"Next stop, Chicago, Illinois," Joey announced as the city line came into view.

Gina leaned over his shoulder to get a better look. "We’re going to Chicago. We’re going to Chicago."

"You a bit anxious there, Gigi?" Justin laughed as he watched Gina.

She shook her head quickly. "Yup. Since Kristen got that internship here that means I can see her while we’re here. I can see her right?"

Justin nodded. "Of course. Just don’t get as excited as Joey here."

"I’m sorry but I’m glad my brother is coming back on tour with us. Plus who else can help me work the Italian charm like him. Certainly none of you blokes."

Justin glanced at Joey and then at JC. "Did he just call us blokes? I swear that’s what I heard but I could be wrong."

JC placed a hand on Justin’s shoulder. "You heard correctly. He called us blokes. Why? I don’t know. We’re not in England, nor are we English."

"You guys have no culture." Joey shook his head in disdain before heading to the back of the bus.

"Joey’s right. You lads have no sense of culture."

"Not you too. I think I know how to fix that." Justin grabbed Gina, threw her on the couch and began to tickle her.

"Justin! You still have no sense of culture. Just a sense for the dangerous." Gina reached out to try and return the tickle torture but Justin’s arms were too fast and too long for her.

JC felt a ping in his stomach. Mistaking it for disgust he rolled his eyes. "I’m leaving you two to what ever you are doing."

"Can’t you see I’m tickling her, you cad." Justin smiled at JC.

JC rolled his eyes again and walked out of the room to talk to his brother.

"Good one, youngin’. I liked the cad part. He really is one." Gina continued to struggle against Justin’s tight hold.

"No you don’t. You wholeheartedly deserve this and I’m not going to go lightly on you this time."

"Do you ever?"

"How about two nights ago when you pegged me with a pillow. I could have whooped your butt but I didn’t. I’m too nice."

"Justin!" Gina yelled as he hit her most ticklish spot. "You are not too nice. You’re a meanie."

"And you are my next victim. Die, woman!"

Gina acted out an overly prolonged death scene captivating the attention of everyone on the bus. Even Tyler who had been on the computer. She arose after a few minutes of clapping and whistling.

"Thank you. Thank you. You are too kind." She bowed. "Well all but Justin who killed me. Now that my performance is over I must get my beauty rest. Ta-ta." She waved to her audience before climbing into her bunk to get ready for the next hotel.

"Uh-oh. I am in the middle of an on-line conversation. I’d better get back before she begins to worry." Tyler rushed out of the room.

JC raised his eyebrows. "My brother is having an on-line romance? I’d better see the name of the lady I’m going to be making fun of. Because, after all, I am his brother and if I can’t tease him about this who can?"

"Well, he seems to have some ammo on you too. He can’t stop talking about and you can’t stop talking to your "Spanish chick," as your brother calls her." Chris left to clean up his stuff since they were going to be switching busses soon after their arrival in Chicago.

"Whatever. I’m going to check on my little bro." JC walked to the back of the bus. "Who you talking to, TJ?"

Tyler sighed and clicked something on the computer screen. "No one. Just someone I’ve been e-mailing and we have just started to instant message each other."

"So is it serious?"

"Even though it’s been a shorter time then you and senorita I think it can be just as serious."

"Just as serious? Wow. My brother’s serious about someone and I am completely in the dark here."

"Well, I think this is the first time you didn’t deny anything about your on-line sweetie. Does this mean what I think it means?"

JC stuck his hands in his pockets and was quiet for a minute. "You want to know what? We haven’t had any time together or done anything together. We need to have the normal brother talks we usually have. Why don’t we go out tonight? Just the two of us. It seems as though we need to talk about a few things and right here isn’t the place."

"Sounds good to me. Plus your birthday is coming up and I had no clue what to do so tonight we’ll do something fun. But I don’t know about being normal. You’ve never been normal. Especially since you’ve become the future husband of so many females. Do you know how many times girls have come up to me and tell me I’m going to be their brother-in-law? Too many. So I think ‘normal’ is out."

