Darcie Fraser shuffled into her house rolling her neck and rubbing the small of her back to ease some of the tension. "I'm home."
 
Her mother's head appeared in the doorway of the back kitchen and smiled at her, "Hey doll, how was your day?"
 
"Peachy as usual, I'm glad it's Friday." Darcie muttered as she made her way to the back.
 
"Just remember, you only have a few more years."
 
Darcie sighed and nodded. School wasn't exactly her favourite past time. At fifteen she was in the awkward stages of puberty and while most girls her age were thriving under the attention that they were receiving, Darcie was miserable. She was tall with legs that appeared too long for her body and was overweight. For years she had dealt with teasing from her classmates and now that she was in high school she had a mental countdown of her time left.
 
Darcie caught sight of the food her mother was cooking and her eyes widened in panic, "Is grandma coming for dinner?"
 
Samantha Fraser giggled at the sight of her daughters wide eyes, "Relax, you don't have to worry about her, she's visiting your Aunt in Florida."
 
Darcie visibly relaxed and sat down at the table, "Oh thank God, I was so not in the mood to deal with her tonight. What's with all the food then?"
 
"Your sister is bringing her new boyfriend home to meet us."
 
Darcie's eyebrows and nose scrunched in distaste, "Great, can I take Grandma instead?"
 
Samantha laughed and walked over to her daughter pulling her to her feet, "I have a feeling you'll like this one."
 
"Right, you said that about the last three." Darcie sighed, taking the vegetables her mother handed her, "Can't I just stay in my room or something?"
 
Samantha sighed and ran her hand through her daughter’s long blonde hair, "Hun, you do know that not everyone will treat you like the jerks at school right?"
 
Darcie looked at her hands and nodded, "Yeah, I know."
 
"Good." Samantha said, "Besides from what I hear Chris is a pretty easy going guy."
 
"Sure mom."
 
Darcie stared blankly at the vegetables she was chopping for her mother, stopping from time to time to push her hair from her face.
 
"I hope you're not going to get cooties in the food!"
 
Darcie's hands froze at the sound of an unfamiliar male voice and turned to see a man shorter then she was standing not far behind her. "Excuse me?"
 
"Oh man, maybe I am getting too old." He muttered, tugging on an earring, "Don't kids these days know what cooties are?"
 
Darcie fought against the smile threatening to break out on her lips, "Sure we do, but I thought only old farts like you carried them. My generation is immune."
 
Darcie gasped as the mans eyes widened and the words she had spoken hit her. She was about to apologize when he burst out laughing, "Oh man, good thing Justin wasn't here to hear you say that, he'd probably ask you to marry him."
 
Darcie shifted uncomfortably under his gaze, "Oh I doubt that. You must be Chris."
 
"That I am!" Chris announced happily, "The one and only Chris Kirkpatrick at your service Miss. Darcie."
 
Darcie's head cocked to the side as he said his last name, something was familiar about both him and that last name. She stared back at him, trying to figure out what it was that made him familiar to her. "Oh my God! You're from NSYNC!"
 
"Ah, you're a fan!"
 
"Not exactly." Darcie admitted, grimacing when his face fell slightly, "My friend saw you perform in Germany, she's in love with you guys."
 
"You're a Backstreet Boys fan aren't you."
 
It wasn't a question, but the bitterness she detected seemed almost playful, "Oh yeah, AJ MacLean stop my heart."
 
"Well at least you're not in Camp Carter." Chris laughed, leaning against the counter, "If the youngin' heard that we wouldn't see the end of the pout for weeks."
 
"Youngin'?"
 
"Justin Timberlake." Chris laughed, "Oh man I just might have to rub it in that I met a female his age who isn't drooling over him."

Darcie bit her lip and shifted uncomfortably again. She wasn’t used to men outside of her family members treating her like this. Granted her sisters boyfriends had always been nice to her, but it had never been as genuine as Chris seemed to be.

“There you are!” Dale said as she entered the room, “So sis, what do you think?”

Darcie simply gave a thumbs up and turned back to the vegetables she had been cutting up. Now that Dale was in the room she considered all conversation closed. As much as she loved her sister, she was an attention hog, she always had been.

“Do you need any help?” Chris asked, stepping closer to Darcie.

“Oh she’s fine, come on, my dad’s home and I want you to meet him.” Dale said, pulling him out of the room.

