Scene 6: The girls return

     Just as the tape finished, Erin realized that there were hundreds of girls in the lobby.  “The concert must have just gotten out,” she thought. “I should go back up to the room.”
     Just then, she caught sight of three familiar faces in the crowd.  She began to move towards Val, Natalya, and Becca.   In fact, she realized that Val stuck out in the crowd; she seemed to be covered in a glowing blue liquid.
     “Leave it to one of the two of you to break a glow stick,” Erin laughed as she finally reached her group of friends.  “So, how was the concert?  And do you guys know why there seem to be so many people here?”
     “Maybe they are too excited from the concert to go to bed yet.  Let's go upstairs and we can tell you all about it,” Becca suggested.
     “Sounds good to me, I just spent the last few hours down here reading, and I didn’t see anything that would cause any excitement like this, that’s for sure,” Erin answered as the group started up the stairs.
     Once they got to the room, all Becca, Natalya and Val could talk about was how they distracted the guys so much with their boat during Sailing that all five members missed their entrance.
     “First we couldn’t get the sticks to glow, then we couldn’t make them stick to the boat,” exclaimed Natalya.  “Then I managed to get the first one to glow…”
     “. . . she got it to glow and it broke open and covered me from head to toe!”  finished Val.
     “You should have seen the two of them!  It was insane,” inserted Becca.
     “That reminds me, I hope this stuff isn’t toxic,” said Val, looking at her glowing limbs.  “I’m gonna take a shower and try to get this stuff off.  One of you find one of the packages to see if you can find any emergency instructions . . . if only Chris knew what I went through to get his attention!”
     “I wouldn’t be surprised if they could tell where that boat came from if you kept waving your arms in the air, those are better than any glow stick I’ve ever seen, that’s for sure.” Erin laughed as Val left to wash up.
     Val turned and stuck out her tongue.  “You guys don’t have to wait up for me, go ahead and get into bed.  I’ll see you all in the morning.”
     “Goodnight Val.  Good luck with the arms.” The other three girls turned to get ready for bed.
 

Scene VII: Apocalypse when?

     “Another day, another concert,” said JC as he picked at his room service breakfast.  “At least we have some time to ourselves today.”
     “Good thing this place has a gym and a pool!” sighed Joey as he consumed large amounts of hotel-fare.  He didn’t seem to even notice what he was eating.  The spoon was nothing but a shovel to him.
     “What do you have planned for today then?” asked JC.
     “I’m inviting Lance to go to the gym with me.  Justin is probably going to come too.”
     “Really?  This wouldn’t be some pathetic plan of the two of yours to get Lance to give you that shirt back, would it?”
     “No!” answered Joey rather unconvincingly.
     Once again JC just looked at Joey disapprovingly.  They sat together in silence for a few seconds until the quiet was shattered by hysterical laughter.  Chris and Justin tumbled into the room, their faces red from laughing so hard.
     “What’s so funny?” asked JC perking up a bit.  Now he saw a chance for some real entertainment.  When Chris was on one of his kicks, he was never sure what to expect.
     Expecting this very question from JC, Chris pulled out a hairbrush and held it up like a microphone.
     “While Lance was in the shower, Justin and I secretly removed all of Lance’s usual jeans and replaced them with wide legged pants.  Let’s see what happens next . . . ” whispered Chris menacingly.
     “What the heck happened to my pants?  Guys, this isn’t funny.  I can’t wear these things, where are my Wrangler's?” Came the distressed cry from Lance.
     He appeared from the next room wearing the pants Justin and Chris had left him.
     “Why that there skirt you got there is mighty perty,” laughed Chris just as Lance tripped over one leg of his gigantic pants.
     “Hey, that’s strange, I feel a breeze on my legs.  I kind of like it.  Thanks guys!  I wonder why I never tried these pants before.  And they are going to look great with my new blue shirt,” exclaimed Lance.
     “Foiled again, crime never pays,” joked Joey.  “Lance you may as well change anyway.  We’re going to the gym, right Justin?”
     Justin responded to Joey with a wink. “Yeah, that’s right.  Go change, Lance.”
     “Okay, I guess.  I haven’t got anything else to do,” agreed Lance.
     “You all disgust me sometimes.  I’m going to the lobby to play the piano or maybe read,” JC walked away from the group, shaking his head.
     “I’m gonna go for a swim.  I’ll see you all back here later, right?” Chris added.
     “Yeah, sounds good,” they all agreed and went to enjoy their afternoon off.
 

