We talked for 15 minutes about all kinds of stuff... catching up on the last few days. I was about to hang up and I got an idea.. "Megan hold on for a sec K?" she agreed. I went up to the guys and said "Since you guys are going to practice in a few would you mind practicing on the phone for her. It would cheer her up." "No prob" they said in unison and got in a little huddle, their faces beaming with pride. "K Mai you've got to listen to this" I said enthusiastically into the phone, she replied with enthusiasm in her voice "Like a flower to a tree...that's how close I wanna be to your heart" Howie began an a capella of Just To Be Close To You with the rest of the guys doing back-up vocals. When they finished I asked her "So what do you think?" "WOW and WOW" I laughed and told her I'd call her tomorrow. " So do we pass approval? " Nick asked. "Hm hm, and whenever you want shell take you guys out partying" we all laughed. "And she said the interview is coming on at 6 o'clock tonight" Brian looked at his watch and said "Thats now. Nick jumped to the other end of the couch, reached to the ceiling and pulled down the TV. He switched to ABC and we all huddled on one couch. I sat in the middle and got squished by Brian Howie and Nick. We all laughed but nobody moved. I leaned my head on Brian's shoulder and we all settled to watch. Nick surfed till he found ABC and it had just started. They showed clips of us getting out of the us and going to the book store. All the time the host talking about the guys and me. They then focused on me when nick made me relax by signing the girl's shirt with my hand. "Oh nooo I look so dumb.." said cringing and embedding my face in Nick's shoulder and they all laughed and started teasing me "You guys aren't helping...." "Hey its your national TV debut, you should be proud.." Kevin laughed and shook my shoulders. We kept watching. They then we turned to the interview. We all looked really good in our matching outfits. I listened intently at my answers. At one point one of the interviewers asked me "Sooo have you ever been romantically involved with anyone" I smiled and nonchalantly answered. "I'm afraid I can't answer that because I don't know you that well yet." Everyone in the room laughed and so did the guys... both on the interview and next to me. I cringed again into Nick's shoulder again and we all laughed. My laugh had a bit of embarassement in it. We finished watching. It ended at 7 and the FSU concert was at 9. This had been the first time I had ever been on National television, I was both proud and embarassed but I realized the guys were right.. I didn't seem or act nervous at all, actually I looked like a TV veteran, too bad I hadn't felt like one at the time. The confidence must have robbed off on me from the guys.
Nobody wanted to get up from the couch but AJ and Kevin managed to push everybody off so we were laughing again. "You guys ready for a bit of warm up?" Kevin asked with a bit of seriousaness, "Nahh we have a full hour when we get there... plus I need to finish some things." was Brian's reply and everyone else including Kevin agreed. Everybody went off to their own thing so I reached for my bag and pulled out my drawing journal, agraphite pencil, and some conte. Denise sat down next to me, "Since this theater is small compared to all the other ones we're going to do you can sit in the crowd if you want..its first come first serve so wherever you want to sit is fine, just make sure you can get yourself to the stage before the end of the show. The last song is probably going to be Anywhere For You. OK so don't get into too much trouble.." she said smiling at me. "Cool, I think I can manage that" I responded smiling back. It wasn't dark out yet since it was summer but the sun had slowly begun to set and sunlight was coming right through the windows and on the back of my neck. Kevin was strewn across one of the couches, and the way the sunlight light hit him looked like adonnis. I couldn't resist and drew him in my notebook.
After I finished and washed my hands I decided this would be the perfect time to get to know the driver. I made my way to the front, having to almost jump over Nick who was lying on the floor, and sat down on the floor facing the driver. "Hi,I'm Erika" "I know, I'm Jon. So how do you like it so far?" "I am having the best time of my life, I doubt anything will ever be able to top this. SO how long have you been the driving these maniancs around?" "Basically from when they first began. We've been together all the way. Everyone is like my family. I couldn't live without any of them..." Jon and I talked fervently for about 30 minutes. He was a man of about 35 years old, pretty normal looking, extremely intelligent and funny. "Well we're almost there, You all should go freshen up a bit, tell the guys too.." Jon smiled at me. "All right, talk to you later Jon". I got up and walked back to the table where I had left my stuff. I found Nick raiding the fridge with Howie, and in a general way told everyone we were almost there. We took turns using the bathrooms and we just chilled on the couch for ten minutes talking about nonsense. We finally got there and we unloaded ourselves from the bus into the auditorium. I took with me my drawing notebook and utensils. The band had already set up around 8:15 they started to warm up by everyone, including the guys just making off the wall sounds. It sounded like an orchestra warming up.
