After Christmas had finished, Tara and BJ returned back to their own beach home, and Karine returned back to her dorm. AJ had to return back to the hospital, but proved himself that he was getting better from being good while away from the hospital. Knowing this, the hospital let AJ out for weekend vacations.
In the month of January, AJ and Nicks birthdays were coming up. Tara and Karine conspired a surprise birthday party for the both of them, which was going to be on January 19, in the middle between Nicks and AJ's birthdays. The day of AJ's actual birthday, his family had a small party at his house for him, knowing that the BIG party was coming soon. AJ had no idea about the party on the 19th.
January 19th rolled around, which was a friday night. AJ was packing his stuff up from his room at the building, and waited for Karine and his mom to pick him up.
Earlier that day, Tara and Karine had set the party up, and decorated the room at a fancy restaurant. Everything was set, dinners had been ordered, cake had been made, and everyone knew what time to come at. Tara was to pick up Nick, who thought they were just going out for dinner for no reason, at around 8pm.
AJ welcomed Karine with a hug and kiss, and same with his mother. They drove back to AJs house, where they changed, and told AJ that they were going out for dinner.
Guests started to arrive at around 7pm, and the last one arrived at 7:50.
Tara drove over to Nicks house, dressed up really nice in a short but fancy blue dress. Nick was waiting there on his porch, sitting in one of the chairs.
"Where is everyone?" Tara asked Nick, to make him unsuspicious.
"My parents went out for the evening, and Aaron and my sisters are at my grandparents house" Nick said.
"oh, thats cool" Tara said.
"Want me to drive?" Nick asked.
"Sure" Tara said. Nick and Tara got into his car, and drove off.
"So where are we going?" Nick asked.
"Armandis" Tara said, referring to the spiffy fancy new restaurant in Orlando.
"cool!" Nick said.
Nick and Tara arrived at Armandis the same time that AJ and Karine arrived.
"oh look Tara, Karine and AJ are here too!" Nick said. AJ and Karine walked towards Tara and Nick.
"Hey guys.. what are you doing here?" Karine said to Tara.
"Oh.. we're having supper" Tara said, going along with their plan.
AJ opened the door for Karine, and entered the building last, behind Nick and Tara, and caught up with Karine.
"Hello, reservations for CARTER and MCLEAN please" Tara said.
"Right this way.." The waiter said, leading the four of them into the back room, where it was dark.
"Oh my, hold on a second, I have to turn on the lights, the other rooms are full" The waiter said. The waiter turned on the lights, and everyone screamed SURPRISE!!!!!
Nick and AJ both let out a little jump, being surprised at their surprise birthday party.
"whats this?!?!" Nick said, looking over at Tara. Tara was smiling at Nick.
"I know its a bit early, but Karine and I wanted to have a joint party for both you and AJ! so we thought we'd do it right between the two of yours birthdays!" Tara explained.
"Thats soo sweet of you to do" AJ said, giving Karine a kiss.
"Tara, that is soo sweet!!" Nick said, giving her a kiss. "I love you!!!" and then he hugged her. Tara hugged him back and told him she loved him too.
Everyone that could possibly be there was at the party. Howie, Kev and Brian were there, with dates, Nicks parents and family, AJ's parents and family, Nick and AJ's friends, and people from their old record company, from when they were the Backstreet Boys.
The food was great and so was the music. Tara and Karine had hired N SYNC to play, and no one minded, everyone loved the music. N SYNC was Tara's second favourite band. BJ and Tara always thought Justin was cute, but Nick knew that Tara loved him, not Justin.
After N SYNC played a few songs, it was time to cut the cake. At this point in time, Brian met up with Nick, Tara, Karine and AJ up near the huge white cake that was lying in the table. While pieces were starting to be cut, Brian took the first piece and threw it at Nick, shoving it in his face.
In retaliation, Nick grabbed a piece, throwing it at Brian, but accidentally hit AJ because Brian ducked.
"Oh yeah??? We going to start a Backstreet Birthday Cake Bash?!?" AJ said, and then threw a piece at Brian. Before soon, everyone grabbed bits of the cake and was throwing it at everyone, thanks to Brian and Nick, the old Frick and Frack, up to their old tricks again.
"You guys are still the same as you always were" Lou said, shaking his head at the boys, licking the icing off of his hand.
The boys looked at eachother.
"We havent changed" Kevin said "We still have tons of fun together"
"I heard about your little childrens hospital visit on Christmas, that was very nice of you to do" Lou said.
"It felt good" Nick said happily.
"Yeah, we all agree... it did" Brian said.
"it was nice to see the children soo happy" AJ recalled, remembering the looks on their faces when they went to the hospital.
Everyone sighed to themselves, and then went dancing in the middle of the room, where other people were dancing. People partied it up for the rest of the night, and the party ended at around 1am, when it was time for the place to close, even though they stayed open after hours for the party.
On January 28th, Nicks parents held a party at their house for Nick, a family party. Tara was invited of course, and a few close friends of Nicks. After the party was over, Tara and Nick went out for a walk along the beach, which was Taras idea.
When they got to the beach, Nick saw a little picnic area had been set up, by Tara, for the two of them. When they sat down, they had a pop each, and then stared at the ocean. Nick laid down, and invited Tara to lay down beside him. It was kind of a chilly night, chillier than usual, and it was a bit windy. A storm was due in soon.
Tara laid down beside Nick, and he turned on his side and wrapped his arms around her.
"Only a month and a half until our spring break!" Nick said, excited at the thought of being away for a whole week with Tara, and no parents.
"yeah I know, Im counting the days!" Tara said. "only 45 more days till we leave!"
"This has been a really great birthday" Nick said.
Nick rolled ontop of Tara, wrapping his arms even tighter around her, keeping her nice and warm, and kissed her.
Tara rubbed her hands up and down Nicks back, and even under his shirt which he was wearing. Nick shuddered a little bit, feeling really good. They stayed there on the beach, for about an hour, making out and kissing lots, while listening to the beautiful sound of the waves crashing in on shore.