Hey to everyone, here's a quick chapter 2. We just needed a little snipet into the life of Carlos and James. Chapter 3 is where its all at! Enjoy. BTW: I obviously do not own BTR or anything regarding them. I'm just a crazy fangirl with a wild imagination.

Chapter 1

BEEP. BEEP. BEE- Good Morning California! It is going to be a beautiful day here on the coast, good way to start the week off it's Monday Morning with Big Boy and the Hammerhead here on KXVO! Let's get started wi- the blaring radio was cut short by a drowsy, heavy hand. Carlos Garcia groaned at the thought of waking up. For school none the less. His weekend had been cut too short, with James at his father's for the weekend and years of math homework to be done it had been one of the worst weekends in the history of Carlos' high school career. And now it was time for him to get up and face the day. Yeah, Fuck that. Carlos rolled over and snuggled closer into his pillow, sleep nagging at him to come back.

"Carlos Roberto Garcia, you get up right now!" The shrill voice of his mother sounded and he opened his eyes abruptly. Mistake. He was met with the early morning sun shining through his window and he was temporarily blinded.

"Ow. Shit", he breathed knocking the covers off his tan body.

"Carlos you have fifeteen seconds to get up or I'm coming up there", his mother commanded. He heard her counting from all the way downstairs and rolled his eyes at his mother's tactics. She got to the number ten and started going upstairs.

"11...12...13", she continued. Carlos jumped up in nothing but his boxers and ran to his door yanking it open just as his mother reached fifteen. Mrs. Garcia was beautiful. She was the same shade of caramel as Carlos and she had soft black hair and high cheek bones. Her smile was luminous but her frown…eh not so much. And that's what greeted a grinning Carlos.

"Carlos, baby, you need to get ready now. James will be here any moment and you know he hates waiting on you, I can only stall him for so long with my cooking", she scolded crossing her frail arms at her son.

"I know mami, I'm up, that's step one, I'm a lot farther than I was ten minutes ago", he said kissing his mother on the cheek. He was a bit of a mama's boy, but no one could blame him. She was as sweet as the desserts she constantly made, but when she got angry…let's just say you never wanted to be the one she was angry at. Carlos knew that all too well. His mom smirked at her son and shook her head.

"Aye, what am I going to do with you hijo, you never slept this late when your father was around", she said softly, a wave of nostalgia coming over her. Carlos' grin shrank a little.

"I'll get ready Ma, I'll be down in ten", he retorted sadly, pushing his door shut with a quiet thud. He let out a sigh, back pressed against the door, and slid down it. He ran his fingers through his hair and sat in silence, remembering the great man that was his father. He looked around his room, pictures adorned the wall of him and James, of the ocean, of his father. He struggled to his feet and went towards one. He pulled it off tenderly and held it tightly in his hand. This photograph was a treasure. It was from the day after Carlos had almost drowned. He sat in a white, clean bed an ice cream bar in his pudgy little hands. His father and mother draped around him, their smiles dazzling the whole wide world, because they're son was alive and well. In the picture a ten year old Carlos sat oblivious in the hospital, much more interested in his ice cream than his sobbing parents. Oh, the priorities. Carlos stopped remenicing and placed the photo back on his wall. He ran his hand across the expanse of it, until he came across another picture. This was a sketch. A poorly done one at that. It was made around the time that family photo at the hospital was taken. He was recovering, and while trying to explain to his parents just what made him go overboard, he drew a picture. It was a stick figure with a tail and dimples, smiling whimsically up at him. Carlos smiled at the old portrait, he'd drawn several more in the past year, each looking more and more like the boy who had saved his life. The boy who had plagued his dreams and his nightmares and pretty much every other thought he had.

When he had told his family he had been saved by a Merman they had decided to humor him and go along with it. He was only ten. As he grew though, it became more apparent and worrisome that this wasn't some deluded fantasy he had created to cope. This was real. He'd been to therapists , but he stuck to his guns. Even James wouldn't believe him. The day he stopped rambling on about his unknown savior, was the day his father got diagnosed with Cancer. Everything stopped that day, and from that point on Carlos' duty was to take care of his mom. He had to be strong enough for all three of them. When his father finally died after a long battle with Leukemia, he began drawing the boy again. In greater detail, he added features that he could feel were there. He would draw his tail, he'd take the broken pieces of his memory and draw everything he could. For months, he sat and drew. It was all he could do to keep himself from falling apart and becoming something unrecognizable. That was two years ago. He was a bit better now, of course the loss of his father still stung, but he had an incredible support system and he was almost back to the bubbling boy everyone knew and loved. He found himself tracing the merman's features completely entranced by his mystery, but was pulled out of his thoughts by the droll tones of the doorbell.

"Ah shit", Carlos cursed. James was here. Carlos rushed to find a suitable outfit for school. He rummaged through his closet desperately, as he heard his mother open the door for their guest.

"Hey James, Carlos is upstairs", his mother said sweetly.

