“Hey, thanks for meeting me on such short notice,” the short girl said as she dropped down in a chair and let out a long breath.

“It’s no problem, girl,” the older woman replied with a wave of her hand. “Anything to get away from the boys once in a while, right?”

“Right,” the short girl replied. “Speaking of, the boys have been driving me nuts lately.”

“Aww, what’d they do this time? Get into your underwear again?’ The older woman asked with a laugh, tossing a long braid over her shoulder.

The short girl smiled. “God no, if they did they’d have trouble dancing for a while.” She laughed bit. “No, they keep talking badly about the Backstreet Boys. I mean, I understand that they’re frustrated with always being compared to them but…God! You’d think they’d be over it by now but nooooo!”

“I know! My guys are the same way with *Nsync!” The older woman replied, throwing her arms into the air. “It’s always *Nsync this and *Nsync that.” She paused. “Actually, they’re referred to such names as *Nsuck, *Nstink, Copycats, Wannabes…. You see where I’m going.”

The short girl laughed. “They call the Backstreet Boys the Backdoor Boys. Well, Joey and Chris do anyway.”

“That’s horrible!” The older woman laughed and the short girl joined in. Their laughter finally subsided as the older woman stirred her tea. A thoughtful look was on her face. “I don’t know about you but I’m getting tired of this war.”

“You’re not the only one,” the short girl agreed, leaning back in her chair. “Even the fans are at war with each other. It’s like a sin to like both groups’ music. I like them both but I can’t tell them that ‘cause they’ll tear me limb from limb if I ever mention Those-who-shall-not-be-named.” She rolled her eyes to emphasize that she thought the feud was ridiculous.

“What if…we made them get along?” The older woman asked, gathering up the dark braids in a ponytail and then let them drop over her shoulder.

The short girl lifted her eyebrow. “How are we going to do that? Lock them in a closet and pray they all come out alive?”

The older woman laughed. “No, nothing that drastic, but what they were stuck on a tour bus together?”

The short girl squinted. “How would we get them on a tour bus together?”

“Simple, get them to go on tour together,” the older woman replied. The short girl gasped. Getting the two warring bands on tour? Together? That’s madness! That wasn’t even madness that was suicide! No one would come out of that tour alive; they’d all be dead within the first few minutes of having to be on tour together. And it wasn’t like they’d go quietly, or even go at all. They’d have to be forced.

“They’d probably barricade the door if we tried to get them out on the road,” the short girl pointed out.

“Not unless we go straight to the top and give Johnny the idea,” the older woman replied. “He’ll go for it because of the promotion. *Nsync will promote No Strings and Backstreet can finish promoting Millennium and start promoting the new CD they’re recording at the same time. And think of the turnout. The fans would go crazy!”

“Yeah, and then they’d rip each other limb from limb while waiting for their favorite bands to play,” the short girl pointed out.

“Think of our paychecks,” the older woman replied. A thoughtful look came to the short girl’s face. “Come on, you’d love to spend the entire summer with me,” the older woman added with an arrogant smile. “I’m not doing this by myself. Are you in or are you out?”

The short girl weighed the pros and cons in her head. The pros were that she got to hang out with *Nsync and the Backstreet Boys the whole summer, separately of course. She got to work on choreography with someone else for once in her life so the stress wasn’t always on her shoulders. The cons were, however, she’d be pulled into the middle of fights, would have to take sides, and would have to hear about the two groups whining about each other all summer. But she got a free trip around the world…

“Well?” The older woman asked.

“All right, I’m in,” the short girl replied with a sigh. “But if this all crashes and burns and I go down I’m taking you with me.”

“Choreographer Code,” the older woman said while flashing peace sign. “And don’t worry, by the end of this tour they’ll be the best of friends.”

“Or they’ll be dead.”

A hand reached out from underneath the tangled mess of covers and grabbed the ringing phone. The person fumbled with it for a second before bringing it up to their ear. “Hullo? What’s going on? Huh? Now? OK, I’ll get the others. Yeah yeah. Bye.”

The hand stuck the phone back on its cradle and retreated under the covers. A long muffled sigh was heard before the covers were pushed back and the lanky body was exposed to the cool air. “Geeze,” JC mumbled, rubbing his eyes with his palms as he sat back on his knees. “What in the world could Johnny want at this hour?”

But JC knew the answer. Johnny wanted to talk about a tour. Their newest CD No Strings Attached had just come out and shattered records. It sold over a million copies in its first day and over two million in the week alone. JC was floored by the fans response. Sure, their self-titled debut album went platinum ten times over alone but that was over a span of time. Having an album get platinum in one day was amazing. What made it even better was that they had broken the Backstreet Boys’ previous record. Their album, Millennium, had held the record selling in one week but *Nsync broke that record in one day.

