( 11 years later - March 2002 )

Kerrigan groaned as her alarm when off again.  She had already pressed the snooze button twice, and she knew she really needed to get up and get her butt in gear, but it was so early in the morning.  Like 4:20AM early in the morning.

She hit the snooze button and once again buried her head under her pillow.  She was just about to drift back off to sleep, when Justin came barging into her room.

“Kerr, get up!  We gotta be at WEG in forty five minutes.  Get your ass out of bed!” he yelled, as he grabbed her blankets and ripped them off of her.

“You’re so lucky I actually wear clothes to bed!” Kerrigan grumbled from under her pillow.

“You don’t got anything I haven’t seen before.” Justin retorted as he grabbed her pillow and tossed it over his shoulder.

Kerrigan glared up at Justin’s smirking face.  “You want to die don’t you?”

“Not really.  But I do want to get to WEG on time.  Cause if I’m not there at 5, then Johnny’s gonna kill me.  And you too!” he countered.

“Remind me why I’m doing this again?” she whined as she sat up, running her fingers through her bed hair.

“Because you love me, and I’m your bestest friend in the whole wide world.” Justin smiled, and then added,  “And the fact that I’m paying you an insane amount of money doesn’t hurt I’m sure.”

“Very true.  About the money part.” she said, climbing out of bed.

“Oh, I see how it is.  So I’m not your bestest friend?” Justin demanded.

“Quit talking like a five year old, and get the hell outta here.  I mean if you want me to get dressed so we can go.” she sneered at him.

“I’m not leaving.  You’ll go back to sleep.  This is the third time your alarm clock as gone off.”

“Well, I can’t get dressed if you don’t get out!”

“Like I said.  You don’t have anything I haven’t seen before.” Justin smirked at her.

“You’re gonna be seeing stars in a minute if you don’t get the hell out!” Kerrigan glared at him.

“Ok, ok.  I’m going.  But just get dressed.  We gotta be there…”

Kerrigan cut him off.  “At five.  I know!  You’re wasting time.” she said pointing to the door.

Justin nodded and left her room, closing the door behind him.

Kerrigan stood there for a moment, trying to collect herself.  Her bags were already packed, she’d done that the day before because she knew they had to be up early.  She couldn’t believe she was going out on another tour with the guys of Nsync again.  This would be her third one.

Hell, she still couldn’t believe Justin was even a part of Nsync.  It seemed like only yesterday he was running off to Florida to join the Mickey Mouse club, and now here he was some big time superstar.  And here she was, his personal assistant.  Or at least one of them.

Both Kerrigan and Trace were Justin’s personal assistants.  Justin had given them those titles as soon as they had turned 18 so that he could bring them along with him.  If they were his assistants then he had to have them with him, and no one could tell him otherwise.  Therefore both Kerrigan and Trace became employees of Justin Timberlake.

Kerrigan still found it funny to this day.  Running around for her best friend doing insane things for him.  But she didn’t mind, at least this way she got to be close to her friends.

After Justin had left for Florida, she and Trace had only seen him on special occasions, but they had kept in touch.  Their pact to remain friends, was still in tack and going strong.  And if Kerrigan had to help him with his laundry and dry cleaning and other stupid little errands to be close to her friends, then she would do it.   It was better than sitting back in Tennessee doing God knows only what.

Chris had once asked her if she ever regretted giving up her own life, and a chance of going to college and being a normal young adult, to come along with Justin and be a part of his world.  And Kerrigan had told him no, and she had meant it.  Even to this day she meant it.  She never really had any desire to go to college.  She didn’t really know what she wanted to do with her life.  All she knew she wanted at the time was to be with her friends, and that’s what she was doing.

Justin and Trace made her happy, they were her family.  She’d known them since they were babies.  How could she regret that?  She couldn’t.  And she didn’t.  Well, at least most of the time.  Sometimes, like really early in the morning like right then, she did regret it a little bit.  But only because she was not a morning person and hated getting up at the butt crack of dawn.

Snapping out of her thoughts, Kerrigan wandered into her bathroom, where she quickly showered and brushed her teeth before throwing on a pair of sweat pants, and one of Justin’s old t-shirts.  She had just sat down on her bed to put on her shoes when Trace came bursting through her bedroom door.

“Are you ready yet?  We gotta go!” he said standing in the doorway.

“I was just about to put my shoes on.” she replied.

“Put them on in the car.  We gotta go!” Trace said rushing across the room and grabbing her by her arm.

