"Right, so the next item on the agenda is the fan competition," Clare said as she addressed each member of the group in turn during the weekly meeting in the boardroom. "Me and Libby have picked out the six winners—"

"Finally," Libby interrupted before letting out a loud yawn that seemed to take her by surprise. She clapped a hand over her mouth to disguise it but it was too late. Lance and JC grinned at her.

"How old are they and what are their names?" Chris asked as he leaned forward and wiggled his eyebrows suggestively at Clare. The other men in the room burst out laughing at the eagerness in his voice.

Clare narrowed her eyes. "They are all under the age of eighteen," she told him. "Still interested in learning their names?" Chris slouched back into his seat and shook his head, his expression glum. No, was the answer.

Libby lifted the piece of paper in her hand and began to read aloud, continuing from where Clare had left off. "They are Sharice from New York, Kate from Hawaii, Elise from Missouri, Amanda from California, Chrystal from Utah and Rachel from Orlando.”

"You'll meet them at a restaurant downtown,” Clare said, “Where we’ve booked a private room. You’ll spend an hour doing a meet and greet and then there will be an opportunity for the girls to take photos and get autographs. We'll provide the merchandise—as usual—unless the girls bring something particular that they want signed—”

"But no signing body parts!” Libby interrupted and then blushed as the five men turned to her with wide eyes. Fighting her embarrassment, Libby glanced at Clare for help. "It's not allowed... right?"

"Yeah..." Clare continued, eyeing Libby dubiously as she took over, "If any of the girls ask you to sign anything other than merchandise, please say no." She shook her head several times to clear the horrifying thought from her mind. "Anyway, after the allocated time you’ll say goodbye. Then the girls will remain at the restaurant to eat before being taken back to their hotel for an overnight stay.” Clare regarded the sheet of paper that she’d just read from and let out a defeated sigh. "It sure doesn’t sound a lot for the hours of work that we've put into it, but it should make for some pretty happy fans.”

"Are you coming with us?” JC asked abruptly, surprising Clare with his question.

"Err, no. Why would you think that?” Clare asked him as a perplexed frown crossed her face. She glanced at Libby for backup.

"Isn’t that a part of your job?” JC asked her.

"No. Fan hysteria is not part of my job. Providing you with fan hysteria is. No one said anything about me having to be there to witness it.”

"Surely we’re not going alone?” Justin asked in concern. He looked from Clare to Libby and finally glanced over his shoulder at Jamie, who shared Clare's no–nonsense attitude. If he couldn't get his own way with Clare, he usually resorted to Jamie.

"Of course not,” Jamie told him with a roll of her eyes, "your security team will be with you. There’s no reason to be afraid, Justin, they’re only girls,” Jamie said with a snigger, causing both Clare and Libby to burst out laughing. Justin's cheeks began to flame with embarrassment at the sound of their laughter.

"It doesn’t matter their age,” Libby told Jamie matter–of–factly. "He’s terrified of anything female.” Libby met Clare's eyes and the pair of them burst into guffaws of laughter once again. Justin—who was seated beside Libby—, turned his head to fix her with a scowl.

"Hey!” He said, feeling the need to defend himself. "You don’t know what these girls are capable of!”

"Neither do you!” Libby said as she grinned at him, her eyes bright with humour. Justin watched her laugh at him for a few more minutes before slowly reaching his outstretched hand towards her from under the table as a mischievous smirk crossed his face. Libby spotted his hand before it could get too far and forcefully pushed it back in his direction. "Timberlake! Don't you—"

"Dare?" He questioned, raising an eyebrow. Libby narrowed her eyes playfully. She knew better than to challenge him to a dare. Whatever it was it would be as good as done. In their past games of truth or dare, Justin had nearly always taken the dare.

"Don't. Or I'll… I'll…"

"You'll what?"

"I dunno, but I'll think of something. Let's just say you'll be sorry," Libby threatened.

"Ooh, is tha—"

"Now, now, children," Jamie interrupted fixing Libby and Justin with a stern look. The pair glanced at each other and grinned. "We’re kinda in the middle of a meeting here.”

"Like I was saying,” Clare continued as she, too, shot an accusing look at Libby and Justin. "All the arrangements have been made. We're alerting the winners today so all you guys need to do is turn up at the restaurant on time and the rest will be taken care of.”

There was a pause and then Lance said, "Are the girls coming alone or do they have a chaperone?”

"The youngest will be travelling with their parents, but apparently there isn't room in the private room for too many people. It is quite a small venue," Clare said regrettably.

