On the morning of December 10, I sat up in bed when my alarm went off. I reached over, smacked the snooze button, and laid back down. A second later, I sprung back up as I realized, 'It's the day! I get to see *N Sync!' I went into the bathroom and saw that my mom was there, already almost ready. She went into my room to finish her make-up so I could take a shower. When I entered my room after my shower, I shouldn't have been surprised to see my mom dancing to 'I Want You Back.' And quite frankly, I wasn't. I just laughed at her and asked her to leave so I could get dressed.
One hour later, my mom, Briley, and myself were on our way to St. Louis. We were singing along with the debut cd and talking about how cool it would be if we actually got to meet them. Neither Briley or myself wanted to get our hopes up about the possibility, so we both sort of brushed it off.
During the day, the three of us had a blast shopping. We tried on fancy prom dresses, grunge clothes, you name it, we tried it on that day. After awhile, Briley and my mom decided that they wanted to go in a craft store. My back hurt and I didn't care to go in the store, so I sat down on a bench to people watch until they came back out. Almost immediately, I got that strange being watched feeling. I shifted in position and got this bad pain in my lower back. I reached behind me, put my hand on my back, and then, I remembered my medication. I took a few pills from my pocket, a bottle of water from Briley's bag, and took four.
It seemed that I had been sitting there for a long time, but a glance at my watch told me it had only been about ten minutes. As I looked up, I finally noticed the person making me have that uncomfortable feeling. A short distance away, there were two guys. One was around 5'10", blonde hair, and he had the palest and prettiest grey/green eyes I had ever seen. The other was a few inches taller, with dark hair, and clear blue eyes. After inspecting the second, I looked back at the one staring at me. I caught his gaze and held it for a second before three guys ran out of a nearby store, breaking the moment. They were laughing and goofing off.
"What took you guys so long?" The dark haired one asked. I was close enough to hear everything.
A guy with blonde hair, around 6'1" in height, who was running around acting crazy stopped long enough to say, "Sorry daddy." They looked close to the same age, so I knew the blonde was being sarcastic.
'Daddy' turned and said, "Justin, if you don't shut up, I'm going to..."
"Your going to what?" The guy, who apparently was Justin, asked.
"I'll embarrass you tonight," the 'dad' said.
"Sure. You wouldn't do anything to get in trouble with Donna," Justin told him.
"JC, you gotta face it man. Your too responsible to get us back for anything," another guy, this one with black and white dreads said.
"Yeah, but Donna's not around right now, is she?" JC asked. He smacked Justin and the guy with the hair in the back of the head and took off running. The other two quickly followed suit.
"Hey Lance? Lance?" A fifth guy asked. By this time, I was trying to look interested in a mall map. "What's so interesting?" He looked up and his eyes landed on me. "Oh..." He slowly said. "Come on Lance. We've got to find the others before Chris and Justin kill JC." He took a few steps before Lance turned and followed. I put the map down and watched him walk away. I wasn't expecting him to turn around again, but when he did, he caught me staring at me. He just gave me the sweetest smile before walking away.
A minute later, Briley and my mom came out of the store. I stood and heard Briley singing 'Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays' by 'N Sync. We started to walk and when Briley got ahead of me and my mom, she turned around to face us. Just as we reached her, somebody ran into her, causing her to fall. The person who ran into Briley tripped over her and also fell. Everything the two were holding ended up around them. I looked down at the two and noticed the guy next to Briley. It was the tall blonde who answered to Justin earlier. I glanced up and noticed the other four guys, including the one who had been staring at me, standing around.
It was quiet until one of the guys started to laugh. That made me laugh, and from there, it was a domino effect. Before long, we were all cracking up, including Briley and the guy. I leaned over to help Briley pick up her things. I put a few items in one of her bags. I saw a shoe next to me and I reached for it. Apparently, someone else decided to reach for it at the same time, because their hand ended up on top of mine as we picked up the shoe.
I looked over and it was the blonde who had been staring at me. "Hi," he said. I didn't say anything for a second. His voice was so deep and clear, I couldn't.
