Thursday, February 8, 2001

The buzzer rang signaling the end of the game.

Justin bent over, splaying his fingers across his kneecaps. He took deep breaths and felt the perspiration on his forehead begin to cool. As he stood up, he felt two arms come around his neck.

"Oh my god," Maggie said in his ear. "You did so good, Randy. You killed them."

Justin turned and wrapped his arms around Maggie’s waist, nodding against the side of her head.

"We did, didn’t we." He grinned.

Maggie let go of Justin and took a step away from him. "Are you doing anything after this?" she asked tilting her head slightly to the left. "I got this huge craving for a piece of pie during the game, and I thought that maybe we could go get one on the way home."

"Yeah, sure," Justin said, taking a step backwards. "Just let me go get changed." He had just started to turn around when his name was called.

"Smith," Josh said as he walked up to Justin and Maggie. He gave Justin a strained grin before he turned to Maggie. "Hey," he said.

"Hey," Maggie said. She moved closer to Justin, reaching out her hand.  Justin instinctively wove their fingers together.

"You did good tonight, Perkins," Justin said. "Maggie was just commenting on how we killed them."

"Of course we did," Josh said, his grin turning evil. He shifted his weight from one leg to the other. "I just came over to ask if tomorrow afternoon would be a good time for you to work on our thing for the talent show. That’s when the other guys want to do it, but you know, we can’t do it without you, can we?"

Justin looked at Maggie and then back at Josh. "I can’t think of any reason why not. Yeah, tomorrow’s good."

"Okay, then," Josh said. "My house--I think it’s the only one big enough for us to practice in--at, like, seven? We’ll break out the beer and make it a whole party!" He grinned with fake enthusiasm, but Justin could tell that the strain was increasing.

"Wouldn’t miss it for the world," Justin said with mock seriousness. "Really."

"Cool," Josh said. "See you tomorrow then. Bye, guys."

"Bye," Maggie said quietly. She stared after Josh for a moment, before letting go of Justin’s hand. Her face was pale. "Can we go get pie soon?"

Justin nodded. "Yeah, let me just go get changed." He smiled at Maggie and only started walking away when she smiled back.

Friday, February 9, 2001

"I never thought I’d willingly be here again," Justin said to Stu as the two teens walked up to the front door of Josh’s house. "Twice was enough to convince me of that."

"Yeah," Stu said. He chuckled. "I didn’t think Josh would allow you on the property again. He would have brought out the shotgun or something."

"Maybe released the dogs," Justin said. "He was right, though, when he said his house would be the only one big enough to let us work on this thing."

"My house would have been," Stu said, "but my sister would have called over all of her friends to drool."

"As well she should have," Justin said. He laughed. "It sort of does the ego good, you know, to have someone drool over you."

"Well, good," Stu said. His voice was sarcastic, but there was a hint of seriousness behind his words. "We need more ego."

"Well, Matt and Josh don’t, but I think the rest of us could use some," Justin said. He was silent for a moment. "’I’m Too Sexy’ is a funny song. We thought about making a video of it awhile ago, but decided against it. Figured we could do a mock strip show, make all the girls faint, you know the drill."

"Uh huh," Stu said. His head was down, apparently staring at the ground in front of him.

"Sorry," Justin said. He blushed slightly. "I forgot myself there for a minute." He knocked on the front door.

"Uh huh," Stu said again.

"It’s open!" three voices called from inside the house.

Stu turned the door handle and walked into the room, followed closely by Justin.

"Word, dawgs," Matt said from the couch.

"What is up with your ghetto talk?" Kevin asked, turning to look at Matt. "It’s really annoying, dude." He slapped Matt upside the head.

"I’m trying to be with it," Matt said. "That’s how they talk in California, you know? And I want to be down with my homies when I move there."

"They’ll beat you up for talking that way, not embrace you," Josh said.

"It’s called gangsta wannabe," Justin said. He snapped his fingers in front of him. "You don’t got it, yo."

"Like you do," Matt said. He wrinkled his nose in mock disgust. "When I come back from Cali all famous and cool-like with all my rap star friends, you guys are going to wish you’d listened to me and picked up the getto talk, too."

"Sure we will," Justin said. He gave an exaggerated nod. "So now, since you are the almost famous one, do you have any ideas for where we should start?"

"Oh no," Matt said. "It’s your song. Lead on, oh sexy fearless leader."

"I don’t know where you start," Justin said. He shoved his hands in the pocket of his khakis and crossed his fingers. "I’ve never done one of these things. You guys are the experts."

"What are we going to wear?" Kevin asked. "That’s important if we’re doing a mock strip show."

"Do we all have those tear away pants?" Josh asked. "Those would be good. And wife beaters, maybe? Show off our muscled arms?"