"Considering that these girls are young don’t you think a female chaperone or two would be a good idea?” JC asked her, following on from Lance’s question. "I’m thinking moral support for these girls. They're bound to be excited and emotional. It might help to calm their nerves if they have an older female presence around them.”

Clare stared straight at JC, her jaw tightening in irritation. He smiled innocently back, knowing full well that he was successfully pushing her buttons. Clare hated spending more time around the group's fans than was strictly necessary, which was ironic, considering that she was the head of the fan club.

Jamie considered JC's words for a moment and turned to look at Clare. "He does have a point, Clare," she said.

"He always has a point," Clare remarked dryly.

"I suppose we could make an appearance at the beginning and then disappear during the meet and greet?”

"Hmm.., what do you think, Lib?”

"I guess,” Libby replied unenthusiastically. "I suppose it wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world to be there at the beginning to make sure that everyone arrives safely.”

"Ha ha!” Justin chuckled, nudging her in the ribs. "You lose!”

Libby turned and flashed him a withering glare. Secretly, she was slightly relieved that they would be around during the initial meet and greet. Although both she and Clare had done a careful job of choosing the winners, Libby was still apprehensive about the men being left alone with the young fans. Libby had witnessed enough *NSYNC fan hysteria to know that it could get a bit crazy, and she never liked the idea of any fan getting up close and person with Justin, no matter what their age.

"Spending time in a small room with six love–sick teenage girls?" Libby said to him with a snort of amusement. "No, I think it's actually you who loses.”

~~~~~*~~~~~

"Have you spoken to your ex yet?" Clare asked JC in as casual a voice as she could muster as they made their way out of the boardroom together after the meeting. Clare was headed back to her office, whilst JC had plans to hit the gym.

"Yeah, I actually went 'round to see her yesterday," he replied in a guarded voice. JC didn't like talking to Clare about Alyson, especially after the way she'd handled finding out about the pair of them.

"Oh, right," Clare said, glancing sideways at him to try to read his expression. "And what did she say?"

"That she didn't go to the papers," he replied refusing to meet her eyes. He'd convinced himself that he had no reason to doubt Alyson's word, and therefore as far as he was concerned the subject was closed.

"Right!" Clare snorted as she let out a bitter laugh. "And I suppose it was a coincidence that her story ended up in the papers!”

JC glanced at her with narrowed eyes but said nothing. Clare interpreted his silence and felt her eyes bug out of her head in shock. "Please don't tell me that you actually believe her?"

"Come on, Clare. Don’t act like you know her," JC said. "I have no reason to doubt her word."

"And you're basing this on what? The girl you once knew?"

"As far as I can tell she hasn't changed," he said, his words cutting Clare to the core. She tried her best to retain her composure as her mind swam with the implications of his statement.

"So she had no idea how the story ended up in the papers?” Clare pressed him in what she hoped was a less judgemental tone.

"Apparently her sister had a friend over who might have overheard their conversation. It was completely innocent and out of her control."

Clare smirked. She wasn't so easily convinced. "And you’re fine with her sharing all of the gory details of your hook up with her sister, are you?" Clare didn't wait for his reply.  "I'm sorry, Josh, but that’s weird. I might not have a natural sister, but me and Libby are as close as and we certainly don't share that kind of information.

"Yeah, well, that’s you and Libby," JC snapped back in irritation. "You can’t judge other people by what you do or don’t do,"

Clare had already had enough of hearing him sing Alyson's praises. As far as she was concerned, the woman was as guilty as sin. "Well, congratulations. She sounds lovely," Clare quipped back sarcastically, her own temper rising along with his. "You know, it really makes me wonder why you two broke up in the first place. You're so clearly meant to be together!"

Reaching her office, Clare opened the door and strode in without giving JC a chance to reply. She turned on her heel and shut the door in his face.

~~~~~*~~~~~

The week since Clare had notified the winners of the competition had flown by and before she knew it the day had arrived for the meet and greet. Clare had had the foresight to book another table at the restaurant, away from the private area where the meet and greet would take place, where she and her female friends could order some food to pass the time. Despite her initial plans, Clare had been persuaded to remain at the restaurant until the end of the event so that the group could hang out together afterwards.

Clare was full of apprehension as the hours passed and the event grew nearer. Since her argument with JC she hadn’t spent much time in his company, and she regretted not smoothing things over with him before she had to face him again in such a public place. She hoped that the event would go smoothly and the fans would be well behaved, and although they were bound to be excited, would not get too out of hand.

After she'd made a final draft of the monthly newsletter and given it to a trainee to photocopy for her, Clare joined Libby, Lisa and Jamie down at the choreography room, where Sara was taking the guys through the new routines for 'Here We Go' and 'I Need Love'.

