Tuesday, November 14, 2000

"Now," the teacher began as he paced the front of the room. "I’m going to be nice and not assign you any extra homework tonight."

A general sigh of relief seemed to flow through the room.

"But this is only because of your test tomorrow," the teacher continued. " It’s on everything that we’ve covered so far this year so I hope you’ve begun preparing already. There’s a study guide right here. Pick it up on your way out."

The bell rang, but the sound of seats scooting backwards was drowned out by the sounds of grumbling.

Justin was sitting in his seat in shock. Stu looked down at him.

"You okay bro?"

"There’s a test already?" Justin asked.

"Randy, it’s two-thirds of the way through the term. Just because you didn’t show up until a week and a half ago doesn’t mean that the rest of us haven’t been in school since August."

Justin blinked. "It’s on everything?"

Stu nodded.

"I’m fucked," Justin said quietly.

Stu nodded again. He walked up to the front of the room and grabbed a study guide. "You coming or are you going to sit there all day in shock."

Justin got out of his chair and grabbed one of the study guides. An unfamiliar feeling of despair swept over him as he left the room.

As they walked down the hallway they both studied the packet of papers in front of him.

"Damn D," Stu said with a small amount of amusement in his voice. "You are fucked."

Justin nodded and continued to study the paper in front of him.

The 'N SYNC Compound

"We may have to go back on the road without Justin," Johnny said. He was sitting in a straight-backed chair looking at the four men who were collapsed on couches.

The four men stared at their manager.

JC sat up straight. "We are not going back out on the road without Justin."

"Yeah," Joey said quickly. "We aren’t a group without Justin."

"It’s not a choice guys," Johnny said. "Personally I’d love to leave you all here and wait for Justin to get off his high horse so that we can all continue on with our lives, but you’re bound by contract to do whatever The Firm wants you to. At the moment that means getting ready to go back on the road."

"We won’t do it," Lance said. "I’ll quit."

"That would be very stupid Lance," Johnny said. "You’re a business man. You know that."

"I don’t care," Lance said. "We are ‘N SYNC. That includes two ‘N’s’. We aren’t going back on tour without Justin."

"Why do they want us to?" JC asked. "You said yourself that Justin pulls most of the crowds." There was a hint of sarcasm in his voice, but not nearly as much as there normally was.

"The Firm is worried about you guys falling out of the spotlight."

"That’s not going to happen," Lance said. "We’ve been in the papers every day because of our ‘game.’ MTV is doing the whole Justin-watch. We’re getting more publicity than ever."

Johnny leaned forward. He didn’t look happy.

"There are some people out there saying that this is the end of ‘N SYNC. The Firm wants to get you guys back on the road to show that it’s not the end, merely the beginning of another stage of your career."

"That’s bull," Chris said suddenly. "Maybe this is the end of ‘N SYNC. Maybe we were meant to be over. I mean, we've had a good run. Going out without Justin will be worse for us than just lying low and waiting for him to come back."

"I may agree with you," Johnny said, "but it’s not my call. I wish it was."

"You’re our manager," Lance said. He stood up. "You'd better make it your call."

He walked out of the room. The slam of a door could be heard down the hall.

Lance walked angrily across his room before walking back to his bed and sitting down.

"I won’t do it," he said to the empty walls. "I won’t go back on the road without Justin."

He knew they didn’t have a choice though. If that was what The Firm wanted, that was what they were going to get.

"Justin!" Lance yelled quietly. He pounded his fists onto the springy mattress on either side of his legs.

He looked at his desk. The laptop was still propped open and was running although his fish screensaver had long since taken over.

He got up and moved his finger across the mouse pad to wake it up. He immediately opened the Internet and went to the email program. There were five new messages. After quickly scanning them to make sure that none were from Justin he opened a new message.
 

Justin- They’re going to make us go back on the road without you. Come back. We can’t do this without you. You should see us in practice. :)

It was a lame attempt at humor, but Lance was at the end of his rope.
 

We need you Justin. I need you here. We’ll work something out, I promise. Please. JLB
 

"Please let him understand," Lance murmured.

Justin’s head hurt. He didn’t know whether it was from the dim desk lamp that flooded his room with yellow light or from the small words that were beginning to run together on the page in front of him.

