CHAPTER 17
Kaitlyn walked quickly to Gate 9C to meet Cody as his plane arrived. The limo got to the airport by 9:45am and Cody's flight was on time so she was excited to make it there before he got out of the terminal. There was already a crowd of people waiting for who they were picking up. Within a few minutes she could see her tall, brown spiked hair, blue-eyed brother walk out of the terminal. He made his way through the crowd and Kaitlyn followed his path. They met at the other end of the crowd.
"Hey, wait a minute, I know you. Kitty Kat right?" He said leaning in to give her a big bear hug.
"Oh you! You know I hate that name!", she said pulling him away to look him over, "you've changed! The hair, height, clothes. Am I hugging the right person?"
"YES OF COURSE. Like?" He backed away a little and turned to show her his blue polo shirt and khaki drawstring pants.
"Yes, you look very....preppy?" She started joking.
"Well thanks sis. You don't look to shabby yourself." She did look pretty good. She was in flare jeans and a 3/4 red baby tee.
"Why thank you. So how was the flight?" They started walking off together towards Gate 2A to pick up Jennifer.
"Pretty good. I thought me and Jenni were going to meet you at the hotel?"
"Oh, I wanted to see you guys. And plus we have to pick up my friends family."
"Really? And this friend, would he be part of this NSYNC?" He asked smiling.
"Yes. But he doesn't know that his family is coming to visit him. So it's a surprise." She explained.
"That's always you Kitty Kat. You always did good things for people. So tell me about these guys."
"Well, there's Chris, he's 27, but he acts like he's 5. JC is a real great guy, you'll get along with him well. Then there's Lance, he's from Mississippi, he seems quiet, but once you get to know him, he talks and talks. And Joey, well, words can't express Joey. You'll see why. Then there's Justin, he's a real sweet guy. Real down to earth and a great person to talk to. He's the one who I'm surprising." She said smiling as she finished talking about the guys.
"Wow. They seem like real cool guys. But this Justin guy, you got a thing for him huh?" Cody said grining at Kaitlyn's huge smile.
"Me? Justin? NO! He's seventeen Cody. Why would you think that?" Kaitlyn said starting to blush.
"Cause, you always do something nice for guys you like. An your deep red." He said reminding her of old times.
"That was 5th grade," he looked at her and she continued, "and 8th, okay okay, and 9th, 10th, 11th, 12th, and college."
"See my point?" They sat down and waited for Jennifer's plane to arrive.
"This is different. Justin is one of my best friends. All of them are." She said annoyed.
"Kaitlyn, I know you." Kaitlyn turned her head but he made her face him, "I know you like a book. You've done this before. And like all the other times, you've denied it to yourself and then mess things up when you finally realize you did all this stuff cause you like a guy."
Kaitlyn knew he was right. But she didn't think she had fallen for Justin. At least not yet. She didn't plan on it either. But she was getting fond of him.
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Kaitlyn and Cody became anxious as the lady on the intercom announced that Jennifer's plane had finally landed. They got to the front of the crowd and Cody held the flowers the two of them had bought for her. Jennifer came out in a short black skirt and a baby pink tube top with a matching shrug over it.
"Wow...is that really my baby sister?" Kaitlyn said running up to her.
"Kait! Ohmygosh, it's so good to see you. You like the outfit?" She said smiling.
"It's very California." Kaitlyn said looking at her. It did look good on her. Jennifer was always the pretty one to Kaitlyn. Her long legs and straight red hair and soft green eyes were perfect.
"Remember me?" Cody said coming up behind the two of them.
"Of course I do, doodles!" Jennifer hugged him and the three of them walked off together towards Gate 5B to go pick up Lynn and Justin's father and brother.
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"WE ARE SORRY FOR THE DELAY. BUT FLIGHT 428 FROM MEMPHIS HAS NOW ARRIVED AT GATE 5B." The lady on the intercom announced.
Jennifer and Cody followed Kaitlyn as she got up to go find Lynn. Lynn finally appeared with a cute little boy with straight blonde hair. Right behind her came a tall man with brown hair.
"Lynn, over here!" Kaitlyn called to her. Lynn turned her head in Kaitlyn's direction as she smiled walking over to her.
"Kaityn, thank you so much for inviting us." Lynn said giving her a hug.
"No problem. This must be Jonathan?" She said bending down to shake his hand.
