Well, the walk to "C" dock was pretty simple. We talked and laughed and had a normal conversation. Then Rachel decided to ask the dreaded question.

"What are we going to do if Kevin and Nick start something?" she asked.

"Well, it's kind of obvious what Alex is going to do," Maribeth said.

"I'll kick both their butts and I don't care how far up my heels go," I said, pointing to my elegant, black, sandals with five-inch heels, "as long as I get my point across."

"And what, exactly, would that point be?" Joanne asked.

"The point being that tonight is going to be fun whether anyone like's it or not!" I said. I looked at everyone. They were all staring at me. "You know I'm kidding, right?" I asked. They all stared for a second, then we cracked up.

"Tonight will definitely be fun, no matter what," Maribeth said. "We'll all make sure of it."

"Yeah," Rachel said. "And if we have to kick their butts, we will. It's as simple as that."

"Yea!" Joanne squealed.

Giving her a queer look, I started down the dock. As we past Chris's boat, I noticed a hand draped over the back of the sofa. It had Chris's ring on it, so I figured it was him (he was also the only one who would wear a bright-green suit).

"Go to Brian's boat," I whispered to the girls. I motioned towards Chris's hand. "I'll be there in a sec." They all nodded and left.

I crept silently onto Chris's boat. He was snoring away on the couch. I tip-toed up next to him and got on my knees. I sat there and stared at him for a minute to see if he'd wake-up. He didn't, so I gave him a little shove. He gradually started to wake-up so I continued staring. When he turned to face me and opened his eyes, he screamed so loud I'm sure it woke up the dead. I looked out the window to see Rachel standing in front of Brian and AJ's boat. She was looking at Chris and laughed. She gave me a thumbs up sign and motioned for me to come down to their boat. I nodded and gave her the go-ahead sign, letting her know that I'd be there in a minute.

I looked back at Chris, who had just sat up. He looked at me and chuckled, shaking his head.

"Why do you always do that to me?" He asked.

"Because it's fun," I stated, standing up.

"You know it annoys me," he complained.

"Well, that's just an added plus," I said, shrugging. "Actually, I just came by to see if you guys were ready."

"We should be ready in a few," he said. "Meet you up there?"

"Yeah," I said, stepping off the boat. I walked down the dock to the BSB's boat. All the girls were sitting on the back talking.

"Where are the guys?" I asked, getting on the boat. I leaned against the side.

"They're finishing up," Rachel said.

"No we're not," Nick said, coming out of the boat. The rest of the guys followed. They were all wearing black suits. AJ was wearing a yellow shirt, Brian a bright blue one, Nick a dark green one, Kevin a red one, and Howie a beige one.

"I have to say, you all look . . ." AJ cut off, searching for the right word. "Umm . . help me out here, guys?"

"Beautiful," Brian said, coming up and putting his arm around my waist. He brought a single red carnation out from behind his back and handed it to me. I took it gingerly and brought it up to my nose. I closed my eyes and took in the sweet fragrance. When I opened them, I looked up at Brian, who was smiling gently down at me. I gave him a light kiss and put my head on his shoulder. I looked at the other girls, who were obviously as happy as I was. Rachel had gotten a carnation from Nick, Joanne from Kevin, Maribeth from AJ, and Jamie from Howie. We were all in heaven.

Then Kevin cleared his throat and, with his arm still around Joanne, turned to look at the rest of us.

"Look," he said, "I'm really sorry about this morning. It was really rude of me to do that."

"Yeah, me too," Nick said. "It wasn't right to put you guys in that position."

"That's okay," I said, still snuggled against Brian. "We forgive you."

"But what about tonight?" Rachel asked.

"We are definitely going to be on out best behavior," Kevin said. He looked at Nick. "Right, Nick?"

"Yep!" Nick said. "We're also gonna go up to N'Sync and call a truce."

"Well, you don't have to be on your best behavior," I said. "You've gotta have some fun, but you do have to call a truce."

"Okay," Nick and Kevin said together.

"Well," Maribeth said, "we'd better get up there. It's almost 7:00."

"Then lets hit the road," AJ said, walking to the steps and climbing off the boat. He extended his hand for Maribeth, who reached up and took it as she was getting off.

