* Chapter 4 *

Riiiiiinnnnnnnnnnggggggg. Riiiiinnnnnnnggggggggg. I woke up to the phone ringing on the table by my bed. I sleepily stretched out my hand and grabbed it.

"Hello," I said in a slightly groggy voice.

"Hello, hello. Ooohhhhhhhh Sugar, sugar. Da da da da da da. Aaaaaawwww honey, honey. Da da da da da da. You are my candy girl and you’ve got me wanting you," I heard someone sing on the other end.

"I’m guessing that this is my wake-up call," I said into the phone.

"It sure is," Kev said in a deep voice. "Can both of you be ready in about an hour?"

"Sure. Thanks for waking me up. I wouldn’t have gotten up otherwise," I said before I hung up the phone.

I slowly got up from the bed and went over to the closet. I opened the door and got out my favorite faded wide-leg jeans and a white fitted button up shirt. This was my favorite outfit. I loved wearing it. I pulled the Pantene Pro-V out of my bag that was on the floor of the medium-sized closet by the bed. After I set my clothes down on the counter, I turned on the water in the shower so it would be warm when I got in. After a refreshing shower, I quickly got dressed and sat on the couch by the phone as I put on socks and my favorite black big-soled shoes. When I was done, I picked up the phone and dialed Court’s room number. After it rang a few times, she answered.

"Hello?" she said.

"Hi Court. Sleep ok?" I asked.

"Yeah. This bed is really comfy. I didn’t want to get up yet, but I got a very interesting phone call from Howie, except I think he thought I was you. He told me that Nick said this was your room," she said.

"Actually, Nick did call here last night and he thought that I was you. I didn’t tell him because I didn’t want to totally embarrass the boy! He called to ask you if you wanted to go dancing or clubbing. Don’t worry! I told him yes and also said that I wanted to come too. Do you think he’ll invite someone along for me?!?" I asked with curiosity.

"Why would he do that?" she said sarcastically.

"Because I’m so adorable!" I replied as we both laughed at each other’s comments.

"Well, Kev said that we need to be ready in about an hour. Ok?" I asked.

"Ok. Kev called you! I wish Kev would’ve called me," she whined.

"Isn’t he a little old for you?" I asked as I stood up.

"Well, yeah. He is. Anyway, I’ve got to get dressed. Talk to you later," she said.

"Ok. Bye," I replied before I hung up the phone.

I walked over to the counter and found my make-up and hair stuff. I pulled my long blond hair into a sleek bun and put a scrunchy around it. As I was putting my foundation on, I thought about what was going to happen today. When I finished with the foundation, I noticed that there was something missing. I walked over to the closet and pulled out my Discman and portable speakers and grabbed a few CD’s. I picked out my favorite BSB CD and put it in the CD player. After turning it on to play, I went back to putting my make-up on. ‘That’s better,’ I thought to myself as I hummed along with ‘That’s the Way I like It’. I finished putting on my make-up, so I got up and went over to get my curling iron out of my bag. After all, I had to look nice for the boys. After pulling it out of the bun, I blow dried my hair, brushed it and quickly curled the ends so it curled under when I left it hanging down on my back. I liked it that way the most. Just as I heard my favorite part of the song play on the stereo, the phone rang. I let it ring a few times so I wouldn’t miss the best part of the song.

"Hello," I said into the phone receiver.

"Hey there," said the raspy voice at the other end of the line. "So, how is everything?"

"Everything here is great. The room is sooo huge and the bed is totally comfortable. This is more than I could have ever dreamed of," I replied.

"That’s good. I’m glad. Hey! That’s my song," he said about the music in the background. "Gotta listen to the groove and you’ve gotta listen well. The way I do it. Yeah," he sang along with the music.

"I love this song, but it’s not my favorite. I’d have to say it’s maybe my second favorite though," I said.

"Really? What’s your favorite then?" he asked curiously.

"My favorite song that you guys sing is 10,000 Promises. I fell in love with it the first time I heard it. It doesn’t really have any special meaning to me...I just think that the music is pretty," I replied.

"Really? That’s my favorite too," AJ said sort of surprised. "It’s really a great song."

"That is so cool!" I said enthusiastically.

