Date: Tue, 15 Aug 2000 23:20:52 EDT
From: Dale E Wright <bwicub@hotmail.com>
Subject: "The Lottery Winner" --Chapter 1

Hi everyone...

After reading some awesome stuff on Nifty, and after some cheerleading from
Gabriella (check out her 'My Surprise Romance' story!), I decided to write
a story of my own. I hope everyone likes it -- I'm a bit nervous--so if
people could please e-mail me at bwicub@hotmail.com--I'd really appreciate
it. I love e-mail!!!

Now the sex will be coming in further chapters, remember, all good things
come to those who wait!
GRIN

DISCLAIMER: This is a fictional story that came right out of my own mind.
I have no knowledge if any member of N Sync are gay or whatever. That being
said, please enjoy the story and remember-- write me!!!

*********
The Lottery Winner -Chapter 1


--PROLOGUE--


**TV Announcer: "Good evening ladies and gentlemen and welcome to the Big
Game drawing.  Tonight's drawing is for a new lottery record of an
estimated $290 million jackpot.  Tonight's winning numbers are: 2 , 7 , 8 ,
11 , 18 , 21 and tonight's bonus ball is 50.  Tonight's winner will receive
$290 million annuity or $165 million cash option. **

I looked down at my ticket, and my hand began trembling.  Mumbling the
numbers to myself, I double-checked what I saw in front of me... OH MY
GOD!!  I MATCHED ALL NUMBERS!  I reached for my phone and dialed a number
from memory.

"Mom, are you sitting down?"

Elsewhere, a group of friends is sitting down to dinner.  The banter
between them would let anyone listening know that they're obviously
close...one of them sits back and makes a melodramatic sigh.  "Oh man!! I
will be so glad when the break is here.  I want some down time to head home
and relax!"


--CHAPTER ONE-


My life has become so weird.  I signed the final paperwork at the Lottery
Office and received my check.  I'd decided to go for the lump payment and
received my check for $165 million.  I promptly got a financial advisor,
and he advised I put about half aside for Uncle Sam...but I didn't want to
just invest the rest like he suggested.  I took a weekend and tried
figuring out if there was anything I wanted different in my life.  I paid
off what bills I had, paid off my car, and bought my mom a new jeep.  But I
loved my apartment in Baltimore, so I didn't want to spend money on a
house.  I actually was pretty content with my situation.  The one thing I
did do was quit my job.  I loved my boss and all, but I didn't want to have
to worry about doing the whole "rat-race" thing for awhile.

Then it hit me...do something charitable!  But what???  I didn't want to
just write a check...that seems so cliche.  Maybe I could combine my love
of music with being charitable; rent the venue and pay to get the artist
then have the ticket cost all go to charity.  Yeah, that's it!  But who
could I try and get?  I then remembered the N*Sync concert a month ago...I
was upset because I couldn't go.  That's it!  I'm going to see if I can get
N*Sync to do the concert!

Grabbing my "No Strings Attached" CD, I began working the phone to try and
set something up.


Three weeks (and dozens of phone calls later) I felt the plane start to
descend into the Orlando airport.  It had taken several days of talking to
JIVE records representatives before they finally got the message that I
wasn't kidding about my idea.  They finally set me up to meet with Johnny
Wright, who manages the band.  I was walking out of the gangway at the
airport when I saw someone holding a sign that said "Mister Wright", I
didn't think anyone was meeting me at the airport...but just to be on the
safe-side I went up to the young man and struck up a conversation.

"Hi.  Which Mister Wright are you waiting for?  It's a pretty common name."

He looked me up and down, and then he started talking in a really snide
voice.  "I was sent by my boss, Johnny Wright, to pick up a VIP.  All he
told me was to meet Mister Wright at this gangway."

Starting to giggle, I stuck out my hand.  "Guess you found him.  Hi, I'm
Dale Wright and it's a pleasure to meet you."

