Following lunch at the venue, the two bands were separated into two different gymnasiums to continue their rehearsals. In an effort to keep the tour a secret until closer to announcing dates, the locations of the rehearsals alternated between a church, a convention centre, and a school that was no longer in use.
As the girls took a short break, Melanie pulled herself up onto the stage at the side of the gymnasium, her feet banging agains the boards on the front and echoing loudly throughout the space. She groaned and pulled off her shoe and sock, looking at the bandage to make sure she wasn't bleeding through it with all of the dancing they had done that morning.
"Should you take a break for a while?" Emma asked worriedly, looking at Melanie's wrapped foot. Melanie shook her head and carefully flexed her foot, hissing as the cuts stung with her movement. Emma kept her eye on Melanie, knowing she wouldn't take a break no matter how poorly she was feeling. She leaned her head on Melanie's shoulder and sighed, looking out at everyone in the gymnasium. The two of them sat alone on the stage, watching the chaos in the room. Mel was messing around with the dancers, forcing her boyfriend, Jim, to carry her on his back, Geri was off to the side, running through some of the choreography with Priscilla, their choreographer, and Victoria had ducked out of the room to call her boyfriend.
Melanie let her foot dangle off the edge of the stage once more and leaned back on her hands. She frowned for a moment, biting her lip as she thought about how she wanted to approach the topic that had been weighing on her mind. "Em," she began apprehensively. "Did you meet the cleaners yesterday?"
"Yeah," Emma replied. "One of them came into my room to get my laundry. I only walked past the other lady on the stairs briefly. Why?"
"Did they seem a bit off to you?" Melanie asked. Emma looked at Melanie curiously and shook her head.
"They seemed a bit on edge, I guess. I just figured it's because us lot are a bit much to take." Emma chuckled. "It is a bit weird that they refuse to stay a second past four o'clock though." She sat back up and looked at Melanie curiously. "Why?"
Melanie told Emma about her encounter with Marta and how the other cleaner had whisked her away. "They both seemed really freaked out," Melanie explained. "I don't know what they said, but it was like I'd done something wrong."
"Do you remember any of the words they said? Emma asked. "Maybe Geri can translate for you." Melanie shook her head.
Their conversation was interrupted as Priscilla called everyone to the centre of the room to go through a few more routines. Emma groaned tiredly and slid off the stage to join everyone. Melanie cringed as she put her sock and shoe back on, trying not to limp as she made her way over to the group. Catching sight of Camilla, the girls' personal assistant, she quickly requested some pain medication before jumping into the choreography.
Rehearsals continued through to dinner, where everyone then convened in the school's cafeteria to take a break and eat. Catering was set up buffet-style along one wall where everyone lined up to serve themselves. The dancers gathered together at a few tables, joined by Mel, who wanted to sit with Jim. Simon, Sam, Priscilla, Camilla, and Fatima, the boys' choreographer, sat at a table near the door where they could go over the timeline for the rehearsals while the managers monitored the occupants of the room.
Geri and Brian were the last to join their friends at a table, having gotten distracted talking to one of the caterers. Everyone else was nearly finished eating by the time they sat down.
"What's the most useful dirty phrase I can use in German?" Brian pressed eagerly, having just been taught a few German curse words by Geri.
"I wanna know, too," said Nick, leaning forward to listen to Geri's response. She laughed and pondered a moment, trying to choose a phrase to satisfy the boys.
"All right, here's a good one," said Geri, grinning as she looked at the boys. "Leck mich am arsch." She repeated herself a few times, laughing as Nick and Brian attempted to imitate her.
Victoria choked back a laugh, trying not to spit out her food as she picked up a few key words. Melanie and Emma looked at her curiously, neither of them knowing what was being said.
"Do you know what it means?" AJ asked quietly, leaning in to Melanie. She shook her head, confessing she didn't know any German other than 'hello' and 'thank you'.
"What's it mean?" Brian asked excitedly, once he'd mastered the pronunciation.
"Lick my ass," Geri replied nonchalantly, grinning and taking a bite of her green beans.
"Geri!" Melanie scolded jokingly as Emma giggled and slapped Geri's leg.
"He said he wanted something useful," Geri responded innocently.
Melanie thought for a moment, trying to remember anything that Marta had said to her.
"Geri, do you know what verlassen means?" she asked, managing to pull one word from her memory.
"Leave," Geri replied.
Melanie looked at her worriedly, her concerns that what Marta had said wasn't good suddenly confirmed.
"Why?" Geri asked curiously.
"Is that what the cleaner said to you?" Emma asked.
"I can't remember the rest," Melanie replied. "But I think that's what she'd said."
"Maybe she needed you out of the way so she could do her job," Victoria suggested.
"She was doing laundry," said Emma. "Maybe she wanted you to leave your stuff out for her."
"Yeah," Melanie agreed, trying to force herself to stop thinking the worse, but as she thought back to Marta's tone and expression, the horror on their face when they saw the key, and the way both of them rushed away from her, she knew the conversation had nothing to do with laundry.
---
The Backstreet Boys and Spice Girls were all crowded in the living room in the dark, watching a horror film that AJ and Mel had picked out. They had a later start to rehearsals the following day, so were taking the opportunity to hang out and have some fun during their downtime.
Mel, Emma, AJ, and Nick were huddled together on one of the sofas, Victoria and Geri were sharing the leather recliner, Howie was sitting on the floor, leaning back against the sofa, Melanie was asleep on the floor next to the recliner, and Kevin and Brian were sharing the love seat against the wall.
They were already thirty minutes into the movie, and the audience was mostly quiet apart from a few occasional lewd comments from Mel and Victoria and a collection of gasps in response to the movie. Mel was sitting cross-legged and holding a large bowl of popcorn that she had made for the group. As the movie became more intense and everyone had stopped talking to focus on the action, Mel tossed a piece of popcorn at Geri's face. Geri jumped and cried out, causing Victoria to gasp and stand up and Geri to fall off of the chair. Mel threw her head back and cackled as Geri and Victoria sat back down.
"You bitch!" Geri hissed, playfully hitting Mel with a pillow.
"Shh!" Emma warned, still staring intently at the screen. "We're going to miss it."
Geri shot Mel a look before picking up the piece of popcorn and throwing it back at her. Suddenly, something frightening happened in the movie, causing everyone to jump and scream, then erupt in fits of nervous laughter.
