“Hello JC.” Larson answered the phone after seeing his name on the caller ID.
“Hey L. What are you up
too?”
“Getting a crash course on Nsync.” Larson replied as she flipped through pictures on her bed.
“Really?” JC asked wondering if he had heard her right.
“Yeah, Mel decided that I needed to be informed in order to hang
out with you guys.”
“Interesting, what chapter are you on?” He joked,
“Your interesting choice of wardrobe.” She replied, “Dude, it’s like you got dressed in the dark half of the time. You DID have a stylist, didn’t you?”
“It’s not what you wear that matters, it’s your talent.” JC scoffed,
“And yours definitely is NOT matching. Good Lord, I know five year olds who can dress themselves better
than this… Oh wait I found a good outfit, bad, bad, bad, oh there’s another
one. Well, I guess by probability alone
you’d have to wear a good outfit some days.”
She teased,
“Are you quite done critiquing my wardrobe?”
Larson sighed and threw the pictures down, “I guess. Oh bravo on
the hair, that was an improvement.”
“Uh, thanks. When do I get
to critique your high school pictures?”
“When you pry them from my dead, cold hands.”
JC was set back a little, “Wow.”
“I was just kidding, if you really want to see them, give my mom a
call. She lives to embarrass me.”
“I’ll remember that. So
what do you have left to watch?”
Larson groaned and threw an arm over her face, “Ugh! Like
EVERYTHING! You guys have done too much
crap! It’s going to take me
forever!” She moaned making JC chuckle,
“I’m sorry watching half of my life is so torturous for you.”
“There’s just SO much. You
were busy boys.”
“Yes, we were. Just watch
the tours and you should be fine.”
“Hah, Mel’s quizzing me later.
I think she knows more about you than you do.” Larson teased,
“Honestly, I wouldn’t doubt it.
How about I come over and help you study? It’ll be like going down memory lane for me.”
“That’d be awesome. You’d
probably have some good inside dirt on everything.”
“Probably since I WAS there.”
He teased,
“Cool, see you in twenty?”
“Yep, bye.”
“Bye, Bye, Bye.” She sang
to him making him groan,
“You’re insane.” He
laughed,
“Pretty much, come save me.”
She said dramatically,
“I’m on my way. See you
soon.”
“See you soon.”
“Who’s the cutie?” JC
asked picking up a frame in Larson’s bedroom.
They had gone over all of Mel’s Nsync paraphernalia in the past couple
of hours and were just chilling in her room waiting for their pizza to arrive.
She looked over at him and grinned, “That’s my baby PJ. He’s a complete doll.”
“Your baby?” JC inquired,
“Not MY baby, he’s my father’s cousin’s son.” She replied looking back at her desk for
something.
“Say what?” He laughed,
“Is that even related to you?”
Larson looked up, “Yeah, like I said, he’s my father’s cousin’s
son. We have the same last name.”
“Uh, I hate to tell you, but half of America has the same last
name as you Miss Smith.” He teased,
“Touché.” She laughed and
pulled out a folder, “But I have a huge family that’s really close.” She said pulling out a long sheet of paper
and handing it to him. “That’s my family, my dad’s side is bigger than my
mother’s only for the sheer fact that my mother’s side tends to hold grudges
for life and not talk to each other.”
JC looked over the sheet of paper that held Larson’s family tree,
“You have a huge family.”
“I know and we all look a like. It’s frightening, really. People confuse my cousins as my sisters and
their kids as my own.”
JC glanced back at the photo, “PJ does look like you. It think it’s the hair.”
“Yeah, that’s our trade mark of platinum blonde hair. Funny thing is, in my immediate family, I’m
the only blonde.”
“Really?”
“Uh huh, that’s why I’m my daddy’s favorite.” She grinned and sat down on her bed next to him,
“What about you? Do you look like your
parents?”
“Oh, well, not really, well I do, but I don’t. It’s complicated.”
“I see that.” She grinned,
“I was adopted and consider my adoptive parents as my real
parents.”
“As you should.” She
replied, “So you look like your birth parents and you don’t look like your
parents, which makes sense.”
“Yeah.” He nodded wondering how she had simplified his thoughts so
easily.
Larson leaned back on her bed, “I always wanted to adopt a kid.”
“Really.” He said skeptically
and she glanced over at him,
“Uh huh, since I was five.
I got it into my mind that I was adopting a kid.” She grinned, “Most girls had baby dolls that
were their ‘own children’ and I adopted my African-American baby doll.”
“That’s different.”
“Yeah, well, I’m different.”
She laughed and turned on her stomach, “Do you ever think of adopting a
kid because you were adopted?”
“Um, I don’t know. I never
really thought about it, but I wouldn’t mind.
Look how I turned out.” He
shrugged,
“I find it amazing.” She
decided, “When you think of what could have happened if, for example, you
stayed with your birth parents versus being adopted. Makes you wonder if you would have ended up the same.” She said going off into her own thoughts.
“I honestly don’t know, but I’m glad they did.” He shrugged and she smiled at him,
“See, you’re the reason why I want to adopt kids.”
“Excuse me?” He frowned,
“Not you personally, but I mean your situation. I’ve seen so many cases where adoption is
the best thing that happened to a kid.
To think that I could make that much of a difference in a child’s life
is amazing to me. I want to help out a
child and give them my love...” She suddenly blushed, “Wow, I’m rambling.”
JC nudged her with a smile, “Don’t that’s cool that you feel so
passionate about it.”
“Yeah, I’m pretty passionate about helping kids. Guess that’s why I’m in the education
system, right?”
“Yeah.” He smiled and
paused, “Do you want to have your own kids?”
Larson smiled even more, “Oh yeah, I do. Two to be exact.”
“Just how many kids all together do you plan on having?”
