Mandy was surfing the internet when something caught her eye.  The news was already buzzing about the missing boy band members, though they seemed to have no leads or no clue where they were, Mandy still felt her chest tighten.  This was so real now, they were really in deep.

            There was chatter of the radio in the kitchen as Justin re-joined the group, he appeared to be in much better spirits, which kind of made the girls wonder what on earth Katy had done to bring him out of his hiding place and they questioned if sending her down there had been such a good idea.

              “Well Just seems to be feeling better.” Brandi stated as Katy exited the basement.

              “Yeah well I should have been a stress counselor or something.” Katy said with a smiled, she was after all very proud of herself.

            “Stress counselor?  I have never seen you stress about anything in my life.”  Kim pointed out.

              “Exactly!” Katy said.   She made her way over to the sofa where the others were and sat down on the arm.  “I never understood what stress was good for any way; it just makes you feel crappy.”  Katy added just as Mandy turned around to look at them.  Since they were on the topic any way, Mandy informed them of her findings online.  “Its fine, it sounds like they are about done with the song.”

            “Speaking of that, where are we going to get a band to record the music?” Kim asked.

            “Chris has a band.” Brandi answered.

              “I am not going back to Florida, and besides no way we are getting 3 guys in the back of my car.  Joey and Chris were cramped enough.” Katy explained, plus there was the whole time thing, it would take forever to make that trip again.  And it wasn’t like they would record it there without asking a ton of questions.

              “Music is not going to be a problem, remember that internship that I had at that recording place?” Mandy asked as she typed out an email.  The girls just nodded.  “Well I met some really nice people there, and some musicians.  Once the guys have the lyrics nailed down I can send them to my friend and see if they can knock it out for us really quickly.”

              “They won’t ask any questions?” Brandi wondered out loud.

              “Probably, but I will just make something up.  They might put it together after the fact but by then it won’t matter.” Mandy explained.  She wasn’t sure what she was going to tell them yet, but she would think of something.  She sent her email then turned to say something when they heard a loud thud.  The noise scared all the girls and forced them to look in the direction of the basement door where the sound had originated.  After a series of concerned glances Katy finally got up and approached the door.  She flung it open keeping one hand on her gun.

            JC was standing at the bottom of the steps staring her down.  He was impatiently tapped his foot, and that is when Katy noticed that he was missing a shoe.  She rolled her eyes and heading for him, pausing to collect his shoe.

              “Seriously?  What the fuck dude?” Katy snapped as she handed him the shoe.  She could see the other girls now at the top of the stairs watching her, still a little cautious.

              “We’re done writing the song.  I figured that would get your attention.” JC explained.

            “Really, you are done already?  Give it to me then, Mandy will type it up for you guys.” Katy asked she held out her hand but JC just shook his head and nodded toward Chris.

            “Chris has it; he insisted that he hang on to it since the two of you have a deal.” JC explained.  Katy groaned and headed for Chris.  Chris stood up as she got closer and she held out her hand but he just shook his head.

            “We had a deal; you don’t get the song until after I shoot you.” Chris explained.  Katy looked him over; he had the notebook behind his back.  She was pretty sure she could just beat him up and take the book from him but they did have a deal.  By now the other girls had made their way down the steps and were kind of aware of what was going on.

            “No, we should work with a third party.  I am not going to want to notebook after you shoot me; I am going to want to take a nap.  So you give the notebook to one of the other guys, I’ll let you shoot me and then they have to give the notebook to Mandy.” Katy explained.  She looked at Mandy and waited for Mandy to confirm that she understood the plan.  Chris nodded and handed the notebook to Justin.  Katy calmly went over and handed her tranq gun to Brandi, to insure that this wasn’t a trap that the guys had set for them she wanted to be unarmed.  Katy turned back to Chris and fished the tazor gun out of her boot.  She was a little frightened by his excitement when it came to causing her pain.

              “Katy, are you sure that you want to do this, I mean we can just drug him and take the stupid thing.  You don’t have to let him shoot you.” Kim said.

              “I am a woman of my word, besides pain is only temporary.  I’ll be fine.  Though I have not been tazored before, I have been maced before and the discomfort fades.” Katy explained.

            “Wait a minute, you have been maced?  When did that happen?” Mandy questioned.  Though she wasn’t sure why this surprised her Katy was known for getting into trouble.

              “Brandi knows about it, she was there.” Katy answered.  Brandi paused to think and she finally recalled the incident in question.  She laughed a little just thinking about it, that was a great summer.

            “Oh yeah, that’s a long story.  I’ll tell you about it later.” Brandi said.  Katy pointed the gun at Chris, which made him step back a little.  Then she flipped it around in her hand so that the handle was to him.  He smiled and carefully took the weapon from her.  Justin watched Katy closely; he thought he had gotten her out of his system but seeing her again just made it all return.  He watched as his friend prepared to shoot her, there was no fear in her eyes.  She carefully slid the coffee table over so that she wouldn’t hit it when she went down.

              “Okay, ready whenever you are just don’t count down or anything and please don’t shoot me in the face.” Katy explained as she tried to relax her limps, after all it would hurt more if she was tense.  Chris lined up his shot and then just like that she went down.  She could hear Chris laughing and some others in the background as the charge ripped though her body.

              “So which button is it that zaps them again?” Chris asked, before she could respond he found it and gave her another surge of pain.  He was still laughing at her as she rolled around on the floor moaning obscenities at him.  Justin chuckled a little too, oh how the mighty have fallen, once the room settled down Justin got up and handed the notebook to Mandy and then turned to Katy, who was still on the floor staring up at the ceiling.  He carefully pulled the darts out and then scooped her up in his arms.  He fell back into a nearby chair and just let Katy bury her face in his chest.  She inhaled deeply, the pain of the tazor gun quickly fading and the memories of Justin returning full force.

              “Hey whose side are you on here?” Chris asked.  He eyed the young man with some distaste but he also questioned Justin’s motives, after he had tried putting the moves on Brandi and that got him nowhere.

            “I didn’t know we had sides.  But I have to say it looks like the girls are still kicking our asses here, so I would rather be on the winning side at this point.” Justin explained, but in reality he would be on any side that Katy was one.

            “That is true but you know if we had a united front we might not be in this position.” Lance explained.  The girls just chuckled, at least Lance was started to get it.  If they would just work together and a group, they could totally over power and outsmart them.  It was disappointing that they hadn’t thought of is sooner.