Oreos For Breakfast: Nick Fanfic

Oreos for Breakfast
Chapter 8

By The Paperbag Princess and The Pumpkin Coach

It had been ten minutes. Nothing on TV. When were they coming back? Did they leave without me?

Rolling over, I found Em's wallet, Rachel must have dropped it. She did say we could look at the pictures…

I opened it up, greeted by a picture of one of the cutest babies I'd ever seen. I knew that baby, she was the one in the picture Rachel had shown me at the house. She was standing up, grinning at the camera, dark hair sticking up all over her head. The next photo was the same baby, held by a man with dark hair and good cheekbones. The first favorite Alex James. I'd never met him, but I knew him from doing research on Damon Albarn.

Were there pictures of Damon in here? He was in a band with Em's husband, was she close to him? Unable to resist, I flipped through the other pictures. Baby, baby, baby, kids I didn't know… wow.

I knew Damon, I'd studied his face enough, trying to figure out what Rachel saw in him. He always looked bored in the photos I'd seen, glancing at the camera like he had better things to do. But he was gazing at the little girl in his arms with complete adoration.

God, poor Rachel. No competing with that. She could be Rachel's daughter, they had the same dark curls. Rachel would be a good mom someday. If Rachel and I had kids, would they be blond or dark like her? Blond ringlets, I could just picture it…

The door burst open and I tossed the wallet over my shoulder, trying to look innocent. "Put your shoes on, little man, this is a covert operation!" Rachel told me, ripping open the closet.

Em was filming the room, and I just blinked at them for a minute while they giggled and discussed clothes. "Come on, Mr. Carter!" Em commanded, and I sat up. Kevin told me once that she used to be a teacher, and it all fell into place. She used a certain tone of voice on me and I always did whatever she wanted. I found my shoes and ball cap and moved to the door.

"Why are we suddenly in a hurry?" I asked, as Em swept by me.

"We're sending Amber on a wild goose chase for good locations. Green record execs are so fucking easy. James! I need 30 seconds in your room!" James opened his door and let her in and I turned back to Rachel, who was looking for something.

"Your sunglasses are on top of the TV, babe. Wear the ones we got in New York, I like the rhinestones. What the hell is Em talking about? Oh, her wallet is on the table, she forgot it before."

She grabbed Em's wallet and stuck it in her pocket before finding her sunglasses. "Thank you, sweetie. Em is talking about the fact that we told Amber that we needed… oh, something. Em did it. And we're supposed to wait here while Amber checks something out, and start filming in an hour. But we're leaving now and hoping she doesn't find us."

"Rachel!" Em called from the hallway, and I stuck my head out. "You'll do," she said, seeing me. "My cameras are in the conference room. Go get them and meet us at the front door in five minutes. Can you handle that, Mr. Carter?"

"Yes, ma'am," I said, making her smile before she whirled around, calling for Jeremy. I went back in the room, where Rachel was staring at her makeup. "You don't need any, baby, you're beautiful. Are you ready?"

She shook her head. "Two minutes. Get Em's cameras, I'll see you downstairs. Lola rented us a van, easier to park."

"Where are we going?" What would we need to park? I had no idea was this video was going to be about, Rachel and I had never really talked about the details.

Shrugging, she looked up at me with a smile. "Ask Em. Get her cameras or she'll go all teacher on your ass." She giggled when I pouted at her. "Don't worry, honey, she uses the teacher voice on her husband to get him in line. It works really well with pop stars. Now go, I'll see you in two minutes."

Em's camera bag was fucking heavy. It was just one bag, but it must have weighed fifty pounds. I thought this video was one digital camera? Didn't she have a useless assistant? Why was I carrying her bag? There were storyboards on the table, and I glanced at them for a second before taking those, too.

Outside the main doors was a green minivan, and Lola waved me inside. James and Jeremy were already in the back, and Jeremy raised an eyebrow at me. "Are you Ms. Evesham's new assistant, then?"

I shrugged, putting the camera bag on the seat next to me. "Whatever. Doesn't she have one?"

James chuckled. "She got to go with Amber."

"Ya know," Jeremy started, "Amber is our label rep, and she's not that bad-"

"Oh, J, she's terrible," James interrupted.

"Just because we have to hide the boy wonder from her does not make her awful. Why does he have to come, anyway?"

