I'm always watching from here
Boy, it's been a long time since I posted a story here. Anyway, this draft of a Big Time Rush ficlet was something I wrote a month ago and couldn't find a home for it. So, here it is. Feedback and thoughts are always welcomed.
Title:The (Foolish?) Cost
Author: December
Fandom: Big Time Rush
Pairings/Characters: Kelly Wrainwright
Rating: PG
Summary: Kelly thinks about the topic of an upcoming speech and comes to an unexpected conclusion. Some minor spoilers for the series.
“Uh-huh…. Absolutely…. Already on that….Took care of that before I left,” she continued to assure into the cell phone as she boarded the plane. It hadn’t been until she arranged this break that she realized that the adage is true. Assistant producers/talent scouts/the voices of planning and sanity don’t get vacations; it’s counter to their job descriptions. She just hoped her boss would calm down enough for her to get on the plane and get to where she was going.
“They will be fine. They have the charity thing tomorrow. Then, they’ll take it easy for a day before they prepare for the tour. I’ll be back by then, and we’ll even have a chance to check out that soloist getting all the buzz in Canada before the tour starts,” she shared soothingly (she hoped) as she crawled over several people to get to her middle seat in coach. She was pretty sure her carry-on whacked the guy to her right in the knee. He was definitely glaring at her. The businessman on the other side of her rolled his eyes at the fact she was still on her cell, while she had placed her portfolio on her seat and tried to shove her bad under the seat in front of her.
“Everything will be fine….You have got to stop calling them that! They are people, not dogs…. Wait, what?! Okay, okay. Calm down. I’ll call Kendall as soon as my plane lands. I promise. Yes…I’m aware of what Griffin said,” she sighed as she lifted her portfolio. Finally taking her seat, she kept her cell phone wedged between her shoulder and her ear so that she could still talk to her boss as she struggled to buckle herself in with her portfolio stuck between her left side and the arm rest. “I’m sure the boys aren’t plotting anything,” she managed to say without her voice squeaking. Since her boss didn’t call her on that, she assumed she had finally gotten better at lying. Still couldn’t act worth a damn, but her shouting and lying had definitely improved.
She probably had to thank both James and Kendall for that. She’d never tell them that, however. Besides, Logan had probably already figured it out and said something.
“Look, Gustavo, the plane is going to take off soon, so I have to get off my cell phone. And, no, they can’t make an exception for me. I’ll call as soon as I land. Everything will be fine,” she tried to reassure over the ranting. After realizing the ranting wasn’t going to stop soon, she ended the call and cut off her phone. She’d catch hell when she landed in her hometown, but, if she called Logan or Kendall first, she’d at least know what set Gustavo off this time.
Settling in for the flight, she opened her portfolio and looked at the letter and instructions she had received. She’d glanced at it earlier, but hadn’t read it closely. Ever since that cold day in Minnesota, she’d been working harder than she ever had in her life. She loved it. She absolutely loved it, but finding, creating, launching, and then maintaining Big Time Rush had made her own life a big time rush. It was one of the reasons she accepted the speaking gig at home so quickly. She needed a break.
Kelly Marie Wrainwright had been a little shocked when her alma mater asked her to come back to speak for career day. Having gone to high school at a small, prestigious single sex private school on the East Coast, she remembered how important career day was. While she was there, alumnae as important (and varied) as a former Secretary of State, a CEO of a Fortune 1000 company, and the president of the Red Cross had come to impart wisdom. Although she was working in the LA entertainment industry, she was really just the assistant to a (rather successful) music producer. Why was she suddenly worthy of speaking to a group of 200 girls who would probably change the world in five to eight years?
On the second page of the letter asking Kelly to speak for the event, there was provided the topic from which she was to speak. “A fool and his money are easily parted,” she read out loud.
Now she had an idea about why she had been asked. They wanted her to quell the star fever that had hit her alma mater.
Star fever wasn’t a new thing. It had been around for ages. Then, things like American Idol, X Factor, and even The Real Housewives series had just made it worse. Everyone thought they could sing, act, dance, or model. In addition, they all thought they were the next star and were willing to do almost anything to make it big and stay there. Sure, it happened sometimes. It could be a brief thing, like Taylor Hicks. It could be a huge thing, like Big Time Rush seemed to be becoming. It could be a sustaining thing, like Daughtry hoped to be. But for every person who was discovered that way, at least 5,000 others had dreams dashed.
