(The next morning at the arena)
"Stage crew over there! Put up those lasers to the side!" yelled the stage manager.
People were bustling everywhere, putting up stage equipment, fixing the stage, putting up lights, photographers were there...it was crazy. Kathryn was standing in awe, piano music in hand, when a sudden yell jolted her to her senses. "All band members, meet in Stage Room #4 to rehearse. All band members...Stage Room #4."
Kathryn knew that *N SYNC would be practicing with them today, and so she brushed her brown hair back, nervously. She made her way through the frenzy carefully, occasionally bumping into people. She could just avoid all eye contact with the boys and concentrate solely on her music. That would probably be best anyway. Kathryn sighed nervously. This practice would be one of the last together until the concert. She finally reached Stage Room #4, and walked in, peeking her head in and reaching the piano. She sat on the chair, and waited patiently. She was the first person there.
After a few minutes, the rest of the band trickled in. Lon, the drummer, Ronnie, the guitarist were all she remembered. The band waited patiently, warming up a little, playing a few scales and some of their music. Kathryn had most of her music memorized, and played a little bit of I Want You Back, adding her own jazzy feel to it. She grinned at her final production, which sounded a lot different from the real song.
Suddenly, the door burst open. One fast and one slow figure made their way into the room. "Haha, BASS! I AM VICTORIOUS!!! That's right! Who's the masta'?! C'mon! Who's the MASTA?!" crowed Justin clapping his hand.
Lance rolled his eyes. "You're the masta'. Basketball isn't really a good sport anyway. Jet-skiing is much better, and more athletic." said Lance, crossing his arms over his chest.
"Sure. Two words for you Lansten...SOUR GRAPES!!! Ooh, yeah...I'm the masta....get ready...uh huh!" said Justin doing a little victory dance. "What was dat' score, Bass? That's right...50-9!"
Lance rolled his eyes again and looked at his watch. Looking at his watch, then at the door, obviously wondering where the other 3 members of *N SYNC were. He shrugged, hoping they'd come soon. Seeing the band, which he seemed to all know, except for Kathryn, he slapped hands and chatted with them, going around the half circle. Finally he reached Kathryn. "You must be the new pianist, right?" said Lance with a welcoming smile.
"Yeah, that's me." said Kathryn, looking down at the keys of the piano and fiddling with them.
"It's great to have you on tour with us." said Lance, extending his hand.
Kathryn took it, and Lance was a little surprised by her firm handshake. Kathryn seemed like she was shy to him. Sure, she was a pretty girl, and seemed shy, but Lance was good at sensing things about people. Kathryn seemed more withdrawn than shy. Lance could easily picture her talking and laughing with a group of friends. Most people on the tour talked to them after a few meetings. She'd avoided Justin and Chris, said nothing at the restaurant, not even grinned at them, and barely talked to him. She'd probably warm up to them as the tour went on...right? He hoped. After all, they did need a "mission" for this tour, and if she didn't warm up to them, then they could try and....Lance shrugged off his thoughts, and nodded his head at her, then went to go talk to Justin.
The two men were arguing over which sport was better, basketball or jet-skiing, when 2 more *N Sync members walked into the room. "I swear! That girl was checkin' me OUT!" said Joey, grinning, blowing on his fingernails, swiping them across his shirt.
"Whatever! She was totally lookin' at me!" said Chris indignantly.
"You have a GIRLFRIEND, Chris!" exclaimed Joey.
"So? That doesn't mean she wasn't checkin' me out! Which, might I add she was." finished Chris with a smug smile.
Joey rolled his eyes. "Sure, Chris, sure." All of a sudden, Joey seemed to realize there were other people in the room. "Oh! Hi everyone!" said Joey, flashing a million-dollar grin at everyone. He nodded his head at the band, acknowledging them. His rich, brown eyes scanned the room and landed on Kathryn. His eyes brightened. That must be the pianist girl! Yeah, it was! Wow, usually they didn't have pretty girls on the tour, last time was only Britney and her dancers and they were really stuck up... they really hit it lucky this time.
