Wednesday, March 15, 2000

Situating herself in the passenger seat of Mike's Ford Explorer, Melissa sighed in content as the sudden cool breeze from the air conditioner blew onto her neck. "You know, whoever thought up the idea of dual air control, they knew exactly what they were doing."

Chuckling at the statement, Mike waited until he had fully pulled out of the hotel's parking lot, before raising an eyebrow at the younger woman's physically exhausted demeanor. "Don't take this the wrong way, but did you go out with the guys last night?"

Opening one eye, Melissa furrowed her eyebrows in confusion before responding: "No, why?"

"Because, as of right now, you look like you could even give Joey a run for his money in the Worst looking hangover category."

While closing her eyes once again, Melissa didn't even bother trying to stifle her chuckles, "Thanks, I think. But I'm not suffering from any alcohol induced trauma. Lance called and woke me up at six o'clock this morning to inform me that Justin and one of their choreographers had spent yesterday afternoon coming up with a dance routine for me. And Lance wanted me to make sure that I brought at least two water bottles with me so I wouldn't get dehydrated during the day."

Rolling his eyes dramatically, Mike replied, "That boy needs a life," causing Melissa to slightly smile in agreement, before yawning out her tiredness. "There's probably going to be some small traffic up ahead, which will put us a couple minutes behind schedule. Why don't you go back to sleep and I'll wake you up when we get there."

Too tired to even open her eyes, Melissa flashed Mike a lazy grin; silently telling him that she appreciated what he was letting her do, "Remind me later to worship the ground you walk on."

Chuckling, Mike pulled out onto the highway before saying, "No need for that, just don't tell any of the guys I let you take a nap. I'd never hear the end of it from Chris."

After laughing slightly, Melissa drifted further back into her seat; making herself more comfortable before almost instantly letting the cool air and the feel of the smooth road underneath her lull her back to sleep.

By the time Mike pulled into the driveway of the compound, Melissa looked and felt a little bit more alive than she did before.

"Lucky him. JC isn't here yet."

Furrowing her eyebrows at the words, Melissa stared at Mike in disbelief. She could see JC picking on her and the rest of the guys--knowing that the older man would be able to handle his own if push came to shove--but it surprised her that he'd want to get into it with Mike; someone who not only was paid to guard the guy's bodies but also, from the looks of things, could snap each one of those said bodies without even breaking a sweat.

Sounds strange to me.

"So, are you going to keep staring at me or are we going to head in now?"

Realizing that she was indeed gawking at Mike, Melissa slightly blushed her apologizes before opening the passenger side door of his truck and stepping out onto the gray gravel.

This place is really beautiful. She thought to herself as she made her way towards the front door; afterwards inwardly wondering to herself why she hadn't noticed the outdoor decorations the other two times she'd been there before.

"These new?"

Opening the door for her, Mike turned his head slightly to see what Melissa was looking at and raised an eyebrow in interest when he noticed that she was pointing towards the flower bed by the door. "I'm not really sure. Johnny's assistant usually comes in on the weekends and does a few small things around the place. I'm surprised you noticed though, no one else usually does."

Melissa made her way through the entrance, and waited for Mike to catch up to her, before replying, "It's always the small things I notice. Their always the things that truly count in life."

Staring at the younger woman in front of him, mutely, as they made their way down the hall--towards the room that Lance had told them to meet Justin and Wade in--Mike couldn't help but think to himself that soon enough the little lady in front of him would be making as big of an impression on the world as she had made on him and the rest of the guys; JC's stubborn self included.

Mike just prayed that once it happened, Melissa would be able to handle it all.

Hopefully without a huge ego intact.

Opening the door to Studio Room B, Melissa had to cover her mouth to keep from laughing as she witnessed Justin involved in a dance-off with another male, who she'd never seen before.

"You like that, huh, Wade? I bet they never taught you that move in Australia."

"Keep talking fro boy, 'cause soon that's all you'll be able to do. I have moves you've never even seen before."

Watching as the two men competed in an all out dance war, Melissa couldn't help but think to herself that they were two of the best dancer's she'd ever seen. She just hoped that the choreography moves they made up for her weren't as hard as the back breaking labor they seemed to be doing now.

"Boys!" Mike exclaimed, underneath his breath, before clearing his throat loudly; causing both men to look up from their movements; slightly flustered.

"Mike! Melissa!" Justin exclaimed, after a second; smiling sheepishly, while doing so, to show that he was slightly embarrassed for having being caught. "We were just-"

"Goofing off. We know." Mike interrupted, causing Justin and the other man to roll their eyes playfully. "I just hope you two know that I'm coming back and beating both your white asses down if this girl can't out dance Lance by tomorrow morning."

Watching as the other two men chuckled at Mike's words, before agreeing that no one could be worse than Lance, Melissa couldn't help but wonder if her manager was that bad of a dancer.

He doesn't look like he'd be a bad one..but then again, you can't really tell by looking.

"Melissa?"

Snapping out of her thoughts, Melissa blushed slightly as she noticed Mike had already left the room and Justin and Wade were now staring at her confused. "Sorry. What were you saying?"

Smiling to show that it was okay, Justin quickly introduced Melissa to Wade before giving a summary of what they'd be doing for the next two days.

"We're going to first show you, with the music, what the dance steps look like and then afterwards you can tell us whether or not you like what we came up with. If not, we can come up with something different..."

