Joey left the bathroom and went over to sit down next to Chris. "So, do you mind telling me what you think you were doing?"

Chris sighed and explained how he was trying to play a joke on her. "I had no idea that it wasn’t real!" he said.

"I didn’t think you did." Joey replied.

"Is she alright?" Chris asked. Joey could tell he was concerned about her.

"She’s pretty upset." he replied.

"No, I know that." Chris said, "What I meant was, is she sick?"

"Oh, no. It’s nothing like that." Joey said quickly.

"So, I’m guessing this is her big secret?" Chris asked. Joey just nodded. "And you still can’t tell me anything, can you?"

"I’m trying to talk her into telling you guys." Joey said, "But she did want me to tell you that she has pictures of you with pink fingernails. Unless you want those pictures all over the Internet, you better not say anything about what you saw."

Chris got a rather nervous look on his face. "Would she really do that?"

Joey shrugged and said, "I don’t know. Do you really want to risk it?"

Just then JC ran into the room. "There you guys are! They’re ready for the next interview."

When the interviews were over the guys and Fantasia headed back to the hotel. As Joey and Fantasia got on the bus, Chris asked, "Fantasia, can I talk to you?"

"NO!" she said firmly. She couldn’t face Chris right now. Not just yet anyway. She and Joey went back to the back room and she slammed the door shut. JC, Justin and Lance all looked at Chris.

"I’m guessing your prank didn’t go as planned?" Justin asked. Chris just shook his head and slumped down in a seat at the table.

Back in the back room, Joey explained to Fantasia how Chris was trying to play practical joke on her. She groaned and said, "I should smack him in the head."

Joey smiled and held her tight. She rested her head on his shoulder. "So have you thought about telling the guys?"

Fantasia sighed and asked, "I don’t suppose Chris is going to leave me alone until he finds out?"

"Probably not." he replied, "He’s pretty worried about you. And you know, we have two hours free before we have to leave for the sound check. Plenty of time to explain everything."

Fantasia bit her bottom lip and thought about it really hard. She knew she needed to learn to trust Joey. Finally, she sighed and said, "Ok." Joey smiled and held her tight.

When they arrived at the hotel, the other guys followed Fantasia and Joey upstairs. They were all asking questions a mile a minute. Once they reached their floor Joey said, "We’ll explain everything, but not out here." He and Fantasia led them into the hotel room they were sharing.

The couple sat in the middle of the king size bed and the rest of the guys sat around the room. Joey started by telling the other guys about Chris’s idea of a practical joke. "But things didn’t go quite as planned and Chris got a rather big surprise."

"What?" Justin asked, eager to know what was going on.

Fantasia simply reached up and pulled her wig off. The guys’ mouths dropped open with shock. Fantasia couldn’t even look at the guys. She just sat there waiting for them to burst out laughing.

After about a minute Justin asked, "How long do you have?"

Chris reached over and smacked Justin in the back of the head. "She’s not dying, you idiot!" he said, "It’s trichotillomania, right?"

Fantasia looked at Chris completely shocked. "Ok, how the hell did you know that?" She looked over at Joey with an evil glare.

"Don’t look at me! I didn’t say a thing." he said holding his hands up.

"It wasn’t Joey." Chris said coming to his friend’s defense, "I took a lot of psychology classes in college."

"Duh." Fantasia replied.

Chris still couldn’t get over how much she knew about the guys. He just shook his head and continued with what he was saying. "One class I took I spent almost a whole semester just studying OCDs. At the end of the semester I had to pick an OCD and write a paper on it. I picked trichotillomania because I thought it was interesting and I knew nobody else would pick it. I’ve always wanted to meet someone that had it."

Fantasia was completely shocked.

"Would somebody mind explaining what you’re talking about?" JC asked.

Before Fantasia could even open her mouth, Chris started explaining trichotillomania and OCDs to the other guys. He looked over at her every once in a while just to make sure he was getting everything right.

When he was done Fantasia said, "Wow, Chris. You were right."

"I know…. About what?" he asked.

"You really are the smartest one in the group." she replied.

"Hey!" Justin whined.

"What are you whining about? You thought she was dying!" Chris said to Justin.

"Chris knows more about trichotillomania than all the doctors I’ve ever had combined." Fantasia explained.

Now that the guys understood what it was they had a million more questions for Fantasia. Most of them were the same questions that Joey had asked.

"Why didn’t you tell us this sooner?" Lance asked.

"Because, most people, once they find out they don’t want to have anything to do with me." she explained. The guys just looked at each other and nodded. They all got up and surrounded Fantasia in a big group hug.

Fantasia and the guys spent the rest of the two hours talking about her past. The guys couldn’t believe how horrible people had treated her over something she had no control over. They also started to understand why she hadn’t told them. Before the guys left they each gave Fantasia big hug.

When they were gone, Joey pulled her into his arms and held her tight. "See? I told you they wouldn’t hate you." he said with a smile.