"Hi," I whispered, finding my voice.
"This is her's," he said, nodding to the shoe we both were holding.
"Yeah," I said, taking the shoe and putting it in the bag. I handed the bag to Briley and we both stood.
"I'm Lance," he said, extending his hand.
"Kelly," I replied, taking his hand.
We stayed like this for a second, until someone else stepped beside Lance, extending his hand. "I'm Joey."
"I'm Kelly."
The guy on the floor stood up, extending his arm to help Briley up. He helped her and then said, "Hey, I'm Justin. Sorry I ran into you. I should've been watching where I was going."
"Yeah, it's okay," Briley told him, dusting herself off.
"And you are?" Justin asked.
"Briley. And this is Kristie, and Kelly," she said, motioning towards us.
"That's JC, Chris, Joey, and..." He paused, turning, finally finding the fifth person. "And that's Lance."
"So, where are you all from?" JC asked, breaking the silence.
"About an hour south of here. You?" My mom answered.
"Orlando," JC answered. "We travel alot because of business. That's why we're here."
"Cool," Briley said.
"Why are you three in the area?" JC asked.
"A concert," Briley answered.
"Really? Who?" Chris asked.
"'N Sync," was the reply.
"Really?" JC said, raising his eyebrows. "So, your a fan of them then?"
"Well, yes and no," Briley told them.
"What do you mean?" asked Justin.
"Well, I'm a fan, but I wouldn't be upset if I had never even heard of them... in fact, these two like them alot more than me."
"Oh, I see..." JC said.
Justin looked at his watch. "Hey guys? We gotta go. Donna is expecting us back."
"Okay. See you three later," JC said.
"Bye," Lance said, looking specifically at me.
"Bye," I told the group.
After they walked away, Briley looked at us. "I can't believe we haven't run into 'N Sync today. You'd think they would be here."
My eyes got wide. "Maybe they've ran into us."
"What do you mean?" asked Briley.
"I think those five guys were..." I began to say.
"'N Sync!" My mom finished for me.
We all turned in the direction that they had walked off in, but they weren't anywhere in sight. We kept our eyes peeled for them, but we didn't see them again that day. At least, not until the concert.
We arrived at the concert site later and sat in our third row seats. There were people everywhere, but fortunately, it wasn't overcrowded yet. Up on stage, a guard was talking to a guy with a hat and glasses on. The security guard looked at the people sitting around and tapped the guy on the shoulder. The guard pointed to me, and the guy nodded. The guard walked backstage and walked out a second later. He came over to us.
"Excuse me, but is your name Kelly?" He asked me.
"Yeah," I slowly answered.
"I was asked to give you this and to tell you that it's requested that you use it immediately," the guard said, handing me a backstage pass.
"Now?" I asked.
"Yes ma'am."
"Okay," I got up and he showed me how to get backstage.
Backstage was a bunch of hustle and bustle, pre-concert type of thing. I walked further into the mess of people, then, spotted who I was looking for. Lance was leaning against a back wall. I walked over to him and said, "Was it you who thought I needed to be back here?"
"Yeah," he answered. "I just wanted to talk to you for a second."
Just then, Chris and JC walked up. "Well, I don't think now is good... so why don't I take you out to dinner or something after the concert?"
"Just him?" asked Chris. "The rest of us eat too!" JC smacked him.
"Okay, all of you can go... if you find another car. We all can't fit in mine."
Just then, a lady ran by and yelled to them. "Guys! Get your butts in gear and go do the meet and greet!"
"Sorry," Lance said. Then, he turned to JC. "Hey man, give me your pass."
"Why?" asked JC.
"Just do it! You'll get it back." Lance assured him.
JC took his pass off and handed it to Lance. Lance also took his pass off and handed it to me along with the one JC gave him. "Here's two more passes for the other two your with. Just come back here after it's over."
"Okay," I said.
"See you then," Lance said, winking at me before walking away.
I took my pass off and put Lance's on and walked out from backstage. As soon as I did, I was bombarded by questions from Briley and my mom. I just smiled and motioned them closer to me.
