Date: Wed, 21 Mar 2001 23:04:33 -0500
From: Jessica Taylor <midnight_violet18@hotmail.com>
Subject: Grand Finale 3

Author's Note-- Hi everybody!  Miss Eradic Update Queen here with another
chapter of Grand Finale for you.  Didn't see ths one did ya?  Oh well
suprises in life are good things.  And on another note... did like NO ONE
like chapters 10 and 11 of Pieces?  Or are y'all just so infuriated with me
that you will not send me the thing I thrive on, which is feedback?  Cause
all I've gotten is like TWO emails on those chapters... oh well.  As to the
status of chapter 12 (for all you people that CARE) I'm in them middle of
it.  It's getting there slowly but surely...

Disclaimer-- Not mine goshdarn it.  I don't own Kevin's disgusting eyelid
trick, AJ's popping vein, Nick's belching technique, Brian's Donald Duck
voice, Justin's shaved off curls (but I bet someone bought them off Ebay by
now...) or the scissors for JC's hair- cause I think Lance has those and is
holding them hostage for a little while.  The only thing I do own is this
cute little moments tape that has all of the obvious things James and Josh
do on camera... and NO ONE is getting that!

But Taylor is mine!!... even though her sass runs away from me sometimes.

Relative Disclaimer-- In this chapter I touch on Taylor's past.  Some of it
might be kinda heavy, but hey it's what came out of my computer and I like
it when I read it over.  And if you're wondering how much of Taylor is me,
and how much is fabrication, well you're just gonna have to guess.


Chapter Three

	The ride back to our hotel was rather uneventful, unless you count
the mushy words whispered between Justin and Nick an event.  Lance and JC
were also contributing rather nicely to my first limo ride with these guys.
	About twenty minutes later we pulled up in front of the Fort
Lauderdale Hilton.  For some weird reason no fans knew where the guys were
staying so we were able to slip into the lobby quietly without incident.
	Trent was leading the way into the main lobby of the hotel while he
was telling the two groups what was going to happen tonight and tomorrow.
"You have tonight off, but tomorrow you need to wake up by 7 am so we can
load up the buses and make sure they are in working order.  Then after that
you have a radio interview and final sound check after lunch, with a meet
and greet right before your first concert." He said as he walked towards
the front desk.  "Taylor, come here.  I need to give you your room key for
the night."
	I skipped towards Trent as he talked to the receptionist behind the
counter, presumably getting my key for me.  I heard the some of the guys
try to suppress their laughter as I skipped to the counter.  "Yes Trent?"
	Trent turned around with a plastic keycard in hand.  "This is
yours, it's the key to room 1123.  Your baggage is already up there."
	"Okay." I said as I took the keycard.
	Just as I turned around, I saw six women walk slowly up to the
guys.  A woman with long blonde hair, whom I recognized immediately, put a
finger up to her lips in a motion for me to be quiet.  That same woman
crept up right behind Brian and placed her hands over his eyes.  "Guess
who?" the woman whispered into Brian's ear.
	"Leigh?" Brian said, slightly shocked.
	"Maybe." Leighanne Littrell said as she uncovered Brian's eyes and
kissed him on the neck.
	"Leigh!" Brian exclaimed as he turned around and gave her a large
hug.  The rest of the guys turned around at Brian's exclamation.
	"Hey boys.  Did ya miss us?" Kristen Richardson smiled as Kevin ran
up to Kristen and gave her a hug.
	"Definitely baby." Kevin muttered into Kristen's shoulder as he
continued to hug her, slightly swinging her back and forth.
	The four other women in the group were hugged by their respective
guy while Nick, Justin, JC, Lance and I watched the happy little reunion.
	After the girls were released from their hugs, the six of them came
over and gave a hug individually to the four remaining guys.
	"And who might you be?" Leighanne asked me with a critical eye.
	"Leigh this is our new web-page designer Taylor Mackenzie." Brian
said as he wrapped his arm around his wife's waist.
