Chapter Nine

Two Worlds Apart-Chapter Nine *This chapter is decicated to Noelle because she misinterpreted the end. In the end of this chapter, Howie is NOT being mean, as she thought. He's trying to help Kelli by helping her see the truth!!*


Four nights later, everyone was enjoying themselves at one of the many after-Grammy parties being thrown that night. "Well, kid, you and Kelli look like you're having fun," Brian said as he and Nick were getting drinks.

"Yeah, everything's been awesome. I'm even gonna give her a promise ring that I bought."

"Whoa, good luck. Now it's time for the brotherly advice. Stay away from Howie and his video camera. He's been everywhere taping every celebrity in sight, including me."

"Alright, I'll remember that. Wish me luck, big bro."

"Go get 'em," Brian chuckled as Nick walked away.

Nick wandered around for awhile, looking for Kelli. He finally found her, looking extremely bored as she was listening to Justin Timberlake talk about himself.

"Kelli, do you wanna dance?"

Kelli looked at NIck, extremely relieved. "Sure! Come on. Bye Justin, it was nice listening to you!"

"So, are you having fun?" Nick asked as the beginning of I'm Your Angel by R. Kelly and Celine Dion came on.

"Yeah, I'm having so much fun, especially since I'm here with you. My night has been so perfect."

"I'm glad you're here with me, too. My night hasn't been quite as perfect as yours, though."

"Why, because you lost? I'm really sorry about that."

"No, there's something that I have to do in order to make the night perfect. But you'll see that later."

When the song ended, they were still dancing. "Ummm..Nick?"

"Yeah?"

"We better stop dancing so slow. The music changed."

"Oh. OK, let's go sit down then. I want to talk about something."

"I'm not in trouble or anything, am I?"

"No, haha. Come on."

"All right. Can you give me the short version? I'm mad tired."

"Maybe I should wait until tomorrow, then."

"No way. I'm too curious now. I wouldn't be aboe to sleep tonight, and then I'd be even MORE tired."

Once they sat down, Nick pulled a jewelry box out of his pocket. "See, the thing is, I wanted to give this to you."

Kelli admired the gorgeous ring that she took out of the box. "Whoa. I mean, I care about you Nick, but I'm too young to get married. Come to think of it, so are you," she grinned impishly.

Nick just smiled and rolled his eyes. "Kelli, it's a promise ring. I have one, too."

"Oh, I know. I just wanted to see what you would say. I mean, I was hoping that you wouldn't be crushed or anything when I refused to marry you at such a young age."

"Why is it impossible to get mad at you?"

Kelli cocked her head to one side. "You know, my mom says that all the time. Well, maybe not in those exact words, but something like that. Hey! Don't smirk at me like that. YOu know, your face could grow like that."

"Kel?" Nick slid the promise ring onto her finger.

"Hmmm?"

"Shut up. And don't stick your tongue out at me."

"Ooohhh, lookie. I feel so pretty. I have the coolest boyfriend in all--" Her words were interrupted by a huge yawn.

Nick got up and pulled her to her feet. "Come on, Sleeping Beauty," he laughed, putting his arm around her. "Let's get back to the hotel before you pass out."

"Don't worry about me. Just lead me to the nearest car, and then you go back inside. I don't want to spoil your night."

"Nothing could spoil my night."

"Mmmm same here. Look, here's a car for me. Oohhh it has a driver and everything."

"Are you sure you're okay alone? I feel really bad about making you go back by yourself."

"It's ok. You just go back and have fun." Kelli wrapped her arms around his neck as they both leaned in for a kiss.




The next morning, the crew got up early to carth a flight to Minneapolis. After awhile, everyone began to get a little annoyed with Nick and Kelli, who were still winning that Monopoly game.

"Whoo hoo!!" Kelli cheered as Brian and Kevin's dog landed on Boardwalk with a hotel. "2000 dollars!"

"Never again do I play this retarded game," Brian grumbled as Kevin mortgaged some properties. "Whoever invented this game should be drug out into the street and shot."

Before they knew it, the plane had landed and they were checking into the hotel before heading over to the arena.

"Hey, you guys. When we get to the arena, we can all watch my Grammy party tape. I edited it on the plane."

"No offense, D, but I don't wanna watch 3 hours of celebrities telling your camera to go to hell," Nick said. "Although, on second thought, that would be kind of interesting."

"For your information, no one but AJ told my camera to go to hell. There's actually some pretty interesting stuff on it."



A short while later, Kelli, Katie, and Sarah were talking before they had to go onstage.

"I can't believe the guys are watching the tape during your set. I SO wanna see it."

"I don't. Sarah, this is Howie we're talking about. It's probably boring."

"That was mean, Kay."

"Sorry, Kelli. Heyyyy, know what? I just thought of something."

"This can't be good," Sarah muttered. Trying to cover up a giggle, Kelli nodded in agreement.

"Don't laugh. This is pretty good. Maybe there's something on that tape that they don't want us seeing. Or rather, one of us seeing." She looked pointedly at Kelli.

"Katie, there's a thing called reality. Please join us in it."

"She's right, Kelli."

Three startled heads turned toward the door, where Howie was sheepishly standing, tape in hand. "Or at least partly right. There's something on this tape you need to see, preferably before you go onstage. And it would be a good idea if you keep this to yourselves." He handed the tape to Sarah, adding, "it's already been fastforwarded to where it needs to be. Just push play."

After he left, Sarah put the tape in the VCR and played it. When Kelli saw what was on the TV screen, she almost passed out. Nick was making out with another girl.

Chapter 10

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