Chapter 4:

On One Condition

When they got back to the Palm Woods, they all headed back to 2J excitedly.

"He liked us! We get to make a demo!" Cecilia said as soon as Kendall swung the door open for the four girls.

"Way to go! Congrats, chicas!" Carlos said.

Kaity edged in the room carefully. She played with the ends of her now short hair nervously, biting into her bottom lip.

Logan, of course, being the more observant of the four boys, was the first to notice the change in attire amongst the girls. He scanned past Trista and Cecilia and finally spotted Kaity in the back.

Logan's jaw dropped, half out of shock and half out of amazement. He stood up from his position on the orange couch and headed over to where the girls were standing.

"You guys look amazing!" James said, "What'd they do?"

Kendall hit James in the rib for the stupid sounding comment. Cecilia cut in front of Elizabeth until she was standing directly in front of James, giving him a killer stare.

"What," she asked, "You didn't think we looked good before?"

"Um, uh…" James stuttered, "Yeah…of course!"

"Ha, someone's gotten into the whole pop star thing already!" Trista laughed.

"Oh my gosh," Elizabeth exclaimed, "You have got to check out Kaity!"

"Oh no!" Kaity squeaked, hiding behind her hands.

Trista pushed her through the other girls until she was front and center.

"Kaity Rae, move your hands. You look awesome." Cecilia said.

Kaity uneasily moved her hands, finding herself face to face with Logan. Her eyes widened with fear. All she wanted to do was hide again.

"Woah, your hair is so cool!" Kendall said, "How many colors are in it?"

She held up four fingers, grimacing slightly, "Thanks you guys, now I'm wishing I could just get swallowed into the floor."

"Why?" Logan spoke up, "I love it."

It was Kaity's mouth that dropped this time, "Really?"

He nodded, smiling softly, "You look really cool. The tie is sweet."

She grabbed the bottom of her tie and looked down at it before looking back at him.

"Elizabeth," Kendall said, walking up to the other girl, "You look amazing."

"You have a girlfriend! You have a girlfriend!" Carlos teased in a sing song voice, "I'm telling Jo! I'm telling Jo!"

"Yo, can we be any more mature, Carlos?" Trista walked up, jabbing him in the chest with her index and middle finger gently.

"Y-You have a g-girlfriend?" Elizabeth said, sounding like her voice was cracking.

"Oh no." Kaity winced, watching the scene play out.

"Well, uh, yeah…" Kendall said, scratching the back of his neck.

"Oh, uh, well, we can still be…er…friends." She said.

"Yeah, for real…that's cool."

There was a brief pause before Carlos spoke up, "Awkward…"

James smacked Carlos on the back of the head, rolling his eyes.

"So," Logan looked over at Kaity, "Do you wanna watch some TV, uh, or we could go to the pool."

"I can't put my extensions in chlorine for a week." She said, rolling her eyes, shaking her head slowly as they began to walk towards the couch.

"You really don't like all of," he gestured up and down her appearance, "this, do you?"

Kaity sighed, "I don't know. I liked a lot of this when we got started. Then, they took us and changed our looks completely. I don't like how short my hair is or all the colors in it. My clothes are too crazy, and ugh, you don't want to know about the singing thing."

She flopped down on the couch with an even deeper sigh. Logan grabbed the remote before sitting down beside her, propping his arm up on the back of the couch.

"What happened?" he asked, looking at her sympathetically.

"It…They…He…" she just couldn't get it out, she put her head in her hands before sitting back up, looking at him, "They had to auto tune my voice. I'm a terrible singer. He said, if I didn't get any better, I would either lip synch everything for the remainder of my career, or Griffin would replace me."

"No way, there's just no way."

Kaity rolled her eyes, "Logan, you haven't even heard me sing."

He looked her in the eye before dropping his glance to the CD in her hand.

"No, there is no way!" she exclaimed, pulling the CD towards herself.

"Please, look, I'll go get a portable CD player. I won't play it on the stereo." He said.

She sighed in defeat. His brown eyes were definitely becoming a weakness pretty fast.

"Fine"

Logan headed up stairs, leaving Kaity on the couch. She stared at her reflection in the window beside the couch. She looked nothing like when she first walked into 2J earlier that day.

Logan's words kept echoing in her head, "I love it."

She sighed again before looking in the other direction at her friends. James and Cecilia were talking animatedly at the bar stools. Carlos was trying desperately to get Trista to go down the swirly slide, much to her disapproval. Kendall and Elizabeth were playing table hockey, yelling back and forth at each other competitively, earning a smile from Kaity. There was no way this whole friends thing was going to work for either of them.

