“Morning Sunshine!” Christi singsonged.
“Hun, you know I love you, but if you are ever that perky at this ungodly hour of the morning again, I will have to murder you.” Rachel grunted.
“Wow, I feel loved now!” Chisti said, lips twitching. Rachel mumbeled something incoherent. “I don’t know how they expect you to get any decent shots of you whern you aren’t even awake. its a good thing I brought you this.” Christi smiled before handing Rachel a frappachino. Rachel jumped up excitedly and began hugging Christi.
“Oh my god! Christi you are the best!!!! You know I love you right? You are my hero!” She took a sip of it before sinking down into the chaor and smiling. “mmmm, carmel!” she sighed. Just then Lance walked in.
“Hey Hollywood! This girl is amazing. She needs a raise or something.” Lance walked in and smiled at both of them, looking slightly confused.
“Rachel, you’re....awake. Why am I afraid?” Rachel laughed.
“Ah! The magic of frappachinos! I live for these things. Christi, my absolute favorite person in the entire world, brought one for me!” Rachel said smiling brightly. Christi shrugged.
“What, I don’t get one?” Lance said, acting hurt.
“Nope.” She said flatly.
“Yea Lance, coffee is only for special people like me and Christi.” Rachel added. Just then Chris popped in.
“What about me?” he asked.
“NO!” they all said in unison. Chris was always a ball of energy. Lord only knows what would happen if he got his hands on some coffee. One thing was for sure, Rachel wasn’t gonna be around to find out.
“What are you doing here anyway?” Rachel asked Chris.
“Why, I came to visit you, of course.”
“yea right, why are you really here?”
“What I can’t come visit my friends?”
“Chris....”
“ok, fine, while I’m here visiting you I might do a cameo or something on the movie.”
“Wow. Thats so cool. Lance didn’t tell me you were doing a cameo. But then again, he didn’t tell me Britney Spears was gonna be my costar either...” She turned to glare at Lance.
“You are never gonna forgive me for that, are you?” He asked.
“Not a chance in hell.” She said. Lance shook his head and walked out.
“You didn’t hear the best part yet!” Chris said, smiling like a kid on christmas morning, “I get to do my cameo with Busta!”
“oh, park scene?’
“yup.” Chris nodded happily
“I think we shoot that one second.” Rachel nodded her head thoughtfully. Christi started singing under her breath. Rachel listened intently. Damn, this girl had a voice. She listened to her sing a few more lines. Christi never mentioned anything about singing, but she definately had talent.
“yo christi, I didn’t know you sang. You ever think of going pro?”
“actually yea.” She hesitated before continuing.”Its actually my dream. I’m just doing the whole hair thing as a day job, you know, waiting for my big break to come along.”
“I hear ya. I been there.” Rachel said, her brain clicking into gear. “hey, do you have a demo tape?” she asked casually.
“course.” christi said, absently. She was concentrating on spiking chris’ hair.
“do you think I could have a copy?” Rachel asked. Chris knew that behind all the nonchalance, Rachel was definatly up to something. He smiled, knowing that whatever it was would probably benifit Christi. In the short time he’d known her, one of the things he’d learned was that she would fight to the death for her friends, and it was obvious she and Christi had some kind of bond. If he hadn’t known better, chris would have assumed they were lifelong friends.
“sure.” Christi shrugged. ”I think theres one in my bag. You can just take it if you want.”
“K, thanks girl, I owe you one.” And I think I know exactly how to pay you back. Rachel smiled broadly and pocketed the tape before sauntering out of the trailer. She had walked about 3 feet when she saw a familiar face that caused her to stop dead in her tracks.
“ok, am I hallucinating, or has hell frozen over and JC Chasez has willingly extracted himself from the studio?” She asked, in mock awe.
“haha, cute. So do I get a hug or what?”
“of course!” She said. she gave him a quick hug and then turned to him. “so, what made you decide to grace us with your presence?”
“I dunno. I just figured I’d come hang out here and watch you guys. Is that ok?”
“always.” She said with a smile. “hey, I have an idea, what do you think of doing a cameo?”
“Huh? I don’t know Rach, I mean, I’m not really the actor of the group.”
“c’mon, puh-lease! It wont be hard. It’ll be like, one or two lines. I can get you something with like 2 words if you want.”
“really?”
“yea, I know some people,” she said with a laugh. ”pretty please?” She said, in her most innocent, pleading tone.
”well... I guess....” She could tell he was caving in.
“Chris is doing one right now. You can watch him, and see how easy it is. K?”
JC nodded and followed Rachel over to the soundstage. Inside, he saw an entire park set up. “Just stand here and watch. I’ll be back.”
She walked over to Chris, who was playing with the little dog in his arms. “Hey. How’s Busta?” She asked, her lips twitching in amusement.
“He’s ready for his close up.” Chris said with a proud smile. Rachel just had to laugh. This was totally absurd realy, if you thought about it, but somehow it all seemed rather normal. She strode over to the edge of the set, where Lance was standing.
“Ready Madison?” he asked, holing his arm out to her.
“Ready Kyle.” she said, slipping her arm into his. The cameras started rolling and they strolled onto the set.
“mmm, isn’t fall here just beautiful Kyle?” Rachel sighed.
“yea Madison, Its...breathtaking” Lance said, his eyes never leaving Rachel. Just then Bust let out a yelp and ran towards Rachel. She jumped in surprise and landed in Lance’s arms. The two stared into eachothrs eyes for a monet, neither one moving. They broke apart only when Chris came running up to them.
“Are you alright, miss? I’m very sorry.”
“I’m fine.” she said, shaking her head and smiling slightly. “I’m fine.”
“We can fix that.” Lance said with a grin.
