Tired and
exasperated, the group stood silently in the elevator carrying them up to their
forty-fifth floor rooms. Thanks to two flight delays and a freak thunderstorm
that caused an unexpected layover, they'd arrived fourteen hours later than
planned.
Chris tightened his hold on Heather's waist and looked around
at his friends. Joey was leaning against glass wall of the elevator, Janine
pulled back to him, his arms wrapped securely around her waist. JC and Jen
looked as if each were holding the other up. Chris smiled when he saw Lonnie.
The 6'7" man was dead on his feet. He looked as if he was sleeping standing up.
The only one who looked halfway alert was Wes and that's only because he had
been part of the team that flew in the day before to make sure that proper
security precautions were taken. Justin, Lance, Todd, Mike and Dre had taken
different cars from the airport. Wes was a little worried; because of the
high-rise jungle surrounding them, their walkie-talkies didn't function as well
so he'd lost contact with the other cars. And to top it all off, there'd been a
brief power surge just as they'd entered the five-star hotel and the system was
down so the clerk had been unable to tell them if the others had checked in or
not.
Chris was glad Justin had gotten into one of the other cars. They'd
had three all together to convoy their group from the airport to the hotel and
Chris was thankful that Justin didn't get into his. He loved the kid, he really
did, he just couldn't take it anymore. Justin had wanted to spend the day with
Maddie so badly and had been very vocal about his disappointment. Very vocal.
Very. Chris felt bad for him and all, but there was only so much he could take.
If he heard Maddie's name one more time, he was going to scream.
So, of
course, she was the first person he saw when he stepped off the elevator.
Laughingly, she ran up to Wes. "You're Wes, right?"
Wes flashed a
'what-did-I-do-to-deserve-this' look at Lonnie and nodded.
"Wes, you
like me, don't you?"
It was on the tip of his tongue to make a
smart-assed remark about Justin liking her more, but he refrained. He simply
nodded again.
"And you would hate to see anything happen to me, right?"
Maddie continued in a wheedling tone, batting her eyes at him as she clutched
his arm to her chest.
Jen, though highly amused by the charade being
played out before them, was tired and just wanted to go to bed. "Maddie, what
are you ta-"
"Madison Kaye Morse, I'm gonna kill you!"
The
bellow of rage drew their attention down the hall. The door to a room halfway
down was cracked open, a fact that had previously escaped their attention.
Madison squealed and ducked under Wes' arm to hide behind him.
A
girl with dark hair and dark eyes that flashed with indignation stalked out of
the room. Hey eyes zeroed in on Maddie peeking out from behind Wes. The look on
her face was so fierce, you almost expected to see laser beams shoot out of her
eyes. She slowly advanced toward the group.
"C'mon now, Kris," Maddie
entreated, "it's not like I said anything he didn't already know."
As
Kristina reached them, Maddie grabbed Wes' shoulders and pulled him towards her
as she backed away, the three of them making an awkward, shuffling circle.
"Well, if he didn't know before, he definitely knows now, thanks to you
and your big mouth."
"Hey, this big mouth now pays your bills, thank you
very much."
"Well, I guess I'll have to find another way to pay the
bills cause that mouth won't do me much good when it's attached to a dead body."
With that Kristina lunged. Shrieking with laughter, Maddie took off down
the hall. Kristina gave chase and soon the two girls were out of sight.
"They have entirely too much energy," JC said tiredly.
"Yeah
really," Janine agreed as they all turned to find their rooms.
"Wasn't
that Lance's girl?" Jen asked as they walked down the hall.
"Huh?" JC
looked at her dumbly.
"The one Lance hooked up with at Maddie and
Wendy's party."
Heather nodded. "Oh. Yeah. Kristina. She looks a lot
different when she's not drunk."
Fifteen minutes later, Chris and
Heather were reclining on the king-sized bed in their suite. Chris was staring
at the ceiling, hands tucked underneath his head, shaking his leg back and
forth, rocking the bed. Heather was snuggled up to him, attempting to get some
of the sleep she'd missed out on in the last few days. She'd been busy getting
her thesis ready for review. It wasn't the actual due date, it was just a chance
for the board to look over her work to see if she was doing OK or was way off
base.
"Chris."
No reply.
"Chris."
Still nothing.
"Christopher Alan!"
"What? What's the matter?" Chris pulled his
arms down to wrap them around his girlfriend.
