Sunday, November 26, 2000

Justin walked up to the small white building. The freshly painted steeple reached up into the sky and the intricate woodwork on the doors looked as if it had just been polished.

The brass handle on the door was freezing in Justin’s hand. While there was no snow on the ground the grass on the church lawn was iced and crunchy.

There was a sudden rush of warm air as Justin entered the foyer of the church. His eyes were drawn through the glass in the doors to the colorful stained glass windows that decorated the sanctuary.

The church service had ended two hours ago so the pews were empty. Justin slid into one near the front. He sat on the cushioned seat and looked around the room. He studied the walls, the organ, the pulpit and the windows. Always the windows.

"Will it be okay?" Justin mouthed. "Please let Tuesday be okay."

Justin closed his eyes and drew calming breaths into his lungs. He wasn’t here to pray about the game and he knew it. He’d missed Thanksgiving with his family, his brothers.

"Please let them forgive me," Justin said quietly. The soft words trailed into words mouthed by his lips as he heard a movement at the back of the church. He heard a door close. "Please help them to understand why I have to do this."

The door opened and closed again and Justin heard footsteps leaving the building.

"Am I doing the right thing?" Justin looked back up towards the windows for any sort of guidance. None was immediately forthcoming.

"Will it be okay?" Justin asked again. He folded his hands together and bowed his head. "Please, please let it be okay."

He mouthed a quick prayer and slid out of the pew.

The cold air enveloped him again as he walked into the street. The sound of the door closing was muffled to his ears.

Monday, November 27, 2000

Justin slammed his locker and smiled slightly as the freshman boy next to him jumped just a little bit. If Chris had been next to him the older man would have jumped about two feet in the air. But he didn’t need to think about Chris, not now.

He began walking down the hallway to his next class. It had been hard to get used to the eight consecutive hours of school, but it had become almost normal. He supposed it was normal to almost pass out from boredom during the last class of the day.

Lost in his own thoughts he felt his elbow collide harshly with someone else’s as they were passing.

"I’m sorry," Justin said, instinctively turning towards the person. He nearly groaned when he saw the long, dark brown, wavy hair.

"We’ve got to stop meeting like this," Laura said with a smile.

Justin smiled wanly. He didn’t want to deal with Laura, not now.

"Listen Randy, about that party two weeks ago, I was just so embarrassed about Josh I haven’t known what to say to you."

"It’s okay," Justin said. He prayed she wouldn’t touch him.

She put a hand on his arm.

"It’s not okay," Laura said. "I really do want to get to know you. What are you doing tonight? I know it’s a Monday and everything, but maybe we could go get some pie or something."

Justin hoped that he managed to restrain the cringe that wanted to pass over his features. He might have been successful, but if he wasn’t Laura didn’t notice. Trying to think up an excuse he looked around the hallway.

"Laura, I’m really sorry, I can’t." His eyes rested on Maggie as she and Emily were walking down the hall. Maggie was walking within hearing distance and had an amused look on her face as she was staring at Justin and Laura. "Maggie and I have our pie date tonight."

The amused look dropped off of Maggie’s face.

Laura immediately dropped her hand off of Justin’s arm. A slight look of disgust passed over her face. "Oh. Well, maybe next week."

Justin nodded with fake enthusiasm. "Hey Mags!" he called.

"Yeah?" Maggie said. She was looking at Justin with wide eyes. Emily was looking back and forth between them.

"I’ll knock on your door at seven. Be ready to go."

Maggie just nodded as the Mill Creek student body absorbed this latest piece of information into their gossip cycle.

Justin winked at her with a playful smile and continued down the hall towards his class.

JC’s Apartment, Orlando, FL

JC sighed and slammed his palms down on the keyboard in front of him. A terrible mixture of notes and chords echoed in the empty apartment.

"What’s wrong?" he said to the picture of the guys that sat on the mantle. "What’s wrong with this song?"

The picture ‘N SYNC just stared at him, their smiled etched into the paper for all eternity.

"Ugh!" JC slammed the cover down on top of the keyboard. He stepped away from the piano. The thing that was normally his savior was quickly becoming the bane of his existence.

The doorbell rang suddenly. He had no clue who it would be. Joey wasn’t supposed to be back until the next day and Chris was with Danielle. He looked out the peephole and saw a head of spiky blond hair.

"Lance?" JC asked as he opened the door. "What the hell are you doing here? You’re supposed to be in Mississippi still."

"Parent’s," Lance said simply. He walked into JC’s apartment and dropped his bags on the floor. "You don’t mind if I crash here for a few days, do you?"

JC shook his head. "I’ll be glad for the company. I’m going a little insane here by myself."

Lance nodded. "My parents just wouldn’t shut up about Justin and how he’s ruining us…"

JC nodded. "That’s why I didn’t tell my parent’s what really happened."

"I hate this!" Lance yelled and then blushed. "Sorry."

"’S okay. These walls have been hearing more than their fair share of yelling these past few days."

Lance nodded and sat down on the couch. JC joined him.

Justin jumped as a newspaper slapped on to his desk. Matt was grinning at him.

"That’ll teach you to fall asleep during Study Hall," he laughed.

Justin smiled and looked at the thin bundle of paper in front of him. He looked around the room and saw that very few people were awake.

