vvJake Matthews sat on the floor in his living room with his best friend Kristen, popcorn in hand waiting for the new Disney Channel Special to come on.

“Would they hurry up? I want to see *NSYNC!”

Kristen laughed. “You’re more excited about this than I am!”

“I can’t help it! Justin is so. . .” his voice trailed. “I just like their music, okay?”

“Um hum. Sure you do. So it has nothing to do with the blonde haired, blue eyed lead singer?” she teased.

Jake rolled his eyes.

The opening notes to “I Want You Back” came on then and they turned their attention to the screen. Jake’s eyes immediately locked on Justin, completely tuning out the other members of the group.

Kristen was more focused on the brown haired, blued eyed crooner standing next to him. She found herself lost in those smoldering blue eyes and velvety voice. It sounded heavenly. Yes, heaven was missing an angel. God definitely spent a little more time on him.

“He’s cute.”

“Who’s cute?” Jake asked, reluctantly pulling his eyes away from the object of his affection.

“The one standing to Justin’s left.”

Seeing her dazed expression, Jake couldn’t help but smile.

“Now who’s obsessed?”

J.C. couldn’t sleep. For the past couple of nights, he’d been having the same recurring dream. Staring at his reflection in a mirror, two infants suddenly appeared, looking just like he did as a baby. Standing on the other side was another image of  . . .himself?

What did that mean exactly? He had been thinking of searching for his birth family recently. Could that be it? He shook that thought out of his head. He’d never wanted to look before. Why start now?

He loved his parents, brother, and sister. If he searched for his birth family he would only hurt them and that’s the last thing he wanted to do. Still, his dream haunted him.

“Do you want to talk about it?” asked Justin, breaking J.C. out of his reverie.

“Huh?” J.C. had completely forgotten they were sharing a room tonight.

“Do you want to talk about it?”

Justin knew something was wrong. It was almost three o’clock in the morning. J.C. never stayed up that late, especially after a show. They always teased that sleep was his favorite past time. So when he missed it, it could mean one of two things: he was either working on a song or something was bothering him.

“I’ve been having this dream that I can’t quite figure out.”

“What kind of dream?”

“Um . .I’m . . . I” How could he explain it to Justin when he didn’t understand it himself?

He shook his head. “Never mind. It’s nothing. Forget it.”

“It didn’t seem like nothing.”

“I said forget it, okay?” he shouted.

“Okay. Okay. Sorry. I was just trying to help.”

“I know. I – it’s just something I have to figure out myself.” If only he could.

“Alright, but if you ever need to talk, I’m here.”

“Yeah, I know. Thanks.”

Justin went to sleep. If only J.C. could do the same.

Ever since his parents had told him that he was adopted, Jake had wanted to look for his birth family. He hadn’t found anything yet, but he still remained hopeful. He’d always wished for a brother or sister growing up; he hated being an only child.

But what if his birth family didn’t want to be found? He’d been through so much rejection already, he wasn’t sure he could handle any more. Yet he was willing to take that chance.

That’s why he liked *NSYNC so much. They were like a family; a band of brothers. That’s why this lawsuit was killing him. How could someone who claimed to be their “father” hurt them this way?

Just thinking about the lawsuit made his blood boil. It was inconceivable that his favorite group’s career could be cut short just because some money hungry executive thought he “owned” them and could do whatever he wanted, at their expense.

Jake sat at his computer trying to figure out what to write in his email to *NSYNC. Nothing he’d come up so far seemed to work. He thought of just writing Justin, but that wouldn’t be fair to the others, so he decided to write them all together.

Joey, Chris, Lance, Justin, and J.C. sat in their lawyer’s office pouring over all of their contracts with Lou Pearlman and Transcontinental. They couldn’t believe it. He owned everything – the rights to music publishing, merchandising, tour proceeds, traveling expenses, AND a 20% managing fee.

