Stretching, Jacquie sat up in bed when her mother came into her room. "Happy Birthday, sweetie."
"Thanks, Mom." Jacquie grinned. "I can't believe today is finally here!"
"Well, nothing's going to happen unless you get that lazy butt of yours out of bed and get ready. Lexie just called and she'll be here in thirty minutes," her mother said as she picked up some laundry on her way out the door.
Jacquie jumped out of bed and quickly took her shower and got dressed. Running downstairs, she took a few minutes to eat breakfast with her father and brothers.
"Happy Birthday, Jacquie," her father said as he placed some toast and orange juice in front of his daughter. Her brothers echoed the greeting from their various places around the house when Lexie knocked on the door.
"Hey Jaqs!" The two girls greeted each other and with a quick good-bye to her family, Jacquie was following her friend out the door and soon they were on their way.
Lexie laughed as she watched Jacquie run a comb through her still-damp hair. "What time did you finally wake up this morning?"
"About half-an-hour ago," Jacquie grinned as she threw her comb back in her bag and put her shades on. "I can't believe today is finally here!"
"I know! I can't believe that we're going to see the Backstreet Boys in concert!"
Jacquie laughed at her friend's enthusiasm, but felt a little out of it. Lexie is my best friend, she thought. I didn't think that she would forget my birthday, would she? She looked over at Lexie who was rambling on about the concert that night and how they were meeting up with their other friends. I guess she's just really excited about the show.
And they should be excited. The two girls were on their way to the hotel that Lexie stayed in last night to meet up with their three other friends, Melissa, Faye and Nikki. Ever since Faye's birthday, back in January, every time one of the girls had a birthday, they met up with their favorite group, the Backstreet Boys, in one way or another. And Jacquie's birthday was proving to be no different. They were going to be seeing the BSB in concert that night, but because of Nikki's continuing friendship with Howie, they were going to be spending the afternoon hanging out backstage with the Boys.
Lexie found a parking spot outside the hotel and the two girls laughed and talked as they made their way upstairs to the room where the others were waiting.
"Jacquie! It's about time you got here!" Faye was bouncing on the bed, but when the newcomers arrived, she jumped off and bounded over to give them a hug.
Jacquie laughed. "I hope your flight was okay. I'm really sorry that I couldn't be there to meet you. My family decided that they wanted to go out to eat to celebrate last night, since I'll be out with y'all tonight."
"That's okay, Jaqs," Nikki said as she emerged from the bathroom. "Where did Mel go to?"
The missing girl came out of the cavernous depths that this hotel apparently called a closet with a pair of shoes in her hand. "Will these work?" The others nodded, and Melissa sat down on the bed to put them on. "Hey, Jacquie. How are ya doing?"
Jacquie sighed. "Pretty good. Feeling a bit old, but pretty good." She shook her head in disbelief when everyone started talking about their afternoon plans. "Unbelievable," she muttered. I can't believe that I don't even get a badly sung, "Happy Birthday to You"! I know I've told them not to make a fuss over me, but this is crazy! She looked around the room. Nikki was throwing her cell phone and her car keys into her bag, Melissa and Faye were arguing over something, and Lexie was laughing at them.
"Ready to go, girls?" Nikki asked and everyone scrambled to get their things and head out the door.
Lexie looked at her friend. "Are you okay, Jacquie?"
"Huh?" Jacquie shook her head to clear her thoughts. "Yeah, I'm fine. Are we ready to go?" Without waiting for a response, she slowly slipped out the door. Lexie grinned at the others and followed her out of the room.
"You guys," Melissa said. "This is so mean!"
"I know, but we have to do it," Faye replied. "She has planned and made a huge fuss over each of our birthdays, so it's only fair that we get to do the same."
"But we haven't even wished her a 'Happy Birthday' at all!"
Nikki slipped her arm around Melissa's shoulders. "It will be okay, Mel, I promise." Melissa sighed and the three girls left to meet up with the other two at the elevators.
~ AT THE VENUE ~
"I cannot believe that there are girls camped out there! Don't they realize that they have reserved seats?" Faye shook her head as the five girls made their way through the small crowd to the stage door. Nikki knocked and a tall body guard stuck his head out prepared to yell at the fans, but when he saw Nikki, he grinned and stepped back to let them inside.
"Hi Chris!" Nikki shook the guard's hand. "How have you been?"
He smiled. "Good thanks, Nikki. The guys are in the middle of an interview right now, but if you would follow me, I'll take you to a place where you can wait for them."