"Again!" Jamie exclaimed, as she stepped off the boat. "Why would anyone want to hit the road?"

"It's just a figure of speech, Jamie," I said. Brian went to the steps and moved aside for me to go first. I smiled at him and got off. He was the last one off, so we all started up the dock. Chris was sitting on the couch on the back of his boat, but, unfortunately, was not sleeping again.

"See you guys up there!" I called teasingly as we went by. Chris just shook his head and laughed.

"That was rude," AJ snorted, half-joking.

"Actually, it wasn't," Rachel said. "What Alex did was rude."

"What'd you do?" Brian asked.

"Well, you know how I was last getting to your boat?" I said.

"Yeah," Kevin said. "I remember coming up and you were missing. Then I went back inside."

"He came up with his shirt off," Rachel whispered. I looked at Joanne and raised an eyebrow, then continued.

"Well, when we had walked by Chris's boat, he was sleeping on the couch. So I decided to do what I usually do every time I see him sleeping. I walk up to him, stick my face in his, and stare at him until he wakes up. If he doesn't wake-up, I nudge him until he does, then stare at him . . . until he opens his eyes."

"Doesn't that get on his nerves?" Howie asked.

"It annoys the hell out of him," Joanne said, "but that's the reason she does it."

"That and the fact that she finds fun in pissing people off," Rachel added.

Hey, it keeps life interesting," I said in my defense. I looked around at everyone, then I hung my head and stopped. "I'm a bad girl," I said in an ashamed baby voice.

Brian turned around and came up to me, getting close enough to whisper in my ear. "That's okay. I like you that way," he whispered mischievously. I laughed and gave him a playful shove. We started walking again.

"Joanne," Kevin said. "I forgot to tell you, but I just love your dress. It looks like something I would wear." We all laughed and Joanne swatted him on the shoulder. "Really!" Kevin protested

When we got to the restaurant, we went in through the hotel entrance. I opened the door that led from the hallway into the party room. When we walked in, I looked around in awe. It was a pretty big room with a small ramp attaching it to the rest of the restaurant. There were silver and blue streamers all around. The tables had different names of boats as the center pieces. Bob was standing in the middle talking to the band. As he finished his conversation, I walked up to him.

"This looks exactly like my bat-mitzvah," I said, confused. "Umm . . .why is that?"

"I know," he said. "I thought the boat theme was such a great idea that I'd use it when I became commodore. So, here it is. Brings back memories, doesn't it?"

"It sure does," said a voice behind me. I turned around to see Chris and the other guys walking into the room. Out of all of them, Chris, Justin, and JC had been the only one's here I had known at the time of my bat-mitzvah, therefore, they had been the only one's out of our group that had been there.

"Wow!" JC said, amazed. "It really does look like your bat-mitzvah."

"Cool!" Justin said. He ran up to a stray streamer that was hanging from the ceiling and started batting at it like a kitten. Rachel grabbed the collar of his baby-blue suit and sat him down in a chair. He turned around to look at the centerpiece. "Hey, look Chris! It's your boat! See? Little Miss!"

"That's nice, Justin," he said, rolling his eyes and turning back to me, Bob, and JC. "Is there anything you need us to do?"

"No," Bob said. "Just relax and have a good time. We'll tell you before you have to go on." He turned to me. "That goes for you guys, too. No helping. You've done enough today and you deserve a break."

"Yes, sir!" I said, saluting. I turned to the tables and found Joanne, Maribeth, and Jamie sitting at one. I looked at the centerpiece and, sure enough, there was my boat. It had a sign under it that said "Kings Ransom," which is the name of my boat. I put down my purse and looked around. "Where's Rachel?" I asked the three of them.

"She went somewhere with Nick," Joanne cooed. I looked around the room, again, just noticing that Nick was gone. Ooh, she was definitely going to get the third degree when she got back.

I felt someone pull on the hem of my dress, and I turned around to see Justin sitting on the floor and staring up at me with puppy-eyes.

"Hi!" he said, waving like an excited eight year old.

"Justin," I scolded, "get up off the floor before you get dirty."

"Yeah," Joey said, coming and pulling Justin up off the rug, "and try to act your age tonight, please?"

