“The winner is -” Justin said as he looked down in the envelope, “Kelsey Baker.”

Everybody started to applaud while Kelsey sat there looking down, hearing everybody applaud for her. Rachel started practically jumping up and down in the seat beside her, and she grabbed her arm, pulling her up.

Kelsey reached over, hugging Rachel and then leaned over hugging David while she looked around to see everybody looking at her. She turned around to go up to the stage to see Nick standing there looking at her, smiling and clapping. She smiled back as she began to walk up on stage.

Chris handed her the award and they all congratulated her and she walked up to the microphone, looking around. She took a deep breath, looking out at Rachel who was crying. She didn’t know why she was crying, but then again it was the first award she had even won for singing professionally. She looked out at David who was laughing at Rachel and she wanted to laugh at him.

Then she cut her eyes over at Nick who was sitting there watching her. Brian was sitting there smiling, waiting for her to talk an that’s when she realized she needed to say something.

“Um,” Kelsey said as she started to laugh a little, “I’m a little in a shock. I’ve never won anything before. This is my first award, except that award I won in that Home Ec club that time in high school which I don’t understand why I won it because I burned the cookies.”

She stopped talking when she realized everybody was laughing at and she laughed a little.

“But um I want to thank my label and my managers Rachel and my mom. Rach, I’m on stage with JC and you’re not.” Kelsey said as she stuck her tongue out at her, “I want to thank um David, my bodyguard who I made wear a tie tonight. I want to thank my back up singers Joelynn and Samantha and my band, my family, my cat Princess who is back home. And I just have to say that I’m so happy that Backstreet Boys beat ‘N Sync and Shaggy for Pop Album of The Year. You’re the bomb. Okay I’m done now. Thanks.” as she backed away from the microphone while everybody laughed and applauded and she began to walk backstage to the press area.

“Well.” Brian said as he looked over at Nick who was cracking up, “She’s a funny girl.”

“Dude she’s hillarious.” Nick said laughing, “Oh she tried their ass right there on the stage.” Nick said as the awards went to commercial and he looked over at Rachel who was wiping tears away laughing, “Hang on.”

“Alright.” Brian said as Nick got up, walking across the isle and sitting down in Kelsey’s seat.

“Your chick is funny as hell.” Nick said as Rachel looked over at him laughing.

“Oh damn that was funny.” Rachel said, “Enjoy your little performance?”

“Oh yeah.” Nick said as he smiled, “I’m gonna meet her later.”

“Okay.” Rachel said laughing, “Oh man. I can’t believe she said that with them on stage.”

“My kind of girl.” Nick said smiling as Rachel looked over at him, “Didn’t expect her to do that in that performance though.”

“Well I didn’t either.” Rachel said as she looked at him, “From what I was told it was a last minute thing. Maybe because of you two staring at each other all night.”

“We weren’t staring at each other.” Nick said as he looked away and looked back at Rachel, “Okay, maybe a little.”

“She looks pretty tonight huh?”

“Oh damn you don’t begin to know.” Nick said as he heard David laugh, “And I hear you’re looking pretty good thanks to Kelsey.”

“Shut up man.” David said as Nick started to laugh.

“You’re not looking so bad yourself.” Rachel said as Nick rolled his eyes.

“I’m Backstreet. Not ‘N Sync.” Nick said smiling as Rachel looked in shock, “I better get back to my seat before she comes back.”

“Yep.” Rachel said smiling as Nick started to get up, “Oh I’m suppose to tell you which party we’re going to. We’re going to the EMI Party at the hotel here.”

“Okay. I think that’s where we were goin anyway.” Nick said as he smiled, “Thanks.”

“Welcome.” Rachel said as Nick got back up going over to his seat. She leaned over to David and started to whisper, “Why do I feel like him and Kelsey are gonna be dating soon?”

“Dear god.” David said as he shook his head, “How will Kelsey watch her Backstreet Boys videos now? The world will surely come to a end.” Rachel cracked up laughing when Kelsey started back to her seat smiling. She smiled over at Nick and Brian before she flopped down in her seat giggling.

