.:1:.

Got To Keep the Boys Happy

“You know we could actually be on time for once if you just rode with us,” Lance pointed out to Cadence as the group strolled down the hallways of TransCon Records. “You know how Johnny gets whenever we’re late.”

“Yeah, I’ve been on the receiving end of that numerous times,” Cadence said with a light laugh. Actually she thought it was incredibly unfair considering she wasn’t the one that was in charge of getting them around wherever they needed to be. She was just their trainer and yet on numerous occasions she felt like their mother more than anything else. The last time Johnny had gotten angry at them for being late to practice he had blamed her when, in her defense, he didn’t understand how hard it was to get eyeliner perfect and not looking like she had punched herself in the eye.

Not to mention that it had just recently turned in daylight’s savings, she forgot to change the clock, and she had been kept up the night before because of a massive thunderstorm. So it really wasn’t her fault.

“And when it comes to riding with you guys it usually ends up being a hotbox of your guys farting to see how long it takes until I stick my head out the window like a dog or I’m stuck having to deal with one of you guys driving and feeling like I’m going to die so, no, I’m good driving my own car.” Cadence reached out and slung her arm around Lance’s shoulders and gave him a squeeze, resting her head on his shoulder.

Then she snapped her finger. “Speaking of riding…” she moved in front of the group and started to walk backwards, directly looking at each of them. “I really don’t care what you do in your personal life, but the next time you bring someone back to your house could you at least make sure she’s smart enough to figure out where the fucking front door is.” She started to laugh along with the rest of the boys as Joey held his hands up.

Just that morning when she had made her trip to the band house so that she could answer another one of Justin’s distress calls, she had the fortunate—or unfortunate depending on how you looked at it—pleasure to watch a woman do her walk of shame as she wandered around the large house, looking for the way out of the house, having peered into the closet at least three times as Cadence stood by the front door, watching her. Finally, she gave the poor girl a break and directed her outside.

“In my defense,” he said. “When we were talking about football and baseball she seemed to know what she was talking about.” He cleared his throat, crossing his arms. “Then again, that was about two beers in so there’s a chance that she may have been spouting off complete nonsense. But she was hot so…” He laughed and high-fived Chris. “Anyway, if she comes back I’ll make sure she knows every inch of the house.”

“Just keep her out of my room,” JC said, shaking his head. “The last thing I need is an image of you and whoever your next conquest is, in my bed.”

“Thanks for that mental image, man,” Lance said, making a face. He shook his head then pounded on the side of it with the flat of his palm as if trying to physically knock it out.

Cadence rolled her eyes.

“Boys,” She said, slapping her hands to her sides. “You don’t think about anything else but sex, booze, and having fun.”

“Well we are in the music industry,” Justin pointed out. “I’m pretty sure that sex, drugs, and rock n’ roll has a basis within it.”

“That’s true. But when you’ve got a face like a puppy, I don’t think anything takes it that seriously, JT.” Cadence reached out and pinching his chin and he scowled, pushing her hand away as the others then laughed at him. She moved to the back of the group as they arrived at Lou Pearlman’s office and was swept inside. Her dark eyes shifted over Johnny’s and Lou’s faces to see if they were angry for the boys being late. It didn’t seem like it.

Then she noticed Wade Robson standing in the corner of the room, hands shoved into the pockets of his jeans. He caught her eye and nodded to her and she nodded back, moving to stand at his side. The two worked closely together at Lou’s instruction; Wade gave the choreography to the boys and with their upbeat songs that made the boys work harder. Then she had to determine whether or not the routine was challenging enough or too challenging for the boys’ fitness to keep up with, let alone when they were injured.

“Did we miss anything important?” Cadence asked, leaning against the wall next to him, stretching out her legs and crossed them at the ankle.

“Nah, not really,” Wade replied. He shrugged. “Johnny and Lou were mostly talking about what the boys are going to be doing with this next album. How they’re going to be paid. Things like that. Nothing that we need to worry so much about yet, the need the guys’ input to talk about their music.”