"Get out of here." JC playfully swung at his brother before shaking his head and packing up his computer.

Tyler ducked his brother’s arm and made his way up front. He grabbed a soda from the refrigerator and froze when something poked him in the back.

"Freeze. Now give me that soda and no one gets hurt."

Tyler reached behind him and handed over the soda. "You know there was an easier way for asking for a soda."

Gina slapped the back of Tyler’s head and laughed. "I know but none of them were as fun. What are you doing?"

"Well, I was getting myself a soda but I seemed to have been interrupted. Other than that nothing. You?"

"Well, I just tried to get a hold of my friend Kristen because she’s interning in Chicago and we’re supposed to get together but I can’t find her. Then I tried my friend Lisa who lives in Cleveland but she’s not home either."

"Cleveland? Aren’t we going there soon?"

Gina shook her head. "Yeah. That’s why I called her. I want to see her but now it seems like she’s gone away for the weekend or something. Guess I’ll just have to wait until she comes back."

"That sounds like the only thing you can do. I was just talking to someone on the computer and they’re going away and don’t know if they will have internet use while they’re away. There will be computers but she doesn’t know if she can use them."

"She, huh? Any sparks flying through the computer?"

"About as much as with you and your on-line mate."

"What are you talking about?"

"Come on. Don’t deny it. You have feelings for the guy you run to talk to almost every night. I can tell."

Gina shifted in her seat. "Well, I-" She was cut off by her cell phone.

"Hello? Kristen? I’ve been calling you all day, babe. Where were you?"

"There’s a little thing called work. Although I doubt someone like you knows the meaning of the word."

"Hey, I resent that. I do work."

"Barely."

Gina looked up. "Shut up, JC. I wasn’t talking to you."

"Well I was talking to whomever you’re talking to."

"I don’t remember inviting you into this conversation so butt out. And before you open your mouth Kristen didn’t either."

"Kristen, huh? She cute?"

"She’s out of your league, JC. If you try to get near her I’ll kill you myself. Not that I wouldn't love to do that anyway."

"I have better things to do than stand here and listen to the pile that’s starting to form by you." JC turned and returned to last minute packing.

Gina sighed and returned her attention to the phone. "Sorry about that, Kris. JC just decided to walk into this conversation."

"It’s okay. What do you mean I’m out of his league? Is he too good for me?"

"No. What I meant was that you are too good for him. He will never get to your level. Anyway, what’s happening?"

"Well, I know you will be arriving in Chicago tonight and I wanted to know if we can do something tomorrow."

"Why not tonight?"

"Well, I already have plans tonight with a friend."

"A friend?"

Kristen laughed. "Yes, a friend. You’ll see them tomorrow."

"So someone else is going to be joining us tomorrow? Then it won’t be like old times."

"Don’t worry it’ll be like old times. It will be like me, you and Lisa. We’ll have a blast.’

"If you say so. Well, I’d love to stay and chat but we need to finish cleaning out the bus. We’re getting a new one and everything needs to be cleared out."

"All right. I’ll talk to you later to get our plans together."

"Okay. Talk to you later, Kristen."

"Bye, Gina."

