~Thalia's P.O.V.~
"Okay, what do you think about this?" Beck asks me through my laptop, playing the song on his guitar, "Wait, how did your last line go again?"
"Uhmm...." I hum through the song and think about the lyrics.
⊱ ────── {.⋅ ♫ ⋅.} ───── ⊰
Like if I touch you, will I end up like Eve?
Though for you, I'll try, I'll try
⊱ ────── {.⋅ ♫ ⋅.} ───── ⊰
"Right, great." He nods and continues to play his guitar, proceeding with the song.
⊱ ────── {.⋅ ♫ ⋅.} ───── ⊰
So, I'm scared if I get into feeling
You'll be the fruit that'll keep on deceiving
But you're the apple of my eye, now I'm seeing
For you, I'll try, I'll try
⊱ ────── {.⋅ ♫ ⋅.} ───── ⊰
"That's really good." I grin at him, "Yeah, that'll definitely work."
"James, did you use the guest soap?!" Logan's voice rings from the bathroom, making me roll my eyes, "It's called guest soap, which means, guests only!" He continues.
James sends me a look from the other side of the couch and I let out a sigh. "No, Logan, that was me." I lie.
"How long has it been?" Beck chuckles sympathetically.
"Three hours and counting." I roll my eyes as I answer quietly, "Now I get why no one wanted to be in the same bus as Logan."
So, after eleven days of tour, I ended up in the bus with the guys anyway. Luckily, there are two buses, so it's not too crowded. Not lucky, I didn't know what they were talking about, so when they piled me in with James and Logan, I happily agreed.
Now, how did I get myself in this position, you ask? Let me take you back to this morning, when the boys got ahold of the bellcarts at the hotel. I should've known things were gonna go horribly wrong the second Carlos puts on his helmet.
⊱ ────── {.⋅ FB ⋅.} ────── ⊰
The boys and I are waiting outside of the hotel with our bags. Gustavo, Kelly, and Mrs. Knight are all checking out of the hotel and Katie wanted to go to the store nearby first.
"Why can't we just wait in the cars?" I ask them with a sigh, fanning myself, "It is so hot out here."
"Because if we're inside, then we can't do.... this!" Carlos looks around and immediately jumps up, running away from us.
"Where is he going?" James questions, looking around.
"No clue." "I have no idea." "Don't know." We all shrug, watching him disappear into the hotel.
We stand there for a few moments. It took him three minutes before Carlos comes running back out, this time with two bellcarts towed behind him.
"Oh no." Logan complains, closing his eyes in knowing.
"Oh yes!" Carlos exclaims and stops the carts in front of us, "We are going to do a bellcart race, right here, right now!"
"This seems like a really bad idea." Kendall tells him, "I'm in."
"Gustavo is gonna kill us." I remind you, "You know, our producer who is in there right now, about to come out at any second."
"Come on, Lia. Have some fun." James rolls his eyes at me.
"I'll have fun when it doesn't involve getting yelled at by Gustavo at nine in the morning." I yawn tiredly, "Or ends in death. Or jail."
"Where's the fun in that?" Carlos scoffs, pouting at me.
Shaking my head, I lift my bag up from the ground and take out my car keys, "Okay, you do you. I'm gonna go put my bags in the car. If Gustavo asks, I protested but you don't listen."
I ignore their calls as I make my way to the car. Pressing the button on the remote, I go to open the trunk and toss my bag in, pushing the other bag that's in there to make more room. I look at them over my shoulder and shake my head, rolling my eyes when I see the Carlos and Kendall on each bellcart, James and Logan standing behind it.
They start to push each other around when I close the trunk of the car. I walk over to the driver's side just as I hear cheers from Kendall and Logan, followed by complaints from James and Carlos. I put the key in the ignition and turn the car on, doing a fuel check and setting up the mirrors.
Clicking the lever for the hood, I'm about to go check inside it when I suddenly get shoved aside. The breath gets knocked out of me as my body slams against the frame of the opened-door, followed by screams from the guys. I look back just in time to see the cart passing behind me with Carlos and James on it, and Kendall with Logan on the cart from the other side.
The two carts come barreling towards each other and stopping with a slam. I flinch visibly when they crash into each other and get thrown in different directions. Kendall slams into the tire of another car, James and Logan falls onto the ground, and Carlos slams into my car. He crashes onto the hood and closes it shut, while also, somehow, end up turning it off.
I jump away as the engine splutters and stops making any noises, the lights on the dashboard flickering off completely. "The hell?" I frown and step back inside the car. I turn the key in the ignition again a few times to start it but it won't work.
