The driveway was steep as he walked between two cars, one a black sporty looking two door, and the other an old blue mustang, on the other side of the mustang was an old Suburban. He made it to the walkway and up the three brick steps to the mint green door. There was a red bow that looked like it'd been left up from Christmas, as well as blue Christmas lights hanging from the overhang. He rang the bell and instantly heard scratching and whining. That had to be the dog.

The door opened a moment later and a tall slightly toned Black man stood before him, holding the door knob in one hand and the collar of a medium sized dog with blonde fur, and big brown eyes in the other.

"Who are you?" he asked, his voice deep.

"I'm Justin, Justin Timberlake-."

"It's okay Marcus, I got it," another voice sounded from inside the house.

A middle aged woman appeared with a smile on her face. She had sleek chin length black hair and full red lips. She seemed very friendly on glance, the slight wrinkles on her light mocha skin told him she had to be the mother.

"Hi, I'm Diane, Judy's mother," she reached out to shake his hand.

"Hi," he said politely, his southern drawl creeping in. It always did when he was speaking to someone older and trying to be respectful.

"Come on in," Diane pulled to door open alittle wider.

"Judy! You've got company!" she called down the hallway.

Justin stepped up into what he assumed was the living room. The walls were a pale green and there were mirrors and little knickknacks spread around. What really made it homey was the oversized blue sofa behind Diane. What didn't fit however, was Steve, moving around them trying to find the best angle.

"This is my son Marcus," Diane touched the man's arm, "this is our dog, Playa, but we call her the Hairy-Beast-From-Hell. I'd love to be able to keep her from you, because she shed's like crazy, but if you're going to live here you'll have to deal with it sooner or later. I promise you she won't bite. She'll just try to lick you to death."

She motioned for Marcus to let go of the dog and immediately the animal jumped at him. He was stunned for a moment before he realized what had just happened.

He'd just been tongued by Playa.

Justin leaned down to pet him, in hopes of calming him down, and the dog dropped on to it's back, hoping to have it's stomach scratched. He had to chuckle to himself when he could see the dog smile as he did. Footsteps could be heard down the hall and Justin turned to smile at the approaching person.

"And this is my daughter, Judy."

"Hi," she reached her hand out to shake his with a grin.

She was tall, with long legs, and black hair cut short. She wasn't skinny, but not obesely overweight either, she just carried extra weight around the middle. Her brown eyes were masked by the smart glasses she wore and he couldn't help it when she leaned forward and his eyes traveled past her chin and right down her shirt. He was a guy, he couldn't help but notice that she was gifted in the breast department.

"I'm Judy," she smiled.

She had full lips, but a small mouth that gave her chipmunk cheeks when she grinned. Judy appeared to be the kind of girl that you didn't really pay attention to. You passed her in the hall, or on the street, but you didn't even think twice as you did so. Not exactly what he was hoping for. But the good thing about plump, average girls, was that they somehow usually had incredibly hot chick friends. Sweet!

"Justin."

"Nice to meet you."

"You too," Playa jumped up at his face again and he took a step back.

"Playa, stop," Judy's voice was stern.

Playa walked to sit by his master's side, calmly leaning against her legs, wanting to be petted.

"I see you've met Playa," she leaned down to pet the dog and looked up at him.

He noticed that while her shirt was black, her bra was a vibrant purple.

"Yes, I've gotten to know him pretty well," Justin wiped his mouth with the back of his hand.

"Her. Playa's a girl."

"Sorry, her."

"Sorry about that," she watched him wipe his mouth again, "she just kisses everyone, can't get her to stop."

"It's alright. I'm just glad to know it's a girl who had her tongue in my mouth."

She smiled again and stood up, running her hands over her jeans to her back pockets.

"Well, uh, all your stuff is here already so let me show you around alittle," she motioned for him to follow. She took him down the hall, past a messy office, to a door that she said was his room.

Inside he found blue walls and a queen sized bed, his bags placed neatly in a row at the foot of the bed. Judy walked over to the closets and opened up two of the top doors, revealing a large TV and a VCR.

"There's a DVD player up here too, and a stereo over there." She pointed across the room, "There's a bunch of hangers and stuff in the closet for you."

"Cool, thanks," he felt something wet on his hand and looked down to find Playa sitting by his side, wagging her tail, nose sniffling his hand.

"No problem. Well, lemme show you the rest of the house."

