The next morning, I woke up to someone nudging my shoulders. I turned over and blinked slowly as my favorite brown eyes met mine. A sleepy smile swept across my face.
"Hi. How late were we--" I started to say, but was cut off by Howie shushing me. He turned up the radio on the nightstand a little and the song "I'll Be" met my ears. I grinned some more and rolled onto my back, staring up at the ceiling. I absolutely loved listening to music and it made the day all the more worthwhile when I got to hear such sweet songs as this one. Of course, I also fell asleep to music every night, so soon, my heavy eyelids fell back over my eyes as a wave of sleep overcame me. Howie, who was propped up on his elbow, looked down on me and chuckled to himself. Then he kissed my forehead and turned the music back down.
Probably a half hour later, I woke up again. The other, once occupied side of the bed was now empty. I ran my fingers through my hair and sat up so my feet dangled over the bedside. Yawning, I got up and walked out of the bedroom in a tank top and some pajama bottoms.
"Hey! We've been waiting for you! The plane leaves in about forty minutes and we gotta get to the airport now!" Fatima cried.
"Sorry! You shoulda woke me up!" I replied.
"Didn't want to. You were so tired from last night. I thought I'd let you sleep," D explained.
"Yeah well I probably would've slept right up until your plane took off! Howie, sometimes, you just shouldn't be so nice," I sighed.
"Okay. Well, we can talk on the way to LAX. But let's go before the plane does leave," Fatima spoke up. No longer afraid to walk in public wearing pajamas, I didn't argue about changing into something else. We all climbed into 'Tima's car and drove towards the airport. My watch read that it was 11:44am. Howie's plane was scheduled for a 12:20pm departure. We managed to get to the airport in fifteen minutes flat, with 20 minutes to spare. The plane was running on time, so we had about five minutes before Howie would have to board the jet and be off towards North Dakota. The three of us stood around talking for a few minutes, then Fatima left because there was a dancer who was on an incoming flight at the same time this one was leaving.
"Tell everyone I said hi and I miss them like crazy. And you guys better not be messing with my bunk or anything. I might have to come back and murder you all," I told Howie.
"Yeah. And if Britney offers you a job, please don't forget us!" he joked.
"Ha! Like I'm good enough to be one of Britney's permanent dancers!" I cried. "I still have to work a bit to get as good as them." Howie didn't argue because he knew how I was. The first call for his flight came. It was the fifteen minute announcement. "Oh I miss you guys so much! Tell Nicky he better not doing anything stupid without me while I'm gone. Tell Manda, Dani, Amy, Emily, and all the dancers that I will call them one day to talk and to break a leg. Tell AJ he can't buy any hats while I'm gone. Tell Kevin and Brian they better not do anything stupid with their relationships, okay? If you can remember all that."
"Yeah I better take a pad and write this all down," Howie D sarcastically answered.
"Okay well I don't want you late for the flight so I'll shut up now. Spoil Chachi for me. Bye. I love you," I finished up. Howie leaned in and gave me a kiss.
"I love you too. Bye Dancer Girl. And make us all proud at that video shoot!" D said.
"I will! Bye sweetie!" I replied, as Howie turned to walk towards the terminal. I stood there and watched him disappear down the corridor and stood around for a half hour, watching the plane take off. Right as it took off from the ground, I felt the vibration of my pager on my hip. I looked down at the message, which read 'Thanks for the ring. I love you.' I smiled to myself, then left to go find Fatima.
"Steph this is Natalie. Natalie, this is Stephanie," 'Tima introduced us. Natalie was a little shorter and smaller than me, with straight red hair and green eyes. She was very pretty. I shook her hand and grinned. She also seemed extremely nice. We continued our trek out of LAX in silence. Natalie would be staying in a hotel for the four weeks, with a bunch of the other dancers. The dance practice was scheduled for two that afternoon, and would be a two hour workout.
Most of our practices lasted two hours. Sometimes we ran into a four hour day. With just three weeks to learn and perfect the dance and one week to make the video, we were spread out, yet crammed with time because Britney had other things going on.
