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"What is the one thing that separates me and all the successful people in life?" Gustavo huffed and he slammed his fists down onto his piano in anger, the melody he was trying was just not working.

"Success," Stella answered with a snarky laugh.

Gustavo's eye twitched as he glared at her. "Get out!" He yelled so loud, Stella was sure she felt the building shake.

"You have no fear," Logan whispered to her with wide eyes.

"Fear is for the weak," She answered casually.

"So what's the big news?" Kendall jumped in, trying to get Gustavo to focus on something other than killing his girlfriend.

"Wait, where's James?" Kelly asked, not wanting to have to explain twice.

Everyone looked around before Carlos held his hand up. "Oh, I can find him," He cupped a hand around his mouth and yelled, "Stella sucks!"

Stella let out an offended gasp before quickly being pulled into Kendall's arms as he reassured her Carlos didn't mean it.

James seemed to pop out of nowhere, glaring at Carlos. "Stella is God's greatest gift to the world! You suck!"

"There he is," Carlos said proudly before turning to Stella apologetically, "Sorry, Stella."

"You finally made the cover of Pop Tiger magazine!" Kelly squealed happily as she held up a copy, "With their 'win a date with Big Time Rush' contest."

"Win a date with Big Time Rush," They all repeated in confusion, no one told them they were being signed up for this.

Kelly nodded and read out their magazine contest ad. "Spend a day with the boys of BTR at the famous Palmwoods. And wrap up your date with a big-time party in the very studio the guys record their hits."

Stella's face was blank as she slowly walked up to the two. "You want my boyfriend to go on a date with another girl?" She asked, her voice scarily calm.

Kelly immediately hid behind Gustavo and even he gulped, her demeanor making him nervous.

"I know this is going to be really difficult for you but I need you to think really hard and see if you can figure out why this would be very upsetting to me," She demanded sharply.

"I didn't tell you because I didn't want to upset you!" Kelly cried out, still hiding behind Gustavo.

"If you didn't want to upset me then why do you chew salads so loud?!" Stella yelled.

"I-I..." Kelly frowned, "I do not chew salads-"

Gustavo and the boys immediately cut her off, all voicing their agreement with Stella.

"Look," Gustavo sighed, "I had to book this date thing. It was the only way to get them on the cover," His voice lowered to a whisper, "But I hand-picked his date and you will not be disappointed."

Stella paused, pursing her lips as she studied his face. She decided that since Gustavo had never let her down so far, she had no reason to doubt him. "You get to live another day," She nodded, typing something on her phone.

Logan's brows furrowed. "Did you put a hit on him?" He asked in disbelief.

"No but Sijin knows a lot of weird people," She shrugged, "And they know how to make life very uncomfortable for people. They're like Sijin on steroids."

Kendall had a goofy smile on his face. "You like me that much?" He all but giggled.

Gustavo did not want to think of that and quickly changed the subject. "This is a huge first step being on the cover, but now we have to work even harder to climb the cover."

"Climb the whatta?" The four boys asked with furrowed brows.

"There are three levels of success on every teen fan-zine," Kelly explained as she held up the magazine cover to show them.

"The entry-level, located at the bottom of the mag, like 'win a date with Big Time Rush' or 'what's the Cheetah Girls big secret?'"

"The rising star level," Kelly pointed, "Mid to high on the magazine with a bigger picture, currently occupied by Austin Moon."

"And finally, the superstar level, which dominates the cover, currently occupied by-"

"Me," Stella cut him off proudly.

"Another date gone horribly wrong," James let out a dejected sigh.

"You never went on a date!" Kendall reminded him sharply.

"She will be my wife!" James countered back heatedly.

Stella rolled her eyes and started spraying them with a spray bottle.

"I need one of those," Gustavo mused, "Kelly get me one of those!"

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"Hey, guys, I'm Annie Winters, editor of Pop Tiger magazine. Now, we just want you guys to be yourselves, have fun, and make sure that your dates have the best time ever. Let's meet the winners. First up is James' date for today. Jeanette."

James grinned when a pretty blonde joined them. "Hello, Jeanette."

"Omg!" She squealed, "I can't believe I get to spend the whole day with James Diamond."

He chuckled and shook his head. "You don't spend the day with James Diamond. You experience it."

"Carlos, your date for today is Tiffany. Logan, your contest winner is Rona. Kendall, you'll be with Rico."