“Gotcha.” Cadence nodded and leaned her head back against the wall behind her, trying not to notice Wade shifting closer to her so that his leg brushed up against hers. She ignored him, turning her attention to Lou as he leaned back in his seat, threatening to break the springs at the back. They groaned in protest under his weight.

“So boys, what do you want to start off with?” Lou asked, his quiet voice holding all the confidence a man with a multi-million empire could. “The next album, projection over the next few years, your schedules.”

“Don’t think we didn’t notice you’re late,” Johnny agreed, raising his eyebrows as he looked back and forth over Nsync. “But we can deal with that later.”

“Let’s get started with the topic everyone wants to know,” Lou said, tapping his fingers together. “Money. You boys are going to get a pretty hefty advanced this time around. Now that everyone knows you’re taking everything seriously there’s nowhere else to go but up. We have many opportunities for appearances on talk shows and TRL pouring in already. And that’s just the beginning. We’re going to take you to the top faster than a rocket to the moon.”

“And we’re going to make sure you’re the top in your singing and fitness as well,” Johnny agreed. “Nothing is worse than having a performer be at the top with vocals but at the very bottom with their fitness. The audience can tell, critiques and reviewers can tell, and we can tell. So we’re going to have to step up our games with everything. Alright?”

“Yeah, sounds good,” JC agreed with a nod. His hands were clasped between his knees, fingers running over each other. His face was set in stone. He always took meetings like that so seriously, using his time during rehearsal just as well, only loosening up and becoming as silly as the others when they were fans or out of the public eye. “But what we’re really wondering is if there’s going to be a chance for us to write our own songs on this album.”

“Yeah, man,” Justin jumped in, slouched low in his seat, arms crossed. “We’ve already shown we can sing even though so many people have said we couldn’t. Acapella or otherwise. We’ve shown them. But they still think we’re nothing but a group of guys that like to dance. We need to show that we’re serious in all aspects of the music industry.”

“Look, I get that you guys want to be big,” Lou said, now steepling his fingers. “I get you want to be taken seriously. But everyone has their pitfalls they have to climb out of. Right now we need to focus on making your second album better than your first, sound and look wise. Once we get the feelers out that has everyone wondering what you’ll do next, then we can talk about the songs that will go on the album.”

“Okay,” Lance said slowly. He cleared his throat. “What did you have in mind?”

“We know that music is always changing,” Johnny now took up the mantle of the conversation. “And we can’t stay in the same genres, in the same sound and expect to still be good. So we need to mix things up a bit. This time around we want to bring in different genres along with pop; we don’t want it to be a straight up pop album.”

“So no more ballads?” Chris asked.

Lou laughed a wheezing sort of laugh. “No, no. We need ballads. We need those love songs. We need those girls to continue to fall in love with you. Got to keep the girls happy, you know? Got to keep them thinking that you’d take any of them into your lives, into your families.” He lifted his hands and slapped them down onto the arm rest, still laughing. “Into your beds if you’d like.”

Cadence tilted her head to the side, her mind wandering as she waited to hear what it was that she was doing. Beside her, Wade seemed just as restless, shifting his position every few seconds. But he continued to shift closer to her, now pressing his arm and leg firmly against hers. Cadence looked over at him and he flashed a smile her way before tilting his head towards Lou and Johnny and rolled his eyes, causing Cadence to laugh quietly and smile back.

Lou certainly knows how to hold people’s attention, she thought. Especially in terms of his imagination. Lou caught her eye and smiled at her, winking. Cadence nodded back. Then suddenly was snapped to attention when he heard hers and Wade’s names being mentioned.

“As it is, Wade has mentioned a way, with Cadence’s help, to make sure that you can get to that next level,” Lou was saying.

With my help? Cadence thought. What? And then she realized what he was talking about. The same thing Wade had been saying to her since they had met about two years before. Eyebrows lowering, she turned to Wade, finding him still grinning at her, and glared.

“My offer still stands,” Wade said, holding up his hands defensively. “It’d be great if you were my co-choreographer.”

