In The Dark

58 - October 31st

Emma draped her arms over Melanie and smiled up at Camilla as she took a picture of the two girls. All of the girls, the Backstreet Boys, Simon, Sam, a handful of fans and their parents, and Disney's camera crew were crowded onto one of the boats of Disney's Jungle Cruise. Geri was at the front of the boat with the ride's tour guide. She had taken over the speaker system and was guiding the tour, giving humorous commentary with sexual innuendos about the animatronic animals as the ride slowly drifted along the river. The fans were giggling nervously, all in awe of the ten celebrities in the boat with them. They were all winners of a contest Disney had put on to spend a few hours with the two bands during their Halloween celebrations. The entire park was adorned for the occasion with Halloween themed characters, treats, and decor.

Emma sat between Melanie and Victoria and peeled away the wrapper from the pumpkin cupcake she'd purchased when they'd walked down the park's Main Street. They had already gotten their photos taken with the fans in front of the big jack-o-lanterns shaped like Mickey and Goofy, toured through a few of the shops on Main Street, and had breakfast with some of the Disney characters. Disney had planned to have the characters go on the cruise with the group, but Simon had secretly pulled the camera crew aside and warned them the girls antics might be a bit too much for the type of G-rated programming they were going to want to air.

"That's it, Geri, You're fired." said Brian suddenly as Geri got off task, flirting with the tour guide instead of directing the tour. He stood up, pulling Nick with him and made Geri sit down while the two of them took over directing the tour. Geri apologized flirtatiously to the tour guide, pinching his bum before she sat with a few of the fans.

"Oy, that lot stole my look!" Mel roared, pointing to the animatronic leopards and standing up to show her leopard print trousers. She pointed out one of the fans, who was wearing a leopard print top, and she called to Camilla to take a picture of the two of them in front of the leopards while they roared.

What had been designed as one of Disneyland's more relaxing rides had become a frenzy of energy and activity with the two bands on board. Brian, Nick, Geri, and Mel had everyone in fits of laughter the entire ride, giving Disney loads of footage to work with. There were lewd comments from Geri and Mel that made all of the parents and the camera crew cringe, but the kids were oblivious, too young to really understand the meaning behind what the girls were saying. Victoria and Emma spent most of their time chiding the two girls and trying to get them to behave, but this just egged them on. They were on one and couldn't be stopped.

Once the tour was over, the group filed off of the boat and walked toward the Indiana Jones ride. Security flanked them on all sides, keeping the crowd of people in the park at a distance as camera flashes lit up the area to try to get shots of the Spice Girls and Backstreet Boys. The two bands, the camera crew, and the competition winners were escorted to the front of the queue to keep them on schedule. As they waited for the ride to pick them up, the celebrities waved at fans that had spotted them from the queue and had begun screaming for the musicians to take notice of them.

Simon gently took Melanie by the arm and pulled her away from the group, looking at her apologetically. He'd given her a heads up before they had arrived at the park that there would be a number of rides she wouldn't be able to go on, but he still felt bad having to exclude her from the fun.

The two of them watched as the other band members and the fans were guided into the cars of the Indiana Jones ride and they walked back outside to wait at the exit with the security team.

"I'm really sorry, love," Simon sighed as the two of them leaned back against the rope tied outside the exit of the ride that led riders back to the main area of the park. "This isn't going to be much fun for you today."