"WHAT???" AJ and Adrianne both said at the same time.
"Yeah" Fatima said, "You should start working right away. Your more than welcome to use the studio any time you need to.” AJ began to complain, "Why do I have to be the one? You all know Adrianne and I don't get along.” Kevin took him aside and said, "I realize that. But you're the only one who has any free time. Do it for the groups sake. We can't do the show with one dancer short. C'mon, please?" "Fine" AJ said. He turned to Adrianne, "Meet me here at 7?” "Ok" Adrianne said.Fatima told Adrianne that she would only have to work with AJ for about 2 weeks. Then she could start rehearsing with everyone else.
LATER THAT DAY- 7:00pm
Adrianne walked into the studio. She was wearing her dark blue sports bra top and a pair of old, baggy, black sweat pants.
AJ took one look at her and said, "I see your wearing your work clothes. So tell me, how much money did you make on your corner today?" Adrianne gave him a funny smile, "More than you’d ever make on yours." "Very funny." AJ answered. Adrianne dropped her backpack on the floor, "Look AJ, I'm not exactly thrilled about this either. I'm only doing this because you know I'll do anything to help you guys out. Let’s just get started.” AJ turned on the CD player and said, "Ok. We'll start with 'Get Another Boyfriend'. Fatima said you're gonna be my dancer. Just my luck..... anyway, that means will be getting really close during some of the songs." "Great" Adrianne mumbled.AJ put in Black & Blue and turned it to track #3. He then began to explain to Adrianne the first few steps. Everything was going pretty well. After about 15 minutes, they had gone through the first half of the whole song. And by an hour later, she had the whole song down fairly well.
"Alright" AJ said, "I want you to go through the song without stopping." He went over, sat in a chair, and put on the music.
Adrianne did each step as best she could. But apparently, it wasn't good enough for AJ, "That was horrible! I told you the beginning goes jump down, lean over, bend back, and then jump up. You're doing it all wrong." "No I'm not." Adrianne answered, "I'm doing it exactly the way you told me to." AJ stood up, "I'm telling you it's wrong! You're gonna keep doing it until you get it right. I don't care if we have to stay here until 3:00am." So Adrianne did the dance again. After repeating it about 6 more times, AJ said she had gotten it right. By then, it was midnight.Adrianne went in her backpack and got out a water bottle.
"What time do you want me to meet you here tomorrow?" she asked AJ. AJ replied, "Six". "Ok" she answered while taking a sip of water. Adrianne then proceeded to walk out of the building. AJ followed her, "Where are you going?" "Back to the hotel" she said. "I can give you a ride back." AJ offered. Adrianne looked at him, "No thanks. I'd rather walk." AJ followed her down the street, "You can't walk there this late at night. It's too dangerous. Kevin will kill me if something bad happens to you. Besides, the hotels 4 miles away." Adrianne continued to walk as she spoke, "I don’t mind." AJ gently grabbed her arm, "Listen Adrianne, I'll be honest. You're not my favorite person. Let's just get in my car and go back to the hotel. We don't have to say anything to each other on he way." Adrianne agreed and got in AJ's car."So how'd it go?" Kevin asked his sister when she and AJ got back.
"Good I guess." Adrianne said, "I learned all the steps to 'Get Another Boyfriend'." "That's great." Kevin replied, "Did AJ treat you ok? Did he say anything mean?" Adrianne smiled, "Nothing meaner then what he usually says." AJ then walked toward the elevator to go up to his room. He glanced at Adrianne and said, "Good night bitch." "Good night freak." she replied.**THE NEXT DAY**
At Adrianne & AJ's rehearsal that night, AJ taught her the steps to "The Call", "Not For Me", and "Shining Star". He then began to go over the steps for "Everyone".
"During the 'lights down low' part," AJ explained, "I’m suppose to put my hands on your waist and your suppose to wrap your arms around my neck. Then we have to get really close." It took them about an hour before they got comfortable with that move. As they practiced the part where Adrianne runs up and AJ catched her, Adrianne accidentally tripped, causing AJ to fall. "Owww!" AJ shouted, "Damn women, what are you trying to do? Kill me?" Adrianne stood up and said, "Yeah right! Believe me, if I really wanted to kill you, I would have done it years ago. It was just a mistake. Get over it!" AJ was pissed, "There can't be any mistakes! Everything has to be perfect. You gotta put 110% into this. You can't act like a spoiled brat like you usually do."Adrianne walked towards the door. "Freak!" she said.
