Chapter 4
"Hurry up Howie," Nick yelled into the bedroom that he and Howie
shared. (We had decided that they would both room together because they
both snored.)
"Yeah Howie," I added, "we have to meet Fatima at the hotels' dance
studio."
"Fine, fine," he said. "I'm hurrying." He walked out of the room.
"Let's go."
We all grabbed our hotel keys and left the room.
"Hey, do you guys hear that?" asked Brian.
"Hear what?" said Howie, giving Brian a wierd look.
"Brian are you hearing things?" I asked.
"Nah, it's just... forget it," he said. "It must have beeh my
imagination. I just thought that I heard our CD being played, that's
all."
"Uh-oh Brian," said Nick, "looks like the pressure has finally gotten
to you. Now you're hearing things." Nick backed away from Brian for a
second. "Yo, you aren't becoming senile, are you?"
"No, you guys, be quiet," AJ said. "I here it too."
The five of us stopped walking, and sure enough, we faintly heard
voices going: "woah-oh-oh, woah-oh-oh, boys will be boys."
"I wonder where it's coming from," I said.
"Probably from one of the hotel rooms," Howie said.
"Does anyone know anything about that dance competition that we have to
perform at?" I asked, changing the subject.
"Well, yah see," AJ started, "the concept is that there a bunch of
dance groups from a bunch of different places, and they all compete by
dancing, get it?"
"Shut up man," I said, giving him a light shove, kiddingly. "But
seriously, anyone know much about it?"
Howid and AJ shook their heads.
"Nah man," Brian said, "sorry."
I looked at Nick. "Nick?" I asked.
"Hey, don't look at me," he said, "I didn't even know we had to sing at
a competition till yesterday."
We talked about more stuff as we made our way towards the dance
studio. The music, we noticed, steadily continued to get louder.
"Who's playing that music?" Howie asked.
"Well, yah never know," I said, "Fatima might be redoing some of the
moves that we do."
"Like, for example, the crotch grab," AJ added.
"Hey, I like the crotch grab!" Howie stated.
We all gave Howie a look. "Oh c'mon you guys, I didn't mean it like
that!"
"Yeah, whatever Howie," Nick said.
"Really!"
"Howie, listen," AJ said,"I find it more than a little coincidential
that yesterday you were talking about not getting enough sex and today
tell us you like a dance move in which you hafta grab yer crotch. That's
actually more horny than coincidential."
"Yup," I said agreeing with AJ,"and AJ should know, since he's the
expert on horny."
"Hey, what's that supposed ot mean?" he said.
"Just what I said, that you get horny a lot," I said, "or at least you
act horny."
AJ opened his mouth to say something, then closed it. After hesitating
for a moment he said, "I guess you're right. It's just that, well, it's
hard to find a girl that you like when you're on the road, you know?"
We were all quiet for a moment. Brian, who had chosen to sit out on
the sex conversation decided to bread the silence by saying, "hey, has
anyone else noticed that the music has stopped?"
We all turned to Brian and gave him a look.
"Oh, sorry," he said.
"So..." Nick said, trying to think of a subject to talk about, "anyone
hear from the Wright's yet?"
"Oh I did," I said
.
"Did they tell you anything about when they're coming to Paris?" Nick
asked.
"No, because ti was only M-" I stopped myself just in time. "Uhh, they
only talked about minor things, like reminding me to, uhh... feed my
neighbor's dog before I left."
"Why would they remind you of that?" AJ asked, giving me a wierd look.
"Uhh... I asked them to," I llied.
"Hey Kev, you don't need to..." Howie started, but stopped once I shot
him a glare, "oh yeah, nevermind, I guess ya do."
Damn, that sure was a close one. I guess you might be wondering about
what just happened. You see, I really did get a call from one of the
Wright's, but it was Marissa, not Donna or Johnny. [author's note:
okay, I know that some of you die-hard AJ fans (like me) know Marissa's
real last name is Jackson, but don't worry, kay, this is just a story.}
Yup, that's the same Marissa that used to go out with AJ.
Well, yah see, Marissa and I ahve been going out for awhile now, that's
one of the reasons Marissa wanted to break up with AJ, but she told him
she wanted to break up with him because he was gone for too long. The
real reason was that Marissa and I had hooked up about a monthe after
she and Aj had been dating, and, well, to make a really, really long
story short, we began sneaking around for awhile, Howie found out about
it, and to this day, Marissa and I are still going out, AJ doesn't know
about it, and Howie is the only one who does know. And he three of us
are keeping quiet about it because AJ might get hurt when he finds out
the truth. But then again, AJ would get even more hurt if he finds out
for himself, so my plan was to tell him during the trip... damn I hope
he gets screwed by someone fine, he's always in a better mood after sex.
"Kevin? Hey Kev, snap out of it!" Nick's voice interrupted my
thoughts.
"Oh, sorry guys," I apologized. [Author's Note: Hey, that rhymes!]
"What'd ya say?"
"We were just wondering what song you might like to do for the
performance at the dance competition tomorrow," Brian informed me.
"What about All I Have To Give," I suggested.
