Kendall and his three best friends were all out hanging out at the Palm Woods' pool, and they were ready for Girl Time. Unfortunately for the four of them, all the girls they had met at the Palm Woods either didn't want anything to do with them until they made it big, like the Jennifers, or were too focused on their careers to be interested in them, like Camille, who seemed to love using Kendall to practice her slaps, and Logan to practice her kisses, but nothing else.
"Why can't there be a nice, sweet, nice girl at the Palm Woods?" Kendall asked his bros after Carlos was pushed into the pool for saying the wrong name to one of the Sims twins.
"Someone who's not crazy, or stuck up, but still really hot." James elaborated.
"From…North Carolina." Logan added.
"Well, it's not North Carolina but I'm sure you'll enjoy your stay here at the Palm Woods." Mr. Bitters was saying to someone as he walked through the pool area.
The three guys turned their attention to see Mr. Bitters leading a man in an orange polo pulling a suitcase along, and behind him… Kendall felt his heart skip a beat.
Walking up to them was a cute blonde, wearing a white top and a green hoodie with blue jeans, who was looking around the pool area in awe, similar to how the guys had felt when they first saw it a few weeks ago when they moved in.
Kendall though was entirely focused on her beautiful smile, and he swore he could hear the notes of a love song playing in his head as he looked at her. She was following Mr. Bitters and was going to walk right in front of him, so he stood up and did his best to flex his muscles. He knew he should have worn a t-shirt today instead of long sleeves. He also noticed James and Logan acting similarly to him, but he could deal with them later.
The girl walked past them and waved when she noticed them all staring at her. "Hi."
"Sup?" Logan, Kendall, and James all said and smiled back at her.
She kept on walking but turned back for a moment to see the three of them staring at her before walking on.
Once she was out of sight, Kendall declared, "She's mine!" but also realized that James, Carlos, and Logan all said the same thing simultaneously. They all turned their heads to study each other for a moment, and they all started wrestling each other to claim their dibs.
"I saw her first!" Kendall declared.
"No way, I did, and it's obviously fate, I said a girl from North Carolina, and boom! A girl from North Carolina!"
"But Logan, you're the smart one that believes in science and math and smart stuff! You can't claim fate now!" Carlos pointed out.
"Um, I think you're missing the fact that she smiled at me." James said, "And why wouldn't she?" James took a moment away from wrestling Kendall to frame his face with his hands.
"No, she waved and smiled at me!" Carlos said.
"Carlos, you were in the pool, obviously she waved at me." Logan shot back as pulled him back down to the ground.
"No, she waved at me," Kendall said with complete confidence, as he managed to pin James to the ground.
"That's because you were in the middle of us. That's a correlation, not causation." Logan corrected him.
"This is a girl. Math doesn't matter! The face does!" James declared and motioned to himself once again.
Just then Kendall's cell phone rang so he stepped out of the brawl to answer it while the other three continued fighting. "Hey Kelly what's up? OK, we'll be right there. Guys! Gustavo wants us at Roque Records! Let's go!"
The boys picked themselves up and walked back through the lobby towards the limo waiting outside for them, still arguing, but Kendall did his best to keep himself out of it since it looked like this time their tried-and-true dibs system wasn't going to work, that just meant Kendall had to think of his own plan to get to know the new girl. No big deal, he was always the man with the plan.
Later that afternoon, Kendall, Carlos, and Logan were back at the Palm Woods' pool, and new girl was sitting on one of the pool chairs nearby reading a script. Thankfully during rehearsal, earlier James couldn't stop sneezing, so Gustavo made James go to the doctor and gave the rest of the guys the day off until he could fix the new love song he was writing. The most important part that Kendall cared about, was eliminating James, which was probably Kendall's biggest obstacle to the new girl taken care of.
While Kendall loved his bros, he knew he could handle them, especially since they decided the best way to get the new girl's attention was for Carlos to act like a bad boy, and Logan decided he was going to be British. While Kendall may have used similar schemes in the past, there was something different about this girl. He didn't know anything about her yet, and while she was undoubtedly beautiful, he wanted to get to know her, and hopefully, she'll want to get to know him, the real him.
