“Joey, you have to go higher on that part, not lower.”
Joey groaned, rolling his eyes at the music director. “Doug, we’ve been in here for three hours straight, can’t we take a break? My voice is giving out!” Joey sat back down on the stool in the recording booth and stuck his tongue out at Justin, JC, Lance and Chris who were laughing at him from the other side of the glass. Sure, they got the easy job, they’re voices were fine-tuned and they only had to spend a few minutes in the booth on one part. Now they were just waiting for him to finish up the last chorus and they could relax for the night. Joey was utterly exhausted. His voice hadn’t worked this hard since; well it never worked that hard.
Doug shook his head and held his watch up to the glass so that Joey could clearly see it.“No. We’ve been here for three hours and we are going to be here for three more until you get it right. We have all day in here. You have to get this part right. You guys only have five days to record this. Come on.”
Joey rubbed his hands over his face and moaned.
Doug tapped the glass again and turned the microphone off for a minute. Joey watched him from behind the glass as he said a few words to the other guys and the other guys responded by leaving the room. Joey stared at Doug in confusion. Doug turned his attention back to Joey and flipped on the microphone.
“Joey, you’re doing great. Every musician goes through this. It always takes more than a few days to do a song. Don’t worry about it.”
Joey nodded. “Where did the other guys go?”
“To get something to eat. They’ll bring you back something, don’t worry, you won’t starve.”
Joey chuckled and placed the headphones back over his ears until he could hear the beats and music playing softly into them. He waved his hand and motioned for the song to start over. He closed his eyes and sang into the microphone.
«««
A loud ringing broke the stillness of the darkened bedroom of the duplex just outside Orlando. Stacy groaned, picking up the phone on the small nightstand next to her bed.
“This better be good!” She growled into the phone. “It’s almost 1 a.m. and I have a midterm at 8 o’clock tomorrow morning!”
There was a loud chuckle on the other end of the phone.
Stacy moaned. “Joey?” She threw off her blanket and sat up quickly, turning on the lamp next to her bed.
“So, it is good?” Stacy could picture Joey’s smirk. There was a long pause. “Sorry Stace, I keep forgetting about the time change. I woke my parents up the other day too.”
Stacy smiled, too happy to be talking to Joey to be upset with him. “Joe, it’s fine. I’ve been up.”
Joey smiled. “Liar.”
Stacy’s heart beat faster and tears welled in her eyes. “How are things going over there?”
“Great!” Joey screamed into the phone.
Stacy pulled the phone away from her ear and giggled.
“We finished recording our first single last week and did a video. Now we started to record the rest of our album! The video for our first single is so cool! It's like on this space station thing and, it’s just amazing!"
Stacy grinned. “That’s great.”
“Great? It’s awesome. I’m tellin’ ya Stace, you gotta hear this song. It has ‘hit’ written all over it. It should be released out here next week. It’s all happening so fast, but I am having so much fun!”
Stacy couldn’t help but feel a little jealous, but she pushed those feelings to the back of her mind. “I’m really happy for you Joey.”
“There’s only one thing.” Joey shouted into the phone.
Stacy’s eyebrows cringed. “What is it? Everyone over there is treating you nicely right? Cuz’ if not, I’ll go over there and kick their butt’s.”
Laughter emanated from the receiver. “No, everyone’s really nice. The thing is….” There was a long pause, almost as if Joey had hung up the phone. Stacy sighed and started to put her phone back when she heard a voice on the other end. She grabbed the phone and put it back to her ear. She smiled as Joey’s voice and the voice of his band-mates rang through the receiver.
“Guys, shut up! You can talk to her in a minute! I’m trying to tell her something! Now, shut up! She probably thought I hung up on her.” Joey’s voice sounded through the background.
Stacy let out a small chuckle that quickly turned into a bellow. She lay back on her bed, laughing. God, she had missed that.
Joey put his ear to the phone, trying to hear what was going on. “Stace, are you alright? What’s going on?”Stacy regained her composure and spoke into the phone. “I’m fine.” She cleared her throat. “What were you saying?”
Joey’s right eyebrow raised in playful curiosity. “I was saying that I miss you. It’s weird not having you here, helping me out or arguing with me. You’ve been here so far for every step of my career and it sucks that you can’t be here for this one.”
Stacy nodded as a tear fell down her soft cheek. “I know, but sometime you had to let go. I wish I could be there too, but we both know I can’t. Besides if anyone deserves to be there with you right now, it’s your family Joey not me.”
Joey sighed. “I know, but they didn’t leave everything they knew to move out to Florida just to support and help me start my career.”
Stacy coughed. “Excuse me? Joey your family moved down here for you and you know it.”
“Oh, you’re right.” Joey frowned. “Stace, I have all these people counting on me. I just hope I won’t let them down.”
Stacy smiled. “Joey, you won’t, I promise. We’re already so proud of you. Everyone is.” She paused. “Now, as much as I love talking to you, I do have to get up early, so let me say hi to the other guys before I go back to sleep.”
Joey smiled. “Okay, and hey if you talk to your lil’ sis and your mom, tell ‘em hi for me.”
Stacy smiled. “You betch’ya, now let me talk to my little spawns…” She laughed evilly as another voice rang in her ears.
“STACYEEEEEE!”
Stacy sighed as the sweet, high-pitched voice belonging to Chris Kirkpatrick rang in her ears. “Hey Chris! Mr. Hyper as usual huh?”Chris chuckled. “Better believe it! I’m having the time of my life chica!”
Stacy laughed. She couldn’t help loving the guys who had become Joey’s new brothers.
In a matter of 8 months, she had gone with Joey to almost every single one of the group’s rehearsals and shows, even missing a few classes for them. She never regretted a minute of it. She had never seen a group of people, let alone young men, ever be so motivated and full of energy and talent. She had been let in as part of their extended family and was naturally accepted as Joey’s best friend. Not only had they insisted she come to every rehearsal, but they also invited her to events outside of “NSYNC”. She would go out to dinner with them at night or go to a movie with them during the day. She had never remembered having so much fun in her life and she knew these guys were going to blow America away, not only with their incredible talent, but also with their amazing and “real” personalities.
Stacy laughed as she heard Joey yelling something to Chris in the background.
Chris laughed into the receiver. “Stacy, I have to go, Joe’s complaining about his cell phone bill…” Stacy pictured Chris’ snickering face. “He shouldn’t be talking. He took my phone earlier and was calling all these girls he met at some club last night. Cheapskate….” Chris mumbled as Stacy heard the phone being grabbed by someone else. She laughed again as JC took the phone.
“Hello Ms. Stacy. How are you this MORNING?” JC laughed, putting emphasis on the word morning and making sure Joey heard him. Stacy laughed as she heard Joey yelling ‘I forgot’ in the background.
“Stressed over mid-terms and you? Sounds like you guys are having fun over there.”
There was a loud sigh. “Well, when you’re stuck with these lunatics who wouldn’t have fun?” He chuckled. “But, it’s a lot of hard work. We have to finish recording the album soon and meanwhile learn some choreography to the songs we are going to start performing out here. It’s a lot of work, but it will be worth it.”
Stacy nodded. “Well, good luck.” She smiled. JC was always the level headed one and she thanked God that Joey was in a group with someone like JC who could put him in his place and make sure they got done what was needed. “You watch out for Joey alright? No craziness over there.” Stacy giggled.
JC laughed loudly. “That’s impossible, but I’ll try.”