"Yeah. Anyway, I was calling to ask if you would like to go dancing or clubbing with me tonight," he said in a rather hopeful voice.

"You know what? I would totally love to!" I replied.

"Good. Nick and your sister will be coming along too, if that’s ok with you," he said.

"That’s fine with me," I said as I played with my hair nervously.

"Great! I guess I’ll see you later then. Take care," he said before we exchanged good-byes.

I looked at my watch and it said that the time was 8 am. It was about 7:30 when Kev called, so that meant we had about 30 minutes ‘til our ride would be here. I decided to call Court up and see if she was ready to go down to the lobby. I called and she said she was ready so she met me in the hallway. We made our way to the elevator and I pushed the button to go down. When it reached our floor, we both got on the deserted elevator. I pushed the button that indicated we wanted to go to the bottom level.

"What do you think we’ll be doing today?" I asked Court curiously.

"I’m not sure. I hope we do something really fun though," she said in reply as we heard the elevator ding. We walked down the grand staircase, then out into the lobby and waited for a few minutes. There was no sign of our ride yet, so I told Court that I was going over to the little breakfast that they had set up in the lounge on the side of the lobby. I walked over to a basket of fruit and picked out a banana and motioned Court to see if she wanted anything. She shook her head so I made my way back to where she was standing. I suggested that we sit while we waited, so we walked over and sat on a couch facing a painting on the opposite wall from the front desk.

"Do you think we will do any shopping? I want to go and look for some cool stuff," I said after a few minutes to Court while she looked at a magazine that was on the coffee table in front of us. I peeled my banana and ate it in a hurry. Hey! I was really hungry!

"I don’t know Elsa. That would be fun though. What kind of stuff would you be looking for?" she asked in reply as I pulled my hair up into a bun and put a scrunchy around it.

"Well, I need to find something cool for Mel and I want to find some really cool sunglasses and maybe some Doc’s as well. I desperately need new ones. I want some glasses like the ones AJ had yesterday. Maybe I should just steal them from him!" I said sarcastically.

"I heard that!" a voice whispered in my ear from behind the couch.

I jumped up in surprise and covered my mouth so I wouldn’t yell ‘cause I didn’t want to get into any trouble with the hotel. I turned around and there was AJ leaning on the back of the couch that we were sitting on.

"AJ! You scared me half to death!" I exclaimed.

"Gotcha!" was all he said in reply.

Right then, I made a decision that this was war! What could I do to get him back? ‘Ah! I’ve got it!’ I thought to myself.

"Whatever," I said halfheartedly before I turned back around, winked at Court so she knew what was going on, and pretended to pass out. I closed my eyes slowly and fell back on the couch. I lay there for a few minutes while AJ was trying to figure out what happened. I think he literally thought he scared me to death! What a hoser!

"What happened?" he asked Court in a panicked voice.

"You scared her," she said in reply. "This happens a lot. You have to whisper something into her ear to get her to wake up," she added to go along with my plan. She knew exactly what I was going to do.

"Really?" he asked in a disbelieving voice. "That’s weird," he said as he shrugged his shoulders.

He bent down close to my ear and then whispered ‘Come on Liz. It’s time to go. You’re going to make us late.’ He waited for a reaction, but none came so he whispered it again.

Before he pulled his head away this time, I whispered, "Gotcha!" in his ear as I tickled his stomach. He laughed a little to himself then helped me up from the couch.

"This is war!" he exclaimed.

This made me laugh a little. I looked at Court.

"Duh!" Court and I both said in unison.

"Well, Homer Simpson to you too!" he exclaimed.

"Huh? Oh, no. That’s doh!" I said as I hit Court in the forehead like Homer does.

"Oh. Sorry," he said as he gave me with that ‘innocent-school-boy-that-didn’t-do-anything-wrong’ look. He knew that wasn’t working so he cracked a smile.

Court saw this and she couldn’t help but to laugh out loud. Court noticed that she was the only one laughing, so she walked over and tickled me in the side until I laughed too.

"Pass it on Elsa," she said.

I walked over to AJ and tickled him until he laughed uncontrollably.

"Pass it on AJ," I said imitating Court.

They both busted up at my impression of her and AJ grabbed my wrist.

"Pass it on," he said.

I grabbed Court’s arm while AJ led us out to where the limo was. AJ got in first, followed by me, and then Court.