After dropping Natalie off at the hotel, Fatima and I drove to her apartment and had a quick lunch. A half hour later, we were at the dance studio, warming up as dancers, both guys and girls, spilled through the door. As soon as everyone was there and warmed up, we got up and did what we knew, with Fatima counting us instead of the music. Then, questions were asked by the unsure ones and Britney. Fatima went over the moves again, for the questioners and the new dancers. Once everyone got what we knew down, Fatima went on. There was a lot to this dance, because it was a three minute routine. The moves were complicated, nothing simple like what we did with Backstreet's stage show. Whenever someone got confused Fatima would come over and explain to us what we were doing wrong. She was an excellent instructor, capable of choreographing moves that all of us would struggle a little bit on, yet easy enough to look good once we got it.
Most of the people in the room were my age, which was a little weird on my part. I wasn't used to being with people who were eighteen, nineteen, and twenty, like me. I had spent my whole life with guys older than me. Yet it was a good experience. Within the first week, we had all become friends and we all knew everyone's name and given each other nicknames. All of us had dance names. This one guy named Marco was called Slick. I was Jazz because everyday I'd come in, all jazzed up and ready to move, despite how early or late in the day it was. The tallest dancer, Rachel, was nicknamed Legs. One of the funniest girls I had met, Elizabeth, was called Klutz because she would always accidentally smack someone or fall. Sometimes, we would yell across the room at each other when one of us got in trouble.
By the end of the second week, we had gotten the entire dance down and were working on perfecting it. New dancers came almost everyday and would learn their parts. By the third week, all the dancers had arrived and the entire dance was learned and perfected. Most of the days, Britney would disappear for reasons she claimed had to do with publicity or knee trouble. It got to be like a cycle, so we all ignored the fact that she wasn't always there.
"Hey Jazz what's up with you today?" one of the dancers, Timbo Limbo (as we called him), called from across the room. I was in the middle of stretching and had spaced out.
"Huh?" I asked.
"Timbo's right. Jazz...do you miss your boyfriend?" one of the girls, Tina (AKA Tornado cuz she could whip out those pirouettes) cooed.
"YES!" I pouted. About half of them, including Tornado, didn't know who my boyfriend was or who I was and what I did. "He's on tour and I miss him and the guys. They're my family!"
"Which one? *N SYNC? 5ive? Backstreet? C*Note?" Legs wanted to know.
"Backstreet. Howie. I miss the guys like crazy," I whined.
"Really? Howie? How cute!" Tornado exclaimed. Just then, we were interrupted by the door being slammed open.
"Hey y'all! Let the party begin!" Britney cried, trying to be humorous. T and I always talked about how much we couldn't stand her. We just half laughed, to make it look like we weren't snots. Everybody got up and Fatima stood in front of us.
"'Kay guys. Today's the last day in here. Tomorrow we get measured and pick out wardrobe. Monday we get fitted. Tuesday, we get a day off because they'll be filming the parts of the video you're not in. Wednesday, we start taping the video. We'll keep filming 'till we got it all done. And I think Saturday, there will be a big preview party on the set so we can all see the video. Now, let's get working on this. Any questions before I turn on the music?" Fatima spoke to us. There were no questions, so we moved on to doing the dance with the music. The purpose of today was to iron out all the wrinkles and ask our final questions. The following day, I'd be trying on half tops and tight dance pants, as in typical Britney fashion.
Three and a half hours were spent in the studio that day. I was exhausted by the time Fatima said we had permission to leave. That dance just took so much out of me. It was more complicated than anything I'd ever done. That was a good thing though, because I liked being challenged. As Tina and I walked out of the studio, we both sighed.
"I need to make a few phone calls. I miss talking to everyone. I haven't seen them for like three weeks. I can't wait till next week is over with!" I cried.
"Yeah I know what you mean. I miss all my friends and my life," Tina told me. We bent down and picked up our duffle bags which were side by side. I dug around inside mine, looking for my pager. There was one message on it. 'Call me when you get done. We haven't talked in a while.' Howie left messages on my pager nearly everyday. Sometimes Amy and Emily would do it for fun as well. "What does it say?" she wondered.
"Call me when you get done. We haven't talked in a while. It's from Howie," I informed my friend.
"Tell him I said hi! He doesn't know me but oh well. He will one day. When he sees all the pictures we've taken!" Tina joked.
"No kidding! How many rolls have we gone through?" I asked.
"Uh probably about two. That one of all the guys is gunna be hilarious. But save the last roll for the video shoot, when we're all in our outfits, okay?" my newfound friend suggested.
"Good idea." We walked out of the studio, guzzling down our waters. Fatima was going to be staying later to work with Britney some more, so Tina and I headed out for lunch. She lived in LA, so she had a car for us to drive around in.
