Nick entered his ID card in the machine by the door, knocked, slowly opened the door, and made his way in. They were all seated in the same place since Nick had left. "Hey guys, I'm back."

"Already?" Brian asked frowning. "You finished with the tutoring?"

"Nah, there just wasn't enough time to finish it. I don't want to cram everything in a short period of time, you know?" Nick walked over to his locker and pulled his council folder out and walked back over to take his seat at the table.

"So, that means..." Marshall pondered.

"That means, I'm gonna go over to his place and tutor him. He's got a math test tomorrow and doesn't know what is what. I feel like it's my duty to help him out considering his previous tutors didn't do jack." Nick said angrily.

"Previous tutors... what?" Scott questioned, confused.

Nick sighed and told them what Justin had told him. When he was done everyone at the table had a look of anger upon their faces. "You'd better give me the list of their names Carter. They shouldn't have been in the program in the first place." Marshall was pissed.

"Yea, sure." Nick agreed and then walked over to the door when he heard a knock. "Come on in," he said to Justin as he moved out of the way to let the younger boy in.

"Hey," Justin said quietly. He was feeling out of place and felt nervous when all eyes were on him.

"Hi," came Marshall's reply.

"Hey kid," came Scott's.

"Hmmm," Brian said squinting his eyes at Justin. A look that can either be described as 'thinking' or 'shooting invisible daggers.' Justin shifted from one foot to the other. "You look familiar."

"Oh, you probably saw me in the halls or something." Justin said. His southern accent appearing as his nervousness increased.

"No... I don't think so. I saw you somewhere else. Where you from?" Brian noticed the accent and he could have sworn he saw the younger man someplace. He thinks he might just know from where and how.

"I, uh... I'm from Memphis, Tennessee."

"I knew it! I read an article about you in the newspaper. You won that bea... contest didn't you? A few years ago." Brian was going to say 'beauty pageant' but when he saw the horrified look on his face he ended up saying 'contest.'

Justin blushed. "Yea, that was me."

Brian punched his hand in the air. "Yes, I knew I recognized you. What's your name anyways?"

"Guys this is Justin." Nick pointed at Justin. "Justin Timberlake. Justin these are the guys." Nick waved at the guys. "The one with the bleached head is Marshall Mathers, sometimes we call him Em. He's a senior and is also the President of the student council. The one sitting next to him is Scott Robinson, the Secretary as well as a senior. The one whose eyes are like a mouse's eyes is Brian Littrell. He means no harm, really, and feel free to ignore him. He's the VP and a junior. And I'm Nick Carter, Treasurer, and a sophomore." Nick finished pointing at himself and chuckled. "But you already knew that."

Justin shook all their hands as Nick introduced them and laughed at Nick's last comment but shook his hand nonetheless. "It's nice to meet you guys. I'm not so sure about you though." Justin said the last bit to Nick.

"Hey," Nick pouted and whined. "That's not fair."

"God damn, Carter. Where the hell did you learn how to whine like that?” Marshall whined. "That's so annoying."

"Ha, classic," Scott said to Justin laughing. "You're not so bad kid. He already got on your nerves, eh?"

Justin laughed. "Nah. Just met the guy, don't know him all that well."

Nick scrunched his face up. "Yea. Know the guy for a few minutes, try and help him with his classes and what do I get? I get picked on." Nick pretended to be an old man walking towards the table, slightly bent with one hand on his back and another holding an invisible cane. "Kids these days... no respect for their elders. Geez!" He muttered mimicking an old man.

"Whatever." Justin rolled his eyes and laughed.

Nick stuck his tongue out at him and grinned. Justin got butterflies in his stomach as he saw Nick being all silly and playful. He couldn't help but wonder just how playful he would be if they were alone together.

"The meeting's almost over. We just have a few more things to discuss," Scott said looking down at his checklist. "I'm glad you're back Nick. We need to know some figures for each thing."

"I figured. What would you guys ever do without me?"

