Date: Wed, 03 Jan 2001 22:48:22 -0500 From: Jessica Taylor Subject: grand finale 2 Author's Notes-- This is another chapter of my little side project. Thank you to all the people who like the first chapter and wanted me to write more! You guys rock!! **Special Notice** Against my better judgement, I opened a site for all of my fanfiction. It's called "Inside The Bubble" and it's gonna be host to 'Pieces' as well as 'Grand Finale' and a bunch of other stuff I might write but never put up on Nifty itself. So... it's shameless plug time. http://insidebubble.cjb.net <--- That's the address of the site. (As I was going through 'Pieces' and posting it into the dreaded HTML brackets I noticed something... I have WAY TOO MANY conversations set around the guys drinking coffee, and I don't even LIKE coffee! Weird...) And now here are a few words from our old friend Mr Disclaimer... brought to you by the letters B, S and M, and the number 5. Mr Disclaimer says, "This ain't real yo. Backstreet and *N Sync not be gay, unless they say they iz. Taylor belongs to Jess yo, and not you." ...Excuse Mr Disclaimer, he spent just a wee-bit too much time in the ghetto last night. *slaps Mr Disclaimer* And if you can't understand Mr Disclaimer, he said that the Backstreet Boys and *N Sync aren't gay, unless they say they are. And the character Taylor is from my overactive imagination, which means its mine, not yours. Oh and if your under 18 you really shouldn't be here either.. but like I can really stop you. Now have some fun reading... The Grand Finale Chapter Two Three days later I touched down in Fort Lauderdale. I picked up my bags, and looked outside for my name. Tom told me that there would be someone outside waiting for me, and they would take me to the arena. Scanning through the crowd, I saw a small white sign with the name 'Mackenzie' on it. I pushed my way through the crowd and came up to the person holding the sign. He was a rather short man, with close cropped black hair and a mustache. "Ms. Mackenzie?" He asked. "That's me." I smiled. "Are you ready to go miss?" he asked. "Yup. Got my bags right here." I said as I even lifted my bags. "Do you want me to take them?" He asked politely. "No that's okay. I think I cam manage." I smiled to him again. "Alright then. If you would please follow me miss, I'll take you to the car." "Okay." I said as I followed the driver outside of the airport terminal and to the waiting... limo. "Oh my... it's a limo!" "You've never been driven in one miss?" the driver asked as he took one of my bags and placed it in the trunk. I placed the other one in the trunk, refusing to let the man do the whole job by himself. "Nope, can't say that I have. I was a very sheltered child." I smiled. The driver laughed slightly. "Well just hop in miss and I'll take you for your first ride in a limo." "Yay! Thank you..." I trailed off, not knowing his name to thank him properly. "Frank." He smiled to me. "Well thank you Frank!" I said as I hoped into the limo through the door Frank had opened for me. Frank just shook his head as he closed the door. I've been told by several people, including Tom and Mike when they first met me, that I am a very bubbly, and almost overwhelming, person to meet the first time around. But then they all realize that that's the package they get. I am a very fun person, and frequently I leave a first impression of a person that 'just doesn't seem right in the head'. But that's just little old me, not me trying too hard to get people to like me or anything like that. They also find out that I can be serious when I want to, and that I am a really good friend who will sit down and just listen while they pour out their problems to me. Frank rolled down the window that separated the driver from the passenger cabin in back. "There's some sodas in the bar, or some wine and vodka if you prefer that." "Okay..." I trailed off. "Is there a TV?" "Yes, there's a small one in the compartment next to you." Frank said as he started driving the limo. I looked to the side, and sure enough, there was a TV sitting there. I repositioned myself to sit in front of the TV, and found the small bottle of red wine in the cooler of drinks. Yes I know; I'm a 22 year old with a thing for boy bands, oh well. We all have our kinks don't we? I flipped channels on the TV until I found something that I could watch, which thankfully was my favorite soap opera, Port Charles. Yeah I know it's actually a spin-off, but I never got into General Hospital. I finished watching that and as the final credits rolled, Frank stopped the car. "We're here miss." "Okay." Seconds later Frank opened the door for me. "Um... what's gonna happen to my bags?" I asked Frank. "Oh, I'm gonna take them back to the room at your hotel, don't worry." He said as I hefted my small book bag of personal belongings onto my shoulder. "Okay. Just don't break anything." I smiled to him as we started to separate, him going back to the front of the limo and me walking towards the arena's main doors. "Don't worry about it Miss Mackenzie." "Bye Frank." I yelled. "Good bye Miss Mackenzie." Frank said as he drove off, to what I assumed was the hotel to drop off my bags. "Already making friends with the