"Bitch." AJ replied."JERK!!"
"SLUT!!"
Adrianne didn’t even realize that Brian had waked past her when she left. Brian wondered what was going on. He walked into the room and spoke to AJ, "What happened?"
AJ slammed a CD hard on top of the stereo, "Damn Brian, why does you cousin have to be such a bitch?" Brian shook his head, "Ya know AJ, you might wanna be a little nicer to Adrianne. She's been through a lot in her life. Take it easy on her." "I'll try." AJ agreed, "But I still think she's a bitch." "You better not say that stuff when Kevin's around." Brian said, "You know how protective he is of her."Adrianne stormed into the hotel, pissed beyond belief.
Howie was sitting in the lobby when he saw Adrianne walk in. "Ok, what did AJ do this time?" he asked her. "He's pissing me off." Adrianne said, "Ya know what AJ called me? He said I was a spoiled brat! I'm not spoiled. And I'm sick of a lot of other things. For example, people only know me as 'Kevin's little sister. That's all they think of me as. Nobody ever takes the time to get to know the real me." Howie sat and listened to what Adrianne was saying. He told her not to let what AJ says get to her."You're back early." Kevin said to Adrianne, "What happened?”
Adrianne began to walk away from her brother. "Nothing" she answered. But Kevin didn't believe her. He put his arm around his little sister and spoke again, "Yeah right. I know you're lying. Tell me what's wrong." "AJ...." Adrianne started. Kevin's eyes widened, "What did that little asshole say to you?" "He got pissed off at me." she continued, "It all started when we were going over the steps for Everyone. I accidentally made AJ fall. So the he started yelling at me, saying I'm a spoiled brat." Kevin stood up, "He had no right saying that to you! I'm gonna go tell AJ about......" "NO!!!" Adrianne interrupted, "Don't you dare Kev!" "Maybe I should" Kevin said, "If he knew, he might not be so mean." Adrianne grabbed his arm, "The only people around here that know about it are you and Brian. I wanna keep it that way." Kevin decided to go along with what his sister wanted. But he was worried about her. He didn't want her to get all upset.Later, AJ apologized to Adrianne. But she knew he didn't mean it. The two of them continued to work on all the dance steps, trying not to talk to each other as much as possible.
"Ok" AJ began to say to Adrianne, "Fatima wants to see how you're doing next week. So, you gotta come to rehearsals with us then. We'll show her 'Everyone', since that’s the song we've worked the hardest on. Let's work on it now."
"Alright." Adrianne said. Believe it or not, they were both actually comfortable with putting their arms around each other. They didn't enjoy one minute of it, but they had gotten use to it.The next day, AJ said he really wanted to focus on "The Call" since hat was the dance Adrianne was having the most trouble with. He told her she was still messing up on the 2nd verse. So, Adrianne tried her best to correct the mistake. But, it didn't help that AJ was yelling at her every 5 seconds. It was hard for Adrianne to concentrate with AJ being so mean. But she was us to that.
While the two of them were taking a break, Adrianne sat on a couch in the corner of the room while AJ listened to some of his new CD’s. When AJ walked by to get a bottle of water, he accidentally tripped over Adrianne's leg and fell on his face. Adrianne couldn't help but laugh.
"That's not funny you stupid bitch. You did that purposely. Damn, I'm bleeding!" AJ said rubbing his hand against his lip. Adrianne chuckled, "I did not trip you purposely. Trust me, if I had, you would have lost a couple of teeth as well." AJ got up. He was really pissed now, "What the hell is your problem Adrianne? I'm sick of your attitude. Like I said before, you're a spoiled brat. You've never had to worry about anything. You don't even support yourself. Everything you have, Kevin bought you. You've never had a problem or concern a day in your life." "You bastard!" Adrianne said through her teeth, "You have no fuckin' right to say that. I have been through more hell in my life then you'll ever know. In case you for got, MY FATHER DIED WHEN I WAS 12!!!" "Oh please!" AJ replied, "Your fathers been dead for almost 10 years. Get over it! He's not coming back."Those words hit Adrianne hard. Tears started streaming down her cheeks. She grabbed her backpack, put on her jacket, and started running toward the door. "Get back here!" AJ said, grabbing Adrianne's jacket. A loud rip filled the room. AJ held the blue hood of the jacket in his hand. Adrianne grabbed it from him, “Look what you did! You ruined it!!!"
