"Alex," I whined to my best friend sitting across the room. "You know I love Mikey so very very much, but if he plays that song one more time, I'm gonna beat the crap out of your little brother." The first few lines of "Here We Go" began to float into her bedroom for what seemed like the millionth time that day.
"Tell me about it," she laughed. "I never thought I could get this sick of `NSYNC."
"You had to get him this CD for Christmas, didn't you?"
"I'm sorry," she smiled sympathetically at me, her red curls falling over her face as she leaned over to a more comfortable book reading position.
Alex was stuck watching her little brother for all of our Winter Break. It was pretty pathetic that two 17 year olds were stuck inside with a nine year old on a beautiful January day, but she couldn't get out of babysitting. It was something she had grown accustomed to doing over vacations while her mom was at work. And after keeping her company while doing so for what seemed all of Mikey's existence, it became habit. Thank God my boyfriend, Scott, understood why I wasn't going to come watch his hockey game.
I sighed as I pulled a magazine off of Alex's desk and began to flip through it. Ads, ads, skinny model, more ads... I thought to myself. As I continued to turn through the waist of trees something caught my eye. "Well, well, well. What do we have here? `Win a date with `NSYNC'." I paused and glanced at her. "I'm definitely not that sick of them."
"Oh that. Cool, huh?"
"Oh that," I mocked. "When were you planning on showing this to me?"
"Um, I wasn't."
"Why not?"
"Well," she began as she sat up to look at me, "it increases my already slim chances of winning."
"Your chances can't be that slim."
"Right," she laughed. "My chances can't be that slim. Who cares about the thousands of obsessed teenyboppers that are going to send cards in? That doesn't make a difference."
"Alex..."
"My chances are extremely slim."
"First of all, we are not obsessed..." She looked at me strangely and pointed to the overflowing binder of `NSYNC pictures in the corner. "Okay, I take that back, but somebody had to win that date. Why shouldn't it be one of us?"
"Elizabeth, you are entirely too optimistic."
"And you're too pessimistic."
"It's called realism."
"Yeah, yeah. Whatever." I looked back down at the magazine for a second before grabbing a pen and a small piece of paper from my bag. "Somebody has to win," I repeated to myself, writing the address down. "Why shouldn't it be me?" -
"It's another big day at school. It's another big day at school. So get out of bed, you sleepy head. It's another big day of school."
I slowly awoke to my father singing cheerfully at the foot of my bed. He had tortured my with that song for twelve long years. Granted in first grade I loved it, but I was happy that after today I would never have to hear him sing those words ever again.
"Come on, Liz. Get up."
"Daddy, go away."
"At least say good bye to me before I leave."
"Are you working at the firehouse today?"
"Yup."
"Okay, okay. I'm up." I slowly slid out of my bed and followed him down stairs.
In the kitchen my mom stood over the sink peeling an orange. "Morning, sweetie. How'd you sleep?"
"Very peacefully," I yawned. "I had this one dream, and Scott was in it, but he wasn't himself. He was Lance. It was really strange."
"You fell asleep listening to their CD again didn't you?" she asked, shaking her head.
"Yeah," I said sheepishly.
"It's breaking up my heart when I'm with you..." my dad started singing as he danced with my mother.
"Tearin', Daddy, not breaking," I laughed.
"I know."
"That's right. Cause you're secretly the sixth member of `NSYNC."
"Right," he smiled. "While you think I'm at the firehouse, I'm really with the rest of the guys. The girls go crazy over me. I think Justin's actually a bit jealous."
I laughed trying to imagine my 47-year-old bald father as a member of `NSYNC. "Okay, Dad. I believe ya. Really, I do."
"I'm leaving," he said, dancing over to me and kissing me on the cheek. "The group calls. Bye, sweetie. Have fun on the last day of high school. I promise I'll be home for your party tonight."
"You know, `NSYNC wouldn't be a bad birthday present, and since you're so tight with the guys..."
"I'll see you later."
"Bye."
After he had left my mind began to recall the details of the Lance/Scott episode I had that morning. Staring into my bowl of Rice Krispies, I shook my head and sighed. "It was such a strange dream."