J.C. wanted to cry. All he ever wanted to do was make music and now his dream was slipping away from him. Where did it all go wrong? He thought back to the day that they had signed with Transcontinental. How happy and trusting they had been when “Papa” Lou promised to make them rich and famous. They may be famous, but they certainly weren’t rich. It had been lies; all lies.

They all went back to their hotel, broken and discouraged. Wanting to forget the events of the day, Chris, Lance, Joey, and Justin decided to hang out and watch a movie.

“J.C., you coming?” asked Joey.

“No, I think I’m going to pack it in for the night.” In truth he just wanted to be alone.

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah, I’m sure.”

Joey shrugged his shoulders and went to join the others.

Just as J.C. was opening the door to his room the phone rang.

“Hello?”

“Josh?”

“Mom?” he answered, his voice cracking.

“Honey, are you alright?”

“Everything we’ve worked for is falling apart.”

Karen Chasez’s heart broke upon hearing those words. She knew they’d had a meeting with their lawyer today and from the sound of it things hadn’t gone well.

“What happened?” she asked gently.

“We – we saw all the contracts together.” J.C. paused before continuing. “It’s worse than we thought. He controls everything.”

“Oh My God!” Kristen’s jaw dropped when she walked into Jake’s room. Images of Justin Timberlake covered the walls; there was even one on the ceiling. She didn’t even want to know how that got there.

“What?”

“Uh . . .Jake? Don’t you think this is a little much?”

She had posters of J.C. and *NSYNC on her wall, but she also had posters of Nick Carter and the Backstreet Boys.

“No. I like Justin. You know that. How is this any different than you having J.C. and Nick on your wall?”

“J.C. AND Nick,” she emphasized. I have both of them on my wall, not just one. And certainly not like this.”

“That’s treason, by the way. You need to pick just one.”

She rolled her eyes.  “I’m allowed to like more than just one.”

“And I’m allowed to decorate my room any way I want.”

“So . . .” she said, changing the subject. “Are we still going to Orlando for Thanksgiving?”

“Yeah. My parents aren’t too happy about it though.”

“Mine either, but we have to be there to support *NSYNC.”

J.C. needed to get his mind off of the upcoming trial, but wasn’t sure how. He thought of joining the guys for the movie but wasn’t really up for it.

“It’s been awhile since we checked our email.” He logged onto nsync.com and saw new messages cluttered their inbox. One in particular caught his attention.

Dear *NSYNC,

I have been a fan of yours since I first heard “I Want You Back”. I couldn’t wait for your Disney Channel Special to come on and when it did my best friend and I had a party to watch and celebrate.

I watch Total Request Live everyday to see if you’re on and to vote for your videos on the countdown. My friends make fun of me for liking your music, but I don’t care. It calms me down when I’m having a bad day and takes me to another place when I want to get away from reality.

But mostly, I admire your friendship. Every time I see you on TV or read your interviews, you are always joking around with one another, almost like brothers, or at least that’s the way it seems. As an only child I’d always wondered what that would be like.

Thank you for the opportunity to experience that and know that your other family, the fans, love and support you 100%.

Jake

It was emails like this that reminded J.C. of why he’d gotten into entertainment in the first place, to bring happiness and joy to people through his music. Even though he’d probably never meet them all, it meant a great deal to him to know that there were people out there who appreciated him and his “brothers” enough to stick by them even when things got hard.

What surprised him most, though, was that this letter was from a male fan. Most of their fans were female and the few males that did come to their concerts looked like they were there under protest. He liked that Jake not only liked their music, but wasn’t afraid to admit it.

The way he spoke of being an only child made J.C. cherish his relationship with not only his brothers in*NSYNC, but Tyler and Heather as well. He’d always taken his responsibility as a big brother seriously and regretted the times he wasn’t there for them. Since joining MMC and *NSYNC that was a lot. Knowing how much his family loved him eased his mind. He slept peacefully for the first time in weeks.