Well, we discussed what song to do faor a few minutes, all of us taking
notice of the music that started up again, but no one mentioned it,
until the music got steadily louder, and louder, and louder.
"Well, maybe it's Fatima," I suggested again, "after all, now it's
obvious it's coming from a dance studio, since those are practically the
only things of the first floor that would have music coming from it."
"It sounds like it's coming from over there," AJ said, nodding his head
to one of the rooms.
"Let's go check it out then," said Brian, "it probably is Fatima
anyways, like Kevin said.
So we walked over to the room. We heard a girl counting off the beats,
and her voice didn't sound like Fatima's at all. We looked into the
doorway and saw not Fatima, but two really pretty girls making up new
steps to "Boys Will Be Boys"
"Wow, they're really good," I commented.
"Yeah," Howie agreed, "and they have some really great moves too. They
must be here for the dance competition."
"Oh my God, it's her," AJ said, "it's the gine girl I saw at the
airport, and in the lobby!"
AJ had told us about this girl earlier, but I still didn't know what
she looked like since I wasn't there to see her.
"Which one is she?" I asked him.
"The one with the gray beanie," AJ told me.
The five of us stood at the doorway and watched them finish their
routing. They WERE really good dancers, the best I had ever seen. And
I hate to say it, but they were better than me, Brian, Howie, AJ, and
Nick combined [Author's Note: okay, now before some of you guys start
e-mailing me, calling me names, and telling me that no one dances better
than the boys, I would just like to say that this is my way of
emphasizing how good the two girls are at dancing, kay, and also a
reminder that this is only fiction].
As soon as they finished their routine, the five of us started
applauding. The two girls looked at us in surprise.
"Wow, you guys are great," complimented Nick, as the eldest looking
girl went to stop the tape.
"Thanks," said the girl AJ liked.
"I hope you don't mind us watching you," Howie said.
"Yeah," AJ added, not taking his eyes off the girl with the beanie,
"it's just that we heard the music, and we sorta glanced in here..."
"It's all good," said the older looking one. "We're used to performing
in front of people anywayze. I'm Essence, by the way."
"And I'm Jana, said the one AJ liked. "And you guys are...?"
The five of us looked at each other in disbelief. They didn't know who
we were! Finally, AJ spoke up. "I'm AJ," he said, shooting the rest of
us a look that meant, "go along with it and don't tell them.
So the rest of us introduced ourselves, and even then Jana and Essence
didn't show any sign that they heard of us.
"Are you guys here for the dance competition?" Brian asked.
"Yeah," replied Jana, "how did you know about it?"
"Oh, it's just that we're perfor-" Brian began to say, but stopped when
AJ shot him a look to shut the hell up.
"He means that his cousin is performing in it," AJ improvised.
"Really, what's her name?" Jana, asked.
"April," Brian said.
"Rachel," AJ said at the same time.
The two of them looked at each other then quickly said:
"Rachel," Brian said the same time AJ said, "April."
Jana and Essence shot us a couple of wierd looks.
"Oh see, it's just her fist name is Rachel, but she doesn't like her
first name because there are too many peeops with that name, so then
sometimes she goes by her middle name, which is April," Brian hurridly
explained.
"Oh," was all Jana said, looking a little skeptical, but at least
essence seemed to believe the (lame) answer.
A rather akward silence followed, which was fortunatly broken by
Essence.
"Hey," he said, glancing at the tape in her hands that she had just
taken out of the stereo, "I dunno why i'm asking this, but have you guys
heard of a group called the Backstreet Boys?"
"Umm, yeah," Nick said, "I hear that they're pretty poplular in
Europe."
"Why do you ask?" I inquired, alittle paranoid that they were asking
just to check whether we would lie or not.
"It's just that we were just dancing to one of their songs, and I just
wanted to know if anyone has heard of them," Essence said.
"If you haven't heard of them how did you get their tape?" Nick asked.
"We found it in here," Essence replied.
"Yup," Jana added,"we found it behind the stereo. So why are you guys
here?" she asked us.
"Oh, we're on vacation," Howie informed her.
The conversation continued, and we got to know each other a little
better. The two girls seemed really cool, so naturally, I wuz pretty
disappointed when I remembered Fatima was waiting for us somwhere.
"Hey guys," I said, "I hate to say this, but we've really gotta go."
"Oh yeah," said Brian, "I almost forgot."
"Forgot what?" Nick asked, being kinda dense.
"That we hafta... uh... pick up April at da airport," I said.
"What?" asked Nick, looking confused. "Oh... yeah," he said, finally
catching on.
"Oh, too bad..." said Essence, looking disappointed.
"Hey, do you guys wanna get together late on tonight?" Jana asked us.
"We have some roommateds that you might wanna meet."
"Sure," AJ said, "just tell us when and where."
So Jana told us the name of the club and to show up at 8:00.
The seven of us said our good-byes adn Howie, Brian, AJ, Nick and I
walked out the door to go find Fatima.
"Do you think Fatima will be mad at us cuz we're late?" asked Brian.
"Who cares," said AJ, "I just got hooked up with Jana."
I glanced at AJ. I hoped that he and Jana would hook up, because then
maybe he wouldn't get so pissed when I told him about me and Marissa...