"Because someone has to carry my gear, darling," Em told him, climbing into the front seat. "I'm sure he'll take orders better than that useless girl from the label. And I'm not having Amber dogging my ass all day." Rachel and Darien sat next to me and I smiled at her. Maybe Jeremy would shut up now that Em was using the teacher voice on him.

Not that I ever had a teacher that said 'dogging my ass,' but the tone still meant business.

"Where are we going?" Lola asked and Em shrugged.

"Where can we shoot in Chicago? Especially without permits, I gave those to Amber to make her feel important."

James and Jeremy started throwing ideas out, and I tried not to groan. Our videos were always carefully laid out. Hell, our photo shoots with Em were carefully planned. At least they seemed that way.

"Alright, Lola, just drive. Where the hell are we and who has a map of Chicago?"

Lola handed her one and started driving. Em took notes on Lola's clipboard as the band threw ideas for cool places to shoot and looked at places on the map. "Nick, can I have the CD? Let me hear the track, it might click something in my head."

I rummaged through her bag. "Is it in here somewhere?"

She turned around in her seat to see me. "No, it's in the boom box I told you to get."

I looked up at her. "You told me to get your cameras. And I got the storyboards," I offered, holding them up.

"They're useless, I pulled those outa my ass to appease the label. So you didn't get the audio?"

I shook my head. Shit. I fucked up. We were going to have to go back to the hotel, and run into Amber, and then they were all going to hate me.

"Nick ruined Christmas!" James teased, and everyone laughed. Rachel took my hand and grinned at me.

"It's OK, bunny," she whispered. "I didn't hear Em remind you."

"You're available everywhere, right, guys? I don't have to find some little indie shop to get the album?"

"We're on sale at Best Buy this week," Darien offered. He knew the weirdest stuff.

Em nodded at him. "Cool. If we can find one, we can get a new boom box, too. There goes the video budget!" she joked, grinning at me. "Oooh!" she squealed, and everyone looked over at her. "Best Buy! We can film there! We'll crank up the track in the CD player aisle, and you can jam and I'll film, and then they'll kick us out. Bitchen!"

"Cool, fifteen minute shoot," Darien joked. "Can we spend the rest of the budget on a bar tab?"

"Karoke?" Em asked, and they all cheered.

"Excellent!" Jeremy said.

Hell, even Jeremy was into this idea. I couldn't imagine what this video would look like, but it sounded like fun. Better than just standing around waiting for something to happen on our video shoots. Rachel was on the phone, and I looked over at her. "What are you doing?"

"Finding a Best Buy. Lola, where are we?"

Lola rattled off a street address and Rachel repeated it into the phone. "Why, thank you. You've been very helpful." She clicked off the phone. "Get on the highway, we're about three exits away from a Best Buy."

Em grinned at her and put down her phone. "Just what I was going to do. So how do we find a karoke club?"

"Web browser," Rachel told her, and pulled out her Palm Pilot. I leaned over, telling her to type in the wrong things and making her laugh. After just a few minutes, we pulled up to the unsuspecting Best Buy. They had no idea what we were about to do to it. We spilled out the car and Em corralled everyone together.

"Alright, the band can go and figure out the CD player situation. Find one to buy that we can just pick up, because I think they're gonna want to kick us out. Then figure out the loudest one so that we can slam the CD in there. Nick and I will get the CD, and Lola is going to distract the manager."

"I am?" Lola asked her, and Em grinned.

"Flip your hair at him or something. Hopefully it's a guy. If it's not, offer her Jeremy or Darien. Offer her both."

Jeremy and Darien looked at one another and shrugged. "Willing to take one for the team, dude?" Darien asked.

"We've done worse." We split up at the door, and Em led me over to the CD's. I found the Sudden Silence section before she did. I found it first in every store I went into. I grabbed all four copies of the CD, we might lose one or something.

"Oooh…" Em said, looking at my hand.

"What?" I asked her, glancing around to find the band. I knew they were going to get us all in trouble.

"Put them back," she ordered, and I did, and she turned on the video camera, filming the rack, zooming in on the Sudden Silence divider, and then motioning to me. "Pull one out, and hold it up so I can film it. Slowly!" she said as I started to do it. She did that about three times, having me cover up the price tag, then she made me undo the shrink wrap because the glare was bad. A few people around us were watching, but no one else was paying attention.

