I bit off the end of a carrot and chomped noisily as I opened up the envelope from the teaching agency. “What is that?” My best friend and roommate, Keriann Longwood looked up from her place on the couch where she was playing Guitar Hero.

“Remember how I told you about that teaching agency I applied for? Well, I got a job. I just don’t know where I’ll be traveling yet,” I explained as I worked on unfolding the letter.

“Wait, what? A teaching agency to travel with?” Keri’s interest got the best of her and she paused her game to come and be nosey.

“Yeah, it’s basically this organization that hires teachers to travel with families that can’t stay stationery long enough to put their kids through school. I’m just trained elementary, but I thought it’d be fun since I love to travel so much. It’d be like, a private tutoring thing,” I shrugged.

“Sounds fun,” Keri beamed back and pulled a bottle of water out of the fridge. She hopped up on the barstool as I scanned the letter.

“Interesting. I’ll be traveling the states,” I read. “With a family by the last name of Littrell. Where have I heard that?” I mumbled, mainly to myself. The gasp from Keri’s lips made me look up in a hurry. “What? What’d I say?” I frowned.

“Littrell? It couldn’t be…” she rambled. I rolled my eyes. I hated when she rambled like that. She would get caught up in her own thoughts and then forget to fill me in on any found information.

“Care to elaborate?” I chuckled. She shook out of her thoughts and grinned.

“Oh come on, Collette. You remember. The Backstreet Boys? Brian Littrell,” she broke it down into pieces for me. “Brian married Leighanne or whatever. There’s five of them…they’re like the N’SYNC rivals.” She giggled.

I guess I kind of remembered them. But there was no way I was assigned to teach a celebrity’s kid. I had only been teaching for three years. I wasn’t experienced enough, was I? “Sheesh, I hope not. That’s not intimidating or anything,” I muttered sarcastically as I scanned the rest of the letter. I just had to go meet the family once so they could do their own personal interview and then they’d clear me for it if I passed.

“He’s just a regular kid, Cole,” she rolled her eyes. “It’s not like he’s gonna have two heads or something.”

“A regular kid? Hah. Yeah, right,” I walked lazily to the fridge and pulled out my own water bottle. “Those celebrities pamper their kids. If he is a Backstreet kid, he’s probably a spoiled brat.” I sighed. I wasn’t so sure I was ready to teach at that level. Maybe I should have just gone to the local elementary school like my mom suggested. That would have been much easier.

“Well, I guess you’ll find out,” Keri grinned.

“Yeah, looks like it,” I sighed. What had I gotten myself into?

I ran my hands over my jeans and tucked a strand of my dark auburn hair behind my ear before I knocked nervously on the large French glass door standing in front of me. I had never seen anything like it – this house was a mansion! I glanced back and smiled at the big Puerto Rican man, apparently named Josh, behind me and then turned to look forward again. I let out a quick sigh and then smiled as the door opened. This time wasn’t as bad as when I came to meet the family, but still not easy.

“Hi Collette,” the blonde Southern woman smiled as she held the door open wider. “It’s so nice to see you again, please come on in.”

“It’s nice to see you again too, Mrs. Littrell,” I beamed and stepped over the threshold. The house was the same as I had remembered it – beautiful with this modern, yet Southern feel to it. I grinned at the little blonde boy that ran down the stairs and quickly hid behind his mother’s leg.

“Please, call me Leighanne,” she grinned. “Baylee, do you remember Miss Morgan?” Leighanne ran her fingers through her son’s long blonde locks. Baylee nodded without saying much as Leighanne gently pushed him out from behind her so he was face-to-face with me.

I had worked with enough kids to know that Baylee was incredibly nervous to meet me. Poor kid. I knelt down to his level to make things a little more casual. “Hi Baylee! It’s really nice to see you again.” I grinned. “Are you excited about starting kindergarten?” The little boy nodded once more and I laughed softly. “Awesome! I’m pretty excited too.” As far as I could tell, my first impression of celebrities and their children was entirely false. The Littrells seemed like wonderful people and Baylee was as cute as a kid could be.

“Baylee!” A male voice called from the kitchen. “Come pack up your video games for the road, bud!” The voice appeared in the foyer where we all were standing and Baylee ran up to his playroom to gather his belongings. “Oh! I’m sorry, I didn’t realize you were here yet.” The man smiled. “Leighanne’s told me a lot about you. I’m Brian.” He put his hand out to shake mine.

