Chapter One
Anne Littrell lay on her back on her bed, staring at the ceiling. Downstairs, she could hear her grandmother moving around, rearranging things. Anne sighed and sat up, reaching for the phone. She quickly dialed her best friend's number.
"Hello, Shay?"
"Hey Anne, what's up?" Shay-Lynne Carter asked.
"I'm bored out of my mind! The Evil One is here, so I can't go out. Wanna come over?"
"Ah, I see. Your mom's mom is visiting, isn't she?" Shay asked knowingly.
"Yep. My parents are both away, so Grandma's staying with us." Anne lay back on her bed again. "I wish it had been Grannie, if it had to be anyone. Da's mum is so much cooler than my Mum's mum."
"Okay, I'm on my way over." Shay hung up the phone and slipped on her sandals. "Mom! I'm going to Anne's!"
Drew Carter stuck her head out of her office. "When will you be back?"
Shay shrugged. "I dunno. She's bored out of her mind 'cuz the Evil One is there." Shay shut her mouth quickly, her eyes wide. "Oops..."
Drew laughed. "Shannon's mom is looking after the kids while she and Bri are away, isn't she?" Shay nodded, still apprehensive. "Don't worry sweetie. I won't tell. You should have heard what we called her when we were your age."
Shay grinned, waved, and headed out the door. Her mom and Anne's mom had been best friends since high school. Coincidentally, they had married best friends as well. Five minutes later, she ran up the front steps of the Littrell house.
She opened the door quietly, slipped off her sandals, and tried to get upstairs without being seen. However, as she walked through the living room, Anne's brother Thomas was sitting on the couch.
"Hello Shay."
Shay stopped in surprise. "Oh, hey Thom. Why aren't you hiding like Anne is?"
Thomas grinned cockily. "Nah, I don't have to. In Grandma's eyes, I can do no wrong."
Shay raised one eyebrow. "And so modest too."
"I know." He nodded solemnly, then winked playfully.
"Anne's in her room?"
"Yep, but be careful, Grandma's on the prowl." He wiggled his eyebrows.
"Thanks." She grinned at him, then ran up the stairs. She slipped into Anne's room and shut the door.
"Welcome to my prison." Anne grinned as Shay sat down next to her on the bed.
"So remind me why the Evil One is here." Shay picked up the nail file that had been sitting on the bed and began to shape her nails.
"Mum asked her to stay here with us while she was away." Anne rolled her eyes. "Out of nowhere, Mum decides she needs to spend more time with Da, and voila! We're stuck with the Evil One."
Shay grinned. "My mom's so jealous that your mom's out on tour with them. Dad calls every night, but it's not the same."
"I know. That's why my mum went this time, I think. She's been kinda depressed lately." Anne agreed.
Both Anne and Shay's fathers were part of an internationally successful singing group. Nick (Shay's father) and Brian (Anne's father), were away a lot with Brian's cousin Kevin, and their friends AJ and Howie. Since the guys were very close, as were their wives, their children spent a lot of time together.
"So what are we doing today?" Shay asked.
Anne shrugged and sighed. "Well, I'm not allowed out of the house, so we're kinda limited." The two girls sat in silence for a bit. Every once in a while, one of them would begin to suggest something, then would dismiss the idea.
Just as Anne was about to suggest another idea, they were interrupted by a call from the bottom of the steps. "Anne Margaret Mary!"
Anne rolled her eyes, while Shay's went wide. "Does that mean you're in trouble?"
"Nah, she just likes saying my full name because I was partly named after her and it makes her feel important." She opened the door. "Coming Grandma!" Shay laughed as Anne rolled her eyes again then hurried down the steps.
"Yeah, Grandma?" Anne asked when she got to the kitchen.
"Did I hear you talking with someone upstairs?" she asked.
"Yeah, Shay's over." Anne answered.
"Shay? Oh, yes. Drew's youngest." Ms. Vicars turned away from the counter to face Anne. "Could you two go up into the attic and straighten up a bit? I went up there yesterday and it was a pigsty! Your mother never was good at keeping organized."
Anne suppressed the urge to sigh. "Okay Grandma. We'll get right on it."
"Thanks sweetie."
Anne smiled at her grandmother, then went back upstairs. "Well, our problem is solved." She said dryly as she walked back into her room.
"Which problem?" Shay asked, looking up from a magazine.
"Our problem of what to do." Anne said. "The Evil One wants up to straighten up the attic. You should have heard her. She all but said "your mother's junk"." Anne mimicked her grandmother. "I swear, sometimes…" she didn't finish her sentence, but merely gritted her teeth.
"Just think of it this way, Anne." Shay grinned sympathetically. "At least your mom didn't turn out like the Evil One."