Scene VIII: Blue Fury

    Val awoke to the three other girls staring at her with strange looks on their faces.  “What, what’s wrong?  Did someone die?  Is Chris dead?  Did we see his last show?  This isn’t funny.  Tell me what’s wrong!  Was there a freak accident with his braids?  Is he bald?  Don’t do this to me!” Val was in a state of panic. She was so close to tears, the girls began to chuckle.
     “No, nobody died, but you are so cute when you are panicked.  That and you’re still glowing blue. You managed to get some of that stuff in your hair while you were sleeping too,” offered Natalya while trying to suppress a giggle.
     “Oh, man,” sighed Val, “You had me so worried.  If I have to glow today, so do you.  Come here.”  Val lunged toward Natalya before she had a chance to move.  There was enough of the blue on Val that when she grabbed Natalya; some of it rubbed off onto the second girl’s skin, too.
     “Now look what you’ve done.  I’m blue too!” shrieked Natalya.
     “You know you love it,” was Val’s only response.
     Natalya laughed as the other two girls reached to pull she and Val apart.  “If Courtney were here, you would both be on time-out.  And you know it,” exclaimed Erin.
     “Who’s Courtney? What are you talking about?”  Becca was confused.
     “She’s one of our good friends from school.  You could say that she acts as Val and Talya’s mom when they get like this.  Funny thing, isn’t she younger than you Val?” Erin tried to explain as Val stuck out her tongue, grabbed her bathing suit and went into the bathroom to change.
     “By the way, I know you were reading my book last night, Erin.  You’re lucky I’m in a good mood.  People have died for less.” Val smiled sweetly and skipped the rest of the way into the bathroom.
     “I’m glad she’s my friend,” Erin laughed at Val as they heard the shower switch on… and off.  “I thought she was changing into a bathing suit…”
     Next thing they knew, Val’s head was poking around the bathroom door.  “Didn’t want to confuse anyone, I just forgot what I was doing, that’s all,” smiled Val.
     “Is she usually this crazy?” asked Becca.
     “Only when we’re lucky,” both Natalya and Erin replied at once.
     “So, what are you two doing today?  I was thinking about going back to the lobby and reading some more, do either of you have a book?” asked Erin.
     “We’re going to the gym, right Natalya?” offered Becca.
     “Yeah, sounds good to me.  You can borrow my *N SYNC magazines if you want, I have their book too,” said Natalya.
     “Thanks, I’ll take them,” Erin reached for the stack of magazines and grabbed her key.  “I’ll see you all in a couple of hours, come find me if anything interesting happens.”
 

Scene IX: Jackpot!

