Big Time Jaded

Summary: "Pretty Boy?" Carlos repeated in a slightly jealous tone, shooting daggers at James.

James' gaze hardened and he mentally groaned, he knew very well what was going to come from this: A lot of rivalry.

All he knew was that she would be his.

Rating: T

Pairing: Jades [Jade and James]

AN: So FINALLY an update, huh? xD I've neglected this story along with a whole bunch of mine that I will probably never finish because I'm lazy and full of too many ideas that I execute at the same time.

AllOfMeHatesYou [no surprise there] requested I update this one, so I did. He also expected me to get the update done in one day, which wasn't cool - and didn't happen AT ALL, but I tried. xD

CHECK OUT HIS STORY: "Jade's Big Time Revenge" Because it is undoubtedly the best thing I've ever read. Why wouldn't it be? He wrote it. I adore his stories.

READ IT; REVIEW IT; IT IS AMAZING. Especially if you're a Jades fan like him and I are!

And don't forget to review this one!

- Nat

[OoOoOoO]

So once they got down to talking, Carlos and Jade seemed to be able to hold a conversation really well and James had to practically sit there and watch them interact, like a third wheel. HE had found Jade first therefore HE should have dibs on speaking to her. But no instead he just stayed stationary, watching them.

Tori had attempted to strike up conversation with him, but he was only halfway interested. But he did spend a little time glaring at the fluffy-haired guy, her ex-boyfriend or whatever. He looked a bit frazzled to see Jade so involved in a conversation with an attractive male.

James was more so bothered by the love struck look in both Beck and Carlos' eyes. He'd just met the girl, and he already liked her A LOT, but that didn't mean he felt any less protective. As far as he was concerned, he had dibs. Beck had his chance and Carlos wasn't her type. She was taller than him! And they just wouldn't look good together.

He was pretty, tall, muscular, AND sensitive! He was the complete package. But was she paying any attention to him? NO!

"So you two are in a band or something?" Finally, Jade was pointing some attention towards him! He wasn't going to miss his chance! He leapt out of his seat and squished in between Carlos and Jade, leaning an arm on the table to block out Carlos, who looked agitated.

"Yes, we are. Big Time Rush. I'm BASICALLY the leader, because I have the most unique voice and I was the reason the band started in the first place." He stated matter-of-factly, rubbing his knuckles on his shirt, feeling rather impressed with himself. She was a performer; therefore she could appreciate a good origin story! Or so he hoped.

Jade raised her eyebrows rather disbelievingly. "The leader?" She severely doubted that, but she crossed her arms and allowed him to continue. She was a bit fonder of watching him speak. He had a /very/ good looking face; it was a little mesmerizing, especially the hazel eyes. "Well, how'd you start it?" She asked irritably when he stopped talking for a minute.

James may have been caught staring at her too. She WAS a gorgeous girl, in all honesty. Dark, pristinely curled locks with purple colored streaks running through them. Her eyes were hypnotic, large and lined with eyeliner to give them a little chutzpah to stand out even more and she had a rocking body; once again - quite the bust. Where had this girl been all his life? Her personality could use some tweaking in the eyes of others, but he liked it, actually. She was - different, but in a really good way.

"Oh, yeah! Well, it was always /my/ dream to become famous, so there were auditions in town and I convinced all of the guys to go with me! They didn't even really want to, but I'm the leader, so they all listened to me and -."

"I thought Kendall's the leader." Carlos added in just to knock down James a little. He was now feeling what James was feeling - very unpaid attention to. He didn't like that! Jade and him had been talking for so long until she had to ask James a question!

James turned his head sharply to glare at the Latino. "Yeah, well, I led that day!" He turned back to look at Jade. "And so I went up and auditioned and they LOVED me,"

Carlos once again broke in with, "Gustavo thought you were the worst!"

About this time, James had had enough with Carlos interrupting him and making him intentionally look bad in front of Jade. "At least I didn't fart into the mic!"

The Latino flashed a quick smile to Jade who looked disgusted. "It was a joke! I was joking around!"

"Uh-huh, at least I could take it seriously!" He stared daggers at Carlos, who in turn did the same, holding the steel-like gaze very angrily.

