CHAPTER 8
(Day of the parade and concert...4 hours before)
Kaitlyn got into her car and rushed to get the car started. She had only ten minutes to get to the park building. She woke up late because she didn't get home until midnight last night since she was making sure everything was set for today.
*I cannot believe I ignored my alarm! Mr. Jening is going to kill me!*
Just as Kaitlyn made it onto interstate 4 she ran into bumper to bumper traffic.
____________________________________________________
(Disneyland main building)
"Where the hell is she?" Justin said impatiently.
"Don't worry about it man. She'll be here." Chris said reassuringly to Justin as he patted him on the shoulder.
Justin looked over at Chris and Chris knew that his words of comfort didn't seem to be working. "She HAS to be here. If she's late then Lou will never give her a job on tour with us."
(JUSTIN)
*C'mon Kaitlyn, please get here on time.*
JC and Lance walked back from the front entrance and shook their heads at Justin to signal that there was still no sign of Kaitlyn. Lou came up to them and they all could see the obvious displease in his face.
"Look guys," Lou said as gently as he could,"if Kaitlyn doesn't show up in the next five minutes, I'm going to have to offer someone else that job. Lucky for you, I'm not as frustrated as Mr. Jening. Bald-bad-boss over there. But then again I agree with his anger." Lou said with a small smile and walked back over to the group of security guards.
Justin became even more frustrated and headed to the door of the office. Once he flung the door open he saw Kaitlyn with a very tired look on her face.
"KAITLYN! Finally, your here!" Justin sighed and gave her huge hug.
Kaitlyn was tired as is and Justin's strong arms around her shoulders this early in the morning was too much. "JUSTIN! Oxygen-becoming a-a-problem!" Kaitlyn muttered into his ear.
"Of course, sorry. Well, you better get those buns into that office." Justin said with a smirk.
Kaitlyn punched in the arm and walked towards the doors. Once she saw the other guys she signaled she had no time to say 'hello'. She reached for the door knob when Lou appeared at the door. He gave her a sort of dissapointed look, but still gave her a reassuring pat on the back. Before Lou closed the door behind him, Kaitlyn looked back at the five solemn faces.
____________________________________________________
Turned out that she wasn't really late, just that she wasn't there as early as everyone else was. She walked out of the conference room and walked hesitantly over to the guys. They had been sitting and chatting while things were set.
"I survived!!" Kaitlyn sarcastically said as she stood in front of them. They immediately turned their heads to her and jumped out of their seats once they saw her smile. The first to hug her was JC, and the last was Justin. She could feel tears build in her eyes, but she fought them from falling onto her cheek. She felt so special to be such a big concern to them.
"Hey, don't cry chica! You didn't get fired at the last minute, right?" Joey said jokingly.
"NO! But I thought I might have for a minute there. But Lou came to my rescue." She said to the surprised group.
Lou came up behind the group and put an arm around Kaitlyn. At first she was startled until she turned to see Lou's comforting smile. "That's right, and don't forget it!"
The group began to laugh and giggle at Lou's sarcasm. They all huddled in a large group and Lou began a little speech:
I have seen you guys practice, practice, practice. I know you have cause I've had a headache every time that damn good music of yours came on! So I want you to think of this is as pay off, cause it is. You guys deserve it, let's make the competition sweat!
____________________________________________________
(Parade time)
Kaitlyn stood behind the gates and talked continuously on the radio to make sure the parade line was clear. She went through every float and every heavily costumed worker and checked everything out with maintenance and engineering. She got to the float which had Lance, Chris, and Joey on it and she began to laugh at the site of Joey's smirk at her while he flirted with one of the girls on the float. She eyed Lance and looked at his very annoyed face. So she decided to check things up with Chris instead.
"So how you guys holding up there?" She said with a huge smile.
Chris bent over the railing and called back to her,"same as always, Lance has a headache, Joey's getting as many phone numbers as he can, and I'm just peachy!"
Kaitlyn couldn't help but laugh. She waved to them one last time and walked to the next float which had Justin and JC on it, they had been arguing over who was going to stand on which side.
"I want to be on this side man!" Justin whined.
"Well, don't bug me, look there's Kaitlyn, ask her where we're suppose to stand!" JC snapped.
"Hey sweetness! Help us out here, where should we stand?" Justin asked confused.
Kaitlyn began to laugh even harder than before at Justin's expression. she composed herself as much as she could and answered, "front and center cutie! You too JC!"
JC evily eyed Justin and Justin just gave him a playful puppy dog face. JC just smiled at her and turned his back to Justin.
(Kaitlyn)
*How could anyone not love these guys?*
Kaitlyn gave JC the thumbs up and headed to the front of the gate and waved once more at Lance, Chris, and Joey. She headed back to the gate and to where Lou was already standing.
