“Nick! I asked you a question,” Ruth, the tutor snapped.
Nick looked up dazed at the young woman. “Huh?”
“I said where is Norway?”
“Swe....” he stopped and cleared his throat which was hoarse from being up late the night before. “Sweden, Norway is in Sweden.”
Ruth slammed the textbook angrily ontop of the desk. “I give up! How do you expect me to give you 100% when you apparently don’t want to do the same for me?”
“It’s not in Sweden?” Nick asked innocently.
”Norway is a country, not a city....”
“I’m sorry, I wasn’t thinking straight,” Nick apologized as he ran a tired hand through his blonde hair. “What was the question again?”
Ruth smiled a twisted, sinister smile. “Capital of Kentucky?”
“Huh? I thought we were in Norway,” Nick protested.
“Leave....”
“B-but it’s not time to....”
“Leave before I seriously do something I could get in trouble for.”
Nick quickly grabbed his textbooks, taking the offer made by the tutor before she changed her mind. She called out to him before he reached the door.
“Remember to review the syllabus I gave you for this semester! Be prepared for the test tomorrow!”
Nick groaned. ‘I’m gonna be a singer, why the hell do I have to know fractions? Hell, why do I have to know Norway is a country and not a freakin’ city?’ Nick thought dismally.
Textbooks planted firmly under his left arm, Nick entered the elevator. One bad chore was completed, now he would be onto the next one! He decided his life pretty much sucked today. Too many demands for a sixteen year old.
Stopping on the sixth floor, Nick felt for his room key in his front pocket when reality sunk in.
“Shit!”
”NICCCCKKKKKK!!!!!!
Dropping his textbooks as he spun around to address the screams, Nick shrank his body against the door. He furiously pounded on the door, calling out to anyone that was in ear-range, praying that the door would be opened before the cluster of overzealous, screaming teenies caught him!
Banging his fist on the door, he called out, ”AJ! AJ! ANYONE! LEMME IN!”
With the cluster of young girls closing in on him, Nick realized he had two choices: one: face the group of girls and pray they won’t rip his clothes off or two: run like hell.
In a desperate move, Nick opted for choice number two and bolted down the hall, racing for any type of exit he could find. He didn’t care where it led, he just needed to get away from the mob that seemed to be growing by the minute!
“Richardson, I’m glad to see we’re on the same level with taking care of the boy,” Pearlman’s gravely voice echoed in Kevin’s ears.
“Thank you sir, you’ll have nothing to be concerned over. We are all taking turns in taking care of Nick so nothing will happen,” Kevin assured with a smile.
”NICKY!”
“I WANT YOU!”
“DON’T RUN AWAY!
“What the hell?” Pearlman wondered outloud when he heard the distinctive sounds of young girls screaming. Sounds of rubber soled sneakers running across the tiled lobby floor. Within moments, Nick Carter came flying by their line of view followed by a small hoard of young teenagers screaming and yelling behind him.
Kevin’s face immediately turned a shade of bright red as he glared as Nick flew out the front door to the hotel. “He’s certainly not the brightest one of the group,” Kevin stated under his breath.
“I thought you said you had this covered with the others! Why is Carter out there running like a fool in front of the hotel?” Pearlman demanded.
“AJ is,” Kevin replied.
“And so where is McLean?”
“I was just wondering that myself,” Kevin replied as he watched as hotel security encircled the young blonde with protective arms. “Excuse me, sir.”
“As much as I hate to keep reminding you AJ---”
“Then don’t,” the young rebel snapped.
“You are suppose to be in charge of Nick today, just like each of us are responsible for him on our own days,” Kevin continued, ignoring AJ’s response. “That means keeping ourselves in good behavior at all times, not entertaining every bimbo that hangs by your hotel room door.”
“Juliette wasn’t a bimbo,” AJ corrected. “She was just a sweet girl---”
“Which I’m sure you deflowered her at your first opportunity!”
AJ chuckled at Kevin’s choice of words. “If you call consensual sex deflowering, then I guess that’s what I did, but I’m not sorry for it either. She asked and I agreed.”
Kevin shook his head angrily. “I bet if Denise knew half of the things you do, she’d go postal on your ass.”
“You leave my mother out of my life,” AJ threatened.
“Then behave like you have a life then and keep your dick in your pants and watch Nick like you’re supposed to instead of trying to sew your seed across Europe!” Kevin hissed.
AJ slouched his frame against the headboard of the bed. “I’ll watch the kid, but you know I’m protesting the fact that I have to do that!”
“Nick should be back here in a few minutes and don’t forget that we have a show tonight and need to be ready to leave here at 6:30, so make sure he gets some rest before the show or he’ll be crabby,” Kevin reminded as he stared at AJ. ”Did you hear me!?”