“Kyle...” she said, warningly. Suddenly he picked her up and threw her over his shoulder. “kyle!” She shriekd as he jogged across the park. “Kyle, put me down!”
He caried her all he way to the opposite end of the set and then the director yelled cut.
He set her down and she immeadiately jogged over to where JC was.
“so? Think you can handle it?” She questioned.
“yea,I'm game. That didn’t look to hard.” He said, thoughtfully. “I think I can, but I’m only doing this as a favor to you.”
“So you’ll do it? Swear?” He nodded his head yes. ”This is GREAT!!” She jumed up and down excitedly and hugged him. “Ok remember, you swore. There is no backing out now.” She said, before bolting back across the room to where Lance was standing. Why am I getting a really bad feeling about this? JC wondered.
“Hey Lance, hows about we give the audience a thrill?” She asked, misheiviously.
“What did you have in mind?” He asked, humor dancing in his green eyes. Rachel quietly told him her plan, and Lance laughed out loud.
“Rachel, you are rotten to the core. Remind me never to piss you off.” He said, chuckling.
“I’m good aren’t I? This is definately one of my better plans.” Suddenly, something occured to her. She found her cell phone, and called Liz. “Liz, you still have that camcorder, right? Good. Get it over here, asap. Just trust me here. K, see ya in a few.”
“Ok Rachel, I don’t know what was so impotaint, but it better be one hell of a kodak moment for me to have hauled my ass all the way over here.”
“Liz, hun, if that isn’t a kodak moment I don’t know what is.” Rachel said, smiling. She pointed towards the set, and Liz’s jaw dropped.
“Oh my!” was all she could say.
Rachel smiled and licked her lips. “Lord, the things I could do to that boy...”
“Amen hunny, amen!” Liz chimed in. Rachel left to go shoot the scene, and Liz sat back to watch, making sure her camera was running.
The scene started when Lance ran in carring Rachel over his shoulder. He put her down, and the two climbed alittle way up on a nearby fire escape. They sat down in an open window of what appeared to be somone’s bathroom. The two were about to kiss when a confused and angry looking JC stepped out of the shower in a towel.
“What the hell?” He yelled loudly. Rachel and Lance jumped up at once and ran quickly back down, laughing.
Liz walked up to Rachel. “I don’t know how you got him to agree to that, but can I just say that I love you forever. JC...towel...DAYUM!!” Liz said. Rachel laughed.
“Yea, the youth of america better thank me for this.” She said. “O dammit, it seems I missed a line in there, were gonna have to shoot it again, gosh darnit!” Rachel said, acting upset.
“you mean I have to watch that whole scene again, oh the horror!” Liz cried.
“hey, we have a few minutes while they set up the scene agin, why dont we go visit our good friend JC?” Rachel asked.
“I’m game.” Liz said. She grabbed her camera and they walked onto the set. They reached the “bathroom” and Liz knocked on the shower door.
“hey there, sweet thang” Liz asked as she yanked the door open. “damn, is it hot in here, or is it just you.”
“Shut up Liz, you are starting to sound like Joey. Why are you looking at me like that? I mean, I have pants on.” He had on some baggy, low riding sweatpants that he must have in there for in between takes, cuz he definately didnt have them on under that tiny little towel they had given him.
“You're right, I’m sorry. Hug?” she asked innocently. He pulled her closer to hug her and as she leaned in to hug him, he felt a hand yank on his pants. In one quick movement, Liz flagged him and bolted out, her camera over her shoulder so she would catch his reaction on film.
“Liz!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” he screamed “I am gonna get you for this. Your ass is so mine!” His yelling had caught everyones attention. When he realized that everyone was stairing at him and he was stading there in only his boxers, he blushed crimson and quickly ducked back into the shower.
They reshot the scene several times over the next hour or so. This gave Rachel and Christi plenty of time to come up with some very creative ways of causing chaos, which was not a good thing for JC.
“Hey Christi, you know how they got that girl to scream in Psycho like that right?”
“Yea, everyone knows that story. Hitchcock switched the water in the shower from warm to ice cold.” Rachel smiled devilishly at Christi.
“Exactly.”
“Ok you guys, we’re gonna take this scene again. Lights, Camera, Action.”
The shower was turned on, and the cameras were rolling. Rachel gave christi the thumbs up sign, and she quickly switched the water. JC let out a scream several octaves higher then what they were used to hearing from him. JC quickly grabbed his towel and bust out of the shower. He saw christi behind the shower, clutching her sides. She looked at him and just started laughing harder, if that was possible. He saw Rachel and Lance a few feet away, on the floor laughing. Rachel was gasping for air in between fits of laughter.
“So...funny....I’m gonna....pee... in my ...pants.” Lance exclaimed through his laughter.
Rachel opened her mouth several times to make a smartass comment, but she was shaking so hard with laughter she couldn’t seem to get the words out. After a few minutes, her laughter subsided slightly.
“That was brilliant!” she exclaimed, wipeing the tears from her eyes. “Truly inspired. Liz, please tell me you got that on tape.” JC turned and saw Liz standing off to the side. He hadn’t even noticed she was there.
“crap” JC smacked his forehead with the heel of his hand. “You all suck!” He turned and stormed back over to his spot on the set, trying to ignore the crew’s muffeled laughter.
“Love you too!” Rachel responded, still giggling slightly.
“Ow ow! Work that towel, baby!” Liz cat-called. Christi got up and tried to stick a dollar in his towel. JC had to fight the beginings of a smile.
“You know Rachel, when you talked me into this, public humiliation wasn’t exactly what I had in mind.” He said gruffly.
“oops, my bad!” Rachel said, her voice and face conveying an innocense she didn’t posess. Lance laughed loudly, enjoying the absurdity of his friends’ antics.
chapter 9
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