He hadn’t had to study for years. Not without the aid of a tutor.

He stared at the book in front of him. He really wanted to just thrown the book to the side and go downstairs to watch TV, but he wasn’t going to fail his first test in high school. He’d never failed a test in his life.

There was a knock on his door. "Randy?"

"Yeah?" he called. He straightened his neck to look at the door.

Maggie poked her head into the room. "What you doing?" she asked with a grin on her face that he would have been able to place anywhere. She wanted something.

"Studying," Justin said with a grimace. "Why?"

"Oh," Maggie said. Her face fell.

"Why?" Justin repeated.

"No reason," Maggie said. "I was just bored."

"Maggie, what did you want?" Justin asked, swiveling around in his chair. "I’ve had enough girlfriends to know that look. Just ask me."

Maggie blushed. "I just really felt like a piece of pie and I wanted to see if you wanted to get one with me. I mean, since you’re so conveniently located in the same house as me I just thought I’d ask you."

Justin looked at the textbook in front of him. "Do you have that history test tomorrow?"

Maggie nodded.

"Well bring your textbook because you’re going to help me study."

Maggie crossed her arms over her chest and raised an eyebrow. "I am, am I?"

"Yup," Justin said. "We don’t want me to fail my first test, do we?"

Maggie twisted her lips, contemplating the statement. "No, I guess we don’t do we."

Justin smiled. He grabbed his textbook, palming the spine. He walked towards the door. "After you."

"Why thank you sir," Maggie said with a smile. She went down to her room to get her history book.

There were five pie plates sitting on the white plastic tabletop surrounding the two heads that were bent over the textbooks.

Justin leaned back into the plastic seat. "I don’t think my brain could absorb any more information," he said.

Maggie nodded. "I agree. I don’t think I’ve ever been more prepared for a test."

Justin nodded. He’d never needed to be prepared for a test before.

"So you’ve dated lots of girls huh?"

Justin looked at Maggie, surprised at the question. Then he remembered his previous statement. "Yeah."

"How many?" Maggie asked again.

"Why?" Justin asked.

"The school gossip mill wants to know," Maggie said rolling her eyes. "I live with you. I need to be able to contribute something."

Justin smiled wanly.

"I’m sorry," Maggie said suddenly. "I don’t want to make you feel awkward. I was just kidding."

"It’s okay," Justin said. "I just can’t get used to people wanting to know all about me, that’s all." That was a lie, they’d always wanted to know all about him, but he’d thought that it was because he was Justin Timberlake. Here he was nobody special and they still wanted to know.

"The curses of a small school," Maggie said. "Was your last school very big?"

Justin froze for a second. "Yeah," he said. "I mean, no. Yeah to the curses of a small school." He bit his tongue. Could he be any more obvious?

Maggie laughed. "So, like how many people?"

Justin shrugged. "I don’t really know. I knew everyone really well though. And everyone knew me."

They sat in silence for a few moments and Justin looked at the book in front of him again.

"You’re an enigma Randy," Maggie said suddenly. "That’s why everyone’s so interested. I mean it was the same way with Stu. He came, he dated and now he’s well liked but no one will date him because he’s either hooked up with them or their best friend. Don’t do that, okay?"

"I don’t intend to," Justin said. "I really don’t want to get involved with anyone. I’ve sort of got my eye on someone back home, but I don’t think she really wants me in that way." He had a sad frown on his face. He actually hadn't thought of Britney that day.

"Really?" Maggie asked. "If you want to talk about it, I’ll keep it between us. Believe me I know what a pain gossip can be."

Justin smiled wanly again. "There’s not really much to say," Justin said. "I mean, we were friends forever and we’ve been through that whole friends with benefits stage." He stopped. "I don’t know what happened, but… somewhere along the way I sort of started to want to become official and, well, I don’t think, no, I know, she doesn’t want to be."

"That’s hard," Maggie said. She had that sympathetic, caring look on her face.

"I mean it’s not that I think she doesn’t like me," Justin continued. He had no clue what this sudden need to talk about Britney was. "It’s just that in our… school… it would have caused major shock waves and I don’t think we really want to deal with that. I mean, I’d be willing too, but I don’t think she is… The gossip mills would have started again full force and… I don’t know."

