Chapter 14: The (Angry) Lion Sleeps Tonight

“Ok, so what’re we going to do?” Mack asked, jumping up and down on the bed.

“About what?” Justin asked, distracted, as he flipped the channels on the TV. The two really should’ve been asleep but Lynn let them stay up a little bit because Justin was expecting a call from his step-dad, Paul Harless.

Lynn was sitting under the covers of her bed, reading a book as she waited. She didn’t seem bothered whenever Mack would jump back and forth from her bed to Justin’s, jostling them both. Mack was like the daughter she never had and she knew that it was inevitable that she would end up picking up on Justin’s and Trace’s habits so she kept her mouth shut.

Mack took a large bite out of the Toblerone bar that was in her hand before bouncing back over to Justin’s bed. He kept his chin propped up by his hand, keeping his other arm pointed straight out so he could change channels better. He put the remote down and sighed when Mack sat on his lower back. “Ok, you have my undivided attention,” he announced. “What’re we going to do about what?”

“JC’s birthday,” she replied, taking another bite out of the candy and chewing rapidly. “I mean it’s…” she paused to look at the clock, “…in thirty minutes and no one has said anything about a plan for a party.” She paused to swallow the chunk she had been chewing. “I mean, you wouldn’t want him to think you’re bad friends, would you?”

“We don’t have time to plan a party in one day, half a day, really,” Justin pointed out.

“I can do it. I’ve planned a party in thirty minutes once, and that turned out great.”

“Yeah, if Trace were eighty years old.” Justin rolled his eye.

“I didn’t hear him complaining.”

“Not to your face.” Mack lightly smacked him on the back of the head as he chuckled. Lynn chuckled quietly as he rubbed the sting off of his head. “I’m not saying it’s impossible, Boo, I’m just saying that it will be hard.” He paused. “Since when do you want to do stuff for JC anyway? I thought you two hated each other.” He went back to flipping channels.

Mack just kept her mouth shut. There was no point in trying to get any of them to understand her relationship with JC. No, her friendship with JC. It was a weird one, she’ll admit, but it made sense to her. She wasn’t going to get along with everyone she met, especially since she was so headstrong, but they were alike in many ways too. As long as she understood their friendship, that was all that mattered.

“Lynn, you’ll help me, right? We can go shopping while the guys are at the studio. It shouldn’t be too hard to find stuff for a party here. I mean, I’ll bet if we explain this to Mr. Pearlman he’ll send a translator with us,” Mack said as she turned to the woman who had been listening to their conversation. “Or, if they speak French, I can translate. What do you think?”

“I think that’s a great idea,” Lynn replied, putting her book down on her lap. “Do you have a theme in mind?”

“JC’s twenty! He wouldn’t want a themed birthday party!” Justin jumped in.

“Everyone likes themed parties,” Mack replied. “Now let’s see…how about a…” she suddenly snapped, causing Justin to jump a bit. “How about a Lion Sleeps Tonight party?”

“What the hell?” Justin questioned.

“Justin Randal!!”

“Sorry Momma,” he quickly apologized. “I mean what in the world? A Lion Sleeps Tonight party? How in the world are you going to pull that off?”

“Have some faith in me, for once in your life.”

Justin just looked at her in confusion, trying to find out what it was that suddenly made her ticked off. It couldn’t have been something he said, right? He looked over at his mother, silently asking for some clarification. Lynn merely shrugged and responded with a look that said “fix it on your own”.

Before anyone could say anything there was a knock on the door. Mack jumped off of Justin’s back––ignoring his cry of pain––and bounced over to the door. She pulled it open and frowned when she saw Robin standing on the other side. “Time for bed, kiddo,” Robin told her with a tiny smile.

“Aww,” Mack sighed. “Ok. Goodnight.”

“Goodnight,” Lynn and Justin called back in unison.

“Momma?” Justin asked, turning off the TV.

“Yes?”

“Will I ever understand girls?”

“Never.”

“That’s what I thought.”

~*~*~*~

“Honey, you have to stop eating those things,” Lynn said the next morning. She was looking at Mack through the mirror in the bathroom, shaking her head when she took another bite of the peak of the Toblerone bar that was in her hand.

“They don’t have any Oreos here, I need to make a substitution,” she replied with a full mouth.

“Sometimes I think it was a bad idea to introduce you to Justin,” Lynn said with a chuckle. “You’ve picked up a lot of his habits.”

“It’s not my fault all of the girls in Memphis are a buncha wimps,” she replied with a shrug. “Besides, I have more fun hanging out with the guys.”