"Yes, he's been excited since we got on the plane."
"Where's Justin? Where's Justin?" He said jumping up and down.
"Oh sweetie, he doesn't know you're here so we need to surprise him, okay?" Kaitlyn said sweetly to him.
Jonathan nodded back and smiled that same million dollar smile that Justin had. They were really brothers, even if it was his half brother. Kaitlyn stood up and smiled at Justin's dad.
"Hi, I'm Justin's father. Randy Timberlake." He said holding his hand out.
Kaitlyn shook his hand smiled, "Justin has been nagging Lou so much about visiting you in Memphis that he even nags me to nag Lou."
"Justin talks a lot about you. I'm glad such a sweet girl as yourself is there to accompany him and the rest of the guys." He said with a kind smile.
"Well, we should be getting back to the hotel. Let me introduce you to my sister and brother. They're here to visit for the holiday. This is Jennifer and this is Cody."
They shook hands and introduced themselves again and the group started walking towards the limo.
Kaitlyn checked her watch and saw it was already 3:30pm. "I'm sure you all would be hungry. Why don't we stop by at some restaurant for lunch. Does Uno sound good?"
All of them agreed and Kaitlyn took out her cell phone to call JC.
"Hello?" JC answered.
"JC? It's Kaitlyn."
"Kaitlyn, where have you been?"
"Don't worry, I'm taking my guests to Uno for lunch. We should be back by five."
"Guests? Oh your sister and brother?"
"Yeah. Well, tell Justin to wear his best tonight."
"Why?"
"Just tell him I want him too. And the rest of you too."
"Alright. See you at five."
"Bye."
"Bye."
Kaitlyn hung up her phone and let everyone else get into the limo before she got in herself. It was a nice size, Randy, Lynn and Jonathan sat on the long end to the left. Jennifer sat by her luggage on the other end of the car and Kaitlyn sat next to Cody opposite. The car ride wasn't quiet, but it wasn't real exciting. They mostly talked about how the tour was going and what was coming up on the tour. Tony drove into the parking lot and parked at the front to open the door for them. Kaitlyn went ahead and put her name down and they waited for a table.
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(Back at the hotel)
Joey and Chris were both in the pool swimming while Justin and JC were playing basketball. Lance was just sitting on one of the lounge chairs on the phone with his sister Stacey.
"Man JC, can you stop making air balls!" Justin said getting bored of JC missing.
"Sorry, I don't know, I just don't feel like playing anymore. I'm going to go get something to drink." JC said walking off slowly.
"Can you get me one too?" Justin asked.
"What's the magic word?" JC toyed with him.
"NOW!" Justin said annoyed.
"Geez, ok all ready. Dr. Pepper alright?" JC asked looking at his angry face.
"Yeah." Justin turned back towards the hoop and continued playing, by himself.
JC walked over to Lance who was reading some letter he had gotten. "Hey Lance." JC waved.
"Hey JC. What's wrong?" Lance could tell JC was sort of mad.
"Ask Justin," JC saw that Lance didn't understand so he went on, "for some reason, Bounce is being really, bouncy."
Lance looked at JC very confused, "for some reason, he's having an attitude. I don't know, usually he's fine after his morning cereal and a few shots. But today, he's hell on big feet."
"Oh man. He must miss not having his dad and mom and little bro around for Thanksgiving." Lance grimaced.
"Well, we all are. But look at Joey and Chris, they could practically careless." He said pointing to Chris who was taking in the water and spitting it back out and Joey was obviously flirting with the waitress.
"Well, that's Chris and Joey." Lance shook his head.
"You have a point. Maybe he doesn't just miss his family." A light bulb lighted in JC's mind.
"What do you mean?" Lance asked.
"Well, who's always around that cheers Justin up in the morning? Besides us." JC tried cluing Lance into what he was thinking.
"Diane, no. Lou, no. Food, no. You don't possibly mean..." Lance's voice trailed off as he knew that JC was talking about Kaitlyn.
"KAITLYN." The two smiled.
"So, what do you think?" Lance tried thinking of how Justin really felt about Kaitlyn.
"Well, obviously our little Curly has become very, what's the word? Attached." JC said.
"You don't think..." Lance said trying to see if JC would catch on.
"That he likes her? Oh yeah." JC smiled and nodded his head.
