AJ sighed as he saw the masses of people waiting by the elevators. He clicked on the button even though it was already pressed by about 20 people who had been waiting there for minutes before. He started tapping his foot and looking up at the ceiling impatiently. Destiny looked at him amused. She always knew that the word patient didn’t exist in his vocabulary but never did she think he could get this bad. Minutes which seemed like hours passed and AJ started pacing to relieve his stress. Destiny walked after him and like a mirror copied his every move. AJ turned around to face her with a ‘what the heck’ look on his face. She gave him an apologetic smile and stepped on his feet.

“Stay.”
AJ ignored her comments and continued pacing with her on his feet.
“Stay!” She repeated with a stern voice.
AJ stopped in his track and let her off.
“Good boy! You deserve a treat for that.”
“Hmm can I choose the treat?”
“Nope, it’s gonna be a nice hearty portion of dog chow. Thanks for the ride, though.”

“FINALLY.” AJ chirped as the elevator reached the lobby.
“Alex, darling, only 5 minutes have passed.” Destiny said and walked over to the elevator.
“No way.”
“Yeah way.”
“You’re shitting me.”
“God I hope not. That would hurt.”
“You think you’re sooo funny don’t you?”
“Yeah, I do.”

AJ didn’t know how to reply so he stood there with a blank expression and waited for his turn to enter the elevator. Six people were already squeezed in like a can of sardines. AJ and Destiny entered, shoving and elbowing people in the process. The people gave them an annoyed look and one woman pointed to a sign on the right side of the door. It read “Limit of 7 passengers” and underneath in a smaller font size “500 kg”.

“Well I don’t know about you kind people, but last time i checked I didn’t weigh that much and my girlfriend here is pretty tiny so we can pass as one person.” AJ said with a smile.
He did a little happy dance as the doors were about to close. The doors slammed open when the sensor sensed someone was standing by the door. Groans were heard from around the small space.
“Uh sorry...” AJ apologized as he backed up and waved to the people still waiting outside. “Suckers.” he mumbled under his breath.

Slowly but surely they found themselves getting off at their floor. They bid their polite farewells and stumbled over to their room, giggling and feeling eachother up as they walked. A maid was cleaning the rooms and looked over at them as if they were drunk. AJ stopped by her, turned his head sideways and looked at her with the same look she was giving them.
“What? Do you think I’m drunk?”
“No sir, I was just...” She began explaining.
“I’m not drunk, you know. I don’t do that shit anymore.”
“Oh. I know.” The maid said in broken English.
“Alex...”Destiny grabbed him by the sleeve.
“I’m just playin, Des.” He said as he slipped the maid a 20 dollar bill and returned to his girlfriend.
“Yeah well you shouldn’t play around with people who don’t even speak English.”
“Sorry baby.” He said as he pouted and whimpered.
“Don’t do that!” She said and dramatically covered her eyes with her hands.
“Okay, I might have no make up on but I know I’m damn sexy. You know you want me right here right now.”
“Obviously I do but it would be kinda hard with all the pigs flying around but hey you could always buy me some ice cream from the devil over there.”
“Ouch, okay, no more sarcasm.” He said holding his hand to his chest.
Destiny shrugged and pressed her ear to the door as they reached the room.
“Hear anything?” He asked from behind.
“Nothing. You don’t think they would have killed eachother, do you?”
“Probably not.” AJ said as he grabbed the knob and turned it around.
Their jaws dropped to the floor.

“What the HELL happened here?” Destiny said, raising her voice.
“What do you mean?” Brian asked innocently.
“I mean why the hell does the room look like it’s been attacked by kindergartners on a finger painting day.” She looked over at the carpet which was stained by red strawberries and some whipped cream.
AJ squinted his eyes and his face reddened by the minute.
“Brian, what the hell? Those were mine.”
“Yeah, well, we were hungry.”
“Last time I checked you knew how to eat without spitting the food all over.” AJ said and looked over to Brian. “and without smudging the food all over yourself...” he added.
“We were handcuffed.” Coral said, showing her arm to everyone present.
“Oh my god...” Destiny said, nearly tumbling over from her laughing fit.
“You’d think a man could leave his fruit in his hotel room without his friend stealing them.” AJ said to himself.
“What’s so funny?” Coral questioned.
“The handcuffs, they’re FAKE.” Destiny said.
“What?”
“Yeah you just had to tap them with your finger.” She walked over to them, “like this”, she tapped on the metal handcuffs and they opened.
“I was sure you would figure it out.” Destiny sad and sat on the bed by them.