“Well congrats Miss Winner!” Rachel said as they hugged.

“Was my speech stupid?” Kelsey asked, “Because I got up there and froze. I didn’t know what the hell to say.”

“No, trust me. It was true Kelsey style.” Rachel said laughing, “And I talked to someone.”

“Oh who?” Kelsey asked.

“Nick.” Rachel said as Kelsey looked at her, “He’s gonna meet ya later.”

“Really?” Kelsey asked as she cut her eyes over at Nick to see him talking to Brian, “Damn.”

“Well thank you god it’s over.” AJ said as he rubbed his hands together as the ceremony was ending, “Now it’s time to party.”

“I’m suddenly feeling really tired.” Nick said as he closed his eyes and Brian looked over at him. Nick peeked his eyes open at Brian and started to smile while Brian shook his head a little at him.

“You’re ass isn’t going to sleep.” Brian said as he looked over to see Kelsey, Rachel, and David get up to leave, “You’re going to go to that party here in this hotel.”

“Damn. I’m really tired Rok, I need sleep.” Nick said as Kevin and Kristin walked by them.

“Come on Nick.” Kevin said as Kristin laughed at him and Nick looked up at them.

“What did I do? I’m sweet and innocent.” Nick said as AJ walked by him, looking down at him.

“Sweet and Innocent my ass yo. The only thing sweet and innocent about your ass is that damn smile you pull off in those magazines.” AJ said as Nick rolled his eyes at him.

“Come on Nicky, let’s go.” Howie said as Nick gave him a weird look as he walked by him and then Justin and Sabrina walked by him. Sabrina cut her eyes over at him and continued to walk by.

“Bitch.” Nick muttered as Brian patted him on the back.

“Come on Nick, let’s go.” Brian said as they both got up, making their way out.

“Damn.” Kelsey said as she stood there looking around everybody at the party a little bit later, “I’m ready to go.”

“We’ve been here 10 minutes at the most.” Rachel said looking at her as Joey and Samantha walked up.

“Dude, we just saw Howie over there talking to someone. I bet Nick’s nearby.” Samantha said as Joey hit her in the arm, “Ouch, stop it!”

“You don’t have to scare her anymore.” Joey said as she looked over at Samantha, “So Kelsey..”

“Yeah?” Kelsey asked as she looked around and back at Joey.

“So you never answered us back in the dressing room. When did you start liking Nick?”

“Who said I was singing to Nick? You know, Brian is my favorite.” Kelsey said as Joey looked at her while putting her hand on her hip.

“Brian is married.” Joey reminded her as Kelsey pressed her lips together and looked away, “Yeah that’s what I thought. Brian was just a distraction from Carter’s lily white ass.”

“Lily white ass?” Kelsey asked as Rachel and Samantha started to laugh.

“Joey, honey, you’ve had too much to drink already.” Rachel said as Joey took a sip of her drink and rolled her eyes.

“Oh blah Rachel.” Joey said as Samantha shook her head, dragging Joey off.

“Damn is it that obvious that I like him?” Kelsey asked as Rachel laughed, taking a glass of champaigne off of a tray that a waitor was carrying by and handed it to Kelsey.

“There, you deserve one drink. ONE drink.” Rachel said as Kelsey smiled, taking a sip of it, “You did good tonight.”

“I think the performance sucked. I could barley hear myself sing.” Kelsey said as she looked over to see Kevin and Kristin walk in, “There’s Kevin and Kristin. Kristin seems really nice but damn she tried to introduce me to Nick.”

“Oh well that’s not a bad thing.” Rachel said as Kelsey looked around, “So are you going to take that offer for the tour?”

“From Tim? I mean I’d want to. That would be really cool.” Kelsey said, “Just you got to do your business stuff and see what my mom says.”

“She sounded too damn happy on the phone when you called after we left the awards.” Rachel said as Kelsey laughed a little, looking over to see Nick, AJ, and Howie walk in, “She wasn’t the only one happy you won though.”

“Yeah, I know you and David are happy.” Kelsey said as she looked around, “Where is David?”

