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

"Hey, guys. What do you think of Gina?"

All the guys but JC were in the recording studio. JC had recorded his part of this song earlier and the rest were recording the background tracks.

"Personally I like her. I don’t think Heidi does but she’s not going on tour with us."

"I agree with Chris. She seems like she’ll fit in well with us. I mean that she’ll stand up for herself and won’t just go along with what we say because we’re males and outnumber her."

"I just think this will be an interesting tour." Justin sat down at the table with a bottle of water he just got from the kitchen. "We all like her but what about JC? Those two will be going at it constantly."

Joey sat back in his chair and tapped his fingers on the table. "Think of it this way, Justin. If he’s fighting with her then he’ll be fighting with us less. She’ll take up all his energy and he hers."

"Then the only people we have to worry about fighting with is each other?"

"Exactly."

Lance walked up behind Joey. "Interesting take on things, Joey. But guys this goes back to way before today." Seeing the three puzzled faces he explained what JC had told him. "See JC had been getting these feelings about Gina the whole month before she came."

"Like the feelings you were getting?"

He shook his head. "Not exactly, Joe. He was feeling as if she was going to come in and wreck some havoc to this whole tour while I was, and still am, getting the feeling like Gina and one of us will fall in love."

"Really?" Chris arched his eyebrows. "It had better not be me. I think she’s nice and all but I would rather someone a little closer to my age."

"Uh-oh, Chris, you’d better not let our fans hear that. You’ll break their hearts."

Chris pushed Justin. "Shut up, you little wannabe."

Lance stepped in before the insults could escalate into words not recommended for children. "Guys, hold it. No, Chris, it’s not you and I definitely know it’s not me."

"Then who?"

"Guys, I have a feeling JC’s feelings aren’t as broad as he sees them."

While two pair of eyes were searching for understanding one knew what his green eyed friend was talking about.

"So you’re saying that she won’t wreck havoc on the whole tour but just him. She and JC are going to get together."

Lance nodded. "I believe so. My instincts still haven’t totally counted you, Joey, or you, Justin, out but everything’s saying and pointing to JC."

"If that’s true then this should really be an interesting tour."

"I already said that."

"Since you’re Mr. Know-it-all why don’t you go find JC. I’m sure you’ll find him no problem."

Justin stood up. "Finding him is no problem. Getting him off the computer might be."

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

JC read the last line senorita78 had written and was deciding if he should use Gina’s real name or not. Why not? It’s not like they know each other.

JC had started to type an answer to senorita78 when he heard the door open and someone speak behind him. "Damn, he’s on the computer."

Without turning around JC talked to the voice. "What do you want, Justin?"

"We need you in the studio."

"I’ll be there in a minute."

Justin walked behind JC and deleted what JC had written to who he was talking to.

"Hey, I was going to send that!"

"Well now you’re going to send them a good-bye."

"Can’t I have a little privacy?"

"You have one minute to say good-bye to," Justin squinted and read the name in the instant messenger box, "senorita78."

JC sighed as he felt Justin turn around and stand directly behind him. He started to type a departing message to his friend.

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

sleepygoof: i hate to do this to you but i have to go. i have someone standing behind me making sure i get right off.

senorita78: i can feel the love in the air. i have to go too. i’m at someone else’s house and there is a little boy here that is just demanding my attention.

sleepygoof: lol. one of my friend’s bro is like that. listen my friend behind me is getting restless and he’s bigger than me so i better go.

senorita78: all right. talk to you soon.

sleepygoof: soon.

sleepygoof: adios, senorita

senorita78: ciao.

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

Gina felt a hand tap her thigh and looked down to see who the culprit was. When she saw Jon’s toothless smile she could not help but grin.

"Gina, will you play with me?"

Always a sucker for little kids Gina nodded. "Sure, what do you want to play?"

Jon started to walk out of her room waving his arm for her to follow. "Let’s play trucks."