"Sweet!" Rico, an extremely energetic ten-year-old, yelled, "I can't believe I have a date with Kendall Knight of Big Time Rush."

"Yep," Kendall let out a strained chuckle, "Believe it!"

Stella leaned closer to Gustavo. "This is the best thing you've ever done for me," She laughed.

"I made you a star," He scoffed.

"You can't make me something I already was," She patted his shoulder.

They both cringed when they saw Kendall trip and fall onto the floor as he tried to reign in Rico with his harness.

"I'm not sure he's mature enough to handle this," She frowned.

"Please. Who knows more about taking care of kids than a kid?" Gustavo brushed off her concern.

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"Stella, I hurt my finger again," Rico held up his hand with a pout, "Can you kiss it?"

Stella's brows furrowed as she looked down at him. "Rico, I've already kissed it five times."

He paused. "I think I cut my lips," He puckered her lips and leaned up on his toes.

She chuckled and ruffled his hair. "Nice try."

Rico smirked as she walked away. "She wants me," He said confidently.

"Okay, I got the smoothies," Kendall called as he joined them, kissing Stella's cheek.

"Thanks," She smiled at him sweetly before her phone rang. She smiled when she saw it was her dad and immediately went out in the hall to speak to him.

"Hey, blondie," Rico glared at him as soon as Stella was out of sight, "Stay away from my girl."

Kendall chuckled. "Aw. You have a wittle crush on Stella," He cooed, "That's so cute."

Rico scoffed. "I bet I have more armpit hair than you."

"Everyone has more armpit hair than him," Katie laughed as she got ready to go to the park.

"Hey, they're blond, and they're hard to see!" Kendall said defensively.

"Yeah, all one of 'em."

"Good one," Katie told the boy as she left.

"Okay," Kendall clapped his hands, "So, how about we get the fun started, huh? I was thinking we could-"

"Zip it, blondie," Rico held his hand up with a bored look, "I'm not here for you."

Kendall's brows furrowed. "...You do know this is a day with Big Time Rush, right?"

Rico rolled his eyes. "This was my in to get Stella," He corrected.

"G-get?" Kendall repeated, laughing so hard there were tears in his eyes, "Not gonna happen, kid."

"We'll see," He said confidently, not fazed at all by Kendall's reaction.

"She's mine!" Kendall glared at him.

"Not for long," Rico smirked. 

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"...Look, kid, I know Santa, and someone just made the naughty list," Kendall threatened, hoping this would get him to behave.

"I'm Jewish. And I'm bored."

"Good," Kendall let out a sigh of relief, "Then go to sleep. Nap time, little buddy."

Rico scowled. "How old do you think I am?"

"I don't care, just go to sleep," He demanded.

"I just ate 12 sugar sticks," Rico scoffed, "You ever eat 12 sugar sticks?"

Kendall rolled his eyes. "Try sugar logs, with a six-pack of soda. So don't mess with me, kid."

Thankfully, after every sugar high comes a sugar crash, Rico was asleep on the couch within half an hour.

"...Stella," He mumbled in his sleep, "Must destroy Kendall."

Kendall's eyes widened in fear. "That kid should be locked up somewhere."

He winced when he accidentally knocked over one of James' many cans of Barracuda Man spray he kept leaving out everywhere. His head immediately snapped to Rico and he frowned when he found him with his eyes wide open.

"My parents paid good money for me to have fun," Rico informed him, "And guess what."

"You wanna give me a tip?" Kendall said sarcastically.

"Sure. You should do something about your disproportionate head."

Kendall gasped, his hands coming up to cover his hair. "It was a bad haircut," He huffed.

"I wanna play in the hotel," Rico decided, "How about sliding down the air ducts?"

Kendall shook his head. "You're not ready for that."

"Surfing on a luggage cart?"

"Overrated."

"Fishing in the restaurant aquarium?"

"Nah," Kendall paused when he realized they actually never tried that, "Huh. Interesting."

"I wanna play hide-and-seek."

"Okay," He relented and covered his eyes, "You hide. I'll count."

"No peeking," Rico called with a smirk as he slowly snuck out the door.

And that was how Kendall was conned into letting a little evil genius loose in the Palm Woods.

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"What do you mean you lost him?!" Stella yelled, making Kendall wince.

