faith5

Chapter Five

   Kaelyn sat at her desk two weeks later, scrolling through websites, her eyelids beginning to droop. Suddenly, someone rapped on the frame of her cubicle. She looked up to see Christian, the guy who worked across the office.
   "Hey chick. Aren't you coming?" he asked.
   "Huh?"
   "The staff meeting, Kay. If you don't hurry, you're going to be late." He wiggled his eyebrows mischievously. Kaelyn shook her head with mock exasperation, then followed him to the conference room.
   "Okay, is everybody here?" Denise asked a couple of minutes later, as she scanned the room. When she saw everybody, she continued. "Alright, as you know, two years ago the website had a feature where one member of our staff traveled on tour with the boys for three months and recorded the most exciting bits for the fans." She looked around and saw everyone nodding. "Well, the Boys and I have discussed it, and decided that it would be a good idea to run the same thing again."
   There was a pause after she finished as they all waited for someone to ask the obvious question. "Who's going this time?"
   Denise smiled. "That's what this staff meeting is for. Is there anyone who is just dying to go?"
   Everyone glanced around the room at each other. One woman, who was very obviously pregnant, chuckled. "I wouldn't mind traveling, but I'm gonna be kind of busy." The others in the room all laughed with her.
   "Since there are no volunteers, we're going to have to do this a more diplomatic way. Everyone who has legitimate reasons why leaving Orlando for three months is simply impossible, raise your hands. And by legit reasons I mean small children, medical reasons, that kind of thing." Denise elaborated, and approximately half of the occupants of the room raised their hands. "Alright then. Everyone else will write their names on a slip of paper and submit it to me. I'll draw a name and if there are strenuous protests, we can discuss it."
   All the employees who hadn't raised their hands wrote their names and put the slips of paper into the hat that Denise had swiped from Christian?s head. Then Denise reached in and pulled out a name. "Kaelyn Montgomery." She announced.
   Kaelyn's heart sank as everyone turned to look at her. She really didn't mind leaving Orlando for three months, but the prospect of spending the three months with at least five perfect strangers intimidated her.
   "Do you have any objections, Kaelyn?" Denise interrupted her thoughts.
   "Um..." she looked up. "What about my project?"
   "Is that your only objection?" Denise asked.
   Kaelyn hesitated before answered. "Yes."
   "Well, we'll be getting you laptop with Internet capabilities anyway." Denise shrugged. "If you come into my office later, I'll have all the details for you."

   Kaelyn got off the plane in Germany and looked wearily around her. As fascinating in was to be there, she was exhausted from the 8 hour flight. She followed the crowd to the baggage claim area and leaned against a pillar to wait.
   The next thing she knew, someone was tapping her on the shoulder. "Kaelyn Montgomery?"
   She looked up, startled, into the face of a middle-aged, stern-looking man. "Y...yes." She stammered.
   "I'm Karl. The Boys sent me to pick you up. Your luggage?" he asked leadingly.
   "Oh, uh..." she looked around, and saw her two bags just coming onto the conveyer belt. She hurried over to pick them up.
   Karl guided her to the waiting car and she relaxed in the back seat en route to the hotel. "The Boys are staying in the hotel tonight because they've got a concert. But we're on the bus tomorrow morning at seven a.m." Karl explained to her as he handed her the room key a little while later. "Any questions?"
   "Uh... will we be sleeping on the bus very often?"
   "With disturbing frequency, I'm afraid." He gave her a wry smile. "Now you better get some sleep. You look like you're about to drop." Kaelyn thanked him and headed upstairs to her room.

