Renee scratched the itchy spot at the back of her neck, wishing she had brought something to tie her hair up with. Drumming one set of fingers awkwardly on the edge of her swivel chair, in the other hand she was tapping the pan rapidly against the pad. The problem was desperately trying to think up a decent rhyme for the word scheming. Technically any ‘ing’ word would probably do but nothing seemed to sound right.

After a lot of practice she thought she was getting pretty decent at writing lyrics now but on the odd occasion she would just get seriously stuck. Then she would sit there in front of the sound board like this for a good ten minutes while Brian McKnight sat at the controls, messing around with the melody she’d started off for him. She still couldn’t believe that – Brian McKnight. That was Brian McKnight and she was working with him. On a song she was writing and going to sing. It left butterflies in her stomach.

“Ooh, girl, what did I tell you about cell phones and my studio?” He wagged his finger at her and she smiled sheepishly.

“Will you kill me if I talk to my sister?” Her hands made the prayer position at him and he waved her off.

“Five minutes and then I wanna take a look at what you got; I need to mess around with the key a little.”

“Hey Lou.” Renee answered the phone brightly before mouthing ‘thank you’ at him.

“Mom wants to know if you got her his autograph yet.”

“Later, I swear, later.” There was no way she was going to pull the whole swooning fan thing until after they finished the song. Then it would be a favour for a colleague and not her going gooey over him: which she was in fact doing but was managing to disguise fairly well.

“So how’s the studio?” Louise asked excitedly.

“Oh my God, it’s like… whoa. This is some professional shit!” Unknown to Renee, her famous producer was smirking to himself, having heard that. “I feel like a fraud.”

“Don’t say that Ren!” Her big sister scolded her. “This is so colossally huge, you deserve it! I still can’t believe they hooked you up with Brian McKnight!”

“You can’t believe it? Remember where I am right now, dumb ass.”

“Oh shut up. I just… oh my god. That’s a huge thing, you haven’t even released a single yet and they’re getting the big guns in! Are they trying to turn you into RnB Britney or something?”

“Hey, I could do worse than be an RnB Britney,” Renee chuckled. “She sells, and I need to sell if they’re gonna take the option for the second album.”

“Come on, every time you’ve ever got on stage from… well, ever, they always love you. You know Grandma’s already clearing shelves for the Grammy you’re gonna win for her.”

“Jinx me why dontcha.”

She winced, twisting nervously in her chair and glancing at the hugely successful producer that Jive had gone to great lengths to procure for her. Mostly she was working with lesser-known people, as any first time artist could expect, but they wanted a big ballad and apparently Brian was ‘the man who can’. She believed it too. Her mom loved him, had all his albums, but then so did she. That had to count for something.

“Let’s not get ahead of me.”

“Whatever. My little sister is song writing with Brian McKnight right now, I’m happy.”

“Speaking of which, how’s Mom?”

She could practically hear Louise wincing. Renee had thought that when she’d made the wish to return to her own reality (with all of about thirty seconds to go) that she’d returned to her family unit. As it turned out, her parents wound up divorced here too; it just took a while longer. Shamefully, it made her feel a little better when she realised the whole fame thing had been a catalyst, not a cause – it just speeded the whole thing up. It had been incredibly painful but after all the fighting her parents had done she was just glad it was over; the divorce was being finalised that very day.

In some ways the two worlds were moving closer more than she’d thought they ever could or would. After spending so much time dancing, she was shrinking to the same kind of size her superstar alter ego had been. She’d got far too fond of being blonde and had got into the whole bleaching thing – although she was still a few shades darker, trying to keep it just a tad more natural. More was the same than she would ever have cared to admit but she liked the way it was all going.

“Teary, but okay. It’s not like she regrets it, I think it’s just real now.”

“And you?”

“I’m okay.” Louise shrugged, though Renee couldn’t see. “It’s better all round if they split up.”

“Okay my five minutes are up hon but I’ll call if we’re not done too late here, okay?”

“Kay. Go write me a winner, baby.” Louise joked.

“Bye!”

Shutting her phone and dropping it back in her bag, Renee glanced at the piece of paper again, figured it wasn't getting any further and handed it over to Brian, who studied it thoughtfully, nodding his head and smiling in a couple of places, which she thought was good. She hoped it was good, she needed some real stand out tracks on this CD, she needed the record company to be behind the singles and they wouldn’t be if she didn’t deliver.