Kaitlyn started to feel the butterflies start to fly in her stomach. She nervously looked over at Lou and he had seen the worry written all over her face. "Everything will be great Kaitlyn, you've done a fine job! Now it's all up to those five guys to look good and have fun."
Kaitlyn couldn't help but smile, "oh I KNOW that they'll look good and have a TON of FUN, FUN, FUN up there. It's what they do best!"
Kaitlyn radioed for the announcement to come up on all the speakers that the parade was about to start. She could hear the screams grow louder and louder as the drum roll came on and even louder when their song "I Want You Back" came on. She waved and blew kisses as their floats headed out to the crowded sidewalks of the parade route. She had Mike, and House walking on the sides of Lance, Joey, and Chris' float. Dee and Buzz were by Justin and JC's float. She walked behind the floats and next had most of the park security in the front of the parade. She could see them make silly faces, laugh and smile from ear to ear.
Chris was as immature as ever as he jumped up and down to the music while Lance casually waved to everyone. Joey on the other hand used his flirty charm to make the teenage girls scream louder. JC was going crazy dancing and justin waved and made the silliest but cutest faces while he waved to everyone. All in all everything went smoothly, which still didn't ease Kaitlyn's spinning head. She had an even bigger job to do for tonight, the concert.
____________________________________________________
(End of the parade, backstage before the concert)
"Did you see that Kaitlyn?" Justin said excitedly.
"Did I see it? Did I SEE it? Of course I did. They loved you guys!" Kaitlyn said hugging Justin. His hug was so powerful she almost fell to the ground. She saw the excitement in all of them and she was just as excited herself.
The five guys hugged her and gave her kisses on the cheek and headed off to sound check. Lou came up to her and gave her an even bigger hug then Justin had.
"You did a great job Kaitlyn, don't worry about it." Lou said comforting.
"Yeah, but Lou, they've been working so hard for all of this and I just want to make sure I've done my part right. For them!" She said concerned.
Lou turned Kaitlyn's body by her shoulders and looked her in the eye,"listen to me Kaitlyn, your right, they have worked hard, but so have you. You've done them right! That's why I want to offer you a job on tour with us. What do you say?"
Kaitlyn's eyes widened at Lou's words. She couldn't hold back her excitement. She hugged Lou tightly and answered, "are you kidding? Of course I would!"
Lou looked at her with a big smile, "don't worry about anything Kaitlyn. You'll be the manager in charge of concert arrangements. You deserve it!"
"If your saying I deserve more work then ok. But if your saying I deserve to be on tour with you guys, then I owe you so much!" Kaitlyn said with a smile that went from ear to ear. She couldn't wait to tell the guys.
____________________________________________________
(Sound check)
Kaitlyn felt more at ease to know that the area where the stage was had been taped off. The guys were almost done by the time she got there. She had been going over things with Lou and security for the concert.
(Kaitlyn)
*Now how could I surprise them with my new job? I know, I have a great way to fool them!*
"Hey guys! How's everything here?" She asked.
"Great, we're practically done. Except for our last song." Lance answered.
"Which song?"
"My favorite....God Must of Spent." Justin answered happily.
"You know what? I haven't heard that song yet. Much less your whole album!" She said trying to remember if she might have but maybe just forgotten.
"Then you better stick around chica!" Joey said with a wink.
"I don't have a choice do I?" Kaitlyn said giggling.
The music came on and Justin started singing. She automatically fell in love with the song. Just the sound of all of their voices flowing with such beautiful harmony made her cry. The lyrics didn't help that much. The lyrics moved her so much that she had tears running down the sides of her cheeks.
(Kaitlyn)
*Words that beautiful should be illegal for those angelic voices to sing!!*
____________________________________________________
(Concert time)
The area around the stage was packed for about a mile. The guys were backstage still dressing and getting ready. The butterflies in Kaitlyn's stomach from the parade were back. She could feel the tension in her start to build. The guys were already five minutes late and the crowd was getting anxious. but she couldn't blame them.
Kaitlyn ran to the dressing area and saw that they were already dressed. Justin was fixing his hair, Chris was fixing his dreds, Joey was unbuttoning one of the buttons on his shirt, Lance was fixing his pants, and JC was sitting down on one of the chairs just watching them.
"What is this? You guys look fine! And Joey, button that thing up! There are kids at this concert!" She said annoyed.
"Alright, alright. I'm done." Justin said as he passed her by on his way to the stage.
The lights were out and the spotlights flashed on the five of them appeared. The crowd started to scream so loud that Kaitlyn's ears practically popped. But they did all the dancing they had to and jumped higher than Michael Jordan. They were having the time of their lives! She just knew being on the road with them would be exciting!
* * * * *