Chris was sitting on the sofa flipping channels on the large plasma TV screen. He stopped when he saw a trailer of Justin’s new upcoming movie “In Time.” He frowned at the screen. Chris wasn’t mad at him, he supported him in everything he did, but I think Justin was taking it a bit too far. He knew JC was probably stuck in the studio writing for other artists, or hanging with that Matt guy from “Glee”, Lance was directing a show, and Joey had a family to take care of and was hosting events. What was Chris doing?” Sure, he had a rock band, but it wasn’t that successful, he was just there, going to parties, attending charity events and playing golf. He turned off the TV and gazed at the calendar on the wall. “October 17th.” His birthday, the only people that called him for his birthday was his mom, his four sisters, and some friends of his. He did receive a text message from Joey and Lance that morning, just a simple “Happy birthday old man.” typical Joey phrase. He sighed and started pacing around the living room, his two pugs “Boomer and Henry.” were both busy chewing on a ball, and they paid no attention to him.

He stared at the framed photos on the wall; there were pictures of him and the guys during their “PopOdysseyTour”. He remembered that day well, it was his birthday that they, and they were all having a blast, sharing good laughs, and cracking jokes on the bus, putting frosting on Chris’s face, that was how his birthdays were supposed to be. They did that for him every year, in fact all of their birthdays were like that when they were together; and after the band disbanded, it all went downhill from there. Chris had tears forming in his eyes, he just couldn’t picture it, that all five of them were indeed never coming back, I mean, if the “New Kids on The Block” and “Backstreet Boys” did it, why couldn’t they?” It was obvious that they still had fans, and Chris knew that deep in his heart, they may rise again, and be on top of the world. But by the looks of it, chances were slim. He wiped away his tears and went to the laptop, to check his Twitter, he had lots of fans wishing him a “Happy birthday, saying that they loved him, and wish him all the best.” He smiled, and replied back to them, and retweeted some of them, and was amazed at how excited the fans were when he replied and retweeted back to them.

After a while of checking his emails and typing a couple of words, he checked his phone to see if he had any new messages, nothing, no message from JC or Justin. He wondered why? He could understand Justin, but JC? Hardly, JC usually texts him especially on days like this, something must’ve been up. He texted JC saying

“Hey what’s up?” Chris hit send. He waited a while and his phone flashed indicating that he had a message.

“Hey Chris, happy birthday.” was JC’s reply.

Chris replied back and said “Where are you?”

This time JC didn’t reply and Chris figured that he was too busy, man, everyone was busy. He then placed the phone on the counter and opened the fridge to go get the cake that his mom ordered for his birthday. It was a Chocolate crunch fudge cake with vanilla frosting. His mom told him not to eat any until she arrived, she said that he was gonna spend his birthday with his family. He shrugged and took a wooden spoon and began eating the frosting, he couldn’t help it, he was upset, that no one cared for him anymore, well other than his fans, his mom, and his sisters, the rest were all too damn busy. He muttered angrily and jumped when he heard the doorbell ring. The dogs started to bark, and Chris walked up slowly to the door, he figured it was his mom or something, so he opened the door halfway and he couldn’t believe his eyes.

There they were all four of his best friends, his mom and his four sisters, they were all carrying balloons and giftboxes.

“Are you gonna finish that?” Joey asked eying on the wooden spoon covered in frosting that Chris was holding.

“Um-Chris was speechless and didn’t know what to say. But he invited them inside, and closed the door.

He was then covered with hugs and embraces and happy birthdays from his crowd of loved ones. Everything was just a blur to him.

“Are you surprised?” One of his sisters said to him.

“Yeah, I mean I knew that you guys were coming, but I didn’t know that you guys were coming.” Chris said pointing at Lance, Joey, JC, and Justin. “I thought you guys were too busy for my birthday or forgot about it.

“Well we may be busy, but we try to make time you know, and how can we forget your birthday, it’s the day that you were born.” Justin said looking at the floor, and uh there was something I wanted to ask you too.

