, unsure of how to respond.

It wasn't something they talked about a lot, but something they certainly did need to acknowledge. As much as Kendall managed to keep up a positive façade about Big Time Rush's future, there were still a lot of sacrifices that had to be made. He didn't spend as much time with his family as he'd like, long nights in the studio replaced dinner with the family. Days hanging out with Katie turned into a few minutes to talk in passing, sometimes even just texts throughout the day.

But he still worked hard in everything he did. Worked hard in Big Time Rush, kept up with his classes at the Palm Woods. Planned for the future in case the band didn't work out. Tried to determine if he'd go to college or play hockey in some way. But throughout it all, they didn't talk much about what he'd do if and when he had to finally leave his family. It couldn't be ignored that he needed to decide soon—what his future was to hold. He needed a backup plan, bands didn't last forever. And he was starting to get a bit old for hockey.

In that moment, Katie thought it was stupid idea to even think about inviting her father. But things should've been okay.

What could go wrong?

A lot, honestly. But she really did want him there…if everyone else was okay with him being there.

So, later that night, she asked Kendall what he thought. "Can I invite him? Would you mind if he was there?" Held her breath as he waited for his answer. Waited for his reaction. Saw the subtle clenching of his jaw as he moved his finger over the fretboard of his guitar, plucking away at the strings. Almost absentmindedly. It didn't sound like anything she'd herd him play before but didn't sound bad.

Finally, he stopped and dropped his hands to his lap. He looked her in the eye, put on the brave face she was so accustomed to seeing. The "Kendall Knight" face. The everything was going to work out, face. The "I'm about to give a speech" face that seemed to motivate everyone around him. But, instead of a speech, she got a simple, "If he wants to come, sure," as a response along with a shrug of the shoulders.

"But would you be upset if he didn't show?" Katie then pressed. Kendall blinked in surprise. It surprised her, herself. She'd never asked him that before. Always wondered how he'd felt if he was there, not how he felt if he wasn't.

"No," he finally said. "Because I expect him not to be there." Katie sighed heavily. "Look, Katie, I know you love dad. I don't want to take that from you. But I feel the way I feel. If I expect him not to be there and he shows up, cool, it's a surprise. If not then it's exactly what I expected."

"Really?"

"Really."

"You're so full of crap," Katie said with a shake of her head.

Kendall chuckled to himself. "Maybe," he replied and went back to playing the guitar, singing to himself while Katie curled up on the couch and watched, swaying to the melody.

So, Katie didn't feel as guilty as she probably should have when she decided to send the invitation. Kendall said he didn't mind and it wasn't like he could control her. If he didn't show up, fine, but if he did…that was even better.

A/N: Well, I've had this sitting on my computer for much longer than I thought I would. But I've recently gotten back into writing for BTR thanks to some friends on tumblr and decided to give this one a go as my first foray back into it. Not to mention I've had it sitting on my tumblr's 'upcoming projects' section for over a year.

Here's the thing, don't expect this to be updated regularly/'on a schedule' as I do with my Flash and 3 Ninjas stories. Those two fandoms have my utmost attention at the moment while this is something I couldn't let go. Hopefully, if I write this well enough, it won't be as long as my old BTR stories. At the moment I'm thinking 20 chapters max.

But let me know what you think.

Cheers,

-Riley