"I can't believe it's three hours 'till showtime and the guys aren't even here!!" I moaned. After devouring countless articles about celebrities, I had come to the shocking conclusion that singers arriving late for gigs was a common occurrence. It still bothered me a bit. Good thing my best friend Caitlyn was there to be my level head.

"Selena, if worse comes to worse we can do the sound check ourselves. Besides, we have 180 minutes left. Plenty of time!" she gave me a comforting pat on the back.

"It's not the same," I whined for nothing other than the sake of whining itself. "Things will run smoother if the guys do their own sound check." When I caught that look Cait was giving me I realized how dumb what I said sounded. I looked up to see Jimmy Lester, a blonde freshman volunteering to usher, running over to us.

"I just got word that the van has pulled onto campus Selena!" Instantly a weight was lifted off me, "thanks Jimmy I can rest assured now!" Jimmy grinned before running off. Fans were already sprinkling into the tiny campus arena, more were going to be piling in any second, and Jimmy probably knew that he was needed outside.

"Now that's off my mind..." I scanned my mind trying to pinpoint my next task. Just then I heard what sounded like a small group of girls screaming "Brian, omigod it's NICKY!!!" That's when it hit me. "They're right outside Cate!!" What was I doing? I needed to check my appearance. After all…I was going to be talking to some really good looking fellows in a few minutes. I didn't have time to put more thought into my appearance, however.

"Omigod Selena...they're here!!" Caitlyn pointed to a beefy looking African-American in a black skin hugging t-shirt. I sucked in my breath, this was it. No time to primp. The bodyguard crossed his arms and stood against the wall as five guys entered the backstage area. A tall blonde boy was hitting A shorter, blonde in the head with a magazine. Another young man, who looked either Italian or Latino, was laughing at another one of the guy's imitation of Pepe Le Pieu. Then a tall dark skinned woman with a cowboy hate entered. Following her was another beefy looking man, who I recognized as Lou, the group's manager. When he told me he used to be the manager for New Kids on the Block I remember wanting to crawl into a hole. We couldn't get any decent group to come within miles of the campus…and these young boys were quite available. Caitlyn had noted earlier that the crowd seemed to be dominated by young preteens…certainly not members of my college campus. With Lou was Denise and Jane…whom I had also spoken to.

"Where's Selena?" asked the shorter blonde.

I marched over appearing to be confident (these guys were very good-looking). "Hey guys, on behalf of Mt. Ida College I would like to welcome ya'll. I was a bit worried you were going to be late."

I received. A chorus of warm laughter enveloped the room. I think I might have broken the ice. Suddenly Brian's arms were around me, and he gave me a peck on the cheek "I'm Brian," he said warmly, shaking my hand.

"Beautiful campus you got here," Brian said. "Especially the building architecture."

I didn't know exactly how to respond to that. It certainly made me feel proud because they had traveled around the world, and had probably seen some of the oldest buildings in the world.

"Come on," I teased "you guys have traveled all over the globe, and you must have seen some beautiful structures."

"Let's just say that they all have a little competition from Mt. Ida College!"

AJ cleared his throat and said in a Jim Carry voice "alrighty then: if someone could, uh perhaps show us to the restroom then we could freshen up." I pointed in the direction, and off they all went, all thanking me in their individual way.

I looked at Caitlyn and threw Lou and the women a grin, "maybe this won't be so bad after all, chica…."

"Girl did you check out that blonde one?"

"Hell yeah…I'm all over that one!"

"So," Cait chastised, "you're not disappointed that you aren't wearing make-up anymore?"

Before I knew it, the concert was all over and the guys were pouring into the backstage area, all sweaty. I have to admit, if anyone had told me yesterday, that today I would be crushed with hugs by excited and sweaty guys, I would have told them they needed a CAT scan.

"That was a great show guys," said Howie.

"Wait, it's not over yet." Nick groaned.

"Come on Nickolas, you be polite to the fans!" warned Denise. "I don't want anymore pissing and moaning because you have to sign a few autographs. Nick frowned slightly.

"I just want to go to sleep," he said wearily. "Nothin' personal I'm just so tired," and he sealed that statement with a yawn.

"From the sound of the crowd out their you guys put on a real good show," I said politly. I wasn't sure how to react to this. I had read somewhere that Fatima (their choreographer) had said that they never complained about their fans. Of course that seemed a little unrealistic at the time, but I had actually grown to think that they were always happy to see their fans. It never occurred to me that they might not embrace the idea of mobs.

Nick had plopped himself down on a folding chair, and his eyes were half shut. The guys must have been on the road all day. Nick caught me giving him a sympathetic eye, and grinned. "I'll be alright as soon as I down a Coke." He said to me.

I chuckled.

"Selena, is there a soda machine er sumthin' around here?"

I grinned, "come on, I'll show ya. Anyone else want a soda?" After we got our "orders" Both Denise and Jane sternly reminded us to be back in ten minutes because some fans were going to come backstage.

Nick just rolled his eyes. "Come on" he said. Walking side by side with Nick through the narrow hall, I found myself tongue-tied (gee there's a surprise). Thank God he started talking first.

"I wish my mom would stay home…" he muttered.

I raised my eyebrows, "Jane is-"

"Yeeup," he pulled his longish hair back into a messy ponytail at the base of his neck.

"I thought you two looked an aweful lot alike."

"So, what are you majoring in?" he asked changing the subject.

"Biology, I want to teach some day," I said.

"Looks like we got ourselves a smart one," he said with a laugh, tugging gently on my shoulder length brown ponytail.

My legs turned to Jell-O, and my heart pounded furiously. All I could think was that he touched my hair. I blushed at my reaction, which made me blush even harder. I had to get the conversation off of myself. "So, do you think you'll ever want to go to college?"

"I do…"

"That's great…."

"But wanting and doing are two different things." He avoided my eyes. My dream when I was in Junior High was to play college basketball. He frowned, "but I doubt it'll ever happen."

"It can if…" I began. Nick interupped my "there's no sense in dreaming about something that's not gonna happen," he said plastering his face with that toothy grin of his. I couldn't believe what I was hearing. There he was, living a dream that was shared by millions of others, and it seemed like he wasn't at all fulfilled. We approached the soda machines, and deposited the coins. Instead of heading back however, he sank to the floor and opened his can. So I joined him.

I looked intently at him. Here I was...sitting across from what seemed to me to be the biggest rising teen idol of my time, and all I could think was that I couldn't believe how unhappy he seemed. There wasn't any sparkle in his eyes.

We heard the unhappy voice of Denise from down the hall. "NICKY!" Nick rolled his eyes. "Damn!" he said.

Suddenly he jumped up--as if an idea sprung up. He giggled. "I have an idea!" With that he grabbed my hand and I shot after him (like I had a choice).

"Hey get back here you two!"

Chapter 2