Full summary: It's Kendall Knight's last summer before he leaves for college and he's determined to make his last months of freedom his best, despite having a shitty minimum wage job, no friends, parents who fight constantly, and a 'friend' with benefits. When things start going south, Kendall gives up on the hope of having one decent summer at home - until he meets Carlos Garcia, a boy from the other side of the tracks who teaches him how to live and gives him an escape from his fucked up life. Carlos and Kendall are polar opposites that seem to fit together perfectly, and Kendall learns that love - real love - truly does exist.

This fic is loosely (and I stress: loosely) based on the book, The Vast Fields of Ordinary by Nick Burd. I reread the book and immediately thought of the boys and decided to try my hand in writing a fic based on it. So, here I am! I left some things out that happened in the book, because I don't want this fic to be exactly like the book (that would be bad, wrong, and this fic would be extremely long; hey, I rhymed).

This is my first time trying to write a fic based on a book and, it's also my first time writing a multichapter Big Time Rush fanfiction (I've written a few one-shots and, to be honest, I am extremely nervous to try my hand at writing in this fandom), so please bear with me! :)

Every chapter will start off with some kind of author's note, just like this one, but the others should be different. Some author's notes may be about any warnings for chapters (which will happen in future chapters, when I get to the smut and other fun stuff) and other times it'll just be listing characters you'll find in the upcoming chapters.

Reviews and comments are always welcome; if I'm doing anything wrong (or right), please let me know! I would love to hear from you. :)

And please keep in mind that I am an amateur writer, so my writing (and style) isn't perfect. My best friend beta'd this for me, but if you still find mistakes and grammatical errors (which you shouldn't, hopefully), I apologize. I'm not perfect but I do try my best.

List of characters (for this chapter): Kendall Knight, James Diamond, Mercedes Griffin, Jo Taylor.

The pairings for the whole fic are: James/Kendall; eventual Carlos/Kendall, obviously.

(Story is rated 'M' for future chapters.)

It's senior prom and Kendall Knight is locked in a bathroom stall with a handful of markers, drawing the outline of a heart in black. He does it carefully, dragging the felt tip down the side of the stall before leaning forward to join the two halves together; once they shape is closed, Kendall pulls back and surveys his work, smiling fondly at the masterpiece.

As he caps the first marker, Kendall listens to the squeak of the door as it's being opened and pulls his feet up off the floor. Voices fill the room and Kendall leans his head back against the wall, chewing on his bottom lip as he listens to his fellow classmates gossip and talk about getting lucky with their dates.

It's all boring to Kendall - the dance, the mundane chatter of his peers and the incessant drone of their voices - and he listens to the noises around him. The talk soon dies away when the urinals are flushed and Kendall breathes a sigh of relief when he hears footsteps moving away; he knows that if someone caught him in the stall, he'd be toast - but if they saw what he was doing? He would be the laughing stock of the school until the graduated, probably even until the graduating seniors went off to college, or whatever they were planning on doing.

The door swings shut and Kendall turns to look at the outline again, cocking his head to the side as he fishes around in his pocket for a red sharpie. He immediately takes the cap off with his teeth and starts to scribble on the white wall, filling in the shape with dark red ink.

All in all, it takes Kendall another half an hour to finish scribbling the heart in; two of his red sharpies dry out and he tosses them onto the floor aimlessly. They roll away, going underneath the bottom of the stall and he grabs the black pen, twisting the cap off before pressing the felt against the wall again. Without hesitation, Kendall writes KK + JD in the middle of the heart and goes over it twice, making sure it's bold enough to be seen.

When that's done, he caps the marker again and slips it into his pocket, staring at his artwork for a moment before placing his feet on the floor. Standing, Kendall groans and stretches, listening to his back pop - feeling the muscles in his back and shoulders strain against the movement. The bathroom is quiet and he opens the door, peeking his head out before stepping into the room, his boots clunking against the tiles with every step.

He steps into the hall and moves toward the gym again, body being drawn toward the sound of bad pop music and high-pitched squeals and giggles. The bass from the music pumps through the walls and the school corridors come to live with the noise, the floor vibrating beneath Kendall's feet as he walks.

Reluctantly, Kendall goes back into the gym and looks around at the decorations, snorting at the crude lightning bolts and starts cut out of cardboard. Decorations from the eighties are hanging from the ceiling; the lightning bolts and starts are taped to the wall in a pattern that suggests a teenage girl was trusted with doing the decorating.

It's ridiculous and Kendall only takes a moment to bask in just how absurd it all is - the stupid decorations and the girls dressed in trashy clothing and dresses from way before they were born, their hair high and teased. Even the guys are dressed in a trashy fashion and Kendall wonders if this was the last memory the school faculty wanted them to have: seeing their peers in short skirts and dresses, the rest in cheesy tuxedos with frilly ruffles under the collar.

Finally tearing his eyes away from the crowd and moving toward the bleachers, Kendall glances at the people sitting alone; the dateless losers and nerds that couldn't get a date but wanted to come to prom anyway. For a fleeting second, Kendall wonders if he's one of those datless losers and he laughs to himself, the sound high and bitter, as he sits down.