	"Hi Leighanne.  It's a pleasure to meet you." I smiled as I left my
hand out for her to shake.
	Leighanne was able to warm up to me almost immediately.  "Pleasure
to meet you too Taylor."  She said as she shook my hand.
	The other five guys came up and held their girls in various loving
embraces as they introduced me to them.  Kristen, Amanda and Danielle I
already knew of, but I had never known that Joey and Howie had girlfriends
as well.
	"Taylor, I want you to meet my girl, Crystal." Joey said as he
introduced me to his girlfriend.  Crystal was slightly shorter than Joey,
with long, curly, chestnut brown hair and bright hazel eyes.
	"Hey Taylor." Crystal said warmly.
	"Hi." I said back.
	"And last but not definitely not least, Taylor I want you to meet
the love of my life, Amy."  Howie said as he arm snaked around his
girlfriend's waist.  Amy had long black hair that was tied in a ponytail
and braided, as well as deep brown eyes.
	"She's also our resident African queen." AJ joked suddenly, while
Amy hit AJ lightly on the arm.  That was another thing about Howie's
girlfriend that I hadn't expected... she was African American.
	"AJ!" Amy said playfully.
	"But I mean that in the nicest way possible." AJ smiled as he gave
Amy a peck on the cheek.  All Amanda did was shake her head in amusement.
	"Why are you here?" Kevin asked as we all made our way towards the
elevators.
	"You don't want us here?" Kristen asked.  "Kevin, I'm hurt." She
said in playful shock.
	"Oh believe me I definitely *like* that you're here." Kevin said as
he kissed and nuzzled the side of her neck.  "I was just wondering how you
got here.  Me and the rest of the guys thought that you wouldn't be able to
come on tour till next week sometime."
	"Well we were all able to get off early, so we decided to surprise
you."  Danielle said.
	"And what a *nice* surprise you are." Chris said as he kissed
Danielle on the cheek.  The bell dinged for our floor seconds later.
	As we all stepped out, and I started to approach my room, Amanda
called out, "Taylor why don't you accompany us to dinner tonight, so we can
get to know you better."
	I turned around to Amanda, as well as AJ, Justin, Nick, Kevin and
Kristen, who were still in the hall.  "Sure.  That sounds great." I said as
I smiled.
	"Be ready in two hours." Amanda said as AJ opened the door to the
room and started to lead Amanda inside.
	I shook my head as I slid the card for my room into the slot.  The
green light went on, and I pushed the door open.  It was a rather nice
hotel room, with a single bed and a medium sized TV in the corner being
held up by a mini-refrigerator.  Sitting on top of the bed were my two
duffels.  I pushed the bags off of the bed and placed them on the floor,
putting my book bag on top of the bed.  I plopped down onto the bed and
started rummaging through it, looking for my personal journal.  I didn't
normally keep a journal, but I figured that I would want to remember this
experience and had bought one at a local bookstore.  I took out my CD
collection, which contained practically every type of music you could think
of, my Discman, a few books, a candy bar or two, my folder and then I
finally found the journal.
	It was a simple journal with a black binding and crisp white pages
on the inside.  But instead of the normal tan cover the journal had come
with, I had taken some pictures of both groups and had pasted them on the
cover.
	Placing the journal on the pillows at the front of the bed, I
packed the rest of the things back into my bag, keeping out my CD
collection and the Discman.  Once I was done repacking, I placed it next to
my suitcases.  I rummaged through my CD collection, finding my Three Doors
Down CD and replacing it with the Blink 182 that was already in my Discman.
	I started playing the CD, and taking my journal, I laid lengthwise
on the bed and started writing.

~~~~~

	After I had written in my journal, I had taken out one of my books
and had been reading pretty intensely as soon as I had started.  One thing
with me and books is that I can become so engrossed in a novel that I
completely lose track of time.  That same occurrence happened again as I
laid down on the bed in my hotel room.  I was so engrossed in Anne Rice's
`Interview With A Vampire', that I was actually startled when I heard a
loud banging on the door, disrupting me from my reading.  Putting my
bookmarker in place, I threw my book down onto my bed and walked over to
the door, yelling out, "What'd you want?"
