“I am going to have such a big headache by the end of the day,” Vivian muttered to herself as she flipped open a page of her notebook and scanned her neat writing.
“Relax Vivian, you’re going to be fine. And besides, there’ll be a nice big aspirin waiting for you back at the hotel,” JC explained as the group made their way to the MTV studios in the heart of New York City.
Vivian drew a deep breath and closed her eyes, head leaning back against the car seat. She had gone through a whirlwind of a week and it wasn’t slowing down at all. Her first week on the job had been getting to know everything there was to know about her clients. She was almost certain she could tell anyone how the members of *NSYNC liked their eggs in the morning as well as what brand of underwear they preferred. She felt like one of their fans but she had to know them for all the right reasons and not just for frivolous slumber party banter.
It had only taken her about two days to get the basics down and Melinda jokingly told Vivian the day before she left with the guys that if she kept up the good work Melinda would be working for her before the year was out.
Yeah right, Vivian thought to herself as they found themselves in typical Manhattan traffic, I’ll be lucky if I survive this day with anything but a headache. Glancing at the clock on the dashboard she groaned loudly.
“We’re supposed to be there in five minutes, we’re going to be late!”
“Vivian, I’m going to say it again, relax. The show never starts on time,” JC explained with a comforting smile. She turned to look at him and merely shot him a look as if to say, ‘I am always on time so don’t mess with me.’ He sighed heavily and looked out the heavily tinted window praying they’d get there soon before Vivian had a heart attack.
“Yeah Viv…you need to take a chill pill and just go with the flow!” Chris explained with a grin as he leaned forward and ruffled the girl’s hair. She grimaced and merely swatted his hand away.
“Not in the mood Chris, I’m under extreme pressure and if you want to keep your manhood I’d suggest you keep your mouth shut,” she snapped as she opened her notebook again for what seemed to be the twentieth time that hour.
“No need for you to be the ice queen, just trying to lighten the mood,” he explained before he noisily opened a bag of chips and began pelting some at Lance who was talking to one of his business cohorts no doubt back in L.A.
Finally the traffic lightened and Vivian could feel herself growing less tense as they drew nearer to the hotel. It would have been so much easier to just take the subway, she thought to herself but she knew that was practically impossible due to the group’s popularity.
It was true that Vivian had never heard of *NSYNC before she came to work for them. She had never been one for the popular music scene and was perfectly happy living in a teeny-bopper free world while she went through college. It was a part of her life now of course and she had been shocked to find that the band was one, if not the, most popular group in the entire world at the moment and she could only wonder how she landed such an important account.
Luck of the draw I guess she thought to herself as they pulled into the underground lot that would drop the group off at MTV Headquarters.
“Right, I expect their hostess will take you guys up to the green room. Stay out of trouble while I’m gone. I need to talk to his Carson fellow about the questions he’s supposed to stay away from,” Vivian said, “Remember talk about the tour, the album, thank the fans…”
“We know Vivian, we’ve done this before,” came Justin’s snappy retort and Vivian rolled her eyes at his tone, “Just make sure they don’t start prying about our love lives…Carson likes to watch us squirm up there,” he added as a shiver of distaste took over him.
“Not like I haven’t been briefed about this before. Let’s get moving you guys, not that much time,” Vivian added before the SUV came to a complete stop and the group exited the vehicle.
A woman was there to greet them at the door and she whisked them away into the heart of the studio, the guys talking to her about the studio and the rapid changes the network was making.
Once the band had been escorted to the green room, Vivian followed the same woman down the maze of corridors to the VJay’s dressing rooms. Inside one of them she found the host of TRL sitting in a chair, getting his hair and makeup covered for the day.
“Mr. Daly, Vivian Aldridge…I’m the assistant…”
“Right, right they told me you’d be coming. Let’s get this over with I have to go over my cue cards before the show starts,” he snapped and looked over at Vivian who was staring at him, mouth open in shock.
“I know its such a shock to see Carson Daly. I swear, why would they send an amateur up here to do a professional’s job?” he muttered and Vivian could feel her blood start to boil.