A few feet away, Kendall spots Jo Taylor sitting by herself, hands folded on her lap and her head bobbing awkwardly to the music. She doesn't know he's looking and Kendall takes a moment to look her over; he notices that she's wearing the same type of clothing as the rest of the girls, just less slutty. In fact, Kendall would go as far as to say that her outfit - a black dress with hot pink ruffles - was the least trashy outfit in the room; he gives her props for not following the crowd, though he always knew that Jo did her own thing.

Kendall keeps his eyes on Jo and she turns to look at him, a piece of blond hair falling across her eyes. She pushes it away and gives Kendall a hesitant smile, waving at him with the hand she used to tuck her hair behind her ear. He smiles back at Jo and studies her carefully for a moment, noticing the glittery make-up on her eyelids, and the few pieces of glitter in her hair.

Shaking his head, Kendall turns back to the dance floor and lets his gaze roam over the people dancing; he laughs at a few people grinding against one another and shakes his head again, averting his eyes. His gaze automatically locks on James and Kendall's heart races in his chest, palms going sweaty as he rubs them against his dress pants.

James Diamond is gorgeous and everything Kendall could ever want in a man; he's six-foot-one and has chestnut coloured hair that falls just above his eyes - which are hazel, green around the edges with a sunburst of brown around his pupils. In addition to being gorgeous and sexy, wrapped in lean muscles and perfectly tanned skin, James is also very popular and is the star of their high school's hockey team. Everybody wants him, man and woman alike.

From where he's sitting, Kendall can see that James is dancing with his girlfriend, Mercedes, and seeing the pair together makes his insides twist. He swallows thickly and shifts his gaze to the poorly made decorations behind them, eyes scanning along the perimeter of the gym before coming back to James and Mercedes. The way they're dancing is obscene and Kendall hopes - prays, really - that the song will change and they'll just stop. He hopes that James will look at him for the first time tonight, and gets his wish.

The music stops and James moves away from his girlfriend, gaze moving away from her and locking on Kendall, almost as if he knew the other boy was watching him. Their gazes lock for a moment and Kendall tries to smile, his teeth worrying over his bottom lip as he watches James, face burning and heart pounding in anticipation.

For a moment, James just looks at Kendall, eyes cold and expression dark, before he turns away, ignoring the other boy; it's almost as if he's denying Kendall's entire existence and something inside him breaks. When James turns his back and starts walking toward a group of his hockey buddies, Kendall stands and moves off the bleachers, turning to look at Jo once more, not surprised to find her looking back at him, smiling sadly.

Lifting his hand and waving carefully, Kendall offers Jo one last smile before turning on his heels, his boots squeaking against the waxed floor, drawing attention to himself as he makes his way out of the gym.

Tears rim Kendall's eyes and he wipes them away with the back of his hand, growling in frustration as he stomps down the hall, heading toward the exit. When he steps outside, Kendall takes a deep breath, sucking cold air into his lungs before exhaling slowly, one hand loosening the tie around his neck.

He can hear the muffled sounds of music behind him and he lets out another frustrated noise - this time, a scream. The noise fills the night air as Kendall moves to his car, pulling the door open with more force than necessary; he slides into the driver's seat, tossing his tie onto the floorboard before starting the engine.

The hum from his car calms Kendall down and soon, he's pulling out of the school parking lot, saying goodbye to the idiots in the gym; saying goodbye to James and whatever relationship they had, leaving it behind him. He drives with one hand wrapped firmly around the steering wheel and the other thrust out the open window, wiggling his fingers in the night air as if he were playing a piano.

Kendall drives home in the silence, looking at houses as he passes them, wondering how many worried parents are staying up late, waiting for their kids to return from the prom. He snorts at the idea and presses the gas pedal a little more, his car roaring as he speeds through his neighborhood, slamming on the brakes when he reaches his house.

The brakes squeal and it's the only sound Kendall hears in the night air, just under the constant purr of the engine. A smirk creeps over his lips as he pulls into the driveway and parks, shutting his car off quickly before getting out and going inside. He takes his boots off at the door and carries them up the stairs, moving quietly through the house as not to wake his parents up.

When Kendall gets to his room, he shuts the door quietly and lets his shoes clatter to the floor, barely making a thumping noise when they hit the carpet. He looks around his room at the mess on the floor and the guitars leaning against the corner and sighs, lifting a hand to rake through his messy, sandy-brown hair.

Only a couple more months, he thinks as he crosses his room, tearing off his blazer and tossing it aimlessly, listening to the fabric thump against the dresser. Next, he unbuttons his shirt halfway and pulls it out of his dress pants, lifting it over his head and tangling himself in it. It takes him a minute to disentangle himself from the fabric and when he does, Kendall throws it to the floor and undoes his pants, yanking them off quickly.

As he settles into bed, one thought rolls through Kendall's mind: just how much more of this town - and it's people - can he really take? He doesn't have time to answer himself, or ponder the question, before his eyes droop and he falls asleep, dreaming of college and becoming a famous rock star.