Chapter One
"Mail!" Donna Wright called as she walked into the den, where Nick Carter was sitting. He started and quickly put away the picture he had been looking at. Donna smiled knowingly.
When all five of them had arrived, she started giving out the mail. "Kevin, here. Howie, it's from your mom. Two for AJ, one of them smells like perfume!" she winked and he blushed, "Sorry Brian and Nick. All I've got left is one from Drew. Who wants it first?" Donna held out the letter in question.
"Here, I'll take it." Brian Littrell took it as Nick was lunging for it. "Wait your turn!" He opened the envelope slowly, enjoying seeing Nick squirm. He saw that there were two different colours of paper. He pulled out the white first. He unfolded it and glanced at the first page. It said 'Nicky' and he checked to see how long the section was. Then he handed it to Nick. Nick jumped up and ran out of the den.
"What was that all about?" asked Kevin Richardson, looking up from his letter.
"Oh, just his part of Drew's letter. Here's yours. And Howie, AJ here's yours." Replied Brian, handing them out.
Then he looked back at the envelope. "Looks like we got another letter from Tanna, too. It's on that yellow paper again!" he laughed.
All four of them went back to their letters. Kevin finished his letter and started on the one from Drew. As he was reading, he looked puzzled, then upset, then a grin broke out on his face.
"I knew it!" he laughed.
"Knew what?" asked AJ McLean, looking up from his letters.
"Oh, nothing." and Kevin left the room. Brian was just finishing his letter from Drew, so he followed Kevin out.
"Kev, wait up! So Drew told you?" he followed Kevin out into the kitchen. Kevin was rummaging in the fridge for a drink.
"Yeah, she told me. What do you think?" he took a big swig of the orange juice he had poured.
"It's about time! Are you upset with her? She seemed worried about your reaction."
"Nah. I was for a second, but then I realized that she doesn't want to hurt him either, so. . ." he shrugged. "I hope that nobody gets hurt, especially Nick, but I'm sure that everything will be fine."
"Yeah, I hope so too."
Back in the den, Howie Dorough and AJ had just finished their letters from Drew. Howie had a small smile on his face, and AJ asked what he was smiling about.
"Well, Drew asked me to tell you something. She says she's really sorry, but she ran out of room."
"Okay, shoot." AJ flopped back on the couch.
"She loves Nick."
"That's all? You made it sound like something serious! Well, we know Nick loves her, so what's the problem?" he leaned over and flicked on the TV.
"I dunno. What's on?"
Nick sat in a big deck chair out by the pool. He had a smile on his face as he finished reading his letter from Drew. He put down the letter and pulled out the picture he had put away so hastily earlier. He stared at it for a long moment. Then he stood up, picked up the letter and walked inside.
"Guys, I'm using the computer for a while, okay? I'll let you know when I'm done." Nick said to Brian and Kevin as he walked through the kitchen.
"Sure, no prob." Kevin nodded. Soon after that, they heard the door close and Journey come blaring out.
"He's writing to Drew." Brian said unnecessarily.
"Yup." Kevin nodded again.
Nick sat in from of the computer for a minute, not knowing how to start. 'Okay, this isn't hard. You can do it. Just start by saying Hi. See? It's not that hard!' He thought.
Drew Love, (he started)
It was really good to hear . . . (No! That's way too formal, idiot! )
I'm just going to say this straight out.
"Bri, didn't you say that there was another letter from Tanna? Maybe we should read that." Howie walked into the kitchen, interrupting Brian and Kevin, who were staring down the hall at the room where the computer was.
"What? Oh, yeah, sure." He pulled out the yellow sheaf of paper and looked at it. "The first part is for everyone. Let's go back into the den with AJ."
When they got to the den, AJ turned off the TV and took the letter from Brian. "I'll read it out loud. It starts: Hey everyone, it's Tanna!" he read for a while, stopping once for everyone to laugh at her comment that Drew was mad at Howie. Howie turned pink. When AJ got to the private messages, he handed the letter over to Howie. "You first Howie."
After all of them had read their private sections; (except for Nick) Brian started reading the general message aloud. Just then, Nick walked in.
"Hey! You just missed the first half of Tanna's letter. You can read what you missed after we finish the rest." Howie said as Nick sat down.
"You finished writing to Drew? How many pages was it this time?" AJ threw a cushion at Nick.
"Yeah, I'm done. If you must know, it was only three." Nick chucked the cushion back harder.
"Break it up you guys. Let's finish the letter." Kevin caught it in mid-air. "Go Bone."
When they had finished reading the letter, they all took turns writing both Drew and Tanna back. When all five of them had written, the letter was printed off the computer and air mailed back to Canada.
The next day, Howie found Brian shooting hoops outside. But he was missing more shots than usual, and he looked preoccupied.
"Hey." Howie caught the rebound. "What's up? You don't look so good." He made a shot.
Brian went in for a lay up, and got it in. "What do you think of Tanna?"
"You mean that chick that's writing through Drew?" Brian nodded, and Howie continued. "Well, besides the fact that she defended Drew to me, she seemed pretty cool. Why?"
"Oh, no reason. Just curious." He went back to shooting.
"Okay. Well, Kevin says that the pizza will be here in 10 - 15 minutes. That's what I came out here to tell you." Howie turned to go.
"Thanks, Howie!" Brian called after him.
"Sure!"
"Bri! Pizza's here!" Kevin called out the door to where Brian was still shooting baskets.
"Yeah, put a few pieces aside for me, will ya? I'm not hungry right now." He called back.
"Are you sure?"
"Yes! I'm sure. Just back off, okay?" Brian snapped back.
"Okay, okay!" Kevin shut the door and flipped on the flood light because it was starting to get dark, and he guessed that Brian would be out there for a while. He turned to the counter where Howie had already inhaled two slices of pizza. He picked one up and took a bite.
"Wuzzup with Bri? He never turns down pizza."
"I'm not sure. But earlier, he asked me what I thought of Tanna, Drew's friend." Howie licked the sauce from his fingers.
"Why did he do that?"
"He didn't say. But why else would he ask?"
"You mean you think he likes her?" Kevin asked skeptically as Howie nodded. "I mean, she seems like a nice girl and all, but we've only had two letters from her. Don't you think that's jumping the gun a little?"
"Maybe, but look at Nick. He fell in love with Drew basically at first glance." Howie took another piece of pizza. "But the last time I saw him act like this, all preoccupied and sullen, was when he was thinking of asking out what's-her-name, last year."
"Ashley."
"Yeah, that's the one. I'm seeing the same thing happening."
"You sure?" Kevin raised an eyebrow quizzically.
"Pretty sure. But maybe you should talk to him, seeing as how you're his cousin, and everything." Howie nodded toward the window where they could see Brian catching a rebound.
"Okay, after I'm done, I'll do it." He took another bite.