Of course Justin bragged about it to anyone he could. It was no secret that Justin hated the Backstreet Boys. Justin and Chris were verbal about their hatred. Joey’s hatred came out in a form of jokes and put downs. Lance and JC were quiet about it but they had certain distaste for their “rivals” as well. The main reason JC didn’t like them, and almost the only reason, was simply because they kept getting compared. Because they both had the word boyband slapped to them they were all the same? JC didn’t see it that way and he strived to make sure their record was different so there couldn’t be any comparisons.

JC forced himself out of bed and let out a long yawn, scratching at his chest. Then he grabbed clothes and went into the bathroom, deciding to call the others after he was finished with his shower. He quickly stripped and stepped under the rush of the warm water. He wondered what they would be talking about. The costumes? The stage? The theatrics? JC loved the “behind-the-scenes” part of recording and touring and he couldn’t wait to get there and give his two cents. He always had a lot of ideas swimming in his mind and a few of them even turned into concepts for their music videos.

JC quickly washed up, changed into his clothes, gelled his hair to the perfect style, and then called the others up repeating the same message, “Hey, what’s up? Johnny just called and said he wants to meet all of us at the WEG Playground in twenty minutes. Ok, see you there man.”

As JC grabbed his keys he couldn’t ignore the twisting sensation that was going on in his stomach, like the nerves he got right before they got onstage, but it was a little different. It was more like nerves in a way that he was nervous because he didn’t know what was going to happen.

He got into his Jeep and drove the short distance to the WEG Complex singing along to songs on the radio. That comforted him and reminded him of past road trips that he and his family used to take and it settled his nerves. Little did he know how much he would need his nerves to be settled.

JC laughed a bit at how in sync he and his friends really were because they all had arrived at the Complex at the same time. He wanted to pass it off as a coincidence but he knew better. They werne’t called *Nsync for nothing.

“What’s up?” Joey asked with his bright smile, holding out his arms, waiting for one of them to greet him first.

Lance was the first one, like always, slapping him five and giving him a brotherly hug. “Hey Joe, how’s Kelly doing?”

“My girl’s great. It’s good to finally spend some time with her. Have to get away from you broads every once in a while,” Joey replied with a laugh.

“Hey now, don’t be bitter because you’re not part of the good looking half of the group,” Chris joked, stroking the hair on his chin.

“Looks only go for so long, I can hear your clock ticking. Tick, tick, tick,” Justin joked. Chris swung out his arm to punch Justin on the arm but Justin jumped out of the way, laughing. “Ooh! Your height isn’t doing much to help your speed, Shorty!” He laughed while dancing away from Chris’s swinging fists.

“C’mon guys, let’s not leave Johnny waiting for us,” JC said as he led the group in, always acting like the father. Justin and Chris immediately switched conversations to the Orlando Magic game while Lance and Joey talked a bit more about their families. JC weaved through the halls of the familiar space before walking into the living room. He stopped in his tracks at what he saw and Justin walked right into him.

“Man! Why’d you stop? Are you trying to ruin the money-maker?” Justin joked, motioning to his face. When JC only lifted his eyebrows in response Justin turned to look at what JC was looking at and felt rage bubble in his stomach when six heads turned to look at them. “What’s going on Johnny?” he asked, ignoring the five other people in the room.

“Sit down boys,” Johnny said, waving his arms at the chairs that had been brought into the room.

Chris glared at the Backstreet Boys in disdain and sat in the furthest chair away from the group. Justin must’ve had the same idea because he sat next to Chris. The semi circle was formed as Chris, Justin, Joey, Lance, JC, Kevin, Howie, Brian, Nick, and AJ. Johnny was sitting in front of all of them, his hands clasped in his lap looking at all of them.

Chris slowly shook his head and kept adjusting the cap he was wearing. Was this some sort of trick or something? He wanted to know why the Backdoor Boys were there but he didn’t dare open his mouth. The look that Johnny was giving them let them all know that he would do most of the talking.

“Thanks for joining me,” he addressed all of them. “I’m going to cut to the chase. I was contacted with an idea, okayed it, and brought it to Jive who thought it was a good idea as well. In short, they want you to go on tour.”

“Johnny, did you happen to forget that we just put out a CD which smashed any and all previous music records?” Justin asked innocently although an evil gleam was in his eye. Nick shifted in his chair and glared at the curly haired boy. “Of course we’d go on tour. Why did you need to bring them to tell us that?”

Justin asked what was on everyone’s minds. Nick hated the smug look that was on Justin’s face and he clenched his fists. Of course Justin would bring in the fact that they broke the Backstreet Boys’ sales record. Nick expected it from the cocky bastard but it annoyed him to no end to hear it come out of the guy’s mouth.

“I was addressing all of you, Justin,” Johnny said calmly.

“But…we just finished our Millennium tour and we’re working on our next CD. We don’t have any material to tour on,” Kevin pointed out. Brian slapped his cousin’s arm and nodded in agreement. Kevin, always the rational thinker.

“You’ll tour for Millennium a little bit more and then tour for your new CD once more details about it are dropped,” Johnny explained.

