All her life, Tara lived in a small town in Ontario, Canada. Life had always been the same for her, same ring of friends, same school, same every day life. When graduation day arrived, Tara realised that this wasnt the end, this was just a beginning, and she needed to make some new decisions in her lift.
Tara's met her best friend Karine through the internet. Although it took them quite awhile to meet in person, their time chatting on the net and emailing one another grew a strong friendship that lasted over many miles.
In January of 1998, Karine met her present boyfriend, AJ McLean. AJ was a member of the Backstreet Boys, and had met Karine backstage at a concert when he had hurt his leg, and Karine was backstage because she was feeling sick.
Karine and AJ started chatting, and became friends. In April of 1998, AJ admitted his feelings to Karine, and asked her to move down to Florida to be with him. Karine, admitting she had the exact same feelings, packed all of her belongings and moved to Florida to be with AJ.
"I have a great idea, Tara" Karine said, during one of their many long distance phone calls.
"Really? what is it?" Tara asked curiously.
"Why don't you move down to Florida, here! I've talked to Alex about it and he said you can live with us, until you find a place of your own, or a room mate!" Karine said. Tara thought about this idea to herself for a few moments. She did like this idea, she liked it very much. Tara had been to Florida twice in her life, and loved every moment of it. She knew that someday she would love to live there.
"I dont know if I could afford a big move like that, Karine. I mean, I still have to put myself through College and stuff.." Tara talked in reality.
"Oh come on Tara! You know what kind of situation I was in before I moved! I made it, and look at me now! I have a great job, and in September I'll be going to one of the colleges down here! You could do the same thing, you know, Disney World is always hiring people" Karine said. She had a point, the Magic Kingdom was always on the lookout for people.
"Yeah, you do have a point there.... ahhhh..I just dont know.. I mean, do you think it would be a good thing to do?" Tara said, still pondering the idea.
"It'd be a great thing to do! And as I said before, you can stay here with us until you get yourself a place or a room mate, or stay however long as you'd like" Karine said.
"Well..... I have always wanted to live in Florida.." Tara said.
"oh come on... I'm going to make you come, Tara!" Karine said, laughing.
"oh alright!!! I'll do it" Tara said, happy with her decision.
"Great!!!" Karine said excited! Karine had met her best friend once or twice before, but living full time with her best friend made her happy, because it would give her someone to have girl talk with, and do girl things with.
Over the next month, Tara applied for her American Citizenship, and packed her belongings. Each week, she sent things to Florida so she wouldnt have a big mass of things with her on the plane.
The day finally arrived for Tara's big movement from the little town in Ontario Canada, to go to sunny, hot Florida.
That morning, her parents drove her to the Toronto Pearson International Airport, to say their goodbyes, and best of luck.
"Make sure you call us every once in awhile... we will be worried about you" Tara's mom said.
"Dont worry mom, I'll be just fine!! Im staying with Karine and AJ" Tara said, smiling.
"And thats another thing, I dont think AJ will like you blasting your Backstreet Boys music all the time.." Tara's father added.
"Oh dad!!! He knows that I like the Backstreet Boys, so does Karine. Karine blasts her BSB music all the time, so can I! And dont worry about me!" Tara said.
"WE ARE NOW BOARDING ALL TICKETHOLDERS FOR DESTINATION ORLANDO FLORIDA, FLIGHT PAAFL61, GATE 52" the announcer over the radio said.
"Thats me... " Tara said, looking at her parents. Tara's mom started to cry because of Tara's departure, Tara was the youngest one in the family.
"Oh mom..." Tara said, giving her mother a hug "I love you, and dont worry, I'll call". Tara gave her father a hug, and told him she loved him too, then headed into the boarding area. Before they reached out of site, Tara waved her last goodbye, and headed towards the plane.
Tara sat in her window seat in the First Class section. Last minute, AJ and Karine had decided to buy Tara her ticket as a birthday present, and told her not to buy her own.
"pretty snazzy" Tara said to herself, sitting in the comfortable first class accomodations. The seat beside her was empty, so Tara grabbed the window seat. She had never been on a plane before.
"Would you like anything to drink?" The stewardess asked.
"I'll have a coke, please" Tara said. A few moments later, the woman came back with a coke. Tara put it in the glass holders, since the plane was going to take off as soon as it was finished boarding.
