I'm SOOOOOOOOO sorry! I know, I said last weekend, but I've been really busy! But hey . . . it's here now and that's all that matters, right? RIGHT?! Ok, thank you! ? So, anyways, I'm not gonna make this long . . . the only thing I gotta say is . . . NO STRINGS IS OF THE HOOK!!!!!!!!! My two favs are Just Got Paid and Digital Getdown. And I've just come to call I'll Be Good for You one of my favs too. Ok, before I say those magic words you've been waiting for, I must inform you that this chapter is featuring my mystery author friend again. So, enjoy! Anyways, ON WITH THE SHOW!!!
Last time . . .
"Graduates . . . parents . . . fellow alumni, and guests," the principal began, "as you're all aware our original speaker, Colonel David Cruz, was suddenly called to duty overseas and unfortunately could not be with us tonight. He sends his profound regrets and wishes the class of 1999 the best of luck. We were extremely fortunate, however, to manage to get another of our alumni to fill in for him."
"Aw fuck!" Jay thought to himself, "I just want to get home and see if Rob or Justin called. I know they're busy, but Rob promised he was going to come and I know that he would have at least called if he wasn't gonna make it, Justin too!"
"This young man is one of our more recent graduates who has moved on to an already growing popularity in the recording industry," the principal said.
"Huh?" Jay said more to himself than anyone.
"Oh my god!" Angela said, "Is it Rob?" she asked Jay with excitement.
Jay could only manage a shrug and say,
"I dunno."
"May I present Mr. Roberto Rodriguez!"
"Oh, shit! That little prick!" Jay said as he laughed.
He turned to look at his parents and found my parents grinning from ear to ear and Melissa and Ricky about to die laughing.
This time . . .
I came out and shook hands with the principal and said,
"Thank you Dr. Williams. Ya know, I never thought I'd ever hear myself say this after I finally graduated, but it's good to be back." The audience laughed and applauded and I continued, "I'd first like to thank you all for believing in me, and asking me to come back to perform for you, and I'd also like to say congrats to the class of '99. It wasn't long ago that I sat where you are sitting, filled with many different emotions about this day. Mostly I couldn't wait till it was over cause it was so boring and I had a party to get to!" That got some laughs and applause from the students. "It was a good friend of mine which made me decide to come back here tonight. Someone who I love like a brother and am extremely proud of to see in his cap and gown. I'm not gonna say who it is, cause I don't wanna embarrass you Jay . . . Ooops!" Jay looked up at me and mouthed that he was gonna kick my ass, but I just smiled and kept talking, "I see many familiar faces here tonight, many of which I'm glad to see again. Before I get on with the show, I just want to offer some advice to you all. Never let anything or anyone come in the way of your dreams and aspirations. As long as you believe in yourself and think you can do it, anything is possible! You are the one who has to decide who you are and want to be, you shouldn't let anyone make that decision for you, cause you're the one who's gonna have to live with it in the end." That led the audience in applause for the graduates then I continued, "Well, since I left back in January I've been going around the country and Europe promoting my album, which is in stores now by the way, and establishing myself as singer and entertainer. So, with permission from RCA, I thought I'd give you guys a little taste tonight, would y'all like that?" The audience cheered and I laughed, "In case you're wondering, that is why the venue was moved and the ticket prices were jacked up. A portion of the proceeds are going to various charities around the New York City area." The audience applauded and I then nodded to someone off stage who then came out and got the chorus ready, "The first song I'd like to do I've asked the M&A High School Chorus and orchestra to join me for. By choice of the chorus, we are going to be singing a song that was written by a really cool guy I met named Brian. It was written for his mom and he graciously agreed to let us do it. It's not exactly a graduation song, but the sentiment seems to fit considering the occasion." I looked down to the conductor who nodded that they were ready, "Oh, and before we start . . . I just want y'all to know that they've all been practicing this song ever since we found out that I might be coming tonight. I on the other hand, just flew in a couple hours ago and only practiced with `em once . . . so if we screw up or anything it'll be my fault and not theirs." Everyone laughed as I nodded to the musicians now on stage behind him.
The piano started and Jay instantly recognized the song as "The Perfect Fan", from the Backstreet Boys "Millennium" album.
"Brian huh?" Jay grinned to himself.
I started to sing the song, then the choir joined in, it was beautiful. At the end of the song five little groups of the choir stepped forward and each sang the solos:
"'Cause mom you always were,"
"mom you always were"
"Mom you always were,"
"you know you always were"
"'Cause mom you always were . . . "
And I finished with, "the perfect fan."
Everyone clapped and cheered.