Trace drug Kerrigan out of her room, barely allowing her to even grab her shoes, and then drug her down the stairs and out the front door, to where Justin was waiting in the van that had come to pick them up.

“Are you forgetting something?” she questioned as Trace practically threw her into the van.

“What?” Justin questioned from inside.

“My bags!” she stated.

“We already brought them out while you were in the shower.” Justin answered.

“Oh, ok.” she shrugged, settling back into the seat.

Trace quickly climbed into the van, and shut the door.  “Ok, let’s go.” he told the driver.

“And so it begins.” Kerrigan mumbled as she put on her shoes.

“What?” Justin asked, giving her an odd look.

“The madness.”  Kerrigan replied.

“KERRIGAN!” Joey shouted, running over and engulfing her in a huge hug, twirling her around.  “How’ve you been girl?  Haven’t seen you in what?  A week?” he teased.

“PUT ME DOWN, JOE!  I’M GONNA BE SICK!” she yelled.

Joey quickly put Kerrigan back on her own two feet, and held onto her for a sec, so she could regain her balance.  “Don’t want ya throwing up on me.” he told her.

“It’s too early for this shit.” she grumbled, pulling away from him and heading for the bus.  Her only focus was to get to her bunk so she could go back to sleep.  Her mission was to avoid all the other members of Nsync, namely Chris, before they could attack her as well.

“You’re such a grouchy ass.” Justin scolded her.

“You can kiss my grouchy ass!” she retorted, still heading for the bus.

Justin ran up behind her and grabbed a hold of her, acting as if he was going to actually going to do it.  “What the hell are you doing? STOP!” she yelled, swatting him away.

“You told me to kiss your ass.” he defended.

“It’s too early for you to try to be cute.  Stop!” she swatted him again, when he made another futile attempt.

“Yup!  You are definitely a grouchy ass.” Justin laughed at her.

“Whatever!” she grumbled and then climbed on the bus.

“You just like to annoy the shit out of her, don’t you?” Trace laughed as he walked up to Justin and Joey.

“Haven’t I always?” Justin questioned.

“True.” Trace conceded.

Justin, Joey and Trace then made their way to the bus, and climbed on.  The three of them settled in on one of the sofas, clicking through the channels on the TV and were soon joined by Chris, Lance and JC, whom had been saying goodbye to their families.

“Welp, we’re all here.  Everyone ready to start this tour?” Chris asked, as he threw himself down on the sofa across from the other guys.

“Ready as we’re gonna be.” Justin said, watching the TV.

“Where’s Kerrigan?” Lance questioned, looking around the front of the bus for any signs of her.  He knew she was supposed to be there.

“Where do you think she is?  Her lazy ass is  in her bunk.  Passed out already probably.” Trace snorted.

“I HEARD THAT YOU ASS!” came Kerrigan’s voice from the back of the bus.

“Or not.” Joey chuckled.

“YOU LOVE MY ASS!” Trace called back to her.

“LOVE TO KICK IT!” Kerrigan yelled back.

“THAT’S NOT WHAT YOU SAID LAST NIGHT!” Trace called back to her and then received an elbow from Justin.

“Shut up and leave her alone.” he scolded him.

“She started it.” Trace defended.

JC laughed.  “You three are a weird bunch.”

“We’ve been called worse.” Justin shrugged.

“Hell, I can’t believe Trace and Kerrigan actually dated!” Lance shook his head.  “I’m surprised, Trace is still alive.”

“Hey now!” Trace objected.  “We were thirteen years old, I wouldn’t call that dating!  And it was only for a week.  Then I seen the error of my way!”

“YOU REALLY WANT ME TO COME OUT THERE DON’T YOU?” Kerrigan yelled again from the back of the bus.

“WOULD YOU SHUT UP AND GO TO SLEEP!” Justin yelled to her, and received no response.  “THANK YOU!”

“YOU’RE NOT WELCOME!” she called back.

Justin huffed.  “I swear she lives to annoy me.”

“Again.  Ya’ll are a weird bunch.” JC repeated.

“This we all know.  I  wanna hear more about this Trace and Kerrigan thing?  I didn’t know you two used to date.” Chris changed the subject.

“We didn’t date.” Trace grumbled.  He hated when his and Kerrigan’s brief “relationship” got brought up.

“That’s not what you told me!” Joey countered.  “You said that you two went out for a while.  You said that she was the only girl in your class that had boobs, or something like that.”

“You said that?” Justin asked unbelievably.