"How in the world did you break a perfectly working car?" I ask aloud, glancing up at them before turning my focus back to the dashboard, "Seriously, what did you do?"
"I'm sure it's not broken." Kendall all but limps over to my side, "Maybe there's just a small, problem."
"Small?" I raise my eyebrows at him, "It's not turning on, at all."
"Look, you just need to turn it back on." James moves beside Kendall and points at the key.
"Yeah, what do you think I've been trying to do? Feed it?" I reply sarcastically.
"Just, here-"
"I know how to turn a car on, back off!" I slap Carlos' hand away when he tries to get to the key.
"Just let me-"
"You don't even know what you're doing." Logan argues with him, also reaching for the key.
"Don't do that!" I exclaim when all four of them start reaching for the key. Each of them either trying to turn the key back and forth or is pressing on any buttons on the car and turning the headlights on and off, which also does not work. They completely turned the car off, not a single thing is working.
The five of us continue to argue, with me inside the car and them reaching through the open door. They still believe pressing more buttons and turning the key a few more times will make it work, and I think we should open the hood and try to see what's going on in there. But to do that, I need to get past their hands and them blocking the door.
"Just let me open and check it out." I tell them, trying to swat their hands away.
"It won't do anything." "That's useless." "You don't even know anything about cars." "Just turn it back the other way."
Our overlapping voices turn into a loud, high-pitched yelp when a boom sounds from the front of the car. I jolt back in my seat and Logan jumps into James arms, all five of us staring at the hood in shock. The hood pops open by itself and smoke starts coming out from all sides.
"On second thought," Logan says slowly, getting down from James' arms, "maybe opening it sounds like a good idea."
"You think?!" I glare at him and push them aside. The hood is already burning hot from and the heat is not helping at all. The second the hood is completely off, smoke comes piling out, blocking my sight of the engine.
"Great." I let out a groan, "This is just, great. Fantastic."
"It's not like we knew this was gonna happen." James gestures at the smoking car with a grimace.
"You crashed into each other with bellcarts!" I exclaim in disbelief, "At full speed!"
"Well, maybe you shouldn't have opened the hood so Carlos wouldn't have slammed it shut with his body." Kendall tries to point out.
I direct my glare to him and raise a threatening eyebrow, "Are you blaming me?"
"No!" "No, he was just joking." Logan and Carlos are quick to step between us, putting an arm around my shoulder and turning me around.
"I left for ten minutes!" Katie's voice comes from behind us and we turn to see her gaping, milkshake in one hand and sunglasses in the other, "How'd you make this much a mess in ten minutes?!"
"That's what I asked!" I throw my hands up, "I need to get another car."
"We don't have time for another car!" Gustavo's yelling freezes us in our spots.
"Shit..." I hear one of the guys mutter out before we turn around, facing Gustavo, Kelly, and Mrs. Knight who are all staring at us with unamused looks.
"Well, I kinda need a car." I raise my hands warily, looking at Gustavo.
"Oh, you need a car?" Gustavo scoffs, "You need a car?"
"Kind of?" I shrug hesitantly.
⊱ ────── {.⋅ ✯ ⋅.} ────── ⊰
And that is how I got stuck in the tour-bus. To stop Gustavo from exploding, Kelly had suggested that I bunk-in with one of the buses, since tour's only a couple of days left. Reluctantly I had agreed and moved all my bags from the car to the bus. Gustavo and Kelly had left first, followed soon by Mrs. Knight and Katie, while the boys and I wait for the rental-car to get towed and then we are off.
Again, I had no idea what I was getting myself into, so when James practically begged me to be on the same bus as him and Logan, I agreed. Fast forward three and a half hours later. Here I am...
"I'm sure it's not that bad, right?" Beck tries to give me an encouraging smile.
James takes a seat beside me and glares at him, "Easy for you to say, you don't have to be stuck with him the whole way! And you, are complaining too much, this is only your first time." He points at me.
"Well, I wasn't supposed to even be here, if it wasn't for you." I glare back at him, "Anyway, you got your outfit for the Cow Wow tonight?"
"Yep, all set." Beck nods at me, "It sucks that you're not here though."
"I know." I groan out, "I was so looking forward to this."
"What the hell is a Cow Wow?" James furrows his eyebrows, glancing back and forth between us.
"It's our school's social event kind of thing." I tell him vaguely.
"Yeah, it's a cowboy luau." Beck explains more, "So we wear a mix between an old-Western cowboy outfit and Hawaiian attire."
"Sounds complicated," James nods in understanding, "cool."
"It is." Beck agrees, "Well, I gotta go. Auditions in an hour and I need to get ready."
