chapter thirty

Bob sat at his drumset and fiddled with his gloves. He couldn't get them on. Had they shrunk? No, Bob decided. He was just over-stressed. He struggled to get them on and finally succeeded.

Clint stood directly in front of Bob's drum set and played around with the knobs on his guitar. Scott appeared on stage right with his guitar also on. Dave was already stationed behind his keyboards. Scott looked at Bob and put three fingers up.

Bob, taking the clue he meant to start "Crazy," Bob did as he was signalled to do.

Bum, ba bum, bum ba bum... The guys started the song with Bob's lead in.

The guys played for awhile and Frank announced it was too late to finish. They had to go get ready for the actual concert. Bob took off his gloves as Clint and Scott set their guitars on small stands. Dave was already backstage when Bob and Clint and Scott followed.

An Hour Later

Scott, Dave, Clint, and Bob waited behind the curtain next to the stage and heard screams from girls. There were obviously dissappointed 98° fans out there. The guys had just found out half an hour prior that 98° wasn't going to be able to perform. The guys decided this was not an okay thing because then they had to play longer.

As the manager introduced them, the guys sighed and acted excited as they hurried out on stage. Bob took his place behind the drums, Dave behind the keyboards, and Clint and Scott had their guitars already on them.

Scott scanned the crowd and smiled; more screaming girls. He singled out one girl and looked directly at her. He couldn't believe how pretty she was. She was almost intimidatingly pretty. Scott stared at her as the guys went into "Crazy."

The girl, uncomfortable at being stared at like that disconnected her eyes from his and looked around nervously. Scott realized he was making her uncomfortable and decided to talk.

The guys quieted down a little, enabling Scott to say hi to the audience.

"What's up, BOSTOOOOOOOOONNNNNN!!!!" Scott yelled into the microphone. He smiled and winked at the same girl as before. She smiled back. Her eyes shone and Scott knew he was going to talk to her after the concert. He was going to try, anyway.

Juliet watched as the guy up on stage stared at her. She wasn't used to being watched like this. She got a little uneasy and looked around at the other people there. They were having a great time, dancing and standing up and moving around. Julie remained in her seat. Ashley nudged Julie to stand up, but Julie could only look at the guy on stage.

When he looked away, Julie breathed a sigh of relief. She stood up as Ashley had instructed and clapped along.

"What's up, BOSTOOOOOONNNN!" The guy yelled into the microphone.

Ashley leaned over and said over the noise in Julie's ear, "That's Scott!!" Ashley smiled and Julie stared at Scott. He was gorgeous. Julie wanted to meet him more than anything in the world. How come she hadn't known about these guys before?? All she knew was she was going to have a great time that night!