The stairs creaked. Water can be heard dripping from the faucet into the sink. Christina sat on her bed in her new temporary home. Nick can be heard once in a while with his cheering or his arguing to himself while playing Nintendo. Christina sighed. This was nothing she had dreamt of. Sure she was shy but aren’t the guys supposed to make the first moves? Nick had shown no friendliness or any attempt to make friends with her… maybe she’s embarrassed him too much on the basketball court earlier that day? Christina gathered up her courage and decided to go downstairs and try to get Nick talking… after all, she won’t be here for long and it would be a big waste to go back to school without making people jealous by saying she knew Nick Carter. Christina walked down the stairs slowly and carefully without making any big moves or Nick might hear her. She peered over the wooden railings, Nick could be seen concentrating hard on his video game, a coke was spilt over onto the green colored carpet. A packet of half-eaten potato chips lay on the couch beside Nick. “I guess the rumor about him being messy is true… Messy Marvin… good name…” Christina muttered under her breath as she approached the room.
“Hey.” She said as softly as she could. To her surprise, it freaked Nick out. He jumped up, and on the TV screen read, ‘YOU LOST’.
“Damn it! I was so close to winning!” Nick cursed. He turned around to face Christina, “What do you want?” He said harshly. Christina suddenly looked frightened.
“I’m sorry.” She stared at the ground.
“No,” Nick sat down on the couch, wanting to take back what he had said, “I’m the one that should be sorry.”
“Well, I meant on the basketball court earlier today. I didn’t mean to embarrass you…” Christina drifted off.
“Well, you were pretty good… nearly as good as me…”
“Nearly as good as you were? Who do you think you are? Michael Jordan or something?” Christina asked unbelievably. She immediately regretted saying that as soon as she saw the hurt expression Nick wore on his face. “I’m sorry, I was just joking. You are good at basketball… and I guess I was unfair… rematch? Someday, anyway?
“Sure!” Nick’s eyes lit up like a Christmas tree. “I guess we didn’t have a good start… so, why don’t I introduce myself again? More nice this time.”
“I don’t see why not. Hi, my name’s Christina but you can call me Chris or CNN.”
“No, no, no! You’ve got it all wrong.” Nick waved his hands in the air, “I meant that I messed up on the introducing bit. Let me try this again, hi my name’s Nick Carter.” He stuck out his hand for a shake.
Christina shook it, “Friends?”
“Friends!”
* * *
Nick was playing Nintendo again, only this time, with Christina. Both were concentrating hard and staring at the TV screen and their eyes looked as if they were about to pop out.
“Ha, ha! You lost again, to me. But it’s hard not to since I’m the master of Nintendo…”
“You? I’ve only started to play this game a few hours ago so how am I supposed to–” She was interrupted by the ringing of the phone.
“I’ll get it!” Nick shouted.
“Nick! No wait, Nick! The phone’s right here!” She held it up from its position wedged between the cushions but it was too late, Nick had already gone. “Oh well, guess I’ll answer it.” She clicked the ‘talk’ button and held the receiver up to her ear. “Hello?”
“Hey, you CNN?” A voice asked on the other end.
“Yeah it’s me.” Christina said uncertainly. “Who’s this may I ask?”
“Oh, it’s me, Aaron, Nick’s brother. My mom told me about ya!”
“Really…” Christina said not sure how to respond.
“There’s the phone! Why didn’t you tell me it was right here? I ran all the way to the kitchen! Who’s on the phone anyway?” Nick asked curiously, “You didn’t tell anyone my phone number, did you?” He raised an eyebrow.
“Of course not! Do I look dumb to you? It’s your brother you idiot. And I told you that it was right here but you decided to run off to the kitchen, which I’ll say isn’t far away, but you make it sound like you just ran 3 miles to get there.” She handed him the phone.