"What do you want to do today?" Tina asked as we got on the street and began riding through the busy traffic.
"Well I have quite a few phone calls to make actually. Fatima's letting me use her phone so it might be a good idea to go there. I have a key to her apartment so we can stop there if you want after going to get something to eat," I suggested.
"Oo good idea. Where do you wanna go?"
"Next place we see that sounds appetizing." What luck. It was McDonald's. Almost immediately, AJ came to mind. He and Nick were always sneaking away to a Micky D's when we were on the road. I laughed to myself as Tornado pulled into the drive-thru. I ordered a #4--Double Quarter Pounder w/ cheese, coke, and fries (the meal AJ and I always got when we were at the place) and Tina got a Big Mac, then we zoomed out of the drive-thru and towards Fatima's apartment.
Once we got to the building, I unlocked the front door and threw my duffle bag on the ground by the couch. We sat in the kitchen and shoved down our burgers, then I set off to find the phone. It was in the living room, so I grabbed it and dialed Howie's cell phone.
"Hey what's up?"
"Hey D. We just got back from practice," I told him.
"It feels so good to hear your voice. How was it?" Howie asked.
"It was the last one. We're doing wardrobe tomorrow and we're gunna start our part of the video shoot on Wednesday," I explained.
"How's the tour going?"
"Great. Nick just got sick though and we're taking it easy. Amy won't let him eat McDonald's anymore now. Danielle and Amanda are doing a GREAT job onstage," he said. Just then, Tina nudged me.
"Oh Howie? Tina the Tornado says hi," I replied, laughing with Tina while saying her name.
"Who? The Tornado?!"
"One of the dancers. We got to be good friends. She can really whip out the pirouettes. That's where she got her nickname Tornado," I explained.
"Oh I see. Well Tell Tina the Tornado I said hi to her," Howie instructed.
"Howie says hi," I said, turning to Tina. She yelled out hi to him. "Hey are Dani or Manda there? I miss talking to them."
"Yeah hold on a second," he said, before calling Dani over.
"Heeeeyyyy Gilli!" Danielle called into the phone. I laughed.
"Hey Dani! What's goin' on?"
"Nothin' much. The tour is sooo much fun. I really like dancing up there with Kevin," she cried.
"Well maybe we'll have to arrange something so you can dance with him for the rest of the tour..." I mentioned. Danielle thanked me.
"Now how about Britney? What's she like?"
"She's....interesting...hey Tina how should we describe Britney?" I asked my friend.
"SNOT!!!!!" Tina yelled. I busted up.
"Did you hear her?" Dani said yeah. "She's stuck up and likes to be the center of attention. We ignore her, but she likes the fact that she's famous...a little too much. She really didn't talk to us except to like, ya know, try to be nice in a fake way. She's really not as skinny as she seems," I told Danielle.
"Really? She always seems nice and she looks really skinny," Danielle commented.
"Yeah. Quite a surprise. They like stick her in certain clothes that will make her look super skinny," I replied.
"SHE'S LIKE A COW!" Tina hollered again.
"Who is that?" Dani asked, laughing.
"Tina. She's one of the other dancers. We kinda bum around together now. We're buddies," I informed Danielle.
"Cool! Tell Tina I said hi!"
"Tina, Dani says hi!" I said to Tornado. Tina smiled as she finished the last bite of her burger.
"Hey Steph. I wanna see some of your pictures you've been telling me about," Tina suddenly brought up.
"Huh? Oh. Hold on Dani. They're in the black suitcase, in a photo album," I told my friend. Tina hopped out of her seat and ran into my room to find the mini photo album.
"You have a photo album with you?!" Dani exclaimed. I laughed.
"Yeah. I miss you guys too much so I stole all the pictures of you guys that I could find from the polaroid and stuck them in my little album," I replied.
"Awww...well that one picture of you and Howie from the 4th of July is in his bunk. The boy looks at it like all day," Danielle informed me.
"HEYYY!!!!" I could hear Howie crying out in the background. "You're conversation's gunna be cut short if you keep talking like that!"
"Hey Steph who's this?" Tina wondered, holding up a picture of Kristin and Reggie. I told her who it was and she continued flipping through the pictures. "Aww Steph Howie's so cuuuutttteee!" I giggled.
"Whatever you say Tina..." I sighed.
