(A/N): I can't believe I've made it to chapter 13 already! This is just… crazy! Anyways, thank you to Milkamoo97, xSuperChickx, and oOo KitKat oOo for reviewing! Once again, I do not own Big Time Rush, nor do I own the episode Big Time Demos which this chapter is based off of.
Don't forget to vote and enjoy the chapter!
Chapter 13: That's Blackmail!
As Logan, Carlos, Kendall and James began their 'training' of Lolo the chimp, Katrina, Brandon, Gustavo, Kelly and Mercedes watched from behind the glass in the control room. All of them had changed back into their clothes from earlier.
"We should get out of here," Katrina told Brandon, "Before we get into trouble. Cause I know that this is all going to go bad."
"HEY!" Gustavo yelled at her, "This is a great idea!"
"Rina, we're already involved," Brandon tried to get her to see some sense, "The worst that could happen would be that these guys would leave. Technically, we couldn't be punished."
"Technically," Katrina mimicked, "We could get community service or possibly jail time for stealing a chimp. I don't even know why I agreed to this."
"You don't want the guys to leave, do you?" Kelly asked her.
"Psh," Katrina denied, "I don't really care." She started laughing nervously as she noticed that all eyes, including the guys' and Lolo's were on her. "Why don't we go ahead and do this chimp training thing so that we don't get caught?" Everyone continued to stare at her so she avoided their eyes by staring at the ground, itching her neck.
"She's right," Gustavo caused everyone to look at him, "We should get started with the training." The boys nodded their heads and turned to look at Lolo. Everyone in the control booth leaned forward as they watched.
"Now," Logan began, "According to Pavlov, animals can be trained to associate positive feelings with certain stimuli, such as sights, smells and-"
Kendall held up their demo CD as he finished, "Big Time Rush demos."
"Exactly." Logan explained, "We're gonna train Lolo to pick the Big Time Rush demos through the positive reinforcement of-" Carlos pulled some bananas out of nowhere and plopped them in Logan's outstretched hand, "Bananas."
"Where did they get so many bananas so fast anyways?" Katrina asked the people in the control room. They shrugged their shoulders in reply.
"Lolo," Logan addressed the chimp, "Tasty bananas." He placed the bananas in front of Lolo.
"Big Time Rush," Carlos pointed at the speakers. Gustavo pressed a button on the control board and the band's song, Big Time Rush came on.
"Huh," Katrina spoke causing everyone in the control room to look at her, "I've known these guys for a while now and this is the first time I've heard their music."
"Really?" Brandon asked her, "You're hanging out with a band before hearing their music."
"It's not my fault that I was thrown into their lives and then they wouldn't leave me alone!" Katrina complained.
"If four hot guys randomly popped into my life, I wouldn't complain," Mercedes told her.
"That's because I'm not a-" Before Katrina could finish, Brandon covered her mouth and smiled apologies for his friend's behavior.
Suddenly, he yelped and pulled his hand away, "She bit me!"
"Don't touch my mouth," Katrina hissed at him, but then smiled, showing that she didn't really mean it.
He laughed as everyone looked back at the band.
"More bananas!" Logan suggested as James pulled two more batches of bananas out of nowhere.
He placed it on the table in front of Lolo before pointing at the speakers, "More Big Time Rush!"
Gustavo switched the song to Any Kind Of Guy. Everyone watched as Lolo clapped.
"He's clapping!" Kelly announced with glee, "It's working."
"Oh my God," Katrina mumbled, "I can't believe it."
"Halfway there, here we come!" Gustavo cheered.
The guys stood up with their arms full of bananas as Logan told Lolo, "Even more bananas!"
They dropped the bananas in front of Lolo before Kendall pointed at the speakers, saying, "Even more Big Time Rush!"
Gustavo changed the song to Famous and Lolo began jumping up and down. When he stopped, he picked up a banana.
"He's picking up the bananas," Gustavo observed, "Is that a good sign?"
Suddenly, Lolo threw the banana, the boys avoided it and it hit the window divider causing everyone in the control room to jump.
The guys looked at Lolo and began to scold him. This just caused Lolo to continue to throw bananas. The boys backed up against the windowed wall as they kept getting hit with bananas. Brandon, Gustavo, Kelly and Mercedes were watching the scene with horror, but Katrina had fallen off her seat, laughing. As soon as the boys fell to the floor, Lolo ran from the room.
"Well," Mercedes began, "He either really loved that song, or really hated it." Gustavo screamed and put his head down on the control board, turning off the song. It was at this point that everyone noticed the laughter coming from Katrina. Everyone in the control room stared at her.