"Could you please not do
that?" Heather mumbled into his chest.
"Do what?"
"Shake the bed
like that."
"Was I doing that? Sorry." He kissed her collarbone and got
up from the bed. "I'm just antsy right now. Been sitting down so long, I bet my
butt looks like a pancake."
He walked to the cheval mirror and turned to
inspect his posterior in the reflecting glass.
As he was posturing for
Heather, the door connecting their suite to the one next to it opened. Justin
peeked in.
"Oh great. Got y'all on one side and JC and Jen on the other.
Imma tell y'all like I told them, please try to keep the moaning down to a
minimum and if the headboard starts banging, take it to the floor."
"You're so funny. It's astounding how funny he is, isn't it, Chris?"
Heather asked sarcastically as she got up and walked over to her suitcases.
"Taking a shower, honey?"
"Yeah." Heather flashed Chris a quick
smile then continued to rifle through her luggage.
"Need any help?"
Chris asked suggestively, wriggling his eyebrows at her.
"I think I got
it, babe." Clutching her clothes to her chest with one hand, she walked over and
swatted Chris on the ass with her free hand. "Play nice with Justin, k?"
"Yes, mommy," Chris said in an infantile voice.
"OK, you do that
a little too well," Heather smirked at him then closed the bathroom door.
Chris turned away to find Justin smiling at him. "What?"
"Y'all
are cute together."
"I know, we are, huh?" Chris said immodestly with a
grin. He ran and flopped down on the bed. "Hey, I saw your girl earlier."
"You saw Maddie?"
Chris shook his head. "You got it bad, man."
"What?" Justin asked defensively.
"Man, I coulda been talking
about anyone. Finn, Britney, Kelly, anybody and you automatically assume it's
the Madster. You, my friend, are a walking time bomb. You're gonna see her and
just, like, explode, ripping her clothes, throwing her to the floor, scarring
the poor girl for life and she'll have to go live in a monastery for the rest of
her life and pray to the Buddhist gods to redee-"
Justin had to
interrupt before Chris really got into it. "But it was Maddie you saw, right?"
"Huh? Yeah."
"Where?"
"When we were coming to the room."
"So she's in this hotel?"
"Dude, she's on this floor. I think."
"No shitting?" Justin walked over and sat on the edge of the bed. He
peered at the instructions on the phone before picking it up and dialing a
number.
"What are you doing?"
"Calling the front desk."
"Why?"
"To get her room number."
"They're not gonna tell
you that."
"Well, the least I could do is try."
"I'm telling
you, they're not gonna tell ya." Chris sat at the edge of the bed and picked up
the remote control to the TV. "You wanna watch a movie?" he called over his
shoulder.
Justin ignored him. A moment later, he spoke into the phone.
"Yes, this is Justin Timberlake from room 4506 and I was wondering if you could
tell me Madison Morse's room number."
There was a pause as he listened.
"Yes, I realize I'm not in room 4506, I'm in room 4505, this is Chris
Kirkpatrick's room."
Another pause.
"If I wasn't really him, how
could I be calling from here?…Are you kidding me? Don't you hang-" he pulled the
phone away from his ear and frowned at it, "-up on me."
Chris looked
back at his friend, a silent, smug I-told-you-so-look on his face. "What'd he
say?"
"It was a she and she was all helpful at first, 'Hi, I'm Jennifer,
what can I do to make your stay at the Four Seasons more pleasurable?' And then
she turned on me."
Chris laughed and repeated his question. "That's
probably the same one who was down there earlier. She was cute. Looked kinda
like Faith Hill. What'd she say?"
"She gave me some shit about how she
couldn't be sure I was who I said I was and that guest information was
confidential and if I really was who I said I was, I should be grateful for
that."
Chris laughed again. "Now you know what our fans feel like!"
Frowning, Justin threw a pillow at him.
(The next day)
(The foyer of the Metropolitan Opera House)
* Note: I've never been to the Met, I have no idea what it looks like,
this is all my imagination. *
"Wow," Maddie craned her neck to look at
the domed arches of the ceiling. "I cannot believe this place."
"I know,
huh?" Kendra threw her arm over Maddie's shoulder. "We're moving up in the
world."
The two girls, along with Kristina, Vontrésa, and Wendy were on
their way to rehearse for the live telecast the next night.