"Oh yeah, good luck." I tell him, "Call me with an update, I'm sure you'll do great."
"Don't jinx it." Beck warns me.
"I don't believe in jinxes." I smile at him, "You're talented enough."
"You should be the last person to not believe in jinxes, Lizzie. But thanks." He chuckles, "We'll finish the song later."
"Or tomorrow's good, just enjoy the Cow Wow." I brush him off, "Love you."
"Love you too, penguin. Bye."
"You two are disgustingly cute together." James comments as I end the call and close the laptop.
"Thanks." I smile giddily, closing the notebook and putting it back into my bag, along with the pencil case.
"James, you were the last person to use the bathroom. If the toilet paper is empty, fill it!" Logan's voice rings through the bus again.
"That's it!" James snaps. He gets up from his seat beside me and goes to sit on the other couch.
I watch him open his laptop and click some things on it. He waits for the familiar ring before talking, "I can't take it anymore!" He stares down at his laptop, "I want to switch at the next stop."
"Each bus has two bunks, so one of us has to ride with tour-bus-Logan." Kendall's voice comes from the other side of the call.
I move over from my seat, to the couch beside James. "And what about me? I didn't know what I was getting myself into."
"You can move over here at the next stop." Kendall smiles at me.
"That's not fair!" James gasps loudly, looking between us in betrayal.
"This is short hair!" Logan's voice can be heard again, "Lia didn't use the guest soap, James, you did!"
James looks away from the bathroom and glares at Kendall with a knowing look. He nods at the bathroom, at me, and then back at Kendall.
"Just pretend you're napping, and he'll leave you alone." Kendall advises us with a whisper.
"He's not an idiot." I furrow my eyebrows at him.
James points at me in agreement but before any of us can say anything, Logan shows up on James' other side and squints his eyes. "Are you using up all our minutes?" He questions and looks down at the videochat.
"Quiet, I'm napping." James states before faking a snore and immediately dropping his head onto my lap.
Kendall ends the call and Logan immediately turns to me, "Is he faking it?"
I stumble over my words but eventually decide to be nice, just this once. "Shh, he's napping." I shush him, putting a finger in front of my mouth. I put my phone right in front of my face to show him and start scrolling randomly. He seems to take the hint and walks away, leaving James and I on the couch.
It only works for a few minutes because a while later, he is back and is sitting on the floor, right in front of James' face. "What are you doing?" I raise an eyebrow at him, curiosity getting the better of me and I put my phone aside.
Logan ignores me and talks to James instead, "James, are you real napping or pretend napping?" He whispers lowly.
"Real napping." James mumbles, not moving away.
Logan nods boredly and then lifts up a cracker, "Did you eat this cracker and get crumbs everywhere?" He questions, pointing at the mess beside us.
I watch James open one eye and smile tightly, "I was hungry. Now!" He points at himself and then fakes another snore before closing his eyes.
Logan seems to be happy with the answer and pats his cheek, "Good. I'm glad you chose one of the healthy tour-bus-snacks I prepared. Go back to sleep."
"Wait, can I have one?" I ask him in the same whispery tone, pointing at the crackers.
"Sure." He nods and hands me a box of it.
"Thanks." I nod gratefully and eat it, going back to scrolling through my phone.
I didn't get to eat in peace when Logan pulls out a vacuum out of nowhere. He vacuums the couch beside us, the floor, and then to my knees where some of the crumbs had fallen to. The vacuum gets closer and closer to James' face until it gets to his mouth and it gets sucked in.
I watch in bewilderment as Logan tries to pull it off and James gets dragged to the floor. I help grab it and pull it away, finally letting James free. He was quick to get on his feet and glares at his friend.
"Logan!" James yells angrily.
"I'm just trying to make this a pleasant ride!" Logan defends himself as he runs to hide in the bathroom, shutting the door after him.
🎉
"You look like an idiot." I laugh into the phone at the sight of Tori in her costume.
She wanted to buy a new pair of boots she'd seen at the mall last week, but she doesn't have enough money. After the incident, she spoiled herself with makeup, clothes, and a mani-pedi, thus went most of her paycheck. So now, she's working with André at Yotally Yogurt for extra money.
"Don't kick her when she's down." André scolds me, trying to hold back his laughter.
"I'm just saying," I snicker, "how much exactly is she getting paid for this?"
"A hundred bucks."
"A hundred?!" I exclaim in disbelief, "Wow, he must know it's really bad."
"Be careful, his wife designed that costume." André informs me with an exaggerated eye-roll, "And I don't feel like getting fired over a berry-witch. How's the tour-bus going?"