Gina followed Jon into his room and watched as he began to pull trucks out of his toy bin. She waited patiently as he examined each truck and decided which ones they would use. After he decided he handed her one and they began to make up their own little town to drive through. They were so busy that they did not realize how late it was getting and that the guys were done for the day.

"Well, well, what do we have here?"

Jon and Gina looked up to see who had interrupted their playing.

"Justin!" Jon ran to his brother and hugged him

Gina stood up and wiped her hands on her shorts. "Hey, blondie. Welcome to the town of Jonsville." She waved her hand showing him the little town they had created.

Justin nodded his head as if impressed at what they had accomplished. "Let me think. Did Jon come up with that name?"

Jon nodded his head excitedly. "Yup."

"Thought so. Now to the real reason why I came up. Dinner should be ready in about fifteen minutes."

"Thanks, Justin. I guess I’ll go get cleaned up." Gina bent down and ruffled Jon’s hair. "See you guys downstairs." She walked down the hall and entered the room she thought was hers.

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

"I need to get something from my room. Call me when dinner’s ready."

"All right, JC. Justin, can you tell Jon and Gina to get ready?"

At the mention of Gina’s name JC shuddered. How am I going to make it through this tour if I wince every time I hear her name? This is going to be one interesting tour. JC walked into his room and sat on his bed. He pulled out a box and leaned against the head of the bed. He was thinking how he was planing on surprising Heidi with the gift when he heard his door open. He looked up and frowned.

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

Gina opened the door and her jaw dropped in surprise. Her first reaction was to be defensive and that’s what she acted on.

"What are you doing in my room, JC?"

JC snapped the box in his hands closed and abruptly stood up. "Actually you’re the one in my room."

"Your room? You live here also?"

JC nodded, keeping his lips in a straight line as if to intimidate her. "I’ve been living here since we’re on tour so much that it’s not worth it to pay rent if I’m hardly home. So, as you can see, you are in my room and I’d appreciate it if you’d leave."

"Whatever. I guess I miscounted the doors from Jon’s room. Since I am apparently not in the right room, and not wanted here, I’m going to go. See you downstairs, JC." Gina turned on her heal, but not before she blew JC a kiss.

JC groaned and slammed the door. He was about to throw what was in his hand but he realized what it was and stopped his arm mid-throw. He looked at the box in his hand and smiled. This should prove to Heidi how much I really do care about her.

Never once did it occur to JC that he had said he cared for his girlfriend, not that he loved her.

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

SLAM

SLAM

Everybody downstairs looked at each other.

"I guess Gina and JC found each other," Lance concluded from the door slams.

Chris nodded his head. "Yup. That’s affirmative."

Lynn shook her head. "These next few days are going to be amusing." She handed a jar to Justin to open and he opened it easily. "Thanks."

"No problem, mom. Yeah they will be. I wonder how the tour’s going to be with those two fighting and all."

"I sure wouldn’t want to get in the way of those two." Lynn turned to Joey and Lance. "Can someone get JC and Gina?"

"You do it," they both said quickly.

Joey laughed. "Ha ha. I beat ya to it. I beat ya to it."

Lance turned and headed for the stairs. He mumbled as he walked. "Half a second earlier and I would have won…."

Lance knocked on JC’s door and told his friend dinner was ready. He then went to the next one and knocked on it.

"Come in."

Lance opened the door and poked his head into the room. "Gina? Dinner’s ready."

"Thanks, Lance. I’ll be there in a moment."

Noticing Gina’s distracted tone Lance looked around until he saw her sitting on the floor holding a piece of paper. "What do you have there?"

"An address and telephone number of a guy from school."

"Boyfriend?" Lance asked hopefully. If she has a boyfriend then maybe my premonitions about her and JC are wrong.

"Nope, not even close."

Damn.

"He’s just someone I had a few classes with and went out with once or twice. I see no future for our relationship but he doesn’t seem to realize that. Oh well. He’s in Jersey and I’m here so I don’t have to worry about him right now." She dropped the piece of paper onto a pile, stood up and sniffed. "Yummy, that smells good."

"The food here is always good. Even when Justin is the chef."

