Summary: Don't you just hate it. The school prom is coming up and as it always turns up, you have no one to go with. Just because you're not skinny like everyone else. But you think back to a promise you made with a friend...ask a member of *NSYNC and see what happens!
Rating: PG
Categories: Long Stories
Characters: Group, Lance Bass
Genres: Romance
Warnings: None
Challenges: None
Series: None
Published: 09/18/05
Updated: 09/18/05
Index
Chapter 1: Me
Chapter 2: The Response
Chapter 3: Phone Conversations
Chapter 4: Lance and I
Chapter 5: Shopping
Chapter 6: Dinner
Chapter 7: Morning After
Chapter 8: Day Before
Chapter 9: Suprises
Chapter 10: Photos
Chapter 11: Let's Get The Party Started
Chapter 12: Clubbing
Chapter 13: Orlando Oppertunity
Chapter 14: Orlando Nightlife
Chapter 1: Me
Life has always been depressing for me. I was never the skinny person, I was never the popular person nor have I been the one cuddling with my boyfriend at parties. Well, actually, I’ve never had a boyfriend in my life, and because of that, I still haven’t had my first kiss. I was usually the one all by myself, watching my friends laugh and talk with all the boys, totally ignoring my existence. That made it easier to escape and go outside and sit on the curb and let the tears slowly run down my face, quickly wiping them away in fear of someone might see me crying and suddenly out of the blue take pity on me. The laughing and talking carries on inside, unaware of the fact that someone was missing. Me. If it were someone else, my archenemy Sophie or even my best friend Vanessa, they would be all looking for her and then cheer her up. There is one of my other friends that feel the same way as me, my friend Mya. She would be the only one out of all of my twenty or so friends, Mya would be there to comfort me and sit next to me, asking me what is wrong or what is depressing me. Then, my other friend Monica, who also came out of the party, her own party, to come out into the cold night and sat down on the road, facing Mya and myself, and asked up both what was wrong. I told her half of the fact, why I was sitting out there. I told her I wanted to have some fresh air and also for the fact that I had a headache. I never really told Mya the real fact, why I was out there as well.That’s when I heard, “ Monica, Monica.” The very popular Vanessa came out looking for Monica, only to have Sophie hot on her heels. A few seconds later, the people all start to crowd around the area I was, only because of the fact that Sophie and Vanessa were outside and not inside. Because Vanessa was curious about me, she is my best friend after all; Sophie soon acknowledged my existence and everybody soon followed them. I had been at the party for over four hours, and they all arrived three hours ago, only now, do they acknowledge my existence.
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November 16th, 2001.
“Oh my god, I can’t believe the prom is in two weeks! I’m going to have a great time with Paul!” Vanessa was telling me as we talked on the phone. “Who are you taking Rachael?”
‘Who am I going to say?’ I thought to myself. ‘Gees, I don’t know Vanessa, who would want to go with me anyway? Look at me for god sake; I am an embarrassment to society. I’m not skinny, and I’m not really pretty!’
“Rachael?” I heard Vanessa say into the phone.
“Oh sorry, I’m just taking an old friend.” I lied. I have no idea that I’m going to take. I did, I had the guts to even ask him too. But lucky me, he went and decided to get a girlfriend two weeks later from my school and my grade too. That partner went down the drain, and of course, by this stage, everyone else is taken. Just my luck.
“What, from primary school?” She asked.
“Yeah, you could say that.” Another lie. I hadn’t spoken to anyone from primary school since the last day of grade seven, which was just nearly five years ago. The only reason I talk to them if they went to my school or I ran into my old best friend in the shopping centre or something like that. The next thing that was on my mind was whom was I going to ask in such short notice. I’ll just have to rely on one of my brothers’ mates or something.
Vanessa was talking about something, I didn’t know what, because my mind was on other things. “Hey Vanessa, I gotta go. I’ll talk to you later.” I said, hanging up the phone, not even waiting for a reply.
I walked solemnly up the stairs and into my bedroom. I picked up my diary from my desk; I clicked play on the CD player and laid down on the bed. I had *NSYNC’s ‘Celebrity’ playing in my CD player, so as I read my diary, remembering the past days, I sang along with a group of people who kept my hopes high. I was passionate about singing and dancing. I always tried my best at it, but even if I didn’t get what I wanted to get, I would just let it pass me by. I was turning the pages and laughing at some of my memories, and then I came across something. It was a promise that Vanessa and me made one day in our study of religion class. It read:
Today, Vanessa and I made a promise. The promise we
made today is if we can’t find anyone to go to the prom with,
we have to ask our fav guy from *NSYNC, and ask him
if he will come with us and be our partner!
“That’s it!” I said out loud to no body in particular. “I’ll just ask one of them, because after all we did make a promise and I don’t break my promises, but I will keep one of my brother’s friends in mind.” I quickly jumped of my bed and went straight to my desk, sat down and started writing.
Dear whoever opens this letter first,
My name is Rachael Valmont and I’m from Brisbane Australia. We have our prom coming up in two weeks. My friend and I have made a promise that if either one of us can’t find a partner, we would ask one of either five of you to be our partner….
‘Like hell they would want to come with me. They won’t come all the way over to Australia, just to come to my prom.’ I thought to myself as I finished the letter and sealed it in an envelope.
Chapter 2: The Response
November 19th, 2001.“Wow, a letter from Australia mate!” Lance tried to say with an Australian accent.
“Hmm, a letter from down under, wonder what it says.” Joey remarked.
“Why so many letters?” Chris complained and threw up a few of the envelopes into the air.
“Because we are loved!” Justin said, emphasising on the loved.
“Oh yeah.” JC said as he opened another letter.
“Look guys, I’m gonna go to bed.” Lance said as he got up, still with the Australian letter in his hand.
“Yeah, bed sounds good.” Joey said as he stretched his arms up into the air.
“Cya guys in the morning.” Lance said as he headed to his bed. He left JC’s room and walked through the connecting door to his room. Lance finally decided to open the letter from Australia and read it before he went to bed. It was marked with AIRMAIL in big red writing. Lance looked at the envelope and saw that it was somehow different. It wasn’t covered in pictures of themselves or stars and scribbles all over it like all the other letters were. This letter was basically vacant, except for the address to them, the AIRMAIL, the stamp and the return address. He opened the envelope and pulled out a white piece of paper folded three times. He unfolded it and started to read.
Dear whoever opens this letter first,
My name is Rachael Valmont and I’m from Brisbane Australia. We have our prom coming up in two weeks on November 30th. My friend and I have made a promise that if either one of us can’t find a partner, we would ask one of either five of you to be our partner. I know that you have a busy schedule and you probably don’t want to go with me anyway, but as I said, it was a promise I’m keeping, but we both didn’t say that you had to come, just for us to ask you. If you are miraculously pondering to come all the way over to Australia just to come with me (my friend already has a partner) I’ll write you back with more details. I’ve also included a photo of myself so you know who’s asking and you won’t get a shock if whoever decides to come. So basically, anyone of you five want to come with me, just write me back and tell me who wants to come with me and I’ll write them back with more details or you can e-mail me if you get a chance at basrra_04@hotmail.com. Remember that you don’t have to come with me, I’m only asking. I’m also sorry about the late notice. You see, I did have a partner, but he got a girlfriend and she’s in the same class as I am and he’s going with her. I’ll say it again; you don’t have to come if you don’t want to. It’s nothing important.
From Rachael.
‘This prom thing sounds fun. I wonder when we are finally getting a day off.” Lance pondered to himself as he looked at the picture of this girl called Rachael.
“Just think, we have a whole month off in one week!” Lance heard faintly through the wall.
‘Bargain!’ Lance exclaimed. ‘Perfect timing, I’ll reply back and tell her I’m going. She looks like a person who would be fun to go with. Stuff sleeping, I gotta reply to her.’ Lance got up of his bed and sat down in front of his laptop that he had set up, which was connected already to the Internet and turned the computer on.
All five guys were staying the night at the hotel. Lance always had a laptop in his room, connected to the Internet so that he could update his website and just surf the net when he was bored. He dialled up the net and looked back at the letter. He logged into his private e-mail account and clicked on compose.
Dear Rachael.
I’ve just received your letter asking one of us guys to come to your prom. I checked our schedule and we are getting the whole month of in one week. So, I was thinking...
As Lance typed the letter, he thought about what was going to happen when he got there. ‘It would be rude of me just to come for the night and then leave the next day. I’ll see what plans the other guys have tomorrow morning.’ He finished writing up the e-mail and sent it. He then shut down the computer, got out of his clothes and into his pyjamas, which was just a pair of track pants. He then pulled the sheets back, climbed in, pulled the covers over him and soon fell asleep, thinking of what this prom was going to be like.
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November 20th, 2001.
“I’m sick and tired of getting so many emails!” I said out loud to no one as I scrolled down the page to find 64 new emails waiting for me since last night. It was currently 7:30pm and I was sitting in front of the computer, drinking a cold milo. I checked and deleted the necessary e-mails. I was in the process of looking through the songs I had on my computer when I received a new e-mail. I looked at it and it was from someone I didn’t know. I opened it and was about to delete it, but something caught my eye, so I read on. I choked on my milo when I read the letter.
Dear Rachael.
I’ve just received your letter asking one of us guys to come to your prom. I checked our schedule and we are getting the whole month of in one week. So, I was thinking, that maybe I would actually spend the whole month with you and get to know you a bit better, so it’s just not like a one night sort of thing. The other thing is that I hope you don’t mind going with me, because that would be the next thing on my mind. But if you want to go with one of the other guys than all you have to do is tell me, okay? Well just e-mail me back with details and then I’ll get back to you.
Take care,
Lance Bass.
‘This is so not happening.’ I said to myself. I decided to e-mail him back.
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November 20th, 2001.
Hey Lance,
Wow, I can’t get over it; you actually e-mailed me back and said that you would come with me. I seriously thought that you would have said no as soon as you saw the picture of me. But thank you very much for taking the time out of your busy schedule and come all the way over to Australia to come to my prom with me. I’m really glad that you could come. Look, I would love to go with you. You answered my letter and I should give you the privilege of coming with me for your troubles. I hope you enjoy your stay when you come over to Australia. I hope that this isn’t an inconvenience to you. Please, don’t hesitate to contact me for any more information on anything. My details are below.
Catch ya later,
Rachael
“Wow.” Lance said as he read the e-mail.
“Wow what?” Justin said as he came up behind him to look at the screen.
“Oh, I’m going to Australia in two days hopefully.” Lance said as he shut down his computer.
“Australia? Why Australia?” Justin questioned him as he took a sip of his coffee.
“Well,” Lance started, “I’m going to meet up with a girl and take her to her prom.”
“You sure about that?” Justin said, sitting down on his bed.
“Yeah, why not?” Lance said, getting up and walking over to his desk and picking up his cell phone.
“Well, do you even know this girl? Justin asked as he watched Lance walk around the room, dialling a number he read from a piece of paper.
“I soon will.” Lance said as he then put his focus back to the phone.
Chapter 3: Phone Conversations
November 29th, 2001.I was walking down the stairs when I heard my mobile phone ring in my bedroom. I turned and ran back up the stairs and quickly answered my phone. I looked at the caller ID and I had no idea who it was. “Hello?” I said as I answered the phone.
“Hey, I was wondering if I could talk to Rachael.” The voice said from the other side.
“This is her.”
“Oh hey, it’s Lance Bass here. You sent me a letter asking me to come to your prom with you.”
“Oh hey, how are you?” I said, suddenly realising whom it was exactly on the phone.
“I’m fine, how are you?”
“I’m good.”
“That’s good to hear. I was wondering...” I heard a struggle and few muffled words.
“Spill.” I heard a different voice say.
“What am I spilling?”
“Name, age, where ya from, that sort of stuff.”
“All I’m gonna tell you is that my name is Rachael.”
“What?” The person asked sounding quite shocked.
“Why should I tell you other personal information? I don’t even know you.” I said into the phone.
“You don’t know me, heck, everyone knows me.”
“Well, I hate to burst that alter ego of yours, but I know of you, I don’t know you.” I said, waiting for his response.
“You are probably the first person that has ever said that to the infamous Justin Timberlake.” He said.
“Is that a reason to feel privileged or what?” I asked him, sitting down on my bed.
“Well, to my thought, I’d think you’d have to feel privileged. But I hate to cut our fabulous conversation, short, but Lance is sitting here, looking pretty pissed. So, I guess I will be talking to you later, considering how bigger impact you have on him.”
“What do you mean ““
“I gotta go!” Justin said, cutting me off.
“Sorry about that.” Lance said, “Justin ran across the hall and locked himself in the bathroom. I just picked the lock, I’m really sorry about it.” Lance said.
“Hey, hey, it’s okay, I don’t mind. I sorta made him realise a few things.”
“I won’t even ask.” Lance said. “So...” Lance and I talked for the next ten minutes about the plans for my prom.
“So, the night of the prom is the last day of school for you?” Lance asked me.
“Yep. It’s my last day at school.” I reassured him.
“What have you got planned for when you finish school?” He asked me as he sat on the chair in his room, with the door locked and the others on the other side.
“I’m not too sure; all I know is that I don’t want a continuous office job. I can’t stand going to the same place over and over again. I have always wanted to have a job that was sorta like an outside type of job, if you know what I mean.” I said.
“Yep, I know what you mean. I was sorta like that, so that’s why I became the person who I am today.”
“Look, I better let you go because this phone call is gonna cost you heaps and I don’t mean to trouble you and I’m sure you have a heap to catch up on.”
“No, no, it’s fine. I don’t mind. Trust me; I have heaps of money to pay for this phone call. But if you have to go, you have to go I guess.”
“Thanks for calling, but I do have to get to school. I only have two more weeks of school to go and then I’m free from homework! For a while that is, cause knowing my luck, I’ll get stuck in university or college how you say it.”
