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Ellena stepped out from the dark hallway of the school into the bright afternoon sun. After letting her eyes adjust to the light for a moment, she clutched her bag tighter against her body and ran across the football field towards her home. Four blocks later, she slowed her pace to a walk and caught her breath. She stopped in front of a small pink house with white trim and opened the latch on the gate. She hopped up the steps and rang the doorbell. A small, white haired woman appeared at the door and opened it.
“Ellena, dear, come in. You needn’t ring to doorbell. Just let yourself in dear.” Ellena bent to give the woman a peck on the cheek.
“Hello Mrs. Craig. How was she today?” She followed the woman through the living room into the kitchen.
“She was a hand full as always. Where does she get the energy from?”
“Oh Mrs. Craig, she wasn’t too much was she? I hope she didn’t tire you out.” Ellena’s voice grew concerned.
“Oh no dear. We had a tea party on the patio and she is still out there pestering Sammy.” The old woman stopped in front of the window and gestured towards the tree in the yard. A small, blond girl was standing at the bottom of the tree encouraging an orange and white cat to come down from the branches. Ellena stepped out onto the patio and called to her.
“Lacey, honey! It’s time to go!” The girl rushed up the steps and into Ellena’s waiting embrace.
“Hi Lala. Sammy is being mean. He won’t come down from the tree to play with me.”
Ellena giggled and knelt on the ground. “Maybe Sammy doesn’t want to play today.”
The child frowned and crossed her arms over her chest. “Sammy never wants to play with me.”
“You have to be gentle with him, Lacey. He’s not a kitty.” Ellena pushed a stray curl off the girl’s forehead and wiped the dirt off her cheek. “You need to get cleaned up. Do you remember where we are going this afternoon?”
“Yup!” Lacey nodded and headed for the front yard. “We’re goin’ ta see the Backstreet Boys!”
Mrs. Craig, who had been watching from behind the screen door, piped up. “Ooh! That sounds like fun! Who are these Backseat Boys?” She stepped on to the patio.
“BackSTREET Boys!” Lacey corrected her.
Ellena giggled and stood up. “They’re Lacey’s favorite music group. They’re having an autograph signing at the mall today. I promised Lacey I would take her.”
Mrs. Craig looked down at Lacey. “Sounds fabulous! I remember when I went to my first Frank Sinatra concert. His blue eyes were enough to make my heart stop.”
“Mrs. Craig, I swear you are swooning!” Ellena laughed at the woman’s dreamy expression.
“That’s because I am dear.” The gray-haired woman whispered with a slight English accent.
“Okay Lala, stop talking and let’s go!” Lacey demanded as she impatiently bounced up and down on the sidewalk.
“You don’t seem to be as excited about this as she is Ellena.” Mrs. Craig observed.
“Oh, I am I guess.”
“That didn’t sound very convincing.” Mrs. Craig’s eyebrows shot up.
“I just think that I will be the oldest person there. There’s going to be a bunch of screaming teenagers there and I’m gonna feel so old!” Ellena replied.
“Nonsense! You are not old. In fact you are a beautiful, young girl. Maybe you will catch the eye of some handsome gentleman while you are there.”
Mrs. Craig winked at her before Ellena kissed her on the cheek again. “Thanks Mrs. Craig. One can always hope.”
“Now get going you two. You don’t want to be late!” Mrs. Craig waved at them and opened the door to go back inside the house.
“Thank you for taking care of Lacey today.”
“Oh, my pleasure dear. Bye Lacey.”
“Bye bye Mrs. Craig!” Lacey chirped as she placed her small hand into Ellena’s and they walked across the street to their brick apartment building. Ellena unlocked the security door and stopped in the lobby to pick up her mail.
“Is there a letter from Daddy?” Lacey stood on the first step expectantly.
Ellena flipped through the various flyers and bills. “No honey, I’m sorry.”
Lacey’s expression fell and Ellena swallowed hard. “Let’s have lunch before we go. What do you want to eat? “ Oh wait! Let me guess. Grilled cheese right?”
Lacey jumped to the next step and nodded enthusiastically. Ellena smiled and followed her up the stairs. How easy it was for Lacey to forget disappointments.

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By the time Ellena and Lacey arrived at the mall, there were screaming girls everywhere. Thankful that she had had the presence of mind to get there a little early, Ellena held tight to Lacey’s hand and took their place in the line up. Ellena tried to zone out the yelling and screaming. She listened in to the conversation taking place in front of her. One girl swore that she was going to marry Nick one day and have his baby. Ellena groaned inwardly. The girl looked no more than 13 years old. How could she possibly know what raising a baby could mean? Of course, Ellena had learned that lesson earlier than she had originally planned but her situation was different entirely.
“Lala! How much longer? This is boring.” Lacey tugged on Ellena’s shirt bottom and whined.
“It looks like we have about another twenty minutes before we get to the front of the line. You knew that we would have to wait in line, sugar.”
“Uh huh.” The child nodded but still frowned. “Can I go play over there until it’s time?” Lacey pointed towards the kid zone. Ellena thought for a moment and then let go of Lacey’s hand.
“Yes, but make sure you always stay where I can see you. I’ll keep our place in line and call you when I get to the front okay?” Lacey nodded and ran off to the ball pool.