After quitting college – something her father had been extremely unhappy about but had now come to terms with – she had spent every waking minute in dance classes or at her vocal coach’s house or working to pay for said classes and vocal coach. With college debts outstanding she had had to move back in with her parents while she worked non-stop. The fact was that this whole struggling musician thing was extremely stressful in the financial department.

Musically however, she felt good about it. Her sound was nothing like her other self’s; it was far more her. She got the impression the other Renee had looked for a deal and then looked for a sound – and ended up with the one that the label picked for her. This time she’d done her research, found the music she liked, picked it apart and studied what made it work, made sure she got to play in a whole bunch of different places. She still regretted the jazz bar, which had gone badly and had been very embarrassing.

Of course the label was still pushing and she had to defer judgment a lot but it was kind of RnB and kind of soul and just a little pop, very guitar based. She liked it, anyway. She hoped other people did too or she was sunk. They’d signed her on for one album with an option for two more; the deal was if this album did well she’d be automatically contracted to them and they’d take her on for another two. If it sucked, they dropped her.

Renee really didn’t want that to happen. She’d made a pretty huge decision to get here, and it wasn't like she could take it back – apart from anything else she had buried the necklace in the attic, never wanting to see the thing again.

God or whoever was running the joint had given her a huge push in this direction; she’d been shown that she could do this. Renee knew what she was capable of now and she wanted to achieve it. She wanted to go one better and she wanted to do it all her own way, no neglected families or pushy Marcia types involved. Justin’s attitude had kind of rubbed off on her in that respect. He’d been a huge inspiration to her; in a way it was comforting to think that she’d taken something of him with her.

She seriously missed him, had hated leaving him. It still felt bad to have done that. They’d both been crying and she hated feeling like maybe she’d opened him up to getting crushed when his girlfriend got back – after all, who knew what had happened to her while she’d been college girl? She hadn’t exactly been able to find out.

Positively, Kristi hadn’t seemed to have treated her any differently or mentioned anything terrible, so that was a plus. For the first few weeks she had thought about him every second. She still wondered what he was doing - mostly if he’d fixed his relationship with the other Renee. It was kind of weird but in a way she wanted him to and in another way it hurt like hell thinking of him with somebody else, even her other self.

Well, she was here now, she was doing her thing and going out and going for her dream and she thoroughly believed now that it was her destiny. Maybe she’d make it this way, maybe she wouldn’t but she had to go for it, she knew that now. That meant coming up with the goods on this song and anxiously chewing her thumbnail while her producer was looking it over.

“Okay, got it.” Brian handed her the sheet back.

“What do we think?” She asked nervously.

“I think that bridge wants to be snappier.” He leaned back in his chair with his hands behind his head. “It runs on a little, too many words crammed into the beat, know what I’m saying?” She nodded fervently. “Cut it down a little. But I love it, girl. You’re growing, it’s good.”

“Really?” She bit her lip, blushing.

“I said it didn’t I?” He winked. “Now write.”

***

Finally, after three straight hours of recording vocals, Brian had let her go take a break to go get a drink. He hadn’t wanted to stop and neither had she, she’d managed to hit her stride and they seemed to be getting it how they wanted it to be.

She loved the fact that it was ‘they’ and not ‘he’; she actually felt like she was working with him on the whole thing and she was so excited. She felt good about this song in a way she had about only two others of the ten or so tracks she’d laid down. They were going to be working late, she knew, but the fact was that her voice was going to deteriorate very rapidly if she didn’t get something down her throat and so she had gone to get a cup of tea, into which Brian had instructed her to put some honey. It was apparently good for the vocal chords - she just thought it was disgustingly sweet but if it helped she wasn't going to knock it.

Now she was sitting in the kitchenette among the vending machines and the various gold and platinum discs, feeling a little overawed. Mostly she was staring at the Backstreet Boys and Britney and the huge sales figures engraved on the little plaques. If she’d really wanted to be impressed by numbers she would have turned around but she wasn't sure she could cope with seeing Justin’s face on the *NSYNC records.

