A/N: I'm so flighty! I meant to tell you guys that the necklace in Chapter 5 is actually a real necklace that I found on the Internet. If you want to learn more about it, just PM me.

Disclaimer: I do not own Big Time Rush in any way, shape, or form, nor do I own the Lady Antebellum song "When You Got A Good Thing." Wish I did, though!

Chapter 7: Busted!

Leigh POV

The past three weeks have been chaotic, to say the least. In addition to having to pick the female singer, my contract also bound me to supervise the entire process of making my song. For the last three weeks, I've had to figure what instruments I wanted in the song (since Gustavo made it clear that an acoustic guitar wasn't enough), choreography, wardrobe, and lighting. According to Gustavo, having me make all the decisions would make the performance more authentic, which meant better feedback from the audience. I personally thought he was just lazy and liked making people suffer. The song itself is a duet, but I had to decide whether it was a duet between Cassandra and Big Time Rush, or a duet between Cassandra and one of the boys from Big Time Rush. Based on how I originally wrote the song, I decided on the latter. Thankfully, Gustavo decided which of the boys would get the part. He gave it to James, saying his boyish good looks would contribute to the song's success.

After tonight, I can finally breathe. At the beginning of this whole process, Gustavo made the announcement that Big Time Rush would be doing a free concert to promote their CD that was nearing its completion. He said he got the idea from some show called Hannah Montana. Apparently, the show has some concert footage of Hannah performing at a concert. In order to get people to come to the concert, at least during the first season, the producers of the show advertised a free Hannah Montana concert in the newspaper. Sounded like a dumb idea to me, but everyone else seemed excited. Unfortunately, I didn't have much of a say.

The vast majority of the concert went by perfectly. The crowd was really loud and supportive, and I could tell the boys were enjoying themselves. It was during the intermission that things started to go awry. The boys got off the stage to help James prepare for the duet. I went to check on Cassandra, making sure she was getting ready since the intermission was a very short one. I knocked on her dressing room door, and was met with silence. Slowly, I turned the knob and opened the door. The sight I was met with surprised me. There was Cassandra, crying as she attempted to gargle some sort of liquid.

"Cassandra?" I called out, uncertain of what was going on.

She spat out the liquid. "L-L-Leigh…" she whispered, tears flowing freely down her face.

In the three weeks I have come to know her, I've realized that my first impression of her was off. She wasn't arrogant at all. She was a DIVA. I'm pretty sure Gustavo was about ready to kill himself a few times. Nobody liked her, and they all wanted to kick her out. Unfortunately, her ironclad contract prohibited us from doing as such, so we were stuck with her. Still, even though she's made these past few weeks hell, I couldn't help but feel sorry for her.

"Are you ok?" I knew it sounded like a stupid question, but I've never been good at this comforting crap.

"I-I don't kn-n-now. I woke up this morning with a tickle in my throat. I drank some tea, and I thought it helped. But then, while I was getting ready, I saw this really big, really gross cockroach, so I screamed. And now, I can't talk and my throat really really hurts." She then began to cough.

"Don't panic, but I think you might have laryngitis, which you aggravated when you screamed."

A knock on Cassandra's door brought me back to reality. She and I both turned our gazes to the door, hoping that the person wouldn't try to come in.

"Is everything okay in there?" I heard Kendall ask, his voice muffled by the door.

I hesitated. "Yeeeah…everything's fine. Her zipper's just stuck."

"Ok, well Cassandra has five minutes," I heard his footsteps move away from the door.

"Oh, Leigh!" Cassandra cried quietly, flinging her arms around me, "I can't go out there! What are we gonna do?"

I tried my best to not to turn my head as her sick breath tickled my face.

"Okay, first of all…you need to stop whispering. You're aggravating it even more.

She nodded, and I continued, "Second, you have to go out there. Don't worry, you're not going to be singing," I quickly added when I saw her start to panic. "Just turn your microphone off and lip sync. Let me take care of the rest."

She was about to protest, but I disrupted her. "You're just going to have to trust me, okay? I promise this plan will work if you just follow my instructions exactly."

I had her nearly convinced, so I pressed on. "Plus, think of how bad you'll look if you cancel your performance now."

Her eyes widened.

"So, are you going to trust me?"

She nodded fervently. "Good," I responded. "Drink some water right before you go on stage, and whatever you do, do NOT cough while you're supposed to sing."

Cassandra shook her head, and together we left her dressing room. She went to stand next to the stage director, while I went to find the technical producer.

Luckily, I found him at the sound booth, where he was supposed to be. "Spike, I need your help with something,"

Spencer, aka "Spike" was a six foot two red head with big nerdy glasses. He felt the nickname gave him edge. To pacify him, we agreed.

"What's up, Leigh? The second half of the concert is about to start."

"Yeah, about that…Cassandra lost her voice."

"WHAT?" he screeched.