"Great." I reply with a sarcastic smile, "We're stuck in traffic and they're running back and forth, chasing each other. It's awesome."
"Well, I gotta get back to work." He tells me and stands upright, waving at the camera, "Talk to you later, just hang in there."
"Thanks, I'll try." I chuckle and wave back, "Bye." Ending the call, I look up to see James on his laptop, Logan nowhere in sight. "Where's Logan? Did you kill him?" I gasp dramatically at the odd silence engulfing the bus.
"No," James rolls his eyes at me, "but it doesn't sound like a bad idea."
"Then where is he?"
"He's taking a nap." James points at the couch at the back of the bus. I look to the side to see him sitting there on his bunk, outstretched, wearing an eyemask and covered with a white, fluffy blanket. He is perfectly still, so I guess he's deep asleep.
"Did you know people hate me and Jo?" Kendall's voice rings again from the laptop and I walk over to see him.
There's only so much you can do on a bus. If you're not sleeping, or playing your phone, you talk to your friends. I surprisingly don't feel tired, and I got bored with anything on my phone. So that leaves talking. My friends are all sort of busy getting ready for the Cow Wow, and Trina's not picking up. So that leaves the boys.
"Yeah, they say you look like brother and sister." James answers just as I see Kendall's offended face.
"Oh yeah, you do look like brothers and sisters." I add with a gasp. I can't believe I just figured it out now.
"Okay, well, back to me!" James waves me away and points at himself, "I'm requesting a tour-busmate switch as soon as- Hello? Hello?! He hung up on me. He hung up!" He looks at me in disbelief.
"Yeah, he did." I sigh, leaning back on the couch. I tilt my head to the side and pout at him, "Do you have anything we can do? 'Cause I almost finished the song and I am sooo bored."
"I have Biohazard Battleblast 3 on my laptop." James clicks on the game, "And two consoles."
"I thought you all got rid of that game when you started fighting." I raise an eyebrow at him.
"No, we got rid of the 5." He gestures at the screen, "It's different."
"Whatever, I'm so bored, I'll play." I shrug, taking one of the consoles from him.
James starts the game and starts telling me the multiple rules to follow and things to do. He shows me how to jump, shoot, run, drive, and whatnots. A few minutes later and I've gotten the hang of it. Although, I did almost blow his head off a couple times by mistake.
"How are you doing that?!" James asks me when I jump over another guy, shooting him from behind.
I look down at the console and shrug, looking back to the screen, "I jumped and shoot."
"Yeah, I know that." He scoffs in annoyance, shoving me away with his shoulder, "I meant- No, duck, duck, duck!" He stops talking when a car comes barreling in front of us.
The tires screeches into a halt and a few guys stepped out. James' and my character runs to hide behind some trees as we wait for the guys to get closer. The closer they get, the more we split-up, him going one side and I go the other. When all five of them have their backs turned to us, James throws a grenade their way and I start shooting at two of them before we make a break to the car.
"You know half hour before show time, I like tour-bus quiet time." Logan's voice breaks our concentration to the game, "So game off, please. Thank you."
James and I turn around to see Logan smiling tightly from the bunk. We share a look and then pause the game, putting down the consoles. I was thinking of going back to scrolling through my phone silently, but James had other plans.
"Well, I tried to nap, and we all remember how sucky that turned out, hmm?" He states grumpily, gesturing at his mouth.
"But," Logan takes off his sleeping mask and smiles, "I know you like noise, so I added a layer of comfort for all three of us." He grabs a remote from under his pillow and presses it.
Chirping noises starts to fill the bus, followed by some static and waves. James and I share a look of confusion as we turn to the speaker in the bus, the blue light blinking.
"This is called ocean breeze." Logan informs happily and turns the volume up before putting the sleepmask back on, "Isn't that nice?"
I watch James smile sarcastically and nod, even though Logan can't see him and glance at the speakers. I try to protest on whatever he was about to do, but it was too late. He had swung his hand and hit the speakers away, making it fly to Logan's bunk.
I wince as Logan takes off his sleepmask again and nods, "Oh, okay. So now, you're unappreciative and not nice." He points out.
"Guys-"
"No." James cuts me off, "What's not nice, is that I drew the short straw, six days in a row and have to share this bus with you!"
"Oh boy." I mumble under my breath, slumping down on my seat.
Logan gets up and makes his way over to us, "Right, you guys draw straws to see who's lucky enough to ride with me. To enjoy my company. and my tasty snacks." He points at the bowl of fruit we have.
"Yes, that's exactly it!" I try to jump in before things escalate.
"No!" James scoffs in disbelief, "It's the loser that rides with you, not the winner. We hate riding with you!" He exclaims.