Logan came down a few minutes later holding a portable CD player, a pair of headphones, and a set of earbuds. He handed her the headphones and plugged both sets into the double jack on the side. He put the CD in and looked at her questioningly.

"Track three" she said.

Logan looked at the sheet music, showing who was singing which part as the song began to play. He was nodding his head along to the beat, smiling approvingly.

When Kaity's first part started playing, Logan looked at her with a wide smile and shook his head, taking out one of his earbuds. She pulled off half of the headset and looked at him.

"Psh, that's you? You're amazing." He said.

"That's me, plus some reverb, overlay, and balance." She rolled her eyes.

"No way." He said, "It sounds too natural."

"Well, believe it. It's not me at all. Like, a third of that is me." She said.

Logan stopped the track and looked at her, "Sing for me."

"What?" she gasped.

"Sing that next part, the part that was going to play before I turned it off." He said, "I'm having a really hard time believing that all of that stuff had to be added to your voice."

"No, I can't. You'll think I'm awful." She said.

"No I won't, and if you are, I'll lie." He laughed.

"Oh, because that's going to make me feel a lot better." She laughed back.

"Just do it, please." He smiled.

"Fine, but if you can tell a difference, not only do you have to tutor me…in singing…but you have to give me that sweet bracelet too." She pointed to the bracelet on Logan's wrist made out of tons of different sized and colored buttons.

"A fan made me that, but, if I get you hear you sing, it'll be worth it." He grinned, "Oh, and if you sound amazing and I can't find any flaws, then…you go with me out to dinner Friday night."

Kaity was absolutely floored. She couldn't believe he'd said that, and that he was brave enough to say it.

"So, it's on?" he asked.

"Oh, it's beyond on."

I'm gunna give you what you been missing

And I know I'm the thing that you really need

I wanna know if you're all ready for what

I've got in store

If you know the words then sing

She stopped and bit her lip nervously, "See, it was bad."

"It wasn't…bad…" he trailed off.

"Great" she put both hands to her forehead.

Logan grabbed one of her wrists and slid the colorful buttoned bracelet over her small wrist with a grin, "I'll try and help you. James is kinda the singer of BTR, but I'd be more than happy to help."

She smiled softly, "Thanks, Logan."

"On one condition" he said.

"And that is?"

"I can still take you to dinner on Friday."

Meanwhile, Elizabeth and Kendall were grabbing a bottle of water out of the refrigerator.

"So, what would you say to going to the rink tomorrow and just chilling?" Kendall asked, "Maybe play a few rounds, just shoot around a little?"

"I'd love to!" Elizabeth said excitedly, then something hit her, "Won't your girlfriend get mad?"

"Nah, I'll tell her I'm hanging out with the guys. It's no big deal." He replied.

"If you say so, but I'm not taking on little Jo Taylor." She paused, "Wouldn't want her getting hurt."

She smiled jokingly at Kendall before taking a sip of her water. He laughed at her joke, leaning casually up against the table.

"So it's a plan then?"

"Yeah, definitely."

"You seem a little self-absorbed." Cecilia said, watching James check himself out in the microwave's window.

"So, it's wrong that a guy is concerned about what he looks like in front of a really pretty girl?" he grinned.

"So you think I'm pretty?" she asked, playing with a strand of dark hair.

"A hot guy has got to have an equally hot girl, am I right?"

"You're really cute." Carlos smiled sheepishly, as he watched Trista attempt to look interested in whatever video game Carlos had put into the system.

"Thanks" she replied with a short smile.

"I hope you guys end up going on tour with us where we can hang out all the time!" he said.

"I seriously do not know how I feel about that idea right now."

"You don't want to be famous?"

"Yes, I want to be famous."

"Then you have to tour."

"That's so not the point."

"You have really pretty eyes."

"Oh, bless your heart." Trista sighed, glancing over at the boy beside her, who was still staring at her admiringly.

"So, am I about to get rejected, because I take it well, trust me." Logan said, looking at Kaity hopefully.

"Hmm…" she put her finger to her chin, giggling furiously, trying to drag out his misery for as long as possible.

"Come on, K-Rae, you're killing me." He laughed.

"Aye, aye now, you're not on that level yet to call me that." She laughed, giving his shoulder a gentle shove.

"And when will I be?"

"After dinner Friday night."