Greta slowly opened the door to her attic. The sun was pouring in a window at the far end of the room. In the sunlight the dust of the room flew around in beautiful designs. Greta slowly swept her hand to create air currents to scatter the dust about. She smiled as she picked her way across the landscape of boxes to the one box she loved. It contained the most happy memories for her. Near the window there was a loose board. Underneath was a small box. She knelt down and pried the board up.

“Hey, where did it go?” Greta asked herself.

She looked around madly for it. Her eyes came to rest on it. She had forgotten to put it away. She picked it up and opened it. She pulled out the first picture of the blonde, blue-eyed boy. She crinkled up her brow. She had never seen this picture. She flipped it over and took a closer look.

Justin Randall Timberlake

Greta furrowed her brow again and pulled out another picture. This one had another blonde haired guy. She flipped it over.

James Lance Bass

Greta kept pulling out different pictures. This was not the box of poems her mother had willed to her. This was a box of pictures of guys she didn’t know. She looked around for something else. Her eye caught a blue notebook. She snatched it up and flipped it open. The pages were filled with hand writing. It was a little hard to make out, so it must have been a guy. She kept flipping through it till a picture fell out. Greta snatched it up. It was a picture of the blonde guy James Lance Bass. With him was a teenaged girl with sort of reddish brown wavy hair. She was about a head shorter than him and was leaning up against him. Greta turned the picture over and looked at the back.

Lance Bass and Jewel Peterson July 2000

Greta looked confused. She stuck it back into the book and stood up. She made her way down the stairs and into her room. She shut the door and pulled out her history book. She opened it up and looked in the index. Once she found what she was looking for she flipped to 625. There was what seemed to be the same men she had found the pictures of in that box. She took out the picture she had found in the book. She flipped it over again.

“Lance Bass. Let’s see. ‘N Sync was just one of the many pop-dance bands to come out of the US in the late 1990’s and early 2000’s. From left to right: Joey Fatone, Chris Kirkpatrick, Lance Bass, Justin Timberlake, and JC Chasez,” Greta read.

She looked at the picture in her hand then at the picture in the history book. She then opened the book to the first page and began to read what this Lance guy had to say…

“My God, Justin what the hell are you doing?” Lance asked, sitting up.

Lance had been asleep on the couch in their hotel room. Justin was standing in the middle of the room with a great big grin on his face. It was a grin that told Lance that Justin had just done something he was not suppose to do.

“Nothing, Lance,” Justin said with an angelic tone, which worried Lance more than the grin on his face.

“What did you do?”

“Nothing,” Justin repeated, crawling under one of the beds.

Just as Justin got under the bed, the door flew open. In the doorway stood a pretty girl with beautiful red hair cascading down past her shoulders. Even though she wore a ticked off look on her face, it was a playful one. She looked around and spotted Lance sitting looking bewildered on the couch. Her hand went over her mouth.

“I’m sorry,” she apologized. “I didn’t know anyone was really in here.”

Lance heard a muffled noise from under the bed. He looked back at the girl in the doorway.

“No, it okay. I was just going to leave. You’re free to search the room,” he said, pointing to under the bed.

Her brown eyes lit up. She nodded her head at the bed and mouthed He’s under there?
Lance nodded and stood up.

“Wait, I have a better idea,” she said.

“What?” Lance asked, a bit confused.

“Why don’t we jump on the bed?” she asked, walking over to the bed Justin was under. She jumped on it right before Justin was able to grab her ankle. Lance muffled a laugh.

“Okay? So, how’d you find my room?” Lance asked, slowly walking over to the bed. The girl was already jumping up and down causing her red hair to fly up and down.

“Justin. He pulled a little prank on me,” she said. “I’m Jewel Peterson.”

“Ah, one of Justin’s many friends,” Lance replied as she pulled him onto the bed.

“No. The only one of them that  still talks to him as person,” Jewel announced, jumping harder. “Come on Lance. Jump!”

Lance began jumping as the door opened. Chris and Joey walked in. They both saw Lance and a really good looking girl jumping on the bed. Chris ran over and joined them.

“Yeah! Let’s act like four-year-olds!” Chris yelled, jumping up and down. “Why are we doing this?”

“To get Justin back!” Jewel cried.

“Why, what did he do?” Joey asked, falling to the ground. He saw Justin trying to get out from under the bed as the three people were jumping on it.

