"That is not how Michael Jackson dances."

Trace paused, giving Kara a confused glance.

"Are you kidding me? This is like, verbatim." He finished his sentence with a spin and hip thrust.

The door swung open and standing in the door, illuminated by the light was Justin. He held a Starbucks bag in one hand, and a tray with 3 cups in the other. He stood frozen for a moment, his eyebrows raised to his forehead. Trace didn't miss a beat, pointing his finger into the air and yelling, "hooooe!"

"Wow," Justin replied.

"He was bitten by the dance bug this morning. Too much partying last night." Kara informed him, a hand failing to cover the grin on her face.

He lowered his eyes with embarrassment and headed past Trace to the mixing board. Trace continued on in his dance, doing the lean and nearly falling over.

"You ain't no Michael. More like Tito." Justin teased, holding a frappiccino to his lips.

"What do you know about that Jay?" Trace teased. "You don't know this."

"Oh, I don't know Michael?"

That was an insult to Justin Timberlake. Michael was one of his greatest inspirations.

"You don't know Michael. Everyone agreed JC was the most talented of the group."

"What?" Justin jumped up, walking to the center of the room.

"JC ain't got nothing on this."

He did a move, and Trace made a face and turned to Kara.

"Don't you have to have rhythm to impersonate Michael Jackson?"

Kara laughed out loud.

"I don't-I don't have rhythm?" Justin stood in disbelief, pointing to his own chest.

"You're the one ten seconds late on the wave at baseball games."

"You even consider the idea that maybe you guys should consider being nice to each other?" Kara asked. "You might be able to remain better lovers longer."

The boys paused in their bickering, turning to Kara.

"Lovers?" Trace asked, inching closer to her.

Kara's giddiness grew with each step he took.

"I'll show you lovers!" He cried, pouncing on her.

His fingers moved up and down her sides, tickling relentlessly as she laughed hysterically. Justin looked on, for the first time feeling a bit out of place with the two other them. The smiles they gave each other were incredibly bright and sincere. A twinge went down his spine and he had to keep the smile on his own face. It was something about the attention she was showing Trace. They certainly had become close over these past few weeks.

"Uncle!" Kara cried out between laughs.

"You sure? It seemed like you were starting to enjoy it," Trace asked jokingly.

"I'm about to pee on myself, stop it," Kara replied laughing. Trace finally ceased his attack and the two of them collapsed on the couch breathing heavily.

"Well if I didn't know any better I'd say that the two of you just finished a round in the sack," Justin commented playfully.

Kara could feel the blood rushing to her cheeks. She couldn't say that she hadn't thought of that happening before.

"Shut up! You're just jealous," Trace fired back at him.

"Jealous? Please! Me and Marz…."

"Stop!" Kara said, interrupting him, "I don't want to hear about my sister's sex life," she finished with a shiver.

"Now if you don't mind, can we please get this track recorded? I have things I need to do today," Kara told him.

"Like Trace," Justin coughed.

"Hey! What goes on between me and Kara, stays between me and Kara," Trace said with a smile.

"That's enough guys, let's just do this track." Kara walked over to the table and grabbed her drink out of the Starbucks tray and the notebook she wrote all her lyrics down in.

She opened up to one of the recent entries and plopped the tablet down in front of Justin.

"I was going to give Marz this, but I think it would sound better with you. It's kind of upbeat, but hey, I like it."

Justin glanced over the words in front of him and nodded his head in approval.

"Do you have a melody in mind?"

"No, I just penned the lyrics last night and I wanted to see what you thought."

Kara and Justin had become somewhat of a musical team over the few weeks they'd been working together. They'd bounce ideas off of each others; lyrics, melodies, beats just flowed naturally between them.

"Well it's a good thing that I haven't broken up with anyone recently or the press would be calling this 'Cry me a River part 3'."

"They're going to call all your break-up songs that hun; and it's seriously starting to get old."

"Who are you telling?! And 'What Goes Around' wasn't even about Britney!" Trace chimed in.

"Enough about her; lets just get this recorded, I have stuff I need to take care of today."

"Yes ma'am," Justin replied glancing at the lyrics once more before walking over to the keyboard in the room.

He played a few chords before picking one and creating a rhythm with it.

"That seems a little to happy. This is a break-up song, babe. Let's make it a little more bluesy," Kara told him.

"How about this?" Justin asked before picking a key that was a bit darker.

"That's more like it," she replied, walking over to him and looking at the lyrics.

