We Admitted It

Rules are to be remembered. Errors are to be forgiven. =) Responses are welcomed. SaintWurk@aol.com.

Gabriella, Clive, and Christopher: People with GREAT stories on here. You guys all rock!!!! I love everything you write! Cassandra, and Myka: you girls just kick!! Luv ya all!

Oh yeah, I did promise that this one would be the longest didn't I?!

We Admitted It part 10

I entered into a mad house! That's the only way you could describe it. There were people everywhere. I recognized them all of course, but that's not the point. There were five people waiting in the room that I knew already and thirteen that I had yet to be introduced to. This was gonna be interesting.

"Food!" Nick yelled as soon as he spotted the 5 boxes of donuts that Brian and I had brought in with us. He charged over and took the three boxes I was holding and the two Brian had and ran off to the kitchen being chased by another familiar looking blonde, a redhead I knew wasn't Bridget, and four brunettes.

Everyone else filed in slowly grabbing a donut or two and then heading off to the living room to chill while we all got together. I looked around the room and realized that even though I didn't "know" any of the newcomers, I knew exactly who each of them was. And as soon as I recognized one particular blonde, I knew I was going to have to talk to Bridget. She couldn't be happy about this. I was thrilled, but Bridget would be anything but. Hopefully I can get her to chill about it. She can be a first-rate bitch when she wants to and I can only hope that AJ will be able to keep her from getting riled up over that particular blonde. Far more so than any other person in the room.

"Brian. We're gonna have a problem. One of Bridget's least favorite people is in this room right now." I said to my boyfriend with a worrisome expression on my face.

"What? Who?" Brian replied.

"Britney. Bridget can't stand her. If we're lucky she'll keep it in check for today, but be sure and tell AJ to try and keep them apart as much as possible. She can only watch herself for so long." I told Brian. He just nodded in reply sensing that I may have just made an understatement of two.

Just then Kevin, ever the leader, spoke up. "Quiet down people. Now I know most of us know most everyone else, but for the benefit of those who don't and for the fact that few of us have been officially introduced to each other, I'm going to request that we go around the room with introductions." Kevin then began motioning to everyone around the room as he continued talking. "We'll start with myself, I'm Kevin, then go through the rest of the Backstreet Boys, onto N*SYNC, then 98 degrees, the quartet of singing blondes over in the corner there and ending with our two friends here." Kevin said pointing at Bridget and I. "Again, I'm Kevin and these are the rest of the Backstreet Boys.

"Brian."

"AJ."

"Nick."

"Howie."

Then Justin started it off for N*SYNC. "Justin."

"JC."

"Lance."

"Joey."

"And Chris."

"We're 98 degrees. I'm Nick."

"His brother, Drew."

"Jeff."

"Another Justin."

"Kevin is going to get it for calling us 'the quartet of singing blondes', even if he is right, but I'm Christina."

"Jessica."

"Britney."

"I'm Mandy."

"And for the two of us here who don't sing" I said smiling, "I'm Chase."

"And I'm Bridget."

"O.K." Kevin said focusing our attention once again, "Now that we all have at least a rudimentary idea of who the others are, I'll tell you all why were here. First I wanted to say thank you to 98 degrees, we're glad to have you down here in our neck of the woods. Same to you Jessica. N*SYNC, Britney, Christina, and Mandy, you all hang out and/or live in this area so lets do our best to help those Ohio boys and that lil' Darlin' from Texas," Kevin said with a horrible accent that earned him a great deal of laughter, "and show them around. I'm sure they'll appreciate it. Chase and Bridget, I haven't forgotten about you, your welcome to join our discussion and I want to talk to the two of you after as well."

Bridget and I just looked at each other in confusion not really having a clue as to what was going on here. More importantly, we were each trying to figure out what Kevin would want to talk to us about that could involve 17 recording artists.

"I've been asked to put together a benefit." Kevin said simply. " Knew that all of you were in town for one reason or another and I had a feeling that all of you would be kindhearted enough to donate your time and talents for this wonderful project. The benefit is for keeping music and the arts active and alive in the schools. I don't know about some of you, but I know that I never would have made it through my high school if it wasn't for my music classes. So. What do you say?"

"We're all over it. We know exactly what you mean Kevin." Nick said on behalf of 98 degrees.

"SOME of us didn't get the chance to go to regular high school" Justin said, "But that was because of music so you know we're there." Justin finished for N*SYNC.

"I totally agree with Justin." Christina said.

"Me too." Britney agreed.

"I'm missing high school for music right now." Mandy said while smiling. She was only 15 at the time.

"Just tell me where and when." Jessica said.

