A/N: Hi Readers! I am sincerely thrilled that this story has received over 60 reviews, thanks so much! :D To all of you who are still subscribing and adding this to your favourites, thank you, as well!
[StuckAt9.99]: Great hearing from you again!
Disclaimer: Don't own BTR, wait...nope, still not mine!
"Wow," Kendall uttered with wide eyes as Katie and Carlos pulled up to the front of her building in James' Maserati. "Nice upgrade, baby sister."
"Ugh, it's not mine. My car is in the shop and James let me use this until it's fixed," Katie groaned out, frustrated.
Kendall laughed, as he hopped into the backseat. "Relax, Katie. I was only joking, this car is a bit...ostentatious for you."
"Been reading the dictionary again, have you?" Katie looked at her brother through the rearview mirror. Carlos barked at Katie's insult.
Kendall raised his head, "Word-of-the-Day calendar, actually."
The three laughed. Kendall leaned forward in his seat to punch Carlos in the shoulder. "Hey, congrats, Carlitos. I knew you could do it."
"Thanks, Kendall. It's going to be so cool, I'm going to be in a movie!" Carlos shouted joyfully, before adding, "Maybe."
"I bet it doesn't hurt that you get to act with that actress too, right? What was her name again?" Kendall asked.
Katie smirked as she caught Carlos pulling a face, beside her. "Don't even talk about her. Marka Jones is the opposite of everything I am. She's boring, stuck up and has such an ugly personality. She's the first person I've ever met that I didn't like."
The Knight siblings both pondered over the Hispanic's comment, before nodding in agreement, it was rare for Carlos to meet someone and not like them.
Kendall grinned, still leaning his head between the front seat, "You know what they say about opposites." He stuck out his hands and pressed his fists together, wiggling his thumbs so that they touched.
Carlos widened his eyes and turned around to shove Kendall back in his seat. Kendall laughed at his friend's distress. Katie grinned and shook her head, maintaining concentration on the road. She missed the familiar banter between the guys. She continued driving while the boys bickered about Carlos' love life. She amusedly considered the thought of Carlos ever dating Marka. Carlos was right in the fact that Marka was everything that Carlos wasn't. Marka Jones came from a privileged family in upstate New York with no siblings. She was the apple of her maternal grandfather, and was set to inherit the majority of his legacy. Marka's interest in acting defied the logistical plan of her running the family business, but because she always got what she demanded, Marka was allowed to enter the film industry, though with heavy precautionary. She was not allowed to disgrace her family's name or else her access to her trust fund would be cut off. Marka's determination to work in Hollywood was what persuaded Katie to take her on as a client; she admired Marka's moxie. Every interaction that Katie had with Marka was purely business oriented. She often had a hard time believing that Russell could befriend someone so serious, but Russell assured her that Marka had a humorous side, but after half a year of working with her, Katie had yet to see it.
The Knights and Carlos had reached the pizza joint and found Logan and Camille waiting for them. Logan was standing by the door and Camille was waiting in her car. The two had kept their distance in public, as planned, to hide their relationship from the paparazzi. They all merged at the door to the restaurant, with Camille stopping to sign a couple of autographs for fans.
Katie grinned at Logan as they approached him, "How did you get here?"
Logan gave her his signature lopsided grin in return. "I borrowed one of Camille's wigs to leave her building and took a cab. Thank goodness you suggested this idea, Katie. The pap was waiting outside her door. If they had recognized me, they would spread a story like wildfire." He quirked an eyebrow, "You know, I'm surprised that the media hasn't staked out James' front door like piranhas. After you," he held open the door for the gang to walk through.
Katie grinned, "That's because James has an agreement to circulate a blog between every major magazine every month and in return they have to give him his privacy. I do have to say, it's quite an ingenious plan on his agent's part. The blog is so popular, that whatever issue it's featured in, increases the magazine's sales by at least two hundred percent," Katie replied as her brother talked to the hostess and Camille and Carlos were conversing.
Logan was impressed, "Wow, that is smart. What does he write about?"
