"I hope this goes well.", Kelsie whispered while they rode the elevator up to the right floor.

"Stop being such a worry wart, Kel. I heard that they were a great group of guys and I'm sure they're excited about working with you. Smile, babe.", Kat comforted her skeptical best friend.

"Right. Excited.", she swallowed the lump in her throat. Why was she so nervous? She had never gotten nervous before working with other celebrities. In all honesty, she didn't even like *N SYNC that much. Strange, she thought. There's nothing to be nervous about. Kat's probably right, I'm sure they are nice guys.

The elevator door opened abruptly and Kelsie, stuck in a daze of concentration, stepped out, only to slam into a hard object. Before looking to see what she had bumped into, she took note of the "Oh my God." that had just left her friend's mouth in a whisper.

"Would you watch where you are going?", the object spoke bitterly.

Kelsie's eyes opened and focused in on a shapely and very masculine chest. They slid up the hard body and finally landed on the face of an angry Justin Timberlake. Before she could say a word, he pushed past her and glared while the elevator doors closed in front of the two girls.

Kelsie stared at the metal door in shock before muttering, "Jerk." She shook her head and continued to walk to her destination, while Kat attempted to cut off her circulation by gripping her arm excruciatingly tight and babbling pointlessly.

"Oh my God, Kelsie. Did you see who that was? That was Justin...Jus...", she hit her friend's arm excitedly. "Justin TIMBERLAKE! It was him and you were so mean..."

Kelsie rolled her eyes at her friend and fought not to laugh when she started accusing HER of being the rude one when she hadn't even spoken a word. "Oh Katherine... what to do with you.", she smiled and opened the door to Studio Number Five, where she was to meet with the guys and their manager, Johnny Wright.

Sure enough, four young men sat on the floor stretching their muscles while another middle aged man stood in front of them laughing over something. They looked up as soon as they heard the familiar sound of sneakers hitting the wooden floor in a rhythmetic pattern. Johnny smiled brightly and waved her over.

"Kelsie Meyers, am I right?", he held his hand out.

She smiled and took his hand. "Yes, that's right. I'm Kelsie. And this,", she pushed Kat out in front of her. "This is my star-struck best friend Kat."

Kat nudged her with wide eyes. "I changed my mind. JC is my new favorite."

The whole group before them let out a buoyant laugh and stood up to shake their hands. Johnny nodded in approval while everyone introduced each other. "We are missing one. Justin should be back in a few minutes, he just ran downstairs to grab something."

Kelsie's grin faded at the mention of his name. "Uh, we already ran into each other. He's not very friendly, is he?"

Lance shrugged. "He can be somewhat hostile when you first meet him, yeah. You just have to get to know him, that's all."

Kelsie's eyes danced with uncertainty. "I'm not to sure I want to know him..."

Suddenly, the door slammed open causing everyone to jump and Justin strolled into the room, looking quite bored. Kelsie sighed and mumbled sarcasticly, "Well what do you know. Here comes the curly haired god now. Forgive me for not bowing at his feet."

Chris smirked and patted her on the back. "Oh, I like you. We're gonna get along great... as long as you keep up with this dissing Justin thing. Just don't ruin it by falling in love with him.", he laughed. "That always seems to happen with him."

Kelsie chuckled. "Hell would have to freeze over before I fall in love with HIM."

The group snickered at her comment as Justin took his time making his way over to the semi-circle they were all standing in. He knew they were talking about him from the way they were all looking at him and smiling. He scowled and put his attention on the girl that stood confidently a few feet away from him with a bright smile on her face. So this was the Kelsie Meyers everyone has been talking about, huh? he thought to himself. His eyes wandered over her body. She wasn't beautiful, and even if she was, he wouldn't have admitted it to himself, but she definitely wasn't ugly. Her dark hair was tied back in a loose ponytail that rested on her shoulder and little wisps that had escaped the rubber band were comfortably lying against her face. Her body was very well built, she looked very athletic to him and she seemed about as far away from the stereotypical title of "girly-girl" as a person could get. In fact, he guessed she probably didn't even wear much make-up. Her hip stuck out in a way that screamed 'Don't mess with me because I ...will...take ...you ... down.' and her bright green eyes gleamed with adventure.

Justin's scowl got even bigger as he looked her over. This was going to be a nightmare. For her, that is. He was going to enjoy every minute of this and if Darrin wasn't back for this tour, then his name wasn't Justin Timberlake.

