~*~*~THE NEXT MORNING~*~*~
“Aaron,” I shook him. “Wake up.”
“OK, stop shaking me,” he said sitting up. “What time is it?”
“11:45.”
“When do we have our sound check?”
“5:30.”
“Then why did you wake me up?” he whined.
“Ugh, you baby, just get up! It’s almost noon.”
“Alllllright.”
“Lets get some lunch,” I suggested.
“Ohhhh food!! Good idea,” he ran to the kitchen and sat at the table.
“Calm down hyper kid. What do you want?” I regretted it the minute the words left my mouth.
“I want a hamburgers, chips, fries, icecream, candy, pizza, cookies, and Mountain Dew, and-”
“Woa, stop! I think you just created the world’s unhealthiest meal!”
“Well it all sounds good!”
“How about McDonalds?”
“Yeah!”
“I’ll call the guys, I’m sure they’ll wanna stop.” I picked up the phone and dialed their bus. When it was ringing, I said to Aaron, “Go get dressed.” He got up and left the room as Howie answered. “Hey!”
“Hi Lins.”
“Me and Aaron want some McDonalds. Do you guys want to join us?”
“Sure. I call your bus driver and the bus that Innosense is on and we’ll stop.”
“OK. See ya.”
“Bye.”
“How long til I get food?” Aaron asked bouncing back into the room.
“A few minutes..tops.”
“I’m hungry!”
“Chill it won’t be long.” The bus came to a stop and Aaron and I hopped off. Five girls got off the first bus and I knew they were the girls of Innosense. Then the guys stepped out of their bus.
“Hey AC!” Brian greeted Aaron.
“You didn’t try anything on my girlfriend last night did ya?” Nick asked moving towards me and slipping his arm around my waist.
“Nick!” Aaron blushed.
“Stop, you’re embarrassing him!” I told him. This made Aaron blush more. “Sorry Aaron,” I apologized.
“Yo! Lets eat!” AJ hollered. We all followed him into McDonalds.
When we were inside, someone screeched, “Nick!”
“Uh, hi, Nikki,” he said uncomfortably.
“How are you?” she asked sweetly, brushing her light brown hair out of her face.
“Umm, fine,” he tightened his grip around me.
“Good! Hi, I’m Nikki,” she turned her attention to me.
“I’m Lindsey.”
“Are you Nicky’s friend?” Nick cringed when she called him Nicky. She knew damn well that we were more than friends. It was very apparent by the way he had his arm around me, but Nick decided to clear it up for her.
“GIRLfriend,” Nick corrected her.
“Aww, how cute!”
“Yeah, uh, well, we gotta go..umm...eat! Bye!” I said as we walked away from her. “What’s with that girl?”
“She’s just...I dunno...weird I guess.”
“No kidding!” we laughed as we stepped in line to order and sat at a table with Aaron, AJ, and Howie after getting our food. “So, how many times did Bri call Mary last night?”
“Well, counting the time he called just to say we had left the parking lot-as if she didn’t know- I’d say about 6,” Howie stated.
“That’s pathetic!” I laughed.
“You’re tellin me!”
“Who’s Mary?” Aaron asked.
“Brian’s girlfriend,” I answered.
“What happened to Leighanne?”
Knowing I couldn’t-and wouldn’t-answer that, I looked over at Nick. “Oh, uh they broke up,” he answered.
“I liked her. She was so nice!”
“So is Mary.”
“Are you guys done?” Kevin walked over to our table with Brian at his side.
“Yeah, I guess,” AJ said. The 4 of us threw our trash away and returned to our busses.
About four hours later, we arrived at the Music Center in Atlanta. “Jeez, it’s already 5:15! We have to get in there!” I told Aaron.
“Do we gotta?”
“Aaron! You and your brother whine way too much!”
“Soooo....”
“Come on!” I grabbed his arm and pulled him off the bus. I saw masses of screaming girls holding signs for Aaron and the Backstreet Boys. “Woa...”
“Cool, huh?” Aaron glowed.
“Very!” We ran into the building and were joined by the guys.
“We have to go to our dressing room after the soundcheck so I won’t see you until the prayer before the show. So, see ya and good luck!” Nick hugged me.
“Thanks! Bye.”
“We have to go to our dressing room,” Aaron informed me.
“We? Our?”
