Lauren woke up and looked at her clock. ‘7 A.M., why did I wake up?’ Lauren thought to herself. ‘I could have slept for another hour. Oh well, figures I can sleep a little later then normal and what do I do I wake up early.’ Lauren thought as she climbed out of bed ‘Well guess I’ll grab a shower and then maybe study a little. Glad I brought my book with me.’ Lauren quickly showered, and got dressed. She shut the bathroom door and tried to quietly dry her hair and then put on a little make up. Looking in the mirror she decided she did not look bad for having only gotten five hours of sleep and walked out to get her book and go to study. She walked out into the suites center room and laughed "No one else is awake, no surprise!" Lauren sat down on the couch and opened her book. She had been studying for about 15 minutes when she heard a door open. Turning around she saw Lance walking out of his room. "Good morning Lance!" "Good morning. I didn’t think anyone else would be up." Lance said "Oh, no one else is. I woke up early and couldn’t go back to sleep. So I thought I would try to study" Lauren explained. "Oh, okay! I always wake up early to work on some promotions, or listen to a tape of one of my clients.""Yeah Justin told me you were trying to run a ‘Free Lancing’ business. How is it going?""It’s going well. I am about to send out one of their tapes and then we are hoping to get a couple of offers from them. Actually I got up to listen to her tape. Do you mind if I put it in?""No, actually I have to put music on to study." Lance put the tape in a then sat down with a note pad, and started to critic the tape. Lauren went back to her book and read the whole chapter she had left. About 45 minutes later the tape clicked off and Lance stood up to rewind it. "That was great. She has a good voice." Lauren said looking up from her book."Yes, she does have a great voice and will go far if we can figure out a way to break her into the business. But first we have to finish polishing this tape and send it out. I really hope that during the break in early May that I will get to work with her and get this tape done. She is doing well for not having me or anyone really, to stand there and tell her what to, you know to rehearse and stuff. She if really mature for her age and doing well." Lance finished rewinding the tape and ran a hand through his hair. "I am sure that she will do well with her help." Lauren reassured him. They sat there quietly for a second then Lauren asked, "What time do you think the rest of the group will wake up?""Well, today is pretty much open except for sound check and the concert. Since we have to get to the arena by 12 I think everyone is getting up at about 9 or 9:30. And if they aren’t up in an hour and a half I will go wake them up. That would be 10, and they would still have time to eat and all that stuff.""Oh, Okay! Man I am so tired. Why did I have to wake up early?" Lauren said yawning and stretching. "Why don’t you lay down and take a small nap. You’ll probably feel better." Lance suggested."I think I will. I got all my reading done." Lauren said as she sat her book on the coffee table. "I still can’t believe I woke up early today, what luck I have." Lauren joked as she laid down on the couch and got comfortable. It wasn’t long until she was sleeping quietly on the couch. Lance looked at her noticed that she was sleeping peacefully in just a few minutes. He flipped the tape back on and tried to concentrate on it. But his eyes kept drifting back to the sleeping girl. Her eyes fluttered as she started to drift into a peaceful sleep. He continued watching her, totally forgetting the tape he was suppose to be listening to. He watched as a small smile formed on her face. Lance smiled and thought ‘She looks like a little angel sleeping there with her hands under her chin. I wonder what she is dreaming about?’ Lance watched as the smile she had changed into a frown and then wrinkles began to form on her forehead. He wondered what had happened in her dream to make her sad. He worried that she was having a nightmare and wondered if he should wake her up. But he just kept sitting watching her, hoping that she was not scared. After a while he realized he had been sitting there for an hour and realized that no one else had woken up yet. He quietly stood and walked out of the room trying to be careful to not wake Lauren up. After waking all the guys up lance went back to the center room and turned his tape back on and started to listen again. This time trying to actually accomplish what he set out for. JC and Joey were the first two to come into the room after they had showered. They both started to say something, but Lance quickly hushed them then and pointed to the couch. They both smiled, as they looked at Lauren asleep on the couch then went to the Kitchenette to get something to eat. Lance went back to the tape. Justin was the next to come out of his room. He had showered and was mumbling something about food and cereal. "SHH!" Lance told Justin. While glancing to the couch. Justin followed Lance’s eyes and noticed Lauren asleep. Justin laughed slightly and walked around the couch."How long has she been asleep?" Justin asked. Justin thought about some of the times he had watched Lauren sleep. He saw that there was a smile on her face and wondered what she was dreaming about. He thought to the times when she would be having a bad day and would give him a call or get a hold of him. They would talk all night and many times he would spend the night. It seemed that they had a connection, and that anytime she had nightmares that he would always be there. He always knew when she would not be able to sleep. There had been a few times when she would fall asleep and then wake up in the middle of the night from a dream screaming. He would rush to her and hold her close and tell her that she was okay and that whatever it was that it wouldn’t hurt her. He knew that it took her a longtime to be able to trust him with her past and that now they relied on each other for a lot of stuff. He snapped out of his dreams when he heard Lance talking.