"OK, you
guys wait here and I'll see where we're supposed to be, OK?" Romero gave them
all a stern, 'you-better-behave-yourselves' look and left in search of someone
in charge.
The girls walked over to an open doorway and saw an
elaborately decorated lounge. Gold and crystal shone everywhere. The place
reeked of high society. The looked at each other, exchanged 'we're not in Texas
anymore' looks and made their way over to one of the groups of sofas. Maddie
dropped her dance bag and sat. Kendra whistled between her teeth at the opulence
of the place and Kristina ran an appreciative hand over the richly upholstered
couch.
"Man, I'm telling you, I am not responsible for what I do when I
see JC Chasez," Vontrésa Johnson, the last to join Maddie's group of background
dancers announced. Vontrésa was the tallest of them at five-eight. Her dark hair
and caramel colored skin made her a perfect addition to the group.
"He
has a girlfriend," Kendra reminded her.
"And that concerns me how? Just
gimme one night with him...hell, I could be done in thirty minutes."
They all laughed at her candor. Maddie and Wendy exchanged glances. Von
had changed a lot in the two years since high school. Before, she had been
rather reserved, only cutting loose and letting her true personality show when
she was around close friends. Yet here she was, acting a fool for the whole
world to see.
"Damn, now you got that song in my head," Wendy grumbled.
"What song?" Kendra wanted to know.
"Give me just one night, una
noche, a moment to be by side. Give me just one night, una noche, I'll give you
the time of your life," Maddie sang.
"What?"
"It's a new song by
98 Degrees. I was talking to Jessica and she played it for us, it's really
good."
"Yeah, I like it…I like it a lot," Wendy imitated Jim Carrey's
character from Dumb and Dumber.
Kendra changed the subject. "So did you
ever talk to Justin?" she asked Maddie.
Maddie had told them of Justin's
promise to call her the day before. Ironically, they were more upset at his
silence than she was. "No, but I got a new number, remember? Besides, they
didn't get in til late, Kris and I saw them coming up to their rooms at like
11:45 last night."
"Oh yeah, I still need to get that from you," Von
reminded her.
"What, her cell number? Why?" Kristina grinned. "We're
only going to be with her for, like, every other second from now on!"
"Yeah really."
A figure passing by the doorway caught Maddie's
eye. It was her bodyguard, Jacob 'The Rock' Harris. He was a burly man, about
six feet tall. His dark hair, eyes and complexion made it seem as if he would
have been better suited to be guarding some Mafia don rather than a singer still
in her teens. It had creeped her out at first to have the big man standing
sentry over her all the time, but he had kind eyes and a sweet smile and
disposition that put her at ease.
Maddie wasn't paying the least bit
attention as Kristina related Maddie's impromptu and very informative phone call
to one James Lance Bass so she was surprised when Vontrésa called her name.
"Have you met any of these other dancers?"
"No, I was already on
my way back to Texas when they had the audition."
Kristy, Kendra,
Vontrésa and Wendy were Maddie's back up dancers for the tour. But this was the
first majorly publicized performance of her career and Jive had wanted some
extra ammo so they'd brought in nine extra dancers, two girls and seven guys,
strictly for this performance. It was nerve-wracking because they'd only have
one or two rehearsals all together as a unit before show time.
"I just
hope the guys are cute," Kristina said with a smile.
Kendra was beside
herself: "This from the girl who has Lance fucking Bass on speed dial!"
The two girls smiled at each other.
Romero bustled in holding a
sheaf of papers in one hand. "OK, listen, this is how it goes. D'Angelo is
rehearsing now, he's almost done, then *NSYNC, then you guys. We were supposed
to rehearse now, but there was a problem with the times on the itineraries for
the other dancers so they missed their flight but they'll be here by one. Now, I
need you all to sign these real quick." He handed each girl a paper.
Maddie quickly scanned it, grabbed a pen from Romero and signed her name
at the bottom.
Vontrésa rattled her copy in exasperation. "Ugh, is this
shit even in English?" She stared at the piece of paper as if it was going to
jump up and bite her.
"I think mine's in Swahili," Wendy offered.
"When you get past all the legal jargon, it just says that there will be
cameras all around and that they have the right to use anything they shoot and
they're not responsible if you get hurt or have any accidents while you're
here," Maddie summed it up for them.
"Who's not responsible?" Kendra
asked, wanting a clear picture of what she was agreeing to.
