(The next day)

(Somewhere on I-70)

A very irate Johnny Wright hung up his cell phone. The conversation had not been pleasant. He stopped to talk to the driver, James, for a few minutes, then made his way to the back lounge where the guys of *NSYNC were playing a very vocal game on the Sega Dreamcast.

"Hey, J Man, wuz up?" Chris yelled, taking his eyes off the screen for a second to greet him.

"I don't know, but the shit's gonna hit the fan."

Something in his voice captured his attention. Lance reached over and turned the game off.

"What's up?" Joey asked, setting his controller down.

"Jeremy and Daniel are meeting us at the next rest stop."

"Why?"

"Whatever it is, it has to do with one of those entertainment news shows. What have you done?" He looked back and forth between Chris and Joey.

"Why you lookin' at us?" Chris exclaimed indignantly.

"Cause y'all are the usual suspects," JC said drolly from his perch on the couch. He was splayed out, left leg slung over the back of the couch, his right tapping out some unknown rhythm on the floor. One of his hands was absentmindedly stroking his stomach and the other was carelessly thrown over his head. He wasn't especially worried about whatever the PR guys had to say. They got all wound up whenever the guys were on TV and that was almost every day.

"Hey, I got it!" Lance snapped his fingers. "The Backstreet Boys were scared they couldn't beat our record so they broke up! And they're just coming out here to tell us what to say to reporters." Lance wasn't the funniest guy in the world, but he did have his moments.

"Yeah, really. Especially after all that shit AJ was talking," Justin seconded through all the laughter.

Johnny returned to his cell phone and the endless paperwork. Joey turned the game back on. In seconds, the problem, whatever it was, was forgotten as they immersed themselves in the game.

(An hour and forty-five minutes later)

(At a rest stop on I-70)

Jeremy, looking more uptight than ever, stood in front of his clients who were sprawled out all over the lounge. "This is a copy of last night's Entertainment Tonight." He turned and put the tape into the VCR.

They sat in silence during the two-and-a-half minute report. Daniel Perkins, head of PR for Jive Records, stood up to stop the tape. All eyes turned to Justin.

"What?"

"Didn't I tell you? Didn't I tell you at dinner that you were gonna cause trouble with that girl?"

"Hey, lay off! Don't come at us with shoulda-coulda-woulda's. The guy's allowed to have feelings, right?" Chris defended his friend.

Daniel spoke calmly and slowly, in a very deliberate manner. "Cameras are always on you guys, you know that. You have to be careful about that. You also know that the fans don't like any mention of any of you with girlfriends. Now Madison is being painted as a boy band slut and Justin is in the middle of it."

"Hold up," JC held up a hand as if to stop the man's words. "First of all, Maddie is our friend and if you call her a slut again, I'm not gonna be responsible for what I do. Secondly--"

"You know what?" Justin interrupted JC. He stood, glaring at Daniel. "Fuck you. Fuck you and fuck whatever fickle-assed fans we have that don't want us to have girls."

They all watched in amazement. Justin had never, ever been so blatantly disrespectful and rude to anyone before.

"So what, I like a girl. It isn't the end of the world. Madison is a beautiful girl. Yes, she intrigues me. Yes, I have a crush on her and yes, I intend to ask her out. And you can't do a damned thing about it. I'm sick and tired of y'all trying to run my life and tell me how to live."

Jeremy and Daniel shared a look. Daniel sighed and turned back to Justin. "Look, I understand how you feel, I really do. But you need to understand where I'm coming from. You have TRL next week and I doubt that this will have blown over by then. Carson is going to ask you about her and you're going to have to know what to say. We prepared a statement for y--"

"I know exactly what I'm going to say--the truth. Whatever he or anybody else asks me, I'm going to give them as honest an answer as I can. If you don't like it, you can kiss my ass. I'm gonna leave now before I say anything I might regret."

He walked back to the sleeping area and threw himself in his bunk. He was seething. He was so mad he could scream. He wanted to hit something. He meant every word he'd said. Justin was a very private person but he was aware that because of this, people seemed to want to get inside his head even more. He kept his feelings and emotions to himself and only revealed them through his actions. He wasn't the kind of guy to sit down and spot off a monologue about how the sight of the setting sun makes him feel, he'd simply invite you to watch a sunset with him. But for Maddie, he was pushing all of that aside. For her, he was going to tell the absolute truth…even if it killed him.

The curtain to his bunk was drawn back and four faces peered in at him.

"You OK, kid?"

Against his will, he smiled. "Yeah, I'm cool."

"For real?"