	"It's just me Tay." Lance said through the hotel door.
	"Yeah?"
	"Um... we're leaving in like ten minutes, just to let you know."
Lance said through the door.
	"Shit." I swore under my breath.  I had actually taken up almost
two hours by reading.  Told ya I lost track of time when I read.  "Okay,
I'll see ya in a few."
	"Just meet us down in the lobby." Lance said as I heard him walk
away from my door.
	Walking over to my suitcases, I zipped one open, throwing clothes
onto my bed as I looked for a nice dinner-type outfit.  Finally settling on
black dress pants and a dark blue shirt with a Chinese dragon design, I
grabbed my makeup bag and went into the bathroom to freshen up.  After
applying a thin layer of dark red lipstick and some blue eyeliner, I walked
back into my bedroom and stuffed my clothes back into my bag.  I was so
going to look forward to living out of my suitcases for the next four
months.  I hope you detect the sarcasm here.
	Taking my purse out of my bookbag, I stuffed in my wallet and my
keycard, as well as my cell phone and the digital camera.  Hey, you can
never let a good camera opportunity pass you by.
	Checking my hair in the mirror for a quick second, I fluffed up my
hair and left the room.  Closing the door, I saw the elevator door close,
and I yelled, "Hold that elevator."
	A tan hand poked out and held back the door as I ran into the
elevator.  Inside the elevator were Kevin, the hand that had held the door
for me, Kristen, Nick and Justin.  "Hey guys."
	"Hey Taylor."
	"So where are we going tonight?" I asked.
	"Well, we were thinking about going to this really nice Italian
restaurant downtown, and then Joey, Chris, AJ and the blondes over here
insisted on going clubbing."  Kristen said.
	"Sounds cool."
	"So Taylor..."
	"Yes Justin?"
	"You never did tell us much about yourself.  Besides the fact that
you aren't homophobic I mean."
	I sighed exaggeratedly, "Do I have to tell you my life story
Curly?"
	"Um, no." Justin said, blushing slightly.
	"Hey, Justin just wants to get to know ya better." Nick said,
slightly defensive about his boyfriend.  "In fact we all do.  I mean we are
going to be spending the next oh, five months with you.  So it only seems
fair."
	"Geez Nick, I was just playin'.  No need to go all boyfriend
protective on me. Sure I'll tell ya about my lovely self.  The thing is,
what do you want to know?" I asked as we stepped off the elevator.
	"You mean you aren't going to go off and give us this long tangent
about your life history?"  Kevin asked.
	"Nope.  You wanna know, you gotta work for it." I said.
	"Gotta work for what?" AJ asked as we came up to the rest of our
group.
	"What we want to know about Tay." Nick said.
	"She isn't gonna bore us with some tragic childhood memory?" Joey
joked.  Crystal playfully hit him on the arm, saying, "That's not very
nice."  "Oh I don't mind. And I'm not some freak girl with a crazy past
that you need to know about.  You wanna know, you ask.  Simple as that.  I
would think by now that you would know that I do absolutely nothing by the
book." I said as we stepped outside to the two awaiting limos.
	"Ain't that the truth." I heard AJ mutter under his breath.
	"Now Alex, it isn't very nice to talk about people behind their
backs." I said as I faced him.
	"You heard that?"
	"Yup I have excellent hearing... for a mortal that is." I said
jokingly.
	"Um..." Alex trailed off.  "What?"
	"Tell me you're a Goth girl or something." Chris sighed.
	"Well I do believe the occult could exist, and I am a Wiccan.
Nothing big though."
	"Nothing big she tells us."
	"Yes nothing big.  I'm not a good Bible-toting Christian or
anything like that.  In fact I don't believe God even exists."