"So is everything ready for tonight?" Sara asked the group as the music faded out and she made her way across the room to sit on the floor where the other girls had gathered.
"As ready as we can be," Justin replied nervously from across the room as he took a swig from his bottle of water. He was tired from the rehearsal but he knew that by the time he’d had a shower and a bite to eat he’d be pumped and ready to meet some of his fans.

"I can’t say I’m looking forward to the screaming and wailing and crying,” Libby said sarcastically, rolling her eyes at Clare.

"Be grateful you don’t have to put up with it for months on end like I do," Jamie said with a weary shake of her head. "The tours are brutal, believe me.”

"I think it’d be good for them to come on tour with us,” Chris added with a snigger as he watched Jamie’s face react to the memories of the past tours. "They could become part of our adoring entourage.”

"Pah!” Jamie spat out sarcastically. "Adoring?”

"Just because we have to work with you doesn’t mean that we adore you, sorry to say,” Libby told him with a snigger. She pulled the hairband out from her pony tail, aimed her finger back like a slingshot and fired it at his head.

Chris laughed, caught the band as it bounced off of his shoulder and pelted it straight back at her.

"You listen to our music,” JC added with a laugh of his own. "You’re pretty much there on the adoring fan front.”

Libby stared at him, her mouth open in horror. "Listen to your music? As if!”

"Come on, Lib. I’ve heard you both in your offices. Listening when you think we’ve all gone. I've even heard you sing along on occasions.”

"Oh, God. You wouldn't forget that in a hurry!" Justin sniggered as he covered his mouth with his hand and mouthed to Chris, 'she can't sing'.

"As if!” Libby repeated, her cheeks beginning to flush scarlet with humiliation. "Besides, if you have heard me listening to it, it's only because it's the only CD in the player and I can't be bothered to change it!"

"Hmmm..." Justin said with a grin, eyeing her suspiciously. "What about the other night when we came over?”

Libby turned to face him, silently willing her cheeks to return to a normal colour. She could feel the heat that they were radiating, and it only caused her further embarrassment. "What about it?” She challenged, folding her arms across her chest.

"Do you mean the night you broke into our apartment?" Clare asked him sarcastically, trying to draw the attention away from her friend. She knew how easy it was for Libby to crack under pressure.

"Come on, Lib. Just admit that you like our music,” Lance told Libby as he flashed her a wink.

"We don’t dislike your music,” Clare said, jumping to her friends rescue. "The lyrics certainly leave a lot to be desired. Plus it’s no Hanson.”

Lance’s jaw hit the floor at her words, bringing an amused grin to Clare’s face. "Really?" She asked him with a laugh, "You think ‘Giddy, Giddy up’ is going to win you a Grammy?”

"Please don't tell me you like Hanson..." Justin said with a genuine look of despair on his face. All eyes rested on him as the group waited for the meaning behind Clare's words to sink into his brain. After a few seconds his eyes widened as her joke finally dawned on him.

"There it is," Libby said with a chuckle as she watched the expression change on his face.

"Y'all are just too embarrassed to admit that you can’t do without us,” Joey said dismissively with a wave of his hand. "It’s okay girls, we know you love us. The words aren’t necessary.”

"Oh no! My secret is out!" Clare quipped sarcastically, rolling her eyes at his comment. "There’s something about that palm tree on top of his head,” she gestured at Chris, "The curly monster, pretty boy, Luke Perry wannabe and your ridiculous obsession with Superman that just really gets my motor running.” She clutched her hands to her chest and squealed with sarcastic delight. "How will I ever choose?”

"In your dreams, maybe.”

"In whose dreams?” Justin chuckled, raising an eyebrow at Clare. "Certainly not mine. I like my women to have a sensitive side and to offer the occasional smile.”

"I smile!" Clare replied defensively.

Libby grinned at her friend and said, thoughtlessly, "Yeah, when you’re in lost in thoughts of—” Clare turned to her and shot her a warning glance causing Libby to snap her mouth shut immediately, her eyes wide at the realisation of how close she'd come to outing her friend in front of the group.

Sensing some kind of awkward tension between the two women, Lance quickly changed the subject before someone began to interrogate Libby about the meaning behind her words. "I’ve invited Jen along tonight," he said to Clare. "I hope that’s okay.”

"Lisa’s coming too, Joey added. "We’ve arranged to do something together after.”

"I thought we had plans as a group?” JC asked, glancing between his band mates and the girls.

"Well, not officially. Just if people wanted to," Jamie said.

