"Ms. Jacobs, you're late.", Mr. McKanty, her Chemistry teacher scolded.

"I'm sorry, Mr. McKanty. It won't happen again.", she murmured.

He nodded and began his lesson, talking a mile per minute as usual. Olivia began taking notes but was soon interrupted when a wet, sticky object hit the back of her head. She looked up and took a deep breath in disgust as she reached her hand around and pulled the still-wet spit ball out of her hair. She slouched in her seat when she heard snickers from behind her. A scratchy whisper echoed in her ear, "Sorry about that jail-bird.", followed by an evil laugh. Olivia sharply inhaled, her body tensing up, holding back tears. She raised her hand quickly. Mr. McKanty looked more than a bit miffed at the interruption.

"What is it Ms. Jacobs?"

"Can I please go to the nurse?", she pleaded.

He sighed and motioned for her to come up to get the pass. Getting up, she shot a nasty look at the boy behind her, Jeff Howard, the most popular guy in the senior class. He chuckled and let an evil smirk escape on the corners of his mouth. She took the slip from Mr. McKanty and quietly left the room, carrying her books with her.

Ducking past everyone who was standing in her way, Olivia pushed the door to the side entrance of New Falls High open and jogged quickly to her car, glancing over her shoulder every once and awhile to make sure no one saw her leaving. She unlocked the doors and jumped in the drivers seat, turned the engine on and drove out of the campus. Tears slid down her cheeks as she drove in silence to nowhere in particular.

"Why are they so mean? Don't they know the pain they're putting me through? Why can't it be like it used to be?", she cried, struggling to see out of her blurry blue eyes.

Finally, she pulled up to the parking lot at the local beach. She turned the ignition off and slammed up against the seat in frustration and pain. She thought about what her life used to be like....

Olivia walked happily down the halls towards the cafeteria with the ever evident grin plastered on her lips. She smiled and waved to everyone who called out her name, sometimes stopping for a quick hello. She was followed by a large group of guys and girls...the "popular' crowd as they were called. Making her way into the cafeteria along side her best friend Sidney Miller, Olivia walked to her table and greeted her friends. Underclassmen sitting at tables in the front of the cafe looked up in admiration when she passed by. Everyone loved Liv. She was impossible not to love. A straight A student, starter for the volleyball team, and star player for the basketball team, she was the kind of girl no one could hate. Her glittering personality always shone through her eyes and proved just how happy she was. Olivia Jacobs was THE most popular girl at New Falls High School.

"Hey Liv, what did your 'rents say about Bryan's party? You can go right?", Sidney asked her.

"I don't know, Sid. I have 2 volleyball games this weekend, Friday I'm going to the movies with Rob. Then there's Natalie's party...and I have a huge Calculus exam on Monday which if I fail, then I'm screwed.", she paused to think. "Yeah, so I'm not sure if I'm going or not. But daddy will let me, he doesn't care what I do. I don't even have to ask."

Sidney scrunched her nose. "Olivia, you HAVE to go!! Jeff Howard is gonna be there...and I heard he's gonna ask you out!!"

"Really?? He is?"

"That's what I heard. Promise me you'll go!! "

"Maybe."

The two girls continued to talk and giggle when Jeff came strutting up to the table and sat down next to Olivia. "Hey baby...you're going to Bryan's party this Saturday right?"

"I don't know Jeff. Why, should I be?"

He laughed while a flirtatious grin spread across his mouth. "I would hope you'll be there." He winked and left the table.

Olivia sighed and wiped the tears from her sad eyes. "I'm never going to be able to forgive myself for what happened...", she shook her head. "Never."

"Yo, Justin, hand me those headphones!", JC Chasez asked his buddy impationtly.

The curly headed seventeen year old rolled his eyes and tossed a pair of black recording head phones to his best friend. "Dude, man, I am really famished, lets go grab some grub."

"We are supposed to be recording, Curly. Can't you wait a few more hours?"

"I dunno, man.", he put a hand to his stomach and shook his head. "I don't know if this baby can wait much longer."

JC rolled his eyes and put down the headphones. "Fine, we have to make this quick though. We really have to get to work."

