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Chapter Nine
“Okay, done. The bleach is gone. Let’s towel dry and style and then you can look, okay?” said Colleen as she wrapped Nick’s hair in a bright pink towel.
Nick had his eyes closed tight, looking like he was going to die. “I can’t believe I let you do this,” he said.
Colleen laughed. “I can’t wait to see how Howie looks after Ryan gets done with him,” she said as she quickly towel dried Nick’s newly cut and bleached hair.
Nick groaned. “Man, I think I’m going to die,” he said.
“There you go, getting all dramatic, like usual,” Colleen laughed. “It’s going to look great.” She reached for a bottle of hair gel and squirted just a small amount in her hand.
“Hey, is that raspberries?” Nick asked, sniffing the air. “Oh man, now not only am I going to have weird hair but I’m going to smell like a girl,” he moaned.
“Shut up and hold still. I’m almost done,” Colleen said as she rubbed the gel through his hair, making the bleached white chunky spikes on top stay just the way she wanted them. “Okay, done. You can look,” she said as she turned him around towards the mirror, and bit her lip as she waited for his reaction.
Nick slowly opened his eyes and stared at the guy in the mirror. Gone was the chin length blonde locks. They had been replaced by bleached white spikes, making him look older and more like a rock star.
“You like it?” Colleen asked as she waited for what seemed like forever for some type of reaction from Nick. “I think you look really hot. Sorta like a ninties Billy Idol and who didn’t like him?” she stated.
Nick continued to stare at his reflection until he started to smile. His smile got bigger and bigger until he jumped up and grabbed a startled Colleen and hugged her.
“I love it!” he said. Colleen grinned.
“See, I knew it. I mean, you look really good. I would even go out with you now,” she said. Nick shot her a look.
“What, you wouldn’t have before? Thanks a lot,” he said as he pouted.
“I was just kidding you.” Nick’s face brightened at her apology. “I still wouldn’t go out with you,” Colleen continued and she laughed when he snapped at her with the towel. She opened the bathroom door of Nick’s hotel room and walked out. “Let’s go into Kevin’s room and show the others who is the hottest member of the group now,” Colleen said as she opened the door leading into the hallway.
“Yeah, I’m going to be getting all the chicks,” Nick stated as he puffed out his chest and started sauntering towards the door. They walked across the hall and knocked on the door waiting for Kevin to open up. Meanwhile the rest of the guys were talking about what they thought Nick and Howie would look like after Colleen and Ryan got done with them.
“Man, I’m going to laugh if Nick’s hair is orange or something from Colleen messin’ up the bleach job,” stated A.J. who had already been through the experiance.
Kevin nodded. “I’m just hoping that Colleen doesn’t shave him bald by accident or something horrible like that. I mean, what would the public think?” he asked as he thought about the possiblities.
“I just hope Donna doesn’t kill us when she finds out that Howie and Nick got their hair cut by amateurs without twenty consultations on how the new hairdo will look and how it could possibly change their images,” said Brian as he spun his basketball on his finger. The other guys nodded. Then they heard the knock on the door.
“Well, there’s one of them. Let’s see the results,” said Kevin as he got up and went to open the door. Brian and A.J. stood up and watched as Colleen walked through, followed by a newly bleached Nick.
“So guys, what do you think?” Nick asked as he modeled his new punkier look.
The guys studied his hair and were about to respond when another knock was heard. Kevin opened the door again and in walked Howie and Ryan.
Howie’s hair had been cut short and chunky, like Nick’s but was still black. He had changed into a white tank top showing off his bod and some baggy jeans, and the whole look was sexy as hell. He had a big grin on his face.
“So guys, what do you think?” he asked as he spun around to give them the full view.
The three guys were silent and then A.J. opened his mouth. “I like it. I like it a lot, both you and Nick look awesome,” said A.J. with a grin.
“Yeah, you guys look cool,” said Brian. Kevin nodded in agreement.
“Colleen and Ryan, you guys did a good job,” Kevin said as he kept looking at Nick and Howie’s hair. Colleen and Ryan smiled.
“Thanks. I’m really happy with how it turned out,” Ryan said as she walked up to Howie and adjusted a few strands of hair. “I mean, Howie, you look so good, I think I’m going to drop Brian and go after you,” she said with a smile.
“Hey!” Brian yelled. “Howie, go get your old hair back and glue it back on. Ryan’s mine,” he said jokingly as he came up behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist. “I can’t believe you would forget all about me,” he said as he put on his puppy dog face.
Ryan laughed. “Ahhh, honey. I could never forget about you. You know that,” she said as she kissed him softly on the lips. Brian kissed her back and pretty soon, they both forgot that there was other people in the room, until they felt cold water being poured on them.
“Hey!” Ryan sputtered as she stepped back from Brian and looked at Colleen who held a half-filled glass of water in her hands.
“What was that for?”
“Oh, just thought that you guys needed some cooling down and since you missed a nice cold shower this morning, I thought that I would help out,” Colleen said with a smile. Just then her watch beeped as it turned eleven o’clock at night. The day had quickly passed. After swimming, Colleen and Ryan had nagged Nick and Howie for hours. Then they had lunch. They went back to the rooms and hung out, playing Nintendo and watching movies and Ryan and Colleen nagged for a couple more hours. The guys had finally relented and it had taken an hour for the girls to cut their hair. By this time it was late and now it was eleven o’clock.
“Ryan, we better get going, it’s pretty late and we’re leaving at six tomorrow morning to drive back home,” Colleen said as she went to grab her coat and laptop. Ryan nodded.
