I woke up the next morning to find myself still fully clothed, under the bed sheets.
"Morning, sweetie," Howie greeted me. I blinked a few times and smiled at him.
"Thanks for tucking me in last night!" I lazily replied, rubbing my eyes.
"Hey, you know I always will!" D winked at me. "Any good dreams?"
"None of you, at least!" I cried. "But...I think I had a weird one where Kevin and Dani got married. And we were all there. And you were there..."
"And you were there. And you were there too! Oh Auntie Em, there's no place like home!" Howie joked, quoting from Wizard of Oz. I laughed, then pulled the covers back over my head. D struggled to pull them off. Being the stronger one (obviously), he won.
"Let me sleeeeeepppp..." I whined. Howie tossed the blankets back over my head. "I'll wake up later and get ready for the concert tonight."
"Okay. But we're leaving in three hours so if you want to do anything else, I suggest you wake up now," Howie reminded me. I yawned and sat up, blinking my eyes slowly.
"Are you up and ready to go?" I wanted to know.
"No! I just woke up. But I'm going to take a shower," D informed me. I yawned again, grabbing Chachi and petting him some. Then I reached for the remote and searched for anything good on the 'tele' while Howie took a long shower. It was around 10:00 in the mid-morning. A little earlier than usual, which was a good thing. As I was looking for something interesting on the TV, the phone rang. Surprisingly, it was Lila McCann herself.
"I'm not doing anything for the day, so I was wonderin' if you and a few of the girls wanted to go shoppin' with me," Lila told me.
"Lila, I would be honored to. But I'm still in bed so you'd have to give me about 45 minutes to get ready and call the other girls, okay?" I said.
"Oh no problem! I can wait! I just want to go out shoppin' with people my own age. Girls my own age..." Lila replied. We said goodbye to each other, then hung up the phone.
"Who was that, Steph?" Howie wanted to know as he walked out of the bathroom, drying his hair.
"Lila McCann. She wants me to round up some of the girls so we can all go shopping together!" I exclaimed as I grabbed some clothes out of my suitcase. Then I dodged into the bathroom and took a shower.
When I was done with my shower, I put on a red tank top and a pair of jean shorts. Then, I stuck a red fisherman hat on my head. Just because I'm Gilli and I love hats. Plus, I didn't feel like doing my hair. After getting ready, I called up Teresa, Kristin, Emily, Shivani, and Nef to see if they were up to going shopping with Lila McCann. They were, so we all went. Once I had called them up, I gave Howie a kiss and went out to the little lounge down the hall to wait for everyone.
Since there were so many of us, we decided to walk. It was nice being out with the girls and not having as many people come up for autographs. However, this was a state where country music played a big part, so there was still a share of fans coming up for Lila's autograph. But she was not as famous as of yet, so not many people recognized her among all of us girls. Unfortunately, there were a few that recognized me and Emily.
We got back to the hotel around 1:30 because the Backstreet Dancers were scheduled to go back to the stadium at 2:00pm to warm up, practice, go over steps, and make sure all of our outfits were there. The guys wouldn't be there until around 2:30, so we had the stadium to ourselves for a half hour.
As we were boarding the bus with our dance attire and dog, AJ hopped on.
"Hey girls. Don't mind if I join you?" he asked. Emily patted a spot beside her and he sat down. Then, Amanda's head popped in. She was a little quiet, not the usual, cheery person we knew her as.
"Do you guys mind if I come with you? I don't want to wait for the other bus to leave because I'll be by myself," she explained. Emily and I got a little concerned.
"Sure Manda. Find a spot and sit down. We're leaving in a few minutes," Kristin said. Amanda smiled and found a comfy spot on the ground. Two minutes later, our bus took off, closely followed by the band's bus. The tech crew was already there, testing and retesting everything. The opening act was there, getting ready.
Outside of the big building, fans were already starting to line up. As we drove by, a big wave of them ran over to the bus, screaming, waving, and holding up signs. They always thought we were the boys. I sighed and sat back, my head leaning against the glass. The times between showtime and getting there were forever long and the nervousness sometimes built up while we were waiting. We pulled up around the back of the stadium and climbed out of the bus. We dancers ran into the stadium to practice, with a cd player, while AJ, Amanda, and Muchacho mosied in, J waving at the pack of fans outside the gates who were screaming madly.
"So Amanda, how was last night?"AJ wanted to know. Amanda took a deep breath. She smiled weakly at him then began.
"It was good! The family is really sweet and I love them all. I got to see adorable pictures of Brock when he was a baby and the men all went out and played basketball. Hey wait. I thought the guys hadn't left yet," Amanda interrupted herself when she noticed the boys' bus, #69. "Will you excuse me AJ? I need to go find Brian."
"Sure. Catch ya later, Manda!" Bone called as Amanda took off towards a security guard.
"Looks like it's just you and me, Chache. Whaddya say we go find Tyke?" At the sound of his best friend's name, the dog's tail started wagging and he began to bark like crazy. AJ laughed and made his way backstage.
"Emily are you sure you can handle this? I mean, if you can't then I'll take your place," Shivani offered eagerly. She had been trying to get Emily to let her take Niki's place tonight because she wanted to be onstage with the boys so badly.
"Shivani, no. You need a few more practices. Emily has been here and knows the run of the show. Sorry!" Tae told her.
"Plus, I want to dance with my boyfriend!" Emily added. Shivani went back to her spot beside the cd player and turned it on. We began to practice our dances.
It was an hour till showtime. No one had seen Amanda since we got off the bus. Emily and Amy had just gone back to their bus to get the extra pair of dance sneakers and we all were grabbing something healthy to eat to give us some much needed energy for that night.
"Nice hair, Bone," Brian said to a freshly colored AJ.