Jade exhaled, having enough of their little match. "Pretty Boy, Carlos." Once again, James took A LOT of pride in the fact she was still addressing him as Pretty Boy rather than James. That still meant she found him better looking than Carlos, which he was! "So, who's Gustavo?" And the conversation carried on.

Eventually, Carlos had to get up because he'd gotten a HUGE soda drink and he really had to pee. He'd lasted as long as he could to not leave James alone with Jade, but he REALLY had to go so he raced off. He wasn't going to let him get the upper hand; at least for too long.

James took this opportunity to flirt Jade up a bit, especially since lunch was now ending and he could walk with her individually, without the prying eyes of everyone else at her table. Alone time with her was GOLDEN and definitely a virtue he was going to hold onto.

"Hey hey hey!" He called, weaving through to her again amongst the crowd. It was like going on a hundred meter dash with her! Man, she walked fast. "Jade!" He swore he stopped to think for a sing second and she'd suddenly disappeared!

Jade turned towards him abruptly, making him jerk to a stop quickly. "What?" She was relatively annoyed for having to listen to twenty minutes of him and Carlos exchange put down's and then respectively switching back and forth to try and impress her. It was so much more fun when SHE delivered the put down's.

"You free tomorrow night? Because I am." He wiggled his eyebrows suggestively, trying to enforce some of the James Diamond charm. But she sadly, didn't look like she was buying into it. She rolled her eyes and stalked back inside and towards her locker, leaving him to catch up. But he was relentless, so she once again faced him.

Jade pinched the bridge of her nose, frustrated to her max. "Look, James." But James DID NOT do rejection, so he cut her off quite quickly.

"It's just - friendly! We can hang out, get to know each other and what happens happens! I know you just got out of a relationship." He added to try to appear sensitive, but then he mentally face palmed when he realized she'd NEVER spoken about that douche and her, so he'd basically came across as a major stalker.

She opened her mouth to question him, when once again he just blowing over her completely. James had stolen a glance over his shoulder to see Carlos walking down the stairs, so he had to make this quick! He stole her notebook out of her hand [she'd been preparing to go to class and he'd been bombarding her] and quickly uncapped a pen with his teeth, quickly scrawling out his name and number.

He shut it and practically tossed it to her, backing up when Carlos stopped at the stairs, glaring at him. "Just give it the night to sink in and text me your thoughts, okay?" He flashed a brilliant smile, his eyes widening when Carlos began running at him.

Usually what happened when he led Jade AWAY from anywhere Carlos would go! James could be clever too.

"SEE YA, JADE!" He hastily winked in her directions and enveloped the frantic Latino in his arms, dragging him out the doors to avoid freaking her out even more. He NEEDED to score points with Jade and Carlos just wasn't helping his odds.

He tossed Carlos back and stared at him. "Dude, why're you tackling me? I was just talking to Jade." He said rather smugly, folding his arms.

"THAT'S EXACTLY WHY I'M TACKLING YOU!" Carlos shouted in a rage, throwing his arms up. He was so upset! Finally, he has a shot at a girl and charming James Diamond had to come in and swoop her up! His face fell and he threw his arms down, sinking against the wall. "You told me you were going to help me, not try and steal her!"

James looked at him like he was crazy. "A hot girl like that? Carlos, you can't expect me not to throw a little flirt at her! Have you seen her? You can't hog a girl like that all to yourself!"

"You were doing a pretty good job at that before I came out of the bathroom!" He accused unhappily, jabbing a finger in his direction. "Besides, I already have dibs on her! Old crush!"

His jaw dropped and he shook his head rapidly. "No - way! Rule of dibs doesn't apply! That's not fair!"

"It's totally fair!" The Latino leapt forward and got in his face. "She's MY girl and you can't steal her away from me! You're supposed to still like Lucy!" He pointed out. "Let me have this one!"

James scoffed. "Lucy's on tour! You guys were the ones who told me to move on from her and I did! I - want - Jade, and you can't stop me from winning her!" If this was going to be a competition, then so be it! It wouldn't be the first time him and Carlos dueled over a girl!