“Three ideally, two of my own and I want to adopt my third.” She replied and JC frowned because this all
sounded too familiar,
“Really.”
“Uh huh, two boys and one girl.”
“Really.” JC said becoming
more surly.
She glanced over at him with a confused look, “Yeah, I want to
have the two boys and adopt a little girl, Chinese preferably.”
“You seem to have it all planned out.” He said shortly and she raised an eyebrow at him,
“I have, since I was ten.
I mapped out my entire life then.”
She replied,
“When you were ten?” He
asked in disbelief.
“I told you I was different.”
She grinned, “I still have it, though it has changed over the
years. Hold on.” She said getting up and grabbing a black
binder off of her shelf. “Now you have to promise me that you’ll never say a
word about seeing this.”
“Okay, I promise.” He said
slowly,
“It’s very personal and not everyone gets to see it.” She explained and he smiled,
“Okay.”
“Okay.” Larson said and
laid back down next to him. She opened
the binder and laid it out in front of him. “These are my life plans.”
“You have more than one?”
“Kind of, I have revisions, updated versions so to say.” She pointed to the first page, “See I
originally wanted to be a dentist. I
loved going to the dentist.”
“Are you kiddin me?” He
chuckled,
“No, I loved going and look,” she smiled widely, “straight, with
no cavities. That’s got to say
something.”
“That you’re different?”
He smirked and she laughed,
“Pretty much.” She flipped
through more pages, “They got more detailed and longer the older I got and I
make a new revision every time I get a new job or graduate from school.”
JC flipped to the back of the binder, “What’s on the latest
revision?”
“Mostly social goals, because I’ve pretty much hit my occupational
goal, unless you count ‘retire and become a truck driver’.” She shrugged and he laughed,
“A truck driver? Why?”
“Because it’s harder to become a lion tamer at 68.” She replied, “Come on, you get to drive a big
truck all over the country, how cool is that?”
“Definitely different.” He
glanced over the schedule for Larson’s life.
She had everything down, marriage, kids, setting aside money for
college, traveling, the kids going to college, retirement, everything.
“What happens if your life doesn’t follow the schedule?”
“Eh,” She shrugged, “Then I need to make a new revision. Life’s not predictable, but it’s nice to
have goals and a plan, you know?”
“You forgot a goal.” He
grinned,
She looked over the page, “What?”
JC took a pencil
and wrote down next to marriage, ‘Marry famous pop star’.
Larson laughed, “No way, how the hell did you get Justin to agree
to that?” She teased and he rolled his
eyes,
“I meant Nick Carter.” He
teased back,
“Nah, he’s too ghetto wannabe for me. Got anyone else?” She
inquired with a smile,
“Well, I’m free.” He
smiled at her,
“Hmm, I’d have to think about it.
Are you sure Justin’s a definite no?”
She teased,
“I’m going to scribble it out.”
He pouted moving to erase it and she stopped him, smiling softly at him,
“You’d marry me?” She
asked and JC gazed at her,
“Yeah.” He nodded, “We’d
be cool together and make kick ass parents.
You’re smart and I’ve got the creative crap.” He decided,
“Okay then, we can get married.”
She declared taking the pencil from JC and erasing his, ‘marry famous
pop star’ and writing, ‘marry JC because he’s kick ass at creative stuff and
has a nice ass.’
“Aw thanks honey. I think
you have a nice ass too.” He grinned at
her,
“Thanks babe.” She looked
at her watch, “Looks like we have three years to plan a wedding, that enough
time for you?”
“We can just elope.” He
suggested,
“Hmm, true, though my parents may be a little pissed.”
“Then I guess we can have a traditional wedding. You Catholic?”
“Nope, United Methodist.”
“No shit, me too. Well
that works out.” He laughed,
“I guess it does. Flowers
and fru-fru?”
“Do I NEED to answer that?”
He asked,
“No, but I have three years to wear you down.” She teased and he tickled her side,
“We’re not having a fru-fru wedding.”
“Not tickling!” She
screeched moving away, but JC kept her close, “Stop Jace!” She giggled as he tickled her mercilessly.
“Not until you promise me a non-fru-fru wedding!” He laughed pinning her underneath him,
“Dude, what the HELL is going on in here?” Mel yelled interrupting the two friends.
Larson pushed her
hair out of her face and sat up, “JC won’t let me have flowers and fru-fru at
our wedding.”
“I’m not having a wedding with fru-fru, I’ll allow the
flowers.” He compromised,
“Whoa, WHAT?!” Mel exclaimed, “You’re getting married?”
Larson looked at JC, “Wow, she took it rather well.”
“Yeah, I mean she didn’t even faint.” He said, “Wait till we tell
her that she’s paired up with Lance in the wedding party.” He grinned,
“I know I just woke up, but what the FUCK is going on?” Mel exclaimed rubbing her eyes
frustratingly,
Larson laughed, “Oh, dear God.
We’re just messing with you. You
know I’m saving myself for Justin.” She
teased and Mel continued to stare at the two.
“I think we killed her.”
JC whispered to Larson.
“No, she’s just dumbstruck, which is surprisingly easy to
do.” She whispered back to him.
“You guys suck, that was SO not funny.” Mel huffed.
“Who was being funny?”
Larson said seriously.
“You guys and the marriage thing.” She said placing her hands on her hips.
“Well if we’re both free in three years and I’m not doing Justin,
we’re getting married…” Larson looked at JC, “If we get married, can I sleep
with Justin? Not all the time, just
like once a month or something.”
JC shrugged, “Sure, as long as I can sleep with his wife.”
“Not a problem.” Larson grinned, “I think I’m going to like being
married to you.” She teased,
“You two are retarded.”
Mel rolled her eyes and walked out of the room. The two just laid back and giggled.