Since Kelly was in LA and everyone from her high school knew what she was doing, Kelly was sure that the higher ups at her school wanted her to tell horror stories about how people destroyed themselves pursuing the Hollywood dream. They would expect cautionary tales about how girls, so sure they would become famous, got into bad contracts, blew all of their money on fast living, and ended up with nothing. But that wasn’t a story Kelly thought she could tell.
It wasn’t that performers didn’t spend their money on stupid things. It wasn’t that you couldn’t talk someone in search of fame into parting with a lot of money unnecessarily. Kendall’s sister, Katie Knight, could list lots of examples where she worked that tendency to her favor. The problem was, when it came to fools and money, Kelly thought of record companies long before she thought of performers.
Take Rocque Records and its parent company. When Kelly interned for then, back when BoyQuake was in the height of their flash in the pan, the label spent $55,000 a month for a “bad boy coach” so that one of the band members could carry off the role. They were all so effeminate, that Kelly couldn’t tell where the bad boy act made any difference, but people didn’t ask the opinion of interns back then.
And then, there was the whole “search for the next big thing” a few months ago. First, Gustavo and she (mainly Gustavo) were paid a million dollars to find the next big thing. They were also threatened with the prospect of losing their jobs, but a check was still cut. Next, the company fronted the cost for a twenty-two city audition itinerary to find the next big thing. That cost included: first class air travel, a latte budget (Gustavo without expensive, LA-esque coffee was even scarier than normal. And that was saying something), hotel, advertising budget, petty cash for emergency expenses, limo rentals, hotel suites, staff in every city, and a cell phone bill that went through the roof that month. The search probably cost half a million itself. Then there was the “persuading cost” as Kelly liked to refer to it. Kendall had originally said no, after all. Kelly left Mrs. Knight with over two hundred dollars, “for the tea cup…And the planter outside…”. And they did have to pay for three additional people to come to LA when Kendall finally did say yes. That was an extra four hundred thousand dollars.
Once Kendall, James, Logan, and Carlos were in LA, however, the label had to spend more money. There was the dancing coach, the stylists, the marketing team, the teachers’ pay from the failed School of Rocque attempt. They were paying for the Palm Woods. They paid to shoot that video at the Palm Woods. They paid for the (double) makeover of the boys’ room at the Palm Woods. They paid for the idiot doctor’s fees that the label’s HMO didn’t cover. They also had to pay Freightrain’s salary, although Kelly thought that was a good use of money. The less fighting Gustavo had to do to get his way on minor things, the better. There were the costs of shooting promotional pictures and videos. There was the cost of recording the demo, marketing the demo, getting the boys into industry parties. Kelly’s head hurt as she remembered, once again, why she didn’t want to be an accountant. Based on her rough estimate, however, Rocque Records had put at least 2.5 million dollars into the creation of Big Time Rush.
The thing was that, with less than half of that money, the company could have reinvested in some of the talent they already had on payroll. If you ignored the whole mess with Nicole, the company and Gustavo had a lot of options right in LA. They basically threw away over a million dollars to chase a dream.
In the end, it was probably worth it. Big Time Rush looked as if they were poised to bring back the boy band, maybe make as big a splash as Nirvana. (It helped that the JoBros had broken up and that BTR had more than enough talent to slide into the marketing hole Disney had left wide open.) In addition, this crazy chase did introduce Kelly to Kendall, James, Logan, Carlos, Katie, and the matriarch of the Knight clan. Meeting them definitely caused Kelly to grow…but it also allowed Kelly to have some fun. And have a few minor heart attacks, but what were panic attacks between friends? The risk yielded a big reward, but it was a big risk. And record labels did it everyday.
A fool and his money are easily parted. It was true of the entire entertainment industry, but not in the derogatory way this saying was often used. When you thought about it, a music label was a fool, an “ardent enthusiast” who had to indulge in discovering new and better music. A label would have to be to discover the Toni Braxtons, Nirvanas, Norah Jones, and Big Time Rushes of the world. And to locate them, drag them to LA, and get that first record out there, you had to part with money. If you didn’t do it easily, it would never happen.
It was a beautiful thought. And it was true after a fashion, but it didn’t really help her with her present dilemma. She sighed, which earned her another nasty look from the guy to her left. She had no idea what she was going to say to those girls tomorrow. Maybe if she just told her own story up to that point. She wasn’t saying she was a fool, even though she’d partied with some money during her time in LA, but she had made some mistakes. Maybe her story had a lesson for the girls who were going to listen to her.
