Chapter Five

Early on the Tuesday that Nick was arriving, a phone call woke Hannah from a deep sleep.
“Hello?” She answered groggily.
“Hey Angel, did I wake you?” It was Nick, she sat up in bed suddenly awake.
“No, well yeah.” She looked at her clock, “Nick, it’s five am.”
“Oh, geez I’m sorry I forgot about the time thing again.” His voice sounded hoarse, like he had been yelling.
“That’s fine, what’s up?”
“I kind of have some bad news.”
“What happened? Are you sick? Because a week with me will cure you up in no time.”
“That’s just it Hannah, I’m not coming. We got called in to do some stupid show and argh! Trust me I fought it all the way. I’m just so frustrated right now. All I want to do is get away from this and I can’t. I feel so trapped.” He sounded desperate. Hannah’s heart sank, she had been so excited to see him and now he wasn’t coming, but she couldn’t let him hear that. He needed her to be positive so that he could feel better.
“Well honey that’s something that you can’t control. When’s your next vacation?”
“I don’t know, probably when I drop dead.”
“Don’t say that Nick Carter, you know I don’t like it when people joke about dying.”
“I’m sorry Angel it’s just the way I feel right now.”
“Well when is that show?”
“Tomorrow, right smack dab in the middle of the vacation.”
“Well do you have the rest of the time off?”
“Only one day, we have to be in the studio to record more songs the rest of the time.”
“Well on that day off you should go and spend the day by yourself. Go off on your own, drive somewhere. That way you can have a mini-vacation okay?”
“I guess, but all I really want to do is see you. I can’t tell you how much I was looking forward to seeing you.”
“I was too Nicky, but you know what? I’ll still be here when your next vacation comes up and you can see me then. Really it’s not then end of the world, it’s just an obstacle. You’re not missing much, it’s actually quite boring here.”
“Yeah, well it sounded like paradise to me.”
“Nick Carter you stop this right now. You are not to feel sorry for yourself, understand? You are to go and do those shows and CD recordings like your life depended on it, because it’s your dream, and not many people get their dreams. So you should embrace it for all it’s worth and get the most out of it, you never know when it could end.”
“God I hate it when you’re right.”
“Well someone has to be.” She laughed.
“Yeah, I guess so.” He laughed back.
“It’s good to hear you laugh.”
“It feels good to laugh.”
“I’m glad.”
“Well I don’t want to keep you up any longer than I have to. Go back to bed. If I guessed right, you were probably up late doing something or other.”
“You know me too well Nicky.”
“Yeah, I do. I’ll talk to you later.”
“Talk to you later, have a good week and a good mini-vacation.”
“I will, thanks. Bye Angel.”
“Bye Nicky.” Hannah hung up the phone and flopped back in bed. She was crestfallen. She had been so excited to see Nick.

In the passing weeks, Hannah grew close with the group, especially Mike and Roxy. Mike and Tim opened their own Karate school. Since Hannah had given him his share of the DeCour fortune, he had the money to do so. Garrett and Alex became teachers at Mike’s and Tim school. It was such a success that they hired Hannah on to teach some of the classes too. Sam worked at his own computer business that was flourishing. He fixed computers as well as designed web pages for big companies. Anna worked as Sam’s personal assistant. Kerrie was finishing up her degree in art, she specialized in ceramics. Roxy was still trying to decide what to do with her life. She had a degree in marketing, but didn’t know if that was her calling. Really she wanted to be an actress but her conservative parents would have killed her. So she was basically drifting aimlessly through life. Nick called Hannah more often now and she figured that he was trying to make up for not coming to see her, but Hannah didn’t care, she loved talking to him. It was the best they could do considering his hectic schedule.

One of things that Roxy and Hannah had in common was that they loved to shop. They had their weekly shopping trip to the mall and were discussing plans for that night.
“So what do you want to do tonight?” Roxy asked.
“I don’t know, but I want to do something. Where’s the nearest night club?” Hannah replied.
“In LA and you usually have to know someone to get in. We could go to the bar.”
“Nah I’m tired of both of those scenes.”
“Yeah me too. There is a definite lack of nightlife in town. I wish a new bar or a club would open.”
“Yeah, that’d be great.” Hannah thought for a minute and had a revelation, “We could open a bar.”
“Hannah, opening a bar takes a lot of money and there’s a liquor license and just stuff.”
“Don’t worry about the money I have that covered. Let’s just say that I have some stored away for a raining day and as for the other stuff just leave the legal crap to me, I happen to know a very good lawyer who could help us."
“Really!!!!” Roxy screeched, “Ahh, this is so exciting! Come on let’s go to my house and start planning!” They both raced home and made out the blue prints for the new bar. Over the next few weeks they got the ball rolling. James her lawyer, helped them start up even though he didn’t like the idea of Hannah working in a bar but he didn't really have a choice. He figured out all the insurance and the licenses that they needed. It wasn’t long before they had the grand opening of ‘The Wild Pussy Cat’. Roxy and Hannah became bartenders and hired Kerrie and Anna to help too. It wasn’t too bad, the hardest part of their job was learning how to serve with flair, which meant tossing bottles. Hannah was the best at it and the other girls learned quickly. They hired Alex, Sam and Garrett on as bouncers.
The bar was a hit, it was the hottest one in the area and it was packed every night. The bar had a dance floor with a DJ booth and a jukebox for when they didn’t have a DJ. It was a mix between a western saloon and a modern nightclub. Hannah ended up being the grand hostess of the bar. Most nights she was rarely behind the bar because she was walking around making sure everyone was having a good time.

One night as they were cleaning up the bar, one of Hannah’s favorite songs came on the jukebox, ‘He wasn’t man enough for me’ by Toni Braxton. She started singing along as she walked along cleaning the bar. The other girls began singing it with her and soon they were dancing around the bar. Hannah grabbed the mike and hopped on a table. She was dancing and singing, really getting into the song. After the song ended she looked around and the girls were just staring at her.
“What?” She said to the awe stuck girls.
“Where did you learn to sing like that?” Anna asked.
“And dance, it was amazing!” Kerrie finished.
“Well sixteen years of dance and singing lessons of course.” She laughed. “Oh come on, I’m not that good.”
“Yes, you are. It was like having Britney Spears or Madonna here but only cooler cause it was you.” Anna said and the other girls agreed. Hannah blushed.
“You guys are sweet, thank you, but enough about me let’s get this bar cleaned and go home!”
The next night Hannah was roaming around the floor again. Anna caught Roxy’s and Kerrie’s eye as they were serving and smiled, they were all thinking the same thing. She went over to the jukebox slyly and set it to play, Britney Spear’s, ‘Stronger’. The song came on and Hannah sang along to herself. Suddenly Roxy came up to her and put a mike in her hand.
“Go show em what you got.” She said as she smiled at her. Hannah shook her head.
“I can’t.” She protested.
“You can and you will.” Roxy said as she pushed her up on a chair. The crowd cheered her on. Hannah got into the song and ended up on the table dancing her heart away. The crowd loved it and wanted an encore. So she sang, ‘Free’, by Mya. From that night on it became a nightly ritual for Hannah to entertain by singing along to the jukebox or the DJ.