"Calm down, it's fine. We've turned her mic off. Now, I need a microphone so I can sing for her."

He looked at me skeptically. "You sure you want to do that? I mean, can you even sing?"

"Do we really have any other options that won't make BTR look bad?"

"I guess not."

Spike did as I asked, and before I knew it, I heard the beginning of the song start. I began to count the beats. And James should be starting…

"Everybody keeps telling me I'm such a lucky man,"

I heard James start singing. Never in my wildest dreams did I think I would ever hear my song come to life like this. It was exhilarating.

"Looking at you standing there I know I am."

I looked at Cassandra, who was standing near the stage, preparing herself to start walking when it was her cue. She looked back at me hesitantly. I gave her a strained smile, hoping it would encourage her.

"Barefooted beauty with eyes that blue,

Sunshine sure looks good on you, I swear."

On cue, Cassandra walked out and I began to sing.

"Oh I can't believe I finally found ya baby,

Happy ever after after all this time."

Spike looked at me, his mouth forming an "o" shape. I ignored him and focused on the task at hand.

"Oh there's gonna be some ups and downs,

But with you to wrap my arms around, I'm fine."

I heard James inhale before he began to join me in the chorus.

"So baby, hold on tight, don't let go

Hold on to the love we're making

Cause baby when the ground starts shaking, you gotta know

When you got a good thing"

We continued to sing, and the next thing I knew, the audience began to clap and the song was over. Cassandra walked backstage, her face sheet white. I heard the next song start and three other voices join James'.

I turned my microphone off as Cassandra tackled me. "I can't believe we pulled that off!" she squealed as she hugged me tightly.

"Cassandra, you need to rest your voice." I sighed, exasperated. She nodded and ran back to her dressing room excitedly. I looked back at Spike, who smiled at me and gave me a thumb's up. I smirked as I raised my pointer finger to my lips, making it clear that if he told anyone, I'd kill him.

Never had I been so happy to return back to the Palm Woods as I was that night. Mrs. Knight prepared a huge feast for everybody to commemorate BTR's first concert. Cassandra left immediately after the concert, saying she was exhausted after the big night. No one seemed to notice our switcharoo, which we were both relieved about. Before she left, she shot me a grateful glance, which I acknowledged with a soft smile.

After indulging in a few sweets that Mrs. Knight prepared, I said my goodnights to everybody and went back to my apartment. I noticed James looking at me funny as I left and I saw him make some lame excuse before he followed me out the door. When I heard him close the door behind him, I looked around the hallway. When I saw nobody else was present, I turned to James.

"Can I help you?" I asked.

He stared at me. "Yeah, I was just wondering what you thought of the duet?"

I felt my stomach do a flip. "Oh, it was good. You guys really did the song justice. Thank you." I turned to go into my apartment, but James grabbed my wrist.

"I know it was you singing." He said bluntly.

"What makes you say that?" I replied, trying to play it cool.

"I've been practicing with Cassandra for the past THREE weeks. I know everything about her voice. And I know she could never sing the song as well as you did tonight. Plus, did you really think I wouldn't be able to tell she was lip-synching? I mean, I was right there."

One minor detail I had neglected to think about when I made the bold decision to sing for Cassandra.

Sensing me give up, he continued, "Why did you tell Gustavo you couldn't sing? If he knew you could sing like that, he'd sign you in a heartbeat."

"First of all, I didn't tell him I couldn't sing. I said I don't sing. As in, if someone heard me sing and wanted to sign me, I'd say no."

He looked confused. "Why?"

"Because, unlike the vast majority of people, becoming famous is something I do not crave. I just want to live a normal life."

He nodded, but I could tell he thought I was crazy. Then he continued, "Why did you sing tonight?"

"Well…Cassandra fell ill and lost her voice. She couldn't perform, so I went in her place."

"Aww! You do care about us." He squealed, acting like a girl.

"No! I mean, I did what I had to. Nothing more."

"Whatever you say, Leigh," he responded, clearly not buying it.

"Look, you can't tell anyone, okay? Cassandra may be a diva, but she really does have talent. If Gustavo or anyone else knew it was me singing, it would discredit her as a singer."

James sighed. "Okay, fine. I won't say anything. But you owe me."

"Deal. Now, go back inside and celebrate."

He smiled and said goodnight as he went back inside. I went back into my apartment and flopped onto my bed. I really hated the fact that I now owed James. I just hope he doesn't hold this over my head.

A/N: Did you guys know that fact about Hannah Montana? I saw it on an E! exclusive or something. But yeah…I don't really like this chapter. But I felt it needed to be written. And I know Lady Antebellum has a completely different sound than BTR. But I really like the song, so there! The next chapter will go into how Leigh pays James back. I hope I'm not boring you guys! I promise you, Chapter 10 is when things start getting intense! So, we're almost there! Anyways, thanks for reading and remember: critiques are welcomed, but no flames please.