Logan gasps softly and drops the apple in his hand. He turns to me with a pout and questions, "Is that true?"
"I- You- Don't look at me, this is day one for me!" I put my hands up in surrender, shaking my head.
He gives me a curt nod and whimpers, "I think I'd like to be alone now." He puts his eyemask back on and turns around, going back to his bunk.
"Logan..." I stand up to follow him. Just as I take my first step, the bus comes to a screeching stop and the three of us stumble. I would've fallen on my face if I had not grabbed onto the side of the table for balance. "What was that?" I look around.
James leans down to look at the window and he scoffs. "Fine, we're stuck in traffic. So you can have the blue bus all to yourself."
"We're what?!" I exclaim and push him away from the window, looking out to see all the cars stopping around us, "Shit, we're gonna be late."
"Well, James, I'm- I'm not done talking to you!" Logan yells and I look away from the window to see him stumbling through the hall.
"Where are you guys going?!" I call after them when James opens the door and steps out of the bus, Logan following after, "This just keeps getting better and better." I sigh, reluctantly following after them and closing the door behind me.
"James, James!" Logan yells from in front of me, hands patting around for the wall of the bus, "I am not done talking to you!"
"Take off the mask!" I exclaim and pull the mask off his head, holding it up.
"Thanks." Logan turns to me with a grateful smile before dropping it and going back to chasing after James to the other bus, "James! Come back here! I'm not done talking to you, James!"
We make our way to the other bus and I close the door behind me, reveling in the cold, air-conditioned air. When we see Kendall and Carlos staring at us weirdly, Logan is quick to push James aside and points at them.
"Do you guys draw straws because you hate riding with me?" He accuses.
Kendall and Carlos grimaces at the accusation and think of an answer. "Maybe..." Kendall admits warily.
"Hater!" Logan gasps, pointing his finger at them.
"Oh, I'm a hater?!" Kendall scoffs and gestures at his laptop.
"What's up his ass?" I ask Carlos.
"Hey," Ignoring my question, Carlos grabs his camera and rolls his chair to the center of the hall, "while we're all here, why don't we make a little tour-bus video to show how much fun we have on the tour-bus? Especially now that Lia's here."
I wave into the camera as I walk further into the bus, "Hi. I'm just here because they broke my rental at bright in the morning. So they owe me, and I'm taking your non-healthy snacks." I tell Carlos, grabbing a bag of chips and opening it.
"Lia!" Logan scolds me and turns to the rest of the guys, "Do you have any idea how these tour-bus rides would be without me?"
"Um.... Fun!" James says into the camera with a grin and two thumbs-up.
"Cheerier." Carlos corrects him with a nicer way, "A little cheerier."
"I'm cheerier because I'm on the brown bus. With brown bus rules." James smiles into the camera, emphasizing it for Logan, "And Lia is also cheerier because she gets to eat actual good food in the brown bus." He adds, pointing at me
"Don't drag me into this." I say through a mouthful of chips.
"Very funny." Logan rolls his eyes, "Did you even notice that there is a massive traffic jam outside, or do you need bad bus-mate Logan to point out that we are gonna be late to the show?!"
"At least you're the main performers!" I exclaim from my seat, "I'm the opening, opening! I'm supposed to be there at least two hours before you guys perform!"
"Wait." Carlos stops me and pulls the camera away from our faces, "Did you just say "brown bus rules" and "traffic jam"?" He asks and the guys all look at each other with a glint behind their eyes I can't decipher.
"Why?" I raise an eyebrow, sitting upright.
The silence of the bus lets us hear the loud carhorns from outside. Loud and multiple, over and over again. "Honk-bonk!" They all randomly yell and start to punch each other. I crawl on my seat away from them, and move away. When I get punched a couple of times, I end up getting annoyed and just start swinging my fists left and right, hitting their arms and shoulders.
"Cheerier, I said cheerier!" Carlos yells, directing the camera to us.
🎉
"What the hell was that?" I groan out in pain as I take a seat on one of the bunks, my feet outstretched and my hand rubbing my arms.
Seven minutes of us just punching one another with no sense, throwing fists everywhere. At some point, Carlos had put the camera down and joined us too, which did not help because as it turns out, he could be pretty strong.
"These are for your honk-bonk bruises." Logan comes over with ice-packs and hands us each one.
"Thanks." I mutter out, sighing in relief when the coldpack hits my sore spot.
Another honk can be heard from outside and Logan pulls his hand back, hitting James right on the arm. "Ow!" James complains, "You didn't say honk-bonk!" He retorts with a punch of his own, hitting Logan's shoulder.