“So what you’re telling me is that your putting *Nsync and…those guys on tour in the summer at the same time? What is this, some sort of competition?” Chris demanded.

“Why? Afraid that we’d beat you in ticket sales?” AJ asked, lowering his sunglasses slightly.

“Of course not, Mr. Clean,” Chris shot back. “We’d wipe your asses all over the stage hands down.”

“Johnny, what exactly are you trying to tell us?” Lance asked, stopping their argument in their tracks. Chris stuck his tongue out at AJ and he replied with a salute of his middle finger. Chris then made a face at the black polish.

Johnny said. “What I’m trying to say is…and Clive agrees…but we want to send *Nsync and Backstreet Boys on a joint tour.” He was met with silence, only stares. Maybe he didn’t his point across… “A joint tour together.”

Then all hell broke loose. Nick and Justin both jumped out of their chairs and were yelling profanities about each other. Chris was loudly protesting the idea of it. Joey was wondering if Johnny had fell and hit his head. Brian threatened to call up Clive and ask if it were true. JC was looking out the window, Kevin was sitting in his seat calmly, Kevin was waiting for the noise to die down and Lance was looking around at everyone as if they had lost their minds.

“No way, Johnny! No way in hell!” Justin snapped.

“I’m with Juppy on this one,” Chris said, punching Justin on the arm. “Why would we want to waste our stage and time with them?”

“Who said anything about using your stage?” Nick demanded.

“We all ready have the parts coming in, Einstein. Who else’s stage would you use?”

“Wouldn’t it delay us going into the studio?” Howie asked. “Making up a tour would eat at our time. Time that we need to make this our best album ever.”

“Then you’d need years for that,” Justin muttered under his breath.

“Same with your beauty rest,” Nick shot at him. “Kev, tell him no.” Nick crossed his arms over his chest and waited for Kevin to tell Johnny that they were interested but Kevin stayed in his seat. “Hey Kev?” Nick turned to the oldest Boy and lifted his eyebrows. Kevin sighed, held up his hands, and shook his head. “Kev, come on!” He growled in frustration.

“It sounds like a Pearlman Ploy,” JC said quietly; however it was loud enough for the others to hear him and stop their argument to look at him. He turned from looking out the window to looking right at Johnny, ignoring everyone else. “I mean, it sounds to me like it’s a way just to make fast money off of the both of us.”

“Yeah, because we haven’t been duped before. We wouldn’t just pull that out of our asses,” AJ said with a hint of sarcasm.

“Guys, you’re not looking at the big picture here,” Johnny said, trying to get a handle on the situation. “You both are trying to get your music heard by everyone. A joint tour would spread the word and give you guys a lot of press and coverage even before you start out on the world tour and—“

“World!?” Justin and Nick spluttered at the same time.

“We have to go around the fucking world with them?” Chris demanded.

“No way, Johnny. Fuck no!” AJ said, jumping up himself now. “It’s bad enough that Jive actually wants this to happen but to have to go an entire tour with them?”

“Guys!” Johnny shouted. “The big picture, again, is to get your music out to everyone. Everyone will be talking about it. The stands will be packed. Everyone will want to interview you guys. It’ll be a worldwide phenomenon. No one’s done it before.”

“And with good reason,” Justin muttered. He didn’t understand what Johnny wasn’t getting. They hated each other, that was obvious. Why force them on tour together. Around the fucking world no less. He’d have to spend a majority of his time pretending that everything was great and going well when he had to suffer with Carter the whole time. The blonde boy made him sick to his stomach and aggravated him, thinking he was better than everyone else, especially him just because he was almost a year older. So what? Justin could out-dance and out-sing him any day. Why was Johnny doing this to them.

“Jive is all ready on board with this idea. They’re all ready starting to look into stadiums and venues to play,” Johnny said, rubbing his forehead.”We could stop it all but it would be very costly.”

“At least take a vote,” Howie suggested.

“Ok, all in favor of going ahead with the tour raise your hand,” Johnny sighed, wondering why they had to revert back to something so juvenile to settle a matter that was all ready settled in the Jive company.

Everyone looked at each other and it was silent for a few moments. Clearing his throat, Lance slowly raised his hand. Justin glared daggers at him. JC sighed and raised his hand as well, shrugging when Chris made a sound of protest. Joey shrugged and also raised his hand. On the Backstreet side of the room Kevin, Howie, and Brian all raised their hands.

“So it’s three to three,” Howie pointed out.

“But we all ready know how those four are going to vote,” Lance pointed out.

“Guys?” Howie asked, raising his eyebrows.

Justin and Chris looked at each other, arms crossed tightly over their chests and seemed to be having a silent conversation while Nick rocked back and forth on his heels and AJ adjusted his sunglasses. “Aw, the hell with it, I’ll say yes if we can get out of here,” AJ said, throwing his arms into the air.

“I don’t understand the big fight,” Johnny said.

“You’re forcing us on a tour that we don’t want to do,” Chris bit back.

