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.