“You miss me?”

“Uhh…” Renee was suddenly incredibly aware of the fact that she was revealing so much skin. Mostly because Justin’s hand was on the flat of her back and she could swear it was burning her. It was a little much to process at once and the one person around here who didn’t think she was some global megastar or whatever had just faded into thin air. Leaving her with a very over eager man seriously invading her personal bubble. “Like a hole in the head?”

“Oh you’re just full of laughs, baby.” Justin tapped her nose with an index finger. “I don’t see you for a month and you missed me like a hole in the head.”

“Well maybe I’d have a better welcome speech prepared if I’d known you were just gonna walk through the door and scare the crap out of me.” Squirming out of his embrace, Renee picked up the hooded sweater she’d tossed over the chair earlier and hurriedly put it on, zipping it up over her new improved body. She flashed him a smile, hoping it would have some effect. What effect she wasn't sure but having been thoroughly dumped last night by a guy she had only been casually seeing, discovering she was embroiled in what appeared to be a hot and heavy relationship with a guy she’d only seen on TV and in magazines before, she was going to have to feel her way through this. As long as said feeling didn’t mean literal feeling of him, which she didn’t think she could handle right now. “Ya know, a girl’s dressing room is her temple and sneaking up on her in it ain’t… good.” She finished lamely.

Justin arched an eyebrow at her. “Don’t recall you ever complaining before.”

She blushed crimson, tucking a lock of unfamiliarly blonde hair behind her ear. She hoped he didn’t mean what she thought he meant. All she needed right now was to find out that she was some kind of hussy in this dimension. God, she was even starting to think of it as a dimension, a real world; she needed to stop that. The first step to not being deluded was not wanting to be deluded… or something.

“Well ya know what it’s not been the greatest of days and I’m a little…”

“Schizo?” He offered as he began moving towards her and she immediately side stepped out of his way. Justin gave a slight frown, not pleased by the welcome he was receiving. Normally she was all over him if they’d been apart this long. She looked like a startled rabbit, her eyes were darting all over the room and she looked incredibly wound up.

“Quite possibly.” She muttered. “I’m sorry… uhh… Justin… I’m just a little distracted.” It was weird saying his name. Everything was weird but that was particularly weird, a small streak of tingles had shot through her stomach and they were not pleasant.

“How come? You wanna talk about it?” He asked, finally giving up and moving to sit on the plush couch she always requested in her dressing room. “Jason was bitching that you were like some kind of space cadet so something’s gotta be up. You never get like that in rehearsal.”

“Jason. Oh, yeah, choreographer.” Renee spoke almost inaudibly before remembering she had a (very pretty) set of blue eyes scrutinising her. “It’s nothing, really I just… I’m tired, I guess. I feel like I forgot everything I did in the last few days.”

“You having trouble with the choreography or something, Ren?” The guy was looking at her all concerned and gazing intently and it occurred to Renee that she was his girlfriend and so probably shouldn’t be the other side of the room. So she bit the inside of her cheek, steeled herself, and went to gingerly place herself beside him on the couch. Of course that got a little awkward when he immediately draped an arm over her shoulders.

“Yeah.”

“Really? I thought it was pretty simple. I mean I got it down and you’ve been in dance classes since you were like five…”

“Oh, you got it down?” What did he mean he’d got it down? Renee started pressing, trying to nonchalant. “It all went okay?”

“Yep. All good. Man I can’t wait to see their faces when I just show up on stage with you.”

“Be a surprise alright.” They were performing together? They were boyfriend and girlfriend and they were performing together? She had to suppress her gag reflex - could they be any tackier?

“Are you still worried about this? Is that what’s been getting at you in rehearsal?” Justin shifted, turning towards her and dropping a kiss on her hairline while Renee tried to act like this was something she was used to. “Baby, I know you don’t want us to look like we’re using ‘us’ to get attention…” Well at least even if she was a hussy her famous self hadn’t lost all shame and common sense. “But it’s not like we’re singing some lame ass sappy ballad. And you know I wouldn’t have let them talk me into this, or more to the point let them talk you into this if I didn’t think it’d be cool.”