"For real. C'mon, I feel like kicking some ass. Let's play Resident Evil."

"I'm up first!" Joey shouted as they all ran to the back lounge.

(A week and a half later)

(New York City, MTV Studios)

"Hey everybody, welcome back, I'm Carson Daly, bringing you the top ten videos of the day as picked by you, the loyal TRL viewers. Before the commercial break, we left you with a snapshot of our number four video. We have Kaye from NY on the phone. Kaye?"

"Carson! Oh my God, I love you so much, you don't understand. I've been trying to get through for, like, ever just to tell you that I love you! You rock!"

"Aww, that's sweet, thank you. So, Kaye, can you help us out with this video snapshot?"

"I think I can do better than that, Carson," Maddie said as she walked onto the TRL stage, a cell phone to her ear.

"Oh geez! What the hell is this?" Carson said, reaching down to give her a hug. "Dude, nobody ever tells me what's goin' on in this place."

"Yeah, well, I still love you, baby!" Maddie grinned at the VJ.

"Oh geez." He turned to look at his producers standing behind the camera. "We got time? Do we have time? Aw, dammit, I'm gonna make time. Madison Morse, everybody!"

The studio audience went wild.

"What are you doing here?"

"I just taped an episode of Hot Zone with Ananda and then me and her and Dave Holmes and Brian McFayden went out to lunch."

"Cool. Cool. So, uh, what's new with you?"

"Not a whole lot; just trying to figure out a possible tour, we're in negotiations for that. Did the Today Show a couple of days ago, that was a lot of fun."

"Yeah, I saw you on that, you were amazing, as usual. OK, they're signaling me, we gotta get into the number four video. You dig Eminem, Maddie?"

"Man, I'm kinda scared to respond to that. Christina Aguilera said she thought he was cute and look what he did to her!" she laughed. "No, um, I think he's really talented and I love the new CD. I think my favorite song on there is 'Stan.' My dad says he's twisted but then I guess I am, too, cause I totally get what he's saying."

"I hear that. Here he is at number four, Eminem with 'The Real Slim Shady'."

As the video played, Carson and Maddie continued to chat. Carson was truly dumbfounded that the girl was there. He was usually told when any 'surprise' guests were going to stop by.

The video ended and the tech cued the audience to scream.

"That was Eminem at four and standing with me now is Madison Morse. You've had an incredible first month out, the album and single went straight to number one and just stayed there. But here's my question and I know a lot of guys out there are wondering this, too."

Maddie cringed. She'd been asked about this SO MUCH in the last week, she thought she was going to go insane.

"When is the video coming out?"

"Oh, well, we're actually going to be shooting that in about a week or so."

"That's not what you thought I was gonna ask, was it?"

Maddie just smiled and shook her head, sending her hair cascading around her.

"We'll get to that after this video. The number three video today as picked by you guys." He turned to Maddie. "Any idea who it is?"

"Um…Hanson?"

Carson sounded surprised. "That's a good guess, but, no, it's the Backstreet Boys. We'll get to that question you didn't want to answer after that. At number three, it's BSB with 'The One'."

Maddie watched all the madness that goes along with producing a live show for a moment before she spoke. "Take it easy on me, OK?" Maddie said, watching a tech give a random guy from the audience a microphone.

"Aw, girl, got nothing but love for you," Carson tried to reassure her.

"Coming up, our number one video of the day. We gotta take a quick commercial break but after that, I'll be asking Miss Maddie the one thing we're all dying to know. Stick around."

The cameraman zoomed in close on Maddie; she stuck her tongue out and crossed her eyes.

"So how long you gonna be in New York?" Carson asked her.

"Probably another couple of days, I'm not sure."

"We gotta go out, do lunch or something."

"Yeah, that'd be cool."

"You bring us back on," Carson said as a tech with a headset on came and stood directly in front of the camera. "We're back in five, four, three…"

"Welcome back, this is TRL. My name is Maddie Morse and the guy standing next to me with the goody grin is Carson Daly. We're here bringing you the top ten videos of the day and we got the top two coming up!"

"Oh, so you think my grin is goofy? Aiight, aiight. Phil's here in the audience, where are you, Phil? What's your question?"

"Well, first off, Maddie, I just want to say that I love you and that you are the most incredible person."

"Well, I love you, too" Maddie said into her mic. The audience went nuts.

Phil just sat there with a look of awe on his face. "I just forgot my question!"

Madison and Carson laughed. "See what you did?"

"Hey!"

"So since Phil here screwed up, let's go down to Ray in Times Square. Raymond?"