"MTV."
"Oh."
"So, now what?" Wendy asked as she passed her signed sheet
to Romero.
He replied, "You're free until…let's say 12:30. You can sight
see, go back to the hotel and sleep, or stay here and watch rehearsals, so long
as you're back here by 12:30. Each act gets an hour this morning and I think an
hour and a half or two hours for lighting tonight."
"Who's up now?"
Wendy asked.
"D'Angelo."
Von picked up on her line of thinking.
"And *NSYNC is next?"
"Yes."
Maddie reached for her bag as she
stood up. "How do we get to the auditorium?"
Unfortunately, on the way to the auditorium, Maddie had gotten caught in
the trap of the 'impromptu' MTV interview. Impromptu it was anything but. John
Norris had snared Maddie half-an-hour earlier and they still had yet to shoot
anything. They had wanted Madison to go through all the hassle of getting her
hair and makeup done but Maddie had refused, saying she was gonna get all nasty
and sweaty in a little bit, she didn't want make-up caked on her face for that.
Besides, she didn't see anything wrong with her sloppy ponytail, dance t-shirt,
black dance pants and legwarmers.
"OK, are we ready yet?" Even John was
getting antsy to get this over with. He flashed the girls an apologetic smile.
It wasn't his fault they were having technical difficulties.
"Give us,
like, two more minutes," a guy in a green t-shirt that read 'Hanson sucks' in
yellow print told them absentmindedly.
"Sorry bout this," John told them
nervously. It was almost as if he was afraid Maddie was gonna go all diva on
him.
"'S ok, It's not your fault," Wendy responded for them all.
"Yeah, it's ok cause *NSYNC's not on yet. But if they were…' Vontrésa
shook her finger at him. From where they were standing, they could hear the
music pouring out of the auditorium and D'Angelo was still on stage.
"Oh, so we got more *NSYNC fans here, huh?" John smiled, feeling more
comfortable now.
"Is there anyone left on the planet who's NOT a fan?"
Kendra responded.
John thought for a moment. "Eminem."
"Trent
Reznor," Maddie added.
"The Backstreet Boys," Kristina joked.
"Yeah, well, all them are losers so they don't count," Von said loudly
to be heard over the laughter at Kris's comment.
"OK, we're ready."
"Finally!"
Two minutes later, John and Maddie stood before the
camera waiting for their cue.
"Hi, I'm John Norris and I'm here with
Madison Morse who is waiting to rehearse for tomorrow night's live telecast from
here at the Metropolitan Opera House." John said into the camera. He turned to
Maddie to begin his questions. "Now, Maddie, you've had an explosive first year
so far, do you think it could get any better than this?"
"You know what,
I really don't. This has been insanity. I'm still trying to get used to the fact
that people actually spent money for my CD."
"Now some nay-sayers have
been saying that the success of your CD is due in part to the rising interest in
the relationship between you and Justin Timberlake."
"Oh, I agree."
John was visibly surprised. "You do?"
"Yeah. Well, I made it to
number one on my own, the CD was out before all this Justin stuff started but I
do know that after that TRL, the week after that, my CD skipped from number
eight to number five. I know that all these girls were like, 'Oh but no, who the
hell is this bitch?'" Maddie laughed then covered her mouth with her hand. "Oh
my God, I just cursed, I'm sorry."
John laughed, too, at her sweetness,
"It's OK, I think we've heard worse."
"See?" Maddie cringed playfully.
"This is why I'm not a good role model."
"I think you're doing just
fine. I've heard that you're debuting a new song here tomorrow night, is that
correct?"
"Yeah, but it's a secret, can't tell you or I'd have to kill
you." Madison winked into the camera.
"OK, well, we'll let you get back
to rehearsing, thanks for stopping by."
"No prob. Thanks for wanting to
interview me."
John turned back to the camera to finish his spiel while
Maddie walked back over to her friends. She grabbed her dance bag and they began
to make their way past all the camera equipment. Maddie turned to call back to
John, "Thanks for not grilling me about the Justin thing."
"No prob. You
can catch this on TRL later today."
"What we just did?"
"Yeah."
"Cool, thanks." With a wave, she went to join her friends.
Three
minutes later, the five girls were sitting front row center, enjoying an
unobstructed view of the stage. It was an empty stage. D'Angelo had finished his
set. They'd walked past him on their way to their seats. He was very sweaty and
looking very good in that sweat. All five of them had turned their heads as he
passed them.