“Wait,” Justin said, flinging his arm out as if going to stop Chris from attacking Johnny. “If we do this…we get our demands met?” His eyebrows were lifted and he had a mischievous look in his eyes.

“I don’t see why not,” Johnny replied.

“We have separate busses? Dressing rooms? Floors in hotels?” Justin asked. He knew he was pushing it but the less contact he had with the others the better off he’d be.

“I don’t see why not,” he repeated. “Jive has all ready offered to deal with all the expenses, including the tour. You just have to decide on the stage, pyro, and costumes and we’ll take care of the rest.”

Chris had to admit it sounded like a great deal. They didn’t have to worry about paying anything with money out of their pockets. If Chris got beer at a hotel then Jive would pay for it, no questions asked. That actually didn’t sound like a bad idea to Chris. But was it enough for him to try and survive the tour? He rubbed his chin as he thought it over. That would mean he’d have no objects for his pranks…

Justin and Nick both glared at each other as the room seemed to wait on bated breath. Nick was the first to crack. “As long as we get what we want…” he started.

“And it’s all taken care of…” Justin agreed. Johnny nodded eagerly. “Then…I guess we have a deal.” He held out his hand.

Nick looked at it and sighed. “Yeah, we have a deal.” He grasped Justin’s hand and shook it. Justin then pulled it away as if he had been contaminated and Nick rolled his eyes. “Ok, Johnny, we’ll do it.”

“Great! We’ll have a big meeting soon to go over the contracts,” Johnny said as he stood, a smile of relief was on his face.

“If I may ask, who was the one who came to you with the suggestion?” JC asked. Lance raised his eyebrows as they waited for the answer. He had almost forgotten about that. Leave it to JC to pinpoint the small things.

“Your choreographers,” Johnny replied simply.

Nick looked like he had been punched in the stomach at the news and Justin actually looked like he wanted to murder someone.

“Guys, relax, it’s just one tour,” Brian tried to reason with them.

“Yeah, one tour from hell,” Nick grunted.

“If I have to hear this song one more time,” Chris grumbled, rubbing his temples as soon as the beginning of Everybody started up again. Next to him Justin had a smile on his face as he watched the five rivals get into their places while Brian sang the opening lines.

Johnny had convinced both groups to watch each other rehearse to see if they had pointers for one another. Chris and Justin both had pointers for them in the shape of their middle fingers sticking up in the air. Now he and Chris were leaning against a wall waiting for their practice to start as the Backstreet Boys’ practice ended.

“You do know why they have to keep doing the song over and over, right?” Justin asked, an evil gleam in his eye. Chris shrugged. “Because Nick’s blubber is slowing him down so he can’t get the steps right. So it’s only a matter of time before they replace him or they fade all together.”

Chris cackled at Justin’s comment. Justin turned to look at the rivals and noticed Brian glaring at him. Justin gave Brian a glare as well as a smirk. Nick’s face burned and turned bright red as he tugged at the hem of his t-shirt.

“Ow! What was that for?” Justin grumbled, rubbing his ear which JC just flicked.

JC was slowly shaking his head. “Even you know not to talk about someone else’s weight, What would your mother think?”

“My mother’s not here,” Justin grumbled in defense. “And I can talk about whatever I want to talk about. Why’re you defending the enemy anyway?”

“Enemy or rival or whatever he’s still a person, Justin.”

“Psh, whatever.”

Chris laughed. “Shot down by Daddy C,” he teased. Justin shot him a cold glare and brought his knees up to his chest. Chris sighed and ran a hand through his short, spiky hair. Why was Johnny torturing them so much? He could hardly put up with Justin’s crappy attitude on a good day but now he’d have to deal with it for a whole damn tour. Sure, it was fun ragging on the Backstreet Boys but it was like Justin couldn’t think of anything else but to rag on them. He didn’t even want to talk about basketball anymore, which was saying something.

Chris watched as they went through their dance moves again. A misstep there. Nick was a half-step behind for a few beats. AJ was too early. All rookie mistakes as Chris could see. It was obvious that their group was based around their singing and not their dancing. They weren’t in sync most of the time and, from what Chris could tell, they could do better but it seemed as if they settled for less.

Chris smirked. They weren’t anything like his group. They didn’t settle for less, they constantly went 110% and if they were slacking a little bit they could always count on the others to “gently” point out their faults and help them work it until it was better. Chris bit his lip to keep his smile from getting wider. There was no way the two groups could even compare. *NSYNC was better and that’s that. No Backdoor Boy would change that.

Chris and Justin watched with glee as the Backstreet Boys’s choreographer, Fatima Robinson, stopped the track and told them what to do again. Justin was glad they barely scratched the surface on their tour. They didn’t have to worry about the dance moves just yet; they still had a couple of days until then. They were only brought there to watch their co-headliners practice at Johnny’s persuasion. Otherwise Justin would be out on the golf course on that beautiful afternoon.