“I…I…” there were a lot of pauses in her speech today. It was unnatural for her; she normally managed to fill in the gaps pretty easily. She just hoped maybe the Renee Justin thought he was talking to was a little less like that. “You know what, you’re right. I’m just a little spaced out today and it kind of got me thinking again.”

“Well quit worrying.” He smiled, leaning over and landing his lips on hers again for a moment. “We just go in there this afternoon and put your parts and my parts together, you shake that hot little booty of yours like you’re supposed to and it’ll be fine.”

“And if it’s not I’ll just blame you ‘cause you lied and said it would be and dish out some appropriate punishment.” There, she could do this; she could do the whole banter thing.

“Trust me, Renee, it’ll be fine.”

Unfortunately she had absolutely no excuse for just jumping away this time. He’d been sitting on the couch; she couldn’t just claim that he had startled her. So she had to give into the kiss and try and muster up some kind of appropriate response. He was hot, but it was just too bizarre and awkward for her – sure she’d had a crush on him before she’d sort of graduated to JC in that respect, so it wasn't like she found him repulsive but she just didn’t know the guy. Here she was sitting on some couch being all intimate and cosy with a guy who was to her a complete stranger. Yet still he had his lips on hers and his tongue in her mouth and then it was all she could do to keep from yelling ‘hands, HANDS!’ She clamped her own hand down on the one that had begun creeping up her thigh and looked –well, felt – suspiciously like it was headed for her derriere, and she pulled back from the kiss as naturally as she could.

“So, come on, tell me what the great Justin Timberlake’s been doing since our last phone call.”

This really was, no contest, the most freakish day she had ever lived through.

***

Claire sat on the plush armchair, checking out Renee’s hotel suite. It was definitely nice; she was impressed. She’d been told the wish had been granted and everything but she’d had absolutely no idea what that would actually mean in practical terms. It really was the whole enchilada that had been handed to the girl. It was a nice little deal: unlimited credit, free stuff, nice hotel rooms and all the best service, bodyguards, a hot boyfriend, disregarding any actual work type stuff. If Claire had actually been corporeal, she would so be instilling herself as Renee’s assistant or something, get in the entourage. As it was, the only thing she could physically do was sit down or walk around. She couldn’t pick things up or even open doors, it really kind of sucked. She was bored as hell waiting for Little Miss Pop Star to get back and she couldn’t even entertain herself because she couldn’t touch anything. Yet again she cursed herself for not looking both damn ways when she had crossed that one stupid street. Being dead was not fun.

So she folded her hands and smiled sweetly as the door finally opened and Renee walked through – followed by Justin Timberlake. Claire raised an eyebrow and smirked as Renee’s face drained of all colour again and took on the panicked glaze to which it had grown so accustomed to over the past twenty-four hours.

“Well, you have walked me to my room so I think your work here is done.” She told him with false brightness.

“I wish I could stay but when you gotta go on stupid chat shows you gotta go on stupid chat shows. I’ll come get you for breakfast before rehearsals tomorrow?”

“Uhh, sure.” Renee leaned forward and gave him a peck on the lips before placing a hand gently on his shoulder and pushing him back through the doorway in which he’d been lingering. “Now go, be that Timberlake guy.”

He made a slight groan before moving to kiss her again. “I love you.”

“You too.” She squeaked. “Bye now.” She hung in the doorway for a second as he moved off, and gave him a quick wave for appearance’s sake before hurriedly shutting the door behind her and turning to face Claire with a hard gleam in her eye.

“Well it looks like somebody’s been having fun.” Claire mused.

“No, no, no.” Renee growled. “Disneyland is fun. The beach is fun. Pigging out on ice cream and watching chick flicks with your roommate is fun. This is HELL, okay, HELL!”

“Man, if that’s hell I should’ve sold my soul while I still had the chance.”

“You need to explain this all to me because I have no idea what’s going on!” Renee started ranting, gesticulating wildly as she advanced on Claire who was extremely glad that any punches the girl threw would go straight through her, no harm no foul. “You turned me into Britney freaking Spears or something, you gave me her songs and her boyfriend and her life and you didn’t tell me how to do this or who any of these people are and I have no idea what I’m doing and I am seriously about to lose my mind here!”