Justin rolled his eyes.

"I don’t have tear away pants, though," Stu said. "I just have my old Nike one’s that I have to step out of."

"This isn’t what I meant," Justin said quietly, but the other four guys ignored him.

"They sell tear aways cheap in Wichita," Matt said. "We could go there over the weekend and get really cool ones. We should all go get, like, matching boxers, or something."

"We could go right now," Josh said. "We’d all fit into my dad’s car."

"What about practicing?" Justin asked.

"There’s plenty of time to practice," Kevin said, clapping Justin on the back. "Clothes are important. Especially in this. They’re what’s going to make this show."

Seattle, WA

"I think Britney’s lonely," JC said from his place on Lance’s hotel room bed. "She’s been coming to my room every day and talking for an hour or more."

"I’m sorry," Lance said. He leaned backwards in the desk chair. "I’m almost glad I pissed her off so I don’t have to put up with that."

"She’s not so bad," JC said. "And she’s really torn up about Justin being gone."

"Yeah," Lance said. "Along with half a million other teenage girls. She screwed up, Jace. She doesn’t get to be torn up."

"We screwed up and we’re giving ourselves the right to be torn up," JC said.

"We didn’t screw up," Lance said. "We were just too wrapped up in our own lives to see it coming."

"That’s close enough to screwing up," JC said. "She loves him as much as we do."

"I think I liked you better when you weren’t a member of the Britney Spears fan club," Lance said, rolling his eyes at the same time.

"She does," JC said. "Watching her almost makes me wish that Justin would get together with her when he gets back."

"Why?" Lance asked. "And you think we don’t see him now. He’d be flying off to see her between every show and they’d be all sappy and guh when they were together."

"But maybe they’d both be happy," JC said. "Maybe they could make each other happy in this world."

"No," Lance said. "They wouldn’t. It wouldn’t work. Please tell me that you can still see that. Wasn’t their last round of frantic ‘no, it just wouldn’t work’s’ enough to convince you of that?"

"She really likes him," JC said. "And at one point he loved her." He paused. "Or thought he did."

"And he has a girlfriend now," Lance said. "He liked whoever this girl is a lot in December. I could tell when I talked to him on the phone. And I imagine if he’s still with her, he’s in love by now. You know how fast he falls."

"But does his new girl really love him?" JC asked. "Or is she just using him because he’s Justin Timberlake."

"But maybe she doesn’t know he’s who he is," Lance said. "Do you really think a girl could keep her mouth shut if she were dating the Justin Timberlake?"

"I know I couldn’t," JC said with a laugh.

Lance laughed also.

Justin sat down on the front steps of the Hunter house and watched as Molly walked up to him, her fluffy tail wagging delicately. She stuck her nose into the palm of his hand and pushed upwards. Justin laughed.

"Can I talk to you for a minute, girl?" he asked the dog. He watched the tail wag. "Okay, see, we’re doing this talent show thing and we were supposed to practice today…"

Molly lifted her left paw up and placed it on Justin’s knee. He reached down to scratch her stomach.

"You know what we did?" Justin asked. "We talked about what clothes we were going to wear. And then we went out and bought clothes. Red boxer shorts and black tear away pants. No learning of words. No thinking of movements. Just costumes, cause, you know, that’s the most important part of the show."

Molly rested her head on Justin’s knee and looked up at him with large eyes.

"I know I’m spoiled when it comes to this stuff, but I don’t want to get up on stage and make a complete ass of myself by looking unrehearsed. That’s not what I was brought up to do. Do you understand?"

Molly pulled away suddenly and began scratching a spot behind her right ear with her hind leg. She came back to Justin and curled up at his feet when she was finished.

Justin let one hand drop down to run through her fur.

"I knew I shouldn’t have said I’d do this thing. Didn’t I say something like that back in November? That I just wanted to be Randy Smith and not--"

He heard the door open behind him and looked back towards the house.

"I thought I heard the gate close a few minutes ago," Cathy said. "Everything okay, Randy?"

"Yeah," Justin said. He stood up and shoved his hands in his pockets. He moved all the way up the stairs and walked into the house. "I just needed some fresh air."

"We all do sometimes," Cathy said. She smiled at him. "It’ll be okay, Randy."

Justin looked at Cathy sharply, but she’d already headed out of the room.

Saturday, February 10, 2001

Justin tugged at the collar of his dress shirt and ran his hands over the front of his khakis, smoothing the creases in the fabric. He tilted his head to the left, then to the right, and smiled, showing as many teeth as possible.

The smile slid off his face as he heard the knock on his door.

"Yeah?" he called.