As soon as I said it, he began stammering an apology.  I just laughed and
told him not to worry about it. Grabbing my gym bag, which was sitting next
to me, he told me to follow him.  Walking out of the airport terminal, I
followed him to the limo stand.  As he opened the back door, I let out a
low whistle.  Apparently I really had gone up to a new level when I'd won
the money.  This was to be my first limo ride.  The limo ride was
smooth...I actually felt myself nodding off as the radio played softly in
the background.  I noted that it was the new Britney Spears song "Lucky".
I came awake with a slight start when the car came to a stop in front of an
office building.

The driver opened the door, and I stepped out to the bright Orlando sun.
The driver closed the door and told me that my appointment was up on the
9th floor, and he'd be waiting for me to take me to the hotel at the close
of the meeting.  Walking into the building, I started humming softly to
myself.

After exiting the elevator at the 9th floor, I was met by a young blond
lady.  "Mister Wright?  Hi, I'm Lisa.  Please follow me to Johnny's
office."  She turned and walked off at a brisk pace with hardly a backward
glance.  We entered a posh office suite, and she held a door open for me.
After I walked through she closed it softly.  Sitting behind the oak desk
was an older black man, who I recognized from MTV as Johnny Wright; I was
shocked though to see 5 young men sitting against the window, none of them
were smiling.

"Mister Wright?"

I turned back to the desk, and noticed Johnny had stood up and was
extending his hand.  I automatically reached up and shook it.  Sitting
down, I placed my gym bag on the floor next to my chair.  I then got down
to business.  "Mister Wright, thank you for seeing me about this matter."

"Well Dale, I will admit...I almost didn't.  Your phone calls to my office
were thought to be pranks.  After I did some checking and found out that
you were indeed a large lottery winner I decided to have you come down to
meet with you in person.  I asked the guys to meet with you as well since
this is a team effort here.  I hope that's not a problem."

Looking at the 5 men sitting by the window, I noticed that they were all
still glaring at me.  I opened my mouth finally though, when I realized
that I'd probably better start talking.  "Well, uh, thank you for meeting
with me sir.  As I told your assistant on the phone, I want to arrange a
concert for charity.  I'm willing to pony up the money for the venue as
well as the fee for the band, that way the only thing that the ticket price
goes to is charity.  If I swing a large enough venue we could conceivably
raise well over a million dollars for charity."

"Why do you want to do this???"

Looking over, I saw that Lance had shifted in his seat.  I knew that it was
Lance speaking because I'd heard enough interviews with the group.  The
other guys all looked at Lance, then at me.

"Excuse me Lance?  Do you mean my reason for wanting to arrange a charity
concert or for coming to you and your group?"

His eyes flattened slightly and he almost hissed at me.  "Both"

"Fair enough question Lance.  I hope you don't mind if I direct the answer
to everyone."  He blushed slightly, and I realized how cute he really was
up close.  " Okay, the first question was what is my motivation for
arranging a charity concert.  Well, to put it simply...I want to give
something back to society.
  I was fortunate enough to win a very large amount of money, but I don't
really have many things I want.  I paid my bills, bought my mom and her
girlfriend a new car, and invested some.  I want to do something charitable
but I don't want to just write a check.  I want to do something that
everyone will enjoy, something that will benefit on a large scale.  To
answer your second question, what better thing than a concert by one of the
world's most popular music groups?  A group that has the power to do so
much good."

Realizing that I'd gotten on my soapbox, I focused on the faces of the 6
men in the office.  The look on their faces was pretty classic!  Finally
Joey broke the silence, "Your mom and her girlfriend???"

"Yes Joey, my mom is a lesbian.  Her and her partner Debbie have been
together for a little over 14 years."

Looking back at Johnny, I saw a thoughtful expression on his face.  He
turned and looked at the five members of Nsync..."Well guys, what do you
think?  I think it could be good P/R for us.  Granted you'd have to lose a
day of the break, but the publicity could do great things for the numbers."
He then looked at me "Which and how many charities did you have in mind?  I
think the guys would probably want to choose at least one."