~ * ~

Darcie sighed and rolled onto her stomach, frowning as her game character was attacked by a monster. When she finally managed to get her character free and into the position it was supposed to be in, she glared at the TV as it moved slowly in the opposite direction.

“Come on you ugly fuck, come get me.” She muttered, hitting the action button.

“You kiss your mother with that mouth?”

Darcie’s eyes shifted from the screen to look at Chris who was leaning against the doorframe to her room. “I always swear at my games, why do you think I have this junk in my room.”

Chris laughed and sprawled out on the bed beside her, plucking the controller from her hands. “I’m surprised to see you playing Silent Hill. I kinda expected Spyro or something.”

Darcie gave Chris a bored look, “I hate cutesy games.”

Chris laughed and started playing the game, frowning as he was attacked, “That little fucker just stabbed me in the legs!”

“Kiss your mother with that mouth?” Darcie mocked, “Why exactly are you up here?”

“Dale wanted me to get to know her family, I’m getting to know them.”

Darcie’s eyebrow arched in disbelief, “Well two of the members are downstairs.”

Chris shrugged, “From my experience you can live without getting along with the parents. The siblings on the other hand can make your life hell if they don’t like you.”

Darcie cracked a smile, “I guess I can understand that. Tell me about your group.”

Chris’s eyes lit up and a smile graced his face, “Oh man, they are four of the greatest guys you will ever meet!”

Darcie rested her cheek in her hand and listened as Chris described each of his band mates. He talked about how even though Joey had a girlfriend he was an insane flirt; how JC would get so into his music that he could be set on fire and he wouldn’t notice until his notebook caught fire; about how Justin was loving his new “pimp” lifestyle and how all the girls screamed for him; and how Lance still felt awkward and every day worried that they would smarten up and kick them out of the group.

Darcie laughed at the stories of their antics, “They do sound like some good guys.”

“I’m telling ya, I’ll have to introduce them to you. I know they’ll absolutely adore you!”

The smile fell from Darcie’s face and she grabbed the controller back from him, un-pausing the game and mashing the buttons a little harder then she meant to. She gasped as Chris yanked the controller away from her and re-paused the game.

“Alright, what’s up?”

“Nothing.”

“As much as I’m sure I will probably have my ass handed to me for talking to you like this when I’ve only known you for a few hours, what the fuck just happened?”

Darcie sighed and looked away from him, “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

”Bullshit kiddo, spill it.” Chris said, “Every time I’ve mentioned the guys liking you you’ve gone all silent and uncomfortable.”

Darcie scoffed, “You honestly think your friends would adore me. Four men that you said yourself have all sorts of women screaming for them and throwing themselves at them, ready to lick their shoes at a single look.”

“Now there’s an interesting prospect.” Chris laughed.

“I’m serious Chris.” Darcie snapped, “I’m nothing compared to those women.”

Chris sighed and rolled off the bed, pulling Darcie to her feet, “Alright that right there is where you are wrong. Compared to women like that you’re everything.

“Yes we do have groupies, yes we have all had our fair share of mistakes, even Justin and Lance at their ages have gotten caught up in the benefits of being famous. But women like that are a dime a dozen. People like you, who can deal with a celebrity like they’re no different are the ones that are truly important. People like you are interested in us for who we are as people, not for who we are as musicians.”

“In my defence I didn’t know who you were.”

Chris grinned and pulled her next to him at her full length mirror, “And I have a feeling that even if you had known who I was it would still be the same.”

“So are you going to explain to me why we’re in front of my mirror?”

“Because I want you to take a damn good look at yourself while I explain something to you.” Chris said sternly. “Looking at you I see a girl who is trying to hide behind her long blonde hair, which by the way I think you should cut and change the color of, it will make it so you can’t hide anymore.”

“If this is supposed to get on my good side you’re starting off horribly.” Darcie pouted.

“Hush woman.” Chris told her, “You hide in these baggy clothes because you want to hide the fact that you think you’re not pretty enough to compete with the other girls. As far as I’m concerned you are pretty. You have these amazing green eyes that you are hiding behind glasses. You’re hair is thick, full and healthy, do you know how many women would kill for that hair?

“Your lips are perfectly full, women get injections to have lips like that.” Chris told her, making her smile shyly, “You have two of the most adorable dimples, a beautiful smile, a sense of humour that would knock anyone out of the water, but you hide it from people because you’ve been told your whole life that you deserve to be treated like crap.”

