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* * * Chapter 10 * * *

"Sssshhhhh!" I whispered loudly as Meg helped me carry the huge bag of sheep turds to the Boy’s bus.

We had finished rehearsals for the day about an hour and a half ago so we went to the zoo and got our little ‘donation’. Red and Dee were smearing maple syrup on the whole bus (including the tires) and then covered the tires with grass clippings. Gilli, Arti, and Cher were throwing handfuls of white down feathers on the sticky bus. We had each asked Jane for an extra pillow to ‘sleep with’ so we would have plenty of feathers for our 2nd attack. I started pulling sheep poop out of the large black garbage bag with my glove covered hands and put it in a large circle around the entire bus. When I was done, I joined Chaun, Dee, Meg, Red, and Gilli who were throwing feathers, some of the guys’ old stinky socks, and cotton balls everywhere. I took a bunch of the cotton balls and completely covered the back of the bus with them. Meg had been in their bus earlier that morning with Curly and on her way out, she took one of the keys to their bus so we’d be able to get in. Meg went in and took a pair of shoes from each guy and brought them out. She handed me one shoe of each pair and told me to put them in the luggage compartment. She took the others, put frosting on the bottom, and stuck them to the front windshield for all to see. Red handed me a tube of the cake icing and I spelled the note out on the door to the bus.

Other people see you as cute and keen,
but we know how you really are!
We’re Baaaaaaaad!
10 S.D.

I put little ‘baaaaas’ all around the note with the infamous pink coconut covered SnowBall with the rose bud as the 0. We all backed up so we were standing outside the poop circle and watched with sly smiles as Arti put a white beanie baby lamb on the row of poop in front of the door. Gilli took a few pictures of our masterpiece with us before we quickly took off to our own busses. I took a quick shower with TONZ of scented shower gel, knowing that I probably smelled like the sheep crap. When I stepped out of the small bathroom with my clothes already on and my hair wet, Jane and Denise were just coming onto the bus. I fought to keep a straight face when I heard them talking about the guy’s bus. I ran my fingers through my braided hair while I walked up to where they were sitting at the table in the front.

"Hi," I said as I turned towards the sink, still ‘combing’ my hair.

They greeted me with smiles as I put my brush down and filled a cup with water. I drank the water and set the cup in the sink before I walked back into the bunk section, making sure to leave the door open wide enough that I could still hear what they were talking about. Meg peeked out from behind the curtain of her bunk and I put my finger up to my lips to keep her quiet. She pointed to the door with a questioning look and I nodded. She got out of her bunk and stood next to me by the door.

"You know what? I saw some of those pink coconut things underneath one of the blankets in the empty bunk underneath Meg’s," Jane said to Denise.

Meg looked at me with wide worried eyes and I looked at her with the same expression. ‘Crap!’ I mouthed to her.

"You think those three could be in on it?" Denise asked.

"Who knows...but you have to admit, it was quite good!" Jane replied with a laugh.

"Yeah! Whoever it was certainly has my respect...pulling something like that off not once, but twice!" Denise said.

Meg swung the door open, walked out into the front, and stopped in front of the table.

"Look...we know who did it..." Meg said with a totally serious face. "I’ll tell you if you SWEAR not to tell."

Jane and Denise exchanged looks and then turned to give Meg a nod. I walked out and stood next to Meg.

"We are part of the SheDevils. The female dancers and the three of us have formed a sort of alliance so to speak," I told them when Meg didn’t know exactly how to tell them. "Since you both know about our little ‘secret society’, would you both like to join us in reeking havoc in the Backstreet world?"

I gave them a sly smile and waited for their answer. They gave each other looks and we could tell that they were debating whether or not to just by the looks they were giving each other. Denise won in the battle.

"We’d love to," Denise said with the same sly smile that I was giving them.

"Great!" Meg exclaimed. "Welcome to our little party world!"

We all laughed at Meg’s outburst and then went on to explain everything from the first bombing on the night of our estrogen-only slumber party to the pink SnowBalls that were hiding in one of the extra bunks.