"Bye." Gina hung up her phone and went to help make the final round in the bus.

~~~~~~ ~~~~~~ ~~~~~~

"There’s Gina’s room, JC and Tyler’s room, Justin and Chris’ room and Joey and Steve’s. Any questions?"

Six heads shook.

"Good. Now relax for awhile. You have the night off but you have to be up early tomorrow."

Chris raised his hand. "Now I have a question."

Donny sighed. "Yes, Chris?"

"Do we ever not have an early morning?"

"How about I reiterate that. Anyone have any worthwhile questions? If not get yourselves situated."

Everyone opened their doors but ran back into the hall when they heard a bang and a yell from Joey’s room.

"Steve! I thought you were coming later." Joey walked over and hugged his brother.

"Well there was an earlier flight and I was given early parole so I thought I’d be here when you got in."

Joey placed his bag on a bed. "I’m glad you are. I need someone else to help bother Gina with our Italian genes."

"Gina? The new girl? What does she have against Italians?"

"Well, she-"

"Well, as you can see I am Italian," Gina interrupted, "so I grew up around your kind. My family is full of them."

"So you know how they act and don’t like when my brother here acts like a complete Italian? And Joey needs help bothering you by acting Italian?" Steve asked trying to get the facts straight.

"In a word. Yes."

Steve smiled. "I like the sound of that. It’s almost hard to believe my little bro came up with that idea. Count me in." Steve and Joey shared a secret handshake.

"I should be offended by that remark but I’m going to let it slide. I knew I could count on you."

"Anytime, bro. You know I’m here for you."

"Okay, I need to make a phone call. See you guys, and I use that term loosely, later." Gina rolled her eyes and pushed through the four guys at the doorway waiting to greet their friend.

After she left the room Steve shook his head. "What a pistol. I’m sure I missed some exciting times on this tour so far. Hey, guys long time no see."

One by one the guys greeted the newcomer and sat down to talk. Steve opened a drawer and began.

"Hey, JC, I haven’t seen too much of Heidi. What’s she up to?"

"I wouldn’t know," JC said bitterly.

"Did I just tread on some rough territory? I’m sorry if I did, man."

"It’s okay. We broke up in New York. She surprised me at a party we went to and it was all downhill from there. She tried to dump me but I was quicker on my feet, always have been, and beat her to it. Plus, I was the only one with a real reason to end the relationship." JC stood up and prepared to leave.

"And what was that?"

"She never trusted me around Gina. Thought we’d hook up or something. Never let the subject drop. Insisted she trusted me but not Gina but it was all the same you know? What a laugh. Me and Gina. If anyone saw how we acted around each other they wouldn’t believe a word she said," JC gave a mechanical laugh and left the room.

Justin stood up and closed the door. "Yes they would."

Steve looked up surprised. "What does that mean, young one?"

"That means they are head over heals for each other. Once you see them together, especially if they fight, you’ll know. Just wait."

"How long until I’ll have to wait for them to fight?"

Justin looked at his watch. "Not to much longer. Wait I think the time has come."

The five guys got up and went into the hallway. They got there in time to see Gina throw a book at JC and slam her door shut. JC ran up to her door and threw it open.

"What in the world was that for? I didn’t do anything to deserve that!"

Gina turned around slowly. "Just being on this planet is all you had to do. It doesn’t hurt that you are completely insufferable and self-centered. I think too many lovelorn fans have gotten to you. Or maybe it’s the fact that you’ve been dealing with this so long. Since the MMC and all."

JC closed most of the gap between them. "I am not self-centered. If anyone here is it’s you. Of course I’m different since I’ve become famous but I haven’t changed that much. Ask anyone who’s known me all this time."

Gina took a step closer to her opponent. "Well, I could ask Tyler but he’s your brother and that might be a little biased. Love ya, TJ, but it would."

"No hard feelings here, Gina."

"Good." She turned back to JC. "Now what is this fascination with my friends? All of them are too good for you. You don’t even compare to the gum that gets stuck to the bottom of their shoes."

JC took a deep breath and leaned closer. "I’m too good for them? No, no,no. You’ve got that all wrong, my dear Gigi. They’re too good for you and so am I. So if…"

"In most stories this is where they kiss but I don’t think that’s the way this story goes. What happens next?" Steve whispered to Lance.

"They separate and go to their corners."

As Lance was speaking JC stalked out of the room and slammed his door followed by a slamming of Gina’s door.

Steve looked at the two doors. "Ahh, I see."

~~~~~~ ~~~~~~ ~~~~~~

"I can’t believe you’re going to be 23 in two days."

