Stasia spent the next week watching the guys prepare for their promotional tour and working with Lance. While he was busy with rehearsals, and re-recording parts of songs, she made phone calls and started to go over the books. She was sitting on the couch in the recording studio, her laptop open in front of her, reviewing the bills that had been paid for November and December, when something struck her as odd. She re-added the long columns of numbers, and came up with the same result. She flipped open her cell phone and dialed the office number. As she was waiting for Jamie to pick up the other end, Lance walked out of the studio and looked at her curiously. As he set his computer down next to hers.

“Something wrong?”

She looked up at him. Oh, no. I was just adding this stuff up and a number didn’t jive. I’m sure my copy of the ledger just isn’t clear. I’m calling Jamie right now to have her read the numbers to me, that should clear it up.” She shut her computer, thinking the monthly balance sheet on the disk she was using must be old.

He walked over and glanced at the paperwork she was reviewing, the copies weren’t clear at all. “Hey, while you have her on the phone, have her get the copier serviced, you’re right, these copies aren’t very good.”

“Free Lance Entertainment. How may I help you?”

“Hi Jamie! It’s Stasia. I need you to do me a favor.”

“Hi Stasia! How are you? How is Lance? Is the weather any good in Florida? We are having a cold snap.” Jamie always had a hundred questions, Stasia loved it.

“I’m fine. Lance is fine. The weather is cool, but not too bad. You will have to remember to wear your jacket if it’s getting cold.” Lance rolled his eyes and walked back into the studio, he knew right away who had answered the phone.

“So, what favor did you need?”

“Can you please pull the checking account information for November and December? I think the copies I made are bad, I can’t get the numbers to work, but I’m sure it’s just the copy quality. Which reminds me, Lance wants you to have the copier serviced.”

“Copier serviced, ok. Hang on and I’ll get the bank stuff.” Jamie put her on hold, which gave Stasia an idea. She quickly wrote a note to herself, and then Jamie was back. “I’ve got the bank stuff. Now what?”

“I need you to read down the column on the far right for me.”

Jamie read down the list of numbers, and to Stasia’s shock, she hadn’t made a mistake in her calculations. “Jamie, I need you to read down the list of payees now.”

“Sure! No problem!” Jamie started to list the people and companies the checks had been payable to. In November and December, there had been checks cut to a company called BK, Co. for large amounts of money, that weren’t included on the general monthly bill cycle Stacy had given Stasia.

“Jamie, I need you to go back and see when the very first check to BK Co. was written. Then get me copies of those checks. And see if you can dig up their bill or contract, or whatever it is we are paying them for.”

“That is easy enough. I dig up this stuff, then call you back.”

“Thanks Jamie.”

Stasia turned off her phone and glanced into the recording studio where the guys were standing around joking with one another. She walked over to the window and waved at Lance. He raised an eyebrow at her and walked out the door. “What’s up?”

“Do you know what BK Co. does?”

“BK Co.? Never heard of them. Why?”

“Oh, there are just a few check written to them, and I don’t remember Stacy mentioning them.” She was a little surprised he didn’t know about this company. So far, any question she had for him, he’d been able to answer without any thought at all.

“Ask Stacy or my mom, one of them will know. I’m going to finish laying this track and then I’ll help you figure it out.”

“Oh, don’t worry about it, I have Jamie pulling the bill. That should answer all of our questions.”

“OK, but if you need help, let me know.”

Her phone began to ring and she flipped it open again. “Hello.”

“Stasia, it’s Jamie. We began paying BK Co. in July, so that is six months including this month...that check was written yesterday. All of them have been for $1,750.00. But here’s the strange thing, I can’t find a bill or contract.”

“So we are talking about $10,500.00 so far. Ok. Is Stacy in right now?”

“Yeah. Hang on I’ll get her for you.” She put Stasia on hold.

“Stasia?” Stacy picked up the phone.

“Hi Stacy. I have to ask you about some payments to BK Co. Do you have any idea what we have paid them $10,500.00 for?”

“Wow! $10,500.00? Honestly Stasia, I’m not sure. Hang on, I’ll have Jamie pull the bill.”

“That’s why I’m talking to you Stace. She can’t find a bill, or contract, or invoice...not a thing. We’ve been paying them $1,750.00 a month since July. Those payments aren’t reflected on the monthly budget. That is what I’m worried about, Lance doesn’t know what it’s about either. I don’t want to get him upset, before I figure out what is going on.”

