Chapter 1
Brianna yawned loudly as she tapped her hands on the steering wheel along with the music slowly pouring out of her speakers. Her hair ruffled slightly in the wind from her open window. She got off on her exit and a few minutes later was at the building she had been working at for the last few years. She showed her pass to the guard and went in her usual parking place. There was only about 20 or 30 other cars there, indicating that she was early again.
She smoothed out her blouse and checked to make sure her khaki dress pants looked alright. She smiled to herself and threw her keys into her purse before starting off to the building.
“Bri! Good, you’re here early!”
She smiled at her manager. “As always.”
“Right. Well it’s the boys’ last show for the tour so I want to make sure it’s perfect.”
Her manager, Frank Reddy was an uptight middle-aged man with stern features and a balding head. The pair walked quickly to his office. He continued rambling on about the concert that night as he flipped through his papers. She took the heavy bag from off her shoulder and pulled out her clipboard, writing things occasionally.
“Alright! Meeting with the whole crew in 20 minutes in Conference room 2. Get what you need done before that now.” She nodded and left the room, walking down the hall to her office. 15 minutes later she was out the door and waiting patiently for the elevator.
She arrived for the conference early, like she always did, and as always, the guys were late. She sat among the producers, executives, and the other people from Jive. The rest of the crew stood crowded against the back walls. The guys arrived only 10 minutes late, laughing and goofing off as they walked in. She didn’t even bother to look up from her laptop as they apologized for their tardiness. She heard someone sit down next to her.
“Hey Bri.” She saved her work and smiled warmly at the sweet, polite, extremely talented young man next to her. His blond hair was jelled as normal and his great toothy smile practically lit up the room.
“Hey Nick. How ya doin’?”
“Totally excited about our last concert. And you?”
She opened her mouth to speak but Frank cut her off as he began speaking rapidly. Everyone paid close attention to him as he spoke but they started to drift off as he made his speech half an hour long. “And lastly, I’d like to thank you all for the great time I’ve had with all of you on this tour and I hope we have this much fun next time. To those of you leaving, I wish you all the best, especially Brianna, I really don’t know what we’re going to do without you.” He smiled warmly at her and she felt her cheeks redden. Nick put his hand over hers.
“I’m gonna miss you,” he whispered.
“I’m gonna miss ya too.”
The concert that night was awesome and the party after was even better. After a lot of goodbyes, hugs, and exchanges of phone numbers from people she knew she’d never hear from again, she headed back to her luxurious but lonely apartment. Throwing her keys on the table, she headed to the kitchen to check her messages.
“This message is for Brianna Dawson. You have a meeting with your new manager as well as the rest of the tour scheduled for this Thursday at 10:00 am. It is imperative that you are there. Thank you.”
She pulled out her planner and wrote it down. “A whole day off…” she grumbled. After a quick shower, she changed into shorts and a t-shirt. She slid into her roomy king-sized bed and drifted off into a deep, dreamless sleep.
“Yeah, I have a meetin’ with my new manager tomorrow,” Brianna said as she made herself some lunch. The girl on the other end babbled about how cool it must be to be her. Brianna smiled to herself and flopped down on the couch to listen to her younger sister ramble.
“To bad you were so busy today, it’s probably gonna be the only day off I have for a long time.”
“I told ya I’m sorry! I don’t think I’d be able to fly all the way out to Orlando for just a few days to spend with ya anyway. Mom would flip.”
“Maybe you can come out here when I get settled with the new tour.”
“Oh fun. When exactly would you be able to see me?”
“Oh come on! I don’t work that much!”
“Yeah ya do.”
“Well then I guess this isn’t a good time to tell ya.”
“Tell me what?”
“I think I’m getting a promotion.”
“Oh wow. Making more money than ya make now huh?” she said unenthusiastically.
Brianna laughed. “Hey! I’m goin’ to get you through college aren’t I?”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah… Whatever.”
“Ok, I gotta get goin’. Tell mom I said hi.”
“Will do.”
“11.”
“13.”
Brianna pulled a CD out of an envelope and at a red light. She examined the cover before sticking it into her CD player to test the new music. She recognized it right away; you’d have to be living under a rock not to know this. She sang along with the lyrics as she sped down the highway.
She brought the CD in with her along with her purse and bag. After chatting with the receptionist in the lobby for a little while, she waited for the elevator to bring her to her office.
She settled all her stuff and put the CD back in, she was really loving it. She worked on her computer for a while until someone knocked on her door and stuck their head in. Brianna gave him a strange look to the hot guy now bobbing his head to the music.