JC walked along side his brother. "I know but 23 isn’t a big number but 18 is. You’re going to be an adult. It seems like yesterday you were yelling at me to give back your favorite stuffed animal. Wait a sec. That was yesterday."

Tyler playfully slugged JC in the arm. "Har har, big brother. If you ask any of your fans what you sleep with I bet they’d say stuffed animals. Wonder where they got that from?"

"Well sometimes I do sleep with animals fans give us."

"When you have nothing else to substitute for it."

"Am I supposed to tell the fans that? No so it stays that I sleep with stuffed animals on tour. Which I do, let me remind you."

"Not if you had your way with Gina though."

JC stopped walking. "Please don’t tell me you’re another JC and Gina supporter. We do not now or will never like each other in that way. Or actually we will never like each other period. Got that? Now where do you want to eat?"

Tyler looked down the street. "How about the Hard Rock? But no stealing the menu, Joshua. I’m going to be keeping an eye on you."

JC slumped his shoulders and whined, "But, dad, I don’t have a menu from this one."

Tyler laughed as he followed his brother into the restaurant. They knew the only way to get a good, fast seat was to have JC talk.

"It’s still hard to believe we get such a good table because of you. Where’s the humanity?"

JC looked at his brother over the top of the menu. "You complaining?"

"Nope. Not at all."

"Didn’t think so." JC was about to look back at the menu when he saw three people sit down at a table near theirs. "Uh-oh."

Tyler looked up from his menu. "What?"

"It seems like Joey and Steve have decided to follow us and show off by getting some female to dine with them."

"You’re kidding?" Tyler looked at Joey and Steve, who were happy to show them their victory, when he got an idea. "Wait for a minute before you order, Josh. I have an idea."

"I don’t know if I like the sound of that. What are you thinking?"

Tyler eyed the entrance and smiled. "I think we can out do them." Without further information Tyler left the table.

JC shook his head and took one last look at the menu.

"Are you ready to order, sir?"

"No thanks. I am waiting for my brother to get back. Just give us a few minutes please."

JC watched the waiter walk over to Steve and Joey’s table when Tyler came up with two girls.

"Well, JC, these two nice girls have decided to help us in beating the Fatone’s at their own game. Josh, I’d like you to meet Lisa and Kristen."

JC stood up and shook their hands. "Nice to meet you two. From the looks we are getting from their table I think your plan has succeeded. Then again Lisa and Kristen look as if they can handle their position while that girl looks like she’s about to go into a screaming fit."

"What position? Being here, with a member of *N SYNC and his brother, as part of some silly boy game? Then I guess yes we’re handling it well."

Tyler held out a chair for a Lisa while JC did the same for Kristen.

"TJ, I have to tell you you’ve got good eyes."

"I told you this was going to be a fun evening."

~~~~~~ ~~~~~~ ~~~~~~

"Hey, Gigi, what’s up?"

Gina looked up at Justin and laughed. "Nothing. What in the world are you doing?"

"I’m dancing. Care to join me?" Justin circled again as if dancing to a Latin beat and held out his hand to Gina.

Gina took his hand and within a few minutes they were lost in their own little world with Justin providing the music.

"One, two, cha cha cha. One, two, cha cha cha…"

Gina collapsed on her bed and sighed. "I can’t believe I only have a few more weeks with you guys. I don’t know what I’m going to do without you to talk to, Lance to make fun of you guys with, Chris to laugh at and Joey to flirt and argue with."

Justin sat down and nudged Gina to move over. "What about JC?"

Gina thought for a minute. "Sure I got used to the sight of JC but with JC as a person I can deal without the constant fighting. It was just like I thought it would be from the first moment I laid eyes on a picture of JC. He and I not getting along, as in hating each other."

"You two don’t hate each other."

"Yes, we do."

Justin stood up and looked down at Gina who had sat up. "No you don’t. Love and hate are both strong emotions and sometimes people tend to mix them up. I’ll let you think on that for awhile, my little Gigi." Justin walked towards her door and turned around. "Oh, in case you didn’t know JC’s birthday is in two days. We’re doing something special after the concert so you might want to give him something and I have a suggestion. Your heart."

Gina stared at her closed door before moving. "I’ll give him something all right."