“It’s very nice to meet you, Brian. Collette Morgan,” I grinned professionally and shook his hand. “You have a lovely home.” And boy oh boy did I mean that. Their home was gigantic – and quite beautiful. It was a three story home tucked away in the outskirts of Atlanta, Georgia. The foyer opened up to a royal staircase that reminded me of a picture from a Cinderella storybook or something. The room was so well lit, it brought out all the great features.

“Thanks! It’s lovely but it sits here all throughout the year when we’re off touring,” Leighanne rolled her eyes as she headed into another room. I followed with my bag securely by my side. “We’re so excited for Baylee to start learning new things. He already knows his ABC’s and how to count to one hundred.” She explained. “I tried to give him some kind of ‘pre-school’ while he was growing up. It’s just so difficult to do when we’re on the road so much.”

“Understandable,” I nodded with a grin. “I’ve been teaching kindergarten for three years now, as you know, and he sounds far more advanced than most of the kindergarteners I’ve gotten.” I added to make them feel a bit better. I was the truth. I noticed how observant and vocal Baylee could be. He was shy, but that was quite normal for a six-year-old. Or, almost six-year-old, in his case.

“Thanks for that,” Leighanne smiled. “We try. My mom was a stay-at-home mother and took care of us, so I try to be that for him.”

“That’s actually why I went into teaching,” I explained as I set my bag down. Leighanne offered me a seat at the kitchen table as she, too, took a seat. She seemed interested enough so I continued. “I wanted to be a mom first and have a career second. I figured teaching would be best for that.” A chuckle erupted from the back of my throat. “And now here I am, completely not worrying about finding a husband to start a family but looking to travel the country instead.”

She laughed and nodded. “Hey, well, finding the husband definitely isn’t the case. You should let it all just unfold. Who knows? Maybe you’ll meet someone while traveling!” She said. I nodded. I hadn’t really thought about it that way. I’d be so busy with traveling, though, I didn’t really think I’d have much of a chance finding anyone, for that matter. “We should probably go over everything with you once more.” She stood up to find her husband. “Wait here, I’ll be right back.” She grinned. I glanced around the spacious kitchen. It was beautiful! The walls were painted with a pale yellow that the sun reflected off of rather nicely; made it very homey. There were pictures place neatly on some of the counter space of the family – Leighanne, Brian and Baylee. A couple of Brian with, who I assumed, were his band mates. I was never really interested in music as a kid, so I had only seen a couple of pictures of the Backstreet Boys.

“So you’re sure you wanna put yourself in all this craziness?” I heard Brian enter the kitchen with Leighanne and Baylee close behind. I laughed and nodded.

“It can’t be all that crazy,” I winked. Brian and Leighanne exchanged a glance and laughed.

“Just wait,” Brian laughed. “Okay, so down to business.” He sat across from me with Baylee on one side of me and Leighanne on the other. “Alright, well we have two tour buses for the us – one will have me, Leighanne, Baylee and Howie with his wife, Leigh. Then the other bus is for Nick and AJ. I ordered one more for this leg of the tour for you. You’ll have your own space.” He laughed. “We figured, like we talked about before, that you and Baylee could be on your bus for all the learning or what not. That way we won’t distract him. We want to try and make it as normal as possible for him.” He reached over and rubbed his son’s head. Baylee smiled in return.

“Absolutely,” I nodded in agreement. “I typically try to form my day of school from 8:30 until 3:30. We have many breaks in between, so that gives us plenty of time for learning.” I grinned in Baylee’s direction. “Lots of fun games, movies, books!” I smiled at his excitement.

“Books?” He grinned.

“Yep! Lots of them,” I smiled back. “Baylee, would you like to learn a little about reading this year?” I asked. Of course, it was premature. And I knew he wouldn’t walk away from kindergarten with reading under his belt, but I figured he could at least dip in a little.

“Yeah!” He cheered and looked at his dad. “Daddy, I’m gonna learn to read!” Brian and Leighanne both laughed at his excitement.

“That’s awesome, buddy!” Brian winked. “Now the tour only goes until January.” He glanced back at me. “But we really don’t want to throw him into a public school right away – not after being home-schooled, or, bus-schooled rather. So we were hoping you’d be able to stay in the Atlanta area and finish out the year with us? And then we’d look at first grade once we got to that point.” He explained.

“Absolutely,” I repeated from earlier, grinning once more.

“Perfect,” Brian reached across to shake my hand. “Looks like you’ve got yourself a job, Collette.” I laughed and nodded. “We have a show over in Buckhead, Georgia tonight. It’s about twenty minutes away. I won’t make you suffer through that.” He winked.