“It’ll all be over before you know it.” Lance reassured me.
“I hope so. Look, I have to go now otherwise I’m gonna be late for school. It’s been nice talking to you and Justin. Tell Justin I said bye.”
“It’s been really nice talking to you.” Lance said. “Okay, well, I better let you get to school, have fun today!” Lance said sarcastically.
“Will do!” I sarcastically said back. “See ya later Lance.”
“Take care Rachael, bye.”
“Bye.” I said, and hung up the phone. I got off my bed and walked back down the stairs to my bathroom to have a shower. Twenty minutes later, I was showered, dressed, had breakfast and brushed my teeth. I grabbed my car keys and headed out to my car in the garage. I unlocked my silver Mercedes M-Class, and drove off to school.
As I pulled into the street that the school was in, I looked for a place to park my car. I eventually found a spot under a tree and parked my car there for the day. I got my things and slowly made my way into the schools grounds. I still couldn’t believe that I had actually talked to Lance Bass and Justin Timberlake on the phone this morning. I knew for a fact that I was going to be in a daze all day.
I made it through the first two lessons and morning tea okay and in third and fourth I had a double spare. ‘Great! Nothing to do for the next hour and forty minutes.’ I thought to myself. As I made my way down to the senior garden that my multi-strand science class had redone as a class project, I felt my phone vibrate in my pocket. I looked around and saw no one else around, so I put my books down on the table and pulled out my phone. I had received a message. I opened it and started reading.
Hey baby girl, you are still in school! Sucker. Yeah, it’s me Justin, just checking up on ya just to make sure that you know that Lance hasn’t killed me and I’m still alive. So, whatcha doing? Must be more exciting than what I’m doing. “ J
“Oh my god.” I said out loud. I decided to message him back with my answers.
Hey J, I think you meant to say that Lance hasn’t killed you... yet. LOL, anyway, I’m just sitting here, trying to pass the next hour and 30mins of spare time on my hands. Do I even want to know what you are doing? “ Rachael
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“Whoa.” Justin said, as he felt his phone vibrate in his back jean pocket. He was sitting on the couch in Lance’s living room, flicking through the channels on TV, trying to find something to watch.
“Woah what?” Joey asked as he came out of the kitchen with two cokes, one for him and one for Justin.
“I just got a message.”
“Well, you gonna tell me what it says?”
“Fine. It says, ‘Hey J I think-‘”
“Oh, someone is on a nickname basis with the almighty Justin Randall Timberlake!” Joey said as he handed Justin a can of coke.
“Shut up Joey! Well, do you wanna know what else she says or not?” Justin asked him.
“Yeah, go ahead.”
“’Hey Jus, I think you meant to say that Lance hasn’t killed you yet. LOL, anyway, I’m just sitting here, trying to pass the next hour and 30mins of spare time on my hands. Do I even want to know what you are doing?’ And that’s from Rachael.” Justin said, taking a sip of his coke.
“Umm, Rachael who?” Joey asked.
“I talked to her this morning but all I know is that her name is Rachael and she’s still in school. I’m gonna find out some more!” Justin said as he dialled Rachael’s number in his phone.
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My phone vibrated across the table as it rang. I picked it up and saw that the ID said Justin, which I had just put into my phone.
“Justin?” I asked curiously.
“Hey baby girl, what’s up?”
“I’m fine. How are you?” I asked him. I looked around to double check that I was the only one there.
“I’m great, bored out of my brains but great.” He said as he looked at Joey looking at him back. He then put his mobile phone on speaker so that Joey could hear the conversation.
“I know how you feel; I have nothing to do for the next hour and ten minutes.” I said, leaning against the back of the chair and placing my legs up on the table, tucking my skirt into my legs.
“Oh you poor thing. Now, if your wondering why I’m calling, which I actually shouldn’t because I’m the world famous Justin Timberlake-“
“I swear one day your head is going to get to big for you body and you’ll be dragging your head on the floor and not your arse.” I said.
“Oh man, I love her already, you’re good!” Joey yelled out and got up and jumped around.
“Um, okay and who are you?” I asked him.
“The one and only Joey Fatone.” He said.
“Oh hey Joey, how are you?”
“I’m on top of the world after that comment!”
“Joey, can it.” I heard Justin say.
“Gees, sorry.” Joey said as he sat back down on the couch.
“Now I have to ask you guys, why are you calling me while I’m at school?” I asked them.
“Well you said that you had over an hour to kill so we decided to ring you and find out who you are.” Justin said, getting more comfortable on the couch.
“Okay, fine, I’ll tell you this time. What do you guys wanna know about me?” I said as I put my legs back to the floor, stretched them out and crossed my ankles.
“Name, age and date of birth to start off with please.” Justin said in a weird tone like those cops in movies do.
“Rachael Valmont, 17, 27th of August, 1984. Next question.” I said.
“Umm, you got a car?” Justin asked.
“Yep.”
“What type?” Joey asked.
“A silver Mercedes M-Class.” I replied.
“Hmm, good choice in cars.” Justin said.
“What city you live in?” Joey asked.
“Well, I sorta live in Brisbane, but not technically.” I said.
“Oh okay. Can you think of any more questions?” I heard Justin ask Joey.
“Boyfriend?” Joey asked.
“Nope. Anymore?” I answered.
“Nope, but can I talk to her?” Joey asked Justin.
“Fine. But make sure Lance doesn’t find out you are talking to her okay, he’ll go rank!” Justin said, turning it off speakerphone and chucked the phone to Joey.
“So you’re the infamous Rachael I’ve heard about.” Joey said as he made his way to the back yard.
“Yeah that would be me.” I said, pulling out my school diary.
“So why is Lance going to Australia?”
“Well, I sent him a letter, and he replied to my question.”
“And that question would be?” Joey asked me as he sat down on the lounge chair in the pool area.
“Just to come to my prom with me in two weeks, well actually next week. Is that okay with you?”
“Well, why did you ask him and not me?”
“It was all done by chance. In the letter I said, whoever opens this letter, and he just happened to open the letter.”
“Oh okay, cool.” We talked for the next fifteen minutes about everything and anything.
“Sorry to cut this short, but I have to go cause I think Lance just came home. I’ll talk to you later baby g.”
“Catch ya later Joe.” I hung up me mobile and set it down on the table next to me.
Chapter 4: Lance and I
November 26th, 2001.I had talked to Lance at least once a day, and I talked to Justin at least twice a day, and usually when he was on, Joey was around so I talked to him as well. I couldn’t get over how much Justin talked. I knew more about him than any of the other guys. I first talked to Lance on the phone on Monday. It was now the Friday afternoon that week. I was at the airport picking him up to take him to his hotel. I was staring out the window, and didn’t notice the figure come up behind me.
“Rachael?” The voice asked.
I jumped a bit and turned around to see Lance standing there, looking down at me. “Hey Lance. How’d you know it was me?” I asked him.
“Well you did send a picture with your letter so you were the only one here that looked close enough, so I presumed it was you.” He replied looking over the top of his sunglasses.
“Ok. How are you?” I asked him as we made our way down to baggage claim.
“I’m good, a tiny bit jet lagged, but that’s about it.” He said as he pulled off his bag from the turntable and we headed out to my car. We placed his bags in the boot and I climbed into the front seat as he hoped into the passenger seat beside me. “Nice car.” He said as we pulled out of the carpark and onto the highway.
“Thanks. I hope you enjoy your stay here.” I said, not knowing what else to say to him.
“I hope I will, if I have a fairly good tour guide to guide me around this unfamiliar territory, of this place you call home.” Lance said, looking out his window and then the front windscreen.
“Oh.” I said, changing lanes. “Who did you have in mind for this guide of yours?”
“You. Only because you live around here and you seem to know where you are going and I’m also trying to keep a low profile here, I don’t want to be swamped by the media on my holiday.” He said, looking at me. I could tell that he was looking at me from the corner of my eye.
“You want me to be your tour guide around here?” I asked him, just to make sure that I heard him right.
“Yeah, you heard me, I want you to.” He said, smiling at me.
I could feel myself blushing a bright shade of red. Luckily, we had turned up at the Sofitel; the hotel Lance would be staying at. “Well, here we are.” I said, looking through the huge glass doors and into the lobby.
I got out of the car and walked around to unlock the boot to get his bags out. “You wanna come in for a bit and have a drink or something. It’s the least I could do for you; after all, you did pick me up from the airport.” He said, as he got out of the car and started handing the porter his bags.
I thought about it for a minute. I could have a chance to go home or go upstairs to the bedroom that Lance would be sleeping in and have a drink with him. “I’d love to.” I said. I opened the passenger, reached across to change from my sunnies to my normal glasses. I put on my blue wire framed glasses and closed the door. “What about the car?” I said, holding the keys out in front of me.
“Here, let me take that for you miss.” Another porter said.
“Thank you.” I said as I handed him the keys to my car. I followed Lance into the lobby and over to the front desk.
“Hi, good afternoon.” Lance said as he confronted the man at the front desk. “I have a reservation for a Mr Chuck Chip.” The guy looked at him strangely and then focused to the computer to put in the details.
“Ah yes, Mr Chip. Your room is on the twenty-ninth floor, room number 2902. I hope you enjoy your stay while your here.” The guy said handing over the key cards.
“Thank you. I’m sure I will.” Lance said, taking the cards of him and following the porter to the elevator.
“Chuck Chip?” I asked him.
“Will, you see, I couldn’t say Choc Chip, because that just sounds corny, so I picked one of the closest to it, Chuck, so if you ever come to find me in a hotel, ask for a Mr Chuck Chip.”
“Do I dare ask what the other guys use for their names?”
“Well, let’s see, Chris has B J Bond, for the whole Bond, James Bond thing going on there. I think Joey has Homer Simpson at the moment. He picks any character from the Simpson’s. JC uses Pepe Le Pew and Justin uses K Frog for ““
“Lemme guess,” I said, interrupting him, “Kermit the Frog?”
“Good girl, you’re starting to catch on.” Lance said, smiling at me as the doors opened to the tenth floor. We wandered down the hallway looking at the door numbers as we went past. “2906...2904...2902, we’re here.” Lance said, as he entered his card into the door, unlocked it and opened the door. “After you.” He said, holding the door open for me.
“Thanks.” I said as I walked into the huge room. “Wow.” I gazed my eyes over the room. It had it’s own kitchen, a huge sitting room, and two doors, one was one the left side of the room, and the other on the right side of the room which I believed one of them went to an adjoining room. There was also a double glass-sliding door, which led out onto a balcony, over looking the city and you could see the ocean in the distance. Lance took of his sunnies and placed them on top of the counter.
“What would you like to drink?” Lance asked me, as he made his way into the kitchen and to the fridge.
“Umm, what do you have?” I asked him, walking over to the kitchen bench and sat down on one of the stools.
He opened the fridge door and gazed over the shelves. “Umm, let me see here, we have water, orange juice, coke, lemonade, and milk.”
“I’ll have an orange juice please.” I said. I watched him get out two glasses from the cupboard and pour orange juice in each glass. He replaced the lid back on the orange juice and put it back in the fridge. “Thanks.” I said as he handed me a glass.
“So what do you have planned for the rest of the afternoon?” He asked me as he came around the bench and joined me on one of the other stools.
“I was just planning on going home and that’s about it.” I said, taking a sip of the orange juice.
“I hate to be a pain, but can you come shopping with me please? I sorta need a few things.” He pleaded with me.
“Umm, alright then.” I said, looking at him funny.
“What?” He asked.
“Nothing really. I just think that it’s strange that you trust me so much, I’ve only just practically meet you and you’re actually asking me to come grocery shopping with you.”
“Well, I wanna get to know you some more before Friday night and also because I have no idea where the shops are around here, I don’t have a car, and knowing me, I’ll get lost.” He said, laughing.
“Well, you can always call me if you need a car.” I said, finishing my orange juice. I got up and placed my glass into the sink and adjusted my glasses.
“Could you wait a minute while I unpack, so I know if I’ll need anything else.” He said, walking into the kitchen and placing his glass next to mine.
“Yeah, sure.” I said.
“Make yourself at home. You can watch TV or something. I don’t know, do whatever you want to do.” He said as he picked up his bags and walked over to the door on the left side of the room.
I walked over to the coffee table in the middle of the room and picked up the remote. It didn’t take me too long to figure out how to work it, but after a quick flick through, there was nothing on TV, so I just left it on the music channel and walked over to the balcony. I opened the door stepped out and closed the door behind me. I looked at the scenery and saw the Brisbane River, the airport, the Story Bridge and a few other buildings such as the AXA and AMP buildings, with their huge signs. I heard a door shut from inside, so I turned around to see Lance looking right at me. I walked over to the door, opened it and walked inside. “Ready?” I asked him.
“Yep, I even made a list.” He said, waving a small piece of paper in front of him. “Nice view?”
“Yep.” I said, walking over to him.
“I’ll get what I need for the kitchen as we gone down the isles. You ready to go?” He said, picking up his sunnies and a hat.
“Yep.” I said walking over to the front door with Lance following behind me. I opened up the door and walked out. Lance closed the door behind him, making sure that it was shut.
We walked down the hall to the elevator and I pressed the down button. The doors finally opened, we stepped in and Lance pressed the ground level button. “Going down.” He said, finally breaking the silence between us both.
“Where do you wanna go first?” I asked him as we made our ascent down.
“I dunno, you tell me.” He said, glancing over at me.
“Sorry, I forgot. Umm, well, what type of stuff do you have to buy?” I asked him.
He pulled out the list from his back pocket and scanned it. “Well, some of these things I can buy later.”
I grabbed the list off him and looked at what he had to buy. He had to buy a new pair of boardshorts, another hat, an external modem for his laptop, a phone charger for his mobile, and a few toiletries. “Okay, well we can go down to the Myer Centre for the clothes, modem, charger and then we can go to Woollies for the toiletries and food. That sound okay?” I asked him, giving him back the list.
