Chapter 2.

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Her time spent with Jordan and Danny that summer was scant. She'd seen them every day, bar Sunday's which aunt Claire had decreed were for family, but her time with the boys was short, usually just an hour or two.
By the beginning of September, as she boarded the flight back to London, she found herself wondering if that was it for their friendship.

Over the next year she kept in touch with her friends by post, but letter writing wasn't the boys forte. Usually Jordan would write for the both of them, telling her about school and the band, about how Mark Wahlberg had quit and how Maurice had replaced him with a new kid named Jamie, who in turn hadn't worked out and had himself been replaced by another kid, called Joe, who was a couple of months younger than her.
There seemed to be some friction as a result of this, and Lizzy found herself selfishly hoping it meant the end of the project, but instead the boys only worked harder.
By the time Lizzy returned to Boston in the July of 1985, she hated the mere mention of Jordan's band, Nynuk.

She'd practiced her breakdancing daily, hoping to impress her friends but she saw less of them now than ever, and she returned home thinking that she had lost her friends for good.
However the letters continued back and forth. Jordan wrote that the band had changed their name from Nynuk to New Kids On The Block. Lizzy was in a petulant mood and replied that both names sucked balls, but added that the new name was slightly better.

In 1986 both boys wrote her excited letters about the release of their first album. By the time Lizzy arrived in Boston their excitement had vanished. The album hadn't sold as well as they'd dreamed. Hope had sparked in Lizzy's chest as she'd asked if that was it then, were they calling it a day. Jordan had shaken his head and said that they were working on a second album, with a completely different sound to the first one. He said that the first album had all been Maurice trying to make a white boy version of New Edition, but that the New Kids On The Block wouldn't call it quits until they had put their own sound out there and had their own sound rejected.

Lizzy had smiled, albeit a fake one and wished them luck, and Jordan had hugged her, thanking her. It was at this point Lizzy realised two things. One, she was a little pissed off that she was a teenager now with boobs and everything and the boys, specifically Jordan, hadn't noticed and two, she had a crush on Jordan Knight. Suddenly embarrassed Lizzy had been relieved to see Maurice's car pull up.

She waved as it pulled away, and once it was out of sight she slipped the headphones of her Sony Walkman cassette player over her ears, and pressed play. Jordan's distinctive voice playing in her head as she listened to Didn't I (Blow Your Mind This Time).
She hummed along with the music as she walked back to the bus stop. No way in a thousand years would she ever admit to her friends that she'd had Aunt Claire buy the cassette for her as soon as they'd told her it was released.

In the summer of 1987 the boys wrote that sadly they were recording the new album and doing shows wherever they could to get their name out there and they wouldn't be about much, if at all that year. Lizzy spent the whole summer in Milton, not even going to Dorchester for her favourite HiFi Pizza.

In the May of 1988 Lizzy got an excited letter from each of the boys saying how they had released album two and auditioned for Tiffany and she had taken them on as her support act on the spot. Jealousy surged through Lizzy as she read this and she thought of the pretty red headed pop singer with HER boys, but she simply wrote that that was awesome, wished them good luck and wrote that sadly that she wouldn't be going to Boston for the summer, as she was starting her last year of school in England, and needed to prepare for exams. The boys wrote back saying that was too bad, but good luck.

The summer of 1989 started in June for Lizzy. Her final exam sat, she could do nothing more. She was due to start sixth form in September but until then she was free. Except for July 15th. July 15th she had tickets to the Tiffany concert at the Westchester County Center in New York, co headlined by New Kids On The Block. She was finally going to see her boys in concert. She wondered if she should tell them she was going, but decided against it. That way, if they were awful, she would never have to embarrass them by admitting that she had witnessed first hand how bad they were.

July 16th 1989, the previous nights concert had shown Lizzy two things. One, her friends were talented, and two, she'd lost them. The fans had been insane. Lizzy had tried to see Danny and Jordan after the show, but after managing to fight her way through the sea of teenage girls to the security guard, and telling him she was a friend from Boston, she had been quickly dismissed by the man mountain, who had told her that ALL of these girls were apparently "old friends from Boston" as he pushed her aside.

Suddenly the screams of the girls had risen to a deafening level, and through the swell of bodies Lizzy glimpsed the top of Jordan's head, the flick of Danny's "rats tail" braid and a flash of Jon's favourite red shirt. It was at this point that Lizzy realised that her friends were gone forever. She would miss them terribly, but she truly wished them well. This was their life now, and she was kind of happy for them, but she'd never forget those days breakdancing in Dorchester.

  This was their life now, and she was kind of happy for them, but she'd never forget those days breakdancing in Dorchester

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