"Hey Steph? Howie wants the phone back so I gotta go okay?" Dani spoke up. "Talk to you later!"
"Bye Dani! Love ya!"
"Love ya too!"
"Heeeeyyy was up Steph?!" Kevin cried into the phone.
"Gilli's on the phone? YO GILLSTERS!!!!" I heard Brian hollering in the background.
"Stepppphhhhhhaaaaannnnnniiiiieee," I heard Nick whining. Kevin, who had the phone, chuckled.
"Nicky's sick. We're taking care of him though. Oh gotta go Gilli. D's givin' me the look of death here," Kevin told me.
"Okay Kevy. Bye guys! I miss ya!" I said, then waited for Howie to come back on.
"Hey again. I'm sorry I gave the phone to Danielle there," he apologized.
"That's okay D. Tina says you're so cuuuuttttteee!" I exclaimed.
"Really? Well that's more than I can account for from YOU," D teased.
"What?! You think I'm going to admit that someone I've grown up with, have known all my life, and know everything about is cute?" I don't think so hun," I joked.
"Jazz you are sooo mean!" Tina cried. I laughed evily.
"Jazz? What's that name about?" Howie wanted to know.
"We all have dance names and that is mine because I'm always really jazzed up during every practice," I explained.
"Well I can see that..." D told me.
"Oh you can huh? Well Howie, I really gotta go. I've been on the phone for awhile and the phone bill's gunna be huge. I'll see you in about a week alright?" I finally decided.
"Okay. Yeah. Well I'll call you one day. When do you have a break?" he asked.
"Tuesday. You can call me then okay? And I'll tell you allllll about what I'm wearing cuz I'm sure you'll want to know what type of half top I'm required to wear," I sarcastically replied.
"Okay. It was nice hearing from you sweetie. I'll talk to ya later hun," Howie said.
"Bye D. I love you."
"I love you too. Bye Steph." I hung up the phone regrettingly, and turned to Tina. She took one look at me and laughed.
"You should see the look on your face when you talk to him. You just look all serene or something," Tina told me. We threw away our trash then plopped on the couch to rest.
"Girl you do not know what it's like dating the sweetest guy on earth. Let alone knowing him most of his life. It's just so sad that none of his fans know him for who he really is ya know? They don't see anything except his body and his looks and really, that's like the LEAST attractive thing about him. Trust me. He's so much more than what people perceive of him. And it scares the hell out of me sometimes that his fans are just so....aggressive. I've known him all my life so it's like...I dunno...I just can't imagine us breaking up...but there are girls out there that don't know our history together and just see me as the slutty dancer who is going out with Howie D because he's famous and cute, ya know?" I tried to explain.
"I think I read something online about a rumor that the dancer who was dating Howie had also dated AJ and Brian and slept with all of them. I'm taking that you are the dancer that they're talking about," Tina informed me.
"EEWWW! Slept with them? Oh get real! Howie's said in a couple interviews that he was dating someone he'd known for quite awhile, but he doesn't tell them that he's known me since I was born, or that I'm a dancer. The media found out that I dance for the boys, themselves," I told my friend.
"Yeah. I've seen a few pictures of you online, now that I think of it. When I first met you, I couldn't pinpoint where I'd seen you before, but now I remember. My little sister is obsessed with the Backstreet Boys and she would show me pictures of their girlfriends. She's got them wallpapered all over her room. She'd dig up pictures of their girlfriends and show them to me. She'd always look for pictures of you and ask me if I'd worked with you before. She's the one who tells me all this stuff about the Backstreet Boys' girlfriends. I told her she should butt out of stuff like that but she likes to do stuff like research their lives. She thinks it's fun," Tina recalled.
"What type of pictures?!" I begged to know, worried.
"Oh like paparazzi pictures of you two doing stuff together. There was one of you kissing at a miniature golf course. There's one of him smiling for a camera, with like his arm around your waist or something, but you were looking straight ahead with a baseball cap pulled over your eyes," she thought back.
"Oh I always wear my baseball caps low. It shades my face from the sun better," I explained. "But go on."
"Well she'd always whip out pictures of you and ask if I'd seen you before. I finally yelled at her to stop it because I didn't know who you were and had never worked with you before in my life. Then she started begging me to ask Fatima about you. Then I told her that if she didn't shut up, I wouldn't see if I could get her to meet the Backstreet Boys like I had promised." I laughed. We sat in silence for a few minutes. Then I remembered something.