“And I’ve told you many times before, Wade, it’s not happening,” Cadence shot back.

“I’m not the only one who thinks it would be a good idea. I mean, even Lou agrees with me.” Raising an eyebrow, Cadence leaned over and looked at Lou as he leaned back in his seat.

 “It’s all about happiness, Cade,” Lou explained. “And you got to keep the boys happy. If they want you as their choreographer, why not? Everyone likes it when a girl can dance. I mean, that’s why Justin’s keeping Britney around, am I right?”

“Not the only reason,” Justin piped up. He grinned, but then it faded as Chris piped up.

“Yeah, I think we got figured that out last night,” Chris said. He nodded and continued. “And the night before. And the night before. And the night before. And—“

“Hey, shut up, man!” Justin pushed Chris on the arm. His face was a blazing red, making his blue eyes stand out even further. Starting to tip from the hard shove on his arm, Chris clung onto the bottom of the chair with a death grip, sticking his foot out to keep from completely falling over. “You know she wasn’t over at the house recently. She’s been recording.”

“Who was making that racket then?” Chris shot back.

Joey, who had been quiet throughout the conversation, then started to laugh, making the boys laugh once more.

Cadence shook her head, crossing her arms. “Lou, I’ve already told Wade ‘no’ one hundred times already,” She said. “I have no dance background at all, for one—“

“—you were a cheerleader,” JC pointed out. He twisted around in his seat, resting his arm on the back of the chair so that he could face her. His eyebrows hiked up. “Since you were about seven or so. Didn’t you say you stopped because you came out here to help us?”

Thanks a lot, Jace, I really needed that. Cadence gritted her teeth to keep from snapping at him. “Thank you for restoring my faith in men to know that you’ve actually listened to things I’ve said to you all in conversation, but no thanks. I’m not going to be your choreographer.”

“But with a cheerleading background there’s plenty that can be attributed to the guys’ level of fitness as well as the increase in challenging moves that would bring for a better show,” Johnny said. “I hate to say it, Cade, but I have to agree.”

“Well you’re not my manager, so…”

“Why are you so against it?” Justin asked. “To help us.”

Maybe because I never wanted to get into cheerleading or gymnastics in the first place, Cadence thought. Maybe because I didn’t want to do it for so long. Maybe because I only did it so that I didn’t have to be some, so I didn’t have to worry about saying or doing the wrong thing and getting punished for it. She brought a hand up and smoothed her hair off her forehead. She could practically feel the hand in her hair, pulling as hard as it dared, forcing Cadence’s head back so her throat and chest were open for attacks.

She could already feel the blows on her body once more.

Cadence quickly shook her head, pushing the thoughts away as soon as they came.

“It’d be added onto your job description as you already have it,” Lou explained, keeping his eyes on her. “That’s what Wade said when he first suggested it to me. You’d be the co-choreographer, working with the boys when Wade can’t or aid someone that’s having trouble keeping up.”

“Aka, Lance,” Justin pointed out.

Lance rolled his eyes and held up his hands. “I told you guys from the beginning that I couldn’t dance. You were the ones that decided to keep me in.”

“That was Joey that said that, actually,” Justin pointed out. “I would’ve been fine leaving you on the side of the road in Germany like we said before.”

“Really? I thought we said that about you,” JC said, scratching the side of his neck. “I mean, I don’t think Germany would mind another blond haired, blue-eyed boy person there. And we certainly could’ve used the peace and quiet.”

Justin scowled.

“Anyway,” Lou said, grabbing their attention once more. “How about we make a compromise,” he suggested.

“I’m listening,” Cadence said, crossing her arms.

“You’re the boy’s personal trainer and it doesn’t help that you made a rule of no house calls considering how accident prone guys can be,” Lou said. He paused, blinking at her. “And you haven’t seemed to follow your own rule.”