Lynn couldn’t deny that her statement was true. Back at home when they were younger every time she’d look out the window she would see Trace, Justin, and Mack tearing across the backyard and towards the woods. Trace and Justin would be running ahead of her, yelling, and making fun of her for being slower. She, in turn, would yell at them back and run faster, starting the race that they almost always seemed to get into.

Mack was never good at making friends with girls. She thought they were strange because they wore skirts and dresses all of the time while she preferred to wear pants and shorts because it was easier for her to move around in. She could hit a ball further than most guys and could keep up with them whenever they played a game. Even thought football wasn’t her strong point she could tackle with the best of them and run fast enough to beat them to the end zone, if she didn’t have to catch a ball, that is.

Lynn couldn’t help but wonder if the only reason she was around boys a lot was because she didn’t have an older sister to look up to or a mom to really teach her the ways of being a girl. Charlotte’s job caused her to be at the office a lot and to travel many times in one year. She was surprised Mack had any chance to talk to her mother at all. She never seemed to affected by her traveling mother, they were always seen together as soon as she came back to the States and they talked on the phone every day, but there was just something off about their relationship and Lynn couldn’t put her finger on it.

Maybe that’s why she decided to look after the young girl herself as she got older. She needed some womanly guidance and if Charlotte wasn’t there to do it, Lynn was next in line. Mack was like the daughter she never had and always wanted. Mack knew how to get Trace and Justin to stay in line, but sometimes she found herself on the other side of it, in trouble just like them.

Lynn smiled as she packed up her purse and got ready to leave the hotel in search for birthday supplies. She was proud of her honorary daughter, she always put people before herself, it’s probably the main reason she stuck by Justin and Trace for so long. As quickly as her smile appeared it faded, thinking about his son’s and his friend’s friendship. Over the years it started to become clear to Lynn that Justin was slowly taking advantage of her, weather they knew it or not. Mack was always one to please people and she knew that was what she was doing whenever she helped Justin, but Justin was slowly starting to cross the line. She couldn’t say anything about it, they’re fifteen after all, and they had to learn to fix their own mistakes, right?

“Momma Lynn!” Mack called from down the hall. Lynn smiled at the name and picked up her pace a bit, to catch the elevator that had just arrived. “You know, I’m surprised,” she continued when the elevator doors slid shut. “How’d you manage to get out of J’s clutches?” She had a teasing smile on her face and Lynn lightly slapped her on the arm.

“A better question is how you managed to get away with not going to the studio. Justin was whining about it all day,” Lynn replied as the bell dinged, signaling that they had made it to the ground floor.

“It wasn’t easy. I had to promise him I’d help him study for a History test, even though he and I both know he doesn’t study, he whines. All the freaking time.”

“You know he only does that to get your attention, right?”

“Lynn! Not you too.”

Lynn merely smiled.

 ~*~*~*~

Justin looked around the room. The quiet room. They were in the studio and they were quiet. The silence was getting on his nerves. He had to do something. Anything. But he knew he couldn’t. He could see it on everyone else’s faces. They were worried about JC; he hadn’t said anything to them since they woke up that morning. He promptly fell back asleep in the car on the way to breakfast (Lance wanted to try some Swedish food) and had sat down and stayed quiet as soon as they had gotten into the studio.

All of them wanted to say something to him but they didn’t know what to say. He just looked up whenever Denniz, Max, Lou, or Johnny said something, only spoke when he was spoken to. Afterwards he promptly shut up and it was ticking Justin off.

“Will you please say something?” He finally shouting, stopping Chris in the middle of a story about a gorilla and orange paint.

JC lifted his head and looked at Justin as if he had just grown a second head. “What?” He finally asked his voice soft and slightly hoarse.

“I can’t take the silence. Why aren’t you saying anything?” Justin demanded.

“Is it a rule? Do I have to talk? Believe it or not I have nothing to say,” JC replied with a trace of irritation in his voice. He was having a bad day so far and he really didn’t want to talk about it. But Justin, as usual, had to butt into the situation. He knew that Justin was trying to look out for him, but he didn’t need a fifteen-year-old to do it.

“You always have something to say. You’re…you. You have to comment on everything. Even though it’s annoying, I’m starting to miss it.”

“Thank…you?”

“Oh…you know what I mean!”

JC’s face didn’t change but his eyes lit up and Justin could tell he changed his friends’ mood, even if it was a little bit. Justin turned his attention back to the crossword puzzle that Lance and Chris were trying to figure out. Even though it was in Swedish they were giving it a shot and coming up with weird results.