She led out of the room and farther down the hall. She pointed out her room, which was next to his. The layout was the same, but her walls were a lighter blue accented with lime green, hot pink, and purple. Past her room was her mothers, where Diane was watching TV, and then around the corner you found a pink bathroom, which was reserved for the girls. Past the bathroom you went through a doorway and entered the kitchen, through the kitchen and back out another doorway you found a blue bathroom, reserved for the boys and emergencies (i.e. the girls bathroom was occupied when another girl really needed to use it). Then they moved into the dining room, the crackle table covered with old mail, and that room connected back into the living room where they started. It was one big circle really.

Playa jumped up on the sofa, preparing to leap at him, and Judy grabbed his arm, pulling him away and watching Playa land on the floor with a soft thud. She let out a giggle and then glanced up at him.

"Wanna see downstairs really quick?"

There was a downstairs? He thought this was a one level house.

"Come on, follow me," she lead him over to the right of the room, where there was a stairway tucked in the corner. He hadn't even noticed it before.

At the bottom of the stairs there were two doors. They peered into the one on the left and spotted her brother sitting at the computer playing some card game while 94.9 played on the radio, and to the right was the family room, housing a leather sofa, mini fridge, big screen TV, and shelve after shelve of movies.

"You have a nice house," he said leading the way back up the stairs.

Playa ran past him, nearly tripping him, and waited for him at the top.

"Thanks, but if you think this is nice you should see Columbia. People in Central Valley have money, we're like, lower middle class."

If this was lower middle class he, with all his money, wasn't very high up on the chart.

"Well, I'm sure you want to unpack and settle in or whatever," she stopped infront of his door again.

"Yeah, thanks," that was all he'd been able to say lately.

"No problem," she turned to walk away but spun around to face him again, "Before I forget, I know we only have one camera man," she jerked her arm in Steve's direction, "But there's camera's up all over the place so you might want to watch what you do."

He nodded a thanks at the piece of advice and stepped into his room as she went to her own. It only took him a few minutes to put his things away. All of his shoes were set on the floor of the closet, and his clothes had been packed with their hangers, so it was a simple act of taking them out and putting them on the rack. After setting out a few pictures of his family and friends, he decided he was done and wondered what to do next.

The ringing of the phone startled him and he wondered if he should answer it. Yeah he lived there but, should he? Luckily the ringing stopped and he heard Judy's voice flow down the hall. She had a deep voice for a girl, but it wasn't completely masculine. It was something Trace called a 'bedroom voice' because it was low, slightly raspy, and one that phone operators always strive for. She was reminiscent of Meg Ryan or Demi Moore.

Justin moved to the hall, smiling at Playa who made a half hearted leap at him, and made way to Judy's wide open door. She was standing with her back to him, facing a Tim McGraw wall calendar.

"No, I'm sorry sweetie, I have a ton of things to do that day... I can do it on the 12th though... oh you are... oh that's fine, I can do that!... Okay, well I'll see you Monday.... Alright sweetie, bye."

Sweetie? Did Judy have a little highschool sweetheart?

She clicked off the phone and turned around to drop it on her bed. She was holding some kind of datebook in her hand and a pen was hanging from her mouth. Justin decided she looked too old for her age, with her hair back in a clip, glasses slowly sliding down her nose, and a stressed look on her face.

She looked up with a smile when he knocked softly on her door.

"Hey, done already?" she asked cheerfully.

"Yep."

"Cool," she didn't really know what to say.

There was a rustling to his side and he looked down to see a large tank, and a green turtle, about the size of his hand, standing on a rock.

"Who's this?" he asked.

"That's Crush, my turtle," she walked over to the tank and picked up the green container that sat next to it. When she began unscrewing the yellow lid Playa ran from Justin's side to sit infront of her master, her tongue dangling from her mouth.

Judy pulled a few sticks from the container and dropped them into the tank, and then dropped a few on the floor which Playa hungrily went after.

"What is that?" Justin asked.

"Turtle food. Playa likes it because it tastes like fish. I see no problem with giving her some once in a while."

Justin looked at the tank when there was more rustling. The turtle was scurrying to the other side of the tank where the food was floating.

"He knows what that is too. Look at him go. You're starving him!"

"I am not," she defended with a laugh, "She's always hungry. This type of turtle will, by nature, eat everything it can, so you have to pay attention to how much you give her cause she'll eat herself to death."

