8:30p PT
The next time Niki woke up, she found that Suni was tapping her on the shoulder. “Hey, girl. We’re landing in about thirty minutes. You need to wake up.” Niki blinked her eyes several times before she looked over at her friend.
“Where’s…”
“Scotty? He’s up front with the others. He asked me to come wake you.”
“I have the strangest feeling I’ve heard this before. What’s really goin’ on, Suni?”
“I have no idea.” They both made their way towards the front of the craft. “I swear, every time I’m sent out of a room, they’re planning something. I bet money when we get up there all conversation will stop.” They walked through the small doorway, and just as Suni said, everyone turned and looked their way in silence.
“Okay…I hope that y’all are planning my mini concert ‘cause I’m refreshed and ready for it.” Niki went and sat in the empty seat next to Lance.
“What are you talking about?” the bass singer asked.
“Ask JC. He promised me a show tonight.” She looked across the row at her boyfriend and gave him a wink while he sat with his mouth open.
“Umm…C, you might want to close your mouth before something flies in.” Justin stated. “And then tell us what the hell she’s talking about.”
“Well, I can do that,” Niki insisted. JC shook his head. “Don’t worry, baby. I promise to give them the clean version.”
“WHOA!! You mean there’s a dirty version too?!?!” Chris’ eyes jumped out of his head. “Well, that’s the one I wanna hear. Bring on the dirty.”
“I said clean version, Chris, and that’s what I’m sticking with. Besides there’s nothing dirty about it. JC just said that he would try to get you all to sing a few songs if I sang too. So…” she paused for dramatic effect. “This is my way of saying I agree.” The guys all looked at each other before finally all eyes were on JC again.
“I didn’t know you sing, Niki. Now this is a treat,” exclaimed Kelly. “Did you know she could sing, Joe?” Joey looked over at his wife.
“Yeah, but I never heard her live before. Only heard some stuff that C has locked up in his home studio.” He tried whispering the last part but Chris heard him anyway. Chris turned to JC.
“How is it Joey got to listen but no one else did?” He poked JC’s arm while asking.
“I heard it too.” Chris leaned forward and shot a look over to Lance. Niki turned in her seat to look at him as well.
“What do you mean ‘I heard it too’? How come I know nothing about this?” JC could see the steam coming from her ears she was so angry. Niki slowly turned towards her boyfriend while silently counting to ten. “Joshua, please tell me what is going on,” she said as calmly as she could.
JC was hoping to keep the whole music in the studio thing quiet until they got to LA.
~~Flashback~~
Niki was curious about the studio, so JC told her to go in the booth and put on the headphones. He went to the board and saw her through the window. She was standing there with her eyes closed while moving her mouth. He reached for the volume knob and turned up her vocals. Once again, he was blown away by what he heard.
“I’m gonna take sometime to think about,” Niki sang into the microphone. “The things that’s on my mind.” She had no idea what JC was doing since her eyes were closed. JC continued to watch and listen to the smooth vocals of his girlfriend. He didn’t even look from her when he pressed the record button to capture her singing.
“So if you come with me then we can search,” she continued. “This big, old, happy world that we live upon each and everyday as man, woman, boy, and girl.” After she sang the last note, Niki opened her eyes to see JC with a rather shocked look on his face. “Did I do something wrong?” she asked through the mic.
He shook his head, “Are you sure you’ve never done this before?”
“I’m sure.”
“And the song…where’d that come from?”
“Just a little something I wrote a long, long time ago.” She left the booth to join JC in the control room. JC turned off the mic and stopped recording before she got to him.
~~End of Flashback~~
“Umm…Scotty, I know you hear me.” He heard the anger in her voice, but still did not look at her.
“Yeah, I hear ya’,” he said softly. “I’m just trying to think of a really good explanation.”
“How ‘bout the truth. I’m not mad. I just wanna know why you didn’t tell me, is all.” Niki’s voice was smooth and calm. JC looked over at her. He saw that she wasn’t upset.
“It was suppose to be a surprise.”
“Well, it still is. I don’t know what you have or when I’m gonna get it or hear it. So don’t even worry about it.” She gave him a soft smile.
“Time to buckle up, everyone.” The flight attendant poked her head through the curtain to inform them. “We’ll be landing at LAX in the next fifteen minutes.”
“Thanks, Michelle.”
“No problem, Mr. Chasez.” She disappeared through the curtain to continue landing preparations. Everyone scrambled around quickly in order to make sure they had all of their belongings before settling down and strapping into a seat. Ten minutes later, they would be on the ground.
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