Chris’s eyes followed the quarter as it rose and fell in the air. He caught it effortlessly before flipping it again. The room was quiet with the exception of Lance’s bass voice singing his part to the song they were currently recording, so it was easy for boredom to set in. That was how Chris had ended up flipping the quarter that he’d had in his pocket.

After a few more times, he switched to his left hand to make it more challenging. His thumb sent the light piece of metal into air, only there was too much force behind it. The quarter was out of his grasp and landed on the couch with a thump next to a sleeping JC. It hadn’t made much noise, but it was enough to cause JC to roll onto his back.

“Way to go, Chris,” Justin said, glaring at him from across the room where he was sitting with his back against the wall. “You trying to wake him up?”

“It’s not like I did it on purpose,” Chris replied as he swiped the coin off the couch cushion, glad that he hadn’t woken JC.

JC had fallen asleep shortly after he’d finished recording his part. He’d gone first because they’d wanted to make sure that he could rest for the rest of the morning and afternoon. It was the only way that Lynn had agreed to JC going.

Initially, they’d been ready to walk out the door without JC, but he’d rushed into the kitchen asking why they hadn’t woken him up. As they’d eaten breakfast, Chris had wondered if they should wake JC to at least see if he felt up to going, but Lynn had insisted that they leave JC alone because he needed sleep. There hadn’t been any argument because they’d all heard about how sick he’d been the night before.

But JC had gotten up and was mad that they’d let him sleep. They’d explained that they hadn’t wanted him to go if he still felt sick, but JC had insisted that he was fine. Lynn hadn’t been convinced though, so JC had to promise that he’d take it easy at the recording session since there was no way that he could miss it. That was the only reason she’d let him leave the house.

Chris glanced over at JC, thinking that maybe she’d been right in wanting JC to stay home. It wasn’t weird that JC was sleeping because he seemed to grab as much as he could whenever he could, but he’d gotten a decent night’s sleep. Obviously, he needed more in order to get better, but a recording studio probably wasn’t the best place for that.

“When’s Lou coming in?” Joey asked, bringing Chris’s attention to him.

“Is he supposed to?” Chris asked.

Joey nodded. “I thought so.”

“Didn’t he tell you boys?” Robin didn’t wait for an answer before she continued, “He left this morning for LA and he won’t be back until Saturday morning.”

“Why’d he leave when we’re so close to the demo?” Justin asked.

“I’m not sure, but he said something about needing to take care of a few things with his other group,” Robin explained.

Chris frowned. He’d known that Lou had another group that he’d been working with for a while, but it seemed kind of weird for him to meet with them when the demo was rapidly approaching. But maybe Lou had confidence that they’d be ready. After all, he’d been to a lot of their rehearsals over the past week and seemed happy with their improvement.

The door to the recording booth opened, and Chris looked up to see Lance walk out of the soundproof room. Robin told them to break for lunch, so Chris pushed himself off the floor. Joey and Justin walked past him, heading for the lounge across the hall where they always ate lunch.

Chris was about to step out into the hall when Lance asked, “Shouldn’t we wake JC?”

“Nah. Just leave him be,” Chris said, knowing that sleep was the best thing for him at the moment. Not to mention, JC probably wouldn’t eat even if he was awake anyway.

Lance didn’t argue, but closed the door behind him before he and Chris crossed the few feet to the lounge. They entered the room and saw that Joey and Justin had already dug in. So they joined them at the table and grabbed some food for themselves.

The four of them ate quietly for a few minutes before Joey said, “I hope what JC has isn’t contagious.”

“I don’t think so,” Chris replied.

“How do you know?” Joey asked.

“I was talking to Lynn this morning, and she thinks it’s stress.”

Lance frowned slightly, setting his drink back onto the table. “Can you really get sick from stress?”

“It all depends on how you handle it. If you let it get to you enough, eventually your body gets rundown,” Chris explained.

“And Lynn thinks that’s what JC did?” Joey asked.

Chris shrugged and nodded. “That’s what she said.”

“Well, do you agree with her?”

“It makes sense,” Chris said. At first he’d been surprised when Lynn had brought it up earlier that morning, but he quickly realized that she was right. He’d had his suspicions that something had been bothering JC and that he would push himself too hard. It always seemed he was stressed the couple of times that Chris had seriously talked to him.

“Why?” Lance asked.

“Because he strives for perfection and obsesses over the little things,” Chris said.

It was Joey’s turn to frown. “But wouldn’t he say something if he was feeling so stressed?”

“Not necessarily,” Chris said.

“What makes you say that?” Joey asked around a mouthful of sandwich.