Kendra turned to ask Von a question, then paused as a group
of women began to walk down the center aisle towards them.
Maddie turned
as well when the ladies began to laugh. She recognized Jen and Heather and waved
them over. She stood up to greet the trio as they drew nearer.
"Hey
y'all," Jen drawled then started in surprise when Maddie reached out to hug her.
"There she goes," Wendy muttered. Maddie tended to be very physical,
touching, hugging, kissing. It annoyed Wendy to no end that Maddie always
insisted on getting a hug and a kiss on the cheek from her if they were
separated for even a day. But it was also very endearing and Wendy only
pretended to grudgingly put up with it.
"Oh, you can just kiss it,"
Maddie admonished over her shoulder as she embraced Heather. She turned to the
other woman. "I don't think we've met."
The brunette was even shorter
than Jen. She had the kind of curves that skinny girls like Maddie only wished
they had. "I'm Janine Delage."
"Joey's gal?" Kristina asked.
Janine beamed and nodded her head.
"Yeah, he only talked my ear
off about you," Kristina chuckled.
Impossibly, Janine's smile got wider.
"Yup, I have him trained well."
"You're Kris, right?" Heather sat in the
seat next to Wendy and leaned forward so she could see everyone.
"Kristina, yeah."
Jen peered at her through narrowed eyes. "You
know, you look a lot different now…I don't get it, Heath, help me out."
"Hmmm." Heather leaned in close to peer at her. "I think I know what it
is."
Jen thrust her chin out at Heather. "Sup?"
"There's no
Lance attached to her face."
"Oh yeah."
Kristina ducked her
head, cheeks flaming. Before she could respond, all hell broke loose as all five
members of *NSYNC began sound checking into their mics all at once. Maddie
looked to the stage and saw that a small group was congregated stage left. The
stage manager, identified by the yellow t-shirt he had on that said 'STAGE
MANAGER' in bright blue letters, gave instructions. The set wasn't up yet, this
was just going to be a run though for the guys to get staging and placement and
spacing and the rest of the more mundane elements that go with putting on a
show.
Maddie's eyes searched the group until she found who she was
looking for.
He was standing with his feet apart, hands on his hips,
listening intently. His feet were encased in a pair of blue and white Adidas
cross trainers. The cargo khakis he wore hung loose on his thin frame. His navy
blue t-shirt did little to encompass the width of his shoulders or the
musculature of his abdomen. Maddie sighed as she watched him worry his bottom
lip with his teeth as he listened. His hair…
'Wow.' Her eyes nearly
bugged out of her head when she saw it. She'd heard about the cornrows but this
was her first time to see them. It was…different. She looked closer, examining
his hair as it framed his face and nodded. She liked it. All of a sudden, her
hands were itching to run through it.
"Damn, we need a bucket to catch
all this drool," Heather muttered.
"Shut up, bitch, you know you
drooling, too," Jen shot over her shoulder as her eyes devoured her boyfriend.
JC was jumping around, making sure his earpieces were snug in his ears.
"Know what?" Wendy joined in. "Drool ain't the only thing you'll need a
bucket for."
"Ew, thanks for the visual there, Wendy Lou," Maddie
scolded.
"No prob Bob!"
"Dude, you sound like Chris," Heather
laughed.
"Uh…no."
"What?"
"Y'all, shh!" The girls hadn't
taken their eyes off the action on the stage as they bantered but Von was
getting tired of listening to them. She wanted to hear JC. And she was also
slightly pissed to find that Jen was someone she'd probably want to kick it
with. The stage manager was talking again.
"Now, I know you guys just
learned this yesterday, but you'll have to perform this tomorrow so you all need
to really concentrate on what you're doing."
"No shit, Sherlock," Chris
muttered under his breath as he moved to his beginning position. "Just be
prepared to start the music over about five thousand times cause I know I'm
gonna mess up."
"Man, don't sweat it, it's chill," Justin walked up to
stand in front of him. The other got into position around them, forming a V with
Justin as the point.
"It's chill? It's chill? Damn, I swear, you get
more and more ghetto everyday."
"Bite me."
"Don't wanna, tell
Maddie to."
"What?"
Chris smirked at him. "Turn around or you're
gonna miss the beginning."