“That makes sense. Let me ask Momma what it is.” She put her hand over the receiver, Stasia laughed when she heard Stacy shout into the next office, “MOMMA! I need you. Come here please.” It was quiet for a second then Stacy was back. “Stasia, Momma doesn’t know what it’s about either. Should I ask Bill?”

“I want to look at the cancelled checks first. Who signed the checks? It should be, either of you or Lance right?”

“Well, Bill can sign checks too...and now you can.” Diane sounded concerned.

“Can one of you get the checks from Jamie?”

“I’ll go.” Stacy said.

“Stasia, what do you think is going on?” Diane still sounded concerned.

“Diane, I have no idea. These transactions just struck me as odd...they are all the same amount, to the same company...that should mean that it is a normal payment, but it is the only thing that does not match the list Stacy gave me. Did anyone outside of the three of us know I took the financial documents with me?”

“No, we put it together so quickly, we were the only people here, so no one else knows you have this stuff. Oh, Stacy is back.”

“Stasia...Bill signed every one of these checks...that is odd.”

“Guys, stay put. I am going to make some phone calls. I’m going to call you back in twenty minutes. DO NOT tell anyone what is going on.” She got some additional information about the bank the checks were deposited into.

Stasia called the bank the funds had been going into, and talked to a manager who was very helpful, but the information she collected, was not good. She sighed deeply, ran a hand over her face and took a deep breath before calling Diane and Stacy back.

Diane was quick to pick up the phone, “What is going on Stasia?”

“I don’t know how to tell you this but, BK Co...is Bill. He is the sole owner and signer on the account the money has been going into.”

She was met with silence. “I’m having the signature cards faxed to the office. I’m sure there is a logical explanation.” Stasia was grasping at straws here...the only explanation she could come up with was that Bill had been stealing from the company since July and since he had been balancing the books up until now, no one had noticed. He wasn’t aware that Stasia was going to be taking over that aspect of the business, or she was sure he would have covered his tracks better.

“The fax is ringing right now. I’ll be back.” Stacy almost whispered.

“Diane, I have to tell Lance about this.” Stasia ventured.

“Can you wait until after we talk to Bill?”

She heard Stacy come back into the office and shut the door behind her. “Momma, it is his signature.”

“Diane, I’ll talk to Bill if you’d like.” Stasia knew how difficult this was going to be for them. They considered Bill a friend, they considered him family. “It would be easiest for me to do it, I don’t have the personal involvement.”

“That may be best.” Diane’s voice was shaky. “You should talk to Lance first. That is the right thing to do. He will be so upset. Do you want me to tell him?”

“I think I should, he deserves to hear about this face to face. Please fax all of the checks and the signature cards to me here at Jive. I want him to be able to see this for himself. Lance may want to talk to Bill himself. I’ll let him decide. ”

Stacy sighed, “I’ll fax the stuff right now. Call us when you’ve talked to Lance.”

“I will. Diane, Stacy...I am so sorry.” Stasia hung up the phone as the fax began to ring, as the pages rolled off the fax machine, the situation looked worse and worse for Bill. Every signature was identical. He had opened the BK Co. bank account, he had written the check to BK Co., and he had endorsed the checks.

She walked over to the window looking into the studio. She had the speaker in the outer room turned off, so she couldn’t hear what song the guys were working on, but all of them had smiles on their faces. They all looked so happy, and this was the first time since she had met the group, that Lance looked at ease and happy. Now, she was about to put an end to that mood.

The guys stopped singing, and looked to the booth where the producer was sitting, once they were given the thumbs up, they started to pull off their headphones and gather their water bottles. Joey and Justin were the first to burst out of the studio, Joey was telling a joke that already had Justin laughing. Chris was next, he came sprinting through the door, “I HAVE TO GO TO THE BATHROOM!” He was already in the hall by the time JC and Lance walked out of the studio discussing the track they had just finished.

“Lance, can I talk to you please?” Stasia ventured.

“Sure what’s up?” He looked at her curiously, and walked over to her.

“Is there a place I can talk to you alone?”

“Let’s go to the conference room next door. What the heck is going on, you look...” He lead her to the conference room next door and pulled the door closed behind them.

“Confused...I look confused.”

“What has you confused. I’m sure whatever it is will be a minor thing.” He tried to reassure her with a little smile.

“Lance, I don’t know where to begin. I asked you about the checks written to BK Co.”