drivers I see." A male voice said from over my shoulder. "Ahh!" I said as I jumped slightly. I turned around to see a man slightly taller than me with brown hair that went just past his ears. He was wearing black dress slacks and a dark green sweater-vest with a white shirt underneath. "And who, may I ask, are you?" "I'm Trent, the PR director. Also your boss. You must bee Miss Taylor Mackenzie." He said as he offered me his hand. "In the flesh." I said as I smiled. "Come with me, we need to discuss the higher points of you working for us." Trent said as he started to lead me inside the arena to the offices that were in back. "Oh... you mean more of me signing my life away?" I joked. Trent laughed. "If you want to look at it that way, yes you are going to sign your life away some more." Trent pulled out a ring of keys and fished through them, finding the one that opened the conference room. The two of us walked into the room, and what was waiting for me on the table, but a bigger stack of papers for me to sign. "You do have that first confidentiality agreement we gave you right?" Trent asked me. I placed my book bag on the cherry wood table and leafed through it, pulling out my trusty old folder. I've had this one folder for ages and I've kept all of my important work in it. It just so happened to have the Backstreet Boys on the cover, but I saw that Trent made no comment on it... just yet. I pulled out the agreement. "Right here, and all signed too." "And you do understand what was stated in this agreement right?" Trent asked me, giving me a critical eye. "Yes." I said as I sighed. "If I do, or catch the guys doing, any illicit hanky-panky no one else can know. Yeah yeah." Trent laughed at my analogy. "Are you always this forthright?" he asked me. "When I want to be, yes." Trent sat down. "Sit... preferably in front of the mound of paper." "Oh phewy, and I wanted to sit on it." I said as I sat in the plush chair that was right in front of the 'leaning tower of paper'. Trent laughed again and we got to work. He explained to me exactly what I'd be doing. I was going to record, and be able to comment, on the activities the guys do everyday during the tour. The guys would also be putting in their comments every so often in the form of 'journal' entries, and I was going to take pictures and place them on the site. "I'm gonna need a digital camera for that, and probably a scanner." I stated. "That's why I'm gonna give you this." Trent told me. He pulled out a Visa credit card. "This is being paid for by Jive. Anything you need that pertains to the tour, can go on this card." "Ooh it's Visa... everywhere you want to be." I muttered to myself. "Yeah." Trent said as we went back to going over the contract. The rest of the contract went over what was allowed, and what wasn't allowed while on the tour, and what would happen as repercussions if I broke the contract. "So sign right here..." he started. "And let the fun begin." I said as I dotted the 'i' in my name. "And let the fun begin." Trent echoed as he put the contract in a briefcase that he pulled out from under the table. Trent looked at the wall clock that was in the room. "The guys should be on break by now." He said as he looked at the clock. I looked at the clock as well. I noticed that an hour had gone by. "We were in here for an hour?" I asked, surprised at the time that was sucked up by going over the contract. "Yup. We were here for an hour." He said as he pushed in his chair. I stood up and pushed in my chair as well, "Well take me to the hotties then." I smiled. Trent laughed again. "You're gonna fit in just great with these guys." "I hope so." I said as we started walking down the hall. As we started walking to the main entrance to the stage area itself, I saw Kevin Richardson and Lance Bass waiting outside. "Ooh, it's the welcoming committee." I said gleefully as Trent and I walked up to the two 'managers' of the groups. "Hey Trent." The two of them said. "Hey guys. I'd like you to meet Miss Taylor Mackenzie." Trent stated as Kevin and Lance shook my hands. Even though I didn't show it at all, I was jumping up and down with excitement inside. "You must be our web-page designer." Lance said, in his lovely-oh-so- smooth Southern voice. "Thanks for stating the obvious Poofoo." I said. Trent started laughing immediately, while Kevin and Lance had a look of shock on their faces. But while Lance was blushing slightly at the use of the ever-hated nickname, Kevin was trying to hide his laughter at the same time. "I take it you're a fan." Kevin stated. "Yes she is. I figured I'd let you guys find our yourselves." Trent smiled. "Thank you sooo much." Kevin and Lance said simultaneously. "Hey, don't worry. I'm not gonna molest you for autographs... just yet." I smiled. "Well Miss Mackenzie, why don't we introduce you to the rest of the clan." Lance said. "Sure." I said as I grabbed Kevin and Lance's hands and started to drag them towards the stage. By this time, the novelty of them being stars had totally worn off on me, so I wasn't hesitant about dragging them to the stage. Trent continued to laugh behind me. Walking through the open double doors I saw AJ McLean, Joey Fatone, Nick Carter and Brian Littrell