Maddie sat on the front porch, a
cordless phone pressed to her ear. She was waiting to be put through to Carson
and the live TRL audience. She sat amidst piles and piles of luggage…enough for
her and Wendy for four and a half weeks on the road.
A car horn honked,
getting her attention. She looked up and smiled and waved to the car full of
girls as they drove past.
That had been the newest development in her
life. Somehow some fans had gotten ahold of her address. Maddie had come home
from rehearsal on more than one occasion to find strange people sitting in her
living room, anxiously awaiting her return. She could tell that some of them
were excited to see 'Justin Timberlake's girlfriend' but the majority of them
were there for her.
She didn't mind. She got a kick out of talking to
them, seeing the excitement on their faces. It amazed her that someone could get
that worked up over her. It energized her, no matter how tired she was from
practice.
Jacob, on the other hand, had just about had a fit. It was a
bodyguard's worst nightmare. Strange people, unknown people, traipsing all over
the Morse house as if it was a tourist attraction. He'd tried in vain to explain
to Maddie and her family why they couldn't keep inviting these strangers into
their house, especially in light of what had happened to Jake and the cat. It
didn't matter that the majority of the visitors were teenaged females, they
still posed a very real threat. Even Jake, the one person Jacob had thought
would agree with him, had sided with his family, claiming that they were doing
no harm in showing hospitality to his sister's fans. Even with casts on his leg
and arm, Jake had a commanding presence and his tone had indicated that that was
the end of the discussion.
So Jacob had surveillance cameras installed.
One was in a very conspicuous place to capture the license plates of the cars
that pulled up to the Morse house. Two others, discreetly hidden, panned the
interiors of those cars. The cameras were there for insurance; if something did
go down, there wouldn't be a way to prevent it but at least they would have a
way to track down the culprit. Jacob had to content himself with that. He also
made it a point to have Maddie gently tell her fans to please not share her
address with anyone else.
As she waited for Carson to come on the line,
Maddie thought back to these last hectic few weeks.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
(Three weeks earlier)
(New
York-Jive offices)
"You for real? I can't go?"
"Is your name
Britney?" Maddie feigned annoyance but couldn't stop the edges of her lips from
turning up in a smile.
Justin smacked his lips. "No," he scowled.
"Then you're not invited."
The pair stood in the hallway outside
the conference room, waiting for the others. Joey and Chris had gone ahead to
call the elevator. Chris's plan was to hold the 'DOOR OPEN' button until
everyone had boarded, never mind any others in the forty-seven floor building
who might want to use the cable car.
"Damn Maddie, I ain't seen you in
almost a week and then you don't even wanna go eat with me?"
"Ay mami,"
Romero said as he and the others filed out of the room, "he's so cute when he
pouts," the portly man gushed and reached over Maddie's shoulder to pinch
Justin's cheek.
"Tu sabes?" Maddie turned to her manager with a grin.
"Estan listos?"
Romero nodded.
"Cheer up, J," Lance said as the
entourage walked down the hall. "Larry and Johnny planned for everyone to eat
together so we can figure out how to pull this thing off."
Justin, an
ear-to-ear grin decorating his face, reached out and grabbed Maddie's hand. He
pulled her to him as they all crowded onto the elevator.
"Maddie, you
weren't gonna eat with him?" Johnny asked.
"No!" Justin sounded like a
petulant ten-year-old. "She was gonna go with Britney and they were gonna talk
about me."
"Oh, we're still gonna do that," Maddie assured him and
turned so that she could lean against him. Justin raised his hands and wrapped
them around her waist.
"Man," Larry chuckled, "where is the love?"
Maddie grinned and sang, "Where is the love that we used to know, our
love."
JC frowned. "What song is that?"
"Shut up!" Maddie gaped
at him.
Lance punched him in the arm as the elevator stopped on the
ground floor. "Man, you betta know that song, we recorded it."
"We did?"
JC's eyebrows shot up to his hairline and his voice went up an octave in his
surprise.
Lance's smooth bass rumbled, "I will give you the best of my
life. Yes, I'll give you all that you need. Anything that you want I will give
it to you."
JC nodded in recognition then looked back at Romero and
Maddie who gaped at Lance from the elevator. "Y'all comin' or what?"