"You guys are simply evil..." Denise said with an ambiguous smile on her face. "And we get to be part of it..."

I laughed with her for a few seconds before I excused myself from the ‘kitchen’ area to go back to my bunk. I crawled in and pulled out my leather bound journal.

Today we, the SheDevils of course, attacked the Backstreet bus once again. It was simply ingenious, from the sneakers right down the cute fleece lamb beanie baby. I heard AJ talking to Bri about who he thinks it is (the band), but man is he wrong! If only he knew that it was us...they’d have gotten us back already. Meg says that Curly’s getting suspicious though...that’s not good! We’ve now got Jane and Denise on our side and I’m going to go convince AC to join us...bribery always works when it comes to men...LOL! I can only imagine AJ’s face when he finds out that I’m in on this too...I just hope he finds it kind of funny rather than getting mad ‘cause that wouldn’t be good. Afterall, we only meant it to be a joke! A rather funny joke at that! :o) Well, the guys are supposed to be back in a little while so I guess I’ll go talk to Meg until they get back. Toodles for now!

~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~ AJ ~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~

"Oh no...they did it again..." I whined as I saw the condition that our bus was in. "Whoever is doing this is going to get it SOOOO bad!"

We had gotten back from the interview a few minutes early. We walked towards our bus and instantly were overwhelmed from the wronchy smell of the crap that was surrounding our bus.

"Aaaaaaawww man! They really got us this time," Bri said as he walked up and saw the circle of poop around our bus.

"Look at the cute wittle wamb," Nick said in a voice that sounding like he was talking to a baby as he picked up the beanie baby that was sitting on top of the crap.

Kev walked up with his nose plugged and Howie soon did the same. I walked over by the door and read the message aloud.

"Other people see you as cute and keen...true," I said with a little laugh before I continued. "But we know how you really are! We’re baaaaaaad!...that’s for sure..."

I shook my head at the sorry sight of how they had totally covered our bus with feathers, cotton balls, grass on the tires, our own socks, and even our own shoes on the windshield. ‘Wonder how long it took ‘em to think of that’ I wondered to myself as I reached up and pulled my shoe off the window.

"Whatdya suppose S.D. stands for?" I asked Kev when he walked up next to me and pulled his shoe off the window.

"I dunno," he answered before he made his way to the door and went inside.

I went inside and cleaned off the gunk from the bottom of my shoe before I went back outside and joined the other guys in cleaning off our bus yet again. My mind was thinking about what mom had ‘accidentally’ told me a few minutes before when she passed by our bus on the way to the building to make some phone calls. She laughed a little as she hinted to me that the girls had at least had a helping hand in creating the mess on our bus. I didn’t take her seriously, let alone believe her so I just shrugged it off. I already had my doubts about the guys in the band so I didn’t think anything of it. I picked up a couple of full garbage bags and headed for the dumpster to throw them away. Nick and Bri both had hoses and were squirting the bus to get the sticky stuff off, but they mostly ended up spraying each other more than the bus.

"AAAAaaaaaaHHHhhhhhhh!!!!! I’M GONNA GET YOU BLONDIE!!!!!" I heard Liz screaming from the direction of our bus.

Nick ran around the corner of the bus and after a few seconds, Liz ran after him.

"I didn’t mean to! I didn’t see you coming..." Nick hollered back as he ran to the guy dancer’s bus.

I laughed at the scene that was playing before me. Nick ran onto the bus and slammed the door shut behind him. Liz ran up to the bus dripping wet and pounded on the door while she yelled for him to come out. She gave up after a few minutes and when she saw me walking back towards our now clean bus, she came over to where I was. She met me by the back end of the bus.

"Can you believe him?" she asked with a disgusted face. "He got me ALL wet!"

"Yeah, you could say you’re wet," I answered with a chuckle as the water rolled off her braids and onto the black pavement. "But you still look good to me."