Carlos shakes his head at them and then looks at me, "It's called honk-bonk. The objective is basically-"
"Yeah, I get the objective now." I stop him, lifting a hand up, "But a warning would be very much appreciated next time."
"Although I am clearly needed here, I realize I am not wanted." Logan states, "So, I just wanted to say goodbye. Forever!" He clarifies and walks out the bus.
"I'm just gonna turn this off for a while." Carlos chuckles awkwardly and puts the camera away.
"Are we just gonna let him walk?" I ask the guys, pointing at Logan's retreating form.
The three boys share a look before Kendall sighs, "Okay, so somebody's gotta go smooth things out with Logan." He lifts up his hand which holds three straws and looks at James in anticipation.
James stares at him and shakes his head, "No, I'm not gonna draw straws!"
Carlos plops on the couch beside Kendall and nods at him, "Brown bus rules, you must obey."
"You guys are children." I roll my eyes and get up from my seat, "I'll talk to him, I need the distraction anyway. And I'm taking the chips!" I call out as I walk out the bus with the icepack in one hand and two bag of chips in the other.
I slowly walk over to the other bus and open the door again, waving to the few people around. I walk in to see Logan throwing stuff around the bus. He's opening James' bag and then the cabinets, tossing things onto the floor and purposefully crunching some crackers before scattering them around the floor.
"What are you doing?" I ask slowly, looking around the place in disgust.
"Oh, hi." He sends me a tight smile, "They don't like me being clean and organized? Fine, then I'm not. I am a messy, messy person, with clothes strewn around and food crumbs everywhere. How is this?" He tosses something my way.
I catch it before it can hit my face. Pulling it down, I let out a disgusted yelp and glare at Logan, "Oh my God, that's an underwear! Logan!"
"See! You don't like that, do you?!" He points at me as if he's made his point.
"No, I don't!" I snap at him, swapping my arms in disgust and using the hand-sanitizer that is on the table. "Okay, can you just... Maybe don't..." I try to stop him but he is slick. He keeps getting around me and messing up more things.
Giving up, I just stand there and watch. Logan continues to go around the bus, throwing things and discarding the cabinets. He's in the middle of tossing away more clothes when the door opens again. Sunlight comes through for a second before the door's shut and James appears with a confused look as he moves his head around the bus.
"Don't look at me." I raise my hands in defeat, gesturing at Logan.
Logan moves to face James and lifts up another one of his underwear using tongs, "Do you think it's easy riding with you and your stuff?" He questions, tossing it our way.
I duck down just in time for the clothing article to hit James right in the face. "Stop throwing underwear!" I snap at Logan, moving to the side so I can at least fully avoid them.
Logan ignores me and continues throwing rhetorical questions of his own, "Do you think the bus magically cleans itself? Do you think your bread magically doesn't have any crust?" He lifts up a plate of mini-sandwiches that I had not noticed before.
"Mmm..." James reaches forward for one but Logan slaps his hand away.
"None for you!" Logan says pointedly but holds the plate to me, "You can have one."
"Uh, thanks." I hesitantly take one and send James a look.
Logan puts the plate back on the table and grabs his speaker, "Oh, and you can say bye-bye to ocean breeze" He says, playing the sound again.
James shrugs casually and shakes his head, "I will never miss that."
"Okay, well, maybe this thing is stupid!" Logan admits and tosses the speaker away, "But let me tell you one thing, whenever you ride with Logan Mitchell, you ride in first class." He states and opens a drawer. "All of our outfits are ready to go, in case we're late, which we are." He points out at the four separate outfit along with shoes that are hung.
"Damn, that's actually good." I comment in surprise.
"Lozenges are always laid out in case our throats are sore." Logan takes one out of his pocket and James' clears his throat in reflex, "After all this yelling, I assume yours is."
"Uh-huh." James nods and smiles when Logan hands him the lozenge.
Right as his hand reaches the candy, Logan pulls it back again and hands it to me instead, "Oh, I'm sorry, you're not in first class anymore."
"I'm actually good-"
"Eat the lozenge!" Logan snaps at me and I hurriedly comply, taking it and popping it into my mouth. He takes the plate of mini-sandwiches in one hand and puts his other arm around my shoulder as he leads me away from James, "Welcome to coach!"
"Where are we going?" I ask Logan when he continues to drag me out of the bus and down the freeway.
"Wait for it." He tells me and opens the door to the other bus, letting me in first. I walk through the hall and take a seat beside Carlos when Logan speaks again, "First class has arrived! Now, who wants a crustless sandwich?" He offers the plate.