He walked over to her casually, and leaned his elbows on the piano. Kathryn had heard that he was the "flirtatious" one of the group, and wondered if what they said was true. It could be that it was all a stereotype.
"Why, hello, sweets," he said flirtatiously. "I seem to have lost my way. Is this heaven? Cuz' you sure do look like an angel..." he said drilling his eyes into hers.
Well, at least she knew the flirtatious persona wasn't a stereotype. Blushing wildly, Kathryn looked around, avoiding his eyes. Thankfully, the door opened, and in stepped the last member of *N Sync. The guys walked up to him and slapped hands. It was JC. He walked in, blue eyes twinkling, some papers in hand.
"Hey ya'll! Sorry for being late!" he called out, grinning.
"What's new?" said Lance, joking.
"Hey!" cried out JC. "I'm not ALWAYS late!"
"Yeah, you are!" said Justin and Chris in unison, slapping hands.
"Whatever, man!" said JC. "Anyway, we're off schedule...so c'mon, let's get this started! Johnny couldn't come, and neither could the stage manager, because it is absolutely crazy out there, so I'm in charge. For today, that is." The guys "oooohed" pretending to act all shocked and excited.
"Big man on campus! We bow down to you, oh revered master!" said Chris throwing himself at JC's feet. JC rolled his eyes, and looked over at the band members, saying hi to all of them, giving Kathryn an extra big smile. "You guys know the order of the songs, right?"
The band members chorused "Yeah."
"Uh, okay, so let's take it from the top."
They played all the songs, starting with No Strings Attached, all through Bye, Bye, Bye. The entire rehearsal went shockingly smoothly, with a few mistakes here and there, which were very minor. The boys danced to some of the songs, impressing Kathryn with their talent and synchronization.
JC noticed Kathryn didn't speak much, and was quiet. However, he noticed she had tremendous talent at the piano. Her fingers flew over the keys effortlessly, it seemed and she barely glanced at her music. When the band and guys made jokes, she chuckled a little quietly, seemingly not wanting to be noticed. JC noticed she made no eye contact with any of the guys, and in between songs, looked down at the keys, or just played a scale or two.
As the rehearsal ended, JC yelled out, "All right, guys! Great job, we're gonna do awesome tonight! Me and the guys gotta head over to practice some dance moves in about 15 minutes, and a photo shoot I think, but we'll see you at sound-check!" The band nodded, and the 5 men stayed around to talk to the band for a few minutes. Kathryn noticed Joey heading over to her, and prayed for a distraction. God must've been listening to her prayers just then, because her cell phone started ringing.
Sighing with relief, she reached into her purse and dug out her phone. Excusing herself, she walked into the hallway, standing to an edge. The hallway was relatively empty, and Kathryns walked over near a corner, leaning against the wall. She answered the phone. "Hello?" she said.
"Kathryn!" came a familiar voice over the phone.
"Nana!!!!!" squealed Kathryn. Kathryn had completely forgotten to call Nana, and was glad to hear her voice.
From inside the room, Justin heard a faint girlish squeal. It didn't sound like a crazy 10-year old, so Justin cautiously popped his curly head into the hallway and looked around. Seeing only Kathryn in the hallway, he rubbed his eyes in disbelief. His eyes slowly widened as he saw Kathryn chatting in a lively tone to someone on the phone.
He popped his head back in to the room. Signaling to Lance, Joey, Chris, and JC, he called them over. "Guys! You gotta see this!" he whispered, glancing at Kathryn, making sure she didn't hear them.
They came over. "Whaddya want, Chia?" asked Chris.
"Funny, Chris. Look! It looks like little Ms. Shy, isn't very shy to everyone." he said, gesturing to Kathryn.
"Oh Nana!" said Kathryn. "It's great to hear your voice! I'm so, so, so sorry I haven't called. The schedule has been absolutely hectic, and it kinda slipped my mind, and then I've been practicing...."
Nana interrupted, "It's all right, I expect you would've called sometime today, but it's lonely in the house, and I needed to hear your voice. I do believe I've gotten a little too used to it." said Nana, sheepishly on her end of the phone.