"Probably have another election and get a new less whinier Treasurer," Marshall stated in a matter of fact tone and then cracked up when Nick glared at him.

"Why don't you just sit down over there and we'll be done soon." Nick told Justin as he pointed at the beanie chair next to their table. "You could watch TV or a movie or something while you wait." Nick pointed at the TV that was across from the chair and then at the rack that contained DVD's that was next to it.

Justin nodded and looked through the selection as Nick went back to his meeting. Justin finally found a movie he wanted to see and put that in the DVD player. He removed his book bag and coat and got comfortable in the beanie chair. Taking the remote, turning the volume down low as to not disturb the meeting, Justin relaxed and watched as the introductions to I, Robot filled the screen.

At 5:15 the meeting finished and they all started cleaning up and getting their things together. Justin was so engrossed in the movie that he hadn't noticed just what was going on around him.

"The kid's like not even on this planet anymore," Scott noticed as he started to put his sweaters and coat on.

"What's he watching, anyway?" Marshall asked.

"I think, I, Robot," Nick guessed. "I heard a few lines that sounded familiar but I'm not sure." He walked over to where Justin was seated and looked at the screen. "Yup, I, Robot." He smiled when he recognized the scene and pulled a chair next to Justin to sit down on. Now Nick was engrossed. By the time the movie ended Marshall and Brian were sharing a seat next to Nick while Scott was seated in front of him on the floor resting his back against Nick's legs. "That was a good movie. Third time watching it but still as exciting as the first time." Nick said breaking the silence.

"Yea, it was. My first time seeing it, though." Justin replied. He looked around and noticed everyone sitting there. He frowned. When the hell did they join in? Justin thought to himself. He really needs to pay more attention.

Marshall looked at the watch and saw that it was 5:55. "We'd better get going guys unless you want to be locked in the school till morning. I, for one, rather not," he stated as he got up to finish getting ready.

Scott, Brian, Nick and Justin followed his actions. By 6:00 they were all ready and exiting their school. Once outside they bid their goodbyes to Scott who turned to the left to walk home while Marshall, Nick, Brian, and Justin walked a block down to the right to get to the subway. They talked for a bit before they bid their goodbyes to Marshall who walked to the left side of the subway to take his downtown & Brooklyn train whereas Justin, Brian, and Nick quickly went the other way to get their uptown & the Bronx train. Brian said his good bye to Nick and Justin when his train arrived and a few minutes later Justin and Nick got on the train that would take them to his stop.

* * * * * * * * * *

Thirty minutes later they were standing in front of Justin's apartment on the 17th floor. Nick waited as Justin looked for his keys. "This is my humble abode. Welcome." Justin said as he opened the door, letting Nick walk in before he himself entered, and shut the door. He turned the lights on and hung his keys on the key ring next to the door.

"Wow," Nick said looking around. "This place is nice." He was standing in the entrance hallway. From his position he could see the living room straight-ahead, it was spacious and cozy. As he walked further down the little hall just before entering the living room he noticed a sweeping staircase to his left leading up to the second floor. Walking further he noticed that there was a bathroom underneath the staircase and a little hallway that had a door in the middle of the wall and at the end of it was a floor to ceiling window. To his right was another door that lead into what looked like the kitchen. Walking even further more in to the living room there was another door that seemed to be the dining room. Nick turned back to face Justin.

"Thanks," Justin said. "We just moved here this summer. Would you like a tour or something to drink or eat?"

"Tour would be cool and if you have coke, can I have that please?"

Justin nodded. "Yea, be right back." He walked into the kitchen and a few seconds later walked back out with two cans of coco-cola. He handed one for Nick and opened his own to take a sip from it. "Well, this is the living room, as you can tell," Justin chuckled waving his left hand around at the room. "That's our patio/balcony type thing," Justin indicated to the two sliding doors located across from them in the living room. Then slightly turning to his left and pointing to the little hallway by the staircase he said, "That little hallway contains the guest bedroom and under the staircase over there is the bathroom." He then turned around and pointed to the room he just got out from. "That's the kitchen and this is the dinning room," Justin said pointing to the kitchen entrance and then moving his hand to left a few inches to point out the dining room. "There's a door in there that connects both rooms. That metal shutters thing you see past that is the bar. My step-dad didn't get around to opening and setting that up yet." Turning back towards Nick he waved his hand up at the second floor. "We can study upstairs in my room. Let's go."