     The three guys entered the gym to find it empty.  Justin and Joey looked at each other, first with disappointment at their luck with girls this stop, and then with malicious intent as they realized that this was just the situation they needed.
     “Hey Lance, why don’t you go first.  We’ll spot you, right Joey?” suggested Justin.
     “Yeah, that’s right, Justin.  You and me, we’ll spot Lance,” agreed Joey.
     “Thanks guys.  Y’all are being real nice to me.  First you give me the shirt, then the pants, then you asked me to come with you.  Now you’re letting me go first.  Thanks,” Lance said as he moved into position on the free weight bench press.
     Moments later, Lance found himself pinned to the bench with Justin and Joey looking over him, demanding the shirt.  “Listen, PooFoo, we want the shirt and we want it now.  You don’t give it up and Danielle gets the pictures.  I don’t want any problems, understand?” Joey threatened. Justin threw him a startled look. Had he done this before?
     “She sees the pictures and I change the sending address of your little magazine collection, and that goes for both of you.  You don’t want your mommies mad at you, now, do you?” Lance stood up for himself, just as the three guys heard a shriek from the door.
     “What are you doing to Lance?  You’re killing him!!!!!!!” Becca gasped in horror.
     At the first sign of female presence, both Justin and Joey stopped what they were doing to Lance.  “We was just playin’.  We wouldn’t really kill ‘em,” stammered a shocked Justin.  He had just noticed the cute girl standing next to the shocked Lance fan.
     “Becca, are you all right? Can you breathe?  LOOK WHAT YOU DID TO HER!  Oh, hi Justin.  Justin!?!?!?  Don’t move, I’ll be back.  No, better idea.  You three follow me.” Natalya took charge of her friend and gave orders to the three guys.  “Becca, we have to find Erin.  I’d say Lance’s attempted murder counts as something interesting.  Will you be okay to walk?  Lance, hold her hand, make sure she doesn’t pass out.”
     Meanwhile, Joey assessed the situation.  Yes, he had lost out again.  Lance had a girl, Justin had a girl, Joey had nothing, not even the baby blue shirt.  He was starting to feel shafted.
     Erin looked up as she heard her name being called.   She was shocked to see Becca and Natalya in the company of  three members of *N SYNC.
     “What?  Where did you get them?  Why are you laughing at me?  If you guys are here, where is JC?” whined Erin.
     At hearing his name, JC stopped playing the piano, which happened to be directly across from Erin.  “Hey guys, what’s up?  I see you’ve already found some fans, or wait, did they find you?” JC’s perfect face smiled at the girls who were all staring back at him in shock.
     “You mean to tell me that I’ve been here in this room with you for who knows how long and I haven’t noticed?  I feel so stupid.  What’s wrong with me?” Erin began to sob pitifully into her hands.  “You probably walked right by me last night too.  I am such an idiot!”
     Joey saw this as his chance.  He moved in for the kill, switching into his Bobby voice.  Poor Erin had no chance.  No woman could resist (read next line in hushed tone) the Bobby voice!
     It seemed that everything was perfect.  Justin had found Natalya, Lance and JC were helping Becca, and Joey was happy to know that he hadn’t lost his skills, for Erin was still speechless.
     “Its coo’ dat we got three y’all backin’ us up.” Justin tried to communicate with the girls.
     Erin and Becca looked to Natalya for a translation.  “He said it’s nice to meet three of his fans.  Wait three of his fans?  Lance, JC, Justin, Joey.  We’ve got the J’s.  JC, where’s Chris?” Natalya asked.
     “Don’t worry, we haven’t lost him.  He’s at the pool swimming.  Why?” JC replied.
     “OH MY GOD!!!!  VAL!” all three girls screamed as they grabbed the boys and ran for the pool.
     “What’s wrong?  Why are we running?” Lance asked.
     “No time to explain.  It won’t be pretty though,” answered Becca.
     Everyone realized just how bad the situation was when they reached the pool and found Chris leaning over a frozen Val.
     “Hey guys, I think I broke her.  Too bad, she’s the cute one from last night.  Look, her arms are still glowing.” Chris looked forlornly at his friends, just as the girl in front of him managed her first noise.
     “I resent that, I’m not just cute.  If I’m glowing, it’s her fault.” Val weakly pointed at Natalya as she spoke.
     “How long has she been here like this?  She never even made it to the chairs did she?” questioned Natalya, looking at Valerie’s pool things which lay at their feet.
     “I dunno, maybe twenty or thirty minutes.  I thought she was dead or something.  I made eye contact and she just froze there,”     Chris sounded less worried as Valerie became more animated.  Just then tears began to cascade down her cheeks.  Everyone looked to trace Valerie’s gaze.  “At least I didn’t make her cry.  Look what JC did to her.”
     “What’s wrong?” JC sounded heartbroken to know that he was the cause of Valerie’s tears.
     “You just look so perfect, all the time, how do you do it?  Why can’t I do it?” sobbed Valerie.  “If I had known you were going to be here, I wouldn’t look like this.  Oh, there is one thing that will make me feel better, I think.  Justin, could you come here for a minute, please?” Valerie grabbed Justin by the arm and threw him into the pool.  “Nope, didn’t work.  Too bad.”
     “Valerie, stop this nonsense.  I told you not to throw Justin in a pool if we ever met him.  DO YOU WANT A FRESH ONE???” Natalya sounded enraged.
     “You dare raise your hand to a face like hers?  How could you?” Chris pushed Valerie behind him shielding her from Natalya’s wrath.  “Never fear, I am here.  Since I seem to have scared you half to death and JC has tears streaming down your face, the least we can do is take you ladies out to lunch, right guys?”
     The guys all agreed enthusiastically to an opportunity to spend time with four fans that happened to be somewhat near their ages (taking into account the fact that Chris is 28).    Now that everyone in the group was vocal and mobile, everyone agreed to meet at the bus in thirty minutes.  The last thing the girls heard as they went to their room was Joey.  “This is great guys, but I still have nothing to wear…”
     The girls turned and yelled in unison,  “Anything but your purple pants!” before they ran to the room to change.  Just as the girls reached their room the phone rang.
 

