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I laughed at the memory of that horrible photoshoot. We had so many more with Fritz. He always called me little boy even up until last year. He did a retrospective cover on us of all of the photos he had taken over the years. He of course chose that stupid angel picture to put in the middle of the lay out. The guys will never let me live that down. I remember at the time thinking that day was so long. I thought it was never gonna end. Little was I to know that it was to be the first of many a long day. We had no idea what was about to hit us. We were all so unprepared..
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I trudged to the van half asleep. It all just felt like a dream. I couldn't honestly say I was even awake for most of our early morning trips to rehearsal.

"5am? Why do we need to dance at 5am Lou?" Kevin asked getting his bag situated on his lap.

"Well, Kevin there isn't any other time to get it in. You have a very strict regimen to follow. Fatima is a very busy lady we could only get her for this early block of time"

"Couldn't we find someone else then?" Kevin argued.

"Kevin, Fatima is the best. She is very demanding but you'll see, she's worth getting up early for!"

"She's hot too!" Oh my God did I just say that out loud? I must have because they were all laughing at me. Lou included.

"Well, maybe you should keep that too yourself young man!" He said as he looked at our schedule.

The car stopped, dumping us out in the studio where we were spending all of our early mornings. Brian pulled me out of the van and Howie grabbed my bag.

"Come on Nicky, time to dance!" I rolled my eyes at him and yawned. Howie just laughed.

"Well, good morning boys!" Fatima said sipping a water. She came over and gave us all warm hugs. I actually chuckled when she gave me mine. I'm such a wuss!

"Thanks Nick you can let go now" I hadn't even realized I was still hugging her. I pulled away.

"You smell pretty" I said. She gave me an odd look and laughed as she walked away. I blushed from total embarrassment.

"Oh nice going Kaos, very smooth!" AJ said as he placed his bag down and began to stretch.

"Gee, you sure smell purty lady!" Brian mocked me. I wanted to crawl under a rock and die.

"Oh wait here it comes, here it comes" Brian said pointing at me. I rolled my eyes.

"Yes, there it is!!! the eye roll!" He patted me on the back and walked away.

I sat down and started to stretch next to Howie.

"You know before we started this group" He paused while bending down and holding his legs. I could never do that. Sometimes I thought D was a freaky little elf or something. I laughed. I always crack myself up.

"What's so funny?" He asked. I just shrugged.

"Okay, well anyway, Before we got this job, I didn't even know there was a 5 in the morning! I thought it was a myth or something" I laughed again.

"Gentleman, more stretching, less fooling around!" Fatima said as she playfully kicked at my foot. I giggled. I rolled my eyes at myself this time. I slowly turned my head making sure no one caught that but of course there was AJ smiling at me mouthing the words I heart Fatima! stupid AJ. He makes me so mad sometimes that I just want to..

"Nick"

"Scream! Ugh!" I looked up at Fatima and smiled.

"Why are you screaming?"

"No reason"

"Okay" She had a perplexed look on her face.

"Well, I was just saying that we are going to do the Bad Boy song."

"Okay thanks Fatima for telling me that"

"Uh huh" She walked away and I laid down on the floor hoping I would be lucky and it would collapse under me or something.

I stood up getting ready to dance to the stupidest song ever created by man. I laughed my ass off when I heard it for the first time thinking that it was some kind of awful parody like a Weird Al thing. My laughter turned to horror when I found out that it wasn't.

We rehearsed that song until almost 6:30. That's an hour and a half if you are keeping track! Nothing but that song. The dance moves were so challenging that even AJ was having trouble with them. I kept tripping over my feet. Kevin seeing me do this was getting mad.

"God Nick you have to concentrate!"

"I am trying Kevin but I am tired!!!"

"We all are buddy. You just have to pay attention to what we are doing here!" See we all had our little things we did when we were tired. I whined, Kevin yelled. Usually at me.

"Okay okay maybe it's time for a little break" Fatima said when she saw me near tears. She came over and patted my back.

"Nick you were doing just fine. Go eat some breakfast and then maybe you'll have a little more energy" I nodded, not even caring how I looked to her. I went over, sat down and grabbed a granola bar out of my bag. I laid down resting my head on my backpack.

Kevin walked over and sat down next to me. He offered me a banana and some orange juice. I shook it away.

"Come on little man, OJ helps you keep up your energy and you should have some fruit." He held it in front of my face until I grabbed it from him. He then affectionately patted my head as he got up and walked away.

I laid there with banana in hand sipping on my orange juice. I made the mistake of looking at the clock on the wall.

"Oh you've got to be kidding me!"

"What's wrong now Nick?" Howie asked from a near by chair." I pointed to the clock.

"It's only 6:45 Howie. Do you realize that we have danced our butts off before most people are even awake?"

"Yeah I know. I learned not to look at the clock. Hey, are you gonna eat the banana?"

"Not sure why?"

"Cause I'll eat it if you are just gonna stare at it. I'm still kind of hungry." I threw it over to him.

"Thanks" Kevin walked over and sat next to me.