Clare flashed Lance a smile, realising that she hadn't yet answered his question. ”That’s great," she said, "It’ll be nice to see Jenny again. Us girls might be able to have some intelligent, adult conversation with you lot busy elsewhere.”

"Adult, maybe,” Joey sniggered.

"Shut it, Fatone!” Libby said as she pointed her finger accusingly at his head.

"Well, I don’t know about you lot but I’m going to head home to get ready," Clare said as she got to her feet and reached her arms out to help Libby up too.

"We'll meet y'all at the restaurant later.”

~~~~~*~~~~~

By the time six o’clock rolled by everyone had arrived at the restaurant downtown. The members of the group had arrived much earlier to give themselves a chance to settle into the private room before the fans arrived. Jenny, Sara and Lisa had gone ahead to fetch drinks for the rest of the women as the restaurant was buzzing with people and the bar already had a hefty queue in front of it. Jamie, Libby and Clare had remained outside the building to await the fans' arrival.

"Here we go,” Clare muttered to Jamie as she noticed two taxi cabs pull into vacant spaces outside of the restaurant before coming to a stop and releasing their occupants onto the sidewalk. The nervous fans gathered into a group, giggling and bouncing around with excitement. As they made eye contact with the group for the first time, Clare, Libby and Jamie approached with welcoming, encouraging smiles.

"Hi girls,” Clare greeted them with more enthusiasm than she really felt. "I’m Clare. I run the *NSYNC fan club with my friend, Libby," she held out her arm towards Libby, introducing her to the young girls. Libby smiled and gave the girls a friendly wave as they regarded her with curious eyes. "And Jamie here is *NSYNC’s assistant tour manager,” Clare continued, turning to Jamie who gave the girls a slightly more wary but still welcoming smile.

"Are you girls excited to meet *NSYNC?” Libby asked them cheerfully as she scanned their faces. For the first time in a long time she was reminded of herself at their age and she felt a sudden pull of affinity to these young women. The fans cheered enthusiastically and Libby shared a meaningful glance with Clare. The fans seemed a lot more contained than the pair of them had been expecting, much to their relief. She only hoped that things wouldn't change when they met the guys.

"Well, if you’re ready girls, shall we go and meet *NSYNC?” Jamie asked. She held out her arm to gesture for the fans to take the lead and she, Clare and Libby followed behind.

As they entered the private room the atmosphere suddenly became electric as the fans came face to face with their idols. A smirk visible on her face, Libby glanced over at the table where the men were sitting and met Justin's eyes. He grinned at her and gave her a quick wink. Each of the fans was invited to approach each member of the group in turn to receive a hug and introduce themselves. Things began well until one of the fans broke away from the line and went straight towards JC, instead of Lance, who was awaiting her introduction.

"How y’all been?” The girl asked the group confidently before holding her arms out to JC, who hugged her awkwardly, his eyes locked on Clare's.

"Hi, Rachel," he mumbled, offering her a hesitant smile. Clare turned to glance at Libby with a frown, but Libby could only shake her head in reply. She didn't know what was going on either.

"Hello Rachel,” Chris said as he reached across to offer her a high five. Rachel beamed back at him in delight. "You’re Alyson’s sister, Rachel, right?” He asked by way of explaining to Clare why he was treating her so differently from the other fans. Libby turned back to Clare with a concerned look on her face. How could they have been so blind as to let this happen? Libby tried her best to read Clare’s face, but it remained expressionless.

Taking the lead, Jamie suggested that the fans find a seat around the table and begin asking any questions they have prepared for the group. Seeing an opportunity to distance herself, Libby nudged Clare with her elbow and the pair of them subtly took a few steps towards the back of the room. Once out of earshot, Libby leaned over and whispered in her friend’s ear. "Did you know?”

Clare turned to her and shook her head. "I had no idea. Not that it matters really,” she whispered back.

"But look at her!” Libby reasoned, glancing at Rachel as she leaned across the table to slap Justin playfully on the arm as he cracked one of his classic jokes. "She’s acting like… like...”

"One of us.” Clare finished for her, her eyes never leaving Rachel’s face.

"Yeah,” Libby agreed weakly, watching the group lap up the attention they were getting from the six girls. She began to wonder if that was how she appeared when she was around the group.

"Perhaps now is a good time to slip away?” Clare whispered, already taking a step towards the exit.

Libby glanced back at Justin as he gave one of the fans a flirty, crooked smile. She felt her stomach drop. "Yeah, I think you're right."

~~~~~*~~~~~

As Libby and Clare prepared to make their departure one of the fans, Sharice, smiled sweetly at Justin and asked, "When are you going to the UK?"