   The next morning, the front desk calling up her wake up call awakened her. Groggily, she got out of bed, showered, and prepared for the day. Just as she finished blow-drying her hair, she heard a knock on the door.
   "Coming!" she called as she hurried across the room. She opened the door to see a middle-aged woman in a professional-looking business suit.
   "Hi, Kaelyn?" the woman asked.
   "Yeah."
   "My name is Katherine Fisher." She held out her hand, and Kaelyn shook it. "I was just coming up to make sure you had everything you needed, and that you knew that the bus is leaving in about 20 minutes."
   Kaelyn smiled. "Thank you Ms. Fisher. I was just getting ready to head downstairs. Let me just grab my stuff from the bathroom and I'll walk down with you." Katherine nodded, and Kaelyn hurried back to the bathroom.
   Minutes later, the two of them were walking out of the hotel toward the band's tour bus. Kaelyn followed Katherine's directions to put her bags under the bus, then went up the steps into the interior.
   "Hey guys." Katherine called. "I've brought a visitor." The first part of the bus was empty, but Kaelyn could hear voices at the back of the bus.
   "Does that mean I have to get dressed?" A man with wild, brightly colored hair stuck his head out of the curtains of a top bunk halfway down the bus.
   "Yes, AJ, it means you have to get dressed." Katherine sounded exasperated. "Do you mean to tell me that you walked from your hotel room to the bus without getting dressed?"
   AJ grinned at her. "Well... I was wearing pajama pants..."
   Katherine grinned despite herself as AJ retreated back into the bunk, and she turned to face Kaelyn. "If you just wait here, I'll go round up the guys."
   Kaelyn nodded and placed her shoulder bag on the nearest seat. Looking around slightly nervously, she saw that the front section of the bus consisted of a narrow table, a few seats, a bench and some cupboards. Then next section of the bus appeared to be the bunks, but she didn't know what lay beyond them.
   After a moment of nervously waiting, Kaelyn saw Kevin emerge from the back. He smiled disarmingly. "Hi Kaelyn. How was your flight?"
   "Uh... long." She answered.
   Kevin chuckled, but was prevented from saying anything by the arrival of the other four men, and Katherine. Brian saw her and gave her a large smile and an arm squeeze. "Hey Kaelyn. Glad you're here."
   "Okay guys," Katherine began. "I realize some of you already know her, but for everybody else, this is Kaelyn Montgomery. She's going to be tagging along for the next three months and recording everything you do."
   "Everything!? Oh, no!" AJ cried dramatically, then grinned and held out his hand to Kaelyn. "Nice to meet you Kaelyn. This is going to be fun!"
   "Nice to meet you too, AJ." Kaelyn shook his hand.
   "I'm Howie." Howie reached across the table with an extended hand. "It's good to finally meet you, Kaelyn. We've heard so much about you... OW!" he broke off when Brian stepped on his foot, hard.
   "Sorry." Brian said contritely, with a small smile and a shrug.
   "You've heard stuff about me?" Kaelyn asked Howie, confused. "What have you heard?"
   "Only good stuff, I promise." Howie ignored Brian's warning glare. "Like what a nice person you are and how dedicated you are to your work."
   "Oh," she blushed. "Thanks."
   "Okay, Mr. Smooth. You're embarrassing her." Nick elbowed Howie to the side. "Hi! I'm Nick." He said to Kaelyn.
   "And you never have to worry about him being too flattering." AJ said with a chuckle. "He's about as smooth as a brillo pad." He patted Nick's shoulder.
   "Thanks Bone. So much for good impressions."
   "Not a problem little bro. Anytime."
   Kaelyn smiled at their easy banter. "Nice to meet you, Nick."
   "Okay, now that you're all acquainted." Katherine interrupted. "If somebody could show Kaelyn which bunk is hers, I'll let the driver know we're ready to go."
   "You're coming with us on the bus?" Nick asked her incredulously.
   Katherine looked at him as if he were nuts. "Of course not. It was just a figure of speech. Like I would spend hours trapped in a metal box with you five!" she smiled mockingly.
   "Not that we were looking forward to it either." Nick retorted in an easy banter that made the others snicker.
   "Careful what you say, Katherine." Kevin laughed. "You might scare Kaelyn away."
   Katherine laughed good-naturedly. "Kaelyn's too smart for that. I don't think she scares that easily."
   All six of them looked in Kaelyn's direction expectantly. She shrugged and smiled slightly. "Well... I'll give them a trial run. How does that sound?"
   "Fair enough!" AJ laughed, putting his arm around her shoulders. "Come on. I'll show you your bunk."