Chapter 1: First Time Jitters
The five members of Nsync tiredly made their way into the small studio followed by two of their bodyguards and their manager Johnny Wright. It was late in the afternoon and they were all exhausted from the days events; none of them in the mood to smile for the camera.
“Where’s the photographer man?” One member wined. “I want to get this over with.”
“Why did you schedule this for so late in the day?” Another asked.
“I want to go home and sleep,” Peeped a third.
“I’m hungry.” A fourth grumbled along with his rumbling stomach.
“What kind of photographer we got that can’t even make it to the shoot on time?”
Nsync’s manager just rolled his eyes at the five, so called men, before him. They acted much more like young children then the grown men they claimed to be. “She’ll be here just chill.”
Almost as if on cue an anxious young woman came rushing into the room, clipboard and camera in hand, and over the group. She looked casual in a pair of fitted jeans and plain white t-shirt. Her hair was pulled up into a sloppy pony tail only adding to her flustered appearance. “I am so sorry if I kept you waiting.” She apologized sheepishly. “My meeting ran over and…. I’m just really sorry.”
“Don’t worry about it,” Johnny smiled stepping in front of the quintet. They all watched as a bright smile spread on the woman’s face as the two embraced. “Let me introduce you to the guys. Guys this is Natalie Lockhart.”
Natalie smiled at the bunch shaking each of their hands as Johnny went down the list of names. She was incredibly nervous about this shoot. It was her first shoot with actual celebrities for a real magazine. She had done many photo shoots before but they were mostly just family photos and such. Natalie owed Johnny big time for this little set up.
“Natalie here is a good friend of mine so you better not give her any grief, you hear me?” Johnny warned.
“Why don’t you guys come over here and sit down so we can discuss the type of shots you want.” Natalie suggested timidly pointing to a group of chairs across the room.
“What is there to talk about?” The one with the curly hair, who Johnny had identified as Justin, spoke up. “We smile you take a picture we get to leave…”
Natalie cleared her throat, a nervous habit. “Well…uh…I was thinking we could…”
Justin rolled his eyes at her stuttering assuming she was just another star struck fan and stalked away from her over the chairs she pointed out earlier. Lance shot her an encouraging smile as they all reconvened on the opposite side of the room.
“Don’t let them walk all over you.” Johnny whispered. “Be firm.”
She smiled tightly at his retreating back as he left to do whatever it was managers do. “Well…uh first off we should probably get you all into makeup and costume. Sarah will be helping you with that.” She wasn’t getting any sort of responses from the zombie like men in front of her so she continued. “I did some research on you all and I thought that since this article is about ya’ll interests we could play on that.”
Still they said nothing. She wondered if they were listening; even breathing.
“JC?” He looked up at her expectantly and a blush crept to her cheeks. “I read that you loved to sleep.” JC nodded in confirmation. “I thought maybe we could take a picture of you sleeping….”
He just stared unimpressed. This was all she had? He knew Johnny was just doing her a favor but this was their careers. They needed someone who had a vision and was experienced; not some shy little wallflower who could barely look them in the eyes without blushing.
“Look,” Justin spoke up, “it’s late, we’re tired and we want to go home to see our families. Unless you have got something better than taking a picture of JC asleep I think we’re going to go find ourselves another photographer who actually knows what the hell she’s doing.”
Chris elbowed Justin sharply in the side just as Joey’s hand came in contact with the back of his curly head.
“You’re right.” Natalie replied causing five pairs of eyes to focus on her. “I don’t know what I’m doing. This is my first photo shoot that isn’t for a family photo. I am a little bit nervous. No, scratch that. I have never been so nervous in my entire life. And having you disrespect me like that and talk down to me in a condescending manner is not helping.”
Justin was about to respond but she cut him off. “I would appreciate it if you would keep your sarcastic and demeaning comments to yourself Mr. Timberlake. I have a job to do and I will do it with or without your cooperation.”
Joey clapped his hands together once then twice, three times until him and the other member of Nsync were full out clapping for her, with the exception of Justin that is.
Natalie’s entire body was shaking. How she got the courage to say that to him was beyond her. Nonetheless, it felt good; damn good. It was time to get down to business. She had something to prove now.
“You can’t talk to me like that!” Justin announced standing from his seat.
“She just did man.” Joey snickered pushing Justin back to a sitting position. “You’ll have to excuse Justin, he can be a bit of a diva sometimes.”
“The rest of us didn’t help out much either.” JC added. “Sorry if we made you uncomfortable.”
“That’s fine.” She managed to say after taking a few deep breaths to calm her nerves. “Anyway, I wanted to do something a little different than normal.”
“I’m intrigued,” Chris smiled.
“That’s an awfully big word for you Chris.” Lance teased. “Do you even know what that means?”
Apparently Natalie’s little spiel woke the guys up because there were looking…well alive and actually talking. She smiled at the playful banter between the friends as she tried to formulate some new ideas for their shoot that they and their fans would never forget.
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