“Umm,” Lance said as he took the piece of paper, “yeah, that sounds fine.”
“Cool, well that’s settled then.”
Chapter 5: Shopping
“Do you wanna look in here for your clothes?” I said as we reached the entrance to Surf Clothing Co.“Yeah, this looks fine.”
“I’ll wait out here if you’d like.” I said, referring to the seat.
“No, I want you to come in and help me pick out a pair.” He said, grabbing my hand and dragging me into the store. We walked through to the guy section and looked at the boardshorts on the wall and the racks. “Pick out a few and I’ll try them on.” He said, having already pulled a pair off the wall.
“Okay, any particular colour or style you want?” I asked him, scanning the wall.
“Nope.” He simply said.
I looked some more and pulled out a pair that had a royal blue at the top and faded to a white as it went down the shorts. “Hey Lance.” He looked over at me and I noticed he already had a lot of boardshorts already in his hand. I handed him the one pair of shorts for him to try on. “Here, those should keep you busy for a while.” He grabbed it and headed for the change rooms.
“Wait outside here and I’ll come out and show you.” Lance said, closing the door behind him. As I waited for him, I was looking at some hats that were there on a rack. I heard the door open and I saw Lance standing there in just the boardshorts and his sneakers. “What do ya think?” He gave a little turn.
He was wearing the first pair I picked out. The blue down to the white. “Hmm,” I said, “next pair.” He turned and walked back into the changing room. I spotted a carousel of necklaces. I looked at them all and then I spotted a silver cross and a chain. I picked it up and held it in my hands to take a closer look. I held it up to my neck and had a look in the mirror that was on the door where Lance was getting changed. While I was admiring the necklace, the door opened and Lance came out in a pair he picked out. They were fully yellow. He did his little turn around and faced me again. “I know yellow boardshorts all too well. They go see through once they are wet. Next pair.” I said, Lance then turned around and walked back in. I only just realised that I had kept my hand there with the necklace around my neck. I put it back down onto the carousel. I turned the carousel, looking at all of them. Lance soon came out with a pair of black shorts with red flames up from the base. Yet again, he did his little spin. “They’re better. What else ya got?” He turned and walked back into the dressing room.
“This is the last pair!” Lance yelled out as he got changed. I just stood there and laughed as a few people looked in my direction. He finally came out in the same style shorts as the black ones before, but this time, the flames were green. After his turned, he walked a bit closer. “So which ones?” I looked at his eyes, they seemed to be greener.
“Well, you are wearing them. Which ones do you like?” I asked him. He turned and faced the mirror, looking at the shorts.
“I really like the two with flames on them. I think the red ones look really powerful, what do you think of the green ones?” He asked, turned back around to face me.
“Well, the green ones bring out the green in your eyes, but the red ones are really you.” I said, looking at him.
“Well in that case, I’ll buy both of them. One for me and one for my eyes.” I stood there and laughed at his comment, and so did he. “I noticed you liked that necklace.” He said, when he was back in the change room, getting changed back into his cargo pants and black button down shirt. He came out with all four pair of shorts on hangers.
“I did but I can’t wear it.” I said as I took the two off him that he wasn’t going to buy.
“Oh, and why’s that?” he said as he put his sunnies and hat back on.
“I can only wear pure silver. I don’t like gold, so yeah. I have an allergic reaction to fake silver and gold.” I said, joining him. “You said you wanted a hat?” I said, pointing to the rack of hats I was looking at earlier.
“Ah yes.” He said, looking at the dozens of hats. After a long time of trying on many hats, he finally settled on a bright green Jetpilot cap. He took his stuff to the register and paid for them. We walked out of the store and headed up to the fourth floor of the Myer Centre to go to Harvey Norman. We walked to the mobile phone section and I wandered up the isles until I got to the phone charger section.
“What type of phone do you have?” I asked him.
“Umm, a Nokia 8210.” He said.
I roamed my eyes over the tags until I found a charger for Lance’s phone. “Here ya go.” I said, handing him the charger. I walked to the computer section and walked to the modems. “Do you know what size modem you want?” I asked him, looking at the many varieties.
“Umm, a cable would be great.” He said, sounding astonished that I knew so much about electronics.
“What?” I asked him, noticing the look he was giving me as I handed him a cable modem for laptops.
“I’m just surprised that you know so much about computers and electronic stuff.” He said, looking at the box.
“Yes I made sure that it had both phone line type outlets and inputs and it’s also got a modem card, incase your laptop doesn’t have an actual modem outlet.” I said, smiling at him.
“You know this how?” Lance asked.
“It says so on the box.” I said, laughing and pointing at where it said all of that.
“Oh right.”
“You think, that because I’m a girl, that I wouldn’t know a lot about computers, is that right?” I said, crossing my arms in front of my chest.
“Yeah, well...” He started.
“Yeah well nothing. I know my fair share of computers.” I said. I walked in the direction of the cash register and Lance followed close behind. He paid for his things and we then walked out. “Do you want me to carry anything for you?” I offered.
“Could you?” He said, handing me the bag with his boardshorts and hat inside. “Thanks.” He said as I took them off his hands.
“Hey, no problem.” I said as we walked out and down the escalators.
“One day, you and me have gotta come back in here and go on that.” He said, pointing up.
I hadn’t noticed the dragon rollercoaster that runs around the top of the whole centre. It was seven stories off the ground. I hadn’t been on it for three years. “Okay then. Trust me, it’s nothing to overly exciting.”
“Who cares, I still wanna go on it.” He said. We walked out of the Myer centre and across to Woolworths.
When we were inside, we wandered up and down the isles, with Lance picking out something off the shelves, every so often. We finished with half of the trolley full of food, so we then made our way over to the register. The guy at the register scanned all the items and told us the total. “That comes to $43 exactly.” Lance pulled out his credit card and handed it to the guy. “Okay,” he said, swiping the card, “credit or savings?” He asked.
“Savings.” Lance replied.
The guy turned the machine and faced it to Lance. “Please enter your pin and press okay.” Lance entered his pin, pressed okay and turned the machine to face the guy. It only took a few minutes to process as we waited for the docket; we put all the bags into the trolley. “Thanks have a good evening.” The guy said as we were leaving.
“You too.” I replied. I placed the bag I was carrying in the trolley on top of the food, while Lance did the same. Lance was pushing the trolley and I was walking beside him. I was now dark and the sun had just set, we spent all the afternoon shopping and I glanced at my watch and saw that it was already 7:15pm. “I better call my mum so she doesn’t worry about me.” I said to Lance as I pulled my phone out of my jean back pocket. “Yeah, hey mum, it’s me... yeah look, I’m still in town with Lance, I had to take him food shopping and he had to get a few other things... yep... oh, okay then... yeah that’s no problem... yep, talk to you later... love you, bye.” I said and hung up the phone.
“That sounded like a good conversation except for that whole bit were you said something along the lines of ‘oh, okay then’. Am I right” Lance questioned me.
“It was good, the only reason why I said that was because my parents were about to go out with some of their clients and my brother is over at a mate’s house, so it’s just me when I get home.” I said, returning my phone to my back pocket.
“Well, do you wanna stay with me tonight?” He asked me.
“You serious?” I asked, double-checking if he said it right.
“Yeah, well, it’s the least I could do for saying thankyou for taking me out shopping today and picking me up from the airport and all.” He said as we reached my car.
I unlocked the boot and started loading it with bags of groceries. “Okay, I guess.” I said.
“Cool, I’ll even cook if you’d like.” He said, sounding really excited over the fact that I accepted.
“I know this is going to sound stupid, but can you cook? I have a brother who says that he can cook but all he can cook is burnt pasta and charcoal sausages.” I said, looking at him, waiting for his reply.
“Why? Do you wanna cook?” He said, as he loaded the last bag into the boot.
“I can cook anything except for things that involve heating oil.” I said, remembering what happened in the kitchen four years ago.
“What do you mean? Tell me the story that goes with it too.” He said, as he placed the trolley next to the wall and as I climbed into the driver seat.
I waited until he got into the car and had shut to door. “Well,” I said, starting the car, and putting it into reverse and drove out of the carpark. “we would have only been in the house we are in for only about two months or so, we’ve been in the house now for four years. My mum asked me to cook dinner while she helped my brother reverse the trailer into the garage. Knowing me, I read the directions on the pasta sauce bottle, and it said to heat some oil. I put the oil into the frypan and turned the element on. The next direction said to brown 500 grams of mince. I think we had about 800 so I measured to get 500, in the meantime, I forgot about the oil, and the next thing I know, the whole thing caught on fire. I smothered it with the pizza tray that was just sitting on the bench. We had to throw the pan out, but it only left carbon on the cupboard and the over head thingy.” I told him my story and he burst out laughing. “Shut up.” I said, taking a quick glance at him.
“Sorry, I couldn’t resist.”
“Don’t worry, it’s cool. I think it’s funny when I think about it now, but then, I was shaking all over, I had to sit down otherwise I would have of fallen over or something.” I said as we pulled into the main drive of the hotel. I then turned to head to the carpark under the hotel. “Key please.” I said to Lance. He reached into the side pocket of his coat and pulled out the key. As I pressed the button, my window rolled down and I stuck my hand out and swiped the card in the slot on the little box. A little green light turned on and the huge door in front of us opened. I handed him back the key and drove in and found a car park. We grabbed all the bags at once and trudged over to the elevator. With some difficulty, I pressed the up button and we stood there and waited for the elevator.
“Any requests for dinner?” Lance asked me while we waited.
“Umm, a prawn cocktail for my entree, and then a big red lobster, served with a garden salad and then for dessert a Pavlova.” I said, in a dreamy tone.
“Well, to be honest, I can’t make the entree, don’t have time or the ingredients for the lobster, I can do the salad and what on earth is a Pavlova?” He asked, looking at me like I was some sort of alien.
“What?” I asked in disbelief. “You don’t know what a Pavlova is? Oh my, I guess I’m gonna have to get you accustomed to our Australian food.” I said. The doors then opened and we both walked in. I put the bags on the ground and press the number 29 button.
“Umm, okay then.” Lance said, still looking at me with a funny looking expression.
I turned put my back up against the wall. “I’ll tell ya what, after we get all of this stuff unpacked, I am going to head down to the cheesecake shop, and pick us up a pavlova.”
We reached the twenty-ninth floor and I picked up my bags and followed Lance down the hall. “Well, what’s it made of?” Lance asked as we reached his door.
“Umm, let’s see,” Lance placed his bags on the floor, pulled out his key, unlocked the door, opened it and we both walked in. I shut it behind me with my foot. “The base is made from egg white and sugar and on the top is a variety of fruits such as strawberries, kiwi fruit, orange, pineapple, passionfruit, trust me you’ll love it.” I said, placing my bags onto the counter.
“If you say so.” Lance said as he placed his bags onto the floor because there was no room left on the bench. “How about you go get us this Pavlova, I stay here, cook dinner and it should be ready by the time you get back, or close to it.” Lance said as soon as we finished putting the groceries away.
“Okay.” I said, grabbing my purse off the table and walking towards the door. “Opps,” I said, turning back around, “I need the key Lance to get back in.” He reached into his back pocket and pulled the key out. “Thanks.” I said, and turned and left.
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“What am I doing here?” I asked myself as I stood in the Cheesecake shop.
“Getting a pavlova.” The lady behind the counter said.
“Oh yeah. Sorry.” I said, and handed her the money and waited for the changed. I turned, left the shop and headed to my car.
Chapter 6: Dinner
Ring RingLance put the pasta bake into the oven and then walked to the ringing phone. It was Rachael’s’ mobile. “Hello?” Lance asked into the phone.
“Umm hi, I was wondering if Rachael was there?” A girl on the other end asked.
“Ah, no she’s not. Can I take a message?”
“Na, na, it’s cool. Don’t worry about it.”
“Okay then.”
“Okay, bye.” The girl said, hanging up the phone.
“That was odd.” Lance said, looking at the phone.
“What was odd?” I said, as I walked in the room with the green box in my hands.
“I hope you didn’t mind, but your phone rang so I answered it, and it was a girl, but she didn’t leave a message.”
“Oh na, it’s cool. I don’t mind. It was probably one of my friends asking if I wanted to go out crusin with them and be the driver. That’s probably all.” I said as I set the box down in the fridge.
“Can I look at it?” Lance asked as he checked the chicken in the frying pan. I pulled the box out of the fridge and opened it and showed Lance. “Looks yum.”
“Looks yum and tastes yum too.” I said, closing the lid and placing it back in the fridge. “So what’s for dinner?” I asked him, sitting at the bench as I watched him work busily around the kitchen.
“Seasoned chicken with a garden salad and a pasta bake with pavlova for dessert. Sound good?” He said, pulling the pasta out of the oven.
“Definitely.” I said. “What’s to drink?”
“Let’s see.” He said, walking to the fridge. “Soft drink, orange juice, beer, stolli’s, bacardi, rum and coke and some more.”
“Umm, I’ll settle with a strawberry bacardi for the moment.” He reached in and pulled out a beer for himself and a strawberry bacardi for myself. He opened it and handed it to me. “Thanks.”
He opened his, took a mouthful and placed it down on the bench. He reached into the cupboard and pulled out two plates, opened the draw and pulled out two sets of utensils. He served up dinner and handed a plate to me. “Let’s eat outside.” He said, picking up his beer and walking over to the balcony.
Two stollis later for myself, two beers for Lance, we had just finished the dessert. “That was a delicious dessert. Good choice.” He said, taking a sip of his third beer.
“No problem.” I said. I silence soon fell over us. I drank some more of my first bottle of beer for the night.
“Wow.” Lance said, breaking the awkward silence. “Look at this view.” He drank some more.
“I know. It’s beautiful, but I don’t get to see it that often.”
