Lydia was the average 19 year old girl. She loved music, her job, and had great friends. She spent her weekends chillin’ with her friends at the mall, going to football games, and collecting stuff for her many shrines. See, she was a big fan of Nsync. She would spend hundreds of dollars on magazines, books, cd’s, and posters. Some of her friends thought that she was a little odd but they loved her anyways, other friends thought that she was awesome to admit that she loved the group even though she was older than their main fan base. She always told her friends that she was going to marry Justin Timberlake and that she would remember them when she finally did. That was the point that most people classified her as “crazy”. They knew that she never would meet them, let alone, date one of them, but they didn’t want to ruin her dreams so they just said “thank you ahead of time for remembering me”.
The main reasons that they knew that Lydia wouldn’t ever DATE one of the guys is because she wasn’t famous and they were. That much was obvious. The other thing was, she was having problems getting regular guys to notice her. Lydia wasn’t the skinniest girl in the world, she wasn’t even in the top 5. Some guys had interest in her but that was only because they figured she was an easy lay since she “didn’t get very much action”. But what they didn’t know was how Justin Timberlake sized up a woman. That little fact would surprise them all.
“You guys, I don’t understand why we are here,” Lydia said as they walked toward the new FOA Schwartz toy store in New York City, “We are 19 years old and we don’t need to be in a store that was built for 5 year olds.”
“Lighten up, Lydia! We are going to have fun today. Finals are over and Jeni and I think that you should be able to have fun and let loose,” explained Klare as she walked in the big, tall doors.
“We’ve all noticed how you’ve been down in the dumps since, well, Bryce broke up with you, so we decided that we are going to let you have some fun and be a kid again,” Jeni said. “Besides, I heard that they have a special part of the store devoted to kids over the age of 10.” Reality was that both Jeni and Klare had heard that Nsync was going to be dedicating the new building to the kids. The stage that they were going to perform on was in the older kids’ section of the store, so Klare came up with the idea to take Lydia there since she was in love with Justin Timberlake. Lydia had been really depressed lately because her boyfriend of 5 months confessed that the only reason he went out with her was because he felt sorry for her. Lydia was the only girl in the senior class that didn’t have a date for prom so Bryce asked her. Bryce was one of those people who helped make people feel better about themselves, and since Lydia didn’t have a very high self-esteem he thought he’d help her out. What he didn’t prepare for was that she would fall in love with him. When she told him those three special words he broke down and told her that he never really had feelings for her and he didn’t understand how he could have let it go on for so long. Since that time, about 3 weeks ago, she’s listened to all of Nsync’s cds non-stop. It was time for her to come out of her depression and move on with life, and that’s what her two best friends were going to help her do.
As they rounded the corner to get to the teen section Lydia noticed the huge stage. At first she just figured that it was going to be a display of some new toys, but the more she looked at it, the more she questioned. “Hey, guys, do you know what that stage is there for? There are some speakers and other electrical equipment over there. Is there going to be a perform…” She stopped suddenly when it finally clicked. She remembered reading in the New York Times that Nsync was going to be dedicating THIS toy store to the kids and that they were going to be doing a 70-minute set of their songs. What she couldn’t remember was what day they were going to be performing and at what time. She had been wanting to go but she didn’t think it would be “cool” of her to show up to a toy store just to see a boy band sing a few songs.
“Umm… Klare? Jeni? Do you know who’s going to be singing on that stage?!”
Klare gave Jeni a knowing grin and answered her question. “Yeah, didn’t the New York Times say that Nsync was going to be dedicating this store?”
Jeni couldn’t help but smile at the dumbfounded look on Lydia’s face. “Yeah, Klare, I think they did put that. What day were they going to be doing it? You never know, they could have put that stage up 3 days early to make sure everything would fit into the small space provided.” At that comment Klare and Lydia laughed because there was at least enough room for another stage to fit in that area.
Klare looked at Jeni while she giggled. “You are a moron! There’s enough room in this area for another stage of that size,” she said in between laughs. “Didn’t the newspaper say that Nsync would dedicate this place on June 8, 2001?”
“Yeah, I think they did,” Jeni said trying to suppress the laugh that was rising in her stomach. “Hey! Isn’t today June 8th??? That means they are coming TODAY!”
