“Should we wear pants, skirts, or dresses?” Veronica asked, as they met in front of the mall the next day.
“Ronnie, you’re the beat dressed, so I’ll leave that decision up to you,” Alice told her.
“Well, I have this idea,” Veronica began, linking arms with the other two. “We should all wear black skirts.”
“What about tops?” Alissa asked.
“We’ll all get different color tops, they can even be of a different style if you must be different, but at least our skirts will match.”
“No, we have to wear tops of the same style,” Alice said, getting into the idea. “Just different colors.”
Alissa laughed. “And what, wear our hair the same way?”
“That’s a cool idea,” Veronica said. “We’re all gonna match.”
Alice and Alissa laughed. “Won’t anyone think that’s strange?” Alissa asked.
“Who cares what anyone thinks,” Veronica said. “We’ll look good, the guys will like it, and we’ll like it. That’s all that matters.”
“We’ve agreed on black skirts,” Alissa said. “What style tops? And we also have to get shoes.”
“Thigh high black boots,” Veronica said without hesitation. “I’ve always wanted a pair.”
“But Ronnie, you have like ten,” Alissa told her.
“Lis, think about it.”
“Oh, true.” Veronica did have nearly a dozen pairs of thigh high boots, back in their old world. “So black boots it is. Tops?”
“Strapless tops,” Alice said. “I saw these really cute ones. They came down one side to meet the top of your pants or skirt.”
“Did they have lots of colors?” Veronica asked.
“Blue, black, purple, green, yellow, pink, and red.”
“Then those are perfect,” Veronica said. “Onward, girls, let us shop.” She walked forward, heading into the mall.
Alice and Alissa looked at each other, shrugged their shoulders, laughed, and followed Veronica.
They bought the skirts first, then found a store that sold the boots they wanted. They did some browsing, then went to lunch. After eating, they found the tops they wanted.
They were strapless tube-like tops that came down on one side to meet the tops of their skirts. They left the other side of their stomachs bare. Veronica’s was a deep sea green color, Alice’s a dark red color, and Alissa’s was dark blue.
“If we all want to be similar, we should get matching temporary tattoos,” Alissa joked when they walked out of the store, not thinking they’d take her seriously.
“We should,” Alice agreed. “Now we have to go find matching tattoos.”
They found temporary tattoos at a small accessory store. They found rose vine ones that went around their upper arms.
“We’ll have to coordinate jewelry, too,” Veronica said, as they left the mall. “I say simple chains with heart pendants, hoop earrings, and silver rings on our ring fingers of our right hands.”
“Instead of the chain and heart pendant, why don’t we go with the shooting star necklaces we all have,” Alissa suggested. “And we can wear the matching belly chains.”
“With the star and moon earrings,” Veronica said.
“What about rings?” Alice asked.
“Hm, why don’t we wear the silver bands we have, the ones with the interlocking hearts engraved on them?” Veronica suggested. One day, one of the first days they'd been in Florida, they'd deicded to get matching necklaces, earrings, belly chains, and rings.
“That’s perfect,” Alice said. “And how are we going to do our hair?”
“Leave it down?” Alissa suggested.
“Sure. We already match enough. Our hair doesn’t have to look exactly alike.”
“But that’s where you’re wrong,” Veronica corrected Alice. “Our hair will look similar. We’re all wearing it down, so it’ll go with the pattern.”
“I wonder what the guys are gonna think,” Alissa mused.
Veronica laughed. “Probably that we’re crazy, but hey, who cares?”
“Not you,” Alissa said.
“And you shouldn’t either.”
“I can’t help it. I want to impress Justin.”
“And I want to impress JC,” Alice commented.
“I want to impress Joey, so you two aren’t alone. They’ll get a laugh out of our outfits, but I’m sure they’re not going to hate it.”
“And if they do?” Alice asked.
“Then screw them.”
“Literally?” Alissa inquired.
“Sure, if you want,” Veronica told her with a straight face. Then they all started laughing.
“So you and Alissa are on better terms now?” Joey asked Veronica.
“We’re even better friends, if that’s possible,” Veronica replied. She folded another shirt and placed it in her suitcase.
“How much clothing are you taking?” Joey asked.
“We’ll be in LA for three days, right?”
“Yeah.”
“Then enough clothes for five days, plus my outfit for the VMA’s.”
“Five days? Where did you get five days from three days?”
“I always pack extra. You never know what could happen. I mean, I could spill something on one of outfits and have to change. Or we might decide to do something one night, and then I won’t want to wear the same thing I’ve been wearing all day. I’d need to change.”
“How many pairs of pj’s are you bringing?”
“Oh, only two. I’m not the silk freak like Lis. She’s bringing three pairs of pj’s, all silk.”
“And is Alice bringing anything extraordinary?”
“Yeah, I’m taking about four different pairs of shoes,” Alice said from the doorway. “Ronnie, you almost ready?”
“Yeah, why?”
“The other two guys and Lis are complaining.”
“Tell them they can just chill. I’m almost done packing. We don’t need to hurry.”
“Actually, Ronnie, we do,” JC told her, appearing in the doorway next to Alice. “We’ve only got an hour and a half to get to the airport.”
“Someone should have told me sooner,” Veronica said. She placed her last shirt in the suitcase. “There I’m done.”
“Finally,” Joey muttered, picking up her suitcase.
“What was that, Joey dear?”
“Nothing, dear,” Joey told her, plastering a smile on his face.