Katie shrugged, "Anything and everything, really. I've seen blogs on haircare, girls, acting...there was one where it was just pictures of himself. That actually was his most popular one to date."
Logan chuckled, "I can't believe that James is sort-of a writer."
Katie giggled along with him, "Well, he was always good with words, especially appealing to the female sex. His best talent really is charming the ladies," she joked.
The five friends enjoyed their dinner of pizza covered in an absurd amount of toppings, courtesy of Carlos, congratulating each other and simply having a good time. Katie couldn't remember the last time she had laughed this hard.
"So, Katie-cakes, what's your surprise?" Carlos questioned Katie, as he bit into his sixth slice of pizza.
Katie wiped her mouth with a napkin and grinned, "Okay, I know how much you guys love and miss the Californian beaches, so get ready to spend this weekend surfing the waves in Malibu! I got Russell and Katy to lend me their beach house."
"No way!"
"Awesome!"
"That's so sweet."
"Is there anything you can't do, baby sister?"
Katie beamed as the others expressed their joy. She loved seeing the guys get riled up in excitement. While Katie still didn't like swimming in the ocean, she loved lounging poolside, something that she frequently did when they all lived at the Palm Woods. She was lucky that Russell and Katy were currently vacationing in India and that Russell thought that it was a good idea for Katie to relax and enjoy herself before he returned. Katie didn't tell him that she planned to read scripts while she was out there.
Camille excitedly grabbed onto Katie's arm and squealed out that this gave them the perfect opportunity to go shopping for some beachwear together tomorrow. Katie was about to protest, knowing that she had more than enough swimsuits to last the whole week, but she reluctantly agreed when she saw that Cam was about to turn on her waterworks. Katie gently shook her head and rolled her eyes when Camille clapped her hands together and started chattering about what stores they should go to tomorrow.
The next day, Katie happily strolled into her office. Katie knew that she had to deal with the Fulton crisis, but she decided not to tell James until after the weekend getaway for the gang. She had told Logan and Carlos to tell James about the trip when they got home last night.
As usual, Magdalene was seated behind the receptionist's desk, dutifully managing Katie's schedule. She greeted her boss cheerfully, when she saw Katie's good mood. "Good morning, there, Sunshine. What's the occasion? I haven't seen you this happy since we first started."
Katie grinned, as she opened the door to her office, "It's going to be a good day, Mags."
Magdalene followed Katie, holding a stack of paper to her chest. She quirked an eyebrow before speaking, "Are you on drugs or something? You're never optimistic about anything. You made me take down all the motivational quotations that I had surrounding my computer screen."
Katie laughed, "Really, Mags? Drugs? Surely, I'm more likely to have gotten laid, right?" Katie joked as she seated herself behind her desk.
"Normally, I would agree, but you're missing that after-sex glow," Mags quickly quipped before giggling. She placed the stack of papers in front of Katie. "Here are the rest of the CV's that we've received."
"Oh, excellent," Katie said as she quickly flipped through the pile.
"Also, I called Tony and Daniella, and they want you and James to stop by their studio tomorrow."
Katie looked up, no longer smiling, "Tomorrow? Ah shit, I'm supposed to go to Malibu tomorrow. Is there anyway that they can push it to today? You know what, I'll just give them a call. Oh, and I completely forgot to mention yesterday, but we're going to need to find Carlos an agent today. He already got a callback and he needs someone to sign the papers if he lands the gig. Can you email me the agent contact list, I want to personally look for the perfect match."
"Sure, anything else you need done, Kate?"
"Not right now, thanks so much, Mags." Magdalene left Katie in peace as Katie trolled through the CV's. Even though Fulton had threatened to buy out Katie's company, she wasn't going to go down without a fight, which meant that she would need all the help that she could get. There weren't many people who stuck out prominently, only one actually managed to impress Katie. She paged Mags and told her to set up an interview with a Jack Schooler for the next week.