“The other day when he hurt his shoulder, it was bothering him before he did that back flip. And he never said anything.”

Lance furrowed his eyebrows. “How do you know it was bothering him?”

“He was rubbing at it all through rehearsal,” Chris said. “Not saying anything about his shoulder proves that he’s willing to push himself no matter what the cost.”

Joey’s frown deepened. “That’s kind of a jump to make, don’t you think?”

“No.” Chris shook his head. “He could’ve seriously injured his shoulder. He had to have known that was a possibility, but still he took the chance anyway.”

“Maybe he didn’t think it was a big deal,” Justin defended. Chris glanced over at his youngest friend, not surprised in the least that Justin was sticking up for JC. He did find it weird that Justin hadn’t said anything before now though. But maybe Justin just hadn’t known exactly what to say.

“Well, it turned into a big deal, didn’t it?” Chris returned. “I mean, he hasn’t exactly been able to do the choreography since then.”

“But he couldn’t have known that he was going to screw up that flip,” Justin argued, narrowing his eyes as if challenging Chris to disagree.

“No, but he shouldn’t have risked it. It’s clear that he doesn’t care how hard he pushes himself as long as he gets perfection out of it.”

“You can’t really blame him though,” Lance spoke up, crinkling the sandwich wrapper and leaving it in the middle of the table. “I mean, aren’t we all trying to be perfect? The demo’s only a few days away and that’s a lot of pressure.”

“Yeah,” Chris agreed. “But he takes it to another level. He stresses about it in a way that the rest of us don’t.”

“He doesn’t seem to be having fun with it anymore either,” Joey said.

“Exactly. He’s working himself so hard that we practically have to twist his arm to lighten up and have fun with us.” Chris paused. “We’re doing this to get signed and become successful, but we’re also doing it for fun too. And it’s like JC’s forgotten that.”

“I know I haven’t known him that long, but he seems like he takes things seriously,” Lance said.

Joey nodded. “He does, but he’s never been this bad before.”

“We’ve never been this close to the demo before,” Chris said.

“What about the Mickey Mouse Club?” Lance asked. “How did JC deal with that?”

They turned their attention to Justin and looked at him expectantly. He was the one who knew JC best, so he’d probably have a better idea about how JC dealt with stress. If he’d reacted in a similar way while working on the set of the Mickey Mouse Club, then what’d happened now would make more sense. But if not, then maybe there was something more to it.

Justin shrugged. “I don’t remember JC ever getting sick.”

“Well, that doesn’t mean he wasn’t stressed. Did he ever beat himself up if he screwed up a line or something?” Chris asked.

“Sure, but that’s how JC is.” Chris nodded knowingly and Justin added, “He’s a perfectionist, but he never took it too far.”

“That you know of,” Chris said. He was aware that there was a real possibility that JC had hid that part of himself from Justin.

Justin glared at him. “He would’ve told me if he was really stressed. We’re best friends.”

“Well, clearly he’s stressed now,” Chris said.

“What if it’s more than just the demo?” Lance asked.

Joey looked over at him. “What do you mean?”

“I just…” Lance hesitated slightly before he said, “I haven’t really heard him say a whole lot the past few days. Is it normal for him to be so quiet?”

Joey donned a thoughtful expression before he shook his head slightly. “He’s usually kind of reserved, but lately he has been kind of isolating himself.”

“I talked to him earlier this week because he seemed kind of distracted, and he said that he was just worried about the demo,” Chris said.

“Do you think that’s still true?” Joey asked.

Chris shrugged and nodded. “He seemed pretty sincere about it, and the demo’s the reason he’s pushing himself for perfection. I mean, he’s even told me that it needs to be perfect.”

“So what are we supposed to do?”

“I don’t know.” Chris sighed and met Joey’s gaze. “I guess maybe we should try to talk to him about taking it easy.”

“Do you think that’ll work?” Joey asked.

“It’s worth a try. But right now, he needs to work on getting some rest,” Chris said.

“Should we call Justin’s mom then so he doesn’t have to sleep on the couch in the studio?” Lance asked.

“That’s probably a good idea,” Chris agreed.

“I’ll go call her,” Justin said and rose from the table.

Chris watched as Justin left the room to find a phone, hoping that it wouldn’t take long for JC to bounce back from being so rundown. He didn’t look forward to talking to JC, but it was important for him to know that he could take what they were doing seriously without doing harm to his body. Making himself sick was just going to hurt him in the long run.

Justin walked into the bedroom and sat on his bed, facing JC. He’d come in to keep JC company while he ate the soup that Lynn had brought in just minutes before. JC was propped up against the wall with the bowl of soup resting on his lap.