“NO!  I didn’t say that!” Trace defended.

“You did too!  You said some boy bet you that if he was her boyfriend she would let him touch her boobs, so you asked her out.”

“That’s SO not what I said, Joe.  I said I asked her out so that boy couldn’t.  That was the only reason I ever asked Kerrigan to be my girlfriend.  To protect her from that dumbass Tommy Jones.”  Trace stated.

“That’s not what you told me!” Joey argued.  “You said that you wanted to touch…”

Justin cut Joey off.  “Ok, can you two please shut up.  This is Kerrigan you’re talking about.  And more importantly, Kerrigan’s…” he paused looking for the right words.  “Kerrigan’s chest you’re talking about.  So, shut up.” he said shaking his head in disgust.

And then it really dawned on him what Joey had just said, and Justin turned and stared at Trace.  “You wanted to touch her boobs?” he questioned.

“NO!  That’s not what I said!” Trace defended.

“Never mind.  I don’t want to know!” Justin said waving him off with his hand.  He didn’t want to hear anymore about Trace touching Kerrigan’s boobs.  Or anything that had anything to do with that.  It just wasn’t right.  Kerrigan was like their sister.

“I still maintain, that I didn’t say that.” Trace urged.  “Now I did tell you that I was her first kiss.” he said, looking at Joey.

“That wasn’t the only thing you told me!” Joey scowled at him.

“You were her first kiss?  That’s a lie right there!” Justin argued.

“I was so her first kiss!” Trace countered.

“No you weren’t.  I know who her first kiss was with.  She wasn’t thirteen when she had her first kiss, she was eleven!” Justin retorted.

Lance, JC, Chris and Joey watched in amusement as Justin and Trace argued over Kerrigan’s first kiss.

“Bullshit.  I was her first kiss.  She told me!”

“Then she lied!” Justin countered.

“OK, if you know so much who was her first kiss.  She was never around any other guys.  She never had any other boyfriends then, so who did she kiss?”

Justin didn’t respond.  It suddenly hit him, that he was speaking up about something that he wasn’t supposed to be speaking up about.

“See.  You’re lying.  You don’t know shit.” Trace taunted when Justin didn’t respond.

“It was me you ass!  I was her first kiss.” Justin admitted.

“WHAT?” Trace asked outrageously.  “YOU?”

The other guys burst out laughing.  “Justin, you were Kerrigan’s first kiss?” Joey asked.

“We were each other’s first kiss.  It was right before I left for MMC.  It was stupid.  I was worried I would have to kiss a girl on MMC and since I had never kissed a girl, I didn’t want to look stupid.” he defended.

“Why the hell would you think you’d be kissing a girl on a Disney show?” JC questioned.  “It’s Disney!”

“I DON’T KNOW!” Justin huffed.  “I was just worried, and I told her.  And she said that I could kiss her if I was scared that way I wouldn’t have to have my first kiss with some strange girl on a show.  And so we kissed.  It was no big deal.” he shrugged.

“No big deal?  Why didn’t you guys tell me about that?” Trace asked.

“Because we figured you’d make fun of us.”

“That’s some funny shit.  You’ve both kissed Kerrigan.” Chris laughed.  “That’s just weird.”

“Like I said it was no big deal.  We were kids.  That kind of stuff doesn’t mean anything when you’re that age.” Justin said.

“He’s right.  I kissed one of my girl friends when I was that age.” Lance stated.

“See.  No big deal.” Justin affirmed and the other guys seemed to agree.

But back in her bunk, Kerrigan was silently listening to the guy’s conversation.  A tear trickled down her cheek.  She didn’t understand how Justin could say that kiss hadn’t meant anything.  That it was no big deal.  But on the other hand she really shouldn’t have expected anything differently.

She had always had a crush on him when she was younger.  That kiss had meant so much to her back then.  But Justin was forever the naïve boy, and had never realized her true feelings for him.  He still didn’t, and probably never would, because Justin saw her as just one of the guys.  All of the guys saw her as just one of the guys.

It had been ok when they were kids.  When they were playing all the sports with the other boys in the neighborhood.  But as Kerrigan had gotten older, and her crush on Justin had developed she had yearned for him to realize and to see her as anything other than “just one of the guys”.  But it never happened, and it still hadn’t.  She was still just Kerr, the tomboy to him.  She would never be Kerrigan, the woman.

It was times like this that she really regretted ever making that deal with Justin and Trace.  If she had only known then what she knew now maybe things would be different.  But then again, maybe not.