“Maybe I do.” Darcie said sadly.

“No one deserves to be treated like the way you’ve been treated.” Chris told her, “Dale told me that you would be shy and standoffish and told me about how kids treat you. Honestly I was completely caught off guard at the old fart comment, but I realized that just means that you’re feisty, and it’s always the quiet ones that are.”

Darcie stared at Chris for several long minutes. “How did you do this?”

“Do what?”

“Never mind.”

Chris sighed and pulled Darcie to her bed, sitting next to her. “Tell me.”

“I can’t explain it.” Darcie said, shaking her head, “The things that I’ve said to you I’ve never said to anyone, not even my family. I can tell you things, I feel like I’ve had a costume taken off of me from talking to you. It’s like I know I can say and do exactly what I want to  and it won’t matter. How can you have managed that with only knowing me for a few hours?”

“It’s because I’m God.” Chris joked.

“I wonder if mom’s got a knitting needle up here.” Darcie muttered.

“What?” Chris asked, “Why?”

“Because a pin just wouldn’t be able to burst your ego.”

Chris laughed, “See kid, the way I see it, is that there are people in this world that you are meant to have in your life. Even if it doesn’t make sense why at the time. There are people that you are meant to love, people that you are meant to hate and people you are meant to be friends with.”

“You’re pretty smart.”

“Yeah well age will do that to you.” Chris laughed, “Now come on, I’ve never seen passed this level so let’s play.”

Darcie smirked and took the controller from him. “Just don’t start crying if the game gets too intense for you.”

~ * ~

Darcie closed the door and dropped her bag on the floor. School had been hell, like usual, but the words Chris had said to her almost two months ago still rang in her head. She ran her hands through her now shorter hair and frowned, still trying to decide if she liked the copper color and the hair cut.

“Darcie, that you?” Samantha called from another room.

“Yeah.”

“Come to the family room would you?”

Darcie sighed and moved towards the room her mother was obviously in. She stopped, her jaw opening in shock at the large box sitting in the middle of the room, bearing her name.

“What the hell is that?”

Samantha laughed and ignored her daughter’s language, “I don’t know, maybe you should open it.”

Darcie eyed her mother curiously and stepped up to the box. It was massive and she briefly wondered what could have possibly once been inside it. She took the pair of scissors from her mother and stabbed through the tape.

“Careful, there might be something breakable in there.” Samantha warned.

Darcie nodded and slid the scissors through the tape, jumping back with a scream when Chris popped out of it.

“Jesus Chris!” Darcie shouted at him, “What are you doing?”

“Surprising you.”

“Yeah, you succeeded.” She gasped, “Wait, why are you surprising me and not Dale?”

“I see and talk to her all the time lil’ girl.” Chris said, “Besides it’s your birthday.”

“Next week.”

“Yeah but I’m here this week so we’re celebrating this week!”

“I should have stabbed harder.”

Samantha burst out laughing at her daughters comment. She had seen a change in Darcie and was fully aware that it was because of Chris. When he had mentioned wanting to surprise her as an early birthday present, Samantha wasn’t about to turn him down.

“You were in on this weren’t you?” Darcie accused.

“Of course, now go check your room.”

Darcie gave her mother a strange look and stepped back as Chris, who had been struggling to climb out of the box fell to the floor in a heap.

“Come on!” Chris squealed, practically dragging Darcie up the stairs to her room.

Chris made a big show of covering her eyes with his hands and instructing her to open the door. He gently pushed her inside and pulled his hands away. Darcie looked around and burst out laughing.

Every inch of her walls was covered in NSYNC memorabilia.

Everything from posters and small page sized pictures from magazines was on her wall. Her bears on the floor were wearing NSYNC t-shirts, her dresser was covered in little nick knacks. Even her bed had been dressed in NSYNC sheets.

“What in the world happened in here?” Darcie giggled.

“I’m going to make you a fan yet.” Chris said, motioning to the CDs sitting on top of her CD player.

Darcie shook her head and arched an eyebrow at the full sized cardboard cut out of the five men. “When I become a fan of your group, it’s the day I get a crush on him.”

Chris followed her finger and saw that she was pointing at JC, “Deal, you’ll eat those words one day D.”