Amanda flipped on the TV to MTV. The rest of her friends, Rebekah, Katie, Theresa, and Erin situated themselves around the room. A commercial about a contest MTV was hosting popped on. “I entered that!” Amanda exclaimed.
The others examined the TV to see what their friend had gotten herself into. If you entered the contest, you and some friends had a chance to win a spot on a Rock N Jock softball team. The winner got to choose the other celebrities they played with. As the eagar girls gazed at the screen, the winners scrolled before their eyes. “I saw your name!” Theresa shouted.
“That didn’t say Wisconsin, though,” Rebekah argued.
“Yes, it did!” insisted Theresa.
“I saw it, too!” Amanda screamed. She looked at Katie and Theresa. “We’re gonna meet Hanson!” she hooted. The five girls jumped up and down, screaming, hugging, and crying.
On top of it all, the phone rang. Amanda broke out of Erin’s grip and dove at the phone. While she said hello, Amanda waved her arm at the girls to quiet them down. “It’s MTV!” she whispered loudly to them. Rebekah covered her mouth, and Theresa and Erin embraced. Katie picked up the other phone to eavesdrop. They watched Amanda in complete silence as she nodded and confirmed everything the MTV employee told her. When she hung up the phone, her friends demanded to know everything. “Well, a limo is going to drive us to the baseball diamond next week Friday. They asked me who I wanted the teams to be, so I told them Hanson,” her friends squealed, “Backstreet Boys,” more squeals of delight, “’N Sync, Aaron Carter, and Five!” she finished, joining in on the celebration.
The next week was torture for the girls, but they somehow made it through by planning each other’s outfits and how they were going to say hi and everything. When Friday finally came, they told everyone they saw in school about their adventure. From fellow ‘N Sync fans in their classes, they received CDs, T-shirts, and posters to get signed by the guys. Even the people they hated the most promised to watch MTV when they were on. That night they all met at Amanda’s house to greet the limo. When it pulled into their subdivision, they knew their neighbors would be staring, and they loved it. As soon as it pulled up Amanda’s cement driveway, the 5 best friends hopped in. Katie’s dad was going to drive his younger daughters and Rebekah’s brother to the baseball diamond after their schools ended.
Although it took a half hour to get to Milwaukee County Stadium, it only seemed like about 10 minutes. The girls were so excited. They jumped out of the limo and tried to calm each other down. “We’re actually meeting Hanson,” Rebekah breathed.
“And ‘N Sync! Justin is mine!” Amanda reminded them.
“Take him. We don’t want him,” they all said.
“I want Ike. I hope I’m on Ike’s team,” said Rebekah dreamily.
“I want Zac,” Theresa put in. When they got to the diamond, they saw the bases had been pulled closer together, so it would be more like softball. They also saw their twenty-three favorite guys in the whole world chatting with each other and starting at them. Cameras and crew were dispersed at various places around the diamond. “Oh my gosh! Carson!” Theresa pointed to Carson Daly, their favorite MTV personality, standing with another VJ, John Norris.
John noticed the girls and motioned for them to come closer. “Who’s Amanda?” Amanda raised her hand half way. “Congratulations. After we get the microphones on all of you, we’re gonna begin filming, and the two captians are going to choose the teams.”
“Who are the captains?” wondered Amanda.
“Justin from ‘N Sync and Abs from Five,” John replied. He called some crew members over to attach some microphones to the girls’ shirts. “You guys ready to meet your idols?” John asked after they were situated. The girls nodded eagerly.
First, John introduced them to Carson Daly. The girls were starry-eyed at meeting their favorite VJ. Rebekah compared her own height to Carson’s just like she always does. They were close to the same height she noticed. Then they were let loose to introduce themselves to the stars as the cameras started rolling. Katie and Theresa walked in front, leading their friends to the Backstreet Boys. Without much hesitation or nervousness, Katie stuck her hand out to Howie, then Nick, AJ, and Brian. She held her breath as she shook Kevin, her favorite’s, hand. He towered over all five of the girls. “How are you girls doing?” asked Nick politely.