The girls nodded and Chris led the way through a maze of corridors and rooms before they arrived in a large room where they could see the Boys at the other end busy talking with a reporter.
Nick was the first to notice them and he nudged Brian. The two guys then spent the remainder of the interview making faces and goofing off trying to get the girls to laugh. But the girls weren't paying attention to them.
"Good grief, Lexie! I can't ask that!" Melissa blushed as Faye scribbled the question down in her notebook.
"Sure ya can! Or we can make Jacquie ask them." Lexie turned to look at her subdued friend. "Jaqs? You sure you're okay?"
Jacquie nodded and forced herself to smile. "Sorry, I zoned there for a sec. What are you guys doing?"
Nikki laughed. "We're gonna pretend to be reporters and as soon as that guy is gone, we're gonna ask them questions."
"Embarrassing questions," Faye interjected as she continued to write down questions as the girls came up with them.
"That's crazy! Count me in!" Jacquie grinned and everyone else shared a collective smile that their normally outgoing friend was back to being herself again.
When the reporter stood up and said good-bye, Howie's cell phone began to ring. "Hello?"
"Mr. Dorough," the somewhat familiar female voice began. "We have one more interview for you and your band. Could you please just remain where you are?"
Howie held up his hand to stop the guys from leaving. "Wait a sec, we have another interview." He put the phone back up to his ear. "Okay. We'll wait. Who's the interview with?"
The woman on the other end gave a little laugh. "It's with some fans. They won a contest, so please be the charming guys I know you to be, okay?" Howie agreed, but before he could ask the woman for her name, the line was disconnected.
"We have another interview," Howie told the Boys. "With some fans."
"But the girls are here!" Nick argued. "I thought we only had the one interview."
All the guys looked up at that and saw that the girls were indeed here, and when that other reporter finally left, they stood up and started walking over to where the Boys were sitting.
After greeting the girls, Brian sighed. "Don't sit down there girls. We're really sorry, but we just got a call saying that we have another interview with some contest winning fans. I'm sorry."
Faye smirked. "That's okay. We understand." But the girls didn't move from their chairs. "How long do you think this interview will take?"
AJ started to answer. "Usually, they only last twenty minutes or so, but these are fans, so who knows."
Kevin sat back. "I just hope they don't ask us anything embarrassing."
Nikki gave a quiet laugh that had Howie staring curiously at her. "Define embarrassing, Kevin."
The oldest member of the group started talking, but his words trailed off when he noticed Faye pulling out a notebook and pretending to take notes. "Ah... Faye? What are you doing?"
"Doing what most interviewers do during interviews, Kev, take notes," Howie laughed as he watched the expressions of his bandmates as they realized that the girls were the "contest winning fans". "Nice phone call, Nicole."
"Thanks, Howie," she smiled as the guys settled back to see what the girls could come up with as questions.
Fifteen minutes later, Kevin stood up. "That's it! This interview is over!" Everyone around him was laughing, and he had a hard time keeping a straight face.
"Come on, Kev," Nick teased. "Be a man and answer the question!"
Brian waved his hands. "Don't fall for that one, Kev. The next thing you'll know, they have you out of your shorts and have them hanging out for the world to see."
"And that's not necessarily a bad thing," Jacquie quipped. When Kevin turned to glower at her, she smirked. "It could be worse. I mean, it could have been NICK'S shorts out for the world to see."
Nick scowled. "What's wrong with my shorts?"
Howie shook his head in amusement and changed the subject before the conversation continued any further. "Did you girls have a good flight in?"
"You should have seen the turbulence coming in from Texas," Faye started talking, but Jacquie stopped paying attention to what they were saying when Brian began an argument over whether turbulence was seen or felt.
Maybe it's a good thing that they aren't doing anything for my birthday. Something bad always happens each year, so maybe everyone forgetting is the bad thing for this year. Jacquie looked around the circle of friends talking and laughing.
Faye and Brian were still arguing over the turbulence issue, and Nick and Melissa were trying to talk over their playful banter. Nikki was sitting next to Howie talking quietly with Kevin, while AJ and Lexie were flipping through the notebook that she brought with her.
"Do you think she suspects?" Howie whispered.
Nikki glanced over at her quiet friend. "I don't know. She's been so withdrawn all day. I was hoping being here with you guys would make her feel better, but she's off in her own world again."
"Well, she needs to come back to Earth." Kevin glanced at the clock on the wall. "We need to leave for our soundcheck." He stood up and the other Boys followed his lead.
The ten young people said their goodbyes, and took their standard group pictures before the girls were led out of the venue where all the other fans were waiting to be let into the venue for the concert.
