“And three… two… one. Cue Carson,” the director ordered from off-set as the stagehand motioned to the host.

“Hey there, it’s Carson and you’re watching TRL on this fine Tuesday afternoon. My guest today, for the whole hour, is the lovely Samantha Clark,” he said turning to her.

“Hi again,” the brunette said to the camera with an almost shy wave.

“Samantha’s debut CD was released today and before the break we were talking about how exciting that is, but now I want to go back a little bit and explain for the people that don’t already know your story, how you got here.”

“Hmm, that’s a pretty long story, Carson,” Sam teased.

“I’m sure it is so we’re gonna shoot for the condensed version,” he replied glancing down at the cards in his hand. “So let’s start at the very beginning.”

“Okay,” she agreed with a nod of her head.

“You grew up in Michigan, right?”

Sam laughed as someone in the audience shouted ‘Detroit, what!?’. “Actually about an hour or so west of Detroit, but yes, born and raised.”

“And you moved to Orlando when you were 21. Why?” he inquired before quickly firing again. “Was it a family move? Or were you maybe not getting along with your family and you wanted to get as far away as possible?”

“Oh no, no. Nothing like that,” Sam said shaking her head adamantly. “My family still lives in Michigan and I have a very close, wonderful relationship with them.”

“That’s great. Quickly tell us a little bit about them. What do you parents do? Do you have any siblings?”

“My dad owns his own auto repair shop and my mom is a teacher. I have two younger sisters and a younger brother.”

“Do you get to see them much?” Carson wondered.

“I make it a point to. I wouldn’t survive without them, especially my mother,” Sam emphasized. “I’m really fortunate to have people around me that share the same beliefs when it comes to family and how important they are.”

Carson nodded in agreement. “Right. So now let’s get back to you,” he smirked. “So why’d you decide to move on your own then?”

“Well, I wasn’t happy at my job, and I, uh… I just felt like I needed a change.”

“But why Orlando? Was there something that specifically drew you there?”

“I’d always wanted to live someplace warm and I had a friend down there who had an extra room and she said come on down, so I did,” Sam explained with a shrug. “And everything’s come full circle because now she’s one of my reps at the record label.”

“Yeah, what up to Jen! I saw her walking around here earlier actually. Okay, so it’s two years ago, you’re in Orlando and you need a job. How did the gig as Lance’s assistant come about?” Carson asked.

“I’d been down there for about five or six months basically just sponging off of my roommate because I kept finding all these crappy jobs and I’d end up quitting two days later. Eventually I saw an ad in the paper and I almost didn’t respond to it because it didn’t sound very legit.”

“What do you mean by that?” the host interrupted.

“It was just very vague and to me, sounded suspicious, which of course, after I got the job I understood the need for all the secrecy, but at the time I was a little afraid it was gonna turn out to be, I don’t know, something… illegal,” Sam recalled with a laugh.

“So basically you thought he was setting up a brothel?” Carson quipped.

“Something like that,” she agreed before continuing on. “So anyway, I interviewed with his mom, Diane, because Lance was in tour rehearsals and was literally too busy to hire his own assistant. The first time I ever spoke to him was when he called to offer me the job. I didn’t actually meet him until the night we left for the NSA tour.”

“Man, that’s crazy,” Carson commented as he shuffled the index cards in his hands and glanced up at the cue cards. “Wouldn’t it have just sucked if you two had not gotten along at all?”

“It really would’ve,” Sam smiled. “But luckily for both of us, Diane knew what her son needed.”

“Probably much more so than either of you anticipated,” the dark-haired man cracked. “But we’ll pause right there for a minute and play the next video before we get into all of that. Here’s The Calling at number seven on your countdown today.”

Lance rose from his seat in the greenroom to get a bottle of water as Sam and Carson conversed on the stage while waiting for their next segment to begin. As he sat back down in the chair he shot a quizzical glance towards Jen and Wade who were seated on the couch carrying on with what Lance perceived to be a very friendly exchange. His thoughts of the two disappeared almost as quickly as they had appeared once he heard Sam’s voice again.

“That was the guys of The Calling, climbing two spots from yesterday’s countdown,” she said coming out of the video before contorting her voice mockingly to a broadcaster-like tone. “If you’re just joining us today, I’m Samantha Clark and this is my sidekick, Carson Daly. We’re talking about how my CD is being released today and that you all must go out and buy it. Isn’t that right, Carson?” Sam asked before finally giving way to a fit of giggles.

“Yes. Everything but the sidekick thing of course,” he laughed in return. “But now, let’s get serious,” the young man suggested, changing his tone of voice and expression.

“I can do serious,” Sam complied, matching his demeanor.