"But if you do...like them, that is.." Wade continued, "we'll then show you step by step how to do it. It's pretty simple foot work and it shouldn't take you more than a couple of hours to learn the whole thing. But since we're given two days to work on the routine, you should be more than ready by Friday. Sounds like a plan?"

Liking the sound of what they were saying, Melissa nodded her head, before replying, "Yeah, that defiantly sounds like a plan to me. I'm ready whenever you are."

"Right on!" Justin exclaimed, before clapping his hands together and showing Melissa where she could sit to watch them. "Like outback boy over there said, this is going to be a piece of cake, so don't worry."

Smiling slightly, Melissa told Justin she wasn't worried. And for the first time in a while..she really wasn't.

In Melissa's opinion, to say that the dance steps Wade and Justin had taught her were easy, would be an understatement. To be honest, they were down right a breeze. But their was still just one small problem with her performance, personality wise.

"You're not showing enough attitude."

Watching as Wade once again shut off the CD player beside him, Melissa sighed. This was the third time, in less than an hour, that he had said that to her and she still hadn't made any progress. "I'm sorry, I just-"

"You don't have to apologize." Wade said, before slightly smiling to show her that this wasn't something she needed to get upset over, "I just want you to focus on the lyrics to the song and pretend like you're doing this in front of someone who you can't stand, who you're absolutely fed up with and who you just wish would let you do your thing, your way. Understand?"

Nodding her head, Melissa got back into her starting pose and, just as Wade had said, she concentrated on the words she was singing as she repeated the moves she'd been doing all day; afterwards feeling like she had gotten a little bit better.

"Much better..but I have an idea." Justin said, with a slight smile on his face before getting up from his seat--beside Wade--and making his way towards the studio exit.

"Where's he going?"

Shrugging, Wade stood up from off the floor, grabbing his and her water bottle while doing so, and stretched a little before handing Melissa her bottle, "Knowing him, he's probably going to go looking for the devil himself."

Melissa laughed at the comment but didn't find herself laughing a few minutes later as Justin made his way back into the room with JC in tow.

What's he doing here?

Feeling JC's hard eyes on her, Melissa could only bite her lower lip as she heard Justin say to the older man, "We just need a third opinion."

No, we really don't.

Noticing the looks on Melissa and JC's faces, Wade realized what Justin was doing. "Don't worry, he's not here to judge you. Just remember what I told you to do, okay?"

Meeting Wade's eyes, Melissa quickly figured out what the two dancers were up to and immediately smiled inwardly to herself before handing Wade back her water bottle and telling the guys she was ready whenever they were.

"Thank God."

Ignoring the remark, Melissa got back into her starting position and waited for her cue to sound before lifting her head up, meeting JC's cold eyes, and beginning to sing:

I'm tired of waiting for things to change...

Friday, March 17, 2000

It seemed like all Melissa had to do, when she started to feel a little nervous, was imagine JC standing in front of her and it was like almost instantly she possessed a bitch-like attitude; which made her performance in front of the two founding members of Jive absolutely amazing.

"Wow."

"I do believe I second your opinion, Mr. Wright." Barry Weiss, the head CEO of Jive Records said, before turning his head back towards the slightly younger male; pretending as if neither Melissa nor Lance was still in the room. "Miss. Alano's performance, a minute ago, was truly breath taking and I can't think of one good reason why she shouldn't be leaving here as an officially signed artist of Freelance."

"Me either." Johnny said, before turning his head back around; focusing his attention more on his client than on the singer in question. "All right, Bass, you've got yourself a signed popstar."

Before Melissa even knew what was happening, a strong set of arms wrapped around her waist and she was practically lifted off the floor. "See! I told you you could do it."

Giggling slightly, Melissa hugged Lance back, then after a second she let go; blushing slightly when she realized the two older men were now looking at them with a curious look in their eyes. "Sorry."

"It's okay." Mr. Weiss said, before clasping his hands in front of him, "But before you go off to celebrate, I was wondering if you could grant an old man one small wish."

Knowing by the way she felt at the moment, if the older man, in front of her, was to ask her to jump up and down, she'd ask him how high, Melissa nodded her head quickly; silently telling him his wish was her command.

"I've heard so many wonderful things said about you and your song writing skills, from your manager and the rest of the guys from N'sync, that I was just wondering if you wouldn't mind playing an original song for me on the piano over there."

Knowing that Mr. Weiss's request hadn't been something he mentioned to Melissa beforehand, Lance opened his mouth to tell the older man that they weren't exactly prepared for the wish, but was slightly surprised when Melissa spoke up; telling Mr. Weiss differently.

"That'll be no problem sir, do you have any preferences as to what kind of song you'd like for me to play?"

Feeling as if this was now just between Mr. Weiss and Melissa, Lance sat back down in the chair he had been seated in before.

"Anything that you have written will be just fine, m'dear."

After Melissa replied, "Okay", Lance watched her as she made her way towards the piano--which sat up against the wall in the back of the room--warming up her fingers as soon as she sat down.

"Whenever you're ready, Miss Alano." Mr. Weiss replied; silently telling both Lance and Melissa that even though Melissa had gotten Record Deal approval, she still was being judged.

Unfortunately

"This is a song I wrote a couple of years ago when my mother passed away. So, I hope you like it."

Not having known that particular piece of information, Lance bit his lip slightly; wondering what else he didn't know about the brunette in front of him. And what else he wanted to know.

All I got to do is thank of you and that keeps me from feeling blue. I think about you all the time, you really blow my mind and I'm so glad you're mine.