Upon hearing the laughter, the boys stood up, hurt looks on their faces.
"Oh," James responded, "You think it's funny? You think it's funny how MY DREAM IS CRUSHED?"
Katrina stood up, still laughing as she managed to get out, "No! You've done everything wrong!"
"But," Logan seemed upset that his intellect was challenged, "Pavlov said-"
"Yes, Pavlov discovered all of that positive reinforcement stuff," Katrina told him, walking into the banana covered room, "But there are a few things you missed. One," She pointed at the open door, "You forgot to keep the area closed. You wouldn't want your experiment running away like it just did. Two, you never discipline. Don't yell at the poor creature! It just sends bad vibes to the animal. And three, Pavlov's dogs became conditioned to drool at the ringing of a bell over time. Lolo isn't automatically going to clap at your songs through just one training session! It would take days, possibly weeks, of work to get him to respond correctly." She stopped talking and the boys were staring at her with their jaws dropped. "What?"
"Now, we know why you and Logan got along so well," James responded. Logan and Katrina both blushed and began to laugh nervously.
"Okay, enough embarrassing them," Kendall saved them, "Katrina, can you train him?"
"Train him?" Brandon replied for her as he joined the group, "You're talking to someone who was able to get a squirrel to do back flips on command! When it comes to animals, this girl can do almost anything!"
Gustavo ran into the room and grabbed Katrina, "TRAIN HIM AND I'LL PAY YOU QUADRUPLE YOUR NORMAL AMOUNT!"
Katrina turned to look at the boys, "Go get the chimp." They scrambled out of the room to look for Lolo.
When the boys came back, Gustavo was pacing the hallway, Kelly was eating bananas, Mercedes was sitting around looking bored, Katrina had her eyes closed and was taking deep breaths and Brandon was sitting on the arm of Mercedes's chair, watching the scene.
As soon as they got in sight, Gustavo yelled at them, "WHERE'S THE CHIMP?" This caused Katrina to open her eyes and stare at them.
"We don't know," The boys responded. Gustavo screamed and fell into a chair. Kelly sighed and sat on the chair's arm, still eating bananas. The boys fell back onto the couch and Katrina sat on the arm of it, right next to Kendall.
The boys began to pull banana peels off of them as Gustavo spoke, "You know. The scooter is the sensible solution for today's high gas prices, pollution and offers seniors increased mobility and AHHHHH!" Everyone looked at him. Katrina and Brandon actually didn't flinch this time. They had gotten used to the screaming.
Kendall stood up, "No, we are not giving up. We're almost halfway there and another thing I've learned since coming to LA is that together, we can do anything." Everyone began to get their hopes up as they listened to Kendall's speech.
Suddenly, Griffin walked in with his assistants and Lolo. He told them, "Look who I found, hitchhiking, on the Hollywood freeway."
"Yeah, we're done." Kendall sat back in his seat, defeated. The others lost the little hope that Kendall had given them earlier.
"I am deeply disappointed in all of you," Griffin lectured, "But I'm also curious. What happened? Help me out!"
Everyone looked around, wondering who was going to break first. It was Mercedes that spoke, "It's my fault, Daddy. I lied to them and I made them be my boyfriends and then I ate terrible cookies and then I cried and then I helped them chimpnapp Lolo and I love you!" She gave him a guilty smile.
"Is that true?" Griffin asked everyone else, "Because she lies. A lot."
"It's all of our faults," Gustavo confessed.
"Technically," Katrina added, "I was coerced into it."
"But," Brandon covered for her, "We did help."
"We really want to stay here in LA and make an album," Kendall told him.
"And a tour," Carlos continued.
"And be famous!" James went on.
"But we may have gone a little too far," Logan commented.
"Sorry," Kelly apologized with her mouth full of banana.
"Those are a lot of sentences, containing words, containing letters," Griffin began. Everyone looked at him, confusion etched on their faces. "And I admire your passion and dedication. But it doesn't change the fact that Lolo picks which demos win. So what do you say Lolo, do you like Big Time Rush?"
Every single person in the room leaned in to watch Lolo as the tension built. Lolo looked at the boys as though deciding and then looked at Griffin, giving off the fart noise.
"Ooh," Griffin turned to the disappointed group, "The fart noise. Sorry boys, Vampirah wins."
"Ugh," Katrina threw her head back and groaned, "Not more vampires!"
"Lolo's wrong, Daddy," Mercedes caught everyone's attention, "The vampire fad has one, two years left max. These guys' songs have infectious melodies, classic pop hooks and Big Time Rush will crush the six to sixteen year old demographic, which is your core music buying base."