Carlos makes grabby hands from beside me and Logan throws it over, passing right in front of my face. Carlos lets out a satisfied groan and leans back as he continues to eat the sandwich and Logan looks at Kendall with a blank look.
"So, what's up, hater?" He raises an eyebrow at Kendall.
"Oh, I do not hate." Kendall scoffs, "Which is why, I'm simply posting a statement on IHateBTR.com, simply suggesting their opinion is incorrect."
"No, you're just fueling the hater fire by giving them what they want." Carlos retorts.
"Yeah, why are you reading these things anyway?" I agree with Carlos.
Kendall rolls his eyes at us and continues to type out, "Dear Sir or Madam, I respectfully disagree with you, that Jo and Kendall are an eyebrow couple." He reads out, making Logan laugh in amusement, "And that Big Time Rush bites donkeys. I, for one, find them quite charming."
"This is not gonna end well." I chuckle as I lean back in my seat.
Logan stops eating his sandwich and stares at Kendall, "You're kidding, right?"
Kendall looks him straight in the eye and clicks on his keyboard, "And send."
Not a second later, his laptop pings, signaling a notification. "That was fast." Kendall shrugs, looking at his scree, "Dear dork, you totally bite, and your friends bite. And if you have a pet, like a dog, or something like that, that bites too. BigTimeBites372." He reads the reply in shock. Seeing the winces from Logan, Carlos, and I, Kendall whips his head around and points at his laptop angrily, "I am gonna find this person!"
"You're yelling at me." Carlos tells him, "See what haters do?"
"You can't hate haters, cause that makes you a hater." Logan continues.
"Exactly." I gesture at the two, "Just ignore the comments and pretend they don't exist."
"Okay, brown bus is making me very confused today!" Kendall shouts, slamming his laptop shut.
"I'm using your bathroom." I declare, standing up, "I'm about to lose it if I just sit here and do nothing."
Their bathroom is a mess, makes me really really grateful that Logan kept the bathroom on the other bus clean. Because this one is practically unusable, everywhere I go there's something on the floor or the counter. It's almost impossible to do anything in here.
When I get out of the bathroom, all four guys are in the bus. Kendall has not moved from his seat with the laptop on his lap while Carlos, Logan, and James are standing right in the middle of the hall. The three of them yell out, "Honk-bonk!" and then instantly punch each other.
"Ow, come on!" "Why do we keep playing that game?" "I have no idea!" They all complain in pain, hands gripping their arms.
"So, I take it, you're all good?" I ask them, leaning against the bathroom doorway.
"Yeah, we're good." James nods at me.
"Good, because I do not wanna walk back and forth through buses again." I plop down on an empty seat and grab one of Logan's sandwiches.
"Seriously?! How do these haters not bother you guys?" Kendall looks at the four of us in confusion.
"Because of EmilyJ3." Carlos informs him.
Kendall raises an eyebrow at him and squints his eyes, "Who is EmilyJ3?"
"I have no idea." Carlos shrugs, "But she did once post, that she had a bad date, and my singing made it better."
"And I think of SarahDiamond." James smiles, "Although we are not married, she says I'm the only person that makes her smile 24/7. And that's all I need to hear."
Kendall nods in understanding and looks at Logan and I, "What about you two? Do you have an EmilyJ3?"
"TheMegaZion." I tell him, "They've posted like a gazillion incredible edits, and just tweets the sweetest things."
"Aka LoveThatLogan12." Logan adds with a smile and takes the laptop away from Kendall. He starts scrolling down and nods, "Yeah, instead of listening to all these haters, why don't you listen to KendallMyForeverILoveHimForever, who says, she's crazy for you." He stops at the comment and hands in back to Kendall.
Kendall smiles in surprise as he reads the comment. "Well, I guess I'm crazy for her." He smiles at us.
"And the only way to beat haters is to ignore them." James advises.
"Ooh, and," Carlos grabs his camera from the side and smirks, "shoot a fun tour-bus video that shows our fans, that we're crazy for them."
"Well," Kendall thinks about it and grabs his guitar, "we're still stuck in traffic."
His laptop rings again and he clicks on the keyboard. "Hey." Jo's voice appears from the other side of the call, "Ugh, sorry it took me so long to reconnect."
"Oh, can I touch you back? We gotta shoot a video for this girl that's crazy for me." Kendall tells her.
"Oh, okay. Wait, what?" Jo's question was left unanswered as Kendall ends the call and closes the laptop.
"You could've worded that better." I inform him as he stands up.