Gina laughed. "Does that mean he used to be a horrible cook?"

Lance shook his head. "You don’t want to know."

Gina laughed again as they descended down the stairs. JC glanced at the stairs at the sound of female laughter and scowled. He could not understand how the others could like this person.

During dinner Gina and JC ignored each other. If they needed something that was by the other person they would ask someone else near them. They avoided eye contact at all costs.

"So, Gina, how did you hear about the internship with us?"

Gina pulled her thoughts away from avoiding JC and turned to Justin. "Well, my advisor got a notice about it and asked me if I was interested and I was so I applied and here I am."

"What made you interested in going on tour with five guys? Was it because we’re *N SYNC?"

JC’s head popped up to hear her answer. She’s probably another celebrity hungry fan wanting to get close to us.

Gina shook her head. "Nope. Actually I never really listened to your music. The only things I knew about you I heard from my roommate."

"So she’s a big fan of ours then?"

"You have no idea. She’s especially a fan of JC. My friend Kristen too. I don’t see it though."

"Well maybe some people actually have taste."

"JC, you don’t know me well enough to know my tastes or not but, speaking of tastes, your girlfriend is a prime example of you lack of one."

JC turned in his chair to face Gina. "Don’t be bringing Heidi into this."

"Aww, little JC is protecting his girlfriend again. How sweet." Her voice dripped with sarcasm.

"At least I have someone. I bet no one can stand you long enough to stick around."

"No, JC, I don’t have someone. I have many people vying for that position in my life but none of them are worth it."

"Why the princess doesn’t think anyone is good enough for her."

"JC," Lynn warned the man who had become almost another son to her.

"JC, you have to take only the best on matters of the heart. It won’t take anything less. Maybe yours can but mine can’t."

"Again we are going back to Heidi. Why are you so jealous of her?"

Gina’s eyes widened and she stood up. "Jealous? I am not jealous of that little-"

"JC. Gina. Enough. I will not tolerate that kind of bickering in my house and especially not at my dinner table."

Both Gina and JC blushed guiltily.

"I’m sorry, Lynn. Sometimes my temper gets the best of me. Since I am a guest at your house I should make a better effort to watch myself. I really am sorry."

"That’s okay, Gina, just make sure it doesn’t happen again. As for JC he knows better." She turned and looked into his blue eyes.

JC hung his head. "Yes, I do know better. I don’t know what came over me. I’m sorry, Lynn."

"As long as you make sure it doesn’t happen again." JC and Gina nodded. "Now that that’s over with you two have k.p."

"Yes." Justin leaned over to speak to his brother. "Did you hear that, Jon. We don’t have to do dishes tonight."

Jon stared at his brother. "We don’t."

"Nope." Justin shook his head.

"Yeah." Jon got up from his chair and started to chant. " I don’t have to do dishes. I don’t have to do dishes. I don’t have to do dishes."

Everybody laughed as they left the dinning room.

"Have fun you two," Chris teased as JC and Gina began clearing the table.

"Yeah right," JC muttered under his breath.

"What was that?"

JC placed the plates in a pile. "Nothing. I was just saying how much I’m going to enjoy working with you."

Gina dropped a handful of silverware on the table. "Listen, JC. I’m not too happy about this either. Since we have to work together why don’t we just interact as little as humanly possible."

JC listened to her plea and nodded. "All right. That sounds good. And I think it’s best if we try to avoid each other while we are still here so we don’t have a repeat performance of tonight."

"That’s good for me. So we’ll call a truce for the next few days?"

"Yup. Let’s shake on it." JC extended his hand.

Gina took his hand and shook it.

Both felt that the objects they were holding were colder against their hands but did not give a second thought to why.

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

"You two might be wondering why I called you in here."

Gina looked at JC then at Bobby. "I think I know why."

JC nodded. "Me too."

Bobby sat back in his chair with an amused expression on his face. "You do? Please enlighten me."

JC sighed and looked at Gina before speaking. "I’m assuming it’s because we haven’t been to pleasant towards one another."

"Do you feel the same, Gina?"