Scene X: (Hum Along, Y'all) Back to Reality

    “Hello"” Valerie groggily picked up the phone.
    “Good morning, its 9:00, this is your wake-up call.  Just a reminder, check out is at 11:00.  Thank you for staying with us.”  Valerie hung up the phone.
    “I had the strangest dream last night.  I dreamt that *N SYNC was staying here in this hotel and that we met them.  Joey and Justin tried to kill Lance…” Becca was just awake enough to share her dream.
    “That is so strange.  I think I had the same dream.  I was in the lobby reading and JC was playing the piano the whole time and I didn’t notice.  Joey made me laugh with his Bobby voice.”  Erin was still so close to sleeping that she didn’t think anything of the strange coincidence between the dreams.  Instead she rolled over in her bed in an attempt
 to go back asleep.
    Unfortunately for Erin, Val was still reeling from the night before and was full of energy now that she had had a good night’s sleep.  Unbeknownst to the sleepy Erin, Valerie had crept onto the edge of her bed and was poised to pounce.   Becca cringed because she knew exactly what was coming.
    “WAKE-UP!!!” Val yelled as she landed on Erin and proceeded to jump up and down on the bed.  Suddenly a pillow flew across the room and pounded Val right on her head.  Val stopped suddenly, and stared at Natalya who had just woken up.
    “Girl, what is your damage?” asked the disgruntled Natalya as she armed herself with another pillow.
    “Well if you hadn’t interrupted me, I was going to tell Erin how strange it is that I had a very similar dream to hers and Becca’s.  Only, Chris was in mine.”
    “You were gonna do that while you were jumping on the bed?”
    “Yes?” Val tried meekly as she quickly covered her head with the pillow in hopes of avoiding anymore of Natalya’s wrath.
    “Sure you were.  Why don’t you stop tormenting Erin and tell us about your dream because I just have to tell you guys about my own dream.  I dreamt that we ran into *N SYNC at our hotel,” gushed Natalya.
    “You didn’t meet Justin and Joey in the gym while they were trying to kill Lance to get a baby blue shirt . . .did you?” asked Becca in shock.
    All the girls just stared at each other in silence before blurting out all at once, "I think we all had the same dream!"
 

Scene XI: The Boys Wake Up

“What’s for breakfast?” asked JC as he entered the living room of the group’s suite.  To his dismay, he found all the other guys sitting around with large bowls of cereal.  “Man, who let Justin order room service again?”
“You gotta problem with Apple Jacks?” asked Justin defensively.
 JC just sighed and poured himself a bowl of cereal and did his best to ignore Chris, who was throwing dry cereal at his head.
“So anyway,” started Lance in hopes of cheering up the mood in the room.  “I had this funny dream last night that Joey and Justin were trying to kill me.  Isn’t that funny?  Like that would ever happen!”
Justin and Joey exchanged worried looks and did their best not to draw attention to themselves.  Joey mouthed silently to Justin something that looked along the lines of “Who told him?”
Chris stopped throwing cereal at JC for a moment to comment on Lance’s statement.
“Wow Lance, I had a dream just like that.  Only mine had some crazy chick with glowing arms in it.  I guess she was a victim of some terrible glow-stick incident,” he said.
JC looked at Lance and Chris with the very same look of confusion that he had made famous in their “I Drive Myself Crazy” video (and every interview they had ever done.)
“I think I had the same dream,” JC stammered.
“Ya know I think we all had the same dream,” a confused Justin told the group.
“That’s just not possible.  It couldn’t have happened.  They were all cute though,” stuttered Joey with his mouth full of Apple Jacks.
“If you’re thinking of that crazy Italian girl, I’ll kill you! She’s mine!” exclaimed Chris.
 

