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Chapter Seventeen
"I don't think so," Colleen yelled as she grabbed the back of Kevin's shirt and pulled him back, allowing her to run through the doorway leading to the family room.
"Yes I won!" she yelled, laughing because it was obvious that she hadn't won by honest means.
"You cheated," Kevin yelled as he grabbed her from behind, putting her in a headlock.
"No . . . I . . . didn't," Colleen managed to gasp between bouts of laughter.
Ryan and Brian watched the scene with smiles.
"They're really cute together," Ryan murmured to Brian as he nodded in agreement.
"Yeah, well my cousin has good taste," he replied. "I mean, she is your cousin." Ryan smiled.
"Sappy Brian, sappy," she replied. He looked at her.
"Yeah but did it work?" he asked with a grin.
Ryan started laughing. "Yeah, sadly it did," she said as she kissed him while her shoulders shook with laughter.
"So what's up?" Colleen asked as she flopped onto the couch, interrupting them.
Ryan looked over at Kevin who was now lying on the floor, gasping for air.
She rolled her eyes, wondering what move Colleen had done to get loose from Kevin.
"Nothing much," she replied to her cousin. Just then A.J. stormed into the room, slamming himself down on one of the chairs. It was more than obvious that he was furious.
"What's wrong Bone?" Colleen asked, her eyebrows pulled together in concern.
He let out a frustrated groan as everyone wondered what Morgan had done now. The door opened and Howie, Shannon, Nick, and Kendall walked into the room, their attention focusing on A.J. when they saw his expression.
"Morgan?" Kendall asked as she and Shannon sat down on the loveseat.
"We think so," replied Kevin.
"Do you know what she said to me?" A.J. asked rhetorically. Everyone just waited for him to continue.
"She said that for a finale to one of our concerts, I should take off my pirate earrings, set them on fire, and jump through to complete my role as the group's circus freak," he yelled furiously. They stared at him, their eyes wide.
Nick let out a laugh and quickly stopped, trying not to hurt A.J's feeling. Brian clapped his hand over his mouth, trying to choke back his laughter while Kendall's face started turning red from her efforts to do the same. They finally looked at each other and gave in, everyone laughing hilariously.
A.J. sat there, looking at them until he finally had to admit it was pretty funny and he started laughing too. They finally stopped and Colleen went over and gave A.J. a hug, sitting in his lap. A.J. leaned his head against hers and sighed.
"I don't know why she makes me react so strongly," he murmured. Shannon snorted.
"Oh please, you guys are so obviously going to hook up. It's fate." The rest of the gang nodded in agreement as A.J. looked at them as if they were insane.
"Yes, that's obvious except for the tiny fact that I HATE HER," he said loudly.
"There is a thin line between love and hate," Colleen told him as the rest nodded again. Kevin looked at Colleen and decided that she had been sitting on A.J.'s lap long enough. So he got up and picked her up, and then went back to the couch and sat down next to Ryan, Colleen in his lap. She leaned back against him, moving around until she got comfortable and grabbed the remote.
"Let's watch some TV and veg," she suggested as she turned it on. She flipped channels until she stopped on Maury Povich. On the show that day was a show called Tiny Stars, about child stars. They were just returning from a commercial break.
"Welcome back," Maury said.
"It's great to be here, Maury," Kendall replied, making everyone laugh.
"Up next we have Chen Lu, the winner of the Oscar Meyer national contest for its new child spokesman.," Maury continued.
A little four year old Chinese girl came out, holding a baloney sandwich.
She walked over to Maury who helped her climb up on a stool. Maury interviewed her, asking about the contest and her interests.
"So Chen, now who is your favorite singer?" he asked.
Chen smiled and rubbed her eye with one little finger. "NSYNC," she said shyly.
"Good choice," Ryan said as the guys rolled their eyes and Brian wacked her on the back of her head. Ryan just laughed.
"You guys should see the posters they have of NSYNC up in their gym," A.J. informed them. "There are group ones, individual ones, photo shoots, concert pics, everything."
Colleen threw a pillow at his head. "A.J. there are also TONS of other posters," she told him and the rest. He shrugged.
"Yeah," Shannon chimed in. "There are posters of Creed, Blondie, old Blondie mind you, Dave Matthews, Nirvana, Beastie Boys, Korn, Limp Bizkit, Eminem, Depeche Mode, Metallica, Stone Temple Pilots, Chris Isaak, Davie Bowie, you guys."