She nodded her agreement.

"That is a concern of mine but it’s none of my business. I’m not going on tour with you and both of you are adults so it’s up to you how you act towards each other."

"Then why did you call us in here, Bobby?"

Bobby sighed. "Well it concerns Gina’s job."

"I’m not going to get fired or anything."

"No, but we have hit a snag and we need you two to cooperate for this to work."

"Am I doing a page on him now?" Gina pointed to JC.

"No. We need to set up an AOL account for you and it hasn’t happened yet."

JC sat up in his chair. "And this involves me because…?"

"JC, we need to set up a screen name for her on your account in the meantime."

"Mine? Why mine? I also have Tyler on my account."

Bobby sighed. "Because you’re the only one that pays for his own account and also we want AOL. We will pay your monthly bill until we can set up an account for her."

JC raised his eyebrows. "You’ll pay for my account until you set one up for her? How long will this be for?"

"Oh, about a week or so until we get the software and have time to set one up for her. It shouldn’t be that long."

"Let me ask you this, Bobby. Do I really have a choice?"

Bobby shook his head. "No. Not really."

"Then why are we sitting here?"

Bobby clapped his hands. "All right. You two go into the other office and set up the screen name. Come and get me when you’re done and we’ll get the bill and everything straightened out."

Both nodded.

"Will do. Come on, JC. Let’s get this over with." Gina walked out of the room and waited for JC.

JC followed her out of Bobby’s office and faced her. "I’m doing you a favor here so why don’t you show me some graditude."

"You’re doing me a favor? As Bobby said before you really have no choice. Now where’s the office we’re supposed to go to?"

"Down here." JC led her down the hall to a small office that barely held the desk and computer that it was furnished with.

Gina looked around. "This office small enough?"

JC laughed. "I know." He scanned the office. "I guess there is only one chair here," he stated as he sat in the lone chair.

"Where am I supposed to sit?"

JC looked at the floor. "There’s always the floor. That seems like a nice place for someone of your caliber."

"Always a gentleman, I see," Gina muttered as she settled herself on a corner of the desk.

"I’ll pretend I didn’t hear that." JC reached around the computer and turned it on.

"Didn’t hear what?" Gina asked as she watched him wait for the computer to warm up and log on to AOL.

"Nothing." He logged into his account and clicked to set up another screen name on his account. "What should your screen name be?"

"I don’t know. Let me think."

"Gina, can you come here for a moment?"

Gina slid off the desk and walked towards the door. "Sure, Bobby be right there."

JC watched her leave and smiled.

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

Justin picked up the phone. "Hello? Harless, Timberlake, Chasez and temporarily Gacona residence."

"Whose last name is Gacona?"

Justin’s smile faded. "It’s Gina’s."

"Gina is staying with you?"

"Yes, Heidi, she is. Why does that bother you? She’s going to be on tour with us so it only makes sense that she’s staying here these few days before the tour."

"It doesn’t really bother me. It’s just that JC told me she was staying in a hotel."

"At first she was but it didn’t make sense. Especially when her time here was cut so short."

"Anyway. Is JC there?"

"No, he’s not."

"Then where is he?"

"He’s at the studio. Bobby called him and Gina down there a while ago."

"What would Bobby want with those two? Did they go together?"

Justin had to prevent himself from laughing. Getting those two in the same room without fighting is impossible. I wouldn’t want to see the two of them alone in a car.

"No, Heidi, they didn’t."

"Do you know when they’ll be back?"

"I have no clue. I don’t have a camera on them 24/7."

Heidi did not notice Justin’s lack of patience. Her mind was reeling on what her boyfriend was doing with the new intern. He’d better be behaving himself. Well, there’s one way to find out. Heidi picked up her keys.

"Thanks, Justin."

Justin started to reply but found himself talking to a dial tone. I wish JC would dump Heidi. He deserves someone better. A wicked smile crossed his face. He deserves someone like Gina.

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

"Okay, JC, I’m back and I thought of a screen name."