“Oh, he thought it would be funny to change my shampoo with is bleach chunk! However, I didn’t leave it on long enough for it to take affect. Then after I got out of the bathroom I found that he had decided to take all my junk and move it to his room! I went in there only to be bombarded with silly string!” Jewel reported.

“Sounds like a reason to smash Fro-Boy!” Joey decided, jumping on the bed.

“You got me! You got!” Justin yelled. His yells were muffled by the bed every time they all went down.
JC heard all this commotion out side. He was confused because it was coming from Lance’s room. He opened the door to see Lance, Chris, Joey, and Justin’s friend Jewel jumping on the bed. Justin was yelling from under it.

“Break it up, break it up,” JC said, pulling Jewel off the bed.

Once Jewel was off, the guys stopped jumping. Justin slowly crawled out from under the bed. He fell flat on his stomach once he got out. Jewel bent down next to him and looked him over.

“You’re okay. That’ll teach you to mess with me,” Jewel said, rumpling up Justin’s hair even more.

“Yeah,” Justin managed to get out.

“Curly Q is okay,” she repeated.

JC pulled her up to her feet.

“Come on, Peterson,” JC said, dragging her out of the room. “You have caused enough trouble. Just like the old days.”

Lance watched JC drag her out of the room. Joey and Chris went back to jumping on the bed. Justin jumped up and went tearing out of the room. Lance jumped off the bed.

“So much for my nap,” he mumbled, wandering out into the hall…

New Part as of April 2000

Greta stopped reading. She looked out of the window. The bright sunlight was no longer dancing around the room. It was getting dark. Her grandma would be looking for her. She looked around once more for the box. It was still not there.
Greta sighed and got up. She took the book and the new box with her and headed down the staircase.

“Greta, darling, you were up there along time,” her grandma said, meeting her at the bottom of the stairs.

“I know. I was reading this. I found it where I hid my box,” Greta explained, handing her grandma the notebook.

Greta watched her grandma flip through it with a perplexed look on her face. She handed it back to Greta.

“I don’t know where that could have come from.”

Greta shrugged and went to her room. Even if she didn’t know who Lance was she still found what he had written about quiet more interesting than her ho hum life. She sat down in an over stuffed chair and carefully opened the book and once again was transported into Lance’s world…

“Lance!” Justin screamed, pounding on the door. “Open up!”

“If Jewel is after you again, I don’t want to be in the middle,” Lance called out.

“No, I got a job for ya!”

Lance pulled himself away from the TV in his hotel room and opened the door. Justin stood there with that stupid grin on his face. Next to him stood Jewel. She too had a grin on her face, but it didn’t look stupid. They both had their right and left hands behind their backs. They walked in together and sat down on the bed. They held up their hands. Jewel’s right hand was cuffed to Justin’s left hand.

“Help us! JC cuffed us together!”

“At first it was fun, but I gotta go,” Justin whispered.

“I heard that!” Jewel yelled.

“Why did JC do that?” Lance asked.

“To make us get along. I get along fine with Justin, but he just can’t get along with me,” Jewel announced.

“That’s not true!”

“You’re one who always has to pull pranks on me. That’s not me. I just get you back, and I do it better,” Jewel
said, sticking her nose in the air.

Lance let them go on arguing. He pulled out a pin and went to work on the cuffs. He then thought better of it and went to find Chris. Chris was in his room watching some European sports game. From the looks of it he was watching cricket, a sport Chris didn’t know very well.

“I don’t get this! Why did they do that!” Chris yelled, tossing a pillow at the TV.

“Sorry to interrupt, but do you know how to unlock hand cuffs without a key?” Lance asked.

“Why?”

“JC hand cuffed Justin and Jewel together,” Lance explained.

Chris jumped off the bed and ran out of the room.

“My God! My God! This is good!” Chris yelled, running back into his room.

“What? Are they making out?” Lance asked.

Joey’s door flew open.

“Who’s making out!” he asked.

Chris came out of his room with what looked like a small saw.

“Where did you get that?” Lance asked, following him down the hall.

“I wanna know who’s making out!” Joey demanded. “Is it Justin and Jewel?”

Joey followed Lance. Lance followed Chris. JC opened his door and looked around through sleepy eyes.

“What is going on?” he asked.

“Justin and Jewel are making out!” Joey announced loudly.

“What?!” JC shouted. “I thought they would stay out of trouble.”

