"So how'd it go?" Rachel asked as her daughter walked in. Kenzi tossed her bag down on the floor by the door and kicked off her shoes. The khaki uniform vest followed.

"Boring." Kenzi said collapsing on the couch with her phone in hand.

"Come on now," Rachel said pushing away from the storyboard desk where she had been working on the illustrations for a children's book. She and her best friend, Melissa Fatone, worked together. Melissa wrote the stories while she did the illustrations. It had just been something silly they had worked on to pass the time during the Ain't No Stopping Us Now tour. Joey had come across them a few years later when he was moving boxes around in his attic. He showed them to Lance. With Joey and Lance pushing them, she and Melissa decided to give it a go. They had never expected it to last, but 10 years later they were still cranking out books. Last year, they turned the books into an animated series on Nickelodeon. Melissa also wrote books for elementary girls. Rachel likened her friend's series to The Baby Sitters Club books they grew up with. Melissa's books were based on a group of friends and the trials and tribulations of entering middle school.

Besides doing the illustrations with Melissa, Rachel also did freelance design work for ad companies, sold her own paintings and drawings online. Recently she finished up a contract to provide the artwork for hotel in Los Angeles. They had been renovating and updating the decor. She submitted pieces and they had liked her work and hired her. The project was a huge undertaking. Not every room held an original piece. A lot of them had replicas which was great for her because she would have spent a good year working on enough original pieces to outfit the hotel.

"No one wants to buy cookies here," Kenzi said not looking up from her phone. Her thumbs were moving like lightening across the screen. Rachel figured she was talking to Briahna Fatone. The girls had been best friends since Rachel and her daugher moved to Los Angeles a couple years prior. "You know no one eats in this town."

Rachel snorted. "Girl Scout cookies are enticing enough to kick anyone off their diet."

"It's just not fun anymore. Briahna got to quit. Why can't I?"

Rachel sighed. She knew it was coming. Every year that went by, the less interested McKenzie seemed in the group. It got worse when Briahna had decided not to do it again. McKenzie had been in Girl Scouts since Kindergarten. They had been living in Mississippi at the time in the town she grew up in. The troop had been amazing and she hated to leave. In California, she placed McKenzie in Briahna's troop to try and lessen the blow of having to leave all her friends behind. "If you quit, who would I get all my Thin Mints from?"

This time Kenzi snorted. "Exactly what I told JC was the reason why I couldn't quit. He knew all about your chocolate addiction."

Rachel swatted her daughter's leg. "I do not have a chocolate addiction."

"Riiiight," McKenzie drew out. "Need I remind you how many boxes of Thin Mints are sitting in the pantry? Not to mention the boxes of Little Debbie Swiss Rolls? How about the Hershey Bars? Bag of Hershey Kisses in the butter drawer of the fridge. The box of Godiva chocolate in the drawer next to your bed..."

"How do you know about the chocolate in the drawer next to my bed?" Rachel stared at her daughter.

"I can hear the paper crinkling at night." McKenzie giggled.

Rachel gaped sending Kenzi a mock glare. "Fine." She raised her right hand. "Hi, my name is Rachel Bass and I'm a chocoholic."

McKenzie giggled. "Gonna find a 12-step program?"

"And give up chocolate?" Rachel gasped. "Never!" She pushed her daughter's legs off the couch and sat down beside her. "So did you lighten any other celebrity's wallet?"

"No, just JC's. He didn't recognize me." McKenzie laid her head on her mother's shoulder as she launched another bird across the screen in an attempt to kill the pigs.

"I bet not," Rachel said staring across the room as she thought about JC. It had been years since she had seen him. "The last time he would have seen you would have been about nine years ago or so."

"I tried to use that as a guilt trip to make him buy more cookies." McKenzie stuck her tongue out as the building collapsed killing all the pigs but one. "Didn't work."

Rachel laughed, "I bet not. But it was a nice ploy." When the group took a hiatus, every one seemed to scatter in the wind. Lance went all the way to Russia for six months to study to be a cosmonaut. JC and Justin released solo albums. Joey and Chris went home to Orlando where Joey settled in raising Briahna. She had been in Mississippi raising McKenzie. After Lance returned from Russia, she took her daughter and moved in with her brother. She had missed him something fierce with the touring and being on another continent completely. Florida didn't last long. Eventually, everyone started moving away. Lance decided to move to California. JC and Joey soon followed suit. When that happened, she moved back to Mississippi. Only Chris stayed behind in Florida. It had been a long time since she'd seen Chris, even longer for Justin. They didn't walk in the same circles anymore. Between Lance and Melissa, she was always informed as to what everyone was doing.

