Just as she finished speaking, Joey slid into his seat; JC was in his almost as fast. Marissa grinned. "See. Told you." She glanced behind her to find the others just emerging from the door they'd disappeared into; Lance and Justin were laughing, and Chris was keeping a straight face with a huge amount of control she didn't know he had. Boy, did he look good in that tuxedo, though! She blushed and turned away.
"You were right," Clara told her, awe in her voice, then she turned back to Joey. "You were wonderful, Joey. Simply wonderful."
With a smirk, JC cleared his throat. She jumped, turned to see him, and flushed slightly. "You too, JC," she added, and turned back to Joey. Anika giggled and smacked JC in the arm.
"You are worse than Justin sometimes," she told him. He grinned.
Joey grinned at Clara. "So, did you like my surprise?" he asked as Chris sat down.
"Yeah. It's safe to say that I did," she said softly.
"That was great, guys," Anika said enthusiastically as Justin and Lance took their seats.
"All of us?" Justin teased.
"All of you," Anika sassed back.
"Thanks," Lance said. He looked rather relieved, and Marissa leaned over to him.
"What's wrong?"
"I'm just glad it's over. You should have heard the warm up. Bad, bad, bad..." he drifted off. "But I guess it sounded okay."
Joey nodded, still smiling. "And speaking of your friend Ben, Kevin said he wasn't here, but that he'll be free sometime next week. They didn't know he had plans."
"Who's Kevin? and how does he know Ben?" Clara demanded.
"It sounded great," Marissa patted Lance's arm, and turned back to the speaker as Backstreet Boys were announced.
Joey grinned at Clara. "Kevin is...." He waited until the Boys got on the stage, then he pointed to Kevin. "That guy right there."
Clara looked at him, surprised. "Really?"
"Yep."
"Wow."
They started with "Show Me the Meaning...", but when that finished, they didn't step down. Instead, they sang "I Want it That Way."
"Oh my gosh!" Clara blurted, her eyes wide in disbelief.
Joey turned to look at her. "What?" He asked, and a dozen worries plagued him suddenly.
"I wrote that song a while ago... with Ben..." she murmured.
Joey turned all the way around and grabbed her hands. "You wrote that?" he demanded softly.
Clara nodded slowly, her eyes straying more toward the group singing again. "A while ago, with Ben..." She suddenly looked up at Joey, and noticed something in his face. "Is that a problem?"
Joey blinked, breaking the downward spiral of his thoughts. "Problem? Hardly a problem! I'm thinking we need to hire you." He smiled.
Clara laughed a little. "I'm hardly that good. I just write whenever me and Ben get together. We always write."
Joey laughed a little as well. "Yeah, and look what you produce." He gestured to where the group had been singing. Someone else had started speaking.
Chris turned around suddenly, fixing her with a sharp gaze. "Did you say something about writing songs?" he asked softly.
Joey nodded vigorously.
"Whatcha mean?" Clara asked warily.
Chris lifted an eyebrow. "Keep hold of her, Joe, specially if she comes with that kind of talent." He turned back to the speaker as he ended and the music for dancing started up again.
Clara laughed lightly "Ben wrote most of it..." she said.
"Still...." Joey shook his head. "That's really cool. We're doing better at it."
Clara looked at him, confused. "What do you mean?"
He flushed slightly. "Oh, we've written a song or two - although not all of them are great hits."
Chris grinned at her. "Only with the wrong people," he grumbled good naturedly. "I like them."
"Like what?" Clara ask curiously, and grinned at Chris. "Do you have good taste, Chris?"
"Listen to their first album, last song," Marissa said, leaning over Joey. "It's... indescribable."
Chris shrugged, looking at the table where his plate used to be. "Taste is all relative, I guess."
Clara nodded contemplatively. "I'll have to buy your album then," she told them. "I look forward to hearing it..."
Marissa laughed. "I haven't heard it all the way through yet," she admitted. "I'm sorry, guys. I just can't do it."
Lance looked affronted, then leaned over to JC. "Which song is she talking about?"
"Giddy Up," Anika whispered back, giggling. Lance shook his head.
"Must be pretty bad." Clara chuckled. "So, that was the Backstreet Boys, huh?"
"That's the Backstreet Boys," Joey confirmed.
"We're going to have to tie you down and make you listen to the whole thing," Justin warned Marissa, who grinned.
"Justin, take it easy on her," Clara laughed. "It's painful to listen to lyrics that don't mean anything."
"Oh, no, you don't," Marissa told Justin. "And it's not the lyrics," she added to Clara. "It's just... the whole song." She happened to glance at Chris as she said it, and he was glaring at her as if she'd insulted his family. She leaned back in her chair, eyes wide. "Okay, I'm going to shut up now...." she mumbled. Her face flushed, and she focused her eyes on her hands in her lap.
Justin glanced at Chris, then stood and moved around to her side. "Marissa, would you like to dance?" he asked, holding his hand out to her. Marissa looked at him warily, then accepted his invitation and followed him onto the dance floor. Chris left almost as quickly, in another direction.
"Now I really need to hear this song..." Clara said, grinning at Joey.
Joey grinned back. "I think I can arrange that," he said.
"Now's a good time to start running," Anika grinned as JC escorted her to the dance floor.
Clara waved them off, half heartedly. "Thanks, Joey," she said softly. "I look forward to it."
Joey grinned. "Just for that, I can introduce you to them, if you want."
"To who?"
"Backstreet. I'm sure they'd like to meet you. That's been a good song for them."
"Are you sure?" Clara asked hesitantly. "I think I'd like that. They did a really good job with the song."
Joey shrugged. "Yeah. You can at least meet a couple of them."
She smiled shyly. "Thanks Joey. You know," she added, almost too quiet to be heard over the music, "I'm glad I met you, I really am glad."
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