“How long was it before you and Lance said ‘screw this boss/employee boundaries thing’ and just started going at it?” he questioned with a mischievous smirk as the audience reacted. “Was it right away or was it something that just crept up gradually and hit you out of nowhere?”

“There was definitely something there right from the start,” Sam grinned.

“So the sparks were flying, as they say, right from the first moment you met?”

“Enough to start a fire,” she answered as the crowd hooted. “But,” Sam stopped to let the people quiet down. “But we didn’t act on it right away.”

“Why not?” Carson pushed.

“Well,” she paused and Lance smiled to himself awaiting her answer. “It was a tough situation and we were both trying to be professional. I will admit though, that Lance was trying to be so much more than myself,” she revealed. “And eventually it just got to a point where we couldn’t resist anymore, we didn’t want to resist anymore, and we gave in.”

“What was it that made you two finally realize that it wasn’t something that you were going to be able to ignore. That maybe it wasn’t just something physical, that it was much deeper?” he asked before adding a footnote. “If you don’t mind sharing with us, that is.”

“It was the first time I sang for him actually,” Sam answered easily.

“He’d never heard you sing up until that point?”

“No. I’d never really thought of myself as a singer so it wasn’t something I even thought about telling him, or anyone, about. To me, it was just something I did for fun. I never really thought I was that good at it honestly,” Sam confessed.

“And look at you now. You’re on TRL, your CD is out today, you’ve already played in front of thousands of people opening for the two biggest pop acts, *NSYNC and Britney, personal life is good. What more could a small-town Michigan girl want?” Carson teased.

“Not a thing. My life definitely doesn’t suck.”

“It certainly doesn’t. And speaking of opening for *NSYNC, I want to talk a little bit about that and what it was like the first time after we see the number six video, our friend J. Lo,” he announced.

As the video played Lance drifted off into his own memories.

*****

“Thanks for the questions, Detroit! We’ll see you later. Enjoy the show!” Joey exclaimed as the group excited the stage.

“Did you guys see that…”

Lance was abruptly cut off by an impassioned kiss as a small brunette lunged towards him.

“Damn, all that for a sound check? I was out there too,” Chris joked as Lance held Sam off the ground, her legs resting comfortably around his waist.

“Hmm, I think it may have something more to do with this,” Justin said as he picked up one of the first copies of the new CD and flipped to the liner notes. “Let’s see… Thanks to God… Joey, Justin, Chris, and JC… ah, here we go,” he said finally finding the passage he was searching for. “To my amazingly dedicated assistant, Samantha. Thanks for always going that extra mile to make sure I have everything I need. Somehow you always find a way to stay a step ahead of me. Thank you for keeping me and all of my many varied projects together, it would all fall apart if not for you. My mom was definitely right when she said you were the perfect person for the job.”

Justin looked in Sam’s direction with a strange expression. “It seems kinda… distant to me. I think I wrote something more emotional to you than that.”

“Keep reading,” she instructed as she finally came up for air.

He continued scanning through his bandmate’s thank you’s until coming to the last paragraph. “Oh, now I get it,” Justin said as he began to read again. “And lastly, I dedicate this album to ‘My Star’. This past year has most definitely been the best year of my life, on so many different levels. All of the success and honors wouldn’t have meant nearly as much had I not had you right by my side to share them with. Watching you experience everything in this crazy world of mine for the first time has made it seem brand new to me again and I can’t thank you enough for reminding me to enjoy the things that really matter and not to worry so much about the things that don’t. But even if none of the success with NSA had happened, it still would have been the best year of my life, because I found you. And I knew, beyond a single shred of doubt, that my search was over. I love you, Sam – today, tomorrow, always.”

“I love you,” Sam whispered through her sniffles while remaining attached to her boyfriend.

“I love you too,” Lance returned earnestly, kissing her hair as she snuggled her face into his neck. “And while you’re in this current state of awe for me, I think this would be the perfect time to tell you something,” he rationalized, hoping her happiness would buffer the information he was about to supply.

“Uh oh, somebody get a trashcan ready,” JC quipped, knowing what his friend was about to reveal.

“What’s going on?” Sam asked with a worried tone as she finally slipped down to her own feet.

“I got a call from your record label yesterday,” Lance began. Sam had signed a recording contract with Virgin Records just over a month ago.

“And?” she impatiently interrupted.

“Okay, please don’t freak out on me,” he said, gently grabbing her shoulders and forcing her to focus only on him. “They want you to start getting some more live performances under your belt.”

“Okay? What’s the problem then?” Sam asked confused.

“They think it would be a good idea for you to start opening for us. Johnny and I agree. The promoters are on board too and you start tonight,” Lance said with one quick breath.