"Yeah, well, I'm going to get her first!" Carlos vowed, narrowing his eyes at his supposed best friend! What kind of best friend tried to steal your girl? A bad one!

He stared at his friend cautiously. "Well, if we're going to compete for her, I think we should have some rules!" There was no way Carlos was going to pull anything sneaky to try and wrap Jade around his finger, even if he doubted Jade would fall for anything stupid; she seemed like a well-rounded girl and definitely intelligent. When he'd been speaking to her, she'd left him perplexed with some of the words she'd used.

"Like what?" Carlos demanded, pulling the tough façade as well. They were both trying to be tough guys, unaffected by the situation.

He searched his head for the answer he was looking for and fell upon one. "Like whoever gets a kiss from her without a slap or any other violent gesture gets her!" From what he'd picked up, if she reacted positively to either of them, it'd be a miracle.

The contemplative expression bloomed on the Latino's face, before his face burst into determination. "Yeah! That! And no asking her out on dates! That's unfair alone time and totally doesn't count when we're competing for her!"

James' face filled with confliction and his lips upturned sheepishly. "That rule can start now." He technically hadn't broken it earlier; the rules hadn't even been in mind at that point! Besides, it was platonic - kind of. Jade was aware his intentions were anything more than friendly.

Carlos gasped. "YOU ALREADY ASKED HER OUT?!" He couldn't believe James! He'd been gone for five minutes tops to use the bathroom and that'd been just enough time for him to work her up!

He waved his hands sporadically to try and calm his friend. "Not yet! I kind of - did, sort of, but it wasn't really a date! I told her it could be friendly and we could just hang out! She hasn't even said yes!" James wasn't one to waste time; Carlos should really know him better than that.

The Latino sputtered. "How are you going to know if she says yes? You're not in contact with her!" He was just being clueless now - as if James WOULDN'T give her his number. Carlos stupidly had missed out on his opportunity and James would by no means correct him!

James may have lacked common sense in a lot of other places, but in the matters of the heart, he was an expert! And he WOULD win Jade! SHE WOULD BE HIS!

He wasn't going to tell him everything either. "Uh.. I'll find a way!" He insisted, tilting his chin up haughtily. "Well I have a date to plan!" He proclaimed and he turned on his heels and stalked back to the car.

"Me too!" Carlos said, even though he technically didn't have anything really arranged with Jade and also stalked to the car.

They met on opposite sides and glared at each other.

"What're you doing here?" Carlos asked bitterly.

"We took the same car here, Carlos!" James informed him with a discreet roll of his eyes. "We're going to have to drive back!"

He made a disgruntled face. "Fine!" Getting in on the other side and buckling angrily, crossing his arms and specifically turning away from James. James did the same. He didn't even hesitate to snap at Carlos when he wanted to fiddle with the radio station. That was off limits from now on!

[OoOoOoO]

"Hey Jade!" Cat greeted her once the whole ordeal of Carlos and James was over with. Her friends hadn't been able to get a word in edgewise when it came to the two boys fiercely battling speech with the Goth. But something about the redhead's tone was a little wistful and Jade caught on.

She was still contemplating the date, but turned her attention to her friend. "Cat." Her eyes narrowed suspiciously as she took note of her slumped posture and sort of - sad voice? Why would she be sad? "Cat, did Robbie do anything to you?" She asked. "Because if he did, I'll twist him into a pretzel and shuck him off the -"

Jade stopped talking when Cat rapidly shook her head side-to-side, her inference about the ventriloquist for once, being wrong. "Well, what's wrong? Not that I care, but you seem down for some reason." She stuffed a multitude of different textbooks into her locker, exchanging them for the class she had to next go to.

"Who were those guys?" The poor redhead hadn't caught on to what was going on. Everyone had been so transfixed and she'd just kind of sat there - infatuated with the short Latino.

She froze and stopped what she was doing, dropping her arm. "Well, one of them I met a few years ago. Remember Manny?"

Cat's face broke out into a smile. "Yeah! He always gave me candy when I was feeling down!"

"He's like cousins with him or something. He introduced us a few years ago and Carlos apparently hasn't forgotten about me." She shrugged, though feeling a bit satisfied that she'd been so memorable - even if she usually was because she wasn't a face you could easily forget; at least in her opinion.