"Okay," Justin said, suddenly maturing about ten years. I laughed at the sudden transformation. What a character!

Just then, I saw Rachel come back into the room with Nick in tow (holding his hand). She looked at me and I leaned against the bar, motioning for her to come over. She said something to Nick, gave him a quick kiss on the cheek, and rushed over.

"So?" I asked.

"So, what?" She said. She was playing dumb.

"You know what," I said to her. "What's going on between you and Nick?"

"Well . . ." she dragged out.

"Come on!" I shrieked quietly.

"We're going out!" She cried happily. I gave her a quick hug and looked across the room at Nick. He smiled at me and I gave him the thumbs up sign.

"Let's hope he and Kevin keep their word tonight because you know you won't be able to hold me back if they screw this night up for anyone."

"Don't worry," she assured me. "He'll keep his promise or I'll kick his butt."

"Kick who's butt?" Brian asked, coming up behind me and putting his arms around my waist.

"No one," I said. "Did you know Rachel and Nick are going out?"

"Yeah, Nick just told me two seconds ago," he said, turning to Rachel. "Congrats."

"Congrats on what?" Nick asked, coming up behind Rachel and putting his arms around her waist.

"Nothing," Rachel said mischievously. We pushed away from them and walked away quickly, knowing they'd follow us. The ran after us and grabbed onto us, pulling us in opposite directions. Waving good-bye to Rachel over Brian's shoulder, I looked at my watch to see what time it was (okay, so not the most normal reaction when being grabbed by your boyfriend, but oh, well.)

"It's almost 7:30," I said to Brian. "People should be coming soon."

"Yeah, which means I only get a few more minutes of you to myself," he said, pulling me into a corner.

"Now, why would you want to be alone with me?" I asked innocently.

"I don't know, let me think," he said, pulling me in and kissing me lightly on the lips. "Oh, yeah, now I remember."

"Wait a minute," I said pushing him away. "You're just using me for a kiss?" I said, mockingly mad. "Well, I don't think so, buster. You can find some other girl to be your bimbo." I started to walk away. He grabbed my arm and pulled me back against his chest, kissing passionately. "Well, maybe I'll stick around for little while."

"I hope so," Brian said softly. He pulled me back to him and kissed me deeply. After a few moments, we heard a voice behind us, which seemed to echo across the room.

"Get a room!" AJ groaned. We broke apart to see Maribeth, AJ, and Kevin behind us. I smiled sheepishly and looked down embarrassed, but only for a moment. When I looked across the room, I saw Joanne, Howie, and Jamie looking at Nick and Rachel in the same way these three were looking at me and Brian. They must have been caught in "action," too.

"C'mon," Maribeth said, grabbing my hand and pulling me away from Brian. "We have to talk." As she pulled me away, I looked at Brian and shrugged my shoulders. He laughed and started talking to AJ and Kevin.

"What?" I asked as she dragged me to the bar. Then Joanne came up next to us with Rachel in tow. Jamie wandered up by herself.

"Okay," Maribeth said, "we need to get one thing straight."

"What's that?" Jamie asked.

"Who's going out with who?" Joanne said.

"Well," Jamie said, "we know Alex is going out with Brian and Rachel is going out with Nick because we just witnessed it. Maribeth, you're going out with AJ. Anyone else?"

"Well, Kevin asked me out," Joanne said quietly. We all slowly turned our heads in her direction.

"When did this happen?" I asked in surprise.

"When you two were over there 'getting it on'," Joanne said, shooting accusing looks at me and Rachel.

"And you said . . . ?" I said, ignoring her looks.

"Yes," she said.

"That is so cool!!!!" I exclaimed (Yeesh! Please excuse the valley-girl moment!). I didn't realize I was so loud until the people coming in gave me weird looks. We all gave her a big hug, then turned to look at Jamie. "And you?" I asked.

"Well . . . ." she said. "Howie just kinda-sorta asked me out."

"Kinda-sorta?" Maribeth said.

"Well, he did ask me out," Jamie said.

"And . . . ?" I said. I hate having to drag things out of people.

"And, what?" Jamie asked. "I said yes. What else did you expect me to do?"