Tara was a little nervous, this being her first flight and all, so she pulled out her walkman and turned it on. N SYNC was the tape she had in there, so she started listening to Tearing Up My Heart. N SYNC and Backstreet Boys were Tara's two favourite bands, both she had seen many times in concert.
The flight from Toronto to Orlando took three hours, Tara fell asleep throught most of the flight. As the plane landed, Tara gathered her belongings in her carryon bag, and bucked up her seatbelt for the landing.
Karine and AJ waited in the VIP waiting area for Tara to arrive. AJ stood there in his baggy blue jeans and black muscle shirt. His hair color for the week was frosted red.
Karine was a shorter girl, about 5 foot tall, with a reddish blonde color hair. Alike AJ, they both had a funky style of clothing and love of jewellry and tattoos, Karine only having one tattoo, a bone, which had a symbollic meaning behind it which only Tara and Karine knew.
Karine waited patiently for her best friend to get off the plane.
A few minutes after the plane landed, an averaged size girl, about 5'5 walked through the gates. She had shoulder length hair which had been highlighted golden blonde, but naturally was dark brown. She had big brown eyes, and a nice smile.
"Tara!!!!" Karine said to the girl, as she walked through the gates.
Tara looked over at Karine and smiled.
"Karine!!!!" she ran over to her and gave her a big hug.
"You made it!!" Karine said, happy to see her friend.
"Finally, yeah! I've never been on a plane before.." Tara said.
"You get used to it.. trust me" AJ said, smiling.
"And you, must be AJ" Tara said. She looked up at his hair. "Nice color of the week!"
"Thanks, I did it last night, just for your arrival!"
Tara laughed at AJ's comment and gave him a hug.
"So you're the famous Tara that I keep hearing Karine talk about over and over again! I swear, if you were a guy, I'd be jealous"
"Well, Im not a guy.." Tara said "and proud of it too!"
AJ smiled at Tara, then went over to the baggage area to grab her things for her.
"The rest of your belongings are at AJ's house.. we put it in your room. We didnt make up your room or anything, cuz we knew you'd probably want to arrange it the way you want it" Karine said.
"Thats great, thanks! I just wonder if AJ will let me put up some posters on my walls.." Tara said.
"What kind of posters?" AJ asked, coming back from baggage.
"Oh you know, my uhh.. Backstreet and N SYNC ones" Tara grinned embarassingly.
AJ laughed "well, its not my room, so... do what you'd like to it!"
"Thanks!" Tara said.
Tara helped AJ grab her things and they headed out to AJ's car.
AJ drove, with Karine in the front seat and Tara in the back. The car ride took about 20 minutes, till they were out in a peaceful area by the ocean. The car pulled up into a long brick driveway, the gates opening after AJ punched in the code. The long driveway stretched up to a 5 door garage, separate from the house. The house was a large, 3 floor building, all white. Tons of windows decorated the house, with a large deck that wrapped around all sides of the house.
"This house is amazing" Tara said to AJ, stepping out of the car.
"Want to go for a tour?" AJ asked.
"Yeah!" Tara said, excited. AJ led her around to the back of the house, and showed her the guitar shaped pool. In the backyard was a stretch of grass, then it reached beach and shore. In the backyard where the pool was, a large pool deck with sunchairs were scattered around the pool.
Going through the front door, straigh ahead was the curving upwards staircase. The house colors were mainly white, and pastel colors like a soft blue, or soft purple.
AJ took Tara around the first floor of the house, showing her the kitchen, living room, a bathroom, and laundry room. The next place he took her was the basement, which was where his recording studio was held.
The next part of the tour was of the 2nd floor of the house, which contained another living room, a dance room where he could practise his dancing, a large billiard room which contained pool tables and pinball machines, and various other video games. Another bathroom was held on the second floor. The last part of the tour was the third floor, where all of the bedrooms and most of the bathrooms were. AJ and Karine's room was a large white room, with the bed in the middle. ONe of the walls was full of windows, which overlooked the ocean. A private bathroom with a whirlpool tub was off to the side. There were three guest rooms, and then Tara's room, which was the second largest bedroom in the house, which also had her own bathroom. Her room was like a loft, kind of one and a half floors high, with an upper level.
"This is my room??" Tara asked in amazement.
"Yeah, do you like it?" Karine asked.
"I love it!" Tara said, she just couldnt believe that she was staying in such a beautiful house like that.
"you know what? I think this is going to be the best time of my life.." Tara said, smiling at Karine.
"ahh Im just soo glad you're here!" Karine said, running over to Tara and giving her a large hug.