"We'll do anything we can to help also Kevin." I said for Bridget and myself.

"Great!" Kevin said with enthusiasm. "I knew I could count on all of you. Now, what we're going to do is this. Each of us will have forty minutes of stage time. Keep it about half and half or so. Half of that time performing, the other half, telling why you are supporting this and what it means to you. All of the profits are going directly into programs to save the arts in schools and music specifically. Its going for things like music, risers, instruments, and things like that. Now for some specifics. I've talked to everyone's management about this and they all agree that this is a great thing for us all to do and said it was fine as long as you agreed to it. That's great but some of them did have a stipulation or two so here goes." He then turned to each group as he singled them out. " 98 degrees, you guys can do anything you want, 'True to Your Heart' would be a great tie-in to Christina so she can do 'Reflections'. I know how much she loves that song. They did say that you need to do one song off of your first CD and the rest off of your current CD 'And Rising.' Christina, you have no restrictions at all, but they did want me to remind you of something. They said that 'Reflections' and 'Genie In a Bottle' are your only singles released so far, as you know, so to gauge responses to whatever you do choose to sing to see what you think your next single should be. Britney, right now '...Baby One More Time' and 'Sometimes' are your only two singles out. As you know they are doing great and you are going to end the year with the second best selling album, sorry sweetie, but you know we're going to beat you, so they want to make sure that you sing '(You Drive Me) Crazy' since the movie will be out this summer and to sing 'From the Bottom of My Broken Heart.' They are thinking of releasing it as your next single after 'Crazy' and what to see what people think of it. Jessica, I spoke to Tommy personally and he said that you can do whatever your sweet little heart desires. He did recommend 'Where You Are' with your boyfriend Nick there, and of course your current single 'I Wanna Love You Forever.' Anything else is totally up to you. You can even sing one of your old songs if you wish. Mandy, Since your album isn't in stores yet and not many people are going to have a clue who you are, you have free reign to do anything you want. The only stipulation was that you have to do 'Candy.' It's your first single so you may as well get started with it. N*SYNC, you guys have full authorization from Jive to do any of the songs on your current CD and one from your new CD coming out in March. They suggested 'Bye, Bye, Bye' since its a great one to finish with and apparently the only one you guys have finished so far. We are supposed to do no more than two songs from our first album and the rest from 'Millennium.' Oh and we get to pick a few songs to cover as a group. Up to two each for the girls, the guys, and all of us together. We'll vote later on to figure out which songs we're going to cover. We have no limitations on what we can choose so think hard. We'll decide tonight. The benefit is Friday night. Its Sunday now so we'll have plenty of time for rehearsals."

"I'll take care of all the food, Kevin. Don't worry about it at all." Bridget said. Some of the others were looking at her kind of funny so she told them what restaurant she owned and they suddenly understood and nodded their agreement of Bridget being a great choice for such a job.

"Chase." Kevin said to me. "Since all the Backstreet Boys already know that you are as bossy as I am." Kevin smiled at that.

"You guys have NO idea." Bridget stated flatly. They all just looked at her. "I didn't say it was a bad thing. You'll see. He's better at being bossy than Kevin." She affirmed.

"We'll just see about that." Kevin said still smiling. "You're going to be in charge over at the venue. You are going to be overseeing all of the performers and performances. You will be fully in charge there so its all up to you including who spends extra time with the choreographer." Kevin then turned back to the group. "Most of us already know and love her. Yes, that's right its Fatima." Kevin looked at Jessica, Mandy, and 98 degrees for this, "She's a seriously driven woman. She'll work you 'til you think you're dead, but she's great and definitely worth it. She's already spoken to your choreographers so she knows what you do and don't normally do. I definitely would not suggest trying to put one over on her, however she'll be happy to give you some new idea and interpretations if you want them." Kevin paused to look at each one of us before continuing. "Now, we all have a lot of work to do lets take off for the day and have some fun. Just remember to start thinking about what you each have to do and we'll meet back here tonight at 7 for dinner and to discuss our plans and ideas. Now go. Play. Have fun." Kevin then waived his hand in a dismissive gesture and walked into the kitchen.

I followed Kevin. "Now I have the complete schedule right Kev. Just the 17 of you?" I began to laugh.

"What's so funny?" Kevin asked me.

"Just the 17 of you. I'm sorry, but I think that's funny. JUST the 17 of you." I said still chuckling.

"You've got a point." Kevin said joining in. "And maybe. I have a couple of other people I want to call up and see if they can make it, but I'll know by dinner so you can set up your schedule however you want to for the arena. That'll be your show. Mine is getting everyone involved, which I've mostly done, and then coordinating it all together though I suppose that with you being in charge of the arena we'll be doing a lot of that together with Bridget. Now go on and have fun. I've got some calls to make." Kevin said smiling at me before getting all serious again and looking through his electronic organizer for some phone numbers.