“Actually, I might go…if that’s okay,” I quickly added that last part. I wasn’t sure if I was invited or not. “I just…I’ve never actually seen you in concert. I thought it’d be nice to check it out.” I shrugged.

“Sure! That’s not a problem,” he beamed. “You can tag along with Leighanne and Baylee. We have a bunch of family and friends that’ll be there.” I nodded and sighed a bit. “Let me show you your bus, it should be outside by now.”

I followed them to the front door where I had just been only ten or fifteen minutes ago. There in front of the house was a large black bus with a single silver stripe down the middle. My eyes nearly bulged out of my face. “That entire bus is for me?” I questioned as Baylee ran ahead with Josh to play in the grass.

“Yeah,” Brian chuckled. “Sorry it’s kinda small. It’s an adjustment, but we hope you’ll be comfortable.” He smiled. “And nights where we’re staying at a hotel, you’ll have your own room there, too.” He tried to make the situation a little lighter.

“Oh! I’m not worried about the size,” I laughed. “Trust me. I’m so used to spending all my time in a small two-bedroom apartment.”

“Well, the space will be pretty similar, but now you won’t have to share,” Brian smiled. We approached the bus and the doors opened, revealing a large African American man with a pearly white smile. “And this is your driver, Todd. Todd, this is Collette Morgan.” Brian introduced.

“Nice to meet you, Miss Morgan,” Todd tipped his head politely and put his hand out to shake mine. I smiled and returned the gesture.

“Nice to meet you, too,” I beamed. The entire situation was starting to set in and I was shocked. When I went to school for teaching, I never in a million years pictured myself traveling the country with the Backstreet Boys. Even though I wasn’t anywhere near “fan” status, I still knew who they were.

“Todd will drive you around from city to city, and then also become your body guard. You may not believe it right now, but once our fans realize who you are and that you’re with us, they’re going to want pictures with you too. You’ll need some kind of security,” Brian explained. With that, he walked up the stairs onto the beautiful bus. There was a curtain separating me from Todd and his driving space, then once beyond that there was a beautiful “living room”. On one side of the bus there was a large black leather sofa with a small coffee table. On wall across from the couch was a rather big plasma TV. I had to keep my jaw from dropping.

In the same room, there was a little kitchen area with a microwave, stove, dishwasher, sink and a little counter and cabinet space. “I wasn’t really sure what you like to eat, but I tried stocking the cabinets with the basics. Today before the concert you’re more than welcome to head out with Todd to do a little shopping.” Brian smiled. I nodded. Next was the bathroom. It was certainly small, but much bigger than I predicted. I assumed I’d be sleeping in some sort of a bunk bed. I couldn’t help my jaw from dropping when Brian pulled back the next curtain. “Again, it’s not much. But it’ll hopefully do as your home for the next few months…” Brian seemed so unsure that I’d like it.

“Not much?” I choked out as my eyes ran over the room. In the center of the room there was a large King sized bed with a large white duvet comforter on top with pillows that looked more like marshmallows than anything else. In the corner was a similar plasma screen TV like the one just feet away. There was more closet and drawer space than I could have ever hoped for. “Brian, I think this bus is bigger than my apartment.” I laughed. Brian and Leighanne chuckled as well.

“Good, that’s a relief,” Brian laughed. “I was hoping that’d be the case. We were worried it wouldn’t be big enough.”

“Hah,” I laughed and ran my fingers over the soft comforter. “I love it. Thank you so much!”

Brian beamed and nodded. “Our pleasure. Well, we’re actually about to head over to the venue. How about we leave you to get situated and meet you over there? I had Todd and Josh bring up all of your bags so you’re more than welcome to start getting unpacked.”

“Thanks,” I waved as they headed off the bus. I felt the rumble underneath my feet and sighed. I could get used to this.

“Keri, this place is huge!” I said into the phone as I draped another shirt on a hanger and placed it in the closet. “I swear, the closet is the size of our two closets put together!” I laughed.

“That’s so crazy! I’m incredibly jealous,” she sighed from the other end. “Back here it’s just me and Bella hangin’ out.” I smiled at the mention of her cat. I was glad she had her around. Keri and I both had our own separate lives, but we were also each other’s best friend. I felt somewhat guilty leaving her for an entire year. I knew I was going to miss her just as much, if not more, than she would miss me.

“Aw,” I smirked. “I’m glad you two are having fun.” I joked. “Well, I better go. The bus just stopped, so I think I’m at the venue.”