She tilted her head. "What about the other one? The tall, pretty one?"

Jade sent her a look, but she didn't necessarily know why. She just did when Cat happened to call James pretty. "Well, Pretty Boy seems to be a friend of Carlos. They're in a band, Big Time Flush or whatever."

"BIG TIME RUSH!" Cat screeched all of a sudden, in not only correction but also excitement, drawing attention from other pedestrians, before clapping her hands over her mouth, realizing she'd spoken a little too loudly. Jade was looking at her in a very startled way and she felt a little embarrassed.

The little redhead slowly removed her hands from her lips, looking innocent. "I love them."

"Then why didn't you recognize them?" Jade quizzed, slamming her locker door shut and stuffing the remainder of her books into her bag.

Cat pursed her lips, looking up at the ceiling as if it would have an answer. "I thought he looked familiar.."

"Who looked familiar?" The brunette asked to the girl's open statement, rather whispered and probably rhetorical, but Jade wanted to know anyway. The redhead had been a bit mysterious ever since she'd approached Jade and that was a side that she wasn't used to seeing. Usually, her best friend was a lot easier to figure out.

"NO ONE!" She shot backwards and ran off in a heated frenzy, causing a scene per usual. It was no secret Cat Valentine had a few screws loose - otherwise, she was really that special.

Jade released a breath she hadn't known she'd been holding and turned to walk off to her next class, a silly technologies class she wasn't terribly fond of. A majority of the time, she just sat in the back and texted. What point was it? She'd taken the class last year and they'd suddenly made a rule that you needed two years of the class, when really, all the second year of the class was a review of the stuff you'd learned the prior year and Jade didn't have time for that. Her time was very precious.

But once she did arrive and took her usual seat - away from anyone else because she didn't have anyone worth her time in the class - she was suddenly overwhelmed with a very smug feeling. Two boys were fighting over her.

That had never happened before. Usually, she'd been the one fighting for someone else - like Beck, for instance. Ever since Tori had arrived to Hollywood Arts, she'd had to fight and kick for Beck's attention, but ever since they'd broken up a little over two and a half months ago she hadn't needed to do that.

She preferred avoiding Beck like he was the black plague. And if she did need to see him, she didn't waste her time serving him any pleasantries on a silver platter. He didn't deserve that from her anymore. She felt no obligation to Beck Oliver anymore.

She had two very applicable boys, both very attractive and very successful and VERY into her and not pretty princess Vega. For once, she was the top dog and she wasn't going to allow that to be stolen.

Not with his inference. She hadn't exactly been oblivious to the stares he'd been giving James and Carlos at the lunch table. She was an observant girl. And Jade also knew what he'd been thinking with the whole territorial glare.

'Back off.'

Well, she hated to break it to him [not actually, no], but the moment he left her behind Tori Vega's door, they were done for good. She was very ready to move on. And in fact, she was going to right now.

The brunette pulled out her Pearphone and dug through her bag for that particular notebook. She acquired it and flipped through the pages until she found the messy scrawl she'd been searching for.

"Perfect." Jade muttered to herself with a smirk and tapped the number into her contact list, sending a text their way.

[You know, my schedule actually opened up for tomorrow.] And it wasn't exactly a long waiting period before she received a response.

[Meet me at the Palmwoods hotel tomorrow! You won't regret it! xo]

Jade smirked. Maybe she would give James and Carlos a chance. It was about time.

[OoOoOoO]

AN: SO, now Carlos and James' rivalry REALLY begins because the rules have been enacted and they know their very few limitations. I plan on giving them both a chance with her, before she picks an evident favorite - though I know whom that favorite's going to be.

I also have a plan for the unlucky fella that Jade doesn't give a chance to and he'll be very happy with those results as well.

Apologies for the lack of updates! AllOfMeHatesYou is literally the only reason I update, so THANK HIM, or else I definitely wouldn't. I'm so so lazy. AllOfMeHatesYou Inspiration AND amazing writer! I cannot stress that enough. I LOVE YOU EVEN IF YOU'RE A PEST.

Reviews are my life; don't kill me.

- Nat