"It’s high school Randy. It survives on gossip."

Justin nodded tightly.

Maggie yawned and looked at her watch. Suddenly her eyes opened wide.

"Did you realize it’s after midnight?"

"Really?" Justin asked. "We need to go."

They waved goodbye to Charlene who was standing behind the counter. She smiled at the couple as they walked out the door.

She turned to the other woman behind the counter. "Aren’t they just too cute?"

Wednesday, November 15, 2000

Justin slowly bounced the basketball back and forth between his palms. The metallic sounds of balls hitting wood echoed around the gym. He dribbled lazily over towards where Stu was shooting.

"Why do we have to play against the girls?" he asked.

"It’s tradition Randy," Stu said. "The first practice game of the year is always girls vs. boys."

"But aren’t we, I don’t know, more physical when we play?" Justin asked.

"Don’t underestimate the girls D," Stu said. "They generally come pretty close to winning."

"The girls win?" Justin asked. "Are they that good?"

Stu shrugged. "Are we that good?"

"We are," Justin said fiercely. "We’re going to take it all."

Stu shot at the basket and missed. "I don’t think we can without Josh. He’s probably our best shooter."

Justin took a shot at the basket and it whooshed through. "Would it help if I went and apologized?"

"What for?" Stu asked. "You didn’t do anything wrong."

"But it’s because of me that he’s not here anymore," Justin said. "I mean if he hadn’t gotten pissed at me at his party…"

"He’s a bastard with way too big an ego," Stu said. "Ignore him. He’ll come back eventually. He’s waiting for coach to cave. When he realizes that he won’t he’ll be back."

Justin nodded.

A whistle echoed throughout the gym. Justin and Stu ran towards their bench. Coach pulled them into a huddle. A minute later the five guys and girls faced off.

Stu slammed the door to his locker. He was the only one with the motivation to move.

"That was embarrassing," Justin said.

Stu just nodded as he plopped down next to Justin. "I told you they come close to winning."

"That was more than coming close," Justin said. "That was trouncing us."

Stu nodded. "If Josh had been here…" he trailed off. He didn’t complete his thought, but Justin mentally completed it for him.

It was his fault they’d lost. It was because of him that Josh hadn’t been there.

It hardly seemed like less than a week ago that Justin had last walked up to this house. He knocked on the door, but there was no answer. He heard the familiar sound of a bouncing basketball from behind the house.

Feeling slightly guilty he made his way behind the building. He saw Josh standing by a single hoop. The ball went repeatedly through the net-less wire rim.

"Hey," Justin called.

Josh looked up at him and didn’t say anything. He went back to shooting the ball at the rusting backboard.

Justin continued to walk towards the hoop and stopped when he was standing about a foot behind it.

"What do you want?" Josh growled.

"I want you to come back to the team," Justin said.

"That’s not really your call," Josh said.

"But it’s because of me you left," Justin said. "I’m sorry we got off on the wrong foot…"

"You know just because you’re new here doesn’t mean you have to charm everyone," Josh said. "You don’t have to be liked by everyone."

"I’m not trying to be liked by everyone," Justin said. "I’m sorry about Laura."

"Is that what you think this is about?" Josh asked chucking the ball at Justin. "Laura?"

"Well isn’t it?" Justin asked. "I mean you fucking tried to deck me last weekend."

"You took my spot Randy," Josh said. "I was next in line to be point guard. The backup. Maybe by the end of the year I would have been the starter cause god knows Matt hated the job."

"I didn’t mean to take your spot," Justin started.

"I mean who do you think you are?" Josh asked. "You waltz in here out of the fucking blue and the whole town falls at your feet. Stu could hardly talk of anything else, the girls would lick the ground you fucking walk on and you get to be the point guard of the basket ball team. What right do you have?"

"The same right as you," Justin spat. "I came here to try to get you to come back. I know you don’t like me and I know that it’s hopeless for you to even consider liking me in the future, but goddamn Josh, the team needs you. They need you a hell of a lot more than they need me. You know what happened today?"

Josh was silent.

"We played the girls like I guess you guys always do. We lost by 20 fucking points. And it wasn’t for lack of trying on all of our parts."

Justin chucked the ball back at Josh.

"We need you Josh."

Then he walked away.