"Are you done primping?" Maggie asked, her voice carrying through the door. "We’re supposed to meet Emily and Stu at the school in ten minutes. We’re already going to be late."

"I’m done," Justin said. He grabbed his jacket from the bed and walked over to the door, opening it. His mouth dropped open slightly as he stared at his girlfriend. "Just when I think you can’t get any more beautiful, you prove me wrong."

Maggie blushed slightly. "You don’t have to flatter me," she said. "I’m already dating you."

"Seriously, Mags," Justin said. "You should know by now that I don’t believe in empty compliments."

Maggie’s blush deepened. "We should go." She extended her hand to Justin, and led him out of his room and down the stairs.

When they were outside the house and walking down Main Street, she spoke again. "You know what’s really scary? I’m actually looking forward to tonight."

"Of course you are," Justin said. He wrapped his arm around Maggie’s shoulders. "You’re going with me, and I am the epitome of fun."

"And the epitome of modesty," Maggie said as she smiled.

"It’s sort of weird to be going to the school at night for something other than basketball," Justin said.

"Reason number one that I don’t like school dances," Maggie said. "They’re at school." She gave a playful shudder. "I think I’ll be excited for prom, though."

"Yeah," Justin said. "Prom."

"It’s always in Wichita," Maggie said, "at some really nice hotel. I didn’t go last year, because, well, I didn’t have anyone to go with, but I think I want to go this year."

"Yeah," Justin said again. "Sounds good."

"I thought you’d be more enthusiastic," Maggie said. "I mean, you’re the one who wanted to go to this Valentine's Day dance so badly."

"Oh, I want to go to prom," Justin said. "I, it’s just, I can only handle one dance at a time."

"Yeah," Maggie said, giving Justin a concerned look. "One dance at a time."

They walked in silence for a few moments.

"I can’t believe Stu and Emily are actually going together tonight," Maggie said.

"I’m amazed he convinced her to go," Justin said. "I didn’t think I’d ever see Emily at a dance."

"She’s excited," Maggie said. "But that’s just a secret between us, okay?"

"Sure," Justin said. "I’ll just have to let Stu know, so that he can visibly show the excitement I know he’s been holding in."

"You tell him, and I’ll never speak to you again," Maggie said. "For a few days at least. You can’t tell him, Randy."

"I won’t," Justin said, draping his arm over Maggie’s shoulder. "You worry too much, Mags, especially when there’s nothing to worry about."

"Emily would kill me if she knew I told you that she was excited," Maggie said.

"Well," Justin said. "Stu would kill me if he knew I told you that he was excited, even though he forcibly denies it." Justin looked up and saw the plate windows of the gym foyer covered with large red hearts and pink signs reading ‘LOVE’ and ‘BE MINE’. He stopped walking.

"What," Maggie said. "Did your school actually have good decorations?"

"No," Justin said quickly. "I’ve just never seen that much red or pink in a concentrated area. It shocked me."

"You are a dork sometimes, Randy," Maggie said.

Justin leaned up against the wall of folded up bleachers and bobbed his head up and down to the beat of the music. He turned towards Maggie, Stu, and Emily. "Is there a reason we aren’t out there dancing?"

"Do you see anyone else out there?" Maggie asked.

"Do you think they would all follow if we started it?" Justin asked, looking around at the other people standing along the walls. "What’s that phrase? You build it, they will come?"

"Oh, no," Maggie said. "I’m not going to be among the first group out there dancing. Not with all these 14 year-olds watching." She looked around the gym and shook her head.

"But we’re seniors," Justin said, gently pressing the palm of his hand to Maggie’s back. "We need to show them how it’s done."

"We need to get down and dirty," Stu said. "Come on, Emily. Since these two are too chicken to get out there—"

"No, Stu." Emily tried to dig the heels of her shoes into the gym floor, but Stu simply pulled her towards the center of the gym. "No!"

"We can’t let them suffer the embarrassment out there alone," Justin said. He grabbed Maggie’s hand and began dragging her out onto the floor.

"Randy!" Maggie frantically tried to disentangle her hand from his. "I told you I don’t do the first group."

"But I do," Justin said. "Besides, I want to dance."

"I hate you," Maggie said, and Justin pulled her to him. "You are an evil, evil person."

"I know," Justin said. He kissed Maggie lightly on the lips.

"Oh my god," Amanda said to Maggie loudly enough for Justin to hear her. "They are so cute."

Justin followed Amanda’s gaze to the center of the floor where Emily and Stu were pressed tightly together.

"They are adorable," Maggie said. She giggled.

Justin looked at Kevin and rolled his eyes in disgust. Kevin smiled.