“That’s what I thought.”
“Are we ever gonna meet the other two members of *NSync?” Alice asked, as they loaded their things into the van that was taking them to the airport.
“You will at the airport,” Justin told her. “Chris and Lance are meeting us there.”
“Goody,” Veronica said. “We get to meet more people.”
“Ronnie and Chris will get along wonderfully,” Justin said to Joey.
“I know. Maybe we should keep them far apart during the flight.”
“That would be advisable,” JC said. “Otherwise, the flight will be very nerve wreaking.”
“At least it’ll be interesting,” Justin commented.
“Chris, Lance, this is Veronica, Alice, and Alissa,” Joey introduced the girls to the Chris Kirkpatrick and Lance Bass. “Ronnie, Ali, Lis, this is Chris and Lance.”
“Nice to meet you,” Lance said. He pulled a woman forward. “This is my girlfriend, Amaryllis Trenton.”
“So you’re the chicks those three have been talking about,” Amaryllis commented. “Nice to finally meet you.”
“Don’t believe anything they’ve told you,” Veronica said. “It’s not all true.”
“So you mean you three aren’t psycho killers who just escaped from a mental institution?” Amaryllis joked.
“They told you that?” Alice asked. “And we thought they’d keep it secret. Now we’ll have to kill them.”
“Oh, let me help,” Amaryllis requested. “I’d love to get my hands on them, especially Justin and Chris. Don’t go to sleep around those two. The next morning will be a complete and utter shock and you just might die from it.”
“Ary, don’t tell them anything,” Justin warned.
Alissa looked at him. “Now she’s gonna have to. And where did you get Ary from?”
“They gave me that nickname,” Amaryllis explained. “They wanted to shorten my name, so they started calling me ‘Ary’. Don’t ask me where they got it.”
“It’s how she spells her name,” Lance told them. “There’s an ‘Ary’ in there, so we just used that.”
“They just didn’t want to have to use my real name.” Amaryllis looked at the three girls. “I can tell you some stories about the guys that’ll have you crying like babies, they’re so funny. They make great blackmail fodder.”
“Can’t wait to hear them,” Veronica said. “It’s always good to have stuff to hold over your boyfriends head.”
“Around them, it’s really good.” Amaryllis pushed her mid-back length strawberry blonde hair off of her shoulders. “It comes in handy when they’re trying to get something out of you, or won’t leave you alone.”
They boarded the plane then. Once everyone was settled and the plane had taken off, Amaryllis turned to Veronica, Alice, and Alissa.
“So, how long have you girls been in Florida?”
“Since the end of June,” Alissa told her.
“Made a lot of new friends?”
“Actually,” Alissa began, “we haven’t. The guys are our only friends.”
“Oh, we can’t have that. You’ll have to do something with me and a few of my friends one day. It’ll be great. We can have a girls day out. You know, shopping, movies, food, slumber party where we stay up all night and talk.”
“That sounds great,” Veronica said, enthused about the idea. “We’ll have to do it as soon as possible after the VMA’s.”
“We’ll plan it when we get back. Oh, at the VMA’s, you’ll get to meet Chris’ girlfriend, Dani. She is just the sweetest thing.”
“Have you been to the VMA’s before?” Alice asked. She never remembered seeing her at the VMA’s. Amaryllis had a sparkling personality that a person would remember.
“No, this is my first time. Lance and I have known each other most of our lives, but we just started dating a little less than a year ago.”
“Care to tell the story?” Veronica asked.
Amaryllis laughed as the guys groaned. Lance started turning red.
“Lance had come home to visit his family, in Mississippi. Well, one day, I was out walking along the road when, all of a sudden, someone, not to mention any names, Lance, just rams into me from behind. With a car. Luckily I wasn’t hurt. Lance of course, jumped out of his car, all concerned that I was hurt, and worried about what I’d do to him. I then punched him, screaming at the top of my lungs that he was the most horrible creature on the face of the earth.”
“My ears were ringing for two days,” Lance interjected.
“Shut up, Lance, this is my story,” Amaryllis told him. “Well, any ways, there we were, on a deserted road, with me screaming at him. Finally, to shut me up, Lance kissed me.” Amaryllis paused to take a breath.
“And then?” Alice inquired.
“I slapped him, and ran away. He had no clue who I was, because I’d changed over the years. The next day, he came to dinner at my house, my parents had invited his family over. My family, being my family, had neglected to inform me that he was coming. So when the doorbell rang, I thought it was one of my friends, and I opened it to see him.”
“She slammed the door in my face,” Lance told them. “I was looking at a woman one moment, and the next I was staring at the door.”
“My parents made me let him come in, but I was very rude throughout dinner.” Amaryllis smiled at Lance. “I don’t know how it happened, but we ended up spending most of the night sitting on the porch, talking. He asked me out the next day, and that was that.”
“She fell for me really quickly,” Lance bragged.
“No. You see, Lance, I just want to make sure you don’t hurt anymore girls.”
“That was a total accident, and you know it.”
Amaryllis laughed. “I was joking, Lance. But I’m not the one who fell quickly. I had you wrapped around my finger by our second date.”
“You did not. If I hadn’t asked you again, you would have been begging me to take you on another date.”
“Great,” JC said. “Here we go again.”
“Do they do this often?” Alice asked, listening to Lance and Amaryllis argue.
“Yes,” JC, Justin, Joey, and Chris said at the same time.
Alice looked at Veronica and Alissa and all three of them started laughing.