“YOU ARE SO DEAD!” Coral said as she jumped on her friends back and tackled her to the floor.
“Now here’s a show I wouldn’t mind watching.” AJ said and sat on the chair facing the two girls.
“Shouldn’t we do something?” Brian asked.
“And miss a free show? You’re too holy for your own good, bro.” AJ sighed and shook his head at his long time friend.
“So what did you guys do...other than wreck a perfectly good hotel room. You’re going to have to pay for this, you know. Plus, I ain’t staying here. This my friend, is your new room. Enjoy.” AJ grinned.
“I got the picture, AJ. We talked. She’s still a bitch.” Brian sighed and thought about the agreement he made with Coral. No mention of the kiss. It was meaningless. They would go back to the way things were before and never again repeat those actions.
“She’s still a bitch, huh?” AJ looked at him weirdly.
“Yeah, that she is. Curiosity killed the cat, McLean.” Brian said as if to warn his friend and stop him for digging any further.
“Touchy.” AJ said and returned his glance over to the girls.
“OUCH.” Destiny squeaked as Coral grabbed her hair.
“Now if we added some mud or Jello to this and changed their clothes into a bikini, life would be perfect.
“McLean, get your butt over here and HELP ME.” Destiny hollered.
“Nah, that’s okay.” He said carelessly.
“Sleep with an eye open.” She said and managed to flip over her friend.
Destiny got up and walked over to the mirror, fixed her hair and gave Coral an icy glance.
“Relax woman. It couldn’t have been that bad.”
“Oh yeah? you weren’t locked in here with THAT.”
“I’m sorry. Still friends?”
“Yeah...” Coral said and they hugged.
“NO! Come on more fighting!” AJ whined at the two.

Brian cringed as he heard Coral referring to him as ‘that’. He liked her and couldn’t believe she just wanted to ignore everything. It didn’t add up in his mind. He couldn’t just move on after feeling such electricity in one touch. It was meant to be. He didn’t know if he could handle her throwing insults at him. Brian was never really one to cuss to begin with but he definitely couldn’t do it at someone he cared about. He rolled his eyes and leaned on the head rest. A heavy sigh escaped from his mouth as he felt something sticky attach to his hair.
“Great just what I need, strawberry shampoo.” Brian said quietly.

“CHUG A CHUG!” Nick yelled as he opened the doors of the hotel and breathed in the fresh air. He looked at the dark sky and smelled the ocean. It was about 3 am, the sun was still in hiding and the only lights were the ones shining on the polls near the hotel. Nick leaned against one and sighed as he realized the vacation was over. He spoiled himself actually having time for himself and for his family but it was time to go back. Europe needed them to continue their world tour. Everything was back to order and even better than before, they had 2 new recruits, to torture. He smirked at the thought and looked at his watch.
“Where the hell is everybody?” He asked his bodyguard who shrugged in reply.
“Thank you. It was nice talking to you.” Nick said and sunk down to the floor.
“Why am I always the only one up?”
“You? Please.” AJ said groggily and covered his eyes with a new pair of shades.
“Are you insane?” Nick asked.
“Probably but why do you ask?”
“It’s 3 am. There is no sun.”
“No shit.”
“Okay, whatever, you’re just plain weird.”
“And it took you nine years to figure that out?” A woman’s voice was heard.
He squinted and saw it was Destiny’s figure.
“Did you two sleep in the same room or something?”
“No Nick, we slept out here.” Destiny commented and pointed to the curb.
“Yeah, we decided to give the entire neighborhood a night to remember.”
“Okay, sorry I asked.” Nick looked away in horror. AJ just laughed and sat down, pulling Destiny into his lap.
“You guys have rubbed off on eachother too much. I think I may have liked it better when you were constantly fighting.”
“It’s okay Nick, you have Coral and Brian to replace us.”
“They still haven’t made up?”
“Not even close.” Destiny said with a sigh.