At that comment it clicked in Lydia’s head, they had planned this whole thing and had kept it from her. “YOU GUYS KNEW ABOUT THEM COMING!?! How could you not tell me that you were going to be bringing me here?” Lydia said in an angered tone. Lydia wasn’t really mad. She was happier than she had ever been. In fact this was the first time she had really smiled since the break up with Bryce.
Jeni and Klare looked at each other silently communicating. The look on Lydia’s face was one that they hadn’t seen in a while and it was great to see again. That face was one of pure joy and happiness. Both of her friends knew that she had never seen Justin or any of the other guys up close and that she had been devastated when the tickets sold out to the Pop Odessey tour before she could get some. The fact that the show was the next night in Buffalo wasn’t helping the situation either. It seemed that the closer the date got the sadder she got. After a few minutes of that silent communication Jeni answered, “Yeah, Lydia, we knew they were gonna be here. We didn’t tell you that we were going to bring you here because that would ruin our fun. Who would want to have missed that fake anger in your voice and seeing that REAL smile for the first time in weeks? If we would have told you, you wouldn’t have been that surprised. You also would have been bugging us about it 24/7. We just wanted to show you that there is life after a bad break up.”
It only took about 30 seconds before Lydia was hugging her best friends. They were all so happy to be there, even though the guys hadn’t gotten there yet. “When are they supposed to be here to perform?” Lydia finally asked. She had been wondering that since the reality hit her that NSYNC was going to be the ones performing.
“They are going to be here around 4:30 this afternoon. What time is it now?” Jeni answered.
“It’s a quarter ‘til eleven. Do you just want to go to my house and hang out ‘til lunch? We can get ready to impress those 5 sexy guys of ours. Then after lunch just come back here and get FRONT ROW seats,” suggested Klare.
“That sounds good. I’ll call my mom when we get to your house to let her know I won’t be home ‘til late tonight,” Lydia said.
Klare and Jeni exchanged glances and questioned at the same time, “Why won’t you be home until late? Where are you going to go after the concert?”
Lydia couldn’t help but laugh at her friends. With that same big smile she had earlier she answered, “Well, I figure that if I see them in person then I’ll more than likely pass out so I’ll be in the hospital.”
They all laughed at her comment before they turned around to leave the
store. As they walked toward the doors Lydia couldn’t help but turn around to
look at the stage that her idols were going to be dancing on later that day. She
turned around to walk through the doors and headed toward Klare’s hunter green
Mercedes Benz. This was one afternoon she would NEVER forget.
Chapter 2
The three girls pulled up to Klare’s three story, white house a half-hour later. They got out of the car and walked in the doors and up the stairs to Klare’s room. Jeni and Lydia sat on Klare’s twin size bed while she hurried to her closet to pick out her outfit for the big event.
“How’s this?” Klare asked, holding up her new yellow, Abercrombie and Fitch, tessa asymmetrical tank and a pair of low-rise jeans that laced up in the front instead of buttoned.
“It’s kinda… ummm… Britney Spears-ish,” admitted Jeni, “I like it!” Klare, Jeni, and Lydia all laughed. They were all excited for the events to come. Even though they didn’t like to admit it as openly as Lydia, Jeni and Klare both loved Nsync as much as Lydia did. “I have to be able to get JC’s attention, man. Do you think this will do the trick?” Klare asked after she had changed into the outfit she had held up moments ago.
“If it doesn’t have JC looking then I’m sure some young boy will be staring. You’ll have some one wanting to jump into bed with you wearing that, no matter what,” Lydia stated.
Jeni and Klare were about the same size so Jeni decided that she was going to borrow some of Klare’s clothes so she wouldn’t have to drive to her house across town and back to Lydia’s house. She picked up a pair of low rise, jean capris and an Abercrombie, hunter green striped, racerback tank top. She tried the clothes on and they fit her figure perfectly. As Lydia sat on the bed watching the two of her friends try on clothes that she knew she’d never look good in or even fit in for that matter. That though kinda depressed her for a while. Then she realized that her friends didn’t care what she looked like, they loved her for who she was. That thought put a smile on her face.
When the two girls were finished getting their hair done and their make up on they decided that they were going to go the Lydia’s house so she could get ready for her special task. Her personal goal was to get Justin Timberlake to notice her and have him gesture to her before the show was over. That gave her 70 minutes to some how catch his eye and she was going to do it if it killed her.