playing around on the stage. Chris Kirkpatrick and Howie Dorough were off sitting on the edge of the stage, drinking bottles of water. I stopped immediately and decided to have a little fun. I gave a little smirk to the two bandmates that were on either side of me, and as I cupped my hands around my mouth I yelled, "Nick Carter has a nice BUTT!!" Kevin, Lance and Trent laughed heartily, while the six members on the stage looked at the four of us, no doubt thinking, 'Who the hell is that crazy girl with the bright red hair and what the hell is she doing here?' I skipped down the isle a little, with the three men behind me catching up to me in seconds. "Guys, I'd like you to meet Miss Taylor Mackenzie, our web-page designer." Lance stated. "Yay! Poofoo got it right!" I said as I gave him a giant, unsuspecting hug. "And Miss Taylor is also a fan." Kevin said as he finally suppressed his laughter. "And she is also insane." AJ yelled. "Yup. That's the general idea I guess. But I prefer to call it being happy in life." I said. "Or insane." AJ said. "Yes insane." I said as I rolled my eyes. "And you don't mind that Bone calls you insane?" Nick asked from his place on the stage. "Nope. If he's comfortable with that, sure what the heck." I said as I shrugged my shoulders. Trent, Kevin and Lance couldn't help but slightly chuckle at my antics. "And you're gonna be our web-page designer huh?" Brian asked. "Miss Taylor Mackenzie, HTML Extraordinaire, at your service." I said as I mock bowed. "I think your gonna fit in here just fine." Chris said as he hoped down from the stage with his now empty water bottle. "Oh I am so honored that Sir Chris has given me the seal of approval." I said. "And don't you forget it." "Yes sir." I said as I gave a salute. Finally, everyone was laughing with me. "FOOD!" I heard a recognizable voice yell from the side doors. "And if it isn't Curly." I mused. "Come 'n get it!" Another voice said. "And Joshy-poo too." I said. "Where do you get this stuff from?" Lance asked me. "Oh, I just have way too much time on my hands that's all." I told him. I wasn't about to tell him what me and my friends talked about while we were online. "Did ya miss me?" I heard Justin say, as I saw him run onto the stage and give Nick a full kiss on the lips. Nick didn't return Justin's kiss and when his kiss wasn't returned, Justin pulled away and asked, "What's wrong baby?" Nick just nodded his head towards my direction. All heads in the arena turned to me, waiting for my reaction to the interesting piece of news that at least two of the members on the tour were in a relationship together. I could tell that they were all nervous about how I was going to react, most of all Nick and Justin. "Who're you?" Justin asked me. I decided the best way to approach the situation was to greet Justin in a normal fashion, and show the eleven of them that I wasn't repulsed by Justin's show of affection towards Nick, because honestly, I wasn't. Shocked, kinda, but repulsed no. All of those slash fanfics online made me kinda numb to homosexuality. I jumped up onto the stage and passed the members of the band that were watching me closely, wondering what I was doing. "Hi. I'm your new web page designer, Taylor Mackenzie. Nice ta meet ya Curly." I smiled, offering him my hand to shake. Justin hesitantly took my hand. "Um hi Taylor." He said. "Oh you can go back to Nick if you want, I don't care." I said flippantly. "You don't mind that Nick and Justin are together?" JC asked me. "Nope. I don't care if anybody bats for the other team, or whatever you want to call it. It ain't my style personally, and I don't really care if it's yours." I said, mostly addressing to Josh, but letting everyone know. "So if anyone else wants to come clean, speak now or forever hold your peace." I saw Kevin nudge Lance. 'Okay, what the hell is up with those two?' I thought. "Well Josh and I are kind of... together." Lance said. 'Oh wow, everyone's been right all along. Too bad I can't tell anybody about it.' I thought, as I smiled to myself. "Kay." I said as I sat on the edge of the stage. "Anyone else?" I asked. "Nope the rest of us have our own girls." Howie said. "Okay. Fine by me." Trent took on the role of serious PR manager for the moment. "You do know..." he started but I cut him off. "...that this doesn't leave the tour, cause it could damage their reputation, yeah yeah I know. And believe me, I won't do that to ya. Wouldn't even think of it. I respect you guys too much, even though it might not look like it." I said as I jumped down. "Okay cool." Justin said. "Now if you'll excuse me, I'm gonna go spend some hard earned cash... well technically it's Jive's hard earned cash, but we don't have to tell them about it. See ya!" I said as I started to walk out of the main theater. "Be back in three hours to get a ride to the hotel!" Trent yelled to me as I closed the doors to the arena to leave the guys in privacy as they ate their lunch. ~~~~~ It took me awhile to find an electronics store, but I found one and was back to the arena within two hours, armed with a bag holding a scanner, a top of the line, but also very expensive, digital camera, and two cartridges to hold pictures. As I entered