Then we heard music blasting from the back, and she took off. It was a radio station, a DJ talking about their show last night. When I caught up to Em, 'Come On' was playing and the band was bouncing around the aisle, dancing with each other and singing into the camera as Em laughed. Rachel saw me standing behind Em and grinned, singing at me.

So I'm telling you boyfriend
That you never met a girl like me before

Too true, Rache. I'd never met a girl as full of life and laughter. I loved how all of them were so excited that their song was on the radio, it was adorable. I wanted to move over there and dance with her, but I knew I needed to stay off camera. This was their show, not mine.

Besides, Jeremy might kill me.

I was watching them, laughing as they bounced into walls, when I felt a hand on my shoulder and jumped. Lola smiled at me. "Pretend you don't know us, we are so gonna get kicked out."

"But-" I started to protest, and she threw a look over her shoulder before looking back at me.

"You do not look like a rock star today, and somebody has to buy that radio. Go hide in video games or something until we're gone, then get one and meet us at the car." She pushed me away and whirled around to smile prettily at a geeky little guy who was obviously the manager. His face was red, he was so angry.

"Get out of my way," he demanded to her, and she faked him out. "I am putting an end to this right now. I cannot believe the audacity of you people-" He looked around, trying to figure out what the source of the commotion was, and I ducked down an aisle. They were so gonna get busted, and for once in my life, I was gonna be the good guy.

I was in the video games already before the music turned off, and the whole store seemed to go silent. Then there was more yelling, and I stood on tiptoe to see over the racks. Lola and the manager guy were arguing, but moving the band and Em towards the front doors. Em was filming everything, I think the manager was so pissed off at Lola he didn't notice. That might have been the point. They had a little crowd following them, but they dropped away as they got closer to the doors. No Sudden Silence fans here, evidently.

I couldn't see them any more, so I looked back at the video games. It had been a few days since I blew anyone up. Did they have a PlayStation on the tour bus? Every tour bus should have a PlayStation.

There was an empty cart nearby and I grabbed it, throwing in about 10 game cartridges and finding a PS II on a top shelf. I didn't think they had one on the bus, and I knew at least James liked video games, we'd talked about them before.

"And stay out!" echoed through the store, and I giggled to myself. What is this, a bad movie?

Right, buy a radio. I went back to the scene of the crime, and there were two clerks there, straightening things up and laughing about how pissed the manager was, and how hot the chick was.

'Mine! Mine mine mine!' I thought to myself smugly. Yeah, she was hot, and this video was going to be on MTV in a couple of weeks, and the whole world was going to think she was hot. And she'd be mine.

I remembered what Em had said about just buying a radio off the shelf, so I found a couple and played with the displays, seeing which one would be loudest. And easiest to carry, because I somehow knew that would be my job.

15 minutes later, I found the van, Lola leaning against it. "Took you long enough!" she exclaimed.

"They had to dust the crime scene for prints," I told her, making her laugh. She opened the back of the van and I started unloading my boxes. "Where is everyone?" The van was empty.

"Toy store," she told me, pointing down the parking lot. "I've got my pick of any toy, little boy," she sang at me, not half as well as Rachel. That must have shown on my face, because she rolled her eyes. "Hey, there's a reason I'm a tour manager and not a rock star. Anyway, they're off either buying things or getting kicked out again."

"Cool… do they have batteries at the toy store?" I asked, looking at the box for the radio. I knew there was something I forgot.

"Probably," she laughed. "What's that?"

"PlayStation. I got it for the bus."

Her eyes widened. "Did you get Final Fantasy?"

"Duh!"

"Dude, excellent! You are so cool!" We talked video games as we drove over to the toy store. It wasn't far, but she wanted to be ready for a quick getaway.

We walked into the toy store, and it was quiet. No blaring music, just normal activity. We looked at one another, surprised. "It's been about 20 minutes," she said. "And they haven't gotten into trouble?"

"Maybe they took them out back and shot them," I joked, making her laugh.

"Well, I heard something about Barbie dolls and N Sync marionettes, let's look over there."

That's where we found them. Jeremy and Darien were tossing dolls into a cart, while James watched Rachel and Em talking to one of the clerks.

