Backstreet Boy
Fandom: Part 2
By now I had started High School, I was in the 10th Grade. New school a few more new friends, new crushes and new experiences. I always had ONE guy who I would fall "madly in love" with and forsee my future by their side. They fell into two groups. . . my real life guy and my dream guy.
Real Life Guy: usually someone in my school/ class
Dream Guy: usually someone famous i.e. actor, musician, etc.
My Real Guy throughout Jr.High was Christopher . I thought it would be sssooo cute. Christel and Christopher; Chris and Chris. I can't tell you how many notebooks I covered with his name and mine written together in little hearts. He was cute, incredibly sweet and smart. It wasn't meant to be though. I was unbelieveably shy and unsure of myself back then. We became sorta friends. We used to talk. . . a little. I would see him on the bus going to school sometimes when I got to high school and sometimes we'd sit together and talk a little. That's about as far as that went.
My Dream Guy was Chris O'Donnell. . . I first saw him in Three Musketeers and it was all over from there. I collected pictures of him and learned everything that I could about him. I checked his star sign to see how well we were compatible I even found out who his girlfriend was and that she lived in DC and I found her address and phone number in the phone book. . . it was sad. I never called her though so I wasn't THAT far gone. I did think about ordering thrity pizzas and have them sent to her place but I never did it. He got married. I lost interest. Then in ninth grade I saw William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet with my english class because we were studying Shakespeare. I fell hard for Leonardo DiCaprio who played Romeo. I was buying "teeny" magazines with him on them. I had his face all over my walls I was falling and falling fast into "teenybooperdom". I knew everything about him. I saw almost all of his movies past and present. I kept a scrapbook with his pictures all inside it as well as articles and such. Magazine covers, I had everyone I could get my hands on. He was the man of my dreams after all.
My Real Guy of tenth grade and throughout the rest of High School was Travis. I had a brief thing for a guy named Jason who bared a stricking resemblance to Leo but that fell apart when I found out he was gay AND then he got kicked out of school at the end of the year. Travis was my guy for most of my high school life. I had a HUGE crush on him but he was, to put it plainly, a jerk. A sexy jerk but a jerk non the less. I was quite content admiring from afar.
My next Dream Guy would soon come into view. In the middle of tenth grade and my first year in high school is when I heard the next single from those "Boys in the rain", it was 'Everybody (Backstreet's Back)'. By then we finally had cable (It was an illegal hook up thanks to my dad and his brother but that's beside the point) and I was able to watch MY MTV that I needed so badly and I got to see the video as much as I wanted, which can probably attribute to my fanaticism. No one should be exposed to that much BSB all at one time, it should come in gradual doses. Anyway, I was hit with BSB full force (no pun intended) and on full blast. The video was cool waaayy cooler than the rain video. The song was fun, funky and for someone who LOVES to dance it was just what I needed. . . what I wanted. This is the music that would turn my teenage angst into teenage hysteria.
After watching for a while I began to analyze and pick apart things about the video and the group as a whole. First, 'that dark haired guy with with his muscles peeking out of his pirate shirt everytime he moved was HOT!!!!! The guy in the glasses is too. Oh wow these guys are gorgeous!!! They can move too!!' I was intranced, particularly by the dark haired one who I later learned was named Kevin who had green eyes to match all that dark hair. I was still hot for Leo so while I bought my teeny magazines for him I would also look for pictures and information on the Backstreet Boys. I eventually conceded and put up a poster from one of my magazines above my Leo centerfolds. He still dominated the opposite wall so I hadn't fully abandoned him yet. I still hadn't brought an album from these guys yet. Truth be told I wasn't the one who went out and got the single to 'Everybody' that was my mom. Yes she liked the song so much she went out and got the single on CD and on cassette for the car. Ofcourse she no longer owns the CD because I grabbed that the first chance I got. 'Oh wow look it's enchanced like my Romeo and Juliet Soundtrack.' I didn't have a computer just yet so I took it to school and played it on the computers there, immersing myself more into the Backstreet world.
-Christel M.