"Nick, banana?"

"I wasn't hungry so I gave it to Howie" Kevin shook his head in disgust.

"Okay gentleman breaks over, let's get back to work"

"That wasn't even fifteen minutes" AJ commented as he made his way back into the studio.

We danced our show that we were getting ready to do in just a few weeks. I found it mostly difficult to sing and dance at the same time. I was awful with holding the microphone. It was too much for me to concentrate on at once.

"Good work boys but some of your movements are still a little slow. Nick was doing it correctly. Come here baby, let's show the boys how it is done." Fatima called me over to her and I gloated all the way there. AJ made faces at me the entire time.

Fatima held me close to her and was moving my arms like I was her puppet. God I would be her puppet anytime she wanted me to be. I would be her Kermit, she could be my little piggy. Suddenly Brian started cracking up.

"Brian what's so funny?" She asked him never leaving my side.

"Sorry but Nick has the dopiest grin on his face. He was just cracking me up"

"Aw, baby don't listen to him. He's just jealous"

"I won't Miss Piggy" Oh for the love of God..maybe I just said that in my head. Maybe I..

"Excuse me?" Oh crap!!!!

"Yes, Fatima?"

"Did you just call me Miss Piggy?" I winced and slowly turned around to face her.

"Um..yeah, it's a compliment see you were Miss Piggy to me being Kermit. the muppets you were playing with me like I was a puppet..Ew, I mean..you know you were feeling me up...Oh God no I mean um..." She laughed and patted my back. The guys were in hysterics.

"You are a strange one child. Cute, and strange" she nudged me back into my place and I did the only thing I could think of to do, I ran out of the room.

Brian walked into the bathroom to find me hitting my head against the wall saying Stupid Nick! Stupid Nick!

"Hey are you coming back?" I still pounded my head against the wall.

"No, I'm never going in there again."

"That's a little dramatic don't you think Kaos?" He laughed. I turned around to him and he was surprised to see I was crying. He walked over and put his hand on my shoulder.

"Nick, it's really no big deal. Fatima is over it already. We have a lot of work to do." He just stood there waiting for me to say or do something.

"Come on buddy, really it's okay."

"Now she knows I like her" I whispered.

"No, she doesn't. She only thinks you called her a pig!" I laughed.

"Your secret is safe. I promise." I wiped my tears away. Threw some water on my face and walked with Brian back into the studio. They were in the middle of the dance for Everybody so I just joined in.

Nothing was said about it for the rest of rehearsal luckily. Even AJ backed off. Fatima smiled at me whenever I made eye contact with her. It was a good productive rehearsal. We were done dancing by noon. Fatima came and gave us each a hug. When she reached me she whispered something in my ear that I have kept to myself ever since. I smiled and waved as she left the building.

"Awww, there goes Nicky's girlfriend" J joked. I rolled my eyes.

"Shut up AJ!" I said and pushed him.

"That's enough!" Kevin said.

"God, I don't want to deal with bratty children today. I am too tired." We all were tired. I couldn't wait to get back to the hotel and take a nap. Lou walked back into the studio a few minutes after Fatima left and told us we had a singing rehearsal in about twenty minutes. Groans could be heard across the board.

"Men, this is getting to be old. You do what you are told and that is the end of it. No moans or arguing. Now you have about twenty minutes to eat some lunch. I suggest you get to it!" He clapped his hands and we were off.

The van brought us to a Mac Donald's but we had so little time that we ended up eating in the van on the way to rehearsal. Kevin stared at me the whole time. He always stares at me. It makes me a little uncomfortable to tell you the truth.

"Nick!" Kevin yelling my name again.

"Yeah Kevin what now?"

"Is that all your going to eat?" He pointed to my small fry. I was too tired to eat much more than that.

"Yeah, I'm not really hungry" He shook his head.

"You're gonna get sick"

"No, I'm not. I'm too tired to eat okay?" That seemed to make him sad for some reason. It did the trick though because he shut up.

"Hey Nick, you gonna ask her out?" AJ at it again.

"Shut up"

"Aw, Nicky I think you should go for it"

"Shut up"

"Seriously"

"Shut up"

"Fatima and Nicky sitting in a tree.."

"Shut up"

"K-i-s-s-i-n-g"

"Shut up"

"First comes love"

"Shut up"

"Then comes marriage"

"Shut up" They all say this time

"Then comes Nicky in a baby carriage"

"Shut up" They all shout again.

"And now here comes the eye roll ladies and gentlemen!" I laughed and jokingly rolled my eyes.

By the end of the day, We were all so tired that the ride back from rehearsal was totally quiet. When walking back to the hotel room AJ and I were sharing, I felt the blisters forming on my feet. I plopped down on the bed and AJ plopped right next to me.

"When do you think we will ever get a break?" He asked me his voice muffled by the pillow.

"No clue but I hope it's soon. It can't be this hectic forever right?" He didn't answer.

"Right?" snoring. I closed my eyes and fell asleep. Both of us on the one bed, feet dangling off the end totally clothed.