“How are you feeling?” Justin asked.

JC looked up from his soup and lowered the spoon back into the bowl. “Better. I think that nap helped.”

“That’s good,” Justin said.

Silence fell over the two of them. Justin wasn’t really sure what to say because not a lot had happened since his mom had picked up JC from the studio and taken him back to the house to rest. But he didn’t want to sit in silence either. That was when he remembered something funny that’d happened at the studio that he could share with JC.

“You should’ve seen what Joey did after lunch. It was the most hilarious thing,” Justin said.

“What?” JC asked.

“We were walking down the hall from the lounge and there was this door open up ahead. Joey didn’t see it. How is beyond me. But he walked right into it.” Justin laughed at the memory, and JC smiled slightly. “That’s not even the best part though. When he ran into it, he fell backwards in like slow motion. And he didn’t even seem to register that he was falling. Like he didn’t try to grab onto something or anything.”

Justin broke off, laughing as the image of it replayed in his mind. He laughed for nearly thirty seconds before it tapered off to just soft chuckles. That was when he noticed that JC wasn’t really laughing.

“I guess you had to have been there,” Justin said.

“I’m sorry I missed it,” JC replied, running the spoon through his soup.

Justin realized too late that instead of his story cheering JC up, it probably made him feel worse since he’d left the recording session early. And that was the last thing he’d wanted to do. Wanting to change the subject, Justin glanced around the room as he tried to think of something else to talk about. His eyes landed on JC’s still full bowl that JC was stirring listlessly.

“Aren’t you hungry?” Justin asked.

“Not really,” JC admitted softly, releasing the spoon from his hold and letting it rest in the bowl.

“Well, you shouldn’t force yourself to eat, especially if you’ll just puke it back up anyway,” Justin said.

“But I need energy for rehearsal,” JC replied.

“Are you up for that?” Justin asked. JC looked a little tired, but overall he seemed to be much better than the night before. Or even that morning. But Justin wanted to make sure that JC was doing what was best for him.

“Yeah, of course,” JC said. “I mean, it’s not like I can learn the steps lying in bed, right?”

“Yeah, but…”

“But what, Justin?” JC asked.

Justin hesitated, not sure if he should tell JC what he and the guys had talked about earlier. But he quickly pushed it away and said, “My mom and the guys think you got sick from pushing yourself too hard.”

“What do you think?” JC asked, looking over at Justin.

“I don’t know what to think. I’m not even sure I know what it means.” Justin sighed as he pulled on the edge of his bedcover, glancing at JC. “I mean, how can you get sick when you do exactly the same stuff the rest of us do? It’s not like you’re practicing more than us. It’s weird and I just don’t understand. I don’t think you’re stressed or pushing yourself too hard, but I don’t know.”

“I’m fine,” JC assured, offering him a small smile.

Justin nodded. “OK. I just didn’t know if something was bothering you. I mean, you haven’t really been yourself lately and don’t seem to be having fun with us anymore.” He paused. “But if something was, I hope that you’d tell me.”

There was a beat of silence before JC sighed and carefully placed his lunch on the nightstand beside his bed. He shifted slightly so he was facing Justin, signaling to Justin that maybe there was something after all. Justin sat up a little straighter and gave JC his full attention, more than willing to listen to whatever he had to say.

“There’s kind of something,” JC started.

Justin frowned. “Kind of?”

“It’s over, but it might explain why I’ve been acting a little weird this week,” JC explained.

“OK,” Justin said. He had no idea what JC was going to reveal to him, but he was glad that JC was going to get it off his chest. It was especially good if it would help him to let go of some stress.

“I’ve been having these…nightmares.”

Justin leaned forward slightly. “What were they about?”

“There was this…guy who was trying to…hurt me,” JC said.

“And you had this nightmare a lot?” Justin asked.

JC nodded. “Pretty much every night for the past few days.”

“But you’re not having it anymore?”

“No. I just need to get caught up on my sleep now. I think I’m done with going out for a while,” JC told him with a small smile.

“Why did you go out if you were having trouble sleeping?” Justin asked.

JC let out another sigh. “I thought if I stayed out late then I’d be tired enough to fall asleep and stay asleep. But it didn’t exactly work.”

“So you just got sick because you haven’t been sleeping well?”

“I guess,” JC said with a shrug.

Justin was glad to hear that JC’s problem hadn’t been too serious. It was bad that he’d gotten rundown from lack of sleep, but it hadn’t been his fault. JC couldn’t help that he’d been having nightmares. Besides, he’d be able to catch up on his sleep now that they were gone, and there was no reason to worry about his health now.