"Give it up for the M&A High School Chorus and Orchestra!!" I yelled as I gestured toward the students, "And by the way folks those last five ensembles you heard doin' the solos were the choir's graduating seniors! Give it up!" When the applause finally died out I stepped toward the students, smiled and said, "Thanks guys! Man you did a great job! If y'all want, for once you guys can just sit back and relax with the rest of the audience and enjoy the show." I smiled and they laughed and went to take seats with rest of the audience.
I gave them time to retake their seats then said,
"This song's one from my album is scheduled to be released as a single soon, it should be out by mid-July. I hope you guys enjoy it!"
I started singing the song, which had a Latin/Pop beat to it. Jay thought that some of the parts were pretty funny, especially when I sang the hook, which went "Girl you know it's the truth and if you want me then I want you too."
"I wonder what Lance thinks of that!" he thought to himself, then just got lost in the show.
"He really knows how to work that stage . . . He must have gotten a lot of practice on this tour!" Jay thought to himself as he watched me, his best friend work and watched the crowd's reactions. Here and there Jay thought he noticed a familiar voice.
"He must be usin' a tape for backup or somethin'," he thought, "that sounds like Joey or even Lance."
The song ended and I stepped forward again to talk to the audience,
"This next song is sorta special. It was the first song I ever produced completely on my own for my album and it has a lot of parts to it. I usually get some other people to help me out, like my regular back up singers. But, I found these guys and . . . well the people who recommended `em said they were pretty good . . . ."
Five people wearing sunglasses, caps and gowns like the ones Jay and his classmates wore came out on stage and stood behind me, one of them stumbled over something almost falling into the drums.
"God help me, what have I gotten myself into?" I said, exaggeratedly shaking my head and rolling my eyes, "It's called `Come and get my love'"
The lights went down and the spot came up on me as I stepped forward. The music, basically just a piano, started softly and I began to sing. Within a few seconds into the song, a drum beat kicked in making the soft sounding piano go to a funky pop beat. As I came near to the end of the first verse, the 5 back-up singers stepped into the spotlights, one by one. As I began the hook, a voice was heard harmonizing a third above what I was singing.
"What the fuck?" Jay thought to himself, "What the hell's going on? That sounded like JC!"
As the hook went on, slowly more and more harmonies began to be added. It was at the last line of the hook that one of the backup singers stepped forward and belted out with me:
"So come and get my lovin tonight!"
As he sang with me, he bowed forward sharply and his cap fell off revealing curly blond hair.
"What the fuck?!?" Jay said.
"Boy what is yo problem?" Angela asked him.
Jay just laughed and shook his head. Justin noticed this and gave him a wink from the stage. He began the next verse with JC. Joey did some add lib over their harmony, which was followed by the hook again. The third verse was sung by me and led into the bridge, which had Lance (yes, Lance) singing a solo with me harmonizing a third below while the guys sang in harmony at certain words. At the end of the bridge we came in with another hook and repeated it 2 more times with me adding lib over it.
At this point Jay was still the only one (minus my family and Melissa) that knew what was going on and who else was up there.
"Damn!" Jay said as the audience started to cheer, "Those assholes!"
"Man these guys!" I said shaking my head and laughing. "You just can't find good backup singers anymore. They all wanna be headliners!"
The backup singers looked around at one another then back to me with a kind of `'Who us?' look as the audience laughed.
"What? Do you guys think you can do better?"
The backup group huddled together as if discussing the challenge that I just gave them, then stood, shrugged and nodded at me.
"Well go right ahead then!" I said gesturing toward the audience.
A familiar voice started to sing,
"You're all I ever wanted. You're all I ever needed, yeah. So tell me what to do now cause." As the lights changed, the five turned around and began to remove the caps and gowns.
"Rob! Your ass is mine!" Jay yelled toward the stage, "All six of you!" he added after thinking for a minute.
Angela gave him yet another dirty look. He could barely make me out on stage pointing at him and sticking my tongue out.
The caps and gowns went flying and Justin, Lance, JC, Joey and Chris sang,
"I . . . I . . . I . . . I . . . I . . . I want you back!" as they ran forward and started to sing the song. The auditorium erupted in applause, all the kids were on their feet, as Jay stood shaking his head and laughing.
The guys and me traded off doing songs and the audience loved it. The guys even had me do `God Must Have Spent' with them and dedicated it to the graduates' families,
"Well Rob sang one for mom before," Joey said, "so here's one for the rest of the family."
Later someone from the audience yelled that they'd love to see me do "Tearin' up my heart" with them so the guys obliged. When we were done Chris kidded me about doing their choreography,
"Hey guys, can you believe that?? Rob can actually dance!"
The other guys laughed as I shot him a dirty look.
"Whatever! Okay fine!" I said, "You want dancin? We'll give you some dancin!"
My backup dancers came out as I shooed 'N SYNC from the stage. A really fast Latin/Dance song started and my dancers and I tore up the stage. We had the audience eating out of our hands. It finally came time to close the show and we all came out to take a final bow and disappeared backstage.
