Cam looked at him seriously for one second before bursting into laughter. JC looked cross.

"What?" He asked, annoyed.

"You're serious!"

"Why would I not be?"

"But...but... you can't!"

"Why not?"

"JC." Cam looked at him seriously for once. "You're not a mass CD producer."

"But I can be." JC insisted. "I've got a thought."

Cam shook her head. "Baby... you need a cup of water."

"I've got a thought." JC repeated. "We can do this, I know we can."

"There are so many things wrong with this, I can't begin." Cam said, heading towards the kitchen.

"I wanna hear what's so morally wrong with my idea." JC said, following her.

"Well... it's not practical. Assuming you turn into big assembly line, just where are you getting the CD? Sure, you sang on it, but do you physically have it?"

"Oh yeah." JC settled in a chair and looked defeated. "It's back at Transcon."

"Yeah, and remember the day you were stripped of all your ID and key cards?" Cam asked, pouring and glass of water and handing it to him. JC took a sip and put it down.

"Yeah, I remember that. Especially the male security guard who took the liberty of frisking my inner thighs."

Cam laughed. "So there's no possible way your idea could work. You'll just have to wait and get sued with the rest of them."

JC couldn't help feeling disappointed, even though he realized his great idea was ridiculous.

"Cheer up!" Cam insisted, squeezing his shoulders. "Everything will work out fine. You'll do something. Or something will happen. If you just wait--"

"Know what, Cam." JC interrupted. "You just helped me again."

"What did I do this time?"

"Everything bad is happening ‘cause I let someone make decisions for me. I just sat back and waited for my turn. Well I'm not waiting anymore. I'm making my own future. If I wanna sell my own CD, I'll sell it. It's my turn now." JC strode purposefully towards the door, leaving Cam in the kitchen.

"Where are you going?" Cam asked timidly. She couldn't help feeling like she made him mad.

"To see the guys." He answered.

"Are you mad at me?" Cam asked in a small voice.

JC turned around and gave her a big grin. "Nah... you helped me see the light."

* * *

"So we enter through here." Lance said, pointing to the starting place on the map.

"Who's going?" Justin asked impatiently.

"Me." Chris said.

"Me." Joey chimed.

"Me." Lance said sternly.

"Meeee." Justin whined.

"We can't all go, only two." JC pointed out.

"Let me go." Lance said. "I know how to work all my stuff."

"True, Lance is in." JC said. "As for the rest of you... qualifications?"

"I'm skinny." Justin said.

"So am I!" Chris shouted.

"Leaves me out." Joey mumbled miserably.

"That's not a good qualification." JC looked at his four best friends who were seated in his living room. It was the next day, around noon. The plans had been going on since 9. They were really going to do this. They were going to break the law just for the freedom to sell their own CD. They were about to put themselves in more trouble than they ever imagined.

Surprisingly, it felt good. It was like standing up for what you believe in. What was happening to them was not fair and had been like that for a while. It was time they fought back. Together, as brothers. For them, for their fans, for those who came before them and those who would come after.

It wasn't like this was something really big, but it was important. The freedom of speech and choice and right to distribute your own material is a right everyone should have. No one should control anyone the way they were being controlled before they left the system. The way the system was controlling them now.

"Then what is?" Justin asked, impatiently.

"I need Lance and Chris with me." JC said, matter-of-factly. "So Justin and Joey go."

"Yes!" Justin and Joey whooped.

"Does that mean we're the most important?" Joey asked.

"No, of course not." JC said.

Justin and Joey looked a little less excited.

"I don't get the plan." Chris piped up.

"We aren't finished making the plan." Lance said. "Okay, so Joey and Justin go in through there." He stubbornly pointed at the same spot.

"I know that." Chris rolled his eyes.

"Then... they... walk to the vault."

"Dude!" Justin cried suddenly, as if he just had a thought. "Did we ever know the combo to that thing?"

"Yeah, isn't voice activated." Chris agreed.

"Oh yeah." Lance said slowly.

"What are we going to do about that?" Joey asked.

"Don't worry, got it covered." JC reassured. "The CD is not in the vault, you dummies."

"Oh." Everyone said with relief.

"Wait a minute..." Justin said, drawing out his suspicions. "Are you saying they don't think our CD is THAT important! Not important enough to be in the vault?!"

"Oh shut up." JC said. "It makes our lives a lot, a lot easier."

