Being In The Band
Being In The Band
©1999-2000
By Sarah
Chapter 10

        "Lizard!"
        Lizard groaned at the sound of the singsong voice.  She knew exactly who it was.
        "Lizard!"
        "Go away," she mumbled from her bunk.  The voice had arrived right outside her bunk, and a     stuffed goose head was stuck inside her bed.
        "Ah, but Guido the love goose knows all!"  The voice said before starting to laugh.
        "Dennis, you are insane," Lizard said as she moved the curtain aside and revealed Dennis, who was rolling on the floor with laughter.
        "I know, I know," he managed to squeeze out.
        "What do you want, Dennis?"  Lizard asked as she yawned again.  He’d woken her up.
        "We’re almost there!  We’re almost there!  And we have tonight off!"  He said, sitting up and controlling his laughter.
        "We do?!"  Lizard exclaimed.  Her face upturned into a smile, the first in a while.  The first genuine smile, anyway.
        "Yup, wanna come with the rest of us on a band outing?"  Dennis asked.
        Lizard bit her lip.  "It depends on where you’re going, I'm still eighteen, remember?"  She reminded him.
        Dennis hit himself on the head with Guido.  "Damn, I forgot!  Oh well, I guess that means you’re either on your own tonight or that you’re hanging with Nick," he said as he stood up.
        "With Nick?  No way, he despises me, I’ll explore on my own," she said, getting up herself.  She stretched and yawned, getting out all of the usual kinks she acquired from sleeping on the bunk.
        "You’re going by yourself tonight?"  Tommy asked quietly as he walked through the hallway.
        "Yeah, I can’t go with you guys, I’ll just make it a ‘me’ night," she replied, following him into the back as she brushed her hair.  It was long, just the way she’d liked it to be.  It was more than halfway down her back, it took so long for it to get that long…her father always loved her hair….
        "Liz?  Lizard!"
        Lizard snapped out of her train of thought.  "What?"
        "I said, why don’t you spend the night getting to know Nick?  You two haven’t really had the chance to sit down and talk, maybe that’s why you don’t get along," Tommy said.
        Lizard shook her head.  "No, that’s ok, the only reason we don’t get along is because he refuses to get to know me, not the other way around, or any other way, for that matter.  I get along with everyone on this tour, even the crew, and he is the only one who despises me that much."
        "Ya never know, Lizard, maybe you just need to spend some time together," Tommy said as he started back for the front.
        "Yeah, some time together on the moon," Lizard said under her breath as she followed him into the front.  She was greeted by laughter and saw AJ sitting there with a camcorder trained on Guido.
        "I ought to ask what you are all doing, but I'm not going to," she said as she walked to the kitchenette and started making herself a cup of tea.
        "Ahh, and there is our esteemed keyboardist, Lizard Collins, formally known as Elizabeth. Moms of the guys, Lizard is the second woman to join the Backstreet Family, and by far the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen!"  AJ said.
        Lizard blushed and she knew that AJ was zooming the camera in on her.  "AJ, you keep complimenting me like that, I'm going to be mistaken for a tomato," she said, not turning around.
        "Come on, Liz, turn around, say hi to mine and the rest of the guys’ moms!"  AJ said.
        Lizard sighed as she turned around and smiled into the camera.  "Well, hi everyone out there in TV land, hope you’re all having fun watching this tape, but knowing AJ, he’ll tape something he wasn’t suppose to," she said, glancing at AJ and covering her mouth.  "Oops!  I wasn’t suppose to say anything!"  She said, turning back around to her tea as the group behind her let out a collective ‘ooh’ of amazement.
        "Excuse this interruption, folks, I have to go kill Lizard!"  AJ said.  Lizard took off for the back, hiding in her bunk until she heard AJ coming after her.
        "Come here, Liz!"  He said, dragging her out of her bunk.  He started tickling her and she couldn’t stop laughing as she squirmed around on the floor.  She felt tears stream down her face and saw Tommy standing next to her, the camcorder trained on the scene.
        "Ahh, AJ, Tommy’s getting this!"  She managed to get out.  AJ stopped tickling her and lunged for the camera, taking it out of Tommy’s hands and turning it off.
