Nick opened the door and let AJ into the hotel room. "Hey, Nicky, where were you and Brian all day yesterday? I couldn't find ya." AJ said as he entered the room.
Rubbing the back of his head, Nick answered, "Ah, out checking the sites." Nick hoped that AJ would leave it at that.
"Oh."
AJ saw a dark green beanie baby on the floor and bent over and picked it up. At that moment, Nick realized that he had not been dreaming and that he should destroy the possessed beanie.
"Ya know what, Nicky?" AJ said as he played with the beanie.
"What's that, AJ?" Nick replied, watching AJ play with the toy.
"I have such a hard time figuring out how women tick, why their moods change so much. I wish for one day I could understand women from their angle." Nick noticed that AJ was now holding onto the beanie tightly.
Brian and Nick grinned at each other.
"Ya know, that could happen, AJ." Nick laughed.
"What the hell are you laughing at?" AJ demanded from Nick.
"Oh, it's nothing, really, forget it." Nick tried to regain his composure, wiping the tears from his eyes.
Shaking the beanie at Nick, AJ retorted, "You know, you are really weird Nick. I'm gonna go have breakfast, are you guys coming or not?"
As Aj turned to leave the room, he was still holding onto the green beanie baby. Nick reached in and pulled the beanie out of AJ's hands. He wanted to make sure it got destroyed before something else happened to someone.
Nick and Brian couldn't help but watch AJ, looking for signs of changes. At breakfast, AJ got annoyed.
"You tow have some sort of staring problem?" AJ asked, peering over his glasses.
Nick looked quickly away, "Um, no."
They finished breakfast quickly and headed for the concert venue. They had to do sound check and a few quick practices.
When they arrived at the auditorium, they found Kevin and Howie sitting onstage, waiting for them. Kevin did not look happy.
Looking at his watch, Kevin observed, "Really nice guys, you're 45 minutes late."
"Geesh, what a crab! Hey, it was AJ's fault, he wanted another cup of coffee." Nick defended.
"Oh, yeah, as if your 5th cup was forced down you, Nick." AJ countered.
"Alright you two, knock it off. Let's get Tommy up here so we can get this going, okay?" Howie asked, still looking down at sheet music.
The band took their places onstage and started playing That's the Way I Like it. The guys practiced singing and dancing with the dancers. Everything was flowing smoothly until one segment that AJ was singing. It was as if his voice was changing. Brian and Nick threw sideways glances at each other, both thinking the same thing about AJ and the beanie baby.
Brian walked over towards Nick between songs. "If this happens before showtime, we're screwed."
Nick nodded in agreement. AJ seemed to be puzzled that his singing voice was starting to betray him and he kept putting his hand to his throat.
"I think I might be coming down with a cold." AJ stated after rehearsal. "I'm gonna drink some honey tea and take a nap, see you in a few hours."
Brian and Nick watched AJ walk down the hall and disappear into his room.
"Well buddy, what do you think's gonna happen?" Brian quizzed Nick.
Nick shrugged his shoulders. "I don't know, I was asleep when it happened to me, and I'm not sure if AJ used the same type of phrase that I did. I guess we'll just have to wait and see."
AJ woke up from his nap when the phone rang, the courtesy call coming in to wake him up.
"um-hmm?" AJ mumbled into the phone, still half asleep.
"It's 3:30." The cheery voice stated on the other end of the phone.
AJ hung the telephone up without saying thank you.
Stretching, AJ slowly rose out of the bed and wandered into the bathroom. Suddenly, a scream came out of the room.
It was when AJ was going to relieve himself that he realized that something was seriously wrong with him. He spun around and looked into the mirror. Instead of being greeted by his own familiar face, AJ was looking back at a woman's face. A woman with long, bright yellow hair!
"Holy shit." AJ said as he looked at his reflection. Hearing a female voice escape his lips, he clamped his hand over his mouth. His eyes surveyed his fingers, noticing that the fingernails were long and polished. "Oh, my, god."
AJ stepped away from the mirror. Taking a deep breath, he pulled the loose shirt away from his chest and looked down inside.
"What the hell?" AJ was puzzled. Why was he looking at a female's body? How did he change into a woman? What was he going to do?
Before AJ could decide on what he would do, a knock on the door shattered his thoughts. AJ walked up to the door and looked out the peep hole. All he could see was a blue eye - Nick's blue eye!
AJ struggled to unchain the door and was hindered by his long fingernails. He ended up breaking one in the process. Finally he got the door open.
Nick took one look at AJ and immediately burst into fits of laughter.
"You know this is AJ and you find it funny?" AJ scoffed, unamused.
"Oh god, you sure make one ugly girl," Nick observed, still laughing.