"Damn, Lance," Maddie breathed as they stepped off the elevator.
"For real," Romero agreed. He grabbed Lance's arm and pulled him to him.
"Sing it, papi!"
Lance smiled and blushed.
"Now he," Romero
looked at Maddie and pointed to Lance, "is lethal."
Thirty minutes
later, Maddie shared one last quick kiss with Justin then scooted out of the
car. Romero held the door, his head turned away. It was an obvious attempt to
show that he had not been watching. Which was a moot point since Justin and
Maddie had been making out for the last seven minutes. Probably more like ten.
Romero had glanced into the backseat, wondering why their conversation had
ceased. Justin was sprawled out all over the seat, his back resting against the
door, his legs across Maddie's lap. His hands framed her face as they shared a
very wet, very long kiss. The car lurched slightly as Jacob braked to avoid
ramming into the tail end of the car that had just cut him off. Romero looked to
check on Justin and Maddie and saw that they hadn't moved, were still kissing.
He'd smiled as he turned to face the front. He checked his watch. 11:37.
He'd glanced back at them again at 11:41. Still kissing.
And at
11:44 when Jacob had pulled the car to a stop in front of the restaurant, they'd
still been kissing. They only stopped when Jacob had announced that "We're here"
and even then, he had to say it twice before they heard him.
Justin
stepped out of the car. Romero gave him a knowing look that made him blush and
smile, then shrug his shoulders. He grabbed Maddie's hand and led her inside.
Mike was waiting for them and they followed him to an alcove at the back of the
room where three or four tables had been pushed together to accommodate their
large group. They were the last ones to arrive.
Chris had persuaded the
others to set it up so that there were no two empty chairs together. He wanted
to see Justin's reaction when he realized that he wouldn't be able to sit next
to Maddie.
Justin took one look at the set-up and shook his head. He
checked again, to be sure, before he spoke. "Y'all know this ain't gone work."
Chuckling, Joey got up and moved over so that he sat next to Johnny.
"Whipped!" He imitated the crack of a whip.
Justin pulled Maddie's chair
with his right hand and flipped Joey off with his left.
"Justin."
The voice held a note of warning and censure.
Maddie and Justin
turned to the speaker. Justin groaned silently as he sat and pulled his chair
closer to Maddie's. Maddie bit her lip; she recognized the voice but not his
face.
Seeing her confusion, the newcomer introduced himself. "I'm Jeremy
Costa, *NSYNC's public relations representative."
Maddie nodded,
recognizing the name from the phone conferences they'd had when Justin had
dropped the bomb on TRL about his feelings for her.
"I know you're
probably wondering why I'm here. Since you all are Jive artists, we have to make
sure that this goes off well."
"This?" Lance paused in giving his order
to Jaime, a brunette with short hair and piercing blue eyes.
"This thing
you guys are planning…the touring…it could be huge. If," he emphasized the word,
"all goes well. But it also has the potential to be fatal to your careers.
Especially considering that…" he trailed off, looking at Justin and Maddie who
were sitting very close together. Justin's arm rested across the back of
Maddie's chair and her hand rhythmically stroked the inside of his knee.
"Considering what?" Maddie challenged.
"Well, considering…THAT,
the way you two are. It's too much. People are going to start to wonder about
your sex lives."
Maddie gave an overexaggerated gasp and lunged away
from Justin. "You have a sex life? Why didn't anyone tell me about this?"
The others laughed at her play.
Maddie shook her head and rolled
her eyes. "You know, the girlfriend is always the last to know. Are you the
other woman?" She pointed to Britney, a fierce look on her face.
Laughing, Britney held her hands up. "Don't look at me."
Joey
stood, knocking his chair to the floor. "I cannot tell a lie. It was me!"
Maddie's face was a caricature of shock. "Joey? You cheated on me with
Joey?"
Catching on, Justin fell to his knees in front of her. "I'm so
sorry, baby. But how could I resist? He's the Italian Stallion!"
Maddie
pretended to mull this over. "All right…but make sure that it's only him. I
don't wanna come out to see you and walk in on the middle of an *NSYNC orgy."
Lance mouthed to JC, '*NSYNC orgy?' Both men made faces of disgust.
