Over the next two months, the boys visited every State in the USA, with their last stop being Florida. Lou had planned the Boys schedule to end in Florida at the end of June, so that Nick and Tara could attend their High School Graduation, and prom.
As the buses pulled into the State of Florida, everyone was asleep on the bus, since it was 6am.
Tara was fast asleep in her little sleeping cubicle on the bus, while Nick was on the bunk ontop of her. At 7am, the bus stopped at a nearby McDonalds, for the boys to have breakfast, since they still had quite awhiles drive ahead to go before they hit Orlando.
"wakey wakey" Dan, the bus driver said loudly, waking Brian up first.
"Whats going on?" Brian asked, half asleep.
"breakfast time, boys!" Dan said, and then headed back to the front of the bus. Brian jumped out of his bunk, and threw on a shirt, before he woke up Nick and Tara.
"Frack, wake up man, its time for breakfast" Brian said. Nick opened his eyes and looked down at Brian from the top bunk.
"Already?" Nick asked, looking annoyed and tired.
"yeah.. lets go, wake up Tara" Brian said. Nick leaned over and looked at the bottom bunk, under him, where Tara was still fast asleep. Nick climbed down the bunk, landing right beside her.
Nick leaned in and gave Tara a kiss, which made her wake up.
"mmm.. whats going on?" Tara asked.
"Breakfast time" Nick said, reaching out for Taras hand, and helping her up.
In the other bus, AJ and Karine woke up first, hearing the word MCDONALDS coming from the two bus drivers up front, chatting. Howie and kevin woke up shortly after everyone met up inside the building.
At 7am, the McDonalds wasnt really that busy, since it was a tuesday morning.. Most of the people were getting ready for work, or getting ready for school, so the only people in the McDonalds were a few tourists.
After eating McDonalds breakfast, everyone climbed back into the buses at 8am, to start their trek to Orlando.
At around 2pm in the afternoon, the buses reached sunny Orlando, Florida. Having the afternoon off, Nick took Tara to the beach for the afternoon, to catch the rest of the sunny day. AJ and Karine went back to AJ's house, which was located in a private location.
The next day, wednesday, the boys helped the Backstreet Crew set up for the evenings concert. Nick and Tara went to the High School to pick up their report cards, since they wrote their exams last week, while they were still touring. Nick and Tara's graduation was the following day, on thursday, and then the prom was saturday night.
That night, the boys families came to the concert early to spend time with their sons. The fans started to arrive at around 6pm, and the concert started at 8.
The nights concert was the last one of the American Tour, before a little break, them embarking their way to Canada.
Tara unlocked the door of her beachhouse, and was welcomed by BJ inside.
"Hey girl!!!!!" BJ said happily, giving her a hug.
"hey!!" Tara said, dropping her luggage on the floor "man, its good to be back!!!"
"Thats how I always felt too, whenever I went out with Nick or Aaron" BJ said.
"How was the tour?"
"it was real good.. Ive never been to soo many different places like that, it was alot of fun, and alot of work too!" Tara said.
Tara and BJ decided to have a little "its good to be home" party, ordering pizza and renting some movies off of Pay Per View TV.
The next day, Karine and BJ took Tara shopping, and to the hairstylist place so that Tara could get her hair all done up nicely for the graduation ceremony. Tara decided to wear a nice summer dress for Graduation, since her main dress was going to be what she was planning on wearing to Prom, which she bought while on tour, while shopping with Karine when the boys were performing.
At around 5pm that night, Nick picked up Tara in his new jeep and drove to the high school, where the graduation was taking place. The graduation didnt start until 7, but grads had to be there early.
"Isnt this an awesome feeling?" Tara asked Nick, excited about graduation.
"Sure is! I must admit, beats getting my diploma in a hotel room..." Nick said.
"yeah, how are they working that, anyways?" Tara asked.
"Well, since I already had my diploma given to me from my tutor last year, they said theyd take it back, and give me a brand new one, since i am graduating from Grade 13, and give it to me in the ceremony.. so I can graduate with everyone else" Nick said.
"Thats really awesome they are doing that for you" Tara was happy for Nick.
Families of the graduates started to arrive at 6pm, to get a good seat. The Carters and Tara's family were among the first few guests to arrive, and chose seats near the front so that they could take many pics of them. The graduation was taking place in the huge school gym. In the other gym, the graduates were getting their gowns on, and getting their grad caps placed on their heads.
Graduates had to line up in alphabetical order, and much to Tara and Nicks luck, they were right infront of one another, since Tara's last name started with a BY, and Nick's is CA.
Kevin, Brian, Howie, AJ, Karine and Lou all arrived at the graduation also, and took up the whole row beside Nick and Tara's families, near the front.
The graduation music started to play, and the graduates entered the gym. Walking around the gym, and then up the middle, the graduates too their seat off to the side, where seats were set up for them.
After the national anthem, and opening speeches, the handing out of awards were the first thing on the TO DO list.
