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.