"Wow," Griffin looked impressed with his daughter, "Lolo, I'm transferring you to missile defense." Katrina went wide-eyed at this and covered her mouth with her hand. "Mercedes, you're my new hit predicting advisor. And this way, we'll get to spend more time together." Katrina flinched at this, but no one noticed because of what Griffin told them next. "Big Time Rush wins!" The boys, Gustavo, Kelly and Brandon began cheering while Katrina just sat in her spot, dumbfounded. Griffin broke the cheering by asking his daughter, "Anything else for my princess?"
"Well," Mercedes looked over at the guys, "I never really got a chance to date Logan." Katrina fell off her seat at this, almost hitting Brandon as she fell to the ground.
"Logan," Griffin announced, "You're Mercedes's new boyfriend." At this, Logan hid behind James and Katrina jumped to her feet, a scowl present on her face.
"Hey!" Katrina yelled causing everyone to look at her, "You're crazy! You can't put an animal in charge of missiles and you can't assign boyfriends to your daughter like you assign a job to someone! That's just unethical!"
"Yes, I can do both of those things," Griffin told her, completely unfazed by being called crazy, "And do you want to know why? Because I own them, Katrina Wolff."
"Just because they're-" Katrina stopped mid sentence as something hit her, "Wait. How do you know my name? I haven't done any work for you."
"Your father used to work for me," Griffin responded causing Katrina to look like a deer in headlights, "You definitely have his personality, but you look like your mother."
"Stop," Katrina whispered.
"Is that why you put highlights in your hair?" Griffin continued as if he hadn't heard her. "So when you looked in the mirror, you wouldn't see her looking back at you?"
"Please," Katrina begged. She was starting to cry. The boys were watching her, not really wanting to stop Griffin, but not wanting to see her hurt.
"I remember hearing about that day," Griffin went on, "Such a tragedy. You and your siblings were on your way to becoming stars, each of you in your own way, before that day. Why, most people have forgotten the Wolff family tragedy because it's been around two years since then, but I haven't. I could retell the story for everyone in this room."
"SHUT UP!" Brandon screamed at him, finally getting him to stop. Katrina had fallen to the ground crying and Brandon had knelt down beside her, trying his best to comfort her. "She hasn't told anyone here. She doesn't want them to know yet."
"Fine," Griffin agreed, "I'll stop. On one condition."
"Name it," Katrina hissed from behind her tears.
"I would like to buy Penny's Pet Care from you," Griffin offered, "I'll give you a floor in this building for its headquarters. I have a ton of animals under my control, but I don't have anyone that offers animal care."
"That's blackmail!" Brandon told him, standing up, "She doesn't want to work for you! If you think-"
"Okay," Katrina interrupted as she stood up too, "I'll sell you Penny's Pet Care. Can we work out the details later?" Brandon looked disappointed with his friend.
"Yes," Griffin turned to the others who looked confused, "As for you guys, get to work. We need some new songs for the Big Time Rush album!"
"I've already got one," Gustavo announced, "MOVE OUT!" Everyone but Katrina and Brandon ran into the recording area.
Brandon turned to Katrina, "Are you going to be okay?"
Katrina wiped away what was left of her tears, "Yeah, let's go listen to the song. I need something to lift my mood and I have a feeling that this song will do that." Brandon nodded as he linked his arm with hers, leading her into the recording area.
The boys finished their new song, Halfway There, to the cheers from the people in the control room.
Griffin turned to Katrina, "What do you think of Big Time Rush?"
All heads stared at the teen girl as she looked over the guys. They waited with smiles until Katrina spoke, "I think that you're going to make a lot of money off of them." The cheering in the room began again at her compliment.
Suddenly, Carlos realized something, "Hey, now that we're staying in LA and Katrina is going to be working in the same building as us, it means we'll get to see her more often!"
Katrina went wide-eyed at the thought. She screamed, "NO!" As she ran from the room.
The boys watched her leave, laughing, "She'll change her mind."
"I think we should go renew your apartment," Kelly told the boys. They cheered as they followed her out of the room and made their way to the Palm Woods.
(A/N): The boys are staying and Katrina's moving into the building. That's going to cause more craziness! Will the close space cause her to trust them enough to tell them the story of the Wolff Family Tragedy that Griffin knows? Well, you'll have to wait for another chapter to find out!
And here are the choices for the voting contest again:
1. A girl bully.
2. A boyfriend for Brandon.
3. A stray animal.
4. A boyfriend for Katrina.
Confused? Check out chapter 7 for more information! Until the next chapter, happy reading and don't forget to vote!