Chapter 3: -

Alyssa's P.O.V

I sat in the lobby reading one of the fashion magazines that were lying around on the tables.

"Alyssa! Hi!" I heard, I looked up and found the boys of big time rush staring at me. I quickly closed my magazine down and replied to them.

"Hi."

"What are you doing here on your own?" Kendall asked.

"Yeah, where are the others?" Carlos added.

"Oh, they think that I need to make new friends, so they ditched me and went to Kaine's audition." I answered, a little annoyed.

"Oh. –What are you reading? Let me see!" James reached for the magazine in my hand but I fought back.

"No." I said, but as he was much stronger than me he won and as a result another thin booklet fell out of the magazine. Carlos picked it up; it was the comic book that I was really reading.

"Ooh, what's this? –I've read this before." He said. I wanted to crawl into a hole, what kind of girl who wants to be an actress likes to read comic books rather than fashion magazines? I figured that wasn't very believable.

"Cool, a girl who likes the same comic books we do." Suddenly my embarrassment just brushed off.

"We're heading off to Rocque Records; you could come if you want to?" Kendall mentioned to which I just looked at him.

"Unless you're busy or something!" He said a little too loud and quickly.

"No, I'll come." I laughed and then we left the building.

I stood quietly; in the corner of the room because Gustavo's constant yelling intimidated me. The boys were recording their new song for their second album. I thought they sounded amazing but Gustavo's complaining told me that he thought differently. Whenever he thought one of them did badly, he would yell at that person and then make them start from the top again. So the whole process went on for hours, each boy looked at me with eyes that showed me that they were sorry for keeping me here. But I didn't mind, seeing as I had nothing better to do. Whenever Gustavo said something about their singing that I disagreed with, I would make faces behind his back then he would turn around and I'd stop and start casually pretending to whistle.

"Okay that's enough for today, you can try again tomorrow." Gustavo said as the boys walked out of the booth. I just stared at him and thought.

Try again tomorrow? But they were great! Why does he want them to try again? Just as I came away from my thoughts, my phone buzzed indicating that I had a text.

We're back from Kaine's audition and where are you? – Prestan

Tell Kaine I hope it went well and I'm at Rocque Records with BTR. – Alys

He said thanks and okay. – Prestan

As I was texting, I subconsciously followed the boys into the dance studio.

"Urgh why is Gustavo so ungrateful!" Kendall said.

"And annoying." I murmured as I put my phone back into my pocket. They obviously heard me because they started agreeing.

"It's funny how I'm the only one with a girlfriend now." James mentioned out of the blue.

"We get it! You have a girlfriend, we don't! No need to boast about it." Carlos said as he pouted slightly. That then turned into an argument about jealously and players and whatnot. The argument then turned into a physical fight which Kendall and Logan joined into to stop.

"Okay everyone stop before I put you all in the time out chair!" I said as I took charge, which seemed to work because they all broke apart and looked at me.

"We're not five." James said as he folded his arms and moped.

"Are you not? Well you could've fooled me!" My sarcasm came up to the surface once again.

"Why did you threaten to put us in a time out chair?" Logan questioned.

"That's what I do when the little dragons are fighting." I explained. They all stared at me as if I was crazy.

"And by little dragons I mean my little brothers and sisters." I explained again.

"Wouldn't your parents just punish them?" Kendall asked. I tried to hold back the tears but I just couldn't so I ran out. That day was the day my mum had died. I ran into the hallway and then I burst into tears. I tried very hard but raising seven kids at seventeen was extremely difficult and I missed my mum.

"Hey what's wrong? Don't cry." I heard someone say. I turned because I didn't want to talk to anyone. I never talked to anyone about it. I just cried and eventually I stopped. Usually whoever tried to comfort me would just let it go after a short while but not this time. He just kept at it. After a while he stopped asking me what was wrong and just began to rub my back as I cried. Nobody actually stayed this long with me while I cried, not my siblings, not my orphanage guardians, not my grandparents or my uncles and aunties. But it actually helped, it made me feel better. Once my crying died down, I looked up to see who was comforting me.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Kendall looked concerned.

"Today's the anniversary of when my mum died." I stated. "My little dragons don't have anyone but me." I smiled as I referred to my little dragons.

"Oh I'm so sorry, I didn't know..." He quickly hugged me.

"It's okay; it just gets to me sometimes." I said as I pulled away from his hug.

"Do you mind me asking about your dad?" He said as he helped me up from the floor.

"Um, he abandoned us before our mum died, before Declan, our baby brother, was even born." Just thinking about that man made me feel mad.

"Oh. Well do you want to stay and watch us mess up our dance routines over and over again or do you want to get a ride back to the hotel?" He said, followed by a smile. I walked back into the dance studio with a smile on my face and he came in right behind me.

"What just happened?" James asked.

"Oh it was nothing." I said. "Just get on with your dancing." I said and then I walked to the perfect spot for me to sit and watch them.

"Hey Alyssa! Do you want to join us? It will be fun!" Carlos proposed. Kendall just looked at me whilst the others pleaded.

"No it's fine. I don't really want to."

"My feet hurt." I said as we walked back into the Palm woods lobby. "You said it was going to be fun not painful!" I growled at Carlos to which he put his hands up in a please don't hurt me manner. Just then Peyton came up to us, kissed James on the cheek and whilst she and James continued their little mushy moment, I stood behind them with the others and thought well this is awkward. My phone vibrated and this time I had a text from Bradley.

We all decided to go to the palm woods park and we won't be back until late this afternoon. – Bradley

Okay but don't stay out too late. – Alyssa

When I put my phone back into my pocket, my stomach began to grumble. But Peyton's talking seemed to drown out the sound.

"So I'm bored, do you guys want to hang out?" She asked all of us.

"Sorry but we've really got to practice the new songs for the album." James said as he kissed her forehead and they went up in the elevator. My tummy grumbled again. She turned to face me, directly.

"Want to grab a bite to eat?" She offered, I checked my pockets and found that I had no money.

"Urrrm I would, but I'm broke." I was pretty disappointed since I couldn't get anything from the apartment because my siblings took all the keys.

"Don't worry about that! I'll just have my chef whip us something up." She said as she dragged me towards the elevator.

"Hold on a second, your chef?" I asked as she pushed the button for her floor.

"Yeah, well I can't cook and it's really fun watching Marie cook." She explained. Eventually the doors to her floor opened and we went to her apartment, 3C, which coincidentally was the one right next to mine. Huh, we didn't even know we were neighbours. We both laughed at that matter and then we went into her apartment.

Her apartment was like nothing I had ever seen before, okay I hadn't seen much but still. It was classy but it still had a homely edge to it.