“Oh, why’s that.” He said looking at me. I still kept my gaze on the bright city lights.
“Cause I live out of town, but not too far. But according to everyone, I live in the sticks. I can see the city, but it looks like a haze of lights. But at least I can see the stars.”
“I know, you’re eating dinner with one of them right now.” He joked.
I hit him playfully in the arm. “Singing slash acting star yes, but I’m not eating dinner with alpha centura am I now?”
“Well...okay, no then.” He said. I got up and headed back inside with my plates and placed then in the sink. Lance followed and placed his on top of mine. “Since it cold out, we’ll stay in and talk for a bit.” He said, placing his now empty bottle of beer on the counter.
“Sounds good to me.” I said. I drank the rest of my beer, walked over to the fridge and pulled out another stolli. “Drink?” I asked him.
“Uh, yeah, I’ll have a rum and coke, it’s at the back there.” He said walking over to the couch. He remained standing and flick through a couple of channels. I walked over to him and handed him his drink. “Thanks.” He said. I then sat down on the couch and he sat next to me. “Tell me a bit about yourself, other than what you have already told me.” He said, turning side on to face me.
“Well,” I started. I sat there, the alcohol taking over me. I had no control over what came out of my mouth as I told him my whole life story.
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“You mean to tell me that a person like you has never had a boyfriend and you haven’t even had your first kiss?” He asked.
“Yeah, something like that. I mean, who would want to go out with a person like me? Look at me; I’m not the first pick for a lot of guys, obviously.” I said, taking a drink of my fifth bacardi.
“And you’re home most of the time by yourself or if not you then it’s just your parents and yourself.”
“Yeah, my brother is out most of the time, but if he is home then he usually has a mate over or we have like a family friend dinner so that’s about another 4 or more people at the house. But yeah, most of the time it’s just me.”
“I’m sure once you finish school, you’ll see more of your family.” He said, taking a sip of his second bourbon and coke.
“Na, as soon as I finish school, I’m packing my bags and going to America. I’ve always wanted to go to either Orlando or some place like that. I want to go and see my first white Christmas and go shopping too!”
“Why Orlando?”
“I dunno, none of the other places interest me...oh and because I also wanna go to Disney World!” I said, then I cracked up laughing. The alcohol was really taking control. Lance also laughed with me.
“Well, if you do come to Orlando, I’ll have to show you around.”
“Okay.”
“Let’s see what movies are on.” Lance picked up the remote and flicked through the channels. We came across Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace. We watched it, but about a quarter of the way through, I rested my head on the back of the couch and feel into a deep sleep. Lance soon fell asleep leaving the television still on.
Chapter 7: Morning After
Saturday 27th, 2001.“Oh my head.” I said pushing myself up with me right hand and holding onto my head with my left hand. My feet were intertwined with Lance’s. “We must have done that while we slept.” I said, quietly, trying not to wake up Lance. I carefully manoeuvred my feet out of the entanglement and onto the floor. I glanced at the clock on the wall and saw that it was only eleven o’clock. I made my way over to the kitchen and poured myself a glass of water. After my third glass of water, I needed to go to the bathroom. Lance was still sleeping on the couch. I made my way into his room and walked across the cream carpeted floor and over to his bathroom. After I went, I fixed upped my hair as much as I could, splashed some water on my face and adjusted my clothes. I walked out of the bathroom and made my way out to the main living area. Lance was still sleeping like a log. I then heard a faint mobile ringing from Lance’s room. I walked in and followed the sound and saw his mobile, flashing and vibrating on the bedside table. I walked over and answered it, making sure it didn’t wake Lance. “Hello?” I asked once I answered it.
“Hi, I was wondering...wait, who’s this?” The male voice asked.
“This is Rachael, who are you?” I asked, checking on Lance, but he hadn’t moved a muscle.
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“Rachael...Rachael who?” JC asked into the phone. Justin caught up on the word Rachael and jumped over the couch and took the phone of JC.
“Baby girl! How are ya?” Justin asked excitedly while JC just sat there and looked at Justin with a confused look on his face.
“Hey Justin, what’s up?” I asked him as I sat down at the counter, watching Lance, just incase I was talking too loud.
“Nothing much.”
“I gotta question, who was that before on the phone?”
“Him? Oh that was only JC.”
“Justin, who are you talking to?” JC asked, sounding really confused.
“Rachael.” Justin replied to JC as he walked across the room.
“Well what’s she doing with Lance’s phone?” JC asked, getting up and walking to the kitchen.
“You see she’s...hang on...Rachael?” Justin said firstly to JC then me.
“Yeah.” I replied, walking to the kitchen to pour myself another glass of water.
“What are you doing with Lance’s phone, apart from the obvious, talking to me?” Justin said as he walked to the kitchen to see JC opening a can of coke.
“Well, he’s asleep on the couch and I was up, so I answered the phone.”
“Umm, okay then, but I gotta ask, why is Lance sleeping on the couch?” Justin asked, grabbing a can of coke for himself. Justin then put the phone on speaker, so that JC could hear what I was gonna say.
JC picked up on the words, ‘Why is Lance sleeping on the couch’, so he looked at Justin and mouthed ‘couch’ to him. Justin stood there and nodded his head as if to say, ‘yep, that’s what I said.’
“Well,” I started, “he invited me for dinner cause we had spent the whole afternoon together...”
“What did you do?” Justin asked, interrupting me.
“We did a bit of shopping for clothes, electronics and food, that’s all. So I rang my parents to let them now where I was cause the time we finished it was about 7:30 or something, and my parents were going out and my brother wasn’t home, so mum told me to find my own dinner. But then Lance invited me to the hotel and he said that he would cook dinner for me, in a way to say thank you for picking him up from the airport and going shopping with him. With dinner, we drank a few bottles of stuff...”
“Like how many is a few?” JC said, finally speaking up.
“Well hello JC, anyway, about two or so...” I said, fading my voice out.
“Baby girl, how many?” Justin asked as Joey walked into the room.
“Well, let’s see what’s on the bench here. Well, who’s do you want to know first?” I asked them as I gathered the rest of the bottles off the coffee table and placed them on the sink.
“Hey Baby g.” Joey said as he wandered to the fridge and pulled out a coke.
“Before I go any further, anyone else gonna walk in on our conversation?” I asked the guys as I sorted the bottles to what I drank and what Lance drank.
Then as if by cue, Chris walked into the room and saw three faces staring at him. “Just one.” JC said. “Chris.” He finished.
“Hey Chris, well anyway,” I said quickly.
Chris just softly said “Hey.” As he looked at the others starring at him. He starred back with a more confusing face.
“Let’s see you want mine first okay well, I drank ten and Lance drank ten.” I said.
“Ten of what?” Chris asked, not fully picking up the conversation.
“Well, I had five bacardis, three beers and two stollis. Lance had four beers, three rum and cokes and three bourbon and cokes.” I said, amazed at how much we drank last night.
“You hung over?” Justin asked.
“Not really, I’ve been trying to get most of the alcohol out of me. But I think Lance may be a little bit because he still hasn’t moved or woken up at least.” I looked at him and he started to stir. “Umm, hang on, his moving now.” I saw Lance roll off the couch and landed to the floor with a thud. I cracked up laughing.
“What? What’s so funny?” Joey asked, curious of why I was laughing.
I heard Lance groan as he tried to move on the floor. “That really hurt.” He mumbled.
“Let’s just say he started the day with a thump.” I said, making my way over to him.
“Huh?” JC asked, not quite under standing.
“Lance just rolled off the couch, and he is now lying on the ground in a heap.” I put out my hand for Lance to take.
He grabbed my hand and said, “Thanks.”
“Okay,” I said, “here’s Lance.” I handed him the phone.
“J? Hey buddy.” Lance said.
“No, Lance, it’s all of us.” Chris said, taking a seat next to Justin on the counter.
“Oh hey guys.” I grabbed his hand and he helped me up. I let go of his hand and walked to the kitchen. Meanwhile, the guys were rambling on about something in Lance’s ear, but he tuned out in the process. “Huh? What did you guys say, sorry, I missed it.” Lance walked over to his room and shut the door.
I made some pancakes to have as a sorta breakfast/brunch/lunch thing, considering the time now was twelve forty-five. I used the ‘Just Add Water’ mix and made a few for me and a few for Lance. I then heard the water being turned on in the shower. I served up my own and left Lance’s in the pan on a very low heat, just to keep then warm until he came out. When I was finished, Lance was still in the shower, so I decided to go home and have a shower and leave Lance in peace for a while. I wrote him a note, telling him that I had gone home, left my mobile number, gathered my things and left.
Chapter 8: Day Before
I got out of the shower, got changed into my jeans and a white top and in the process of brushing my hair when my mobile rang. “Hello?”“Do you always leave without arranging to do something with me today? That’s not a nice way to treat a guest.” I figured from the voice that it was Lance.
“Well hello to you too.” I said sarcastically. “What do you want to do today?” I said as I put my mobile on speaker so that I could finish creating my messy bun.
“I do have to get my suit sometime between now and prom, so how about you take me to the suit shops around here.”
“Okay...I guess. What time do you want me to pick you at?” I asked him as I put on my black boots.
“Well how long is it going to take you to finish getting ready?”
“How’d you know I was getting ready?” I asked him, staring at the phone.
“Well, apart from the fact I heard what sounded like a brush hit the table and what sounded like two zips, I assumed you were getting ready. It was a good guess wasn’t it!”
“Yes it was. Well I’m finished now so I’ll leave here now and come and pick you up. Does that sound alright to you?” I asked him as I picked up my keys, sunnies and purse from my desk in my bedroom.
“Yeah, that sounds fine by me. See ya soon.”
“See ya.” I hung up my phone and walked into the kitchen where my parents were. “Hey, I’m just going into town to pick Lance up cause we are going to go suit fitting for him. I’ll be back later. Catch me on my mobile if you need me!” I said as I walked out the front door. I walked over to the far part of the driveway where I parked my car. I climbed in, put my phone in the cradle, turned the ignition and backed down the driveway. I wasn’t even at the end of my street when my phone rang. “Hello.”
“Hey babygirl!” I hear a very excited Justin say over the phone. “What’s the latest?”
“Hey Jus. I’m on my way over to pick Lance up and go out shopping for his suit.” I said as I turned onto the main road into town.
“What colour?”
“I dunno, what colour do you want him in? I’m only guessing, but I know that you have something up your sleeve.” I said.
“Well...” Justin said as his voice trailed off.
“And no, he is not going to wear pink.”
“Well, in that case...what colour is your dress.”
“Blue and yellow.”
“That’s perfect!” He suddenly said out loud. “Put him in a yellow or blue suit!”
“I’ll have to see okay?” I said, turning down a street.
“I do have one favour to ask though.” Justin said with some seriousness in his voice.
“Ask away.”
“Don’t go ape over it.”
“Ape?” I questioned him.
“Yeah, I mean, don’t go and write up a big story about it, or send a video tape to some television station or pictures on the web, if you know what I mean.”
“It’s cool Jus, I wasn’t planning on doing anything of that sort anyway. I just want Lance to have a fun time that’s all. He would then go back home and think what a good time he had here.”
“That’s good. As I was sayi...” I heard some noises in the background and what sounded to be like a fight for the phone, and then got greeted by a voice.
“Hey Baby G!”
“Hey Joe, how are you?”
“Perfect now that I’ve heard your sweet voice.”
“Please, don’t flatter yourself.” I said, turning into the carpark of Lance’s hotel.
“Fine then.” Joey said, trying to sound hurt.
“Sorry Joe, but the whole sympathy act doesn’t work with me.” I parked the car, pulled it out of the cradle and held it up to my ear as I walked to the elevator.
“A guy can try can’t he?”
“He can, but if he tries to hard, his head shall get to big.” Joey was silent for a bit. “Stop checking your head Joe, it’ll only get bigger if you keep staring into that mirror.”
“How’d you...but I thought...oh nevermind. So what are you doing now?”
“Now?” I asked. “Well, I’m in an elevator and about to get off at Lance’s floor.” I said as I watched the numbers go up on the screen.
“Okay and then what?” He asked.
“And then I’m going to walk down the hall and knock on his door. If that’s alright with you.” I said. The elevator slowed down and dinged as the doors open.
“And now on this floor we have the infamous Lance Bass *NSYNC staying in one of these rooms.” Joey said in a girlie voice.
“2902.” I said as I walked down the hall.
“Oh my god! Room 2902! Lance is in 2902!” Joey said, also in a girlie voice and then let out a high pitched scream.
I held the phone away from my ear for a moment and then returned it back and spoke. “Joey.” I said slowly.
“Yes.” He replied slowly back.
“Are you finished?” I asked him, knocking on Lance’s door.
“Hang on, let me check.” There was silence for a few seconds and then Joey started to scream and whistle. Silence again. “Yeah, I’m finished now.”
‘That’s good.” The door opened up in front of me and there was lance wearing a white no sleeved top with a star on the front, a pair of long black pants with what looked like he just spilt paint down the front of them, a black pair of sneakers, light brown glasses and his hair looked like he just woke up out of bed but it made his look even more cuter.
“Hey.” Lance finally said, snapping me out of my deep thought.
“Somebody talk to me.” Joey said impatiently on the other end of the phone.
“Hey Lance, yes Joe?” I asked him. “Here, talk to Lance for a bit.” I said, handing Lance the phone. “Joey.” I told him.
“Hey Joe.” Lance said. I moved out of the way and Lance stepped into the hallway, shutting the door behind him. “Uh huh.” I heard Lance say as we walked to the elevator. I pressed the button and waited while Lance talked. Some of the things that he said sounded like he was really over the moon about something. Finally, the doors opened and we stepped in. I pressed the P4 button (parking level 4) and the elevator went to its destination. “Look Joe, I gotta go. Talk to you guys later...yep bye.” Lance hung up the phone and handed it to me. “Sorry about that.” He said apologising for nothing really.