"Hey," McKenzie said, interrupting her thoughts. "JC sent me a friend request on Facebook."

"He did?" Rachel looked down to see that while her mind had been wandering, McKenzie had stopped playing Angry Birds and moved on to Facebook. "You sure it's him? I can't believe he would have a social media account." JC had always been the one who was most shy in the group. Very rarely did he share personal information. She found it odd that he'd be on a site that's all about divulging personal information.

"Maybe he has it because he misses his family in Florida," McKenzie said. She tapped on his name, bypassing his request. "It says we have friends in common - Lance, Michael, Gramma, and Joey."

"Must be legit," Rachel said noting the friends they had in common. "Go ahead and accept." She was very protective of her daughter's online habits. She checked everything and made sure no creeps were anywhere near her profiles. "And how would you know if he's missing his family? Just what did you talk about other than cookies?"

McKenzie shrugged, "we just got to talking about why I had a Facebook. I told him it was so I could talk with Gramma and Grandpa and everyone in Mississippi. I told him how I missed them but how if we moved back home, I'd miss Uncle Lance and Uncle Michael... it just sucks." She sighed.

"I know baby," Rachel wrapped an arm around her daughter, pulling her into a hug. "I miss everyone too."

"Think we can go back for spring break?" McKenzie asked hopefully. She turned pleading eyes on her mom.

Rachel laughed seeing the look. McKenzie was a carbon copy of her. It was a fact she would be forever grateful for. The blonde hair, the green-yellow eyes, the crooked smile. McKenzie was going to a beautiful young lady.  That drove her nuts. She didn't want boys to be coming around. Even at thirteen it was already starting. Rachel used every opportunity to yell at Joey and Melissa for not having a boy McKenzie's age so they could get married. She doubted McKenzie would wait for 2 year old Caleb Fatone to grow up. Joey always joked the age difference wasn't important and pointed out the difference between Lance and his fiancée Michael. "I'll have to look at the calendar and see what we have going on, but we might be able to."

"Yes!" McKenzie fist pumped. "Maybe Lance and Michael can come with us? Wouldn't that be awesome? We'd all be together. Maybe we can all go somewhere?"

"I don't know about that," Rachel started, trying to nip McKenzie's idea in the bud before her imagination got the better of her. "I have to check with not only Lance and Michael, but Stacy as well. I don't know if everyone's schedules will mesh up. Plus, I don't know when spring break is for Leighton and the boys."

"Maybe Briahna can even come with us!" McKenzie said excitedly. "Her and Leighton would love each other. It would be so awesome! We would be the best of friends. Go off to college together and share a dorm room...I'm gonna call Leighton."

"Kenzi!" Rachel called as McKenzie jumped up off the couch and ran from the room. She sighed when she was ignored and fell back against the couch, groaning. Stacy was gonna kill her.

*~*~*

"You are in so much trouble," Rachel said as she put her cell phone down on the couch cushion beside her. Stacy had not been happy to say the least.

"What?"

"Don't what me." Rachel said sternly. "Do you know how much planning goes in to taking a vacation? Especially with a lot of people going and their schedules? You have Leighton all excited about something that hasn't even been given the okay yet."

"But Mom," McKenzie moaned. "You have to say yes! Briahna already said she's looking forward to going."

Rachel groaned, knowing she was going to get a phone call from Melissa soon. "Nothing has been planned! How can you invite people on a vacation that has no dates, no location, no one attending?"

"We already have dates!" McKenzie pointed out. "Spring break!"

"Where are we going?" Rachel raised her eyebrow when her daughter fell silent. "Vacation takes a lot of planning. Lots of adult planning."

McKenzie sighed. "Why don't you just say no right now instead of letting me get all excited about it only to say no later."

"Kenz," Rachel sighed and changed her tone. "I'm not saying no." McKenzie's head snapped in her direction and her eyes widened. She could see the excitement swimming in her eyes. "But.... you need to give me time to call Gramma and Grandpa; Lance, Stacy, and Melissa. I have to see if they would want to go somewhere...if they would even be able to."

"So it's not a no?" McKenzie said trying to contain the grin on her face. She bounced on her legs, unable to contain her excitement.

"It's not a no," Rachel relented. She shook her head as her daughter shrieked and gave her a hug. "Now, go to bed."

"Thank you Mom!" McKenzie shouted and ran out the room and up the stairs.