After Katie finished leafing through the applicants, she made a phone call to Daniella. "Hey Daniella, it's Kate. I'm great, how are you are?" Katie smiled as she exchanged pleasantries with her friend. "Listen, my assistant just told me that you wanted me to stop by tomorrow to look at the proofs, but I won't be able to..." Katie trailed off as her friend interrupted her. "Exactly, Daniella, it'll be a Saturday, you know, when people usually don't work. Can't you try to squeeze us in today? Uh huh, I see. What about next week?" Katie leaned back in her seat, twirling herself around so that she could look outside her window. "Right, I forgot that this a rush project. What if you and Tony just picked out the photos yourselves?" Katie knew it was a long shot to ask the photographer to exclude the subjects from finalizing the shots. She listened intently as her friend explained how it was crucial for all sides of the project to have input. "Okay, fine, we'll be there, early," she sighed frustratedly, "you owe me one, Daniella," she laughed as Daniella jokingly scoffed. "Okay, I'll see you tomorrow. Bye."
Katie hung up her phone, making a note to tell James that they had some work to do before they could head to the beach house. She checked her email for the agent list and saw that Mags had promptly got it to her. She quickly dialled James' home number and put it on speakerphone so she could scroll through the list and talk at the same time.
"Hello?" James' voice sounded through Katie's office.
"Hey James, it's Katie."
Katie heard James perk up, "Hi Katie. Carlos and Logan told me about Malibu, that's so awesome, I haven't had the opportunity to hit the waves in a while."
"Yeah, well, you and I will have to stick around here for a little while before we can go. Tony and Daniella want us to see the proofs from the shoot and it's part of their artistic hoopla for everyone to come to an agreement of which pictures should be used. They have no time to squeeze us in today and the project is due on Monday, so we'll have to show up at their studio tomorrow morning," Katie hashed out, filling James on the details.
"Oh man," Katie heard James groan. "Fine, they're lucky that this is for 'Cuda."
Katie smiled, "Thanks, James, hey, can you get Carlos on the line?"
"No problem, Little Kitty," Katie groaned and rolled her eyes at James' attempt at giving her a nickname.
"Yeah, that's not happening."
"Why not? Carlos and Kendall get to call you something special," James pouted through the phone.
"Yes, but they've been calling me those nicknames since I was a kid. Besides, technically speaking, 'Katie' is a nickname," Katie smirked.
She heard James gasp in epiphany. "That's right..." Katie raised an eyebrow as James stopped speaking abruptly. She rolled her eyes again when she heard what he had to say next, "What is 'Katie' short for again?"
"You've known me for twenty-two years, and you're telling me that you don't know what my full name is?"
"Hey! We've been calling you 'Katie' for years, it's not my fault if I can't remember. I know that it's short for either Katherine or Katelyn, I think."
Katie giggled and shook her head, "Just put Carlos on the line, please."
"Fine," she heard James grumble before he called out to Carlos quickly. She listened as James ask Carlos if he knew what Katie's full name was. She heard Carlos scoff indignantly before affirming that he knew.
"Hi Katie-cakes," Carlos chirped happily as he got on the phone.
"Hey Carlos," Katie greeted.
"So," Carlos' voice dropped to a whisper, "what does 'Katie' stand for?"
"What?" Katie cried out, now in complete disbelief that none of the guys that she grew up with could remember her birth name. "If you don't know, I'm not telling. Now," she huffed, trying to get back to the reason she needed to talk to him in the first place. "I need you to come down to my office before we head over to the studio for your audition. I want to run over the possible agents that you may want to work with and see if we can arrange a quickie meeting with any of them. We really need to get this ball rolling for you."
She heard Carlos give an excited squeal, "This is so cool, we're going agent hunting. Okay, I'll be there as soon as James can drop me off."
Katie spent the rest of her morning going over details about James' career, paying particular attention to his music business. She already knew that James was successful from the amount of radio play for every one of his songs and the impressive number of platinum certifications, but looking over the financial details, she was astonished at his net value. She looked over his legal contract with Gustavo and found that the producer had given him a much more satisfying deal than the contract that Big Time Rush originally had; Katie was sure that the contract was negotiated by James' agent.