No, that was wrong. They weren't talking. They were flirting. Hard. There was hair flipping, and eyelashes batting, and accidental little touches as they had to emphasize a point. There was giggling and sweet voices and did Rachel just bend over on purpose so that he could see down her shirt?

They were lethal together. Rachel just had to smile and I'd do anything. I had never seen her flirt like this. And Em! Em! The sweet, married, professional photographer that I always knew, she was amazing. Kevin would lose his mind if she turned the charm on him like this.

Lola and I went over to James, who was clutching a box to his chest. "What's going on?" Lola whispered.

"He recognized Rachel, and they're trying to convince him to let us film. We might end up in the stockroom. Are they masters, or what? I'd give them anything they wanted right now."

Evidently the guy just did, Rachel squealed and kissed his cheek, then danced over to us while Em talked to him for another minute. Rachel saw me and grinned, rolling her eyes back at the guy. I got it, she was pretending to be unattached.

I was so amused by her performance that I didn't care. "That was masterful, Rache," James told her, and she giggled quietly.

"Years of practicing on you, darling. What do you have there?" she asked, looking at the box in his arms.

He let it go, showing it to her. "JC," he sighed. "Isn't he pretty?"

"Actually, he looks a bit like Frankenstein," Rachel said, considering the doll. It was one of those lame ass N Sync marionettes. I was pleased to see that it was marked down to only 3 bucks.

James shrugged and tossed the box into the cart. "Yeah, it's a bad doll. But I know that the real JC is a hottie."

"We are so torturing that thing, dude," Darien told him, throwing another Barbie in the cart. How many toys did they have in there? I could see about 6 Barbie boxes, all the N Sync dolls, and a few GI Joes or something. Was that a Britney at the bottom of the pile?

"You are not! You can do whatever you want to the other four, but JC is mine!"

"Rachel…" Jeremy sing songed, and she looked over at him. "It's your boyfriend's Mini-Me."

Huh? Oh, shit. She grabbed the box out of his hand and started giggling. "Nick! Did you know your brother had a doll?"

"Yeah…" I grumbled, looking at it. "It sucks. But not as bad as the N Sync dolls!"

"There's a Ken that has Alex hair, we need him," Em said, joining us at the cart. Her British accent was thicker than I'd ever heard it, and I think we all looked at her a little weird. "What?" she asked, then giggled. "He liked the accent. I always feel like I sound like Monty Python when I do it too hard, was it bad, Rache?"

She sounded American again. She had the weirdest accent. Kevin could talk about it for hours, he had this whole theory about it, sometimes it was more American than British, sometimes not. I never paid that much attention. It was sexy, though, she had a great voice, a little low, almost always quiet.

"Hey, it worked," Rachel shrugged.

"Yes, it did work." She grinned at Rachel, then went back into teacher mode. "Alright, we are to check out and meet our new best friend Gavin out back. We get 15 minutes in the stockroom, the Barbie aisle. Although I think Rachel and I might be able to buy us a bit more time," she said, winking at Rachel. She grabbed another Ken doll and then made us move towards the cash registers, checking out what they'd thrown in the cart, laughing over the Aaron doll.

Rachel bumped up against me, and I put my arm around her. "Am I allowed?" I whispered. "Will Gavin get jealous?"

She giggled, kissing me quickly as we walked. "Screw Gavin."

"He thinks you will. Damn, Rache, never do that to me, OK? I will not be able to resist you."

"Aw, bunny, you can't resist me now," she teased.

"True," I admitted, then spotted batteries. "Batteries!"

"Those won't be any fun in the video, honey," she deadpanned as I steered her towards them.

"I forgot to get them for the radio." Damnit, what kind did it take? Lola ran over to us, holding up a PS II cartridge.

"Did you get this one?"

I looked at it. X-Files? "No."

"Can I?" she asked, all excited.

"Sure, it's gonna be your PlayStation, get what you want. What kind of batteries does the radio take?"

"D's."

Darien looked over at us. "Yeah?" he wondered, making us laugh.

"Not you, D, batteries. What PlayStation, Nick?" Rachel asked.

"I bought one for the bus."

Rachel groaned, but Darien grabbed me. "Do we get to keep it?"

"I have one, dude," I told him. "It's a gift."

"J! James! Dudes, Nick bought us a PlayStation!"

They came back to us, and even Jeremy smiled at me. "Rachel, I'm going to steal him away from you," James teased.