Rachel sighed and rubbed her head. She had no idea if she could pull a trip together. It would be nice to be able to have a family vacation somewhere. She wondered if she could get away with going to Mississippi over spring break and then planning a family vacation in the summer. It was much further away and allowed everyone more time to make arrangements.

Deciding to deal with it tomorrow, she started locking up and turning the lights off before heading upstairs. On the way to her room she stopped to give McKenzie a kiss on the forehead and say goodnight. The older she got, the longer her nighttime ritual became: makeup removers, moisturizers, creams. The tubes and bottles threatened to overtake the counter.

When she finally crawled in to bed, she was already thinking about what would be a good vacation. With so many people going, it was hard to pick a place where everyone would be happy. Would it be the beach or the mountains? Would they stay somewhere in the United States or hit up a more exotic location such as Mexico or somewhere in the Caribbean. With ideas floating through her head, she picked up her phone intending to do a little research before calling it a night. Like what happened most nights she found herself on Facebook, scrolling through posts from her friends and family.

A red bubble caught her eye at the top of the page; new friend request. Tapping on the bubble her eyes widened seeing JC's name. It was the same account that had sent McKenzie a request earlier. She smiled, hit the accept button, and then sent him a private message.

‘I hear Kenzi was able to maneuver you into buying cookies. She's a pretty good manipulator.'

She was surprised when she got an immediate reply.

‘I wonder where she got that from.'

Rachel laughed softly. ‘Definitely not me.'

‘Right. Couldn't be you. She tried to play me with out buying Lance.'

‘No one can out buy Lance. He has never been able to say no to her. I can't wait until he has kids. I already have a list of things I'm doing to get back at him.'

‘Poor Lance.'

‘Poor Lance my ass. He is not innocent. The stories I could tell.'

‘I was shocked to see Kenzi today. It's been awhile. How have you been?'

‘I've been good. Finished up the artwork for the Hyatt last month. Working on illustrations for Mel's next book. Busy taxiing Kenzi here, there, and everywhere. Stopping Lance from completely corrupting her, which is a full time job.'

‘Lance mentioned you scored the contract for the art at the Hyatt. Congratulations! Totally cool! Would it be too weird to just ask to check out the art in the rooms and not actually book a room?'

‘Would definitely be weird, C.' Rachel laughed. ‘I'll send you some photos of the work if you really want to see and you're not just being polite.'

‘Come on, I always loved your drawings. I still have the one you drew of all of us as superheros.'

‘Oh yeah! Forgot about that one. Justin was so ticked that I made him Aqua Man.' She giggled remember the reactions the drawing had garnered. Joey had been Superman because he was obsessed with him. Lance had been Spider-Man. Chris had been Hulk. JC had been Captain America. ‘It's a good thing I never showed him the one where I made him Robin to your Batman.'

‘Please tell me you still have that?'

‘It might be somewhere in the boxes in the attic. You made quite an impression on Kenzi today. She wouldn't stop talking about you tonight.'

Aside from talking about this alleged vacation, McKenzie kept taking about JC while they sat down for dinner. She had so many questions about him. Rachel even dug out her old albums filled with photos she took of the guys when she toured with them or simply hung out with them in Florida.

‘Me? All I did was buy way too many boxes of cookies.'

‘Not as many as Lance though.' She added a winking face.

‘Nice try.'

Rachel laughed at his response. ‘She had a lot of questions about you. Even pulled out old photo albums. Caught her watching YouTube videos of performances and interviews.'

‘Maybe because she doesn't know me? I haven't seen her since the last charity event.'

‘Terrible honorary uncle.'

‘Still not buying more cookies.'

‘That might be it. You're someone she hears about, but doesn't remember meeting. Makes sense. She'll probably be on to something else tomorrow.'

‘Old news already.'

‘Don't take it personally. She's 13. She loves me today. Tomorrow I may be the worst person in the whole world.' Which she very well may be if she couldn't get a vacation ironed out.

‘I hope it was okay I sent her a friend request.'

‘Oh yeah! That's fine.' Rachel yawned and was surprised at the late hour. She lost track of time talking to JC. It had been years since they'd done that. ‘I need to get to bed. It takes everything I have plus 3 cups of coffee to get Kenzi ready and to school on time. She's not a morning person at all.'

‘That's cool. It was great catching up.'

‘Don't be a stranger.' Rachel sent and then sent her phone number. She smiled when JC sent his number in return. After saving it in her phone, she checked the alarm one more time and placed the phone on the bedside table. She rolled over and with a smile on her face, fell asleep.