Fatima sighed as she shut off the music again. Kevin and Howie groaned while running their fingers through their hair. “Sorry, boys, but we’d be done with this if AJ stopped glaring at me and did what he was told,” she told them as Kevin and Howie shot AJ an accusing look.

“You’re the one who dragged us into this hell,” AJ shot back.

“Now I know you’re not talking about my rehearsals!”

“No, I’m talking about you giving Johnny the idea of making us go on tour with…with…them.” AJ said ‘them’ as if he were talking about the lowest scum on earth.

Fatima rubbed her temples and let out a long, slow breath. She didn’t want to get itno it with him right now, especially with the other group watching. The last thing they needed was an audience but she was finding it hard resisting the urge to kill him right then and there.

“I told you all ready that this would bring your name to everyone around the world,” she said patiently.

“Our name is everywhere around the world, if you’ve forgotten,” Brian pointed out as politely as he could muster. “I just don’t understand why now, all of a sudden, they’re proposing this.”

“Your albums are number one and number two respectively. Your merch, ticket sales, album sales, and anything else with your names slapped on them bring in so much money you all will never be in debt. Girls love you. Girls’ parents love that they’re into bands with good images. You sing like angels and you’re good role models,” Fatima listed off rapidly, gathering up her hair and dropping it over her shoulders. “But don’t let that get to your head. Jive basically wants—“

“A bigger cash cow,” Nick summed up, wiping his face with a towel. His cheeks were still bright red, either from Justin’s comment or from working himself hard.

“For once Nicky is right,” AJ added. Nick elbowed him in the side and AJ cracked a smile that stretched beneath his dark glasses. (“Why does he wear glasses inside anyway?” Justin asked Lance who shrugged.) Nick rolled his eyes but smiled at the fact that AJ admitted he was right.

“Look, I don’t really have a say in anything—“ Fatima started.

“Whose idea was this?” AJ mumbled.

“But all I know is if you just ignore them or, be friends with them, this tour will go by sooner than you know it,” she continued, ignoring AJ.

AJ and Nick grumbled something under their breaths. Brian let out a breath, his cheeks ballooning. Howie and Kevin were quiet, silently agreeing with Fatima. They didn’t want to do the tour anyway. Kevin didn’t want to do it because he knew he’d have to deal with AJ and Nick whining the entire time. And Howie didn’t want to do it because he knew that it would only give Chris an excuse to get under his skin. It seemed like ever since Chris wasn’t chosen as a Backstreet Boy he’s done everything he could to get to the Spanish boy. But Howie vowed that Chris wouldn’t get to him this tour if he had any handle on the situation.

Justin kept his eyes on the hardwood floor as Wade walked around them, making sure they did their push-ups right. He gritted his teeth and lowered his body to the hardwood floor and pushed himself back up again in time with Wade’s counting. Fatima leaned against the back wall, watching all of them workout.

They’ve been at it for a solid forty-five minutes which meant that Wade was almost done with them. He always made them workout after their rehearsals for an hour. “You need to keep your body in shape,” he always said over the groans of the boys. “You don’t want to turn soft, do you? No doubt you’d lose your audience.”

“Ya hear that, Hindenburg?” Justin called, tipping his head forward to look at Nick upside-down. “You gotta work harder to deflate if you want to keep your fans.”

“Justin!” Wade hissed, looking in the curly-haired boy’s direction. “Do you want to go at this longer than everyone else?” Justin glared as Nick snickered. Grumbling under his breath he shook his head and continued with his pushups. “Good.” Wade stopped pacing and stood at the front of the room, watching them all closely. “You all can stop now.”

The group of boys dropped to the hardwood floor with a chorus of groans. Fatima stepped over them and joined Wade at the front. They walked to each other quietly for a bit as the boys got themselves up into sitting positions and wiped sweat off of their red faces with their arms or their shirts.

“Guys,” Wade said, his voice filling up the space in the large room.

Howie was surprised that a large voice could come out of someone so small in stature compared to the rest of them. Wade, to him, looked like a little kid. With his smooth face and innocent dark eyes Howie was surprised that Wade was so intimidating. It’s no wonder these guys seemed scared when the conditioning part came around, he thought. It wasn’t like he had a newfound respect for them or anything, he just thought Fatima was a hardass.

“This is getting ridiculous,” Fatima continued when Wade stopped talking. “We’ve only been at this for one day. One day and you’re still at each other’s throats. If Justin and Nick aren’t tearing each other down about the most childish things in the world it’s Chris and AJ at each other’s throats. It’s stupid. Get over yourselves. This is about the music, right?” No one said anything. “Right.”

“Yeah,” they replied at random times, looking down at the ground or the mirrors, anywhere but at her.

“And it’s about the fans, right? So do this for them. Get through this for them. I’ve not saying you have to end up in a bromance or anything but what I am saying is at least respect each other and deal with each other in a civilized manner so this summer will fly by for God’s sake!”

“I mean you guys are easily going to ruin your perfect reputations by treating each other like crap,” Wade agreed. “Is it really necessary?”

