“One more time from the top, Sophie!” she sighed and waited for the music to cue up before once again going through the routine.  Her body was tired.  It screamed for her to stop.  Of course, she knew she couldn’t.  Glancing tiredly at the clock on the wall, Sophie scowled at the time it displayed.  She still had an hour left of this crazy day before she could go home and relax.

As she struck her final pose, Sophie held it out and panted, feeling her chest rise and fall rapidly as she waited the obligatory dramatic five seconds before collapsing on the floor.

“Water break?” Darren questioned from the front of the room, chuckling at the young woman’s display of exhaustion.  Sophie raised her head and smiled at him, grateful for a momentary reprieve.  Pulling herself off the floor, Sophie moved where her water bottle sat on the floor next to her bag and nearly chugged half of its contents before rolling her shoulders to work out some of the kinks she began to feel settling there.

“Hey, Deana?  Have you gotten any ideas of who I might be touring with?”

Sophie’s management had mentioned that they planned to hook her up with a tour within a few months—the exact reason she found herself in the studio today.  But she had yet to hear with whom she would be touring.  Sophie was both excited and nervous.  Right after she had released her first single, she had spent some time on a few tours as a show opener.  The three song sets had been a great way to get her name and music out to the public and get feedback on her sound.  Sophie had learned quite a bit about performing and audience interaction during that time and was grateful, now that she was facing the prospect of touring again.

“Uh, I’ve heard a few names thrown out but nothing concrete yet,” Deana replied, not looking up from her blackberry.  Sophie was convinced the thing was glued to her hand.

“What names?”

“Last I heard there was talk of Gwen Stefani, Justin Timberlake, or Hilary Duff,” Deana replied absently, still concentrating on her handheld device.  Sophie had no thoughts on which tour she wanted to be placed on.  She was just thankful that she would get to be performing so much, getting her name out there some more.

“You should try to push for Justin’s tour,” Darren interjected Sophie’s thoughts and she turned to her choreographer.

“Why’s that?”

“I think his tour will bring you the most exposure.  He’s also a helluva nice guy.  I worked with him when he was in N SYNC.  One of the nicest guys.  You’d like him,” Darren commented and Sophie didn’t have much to add, having never met the man before in her life.  What she had heard about him, however, had been a mix of both positive and negative reviews of his personality and temperament.  She didn’t have much time to think about the complexities of Mr. Timberlake’s personality, however, because Darren declared her break over and Sophie heaved a great sigh before dragging herself to the middle of the room.

“Are you coming out here for Christmas?” Justin questioned absently as he idly sifted through a stack of mail on his counter top. 

“I thought I might come out for a few days before Christmas.  I need to be back here for Christmas Day, though.  Oh, Justin, are you sure you can’t come home for Christmas?” his mother questioned, her voice filled with sadness.

“I’m sorry, momma, but I just can’t make it this year,” he replied, hating to disappoint her but knowing he had commitments with the tour starting just after the beginning of the year.  This would be the first year he would miss his family Christmas.  When he was in N SYNC they always insisted they have at least Christmas day free of obligations.  Even if they were only home for one day, at least they made that much.  He now wished he had insisted the same thing for his own solo career.

“It’s not going to be the same without you here.”

“You’re making me feel guilty, momma.  I’m really sorry, but with the tour starting up so soon after the holidays I just can’t get away.”

“I know, baby, I know.  I’m sorry.  I’ll call you with all my flight details when I get them,” his mother stated, changing the subject and hoping to avoid angering her son.

“Ok.  I’ve gotta get going.  I’ll talk to you soon.”

“All right.  Love you,” she cooed into the phone.

“Love you, too.  Bye, momma.”

Justin pressed the END button on his cell phone and set it down on the counter, sighing when it sprang to life once again and started vibrating and flashing the name of his publicist on the screen.  Justin briefly contemplated not answering it and listening to the voicemail sure to be left behind, but finally relented and connected the call.

“Hello?”

“I need you to come to a dance studio tomorrow before your rehearsal,” Ken spoke by way of hello.  Leave it Ken to skip proprieties and go straight for the business at hand.

“What for?”

