Chapter 4

The limos pulled into the Trans Con lot and the occupants of the vehicles got out. Maria and Alex stood looking at the bus.

"I’ve never been on a luxury tour bus before. This is so cool," Alex exclaimed. Maria didn’t say anything. She saw the group getting their luggage out of the limo and she went to get her stuff, Alex following. An older man came over to help them.

"I’m O-Town’s road manager, Cleve," he said. The girls said ‘hi’ and introduced themselves. Cleve took their luggage and brought it over to be put into the bus. Maria, Alex and Susan walked over and followed the guys and the Mikes onto the bus. The front section had a table and comfortable looking seats. The kitchen was right behind that and a very small bathroom was also nearby. The bunk area made Maria frown. ‘When Ashley mentioned that we would be in close quarters, he wasn’t kidding,’ she thought.

There were twelve bunks, six on each side. The bottom bunks were literally at floor level and looked more like holes in the floor than places to sleep.

"Bunk picking time!" Ashley yelled. Jacob immediately chose the bottom bunk on the back left.

"Of course he’d pick the hole on the floor," Maria mumbled. Alex heard her and smiled.

"Ladies first, Jacob," Mike M. said. Jacob moved away.

"Fine, but that one’s mine," he said. No one argued.

"I’ll take the top," Alex said. "Wherever is fine." After about ten minutes, the bunks had all been assigned. All accept one: Maria’s. There were three bunks left. Two were bottom bunks and one was a middle bunk, which just so happened to be the one over Jacob and under Alex.

"I guess, I’ll go on top of Jacob," Maria said without thinking. The guys and Alex all burst into loud laughter. Even Jacob smiled. Maria glared at them. "You know what I mean," she said angrily as she put her bag in her bunk. Everyone continued to laugh. "Grow up, people," Maria ordered.

The bunks were finally arranged in this order: walking towards the back of the bus, on the right side Mike C. was on top with Mike M. in the middle. The bottom bunk right was designated as a junk bunk. On the other side, Ashley was on the top bunk with Trevor in the middle, the other bottom being the second of the two junk bunks. Moving towards the back of the bus, on the right, Erik was on the top bunk, Susan had the middle bunk and Dan was on the bottom. The other side consisted of Alex on the top bunk, Maria in the middle and Jacob beneath her. It was all very cozy.

Maria studied her bunk as the others went about ‘moving’ in. There was a TV/VCR set up and a fan/air conditioning system. There was also a light. It would be great if not for the claustrophobia that Maria had just looking at the small space.

"Is everyone ready?" Mike M. called from the front of the bunk area. A chorus of ‘Yeahs’ and ‘Let’s go’s’ were his answer. The bus started moving and Maria closed her eyes, saying a silent prayer that she’d get through this assignment with her sanity intact.

"You’re not thinking about killing Kyle, are you?" Susan asked as she came up behind Maria. There was little room for two people to even stand together in the aisle between the bunks.

Maria turned to Susan and smiled. "No. I just hope that I do a good enough job so that he considers giving me a real assignment," she said. Jacob came up behind Susan. He had heard what Maria had said. Not saying a word, he just glared at her, and walked past her and Susan in order to get to the back of the bus. Maria smirked. "Ooops. I should be careful of what I say, huh?" Susan just shook her head.

Dan and Ashley were putting away the food that they had brought on the trip. Most of it was junk food and cereal…mainly snacking foods. The group always ate out while on the road, so they didn’t stock up on real ‘edible’ things.

"What is all of that junk?" Alex asked as she came up on them and watched as they put the stuff away.

"The essential foods necessary to get us through life on the road," Dan answered. Alex smiled.

"Cool. I love to eat junk," she said with a smile. Ashley laughed.

"Then you’ll be right at home here," he said. Erik then wandered into the kitchen/front of the bus, followed by Maria and Susan.