Nick made a scoffing sound. Was it necessary to take Justin the Perfect down a fucking notch whenever he bragged about being so perfect? Yes, Nick thought it was and apparently AJ thought so too. Hell, Nick bet that the rest of Timberlake’s band mates thought so too but were too scared to say it. So Nick brought it upon himself to do it. Was it a crime?

“You’re actin’ like a buncha babies if you ask me,” Fatima continued, pushing her long braids out of her face. “Anyway, I expect to see you”—she pointed to her guys—“bright and early tomorrow. It’s been a bit since you’ve gone through your dances and I’m going to whip you guys up into shape until you dance in your sleep.”

“Yes ‘Tima,” they muttered at different times.

Now Justin snickered. They were whipped. By their own choreographer! Life sure was sweet to him sometimes.

“What’re you smilin’ about?” Wade asked so suddenly that Justin jumped.

“Uhhh…I’m thinking about how much fun this tour will be,” Justin replied, a slow evil smile settling on his face. Nick made a grunting sound and Justin smiled at him sweetly. Nick flipped him off.

Wade lifted his eyebrow but seemed to take Justin’s answer as a true one. “Don’t think I’m going to go easy on you guys. You don’t have any set routines down yet but that doesn’t mean I can’t drill the old ones into you, all right?”

“Sir, yes sir!” Chris yelled and saluted Wade from his sprawled position on the ground.

Wade actually cracked a smile. Lance was surprised and figured that Wade was in a good mood. It was rare to catch him smiling at them. Usually he was barking orders and beating Lance down into the ground until he got some of the moves right.

Lance sighed and wiped the sweat off of his forehead again. How long were they in this now, five years? And he was still the worst dancer of the ground. Justin was outshining him like a supernova and everyone knew it. Any interview they had was starting to turn more towards him and his life, especially now that he’s started dating Britney Spears.

JC could sing circles around them. Lance is always mystified whenever JC opens his mouth and a voice with that much effortless power came out. And it really bugged Lance that JC was so damn modest about it all the time. Not that he would want JC to brag about it, but he would rather that JC accepted that they all though his voice was amazing. But of course JC wouldn’t think so, he’s spit off about fifty different excuses on how his voice wasn’t perfect.

And Joey, he was a bit slower picking up the dance moves but he had theatre history to help him out. Lance was glad that Joey was there. If it weren’t for him he would’ve quit a long time ago. Joey always managed to have good words for Lance for the day to make him feel great about what he just accomplished.

Chris, on the other hand, always made fun of Lance’s mess-ups but that was only because Chris’s were worse, not that he cared. He always covered his mistakes with a joke and that’s what Lance liked about him. He didn’t dwell on his mistakes. He stewed in them for about five seconds before he let it go and moved on with his life.

Lance twisted his mouth to the side. They all had big parts in the group and Lance’s was the bass part. Without him they wouldn’t have their world famous five-part harmony, but did they need him besides that? Lance didn’t know and it was always something that plagued his mind when he found that he couldn’t go to sleep on those long bus rides. Where did he fit? What was his role? The businessman, sure, but that was because the others didn’t deal with it. If JC could put his attention on one thing at a time he’d be able to do it as well as Lance did. So what did they really need him for?

“Lansten, c’mon, group meeting,” Justin called from the couch he had collapsed on, easily shattering Lance’s thoughts.

Lance managed to get onto his aching feet and joined the others near the couches as they began talking about what they wanted to do now that they had the night off. Joey and Chris really wanted to go to a club and Justin was doing the best he could to talk them out of it. Lance could see that Justin was saying that only because he didn’t want to be left out again.

“Besides, there’s a Lakers game on,” Justin concluded, running his fingers through his damp curls before tying a bandana back down on top of it.

“You’d rather watch a Lakers game instead of going out to meet hot girls?” Joey asked incredulously.

“You’re talking to Mr. Spears here, remember,” Chris told him, lightly elbowing him in the side. “So how’s the groom doing, Justin?”

“Shut up,” Justin snarled, lightly shoving Chris. If anyone was standing near them they’d think that they were actually mad at each other but Justin and Chris always fought with each other. There was hardly a time that they actually meant everything they said. “But seriously guys. What’s the plan?”

“Whatever you guys are planning on doing I’ll have to meet up with you later,” JC replied, shoving his cap down on his head. “Bobbie and I have plans.”

Lance fought the urge to roll his eyes. “Again, man?”

“I hardly get to see her, man, you know how it is,” JC defended himself.

“Jace she’d be stuck to you like crazy glue if she could,” Joey pointed out, crossing his arms over his chest. “Come out with the boys.”

JC just shrugged and twisted the shirt that was in his hands. “Another time, guys.”

“Whipped,” Justin coughed and rubbed his chest.

JC ignored it. “Why don’t you guys just hang out here? I’m sure Johnny won’t mind if you ask. You can see the Lakers game on that big screen, Just.”