“New opener prospect.  Got the call this morning.  Girl by the name of Sophie Parks.  She’s—“

“I’ve heard of her.  She’s pretty new.  Is she ready for a high-profile tour?” Justin questioned.

“Her management seems to think so.  They sent me some info, photos and tapes of her.  She looks great and she’s got one hell of a voice.  I think it would be worth your time to check her out and give your stamp of approval if they want to move forward and put her on the tour.”

“All right.  When and where?” Justin asked, grabbing a pen laying on his counter top and scribbling the information on a piece of junk mail.

“I’ll meet you there.  Thanks, Justin.  I’ll be in touch.”  With that, Ken hung up and Justin looked at the clock, noticing it was far too early to call it a night.  Wondering what Trace was up to, Justin wandered around the house in search of his friend.

Sophie dropped her bag to the ground and moved to the middle of the room where her back-up dancers were already in the middle of stretching out their limbs.  Her own muscles were sore but finally used to the long dance rehearsals she’d been putting them through for the past several weeks.

“Morning, Sophie,” Ty greeted her as she plopped herself down near her three dancers.  Ty, Dan, and Aaron had joined her a few weeks ago and Sophie couldn’t have asked for better people to be on stage with.  They all worked well together and Sophie was having a blast getting to know them all.  She had no doubt that any time spent on the road with them would be just as much fun.

“Morning, guys,” she greeted and spread her legs into a ‘V’, bending into the center after doing so.

“Word on the street is that there’s a special guest here for rehearsals today,” Aaron spoke up as he switched positions to stretch another muscle.

“Yeah?  Who and why?” Sophie asked, wondering if she should be nervous or not.  She rarely got nervous.  Ten years of preparing and honing her skills had cured her of just about any stage fright.  However, performing for VIP’s was something she wasn’t quite used to yet.  It gave her stomach the butterflies.

“One of the possible tour headliners for the summer,” Aaron replied and Sophie arched an eyebrow with interest, wondering who it could be.

All heads looked up as the door opened and Darren entered with a small entourage of people in tow.  Deciding to forget the audience and continue with her stretching, Sophie took a deep breath and pushed herself further into the stretch, and placed her forehead onto the floor for the full effect.  One thing was for sure:  her years of ballet had certainly helped prepare her for effective stretching before rehearsals.

“God, Sophie, that looks painful,” a voice called from the side of the room.  Pulling her torso up, Sophie looked to the owner of the voice and found her manager, Mike, standing off to the side, obviously part of the entourage that had entered with Darren.

“Feels good to me,” she replied, chuckling lightly as she stood.  Pulling her arm across her front and stretching it, she walked over to her manager who stood with Deana.

“So what’s up?”

“Well, as you know we’re looking into getting you on tour soon.  One of the tours we’re looking at is Justin Timberlake’s tour.  And he’ll be here in a bit to watch you at work.  We need his stamp of approval, so to speak, before we can move any further,” he explained and Sophie nodded.

“You ready to get started guys?” Darren questioned and Sophie turned in his direction, indicating the affirmative.

“I’ll be outside.  Once Justin gets here we’ll head in and he’ll watch a bit of your performance.  Sound good?”

“Sounds great,” Sophie agreed and watched him turn and leave the room, a small group of people unknown to Sophie following at his heels.  Turning back to the task at hand, Sophie shook out her arms and rolled her shoulders a few times, moving to the center of the room to begin rehearsal.

Forty-five minutes later, Darren cued the song up once again and Sophie and company started the routine for what seemed like the hundredth time that morning.  Half-way through the first verse the studio door opened once more and Sophie only bothered a cursory glance in its direction, the faces a blur as she focused her attention on the dancing and singing required of her.

Holding the final pose as was required, Sophie welcomed the sound of a whoop of appreciation from Darren as he stopped the music and moved towards the group breathing heavily in the middle of the room.  It had been a particularly difficult routine for Sophie to sing and dance to so she was overjoyed that she had finally gotten Darren’s stamp of approval.

“Water break!  Sophie, get some water and come on over here,” Mike called and she nodded.  Grabbing a bottle of chilled water from the small fridge in the corner of the room, Sophie took a couple healthy gulps before grabbing a towel to wipe some of the sweat from her body as she made her way across the room.

