Chapter
9: You Got It.
It had been a week since the birthday
party and it was Libby's day off work. She had been sat watching her Friends
videos when Clare walked out the apartment to go to work and Clare was
surprised to see Libby still sat in front of the TV when she got home.
"That is so not the opposite
of taking someone's underwear!" Libby chorused with the TV as she watched
yet another episode of the show they both loved so much.
"Hi I'm Chandler, could I
be wearing any more clothes!" Clare said taking her role in the script
as she dropped her keys onto the coffee table and slipped off her coat.
"Are you still watching those!"
"I'm proving to Curly that
I can watch all the episodes of Friends in one day." Libby responded, as
she looked up at her friend from where she sat curled up on the couch.
"And how does he know you
won't lie about it?" Clare asked as the toilet flushed and Justin walked
out of the bathroom.
"That answer your question?"
"Hi ya' Gid!" Justin said
as he sat back down on the couch next to Libby.
Clare smiled, "I hope you
put the seat back down after ya'!"
Justin smiled at her.
"So you gonna join us, or
what?" Libby asked knowing her friend would be up for a Friends marathon.
"Sure but I brought the competition
file back with me so we can run through them later 'k?"
Libby nodded before Clare
disappeared into her bedroom to change into her comfy 'Friends sweats'
and returned to join the bonanza.
~~~~~*~~~~~
JC reached up and knocked on Alyson's
front door. It was the fifth time he'd been there and he was hoping that
this time she'd be home so he could talk with her about the article in
the paper. He waited a while before knocking again.
"Hang on, I'm comin'!" he
heard a voice shout from inside.
The door opened and a breathless
young woman stood before him, "Hi!" she said recognising him instantly,
"You looking for Ally?"
The young woman was Alyson's
sister, Rachel; she was a short girl of petite build with long black hair
and dark brown eyes. She was only 16 but she looked older.
"Yeah. She here?" he asked.
"She's in the shower so why
don't you come in and wait for her." Rachel said extending the door open
so he could walk in.
He followed Rachel into the
kitchen where she fixed him a drink.
"So how you been doin'?" JC
asked breaking the uncomfortable silence between the two.
"Pretty good. I'm getting'
good grades in school and I've been dating the same guy for almost a year,
so yeah, pretty good." She replied shyly.
When Alyson had started to
date JC three years ago Rachel had a major crush on him. She had been a
big fan of the group before they'd even hit the charts in a big way and
she still liked their music but wasn't infatuated with them like she had
been back then.
There was another silence
between the two before Alyson appeared.
"JC, hi!" Alyson said surprised
to see him. "What you doin' here?"
"I think we need to talk."
He replied bluntly.
"Well I'll leave you to it!"
Rachel said looking at her sister, "Nice to see you again JC and next time
don't leave it so long to come visit!"
Rachel gave him a hug before
she disappeared, leaving him and Alyson alone.
JC smiled as he watched the
young woman leave before he turned back to face Alyson.
"So what's this about?" she
asked him as she got herself a glass of orange juice.
~~~~~*~~~~~
Once Justin had gone home to get
something to eat Clare pressed play on the CD player. It was going to be
a long night, sorting through the competition entries was going to be a
long tedious job but her and Libby had put it off for as long as possible.
They had to read through the last one hundred applications because the
prize of a date with 'N Sync was a couple of days away and they needed
to pick out six winners. There were also ten runners up prizes, tickets
to see the guys at a special performance on the Disney channel.
Libby sat on the floor surrounded
by papers and picked up an entry. She sighed as she looked at the photo.
She placed it in the 'bin' pile, "Too old," she said as Clare sat down
beside her.
The girls had a mutual understanding,
anyone over the age of 16 with an interest in Justin or JC were straight
out.
Libby burst into giggles and
Clare looked up from the entry she was reading, "Sup?" she asked her friend.
"I want a date with 'N Sync
because I am in love with Justin and if I don't meet him I'll just die!"
Libby read in between giggles.
"In the 'bin' pile me thinks."
Clare smiled.
They'd got down to 20 entries
when Libby stood up to stretch her legs. She'd been sat on the floor for
the past two hours and had lost all feeling in the bottom half of her body,
"This job sucks at times!" she complained as she tried to shake the pins
and needles from her backside.
"Oh, I dunno, it's not all
that bad!" Clare said as she stood up too. "Sure it has its draw backs
but every job has those. We're doing something that most girls would kill
for!"
"They'd soon change their
minds after a day!"
"There are major upsides too."
"Like what?"
"We get to see JC and Justin
everyday."
"But our jobs would be easier
if we weren't in love with them. I find it hard not to just walk up to
Justin and say; 'Can't you see that I love you!' I don't know how much
longer I can hide my feeling's for him!"
"Biting his head off all the
time has got to be getting pretty tiresome and hard, especially after that
kiss…"
"I know, I've been wanting
this for 12 months but for some reason I'm finding it so damn hard to accept."
Libby said looking out of the window.
~~~~~FLASHBACK~~~~~
It was the same night Justin
had brought the video around. When he'd gone to leave the two of them had
stood at the door in an uncomfortable silence before he leaned forward
and kissed her quickly on the lips. She'd pulled back in shock and he apologised
instantly but she hadn't minded it just surprised her. As she'd stood looking
at him, slightly red in the face, he leaned forward and kissed her again.
That kiss lasted longer and she'd wrapped her arms around his shoulders,
pulling him closer.