They watched as she got up from her chair and walked into the lobby, still reading her script, and so the three of them drew straws to see who could go first. Carlos won and he was more than ready to go, at least he told himself that. Another advantage Kendall knew he had, neither Carlos nor Logan had ever successfully asked a girl out before.
Jo was sitting in the lobby looking over the script for her first audition when a guy dressed all in black leather hopped into the seat next to hers. She studied him for a moment, was he one of the guys she had seen at the pool earlier today?
"Hi, I'm Jo." She set her script in her lap and introduced herself. "Cool jacket."
The guy just nodded his head and flicked the lapels on the jacket, without saying anything.
"Oh, are you going out for the bad boy role in Magic Middle School?" Jo asked him, showing her the title of her script. "I mean it's a really strong role, but I hate bad boys in real life. I mean why so angry all the time?" She chuckled at him.
"Yeah…" the guy nodded quietly.
"I'm sorry I didn't get your name?"
The guy whipped off his glasses with a look of panic on his face. "I'm Reginald Salisbury from England," Carlos said in a terrible British accent.
"Oh, how exciting, my family visits England every year!" Jo smiled. "What part of England are you from?"
"Um…Cheerio! Put another shrimp on the barbie! Dunk a shark!" Reginald rushed out and then he stood up and ran back over hide behind Mr. Bitters' desk.
Jo watched him go in confusion, that was strange, it was almost like he planned to hit on me with some bad boy routine. If that was the case at least he seemed to give up quickly. Beyond not planning on dating right now, and hating bad boys, she hated when guys lied just to try to go on a date with her.
Another guy walked up through the lobby and he was smiling at her a bit strangely, but before he could talk to her, a brunette in a pink tracksuit walked up to him and slapped him.
"Ow, Camille!"
Jo watched in surprise and shock, this definitely wasn't North Carolina anymore.
The new guy whispered a few things and glanced over at Jo for a moment, and the girl shouted. "Yes! Of course I'll take you back!" And then pulled him down for a flurry of kisses until his lips and cheeks were covered in a constellation of lipstick marks. "I'm going to tell Rachel we're back together and then I will destroy anybody who tries to come between us!" She glared at Jo for a moment.
"Oh don't worry, you go girl, he's all yours." Jo did her best to smile nicely at the girl.
"Thanks, and by the way, I'm Camille we should talk later," Camille said and then confidently walked out of the lobby.
The other guy stood there awkwardly stuttering for a few moments before he too hightailed it around the corner.
Jo shook her head, so yeah, both of those guys were definitely trying to hit on her, but she wouldn't let them, and she was willing to bet the other two were probably waiting around here for their own turn to pounce on her. She didn't want any of that, especially if the next two were anything like the first two. So she walked over to the elevator to head up to her own apartment for a while since she still had some unpacking to do.
About an hour later, the boys were staking out the pool again, and Kendall had his eye on Jo, reading her script in one of the cabanas. At least that was one thing Carlos was useful for, getting her name. Now all Kendall had to do was introduce himself, and by that, he meant he would use the brilliant strategy of being himself. And despite his friends' offers to help/sabotage him, he was confident that he could do this without their assistance.
Kendal walked over to Jo. "Hi."
Jo glanced up from her script and smiled at him, and seeing her smile at him, he felt his heart skip a beat again. He would do whatever it takes to get her to smile at him every day.
"I just wanted to welcome you to the Palm Woods. I'm Kendall." Kendall waved in a friendly manner.
"I'm Jo." Jo introduced herself and waved back at him.
"So what brings you-?" Kendall felt himself being lifted up by the collar of his shirt and he was suddenly hanging about a foot above the ground. He spun slightly to find it was Freight Train holding him up. "This looks weird right?" He smiled at Jo.
"Yeah…just a bit." Jo nodded her head, looking very confused.
"We can continue this conversation later when my friend Freight Train puts me down." Kendall did his best to laugh, and then Kendall's humiliation was sealed as Freight Train slung him over his shoulder like a backpack and walked off. "Let's do this again sometime?"
"Yeah…" Jo waved timidly back as he walked away.
Freight Train was quick to grab Carlos and Logan and carried them all out of the Palm Woods.
"That is not fair! OK, I so get a do-over!" Kendall declared.