A.J. interrupted her. "I didn't see any of us," he told her. Shannon looked at Colleen uneasily, who was personally looking at the ceiling.
"Um, your posters, sorta, um, got covered up," Colleen mumbled.
"By what?" Howie asked.
"Nmiln," Shannon mumbled.
"What?" Nick said.
"NSYNC," Shannon said, this time louder, wincing in expectation of their reaction.
"Awww man," Nick moaned.
"Sorry," Morgan said from the doorway.
A.J. looked up abruptly and made eye contact with her. He broke it almost immediately, looking towards the wall.
"It's not that bad. So you like NSYNC. They're good," Howie tried to rationalize.
"No, that's not what I meant," Morgan told him. "A.J."
He looked up.
"I'm sorry," she said softly.
A.J. looked at her, his face showing nothing but inside, he was stunned. Morgan walked over to him and kneeled in front of him. "I shouldn't have said that and I'm sorry for the way I have been acting towards you."
A.J. smiled. He looked at her thinking she was really pretty in her green tank top and khaki cargo pants. "Okay. Truce?" he asked. Morgan nodded.
"Truce." She stood up and smiled at him. Behind them, the group gave a sigh of relief that there would be no more fights. Just then the phone rang and Colleen jumped up to get it.
"Hello, Landville insane asylum," she answered with a grin. She was greeted with silence.
"Hello?" Colleen said again as the other line just offered up slight breathing.
"Hello, who's there? I can hear you breathing," she told them as she looked at the caller ID which showed unavailable. "Hello?"
Kendall, Shannon, and Morgan exchanged knowing glances, knowing it was the same guy who had been calling for the past week.
"Okay, this is really immature. Just stop it, okay?" Colleen said, starting to get angry. The caller responded with a click, signaling he hung up. Colleen hung up the receiver and stared at it.
"Was it him?" Shannon asked. Colleen nodded.
"What's going on?" asked Brian. Kendall explained.
"Some teenagers have been calling and then hanging up for about a week now. They probably think it is really funny," she told them disgustedly.
"All it is, is annoying," Morgan stated.
Colleen started to speak when the phone rang again. She grabbed the receiver.
"Listen, you jerk, stop calling. It isn't funny, it's stupid and immature," she yelled into the phone.
"Colleen?" asked a bewildered voice. Colleen stopped.
"Mom?"
"Yeah. What is wrong with you?" Pamela, Colleen's mother asked. Colleen sighed.
"Oh, some stupid kids have been prank calling. I thought you were them again," she explained. Her mom laughed.
"Okay, but I wouldn't advise answering the phone like that again. So anyway, was your trip back okay?" she asked. Colleen smiled. She had missed her mom.
"Yeah, just glad to be back. I missed everyone. So how are you and Dad?" she asked.
"Fine. Speaking of your dad, he wanted to have you and the rest of the girls over tomorrow night for his famous hamburgers. We will have veggie burgers for Morgan of course. Are you free?" she asked. Colleen smiled.
Her dad's hamburgers sounded so good right now.
"Yeah, except Ryan and I brought some people back with us."
"Really? Who?" Pam asked, interested. Colleen started chuckling.
"You will never guess," she told her mother.
"Okay, then I won't waste my time doing so," her mom replied.
"We brought back the Backstreet Boys," Colleen told her. Laughter started coming from the other end of the line.
"The Backstreet Boys? That teeny-bopper singing group?" her mom asked.
Colleen responded yes.
"Well, I'm sure the Backstreet Boys will be interesting company. It's not every day that I would get the chance to have dinner with the target of million's of thirteen year olds sexual lustings. Bring them too. We can go horseback riding then after dinner, okay?"
"Sounds great, mom. Talk to ya later." Colleen listened to her mom say goodbye.
"Bye mom, love you," she responded back, waving goodbye also. She hung up the phone and turned around to be greeted by laughter.
"What?" She asked, confused.
"You waved goodbye to your mom," Howie told her. "While you were on the phone." Colleen smiled sheepishly.
"Um, it's this stupid habit that I have," she told them. She glanced at the clock.
"Hey gang," Colleen said. They looked towards her. "It's about six-thirty," she informed them. "Time for us of the female gender to get our stuff and meet in the living room for our pajama party." The girls nodded.
"Hey what type of pajama contest?" Ryan asked as she got up. Colleen thought for a moment. She got up and walked over to the girls.
"Prettiest," she said. The girls smiled okay and left for their rooms.
The guys looked at each other.