“You’re tutoring the kid and you get to go to their concerts?! Jesus, Collette. You’re living my dream right now,” she snorted. “Seriously, though. If I were a twelve-year-old girl, I’d be insanely jealous.”

I rolled my eyes and laughed. “Ha, ha. I’ll call you tomorrow from the road.” I said. We said our goodbyes and I put unpacking on hold. I pulled back the curtain just in time to be face to face with Brian and Baylee.

“Sorry,” Brian laughed and jumped back a little. “Didn’t mean to scare you. We knocked but I don’t think you heard us.” I shrugged, no big deal. “I just wanted to introduce you to the other guys and our families. Everyone’s getting ready for the show. I figured you could hang out with Baylee and Leighanne. Or you’re more than welcome to stay on the bus.”

Brian was so friendly. I smiled and slipped my flip flops on. “I’d love to!” I grinned and took Baylee’s hand as we walked off the bus.

“Baylee, tell Miss Morgan who introduces the show for us,” Brian winked down at his son. As we stepped off the bus and I waited for Baylee to enlighten me on who would be introducing them, I took in my surroundings. Not exactly the kind of venue I would have imagined for a band as large and well-known as the Backstreet Boys, but it was quaint. I noticed three other men only a few feet away with two women – one I recognized as Leighanne. I grinned down at Baylee to encourage him to tell me.

“Me,” he blushed, bashful. I laughed and squeezed his hand.

“That’s so exciting, Baylee!” I tried to make it a big deal. “I can’t wait to see you up on stage.” I beamed. He smiled up at me as I winked at Brian. By now we were much closer to the group and I felt way more intimidated.

“Hey guys, I’d like you to meet Baylee’s kindergarten teacher,” Brian called out so they’d all turn around. I instantly recognized them – well, for the most part. They had certainly changed from the posters and pictures I remembered seeing in magazines years ago. They had aged, for sure. One was even balding quite a bit – but still insanely attractive. “This is Collette Morgan. Collette, I’d like you to meet my best friends and band mates, Howie Dorough, Nick Carter and AJ McLean. And this is Howie’s wife, Leigh.” He introduced.

I went down the line, shaking each one’s hand. “Hi, nice to meet you.” I repeated politely as did they.

“You look kinda young to be a teacher,” the blonde one, Nick, smirked. I remembered reading something about him being the ladies’ man.

“She has to be young to be insane enough to come on this tour with us,” AJ joked, laughter ringing from his voice. I went to say something but Brian cut in.

“Guys, be nice.”

“We are being nice!” They said in unison. They’re immature, wonderful, I sighed.

“Its fine, Brian,” I smiled. “If I couldn’t handle immaturity I wouldn’t have decided to go into elementary education.” I winked at in Leigh and Leighanne’s direction. Both women busted out laughing, including Brian. AJ and Nick chuckled a bit.

“She’s funny, that’s good,” Nick laughed.

I rolled my eyes and shook my head with a smile. I had a feeling we’d all get along great. I was glad it didn’t seem to be awkward at all. Instead, I felt rather comfortable…almost like I was at home. The two boys almost reminded me of my brothers, except with the blonde one, something felt funny in my stomach. He was kinda…cute.

“Welcome to the Backstreet family,” Leigh spoke up and put her hand out. “It’s really nice to meet you and have another woman on the tour to put up with the testosterone.” She giggled. Leighanne laughed as well and nodded. I laughed. Maybe this would all work out just the way I had dreamt – perfectly.

“Well, we have a soundcheck to prepare for,” Brian spoke up. “But make yourself comfortable. No hurt feelings if you decide you want to just relax in your bus instead of watch the show.” He winked. “We all understand.” I nodded and tagged along with Leighanne as the boys walked towards the stage area.

“Sorry about the guys’ forwardness. They’re just being friendly,” Leighanne laughed as she held on tightly to Baylee’s hand. “They’re pretty used to people coming and going here; it’s just the way they handle the situation.” She shrugged.

“It’s completely fine,” I reassured her with a grin. “My brothers joke around with me the same way. It was nice feeling something familiar.” I shrugged. I waved my hand in front of my face a little to try and fan some air onto myself. It was a lot muggier out here than I pictured. I glanced down at my attire – a nice pair of jeans with a fancy tank top and a nice blazer. I wanted to make a good impression on the Littrells. I hadn’t realized I’d be standing in an outdoor venue to watch a concert.

