Chapter Two
"Oh."
"Am I good, or what?"
"Yup."
"All right. I'm not sensing excitement here. Any normal person would be thrilled at the prospect of opening for their precious Backstreet Boys. What's the problem?"
"As long as I have to do this whole singing thing, I was hoping that I could do a mall tour or something."
"Well, which would be better for your career?"
"Don't you ever get tired of asking me that? When I wanted to sing more rock songs, you asked me that. When I wanted to sing more R&B you asked me that. Now, you've got me doing all these stupid pop bubble-gum songs, with all this choreography, and it's not REAL. I didn't even want to go this far into a career during school in the first place, and everything is so upside-down right now. All because of that stupid question!"
"I know, and I realize that, but just answer the question."
Kelli sighed heavily. "The Backstreet Boys--"
"Good."
"BUT, the 30,000 screaming girls who go to their concerts would boo me offstage, and I'm REALLY not in the mood to get shut down today."
"This is where my other news comes in. Remember how last month we recorded that duet with Alanis Morisette?"
"Oh, yeah. Not The Doctor."
"Well, it's being released as a single!"
"The album version or the one with me?"
"The one with you! And they're making a video with footage from the recording session. AND, it's debuting at #1 on Billboard!" (*AN: Not The Doctor is really a song by Alanis Morisette. It's on her Jagged Little Pill album. But it isn't a duet, and it wasn't a single. It's a cool song, though. I recommend that you listen to it.*)
"You're kidding me, right?"
"Nope."
"That's so cool! Maybe now I can find the silver lining in all of this or something."
Sheila's voice softened as she spoke. "Look, Kel, I know that your parents forced you into this and you really don't want to do it. And I really feel for you. But it can't be fun unless you make it fun. You have to make a decision. Either look on the bright side of things and make the next couple months the best of your life, or stay like this and make them miserable. It's your call."
"I know, and I can try, but I just can't promise that I'll be pleasant. So, what's gonna happen?"
Sheila was business again. "All right, here's the deal. Today's Friday. On Sunday, we fly you down to Florida. You'll shoot a video for your song, Everything For You, meet your dancers, and start rehearsing for the tour. You got any relatives down there?"
"Not closely related enough for me to stay with."
"All right. We'll make hotel arrangements."
"But what about--" Kelli was cut off as Sheila hung up. "School," she finished meekly. She pushed the reset button on the phon and called her house.
"Hello?"
"Hey, Kathy! Is mom home?"
"Oh, hi Kel. You were on the radio with Alanis Morisette."
"Seriously? That's cool. Is mom home?"
"Yeah, just a sec."
After a few seconds, their mom was on the phone.
"Hi, sweetie! How's New York?"
"Oh, it's Ok. Did Sheila tell you
about the single and the, well the tour and everything?"
"Yes, and I think we need to have a little chat about this."
Kelli groaned inwardly. Every time that something like this happened, her mom pretended to be worried about school and everything, when in reality she was thrilled. Kelli prepared to go through their normal routine. "Why?"
"Honey, you've almost finished your senior year of high school. Do you really wanna miss it?"
"No, but it's a good opportunity," Kelli replied as she rolled her eyes.
"Oh, all right. You can go. What are you going to do with your car?"
"My what?"
"Your car. Since you're flying to Orlando, you can't exactly keep it in New York."
"Oh, I'll sell it."
"WHAT!?"
"I don't even like it. I can't drive Standards."
"Fine. Do what you want. So what's this about you opening up for the Backdoor Boys?"
"That's BACKSTREET, mom, and it's going to be very interesting.."
One Month Later
"Nick, what are you watching?" AJ asked as he walked into the room. The boys were at the venue in Florida. They had rented it out to rehearse for their tour, which began the next week.
"He's watching Making The Video. with Kelli Dawson," Brian answered.
"Kelli who?" AJ was lost.
"Kelli DAWSON. According to Nick, she's the greatest thing since sliced bread," Kevin rolled his eyes.
"SSSHHH!! I can't hear the TV," Nick ordered.
"Nick, it's a tape," Howie reminded him.
"Oh, I know who you mean!" AJ said as he looked at the TV. "Someone said she's the next Madonna or something."
"SHUT UP!"
"Nick, you sound like a starstruck teenager," AJ said.
"That's cuz he IS one. He's 18, so he's a teenager. And he obviously plans on marrying this girl some day," Brian explained.
"You guys are too noisy. I'm leaving." Nick took his tape out of the VCR and left the room.
As soon as he was gone, Kevin chuckled. "Wait until he finds out who our opening act is gonna be on this tour."
Brian almost spit out his Pepsi. "You're kidding! The kid's gonna flip out!"
"I say we don't tell him until the tour starts," AJ suggested.
"That's a good idea," Howie agreed. "That way he won't be bugging us for the next week." They agreed to the plan and headed back to the stage to finish practicing.
Meanwhile, across town...
Kelli was drinking a Yoohoo when five people came into the room. They looked around for a minute, then came over to talk to her.
"I'm assuming you're Kelli?" a girl with long blond hair asked.
"Yup."
The girl broke into a smile. "Cool. Well, I'm Sarah, and we'll be your dancers."
"Well,I'm Kelli and I'll be your singer."
"This is Katie, Mark, Adam, and Joe."
"Hey, guys."
"So are you all excited for the tour next week?" Joe asked.
"Kinda. I dunno."
"You should be. Apparently, Nick Carter from the Backstreet Boys has a major league crush on you," Katie said.
"Yeah, right."
"No, really. It's in all the magazines. He's like, obsessed. He even said so on TRL."
"He said he was obsessed?"
"You know what I mean," Katie said.
"Riiiight. And what does his girlfriend have to say about all this?"
"He doesn't have a girlfriend. He's flying solo," Adam told her.
"Yeah. Since we're all friends now and everything, we figured that we'd hook you two up," Adam offered.
"That's great and all, but there's one problem. I've never even met him."
"WHAT?!" the dancers screeched.
"You've never even met the guy?" Joe was shocked.
"Nope. I've only met a couple celebrities that aren't NBA players."
"Such as......"
"Alanis Morisette and Wayne Isham, and that was all business."
"What about the NBA players?" Mark asked.
"Shaq, Kobe Bryant, Scottie Pippen, Allen Iverson, Latrell Sprewell, Patrick Ewing, Michael Jordan....they all signed my hats."
"Your hats?" Adam questioned.
"Yup. I've got this fetish for hats. Not, like, stupid ones, but just baseball caps."
"Hey, guys and gals!" The choreographer, Tina Landon, poked her head in the door. "Let's go! Time to boogie!"
"All right!" Kelli said. The gang gathered up their stuff and went to work.
Chapter Three
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