"This so awesome!" Maribeth exclaimed as we all gave Jamie a big hug. "We're all going out with a Backstreet Boy. Could you have ever imagined this?"

"Only in my wildest dreams," I said. "But it's not that they're the BSB. It's that they're the guys we've always dreamed of. At least for me."

"Definitely," Maribeth said. She was about to say something else, but she was cut off when Bob got on the microphone and asked everyone to find a seat. Thank God there was not assigned seating or everyone would have gone nuts!

We went and sat down at our table. The order went like this (the table was round): Brian, me, Maribeth, AJ, Howie, Jamie, Kevin, Joanne, Rachel, Nick, Brian, and so on.

I looked around the room. There were a lot of people my age, but more in their 40's and up. I saw a few people I knew and waved to them. They smiled and waved back. Then Bob, standing in the middle of the dance floor, began to speak.

"I'd like to welcome everybody to the 50th Annual Great Oak Yacht Club Dinner/Dance," he said. Everyone clapped (though it doesn't show, this group will get pretty rowdy once the dancing starts). Bob continued to speak. "Later, we will have some performances from our very own N'Sync and Galaxy, and a special performance by the Backstreet Boys, who have just come to our marina from . . . from . . ." He looked at our table. "Where are you guys from?"

"Actually," Kevin said, "this is our first boat, but we live in Orlando."

"Well, you sure picked a good group of boaters to hang out with. They can definitely show you 'the ropes'," said my friend Danny, who was sitting only a few tables away.

"Yeah," said Nate (one of Bob's friends. Everyone in the yacht club, and almost everyone in the marina, knew us by either name or nature). "These girls know exactly what they're doing. Alex can dock it with the best of them. Chris is pretty good at it, too."

"Except for the time he . . ." Justin started to say before Chris clamped his hand over his mouth and held it there.

"Now, that looks familiar," AJ leaned over and whispered to me. Kevin, Joanne, Brian, AJ, and I laughed quietly.

"Thanks for the compliment," Chris said, "but can we eat yet?"

"Okay, okay," Bob said. "First dinner, then dancing. The buffet is officially open, so everyone dig in."

As everyone went up to get their food, I went over to Danny's table and sat there until he got back. As soon as he got back, and he put his food down, I gave him a huge hug (after all, I haven't seen him in years). We talked for a few minutes then I left him with his dinner. As soon as I turned around, my friend, Shayna, was standing right in front of me. I haven't seen her in years, either, so I gave her a hug and we started chatting. We are probably the two most talkative people in earth . . . besides Jamie). Danny and Chris came up to us and joined into the conversation (we've all been friends for about eight years, but I've known Chris much longer). After a few minutes of talking, I heard someone call my name. I turned around to see Kevin waving me over to where he, JC, and Bob were standing with the band and DJ. I excused myself from our conversation and made my way over to them.

"You called?" I said.

"Bob is explaining to us when we're going on," Kevin said,

"Okay," Bob said, "now that everybody's here, I can start. JC, you and the guys will go first, then you, Alex. After that, we'll take a break for dessert, and then you guys will come on, Kevin. Everyone okay with that?" We all nodded, so he continued rapidly. "You guys can do whatever songs you want as long as they're danceable."

"Is that a word?" I asked.

"I don't know," Bob said frustrated, "but you know what I mean. Anyway, the DJ will throw in a few songs every now-and-then and you can do songs with each other for all I care, just remember to inform the band ahead of time. Most of the fast songs will be supplied by the DJ so you'll be mostly in charge of the ballads."

"What about the songs I told you about?" I asked Bob.

"You can do those," he said. Then he thought for a second. "Okay, we're done here. Any questions?"

"Nope," we all said.

"Okay, now go eat, and that goes for you, too Alex." (I'm usually not hungry)

"Okay, okay," I said, turning. I took a step and paused. I turned my head to look at Bob. "Bob?"

"Yeah, Alex?" he said.

"I need you to do something for me," I said.

"What?" he asked.

"Take a break, eat something, and relax for awhile. Everything's under control."

He smiled at me. "Okay."

"And have a little fun," I said, "That's an order." He shook his head and laughed, turning to talk to the band.