"Thanks Mama G", James said smugly, "is he running late?" Crap. Carlos pulled on a pair of skinny jeans and zipped them up harshly. He found the closest sweatshirt to him, not bothering to put on a shirt, and yanked it over his head.

"When is he not", he could hear the sarcasm dripping from his mother's voice. Carlos pulled the door open and rushed downstairs in a frenzy.

"I am so not late", he said coming into the kitchen. There stood his mother and his best friend James Diamond. Pretty name right? Everything about James was beautiful. His hair, his skin, his eyes, he was made of sunbeams and hot sand. He leaked sex and everybody wanted it. He could have any girl he wanted if he snapped his fingers, and when he did, they all came running like hungry animals, cause lets face it, that's what horny teenage girls are. James was stellar and even Carlos knew that. He was his own star, his own gravitational pull and he wished to see his name in lights one day.

"Whoa, you're looking a bit tired", James sneered, wrinkling his noes at Carlos' attire. Carlos scoffed in mock defense.

"Well, we all don't take three hours to get ready every morning, some of us need a thing called sleep". James just shrugged and turned back to Mrs. Garcia.

"What can I say, I'm superhuman", he smirked and he heard Carlos snicker. They played off each other like that for awhile. They were brothers, they pretty much had the same hot blood running through their veins. They'd be together like this until the day they died. Carlos was sure of it.

"Okay boys out, you'll be late for school" , Mrs. Garcia ordered. Carlos hugged his mom tightly, gabbed his bag and headed out the door. James also hugged The Latina, picking her up and spinning her around for extra measure, before following his shorter best friend out the door. James' car was just like James. Pretty. A sky blue corvet, that shouldn't be in the hands of a teenage hormonal fool. They both hopped in and started towards their school. The warm August wind blew their hair back and Carlos found his eyes draping shut.

"Dude, why are you so tired, you were asleep til like twenty minutes ago", James inquired. Carlos shrugged and laid his head back

"I dreamt of him again, I woke up like five times cause I thought I was drowning"' Carlos said dreamily. James frowned. He'd seen Carlos' room, the numerous sketches, it was creepy. James wanted to say that for Carlos to be all into Merpeople was a bit 13 years ago and girly but he bit his tongue. They'd argued about this too many times.

"Sucks man", James said and Carlos just shrugged.

"How was your weekend with the old man", Carlos asked. James let out an audible groan before sighing deeply. James hated his father. He was a marine biologist, just like Carlos' had been, but he was twenty times richer and twenty times more douchey. Well according to James he was a douche.

"All bad, I hardly even saw the asshole, he stuck me in his house with the maids and left me to entertain myself I don't even know why he makes me go over there every other weekend, he doesn't even talk to me!". Carlos nodded. James' mom was the head of a huge makeup company she was hardly ever in town either. Always off on another business trip. James was usually left to his own devices and the nanny. So many this was James' dads way of being the "better parent".

"Next time he said that if I want to bring a friend I can though, you down?" James asked hopefully, "he has four wheelers". Carlos' reply came instantly

"Hell yeah". James smirked at that and turned back to the road. They were almost at the school and Carlos wanted nothing more than to go back home. It's not that he was bullied or hated or anything, he was actually quite popular, he just didn't like the whole high school scene. James pulled up to the bustling Palm Woods High and cruised to his parking spot. These kids were all fake tans and rumors. They both begrudgingly got out of the car and headed towards the entrance, making small talk about James' dad's mansion.

"There's the bros", a voice said haughtily. James and Carlos both turned to see their friend Dak with his blond counterpart on his arm.

"Sup Dak, Merecedes", Carlos said. Both of the people in front of them were sickeningly modelesque. Dak was on the hockey team with Carlos and James, they'd known each other for awhile now and Mercedes was his bitch of a girlfriend. James fucked her like three times. She was everything disgusting about Hollywood. She was the late nights and glitter and drugs that everybody seemed to be so attracted to. She was also the daughter of one of the most powerful men in town. You give Mercedes what she wants and when she wants it. Right now she wanted Carlos. She put her hand on his arm and winked playfully.

"Hey Carlos, have a fun weekend", she asked twirling her blond hair around her finger.

"Meh, it was alright" he replied, trying to not make eye contact with her crystalline cat eyes and find James. He found him talking to their other long time friends Lucy and Stephanie. Both girls were hot. They were that kind of Tomb Raider hot. The kind that could kick your ass and than kiss it to make everything better. Fiery. and Carlos adored them. He'd had an on/off thing with Stephanie, but right now they weren't very on, judging by the way she felt on James' bicep. Carlos excused himself from Dak and Mercedes and headed over to his nicer set of friends.

"Hey Carlos I tried to call you this weekend, where the fuck were you at", Lucy growled stalking up to the boy. Whoa this was his nicer set of friends.

"I had to catch up on some homework or my ass would have been grounded this weekend", he said trying to calm the beast. She held her chin up and accepted his answer.