As the crowd started to leave the auditorium Jay quickly hurried over to find his family.
"You knew about this!" he said.
"No we didn't!" Jay's mom said.
"But we did!" My mom said.
They all laughed.
"Surprise!" Melissa and Ricky yelled.
"Ya know I could kill you guys for not telling me!" Jay said.
"I gotta better idea," Melissa said, "why don't we go backstage!"
"Well, okay . . . I'll let you slide this time," Jay said as he smiled and headed for the stage.
They were let backstage with ease considering who they were, that and the guards had been informed that they would be coming backstage anyway. Jay didn't even bother to knock. He just barged in and said,
"I AM SOOOO GONNA KICK YOUR ASSES!"
We all turned around and started laughing.
"Um . . . Surprise?" I said.
"Don't give me that!" He said as the rest of our visitors entered the dressing room. "And you!" Jay said pointing to Justin, but then realizing who was in the room, "I'll get you later!" He whispered and sat down next to him.
"Hey!" I said to everybody. "Long time no see!" I said going over and greeting everyone. "Don't mind me, I'm a little sweaty."
"Yeah, and smelly too!" My mom said.
"The price of being an international superstar!"
"Well you stink, so get away from me!" She said laughing.
"Oh, nice to see you too mom!"
"You know I love you, my little baby boy!!" She said grabbing me, pulling me into a hug and kissing my cheek.
"AAAAWWWW!!" The guys said collectively.
When she let go I gave them a death-stare from hell and said,
"So, you guys ready to go out to dinner?"
"Oh yeah!" the guys said.
"I wasn't asking YOU!" I said turning around to the guys and giving them another death stare, "I was asking THEM!"
"Well, like they said, YEAH!" My dad said.
"I know where we're going!"
"Where?" Linda, Jay's mom asked.
"We are going to Sammy's on City Island. I rented out the outside area and we're gonna have dinner there, no interruption!"
"City Island?" Chris asked, "I've never been there."
"That's where we were gonna go for dinner when I first left, but since we had the party." My mom said.
"Oh."
"Trust me, it's good food!" I said.
"Sea food." My dad said.
"Yeah, and they have other stuff too if you don't like sea food." My mom added.
"Ok, so off to City Island it is!" Jay said. "Wait . . . Could you guys kinda go back to your hotel and change first? Cause Lucy's right! Y'all stink!"
"I told you!" My mom said.
"Fine, we'll meet there. The reservation's under Ryan Rivera. Don't order without us!" I said.
"I'm gonna go with them, and I'll meet you there!" Jay said.
"Same here." Melissa agreed.
"Ok, we'll meet you all there." Linda said.
JC, Lance and I got in Melissa's car, and Jay, Justin and Joey went with Chris in the rent-a-car. In our car, time was spent catching up, and in Chris' car, in the back seat, time was spent making out, taking FULL advantage of the tinted windows, while Chris and Joey tried not to be too grossed out and just listen to the radio. When we got back to the hotel, Chris said,
"I am NEVER riding with them AGAIN!"
"What happened?" I asked.
"Wait . . ." He said holding out till we got in the elevator, "They made out the WHOLE way and were makin slobbering noises!" He said grossed out as we laughed at him. "That's it! From now on, the two fudge packer couples ride TOGETHER!" He said getting a smack on the arm from the four of us.
"Anyways, everybody get showered and changed and we'll meet back in my room." I said as we got off the elevator. "And to the couples, us included Lance, no fooling around cause we got people waiting for us!"
"Sir yes sir!" Justin, Joey, JC and Chris said saluting and turning towards their rooms.
"Dismissed!"
Within an hour, everybody was ready and back in my room. We got back in the cars, this time, Lance, Justin, Jay and I taking the rental, and the rest in Mel's car. There were two reasons why that happened, one because of what happened earlier, and two, me and Mel were the only one's who knew how to get to Sammy's. When we got there, we found our families sitting around having drinks and talking. When we got there, my mom said,
"Bout time! We're starving!"
"Yeah!" My brother seconded.
"Hey, I could just leave right now and not pay for nothing!" I said.
"You do and I'll kick your ass!" My mom said.
"Yes mommy." I said sitting down and being quiet.
"I'll be right back, I have to use the bathroom." Linda said getting up from the table. As soon as she was out of sight, I said,
"Ok, remember, she doesn't know about me, Jay, Justin OR Lance! So we have to keep it like that just for tonight until Jay decides to tell her!"
"Which he should just do already!" Lisa said.
"Shut up!" Jay said.
"I'm serious!" I said.
"Yeah, we know!"
"Ok, here she comes!"
TBC . . .
Not TOO bad of a cliffhanger! So, what'd you think? Let me know! Email all questions, comments and suggestions to Papito6187@aol.com. SEE YAH!