"I'll go see how soon we'll be at the hotel," offered Howie, getting up off the floor.

The rest of us sat there quietly in the TV room. He came back a minute later. "We'll be at the hotel in about an hour," he said.

"Okay," said Kevin.

Brian walked over and took the remote from on top of the TV. He flicked it on, and found a basketball game on. Everyone got settled to watch it. I got up off the couch and went out into the kitchenette for a glass of water. I poured myself some, and sat down at the booth. My legs weren't supporting me like they were supposed to.

Nick came in a little later. "Hey," I greeted.

"Hey, Rini." He shuffled through a couple cupboards before emerging with a bag of something.

"You've been hiding chocolate chip cookies!" I accused.

He grinned. "Yup. But I might be willing to share." He sat down across from me, and pointed the bag in my direction. I grabbed a few, and started to eat.

The two of us sat in silence for a little while, munching on the cookies. I guess I didn't want to break the silence and neither did he. I ended up breaking the silence because I yawned.

"You tired?" he asked, looking at me from under the mop of blonde hair that had fallen in his face.

I tried not to smile at Nick's current puppy dog look. "Yeah, it's been a long day. A really long day."

He chuckled. "Yeah. Well, we'll be at the hotel soon and you can go to bed."

"But I'll need dinner!" I said.

He laughed now. "For a such a little person you sure can eat a lot!"

I threw a piece of my chocolate chip cookie at his head. It bounced off onto the table.

He looked up, mouth open in shock. He then picked up the piece off the table, and pegged it at me. It hit me smack in the middle of the forehead.

"Ow!" I cried. "That hurt!" I broke off a larger piece of cookie, and threw it at him. It hit his nose. Soon we were in the middle of a mad cookie fight.

"Eeek!" I shouted as I threw my hands up in front of my face to block a cookie bit from hitting me. As I did that, my arm brushed my untouched glass of water. It fell over, and the water poured off the table, onto Nick's lap.

"Aah!" he yelled, hopping up. But it was too late, the front of his pants were soaked. I started cracking up. He glared at me.

"I'm sorry," I gasped, "but it looks like you peed your pants!" I put my head in my arms, and continued laughing as he got up and got some paper towels to clean up.

"AAAAAHHH!!" I screamed at the top of my lungs. I jumped out of my seat, and started hopping around madly. An ice cube fell out the back of my shirt onto the tile floor. "You!" I said, looking at Nick with anger.

He put his hands up in the air. "I had to get you back," he protested.

I walked up to him, and was about to hit him again, but he grabbed my wrists. He easily held me still, his big six foot one frame holding down my 110 pound one. He was pushing me toward a wall in the narrow "hall" we were standing in. I was almost against the wall when the bus went over a huge bump. I lost my balance, and fell backwards, taking Nick with me.

"Aah!" I yelled as we fell towards the ground.

We landed with a thump, Nick laying on top of me. He was still holding my wrists. He looked down at me, and I looked up at him laying on top of me. I stuck my tongue out at him, and he stuck his out at me.

The other Backstreet Boys came rushing over to see what all the noise was about.

"Nick!" shouted Kevin, with a horrified look on his face. "Get off of her!"

I started laughing, suddenly understanding why he was looking at us like that. It must have looked really bad, Nick laying on top of me, still holding my wrists. I pushed him off of me, and he rolled over next to me.

"No, no, no, it's not like that," I said, still laughing, laying on the ground.. "He put ice down my back, and I was about to hit him, so he grabbed my wrists, and then the bus went over that huge bump and I lost my balance and we fell. He just landed on top of me. It's not like you think!"

Brian started to laugh, then walked over and offered me his hand. I took it, and he pulled me up off the ground. "You okay?" he asked.

"Yeah," I said, rubbing my behind. "I think I may have bruised my butt though."

Now everyone else started to laugh, even Nick who was still sitting on the floor. I offered Nick my hand, which he took and hopped up.

"Let's go watch the basketball game," suggested Howie. "Before anything else happens."

We all headed into the TV room and I sat down on the couch. After about ten minutes of watching Kentucky State beat Villanova, I got bored of the basketball game. I decided I'd go and lay down in my tiny bunk. I got up, went into my bunk, popped in my favorite Mariah Carey CD, and eventually fell asleep.