Fifteen minutes later Ellena was second in line to meet the Backstreet Boys. She looked over at the kid zone and spotted Lacey climbing up the slide. “Lacey, it’s almost time.” She called. Lacey got to the top of the slide and waved at Ellena. A young girl who had been waiting in line behind Ellena tapped her on the shoulder.
“It’s your turn.” She pointed towards the table with the five young singers sitting at it.
“Oh yeah...um thanks.” Ellena replied and walked up to the table.
Kevin had been so busy signing posters, autographing CD’s and posing for pictures that he hadn’t really seen anything. He had been caught up in the frenzy of the day that he hadn’t even stopped to look at the fans. All the faces blurred together in his mind. A young girl shoved a CD in front of him and professed her undying love for him while he signed his name. He mumbled a thank you and slid the CD over to Nick. It had been like that for a solid hour. Flexing his wrist, he grumbled something about writer’s cramp to Nick, who was sitting beside him. Nick was busy talking to the girl for whom Kevin had just signed the CD. Nick was not listening. Thinking it was strange that he had had more than 10 seconds to breathe in between girls pushing photos in his face and proposing marriage, he lifted his head and, for the first time, looked at the crowd. Walking towards him was a tall, blond girl. She seemed somewhat hesitant to approach him and kept glancing at something to her right. When Ellena reached the table where he was sitting, she smiled shyly and leaned down on the table with her elbows. She unrolled the poster that they had carefully removed from Lacey’s bedroom wall before they left the house. She set it on the table in front of the first singer at the table.
“Hi.” Kevin smiled and took the poster from her hand. She turned to the side and called Lacey one last time. “Hey superstar! Are you coming over here?”
Nick’s head popped up from the page he was signing and looked at her curiously and then he looked at Kevin. “She wasn’t calling you, Nick. You’re just a superstar wannabe.” Ellena was oblivious to the exchange that was taking place between the two singers. She craned her neck to see if Lacey was coming or not. Kevin followed her gaze with his eyes to see a little blond girl wave at her from the play area.
“Well I guess she’s not interested anymore. Sorry about that.” Ellena smiled again. It was a shy smile, but a genuine smile. Kevin found himself looking into dark gray eyes. He could smell the faint scent of lavender as she bent her knees and squatted at the front of the table so that all Kevin could see of her was her head and shoulders above the top of the table. Her hands held up her chin as she rolled her eyes. “Leave it to me to bring a three year old to something like this.” Ellena mumbled to herself.
Kevin rolled out the poster and took the cap of off his pen.
“Just make it out to Lacey. L-A-C-E-Y.” Ellena spelled out the name for him.
“Lacey…that’s an interesting name.”
“Yeah, you’d be amazed at what you can come up with when you are strung out on crack.” Ellena mumbled under her breath.
Kevin shot her a curious look. “Pardon me?”
“Oh sorry “ I said thank you but I didn’t pick it out.” Ellena brushed a strand of hair off her face and tucked it behind her ear. Kevin wrote a quick message on the bottom of the poster and pushed it across the table to Ellena. “Thank you.” She smiled at him, picked up the poster and read what he had written. “Kevin - Thank you Kevin.” He was a bit taken aback that she had to read what he had written so that she would know his name. She obviously didn’t know as much about the Backstreet Boys as the other girls in the room.
“You’re welcome. Thanks for being a fan.” Kevin waited for her to ask for a hug or something. The older girls usually did, thinking if they could just get him to touch them, he would automatically fall desperately in love with them. Instead, the woman in front of him smirked and winked at him from across the table.
“I bet you say that to all the girls.”
Speechless, Kevin watched Ellena as she stood up, turned on her heel and walked away from him.
“Ha ha Kevin. I think you just got burned.” Nick nudged him with his elbow. Kevin’s eyes remained on Ellena’s slender frame as she walked away. “You must have said something nasty to her. She didn’t even go down the table to meet the rest of us! She didn’t proposition you did she? Hmm…that thought is worth entertaining though. Look at that walk!” Nick laughed at Kevin’s bewilderment.
Kevin surveyed Ellena’s figure moving further away from him. Her body swayed slightly from side to side. She moved very gracefully and Kevin found himself wanting to know more about her. “Oh yeah, um uh huh…whatever Nick.” He turned his eyes to look at Nick and he ruffled his hair. “Aren’t you too young to think like that?”
Nick donned a devious smile. “I’ll let you believe whatever you want to believe about my innocence.”
“As nonexistent as that is.” Howie chimed in from the other side of Nick. Kevin ignored the two as they started to squabble “ much to the delight of the fans. Kevin let his gaze fall to where he last saw the woman and he was surprised to see that she was still there. She was crouching down so that the young girl from the slide could put her arms around her neck for a piggyback ride.
“Hi Kevin. You are my favorite.” An overweight girl with glasses plunked a CD in front of him and blocked his line of sight.
“Oh yeah…um…thank you.”
The rest of the autograph session went off without a hitch. Kevin lifted his head to let his eyes search the crowd for a glimpse of the blond woman again but she was no where to be seen. He had guessed that she had left and he would never see her again. Still, though, he enjoyed the view for the fleeting moment that she had been within his sight.