"Hey I'm gunna call up someone for a few minutes, do you mind?" I asked.
"No. I'll just look through all these pictures again. Your crew looks like a lot of fun," Tina replied. I told her they were, then, found my wallet in the duffle bag and looked for the the business card. When I found it, I dialed up the number and waited as it rang.
"Hello Blake speaking," a woman answered.
"Hello is Miss Jordyn Blake available?" I wanted to know.
"This is her. How may I help you?"
"Um my name is Stephanie Jones and I'm calling about a job offer," I began to explain.
"Yes, go on," Miss Blake allowed me to continue.
"Well, I'm a dancer for the Backstreet Boys and I was in your store a few weeks ago with Howie Dorough and we were wondering if you would be interested in designing hats for AJ McLean and myself," I finished. "Would you be interested in this, Miss Blake?"
"Just call me Jordyn. The Backstreet Boys? It shouldn't be a problem. I heard AJ is a frequent shopper at the store so I think it'd be a fun thing to do. Just tell me what you want and I'll do what I can," Jordyn replied. I let go of the breath I was holding.
"Thank you Jordyn! Well we'll be in California in November, if you'd like to schedule an appointment for then. I'll have AJ call you. I will need hats that I can dance around in and won't lose them," I said.
"I understand. Well listen I'm a little busy right now, but if you'll leave me a number I can reach you at, I'll give you a call when I have time," Jordyn suggested.
"Well I am in the middle of a video shoot here in LA at the moment, but I can leave you AJ's cell phone number and you can call him and tell him that you talked to me," I told her. Jordyn said okay, so I gave her the number and we hung up. Just then, Fatima walked in. She tossed her keys on the kitchen table and walked towards the living room.
"Hey guys! What's goin on?" Fatima asked.
"Oh nothin. We just talked to--" Tina started to say, but was interrupted by the ringing of the phone. Being closest to it, I picked it up.
"Hello?"
"Hey. Listen," Howie instructed, then put the phone next to a speaker and I listened as "I Do (Cherish You)" spilled out of them. My face got all red as I tried to swallow the lump in my throat. Fatima and Tina gave me curious, worried expressions. I lipped 'it's Howie' to them and they both laughed to themselves. The song ended and I could hear a little rustling as the radio was turned down a notch or two.
"I miss yoooooouuuuuuu!!" I whined.
"I miss you too! This song was on the radio and I thought of you so just thought I'd call and share it with ya," Howie explained.
"Aww thanks sweetie. Well hey I got one week left. Can we handle it?" I joked. Howie laughed.
"Yeah I think so. But the rest of the guys are driving me insane, soooo. Well hey I gotta go anyways. We're due to hit the stadium in about twenty minutes. I talk to you later, hun, okay?" he told me.
"HI HOWIE!" Tina and Fatima both hollered from either side of me.
"That's Fatima and Tina," I explained.
"Tell them I said hi. I love you Gilli. Bye," Howie continued.
"Bye D, I love you too," I said, before hanging up, Tina and Fatima awwing at me in the background. I turned off the phone, then glared at them.
"When I first met you and saw you hanging around with the guys, something told me you and Howie had a special connection. It cracks me up to see how right I am," Fatima enlightened me.
"Yeah yeah yeah that's what they all say. So what...I have had a built-in boyfriend all my life. Somebody just really loves me. My grandpas have been watching over me and I think Caroline has been helping every so often," I replied.
"Steph, you are like so in love with your best friend. That's just so cute!" Tina added. I blushed.
"I have to endure this for one more week?!" I complained. Fatima grabbed a pillow and smothered me with it, laughing. The three of us sat on the couch, giggling.
Well here we were, Thursday night, 11:45 at night, working hard at our video. I was dead ass tired, but my energy held up, as it always did at that late at night. Some of the dancers were showing signs of cracking. On Wednesday, we left the set at one in the morning, then were scheduled to go back at eight. Seventeen hour days were incredibly tiring, but we all had to deal with it. This was our job and we were expected to be able to handle it. The day before, a majority of the scenes were already shot, today was just for finishing touches. The director, Nigel Dick, was one I knew well. He had worked on two of the boys' videos and did all of Britney's. So he was a tad surprised to see me at the set. I was even more surprised that he had remembered me. On Wednesday morning, when I showed up with Fatima, he said hi and gave me a hug. I couldn't help but laugh, and we got into a conversation about the boys and how they were doing.