“That does sound like a good idea,” Justin said as he rubbed his chin. “You think Johnny’ll go for it?”

“If we ask, sure. We did just bring in a million records,” Joey said, a smile dancing on his lips once the words came out of his mouth.

“Yeah, but once he hears about practice he’ll hit the roof,” Lance added.

“Hear what? All he’ll know is that we got along like little angels,” Chris told him.

“But he knows that we’re dealing with multiple forms of Satan,” Justin muttered, glaring daggers in the direction of the Backstreet Boys who were sitting in the opposite corner of the room, randomly taking swigs of water from a water bottle and talking quietly. “Ugh, I can’t stand them! They think they’re so much better just ‘cause they’ve been around half a century.”

JC rolled his eyes at Justin’s whining but pressed his lips together. At least he wouldn’t have to deal with Justin obsessing over their “rivals” all night now.

“Let’s just ask. If he says no we can just head over to Justin’s place or Joey’s,” Lance said.

“Ok, but you’re asking,” Justin told him.

“Me? You’re the one who wants to see the game so badly and it was JC’s idea. Why doesn’t he ask?”

“He’s not going.”

“So? What difference does that make?”

“Well, there’s no point in him asking something that he’s not even going to be a part of.”

“Well, yeah, but—“

“And you’re basically the diplomat of the group.”

“But that’s—“

“It’s a losing battle,” Joey told Lance, putting a hand on his shoulder. “Justin will get his way so you might as well quit while you’re behind.”

Lance sighed and Justin grinned in triumph.

“Spoiled brat,” Chris muttered.

~*~*~*~

“Geeze, what is with their choreographer? Does he think we’re Marines or something?” Nick grumbled, rubbing his sore arms. Not that it would help make the pain go away.

“Joey warned that he was tough,” Brian pointed out.

“I thought he was lying,” Nick mumbled. “You know, to try and show us up.”

“Not everyone on their side is against us.”

“Right, it’s just Satan and Curly-Q.”

“Why are you so obsessed with them?” Howie asked from the recliner he was sitting in. After rehearsals they had all gathered in the living room of the WEG Complex instead of immediately splitting into five different directions.

“I’m not obsessed!” Nick snapped. “I just hate them. And I hate Lou for making them like us.”

“Well, if you want to be specific they’re not like us,” Kevin explained calmly. “Lou shaped them to be a great dance group first and a five-part vocal group second. We’re the other way around.”

“Still,” Nick huffed. “I mean, I don’t hate all of them. I can stand JC and Joey and Lance I guess but Lance is weird.”

“Lance is gay,” AJ commented.

“For real?” Brian asked, turning to look at AJ who was frowning at his chipped black nails. “You know that for sure?”

“Hell as I know but boys don’t have a baby face like that and aren’t gay,” AJ replied with a shrug. “It’s just a guess but my gaydar usually isn’t wrong.”

“Are you sure you don’t want to tell us something?” Howie asked, motioning to AJ’s black nails.

AJ merely smiled. “Yes, I like freaking people out.” Then he smacked Howie’s am. “I’m not gay, dude.”

“With his streak of women we can clarify that,” Kevin added almost sarcastically which made Nick and Brian laugh.

“Ha ha,” AJ said and rolled his eyes. “I’m not like that anymore, ok? So you can shove it.”

“So what’re we doing tonight?” Nick quickly changed the subject.

“Notice how he always asks ‘we’,” AJ chuckled. “Sounds like someone is in need of a girlfriend.”

“Someone’s in need of a foot up their ass,” Nick shot back. “But for some reason I think you’d actually like that.” Brian and Howie laughed and Kevin cracked a smile. Their laughter quickly stopped when the door swung open and the other five guys walked through.

“What’re you lookin’ at?” Justin growled.

Nick shrugged. “Not much,” he replied. Justin’s eyebrow twitched slightly. JC shoved his shoulder to get Justin to keep going, obviously to avoid a confrontation. Then Nick got a wicked idea. It was a touchy subject, he knew that very well, but he couldn’t resist and the words were falling out of his mouth before he could even finish his thought. “Hey Curly-Q how’s Britney?” Justin stopped in his tracks. Nick jumped around gleefully inside when he saw the red climb up his neck and his hands clench into fists.

“Leave it alone, Curly,” Joey warned him. “He’s just trying to get a rise out of you.”

“No, I honestly want to know,” Nick said, getting up.

“Nicky,” Kevin said in a warning tone.

Nick ignored him and grinned innocently as Justin turned around to face him. “So, how’s the relationship going?”

“Fine,” Justin replied, his tone icy. “Why?”

Nick shrugged. “Just asking. I mean, Britney’s hot, right? But of course you’d know that.” Justin’s nostrils flared but he stayed silent. “I just wanted to make sure you have good self esteem. I mean, you’re dating the arguably hottest girl on the planet. And you…well, you look like you. Don’t you worry that she’ll leave you for someone else? One of her dancers maybe? Or what about Wade, he’s been around her a lot so that’s given them time to get close right?”