Sam’s head began to spin with all sorts of thoughts. Unfortunately they soon were all a tangled mess, as was her stomach. “But… what… sound check?” she managed to squeak out.

“Yeah, uh, remember earlier today when I said you should practice your live performance on stage because you hadn’t done it in a while? Well that was actually your sound check.” Sam was visibly surprised. “Please don’t be mad at me,” Lance pleaded with her. “But I knew if I told you yesterday and you had all this time to worry about it, you’d just make yourself crazy.”

“That could very well still happen.”

“Actually, you really don’t have time to freak out. You’re supposed to be on stage in a half hour and they’re waiting for you in hair and make-up,” he explained, gently guiding his dumbfounded girlfriend towards the dressing rooms.

*****

“Wait a minute, he just threw you out there to the wolves with no warning?” Carson asked incredulously as Sam recounted the story for the audience.

“Yes. But it really was the best way to handle it. He probably would’ve never gotten me out there otherwise,” she laughed.

“So how was the *NSYNC crowd? Were they accepting of you?”

“You know, there are always gonna be people that don’t like you for whatever reason, but I have to say that the majority of the audience was always really great to me,” Sam answered honestly.

“And you opened for Britney too. How was that?” Carson questioned.

“Ya know, that was a freakin blast,” she exclaimed. “Her crowds are great too and it was just really fun to be able to hang out with her. She’s a really good friend of mine and it was a nice change after being around a pack of guys most the time. And we did a lot of double-dating when Lance and Justin could come out and visit us.”

“Which I’m sure the tabloids would love to hear all about,” he laughed. “So we’ll move on. Let’s talk about the first single, which you’re going to perform for us soon.”

“It’s called ‘If I’ and it was written by Mr. JC Chasez and one of my best friends, Melody Adams, who is currently starring on Broadway as Meg in Phantom of the Opera. She’s also about to film her movie debut, so look out for her America. She’s uber-talented and she’s gonna be a big star. That was my little plug,” Sam smiled. “JC also produced the single.”

“What was that like? Working with him in the studio?”

“That was actually the very first song I ever recorded, so that in itself made it an amazing experience. But to be working with someone like JC, who is just truly in his element in the studio and is such a genuinely talented artist, I couldn’t have asked for a better scenario,” she raved. “And that goes for everything involving this album.”

“You also worked with Justin a lot on the album. Tell us about that experience,” Carson requested.

“That was just fun and felt very comfortable. There’s no other way to describe it,” Sam said with a chuckle. “Justin has this free, creative vibe to him that is just very distinctively… Justin. And the talent that kid has at his age,” she sighed. “Sometimes it just doesn’t seem fair.”

“Well you’re not exactly lacking in that department either lady. You did co-write several of the songs on the album along with Justin, JC, and Melody Adams. And the thing I really like about the album is that, even though you didn’t work with a lot of different writers and producers, it has a very diverse mix of sounds on it,” he paused to read off his note card. “I mean you’ve got the first single, ‘If I’, which has this really sexy, rock feel to it, there are some R&B vibes on a couple of the uptempo tracks, there’s a Stevie Wonder cover, an 80s cover, even the ballads are different – from pure, minimalistic sounds to epic power. Is that something that you did on purpose or did it just turn out that way?”

“A little of both I guess,” Sam replied. “I didn’t set out to make a specific sounding album, but I knew that I love all different kinds of styles of music and I wanted to experiment with all of them. The covers were basically just because I love covers and those songs are just so fun to sing.”

“Right, and if you’re going to cover an 80s song, why not do ‘Walking On Sunshine’ and go all the way with it?” Carson asked rhetorically. “How’d the Stevie Wonder song, ‘Signed, Sealed, Delivered’, come about though and how in the world did you get permission to do it?”

“One of my favorite country singers, Bryan White, used to do it in concert and I’ve always loved it so when we were looking for songs to record for my demo that I already knew, it fit perfectly. And then the record company liked it so much it ended up on the album. As for getting permission, let’s just say that was one time that having good contacts was a definite plus,” Sam grinned.

“Stevie did some work on *NSYNC’s last album, right?”

“Yeah. He played harmonica on “Something Like You.”

“Well as they say in Hollywood, it’s all about who you know,” Carson shrugged sarcastically. “My producer’s screaming in my ear right now to go to break but we’re not finished with Samantha yet. She’s still gonna take some questions from you, the in-studio audience and some home viewers and we’re gonna play a round of ‘Fact or Fiction’ and set the record straight on a couple of things. But coming up right after the break, she’ll treat us to a live performance. So stay tuned!” he ordered as he grabbed hold of the camera and gave it a little shake.

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