He opened the paper to the sports page and grimaced when he saw a picture of him making a lay-up in practice. It covered a good eighth of a page. The article about him barely stretched the length of the picture.

"Where’s the pictures of you guys?" Justin asked Matt.

Matt gave Justin an odd look. "They know who we are D. They wanted to know all about you."

"But it was supposed to be an article on all of us," Justin said. He didn’t need any more articles about him out there. Granted, this one would be different, but still.

"Everyone in this town has been there for my whole life," Matt said. "The same with the rest of the guys. They covered Stu last year. Besides, they mention us too. See?"

Matt pointed a finger at the last paragraph of the pitifully small article.

"Smith leads a team of eight returning players including four starters. Post player Josh Perkins is not returning this year citing differences with Coach McGrath."

"Ooh, that’s a lot about you guys," Justin laughed.

"You’re the boy of the moment," Matt said. "We all will be at some point this year ‘cause of a good play or something. You just get to be first."

"Great…" Justin trailed off. "So let me guess, everyone’s going to be watching me on Tuesday?"

Matt nodded. "You betcha!"

Justin just nodded and looked back at the picture. Just what he’d wanted— to be back in the spotlight, again.

Justin was running the towel across his chest when there was a knock on the door. Hiking up his shorts slightly he draped the towel across his shoulders and went to open the door.

"Hey Mags," Justin said as he let her into the room. He walked back towards the mirror and ran the towel over his rapidly lengthening curls. They were starting to stick out from his head in all random directions.

"Were you serious about going out for dessert?" Maggie asked.

Justin shrugged. "I was trying to escape from Laura and you were a convenient excuse."

"You’re an odd guy Randy Smith," Maggie said as she sat down on the bed and started at him. "You don’t like Britney and you don’t like Laura Boyle. What’s wrong with you?"

Justin smirked. "I actually have taste." He mentally sent a quick apology to Britney.

Maggie began giggling. "Anyway, I was just checking because mom and dad were going into Wichita for a play so I was just going to make something for me, but I didn’t know if you would be interested in going out for dinner instead."

"Oh," Justin said. He turned to look at Maggie. "Well, do you want to go out for dinner?"

Maggie shrugged. "I’m game if you are."

"Sure," Justin said. "Let me just pull some clothes on, okay?"

Maggie nodded before suddenly blushing and leaping off the bed. "Come knock on my door when you’re ready to go, okay?"

"Ok-ee," Justin said.

The door shut as Maggie left. Justin smiled at the door for an instant before turning to the mirror and trying to tame his wild curls.

"You know your reputation is going to be ruined," Maggie said as she pushed a last bite of ice cream around her dish.

Justin tilted his head slightly to the side. "And why is that?"

"Because you’re out to dinner with me," Maggie said. She captured the lump of melting white.

"So," Justin said. He took a large bite of cherry pie. "What does that have to do with anything?"

"I’m not ‘cool’," Maggie said. Her spoon clattered into the bowl. "Laura kept looking at me like she was ready to kill me today."

Justin laughed and ate another bite of pie. "I think you’re pretty cool. Stu does too."

Maggie shrugged. She looked like she didn’t believe Justin.

"So are you coming to my game on Tuesday?" Justin stuffed another bite in his mouth.

Maggie shook her head. "Wasn’t planning on it."

The fork stopped halfway between Justin’s mouth and the pie. "And why not?"

"You know," Maggie said. She looked down at the bowl, picked up her spoon and smeared the sticky liquid around the china.

"No, I don’t know," Justin said leaning forward. "It’s my first game as point guard. You gotta come."

"I went to all the games that Josh played in and that was enough basketball to last me a lifetime," Maggie said. She didn’t look up from her bowl.

"But that was to watch Josh play, not me." Justin pouted and batted his eyes. "Please Mags? I want you there."

Maggie shook her head. "I just don’t like basketball."

Justin sighed and leaned back in his chair, quickly demolishing the rest of the slice of pie in front of him.

"Fine," he sighed dramatically. "I guess that’s another thing I’m going to have to make you like."

Maggie sighed and shrugged. "I don’t think you’ll have very much luck."

Justin scraped his fork across the empty plate. He looked up at Maggie suddenly with a look of exasperation on his face. "How can you not like basketball?"

A thin boy approached their table.

"Randy?"

"Yeah?" Justin looked at the kid. He was in study hall with him, maybe?

"I’m Travis. I announce the games."

Justin stuck his hand out towards the younger boy. "Randy Smith."

"I know," Travis said with a cocky grin. "Everyone knows who you are."

Justin nodded and looked over at Maggie. He raised a questioning eyebrow. She was trying to hide a grin.

"So are you looking forward to proving your worth tomorrow?" Travis asked

"What do you mean?" Justin asked.

"Well the whole town’s going to be out to watch you," Travis said. "This is the biggest thing since, well, I don’t know what."

"I’m just anxious to get it over with," Justin said. He looked at Maggie again. She was suppressing her giggles.

"Are you guys going to win?" Travis asked. He had a really annoying weird, nasally voice.

Justin shrugged. "I hope so. Coach seems to think we have a good chance."

"Well we all want a better season than last year," Travis said. "It could only get better."

"I hope so," Justin repeated. He really, really hoped so.

"Well, I just wanted to say good luck," Travis said.

Justin looked at Travis and smiled. "Thanks."