"Wonder what that was about?" Brian remarked. Kevin shrugged.
"So do you guys want to order pizza and watch some movies," he suggested.
The guys nodded.
"Sure. What movie?" Howie asked.
Nick grinned. "How about Slumber Party III?" he suggested. A.J. acted shocked.
"You want us to spy on the girls?" he said dramatically. Nick nodded.
"Okay," A.J. said. He looked at Howie, Kevin, and Brian. "Guys?"
They looked at each and nodded.
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"I'll stop the world and melt with you, you've seen the difference and it's getting better all the time," Shannon sang along to the song playing on her Walkman. She walked into the living room where the other girls were sitting amidst tons of pillows, blankets, candles, stacks of music, books, makeup cases, and Morgan's secret stash of silly string.
"Hey did you see the guys?" Kendall asked from her position on the fainting couch. Shannon nodded.
"Yeah, they were in the kitchen about to order pizza," she said as she flopped down next to her sister.
"Okay, let's see who has the prettiest pajamas," Colleen said as she got up and took off her kimono. The others took off their robes and everyone looked at each other, judging.
Shannon was wearing cream satin pants with a matching tank top that showed off her midriff, her short blond hair styled. Kendall was wearing hand-painted silk pajama pants with a cute white silk crop top, her blond hair down, waves falling down her back. Colleen was wearing a moss green satin shorts and matching halter top, her hair piled on top of her head.
Ryan was wearing a baby blue satin dress starting with a halter neck and ending at mid thigh, hair halfway put up. Morgan was wearing a midnight blue silk shorts and crop top, her hair in two buns on her head.
"Ooh, I like Ryan's," Shannon said looking at the cute little dress.
Colleen nodded in agreement.
"Well, I think Kendall's is beautiful. It's hand-painted silk right?" Ryan said. Kendall nodded.
"I like Kendall's too," Morgan added.
"Okay, well that's two against two. Kendall, what do you like for the tie breaker?" Shannon asked.
Kendall grinned. "Truthfully?" she asked. They all nodded. "I really like Shannon's actually."
Everyone groaned.
"Well, it's a tie then," Kendall said. She grinned. "Now, I think we should go make sure the guys ordered pizza for us," she said. The girls agreed and they all trouped into the kitchen.
"Hey guys, what's up?" Kendall asked as she walked into the kitchen, the rest of the girls behind her. The guys were laughing at some stupid joke that Nick had told them but at the sound of Kendall's voice, they all turned around. Their laughter stopped immediately and silence filled the kitchen as they stared at the sight of the girls in their pajamas.
"Guys? Guys? Nick?" Ryan said, as she waved a hand in front of his eyes.
He was busy staring at Kendall. As busy as Kevin was looking at Colleen, Brian at Ryan, Howie at Shannon, and A.J. at Morgan
Finally Ryan was able to break through as Nick shook his head and looked at her.
"Huh? What?" he asked confused. Ryan gave him a weird look.
"Okay. We wanted to know if you guys ordered pizza for us," she informed them. Kevin nodded.
"Yeah, we ordered a pizza with everything for you guys," he told them, as he kept looking at Colleen who was bent over at the fridge, getting soft drinks out. She stood up and handed one to Shannon who popped it open and started drinking.
"Just one?" she asked as she handed out the rest of the pop. Howie nodded.
Morgan started walking for the phone and took the cordless and started dialing the pizza place back.
"What are you doing?" Brian asked. Morgan looked at him.
"Well, I'm going to order the rest of the pizza," she told him and then stopped talking as the pizza place picked up. She placed their order as Kendall told them why.
"We usually get five pizzas," she told them, taking a sip of her pop. Nick stared at her.
"What?" he asked. She nodded.
"Yeah, one for each of us. Of course, we usually only get through about half, but the rest is breakfast," she told them. The guys just kept staring at her as if she had grown another head.
"You each get your own pizza," A.J. repeated. Colleen nodded.
"Girls don't just eat salad and a bite of food. We eat like you guys,"
Ryan told them with grin. Kendall nodded in agreement.
"How many pizzas did you order?" she asked.
"Five," Howie replied.
"So why is it so weird we ordered the same number?" she asked. Howie shrugged.
"Well, all the girls who I eat with always just eat like one slice," he said. Kendall laughed.
"They're worried about what you would think if they ate normally. They don't want you guys to think they're pigs," she informed him.