"No!" she protested, throwing her arms around me. "You want him this way, where he's trying to buy my friends' love. He doesn't buy me PlayStations."

"This is the second PlayStation I've bought for you!" I whined at her.

"You did not buy those for me," she retorted. "You bought them so you would have something to play with when you were with me."

"I will teach you how to play it, if you want," I started, but all the boys groaned.

"Rachel is a very talented woman," Jeremy told me. "But she is fucking hopeless at video games."

"I'm good at the drive-y games!" she pouted, and Jeremy looked at me.

"I rest my case. Because she sucks at those, too. She kicks the floor when she wants the car to go faster, she can never seem to remember that the controls do that."

She let go of me to whack him. "But I can kick your ass at Pounce any day, Nolan!"

Laughing, he ran away, Rachel following him. "It's OK, Connor, you can admit that technology confounds you."

"Who sets up the equipment, dork? Not you!"

Speaking of equipment… I bought about 20 D batteries and threw them in the cart with all the other toys, and we continued towards the registers, following Rachel and Jeremy, who were still kidding around with one another. They both stopped in their tracks, making us bump into them. "Tourbus!" they yelled, nearly in unison.

"Aw, man, it goes with the Jam 'n Glam girls!" James exclaimed, and the three of them could not get the box into the cart fast enough. It was a Barbie tourbus.

"Jam and Glam?" Lola asked, eyeing the tourbus. Rachel dug through all the boxes and pulled out two.

"Rock star Barbies! We're not allowed to torture these, they're gonna be the bus mascots. And they have their own bus!" She was so adorable, about to come out of her skin with glee. The Barbies were cute, silver pants and streaks in their hair. If the dark haired one had curls, it could be Rachel.

"People!" Em barked and we froze, looking over at her. At least I wasn't the only one that got freaked by the teacher voice. "Let's go!" She was standing at a register, waving us over. Darien ran over, pushing the cart, and she stepped away just as it crashed into the counter, sighing at him.

Rachel hung back a little as the others followed him, and she grabbed Lola's arm. "The bus is 50 bucks. Have we spent our budget already?"

"Dunno," Lola mused. "Nick, how much was the boom box?"

I shook my head, putting my arm around Rachel's shoulders. "I didn't notice. I'll buy you the tour bus, baby."

She grinned at me, thrilled. Man, she was easy. I could never make Mandy grin like that for only 50 bucks. "Do not think this gets you out of giving me your real bus."

"Aw, man," I pretended to whine, and we teased each other as we watched the clerk ring up all the toys. I handed over my credit card before Lola could get the one for the band out, and I think only she noticed. This way the toys would be theirs, to torture as they wished.

Darien found the JC doll and ran out of the store, cackling about torturing it, and James chased after him. The rest of us took a bag and followed them out to the van, laughing as James whined. By the time we got to the van, he had the doll back, and was clutching it to his chest protectively. "My JC can beat up your stupid GI Joe any day!" he challenged Darien, and Darien rummaged through a bag.

"Your doll has strings, you dick. GI Joe has kung fu grip!"

I'm not sure if Em would get a very good picture, she seemed to be laughing too hard to hold the camera steady. James and Darien started ripping their dolls out of the boxes and Lola sighed.

"Don't we have to meet a guy in a back alley soon?"

"Oooh, right," Em said, looking up from the camera. "In the car, start unboxing dolls," she ordered, opening a door and pushing James inside. "I want the dolls free so you can toss them around. I got scissors, they're somewhere, Barbies are a bitch to get out of boxes."

It was a frenzy of boxes and toys and stuff got thrown everywhere for the next few minutes, as Lola drove us around the corner. Again, quick getaway. Em was right, Barbies were a pain. Their hair was sewed into the boxes, and Rachel would not let me just rip them out, so I ripped everything else and handed them to her so she could carefully free their hair.

I didn't even realize the car had stopped when Em opened the door and waved us out. "Nick, gather the toys. Band, follow Gavin." They stumbled out, tripping over me as I gathered up all the dolls and put them in one of the bags. Em opened up the back door and started yanking at the box the radio was in, before I handed her the scissors. She flashed me a grin and I suddenly understood why Kevin was so crushed out on her. I always thought she was pretty and nice, but she was adorable right now. I could tell she was having way more fun than she ever did with us.