“Yeah, I fucking haven’t really had a choice in that matter,” Cadence said. Her eyes shifted over to Justin and he smiled sweetly, hoping to take the attention off him. Cadence smiled and gave him the finger in reply. “Can you ignore your phone constantly going off when you’re trying to spend the day by yourself? I don’t know if you’re aware of it, Lou, but these guys are fucking crazy.”

“I don’t doubt it,” Johnny agreed.

“Well, with my compromise you may have to deal with it a bit more than you already have,” Lou said. “You take on the job of being their co-choreographer, which will then be added onto your job as their trainer. Not only would you do your regular duties of getting their food, making sure they’re eating right, doing their progress reports, maintaining their weight and stamina however you see fit.” His eyes then took on a strange, dark look as he continued to speak. “The best way you can do that is if you move in with them.”

“And what am I getting out of this?” Cadence asked.

“The excitement of being able to see our bright and shining faces every day?!” Chris asked, throwing his hands into the air.

“Being able to hold onto my self control so I don’t kill you every day?” Cadence shot back, matching his enthusiasm. “It’s like you guys want to see me end up in jail.” She ran her hand along the side of her cheek as she smiled. “I mean, my mug shot would be amazing; you always have to be prepared when you’re going to have your picture taken.”

“You’ll be paid double than what you’re currently receiving,” Lou explained. “Not only that, but the food that you buy for the house as well as their diets when it comes closer to concert time will be paid for with this.” He leaned over and picked up a plastic card, holding it out for Cadence to take.

Eyebrows rising she walked forward and took the card in her hand, looking at the front. “A company credit card?” She asked and before she could stop herself a large, almost evil grin came to her face. Think about the buying power with this! I can get an awesome new wardrobe with it. And all of those CDs, and I can pay my rent…”So if I move in with the guys and become their co-choreographer as well as their trainer, I get double my salary and a company credit card?”

“That’s right,” Lou said. “Not to mention your own bathroom as I’m sure there are plenty of things you would like to keep…private.”

“Thank you.” Cadence tucked the card into her pocket. “I guess I can’t really say ‘no’ can I?”

“I’m hoping you won’t.” Lou smiled.

Cadence twisted her mouth to the side and crossed her arms. “So when do I move in?”

“Better question is,” Wade pointed out. “When do you start?”

With a smile, Cadence stepped out of her new closet and turned to face Britney. “Hey Brit-Brat,” she greeted her friend, crossing the room in a light jog to give the tall blond a tight hug.

“Hey.” Britney hugged her just as tightly, the two rocking back and forth. Finally, Britney let go of Cadence and placed her hands on her hips, looking around the room. “Not bad. I especially like that you have your own bathroom attached, we definitely couldn’t have gotten that back in our apartment.”

“Ha ha.” Cadence rolled her eyes, dropping down onto her bed. She watched as Britney continued to look around. “You seem to be forgetting that I’m still going to be living with you on the weekends. I can’t stand the massive amounts of testosterone and I’m sure after two days I’ll be tired of seeing how far they can spit.”

“Weren’t you the one that won that contest last time?” Britney pointed out, turning back to her.

“We were spitting watermelon seeds, Brit-Brat. There’s a difference.” The girls laughed and Britney turned and flopped onto the bed next to her. “So how’d your next album coming? You’ve been spending so many nights in the studio it’s like you’ve moved out on me, Miss. Spears.”

“Yeah, well, I’m working really hard, Miss. Nash,” Britney shot back. She brushed her hair behind her ear. “I’m a solo artist and I have to do everything myself. I mean, when you’re not running me into the ground with your training as well. How are you going to work on my fitness when you’re dealing with the boys so much?”

“Excuse me? I thought you would be happy to know you and lover boy would be around each other more often.”

“Did someone say my name?” Justin poked his head into the room, carrying a large box that had CLOTHES written on the side. He haphazardly dropped it to the ground before jumping onto the bed with enough force that it knocked Cadence on the floor on her butt. “Hey.” He greeted Britney with a long kiss.