Nick grinned. "That's pretty funny, because I always thought that they were weird BECAUSE they ate so little." Just then Shannon let out a huge burp. Everyone turned to look at her.
She bit her lip, smiling. "Excuse me." Colleen looked at her.
"It wasn't one of your best," she said. Shannon shrugged.
"I know. I wasn't really trying." They turned back to the guys, who were standing stunned once again.
"I didn't know a girl could burp like that," Nick said, admiringly.
"They can, they just don't in front of cute guys. They care to much about what the guy might think," Shannon told him.
Kevin looked at them. "So you guys really don't care what we might think about you," he stated. The girls looked at each other.
"Basically," Morgan said like it was an obvious fact.
The guys looked at each other.
"That's so weird," A.J. said, used to how different girls act in front of the famous boy group. Nick was still interested in Shannon's talent.
"So that wasn't one of your best?" he asked. Shannon shook her head.
"No, I can actually burp the alphabet if I want," she told him.
Morgan smiled. "She was lunchroom champ in high school," she added. She looked at the rest of the girls. "The pizzas are going to be here in forty-five minutes," she told them. Kendall nodded.
"Okay, let's go back to the living room and talk," she said. They all walked out, leaving the boys admiring the view from behind.
"Man, Kendall is hot," Nick observed. "Do you think she likes me?" he asked hopefully to the other guys. Brian gave him a look.
"Um, as a friend but I haven't really seen any reason to think that she likes more than that," he told his little buddy. "Sorry Nick."
Nick looked down for a moment and then cheered up. "Oh well, there's still time to win her over," he said optimistically.
"Right now, how about settling for some eavesdropping?" A.J. offered. The guys looked at each other and walked to the living room where they listened through the closed curtained French doors.
"So I saw Connor in Maryland, Shannon," Colleen said. Shannon smiled.
"Well, did he ask about me?" She said with a grin, thinking of their gorgeous friend.
Ryan nodded. "Actually he did. He was wondering how you were and he wanted me to tell you something. What were his exact words?" She paused as she tried to recall his message. Her eyes lit up as she remembered what it was.
"Oh yeah. He said to tell you, he wondered if you still thought about the peach tree?" she told Shannon. "What that means, I have no idea," she continued as Shannon's face became red and her grin got bigger.
"I have a feeling Shannon knows exactly what it means," Kendall said with a laugh. "What does it mean, Panda?" she asked curiously.
Shannon laughed softly. "Well, last time I was there which was about six months ago, Connor and I, well remember the big going away party the gang threw for us?" she asked her friends. They nodded.
"Well, for a while I disappeared into the peach orchard next to your house," she said to Kendall. "Connor followed me and we sat there talking under one of the peach trees. Well," she paused. "He kissed me."
"Oooh," Morgan said. "Connor and Shannon kissing in or should I say under a tree, K, I, S, S, I, N, G." Shannon threw a pillow at her head as Howie scooted closer to the door outside the room, wanting to know if there was something between Connor and Shannon.
"So what happened?" Ryan asked, excitedly. Shannon smiled.
"Well, at first I was surprised so I just sat there. Well I sat there so long that Connor started apologizing for kissing me and acting all embarrassed because he thought I had rejected him. So he was sitting there blabbering when I kissed him," she said with a twinkle in her eye. "And let's just say from there on, there was no more talking."
The girls laughed. "So that's what he meant about remembering the peach tree. So you guys just decided to leave it at that, a make-out session?" Morgan inquired.
"A fabulous make-out session," Shannon interjected. "And yeah, we thought the long distance thing would be too hard and with us leaving the next day, we thought that we would pause and figure it out the next time I came to visit you guys," she said.
"So you have something to look forward too next time you visit other than seeing us," Kendall observed. Shannon rolled her eyes.
Just then Shannon heard a small bang and a muffled curse outside the door, as Howie lost his balance and fell, landing on Nick. She motioned for the girls to keep quiet.
"Did you hear something?" she asked. The rest of the girls shook their heads.
"No, why?" Morgan asked. Shannon got up and walked over to the corner of the room, where she could angle a far off peak of the other side of the door through the curtains. She was greeted with the sight of the guys, sitting on the floor next to the door, eavesdropping. She crept back to the rest of the girls.
"Nothing, I was just hearing noises," she said as she grabbed a piece of paper and started writing on it. The girls resumed their gossip until Shannon held up a piece of paper.
They looked at the paper that said THE GUYS ARE LISTENING OUTSIDE THE DOOR.
They all turned to look at the door and then back at Shannon, who nodded.