~~~~~~ ~~~~~~ ~~~~~~

JC placed a hand on his brother’s shoulder. "I’m so glad we went out tonight. This was so fun. And thank you girls for coming out with us. I, personally, had a blast."

"So did we, JC. We weren’t sure what we were doing tonight and I’m glad we decided to just go with the flow."

Kristen nodded in agreement. "Oh my gosh, this was the best time I’ve had in Chicago."

"I’m glad you ladies liked it. Are you sure you don’t want front row seats for our concerts? It’s for coming over to help us top Steve and Joey."

Lisa shook her head. "No, thanks. We already have plans and I don’t think we can change them."

"Can we at least have your numbers?" Tyler spoke up. "It would be a shame that we couldn’t do this again when we come to town."

"Well, I have no clue what my number at school will be. If I did I’d give it to you."

"I’d give you mine also but I don’t know what it will be yet. Sorry about that."

JC sighed. "That’s all right. If you don’t know you don’t know. Well, it was a really great night and I hope we get to see you again."

"Don’t worry. We do too so no good byes. Just see you later. Later, JC. Tyler."

"See ya, Kristen. It was nice meeting you, Lisa," Tyler said as he hugged Lisa.

"You too, Tyler. Bye, JC. See you guys later."

The girls walked off and JC and Tyler walked the block to their hotel.

"So, Tyler, you think those girls knew their numbers for next year?"

Tyler nodded sadly. "Yeah, I do, Josh. We had such a nice time but they wouldn’t give us their numbers. I wonder why."

JC reached for the hotel door. "I don’t know. Women are fickle creatures. Damn, I forgot that we should come in the back door."

"I’ll see you upstairs, Josh. Don’t worry it looks like reinforcements are coming." Tyler pointed to the approaching bodyguards and escaped before the crowd enveloped them.

~~~~~~ ~~~~~~ ~~~~~~

"Gina, calm down. You look like a little kid about to open their birthday presents."

"Then that would make you like my dad trying to calm me down and telling me to wait. Well, daddy, can I wait by the elevator? Please? I promise to be good."

"Well, all right. You can only do it if you give daddy a kiss."

"If I have to." Gina leaned down to give Justin a kiss on the cheek but he shook his head and pointed to his lips but Gina raised her eyebrows. "Don’t push it, buster. It’s cheek or nothing."

"Well all right. If you insist." Justin turned his head and let Gina kiss his cheek.

"Thanks, dad."

Justin laughed at the retreating Gina and looked up to see two pair of brothers beating each other up.

Tyler sat beside Justin. "So, Steve, I see you two ate dinner with a female last night. Did you enjoy yourselves?"

"Did these two," Lance pointed at Steve and Joey, "go to the same restaurant as you two and sit near you with a girl they invited?"

Tyler nodded, but with a smile. "Yup, but I think this time we beat them at their own game."

"How you got two girls to sit with you was beyond me. You even left with them." Joey shook his head in disgust.

JC nodded. "That we did. It was a really fun night but they didn’t want the tickets we offered or wouldn’t give us their phone numbers."

Joey placed his hand on the back of JC’s chair. "Ha! Beat you there. We got that girl’s phone number."

"But do you have any intention of using it?"

Steve shook his head. "No, Tyler, we don’t."

"See these girls we would have actually called had they given us their numbers."

"What did they say instead of giving you their numbers?"

JC looked at Justin. "They told us that they don’t know what their numbers at school but we think that was just lines."

Joey placed a hand on the back of their chairs. "Sorry about that boys. Maybe next time." He looked at Steve and they shared a laughed.

Justin shook his head. "You all are too much. I wonder how Gina’s holding up. I’m going to go check on her." Justin go tup and walked towards the door. "Hey, Gina, how are you doing?"

Gina turned away from the elevator. "All right, except for the fact that she’s almost ten minutes late. She’s never late. Only when she’s with Lisa, or me. I wonder where she is?"

Justin shrugged as he looked past her to the people walking out of the elevator. "You might want to try behind you."

Gina whipped around and her jaw dropped.

"Come on, Gina. We have a little surprise for your Mr. Chazeses."

Justin turned around and walked back into the room.

"Taking this solely from that gasp we heard I take it Gina’s friends are here."

"Yup. Hey, Joey, Steve, what was the name of the girl you ate with?"

"Melissa, why?"

Justin shrugged. "Just wondering who we can add to the list. I’ll mark down another Melissa."

Steve looked around the room. "Come on, guys, you make it sound like this is a hobby of ours. So what if we like to ask a female to eat with us on our free nights. That is no crime."

"We never said it was, Steve, nor do we see anything wrong. We all like to talk to some girl after we’ve been on the road awhile."

"Okay, now, JC and TJ, what were the names of your girls?"

JC put down his glass of water. "Kristen and-"

"Lisa?"

The occupants of the room all turned towards the door and the jaws turned slack of two of them. Joey and Steve thought they looked familiar but did not know from where until Lisa walked up to Tyler and slung her arm around his shoulder.

"So we meet again, TJ. I told you we didn’t need those tickets."