We were introduced to the student council president and the dean of students, they were extremely nice. I went to the dressing room in the auditorium and re-did my makeup and hair. I jumped off the stage and sat down in the front row center stage, I didn't feel like having to walk through a mass of people at the end of the show just so I could leave. Kevin and Brian were sitting at the piano singing with just the piano accompaniment. I decided to draw them in conte, because they were the only ones sitting still Nick, AJ, and Howie were jumping around practicing their moves and running around like chickens with their heads cut off. It was 10 minutes before they would let people start coming in so I quickly jumped up the stage and went to wash my hands. Coming back I stuck my notebook and media in Nick's bag so I wouldn't lose it. The whole time Denise had been talking to the student council president and the dean of students who had organized the whole thing. I got in the prayer huddle with the guys, mainly cause Howie and AJ dragged me in, and I wished them all good luck and jumped back down to my seat just as the students started filing in. about twenty minutes later the auditorium had been filled to capacity 3500 students, I have no idea how they got them all in and seated so fast.
The concert started. Aaron opened for the guys with his 2 latest songs. A few people noticed that I was wearing the same exact outfit as the guys but no one said anything they just gave me strange looks. The crowd was mostly girls, there were some couples and a small number of guys by themselves- probably went just to pick up girls although some must have liked the music cause they danced to it. The guys were just as energetic as always but it seemed to me as though they were a bit tired. Throughout the concert the guys would look at me and smile or laugh and all the girls around me thought they were pointing to them. It was extremely entertaining to watch. I was glad none of them took me on stage during 'I'll Never Break Your Heart'. The show was winding down and the guys started to sing 'I'll Go Anywhere...' as their second encore, so I looked around for one of the bodyguards that would escort me to the bus like before. Instead I looked up and found Nick leaning over the edge of the stage holding out his hand to me and mouthing 'let's go'. The girls around me went into a frenzy and started to grab for his hand but he was able to fight them off long enough for me to grab his hand and pull myself up the stage with his help. Some off the girls in anger pinched and hit me, it really hurt. When I finally composed myself I turned around and realized I had over 3000 pairs of eyes staring at me, it was very unnerving. Aaron came out from backstage and sang the end of the song with them. Their six voices harmonized incredibly beautifully together. They gathered in the center of the stage with me at one end and Aaron on the other and Kevin in the middle. They finished the song and screamed "Goodnight FSU It was great being here. We love you all Bye" The crowd went nuts.
We ran off stage, out the back door and directly to the bus nonstop, and yet there were still fans in the back parking lot trying to get autographs. We just ran right through and onto the bus. Like the previous night we collapsed on the couches dead, they more than I. The six of them looked absolutely ragged and worn as if they'd gone days without sleep or food. We all fell asleep right away. Aaron and I fell asleep in the back couch. We were all sprawled out on the couches and partly on the floor. Although I wasn't as physically tired as the guys the excitement of the day wore me out and I slept straight through the night. That night we didn't stop at a hotel because the next day we had to be in north Georgia, at least we would be there two days and would be able to sleep in a hotel bed.
When I woke up it was already light out but the sun wasn't high in the sky yet. I looked at my watch and saw that it was 8:25. I looked around and saw that Aaron and AJ had ended up sleeping on the floor, why or how I don't know. I looked toward the front and saw that Denise, Kevin, and Nick were already awake but they hadn't noticed that I was yet. So I slowly got up and without making any noise got my bag out of the over head compartment and went into one of the changing rooms. I changed into khaki shorts and a teal volleyball shirt that said "hit like a girl doesn't mean what it used to". I came out and tiptoed to the front and said 'Hi' to the five of them and sat down next to Nick on the couch closest to the front.
They had also changed shirts and I figured we made a pit stop somewhere because across from Kevin were two boxes from Dunkin' Donuts and nine cups of orange juice. They each turned around and said 'good morning' I said 'goodmorning' back. "Want one?' Kevin asked me and simultaneously handed me one of the donut boxes. I took it from him and looked inside. I was pleasently surprised to find a bavarian creme donut, I took it out and handed him the box back, at the same time he handed me a napkin knowing I would probably end up with half of the powdered sugar on my face. I dug in and forgot not to breath out of my nose when I bit into it so half of the powdered sugar was on my face and in my nose. At the same time I heard a camera and saw the flash go off. I looked up and saw Nick taking a picture of me eating with my face covered in confectionary sugar.