	"Well you wouldn't if you're Wiccan." Lance said.
	"Why don't you believe in God?" Nick asked me curiously.
	"Why?  Why not?" I questioned back.  "If God does exist, and he is
the righteous loving creator the Bible paints him as, then why the hell is
the world the way it is?  I've seen too much hurt, and read too much pain
to actually believe that God even has the possibility of existing.  If he
loved everyone like we all think he does, then there wouldn't be the sick
bastards in the world that there are. And the fact that people can even
write stories where these sick-fucks exist, fiction or not, unsettles me to
the core sometimes." I said as I opened the door to the front limo and
stepped inside.
	I looked outside, and saw that more than half of the people
standing there had their mouths slightly agape in some form of shock.  That
sure as hell got them thinking.  "Well, are we going to dinner or are y'all
gone stand there catchin' flies all night long?"
	Everyone who had their mouths open in shock quickly closed them,
and started walking towards the limos.  Lance, JC, Howie, Amy, Chris,
Danielle, Kevin and Kristen sat in the front limo with while everyone else
went into the other limo.
	"That was some pretty heavy stuff Taylor." Chris said.
	"Well you asked." Was all I said.
	"And you sure don't dick around." Lance filled in.
	"Never said I would." I said as I looked at him.  "When people ask
me a question, most of the time I give them my honest opinion.  That is
unless I was playing with them."
	"And you weren't playing with us were you?" Kevin asked me.
	"Nope." I said as I shook my head.  "I never kid about religion."
	"Have you been Wiccan all your life?" JC asked me.
	"Well no." I said as I sighed.  "I had to go to the Dump..."
	"The Dump?" Howie asked.
	I laughed at the old childhood memory.  "CCD.  Religious education
when I was younger.  Never did find out what it actually stood for.  But me
and my friends always called it the Central City Dump, and it just got
shortened to the Dump as we got older."
	"Oh okay."
	"Well anyway, I had to go to the Dump and get communion and
confirmed, but after a while I stopped going to church all together.  Then
when I turned sixteen I started reading about Wicca and realized that that
was more of my... calling than Christianity was.  To top it off, I was
seriously starting to doubt the existence of God as I grew older and heard
more about the world.  I was Atheist for a little while, but then I found
the Wicca religion."
	"Wow."
	"More than you ever cared to know about me huh?" I laughed
slightly.
	"Well maybe.  But we did ask.  So I guess we deserved it." Kristen
said.
	"Well... anything else you want to prod me for?  I promise I won't
get so detrimental anymore."
	"Okay... here's an easy one." Amy said as the limo stopped and we
stepped out.  "Parents?  Siblings?"
	"Yeah, that's a piece of cake." I laughed.  "I grew up in your
normal family, with a slight 50's feel to it.  My mom stayed home and was
the little homemaker, my dad worked in his own business, and my younger
brother and I went to school.  We even had dinner and breakfast together
most days."
	"That is a rather retro feel." JC said.
	"Yup.  Ozzie and Harriet all around my house.  It oozed that homey
feel."
	"What oozed that homey feel?" Joey asked as the occupants of the
second limo caught up to us at the doors of the restaurant.
	"My home." I said.
	"Oh.  Yeah that would."
	"How old is your brother now?" Danielle asked me.
	I paused as I calculated his age in my head.  "Um... he just
turned 19 last month."
	"Where's he go to school?"
	"Miami.  Majoring in um... Marine Bio."
	"Interesting."
	"Yeah, that's Cody for ya.  He's always been an interesting little
bugger."
	"Don't tell me you call him a bugger." Leighanne laughed as we were
sat at our table.
	"Oh of course I do.  All little brothers are buggers in my book." I
laughed.  "But I still love the kid anyways."
	"You are one interesting character Taylor." Crystal said.
	"That's the general consensus.  AJ has even taken to calling me
crazy if I recall."
	AJ blushed slightly.  "I'm sorry about that Taylor.  But you're not
that bad a girl anymore."