Cadence scowled as she rubbed her lower back. “Don’t worry about me. I’m fine. I just bruised my ass is all. Thanks for asking.” She looked up at her two friends as they continued to kiss. “You know that thing we were talking about this morning about how we didn’t ever want to think about you having sex in our beds?”

“At least I’m getting sex,” Justin shot back, pulling away from Britney. “If you were getting laid you wouldn’t have such a stick up your butt all the time.”

Britney’s mouth dropped open and she swatted him on the arm. “Justin Randall.”

“Don’t worry about it, we talk to each other like this all the time,” Cadence reassured her as she slowly stood up. She continued to rub her back, lifting her foot and placed it on Justin’s shoulder, pushing hard enough so that he fell off the other side of the bed and to the floor. “He needs to kiss my ass just as much as he’s a pain in it.” She turned to Britney and lowered her voice. “I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but he’s constantly starved for attention.”

“I noticed,” Britney whispered back.

“Especially my attention it turns out,” Cadence continued. “I think he’s still mad that I’m older than him.”

“Only by a few months,” Justin protested.

“And the difference in levels of maturity is astounding.”

Britney laughed quietly, pulling her hair from her face. “Hey, Justin, didn’t you say you wanted to show me something?” She asked abruptly. Justin agreed and got off the floor. He took Britney’s hand and led the two out of the room, kicking Cadence’s box of clothes as he went. Cadence rolled her eyes and picked up the box, bringing it to the far corner of the room. Then she walked back to her bed and sat down on it, looking around her room.

Every inch was crammed to the brim with boxes of her things and there were still many of them still left at hers and Britney’s apartment. Due to leaving so suddenly Cadence made a deal that she’d continue to pay her part of the rent so long that she still went back to live there on the weekends. So far it seemed like moving in with the boys was an all around good idea, but she felt bad for having to ditch her like that.

“What do you suppose we’d find in these boxes?” She suddenly heard Chris’s voice.

“You can’t look in them. They’re her private things,” Lance pointed out.

“How would she know?” Joey asked.

“I can hear you! Drop the boxes and back away slowly!” Cadence shouted. She laughed at the sound of cardboard boxes being dropped to the ground and rapid footsteps. That was definitely something else she needed to get used to, having to hold onto her privacy.

Speaking of privacy…Cadence’s eyes shifted over to the unopened envelope that sat on her desk. She stared at the return address, the familiar handwriting and her mind went blank. Everything around her zoomed out into a warped tunnel, her senses failing her until she heard her name being called. Cadence snapped back to attention, finding herself curled up in a ball under her bed like a little girl who had been startled at a loud sound.

Hugging her knees to her chest Cadence looked up as she spotted a pair of feet come into her field of vision. “Cade?” She heard JC ask.

“Down here,” she called meekly.

The pair of feet turned her way seconds before hands dropped to the floor and JC’s face appeared next to hers. His eyebrows lowered, blue eyes showing a mixture of amusement and concern. “Uh, what are you doing under your bed? You know you’re supposed to sleep on top of the mattress right?” His voice lifted teasingly.

“I know,” she replied quietly. Great, now I’m talking like a little kid, too.

“Right. Well. This came for you in the mail.” JC handed over a similar envelope to the one that sat on Cadence’s desk and crossed his arms, resting his chin on them. Cadence reached out and took it, looking at het front.

 Same handwriting, same return address, another wave of fear.

Now JC’s eyebrows lowered even further. “Hey, is everything okay?”

“No. But I guess it won’t help anything if I continue to put it off. She doesn’t really know how to take ‘no’ for an answer.”

“Do you want to talk about it?”

“Not really.”

“Okay.”

JC continued to lie on the ground in silent commiseration as Cadence let out a low sigh and pulled herself tighter into a ball.

Most people would’ve opened mail right away to know what was said to them. Others would be excited. How was Cadence supposed to explain that she was never excited when her mother tried to contact her? How was she supposed to explain that she didn’t like her mother at all? How was she supposed to explain that at 20 years old she was still afraid of her mother?

How was she supposed to deal with any of that when her mother came to visit?