"Justin, this is Kelsie. She's the choreographer.", Johnny smiled, hoping to get a response out of him.

Justin nodded in a negligent manner and walked past the group to grab his water bottle and warm up bag.

"Um, where are you going?", Lance asked when he noticed Justin gathering his stuff.

Justin's bored blue eyes turned to Lance and he shrugged. "We were only supposed to be here to meet with her, right? I came unwillingly, I met the girl unwillingly, and now I'm willingly going home to get some sleep. If you have a problem with that, you can call 1-800-EAT-DIRT and tell someone that cares."

Justin threw his bag over his shoulder and walked arrogantly out the door, only to peep his head back in and wink. "By the way, welcome to the tour. I'm sure you'll have a...fulfilling experience. Later, Kelly."

Kelsie's eyes glazed over with contempt and she glared after him as his figure disappeared down the hallway. "KelSIE.", she sputtered angrily. So he wanted to play the hard way, did he? Mistake Number One, hotshot.

(Later that day)

"So what are your expectations for this tour, guys?", Kelsie questioned the four men sitting around her while she stretched her leg muscles out. They were all sitting around on the floor of the dance studio in the Jive building, minus Justin of course. He had taken it upon himself to alienate himself from any meetings with her to discuss the tour. She was hoping to get a glimpse into what they had in their minds for the tour so that she could have a better idea of what she wanted to accomplish.

Earlier in the day, she had also met with Darrin Henson, their previous choreographer, and agreed with him to share the choreography stage with a new guy, Wade Robson, who was supposedly pretty good. Darrin would be stopping in from time to time to see how things were going since he was still pretty close to the boys. So far, things were looking pretty good. Well, except for the whole "Justin Timberlake being a pain in the rear end" deal.

JC shook his arms to loosen them up and looked down at Kelsie. "This tour is going to be the biggest thing anyone has ever seen. The choreography has to be tight and it has to be something that people will be able to get into. I'm thinking that we want to go for a more hardcore look this time around. Maybe with some hip-hopish flavor along with a pinch of style..."

Chris snorted and mumbled under his breath. "That's right, JC. You sure need to work on that 'style' of yours."

JC glared at Chris and quickly changed his expression back to cheery as he continued to talk to Kelsie. "I have no doubt that you, combined with Wade, will come through for us, though.", he smiled. "You're going to have a blast on this tour. Welcome to the *N SYNC family, girl."

Kelsie grinned. "Thanks, JC. Hopefully things will work out smoothly for ALL of us. If you know what I mean."

"Don't worry about Justin. He'll have to come around eventually because he can't not put his heart into learning these dances.", Joey comforted her. "And if he keeps being an ass to you, just take him out. And I don't mean out to eat!", he giggled. "That would be fun to watch, eh guys?"

The group chuckled imagining Kelsie beating Justin up. Kelsie smirked. "That would be fun to DO.", she laughed. She blew the wisps of hair out of her eyes and jumped to her feet. "So, do you guys want to show me any ideas or suggestions you have for new dances? What songs do you want to concentrate on for now?"

Lance stood up and dusted off his pants. "It's Gonna Be Me is the one I think we need to get down pat since that's going to be our next single."

"Okay, what do you have for that so far? Have you been working with Darrin or Wade on that one?"

"Yeah, Wade did up to the end of Justin's verse. But that's all we have because he had to take care of an emergency at home when we were in the middle of learning that one.", he answered.

"I see. So obviously, we can't do Justin's verse since there's no Justin here."

"Actually,", JC interrupted. "I can take his place leading his verse if you want for now. I know it since we all do the same moves basically."

Kelsie smiled. "I could kiss you right now, but I wouldn't want to get your girlfriend mad."

JC smiled and flipped on track two of their new album. "I'd just tell her it was strictly platonic." He turned to the guys and nodded. "Ready?"

They nodded in return and JC counted off as the song began. "One...two...three...four..."

You might've been hurt, babe
That ain't no lie
You've seen them all come and go...

Kelsie watched intently and was so completely focused on how the guys were moving that she didn't even notice the door open. The only thing that brought her out of her concentration was a cold voice that sounded off in her ear.

"What are you DOING?"