	"Why thank you Aje." I smiled cheekily.
	"It's just that you're so overwhelming to meet the first time...
and the last time I met someone as bubbly as you, they weren't right in the
head." AJ explained.
	"I guess I'll take that as a compliment.  And don't worry about
feeling bad about calling me crazy, everyone has.  Mike... Tom... my best
girlfriends Heather and Jackie.  Everyone calls me crazy, but everybody
loves me anyway."
	"Who're they?" Justin asked as our waiter came to our table to take
our orders.
	"Well Tom's my boss, as well as my friend.  Has been for about four
years now." I said as I gave the waiter my order of a white wine and a
plate of Fettuccine Alfredo as my dinner.
	"What about that other guy Mike?" Amy asked.
	"My best guy friend.  Has been ever since I came over to work for
Tom.  He even wanted to call the psyche ward of the hospital ward to try
and get me set up with a psyche evaluation one time." I said as I laughed
at the memory of Mike trying to avoid me since he thought I was a raving
lunatic for being too friendly with him on the first day.
	Everyone else at the table laughed as well.  "So how long have you
known Heather and Jackie?" Brian asked me.
	"Well Heather has been my best friend since grade school.  Even
though we went to colleges on opposite sides of the Continental United
States, we still kept in touch.  Hell half the time we saw each other in
person during that time was to come to Backstreet concerts.  That was when
we really went wild." I smiled at some of the things we had done while we
were in high school and together in college.
	"And Jackie I met online a few years ago.  Then by pure luck we
found out we were both going to Berkley so we roomed together and have been
friends since then." I told them as I took a sip of water.
	"Is there anything you haven't done Taylor?" Amanda asked me.
	"Sky dived." I said without thinking.  "Scared as shit of heights."
	"Boyfriend?" Leighanne asked.
	"Nope.  Not since Mike."
	"What else can we ask you..." AJ trailed off.
	"I don't know.  You tell me." I said as I bit into a breadstick.
	"Okay here's one.  Since you've told us that you're a fan... who's
your favorite?" AJ asked me.
	"Why am I not surprised that that question came up?" I asked
rhetorically.
	"So who is it?" Justin asked me, his interest piqued as well.
	"Like I'm gonna tell you.  Yeah sure, uh huh.  Yup.  Like-- NO."
I said as I smiled in their direction.
	"You aren't gonna even give us a little hint?" Nick asked,
preparing his little `pout' that I bet always got him what he wanted.
	"Nope.  And put that pout away Nickolas.  It's considered a lethal
weapon in 49 out of the 51 states." I joked as everyone laughed.
	"So the question is just beggin' to be asked... what two states
allow Nicky's pout?" Kevin asked.
	"Oh Florida and New York.  Florida cause they've had to deal with
it for so long, and New York because practically everyone in the damn state
loves you guys, so we can't say no."
	"A native New Yorker are you?" Joey asked me.
	"Born and raised as they say.  Long Island was my home, but damned
as hell if I wasn't glad to get off that frickin' rock once college came
around." I stated.
	"So wait, how long have you been living in California?" Amanda
asked.
	"For the last six years."
	"So that makes you what?  23?" Nick asked
	"Nick, no girl ever tells you their true age sugar pie." I said,
laying my imitation Southern accent on thick.
	"Why dahling, I didn't know you had a touch o' South in ya." Lance
said sarcastically, letting his own Southern accent lay on thick.
	"Oh you kidding me?  I love my little Southern touch." I smiled as
I sipped my newly arrived wine.  "Now I've got a question for ya."
	"What'd you wanna know?" Kevin asked.
	"Why's it over?" I asked, my question getting looks of confusion
and apprehension in its wake, as well as the silence that reigns whenever
someone is caught in an uncomfortable position.
	I definitely never expected the answer I got.

Dun dun dun... You'll have to wait to find out why it's over.  Hehe.
--Jess

Email: Midnight_Violet18@hotmail.com
Site: http://insidebubble.cjb.net