"She has been asleep for a little over an hour." Lance said while looking between Lauren and Justin and thought of how the both seemed to be good friends. He wondered what Justin would think if he asked Lauren out or even wanted to ask her out."Well I guess someone needs to wake her up. And I love to do this too her." Justin said walking in front of the couch and turning to Lance. "Hey watch this!" Justin said and then sat down on Lauren hip."What the hell!" Lauren yelled as she felt something sit on her hip. She looked around and saw Lance across the room laughing and then saw it was Justin sitting on her."Time to wake up!" Justin said cheerfully still sitting on his friend. He reached over and messed up hair then looked to Lance who was still laughing uncontrollably. "Do you have a problem?" Justin asked after Lauren started trying to push him off of her."Yeah sort of some big goof is sitting on me! Okay Justin that was cute when we were like twelve, and when you were still a skinny little kid. But you aren’t so small any more and you are kind of smashing me. NOW GET UP!" Lauren said still trying to push Justin off of her.
"Well if I have to!" Justin said starting to stand up and turned to look at Lauren. "But I still woke you up." Just then JC, Joey, and Chris, who had just got done getting ready, came running into the room."What the heck happened?" JC asked looking at the three people sitting in the room laughing hard and noticed Lauren lying on the couch rubbing her hip. "Well, lets see…I fell asleep then the next thing I know this big dork, that I call a friend is sitting on me." Lauren said finally done laughing. Sitting up she says "And now he is going to pay." Before she has finished her statement she had jumped up and grabbed ahold of Justin’s ear. "Remember this?!" She asked as he tried to get away, but she just held tight with her hands. Trying to fight back Justin took his two free hands and started to tickle her. "Hey no fair. You are the one who is suppose to be paying." Lauren said while laughing. "ANYONE WANT TO HELP ME?" she said letting go of his ear and trying to turn around and escape from Justin, but he just kept tickling her. She looked at the four other guys in the room for help but they just laughed and shook their heads. "Oh great thanks.""Give up already?" Justin asked still fighting to keep her in his grips and ticking her at the same time."Well I have no choice now do I." Lauren said as she stopped fighting back and tried to sit down. Justin let go and they both fell back onto the couch laughing."That was fun." Justin said while trying to catch his breath."Yeah. It has been a while since I tried to beat you up and lost. But I used to be able to, but that was when you were taller and stronger then I was." Lauren said.
Everyone sat down laughing about the scene that had just taken place. After a few minutes they all started talking. They talked about where they were going that summer and how much fun it would be to have other people on tour with them. At 11:30 they all went to their sound check. The girls listened from the audience and clapped between songs. They all basically spent the day at the arena and at 8 they all changed into their clothes for the concert. Then the girls went to find their seats. Lauren hadn’t noticed the seat number or anything but was informed that they were front row center. Lauren shook her head and sat down. At 9 they started to perform and she was surprised by how loud it was. Lauren tried to watch all the guys through out the show. She noticed that Justin kept looking her way and that he was always smiling. Lauren realized how they were always happy when they were together and was glad that they would be spending the summer together. About half way through the show she realized she had been looking more at Lance than anyone. Every time she would try to watch one of the other guys her eyes would drift back to Lance. ‘Must be that blonde hair" she thought to herself. Lauren also noticed that he seemed to be looking her way a lot, but just figured that ‘he is looking into the audience, but was he really?’
Chapter Six
