"This bites!" Rachel yelled at me over the roar of the engine of her green Sea-Doo GTX wave runner. She slowed down and cut the engine.

"What are you talking about?" I asked, pulling my tan Sea-Doo GTX wave runner up next to hers and pulling out the key.

"There's no one to play with," she pouted.

"Huh?" I said, having no idea what she was talking about. When I looked around. I realized what she was getting at.

Okay, you're probably confused, so let me explain. Rachel and I have known each other since kindergarten. We (and three of our other friends) came down to my boat (at Great Oak Landing in Maryland) for a week of relaxation. Right now, Rachel and I are in the back of Fairlee Creek (a little lake/creek in the back of the marina) testing out our new wave runners (which are much faster than our last ones). Rachel is complaining that there are no waves, speedboats, or other wave runners to challenge, or "play with" in her words.

"Alex, you know what I mean," Rachel said.

Still looking around, something caught my eye. "Rachel, look over there and tell me what you see."

"I see," she said, "two guys lying on black and purple wave runners. So what? They're just sitting there."

I have to give her credit for trying, but if there is anything Rachel is when it comes to guys, it's dense.

"Rachel," I said calmly, "look again."

"I see two . . ." she dragged off, her eyes widening. "Two very hot guys laying on wave runners."

"Very good!" I said. "How 'bout we go have a little fun with them?"

"Fine with me," she said excitedly. Just as I was about to start my engine, I turned to take another look at the guys, and froze in surprise. They were gone!

"What the . . ." I said. The rest of my words got drowned out by the roar of 2 engines. Before I could turn around, two wave runners came out of nowhere and drenched us.

I turned to look at Rachel, who looked like a drowned rat (I'm sure I didn't look any better). Communicating with the same mischievous smile, we took off in the direction of the guys. We gave them a taste of their own medicine by surrounding them, almost running into them, then turning sharply so we soaked them.

After a full hour of "playing," the guys stopped and waved us over. Rachel and I went over and cut our engines. I looked up and almost fell off my wave runner. Brian Littrell and AJ McLean were sitting right in front of me. When I glanced over at Rachel, I could tell by the look on her face that she hadn't known we'd been playing wave runner tag with two members of the Backstreet Boys, either. She was speechless.

"Umm . . . hi," I stammered. Then I shook my head, clearing away all the cobwebs that had just formed. "Sorry about that. Meeting members of our favorite group wasn't exactly on our planned agenda today."

"But it was definitely a good addition," Rachel added, snapping back into reality.

"So, I guess you know our names," AJ said. "What are yours?"

"I'm Alex," I said, "and this is Rachel. She and a few other friends are down at my boat for the week."

"Cool," Brian said.

"Wow!" AJ exclaimed, looking me straight in the eyes.

"What?" I asked, cautiously, moving backwards on the seat.

"You have the brightest eyes!" He exclaimed. "They're so . . . bright-blue!"

"I do, don't I?" I said, batting my lashes jokingly. Rachel laughed and pushed me off my wave runner into the water. When I didn't come up for a few seconds, they started to look around for me. I swam over silently, came up suddenly and flipped Rachel's wave runner over. She shrieked in surprise as she hit the water. When she came up, we flipped her wave runner back over. The guys were laughing and pointing at us. I looked at her mischievously and we swam under the water, around the guys, and pushed them into the water. When they surfaced, they looked like they wanted to kill us. After treading water for a minute, just (jokingly) glaring at each other, we all laughed and got back on our wave runners.

I looked at my watch and immediately regretted it. We had to go.

"I hate to say this, but we've really gotta go," I said, looking at Rachel.

"Well," Brian said, looking at AJ. He nodded so Brian went ahead and asked. "Do you want to come to dinner with us?"

"We would, but we have friends with us," Rachel said.

"How many?" AJ asked.

"Three," Rachel said.

"Well, we have three friends with us, too, so that's perfect," Brian said.

"Are they the three friends I think they are?" I asked hopefully.

"Yep," Brian said.

"Yay!" Rachel cheered.

"We'll definitely be there," I said.

"Good," AJ said. "Hey, we're new around here. Do you guys know of any good places to eat?"

"Do you guys like crabs?" I asked.

"Definitely!" Brian said.

"Yuck!" AJ said. "I hate them. Aren't they those little tiny things that you dip in cocktail sauce?" He asked, trying to make the shape of a shrimp with his hands.

"No, AJ," Brian sighed. "Those are shrimp. Crabs are those big orange things where you have to eat the claws and take off the shell and search for the meat."

"Oh! Well, then, yes, I do like crabs," AJ said.

"It's a date, then," I said. "How about 8, 8:30?"

"Great, where do you want to meet?" Brian asked.

"We can meet at my boat. If one of you want to drive, I'll take my car and you can follow us."

"Works for me!" AJ said. Obviously the water was having a strange effect on him.

"Where's your boat?" Brian said, ignoring AJ.

"'G' dock, slip 306. It's near the 'T' head," I explained.

"Okay, so we'll see you then?" Brian asked.

"Definitely," Rachel said. She took off on her wave runner.

"Bye!" I called, starting my engine. I took off after Rachel at full speed. We were definitely in for a fun night!