AJ could feel the tears welling up in his eyes, it was like his emotions were going out of control.
"Damn you Nick." He folded his arms across his chest and then removed them quickly, uncomfortable with the changes in his body.
"What? I think it's damn funny and I didn't do anything to you, AJ," Nick replied.
"Oh, you think this is funny?" AJ asked, pointing towards his breasts. "And I broke a fingernail answering the door."
"Relax, it's only temporary, you should be back to normal by tomorrow morning." Nick tried to get AJ to calm down.
"How can you be so sure?" AJ replied and winced as he felt a twinge of a crampy feeling in his lower abdomen.
"AJ, remember the other day when you were at the elevator and this big dude stood next to you, and when I say big, I mean extremely fat?" Nick recounted.
AJ thought for a minute and then recalled the event. "Yeah, your point being?"
"That big, fat dude was me," Nick stated. "That green beanie baby has some sort of spell on it or something. You wish for anything while you hold it and boom, it happens to you."
"You mean to tell me you wished you were fat?" AJ asked, puzzled.
Nick shook his head. "Um, no, it was more like I wished for a day where I could go out in public and not be recognized. I got my wihs, but it was a weird way that it was granted. So, this morning when you were playing with that beanie, you told me you wished you could see what makes girls tick from their perspective. Wish granted."
"Oh, god, I did do that, didn't I?" AJ asked.
Nick nodded. "The question now is how long is this gonna last." Nick thought for a second and then snapped his fingers. "Hey, you said for a day, didn't you?"
AJ felt tears filling his eyes. 'Dammit, why do I feel like I'm gonna cry?' AJ thought to himself.
"Nick, I honestly don't remember," AJ answered tearfully.
"God, AJ, calm down, don't start crying on me," Nick replied, puzzled.
"I can't help it, it's gotta have something to do with this body change thing like hormones or something."
"Well, as much as I hate to say it, we're gonna have to cancel tonight's show, unless we just do it without you." Nick stated, walking towards the phone. He picked up the receiver and called Brian.
While Nick started dialing the phone, AJ walked into the bathroom.
"Hey, Bri, it's happened......yeah, he's pretty upset....yeah, we're gonna have to go on without him, it's too late in the day to cancel the show....yeah, come down here." Suddenly Nick heard AJ cry out from the bathroom.
"Oh my god, oh my god!"
"Um, have Lee come down too." Nick said quickly and hung the phone up. "AJ, are you okay?"
"No." AJ replied sobbing from the other side of the door.
"What's wrong?" Nick asked, putting his hand on the closed door.
AJ hesitated and then quietly stated, "I don't want to talk about it."
"I can't help you if you don't tell me what's wrong." Nick pleaded with AJ.
"I said I don't want to talk about it!" AJ snapped back at Nick.
Nick turned away from the bathroom door and walked over towards the king sized bed and sat down on the edge, waiting for Brian and Lee to come in. A thought entered his head and he smiled in spite of AJ's dilemma. Nick was figuring that AJ had a good case of PMS.
The knock on the hotel door, brought Nick back into focus of the severity of the situation. He jumped up and answered the door after checking to see who it was.
"I heard AJ scream, what's wrong?" A concerned Brian asked.
Nick shrugged his shoulders. "I dunno, he won't tell me."
Leighanne walked over to the bathroom door. She softly knocked on it. "AJ, it's Lee, can I come in?"
The group standing outside the bathroom door could hear AJ's sobs.
"No, I don't want you to see me like this," AJ replied tearfully.
"AJ, you have to let Lee help you, me and Nick have no idea how to help you, let Lee in." Brian tried to reason with AJ.
After a few moments, they could head the distinct pinging sound of the door being unlocked.
"Alright, AJ, I'm going to come in, okay." Lee said as she slowly opened the door.
Nick and Brian resigned themselves to waiting it out, each sitting on a bed, facing each other, straining to hear what was being said or going on in the bathroom.
After about twenty minutes, Lee came out and sat down next to Brian.
"He's taking a hot bath right now," Lee said quietly.
Nick couldn't let it go at that. "And?"
"And what?" Lee asked.
"And so what was wrong with AJ?" Nick quizzed, looking into her eyes to see any hint of what was going on.
"Well, it's a delicate, female thing." Lee tried to phrase what happened to AJ in a discrete manner.
Nick started laughing. "Oh my god! He's having a period?"
Brian didn't say anything, but the smirk on his face was obvious.
"Hey guys, this is serious, you think you'd be cool if something like that happened to you?" Lee reprimanded Brian and Nick.
Nick continued to laugh and Brian tried desperately to wipe the smile from his face, without success.