“Is that why you slept in my bed?” Justin asked, thinking back to yesterday.

JC hesitated. “No. I was just lazy and your bed was unmade.”

Justin realized that JC was a little uncomfortable about him knowing about that, so he let it drop. It made sense, and it really didn’t bother Justin. He’d just been curious. Besides, he’d found out what’d been bothering JC for the past few days, and that was what really mattered.

“You gonna try to eat?” Justin asked, gesturing to the untouched food sitting on the nightstand.

“No. I don’t think I can eat it,” JC said. “At least not right now.”

Justin knew that JC should probably eat his lunch, but he stood by what he’d said earlier. JC shouldn’t eat if he wasn’t hungry, and it wasn’t like he was refusing to eat. He was just putting it off until he was actually hungry.

So Justin wasn’t worried about JC. He always took care of himself, even if he didn’t act like it. And since Justin knew the truth, he wasn’t going to let the guys give JC a hard time. JC had told him what’d been going on, so no one else needed to know about it, especially since he had it under control.

Joey was hanging out with Lance in the backyard. They’d gone out there after lunch to leisurely shoot a few hoops to kill time before rehearsal. It was just as hot as it’d been earlier that week. If anything, it felt like it was getting steadily hotter every day. So needless to say, the heat added to their sluggish attempts at making baskets.

“I think I’m done,” Lance said, watching as the ball danced around the rim before falling outside the hoop.

“That’s just as well,” Joey replied. “We’ll probably be leaving soon.”

“How long do you think?” Lance asked.

Joey shrugged. “Probably like fifteen minutes.” He frowned. “Why?”

There was a pause before Lance asked, “Can you help me with those faster steps around the middle of We Can Work It Out?”

“Sure. What are you having trouble with?”

“I’m not sure,” Lance said with a sigh and a helpless look on his face.

Joey stepped forward. “Alright. Why don’t you run through it once and we’ll see what’s giving you problems.”

Lance nodded and set himself up in the starting position. He went through the steps before he abruptly stopped and looked over at Joey. Almost immediately Joey was able to see what was giving Lance trouble with that part of the routine.

“You’re just not getting your feet in the right positions, which is throwing you off. You need to set your feet before you move on, but without stopping the flow of motion,” Joey said. “Does that make sense?”

Lance’s forehead creased in confusion. “A little…”

“Like this.” Joey faced Lance and demonstrated it for him. Once he was finished, he met Lance’s intent gaze. “You think you got it?”

“Maybe.”

“Well, let’s see,” Joey said. He felt weird helping Lance with the choreography because it wasn’t like he was the best at it. That was JC or Justin. But he knew that Lance had asked him because he was the one Lance felt the most comfortable with.

Joey watched as Lance ran through the steps for a second time, biting his lip in concentration as he did so. The concentration quickly turned to frustration when Lance didn’t get his feet in the right position halfway through. This made Joey remember his talk with Lance last week and how he’d felt he was holding the rest of them back. Since then Lance had made numerous strides, but it obviously still bothered him that he couldn’t keep all of the routines straight.

“Hey, man. Don’t sweat it. You’ll get it,” Joey said, trying to be encouraging.

“But I should already have it!” Lance cried out in agitation. “I shouldn’t be making mistakes like this, especially when the demo’s just a few days away.”

Joey opened his mouth to reply, but changed what he was going to say when he saw over Lance’s shoulder that Lynn approaching them. “Hey, Lynn. What’s up?”

Immediately, Lance froze before he turned to greet her. “Hi, Ms Harless.”

“Shouldn’t you boys be getting ready? You’re leaving soon, right?” she asked.

“Yeah. We were just running through some things,” Joey said.

“It looks like it’s coming together,” Lynn replied, and they nodded. She sighed. “I just don’t want you boys to stress yourselves out.”

“Is this about JC?” Joey asked, knowing that was the reason why she was bringing that up now.

“I don’t want to see the same thing happen to you. Your mothers expect me to look after you, and I don’t want to give them a reason to worry. And I’m sure you don’t either,” Lynn said.

“No,” Lance agreed.

Joey nodded. “We’ll take care of ourselves.”

“That’s all I wanted to hear,” Lynn said, smiling at them. After a moment, she grew serious. “How do you think you’ll do without JC?”

“What are you talking about?” a voice asked from behind Lynn. She spun around, revealing that Justin was standing behind her.

“JC’s not going to rehearsal,” she said.

“Well, he’s getting his shoes on right now,” Justin replied, jerking his thumb in the direction of the house.

