"Damn," I whispered to myself, "I'm never going to understand this mathematics!"

I was sitting on the couch in my aunt and uncle's den. Being an only child, and being 16-years-old, I love going to my Aunt Jane and Uncle Bob's house, in Tampa, Florida. They have five kids, Nick, BJ, Leslie and twins, Angel and Aaron. They're like my real siblings, we fight alot, but we also have our good times together. I spend most of my weekends here, at their house. I live with my parents, about a half an hour drive from their house. But my parents are always, and I mean always, fighting, and they want to get me away from the house, so they give me permission to come here. I love it here.

Today is Saturday. I came here yesterday, right after school, and put off doing my math homework until now. I hate math. I was trying to concentrate, but I kept hearing voices outside the closed door. Suddenly the door opened and I saw my cousin, who was also my best friend, BJ Carter. She just turned 17-years-old. She was talking to a guy, who stood next to her, and she didn't notice me.

"Hey Beej! How are you doing in math?" I asked her. She turned to me quickly and replied,

"Oh hey Avery, I didn't know you were in here." Then she thought for a second and answered my question, "Uh, sorry, I'm failing math."

"Oh that's ok... I'll ask Nick when he gets home later... who's this?" I asked her, motioning to the guy with her. He wasn't too tall, but taller than me, probably. He looked alot older than me and BJ. He had light curly hair, and bright blue eyes. It wasn't until then when I realized who it was. But BJ didn't give me time to correct myself.

"A, you really don't know who this is? It's-" she started, but she saw me crack a smile so she asked me, "What's so funny?"

"BJ, I know who this is... it's Rok." I replied, laughing. It was Brian Littrell (who we all called B-Rok or just Rok). He was in BJ's brother Nick's singing group, The Backstreet Boys.

"Ok, good. I thought you forgot about him." BJ laughed. I just shook my head no.

"Me, forget Rok? No way, never!" I laughed back.

"Yeah, BJ, how could she forget me?" Brian asked BJ with laugh. "Just because she hasn't seen me in 5 months, doesn't mean she's gonna forget about me." he continued to laugh.

"Yeah, and I didn't forget AJ, Howie, Kevin or-" I started, but I was cut off when I saw my favorite cousin peek his head in the doorway. "NICK!" I yelled to him.

Nick jumped into the room and ran over to me.

"Avery!" he yelled, hugging me.

"Nick, look at you, you look so different!" I told him, as I looked at him from head to toe. He had beautiful blonde hair that fell over his eyes and just past his ears. His blue eyes were glittering in the light, just the way they always did. But he looked taller, once again. He was already 6'1 and he was still growing daily. And he was wearing a different style of clothing that he didn't usually wear. Usually Nick was caught wearing baggy clothes, the 'bad-boy' look. But today he was wearing a nice pair was dark grey pants, and a matching suit jacket, with a dark green button-up shirt underneath it. I just kept looking at Nick, up and down.

"You look different too, what's with your hair?" Nick asked me with a laugh.

I had cut and layered my hair. It also used to be light blonde, and just recently I dyed it black, with my Aunt Jane. I stared at Nick and yelled,

"You don't like it? I can't believe you don't like it! I thought you'd like it!"

"No, I like it... it looks good on you! Really, it does!" Nick yelled back, taking pieces of my hair and running it through his fingers. And he was just smiling.

"You do?" I smiled back, ready to hug him again. I was so glad that he liked it.

"Yeah, you're such a beautiful young woman." he said really gentleman-like. I just grinned at him and turned away from him. I didn't want him to see me blushing.

Nick had always said that I was beautiful. But I didn't think I was. BJ was so pretty, she was a perfect blonde, with a perfect posture. I wasn't over-weight at all, but I didn't look like BJ. And I wish I did.

"So Avery..." Brian said to me, clearing me from my thoughts. I looked up at him and waited for him to continue talking, "I was thinkin', if you aren't doing anything later, you could come with me and Nick down to Tampa. We're staying at AJ's place tonight, right Nick?" Brian said, turning to Nick.

"Actually B, I'm not going to stay the night. I'll drive back home later. Aaron really wants me to stay here for the night... you know, we'll like, have a slumber party." Nick laughed, acting like a little kid. BJ rolled her eyes at her older brother.

"That's cool. But I'm gonna stay there for the night, ok?" Brian relpied.

"Ok..." Nick said, "So A, you wanna come?" Nick asked me. I thought for a second before I replied,

"Yeah, I guess I'll come... I gotta see the other guys, I miss 'em." I smiled.