Cause I'm not coming back
I'm closing the door
I used to be trippin' over missing you
But I'm not anymore
I got a picture phone,
Baby your picture's gone
Couldn't stand to see your smile
Every time you dial

"I'm thinking more of an R&B feel for this one. You know? Kinda like the 'Hate That I Love You' feel," Justin said once she finished singing.

Kara nodded.

"I can see that. And I was thinking that you could use your falsetto at the end of it, like doing a riff."

"Let me play with it and we'll see what we'll get."

"That's what she said," Trace interjected.

"Shut up midget," Kara and Justin said at the same time.

"So! Here we are, the big moment," Paul said.

Paul was an A&R for Jive, sent down for the day to observe the progress on Justin's album. He, Justin, Kara, and Trace were seated in a conference room, eagerly awaiting whether they were going to be given the green light on their direction with the album, or if they were going to be told they had to change direction and start over.

"Well, good news is we love it." He said.

The three friends let out a sigh of relief. All of their hard work so far hadn't been in vain.

"But, there's a problem," he continued. "So far you all have been able to remain in the same studio for recording, which let's be honest, is pretty damn convenient. But, Justin's been booked for a promotional tour next two weeks for the Shrek 3 movie. Announcements have gone out, plans have been made. There's no way around it, you're going to have to record on the road."

Kara and Justin exchanged a worried look.

"I don't understand. How are we going to work if Justin's on the road and I'm here with Marz?"

"You're going on the road with them." Paul supplied. Judging by the way he said, Kara figured it wasn't up for discussion.

"You're needed more on this project than you are as Marz's assistant. Someone has already been hired to replace you for as long as this process will take. When the album is done you can go back to working with your sister, but until then, your with Justin."

"Go Team Timberlake!" Trace raised his hands.

"Pack your bags guys. You leave for New York tomorrow morning."

After the meeting the group of three filed out into the hallway, stopping by the water cooler to get a drink and discuss the outcome of the meeting.

"So, they love the tracks we've been doing. That's great news." Justin said, opening the conversation.

"Yeah. I'm glad we won't have to go back to the drawing board and start over."

"But, you're worried." Trace supplied.

He could read it in her features and the nervous way she held her cup.

"Well, yeah. I mean, I've never been on the road with anyone besides Marz. And she's not going to be happy that I'm going on the road with Justin while she's stuck here working on her own projects. Not to mention getting a new assistant."

"It was her idea for you two to work together."

"I know. But you don't know Marz. She won't exactly be pleased."

"I'll talk to her," Justin said.

"It probably would sound better coming from you than from me."

"I'll call her tonight on my way home. It wasn't like we planned it this way. I know she'll understand the situation. She's in the business too. She knows things come up, and sometimes you have to do two things at once."

"There you go," Trace smiled. "Put a little Timberlake charm on it, keep the little woman happy."

Justin merely rolled his eyes.

"Come on," he nodded his head down the hall. "Let's go finish up that track so we can get home and start packing."

It was around 8pm that evening when Kara finally left the studio and headed for home. It'd taken a little longer to get the lyrics laid down, but they wanted to get all of the music to a place where it'd be easy for them to finish mixing while on the road. When she pulled up to her house, Marz's car was gone.

"She probably met Justin for dinner or something."

Kara opened the door and immediately headed for the stairs. She headed for Marz's bedroom door, already forming a mental check list of all the things her sister would need for the trip. It wasn't until she put her hand on the door knob that she realized, Marz wasn't going this time. Kara turned on her heel, smirking to herself as she headed for her own room.

It was after 10pm when Marz finally came home. She found Kara in her room, folding clothes on the bed.

"Hey," she said.

"Hey," Kara glanced up briefly. "Where have you been?"

"I went to dinner with Justin."

Just as she'd figured.

"Oh. That's nice."

"Yeah, it was." Marz took a seat on the bed and pulled off her black suede heels. "Justin told me about you guys having to leave tomorrow."

"I'm sorry, Marz," Kara began instantly. "The label just sprung it on us today. I didn't know-."

"It's fine Kara," Marz giggled. "I know it wasn't your decision. Besides, I already knew. I got a call from Jive yesterday about getting a replacement assistant."

"You knew yesterday? Why didn't you say anything?"

Marz shrugged.

"Slipped my mind."

Gee, thanks a lot.

"Having a new assistant is going to suck though. There's so many things I'll have to teach her. Like how I like my tea in the mornings."

Kara paused, giving her sister a look.