A cab pulled up and out came two very sleepy girls, Carrie and Coral. They made their way toward the group, bumping into things and tripping was included in the process. The rest looked at them amused. They were all pretty used to getting up early and managing to focus and function. On the other hand, Carrie and Coral were completely ignorant to this way of living.
“I give em two weeks to get used to getting up early.” Destiny said.
“More like a month.” Nick said
“I have faith, I’ll go with a week.”
“Wanna bet?” Destiny said.
“Betting over what?” Coral mumbled.
“Over how long it’ll take you two to act like normal people at 3 am in the morning.” Destiny explained.
“That’s not how things go. Normal people, apparently not you, are sleeping at this time. We wake in the morning and sleep it night. It’s a cycle. A cycle that should not be broken!” Carrie said.
“I’ll remind you, sweetheart, that you wanted this job.” AJ said as he stretched his leg and playfully kicked her.
“Yeah, yeah, whatever. I was manipulated.”
“Taken advantage of!” Coral completed her sentence.
“No theater classes until I’ve had another 4 hours of sleep.” Brian announced as he joined his people.

Destiny closed her eyes for what seemed to be a second but when they opened she noticed about 10 suitcases resting beside her and the entire crew was ready and impatiently waiting for the mini van which was supposed to have arrived already.

“Why are these things always late?” Kevin said, obviously angry.
“I don’t know Kevin, maybe if we knew why you were always late we could explain this phenomenal.” AJ snapped.
“Yeah, I basically had to burst into your room and drag you out of bed this morning.”
“I was talking to my wife. I only got an hour of sleep. So sue me.”
“I would but that would involve getting a lawyer and I don’t want to get screwed.”
“Whoa, AJ refusing to get screwed. That’s a first.”
“Okay let me correct myself. I don’t want to get screwed by some middle aged guy who only wants my money.”
“God baby that sounds worse.” Destiny said. “Leave me alone!” AJ whimpered and dug his face into his girlfriend’s neck.
“VAN TIME!” Nick jumped up as the van finally pulled up the hotel. He covered his head with the cap of his beloved white sweatshirt and jumped into the backseat.
“Someone’s way too hyper.” Carrie said as she lazily followed him into the van.
“You two, you’re forgetting to put the bags in the trunk.”
“What bags?” Carrie said acting dumb.
“Do you know what bags Kev’s talking about?” Carrie asked turning to Nick.
Nick started snoring loudly, pretending to be fast asleep.

Kevin soon gave up and carried their bags and stuck them in the trunk.
“I hope something breaks.” He mumbled and entered the van. He found a seat, far away from Nick and his little friend.

“Des, get up.” AJ ordered.
“Nope.”
“But...”
“No buts, you’re a comfy human pillow.”
“Destiny, my butt’s numb.”
“Get a pillow.”
“Where the hell do you want me to get a pillow from?”
“I dunno, I can’t think of everything.” She said teasingly.
“You’re evil, woman.”
“Maybe so, man.” She grinned.
“Don’t make me pout...”
“Okay, okay, I’m up.” She jumped up and offered her hand to him.
“Thanks.” He said as he grabbed it.
“Get in, I’ll take care of the bags.”
“Aw thanks! Aren’t you the sweetheart.”
“I try.”
“You do a good job.”
“Anything for you.” He winked and walked to the back of the car where Howie greeted him.

“Ready?”
“Yeah, I’m pretty psyched. It’s gonna be good.” AJ replied.
“Yeah, me too. I love the rush I get from performing.”
“You guys we’re leaving!” Kevin yelled from inside the van.

They were all rested and ready to give the tour a new beginning. Little did they know that this new chapter would open up many issues they would have never even dreamt about. It was going to be a long tour. A long, interesting tour.