“Right, what did my mom say?”

“She had no idea what they were for, neither did Stacy. We have no bill from BK Co., no contract, no invoice. But we have paid them over $10,000.00 since July.”

“Ten grand? Are you kidding me?”

“Lance, it appears, at this point that BK Co. and Bill Kemp, are one in the same.”

“Bill Kemp...our Bill Kemp?”

She slid the copies across the table to him. He quietly flipped through the pages, his brow furrowed chewing on his bottom lip. “Lance, do you want me to approach him about this? I know the rest of you are personally involved and it would be difficult for you.”

He ran a hand through his hair and looked up at her. “If he needed money, he just had to ask me.”

“I know, but we have to do something quickly. Maybe he has an explanation.”

“Like the new car he bought three weeks ago?” Lance met her eyes with his own, and her heart dropped. He looked so hurt and angry, and he had every right to feel that way.

“Your mom and Stacy are waiting to hear from us.”

“Call them on speaker phone. We’ll talk to them together, then I want you and I to talk to Bill together, I’m not sure I can have this conversation alone.” He said quietly.

Stasia walked over to the phone at the far end of the table, and pushed it towards Lance as she dialed. Jamie picked up on the first ring, “Free Lance Entertainment! How may I help you?” She sounded very chipper.

“Hi Jamie.”

“Lance! How are you? How’s the record coming? How are you getting along with Stasia? Isn’t she great?” Lance looked up at Stasia and smiled weakly.

“I’m fine. The record is almost done. Anastasia and I are getting along just fine. Jamie, I need to talk to my mom and Stacy. Can you put me through to the conference room please?”

“Sure Lance! Have a great day. I’ll talk to you soon.” The call was placed on hold. Stasia and Lance both sat quietly, waiting for Diane and Stacy to pick up the extension.

“Lance darling?” Diane’s voice was soft on the other end of the line.

“Momma, Anastasia and I are both here. Is Stacy there with you?”

“I’m right here Lance.”

“Have you guys looked at this stuff Anastasia found? What do you think?”

“We’ve both looked at everything, darling, this doesn’t look good. I don’t know why Bill would steal from us. I keep hoping there is another explanation.”

“I know Momma. I do to. I think we need to call Bill into the conference room. Anastasia and I are going to talk to him. Do you want to stay or do you want to leave it up to us?”

“No, we are all in this together. I want to hear what he has to say.” Stacy had an angry edge to her voice. “I’ll call him in.” There was some rustling in the background.

“Hi Diane. Stacy said you wanted to see me in here?” Bill entered the room.

“Bill, this is Lance. I’m here in Florida with Anastasia, we were reviewing the books and we have a few questions that I’m hoping you can clear up for us. Anastasia, go ahead.”

She looked over at Lance, took a deep breath, and started, “Bill, I’ve noticed monthly payments, in the amount of $1,750.00 to a company called BK Co. Lance and I were having a hard time figuring out what those payments relate to.”

Lance looked at her, he liked her approach, this was giving Bill a chance to explain the situation, without actually laying all of their cards on the table. He had two options, he could tell the truth, or they had proof he was lying. Either way, this was his only opportunity to prove himself.

“Anastasia, I wasn’t aware you were going to be taking over the books.” Bill said, and Lance hung his head.

“BK Co.? Um...Well, a...BK Co. is a company...” They could hear him swallow hard. “Lance, BK Co. is the company I told you about.”

“I’m sorry Bill, I can’t remember you telling me about them. What is that they do again?” He looked as Stasia who was staring at the phone as if it were Bill, she had a pleading look on her face, as if she didn’t want him to be stealing, as if she wanted him to have a valid explanation.

“Well Lance. BK Co. is the company that did the office.”

Stasia looked up at Lance who shook his head, no. “Bill the work on the office was done by Advanced Interiors.”

“I meant the plans for the office.”

“The plans were done by Advanced as well.” Stacy pointed out. “I went to high school with the guy that did the designs.”

Lance got a hard look on his face, but his tone was calm. “How about the truth Bill? Who...is... BK Co.?”

It was quiet for a minute, “I am.”

“Bill, we are talking about $10,500.00 here. What happened to the money?” Anastasia asked pointedly.

“I took it.”

“But why?” Diane was obviously upset.

“Because I could.”

“Did you need the money? Was there an emergency? Bill, I would have given you a loan. I would have given the money flat out, no questions asked. I...we...trusted you.” Lance was very upset, he looked on the verge of tears.

