I woke up the next morning and remembered that I had promised to call Justin. I called his cell, but it said that he was busy, so I left a message saying I was sorry for forgetting to call, and for him to call me.
“Laura? You awake yet?” I heard Chris ask.
“Yeah, hold on!” I got out of bed and answered the door in my pajamas.
“Hey Laura, what’s up?”
“Not much, you?”
“Well, I brought up someone who wants to see you. I hope you don’t mind.”
“Umm….of course not…” I said giving him a weird look.
“That’s good! I was afraid I came all this way to get kicked out,” a familiar voice said and I turned around.
“Ani!!!!!!” I screamed as I ran and gave her a huge hug.
“Hey Laura, I’m so happy to see you! You’ve been away too long!” she said.
“I know! How did you get here?”
“Chris called me up two days ago and said he’d pay for my ticket if I could come! And since I’m off all summer, I thought I’d come out for a while!”
“I love you Chris!” I said as I hugged him.
“I love you too Princess,” he laughed.
A group of guys walked around the corner and one yelled ‘shit!’, as they quickly ran back to the other side of the wall.
“They looked really familiar….am I going to have to get used to that?” Ani laughed.
“That was weird…they must have gotten access, because only people who are part of the tour are supposed to have access to this floor…who knows!” I laughed.
“So, what are you two going to do before you have to go to the studio for TRL?” Chris asked.
Ani and I looked at eachother and said ‘shopping!’
“Oh brother, I should have known!” Chris rolled his eyes.
Ani and I put all her stuff in my room and I changed into some clothes, and we walked outside the hotel with security.
“Let’s go to FAO Schwartz first since it’s across the street!” Ani said.
We went into my favorite store and immediately headed for the stuffed animal department. I ended up buying a huge panda and an adorable golden retriever puppy, while Ani bought a tiger cub and a big black labrador.
“Where should we go next?” I asked.
“Gap?” Ani suggested. “And then the Disney store!”
We shopped for an hour and a half, and other than my purchases from FAO Schwartz, I bought a stuffed animal of each of the seven dwarfs as an inside joke between my dancers and me. We had all given eachother one of the names of the dwarfs, and so I was going to give each dwarf to its respective owner.
“Laura, you need to go to the studio now to get ready,” Mark said.
We dropped everything off at the hotel, and hopped in the limo that was waiting for us. When we arrived at the studio, my security guards surrounded us because there were hundreds of screaming fans outside. Once inside, we headed upstairs and went into the guest host dressing room. I chose a pair of black leather flares and a blue and white sleeveless shirt. A stylist put two mini pigtails in my hair and clasped them with butterfly clips.
“Ready Laura?” the producer asked.
“Yup!” Ani went and sat down in the audience, and I walked out as the show started.
“Hey everyone! How are you today?” I asked.
The audience screamed loudly and I laughed.
“I’ll take that as good! As you all know, Carson is in California getting everything ready for the awesome summer we’re all going to have, and so I’m here for the last day in the studio!” more cheers errupted.
“Well, to help prepare for summer, here is video number ten, which has a couple of the hot guys you’ll see in California this summer! Here is LFO with Every Other Time!” After a couple more videos I walked to the window.
“Let’s see who we should invite up here,” I said as I looked around the crowd outside. A sight caught my eye and I burst out laughing. There, at the very back of the crowd, was five guys in hats and sunglasses surrounded by security. In one of the guys hand was a sign that said, “We wanna come up! Come on Laura! Please?! Love, 5/10 Muskateers”.
“I think that the guys with the Muskateers sign should come up!” I told the messanger who went out to get them. “In the mean time, here is Shakira with video number 6.
After the commercial break the messanger signalled that the sign holders were ready to come out.
“Well, this is as big a surprise to you as it is to me, but we have some special visitors here with us today. I’m sure you have all heard of these five guys. Wanna come out?” I said.
From the back of the studio walked Justin, Chris, JC, Lance, and Joey. All the girls started screaming when they saw who they were.
“So, what do we owe this pleasure to?” I asked when they had reached me.
“Well, you never called me back, so we felt that we had to do something about that,” Justin pouted.
“I see,” I laughed. “Well, I’m sure the audience won’t mind if you all stay here for the rest of the show, right?” I asked as the audience yelled ‘no!’
“Okay, well, we need to go to video five right now, but I’ll be back with NSYNC after!”
“I can’t believe you!” I said as I playfully hit Justin on his arm.
“Well, you never called me back the other day, and when I saw that you were hosting TRL today, we all flew up to come and see you,” Justin said.
“Well, we’re not going to be in New York much longer. I have a concert tonight, but tomorrow we’re off to Pennsylvania.”
“We already talked to your management. Whether you like it or not, you’re stuck with the five of us for the next while. We’re with you on the bus until your tour ends, and we were all on the same plane to California anyway.”
“This is going to be an interesting adventure, isn’t it?” I laughed.
“You have no idea,” Justin said as he looked towards JC, but my attention had already been focused on the cameraman.
We finished up the show, with my newest video as number 1, beating NSYNC’s video by one place.
“Now that we’re off camera, I can hug you without creating rumors about us dating!” Lance laughed while giving me a hug.
“So, you let Justin talk you all into coming?! What were you thinking?!” I laughed.
“Hey, we wanted to hang out with our princess,” Chris said energetically.
“Hey, can you guys let me change, and then we can head back to the hotel?”
“Sure,” JC said.
“Okay, that would also require you guys to get out of this room,” I giggled.
“Aww, why can’t we stay?” Joey pouted.
“Come on horndog,” Lance said dragging him out of the room.
I changed back into my blue cotton shorts and red tank top.
“So, what hotel are you all staying in?” Ani asked as I got back to them.
“We’re at the Plaza,” JC said.
“Wait….you guys aren’t….nah, couldn’t be,” I shook my head.
“The ones who walked around the corner and then disapeared right after?” Chris asked.
“It was you! I thought I had recognized you!” Ani said.
“Yeah, we almost ruined the surprise of us being here,” Joey laughed.
“You guys are such dorks,” I joked.
“Well, duh!” Chris said.
Chapter 6
Chapter 8
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