About three days later the guys were rehearsing "The Game is Over". They were working on the opening because the trap doors weren’t working quite right. This particular day Fantasia and Jamie decided to watch the guys rehearse. When it was Joey’s turn to pop up, something went terribly wrong. The trap door misfired and Joey’s leg got caught between the floor and the trap door. Lance was the first one to reach him, but Fantasia was close behind. Lance was holding Joey’s leg closed to stop the bleeding.

"Quit it! That hurts!" Joey whined.

"Do you want to bleed to death?" Fantasia asked.

"No!" Joey groaned.

"Then quit whining." she replied. Soon the paramedics arrived and took Joey to the hospital. Everyone else followed close behind in their cars.

At the hospital Joey was in with the doctors while everyone else was in the waiting room. Jamie was curled up on Justin’s lap. Fantasia was sitting next to them with her knees pulled up to her chest. Chris was pacing around the room. Lance sat in a chair holding his head in his hands. JC was sitting on the floor staring off into space. Johnny was on the phone with Joey’s parents and Wade was sitting in a chair fiddling with his pager. About an hour later the doctor came out.

"Your friend is very lucky. The fat in his leg kept it from breaking, but he has a very large deep wound. We had to use staples to close it up.", he explained.

"Can we see him?" Lance asked.

"Not just yet, we’ll let you know when you can." The doctor replied leaving.

A few minutes later the doctor left. Lance was the first to break the silence. "Guys, what are we going to do about tomorrow?"

"What do you mean?" Chris asked.

"Tomorrow we start shooting the music video for ‘Pop,’" Lance replied. Remembering this all the guys started grumbling and cussing under their breath. As the guys were trying to figure out what they were going to do, Wade noticed Fantasia staring at him.

"What?" Wade asked.

"Oh nothing. I just saw you out of the corner of my eye and for a second I thought you were Joey. Don’t mind me. I’m just crazy." Fantasia said.

"I could’ve told you that!" Chris, who was now sitting next to Fantasia, said with a grin. Fantasia reached over and smacked Chris in the back of his head.

"No, she’s right!", JC said returning to Fantasia’s original statement. The four guys got up and walked over to Wade. They started pulling at his hair, pinching his face and examining his features.

"Hey stop! Quit it! That hurts!" Wade whined smacking at their hands. Fantasia and Jamie couldn’t help laughing.

"It just might work." Justin said.

"Yeah, we can hide him in the back behind JC’s hair." Chris joked. JC gave his friend a playful shove. Chris lost his balance and fell on his butt.

"Wait a second. Joey has a mustache and beard." Lance commented.

"And our little 12-year-old Wade can only grow peach fuzz." Chris joked, starting to get up, but Wade gently kicked him back down.

Just then a nurse came over, "Ah, *N Sync?"

"Yes?" the four guys replied standing up.

"You may go see Joey now. He’s in room 269." she said. Everyone followed the nurse down the hall to Joey’s room.

"I wonder if Joey picked the room number." Chris whispered to Justin as they followed the nurse. Justin just laughed. They entered the room to find Joey watching a rerun of Baywatch while he was on the phone with his mom, trying to convince her that he was going to be fine.

"How ya feelin’, dude?" Chris asked as Joey hung up the phone.

"Better. You want to see it?" Joey replied. Joey peeled back the bandages so everyone could see the two staples that was now holding his leg closed. After all the general "Ewwws!", Joey was the first to bring up the subject of the next day.

"So what are we going to do about tomorrow? I can’t even walk. There is no way I can dance.", Joey said.

"Well, Fantasia came up with the idea of using Wade.", Lance said.

"I DID NOT!!!" Fantasia screamed, "It was JC’s idea!!!"

Everybody looked at Fantasia like she was psycho. "Ok, JC came up with the idea." Lance said confused.

"Well, who ever came up it, it’s a good idea." Joey said looking back and forth between JC and Fantasia. They started discussing how they were going to change Wade into Joey. Ten minutes later the doctor came in, checked Joey over and released him.