“Yeah. You’re gonna be standing right next to me onstage so you have to look really good to. So, you get a dressing room too.”
“Really? That’s so cool!!”
“Uhuh, lets go.” I followed him around the building until we stopped at a door that said ‘Aaron Carter’ and one next to it said ‘Lindsey Van Fleet’.
“I thought you said it was one room.”
“No, they’re connected by a door.”
“OK.”
“I have to go for my soundcheck. See ya!” he ran off and I opened the door. I walked into the large dressing room. There were huge mirrors all around the room. I had NO idea I was gonna be RIGHT next to Aaron. I figured I’d be in the back with the rest of his band.
“There you are!” A man in black appeared out of the walk-in closet.
“Uh, hi.”
“I’m Frank, you’re hairdresser.”
“Ohh...OK”
“Sit, sit, sit. We must get started,” he clapped his hands. I obeyed and sat in a large chair in front of one of the mirrors. “You have gorgeous red hair!”
“Thank you.”
~*~*~20 MINUTES LATER~*~*~
“Done.” I looked into the mirror.
“Wow! That looks great!”
“Thank you. Now I have to do your makeup. Sit back in the chair.”
When he was done, he helped me pick out an outfit from the piles to choose from.
“Thanks so much!” I said when I was dressed and ready.
“You’re very welcome. Good luck. I must be going, ta-ta!” he waved his hand up high and walked out.
One word came to mind when I thought of him, ‘GAY!’ I laughed as I walked out of the dressing room. I bumped right into a girl with jet black hair. She was just as dressed up as I was so I figured she was one of the girls from Innosense. “Oh, I’m sorry!” I apologized.
“Yeah, whatever,” she replied curtly as she walked away.
“Ok,” I mumbled as I took off in the other direction. I felt a gust of wind behind me, then hands cover my eyes.
“Guess who,” they tried to disguise their voice but I knew it all too well.
“Lets see, Aaron?”
He took his hands off my eyes. “Ugh, do you honestly think I sound like that little brat?”
“Gosh AJ! Relax, I was just kidding!”
“Oh. Sorry!” he smiled.
“It’s ok,” I laughed.
“Woa...” he looked me up and down. “Nice!”
“Why thank you Mr. McLean!”
“No sweat.”
“So where’s everyone else?”
“Dressing room. That’s where I’m headed. You can come if you want.”
“Ok. Take me there.”
“I wanna go there, take me there you know where,” AJ sang.
“You could NEVER pass for Mya!”
“I know, but it was worth a try!” I followed him down some halls and around a few corners before we came to a door that said ‘Backstreet Boys’.
AJ opened the door. “Hey guys-” I started and quickly turned around and faced the hall. Brian stood there in the middle of the room in his boxers.
“Oh my god! Sorry!”
“Hello! Knock please!” Brian yelled.
“Sorry, AJ said I could come in.”
“Bone!”
“Sorry man. We usually don’t walk around in our underwear!”
“Ok, I have pants on now.”
I turned around and walked in the room. “I’m really sorry.”
“It’s ok. Nick’s back there,” he pointed to a closed door.
“Kay. Should I just open it?” I joked. “Maybe I’ll get lucky!”
“Maybe...” Brian laughed.
I knocked on the door and Nick opened it, to my disappointment, fully dressed. I turned and smiled at Brian. He laughed and sat down on a couch.
“Hey! You look amazing!” Nick said.
I turned around to face him again. “Thank you. You look pretty hot yourself.”
“I know,” he smiled and pulled me into a hug.
“Confident are we?” I teased.
“Well, look at me. What’s there NOT to be confident about?”
“Hmm, ya got me there!”
“We have to go for the prayer now because Aaron goes on in about 15 minutes.”
“Oh, I’m so nervous.”
“It always happens to all of us.”
“Ready to go guys?” Kevin asked as we joined their circle backstage.
“Yeah.”
Brian mumbled a prayer then everyone said, “Amen.”
“Good luck AC!” Aaron bounced onto the stage and hopped around full of energy.
About 10 minutes later, the stageman came and told me to go onstage.
“Good luck!” Nick kissed me before I picked up my flute and walked onto the stage next to Aaron.
“Hey guys! Now I’ve got a special treat for ya!” The audience cheered. “My friend Lindsey here is gonna play her flute for me in my next song, ‘One Bad Apple.’” They cheered even louder.