“Don’t sweat it.” The doors opened and Lance followed me to my car. “Let’s go find you a suit.” I said as we pulled out onto the main road.
Chapter 9: Suprises
November 30th, 2001.It was now the day of my prom. I had woken up about twenty minutes ago, and I was downstairs, eating my breakfast. The school had given all the grade twelve’s the day off, because if they didn’t, no one would turn up anyway. I sat there, in my mind, going through the events of today.
10:00am Hair
3:00pm Make-up
4:00pm Nails
5:00pm Lance picks me up
I still couldn’t get over the fact that Lance Bass of *NSYNC was actually going to be my partner. I glanced at the clock, noticing that it was already 9:15am. I quickly got up, put my bowl and cup into the sink, showered and got into a pair of jeans, sneakers and a button up shirt. I had to choose the button up shirt, knowing that it was the only type of shirt I would be able to get off my head without mucking up my hair. I grabbed my keys, purse, mobile and sunnies, and drove off to the hairdressers.
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Lance is picking me up in ten minutes. I had only just got home and decided to put on my shoes first and then my dress. I put on my silver strappy silver high-heeled shoes. I opened up my cupboards and pulled out my blue satin-like full-length dress. It was sleeveless, and square cut at the top. It was fitted to the waist and then fluffed out to the floor. The dress made me look smaller in the stomach, which I really liked. I undid the zip and stepped into the dress, making sure I wasn’t standing on the dress at the same time. I did the zip up and did a turn in the full-length mirror in my room, making sure it fell right. I then pulled out my coat. It was yellow on top and blue on the inside. It was more like little red riding hood’s coat, but mine was yellow and blue. I double-checked my hair. My dirty blonde hair was in a French twist that curled at the top. I had a few pieces of hair on the left side of my face, which naturally curled at the bottom. I had placed a white silk rose in the twist, which sat perfectly. I had a silver diamond tiara that was my own design that I had especially made for me. I took one final look in the mirror before I headed downstairs. I heard the doorbell ring, so I picked up my bag and headed downstairs and opened the door. Lance’s back was to the door, but turned around as soon as I opened the door.
“Hey Lance.” I said.
“Wow...you look amazing.” Lance replied, looking me up and down.
“You’re just saying that.” I replied. I stepped out of the door and let him inside.
Once he was inside, he handed me my corsage. It consisted of small white roses and baby’s breath. “Let me put it on for you.” He said. While he placed in on my right wrist, I admired what he was wearing. At first it took me by surprise, but then it came to mind that it really suited him. He was wearing a full-length bright yellow jacket, yellow pants, with a black button up shirt and a blue tie, with black shoes. His hair was neatly spiked which I thought to myself that he had spent a lot of time on it. He was also wearing a pair of blue tinted glasses.
“You look amazing yourself.” I said, once he finished putting my corsage on.
He did a little turn and said, “You like?”
“No, I love it. You really didn’t have to come out here just to pick me up. I could meet you there considering it’s at your hotel.”
“No, no, no. I wouldn’t be a gentleman if I didn’t come and pick you up.”
My mum then came out with her camera, ready to take pictures. “So you’re the boy that’s taking my little girl to her prom?” Mum said to Lance.
“Lance this is my mum, mum, this is Lance.” I said, introducing him.
“Hi and yes I am the boy that’s taking your daughter.” Lance said, shaking her hand.
“Let me take a few pictures of you both.” My mum said, bringing the camera up to her eye. Lance wrapped his left arm around my waist and I wrapped my left arm around his waist and we posed for a few pictures.
“Well, we better be going, otherwise we’ll be late.” Lance said. “It was nice meeting you.” Shaking my mothers’ hand again.
“Have fun you two!” My mother called out from the door as we made our way to the white stretch limo that was parked in my driveway.
Lance opened the door and extended his hand to help me into the limo. “After you.” Lance said.
I held his hand and carefully got in, sliding across the seat to the other side. He got in and closed the door. The car drove down my driveway and turned, and headed to our destination “ the Sofitel. When I finally looked up, I noticed another four people in the limo, facing Lance and myself.
“What the?” I quietly said.
“Now, do you think that we would let you go out with our Lance and not see you off?” Justin said, with a huge grin on my face.
I felt my whole face blush. “But I thought...when did you guys get in?” I asked them.
“Umm...” Chris started, looking at his watch, “about two hours ago.”
“You all didn’t have to come out to Australia.” I said, looking at the five grinning faces.
“Yes we did. We had to see who Lance was going with, now we have and we all approve!” JC said.
“Oh and this is for you.” Joey said, opening up a cabinet and pulled out a small box. He handed the small blue box to me.
I reached over and held the box in my right hand. I opened the box to reveal a silver bracelet with *NSYNC in diamonds across it. “Oh my god...you guys didn’t have to!” I said.
“Sure we did. We wanted to all go with you, but you are only allowed one partner so if you wear this, we are all still with you.” JC said. “Here, let me put it on for you.” I held out my left wrist and he carefully placed it on and hooked it together.
“And I have another gift for you.” Lance reached into a different cabinet on his side of the car in front of his right knee and pulled out a long box. He handed the box to me. I opened up the long box and inside was a silver necklace with a silver diamond cross. “Don’t worry, it’s pure silver.”
“You guys have to stop before I cry and ruin my make-up before I even get there.” I said, feeling the water well up in my eyes. Chris handed me a tissue from the tissue box in the limo and I dabbed my eyes, being careful not to smudge my make-up.
Lance took the box from my hands, removed the necklace and placed it around my neck and did the clasp up at the back.
“Please don’t cry because we have one more thing.” Justin said.
“Oh god I said.” Each one of the guys produced a white rose each. “I hate it when I tell you guys everything about me.” I said. Joey had asked me yesterday what type of flower I liked. I told him that my favourite flower is a white rose and that I also think that a white rose means more than a red rose. So I was now sitting in the back of the limo with Lance on my right. Along the left side of the car was JC, along the front, facing me was Justin on the left and Joey on the right, and Chris was sitting opposite JC. Chris then pulled out the bottle of champagne from the wine cooler, popped the corked and poured everyone a glass. Once everyone had finished their first glass, we had pulled up and the Sofitel. I noticed that mostly everyone was standing out the front, talking and looking at everyone who was arriving. We slowly pulled up to the porter that was opening the doors for everyone. The porter opened up the door and Justin got out of the car.
Chapter 10: Photos
Vanessa, Sophie, Mya, Monica and all of my other friends from school were already waiting out the front.“Oh my god.” Sophie said. “Look at the guy that just got out of that huge stretch limo over there.” Everyone that heard her looked towards the guys that just got out of the limo.
“That guy looks so familiar.” Vanessa said.
“I wonder who he’s here with.” Sophie said, already drooling over him.
They all watched the girl get out of the car. “You have got to be joking, he’s here with Rachael!” Sophie exclaimed, sounding quite shocked.
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“Oh yeah, by the way Rachael, we are gonna escort you inside and then once we know that you are settled in, we are gonna go up to our rooms.”
“Ok, escort away.” I said.
After Justin got out, Chris, JC and Joey followed him. Lance got out of the limo and I took a quick glance and saw that everyone was looking at us. Lance put out his hand and helped me out of the limo. ‘Look at everyone looking at us!’ I thought to myself.
“Don’t pay any attention to it. You are here to have fun with me and everyone else.” Lance reassured me. When he placed right hand on my lower back, he felt that I was tense. “We are all here for you, no matter what happens.” He whispered into my left ear. I then relaxed. The porter shut the door and the limo drove off, only to be replaced by another smaller black limo. Lance took his hand off my back and I linked arms with him. Justin was on my right side and I linked arms with him, while Joey, JC and Chris walked behind us into the lobby. Once inside, we stood in a little circle for a while and talked.
“Look, we better get going because it looks like you guys are heading into the room over there.” Joey said, pointed towards the doors. I turned and saw that everyone was walking inside, but every so often, they would still look at the guys and me. I gave Justin, Joey, JC and Chris a hug. They all told me to have fun.
‘Don’t forget, we are all just upstairs, so come and visit us soon!” Chris said as the guys walked to the elevator.
“Let’s go and join the fun.” Lance said, holding out his right hand. I took his right hand in my left and walked towards the door. We firstly walked over to our table, and I placed my five roses, bag and coat onto the table. We then walked to the photo line. We ended up behind Sophie and her partner Craig.
“Oh god.” I quietly said.
“What?” Lance asked puzzled.
As if on cue, Sophie turned around and looked directly at me. “Oh my god Rachael!” She said, opening her arms and giving me a hug.
“Hey Sophie.” I said. Lance picked up on her name being Sophie and instantly knowing that this was the Sophie that I told him about, who I didn’t like.
She let go and began to introduce her date. “Rachael this is Craig. Craig this is Rachael and I’m sorry, I didn’t catch you name.”
Lance let go of my hand so he could shake hands with Craig. “Lance.” Luckily before anymore could be said. Sophie and Craig were the next ones to go for their photos. Lance then returned his hand and held mine.
“Sorry about that.” I said.
“Hey don’t worry about it. We meet people like that all the time. I’m surprised that she didn’t know who I was.”
“She does, but she just doesn’t want you to know that she knows who you are.” I said.
“Oh, one of those people.” Lance said. Sophie and Craig finished their photos; Lance and I were on next.
“Ok, now young lady stand here.” The photographer said, posing me on the right angle for the camera shot. “And you young man, stand behind her, like that.” Lance stood behind me, like the photographer said. “Now, wrap your arms around her and young lady, place your hands on top of his.”
“I’m guessing you are used to this.” I said as his placed his arms around my waist.
“Oh yeah.” He said. I placed my hands on top of his and waited for the photographer’s next command.
“Okay,” the photographer started, “now, lean back into him and rest your head under his chin.” I did as I was told. “Perfect.” He went over and picked up his camera and held it up to his eye and said. “Okay, 1...2...3!” Flash. I had to blink a few times after the flash. “Ok.” The photographer said.
“Here we go again.” Lance quietly whispered.
“Now we’ll get the young lady to sit down on this stool.” The photographer said in the process of getting a small stool and placing in the place he wanted it to be and I sat down on the stool. I took a quick glance around and saw my other friends in the line and Sophie was still looking at Lance. “Now, if I could get you young man to kneel down on your left knee with your right knee up, on her left side please.” Lance kneeled and we both looked at the photographer, waiting our next command. “Take both of her hands in both of yours, and look up at her, and you look down to him.” Lance took my hands and looked up at me. I looked down and him but not before looking around at everyone again.
He gave a small smile and said, “You are still worried about everyone. Stop it.”
“Sorry.” I said.
“They’re only looking cause they are jealous that I’m here with you and not them.” He said, stroking the back of my hands.
“Even the guys?” I asked. We both laughed and the photographer took the photo while we were laughing.
“Perfect. Now, can we have another, but this time the lovely lady by herself please.”
Lance got up and helped me off the stool. The photographer came and took the stool away. “How many times am I going to have to say, stop worrying about everyone. This is your night and don’t ruin it by worrying about something so small.” Lance then placed his hands on my shoulders and kissed my forehead and walked off to the side, opposite to the line.
“Now, if you could stand on an angle, with your left hand over your right and your shoulders facing to the front.” I did as he said, taking a quick glance at Lance, and then focusing on the camera. “Smile!” The photographer said. Flash. “Okay, next!” I walked off over to Lance and the next couple walked on.
Lance took my hand and said, “You stopped worrying yet?”
“Nope.” I said. We walked over to our table and sat down in our designated seats. We were the first ones there. A few seconds later, Vanessa and Joe walked over. They were sitting with us, along with Sophie and Craig, but they were off somewhere else.
“Hey Rachael.” Vanessa said, walking towards me and giving me a hug.
I saw out of the corner of my eye that Joe and Lance had introduced themselves to each other. “Hey Vanessa. You look great tonight.”
“Thanks.” She said. She looked over my shoulder at Lance.
“Oh sorry. Vanessa this is Lance, Lance this is Vanessa.” I said, introducing them.
“Hi Vanessa.” Lance said extending his hand.
“H...h...hey.” Vanessa stuttered out and shaking his hand. I knew that Vanessa was just about to explode with excitement. She let go and came back to stand beside me. She kneeled down so she was level with me and said, “You so didn’t tell me you were coming to the prom with Lance Bass! You lucky girl!”
“Yeah well.” I said, not knowing what else to say. Vanessa made her way around to sit down next to Joe. Lance was on my left, then Joe was on his left, and Vanessa on Joe’s left. Luckily, Sophie would be sitting next to Vanessa and Craig was going to be next to me. I looked at Lance and saw his smile at the comment that Vanessa made just before.
“Now everyone, can you please take your seats so we can get started.” Ms Tingle, one of my teachers, said into the microphone. Everyone made their way to their tables and sat down. After a quick hello around our table, Ms Tingle continued. “It’s nice to see you all here tonight. Now you shall be called table by table to go and get your dinner, you can go to the bar to get drinks bought to your table. Now feel free to dance and have fun tonight!” Ms Tingle finished and left the microphone and the music was now pumping through the speakers.
I noticed that Sophie was looking at Lance and myself and I made a small unhappy face, but trying to make it that it wasn’t noticeable. Lance saw this and looked at Sophie she was about to open her mouth, but Lance quickly said, “Rachael, do you wanna dance?”
I looked at Lance and said, “Sure.” I took his hand and he led me to the already crowded dance floor. We made our way to the middle and the song changed from Jennifer Lopez, Play, to Christina Aguilera, I Turn To You. Lance placed his right hand on my lower back and held my right hand is his left hand. I placed my left hand on his shoulders and we swayed back and forth in time with the music. “Thanks for getting me away from her before she opened her big mouth.” I said.