"Is this driving you crazy, Nicky?" she asked, pulling the radio free from its box. "We're living a little close to the edge."

I shrugged, unwrapping some of the batteries for her. "You're the one that's organized, Em. I'm gonna tell Kevin what a wild woman you are."

She giggled, holding out her hand for the batteries. "Ah, Kevy knows my dark side."

"Does he?" I joked.

She just flashed me a flirty look, putting the batteries into the radio and closing the little door. "Oh, Kevy and I have many secrets, sweetie."

"Yeah, like why you're the only person in the world allowed to call him 'Kevy'," I said, making her laugh again.

"I'm just special." She stood up, gathering her stuff and straightening her hair. "Shall we go rescue your girlfriend from Gavin?"

"Yes!" I insisted, climbing out of the van with all the dolls. Em slammed the back door and we went inside. Lola was holding the door for us, talking on the phone to someone.

"Yes, Amber," she said, and Em gasped, covering her mouth with her free hand. She thrust the radio at me and waved me away, telling me to find the others, but not to turn on the music until she got there.

I just followed the sounds of chaos and found them. They were in the Barbie aisle, all right, stacks of pink boxes were on every shelf. Jeremy saw me and ran over, taking the bag of dolls out of my hand. "Where's Em?" he asked.

"Amber called Lola, they're plotting something," I told him, and he just nodded. Guess he didn't feel the need to defend her any longer.

"Dudes!" he called, but no one paid him any attention. Rachel was flirting with Gavin and another guy- what, was he pimping her out now?- and Darien and James were still battling with their dolls, chasing each other through the aisles and laughing. Jeremy went over to the boys and pulled Darien away by his shirt. "Give me the doll," he commanded and Darien let it go, pouting. Jeremy sat it on the shelf next to a teacher Barbie and then held out his hand to James.

James held his JC behind his back, moving away from Jeremy. "James…" Jeremy said threateningly, but he didn't have Em's teacher voice, and James took off, making Jeremy follow him. He dropped the bag of the other dolls, and Darien grinned over at me, pulling some out.

"What should we do to them?" he wondered, and I set down the boom box, joining him at the bag.

"We have to do something horrible to Britney and Justin, I think."

"Can I torture your brother?"

"I've been known to," I told him. Five minutes later there was a doll orgy on one of the shelves, sans Aaron. Even I couldn't be that terrible. Clothes were removed and hair was messed up and Em burst into giggles when she saw it, whipping out the camera.

"I doubt this will make it into the final edit, but it needs to be preserved on film. You perverts. Look what you did to poor Britty! Isn't she a virgin?"

Darien and I had to lean against each other, we were laughing so hard. James and Jeremy came running around the corner and skidded to a stop in front of us, examining our creation. James took his JC doll and arranged him carefully on the edge, looking on. "See, my JC is not part of this debauchery. He is a good boy."

I couldn't breathe, I was laughing so hard. I couldn't remember the last time I'd laughed like this. I so had to find a way to introduce James to JC. Would any of this stuff with the doll make the final edit of the video?

We were laughing so much that Rachel joined us, trailed by her fan club. There were three now! Where did they come from? After a few moments of hilarity, Em told us to get our act together, and we all sprang into action. I got to be in charge of the boom box, and cueing up the track over and over.

Even in this video, we had to do things 40 times. Em wanted Rachel to sing…

I've got my pick of any toy, little boy
Replaceable, disposable, fully action posable…

And then throw a bunch of dolls at the camera. It would have been easier if James wasn't so protective of the JC doll, and if Jeremy and Darien didn't throw dolls at her from every other direction instead.

It took about 20 minutes, but she got what she wanted, and we went back to the van. Rachel and Em lagged behind a little, promising Gavin and his friends the world, and they joined us in the van a few minutes later, giggling. "Think he has any idea how old I am?" Em asked, turning around in the front seat.

"Think he has any idea how old I am?" Rachel answered back. "He was probably only 18 or so. Even younger than you, bunny!" she exclaimed, kissing me quickly.

"Hey, at least I don't still play with dolls," I told her, looking over at James.

He looked caught, and put the JC doll down under his seat. Darien tried to casually reach for it and James slapped his hand. "Touch him and die." They got into a shoving match and Em sighed.

"Give me the doll, James."