“Well,” Vivian began deciding to completely ignore the comment she had just heard, “The guys have asked to not have their love lives come up on the show nor do they wish to hear any comparisons to the Frontstreet Boys…” her small speech was interrupted by Carson’s hysterical laughter, his stylist following suit.
“This girl is great! Really sweetheart, the Frontstreet Boys?”
“Isn’t that what they’re called?” Vivian asked meekly feeling her defenses crumble around her.
“Hell no. Backstreet Boys. Have you been living under a rock for the last three years or something?” Carson demanded as his laughter subsided.
“Pronunciation of their name aside, they ask that you don’t discuss the rumors of rivalry between them,” Vivian said moving ahead. She was going to get through this and no smarmy, pretentious man was going to push her aside.
“Yeah I got it. Anything else?”
“No, just keep it to the new album and the summer tour, future projects, the new video, things like that. Nothing personal,” she added quickly as she closed her notebook and watched him intently.
“I got it sweetheart. Now beat it, I have to finish getting ready,” he snapped as he turned his attention back towards his stylist. Vivian left his dressing room visibly upset.
“He had some nerve…” she muttered to herself as she made her way back to the green room. Opening the door, she groaned inwardly as Chris proceeded to rush about the room with one of the pillow from the couch in the center of the room. He was chasing Joey around, clearly harassing him with the plush object.
“Don’t call me old again you fart!” he yelled in between his laughter. He turned to see Vivian enter and made a beeline for her, pillow raised and ready to pounce.
“No Chris! Stop!” she complained as he began assailing her with the cushion her complaints completely ignored by his ears.
“I guess you went deaf in your old age too,” Lance said from his position by the window that overlooked the city, “she told you to stop.” Chris immediately ceased and returned the cushion to its rightful place before flopping on the couch and resting his feet in Justin’s lap.
Vivian smiled and walked towards a chair that was close to the stage door, “My knight in shining armor,” she added with a small, timid smile.
“Its because he’s southern. He’s got that chivalry the ladies can’t deny,” Joey joked, “Don’t put it past Mississippi to sweep a woman off her feet.” Lance chuckled at his friend’s comment and continued to look out the window.
“You told Carson not to bring up anything about our personal lives, right?” Justin asked from his position on the couch as he fidgeted with his cell phone in his hand.
“He knows that personal lives are out of bounds,” Vivian explained, “I made it quite clear to him…”
“So he isn’t going to mention anything about me and Britney right?”
Vivian sighed and looked down at her notebook. The other part of the job was knowing every single thing about their personal lives. Down to the most grim and shocking details and it was up to Vivian to make sure that these details weren’t discussed in front of the public eye. That included Justin’s much evaded love life that surrounded the other pop idol, Britney Spears.
“No. Nothing.”
“And we’re back on TRL with *NSYNC,” Carson began but he was abruptly cut short when the entire studio erupted into screams. Even from her position in the control booth, the screams made Vivian want to clap her hands to her ears. How could girls scream so loudly without permanently damaging their voices?
So far the interview was going off without a hitch and Vivian was rather proud of herself. It was her first solo venture with the group and she wanted to make sure it wasn’t her last. And she was feeling rather pleased as she sat with the producers of Total Request Live in their control booth, watching the show continue on.
“So its time to get a little bit personal with the guys,” Carson began and was urged on by the catcalls and screams from the impressionable audience.
“Justin, what is this we hear about you and Britney Spears? Rumor has it you two are seeing each other, care to point us in the right direction?”
“Oh Jesus…” Vivian muttered to herself as she watched the monitors. The camera zoomed in on Justin’s surprised face and she could almost see the imaginary defensive wall come up between him and the VJ.
She looked towards the other monitors and noticed with a sinking feeling in her stomach that there was a camera focused on the green room that they had all been sitting in a mere twenty minutes ago.
“Is that a live feed of the green room?” she asked the technical director sitting next to her.
“Yup.”
“And can you get sound in that room?” Vivian asked her mouth suddenly very dry.
“Of course, this is the twenty-first century honey, don’t think we can’t afford the best.”
“Oh my God. Oh my God, Melinda is going to kill me.” Trying to keep her composure, Vivian turned her attention back towards the thunderstruck Justin and his bandmates.
