chapter3!

In a conference room at MTV’s LA studios, all five Backstreet Boys sat, some listening, others not, to the producers of the MTV show they would be participating in. This was third meeting they had to attend about their role in ‘The Assistant.’ The first meeting was to a run-through of the show and all the basics, just for their agreement to do the show. The second meeting focused on their tour riders and the boys in general. The producers wanted to get a gist of their needs so they could come up with some chores for the contestants. Neither of those two meetings were bad. They weren’t any longer than they had to be. They were actually kind of fun. This one wasn’t. It seemed like Daniel, the producer had gone over every detail and scenario possible. Now the assistant producer, Michelle, was pretty much recapping everything that Daniel had just told them, while Daniel nodded his head in agreement.

Even though Michelle wasn’t too bad to look at, Nick couldn’t keep his eyes on her. His mind was wondering and his eyes were searching for anything that was the least bit interesting in that room.

“And don’t worry; this show will not invade your privacy. This show isn’t about you. It’s not about Backstreet. It’s about the contestants, the ‘assistants.’” Michelle told them.

Nick rolled his eyes. Daniel had told them the same exact thing forty five minutes ago. He knew what was coming next. ‘All you have to do is hand them their assignments.’

“All you have to do is hand your ‘assistant’ their assignments for the day. We may need your reactions to what they are doing and how their performance is and we need you when it’s time to send someone home.”

‘Blah. Blah. Blah,’ Nick thought. His eyes scanned the room and fell upon a picture, most likely of a contestant, which had fallen out of Daniel’s folder and was now under the desk. The long, silky blonde hair immediately caught Nick’s eye. ‘Now that’s what I’m talking about,’ he thought.

Nick nudged AJ with his right elbow. AJ didn’t look at Nick, but he did nudge him back. It was hard enough to pay attention without Nick bothering him.

Nick elbowed AJ again and motioned for him to look under the table, then wiggled his eyebrows as if to let him now that he thought that girl was hot. AJ had a repulsed look on his face. He turned away from Nick and scooted his chair closer to Brian who was on the other side of him.

“What?” Nick mouthed. He thought that girl was pretty hot.

“Dude.” AJ whispered.

“What?”

AJ rolled his eyes at Nick. He used his foot to slide the picture closer to him, bent down and handed it to Nick. “It’s a dude.”

How’d he miss that one? “Gross,” Nick said a little too loudly, getting the room’s attention. He didn’t care. He just thought that a dude was hot.

“Yes Nick?” Daniel asked. He knew Nick had the picture so he held his hand out to retrieve it.

Nick handed him the picture. “There’s gonna be dudes?” he asked Michelle, ignoring Daniel. He really didn’t like the guy. He couldn’t be any older he was. It wasn’t anything that Daniel had said or done anything to make Nick feel that way about him. It was just a vibe he got.

“Well yeah,” Michelle nodded and adjusted her thick framed glasses. “What did you expect?” Nick didn’t answer.

Daniel laughed. “You honestly didn’t think that the contestants would all be fans who do any and everything that wanted. This isn’t ‘Fanatic’. What kind of show would that be?”

Kevin was slightly pissed off. First it was at Nick, then at Daniel and now at himself. Nick was an idiot, everyone knew that. Daniel, now there was something sneaky about him that he didn’t like, and now that he was purposely keeping bits of information from them made him even more of a snake. But he was truly mad at himself because he hadn’t even thought about the fact that the contestants wouldn’t be fans. He had assumed the same as Nick and that pissed him off the most. It even embarrassed him.

Kevin took a deep breath and tried hard to ignore the cocky smirk on Daniel’s face. “So these people can hate our guts, yet they are supposed to do what we tell them to do? How is that going to work?”

“It shouldn’t be any different then how things are for you now,” Daniel laughed.

Michelle could see Kevin’s face turning red. He looked like he was about to beat the crap out of Daniel, so she intervened. “What Daniel is trying to say is that we aren’t necessarily picking fans. Someone could want to be on the ‘Ozzfest Tour’ but they might end up on a movie set with Jennifer Lopez. Or they could be Jessica Simpson fans and luck out and get to go into the Studio while she records her new CD. It’s all in the luck of the draw. It would just be too easy if the contestants were already in love with you. Do you understand?”

Yes, they all understood perfectly. The contestants were going to hate them.