JC went into Lance’s room to find Justin and Jewel on the bed. Chris was in-between them sawing at the cuffs with a small saw. Justin was singing as loud as he could about objects around the room while Jewel was listing the reasons that Nick Carter was going to beat him up as loud as she could. Joey was sulking in the corner while Lance was looking confused. JC tossed his arms in the air and left the room right before Chris got them undone.

“I did it! I rule!” Chris announced.

“I’m free!!!!!!” Justin shouted.

“NO!” Jewel yelled before she jumped on top of him and pinned him to the bed.

“AHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” Justin screamed.

“Now this is more like it!” Joey said.

“Pillow fight!” Jewel said, picking up a pillow to whack Justin in the face.

Soon everyone was hitting each other with pillows. Justin got out from under Jewel and pinned her after one blow with a pillow. Joey and Chris began hitting Justin to get him off of her. He fell over while yelling, “My hair! Don’t mess up my hair!”

“Mess his hair!” Jewel yelled.

Soon they all moved out to the hall, except Lance and Jewel.

“You know,” Jewel said, “we’re the only ones in here. Curly Q is gone.”

Lance dropped the pillow. He helped Jewel up off the floor.

“Sorry about that,” he said.

“That’s okay. It was fun,” Jewel said, putting the pillow back on the bed.

“So, how do you exactly know Justin?” Lance ventured.

“Oh, I met him on The Mickey Mouse Club,” Jewel said, sitting down on the couch.

“You were on it?” Lance asked, sitting down next to her.

“No way. I didn’t make the cut. My dad was one of the tutors on set. He didn’t like the school systems of America
so he was my teacher. So I had class with Justin and JC, sometimes. If Justin and I goofed around too much I’d get kicked out and set down to school with Britney and all them.”

“Oh, so things changed?” Lance asked.

“Nope. Well, he’s bigger than me now,” Jewel said.

“What I want to know now is why you are on tour with us. Did Justin bring you along so he could always be in trouble?” Lance mused.

#2 New Part as of April 2000

“No, I’m working for MTV. You see, the news department is looking for another guy. And to get the gig they sent a number of us who applied out into the field. I just lucked out to get stuck with you. Everyday for TRL I gotta do a tape reporting on you all,” Jewel explained. “And at the end of the summer we will see who wins. Viewers vote. I’ll win. I’m doing ‘N Sync!”

Lance smiled. “Sure of yourself, aren’t you.”

“Well, with Justin for a friend, I have to be.”

“Oh, really?”

“No. I just really want a job. That’s all. Carson likes me.”

“How do you know?” Lance asked, really not knowing what she meant.

“I don’t know. He just told me he did. He really wants me to win.”

Jewel sat back on the couch. Lance looked out the window and watched the sun dance on the leaves in the trees. He cocked his head a bit, wondering how a tree could grow this high up. He felt someone looking at him. He looked over to see Jewel smiling at him.

“What?” he asked, slightly blushing.

“What are you looking at?” she asked, looking out the window.

“That tree. Well, I think it’s a tree,” Lance explained.

Jewel walked over to the window. She opened it and looked out. She then turned around and motioned for Lance to join her. Lance stood up and walked over.

“You have a balcony. And that is a tree in a pot,” Jewel observed. “You also got a great view of the city.”

“I do, don’t I.”

“Yes. Poor Justin and JC don’t have much of a view,” Jewel said, looking out the window.

“Well, why don’t you go out and enjoy it.”

Jewel jumped out the window and stood on the balcony. She let the wind whip around her. The wind whipped her hair around her face. Lance stood in the room gazing at her. She was so beautiful. Jewel caught him looking at her. Lance quickly looked down.

“My room has the weirdest view. Why don’t you come out here,” Jewel suggested.

Lance shrugged and climbed out…

Greta tossed down the book. She had been reading it all night. She still had no clue why the book had been in her attic. She walked back over to the box and pulled out some of the pictures. She looked at the ones marked “Lance.” He was a good looking boy. The Justin guy had funny looking blonde hair, but other than that he was okay. The JC guy was the best looking. The other two guys had weird looking hair. She tossed the pictures on the floor. She came to another one with that girl in it. She slowly looked at it. The girl was sitting in Lance’s lap and smiling. Great suddenly realized where she had seen that smile before. She jumped up and dashed down the long staircase into the study. Her grandpa looked up from his paper work as she ran to the bookcase.

