Finally, on Friday, I decided to get a first hand fan account of the last months of *NSYNC's existence. As soon as I got home from school, I walked into Mom's study where she was sitting in front of her computer browsing over something.
"Hey Mom," I said.
Mom looked up. "Oh, hi honey. What is it?"
"Well, I'm almost done with that music project."
"Oh, that's good."
"And I just want some first hand fan accounts. Tell me what happened when you found out the group was going to break up."
Mom pressed her lips together nervously, as if I had asked her to reveal the entire world's unsolved mysteries. "Alright. How about we go into the den to sit down?"
"All right."
Mom and I walked into the den, and I sat on the couch, my usual sitting spot. Mom was in her recliner across the room. She sighed heavily, almost as if she were regretting ever introducing me to *NSYNC.
"Well, Macey, I'd been a fan of *NSYNC's since they first broke ground here around March of 1998," she began. "I was about 12 or 13 when I got into them, sort of like how you got into Supernova a few years ago. I was watching MuchMusic and this video for a song called 'I Want You Back' was playing. I thought that the guys who were in it were pretty cute, and besides, I'd heard the song on the radio and liked it. So a few days later I was at a music store browsing the singles when I saw the single to the song. I bought it and played it for a week straight."
In my mind, I tried to imagine Mom as a thirteen year old listening to "I Want You Back" over and over. I smiled at that picture.
"When I found out their whole CD was out, I was psyched. I bought it and listened to it about twenty times the first day. I then learned all of their names and then began to have a crush on Justin Timberlake. Later on that year, *NSYNC became more and more successful, and I became a bigger fan."
"I remember when I first heard Justin had gotten engaged. I was sort of upset, but I knew it was bound to happen. A few of my friends and I were really happy when we found out and jokingly said that we were going to be the bridesmaids. Then, the next thing we knew, the wedding got called off. Everyone was surprised, and shocked even. Then, when JC quit, it went crazy. It was almost like the Beatles breaking up." Mom paused. "The Beatles were a band in the 1960s who were really popular, and when they broke up it was fan insanity." "The strange part was that one of my friends, Marissa, said right after JC left, 'What would happen if Justin left? They wouldn't have the cute ones anymore, and that might make 'em break up.' And wouldn't you know it, a month later Justin quit. I was devastated. How could he quit? He had put so much into the group, and he just upped and quit. I had this feeling that after that, it was over. And it was."
Mom's face had this blank look on her face. It was so strange. Usually when she told me about something that had gone on when she was my age she talked so enthusiastically and vividly. As she told me this, her voice was completely monotone.
"Somehow, I managed to convince my mother to take me and a few friends to the MTV studios to see their last group appearance. It took some convincing, but she decided to do it anyway. That Saturday, Katiyn, Carla, Alyson, and I all piled into your grandma's car and rode two hours to New York. She dropped us off at the studios, and told us that she was going shopping and would be back in about three hours. So we were standing out there, in the cold, when all of a sudden one of the camera guys dropped one of their pieces of equipment on Katilyn's foot. She started crying, and then they decided to let us upstairs, just to check on her foot and see if she was alright."
"All because he dropped something on her foot?" I asked.
Mom nodded. "We went into the studio and they took us to this room. As we went up there, we noticed that tons of people had laid out all sorts of things in the hallway, almost like a memorial. There were stuffed animals, cards, posters, signs, everything. When we got into the room, they checked Kate's foot. Nothing too serious had been done; it only left her foot sore. They decided to keep us upstairs so that she wouldn't get hurt from anyone stepping on her foot while she was outside and getting it hurt anymore. So we got to be in the actual studio with them."
"It took forever for the show to began, and when it did, it turned out to be very somber. Before, whenever *NSYNC was on MTV, there was usually a huge uproar. But it was a heck of a lot quieter that day. Everyone was incredibly serious." Mom stopped, and sighed. "They took a lot of fan questions, and Kate got to ask one to Joey, who was her favorite. I can't remember what she said--I think she asked how they felt at affecting the lives of thousands of people--and he said that it was an honor that he would never forget. After that, the show was mainly over, but then they played a video montage of miscellaneous *NSYNC video clips and TV appearances. By this time everyone, even the guys themselves were crying."
"As we were getting ready to leave one of the security guards asked us to stay behind. We didn't know why until Joey came up to us and talked to us for a while. He was really sweet, and signed Kate's hat. Then we had to go, but Alyson begged for a picture. So we all had our picture taken with Joey Fatone. As we drove home that night I couldn't help but think of what it had to feel like to be them, and to see all that your career and your group had been, then to watch it crumble before your eyes. The admiration and respect I had for them grew deeper, and I realized that all of those years of keeping up with them, buying the CDs, going to the concerts, doing everything a fan does, was worth it. I would be someone they'd never forget, me and my friends, and all the other girls who felt the same way."
I sat in silence, absorbing every bit of what Mom had told me. "Do you know what happened to them after that?" I asked.
"I believe Joey went on to do a few movies, and now, I think he's married. Chris had that clothing line of his to fall back on, and it did pretty well. He also did a little producing. Lance became a pretty successful producer too."
"What about JC and Justin?"
"JC put a solo album out a while after the group broke up, and it did pretty well. He had two more albums, and then he went to producing too. As for Justin... no one really knows what happened to him. He seemed to just vanish into thin air. He didn't release an album, didn't write any memoirs, he didn't do anything to get back into the business. He just disappeared."
"Why?"
"No one really knows. I'm still trying to figure it out." Mom got up. "Some things in life are bound to never become known, I guess that this is one of them." She walked back to her study, leaving me with my thoughts on the couch.
He just disappeared... no one knows what happened to him. How could an international pop star just vanish into oblivion? It just couldn't happen. I knew it, Mom knew it, everyone knew it. There had to be some rational explanation to why Justin vanished, and why he and JC had left the group. And right then and there, I decided that I was going to find the answer to a mystery that had been long since forgotten by the entertainment industry, by the world. I, Macey Cooper, was going to find out why *NSYNC had broken up, and what had happened to Justin Timberlake.