“I’m sorry. I WANTED it. I’m not sure why I did it, I just did. If I would have asked you for it, you would have asked why I needed it. I’ll pay you back.”

Lance sighed, “I will expect a cashiers check for $10,500.00 made payable to Free Lance by the end of the week. If I don’t have it by then, I will press charges. I am going to have to ask you to clean out your desk, and give your key to Stacy right now.”

“I understand.” Bill must have left the conference room, because they heard a door close.

“I don’t understand, he didn’t really give us a reason.” Diane said quietly.

“Momma, I don’t know what to tell you. I had to fire him, you know that right?” Lance was holding his head in his hands. This wasn’t easy for any of them. They all felt betrayed.

“I know. I’m going home, I need to talk to your daddy. Stasia, I will talk to you later, you too Lance.” They heard the door close again.

“Stacy?”

“Yeah Lance. I’m still here.”

“Have all of the locks changed, today. If the check isn’t in the office by the close of business Friday, call the police.”

“OK. I’m sorry Lance, I should have noticed this. I’m so sorry.”

“It’s not your fault Stace. Please take care of that stuff for me. Bye.”

“Bye.” The line went dead.

Lance hit the speaker phone button, to end the dial tone that was ringing out through the room. He slammed his forehead down on the table in front of him. His arms were laying next to his head. “Damn it.”

Stasia didn’t know what to do, he needed something...someone. She thought about going to get one of the guys, but she didn’t want to leave him alone. He was rolling his head back and forth. She acted without thinking. She reached out and gently touched his hand with her fingertips. “Lance?”

His head jerked up, he looked at her hand where it was resting on his own, and then looked into her eyes. She looked sad, but she didn’t even know Bill, she really had nothing to be sad about. “What is it Anastasia?” He pulled his hand away, and ran it through his hair.

“I am sorry. I didn’t realize what this whole thing would lead to, I had no idea that Bill was BK Co. I had no idea what wold happen.”

“Thank you. Thank you for finding this, and for helping me take care of this mess, and for...trying to help me, but I need to be alone. Do you mind?”

“Of course. I’m going to finish up the books at home...at Dani’s. If you need anything please call.”

“Thanks.” He watched her gather up the copies from the table and leave the room. “Damn it.” His head hit the table again.

Lance opened the door to his apartment, and flopped down on the couch. He set his computer on the coffee table and flipped it open, he attached the power cords, then plugged them into the outlet and phone jack. He turned on the power, and was getting ready to check his e-mail, when the screen lit up. “What the?” On the screen, were two pictures, each taking up half of the monitor. The first was a man, woman and puppy. The second, was the same man and woman at their wedding, with a second woman, and a girl he realized was Anastasia.

When she left the studio, she must have grabbed the wrong computer, when they were closed, they were identical. It was an easy mistake to make. He pulled the plug from the wall, and grabbed his keys.

Stasia was sitting in the middle of the living room floor, with file folders spread out around her. She had spent the last three hours accounting for every penny that had been through Free Lance since the day it was founded. With the huge exception of Bill’s $10,500.00, everything was in order.

She jumped when she heard the knock at the door. She got up and answered the door, still holding her hand to her chest to calm her irregular heartbeat. Pulling the door open, she was surprised to see Lance standing there. “Hi.”

“Hi, I have your computer.”

“Oh God! I took the wrong one! I’m sorry. You didn’t have to drive all the way over here, I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“It’s no big deal, the drive was good for me.”

“Come in. I’ll get yours for you.” She stepped back so he could walk into the hallway. She shut the door and led the way to the living room. “Sorry about the mess, but I was double checking all of the banks accounts. While I have you here, may I make a few suggestions?”

“Sure go ahead, that’s what you’re here for right?”

She smiled, “Yeah, I guess so. Can I get you something to drink? I was just going to grab a Dr. Pepper.”

He looked at her strangely and grinned, “Yeah thanks, Dr. Pepper would be great.” He sat down on the couch and began looking at the paperwork spread out on the floor. He shouted toward the kitchen, “Did you find anything else?”

“Nope. I went over everything with a fine tooth comb, and it looks like everything else is in order.” She set a glass down on the table next to him.

“Thanks. I guess that’s good news.” He watched her sit down on the floor, in the middle of all of the paper. “He had no idea you were going to look at this stuff.”