"You like honey and lemon in your tea. It's not rocket science Marz."

Marz let out a giggle.

"I know. It's just now I'm going to have to tell her that instead of her already knowing."

Kara was silent, folding her clothes and neatly setting them into her suitcase.

"On the other hand this is good," Marz continued. "You'll be traveling with Justin, so you'll be able to keep an eye on him for me. I always wanted to know the antics he was up too while on the road."

"From what I've heard Justin doesn't get into anything. He just watches all the mischief Trace gets into."

"See! There's another good point. You'll be able to spend more time with Trace."

Kara let a small smile slip from her lips.

"You know, you're lucky your my sister and I trust you not to steal my boyfriend," Marz stood from the bed and headed for the door.

She paused with her hand on the knob, letting out a laugh.

"But then again I know there's no chance of that. You're not exactly Justin's ideal body type."

Kara watched her sister exit the room and close the door, her laugh floating down the hallway. She let out a grunt of frustration and launched a black suede heel at the closed door before she went back to her folding.

"So are you guys ready for this?" Trace asked.

He, Kara, and Justin were seated in a limo, being ushered to the tarmac where a private jet was waiting to take them to New York. It was 7:30am, and surprisingly sunny for how early it was.

"Ready to have to look at both your ugly mugs all day everyday? I don't know."

"How is that different than what you do everyday anyway?" Justin asked.

"Difference is I get to leave you two at the studio and go home at night."

"But don't you take Trace home with you?"

Trace let out a laugh while Kara's jaw dropped.

"No, I certainly don't."

The two men exchanged a look and a chuckle, amused by her embarrassment. Then there was a knock at the window, and one of the crew motioned for them to board.

"Let me show you rookies how it's done," Trace said.

He opened the door and exited the car, the wind sweeping his unbuttoned jacket to the side. Trace walked toward to the plane in slow motion, striding purposefully as if he were in some real life music video. Halfway there he paused, taking a moment to pause and remove his dark sunglasses. He slipped them into his pocket, glancing around before continuing up the steps and into the plane.

"He is so stupid," Kara laughed, exiting the limo herself.

"You're the one who likes him," Justin quipped.

"What?" She paused, turning back to face him.

All she got was a gentle push in her back.

"I said go. We're gonna be late."

How was it that even when Kara was supposed to be helping Justin on this promotional tour she felt like she was still at home assisting Marz? She wanted to feel sorry for the poor soul who had temporarily replaced her, but damn, the replacement should feel sorry for her! From the moment the plane touched down at JFK her Black Jack had been blowing up with text messages and calls from her sister.

Where do you usually get my Chai lattes from?

Where's my favorite red top?

What cabinet are the lucky charms in?

How was she supposed to get anything accomplished with Justin's album when she had to respond to a text or answer a phone call every 5 minutes? Kara finally decided that once they checked into the hotel she'd draft a FAQ's sheet for her sister and the poor person who'd been given the task of being her personal assistant. It didn't take long for her to type up the word document and send it to both her sister's and the assistant's email addresses.

"There, now maybe she'll stay away for a couple of hours." She sighed as she shut down her laptop and stood up.

"I was wondering when you were gonna do that," Trace said, startling her.

"Huh?" Kara asked, confused.

"A FAQs sheet right? What needs to be done and how? Didn't you just type one of those up?"

Kara nodded.

"Yeah. How did you know what I was doing?"

"I had to do the same when I was Justin's PA. I found out that it was better to do it before I left, that way things would still be fresh in my head...and so I wouldn't have to deal with those annoying ass calls. Justin was ten times more picky than Marz, its like those two were made for each other."

"I resent that!"

Both Trace and Kara looked towards the door when they heard Justin's comment.

"I could've sworn I locked that door," Kara said with a slight scowl.

"You did; Trace went down to the front desk and told them that they programmed his key for the wrong room and that he was rooming with you...he left the door open."

Justin stood there with a grin. He saw some color rise in his friend's face and laughed...that is until he heard Kara's following statement.

"Aww, you didn't have to do that hun. All you had to was ask if you wanted to room with me."

Trace grinned before he and Kara burst out laughing while Justin pretended to gag.

"Well I guess I'll leave you two alone then."

"I would invite you to join but I don't think my sister would appreciate that," she said with a laugh.

Kara didn't know where all this boldness was coming from; it was like these two were bringing out the worst of her. Justin paused, raising an eyebrow as he contemplated the offer...minus Trace of course, not thinking that anyone caught it...but Kara did.