I've been working at the Webster Theater in South Chicago for about two weeks now, and it is so boring! I bring my journal here every day to write in while I have breaks, because if John saw me writing in this he'd probably beat me...again. I want to leave him so bad, but he'd probably find a way to kill me if I did. Last night he told me to go out to the store to get some things, and when I had already gotten home I realized I forgot to get milk. Of course, this didn't go over well with John, and he threw me against the refrigerator, and then hit me on my back several times with the frying pan. I don't know why I am so stupid sometimes, I couldn't even remember to get the damn milk.'

With that she closed her journal and placed it back into her bag that she carried with her everywhere. It was around 5 pm, and she was officially off from work, so she went to an empty room she usually put her stuff in and walked outside to her 1995 black Toyota, and began her half hour drive home to her Chicago apartment that she shared with her boyfriend of two years, John.

She had met him at a club when she was eighteen years old, and at first was very attracted to him physically, and she let that attraction turn into a two year relationship. She moved in with him about six months ago because she wasn't getting enough money for her own place, so they split the cost of their apartment. About eight months into their relationship he began to get very physical with her, at first just holding onto her arms very tightly or pushing her against walls, but the longer she stayed with him the worse he got. He threatened her not to leave him, or he would make sure he would make her life a living hell.

About two months ago she had gone out to a club with some friends of hers, and John sent one of his friends to go ‘spy' on her to see if she danced with any other guys, and sure enough, she danced with a few to some slow and soft songs. Greg, John's friend, told John what had happened as soon as Ashley left the club, but added a few extra, untrue details. John heard this and immediately went through Ashley's dresser, and found something very precious to her, her photo album with the only pictures she had of her father, mother, and little sister as a child. He took the album and threw it in the fire place, figuring it would teach her a lesson to never cheat on him or mess with anyone else ever again. When Ashley arrived home, he was patiently sitting on the couch watching the photos burn, and when he saw her he figured that wasn't enough punishment. He grabbed her and stuck her hand into the fire, giving her second degree burns on her hand and lower arm. As if that wasn't enough, he then slapped her across the face with the hand he had his rings on, cutting her cheek and she needed stitches for it.

That was when she learned not to ever piss him off or mess with him again, but he got mad at every little thing she did, which lowered her self esteem and think she was worthless, klutzy, ugly, and dumb, which she definitely was not.

Ashley Williams is a twenty year old from a small town in Southern Illinois, where she lived up until she was 15 with her mother. When she was five years old her parents got divorced and her father took off to go to Florida, leaving behind Ashley and her little sister, who was two at the time. Her mother was an alcoholic, and went out to party almost every night, and she rarely home by 1 am. When she was 15 she moved out and went to live at a private school she got into through scholarships in theater and performing arts. She left behind Sarah, who was 12 at the time, with her mother, which she wasn't crazy about because she didn't want Sarah to grow up in an environment like that, but there was no where else to go. They hadn't seen their father in ten years, and they had no relatives in the area. When Sarah turned 18, her age now, she moved out immediately, and is now a freshman in college at Penn State University, also there for performing art scholarships.

For Ashley's ninth birthday, she received a journal in he mail from her father, and ever since that day she had written an entry, writing things about school, friends, her mother, and even her toys. When she was ten, her father mailed her another one, like he did for every year after that. Her 15th birthday was the last time she got one, because she moved out and never gave her father the new address. She never bothered contacting him because he left them when her and her sister were too young to understand what was going on, and he mailed them once a year, on their birthdays. He had never bothered to call or visit, but Ashley learned to accept it and move on with her life.

Now, even though her self esteem is lowered more and more every day, Ashley used to be a very confident, nice, smart, comical girl. She stands at 5'7", has medium length thin brown hair, and is very slim. She had never played high school sports because the school she went to didn't offer sports, it was strictly for performing arts. However, she had played basketball all her life before she moved out, and it was her true love. She still plays it whenever she has time because she feels she can unleash all her stress and emotions by going on a court and working hard.

She is not the kind of person who would just move in with someone after dating him for a few months, but she basically had no other choice. She has a lot of good morals, and knows better than to do anything stupid, and she wanted to remain that way for the rest of her life.

When Ashley arrived home John was gone once again, like he was most of the time during the day. He was usually either working out or doing something with his buddies, who Ashley didn't like at all. They were all big strong tough men who constantly watched football on tv, cussed, drank, smoked, and every other thing you could think of. They basically ignored her whenever they were around, as did John. He would introduce her and make her sit on his lap when they first got her, sort of like showing her off. That is how she felt to him; like a prize. She didn't think anyone deserved that, but there was nothing to do about it.

She got out a glass and poured herself some orange juice, changed into her pajamas, and flipped on the tv, where she remained through the night, falling asleep there. John never came home, but she wasn't really surprised because sometimes he would stay out all night and not even bother to call her to tell her where he was.