Katie had spoken to Chris White once, over the phone, earlier that week, when she had introduced herself and explained the last minute modelling crisis. Katie had heard of Chris White in passing, and updated herself by doing a quick search on his profile online. She didn't gather much about him, only knowing that he had a few big name celebrities under his wing and that he went from an independent company to the largest agency corporation in Hollywood. From the work that he had done for James, she was satisfied with his level of competency.
Katie set to work on creating a detailed work portfolio for Carlos after she was finished with her reading up on James. Normally, the client would already have a portfolio by the time Katie is hired as a manager, but she knew that Carlos would not have one created and she didn't trust Carlos coming up with a decent one. She highlighted his career with Big Time Rush and while irrelevant to his future career, she did mention his academic successes.
The day that Carlos graduated college was the day that Katie was most proud of him. Everyone had assumed that Carlos would take after his dad and become a police officer, but he surprised everyone when he presented acceptance letters to colleges across America. Unable to choose a specific career, he did a general studies major, dabbling in everything from political science to botany. Katie made sure that she was the first one to congratulate him when he got his diploma.
His desire to explore the world trumped his desire to settle down and spent the most recent years doing that. It seemed though, that Carlos never shook off the celebrity bug, as his return to Los Angeles once again steered him into the limelight. Katie was happy with his decision, with much persuasion on her part. Carlos was charismatic, his outgoing and loveable personalty was just the kind of thing that Hollywood needed.
Katie placed the finishing touches on Carlos' portfolio just as he strode into her office. Katie could see Mags' bewildered look over his shoulder as she had not yet notified Katie of his arrival.
Katie grinned and loudly called out, "It's fine, Mags. I was expecting him." Meanwhile, Carlos looked back and forth between the two women, not understanding the exchange. He shrugged his shoulders and sat down in one of the seats across from Katie.
He smiled happily, "Alright, so what agents do you have lined up for me?"
Katie manoeuvred her computer screen so that both occupants could see the monitor. She quickly pulled up the registry and one of the agents she believed would be interested in working with Carlos and vise versa.
"This is Ali Khan, I took some courses with him at UCLA. He's not as experienced as other agents, but he is enthusiastic about his work. He has an eye for finding ridiculously great projects. His lack of experience may benefit us, as he is probably looking for as many clients as possible at the moment.
Katie glanced over at Carlos before she clicked on another agent. She noticed that he had his 'serious-thinking' face on.
"This is Rachel Chang, she's been in the business for about five years. For someone so tiny, she can be quite ruthless, which is not altogether bad for an agent. She's actually Marka's agent so it may be easier for you to sign a deal for this movie if she's your agent too.
Katie didn't miss Carlos' disgust when she brought up Marka's name.
The next possible agent was Parker Wesley, one of the most well-connected agents in Hollywood. Born to a famous producer and an Oscar-winning director, he had his roots in the business.
"Now, he already has an incredibly long list of clients, but I may be able to get us an interview with him, his assistant happens to be my old roommate." Katie turned her body so that she was facing Carlos and not the screen. "There's also Chris White, James' agent. Now, I really don't know him all that well, but since James is his client, there's a good possibility that he'll want to be your agent as well."
Carlos rubbed his chin, deep in thought. "Now, as successful as James is, I don't think I want to share the same agent. I mean, I want to forge my own career, you know? You don't count, you're family so you can manage the both of us." Katie smirked in amusement. "I like the sound of that Ali guy, so let's try him out first."
"Alright. I'll tell Mags to give him a call to see if we can get a meeting, meanwhile," she got up out of her seat with her bag and phone in hand and walked towards the door, "we have to get you to the studio."
Carlos hopped out of his chair with a big grin on his face. "Let's do this thing."
A/N: Well, I hope you guys liked this chapter, maybe enough to leave a review? ;)
A BIG thanks to those who have mentioned what they'd like Katie's full name to be, usually, I like to remain as Canon as possible, but this story is actually pulling me out of my comfort zone, what a rush! For those of you wondering, there is a point to this whole thing. :)
Thanks for reading,
D