Chapter
2
AJ
whistled loudly as the four girls of JADE exited the stage. He felt Kevin elbow him hard in the
side. AJ turned around to face
Kevin. “What?” he asked innocently.
“You
know what, Bone,” Kevin said, rolling his eyes, but trying not to smile.
“Kev,
those chicks were hot, and you know it,” AJ said, smirking. Kevin just shrugged.
“I
thought they were, AJ,” Nick piped up.
“Especially the one with the dark hair.
Did you see her?”
“Which
one?” Howie asked. “There were two girls
with dark hair.”
“The
tall, skinny one with the pale skin and the green eyes,” Nick replied. “I think her name was Jenna, wasn’t it?”
“I
liked Serena,” Howie said, smiling.
“Which
one was she again?” Kevin asked.
“The
Latin looking one with the long, dark hair and brown eyes,” Howie replied.
“Oh
yeah, she was pretty,” Kevin agreed.
“Yeah,
they all were, especially the blonde one.
Elyssa,” AJ said. “She was just
hot.”
“I
thought Ashalyn was the cutest,” Brian said.
“Not as beautiful as Leigh, of course, but pretty cute.”
Nick
nodded. “Yeah, she was cute,” he
agreed. “But not as hot as Jenna was.”
Brian
just chuckled. Then an idea popped into
his head. “Hey guys, you know what I
think?”
“What?”
they all asked.
“I
think we should sign them,” he said. “I
mean, come on, they were great. Sure,
there are a lot of girl groups around now, but these girls actually have some
talent, besides just looks. They have
great voices, they’re pretty good dancers, and they write their own music. What more could you want in a group?”
“I
couldn’t agree with you more, Rok,” AJ said, grinning. “I say we go meet them right now.”
“Wait
a minute, guys,” Kevin interrupted.
“Shouldn’t we talk about this some more before we just go rushing into
this? I mean, we don’t even have a name
for our record company yet, and we only have one artist so far.”
“Exactly,”
AJ said. “We need more.”
“But,
Aje, what I was trying to say was that our company just started, and I think we
should give it some time before we go signing acts right and left,” Kevin
protested.
“Aw,
come on, old man,” Nick said. “JADE is
good. They deserve to be signed.”
Kevin
shot Nick a dirty look for calling him ‘old man’. Nick just grinned playfully.
“Hey,
look guys. There they are,” Howie said,
pointing to a doorway on the side of the room, where the four girls were
standing.
“Well,
what are we waiting for?” AJ asked.
“Let’s go.” He climbed out of his
seat and headed over towards the girls.
Brian, AJ, and Howie all exchanged glances, then followed after
him. Kevin sighed and reluctantly tagged
along behind them.
***
“Hello,
ladies,” said a deep, raspy voice. Jenna
whirled around and found herself face to face with AJ McLean. Her mouth dropped open, and for once in her
life, she was completely tongue tied.
“Uh…
hi,” she managed to say.
“Hi,
there,” Elyssa said warmly, rescuing Jenna.
Jenna was relieved, yet a little envious. Elyssa certainly had a way with guys, even
famous ones. Jenna elbowed Ashalyn, who
was so engrossed in a conversation with Serena that neither of them had noticed
who had just came up to them. Ashalyn
turned to her, rather annoyed at first, but then she stopped dead in her tracks
when she saw who was standing there, talking to Elyssa. Serena turned also and gasped.
“I’m
AJ,” AJ was saying. “Can I get all of
your names again?”
“Sure. I’m Elyssa,” Elyssa said, “but you can just
call me Lyssa if you want.”
Jenna
took a deep breath and stepped boldly up to AJ.
“I’m Jenna,” she said, flashing her most charming smile. “I usually go by Jen though.”
“I’m
Ashalyn,” Ashalyn said next. “Just call
me Ash.”
“And
I’m Serena, otherwise known as just Rena,” Serena said.
“Cool,”
AJ said, smiling.
Just
then, much to the girls’ delight, the rest of the Backstreet Boys
appeared. All four of them had been fans
for years, especially Ashalyn and Jenna.
“Hi,
girls,” Nick said, the first one to get to them. “I’m Nick.”
“Hi,
I’m Jenna,” Jenna said, smiling.
“I’m
Ashalyn,” Ashalyn said.
“I’m
Elyssa,” Elyssa said.
“And
I’m Serena,” Serena said last, but her attention was not really on Nick at
all. She was gazing past him, to where
Howie was standing.
Ashalyn
was doing pretty much the same to Brian.
He had been her favorite ever since she became a Backstreet Boys fan,
when she was only about 13.
They
all introduced themselves to Brian, Howie, and Kevin just as they had to Nick
and AJ.
“Hey,
ya’ll want to come sit down with us?” Brian asked, with his slight Kentucky
drawl.
“Sure,”
Ashalyn said first, smiling eagerly.
Brian grinned at her. Then he and
the four other guys led the girls back to a table. They pulled up another one to it so that
there would be enough room for the nine of them.
Elyssa
took a seat in the middle of the table, and AJ sat down beside her. Jenna eagerly plopped down in the seat next
to him. Nick sat down next to her. Brian sat down across from Nick, and Ashalyn
sat next to him. Serena sat next to her,
and Howie sat down beside Serena. Kevin
took a seat at the head of the table.
“Well,
ladies,” AJ began. “The guys and I have
a proposition for you.”
***