At 9 am she got up and hopped in the shower, getting ready to start her long, boring day once again at the Webster Theater.

She arrived at work at 10:30, and immediately went into the small yet always vacant room that she placed her things in. She quickly took her journal out to write a small entry before she got to work, and totally dazed off, not realizing someone had entered the room.

"Ashley! Ashley what are you writing in?" She immediately slammed her journal shut and stood up, startled at the sudden voice, for she thought she was alone.

"Hi Mr. Sharpe...I'm sorry, I was just um, jotting down some things. Sorry," she said as she stuffed her journal in her bag and looked up at her boss nervously.

"Miss Williams, you have only been here for two weeks, and I don't know how you feel about working here, but I would like to have a meeting with you in my office tomorrow morning, 11 am sharp. Be there."

"Yes, Mr. Sharpe, see you then." The young boss turned around and exited the small room backstage, leaving Ashley alone to finish up some things she was supposed to be doing. She pulled the journal back out and sat down in her original position on the small white leather couch, and began writing once again.

'Great. Mr. Sharpe just caught me completely dozing off and not doing my job writing in here, and now he wants to have a special meeting with me tomorrow morning. I have a feeling he is going to fire me, which is good because I'd rather be doing stage directing than light fixtures, but if I'm fired John will have a fit. I can't let him know if I am fired, because if he knows, he may try pulling another one of his tricks, just like last time when he burned my photo album.'

She finished up and placed her journal back into her backpack, and got ready to draw out some plans for the Broadway show, Annie, that would be at the theater that night.

"BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!" The alarm clock went off at 9 am the next morning, waking Ashley up from her rare, peaceful sleep. She rolled over in bed and was confused when she saw John wasn't there, until she remembered that he was going to the gym that morning to work out. The tall, athletic shaped brunette rolled out of bed after hitting her alarm clock several times to stop it, and walked like a zombie to her closet. She opened the door and went in, picking something semi-nice to wear since she had a meeting with her boss. She grabbed a pair of tight black pants and a yellow oversized fleece to wear since it was going to be another cold day.

After taking a shower and doing make up and hair, Ashley went into the next room, which was a kitchen combined with a living room in their small apartment, and plopped a cinnamon raison bagel into the toaster oven. She then walked over to the refrigerator to get out the cream cheese, and found a note on the door.

'Ash-

Hey sweetie, I went to the gym to work out, I should be back around noon. Have a good time at work today, and you better bring home some money, or else.

-John'

She sighed loudly, knowing exactly what he meant when he said ‘or else'. It was the same thing she went through every time they were low on money, which was pretty much all the time, and there was no way for her to escape it. He would hit her and beat her if she didn't bring home a pay check, and then when there were bruises all over he would tell people she was ‘just a klutz' and did something dumb like fall down stairs or hit herself on the counter.

This was the only serious relationship she had ever been in, and she knew she was afraid of guys, mainly because John beat her and she thought every other man she met would too.

Pulling herself out of her trance she opened the refrigerator door and took out the cream cheese, and took the bagels out of the toaster. By now it was 10:15, and it took her about 30 minutes to get to work, so she grabbed her breakfast and her bag and went out the door to begin what she thought would be a very long day.

At 10:50 Ashley pulled into the back parking lot of the Webster Theater and made her way to the door. She did not have an office there, so she had to carry her belongings with her wherever she went, and security wasn't very good, especially if she was up fixing the lights. She made her way through the many hallways until she came to her boss's door. She raised her fist to knock, fearing the reasons the man behind the door would answer. When the door opened, Mr. Sharpe smiled brightly at Ashley and invited her in.

"Ashley! It is so nice to see you this morning, please, come in."

"Hi Mr. Sharpe, nice to see you too." She walked in and sat in a chair on one side of his desk, while he walked around and sat down in his chair.

"So, you are probably wondering why I called you into this meeting, am I right?"

"Yes, it would be nice to know," she replied, offering a small smile.

"Well, I have been monitoring your work here over the last two weeks, and you don't seem to be enjoying it all that much," he began, while picking up a pencil and twirling it in his fingers. "So, I contacted Mr. Thornton, the music director at the last place you worked." This totally confused Ashley, she had no clue why her boss would be contacting someone at her previous job. "I told him you seemed very unhappy here doing light fixtures, and you know what he said to me?"

"What?"

"He said he couldn't believe a bright young girl like you was doing light fixtures in a dumpy arena like this." Mr. Sharpe chuckled as he said this, glancing at the confused girl in front of him.

"And..."

"And, he told me you were a stage director before you quit for personal reasons. I don't want to know what personal reasons those are, but I was wondering if you would like to become a stage director again." As he said this, her whole face lit up and she knew in an instant she would do it. It was like a promotion, it would bring in more money, and it would certainly please John.