I sat in my hotel room holding a pale green note card in front of me. It seemed as if we had agreed to do this date thing ages ago, but now it was time to call the winner, a girl named Elizabeth. When we agreed, the guys and I suspected that a twelve-year-old would end up winning, and her mother and her would come on the date, but this girl was actually 18.
I dialed the number slowly and waited patiently as it rang.
"Hello?" a guy's voice finally answered.
"Uh, hello. Is Elizabeth Fairwood there?"
"Sure," he said slowly. "One second."
"Thanks."
"Hello?" a pleasant sounding girl answered a moment later.
"Elizabeth?"
"The one and only."
"Okay. This is Lance Bass, and I'm calling on behalf of `NSYNC and Teen People to inform you that you have won the date contest," I read off the `instruction sheet'.
"Are you serious?"
"Yeah."
"This isn't a prank or anything, right?"
"No. I'm really Lance, and you really won."
"Oh my gosh."
"Congratulations."
"Thank you," she laughed. "I never thought I'd actually win."
"How many cards did you send in?"
"18."
"That's it?"
"Yes. I'm a very busy girl. 18 was enough for me, thank you."
"Okay, sorry. It's just that it's a pretty odd number. Usually people send in a lot more."
"It's my lucky number."
"Why?"
"Why do you always wear the number 4?"
"I don't..."
"I stole it from my brother," she answered giggling. "It was his hockey number then my volleyball number."
"Was your brother who answered the phone?"
"No, Josh isn't home from college yet. That was my boyfriend, Scott."
Her boyfriend, Scott? I felt an unexpected pang of disappointment in my stomach as she said that. I shook it off and got myself back on track. "Uh, I have some questions to ask you."
"Shoot."
"Who would your guest be?"
"That's easy. Alex Wearing."
"What's Alex wearing?"
"Ha ha. That's a new one."
"I'm sorry. I just couldn't resist."
"It's okay. Just don't say that one to her. She'll lose all respect for you."
"I'll warn everybody."
"Thank you."
"Is she 18 also?"
"Sure is."
"Very good." I heard the familiar sound of bouncing behind me. I turned to find Justin dribbling his trusty basketball through the open door to my room. "Hey, Elizabeth. One second, okay?"
"Okay."
I slid my hand over the mouthpiece. "Jay, cut it out."
"Who's Elizabeth?" he asked, eyebrows raised.
"She's the winner of that date." I held up the note card.
"She's not twelve, is she?"
"No, 18."
"Let me talk to her," he said, picking up his ball.
"Okay. Elizabeth, you still there?"
"Yes."
"Um, Justin wants to talk to you."
"He does?"
"Yeah."
"Nice."
I handed him the phone reluctantly. "I was asking her those." I pointed to the list of questions sitting on the table.
"I got it under control," he said, taking my chair once I moved. "Hello, Elizabeth... Very good. How about you... I'm glad. Um, can I ask you a question... No, this is just something that I'm curious about... Okay, what exactly posses a person to enter a contest like this. I mean, the odds of winning are so slim...Who...She said the exact same thing? Well, great minds think alike... I'm joking... Seriously, I'm curious..."
"Justin, don't ask her that. You're going to make her feel stupid for entering."
"No, I'm not," he said to me before turning his attention back to the phone. "Okay... One second."
He shook his head and got up from his seat. "She wants to talk to you."
"Alright." I picked up the phone from the table.
"Bye, man."
"Hello?"
"Is he always like that?"
"Unfortunately, yes. I'm sorry bout his question. It was kind of..."
"Don't worry about it."
"Okay. So... uh... where were we?"
"Alex's 18 also."
"Right, right. Next question," I found my place on my list. "Do you have any health problems?"
"Nope."
"Are you afraid of flying?"
"Nope."
"Have you ever been to New York City?"
"The date's in New York?" I could hear her smiling.
"Yup."
"I love that place."
"It is pretty great, isn't it?"
"There are so many people there. You never know who you'll meet or what kinds of relationships you'll establish. I love it."
By the time I hung up with her a few minutes later I knew of one relationship I was definitely looking forward to establishing.