“I’m sure you’re right. I think we caught him off guard. Lance, I’m really sorry.”

“Don’t be, you may have saved me thousands of dollars today. What are those suggestions you wanted to make?” He settled back and picked up his glass.

“Well, as far as the banking goes, I think you should limit the authorized signers on the accounts. Make the signers, you, your mom and Stacy. Why does anyone else need to be? After all, it’s silly for me to be a signer, since I will always be where you are...if you aren’t there to do it, I won’t be either.”

“You have a point. What else have you got?” He smiled at her.

“Ok, this is in a completely different direction, but I was on hold with the company a dozen times today, and while I was on hold, all there was to listen to was dead air....so I was thinking, why don’t we have recordings of our artists as hold music. You know...push them every way possible.”

“That’s a good idea. I’ll have Stacy take care of it.”

“I was also thinking that you and I should have at least an hour a day to go over what is going on, since we’ll be together, it shouldn’t be too difficult. And I’ve started working on the talent search. Oh, and what does next week look like?”

“You are starting to sound like Jamie. I’m going to have to limit your contact with her.”

“I did sound like her didn’t I? Oh God!” She fell onto her back on the floor.

“Ok, as for your questions. An hour a day should be doable. I’d like to see what you’ve got done for the talent search. AND, next week, we are doing Snowed In for MTV at Big Bear. Do you ski?”

“Lance, I’m from Michigan, I learned to ski before I could walk.” She laughed. “So when do we leave for Big Bear?”

“Let me check the schedule on my computer. I realize we weren’t supposed to be back in Mississippi for another week, but let’s see if we can squeeze in a trip, on the way back from Big Bear. I think it would be good for us to put in an appearance.” He reached for the laptop sitting on the floor next to Stasia, and replaced it with the one he brought with him. He turned on his own, and checked the schedule. “We leave on Tuesday, for California, then are supposed to return here on Saturday. Let’s see if we can leave late Friday night, hit Mississippi Saturday morning, put out any fires in the office, and get back here Sunday night. It doesn’t look like that will conflict with any NSYNC responsibilities.”

“Hey, I didn’t know you used the scheduler in the computer, do you mind if I copy your information onto my computer? Then it will be easier for me to schedule things for you, and for our meetings. You can mark appointment personal, then they will copy as a block of time, with no notation, that way they can still be private. I can copy my schedule over for you as well if you’d like.” She turned on her computer, and got a cable of some sort out of her bag.

“That’s a good idea, go ahead. Can I do something to help?” Lance turned his computer so she could have access to the ports on the back of the machine.

“Nope, this will just take a second once my computer boots up.” She attached the cables to each computer, made a few keystrokes, and watched the progress bar shoot up. “All set, if we do this once every few days, it will make life easier for both of us. Now if you hand me the phone sitting on the table next to you, I’ll see about booking our flights to Mississippi and Florida.”

He tossed the cordless phone at her and watched her pull up a number from her computer’s address book She quickly dialed and started talking to a ticket agent. As Stasia made arrangements on the phone, Lance scrolled through his newly expanded schedule. He was amazed at how may appointments Stasia already had set up for herself. She had meetings with Johnny, telephone conferences with his mom and Stacy, there were meetings with the events coordinator for Hard Rock Café. She had a meeting set up with Meredith Edwards, and one set up with Jack Defeo. Stasia was jumping into this job full force.

She turned off the phone, and smiled, “Done deal! We leave California at 10:55 pm Friday night, land....well whenever we land, leave Mississippi Sunday night at 11:16 pm, arriving in Orlando at 12:35 am. It will make Monday a long day, but we will both get to sleep in our own beds Friday and Saturday nights. You don’t get to do that often do you?”

“Very rarely.”

“Well, Mr. Bass, now you have something to look forward to.”

Snowed In was amazing. The performance went very well, the audience seemed to like the new songs. The other segment that were filmed for MTV had Stasia laughing very hard, the things that girls were willing to do to spend just a few hours alone with the guys amazed her.

Stasia didn’t get to see much of Lance at all, because he was filming, or rehearsing most of the time. And when he wasn’t working on the MTV programs, he was with Danielle Fischel, they were apparently closer friends than Stasia had originally noticed, but maybe it was because Troy hadn’t been able to make the trip with Danielle this time. Stasia couldn’t help but notice that Danielle being around seemed to add to Lance’s stress...they had an odd friendship from what she could tell, and Danielle didn’t seem to like Stasia much at all. He had to reschedule two of their daily meetings, because Danielle HAD to talk to him right then. Really, Lance seemed to be avoiding her.