"No, you don't!" Logan and Carlos both said, and they once again continued arguing all the way back to the studio.
As Jo watched Kendall being taken away, she felt a bag of mixed emotions. She still had no interest in a boyfriend, but at the very least he didn't seem to be lying about himself, although they hadn't had much of a conversation yet, and he didn't have any lingering relationship drama like the other guy.
But it appears she may now have some guaranteed peace and quiet so she decided now would be a good time to find Camile, and get the low down on what the Palm Woods was really like, and thankfully she walked past her cabana soon after the three guys left.
"Hi Camille, so by chance do you know those four…?" Jo trailed off, from what she'd seen so far she had no clue how to describe them.
"Crazy bandmates? Yes, I do." Camille replied with a laugh.
"So what exactly is their deal?" Jo asked as she sat down next to Camille.
"Oh yeah. So the short version is that they're four hockey players from Minnesota who moved into the Palm Woods a few weeks ago after Gustavo Roque discovered them. Right now they're in the process of recording their first album, hoping they'll make it big."
"OK, and are they always…?"
"Insane? That's a yes." Camille laughed, "I'm pretty sure they've already almost gotten kicked out three or four times. But they definitely make things interesting around here. And from what I've seen today, yes they have been like that with every new girl that shows up here, but once you get to know them, they aren't all that bad."
"Yeah, do you think they've been trying to hit on me?"
Camille nodded, "Oh yeah definitely, could you not tell? And if nothing else, they are all pretty cute."
"Yeah they are," Jo admitted, "but can you tell me some of the good things about them?"
"Sure, so first off, Logan is mine. Is that clear?" Camille said, her smile morphing into a warning-filled glare.
"Clear as crystal," Jo promised, raising her hands in a placating gesture.
"Good, so Logan is the smart, brainiac one, and in my opinion definitely the cutest, even if he has no idea how to actually use his charm." Camille rolled her eyes and sighed to herself, "He's the one that likes to gather the lay of the land when they make their plans. And his singing voice is amazing, again even though he may not know it." Camille practically swooned, "and that smile…"
"OK I get it, Logan's the smart one and he belongs to you." Jo interrupted her. "So are you two dating or just getting back together or something?"
"No, not yet. As you can probably tell, I'm not afraid to make my claim known to all the other girls around here, but I want him to want me too."
Jo nodded along, "I guess I can understand that, so who else is there?"
"Carlos, I'm pretty sure he was the bad boy you were talking to earlier. Trust me, nothing could be farther from the truth, the two most important things in Carlos' life are his helmet and corn dogs. He's definitely the wildest, but he doesn't have a bad-boy bone in his body. He's a lot like a dog, as Gustavo says. He's the sweetest thing, but leave him alone, and he's guaranteed to break something."
"OK, ok I think I get it. And who else?"
"James, he's undeniably the hot one, even though as I said, Logan is the cutest. While his teeth and hair may shine the brightest, he isn't the brightest lightbulb up here." Camille tapped the side of her head, and Jo nodded in understanding. "Out of all of them, I think he's had the most success with girls so far, but not much beyond a first date, but you didn't hear that from me."
Jo shrugged her shoulders, "OK, at least he hasn't tried to hit on me yet-"
"Hi, I'm James."
Jo and Camille turned their heads toward the voice and both screamed in shock. The guy in front of them looked kind of like James, except his face was all broken out and his hands and nose were huge and swollen.
Camille and Jo together were able to figure out that James was having an allergic reaction to Kuda body spray and suggested he go to a doctor, only after Jo turned down his request to see a movie sometime. Thankfully once he saw his face in a mirror, he sprinted back out of the pool area.
"So…that was James." Camille chuckled, "and trust me he doesn't usually look like that."
"Yeah…I see what you mean about not being the brightest lightbulb. So who's the fourth guy? Kendall right?"
"Yep, and now you didn't hear this from me, but there's a rumor going around that Gustavo originally wanted only Kendall to fly out to L.A. to record an album, but he forced Gustavo to bring his three best friends with him so they could accomplish their dreams together."
"Woah, so he really cares about his friends?"