It was obvious from her body language that Justin was her favourite member of *NSYNC, and the extra attention that she was giving him wasn’t lost on him. She was a beautiful green–eyed knockout, but she was also only fourteen and so he was being extra careful not to encourage her too much.

"Our tour has recently been pushed back a few weeks so we are now due to leave at the beginning of August,” Justin answered her with a friendly smile before breaking eye contact and looking for one of his band mates to step in.

"And how long will you be gone for?” Another girl, Kate, asked Justin but Chris was quick to step in and answer. "We'll be back in the States in October," he said.

It was an unspoken rule amongst the members of the group to share any questions they were asked between the five of them to prevent one person from monopolising the conversation. In the years since they'd been together, and the thousands of interviews that they'd done they'd gotten it pretty much down to an art.

There was a short silence as the fans considered which other questions to ask.

"I read somewhere that you have a new album out soon. Is that true?” The quietest of the girls asked. Her name was Amanda, and she was a blue–eyed blonde from California.

"We're in discussions with our label about bringing out a new album, but nothing has been decided yet, I'm afraid. Y'all have to be a bit patient with us," JC answered as he glanced around at the other guys, gauging their reaction to his answer. They all nodded back in agreement.

As he turned back to smile at Amanda, JC noticed that Rachel was giving him a knowing grin that made him feel uncomfortable. Once again he glanced over at Clare, but she was refusing to meet his eyes.

Clare, who had decided to hang around a few more minutes just to check that the question and answer session didn’t get off to an awkward start, had also noticed Rachel’s behaviour. But, she was distracted by trying to remember what Rachel’s sister looked like.

"Do any of y'all have girlfriends?” Elise from Missouri asked, tucking a strand of her dark hair behind her ear as she spoke. There was a general chuckle from the girls around the table and the members of *NSYNC exchanged amused smirks. They'd been expecting the girlfriend question to turn up at some point in the evening.

"Oohh, the burning question,” Libby whispered to Jamie, who had recently joined them at the back of the room. Jamie turned to meet her eyes and smirked as she rolled her eyes. The group had another agreement amongst themselves that when the 'girlfriend' question arose, only those who felt comfortable sharing their personal information would speak. Otherwise, the group would give a general but vague answer.

"I have a girlfriend," Joey said with a grin. "We’ve been together for a while and I’m very happy,” he beamed at the six girls who all happily returned his smile. Joey had no problem discussing his personal life with fans. He was well aware that out of the five of them, he wasn't likely to break many hearts by confessing that he was in a long–term relationship. Speaking on behalf of the other members of the group, who weren’t so willing to answer, Justin once again took the lead.

"The rest of us are single. I mean, we do go on dates and everything, and we're open to meeting people, but we don’t have anyone special in our lives right now.”

"But is there anyone that you might imagine becoming special in your lives?” Rachel probed, leaning forward slightly and smirking specifically at JC. JC turned to glance at Justin, who raised his eyebrows in return. He too was taken aback by the boldness of the young girl.

"Maybe,” Chris answered, surprising Jamie, Libby and Clare who had been watching intently for JC’s reaction and hadn’t expected Chris to answer. Clare glanced at Jamie when she noticed that Chris was looking directly at her friend and a mischievous smile crossed her lips. Jamie, she thought to herself as she remembered back to the moment in her office when Chris had been trying to ask her if he should ask someone out. Of course he'd been talking about Jamie.

Buoyed by Chris’ admission, Justin found the courage to answer more honestly than he might have otherwise. "Err... yeah. I know someone I would like to maybe get serious with... but... I dunno,” he cleared his throat awkwardly. "Maybe the timing is just off at the moment. Who knows?”

There was a short silence, and all eyes fell on JC. After a moment’s silence his face softened, and he gave Rachel a crooked smile. She had him cornered. "Yeah, perhaps there's someone who might soon be my girlfriend.” Rachel leaned back into her seat with a smug grin on her face. Both her and Clare shared exactly the same thought—Alyson.

"Let’s go get that drink,” Jamie whispered to Clare, who turned to her and nodded enthusiastically in return.

"Well, guys, we’re going to leave you to it,” Jamie announced loudly to the room, and she was sure that she could see the young girls smiles broaden at her words.

"Have a good time, everyone,” Libby and Clare chorused as they followed Jamie out of the door without a backwards glance. Get me that drink, Clare thought to herself as the memory of the last few minutes replayed over and over in her mind. 'Yeah, perhaps there's someone who might soon be my girlfriend...'

~~~~~*~~~~~