"Any candy?" Erik asked, looking through a grocery bag. He took out a bag of candy and opened it.

"How can you eat that this early?" Alex asked. He smiled at her and offered her a Hershey’s kiss.

"Have a kiss," he said. Alex smiled and took one.

"’How can you eat that this early?’" Erik mimicked Alex.

"Shut up," she said, still smiling.

Maria managed to get by them and stood over the two Mikes, who were sitting at the table at the front of the bus. "Can I get a schedule? I’d love to know where we’re going," she said sarcastically. Mike M. looked through a folder and handed Maria a schedule. She looked over it, her frown deepening as she read. "Are you serious?" she asked. Mike C. smiled.

"Totally," he said. Susan looked over Maria’s shoulder at the schedule.

"Wow. You guys sure keep them busy," she said.

"If they slow down, the group is finished. We want them to keep busy. A full schedule is a very good thing in this business," Mike M. said.

"So, I have to arrange photo shoots and interviews in the middle of this?" Maria asked, waving the schedule around. Mike C. nodded.

"There are some down times. We kept some time open, plus all of the traveling hours where you’re here on the bus with the guys will give you more then enough time to talk to them. The photo shoots will be arranged later," he told her.

"How do you want to do this?" Susan asked her. Maria thought about it.

"Alphabetically," she said. She looked from the schedule to Susan. "Angel, Estrada, Miller, Penick, Underwood. I’ll interview them in alphabetical order."

"That puts your favorite last," Susan said with a smile. Maria rolled her eyes and went back to her bunk. She had to get her work organized. She planned on having a separate folder for each band member. She would take notes as the trip went along and hopefully she’d get an article out of it. Hopefully.

The group’s first stop was Georgia. They would be doing a short show of three songs at a local concert venue. The steady movement of the bus was getting to Maria.

"You look a little green," Susan remarked as she looked at Maria, who was lying in her bunk, her eyes closed, her hands folded on her stomach.

"I forgot about my carsickness. I can’t be moving this long without stopping," she said. Susan sympathized with her.

"It’ll pass in time. Can I get you anything?" she asked. Maria shook her head and immediately a wave of nausea swept over her.

"What’s wrong?" Ashley asked as he was walking by. He stopped to look at Maria, who opened her eyes and looked back at him.

"Nothing. I’m fine," she said, attempting to smile without looking sick.

"Are you sure?" he asked her. Maria nodded and Ashley continued to the back of the bus where the other guys were hanging out.

"Maria Carpenter, the strong woman who can’t look weak to any man," Susan said, smiling.

"Shut up," Maria said, closing her eyes again. Susan walked away. Maria sighed. What Susan had said was the truth. Maria didn’t want the group to think that she was weak in any way. ‘I have too much to do. I can’t just lie here,’ she thought as she sat up. Shaking off the dizziness, she got out of her bunk and rummaged through the closest junk bunk, which was the one below Trevor’s bunk. She dug out a binder that was separated into five sections, one for each band member. She had already labeled them with the guy’s names.

After digging some more, she found a five-subject notebook. Maria preferred to write her notes, rather than put them on a computer. Too much could go wrong with computers and a notebook was easier to carry around then a laptop. As she was bending over, the bus hit a pothole or a bump or something and Maria fell backwards.

"Whoa!" Maria felt herself caught by a pair of strong arms. She grimaced. "Are you all right?" Jacob asked, still holding onto her. Maria stood up and Jacob dropped his arms.

"I’m a little unsteady, but I’m fine," she said, turning around to look at him. She put a pencil behind her ear and bent down to pick up the notebook that she had dropped.

"What’s that for?" Jacob asked. Maria gave him an, ‘Are you stupid?’ look.

"It’s to write in," she explained. He smiled and Maria noticed his dimples for the first time.

"No? Really?" he asked sarcastically. "I meant, why don’t you use a computer?" he asked her.

