#pls dont flame me i know its cheesy but its fun ok

[myloveforhergoeson]

That's All She Wrote - Side Story

Party in the U.S.A. (Happy Birthday, James Diamond!) ~ 2.1k

“Roxy! Psst! Roxy!” 

Had Kendall and Logan been any louder in their attempt to wake their assistant up from her peaceful slumber, she would have smacked them with one of the pillows from her makeshift couch-bed. 

After pulling out of the latest venue Big Time Rush had played on their summer tour, she was especially tired - considering she hadn’t gone to bed until 1 a.m. after checking that all of the tech equipment had been properly labeled, stored, and secured before they started their trip across a few states to the next venue in Fairlea, West Virginia. 

When she weakly opened her eyes at their incessant whispering and shaking of her shoulders, she spied the time, 3 a.m. blinking red on Logan’s watch. 

“This better be important…” She grumbled as she sat up, gingerly wiping the sleep out of her eyes and wincing a bit when Kendall managed to flip the lights in the small lounge area of their shared bus on. “Is one of you dying?” 

Confused, Logan cocked his head. “No.”

“Is one of you sick?”

“No.” The blond was quick to answer.

“Did one of you leave something crucial to the show at the last venue?”

Their chorus of, “No!” was more strained than she liked to hear, but she brushed it off anyway. 

“Then it sounds like everything’s alright,” She spat, flopping back down onto the couch and closing her eyes. “Leave me alone.” 

“Roxy…” Logan tried again, reaching out to shake her once more. “It’s September 4th.”

His assistant’s eyes shot open again, “Great! Thanks for the reminder. We’ll be in Fairlea in a few hours. Good night!” 

This time, to try and drive her point home, the writer wiggled around so her back was facing her friends.

“September 4th is James’ birthday.” 

This time, when Roxy opened her eyes and blinked a few times, she properly registered what Kendall had said. Slowly, she sat up again, glancing over her shoulder as she glared at her two friends. 

“And neither if you told me this until today… Why?” 

Both of them cast their eyes to the floor, becoming extremely interested in the faux wood the bottom of their bus was decorated with. 

“Because you forgot,” She answered her own question aloud. “And now you don’t know what to do to fix it?” 

Their nods were slow, quite nearly undetectable as their assistant stood and pushed past them, rummaging through their small pantry to try and find anything that might resemble desert they could present to him when they rolled into town. 

“Okay, okay, I can work with this,” Roxy muttered to herself, pulling out a small sleeve of Oreos, some instant pudding mix, and the remainder of their gallon of milk in the fridge. “In the meantime, can the two of you put together a list of things we might need once we get to the venue? You know, party supplies, decorations, whatever…”

***

Confetti had been the very first thing Logan and Kendall had decided was crucial for the birthday celebration.

In theory, it wouldn’t have been hard to find if they were back home in Los Angeles, but since they were on a moving bus in the middle of nowhere, the three of them had to make do. 

“What if we grab some of the confetti we shoot out at the end of the show?” Kendall suggested, nibbling on one of the Oreos he had stolen from Roxy before she was able to crush it up and add it to the pudding mix. 

“That’s a great idea,” She sarcastically quipped. “Especially if you want to shoot him with an industrial-grade confetti cannon.” Chin in hand, Logan nodded, “Yeah… We have a set amount that we shoot off every show. If we tried to pull some out of its packaging it’s just going to explode everywhere.” “And then one show will be missing more confetti than others…” The frontman caught on, nodding. 

“Exactly… And that stuff is stupid expensive…” Roxy trailed off, glancing at her friends before she noticed Kendall was intently staring at some of the books Logan had brought with him on the bolted-down coffee table. 

Carefully, he picked up one of the colorful paperbacks at the top of the pile. “Logan… How many of these have you read?” 

“All of them!” His friend eagerly replied, not clocking how Kendall’s gaze flickered to his assistant’s.

“Good… Good…” The other boy mused, before tossing it across the room to Roxy who had already grabbed a pair of kitchen scissors. 

Logan watched it sail across the room, right into the writer’s open palm, and let out a cry of pain once he realized what she was planning on taking the scissors to. 

Before he could make a move, Kendall launched out of his seat, trapped Logan in a headlock, and forced him to watch as his best friend began to cut up the different colored covers, collecting them into a large plastic bag to shower over their friend for later. 

***

Logan finished his subsequent meltdown about an hour after the massacre and found Roxy in the middle of reworking the tune of “Happy Birthday” into a hard rock anthem to play on her guitar, while Kendall had stolen a Sharpie, some spare bungee chords, and the old tour itineraries Roxy had been saving to fashion into what looked like a large birthday banner. 

When Roxy noticed he had finally left his bunk, she eagerly shoved the sheet music she had been writing on into his hands and sat him down at the table next to him. 

“You know how every restaurant has its own version of the happy birthday song?” She asked, strumming absentmindedly on the strings of her guitar. When he nodded, she bounced up off her seat and headed to the front of the bus, “Great! Write one of our own, would ya? I’ve gotta make some calls to the venue and a local bakery.” 

