* * * Chapter 8 * * *

~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~ Meg ~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~

"AAAaaaaaAAaaaahhhhhh!!!! I LOVE this movie!!!" I exclaimed when the beginning credits played.

I knew that Liz had picked this movie to watch and I was totally LOVING it! Mike Meyers appeared on the screen and everyone burst out laughing.

"This is your favorite movie?!?" Chaun asked as she braided Liz’s hair.

"OMG...you don’t even know!" Liz exclaimed. "If she got dumped by Curly, she’d probably go hook up with Austin..."

Everyone burst out laughing at Liz’s comment.

"You know me all too well," I replied with a sly smile from where I was sitting on the couch.

Red, Chaun, Gilli, and I were all squished onto the comfy couch that faced the TV in the entertainment room of the large tour bus that the female dancers would be calling home for the next three months. Liz was sitting in front of Chaun so she could braid Liz’s hair during the movie (she was already about half done). Cher, Arti, and Dee were all spread out on the floor and everywhere else that wasn’t already occupied. Popcorn, chips, licorice, chocolates, crackers, and skittles were being passed around as we had been watching movies for the last three or fours hours. Who knows what the guys were doing...and who cared?!? This was a total girl’s slumber party and nothing was going to ruin it for us.

"Careful...my ears are still a little tender," Liz told Chaun when she started braiding the hair by her ear.

"Ok," Chaun replied. "By the way, those are some WAY cute studs."

"Thanks," Liz said with a smile. "They’re my birthstones...alexandrite for June."

"I wish mine looked like that...my birthstone is orange..." Dee exclaimed.

I giggled at her outburst. We were all getting to know each other pretty well and I could already tell that this was going to be the best three months that I’d ever have for a long time to come. It seems as though Liz, Arti, and I instantly bonded with the female ‘Backstreet’ dancers. They were a very sweet bunch of girls! The male dancers even seemed to enjoy having us around, which was also very comforting to know because we weren’t exactly sure how they’d all react to us at first.

"I’m not even tired yet!" Red said enthusiastically when the movie was over. "How ‘bout we go TPin' or somethin..."

I smiled mischievously at her suggestion.

"Or...how ‘bout we get some of the food from the fridge and create a culinary masterpiece out of the Boy’s bus..." I said with a sly smile.

"EeeeewwWW!! Let’s!" Liz exclaimed with the same sly look in her eyes.

We all jumped up and ran towards the front of the bus to see what sorts of ‘goodies’ Jane had bought for us. She was the one who had gone shopping and stocked all the busses with the proper food that we needed for the first few days. Cher squealed in delight when she pulled bottles of ketchup and mustard out, handed Dee the mustard, and then moved so someone else could find a ‘treasure’ to decorate with.

"We are soooo naughty!" Arti said with an insidious look in her eye.

"That’s what makes it fun!!!!" Gilli replied with a smile as she pulled a fresh bottle of Mayo out of the fridge door.

"Ooooooo this stuff is going to be a real wronch to get off tomorrow!" Liz said as she eyed everyone’s ‘weapons’ before she leaned over to find something in the fridge.

Red grabbed the new bottle of strawberry jam from the bottom shelf and then moved towards the bus door. Arti grabbed a few of the bananas that were sitting in a bowl on the table along with a bag of Oreo’s and followed Red. Chaun grabbed the bottle of maple syrup that we WERE going to use for pancakes in the morning. Liz took the single yuckiest thing that could’ve been used, the bottle of tartar sauce that someone had requested to go with their fish.

"I hate fish anyway," she said as she pulled the bottle out and gave me a sly smile with a shrug.