"She?"

"Yep," Judy shrugged, "Sometimes I feel sorry for my brother, he's the only guy, even the turtle is a girl. I think secretly he's glad you're here."

Justin offered a soft smile and a nod, not really knowing how to respond.

"Oh!" she sounded as if she'd just remembered something, "Did you find everything okay? Were there enough hangers and everything? Anything you need?"

"Nope, everything was fine."

"Well, are you hungry? Thirsty or anything?"

"No, I'm fine really."

She nodded and moved to sit down on her bed. Justin followed suit, looking around at all the different things on her walls. It was definitely a girls room, with posters of different icons like Marilyn Monroe on the walls, and little magazine clippings about TV shows like 'Sex and the City'. What really got him with the number of CD's on the shelves behind him.

"You a big music fan?" he motioned over his shoulder at them.

"Yeah. I've got about six hundred and thirty-seven. I dunno, I lost count after awhile."

"I know what you mean. I lost count of how many I have too, though, my collection is slightly more extensive than yours."

"How many do you have?"

"Uh..." he scratched at his chin, "Somewhere around one thousand-."

Judy's face kinda went blank and then faded into shock.

"You have a thousand CD's?"

Justin nodded.

"What are you gonna do with a thousand CD's? That's crazy."

"You have six hundred."

"Well still, I don't have a thousand. Why do you have so many?"

He shrugged.

"I dunno, I just do. You buy one CD, and then someone comes out with another and you want it, and then someone else has got another and you want it too."

"True."

"What about you?"

"Oh, I wanted to be in record books for the most CD's ever," her voice took on a slight twang and it threw him for a moment, "But then I found out that person had something like ten-thousand so I gave up."

Before either of them could say anything else Marcus came around the corner and began making noises that sounded like planes crashing into things and people screaming. Judy merely looked at him before telling him to 'make like Michael Jackson and Beat It'. He smiled at her, proud of himself, before doing as told. Judy then glanced nervously at the camera and leaned closer to Justin, her voice lowering.

"About my brother," she said, "He's... well he's mentally disabled. So sometimes he'll do something or say something that might seem alittle weird, or maybe he won't understand something that may seem kinda simple, and it's not that he's dumb he's actually really really smart, he just needs alittle extra time than most."

Her eyes glanced nervously at the camera again and he could see she was alittle weary of having to tell all of this to how ever many people on the first day. He felt for her alittle.

"I'm sorry," he said.

"Don't be," she smiled, "I'm not. He's a cool dude, sometimes. It's hard for me to try to imagine him another way," her drawl had faded and was replaced with a slow surfer sound.

"What's his disability called?" he hoped he wasn't prying, but he really was curious.

"I don't remember," she looked away thoughtfully, "I don't remember exactly how he got it either, because he wasn't born with it. Alot of things went wrong when he was born."

"Can I ask what?"

"Well, for one thing he was in the womb to long. The doctor wouldn't induce labor on my mother and she was pregnant for like almost 11 months I think. When he finally did come he was water logged. You know how when you stay in the bath tub for to long and your fingers and your toes are all wrinkly?"

Justin nodded.

"He was like that. And then when he was born something happened and he didn't get oxygen to his brain for a minute and that caused damage. And then, a few months later, he got an ear infection that went undetected and all the fluid and stuff in his brain from that certainly didn't help. My Mom never forgave the hospital for it, she wants to sue the city of Seattle, that's where he was born, and all this other stuff. She says it's unfair what they did to him, because he was going to be something special. Even with his disability, there's so much that he can do, and he's still really smart. He even graduated from Community College. Mom says he would have been the next Albert Einstein if all that hadn't of happened to him."

Justin nodded, not wanting to apologize again.

"But why is this turning into some kind of therapy session for me? Let's talk about something else," her smile was back and she made herself alittle more comfortable before turning to him.

"Tell me about you, tell me about why you decided to do this."

Justin shrugged and Judy laid down on her side with a laugh.

"Come on, someone says to you, 'Hey come move in with a stranger for four months,' and you just agreed to it no problem?"

"Seemed like fun."

She giggled and bit her lip, silently pushing for him to explain.

"Well," he leaned back on his elbows, "It wasn't my first choice on how to spend the next four months, but my manager thought it would be good for me, and so did my Mom."