"Yes! Yes, I'll do it! When do I start?"

"Wait a minute here, I haven't finished."

"Ok, what else is there?"

"As you know, the group ‘N Sync is performing here tonight, in fact I believe they are already in the building now. Anyway, their stage director for their U.S. tour just left for medical reasons, and since they are in the area I heard about this last night, and recommended you. If you do take this it will require you go on tour with them for the rest of it, which lasts until early April."

"Oh, I would love to...but...I don't know if I should leave John here..."

"John, the boyfriend right?"

"Yeah, the boyfriend," she quietly replied, almost ashamed she had to say it.

"I'm sure he would understand if you took this job, but there is no way we would be able to get him on this tour with you, so he would have to stay behind." The idea of going on a tour for almost four months, away from her abusive boyfriend sounded wonderful, but there was absolutely no way she would be able to go. John would never let her, and he basically had total control over her.

"I don't know, can I think about it through tonight?"

"I guess, but I need to know your decision by tomorrow afternoon, because ‘N Sync will be performing two concerts here, and after tomorrow's concert they are going to Michigan, and you would have to go with them. I'm sorry this is such short notice, but please consider it. It is a great opportunity for a great person."

"Thank you Mr. Sharpe, I really appreciate the offer, I'll get back to you ASAP." She got up and quickly exited the office, going down to the usually vacant room where she would sometimes leave her stuff. She took out her journal and wrote a quick entry on the offer she had just received, and the pros and cons of it. As soon as she was done she threw it back on the couch, not even bothering to but it into her bag since no one ever went in the room. She got up and headed toward the stage to begin the set up for tonight's ‘N Sync concert, which was sure to be a big one, and she would watch the concert to get a feel for their show and choreography, because that may play a big role in her decision.

"Ok, see ya." JC Chasez replied, looking up from the program that Joey Fatone, Lance Bass, and Chris Kirkpatrick were so intently watching. Justin walked out of the room and turned down one of the halls, not exactly sure where he was going.

Tonight the concert was going to be different from one that they had done in a long time, because the theater was the size of when they were just starting out, so they hadn't really played in front of such a small crowd in about a year and a half.

The main reason they were even performing there was because a high school in the area won a contest, so all those students were there. Another part of the audience was exclusive radio winners from all over Illinois, who had probably been told they were getting a ‘private concert'. Sure it was a small arena, but in no way was it a private concert.

One thing Justin had always loved about performing was the huge crowds, but he did enjoy the smaller ones because it was a lot easier to interact with more fans.

The tall curly blond turned the corner and began walking down another hallway that looked exactly like the first. All the doors were closed, and hallway after hallway looked exactly the same as the first. He finally walked down one hallway and came to a door at the end that said ‘stage entrance'. He took a walk out onto the stage to take a look around, and couldn't believe how small it was. The stage was small, the crowd was small, the whole thing was small. He walked from side to side on the stage, thinking he was alone, until he heard two voices that seemed to be walking in from the entrance he just came from.

"Ash! Are you serious!?!"

"Dead serious. But I don't know if I'm gonna take the job yet so don't say anything to anyone alright?"

"You'd have to be crazy not to...this is a once in a lifetime opportunity!" Justin finally saw the two girl's faces as they walked onto the stage, and they stopped talking once they saw him standing there, looking in their direction.

"Why hello there, you must be Justin," Caitlyn, Ashley's coworker said as she strolled up to him. Ashley was confused on how Caitlyn new this guy's name, because she didn't think she had ever seen him before.

"Yeah, that would be me," Justin smiled as he reached out to shake the girl's hand.

"Well my name is Caitlyn George, and this is my coworker Ashley Williams." Ashley smiled at him and shook his hand, and figured she would initiate a conversation before Caitlyn said something dumb.

"So, how do you two know each other?" She was afraid of Caitlyn being dumb, but that was probably the dumbest thing she could have said.

"Ash, you don't know who this is do you?" Ashley shyly shook her head while looking back at Justin, who had an amused expression on his face. "Ashley! This is Justin Timberlake, from ‘N Sync, how did you not know that!?!" Her cheeks reddened because she should have figured since they were performing there tonight and this young guy was on the stage.

"Sorry about that, I just don't know that much about you."

"It's ok, it's actually nice having someone not know us once in a while."

"Well we better get going, we have some work to do before the show tonight, it was nice meeting you Justin, and good luck," Ashley said as she began to turn away from the handsome man in front of her.

"Um, you'll have to excuse her, she must be insane, I can't believe you are standing here!"

"Cait! Come ON." Caitlyn smiled one last time at Justin and he gave a little laugh before she turned around to catch up with Ashley.

"Ash, why the heck were you so rude to him? He is JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE!"

"I wasn't rude, we have work and I'm sure we'll see him later tonight." Ashley began walking faster and went over to the side of the stage to begin her work.