Maddie looked back at a red-faced Jeremy and sobered up. As Justin and
Joey took their seats, she tried to pacify him. "Jeremy. Chill. We're not
talking about trying to end poverty in the Middle East. It's a tour. We're
singers. We," she pointed to Justin and herself, "are teenagers."
"Exactly, and in this day and age, when people see how you two act
together, the first thing they're gonna wonder is if you're having sex, which-"
"Which is none of their damned business." Justin spoke quietly but
fervently.
Instinctively, Maddie began to rub his knee in an effort to
soothe him.
"OK, before we move on, Jeremy, why don't you tell us what
it is you'd like us to do."
"So, you agree with me?"
"No,"
Maddie corrected. "I wanna hear what you want us to do and then we're going to
tell you what we're going to do. Whether the two agree or not…" she shrugged.
Jeremy took a deep breath to calm himself down. He really didn't like
that girl. He'd described her to his wife as 'a colossal pain in my ass'. He
knew what he was about to say was not going to go over well. "Well-and this is
coming from Daniel Perkins, not me-no public displays of affection, no
unauthorized statements to the press, no visiting each other on tour, no
sleeping in the same hotel rooms-"
Justin laughed, interrupting Jeremy's
spiel. He raised an eyebrow.
"Y'all already know we're gonna break the
rules. Why would you worry about us staying in the same room if we're not
supposed to fly out to see each other?"
Jeremy cut off what he was going
to say when Jaime appeared with their food. She had to have another server
follow her with another tray in order to get all the food out to them.
"I love this place," Joey said as Jaime placed his plate of pasta in
front of him.
"Yeah, Stephano's is the best," Chris agreed.
They
all thanked Jaime who seemed a bit flustered by their praise.
Before
Jeremy could start again, Johnny intervened. "Can y'all discuss that later? We
got other stuff to worry about."
He, Romero, Larry and Fee (AKA Felicia
Cullota who, Maddie found out, was Britney's traveling companion), all whipped
out their date books.
The *NSYNC tour had already begun and Britney's
was set to premiere in Phoenix, Arizona in a little less than a month. It was
decided that Maddie would help Britney open her tour and help *NSYNC close
theirs with about three weeks in between the two. Rehearsal dates were set and
recorded.
Justin was a very happy camper. Britney's tour began on an off
day for the guys. They were scheduled to do a photo shoot but Johnny thought he
could re-arrange that so the guys could be there to kick off the girls' tour.
Jeremy fumed through this. They were all blatantly ignoring what he'd
said about not visiting each other on tour.
Maddie sat quietly, content
to let Romero handle this end of things. Then the enormity of the situation hit
her. Her fingers clenched in Justin's thigh as her body tensed.
He
winced and pried her fingers loose. "What's wrong, babe?"
She turned to
him, eyes wide with realization. "I've never done a concert before and y'all
expect me to open for Britney Spears? Do you know how many people are gonna be
there?"
"You'll be fine," Britney assured her. She been relatively quiet
thus far, engaging in a private conversation with JC and Lance. "That's how I
was when I opened for these guys." She waved her hand to encompass the group. "I
had done a few shows, radio stuff, but I wasn't prepared for all that. I saw you
on the MTV Awards, you'll do great."
Maddie tilted her head and regarded
the other girl. "Come to the bathroom with me?"
"What is the deal with
chicks going to the bathroom together? Do they wipe each other or something?"
Chris wondered as they walked away.
"Chris, man," JC protested, "I'm
trying to eat here."
In the bathroom, Maddie took care of her business
and went over to the sink to wash her hands. Britney walked out of her stall to
the sink next to hers. Their eyes met in the mirror and they smiled briefly at
each other. Maddie grabbed a paper towel to dry her hands as Britney washed
hers.
"I just wanted to apologize…for all that stuff I said."
Britney waved a wet hand in dismissal, flinging drops of water onto the
tile floor. But Maddie went on.
"I was judgmental, I was arrogant, I was
rude and I'm sorry."
Britney smiled again as she dried her hands. "You
actually did me a favor. I kind of needed to hear that." She tossed the paper
towel in the trashcan and turned to face Maddie. "I kinda let all this 'pretty,
pretty pop star' go to my head. Like, Larry and Fee were telling me the same
thing but I just thought they were being, like…too critical or something. But
then you said basically the same thing and you didn't even know me so it was
like whoa. A total slap in the face." She paused for a moment. "But I needed
that."