“I saw it in your face. That look you pulled and thought that no one could see it, I saw it, so that’s why I asked you to dance. I knew you wanted to get out of there.”
“Thanks again.”
“Still thinking about it?”
“Nope. I’ve decided that I should spoil a good night about worrying about something so small.”
“Oh and who did you hear that from?” Lance asked, looking like he really wanted to know whom it was.
“Oh, just a small voice in my head.” We both laughed. The song finished and Lance spun me under his left arm. The next song was another slow song. After the first couple of notes, Lance and I both knew what it was. It was God Must Have Spent (*NSYNC). Lance and I looked at each other and smiled again. Lance grabbed my other hand and pulled me into him. He lifted my arms to around his neck and placed his around my waist. As he put his arms around my waist, he pulled me closer so that I was right up next to him. As the first few words of the song came out. Lance sung softly along with them. I rested me head against his chest, listening to his voice and his heartbeat. It was a steady beat and I closed my eyes, breathing in his scent.
Chapter 11: Let's Get The Party Started
Four hours later, everyone was starting to leave, to go to the after parties that were being held. The photographer was still doing last minute pictures. Lance and I, along with three other couples were still dancing on the dance floor. We were grooving away to Bootylicious by Destiny’s Child. Eventually, the other three couples left, leaving Lance and I the only ones left. All who were left was Lance and myself, the DJ, the photographer and the bartender. The double doors soon burst open and in came Joey, Chris, JC and Justin dressed up in suits. I nearly died when I saw what colour they were. They were exactly like Lance’s but Joey’s was bright green, JC was in a bright red, Chris was in bright orange and Justin was wearing bright blue. All five guys were wearing bright colours.“Oh my god!” I said. Lance turned and saw the guys walking over to us.
“Have no fear, the party is here!” Joey yelled out. The guys walked over and I hugged each one of them.
“Photo time!” Justin said, dragging me over to the photographer.
“Hey guys.” The photographer said.
“Hey Dave.” All the guys said.
“Wait, you know him?” I asked the guys.
“Yeah, he’s *NSYNC photographer!” Chris said.
“What?!” I asked dumbfound.
“Yeah.” Lance said. “I pulled a few strings with your school and they let me have our photographer. Cause with my status, I didn’t want a photographer who would take off with the pics and sell them to magazines. The school let me.”
“Oh and before you ask, the DJ over there,” Justin said, pointing to the DJ, “that’s Ruben and over at the bar is Paul.”
“So practically, the whole prom was organised by you guys?”
“Yep.” JC said.
“Okay, guys, let’s get some photos done. Okay, Rachael, you stand in the middle here, Chris on your left, Lance on your right. JC go behind Lance, Justin go behind Chris and Joey behind Rachael. And stand on this while you’re at it so we can see you.” Dave said, handing Joey a small wooden box.
“Gee, thanks.” Joey said, grabbing the box.
“Yeah, yeah.” Dave said towards Joey’s remark. We got into the formation. “Okay, now Joey stretch out your arms and place your hands on the outside shoulders of JC and Justin. JC put your right hand on Lance’s right shoulder, Justin same, but opposite. Lance, put your left arm around Rachael’s waist and Chris, put your right arm around her waist. Great. Hold it.” He took a few pictures of us in that pose.
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“I wanna be next to Rachael now!” Joey complained. “Justin’s been next to her for ten pictures already!”
“What! You’ve been next to her eight times already Joe, I’ve been next to her six times!” Chris complained.
“I have not been next to her for ten!” Justin said, starting to fight back.
“You are all wrong. I’m next to her now.” JC said, walking up to me. Joey then pulled JC back and started to walk to me. Soon enough the other two were in the fight. They were pulling each other back in a playful way so it didn’t bother me that they were fighting over me. I stood there with Lance and watched them fight over who was going to be beside me.
I looked at Dave and nodded. I pulled Lance closer to me and wrapped my arms around his waist and he did the same, Flash. They guys looked up at me and saw that I was next Lance. I looked at them and poked my tongue out at them, Flash. The next few shots were candid cause it was just the guys and I mucking around. Some were set. They were mostly the guys trying to fight for my affection. After the photo session, we headed back to the dance floor and danced to whatever came over the speakers. We had a few drinks from the bar and for all that time, Dave took photos of us. It was the best night I ever had. The last time I looked at the clock it was 1:30am and that was when we were dancing. We eventually ran out of dancing ideas at about 3:30am and decided to head up stairs to the guys’ rooms. We all went to Lance’s room and sat down on the couch.
“Drink anyone?” Lance asked as he stood at the fridge with the door open.
“Strawberry bacardi please.” I said. I was out of my dress and my shoes and was wearing a pair of sweat pants and a baggy shirt. I had prepared a bag with some clothes in it, knowing that I would be getting out of my dress at and after party if I went. The guys had changed into basically the same that I was in. A pair of sweat pants and a shirt.
“Beer.” Joey said.
“Bourbon and coke.” JC said.
“Beer.” Chris said.
“Rum and coke.” Justin said.
Lance pulled out what everyone asked for and a bourbon and coke for himself and walked over to everyone, giving them the drinks they wanted. He then sat beside me on the three-seater couch. JC was on the armchair, and Chris in the other, Justin and Joey shared the two-seater couch opposite to where Lance and I were. We sat there, talked and the guys shared stories about what happens on tour.
At 5:00am, the curtains were shut and we were on our fifth or fourth drink for the morning.
“What do you wanna do know?” I asked, once the room fell silent.
“Anyone sleepy?” Justin asked. We all looked at each other and shook our heads no. We were to excited over something to go to sleep.
“Okay, how about strip poker?” Joey asked.
“Trust you to think of that, but since nothing else to do. I’m in!” I said, looking at the guys.
“I’m in.” Justin said.
“Yep.” JC said.
“Why not.” Lance said.
“Gotta keep myself occupied by doing something.” Chris finally said.
Joey reached into the draw that was under the table and pulled out a pack of cards. “I can’t believe I’m doing this.” Getting off the couch and sitting around the coffee table in the middle of the floor.
“It’ll be fun.” JC said.
“But it’s different if you don’t know the people you are playing with. I’ve like known Lance for a week and the rest of you for like half a day and you expect me to play.”
They all looked at each other and then back to me. “Yep.” They all said. I just rolled my eyes and Joey dealt the cards out.
It was the end of the first round, and all that were in was Justin and myself. The guys formatted the rules, that everyone else but the winner had to take an article of clothing off. So far, Lance had his watch off, Chris and JC had a shoe off and Joey had one of his rings off.
“You gonna show Timberflake?” I asked Justin.
“Yeah.” He showed his cards and I saw that he had a straight with the cards 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8. “You can’t beat that, so get that article off!” Justin said, sounding really proud of his accomplishment.
I showed my cards and said, “Eat it and weep it! A royal flush!” I said. The other guys cracked up laughing when they saw Justin’s expression drop. Justin came around and removed his JRT necklace.
After the tenth round, Chris was out and down to his boxers; Joey was still in with one sock, three earings and his pants still on. JC was down to his pants and Justin still had his pants, one sock and one shoe still on. Lance was sitting there with his pants and shirt on, while I was sitting there, in my boxers and singlet top I had on underneath my previous clothes and still with one sock and two earings left and the necklace that Lance gave me in the limo. I had already used up my other two earings, because I have two holes in each ear.
“How much clothing do you have on woman?” Joey asked me.
“It’s not my fault that I was cold before.
Thirteenth round, JC, Justin and Lance were out and it was down to Joey and myself. Joey was laying there in his boxers, and one sock, while I was laying there, now in my singlet top and boxers. We had moved the game from the table to the floor and we were both lying on our stomachs. JC and Chris were back in the chairs while Justin was sitting with his back against the chair and Lance was lying near where Joey and I were playing.
“If Joey looses this round Rachael wins, but if Rachael looses, she has to remove her top, cause I know she’s wearing a bra under that thing so she could still be in it.” JC said, watching Joey and myself arrange out cards.
“And what makes you think that I’m gonna remove my top?” I questioned him.
“Well you have to be like the rest of us. We are down as far as we can go, and so should you. Why should you be any different?” JC fought back. The guys still hadn’t changed into more clothes, but just sitting or lying in their underwear.
“I can’t believe this, I’m playing strip poker with a bunch of guys.” I said quietly as I put down three cards and picked up another three cards.
“Show.” Joey said. I placed my cards down, but all I had was a pair of nine’s. Joey snickered and placed his cards down and all he had was a pair of ten’s. I dropped my head as I heard Joey scream out in victory. “Shed that top Rachael.”
“You guys owe me big time for this.” I said. I removed my top and layed back down. Joey was already shuffling the cards with a big smile on his face. “Shut up Joey. I’m not enjoying this. I’m probably scaring you all.”
“Nope.” Was all I heard from every mouth in the room.
“I’m so glad I’m drunk.” I said. I wouldn’t have taken off my shirt other wise.
It was now the time to tell whom the overall winner was. I peered over my cards at Joey.
“Show your cards Joe.” JC said.
Joey carefully placed his cards down and I saw that he had two pairs. A pair of five’s and a pair of queen’s.
“Show your cards, baby G.” Joey said.
I placed down the card that didn’t belong with the other four. It was a two. I then placed a pair of five’s and kept the other pair in my hands.
“Stop it and show!” Joey said, sounding frustrated.
I placed the other cards down to reveal a pair of king’s. “I WIN!” I shouted getting up and jumping around. “I can’t believe it! I beat all of *NSYNC at strip poker! Eat it and weep it boys!”
Joey’s head hit the ground and he screamed “I got beaten by a girl!” Into the carpet.
Lance had gotten a drink for everyone and handed them out. “A toast to the winner of our game!” We all raised our bottles and took a big sip.
We slowly gathered our things and put them back on. We sat down on the couches where we previously were before the game. Within a few minutes, Chris was fast asleep; Joey, JC and Justin were having a conversation between themselves while Lance and I were also having our own conversation.
“Thanks for coming with me tonight. It meant a lot to me that you went out of your way to come down here to Australia.” I said quietly to Lance.
“Hey,” he said, “it was my pleasure. I had so much fun with you tonight.”
“Really?” I asked him, resting my head on that arm of the couch.
“Yeah. Deep down inside, I was hoping to have a fun night, but there was always this thing that it was going to turn out to be a flop. You’d invite me and all night I’d stay at the table or get mobbed by every girl.”
“The reason why you didn’t get mobbed was because hardly anyone knows who *NSYNC is in my year level.” I turned my head and rested it on his chest. Justin and Joey were now fast asleep. JC was finishing his bourbon and coke.
“Except for that one girl, Vanessa I think it was, she knew who I was.”
“Yeah, well, went I went to the bathroom, she cornered me and all of these questions came out of her mouth. But they were mostly about how I got to link arms with Justin. But sorry, you didn’t come up much in her question explosion.” We both laughed. “I seriously thought that she was going to break into a million pieces and produce a million young girls, screaming for you all. Just like the brooms in Fantasia.”
“I could just imagine it.”
I gave a yawn, pulled my legs up onto the couch and put them underneath my body. “What’s the time?” I asked Lance with my eyes closed.
He glanced to the clock on the wall and saw that it read 6:55am. “Five to seven.” He replied.
“Okay.” I softly said and closed my eyes, listening to Lance talk to JC. Soon, I was in a deep peaceful sleep.
Chapter 12: Clubbing
December 1st, 2001, continuation from the night before.“Thanks for coming down here.” Lance said once Rachael closed her eyes.
“Hey, no problem. It’s great to finally come here.” JC said, looking at the other sleeping bodies in the room. His eyes finally rested on Rachael’s sleeping figure on his left of Lance. “She’s not like the others is she?”
“I thought she would have been, you know, putting on the act that they aren’t to obsessed and try to get our attention, but, she’s, I dunno, different, I guess.” Lance said, looking to his right at Rachael.
“She is different. And I’ve only known her for like half a day or something. Like with the little party we had after everyone had left, we all just clicked with her and now we act like we’ve known her for all her life.”
“She’s one of us.” Lance said, looking at JC.
“She blends well and she has to come back with us, do you know what she wants to do once she leaves school?”
“Yeah she said that she wants to go to America, to Orlando I think it was.”
“What type of job was she looking for?”
“Well, she didn’t want an office job, she didn’t want a job that she was at the same place day in and day out, she wanted an outdoor type of job, but not too outdoorsy, if you know what I mean.”
“Well, she can come back with us and be on out tour crew. We’re always moving, and it’s sorta and outdoor job considering all the travel we do. I’m sure we can find a job for her doing something.”
“We’ll discuss it with her later. Knowing our luck, Joey would want to check out all the clubs around here, so we better get some sleep.” Lance said, getting more comfortable. He lifted his legs up onto the couch and rested his head on his arm. He re-arranged his body until he was comfortable and closed his eyes.
“It’ll be great having her on board with us, she’s so cool and fun to be with, you know, just the way she acts around us, you know? Am I making sense?” Lance opened his eyes and looked at JC.
“Coming from you C, nothing out of your mouth is sense.” Lance chuckled. “Night.” Lance closed his eyes, resting his head against the arm of the couch.
“Night Lance.” JC said, getting comfortable by swinging his legs over the arm of the chair and resting his head against the back of the chair. Within a few minutes, the room was silent except for the deep breathing from six sleeping bodies.
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I woke later that afternoon and glanced at the clock. It read 3:27pm. “Too early.” I mumbled to myself and went back to sleep.
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Chris was the first to fully awake. When he glanced at the clock it read 3:48pm. He tried getting back to sleep but couldn’t so he decided to go and get showered and changed. Joey was up at 4:00pm. He also left to get showered and changed. Justin finally woke at 4:23pm. He stood and started to walk out, but on his passing of JC’s chair he kicked his toe against it which woke JC up.
“What’s the time?” JC mumbled, watching Justin jump around the room, holding his foot.
