"Now do you have everything you'll need?" Lynn stepped up behind her son, her southern drawl evident.

"Yeah, I think so. It's hard to pack for four months when you don't know what your going to be doing, therefor you don't know what you're going to need."

"Well I'm sure there's a store or something around. Besides, there's always FedEx if you have to have something," she reasoned.

"True," he turned to her with sad eyes, "Mommy, I don't wanna leave. I just got home."

"I know. But just think of all the fun you'll have. The parties, the rallies, and it'll give you a chance to get out and meet some people your own age."

"Ma, I'm 21, they're in highschool."

"Well, somewhat close to your age then," she messed with his hair alittle.

He gave her his infamous puppy dog eyes, but she was completely immune to it. However, that did set off her Mommy alarm.

"Do you really not want to do this Justin? Because you know you don't have too."

"No, I do," he sat down on the bed, "atleast I think I do. I'm just scared I think. Giving up everything for half a year and going to live in some strange dudes house and do things his way."

He still didn't know anything about his host family, except for the fact that he had one. He didn't even know where he was going.

"Well that's understandable honey, but things aren't going to be as bad as you think. You and this guy will become friends and you'll love it and not want to come home afterwards."

Justin shook his head.

"Might be true, you never know," she pushed.

A horn honked outside and they stood up, bringing the last of his numberous bags down with them to be loaded into the van. Justin, Lynn, and Paul all said goodbye at the door and Justin was put on a plane from LA to San Francisco. Two man were waiting for him at the gate with his name written on a piece of cardboard.

"Justin? Hi, my name is Ryan?" he reached out to shake Justin's hand.

"Are you the guy I'm staying with?" he asked.

"No, I'm just a lowly producer. I'm here to take you to the person you're staying with."

Justin nodded.

"Follow me," the man headed towards the exit.

"What about my bags?" Justin motioned to baggage claim.

"They're already being taken care of for you."

Justin followed the man through the sliding glass doors and the salty air smell hit him in the face. It was sunny and there were seagulls flying over head, people ducking everytime one came near. He was surprised when he realized that there wasn't a single camera crew or reporter in sight. But then he remembered that it wasn't allowed. Not only was MTV trying to keep the show as much of a secret as possible, but a judge had granted them a restraining order, keeping all reporters and tv stations 200 yards away from production, and specific places in the town like the highschool and his temporary home.

"Now, there's a camera man in the car, because we're going to tape the beginning of the first episode. We'll go over everything, give you information on your host family and such, and when we drop you off it'll be at the house."

Justin's nerves kicked in and his stomach became a ball of knots.

"Alright," he replied.

Ryan climbed into a long white SUV limo, and Justin followed behind, the sharp light from the camera hitting him in the face. Ryan asked about how he was feeling, any oprehensions he had about the show, what he was expecting, and then he pulled out a manilla envelope and Justin could hear the 'Who Wants to be A Millionaire is that your final answer' music in his head.

"Well Justin, it's time for us to tell you about your family," the man put on his glasses and pulled a paper out of the envelope before pressing 'play' on the mini TV just over his shoulder, "You've been partnered with a young woman named Judy Bucklass."

A girl? His partner was a girl?!

"She's 17 years old and is, obviously, a high school senior. She's got more classes than the other seniors at her school, but she's also known for having alot on her plate. She's a member of several clubs, holding an officer positions in most of them. She works closely with international organizations like VDay, Amnesty International and the ACLU, as well as volunteering for her local Demoratic representatives. She works on the school paper and contributes to the literary magazine. She's a budding singer/actress on the side, as well as having her own website. She's popular, her weekends are booked up with parties and other social functions. She's well liked by the student body and the school faculty, but mostly keeps to her close-knit circle of friends. We think you will get along quite nicely."

The video behind him never showed what the girl looked like, but it did show some of the school grounds, her home, and some functions that she must have been involved in in one way or another.

In Justin's mind it bascially worked out to be that he was going to live with a) a GIRL. b) a nerdy GIRL. He was not a happy camper.

"She lives on the East side of Central Valley."

Uh, where?

"It's a small town, one highschool. She lives with her mother, Diane, her brother, Marcus, and her two pets, a dog and a turtle. Do you have any questions?"

He wanted to say, 'Lemme get this straight. I'm being sent to bum-fucking-Egypt to live with a nerdy 17 year old girl?' but he opted to shake his head no instead. He figured this may not turn out to be so bad. Maybe Judy was a hot nerdy girl and he'd have the 'living with her' advantage.

"Alright, let's go over some of the rules. 1) You're mirroring Judy for the entire semester, so you have to follow her everywhere she goes, except for when sleeping, changing, or in the bathroom. You'll have the first day to go where you like in the house inorder to get acquainted and adjusted, but the next day, you'll have to go with her everywhere. Everytime she leaves a room, so do you. If there's ever a time where she's somewhere and you aren't, you're phone call for that day will be taken away.

"That brings us to number 2. In order to help you get into the role of a highschool student, you'll have limited contact with the outside world. You're cellphone is being turned over to us and we're giving you a new phone will limited coverage. This can be used to contact Judy, her mother, and friends of hers, but any one who's number was porgrammed into your old phone, has been blocked. So no calling Trace, Johnny, your Mom, any of the guys, no one. You can contact one person per night, for 15 minutes on the house phone, unless of course you for some reason break rule number one, in which case the phone call will be taken away. If you're still on the phone once your 15 minutes are up, it will simply disconnect you."

Harsh.

"You will have 6 classes a day, ofcourse whether you attend them or not is up to Judy," Justin chuckled and Ryan shrugged, "You know how Senior year is. However, both you and Judy will both be expected to keep your grades up with atleast a 2.5 or better. At the end of the year, your GPA will be aired during the last episode. Do you have any questions?"

"Nope."

"How are you feeling right now?"

"I'm alittle--just--overwhelmed. It's alot to take in."

The camera turned off and Justin turned to look out the window as they rolled down the freeway. He recognised one of the freeway exits, this was Oakland. But the limo kept on rolled for several more miles before it pulled off at an exit marked 'Center Street/Central Valley Blvd.' From there it was a few feet to a traffic light, and then a right turn down a little suburban street.

"We're here," Ryan said.

The limo pulled into a cul-de-sac, with a small pink and green house towards the left with three cars in the driveway.

"This is where we leave you," Ryan said, "Steve will stay with you, filming the series. We're going to try to stay out of it as much as possible, so you get the full affect. You'll only be hearing from me if there's a problem."

Justin took a deep breath as Steve climbed out and then turned to get a shot of him. He climbed out and slowly strolled towards the house, mugging for the camera even though his insides were quivering with nervousness.

This was it.