“What Justin, that you have yet another movie in the works?” Chris scoffed, and turned to Joey who just shrugged.

“Uh..no, I don’t only wanna say it to you Chris, I wanna say to the rest of you guys.” Justin said.

All eyes turned to Justin and waited for his response.

“I miss you guys, I’m bored, everyday is the same thing, hey Justin, do you think you can do SNL this year? What about your golf tournament? When are you making another solo record? The truth is I don’t wanna be an actor anymore, I miss singing and dancing on stage, I wanna do it again, but I don’t wanna do it alone, I wanna be *NSYNC again, I don’t care what people think, if those other boybanders can perform, then we can.” Justin let out a whoosh of air and stared at the guys.

They were all in shock on what just went down.

“Are you serious?” Chris asked him.

Justin nodded

“I am SO in.” Joey said jumping off from the chair; he had the hugest grin on his face.

“What about you JC?” You in?” Joey asked. JC just chuckled.

“Well..we don’t have to do some of the moves that we did before, we can switch it up a little, and I don’t have anything planned for the next couple of months…so yes I’m in, as long that we all sing a verse, JC said looking at Chris, then eying Justin.

“Yeah Chris, you have a nice voice, so it’ll be cool if you sing a little.” JC smiled.

Chris just nodded in agreement, he still didn’t speak, he couldn’t believe this was happening; he wanted to go back with the guys more than anything, and this was just a dream come true for him.

“As for you Lance, you keep doing what you do.” Justin winked, don’t leave us now, we don’t care if you’re gay, you are you, you hold us together, we can’t do this without you man, so are you in.

Lance just gaped at Justin in amazement but gave a reply “Of course, and thank you for finally coming back with us.” He beamed.

“Yeah yeah, Justin chuckled and looked at Chris who hasn’t said anything. “Chris, are you okay dude?”

He looked at Justin and then to the rest of the guys said “You have no idea how long I waited for this day to come, you guys, I- I just.” He then started to break down and cry tears of joy, and all of them went to give him a hug.

“I’m sorry it took so long Chris, I apologize to all of you.” Justin then started to cry, then they all shared an amount of tears.

One of Chris’s sisters came into the living room, “What’s with all the crying fest? This is supposed to be a Happy birthday.” She asked.

Chris wiped the tears from his eyes and said “We’re back sis, we are back!.” He grinned.

“What? You’you’re kidding me right?” She asked wide eyed.

“I’m serious, *NSYNC is back, tell the world.” Chris ran up to her and started doing a little victory dance with her.

She then turned to the guys and said “It’s about freakin time!” She then ran to go tell her mom and the rest of the sisters.

 All of Chris’s sisters, his mom, and four of his best friends were all huddled next to him.

“Mmmm..that cake looks yummy.” Joey asked.

“Yes it does Joe, you can have all the pieces of cake you want.” Chris laughed.

“I wanna record you guys singing “Happy Birthday”. One of Chris’s sisters said. “But you know the one that you sang with “Birthday All Stars?”

“Ahh yes that one, I love that one.” His mom said.

“Let see if we remembered it.” JC said singing a couple of verses silently to himself.

When the guys remembered the song, they heard the doorbell ring. Lance went to go open it. Minutes later, Melinda came to the kitchen with a gift bag.

“Sorry I’m late guys, Happy birthday Chris.” She waved and stopped when she realized that all four of the *NSYNC members were huddled next to him with goofy grins on their faces.

“You-you guys are together.” Melinda said eying all five of them. She then pointed an accusing finger at them, “You guys are hiding something aren’t ya, I know your faces.”

“Yes Moe, *NSYNC is back.” Joey blurted out.

Moe was Melinda’s nickname that Joey called her for fun.

“Really? This has to be a joke right?” She asked in a whisper and took a glance at Chris’s family who also had grins on their faces.

They all shook their heads no. When Melinda heard that she was so happy. “Oh my goodness! I have been waiting for this day!, I gotta call Johnny, I gotta re-open the fanclub, wait-how bout?” Melinda started rambling on and on about details, but then stopped.