"Lynn right?" she knew exactly who his mother and his manager were, but she couldn't let him know that. It was only day one, she couldn't have him knowing what a complete goober fan she was just yet.

"Yeah. She kept saying, 'You always wanted to go back to highschool, so this is your chance.' Kinda hard to argue with."

"Yeah, Mom's will do that too ya."

The conversation continued on with mindless chitchat. Justin found that Judy was a pretty easy person to talk too, which only helped her Plain Jane appeal. Part of being a Plain Jane, other than not being exceptionally beautiful and friends with the hot chicks, they were sweet and easy to get along with. This is why many of them were always 'one of the guys' and not with the guys.

Finally 8 o'clock rolled around and Judy let out a yawn as she leaned back against her pillows. Steve had taken a seat in the blue blowup chair behind them and propped the camera in his lap so he could relax. They were just sitting there doing nothing, he saw no reason to keep holding the heavy thing.

"You're not tired already are you?" Justin smirked at her.

"I can't help it. This is my usual bedtime."

"You go to bed at eight o'clock?"

"Yep, eight o'clock, fall asleep watching Dr. Phil."

"You watch Dr. Phil? How can you stand him? Man, I hate that guy."

"Hey, don't knock it. That's quality television. Atleast he gives advice, not like those idiots who do things like get their butt cheeks pierced together."

"Hey, Jackass is funny, I don't care what you say."

"Whatever," she giggled and that brought on another yawn.

Justin couldn't help the yawn that escaped his mouth right after. Yawns were contagious ya know, and maybe the day had been alittle more tiring than he'd thought.

Judy giggled and pointed at him.

"You're one to talk Justin," she said.

"Yeah well, it's not my fault it's yours."

"Hey, it's good that you're sleepy. If your gonna hang with me you gotta learn to go to bed early and sleep in as late as possible, because there will be days that seem like they're never going to end."

"You're that busy huh?"

She nodded, with a third yawn.

"I'll show you my, er--our, calendar tomorrow. You'll see what I mean."

"Yeah," Justin watched her eyes droop alittle, surprised as how quickly she was fading, "Well, I'll let you hit the hay," he stood up and stretched his arms above his head.

She nodded a thanks and moved so she could pull the covers down on one side of her King sized bed. Justin waved a 'goodnight' and left the room, Steve following behind. He peered into Diane's room and found a figure hidden beneath the covers and soft snoring. The house was quiet except for the soft murmur of a TV from downstairs where he guessed Marcus was, and the tapping of Playa's nails on the hardwood floor and she followed close behind him.

"Things really start to wind down around here when the sun sets huh Playa?" he gave the dog a pat on the head, which she happily excepted.

"Oh hey Justin," he turned to find Judy standing in her doorway, "I just wanted to tell you that there's extra pillows and blankets and stuff in here in you need them," she put her hand on the slim closet door next to her.

"Oh, great, thanks," now that he thought about it, the house did feel alittle chilly.

"I don't know about your room but I know that mine feels like it's around negative-two degrees at three in the morning."

They exchanged a look and she stepped back into her room.

"Well, goodnight, don't let the bed bugs bite."

Her door clicked closed and now there was a poster of a WWE wrestler and signs saying things like 'Hazardous Material Storage Area' and 'Do Not Enter Without Permission' staring back at him.

Justin stepped into his room, sighing with annoyance as Steve followed him in, camera pointed directly at him. He wasn't really all that tired, but with everyone else asleep or seemingly headed that way, there wasn't really anything to do. The blue cordless phone on the other side of the room started to call to him and he sat down in the plush chair next to it before picking it up, trying to decide who he was going to call first.

His fingers moved over it quickly as he dialed the number, and then he raised it to his ear and waited patiently for an answer.

"Hello?"

"Hey Ma," he smiled at the comfort in her voice.

"Justin, sweetie, hi. How are you? How's everything going?"

"It's alright," his voice lowered, "It's kinda weird ya know."

"Yeah? Well that's expected sweetie. You gotta give yourself time, settle in. Tell me about your partner, is he a nice boy?"

"Well, first off he is a she."

"What?" he smiled at her tone. Apparently she'd been just as clueless as he had. They'd both just assumed that since he was guy, they'd put him in with another guy.

"Yeah. Her name's Judy Bucklass, she seems cool enough. I talked to her for awhile, we went over the basic's, names, favorite kinda music, blah blah blah."