Blue eyes locked with Sophie’s green ones as she made her way towards the group waiting for her.  Shaking her head to rid herself of the momentary haze his intense gaze put her in, Sophie nearly scowled as she watched his mouth quirk up in a lazy, confident grin.  Like he expected this reaction from her—like every woman in the world met him in a mystified stupor after merely laying eyes on him.  His gaze moved over the rest of her frame appreciatively and Sophie realized she was basically letting him see what she had to offer.  Her dancing attire consisted of her normal loose sweats and a sports bra.

“Sophie, this is Justin Timberlake.  Justin, Sophie Parks,” Mike introduced the pair and Sophie wiped her hands on the towel she held and extended her hand out to shake Justin’s hand.

“Nice to meet you,” she politely stated.  He slid his hand into hers and grasped it for a moment, his smirk widening into a full-fledged grin.  Sophie mentally berated herself for feeling weak in the knees at the handsome sight in front of her.

“Same here,” he replied and she noticed the southern drawl in his speech, making him a bit more endearing to her. “That routine is hot.  You look great.”

A nice compliment, but not everything she wanted to hear.  She wanted to have vocal approval.  The dancing was secondary compared to the vocals, in her opinion.

“Thank you.”

“And I definitely think you have one hell of a set of pipes,” he continued and Sophie’s polite smile turned into a full-fledged grin as she heard the words she needed to hear.

“Thank you.”

“I’d like to watch another routine but I think this could be the beginning of a beautiful touring relationship,” Justin kidded and the small entourage of management and publicists laughed at his lame joke.  If Sophie hadn’t been so overjoyed with the prospect of being on such a high-profile tour, she would have rolled her eyes.

“Well, Miss Parks, if you wouldn’t mind dazzling us some more,” Mike gestured to the floor and Sophie smiled.

“Prepare to be amazed,” Sophie joked and laughed as she set her water and towel down on the ground by her bag before joining the guys back in the center of the room.  Looking once again to the group on the side, Sophie’s gaze again connected with Justin’s and she watched as the confident, half-smile played on his lips.

“Let’s do ‘Secrets’,” Darren called and Sophie mentally shook herself and took her opening pose with the guys.  For the next three and a half minutes she was completely focused on her routine and vocals.  She had to admit, she put a little more effort into it since she had such an important audience.  Looking up discreetly from her final pose at the end of the song, Sophie’s eyes widened as she once again found Justin’s gaze on her own.  Smiling confidently, he nodded his head a little and winked at her before turning to the group of executives.

“So what’s the good news?  I heard there was a big meeting tomorrow and we lowly dancers were invited,” Dan stated as he sat himself down on one of the barstools in Sophie’s kitchen.  He was referring to the meeting called by the executives to announce the tour decision.  Sophie had already been informed but the rest of the team had yet to be in on the news.

“Oh, well, I guess it’s okay to tell since you’ll find out tomorrow anyway.  They’ve come to a decision and an agreement with Justin’s people for the upcoming tour. We’re definitely on the schedule for the first leg of the stateside tour,” Sophie revealed, not able to hide the excited smile from taking over her face.  Dan whooped and jumped up to gather her into a big hug, laughing with her at the exciting news.

“Oh, that’s awesome!  I am so excited!  How pumped are you?” he questioned, pulling away and placing himself back on the stool.

“I am pretty excited.  I think this is going to be tiring but a great opportunity.  And a total blast,” Sophie gushed, breaking into giggles as she thought about the upcoming months performing and doing what she loved.

The pair was interrupted when Sophie’s cell phone started vibrating on the counter.  Glancing at the screen, Sophie indicated to Dan that she’d be a minute and picked up the small device.

“Salut, maman. Comment allez-vous ?” Sophie chirped into the phone.

Her mother had been born and bred in a small town just outside of Paris.  After marrying Sophie’s father who was in the country on business for a couple years, he had convinced her mother to move to the states and start their family there.  Her mother, hopelessly in love, consented and moved with her husband.  Sophie had grown up speaking French in her home, mainly because her mother nearly refused to speak English to anyone but her father whose French was quite poor.  Growing up, Sophie didn’t understand her mother’s staunch position on maintaining her French fluency.  Now, Sophie was thankful for it as she felt it connected her to her mother on a deeper level.  Plus, there were few people in the states who were fluent in French so it came in handy every once in a while.