"I would've, probably Nana. Guess what?!" said Kathryn, excitedly.
"Yes?" said Nana curiously. Kathryn hadn't sounded this excited in a long time.
"Our first concert is tonight!" she said jumping up and down a little.
"Oh, Kitty-cat! That's great! No, that's fantastic! You must take pictures!!!!!!!" said Nana, equally thrilled.
"Well, I dunno if I can take pictures of myself..." said Kathryn teasingly.
"Kathryn...always the riot. So dear, are you eating all right? Everything fine? The buses okay?"
"Oh, they're just great. Really, I never thought that the buses could be so cool!" Here, her eyes lit up, and she began talking animatedly, "The bunks are so much more softer and comfortable than I originally thought they would be! Mouse is so well behaved on it too..." Kathryn continued talking about the buses, gesturing with her hands.
Joey, Chris, Justin, JC, and Lance stared at her, mouths agape. "Hold up. What happened to the blushing girl that ran away from us?!" said Chris incredulously.
"Or the girl who didn't answer me when I flirted?!" demanded Joey.
"Or the girl who ran away from me on the balcony!" complained JC, confused.
The other 4 men turned to him. "Balcony? What balcony?" asked Lance. "Oh yeah." said JC sheepishly, scratching the back of his neck. "She was pointing at constellations and stuff and I tried talking to her last night. She answered a little too, but ran inside after a few minutes."
The other 4 men nodded. "Thanks for telling us, JC." said Justin a little sarcastically.
Kathryn heard a noise, and sharply glanced at where they were standing, and the men quickly leaped back in the room. Kathryn shrugged and kept talking to Nana. Then, Chris rubbed his hands together. He gestured for the others to come closer. "GROUP PLAN!" he cried.
All together, he began. "Well, men, I think we have our work cut out for us this tour...Mission: Kathryn."
"What do you mean?" asked JC, curiously.
"By the end of this tour, we need to make her our friend. Good friend. What do you think?" he said, looking around at the others.
Three of the others looked at each other and nodded vigorously, JC a little hesitantly. He shrugged and nodded along with the others. "But what if she doesn't want to be friends with us?" asked Lance, curious.
"That's where my master-mind comes in. She doesn't have a choice to leave. We have 3 months, she can't get away from us...she signed a contract, so she can't quit without a valid reason, she plays in our band, has to come to every sound check, stays in every hotel with us. This makes it all depend on US. We have to be convincing, conniving and sneaky enough to creep through her shell and make her our buddy. So whaddya say? Mission Kathryn okayed?" asked Chris.
"Okayed!" chorused Justin and Joey, Lance shrugging and nodding. "Why not?" said Lance.
"Hold on!" cried out JC.
"What?" asked Joey.
"I dunno about calling it Mission: Kathryn. I just wanna try and make friends with her...after this, we don't refer to it as Mission: Kathryn. Doesn't that sound kind of degrading? Like she's an object...that just sounds too fake, ya' know?" said JC, looking concerned.
The guys shrugged. "Okay, whatever you say, we won't call it Mission: Kathryn after this. But anyway, now we have something to do in our spare time. Perfect." said Justin.
(Meanwhile...)
"Yeah, Nana. The food is good. No, I'm not friends with the guys of *N Sync. I kinda promised myself to stay away from them. I'm just going to try my hardest to avoid them this tour. I don't really know how to make friends, I'd never be able to be comfortable around them, they probably don't wanna get to know me, and you know." said Kathryn uncomfortably, as Nana interrogated her about the boys.
"Yes, Nana, I know you think I'm a wonderful person...No I'm not perfect, really, I'm not, I'm flattered you think so...but I'm just going to try my hardest to stay away from them. I can always read, maybe I'll become acquainted with the band, swim and stuff at hotels, check out things in different towns, you know. But I'm not going to become friends with *N Sync. That much, I know."
(Back in Stage Room #4)
"Good. Mission: Make Kathryn our friend has officially begun as of now. This, should get interesting." said Chris, as he grinned at the other 4 men and rubbed his hands together.