JC smiled up at her. "To late. I couldn’t wait and gave you one myself."

A weird feeling started to run through Gina. "What name did you give me?"

"Oh, nothing that bad. Come see for yourself." JC pointed at the screen and Gina leaned over to get a better look.

"’Gigisucks’? How did you know that was one of my nicknames?" Gina stared wide-eyed at JC.

JC smiled wider. "It is? I was just playing around and it came to me. It was between that and something that was totally inappropriate. Now I’m glad I picked this one. It has a more personal touch to it."

"Well then I’ll have to change it."

"You can’t."

Gina turned to JC. "What do you mean I can’t?"

"I already told Bobby this name and you have to keep it for the rest of your stay with us."

"You must be kidding."

JC shook his head and faced Gina. "Nope. Don’t you just love me now?"

"Oh yeah. I’m just crazy about you. I could just bow down and kiss your feet."

"Well, here they are." JC pointed to his feet.

"Haha, very funny. I could just die happy now knowing that I’m privileged enough to be allowed that close to you."

"Well you should." JC stared into her eyes and steadily held her hazel eyes with his blues.

"JC!"

JC pulled back from the hold of Gina’s eyes and focused his eyes on his girlfriend standing at the door. "Heidi, what are you doing here?"

Heidi walked into the office and wedged herself between JC and Gina. "I called your house earlier and Justin said you were here so I decided to surprise you, baby."

Gina rolled her eyes, made a gagging face and walked out of the office.

Heidi saw the look of annoyance on JC’s face. "Not happy I’m here?"

JC switched his view to Heidi and wrapped his arms around her waist. "I’m sorry, honey, it’s not you. I’ve just been dealing with Gina all day and it’s getting to me."

Heidi thought of the expressions on JC and Gina’s faces when she entered the office and shuddered. If I didn’t know better I’d think they were in love or something. But that will never happen while I’m around. I’m going to make sure of it.

"So what have you been doing today?"

"Well, I did a bunch of things for my parents earlier and then I went on a wild goose chase looking for you."

"You don’t have to look any further, my love. I’m right here."

Heidi held JC closer. "No, I don’t. You’re right here. With me. Where you belong."

Throughout the conversation JC felt as if something in his stomach was sinking. He tried to ignore it but no matter how hard he tried he could not get the feeling to go away.

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

"Hey, Justin," Gina called as she pulled into the driveway.

Justin sank the basket he was shooting and turned to see Gina walking toward him. "Hey. What did Bobby want to see you and JC about?"

Gina sat on the grass beside to basketball hoop. "Oh, I’m going to be on JC’s Internet account until they get to set one up for me."

"JC must not be happy about that." Justin sat beside her.

"No, he isn’t. I did get called away and he got to make up my name for me."

"Uh-oh. What did he come up with?"

Gina sighed and leaned back on her hands. "Gigisucks."

"Gigisucks?"

She nodded. "Yup. One thing I don’t get is how he knew that was one of my nicknames."

"That’s one of your nicknames?"

"Yeah. It’s a name my brother gave to me when I was little. Basically he and a few of my cousins call me that."

"Do you mind if I call you Gigi?"

"Nah, I don’t mind, Justin. I have a feeling you and I are going to be close friends so I don’t mind you calling me that."

Justin put an arm around Gina’s shoulders. "Don’t worry. I’ll be here for you when JC gets out of hand. True I’ve known him for years but that can work towards your advantage. I can let you know what’s really going on in the little mind of his."

"Little is right."

"Oh, come on. He’s really not that bad. I promise you." Justin shook Gina.

"I’ll believe that when I see it.

Inside the house Lynn looked out at her son and Gina. "They would make such a cute couple."

"Who would?" JC walked up beside Lynn.

"Justin and Gina."

JC snorted. "Nobody would be good with that monster."

"Don’t you go talking about my son like that."

"I wasn’t talking about Justin. I was talking about Gina. That girl and anybody are a disaster waiting to happen. I wouldn’t wish her on anybody."

