Kirsten Storms is in no rush to return to the schoolroom located in the DAYS OF OUR LIVES studio. It's not that she doesn't like to go to class ("I just finished Algebra II. It's my last year of math and I almost started crying"), it's that summer's here and who wants to be conjugating verbs? Besides, Storms, who was homeschooled, has racked up so many credits that she will be able to graduate a year early, in 2001.
Of course, she hasn't whipped through school as quickly as her DAYS character, Belle, who was an elementary-school student at John and Marlena's wedding and a 16-year-old when the newlyweds returned from their honeymoon two weeks later. But it wasn't the rapid aging that Storms found odd when she first joined DAYS- it was the fact that she was a die-hard fan of the show. "I started watching DAYS because a friend of mine was playing Earl, one of the Swamp Boys," she recalls. "I thought, 'Oh, my gosh, he's gonna be on a soap opera. How cool.' So Sami [Alison Sweeney] became my favorite. I loved her scenes with Kate [Lauren Koslow]. It was weird to walk in, sit in the makeup chair right next to Ali and be like, 'There's the girl who plays Sami, and almost died in an execution!'"
They may be sisters, but Belle isn't much like Sami, which Storms isn't entirely happy about. "Oh, I like Belle, but she has flaws to the point where she's too perfect," reflects the actress. "She says she doesn't care what other people think, but she does. But I do get letters from people saying, 'I was teased in high school, and I just want to let you know I wish I had someone like you when I was there to stick up for me.' Stuff like that makes me feel good about where my character's going."
Changing outfits feels pretty good, too. Laughs Storms, "I'll run in in the morning when I see on the script that it says, 'New day in Salem,' and I'll run into wardrobe and be like, 'New day! New clothes!'"
There are more signivicant perks to being a young star at NBC, Storms is learning. "Through this job, I got to go the Backstreet Boys concert," she grins. "I had 10th row, center tickets. I almost died when [DAYS publicist] David Sperber told me. I went running through NBC screaming. I'm sure they all thought I was crazy. I met Hanson, who Farah [Fath, Mimi] is in love with. She loves them as much as I love the Backstreet Boys and *N SYNC. They were over at Jay Leno [on the TONIGHT SHOW], and we were like, 'David, you have to get us in, you don't understand.' So on our lunch break we went down there and hung out with Hanson! It was so cool."
On-screen, Belle and Mimi are best friends, and it didn't take long for life to imitate art. "I don't think we talked for about the first two hours that she was here on her first day, but then we just started talking and talking," Storms says. "If we don't see each other every day, we call or talk to each other over the Internet." Now they're having sleepovers and going out on double dates.
The guy who wins Storms's heart must get the seal of approval from her parents first, however. "He has to be very trusted by my family," affirms the actress. "There's kind of like an interrogation process every guy has to go through. We don't want to see. 'This girl's on TV, it would be cool to date her.' But it's also really hard because of tmy schedule. I try to hang out with a guy or something and I can't because I'm working or I have a party to go to."
As for her potential on-screen matches, Jason Cook (Shawn) and Jay Kenneth Johnson (Philip), Storms would be happy with either one. "They're adorable," she beams. "People ask, 'Who do you like better?' I'm like, 'I can't pick.'" So the four-year age difference between Storms and the guys isn't a problem? "My brother is almost 18 and he hangs out with a lot of guys who are 19 or 20, so I'm used to hanging out with older guys," she replies. "I don't feel uncomfortable-I know my maturity level is a lot higher than Jay and Jason's! I'm not so intimidated by them."
Which wasn't the case initally, admits the actress. "I was worried because usually when you put a whole bunch of teenagers together, there are gonna be some who don't like each other," she points out. "But we all get along really well, thank God. That could've been bad for, like, the next three years."
But the three years will go by fast if the first one is any indication. "I'm already one third of the way through, and it's different from what I expected," she marvels. "I thought it's going to be the steady job that's going to take forever, and it's nothing like that. It's just fun. I guess when you find something that you really like doing, you enjoy it so much that time flies."