“Ok, this one is…diaper!” Chris shouted, pointing at a blank.

“Diaper?” Lance repeated, raising his eyebrows.

“It’s in Swedish! How am I going to know what the heck the answer is?” Chris asked in defense. “Just put it down anyway.”

“Well, this is a crossword puzzle I’d like to show my mom…diaper, candlestick, toothpaste, gum, car, and slime,” Lance muttered sarcastically as he wrote in the word.

JC chuckled a bit from his chair as he listened to them arguing over what word to put in a space. It was amazing how being around them easily turned his crappy day into an amazing birthday.

He knew as soon as he woke up it would be a pretty bad day. His head was pounding from Chris and Justin bursting into his room in the middle of the night, yelling something about mutant chickens. Then, to top it off, Nikki broke up with him over the phone. He didn’t even pick up the phone. She broke up with him over a message. A short message at that.

“JC, I just wanted to see how you’re doing. Umm, I know it’s your birthday but…I don’t think we’re going to work. Good luck with your album. Peaches.”

Good luck with your album.

That was it. That was all she said. She didn’t even have the decency to give him an explanation about why she wanted to break up with him. Then, to top it all off, they guys didn’t even say happy birthday to him. Not one, not even Justin whom he thought cared the most, and that hurt. They have only been with each other for about a year but they never forgot each other’s birthday. JC was pretty livid about his whole day, choosing to stay quiet and stew in his misery and anger quietly. But it immediately vanished when Justin came in with a bright smile and excitement radiating off of him like, well, a radiator.

“Ok boys, are you ready to sing?” Lou asked as he clasped his hands together and rubbed them.

“We can’t sing yet,” Justin replied.

“Why not?”

“Mack’s not here.”

“You need your girlfriend around to sing?” Chris snickered.

Justin huffed. “She’s not my girlfriend, ok? And I just thought she’d want to be here to watch us make history, excuse me.”

“She went shopping, I think,” Lance spoke up.

“Shopping? Her?”

“Yeah, she and shopping don’t go together in one sentence,” JC agreed. “Who’d she go with?”

“Lynn of course. Robin has to stay here and I’m pretty sure she doesn’t want to go shopping with Lou or Johnny,” Lance replied without looking up from the newspaper in his hand. “’Sides, she said something about getting help on Algebra.”

“How do you know this and we don’t?” Justin demanded. Lance raised his eyebrows. He detected jealousy in Justin’s voice. Lance knew better than to call him out for it.

“Do you need to keep tabs on her or something? She’s a person, not a dog,” Lance replied. “And she just supplied the information, it’s not like I interrogated her.” Lance chuckled as Justin fumed.

“You boys heard what the track sounded like, right?” Max asked, breaking the silence that fell over them. They nodded. “Ok, first I would like all of you to get in the recording booth so you can sing your intro and sing the chorus.”

“All of us?” Justin repeated. “Why?”

“That way once we get to the verses that you and JC are going to sing we can overlap your voices, it will sound better, trust me.”

Justin knew better than to argue and did as Max say. It took a little bit for them to get situated in the room, it felt smaller because they were all in the room. That and Chris ended up in a little ‘fight’ with the headphones that got Justin whacked in the side of the head a few times and got him and Joey tangled in the chord.

“Ok, is everyone ready?” Denniz asked. They nodded. “First, Justin, I need you to sing the intro. Don’t hesitate to give it all you’ve got.”

Justin nodded, swallowed, and licked his lips. He drummed his fingers against his legs as he waited. ‘This is it. This is what we’ve been waiting for.’ He glanced over to the guys who nodded and smiled encouragingly. Justin took another deep breath and started.

You're all I ever wanted
You're all I ever needed, yeah
So tell me what to do now
'Cause

“Ok, stop there,” Max interrupted Justin. “I want you to do that again, but this time I want you each in turn to come in singing the ‘I’ part and holding it out before you all sing ‘I want you back’ in that pitch? Ok. Lance you first, and then Joey will come in, then Justin, then JC, and finally Chris. Ok? Let’s try it.”

You're all I ever wanted
You're all I ever needed, yeah
So tell me what to do now
'Cause I, I, I, I, I

I want you back

Justin grinned. He felt shivers roll up his spine as soon as they stopped singing. Judging by the smiles on the other guys’ faces they felt the same way. The continued singing the chorus bits of the song, along with random vocal inputs, mainly them goofing around and singing something that would make the others laugh.