"So I was just thinking, isn't it weird to think that we really have the BACKSTREET BOYS staying at our house," Shannon said loudly, drawing the guys attention on the other side of the door. The guys all crept closer to the door, now that the girls were talking about them.
"Yeah, it is weird," Kendall agreed. "But I don't mind having cute guys staying with us. Especially Kevin," she said loudly as she remembered what Colleen had said about how Kevin got really embarrassed about girls saying that he was so gorgeous.
Ryan looked at her sister, remembering the same thing. "I know, Kevin is really hot. Kevin is such a kit-kat bar. Break me off a piece of that," she said with a grin. "Brian is cute in his own way while Kevin is just flat out gorgeous." Colleen laughed while outside the door Brian was having a fit at hearing Ryan say that.
Shannon nodded. "I know, today Kevin bent over to get something and man, he has got a fine ass," she said loudly. "He's a tiger, grrrrrr!"
By this time, Kevin was bright red and the guys were giving him evil looks.
"Yeah, Colleen. How come you had to get the cutest one?" Morgan asked. "I mean, his nickname of Mr. Body Beautiful is obviously true," she said coyly.
Outside the door, Kevin buried his red face in his hands, dying of embarrassment.
"Well, what about A.J.?" Colleen asked as A.J.'s ears perked up. "I mean, his arms are awesome and those tattoos make him so sexy," she said.
"Yeah, gotta agree with you there," Shannon observed. "Though, I was watching MTV the other day and the guys video, As Long As You Love Me came on and I about died laughing. The hats on A.J. were soooo stupid. It looked like he was trying to be a 1920s flapper. All he needed was a gunnysack. Talk about wrong wardrobe choice," she finished.
Meanwhile A.J. was getting offended. "I didn't look like that did I?" he asked the others.
"Um, A.J. we sorta have to agree with Shannon on this one," Howie told him as the others nodded. A.J. just looked at them and then turned back to the girls' conversation.
"Or how about I'll Never Break Your Heart. In that video, Nick's hair looked like it couldn't decided which way to go," Ryan said with a grin.
"Yeah, totally. But I liked their apartments, those were cool," Shannon observed.
"Hey, where is their CD?" Colleen asked. "Morgan, don't you have it?" Morgan nodded.
"Yeah, I'll go get it," she said as she jumped up. She purposely waited for the guys on the other side of the door to scramble away and pretend to be watching TV in the family room until she opened the doors and ran up to her room to get the CD. She came back about fifteen minutes later.
"Got it," she said as she closed the doors and the guys resumed their eavesdropping positions.
"What took you so long?" Ryan asked. Morgan smiled.
"I couldn't find the CD and then it hit me. Remember my uneven side table?" she asked Shannon and Colleen who nodded.
"Well, I remembered that the BSB CD was the perfect size to fix the uneven leg and sure enough, it was stuck under there, balancing the table," she finished. In truth it has been in her CD drawer but her lie had the desired effect on the guys.
"They seem to have a lot of respect for our music," A.J. said sarcastically. The rest nodded.
"Oh well, pop it in," Ryan said. Morgan nodded and ran over to the CD player, popping in the CD and pushing play. Soon Everybody came on and the girls started singing along.
"Am I sexual?" Ryan sang.
"Hell no," Shannon replied, trying not to laugh.
"Am I the only one?" Morgan sang.
"Hell no," Shannon said again as the guys started getting upset. Just then the doorbell rang and before the guys could move, Shannon stopped the tape and Morgan opened the door, resulting in the guys falling forward into the living room.
"I'll get it," Morgan cried as she went to pay for the pizza. The guys were busy trying to explain why they were tumbled in a pile on the floor.
"Um we were just . . ." A.J. tried to explain.
"Eavesdropping on our slumber party," Shannon finished.
Nick looked at her. "You knew?" he asked. She nodded.
"Yeah. Enjoy the conversation?" she asked in return. Howie looked over.
"You mean, all that stuff was said was not real?" he asked as he stood up and pulled up A.J.
Ryan nodded. "Of course not. It was to teach you a lesson that you shouldn't have done what you did," she said.
"So you didn't just settle for the less cute cousin?" Brian asked Ryan. Ryan rolled her eyes.
"No retard," she said as she whacked his arm. He just hugged her, happy to know that all she said was just to make them mad.
"Hey guys, pizzas are here," Morgan called from the kitchen. And the talking stopped as everyone rushed in to eat.
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