"Okay go over the plan again." Chris said. "I'm still confused."

"I'm not even finished with the first time." Lance told him. The door was pushed open. JC looked up, face already turning red in a guilty blush.

"Gots it for ya, Lance." A young pretty black woman looked up from her black briefcase.
"Hey guys. Looks like JC's house is a party."

"Hey Triscia." JC greeted, the others echoing his greetings.

"Did I just break up a secret meeting?" Triscia grinned as their faces gave them away. "Thought so. Don't worry. Lance told me."

Lance was met with four looks. "What?" He said innocently. "I had to tell Triscia. She's my friend." Triscia Deigo hailed from Clinton, Mississippi, same as Lance, though her life had a more made-for-TV-movie feel to it. She was raised in a old-fashioned town. She learned, being black, that segregation was an option usually taken. It was a mostly white town, so the black people pretty much kept to themselves. There were more black kids in the school then who actually lived there, sent out of the way because (of course) white schools were the best. They sat at their own lunch table and played with each other and that's the way it was and always was going to be.

Triscia abided the rules best she could, but she wasn't a follower. She met Lance after giving him a bloody nose in kickball and it went on from there. Their friendship was only natural, they lived close to each other and not that many kids around. They were blanketed by the innocence of childhood that made them immune to the color of each other's skin.

Eventually they grew up and Triscia began to realize that her and Lance's relationship was a little weird. They grew apart for a little while, until Triscia wondered why she was letting other people decide who she could be with. She ignored the funny looks and hung out with Lance again, and his white friends, went to white parties and even dated a few white guys and was basically having a good time.

Her senior year she was finally called upon it by her parents. "Triscia," they asked you. "What are you? Black or white." Triscia pointed to herself and stated simply, "I'm TRISCIA." After that she wasn't very welcome in her own home anymore. They just didn’t understand her. It was a mutual disowning. Triscia went to college and put herself through in three years, working 7 days a week, 8 hours on weekdays, 32 hours on weekends, two different jobs. Surprisingly she graduated top of her class.

After majoring in Photography and Education she toured Europe for a year on a special program, but ended up back in the states. She rekindled her friendship with Lance, which stayed pretty strong through time and somehow they ended up sharing an apartment, though they weren't tied together romantically, just friends.

Triscia managed five webpages for small businesses and payed off her student loans until she found a teaching position somewhere.

"Your crime is safe with me." Triscia promised, throwing the briefcase on the bed.

"It's not a crime." JC corrected. "We're borrowing something."

"Which you are breaking in to get." Triscia giggled. "No, it's not a crime."

"Call it whatever you want." JC said. "Trish, just don't say a word."

"Secret dies with me." Triscia crossed her heart. "But if you think you guys are seriously going to get away with this, you are sadly mistaken. The question is: how long can you run?"

JC chuckled nervously. "Hopefully, it won't come down to that."

"Well... okay, dream... but you guys need me anyways."

Joey scoffed. "Why do we NEED you?"

"Weeell, just because you guys are the most innocent kids in the world. You guys have never done anything bad in your lives."

"How do you know?" Joey argued.

"Trish, you haven't exactly been to jail and back either." Lance pointed out.

"That is BESIDES the point. I'm the best manipulator out there. You need someone to lie for you and that somebody is me."

"I don't think lying is something to be proud of." JC smiled

"You don't understand. I am soooo good at making people believe me. Once I convinced Lance that the moon was 2 parts blue cheese." They looked at Lance for conformation.

"Okay." Lance confirmed. "She's not kidding. I was convinced for about two weeks."

"How old were you?" Justin asked.

"15." They all had a good laugh.

"Okay, what did you say to make him believe it?" Chris asked.

"I don't remember." Triscia shrugged, looking at her nails. They looked at Lance.

"Whatever it was." Lance said, "it was very convincing."

"So... are you gonna mess with our minds too?" Joey asked.

"I only do it if I really like you." Triscia promised, giving Lance a sideways smile. "So I'll do it for you guys. What's the plan?"

"That's what we've been trying to go over." Lance said.

"Wait, I got a question. Purely for personal interest ya know."

"What?" Lance looked up at his friend.

"Why are you guys all of a sudden so bent against Transcontinental and RCA? I mean you've been with them for years. What's the bad?"
The five men exchanged looks.

"Well, you see..." JC started.

"No." Justin interrupted quietly. "I'll tell the story."