Around new Justin was still working on his verses when there was a knock on the door. Chris looked up from the card game he was playing with the rest of the guys and stared at the door as if it were going to open by itself. Since he was the closest to the door Lance, Joey, and JC stared at him, pointedly. He sighed heavily, reached back, twisted the knob, and pulled open the door.

“How are my boys doing?” Lou asked as he came back into the room. As soon as they got started singing Denniz and Max had asked Lou to leave the room, thinking he would make the boys nervous. It was evident by the smile on his face that he had been itching to get back into the room.

“Good,” Chris replied. He paused and laughed happily as he slapped a card on the pile. “Diamonds,” he added, grinning when Lance sighed.

“I have good news for you boys,” Lou continued. “You’re going to your first photoshoot today.”

“Huh?” was all Joey got out.

“With Fryderyk Gabowicz. He has heard about you guys and wants to be the first one to give you a photo shoot.”

JC’s mouth fell open. He didn’t know if he should be happy or confused. He was happy about the fact that they were moving so fast to achieving their dream of being known and making a record. But he was also confused as to why someone would want to offer them a photoshoot when they were still in the beginning stages of everything. Johnny did say that Lou always worked fast and had great connections and there was no doubt that it was true now, but he was still skeptical.

“Umm, when?” JC finally asked. “'Cause, um, Lynn wanted to take us out for dinner later.”

“A silly dinner won’t get in the way of your road to stardom,” Lou said with a wave of his hand.

JC looked through the glass that separated them from the recording booth to check if Justin was listening. It was obvious that he was because his lips were pressed against each other tight and his blue eyes were filled with the fire that always surfaced whenever someone spoke poorly about his mother.

“And in two days you’re going to perform in Munich, Germany for the Pop-Rockey-Summerparty,” Lou continued.

“What!?” Justin’s voice floated over the speakers and into the room. Lou turned his dark eyes to the young boy. “How can we perform all ready? We don’t even have a stage show or a completed song. We just started recording.”

“You’re an a capella group, correct?” Lou asked, keeping his eyes on Justin. “All you have to do is sing a few a capella songs. That’s it. That’s not too hard is it?”

Justin kept his mouth shut and shook his head, lowering his eyes. JC glanced around at the other guys to check their reactions. They, too, had shocked looks on their faces. Lou hadn’t spoken to any of them like that. It was usually “my boys” this and “my boys” that. Not once had Lou raised his voice at them, no matter how rowdy they were.

Lou looked at his watch. “Your photoshoot is at four. A car will be around to pick you up at 3:30.” He then turned and walked right back out the door.

~*~*~*~

“I’m soooooo tired,” Justin mumbled as the boys trudged through the front doors of the hotel. His voice was slightly raspy from singing so much in that day alone. He hasn’t sung that much in one day, he usually had a few hours of vocal rest but as soon as they got out of their photoshoot Lou made them choose which two songs they were going to perform and then practice those songs for hours on end. Robin eventually made them stop in fear of giving them sore throats, Justin especially since his vocal chords were younger than the others’.

“I just…I just wanna sleep,” Chris agreed, lazily reaching up his arm to push the button to call an elevator.

“I hear ya,” JC agreed, giving a sleepy smile. “I just want to sleep for days.”

“I’m sure you’ll achieve that too,” Joey joked. JC lightly punched Joey on the arm and rested his forehead against the wall as he waited for the elevator to arrive. “Ahhh, you were worried about us, I guess?” Joey asked. JC forced an eye open and saw Mack step out of the elevator.

“It’s about time y’all got here!” She huffed, a trace of her southern accent seeping into her voice. “You were supposed to be here an hour and a half ago! Lynn’s worried.” She turned to Justin. “And J, you’re in trouble because you didn’t call her.”

Justin groaned as the others chuckled. “Aww, the Baby’s in twubble with his Momma,” Chris joked.

“Fuck off!” Justin snapped, shoving Chris away from him who was going to pinch his cheek.

“What’s wrong with you guys?” Mack asked, her eyebrows crinkling together in concern as she looked at the group.

“We’ll explain later. Just let us sleep for a bit,” Lance replied with a yawn.

“Yeah, I can’t let you do that,” she replied. “Lynn says there’s something in the game room who wants to speak with us. Apparently we broke something…?” She let her voice trail off and they all looked over at Chris, who was currently messing around with the leaves on the tree by his head.

“Ugh. Way to go, Chris,” JC groaned, pushing himself off of the wall and stretching. He was the first one to walk in the direction of the game room, which didn’t surprise him in the least. He was dubbed the father of the group by the rest of the guys so it didn’t surprise him that they would let him handle the potentially angry hotel manager. Lance would’ve done it himself but he was too tired to deal with someone yelling at him in a language he didn’t understand. “God, Chris, why did you have to go and–”

“HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JC!”

