Today was one of the days that Dani dreaded the most... it's the day where the Big Time Rush demo is being collected, but the thing Dani is most scared of is that the guys might have to go back to Minnesota and Dani would have nowhere to go.

Dani hated when she was forced to hurt someone's feelings and make them sad but what she hates most right now is that Kelly dragged her back to the PalmWoods to tell the boys the news.

"Why am I here again?" Dani questioned as they made it to the doors that lead to the PalmWoods and she quickly pulled her arm away from Kelly. "I mean you could have done this on your own and technically it's my day off."

"Because Gustavo thinks it would be better if we both told them... and he also didn't want you yelling at him anymore," Kelly said trailing off, looking away from the girl causing her to scoff.

"I just think it's unfair," Dani said, looking out the door at the guys who were all sitting on beach chairs as they all were laughing together. "They deserve to stay."

"You know we can't do anything about that," Kelly said, sending the girl a soft smile.

"Yeah, I know," Dani said, letting out a sigh, turning to look up at the older woman with the same look. "Let's get this over with."

Kelly quickly made her way out of the lobby towards the pool, Dani quickly let out another breath of air before quickly catching up with Kelly.

"Hey guys, just dropped by to drop off your tickets." Kelly greeted with a smile, pulling out four plane tickets.

"Hockey Tickets?" Logan questioned with a big smile, pointing at the lady.

"Concert Tickets?" James asked with an even bigger smile than Logan and copied her movement.

"Um, actually they're plane tickets," Dani said, finally speaking up from behind the tall lady as she noticed all the boys' faces light up, causing her heart to drop even more.

"You guys do know that if your demo doesn't get picked by the Record Company tomorrow you're going back to Minnesota," Kelly stated with a confused look.

"WHAT!" All four boys screamed, quickly sitting up.

"Uh surprise..." Dani trailed off sadly, depressingly doing jazz hands, causing the boys to sink into their beach chairs.

The next thing Dani knew, she and Kelly were chasing after the boys as they made their way to Rocque Records and didn't stop until they made it to the booth that contained Gustavo.

"We don't want to go home, we want to stay here..." Kendall said being the first to speak as they quickly stopped in their tracks.

"And get famous," James added.

"Yeah, about that.." Gustavo started before yelling. "Too bad! It's been three months. The demos are done. That was the deal."

"Right... What are demos again?" Carlos asked, confused, causing everyone to give him a look.

"They're the sample songs we've been recording," Dani explained, grabbing the demo from Gustavo's hand before it was quickly taken by Kelly.

"They're the sample songs we've been recording that if the record company likes, then you get to stay here, make a full album, go on tour, and then..." Kelly said, adding onto the girl's statement, as she sang.

You become famous

"But if they don't pick it, I take over my father's scooter company business, and you go back to Minnesota and be nobodies again." Gustavo explained, standing up from his chair, causing James to scream.

"But we've worked so hard." Kendall said. "We're so close."

"You're not so close." Gustavo disagreed, putting a hand up.

"We're almost there?" Logan questioned, confused, causing the trio in front of them to shake their heads.

"Halfway there?" Carlos asked.

"You're almost halfway there!" Gustavo exclaimed. "Now I'm going to my office. Please do not follow me."

Gustavo slowly walked towards the door with Kelly following, before they both turned into a full sprint towards his office, the boys quickly chasing after them, while Dani slowly walked behind all of them.

"How could Griffin not choose Big Time Rush?" James questioned, pushing the door open. "He loves us."

"Griffin loves all the bands with demos." Dani explained, closing the door before taking a seat on one of the chairs. "There are six of them, to be exact."

"But only one of them gets picked." Gustavo points out.

"And the one that everyone loves is Vampirah." Kelly states, holding up a demo with three guys dressed like vampires.

"Ah!" James screamed, snatching the demo from Kelly.

"That look is so 17th-century," Dani scoffs. "Plus, their album isn't even good."

"Vampire dudes with guitars!" Logan exclaimed, hitting the case. "We're toast."

"Hey, hey, hey, we are not toast." Kendall said. "What's the one thing we've learned since we've been in L.A.?"

"That black is the new black."

"If you drink cold milk on a hot day, you die."

"That every time you leave your house, your toys come alive."

"I think that's Toy Story, buddy." Dani chuckled, causing the three other boys to point at her.

"That you don't wait for your dreams to happen. You make them happen." Kendall explained, causing the guys to agree. "Now, how does the winning demo get picked?"