"Yeah, hey Maddie! Sup Carson!" Ray laguhed that incredibly annoying laugh of his. "I'm standing here with Patricia and Patricia says that she's Maddie's number one fan. Ain't that right?"

The girl nodded shlyly.

"What's your question, babe?"

"Well, I heard that your mom used to call you Mimi when you were little and I was just wondering if that was true?"

"Oh my God! How do you know that? Yeah, she was going to name me Madison Michelle but then my dad told her that his first girlfriend was named Michelle and she broke his heart so she changed it to Kaye. How in the world do you know that?"

"Um, I got it off the Internet."

"Figures, you can get just about anything off the Net. Thanks for your question."

"Thanks, Patricia," Maddie said.

"Speaking of questions, I'm sure that everybody knows what's been said about you and the boy bands and…how does that…how do you feel about that?"

"Oh, you mean, how do I feel about being called a boy band whore? Hmm, lemme think. I was pissed. I was extremely pissed. You shoulda heard me yelling at the TV. I don't curse in front of my dad, but he heard some stuff outta me that night."

"I bet."

"Yeah. It was crazy, I'm looking around like 'What the hell was that?' My friend, Wendy, thought it was the funniest thing."

"Yeah, it was kinda funny. Not funny that they were saying THAT, but funny that they we're SAYING that, know what I mean?"

"Exactly! It was weird cause 98.5% of me was just pissed, ready to scream, but the other 1.5% of me was all giddy cause I'm well-known enough to be in the tabloids!"

"Yeah, that's when you really know you've made it, when you're in the tabloids. We gotta get to the number two video. We're gonna talk more on this in a minute. Maddie?"

She turned to the camera and flashed a wide smile. "Here's Hanson at number two with 'If Only'!"

"That was fairly painless, thank you," Maddie grinned up at Carson.

"No problem. Damn, girl, you are short!"

"Yeah, I been short for a while now, you just now noticed?"

"Yeah."

"That was your number two pick of the day and I'm standing here with the Goddess herself, Madison Morse."

"Where did y'all come up with that?" Maddie laughed.

"What? The Goddess of Pop? That's what you are!"

"Whatever." Maddie rolled her eyes at the camera.

"So, back to the whole dinner/boy band thing. What happened there?"

"Nothing! That's the whole thing! The only person I was ever romantically linked to was Brad and everybody knew about that already. As for Jeff and Drew from 98 Degrees, I'm good friends with Jessica Simpson, so yeah, I know them and plus, we all rode over to the after party in the same limo. And the guys of *NSYNC, I was just talking to them. I was kinda pissed at Justin in that one picture of us, but, I mean, he's a guy…he says bonehead guy stuff."

"Bonehead guy stuff? What the hell is that?"

"Oh, whatever, you cannot sit there and tell me that you've never said something to a female and she looks at you and she's like 'WHAT?' cause I know you have. It's a guy thing, y'all all do it!"

"OK, OK, I feel you on that. Speaking of *NSYNC, I guess it's no secret what our number one video is gonna be. *NSYNC at number one when we get back."

Madison looked for Wendy and Nicole sitting in the audience. She motioned them over. She turned to Carson. "Is it cool if they come on for this last video?"

"Yeah, sure, what the hell?" Carson muttered as he tried to fix the mic cord that had someone gotten tangled through his belt loops.

"Can you handle this and not freak out?" Maddie asked Nicole.

The younger girl rolled her eyes. "Yes, Mommy, I promise not to freak out and embarrass you on television."

"Damn right. You, too, Wendy Lou."

But Wendy wasn't paying any attention. She was too busy getting an eyeful of Carson Daly.

"We have about a minute til we come ba--" Carson stopped mid-word as his eyes fell on Wendy. "Who do we have here?"

"My name is Wendy." She stepped forward and put her hand out for Carson to shake.

"Pleasure to meet you, Wendy," Carson said, looking directly into her eyes.

Wendy bit her lip as she stared into Carson's blue eyes. 'Oh, God. The things I'd like to do to him…'

"This is my sister, Nicole," Maddie said, not noticing the sexual tension simmering between her friend and the MTV personality.

"Carson, thirty seconds!"

"You ladies ready?" Carson smiled at them.

"Welcome back, the number one video is upon us. But before we get to that, I think some introductions are in order."

"Well, this is my best friend, Wendy, and my little sister, Nicole."

"We're running out of time here, can you guys take us into the number one song?"

The three girls crowded around the microphone. "Once again at number one, it's *NSYNC with 'It's Gonna Be Me'!"

Chpt 13
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