JC's head snapped over to the entrance to the room and threw his hands up in disbelief. "What does it LOOK like I'm doing? I'm doing YOUR part of the dance because YOU aren't mature enough to be here to do it yourself."

Justin scowled and his angry eyes shot to Kelsie. "What gives you the right to tell him to do my part?"

She planted her hands on her slender waist and raised her eyebrows. "He's the one who suggested it, your majesty."

He threw down his bag and took his place on the dance floor, ignoring her remark. "Start the music over. JC, you had the feetwork all wrong. You have to skip, it's not the pop-lock part yet. It goes like this..." He turned and skipped with a smooth twisting of his hips and landed a few feet away from where JC was standing. "THEN you do the hip shake, if you're doing my part. For YOUR part, you have to kneel to the floor and spin after the skip. Like this." He rewound the music a little and moved his body to show JC the background part. "See what I'm saying? You had it backwards."

Kelsie watched with wide eyes as Justin's personality and attitude transformed right in front of her. The way his entire expression had slid into a relaxed state and the way his muscles had completely loosened as soon as he got into the actual dancing was shocking enough to blow her mind. He was so in love with his job that it radiated out of him and she could almost guarantee that when he opened his mouth to sing, it was even more of a passionate experience... just him and his voice taking control.

She only wished that she could know THAT Justin. Not the one that was with her today with the snitty attitude and the "I'd much rather be lunch for a group of alligators than be stuck here with YOU for a few hours" message he kept throwing at her. Her anger was rising quickly as she thought about it so she closed her eyes, took a deep breath to calm herself and walked over to switch off the music.

Justin's body froze and his eyes formed tiny slits as he glared at her. "What did you do that for?"

Kelsie sighed. She was the one who was going to have to be the peacemaker between the two of them, since it looked like Justin being it was about as likely as it snowing in the middle of July. "Look, Justin, I would appreciate it if you would at least TRY to be civil with me. We are going to be together for a long time and I am ALREADY getting agitated at this ridiculous behavior coming from you. For God's sakes, you are nineteen years old. ACT LIKE IT."

She ran her fingers through her hair and turned to the other guys who were discreetly giving her thumbs up and smirking like alley cats. "I'm sorry about that, guys. I'll be back in a sec, I need to grab something out of my car." Meaning, I need to get away from that egotistical jerk for a few minutes. She smiled and jogged out of the room. She was going to win this battle if it was the last thing she did.

Justin stared after her in shock. He had figured she was pretty confident, but he didn't think she would have the gall to lecture him on how to behave, especially on her first day with him. What was she, his mother? If she thought she was going to win this, then she had another thing coming to her because he was going to win this battle if it was the last thing HE did. He heard a snicker sound off in his ear behind him, and he slowly spun on his heels to glare at the red faced friends of his. Justin pressed his lips together tightly, compressing them into nothing more than a tiny dot on his face, while his eyes continued to shoot them daggers.

Just seeing Justin so worked up about this pushed all four of the guys over the edge and they simultaneously erupted into a fit of giggles.

"Shut UP, you losers!"

Chris gripped his stomach and tried to speak through his laughing. "Come...on...J, that was some GOOD stuff. Lighten up, dude." Joey chuckled and added, "Seriously, man. I'm getting agitated with your ridiculous behavior!", repeating Kelsie's words which caused the whole group to howl again with laughter.

Justin huffed and crossed his arms. Anger was building up inside of him, and he wasn't one who was good at controlling his temper. He knew he wasn't far away from exploding, so he walked briskly over to the stereo, raised the volume a few notches and switched on the new CD to Bye, Bye, Bye. Dancing always seemed to help when it came to releasing tension just like singing helped to free his mind. The first notes in the song echoed in the rehearsal room while Justin stood with his back to the mirror, eyes closed. As if his body were made for that song, he let the music control his movements while he danced with all the energy he posessed at the time. His voice could be heard drowning out the vocals on the CD and his rhythm was perfect with the melody.

The guys all turned to watch him when they heard the music start to play, knowing that Justin only put this much energy into his dancing on few occassions: on stage, during crucial practices...and when he was MAD. As if they knew what the others were thinking, they all turned to look at each other and raise their eyebrows. Justin was going to be a living hell this tour and Kelsie had no clue as to what was about to hit her.

Lance sighed, rubbing his forehead, and whispered, "This is going to be one, lonng tour."