The next day Joey was going to stay at the hotel and rest while the rest of the guys filmed "Pop". After Fantasia helped the guys stretch she found Johnny. "Do you think the guys really need me here today?" Fantasia asked.

"Probably not. Why? Do you have other plans?" Johnny asked.

"No, not really. I just have this strange feeling that I need to be back at the hotel with Joey. I can’t really explain it." Fantasia said.

"It’s fine with me. I’ll call you if anything comes up." he replied.

When Fantasia got to the hotel, the MTV crew was just leaving. She found Joey sitting on the bed, playing with his new camera, filming himself making funny faces. Fantasia could tell he was already bored. "Careful. Your face might get stuck like that." Fantasia said startling Joey.

"Fantasia! What are you doing here?" Joey asked surprised.

"It’s nice to see you, too, Joey." Fantasia replied as she sat down next to him.

"What I mean is why aren’t you at the set with the guys?" Joey explained.

"They didn’t need me and I thought you could use some company." Fantasia said.

Joey just smiled. After they had been talking for a while Joey asked, "So how much do you really know about us?"

"Let me put it this way. When you guys win an award, like at the VMA’s, and you start thanking people you work with. I basically know who you’re talking about." Fantasia said.

"Wow! What else do you know?" Joey asked amazed.

"I know how you mud bombed yourself." Fantasia replied.

"Huh?" Joey asked confused.

Fantasia smiled a proceeded to tell Joey a story he knew all too well, a story of when Joey was a kid and still living in Brooklyn. Little Joey was playing outside in the front yard, catapulting mud bombs across the street. His mom came outside and told him, "Quit that! You’re going to get hurt." She went back inside. Little Joey just rolled his eyes and grumbled, "Whatever." He went back to his mud bombs, but soon one misfired. The mud bomb hit little Joey in the face. He got mud in his nose, ears, mouth and gums. Poor little Joey went crying to his mommy. When Fantasia finished telling the story Joey was cracking up laughing.

"How’d you find out about that?" Joey asked still laughing.

"From you." Fantasia replied.

"Huh?" Joey asked confused.

"Yeah, I read an interview where you were talking about it." Fantasia explained.

"Is there anything you don’t know?" Joey asked.

"Sure, but its things that are best left up to the imagination." Fantasia said with a grin. Joey just looked at her wide-eyed.

The next day Joey’s leg was feeling better so he went to the studio to do his part of the video. Joey hobbled on to the set and was soon greeted by Justin. However, Chris was more interested in Joey’s motorized wheel chair. He was driving it around trying to run over everybody. He thought he would take it for a spin around the set, but he couldn’t get the wheels over the step and he crashed.

While the other guys spent most of their free time goofing off, running around and chasing each other, Joey hung out with all the extras… a lot of pretty girls! He wanted to flirt with them, but most of them were asleep. Soon Fantasia came over to sit with him. After a few minutes of talking Joey asked, "Fantasia, can I ask you a question?"

"You just did." she replied with a grin.

"I mean a real question." Joey said.

"Ok, sure." she replied.

"Why didn’t you want to take credit for the idea of using Wade to replace me?" Joey asked.

"Because it wasn’t my idea." she replied.

"But Lance said…." Joey said starting to protest.

"I know what happened! I was there." Fantasia cut in.

"I’m not trying to make you mad. I’m just trying to understand why you didn’t want to take credit for such a good idea." Joey said trying to calm her down.

"That’s just it! You liked the idea so it can’t be mine! Nobody ever likes my ideas!" Fantasia screamed before storming off. By now everyone was staring at them. Joey just sat there completely confused.

"Dude, what’d you do?" Chris asked coming over.

"I don’t know." Joey said shaking his head.

As the guys got back to the hotel Justin asked Joey, "Do you think Fantasia is still mad at you?"

"I hope not." Joey sighed "I’m really starting to like her."

"Then why don’t you ask her out? It’s not like you to wait on these things." Justin said.

Joey just shrugged and replied, "What if she turns me down?"

Justin just stared at his friend in shock and asked, "Are you in love with her or something?" Joey just shrugged and climbed on to the elevator leaving Justin completely baffled.