He glared at her, but there was no ignoring that tone, and after some whining, he handed it over.

"I'll give it back to you at the end of the day. But it's causing too much disruption, Darien can not play nicely." She glanced down at it. "Dude, this thing is hideous."

"Take it, it's an insult to the beauty that is JC Chasez," James sighed.

I laughed. "It's 'sha-say' actually," I told him. "He says its French."

"Does he?" James exclaimed, grinning. He said the name a few times, trying it out. "I like that. JC fucking Chasez. James fucking Chasez. James and JC fucking Chasez. Mr. And Mr. JC fucking Chasez. That's my new hotel name! James fucking Chasez! And I'll get snippy if you pronounce it wrong."

"You get snippy at lots of things, you queen," Rachel giggled at him, and he gave her a look.

"Rachel fucking Carter," he mocked. "Rachel and Nick Carter. Mr. And Mrs. Nickolas Gene Carter…"

"Shut up!" she yelled, leaning over to beat on him. Rachel Carter, I liked that…

Em leaned over her seat. "Rachel, did we find a Karoke club? Now that we've trashed the strip mall."

"Ooh, no," Rachel said, pulling out her Palm Pilot. We played with that for a while, until Darien cried out "Denny's! Oh, Ms. Evesham, can we have lunch, please please please?"

I was starving. We never had breakfast this morning. Rachel and I were going to order room service, but we got a little distracted on the way to the phone… I glanced over at her and she smiled at me, thinking the same thing. The boys begged Em and she laughed. "Yes, we can have lunch. But not Denny's. Are there any Waffle Houses in Chicago?"

"Nope," Lola told her definitively. "I'm a tour manager, I know these things. Gotta get to Ohio before they're every other block."

"I know!" Em whined. "I grew up in Ohio, I could go for some hash browns… hey! Chicago! Let's have pizza!"

Jeremy and Darien clapped, and Lola made a hard right, moving to an exit off the interstate. "Hey, I know where to get pizza, too," she shrugged.

"Do we have time for lunch, Em?" I asked her, and she grinned at me.

"I could do a three minute video with what we already shot. We're fine. Besides, we need to figure out where to go next. And, I'm in fucking America, I want some decent pizza!"

"English pizza sucks," Rachel said next to me, nodding. "Em and I used to go to Pizza Hut like once a week, and even that wasn't right."

Em sighed. "I need to stock up on provisions, I'm out of Doritos for home. Oh, Rachel, I've got your stuff, remind me if we ever get back to the hotel."

Rachel clapped her hands together, grinning. "Soap! Did you get the bath bombs?"

"Of course," Em told her, and Rachel smiled at me.

"I used my last one when we were in Long Island."

"Ooh," I said. I liked that. Would we have time for a bath later? No, we were traveling tonight to somewhere. Tomorrow? Rachel turned back to say something to Em and then screamed my name. Shrieked it. So did James, and the rest of us had no idea what was going on. "What, Rache?"

She was on her knees behind Em's seat, pointing out the front window, and James was next to her. "Nick Rhodes!" she finally managed.

"Stop the car!" James demanded, hitting the back of Lola's seat. She pulled over, and I had to open the door to see what had them so excited. It was a Gap ad billboard, a picture of two old guys trying to look cool.

Better not say that to Rachel, or there will be no baths with her in my future. The bottom said 'Simon leBon and Nick Rhodes of Duran Duran,' so that's what had her so excited. Which one was Nick? The little one, I thought. Yeah, the other guy was definitely the lead singer.

Everyone got out of the car, and looked up at the billboard. Em shook her head. "Fools. They should have had me take that photo, but no… could Simon's nose look bigger? Especially billboard size!"

"Oh, stop," Rachel told her. "You're just jealous. Take our picture with it, please?"

Em rolled her eyes, but leaned back into the car to get her cameras. No wonder that damn bag was so heavy, she opened it up and it was packed with equipment. She fiddled with some settings, then took a couple of test shots. "This is a rental car, right?"

"Why?" Lola wanted to know.

"Because it's either stand in the middle of traffic or on top of the car, if you want me to get you and the billboard in there."

"Probably better on top of the car," Rachel agreed, jumping up on the hood and holding out a hand for James. They posed for a couple, grinning like idiots, then Rachel smiled at me. "Here, take one of me with my two favorite Nicks."

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