JC blinked rapidly at the screaming guests, the streamers, the confetti that was falling everywhere, the balloons, cake, candy, and stack of presents at the end of a table. Behind the table Lynn, Johnny, Robin, Lou, Tyler, Heather, Roy, and Karen stood, grinning from ear to ear. The room was also decorated with fake inflatable plants, flowers, and other jungle-like things. There was also a giant stuffed lion sitting in the corner with a crown on its head.

“Huh?” Was all JC managed to get out of his mouth. His shock had momentarily stopped his brain from producing any thought. “But…I thought…and Chris…” he stammered. “Huh?” he finally asked again, causing everyone else to laugh.

“I told you I throw the best surprise parties,” Mack said as she jabbed Justin in the side with her finger, a large smile was on her face. “He didn’t even see it coming.”

“Josh!” Heather ran over to her brother and wrapped her arms around his neck. JC, in turn, wrapped his around her waist and easily lifted her off of the ground and squeezed her tight. “I missed you so much.”

“I missed you too,” he replied genuinely, putting her down on the ground. “How’d you guys get here?” he asked, moving over to his mother to hug her and give her a kiss.

“It’s called an airplane, stupid,” Tyler replied with an eye roll and a teasing smile.

“It’s called a rhetorical question, idiot,” JC shot back with equal amounts of teasing, pulling his brother in for a hug before he hugged Roy. “When’d you get here?”

“A few hours ago,” Roy replied. “We got a call last night asking if we’d come over to surprise you for your birthday, that you needed some cheering up. So we got the earliest flight we could and came out here.”

“What happened?” Heather asked so quietly that JC barely heard her. He looked down at her and saw concern flashing through her eyes. He glanced up to see that the other guys were preoccupied with the cake that Karen and Lynn were cutting. If the two weren’t in the way JC would guess that they would jump at the cake and eat it with their hands if they had the chance.

He lightly took her hand and pulled her into the corner of the room. He lowered his voice to make sure the others didn’t hear him, although he spoke softly anyway. “I got a phone call from Nikki. Well, it was actually a message. She…well…she broke up with me,” he admitted. It was the first time he was admitting it to himself and he could feel the pinch behind his eyes that signaled tears. He blinked rapidly to try and keep them away. The last thing he wanted to do was cry at his own birthday party, that would only get everyone concerned and he didn’t want to ruin their fun. It’s just…he’s known Nikki for so long; she’s been an important part of his life. Now that she’s gone it was like he was missing a limb.

“Oh,” she replied. JC looked at her in confusion. Oh? That’s all she could say. She must’ve read his mind so she continued, “It’s just…I thought it was something else,” she replied with a shrug. She paused. “Wait, did you just get this call? I thought you all ready knew.”

Now JC was really confused. “Knew what?”

“About her breaking up with you,” she replied as if it were obvious.

“Wait…you all ready knew?” JC asked, trying to understand the conversation. “How did you know? Did Nikki tell you or something?”

“No, I heard it from Mack and…oh…you didn’t know!” Heather gasped, clasping her hands over her mouth. Her eyes got wide as JC’s heart clenched. “Oh no, oh no.”

“Heather, what’s going on?” JC asked slowly, stopping himself from yelling at her or…do something out of the rage that was slowly starting to rise in him.

“Um, she, um…”

“Heather.”

“Ok! Ok! Don’t yell at me,” she said as she held up her hands in defense. “A few days ago Mack called me telling me that she had intercepted a call meant for you. That Nikki was going to break up with you, but she couldn’t do it. Nikki was going to get Justin to do it but she thought it wouldn’t be fair. That’s why she left the message; she didn’t want to tell you to your face, er, ear.”

“How come neither of you two told me?” he demanded, letting out a slow breath from his nose, trying to keep his composure.

“Because it wasn’t our place!” Heather practically wailed. “That’s why Mack called me. She was going nuts. She wanted to tell you, really she did, but she knew it wouldn’t be fair and she thought you’d turn your anger on Nikki on her.”

“I wouldn’t have done that,” JC denied. Heather raised her eyebrows. “Ok, I might have,” he admitted.

“Are you…mad?” Heather asked after a few minutes of silence between them.

“Hmmm…no, I’m not mad. More disappointed and hurt than mad,” he admitted, running a hand over his hair.

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah.”

“Ok, so can I say that your hair cut makes you look like Caesar?” Heather asked with a smile.

JC smiled in return. “Shut up.”