“Greta, what might you be up to this late at night. You do have to go to school tomorrow,” her grandpa reminded her.

“I know. I just want one of the really old picture books,” Greta explained looking for the one marked 1990’s. She found it and pulled the heavy leather bound book off the shelf.

She made her way up the massive staircase and into her room. She dropped the heavy book on the floor with a thud. She opened it up and looked at the well preserved pictures. After some flipping she came to the picture. There was the girl, a bit older, in one of the massive family photos.

“And the picture said she was a Peterson. I’m lost. Let’s see. I’m a Drannon. My dad was a Drannon and my mom was a Harrison. And her mom was a…Foster. And her mom was a…um…” Greta paused as she looked through the list of names next to the picture. “Bass-Henderson.”

Greta stopped and pulled out the picture of Lance. She flipped it over.

Lance Bass.

“Ooooo, I might be related to him. But I never heard of him. I would know if I had had a famous relative. And he’s in my history book. And where does this Peterson girl get away with being in a family picture?”
Greta picked up the book again and flipped a bit farther into it and began reading…

“You what?” JC asked, shocked at what Lance had just told him.

“I asked her to marry me,” Lance repeated quietly.

“But, but, you just met her!” JC exclaimed.

“No, I met her a month ago. But, I know we’re meant to be together,” Lance said, falling back on to a bed.

JC put his hand on top of his head. This just could not be happening.

“What did she say?” JC asked.

“Yes.”

JC looked down at Lance. He had this love-sick look. He was a goner.  JC walked over and sat down on the bed.

“Does Justin know?” he asked.

“Um….” Lance trailed off.

“Okay, if I didn’t know you two were seeing one another, Justin is going to blow his top if he just finds out that
you two are going to get married,” JC explained.
“Well, that’s why Jewel’s going to tell him,” Lance said.

“Oh, great,” JC said.

They sat there awhile before they heard a scream. Lance ran over to the door. He opened it as Jewel flew into the room.

“Shut the door!” she screamed.

Lance slammed the door shut as someone ran into it. That someone went on banging on it.

“Let me in!” it screamed.

“What is this all about?” JC asked.

“Justin said he’s going to kill me,” Jewel said.

“Really?” Lance asked, sitting down in front of her.

“Well, no. He’s just going to beat my head in because he thought something was up and I didn’t tell him till…” she trailed off.

JC looked at them. They were just looking at one another. JC sighed. They were in love. He opened the door and Justin stumbled into the room.

“I’m ~” he started but  stopped. “God, they’re cute together.”

JC picked Justin up off the floor.

“Yep,” JC said as he dragged Justin out of the room. Lance turned to see them leave.

“See, he didn’t beat in your head. He gave us a compliment,” Lance said.

“Of course he did.”

“You are full of yourself,” Lance said.

“Well, of course I am,” Jewel said, taking Lance’s face into her hands…

Greta stopped reading.

“Yuck! Mush!” she squealed.

She closed the book. She stood up and looked out the window. She wondered who Jewel Peterson exactly was. Her
grandparents prided themselves in telling the world who they were related to. All her life she had been told she was part of the Henderson.com clan. They had more money than the Gate’s did at one point. Greta didn’t know details. She walked over to the book and picked it back up. However, it was blank after the mushy part.

“What? I wanna know what happens!” Greta exclaimed.

She sat down on the window seat to ponder how she’d find out what happened to Jewel and Lance. She then went downstairs into the parlor to ask her grandma. Her grandma sat in a large overstuffed chair reading some old novel.

“Grandma, where would I find out what happened to ‘N Sync?” Great asked.

“Who?”

“They were a dance pop group in the late 1990’s.”

Her grandma scrunched up her nose and shook her head. She then slowly stood up and headed into her grandpa’s study.

“Henry, where are those files with those tapes your dad got when he bought VH1 at the end of TV?” her grandma asked.

“Um, I think they are up in the attic. Why?”

“Greta wants to know what happened to some group called ‘N Sync.”

“Oh, they might have done a Behind the Music. I think. I don’t know.”