"Because I’m not particularly familiar with all of that hardware. I mean, I’m not computer illiterate, but it’s just easier to do things the ‘old fashioned’ way," Maria answered. Was he actually being nice to her? Jacob nodded and they stood there looking at each other.

"Look, about what you heard before. I didn’t mean it the way that it sounded," Maria told him.

"Oh, you mean about you getting a ‘real’ assignment as opposed to this one?" Jacob said. Maria probably should’ve been embarrassed or a little uncomfortable, but she wasn’t and she continued to look him straight in the eye.

"Yeah. I was hoping for something a little more…substantial. Not that you guys are a bad assignment, but it’s not exactly what I had been dreaming of for a first assignment."

"I understand." What? Maria must’ve looked shocked because Jacob laughed. "Really. I understand."

"Oh," Maria said. She really didn’t know what to say, which was unusual. They stood there staring at each other for another minute, Maria wondering if Jacob was going to say anything else. He didn’t and he just smiled and walked away towards the front of the bus. Maria watched him go. Jacob confused the hell out of her.

Jacob smiled to himself as he walked away. Okay, he had made up for his earlier rudeness by being nice to her. He had to limit his conversations with her, though, so that she wouldn’t be too comfortable with him. He thought that he was doing a pretty good job so far.

Boca Raton, FL

Sarah knocked on the door of an apartment. She waited and looked up when the door opened. "Emily?" she asked looking at the girl standing before her. It had been a long time since the cousins had seen each other and Sarah was amazed. Emily had medium-length dark brown hair with dark red highlights. She also had dark brown eyes and wore glasses that looked really good on her. She was on the tall side and had a slender, yet muscular build. She smiled at Sarah.

"Hi, Sarah. You haven’t changed much, except you’re bigger and more developed," she said, laughing. Sarah smiled and hugged her cousin lightly.

"I’m sorry to just barge in on you like this. I’m sure you probably had plans for your spring break," Sarah said as they both entered the apartment and Emily grabbed one of Sarah’s suitcases.

"I told you on the phone last night that I didn’t have plans. I wanted to see you again, so be quiet and come up to my room," Emily said as they went up some stairs. The apartment was more like a condo. It was part of a nice complex and each unit was very spacious.

"How’s Aunt Annette?" Sarah asked, referring to Emily’s mother, and Sarah’s mother’s sister.

"She’s okay. She works most of the time, so if you see her once while you’re here, it’ll be a lot," Sarah answered. They entered Sarah’s room. It was nice. A double bed was against the wall, straight ahead of where the girls went in. A window was on the left side of the bed. A dresser stood against the far wall next to a large closet that had white paneled doors. A make-up table was over across the room from the closet and a door near the make-up table led to, what Sarah presumed was, the bathroom.

Sarah noticed a guitar propped against the wall. "Do you play?" she asked. Emily nodded.

"Yeah. During my parents divorce, I used music to escape all the shit that was going on," she said. Emily’s parents had divorced not so long ago, which had to have been hard on her.

"When my parents got divorced, it was like a war was going on. My mom was, like, freaking out. If Maria hadn’t been there, then Joey and I would’ve gone crazy," Sarah said.

"Well, I don’t have the luxury of having any siblings to lean on."

"I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to imply…"

"No, don’t worry about it," Emily told her with a smile. "I have friends who helped me that are like siblings, so it’s cool." Sarah nodded, relieved that she hadn’t upset her cousin.

"So, you couldn’t stay with Maria because she went on a tour with a band? Which band? Are they popular?" Emily asked.

"Actually, they are. Or they will be, I guess. It’s a boy band. O-Town," Sarah replied. Emily smiled.

"From ‘Making The Band?’ I actually watched that show. That is so cool. Maria must be so excited," she said.

"Not exactly." Emily frowned.

"No? Why not?" she asked.

"Let’s just say that I hope Maria hasn’t quit her job or killed the band at this point," Sarah said with a grin on her face.