"That was fun. Did you see the people walking in? They were giving us funny looks," I said as I tried to make a face like the ones they were making at us. "That was really great!"

"I don’t mind it when people look at me weird," AJ said. "I get weird looks all the time."

"I’m sure you do with that purple hair of yours," I said jokingly. "Hey, where is the stereo in this thing?"

"It’s right over there. Put in some good music," Court said.

I pulled my CD case out of my small backpack and flipped through it backwards. I took a few seconds to think about each CD as I looked through them. Shania Twain...nope. Britney Spears...nope. TLC...nope. Lenny Kravitz...nope. Len...nope. Smash Mouth...nope. Sugar Ray...nope. Goo Goo Dolls...nope. Tim McGraw...nope. Faith Hill...nope. Millennium...nope. Then I came across the CD that I put together. It had my favorite songs on it. I took it out of the case, popped it into the CD player, and pushed play. While I waited for it to start, I opened the sunroof and stood up. I motioned for the others to do the same. AJ declined, fearing it would mess up his hair. Court jumped up and we both blurted out the words to ‘Roll With It’ as it played in the CD player. AJ thought this was funny, so he started laughing at us. I ducked my head back into the limo and gave him with a questioning look.

"What are you laughing at?" I asked.

"You two act like you’ve never been in a limo before," he replied.

"Actually, Elsa and I had never been in a limo until yesterday," Court replied.

We both sat back down in the limo and I closed the sunroof. We listened as Christina Aguilera played through the speakers. After the song was over, we waited for the next song to play. Out of nowhere, I started singing the Mr. Rogers theme song to myself. It’s a beautiful day in the neighborhood, a beautiful day for a neighbor. Won’t you be mine? Won’t you be mine? That’s what came out and then I stopped. All eyes were on me.

"What was that about?" Court asked.

"Don’t know. Just sort of came out," I said giggling.

"You know what? You’ve got a really nice voice," AJ said to me in a very serious way.

"Thank you. By the way, where are we headed?" I asked curiously.

"Yeah. Where are we going?" Court chimed in.

"Actually, we are heading to the Jive records buildings right now. We will meet the other guys there and we, the guys, might give you a tour of the studio. We might even do some recording or something. After that, it’s basically up to you two," AJ explained.

"Awesome! I can’t wait," I said enthusiastically. Court and I looked at each other. "Shopping!" we both said excitedly.

"Sure. Whatever you want. Maybe a few of us will come with you and show you some parts of town too," AJ said. "There are tons of cool shops around. You just have to know where to look."

This is so exciting. I get to go and see where THE Backstreet Boys go for business. Ah! We might do some recording! I am totally stoked. Maybe I can do a song with them or something. I wonder if we’ll see anyone else there. Britney Spears works for the same label. So does *N Sync. I wonder. My thoughts were interrupted when I heard AJ singing along with Lenny Kravitz’s version of ‘American Woman’. I thought that was so cute, so I turned up the music a little bit. I started singing along with him quietly. I sang the harmony to myself while he sang the melody.

"You sound great. Sing louder!" AJ said to me.

"Thanks. I’m kind of intimidated by you. I’m just not used to singing in front of, ya know, strangers," I replied timidly.

"Hi. My name is Alexander James McLean," he said as he stuck out his hand so I could shake it. After I shook his hand, he smiled and said, "There. We’re not strangers anymore. Now sing!"

I looked at Court and gave her a ‘what-in-the-heck-is-he-saying’ look. She took one look at me and started laughing.

"What?" I asked her.

"Nothing. You are just too funny," she said.

I shrugged my shoulders and gave her a ‘whatever’ look and continued singing, only louder this time.

"That’s better," AJ said sarcastically. "I’ll look you right straight in the eye, tell you what I’m gonna do. I’m gonna leave you woman. You know I gotta go. I’m gonna leave you woman. I gotta go. I gotta go," he sang.

As I was listening to the ending of the song, AJ moved over to sit on the seat that was facing us. He reached over to where the little fridge was and pulled out a couple of waters. He handed both Court and I one and then got one out for himself. I told him thank you and guzzled it down.

"We’re almost there. Getting excited yet?" he asked.

"Yes. Lots!" I replied.