"You can yell at me all you want after we find him," He promised as he dragged her down to the lobby to start looking for Rico.

"Fine!" She huffed.

"Fine!"

"Good!"

"Good!"

"How are we even going to find him? Do you know how big this hotel is?" Stella frowned.

Not that big, it seemed. Because as soon as she said that, they found him.

"Get back here, young man!" Kendall yelled when he caught sight of Rico riding a luggage cart across the lobby.

"Not gonna happen, old man!" Rico yelled before blowing a kiss to Stella, "I'll be back for you, my love."

Just as he rolled out of sight, Annie Winters entered the lobby.

"Hey. Where's Rico? Boys are a huge new market for Pop Tiger, so we are really excited about this playdate with you two."

Kendall let out a nervous chuckle. "Yeah, Rico. Yeah, yeah."

"Where is Rico?" She asked with furrowed brows as she looked around, "You didn't lose him, did you?"

"What?" Kendall's eyes widened comically and he brushed her off, "No. No! But just out of curiosity, what would happen if one did lose their pop tiger date?"

"Oh, well, the magazine would have to distance itself from a public relations scandal like that, so I guess Big Time Rush would be banned from Pop Tiger for life."

Kendall gulped dryly. "Good thing I didn't lose him," He forced the words out.

"So where's Rico?" Annie asked.

"He went to get us smoothies," He answered quickly.

She frowned. "But you're holding smoothies."

"...He wanted smoother smoothies."

"Oh, well, we will go get photos of the other guys on their dates. Can you and Rico meet us at the pool in 15 minutes?"

"30 Minutes?" Kendall nodded, "Perfect. Rico and I will see you in one hour."

"Smoother smoothies?" Stella repeated with a scoff once the Pop Tiger team left.

"I don't know!" He yelled defensively.

"Hey, I just want to make sure you dogs don't mess up your dates," Gustavo said as he joined the two.

"Too late," Stella laughed.

"I didn't lose him," Kendall said immediately before faltering, "He's just...misplaced."

"Do you know what Pop Tiger will do if they find out we've lost a kid?" Gustavo yelled.

Kendall nodded with a smile, happy to know the answer for once. "Yes, they will ban us from the magazine."

Gustavo's eyes widened. "They'll ban us from the magazine? That is way worse than what I thought. We have got to find that kid."

They quickly rushed toward the direction Rico had gone in.

"No running in my lobby!" Mr. Moseby yelled as he glared at them.

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"Did I ever tell you how pretty you are when you're angry," Kendall said sweetly as she untied him.

She found him tied up in the janitor's closet after they split up to try and find Rico.

"Well, I must be gorgeous because I'm furious," She glared at him, "How could you let this happen?"

"Well, I found him but then he tripped me And then... it's all a blur," He frowned.

"You'll never find me! You'll never find me!"

Stella's eyes widened as she looked down at her walkie-talkie. "He has your walkie talkie?! What, did you tie yourself up too?"

"Wait a minute. There's a homing device on the walkie-talkies. We'll use yours to track Rico down."

"Why isn't Kendall answering his walkie-talkie?" Gustavo's voice cut them off, "Did you kill him? I can't find a missing kid and cover up a murder at the same time."

"Not yet," Stella answered dryly as she glared at her boyfriend, "Meet us in the lobby."

The three followed the homing device all the way to a potted plant out by the pool.

"Hey! There. By that plant," Kendall frowned when he saw the walkie-talkie dumped in the plant and no sign of Rico, "We're dealing with an evil genius."

Stella pulled out a rose with a note stuck to it. "A rose for Stella. You make me wish I were a better person. Love, Rico. That's so sweet."

"I can't believe I'm losing you to a younger man," He scoffed.

"I can't believe that younger man is smarter than you," She countered.

After an hour of looking, they finally managed to find Rico. And after bribing him with the promise of one dance with Stella at the party, he gave his date with Kendall a five-star review.

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〚𝐀𝐔𝐓𝐇𝐎𝐑'𝐒 𝐍𝐎𝐓𝐄〛

I'm sorry for the boring filler chapter! But I just wanted to get this chapter out of the way to get back into writing for this book. I promise the next chapter will be better (and sooner).

I mixed this episode with an episode from Suite Life of Zack and Cody because I thought it matched perfect.

Please don't forget to vote and comment!

Have a great day and stay safe ♥♥