"The impressions of you!" Chris shouted through bursts of laughter.
"How immature," A.J. muttered and then cheerfully added, "Breakfast?"
"Ready! I'm starved," Nick exclaimed.
"Not a surprise. You're always hungry," Aaron and Angel and then one by one everyone else agreed.
Together Aaron, Angel, and the Backstreet Boys ran eagerly up the stairs to smell the aroma of breakfast.
"Hey now! If the food tasted as good as it smells, then I have no problem with the new Bone!" Howie exclaimed. The others thought so, too. They smelled pancakes, waffles, bacon, orange juice, and sausage, and they also heard the toaster go off.
Then the next thing they heard was totally different. They heard the doorbell ring, and then heard a knock at the door..
"Who could possibly get here?" Kevin asked as he looked out the window and saw a white wonderland.
"Open the door already, you moron!" Nick taunted.
Kevin opened the door to find Harold Littrell and Pollyanna Dorough.
"HAROLD?! Why didn't you tell me you were coming? How did you get here?" Brian exclaimed, amazed that his brother along with Howie's sister had come to visit them. Everyone hugged and greeted on another. Then Pollyana and Harold told of how they had to fight the falling snow.
Then, they all sat down to breakfast. They sat Nick, Aaron, Angel, Brian, Harold, Kevin, Pollyanna, Howie, A.J., and an empty seat. They all ate and quickly cleared their places. Then everyone from breakfast gathered in the living room to chat.
"Mister Littrell, Miss Dorough, how did you get here?" A.J. asked.
"Boner, what's wrong with you?" Harold asked.
"Is the idea of staying inside driving you to insanity?" Pollyanna asked with a concerned look on her face.
"Absolutely nothing is wrong with me. I feel marvelous!" A.J. exclaimed.
Harold mouthed to Brian, "Did he just say marvelous?" Of course Brian burst out laughing.
"Oh, hey bro?" Harold called.
"Yeah?" Brian replied.
"Could you get my bag from the hall? It has a present for you in there."
"Fine, but if it didn't have a present for me, I'd tell my fat loaf of a brother to suck it up and get it for himself...."
Brian left the room and came back carrying the duffel bag. He slowly handed it to Harold, trying to figure out what it was.
"Hey, wait...isn't that my old gym bag from high school?" Brian suspiciously asked.
"Mom said I could!" Harold said as he passed the duffel bag to Brian.
"Oh, thanks. You're giving ME back MY gym bag. Thanks!"
"No, you dufus! Open it!"
"Oh, I get it," Brian said as he opened the bag. Suspense hung thick in the room as they heard the zipper open, then rustling in the bag, and then the shock on Brian's face as he saw the contents of the bag.
"Bro, you are the best! You da man! Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so, so, so, so, so much!"
"Calm down and breathe! Aren't you even going ot tell us what is in there?" Nick prompted.
"Harold brought Tyke! He's in the bag!" Brian exclaimed.
"Ohmigosh! Harold, you're awesome!" Angel exclaimed. She gently pulled Tyke out of the bag and held the dog close.
"Hey, Brian," she called. "¿Yo queiro Taco Bell?"
"Geez! Tyke really looks like that dog. Maybe we should rename him Juan!" Brian laughed.
"Yeah, whatever...okay, then...so Polly, Harold, what brings you here?" Nick asked.
"You. Whatcha gonna say to that?!" Pollyanna said.
"Oh, no. You guys, too?" Nick asked.
"I guess," Harold said.
"J.C.! JOSHUA SCOTT CHASEZ, GET IN HERE THIS INSTANT!!" Nick yelled from the living room to the kitchen.
"Yes, mommy? You rang?" J.C. innocently smiled.
"Eh, stop the sissy stuff. Talk now!" Brian demanded.
"Anger, anger, anger, anger. Calm yourself," he said.
"Shut you trap NOW! WHY are they here?" Nick demanded.
"Your birthday?"
"Obviously, but who else did you invite?"
"Don't you like them?"
"Sure, but we don't have a guest cottage or anything. You looked over the small detail everyone can sleep!"
"We can work it out!"
"This time it worked itself out on it's own!"
"What do you mean by 'This time it worked itself out on it's own!'?" J.C. cautiously asked.
"You share a room with Howie," Nick answered
"So?"
"Polly gets your bed and you and Harold can sleep on the two couchs in here."
"Fine."
"Good."
"But what Aaron and Angel?"
"We'll do what we did last night."
"And what is that?"
"Two in beds, two on the floor. Well, kind of."