“Can I help you?” she asked after a while.
“Oh! Yeah! Sorry, I’m JC Chasez.”
Brianna stood up and went around her desk to shake his hand. “I’m Brianna Dawson.”
“It’s a pleasure Brianna.” He took her hand and kissed it softly.
“Quite a charmer aren’t we Mr. Chasez?”
He smiled. “I’d like to think so.” Brianna sat on the side of her desk and watched JC walked around her office.
“So what brings ya here?”
“I heard the music,” he said, his eyes not leaving the pictures he was examining.
“I see. You have a phenomenal voice Mr. Chasez.”
He looked at her and smiled. She was surprised to see a little bit of a blush there. “Thanks. I’m glad you enjoy the CD.”
“Ya know you can sit down if ya want.” He took the invite and sat down on one of the chairs.
“Are you new here?” he asked.
“New to the office, not the company.”
JC gave her a confused expression. “What do you do?”
“Tours mainly.”
“Really? What do you do on them?”
“The last one I was the assistant production manager.”
“Seriously?”
“Yeah, why?”
“No offense, but that’s a pretty, well… hard position to get and you look really young… I mean, did you go to college?”
“I went for a year and had an internship on a tour here. They liked me so they offered me a job. I guess I just kept gettin’ promoted until I got this job.”
“How old are you?”
“20.”
“You’re only 20 years old?!”
“Yeah…”
“I’m sorry, it’s just that you have a very demanding position for being so young.”
She shrugged. “I guess so.” She checked her watch. “Oh my God! I have a meeting in 10 minutes!”
JC checked his, “Shit! Me too! I’m gonna be so late!” Brianna grabbed her bag and rushed out the door with JC to the elevator. She shifted the heavy bag on her shoulder uncomfortably.
“Here, let me get that.”
She smiled and allowed JC to take the bag from her shoulder.
“Damn girl! What do you got in here?”
She giggled. “Everything important to me except my family.”
They got on the elevator and JC pressed the floor number. “You don’t happen to be going to the Nsync tour meeting… Are you?”
“Sure am.”
JC smiled. “I guess we’ll be seeing a lot of each other then.” They got off the elevator and headed to the conference room. The room was already hugely crowded and JC seemed a little taken aback.
“What?” Brianna asked. JC laid her bag on the table and looked around.
“There are just so many people…”
“From what I’ve seen so far on your sets, this is nothin'.” Two other guys bounded into the room and ran over to JC. He greeted them happily.
“Hey guys! You just get in?”
“Plane just got in about an hour ago.”
Brianna sat down and got her laptop out. She got her things situated as the guys talked about their vacations.
“Oh! Chris, Joey, this is Brianna.” She smiled and stood up to greet them.
“How ya doin’?” she asked.
Chris smiled. “Chicago?”
“South Side.”
“That’s what I thought.”
Joey smiled and looked her over. “Very nice to meet you Brianna.”
She blushed. JC rolled his eyes. “I don’t want to sound rude, but we gotta go say hi to everyone, we haven’t seen them in a while.”
She nodded. “Catch ya later.” Joey winked and walked away. She sat down and pretended like she was working on her laptop but was really watching the three guys jump around giving hugs and shaking hands. JC went straight for a beautiful girl talking across the room. Her face lit up and she jumped into his arms. He kissed her softly.
“Of course he has a girlfriend…” she mumbled to herself. She tapped her fingers impatiently on the table as she waited for the meeting to begin. It seemed like everyone in the room knew each other except her. She pulled a floppy disc out of her bag and stuck it into her laptop. She began typing into her journal until JC sat down next to her. She quickly saved and closed her work.
“Brianna Dawson, this is my girlfriend, Melinda Bell.”
“Nice to meet ya.” The two shook hands. They small talked for a few minutes before a loud voice boomed over everyone else’s.
“Alright everyone! Sit!”
“Hey Johnny! Long time no see!” Chris shouted from down the table.
He rolled his eyes, “Nice to see you Chris. So anyway, this is the first meeting for the guys’ next tour. It’s bigger, better, and way more high tech. I’m assuming everyone except Lance and Justin are here; they should be back by next week. This meeting is to make sure everyone knows what they’re doing and to basically set everything out.” His eyes scanned the room and stopped on her. “Brianna Dawson?” She nodded. “I’m Johnny Wright, the guys’ manager.” She stood up and shook his hand.