"Now seems like it might be a good time to slow it down a little," Chris said to the 40,000-person audience, "so we’re going to just hang out up here for a few moments and sing some of our slower stuff."

"You all don’t mind, do you?" Lance asked.

The shrieks and yells that emanated from the audience were unintelligible.

"Good," JC said. "With Valentine's Day right around the corner, this is for all of you who have someone to hold onto."

The steady beat of ‘This I Promise You’ started. Joey sang a whispery note into his microphone as the stage went dark. The spotlight flicked on, solely illuminating him. He sang another elongated note.

"When the visions surround you," he sang as he stood up and began wandering around the front of the stage. "Bring tears to your eyes, and all that’s around you, are secrets and lies, I’ll be your strength, I’ll give you hope, keeping your faith when it’s gone, the one you should call was standing here all along."

The stage was bathed in light as the other three men joined in for the chorus. They wandered the front of the stage in a choreographed manner, bending down to reach out to girls in the front row, just barely touching the outstretched hands.

"’Til the day my life is through," Joey sang as JC stepped forward to do his verse, "this I promise you."

Destiny Child’s ‘Survivor’ faded out and was replaced by the voice of Tom--the science teacher turned DJ for the night.

"And, now," Tom said "here’s a special request going out to all you love birds out there, so grab your someone special and get all close and personal."

Justin froze as he heard the opening notes of ‘This I Promise You.’ He felt Maggie’s arms go around his neck and, stiffly, he put his arms around her waist.

"I love this song," Maggie said into his ear as they swayed back and forth. "I almost cried when I saw them sing it in concert on that moving platform thing."

"It’s a good song," Justin said, but his voice was dry. He hugged Maggie to him. "I love you."

"I know," Maggie said. She pulled back slightly, taking her head off of his shoulder and looked him in the eyes. She smiled.

They swayed in silence until the end of the song.

It was force of habit that made Justin move his lips on the last solo: "Every word I say is true, this I promise you. Ooh, I promise you."

Maggie looked up at him with watery eyes and pressed her mouth to his.

Sunday, February 11, 2001

Stu and Justin walked up the front walkway of Josh’s house.

"So," Justin said with a grin. "Do I get to start calling you whipped now?"

"No," Stu said. He frowned as he glared at Justin. "If Emily and I aren’t dating, I can’t be whipped."

"Can I say that you’ve reformed your ‘player’ ways?" Justin asked. "That you’re ready to become a one woman man?"

"No," Stu said again. "I’m still a player."

"You and Emily were all over each other last night," Justin said. "I think the quote of the night was that you guys were ‘too cute for words,’ or maybe you were just called adorable."

"Fuck off," Stu said, but he was smiling. "I didn’t tease you this much about Maggie, did I?"

Justin shrugged. "Doesn’t matter. What matters is that you are going to be even more whipped than me or Kevin."

"Just shut up, okay?" Stu asked. "We just went to a stupid dance together. That’s it."

"And danced together all night," Justin said. "And mauled each other during that ‘Discovery Channel’ song." He laughed suddenly. "You and her, baby, ain’t nothing but mammals." He stopped when Stu slapped him upside the head.

"So?" Stu asked. He rapped firmly on Josh’s door and opened the door before there was an answer. "It’s not like you and Maggie were farther than six inches apart all night. You guys are the ones who are disgustingly sweet."

Justin sighed and shut the door behind him.

"They are sort of sickening, aren’t they?" Josh asked. He was sprawled out across the living room floor. "Me and Maggie, we weren’t ever that bad, were we, Matt?"

Matt shook his head. "Nope, you guys were only disgusting when you thought no one was looking."

Justin sighed. "How about we actually get some work done on this today instead of dissecting my love life?"

"We got work done on Friday," Matt said. "Costumes are important."

"Yeah," Justin said. "But we need to do other stuff today."

"It’s not going to be that hard," Josh said. "We walk around the stage singing the song and pulling our clothes off."

"Do any of you guys know the words?" Justin asked. He nodded grimly when the four other guys made no movement. "That would probably be a good place to start, cause you know, singing doesn’t work too well when you don’t know the words. There’s a lot more to the song than ‘I’m a model, if you know what I mean, and I something something something on the catwalk."

"I thought you said you had no clue where to begin practicing for this thing," Matt said. He narrowed his eyes slightly.

"Fuck off," Justin said with a chuckle. "I just don’t want to get up there and look any stupider than we’re going to already."

"Cause you hate getting up on stage, right?" Matt asked. He eyed Justin.

"Yeah. It’s bad enough getting up there to begin with." Justin nodded. "And I want us all to look sexy and we just can’t do that if we don’t know what we’re doing."

"Then let’s get to work," Stu said. "Because heaven forbid we look anything but sexy."