Sophie spent a few minutes discussing the news of the upcoming tour with her mother and shared a few of her fears but overall kept things to herself.  After all, she didn’t have all of the details yet but promised to discuss it in more length with her mother once she had more information.

“Je tu parlerai plus tard, maman.  Au revoir,” I stated and disconnected the phone.

“So I didn’t know you spoke French,” Dan started, looking at her pointedly.

“Oh, yeah.  My mom is French and I grew up speaking it.  She kind of refuses to speak English sometimes,” Sophie stated, shaking her head at the thought.  Dan opened his mouth to reply to that but was interrupted by her cell phone once again vibrating to life on the counter.  Sophie sent Dan an apologetic look and picked up the device, frowning, as she didn’t recognize the number.

“Hello?” she asked tentatively.

“Sophie?” a male voice questioned.

“Yes, this is she.”

“Hi.  This is Justin Timberlake.”

“Oh.  Hi,” Sophie replied, obviously surprised.  There was no way to disguise the shock in her voice.  How did he get her cell phone number?

“You’re probably wondering why the hell I’m calling you,” he chuckled.  He obviously hadn’t missed the shock in her voice either. “I wanted to personally call and welcome you to the tour.  I also wanted to invite you to my New Year’s party.  I’m inviting all the people on the tour and renting out this club.  I’ll have my publicist send yours all the details.”

“Oh, ok.  Sounds great,” she stuttered out.

“All right.  I’ll see you soon, then.”

“Ok.  Bye,” Sophie concluded and disconnected the call.  Dan, who had been practically prancing in front of her trying to get some clue as to who she was talking to, waved his hands dramatically to encourage her to speak.

“Spit it out.  That look was priceless.  And you practically stuttered through the whole conversation—well, what little you had to contribute to it,” he laughed jokingly.

“That was Justin Timberlake.”

“Say what?”

“Yeah.  Wanted to welcome me to the tour and invite me to some tour-people New Year’s party.  I’m supposed to get the details from my publicist.”

“Oh this is positively fabulous.  I actually get to hang out with the Justin Timberlake for an entire evening.  I could eat that boy up,” Dan gushed and Sophie had to laugh at his words.

“Sorry to burst your bubble, Dan, but I’m pretty sure Justin is straight,” Sophie replied and chuckled at her friend.

“Hey, you never know,” Dan stated defiantly, raising his hands in defense of his statement.

“Yeah, I suppose you never do,” she laughed, conceding the argument. “Now let’s eat.  I’m starving.”

The following morning proved to be quite stressful for Sophie.  She knew from the moment she woke up nearly an hour late that she was probably in for a rough day.  Deana had nearly shit a brick when she arrived at Sophie’s place to find the girl running around frantically trying to make herself look presentable.

Nevertheless, Sophie had gotten ready to go in record time and followed an irritated Deana to the waiting car.  On the ride over, Sophie had gotten the day’s schedule—surprise, surprise, it was full.  She was also surprised to receive a small envelope from Deana that contained Justin’s invitation to his New Year’s party.  From the invitation she learned that he had rented out one of Los Angeles’ most premier nightclubs for the occasion and boasted an open bar.  Just barely 21, Sophie couldn’t hide her excitement about that little fact.

She was surprised to receive the invite so quickly after learning about the gathering.  Justin obviously didn’t play around. 

The meeting was long and Sophie received so much information that morning that she was sure there was no way she would remember everything.  These were the times when she thanked God for Deana.  She took meticulous notes and had the mind of a steel trap.

Thinking about everything she had to do between now and the start of the tour, Sophie’s mind was spinning.  Everything just continued to fall into place.  Ever since she had signed on the dotted line, she had recorded an amazing album, released a single that had rapidly climbed the charts and was now preparing to hit the road for her first real tour.  It had been an exhausting year.  Everything happened so quickly and she had no doubt that the pace would continue to pick up.  But she could do this.  She wanted this bad enough—she’d work for it.