~*~*Chapter One*~*~

It was a warm, sunny september morning. I couldn't hear any birds, though. Probably because I was sleeping. After all it was saturday and aren't saturdays made for sleeping? I thought so. But obviously my friend Stephanie didn't. When I heard the phone I let it ring a few times before picking it up. The voice on the other end was nothing less than ecstatic. "Guess what guess what guess what?!" I heard Steph nearly yell. "Right now I don't really care 'what'. It's..." I looked at the clock, "It's seven thirty in the morning!" "Oh, you'll care. Just let me tell you!" "Alright, alright, out with it." I said, groggily. "Okay, here goes, ready?" "Yeah, yeah, ready." I was becoming impatient. "I'M GOING TO A BACKSTREET BOYS' CONCERT!!!" she yelled in my ear, happily. "That's great, kid. Can I go back to bed now?" "Aren't you excited?" She asked. "Not really. I mean, you know I never liked them." "Yeah, but..." she paused, "I have two tickets and.. I was wondering if you wanted to come with me." "Steph, I don't really-" "Aw, come on," she cut me off, "front row seats, right next to the stage. I need to go with SOMEONE right? And what friends do I have other than you?" "Good point, Steph," I said, with a bit of a laugh. She sounded so desperate."So, since I'm such a great friend, yeah I guess I'll go with you." "Thanks so much!" "No, thank YOU." I said, mockingly. "Yeah, whatever!" "How'd you get those tickets, anyway, front row seats and all? I asked. "I won them. On the rado station, DRQ. I was the ninth caller or whatever." "Oh, Okay" "When I find out the date and time and stuff, I'll call you." "Alright, Bye" "Bye" *~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~* The night of the concert--- We walked through the crowds of screaming girls. "I don't belong here," I yelled over the noise, "You could have given my ticket to someone else." "What?" Steph yelled back, "I can't hear you!" "Never mind, forget it." I said. Steph shrugged her shoulders. We found our seats as the opening performance started. I heard a little kids voice starting over the speakers. "Who is that?" I asked. "You don't know who that is?" Steph asked, surprised but smiling. "No, I don't know who that is. I like Green Day and the Beatles, remember?" "Okay, you know who Nick Carter is?" she asked. "He's a Backstreet Boy, right?" I answered. "Right. This is his little brother, Aaron. He's ten. He's new to the music business." She finished. I sat and listened to him and realized he was actually pretty good. He'd have a better voice when he was older, though. Aaron finished singing after a while and the Backstreet Boys jumped on to the stage, counting down from ten(which i thought was really dumb) and then sang a song that I hadn't heard before. From the lyrics I guessed that it was called something like "Let's Have A Party". I looked over to Steph and she was jumping up and down, cheering, and singing. I just didn't see it. But I did se this one blonde guy that sang a lot of the song. What a cutie! I didn't want to admit it, though. So I just watched him. Steph was still going nuts. So I figured, why not? And kinda got into it, sort of dancing and stuff. "That's Nick" Steph said "What?" I asked, confused. "The one you keep staring at, that's Nick, Aaron's brother." "I know which on Nick is!" I lied, "and I wasn't staring at him." "Yeah, right." Steph said with a smirk. I didn't want to argue with her, so I turned my attention back to that guy. "You're doing it again!" she said, laughing at me. "No! And so what if I was?" "So you're admitting to it" "No, I'm not. Please answer the question." "It's just that I don't know what you see in him. I'm a Howie girl, myself." "Really?" I asked, "Which one's that?" I was glad to change the subject. "See the hispanic one wearing the red shirt? That's him." "Yuk" "Oh, shut up! You're the one who likes NICK!" She made a wierd face. "I DO NOT!" "Mmmmmmhmmmmmm" she blew me off. "Yeah, fine." I said under my breath. I looked back up at Nick again, to see him wink at me. "He was looking at you!" Steph said. "Yeah, I saw." "He was looking at you! He likes you!" "I know." "Don't you get it?" "Um....I guess not." "Lucy, there are, like, ten million girls who would die for that!" Steph was excited. "Oh, cool!" "Really" We Turned our attention back to the show. The five guys were gathering up all the presents that the girls had thrown up onto tha stage. "We'll be back out in a couple of minutes." one of them said. The audience cheered. Just before they left, Nick looked back at me again. At least I think it was me. It could have been Steph. After all, she was really pretty. I was just... me. When they were done resting or whatever, they came back with different clothes on. When Nick came out, he was holding a rose. I wondered what that ws for. They started to sing another song I didn't recognise. When it was Nick's turn to sing, her walked along the edge of the stage which made the girls scream even louder as they reached out to touch him. When he was in front of Steph and I he kneeled down. I listened to him sing, "..... I won't lose my way, believe me, even thrugh the darket nights you know," When he said "you" he'd pointed at me. ".....I'd go anywhere for you.." He handed me the rose. Then he got up and walked the rest of the was down the stage while he continued to sing. "Oh my god. Ohmygod! Lucy! Nick gave YOU a rose! Specifically gave YOU a rose! This is amazing! I can't believe-" yelled Steph. "Yeah, it's pretty neat." I interrupted. "Pretty neat? PRETTY NEAT?! It's more than pretty neat, it's-" "Pretty cool?" I suggested. At this, Stephanie began to laugh. "You don't understand, do you?" she asked. "No, I do. It's just, for some reason I'm not excited. Hey, look. Thee's a tag on it." "Open it" "I am! It says: 'Who's that girl beside you? Howie likes her a lot'" I said. "REALLY?!?!" "No." I answered "That was mean" Steph was a bit upset. "I'm sorry, I had to." "OK then, what does it really say?" I opened the card. It read: *THE FIRST ROSE* Wait in your seat. I'll see you after the show. --Nick C. I told Steph. "Wow!" she said, "He wants to meet you!" "Uh-huh" I said. "This may turn out to be a great night" I was getting giddy. "Damn straight!" Steph replied, "So you DO like him!" "Well...Yeah, I guess." "Cool!" "Let's watch the show now, OK?" "Yup"