Anne chuckled grimly. "Thank God! No, Aunt Robin was the one who got all of those genes!" She gave a dramatic shudder.
Shay chuckled. "Well, we might as well get at it."
"Yep!" Anne agreed, and the two of them headed upstairs to the attic.
"Ahchoo!" Anne sneezed. The two girls were standing in the middle of the attic, surrounded by boxes, bags, old furniture - all of which were covered in a liberal layer of dust.
"Bless you." Shay said absently. She looked around. "I can see why this place needs to be straightened."
"It's not that bad, though." Anne replied. "I mean, it's not like this all had to be organized alphabetically for easy access. These are the memories of my parents…"
Shay started to snort, then sneezed instead. "You are such a… ahchoo!… hopeless romantic, Anne."
"Bless you. I know. I come by it honestly, though."
"So where do we start?" Shay asked.
"Um…" Anne closed her eyes and randomly pointed. "There!"
Shay laughed. "Gotta love your decision-making skills."
"Shut up, will ya?" Anne moved toward the stack of boxes. "We'll each take a box."
"Are we going through them?" Shay asked, surprised.
"Yeah, why not?" Anne shrugged. "We have nothing else to do all day. Besides, I'm curious about the kind of stuff my mum saved."
"Okay then!" Shay shook her head, then grabbed a cardboard box.
Anne did the same, and the two of them began to look at the stuff inside. They browsed in silence for a while, then Anne laughed. "It's official. My mother is the ultimate packrat!"
"Why?" Shay asked, looking up.
"Because she saved this." Anne held up a paper napkin.
Shay raised one eyebrow. "It probably has some sort of sentimental meaning that only your mother knows."
"Wait a minute, it has some writing on it." Anne exclaimed when she turned the napkin over. "Great performance. Best of luck! - B-Rok" she read.
"B-Rok? As in, your dad?"
"I guess so. I wonder what he's talking about though." Anne put the napkin down and picked up the next item in her box, which was a photograph. "Hey, this must have been my Da when he was younger."
Shay abandoned her box and scooted closer to Anne. "Yeah, he looks just like Thomas and Joseph."
"More like Thom, though." Anne discarded the picture for the next one in the pile. "And this is all of them. There's Da, Uncle Kevin, Uncle Alex - he was crazy back then, too! Uncle Howie… and your dad."
Shay peered at the picture. "He looks so young!"
"They all do!" Anne agreed. She picked up the stack of photos and quickly flipped through them. "I think these are all of the Backstreet Boys way back when."
"Wait." Shay stopped her, and plucked a picture out of her hands. "What's this one?"
The two girls looked at the picture closely. In it were four young girls grinning at the camera, their arms around each other's shoulders. They were in a large amusement park, and one of the girls in the middle was holding a bag of cotton candy.
Shay laughed. "That's our moms! How funny is that?"
Anne grinned. "And that must be Auntie Jess and Aunt Aileen."
"We're not actually their nieces, are we?" Shay asked.
"No. It's like how you call my mum Auntie Shannon and I call you mom Auntie Drew. Everyone's so close that everyone's Auntie-this, or Uncle-that."
"You know, I'm actually kind of glad that we're not related to Uncle Alex. I mean, he's awesome and everything, but he's just a little…"
"Nuts?" Anne finished.
"Yeah." The two laughed.
"Aren't you glad we aren't related?" Anne asked, looking sideways at her best friend.
"Yeah." Shay agreed immediately, then tried to cover her tracks. "I mean, we probably wouldn't be such good friends." She amended.
Anne nodded solemnly, then smiled knowingly. "And then you'd be related to my brothers as well." Anne and her brothers, Thomas and Joseph, were triplets and were a month or so older than Shay.
"Yeah…" Shay said weakly.
Anne grinned and turned back to the box of memorabilia. "There're so many pictures here."
"Why aren't they in albums?" Shay asked.
Anne smiled. "Because Mum's not organized enough to put them all in albums."
Shay reached back into the box and started pawing through the stuff. Under the pictures she found many videotapes. She pulled one out. "BSB on Rosie, Backstreet Back Home. . . These are all of Backstreet stuff."
Anne picked up another tape. "Okay, either my mother was really obsessed… or my dad was."
The girls looked at each other then spoke as one. "Your mom!" they laughed.
An hour later, Shay looked at her watch. "I gotta go, sorry."
Anne also looked at her watch. "Wow. I didn't realize we'd been up here so long. I'll go down with you."
The two stood up and brushed the dust off as best as they could. Walking down the stairs in front of Anne, Shay looked over her shoulder. "You wanna do this again tomorrow? The Evil One will still be here, won't she?"
"That sounds great." Anne agreed. "Yeah, she's here for another week." She shuddered.