She had no idea what that lesson might be, besides “don’t play lookout for your boss when he decides to destroy property belonging to Matthew McConaughey”, but made there was something else there.
Title:The (Foolish?) Cost
Author: December
Fandom: Big Time Rush
Pairings/Characters: Kelly Wrainwright
Rating: PG
Summary: Kelly thinks about the topic of an upcoming speech and comes to an unexpected conclusion. Some minor spoilers for the series.
“Uh-huh…. Absolutely…. Already on that….Took care of that before I left,” she continued to assure into the cell phone as she boarded the plane. It hadn’t been until she arranged this break that she realized that the adage is true. Assistant producers/talent scouts/the voices of planning and sanity don’t get vacations; it’s counter to their job descriptions. She just hoped her boss would calm down enough for her to get on the plane and get to where she was going.
“They will be fine. They have the charity thing tomorrow. Then, they’ll take it easy for a day before they prepare for the tour. I’ll be back by then, and we’ll even have a chance to check out that soloist getting all the buzz in Canada before the tour starts,” she shared soothingly (she hoped) as she crawled over several people to get to her middle seat in coach. She was pretty sure her carry-on whacked the guy to her right in the knee. He was definitely glaring at her. The businessman on the other side of her rolled his eyes at the fact she was still on her cell, while she had placed her portfolio on her seat and tried to shove her bad under the seat in front of her.
“Everything will be fine….You have got to stop calling them that! They are people, not dogs…. Wait, what?! Okay, okay. Calm down. I’ll call Kendall as soon as my plane lands. I promise. Yes…I’m aware of what Griffin said,” she sighed as she lifted her portfolio. Finally taking her seat, she kept her cell phone wedged between her shoulder and her ear so that she could still talk to her boss as she struggled to buckle herself in with her portfolio stuck between her left side and the arm rest. “I’m sure the boys aren’t plotting anything,” she managed to say without her voice squeaking. Since her boss didn’t call her on that, she assumed she had finally gotten better at lying. Still couldn’t act worth a damn, but her shouting and lying had definitely improved.
She probably had to thank both James and Kendall for that. She’d never tell them that, however. Besides, Logan had probably already figured it out and said something.
“Look, Gustavo, the plane is going to take off soon, so I have to get off my cell phone. And, no, they can’t make an exception for me. I’ll call as soon as I land. Everything will be fine,” she tried to reassure over the ranting. After realizing the ranting wasn’t going to stop soon, she ended the call and cut off her phone. She’d catch hell when she landed in her hometown, but, if she called Logan or Kendall first, she’d at least know what set Gustavo off this time.
Settling in for the flight, she opened her portfolio and looked at the letter and instructions she had received. She’d glanced at it earlier, but hadn’t read it closely. Ever since that cold day in Minnesota, she’d been working harder than she ever had in her life. She loved it. She absolutely loved it, but finding, creating, launching, and then maintaining Big Time Rush had made her own life a big time rush. It was one of the reasons she accepted the speaking gig at home so quickly. She needed a break.
Kelly Marie Wrainwright had been a little shocked when her alma mater asked her to come back to speak for career day. Having gone to high school at a small, prestigious single sex private school on the East Coast, she remembered how important career day was. While she was there, alumnae as important (and varied) as a former Secretary of State, a CEO of a Fortune 1000 company, and the president of the Red Cross had come to impart wisdom. Although she was working in the LA entertainment industry, she was really just the assistant to a (rather successful) music producer. Why was she suddenly worthy of speaking to a group of 200 girls who would probably change the world in five to eight years?
On the second page of the letter asking Kelly to speak for the event, there was provided the topic from which she was to speak. “A fool and his money are easily parted,” she read out loud.
Now she had an idea about why she had been asked. They wanted her to quell the star fever that had hit her alma mater.
Star fever wasn’t a new thing. It had been around for ages. Then, things like American Idol, X Factor, and even The Real Housewives series had just made it worse. Everyone thought they could sing, act, dance, or model. In addition, they all thought they were the next star and were willing to do almost anything to make it big and stay there. Sure, it happened sometimes. It could be a brief thing, like Taylor Hicks. It could be a huge thing, like Big Time Rush seemed to be becoming. It could be a sustaining thing, like Daughtry hoped to be. But for every person who was discovered that way, at least 5,000 others had dreams dashed.