Lee stood up, smoothing her blue blouse out. "I have to go downstairs to the pharmacy for him, will you two please behave yourselves or should I...nope, that's it!"
Nick suddenly stopped laughing. "What's it?"
"I need both you and Brian to go downstairs to the hotel gift shop." Lee started out.
"Oh, oh-h-h-h-h, n-o-o-o-o-o," Nick disagreed.
Lee pulled Nick off the bed and then Brian. "Oh yes! Since you two find it so damn funny about AJ's predicament, I need you two to go downstairs and buy a box of pads."
Nick hung his head. "What if I say I'm sorry?"
"It ain't gonna fly, Carter! You and Brian need a lesson in humility. Now, go and don't get any idea of palming the job off on Jay or Eric, okay?" Lee pushed Brian on the back towards the door.
Nick and Brian walked slowly down the hall towards the service elevator. Neither one speaking at first, both sulking.
"You know he's gonna pay for this royally---" Nick started to complain.
"Shut up." Brian snapped. He figured it was Nick that caused the situation they were in.
Brian and Nick walked slowly into the store, the raunchy piped in music playing overhead on the intercom seemed to mock the deed that they had set out to quickly accomplish.
"What aisle do we go down?" Brian whispered, his blue eyes scanning the fully stocked aisles.
"How the hell should I know!" Nick snapped back in a harsh whisper.
Brian stopped quickly when he spotted the feminine hygiene aisle, causing Nick to run into him. They both stared at all the brands of pads on the shelf.
"God, do we get wings or ultra absorbent or what?" Nick wondered outloud.
"I wished she had specified." Brian replied. "Let's just buy one of each."
"Are you crazy? Let's just get these." Nick reached down and grabbed the first box in front of him. Brian grabbed his arm.
"Are you sure that's the right choice? It's says for light flow days, whatever that means," Brian said quietly, stumped.
"Jesus Brian, you pick it out then," Nick angrily replied.
Before Brian could make a selection, an older female clerk approached them.
"Can I help you gentlemen with something?"
Both Nick and Brian tensed up when they heard the clerk address them. After a few seconds, Brian turned to her.
"Um, ah, we, I mean, he," Brian gestured towards Nick, "he needed to buy some pads for his girlfriend and she didn't tell us what to get for sure." Brian stated.
Nick's eyes narrowed at Brian when the clerk was informed that they were buying it for his girlfriend, letting Brian off the hook.
Nick could feel the heat on his cheeks so he knew that he had obviously turned a shade of red. He turned and looked at the clerk, noted that her name was Agnes and more importantly, she didn't have a clue as to who Brian and he were.
"Well, my daughter likes these." As Agnes bent down, she groaned. Nick looked at Brian and mouthed the words I hate you. Brian smiled sweetly back at Nick.
"Those will be fine." Nick rushed the words out of his mouth. He was starting to worry that someone might discover them in the shop. He shoved a ten at her.
"I have to ring them up, would you care for anything else?"
No, this is good." Brian replied, grabbing the ten out of Nick's hand and setting it on the counter.
Much to Nick's annoyance, Agnes seemed to have a bit of a problem operating the cash register. Glancing around, he noticed canisters for juvenile diabetes.
"Just take the change and put in that canister, we're kinda in a hurry, thanks Agnes." Nick grabbed the box and tucked it under his arm, walking swiftly away from the register, Brian following closely behind.
They couldn't get back up to the safety of the hotel room fast enough. Upon entering the room, they found Lee standing at the window, looking out.
Disgusted, Nick threw the package of pads on the bed closest to Lee. "There, and if you tell me it's the wrong kind, you can just march yourself down to that damn store and get them yourself."
Lee picked the package up and started walking towards the bathroom door. "These'll do just fine, thanks guys."
Aj was huddled over the toilet, doubled over in pain. "I feel like I'm gonna puke.
"That's natural," Lee said simply. "You won't though. Cramps are fun, aren't they?"
AJ felt like his stomach was being ripped out and danced upon with spiked shoes. "You call this shit fun?!?!"
Lee couldn't help but laugh. "Yeah, but now you get to do this EVERY month."
AJ felt nauseous again. "EVERY month?"
Lee nodded. "And you'll probably be hit on by every beer-bellied truck driver from here to Botswana."
AJ quickly followed the instructions on the package and put the pad on. He ran from the room, needing some space. Once in the elevator, AJ looked over and noticed a beautiful young woman with long legs and brown hair.
"Hey, girl," he flirted.
The woman sneered at him. "Get a life, bitch." She got off the elevator and a large man with greasy hair and a moustache got on. He gave AJ the look over and winked, hitting the Emergency Stop button on the elevator.
"Oh shit," AJ said, his eyes wide.