Shay grinned sympathetically as they got to the first floor. Walking through the living room, they noticed that Thomas was no longer sitting and reading. "So, I'll…" Shay began, but they were interrupted by a commotion at the front door. They both looked over to see Brian helping Shannon through the door.
"Mum! What's wrong?" Anne exclaimed, hurrying toward her.
Shannon Littrell was eight months pregnant, and looked it. She smiled at her daughter. "I'm fine, Anne honey. Your father's just overreacting a little." She looked up at her husband. "Bri, I can walk on my own, you know."
"But you're not supposed to." Brian protested as he guided her to the loveseat in the living room. "The doctor said…"
"Doctor? What doctor?" Anne asked, worried.
Shannon rolled her eyes and shot Brian a look as he turned to Anne. "Why don't you call your brothers in here, pumpkin?"
Anne did as he asked, and soon Thomas and Joseph were standing next to her and Shay. Even though they were triplets, the three were not identical. Anne had shoulder-length brown hair and bright blue eyes and she was a bit shorter than her brothers. Thomas was the oldest out of the three by two and a half minutes. He had the same dirty blonde hair and blue eyes as Brian. Where Anne didn't have a specific style that she liked, Thomas tried to look as polished as he could. He was the stereotypical high school "quarterback," although his sport of choice was hockey. Joseph, the youngest by four minutes, had blonde hair and green eyes. He was an inch taller than Thomas, but lacked some of the body mass. Instead of sports, Joseph was very committed to getting the best grades in the school and had ambitions to become a genetic engineer. Shannon often joked that there must have been a mix up at the hospital, because he was so smart.
"What's going on Da?" Thomas asked. "Why are you two home so early?"
"I should probably be going…" Shay said softly, trying to slip away.
"No, Shay. It's okay, you're practically family." Shannon assured her best friend's daughter.
Shay looked unsure, but the choice was made for her when Brian began to speak.
"Yesterday, we had a bit of a scare when your mother thought she was going into labour early." He explained. "We quickly went to the hospital and she was stabilized. But she was told that for the next month, she has to do next to nothing. She can get out of bed and come downstairs, but that's it." He emphasized.
Shannon sighed. "So, basically, I'm going to go out of my mind with boredom."
"So I expect the three of you to be extra helpful around the house. I'll be there too, so…"
"No you won't." Shannon interrupted him.
"Yes I will. I'm canceling the rest of the tour."
She looked levelly at him. "You have a week and a half left in this tour. I will not let you disappoint all those fans just because of this. You are going back in the morning."
Brian and Shannon stared at each other in silence for a long moment. Finally, Joseph spoke. "You know Mum's going to win, Da. Why don't you just give up?"
Brian grinned ruefully. "I know she is. I just have to put up some sort of resistance." He winked at his children, then turned back to Shannon. He sighed, then kissed her forehead. "Alright." He conceded.
"Does this mean that Grandma is staying longer?" Anne asked, dreading the answer.
Shannon looked knowingly at her kids. "I don't know, but probably not."
All four teenagers stifled their sighs of relief. Shay moved toward Shannon. "I'm glad you're okay, Auntie Shannon."
"Thanks, honey." Shannon hugged her.
"I've gotta run home, so I'll see you tomorrow." Shay said. The Littrell family all said goodbye to her and she went home.
Walking in her front door, she saw her mother sitting in front of the television. Drew looked up when her daughter entered. "Hi. Anything exciting happen at Anne's?"
"You could say that." Shay took off her sandals and proceeded into the living room. "Auntie Shannon and Uncle Brian came home. Uncle Brian was making a huge fuss over Auntie Shannon because she had to go to the hospital…"
Drew stood up quickly, interrupting her. "What? Is she okay?"
"Yeah, she's okay. She just has to do nothing for the next month."
Drew looked at her watch. "Can you get dinner for yourself? I'm gonna go over there."
"Yeah, sure Mom. Go for it." Shay grinned as her mother quickly kissed her cheek and grabbed her purse.
Minutes later, Drew was at Shannon's front door. With an obligatory knock, she opened the door and walked in. "Hello?" she called.
"In here!" she heard Shannon's voice call.
Drew hurried into the living room and over to Shannon. "Are you okay? I heard you were in the hospital."
"False labour." Shannon explained, hugging Drew. "I'm fine now. We're just being careful."
"You're not taking this seriously enough." Brian said from beside her.
Shannon exchanged a wry look with Drew before turning back to Brian. "This coming from the guy who wouldn't even slow down after heart surgery."
"That was different." Brian protested.
Both Shannon and Drew looked at him, then at each other. "Sure Bri. . ." they both laughed.
Brian started to defend himself, then sighed. "How come I can never win with you?"
"Because you know I'm always right." She answered seriously.
"Oh, right. . ."