“I think before we start anything, I think we have to sing “Happy Birthday” to Chris first.” Melinda said giving them a smile.

“Yeah but we wanna sing the one that we sang with Birthday Allstars, remember that one Melinda? You did sing that song with us, when was the last time you sang?” Lance said.

“Um..I haven’t sung in a while, but I think I remember some of the lyrics.” Melinda asked scratching her head.

JC took out his Iphone and accessed the internet, typed up the song and searched for the lyrics. “Here it is.” Setting the phone on the table, Melinda began read the lyrics and started to sing along.

“Ok I think I got it.” Melinda said happily.

“I am SO gonna record this.” Chris’s sister beamed with excitement and flipped her phone, ok, just practice first or something.

“I found the instrumental version of the song.” His other sister said and played it, the guys started getting all nostalgic when they heard it, but they sang along first as a practice run.

Justin then gave the signal telling them that they were ready.

“Ok ready, set, sing away.” Chris’s sister than pressed the record button and they SANG.

Happy Birthday
Happy Birthday to you
Happy Birthday just for you
Happy Birthday
Happy Birthday to you
Happy Birthday
Happy Birthday

Just a day
Just another year
But in our eyes you are the best
We´re gonna love you
Gonna love you above the rest, oh

May good times always smile on you
May happiness always come your way
We´re here to love you
We´re here to celebrate your day

We wish the best of what the best can be
All the best
We wish for you that all your dreams come true

Happy Birthday
Happy Birthday to you
Happy Birthday just for you
Happy Birthday
Happy Birthday to you
Happy Birthday
Happy Birthday

The years may come and the years may go
But that won´t change what we already know
You´re such a great friend
And in our hearts your love will grow, grow

Count on us when you're feelin' down
In times of trouble we will hold your hand
You're such a great friend
And we will love you 'till the end, end, end

We wish the best of what the best can be
All the best
We wish for you that all your dreams come true

Happy Birthday
Happy Birthday to you
Happy Birthday just for you
Happy Birthday
Happy Birthday to you
Happy Birthday
Happy Birthday

Happy Birthday
Happy Birthday
(Happy Birthday)
Happy Birthday
(Yeah, yeah)
Happy Birthday
(Oh, oh)

It's time to wish
It's time to give
It's time to live
It's time to wish
It's time to give
It's time to laugh

Happy Birthday
Happy Birthday to you
(Oh)
Happy Birthday just for you
(Just for you)
Happy Birthday
Happy Birthday to you
(Happy Birthday)
Happy Birthday
Happy Birthday
(Happy Birthday to you)

Happy Birthday
(Happy Birthday)
Happy Birthday to you
Happy Birthday just for you
(Happy Birthday)
Happy Birthday
(Happy Birthday)
Happy Birthday to you
Happy Birthday
(Happy Birthday)
Happy Birthday

When they all finished singing, the room was silent, so silent that you hear a pin drop.

“Wowwww.” Chris’s mom voice came out slight whisper.

That was AMAZING!” Molly, Chris’s sister squealed with excitement.

“Oh I just got chills.” Melinda asked and looked at JC. “You can still do the high note Jace. She beamed.

“I uh, well uh yeah.” JC blushed and scratched behind his ear nervously.

Chris let out a chuckle, “I wanna know how this sounds on the video camera!” He jumped and speed-walked to his sister; after they all listened to themselves sing a song that hasn’t been sung for years, they all agreed that this is what they were made to do, they actually sang it pretty well, which was absolutely amazing that they can pull this off.

“You know, all this excitement that was going on Chris didn’t blow out the candle yet.” Joey said staring at the flame.

“Oh yeah, silly me,” Chris went back to the table where his cake was, stared at the flickering flame and thought for a moment. His wish had already came true, his only wish was for all five of them to come back for at least just one more tour, a new song, anything.  He smiled to himself and blew out the candle. “This has been the best birthday ever.