Lynn didn’t say anything, but headed for the house with Justin right behind her. Joey glanced at Lance and shrugged before following them. He wanted to see how JC was and if he really was planning on going to choreography. While JC hadn’t looked horrible earlier that morning, it’d been apparent that he wasn’t a hundred percent.

“Mom, leave JC alone. He’s fine,” Justin said as they stepped through the backdoor and into the kitchen.

Lynn stopped and looked at her son. “I just want to see for myself.”

“But I just saw him. He’s fine,” Justin insisted.

Before Lynn could say anything, JC came walking into the kitchen and stopped abruptly when he saw them. Joey figured he probably hadn’t expected to just run into them in the middle of the kitchen. But that didn’t stop JC from staying on task.

“Where’s Chris?” he asked, glancing around the room before looking at them. “We’re gonna be late.”

“Are you sure you’re feeling up to it?” Lynn asked JC, ignoring his first question.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” JC said, dismissively.

Lynn frowned. “You still look a little pale. You don’t still have a fever, do you?”

“No,” JC denied, swatting away her hand as she reached out to feel his forehead.

Joey took in his friend’s appearance and decided that he really didn’t look too bad considering. Lynn was right. JC did still look pale, but that seemed to be the extent of it. He did look better, and if he was dressed, then he probably was. But then again, that was how they’d gotten into this mess in the first place.

“Maybe you should stay home. Just for today,” she added when she saw JC frown. “You haven’t really given yourself any time to recoup.”

“Lynn, I swear to you, I’m fine. I wouldn’t say that if I wasn’t,” JC said.

“You know, C, it’s not a big deal to stay here and rest. It’s just one rehearsal, and you could do that stuff in your sleep,” Joey replied, thinking maybe JC was just being so insistent because he felt like it’d cause problems if he skipped rehearsal.

JC shook his head, an annoyed expression on his face. “Obviously not. You saw how much I screwed up yesterday. I can’t afford to miss a rehearsal, especially so close to the demo.”

“But it’s better to miss one now than later this week,” Lynn countered. “Right?”

“I don’t need to miss any!” JC cried out in exasperation. That just caused Lynn’s frown to deepen.

“I just don’t want you to work yourself too hard. You need to take care yourself,” she said.

“I am,” JC said through practically gritted teeth. “Stop saying that I’m not. You don’t even know what’s going on!”

Joey’s eyes widened as he shared a quick glance with Lance. JC had pretty much confirmed their suspicions that something had been going on. He wanted to know what, and apparently, Lynn did too because she’d started to ask when Chris walked in from the living room. Chris’s eyes immediately fell on JC.

“You’re going to rehearsal?” he asked JC, a hint of surprise evident in his tone.

JC clenched his fists and opened his mouth like he was going to start yelling. But he took a breath and his fingers unfurled. “No,” JC said in a lower octave, his expression dark. “I’m not.”

Without another word, JC turned on his heel and left the kitchen. Joey just stared after him in disbelief. He hadn’t expected JC to just give in like that, especially after how much he’d argued before Chris walked in. But Joey figured that everyone getting on his case had finally pushed him enough that he’d decided it wasn’t worth it.

Lynn started to move forward towards the hallway, but stopped when Justin asked, “Where are you going?”

“To talk to JC,” she said, simply.

“Mom, no. Leave him alone. He doesn’t want you bothering him,” Justin replied.

“He’s upset,” Lynn said.

Justin crossed his arms over his chest. “Because you keep pestering him.”

“Even more reason for me to talk to him,” Lynn insisted. “I need to know what’s going on.”

“It’s nothing, Mom. Trust me,” Justin said.

“How would you know? It sure seemed like something,” Joey replied. He might not be as close to JC as Justin, but he knew him well enough to know that JC didn’t get worked up for no reason.

Justin sighed. “Because he told me.”

“He could’ve been lying to you, Justin,” Chris said.

Justin glared at him. “He wouldn’t do that. We’re best friends.”

“Well, what’s wrong? What’s been going on?” Lynn asked, frowning.

“I can’t tell you. He told me in confidence, but I swear it’s not a big deal. He’s got it under control,” Justin said.

Lynn stared at him for a few seconds before she sighed. “I just want what’s best for him.”

“I know, but you should have some faith in him. JC’s not stupid. He can take care of himself,” Justin said.

Lynn just nodded, but didn’t say anything. She glanced at the microwave and noticed the time. “You boys better go. You don’t want to be late.”

There was no argument as the four of them headed for the front door. As they walked out into the driveway, Joey couldn’t help but hope that Justin was right. That whatever had been going on with JC was over, and things would get back to normal.