I picked up the loaf of bread that was on the table and waited while the other girls filed out of the bus. I grabbed the key from the hook that was inside the door and locked the massive bus behind us. After I shoved the key into my pocket, I joined the group of girls that were surrounded one of the luggage compartments of the bus. They put the food in the compartment. They told me that we were going to go get some more ‘supplies’ from the 7/11 at the corner so we quickly walked to the small store and bought a few boxes of pudding, a can of Cheez-Whiz, a bag of large Marshmallows, Ritz crackers, a small bottle of vegetable oil, a container of molasses, a few pre-packaged tubes of cake icing in some girlie colors, a handful of individually wrapped fruit roll-ups that were in a few bright colors, a jar of crunchy peanut butter, a container of six eggs, and a dozen (two count) packages of pink SnowBalls.

When we were done getting everything ready at our bus, we made our way past the band bus, the male dancer bus, the security personnel’s bus, the crew bus, the 2 opening acts busses, and there at the front of the line was THE bus that we were looking for. We weren’t really sure if they guys were in it, but who cared? As long as they didn’t come out while we were having our fun, it didn’t matter whether they were in there or not.

"Hold up girls," Red loudly whispered.

Everyone stopped in-between the Boys’ and AC’s bus. The shades were pulled shut in the front of AC’s bus, so nobody cared about being seen by him. No one spoke as we all huddled there in the small space between the two massive vehicles.

"Ok...here’s what’s going to happen. We have to make this fast and we HAVE to make it good! Dee, you work on getting the pudding in the balloons and set them right inside the door if it’s open. Gilli! You make huge Mayo circles on the front windows for eyes. Meg’ll give you a piece of bread to put in the middle of the circles to complete the eye look," Red explained her plan.

She shooed us off before she told the rest of them what to do. She then sent Cher to go work with Dee to make a mouth...yellow mustard teeth with red ketchup ‘blood’ dripping from the evil smile. Arti was putting the bananas on the top front corners of the bus so they stuck up in the air like devil horns. I just about died laughing when I watched Gilli open the jar of Mayo and spoon out a glob into her bare hand. She smeared it onto the window into two large circles and when she was done, I handed her two slices of bread, as planned. Chaun was busy putting maple syrup on the mirrors. Liz was smearing tartar sauce all over the place, minus the back of the bus. When she was done with that, she opened the bottle of oil and smeared it all over the handle, making sure that Dee had already put the balloons inside. Red wiped jam all over the bare spots where Liz had missed with the tarter sauce, leaving the back of the bus clean. I put crunchy peanut butter on the tires. Everyone started biting marshmallows in half, licking them, and them sticking them to the sides of the bus that was now almost totally covered with food. Liz and I broke open the cheese and Ritz crackers and began squirting cheese on each cracker before we stuck them all over the sides. Gilli, Arti, and Red worked on taking Oreo’s apart and sticking them everywhere. Chaun unrolled the fruit roll-ups and stuck them on the lights so that when they were turned on, they cast colorful shadows. The front of the bus looked like a devil’s face with the bananas sticking up and the sides looked like total messes. When we were done with the sides and front, we all met in back of the bus and watched as Red started to write out a saying followed by ‘our’ symbol.

We may be pensive, but we’re not as innocent as we look!

You’ve just been bombed by

10 ~ SheDevils

The 0 of the 10 was one of the pink SnowBalls with a little squiggly symbol inside of it that Red had put there that looked like a rose bud. We had all come up with the name ‘SheDevils’ and boy did it fit! When we were satisfied with our job, we hurried back to our own bus. I unlocked the door and we all started laughing hysterically once the door was safely shut behind us. We talked and laughed at what we had just done and we all made a pact that when we wrote notes, memos, or letters to each other, we’d sign them with our SheDevil names. Mine was MSD for Meg SheDevil. Then we discussed what our next strategic ‘war’ tactics would be before we all went to sleep.

When we finally decided to roll out of bed the next morning, we got dressed before heading to the building for our catered breakfast before we left for the rented arena. We all fought to keep straight faces as we joined the crowd that consisted of crewmembers, security, Jane and Denise, AC, and the male dancers as they all marveled at the sight of the Boy’s bus.