Stasia didn’t mind at all though, because it gave her a chance to spend a little time with Chris, who she liked a lot. They went skiing together Friday evening, and he was a blast to hang out with. Chris was closest to her age, so they had more in common than people realized. She found him very easy to talk to, and in a one on one situation he had some great insights. The clown the world saw, was actually a very sensitive guy, who lit up when he talked about Dani or his family. They were riding up the chairlift talking about her flight to Mississippi when Chris point down below them at Lance and Joey, making their way down the hill very slowly. “Would you look at that! He could walk down faster. HEY LANCE! MY GRANDMA COULD SNOW BOARD FASTER THAN YOU!” It was at that point Lance looked up at the chairlift, and fell in the process. Chris’s laughter rang out and echoed off of the mountain.

Lance had never done anything with snow in his life, so when the group decided to try skiing and snow boarding, he was a little nervous. He was laying on his back, looking up at the chairlift, wondering what he had been think when he’d agreed to do this. People from Mississippi were not supposed to play in the snow. He ran his hand over his face and rolled his eyes when he saw Chris laughing and pointing at him. Stasia was sitting with Chris, smacking him on the arm. Lance couldn’t hear what she was saying to him, but Chris suddenly put a gloved hand over her mouth to stop her.

Lance was struggling to he feet when Stasia and Chris both stopped quickly next to him, they were both skiing rather then snow boarding. The two of them together created a large wave of snow when they stopped. “Are you ok?” Stasia offered a mitten covered hand to him.

He took her hand and got completely to his feet, “Yeah, I’m fine...I just got distracted.” He glared playfully at Chris, who quickly tried to hide behind Stasia.

“Chris, you owe Lance an apology.” Stasia said sharply.

He stepped out from behind her, hung his head and said, “I’m sorry buddy.” Then, he knocked Stasia into Lance, they fell in a heap and he began laughing hysterically.

Stasia pushed up off of Lance. “OH MY GOD! CHRIS YOU BETTER RUN!” She helped Lance to his feet again, and when she was confident he would remain on his feet, she made a grab for Chris, who ducked and started down the hill.

She quickly overtook him, cut her skis sharply and turned in front of him, cutting him off and causing him to not only fall, but roll a few feet down the slope screaming the entire way. Stasia waited for Lance to catch up, then the two of them slowed near the pile of skis, clothes and tangled body parts that used to be Chris. “Don’t mess with me Chris, especially not on skis.” He bounced to his feet and tripped her. She went from standing next to Lance giggling, to laying flat on her back on the snow, with Chris rubbing snow in her face.

“HOW DO YOU LIKE ME NOW GIRLY?”

“STOP! I’m just a girl! This is not fair! You are bigger! CHRIS! I’m telling Dani!” It was at this point that the rest of the group arrived.

Justin said, “Chris! Dude! Let her up!” He tried to pull Chris off of Stasia, and when he was almost off, she smacked him in the face with a snowball. “OH! STASIA! Now you’ve started it.” Justin tried to jump back, but he got pulled down into their wrestling match. Now the three of them were throwing snow at one another, and Stasia was in the process of shoving a handful of snow down the back of Justin’s jacket. They rolled into Joey and brought him down as well, that’s when JC tried to break up the mess, the four people struggling on the ground stopped for a moment, looked at one another, and began pelting JC with snowballs. When JC took a flying leap onto the pile of people, they turned their attention to Lance who was standing nearby in shock.

“OOOOHHH LAAAANCE!” Chris’s arm shot out and grabbed Lance’s snowboard, his feet went out from under him and now the entire group was throwing snowballs, rubbing snow on heads, in faces, shoving it down jackets. When they finally stopped, they had drawn a crowd. Stasia’s ponytail, had been pulled mostly out, so it was hanging loosely on the side of her head. There were glove, hats, mittens, ski poles, skis and people littering the hill, and everyone involved was laughing hard. The MTV Snowed In cameras were filming the entire mess, but none of them cared. This was the most fun they’d had in quite a while.

MTV ran the footage of the brawl that night, and as Stasia and Lance were waiting for their plane to Mississippi, Johnny called. He told Lance that Jive was already getting questions as to Stasia’s identity, and that he was preparing a press release...he thought they could get great publicity out of the whole thing. He just wanted to let them know what was going on and that they looked like a bunch of fools on national TV. Lance was laughing when he hung up the phone.