Nick nodded his head and followed Justin up the stairs. Once on the second floor landing Justin pointed down the hall to his left. "The room at the end of the hall is the master bedroom, of course, belongs to my parents. They have their own bathroom in there as well as a balcony. Turning to the right Justin walked on slowly. To their left was a wall and to their right was the black iron railing and they could see downstairs into the living room. As the railing stopped a wall started... making it look like they were walking down a hallway again. "This is the bathroom," Justin pointed to his left. "And at the end of the hallway is my room." He opened the door and walked inside thankful that he'd cleaned his room last night.

"Nice room," Nick said as he walked over to the window on the left side of the room passing the corner desk and bookcase. Looking outside he got a beautiful view of central park. "Nice view." He turned to look at Justin and furrowed his brows. Across from him on the opposite wall was another window. "What's that window for?" Nick asked pointing. Justin turned around and said, "Oh, its looks out into the living room." Nick walked over and peered through it. “Cool." He could see the entire living room, the staircase, the kitchen, the dinning room, and the entrance hallway. Turning back around he saw that Justin's room was basically decorated in all light and dark blues. Posters of Michael Jordan and other NBA players adorned his walls. There were two desks adjacent to each other to form a corner desk to the left side of the door. The desk that was by the same wall as the door had a computer system on it (a computer desk) while the adjacent adjoining desk had papers and pens (writing desk). Next to it was a bookcase containing textbooks and other readings and a few feet away from that was the window that overlooked central park. Between the two walls with the windows, in the middle of the room, was Justin's queen sized bed. To the left side of it was a nightstand table while the other side had a six-drawer dresser and the wall next to it had a built in closet.

"Great place and room, bro." Nick said after he finally finished looking around. "We should probably start studying though," he said as he looked down at his watch to see that it's almost seven. "And I should call home and tell my folks what's up." Justin nodded as he sat down at his writing desk while Nick took his cell phone out and called his apartment.

*Alo, the Cartwer rezidunce.*

Nick smiled. "Hey bro, how's everything going?"

*NICKY!* Nick heard his 7 year old brother, Aaron, squeal into the phone and then he heard a female voice saying 'gimme that' in the background.

*Hello, Nick? Where in the world are you? We were getting worried!* came his sister's, BJ's, voice.

*Hey, sorry. Beej, listen I'm going to be home late.*

*Why?*

"What's with everyone and that question?" Nick asked getting annoyed by the question. "I have tutoring to do. I just called to say that I'm going to be home late so you're gonna have to be in charge for a few hours."

*When you coming home?*

"I don't know yet. I'm thinking before ten but I don't know. I'm gonna call mom and dad after this and tell them what's up. Be good. I gotta go. Bye."

"Bye Nick." and before he hung up he heard Aaron yell 'bye Nicky.'

He pressed the 'end' button and dialed his mom's cell and left a message on her voicemail telling her where he was and why. He then sent a text message to his dad's cell with the same information before flipping his cell shut with a sigh and turned towards Justin who was seated at his desk, his back towards Nick.

"Sorry about that," Nick said grabbing his book bag and walking towards the computer desk. Justin just finished emptying all the books from his bag onto his table and turned to his left to see that Nick had taken a seat on his computer chair and was looking at him.

"It's okay." They were quiet for a moment. Justin was lost in Nick's eyes, which were a rare bluish color before he quickly shook his head, and turned back towards his books. Oh man. Oh man. Oh man. Oh man. He didn't think that he could concentrate on anything else now that the image of Nick's eyes are etched in his brain and now that they're in a close proximity Justin could smell the other man's cologne. Justin sighed. This is crazy.