"Well, that's nice sweetheart," she said, "I'm glad you're getting along."

"Yeah, turns out she's some kind of overachiever. Part of every club and this and that."

"Says the former class President."

"That's besides the point Ma."

"I don't see why."

"Ma, just listen."

He told her about all the events of the day, some of the things he and Judy had talked about, how annoying it was that Steve was following him everywhere (that got him an evil look) and how he found it odd that both Diane and Marcus had chosen to make only short appearances.

"That's strange. If some new person were in my house, I'd wanna talk to them, find out alittle about who they were. Especially if they were going to be spending alot of time with my 17 year old daughter."

"Mom," Justin groaned as he ran a hand over his head, "I think it's just their way of trying to make Judy and I talk to eachother. If they're not around, we don't really have a choice. I guess it's good that we get to know eachother alittle bit before the weekend's over."

"True."

"Hey Mama, how long have we been on the phone?"

He checked his watch, and it read 8:23, but he didn't know what time they'd gotten on the phone.

"I'm not sure, why?"

"Because I only get 15 minute phone calls remember?"

"Oh, well they'll give you a 30 second warning or something won't they?"

"They didn't say, they just said that the phone will-," there was a clicking noise that he didn't recognize, and no sounds coming from the other end.

"Mom?" he asked into the phone.

There was no response.

"Mom?" he asked again.

There was silence, and then a dial tone. Justin let out a puff of air and pressed the 'off' button on the phone before dropping it back into the cradle.

"I guess it's been 15 minutes."

There was a scratching at the door and he stood up with a curious look. When he opened it, there wasn't a person in sight, but Playa was sitting there, her tail wagging and her tongue hanging out. Justin smirked at her and she trotted past him and over to the bed, which she jumped up on, walked in a circle, and laid down at the end of.

"Apparently, I also have a room mate."

Justin looked around again, deciding that there was nothing else to do, and walked to the closet to pull out some night clothes. The light from the camera shining from his right reminded him that he wasn't alone.

"I need to get changed," Justin said, "You know what, you might as well leave. I mean, I'm not doing anything but getting in bed and going to sleep."

Steve recorded him for a few more seconds before pulling a walkie-talkie out of his pocket.

"Steve to production van," he said.

A moment later there was some static and a voice saying something Justin couldn't even begin to make out.

"Yeah, I'm off for the night. Turn on house cameras."

There was the static and the voice again, and Steve shut off his camera.

"Have a good night. See you in the morning."

Justin watched as Steve walked over to the alarmsystem on the wall by Diane's door, pressed in some code that shut off the red light, and the some code that turned it back on. 'You have 30 seconds to exit' the screen read. Steve nodded as he passed Justin, who was leaning out of his room, and headed for the door.

Justin shook his head at the thought that this could be so nonchalant for him, invading someone's home the way he and MTV were. Then again, Justin wasn't an innocent bystander either.

"Hey Steve," Justin stopped him, "Are there cameras in the bedrooms?"

Now that he knew for a fact that they were on, he was alittle weary about changing in there. He knew it wasn't above MTV's standards to release footage of him in his underwear (or less) to the public.

"No, there's no cameras in the bathrooms or bedrooms. We have to respect your privacy atleast alittle," Steve smiled, "Goodnight."

The door closed behind him and Playa jumped down from the bed and stood next to Justin, her tail wagging as usual and her head cocked to the side with curiosity. Was she getting another new friend, or was one leaving?

Justin stepped back into his room and closed the door, Playa jumping out of the way as to avoid having her face closed in it. As soon as it was shut and he took one step away, there was more scratching and whining. He reached back, opening it enough for her to enter, and then shut it again.

After pulling out a pair of pants and a tee-shirt, he pulled off his shirt and then paused to look over his shoulder. Playa was there, her eyes boring into his back, panting. For a moment, it was really creepy. He had no problem changing in front of his own dogs, but this was a strange dog. He pulled the closet door till it blocked her view, and quickly pulled off his jeans and pulled on his oversized sweat pants. Yanking the shirt over his head, he stepped from behind the door and over to the bed. Playa rolled onto her back and stuck her paw up in the air, hoping for him to pet her tummy.

Justin merely pushed on her till she was on one side of the bed so he could get in on the other. Slowly he slid his body under the comforter and relaxed against the warm cream colored sheets.