The two girls looked at each other for a moment. Then Maddie
stuck her hand out.
"Truce?"
Britney smiled and surprised the
other girl by pulling her into a hug. "There never was a war."
The rest
of the lunch went by quickly with a lot of joking and laughter; with Justin and
Maddie pointedly ignoring Jeremy and his edicts and being their typical loving
selves-touching, kissing, caressing.
In the weeks that followed, Maddie
decided on a set list, helped choreograph three other songs and perfected them
with her dancers. The routine for 'Come On Over Here' had to be reworked without
the male dancers. She worked extensively with Rita, a breathing coach, to learn
more techniques to keeping up her stamina and her voice as she performed. After
watching a tape that Britney mailed to her of one of her first shows with *NSYNC
and seeing how the guys did a dance break where they came out on the stage with
no mics and just danced their little hearts out, Maddie decided that she wanted
to have a dance break too. It was to a mix of songs: 'Back That Thang Up' by
Juvenile, 'Bling Bling' by the Cash Money Millionaires, 'Tha Block Is Hot' by
the Lil Wayne, and mixes of two other songs that Maddie didn't recognize. She,
Kendra, Von, Kristy and Wendy had put in eighteen hour days to perfect the fifty
minute set.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Maddie tapped her finger on
the armrest as she waited.
"Miss Morse?"
"I'm still here."
"OK, Carson will be on in ten."
Maddie looked up as Mike and
Travis dragged the rest of her luggage on to the porch. She was yelling at
Travis not to drop her make-up kit when she heard Carson's voice come on the
line.
"Maddie?"
"Yeah, Carson, hi."
She could hear
Carson grinning over the phone. "I love talking to you, you have the cutest
accent."
"Oh my God, I sound like a big ole hick. Like, when I'm in
Texas, I don't even notice it, but when I travel, I hate to listen to myself
cause I sound horrible," Maddie laughed.
"Oh, no, I beg to differ. And I
know there's a lot of guys out there who agree with me. Right, fellas?"
Maddie heard cheering from the studio audience.
"So what's next
on the agenda for you?"
"I'm actually sitting here waiting for my tour
bus. We're fixing to meet up with Britney in Baton Rouge, have a couple of days
of rehearsal there and then go open the show in Phoenix on Wednesday."
"Fixing to," Carson laughed at the term. "Uh, for those of you who don't
know…which should be like, nobody, unless you've been living under a rock,
Maddie is touring with none other than Britney Spears."
"Yup. It's three
weeks with Britney, then I have about three weeks off, then three weeks with
*NSYNC."
"Uh oh."
"What?" Maddie grinned, already knowing what
he was going to say.
"You and Justin on tour together? That might not be
such a good idea."
"Don't go planting ideas in people's heads. That's
how rumors get started."
"My deepest apologies, I'm so sorry. Can you
ever forgive me?"
Maddie sighed. "I guess."
"We gotta get-she
did that so graciously," he chuckled. "We, uh, we gotta get into the number two
video here. It's you with 'Uninvited'. Tell me a little bit about this video.
The dancing in it just blows me away, you got some major talent."
"Oh,
well, thank you. Actually, the video was shot twice. The first time, there was a
fire and some of the films got destroyed. The first one was of me dancing with
scenes of couples cut into it but when I went in to rehearse to shoot it the
second time, the director, who's actually a friend of my brother's, was like
'Why don't we just have you dancing?' and that ended up being what we went
with."
"And that's all you dancing?"
"It's all me. That's why
there's so many shots of my face, to show that it wasn't a body double."
"Wow. Thanks for calling in Maddie and we wish you all the best with the
tours. There's gonna be tapes, right?"
"Huh?"
"Y'all are making
tapes of this?"
"Oh yeah, um, they want to do a behind-the-scenes look
at what goes on during a tour. But this'll be more in-depth than people are used
to seeing. Like, the cameras will be on us basically twenty-four seven."
"So it'll be the like pop version of the Real World."
"Basically, yeah," Maddie laughed.
"Thanks for calling, Maddie.
Touch back with us so we can see how the tours are going."
"All right.
Bye Carson."
"Talk to ya later. Here she is at number two, Maddie Morse
with 'Uninvited'."
