As we all walked down the street, I guess we looked kinda foolish, but we were half-walking half-jogging, and we were laughing and yelling like the best of friends. And there was thirteen of us. Oh well, we were having fun. When we reached the nearby park, Brian, who had the two basketballs, yelled,

"Ok... so who's all playing?"

All us girls looked at each other and let out slight laughs. We couldn't play basketball against the Backstreet Boys, they'd kick our asses!

"I'm gonna sit out... I'm a little tired." Howie Dorough announced. Nick let out a loud laugh.

"Sure, Howie, we all know you suck at b-ball, and that's why you never want to play." Nick bugged him. He just smiled and sat down on the park bench.

"I'm in... and Nick... and Kev, you gonna play?" AJ asked, looking at Kevin Richardson.

"I guess." he replied, with a hint of sadness in his voice, and of course, I wondered why.

"Alright, that's four..." Brian started, "you guys play ball?" he asked our dancers.

"I do... my brothers suck..." Luke laughed.

"We don't suck, we just don't like it." Tony said quickly.

"Yeah..." Fox agreed still smiling at me. Damn, he was hot.

"Alright, we have five. One more and we can play 3-on-3." Nick said.

"Fay, you're the only one of us dressed decently enough to play." Joey giggled. All the other four wore skirts and heels. I just wore track pants and a tank top.

"Fine... I'll play. You'll have to teach me the rules though." I replied. All of the guys laughed at me. I just shrugged.

Joey, Dare, Marce and Cher all sat on the other benches and watched with amusement as I jumped around and hung off the guys. I didn't have a clue what I was doing, and I knew I was making a fool of myself. After about ten minutes, Nick stopped and said to me,

"Hey, Fay, although it looks like you're having fun, do you want to go over there so I can teach you how to shoot?" He was pointing to an hoop about twenty feet away.

I was a little shocked, you know, Nick Carter wanted to teach me how to shoot a basketball. But I was also a little excited. After looking at the girls for approval, I replied,

"Sure..."

"Great, let's go." he finished and grabbed the extra ball.

We walked away from the group, although when I looked back, I realized we weren't going very far. I grinned at Dare, who smiled back and gave me a thumbs up sign jokingly. When we were infront of the other net, Nick handed me the ball and stood behind me.

"Alright... put you left hand here, on the side of the ball, and your right hand on the back." he said, placing my hands where they should go.

"Um, this feels kinda uncomfortable." I giggled.

"That's alright, just shoot." he laughed.

I laughed and threw the ball into the air. I mean, it was pathetic, but it was closer than before.

"Hey, maybe this strategy might work." I smiled at him. He was gorgeous. His blonde hair was kinda spiked up, and his blue eyes were driving me crazy. I looked away.

"Yeah, it will after a while. Try again." he smiled back, looking me right in the eyes.

I tried again, doing the same thing. The ball hit the rim and bounced back to us.

"Oh well, I'm useless. Thanks for trying." I laughed.

"Ha, you're not useless." he said. "You just need practise. Hopefully we can come play basketball again sometime." he told me. I nodded.

The two of us fooled around for awhile. I tried desperately to block his shots, but he was way taller and stronger than me. We were having so much fun, I hated to look at my watch. But I did. It was just after 4pm. How could it be 4pm already? Time flies when you're having fun, I guess.

"Man, it's after 4pm. We should probably get going." I said to Nick, a little sad. He returned the look that I gave him. He didn't want me to leave.

"Really? That sucks, man... what are you doing later?" he asked.

"I believe we're going out to eat with our managers, and then we've got the show at 8pm." I said.

"Oh yeah... I guess I'll see ya at the show." he smiled faintly. I nodded.

Then we walked back over to the group. All the girls were up and running around. Howie, Kevin and Fox were the only ones sitting on the benches. I went over and stood infront of Fox. He didn't even look up.

"You alright?" I whispered. He looked up slowly.

"Oh yeah, I'm good, I'm fine." he smiled. But it was a fake smile, I could tell. I knew him really well. Too well, probably.

"You sure?" I asked.

"I said I'm fine." he replied a little harshly.

"Ok..." I said and walked over to the girls.

"Girls, it's after 4pm, do you think we should go?" I asked him.

"We should..." Joey laughed, "but we don't want to."

"Well we don't want to get you girls in trouble. C'mon, we'll walk you back." AJ smiled.

"Good, we'd get lost if we went alone." Dare laughed, and we all agreed.

The walk home was fun. Nick kept trying to keep up with us girls. We were almost running. I glanced back out of the corner of my eye and saw Tony and Luke in a conversation with Howie and Brian. Kevin was walking alone, a little behind them, and Fox was walking even further behind him. I sighed. I hated to see Fox like that, and I didn't know why. I stopped and waited until he was next to me. I tugged on his arm, to stop him from walking.

"What?" he asked rudely. He never acted like that around me. Hell, he never acted like at all.

"Foxy... tell me what's up?" I asked him. "Why do you look so sad?"

"Oh come on, Fay, like you don't know." he said coldly. I was a little shocked.

"What?" I asked. "How would I know?"

"Don't tell me that you didn't know I liked you." he repiled, not looking at me.

"Oh... Foxy..." I said, not really knowing how to respond.

"Don't call me that, Fay, just stop it. Go up there and leave me alone." he ordered.

"No, I won't. Not until you tell me what is really wrong." I answered. He looked up.

"Fine... I like you, you have to know that by now. I've always liked you." he said.

"And?" I asked.

"And... you've been holding my hands and smiling at me and stuff, so I thought you liked me too." he said. He sounded like a shy 2nd grader with a crush.

"I do like you, Fox... really." I told him.

"Then why are you flirting with Nick so much? Did he already ask you out?" he blurted out.

"Fox! I was never flirting with Nick, he was showing me how to shoot a basketball." I told him.

"C'mon, Fay, I know you. You were flirting, and he was flirting back. You like him... and he's big and rich and famous... and I'm just your back-up dancer." he said sadly.

"Fox, listen to me, ok? You are my back-up dancer, and you have more talent than most famous people do." I told him.

"Whatever, Fay. Can you leave me alone?" he asked.

"I don't want-" I started.

"Fay, please. I don't want to get mad at you." he interrupted.

"Fine." I replied and ran back up to the girls at the front.