"And what about Kaitlyn?"
"Well, that's where you come in. Other than Justin, she usually always talks to you. So you need to see if there is even a shred of a crush on Justin in her."
"Alright. Whatever you say." Lance said agreeing.
"Oh, and for now, don't tell Joey or Chris. They'll just get to hyper over it. If they both take the bait, then we'll tell them." JC said grabbing a Dr. Pepper and a coke. He walked back to see Justin still making three-point shots.
"There you are. I've been waiting young man." Justin said jokingly putting his hands on his waist.
"Sorry mommy dearest." JC joked back.
"AHAHAHAHAHA....no!" Justin started cracking up.
"I see your in a better mood." JC noted Justin's better attitude.
"I have been. What you talking about?" Justin acted as if he never said anything bad to JC.
"Never mind. Oh, almost forgot. I talk to Kaitlyn, she said her and her brother and sister would be here by 5:30pm. And she said for all of us, especially YOU, to dress up for tonight's party." JC told him.
"You talk to Kaitlyn? I haven't seen her since yesterday morning, I think she was out shopping before her family came over. Why does she want me to dress up all nice?" Justin asked curious.
"Curly, don't look at me." JC said. "So are you going to dress up?"
Justin gave JC a 'duh' look and answered, "well, yeah. You guys too aren't you?"
"Yeah. Of course. How sweet is that?" JC said with a huge grin.
"What?" Justin asked not looking at him but focusing on the basket.
"You're following Kaitlyn's wishes."
"What do you mean by that?" Justin said angrily.
"Nothing. Just you and Kaitlyn have become really close lately." JC pointed out to him.
"Well, yeah man. She's like the sister I always wanted." Justin said thinking first of what he was going to say.
"Sister huh?" JC said grinning and walked off back into the hotel.
(JUSTIN)
*What was that all about? And why DOES Kaitlyn want me to dress up for
tonight?*
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By six o'clock, the limo finally arrived at the hotel. Kaitlyn got out of the car first to make sure that Justin wasn't anywhere around where he might see Lynn and the rest of them come in. Once it was all clear, Lynn, Randy, and Jonathan quickly got out, checked in and went straight up to their rooms. Then Jennifer and Cody got out and checked in.
"Why don't you have the bell-boy bring those bags up and I'll go introduce you to the guys." Kaitlyn suggested.
"Alright, why don't you two go ahead though. I want to bring my laptop up there myself." Cody said ushering them to go outside to meet the guys.
"Okay. But hurry up, I want you to meet them too. C'mon Jenni, you'll love them, they're are so sweet. But before we go outside, I must worn you, the one with the Superman necklace and goatee, well that's Joey. If he makes a pass at you, tell me. I want to finally have a good reason why I should knee him in the groin."
"Okay." Jennifer laughed.
The two of them walked to the back of the hotel where there was a nice size swimming pool and a basketball and tennis court to the left. Once they walked out, Kaitlyn saw Lance sitting down on one of the lounge chair and she decided to let Jennifer meet him first.
"Here, I want you to meet Lance." They walked over to him and Kaitlyn tapped him on the shoulder.
"Hey Lance. I want you to meet my little sister. This is Jennifer." Kaitlyn said introducing the two of them.
"Hi, nice to finally meet you." Lance said shaking her hand.
"Well, why don't the two of you get to know each other while I go find Justin and JC." Kaitlyn said heading for where they most likely would be at, the basketball court.
She found JC on the bench on the side of the court lying down and resting. Justin was playing by himself and he didn't look too happy.
"Hey you two." She said waving at them to get their attention.
"YEAH! Kaitlyn's back." Justin said dropping the ball and running over to her to hug her.
"I missed you too Justin." Kaitlyn said out of breath since Justin practically hugged it out of her.
"Well, you know I went to go pick up my sister and brother. They're here. I want you to come meet them." She said walking back towards the garden.
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(Back at the garden)
Jennifer and Lance were getting along pretty well. That was until Joey and Chris came up to the two of them. Joey looked her up and down then smiled at Lance.
"Lance! Why didn't you introduce me to your lovely friend here?" Joey said coming up to her.
Lance about to introduce the two when Jennifer mouthed to him ask if it was Joey. Lance nodded back and Jennifer put a sly smile on her face.
"And you would be?" Jennifer asked.