Since Kelly was in LA and everyone from her high school knew what she was doing, Kelly was sure that the higher ups at her school wanted her to tell horror stories about how people destroyed themselves pursuing the Hollywood dream. They would expect cautionary tales about how girls, so sure they would become famous, got into bad contracts, blew all of their money on fast living, and ended up with nothing. But that wasn’t a story Kelly thought she could tell.
It wasn’t that performers didn’t spend their money on stupid things. It wasn’t that you couldn’t talk someone in search of fame into parting with a lot of money unnecessarily. Kendall’s sister, Katie Knight, could list lots of examples where she worked that tendency to her favor. The problem was, when it came to fools and money, Kelly thought of record companies long before she thought of performers.
Take Rocque Records and its parent company. When Kelly interned for then, back when BoyQuake was in the height of their flash in the pan, the label spent $55,000 a month for a “bad boy coach” so that one of the band members could carry off the role. They were all so effeminate, that Kelly couldn’t tell where the bad boy act made any difference, but people didn’t ask the opinion of interns back then.
And then, there was the whole “search for the next big thing” a few months ago. First, Gustavo and she (mainly Gustavo) were paid a million dollars to find the next big thing. They were also threatened with the prospect of losing their jobs, but a check was still cut. Next, the company fronted the cost for a twenty-two city audition itinerary to find the next big thing. That cost included: first class air travel, a latte budget (Gustavo without expensive, LA-esque coffee was even scarier than normal. And that was saying something), hotel, advertising budget, petty cash for emergency expenses, limo rentals, hotel suites, staff in every city, and a cell phone bill that went through the roof that month. The search probably cost half a million itself. Then there was the “persuading cost” as Kelly liked to refer to it. Kendall had originally said no, after all. Kelly left Mrs. Knight with over two hundred dollars, “for the tea cup…And the planter outside…”. And they did have to pay for three additional people to come to LA when Kendall finally did say yes. That was an extra four hundred thousand dollars.
Once Kendall, James, Logan, and Carlos were in LA, however, the label had to spend more money. There was the dancing coach, the stylists, the marketing team, the teachers’ pay from the failed School of Rocque attempt. They were paying for the Palm Woods. They paid to shoot that video at the Palm Woods. They paid for the (double) makeover of the boys’ room at the Palm Woods. They paid for the idiot doctor’s fees that the label’s HMO didn’t cover. They also had to pay Freightrain’s salary, although Kelly thought that was a good use of money. The less fighting Gustavo had to do to get his way on minor things, the better. There were the costs of shooting promotional pictures and videos. There was the cost of recording the demo, marketing the demo, getting the boys into industry parties. Kelly’s head hurt as she remembered, once again, why she didn’t want to be an accountant. Based on her rough estimate, however, Rocque Records had put at least 2.5 million dollars into the creation of Big Time Rush.
The thing was that, with less than half of that money, the company could have reinvested in some of the talent they already had on payroll. If you ignored the whole mess with Nicole, the company and Gustavo had a lot of options right in LA. They basically threw away over a million dollars to chase a dream.
In the end, it was probably worth it. Big Time Rush looked as if they were poised to bring back the boy band, maybe make as big a splash as Nirvana. (It helped that the JoBros had broken up and that BTR had more than enough talent to slide into the marketing hole Disney had left wide open.) In addition, this crazy chase did introduce Kelly to Kendall, James, Logan, Carlos, Katie, and the matriarch of the Knight clan. Meeting them definitely caused Kelly to grow…but it also allowed Kelly to have some fun. And have a few minor heart attacks, but what were panic attacks between friends? The risk yielded a big reward, but it was a big risk. And record labels did it everyday.
A fool and his money are easily parted. It was true of the entire entertainment industry, but not in the derogatory way this saying was often used. When you thought about it, a music label was a fool, an “ardent enthusiast” who had to indulge in discovering new and better music. A label would have to be to discover the Toni Braxtons, Nirvanas, Norah Jones, and Big Time Rushes of the world. And to locate them, drag them to LA, and get that first record out there, you had to part with money. If you didn’t do it easily, it would never happen.
It was a beautiful thought. And it was true after a fashion, but it didn’t really help her with her present dilemma. She sighed, which earned her another nasty look from the guy to her left. She had no idea what she was going to say to those girls tomorrow. Maybe if she just told her own story up to that point. She wasn’t saying she was a fool, even though she’d partied with some money during her time in LA, but she had made some mistakes. Maybe her story had a lesson for the girls who were going to listen to her.
She had no idea what that lesson might be, besides “don’t play lookout for your boss when he decides to destroy property belonging to Matthew McConaughey”, but made there was something else there.