While Erin shook Aaron Carter’s hand, she and the others chorused “good.”
“Is this your first time on TV?” Howie wondered, winking. Theresa laughed. Howie’s winking bothered her. Hoping Theresa didn’t offend Howie, Rebekah caught her eye and glared.
Chris Kirkpatrick of ‘N Sync came up behind Kevin and draped his arm on Kevin’s shoulder. “Hi, who are you?”
Theresa took his hand and introduced herself. All the other guys of ‘N Sync, Five, 98 degrees, and Hanson crowded around the only girls there. It was easy to act cool around the older guy groups for some reason, but when they met Hanson, the girls had a harder time making conversation. Hanson was their lives. What do you say to the person you admire most in the world?
John and Carson walked in front of them to introduce Amanda. Carson began by saying, “We are here in Milwaukee, Wisconsin at Milwaukee County Stadium, home of the Brewers, to introduce the winner of the Rock N Jock contest. Here’s our winner, Amanda!”
Amanda stepped up between the two VJs to be interviewed. “Who did you decide to invite to the game, Amanda?” John asked. He stuck the microphone under her nose.
The girls watched intently. Rebekah wondered if Amanda would break down in giggles like the rest of them would probably do. Instead, she was calm and cool almost like a pro. “I invited my four best friends, Katie, Theresa, Erin, and Rebekah. And also my six favorite music groups--Hanson, ‘N Sync, Backstreet Boys, Aaron Carter, 98 degrees,” she paused as if she forgot the last group, “and Five!” Suddenly, Amanda felt someone leaning on her shoulders. To either side of her stood Sean from Five and Lance from ‘N Sync. In fact, all the girls somehow ended up with guys at both shoulders. Using Katie as an armrest were Zac Hanson and Nick Lachey of 98 degrees. Accompanying Erin were AJ and Nick from BSB. Attaching themselves to Rebekah were Drew from 98 degrees and J from Five. Justin Timberlake of ‘N Sync and Rich from Five were with Theresa. The others hung around their fellow bandmates or made friends with the other remaining musicians.
“Alright,” said Carson, “It’s the battle of the boy bands.”
John laughed. “This must just be heaven for you all.”
“We’re gonna see who the best boy band in the US is!” Chris announced, slapping JC’s hand.
“Seriously, though,” Taylor said, “it’s gonna be awesome.”
“We’re all buds. It’s gonna be a boy band party,” Scott declared, embracing Isaac and Kevin.
“OK, whatever you say,” John Norris said, stepping in front of everyone else. “The captains of the two teams will be Justin,” Justin stepped forward, waving at the camera, “and Abs.”
John and Carson moved out of the way to let the captains do their thing. None of the girls were excellent at softball, so they waited, hoping they wouldn’t be last pick. Abs was about to pick his fifth teammate, and the girls were already in a nervous wreck. “I’ll take Amanda,” Abs said in his cute English accent.
“I wanted Amanda,” Justin objected. Completely flattered, Amanda smiled widely. She hoped Abs would give her up. Even if he didn’t, she still had an awesome team so far, consisting of Taylor, Aaron, Chris, and JC.
While Justin was choosing Scott for his last pick, two young girls and a teenage boy came running onto the field. “Those are my sisters and Rebekah’s brother,” Katie said out loud.
“Cool,” her teammate, Taylor, said. “You should probably tell Abs. I don’t think he realizes we have more players now.”
“I’ll tell him,” Amanda offered. Katie followered her to inform their captain.
“Alright,” said Abs, “we’ll take your sisters, and Justin’ll take the boy.” This is how the two teams turned out:
Abs' team
Taylor
Aaron
Chris
JC
Amanda
Rich
Katie
Howie
Jeff
Zac
Nick C
Joey
Nick L
Abs
Kristen
Sarah
Justin T's team
Brian
Isaac
Justin T
AJ
Justin J
Sean
Theresa
Rebekah
Drew
Kevin
Lance
J
Erin
Scott
Tim