“Uh.” Rachel said as she looked around and started to laugh, “Oh I have no idea.”

“He’s suppose to protect me dammit.” Kelsey said as Rachel laughed.

“How ’bout I go and look for him?” Rachel said as she looked at Kelsey, “Mingle. Talk to people. Tall blonde people.”

“Uh huh.” Kelsey said as she smiled a little while Rachel walked off, looking for David.

“Nick, go on over there.” Brian said as Nick looked over at Brian and looked back over at Kelsey to see her standing there alone, “See now is your chance.”

“Damn.” Nick said as he looked away, “I dunno. What do I say?”

“Say hi?” Brian asked as he started to laugh, “Come on.”

“I’ve already said hi to her before.” Nick growled as he looked away, picking up a drink and taking a sip.

Kelsey stood there, sipping on her glass of champaigne, watching people talk to each other in the room. She felt out of my place like she didn’t belong there. She didn’t care about being there with all of those other people people really. She was too starstruck to walk up to any of them and start a conversastion.

Like what was she going to say to Jennifer Lopez? “Oh I love you in The Wedding Planner!”. No, that sounded too teeny. She damn sure couldn’t go up to Britney Spears after the way she dissed ‘N Sync on stage, but then again. Why wasn’t Britney with Justin? Who was the other girl and why did she look familiar.

She stood there looking over at Justin and his date, trying to remember where she knew her from when she saw someone walking up to her out of the corner of her eye. She looked over to see who it was and almost dropped her glass.

Shit.

“Hi.”

“Hey.”

“What’s up?”

“Uhh..” Kelsey said as she looked around and looked back at him, “Nothing. I’m bored.”

“Me too.” Nick said as he saw what Kelsey was looking at and looked back at her, “Like Justin?” Kelsey just looked over at him as he started to laugh, “I take that as a no.”

“Definetly not.” Kelsey said, “Trying to figure out why that girl looks familiar.”

“Dont worry ’bout it.” Nick said, “So you probably think I’m a freak or something.”

“Huh?” Kelsey asked as she looked back over at him, “Why would I think that?”

“Well everything-”

“Yeah well I made a fool out of myself tonight I think.” Kelsey said as Nick started to laugh.

“No you didn’t. I thought it was the best performance tonight.” Nick said as Kelsey looked back over at him, “And your acceptance speech rocked.”

“Why?” Kelsey asked as she started to laugh a little.

“You dissed them bastards when they were right on stage. It’s cool because I hate them.” Nick said as Kelsey looked away.

“Then why do you sing Bye Bye Bye in concert?” Kelsey asked as Nick smiled and looked away.

“Alright, fine. You got me there. Me and AJ just do that as a joke.” Nick said, “I hate them. With a passion. It’s a passionate kind of hate thing.”

“Uh huh.” Kelsey said as she started to laugh a little and looked away, “So you like my music?”

“Yeah, I do.” Nick said as Kelsey started to laugh more, “What? What’s so funny?”

“I never pictured you as someone that would like country music.” Kelsey said as she looked over at him.

“Well seeing you, you know, I would picture you as someone who would like Backstreet Boys and have a crush on Rok.” Nick said as Kelsey looked away, wanting to laugh, “Of course-”

“Of course what?”

“You didn’t sing to Brian tonight.” Nick said as he looked up and started to rub his chin a little, “Of course Leighanne would come hunt you down.”

“Well AJ’s engaged so it couldn’t have been him.” Kelsey said as Nick started to laugh.

“Not anymore. He’s as single as me.” Nick said as Kelsey looked over at him again, “Of course, I’m sure Howie would have LOVED you singing to him.”

“That’s okay.” Kelsey said, “I’ll leave that up to the other people. Rachel has a thing for him.”

“Oh really?” Nick asked.

“You know who Rachel is?” Kelsey asked as Nick started to laugh.

“Don’t ask.” Nick mumbled as Kelsey started to laugh a little and was about to say something when she looked over to see Justin and his date walking up towards them, “Fuck.”