"Well Johnny, if I can call you that, the first charity I thought of is one
called Youth Guardian Services.  They're a group that helps at-risk GLBT
teens to keep them from committing suicide or living homeless on the
street."  Seeing the look of confusion on his face, I clarified.  "Sorry
about that, I shorten terms sometimes.  Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and
Transgender."

Johnny's face lit up showing he understood what I meant.  I looked over and
saw several of the guys looking at me with rather odd looks on their faces.

As the 6 of them began talking amongst themselves, I stood up suddenly.  It
was almost comical how they all stopped talking like a plug had been
pulled.  "Guys, could we please continue this tomorrow??  I'm tired.  My
butt has been travelling since 6am this morning and I got almost no sleep
last night.  Can you guys recommend a good hotel?"

Joey smiled as he started talking, "Wait...you came down here and you
didn't have a room reserved?  Man don't you know where you are???  This is
the home of the Magic Kingdom.  You almost never find an open room on the
weekends.  We have free rooms on the floor that the Plaza set aside for us.
Come on, we'll let these guys get some business details out of the way.
Think you can stay awake another 20 minutes?"

Joey led me out of the office, talking up a storm.  After the cold stares I
was getting from the group earlier, I wasn't sure what to make of him being
so friendly.  Maybe this is just how he is.  Riding down the elevator, he
was be- bopping along to the music playing.  As the doors opened, he
bounded out and raced outside.  He smiled when he saw the limo and promptly
ran around my driver and jumped in.  As the driver got ready to rip him out
of the limo I showed up and told him it was okay.  As I got in and the
driver closed the door, Joey yelled out the name of the hotel.

He began peppering me with all kinds of questions about who and what I was.
He thought it was incredible that my mom was an out lesbian.  He then asked
me 'the question'... "Hey Dale, what about you?  Are you gay too?"

Smiling, I nodded.  I watched his eyes get big, then he looked away
suddenly.  He got very quiet and stared out the window.

"What's wrong Joey?  Cat got your tongue?  Hope this doesn't impact our
budding friendship."

His head came back around, and that gorgeous smile was back.  "Nah, of
course it doesn't.  Just not used to people being so open.  So tell me more
about yourself."

For the rest of the ride to the hotel, I told him all the boring details of
my life.  After we pulled up in back of the Plaza and got out, Joey told
the driver to go ahead and take the night off.  As he led me inside to the
registration area, he continued chatting at me about himself and his life
since joining the group.  We walked up to the desk and he promptly went
into flirt mode.  The girl behind the counter didn't stand a chance.  She
was giggling inside of five seconds, and giggled the entire time she was
typing up the info in the computer.  She took my drivers license and credit
card.

As we walked to the elevators, Joey filled me in on how the security worked
at the hotel.  He kept up the monologue all the way up, and finally stopped
when the doors opened on the floor of our rooms.  I looked around and
whistled.  He looked at me in surprise so I clarified.  "I'm more of a
Hilton or Sheraton kind of guy...this place is swank!"

Joey began laughing at that.  "Guess we're just jaded.  To the guys and I
this place is just another hotel.  It's not home."  He sounded so sad when
he said that I had to do something.  I felt my right hand reach up and give
his shoulder an affectionate squeeze.  He looked at my hand then at me with
an arched eyebrow.  He opened his mouth to say something when I interrupted
him.

"Hey, there it is!"  I opened the door and walked in.  Very impressive
room!
  I tossed my bag onto the couch, and went to sprawl on the bed.  I almost
forgot Joey until he cleared his throat.

"Just so you know, your room connects to mine through this door.  The guys
were planning on going to eat dinner around 8 or so.  Would you like to go?
It'll give the others a chance to talk to you some too."  The look on his
face was so adorable I just couldn't say no.

"Sure, could be fun.  Let's see, it's about 5 now?  Can you come get me
around 7:30?  That'll give me a chance to take a disco-nap then hop in the
shower."