"The award of Excellent Achievement is awarded to those students with averages of 85% and over, and who demonstrate qualities of leadership and excellence. The recievers of this award are as follows: Pamela Banks, Ryan Brent, Tara Byng, Nickolas Carter, Jennifer Filips, Joshua Jacobs, Stephanie Martin, and Brad Stilhouse." The recievers stood up together and walked up to the front, where they were handed an envelope, and a medal which was put around their necks. Everyone clapped for the students in applause.
About half an hour later, only a few more awards were left.
"The next award is a special award, that was made especially for one certain person. This person has overcome soo many obstacles, and busy times in his life, yet kept up with their school work, and acheived great success worldwide in the section of the arts, such as Music. This is a brand new award, called "The Nick Carter award". Each year, this award will be given to a student who shows a deep interest in music, or in the art field of entertainment, and shows great dedication to both work and school. We are proud to have Nick Carter graduating with us today. Nickolas joined us this past year for grade 13, being with the Backstreet Boys for the past 6 years. As a graduating class, the graduates have decided to make Nickolas Carter the reciever of this award, and also to be, class valedictorian" Nick was in shock, and totally surprised. The whole gymnasium stood up for Nick, and clapped and cheered. The graduates stood up clapping and cheering for him too, and everyone around him gave him a congratulations hug, and he got a real huge hug from Tara. The Backstreet Boys whistled on for their fellow bandmate.
Nick walked up to the front, took the award and shook the principles hand. Standing up at the front of the gym, Nick started his graduation speech.
"Wow, I wasnt expecting this at all! This is a really great, and shocking, surprise, and I feel very honored. Id like to start off by thanking all of my fellow graduates, look where we are right now! We're on the brink of a new life. Our lives have just begun. Some of you may think of this being the end of "the best years of your life", however, this is just a new beginning, a new chapter, of the best years of our lives"
Nick went on to talk about some of the happy memories of the year.
"Although I wasnt in this school for the full five years since grade nine, this past year has been a year I will never forget. I have made many friends, and overcome many troubles with certain people. We will succeed, we will have fun in College and in University, and beyond! But remember, dont party TOO hard! hehe. Twenty years from now we are all going to look back, looking back at all of the great memories, and the memory of today. Twenty years from now, we will all be gathering back in this same gymnasium, for our twentieth year class reunion, meeting up with old friends, and reminiscing about old times. We, as the class of 1999, have the power to make things happen. Just believe in yourselves, and you can make anything happen" Nick said. Hoping that his speech somewhat inspired people, Nick smiled, and then went to go take a seat.
Everyone stood up again for a standing applause, Nicks speech was wonderful and inspiring to many people. After his speech, the handing out of the diplomas proceeded.
Five graduates at a time stood up and lined near the side of the stage, and then when their name was called they came up onto the stage, shook hands with the teachers and principal and was handed their diploma.
AFter about 10 people, they were near the end of the B's. Class of 1999 was a large class.
"RYAN BRENT" The principal called out. Ryan stepped up onto the stage, shook hands with everyone, and recieved his diploma, and then stayed there while his family took pics.
"TARA BYNG" Tara turned behind her and looked at Nick, flashing him a smile, and he gave her a smile back. Tara stepped up to the stage, and walked over to the little crowd of teachers and principal. Tara shook hands with her teachers, which were Mr D, her history teacher, Mr C, her geography teacher, and Mr S, her finite teacher. Last but not least, she stepped over to the principal, who handed her her diploma, which was in a package that contained a spread of gradpictures of the class of 1999. Tara shook the principals hands, and her parents, with Nicks parents, came up to the front to take pictures, like all the other parents did when their son or daughter was recieving their diploma. While walking away, she turned the tassle to the other side, which meant that she had graduated, which was also a tradition for the graduates.
"NICKOLAS CARTER" Nick stepped up to the little crowd and did the same thing, shaking peoples hands, and then people congratulated him. Nick reached out for his diploma, and shook hands once again with the principal.
"We're proud of you" the principal said to Nick. Nick smiled for all of the flashing cameras that were taking pics of him. Kevin, Brian, AJ and Howie were hollering from the floor, cheering on their little frack.
After the graduating ceremony, food and drinks were served in the cafeteria, where the parents met up with their graduates afterwards.
"We're soo proud of you two!" Nicks parents said, along with Taras parents, and they hugged both Nick and Tara.
Nick and Tara's families, along with the BSB and Lou, returned back to the Carter household where a little party was thrown for Nick and Tara. During the festivities, Tara and Nick went outback near the pool, to the little study that Nicks dad had built a year ago.
"So what are the plans for prom??" Tara asked Nick, curious.
"Well, Im having the Backstreet Limo pick us up, drive us around for a bit, then we'll be dropped off at the place of the prom.." Nick said.
"What about afterwards?" Tara asked.
"Uhm, I dont know. Are we going to any afterparties?" Nick asked, he didnt know if Tara was up for those.
"Yeah, I mean, it is the last night our whole class will be together" Tara said.
"Are we going to have our own room?" Tara asked, curious.
"Well I had one reserved, cuz you know, we'll be out real late and all" Nick said, used to sleeping in the same bed as Tara.
"Okay" Tara said, smiling to herself. Tomorrow, the time that both Nick and Tara have been waiting for, would occur. Unfortunately for Nick, he had NO IDEA that Tara was going to give herself to him.