"I really don’t think she’s as bad as you think, JC." Lynn walked away then glanced back and sighed at JC’s look of disgust as he watched Justin and Gina talk in the yard.

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

"All aboard!"

"Thank you, conductor Chris." Gina picked up her bag and climbed aboard the bus. Once inside she dropped the bag on a couch and surveyed her surroundings.

"Like what you see, Gigi?"

"It’s, ummm…different. I was expecting something like this but didn’t realize how small the bus actually would be."

"Yeah, it’s small but it’s home. You’ll get used to it."

Gina sighed. "I guess I will." She picked up her bag and brought it to the bunk area. "Which one do I get?"

Justin scrunched his face in thought. "Let me see. This one and those two are free. Take your pick."

"Where’s yours?"

"Right there." Justin pointed to a high bunk.

"I’d love to be in that bunk across from you but I don’t think I can get up there."

"I can boost you up there."

Gina patted Justin’s cheek. "Thanks for the offer but no thanks. You’re not going to be around everytime I’m going to need to go into my bunk. Think about it. Do you really want me waking you up in the middle of the night after I’ve gone to the bathroom?"

"Come to think of it no I don’t."

"Didn’t think so. I’ll just take this one. I’ll be right below you. I’ll just put my bag down here for a moment while I get the rest of my stuff." She placed the bag on the bunk across from hers and exited the bus.

"Hey, Bobby, any last minute instructions before we take off?" Gina asked as a person brushed by her briskly. She turned to see who it was and her face darkened. "JC."

Bobby shook his head. "Not really but you and JC should try and get along better. You two are going to be living and breathing in close quarters for a few months and it’s not going to be very pleasurable at the rate you two are going."

"He starts it. Did you see what he just did to me? We haven’t spoken all day and he tries to knock me over. I did not do anything to deserve that."

"I’ve seen you start it. Don’t deny that you sometimes instigate it." Bobby looked at his watch. "Well, I’ve got to go. I’ll probably call you sometime later so we can get started on this site some more. I’ll give you time to get settled in before we get you working. I know living on a bus with five guys is going to be an adjustment. Bye, everybody. Have a good tour." Bobby waved to everyone and headed back to the office.

"Hey, Gina."

Gina turned around. "Hey, Joey."

Joey walked beside her as they neared the bus. "Ready for life on the road?"

"As ready as I can be."

They climbed on the bus and heard screaming from the bunks.

"Who put their suitcase on my bunk?"

Gina walked back to see JC pulling her bag out of a bunk. She grabbed her bag from his hands and placed it on her bed. "It’s mine. I put it there while I got the rest of my stuff and had one last talk with Bobby."

"Next time put it on your own bed. You can’t be leaving your stuff all over the place. This is small enough as it is. We don’t need your stuff laying all over the place taking up what little room we have."

Chris, Lance, Joey and Justin stepped back to watched this battle ensue.

"I’d hate to burst your bubble but I’m usually neat when I live with other people and if you find stuff around it won’t be mine unless I just put it down for a minute and am coming back to get it."

JC looked outside the bus. "I’d love to continue this stimulating conversation but outside is something that really stimulates me." With that JC pushed pass her and walked off the bus.

Gina watched him walk up to Heidi and envelope her in his arms and muttered, "I bet she stimulates him. And I'm not talking about his mind."

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

"JC, get off the Internet. I’m on the phone with Bobby and I need to get on."

"Can’t you wait a minute? Someone I need to talk to should be on any minute now and I don’t want to miss them."

"You’ve been saying that for twenty minutes now. I need to get on for work. That’s more important than you messing around. Get off the Internet now."

"Ooh, I’d better not make the princess mad at me. Give me two minutes to shut down and then it’s all yours." JC exited the web page he was on and shut down his computer. "It’s all yours, your royal highness."

"Thank you, your royal pain in the butt."

Instead of firing back another insult JC decided to lay down in his bunk.

I wonder where senorita is. I haven’t talked to her in a few days.

Gina hung up with Bobby and decided to turn on her instant messenger to see if sleepygoof was on and was sad to see he was not.