After Klare parked her car in Lydia’s driveway the madness began. Lydia and her friends ran down the flight of stairs and into her bedroom on the bottom level of the house. She ran to her closet and immediately started throwing clothes all over her floor looking for the new top she had just bought at Abercrombie and Fitch. It was the last baby blue shirt that she liked in her size. They don’t carry many double extra large shirts so she was really lucky to have gotten one on that particular day. It had the words ‘Work it baby! Work it!’ written on the front of it in silver sparkly lettering. She ran to get her favorite pair of bellbottoms that fit her perfectly. Everyone commented on how thin she looked when she wore them, so she knew that those were the jeans for that day.
An hour later, Lydia was ready to head back to the toy store. They were running a little behind of schedule. It was a quarter after two and they had 2 hours and fourteen minutes until Nsync was to go onstage and perform. Lydia was starting to get a little worried when she looked at the clock and noticed that it was already twenty ‘til three and they still had to drive another 10 minutes in New York traffic. It didn’t help the fact that Nsync was in town so everyone was trying to get to the toy store to get good seats.
When they finally found a parking spot they all were in a panicked state. It was three thirty and they weren’t the only ones in the toy store. In fact, they had to park in the last row of the south parking lot. That meant that they were going to have to walk all the way around the building to get to the teens’ area. They were also parked in the area that the tour bus was in so they thought that they might actually get to see the guys before they even got on stage. They didn’t though. The guys were already inside getting ready for the performance and playing with some of the toys in the rooms provided for them.
As they neared the door Jeni heard some loud noises coming from the opposite side of it. “What do you think that noise is, guys?” she asked getting a bit frightened on what they were getting themselves into.
“I don’t know, but I’m starting to feel a little un-safe. I mean, sure we look good an all, but what if one of the little teeny boppers thinks that Joey is going to fall madly in love with us and tries to hurt us?” Asked Klare, with a hint of fear in her voice.
“You guys, that’s what security is for! Besides, Jeni wouldn’t be THAT mad if Joey fell in love with her, would you?” questioned Lydia. “Besides, we spent way to long getting ready and I’m far too excited to give up now and go home. I’m not scared of them!”
“She’s right. We need to go in there and try to get noticed by them. I mean, come on, we are probably twice the age of half those people in there and the other half are the parents,” encouraged Jeni. With that last sentence said, Klare opened the door to the shrill sounds of little girls screaming and crying at the mere thought of getting a glimce of the guys. As the three girls made their way through the toy store, their muscles were beginning to get tenser as they made their way closer. As they rounded the last corner they stopped, dead in their tracks.
“Oh my gosh! We’re too late! We missed our seats,” exclaimed Lydia when she saw that there weren’t any free spaces within fifty feet of the stage. They wouldn’t be able to catch the guys’ attention being that far away.
“Don’t panic yet, Lyd,” Klare said trying to figure out a way to get to the front, “these girls are at least 12 years old so maybe we can buy them off.”
“That’s a good idea, Klare! Too bad we DON’T HAVE ANY MONEY!!!!” Exclaimed Jeni in an aggravated tone. Just as Jeni and Klare were about to get into an argument Lydia noticed something. There was a gap in the front row, just big enough for three people to fit into it. There were two folding chairs to help hold up the yellow caution tape that was closing that part off. There was also sign that had three names on it. Lydia didn’t have very good eyes but Jeni did so she decided to ask her if she could make out the names.
“Jen, Klare, will you guys shut up PLEASE?!?” Lydia yelled, “There’s a little area in the front that has enough room for three people to fit. It’s in the front row and in the center of all the people. It has a sign that has three names on it… THREE! Jen, can you read them??”
Jeni looked at Lydia as if she were crazy. They hadn’t called and had seats saved for them, but just to make Lydia happy she looked. “Jeni, Klare, and the real excited one with those two,” Jeni read aloud. “Oh my gosh! That’s us! But who did this? Who saved us seats??”
Klare and Lydia both had a puzzled look on their face so Jeni knew it wasn’t one of them, “I don’t know who did it, but when I find out I’m going to love them forever!!” Klare exclaimed, as she started walking for the seats saved for them. As Jeni and Lydia followed they both had one question on their mind, ‘who the heck would save us seats???’