"Hey Manda, got great news for you!" Dwayne said.
"What?" Manda asked her manager.
"You're gonna be touring with the Backstreet Boys!"
Manda's face went pale.
"You're gonna open for them. By the end of the year, every teenage girl is going to know who Amanda Faith Robertson is! Isn't that great?"
He then saw her face.
"Oh come on Amanda, what's wrong? This is the best news you've ever had!" he said, breaking her thoughts.
"What...oh yeah, it's great," she lied.
He looked unconvinced, but went on and gave her the details. But Amanda wasn't listening. The whole time she was trying to figure out what the hell she was going to do.
********************
"Yo cuz, what's up?" Kevin asked Brian, who was deep in thought.
"What...huh...oh hi Kev," Brian said, snapping back into reality.
Kevin sighed.
"Man, what is up with you lately?" he asked.
"Well, this sounds stupid. Look, I know it's been three years, and I thought I was over it. But lately I just can't stop thinking about Corina. I've been having this recurring dream recently. In it, she's running and I'm trying to get her to stop but it's not working. We run through all these places, with me chasing after her. Eventually we get to this cliff, and right when she's about to run over the edge I always wake up. It's stupid, but it's like it's hainting me or something. I just wish I knew what happened to her."
"The police closed the case, you know. She's probably somewhere on the streets of San Francisco or whatever. Maybe she's selling drugs, or she's become a prostitute. That's usually what runaways do. Or maybe she's completely started over. But there's know way we can find out, because the police closed the case Brian!"
"Yeah, I know, trust me. But the police don't know shit. They barely searched anywhere! Damnit!"
"Alright, this may sound harsh, but it's called tough love. She's gone, Rok. It's been three years. It's time to move on."
*********************
***Three Weeks Later***
"One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, come on! Annie! Not SO into it, you're going further down than the rest of them! Meg! Watch that step, you keep doing it wrong! Manda! You're barely dancing! Get more into it! Wake up girls!" Lauren, the choreographer, yelled to Manda and her four back-up dancers: Rachel "Rach" McGwire, age 19; Meghan "Meg" Courier, age 21; Stephanie "Steph" Johnson, age 22; and Annie "Ann" Edwards, age 20. Amanda was 20 years old.
"Sorry Lauren!" they all replied quickly and tried to fix the problems.
"You guys, the tour starts in two days! Your plane is leaving in four hours! Come on! This is Manda's big break, and all your dances need to be perfect, okay?"
They all nodded. They could do the dances perfectly; the excitement was just getting to them. The thought that they were going to be on stage in front of thousands of people in a huge arena was enough to make them dance wrong during rehearsal. The tour would begin in New York City. The girls were taking a 5:00 PM flight from Orlando there later that day; Lauren just wanted to get in one last rehearsal in their studio before they left. However, that turned out to be a bad idea, cause the girls could NOT concentrate. After a half-hour of trying to get them to focus, she gave up.
"Alright! You guys obviously can't concentrate! So I'm gonna let you go, but you better be ready to rehearse by tomorrow and I mean it!"
They all nodded and ran out of the studio talking and giggling. They couldn't believe this was actually happening to them. Manda was excited of course, but she couldn't help noticing the sick feeling in her stomach that she got every time she thought about the tour. But, in addition to singing talent, Amanda had been blessed with acting talent as well, so she did a hell of a job hiding it. The girls finished packing and hung out for the rest of the afternoon. At about 4:15 the got to the Orlando Airport. They spent the entire plane ride talking excitedly about what the Backstreet Boys would be like, and what they would do once Amanda was famous. The plane ride surprisingly went really fast, and before they knew it they were in the Big Apple.
"Oh my god! We're in NYC!" Meg exclaimed.
"I can't believe this!" Rach added.
"This is gonna be so cool!" Steph chimed in.
"Aren't you excited?" Annie asked Manda, who was being unusually quiet.
"Huh?" Manda said, coming out from her thoughts.
"She asked if you were excited!" Rach said.
"Oh, of course I am! I'm just a little nervous," Manda lied with a smile.
"Oh, I don't blame you. We just have to dance; you have to sing and dance!" Meg said with a smile.
They all agreed, and started talking again. They arrived at the hotel and settled down. After staying up late talking, they finally went to bed.