"That is a highly classified corporate secret that no one will tell me, and it's killing me!" Gustavo exclaimed as he stood up.

"Guys, we want this as badly as you do, but all we know is that the winning band is picked by a top-secret adviser very close to Griffin." Kelly explained to the boys.

"Knowing Griffin, he probably has, like a monkey choosing the winning demo." Dani jokingly said, kicking her feet onto Gustavo's desk.

Then a girl dressed in a white sparkly top, a gold sparkly skirt, and a white jacket, with a pink and white bag that held a small puppy, came walking into Gustavo's office, talking loudly into her phone.

"Yeah, eww, I just entered this totally ugly office. Hold on, I'm mini-barfing." The girl spoke into the phone as she made her way around Gustavo's desk, taking a seat in his chair. "I'm here to pick up a CD for Big Time Whatever!"

"I'm sorry, who are you?" Gustavo shouted.

"Gustavo, this is Mercedes Griffin." Dani spoke up with a big smile, nodding her head towards the girl across from her. "You know your boss's daughter."

"I'll call you back, Jess. Livin' large here is about to start groveling." Mercedes said into her phone, rolling her eyes and hanging it up, turning her attention to Dani with a big grin. "Dani, baby, how are you?"

"I'm doing good, and you?"

"You know, Daddy, he has me picking up his demos." Mercedes sighed before turning her attention back to Gustavo, who was in shock.

"Hey, ha-ha, I am so, so sorry." Gustavo stuttered, handing over the demo. "Um, here... Hey, um, here is the demo. Um, can I... can I get you a latte or a yacht?"

Mercedes rolled her eyes, grabbing the demo from the desk as she stood to leave, making her way back around the desk, stopping behind Dani and in front of the boys as she looked up at them.

"Is this the band?" Mercedes questioned, looking down at Dani, causing the girl to nod, causing the boys to try to make themselves look more 'presentable'. "You guys are hot."

"Oh, and you're the secret someone who's close to Griffin who decides the winning demos." Carlos blurted out excitedly, pointing at the girl.

"Carlos, she..." Dani said, standing up, but was cut off by Mercedes.

"That's right." Mercedes agreed, causing Dani to quickly look at her, confused. "I make the decisions, and I just decided that..."

Mercedes stuck her finger out as she scanned it over the boys before stopping on Kendall. "You're my new boyfriend. Let's go."

"What? I don't even... I don't even know her. Help, help, help, help." Kendall yelled as Mercedes dragged him from the office by his collar.

"This is not right!" James exclaimed. "How could she pick Kendall over me?"

"That's easy to answer, but I wouldn't want to hurt your feelings anymore." Dani pointed out, sending the tall brunette a small smile and patting his shoulder before making her way out of the office and back to Palm Wood since it was technically her day off.

...

Dani was taking out her last tray of cookies from the oven when her front swung open, startling her.

Dani let out a small scream as she hit her hand on the hot tray, causing her to drop the tray onto the ground.

"Dani, we have a problem!" Kendall exclaimed as the group made their way into the girl's apartment, quickly noticing the tray on the ground. "You okay?"

"Just peachy."

"Ooo, cookies." James grinned, making his way straight to the plate.

"I thought you were with Mercedes?" Dani questioned, grabbing a wet towel, placing it on her burn as she turned back towards the others, looking at Kendall.

"She kind of dumped me and got a new boyfriend."

"Which isn't me!" James yelled, hurt in his voice.

"She got poor, Carlos." Kelly stated, causing Dani to finally notice the helmet-wearing boy was missing from the group.

"I see. So why are you guys here?" Dani asked, quickly crouching down to pick up the cookies she dropped on the ground. "Shouldn't you be helping Carlos?"

"That's the thing; we kind of need your help," Logan said, causing Dani to look up, finding the five of them with smiles on their faces.

"You guys do know it's my day off, right?" Dani questioned, standing up and facing the group. "Words meaning, away from all things work, including you all."

"Gustavo will give you the rest of the week off!" Kendall quickly said.

"What?!"

"I don't know if that's enough; I had my entire day planned." Dani said. "I was going to eat cookies and drink hot chocolate while watching reruns."

"You do know it's not winter, right?" James pointed out.

"I have my reasons." Dani said, The boy went to speak, but Dani quickly cut him off before he said a word. "And no, I won't tell you what they are."

"Fine, Gustavo will give you the rest of the week off, plus he'll get that machine that you're always begging to get for the studio," Kelly added, causing Dani to gasp loudly.