As the music started, I got major butterflies in my stomach as I waited for my turn to come in. When Aaron hit his first note, I began to play. About half way through his song, he stopped singing and all the background music stopped too. I didn’t know what they were doing but I was told not to stop playing unless I was instructed to so I kept on going. I played by myself for about 3 minutes until the music started again and Aaron finished his song. The audience went wild and I quickly exited the stage.
“You did great!” Nick said.
“Oh my god! Why didn’t anyone tell me he was gonna stop?”
“We didn’t know. Only he and his band knew,” Nick defended everyone.
“Oh...”
About 15 minutes later Aaron said his good-byes and came backstage. “You sounded cool!” he said to me.
“Cool? You’re weird kid!”
“I know!” he smiled.
He stepped closer to me but I backed away. “Eww! You’re all sweaty! Go change.” I laughed and he dashed off to his dressing room.“ That kid’s a riot!”
“Something like that,” Kevin rolled his eyes.
~*~*~AFTER THE SHOW~*~*~
“Nick PLEASE ride on my bus tonight,” Aaron begged.
“OK.”
“Yes!” Aaron jumped on the bus as I walked outside.
“What’s going on?”
“I’m stayin on your bus tonight.”
“Cool! We’ll have a slumber party!” I joked.
“Yeah! I gotta go get some stuff. I’ll be on in a minute.”
He came back a little while later and saw Aaron and me playing Mortal Kombat. “You know that’s my favorite game! Move over,” Nick stole the remote from Aaron.”
“Hey!” he whined.
“Chill bro!”
“Ha! I beat ya!” he gushed.
“Oh, so it’s a competition now?” he nodded. “Ok, if I win, you gotta....umm...dye your hair...BLUE!”
“Ugh! No way!”
“Yes!”
“Fine then. You have to take out that navel ring and let it close up if I win.”
“I thought you liked it.”
“Eh, not really.”
“You’re on! Best 2 out of 3.”
“OK.” We restarted the game and played 2 matches. I won one and Nick won the other.
“Come on Lindsey! You gotta win. I wanna see Nick look like a clown!”
We started our 3rd game and I kicked his butt. His mouth dropped open. “Speechless? Woa, that’s a first!”
“No, no, no! No one has EVER beat me at this game!”
“Sorry!” I picked up the phone.
“Who are you calling?”
“The teeny bopper magazines! They would all be very interested to know that their little Nicky isn’t the Nintendo King after all,” I teased him. “Oh, hey AJ!”
“Hi, Red! Whats up?”
“Well, I kinda need a favor,” I grinned at Nick as he pouted.
“Sure.”
“Do you have any blue in your collection of hair dyes?”
“Uh...yeah, why?”
“Good! Tell the drivers to stop and come on our bus with it.”
“Umm, ok.”
I hung up the phone and smiled innocently at Nick. “I hate you!”
“No, you don’t!” I teased.
The bus stopped and AJ hopped on. “So, what’s this for?” he asked as the bus started again.
“Well, Nick has to dye his hair blue because he lost Mortal Kombat and we had a bet going on it.”
“No way! He lost!”
“Yep!” Aaron shouted.
“I need you to do it.”
“Nooo problem. Nick come into the bathroom.”
Nick just stared at him and finally got up. “Donna’s gonna kill him!” Aaron said.
“Yeah.”
~*~*~AN HOUR LATER~*~*~
AJ came out of the bathroom. “Where’s Nick?”
“He won’t come out.”
“What does it look like?” I wondered anxiously.
“FUNNY!!”
“Nick, please come out. I’m sure it looks just fine,” I lied.
“NO!”
“Please! I’m sorry!”
The knob twisted and he walked out. I couldn’t help but laugh. Aaron couldn’t hold it in either; he laughed until it hurt. He looked at me and frowned. Then he turned around and started walking away but I grabbed his hand. “I’m sorry. It’s cute...really.”
“I love my blonde hair. And so does half the population,” he whined.
“It’ll go away...in about 2 months,” I laughed again. Nick finally cracked a smile. “Seriously though, the smurf look is cute on you.”
“Yeah, sure!” Aaron said, STILL laughing hysterically at his brother.
“Ok, that’s enough teasing,” I defended him.
“So, I guess I’m staying with you guys for the night,” AJ said.
“Guess so!”