It had been difficult with all the media concentration on him, but she had thoroughly avoided all mention of the guy (though she’d paid far too much attention when he had split up with his girlfriend). He wasn't the Justin she knew so technically she could separate them out in her head, but at the same time it was weird to think that they were essentially the same person except with a few different life experiences – now she knew how her so called boyfriend had felt on learning who she was.

Then she really wished she hadn’t got on that thought train because she really missed how supportive he had been (apart from those few days when he hated her). Gulping down the rest of the horrible tea, she got up and left the room to go back to Brian. Humming her song quietly to herself, trying to get back into the groove, she stopped in the corridor trying to remember whether it was left or right when in the corner of her eye she caught the outline of a figure and looked up.

“Claire?”

She gasped in disbelief but the figure had already turned and started walking away, hiding her face.

Hurriedly Renee began to follow. Briefly in the back of her head it occurred to her that this was beyond insane and that she was being ridiculous but still she hurried after her, wanting to know whether it was a real person or she’d hallucinated. Seeing the head finally disappear through a door, she rushed to it and burst through, ready to corner her.

But she couldn’t corner her because she wasn't there. The only person in the room had been sitting at the sound desk and had turned around in surprise, gazing at her with a very familiar set of cobalt eyes. Renee’s breath caught in her throat, the sudden onslaught of emotional issues and good old-fashioned embarrassment a little much.

“Uhh… you’re not Brian.”

“Nope.” Justin Timberlake smiled bemusedly, interestedly at her as she cringed inwardly at the lamest of lame opening lines she had just come out with.

Oh this was strange. She knew him but he didn’t know her - except she didn’t know him because he wasn't the same guy. This wasn't going to get at all confusing...

“I’m Justin. And you are?”

“Really sorry I just burst in on you like that, I’m totally lost… and Renee.” Not knowing what else to do she stuck out her hand, a giddy nervous churning beginning in her stomach as he shook it.

“Wait… Anderson, right?” Now she was even more shocked.

“Wow. You psychic?” Her heart pounded. Was this some weird cross-dimensional thing?

“I heard your name on the old Jive grapevine. Plus I bumped into Brian earlier and he told me he was working with you.” Justin told her brightly, smiling in a welcoming fashion. “He’s cool, isn’t he?”

Renee was almost a little disappointed – yet also thoroughly disgusted with herself for the melodramatic, romanticised idea of reaching out across dimensions that she’d just had. “He’s amazing. I’m learning so much, it’s been really cool. He’s really into the team thing, whereas a couple of the other producers I’ve been working with are kinda…”

“Overbearing?” He nodded knowingly.

“Dictator-ish was the word I was looking for but yeah.”

She hated how the butterflies flew up in her rib cage as he laughed. Justin kept looking at her and meeting her eyes, which she seemed to recall him saying he wasn't very good at with people he just met. It wasn't something she was normally good at either, but it was like there was some magnetic pull and she just had to. He did look good; maybe it was just her hormones.

“It’s just cool to be really working with somebody instead of just being directed, you know?” She filled the couple seconds’ silence, which had felt more like eternity.

“Yeah, I know.” There was the smile again. And there was another second of eye contact. “So I gotta get back to work but it was nice meeting you Renee.”

“You too. Uhh… don’t suppose you can direct me to studio 2 can ya? So I don’t burst in on anybody else?” Renee smiled at Justin and he liked the way it was kind of lop-sided. She seemed like a nice girl.

“Left at the end of the hall, then take your first right. You working with Brian for the next couple of days?”

“I only got Brian for today but I’m back tomorrow with Scott Storch.”

Justin nodded, apparently knowing who that was. Ironically enough (at least for Renee), this guy had worked with Christina. It’d be interesting.

“So I guess I’ll see you round then.”

“Guess so.”

Renee turned around and opened the door, waggling her fingers in his direction before passing through it and letting it click shut behind her. Looking at the wood as if he had x-ray vision and could see through it, Justin stared for a minute, one corner of his mouth turning slowly upwards. She was cute. He remembered when he’d been that new to the game and overawed with everything. She’d been pretty cool with him though, hadn’t gone all star struck. He liked that.

If nothing else, he wouldn’t have to avoid seeing her in the hall like he had the last new chick Jive signed.