"You mean the Velvetiser!" Dani exclaimed happily with a big smile. "Do you actually mean that?"

The entire group looked over at Gustavo as they waited for his response.

"Fine!" Gustavo groaned. "You can have the rest of the week off, and I'll get your stupid coffee machine."

"Hot Chocolate Machine."

"Don't make me take it back." Gustavo snapped, causing Dani to quickly hold her hands up in success.

"So you'll help us get Carlos back?" Kendall asked.

"What do I need to do?"

.....

The Jennings girl stood outside the crib, raising her hand to knock, when she heard a familiar scream followed by a thud, causing her to wince.

"That had to hurt." Dani mumbled to herself.

Dani once again brought her hand to the door, allowing herself to actually knock on the door this time.

The door quickly swung open, revealing Carlos dressed in an apron and top hat, covered in flour.

"Um, hey Carlos." Dani greeted, smiling at the boy, quickly lifting up the plate in her hands. "I brought cookies."

"Yes!" Carlos exclaimed, grabbing the plate from the girl and shoving one into his mouth as the girl made her way into the apartment. "Thanks, Dani."

"You're welcome." Dani chuckled at the boy, spotting Mercedes sitting on the couch, looking at a magazine in her hand. "Hey Mercedes."

The blonde sent the girl a smile, turning her attention to the boy who was shoving cookies into his mouth. "Where are my homemade, fresh-baked cookies, new boyfriend?"

"Coming right up, Pooky," Carlos said, racing towards the oven as Dani took a seat beside Mercedes, quickly standing back up to hear a scream followed by a thud.

"Carlos, are you okay?" Dani asked, trying to peek over the counter before he quickly hopped back up.

"I'm good!" Carlos exclaimed, grabbing the tray before making his way over to Mercedes. "Here you go, sweetums; it's my grandma's recipe."

Mercedes took a small bite of the cookie before she quickly spit it back out. "These are the worst cookies ever!"

"Oh, well, I'm not my grandma." Carlos stated, causing Dani to grab one of the cookies. "I'm a hockey player."

"Well, maybe that's why these taste like hockey pucks." Mercedes exclaimed, and before Dani knew it, she witnessed Mercedes chucking the cookies at Carlos, causing the boy to shut himself into the bathroom, slamming the door behind himself.

"Seriously, Mercedes?" Dani asked, sitting down and turning to face the girl. "Was that necessary?"

"What? I was just being honest with him." Mercedes shrugged, going to pick up the magazine, but Dani quickly grabbed it.

"That's the thing, M; you're not being honest with any of them." Dani stated. "You're lying to them about something that can make or break their careers just so you can make them do stuff for you, which is extremely low, even for you."

"Yeah, I know." Mercedes muttered, looking over to the girl as she raised her voice. "How come you haven't told them?"

"As much as I want to tell them, I want to give you the opportunity to be the bigger person that I know you can be." Dani explained. "Mercedes, you are more than a spoiled, bratty, rich girl who uses her power for evil. Just apologize."

"Yeah, I guess you're right," Mercedes said. "I'm sorry for dragging you with me with the lie; I truly am sorry."

"No harm done." Dani smiled, causing both of the girls to laugh as they soon sat in peaceful silence.

"I should probably go check on Carlos." Mercedes said, standing up, and Dani followed her lead.

"Yeah, I should head back to my apartment to actually finish my day off in peace, hopefully." Dani sighed. "I guess I'll see you around."

Dani made her way out of the apartment, making her way across to hers, but instead of watching anything as planned, instead she wrote a new song.

...

Dani was once again pulled from her Palm Woods home after receiving a message about a life-or-death situation.

As Dani rushed into the studio, she saw all four boys sitting on the long couch, covered in bananas and banana peels. Gustavo was sitting in a chair with Kelly sitting on the arm while eating a banana, while Mercedes was sitting in a chair across from them.

"This doesn't look like a life-or-death situation." Dani said, huffing after running the entire way from the Palm Woods, looking directly at the boys. "What's with the bananas?"

"We may or may not have kidnapped Griffin's demo, choosing chimp Lo-Lo," Logan admitted.

"We also may or may not have lost said chimp." James added.

"So what I'm hearing is that I was right about it being a monkey?" Dani smirked.

"A chimp!"

"Yeah, yeah, same thing," Dani said, rolling her eyes. "So why did you text if you guys seemed to already have this all figured out?"

"Well, Dani, we are not giving up. We're almost halfway there, and another thing I've learned since coming to L.A. is that together, we can do anything." Kendall explained, Griffin walking into the studio, holding hands with who Dani assumed to Lolo.