I pulled her into my arms in a tight hug. She obviously wasn’t ready for that, but after a few seconds, she softened up and wrapped her arms around me in return. She leaned her head against my shoulder and gave me a big bear hug before she pulled back again with her hands still sitting on my sides.

"You sure know how to brighten my day," she said with a smile.

"Likewise."

I gently took her hand in mine and we walked towards the building to wait for the huge mandatory ‘staff’ meeting that was supposed to be held in about ten minutes. The dance room was still pretty empty, minus a few of the dancers sitting along the wall, so we stood in one of the corners with our arms still wrapped around each other as we waited for everyone else to show up. Kev and Arti walked in hand-in-hand and came over by where we were standing. They both leaned against the wall so they were facing each other and continued their conversation. Meg and D were the next ones to come in, followed by Gilli, Damian, Fatima, and Jane. When the room started to fill up a little bit, Liz turned around so her back was against my chest so I wrapped my arms around her stomach and smiled when she rested her hands on mine. When everyone else was there, the meeting started with explanations of the schedule for the first few days. We’d be leaving the next morning and traveling to New York for a few TV appearances (Rosie O was the first followed by MTV) and then start with the first show at Madison Square Gardens. While we did our appearances, Meg and Liz would be working on a music vid for a song that Meg’s management had chosen for their next single. Their act is now known as M. E. because her manager insisted that Liz joined up in the ‘front line’ for the tour instead of just back-ups since she did sing on most of the songs that Meg had recorded. Even though Liz wasn’t signed with anyone (yet) she accepted the challenge when she decided to come on tour with us...and we are all happy she did! Next they told us that there had been a few dates that had been changed, but that was almost normal for at least a few of them to be modified. After that, they told us the usual ‘pep talk...this is going to be a great tour’ mumbo jumbo and then let us go back to whatever we were doing before. Liz told me that she was going to do some last minute shopping with the other ‘2/3 of the three’. She walked out the door with Meg and Arti so I took the opportunity to talk to mom and Jane. They had already left the room so I headed off towards their bus...they were in the same bus as the ‘three amigos’ as the fellas called them.

"Mom?" I called out as I opened the door to the bus and walked up the steps.

There wasn’t an answer so I walked through the kitchenette and headed for the bunks. They weren’t there either so I decided to try the back room...no such luck. As I was walking down the small aisle towards the front of the bus, something through the open curtain of Liz’s bunk caught my eye. I picked up the dark maroon suede covered book and opened it to the first page. It had her full name (Elizabeth Ann Holder) written neatly in the upper right-hand corner, but the rest of the page was blank. I turned the page to reveal lined pages that were covered in writing. ‘This must be her journal’ I thought to myself as I scanned over her handwriting, not really paying attention to any of the words. Her script changed when her mood was different and I was drawn to the way that telling about one of her days took up two pages, sometimes three. I flipped to the last few pages that she had written on and started reading. Ok, ok...I know it’s wrong to read her journal, but I was curious as to what goes on inside that pretty head of hers. I read quietly out loud to myself.

"Today was a REALLY great day! I finally got here early this morning and practically had a nervous breakdown on the cab ride over here from the airport. I was so nervous that things wouldn’t be quite right and that I’d just turn around and leave again, but things are more than wonderful! The look on AJ’s face was priceless when he turned around and saw me standing there in front of him. He looked so happy and content, maybe almost as happy as I was to be there..." I read with a smile at how she described that day.

I skipped the rest of that entry and turned the page. I scanned the page again until something interesting caught my eye. I began reading out loud to myself again.

"Today was fun, but the best part was the slumber party with all the ‘giols’. We gathered in the female dancer’s bus and watched movies, talked, and bonded, but most important of all, we all made a pact...this pact isn’t any ordinary pact though. We swore to always have each other’s backs in times of need or even in times of happiness. We also came up with our own little ‘Societal Name’ so to speak for our ‘group’. We call ourselves the ‘SheDevils’ and to finalize the deal between us, we all have S.D. names. Well, it’s really late so I guess I’ll go to sleep now!