Chapter 1 He felt his heart pound as he watched the 20 year old pop star sing softly to the love ballad she was belting out. "God she's amazing." He said to himself in a whisper. 23 year old Brian Littrell of the Backstreet Boys was watching Katie Daniels on television, when his best bud Nick Carter walked in. "Hey Bri-" he stopped when he noticed Katie on T.V. She was sweetly singing, moving her lips to the slow beat. Katie had made it big in Canada a couple year earlier and was just hitting in the U.S. A.J. Mclean entered the room and chimed in with the lyrics. "I LOVE this video." Nick said as he lowered himself onto the couch with his eyes tightly glued to the television. "I love her." A.J. replied his eyes dancing with glee. "Don't even think about it Mclean, she's mine. When we go on tour with her I'll charm her with my Southern boyish charm and good looks." Brian informed him not moving his eyes from the T.V. for even one second. "How do you know she wants you, maybe your not her type?" A.J. pointed out arguably. "Well because I just do. Besides what makes you think she would even go for a guy like you?" Brian said his eyes now on A.J. since the video ended. Now MTV VJ Carson Daly was talking about how her new video was the most requested for eight weeks in a row. "You guys, you don't even know Katie." Nick pointed out, "For all we know her type could be Brian, or it could be A.J., or Kev, or Howie, hell it could even be me. There's no use in fighting over something you know nothing about." "Wow Nick, that was really mature." Brian said after a long pause of silence. "Well we're gonna find out that I am defintely her type when we go on tour together." A.J. replied somewhat challenging himself. "I can't wait this is gonna be so cool. This is gonna be the best tour ever." Brian said looking up at the ceiling imagining what the next few months were going to be like. "Uh oh." Nick said. "What?" Brian replied a little angry that Nick had interuppted his daydream. "Speaking of leaving on tour, we have to go in um about two hours." Nick replied worried. "Uh oh." Brian repeated jumping up from the couch. "Uh oh." A.J. echoed. They began to run for their rooms when they found Kevin Richardson and Howie Dorough had blocked their way. "You guys, bad news." Howie began looking at all the other guys with a sad expression on his cute face. "What is it?" Nick wondered curiously. "It's Katie." "Oh my god! What happened!" Brian blurted out, sounding panicked. "let me finish." Kevin told him firmly. "Sorry." Brian quickly apologized. "As I was saying." Kevin continued. "Katie just called me on my cellphone and canceled." Kevin explained looking at the three startled faces. "No!" All three said together. "Why?" A.J. asked upset. "Her bus broke down." Howie told them with a pout on his lips. "Is there anything we can do?" Brian asked. "I don't think so, she said she's trying everything she possibly can to go, but nothing is working out." Kevin said. "Wait! I got it!" A.J. shouted excited, all four heads shot up at the outburst. "There is something we can do!" "What?" Nick asked. "She can share our bus. There's more than enough room." A.J. smiled, feeling proud at the suggestion. "Hey great idea." Nick congratulated. "Yeah." Brian agreed his eyes gleamed with happiness as he patted A.J.'s back. "Thats actually not a bad idea." Howie replied siding with the other three. "You guys, I don't know." Kevin hesitated. "C'mon Kev please." Nick begged. "Yeah I mean how can you say no to Katie?" A.J. pleaded. "I'm not saying no to Katie, I'm saying no to you. I think its a wonderful idea myself, and I'm all for it, its just Donna that I'm worried about. You guys have gotta put your hormones on hold for a second and consider what she's gonna say." Kevin said referring to their manager. "Thats just like you Kev, to ruin a great moment by being responsible." Brian teased. "Well let's call her and find out what Donna's gonna say shall we." Howie suggested snatching Kevin's cell phone from his hands. Kevin made a leap for it but just fell to the couch with a thud as Howie dialed the number to Donna Wright's home. * * * Brian yanked the phone away from Howie listening to the steady ring. A.J. and Nick pressed their heads against Brian's trying to hear what was going on. "It's just ringing." Brian assured them and pushed them away. They all stood there waiting for Brian to repeat their managers every word. Brian's head perked up. "She picked up." He told them. "Donna hi!" Brian greeted excitedly. "Yeah we know she called us. Uh huh, yeah,ok, uh...ok thats wonderful, sure...listen um..." Brian kept trying to speak but couldn't get a word in because of her ramblings about money and performances, the same old stuff. "Go on, tell her." A.J. urged. "Donna, uh thats great. Ok listen I nee-" She cut him off again, he let out a frustrated groan. "Donna!" She responded. "Thank you, listen I wanted to ask you well, um...you see, we were uh..." "give her a compliment. It'll soften her up." Nick advised in a whisper. "and um, did you get a hair cut? It looks really nice." He paused for a minute, computing what he just told her. "What?" Donna asked confused. Realizing what he told Donna he hit himself over the head with the telephone. Nick shook his head and smirked. Howie grabbed the phone back from Brian. "Donna hey this is Howie, listen what B-rok over here was trying to tell you is that we want Katie to share a bus with us. I mean since hers broke down and everything we figured the generous thing to do would be to offer her our bus. So, what do ya say? It would be a great learning experience for all six of us." He tried to convince, than Brian grabbed the phone again. "Plllleeeeeaaasse" He whined into the reciever. Holding the phone out all the guys yelled. "Plllleeeasseee!" Including Kevin. With a satisfied grin, he placed the phone back on his ear. "So?" He asked awaiting an answer, they all looked at Brian in suspense. "No I'm doing this just because I have a crush on her. Who do you take me for, besides this wasn't even my idea, A.J. has part in this too." Kevin shook his head at his cousin, he always had a way with Donna. He could convince her to run around the street like a giant chicken if he wanted her to. Brian still had everyones full attention. "Ok yeah thanks." He replied in a sad tone, he moved the phone from his ear and pushed the button, hanging up. The others looked at him awaiting the worst, he handed the phone back to Kevin and hung his head in dissapointment. All the other guys frowned and began to walk away, thinking they knew the answer. "I guess we better go pack." A.J. moped. "Ha Ha! Fooled you, she said yes!" Brian screeched out. "She said yes?!" Nick repeated "Way to go B-rok." A.J. said now back to his happy entergetic self. "All right!" Nick said giving Brian a high five as they danced away to their rooms. "Cool!" Howie repeated excitedly as jumped up and down. "Woohoo!" A.J. cheered as he and Howie started off to their rooms leaving Kevin behind. Thy playfully wrestled and argued over who they thought Katie would like better. "No, no, no, she goes for that sweet, irresistable, latin type. And that's me." Howie smiled. "No she likes funny, romantic, sexy types, thats me." A.J. smiled back. Kevin grinned, he loved listening to them argue. "Hm she said yes." Kevin replied quietly. He thought about it for a couple seconds. "She said yes!" He shouted happily tossing his hands up in the air, waiting for a high five. He looked around the room realizing he was the only one there, he slowly let his arms down and walked off to his room leaving the living room empty, and the television on. * * * About five minutes later Nick, and Brian stepped back into the living room in slight confusion. Then out came A.J. and Howie, then not much later Kevin joined them all with the same confused expressions. "You know we were thinking." Brian began. "Wouldn't Katie liked to be informed of her sharing a bus with us and um, the minor detail that were picking her up in less than two hours." "We forgot to call her!" They all replied in perfect timing.
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