“We’re meeting here at five forty five tomorrow morning, right? So that we can follow each other to Illinois,” asked Ryan as she grabbed her purse and coat. Kevin nodded.
“Yeah. Now, you only live about twenty minutes from the arena where our concert is? Right, Colleen?” asked A.J.
Colleen nodded. “Yeah, Rose cottage is not far from the arena. We were actually going to go to your concert but by the time we decided to go, the tickets were sold out,” she said. Nick put on his thoughtful look.
“You know, I have some connections and we might be able to get you some tickets, and maybe even backstage passes,” he said jokingly.
“Some connections, huh? Well, Mr. Carter, I don’t know what connections you have, but there is five of us, if you are going to be sweetie and give us tickets. Kendall, Shannon, and our friend Morgan along with Ryan and me, of course.” Colleen said with a grin.
“You’re friend’s name is Morgan?” asked A.J. with a smile.
“Yeah, I know. Her first name is the same as Ryan’s last name,” said Colleen. “You know, Nick, you and Morgan would get along great,” she said with a grin.
“Is she pretty?” Nick asked, with interest.
Ryan and Colleen exchanged a look. “Guys, all they think about are looks, don’t they?” Ryan said. Colleen nodded. Then she remembered something.
“You know, I have some pics of Kendall, Shannon, and Morgan on my laptop. Let me boot up,” she said as she flipped her laptop open and started it up. She went to her pic file and opened the pictures. The guys crowded around, curious as to what the three girls that Colleen and Ryan had talked about to them looked like.
“Okay, this is Morgan,” Colleen said as she started laughing.
“I’m sure Nick’s interested. You are going to love this picture,” she said. Ryan looked at the title of the picture and read saloon.morgan and started laughing too.
“Oh Colleen, Morgan’s going to kill you when she finds out that you showed them this picture,” she said.
“I know,” Colleen said.
“Why?” asked Brian curiously.
“You’ll see,” said Colleen as she clicked on it. The picture opened up to reveal a girl in one of those wild west pictures taken at amusent parks. The girl was dressed in a lacy saloon girl outfit, complete with money in her garter and a pistol in each hand. She had long, straight brown hair and chocolate brown eyes. She had a huge smile on her face and a sultry look in her eye. A.J. whistled and Nick’s jaw dropped.
“Whoa, Colleen. That’s quite a picture,” A.J. said with a grin.
Colleen nodded. “Yeah, I know. She would kill me if she knew you guys had seen it. It was a total gag picture just for us. We were in such a crazy mood that day,” Colleen said smiling as she remembered the outrageous stunts they had pulled when they had gone to Great America that one summer afternoon.
A.J. looked at the picture again. “So Colleen, you didn’t happen to pose for a similar picture, did you?” he asked flirtatiously. Colleen rolled her eyes.
“Shut up, A.J.” She turned back to the computer but not before noticing that Nick seemed hypnotized by the picture. She smiled to herself. Good, she thought. Those two would get along great.
“So Colleen, are you going to show us pictures of your sister?” asked Kevin.
“Yeah, but it’s not a good one. You don’t see her face in it,” Colleen said as she opened up another picture. This one revealed a girl in a two piece bathing suit on the beach holding a big sunhat over her face. “You see, she had just gotten out of the lake and she had forgotten she had mascara on and it had run down her face, making her look like a raccoon. I tried to get a picture of it but she covered her face with my sunhat.”
“Yeah, well. What’s not covered looks pretty good,” said A.J. laughing. Colleen hit him.
“You are such a pig,” Colleen said. “That’s my little sister, you jerk.”
“I was just kidding, pirate,” A.J. apologized. Colleen smiled.
“I know,” she said as she closed the picture.
“And last but not least, Kendall.” Colleen opened another picture that showed a girl with long blonde hair tumbling down her back in waves, standing under pine trees laden down with snow. She was wearing a huge white cableknit sweater that made her hair look gold in contrast. Her blue eyes were sparkling with excitement and she was holding a red rose to her nose.
“Wow, that’s an awesome picture,” said Nick. “The snow is so pretty but where did the rose come from?” he asked.
“Well, that was taken in the woods around Colleen’s house and we had just bought a bouquet of roses that morning from a greenhouse and Morgan, who took the picture, thought that the contrast of colors would look really good. The blue of her eyes, the red of the rose, the white of the snow, and the gold of her hair. It did turn out really good, didn’t it?” Ryan asked. The guys nodded. Colleen closed the file and turned off her comp.
“So now you know what they look like, well not Shannon, but Morgan and Kendall,” Colleen said as she put her laptop back in it’s case.
“So they are all in Illinois?” asked Howie.
Ryan nodded. “Yeah, Kendall’s visiting Shannon and Morgan. Morgan lives with Colleen and Shannon in Rose cottage,” she said.
“Rose cottage? That’s the name of your house? Why?” asked Kevin with interest.
Ryan and Colleen just smiled at each other. “Well, you’ll guys will just have to see for yourselves when we get down there. You’ll be staying there, right?” Colleen asked.
Nick nodded. “Yeah, that way we can hang with our new friends and it’s perfect because you said it’s so close to the stadium and you mentioned that the hotel that the crew is staying at is down the road,” he said.
Colleen and Ryan nodded. “Right, good. This is going to be a lot of fun,” she said as she and Ryan walked out the door. Ryan gave Brian a good night kiss and Kevin and Colleen smiled at one another, saying they will see each other in the morning and the girls went back to the house to get ready for the road trip.
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