“Yeah, Nick’s a crab and we have to leave at 6:30!”
As Kevin opened his mouth to reply, he heard the room door unlock and Nick quickly entering the room.
“Just remember what I said, okay?”
”Yeah....yeah....yeah!”
“See you at 6:30 Nick, try and take a nap so you’ll be fresh for the show tonight,” Kevin stated as he left the room.
Nick watched the older man leave the room and shook his head when the door softly closed behind him. “What the heck was that all about?”
AJ held his hand up in the air and moved it in a circle. “You know how Kev can be.”
Nick shrugged his shoulders as he looked at AJ with suspicion. “Yeah, I guess so.” He was quiet for a moment, when he suddenly announced that he was hungry.
“Knock yourself out with the mini fridge. I have to make some calls to some of my friends back home in the states,” AJ stated.
“The states? Mr. Pearlman said we were absolutely not to place any long distance phone calls!”
“Jesus Nick, do you ever listen to anything that fatassed windbag has to say?”
Again, Nick shrugged his shoulders.
AJ picked up the phone. “Good, then go ahead and play some video games and eat, I might be on the phone for awhile.”
Opening the mini fridge, Nick felt as if he had won a million bucks in the lottery. There was candy of every type imaginable, potato chips and sodas galore.
He had reached the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow!
And no one was going to say it was wrong!
Nick lost track of time as he lazily spent the afternoon playing video games and munching on potato chips and candy from the mini snack bar, not to mention the sodas he drank. Before he knew it, the time had passed by so fast and soon it would be time for him to get ready for the show tonight.
Starting to feel drowsy, Nick decided to turn off the game and catch a quick nap to be refreshed for the concert.
“Oh fuck,” he exclaimed when he surveyed the assorted empty wrappers scattered on the floor where he sat. Deciding it wouldn’t be such a good idea to be caught with the goods, he quickly balled up the papers and threw them into a wastebasket across the room.
After he finished cleaning up the mess, he flopped his body diagonally across the bed, willing sleep to wash over him. He told himself that he just needed a quick 20 minute shut eye to refresh his body before the grueling show they had to perform tonight.
It had only seemed to Nick that he had just closed his eyes when he felt a strong push on his back followed by an angry Kevin Richardson screaming into his ear.
”NICK GET THE HELL UP! WHERE THE FUCK IS AJ AT!?”
A disoriented Nick rolled onto his back, staring straight up into Kevin’s demanding green eyes. “Huh?”
Kevin started tossing clothes at Nick as he spoke. ”You two were suppose to meet us in the lobby ten minutes ago and I come up to your room to find you sound asleep and AJ missing!”
“God Kev, stop throwing my stuff at me,” Nick cried as he pulled a pair of jeans off his face.
“Get dressed and be down in the lobby pronto!” Kevin snapped. “Do you have any clue as to where McLean ran off to?”
Nick eyes scanned the room. “Um, bathroom maybe?”
“Really funny Nick,” Kevin said as he laughed sarcastically. “You honestly don’t have any idea where he is?”
“Hey listen, I just fricken woke up and you expect me to know where Bone is 24/7?”
Kevin pulled both hands through his hair, giving him a horrendous case of ‘bed hair.’ Watching the older man’s actions made Nick wince.
“I need to leave before I do something I might regret or go to jail for later,” Kevin stated as he stormed out of the hotel room. “Get dressed and be down in the lobby with the rest of us ASAP!”
Fuming, Kevin Richardson stormed out of Nick’s room and swiftly down the corridor. Fortunately, AJ had seen the older man stomp out of the hotel room when he was approaching, so as luck would have it, he slipped around the corner and waited until the coast was clear.
Busted!
“Jesus AJ! Where the hell were you?” Nick demanded angrily when AJ slid into the hotel room.
“Good God Kaos, I was out, I just lost track of time!”
“Do you know what kind of trouble I got into because of you?”
“Don’t know, don’t care to know, just get fucking ready before Kevin decides to come back here and chew on our asses again.”
“Correction, your ass, mine has already been chewed on by Kevin earlier,” Nick clarified.
“Okay, so he chews my ass, big hairy deal,” AJ scoffed. “It was worth it.”
“Worth it or not, I’m leaving to meet up with them in the lobby, I covered your ass once, try not to make it twice in one night.”
“What-the-fuck-ever,” AJ muttered as he watched the young blonde leave the hotel room.
AJ stood up and leaned over the dresser to get a good look at his face in the mirror. Glancing down, he couldn’t help but notice the wastebasket with the empty chip bag and candy wrappers.
Knowing that they were always told not to do a concert on a full stomach he shook his head as he mumbled, “Nicky...Nicky...Nicky....you’ll be having fun tonight....”