I was performing on-stage, and singing my remake of Forever, originally done by Mariah Carey. All of a sudden, this guy comes on-stage, holding a bouquet of red roses. He starts serenading me, and walks up close. The strange thing is his face is masked. He finishes singing to me, and I hear him whisper my name softly. I go to lift off his mask, and-

"Nick?" I asked softly.

"Yeah," he responded. "Wake up sleepyhead, we're at the hotel."

I fully open my eyes, and realize that it was just Nick coming to wake me up.

"You made me miss seeing who my Prince Charming is," I murmured sleepily.

"What?" he asked, looking confused.

"Oh, nevermind." I got out of the bunk, and stretched. AJ came out of the

TV room, holding my bag that was had been in there.

"Good to see you, Cinderella," he joked, handing me the bag.

"That's Sleeping Beauty," corrected Brian, following him out of the room.

"She was the beautiful one that slept, hence the name."

"Yeah, and was woken up by her Prince Charming," added Howie.

I shot a glare at him. "Oh, hush, you!" I grabbed my bag from AJ and hopped down off the bus.

Kevin and the bus driver were unloading our overnight bags from underneath the bus. I took my bag, and headed toward the hotel door. "I'll check in!" I called back to the Boys.

I was almost at the door when Nick caught up to me. "Princesses shouldn't carry their own bags," he said. "Want some help?"

"No," I said sharply. "I'm a feministic princess."

He gave me a hurt look. "Nick, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to snap at you like that. I guess even Princesses need some time to wake up from their naps," I joked, trying to make it all better.

He smiled at that. "I understand. Even frogs like me have that problem sometimes."

I smiled. "I don't think you're a frog," I said, looking up at him.

"Really? But a frog gets to be kissed by a beautiful princess, and then gets turned into a prince. It's really the best of both worlds." He looked down at me.

I blushed, and was so thankful we had just reached the check-in desk.

"May I help you?" asked a bored-looking woman sitting at the front desk.

"Yes, I believe we have reservations here under Donna Wright?"

The lady checked her computer. "Four rooms?"

"Yeah. That sounds right."

"Here." She grabbed some keys from a shelf in the back. "You're in rooms

1023, 1024, 1025, and 1026."

I took the keys from her. "Thank you very much."

She nodded absentmindedly, and went back to the magazine she had been reading.

The other four Backstreet Boys came up behind us then. I handed out the keys amongst them. I got my own room because I was the only girl, Brian and Nick were going to share a room, and so were AJ and Howie. Kevin got the other single room.

"So what are we going to do for dinner?" asked Brian, as we all headed towards the elevator.

"We could just eat at the restaurant down here," suggested Howie.

Brian nodded. "That would work. But it's kind of fancy, would anyone mind dressing up a bit?"

Everyone shook their heads. Kevin glanced at his watch. "It's six thirty now. How about we all meet outside the rooms in an hour."

The elevator door opened, and we all stepped off.

"An hour it is," I said, finding my room. I unlocked it and stepped inside.

"See ya!"

I shut and locked the door behind me. I always had some paranoid fear about not locking hotel room doors. I threw my two bags down on the bed. I opened the one that had my clothes, and pulled out a wrinkled dress. I found the ironing board hotels always shove in the back of the closet, and set it up in the middle of the bedroom. I turned the iron on, and laid my dress on the board.

I flipped on the TV, but there was nothing good on. I ended up watching some Spanish soap opera for five minutes while the iron heated up. I quickly ironed the dress, and hung it on a hanger in the closet. I decided I'd then take a shower, because after being on a bus all day, I was starting to feel extremely gross.

I turned on the water to cool, because it was warm out in the middle of nowhere. I stepped out of my clothes, and took my hair down, and hopped into my cool shower.

"You make me feel, you make me feel, you make me feel like a natural woman, woman," I sang as the refreshing water poured down over me. I've always loved to sing in the shower, it has good acoustics.

I got out about twenty minutes later, and wrapped myself in a big fluffy white towel. I turned on my portable radio while I got ready for dinner, singing along to a bunch of my favorite songs.

At seven-thirty exactly there was a knock at my door. I flipped off my radio, grabbed my sweater, unlatched the lock, and swung the door open.

**********