I plopped down on a chair and grabbed a water bottle. Another of my really tight friends, Ana, showed up beside me withn a matter of seconds.
"Well howdy 'Nana Splitz," I cried, smiling at her.
"hey Jazz. I can't wait till this shoot is over with," Ana said. I sighed and took a long gulp of my drink.
"Same here. I can't wait to see the final product," I told her.
"Me either--" she began to answer, but was interrupted by the calls of Nigel and Fatima, wanting us back on the set. The two of us grumbled as I threw my water bottle back down and we helped each other up.
Most of us girls were in tight half tops and dance pants. I had on a pair of shiny blue, baggy dance pants with two orange stripes down either side, and a black half top with a high neck and no sleeves. I had wanted to be able to wear my dancer cap that Howie had bought for me. Other dancers had on various crop tops with pants. Because Nigel was known for his lighting and bright videos, all of our clothes had vivid, stand-outish colors.
That was one thing I loved about him. When he did videos, they were always so bright and colorful. The guys were in wife beaters and sleeveless shirts and baggy sweat pants.
We got to our places and waited for the music to turn on and the call for "action." As soon as both came, we found our cue in the music and began to dance in unison. The routine was for the entire song, for they weren't quite sure which part they would put of us in the final cut. However, Nigel would film each section of the routine at different times, so we wouldn't have to do the whole dance over and again. I was somewhat in the middle of the mass of dancers, blending in with everyone because Britney was the main focus. Unless, of course, she didn't do the dance, which half the shoots were without her.
Britney Spears' usual choreographer, Darrin Henson, was working on a video with Christina Aguilera at the time Nigel had called him in, so he immediately phoned Fatima, who had choreographed Britney's first tour with *N SYNC. Britney wasn't used to working with a female in dance, she had Darrin most of the time, who would even perform with her. That wasn't Fatima's style, but she still would take a job when it was offered.
"Okay let's try it again!" Fatima's yell echoed throughout the set. Without much hesitation or complaining, we all got back to our spots and readied ourselves to try it again, wiping small beads of sweat from our heads. The music came back on and Nigel called out "ACTION!" through his bullhorn. As we did the dance together, working our butts off, Britney watched in her director's chair beside Nigel and Fatima. When we heard the "CUT!" we stopped and looked at our director and choreographer with patience. We had all gone through this before and had learned that having a lot of patience and energy was the only thing that would get our work done. 'Tima pointed out corrections to us and then to individual dancers.
"Hey Nigel, what time is it?" one of the dancers hollered through the crowd. The director took a glance at his watch and brought the bullhorn up to his lips.
"Twelve oh seven!" Nigel answered. We all let out sighs of relief. We just might have the chance of getting out at one this time as well. My energy was beginning to wear down a little bit as I stood around and listened to Fatima, but then as the music started up again, I remembered who I was doing this for. I was doing it for Howie. For Kevin and AJ and Nick and Brian. For Fatima. For Amanda and Danielle. For Tae, Nef, and Kristin. For Swoop, Reggie, Sleepy, Emo, and Ro Ro. And for myself. I thought about who's faces I was going to be seeing in just three days. I took a deep breath and prepared myself for the final call and then began dancing.
We were supposed to keep straight faces, which was particularly hard for me in this video. I kept trying not to laugh whenever I'd look at the guys. They always would give us girls these funny yet serious faces, causing us to almost lose our concentration. Usually, it wasn't that hard to not smile, due to total concentration on what was being done. Yet, with goofy guys staring you straight in the face, that easy feat became increasingly difficult.
Fifteen cuts and three breaks later, we all finally heard the three magical words that put together the phrase of freedom for anyone on a video set...
"THAT'S A WRAP!!!!" Nigel yelled through his bullhorn. Virtually every person on the set cheered. We jumped up and down, hugging each other and the job well done. Her dancers went to find Britney, but Fatima had informed us that she was really tired and had taken a quick break in her trailer. All of us immediately stormed out of the storage house and to the trailer our star inhabited. TJ, one of her best friends, went over to the door and pounded on it. Still dressed in her dance outfit, Britney opened it, her hair just barely mussed up and makeup still on.
"HEYYYYYYYYY!" everyone hollered as she stood there, a little taken back.
"Hey y'all! I was just about to come back!" Britney cried, stepping down from her trailer and letting us dancers swarm her.