"Whatever, James, you still throwin' that beach party this weekend", she asked pulling the brunet out of his conversation with Stephanie. He sent her a dazzling grin.

"You bet I am", he high fived Carlos and with that the bell rang, signaling them to go to class. Classes were boring. Simply because Carlos didn't like them. Neither did James. They spent a majority of the class time texting each other about the party Friday night on James' private beach. Plus neither boy really acceled when it came to academics. They were in and out of tutoring programs almost constantly. When they weren't in class they socialized with friends in the hallways. When it came time for lunch, Carlos couldn't have been any happier. He slid through the lunch line, grabbing anything he could and sat at his usual table of friends. James, Stephanie, Lucy, Dak, Mercedes, Jett, and Guitar Dude joined him there. They all made small talk as they saw fit. Carlos withdrew from the conversations and began drawing lazily, he just started with lines and marks and sooner than later it was a face, a face he recognized all too well. With cute dimples and wispy hair an-

"The fuck you drawin 'Litos", Jett snatched the paper away from the Latino,

"Jett give it back", Carlos ordered darkly. Jett started laughing crumpled up the paper and threw it back at him.

"Who is that, your butt buddy", Jett laughed. At this point everybody at the table tuned in, James saw the dark look in Carlos' eye and the tight set of his jaw. He was about to stand up when Carlos connected his fist to Jett's pretty little face. Jett fell back astounded and clutched at his burning jar.

"Fuck you", Carlos spat. A teacher came rushing over, but Carlos just started heading for the principals office. James followed.

"Dude, you shouldn't have done that, he's just Jett he sucks", James said running after him, "we were suppose to go surfing tonight, you think that's gonna happen once your mom finds out?" Carlos shrugged indifferently. James stopped walking, realizing it was futile to try and talk to him.

"Just text me later bro", James called and headed back to the cafeteria. He'd just go surfing by himself tonight. Like Carlos, his main mistress was the ocean, and he could ride that sweet piece of ocean mass all night long. James went back into the cafeteria and to the lunch table. Jett was whining about how he was just playing and Lucy had unfolded that paper and started scrutanizing it. She handed the piece of paper to James and he sighed. This was a face he knew all too well.

As Carlos got closer to the main office, his stomach started swimming with regret. He shouldn't have gotten so fired up over a bad sketch. It's just... Jett is such an asshole. He took a deep breath and pushed the glass door open. The air was stale. It smelled like old people and winter fresh and at that moment he decided he'd never let Jett get him that pissed off again. He didn't like it in here. He shivered slightly and went towards the secretary's desk. She was a young black woman who didn't belong in this drafty building. She looked up at him through thick horned rim glasses with disapproval.

"Can I help you", she asked monotonously. She's been doing this for awhile.

"Um, Yeah I got sent down here for fighting I just-" , she cut him off with a perfectly manicured finger in his face.

"Don't care, Mr. Roque will be with you shortly, sit down next to the ginger delinquent", she said sharply. Carlos just nodded and did as told. The so called "ginger delinquent" looked mildly offended before he turned and looked out the window. Eight minutes passed painfully slow, and he found himself getting figety. He tapped his fingers lightly on his jeans and bobbed his head. Thirteen minutes rolled around and he found himself humming. The secretary looked up at him, but when she caught his eye she quickly looked back down at her paperwork. 'that's awkward' he thought. Seventeen minutes and the big boss himself steps out. Gustavo Roque is the top dog of this school and he makes sure everyone knows that they're his bitches. Gustavo turned to Carlos, his double chin a second slower than the rest of his face.

"Garcia, in my office NOW", he screamed, face turning all shades of red. Carlos scampered in, he was pretty sure the other kid was before him but he wasn't going to argue. Before Gustavo went in after him, The secretary whispered something into his ear that made him nod excitedly. He slammed the door shut behind him. Carlos sat down as the large man closed in on him.

"So you punched a kid...in my domain, Mr. Garcia are you aware that fighting in this school is prohibted?" Gustavo walked around and sat on the other side of his oak desk. He put his meaty hands on it and folded them neatly. He was speaking too calmly. To precisely. Carlos was scared. He just nodded.

"THAN WHY DID YOU DO IT", he yelled. There it is. By this point Carlos was shaking.

"Mr. Roque, it wasn't a fight we were just playing around an-and it looked li-like I punched him but well I did punch him b-but I didn't mean to punch him that hard", Carlos stammered out. Gustavo studied him.

"Alright Mr. Garcia, you have two choices here, choice A you get suspended for fighting on my turf, Gustavo said," or choice B you get ONE after school detention and you participate in a little project I'm working on". Carlos weighed the choices carefully. Sure, if he got suspended he'd be grounded for forever, but choice B meant spending time with the fat man behind the desk. Tricky.

"What's the project", Carlos asked. Gustavo just smirked, "Choice B was a good choice kid, now get the hell out of my office". Carlos hadn't even really picked but he took this as his cue to leave.

"Fuck my life", Carlos groaned walking back out into the crowded hallways.