The phone rang and disturbed
them. Libby went to answer it and when she'd returned to the door, he left
without a word about what had happened, just an 'I'll see you tomorrow'
and he was gone. It hadn't been mentioned by either of them since and although
Libby wanted to say something to him she couldn't. It had happened and
now she had to try and forget it. If he'd wanted it to go any further he
would've said something but he didn't so the subject was closed.
~~~~~~END OF FLASHBACK~~~~~~
"You know, when I think of
JC with his ex it makes me feel like doing things I've only seen in horror
movies!" Libby heard Clare saying as she came back from her thoughts.
Libby smiled as the stereo,
that was programmed on repeat, began to play the 'N Sync album again.
Baby I don't understand
Just why we can't be
lovers
Things are getting
out of hand
Tryin' too much, but
baby we can win
Let it go
If you want me girl
let me know
I am down on my knees
I can't take it anymore
It's tearin' up my
heart when I'm with you
But when we are apart
I feel it too
And no matter what
I do
I feel the pain, with
or without you
Clare and Libby sang along with
the CD, it seemed appropriate.
They laughed to each other
and sat back down among the papers on the floor so they could finish up.
"So do you think we'll ever
get to tell them how we feel?" Libby asked Clare curiously.
"Who knows? Maybe we'll tell
them one day without actually intending to," Clare said with a smile, "Can
you imagine sounding off at them and then following it up with an 'I love
you'."
"It'd be interesting to see
their reactions, although I don't think any of us have got the nerve to
do it!"
"I'd love to be able to just
walk up to JC and kiss him whenever I had the urge."
"It's the stuff dreams are
made of!" Libby said with a smile as they got back to work.
~~~~~ A While Later
~~~~~
"You still goin' through them?"
Justin asked Clare as he walked into the apartment with JC.
"Yup! And I see you still
don't know how to knock a door!" she retorted with a smile. "What you two
doin' here anyway?"
"Well we figured you two wouldn't
'ave eaten so we brought you some food." JC replied presenting her with
a paper bag.
"Let me guess, Lyn made you
bring it over?"
"You know my mom, she always
cooks for the fifty thousand!" Justin said as he looked around the room,
"Where's Lib?"
Clare pointed to the bathroom
as she went into the kitchen to put the food on some plates.
"So you need some help with
these?" JC asked picking up an entry and looking at it.
"We're almost done. We've
picked out some finalists for the main prize but you can help us with the
ten runners up if you like!" Clare replied returning to the sitting area.
"It'll be funny to see some
of the reasons our fans have given to why they should meet us!" Justin
said sitting on the floor in front of the small pile of papers that the
girls were going to go over a second time.
"I thought I heard a Furby!"
Libby said as she appeared from the bathroom, her hair wet from the shower
she'd been taking.
"Now Libby that's not nice,"
Clare said seriously, "Furby's are way more intelligent than the male species
we see before us!"
~~~~~*~~~~~
Lance sat in the movie theatre
alone. He'd asked the others to go along but there hadn't been anything
showing that they were interested in seeing so he decided to go alone.
He hadn't had the courage to phone Jenny to ask her along, he didn't think
she'd want to go if everyone else wasn't there even though Libby had tried
to convince him otherwise.
He sat watching the trailers
for some other movies when he was startled by a familiar voice.
"What you doing here all alone?"
Jenny asked him from the row in front.
"No one else was up for it
and I really wanted to see this movie!" he replied his face lightening
up at the sight of her.
"Same here. There's no accounting
for taste is there?"
He smiled at her as she climbed
over the seats to the row he was sitting in and sat down beside him. They
sat in silence watching the movie and halfway through it Lance managed
to pluck up enough courage to slip his arm around her shoulders. Jenny
hadn't objected so he felt secretly pleased with himself.
Once the movie was over Lance
offered her a ride home and she accepted, she wasn't one to say 'no' to
a handsome face or a free ride. As they walked out of the building toward
his 4 runner Jenny shivered. Lance took off his jacket and draped it over
her shoulders.
"Thanks!" Jenny said with
a smile as she put her arms in the sleeves.
That was what she liked about
Lance, he was a gentleman, unlike some guys. He could offer her his jacket
without trying to sleaze onto her, not that she'd mind if he did.
When they reached the vehicle
Lance unlocked the passengers' door and held it open so Jenny could climb
inside, such a gentleman, she thought as he closed the door and
walked around the car to get in so he could drive her home.
Lance put the heater on to
warm the car as he pulled out of the car park and their journey began.
He turned on the radio to break the silence and heard the number one hit,
'Baby One More Time' by Britney Spears playing.
"She's really talented isn't
she?" Jenny asked. Britney was one of her favourite artists and she admired
the young woman for all the things she'd achieved.
"Yeah, she's a great person.
Very friendly and a lot of fun." Lance said with a smile.
"So what kind of things do
you get up to on the road?"
"Where to start?" he said
with a short laugh, "We get up to the dumbest thing's! One time we were
playin' hacky, Chris lost his balance but instead of letting the hacky
sack fall on the floor, he stretched to reach it, fell backward, banged
into Jamie. She fell on the floor with a thud and Chris landed on top of
her, she wasn't impressed but it was funny!"
Jenny laughed as she pictured
the scene Lance had described. As the laughter died down she looked out
of the window and realised she was almost home.
"So what are you up to tomorrow?"
she asked turning back to face Lance.
"We've got interviews scheduled
for most the morning. Then we've got a meeting about the competition at
the fan club and then I think we're gonna be recording some songs for the
new album." he replied as he pulled up outside the University dorms, "Look,
I really enjoyed tonight, maybe we should do it again sometime!"
"That'd be great." Jenny said
as she got out the car and waved him off.
Chapter
10: Fan Mania.
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