The next morning Sarah woke up and rolled over to look at the clock. "Nine o'clock," She muttered. "Why the hell am I up so early?" Then she heard it, the sound of hundreds of teenybopper fans outside the windows, under the balconies, chanting "Backstreet Boys! Backstreet Boys! Nick! Brian! Nick! Backstreet Boys!" over and over and over.....

 Sarah turned to look at Kevin. "Kevin." She shook him "Wake up!!" Nothing happened. "Kevin!" She yelled right into his ear, "If I have to get up this early so do you!" She laughed, smacking his back gently with her palms.

"Alright! I'm up!!" Then he paused and listened to the fans outside, turned and smiled at his girl. "Get used to it, they're always gonna be there!" He took her chin in his hand. "Good morning," he whispered leaning in for a kiss.

"Boy, are you insane?!" Sarah laughed at him. "I am not kissing you until I brush my teeth!" Then she rolled off the bed, and ran into the bathroom. Once she came out, she ran out the door "Breakfast Kevin, breakfast." She giggled as his eyes followed her as he walked to the bathroom.

 He came out and found Sarah at the breakfast nook picking through cupboards. "Do you guys ever eat anything for breakfast? There's nothing in here!"

 "Usually we just have coffee, and get a muffin or something at some shop."

 "Yeah, well look what I found." She smiled, holding up a basket of clementines. "My favorite!"

"Bring some over here, okay?" Kevin sat down at the table and opened his laptop computer.

"Whatcha doin?" She asked sitting across from him, and peeling a clementine. "You want some?" She asked, holding up a piece. Kevin just opened his mouth. Sarah took aim, and tossed the piece right in. "And you thought you were good!" She smiled. "When you have a little brother who eats, sleeps, and breathes baseball and the Yankees, you learn how to throw!"

Kevin laughed. "Speaking of family, have you called to tell them you're with us?" Kevin asked.

Sarah's face became hard, and her brown eyes turned into steel. "What?" he asked. "What's wrong?"

"They won't speak to me," Sarah replied, almost in a whisper. "They think that I have no chance in the music biz, and should give it up. They want me to go to college. And yeah, I guess I do too.. But right now, I want to sing, I want to make it." Her voice trailed off. "But they think I'm wasting my life. They don't see that I want to do things on my own, that this is what I'm dying to do. They don't care." Sarah brushed a strand of hair behind her ear, and looked straight at Kevin. "They say that until I see the error of my ways, and agree to ditch this idea and go to college, I am no longer welcome at home, and I will not receive any support from them." A single tear rolled down her cheek. "But I promised myself I wouldn't give in, I'm gonna do what I want, not what they want."

Kevin stood up and walked around the table to her. "It's gonna be alright," He whispered, rubbing her shoulders. "It will."

Sarah kissed his hand and smiled up at him. "What are you doing?" She asked, pointing towards his laptop.

"Checking mail, but there isn't really any important stuff in there." He shrugged and walked over to the baby grand piano in the corner.

Sarah watched as he ran his fingers over the keys. "Play it." She whispered at him. Neither needed to say which song.

 Kevin sat down at the piano and began to play the song that, as of that moment, had no name. He stopped halfway through, obviously frustrated, and sighed. Sarah opened her mouth, but was interrupted by AJ, just getting out of bed.

 "Coffee, coffee, coffee," AJ muttered. "Helllllllllllloooooooooo," He groaned. "Coffee.." he filled two mugs and walked back into his room, shutting the door with his foot.

Sarah looked back over at Kevin. "What?" She asked. "What's wrong?"

"Two years," He muttered. "Two years, and still no lyrics. I mean, why can't I write any? I have so much inspiration in my life, it isn't even funny, people send me tons of lyrics, why won't I agree that any of them are right?"

"Well," Sarah murmured, walking to the piano, "You have high standards.. This is your baby, and you want it to be perfect." She ran her fingers through his hair. "I can understand that, and I respect it. When you put two years of your life into a song, it has to be absolutely right. Plus, Kevin, you have really high standards, you're a perfectionist, you know that, so it's obvious you want this to feel right." She smiled at him. "And it will be, but the right person just hasn't sent in lyrics yet, but Kevin, why don't you write your own?"

"Because I don't feel I can put what I really want this song to say down on paper, plus I want someone who knows what they're doing when they're writing lyrics."

Just then Brian walked into the room grinning. "Look what they did to me!!" Brian yelled jokingly. He turned around and showed Kevin and Sarah that he had about fifty post-it notes on his back.

"Where did those come from?" Kevin laughed.

"Fans were sticking them on me in the lobby when I went to pick up mail and stuff. What do they say?"

 Sarah started pulling them off, inspecting each one. "They're mostly love notes and phone numbers." She giggled, wadded them up in little balls, and threw them into the trash.

"Cute.." Brian smirked looking at Sarah and Kevin. "I can see you're matchies today. One in the pajama top, one in the bottom." Then his face became serious, "But really.. Umm Kev, I got the schedule for the final show." He handed it to him as Sarah wiped clementine peels off the glass table.

"Damn." Kevin whispered and looked at Brian. "Can we change this? Or is it set in stone?"

 "It can't be changed, I know it sucks."

"What's wrong?" Sarah asked, walking over to the piano. Kevin handed the concert itinerary to Sarah. "My birthday.....It's on my birthday."

"Yeah, well we can still celebrate, I mean the actual concert doesn't really start until, what? Eight o'clock? Nine o'clock? It'll be cool, Sarah." Kevin answered her. Sarah pointed to a time on the sheet. "What!?" He yelled, "We have a press conference at 4:30?! Why?!"

 "Who knows?" Brian whispered. "But we have to do an album promotion at it, and answer reporters, so it's gonna take a while, and they don't want us to leave the arena in between the conference and the show."

"And I bet they want us there at like 3:00 right?" Kevin asked, his green eyes dark. "Donna loves it when we're there early, and stay late."

"'Your fans like to know you're there with them.'" Brian said, doing a stellar Donna Wright impersonation, making them all laugh. Then Brian went into Nick's room to give him the concert schedule, and talk about what had happened with Kelly last night.

"We will celebrate baby." Kevin murmured, kissing her hands. "We will, I promise you.. And you know I keep my promises."


Chapter 5//E-mail me//Fanfic Index