"Woah! What happened?" I asked Pickles after I walked up next to him, followed by the other girls.

"Your guess is as good as mine," he replied.

~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~

"Yo fellas! Let’s go!" I shouted from where I was standing next to the table in the front of the bus waiting for them to follow.

Bri walked out of the bunk area first and was soon followed by Howie. Kev strolled out a few seconds later so all we were waiting on was Nick.

"NICK!" we all yelled simultaneously.

He stumbled out looking like he’d just woken up, but he instantly perked up when he heard the song on the radio. ‘Locomotion’ was playing on the local oldies station so he turned it way up and began doing the ‘train’ dance as he passed us. He beckoned us to join him so we did, even if we did look like complete idiots. Nick began to walk down the stairs to go out the doors when he stepped on something. We heard a pop, but we all continued to follow him anyway, not noticing that he had stopped.

"Aaaaaaahhh!!! STOP!" he screamed as he grabbed onto the railing.

We didn’t hear him until it was too late. Bri ran into Kev who ran into Howie. Howie fell on me and I in turn landed right on top of Nick. We heard a few more pops, the door flew open and we all tumbled to the ground, covered in some brown goopy stuff.

"What the heck?!?" Nick said with a moan as we all tried to get up.

Everyone in the observing crowd burst out laughing at how silly we looked. I’m sure that sight wasn’t nearly as funny as what our faces looked like when we saw the condition of our bus.

"Hey guys...come look at this," Damian called from where he was standing in front of the bus.

We slowly walked up to where he was standing with the crowd following close behind us. When we saw the front, our mouths dropped open and the crowd began laughing again. A few of the people wandered off towards the building to eat breakfast, but Kev, Bri, Nick, D, and I walked around our bus and surveyed the ‘damage’ so to speak. When we stopped in the back, Kev read the message aloud.

"We may be pensive, but we’re not as innocent as we look! You’ve just been bombed? Pensive?" Kev said out loud.

"What’s pensive?" Nick asked as he admired the handy work of whoever had done this. "Shedevils...Is that a word?"

"I dunno...but whoever did this is going down!" Bri said with a sly face. "We’re going to find them out and get them back ten times over."

"And then ten times over that," I added with a smug laugh.

We carefully went back inside the bus and changed. Then we set out on the tedious task of washing the bus off. It took us three hours to get it clean again and by the time we were done, everyone was patiently waiting for us so we could leave for the arena to practice. Liz walked up to me as I was picking up a garbage bag full of slimy food and junk that we’d taken off the bus so I gave her a tired smile. She was wearing a pair of well-worn jeans and an old faded T-shirt, but she still looked nice. I laughed when I saw the dark pair of purple slipper socks that adorned her feet.

"You going to practice in that?" I asked sarcastically as she walked with me to the dumpster.

"No...I’m going to change when we get there," she said with a cute little smile. "I slept in the dancer’s bus and I didn’t bring anything to change into."

She stood there as I threw the bag in and I could feel her eyes watching my every move. When I had gotten ready before, I was wearing a white sleeveless shirt with baggy jeans, but that didn’t last long. My white shirt was now covered with brown ‘stuff’ and my pants were dirty from landing on the ground. Now I was wearing a gray wifebeater tank with a pair of dark jeans and black shoes along with my all time favorite sunglasses.

"Want something to eat since you didn’t get anything for breakfast?" she asked as we walked back towards the busses.

"Like what?"

"I dunno...what’dya have a hankering for?" she asked with a smile.

I didn’t want to tell her, but I wasn’t exactly that hungry after cleaning up all the disgusting food from the outside of our bus.

"How bout a muffin or somethin’," I suggested.

"Ok. I’ll be right back," she replied before she walked off towards the door to the building.

She was gone for a few minutes before she came back with a packaged muffin in hand. She handed it to me with a smile.

"Thanks," I told her as I took her hand in mine.