“Well Anastasia, you’ve made your first appearance on MTV.” Lance explained his conversation with Johnny, and the fact that they were releasing her name and general information about her position to the press.

“I didn’t know that there would have to be any explanations about me. I’m sorry, I should have kept my distance. I didn’t even think about it, that must look great! NSYNC rolling around on the ground with a girl.” She smacked herself on the forehead.

“No...Johnny said we looked like we were having fun...well he said we looked like a bunch of fools, but he meant that in a good way. He also thinks we can get some great publicity for Free Lance out of the whole thing, this way, they release a picture of all of us having fun with the story.”

The flight to Mississippi went smoothly, and they were able to get through the airport with no fuss at all because of the late hour. Lance and Stasia had both slept most of the flight and were groggy while collecting their bags and getting into the rental car. As Lance drove out of the lot he looked over at her sleepy face and smiled, “You’ll get used to the schedule pretty quick. You have to learn to sleep whenever you can.”

“I just need a little time to adapt.” She yawned, and rested her head on the seat.

When they pulled up in front of the little house she was renting, Lance laughed, “Myrtle owns this place, right?”

“Yep! The flowers are a give away aren’t they?”

The house looked like a cottage, like the Larkmore, it was painted white with dark green shutters and window boxes were over flowing with pink and purple flowers. There was a tiny yard with a white picket fence and a little sitting area, with Myrtle’s signature rocking chairs. There was a light on in the front window.

“You left a light on.”

“No, your mom stopped by earlier tonight for me, she said I shouldn’t come home to a dark house.” Stasia got out of the car, and Lance started to get out to walk her to the door. “Oh, please don’t it’s far to late, just make sure I get in the door. Thanks for the ride Lance. I’ll see you at the office tomorrow around 10:00.”

“Good night Anastasia. I’ll see you tomorrow.” He watched her pick up her bag and walk up the brick path to the door, which she opened quickly and ducked inside. She appeared at the window waving, holding a stuffed animal. Lance pulled away from the curb and waved back.

“HI BABY!” She was cuddling Jake to her chest and he was looking away from her. “Oh stop it! I missed you, and I know for a fact Diane and Jim took very good care of you.” He nudged her chin with his nose, and she said, “I’m sorry Jake.” He began licking her face, “That’s better!”

Diane had come over to drop Jake off, along with the new key for the office. She found the key on the coffee table, with a note.

Stasia,

Welcome home! I waited until 10:30 pm to bring Jake here, he has been fed, and I took him out around 10:45. He was a dream!

Stacy and I will meet you at the office at 10:00. Get some rest.

Diane

Stasia was up at 8:30, she and Jake went for a run, something she missed a lot. On their way back home, she passed Myrtle’s house, she was busy in the garden. Stasia and Jake stopped to say hello. “Good morning Myrtle! How are you?”

“Stasia! Hi sweetie! How was your flight? Diane said you kids would be here today and tomorrow. Is that Jake? Stacy told me all about him. Come over here and sit down for a minute...out running around at this hour, you should still be asleep child.” As she was talking, she was walking towards the house. “You sit right there, I’ll be right back.” She walked into the house, and returned a few minutes later with a basket. “Here you go. When I heard you would be home, I knew you would have time to get anything to eat, so I fixed this for you.”

Stasia pulled back the floral napkin covering the contents of the basket to peer inside. The basket was full of muffins, fruit, cookies and a jar of homemade soup. “Myrtle! Thank you so much! You didn’t have to take the time to do this! It all looks so good!” She reached in and pulled out a muffin. “Will you split this with me?” She handed half of the muffin to Myrtle, who sat down on the bench next to her.

Stasia sat with Myrtle for a while, chatting about her trip to California and how she found out she had been on TV. Myrtle was properly impressed, and said she would have to try to see the show. When Stasia looked down at her watch, she realized she had to get going, she stood and hugged Myrtle, thanked her again for the food and left Myrtle to finish her gardening. She and Jake walked the block to their new house.

After she put the food away, she showered dressed quickly in a pair of khaki pants, an ivory turtle neck sweater and a pair of loafers. She pinned her hair up, put on her chapstick, grabbed her coat and the bag holding her computer and walked out the door. She walked the three blocks to the office, and was surprised to see two cars in the little lot already.

She walked in and started down the hall towards the offices. “Hello?”