"Look who I found hitchhiking on the Hollywood freeway," Griffin said.

"Yeah, what was that you were saying, Kendork?" Dani asked, looking over at the blonde boy.

"I am deeply disappointed in all of you, but I am also curious. What happened? Help me out." Griffin questioned, looking around at the group.

"It's my fault, daddy," Mercedes confessed, standing up. "I lied to them, had Dani lying for me, and made them be my boyfriend's, and then ate terrible cookies, and then I cried, and then I helped them chimp-nap Lo-Lo, and... I love you."

"Is that true?" Griffin asked. "Because she lies a lot."

"It's all of our faults." Gustavo said, standing.

"We really wanted to stay here in L.A. and make an album," Kendall explained.

"And a tour." Carlos added.

"And be famous." James cried out.

"But we may have gone a little too far." Logan admitted.

"Those are a lot of sentences containing words containing letters, and I admire your passion and dedication, but it doesn't change that Lo-Lo picks which demo wins." Griffin explained, turning to the chimp. "So what do you say, Lo-Lo? Do you like Big Time Rush?"

The group all leaned towards the chimp with hopes that it would make a certain sound, but was defeated when the chimp put its lips together and blew.

"Sorry, boys, Vampirah wins."

"I mean, no disrespect; but what does a chimp know about what is going to be good with the target audience or not?" Dani questioned.

"What she means is Lo-Lo's wrong, daddy." Mercedes explained, jumping in and placing a hand on Dani's shoulder with a smile. "The vampire fad has one, two years left, max. These guys' songs have infectious melodies and classic pop hooks, and Big Time Rush will crush the 6 to 16-year-old demographic, which is your core music buying base."

"Wow. Lo-Lo, I'm transferring you to missile defense." Griffin announced, turning to his daughter. "Mercedes, you're my new hit-predicting adviser, and this way, we'll get to spend more time together. Big Time Rush wins!"

This caused the group to cheer in excitement as Griffin once again turned to his daughter.

"Anything else for my princess?" Griffin asked.

"Well, I never really got a chance to date Logan." Mercedes explained, causing Dani to chuckle.

"Logan, you're Mercedes' new boyfriend," Griffin told him, causing him to let out a small cry before hiding behind James. "Now get to work. We need some new songs for the Big Time Rush album."

"I actually have one." Dani spoke up with a giant smile on her face.

"Move out!" Gustavo exclaimed as they all ecstatically ran into the recording studio.

when the chips are down
back against the wall
got no more to give
'cause we gave it all
seems like going the distance is unrealistic
but we're to far from the start

so we take what comes and we keep on going
leaning on each other's shoulders
then we turn around
and see we've come so far somehow

we're halfway there
we're looking good now
and nothing's gonna get in the way
we're halfway there
and looking back now
i never thought that i'd ever say
we're halfway there

if we never flew
we would never fall
if the world was ours
we would have it all
but the life live
isn't so simplistic
you just don't get what you want

so we take what comes
and we keep on going
leaning on each others shoulders
then we turn around
and see we've come so far somehow

we're halfway there
we're looking good now
and nothing's gonna get in the way
we're halfway there
and looking back now
i never thought that i'd ever say
we're halfway there
oh, we're halfway there

halfway there
we're halfway there
oh, we're halfway there
yeah, we're halfway there

...

"I need to renew the leases for 2J and 2K." Kelly said, placing a check onto the front desk in front of Bitters.

"We're going to make a full album!" Carlos announced, facing Katie and Mama Kight.

"And probably a concert tour." Logan said, smiling.

"And be famous!" James exclaimed.

Mama Knight smirked, turning towards Bitters, placing a used toilet plunger onto the front desk, "I quit! And I gave Buddha Bob the rest of the day off."

"What room?" Bitters asked, disappointment dripping from in his voice.

"3B, and it's bad." Mama Knight smirked.

The group watched in amusement as Bitters made his way to the elevator with the plunger in his hand.

"I guess we're not going home." Mama Knight said to the boys and Katie.

"Actually, mom, I think we are home." Kendall corrected his mom, wrapping an arm around her and Katie, causing Dani to send the group a smile.

"Race you to the pool!" Katie yelled, running towards the Palm Woods pool, causing the boys to chase after her, causing Dani to chuckle to herself.

Dani quickly wrapped her arms around Mama Knight pulling her into a hug before she followed the path the other five went.
...