"More than anything. I mean they all do, but I'm pretty sure Kendall in particular would do anything for his friends. So far from what I've seen, Logan gathers intel, James is usually the distraction, and Carlos is their personal wrecking ball and they all carry out the schemes Kendall makes."
"Interesting, and does he hit on anything with a skirt too?" Jo rolled her eyes.
"Yeah, I guess," Camille admitted, "but like I've said, none of them besides James has had any real luck so far, but all of them are really good friends too, not just looking for romance. Beyond anything, they're dedicated to their friends, their music, and having fun. So… is there anything else you want to know?"
"I don't know, I mostly just wanted a heads up to what it looks like I'm going to be dealing with." Jo rolled her eyes.
"So, by chance have I made your choice easier of which one you'll say yes to? As long as it's not Logan." Camille warned her.
"Yes, and no. I don't want to date any of them. I'm here to start my acting career hopefully and I don't have time for any distractions, even boys, and especially boyfriends." Jo declared proudly.
"Why?" Camille asked her.
"Because this is my dream that I've been imagining for years. I played the lead in the play at my old high school and a talent scout happened to be there and he thought I had what it takes to make it big. So after months of begging my parents, I'm finally here, and I won't let anything get in my way. I don't need or want a boyfriend right now."
"OK, I can understand that I guess. But it's been great talking to you Jo, and if you ever want any more advice on boys or acting, just let me know."
"Thanks Camille, actually I know my dad still has some second thoughts and worries about this whole acting thing, so do you want to visit my apartment and introduce yourself, and hopefully share some of your successes?"
"Oh happily. Let's go." Camille and Jo walked back through the lobby, both on the lookout for a certain group of hockey players, but it seemed like they were gone for the moment.
Camille and Jo had just finished talking to her dad and thankfully his worries seemed to be assuaged after talking with Camille. So he had just left to pick up some groceries to fill their still-empty kitchen. Meanwhile, Camille and Jo were sitting in her half-unpacked bedroom just chatting and getting to know each other better.
A few minutes later, they both heard strumming outside Jo's balcony, and someone singing.
"Wait a minute, that's Logan!" Camille shouted.
"Want me to check it out? And I promise, you don't have anything to worry about Logan and me."
"OK, go out there." Camille nodded and she stood behind the wall right next to the door so she could see and hear without being seen.
Jo stepped out on her balcony to see Logan singing a sweet love song, that didn't last long before Kendall and Carlos both took turns trying to tackle Logan and each other until they were doing more fighting than singing.
Jo couldn't watch this, if they were all this close to one another, the last thing she wanted was to be fought over like some dumb trophy. "Hey, Guys!" She shouted and thankfully they stopped fighting at her words, all three of them freezing and putting all their attention on her.
"Great song, but you should probably know I have a boyfriend back home." Jo figured now was as good of a time as any to nip this in the bud before it went any farther.
"WHAT?!" They all shouted.
"But we can still be friends, right?" Jo asked hopefully, she had no interest in dating, but they still seemed like they'd be fun to hang out with and get to know better.
"Yeah." They all answered, a bit halfheartedly.
Jo shot them a thumbs up and then walked back into her apartment to greet Camile who was grinning hysterically.
"Wait, I thought you said you didn't have a boyfriend?"
"I don't but I can't deal with that every day." Jo pointed behind her out the door.
"Boys are so stupid." Camille shook her head and laughed.
"Say it again, sister." Jo laughed right back, and they shared a high-five. "So can you tell me more about the method acting you do?"
Later that night, after they finally got Any Kind of Guy recorded and Griffin gave his approval, the boys agreed that they would no longer fight over the same girl, instead, they would only go after girls they met alone.
That rule was forgotten by three-quarters of them when another new girl at the Palm Woods asked where the gym was. Logan, Carlos, and James immediately started fighting over her, but Kendall held himself back. Now normally he would have been right there with them, but not just because of the pact they had just made, looking at the new girl, he didn't have any desire to chase after her, instead, he could only think of someone else.
Jo's beautiful smile, he would do anything to see that again, even if was just as friends, he could handle that. He had tons of friends who were girls back home, and if that was all they would be he was cool with that, but…on the minuscule chance they could be more someday…hope was a powerful thing and Kendall knew he could always hope for the future.
