“If I have to hear this song one more time,” Chris grumbled, rubbing his temples as soon as the beginning of Everybody started up again. Next to him Justin had a smile on his face as he watched the five rivals get into their places while Brian sang the opening lines.
Johnny had convinced both groups to watch each other rehearse to see if they had pointers for one another. Chris and Justin both had pointers for them in the shape of their middle fingers sticking up in the air. Now he and Chris were leaning against a wall waiting for their practice to start as the Backstreet Boys’ practice ended.
“You do know why they have to keep doing the song over and over, right?” Justin asked, an evil gleam in his eye. Chris shrugged. “Because Nick’s blubber is slowing him down so he can’t get the steps right. So it’s only a matter of time before they replace him or they fade all together.”
Chris cackled at Justin’s comment. Justin turned to look at the rivals and noticed Brian glaring at him. Justin gave Brian a glare as well as a smirk. Nick’s face burned and turned bright red as he tugged at the hem of his t-shirt.
“Ow! What was that for?” Justin grumbled, rubbing his ear which JC just flicked.
JC was slowly shaking his head. “Even you know not to talk about someone else’s weight, What would your mother think?”
“My mother’s not here,” Justin grumbled in defense. “And I can talk about whatever I want to talk about. Why’re you defending the enemy anyway?”
“Enemy or rival or whatever he’s still a person, Justin.”
“Psh, whatever.”
Chris laughed. “Shot down by Daddy C,” he teased. Justin shot him a cold glare and brought his knees up to his chest. Chris sighed and ran a hand through his short, spiky hair. Why was Johnny torturing them so much? He could hardly put up with Justin’s crappy attitude on a good day but now he’d have to deal with it for a whole damn tour. Sure, it was fun ragging on the Backstreet Boys but it was like Justin couldn’t think of anything else but to rag on them. He didn’t even want to talk about basketball anymore, which was saying something.
Chris watched as they went through their dance moves again. A misstep there. Nick was a half-step behind for a few beats. AJ was too early. All rookie mistakes as Chris could see. It was obvious that their group was based around their singing and not their dancing. They weren’t in sync most of the time and, from what Chris could tell, they could do better but it seemed as if they settled for less.
Chris smirked. They weren’t anything like his group. They didn’t settle for less, they constantly went 110% and if they were slacking a little bit they could always count on the others to “gently” point out their faults and help them work it until it was better. Chris bit his lip to keep his smile from getting wider. There was no way the two groups could even compare. *NSYNC was better and that’s that. No Backdoor Boy would change that.
Chris and Justin watched with glee as the Backstreet Boys’s choreographer, Fatima Robinson, stopped the track and told them what to do again. Justin was glad they barely scratched the surface on their tour. They didn’t have to worry about the dance moves just yet; they still had a couple of days until then. They were only brought there to watch their co-headliners practice at Johnny’s persuasion. Otherwise Justin would be out on the golf course on that beautiful afternoon.
Fatima sighed as she shut off the music again. Kevin and Howie groaned while running their fingers through their hair. “Sorry, boys, but we’d be done with this if AJ stopped glaring at me and did what he was told,” she told them as Kevin and Howie shot AJ an accusing look.
“You’re the one who dragged us into this hell,” AJ shot back.
“Now I know you’re not talking about my rehearsals!”
“No, I’m talking about you giving Johnny the idea of making us go on tour with…with…them.” AJ said ‘them’ as if he were talking about the lowest scum on earth.
Fatima rubbed her temples and let out a long, slow breath. She didn’t want to get itno it with him right now, especially with the other group watching. The last thing they needed was an audience but she was finding it hard resisting the urge to kill him right then and there.
“I told you all ready that this would bring your name to everyone around the world,” she said patiently.
“Our name is everywhere around the world, if you’ve forgotten,” Brian pointed out as politely as he could muster. “I just don’t understand why now, all of a sudden, they’re proposing this.”
“Your albums are number one and number two respectively. Your merch, ticket sales, album sales, and anything else with your names slapped on them bring in so much money you all will never be in debt. Girls love you. Girls’ parents love that they’re into bands with good images. You sing like angels and you’re good role models,” Fatima listed off rapidly, gathering up her hair and dropping it over her shoulders. “But don’t let that get to your head. Jive basically wants—“
“A bigger cash cow,” Nick summed up, wiping his face with a towel. His cheeks were still bright red, either from Justin’s comment or from working himself hard.
“For once Nicky is right,” AJ added. Nick elbowed him in the side and AJ cracked a smile that stretched beneath his dark glasses. (“Why does he wear glasses inside anyway?” Justin asked Lance who shrugged.) Nick rolled his eyes but smiled at the fact that AJ admitted he was right.
“Look, I don’t really have a say in anything—“ Fatima started.
“Whose idea was this?” AJ mumbled.
“But all I know is if you just ignore them or, be friends with them, this tour will go by sooner than you know it,” she continued, ignoring AJ.
AJ and Nick grumbled something under their breaths. Brian let out a breath, his cheeks ballooning. Howie and Kevin were quiet, silently agreeing with Fatima. They didn’t want to do the tour anyway. Kevin didn’t want to do it because he knew he’d have to deal with AJ and Nick whining the entire time. And Howie didn’t want to do it because he knew that it would only give Chris an excuse to get under his skin. It seemed like ever since Chris wasn’t chosen as a Backstreet Boy he’s done everything he could to get to the Spanish boy. But Howie vowed that Chris wouldn’t get to him this tour if he had any handle on the situation.