"Okay, whatever that means."
"Okay, now leave."
"How come everyone is mad at J.C.?" Angel asked. "Come over here and sit with me. Please?"
"Um, okay," J.C. said as he sat down and put his arm around her. "You know, without Angie here, we would be biting each others' heads off."
"You're right!" Chris said as he walked in the room. "What? Why you looking at me like that? Stop it! You're scaring me." Everyone laughed and Angel just smiled. Chris noticed, then hugged her.
"Why does everone hug me? Go hug Aaron! Stop it! You're really scaring me!" Angel mimicked Chris. Everyone laughed, and Chris backed away.
"Lucky, I was kidding. You know that, don't you?"
"Yeah," Chris answered as he felt his face get hot.
"This is really nice. It seems like forever since we've seen you!" Polly said.
"Yeah, and so many of you at a time. Aaron, Kevin, Chris, Nick, Howie, J.C., Angel, Brian, Pollyanna, A.J., this is great!" Harold said. As he had been saying this, Justin had crept into the room and ducked behind the vacant couch. He jumped up, hurdled the sofa, and stretched out on it.
"And Justin!" Aaron exclaimed.
"Yo, Curl!" Chris exclaimed.
"Huh?" Justin replied.
"Whattup with Joey and Lance?"
"Joey in foolin' 'round with your lyrics, and well, you know Lance. He's managing that country singer."
"TYKE!!" Lance yelled as he passed through the room.
"Hey, Animal Lover, Tyke was no deaf dog, but now my dog may have hearing problems," Angel said.
"YOUR dog?" Brian laughed, "I believe Tyke is MY dog."
"Yeah, whatever. Same difference."
"Huh?"
"Nevermind."
By this time, Lance had snatched Tyke away from Angel and was trying to find a place to sit. He walked over towards Justin.
"Scoot over," Lance said.
"Nah!" Justin retorted.
"Fine!" Lance said as he sat on his stomach.
"Oof, ga! Ga oof!" Justin cried.
"What?!" Lance asked.
"He said, 'Oof, ga! Ga oof!'" Howie said.
"Don't be smart!" Lance retorted.
"I believe that the translation of the meager phrase, 'Oof, ga! Ga oof!' would be 'Off, get! Get off!' Of course this is only my hypothesis, my theory," A.J. said calmly.
"Ooooh...I get it," Lance said as he stood up and laughed at Justin.
"Oh, A.J.! I love you!" Justin yelled.
And with that, like magic, Alexander James became A.J., Boner, again.
"Polly, Harold, we are only going to ask one more time, and that time is now. How on Earth did you get here?" Nick asked euphemistically.
"Okay, well I'll tell my version, then she can change it and tell her version. Okay. Let's see, where do I begin? At the beginning. I called the Richardsons because I hadn't spoken to them for awhile. So I was talking to Tim for twenty minutes. Then he had to leave for work, so he headed the phone to Jerald. So Jerald talked for as long as he could, but he had a very bad sore throat. That's why he was at Aunt Ann's house and not his own. So then he let me talk to Aunt Ann.
"She told me that Jerald and Tim had been visiting with John, Howie and Polly's brother. Anyway...He had been out to visit an old friend from grade school and dropped in to see Jerald. Then he told John told Jerald who told Tim that y'all were up here for vacation.
"So a week after his visit was when I was talking to Aunt Ann. That was when she told me about y'all being up here. At first I was hurt that my own brother-hint, hint, Brian-didn't even tell me what was going on with him, but I got over it.
"I decided to come out and visit y'all, but I wanted a companion, someone I knew and y'all knew. So I called my cousins, Jerald and Tim. Sorry, Kev, but they'll talk to you soon. They couldn't come. Jerald had his throat and Tim was working.
"I had no idea who to call next. I knew it had to be a sibling from the Backstreet Boys because y'all from *N SYNC never really introduced us to your siblings. I kinda know T.J> and Heather, but J.C., you never left me a phone number!
"So I tried to decide between the three remaining. Of course, I did remember that A.J. is an only child. So I moved on to Nick and Howie. B.J., Nick's oldest sibling is eleven years younger than me, so I figures Nick was a bad choice. And that left Howie.
"So I called there and they told me Polly would come. Angela was too shy to come. John had just taken a break from work a week piror to this and couldn't get off again. And well, Caroline, need I say more? It left Polly. And here we are!" Harold said.
"Harold, you always know how to make a long story longer!" Polly laughed. Then an awkward silence fell.
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