Songwriter-Assistant was typically an easy task for her to handle, but since she was running low on sleep, had already managed to make dessert, and had destroyed quite a bit of property, her creative juices weren’t flowing quite like normal. 

At least, Henrietta, the bus driver was sharing similar sluggish feelings and easily handed her phone over to the eager girl. 

In no time, Roxy had managed to contact a local Fairlea bakery and order both cupcakes and a large sheet cake to the venue to surprise James with once they arrived in a few hours. 

She did feel bad about the rush order, but once she whipped out the company credit card from her mini backpack and paid the bill, it felt like the least Gustavo could do for one of the members of the band that was getting him back to the big time. 

I’m sure he’ll understand… Roxy told herself, as she stared out the large, rectangular windows of the bus. The sun was beginning to rise, lighting up the horizon with a beautiful mix of reds, oranges, and yellows. 

A perfect sunrise for a perfect boy on his less-than-perfect birthday. 

***

In a flash, the show in Fairlea was nearly over.

Everything Roxy, Logan, and Kendall had planned for the beginning of the day had gone off without a hitch and they had successfully surprised James with their treats, banner, and part of the makeshift confetti. 

Around 2 hours before the show started, James got a call from his mom and stepped out of the venue, which made for the perfect time for his friends to catch Carlos up on their plan for their on-stage surprise. 

Roxy and Logan shared the song they had collaborated on, Kendall snuck both the cake and Oreo fluff salad into the mini-fridge in their green room, and Carlos even managed to catch Mick and Austin up to speed to make sure there was a gap in the setlist in which they could surprise James before the end of the show.

Just before the countdown for the last song was supposed to play on the crew's in-ear monitors, Roxy kicked one of the guitar pedals at her feet to stop the track and signaled to Carlos, Logan, and Kendall that it was time for their plan to be set in motion.

“Fairleaaaaaaa!” Carlos yelled into his mic, causing his assistant to wince just a bit at the sheer volume of it in her ears. “Is anyone celebrating something special tonight?” 

Once the cheering from the crowd died down, Logan chimed in with his own, “An anniversary? A holiday?... Maybe even a birthday?” 

Roxy knew this as her cue to begin to sneak off the stage to grab the cake she had ordered earlier - a nice marble cake with bright purple frosting that read “Happy Birthday, James! <3 Team BTR.”

Even though the rooms backstage were relatively soundproof, she could still hear Kendall’s speech through her in-ears. 

“We’ve got someone on this stage celebrating a very special, 17th birthday!” 

Roxy thought it was funny, the way they spoke on stage as opposed to how they spoke in real life. Every sentence ended with an upward inflection, almost egging the crowd to respond in a chorus of cheers, which was exactly what he got. The floors of the stadium practically shook under her feet as she balanced the cake in one hand and her bag of confetti in the other, all while trying to make it back to her mark in time for her next cue. 

James, though he sounded a bit confused, laughed into his microphone, thanking both his friends and all of Fairlea for the warm wishes. 

By the time Roxy reached Kelly and Gustavo on side stage, she sighed in relief as they stuck both a one and seven candle into the top of the heavy cake and lit it, allowing the assistant to hang tight for a few seconds as Carlos began to sing Logan’s version of the happy birthday song. 

It was a bit nerve-wracking for the girl once she walked back out onto the stage, blowing right past her typical mark in the back with Mick and Austin, who were playing out a short melody to accompany the rest of the band jumping in to sing. When she emerged with the cake, candles, and all, she felt all eyes in the stadium flick to her, causing a loud cry of joy to emanate from the people they were playing for. 

Gingerly she handed the cake off to Logan and the confetti the Kendall, and was finally able to pluck one of the guitar pics off her mic stand to jump in with her musical part to their own song while James just stood center stage, one bright spotlight on him, smiling from ear to ear. 

When the band finished, he blew out his candles and crossed his fingers to make a wish, cheeks burning bright, cherry-red. It was then Kendall and Carlos grabbed two handfuls of confetti and threw it over his head, raining down over him in a beautiful, colorful shower.

Roxy took this to be the perfect time to start playing the traditional birthday song, and the crowd quickly caught on, everyone merrily singing “Happy Birthday” to the oldest member of Big Time Rush. 

Though she thought at least one of her friends might take a handful of the cake and smash it into the birthday boy’s face, they likely refrained because they were in front of a large crowd. Instead, James gently took a fist-full - and Roxy realized she’d forgotten to order utensils - and nibbled a bit out of his palm before beaming once more toward the crowd. 

And for a moment, it was nearly impossible for the writer to take her eyes off of him as she almost forgot how to breathe. He truly dazzled under the spotlight, dimples permanently carving into his cheeks as though his skin were made of marble. 

She forgot about everything, the way he had been ignoring her, the ache striking her chest whenever she was near him, whatever issues the two of them desperately needed to work out, and watched as he raised the microphone to his lips, addressing the crowd. “Thanks, everyone!” And the stadium erupted into applause once more. “This has been the best birthday surprise I could have ever hoped for!”