"Joey Fatone. At your service." Joey said giving her a flirty grin.
"Nice to meet you. I'm Jennifer."
"Well nice to meet you Jennifer." Joey took her hand and kissed it.
"Such a gentleman." Jennifer giggled.
"Only if you want me to be." Joey said with an evil grin.
"Well, that's entirely up to you. But you might just want to back off." Jennifer said playfully warning him.
"And why is that?"
"Cause she's my little sister Joey!" Kaitlyn said coming up behind him.
"What? Wait a minute, your Jennifer?" Joey said pointing at her.
"Didn't I say my name was Jennifer?"
"Umm...." the whole group laughed at the thought of Joey at a loss for words.
"Well, let me introduce myself again. My name is Jennifer. As in Kaitlyn's sister." She said holding out her hand to shake his.
"Nice to meet you." Joey said shaking her hand.
"There you go, a proper introduction. Remember this Jenni, this is very rare. Especially for Joey." Kaitlyn joked. "but anyways, that is Chris right there and these two are Justin and JC. The group introduced themselves and shook hands.
"You know what, there's almost a striking resemblance." JC said looking at the two as they stood side by side. The only difference was that Kaitlyn was just a little bit taller than Jennifer.
"That's a first. Where's Cody, have you seen him?" Kaitlyn said turning to ask Jennifer.
"I'm right here." Cody said standing right behind her.
"Oh great. Cody I want you to meet JC, Joey, Chris, Lance and Justin. Everyone this is my brother Cody." She introduced them.
"So you're Justin? Kitty Kat talks about you all the time." Cody said.
"CODY!" Kaitlyn whined.
"Really?" JC said since Justin was blushing way too much to talk.
JC and Lance turned to each other then to Justin, then to a very humiliated Kaitlyn then to each other then nodded.
They all shook hands and said hi. They decided to go inside and all get ready for the party that night.
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(Jennifer's room)
Jennifer was halfway done when Kaitlyn knocked on her door.
"Kaitlyn, I thought you said that party was at seven. It's already 6:30. Why aren't you dressed?" Jennifer said looking at her. Kaitlyn was in a blue robe with her hair in a towel.
"I was going to wear this red dress but I just remembered that I haven't altered it yet and I have no high heels. Help me please." Kaitlyn showed Jennifer the dress. It was a simple red sleeveless long dress. But it didn't fit Kaitlyn well.
"Kait, that whole dress isn't going to work with the color of your hair at all!" Jennifer said taking the dress and throwing it onto her bed.
"Then?I have nothing else to wear." Kaitlyn whined.
Jennifer shook her head and pulled Kaitlyn into the room.
"You're going to wow everyone at that party when I'm through with you! Especially Justin." Jennifer commented.
"Justin?" Kaitlyn said confused.
"Yes Justin. I saw the looks you've been giving him. Truthfully sis, you know you like him."
"That's crazy." Kaitlyn said as she sat down on the bed.
"Call it whatever you want. But I call it love." Jennifer said smiling.
(Kaitlyn)
*Me? In love with Justin? No.......well, no! Kaitlyn think! He's
seventeen! But.....no but's! NO!*
"When Im done fixing you up, Justin won't even know what hit him."
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(Justin and JC's room)
"Do you think this shirt looks good with this suit?" Justin asked JC.
"Jusitn! I have agreed with you with the past ten shirts you've tried on. Decide already!" JC say annoyed.
"Well, sorry. I just wanted to look good..." Justin's voice began to trail off to a mumble which JC couldn't hear.
"And who for?" JC asked with an evil grin.
"Well, nobody special." Justin said thinking.
"Nobody special as in 5'8", long legs, curly red hair and blue eyes?" JC said describing Kaitlyn.
"How do you know she has long legs?" Justin asked curious.
"Umm..." JC thought for a moment, "that's not the subject. We're talking about Kaitlyn here."
Justin looked at him as if he didn't know what he was talking about, "JC why would you think I was dressing up for Kaitlyn?"
"Because you like her. You know it Curly!" JC said pointing at him.
Justin couldn't wiggle out of JC's comment. He just turned around and walked into the bathroom.
(JC)
*Oh yeah, he likes her!*
(Justin)
*JC's crazy. Me? Kaitlyn? No...but...no! I don't....NO! She's older
than I am. She's my best friend. That's all, my best friend!*
* * * * *