AJ looked at her strangely, "It's just a jacket." Adrianne began to seriously cry as she walked out. “Oh yeah that’s right!" AJ shouted after her, "Go run and cry to your big brother! Your almost 22 and yet, Kevin still fights your battles for you."Kevin was walking to the grocery store when he saw Adrianne sitting on a bench. She was shaking and crying.
He ran over to her, "Oh my god Adrianne, what happened?” Adrianne couldn’t talk. Kevin reached over and cradled her in his arms. "Shhhh" he whispered, "Calm down. It's ok. Please tell me what’s wrong. It's AJ, isn't it?" Adrianne nodded yes and spoke, "He said...” "What? What did he say?" Kevin asked. But Adrianne wouldn't tell him. It hurt too much. Kevin noticed that Adrianne's jacket was ripped. "Did AJ do this?" he asked. "Yeah" Adrianne said, "It's probably all my fault anyway. Everything's always my fault. I'm so stupid. Nobody likes me...” Kevin's eyes widened, "Adrianne! Listen to yourself.......did you take your medication today?” Adrianne didn't answer. She sat there in silence. Kevin rolled his eyes, "Adrianne, you know you're suppose to take it 3 times a day! I can't believe you forgot. You're gonna take them right now! Where are they? Are they in your backpack?” He opened her bag and pulled out a medicine bottle. "Take them." Kevin ordered. "NO!!!" Adrianne shot back. Kevin opened the bottle, took out a bottle of water and said, "Either you take it by yourself or I'm gonna shove it down your throat!!" Adrianne grabbed the bottle, took out a pill, put the pill in her mouth, and drank some water. "Ya happy now?" she asked, trying to hold back her tears."What's going on?" asked a familiar voice.
Adrianne and Kevin turned around. It was Nick. "Hi Nick." Kevin said, "Can you do me a favor?" "Sure" Nick replied, "Anything.". Kevin continued, "Can you stay here with Adrianne? I need to go talk to AJ for a few minutes.” "No problem." said Nick. Kevin walked into the building, leaving Adrianne and Nick alone."Are you ok?" Nick asked, wiping a tear from Adrianne's face with his hand.
Adrianne smiled, "Yeah Nick. I'm fine. You don't have to worry about me.” Nick laughed faintly, "I'm always gonna worry about you. You've always been like a big sister to me. Anyway, I just got a new video game for my Game Boy. Wanna play?" "Sure" Adrianne said, she had stopped crying, "What game is it?" "Pokemon" Nick replied. Adrianne looked confused, "I thought you already had all the Pokemon games." "I do." Nick said, "But this is the new gold & silver one. It has all the new Pokemon.” He handed her his Game Boy. Nick showed Adrianne how to play. As Adrianne was playing, Nick remembered something, "Oh yeah! I almost forgot. I was going through some photo albums and I found this." He handed her a picture. Adrianne laughed, "I remember this pic. It's from my senior prom. I remember being all upset because I didn't have a date. Then you said you would go with me. We had so much fun that night. You thought you were cool cause you got to hang out with all of is seniors, and you were still a junior."Kevin stormed into the room AJ was in, pissed beyond words.
AJ looked up at him, "Oh, hi Kev, what's up?” Kevin didn't say a word, he walked right up and punched AJ in the face. "YOU BASTARD!! WHAT THE FUCK DID YOU SAY TO HER??" Kevin shouted. "What are you talking about?" AJ asked. Kevin punched AJ in the face again, "What did you say to Adrianne?” AJ chuckled and said, "Oh, you mean the SLUT!” Kevin punched him for a 3rd time, "Ok, we'll try this again. And I’m gonna keep punching you until you answer my question. What did you say to my little sister?” "Ok fine." AJ sighed, ". "When we were taking a break, Adrianne tripped me. Naturally, I got pissed off. I started telling her that she's a spoiled brat and that she can't even support herself. I told her she's never had to worry about anything. Adrianne got really mad and said I had no right saying that. She asked me if I had forgotten that your father died when she was 12. I said he's been dead for almost 10 years and that she should get over it and realize that he's not coming back.” Kevin's jaw dropped, "You stupid little asshole! You shouldn’t have said that to her. You have no idea what she's been through.” "Ya know," AJ began, "You and Brian are always saying that. But you never give details. I wanna know the truth." "You really wanna know?" Kevin asked. "Yeah" AJ replied. The two of them sat down and Kevin began to talk........