“Okay… don’t have to bite my head off… Hey whassup bro? Huh? Mom? Okay… so I’ll see you guys tonight for dinner. Right… oh her.” He glanced at Christina strangely, who at the time was shoving her ear against the phone trying to make out what Aaron was saying. He shuffled away a little. “What about her? Cool? Come on Aaron! You know you don’t mean it! You only heard her speak, like, only three sentences. Good comebacks? I don’t think so.” Nick laughed. “What she looks like? You’ll see when we get there. Yeah okay, bye.” He rested the phone on the cushion.
“So. What’s up?”
“You mean you didn’t hear after you were practically on me trying to tune into our conversation?” Nick teased.
“You idiot!” Christina threw a cushion at him while laughing at the same time. “No really, what did he want?”
“Okay, okay. My mom wants us over for dinner tonight. You’ve met her before haven’t you?”
“Yeah… I think so.” Christina said thoughtfully, she put a finger on the corner of her mouth, “Once when I was three or something like that.”
“Yeah well, dad’s gonna be there as well…”
“No I haven’t met him before.”
“That’s not what I was gonna say.”
“Well what were you going to say then?”
“Uh…” Nick said unsure what to say, “I forgot.”
“Ha, ha Nick. What a wonderful memory you have.” Christina rolled her eyes, “What am I gonna wear?” She asked standing up.
“Yeah! That’s it!”
“What’s it?”
“I just remembered what I was going to say.”
“Well… what?”
“What, what?”
“What were you going to tell me?” Christina threw her hands up in exasperation.
“Oh. Oh!” Nick snapped his fingers.
“We have a landing on Planet Earth here.”
“Hey!” He hit her arm playfully, “Anyway I just wanted to tell you to dress nicely. Like… well… not casually and no jeans, okay?”
“Uh… then we have a problem.”
“What problem?” Nick asked, uninterested as he examined the dirt in his nails.
“I uh, I didn’t bring anything fancy.”
“That’s no problem.” He glanced at his watch, “Quick, if we hurry, we might be able to buy you something and get to my mom’s place in time.”
* * *
“May I help you miss?” A plump woman with thick glasses asked. Her hair was tied up into a bun and there was an ancient accent in her voice.
“Yeah, I’m looking for something not too fancy and not too casual that I can wear to dinner.” She said quietly, Nick was standing behind her, “Preferably pants.”
“No, preferably a dress or a skirt… short.”
“What?” Christina looked up at Nick incredulously, “It’s me wearing this, not you Nick. You can try all the dresses and skirts in here if you want to but I’m not.”
“Don’t listen to her. She’s my sister and my mom told me to dress her up nicely.” Nick said to the women ignoring Christina completely. The woman nodded knowingly.
“Okay…” The woman eyed the two strangely, “Wait a moment.”
“Why did you call me your sister?” Christina hissed. “Is that all I am to him? A sister?” Christina thought, a bit upset at that phrase.
“Shhh. She’s coming back.” Nick put a finger on her lips.
“Here you go.” The woman held up a red short-sleeved shirt and a black miniskirt. “This size should fit you nicely.” She led the way into the dressing room and opened one of the doors, which revealed an empty room with a mirror and a few hooks. “Try them on.” She hung the clothes on the hooks and closed the door.
“Hurry up! We don’t have all day you know.” Nick tapped his foot impatiently after waiting at the door for a few minutes.
“Okay, okay…” Christina opened the door slowly, glancing down at herself feeling uncomfortable that she was wearing a skirt.
“My, my…” the woman walked out from behind the door, “You look beautiful!”
“I look ugly.” Christina crossed her arms over her chest with a clearly disturbed expression on her face.
“Ask your brother then.” The woman said cheerfully. She looked over at Nick. Nick was speechless, just this morning she looked like a tomboy but now she looked really charming even without a perfect figure.
“Aaron’s gonna love her!” Nick thought happily.
“We’ll take it.” Nick said. He read the price tag and reached into his pocket. “$250, no change.” He grabbed Christina and her clothes and headed out of the store.
“Wait! This is too much!” The woman called, but they had already disappeared in the crowd.