“Stasia! Good morning!” Stacy’s head popped out of the conference room. Stasia made her way down the hall and entered the conference room, where Diane was sitting at the long table. Stacy hugged Stasia, then Diane got up and did the same.

“Good morning! How are you?” She sat across from Diane and the three women began chatting.

Stacy had seen the clip on MTV and was very excited. “It looks like you held your own in that mess.”

“I sort of started the whole thing...well Chris started it...”

“But she finished it.” Lance’s voice came from the doorway. “Hi Momma, hi Stace.” He kissed each of them on the cheek, then sat at the end of the conference table.

The four of them went over all of the changes that had been made since they discovered Bill was stealing. Stasia explained the new bank account structure, and why she didn’t need to sign checks, they reviewed all of the accounts. They talked about the talent search and how the plans were progressing. After a few hours, they had covered everything, and they all felt much better.

Stasia was the first to leave, she excused herself explaining that she still had some unpacking to do. After she left Diane and Stacy asked Lance how things were going.

“She is very good at her job, she always seems to be a step ahead of me. If I want to see a report, she already has it out. If I’m thinking about placing a call about Meredith’s recording schedule, she has already gotten the number ready for me. It’s working out well.”

“But are the two of you getting along darling?” Diane raised an eyebrow at her son.

“I guess so, I mean, she hangs out with the guys. I’ve been busy, so we haven’t really had a chance to sit down and talk. Every time we are together, we are working. But then again, that’s why she’s there, so I guess that’s the way it should be.”

“How was Big Bear? Besides the brawl.” Stacy changed the subject.

“It was fine, people like the new stuff. Danielle was there.”

Stacy and Diane looked at one another, and then back at Lance. “And?” Stacy asked.

“And nothing. She was there, we hung out a lot, we talked a lot. She likes Troy a lot, which is...good. She said Anastasia makes her uncomfortable, that she is bossy. Danielle doesn’t like the way Anastasia tells me what to do.”

“When was Stasia telling you what to do?” Diane looked annoyed.

“I don’t know, that’s just Danielle’s view, I didn’t say I thought she was telling me what to do. Really, I guess she does the opposite. Anastasia seems to make suggestions, then I decide what to do.”

“Well, you know what I think...” Stacy started, but then Diane caught her eye and she stopped.

“I don’t want to talk about it. Stacy, I’m having a few friends over to hang out tonight, why don’t you and Ford come by. Nothing major, just touching base with some people from high school and stuff.”

“Ok, we’ll stop by. What time?”

“Around 8:00, you guys can come over early if you want...you know you’re always welcome.”

Stacy and Ford walked through the door and into a pretty big party. Ford looked down at Stacy and said, “A few people? Just touching base? I’d hate to see a big party.”

“Honey, I don’t know what to tell you. He has always been Mr. Social, you know that.” She looked around and saw Lance in the living room talking to a group of guys she recognized from when Lance had been little. She smiled to see that these were all people he had been friends with since he was a little boy.

She and Ford made their way over to Lance to say hello. “Hi little brother!” She ruffed his hair, and he swatted at her hands.

“Hi guys.”

Stacy was looking around with a confused look on her face, “Where is Stasia?”

“Um...I didn’t invite her. I didn’t think she’d be comfortable.”

“WHAT?” She grabbed his arm and dragged him down the hall to his office. “How mean can you be Lance?”

“What are you talking about?”

“How could you NOT INVITE HER? LANCE! She doesn’t know anyone here except us! How may I ask, do you expect her to meet people? Did you ever stop to think that she may not want to be sitting at home alone tonight, while you are having a blow out? Did you ever stop to think about her feelings? NO! YOU DIDN’T! Lance, you aren’t normally so dumb about stuff like this. She JUST moved here, she has been in the state a grand total of FOUR days in THREE WEEKS! I wish you would use your head! What is Momma going to think?”

“Stacy, shut up. I wasn’t out to hurt her feelings, I just didn’t think she’d be comfortable.”

“Well, I’m going to go get her.”

“No, it’s my party, at my house...I’ll go. I’ll just call her.”

“OH NO YOU WON’T! You will go get the poor girl and apologize for being so insensitive! I can’t believe you are my brother!” She was standing in front of him, hands on her hips. He knew that if he continued to argue with her, not only would Stasia miss the party, he would as well.

“FINE! I’m going!” He grabbed his coat and his car keys and walked out the door.