"I know, JC, I'm not dumb.", Justin sighed. He grabbed his windbreaker and started to walk out the door. JC grabbed him by the collar and pulled him back. "Forgetting something, J?"

"No, what?"

"You're absolutely hopeless. We're not going without Jason with us.", JC reminded him, as usual. He yelled to their bodyguard Jason down the hall and put on his leather jacket and sunglasses.

"O...", he laughed, embarrassed, "...right."

Jason walked in a second later. "What's up guys?"

"We're gonna get some food. Is that ok with you?", JC questioned, and adjusted a hat over his dark brown hair.

"Sure is, I'm starvin'.", Jason grinned and put Justin in a headlock before dragging him out the door. Justin laughed and gasped for air jokingly.

Olivia finally pulled into the parking lot of a quaint coffeehouse and trudged up to the counter, ordering a mocha cappachino. She stirred it with a straw dazily, while staring at the menu on the wall. The only time she was caught out of her gaze was when she saw a big black man and two handsome young men enter the store. She didn't think much of it and went back to stirring.

Justin and JC sat down in a booth not to far from the counter. Jason stood next to the table, his arms folded together over his broad chest. "Timbs, what are you gettin'?", JC asked.

Justin Timberlake stared at his menu. "Mmm...I dunno, maybe just a hoagie and a coffee."

"Oh, okay.", JC looked back down at his menu, pondering between a turkey sandwich or a salad.

Justin put away his menu, and looked around the restaurant. Lowering his sunglasses on his nose, he glanced at the different people sitting around him. They were mainly elders and middle aged people, since school was still in session. He only noticed one teenager in the shop, sitting at the counter all alone. His curiosity grew as he tried to get a better look at the girl. She couldn't be much older than seventeen and her long golden brown hair ended in curls around her shoulders. She was wearing a pair of dark denim jeans and a baby blue tee shirt.

"What are you looking at?"

Justin's neck twisted back to JC. "Huh?"

"I said, what are you looking at?"

"Oh, I was just looking at that girl over there. She looks lonely.", he shrugged.

"What girl?"

Justin pointed to the chair but scratched his chin in confusion when no one was there. "She was just there a second ago."

"Oh. Was she cute?"

"I couldn't really see her face, but from the back she was!", he laughed. "But she looked really sad, because she was all slouching and morone looking."

"Oh."

"Hey, I'll be right back."

Jason looked up at Justin. "And where are you going?"

"The bathroom. Isn't that ok?", he laughed.

Jason nodded. "Be hasty, though. We can't have you getting attacked."

Justin snorted. "By who? Old ladies??" He snickered at the thought and made his way to the unisex bathroom.

Olivia swung open the door to the restroom and nearly hit Justin with the door. He looked up in total shock as the huge wooden door swung past his face, knocking the sunglasses off his eyes. "Holy...."

Liv looked up, embarrassed. "I'm sorry.", she said quickly and looked down, walking back towards the counter.

He recognized her faintly by the outfit she was wearing and watched her confused as she retreated back to her seat. Shrugging, he entered the bathroom.

__"JC, did you see the girl? She was in the bathroom...she nearly hit me with the door."

"What girl?", JC questioned as they drove back to the studio.

Justin sighed. "Nevermind." Then he fell into deep thought. He went over everything he could remember about the young woman. She had blue eyes but they seemed to be clouded by a cold gray. Her hair was parted down the middle and layered right below her shoulders. A few bangs curled over her forehead above her eyebrows and he could tell she had a lot on her mind by the way her face was stuck in a complexed expression. "Oh, well. It's not like I'm gonna see her again.", he thought and turned his thoughts to the song that he was in the midst of recording along with the rest of the guys he was in a pop group with--JC, Chris Kirkpatrick, Joey Fatone, and Lance Bass-- together they formed *NSYNC.

When Olivia reached her house on the corner of Walsh and Bridgeton Avenue she walked in just as the phone rang. Running to the cordless on the table, she picked it up, "Hello?"

"Hello, this is New Falls High School calling for Ms. Olivia Jacobs with a report of cutting school."