I walked back into the living room to find Brian talking with Nick C., Britney, Christina, Justin T., JC, Lance, Drew, and Jeff. "What's the plan guys?" I asked looking at Brian.

"You guys are going to show us 'Ohio boys' around Disney World while the others go check out Universal." Drew said.

"Yeah. We couldn't pass up the chance to explore Disney with some former Mousketeers." Jeff said while grinning. "Besides, you guys seem like you know how to have more fun anyway."

"I have to agree with you there Jeff." I just looked at him, "Besides, think of how much fun it will be to torment the Mousketeers in their own environment." This was met by a chorus of 'yea's' from everyone but the four former Mousketeers who just groaned knowing full well that we would in fact torture them about it from time to time while in the park. Especially when we burst into the Mickey Mouse club theme song. Being the 'nice' guy that I am I got it going with. "Who's the leader of the club that's made for you and me?"

"M-I-C K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E" Was the response heard from all. Britney was actually the loudest of all causing the rest of us to go into fits of laughter.

With that, we headed out the door and they all stopped in the driveway. "How are we all getting there?" Christina asked. "We're not all piling in that are we?"

"Of course we are." I said. "I've fit nine people into a Jeep Wrangler, we can certainly fit 10 people into a Dodge Durango. Besides, its a good excuse to get to know each other better." I said smiling at them all.

"Well, lets just pile on in." Lance said getting into the spirit of things. And they all crammed their way into the Durango with Drew securing the front seat and myself driving. Why isn't Brian up front you may ask? Simple. He couldn't pass up the opportunity to torment Nick in such a tight space. Can you blame him? Me neither.

We made it there in one piece despite the fact that Brian and Nick were constantly asking 'Are we there yet?', Britney and Christina were battling Justin and JC as to who could sing 'Its a Small World' the most times in a row. Lance, and Jeff were taking turns hitting everyone back there to get them to shut up, and Drew and I were singing to the Aqua CD that we were blasting to drown out everything that was going on behind us.

Suffice it to say I was going to have to talk to them before we got back in the car this evening.

Before they all got out, I did a quick check to make sure that their disguises were good enough to deter people and then made the necessary changes for them. Mostly I just had some of the guys trade shirts so they were wearing things that they don't normally wear in order to throw fans off a bit more and then when I was satisfied with their appearances, we entered the park for a day of fun.

We went on EVERYTHING. Twice. Our Mousketeers knew enough of the right people still that we got to skip the lines and enter from the exits. It was pretty cool. We all had an absolute blast. I even made sure that we were back on time for dinner. The ride home was just as eventful as the ride out.

Brian, and Britney were arguing with Jeff and JC over whose Hand had grabbed whose butt. Nick and Justin were singing the themes to almost every Disney movie ever made. Unfortunately they rarely chose the same movie at the same time. Lance and Christina were laughing about how Chris and Howie would make an interesting couple. Drew and I were singing to Aqua again as the trip started but then I decided to put in something I was fairly certain none of the guys would have heard before and see if it shut them up. Drew thought it was a good idea so I grabbed one of the CD's I had bought when I had been in Europe late the year before and blared a little rock-a-Billy at them. It was a group called 'The Cartoons' and the first song was a very catchy version of 'The Witch Doctor' that miraculously did get everyone to shut up when they realized that not only did they not recognize this band at all but that they all knew the words to this song. Ahh, the bliss of relative peace. Or at least of having the only real noise now be the music I had put on. It actually lasted the rest of the way home since they didn't know any of the songs and this was a fun change for all of them from what they each sang. These songs weren't really about love or anything remotely serious. The only purpose of these songs was to make you enjoy them. It was a welcome change for them all. Justin couldn't wait to get Joey to listen to this and Nick wanted AJ to hear it. Drew said that Nick would get a kick out of it and with that we pulled into the driveway and headed into the house.

We beat the Universal bunch back and so I headed in to talk to Kevin while it was still relatively peaceful. "Hey Kev. How'd it go?"

He just smiled at me and said, "Better than I could have ever hoped. By the way, you really have your work cut out for you."

"Why's that?"

"Because our little event has snowballed into the biggest thing so far this year. Everyone wants in." Kevin looked at me and smiled. "And you get to deal with it. You pick who you want. This is everyone who has said that they'll be here tomorrow if we want them." It was quite a list. This had just become an all day event, not to mention the concert event of all-time. And I was in charge of who does what when.

This was going to be a long night.