****
It was just a little before one o’clock in the afternoon as *Nsync and all the necessary crew waited to take off. Lance was sitting by a window, with Randy next to him. On the other side of the plane, Bobbie sat pouting as she sat all alone in the other set of two seats. Chris and Dani sat in the middle section of that row, holding hands and just being the happy couple. Lonnie and Dre shared mock disgusted looks over the pair’s heads. In the next row back, Big E was already asleep next to Todd, and was slightly drooling. On the other side, Justin and Wes were arguing playfully over the armrest. In the middle section of that row JC, Sophie, Joey, and Mike all sat very quietly. As the plane began to taxi down the runway, Sophie grabbed a hold of JC and Joey’s hands, as if they were her lifelines.
“Sophie, are you alright sweetheart?” JC asked, rubbing her arm.
“Yeah, you’re makin my fingers purple Sophie, my love.” Joey chuckled. Sophie was tightlipped.
“Sorry. I don’t like takeoffs. They make me nervous.” She said with her eyes shut and her jaw tense. JC seemed lost.
“But you must have done this all the time going between New York….”
“Please Sweets, don’t talk to me right now or I’ll loose my lunch.” Sophie’s urgent tones quieted him right away. He simply squeezed her hand tightly and waited for the plane to get in the air.
By the time they’d reached cruising altitude, Sophie had relaxed. She smiled apologetically at JC.
“Sorry I snapped at you.” She said softly. He smiled at her and kissed the hand he still held with his own.
“It’s ok.”
“Alright, it’s time to get down and dirty.” Chris’ voice rang through the cabin. His head popped up over the seatback in front of Sophie and she laughed.
“What are you talking about?”
“Is everybody listening?” Chris asked.
“Chris Honey, I’m sure that everybody could still hear you if you were a little quieter. And the stewardesses wouldn’t be staring at you the way they are.” Dani warned with a giggle.
“Good call. See, this is why I keep you around.” He leaned down and kissed her before reappearing in front of Sophie. “If it would be possible, I’d like to ask that Mike and Lonnie,” Chris paused to pat the massive shoulder of the bodyguard next to him. “If you guys could move for a little bit, we’ve got some serious group business to attend to.”
“What are you talking about?” JC asked.
“Sophie’s going to review our concert for us!” Chris gleefully replied and shoved at Lonnie. “Come on now, let Lancey have his spot in the tribal council.” Lonnie just shook his head and stood to let Lance take his place. Mike did the same thing for Justin. Chris was lucky they’d slept well the night before, or they wouldn’t be as quick to give in to his whims. When everyone was resettled, Chris turned his attention on Sophie once again. “Ok Sofa-girl. You’ve got about twelve hours to regale us with your impressions of our amazing show.” He rested his arms on his seatback and propped his chin up with a hopeful look.
“Twelve hours?” Sophie laughed.
“Isn’t the flight like, nineteen or some other ridiculous number?” Justin asked.
“Justin.” Chris scolded. “The poor thing has to sleep some time.”
“Thanks for your consideration Bubbles.” Sophie smirked.
“No problem whatsoever.” Chris grinned. Joey and Justin looked at each other.
“Thank you Simone.” They said together in their best “Ben Stein” voices.
“Anyway, you can start now.” Chris added with a wave of his hand.
“What do you want to know?” She asked, looking at JC.
“What’s your favorite song?”
“That’s too easy.” Chris said.
“You have to start off easy. Then get progressively harder.” JC chuckled.
“I’d have to say that my favorite song on the album is ‘It’s Gonna Be Me.’” Sophie started. “But as far as performances go, I really love ‘Space Cowboy.’”
“Oh yeah, it’s all about my pelvis.” Joey nodded with satisfaction. Sophie laughed and hugged his arm.
“I wasn’t done Joey Beautiful. I really love ‘Space Cowboy’ but there’s something very cool about ‘No Strings Attached.’”
“Ha, it’s all about my finger snappin.” Chris said, demonstrating his awesome skills.
“I don’t know what it is. Oh, but Sugar,” she looked around Joey to see Justin. “The place where you stop the music and sorta throw the fireball?”
“Yeah?”
“I love that.”
“In both your faces!” Justin cried. “It’s all about my fire throwy thingie thing.”
“What about costumes?” Joey said, ignoring Justin’s taunting. “We had the worst time with that.”
“Hmm.” Sophie resnuggled into Joey’s arm but let one hand sneak it’s way back to JC’s warm fingers. “The ‘Tearin Up My Heart’ costumes are nice. But really, there’s not any horrible ones. The ‘Just Got Paid’ ones are possibly a little much…. But that’s why it’s call show business.” Sophie shrugged.
“And the choreography?” Justin’s voice asked.
“Well, do you really want the truth?” Sophie asked sheepishly.
“WE CAN’T HANDLE THE TRUTH!” Chris yelled before Dani hushed him, laughing at the people who were staring.
“Yes Sophie, we want the truth.” Lance chimed in. His tone was strange.
“Some of the dances are really good. And others, well, others border on interpretive dance. Not that that’s bad, it’s just, well, not what I would expect to see in your show.”
“Stupid Wade.” Joey muttered. Sophie hugged him tighter and giggled.
“Oh hush, the show is one of the most awesome things I’ve ever seen in my life. I’m just being nit-picky because you’re letting me. When I run backstage every night, my heart is pounding, my ears are ringing, and I feel like you guys are the most wonderful people on Earth to give so much to all your fans.”
“But that doesn’t count Sofa-girl.” Chris said seriously. “Because you think we’re the most wonderful people on Earth anyway!” He smiled at her and she laughed.
“Caught me.” She moved to put her hands up, but was hindered by Joey’s arm and JC’s hand. “Were there any more specific questions, or do you just want me to rave some more?”
“I think they want to see you naked.” Bobbie mumbled loudly from her seat. “Maybe that’s the real reason your daddy sent you along. Keep the talent happy by pimping out the daughter.” A shoe hit her head and she cursed loudly and stood up to see who’d done it.
“Oops, sorry Bobbie.” Dani smiled caustically. “I guess when Dre pulled me back from climbing over these seats and kicking your worthless skank ass, my shoe slipped off.” All the guys, who moments before had been too stunned to do anything, now cheered as Dani turned around to face Sophie. “I always liked ‘Digital Getdown’ the whole breakdown in the middle is just so cool.” Sophie blushed as Bobbie continued to grumble to herself, but smiled up at Dani.
“Thanks.” She mouthed, before answering. “Actually, I’ve never seen all of ‘Digital Getdown’, I always head out to get my stuff together and get on the bus before everybody else.”
“You’ve never seen C li….” Joey started off, but Justin clamped a hand over his mouth.
“One of these nights you’re going to have to pack up before you watch the show. It’ll be worth it.” Sophie looked warily at him, and then at the others who all seemed to be struck shy at that moment.
“Ok.” She said slowly. “I’ll do that when we’re in Atlanta.”
“Ok, what next?” Chris asked, his eyes sparkling with excitement and pride over what Dani had done to Bobbie. For a very long time all the guys grilled Sophie on what she thought about tiny details of the show. Even JC couldn’t sleep through this; it was too much fun goofing off and being reassured once again that, forget Barnum and Bailey, their show was the greatest on Earth. Although, Dani filled Sophie in on the monk thing, which they still hadn’t come up with a good excuse for. This trip was turning out to be great, and as long as Bobbie kept her distance, it was going to be one of the best ever.