Part I Chapter I
“Win! Hurry up with those boxes! Now!” Win hurried out the backstage door and to one of the trucks where they were unloading boxes, she was thrown one and ran back inside to deposit it where her boss yelled at her to put it. She ran equally fast back out the truck to finish unloading.
“Once you finish with the boxes, go take the vans to be cleaned, they are filthy, there is a hose on the side of the venue, then go clean out the buses, then once you are done with that you can go get the crew dinner. After you eat you stay out of the way until the show is over then you help take down. Then get on whatever bus is still here, got it?” Win was quickly jotting down her tasks on her notepad and nodded.
“Yes sir!” and she was off.
It was around two o’clock in the morning when Win finally settled into bed, actually it was a small couch that was crammed into the kitchen of the bus the extra stage crew shared. This was how her life was going to be for the next three years. She had to admit it was a bit crappy really, being a lackey for a stage manager, sleeping on whatever bus was still there when she was allowed to leave. But she liked the traveling, and it was a lot nicer to be busy with work, that she was getting paid for instead of waiting around to find a job that usually didn’t work out. She’d only been working for a week and she’d already gotten used to the way she lived.
Days with concerts she helped unload trucks, but never set up anything. She once heard the stage manager talking with a stage crewman, telling him that she was too stupid to be allowed to touch any of the equipment to put it up. Win didn’t care what anyone thought of her. In the end all that mattered was that she was going to have enough money at the end of these three years to go to college.
She lay thinking of the days when she would finally be able to work as an English teacher as she drifted off to sleep. Her rat in it’s small cage beside the couch sat nibbling a piece of food and the familiar sound comforted her.
“At least I got my rat,” she thought to herself. This rat was her only friend she could afford. And at eight dollars he was a good enough pet that only asked for a food, water and attention. Win couldn’t make any friends really, her boss took care of that. Any time he had caught someone talking to her while she worked, he scared them away.
“I must seem anti-social,” she thought to herself. But who could blame any of the other crew or people who worked for the Backstreet Boys tour? She was so busy she hardly had any time to take care of herself. She often carried her belongings in a backpack, on her back at all times so she could ride in whatever available bus or van that happened to be leaving. More than once she had to chase a bus down to get on before they forgot her.
She finally drifted off into exhaustion and fell into deep dreams immediately.
“Wake up! We’ve got too much to do for you to be sleeping!” Red, the stage manager yelled in her ear. Win jumped up out of her covers, one leg already on the floor and looked out the window. It was still dark out. She rubbed her eyes and looked at her watch, 5:30 AM.
“Lets go, you’ve got to unload the trucks, take the luggage to the hotel, check everyone in, get the keys, hand them out, actually, do that first then unload the trucks. And what did I tell you yesterday about these buses, get them clean!” Red yelled getting off the bus. Win noticed the piece of paper he had thrown to the floor. It had her list of chores on it and she slowly bent over to pick it up. She picked up her rat’s cage and looked at her large black rat sleeping and said,
“Lucky you.”
Author's Chapter Notes:
I don't know BSB, this story isn't true, i'm not making any money!