~~~~~~ ~~~~~~ ~~~~~~

"So you guys met JC and Tyler last night?"

Kristen sat on Gina’s bed. "Yup. Steve and Joey had some girl sit with them and Tyler approached us to sit with him and JC."

"And you two said yes? That surprises me."

Lisa reached into her backpack. "Well had it not been Tyler and JC we would have refused but seeing as you work with them and we were going to meet them today we decided why not."

"Not that I don’t love that you’re here, Lisa, but what are you doing here?"

Lisa pulled out her brush and stood up. "Well, I was on the computer with Justin and he had an idea. You guys were getting a bigger bus and he thought you might like to have some female company around for a bit so he suggested that I join you until the tour stops at Cleveland."

Gina hugged Lisa. "Remind me to thank him later."

"Or you could do it now."

Gina turned around and shook her head. "You should know better than to open a bedroom door when three females are in there. Women talk behind closed doors and if a man walks in it could result in his death. Right girls?"

Kristen and Lisa came beside Gina. "Right."

Justin put up his hands defensively. "Don’t kill me. I’m just a lowly male. I bow to your mercy. Please forgive me." He bowed in front of each of them. When he got to Kristen he kissed her hand. "Am I forgiven?"

"If you’re lucky. I’ll have to think about it. Let us talk and we’ll let you know."

"Yes, ma’am, but I plead with you not to kill me. I am much to young to die."

"We’ll take that into consideration. Now off with you," Kristen commanded as she waved to the door.

"I’ll see you guys later to let you know when we’re leaving. I’ll be sure to knock then."

Kristen nodded. "Good boy."

"Arf." Justin closed the door behind him.

Gina, Lisa and Kristen stood there for a moment before erupting into laughter.

Lisa gave Kristen a high five. "That was classic, Kris. Who would have thought you’d be talking to Justin Timberlake like that? Having him bowed at your feet to your mercy."

Before she fell Kristen sat down. "Certainly not me. I don’t know where it came from. I think hanging out with JC last night really helped. Hey, Gina, did you know tomorrow is JC’s b-day," she called into the bathroom.

"Yeah, the guys are having a little get together for him tomorrow after the show. You’re both invited."

"Damn, I don’t have a present for him."

Gina handed Kristen her lip balm. "Don’t worry, Lisa, we’ll go shopping during sound check. I’m sure they’ll be something near the venue."

"What are you getting him, Gina? You are going to get him something. Thanks." Kristen handed Gina back the tube.