"Hey all right, its beat up Nick day. I've been waiting for it to come along. Why wasn't I informed?" I heard Brian and Aaron's voices behind me and I turned around. They were both standing in the doorway between the two rooms. They were both changed into fresh t-shirts and shorts and Brian was wearing a bandana around his head. "So what are you guys up to?...Oh Nick did you know that a department store and florist shop exploded in your room?......looks like it happened here too..."Aaron said looking around at all the stuff. Brian had stepped into the room and was smelling the roses. "Well will you open it already or are you waiting for hell to freeze over?" Nick said to me anxiously like a little boy on Christmas day that can't open his presents yet. "Fine chill..." I unzipped the front of the case slowly just to upset him. "I know you are doing it on purpose.." He said giving me a nasty look. I shot him a grin back and Brian and Aaron laughed. I finished unzipping it and pulled back the front covers. My jaw fell to the floor as I looked at what was inside. Brian put his arm around my shoulders and said, "Looks like you made out pretty good here. Well I'm going downstairs cause Donna sent me up to get you guys to come down cause the bus is here. Don't take too long or shell throw a fit". With that he went out the room the same way he came in. I kept staring at the clothes in the case. There were three dresses, two short dresses and a long dress. A dressy long sleeved blouse that looked to be made of baby blue colored satin, it had a small Hillfiger logo tastefully stitched on the tip of one of the collars. There were electric blue pants, a fancy baggy shirt, and figure fitting navy blue clam digger jeans. I looked at the bottom of the case and noticed three boxes.
"Earth to ET, come in please over..." Nick snapped his fingers in front of my face ."What?" "Come on lets go they are yelling at us". I closed the case back up, replaced the card and picked up a long black leather case from next to the bed. I decided to bolt my room from the inside just in case, so the three of us left through Nick's room. Aaron rode to the elevator and down it on Nick's back. On the elevator Aaron asked me "So Erika, are you gonna keep the clothes? You'd look great in them" "Thanks Aaron you are such a gentleman." I gave Aaron a kiss on the cheek. "You should learn from him Frack, he could teach you a few things...". Nick pretended not to have heard me and Aaron and I exchanged smirks. "Anyway I think I will, Donna said I could so I don't see why not. Plus it'd be an insult if I didn't at least wear them".
Before stepping off the elevator we put on our security badges and disguises : Nick put on his blue fisherman hat and sunglasses, Aaron put on a Tampa Bay Buccaneers cap and sunglasses, and I put on a white and green Mighty Ducks cap and sunglasses. We were met by our bodyguards on the ground floor. We inconspicuously walked through back hallways to the parking lot trying not to attract unnecessary attention. We finally made it to the parking lot and security was every where. It was extremely hot under the early morning sun. There were two buses next to each other parked in the middle of the parking lot, the bus we had traveled in for the last week and next to it the normal tour bus which was silver with dark tinted windows and much bigger, the engine was still running. Kevin came up to us seeming slightly ticked off "Where have you guys been?" "take a chill pill Train, we're here aren't we? Anyway, we were investigating ET's new wardrobe" Nick answered in a snotty tone. "Fine lets just get to work and get this done as quickly as possible without breaking anything this time...".
We all went into the smaller bus and started taking everything out and putting it in respective piles on the floor outside. In the mean time the band and some of the crew were moving equipment into a second silver and black bus. About 45 minutes later we started moving all the stuff into the larger bus. Thankfully there our closets were much bigger than in the previous bus. On one of my last trips moving things into the new bus I picked up the long black leather case and some bags and headed for the bus. "Hey Erika, I've been wondering. What's in that black case your holding?" Aaron asked me as he walked behind me carrying some of his own bags. "What in this? Ok I'll show you but you'll have to keep your eyes closed" "Ok". We both put our stuff down and Aaron stood there with his eyes shut. The guys kept going back and forth with bags."SLACKER." Brian said to me as he walked by carrying a load of bags to the bus. I stuck my tongue out at him. "Keep 'em closed...,no peeking!" I said to a restless Aaron. I put the case down on the floor and I kneeled on the floor with my back to him. I opened the case and pulled out my practice fencing foil and stood up facing him. AJ and Howie were standing at the door of the bus watching.
"OK you can open them but don't move an inch. ok?".Aaron nodded in agreement. As he opened his eyes I took an attack lunge at him and lightly poked him in the chest with the dull tip of the foil. His eyes were huge as he stared at the sword that was almost under his nose "THAT IS SOOO COOL. WHAT IS IT?" he squealed with pleasure. "Hey don't skewer the kid we need him" AJ laughed from behind me. "I couldn't cut anything with this if I tried" I responded. "Looks like we've got our very own Zorro here, or should I say Zorra?" Howie smiled. "This is called a Foil Aaron. Its used in Fencing, this is just my practice one." I said to him and took another lunge at him. "So like you could get into a sword fight and like kick some ass?" AJ said smiling "Well, if for some reason the middle ages came back and I got into a sword fight then yeah I probably could. Or if I wanted to do some awesome choreography." I replied. "So like you fence like in a league?" Howie asked me "Yeah at school. I'm on the college team and a league back home"
"Hey Erika can I hold it?" "Sure knock yourself out Aaron, not literally."I handed Aaron the foil. He stood there acting out the sword fight scene from Star Wars. "So why did you bring it?" Howie asked me "I have to practice everyday I can so I stay to practice at least a little before going to the gym in the morning, otherwise I'll lose the muscle endurance". "Man we better not piss you off otherwise you'll slice us up" AJ said trying to sound scared. We still had several things to finish putting away so I put the foil away and we went back to lugging bags. When we were finally finished 30 minutes later we all collapsed on the couch in the new bus. The news bus was much larger the refrigerator and food cabinets were larger and there was a microwave. Towards the back there were 12 beds so we wouldn't have to sleep on the couches anymore. There was a tv and in the back of the bus there was a mini music room with a keyboard and two guitars. The bathrooms were also bigger.
"So what do you all want to do? and we're not staying in to play video games Nick." AJ said as we sat there hot and sweaty. "Oh shut up AJ." Nick answered in a bad mood "Well someone got out of the wrong side coffin this morning." Brian teased. "Anyway what we up to? I found the numbers to the nearest golf course, basketball court, mall, and movie theatre and security is ready to rent out whatever we want to do." Howie intervened trying to deviate the conversation to prevent an argument.