He broke into a smile.  "Disco-nap???  Hey, what's Disco?"

I threw a pillow at him and told him to leave me alone to nap.  I called
the desk and set a wakeup call for 7pm...30 minutes should be more than
enough time to get ready.  I fell asleep very fast.  Came to briefly when I
heard voices in the hall, one of them was very heated.  As I fell off
again, I hoped that it wasn't about me.  I hate it when people talk about
me.

The phone ringing jarred me out of my dream.  I answered it and heard the
lady downstairs thanking me for staying at the Plaza.  I forced myself to
get out of bed and walked into the bathroom.  I stripped off my boxerbriefs
and looked at myself in the mirror.  I'm not an adonis by any means...but I
don't look half bad.  Turning on the shower, I got in and began cleaning
the day's grime off.  I'm one of those shower singers, so I automatically
went into song mode.

"Looking back on the memory of
The dance we shared 'neath the stars alone
For a moment all the world was right
How could I have known that you'd ever say goodbye
And now I'm glad I didn't know
The way it all would end the way it all would go
Our lives are better left to chance
I could have missed the pain
But I'd of had to miss the dance
Holding you I held everything
For a moment wasn't I a king
But if I'd only known how the king would fall
Hey who's to say you know I might have chanced it all
And now I'm glad I didn't know
The way it all would end the way it all would go
Our lives are better left to chance
I could have missed the pain
But I'd of had to miss the dance
Yes my life is better left to chance
I could have missed the pain but I'd of had to miss the dance. " (1)

"Not half bad if I say so myself.  Now let's see if I can get through Love,
Me without losing it..."

"I read a note my grandma wrote back in nineteen twenty-three.
Grandpa kept it in his coat, and he showed it once to me. He said,
"Boy, you might not understand, but a long, long time ago,
Grandma's daddy didn't like me none, but I loved your Grandma so."
We had this crazy plan to meet and run away together.
Get married in the first town we came to, and live forever.
But nailed to the tree where we were supposed to meet, instead
Of her, I found this letter, and this is what it said:
If you get there before I do, don't give up on me.
I'll meet you when my chores are through;I don't know how long I'll be.
But I'm not gonna let you down, darling wait and see.
And between now and then, till I see you again,I'll be loving you.  Love,
me.
I read those words just hours before my Grandma passed away,
In the doorway of a church where me and Grandpa stopped to pray.
I know I'd never seen him cry in all my fifteen years;
But as he said these words to her, his eyes filled up with tears." (2)

That was as far as I got...tears filled my eyes and my voice broke.  I
spent the next few minutes crying my eyes out (what can I say...I'm an
emotional guy.)
  I turned off the shower and got out.  After drying myself off I wrapped a
towel around me and pulled open the half-closed bathroom door.  I was
shocked when I saw Joey and Lance sitting on my couch!

"Hey Dale, you sound good when you sing."  Joey was all smiles when he paid
me the compliment.

Lance looked up at me and also grinned, "Hey, you did 'The Dance' pretty
good.  Love that song!"

Blushing furiously, I stammered a reply.  "Gee thanks guys.  Um, not that I
don't enjoy an audience...but what the hell are you doing in my room?"  I
walked over to my bag and began pulling out clothes for the night.  I
looked over and saw Lance was blushing about 3 shades of red, while Joey
suddenly began looking everywhere but directly at me.  Grinning, I took my
clothes and went back into the bathroom, closing the door slightly so I
could still talk.  "So, what's the plan for tonight?"

"Well, we have reservations at a great Mexican restaurant at 8...then
probably go out and hit a few clubs.  Johnny told us to make a good
impression, so we can't get too out of hand."  Lance broke out in a grin as
he said that.  I let out a laugh as I opened the bathroom door and walked
out.

"Okay guys, let's roll.  Oh and by the way...dinner is on me."


Copyrights: (1) "The Dance" - Garth Brooks
             (2) "Love, Me" - Collin Raye