Alex was up and ready by 6:40. She grabbed a bagel, told her mom goodbye and went to sit on the porch to wait for Nick. She pulled her jacket on over her jeans and mini-T. It was a bit chilly for the mid-March morning. She looked thru her bag to be sure she had everything. She had all kinds of stuff jammed in there because she had no idea what the day held. When she saw the green truck turn the corner she smiled, and walked down the driveway. Nick pulled up, and reached across to open the door. Alex climbed in and gave him a million dollar smile, "Good morning, how's the head?"
Nick laughed, "I have a knot."
"Oh you do not, he didn't hit you that hard did he?"
"Yes he did, you can feel it." Nick said keeping his eyes on where he was going.
Alex reached over and sure enough he had a knot on the back of his head, "I'm sorry, but that's what you get for scarring me. I about wet my pants!"
Nick laughed at the image he got in his head. Alex who knew what he was doing wacked him up side the head, "oh shut up!"
Alex crossed her arms, "So, what are you guys doing today?"
"Well, we have a photo shoot-who knows how long that will take, and then we have the press conference at 1:00 and that should take 30 minutes to an hour."
"Okay."
"You won't be bored, Kiki and Andrea will put you to work."
"Who?"
"Kiki and Andrea, make-up and wardrobe. I told them you would be their assistant for the day."
"Hey, you didn't tell I had to work." Alex said jokingly
Nick grinned, "I know."
******************************************************
Alex stood and watched Andrea as she did A.j.'s make-up and then started on Nick's. Nick continued to make faces at her in the mirror even after Andrea told him to stop.
Andrea turned Nick's head sideways and then stopped, "What did you do to your head?!? You have a huge knot."
"Well, I was never good with math..." with that Nick and Alex cracked up laughing. Nick was laughing so much his eyes started to water.
Andrea just looked at them, "What are you to talking about?"
Once the settled down, Nick told Andrea the story as she continued with his make-up and started gelling his hair. By the time he was done he had Andrea in tears as well.
Once Nick was done Kevin inhabited the chair. Nick and Alex walked out to were the photographer was setting up.
"Are you my first single?" He asked in a funny yankee accent
Nick looked around, "Um, well, I guess."
The photographer set up the lights and directed Nick to were he had to stand. Alex stood next to the photographer, as he told Nick how to stand, and made faces.
Nick laughed, "Stop it!"
"I'm having fun!" Alex protested and made a fish face.
The photographer, whose name was Christian, told Nick to wait a minute while he re-loaded. "Oh, scratch that, I have a few left." He looked at Alex, "I have a few extra left, would you like to get in them?"
Alex looked at him as if he had just spit a monkey at her, "Me?"
"Yes, you."
"I.."
Before she could protest Nick was pulling her forwards, "Come on."
Christian directed Alex to stand in front of Nick, "Now, put your arms around her, now smile." He began clicking away as Nick and Alex laughed and smiled at the camera.
"Oh wait! I have a great idea." Nick said. He bent over and picked Alex up over his shoulder. She squealed as she was pulled up into the air. Nick turned sideways and grinned at the camera as Alex looked up laughing.
"That's a roll," Christian finally called. "You two look good together, very photogenic."
Nick set Alex down and they turned around to see almost everyone staring at them. They looked at each other and shrugged.
***************************
"Here, help me do touch ups." Andrea said. She handed some stuff and Alex made her way over to the guys. Andrea was touching up Kevin while Kiki pulled on his shirt, while Alex tried to touch up A.J.
"Stop scrunching up your nose!" She said after he had done it 3 times
"Sorry."
When she was finished with A.J, she moved on to Nick.
"I'm sorry, I don't need a touch up because I was born gorgeous." He said in a high voice
"Oh really? So you want that big shiny spot in the middle of your head to be in the picture?
Nick rubbed his chin like he was thinking, "Well, if you insist."
Alex touched him up and stepped out of the picture with Andrea.
*****************************************************
Alex sat next to Denise McLean, A.J.'s mother, and watched as the guys politely answered the report's questions. The press conference had lasted 45 minutes already and you could tell that they were ready to end it, but the questions kept coming. Finally Kevin told them that the next question would have to be the last.
******************************************************
Alex climbed up in the truck and sighed, "Well, that was a lot of fun."
Nick smiled at her, "I'm hungry."
Alex just looked at him, and then started to dig in her bag. "Ahah! I believe these are your favorite." She said handing him a package of Swiss cake rolls.
Nick grabbed the package she held out to him, "Ahh!! I luv these things!"
"So you've told me."
"You know me to well already."
*******************************A WEEK LATER
Alex walked down the driveway to the mailbox and pulled out the huge stack of mail. She flipped thru it as she walked back up to the house and stopped when she saw a package with her name on it. She had stopped in front of the door, and opened the package. Out slid a handful of pictures of her and Nick. She looked at the top one, Nick had his arms wrapped around her and was looking down at her and she was smiling up at him. In the next one she was on his back and her arms were wrapped around his neck. She shuffled thru several more smiling at each of them until she came to the last one. Nick had Alex hanging over his shoulder, he was turned sideways grinning at the camera, and Alex was grinning thru the mass of brown curls. It was a cute picture and it made her laugh. She walked in the house left the rest of the mail on the counter and headed up stairs, still looking thru the pictures. The phone rang and she picked it up, "Hello?"
"Hey."
"Hey man, what's up? I just got the pictures."
"Really? I thought they turned out great for being goof of pictures. I put one in my wallet, one in my truck and the rest are on my wall."
Alex laughed, "oh great. I think I'll put one in my locker, and the rest will go on my wall."
They continued to talk as Alex tacked the pictures up.