Wham!

Nick stumbled backwards from the force of Justin’s fist connecting with his jaw. Despite the area stinging he grinned at the wild look that was in Justin’s eyes as he tried to get to Nick but Chris and Lance were holding him back.

“Why don’t you keep the puppy on a leash?” AJ demanded.

“Why don’t you teach your friend some manners?” Chris shot back.

AJ shrugged. “It’s not our fault your friend doesn’t have tough skin.”

“C’mon, J, let’s go,” JC said, pushing Justin out the door. He turned and shot the Backstreet Boys a glare before following his friends out the door.

“You deserved that,” Kevin said. “I hope you know that.”

“Oh, don’t worry, I know,” Nick said as he rubbed his jaw, “But I did get some good information that I could use to bring them down and make them change their minds about touring with us.”

He added an evil laugh for effect.

Wade awoke that morning with a very heavy sigh. The last thing he wanted to do was go to the WEG Compound and have to deal with the feud. He wanted to stay under his covers and not deal with it anymore but he liked his job too much to give it up. He liked and respected *NSYNC as well. They were a great bunch of guys, very nice, hardworking when need be, and very selfless. Many times they included him on their nights out but, lately, their good qualities have been overshadowed by their fighting with the Backstreet Boys.

Wade made a scoffing sound while rubbing his eyes. He’s read many interviews that they’ve done where they said that there was no feud. Was that just a bunch of malarkey or was that just something their PR team told them to say? On some days he wanted to thank Britney for introducing him to the band. If it weren’t for the VMA’s that they did with the mash up of their hit singles he wouldn’t have gotten a great job as their lead tour choreographer. But he wouldn’t have to deal with the daily headaches either.

The pros outweighed the cons and the next thing Wade knew he was driving himself to the compound, rubbing his eyes and yawning. He took sips from his Starbucks coffee every now and then but didn’t exceed the few sips. He’d start to get jittery. He didn’t want to get in a wreck on the way to work.

He turned into the large parking lot of the WEG Compound and sighed with relief when he saw only one other car there. At least he’d get a few more minutes of silence to get his thoughts straight and on the workout.

He greeted Johnny on the way to the dance studio with a small wave. He pushed open the door to the dance studio, which was the last door down a hallway from the living room and nodded at Fatima who was already there, sitting on the couch and reading a book.

“You’re here early,” Wade noted.

“So are you,” Fatima replied without looking up from her book.

“Yeah, I wanted to get in early so I could get some peace and quiet.”

“You too, eh?” Now Fatima looked up from her book and smiled at him.

Wade nodded and gave a one-shoulder shrug. “JC’s notoriously late. This means that the bands will have to stick around each other longer than they’d want to. Without having anything to do, they will start ragging on each other. It’s only a matter of who’s awake and who’s not.”

“Their argument is juvenile,” Fatima commented, marking her spot and closing her book.

“Didn’t they say in interviews that there wasn’t a feud or something?”

“There wasn’t before. Before they didn’t have to do anything together. They could easily complain without the other group listening. At least, that’s what AJ and Nick did all of the time.”

“Justin too,” Wade agreed. “At least, from when I first met the guys that’s all he’s been doing. He’s calling your guys pussies.”

“And he’s calling your guys clones,” Fatima contributed. “What ever happened to doing it for the music? I’m sure there’s more than enough room for them. I mean, you don’t see us fighting with each other. There’s more than enough room for choreographers. I don’t understand why they can’t get along.”

“If anyone got along I figured it’d be Nick and Justin,” Wade said.

“Because they’re the youngest?”

“That.” Wade nodded. “And because they both love basketball and they both like playing video games. They’re more alike than they think.” He paused. “Which I think is the problem. I don’t think the band is the problem. I think it’s the people—the critics—not taking the time to see the bands apart. Who can blame them, with each of them being so similar.”

“You’re right,” Fatima agreed. “JC and Kevin are a lot alike because they’re the serious ones.”

“And the perfectionists, right,” Wade agreed. “If they’d take the time to talk to each other I’m sure they’d actually be friends.”

“That won’t work. Nicky’s the most stubborn person on the planet. If he doesn’t get his way that’s it,” Fatima sighed. “Sometimes it’s an endearing quality but not when he’s whining about it.” She sighed. “So it seems that the only way they’d get along is if they convinced the press that they’re different.”

“It seems so.” Wade crossed his arms over his chest. “But people’s opinions are set in stone and are hard to change.”

“It’s the reason why I suggested this tour,” Fatima said. Wade lifted his eyebrows. “They’re going to be stuck on a bus with each other for who knows how long. Tight quarters and short fuses should get them talking to each other so we can get down to this feud once and for all. They have to realize sooner or later that their fans will start to emulate them and that won’t be good, sales wise.”

“So…either they get along…or watch their hopes and dreams come crashing down?”

“Exactly.”