“Sure I’d like to point you in the right direction,” Justin said with a laugh, “I mean Britney opened for us on tour when she was first starting out and she, JC and I were on the Mickey Mouse Club. We go way back and are good friends but no, we aren’t dating.”
He totally saved that one Vivian thought to herself though she wasn’t off the hook yet. Carson was totally going over the top and he knew it, which was why she wasn’t ready for his next question.
“And what about your rivalry with The Backstreet Boys or, as your PR Assistant called them earlier today, The Frontstreet Boys?”
“Oh God, oh God, oh God,” Vivian muttered under her breath over and over. She could feel the color leave her face and she gripped the sound board in front of her tightly to keep herself from falling over. She ripped the headset off of her head and put her head in her hands trying to fight the wave of nausea that was overcoming her.
This day could not get any worse.
"I cannot believe you Vivian!" Justin grumbled as the group continued their silent car ride back to the hotel. Vivian was sitting in the front of the SUV, her posture still remarkably perfect even after such a horrific run in at the studios.
Everything following the show was complete chaos. Vivian's phone had been ringing off the hook and she was answering calls from Melinda, Johnny, Britney's publicist and even the attorney for the Backstreet Boys. The girl was so far in over her head Justin didn't know why Melinda hadn't fired her on the spot.
I know I would have.
But still, angry didn't even begin to describe his feelings toward the whole situation. Right now he hated Vivian and wanted nothing more than to wring her scrawny little neck.
It was because of her he had to calm down his sobbing girlfriend on the phone who was three thousand miles away in L.A. recordin her new album. It was because of Vivian that his girlfriend had suggested they take a short break due to their hectic schedules and it was because of Vivian that he had a monster headache.
"Can you do anything right? I told you to tell Carson not to talk about our personal lives! What did you do while you were in his dressing room? No, don't answer that question, I have a feeling what you were doing and it wasn't talking about interview protocol..."
"Would you just shut the hell up, Justin?" Vivian said, her voice hollow. She turned around to face the rest of the group, her face still calm despite the tone of her voice, "I have enough people riding on my back and I don't need you to join the dog pile. And don't you dare suggest that I was doing anything with that horrible man. You should all know that I take my job very seriously..."
"If you had taken your job seriously I wouldn't have been grilled about my girlfriend nor would we have been asked to defend the Backstreet Boys on national television!" Justin roared his face red. It infuriated him that she didn't seem the least bit phased about this whole episode and it made him even more mad that she wasn't getting upset with him yelling at her.
"Justin maybe we should continue this conversation when you've calmed down," Joey said from the back of the vehicle. The rest of the group had remained strangely quiet during the loud exchange in the car as they were too afraid to interject into the argument.
"No, I want to continue this conversation," Vivian stated from the front of the car as they stopped again in traffic, "Its better that Justin gets this all out of his system now before he blows up in front of someone other than you guys."
"Blow up? Blow up? This isn't me blown up, Viivan. But I will in a couple of minutes if you don't shut your trap and apologize for what you did!"
"I've already apologized countless of times to you, the group, Britney, her publicist and management team, and the entire Backstreet Boy camp. Do you want me to tattoo it onto my forehead?" she asked.
"You could but it wouldn't make me feel any better," Justin retorted as he looked out the window. When the hell were they going to get to the hotel.
"You are an insufferable brat did you know that?" Vivian said and Justin swelled with anger as the rest of the travelers in the car held their breaths.
"Excuse me? That's really classy Aldridge, really classy indeed."
"I'm sorry Justin, were you just talking about class? I was under the impression you didn't have any," she added and Justin felt as if he was going to explode.
Thankfully for the rest of the group, they reached the hotel just before any claws could be drawn from either side. Justin watched as the car pulled to a stop at the back entrance of their hotel. Vivian opened her door and rushed towards the elevator not waiting for the rest of them.
"I can't believe her. Insufferable brat...who does she think she is?"
"Either really, really brave. Or extremely crazy," Chris muttered to Joey out of Justin's hearing range as the group made their way to their respective rooms, ready to put the day's events behind them.