        "Man, that was priceless!  I’ve never seen you laugh so hard!"  Tommy said to Lizard as she calmed herself down and righted her clothes before walking back into the front.
        "Well, won’t happen again, now will it?"  She said hypothetically as the bus came to a stop.  She sighed and turned off the stove as the water started to boil.  "Oh well, I guess I’ll have to have some later," she said.
        "Come on, Liz, you and me tonight, what do you say?  Care to join me for a little drinking and dancing?"  AJ asked, slinging his arm over her shoulder.
        "Sorry AJ, I can’t, I'm still eighteen, remember?"  She said as she walked off the bus with him, grabbing her already packed bag from the front seat where she’d become accustomed to leaving it.
        "Dammit, you youngin’s are no fun anymore!"  AJ exclaimed, walking with her into the hotel.
        "So sorry if I'm too young!"  Lizard said as they walked past the small group of fans and to the elevators, grabbing their room keys from management on the way.
        "Well, one night, its just gonna be you and me, what do you say?"  AJ asked as they waited for an elevator.
        "You and me?  As in a date?"  Lizard asked.
        "Not unless you want it to be."
        Lizard bit her lip as they climbed on the elevator, hitting their floor buttons.  "Tell you what, when we go out together, I’ll tell you by the end of the night whether or not it’s a date, deal?"
        AJ nodded.  "Deal."
        Lizard smiled as the elevator arrived at her floor first.  "Great!  Have fun tonight, AJ!"  She called as she got off the elevator.  She walked slowly to her room and unlocked the door, stowing her suitcase behind a chair before collapsing on the bed.
        "Hey, roomie!"
        Lizard looked up and smiled at Mindi as she walked in the room.  "Hey, roomie, how was the guys’ bus?"  She asked as she sat up.
        "Great, I got to spend time with them for the first time in a long time.  I’ve missed hanging with them," she said, hoisting her suitcase onto the other bed.  "I know I’ve been asked out tonight by both the guys and the band, what about you?"
        "AJ asked me out with him, and so did the band, but I'm not going," Lizard replied.
        "Why not?  Oh, that’s right, you’re still eighteen.  Man, being young is a bitch," Mindi said as she started to unpack.
        "Yeah, but that’s ok, I don’t really mind.  AJ took a raincheck and I'm going out by myself tonight, gonna see a little of this city without having to stop every five minutes by people wanting autographs from someone or going into a store that only one person wants to be in."
        "Are you sure you want to go alone?  I mean, Nick isn’t going with anyone, why don’t you ask him if he wants to go out with you?"
        "Nick still doesn’t want to acknowledge my existence.  Was he this bad when you started?"
        "No, that’s what’s weird, he and I became really good friends, I don’t know why he doesn’t want to get to know you.  He’ll come around, its only Nick, he can’t stay mad at anyone too long."
        "I hope."
        There was a pause as both women contemplated it, both not too sure that Nick would actually drop whatever grudge he had against Lizard.
        "Well, what are you going to do then?  Just sight-see?"  Mindi finally asked.
        "I guess.  Look around the city, maybe shop a little, then I’ll come back and gorge on Butterfingers and Cookie Dough ice cream," Lizard said, smiling at the thought of her favorite junk foods.
        "You like Butterfingers?  And Cookie Dough ice cream?"  Mindi asked, turning around to face her.  Lizard nodded and Mindi shook her head.  "You two are exactly alike," she mumbled, Lizard barely heard her.
        "Me and who?"
        "You and Nick."
        "What?!  No we aren’t, at least, not that I know of."
        "You are.  You just named his favorite candy bar and his favorite ice cream, and unless you read that somewhere, you wouldn’t know that," Mindi said, hanging up the last of her shirts.
        "I didn’t know that, they’re like my heaven when I'm in a bad mood," Lizard said as she stood up.  She walked towards the bathroom.  "I'm gonna go take a shower, just tell me before you all leave, ok?  I might be gone by then, though."
        "Yeah, at the very latest we’ll be back by three."
        "Ok!"  Lizard called as she closed the bathroom door.  She jumped in the shower and let the warm water relax her, clearing her head of all the coincidences she’d heard from everyone.

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