Scene XII: Checking Out (But Not Signing Off)

The girls all left the room headed to the lobby to check out.  Everyone was still trying to figure out how they could all have possibly had the same dream.  Val, Talya, and Erin were all waiting for the elevator when they heard the cry from down the hall.
 “Guys?  Are you still there?  Wait for me!” Becca was having problems carrying her monstrous bag, mostly full of  *N SYNC gear.  She had bought one of everything the vendors had to sell at the concert.  If it said *N SYNC, JC, or Lance, she owned it.
 “You’d better hurry.  My friend Karen is going to be waiting for us in the lobby.  She’s going to take us out to breakfast.  We have to tell her everything about the concert.  She really wanted to go, but she couldn’t get tickets.” Val called to Becca.
 “I can sympathize with that.” Erin was still feeling sorry for herself.
 Becca finally made it to the elevator and they all made their way to the lobby.  Becca was still having problems with her bag as the girls made their way to the desk.  Val caught sight of Karen out of the corner of her eye.
 “Hey hootchie! Thanks for coming out here to get us.  Hope there weren’t any problems,” Val called to her friend.
 “No problems Little One.  That is until I got here.  There is a mob outside some bus in the parking lot of the hotel.  You’d think that someone famous was here or something.  Oh well, you guys ready to go?”
 “Famous, we’ve been here all night.  They must be waiting here for us, right ladies?” Becca was just making her way to the group.
 “Look at all those people, we’ll never make it out of here on time now.  There are five guys that just walked in front of us.  I’m hungry.  I want my breakfast.  What’s their malfunction?” huffed an angry Valerie.
 “My, my aren’t you a pleasant thing in the morning, Valerie?” Becca snickered at the angry girl.
 “We had to deal with her all year.  This is nothing. Just wait till she tries to spit her orange juice at you.” Erin and Natalya exchanged understanding looks with Karen.
 The group heard laughter from one of the guys in front of them.
“That sounds like something Chris would do, doesn’t it?” whispered Lance.
Chris tried to hit Lance, but in the process knocked his own hat off his head, freeing the braids he was so well known for.
“Ohmigod! Its *N SYNC!  And I noticed!!!!!” Erin was jumping up and down with excitement.
Chris turned to look at the jumping fan, and noticed that there was a strangely familiar face frozen just behind him.  She was the girl from his dreams, and low and behold, when he reached for her hands to check for sure, there was still some glowing substance on her fingers.
“It's YOU!  You aren’t just a dream!  Guys, its them, all of them, and an extra one!” Chris was now just as excited as his screaming fans. “And she freezes just like in the dream, isn’t that adorable?”
“An extra one?  Does that mean that there’s enough to go around?” Joey spoke up pointing to the waving Karen, before being elbowed by JC.
“Yeah Joey, that means I get one, too,” answered JC as Karen moved closer to his radiating perfection.
“Food…” Val muttered.
“Quiet, guys, I think she’s trying to say something.” Chris silenced the crowd.
“Hungry…” Val tried again.
“She’s hungry…she wants food, you idiot.” JC looked at the rest of the group, sympathizing with the frozen girl.  He hadn’t enjoyed the Apple Jacks that morning.
Joey reached forward offering Val a fuzzy half eaten lifesaver he had found in his pocket.  Val merely crinkled up her nose in disgust.
“She moved!  Joey, she doesn’t want your nasty ass lifesaver!” Chris saved Valerie from the sorry candy offering.
“I got a better idea, let’s take them out for some real food.  They deserve it.” Justin spoke for the first time, looking directly at Natalya.
“Rich guys' treat!” Valerie snapped out of her frozen state.
“Sounds great guys,” Natalya’s gaze never left Justin as the larger group left the hotel.  “I just have one question for you guys.  Chris said something earlier about Val being the girl from his dream, there wasn’t a baby blue shirt involved in any way was there?”  Everyone gawked at each other with startled looks.  “No, it’s just not possible.”