"We finished!" about half a dozen dancers shouted. We were so excited.
"Hey does anybody know what time it is?!" Timbo wanted to know.
"It's about one thirty, Timbo Limbo," Britney answered back. She was very exhausted and, it was at times like these that she showed her true colors. The girl had like split personalities. It was like she had to grow up too quickly, causing her to create another persona, an on-the-camera persona, to go along with her country-girl one.
Suddenly, a few dancers began singing "We're done! We're done! AW YEA-AH We're done!" Everyone joined in and we all started to dance around, gettin' jiggy with each other. Then someone called out, "hey look! They're taping us!" All of us turned around and waved at the camera. The people watching us all waved back.
"Okay everybody, first of all I'd like to say thank you--hey!--for working on my vid--what is this?! STOP IT!--for working on my video. And I hope it turns out--HEY!--alright! Okay okay! I'm sitting down. GEEEEZ!!" Britney attempted her thank you speech, but was bombarded by a few flying popcorn kernels.
The lights went down and the screen lit up as we all sat on the ground in front of the small screen TV, shoving popcorn into our mouths or drinking soda. The video started and everyone cheered. We watched, shouting out "there's me!" and "oooo you lookin good!" and "we're hott!" every so often. Despite the fact that the clips of us were all pretty quick-pace, each individual dancer got a chance to be seen. There were a few close-ups of me, which I was rather excited about. Sometimes you could even see the writing on my hat. They also incorporated our trek to Britney's trailer in the video, which had a really neat effect. When the video was over, the entire audience gave it a standing ovation. We were so excited about the finished product.
"Two weeks guys! It hits MTV airwaves in TWO WEEKS!" Nigel yelled. We all screamed some more. "Thank you for working on the video. You've all been such a thrill to work with I would love to see you all again someday soon!" We started to gather our things and make sure we'd cleaned the place up, hugging each other and saying good-bye and making sure we'd exchanged numbers and addresses. Tina came up and wrapped her arms around me from behind.
"I'll miss you soo much Jazz! But you gotta keep in touch okay? Call me! And tell me when you get home from the tour! I'll come visit ya!" Tina told me.
"Hey Tornado! I'll miss you too! I'll send you a few postcards along the way, don't worry," I said.
"And tell Howie I said hi okay?" she added.
"I will do that."
"Bye Steph!" Tina replied, walking away because she had somewhere to be. "It was great meeting you finally!"
"Yeah! Don't tell your sister any bad things about me now! Byyyyeeee Tina!!" I yelled.
"Yeah yeah I know! I won't!" she laughed. I bent down and picked up my pillow and was surprised as I felt someone sticking something in my back jean pocket. I immediately shot up and looked at who it was.
"Oh hey Marco!" I greeted him. I reached out and gave him a hug. "It was great meeting you! I had an awesome time!"
"Keep in touch, Jazz," Marco instructed. I reached into my back pocket and found a piece of paper with his phone number and address on it.
"I will Slick. Thanks. Maybe we'll run into each other again! That would be way cool," I said.
"Totally. Hey I gotta go so I'll see you later okay? It was fun meeting ya," he explained, before quickly planting a friendly kiss on my cheek and leaving.
"BYE MARCO!" I called, then squatted down to pick up my pillow and trash again. As I was walking towards Fatima, a few more dancers came over and gave me hugs and said good-bye, jotting down their digits for me. Ana came up beside me and wrapped her arms around my neck.
"I'm gunna miss you Steph!" she exclaimed.
"I KNOW! I'm gunna miss you sooo much Ana. Hey I don't think I got your number and address! You gotta give it to me!" i suddenly realized. She ran over to a crew member and got a piece of paper and a pen, then wrote down the info I had needed and handed it to me. I thanked her. "I'll write you. I promise. I have nothing better to do on a tour bus than sit down and write, sometimes."
"I know you'll write Jazz. I can't wait to hear from you! BYE!" she called, departing from me. I waved and called back to her, then took a glance at the paper. On the back of it was a note--"Don't forget to give AJ a quick kiss for me!" I laughed. She had told me how she loved the boys, but never mentioned anything about J being her favorite.
"So Steph, ready to go?" Fatima asked, walking up to me.
"Yeah 'Tima. Let's go!" I cried, anxious to get back to the apartment and ready myself for the trip back to my 'home away from home' the next day