“Okay, honey, take a deep breath and sit down for God’s sake.” The ghost -or spirit guide or whatever the heck she was - was telling her to be calm? Still, Renee did obey the request. “Where you want me to start?”

“I don’t know.” She collapsed onto the couch, kicking off her sneakers and sprawling out. “You just tell me from the beginning and I’ll butt in if you missed something I guess.”

“Okay then.” Claire stood up and began pacing the living area slowly. For some reason it always felt like she should be on her feet when she did stuff like this. “So… the necklace. The onyx one. Like I told you earlier, you rub it while you’re making a wish and it comes true.”

“Why didn’t Grandma tell me?” Already she was interrupting.

“Funny story.” She replied, folding her arms across her chest and looking directly at her conversation partner. “She didn’t know. Nobody did. I mean, think about it, if you didn’t know that the thing was magic and how it works, what are the odds of you rubbing while actually making a wish out loud? Besides, on the few occasions anybody ever did they didn’t wish for anything that big, like an extra five bucks or whatever.”

“And they didn’t notice they suddenly got five extra bucks?”

Claire shrugged. “You explain it away, put it down to luck. So anyway then you went and made this big huge wish and to make it come true… well, it brought you here. Which, before you ask, is an alternate reality. There’s like millions of them, ‘cause, you know, all choices have consequences and so when people make even little difference in choices it changes the whole course of their lives in unimaginable ways. Honestly, girl, I’ve seen it and it’s, like, mind blowing.”

“So what choice did I make here?” Renee asked.

“Well, here, you never gave up voice coach and dance class.” She recited, filling her in. “You kept entering shows and then you started auditioning and playing open mike nights and you got talent scouted by this guy… you know what, I’ll get you your official book and you can read the details but you wound up with a record deal.”

“And bleached hair, breast implants and anorexia? Why’d you turn me into Britney Spears?”

It was scary; the huff began just as it always had when she was alive. Renee got seriously freaked out watching it happen again. Claire’s face screwed up and she stomped her foot a little and tossed her hair with her hands on her hips. “I did NOT turn you into… you are not Britney damn Spears and I didn’t even do this, okay, some all magic thingamabob did. I’m just here because somebody on high realised what you did and how catastrophically bad it would be if you didn’t know what was going on and messed up the whole balance of existence behaving like yourself and making this reality’s Renee look like she went cuckoo!” Taking a deep breath, Claire began again. “Like I said, Britney Spears faded back into obscurity. She’s still in Louisiana being a kindergarten teacher. She just never made it big and you did. If you sing any of her songs I guess it’s just coincidence that the people still wrote them and shopped them to record companies or whatever.”

“Sorry.” The more alive of the two didn’t sound too contrite. After the day she’d had she was apologising for nothing and to nobody. “Go on.”

“You got a record deal and the hair… you just tried it and liked it. You’re thinner because you spend your whole life dancing and exercising and the implants, which you publicly deny having, you got because when you were looking for a deal you got this idea in your head they wanted a girl with bigger boobs. Sadly I think you were maybe onto something ‘cause the first company you went to after had already turned you down once and then they signed you.”

“And Justin?” Renee asked as Claire sat back down and threw her feet over the arm of the chair, crossing her ankles.

“You met him at the 2000 Billboard Awards, got on like a house on fire or whatever and he asked you out.”

“So he never dated Britney?” Doing the math in her head, she realised that was a good three years. Okay, so maybe she wasn't such a hussy if she’d been dating the man for three years. It would explain how touchy feely he was and obviously expected her to be.

“WHAT is your obsession with Britney Spears? NO he didn’t because she never got a record deal so she was never the opening act for his tour and he never really saw her again after MMC.” She rolled her eyes and shook her head. God, she’d barely been dead a decade and Renee had turned into such a whiner. “Okay, now if you ask me about her just one more time I am going to abandon your ass and leave you to this whole new life of yours, alright? We clear? Good. So that’s basically it. You got this new album out and this song you’re premiering at the VMAs is the first single, except that Justin isn’t actually on the studio version, he’s just there for the performance.”

“What about my family and friends and everything, are they all the same?” She asked, suddenly panicked.

“All the same.” Claire reassured her. “You lost a few friends along the way but that’s the price of fame, you find out who your real friends are.”