“Umm,” Justin said, “4:25pm.”
“Stop hopping around like a dickhead. You’re gonna wake up Lance and Rachael.” JC got up and walked to the door that led to the adjoining room.
“Oh.” Justin said, stopping. He looked at the only two sleeping bodies left in the room, on the couch. Justin snapped out of his daze and followed JC into the adjoining room.
Lance woke and looked over the back of the couch at the clock. 4:45pm. He looked around the room and saw that everyone else was gone. He again had tangled his legs with Rachaels’. He then heard a knock at the door. It was loud enough that Rachael woke up to the sound with a jump.
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The sound of the knocking on the door was enough to wake me up with a jump.
“Afternoon.” He said.
I turned my head and looked at him. “Afternoon.” We both heard the knock at the door again. We both got up off the couch and Lance walked to the door while I walked to the kitchen to get myself a drink. I pulled out a glass from the cupboard and poured myself a glass of water.
Lance made his way over to the door, opened it to find Joey standing there, and already decked out in his clubbing gear.
“Hurry up and get changed, we’re going clubbing tonight in three hours.” Joey replied as Chris walked up behind him.
“We gotta check out the clubs down here before we leave.” Chris said, adding to the conversation.
“Okay then, let me go for a shower, get ready and I’ll be right with you.” Lance said, walking back into the room and leaving the door open so that Joey and Chris could come in. Lance then walked into his room to get ready.
“You up for some clubbing tonight?” Joey asked as he leaned on the counter.
“I would love to go but I’m not 18 yet, so there’s a bit of a problem there.” I said, putting my now empty glass into the sink.
“Hey, you’re with us, we’ll get you in with no problems!” Chris said, jumping up and sitting on the counter.
“Okay, how about the fact I ain’t got anything to wear?” I said, crossing my arms over my chest and resting back against the sink.
“Well, we aren’t going out for another three hours, we can go with you back to your place so you can get changed and whatever else you females do and then we can meet up with the other guys back here. How does that sound?” Justin said, walking into the room and only hearing the last sentence I said.
“Okay then, we’ll,” I said, picking up my keys from the table, “who wants to come with me?” All three hands went up in the air. A car ride home with Joey, Chris and Justin. “Okay! Let’s go then!” I said, walking to the door.
Justin quickly scribbled down a note to JC and Lance saying that they had gone back to Rachael’s house so that she could get showered and changed.
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I showered, changed and was doing my hair when I heard a knock at the door.
“You decent?” I heard from the other side.
“Yeah, it’s open.” I said. Joey then walked through the door, followed by the other two. I was in the middle of doing my hair into my own creation. The professional looking messy bun with a few pieces of hair down beside my face on the left side. I was wearing black pants with red flames up the side of the legs and flaming into the inside of the pant leg, and a black halter neck top which was loose fitting but not to loose, it too with flames up from the bottom to the top.
“Wow.” Joey said when he saw my reflection in the mirror. “You look fab-u-lous!” He said, putting on some really weird voice.
“Yeah right, stop your flattery.” I said with two bobby pins in my mouth. I pushed the last two bobby pins in place, put my hands into the tub of gel on the counter and pushed back through my hair and scrunched up the hair at the back to form the natural curls. “I just gotta get my boots and my jacket and I’ll be ready okay? So you guys can go to the car and I’ll be out soon.” I said to the guys as I walked out of the bathroom and to my bedroom.
“Okay.” The guys said as they walked out of the bathroom and walked out the front door to my car. I put on my boots that reached half way up my calf and my three-quarter length black jacket, went out the door, locked it and walked to the car.
“You aren’t seriously driving in those are you?” Justin asked as he leaned out the front passenger window.
“Yep.” I said, walking to the drivers’ door.
“But they are like killers on the road!” Chris complained as I got into the car.
“Practice makes perfect.” I gave them an evil smile and started the car.
I heard a few mumbles and I heard Justin faintly say, “Oh god.” As I backed down our steep driveway at what must have felt like 50km/h to him, but was only 15km/h.
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“Okay, let’s see, we pulled a few strings and we’re able to go to ‘B2BRock’ and it’s secure and all that type of crap.” JC said as Justin, Joey, Chris and I walked into Lance’s room.
“Cool, that’s just down on Elizabeth Street.” I said.
The phone in the hotel rang and Joey answered it. “Okay, we got a van waiting for us downstairs, let’s go clubbing!” Joey said excitedly.
“Thank god that Rachael’s not driving!” Chris quietly said, tilting his head back.
“What?” I asked him.
“Nothing.” He replied.
“Hey well at least you are here in one piece, be proud of that!” I said, pointing my finger at Chris.
“What are you two going on about?” JC asked.
“She drove her in those!” Justin butted in, pointing at my high-heeled boots.
“Those things are killers, but hey, as she said, you are here in one piece!” JC said, laughing and walking out the door.
We all filed out the door and to the elevators. Lance leaned closer to me and whispered “You look great tonight.”
“So do you.” I said, complimenting him back. For a guy’s taste in clothing, all five guys knew what style meant in their own way. I always loved what Lance wore, no matter how bad it looked, I thought to myself as the elevator doors opened. We all climbed in and headed to the lobby.
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I was down on the dance floor dancing with the guys. I really needed a drink, so I yelled out to the guys, “I’M GONNA GET A DRINK!” I said, motioning that I was drinking with my hands. The guys all nodded and kept on dancing. I managed to slowly squeeze my way through the crowd and over to the VIP room. The security guard recognised me, he let me in and I made my way over to the bar. “Hey, can I have a bottle of water please?” I asked the guy at the bar.
“Yeah sure.” He turned and pulled out a bottle of water from the fridge and handed it to me. “Here ya go.” He said, giving a little smile.
“Thanks.” I said, opening the top. Only after a few mouthfuls, three-quarters of the water had gone.
“You must be thirsty.” A voice said from behind me. I turned and saw Justin walking up to the bar. “Water.” He said to the bartender. The bartender handed him a bottle of water and continued to clean the bench. Justin opened the bottle and took one big mouthful. Half of it was gone.
“You must be thirsty.” I said back to him. He stopped drinking and looked at me. He took the bottle from his lips and smiled.
“Oh you are so funny!” He said sarcastically.
“I know.” I replied.
There was a moment of silence before Justin spoke up. “How long have you been dancing for?” He asked, sitting on the stool beside me.
“What makes you think that I’m a dancer?” I questioned him.
“Just by the way you move to the music. You have some real talent, so how long have you been dancing for?”
“This is my ninth year of dancing.”
“Woah.”
“I know, it doesn’t look like I’m a dancer I know, but that’s what I am.”
“What type of dancing have you done?”
“Umm, well, I’ve done jazz for all nine years, tap for eight, ballet for seven and a day lesson in jive, chacha, samba and country. That’s about it.”
“Wow.” Was all that Justin could say. “You gotta teach me some rock’n’roll sometime.”
“I didn’t learn a lot, just a few basic things and that’s it.”
“Yeah but still, I wanna know as much as you do.” Justin said, taking a sip of his water. “Got any awards or something for it?”
“I got first place in a choreographic competition this year and last. Last year was with another four girls from my dancing school and this year was a solo dance.”
“Oh and what did you dance to?” Justin said, motioning to the bartender to get him another bottle of water.
“Don’t laugh at me but last year we did ‘Tell Me, Tell Me Baby’ and this year I did ‘Digital Getdown’.” I looked at Justin’s face and saw the corners of his mouth, fighting back and trying not to smile. “Fine, go ahead and laugh, make fun of me, do whatever you want.”
Justin let his smile go. “I’m not gonna laugh, I just think it’s cute for others to choreograph their own moves to our songs.”
“Yeah sure, you just think that I’m just another one of your crazed fans.”
“No I don’t. You should stop jumping to conclusions.” Justin said.
“I’m gonna go back out to the dance floor and find the guys. You wanna come with me?” I asked Justin. I drank the last mouthful of water and put the empty bottle of water on the bench.
“I’ll join you guys later, I’m just gonna finish this bottle of water.”
“You sure?” I asked him.
“Yeah, I’m sure. You go out and have fun.”
“Okay, see ya later.” I said, walking out of the VIP room and into the crowded main floor. I squeezed my way through the crowd until I found the others. We ended up being the last ones out of the club, practically getting kicked out by the manager.
Chapter 13: Orlando Oppertunity
For the whole week, the guys and I were going to the theme parks, shopping centres, to the movies, just driving around, doing whatever came to mind. It was 10am Friday morning and the guys were leaving later that night at 11pm. The guys were all packed and had their bags near the door, ready to be picked up.“What are your plans for when you get to Orlando?” I asked the guys.
“Well, once we get back, it’s Christmas break for us, and we go and see our families and have Christmas with them. But we have the Jive Christmas party on at some time, and then there is the New Year’s party on the 31st.” JC said.
“Fun.” I said.
“Oh well, you get used to it. And then we are in Hawaii from the 3rd of January to about the 10th, and then we are back on tour from the 12th.” Justin added.
“Even better.” I said.
There was a small space of silence. “Do you wanna come on tour with us?” JC asked out of the blue.
“What?” Not being sure that I actually heard right.
“Do you wanna come on tour with us?” Joey repeated.
“You sure?” I asked them all.
“Yeah, it’ll be cool! We’ll have so much fun!” Chris getting really hyperactive over it.
“Why?”
“Well,” Lance started, “after all, you did say that you wanted to go to Orlando once you finished school.”
“Lance and I talked about it, and we were thinking of actually getting you a job on tour with us.” JC added.
“After all, you did say that you wanted and outdoorsy type of job and you didn’t want to go to the same work place day in and day out.” Lance finished.
“You sure?” I asked the guys.
“Yeah.” All five voices said.
“So you gonna come with us or not?” Justin asked me.
I sat there for a while, quiet, thinking about the whole thing. The guys looked at me eagerly, awaiting my response. “Ok, I’ll do it.” I said.
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“I can’t believe that I’m actually doing this.” I said, to myself.
Joey over heard me and said, “You can’t back out on us now.” We were currently sitting at the airport, waiting to board our plane. Joey was sitting on my left, Justin and Chris had gone to the cafe to get something to eat, JC and Lance had gone to the gift shop.
“No, I’m not going to back out on you guys. I love you all too much to do that.” I said and Joey placed his right arm around my shoulders.
“That good cause we all love you too.”
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The plane flight was reasonably quiet for the most part. Everyone was asleep except for myself, Justin and Ruben. I was sitting against the window, with Chris sitting on my left, drooling on my shoulder. JC was snoring directly behind me and Joey was in a deep sleep, breathing heavily next to him. Justin was across from us in the isle seat with Ruben next to the window. Justin was quietly reading a magazine while Ruben listened to his discman. Lance sat behind Justin next to the window with Paul on his right. Lance was sleeping like a baby and Paul had small yet annoying snore. Dave sat in front of me, with his head on a pillow against the window.
“This is so annoying.” I quietly said, making sure I didn’t wake up the others.
“What is?” A voice said. I looked over the top of Justins curls and saw Lance looking at me.
“Well, apart from the fact that I have Chris, drooling on my shoulder, everyone else is practically snoring around me, and I guess the main thing that’s annoying is the fact my arm is dead.” I said, still in a whispering voice.
“Yeah well, you’ll get used to it. Trust me, you will.” He said. “Let me help you out a bit.” Justin got out of his seat and knelt down beside Chris. “Chris, buddy.” Justin said, softly into Chris’ ear. “Ok, you are gonna do a favour for us okay.” Chris just moved his head, of my shoulder, and pretended to look at Justin, but with his eyes closed. “You are gonna undo your belt, stand up, walk over to Justins seat.” Justin stopped and looked up at me with an evil grin on his face. “Then, when you get there, you are gonna count to five and then scream out ‘Iceberg, dead a head!’ and then sit down in Justin’s seat and sleep there. Okay buddy, go.” As if on cue Chris undid his belt and stood up. He then walked over to Justin’s seat and Justin sat where Chris previously was. “Wait for it.” Justin said. We both listened to Chris count to five.
“One...two...three...four...five...ICEBERG DEAD AHEAD!” Chris screamed out. Everyone in the plane woke up and looked at Chris with a real pissed off look on their faces. Justin and I sat in our seats and laughed really hard, we were at the stage of crying.
“Shut up J!” Joey said and bought a pillow over the top of Justin’s seat and slammed it into his head.
“Ow!” Justin said, and rubbed his head.
“You deserved it.” Joey mumbled as he got comfortable and tried to get back to sleep.
“Ha ha.” I teasingly said to Justin and pointed at him. I was then hit on the head by JC’s pillow. “Hey! What was that for?”
“Shut up the both of ya and get some sleep.” JC mumbled, already with his head resting on the pillow against the window.
“Fine.” I said and fixed up my hair. JC had messed up my hair when he hit me on the head with the pillow.
“Don’t worry,” Justin quietly said, “you and me, will pay `em back later.” He said, sinking lower in his seat.
“You betcha!” I said. “Night.”
“Night.” Justin said, resting his head on his propped arm. The rest of the flight was peaceful and quiet. Only a few murmurs where heard.
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“So what exactly am I going to do while I’m here?” I asked the guys when we were sitting in the van, dropping everyone off at there own house. I was going to be the last one dropped off the Chariot hotel in the middle of Orlando.
“Whatever you feel like actually. Most of us will be around, you can call us if you need us. Do you have our numbers?” JC said.
“Nope.” I said, pulling out my phone from the back pocket of my jeans. I chucked the phone at Chris. “Whack it in.” I said. Each guy added their home, page and mobile numbers into my phone. “Thanks.” I said as Justin handed the phone back to me.
“This is my stop, so I’ll catch y’all later.” Justin climbed out of the van and reached back in for his duffle bag. He then gave a little wave and walked to his front door. The passenger numbers slowly decreased. Justin was first, then Joey, Lance and then Chris. JC was the only one left besides me and the driver.