"LIZ! Come on...we’re leaving in like two minutes," Meg called to her from where she was standing outside their bus.

"I’ll be there in a sec!" she hollered back before she turned back to face me. "I’ve gotta go."

"I know," I said as I gave her a quick kiss on the lips. "I’ll see ya in a few minutes when we get there."

"Ok," she replied before she pulled away and walked back towards their bus.

I watched her open the door and step into the massive vehicle before the door shut again. When I saw her figure retreating back into the bus through the windshield, I turned back to the door of our bus that Nick had so appropriately named ‘Big Willy’ (solely inspired by the blue’n’gray metal on the outside...or so he said). When I got to my bunk, I pulled the curtain open, tossed the muffin in, and continued walking to the back of the bus. I sat down with Howie on the couch and watched some stupid show on the TV until we finally pulled into the arena parking lot about twenty five minutes later. I hopped up and ran to the door before Jeff, our driver, even had the bus stopped. Anxious to see my girl again after twenty measly minutes? Nah! I jumped out of the bus and walked down to where M.E.’s (Meggie and Ellz) bus was pulling to a stop. The door opened and I stood there waiting for a few minutes and when they didn’t come out still, I stepped up onto the first step.

"D’ya think they’d mind if I came in?" I asked Harry, their driver.

"Naw...go ahead," he replied as he motioned for me to go back.

"Thanks man."

I patted him on the shoulder after I walked up the steps and walked up to the closed door that led to the bunks. I knocked on the door when I heard shuffling and some sort of packaging crinkling from behind the door. I could hear their voices, but I couldn’t exactly hear what they were saying.

"Uh...hang on..." Meg called through the closed door.

"We’ll be a few minutes...you might want to wait outside," Liz added.

Ok...that was strange...they just basically told me to wait outside. Wonder what could be going on. Maybe they were just doing girl stuff...who knows. I went back outside and turned around so my back was facing the bus while I talked to Nick.

"Do you have any ideas of who did that to our bus last night?" I asked.

"Naw...I don’t think it was the girls...maybe it was BoBo and Pickles. I don’t know though..." he replied. "Whoever did it is going to regret it though."

"Straight up! They’ll be sorry," I said with a laugh.

Nick laughed with me for a few seconds before he became silent. His eyes were looking at something over my shoulder so I instinctively turned to see what it was he was staring at. Arti had just walked off the bus wearing a navy blue leather sleeveless shirt with khaki shorts and sandals...doubt he’s looking at her...she’s Kev’s. Liz was walking down the steps of the bus wearing a pair of hip-hugging navy blue leather pants with a white sleeveless shirt and a pair of black Doc Martin boots to match. She looked absolutely yummy and I couldn’t take my eyes off her...apparently neither could Nick.

"Hey guys!" she said with a sideways smile as she walked up to us. "Come on...the stage calls."

‘Oh goll...How am I supposed to keep my hands off now?’ I asked myself as she grabbed my hand and led me towards the stage where the crew was setting up a few mics so that Meg and Liz could get the feel of the whole performing thing even if there wasn’t a ‘real’ audience.

"I love the outfit!" I whispered into her ear when we stopped in a small private corner backstage. "Very stylish..."

‘And sexy’ I thought as I pulled her closer to me. She loosely put her arms on my sides and looked up at me.

"Arti picked them out...but of course I had to get them ‘cause I know how much you like leather," she teased with a flirtatious smile.

I couldn’t help myself from stealing a kiss from this amazing girl standing in front of me. My lips lingered on hers for a few seconds before she started to respond, as if trying to record it in her mind. She kissed back even if the kiss was a little unexpected. She broke away after a few more seconds and gave me a smile that melted my insides on the spot. She leaned in and gave me a small kiss again before she took a step back.

"I’ve got to go practice...I’ll come find you afterwards," she said as I held her hand in mine.

"Ok," I told her before she walked away towards the stage.