“That’s okay,” Greta announced, going to the stairs. She ran up the three flights of stairs and into the attic. She walked into the dark side of the attic. She generally never went to this side. It had always scared her.  You could never see the dust dance in the sunlight over here with all the boxes of old tapes. Greta pulled a dust sheet off the object that was used to view the tapes. She plugged it in. She remembered when her mom had first shown her this thing so long ago. After she plugged it in she went looking thought the metal boxes for the tape. After about an hour of looking she found a tape marked BTM: The Story of ‘N Sync. She carefully pulled it out of the case and stuck it in the viewing machine. She hit
“play.”

“The story of ‘N Sync started out a happy one. Five guys doing what they loved,” the voice said.  “But on a rainy day in the summer of 2002, the dream ended for Justin Timberlake, JC Chasez, Joey Fatone, and Chris Kirkpatrick.”

Greta’s mouth dropped open. They didn’t mention Lance!

“After we lost Lance, we all decided that it wouldn’t be right to go on as ‘N Sync,” Justin explained. “His wife Jewel
agreed.”

Greta sat glued to the show as it traced the group’s career. The ups and downs and everything up till the end of the group that fateful day on July 21st, 2002…

“Lance, do you have to go?” Jewel asked, sitting in the chair. She was almost nine months pregnant.

“Yes. You now that. I have to do a show in Rome,” Lance explained, picking up his small duffel bag.

“Why can’t I go,” Jewel complained.

“The doctor said that you couldn’t fly anymore. I’ll be back tomorrow,” Lance said, kissing her on the head.

“Okay. I’ll just stay here in London. I love you,” Jewel said, holding onto Lance’s hand so he couldn’t leave.

“I love you too,” Lance said, slowly pulling his hand out of her grip. He walked to the door and left the hotel
room…

“Everything went as planned,” the announcer said. “Lance got to the airport and got on the plane. The flight went totally normal till…”

The flight attendant screamed so loud that it woke up Lance. He looked wildly around the plane. The plane seemed to be doing a nose dive. He looked around at the people around him. He realized his fate. He looked out the window to see the sights flying by. He looked across the aisle to see a mother trying to comfort her child who was crying. Lance let a signal tear fall from his eye. He’d never get to see his unborn child cry. He wouldn’t be there to see it grow up.  He’d never be able to kiss it and tell it everything would be okay. As Lance thought about how’d he’d never be able to tell his wife and child he loved them, the plane crashed into the Alps.

Jewel sat up and looked at the clock. She suddenly burst into tears. She knew Lance was gone…

“It was the strangest thing,” the TV Jewel said. “I suddenly sat up and just started crying. I looked at the clock. Later when Justin called me to tell me the time the plane had gone down. It was the same time I had read the time on the clock.”
Greta sat in shock. Lance died in a plane crash. Just like her father. Her mother had died later of what her grandma had called sadness.

“Jewel was devastated, but she moved on. She knew Lance would want her to do. I was there when Helen was born. She was perfect image of Lance, if he had been a girl,” TV Justin said.

The thing showed a five-year-old Helen running around a yard with Jewel running after her. Greta hit the stop button and sat alone in the dark. She then thought better of it, seeing she hated being in the dark and turned it back on just so she’d have some lights.

“The survivors of ‘N Sync went on to do other things. JC went on to produce and he now owns his own record company along with Joey. Joey and Justin opened a bar that they named JLB. Chris now runs the fashion world. Jewel went on to marry the Henderson.com dude, Rob Henderson,” the TV voice was saying as Greta’s grandma opened the attic door.

“Greta, what are you doing? Did you find the tape?” she asked.

“Yes. Did you know we are related to Lance Bass?” Greta asked, standing up.

“Who?”

“The member of ‘N Sync who died in a plane crash,” Greta said, following her grandma down the stairs.

“Oh? How come we didn’t know this?” her grandma asked.

“Because Jewel married Rob Henderson and her child took his name after awhile, but later changed it back,” Greta
explained.

“Oh, yes. Helen Bass Henderson. I remember her stories. No one believed them.”

“Wasn’t Jewel there to back them up?” Greta asked.

“No, her mother died when she was ten or eleven.”

“From what?”

“I think a broken heart. Always missed her first husband. Now off to bed, Greta.”
Greta flopped down on the bed. Her eye caught by the picture of Jewel and Lance on the floor. She picked it up and looked at it. They had the same tragic story her parents had. She stuck the picture in the frame next to the picture of her parents. She sat in the dark looking at the pictures, lit up by the streetlight out along the street. A signal tear trickle down her cheek as she crawled into bed. Funny how two couples, four generations apart, met a similar tragedy.