Howard the Duck    

“I vote for Vortex, the flying hole of death.”

“What the hell is that even supposed to mean, Nick you’re so weird.”

“I’m weird? You’re the one who wanted to do wrestling just so you could wear fishnets and call yourself Wanda. Yeah, but I’m the weird one AJ.”

 “Well, unfortunately we aren’t doing the wrestling thing. We’re doing the boxing thing. I mean of course we are because it’s you and what Nick Carter wants, Nick Carter gets.”

“Stop being jealous AJ, I can’t help it if they liked my idea over yours.”

“Uh, do you chuckleheads think you can stop fighting for ten minutes? I mean we still need a name for Howie.” Brian asked as they all lay on the floor of his hotel room trying to meet their midnight deadline. Well all except for Howie who was with his new wife and couldn’t be bothered with such trivial things as deadlines for tours anymore.

“I don’t get why we just can’t call him Sweet D and be done with it.” Nick asked sitting up, crossing his legs and stretching his arms over his head.

“Because Nickolas, the only way he said he’d go along with this harebrained idea of yours was if he got a ‘fierce’ sounding name, remember?”

“Yeah Bri, I remember. I remember practically peeing myself when he said fierce to begin with.”

“Yeah that was pretty funny.” Brian said, nodding at his band mate and joining him in the sitting up position.

“What about Ferocious D?”

“Oh, that’s a good one AJ.”

“He won’t like that.”

“Why do you say that Nick?”

“Because he won’t. He’ll do that weird eye thing and then pout.”

“Okay what do you suggest then?” Before Nick could get the words out, Brian continued, “Besides the vortex thing.”

Nick let out a disappointed sigh which made the other two guys laugh. “How about Howard the Duck?”

“He’ll kill us.”

“Actually he wouldn’t kill us AJ; he’d just kill this one.”

“Aw come on, it’s a great idea. We can dress him up like a duck and he can come out to that great song. Howard the duck…ooh oooh ooooh.”

“I thought we banned this kid from watching stupid late night movies.”

“Why do we have to name him? Why can’t he do it himself?” Nick asked batting at a frayed end of the bedspread as if he were a kitten.

“Because he is out with his wife and he asked us to do it for him.” AJ answered, giving the blond a look as if he was from another planet.

“Then he has no right to complain.”

“So let’s call him Numb nuts Magee!”

“Brian Littrell! You are a genius! I would love to see his face when they announced that!” AJ said, sitting up and giving Brian a high five.

“That’s too mean, even for me.” Nick said, disappointed with this new found conscience of his.

“We have to think of something, if we don’t get this done by midnight the graphics for the screen will not be ready in time for the concert.” Brian stood up as his bones creaked. This caused both Nick and AJ to crack up.

“Why don’t we call him Mr. Larger than Life?”

“Like our song?”

“Shit, I forgot we had a song called that.”

“Nick how could you forget…never mind.”

 “Since Kevin was train why don’t we call Howie the little Latin Caboose?”

All the guys cracked up at AJ’s suggestion.

“Or what about the Tank!”

“The Tank?” Brian bit on his bottom lip and laughed.

There were a few moments of silence as the boys tried their hardest to think of a name.

“Okay, what about diesel?” Nick said with a huge smile on his face.

“Like the fuel?” AJ asked.

“Yeah.”

“I think he’ll like that.” Brian said in mid yawn. The truth was they didn’t care one way or the other at this point. They were tired and wanted to go to bed.

“Diesel it is!” They all agreed.

“I still think we should call him Howard the duck!”

“Shut up Nick.” AJ said, throwing a pillow at his friend’s head as he stood up and headed for the door.

“You’re just jealous because everyone liked my idea over any of yours…again!”