“For those of you who don’t know Brianna already, she is the new production manager.” Her mouth dropped in shock. He gave her a strange look. “I’m guessing you didn’t know.” She nodded, unable to speak. “Well, surprise, surprise! You got a promotion,” he paused, “again.” He smiled. “That basically means that next to myself and Tim, Brianna is in charge.”
JC’s eyebrows rose. He leaned over to whisper in her ear, “At this rate, you’ll be running Jive before you’re 25.” She blushed and shrugged.
Half an hour later, Johnny announced that everyone was to be at their first stadium on Monday for rehearsals and setup. Brianna was surprised that everyone stayed in the room after the meeting ended to socialize. She packed her stuff up and was heading to the door but Johnny stopped her.
“Brianna, this is Tim Miller, your boss.” An older man shook her hand firmly.
“I’ve heard wonderful things about you. I hear the Backstreet Boys tour was awfully upset to lose you.”
“Thank you.”
“I give props where it’s deserved. I’m sure you’ll love this tour.”
Brianna smiled. “I’m sure I will. It was a pleasure meeting you.”
“Likewise.” She turned to leave but Johnny grabbed her arm. “Don’t think you can leave so fast Brianna! Here.” He looked around the room. “Melinda!” JC’s spunky girlfriend detached from his arm and came over to them.
“Hey Brianna! How are you doing Johnny?”
“Pretty good. Want to do me a favor?”
“Sure.”
“Introduce Brianna to a few people.”
“No problem.” Brianna put her bag on the table and followed after the girl.
“JC didn’t totally introduce us. How old are you?”
“20. What about you?”
“I’ll be 24 in a few months. Where are you from?”
“Chicago.”
“Home of the Bulls. Ever see Michael Jordan play?”
“Yeah, we used to go to games all the time. I met him once; he signed a jersey for me.”
“Oh my God, Justin would flip.”
Brianna laughed. “He likes Michael Jordan?”
“He loves basketball all together but Michael is like his idol.”
They didn’t have much more time to chat because Melinda wanted to introduce her to everyone. Literally.
The room didn’t clear out for another hour. Brianna and Melinda were still socializing, Brianna was really starting to like this girl. They were currently listening to Joey and Chris fight over where they were going to eat that night.
“I want to go to Planet Hollywood!” Chris shouted.
Joey rolled his eyes. “Pizza Hut is so much better.”
“Oh come one! We go there all the time!”
“Well, we’ll get noticed in Planet Hollywood!”
“Like we won’t at Pizza Hut?”
“Where do you want to go Melinda?” Joey asked.
“No way! I’m staying out of this.”
They looked at JC. “Where do you want to go?” He shrugged. Joey sighed impatiently.
“What about you Brianna?”
“Huh?”
“Where do you wanna go eat?” Chris asked irritably.
“I didn’t know I was-“
“Of course you are!” JC cut her off. “You’re part of the team now.”
She smiled. “Well… I’ve actually never been to the Hard Rock Café and I’ve been meanin’ to go there.”
“Sounds good to me,” JC said.
“Me too,” Melinda agreed.
Joey and Chris looked at each other for a while.
Joey shrugged. “Cool with me.” Chris nodded.
JC rubbed his hands together. “Meet there at 6?”
Everyone nodded.
Brianna checked her watch. “I really gotta get some work don’t.”
“Yeah, me too,” Melinda grumbled. “See everyone later.” JC kissed her on her way out the door. Brianna grabbed her bag and walked with her to the elevator.
“So you and JC are dating.”
She smiled. “Yup.”
“How long?”
“One year and three months.”
“You guys look great together.
Melinda giggled and got off the elevator. “We get that a lot. I think it’s our hair.”
Brianna ushered her into her office. “Or you practically matching eyes.”
Melinda sighed and sat down. “Yeah…” she mumbled dreamily.
“So anyway…” Melinda jumped out of her daze. She blushed. “Sorry.”
“Don’t sweat it. How long have ya been workin’ at Jive?”
“2 years, since I got out of college.”
“What do you do?”
“EVERYTHING! I write for the website, set up interviews, and I keep the guys in line.” She laughed. “Or at least I try.”
“Interesting… So you know them well?”
“Like the back of my hand.”
“Well, if I ever need any black mail, I’ll come to you.”
“Oh I’ve got tons.” She stood up. “I’m gonna go get some work done. See you tonight.”
“Later.”
She walked out of the room but stuck her head back in. “I’m right down the hall if you need me.”
Brianna nodded and looked at the pile of work in front of her. It was going to be a long day…
Home
CMAR Chapters
Next Chapter
Email: mandie9113@yahoo.com