"Purple? I don't think you've ever tried purple before," I added, grabbing a few strawberries and a thing of yogurt from the catering table. Kevin and Howie were already sitting on the couch with Swoop and Reggie, eating from their plates. Nick came over and got in line behind me, J, and Brock and asked us where Amy was.
"She went with Emily to find an extra pair of dance sneakers," AJ informed Nick. Just then, Em and Amy appeared with the dance shoes in Emily's hands. Amy walked up behind Nick and wrapped her arms around him in a hug. Nicky turned around and gave her nose a kiss then reached for an apple. Emily put the sneakers by the couch and got in the line for food.
The dancers had all gotten their snacks and SoBe drinks and taken them somewhere where they could stretch out. No one knew where Sleepy, Emo, and Ro Ro were. I sat down on the couch next to D when I had gotten all I wanted. We ate together, laughing and talking about nothing until Angie, the wardrobe manager, rushed the guys out to get their make-up and hair done. The opening act was just about to go on, so we had only about a half hour to an hour before it was time for the real show.
When it came time to pray while everything was going through checks, Amanda still hadn't shown up. We were starting to get a little worried. Brian was a little quiet as well. He would've been worried to death about her, like he was when they first met and she had come backstage. This time, Brian didn't say a word. I could tell we all thought something peculiar was going on because if something had come up, we would've known. But no one told any of us anything.
"It's time to go to work, now!" we all sang, responding to the ritual question. After the "Hard work! HOH!" part, we split and got ready for the concert to begin. As we girls made our way around the stage to the door that led to the back of the stage, we could hear the music starting. We weren't needed in the first song, so we got in our outfits and prepared ourselves for our first dance.
Usually, the guys would go out and dance with the boys first, then we girls would go out and join them. We did a little skit/acting part, which was always fun for me and AJ because that was our hobby. Emily enjoyed dancing on stage more than words could describe.
"Okay. What's the deal with Amanda?" I asked while we sat backstage between songs.
"I don't know Steph. She said she wasn't feeling well, but she would still be backstage to support Brian. Hey! Have you noticed how much both of them have changed since we got here?" Emily pointed out. I had never realized that!
"Well, looks like the wedding's off," Kristin sarcastically mumbled. I looked over at her.
"What is all this talk about weddings all of a sudden?" I snapped.
"I dunno. They just seemed so fit to be tied. Everyone thought that they'd last forever. It just kinda looks it ya know? And plus, there's this rumor going around online that they're engaged," Kristin explained. I gasped.
"Do you guys think that they split up because of all this wedding talk?" I pondered. Emily's eyes got really wide and Kristin blushed.
"Oh my gosh. I sooo did not mean for anything I said to be taken literally! It's probably all my fault! Oh no!" Kristin cried. She got really frightened.
"Don't worry Kris, it's not all you. But ya know Steph, they have been teased a lot about getting married. Especially by Nick and Kristin. But it's just the two of them. It's not like anything they say should be taken seriously at all," Emily informed me. Just then, one of the stage managers came in to tell us that we were about to go on. The five of us stuck our ear monitors in (so we could hear the music) and I put on my hat and we waited until it was our time.
Onstage, Kristin was dancing with Brian. We all heard when he messed up on his solos but she knew his dancing the best and B-Rok was messing up on the easiest moves for him! When we girls were free-styling, Kristin shot me a worried look. I knew it meant that something was definitely up with Brian. AJ and Emily stayed close by each other for comfort and Howie still messed with my hat. After that song we got offstage and began to talk nonstop while changing clothes.
"Brian stepped on my toes, like, ten times! There is definitely something going on!" Kristin cried.
"Yeah. And don't expect B-Rok to come out and tell what is going on, either," I replied.
"Damn it's scary up there!" Emily changed the subject. "If it weren't for AJ, I probably would've screwed up sooo much! I'm so glad I get to dance with my baby!" We smiled and Tae gave Em a hug. We went out and did our next dance when the time came, and noticed when "I'll Never Break Your Heart" came on that Brian was choking up a little. Kevin noticed it as well.
With such a concert full of flaws and upsets, we were glad for it to end. After the show, Ann, Jerald, Tim, and Tracy Richardson and H-Dawg, and Mr. and Mrs. Littrell all came backstage. Amy was being babysat that night so that Tracy could go to the concert since she was unable to last year.
"Hey Hun, you did great tonight!" Mrs. Littrell cried when she saw Brian. He went up and gave her a kiss on the cheek. Harold was looking around at everyone and Tim was talking to Kevin.
"Hey Bri, where's that chic of yours?" Harold wanted to know. Brian didn't answer.
"You guys wanna go out to get something to eat?" Kevin suddenly spoke up. We were all for. It would be like one big party over at some pizza parlor I guessed.
"Nah. I don't feel well right now. You guys go ahead without me," Bri replied. Ann and Mrs. Littrell both became extremely worried. We dancers all looked at each other with raised eyebrows. We knew we were right, but we had promised not to tell anyone else because we didn't want to stir anything up.
"Hun, are you alright?" Mrs. Littrell cried, putting her hand up to his forehead.
"Yeah I'm fine Mom. Just a little tired, I guess. Listen, you guys go without me. I'm just going to rest for tonight okay? I'll see you tomorrow, before we leave, ok Mom?" Brian announced. He gave his brother and parents hugs and said bye to everyone else. We all stood in shock as the boy disappeared through the back door.
"Something's up," both Tim and Harry muttered. "Well, let's go out to eat. I'm starved!" Tim cried. We performers went and changed before we all piled into the separate cars everyone had brought and left.
As Kevin saw a jetliner fly over us, he sighed. "I really wish Dani were still here with us..."