“If you want to go get changed and meet me out in the audience, that’d be fine. The fans aren’t able to come in until 6:30,” Leighanne glanced at her watch, reading my mind. “We basically have three hours to do nothing.” She laughed. “Well, of course there’s soundcheck…” she mentally went through the notes in her head. “So we have until 4:30; about an hour and ten minutes.”

“I think I’ll do that,” I grinned and headed back towards my bus. Todd was standing outside on his cell phone – doing what looked like – guarding the bus. He smiled at me and tipped his head, allowing me entrance. I grinned as I climbed aboard and headed to the back to find something to wear. I definitely wanted to stick with jeans. I gnawed on my bottom lip as I muddled through shirts that were hanging on hangers. “Oh come on, there’s gotta be something…” I said to myself. “Ah ha.” I smiled as I found what I was looking for. My vintage Led Zeppelin t-shirt. I grinned as I pulled off the blazer and tank I was wearing and replaced it with the black shirt. I grabbed a bottle of cold water from the mini fridge and took a swig on my way down the steps to the dirt road. I didn’t notice the other body passing by on the way to his bus and smacked right into him, spilling the water all over myself and a little on the body in front of me.

“Woah, I’m so sorry,” I choked on the water that was on its way down my esophagus.

The body laughed. Then I realized it was Nick. “No big deal. Nice shirt.” At first I thought he was complimenting the shirt itself, but then I realized he probably meant the large water stain that was now spreading across my torso.

“Gee, thanks, pervert,” I grumbled jokingly and continued past him.

“No, I didn’t mean the water...” he trailed off with a smirk. “Really, the shirt’s cool. I love Led Zeppelin. Vintage, especially.”

I shrugged and turned towards him. “Thanks.” I grinned. I recapped my bottle and headed back towards the backstage door that lead to the audience’s seats. As soon as the door opened I was looking at somewhere around ten thousand seats. “Woah.” I repeated from earlier.

“Kinda crazy, isn’t it?” I heard AJ from the pit. I looked down and nodded. He was sitting on the edge of the stage, just swinging his legs down below looking over the seats. “I like to just come out and get a feel for the set up before everyone gets here.” He shrugged.

“That’s cool,” I nodded and walked over. Instead of pulling myself up on stage to sit next to him, I decided to just sit in a chair near the edge of the stage. “I don’t know how ya’ll do it. With all the people and everything…”

“You get used to it. We’ve been doing it for about fifteen years now,” AJ said. I whistled. That was a long time. AJ chuckled at my gesture. “Yeah, it’s been a while. When we started, Nick was just a kid. Hell, we were all kids.” He sighed.

Nick must’ve been the youngest. I made a mental note. “Doesn’t it get old after a while?” I asked him, clearly interested now.

“Nah, not really,” he shrugged. “I mean, sure. There are days we don’t want to work. But it’s what we’re passionate about. We took a break a few years ago. And even touring – our last tour was for our Never Gone album and that was back in ’05. Three years ago,” he explained.

“Hey Aje,” Nick reappeared from backstage. “Marcus wants to get us wired. The fans are already starting to pull in for soundcheck.” He grinned in my direction.

“See ya!” AJ excused himself and they both disappeared. I laughed as I watched Baylee run all the way from the top of the venue all the way towards me.

“BAYLEE THOMAS WYLEE LITTRELL!” Leighanne yelled from the top of the venue. “Stop running, please!” She called down as she hurried down the stairs after him. Instead of running towards me, he started weaving through the rows of seats. I laughed and shook my head. “Baylee, I’m not joking.” She said more firmly. At that point, he stopped running and plopped down in one of the fold-up chairs. She rolled her eyes in my direction and took his hand as they started walking down together. As they got closer, I could hear what she was saying. “You could get hurt, and that would be no fun. Then who would introduce the boys?”

Baylee just shrugged. “Miss Morgan could introduce them!” He suddenly pointed to me and laughed.

“I may be a good teacher, but I’m certainly no pro at getting in front of people and speaking,” I winked at him with a grin. “How about you stick to that job and I’ll stick to mine?” He nodded with a giggle.

I followed everyone backstage to where the boys were waiting to start sound check. They all had their microphones on and were joking around with each other. “Remember your lines, little man?” Nick rubbed Baylee’s little blonde head. He nodded with a grin. “Good.”

I folded my arms across my chest and leaned against the table as I watched the interaction between all the band members, their families and friends. Everything seemed so great! It wasn’t as awkward as I had pictured and so far, I had really enjoyed myself. What could go wrong?