“How do I do this?” Renee questioned quietly, hugging a sofa cushion to herself, wishing it could bring her even some small comfort. “I don’t know any of this. I don’t know the words to any of my songs, I don’t know my life story, how am I supposed to do interviews and stuff and learn these dances and crap?”

“You wing it.” This time there was at least some small amount of sympathy in her voice. “Like I said, I’ll leave you the albums and copies of the videos and everything and you can do some research but… you wanted this. You gotta work it out yourself. Look, I gotta run again, they only let me have so long with you at a time. You gonna be alright?”

“What happened to the old me? And to the me that’s supposed to be here?”

“I don’t know, exactly. There’ll be some other version of you in there, whether she’ll know what happened… I don’t know, they don’t tell me everything. It’s not as if you died though. Maybe they literally just switched you both over and she’s having a gay old time being normal again. You… she… whoever, there’s been some bitching about that lately in this world.”

“I mean, how do I get back there once I’m done here?”

“Done?” Claire paled. Well, okay, she would have paled had she not been dead and already possessing an ivory complexion. “I… it… you ripped open the cosmos and switched with yourself sweetie. It’s not like you click your heels three times and say there’s no place like home. That’s some serious mojo there, you can’t just…”

“What? You mean I’m STUCK HERE?” Renee rose from the couch, face ashen one second and turning swiftly purple with rage the next.

“You wanted a new life, Ren. They gave you one.”

“But you need to fix this!” The yelling began at what was an impressive decibel level. Obviously this singing career of hers had given her some serious lung capacity. “I can’t…”

“I gotta go, I’m sorry.” Claire looked kind of glad to be fading into oblivion.

“DAMN IT!”

Renee threw the cushion across the room and threw herself to her feet in an apoplectic rage. This was unbelievable. This was so unfair. Of all the people in the world who’d wished a million times that they could have been famous, she had to be the poor sucker who wished it out loud rubbing on a magic pendant? And now she was stuck here forever in some life that wasn't hers? Sure it’d be all well and good if she’d lived this life from the beginning but it really did feel like she was walking around in somebody else’s shoes. Who cared if they were physically… well, not physically what with the implants and stuff and all, but genetically identical and had been born to raised by the same people? At the end of the day, she hadn’t been the one who had worked for all this, she had no background and nothing to go on and she was supposed to step right into this life and live it well? How was that fair? She’d call Kristi but she couldn’t even do that because she had met Kristi at college and by the sounds of it this Renee had never been to college so Kristi had never met her before in her life.

She couldn’t even imagine being this person. This person… she’d had a breast enlargement and lied about it. She’d had cosmetic surgery to make herself more appealing or whatever… Renee couldn’t imagine ever selling herself out like that but obviously she had. Her normal life body hadn’t been particularly bad, she could have bared her belly if she wanted to but she never would, yet all the clothes in this Renee’s closet were slashed at the waist or neck or thighs and it was the kind of stuff she would consider hooker wear. This girl was apparently used to Justin Timberlake randomly attacking her in dressing rooms and would think absolutely nothing of giving him free rein to let his hands wander. Maybe that wasn't a hardship to some but honestly he was a lot grabbier than she would ever have imagined him to be from his TV appearances or whatever.

And yet the only thing that separated this person out from herself was a decision that her best friend’s death wasn't going to stop her singing and dancing. Less angry, more anxious now, Renee walked into the bedroom hoping that her famous alter ego at least had some comfy pyjamas she could crawl into. True to her word, Claire had magically or… well, whatever; somehow there was a big pile of videos, CDs and magazines on her bed. She presumed they must have interviews or something in them. She reached the pile and with a sad smile picked up a piece of Hello Kitty notepaper. That had always been Claire’s favourite.

Renata,

Videos, Making The Video, Leno, TRL appearances, Rosie O’Donnell, Saturday Night Live, Good Morning America and Punk’d, plus a tour documentary. It’s only the tip of the iceberg but it should help. I took the liberty of cutting the award shows down to just the parts where you’re on camera or Justin is accepting awards and confessing his undying love in the thank you speech (gag). Perks of being a ghostly spirit guide thing, I also cut out the ad breaks. There are some features and a few gossip column snippets in the reading material. Don’t try to watch them all at once.

Clara xx