The four guys starts going around the bus and setting up cameras, talking about how they want to shoot it. Leaving the brown bus, we all go back to the blue bus and they start to pick out their clothes. They make me hold the camera as they do the video, dancing around, moving buses and walking down the freeway. I follow them with the camera in hand, trying to keep it balanced and not to laugh so loud at them just being completely goofy.
An hour later and we are done. We've edited the video and posted it on ScuttleButter. The video being flooded with positive reviews immediately. But there are some who continues to complain and others who are just confused as to why we aren't at the show yet.
"What do you know? You can direct." Kendall tells Carlos as we all sit around.
"Why, thank you." Carlos smiles proudly.
"But, you know, some people are gonna hate it." Jo points out to Kendall, rolling her eyes.
"And I don't care." Kendall smiles, giving her an air-kiss before ending the call again.
"Well, this story is wrapping up quite nicely." Logan recaps.
"Yeah, if only this damn bus would start moving!" I exclaim, throwing my hands up, "We're like two hours late already, I'm at three hours! I swear, it would've been faster if I had walked."
Just as I had said that, the bus moves and we all topple on top of one another. We share a look with each other and quickly look out the window, seeing the cars pass us by quickly.
"We're moving!" Logan and James are the firsts to cheer, high-fiving each other.
"We're off to San Diego!" Carlos follows after, jumping up and down.
"Huh, maybe I do need to start believing in jinxes." I laugh to myself, shaking my head at the absurdity of it.
We hurriedly put on our seatbelts as we feel the bus speeding down. I keep glancing down at my watch and then at my phone which shows the way our bus is moving to the forum, counting down the minutes until we arrive.
The closer the bus gets, the more the boys and I get ready. I clean up my outfit and clear my throat, this way, I can instantly get on stage without wasting another second. The bus comes to an abrupt stop and we are all running towards the door, getting off.
"Sorry we're late!" "We're here!" "Love you, Vic." "So sorry." "Good to see you." Our voices overlap with each other as we run past Gustavo, Kelly, and Victoria who are standing there with relieved looks on their faces.
"These boys really are bad luck!" I tell Victoria, bringing up what we were talking about the day before when the boys are late for the fifth time.
"You're on for one song, and then dogs, you go." Gustavo points at me and then at the guys, handing us our mics.
"Got it. Wish me luck!" I give them all a thumbs-up and then runs on stage.
I move the mic to my other hand and fix the earpiece. The second I step onstage, the spotlights hits me right in the face and the crowd is screaming in my ear. I put on a wide grin on my face and wave excitedly at everyone.
"Good evening San Diego!" I yell into the mic, eliciting more cheers, "How's everyone doing? Now, I want to apologize for the delayed performance. But since I'm here, what do you say, we get right to it?!"
(Thalia's outfit isn't like the one in the video, because I don't really think that's her style. But I think the song is, so that's why I chose this)
Halfway through the song, they had turn off the lights, just as planned. Katie and Mrs. Knight brings out their phone and turns on the flashlight from the side of the stage, which urges people to start taking out their phones too. By the end of the song, everyone has their flashlights up and are singing and clapping along.
"Thank you, San Diego!" I scream as the music dies down, "Now, give it up, for Big Time Rush!" I announce, running off the stage.
The crowd starts to turn off their phones and the place goes completely dark as I run offstage, replaced by the guys.
They start their performance with Big Night and the lights slowly start to turn on one-by-one, shining a spotlight on each guys. The crowd goes wilder as they scream happily.
"So," Victoria says right beside my ear as we watch the boys, "they are really bad luck?"
"Well, eleven days and I am completely late for the first time ever. I mean, what are the odds?" I raise an eyebrow at her.
"Good point." Victoria laughs at me and nods.
ヽ(^o^)丿
This was a really fun chapter to write.
It's a bit different than all the other chapters. This one's more BTR centered instead of Victorious but I really liked writing it. And I think this storyline works for her.
I mean, okay, the timeline is a bit weird and uneven, but honestly I have no idea how the timeline in Victorious works so, just play along?
But I truly hope you all like this chapter and that it doesn't feel forced for you :)
If there's anything you'd like to comment, any feedback is appreciated , here or through dm. Whichever you want, I'll be happy to get :D
On another thing, Only Murders in the Building. She did it? What??!!!! Holy hell, I truly was not expecting that. I was truly expecting the three people who managed to become suspects for a while, but holy shit, her?!!
Can you tell I'm trying not to spoil it? :D Not really doing a great job at it, am I?
And the final guest-star LMAO. I was not expecting that.
So, I wish you all a great day / night and take care of yourselves! Get some sleep, stay hydrated, and don't over-stress.
𝒫𝓊𝒷𝓁𝒾𝓈𝒽𝑒𝒹: 08-30-22