the arena, I heard 'Tearin' Up My Heart' blaring through the speakers that were located in the main stage of the arena. I quietly opened one of the side doors to the arena, and finding a shaded corner of the seats in the arena, I sat down. I was going to catch some candids of the guys practicing and I was going to put them on the site. I quietly tore open the packaging around the camera, and opened one of the cartridges. I was being as quiet as possible so the guys wouldn't know that I was back yet. Loading the cartridge into the camera, I waited for the camera to warm up. I took a dummy picture to make sire the cartridge was working, and then I zoomed in and started taking shots, being as quiet as I could. I was taking shots of the guys goofing around on stage between song rehearsals, and pictures of them dancing on stage. By the time I had about thirty pictures, the guys had gone through about four songs, and were on 'Horsing Around', a fast up-tempo song from their fourth album. I had seen them do this song in concert before, and the choreography for it was really cool, but it was really difficult too. In fact it was so difficult, that they were running through the song for the fifth time since I had been there. This song went back to their old flips and aerobatics in the air, but someone kept on screwing up. And they kept on messing up different things too. Once it was Lance, and the second time through Chris screwed up. Justin forgot a cue on the third run because he was concentrating on something off stage, which was more than likely Nick. Through the fourth run through Joey had screwed up a flip, and on their last run through Lance had screwed up a dance step, in fact the same one he had messed up the first time. I was just watching them as they ran through the song for the fifth time, and I waited anxiously as they sang the song, wondering if they were going to screw it up at all. They were getting to the point where Lance had screwed up both times, and as they were finishing the move, Lance came down on the wrong foot, and slipped on stage, landing on his back. "Damn it." I heard Lance curse. I saw Josh walk over to where Lance was still laying on his back, more than likely still cursing himself out for his two left feet. He held out his hand to pull Lance up, and Lance took the pre-offered hand. "Don't worry baby, you got it before, you can get it again." Josh said as he gave Lance as kiss on the cheek. I quickly snapped a picture of the kiss. Josh and Lance were too cute together NOT to sneak in at least one kiss for my private collection. "Okay." Lance sighed, burying his face in JC's shoulder. Wade, *N Sync's choreographer for god-knows-how-long, came out onto the stage. "Why don't we skip running through that song again, and we'll run through the some of the slow ones. You guys know it, I know you do, and you always pull it out in the end, so don't worry about it." He said. All the members of *N Sync did was nod their heads as they went to the side of the stage and got the five stools that were located there. Bringing them to the center of the stage, the guys sang a few of their older ballads, like 'I Drive Myself Crazy', 'God Must Have Spent', 'I Thought She Knew' and 'This I Promise You', as well as some of the newer ones, like 'Photos of Our Life' and 'The Love of Another', the one Grammy-winning song *N Sync has ever had. It was just Justin and JC singing with a simple piano and a small string ensemble in it, but everyone thought it was one of the most beautiful things *N Sync had written, regardless of the fact that three fifths of the band wasn't really in the song. A bunch of people on the internet chats I regulared started dissecting the song, starting rumors that Josh and Justin had written it for their 'significant others', Josh writing it for Lance, because everyone is so set on that "hidden relationship-that-wasn't-so- hidden", and everyone figured that Justin was writing it to his girlfriend. Damn how right, and how wrong, they were. After *N Sync had finished their set, I decided that I would make my presence known, what the heck, they would probably start wondering where I was anyway. "Beautiful singing boys." I said as I walked down to the stage area. "Hey Taylor, didn't see you there." Joey said. "Where were you?" Josh asked me. "Oh I was just sitting over there, enjoying the singing and taking a few pictures with my new camera." I said, indicating where I had been sitting with the camera that was still in my hands. "I see our resident psycho is back." AJ said as he and the rest of the Backstreet Boys came onto the stage, with Trent and Kevin talking in the back of the pack. I rolled my eyes, "You know I'm not THAT insane. I just like making a good first impression." "Okay girl, if that's what you tell yourself." AJ said as he smiled. "Taylor, did you get everything you needed?" Trent asked me as soon as he ended his conversation with Kevin. "Yup. All set." "Well then let's get back to the hotel." Trent said as we left the arena for our hotel. ~~~~~ Well that's the end of that chapter... wives and girlfriends come in the next. Email me at Midnight_Violet18@hotmail.com if you want more in the future. Hasta la pasta-- Jess