“So what are your plans for the day and tomorrow?” JC asked, looking directly at me.
“Well,” I started, “I’m going to the hotel and have a look around and then tomorrow I was going to go window shopping and check out what stores are around. I gotta go window shopping cause I need money to go shopping and I need a job to get the money. So I’m settling with window shopping.”
“Wow, hope you have fun. Well, this is where I get off.” JC said. He reached over and kissed my cheek. “Have fun and don’t forget to call okay. If it’s to talk or because you are bored, just call.”
“Okay.” I said. He got out of the van with his duffle bag over his shoulder.
He waved and said, “See ya later.” He then shut the door and the van took off.
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I walked to my room, unlocked the door with my keycard and opened the door. Amazingly enough, my bags were already in the room. I looked to the coffee table and saw a huge bouquet of flowers. I moved a little closer and saw a blue envelope sticking out of the top. I pulled it out and saw Rachael written on the front in a silver pen. I turned it around and pulled out the card. On the front it said, Welcome to the family! ‘Oh god’ I thought to myself. I opened it and saw five separate messages, all having their own little space.
Hey Cutie, (gotta be different)
I know you couldn’t wait to get rid of us all, but you are gonna put up with us for a long time yet! Okay, there’s a barbeque, my house, December 11th, 10 o’clock. Hope you can make it, give us a call so we can arrange some stuff. Love JC.
Hey BabyG,
I hope you enJOEY your stay here and make sure you’ve got your clubbing gear ready and you are I are gonna go clubbing “ I know all the good spots. Love Joe. P.S. I reckon I’m pretty smart with the whole enJOEY thing, don’t you? Call me and let me know.
Hey BG,
I know how much you want to go to DisneyWorld “ from my sources, and who else better to go with than me? Okay, the plans are already made, just you and me, DisneyWorld, December 12th, pick you up at 8am. I know we’ll have fun. Don’t forget to call. Love Chris.
Hey Baby,
I gotta say firstly, thanks for the wonderful time I had at your prom. The only way I can think of thanking you is taking you horse riding with me from the 14th to the 17th. But, I gotta ask my girlfriend Shannon if she wants to come, is that alright with you? If not, give me a call and we can arrange something else. Well, just call me for the sake of calling. Love Lance.
Hey BabyGirl,
There is a surprise for on top of your pillow, so go and have a look. Love Justin. P.S. Only if you already haven’t seen it.
‘Hmm,’ I said to myself, ‘short and sweet.’ I followed Justin’s orders and went into the bedroom. I got to the bed and looked at the pillow. There was another envelope. I opened it and pulled out the letter that was inside.
Hey BabyGirl,
You found my little surprise. I hope you enjoy getting pampered because at 2pm...
I glanced at the clock and saw that it was already 1:30pm.
...you have an appointment downstairs at the beauty salon for a premium package. I have no idea what it is, but they said it was a good package to pick. Also, if you haven’t seen it, I’ve given you my credit card so you can go shopping. Please use it and don’t worry cause I have other credit cards. My pin is 54876, and I do expect money to be gone. Just spoil yourself. If you feel bad, you can pay me back when you get a job. But I don’t want you to, but I’m giving you that option. Well, I think it’s time for you to go downstairs for some pamper time. Give me a call, and we can go shopping together sometime. Love Justin
“These guys are way to much.” I said. I glanced at the clock. It was 1:40pm. “I’m going for a quick shower then I’m off downstairs.” I said, going to my bags to get myself out a pair of denim shorts and a white singlet top. After my shower, I headed downstairs.
I glanced at my watch, 1:58pm. “Just on time.” I mumbled. I got to the desk and said, “Hi, I have an appointment at 2pm.”
The girl looked at the appointment book on the computer and then turned to me. “Ah, Ms Valmont, you have a premium package, so Charlie here will start you off.” A girl came out from behind the girl at the desk. She had brown hair pulled back into a pony tail and dark brown eyes.
“Hi, I’m Charlie. Follow me please.” She said, walking down a small hall. I followed her down the hall and into a small room. I figured I was getting either a manicure or a pedicure cause there was nail polish bottles around the room. “Okay, firstly, I’m giving you a pedicure and Sonia here is giving you a manicure. If you’d just sit down in this chair.” Charlie said pointing to what looked like a dentist chair. As soon as I sat down, the girls went to work.
Chapter 14: Orlando Nightlife
I came out four hours later, with newly painted finger and toe nails, full body massaged, facial and a full body something or rather where they put this gunk on me and wrapped me up in what looked like giant alfoil, and made me lie there and sweat. I looked at my finger nails. They were painted silver with a blue French tip. I also had a white rose nail sticker on my ring finger on each hand. My toe nails were just painted silver. I felt like a new person when I came out, I was relaxed and refreshed. I walked to the elevator and pressed the up button. I looked towards the front door and noticed that the sun was starting to go down. The doors dinged and I stepped into the elevator, pressed the button for the eleventh floor and felt my phone ring as soon as the doors closed. I looked at the ID and it said Sexy Beast. The only person I could think of it being was Joey.“Hello?”
“Hey BabyG.”
“I thought it was you. Whatcha up to?”
“Just sitting around watching TV, you?”
“Just going up to my room cause I just spent four hours in the beauty parlour.”
“So you are all beautied up, ready to go clubbing.”
“Well, if you call a ratty old pair of shorts and a white singlet top clubbing gear, then yeah.”
“Where are you now?” Joey asked.
“Just getting off the elevator...walking down the hall...unlocking my door...opening it...now I’m walking into my bedroom and...” I stopped dead in my tracks when I looked at my bed.
“And you looked at your bed to find a whole new outfit, shoes and accessories.” Joey finished the sentence for me. I still stood there with my mouth open and in the same spot I was standing. “You like?” Joey asked.
“Huh? What oh yeah.”
“That’s good.”
“God I hate you guys.” I said, walking to my bed and admiring the outfit. It was a pair of black pants that flared out at the bottom. At the bottom of the pants and around the waist band was bright yellow tassels. The tassels were only like five millimetres wide, about five centimetres long and only millimetres apart. The black halter neck top had the same yellow tassels across the top of the back and straight across the front. It then crossed at the front and around the bottom of the top. There was a pair of black strappy three inch high heeled shoes on the bed beside the pants.
“Oh so you hate us now?” Joey asked, trying to sound shocked.
“You know I don’t, but why do you guys do so much for me?” I asked him running my fingers through the tassels on my top.
“Because we just do.” He paused for a moment before he spoke again. “Better get ready cause we are coming around in thirty minutes and taking you out on your first night in Orlando.”
“Where are you taking me?”
“It’s a surprise. Just be ready, okay?”
“Yeah okay. Well in that case I gotta go and get ready, so I’ll see you in half an hour?”
“Yep, see ya then. Bye.”
“Bye.” I said, ending the phone call and chucking the phone done on the bed. I walked to my bag and pulled out some underwear and went into the bathroom.
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After my shower, I came back into the room in the hotel bathrobe. I put on my pants and my top and went back into the bathroom to do my hair. I pulled my hair up into a high pony tail, applied some brown eye shadow on and some lips gloss. I went back into my room when I heard a knock at the door. I opened it and saw Justin standing there with a white bandana, white wifebeater with a black button up shirt, but he left it unbuttoned, a pair of cargos and a pair of white Nike sneakers.
“You ready?” He asked.
“Hang on, I just have to get my shoes on and then get my purse. You can come in if you want.” I said, leaving the door open and walking back into my room. I sat down on the end of the bed a started putting on my shoes and saw Justin leaning against the door frame looking at me. “What?” I asked him.
“You look good.”
I gave him a small smile and said, “Thanks.” I finished putting on my shoes, stood up and fixed my top. I then walked over to my bedside table, picking up my mobile. I brushed past Justin and walked to the couch, picking up a small black handbag, putting my mobile inside, making sure I had my purse and my keycard inside. “Let’s go.” I said. I walked out of the room with Justin following me. I made sure the door was locked before heading to the elevator.
“The others are waiting in the car downstairs.” Justin said as the elevator doors opened and we stepped on.
“Okay.” The doors shut and we made our decent down to the lobby. The doors opened and we stepped out. Justin placed his right hand on my lower back and we started walking to the doors to the awaiting limousine.
I heard a scream and felt Justin’s hand tense up and a small groan come from his mouth. Three young girls, around the age of about ten, came running up to us. Justin plastered on a smile for the girls. “OH MY GOD! YOU’RE JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE!” “I CAN’T BELIEVE IT’S YOU!” CAN I HAVE YOUR AUTOGRAPH?” “CAN I HAVE A PICTURE?” All these different sentences came out of the girls mouths all at once. I let out a small laugh, making it not noticeable to the three girls. The girls shoved their Celebrity CD’s and pens in front of him.
“Hey,” Justin said, “what’s your name.”
The girl stood there stunned for a while before she answered. “I’m Carli. C-a-r-l-i.” She spelt it out to him as he wrote To Carli, love Justin.
“Hey, my name’s Becky. B-e-c-k-y.” Justin wrote the same message, except it was To Becky.
“Hey Justin, my name is Debbie. D-e-b-b-i-e.” Justin wrote the same message yet again. “Can we have a picture?” She asked.
“Sure.” Debbie gave her camera to Becky and ran beside Justin, wrapping her arm around his waist, smiling from ear to ear. Debbie’s picture was first, then Becky’s, followed by Carli. They then decided to have photo with them all in it. Debbie looked at me. I was standing away watching Justin interact with the three girls. “Can you take the picture for us?’
“Um, sure.” I said, taking the camera out of her hand. Justin had Becky on his right, Carli on his left and Debbie was standing in front of him. Justin had has arms around Becky and Carli’s shoulders and looked at me with an apology look in his eyes. I just smiled and held the camera up to my eye. Justin put on his fake smile and looked at the camera. I took the picture and handed the camera back to Debbie.
“Oh my god! Thank you so much.” The girls turned and hurriedly walked away, talking so fast their sentences came out as one big word. They couldn’t get over the fact that they had saw Justin Timberlake.
“I am so sorry about that.” Justin said, walking over to me.
“Don’t sweat it Justin. You brightened up their day. You should be proud.” I said. We continued walking and he placed his hand back to where he had it on my back. We reached the car and he opened the door and let me in first. I slid across the back seat next to Lance and Justin came in behind me and sat on my right. I looked around and saw that the guys were practically wearing the same thing, but different colours.
The ride to our destination was mainly filled with small talk and the occasional group talk. I felt the car come to a stop and Justin got out of the car. Before I could get out, JC, Joey and Chris pushed their way through and got out. I then got out and stopped as soon as I got out. The guys were taking me to a Latin and jive dance club. “The deal is, you get out of the car and move to the side, not stand in the doorway.” I turned and saw Lance sitting on the edge of the seat. I didn’t realise that as soon as I stood up, I stopped, leaving no room for Lance to get out.
“Oh god, sorry.” I said and stepped out of the way. He got out, shut the door and the limo then drove away.
“Let’s go.” He said. “They’re starting without us.” I hadn’t even noticed that the other guys had gone into the club. He took my right hand in his left and led me to the club entrance.
We made our way over to the table that the guys were sitting at. I let go of Lance’s hand, intending to sit down. Before I got the chance to, Justin jumped up and said “Time for that Latin lesson!” I quickly put my bag down on the table as Justin dragged me to the dance floor. “Okay, what first?”
I showed Justin the moves that I knew and within no time, he had it down pact and we were dancing them with no mistakes. “Okay, I gotta go and get a drink.” Justin turned and went for the bar. He left me on the dance floor. Soon, the Latin song finished and a jive song started playing through the speakers. I was on the look out for one of the guys, but one of them found me first.
“Care for a dance?” I turned to find myself facing Lance holding out his hands.
“Sure.” I said, taking his hands. “Do you know any jive?” I asked him.
“I’m sure you can teach me.” He gave a smile and waited for me to start. I taught him the footwork firstly. He got that much and then I taught him the rest. Soon enough, we were spinning and dancing around, laughing and having a good time. By the end of the night, all five guys knew some Latin and jive. I danced with Justin and Lance four times, Joey and Chris three times, and JC five times. We were the last people in the club and looking very comfortable. The guys were in there pants and wifebeater and my feet were hurting from the new shoes, so I had my shoes off.
“Gotta love it when you know the owner of the club.” JC said as we were dancing for the sixth time.
“You know the owner?” I asked him.
“Yeah, we went to high school together. He was one of my friends.” JC said, spinning me.
“Cool.” I said.
“Let’s get a drink.” JC said leading me over to the table where the other guys were. I slid in next to Lance who was leaning against the wall. JC then sat next to me. Justin was across from Lance and Joey was next to him. Chris then pulled up a chair and joined us. We sat and talked for a bit, having a few drinks. All night I just settled with coke, lemon lime and bitters and one Strongbow sweet.
“Thanks for giving us dance lessons tonight.” Lance said, placing his arm around my shoulders and pulled me in to kiss the top of my forehead.
“No problem.” I said, resting my head on his chest. The guys kept talking and before I knew it, I fell asleep on Lance’s chest, breathing in his scent. It was only faint but it was still there. The guys let me sleep there for a while, before they started to wake me up.
“Rachael, wake up girl.” Lance said softly into my ear. The guys were starting to stand up. They were putting on their button up shirts. Lance lightly shook me and I slowly came to.
“Huh? What?”
“We’re going now.” Lance said as he helped me sit up straight.
“Oh okay. How long was I asleep for?” I slide out and stood up. I reached to the floor and picked my shoes.
“I dunno, maybe about an hour or more.”
I yawned and said “That long!” at the same time.
“Come on.” Lance said leading me to the car.
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I opened my door to my hotel room, closed it, making sure it was locked, kicked off my shoes, put my bag on my bedside table and fell down on my bed.